So…here we are. Almost two weeks later. Mother has been here the whole time feeding us like royalty, taking care of the house, and making sure I take much-needed naps. Healing is going well, though we still have a long road ahead of us.

The kids are all enjoying having sweet Helen around, though all the changes associated with her arrival have taken a toll on each of them. We’ve had a lot more acting out recently, especially from Portia. But I’m confident that with time we’ll all get used to everything–especially once I can actually be a mom again.

And… yup. I don’t know what else is pertinent information, so that’s what you get.

Anyway, here are cute pictures. These were all taken this afternoon, because it is the first time I’ve gotten the camera out since I got home. Fay and Carter were loving on Helen, Portia was playing with toys, wearing her swimming suit. 🙂

The Monson family is beyond delighted to announce the addition of our newest member.

Helen Zulla Monson was born on March 12, 2018 at 8:07 AM. She weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, and was 19 inches long.

Getting Helen here has been an adventure! There is, of course, the fact that me and 3rd trimester pregnancy have never been buds. But Helen threw a wrench in things herself because she was breech. We tried just about everything imaginable to turn this girl in utero, but ultimately she had to be born via C-Section. As my doctor started to pull her out during surgery, she declared with a laugh “No wonder she wouldn’t turn!” Here’s why.

Her feet were up by her ears! I guess she’s not one to do things half-heartedly, even being breech.

The experience of attempting to turn her and then ultimately facing the reality that I would have to deliver via C-section was a bit traumatic for me–probably more so than for most people. I was terrified of everything all the way up through when I realized they were almost to reach Helen and pull her out. Now that she is here and I am on the road to recovery, I am still not thrilled that I had to be sliced open; but I am increasingly grateful for the miracle that a C-section is to moms and babies. Hundreds of prayers and hours of fasting were offered on behalf of Helen and me and I know that the ease and convenience of C-sections these days is an answer to those prayers and fasting. We are both doing as well as, if not better than, expected. And we are forever grateful!

Here is a look at Helen since we got her here. She is, so far, sleepy, snuggly, and mostly just sweet.

Helen’s name was chosen using a method never before attempted in our household. I made a list of names I liked (about 22 girl names) and Josh and I worked together to whittle down the list. Fay and Carter’s names were both chosen before Josh and I met. But with Portia, I just talked about the name enough that Josh got on board. I wanted to make Josh a real part of the process this time. So we worked through the list and eventually settled on Helen. Now that the name is attached to our sweet girl I love it even more than when it was just a name. Or maybe I just love the girl. Or both.

Zulla is the name of Josh’s grandma. She is an amazing woman who adds so much to our family that I genuinely can’t imagine the family without her. And she loves to tell everybody that nobody will ever use her name because it is weird. Well, we think it’s a cool name and that she is definitely somebody worth naming after! And I hope it will be special for Helen to have a part of her great-grandma with her for her whole life long.

We are so glad she’s here, and are looking forward to getting to know her better and seeing how she adds to our family!

I apologize for this being a day late. Yesterday was the March 10th (that Portia has been talking about for weeks without knowing what it really meant)! The “birthday coming up March!” the “my birthday coming up ‘lowly!'” finally actually arrived!

A moment that I feel nicely describes this day in Portia’s eyes is when the whole family went into her room to wake her up by singing “Happy Birthday.” At the end of the song, she still looked thoroughly confused. So I enthusiastically informed her that it was her birthday! She responded with “Yeah! Coming up!” But we assured her that no longer was it coming up. It was HERE! It took her most of the day to get a real grasp on the idea. 🙂

We tried for multiple weeks to figure out what she might want for her birthday besides cake and ice-cream, but we never got any suggestions for gifts or activities. She is only two after all. So we just tried our best to do things she would enjoy. We did presents, ate some foods we know she loves (like cheese), had loving visitors, and went to the park to enjoy the springy weather. Then came the what she really wanted all along.

At the end of cake eating, Portia decided she wanted to just take some bites straight off the cake. We started taking pictures and laughing and loving it, so Fay wanted a turn. Fay said “I want a taste!” to which Portia replied “Nope. Mine birthday.” and continued munching away. So, in the end, she did grasp the birthday concept!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Portia’s day! But what is way more fun is just having Portia around!

Portia is currently our best eater. She will usually eat whatever you give her. But her true love in the food world is cheese. She would probably eat just cheese for every meal if we let her. She loves to have cheddar cheese in a sandwich of crackers. She says “crackers and cheese and samich” which is just about the cutest thing ever … the first 8 times she says it during snack time. 🙂 She did get just that with her lunch on her birthday, and was very pleased!

Something I love about Portia is that so far she acts quite left-handed. Lots of brilliant people are/were left-handed like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and my dad/his whole family; and I have always wanted a lefty! So, even though people like to fuss about how we live in a right-handed world, I am super excited that she currently favors her left hand!

Portia is a super fun playmate for the other kids right now because she gets excited about anything her older siblings love. She loves being a princess with Fay, and she also loves super heroes with Carter (She named her neck Steve Rogers a few weeks ago.)

Another thing we love about Portia is that she is endlessly enthusiastic. She responds with super excitement to anything you ask her. Whether the question be “Did you have a good sleep last night?” or “Do you want to go to your favorite museum?” or “Do you need some more cheese?” The answer is a giant “YEAH!!!!!!!!!!”

But she doesn’t love everything. And she dislikes with just as much passion as she likes. Some things she dislikes with passion include: going to nursery (she threw up on a nursery leader because she was so upset at being there), when you play with her toys the “wrong way,” when you tell her she can’t have that candy she wants, when she doesn’t get the bench at dinner, etc. She still has some of that screech left in her from before she could talk, and it comes out clearly when she isn’t pleased.

We love our little fireball! And we are so grateful to have had her in our lives for two years!

 

I made a shocking and horrifying discovery today. I went through the entire month of February and never. posted. a picture. of. the. mantel!!!!!!!!! I’m sure you all wondered what was wrong with me!

Here is my Valentine’s mantel for this year. It brought us lots of joy this season of love!

If you recognize some of the pieces from the Valentine’s tablescape, just know that the table was the thief. I decorated the table in haste on the 13th and my creativity wasn’t at its peak. But I don’t think either the table or the mantel really minded. 🙂

I feel all sorts of better about life now. I’m glad I cleared all this up!

 

Sorry for missing last week. Mostly I am sorry to Mary whose only request from me for her mission was to be able to read the blog. So here it is, Mary. I hope you know I love you and that I think of you even while you are far away.

I don’t feel like there is much of anything super momentous to report for the past little bit, but my kids continue to be cute and Josh and I continue to amuse ourselves making stuff, etc. So here’s what’s up.

Josh was practicing the banjo the other evening and Carter decided he needed to play something too. He had the idea of adding a strap to the ukulele all by himself and Josh made it a reality.

Then, of course, Fay had to have a turn, too.

Cute little musicians!

Carter came down with a cough early this past week and so we took a sick day. Sick days are some of the only days where the kids actually get to watch an entire movie in one go, so it was fun. Carter chose Cars 3. Here they all are watching it. It made me happy to watch them smile at it.

If you haven’t been around Portia lately you don’t know that she talks like CRAZY! She has always been a “communicator” and we are happy that she has now mostly exchanged words and simple sentences for the shrieks and screaming she used to use to communicate. She loves to talk about her birthday. She will frequently declare “My birthday coming up March!” And though I’m pretty sure she doesn’t really understand what it all means, it is still fun to hear her talk about it. Here is a glimpse of her and her chatting.

As for Josh and me: the other evening, Kathryn called us and asked how we felt about recreating this little dangle toy she found on Etsy. She was going to buy it and Steve told her he thought we could make it and it would be more fun to pay us to do it than to pay Etsy people to do it. So we made it! Josh did the construction, I helped with sanding and specifics about the design and made the dangles. We were pleased with how it turned out, but were even more pleased to see that Kathryn and Daniel were pleased. Plus, it was fun to make.