First Days of School

This past Wednesday and Thursday were Connor & Elise's first days at their two school programs!  On Wednesday (the charter school) I was afraid Elise would be clingy and shy, but she was totally into it.  I think it helped that Connor was with her, plus she's been there so many times for his events and meetings, it was pretty familiar.  When I picked them up I asked her how she liked kindergarten, and she said, "It was so, so, so, so, so, so, so good!"
   

  
The Thursday program is a private school that offers a homeschool program once a week.  It has changed so much!  Last year there were only six boys, coming from four different families.  It was still great, but I was hoping there would be at least one girl enrolled this fall for Elise to play with.  Instead, there are now around 25 students, ranging from kinder to eighth grade!  Elise is in a separate K-1 classroom that includes four other kindergarten girls.  Connor is in the 2-4 class, and there is a 5-8 class, too.  I'm totally excited.  It just shows that there is a demand for this sort of thing.  A lot of parents want more flexibility and family time for their kids, but don't want to completely abandon the school environment.  Hopefully this means the program will be around awhile!
  

I love school uniforms.  Especially on little girls!

  
This Saturday we finally bit the bullet and paid somebody to trim our oak tree.  The guy who came out also offered to do a yard clean-up, so we had them clear the hillsides (technically it's required for fire safety reasons), and remove some of the ivy on our front slope.  I was happy with the ivy killing, since I want to get rid of all of it eventually.  Unfortunately, the hillside "brush removal" involved weed-eating everything bare.  I kinda liked some of the wildflowers and grasses and stuff - now it just looks sad.  The tree had mixed results.  It does look better, but they went a bit overboard and removed about 80% of the leaves.  It looks almost as naked as the hillside.  I'm no expert, though.  Maybe it will grow back within a few weeks and we'll be glad they went as far as they did.  Eventually we want to landscape everything with California natives, but we still don't know what we're doing, so it will have to wait.
  

  

It almost looks like somebody lives here now.

  

Chillin' With Little Girl

This past week we've mostly stayed at home.  Corinne is finally getting settled in, and I have to admit, she's not as naughty as I thought she would be.  She's crying less, plus we're figuring out what makes her happy!  She really likes being swaddled, and she loves to suck on pinky fingers (not so much pacifiers, sadly.)  She hates being burped, except for those times when she wants to be burped.  It's important to get that right.
  

  

Corinne is obsessed with the rocks around our fireplace.  We have her in the family room for now (it was getting too hot in her room), and every time I put her on the changing table she stares.
  

   
The other kids adore Corinne - they're always asking if they can hold her.  Evan smothers her with kisses and hugs, and says "Nice baby.  I like-a baby."  Elise helps me fetch things when I'm stuck on the couch nursing, and Connor is in charge of Corinne in the car.  I moved seats around so that Evan is in the back row with Elise, and Connor sits next to Corinne and gives her her pacifier (sometimes it works), and tries to keep her entertained.  It's so nice to have older kids around - it's awful to hear a little baby cry in the car when you can't do anything to help them.
  

    
Saturday we finally went out and got some exercise.  We went to Descanso Gardens, which I think is one of the first places we took Evan, now that I think of it.  Ryan took the kids on the Enchanted Railroad - the lady let Ryan on without a ticket after she saw my look of panic.  I just didn't trust Evan to stay put without supervision (I had to stay behind with the baby, since they're not allowed.)
  

   

Grandma Time and Corinne's Silly Ears

After Corinne came home, my mom was able to stay another week to help out.  It was great, and she and the kids spent a lot of time in the pool.  Evan learned to kick, Elise learned to do the "backstrobe", and Connor learned to dive.
  

Elise is showing off how deep she can stand in the water.

On the Monday after Corinne was born, our air conditioner suddenly gave up the ghost.  We had been warned that this would happen due to problems in our ductwork, but we didn't listen.  Too bad for us, because the house got up to 90 degrees for the next week and a half.  It's been two weeks now, and we still don't even have anything scheduled - all the AC companies are swamped due to the heat wave.  The funny thing is that you do get used to it, to a point.  80 degrees seems great to me right now, whereas two months ago I'd have been on the verge of tears.  Oh, plus we put our old window box unit in the living room, so there was always one comfortable place to go.  Well, two, if you count the pool.
  

Napping by the A/C
  

"Air!"

 
Corinne is just so tender.  We love her.  She seems to be taking after her sister in terms of temperament - she's what we'd call a "sensitive" baby.  That means she's bad.  The first picture I sent out to people was pretty accurate.  
  

Corinne's First Facebook Photo

She loves to be held and to eat and to be carried, and she's pretty strict about that.  Happily, though, I love holding and feeding and carrying her, so it all works out!
  

Connor took this picture.

First Tub Bath

When Corinne was born, one of her ears looked like she had been sleeping on it funny - it was squished and/or pinched at the top.  Basically, the cartilage hadn't fused properly.  The pediatrician said that this is pretty common, and that they used to have to wait until the child was older to either grow out of it or do surgery.  Now, though, they have ways of splinting the ear to correct it early.  So, we took her to an ear, nose, & throat doctor when she was a week old, and he used a combination of wax and tape to hold her ear in place (you can see it in her bath photo.)  It didn't look very effective, though, and it kept falling off, so we took her all the way to Santa Monica to see a specialist (who the pediatrician recommended in the first place.)  She used these high tech (expensive) devices called Ear Wells, which basically glue to the baby's head and hold the ear in the correct position with a variety of molds and plastic pieces.  Whether or not it works, at least it looks really impressive. The doctor recommended doing both ears just to make sure they match at the end.  We think she looks like a water polo player.  Or a Russian Cosmonaut.  She has to wear them for six weeks, after which her cartilage should have hardened and her ears will stay straight.  Well, they might.  If not, oh well - she's cute anyway!
  

This looks worse than it is.  They shaved her hair and covered her with glue, then some hair stuck to the glue.

She was actually really quiet and well-behaved while they were doing all this.

  
After her appointment, we went out for breakfast, wandered around REI, and drove up the coast until we stopped at a roadside beach (Ryan had the day off and came with us.)  I told the kids not to get wet, so they soaked themselves and had to ride home in pajamas.
  

Baby Corinne!

My mom had been planning on coming down on the 7th, and spending a couple weeks helping out, but she decided at the last minute to come a day early.  It was inspired.  Mom arrived Monday night, we spent Tuesday running errands, and Tuesday night she watched the kids so Ryan and I could have one last date night.  (We were boring, we just went to Star Cafe and walked around a bunch, but it was awesome.)
   
Anyway, that night around 4am I started having contractions, but nothing worth mentioning at that point.  Ryan went to work at 6:00, and after I showered and did a few chores I was certain that this was for real, so I called him around 8:00, and we were at the hospital by 9:00.  Just like the others, she was a very convenient baby.  
  

   
I was unusually anxious about labor this pregnancy.  I guess having done it three times already, I know how hard a natural delivery can be, and I was kinda terrified.  But, looking at it now, Heavenly Father sent me so many little blessings that made everything work out fine.  For one, I didn't have the stress of worrying about my other kids (thanks, Mom!)  Labor started at an easy time, my birth Hypnosis training totally kicked in, both during the easy part and at the worst moments, and I was comfortable lying down this time around (I could never stand it before,) which meant I was better able to rest and focus.  The nurses were awesome, and the doctor (unlike my previous one) suggested breaking my water to speed things up, which was soooo the right thing to do at that point!  I probably only pushed for two minutes, and I had my sweet, fat-faced baby girl.  Oh, and it was a blessing I didn't know how big she was.  The ultrasound from two days before had said she was around 8 pounds, not 9 lbs 5 oz!
  

Corinne Paige Brown, born at 12:54pm August 8, 2012

  
That evening, Ryan went and brought my mom and the kids to visit.  They were all so excited, it was adorable.  Plus they brought cookies!
  

  
On day two at the hospital, a "baby photographer" managed to con us into buying $60 worth of newborn photos.  I mean, they're nice photos, but everybody knows newborns are not at a high point in their overall cuteness.  Poor Corinne's face was bruised and a bit swollen, so her cheeks look even bigger than they really are.
  

  
We spent the night and most of the next day at the hospital.  There was a heat wave (it was almost 100 degrees outside), and we had the Olympics to watch, so it was as comfy there as anywhere.  I didn't want another sleepless night in the hospital though, so we headed home as soon as it cooled off outside.
  

  
I can't believe our baby girl is here.  We love you, Corinne!