The Loomis Family

New Shower Buddies

2009-09-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

My boys have always loved the shower........they take animals in and teach them how to swim, they clean their "weapons", they sing, dance, practice shaving and often complain when they have to get out.

They've got a new shower buddy.....Emerson. She loves the shower as much as they do. After she gets out of her bath, she will run around the corner of the hallway to see if they are still in the shower. On the days where "no girls allowed" is in force, she will stand and bang on the door, crying, until they are done. Guess one can never be too clean!

First day of school.....

2009-08-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

Aiden started Kindergarten last week. I naively expected the normal first day of school.......arrive a few minutes early, take some quick pics, wipe a few inconspicuous tears from my eye, and skip along.

No so in this family!

As we were pulling out of the driveway, Aiden announced he had a bloody nose. I thought it might just be a drip from picking it, so I tossed him a few napkins and we headed out. As we were pulling out of our driveway, I noticed CARS EVERYWHERE along our street. We live about 1/4 of a mile from school, and cars were parked past our driveway. I realized we were now WALKING to school on the first day. So with Emerson in one arm, backpack and lunch in the other, and Aiden and Parker in tow, we started the trek.

We had to stop twice because Aiden's nose was bleeding so badly.. huge blood clots and a small river that no amount of paper products would slow.

We arrived at school and wove our way through the chatting parents. I threw his backpack in the classroom and announced I was running to the nurse's office for help.

When we burst through the office doors, my worst fears were realized. 15 moms all standing in line waiting to talk to the nurse about each of their children. I politely excused myself as we dripped blood along the way, and pleaded with the nurse for some immediate attention.

She got Aiden settled on a cot with ice and clean towels. It only took about 30 seconds for Parker to begin jumping from cot to cot, counter to chair.......while Emerson simultaneously started sifting through the closest trash can.

All the while, I'm thinking........WHY can't I have a normal first day of school?

It took us 35 minutes to get things under control. When we got back to Aiden's class he began to cry as he realize they "started without me". I gave hugs and handed him off to the classroom aid. His teacher later confirmed that he quickly cheered up and had a great day.

My only regret.....WHY or WHY didn't I take my camera out of my purse to document all this? In the mayhem, it just didn't cross my mind.

Can't wait to see what the first school party holds in store for us!!!

Missing our cousin

2008-08-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Boy o boy do my children miss their cousin, Carter. He's 2000 miles away in Kentucky - where is dad is in his last year of law school. We have sent mail and talk about Carter often. Aiden wanted to send him a special message..............to let Carter know how much we think about him. Here you go Carter!

Three boys and a crib

2008-08-31T11:23:00.001-07:00

This video is a few weeks old, but shows the changes in Emerson. They boys LOVE to climb in her crib and rub her arms and head. She is really starting to recognize their voices and respond to their attention. I've already had to clear out her drawers and put all the 0-3 month clothes away. I don't think I'm ready to see her growing so much...........change happens so fast at this stage!!!!!

Headband Boys

2008-08-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Although I draw the line at putting on my makeup, I do let the boys explore some of the drawers in the bathroom. On morning I dissapeared into Emerson's room to feed her. Ten minutes later, when I came out, I found these two characters...............

first smiles

2008-08-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Emerson is now 7 weeks old and has been smiling and cooing for about one week. She has gained over four pounds and is healthy and doing great. She is sleeping in her own bed (although her brother's wish they could be right in there with her) and really starting to notice the world around her. Here she is in action.............

best friends

2008-08-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

It was a special summer for my boys as their cousin, Carter, was here for the summer from Kentucky. My brother, Adam, is getting ready to start his third year of law school so "best friend Carter" has been a long, long ways away these past two years. Although we had to mix two small girls into things, the boys spent their fair share of time together. Some of the most memorable events were spending tokens at Chuck E. Cheese, swimming at grama's house and "working" in her garden, playing at the jumping castles, gymnastics, the park, our backyard......any place that was sufficient for supplying weapons and imaginary bad guys. Here are a few highlights........saggy underwear and all!

2008-08-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

It has been a rather busy summer at the Loomis household. We welcomed our baby girl on June 6th.............Emerson Stewart Loomis. She weighed just shy of 7 pounds and was 19 inches long. After everything we've been through with troublesome pregnancies........including a few false starts with her, we managed to make it full term and take her home with us. She was born on a Friday evening and was nestled up with our family at home by Sunday afternoon. She has turned Aiden and Parker into protective big brothers already. They dive to get her pacifier, talk to her before Todd or I when they enter the room, and fight over who can climb into her crib and coo to her. I wonder if they will be this excited once she starts taking their toys!

Just another day in the back of dad's truck......

2008-03-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

Both Aiden and Parker are completely fascinated with squirt bottles. They will spray and wipe ANYTHING I will let them touch............from the kitchen table, to my car tires to the back wall outside. They LOVE to squirt........especially eachother. They had been at it for a good ten minutes before I took the camera out.........but this gives you a glimpse of how excited they get with the bottles :) Notice how wet their shirts already are!

sword fights

2008-03-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a combination of Peter Pan and the fact that they got some great mickey mouse hats from Nana and Poppy's latest visit to Disneyland..................the boys take on their dad!

Our greatest suprise of 2007!

2007-12-20T21:18:00.001-08:00

I believe the word is out......we are going to add one more member to our already crazy family! Todd and I have been "negotiating" this concept for awhile.....weighing the desire to have another child with the complications that pregnancy seems to bring for me (two premature babies, bed rest with 16 collective trips to the hospital, NICU stays and the works). Then suddenly, the decision was out of our hands as I discovered I was pregnant. This was about three months ago and right around the time of Todd's 40th birthday. Happy birthday honey!!! At this point. all is well and I'm skating along. We've had an ultrascreen (the latest version of an ameoscentis) which confirmed that this is a healthy baby thus far (no chromosomal abnormalities like downs syndrome or cystic fibrosis). The week after christmas, I'll begin weekly injections of a type of progesterone that has shown remarkable success in curbing pre-term labor. We are keeping the fingers crossed that this might be our answer to a full-term baby!

The ultrascreen nurse, who has been doing these for over 20 years, asked me if I would like her guess on gender. Of course I indulged! According to her, there is nothing "growing" between the legs and she was confident this is a girl. We have no expectations at this point and are just hoping to make it to the 9th month in tact! Here's a peek at the 2.5 inch little one. This is a profile picture of her torso (on the left) and her head looking up (on the right). You can see the tip of the nose. I marvel at the perfection these little bodies can have after only a few months of development......

Thanksgiving Day Traditions

2007-12-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

Since the days of my early childhood, it has been a family tradition of ours to cook our thanksgiving day turkey in my dad's "deep pit BBQ". This is a 10 ft. hole in the ground, lined with fire brick, that - with the help of 3 feet of coals and a sealed opening - creates the moistest turkey you can imagine....so moist it literally falls off the bones. My parents have lived in three houses over the last 31 years and I believe my dad was more concerned about building the pit than the house! Every year we have invited family friends and colleagues to participate......and each year the numbers have grown. This year we put in 47 sets of meat (varying from turkey to pork tenderloin to beef roasts). I believe the record is 53! I don't know what thanksgiving would be like without this event.........but it certainly wouldn't be the same without the collective celebration of our family and friends. I'm so happy for my children to begin anticipating this event....

No halloween fires here!

2007-11-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

To avoid any quarreling over who got what costume, we decided to dress the boys alike. Not suprisingly, they are fascinated with fire trucks............so we ran with that. I think they enjoyed passing out candy at our church's Trunk-or-Treat more than collecting it themselves..........which was fine for our waistlines!