His Real Name

This morning at church, Josh introduced his brother to someone and called him "Kipper." A funny conversation ensued between Brian and someone who shall remain anonymous.

B - His name is Kip but Josh calls him Kipper.
? - So what's his real name?
B - It's Kip.
? - Just Kip?
B - Yep, just Kip.

The whole exchange made us smile.

It's not mundane anymore

I went to HEB yesterday. I know, big news, but I went alone with both boys! I've delayed leaving the house alone with both boys because anytime we left while Brian was home with us I ended up needing to feed Kip while we were out. I just haven't figured out how to nurse Kip and wrangle Josh in public without getting some indecency citation yet.

My confidence was built a little last week when Josh convinced me that we should meet some friends at a park for a picnic lunch. So, I fed Kip, got us all dressed, packed a picnic lunch, loaded us up in the car, and blammo - the car battery was dead. I unloaded everything and considered it a good dress rehearsal. It is possible to at least get us all in the car.

So, back to yesterday, I thought we could at least get to the HEB less than 2 miles from our house, even if we had to immediately turn around and come home. We needed to try. The "after bedtime" shopping trips are tough. So, we went and got all but one item! (We decided to nix the baking soda - when I remembered I didn't want to walk back across the store.) I was very impressed that we made it through the entire store (39 items) and that I was even able to do some coupon shopping (8.5% savings). We were gone for an hour and a half, which was nearly too long as Kip began fussing as we were walking out of the store.

When we got home I ended up feeding Kip before taking the groceries out of the car. Putting up the groceries delayed dinner for awhile, too. Oh well. It's all a work in progress - we'll get better. My plans for improving our performance are two fold - to accept the offer to help me out with the groceries and when possible, to shop while Josh is in preschool (he starts in 2 weeks, which is worthy of a whole other blog post). If someone loads the bags while I load the kid(s) we can improve our speed and my sanity.

Kipilicious

In honor of the 1 month anniversary since Kip's birth, here are 10 things we have learned about Kip in his short time with us on the outside.

1. Kip likes to sleep. Thank you Jesus! The polar opposite of his big brother, Kip sleeps morning, noon, and night. I envision him being our just-5-more-minutes snooze button loving son. Josh just cannot get his mind around why Kip sleeps so much.

2. Kip likes to eat. If he's not sleeping, he's likely doing one of two things - eating and #3 on the list. At 4 weeks, he weighed 9 lbs, 9 ounces - 136% of his birthweight.

3. When Kip is awake, he usually has the hiccups. It is the sound that he makes most often.

4. Kip has good taste in music. His favorite is Caedmon's Call. This is an improvement over Josh's musical preferences during infancy.

5. Following in his brother's footsteps, Kip has reflux. Despite all the 2nd child hand me downs that he will surely endure, he can at least cling to the fact that he has a new handy dandy reflux wedge to sleep on that his poor brother never had.

6. When Kip is overtired, he flails his arms and bobs his head around. He gets overstimulated and can only relax in a very dark and quiet room. If he falls asleep during the "magic window" that all parents read about, then he can sleep like a log anywhere - regardless of the noise or light.

7. Kip loves being in my homemade Moby wrap. I predict that the wrap is to Kip what the sling was to Josh.

8. Like his big brother, Kip's birth heralds another Super Bowl for the Steelers. We shall swaddle him in our terrible towel.


9. My favorite face that Kip makes thus far is when he makes his lips into a tiny circle. He does it often and it always makes me laugh. He can make them nearly disappear.

10. Kip is laid back. He is much more like his dad (who also shares his ears, I think) than Josh or I (the slightly higher strung, anal duo).

It really is hard to believe that a month has passed. It feels more like 2 weeks. Of course, Kip has only been awake for the equivalent of a couple of days - not that I'm complaining!

Happy 1 Month Kip!

The power of 10

Last year, my friend Tamber donated her hair to Locks of Love. I was impressed and wondered if I could ever do that. I decide that I'd give it a try, but wasn't ready to commit. Well, once my hair grew a couple of inches past my shoulders, and I found myself with fast growing pregnancy hair, I decided to press on to 10 inches. Last week it dawned on me that I had enough hair to donate now. Wow! So, today I cut it off. Sweet! I get a baby-friendly hair cut and someone else gets a new hairdo too! Here's the before and after.

Brian told me that I look like Erin J. This was after Joshua pulled me aside in a different room and said, "You have Seth's mom's hair." Pretty funny. I guess I'll call it my Erin cut.

A Visual Representation

Joshua, on his own initiative, decided to create a visual representation of Kip's name - well, Kip's name according to Joshua: Kip Octain Gain Robert Lloyd


Kip = Kip himself
Octain Gain = the orange race car
Robert = my dad in the photo
Lloyd = he identified 3 Lloyd options - the picture of their dad, the picture of Joshua, or Joshua himself. I do not count because apparently my last name is "Mae Lloyd."

Joshua often reminds everyone that Kip has a very long name. Joshua is even bold enough to suggest that Kip's name is the longest name in Texas.


Needless to say, Joshua remains in love with his brother. He tells us that he loves Kip best - more than Brian and I. No problem with me.

Here's a recent picture of our sweet Kippernicus. He's 25 days old today and probably passed the 9 lb mark now.

Two weeks

Two weeks in and Kip still haven't lost his shine in Josh's eyes. Last night Josh told me, "Baby Kip is the best baby in the world." Tonight, when I asked him what he wanted to do tomorrow, he said, "Play with baby Kip all day." Don't get me wrong, Josh has issues with the transition, but fortunately he is taking all of that out on his parents and not the "little guy" - as Josh calls him.