Miracle

And that's an understatement.


And this little miracle holds his own paci. Amazing.

Introducing Duncan Caldwell Pucci

Yesterday morning at 7:49 a.m. we became a family of four when Duncan Caldwell Pucci made his way into the world! Duncan weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz and was 21 inches long; so far he is doing very well, as is Mom after the c-section. He looks very much like his big brother did...albeit a little bit chubbier. :) He has quite the set of pipes, but so far hasn't used them too much...he is a great eater...and we are working on a routine here in the hospital and hope to head home sometime on Monday.

At the beginning of the pregnancy I will admit I was very apprehensive about loving two...loving two as much as I do Griffin, I thought, would likely be impossible. Griff was my whole world. I was actually very uncertain; well, not surprisingly, my worries were silly. This little man has stolen our hearts in the short time we've had with him and it all feels pretty perfect. We're excited to get home in a couple of days and begin to adjust to life as a family of four!

Duncan, unlike his brother, has been (so far) a little more mellow...maybe it was the easier (planned) c-section, maybe he's just a little more go-with-the-flow. Whatever it is, we'll take it! He had his first "physical" today with his pediatrician, and she was very impressed with his muscle tone and strength as well as the rest of his vitals. He already holds his head up nearly unassisted. Newborn? Are we sure? I, for one, hope he stays little and cuddly for a while because I'm eating it up. His little bottom hasn't spent much time in the bassinet thus far, as I haven't been able to forfeit any snuggle time. We are extremely lucky and are counting our blessings.

He certainly lets you know when he is unhappy - and I wouldn't call them cries...our pediatrician was right on track when she said they are much more like stacatto screams than cries. Whatever you call them, Duncan's voice is distinctive!

A few minutes after his birth - I didn't get to see Griff so quickly so this was a great feeling for me

In the recovery room

His big brother meeting him for the first time! It went pretty well...G wanted to lay in the bed with mommy under the covers, and we obliged. He wasn't too impressed when the nurses messed with his Mom or his brother...already the protector!

Mommy & D

Mommy & her boys



It's not often that Griff is quiet, subdued and wide-eyed...he told his baby brother "hi, baby Duncake" (again, his suffix of "cake" on names of people he loves [Claire-cake, Dun-cake]...) and he got one kiss.


And how cool that baby Duncan got Griff some gifts!


Wearing his very special shirt that Ashley got him - Duncan has one too and will wear it very soon...we will get some pictures of them together for sure!

G's Monster Cupcake

Grandma Kris got Griff his very own MONSTER cupcake this week for dessert and G had a very good (and slow, and meticulous) time eating it up.

Accessories

Griff has been very into entertaining himself and others with accessories lately...whether it be hats, sunglasses, old favorite toys or NEW very special toys...he's had a great time lately. Now that I have my camera, I was able to get some pictures over the weekend! :)

Daddy left his sunglasses on the table...

"Drinking" water from the water table via sucking it out of his bubble wand...despite mommy asking him repeatedly not to. Somehow he laughed each time and kept it up...listening ears must've been on the fritz for a bit.

My AIRPLANE! The past couple of days he and his American Airlines airplane (that daddy brought him from the airport a while ago) have been inseparable. And the edges of the plane are so sharp that daddy stole it during naptime and covered them in duct tape to soften them up a bit...


Cheesy "cheese" face


Helping mama water the flowers...

Watering himself a little

A little bit of a different technique: the between the legs water





He found mama's hat after the pool...

And, after Grandma Kris got him a very special toy (which will be the subject of a later post) he decided hats were cool and began wearing his hat that Auntie Liz got him a while ago.

Camera Located!

In case you haven't noticed, quite a few of my blog posts (most of my blog posts) the past couple of months have included less-than-quality cell phone pictures...because I simply could not find my camera despite a lot of looking. Yesterday I told Ben that I was buying a new one...because though "we" (he) have/has a great SLR that we got in December...that just isn't going to work portability-wise with a toddler & new baby. And we have to take a lot of pics of the newest Pucci! So with the threat of my purchase looming, Ben spent some time turning the house upside down (sometimes literally...really hate when Ben looks for things as there can be a bit of an aftermath mess). We went through the questions..."where did you last have it?" "in the yard, taking pictures of G in the tree" "and you haven't had it since then?" "nope!" "what were you wearing at the time, was it cold?" "yes, it was chilly and I was wearing my pink nike pullover jacket" "and where is that?" "well, currently in the washing machine, I scoured those pockets, it was one of the first places I looked"...) And just when he had resigned himself to the fact that I got to buy a new camera today, he went through the coat closet and found my favorite little camera in the pocket of my red puffy vest. Pink nike pullover? Guess not so much. Must've been a little chillier than that!

Oops.

So here's to no more crappy cell phone pics on the blog (or at least only a few here and there) and plenty of picture-taking of G and his new little brother!

And, here are the pictures I took - in APRIL - of Griff, who was very, very keen on wanting to be "up, up!" in the tree.

The Jeep & Elusive Sleep

Griff's new favorite thing...topless Jeep rides. We had a lot of them last weekend and Griff was enamored. He even fell asleep in the Jeep, with no top, the wind blowing in his hair and the radio actually pretty loud. We knew that it would be all he'd get for a nap that day (more on this below), so we invented other errands to run and tried our hardest to find shade at 12 pm for us to sit in while Ben ran into places. We're even learning that we can use a Jeep ride as a bribe! :) And, it does help get out of the house faster when we need to go places if we tell G we are going in the JEEP.

And now to sleep, or the lack thereof. To say naptimes and bedtimes have been challenging lately is quite understating the issue. Our little man is taking 1 - 1.5 hours just to GET to sleep at any given time, and even then, it may be on the floor or in an odd position or naked or with several pairs of shorts/jeans that he's pulled out of his drawer and tried to put on...you get the drift. He is a master of destruction and will stop at nothing to keep himself awake - even resorting to pulling the HVAC vent out of the floor to inspect it (and hopefully I caught him before he was able to throw things down). The adjustment to the big boy bed wasn't difficult, and we thought the adjustment to his new room went off without a hitch too...but perhaps not. We're simply hoping this doesn't last long...as, believe me, we were recently gifted the eloquent "children's book" entitled "Go the F*** to Sleep"...and let's just say it memorializes a lot of my feelings in the daily effort to get Griff to a peaceful sleep. Please let this phase pass... :) And preferably before next Friday (or sooner) when we are scheduled to welcome his baby brother into this world!

Driving daddy's Jeep and loving it

Wow-ee WHALES!

It is no secret that G's favorite animals are...WHALES! He can spot them from a mile away (thus far, this has been on TV...on items of clothing - I just had to buy the new baby "'whale" [shark] flip-flops and a "whale" [shark] shirt at Gap because Griff couldn't live without them...even though they were half his size - and in books, etc). But, recently, we took him to the Shedd Acquarium and he got to see real whales in person! He was very, very excited and we were glad we made the trip.

Just as a funny aside, Griff's other favorite animal of the moment? HIPPOS! Yes, hippos. It is very unique, but he loves them. And the way he says it is so cute..."Heee-po!"

Up close & personal

We also got to see the jellyfish exhibit!