The first three weeks

 This beautiful little girl is now 3 weeks old. And what a crazy 3 weeks it has been! Has it only been 3 weeks? Really? It has been crazy good and crazy hard, but we are loving getting to know this beauty and finding ways to readjust to our new life.

 The first week, my mom and Clint had off and Thomas did great with all the one on one attention from everyone.  He got to spend time with his papa as well as go on lots of fun outings with his grammy Joey.

 Grammy Joey got Thomas this awesome rocket that had to be repaired the next day. This boy plays HARD! He loves it so much and sleeps with it every night. Now he says that Thomas is going to the moon! He loved playing with his grammy and we were both very sad to take her to the airport. She did so much for us. Cooked us fancy meals, cleaned the house and entertained this crazy boy. That is not an easy task!

 So the first week was really mostly for me to get healed and physically get my body used to taking care of a new baby. Its rough! It was definitely easier this time around, but still hard.  It takes a while to get the nursing down and get used to functioning on limited sleep. I think this week I was just in survival mode.

 Thomas was as silly and jovial as ever! He partied pretty hard.

 Week 2 Grandpa & Grandma Allred came out and once again, Thomas was the main attraction. He just loved spending time with them.  Thomas became Papa Allred's shadow and just had a ball going to the farm, parks, and seeing the tractors at COSI.  They helped us out so much!

 Some of the little girl's first's. Her first bath- She loved it! completely different than her brother in that regard. She just found it to be very relaxing. She also loves "Spa Time" when we give her a baby massage with baby lotion. Come to think of it, she loves having her hair brushed and her nails filed as well....So we better start budgeting for some real spa time down the road :)

 Little lady doesn't get as much quality gym time as her brother did. Its hard to give her time when Thomas likes to take over all her toys!

 Sharing a fun moment with my babies in the big bed. This is as good as it gets.

 Once all of our families went back to utah the REAL adjustment started.  Week 3 has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  My normally easy going toddler has been having some extreme emotional highs and lows.  He is just trying to figure out some real big emotions and doesn't quite know whats going on.  For a few days he was taking it out on Caroline, hitting and kicking her, which is totally out of character for Thomas.  He wasn't trying to hurt her, but he knew that he was doing something he shouldn't do. We had a few talks with him and he has since been making a real effort to be kind and gentle with her. He does love Caroline and he is so sweet with her. I even caught him singing, "Sweet Caroline Bum bum bum" the other day. Since we talked to him about being soft with her, he will ask to hold her and come up and gentle pat her hair. Its just a lot for a little guy to process. He's doing the best he can. Meanwhile I am saying triple the amount of daily prayers for patience and trying to let everything else go while I focus on showing Thomas that he is loved and important. It is not an easy task, he is very emotional and irrational at times.  But my heart breaks a little for him because I see him trying the best he can to make sense of things.  He really is a sweet and tender hearted little guy and everything is very different now. I just love him so much and I hope that he can feel that even when I have to divide my attention between 2 kids now.

Soon this will be the new normal for all of us and Thomas will never even remember a time without Caroline. But for now the growing pains are evident and we are getting through things the best we can. One day at a time. Each day gets a little easier. My heart swells with love and respect for both of my sweet children. I feel truly humbled to be a mother to such sprits that teach me about patience and love.