Here is our new little guy…

Nathaniel was born on 7/22/08 at 11:52am by C-section.  After lying in a head-down oblique position for 2 weeks, he promptly flipped over to be in a head-up breech position on the morning of his birth, when I went into labor on my own.  He weighed 8 lb 8.7 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.

He and I are both doing fine, but I feel very sore.  We came home today, and the brothers are all excited.

I always think of Ben as small, but he looks so HUGE next to Nate!  I am sure Nate will catch up to Ben soon.  I hope they’ll be good friends.

I’ll be off work for the next few weeks recuperating and reconnecting with Mark and the kids.  For the next several days, Mark has brought my computer downstairs and made me a bed on the couch.   I must say that the recovery period for a c-section seems a lot longer than for a regular birth…I hope I feel like my old self soon!

A Birthday and a Surprise Baby Shower

Almost exactly 8 years ago I became the mother of my very first little boy. After 24 hours of gruelling labor, Isaac, my oldest son, was born. My life has never been the same.

I can’t believe that Isaac is 8 already. Mark pointed out that he’s halfway to driving age. I gasped in horror. Surely he can’t be growing up that fast!

These days, Isaac is into anything Pokemon or anything having to do with playing video games. He enjoys playing the piano, and surprisingly also likes doing any kind of craft project. He is very loving and caring toward Ben (but of course he and Jonathan have their typical sibling spats.)

On Friday night we had a couple of Isaac’s friends over for a sleepover to help him celebrate. All the big boys had a great time and (except for Jonathan) were up until 1:00 am despite all my threats! They still managed to wake up at 7:00 am as usual. Isaac was very patient – he didn’t get to open presents until this evening! And one of his parents went overboard and bought WAY too much stuff. I won’t say who…

I am approaching the end of my pregnancy with my fourth little boy. Little Boy #4 was lying at an oblique angle at our last checkup on Friday. This Thursday, we are planning to try to get him into a better position, and hopefully induce labor on Friday. If he remains in his oblique position, I’ll need a c-section, which I’ve not had with any of my previous 3 kids. We are hoping and praying for the best.

Our church threw us a surprise baby shower this afternoon! I never expected such a thing. After all, what could one possibly need for a fourth son? Well, here it is!

We really needed a double stroller since Ben is nowhere close to being able to walk on his own. So they bought us one! What a blessing! We are so grateful. We had a great evening spending time with our friends and their families. The big boys spent most of the time in the big wading pool.

It was too hot outside for Ben who was quite content to play (and sleep) indoors.

So we really had a very enjoyable weekend. And who knows – it might be our last one with only 3 boys!

And the winner is…

Thanks, everyone, for participating in my little giveaway. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments/recipes/suggestions.

Our randomly chosen winner is “Midlife Slices“! Congratulations!!!

Drop me an email at benandhisbrothers@yahoo.com and tell me whether or not you’d like a 16 oz or 32 oz IngenuiTEA, and it will be on its way to you!

I will definitely have to do another giveaway in the near future since this one was so much fun.

Giveaway: I Can’t Believe I Never Knew These Existed!

I love iced tea. The only problem is that I didn’t have a good place to make 1-3 servings of it at a time. We do own an old-fashioned kettle, but it’s too big to be practical. I used to use a small pitcher (think: one of those receptacles for holding your cream for coffee), but Mark accidentally broke it. Since then, I had been managing the best I can using coffee mugs and the microwave, and I usually ended up with a big mess since mugs don’t pour well into iced tea glasses.

But not anymore! About a week and a half ago, I was online looking for a recipe for green tea ice cream (if you’ve never had it, it’s GREAT!) I need something called “matcha powder” to be able to make some at home. I found a couple of websites that sell different teas, and that’s when I found this!

It’s called an “IngenuiTEA”. It works great with both tea bags and loose leaf tea. It comes in a small 16 oz size, and a larger 32 oz size. It’s microwave and dishwasher safe! After about 15 minutes, I realized I had to have one. I ordered the 32 oz one along with a 40 oz glass pitcher to make that iced tea I mentioned before. It arrived in 2 days!!! Here’s a demonstration of how it works; I am brewing a pitcher of my favorite organic Red Rooibos loose leaf tea:

The result is a perfect pitcher of iced tea, and all the loose tea leaves are left behind in the IngenuiTEA. It’s very easy to clean – it has a filter that pops out quite easily. I’ve been drinking lots more tea lately! Even Isaac likes it (but I never give him anything that’s caffeinated, of course). Jonny’s not such a big fan of tea.

So I’m giving one of these away. If you are interested, leave a comment. You can tell me about a gadget you can’t live without, share a good recipe you’ve made recently (maybe one for green tea ice cream?), or perhaps an idea to keep kids occupied over the summer. The winner will be chosen at random, and will get to pick what size tea maker s/he would like. Good luck!

Blueberry Muffins

Even though I miss Trinidad, there are some truly awesome things about living in Central PA at this time of year. Fresh local blueberries are high on my list.

And one of my favorite things to make with fresh blueberries is…blueberry muffins!  We use this recipe from the King Arthur flour website.  Normally I wouldn’t break out the Kitchen Aid for muffins, but this isn’t your typical quick bread recipe.  To me it’s more like a cupcake recipe.   Even though blueberry muffins are great, Jonny refuses to eat them.  So I had to make a couple of “plain” muffins for him.

Both Jonny and Isaac helped to make these, but my the time this photo was taken Jonny was upstairs in a time-out for shouting, hitting, and not taking turns.

The muffins turned out great!  Here’s to summer!