Two months old

May 23, 2008
April 23, 2008

My Quest

I am on a quest to make my littlest offspring smile. An article in Parents magazine said the average age for a newborn to smile is 4-8 weeks. (and we all know that magazines report only the gospel truth). Nathan first smiled at 4 weeks and still practices every day. Baby Josh, on the other hand, is taking his sweet time. I've seen a few (and far between) precious glimpses of joy, but I'm waiting for that ever rewarding, light-up-your-face smile that somehow makes all the sleepless hours worthwhile.
Here is Nathan's first smile: I know the photo quality is terrible, but you gotta snap fast with these fickle buggers.

Now, a few days ago, Nathan and I attempted the impossible: make an 8 week old smile.
"Nope, not doing it"

Nathan "helping"

"closer. . . "

oh, seriously we just missed it. . . darn camera pause.

Nathan wants to show that he can smile. "Nathan do smile"


Well, I'll get back to you when I can truly capture a great smile. I'm sure it will be worth it!

Mother's day with uncooperative munchkins

Well, I enjoyed my mother's day. . . I was pampered and encouraged and smothered. One of my children wanted nothing to do with me and the other couldn't get enough of me!


Nothing like bribing your kids to take photos. . . this time was a truck to hold

Nothing like sleeping through the photo session

Nothing like sweet toddler smooches

Nothing like a cute Soderlund family photo

Saint Elizabeth

Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231.

St. Elizabeth is generally represented as a princess graciously giving alms to the wretched poor or as holding roses in her lap; in the latter case she is portrayed either alone or as surprised by her husband, who, according to a legend, which is, however, related of other saints as well, met her unexpectedly as she went secretly on an errand of mercy, and, so the story runs, the bread she was trying to conceal was suddenly turned into roses.

The other Saint Elizabeth of Redmond is more commonly known to us commoners as simply, "Beth". She is best known for her selflessness and ability to manufacture cute kids.

One example of her selflessness is an example that is going to be coming in June. In June, the beautiful Saint Elizabeth is willing and selflessly staying at home with her two children while her husband (who has not yet achieved 'Saint' status) heads off to New York for a few days to witness history.

While she is at home furthering her saintness, her husband will be on a tour of history experiencing Yankee Stadium (home of the Yankees) and Shea Stadium (home of the Mets). Both stadiums are in their final seasons before the teams move to newer, bigger, and better stadiums. And her husband feels a strong need to see them before they are no longer.

Yankee stadium in particular will be missed by the game of baseball. It has been the home of such greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and so many more that it would take too long to name them all. To keep the history part of the trip, he will also be taking a day in the city of Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame.

While Saint Elizabeth would like to be a part of this historical weekend, she is foregoing her rights to see it so that her husband can go.

The ultimate example of selflessness, Saint Elizabeth shall be remembered forever for this.

Me and my boys

When did I start referring to myself in third person as "mommy?" And when will I stop?

A Eulogy: Satchel Paige Soderlund

In the last 5 years, he ate roughly 1825 Scoops of 'breakfast pellets', 5475 leaves of lettuce, 1825 carrots, and almost a whole farm of brocoli, cauliflower, and celery. And enough hay to feed a horse for a year or two.

Tonight, after a little bit of trauma in the living room and a few calls to different animal hospitals that know rabbits, we had to put Satchel, our rabbit of 5 years, to sleep for good.

No more heir balls (get it?) floating around the living room or clogging the vacuum. No more stench from his litter box moving downwind towards the dinner table while we ate. No more pictures with the neices and nephews at Easter time. Or running around in circles around the couches. Or chewing on the furniture that he felt was in his way from where he wanted to go. And no more stray poop pellets on the living room floor.

Now, his large section of the living room is officially empty. It was one of the hardest things that I've had to do in my recent memory. To assign his fate with my signature and credit card was a little surreal. But through some tears, our family went from five to four. He had been carrying a sickness for a long time and apparently tonight was just his night to go.

He lived a full, fun life. He made us laugh plenty of times. One of our favorite memories was at Christmas time when he stood on the side of the couch stretching as far as he could to nibble on a Christmas tree branch and fell off the side and into a Christmas present bag. He was a great pet. We already miss him and it's only been a few hours. The living room just isn't the same without him.

Named by his 'father' after the great baseball player Satchel Paige. Satchel is survived by owners Aaron & Beth and their children Nathan and Josh.

Guitar Hero - Legends of Rock

Learning the proper way to hold his guitar.


Yep - No shirt. He's learning to fit the part.


And now playing with daddy (He's not beating me though, I promise)


I'm currently borrowing Guitar Hero from a friend of mine and I think that Nathan likes it just as much as I do. I can beat him in a face-off, but he's loving getting to play a 'real' guitar.

"Happy To You"

I'll bet you didn't know that I have sung the song "Happy Birthday To You" AT LEAST 4 times a night since March 1st. No joke. We celebrated Beth's dad's birthday on March 1st and ever since, before bed, Nathan requests to sing "Happy To You" ('birthday' was too hard to say, so he just skipped it). We go through and sing it to Mommy, Daddy, Nathan, and Baby Josh every night. But many nights he wants to also sing it to Nana & Papa, "Bamma" (Grandma Nancy), "Emmie" (cousin Emily), "Dyle" (cousin Kyle), "GG" (Great-Grandma), "Papa Don" and sometimes he even wants to sing it to "Papa's Plate". Yep, his plate. Like the kind you eat off of. Plates don't have birthdays. Yet, we sing it to the plates quite often. Ridiculous.

Anyway, so that's what we do every night as we're going to bed. Nathan and I sing Happy To You.

The poor kid didn't even know anything special was happening when we sang it to him for his birthday that night. It was just like any other night.

Needless to say, I'm a little tired of the Happy Birthday song.

The child to whom the towel belongs

How I know I have too much stuff lying around the hallway

Today while we were watching some "worters" (worker men) and their "tru"s (trucks) outside Nathan's window, Nathan tried on his brother's bath towel, which of course was not hung in the bathroom but was left lying in the hallway. Quite pleased with himself and hoping to share his wit, he said, "show daddy," but daddy was not available- someone has to support this family by working outside the home.

So Nathan suggested, "show worters" and stood by the window loudly saying "hallo." They were not available- they apparently could not hear the plea for attention.

So finally Nathan wanted to show someone who might really fein interest in his cute appearance and said, "show boots" (books). He then stood near his basket of toys and giggled before abandoning the new costume.

Ha ha ha. What a funny kid. I wish I could share the audio as well.

This Saturday Was Brought To You By The Number 2.

Welcome to Soderlund Station



Nathan and his train



The train cake that Beth made for the party - she always outdoes herself



The birthday boy. (OK, seriously... do they get much cuter than that?)



Nathan opening one of his presents









The couches were moved, the rabbit away
Even the barstools did not get to stay
The stage was all set for six kids to play
There would be chaos on this Saturday

Cardboard box train, balloons red, black and white
A Pinata to hit at a two-year old's height
A train cake to eat with Oreo wheels
Sandwiches and chips for everyone's meal

Crayons and toy trains to play with at first
Train hats and whistles and tears come in bursts
Grandparents and kids, generations abound
Inside some presents Little Einsteins were found

A fun day for all, at least so they said
But when it was over, it was time for bed
It was all about trains, the beloved "choo choo"
It was Nathan's birthday, and he just turned two.

Home: Volume 1, Chapter 1 Title: Percocet

Awww...



Mmmmm... Percocet



Nathan taking care of his little brother.



Not Mommy or Daddy's favorite toy at 8am. :)



Nathan doing the post-game recap with Brad Adam and Bill Krueger after Monday's Opening Night Mariner win.












Percocet. The great equalizer.

There has been a lot of sleep going on in our house lately. With Beth recovering from her C-section, she's been on percocet since Josh was born for pain of the incision. Naturally that'll put anybody's head in clouds a little. The interesting part of that, however, is that it then gets passed through Beth to Josh when he eats. Now before anyone gets in a tizzy, this is perfectly OK, otherwise the the doctors wouldn't have put Beth on it. Now that we all realize that this is OK, we'll move on. There is a VERY little amount that actually gets transferred, but Josh is only 7 1/2 lbs right now. So that little bit pretty much causes him to sleep all day. So from about 1pm to 4pm, the entire house goes to sleep, except for me.

However, the Percocet is about done and Beth is weening off of it. Which means, we may actually get to see Josh's eyes a bit more. But that also means that we might be getting a little less sleep starting very soon.

Nathan has for the most part recovered from his sickness or whatever he had. He's eating again and his ear is better, mostly. But all of the drama seems to be over with him too. He actually has taken to 'Baby Josh' quite well. He often asks to hold him and he rubs Josh's back and kisses his forehead. He has even offered to let Josh play his toy saxophone and trumpet. All in all he's taking this whole baby thing really well. Granted, I have been at home since Josh was born and am through this week. So Nathan has still had at least one parent that was still able to focus on him. We may have a much different title to our blog next week. We'll see how he does when it's just Beth, he and Josh during the day. But he's a great kid and I'm sure he'll do alright.

Beth is recovering really well. She's a very good mom and takes very good care of all of us, even when she's supposed to be resting more than she is. She's up and around a lot and back to her creative self. We have to get ready for Nathan's birthday 2 year old birthday party next weekend!

We'll try to keep you updated on everything! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Heeeee's Baaaaack.

The full family!

Josh on his way home.

Nathan: "So this is the kid that's gonna take all my attention huh?"



The family is officially complete. (Well, for now at least) Beth and I had been missing Nathan, though enjoying the quiet of just Josh. We had almost 24 hours at home with just Josh. But today around lunchtime, our oldest little boy made his way back home from his Nana & Papa's. However, he's not himself right now. He's still being really quiet, his ear seems to hurt a lot, and he doesn't eat or drink much. So after a call do the doctor, we're heading back again this afternoon... RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUGAR GAME!!! I must really love this kid. And thank goodness we resolved the space issue on the DVR so I can watch the game when I get home.

In the meantime, Josh is pretty much a sleeper. He certainly doesn't like to be awake. We're guessing it's because Beth is on Percaset (however you spell it) for her incision and he's probably getting a little of that when he eats. And I'd think a pain killer like that would definitely make him a 4-day-old a little extra sleepy.

But it is definitely nice to have everyone together. What that will bring in the next few days is still to be determined. But for now, it's pretty cool to have a 4-person family.

the Calm before the Storm

the Calm: Joshua
the Storm: Nathan

a post by beth

i apologize for the lack of photos this morning. . . i'm just commenting on my state of mind. as you know, nathan has been a) staying with nana and papa the last several days and b) feeling not quite himself. he returns to us today. i'm thrilled to have my family under one roof and to get this process of the boys knowing each other going, but i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a bit sad to lose this quiet time with baby josh. i've spent the last few days simply cucooning with this sweet, hungry, sleepy little thing- i'm not sure if i'm ready for the energy and playfulness of my spunky toddler! i'm positive that i will report later that having nathan home is a blessing, but for the next hour or so, i think i'll just snuggle with the calm.

Heading Home...

H-O-M-E. That's where we're heading today. They're kicking us back out into the real world. Josh doesn't have a clue what's coming. We've been here now for 3 days and I think we're both ready to get out of here too though. Something about the comfort of home. Although it's been nice being taken care of by the nurses.

Beth finally made if off of the 'Comfort Menu' for her food this morning. That's the menu with nothing that's offensive to your stomach at all. So for her first meal this morning back on the regular menu, they come in with these nasty looking breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns. Ummm. OK. I love junk like that and even I didn't think it looked or tasted very good. So welcome back to normal food, Beth. After it showed up she said, "Can I go back to my Comfort Menu?"

Ah, the real world.

We almost had a catastophe last night actually. We were in our room visiting with Grandma Nancy, Cousin Emilie, and Uncle Keith, and I realized that our DVR at home was recording a lot of shows last night and it was going to exceed our available space. Uh oh! Once it does that it starts deleting the oldest shows that we haven't watched yet. Needless to say, I rushed home to eliminate the problem. Don't you worry, we got it all taken care of. And it's a good thing too because someone was going to have to feed the rabbit, which we didn't arrange for before we left. Catastrophe avoided. Phew!

Nathan will be coming home on Thursday from his Nana & Papa's house. So we'll have almost a full day of just Josh at home while we get adjusted to home. We are excited to have Nathan back as we've been missing him while we're in the hospital. So we're looking forward to being a whole family again. However, we're also quite thankful he's coming back Thursday rather than right when we get home.

We have very much enjoyed our visitors and thank you all for coming to see us and meet our little boy. But just because we're about out of the hospital doesn't mean we don't want you to be able to come over and see little Josh. So if you want to come over, just let us know. We'd love to introduce him to you!

Another Day In Paradise...

Nathan 'getting acquainted' with his little brother.

Nathan holding Baby Josh.

Well, we're staying another night. They realized what we had realized from the beginning, and that's that by sending Beth home on Tuesday would be too soon after a C-section. So here we are. But its not nearly the eventful day that yesterday was. It's been pretty quiet around here.

Nathan felt quite a bit better today and had his own doctor appointment today to figure out what his deal has been. But he was much more himself today and was able to hang out with us for a while. It was very fun to have Nathan want to interact with 'Baby Josh'. He asked to touch him and hold him. 'Hold it' he said while pointing to Josh. So we he got to sit in the chair and hold his little brother, which he loved. And we, of course, loved watching the two of them.

Beth is doing great. She's out walking around without any problems. The doctors say she's doing great. And she's pretty much just enjoying the 'freedom'.

As for baby Josh, he had quite an eventful day. He started the day with an a little 'surgery' and is recovering from that well. I even heard him say his first words. Between gulps during his feeding, he pulled his mouth away from the 'food source' and said, "Thursday. 4:30". Which can only mean that he's as excited about the Coug game on Thursday afternoon as the rest of us are.

We're still doing well and still at the hospital if you want to come by! We'd love to see you!

One Day Down

Little Josh (We didn't even put anything product in his hair. He's naturally stylish)

Nathan got his own new 'baby' too.

Keaten and Reid come to visit their future classmate



I'd tell you it was an eventful day around here, but it was pretty much just a whole bunch of sitting around the hospital room. Now the fun part, however, is that we had our family and friends come through to see Josh and they even talked to us while they were here.

Josh had a great day. He slept. He ate. He slept some more. He ate. I hear that he pooped. But mostly, he just slept. But once again, he's quite healthy and when he decides to open up his eyes, he's pretty alert.

Big Brother Nathan even brought his sick self over to see the new baby. Granted, he didn't get much of a choice. He didn't seem all too interested in the new little addition. But we have to take into account that he's been really sick and not himself. So, needless to say, he didn't stay long. We don't need mom, dad, or Josh getting what he's got this week.

Beth is doing great. All the tubes that were in her are out. That's a big step. She's up and about on her own power and giving me lists of things to get done. I made a trip home this evening to get the house ready since it sounds as if the hospital is kicking us out tomorrow (Tuesday).

But I wanted to give you all the day's update before I hit the sack in this really, really comfortable cot that they have provided me. Yes, that was just 'a hint' of sarcasm. But hey, when you're this low on sleep, anything's good.

Hope you enjoy the day's updated pictures. We'll keep you posted on anything exciting. Or anything not exciting at all.

Ummm... Surprise

On Easter Sunday Jesus came out of the tomb and Joshua (Josh) David Soderlund came out of the womb... Earlier than expected. We had the whole thing planned for Beth to have a C-Section on Friday 3/28, but nope. Today around 3:30pm he decided that he was ready to join the Cougars for their Sweet 16 appearance. I mean, join his family.

We weren't quite sure if Beth was feeling real labor pains or false labor pains. But her doctor told her to go to the hospital and get it checked out just in case. And sure enough, just like last time, we stayed the night. Only this time we didn't have to wait the whole night. We got to the hospital around 8pm and were in the surgery room by 11pm and had a new little boy by 11:35.

His official name is Joshua David Soderlund. We'll probably just call him Josh. He was born on 3/23/08, weighed 7lbs 8oz, and was 20" long (probably still is, actually).

Beth and Josh are both doing very well and will be spending a few days at Overlake Hospital.

Nathan's not even going to know what hit him. Poor kid. He went to bed an only child and is going to wake up with his world rocked. We were both kind of mourning the loss of him as our only child, but as a friend of ours said, "We just created his new best friend."

In the meantime, we have this little squeaky cry in our room, nurses moving in and out, and us still awake at 3am. Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight too. But honestly... who cares? Who needs sleep when you've got a new baby?

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down

a blog by Beth

I don't really have much to say, except here we are with 1 week left before I literally pop. I can't tell you how ready I am personally; the other members of my household, I'm not so sure about! The house is ready, the rooms are ready, the stuff is ready. I'm getting much more uncomfortable and this particular baby is trying to find all kinds of creative ways to escape the belly confinement. We're pretty sure he'll be just as wiggly as his brother.
In other news, Nathan has been spilling the beans about his brother's name. We wanted Nathan to be at least a little prepared, so we've been calling baby by name and referring to his stuff and his room by name. Nathan is very sweet and gives the baby kisses and loves to play with baby's toys. In the meantime, we've said that we won't tell the name, but if you hear it from Nathan, then you enter the inner circle! Besides, it's just cute for him to announce. Lately, he's been much freer and trust me, it's very clear. So, if you catch him in the next week, you just may hear some interesting Soderlund news!
Above are some photos of us in the past few weeks!

T minus Two Weeks...

T minus two weeks and counting... Uh, Houston... We have a problem. We're not cleared for takeoff. The nursery's not finished yet! It's currently a virtually empty room and we're running into the last two weeks before we don't get a choice any more.

Nah, we're OK. Nathan is moved into the new room. He loves it! I'll put a picture of it on here soon. Boy #2 will have a place to sleep soon enough. Of course, Beth would like it done by Sunday so the people coming over this weekend can see the finished product. How am I supposed to watch the Pac-10 basketball tournament from the nursery? Hmmm. Again... Houston, we have another problem.

Beth's feeling bigger than ever and ready to have this kid out. But she's doing phenominal otherwise.

We're very excited for this little boy to show up. Nathan walks around the house finding all of the baby's stuff and saying his name. So it'll be fun to see him as he realizes this baby is actually coming OUT of mommy's tummy.

I'm working like mad to get as much done as I can with work so I can enjoy being home for a little bit after he arrives to help Beth and just enjoy our new child. Unfortunately, my job doesn't give me paternity leave or anything.

Anyway, two weeks from tomorrow. Friday March 28th @ 9am. Overlake Hospital. 15 days. 365 hours.

Houston... we have another problem. We're gonna have two kids!