Dear Buyer:

Connor's thank you letter to the buyer of his steer:

"Thanks for purchasisig my beef. I hope you think he's tasty.  I worked very hard with him.  He probobly will be fantastic.  I want a lot of money, but it's close. I loved that guy. I'll save the mony for collige.

Sincirly, Connor"

Brady, Brady, Brady

Around here, it seems like BRADY is the most loved, popular, and perfect person on the planet!  The kids (and their parents) are totally in love with this little guy.  It's been fun (and annoying at times) to see how much the kids love him.  And I love watching him grow, although I wish he'd slow down a bit.  He has gotten into much better sleeping and eating patterns, which is soooo nice.  His record for sleeping is still just 4 hours, but he's getting pretty consistant with 3 or a little longer.  And the kid is chunking up nicely. At his 2 weeks checkup, he had already gained 1 lb. 10 oz.!!  I love fat babies! 

Here he is at 1 week . . .

 . . .2 weeks . . .

 . . . and 3 weeks.

And with the 3 kids that are completely smitten by him.

Brady's Birth Week: Gymnastics and the County Fair

Brady came a week late. The week before he was born, when he should have come, I had nothing--absolutely NOTHING--on my calendar.  Just waiting for a baby to come.  But he was in no hurry, or maybe he thought it would be funny to try to make chaos the following week, but whatever the reason, he decided to be born right in the middle of county fair. 
This was Connor's first year showing a steer at the fair, so he was there all week with his animal--Monday through Saturday.  He did great and had a great time!  He stayed in a camper there with his aunt and cousin who was also showing a steer.  I'm so grateful to her for taking care of him all week long since I really couldn't be there.  Tony had a crazy schedule all week, going back and forth to Evanston (a 30-minute drive) I don't know how many times! He would go in every morning and evening to help with chores, bring hay, etc.  He even stayed a couple nights.  I went into labor Monday night, and Tuesday morning was still not ready to go to the hospital.  Tony needed to head into the fair to help with chores, and I didn't dare let him leave without me in case things started progressing better while he was gone. So I went along and labored at the fair all morning!  Great memory, huh?  Anyway, the rest of that day and the next, he was back and forth between the fair and the hospital.
My first night at home was without Tony, and Brady hardly slept. The next morning, I loaded up 2-day-old Brady and the girls and headed into the fair to watch the steer show. Crazy, right?  But I actually felt pretty good, and my family was coming to watch the show and see the baby, so I had help.  And how could I NOT go watch Connor?  He had been working so hard for this day since last December!  Sometimes moms have to do crazy things to support their kids, I guess.

 Connor learned a lot about fitting his steer to show. Mariah always likes to help brush the steer.

Mariah was great help in the barn. What a worker!

Setting up the feet

 Poke loved to have his belly scratched.  Connor did a nice job of keeping Poke's head up and looking at the judge. Great smile, too!

Connor and Poke

Another thing to remember about Brady's birth week is that he was born during the Olympics. I LOVED the Olympics! In one way, it was good timing since I could sit around and not feel guilty about watching it so much. (I'm recovering, right?)  But I also stayed up way too late every night watching, which doesn't mix well with having a newborn.  My kids loved the olympics, too, especially the gymnastics!  And we had lots of gymnastics in our house. Mylie was able to do lots of vault (using the arm of the couch as a vault), floor routine, and balance beam. Here are some cute pics of my little gymnasts.

Don't you just love the fancy gymnastics suits? You can do anything with stickers!

Look at that cartwheel!!

INTRODUCING . . .

Brady Joseph Micheli

Brady was born earlier this week, and has brought so much joy and excitement into our family.  He weighed 8 lb. 3 oz, and was 21 inches long.

I wanted to have a natural, unmedicated labor and delivery this time around. I've actually always wanted to do that, but never fully committed to it or prepared for it the way that I needed to.  This time I decided early and went into it whole-heartedly.  Luckily, everything went really well, and I was able to have the birth experience that I had wanted to have.  I was also grateful to have cousins and friends who had done this and I was able to talk to them and get so much good advice.  Tony was so helpful, and it was a great experience.

Since coming home, I have had so much help! All three of the older kids just LOVE him and are always excited to help out.  And they are actually old enough to be helpful!  Mylie folded and put away all his laundry yesterday and cleaned the whole house, Mariah watered all my flowers, and Connor is a great babysitter and can't get enough of his new little brother.

So far, Brady has had trouble in the night, and Tony and I have had very little sleep (like 2-4 hours per night). I've never had a baby struggle so much. Hopefully we can get things figured out and the poor kid (and his parents) can start getting some sleep! This pic of Mariah this afternoon looks about like how we feel!

Luckily, he's totally adorable, which makes it so easy to not be upset with him.  We love our new little guy!