Giuseppe's 1st week

Baby Giuseppe is one week old today. He's been such an easy-going baby so far. He never cries unless I can't get to him right away to feed him. He sleeps a good portion of the day, and we have to be sure to wake him a few times per day so that he won't want to be awake at night. He rarely spits up, which is nice since we've had a couple of babies who have had trouble with reflux. This isn't to say that he hasn't made his own share of messes (think opposite end messes). Most of them have only given Dany extra practice with running the washing machine. One particularly memorable mess had him mopping half of the living room :)

Here is Cati's artwork on our chalkboard announcing Giuseppe's arrival.




My parents were here to take care of the other kids for the birth, and they had to go home on Wednesday, but they did get a couple of days to visit with Giuseppe.

Elena always thinks she should be holding the baby :)

2 days old...

3 days old...

On Thursday, Giuseppe went for his first doctor's check-up. He was perfectly healthy and his hips even seem fine! (Remember that 3 of the girls have been under care for hip dysplasia.) He weighed 10 lbs 6 oz, and since he passed his birth weight, he doesn't have to go back until he's one month old!

5 days old...

One week old! He went to Mass for the first time this morning and slept peacefully in the sling the whole time :)

I tried to get a picture of how fluffy his hair was after I washed it this morning :)

We always try to get our babies Baptized as soon as possible, but it seems that it may be a few weeks yet. Our priest announced at Mass this morning that he'll be away on retreat and vacation for the next 3 weekends :(

Somehow I don't have any pictures of Maria with Giuseppe, but this doesn't mean that she hasn't spent a good bit of time with him. She's been a great helper, of course, especially with helping Dany cook supper. I'll try to take some pictures of Maria this week, and I still need to get a picture of all 6 kids together!

Welcome Giuseppe Benedetto!

Giuseppe Benedetto (Italian for Joseph Benedict) was born on Sunday, July 10th at 9:50 am. He weighed 10 lbs 4 oz and was 22.5" long.

After accepting the fact that I may have first baby post-due, labor started on the morning before his due date. I slept horribly the first half of the night (as in, pretty much not at all) and then soon after finally going to sleep around 4am, I started feeling REAL contractions. I decided to get up around 5:30 to time them woke Dany 15 minutes later to tell him labor had started. We got ready and left for the hospital about an hour later. We checked into the hospital around 7:20am. I had a C-section with our last baby, Elena, so this was our first experience with a VBAC. My midwife and labor nurse were wonderful and so supportive. I had to stay hooked up to the monitors, but they are able to do this wirelessly now, so I could move around. I also had to have an IV. I labored on the birthing ball while listening to Catholic Latin Classics on my iPod and having Dany massage my lower back with a warm wash cloth. It was actually quite peaceful and I sometimes dozed off between contractions. Finally, it was appearant that it was time to get to work and about 15 minutes later, Giuseppe arrived!



Dany and my midwife, Gretchen. She also delivered Chiara 4 years ago, and unfortunately she's retiring in October :(

Look at that hair!! We've never had one with so much hair!

My parents and the kids arrived at the hospital in the afternoon to meet Giuseppe for the first time.

Elena has a love for babies unlike any of my other kids at her age and she's SO excited to have a real baby in the house now!

Matteo finally has a brother!! I've mentioned his goofy camera smiles before, right? :)

Visiting on Day 2 at the hospital...

We got to go home that afternoon - his due date and the Feast of St. Benedict! One night in the hospital is more than enough for me :)

Father's Day

Yes, I'm a bit behind on blog posts, but what's new :)

I think Dany had a relaxing, enjoyable Father's Day last Sunday.

The major event of the day happened during supper when Matteo lost his first tooth!

It was rather funny. He was eating when he stood up suddenly, took some food from his mouth, and set it down on the table in disgust, saying, "What is that!?" That unchewable bit of "food" was a little baby tooth. After he got over the shock, he excited made an envelope for the tooth to put under his pillow that night. He didn't sleep well that night because he was so excited about the Tooth Fairy coming :)

Here are some pictures of his new look. These are typical facial expressions from him these days when we try to get him to smile for the camera :)

If you're done laughing at those pictures, I'll move onto the end of supper. While we were cleaning up, we made the mistake of leaving Elena's plate on the table so she could finish up her dessert. Dany's favorite dessert these days is chocolate fondue and fruit. Well, I guess Elena was full but didn't want to waste her chocolate...

Regina Caeli

During the Easter Season, we sing the Regina Caeli before lunch. Chiara has really enjoyed singing this over the past 50 days, so on this last day of the Easter Season, I have a video of her singing.

Tomorrow, we return to the Angelus!

Caterpillar to Butterfly

The kids have been studying insects this Spring. As part of their study, we raised some caterpillars and watched them change into butterflies. The kids enjoyed this so much!

We got 3 little caterpillars in this cup. They were around an inch long when they arrived.




In a week, they more than doubled in size. See this one at the top of the cup, just under the lid.

They crawled up to the top of the cup and hung from the lid in a "J" shaped. In a couple of hours, they had formed crysalis around themselves. We never saw this in steps. We saw them one minute as hanging caterpillars, and then the next time we checked, they were hidden away in their crysalis! In this picture you can see one in the front which is already a crysalis and one toward the back that had not yet formed.

A couple of days after they had formed into their crysalis, we moved them to their tent to emerge. The lid of the cup was lined with paper, making the transfer easy.

One week later, they emerged within hours of each other! We were hoping to see at least one of them as it came out of the crysalis, but they were sneaky :) We checked on them frequently throughout the day, but we never caught one of them emerging. They would be quietly tucked inside the crysalis one minute, and then we would find a new butterfly completely out the next time we looked!

Here is one getting ready to eat. We put drops of sugar water on some flowers from outside. It was neat to watch them use their long probiscus to eat.

Of course, we finally had to let them go. Cati suggested that we release them on Ascension Thursday, about 4 days after they emerged. Maria wanted to let them out in our flower garden, hoping they might like the area and want to stick around.

We had to wait a few minutes for them to become brave enough to venture outside their little tent, but as soon as they found the door, they were off!

One decided to stick around on our bushes for a few minutes before flying away.