Brahm's Lullabies

Both Oliver and Lily love to sing and read to Brahm.  One night, I captured their songs on video.  They were so sweet...and Ollie's?  Well, it's hilarious.  Let's just say I was laughing so hard the camera was shaking.  And when we showed it to Joel--he about died laughing, too.  Luckily, Oliver found the humor in it, too--and will now occasionally break into song about two octaves too high. 

Brahm's Name

Brahm is a bit of an unusual name, we realize.  But when your last name is 'Smith'--you have to be creative!  Truth is...I saw it on TV one night.  Worse yet...it was on a grave stone...the name of a boy who had died.  But I loved the name immediately!  Originally, they had spelled it "Bram".  They even referred to him has "Bram-y", which I thought was cute.  So I shared the name idea with Joel, who promptly asked, "Like the ice cream?"  Yep.  Like the ice cream.  He didn't love it.  

We didn't talk about names again for a while, which is typical.  We are HORRIBLE at picking out names, mainly because we both like so few...   But two weeks before the baby came...we talked again...and I offered another name choice.  He said, "I like Brahm better!" and suggested we spell it with an 'h'.  I LOVED it!  Just like the composer!  (NOT like the ice cream.)  :-)   I googled it to make sure it was a real name (sure enough, it is!) and found out that it's origin is Hebrew, from the name 'Abraham'.  I liked that.   So we settled on a first name.  


The middle name was easy--Arthur is my grandpa's name--he passed away earlier this year.  I hadn't realized fully what a special man he was until his memorial service--where we heard story after story of how Grandpa 'walked with God'.  He wasn't showy and didn't talk about it a lot...but the way he lived his life each day--spending time with God, loving and serving his wife, praying for his grandchildren and children--was such an example of a life well-lived.  We want that for Brahm--for him to live a long life trusting God and learning to love and serve others.  


(And some pictures from the last couple weeks...)

 (He REALLY hates the swaddling process....)

 (I think my sister stole my camera and took this one...)

(napping with Daddy on Sunday)

Brahm (Week 2)

Sorry...no pictures this week.  I know I've taken some...but the idea of going to get my camera, upload photos, and try to pick a few sounds a little bit TOO ambitious right now...so just some words. 

I should clarify first that the last two pictures on the previous blog post WERE both of Brahm.  I tried to stick a picture of Oliver in there, but the angle of his face (plus the fact that he was yawning a HUGE yawn) made it impossible to tell how much alike they look...so I took it off.  I PROMISE to find some of the pictures that will illustrate their similar looks SOON. 

For this week, I have a few observations:

*I am once again surprised at how much infants sleep.  It's like it's all he does!  :-)  But it's nice to have some time during the day that feels more normal, with just the two big kids.

*Our big kids are LOUD.  Seriously.  I think we have never worried much about how much they talk/sing/yell because it's just us.  They're talkative...and that's how they've ALWAYS been.  But now that we have a little newborn in the house...it's REALLY noticeable.  We're really trying to institute the "inside voices" rule, as well as the "no singing at the table" rule.  I know...we're mean.  But they sing constantly--and otherwise, no one else gets a word in!!!

*It feels like we've always had 3 kids.  So nice that the transition has been quick and pretty easy so far.  We are very thankful for each beautiful little one in our house...and can't wait to see what Brahm ends up being like!  (We're crossing our fingers for 'quiet' and 'calm'.)

Hopefully I'll get more pictures taken this week...and maybe go back through the ol' archives to find Ollie's.  Next week's will be a little more exciting....surely.

Baby Brahm (Week One)

Welcome to the world, Baby Brahm!

Proud sister Lily visiting at the hospital...

 Oliver with Brahm...

 Brahm's first bath...

 Sleepy Brahm...

Brahm was born Monday, and thankfully--he and I were feeling well enough to all come home Tuesday.  It's so good to be together as a family of 5!  The kids LOVE him...and they have been very helpful this week.

The nights started off rough, as he only wanted to be held ALL NIGHT LONG for the first 2 nights at home.  But thankfully, he did very well last night.  Maybe we'll get some sleep after all!  We are so thankful for Joel's sister Sara who is here for a few days to help out, too!

Here are some random pics from the week:

 Oliver LOVES to hold him.  This morning, he and Brahm bonded for about 15 minutes!

The kids love being close to him...so we watch that very closely.  :-)  

But today they were just watching him together--it was so sweet.

 Lily is getting some good bonding time with Sarah, too--this morning they painted toenails!

I have a picture of Oliver in his same outfit at 4 days old--I think they look SO much alike!  

Halloween 2011

I decided it was perfectly okay to do some serious slacking this Halloween (not knowing if we'd be a family of 4 or 5 by then!) so we kept our costumes simple. 

Oliver decided long ago he was going to be Buzz Lightyear.  I originally was going to attempt to sew wings and a helmet for him...but one day he woke up and spent two hours making buttons for his shirt and wings and a gun for his arm...so we called it good.  (And BOY was he proud of that costume!)  

Lily didn't really know what to be, so we bought her a set of wings and let her be a fairy/butterfly/princess.  Whatever she felt like calling herself.  (And at one point of the night, she commented, "I'm just so pretty.")  Yes you are, Lily.  Yes you are.

Joel found some really handsome teeth at Walmart while shopping for fruit, so he bought those and decided they go perfectly with a wig from our photobooth props tub.  I am so thankful I didn't marry THIS guy!  (I was seriously grossed out by the nasty teeth, sideburns, and hair...)

We went trunk-or-treating with a large group of friends from church which was a BLAST.  

 (Buzz contemplating life...)

Then, we came home and walked the neighborhood--and picked up LARGE amounts of candy.  Apparently things were slow around Rolling Hills--because the sweet neighbors were handing out handfuls to our children.

Now...to just keep them from eating it all this week...