Here's the super quick catch-up:
Everyone is older. Like, everyone. Patrick is now 8 1/2, Madelyn turned 7 last month and Angie and I are three years older than the last time I posted (you do the math). It's been an amazing 3 years with more memories and adventures made and had than I could ever write about. Patrick and Madelyn have been taking Tae Kwon Do and just received their Deputy Level I Black Belt They're both doing amazing in school and Angie and I are lucky enough to hear nothing but wonderful things from their teachers about their attitudes, behavior and abilities. It would be near impossible to ask for anything more as a parent.
And the BIGGEST news is...drum roll... I'm changing the name of the blog. Well, I guess that's secondary to the reason I'm changing the name. On November 22, 2016, we welcomed our incredible little boy Samuel Pollock Flowers.
And that's really the reason I wanted to start up the ol' Blogomatic 5000 again. Angie and I have found ourselves referencing the blog countless times over the last few months with Samuel. When P and M were born, this was where we kept the most detailed track of everything from weight and length to major milestones to favorite foods. It was a sort of digital baby book and we've loved having it. We wanted to be able to do that same thing with Samuel. Even if all we're able to pull off right now is a quick once-a-month post to highlight major milestones for all three kids and post a few pictures, we want to do that so years from now we can look back and have quick access to more than just a picture or video. The extra context that we're able to put around those things with the blog has been invaluable to us.
It's also been fun for the older two kids to look back with us now that they can read and understand what the blog even is. They've loved watching the videos and seeing old pictures and hearing about what they were like as babies and little kids.
So, in an effort to time-capsule what's happened thus far with Samuel, here are the (literal) bullet points:
- Samuel Pollock, born November 22, 2016 at 7:41 AM. 7 lbs. 9oz. and 20 inches long.
- Sam stayed breach for all but about 3 days of the pregnancy which was a (not) fun and (definitely) new-to-us little twist on pregnancy and birth. Angie, of course, handled the whole thing like a champ.
- Sam rolled over front-to-back on New Year's day and almost has rolling back-to-front happening. It seems to be tricky for him because...
- Sam is currently in the 100th percentile for height, 85th percentile for weight and 30th percentile for head size :)
- Samuel is truly one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He will literally go days without actually crying and just make some general fussy sounds when he's hungry or tired. He started sleeping in 5-6 hour stretches when he was four days old and (knock on wood...so much knocking on wood) has only gotten better from there.
- Patrick and Madelyn have been AMAZING as older siblings. When you've had almost 7 years to get used to it just being two kids, I can only imagine it's a big change for them when there's suddenly a new little one pulling our attention and keeping us from doing certain things with them. But they've handled it incredibly well so far and we couldn't be prouder. They love Samuel beyond measure, have been so good with him and such a huge help to Angie and me.