A Blessing and a Birthday

We blessed Phaedra on Sunday. All our (local) family was able to be there, and Grant gave a beautiful blessing. He said Phaedra was wide awake for the blessing, gazing up at each of the men in the circle. She wore the same blessing dress we used for Eleanor. My Aunt Kathleen gave it to us, and it is so beautiful, I knew we wouldn't find anything I would like more for Phaedra.

We took a few family photos afterwards.

After church, we all headed over to Grant's parents' for some food and to celebrate the September birthdays in the family.

Phaedra was enjoying the warmer weather (and the comfort of her Grandpa's lap). Isn't she beautiful?
Having a nice little talk with Grandpa.


Eleanor became a regular Pigpen running around with all her cousins. She has rugburn on her forehead and dinner on her face.
Giving the dinosaur some medicine. She loves that sandbox, as do the other grandkids.

It's not very often that we are all together, so we got a Matthews family photo. This one was taken by Carolyn's camera and is probably the only one to turn out.
This one is the best from my camera. I had to post it because of Caleb, front and center, running to ask Grandma to see the picture before it's even done being taken. He's so cute!

Lucero with Isabel, and me with Phaedra.
This picture cracks me up! It looks like we're disgusted with each other. Neither of us could figure out who Grant and others were taking a picture of, so I'm leaning away from her, not wanting to be in the way of a picture someone might be taking of her. Meanwhile, she is leaning away from me in case someone is taking a picture of me, and Grant took a picture of both of us.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles, with help from cousins.

Opening a mountain of presents. Before she would open each gift, we would tell her who it was from. Then, she would look at us and ask, "And now I can open it?"

3 Years Old

Eleanor's birthday was last weekend. Here's what she did on her birthday:

She woke up bright and early at 6:15. Phaedra had a diaper blow-out, and Grant and I must have woken Eleanor up while trying to deal with the mess. We tried to have her lay in bed with us, but there was no chance of her going back to sleep. When we asked her if she knew what day it was, she said, "My birthday. Hooray! My birthday camed!" Then she asked if she could open the present from my aunt that had been sitting on our dresser for over a week. We told her she still had to wait a little bit, but there was a surprise waiting for her in the family room. So, we all went to see what surprise was waiting for her in the family room.

When we asked her what she wanted for a birthday present, she had replied that she wanted a balloon. I think she remembered the balloon that was at Carter's birthday party that she played with so much. Her request seemed easy enough, so Grant went out and bought balloons after she went to bed Friday night.

She's pretty easy to please.

After running around with her balloons for a while, she helped Daddy clean cabinets and drawers so we could continue getting settled in our new house (while Mommy rested). That led to a bath. After the bath was breakfast.

We didn't do a fancy favorite breakfast because we had to get ready to go places with Grandma and Grandpa, so her breakfast of choice was Cinnamon Life.

Soon after that, my parents showed up for a little birthday celebration. We went to Cold Stone for some ice cream.
Eleanor chose "pink" ice cream with sprinkles. Grandma came prepared with candles and matches so we could sing Happy Birthday to her.

How old are you?

Our little party. Phaedra was the most excited, with Grandpa and Grant as close seconds.

Eleanor was so excited to open presents.

She took forever to open each present, handing each small piece of paper to Grant after tearing it off.
My Aunt Kathleen made her a really neat LDS themed alphabet book.

Her present from Mommy and Daddy. Grant is reading to her a certificate for her own live fish.
The reaction.
The best present of all: a loving daddy.

After that, we all went to the carousel to ride the horsies.

Then, Eleanor and Grant went to lunch and to choose a fish while Phaedra and I went to buy a present to Eleanor from Phaedra.

After a good nap, Eleanor got to show me her new fish. Grant said she had chosen quickly, grabbing the one she could reach. The salesperson helping them had tried to point out some of the more colorful (and more expensive) fish as options, but Grant had told them it was no use trying to change Eleanor's mind once she made her choice. He was right. She chose the more plain looking fish, and it was the one she wanted. They also picked up some cheap feeder fish for our pond outside. We'll see if they live through the winter.

She loved being able to "plunk" each marble into the bowl.

I asked Eleanor what she wanted to name her fish. I tried to give her some options as examples, such as Wall-E, Eve (ones I thought she would surely get excited about), Bob. I told her she could name it whatever she wanted, and we would all call it that name. She didn't respond right away, so after a few minutes, I asked her if she had thought of anything she wanted to name it. She said yes, and when I asked what she wanted to call it, she told me quite decidedly that it was "South Salem." We thought it was an excellent name. Blog readers, allow me to introduce South Salem, the newest member of our family.

After dinner, Michael and Lucero dropped by to see our house, so Eleanor had fun playing with David and Isabel. When they were just about to leave, Stu and Care showed up. Eleanor also had a good time playing with Carter. They got pretty wild, and Eleanor ended up with a bonk on the head and some sort of rugburn on the middle of her forehead. Marks of a good birthday.

Grant and I were pretty pleased. As far as we could tell, she really enjoyed her birthday.

Pictures

One week old. . .

9 days. . .

10 days. . .

Two weeks old. . .

Proud big sister.

Talking to baby sister.

17 days old. . .

When Sisters Meet

Throughout Jocelyn’s pregnancy we have tried to excite Eleanor about her coming sister. Eleanor has been such a center of the universe (yes, I admit she is a spoiled little Daddy’s girl—but a very sweet one) we were worried she might not be thrilled with another center of the universe moving in and messing up the gravitational laws.
In order to prep her we talked often about her baby sister in Mommy’s tummy. Eleanor went to all our doctor appointments (at least the ones she was awake for). She was so involved that she liked to say she too had a baby sister in her tummy. At one visit to the doctor, they placed the Doppler over Eleanor’s heart so she could hear “her baby’s heart beat” as well—confusing, maybe, but Eleanor sure enjoyed that visit.
Our efforts seemed to be paying off. Eleanor was very excited about Baby Sister and often talked about her and how she, Eleanor, would hold her and take care of her—she would “hold her, rock her 5 minute, put her in her bed, giver her loves, and put her night night in her own bed.” It was very cute to see Eleanor randomly approach Jocelyn, kiss her tummy and tell us she was giving Baby Sister a kiss.
Despite the growing excitement, we still had concerns about reality. Anyone who has had more than one child is reading this and saying, “yeah, yeah” as you read this less than original account of “the second child.” I was excited, but still a little worried about the first visit, and subsequent time together.
So far, our sweet Eleanor has been the champ of big sisters. She has been so excited every time she is around Phaedra. She LOVES to hold her, to the point were she tells Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, and Daddy we cannot hold Phae because she is going to. Eleanor is so gentle, and has been very attentive to the rules we have been telling her to follow with baby sisters. It is very cute to see the two of them together.I hope they will always be close and loving towards each other.

Getting instructions from Grandpa

Home at last!

First visit

A little kiss for sister

All together

Here are more pictures we wanted to share.