Escaping the Southern Nevada Heat

On Friday mornnings this summer we started something new. We get out the pool and fill it with cold water from the hose and let it sit until after lunch at which time it's still cool enough to escape the heat into but not to cold for little toes and noses.



Andrew became enamored of rubber ducks. He now has ducks named after all of his Southern Nevada family. Using the ducks to explain how we are all related has been useful. He now knows that Grandma and Grandpa Muir are Daddy's mom and dad and Nanna Taylor is Mommy's mom.



Lily has learned that she doesn't always have to do just what Andrew wants and sometimes she is mischievous.


They both enjoy the water and love splashing and laying down.



When the day is done we let the water out and they say good-bye to the pool until the next Friday.

When mom's got school work

So ,this summer has been fairly eventful for our little family. In June Mary took her last two classes to finish her degree. Andrew and Lillian had fun with Grandma and Grandpa Muir and a various other sitters during class hours and then got a tired mommy and daddy in the afternoon and evening. Needless to say sometimes life got messy.











Lily felt like sometimes dinner wasn't always ready when she wanted it to be so she did her best to compensate.











Sometimes Andrew would join her.












Mommy and daddy became super cereal mess cleaners.

Daniel Benjamin Muir

Well August 3, 2007 was a most exciting day for The William S. and Mary Anne Muir family!

When Andrew and Lily were getting ready for bed, they were told that when they woke up, Mommy and Daddy would be at the hospital "picking up" baby Daniel. This was a bit confusing to Andrew, who, after insisting that the name was Danny and not Daniel, said, "Danny's here. In Mommy's tummy."
So we explained we were going to the hospital so Danny could come out of Mommy's tummy and meet everyone. Naturally, this caused a general excitement that took a while to calm down. Fortunately, Nana Taylor was around to help appease anxious Andrew and lull loving Lily to sleep. Nana spent the night at our house and then in the morning Mom and Dad woke early enough to shower and eat before going to St. Rose Hospital.

We arrived at the maternity ward around 7:35 and the reception nurse said "Please tell me you're my induction." We smiled and said we were. Mary had informed me on our way to the hospital that her goal was to keep smiling as long as she could. Naturally, I welcomed this most wonderful news and from that moment began cracking jokes and being generally jovial. Fortunately, this proved to be most advantageous as our nurse was a loving and good humored lady with a thick Scottish accent named Lize (Pronounced Liz). We couldn't have asked for a better nurse. She was a midwife as well and after we'd talked a bit, we found out that she was very good friends with the Scottish Nurse at Spring Mountain Hospital who delivered Lily 17 months ago. Lize did us the honor of speaking to us often with her Scottish brogue and endearing humor. We also learned that the maternity wing was extremely busy and we had received the last available room. (Good thing we had an appointment!)

However, due to the volume of work to be done, we could not be expected to have dear Lize all the time. By 10:00, there had been 16 deliveries in the last 24 hours!!! Around 10:05 Lize reappeared and finished the paperwork and told us of the delivery she had just helped with that had a cord issue where the cord had come out before the baby and caused all sorts of problems. Luckily Lize was able to get down under the bed and push the baby back up the birth canal while Dr. Herpolsheimer (our doctor as well) moved the cord out of the way. She said they were very lucky to have been able to save the baby. It was obviously quite an ordeal since her arm was shaking and hurting from the pressure it had required to do what was necessary. Then she started Mary on a slow pitosin drip to get her contractions coming regularly. Meanwhile, Back home, Nana was having a fun time watching Andrew and Lily play in their little kiddie pool.

After getting called away again for another delivery, she re-appeared around 11:45 and was going to check Mary's progression, but realized the doctor would be back in 15 minutes to break her water anyway so she said she'd wait. To make things more enjoyable, she had fun joking about Dr. H since she had helped with many of his deliveries in the past and knew him quite well. Once he arrived, he gave Mary her first check of the day around noon (she was at 3 by then), and broke her water. We all continued to crack jokes and one up each other and Mary was doing an excellent job of smiling! The pitosin was increased slightly in order to help things move along. Lize did not like the idea of heavy pit drips since they seemed to accomplish little more while magnifying the pain immensely. Mary definitely appreciated her approach. They told Mary as soon as she wanted the epidural to let the nurse know. Around 3:00, Mary had reached a 5 and the contractions were painful enough for her to request an epidural through smiling lips which I found it necessary to kiss!

As usual, once she got the epidural, she was able to relax better and things really started moving along. By 4:00 Mary was dilated to a 7 and Lize had prepared the delivery table with all the fresh shiny instruments the Dr. might need to use, and had him summoned from his office across town. This she did on explicit instructions both from us as well as Dr. H that he was to be notified early enough so that he could be sure to be there. This was due to his unwillingness to settle for the 50% delivery average he had established with our former children. He'd already been one upped by Lily when she was delivered by our other favorite nurse who was the spitting image of Mrs. Doubtfire, accent and all. So naturally, Lize joked about calling him in after placing one of the hospital's practice dolls neatly wrapped up under the heat lamp so he would think he'd missed it again.

Around 4:30, the doctor did come and check Mary one last time simply to pronounce she was 100% and that he'd be back in 15 minutes to complete the delivery. The contractions were coming hard and fast now and the urge to push was paramount. Nurse Lize helped us by encouraging Mary to hum as she did her exhales. After some testing and reflection, I concluded this was most wise since its nearly impossible to flex abdominal muscles while humming without some change in pitch or tone of the note hummed. Thus the nurse would be apprised if Mary was inadvertently pushing.


The Dr returned around 4:40, put on his booties and gloves, and got things ready to deliver. Around 4:45 he had Mary push with that contraction. She pushed very well and the baby's head came out over the crown to the eye sockets. One more push and the rest of the head and shoulders appeared and Dr. H was able to pull Danny the rest of the way out at 4:46 PM on Friday, August 3rd.. After the doctor suctioned out his mouth and nose, Danny let out a few wails indicating his strong set of lungs. Daddy got to cut the cord and then baby Danny was wiped off a bit, wrapped in a towel and handed to Mary.

His eyes were wide open already and there was a good amount of hair on the back of his head. In fact, he had almost as much hair at birth as Lily has right now at 17 months. His eyes look like they will be blue and the hair could be reddish like Lily's. That is of course a guess since it is likely to all fall out within a few weeks anyway and then its anyone's guess what color it comes back in as.

He was 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 187.5 pounds. If you just read that and didn't raise an eyebrow, then you need to re-read it. He was actually 6 lbs 6 ounces and 18.75 inches long. A small baby by average standards, however right on par for the rest of our children.









Like Andrew and Lily, his head was relatively small which gave him the toddler-like proportions which are so endearing. He got Daddy's "ski-jump" nose as opposed the button noses shared be Lily, Andrew and Mommy. in short, he was absolutely adorable right after birth which is amazing to me.

After he had been cleaned up, measured, and weighed the pediatric nurse pronounced him a beautiful baby boy with an APGAR of 9 / 10. I had to agree that he belongs in the top 5% of most beautiful babies in the world. He was rooting for food as soon as he was born and after a bit of coaxing latched on to mommy and had a good first meal.

The Doctor had finished stitching up Mary's first degree perennial laceration (three stitches did the trick), and so after some more jabs between Lize and Dr. H, he excused himself to return later.
But not before we had a chance to snap a couple pictures of him with our third child which enabled him to rise above his previous 50% attendance category ;-).After that, it was a blur of hugs, kisses, Nana and Roosevelt, Grandma and Grandpa Muir with Andrew and Lily, phone calls and smiles.


We are very grateful to our Heavenly Father for trusting us with His precious spirit child and blessing us so much to have happy health and beautiful babies. We hope and pray we will be good parents and teach them to do what is right. We are all well and healthy and very grateful for all the love and care we've received. We love you all and will soon have much more to post. I'm sure Danny will be no exception to the rule we've established of have extremely cute, albeit somewhat impish, children! For now, Enjoy the photos and smiles!

-Will

Lillian Walking

So I wasn't going to post anything until school was done but decided that this momentous occasion should be documented. After we said prayers on April 17th 2007 Lily diceded to follow Andrew on foot not knees to his bed because he had forgotten to hug her. Will and I both saw this and got excited. Will turned her to me after she got her hug from Andrew and she took three steps to me. I picked her up and gave her a hug. She was very happy about the attention and so she was willing to walk back to Will. Finally Will had the brilliant idea to grab the camera.








Lily did good at first taking steady steps from mommy to daddy.










Then she started showing that it really was bed time and started teetering. It didn't help that Andrew was sitting down with his nightime water on mommy's lap to distract Lily from her new ability.











Of course eventually there was a stumble and a crash. Andrew was very excited to see Lily move he gave her another big hug when it appeared that she was done.
(ie. she wouldn't stand up anymore)








Interestingly enough both kids went to bed easily after the excitement and slept till late the next morning.

Great Grandma Pulley

There are times in our lives when we get to look back and think how grateful we were that we didn't miss them. For the past several months due to our proximity to Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa Muir we have been able to enjoy the company of Great Grandma Pulley. Sometimes it might seem hard to have a conversation with her and sometimes she seems, well, old- fashioned but if anyone has seen how she loves they know what I'm talking about.


Since I've been in school Andrew and Lily have been spending most of their afternoons and evenings at Grandma and Grandpa Muir's. They have each had amazing moments with their great grandmother.


When Lily started standing up next to furniture Great Grandma Pulley started working with her. They had a daily exercise routine where Great Grandma would hold Lily's hands and work patiently with her until she could manage one, then two, and then many steps. They did this every day and now Lily has the confidence she needs to walk holding onto only one finger. I know that Great Grandma Pulley's help will be a huge influence on her walking on her own.



Andrew and Great Grandma Pulley made their own bond. He would push his limits she would correct him and he would share his amazing loving nature with her. She got him to stop spitting on people during one of the first weeks that she was here . He repayed her with hugs. Often Grandma Muir would hear him say simple phrases of appreciation and love to Great Grandma Pulley and would feel sorry that her mother couldn't hear the precious words she was being given.


I think that Great Grandma Pulley has had a wonderful affect on my children and we will miss her very much now that she has gone back up north. To all those tht get to be near her now "don't miss out!"

St. Patrick's Day

As a child my mother always took time to enjoy all of the holidays. On St. Patrick's day she would help us pick out Green clothes and then she would sometimes send us on treasure hunts, following paper rainbows, or play tricks on us and blame it on the Leprechauns. We made hats and shoes and had all sorts of fun. I don't know if it's the memories or the fact that I love that there is a holiday that's symbolized by my favorite color but I always enjoy myself of St. Paddy's day.




Since this was the first St. Patrick's day that Andrew was able to participate in with me, I decided to have some fun with him. Andrew helped me glue the hat together and then he told me were to put the stickers because he couldn't get them off the paper by himself.



He was also nice enough to suggest that we ought to give a sticker to Lily too since she was too little to make her own hat. What a thoughtful big brother. She seemed to like the idea because she didn't try to take it off right away.





Lily may not have been able to understand the story but when Andrew called this bungie cord a snake Lily decided she should take care of it. Has anyone read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" Lily decided she would "bite" to solve the problem of this snake.









I think Andrew may have taken a trick from the Leprechauns when he managed this smile.
He sure seems to have the mischeviousness down.










I think that Andrew may have had as much fun as I did. Growing up it never occured to me to think of St. Patrick's day as a Catholic or Irish holiday it was just a day to be joyful and I think I've been able to share that with my family. Just look at the results.

Playing with Daddy

Okay so we have been busy however the weekend before our Spring 'not' Break I caught Will teaching Andrew how to play a new way with his little sister.












I heard the three of them laughing outside as I was cooking supper. When I went out Will told me to grab a camera because this was just too cute.



Will asked Andrew to show me he could do it too. So I watched as Will guided Andrew around the yard. As you can see William took extra care while Lily and Andrew just enjoy.



I figured there must have been a swarm of nats since both of them closed their mouths at the same time.

All in all I think that both daddy and definately kids loved the time they were able to spend with one another.