Introducing Griffin Emerson Wellhouse

Hello, baby Griffin!

Sweet baby face

Finally, we get to see his eyes.

And his profile

Sawyer holding his baby brother
(They look a lot alike to me, same little nose and mouth.)

Momma with the tiny baby

Four generations

(Grandma Lewin, Aunt Cheryll, Me and Griffin)

Griffin and his Great Grandma



Baby Griffin arrived at 0948 on Nov 18th, 2009. At only 6 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long, he's by far the tiniest Wellhouse baby we've ever seen! (Sawyer was 8 lbs 12 oz and 22.5 inches long.) Griffin came into the world screaming, or rather growling, but for the most part has been very quiet ever since. A fairly content baby unless he's really hungry or naked.

Even though he's tiny, the doctors have given him a clean bill of health. AND he's already within 2 ounces of his birth weight thanks to the fact that he nurses like a pro.

Sawyer has adjusted really well to our new addition to the family. Our first evening home he came running in with a dozen pink roses for me yelling "Griffin's home! Griffin's home!" He genuinely likes Griffin around and always wants to know where he is if he is not in plain sight. Sawyer rubs his fuzzy soft head and points out all Griffin's tiny features to us...his tiny eyes, tiny nose, tiny mouth, tiny fingers and tiny piggy toes. He even tells us, "I love Griffin very much!"

That's all for now. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I post again with some updated pictures.

Love,

The Wellhouse Family

(John, Andrea, Sawyer and Griffin)

Fall and All Such Things

Sawyer enjoying the last of the summer's cucumbers and tomatoes

"How many cucumbers can you fit in your mouth?"

Ummmm, privacy please...

Sawyer inspecting the baby box turtles, a new addition to the Wellhouse family



Sawyer and Daddy picking out a pumpkin...but maybe not THAT big of a pumpkin!

Sawyer and "his" pumpkin, just the right size

Sliding into fall leaves, it just had to be done!

Backwards too!

Sawyer as a green front loader tractor for Halloween.

(We didn't come up with the idea, it was all his!)

Daddy even gave it working head lights!

Dad and his masterpiece

The finished "playroom" end of the bonus room.

The gym is not quite done yet.

Sawyer loves the reading corner, his favorite spot so far.

Baby belly

Well, I know you are all anxiously awaiting a post about the newest Wellhouse boy, but I had some other business to finish up first. Stay tuned, I'll post an update soon!

We've had a great fall. Lots of trips to the Farmer's market and the pumpkin patch all wrapped up with sliding into a pile of fall leaves. Sawyer never tires of finding pretty leaves and "collecting" them to show us. Halloween was a lot of fun. Sawyer was very specific about being a green front loader tractor...so his Daddy made it happen. Complete with wheels that turn and working headlights. Too bad he only wore it to one house and then we carried it the rest of the evening. Oh well, we had fun making it and Sawyer definitely thought it was pretty cool.

Potty training update: Sawyer is completely potty trained. We ran out of pull ups for night time and he's gone without ever since. No accidents so far. He always gets up at night to pee and then announces over the monitor..."I peed!"

Well, that is it for now. We'll post again soon. Until then, we wish everyone a happy fall and a great Thanksgiving!

Love, The Wellhouse Family

Additions to the Well-House

Bonus room construction - this is the "playroom" end

This will be the "home-gym" end

Sawyer's contribution to all the chaos...potty training!

Sawyer holding a Bush Baby!

Sawyer holding a run-of-the-mill tabby cat

(He gets a lot of time with animals at Grandma Heide's house)

Our most EXCITING Wellhouse addition, another baby boy

(Here's not here yet, but will be soon enough!)

Quite the profile, he looks like a little Alfred Hitchcock!

Well, we've been busy to say the least. We're adding on to our house and our family at the same time. The bonus room will be just in time. The playroom side will be a welcome refuge for the many toys that have invaded our home and the gym side will (hopefully) help John and I take a little better care of ourselves. (We always enjoyed going to the gym so it will be nice to finally get back to it.)

The new baby is scheduled to arrive November 18th. We'll see if he can wait that long, but for some reason I don't think he will... We've had lots of lovely ultrasounds from the wonderful people at Duke. I have ultrasounds with a perinatologist from Duke every 2-3 weeks to make sure some anti-bodies I developed after delivering Sawyer don't impact this baby. (I'm allergic to John - not sure how else to describe it!) So far everything looks great. There have been no complications so we feel very blessed. Anyway, they always try give us a few cute profile or little face pictures when they can get him to cooperate. (He looks JUST LIKE Sawyer did as a newborn, it's uncanny.)

As for the Saw-dawg, he continues to amaze us. We started potty training in early July, pretty optimistically considering he was only a little over 2 years old, and within about 2 weeks he was pretty much trained. We still put pull-ups on him at night, but he rarely wakes up wet. He will actually get up out of bed at night and use the potty. John and I will be downstairs and we'll hear the toilet flush upstairs. By the time we get up there to check on him he is back in bed. Only one drawback so far...he can turn the light in the bathroom ON, but usually forgets to turn it OFF! Such a big boy. And they say the second one grows up even faster...I can't imagine.

We hope everyone is doing well and we wish you all the best!

Love,

The Wellhouse Family

Summertime 2009

Sawyer in the local strawberry patch

Sawyer showing us his little strawberry stained hands
(Gives new meaning to "Caught red handed"!)

Momma shows Sawyer how to take the "lid" off


Sawyer getting the hang of this...

Mommy and Sawyer

Tellin' Grandpa Wellhouse a secret

...a very funny secret!

Grandma Wellhouse blowin' bubbles

Ready to POP!

We've had a great summer so far. Lots of family and friends visiting and entertaining Sawyer. We've been to the local strawberry patch at least a half a dozen times as well as the farmers market. (Tryin to get our fill of all the fresh summer fruits and vegetables.) So far we haven't found a berry that Sawyer doesn't like!

Sawyer continues to build his vocabulary. He knows all his colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown and pink) and can count to 10. (Occasionally he even tacks on eleven and twelve!) It's funny the things he just comes out with. "Look, daddy (as he points to leaves moving) wind." Ok, yep, that's wind. How did he know that? Apparently, he listens to everything we say...yikes! I think his favorite phrase is "No, Momma (or Dadda), NOT NICE!" We hear this whenever he doesn't like what we're doing such as drying his hair or wiping his face. Great. He's already using our words against us...

Hope you are all having a great summer too!

The Wellhouse Family

Gulf Shores Beach Trip

Sawyer on the deck at the beach house in Gulf Shores, AL

Sawyer chillin' at home before our trip
(These pics are a little out of order - blogger wouldn't let me re-arrange for some reason.)

Sawyer trying on his Daddy's "boo" shirt

Sawyer on the beach hunting for shells

Anna found something interesting in the sand! Nice little crack!

Sawyer fills his bucket

Sawyer and Anna on the deck

Sawyer putting his dump truck to work

The kids mesmerized at the skate boarders!

(There was a skate board park next to this really nice play area.)

Nice shades!

Sawyer and Anna

Playing outside waiting for a table at Lulu's
(This place had a great play area for the kids while you wait. Lots of sand and toys!)

Renee and Ali at a nice park we found. Massive play set!

Sawyer coming down the slide

Mmmmm. After dinner ice cream!

Mommy and Sawyer

Anna and Renee

Sawyer and baby Ali

Anna and baby sis, Ali

Anna loves her chocolate ice cream too!

I'm so behind on my blogging. This trip was early April. Sawyer and I flew down to Gulf Shores, AL to see my best friend Renee and her two girls, Anna and Ali. Sawyer was PERFECT on the flights. He sat in his own seat with a seat belt and never cried. The weather was a bit colder than expected, but we had a great time. We found a wonderful park to take the kids to when the beach was too cold and windy. There was also a pool that we took the kids to swim. We managed to eat out a few times although it was a challenge with two 2-year olds and an infant! I so miss the south and good southern seafood! Mmmmmm!

It was nice to catch up with Renee, which we did mostly at naptime or in the evenings after the kids were in bed. Did I mention we had two 2-year olds? Together they were a handful, but at least they had the same napping/sleeping schedule. Thank goodness! (And Ali was a perfect angel so thank goodness for that too!)

While we were traveling Sawyer didn't have the convenience of his own crib or sippy cups. So he adjusted to sleeping and napping in a big bed and drinking from a cup. When we got home, he said he wanted to sleep in his big bed and that's where he's been ever since. I can't believe it was that easy. He also only drinks from a cup now. Lets just hope giving up his pacifier and potty training goes so well! (No luck with either of those so far.)

Well, that's it for now. At the time of this trip Sawyer was 25 months old.