Goodbye 1

We've moved out of baby-dom into toddler-hood! 

Archer, at 2:
* Still a complete Mommy's boy!
* Loves his brothers, but gets a little vengeful when they won't play with him (the way HE wants to play!)
* Loves the water (not that we've had much warm weather...but he loves the kiddie pool in our backyard & the Silverwood water park).
* Is starting to put some simple sentences together, but he's not really a big talker.
* Can throw a mean temper tantrum.  Kicking, screaming, throwing himself on the floor...you get the picture. 
* Doesn't like to sleep.  He has more important things to do!
* Loves to talk on the phone, and doesn't ever want to give up the phone once he starts talking!
* One of his favorite pastimes is watching the airplanes.  We live pretty close to a small airport so he loves to watch the sky for the planes and then announce to the world "AIRPLANE!  AIRPLANE!"
* Is a complete cuddle-bug.  He loves to give/get hugs & kisses.  He will just come up to you and throw his arms around you to give you a big hug completely out of the blue (well, only if he knows you.  He isn't a fan of strangers!).
* Dirt, worms, bugs, rocks.  Enough said.
* Does NOT like TV and movies.  Won't watch them at all.  We did get him to sit through a little bit of Cars 2 in the theater, but that was a huge accomplishment and it hasn't been repeated.
* Loves swinging, bike rides, and walks.
* Does NOT like riding in the car.  We finally flipped him around forward facing a week or so ago...it hasn't helped much but it is easier to get him in & buckled!  When he was rear-facing, he would wedge himself in and hold himself up & out of his seat with his feet so we couldn't buckle him.  It was TERRIBLE.
* His favorite book is "Goodnight Moon."
* His favorite toy is probably his "My Pal Scout" puppy...or legos.  Or anything that a brother might currently be playing with!

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The day Archer was born was pretty eventful, to say the least.  I had been in pretty easy labor most of the day, but when John got home from work things picked up a bit and I remember telling him that I should have gone to the hospital and gotten an epidural.  This prompted John to call the midwife for her to come over ASAP.  I hadn't been in hard labor for long so I didn't think it was a big rush, but he thought things were moving quickly.  Turns out, I was almost fully dilated, but things weren't feeling quite right to me, and we almost transferred to the hospital.  I was in and out of the tub and just uncomfortable...not "in labor" uncomfortable, because that's a given, but uncomfortable in a different way that I can't describe.  I was a little concerned that something was wrong.  I decided to stay out of the tub (I had wanted a water birth like I had with Preston) because I just couldn't get comfortable...then my water broke and I finally started feeling the urge to push (this was about an hour after I was fully dilated). 

Long story short, Archer had quite the time making his appearance into the world!  He was born with his arms behind his back so his shoulders were nice and broad, resulting in shoulder dystocia.  My midwife moved quickly and removed him from me (ugh - won't go into the details about this!!!) and he was perfectly fine.  We were so fortunate that she was able to get him out quickly and he didn't have any broken bones (or worse).  I unfortunately came out of it with a broken tailbone which still gives me issues 2 years later, but I consider that a small price to pay for a healthy baby.  He weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and was 23" long.  I know that's big for a newborn, but it still amazes me how "little" they start out compared to his 30ish lbs now!  Thank goodness I don't triple my weight in 2 years! :)

Just born, cuddling with a very exhausted Mommy!

Herbal bath...about 1 hour old.