Robert Lee Moore, III (Trey) arrived 6/25/2009- six weeks premature. He weighed in at 5 pounds 6 ounces and was 17 ½ inches long. He stayed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the first 8 days but he is home and doing fabulous now. He is very adored by Mamma, Daddy and big sister, Ella. She says that Trey-Trey is like having her very own doll to dress up.
The pregnancy was difficult and high risk from the onset, so it was a very long 8 months in this house. We are just very happy that everything worked out well and that we have two healthy, happy children. They are enough to keep us on our toes and in stitches at all times!
Ella is a little comedienne; she always has a joke or something completely hilarious to say. She has a very vivid imagination and is smart as a whip. Bobby and I are always reading a book, telling a story, making up songs and watching something she has created or made up. At 3 ½, she is the youngest in her little gaggle of friends that meet every afternoon in our yard. She plays with the big kids and they all love her. The older ones look out for her and treat her like she’s their little sister. But if her “best friends”, Riley, Marissa and Sophie come down, she dumps the other kids and runs to them! Marissa is in Ella’s class at school and she tells me all the time, “Marissa is my bestest friend ever, Mamma”.
School started August 12th and Ella is attending 3 days a week this year. She loves school and gets upset on Tuesday and Thursday’s when she realizes she doesn’t go to school on those days. The only reason she doesn’t fuss on the weekends is because her Daddy is home and that is better than sliced bread to her. It is always a good day when Daddy doesn’t go to work!
A sample conversation with Ella: “Oh Ella, you sure do look beautiful. And your shirt is beautiful too.” She says, “Mamma! I may be beautiful, but my shirt is not. It is just very stylish.” Out of the mouth of babes!
Trey is now weighing in at 10 lbs 7 ozs (This is how much my husband weighed at BIRTH! His poor Mamma!) And is 21 ½ inches. He is smiling all the time and talking to us or his stuffed bear. It is the new version of Ella’s Bear-Bear. The replacements that we bought for her didn’t fool our daughter! So she took New Bear to the hospital to watch over “Bruds” when he was in the NICU. Now he talks to New Bear and sucks on him. He squealed/yelled last night for the first time and we all cracked up when he got a surprised look on his face!
When Trey was first born, he looked so much like Bobby and Ella. Now he looks so much like my younger brother did when he was a baby. I tell him all the time that he is his Uncle Joshua made over. And where Ella has big brown eyes, Trey’s are big blues! They haven’t started turning yet, so they may stay blue. Who knows though if they’ll stay that way? We just don’t know where the blue came from!
As the parents of two small children, Bobby and I have learned some new life lessons:
1. Never say never! When you are sleep deprived and so tired that your eyes are black and hollow, you will do almost anything to get a fussy baby to settle down and sleep.
2. If you do not want something repeated, DO NOT say anything in front of a 3 year old! They repeat everything, no matter what!
3. Showers/baths/bathroom time is sacred and no longer a privilege. If you get to bathe or any other grooming takes place, call the papers because a miracle has just occurred. And if you get to do any of these things without a small child in tow asking 5,000 questions, you had better stop whatever you are doing and go check on said small children because you can be assured that something is being destroyed. Whether it is chocolate syrup poured all over your beige carpet, air freshener sprayed on the bathroom mirror or a toilet that is now overflowing with Lord only knows what, some type of disaster is either taking place or about to. Head it off ASAP!
4. 8 hours of sleep is NEVER enough and you can’t “catch up” on it.
5. If you are a mother, you will never eat hot food again. You will also get used to cold coffee because it is the only way you ever get to drink it.
6. No matter how bad your ghetto apartment was or how poor you were in the beginning of your life as a couple, there are times when those simple, quiet days would be paradise now! But then a scream or crash erupts and you are transported from your ghetto reverie and are thrust back into the loud real world!
And isn’t that the world that we all love? The one where your kids, spouse, pets and most people in general can really grate your nerves? It is the best place to be! If you’ve never been there, I feel so sorry for you. Because there is absolutely nothing better than a precious child telling you that you are the bestest cook/hair fixer/teeth brusher ever. Or having that child light up a room when they see you and yell, “Mamma! I missed you so much!” Yes… in the arms and eyes of my children and husband, there is no better place on Earth! I am so blessed.
