Something you might not know about me...

I'm currently serving as the floor supervisor for a factory here in Mebane NC. It's just a little job I've picked up along the way and I thought I'd share about what we do at our factory. We are a small but growing factory and we are working hard to produce as many poopy diapers as we can. We only have two employees at this point but both are quite good at their jobs. We have a new little man on the job and I am quite pleased with his productivity. Though his poopy diapers aren't much in volume, he manages to crank one out every hour or so, around the clock, and is quite a multi tasker. He can produce poopy diapers while eating, sleeping, swinging and even while being changed! The other gal here at the factory has been on the job a little longer. Though she only produces 1-2 diapers a day, they are massive in volume. She is not a multi tasker but instead gives extreme detail and concentration to her work. They are very different in their work styles but I am quite satisfied with both their efforts!

I personally am responsible for removing all diapers from the production line (which can be hazardous to the uniform-I was peed on twice today while removing a diaper from the line), making sure they are packed with a nice seal as not to leak in transport and then transporting them to a holding facility until they are transferred from our factory elsewhere. Emma Grace is also interested in the transportation of Jack's diapers to the holding facility and has gotten quite good at helping me in this area-which makes it all the more important that I do a good job sealing them before transport. I also am in charge of cleaning up the mess on the factory line. Though my two workers are quite good at their jobs, they have yet to take interest in cleaning up after they work. To be honest, I am not very good at the cleaning up part and tend to use way more wipes than necessary, thus cutting into our profit margin. I need to work on that.

In all seriousness, we are on a break from cloth for a few weeks-I decided to leave them in WV since we didn't have much packing space and because Jack is going through diapers at record breaking speed. If I were using cloth on him, I'd be washing diapers around the clock. Once we get back to WV, EG will return to cloth. Once Jack slows down a bit on his record breaking poopy diaper production speed and I start getting a little more sleep and feel up to washing a bazillion diapers, then he'll be going green also!

Aside from changing poopy diapers, I am starting to learn how to be a mom to two under two. Ok, I haven't really learned anything yet, except that it's really tough. I got a taste of being on my own with them yesterday and again today. Yesterday was tough. Jack is very laid back but requires lots of me between nursing and diaper changing and EG wants and needs her best bud to play with her. The fact that she is working on a 3 hour nap right now and that Jack is heading into hour number two of his nap has helped tremendously! Thank You Lord for grace.

Well, I am off to fold some laundry while my two little factory workers are still sleeping! Have a great day!

Recent Pictures

Here are a few recent pictures that my mom took. I haven't been taking many pictures lately but thankfully Mom has been filling in for me in the picture taking department.

Lounging with Dad...

I like this picture of him all bundled up. Too cute!

Emma Grace is great at Connect Four!

And even better at passing out gifts and entertaing a crowd!

That's all for today. Happy Saturday!

Jack's smile and the "Huffum"

You'd think with a new baby and it being Christmas, I'd have lots to write about and plenty of pictures to show. But for some reason I'm just not in my normal blogging mood and I haven't taken any pictures in over a week! What is wrong with me? Sleep deprivation maybe? It's so true that you take less pictures of your second child. So sorry Jack. I'll try to do better this upcoming week.

We've had a busy Christmas-from WV to NC, we had a total of 8 Christmas celebrations to attend. In between opening gifts, eating my weight in chocolate covered everything, and visiting with family, I've also been nursing my little man, discovering he doesn't enjoy chocolate covered anything, and enjoying watching family members interact with Emma Grace. It's been fun to see our families. We really missed being in our home for Christmas and the special traditions we've started as a family but we are thankful to spend this time with our families who we so seldom get to see!

We're falling more and more in love with Jack. He's more alert these days but still pretty chill and calm most of the time (except when I'm eating lasagna with Italian sausage or the aforementioned gazillion pounds of chocolate). He is certainly a great gift from the Lord! He gave me his first smile last night while I was up feeding him. That definitely makes the sleep deprivation worth while!

Emma Grace seems like such a big kid to me now. Maybe it's because Jack seems so tiny compared to her. One of my favorite moments with her lately involves the "Huffum." In the last month or so, we invented the Huffman Hug. It came about because EG was getting jealous when Andy gave me a hug. Every time she saw him give me a hug, she wanted to be part of it. We therefore invented the Huffman Hug, which is just a giant family hug that occurs when any family member calls, "Huffman Hug." She pronounces it,"Huffum." She now initiates the Huffum every couple of days or so. Today, we were having a Huffum and she said, "let's get Nette!" (that's what she calls my mom) She wanted my mom to join the Huffman hug and we were very impressed with her ability to express her desires in such a clear sentence! How precious! Eventually my sister, mom and grandmother were all included in the Huffum. It's so fun to see her showing love. All those months of loving on her and now she too expresses love! It's just the best.

Seeing Jack's first smile and EG asking for a Huffum top my list of best gifts received this Christmas! I hope you had a great Christmas. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up really soon!

I could get used to this!

That's what EG is saying about having her baby brother around! It took a few days for her to warm up to the new addition but now she comes running in the room, screaming, "Hi Dack!" and passing out lots of kisses and hugs to her baby brother! Thanks to all of you who prayed for her and our family as we adjust to being a family of four!

It's been a whole week since Jack made his entrance into the world (that should explain and excuse my week of bloglessness). We've had a great first week as a family of four. After our stay in the hospital, we were super glad to get back to Emma Grace and start settling in to our new life. As I said, EG has really warmed up to her little brother and he's been really easy so far. He's been a great sleeper and eater as well as a great pooper-basically he's already mastered the three most important skills needed to be a newborn. He eats every 3 hours and sometimes likes to give me a stretch of 4 hours between eating. We had to take him to the doc several times this week, as they were concerned with his jaundice. But he's looking good now and a lot less yellow. He's starting to be more alert and we're all enjoying looking at those dark blue eyes.

I've changed my mind about his nose-it's looking more and more like Andy's. Here we are on our way home from the hospital!

Four generations of Huffman men-Jack, Andy, Tim and little Jack! And here we are at home-so glad to be home, sleeping in my own bed, on my stomach again! We've had lots of visitors, including my parents who stayed for several days after Jack was born. It's been so nice to have the help and to have meals provided for us! Thanks to everyone who has fed our family this past week! Jack especially liked the peanut butter cookies-hint hint!

Update from mom

You know I couldn't stay off the computer for too long! Little Jack is sitting in his Daddy's arms getting his hearing tested and I am enjoying a little Caffeine free Pepsi and my first trip back out on the world wide web! Thanks for all your calls, emails and comments to welcome our little man into this world!

Jack was born Friday afternoon at 3:58 pm. We are super thrilled to have him here. After he was born I commented that I have to have a lot of kids because having them is just the neatest thing in the world! We wanted to use a family name for our little man and that's how we landed on Jack Alexander Huffman. Jack is Andy's paternal grandfather and Alexander is his brother. We love the name with it's family connection and think it's a cute name for a little boy as well as a great name for a grown man.

For the sake of those interested and for my blog book, here's more detail on our journey of welcoming our bundle of joy into the world!

On Thursday night the snows moved in to Charleston and covered everything in a 2-3 inch blanket of white! I commented to Andy that I thought it would be so fun to have a baby while it was snowing!

Andy and I stayed up late talking and praying on Thursday night-we've been kinda busy lately and it was the first time in a while that we've just hung out, laughed and really talked. We spent some time praying for our little man, and both just felt "ready" for him to come! (though we both thought he wasn't coming for a few more days). As we laid down to sleep I had my first contraction! I was so excited and felt so thankful for the special time God had given us to prepare our hearts for this little miracle arriving! Of course I couldn't sleep at that point. My contractions weren't super strong, but fairly regular so Andy and I got out of bed and started getting a few last minute things done around the house. I was sad that I had to leave some laundry undone but I felt great about how "together" things were. We called our doctor, who is FABULOUS about 2 am and he told me to hang tight for another 45 minutes and to come on in if the contractions continued. At this point, I was really exhausted so I decided to try and sleep for a bit while we waited. I woke up at 7:45 to Emma Grace's sweet voice! We were both so glad that we'd gotten some sleep and hadn't gone in "too early."

When I got up and starting moving, my contractions started back, fairly regularly and grew in intensity. We called Dr. Depond and he told us to come on in and that he might give me some pitocin if it looked like things were going slowly. We took our time and dropped EG off with her Kacki. They headed to a pancake breakfast, which is EG's book is more fun than getting a baby brother. We arrived at the hospital at about 11 am. With almost 12 hours of off and on contractions behind me, I was 4 cm dilated and the doctor started me on pitocin and a very welcome epidural. We are at the best hospital in the state for women's care and we had the head of anaesthesiology give me the epidural. It was incredible. I had a lot of pain with EG even with an epidural but this time was totally different. One treat was that we had a Filipino nurse and a half Thai nurse. It was really neat to have some Asian connections and we had some great conversations about our Asian experiences. My main nurse, Maria-who was born in the Philippines was just incredible. I felt like she was a long time friend and she was great at her job! I cruised through to 10 cm in a few hours and only had to push for 25 minutes. Welcome to our world little Jack Huffman!

He is doing great, eating well and enjoyed his time in the nursery between feedings so that Andy and I could catch some zzzz's last night. I had a set back in my own recovery last night but am doing much better today. Just like with Emma Grace, I lost more than the normal amount of blood and they had a tough time getting me to stop bleeding after he was born. After a little fainting on my way to the bathroom, a good amount of blood loss, and a scare to all involved, I am back in the game now. They gave me pitocin again to help with contracting so that the bleeding would stop. I am so thankful for modern medicine and how they were able to get me back on track so fast. They are keeping me an extra day just to make sure everything continues to go well with my recovery.

Emma Grace came by last night to meet her brother. She was more interested in her mother but she did manage to give him a kiss and hold him for a minute or two! It was so good to see her and I look forward to getting back to being her full time mom tomorrow evening. Jack and Emma Grace look so different. He appears to have my pink skin tone and just looks more like me overall. EG was so dark and had really dark hair when she was born. He has light brownish blond hair, my nose, and chubby little cheeks. The grandparents are enjoying meeting Jack but they're also really enjoying this special time they have with Emma Grace while Andy and I are at the hospital!

Well, I recommend childbearing to all my friends. It's just the neatest thing to participate in God's work of creating a new little life! I'm gonna hop off and enjoy some hospital potato soup-perfect for the snowy weather we've had these last couple days and then some snuggle time with my little man!

Welcome to Our World

Jack Alexander Huffman, born at 3:58pm local time, weighing 8lbs 9oz.

EA and Jack are both doing great. Welcome to our world, baby Jack!

While she's waiting...

Here are a few pictures of what EG's been up to while waiting for her baby brother! Enjoy!

Braving the winter wonderland that was Charleston, WV this weekend...

Because of the weather, Andy and I had to cancel our trip to WVU to watch the Mountaineers play their final game of the season. I'll be honest, though we lost the money on the tickets, I was quite content sitting in a warm living room watching the game rather than being in the upper deck, 9 months pregnant, watching a football game in a blizzard. Emma Grace is sporting her Mountaineer gear here:

She's also been enjoying her new tricycle and she's obsessed with this monkey! And finally, she's been doing what we Huffmans do best-EEEEEEEAT! That's what she screams every time I ask her what she wants to do today!

As you can see, she seems in no hurry for her brother to arrive! She's having some serious fun these days!

Due Date

You know, that whole due date thing is totally overrated! There’s been all this build up for Dec 10th and then it came and went just like the day before! Very anti-climatic! The only difference between today and yesterday is how “wrong” I felt being out doing stuff. I felt like I should be home waiting on this baby, but instead I was out running errands. Inevitably, people asked when I was due and when I said, “Today,” they looked at me like I was from another planet, and it was obvious they were wondering why in the world I was at the McDonald’s play place with my 18 month old rather than in labor! All day I felt like I was doing something wrong by not being in labor! HEHE. All that to say, no baby for me today.

A side note on McDonald’s - I vowed not to eat there in America since it’s one of a handful of western restaurants we actually have in China and I think it’s inferior to most other fast food in America. So while in America why would I waste a potential trip to Wendy’s or Chick Fil-A on a Big Mac? But, when you get all bundled up to go out on a walk with your restless 18 month old and then realize it’s raining (and the McD’s play place is the only show in town for burning off some pent up 18 month old energy) the Big Mac starts sounding pretty good! Actually, I had a chicken sandwich. The lady at McDonald’s said, “You guys aren’t from around here, are you?” in response to our gawking at all the choices on the menu. (In China it’s your basic burgers and some weird Chinese pork sandwiches so we were a bit overwhelmed by all the choices and had lots of questions for the lady.) After I had already mentally defended myself against her regarding my right to be at McDonald’s on my due date, I then had to explain that we live in China and that McD’s is a different ballgame over there! I felt like a big pregnant “should be in labor but out painting the town red instead” alien, totally out of place in America’s favorite restaurant! HEHE. Ok, I am exaggerating a little but here’s a picture of my big alien belly for you! Hope you had a great EA due date. Hope next time I post it will be less of a disappointment! Wink wink!

Christmas Parade

Next year I think I'm going to convince our little town in China to put on a Christmas parade! The town can put up lights-they are into tacky so I can see them really digging some Christmas lights strung around! I'll recruit the townspeople to be in the parade. I can see the grannies getting really into it! They love to do performances in the park-they get all dressed up and dance with fans and swords-why not do that while marching down the street to some Christmas music? Kids can ride their big wheels. Ladies can walk their ugly little yapper dogs dressed in ugly dog clothes that cost more than you would believe! Instead of people passing out candy, I'll get the sweet potato seller to put her cart on wheels and we'll hand out warm sweet potatoes to those watching! And-there is this one man in my complex that decks out everyday in a full white silk suit-he even has white hair to match. I think I can convince him to wear a red suit instead and grow out his beard to wrap up the parade. What do you think?

Well it might not work but at least we got to enjoy a down home Christmas parade this year! Check out the fun photos from the Charleston Christmas parade! Emma Grace loved it!

The band...

Mary and EG collected candy the whole time for me to eat! Thanks ladies-this pregnant lady was too embarrassed to get it herself!

It was COLD!! We all bundled up and had a blast.

Ok-I am not sure who I can get to fill these shoes in our China parade next year. Maybe Matt Kvernen?

Down home fun...

One of EG's favorites was the train! The whole crew!

Merry Christmas!

Restored

Andy's maternal grandparents did the neatest thing for Emma Grace. They restored Kathi's tricycle from childhood for Emma Grace. They bought it for her before she was even born and now EG can cruise around on piece of history! The whole family chipped in-aunts and uncles researched all the parts needed, Kathi bought another tricycle to get the parts they needed and Papaw did the handiwork, taking pains to make sure it was restored jto it's original design! What a precious gift! After he lowered the seat, her feet could reach the pedals. She hasn't quite figured out how to pedal though.

She kept pulling her feet up but she'll get the hang of it before too long!

Thanks to the whole Bishop family for working hard to restore this family gem!

Donuts and Dancing

Do you see that little countdown thingy at the top of my blog? Yes, that's right-it currently says I have 4 days to go til Buffman arrives. Oh my. Every time I get on my blog it kinda freaks me out because that little thing looks so official (as if my enormous belly isn't official enough) and reminds me that the clock is ticking and I don't have much time to get my act together, enjoy my last few days with only EG around and also the fact that my life is getting ready to be turned upside down with a BUNDLE of JOY that I can't wait to meet! I am really starting to get excited-he's moving like crazy and there's not much room for him to do so, so it's a tad uncomfortable. Every time I think about the day EG was born it makes me so excited to meet this little man and makes me think I'll have a gazillion kids because having a baby, aside from the enormous pain, is the coolest thing EVER!

What have I been up to lately? Well, for starters, I've been walking around the grocery store looking really really pregnant in maternity clothes that don't quite cover the belly anymore while eating donuts I haven't yet paid for but can't wait til check out to eat. That's a sight for you! I also spent about 3 hours in this really great consignment shop buying my kids clothing for the next 2 years. Do you know how hard that is to do? The lady ending up giving me 20% off her really great prices since I bought so much. But it's like my metro runs-the thought of not having to shop for their clothes for the next 2-3 years brings nothing but joy to my heart! I haven't done quite as well on my Christmas shopping so it's looking more and more like some of you will be getting the Andy Huffman special-a gift card.

And EG? Well, she's been talking up a storm. We awake to her jabbering away in her room. She now says things like, "want some mama" and "want some more milk." She asks for people all the time and on the top of her list is Matt Kvernen. He's like her favorite uncle or something-she calls him on her "wei" quite often. (Wei is how you say hello in Chinese and that's what she calls her fake phone) She can climb up on chairs, tricycles, and wiggle her way onto her rocking dog. She loves to give hugs and kisses and has learned to Eskimo kiss, elephant kiss and fish kiss. (we made the last two up ourselves) She's interested in music and loves to play the piano at Kacki's house. She often asks Andy to play his guitar for her. She is obsessed with watching her birthday video that Andy made for her when she turned one. She has favorite pictures that she anticipates and starts yelling for them about two pictures before they come up. Some of her favs include her A Yi, Kay Kay (Kayleigh) , "hat" (A pics of Julianna wearing a hat) and Brayden.

She's also very into her dolls these days. Heavy Baby, as I call her, is her current favorite. Heavy Baby is a good idea for a 5 year old but not so much for an 18 month old. You are supposed to fill her with warm water so she'll feel real but that makes her weigh about 10 pounds. EG lugs her around like a heavy duffle bag. The weight is quite a hindrance to gently carrying and caring for the baby. But I am pretty sure heavy baby weighs more than Buffy will at birth. Anyway, her heaviness hasn't stopped EG from carrying her around, making her go night night and feeding her. Heavy baby drinks milk from her eyes, by the way. In my mind, these are all good signs that EG is going to love her little brother when he arrives!

And finally, EG has been enjoying the Christmas decorations. We got a real tree this year. Hope it lives through the season. The ones at the farmer's market were a little expensive for my hubby's taste so he opted for the local grocery store $29 special. I knew I should've went with him to pick out a tree! Anyway, for now it's really beautiful and the decorations were completely free. We did a little shopping at a local joint I call "Kathi's Attic." They have great prices-I mean no price-and the selection is rather large! Thanks Kathi and Tim for all the decorations! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

EG really does like the tree and often says , "pretteeeeee" when she sees it. Here are some pictures of the tree.

Here she is dancing around. Notice how cute she is in the cloth diaper! We are getting used to the cloth and we've worked out the leaking-just have to change a little more often than disposables. I feel so happy every time I change one! I keep thinking of all the money we are saving!

Here are a couple videos of EG dancing around. Enjoy! Sorry they are a little blurry.