Mommy2Boys

TASTES LIKE HUMAN

2007-08-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

The other day C and IJ were playing a game on Nick Jr. were you had to guide a little ant through the ant tunnels to see his friends. Well C decided that the little ant must be hungry and said (while dangling pinched fingers above the ant):

"You look hungry. How about a nice human?"

That kid has a strange imagination.

C'S 4-WHEELER

2007-05-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

I may have mentioned before that for his 4th birthday, C got his very own gas powered 4-wheeler. No more Power-Wheels for him! (IJ has inherited C's old 4-wheeler and enjoys running into things. :) )

So far C's been just riding it around in a big circle in our yard until he gets used to controling it, and he's getting pretty good at it. He's only had one incident where he rode too close to nana and papa's truck and scraped some paint off the truck's front bumper. That freaked him out a bit (he did not want to tell nana and papa what he did when R made him go and talk to them) and he's been paying more attention since.

Since C's been getting better R has taken him out on a couple of short rides down the trail near our house (R on his 4-wheeler and C following behind on his). The last time they went out R took the camera and got some video clips:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When they got back to the house R was telling me how well he did on the ride, and then I watched the videos. "You didn't tell me he hit a tree!" "Oh, it was just a sapling." Yeah, these guys are gonna make my hair go gray very early in life... :)

BELLY SHOTS 2

2007-05-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Yep, I procrastinated until May. You all should have known that I would. :) Anyway here are some shots of my humongo belly at the end of 36 weeks (yes, I know, the thing is huge!) :

kind of dark, but you get the idea

my maternity shirts barely cover this thing anymore

I think this kid is going to be huge like her brother, Mr. IJ 11 lbs. 2 oz. I'm in trouble. ;)

FLUSH

2007-04-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

The other night during dinner C points to my belly and asks, "Is there a flusher in your belly?"

If only it were that easy...

:D

R'S NEW TOY

2007-04-15T12:39:00.000-05:00

Just to let you all know, we're all still alive out here! ;) I know it's been a while since I posted on here, I've been bad. :) Lots of stuff has been going on around here since I last posted, like C turning 4, and our weeklong vacation to see family in Minnesota and St. Louis and the "Go, Diego, Go!" live show. Plus I got Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 and discovered digital scrapbooking, so now every time I'm on the computer I'm either on scrapbooking sites or playing on Photoshop. :) I know, excuses, excuses. ;)

Anyway, R wanted me to post photos of his new toy, a Yamaha motorcycle. We are just collecting the boy toys around here, with the trucks and the 4 wheelers and the snowmobile (plus C got his own kid sized gas powered real 4 wheeler for his birthday!). When R came home with it in the back of his truck the other night, I sent the boys down to look out the door's window. I said, "Do you guys see daddy's new toy in the back of his truck?" And C exclaims, "It's a new...neeew...um, snowmovile?" He he he. :) R's pretty proud of it, and excited about all the gas he's going to save this summer. :)

Here's the photos of the new motorcycle taken by R, and some photos of R on it, taken by nana:

And here's a short video nana took of R out for a ride:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More blogging to come soon...maybe...we'll have a newborn next month so we'll see! :)

SKIN

2007-02-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

I've been out of lotion for the boys skin for a little bit now, and I was looking at C's face last night and noticing it was a little dry. I told R that I should probably pick up some more lotion, then I looked at C's hands and said to him (C), "Your hands are dry, too."

What does C say to this?

"No, they have skin on them."

Sometimes I wish I could follow that kid around all day with a tape recorder, with some of the things that come out of his mouth... :)

"WATER PART!"

2007-02-05T19:55:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we drove down to Green Bay to stay at the Tundra Lodge. And, of course, go to the water park. We went last year over C's birthday and he had a great time, but IJ didn't get to enjoy it as much as that was the day that he hurt his arm. So I was just as excited for him to be able to have fun this time. The whole drive down all C talked about (when he wasn't paying attention to the movie on the dvd player) was going to the water park, where's the water park, are we at the water park yet? And IJ would enthusiastically shout "water part!". So when we finally got to the "water part", they were pretty thrilled. We went up to our room and the boys climbed all over everything, with C shouting how the water park had this, and the water park had that. He found the bathroom and exclaimed "Wow! The water park even has a potty!", and then promptly dropped his pants and peed in it. :)

C making himself comfy on the couch

IJ flopped out on the bed

We eventually made it down to the actual water park area (we mean old parents made them eat dinner first, and of course mommy had to shave her legs to wear her bathing suit with her belly sticking out... :) and the boys had a great time. IJ definitely enjoyed it much better this time. He even rode down the big slide with R more times than C did (so glad I'm pregnant and didn't have to go on that slide :). C ran all crazy from this area to that area, from up the jungle gym thing with the big water bucket, to the kiddie pool with the little slide and water fountains (which he kept sitting on to stop them from spraying, and karate chopping...), to the hot tub with R (at which point I wasn't glad that I was pregnant since the hot tub would have been nice...). IJ followed everywhere with his little lip chattering; it doesn't take him long before he gets cold. I really didn't want to get that wet, so when C decided that he wanted to go float on the river, I thought that was a great idea, something I could do with them without getting soaked (cause I definitely wasn't getting dumped on by that big bucket). I took C on a tube with me, and R took IJ. But of course on the river was a little area that had rapids and some water falling down from a pipe. I bypassed it the first time around with C, but he got mad because of course that's the exact part he wanted to go through. I was going to go through it so the water from the pipe fell on C, but of course the ass R pushed his tube right up behind me and pushed my tube so that I went directly under the water. I got soaked, and C, IJ, and R were all very amused. So much for the idea that I wasn't going to get that wet. :)

Ready for the "water part"!

After we finished at the water park, R and I took the boys down to get ice cream cones at the little place next to the gift shop. We took them back up to the room and I sat them right in the middle of the floor away from the beds. Because I knew it was going to be a mess, but I didn't care about the floor. I didn't have to clean it, but I still had to sleep in my bed. :) Needless to say, the boys required a bath after they were done.

The next day (Saturday) we took the boys to Toys R Us (we don't have one where we live, and I also had a $5 off coupon :). C saw the sign as we were approaching in the car and said, "Is that Toys R Us?". Yeah, he's only been to that store a handful of times in his life, yet he knows one when he sees one. As we pulled into the parking lot, C said (as if trying to convince us that yes, we do want to stop at this store) "I sure do love toys!".

Next up was our required trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Thankfully we also don't have one of these anywhere near our house, so whenever C sees the commercial on tv and asks to go, I just remind him that "it's very far away." Chuck E. Cheese is a special occasion only thing.

C plays some air hockey with daddy

C stops mid-dance to see himself on the Chuck E. Cheese tv screen

C on tv!

C dancing for Chuck E. Cheese tv

IJ driving with Bob

C having a good time

Saturday night in our new hotel R and the boys splashed around in the pool and hot tub.

IJ goes flying

And daddy throws C!

We finished off our weekend Sunday morning with a stop to Once Upon a Child, a children's resale clothing store. I always make sure we stop there every time we go to Green Bay. This time I bought a bunch of little pink girlie things, because I can now. :) I even found a little pink dress with a frog on it! (I collect frog things.) Now she'll have something to wear with the little pink frog socks I found at Target! :)

STRAWBERRIES

2007-02-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

The other night C, IJ, and I planted some strawberry seeds in a pot. The boys decided that these seeds needed some music to get them growing faster (a la an episode of Jack's Big Music Show).

Here's C on guitar and IJ on drums, singing "Grow, Strawberries!"

Make video montages at onetruemedia.com

HE'LL NEVER LIVE IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA

2007-01-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Overheard earlier tonight:

IJ: "I'm Bob bob 'Quare Pants!" (Spongebob Squarepants)

C (with some disdain): "You're not even yellow with holes. Or square."

In C's eyes, IJ will never live up to Spongebob. :)

What do you think?

BIRTHDAY DOG SASHA AND IJ THE POTTY BOY

2007-01-20T12:49:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was Sasha's first birthday. She is no longer a puppy, but a DOG. She doesn't seem to notice, though, since she's still acting like a crazy puppy. She's loopy. I can't even count the number of times in a day I say "Sasha, no!" or "Sasha, go on!" or "Sasha! Don't poop in the neighbor's yard!".

In a year, she's gone from this:

To this:

From getting into "trouble" like this (such a cute little muddy puppy she was):

To being this troublemaker (that's a dog toy stolen from the neighbor's yard in her mouth):

Yes, in a year Sasha has gone from this cute little puppy lump that was too scared to climb the stairs so I had to carry her, that would cuddle up and sleep in my lap and give cute little kisses, to a crazy dog that chews up my underwear and socks (and no one else's), who constantly tries to get to the neighbor's yard to poop, and just drives me relatively insane with how obnoxious she can be.

But I guess she's still cute. She sure can smile:

***

The past few days have been really good in potty training land. IJ has been relatively trained for a while now, ever since the day when he was a little over a year old that he asked to go potty after seeing C do it so many times. I put him up on the big potty not expecting much, but as soon as he was on there he pooped! He's used the big potty since then, cause I wasn't going to mess with one of those little potties if he understood what the big one was for. Since then I have gotten him mostly poop trained, but he was still doing most of his peeing in his training pants. I've been putting off putting IJ in underwear for a while, since that's what worked for C. But the puddles everywhere! But the past few days we've gone for it, and he's been wearing underwear for most of the day, and I've been giving him a few M&M's every time he goes in the potty. We've had a couple days where he's kept one pair of underwear dry the entire day! I can't believe how well it's been going already. The next step we have to work on is IJ recognizing that he has to pee on his own instead of me asking him around the time I know he should have to pee. Right now it goes about like this:

"IJ, do you have to go potty?"

IJ: "Nooooo."

"You're sure you don't have to go potty?"

IJ: "Nooooo."

"Okay, but remember, if you go potty like a big boy and keep your underwear dry, you get M&M's."

IJ thinks about this for a minute, and then "Mommy, I have to go potty and get M&M's!"

The only bad thing about the M&M thing is that C thinks that he should get some every time he goes potty too. So I'll probably have to wean off the M&M's soon and find some other potty reward. I saw a Dora potty chart with stickers on the Nick Jr. website that I'll probably print out. IJ likes stickers, so maybe that will work. I'm hoping IJ gets the hang of it faster than C did. C had the habit then, and still does now, of waiting until the very last moment to go potty. Pee had to be coming out of him before he would go, so a lot of the time he wouldn't make it. He's better now, but he'll still get the occasional wet spot in his underwear from waiting too long. I hope that IJ realizes that he can go potty before the pee is coming out. :)

Here's hoping he's totally trained by, like, next week. That would be awesome. :) At least I'd like him totally trained before his sister is born. It will be nice to only have one kid in diapers this time. :)

BELLY SHOTS

2007-01-15T12:11:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going to share some pictures of my belly in all its 20 1/2 week pregnant glory (I took these a few days ago) because I can. Well, also because we never really took any pictures of my belly when I was pregnant with the boys. So I figure if this is the last time I'm going to be pregnant, I'd better document it. :)

kind of dark, but here I am (click the pictures to see larger)

belly from the side (I like this one)

belly from the front with my wonderful new surgery scar

I think I'll do some more in a couple of weeks, when I'm a little bigger. That is, if I don't procrastinate about it until May comes around... :)

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-01-07T11:52:00.000-05:00

I had my ultrasound this past Wednesday, and after I left to pee (thank you, ultrasound technician :), the baby decided to cooperate and display what was between its legs. Get ready for it...

That's right. A GIRL. Female. Pink! Dresses! Hair clips!! :D Here's a couple more ultrasound pics:

I thought for sure the tech was going to say it was a boy. I mean I kind of thought it had to be a girl because of the morning sickness (I did not get any with either boy), but it was just the way she said, "Are you sure you want to know?" that made me think, I'm destined to have three boys. "Is it a male?", I asked, turning towards the screen to accept my destiny. "Oh no it's not." "It's not?!" And then I just about crapped my pants. ;) And then I went out and bought a girly pink dress and those baby girl headband things just because I could. Who cares if she won't be here till May and it's only January? :) I still have to get all new baby clothes either way. I'm going to have to add a little to the name of this blog, too. Mommy2Boys just isn't going to cut it anymore. I'll have to come up with something...

I'm also already up to 126 pounds. Last month I was 119. I gained about 50 pounds with both boys so I guess I'm well on my way. :) Although, maybe I should cut back a little on the cookie dough ice cream and double size three musketeers bars... (but I did have those ten pounds to make up for... :)

***

Our Christmas went went really well. This year was the first year that C wanted to ask Santa for specific things, so I think he really gets the whole Christmas thing now. He wanted three things: the Imaginext Adventures castle, "play-doh pick" (I have no idea why they call it that), and "the fishing game". Santa made sure those three things were underneath the tree. :) This was also the first year that we left milk and cookies for Santa. We made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milk, because when C and IJ talked to Santa online (a great uncle that dressed up), he told them those were his favorite. C and IJ also got one Christmas present from Santa a little early. We had gone downstairs to nana's and papa's, and that day they had bought the play-doh creativity center for the boys for christmas, but papa forgot to sufficiently hide it (it was sitting in their darkened bedroom, but the boys like to go it there and jump on the bed). We were all in the living room when C comes running all excitedly into the room shouting, "Nana! Nana! I saw it! C'mon! I saw it!" The look on her face was just priceless, since she knew exactly what he was talking about. I'll never forget that. :) She just told C that since he was such a good boy that year, Santa dropped off a present early. :)

Here are my favorite pictures from Christmas:

Christmas card photo

The first time they've been brave enough to sit on Santa's lap (IJ's pants are wet because he fell in a puddle on the way in). I didn't think IJ would willingly do it, because a couple of weeks before we had seen Santa at Target, and Santa came over to talk to IJ in the cart. IJ just refused to look directly at Santa, giving him a sideways glance with his eyes that said "If that guy touches me I'm gonna scream." Maybe he liked this Santa better?

Play-doh pick!

IJ and the "fishing game"

IJ extremely pleased about his new truck book with buttons

Look C! 33% more power!

R into the tunes (that's hearing protection with a built in radio so he can listen to music while using his tools)

Look! He actually posed for a picture!

We have to teach him that hockey is different from baseball...

C playing with his castle

The rest of December's pictures are here.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2006-11-22T22:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We'll be pretty busy tomorrow, so I figured I would give you all a little Thanksgiving treat tonight. Here's two videos of C singing some Thanksgiving songs he learned at preschool (the sound and the video never match up, I don't know why, do any of you out there?) :

C's handprint turkey

IJ's handprint turkey

My little Indian

IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT...

2006-11-21T15:24:00.000-05:00

On Sunday the 12th, C's preschool class was invited to sing at the church service (his school is in the church). This was the first time I'd been to church in a long while, and really the first time I'd been to a real full church service. When I was a kid I lived in a much smaller town with a very small church that only had folding chairs and was very informal. So this was a little different. Not bad, since I do believe in God and all that; I just felt a little out of place in such a formal church setting after having not been in church on a Sunday in years. I think IJ was a little intimidated too. We sat down in the pew, and he looked all around with huge eyes. Then he started making sad faces and insisted that I put my arm around him. He got used to it though and really calmed down after he discovered the pencil and the little cards that you fill out. :)

C was playing in his classroom with the other kids until it was time for them to come out and sing. When the time came, C's teaher came walking down the aisle with all the little preschoolers in a line behind her. Except for C. He was sort of in line, but he was lagging behind, taking his own sweet time. He had his hands around the straps of his overalls, and was just looking all around as he slowly walked up to the front. He eventually made it up there. :)

C's class sang three songs, and I tried to get some video of all of them. I had a little hole where I could see C perfectly (I ended up having to sit in the middle of everybody), and I would have had good video of all three songs if the lady sitting in front of me hadn't of been whipping her head around every two seconds. Back and forth, back and forth. It was so annoying! (Is it bad to say I was annoyed with somebody in church? :) So here's the video where you can see C the best, with minimal head whipping. They're singing "If You're Happy and You Know It", and C is the one in the tan overalls and the green shirt.

After C was done singing, he came to sit with IJ and I, and the boys kept themselves busy filling out those cards. We almost made it through the whole service, until IJ started stinking up the place and announced that he had to go potty. Which was good timing since they had just started passing around the collection plate and I didn't have any cash with me. By the time we got done in the bathroom, people were filing out, so I think we did a pretty good job. :)

THE DOGS STOLE R'S PIZZA...FROM THE REFRIGERATOR

2006-11-17T18:03:00.000-05:00

That's right. Our lovely dogs, Cheyenne and Sasha, have learned how to open up our fridge. They could not ignore the tantalizing smell of R's leftover Papa Murphy's pizza.

Now, before you give them too much credit, our fridge door hasn't been catching right lately. If you don't close it just so, it hangs open just the tiniest little bit. But still, they would have had to nudge at it pretty good with their noses to get the door to open enough.

When I first caught them with the pizza out of the fridge yesterday, they had only managed to eat one slice. I figured one of the kids had went in the fridge and left the door open (which has happened before, resulting in the whole top of R's birthday cheesecake being licked off by Sasha, which then resulted in an emergency run to the store by nana and papa who found the whole situation so very hilarious...). So the dogs got yelled at and ran off with their tails between their legs, and then I reminded the boys to close the fridge after they open it (when I asked who was the one that was in the fridge, they looked at me like they had no freaking clue what I was talking about and then blamed each other, which is funny now that I know they didn't do it).

I spent the next half hour to forty five minutes with both boys on the couch, reading them stories. I then got up to head to the kitchen to make their lunches. I could not believe my eyes. There in the middle of the kitchen floor was the empty cardboard platter that used to hold the leftover pizza. Not a crumb of pizza was left. I never even heard a thing. We have sneaky, sneaky dogs...

When R came home, the first thing out of C's mouth was "Daddy! The dogs ate your pizza!". R sat on the couch and pouted for a while since he was really looking forward to eating that pizza. I felt for him, but you have to admit it's kind of funny. Guess he should have put his pizza in a container...

And maybe now R will fix the fridge door. :)

ONE LOOOONG WEEK...CONTINUED

2006-11-15T18:16:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I made the third trip in a week to a certain medical center, but this time it wasn't for me. Wednesday night C started complaining of a sore throat, which wouldn't have been a huge deal if nana hadn't contracted strep a few days prior. So C missed school Thursday so we could head off to the medical center, again, since they have a walk-in clinic. Now normally I would take the boys to their pediatrician, and I called the office first thing Thursday morning. But they didn't have any openings until Monday. Monday! Freaking hell, the whole town must be sick. Obviously if C had strep I couldn't wait until Monday, so off to the medical center we went...

All of the medical center offices I was in Monday and Tuesday had toys in the waiting room. I knew it would be a long wait to be seen in the walk-in clinic, but I figured that office would also have toys, so I didn't bring anything with me. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this: not a single toy in sight in that waiting room. And the boys were not in any mood to sit nicely in a chair. They wanted to run around and play. They traded chairs every two seconds. They tickled each other. Then they tried biting each other's fingers on purpose. Finally a lady pointed out to me that there was a very small box of kids books behind a chair in a corner. The books kept them occupied, although they seemed to think they needed a new book every two seconds. And for some reason, IJ seemed to think that the guy sitting next to the box was the Keeper of the Books. The guy didn't seem to mind, even though he was reading his own book, and played along. So when IJ was done with a book, he would hand it to the guy, then the guy would rifle through the box and give him a new one. It was pretty cute, and I'm glad the guy was nice about it.

Forever and a day later, we were finally called in. The verdict: no strep throat. But the boys have been sick with colds for a while (seems like ever since C started preschool), so the doctor diagnosed sinusitis. So C and IJ are both on antibiotics (which will also take care of any strep germs that maybe weren't presenting themselves), so now hopefully they'll finally kick their stuffy noses. Cause the snot has been flying here.

On Friday we got our first significant snowfall, a couple of inches that have since melted. I think that usually by this time we should have a lot more snow, but that doesn't bother me any. I don't really enjoy the snow and cold. Particularly the cold. I was born in Arizona, in the nice hot desert. My father was in the Air Force and they closed the base where we lived, and he actually picked to be sent to the base up here when I was in first grade (the base here eventually closed and my father took early retirement). So it's my father's fault that I live in the land of snow and cold. But there are a lot of good things about living in the U.P. that cancel out the cold part, so Yoopers we will stay. :)

C is a different story, though. He has been asking me for weeks when it would snow and when winter would come. I do not know how I produced this snow loving child. He obviously gets that from his daddy. :) So when he looked out the window Friday morning he was thrilled. "We can make snowmen and snowballs and have a snowball fight and build an igloo!" I hated telling him that he couldn't go out and play in it yet, first of all since he was still sick, and second of all since I haven't been able to get out shopping and get him new boots, snowpants, and gloves (IJ is all set with hand-me-downs). So R brought both boys a snowball before he left for work, and told them to throw it at me. Which of course they did since they listen to everything daddy tells them. :) Then of course I took them downstairs to attack nana and get her all wet. Hehe, that was fun.

snow covered bushes

more of our snow covered bushes

Cheyenne and Sasha went crazy playing in the snow, running around and around our deck and leaping at each other. You would think they'd never seen snow before. (I took these through a foggy door window)

Sasha butt :)

weighed down power lines

Sunday C got to sing with his preschool class at the church service (C's school is at a church), but I will save that for a post on it's own since I have some video to share.

So now I'm finally caught up! :)

ONE LOOOONG WEEK

2006-11-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

First off, can I say how much I love that pregnancy ticker up there? It's not just cutesy-cutesy, it's informative with a touch of humor. He/She is peeing in me! Hehe! :D

Anyways, a lot has gone on around here the past week that I need to get caught up on. I think I've seen enough of a certain medical center to last me for a while, although my visits were for mostly good reasons.

Last Monday I had my first OB appointment, well what should have been the first one if I didn't have all that hospital business. And you know the first one is always the best kind, the feet-in-the-stirrups kind. Yippee. Buuuut, through feet-in-the-stirrups, I got the first good pictures of the baby. And oh boy, was that kid excited! A flip here, a wiggle there. He/She was jumping around all over, which was very reassuring for me. (Okay, I've really gotta come up with some kind of nickname for this kid until we pick a name.)

11 weeks-see the little hand and the foot? (click on the photos to see a larger size)

this is the baby's face

measuring the perfect size for 11 weeks

I got a real shocker when I stood on the scale at the office. While I was in the hospital I lost ten pounds. Which wouldn't be a big deal if I wasn't only 118 before I went in the hospital. Yeah, the scale read 108. I haven't weighed 108 since before I had C. It kind of freaked me out a little, but the doctor didn't seem too concerned so I guess I shouldn't worry. And I know I'm already gaining it back, since I weighed myself a couple of days ago and it said 110. Soon I'm sure I'm going to want to stop looking at the scale, since with both boys I gained nearly 50 pounds and it was a little scary to look at those numbers near the end...

My doctor also had a medical student in the office with her, which was fun. Mostly since I'm different than most women out there, so I got to be a learning experience for him. :) First off, I have a lump in each of my breasts, which I got checked out last year (I just have lumpy boobs :). So she had him feel those. I also have a cervix that points in the opposite direction of most womens', which I have known about since I was pregnant with C. So I got to have that special area examined twice. Fun stuff. But what can I say, I'm special. ;)

Tuesday I was back at this certain medical center but on a different floor to get my staples out. Where I found out that they're not sure exactly what they took out of me. They know they took out my fallopian tube and the cyst, but I may or may not still have the ovary. Either it was too destroyed for it to be identifiable, or the surgeon didn't take it out. It doesn't really make a difference since I don't have the tube to connect it anyway, but I still find it rather amusing. I have the mysterious disappearing ovary! And guess what the surgeon told me as he was clip-clip-clipping out my staples (it's just great to have a conversion with someone who's pulling metal bits out of you): apparently I was a learning case for him too! They have no idea why the hell I got that cyst, and they still don't know if it came from the ovary or not. I think I'm done with being special. I'm ready to go back to having nice normal pregnancies.

Oh, and I wish I would have taken a picture of my belly before the staples came out. It was pretty gnarly looking. Now I have this sticky tape stuff on it and that's just not as Frankenstein-ish. It was perfect for Halloween. :)

This is getting rather long and the boys are getting cranky, so I do believe I will finish this tomorrow...hopefully. (Yeah, I know I'll say I'll post something "tomorrow" and then "tomorrow" turns into a week...)

VETERAN'S DAY

2006-11-11T18:40:00.000-05:00

R, at 24, is a veteran, and that always seems really weird to me. Whenever I thought of the word "veteran" before, I would think of old gray haired guys at the VFW. R even gets VFW magazines in the mail, and it seems that most of the advertisements are geared towards old men: ads for scooters and hearings aids and such. But I guess veterans aren't just old guys anymore.

The pictures above are from R's homecoming from Iraq in January. C was so happy that daddy was home that he took off running for him as soon as he saw R. I think C may have actually spied him before the rest of us. This of course made us all start bawling, but at least they were happy tears. :)

Happy Veteran's Day to all you veterans out there, young and old alike. And remember our troops who are over there fighting for freedom today.

HALLOWEEN 2006

2006-11-05T12:51:00.000-05:00

(The pumpkins R and the boys carved)

Just wanted to share some of the pictures R took of the boys trick-or-treating. We recycled C's Spiderman costume from last year since it still fit and he's still way into Spiderman. I was going to make IJ this really neat airplane costume out of a box, but the whole hospital business messed that up. He would have been a cute little airplane, though. :) Thankfully we had backup: C's old doggie costume was exactly IJ's size. IJ was excited to be a doggie, though, and ran around the house barking. When C wore that costume, he wouldn't keep the dog face hood on his head, he didn't like it. IJ liked it on his head, but R said he had to pull it down because IJ couldn't see where he was going. :D

A teeny tiny Spiderman with matching Spiderman bucket

Trick-or-treat!

Doggie IJ and Spiderman C (that's even a Spiderman snowhat on his head)

This has to be my favorite shot-can you tell it was just a little chilly here?

A pumpkin IJ made in playgroup

Here's a blurry shot C took of the decorations in our house (our pumpkins, spider webs, and pumpkin window clings), but I think that just makes it a little more creepy :)

HARVEST PARADE

2006-11-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

Here's the video I promised of C's preschool "Harvest Parade" (their version of a Halloween parade, I assume, since he goes to a church preschool). They dressed up as spiders and sang spider songs. R taped this since I had to miss it due to the hospital thing, but I think he did a pretty good job capturing the cuteness, don't you think? :) (C is the one in the blue camo)

C's been doing really well in preschool. When he first started going, he would cry every time I dropped him off. The first day I cried too after I left the room; it was hard leaving him in someone else's care for the first time ever. His tears didn't help at all, either. But over the past couple of months he's gotten more used to mommy leaving, and for the past few weeks there have been no tears at all. It's hug, kiss, I love you, and off he goes to play. It's great. C now says that all his friends are at preschool, and that he has fun.

C has learned so many new things, too. Yesterday he said, "Mommy, it's November!", and he always wants to know what day of the week it is (they do a calender time first thing in the morning where they talk about the month, the day of the week, and the weather). He's also learned a ton of new songs; I'm constantly catching him singing to himself (when I get around to taping him singing I'll post it here). They had a fire truck and firemen visit on the day C got to be the leader (he chose pretzels and watermelon Juicy Juice for the snack), and came home telling me all about smoke detectors and "stop, drop, and roll". He's even learned some new words. A couple of weeks ago we pulled into our driveway after a morning of school and he said, "That tree doesn't have any leaves. That's a predicament!" He said he learned that word at preschool that day.

I'd have to say the only bad thing so far about preschool is that it seems that C has been sick ever since he started, but that's pretty much to be expected with 16 three year olds running around.

IJ has even gotten in on this and I started him in a playgroup on Thursday mornings while C is in class (in the same church). But C is very adamant that only he goes to preschool: "Only I go to preschool. You're not old enough. You go to playgroup." But IJ loves his playgroup. He wanted a backpack like C had, so I found him a toddler sized Buzz Lightyear one that has wheels. He rolls it right into the school and into his room, and he'll put his art project in when it's time to leave and then he'll roll it right out. He never asks me to carry it for him. They even get to sit on little mats just like the preschoolers during song and story time, and I think he likes that. IJ doesn't quite sing the songs yet, but he gets all excited at the end, yelling yay! and clapping his hands. They also get to have gym time like the preschoolers; there's cars to ride in, bikes, a slide, balls, and a balance beam. But my favorite thing has to be during snack time. IJ always inhales his juice first, holds out his cup and says "More juice, pease!". Every time. It's so cute. He probably drinks the most juice out of all the kids there. :)

So, yeah, can you tell how much I love this whole preschool thing? :D

(I'll have our Halloween pics up as soon as I get them on Flickr. I'm a little behind in the picture uploading department, but, you know, I was gone for a week. :)

COMPLICATIONS

2006-11-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

I haven't been around here that much lately. I've wanted to be, but I've been busy, and tired, and somewhat pukey. Why, you may ask?

Yep, number three is on the way. It's been on the way for 10 weeks now. R and I planned this third child, and started trying in July. We knew we wanted to try for a girl, and we knew we wanted our kids close in age, so now was the time. Except I know for sure now that no matter what gender this kid is, this is going to be our last. We always said the third would be the last, but I always had a feeling that if the third was another boy I'd probably want to try again for a girl. But I'm done now. This will be my last pregnancy.

This pregnancy has been quite a bit different from my pregnancies with the boys. First off, I've had morning sickness, something I didn't have with either boy (I'm hoping that's the sign this is a girl, keep your fingers crossed). But morning sickness isn't a big deal; what I've just gone through over the past week was a big deal.

Today was my second day home from spending a week in the hospital. For a time we were worried I would lose this baby, but I ended up only losing my right ovary and fallopian tube, thankfully.

It all started the Thursday before last, when I started getting what I thought was round ligament pain. This is something I experienced with both boys, always on my right side. But normally this would only last for a day, happen a couple times, and then I'd be done with it. Not this time. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I had to spend sitting on the couch, otherwise I'd have pain on my right side. Sunday night I actually felt better, so R and I went to a movie, and I figured I was finally done with my ligament crap for this pregnancy.

Monday morning I woke up very early and in PAIN. All up and down my right side, and no matter what I did, I could not get comfortable. I started throwing up, and woke up R and told him that this was something worse than just the ligament and I wanted to go to the emergency room.

I was admitted, I had an ultrasound. The baby was in the right spot, I wasn't having a miscarriage, but I did have a large ovarian cyst. Normally a cyst forms on the ovaries and is needed to maintain the pregnancy. But mine was way, way too big. The doctors felt that I would need surgery, but they wanted to wait three or four weeks for the risk of miscarriage to drop. I lived on Demerol shots for a couple of days, before the doctors decided that they wanted to try to drain the cyst to give me some relief.

I had the procedure done, with the doctor draining as much fluid off as she felt she safely could. I felt a lot better afterwards and was hoping the whole ordeal was done. But the pain came back even worse, and eventually not even the Demerol shots would last long enough. The decision was made on Friday that I would need to have surgery, even with the risk to the baby. My pain was causing stress on the baby, so either way I could have lost it. It was very, very scary.

The surgery was done, and it was discovered that the cyst had caused my right ovary to wrap around itself, killing it. I had the cyst, the ovary, and the fallopian tube removed. But thankfully the baby stayed strong.

So I'm home now, recuperating, being waited on since I still can't do much of anything. At least I got home in time to see the boys in their costumes and leave to go trick or treating, even if I couldn't go. :) I had to miss C's preschool "Harvest Parade" where the kids dressed as spiders and sang spider songs, but R got the most adorable video of it (I will try and post it tomorrow since I'll still be here on the couch without much else to do :).

This is it though. We will have three kids. Obviously this might not happen again with subsequent pregnancies, but I just think I'm done. So everyone cross your fingers that I'll get my little girl! :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2006-09-30T16:54:00.000-05:00

Yep, today's my birthday. I turn 24 today. Happy B-day to me! :)

And no matter what R says, I'm still 12 days older than him. He thinks that since he was conceived first, he's older. Whatever. They only start counting after you come out. So I'm older. So there. :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IJ!

2006-09-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

IJ, on this day two years ago, all 11 lbs. 2 oz. of you entered this world. I can't believe it's already been two years. I still call you my little boy (well, you were never really little...), but you're getting to be a big boy just like your brother. You use the potty, you sleep in a bunk bed that you share with C, you can pretend you are a dog or a frog and jump on all fours shouting "Ibbit! Ibbit!". You can color pictures and draw circles. You can build towers out of mega blocks or be monster IJ, stomping your feet and using your "demonic voice". Your words are easily understandable, and you know so many of them, although you still insist that your name is "Me." But that's okay. I love how you pronounce your brother's name. And recently I've even seen you count five fingers, one by one. Sometimes I wish I could freeze you with your cute little dimply smile at this age forever...when you're not being a little snot, that is. :) Happy Birthday IJ.

newborn IJ in the hospital

newborn IJ in his bassinet

IJ and piglet at 1 month

IJ at 5 months

"We want cooookies!" 6 months

IJ's first birthday

IJ at a year and a half

IJ at 2 (birthday pics to come when we have his party)

9-11-01

2006-09-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

Today five years ago 2,996 people died.

I know I'm a little late on this, since in an hour it will be September 12, but this is the first free moment I've had to sit down and write. I've been planning all day so that the boys would be in bed early since C has another day of preschool tomorrow (he told me earlier today that he didn't want to go; he wanted to stay home. We'll see what he thinks tomorrow.)

Five years ago today I was a freshman in college, and R was off at basic training. I was off from school that day, and was working my cashier job. I first heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center tower from a customer who I was ringing up. I heard bits and pieces of information throughout the day; we didn't have a tv at the store, just a radio, but it was in the back and I had to stay near the registers. The full impact of what had happened didn't hit me until I got home later in the day.

My dad had the tv on a news station when I got home, and that was the first I saw of the planes hitting and the towers falling. It was horrific. I began to get scared; when R had entered the National Guard, I didn't worry too much about it, but now I wondered if he would be shipped off to war. The world had changed in a day, and everything felt upside down.

Luckily R finished off basic and got to come home. We moved in together...and the rest is history. But R did serve our country in Iraq for a year; he returned home this past January. I worried about him everyday, me at home with our two small children, but he was there for a reason: freedom isn't free. We have to fight for it. Our country has to fight against those who killed the 2,996 people that day.

We must never forget those people.

GRANDPARENT'S DAY

2006-09-10T18:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Grandparent's Day to all you grandparents out there. Truthfully I didn't even remember it was Grandparent's Day until I looked at the calander today and it was listed. They don't seem to make as big a deal out of it as Mother's Day and Father's Day. So, since I didn't remember about it until today, the kids made nana and papa some nice handmade cards (and handmade gifts are always the best ones of course ;) .

Here's C's card. See the three little people on the front of the card? (Click the picture to enlarge it) He drew himself with nana and papa. Except this is the first time that I have ever seen him draw anything like that. Usually he just draws a bunch of scribbles. These people had heads and legs and arms that I could see. I'm pretty excited. I've been waiting for him to draw recognizeable things for soooooo long! On the inside of the card I helped him to spell out the words "Happy Grandparent's Day". It was his idea to write it on the inside; he actually started with the "H" and the "A" on his own before he asked me to help him. He's getting pretty good at the letters. C also wrote his name on the inside of his card.

Here's IJ's card for nana and papa. He did a really good job on the inside, using lots of different colors. The marks he made on the words on the cover of the card was him trying to write letters like C was. Soon, IJ, soon. :)

Coming soon: a post about the first day of preschool. There were tears, but it was good. :)