No question here

It's definitely a boy! I'm really excited! Last night Ken and I decided to tell Madeleine that she was going to have another sibling. We hadn't really sat down and told her before, just because we thought it was an awful long time for a 3 year old to wait. So after I put John Paul to bed, we sat down in her room and told her. I said, "You know how you've been praying and asking God for a new baby? Well God decided it was time for our family to have a new baby!" She got a big smile on her face and I told her that he'd be here right around Christmas. Then I told her that tomorrow (today) we got to go to the doctor and see a picture of the baby in Mommy's tummy. I asked if she'd like to come and she got a huge smile on her face and got really excited! So she got to come with me today and we saw him.....

He is doing great - everything looks perfect. Ken came too and took Madeleine home where my mom was watching John Paul while I had my doctor appointment. I asked her if I'd get another ultrasound and she said, "Oh I'm sure we can find a reason to get you one." I get to go back for another appointment in a month.

Also my big news of the day - we got this car seat! It's from a friend of mine - thanks Mary! I gave our other one away a little prematurely - but it was getting past it's prime anyway. I'm excited to have an infant car seat in the house and it makes it seem a little more real.


Also, the story of my life - Whenever Bud plays outside, I end up stripping him down to his diaper. I've never seen a kid get so messy!

Then I have to do this to him - which he LOVES!
Off to enjoy little baby kicks!

Hanging with old friends and new friends

This weekend, one of my best friends came to visit from Iowa with their two kids. They had a tight schedule but we managed to squeeze in some fun times! Everyone really enjoyed the water fountain until a security guard made them get out... they weren't happy until we got some ice cream!

My kids were totally and completely soaked.

We also got to go out to lunch with them and some of our other friends from high school - the three of us have an older girl and younger boy - all in the same age ranges. They had a great time together. Our friend Fr. Dan also joined us. We sure miss them a lot!


Today, my mom and I took the kids to their first movie in a movie theater. It was a free summer movie - The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The kids really enjoyed it and did great. We wheeled John Paul's stroller in so he could be contained for a while. We kept the popcorn coming and he did really great. I only had to break out the secret weapons once ;)
Madeleine really enjoyed it too - you know she loves pirates anyway, and enjoys Veggie Tales. She not only has never seen a movie in a movie theater (that she remembers anyway), but she's hardly ever seen a movie at home. I don't think she's ever sat through a whole one. I haven't really tried yet though. She's happy with her half hour shows and she only gets two of those a day. But she did really well and paid attention through the whole thing.

Grandma and Madeleine with her crazy smile!

She also had another eye doctor appointment today. Her eyes aren't getting worse so we're going to try to hold off on her surgery until January. She wants to see her in October just to make sure but it's looking good right now.

I also have an ultrasound tomorrow - so we'll find out if it's REALLY a boy! I have heard of a few people who thought it was a boy from an earlier u/s and then it turned out to be a girl!

Oh and we also finally told Madeleine tonight that she's going to have a baby brother or sister. She was really excited, especially when I told her she could come see a picture of the baby in Mommy's tummy tomorrow morning ;)

Sick sick sick

So Thursday and Friday I started feeling extremely nauseous and wasn't able to keep anything down - even tiny sips of water. Sorry if this post is TMI. By Friday morning I was desperate and at the end of my rope, and worried about the baby so I called the doctor. Of course the kids had their FIRST dentist appointment that morning and of COURSE my mom was out of town! So the nurse told me to come in and they'd squeeze me in. Ken stayed home with the kids and took them to the dentist. I can't tell you how sad I was to miss their first appointment. Apparently Madeleine was very good and John Paul screamed the entire time.

Anyway I got into the doctor's office after waiting in the waiting room for an hour and just broke down in tears in front of my poor doctor. She said I definitely needed IV fluids and some anti-nausea medicine, so she sent me up to labor and delivery, where they promptly sent me down to the ER and gave me a bag of fluids with some Zofran. At least I got to lay in bed for an hour and watch Ellen, even though I got freezing from the cold fluids going into my body. She also gave me a prescription for Zofran which I filled but haven't had to take. I got home and Ken left for work, and later that night I was able to eat a few pieces of toast. The next day I felt much better and today I'm almost back to my old self. I hope I don't have to do that again for a while.

The good news is, one of my best friends is coming into town today (but I won't see her til tomorrow.) I'm so excited to see her, her dh, my Goddaughter and her 10 month old baby boy who I have not met yet! Since my house is a disaster from me laying on the couch for the past 3 days, I better get off the computer and start cleaning!

Happy 4th!

I gave it a good try. Hope everyone had a great day!

Zoo trip

We went to the zoo today with our friends who are in town from Texas. This morning Madeleine told me that her tummy didn't feel "berry well" but she still wanted to go to the zoo. 5 minutes after we got there she threw up ALL over her skirt and shirt. Luckily our friend's one year old son had a 24 month shirt that she borrowed for the rest of the day. This is how she saw the zoo:

She totally did not care one bit! It was pretty funny. She recovered quickly and enjoyed the zoo - especially petting the sharks. There must have been a lot of sympathetic mothers there because I didn't get any weird looks for letting my daughter walk around in her Elmo underwear all day. This will look great in her wedding (or final vows) slide show don't you think?

Unfortunately she was still sick when she got home. I am hoping she's completely recovered and we can enjoy our 3 day weekend!

On a happier note, John Paul lost his stride rite sandal but I called security tonight and someone had turned it in! Madeleine was happy when she heard we'd be going back to the zoo to get his sandal ;)

This weekend we're planning on a good friend's party on the 4th, (where I will be trying out her triple stroller and seeing if I want to buy it from her), and our town's local festival on the 5th - and we're going to try to hit the parade this year. People throwing candy? My kids will be all over THAT.

Reason number 567 that I need a triple stroller:

Yesterday we went to the splash park and I changed them into their bathing suits at the picnic tables, which are about 10 feet from the actual splash park. I changed Madeleine into her suit first and told her she could go ahead to the water. I got John Paul into his suit and took him over there, where she was nowhere to be found. I looked all over and then looked all over the playground. I was starting to get concerned when one of the workers brought her over to me. She had walked all the way across the field and was picking flowers by the retention pond! When the lady had asked her what she was doing, she said, "I was walking far." That kid is gonna send me to an early grave. She is on a VERY short leash now. I won't let her out of my sight. I think I am going to need to have a place to strap her in in these situations. However I'm also thinking that I can probably wait until next spring, and when we go out I can use the double stroller and carry the baby in the wrap. Hm.... we'll see how much I like this triple on Sunday. She bought it and it won't fit in her car so she's selling it to me at a discounted rate if I want it ;)

By the way I'm still in awe that 4 years ago I thought maybe I'd never have kids, now I'm looking at triple strollers. Wow. Thank God.

8 years

Today is our 8 year anniversary. In some ways it seems like it's been forever, but in other ways it seems like I was just planning for our wedding. This is kind of a one of a kind anniversary for us. It represents two different times of our lives. We had 4 years of infertility, and now we've had 4 years of pregnancies and raising our wonderful kids. We found out we were pregnant with Madeleine 4 years ago yesterday, and that was the end of our lives as we knew it for the first 4 years of our marriage. It's been a wonderful 8 years, and I am thankful for the first 4 years and for the last 4 years. I won't lie, the first 4 years were hard in some ways, but now that I know how it turns out I wouldn't change a thing. God knew what he was doing for sure. I can't wait to find out what He has in store for our next 8 years!

I love you Ken, Happy Anniversary!

More about reading

Oh my goodness! We are on lesson 11 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and Madeleine is already sounding out words! She knows the sounds m, long e, short a, r, t and s. So she can read me, see, rat, sat, mat, etc. She is doing so well and is so proud of herself when she sounds out a word. She even asks to do reading lessons! Today we were listening to one of her favorite songs from Music Class called Sam the Dinosaur. When we got home I told her that she could read the word "Sam." She couldn't believe it! I had Ken write it out for her and she was amazed that she could read it! Then she tried to write it. We also bought her some Alphabet wipe off cards today at Borders and she spent 45 minutes writing and tracing the letters she has learned. She even wanted to do it again when we got home. I'm loving that she is so into this!

So the reading lessons take longer than usual lately, because she has to bring Elmo, Pooh Bear, and Baby Bear with us. Then they each have to take turns doing the lessons. She does voices for them and everything. And they even have to point under the letters and say the sounds. I'm going to take a picture of this Baby Bear she has.. it's about an inch and a half high and she carries that thing everywhere! I am shocked that she hasn't lost it yet!

And the Bud used a fork for the first time today! He ate a pancake for breakfast with it and did fantastic! Then he ate his chicken with it today at dinner. I was shocked how well he did. Plus he loved it. We started pushing his seat up to the table instead of using the tray, and giving him a plate. He's doing great and not throwing food as much (that is a big problem in our house!) Also he's saying a few more words! He says ball all the time, and also says "cack" when we ask what a duck says. He says "moon" for goodnight moon, and "Pop" for Hop on Pop, and also for lollipop and popsicle. He also says Poo Poo when he goes and gets a big smile on his face. And of course he says Tee Tat for the cat and every other animal.

And as for number 3, I am definitely feeling him moving around! I love that feeling - it's my favorite part of pregnancy!

Priorities and early nesting

So I read this article:

The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In

If anyone is wondering why I'm not texting and returning emails as much as I did before ;)

I've been trying to put down my phone unless the kids are not around, and I haven't plugged in the computer at all unless they're in bed. I'm trying to give them my full attention and spend Bud's entire morning nap doing things with Madeleine. She is EATING UP the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. In fact she wanted to keep going today so we did two lessons in a row. She's learning her letter sounds and sounding out short words already on lesson 10! She's also finding the letter sounds she knows in her books. I'm really impressed and loving seeing her learn! (Of course this has it's drawbacks. For example she has this book she loves called Dirty Joe the Pirate (I know!)) Ken and I don't really enjoy the "moral" of the story at the end, so we change the words around a little. It says, "If you've got an older sister then I feel bad for you, for just as long as she's alive she'll tell you what to do." We change it to "If you've got an older sister then I feel glad for you, for just as long as she's alive she'll be there to care for you." She's on to us.

So the nesting is kicking in quickly this time! I'm figuring out how to move around everyone's rooms. I think that we're going to leave Madeleine in her room - she's got a pretty girly room. There's a room right next to hers that is the spare room (or Sew's room hahaha!) That has all our storage in it - wedding stuff, college stuff, craft stuff, file cabinets, bookshelves, etc. I gotta find a place for all that! We have a great screened porch but it has a giant hot tub in it that we've never used in the 6 years we've been here. I put it on freecycle today. I can't wait to get rid of it. So after we get that room cleaned out, we're going to eventually move John Paul into it - he can have Madeleine's old crib and old changing table/hutch. Then we can make her room a big girl room. That way, we can use the nursery as it's already set up for the new baby. Perfect plan ;) I can't WAIT to actually be able to use the screened porch!

Happy Father's Day

To the best Daddy in the whole wide world. Madeleine, John Paul and Ice are very lucky to have you!


And thanks for making me a Mommy. It's my dream come true. Love you!

Reflections on two boys and a girl

First of all, I'm only 13 weeks 3 days, but the baby has measured bigger than that all along. Yesterday he measured right at 14 weeks. I'm keeping my original due date of December 21st though, so when he comes early, it'll just be a happy surprise! (Please God, I want to be home on Christmas morning!!)

When I got into the room, the u/s tech asked if we wanted to find out the gender. I said yes! (I can't wait.) I asked her if we'd be able to tell today, and she said maybe. Then as she was moving the wand around on my belly, I saw it and said, "That's a boy, right?" And she said, "Uh, yeah." We got some good views - she actually said she was 90% sure it was a boy but I SAW it. It's a boy.

I kind of knew it was a boy just because John Paul is totally giving me a run for my money, with his destroying things, throwing things, general wildness. I figured I'd get two boys 20 months apart or so, and they'd be partners in crime!

But now that it's sinking in, I think this is perfect. Madeleine can still be the "queen bee" around here - a position she revels in, let me tell ya! She absolutely LOVES her brother - it's really amazing. She calls him "Little Buddy" or "Handsome" and loves to play with him. We haven't really told her we're going to have a new baby yet, just because I think 6 months is a very long time for a three year old to wait for anything. But she's still praying and asking God for a new baby. Last night Ken asked her if she liked having a brother, and she said YES! Then he asked if she'd like to have two brothers someday, and she said, "No, I want 20 brothers!" She is a crazy kid!

When I was little I used to pretend I had lots of brothers too - I had a family of cousins who have 4 boys, and we used to spend quite a bit of time with them. I used to pretend I had 4 extra brothers in addition to my 1. I think Madeleine will have it great - always having several people to play with (and probably boss around.) Siblings are really such blessings to each other!

I think John Paul will have a best buddy. They will be able to share a room someday and hopefully will be great friends when they get a little older. Yesterday when I was driving back from the doctor I saw two little boys playing catch in their yard. They looked like they were 7 and 9 or so, and they were having so much fun together. I'm excited that JP and M will get that! Plus we have one extra room that I want to move John Paul into, and then we can leave the nursery set up as it is. We even still have all the infant clothes we kept in there.

I still do want to have another girl someday for sure, just so Madeleine will have a sister. But I'm sure excited about this sweet little boy!

Now to think of a name....

It's a..........

Beautiful

BOY!!!!

Some pics

My Aunt Pat, who is a professional photographer (and also my Godmother) came for a visit and took some pictures of the kids. I told her they were going to be challenging! But she got some good ones anyway :)










Little Bud is doing fantastic. He's not had to have a breathing treatment for several days, and his demeanor has changed totally. He's happy and playful and doesn't follow me around crying all day! WOOHOO! And Madeleine and I started a learn to read book today. It teaches all the letter sounds and also writing the letters. She LOVED the first lesson and she's so excited about learning to read.

Buddy's appointment

Can I just say I LOVE my pediatrician?! I love him. I sat down and told him the whole story and he was great. He checked John Paul over really well and pronounced him recovered from this episode. He said that they don't officially diagnose asthma until about the age of 7, because that diagnosis follows the person forever, the life insurance and health insurance is higher. He also said a lot of kids have this reactive airway disorder, which means their lungs act like they have asthma and react to a cold or other triggers, but they are usually symptom free by the age of 7 or so. He said to go ahead and do a breathing treatment whenever he had a cough - that would be like his cough medicine and it would work better than Robitussin or anything like that (which you can't give to this age kid anyway.) So I only gave him one treatment before bed today. He was fine all morning but in the later afternoon he started coughing and getting really fussy again. He was really really cranky for about the past month or so, and really hard for me to deal with. Now I know he probably couldn't breathe and felt awful! Poor little guy. After his treatment he was great and played outside after supper for quite a while.

So you may remember my Deceptively Delicious post a few days before all this happened. I ordered the first Sneaky Chef book and it came today (I already have the second and really like it.) I got this one for $2 on Amazon used so I was pretty happy. They have some really great recipes in there too! One thing I tried today was called "breakfast ice cream." It was frozen strawberries, avocado, yogurt and honey. It really was the consistency of soft ice cream and it was delicious! A hit with everyone. I can't wait to try some other ones in there. I'll let you know how it goes.

Madeleine has been really interested in writing her letters lately. I picked up a first grade writing curriculum on freecycle today, which is really great, but it's a little old for her yet. Any advice on a 3 year old learning to write her letters?

And I recently hit the 12 week milestone with number 3, aka little Ice. I'm feeling mostly better - still a little sick in the evenings but throughout the day I'm mostly good. I've lost about 10 pounds total and I think I'm done losing and from now on, I'll be packing on the pounds. I have an ultrasound next Thursday and I'm really excited to see this new baby again. I've been so busy lately that half the time I forget I'm even pregnant!

Not that I really want to remember this

But I did take a few pictures.

This is what he looked like when I was waiting for Grandma to come home to get Madeleine before we took him to Urgent Care. Poor little Buddy.

Feeling better hanging out on Daddy's lap in his cute hospital gown.
This is what we did the majority of the time - hopefully this doesn't offend anyone ;)
He enjoyed the hospital food and box of vanilla soy milk.
He loved climbing in and out of his car seat in the room. Here he is waiting for Ken to come pick us up, since we rode the ambulance to the hospital, Ken's car (which was I was driving) was still at the Urgent Care. Ken brought him clothes since his outfit he wore to Urgent care was pretty dirty.
So he slept 11 hours last night and woke up feeling pretty good! He is still coughing and I continued his breathing treatments today, and he has 2 more days of steroids. But he seems to be getting back to his old self! It's great to see him with energy and playing with his sister, smiling and laughing. He's been super cranky for a few weeks and that was one of the symptoms in the packet they gave us about asthma. So maybe now that he can breathe better he'll be back to his old happy self. Thanks again for all the prayers.

Let's not do this again for a while.

John Paul and I spent the night in the hospital last night.

John Paul has had a cold/runny nose for about 4 weeks and couldn't kick it. So Tuesday I took him to his pediatrician (actually we saw the nurse practitioner) . She said she thought he had a sinus infection and put him on antibiotics AGAIN - 4th time in 4 months, and thought he might have allergies so she put him on zyrtec. He wasn't getting any better on either drug, and yesterday he woke up coughing quite a bit. We had planned on going to my cousin's house for a cookout about an hour north of here, so we went ahead and went. While we were there, he kept getting worse and worse, started wheezing and really having trouble breathing. I called the on-call nurse at our pediatrician and she told me to go to Urgent Care and he might need a breathing treatment. So we left and drove home to go to Urgent care. I dropped Madeleine off at mom's house and Ken had a wedding gig so he had to go set up. As soon as we got there, the waiting room was full but the nurse called me back immediately because she could hear how he was breathing and coughing. She took his shirt off and she and the doctor saw his chest, and the doctor told the nurse to get a breathing treatment and call 911. I felt like a terrible mother - I should have brought him earlier! I started crying :( I held him and gave him the treatment, then about 10 paramedics came in and started looking and listening to him. It was really scary for both of us! They went and got his car seat out of my car and strapped it right on the stretcher and we went in the ambulance to the hospital. When we got there he was still in distress so they gave him an hour long treatment. It was really hard to hold him still for that long! They also gave him an oral steroid and the doctors and nurses took a very complete history and listened and were very nice and helpful. He was improving but not enough to go home. He got a chest Xray and they said it and all his symptoms were consistent with asthma. They put some numbing cream on his hand just in case he had to get an iv, and brought him lots of toys to play with. They told us we would be spending the night so I called my dad and had him bring me a bag of stuff. I couldn't get a hold of Ken for several hours. He was on breathing treatments every 2 hours all night - and his oxygen kept dropping so they had to wake him up and give him oxygen, take his vitals, give him treatments it seemed like every 20 minutes, while I slept on the futon for midgets ;) By the morning he was doing much better, and they moved him to every 3 hour treatments and then every 4 hours. He was totally hyper from the "baby speed" aka albuterol, exhausted but couldn't sleep, but he really couldn't have been a better baby. All the nurses and doctors were gushing over how cute he is - lol. Madeleine stayed with my mom, we tried to have her spend the night at her house for the first time, but she refused to go to sleep so mom brought her home and put her in her own bed, and waited here for Ken until 1 am. Poor Mom!

Anyway, he is doing much better now, he's sleeping in his own bed. He is going to be on steroids for 3 more days, and the 4x a day albuterol treatments for a few more days, then he's supposed to see the pediatrician this week. He's also supposed to have some allergy testing done within the month. Right now I'm exhausted and sore and going to bed!

Deceptively Delicious!

We had a fantastic Memorial day weekend - Ken had 4 days off, we went to the zoo, my brother and sister in law and nephews were here, we did a lot of swimming. It was wonderful. Too bad my camera is in my car and I'm too lazy to go get it, or y'all could see some pictures. I'm sure my SIL has some wonderful pictures on her blog ;)

So instead, my post is about forcing my son to eat a vegetable. Madeleine has never been a picky eater. Sure, she's annoying at mealtimes - plays with her food, stalls, tells stories, bangs her fork, etc. But she eats anything I give her. She loves all kinds of vegetables, fruit, beans, tofu, fish, anything I give her, she eats. It's been pretty great. John Paul, however, is much pickier. He thinks the food groups consist of meat, carbs (bread and pasta), fruit, and his favorite... boobs ;) I have tried all kinds of ways to cook vegetables and serve vegetables but he is not into it. He'll chew on an artichoke leaf for a second and then he throws it on the floor. If I dare to put a piece of avocado in his mouth, he will take it out and throw it as hard as he can. Pretty much any vegetable I give him goes on the floor. So my friend gave me the idea to break out the Deceptively Delicious cookbook again - by Jessica Seinfeld. I have that book and also the Sneaky Chef to the Rescue, but never really used them much since Madeleine wasn't picky. The concept is making vegetable purees and sneaking them into kids' food. So I bought several different kinds of vegetables at the store yesterday and made a bunch of purees - butternut squash, carrot, spinach and broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini. And I've tried several recipes. Last night I made "buttered" noodles - with butternut squash. He ate his entire helping and half of mine! It was delicious! Then this morning I made them "green eggs" which is scrambled eggs with spinach puree. (I am not an egg fan, especially during pregnancy, so I didn't try them) but the kids both gobbled them up. For lunch I made grilled cheese with carrot puree, and both kids and I loved it. It really was good. So I am loving this - he's eaten more vegetables in the past day and a half than in the past month. I have a stock of purees in the fridge and freezer now too, so I'll be using those recipes a lot. Tomorrow I'm making pizza with some kind of veggie puree in the sauce, and probably the banana bread. This weekend I'm making either the chocolate chip cookies with garbanzo beans (SO good! - Ken's all time favorite cookie!) or the chocolate cupcakes for our cookout. I'm still serving vegetables on the side so he'll get used to them, but I feel better that he's actually eating some of them.

My life is much better now

Ken is home! He was gone for 3 days, home for 4 days, then gone for 6 days. He got home late last night and I'm SO glad.

So I had a doctor appointment on Friday - my first one. She gave me a huge bag of information - lol. She has 3 kids too and was telling me that 3 is a piece of cake. She is so reassuring I just LOVE her. I got a pap smear and blood work - so fun. She said she'd see me in a month, but then she said, "Unless you want to come back earlier...." The she said, "How about you come back in 2 weeks and we'll do an ultrasound?" Oh I LOVE her! Unfortunately I couldn't get an appointment and an u/s on the same day until June 17, but still. I'm excited.

I've been having a great time with Madeleine lately - we've been hanging out for a good hour and a half during John Paul's morning nap - playing outside, reading, doing art projects. One day we spent the entire nap lining up elaborate structures with dominoes and knocking them down. She loved that. I've also taken the kids to a few playgrounds - and our favorite splash park is now open. And we've spent some fun time in Grandma's pool. I can tell I'm going to LOVE summer with these two.

Setting the record straight.

I'm kind of getting over it now, but I was REALLY upset at some comments we got when we announced number 3 was on his/her way. I mean, come ON, number 3?

So here we go.

1. Yes. We know what causes "that." After 3 kids we finally figured it out.

(Excuse the vulgarity but I'm just answering actual questions we got for all the world to see.)

2. No, Ken is not going to start keeping "that thing" in his pants. He did that before we were married. He doesn't have to anymore.

3. Neither our math skills nor our sex ed skills are lacking, thank you very much. In fact we could teach a class. And Bonus, our "trusting in God's plan for our life skills" are doing just fine too.

Everything is good

The ultrasound was great today. The baby is measuring 9 weeks 4 days, and heart rate was 194! That is the highest of any of my babies so far. The bleed is still there, but she said it was fine and would probably get reabsorbed without me even knowing about it. The baby has arms and legs now and was wiggling around. So fun to see that!

I have my first actual doctor's appointment tomorrow (because they couldn't schedule me for an ultrasound tomorrow so I had to go 2 days in a row.) I love my doctor so it should be fun ;)

Ultrasound #2 tomorrow

I'm excited to check in on #3 again, and hopefully the bleed is fixing itself.

I'll try to post pics and/or a video tomorrow.

I am going to have a rough week for a reason I can't mention on here (yet). Please pray for me!

It's not all bad

I've lost 9 lbs in 5 days ;) No end in sight either. I guess this is the only way to lose my post pregnancy John Paul weight from a year ago - oh well!

Luckily my headache is much better, and I didn't even have to take tylenol today. Still really stuffy nose, still throwing up, but what can ya do. If my past pregnancies are any indication, I should only have a few more weeks of this. Unfortunately Ken is leaving me again for 6 days during that time. Not so happy about that. Plus we were supposed to go to Memphis for part of that time but now we can't. Who wants to come stay with me?? hahaha

I've got two knitted projects to work on - hopefully I can power through them and go back to my usual laying on the couch!

Survival mode

I've had a pretty miserable cold for about two weeks now. I figured it would be gone this weekend for sure, and one of my best friends from college was supposed to come tonight and spend the night and hang out with us tomorrow. Unfortunately right when Ken left for a business trip in Sunny Florida (which he so nicely sent me pictures of his ocean view and TWO shower heads), my cold turned into one of the worst sicknesses I can remember. My head hurt SO badly I could barely function, much less take care of everything myself with no husband to help me! The kids were lucky they got fed and bathed. On Thursday evening, every time I moved my head I would get a sharp shooting stabbing pain in my temple. In addition to this my nose and head was completely stuffed up. Not to mention morning sickness on top of all this. Luckily mom mom came to my rescue, coming over in the evening to put Madeleine to bed, and even cooking dinner for the kids and feeding them on Friday night while I laid on her couch. I finally called my ob on Friday morning to see what drugs I could take, because tylenol wasn't cutting it. She said from my description it sounded like I have a sinus infection, so she called me in some antibiotics, which she assured me were safe for everyone involved. I've lost about 6 lbs in 3 days, I feel dehydrated, and I'm SOOOO glad that Ken came home last night! He took care of the kids all morning while I rested.

I think the antibiotics are finally kicking in after 2 days, because although my head is still killing me, the edge is taken off. I'm pretty weak from not being able to eat and throwing up, but, I'm on the mend and hopefully will be in top shape for our road trip to Memphis this weekend ;)

If you're still reading after all this complaining - thanks and sorry about that! I did get to offer up some pretty bad pain and nausea for some big intentions, so hopefully that helped some of my friends.

In happier news, Cathy and Joe FINALLY had baby Drew - 15 days late and after 3 days of labor. He is adorable and perfect ;) Makes me excited - I get to do that in only 31 weeks! haha.

I get to go to another ultrasound on Thursday, because although last Friday they found a healthy baby with a strong heartbeat, I also have a subchorionic bleed like I did with John Paul, so they want to keep an eye on it. My doctor told me not to worry if I start bleeding (I certainly worried last time - I didn't know I had the bleed and ended up in the ER). I'm really glad I asked for the first ultrasound and that I get another one on Thursday.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for all the congratulations and support. We are excited! But more about number 3 later. Let's talk about D's visit to our house last week.
A friend this week said that I was brave (or maybe crazy) to have all these houseguests. I said, Heck, I don't have to entertain any of them! D is one of those friends that I'm just comfortable with - the best kind of friend. She must feel the same way.... ;)

I love love loved meeting baby Lucy! We've been praying for her since before she was conceived, and I got to meet her for the first time. I love her! She is such a sweet baby. I could have held her all week. We tried to get a picture of us, but Lucy was sleeping and John Paul was NOT cooperating...

and apparently Madeleine was picking her nose...

We got to get all the little baby stuff out for Lucy's visit - the cradle, the swing, the baby bathtub, and everyone's favorite.... the bouncy seat.

Everyone's favorite.

And I do mean everyone. If Lucy wasn't in it, someone else was.

Lucy really like Madeleine and John Paul - they're pretty entertaining to watch, I have to say!

John Paul loves his Godmother

The weather cooperated nicely and we got to go on a few walks. This was was just around the neighborhood.
This was when we walked down the Monon trail - I took the kids in the stroller and D carried Lucy in the Baby Bjorn. Can you tell where we went?
We walked down to a really cute candy store, where Madeleine and John Paul got thoroughly spoiled before supper.

Is this picture going to look great in their wedding slide show, or what??

Sorry D, this was my favorite picture that we took this weekend - Hm... what is that Bud going for?

We had such a great time, and thank you D so much for facing your fear of flying - with a baby especially! - and bringing Lucy to us! We love you and had such a great time! And also thank you for coming to my ultrasound (Jenny too) - that really meant a lot to have you there. You guys are the best!

:-)

Brainstorm with me

So I am helping to teach a little class (Parenting 101) at our local home for unwed mothers. My friend who works there says that the moms think that sitting with the kids and watching TV is interacting with them. We're having a meeting tomorrow to discuss what we'll teach. My idea is to give the moms a huge list of fun things to do with their kids, so if they have time they can look at the list and get some ideas. Here is my list so far:

read a book
eat a meal together
go outside and play catch or swing
play a game like Chutes and Ladders or Candyland
do a puzzle together
draw a picture
paint
go to a bookstore or library and read some new books
go on a picnic, even if it's in the backyard
turn on some music and dance and play instruments
tell a story from your childhood
make up a story - and let the kid make up parts
Thumb wrestle
play rock, paper scissors
draw a letter on your child's back and see if they can guess
try on your jewelry together
play I spy
pick a number between 1 and 10
count by 1s, 2s, 3s, 5s 10s
do some nursery rhymes, with or without hand motions
say, "tell me 3 things you did today"
hide something in a hand and have them guess the hand
ask for favorites, tv show, animal, color, movie, thing to do outside
go for a walk together
go get ice cream together
play Simon says
take a class together
go to the nature center at Cool Creek
go on a hike together
stickers
playdoh
get a book at the library on simple crafts for little kids
play hide and seek
let them help you make something in the kitchen
make a paper airplane
find a large cardboard box and make a fort or house
blow bubbles
play in the sprinkler
catch fireflies
color a picture
go to a park
find some ducks and feed them
free movies at Regal in the summer - Tuesdays and Wednesdays
go play at a toy store
bake cookies
make a scrapbook
play freeze tag
write a letter to a family member or friend
create a treasure hunt - leaving things around the house or yard
make and eat a popsicle
fly a kite
create an obstacle course
paint each other's faces
play with water balloons
look for bugs in the yard
play school
play house
do shadow puppets
take turns saying tongue twisters
build stuff with legos or blocks


So what else do you have for me? I know you all have wonderful ideas! Also any other ideas about what to teach at the Parenting 101 class? Most of the moms have infants and young toddlers.

Thanks in advance!

In one week

John Paul went from mostly crawling to mostly walking! He is walking everywhere now, and he is really good at it! I hardly worry about him falling at all. He seems to be really coordinated. It's really interesting to see the difference between the two kids. Madeleine didn't start walking until about 15 months, but she was saying about 100 words at that time. John Paul only says maybe 10 words, (and still mostly Mama and Tee Tat) but he is a super walker at 12 months.

Pray for my friend Cathy - she is 2 days past her due date! :)