Indiana State Fair 2010

What a great time we had! We left early and skipped John Paul's morning nap, so here's what he looked like for the first hour. Love him!
Madeleine was so excited she could hardly sleep last night. She woke up ready to go!

Now for the highlight of Madeleine's day....

Look at that face! The kid was THRILLED beyond belief to get to ride this elephant at the state fair today! I don't look as thrilled. I spent the entire time figuring out what I was going to do if/when that poor excuse for a safety bar fell straight off the elephant and took us with it. Luckily we made it out alive, and Madeleine talked about it for the rest of the day!

Today was one of the free admission days - from a coupon in the paper on Monday, so we decided to brave the heat and go for the day. Mom and our friend Dominic went with us. We had all kinds of great food - most of it on sticks! John Paul enjoyed the corn the most. We also had corn dogs, a big frozen white chocolate mocha (the coffee content was questionable!), an elephant ear, butterscotch popcorn, deep fried pickles with ranch, and a delicious lemon shake-up. YUM. Thank God I'm well into the second trimester and finally feeling better! We skipped the deep fried butter, deep fried Pepsi, and the Krispy Kreme Donut Burger.

There was a little kids area with lots of stuff to climb on, trucks to play with, slides to ride and they even had putt putt. My kids enjoyed getting out of their strollers and running around for a while.
Since we just finished reading Charlotte's Web, Madeleine was really looking forward to seeing all the animals we read about in the book. We were not disappointed. We saw pigs, sheep, chickens, goats, ducks, geese, rabbits, and numerous others. Madeleine was just a tad disappointed we didn't see a rat like Templeton. Me? Not so much.

Buddy really liked petting the animals too. He kept pointing at the sheep and saying, "Mooooo!" I told him that sheep don't say Moo, - then one of them said "Moo!"

The kids went RIGHT to sleep tonight! I might be headed to bed myself soon ;)

Fun day over here.

Saturday morning we had a big fat leak from the drain by the water heater in our pantry. We think someone around here might have flushed something down the toilet downstairs. So when I was in the shower, the kitchen was being flooded. Also we found some water in the front entry way and the carpet in the family room. We cleaned it up as fast as we could, and called a plumber who came out and cleared the drain.

This morning Ken came downstairs and saw that the beautiful NEW laminate floor was buckled up in the kitchen. Soooo sad. We thought maybe it was a small area in the kitchen and we had enough to fix it. A few hours later, the damage had spread to the playroom and dining room. We called a guy out to give us an estimate and check the damage. He came this afternoon and gave us the bad news. ALL the floor and the carpet has to be replaced. In the entire downstairs. The vinyl has to come up under the laminate and dried out with dehumidifiers and fans. Also the drywall behind the couch, and in the hall closet is wet, in addition to the padding under the carpet. He said we should get the carpet pulled up and started drying it as soon as possible. The estimate is in the thousands of dollars. So we had to file a claim with the insurance company. He's supposed to get back to us in a day or two. IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING!

Anyone want 3 1/2 visitors for a few days while the floor and carpet gets replaced? Cause we are NOT staying here!

Prayer Buddy Reveal

I had the honor of praying for Always Giving Thanks this summer. I hadn't seen her blog before but I was happy to discover that she was pregnant after infertility! So I could definitely relate. We aren't too far apart in our pregnancies either. I had a LOT to offer up for her and her baby and husband - being sick for weeks and two hospital visits ;)

I would have gotten to meet her if Jenny had called me! In fact, she almost said, "Oh, I should call your prayer buddy!" lol Maybe next time they're in town!

Anyway, now I can start commenting on her blog - I held myself back so she wouldn't get suspicious ;)

You can count on my continued prayers!

Mama loves

Some pigtails!

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Recent happenings

I had a great surprise this week, Meredith from Leaning on Grace was in town and stopped by to see us! It was so great to meet her - we've been reading each other's blogs since I was pregnant with Madeleine - over 3 1/2 years. They only got to stay for an hour or so, but it was great. Thanks so much for coming Meredith!


The Bud's vocabulary has exploded in the past few days. Ken was in DC for a business trip and got back late last night, and even he noticed that he's talking much better.

The other day we were at Grandma's house, and all of a sudden he said, "Grandma, blow bubbles!" He is trying to say just about any word we ask him to. Yesterday we were at dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I told Madeleine she had to take 3 more bites. Grandma gave her a bite and said, "One...." and John Paul said "Two....." then grinned really big. Surprised us all!

Madeleine and I are doing great with her reading lessons. She asks to do it every morning, and LOVES the stories. We're on lesson 47 and I can't believe how well she's reading. She sits up in her bed and sounds out words from her library books for hours until it gets too dark. We are enjoying John Paul's morning nap times together - we do lessons, then sometimes art projects and almost always go outside and play before it gets too hot. Today I introduced a Nature Notebook. It's a sketchbook I had - we found some interesting flowers and leaves in the yard and tried to draw them as accurately as possible. We looked at the veins in the leaves and the details in the petals of the flowers. She LOVED this and told Ken about it at supper.

This is the first week in this pregnancy (week 21) that I've felt pretty normal. It's fabulous ;) I'm even ALMOST up to my pre-pregnancy weight. I had my monthly appointment on Wednesday, and I took both kids. They did great, except Bud freaked out when I was up on the table. The doc had to get him and hand him to me, he laid on my chest while she measured me and listened to baby boy's heartbeat. I asked her if she thought I could go to Alabama for Thanksgiving - at 37 weeks. She said she'd check me and see how dilated I was at that point. Since I was 3 cm dilated at 37 weeks with both kids, I'm thinking it's not going to happen. She said if we DO go, she'd send my labs with me and we should bring the infant carseat! She also offered to induce me a week early if I wanted - which is tempting at that time of the year, but I doubt if I'll do that. She said the third can come quick. ;)

20 weeks

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This kid better be a priest.

So yesterday Madeleine and I had plans to drive up to her Godparents' lake house, about an hour and a half away, and spend some time with them, go on her first boat ride, go swimming, etc. My mom was going to watch John Paul all day for me. I was SOOOOO excited! Madeleine was so excited too - to have some one on one time with me.

Unfortunately.... it didn't happen. I've been having some pretty bad stomach issues for a few weeks now, and I feel like I just can't get them under control. I have a bunch of stuff out on the counter when I need it - Tums, Gas-X, Zantac, Immodium. Half the time I don't know which one to even take - everything hurts. So I woke up at 5 in the morning yesterday having contractions! Obvious, regular contractions that started around every 10-15 minutes apart and got closer to 5 minutes apart. Pretty scary for being 20 weeks pregnant. I got up, walked around, came downstairs and checked my email, drank some water, took some tums, etc. I threw up, then tried to take some Immodium cause I needed that too (Sorry, TMI!) Bud got up, then Ken got up and I tried to get in the shower, hoping I'd be ok and they'd go away. Ken left at 7:30 and I texted him about 5 minutes later to come home, something was not right. I also texted my mom and asked her to come now instead of 8. She came right away, and Ken came home. We went to the emergency room, and they sent me up to Labor and Delivery. They said I was dehydrated and gave me an IV. I decided to wait 30 minutes to see if the fluids would stop the contractions instead of taking the medicine to stop them, since I'm still nursing Bud. They started to decrease in frequency, and they gave me another bag of fluids after that. We spent the entire morning there, but by the time we left at 12:30 I wasn't having any more contractions. The baby's heartbeat sounded good too.

I left with strict instructions to rest, drink a ton of fluids, eat the BRATTY diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast, Tea, and Yogurt), and to make sure I didn't get overheated or get a sunburn. So I guess it's probably a good thing we didn't go to the lake on the hottest day of the summer - I think it got to 102 degrees here yesterday. But still, I was really disappointed that we missed it.

This is the second time I've been dehydrated like this in what, 3 weeks? I have GOT to get this under control and start drinking more. I just want my body to do what it's supposed to - and feel like I'm back to normal. BUT, this gave me opportunities to offer up some prayer intentions, and I know that, God willing, I'll get a sweet baby boy out of all this. It's definitely worth all the trouble and I'd do it again. Several times!

Thanks mom and Ken for helping me out, and thanks for all the prayers!

Oh and I just saw that I missed a Doctrinal Quiz Show! I knew that answer too!

Brotherly love

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Hanging with the Godparents

Madeleine's godparents, Jeff and Donna, have been in town all week. They were supposed to stay with us but unfortunately their daughter got sick and they weren't able to. We still got to hang out with them a little though, and had a great time!

Jeff with Big John Paul and Little John Paul

Madeleine with her Godparents (they have their work cut out for them!)

Last night we had a big party for Donna, who is turning 40 in a week! We had so much fun, even though Ken couldn't make it - he was working like crazy this week. There was tons of great food, lots of kids to play with, great friends, a swingset and a sandbox. The kids partied a little too hard! John Paul was caked in sand and popsicle juice, and Fr. Dan sprinkled him with holy water (he needed it!)
Madeleine got to sit with Jenny, Doug, and Fr. Dan, who fed her anything she wanted - Doritos, rice krispie treats (or Ice Christmas Trees, as she calls them), cake, popsicles, etc.
This morning she woke up and said her tummy didn't feel "berry well." (Yeah, no wonder!) I asked her if she wanted anything to eat or drink. She said, "Juice always helps tummies, and it goes good with cake!" Yeah, she was fine.

Nursing bunnies

Ok I know, two posts in one night!

Conversation we heard over Madeleine's monitor:

M: Daddy! Can you get my bunnies? They're on my train table!
(They're two tiny Calico Critters bunnies.)

Daddy brings them up to her.

A few minutes later:

M: Daaaaaddy! The bunnies were thirsty and the first one is drinking my milk out of my belly! (She thinks John Paul drinks out of my "belly buttons.")

A few minutes later:

M: Daaaaaddy!!!! Do you want to come see the first bunny drinking out of my tummy?

Daddy goes up there and she's nursing her bunnies with her outie belly button.

M: Daddy! The bunnies were thirsty and I didn't have any water up here, so they choose the milk from my belly button!

Shots

I hate shots.

Friday there was a floater nurse who really scared John Paul. By the time she came back to give him his shots he was screaming and hanging onto me and thrashing so much I could barely get him to lay on the table. The nurse wasn't even strong enough to hold him and get the shots in his leg. One leg she did ok, then in the second leg he got two shots. She jabbed one in and he was thrashing around and the needle was moving all around in his muscle - it looked really painful. I'm seriously not even sure he got the shot. I'm not really worried about that, but he got a huge, red bruise and knot in that leg. It's even bigger and purple today. It's not affecting his walking or anything, but I'm wondering if I should call the doc tomorrow and say maybe that nurse doesn't know what she's doing? I mean seriously, I don't think she deals with kids at all. The regular nurses there are great at it and we've never had a problem. He's also had all these shots 3 times before and never had this issue. It just makes me mad.

Hero

First Quick Takes

I've never done this and I'm not registering it, since I like to keep my blog relatively hidden, but for my faithful readers, here goes. I assume it's just 7 random things I'm thinking? Cause that's what I'm going to write about.

1. Bud has his 15 month appointment today. He's skinny at 21 lbs, 25th percentile. Just like my other kid. I asked about his screaming habit - he even gave the doc a show firsthand. He screams whenever he gets his way. (*oops! updated - he screams whenever he doesn't get his way, wants something, or just generally feels like screaming. Like when we're in church.) The doc said he's "assertive" and it's a good quality for later in life.

2. I bought the first set of Bob Books for Madeleine today. She was able to read the first TWO books all by herself! She is doing so well with her reading book. I'm proud of her and proud of myself! I'm teaching my 3 year old to read! It's pretty amazing. She's now picking out words of books that she knows and sounding them out.

3. We are reading Charlotte's Web together. She wants me to read several chapters per day. I'm really surprised that she's so into it, the words are really big, and there are hardly any pictures. But she loves it. We only have about 3 chapters left, and Charlotte's not looking good. I'm kind of nervous how she's going to react when, you know.....

4. If any of you have any suggestions for the next chapter book I can read to her, let me know! I heard on the radio the other day that the average teenager now only understands and uses hundreds of words instead of thousands like they should. I also read in a book that it's really good to read Chapter books to preschoolers so they hear words and then recognize them later. Also it's good for them to listen to books on tape for that same reason. So I got Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories" from the library and dug out our old tape player, and let the kids listen to them while they do their art projects. (Madeleine on painting and John Paul on throwing crayons on the floor and occasionally writing something on his paper.)

5. I used to play guitar and piano pretty well, and I have been missing it lately. I have barely touched an instrument since I was pregnant with Madeleine. I think it's time to get the guitar out and learn some songs to sing with the kids.

6. Madeleine's godmother and her two youngest kids are coming from Florida next week and staying with us for 3 days - I can't wait! Also her 40th birthday party is Friday. If anyone local is reading this and wants to come - let me know and I'll give you the info.

7. We got our Parish Picture Directory the other day and I looked through the whole thing - John Paul is the ONLY John Paul in the Church! We have a huge Church too. There was one Juan Pablo but I can live with that ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Busy week

So this week I crashed a funeral of someone I never met, went to Ken's 20 year high school reunion (I was 10 when he graduated), took Madeleine to the doctor for her peeing everywhere, took myself to the doctor for having contractions after having been kicked accidentally in the stomach, and tomorrow I'm taking John Paul to the doctor.

The funeral was my mom's best friend from grade school's mom. My grandma and Aunt drove up from Alabama for it too, and my Aunt and cousin drove down from Michigan. It was really great to see them AND to meet my mom's friend again, whom I hadn't seen since I was 21 months old and she babysat for me while my mom went to the hospital to have my brother.

Ken's reunion was in serious need of an event planner. It was supposed to be a family picnic, indoor/outdoor, with face painting and games, etc. It was supposed to be from 12:30-5. We had decided to get there at 12:30 and hopefully only stay for an hour, eat, see some people and get home for naps. Unfortunately, we got there and drove around for 30 minutes before we even saw anyone. It was 95 degrees and extremely humid out. At one point Madeleine had to get out of the car and pee in the grass behind the school. (She said, "I'm so excited to go pee pee in the grass!") We finally saw some people congregating around the door around 1. We put the starving, tired kids in the double stroller, hoping to have lunch, and then proceeded to take an HOUR LONG tour of the non air-conditioned school. John Paul pretty much cried the entire time. Then we went outside under this concrete canopy and they took several class pictures. It was pouring down rain so they finally went to get the boxed lunches and we all ate, standing up, under the canopy. We finally got home around 3 and everyone slept till 5:30.

Madeleine has been totally potty trained since December, with almost zero accidents, and never an accident at night. So in the past few weeks when she started peeing everywhere, I got a little concerned. I decided to call the doctor and see what he said. The nurse thought she might have a bladder infection and we haven't got those test results back yet. But the doctor said most likely she is going through a developmental stage where she doesn't listen to her body's signals and then her bladder wins out every time. He said just make sure we're reminding her to go and making her sit on the potty during the day, and possibly have her wear pull ups at night for a while. I told her that if she peed in her bed again, she was going to start wearing pull ups to bed. Hm... she hasn't had an accident since.

So yesterday afternoon, the kids and I went swimming and Madeleine accidentally kicked me hard in the stomach. It hurt but I thought I was fine. This morning at 5:30 I woke up having severe cramping that felt like contractions. I was a little scared but got up and they kind of went away. Then when I got up for the morning again they started up again. It hurt so bad I could hardly stand up. So I called the doctor and she wanted me to come in and get hooked up to a monitor for awhile to check on contractions and the baby. I decided to go in at 3, since that was best for us (we got naps in) and my mom who babysat the kids. By then I was feeling much better but decided to go anyway. I had no contractions and he had a very strong heartbeat (actually the first nurse couldn't even find his heartbeat for 10 minutes, and had to call another nurse in, who found it immediately. That was fun.) So I'm glad everything is ok. She said that the kick could have caused the contractions and I should take it easy for a few days. Oh I also had THE. WORST. HEARTBURN I've ever experienced last night. I took several tums and they didn't do a thing. I finally took a zantac, and another one at 2:30 am, and that helped. Man, that was no fun. Hopefully this kid is getting all his high maintenance stuff out now, and he'll be the perfect child when he's born. A girl can dream, right?

John Paul goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 15 month appointment. Then I think we'll take it easy for the rest of the day.

3 Pet Peeves

1. Commercials that are way louder than the show I'm watching.

2. When my kid, who has been totally potty trained since December, begins peeing randomly places she shouldn't. When asked why she replies, "because I want to." It especially peeves me when she does it in her car seat.

3. When people, especially people hacking up a lung, kiss my baby's hands. They put their disgusting mouths on his hands and then of course he puts them right in his mouth. So I'm kind of a germophobe but GROSS.

OK it felt good to get that out. Have a great weekend!

(Thanks Leila for the graphic!)

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.