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More Eat Bob     Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:06 pm

We've almost made it through a week of semi-bed rest and I think we're starting to figure it out. It's actually kind of hard to remember not to do things you're used to doing all the time, especially when you feel fine most of the time. I keep trying to grab the vacuum or pick something up (like Josiah). And I've been telling myself for months that as soon as the weather was pretty I'd start walking with Josiah again. I almost loaded him up in the car today and then remembered that's off limits. It was too pretty to stay inside so we sat on the sidewalk playing with rocks and worms. I never thought that would be what I called a fun day...maybe it's the hormones. Josiah thought about starting the terrible twos a little early when I suddenly refused to pick him up. We spent the end of last week with a pretty moody kid who was trying to find ways to let us know he was upset. Thankfully he doesn't have much practice in looking for ways to be really bad so his attempts were fairly tame, but I was beginning to worry. After a pretty trying day Philip came home and asked how things were going...at the same moment that Josiah decided to grab his box of baby oatmeal and start slinging it around the kitchen. I thought that summed up the day very well. He has since resigned himself to the fact that I can't pick him up and I've resigned myself to the fact that that means I spend a huge part of my day sitting on the floor so he can crawl on me. It's actually forced me to pay him my undivided attention, which is a good thing. As our friends have heard what's going on we've been overwhelmed by the offers of help. I've lost track of how many people are willing to take Josiah, cook for us or even clean the house. Several friends have already set up dinners for us the next couple weeks and are ready to continue if needed. I stink at accepting help. It's humbling and uncomfortable, but it's amazing to see how God is taking care of us and teaching me something about pride in the process. We had the first of our donated dinners tonight so I didn't have to do much except stick it in the oven, but Josiah wasn't interested in coming inside for even 5 minutes to let me get it going. There were rocks to play with, for crying out loud! I managed to convince him he wanted to come with me because Bob the Tomato was part of dinner (we had a spaghetti pie...very yummy by the way!). For those of you unfamiliar with Bob, he's a character on Veggie Tales and the only one Josiah likes. Perhaps I shouldn't have used this tactic because Josiah decided he ONLY wanted to eat the tomatoes on the pie. As we tried to coax him to eat something a little more filling he kept saying 'More, eat Bob.' Sure am glad Bob isn't a cookie. PS Somehow I managed to get through this post without mentioning how awesome Philip has been. He's been great about picking up all the slack as I lay around. We're keeping him pretty busy around here and he never complains. Awesome as usual. ( 2 Comments )

Rest, rest and more rest     Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:50 pm

Philip and I got back from our 'babymoon' yesterday and, boy, was it wonderful! We got to stay up late, sleep in late, eat when we wanted and just generally be big bums. Josiah had a great time with Nanny and Papa and (equally important) Nanny and Papa seemed to have a good time and weren't exhausted. Thank you so much! As it turns out, it's a good thing we took our trip when we did because I wouldn't have been allowed to leave town if we'd waited. We had our 5th ultrasound when we got back and got some good and not so good news. Gracie is growing just fine. In fact, she's about a pound heavier than she should be at this point. However, my cervix is much thinner than it should be right now which means the chances of making it all the way to her due date are pretty slim. We are currently at 31 weeks and the doctor said we need to do everything we can to keep her in there until at least 34 weeks when the chance of her lungs being well developed goes way up. He seemed pretty confident that we should make it that far, but I've got to cut way back on my activity level. No more working out, no unnecessary walking, no picking up Josiah and I've got to lay flat for 2 hours a day. We go back for a check up next week to make sure this is slowing things down. Thankfully Josiah takes pretty reliable naps so I'll be using those to make sure I get enough rest. I have to admit, my first reaction was to worry, but since that will do no good I'm trying to find the positives in this. So far I've come up with being able to rest more, having an excuse to skip workouts, being pretty sure I won't have another 8 pound kiddo, getting out of cleaning up the garden for spring and having an opportunity to strengthen my faith as I trust that God will take care of us. One of the verses that popped out at me this past weekend was Psalm 37:8b...do not fret--it leads only to evil. So here's to resting and not fretting! PS The picture is from this past weekend. It's actually the only picture we took. I managed to catch my popcorn on fire in the microwave and my lovely husband snuck around to a spare bedroom window to take this picture and laugh at me. Love you sweetie! ( 1 Comments )

Not Quite As Bumpy     Sat, 5 Apr 2008 08:57 pm

Ok, figured it was time for a new bump picture (I'm pretty sure we're past bump and into mountainous now), so here goes. Actually, as we looked through some old pictures last night Philip found one from Josiah's pregnancy and mentioned I wasn't THAT big yet. Only later did I realize it was taken at about 7 months, which is exactly where we are in this pregnancy. I can't figure out how I can gain more this time around and not be as big as last time. I don't suppose it matters because I still feel pretty much like an elephant. An elephant with someone kicking it from inside who has to pee a lot. Nanny and Papa arrived tonight and Philip and I head out tomorrow after lunch for our no-kid-for-3-days vacation. I have visions of sleeping till noon and going to the bathroom by myself. Philip will give me privacy, but I know I'm kidding myself about the sleep. Besides getting up 6 times a night to use the bathroom and waking up every hour to turn over I've added not being able to sleep from about 2-4am. Philip woke up last night thinking someone had broken into the house...and turned on the light...and started scrapbooking in the kitchen. I think the scrapbooking part tipped him off that it was me. So maybe I won't come back well rested, but I'm still really looking forward to some time alone with Philip. ( No Comments Yet )

Gracie Update and It's a Hard Life     Thu, 3 Apr 2008 10:39 am

Many of you won't access this for several more days because our power supply is shot and keeps killing the router, but the replacement supply is in the mail so hopefully we'll be fixed soon. We just got back from a checkup and Gracie seems a little small. It's hard to tell if she's just sitting low or is actually smaller than expected. Sooooo....ultrasound number 5 is scheduled for next week. I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks now and there's a chance my body is pushing her down with those, but we just can't tell until the next ultrasound. Her heartbeat was fine and we seem to be doing ok so far. I'm hoping she's not as high maintenance after birth as she's being right now. Josiah has been having a rough few days because of his insistence on going everywhere 'fast.' He fell into a pew at church on Sunday (because he was running around after church) and the pew won. He's got a scrape by his eye from that one. Then tonight he was going so 'fast' that his feet flew out from under him and, according to Philip, he belly flopped on the floor. Unfortunately his belly wasn't the only thing that flopped and he ended up with his first fat lip. As active as he is he falls or gets his hands or toes squished quite a bit and immediately wants to be held and asks for a kiss. If it's something big he'll ask for several until he looks up at us and says, 'all better' and jumps down so he can do it again. The kisses on his toes are getting especially interesting for me...Gracie is making it a little hard to bend over that far and Josiah insists you get the kiss in the right place. ( No Comments Yet )

There's a Rumor     Wed, 2 Apr 2008 07:56 pm

According to some of the girls I work with at AWANAs, there's a rumor going around that I might be pregnant, so they're praying for me. I wonder what tipped them off...my enormous belly or the saltines I carried around for months. Third graders are so funny. We had the 4th ultrasound for Gracie yesterday and everything looks great. Although she was still trying to hide out, she's getting big enough that she couldn't hide her head well anymore so we got a pretty clear view and she looks perfect. She has fat cheeks and because she insists on keeping her face pressed against my uterus, she has a pig nose (this isn't permanent, but is funny looking). It looks a great deal like a little kid smushing their face against a window. So much for a great face shot we can put in the baby book. Come to think of it, she doesn't even have a baby book yet, so I guess we should put that on the to-get list. Josiah is doing fine and working on his 4th ear infection since October. Antibiotics are awesome! He was struggling through a nasty cold and I'm pretty sure a tooth is moving, so he was miserable Monday before we could get into the doctor. We spent a good part of the day in the rocking chair where he fell asleep on me, trapping my arm so I couldn't change the channel from PBS kids programs for almost 2 hours. Combine that with the fact that I have to go to the bathroom every half hour and it was a painful experience, but oddly peaceful too. He's pretty much back to normal and looking forward to playing outside this afternoon (we're supposed to hit the 50s!). Well, he just quieted down for his nap and I have a ton to do. I have a long list of things to get done before Gracie comes and never enough time to make much of a dent in it. With only 2 months left to go the time will fly...off to clean! ( No Comments Yet )

Toby the Mac     Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:42 am

Josiah's language explosion is continuing and he cracks us up every day with the new phrases he learns. We met Philip for lunch this week and he fell asleep on the way home...translation: no nap=a really long afternoon and night. It was snowing again so I knew I had to come up with interesting stuff to do inside so I decided to see if he'd help me clean. He's been in 'helper' mode lately (he loves putting away his tupperware and all the silverware) so he 'helped' me clean the fans, light fixtures, nightstand, and vacuum the floors and couches. We had our loud cleaning music on and were taking dancing breaks occasionally. After dinner he had to show Philip how he danced...by climbing on the step ladder we'd been using to clean the fans, head banging and singing "Toby the Mac, Toby the Mac, Toby the Mac." He knew he was being funny so he'd stop every once in awhile and laugh and then go at it again. (For those of you not familiar with Toby Mac, he's a Christian singer who gets played very loudly in this house on cleaning days) See Video here. Josiah's language is changing so quickly right now that it keeps surprising our friends when they see him. I like to think he's a genius, but I suppose most kids go through something like this at about 1.5-2 years old. He's counting up to 5 now and we're up to 'C' in the ABC song. We regularly pray for the letters 'A' and 'O'...don't know why he picks those, but they seem to make him happy. He's started that funny thing where he will tell you whole stories in which only 2 or 3 words near the end are recognizable, but it's obvious it all means something important to him. With all this expression has come a downside...the dreaded on-the-floor temper tantrum. We've had a few here at the house and we're hoping that by ignoring him until he's calmed down we can discourage him. I suppose if that doesn't work we'll try another tactic, but for now I have to try to pretend like nothing is weird when I have to cook lunch straddling a wiggling, screaming child who insists on laying right in front of the stove. I'm dreading the day this happens in public and I turn into 'that mom.' Gracie is continuing to grow and has been a little more active lately. Although he still doesn't understand what's about to happen, Josiah knows we talk about 'baby Gracie' a lot and he's starting to get in on it. We were playing the 'How big is Josiah?' game yesterday and I started asking him how big other family members were (everyone is 'so big'). When we got to Gracie he looked a little stumped so I told him she's 'so little' and made the hand motions for it. He thought that was very funny and has been repeating it ever since. Well, time to get ready for barnyard day. The local bank is bringing in animals for the kids to see today. We visited the baby chicks yesterday (who are also 'so little') and get to freeze our tushies off this morning seeing the rest of the barnyard. It should be fun. By the way, only one snow drift left in the yard! Yea! ( 1 Comments )

Our Little Butternut Squash     Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:53 pm

According to the email updates I get about Gracie's development she is about 2.5 pounds, 15 inches long and the size of a butternut squash. She is certainly active, although not as much as her brother was at this stage. I'm relatively certain she will come out looking like a golf ball because her brother is still very active and manages to throw himself into my belly quite often, probably denting this poor baby all up. She has about 11 more weeks until she's done, which is exciting and terribly scary too. I have no idea how to take care of two little people, I just know I have to do it. The sippy cup has been found. After a day of watery messes Josiah came walking up with it in his hands...I have no idea where he found it and he refused to let me in on the secret. I'm just glad it's back. A couple weeks ago I was 'tagged' on another friends' blog to tell 7 random facts about myself and I'm just getting around to it, so here goes... Although chocolate tastes great I do not understand many of my friends fascination with it. Forget the chocolate and give me gummy bears, jelly beans and Twizzlers any day. Life is good when you can have tan toes. I like having paint on my hands. I reminds me all day that I got to do something creative. One of my favorite things to do is take walks in the evening with Philip. Some day I want to go to Portugal. I'm insanely picky about meat and refuse to eat sausage. I have a Master's degree, but spend my day changing diapers, cleaning up Cheerio crumbs and pointing out big trucks and tractors. And I wouldn't change it for the world. ( 1 Comments )

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