Two More

I just had to add these two pictures because I thought they were so cute. I mean....who wouldn't think these boys were cute!
Here are Baby Nick and Joey showing off their spoils of the Easter Egg hunt. They were almost equal....Joey got seven, and Nick got five. I think that is fairly fair.
(You will notice that Joey has one sleeve rolled up and one not. He wanted to show everybody in the nursery his tattoo....so he spent the day looking lopsided.)

Easter Egg Hunt

The potatoes are on the stove....I have a few more minutes. Here are some pictures of the Easter Egg Hunt. Nick just called....he's going to miss dinner. Bummer.
Nick is getting a purple egg out of his shoe.
And a green egg off the couch.
Bubba looks absolutely ecstatic to get a purple egg off the gate.
And showing some flexibility getting a yellow egg off the pedals on the piano.

Happy Easter

Christ is risen!! He is risen indeed! What a joyous day to celebrate. We have had a good day so far. We got up, not too early, but with enough time to enjoy Easter baskets before church. This was the first time we did Easter baskets for the boys and Joey especially, was very excited.

Then the boys and I went to church and enjoyed a good service. We came home, had lunch, and took a good nap. I started to take a nap with the boys, but then Nick woke me up to tell me that he had to go to work since he is on call. Of course, he is on call for a week at a time and never gets a call until it is a holiday and we want to spend some special time as a family.

Even though Nick was gone, I set up an Easter Egg Hunt in the house (as the outside is still frozen) and the boys had their first Easter Egg hunt. Joey had a blast, saying that it was the best Easter egg hunt ever! (Did I mention that it was his first ever?) I showed Baby Nick where each egg was, and he enjoyed placing them, not so gently, into his basket. Thankfully only one cracked a little. We are planning on egg salad sandwiches for the next few days to get rid of them. Unfortunately...I don't like eggs! So, the boys and Nick will have to finish them off quickly.

We are making a fabulous dinner. The menu for the night is prime rib, cheddar bacon smashed potatoes, Cesar salad, and biscuits. For dessert, we will take the easy road and have a frozen banana cream pie! The prime rib is in the oven, I need to get started on peeling potatoes in a minute, and Nick is once again, gone at work. Hopefully, he will have a few minutes to eat dinner with us later.
Just to share a few pictures with you. Here are the Easter baskets awaiting the boys.
Joey was super excited to get his basket. They are very little; just a pair of new pajamas, a chocolate bunny, a bendy straw (they love straws), and eight pieces of candy.
Baby Nick was also fascinated by his basket. He especially liked the grass. After the egg hunt, the grass quickly made its new home in the garbage can so he couldn't throw it all over the house.
It took me five tries to get a descent picture of the two of them together in their Easter clothes. This was probably the best out of all of them.
Here is one of the failed attempts. I can't get Nick to stand still and not try to be all up in the camera! I kept this picture to show off just for the goofiness of it.

I will post the egg hunt pictures in a little bit....but I have got to get started on the potatoes!

Silliness In The Luty House

There is never a lack of entertainment in the Luty house. The boys are always doing something to put a smile on my face. Joey has begun picking out his own clothes (its about time, I know.) So far, he has been fairly wise about his choices. The first day he picked out Papa Buddy pants and a knit sweater. He was very stylish!
Speaking of style, Bubba found a pair of my nylons and has been experimenting different uses and different ways of wearing them. Here, of course, is the headdress way of wearing them. I have never tried wearing nylons this way, but it sure looks a lot more comfortable than the conventional way!
Today, he discovered the "proper" way to wear nylons. I think he looks great with his "Steve" shirt and nylons on. He calls this shirt his "Steve" shirt because it is similar to the one Steve is wearing in the one picture we have of him. Steve is my future brother-in-law and we are all very excited to have him join the family.
I took this picture to show how baggy the nylons are on him. It reminds me of a book we had when I was young called "The Saggy-Baggy Elephant" (or something like that.)
This is Joey's newest addition to his "style." Daddy put this temporary tattoo on his arm, acquired in a happy meal, and Joey hasn't gotten over it sense. The first thing he said was that he was going to show it to everybody in the nursery at church. Oh great! I have a inkling that it will be all washed off in the bath before church, though. Any time he talked to anyone on the phone today, the first thing he mentioned was his new pirate tattoo.
And, of course, Baby Nick was jealous that Bubba was getting all the pictures, so he had to get one himself. However, he wouldn't stop grabbing at the camera, and kept getting closer and closer. I finally had to trap him between my legs to get him to stand still long enough, and far enough back, to get a picture! What a goof ball. (Must get it from his dad's side of the family. I am never goofy!)

Hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend.

It's Official

Today is the day I will mark as the day I officially felt the baby move!! The movements are still so tiny, I have to lay very still and concentrate on the movements. I may have felt movement a little earlier, but it was so fleeting, most of me thought it was just my imagination. So I will mark this day as the day I felt the baby move (officially) for the first time.

I can't wait until the others can feel it too; I know Joey would enjoy it, and I bet Baby Nick would get a "kick" out of it too.

Mommy's Little Helpers

Even though I tried making light in my last post, my momma's heart was hurting something fierce. I ran into another room to cry, and then I cried myself to sleep as well. I know I shouldn't take such things seriously...I will probably hear more of that when the kids get older. But with Joey still being so young, I wasn't emotionally ready to handle hearing that he wants a different mommy. Thankfully, he hasn't said that since. Hopefully he has forgotten all about it.

Here are some pictures of my "helpers" that I have around the house.
In this picture, Joey has helped Mommy "style" Baby Nick's hair using grape juice (the Kool-Aid kind.)
Here, Baby Nick helped put a smile on Mommy's face by his messy pudding face. The pudding had "magic" sprinkles that changed colors in the pudding...that is why he is so colorful.
Here, Baby Nick has helped us getting himself undressed. Nick got him up in the morning to find that Nick had pulled his shirt over his head, leaving his arms in the sleeves. He has started to participate more in getting himself dressed and undressed, and one thing he knows is how to pull his shirt off over his head. I usually pull his arms out of the sleeves first, though....so on his solo attempt, he skipped that step! You can also see his new habit of sticking his hands down his pants. This is NOT my favorite thing.
Here is Nick making Mommy laugh again. He went to the desk drawer and got out a pen so that he could color in the coloring book that Joey had left on the floor. Then he decided it was too much effort to keep sitting up, so he decided to "recline" onto the bottom step while coloring. What a goof ball!
Here is my sweet Bubba and precocious Bug helping Mommy make potato salad. I would chop up the potatoes and the boys would put the pieces in the pot to be boiled later. It's hard to tell by the picture, but they are both standing on the same chair, Baby Nick directly behind Bubba. So, even though his arms are smaller, he had to reach all the way around his brother to be able to get any potatoes in the pan. I had to keep one leg up on the chair just to keep Nick from falling off, as he displayed no caution as to how far he would lean over to help.

I have Baby Nick's 18 month pictures back, cut up, and labeled....I just haven't sent them out yet. I will get to it eventually. After all, he will be 19 months tomorrow.

Have a blessed day.

I'm Looking For Volunteers

Joey has decided that he does not love me and would like me to find a different mommy for him.

So I am searching for volunteers. I will admit that he can have an attitude at times; but he is usually a very sweet boy. He is a big help around the house and generally loves to "love." We don't have a lot of money, but we will send what we can each month to help offset the added expense for groceries and pull-ups.

If you are interested, you know how to reach me. You can leave me a comment.

(P.S. I am serious that Joey wants me to find him a different mommy, but I am NOT serious about giving him up!)

Goofiest Goobers

Well, I must say I am very disappointed. I have taken a total of six pictures since the beginning of February and I was going to show three of them to you, but the system won't let me right now. How frustrating. Oh well. I will try later.

I have the goofiest boys I have ever met. Particularly Baby Nick. He finds humor in just about anything. When Joey is throwing a fit (I know, imagine that!), Baby Nick likes to walk right up to Joey and laugh. This, of course, irritates Joey to no end. I try to explain to Joey that Nick is just trying to make him feel better, but he doesn't believe me. Baby Nick also finds different noises funny. He is in hysterics anytime I sneeze...I usually will fake a few more just to keep him laughing. He has such a boisterous, hearty laugh. I know I have mentioned that he found it funny when his Daddy was throwing up, and since I have been sick so much this pregnancy, he has gotten more exposure to it. I have a very sensitive smeller when I am pregnant, and the thing that has caused me to gag and throw up more than anything is a stinky diaper. So while changing (and trying to hold my breath) I usually end up gagging a couple times which tickles Nick's funny bone. If I gag too hard to stop myself from throwing up, I run to the closest thing I can make it to, the kitchen sink. Joey follows me in plugging his ears and closing his eyes. He doesn't like to see or hear me throw up (so why he follows me, I have no idea.) He asks me if I'm dying. No...but I feel like I am. Nick follows close behind his brother....but he just likes to get a front row seat to the show. He stands there a laugh every time I gag.

I have also discovered that Baby Nick thinks it is very funny to watch potatoes being mashed. Something about it just makes him giggle! I don't know where he gets his particular sense of humor!

We have been very busy with Joey since this weekend. I haven't blogged about it since it doesn't seem to be a very appropriate topic to put in writing...but it is what he is going through. For the last year (for those of you who don't already know from conversation) Joey has had a very difficult time having a bowel movement. I'm talking about a REALLY hard time. He panics, and will hold it in up to two weeks! Through the year, he has gotten better about going every four or five days, but it is still so painful for him that he fights to keep from going as hard as he can. I would have to force him to go by not allowing him to sit or to be loved on, because if he could be comforted, he would be able to stop himself from going. So I would have to hold his wrists and make him stand there while he is screaming at me, begging me for a hug or not to let him do this, until he finally went. Sometimes we would fight for half an hour or more before he would go. It is the most horrible thing to witness. My words can not begin to give it justice. Finally, we talked to his doctor and she ordered an x-ray of his tummy. I felt horrible, because I couldn't be in the room with him since I'm pregnant, so he had to have his first x-ray at three years old without his mommy. It was even worse for me that he did just fine! When the doctor finally called back with the result she said it was very bad. She said he was constipated so bad that he was backed up through his colon and lower intestine. The lower intestine is stretched to 5.5 cm (or about 2.5 inches in diameter) which is huge in such a tiny body. As mom said, "Think of it this way...you dilate to ten cm when you give birth, and his intestine is at half that." It's no wonder it would hurt to go....it was like giving birth every time! The other problem with the intestine being stretched is that it loses its elasticity and ability to push. So Joey has had to use every thing his body can give just to poop. So the doctor put him on an aggressive clean out regimen for the week. He started with three doses of Miralax and two doses of Milk of Mag every day! (After talking to the doctor on Monday, she said we could stop the milk of mag as long as he keeps pooping.) Since Friday night, it has been "blow out city" around here. He still does not like to go, and I don't blame him. Nobody likes being constipated and nobody likes being too loose, either. We have gone through 25 pull-ups just since Sunday afternoon! That just gives you an idea of how up to my ears in..., well you can use whatever word you want to here, I have been. Joey likes to wait until bedtime to go, so he is usually going between 8pm and 11pm or later. Then he still feels squirmy and won't stay in his own bed, so he has joined us in our bed again and squirms all over me all night long. Needless to say, I'm not getting any sleep. Joey has another x-ray and appt scheduled for tomorrow. What we are hoping for is that the doctor says he has cleaned himself out and will not need to be on such an aggressive regimen any longer. The worst case scenario would be that, even after all his going, its not enough and he would need to be hospitalized so they can clean him out. We know that God already knows the results, so whatever happens, He will be there to see us through.

Baby Nick has a big afternoon today. He will have his evaluation and assessment done for his speech so we can have an idea of where he is at. My gut feeling is that he is fine and is just choosing not to talk yet (although he is very vocal and clear about what he wants, even if he doesn't use words), however, if there is something wrong, I would rather know so we can do something about it rather than stick my head in the sand expecting that everything will work itself out. So by this afternoon we will know where he stands.

One of Nick's new favorite games is "I'm going to get you." Daddy or I will be sitting somewhere and we will hold our hands out, wiggle our fingers, and say "I'm going to get you." Usually, the child playing would squeal and run away, enjoying being chased. Not Baby Nick....he's the one that runs to us! He will usually stick his belly out to be "gotten" before scrunching up again from being tickled. It works, also, if he has something that he shouldn't and he won't obey our command to "bring it to Mommy." Instead, we switch to "I'm gonna get you." and he runs right over so we can snatch the forbidden object out of his hand.

Anyway, I hear Baby Nick is awake from his nap. So I better go. It is about time to start thinking about what lunch will be. Hope you all have a fantastic day.