Getting Good Practice

After just an hour watching Johnathan James, I know two things about how it will be when Ethan is born. First: my boys make excellent, loving big brothers. They both are very gentle, give lots of loves, and want to help with everything. In fact, I can hardly reach the baby on my own lap with four extra hands trying to contribute!

And second: I will be VERY busy. Not with the extra work a baby requires, but with trying to keep the baby from the well meaning hands of the older boys (Nick, in particular.) Nick likes to share everything with the baby; his juice, toys, sleeping space, etc. So far, Nick has tried pouring juice on Johns head, bury him in hard toys (not the soft plush ones, but the hard plastic ones), and climb into the pack-n-play bassinet. This he actually manages to do (it was sitting up against the couch). Thankfully, I was holding John at the time. Otherwise, we would have had a squashed baby! Nick is much too big for the bassinet, but he wanted to participate in every baby "activity". I hope he doesn't get too jealous when Ethan is born. Nick likes to climb up on my lap when I am holding John, and he will wrap his arm around the baby and give him loves. He is very gentle. Of course, with one baby on my lap, one baby in my tummy, and a toddler all trying to share my lap....well, you can imagine how comfortable I am!
I gave each of the boys an opportunity to hold John....for practice, of course. Here is Joey holding John. He does pretty good. It reminds me of when Joey first held Nick in the hospital. I think my mamma's heart burst with love and pride at that time.
Here is my precious Bug holding his first baby! I can't wait to see him hold Ethan. You can see the owie under Nick's nose. The other day, Nick was playing "peek-a-boo" under a blanket and was walking towards me. He stepped on the blanket which caused him to trip and smash his face right on the edge of the coffee table. It was so awful...his nose started gushing immediately. By the time I got his nose flow stemmed, I noticed he busted his upper lip. It swelled up, right in the middle, and he looked like he had a beak-mouth for the rest of the day. It was so sore for the next few days. But the owie under his nose didn't show up until the next day. The best way I can describe it, is that the blanket gave him a really bad rug burn when he fell. I think it will take quite awhile for it to heal. He is still pretty sensitive about it...he doesn't even like to get his faced wiped off.

Have a wonderful Friday and enjoy your weekend. Be blessed.

In Everyone's Way

At least, always in my husband's way. The other night, we were cooking dinner together. I was working the stove top and he was working the oven. Knowing that he needed to get into the oven, I was standing off to the side, reaching as far over as I could to reach the pot I was cooking in.

Nick finally went to check the food in the oven, and seeing my shirt hanging close the the corner of the oven (not really in the way, but better safe than sorry) he pushed my shirt out of the way. Unfortunately, he kind of forgot that it wasn't my shirt hanging in the way.....it was the baby! So, of course I said, "Excuse me! I was already well out of your way, you don't have to push me." He really had forgotten for a moment! It was quite funny.

I have to remind him that he needs to be mentally prepared for having a new baby in the next week or so. He is not ready yet. I am sure that I won't deliver too early....but since the possibility exists, I want him to be ready.

I will get a bit of a refresher course tomorrow. Pam's daughter (Pam works with Nick) just had her son about a week and a half ago, but her blood pressure still hasn't come down, so she will have to be admitted back to the hospital. Pam was just going to bring the baby to work with her, which would be very difficult when you are in customer service. So he volunteered to check with me to see if I would be willing to watch the baby. Of course! Luckily, I won't have Dakota tomorrow because they are going fishing for the weekend. It has been a long time since I have held such a little baby! It will just make me more anxious to hold Ethan.

Joey tells me everyday that "we will be so excited for Ethan." He really is a wonderful big brother. I look forward to seeing how Nick does with Ethan.

Repeat Offender

So, after re-dressing Nick for bed, Joey came downstairs a second time claiming the need to relieve himself. We asked if Nick was still dressed and Joey informed us that he had removed his shirt again, but still had his pants and diaper on. That was okay, so I didn't rush up to stuff him back in his shirt.

Joey came down again, a third time. Upon arriving back upstairs, he yelled back down that Nick was naked again. So up I went, and sure enough, he had removed the rest of his clothing. He was laying curled up on top of his blanket. He finally looked tired enough to keep dressed and fall asleep. So I put him back in his diaper and jammies, covered him back up, and wished him good night.

Nick and I finally made it upstairs to bed around midnight. I, as is my habit, checked on the boys. They were both asleep! Finally. But, lo and behold, Nick lay down on top of his blanket again, without any jammies. Thankfully he left his diaper on this time, because I did not want to wake him up just to put the diaper on again. So I just left him as he was.

I hope his fascination with nudity is over. I can pray, at least.

New Bedtime Fashion

Saturday nights are one of the bath nights for the boys. That way, they are fresh and clean for church on Sunday. (It makes it a lot easier to get them ready for church if I don't have to bathe them as well.) So, tonight being Saturday, we gave them a bath just before bed. Nick is always the first out of the tub and the first into bed. When I took Joey into bed about 15-20 minutes later, Nick was almost asleep. His eyes were closed and he didn't open them until he heard the floor squeak halfway into the room. I was disappointed that he woke up (hoping he would just go right back to sleep and not be awake enough to play with Joey) but I can't be too upset when listening to them giggle with each other....it really is a sweet sound, even when they are supposed to be sleeping.

Joey then did his standard, "I have to go potty again" ploy to get out of bed. He didn't go. He didn't want to go back up to bed. Daddy took him back up anyway.

So, after getting Joey back into bed, the boys played around a bit like they normally do. Then after awhile, I heard extreme giggling! This giggling is beyond normal. This usually means someone is doing something they shouldn't be doing. So Daddy yells up the stairs that they need to stop playing and go to sleep. Joey yells back down that Nick was naked. That didn't sound quite right, since Joey wouldn't have been able to take his clothes off through the crib, so I told Nick to go check it out.

He peeks his head down the stairs, not having entered the room yet, and laughingly told me I needed to come and see. At that point, Nick was trying to pull his diaper down, having already removed his pajamas. By the time I got to the top of the stairs to peek in the room, Nick had successfully pulled his diaper down and was standing in his crib buck naked! I couldn't stop laughing. I was no good as a disciplinarian at that point because I could not keep control of myself. Nick was a little too good (just firm in his voice) and ended up scaring Nick into tears. Since I didn't think it was that big of a deal, I asked Nick to ease up on the poor kid and give him a break. Nick still didn't like having to be put back in bed and took him a few minutes to stop screaming.

Now as I type this, the boys are back to playing and laughing. One of these hours they will fall asleep! Hopefully.

Self-Tattoos and Family Portraits

I know I have not been nearly as faithful as I should in blogging; and I am sorry for that. I find that I have nothing to say. That's not to say that nothing happens around here, or that the kids don't continue to do and say cute things; I just can't find the motivation I once had to put it all down. I hope that I will soon get out of this rut I find myself in. Until then, I hope you bear with me.

One change that is being made around here, that I don't think I have blogged about (although I know I have told some people) is that as of the end of this month I will not be watching Dakota. They have been on a waiting list for a coveted space at a Christian daycare center and were called on the last day of June saying that there was now a space available. The timing is both good and bad; good, because it gives me time to prepare for Ethan's arrival and time to enjoy him as an infant without worrying about "coming back to work" in a timely fashion. However, the timing can also be seen as bad because the extra money, as little as it is, does help, and I will not be able to advertise that I am available for a couple months. We haven't decided yet if I will even watch anymore kids. I really do love having my family to myself without having to share my time and energy with somebody else's kid. So we will see how things pan out after Ethan is born.

Bug has become quite the artist. He loves grabbing a pen out of the desk drawer and coloring on any medium he can find. Half of the checkbooks that, unfortunately, are in the same drawer as the pens, now have writing on the first check. Thankfully, we rarely, if ever, write checks anymore. His other favorite "canvas" is his skin. In the picture above, you can see some of his finer "tattoo" work...self done, of course. A day or two after taking this picture, I discovered that while I had my back turned for a minute, he decided to also "tattoo" his belly and his left shin. Thankfully this artwork was done in ball point pen and easily washes off in the bath. He even managed to get some around his side and onto his back! I know I have said it before....but if there is a stronger word than 'persistent' it would describe Bug. He will get and do whatever he wants no matter how many times he is told "no", swatted, or put in time out. He will keep going for it until he sneaks a way to getting it. He can certainly try my patience. The problem I face is, he is just so darn cute about it.
Nick took us out to dinner tonight and the boys get to color on the kids menus. Joey wanted me to tell him what I wanted him to draw...so I decided he should draw a picture of our family. (I wrote the names as he drew each person, but I was writing upside down, so forgive the sloppiness of the labels.) I have never seen him draw people before and I was so impressed with how detailed he was. Each face has two eyes, a nose, and a smile. Each person has two arms, two legs, two feet, two hands, and three fingers per hand. He started with Baby Nick, then he drew Mommy holding Ethan in her right hand, then Joey, then Daddy. When he got to Daddy, the only thing he said about drawing Daddy was that he needed a "big head!" And you can see that he made a fairly big head in comparison to all the other people. I was so impressed! I knew that this was a picture I wanted to keep, but I also wanted to share it with everybody. Of course, if we still lived close to home, I would be able to pass the picture along to each person we saw; but since we don't, I figured the best way to share was to take a picture of the picture and share it on the blog.

Anyway, not much else is going on around here. I am getting closer and closer to the point where I need Ethan to come to save whatever sanity I may have left. I feel bad for the boys, because one or both always want to climb up on my lap, and I just don't have the space left for them anymore. And it is not just a matter of them sitting nice and still on my lap....no, they have to constantly twist and turn using hands and elbow in my abdomen as leverage to move. It hurts so bad with them pushing on me from the outside and Ethan pushing back from the inside, most of the time I have to ask them to stay down. But I miss being able to hold them and love on them, and I feel like a bad Mommy that I can't do that for them as often as we would all like. So I can't wait until Ethan is with us so that I can hold them all in my arms, even if not all at once. Today, Joey said in front of his Dad that, "After Ethan comes out there will be a girl in Mommy's tummy and she will get stronger until she can come out." Nick just rolled his eyes! I know that most people are curious about whether or not we will have anymore or if we will call it quits after Ethan. At this point, I am leaning one way, Nick is leaning the other, and we have decided that we will at least wait until we have Ethan before making any decision. (If I know my husband like I think I do, he will be persuaded to my way of thinking!)

I hope all is going well for everybody. It is nice that it is the weekend again. I pray that everyone has a fun and safe weekend. Be blessed.

Hiccups

Ethan has the hiccups right now. I love feeling him move around, but when he has the hiccups it makes me feel all "squirelly" inside.

Joey has started including Ethan in everything; it's quite sweet. He will say, "Me, Baby Nick, Ethan and you should go out and blow bubbles." He is also very possessive of Ethan; "When my baby comes out I will hold him. When I am all done holding him, Mommy can have a turn. You can hold him too if you want, Baby Nick."

Needless to say, we are all getting very excited for his arrival; me most of all! I am 33 weeks along today, which means I technically have 7 weeks left, but I don't think Ethan will wait that whole time. We will see. In my head I keep thinking I am 37 weeks, because once I hit 32 weeks, I started thinking ahead to being 36 weeks, and it kind of got stuck in my head....and now my timing is all off. I have to constantly remind myself that I am not as far along as my head thinks I am.

We had a fairly busy weekend. We didn't go anywhere or do anything.....except work on potty training Joey. Since Nick and I were both home, with no plans, (not that I ever have plans), we decided it was past time to start concentrating on the task and not just leave it up to Joey to tell us when he was ready. So, starting Saturday morning, we put him on the toilet every twenty minutes. He stayed dry all day, and only wore a pull-up during nap and bedtime. Sunday was more of the same. Since this weekend was the church camp out - and we had tried the camping in Alaska thing last year (never wanted to do that again) - there was no church in town, so we were able to use the time to continue potty training. With only one accident yesterday, he still did a great job and we are exceedingly proud of him. He is not at the point yet where he will tell us that he has to go...I still have to take him to the bathroom every 20-30 minutes. That is why it was such a busy weekend. But my hope is that through the repetition of the action, he will catch on soon enough to telling us when he has to go, so I don't have to spend every 20 minutes of every day in the bathroom.

I think Nick was feeling a bit left out, because if he is not invited into the bathroom each time Joey goes in, he throws the hugest fit (which he has started doing lately when he doesn't get exactly what he wants). For those of you who have been here, you know how tiny that downstairs bathroom is. Can you imagine how difficult it is to fit two kids AND a very pregnant woman into that bathroom? It's hard enough for me to fit through the door. Nick also wants to sit on the potty, but is much too small for the big toilet. So we got the potty chair back out and let him sit on it each time Joey went potty. I think he just likes to feel the fresh air on himself, because he never wanted to get off the potty...he would stand up and sit back down as soon as I would suggest it was time to get up. Each time I forcibly removed him for the potty, he threw another big fit. But we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday night, when before getting ready for bed, Nick actually went potty in the toilet! I know it was a fluke happening, but we were very excited and made a big deal of it for Nick's sake. We think he will be fairly easy to train once Bubba is going regularly on his own, because he is very much "monkey see, monkey do" right now with Bubba. The biggest goal, of course, is to get Bubba out of pull-ups before Ethan is born; and if Nick is not quite ready to complete potty training before the birth (especially since he is still hardly talking) he will be ready soon afterward. That way, we will only have one in diapers. Wouldn't that be great!

Well, I suppose it is time to pay more attention to the kids. They want to dance to music right now, so I will dig out the CD's from the closet and watch them dance around the living room. Don't worry, Mom, Dad, Josh, and Aubrey, they don't dance like I did when I was little!

July, Already?

It is hard to believe that it is the first of July already. Half of 2008 is already gone. Don't get me wrong....at this point, I pray for time to fly. I have already served Ethan his eviction notice; I am determined to have him vacate my premises on August 22nd. (I have my reasons for picking that date, but most of you already know what those reasons are and just laugh at me...so I'm not going to repeat them.)

Nick has had a very frustrating fishing season. The king salmon season will close in a few days and Nick still hasn't caught a single fish. Not that he hasn't tried several times. In fact, sometimes, he feels bad enough about spending so much time out fishing that he will "bribe" the boys with treats so they won't be mad at him. (It's not the boys he should be "bribing", but it is sweet of him to think of them anyway!) The other day, Nick brought home some ice cream cones dipped in chocolate; you know, the Drumstick brand...only without nuts. The boys loved them; and as you can see from the picture above, Nick really got into it! He took a bite of the cone, but the cone split instead of being held together. So he had his mouth full to the point he couldn't even close it, while the rest of the cone fell into his neck! It was so funny, I couldn't help but get a picture.
Then, he had to get even cuter and put on Grandma Mary's warm hat...sideways. (Please ignore the dried ice cream all over his shirt...I figured he would get dinner all over it anyway, and that I was doing laundry later that night, I would change it later!)

I don't have much to report. The boys continue to grow quickly and find new ways of entertaining us every day. Joey will say things so out of the blue that we will be trying to hold back the tears of laughter. Nick is such a ham that I am always giggling at him. He reminds me of Megan when she was young. There was never a dull moment around her.

Hope everybody is doing well and that you enjoy this summer. Have a great Fourth of July weekend!