Only A Week To Go

I can hardly breathe through the excitement. Angie will be here in a week from today. Okay...actually, since it is now after midnight, she will be here in about six days from two hours from now!! Joey is "gonna be so excited". He talks about our paper chain every day, in a way of reminding me how soon she will be here.

I am also really excited for Uncle John and Aunt Cindy to be here. They should arrive tomorrow. Although their vacation is not to see us, they will be around here for a few days and should be able to get together. It will be so nice to see them.

There is not much going on around here. Just getting ready to have company. Trying to survive those days like today when neither of my sons seem manageable. It's not that they do anything that is "major", but all those little things add up. Some days they just push all my wrong buttons, and they don't stop until bedtime. Sometimes, even after bedtime!

I would say that I will try to get to bed a little earlier tonight, but it is already 12:30am and I am usually in bed by 1am. Plus, I can hear Baby Nick fuss now and again, which means I won't get any sleep again tonight. He is having a restless night, so I will have a restless night. I was hoping I would be up with him six times again tonight like I was last night, but it doesn't look promising. Oh well! I can try to sleep when I have an empty nest.

Two Months Left

Two short months; that's all that is left between now and Nick's first birthday! When Joey was this age, I'm sure that I felt the year was flying by. But for some reason, Nick's first year seems to be going by at the speed of light.
As quickly as Nick develops his motor skills (at least in comparison to Joey), he doesn't seem to be on track to be walking on his own by the time Aunt Angie comes (in nine days!). But that is okay with me. I don't think he is all that far away from walking, but just as with crawling, even though he may have the ability, he doesn't have the motivation. Lately, he doesn't seem to want to walk for very long holding on my hands, he would rather be back down on the ground crawling, or walking along the furniture.
His favorite activities, as of late, seem to be getting into everything he KNOWS he is not supposed to. Since the gate barricading the stairs is not fixed onto anything, Nick has figured out, and nearly perfected, pushing the gate out of the way so that he can climb the stairs. The other place he likes to "hang out" is behind the recliners, where there are lots of electrical cords to play with. I was on the phone with my mom the other day, and in the last minute or so of talking, Nick had crawled behind Daddy's recliner (and then forcibly removed) about SIX times. It's no wonder I can't get anything done and accomplished during the day, I don't get a minutes rest around here between grabbing Nick off the stairs and dragging him out from behind the chairs; not to mention keeping him out of the desk drawers and kitchen cupboards, and of course the never ending extracting bits of debris from his mouth.

Here are some pictures of the ten month old! He's so cute. I love this age; he is so much fun to play with, and he is a ham for the camera. The other day, we were playing with the stacker toy, and Nick had one side in his mouth. So I leaned in and put my mouth on the other side. The sweetheart then kept sharing a 'bite' with me. Of course, he hit my teeth more often than not, not waiting for me to open my mouth wide enough. But it was a sweet gesture, him sharing with me.
He's so eager for his picture to be taken!
Here is Bubba at ten months. He is so adorably chubby! I forget how much bigger he was than Baby Nick, until I actually see their pictures next to each other. Can you say "Chubba Bubba"? I love it. Joey definitely had more hair, and more curls, at this point than Baby Nick does. Bubba has the course, thick hair that his Daddy has, and Baby Nick has my fine, thin hair. But Baby Nick has a lot of body in his hair, and it does curl when wet, and Mommy has no body or curl in her hair.

My favorite part about having visitors, is that those coming, are going to be able to hold/cuddle/love on my boys. They need that so much. Not that Daddy and I don't love on them at every possible moment of the day, but they need more than just Mommy and Daddy. Joey was fortunate to have that extra loving for the first two years of his life; Baby Nick only got two weeks. My heart hurts with the loss. Only nine days left to wait.

First Fishing Trip

Joey went fishing for the first time tonight. When Nick got home from work, we packed a picnic dinner and went down to Lake Jewel. I took some pictures, I will have to post them later. I haven't gotten them on the computer yet.

The lake was beautiful, but it was very windy out. At first, Nick put a bobber on Joey's line, but because the bobber kept the line so close to the surface, the wind kept blowing it back to shore. Finally, Nick took the bobber off, and the line stayed in the water. Well, that is to say, that the line stayed in the water for the entire 30 seconds Joey left it in before starting to reel it back in. Even if the fish were biting tonight, they wouldn't have had a chance getting Joey's! :) He had fun though, and is already asking to go back.

Joey's paper chain is getting smaller. Only ten days left until Aunt Angie comes to visit. We can hardly contain our excitement. I decided the other day, to reuse the links in the paper chain; with each link removed, I hook it back on to the previous links to create another 14-day chain. That way, we have a chain to countdown the time until Nanny and Papa Buddy's arrival. It will work out perfect, because the day that Aunt Angie has to go home, will be the first day we remove a link from the re-made chain. Hopefully, instead of being too upset at Aunt Angie's departure, Joey will have something new to look forward to, and to countdown to.

I received a wonderful blessing on Sunday. Just after I sat down, Valerie (whom I have only met a couple times) came up to me and said that she and her husband had been cleaning out their garage and found a bike with training wheels that they didn't need anymore. She tried to think of someone who might need a boys bike, and she thought of Joey! So we will soon have a bike for Joey for when he is ready for it. I was so grateful, and a bit surprised, that she thought of us, even after only meeting me a couple times.

Nick will be going to work really early tomorrow, for a training that starts at 6:00am! Lucky him, he gets off and three. He will use the extra free time to go fishing. He has been discouraged that he hasn't caught anything yet. Hopefully he will get lucky tomorrow.

Father's Day Card

Since I know my Dad (Scott) won't be reading the blog, I wanted to share the Father's Day card I picked out for him. For those who know him, it seemed so appropriate...and it made me laugh.

"On Father's Day, Dad, I wanna thank you for teaching me so many valuable lessons, like...
'Money doesn't grow on chickens before they're hatched,'
'The early bird gets a job worth doing well,'
and 'Two wrongs don't make a penny earned.'
......and you thought everything you said went in one ear, and walked a mile in their shoes!"

HA HA HA HA HA HA

Anyway, I know it was silly to blog, but I have just been thinking about my dad lately, and when I saw this card, I thought of him.

For my other dad's, (Rick and Paul), you will just have to wait to get your card to read it!

Love to all my Dads.

Portraits Of The Boys

We got the boys' pictures done a couple weeks ago; Baby Nick's nine month and Joey's three year. I finally got to pick them up today. I wanted to share with you what pictures we got. For those who we usually send pictures to, if you would like to, you can leave a comment telling me which one you would prefer (if you have a preference) for each of the boys' pictures. The one of both of them is just an extra one we got, but there are some wallets of two different poses of them together, so I will send some of those out as well, although there is a limited quantity.
I would like to apologize for the pictures' lack of clarity...it is not the portrait themselves, rather my camera which was acting up for some reason today. Hopefully you can see enough through it to get an idea how cute the pictures are.

Visual Aid

I hope my husband does not get mad at me for this. And if he does, I hope he forgives me. It was too good to pass up.

Here is a picture to give you a visual of Nick falling in the clay/mud. He specifically asked me not to take a picture of him, but he said nothing about the coat he left outside!
This is just a portion of how covered he was. His pants were covered in the seat area, although he was wearing his waders, so his legs were relatively clean. His shirt was mostly protected by the coat (which is just as dirty on the inside along the bottom) but didn't escape entirely. His hands and arms were covered, probably from trying to wrestle free of the quagmire.

I still laugh when I think of him falling. I am glad, for his sake, that I did not see the actual fall, or I would have been merciless in my laughing at him in front of the dozen or so people who saw him fall. I know that I said he had been invited to go fishing with a couple guys from work, but I didn't explain that one person never showed up, and the other left just minutes before he fell. So neither of his co-workers saw him fall. Yesterday, he told them what happened. They both laughed really hard, but then asked why in the world would he tell them, rather than keep his dignity in tact. Thankfully, he has some measure of humor about the situation.

Last night at dinner, Joey very rudely said, "Mom, get me a napkin!" I told him that he needed to ask nicely, as any mother would. And my precious three year old mumbled, "Wha-ver" (which is his way of saying 'whatever' in a very disrespectful manner!) I could not believe it. I have never heard him speak so horribly, to me or to anyone else. I hope I never hear that again, at least not until he is a pre-teen and it is more expected, even though still completely unacceptable.

Baby Nick likes to throw things down on the hard floor between the couch and my chair. He likes the loud noise it makes, but it makes him flinch. Sometimes, he will throw something down, but I will have my hand beneath it and catch it. It is so funny to watch Baby Nick, because he still flinches in anticipation of the clattering noise it should make.

Time Is Flying

I can hardly grasp the concept of how quickly time is flying. Today is the two-week mark until Aunt Angie comes to visit. Joey and I made a paper chain today with fourteen links. I didn't have any construction paper, so I cut up a piece of printer paper and we each colored some of the links (I think I got four out of the fourteen) and then taped them together. Each day, Joey and I will take a link off to help Joey actively countdown and visualize, how many days are left until her arrival.

Here are a couple pictures of how our chain turned out. It's hard to see unless you can look up close, but Joey is extremely proud of it (as he should be), and in his own words, "I'm going to be so exciting!"

This next picture, I think, is so cute. When you shake a bottle, it builds pressure, and if the bottle is tilted leaving milk in the nipple, when you remove your finger from the nipple, it sprays milk everywhere. Baby Nick was the unfortunate target on this particular night. He was so hungry, he didn't care.

Baby Nick was so cute today. Well, he's cute everyday. But today, he was under his bouncer and actually "driving" the Mater truck back and forth! Just like a little boy. I can't believe that he is just five days away from being ten months old! I tried getting the picture of him while "driving" the truck, but as soon as he saw the camera come out, he came toward me trying to "see" the baby! Oh well. I love the tongue.

Nick was invited to go fishing with a couple guys from work tonight. So he went, and when he came home, he cracked open the front door and said "Just start laughing now." I had no idea what he could be meaning. I wish I had been more prepared. When he opened the door, he stood there with a chagrined expression on his face, absolutely covered in gray clay/mud! He was the unfortunate victim of very sticky, thick clay. His feet had been sunk about a foot down in the clay when a fish caught on his line. In an attempt to keep himself from falling forward, he overcompensated and fell on his backside in a foot of clay. To make matters ever so much worse, he lost the fish. His wallet and pager are covered in clay, his clothes are covered in clay, and our van...? Well, thankfully we had a bunch of cardboard in the back that was supposed to have gone to his work to be recycled. He got a piece out and had a very stiff-seated ride home. I'm sorry...he refused to let me take a picture for the blog. I wish I could share it, but you will just have to visualize for yourself.

I actually went to bed at 9:00pm last night! I got the most sleep that I have gotten in years, and still I woke up exhausted. Well, tonight won't be such an early night, but I hope the rest of you get a peaceful night sleep.

The Funniest Thing

This morning, when Baby Nick woke up from his first nap, I went upstairs to get him, and saw the funniest thing. Baby Nick was standing up waiting to be freed, but his pants were down around his ankles! That's right....a not quite ten month old baby was standing in his crib half dressed when he went down for his nap fully clothed. The only logical explanation is that, as he tried standing up, his feet got caught inside his pants, and the higher he stood up, the lower his pants fell down. It cracked me up.

Baby Nick has finally learned to give kisses. He has been giving kisses for the last few weeks, but until then, he refused. Joey was giving kisses by four months. It is incredibly sweet to see Baby Nick give Bubba kisses! I'm also trying to teach him to say "mama" (of course...it should be his first word.) Every time I start saying "mama", Joey chimes in with, "Can you say Bubba?" So, poor Baby Nick has Mommy saying "mama" in one ear, and Joey saying "Bubba" in the other.

It was gray again today, but the sun came out this evening. Although there are lots of clouds, it is still brighter than it has been in over a week. According to the forecast, it should be partly cloudy the next couple days, but then showers the rest of the week. Oh well.

Seventeen days. (You know what I mean.)

Have a wonderful week.

The Beginning Of June

Is it possible? The month of June is already here, and off to a quick start. The countdown continues...only eighteen days until Angie arrives! We are more than thrilled, and the anticipation is mounting almost unbearable. Nick and Angie are planning on going on an all day charter the day after she arrives, and will be fishing for halibut, rock fish, and salmon. We may even go camping that weekend down in Seward. If things work out, Randy and Cheryl will camp with us. The idea (at this point, depending on Cheryl) is that Nick and Angie will take Randy's truck to Seward to go charter fishing (they have to leave at 4am) and after Randy and Cheryl get off work, they will come over to our place and jump in the van with the boys and I and we will drive to the camp ground in the evening.

It has been a very long week with Baby Nick not feeling well, but I believe we are over the worst. Finally, today, we had two dirty diapers that were not diarrhea! Last night was the first night in a week that Baby Nick slept through the night. (If only I could have fallen asleep before 4am!) I think that he is still teething, trying to cut a couple more teeth, so he is still a little miserable.

Yesterday, I went to a ladies brunch at the church. It was so nice to get out of the house and be with other adult women. I wasn't exactly kid-free, but they did have one of the teenagers in the church available for child care. Nick went fishing with Randy at the same time, so he wasn't available to watch the boys. He enjoys fishing, and has been a handful of times already, but he still hasn't been able to catch anything.

The light up here is almost constant. Technically, the sun sets around 11:30pm and rises around 4:30am, but it hangs out so close to the horizon that the darkest it gets is twilight. It will stay even lighter before the month is over, but for now, it at least gets dark enough to be called twilight. Last night, I went to bed at 1am, and I could see my way to the stairs without waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark.....and that was the darkest part of the night. Since I couldn't sleep, I tossed and turned waiting for sleep to claim me, watching the sky lighten up with each passing moment. By the time I finally fell asleep around 4am, the sun was almost risen and the sky was fully light.

I hope there is a turn in the weather this week. Last week was cloudy and gloomy. The temperature was in the mid-forties to low fifties, and the clouds never let the sun peek out long enough to warm us up. I can see the sun shinning through the clouds right now, and hopefully it plans on hanging around for awhile.

There is not much else going on around here. The boys are a total delight to be around, and are incredibly entertaining. Joey has such a thorough imagination and takes every detail of his plot line into consideration. I am teaching him to spit when he brushes his teeth, instead of just swallowing, and he is very funny at it right now. When we came downstairs, I asked Joey to show Daddy how he spits while brushing his teeth. So, using the foot rest of the recliner as his "sink", Joey turns on the "water", rubs his hands under the "water", pulls his hands to the side of the "sink" to put "soap" in his hands, puts them back under the "water" to rinse them off, grabs his "toothbrush" and wets it under the "water", "brushes" his teeth, spits, and then starts to walk away. After he realized his mistake, he walks back to the chair and said, "I have to turn the water off" and then turns the "water" off! It was amazing to watch...all done in pantomime.

Nick starts a two week stretch of being on call, which he is not exactly looking forward to, but at the end of stretch, his sister will be here. So it will all be worth it, and the time will go faster because of it.

That is all I have for now. Have a great Monday and be blessed.

Frightening Prospect

My husband does not drink beer very often. But occasionally a nice cold beer sounds good to him after a hard day of work, or when he's at the barbecue. He likes Rolling Rock, which comes in a green bottle.

Last night, he grabbed one out of the refrigerator and Joey asked for a sip. Trying to explain that he could not have a drink, Nick told Joey that this drink was only for mommies and daddies. (Only for daddy in this house.) Nick explained that Joey would have to wait until he was 21 years old before he could have some, which is eighteen birthdays away.

All day long, Joey has been saying, "I can be twenty nine and drink green soda." Wonderful! Now my son is counting down the days till he can drink beer! A mother's dream. At least he thinks it stinks "way bad." There may be hope yet.

Baby Nick is getting better every day. We called the advice nurse regarding the diaper rash, as it was really bad, and she said it was probably a yeast infection and gave us a perscription for some Nystatin cream. He has been feeling so much better since then. Now, if only he would get over the diarrhea, we'd both be doing better!

Well, dinner is just about ready. I am a very lucky woman tonight; my husband is cooking dinner. What a gem!

Growth Update

Just a quick note to say that Baby Nick's upper right front tooth finally broke through today. The way it sat so close the the surface for so long made me think it would have cut through long before now, but at least it is out now. The tooth to the right of it is still being stubborn, but maybe it will cut through in the next few days.

Baby Nick still doesn't feel well. He takes a long time to eat, constantly pushing the food or bottle away from his mouth. I wonder if he has a sore throat which makes it hard to swallow, because he normally would be eating eagerly.

Joey is currently getting the "garbage" out from between his toes. He is like me in that he can't stand to have anything between his toes. Every night when getting ready for bed, he has to "clean the garbage" from his toes before he can comfortably lay down to sleep. Sometimes (as like right now) he can't even wait till bedtime and must clean his toes in the middle of the day.

Joey has always had a very nurturing disposition. The dark side of that, unfortunately, is that he feels he needs to "parent" Baby Nick as well. I hear him say things such as, "Nicholas Danull, I said NO! Do you need a fanking?" and, "Baby Nick, I will flick you if you don't shush up." and what he just said, "Just never push me. Look at this, ONE, TWO, THREE!" I'm sure Baby Nick wouldn't have pushed him if Joey hadn't sat on the bouncer while Baby Nick was trying to bounce!!

I try to remind Joey that he is the big brother, and is neither the mommy, nor the daddy. But he still thinks he is in the position to discipline the baby. Fun times.

Hopefully On The Mend

Poor Baby Nick, he had a rough day. He didn't throw up again (thankfully) but he just wasn't feeling himself. He has never been much of a snuggler, yet today I could hold him for hours at a time without him fighting to get down. He slept more, he hardly ate at all, he played very little, and fussed more than I like. Baby Nick had a temperature of 101.8 at one point today. And since he has had diarrhea, his little bottom is so sore it hurts to wipe him and to apply Desitin. He starts shaking real bad from the pain. I hate to cause him pain, but I have to keep him clean.

However, when Nick and I were making the bed with fresh clean sheets straight out of the dryer, he was walking along the bed all smiles and squeals. I pray that means he is starting to feel better. I especially pray that he sleeps all night, and well into the morning, too. My heart hurts to watch my kids be sick and no there is not much that can be done for them. But I do enjoy being able to cuddle Baby Nick, even if it is only for a day. That always made me feel better as a kid when I felt sick; being loved on by my Mommy.

Nick took Joey to the park this afternoon, but only stayed a few minutes. Apparently, there were tons of other kids on the small playground (the one next to our house, not Jewel Lake) and Joey kept getting pushed around on the play structure. So they came home and Joey took a nap with me. We are hoping the weather starts warming up and drying out this week so that we can take the boys to Jewel Lake when Baby Nick feels better.

Since everybody is in bed sleeping, except me, I should get into bed as well and take advantage of every minute possible. Have a fantastic week.

Sick Nick

Remember when I said last post that Baby Nick was waking up so I had to go? Well, he seemed to go back to sleep, so I didn't check on him then. By the time I was getting ready to go to bed about an hour and a half later (2:15am) I checked on Baby Nick as I do every night before laying down. As soon as I got in the room I could smell the ickiness. Baby Nick picked his head up, but laid it right back down, not feeling well enough to make a point of being awake. I felt the space under his face to see if he had thrown up and could feel that he had indeed, but not where he was currently laying. I felt around the mattress until my hand landed in the largest puddle of puke I had ever put my hand in. It covered the entire width of the mattress. When I picked him up to go change him, his legs were shaking from the effort of being sick.

I had to wake Nick up to change the sheet in the crib so that I could change Baby Nick. As I was checking his drawers, I found that he had filled them as well. He had his sickness coming out of both ends, the poor little guy. After cleaning him up, I sat in bed and rocked him until he went back to sleep. I laid him back down in his crib and as soon as he laid down, he threw up again, all over the clean sheet. So I determined that I was just going to have to hold him all night. Every time I tried to lean further back (trying to get as close to a laying down position as possible) he would start whimpering. So I had to spend the night sitting up in bed rocking Baby Nick. At about 4:30am I took Nick's temperature as his chest and palms felt like they were on fire (even though his forehead and cheeks felt cool). He was running a fever of 100 degrees, so I gave him some Tylenol and let him play on the bed until he was too tired to stay awake any longer. So it was about 5:30am when I was finally able to lay down with Baby Nick in my arms and half doze for a couple hours. Needless to say, I am not operating at normal level today. Hopefully, between the several loads of laundry and other disinfecting cleaning I should do today, I will get to take a much needed nap.

I am thinking I should keep Baby Nick home from the park today, but hopefully Nick will still take Joey. Joey has been looking forward to going for awhile, and Nick did promise. He is determined to be a dad that keeps his promises so his kids can always feel like they can depend on him for anything.

It is time for me to make lunch for Bubba so they can get ready to go to the park. Have a great day!

Memorial Day Weekend

For some reason, this week seemed to take forever! By the time Nick came home from work on Wednesday, I thought that it was Friday evening. On Friday, the boys and I went in to work with Nick so I could help him file. The last time I went in to help him, Baby Nick was still in his infant seat, and only scooting around on the floor. You can imagine how much more difficult it was to get any work done, with Baby Nick speed crawling towards doors, stairs, shelves full of fun things to pull off, and generally making a nuisance of himself. And, I had to try to keep the boys quiet so that everybody else could get their work done!



(Sidebar: I just looked outside...it is midnight and still quite light out. It looks to be around 9:00pm in late spring/early summer Oregon.)



After we picked Nick up at work on Friday, we went out to dinner. Then we went to Sportsman's Warehouse for Nick to get the one thing he has been dying for all winter....his season fishing license. He got up at 3:30am to go fishing this morning. You have to fish the high tides up on Ship Creek, so there are only a couple times a day that you can go. It's amazing how easy he gets up when it comes to fishing, yet anything else (work, helping with the boys, etc.) it is nearly impossible to drag him out of bed. He sets his alarm 15 minutes ahead of when he has to get up just so he can snooze twice. When he finally does get up, he has only left himself 15 minutes before he has to leave. Talk about going to work half asleep!

Saturday was a very fun day. We took the boys for their pictures. I love getting their pictures taken; they are so precious and cute, I love to see how a professional photographer can bring it out. I also like to hear how many people come to the same conclusion as I...my boys are the cutest anybody has ever seen!! :) After pictures, we had dinner and then went grocery shopping. (It is always better for us to go shopping after eating, we are more likely to stick to our list and get less extra stuff just because we feel hungry at the time.)
Sunday morning the boys and I went to church. We had guest Pastors and Evangelists from Russia. It was amazing to listen to their testimonies. All who had testified had been slaves to drug addiction for eight years or more, and God's saving grace took hold of each of them and for the last eight or nine years, they have been spreading the Gospel to those still enslaved. They have started a rehabilitation center and a child care center, where children of broken and poor families can come and stay, go to school. Joey had fun in the nursery again. He should be in a big boy class, and he has been asking to go ever since he turned three, but call it bad timing, they had a flood downstairs and started remodeling at that same time. Pastor said this morning that they should be laying carpet on Tuesday, so hopefully they will be able to reopen the 3-5 year old class next week.

Tomorrow, we are hoping to go to Jewel Lake, where there is a park with swings. Joey wants to take his ball so he can play catch with Daddy. Baby Nick will be able to swing for the first time (other than a baby swing) and I expect that he will like that. I hope the weather holds up, it has been overcast and a bit rainy this weekend. Nick will probably go fishing tomorrow. Now that he has his license, he will go as often as he can.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Aunt Angie. It is only 24 days till we can go pick her up at the airport! Joey talks about it everyday. Baby Nick is working on his walking, trying to get ready to 'wow' Aunt Angie with his ability. (We'll see if it happens by then. I'd be surprised if he did walk by next month, but I'd also be surprised if he didn't.)

One last thing before I go...The pictures I added to the blog are of some funny things I saw Baby Nick do today. First, he climbed up on the stool, and not just kneeling, like he has done before. He got all the way up on his feet! What a big boy. When he saw that I got the camera out, he turned his head toward me and smiled big for a picture. He is such a ham and loves getting his picture taken. The second picture is showing how he read the Sunday paper. When Nick came home from fishing, he stopped and got breakfast (donuts from Freddy's) and bought a paper as well. I haven't read a newspaper since I left Oregon! That's nine months without a paper. Baby Nick got hold of it and, well, you can see the results. Then he laid out on top if it and 'read' it.

I hear Baby Nick waking up, so I better go. Lots of love to our families and friends. Enjoy your Memorial Day.

Just Checking In

There is not much new here, just going about everyday life. The weather has hit a gray/rainy spot, so it is not as nice out as it has been.

Baby Nick started clapping yesterday...a new 'first' for him. He is very proud of himself.

Bubba knows he is going to be four on his next birthday (a year from now) and sometimes it is hard to convince him that he is not four now. He keeps talking about how he will eat his 'berpbay' cake and open presents.

Baby Zach is here for the last time today. I will still get to see him at church, so that will be nice.

Have a blessed day.

Weekend At Luty's

Good Evening! Or should I say good morning, as it is now after midnight. (It's about the only time I can get the computer.) It was a beautiful weekend in Anchorage. Temperatures have stayed in the upper fifties (I'm guessing, I haven't kept track.) The skies were clear and the sun shone brightly. I know the temperatures don't seem all that high, but after spending so many months below freezing, it is very nice. Nice enough for the boys to be in shorts and to drive with the windows down!

On Saturday, Nick took Bubba to a "Walk For Life" event where his boss was a DJ. There were lots of fun things for Joey to see, and they walked two laps around the track! That's half a mile for Bubba's little legs. He had so much fun. Then we went to Wal-Mart and bought him some new clothes with some birthday money. We got two shirts and two outfits for just over $20. I love getting so much for so little!
I just couldn't help taking pictures of the boys as they got ready for church. They are way cute. Baby Nick was dressed in his basketball "uniform." This was the first time he wore it, and it fits perfectly. This was what Aunt Megan got for Joey at his baby shower. Joey was only able to wear it one time, so I wanted to make sure Bug got a bit more use out of it. Seeing the boys dressed in this always makes me think of my little sister, of whom I am abundantly proud of.
How handsome is he?!? This is one of his new shirts we got on Saturday. He is looking so much like a big boy. As you can see, we finally found a place that knows how to cut hair for little boys. I was much happier after this haircut. I am hoping to be able to get their pictures taken next weekend, since it is time for their next "milestone" pictures; Joey's three year and Baby Nick's nine month pictures.
I wish you could see this better, but if you are able to enlarge the photo, look behind the trees in the center of the picture, you will see a bright magenta and orange sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous.
I wanted to show you a picture of the night sky. Yes, I said night! This picture (and the one above) was taken at 11:15pm. Right now, the sun is rising about 5am and setting at about 11pm. By the time Angie comes to visit, it will not really go completely down. They stop setting "dusk to dawn" hours during the summer as it never fully gets dark enough. Since Angie's plane lands just before 2am on June 21, summer solstice, it will still be light out when we pick her up from the airport! I don't think even I am ready for that!

The countdown continues. Aunt Angie will be here in a month from right now. In fact, her plane is scheduled to land in about an month from an hour from this exact moment! The only reason I haven't told you that I have started the countdown for my parents' visit is that I know they will be here 13 days after Angie leaves. So that is the official number I am using for their visit and that will not change until Angie's visit.

Joey is getting so excited to have family come visit. He keeps saying, "I'm so exciting. (Meaning 'excited.') Aunt Angie comin' in my house next. And Nanny and Papa coming to me." He also tells me, "I'm gonna be a pilot when we grow up! Does Daddy want to be a pilot when he grows up?" Oh, Bubba, I don't think Daddy will ever grow up! (He's a boy, after all!) ; )

Baby Nick is walking more while holding on to my hands. But more amazing than that, is that he will walk holding one of my hands and one of Bubba's! He also has two teeth that are trying to break through. I can see the white tips of both just under the service of the gums, they are just being stubborn about coming out. That doesn't make for a very happy baby, but he is doing as best as he can with it. I'm sure he can't wait for them to finally break through.

Well, I should probably go. I still have a couple loads of laundry to fold and I have to be up extra early to be ready to have Baby Zach over.

Have a fantastic day!

Trouble With A Capital 'T'

...And that rhymes with 'B' and that stands for baby. Okay, so it is not a direct quote from the Music Man, but that is what I think of when I watch Baby Nick. The little stinker now knows how to open kitchen cupboards and drawers. It's bad enough that he refuses to stay still, now he is into everything he shouldn't be. I used to think that he couldn't sit on his own unassisted, but now I know that he refuses to sit still. Over the last couple days, I have made him sit up unassisted a few minutes everyday, to give him practice. He can do it....but after a few seconds, he gets back down on all fours and crawls away.

The two sounds that she laughs at every time he hears them are "Shh" and "No"! I am trying to get him to recognize that when Mommy says 'no' she means business. But he just looks over at me, smiles and giggles as if to say "You really don't mean that" and makes me smile. You would think that having already had a baby, I would be well practiced, but since I still can't keep from laughing at Joey when he's cute when in trouble...I guess there's no hope for me.

I have news, for those of you who don't know. I have another baby! Well, at least for a few hours a day for a few days. I was introduced to a lady at church a couple weeks ago who was about to take in a foster baby, but before she could get him, she needed daycare set up. Since Lenore knew that I wanted to babysit for some extra money, she introduced us. Baby Zachary is almost a month old, but was born premature, so is smaller than both my boys were at birth. Baby Nick is thrilled with another little one, but since he hasn't learned the art of being gentle yet, I try to keep Zach up out of Baby Nick's eager reach. Joey is just as sweet with Zach as he was with Baby Nick when he was born. The first morning, Joey woke up, came downstairs to see Mommy holding another baby, and gave the first good morning hug and kiss to Baby Zach. I had to practically beg for loves! Baby Zach's foster mom is a teacher, so she will not need care past next week. But she will need care next fall and will bring him back if I can get my license before then. Since he is a foster child, and the state pays for care, they require it be at a licensed facility. It would be an answer to prayer to have even one child to watch, bringing in a little extra money without my having to get a job outside of the home, leaving my boys in some strangers' care.

Here are a couple pictures of Baby Zachary. He's cute, but I'm sure none of you would blame me if I admitted I felt my boys were cuter! So far he is sleeping much of the day, but hopefully he will start staying awake more during the day and sleeping more at night.

Budding Genius

Joey is nearing genius! I am sure you will all agree that I am not just speaking as a biased mother, here. Here is a picture of his brilliance.
I drew 'A', 'B', and 'C' in dotted lines and asked Joey to trace them. He has practiced with his LeapPad, but he has never seen how the lines connect, as the LeapPad does not have ink. I have watched him practice and seen that he has done very well, but I was amazed at how well he did in actuality. The 'B' is the hardest of the letters he tried. If you can make it out, you can see that he kind of made a 'D' and then added the cross-line in the middle. I was so proud.

The next thing that surprised the socks off of me was at bed time. Nick took Joey up to bed and he, completely on his own, asked to sleep in his big boy bed. I don't think he has even laid down on his big boy bed in six months or so! This is amazing. I was most nervous about taking Baby Nick to bed, since he will usually cry for a little bit, and Joey wasn't asleep yet. But so far they have done fairly well. Joey called down to us twice, make that three times (I hear him right now), and each time we go in, Baby Nick thinks we are there to rescue him from his bed. So we have to lay him back down and make him cry himself calm again. I guess Nick is tired of trying, so Joey is now back in our bed. Oh well. I guess I can hope that sometime in the next eighteen years, we will have our bed to ourselves. (I really do enjoy being able to cuddle with Joey, but occasionally, it would be nice to not share with a bed hog.)

The boys had their Well Child Check-Ups yesterday and both did very well. They were seen by a different doctor as their pediatrician is out on maternity leave. Dr. Pulliam was very nice. She has a three and a half year old and a seven month old, so her kids are nearly the same age as our kids, so she certainly understands dynamics of the children's development.

Baby Nick is still our tall, gangly child. He was measured at 29.75inches which is in the 90%. According to the measurement, he only grew 3/4 of an inch in three months. I knew that his growth would start slowing down, but this was almost a complete halt on his growth. But as Aubrey pointed out, the measurements could be a bit wrong on both ends (a little high last time, a little low this time). It is awfully difficult to measure a squirmy-wormy! He weighed in at 19 pounds 2 ounces, which puts him in the 25%. His head circumference, at 46 centimeters, is in the 70%. (Joey, at nine months, measured 28.75 inches, 22lbs 9oz, and 47.5cm.) Baby Nick did not need any shots, but they did a finger prick to test for anemia. He was found to have slightly low iron, so he was recommended to take a daily multi-vitamin drop.

Joey is also growing well and is still our much shorter child. I still think he will hit his growth spurt later in life, but as of now, he is showing a tendency to be short. (At least compared to his father.) He was 36.5 inches tall, putting him in the 25%. And he weighed in at 30.6 pounds, putting him in the 40%. The most important thing they look for at this time, is that he is on the same growth curve as he was at his last appointment, which was at two years old. Joey got one shot, and did amazingly. He, strangely enough, is afraid of band aids, and when he saw the nurse come in with two band aids open and ready for use, he said in a very timid voice, "I don't want an owie." We assured him he would be okay and when he was given the shot he whispered, "Ouch" and that was it. He didn't bleed, so he didn't need a band aid, which made him feel better.

The appointment went well and the boys are healthy. Joey will not need to be seen until next year, and Baby Nick will go in for his 1 year appointment in a short, three months.

Three Quarters Of A Year

Is it possible? My baby is 9 months old already. Three very short months remain until he has his first birthday. It's inconceivable! (As Inigo says, "I do not think you know the meaning of this word.)

Tomorrow the boys will have their doctor's appointments and I will have more to report as to how big they have grown. Tonight's blog will be short as I have a couple grumpy kids today. I tried posting this blog yesterday (as I try to blog the month-versaries on time) but our internet was down. So it is a little late.
I think these pictures show the most difference in how the boys look now. It is still obvious they are brothers, but their features are becoming more distinctive in their uniqueness. They are both so preciously cute, though.
Bubba is definitely more chubbalicious! His hair was a bit longer and curlier than Baby Nick's is now, but Nick's is showing a tendency to curl a bit. Bubba is more round in his facial structure, and Baby Nick is more square. Now, more than ever, you can see how Bubba takes after Mommy and Baby Nick takes after Daddy.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all you moms had wonderful days and were shown how special they are. (I better go take care of my grumpy boys now.)

Normalcy Has Its Place

There is not much new happening up here in Alaska. Spring is finally coming. The trees are blooming and the grass is working on turning green. It has been drizzly all week, which is good for making the world green. The sun is rising before 5:30am and setting long after 10:00pm. Just this evening, I was feeling the desire to call someone from home, just to talk and chat about the day, and I realized that it was already 9:30pm here, meaning 10:30pm at home. It looked so much like 6:00pm that it reminded me of having dinner with the family, then meandering out to the porch to visit in the slightly cooling summer evening. Not that the temperatures reflect that fantasy, but the daylight does.

The countdown is on....only 40 days until my sister-in-law, Angela comes to visit. I am just short of marking the days off the calendar in bold red ink, but I think I will try to contain myself to a quiet countdown. I will try to wait for just a week, or five days, to start counting down with Joey. He can kind of wrap his mind around those numbers.

Since getting his fishing pole, and practising with Daddy nearly every night, Joey can't wait to go fishing. Daddy calls him his "fishing buddy." Joey walks around the house saying, "You am my fishing boy. We go fishing, will be fun."

Joey has started being very declarative in his affirmations. When asked a 'yes' or 'no' question, where the answer is 'yes', he answers with a very firm 'YES.' Not even a 'yeah.' As if it is of the utmost importance that you clearly understand him. He also puts a complete phrase to his answer. For example: "Joey, did you sleep well?" "Yes, I did sleep well." "Do you know I love you?" "Yes, I do know." He is no longer answering with one word answers. He is very 'grown-up' in his answers.

Baby Nick is also growing up so fast. He has become a much happier little boy. I love that he is going to sleep on his own, and for the most part (knock on wood) is sleeping through the night. If I can feed him for the last time between 9pm and 10pm, I can lay him down after he eats and he will usually sleep until around 6am. The nice thing is, there are several days I am lucky enough to lay him down in bed with us for another hour before he demands to get up and eat. That allows me a more gentle, slow waking...which is very nice. Occasionally he will get up far too early, but when that happens, he will usually go right back to bed for another hour or so and I can lay down again for a bit.

He has become quite proficient at walking along and between the furniture. He also enjoys walking with the push-walker. He will go up and down the length of our house as long as I am walking behind him to help him 'steer'. You would think that a baby who can't steer could walk a straight line...but I suppose small obstacles in the way and the shifting of his weight changes the course of his path. Not to mention that he can't make a 180 degree turn, so once he hits one wall, I have to turn him around till he hits the other wall! The more confident he gets, the closer he will be to walking on his own.

I was loading the dishwasher while cooking dinner last night and Baby Nick kindly offered to help. He would thoughtfully remove the dirty spoons and lick them clean. I asked Nick to remove him so I could finish more quickly. I watched Nick walk back to the living room with the little helper and turn around and sit down in the recliner. About the time I saw him sit down, I saw Baby Nick back at the dishwasher grabbing at the spoons!! Man, he is fast! I said, "My helper is back." And Nick couldn't believe it. "I JUST put him down." I also can't eat my own food without Baby Nick demanding that I share with him. I can try setting him on the floor so that I can eat, and on the way down, he is twisting and turning in my hands, trying to get his mouth closer to the food. I was trying to get Nick's attention as to how ardently Baby Nick was trying to get my food, and in the process, almost lost a full grown-up bite to Baby Nick, he got that close before I was able to pull the spoon away.

Well, it is very late, and I still have my Bible study blog to do. I will wish you all a blessed and restful night and pray your Friday will be the same.