The Brooks

Interview with Monkey Monk on his 4th birthday!

2011-10-30T19:50:00.002-04:00

1. What is your favorite color? Blue and red and purple and green. Mostly I like red and the color of the dog. Brown on the dog.
2. What is your favorite toy? A dump truck and a balloon. (he doesn't own a dump truck by the way.)
3. What is your favorite fruit? Squash. I like apples I think. I think I like apples.
4. What is your favorite tv show? Scooby dooby where are you.
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut butter and macaroni and cheese.
6. What is your favorite thing to wear? Spiderman clothes. A spiderman shirt.
7. What is your favorite game? The racecar game. (Daddy says he means Mario Kart.)
8. What is your favorite snack? Apple straws.
9. What is your favorite animal? Tigers.
10. What is your favorite song? Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a shiny nose.
11. What is your favorite book? a tree book that can tell you all about leafs. (which he also does not own.)
12. Who is your best friend? Eli. (Who moved away.) He actually kicked me one time.
13. What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow cereal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on my monkey bars.
15. What is your favorite drink? Lemon juice.(WHAT? Who let him drink lemon juice????)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween.
17. What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night? Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes.
19. What do you want to be when you grow up? A person. "What kind of a person?" I want to be a teenager. What’s a teenager?
20. What’s the grossest food ever? Squash.
21. What do you wish for? I wish tooth fairy to get my tooth out me. My head.
22. What is your best memory? Riding on a helicopter. “You’ve never been on a helicopter.” When I was a baby I did.

Growing Boys

2011-07-22T22:25:00.005-04:00

So I'm terrible at posting. I think I begin every post that way... Anyway, both boys had doctor's appointments this week and both were weighed and measured so I thought I'd post on just how big my boys are!

First up is our little Bruiser! His dr appt was at his Hematologist's. Of course that was a two hour long appointment. When they asked me if I could stay longer so they could mix up his immunizations I almost cried. Then I turned her down and said next time I come they need to have it ready because I would have been there another two hours waiting with two little boys who aren't made for sitting quietly. Anyway, my baby weighs 23lbs and his 30" tall! He is really thinning out with all the running around and craziness that has become his life. He and Monk ran around in circles chasing each other for an easy 20 minutes at top speeds today.

And that brings me to Monk, whose appointment was 8 minutes in and out. I deserved that. What a sigh of relief! Dr. Beck says that Monk is brilliant and can't believe how smart he is for being three. He also says my boy is really mature in that he can hold a long conversation with a stranger and knows what he's talking about. "I'll bet he thinks he knows everything." Yup, doc, how right you are. And... my Monk weighs 34lbs! and is 40" tall. He's shot right up there too.

Monk's New Room!

2011-06-15T10:17:00.004-04:00

When we first found out our little monk was coming I knew that I wanted to make a cool little Hawaiian nursery for him. However, we in between moving and moving and moving a house fire and the small fact that all Hawaiian crib bedding was $300+, it just didn't happen.

When we moved into our home now (almost 2 years!) my mom and I found some really cute dinosaur bedding at an amazing price so I did a dinosaur room for him. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at picking out paint colors and they were a lot darker than I wanted and I just haven't enjoyed his room. Selfishly, I decorate for me and not for my boys. Anyway, for want of a project, I shopped for months and finally found some bedding I could afford. I wanted a quilt and not a comforter because the insides bunch up when I wash it.

That was in February. Now that it is June I FINALLY painted. I found some inspiration on line and used a projector from a friend and many hours later VOILA! I am so in love with the bright colors (and an excuse to use turquoise). I may not be much of an artist, heaven knows I keep looking at it thinking of all the stuff I need to fix, but I LOVE love love his room.

Next in the plan is a white beach table for next to his bed, a beach chair with an umbrella and I need to make a grass skirt for his bed skirt and valance. Love the accessories!

I thought you were three...

2011-06-06T15:24:00.002-04:00

OH how I love this little boy. He continually impressed me with his brilliance. Sometimes he humbles me too....

Monk: Momma, what's this on your necklace, is it teeth?
Me: Yeah, well, it's supposed to be.
Monk: What kind of teeth is it?
Me: I don't know, maybe a shark tooth?
Monk: Noooo! Shark teeth are triangles and this is not a triangle.
Me: My bad......

Cat Scan #2

2011-06-05T22:17:00.006-04:00

Oh what's another reason to skip out on church early?? This morning my Bruiser woke up with a little knot on his forehead. I thought it looked like a glorified bug bite but since we were in a hurry as we always are on Sundays I put it on a back burner so I could focus on shoes for all and finishing my mascara.

So church. I teach my little class of adorable girls who were happy when I finished the lesson so they could draw princesses. Then in between classes and I went to pick up Bruiser from nursery and Monk from primary. On my way out the Nursery teacher told me Bruiser's bump had grown and that the husband had him so I basically walked out on her, found the family, saw the huge bump that changed my baby's profile and called the ER Hematology department at Nationwide.

A half hour later Monk is with our friends (Thank you so much for taking him. It made things so soooo much easier) and I'm at a tiny hospital. I check in as my husband drove home to get Bruiser's factor from our fridge. I liked this hospital because it was small and not busy. I was actually greeted by the ER dr who said, "Oh, umm... did Nationwide call you? I thought you might want to go to a different hospital." So I said, "Do you have a CT Scanner?" "yes". "Then let's get started." He seemed really uncertain but a lot of people, doctors included don't know much about hemophilia or the rarer Hemophilia my baby has. He seemed better when I told him how we do things.

So while they got the CT ready we did the regular temperature, ears, eyes, etc. My baby weighs 22.5 lbs by the way :) Bruiser was perfect. He giggled and played even though he was ridiculously tired and hungry. He pretended to call Daddy on my cell phone then was elated when daddy showed up with his medicine. Right after he got there we went to the CT and my Bruiser was so perfect. he didn't cry or fuss. His eyes got HUGE when the machine started though. It literally took less than a minute. The technician told me that Bruiser was the best child she'd ever had. Well of course he was!

Results took another 5-10 minutes but in the end: NO BLEEDS. Not even on the hard ginormous bump on his head. The doc had no idea what it was. Maybe a bug bite that got out of control, maybe something different. So he gave us some Benedryl just in case and gave us some papers on bug bites and head trauma because it could have been either.

I'm so grateful that we've never had to give my baby factor. It stinks that we have to go to the ER for things that we'd normally "just keep an eye on" for Monk. But we can't take any chances. This time around I was definitely more confident and knew exactly what to do. Because I had that attitude the doctor respected me and listened to me a whole lot more. We could have been there a lot longer if I had hobnobbed around. Hopefully the Lord will keep blessing us in the way that Bruiser doesn't need a factor injection. but when the time comes I know that we'll be ready and it won't be as scary.

Humbling Confession

2011-05-18T12:09:00.002-04:00

So today Monk got into the ball pit and threw out the balls. They were all over the floor so I asked him to pick them up. He came up with excuse after excuse.

-I don't know how.
-I don't want to.
-I'm too tired.

Since he wouldn't do it I told him he could either pick up the balls or go to bed since he was so sleepy. Since he still wouldn't I followed through and picked him up and put him to bed and yelled at him to stay put. As soon as I closed the door he said he had to use the bathroom. SO frustrating! That's always what he says and irritates me so I told him he could stay put. After screaming he had to go for a couple more minutes my patience was up so I yelled at him to just go potty and come back.

He did, I made him go back to bed and a few minutes later he had calmed down enough to clean up his mess and all was well.

After lunch he told me his pants were wet and I asked him why.

"I had to pee and wasn't fast enough and you were yelling."
"Oh."

Yeah I felt bad. Not so much because I made him wait to go potty because he always uses that as an excuse when he's in time out, but more because I yelled at him and I remember in my family classes at school this quote, "Once you yell, you are the one that's wrong." So I'm going to try harder to be calmer with them.

But it's really hard sometimes...

Precious Time

2011-05-10T22:00:00.002-04:00

"Life offers you two precious gifts--one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will." - Elder Richard L. Evans

I first read this quote on one of my friends FaceBook pages and I've been thinking about it the last couple of weeks. Some might think that since I stay at home with my boys I have all kinds of time to do whatever I want. The truth is that there is always something that needs to be done or someone wanting me.

Another truth is that I have been really selfish with my time. Some mornings I've strapped my boys at the table for breakfast & would spend as much time as I could get playing stupid FB games looking for quiet. I didn't realize how much time those games could take up!

I haven't felt like I've been at my best and when Monk asked me to sit down with him for a movie I told him I was busy which is pretty inexcusable. So I decided a change was in order. I deleted all of my games.

I've always been pretty in touch with my mortality. Maybe I'm set to die young; who knows! My time has always seemed so finite to me and moments here are so precious. I've been that way since I've been with my husband. I think because at that moment I realized just how much I had to lose. Now I have my boys and there's so much in my life.

Anyway, dumb games became kind of my hobby. I thought that when I deleted them that I would miss them or feel like vegging out to play and I actually feel less stress, haha! It's all silly really but I do know that I don't want to waste my time when there is so much to enjoy right in my living room. And I've been looking forward to spending time with my boys. Especially now that there is some incredible weather! YAY for 80 degrees!

Kitty-Less

2011-04-18T18:15:00.004-04:00

After 6 months of Cabo, Big Poppa finally came home and took his kitties back. Boy are we grateful! Let's just say we're not pet people. We're happy they're gone but we did love the little buggers. Here's a little tribute:

Discipline Issues

2011-03-11T09:23:00.002-05:00

Last week our little Monk was sick. Nothing serious. He just had a high fever for two days which made him very cuddly and sleepy. So for two days he was this sweet sweet angel that I got to cuddle and love on. Now he's not sick anymore and it's like all the naughty he was holding back being sick is coming out in concentrated doses.

He is not listening, yelling at me, saying words that are illegal in our house (stupid, hate) and throwing temper tantrums. He's normally very polite and has taken to demanding I get him this or that. It's felt very exhausting.

This little blog is about sticking to your guns. As we all know, children can turn off the naughty switch and turn on the angel switch faster than we can blink. Monk is at the age now where he remembers his behaviors, knows better and is starting to understand consequences.

Yesterday, D had a meeting out of town and we decided to go along. I took the boys to the grocery store and took them to this little bakery/deli. Monk started out by being rude in the store and yelling. When we got to the restaurant, they had these ginormous cupcakes that Monk thought were ice cream and he really wanted one. I thought, "No big deal. They're cheap, they look good." So I told him he could have one after he ate a sandwich. Right? Because you have to eat something good for you first. Well, then came the fit and stomping of the feet and after two minutes I had enough and got our food to go.

All the rest of yesterday he wanted his cupcake so bad. D was going to give it to him but I put my Mommy foot down. I told Monk that he could not have his cupcake because when we were in the store he threw a fit by screaming and stomping his feet and not listening to Mommy. So all yesterday, he did not get that stinkin cupcake. This morning he asked to eat it for breakfast and I said, "You can have it after you eat lunch if you're a good boy." And he said, "OK Mommy." YAAAAAY! He was so sweet. I felt like he learned a lesson.

I feel like I did something right in the parenting world by sticking to my guns and not moving (daddy either). I also was pretty specific when I told him how he threw a fit. I've realized lately that Monk understands better when I take the time to explain things.

I do feel some guilt because I really yelled at him the car after the store because he was being really rude. And I know that just yelling at him did nothing except make my voice ugly. So I'm going to try telling him next time, "You do not talk to Mommy like that. When you can talk to Mommy like a nice boy, I will answer you." Then I'll just ignore him until he's polite again. What's he going to do, yell? He was already doing that.

That might seem pretty cold fish next to D who's answer was to smack him in the mouth. I'm not against spankings all together, but I felt inspired and sometimes my inspirations are answers to prayers so we're going to try this new way.

PS. The cupcakes were really dry.

Health Nuts

2011-03-08T18:06:00.002-05:00

My husband is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in our little town, so whenever they have an event, he signs us up. This time around it's a 12 Week Health Contest. We went to one of the three gyms and got stats for our weight, BMI and fat percentage. Then we're told how much weight we have to lose to get to our ideal body fat. In the 12 weeks, we get points according to workouts, reaching our goals and spending money at local businesses.

So D and I went over to get weighed. I won't share his stats but I was a little surprised by mine. I normally weigh about 126 but since their scale is 4lbs off, it put me at 122lbs. Then they subtracted two lbs for clothes, which is pretty generous. So my starting weight is 120lbs. I feel like I should put that in "quotations". To be at my goal fat percentage for my height, gender and build (they put athletic or regular), I need to lose 3lbs so I can have 23% body fat.

Three lbs will be easy to lose in 3 months. Mostly I just wanted to be healthier. We're not much for veggies and I have a love affair with chocolate. So I decided to put us on Weight Watchers. It's a good diet because it's more about portion control and once we lose a certain amount it won't let us keep losing. Last time I weighed 117 was before I got pregnant with Cole and I got too many "you're too skinny" and "your cheeks are gaunt" comments. Apparently skinny is not a good look on me. I decided to adjust my diet so I count points during the week but don't pay much attention during the weekend. Which I really love because I love to eat.

This has caused a little stress in my marriage because D gets 35 points a day. 35! I get 20. So basically he doesn't have to do too much counting and what he has to eat at lunch is nearly my entire daily allotment. Grrr... But D and I have decided to try and do little video workouts together for the spirit of the competition. I'm hoping there are some fabulous prizes for this thing that makes all the cookies I'm giving up worth it!

Pet Peeves

2011-01-28T14:42:00.002-05:00

So I haven't updated in a while. I seem to have lost my camera cord and I have lots of fun pictures that are stuck. One of these days I'll get around to ordering one off of ebay.

I was filling out one of those silly little questionnaires on Facebook and it asked what my pet peeves are and I simply wrote, "many". Since then, I have decided that I like the word 'peeve' and I have been trying to think of specifics. I have thought of a few, so, (ahem), here it goes:

1. Girls who wear super tiny shorts, a big hoody and uggs. Then complain that they are cold. Are you cold or aren't you? And if you're not smart enough to wear pants in winter with snow on the ground, I don't want to hear it.

2. Fanatics. People who are so obsessed and absorbed by some of their own lifestyle choices that they are no longer a credible source of information. I'm a young mom, so most this goes out to all the woman who only use cloth diapers, breastfeed for two years and thinks any food that isn't organic will kill you. Just because you breastfed longer than I did, DEFINITELY does not make your children smarter than mine. I know this, because I've seen your children. Also, I do not want to see your naked boob in public. I know that it is natural. So is pooping. But I don't want to see you do that either.

Now don't get me wrong. I believe "breast is best" and I feed my babies healthy food, etc. But some people become sycophants. They come off as though any mom who doesn't mother their way is a bad mom. That is where we have a problem. And I don't care if you breastfeed in public. But at least use a blanket.

3. If you don't agree with me you're attacking me. UGH! GEEZ! That is so ridiculous. I'm allowed to disagree. One example is that my husband and I don't drink alcohol for religious reasons. That does not mean that just because you drink I think you're a bad person and I'm better than you. It's not about you at all. It's about ME trying to do what I think is best for ME. Also, if it comes up in conversation that I don't drink, it doesn't mean I'm trying to convert you or get you to have a life style change. If you are in a disagreement, playing the martyr isn't going "win". Just accept people have a difference of opinions and it's OK

4. Wet socks and when the back of my pants get drenched when it's raining. It's uncomfortable.

5. Not using spellchecker. I'm talking resumes and professional settings. Grr... Ok, maybe I mean e-mails and Facebook a little bit. AT LEAST re-read what you write because there are times when I have no clue what your status update is. No matter HOW many times I read it. I mostly mean resumes. Whenever I was hiring, I threw out the resumes of people who didn't take the time make it legible. (On a funny side note, when I was hiring on-site night managers, I got a resume from a woman who spent more time telling me what kind of apartment she wanted than she did her qualifications. What's that sound? My shredder.)

Wow, that was really hard. I don't get mad too easily and I tend to find most stupid things people do funny. Like the other day when someone said, "I hate negative people." And spent 5 minutes elaborating. I hope you find the irony in that too and it makes you laugh. Or roll your eyes. Life is better when you just roll with the punches but the above five things I mentioned are the ones that get to me.

home sweet home

2011-01-02T20:09:00.002-05:00

After Christmas I decided to take a trip with my dad to visit my Grandma in TN. Sans children. Christmas was so perfect and my children were such a pleasure to be around that I had a really hard time leaving. Thankfully my husband pushed me to go because he knew I needed it.

First of all, I had the best time with my grandma. She gave me baking lessons and we went out to eat and went shopping and chatted and looked through pictures and the whole time was wonderful.

Here's what I realized life would be like without my children:
1. No noise. It was so soooooo quiet.

2. No big bags. I needed a wallet and a cell phone.

3. When I went into a store all I had to do was get out of the car and go inside. No unloading carseats. (PS. Not my kid.)

4. The only person to clean up after was me!

All of this was nice but it also meant no cuddles, no hugs and kisses, no sweet baby sounds, no tiny hands to hold and my arms felt very empty. HOW I MISSED MY BABIES!

Needless to say I was very ready to be home and love on all three of my boys again. Monk ran right up to me with lots of kisses and a big "I love you" and Bruise WALKED TO ME. Yes, three steps in a row. My big men! Glad I went but there's definitely no place like my home.

Baby, It's cold INSIDE

2010-12-21T13:57:00.002-05:00

Welcome to home ownership. I guess I can't say we haven't already been introduced since a couple of months after we moved in last year we had a water line break. I woke up one morning and thought, "Wow the floors are cold." I looked at the thermostat and it said 53 degrees. CRAP. So the man called our buddy Dave who came over as soon as he could that day to work on our furnace.
He figured out what the problem was pretty fast. We needed a new motor and he ordered one for us and fixed what we had the best he could so we'd be warm enough through the night. That evening we saw that it wasn't going to last us very long at all. We got a space heater in our room and laid Bruiser on the floor in a fleece blanket pallet and we put Monk between us. All our bags were ready so in the morning all we had to do was get dressed and head out.
It was really rough night's sleep with the boys. Oy.
We woke up to 42 degrees outside our bedroom. Packed up. Took the boys to breakfast at McDonald's and spent the night with my parents. In their warm warm house. Our part didn't come until late and Dave couldn't get over to fix it right away so we had to spend another night with my folks. Sunday Dave could fix it but something else was wrong and he thought it was the circuit board. So another night in Findlay.
The next day it still wasn't working so Dave suggested another guy who came and figured out that one of the brand new parts we were sold was bad.
Yeah. That meant we had to pay a guy after hours money because we were sold a bad new part. The company is refunding our money and is going to see if they can foot some of the bill for us. I hope so because I'll be very angry and possibly start naming names.
Gratefully, we are back in our warm warm home for Christmas! We are so grateful for family who can help take care of us when we're out.
Thanks everyone!

CatScans, Birthdays and Parties!

2010-12-12T14:53:00.011-05:00

Well we have definitely been a very busy little family. I start out by saying this so I have an excuse for not updating in so long.

First, Bruiser had his first ER appointment. He fell inTO our bathtub and hit his head and his eye a day before his birthday. Normally that's not a big deal, but since he's a bruiser we had to rush off to the hospital and get a catscan to make sure there was no internal bleeding. I called the Hemophilia Center on our to let them know what was going on. The nurse told me that the ER people would resist a catscan but that I had to be very aggressive. She also called the ER ahead of time and gave them instructions. They're so wonderful! I brought our factor with us because normally we would inject him first thing. It turned out that getting a catscan was faster than putting a team together to give Bruiser his IV then his factor. When we got into the catscan room they wrapped by little baby up like a tiny blue burrito and Daddy got to help hold him. He only moved during two of the pictures so it was all over in just a couple minutes. Catscans are cool by the way. I got to see his brain and eye balls and grey matter and all kinds of awesomeness. Oh, and Bruiser was, fine and dandy. The ER doc came to see us and I got a very distinct impression that he had googled Hemophilia right before he came in. Or WebMD. I wanted to ask him which one. He was doing well until, "At least he doesn't have Hemophilia A, that's Christmas Disease. That's way worse." And I thought, "WHAT!?" He also really did not want to give Bruiser his factor but since he had no bleeding I was fine with that. Until a lot later when I remembered he said to look out for 'delayed bleeding'. If he knew that was a possibility why didn't he give my child factor? I'm grateful that the experiences I'm having now I can learn from when they haven't been serious. Anyway, Bruiser looked like a tough guy his first birthday.

AND my sweet little boy on his 1st birthday! You are almost walking! You rip through my house in your walker and can stand up by yourself for 4 or 5 seconds at a time (which is excellent). You are still a great eater. You really really like to get into stuff and play. You have two new words which are 'kitty' and 'uh oh'. Eleven pounds ago you were my newborn angel and now you're such a big man. Sometimes you just love to be held so you can watch what's going on in the world around you. We love you so much.

I had a birthday too, although mine aren't really important anymore. We went to Bob Evans and the mall so Monk could ride on the train. He had so much fun. I love watching him get so excited.

Finally, the husband and I went to his company party. It was a nice excuse to get all dressed up. They paid for a hotel so our boys went to my parents' house for the night which was so wonderful! We had a great time.

Parenthood is defined as...

2010-11-22T21:05:00.002-05:00

Loving someone so fiercely who sometimes (often) makes your life HARD. Parenting is not easy. And I don't care if someone takes offense to my little definition up there. You're lying to yourself if having a child doesn't make your life harder. Sweeter, yes. Harder, most definitely. It's so amazing that I love my little boys fiercely, desperately and so fully even though there are days like today where even my body hurts.

First, they woke up too early this morning and Monk was cranky from the get go. He begged me over and over for a movie. So I let him watch one then I put the two of them in the bath since I knew I wanted to get their pictures taken. Washing his hair is awful! He screams and cries so loudly! I didn't even get soap in his eyes. That took a while and finally I had enough of his whining. Although I did teach him the difference between his "monk voice" and his "whining voice". We also practiced some animal voices.

I laid Bruiser down who went right to sleep but Monk was NOT having it. I laid down with him for a few minutes because I was tired and I think the rest of the day would have been easier if I had stayed long enough for him to fall asleep. I just don't like to do that because it's a terrible habit to get into.

He's going through a rough phase where he doesn't want to listen. He just wants to go off and do what (or have Mommy do) whatever he wants. He's also outgrowing naps but still needs them. AUGH.

A bit later we went to get our pictures taken at Sears. I brought my dad and my favorite CJ along thinking that it would be fun and easy. It was not either of those things. Monk threw a fit the entire time beforehand and was in one of those contrary moods. "Oh Monk, you're so handsome." "I NOT SO HANDSOME!" He yelled about everything. The picture ladies worked miracles because she had him laughing so loud and giggling in no time and I did get ONE, maybe two good shots out of the whole thing. After that he was back to being yelling. The three of us adults were exhausted by the time we were finally finished. CJ is second guessing having children I think...

So a million fits later, I pick up my husband who was out running errands and hanging out with his best friend. Maybe I cried a little because the day was just so HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD. But he gave me my birthday present nearly 3 weeks early and they are the most comfortable and soft pair of silk jammies from Victorias Secret ever! I don't even care that he spent an ungodly amount on them. Then he bought me ice cream. The boys fell asleep in their car seats and we were home where I could take a long hot shower to work the knots in my shoulders out from the stress, shave my legs so I didn't mar my new jammies with bristly legs and be luxuriously comfortable. Sigh.

And even though today kind of sucked and was HARD HARD HARD, I keep thinking about how when I laid down with Monk he said, "I like you Momma. I like you beautiful eyes." And it's no wonder I'm not mad at him and that I love him as much as I do. Maybe tomorrow will be wonderful :)

11 months!

2010-11-04T15:21:00.004-04:00

And I'm only 1 day late of getting this up! Our little Bruiser is 11 months old. He just seems so tiny. He's so my baby and I have a hard time imagining him getting bigger. He got his top two teeth in this month. He can do so much.

Right now Bruiser can hold on to the edge of something and walk. I don't see him do it very often, but don't be fooled. Once I walked in on him and he's FAST. Blew me away for a second because I had never seen him do it before. He can also clap and play peek-a-boo which is probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. Bruiser is also a master of sound effects. I can't even begin to describe, or mimic, the sounds he makes with his mouth. It's so funny. I'll take a video and post.

Bruiser loves his baths but has taken to standing up in them which is a big danger even though I'm sitting right next to him. He's taken a few spills and gets really angry. A funny thing about my little man is that he gets MAD. Full on fists clenched- face red- vein bursting mad and a grunt that goes back to cave man days. Can you believe this coming from my peaceful sweet boy?

He also really loves his toys more and more and can easily keep himself entertained for hours. Sometimes I just take them both upstairs and read my book while they play. His favorite though is the mouse and keyboard that's hooked up to our TV. I have to hide them now or he changes our movies. Silly man.

By the way, he can climb stairs. Scary for a bruiser baby's mom, right? He also has the greatest big brother in the world. When Bruiser starts up the stairs and I don't see, Monk calls for me and sits right in front of him so he can't go up farther. I never taught him to do that! Monk also makes sure to always shut the toilet lid so Bruiser doesn't try to touch the toilet. What amazing little boys I have.

I'm always stopped by people who want to tell me how beautiful my little guy is and "Oh what eyelashes!" "Look at those eyes!" and all the adults who watch him say he is the cuddliest baby they've ever seen. And he is so completely precious.

It's an Honor!

2010-11-01T14:53:00.003-04:00

My Monkey Monk has turned 3. As in THREE. THREE YEARS OLD! He's gone through so many changed this year. He talks a lot and is so smart. We can have long conversations about anything. He really observant and remembers things from months and months ago. Most of it I was already starting to forget.

Monk is so sweet and so affectionate. He likes to cuddle and give hugs and kisses and he always wants to hold hands. I always feel so loved. He really loves movies and would probably watch TV all day if I let him. Which I don't, so we end up in his room a lot. He's really good at playing with his little brother. He looks out for him and lets me know when Bruiser is getting near the stairs. (Guess what, Bruiser can climb stairs!)

He likes to get his hair cut and do all the things Mommy and Daddy do. He loves playing with other kids, of course boys. He just jumps right in without any thought at all and before you blink they're all running around chasing each other.

I just love him so much. He's this light that makes every day better. I never know what he's going to say because he's a little parrot and only has to hear you say something once before he says it himself. And he's observant so what he says is a mix of me and a mix of him.

Dear Monkey. My life is so much better with you here. I am so honored that I get to be your Mommy. We adore every thing about you from your crooked little toenails to your crazy professor head of hair. We love you more than anyone was able to tell us we could. And I have never been more grateful that families are forever. Love you babyboy.

Poopy Monologue

2010-10-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

‎"I poop! I poop mama! I made a snake! I made it wike a snake for you! I don't want to eat my poop. Yuck. Oh, I not all done. I haf to poop again. I poopin. Poop Poop Poop. Faster faster faster. This seat is bouncy. It's soft. Good idea. Now I make a pretzel for you. It's a poop pretzel. It's not pretend. A poopy pretzel."

I feel this way:

2010-10-15T11:40:00.002-04:00

The recent suicides and abuse of homosexuals has really been laying down heavy on my mind lately. I feel for those people and their families. It is never ok to be unkind. I am grateful to my church that above all else, teaches to love one another.

BIG NEWS

2010-10-05T21:57:00.006-04:00

And no, I'm not pregnant. However, I'm really excited for May 2011 because I will have two new nieces/nephews! Babies are so wonderful!

Our big exciting news is..... Monk is potty trained! 100%! We've been working on it for a while, but he wasn't really interested. It was more, "If I think about it and am not doing anything better, maybe I'll do it for a special treat." But now he's looking super cute in his Batman underwear. He doesn't even wet during his naps (when I get him to lie down) or during bed time. I'm so proud. Of course, when in public he demands his "pwivacy" and won't let me in the stall with him. I try to watch through the crack to make sure he's not touching the toilet bowl or anything. EW.

Bruiser is 10 months now and I didn't get around to posting for 9 months so let's see.... At 9 months he was ever so peaceful and crawling like a breakdancing champion. He was very very fast. He was also a bottomless pit. I'm talking waffles for breakfast and a whole PB&J for lunch. Hungry little hippo.

At 10 months our little Bruiser is crawling normally, not eating so much (and by not so much, I mean he only eats a little more than Monk does.) He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING. Mostly me and the furniture, but also the walls. He's teething something fierce so I find big puddles of drool all over the floor but it just make me laugh. He is so peaceful and such a joy. He finds more things funny now and laughs a lot at Monk.

More on my Monkey Monk: He is SMART. And INDEPENDENT. He likes superheroes, trains, dragons and Scooby Doo. He loves to eat corn dogs and fruit. And he is unendingly sweet. He's very obedient and affectionate and pretty much perfect.

My boys are so wonderful! I'm looking forward to the end of this year because we have lots of Halloween activities and Monk's birthday and holidays and Bruiser turns 1! I love watching my boys grow up.

BaBy MoUtH

2010-09-29T11:10:00.002-04:00

My sister-in-laws are both expecting in May! I'm so excited! It's so wonderful and special to be around a baby. And I like that I don't have to be pregnant and still get to cuddle and buy cute baby clothes!

So I was trying to explain to Monk that his Aunties are having a baby. I told him that their tummies will get big so the baby can grow. Of course he connected tummy to mouth. This morning we had this conversation:

Monk- You big Momma. And I'm little.
Me- You are little. But you're getting bigger and bigger.
Monk- Can I go in your tummy for just a little while.
Me- Ha, I don't think you can fit anymore baby. But you'll keep growing.
Monk- I just go through your mouth. See?

Then he tried to put his head in my mouth. What a sweet funny boy. I'm not telling him where babies come from yet though. We can have that conversation in a few years.

A Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Mom

2010-09-22T09:35:00.005-04:00

BEFORE NOON ANYWAY

Bruiser's up! Time to roll myself out of bed no matter how many times I woke up the night before. And when I get there, he's standing up in his crib for the first time! It makes me smile because he's growing so much. "Mommy!" And then there's Monk who always sounds so happy to see me in the morning. "I want strawberry milk."

Potty then Breakfast time. I don't remember the last time I used words like 'restroom' or 'bathroom'. But Monk goes without me telling him to which is a big triumph. I make breakfast, clean them up and eat their leftovers.

Monk likes to watch movies about now so I turn on Netflix since I can't stand cable. He still wants to watch Spongebob but I refuse. He's a parrot nowadays and I don't want him to mimic anything on that show. We choose Wonderpets instead.

I lug Bruiser around as I unload the dishwasher and make the bed, pulling off the pillowcases since I need to do a load of whites. I have to make a run to all the rooms of the house to get the vigilante dirty clothes and dishes that forgot to put themselves in the right place. Just as I've sprayed the last of the Shout on Bruiser's crib sheet Monk runs in and starts to climb the dryer. "I'm all done now, you need to get off." "NO!" A few 'nos' later and he's off to time for not listening and yelling at me.

Time for Bruiser's medicine that he doesn't like and ends up spitting all over me. And then: "AUGH! My nose! Owie!" What on earth is stuck up there? He's really upset. He hasn't done this in a long time. Since I had to call my husband home to help me. So I lay Monk on the bed and turn on the light and dig out my tweezers. Tweezers won't get it so I pinch one nostril and cover his mouth and tell him to blow. Mystery object shoots right on out. I'm still not sure what it is but I drop in the toilet and wash my hands for the third time this morning. We've only been up for a little over an hour.

He wants to watch more TV. I feel bad since every article I read says he shouldn't watch more than a couple hours tops a day. He'll want a movie after his nap. If he takes one. Are those picture hung crookedly? Geeez. I guess it doesn't matter because he keeps messing with the volume button connected to our speakers. A few no's later and he's back in time out. No more movies! Bruiser wants his jumper so I get a few minutes of quiet. If quiet includes 10 requests for a snack and movie...

Time for Bruiser's nap. He's been a happy little guy this morning. When he lays down I can get ready myself. It's hard to put on makeup and do my hair with two little guys pawing at me. So just Monk is awake. Except I don't know what's into him today. he might need a nap too because he's being really disobedient.

I notice the window is open and I wonder if our neighbors ever hear me yell at Monk. It doesn't happen often since he's usually such a good and easy little man. But that would be pretty red-neck of us and Monk usually runs around naked. If I put a pull up or underwear on him he'll pee or poop in it. If he wears nothing he always goes potty but usually gets the bottom of his shirt wet when he pees, so NAKED it is.

In between cleaning up after him and his break down it takes me a full 45 minutes to do my hair (kind of) and put on makeup. At least I don't look like I've rolled out of bed. I promised my husband I'd never be one of those wives that goes to the store in their pajama pants.

I make Monk a PB&J on a hamburger bun and this makes him happy. So I let him watch more Wonderpets. Bless the Wonderpets a this point. And if he watches a little extra TV today it's for my own good.

And it's 11am. So I'll see if Monk will take a nap too. This has been a harder morning but when Monk finally settles down he wants to hold hands and I see that they are so beautiful and so funny so individual.

And Monk, of course does not want to take a nap but he'll play quietly in his room for a little while which gives me the chance to read a little and wait for Bruise to wake up. And his little smile when he sees me is priceless.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-31T21:25:00.004-04:00

I can't believe we've been married for 5 whole years! That's longer than most celebrities. Combined, haha. Today we celebrated by going to Cedar Point which was so fun! It's nice to go out and do stuff together because it reminds me how much I love being with him. Which is why we got married in the first place! I have a funny and awesome best friend that I get to live with and have fun with every day!

Cedar Point was fun. We LOVED the Millenium Force and the new Dragster one. We rode that one twice. We picked a good day for it too because there were hardly any lines at all. So we got through all the rides we wanted to and didn't stay longer than 3pm. We had a good time people watching and trying to figure out why on earth people wore what they did. Why the dresses ladies? You're at an AMUSEMENT PARK. Then there were the strange and uncomfortable... One kid was actually in slippers. But the heavy wool ones made for winter.

We went out for sushi afterwards because that's one of our favorite food. It was DELICIOUS. Then we decided to try something new. So I ordered the Salmon Caviar sushi and he ordered the Sea Urchin sushi. OH NEVER AGAIN! I couldn't get the Sea Urchin off my tongue fast enough. It was beautiful presented in a cucumber flower, but it was grayish, poopish looking, COLD and slimy. Oh it was so nasty. My man started dipping his chopsticks in his soy sauce to drink as much as he could and I shoved a wad of ginger in my mouth to try and get the memory of the experience out of my mouth. The caviar was waaay better and totally disgusting. And I kept having nemo flashbacks.

So it was an adventure. We spent too much money on it, but it was funny and we had a good laugh. We went to my parents' house to pick up our boys and I tried on my wedding dress again. Monk said my dress was 'sooo bootiful'. It fit and that was nice.

It's been an incredible five years and I had no idea that such a short space of time could be so amazing. We went from a crappy teeeeeeeny one bedroom apartment with the bathroom down the hall of the apartment building to a beautiful home, nice car and most importantly, our two most incredible little boys who we love so much. Our lives are truly blessed and we are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for giving us so much happiness!

EI8HT

2010-08-05T11:25:00.002-04:00

I'm so terrible sometimes at keeping up with my blog. It's not that I don't ever have anything to say, but some things I just don't want to put on the world wide web. I still have the second half of our vacation to put up. I'll get those up soon. I spent most of the week getting pictures of Bruiser from birth til now and for our family yearbook ready for scrapbooking. Prints are only .10 cents at Walgreens this week so away I go!

Last reported, Bruiser wasn't doing much of anything except getting up on his toes. I knew that this month would be a big one. Where he was bald, he now has HAIR. And gets funny bedhead. Where he could not sit up, now he does for long periods of time playing with his toys. What was once a funny push-up, looks like he's breaking dancing the snake as he CRAWLS across the floor. And he's getting fast too. While he used to eat mush, he now has WAFFLES for breakfast with his two NEW TEETH. From sweet baby coos, we now have DADADADADAs, BABABABABABAs, and MAMAMAMAMAMAs. And that was just all in one week.

I can barely keep up with my sweet boy. It's funny to set him down in the living room then turn around while I do dishes because there's a tiny baby at my ankles. He's still ever so much a Momma's boy. My favorite part about all these changes is that it's easier for him and Monkey Monk to play together. Monk kind of runs all over the place and Bruiser break dances here and there and laughs and laughs and laughs and soon they are both laughing so hard and then we are all laughing so hard.

Oh how I love my darling little boys!

VACATION, How do I get away? PT 1

2010-07-25T13:59:00.007-04:00

We've been back for about a week now so I figured I would FINALLY update our blog and get some pictures up from our vacation. Wow! It was crazy.

We left Friday morning to head out to VA Beach where our favorite friends are living right now. We were making awesome time in spite of all the terrible rain until we hit West Virginia. Traffic was stopped all the time. Turns out, it's because all those people don't know how to merge, so they stop and creep, stop and creep up. It wasn't even because there was an accident until some lady slammed in behind up. So yup, we got into a car accident which is my biggest fear with my sweet boys but everyone was ok. We had to go to the ER even though everyone seemed fine because you just can't take chances with a Bruiser Baby.

The ER was backed up but the good thing was that Bruiser has a special card that lets him hop the ER lines so we got in right away. It still took about 4 hours out of our trip and we ended up having to stay in a hotel that night from being sore and tired. We left early the next day and got to our awesome friends' place!

Then on to VA BEACH!

Monk has been talking about the beach since his Sheila Grandma went on vacation to FL so it was fun to take him. We had a good time throwing ourselves into the waves and playing in the sand, well, until it got too sandy... It was still stormy so after a couple of hours they closed the beach and we headed back to de-sand-ify ourselves. Rachel and I went to go see Eclipse.

I'm a big fan of the books but so far the movies have been really cheesy and poorly acted. Sorry Twi-hards. Eclipse is my favorite of the series but I didn't expect too much out of it. Turns out though I really loved it and was pleasantly surprised. When Rachel and I got back from our girl date the boys left to go see the Last Air Bender.

Which they said was the worst movie they have ever seen ever, period. And my husband who hates all things Twilight says he wished he had seen Eclipse instead. Huh, score one for the ladies.

The next day we took off around the afternoon and went to Washington D.C. D had never been there before and since I used to go all the time when I went to SVU I was excited to show him. We got an awesome room for under $100.

I almost didn't want to go out and see the sights, but we didn't drive all that way for nothing. We hopped on the Metro and ran to the Holocaust museum. We got there too late to see the regular exhibit and were pretty bummed about that. We'll get to it next time we go. I love that all the museums are free in DC! Then we just walked the National Mall and I showed D where you could see the White House from on top of the hill. We didn't want to walk there since it was sooooo hot. But trucked it up to the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. His mom's godfather has his name on there so we looked it up. By then we were sweaty starving and headed back to the hotel. We really loved learning about the history there and seeing the memorials. D and I are closet art fiends so we love to see anything made with some thought and genius. The boys were wonderful and we ate a lot of ice cream from vendors. I also wanted to buy some knock off sunglasses just to say that I did, but I got ice cream instead...

The most important thing was once we were in DC we were finally out of all the rain and traffic that had been non stop since we left. That was the biggest relief out of anything. Plus on our way out we saw signs for the LDS temple and wanted to stop since it's so beautiful and D had never seen it. It was wonderful, then off we went to Massachusetts!

Stay tuned for Part 2...

7 months is old

2010-07-08T23:20:00.003-04:00

So far no teeth, crawling or sitting up. And that's the way I like it. Right now, even though he seems so long and so big, in my mind I can still make him a tiny baby. I think this next month is going to change all of that.

Our Bruiser is quite adept at getting around though, so don't let the fact he's not crawling fool you. He can turn full circles on his little tummy and roll over, which is how he gets to things. He also gets up on his hands and tip toes like he's about to do a very graceful push up. That's way different than Monkey. When Monk was learning about crawling, he looked like he was trying to swim. Bruiser looks like he's break dancing.

Bruiser's feet are finally wide enough to wear the cute little flip flops his auntie bought for him. And he's teething an awful lot. His gums are so bumpy. The last few days he has drank more bottle than normal. He usually eats a breakfast, lunch and dinner of oatmeal and some fruit/vegetable and a bottle for naptime. It has saved me a lot on formula. He's easy and happy and healthy and very SHY.

He's been such a Mommy's boy and I really love it. I worked all week for D so he had to go to a babysitter for the first time and by the second day he would cry and cry and cry until I held him. That was very sad for Daddy who was trying to take care of him while I went running. Oh, and Bruiser loves animals. He gets really excited to see cats or our chickens. His arms get straight and rigid and he shakes them like he's having a seizure! But a big grin the whole time. I cannot resist those perfect dimples.

Monk is still being an awesome big brother. His curls are getting out of control with the humidity. He's more defiant lately and I really have been tryin to watch how I speak to him since I know that makes a huge difference. He's learning all of our full and grown-up names in case he gets separated from us. He forgets my first name so when you ask him I'm Mommy Bwooks. He does something funny every day and oh how I love this sweet boy.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

2010-07-05T20:04:00.002-04:00

OFFICIALLY- this is the coolest place I've ever been to. The husband's company treated us to the museum and I was so excited to take Monk bc of the dinosaur exhibit. Little did I know that I would get more excited than any of us! When you first drive up there's a ginormous dinosaur breaking out of the wall, then there are two looking into the museum! Monk wanted to ride on one, but they were too big.
There five stories of awesomeness, but we went to the dinosaurs first. I got so giddy! I was nearly in tears because I was so excited to see the fossils, AND I GOT TO TOUCH ONE! AWESOME! I was running around all crazy wearing Bruiser trying to look at everything and D was a little more calm taking Monk to each site, since it's supposedly a museum for children.

Then there was the rock and roll section which was pretty cool. I saw Elvis' actual tiger suit. I got a little misty thinking about how much I wanted to tell my Grandma since I knew she'd get a big kick out of it, so I just remembered her with a little extra reverence in my head and checked out Elvis' guitar and the KISS costumes.
Anyway, I was so excited I was an emotional crazy kid who drug my poor husband and children all over the place. Go there. Go there and check out the 4 stories of awesomeness.

PS My camera battery died so I have a serious lack of pictures.

Lime Ricki Cute Giveaway

2010-06-18T10:35:00.003-04:00

My friend Ki has awesome giveaways so I'm after a super cute bathing suit:

http://limerickimodestswimwearblog.blogspot.com/
www.cherryblossomsdesign.blogspot.com

DON'T enter so I have a better chance at winning :)

My friends need help!

2010-06-17T21:06:00.001-04:00

I went to school with this girl waaaay back when she was just meeting her now husband. That was quite a few children ago. Please see if you can help her family bring their girls home!

http://fromthetrenchesofadoption.blogspot.com

6 Months

2010-06-11T15:03:00.004-04:00

So I'm terrible at getting these up on time, but better late than never right? So our little Bruiser has turned six months old and those four weeks from 5 to 6 months have made a HUGE difference.

For one thing, he's weighing in at 15lbs and 25inches. That means he has doubled his birth weight and grown 5 incredible inches.

He laughs at more than just being tickled which is really sweet. He likes to hang on like a monkey and watch everything that is going on. Most mornings you'll find him in his bumbo seat watching me put on make up or washing dishes. Whenever my hands aren't free and I can't "wear" him, he's in that little seat watching watching. Like this picture when I was setting up Monk's slip and slide.

He's also rolling over all over the place. He could do it last month, but decided he didn't really like it all that much. Now he's everywhere. He especially loves to play with his toys so rolling around come sin handy with him. It's very sweet to hear him playing in his crib at night and in the mornings. It's even sweeter when I don't have to wake up because he's up.

His bottom teeth will be coming in at anytime. So I think. I wish I could freeze frame my boys at this point in time. They are so precious to me, as I say every time. And he's a picture of Monk because I don't want to leave him out.

Give Away

2010-06-10T16:48:00.002-04:00

Love this girl and Love her blog. AND I really love this giveaway because I LOVE that dress!

www.cherryblossomdesign.blogspot.com

Introducing our New Addition to the Family

2010-06-01T09:01:00.003-04:00

Our 18.5 lb and 44.86 inch bundle of joy! Living room, three bedrooms, office, stairs and hallway are all grateful and have never felt better. Or looked better. My old piece of junk will live out its useless retirement years in the husband's Jones office where it will never need worry about fruit loops, crackers and mystery substances ever again.

A couple more reasons why I love this man...

2010-05-21T13:17:00.002-04:00

I like the way he talks. He's so funny. He was standing in a back alley waiting on a friend he was helping move when a group of guys approached him and it looked like it could turn into a scary situation.

1. "Hey, you got any money?"
2. "Nope, sorry."
1. "What, you got a problem with Mexicans?"
2. "Dude, look at my skin. I'm portugese. You can't EVEN play the race card with me."
1. "Haha, ok man, ok. You want us to help you move? Mexicans are good a moving. We'll do it cheap."

He just says things that crack me up, because I probably wouldn't have been thinking along those lines. Then a couple days ago he told me that every time he sees vultures he thinks they should have Italian names like Tony and Guido. If this is what my husband is like now, imagine my children. GEEZ. I will ALWAYS be entertained.

It's not MY fault!

2010-05-20T10:25:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we drove down to Bruiser's special Hemo doc for the second time. We met a special dentist, physical therapist, social worker, geneticist and of course the normal two nurses and doctors. I like that along with Dr. Kerlin, we also have a specific nurse we work with each time, Charmaine. She is really sweet. We also met the other nurse, Claudia, for the times that Charmaine is on vacation.

Bruiser is up to almost 15lbs and 25". What a big man! He's in perfect condition and we got his blood drawn again bc often times infants' percentage levels go up a little bit. The husband said he did pretty well with getting his blood drawn and his immunizations. Monk mysteriously needed taken out of the room each time Bruiser was poked. Mysteriously...

ALTHOUGH, I would have had to have Monk removed anyway, as he got super protective. He heard when Bruiser started crying for the bloodwork and got really upset. "Coley's cryin!! Coley's crying!! I go to Coley!" He didn't calm down until Bruiser came back out happy as can be. When Dr. Kerlin came in for the examination Monk goes, "Don't TOUCH him!" Maybe he was thinking about the last time he had to go to the dr for glass in his foot. I'm glad he's looking out for his baby brother anyway. He felt better because Dr. Kerlin held and cuddled Bruiser saying they were friends, then pulled a silver dollar from Monk's ear. This man is an AWESOME. We're fortunate to have a great doctor.

Dr. Kerlin looked at Bruiser's shoulder and the new mark that's creeping up the back of his neck and has decided that they are NOT bruises or bleeds of any kind and are NOT hemophilia related. That means it's not my fault my sweet little baby is all marked up! What a relief! Now I don't feel bad every time I look at his back. He says he believes they are called Mongolian Spots, which is runs in 90% of Native AMericans but less than 10% of Caucasions, so he obviously gets it from Daddy's side. Ninety-five percent of Mongolian Spots go away by puberty. We just need to go to a dermatologist to confirm.

The hardest part about these visits is sitting in the waiting room. Not that it's a long wait, but because the Hematology ward shares with the Oncology ward. Dr. Kerlin does both. So I see these sweet little children who are going through chemo and I can't imagine watching my child suffer. One little girl got to ring the special Remission Bell since her cancer is in remission for now! Her family was taking pictures and the doctors gave her a gift and I got so teary eyed watching her. The moms in the waiting room all know each other and they asked the girl's mom what they would do now and the mom looked like a weight had just dropped off her shoulders. "Nothing for now! We'll test every now and then!" Then I saw a young couple carrying their tiny tiny little boy who had just received chemo and my heart broke all over again. I'm grateful it's just Hemophilia. My baby just bruises and I can deal with that.

My family is so blessed and I'm so grateful for my boys!

Just kidding folks!

2010-05-04T12:26:00.002-04:00

I need to edit the post I made about 20 minutes ago. He's a roller! back to belly to back! Woohoo! (although I'm still hoping he'll be a very VERY late walker).

Yesterday was 5 Months

2010-05-04T10:57:00.002-04:00

5 months old still seems pretty little right? I still see him as this tiny thing. I hope I'm not getting that "Mommy's little Baby" syndrome.

This month, my little Bruiser, you have fallen in love with your feet. In fact, you can fit almost the entire first half of your foot in your mouth. You are by far the most flexible baby I've ever seen. You can roll over from your belly to your back, but once on your back you just want to chew chew chew. You also like to kick really hard and I'm impressed with how strong you are.

You have the most beautiful soothing voice my little Bruiser. I might repeat myself every month, but you still don't like to talk unless you have something to say. Then you are very loud! I love listening to you squeal and coo. You have a huge beautiful smile.

You're teething still, right now. And if you catch hold of a finger with those tiny baby hands you put in your mouth before anyone can blink an eye. Your family is so in love with you.

Aw Geez...

2010-04-30T10:40:00.001-04:00

So I'm doing a March of Dimes walk tomorrow and I'm really excited about it. However, I thought I'd try and raise $100 but have only raised $5. Embarrassing right? So if anyone is PLEASE PLEASE feeling generous, click on the huge pink March of Dimes icon on the left hand side and donate a couple bucks. THANK YOU!

Lament of a Bruiser's Mother

2010-04-26T16:07:00.003-04:00

Beautiful isn't he? We were out and about all weekend long, which means my house didn't get dirty and I didn't have to clean it today. So I had some free time to play on picnik.com with this photo.

I'm so greatful that my little baby only has moderate Hemophilia B. It could be so much worse, like Hemophilia A or severe Hemophilia or most anything else. I have him and can hold his tininess in my arms and adore his little smiles and rolls. I get to be frustrated if he doesn't feel like going to bed at night (or early morning.)

But that doesn't mean I don't worry about him. He was born with a little hemangeoma on his leg. I probably spelled that all wrong, but it's just a small strawberry that should go away. A couple weeks later, I noticed at the doctor's office that he had a large bruise covering his entire shoulder and part of his tiny back. It hasn't gotten bigger and hasn't gone away, so the Hemo doc said it's probably a birthmark. Then yesterday, he was sitting on my lap and I saw a bruise on the nape of his neck that went up about two inches! To add insult to injury, my parents said they had noticed it two weeks ago. Where was I? Why didn't I see it as anything other than a shadow up until last night? I felt horrified!

Because of his type of Hemophilia, I really only need to worry about bleeds in the muscles and joints, not silly surface bruises which my father kindly reminded me so I didn't freak out too badly. (I can't believe I didn't notice!?) They went through this with my accident prone brother- sorry bro, but you know neither one of us could ever be mistaken as graceful. So my parents knew it was no big deal.

So where is the line? I want to not have a panic attack every time his beautiful baby skin gets discolored. I want to NOTICE is something is amiss so I can calmly and efficiently react. And I want to not worry about him playing with his big brother who seems to so far have inherited our "ungraceful genes". (He's a toddler. There's still hope for him.) Monk loves to play with him so much and I don't want to yell at him everytime he gets to close. Geez.... I could vent forever. I guess all I can do is my best. And accept that I'm just going to worry. Sometimes I'll over react and I'll make mistakes. Which stinks.

I really want to join a chat room or forum for moms with children who have Hemophilia, but I haven't really found one. Anybody know of one? Then maybe I can get my freak outs out one at a time instead of all at once.

First Cereal Box Toy!

2010-04-26T10:24:00.002-04:00

Come on, you know that's exciting. Which one of us didn't try to get our mom to buy cereal based on the toy. I never look anymore, but imagine my surprise when my Monk one morning shouts, "Mom-Mom! A car! A car!" He was so excited. I mean, look at that little face.

WICKED

2010-04-23T09:08:00.004-04:00

Did I mention my hot husband took me to see WICKED? It was AWESOME. We dropped my boys off with my parents and went to get some sushi with our best man Nick.

Everyone I know who has seen it RAVES about WICKED and how incredible is. They've all seen it several times. I've never heard of anyone who didn't like it! It was incredibly witty and clever and the music was so fun and we just really enjoyed ourselves.

My favorite scene:
What a moment! As a theatre person Icould just imagine what it felt like to be up there and singing with everything you got. It was incredible!

My husbands's favorite: No clue why. He is what he is! But he really liked the song "Popular".

How to Train your Dragon

2010-04-22T11:32:00.004-04:00

I really love that we can take my little boy to the movies. There's a cheap theatre very close to us so for less than $15 the three of us get in and get a drink and popcorn. Since Monk loves dinosaurs and dragons we thought How to Train your Dragon would be perfect! And it really was. Except that he almost all the popcorn. The movie was adorable. Monk didn't say anything the whole movie and was so into it. I love how he insisted on sitting in his ownseat, but he didn't weigh enough so it was more like a lounger for him. My sweet boy!

4 Months and Where have we been???

2010-04-20T08:16:00.004-04:00

So we really haven't been THAT busy, but it sure feels like it. I have a bunch of posts to put up this week but I'll start with my little Bruiser being 4 months old... 2 weeks ago...

I started him out on some cereal and it definitely did not agree with him. He had a stomache ache all week long so I took him off figuring that was the problem. We'll try again in a couple weeks to see if he's ready for it then. That time I'll put a tiny bit in his bottle instead of spoon feeding him so it's a more gradual thing.

Bruiser is still such a happy little guy. Jolly almost. He weighed 13.5 lbs his last dr.s visit. He's very different from his brother the older he gets. He's very quiet and likes to talk in spurts. But when he talks he really has something to say and will squeal and yammer for a good long while. He can roll side to side but doesn't roll over quite yet, which I'm perfectly happy about. I don't get those moms who are anxious for their child to do everything early. "My baby walked at such and such months..." That's nice, really, but I'll be happy if he waits until he's after a year.

Bruiser also really likes to grab onto his feet and hold him. That's when he does a majority of his side to sideness. It's very precious. I can let him play alone for a long time or put him in jumper with toys and he has a lot of fun. He likes to be held but doesn't often demand him. I wear him an awful lot with my wrap which is good because we're close and sometimes almost bad because I forget that he's there he's so quiet and it's so comfortable.

He and Monk adore each other. Monk can't wait for Bruiser to get up every morning so he can kiss him. They like to play in the crib and Bruiser just looks up and smiles and at all the crazy things Monkey puts out. Monk is such a goof ball.

What can I say? I love these boys o mine!

There are two sides to every story...

2010-04-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

There are two sides to every story...

For the Love of BOYS

2010-03-22T19:59:00.004-04:00

Oh everyday they make me laugh and make my life so happy. Here's a little peek of some of the things they do (mostly Monkey).

1. Potty training is always good for a laugh. As I put little Monk up on the potty I reminded him to "point down". So he says, "Yeah, dont want to pee on mommy!"

2. "Hold Mommy" said my little Monk and I pull him on my lap but he headbutts me in the cheek and we fall over. "Fine Mom-mom?" "No, I'm not ok. I think it needs a kiss." . "Thank you. How's my Monkey?" "I need kiss too." . "Oh, you fine mom-mom." Def. What an angel.

3. My little Bruiser is already the happiest baby I've ever seen. He's also one of the most ticklish. My favorite is when I'm changing his diaper and he starts laughing randomly. It's such a deep hard chuckle!

4. Monk making a sand castle out of my frosting cans.

5. Monk being convinced there's a monster in the toilet when he heard it running. He's not afraid of monsters. He likes to hunt them with his flashlight.

6. Although it started out as a way to get payback to my husband for hacking into my facebook and starting a farmville account, now it's fun to sit next to each other at night miessing around with our farms.

7. Monk got out of bed and I heard him in Bruiser's room. So I got up and found him sitting cross-legged in the crib right next to the baby talking and talking to him. What else was sweet was that Bruiser was just looking up at him smiling and cooing and totally adoring his older brother. Love my boys!

Don't Be Afraid to Call

2010-03-09T13:20:00.002-05:00

So when we first told people we were going to have our little Bruiser, my mother-in-law bought us a super cute swaddling blanket. I love these little swaddling blankets because I never get regular blankets to stay put when I swaddle them.

So I put this cute little swaddler on my boy, and the straps slipped up! Which means that they were above his shoulders and around his tiny little neck! One quick freakout and making sure he was still breathing and the next morning I look up the company's info from the tag on the blanket so I can complain. It's not so much that I want to raise a big fuss, but more that I want to make them aware of the problem. A lot of times, they're small companies that take the input into future designs so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

I left a message this morning and this afternoon a girl called me back. She seemed surprised and said that maybe my swaddler was too big and that's why it was slipping so she offered to send me a smaller one. "No," I respond ever so politely. It's not like getting a bad haircut and you let them go back and fix it. I don't want another product. Because what if it wasn't that it didn't fit? Why would I risk that with my baby? So she totally understood and was so sweet and is going to issue me a check!

I totally wasn't expecting that and didn't ask for it so I was pleasantly surprised she didn't just offer store credit. I appreciate it when companies like that take moms seriously and don't give us the run around. Anyway, even though I was unhappy with my swaddler, they have a lot of cute things in their on-line store that are baby-friendly. See what a little good customer service will do? I appreciate people I can work with: www.gomamagodesigns.com

Did I Forget That He's 3 Months??

2010-03-08T10:42:00.005-05:00

I like doing these month to month posts about how Bruiser's changing. Mostly, it's because I'm behind on scrapbooking so I can just copy and paste what I type in. Anyway, my little boy is 3 months old!

I can honestly say that I have never seen a happier or sweeter baby. He wakes up with smiles and dimples and coos. He loves to be laid on his back so he can kick and rock sideways. If I'm holding him, he can propel himself to a sit up position, but he can't keep himself there of course. He has the brightest eyes and the longest lashes. He's also quite the cuddler, making him the perfect baby. He lights up whenever Monk leans over him and tries to play with him and he follows Daddy with his eyes EVERYWHERE. He's such a daddy's boy. Jealous.

At his last dr's appt, he was 12.5 pounds, so I'm assuming he's around 13lbs or so now. Bruiser sleeps an awful lot and snores just a little bit. He's not a huge eater or anything. I felt at this stage with Monkey that I'd run out of milk, but Bruiser just goes in spurts. He's so laid back, which really is wonderful to have two like that. We're so blessed to have him.

The new Hemo doc found a place that would give us Factor to have on hand. They had it here NEXT DAY! Toledo never got around to that at all which confirms how wonderful these new people are. I believe the factor company is called BioRX. They're super sweet and said that they have children with hemophilia, so if I ever just need to talk or ask, they've been there. They also have a program to help train the local EMT's in giving Factor injections because with a bleeder, you have to inject him a certain way or else you could give him a muscle bleed! I'll be happy to learn all this stuff. The nice thing is though, that if Bruiser ever gets a bleed, we can take him to the local ER with our own factor since the local hospitals won't keep it on hand for us. That way we don't have to travel all the way to CBus.

So things are happy! We're so in love with our boys and every day they do something that makes us fall and fall and fall. We're so blessed!

Brian Regan Night!

2010-03-02T10:39:00.002-05:00

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D and I had so much fun on our big date Friday night. We drove down to the palace theatre to see Brian Regan! He is our all-time favorite comic. One thing I really love about him is that he doesn't use all the same kinds of jokes that other comics do and he doesn't swear. I could take my children to see him (if they were 10 yrs older) and I wouldn't have to worry. I laughed so hard the entire time that my face hurt and I got tired. Our friends Travis and Rachel introduced us to him when we were in Idaho so we have good memories of hanging out with them, sipping our Cocoa Bean and listening to Brian Regan. Wish they could have been there with us!

Before the show we went and got something to eat and ended up at Spaghetti Warehouse. We almost missed it b/c, well, it looked like a warehouse and we were coming in from the back. They sat us right down and got our food out really fast which was good since we were running out of time. We ordered our favorite, calamari. This place was different though b/c their calamari was an entire squid that was fried. Ew. I wish I had my cameracord so I could post pics of that. It's supposedly in the mail.

The weird thing about the Palace Theatre is that they started late and let people come in no matter how late they were. Theydidn't even flash the lights to signal the show was starting in 5 min. I was kind of put of by that bc I wanted to watch the comic but kept getting distracted by entire rows ofpeople standing up to let two people in. So if you want to see a show and have a choice of where to go, pick the other place and not that one.

The ride home took a while since the roads were bad, but it was nice to be reminded how much fun dating D is. It's nice to goof off and be natural and not worry about assanine things. I really enjoy his company and am so grateful for him.

hallelujah a competent doctor!

2010-02-24T15:39:00.004-05:00

Obviously I mean that Bruiser's appointment at the new Hemophilia Center went well. It was about a two hour drive compared to the one and a half at the other place. But figure in babysitter in the form of grandma and we saved time.

We left pretty early and took Monk with us since everyone was working. It took a while to get there but once we arrived we knew right where to go because this place is both professional and organized. They had sent us the paperwork ahead of time along with a couple introductory sheets that what floor, etc to go to.

Check in and registration took all of 2 minutes and they could see us with in five. We met the main nurse who was super sweet and so knowledgeable. A far cry from the flaky nurses up north. Anyway, she told us who we would meet that day and what their purposes were. So we met with the social worker who helps with insurance and government help as far as his health bills will go and explained that process to us. Then we talked to the nurse until the doctor came in. We were never in the room alone which was nice. The nurse had an entire work sheet to go through and gave us a big bag of Hemophilia information and stuff. She was really surprised we didn't get any of that stuff at the other place. What I liked about all the information she went over was that none of it was the stuff you find on google the first couple times you search. It was stuff we needed to know, like how to recognize a bleed, where to look, who to call, etc etc.

Then the Doctor came in and he was awesome! And you can see why-

He seemed genuinely happy to meet us and he spent some time talking to our little two month old trying to get a feel for him. What was cool was that the dr wanted to undress and dress him instead of having us do it and waiting, etc. Then after his physical exam, the dr. swaddled him and held him and tried to make him smile which was really sweet. I really felt like we were his only appointment that day and that he wanted to spend a lot of time with us. (I saw the registration paper so I knew that he had been pretty busy, so it was great.)

Really, I liked the way he talked to us and the way he treated us. For example, he told me that with Bruiser's Hemophilia, most likely, he won't have bleeds unless it's a result of some trauma. Then he defined trauma. They also gave Bruiser his immunizations where they iced his leg before hand and put his pacifier in a thick sugar water to help. We left feeling totally prepared. We were so pleased and the difference between this center and the other center are literally night and day. I didn't feel like I needed to roll my eyes once!

D and I also felt really fortunate. Dr. Kerlin is also an oncology doctor so the other children we saw were all there for chemotherapy and looked pretty sick. We felt so blessed that Hemophilia is all we have to worry about. While I wish that our little boy didn't have to have any struggles with it, I'm grateful that with all the horrible things out there, ours will basically just bruise easily and need an occasional (but crazy expensive) shot. The Lord has truly blessed us.

On another note: Monkey Monk is doing great with the potty training. So great, that we decided to buy pull-ups :)

PS I ordered my cord online so hopefully it will be here soon and I can post new pictures of my boys!

SPONSOR ME

2010-02-05T13:31:00.002-05:00

I'm participating in a walk for March of Dimes on May 1. I'm really excited about it because I'll be doing it with my friend, Holly, and her family and friends. Holly authors caringforcarleigh.blogspot.com about her experience with her daughter that had anencephaly.

I've known Holly since I was 7 and LOVE her and her family so I'm excited to be able to do this. My personal goal is $100 and the team goal is $1000. So if my family and facebook friends donate $1-$5 I should be able to reach it easily.

Help me out guys!

2 boys at 2 years and 2 months!

2010-02-05T11:00:00.003-05:00

I'm a couple days late for this, but our life has been kind of hectic lately. I'd also love to get some pictures up, but D bought me a new camera, which is AWESOME, but failed to get the cord and it's a micro USB. So hopefully I can get one this weekend and have pictures up soon. Because my babies are gorgeous.

Little Bruiser looks so much like Monkey did. It's been a wonderful month. He's still either very alert or passed out cold. He has his days where he's asleep all day long or very awake all day long. Either way, he still mostly sleeps through the night and is so laid back. What wonderful boys I have.

It's been fun watching Bruiser's eyes change colors. They've always been some shade of brown, but they've gone from bluish, to greenish, to Edward gold, to chocolate and mostly two of those at once with an inner circle and an outer circle. He's also kicking and moving his arms and legs a whole lot. His morning smiles are the most precious things. He's just a sweet sweet little man. He's also very content to sit on Daddy's lap and watch him play games.

Monkey just loves him and is very protective yelling "My Brother" everytime someone gets too close. Oooooh two year old monkeys. He's def been testing me lately. Hopefully I've been following through like I'm supposed to but GEEZ. We've been trying different styles of potty training. Yesterday I just let him run around naked and put his potty chair in the living room.He refuses to sit on the chair. Flat out won't do it. But he'll stand. I thought it was usually the other way around with boys, but he'll stand over the potty and pee in it (kinda, got to work on that aim). He's funny because he gets excited while he's peeing and keeps stopping himself midstream. Unfortunately, he also tried to poop standing up. I was LITERALLY, NO EXAGGERATION, gone for 10 seconds, and he had pooped all over the floor. But at least he tried. There's a lot of clean up with this method...

The husband and I decided to treat ourselves with our upcoming tax return. After doing all of the boring responsible grown up crap with our money, we're going to go see Brian Regan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUU9CqrtFiU

and WICKED!

I'm so excited for our dates! It's nice to be able to splurge a little and do something different and fun.

CRACKED

2010-01-30T10:41:00.003-05:00

I finally found a way to get the baby poop stains out of my baby clothes! YAY! All you do is douse this on the stain:

Then sprinkle on a little of this:

Rub together lightly and wash. Voila! Nice and bright and CLEAN! This has worked on clothes that I rinsed right away and clothes that had already dried before I could get to them. AND it has worked on clothes that I had already washed but not dried. I haven't tried on ones that have already been through the dryer since I hang dry.

Anyway, hope this is easier than info you'll find on-line. Some of those "tips" literally involved a twelve step process. I don't have the time and money for that. It would just be easier to buy new clothes!

2010-01-11T09:47:00.002-05:00

Saturday was awesome. D's mom wanted to have Monkey spend the night so we dropped him off with her so we could go shopping in Columbus and spend our Christmas money. He is always so perfect with her and I'm glad that he can get some individual attention. So she took him shopping and got him a couple of toys for her house, new shoes because she hates the ones I bought him and took him to a movie. Now I hate it when people take their kids that are that little to the movies because they can't ever handle it, but I told her it was her money and good luck.

Well, she gave him some fruit snacks (which are his favorite), and when the movie started he was a little startled because it was so loud and he goes, "OH! Big TV!" Then he didn't say a word for the rest of the entire time. He was perfect. I was so proud of my little man. Taking him to the movies will be a fun thing for us to do to give him some Monkey Time.

D and I had a good time shopping in Columbus. We had about $100 each leftover from Christmas. He laughs at me because I'm so cheap, but we ended up at Old Navy who was having a huge sale and I bought 3 skirts for a dollar each. But I loved them! What a lucky man he is that I can spend so little, get so much and be so excited!

Anyway, then we went to my parents' house and dropped off Baby Bruiser. So D and I went to see Avatar in 3D. It was pretty cool. The 3D part anyway. The storyline was pretty predictable and I checked the time 3x because it was waaay too long. After the movie we went to try the new Dominoe's pizza. Yup, their commercials totally sucked us in. But it was really good. Waaay better. It was so nice to have a day to just us and it was a perfect date. Thank goodness for parents who take care of our babies for us!

Monkey Monk at 2

2010-01-08T20:19:00.002-05:00

My name is Monkey. I am two years old. The first thing I do when I wake up is ask for "bweakfast" and a movie. I know how to put in movies by myself. Scooby Doo has been my favorite lately and I like to randomly yell "Scooby DOOOO".

I help my mom around the house by putting away the silverware from the dishwasher and holding the dust pan. Mommy will give me clothes from the washer and I put them in the dryer. I am very good at cleaning up after myself.

I try really hard to remember not to wipe my nose on my sleeve. I also know how to cough into my elbow, but I usually forget until I'm done- so I put it up there anyway just in case.

I normally like to eat hot dogs or chicken nuggets. I will trade any of my favorite toys for a gummy snack.

I know all of my animals and sounds because Mommy and Daddy go over them with me when we read. I love to read and have a lot of books. My favorite toys are my animals. But I usually would rather watch a movie unless someone will play with me. My favorite is playing swords with Daddy and farm or jungle with Mommy. I also like to sing "Jingle Bells" and "Twinkle Star" songs. And then I dance. I'm a very good dancer.

I have a new "bruwda". I give him lots of hugs and kisses. Mommy says I give him too much love. I help mommy with my brother by giving him blankets and getting his bottle. I also like to put toys in his crib with him so he can play too. Brother doesn't know how to play so I will grab his hands and push him in his swings. I also share my food and put my animal crackers in his hands so he can eat too.

Right now Mommy is trying to potty train me. I like it because whenever I want out of my seat or am bored, I will yell, "Potty Twain". Then when Mommy takes me to the potty I tell her I'm "hungy" instead. That way people think she doesn't take me potty or feed me. I'm very funny.

I like mischief and have to be put into time-out sometimes. I am very good at saying "sowree". I often put myself in time-out. I'm usually a very good listener. I like to cuddle Mommy and hold her hands. I even sneak into her bed so I can hold hands in the middle of the night. Lately, I refer to myself in the third person.

My mommy and daddy are very proud of me and love me so much.

My Own Way

2010-01-07T23:16:00.002-05:00

I had just written this whole long blog about my family history and family problems etc etc and decided I didn't like being so personal. So I'll try and say what I need to say a little simpler.

When something is hard, I don't cry. I usually get through what I'm going through by putting on a stoic expression and stepping back from the situation. Point in case, I received a call that my grandmother was dying this weekend. So I rushed over there and had the very unique experience of being there in her last moments. Everyone was sad and crying and that's ok, that's their way.

Death isn't a sad thing for me when a life has been lived. James M. Barrie quoted his character Peter Pan as saying, "To Die would be the greatest adventure." While I miss my grandmother and loved her, I don't see it as permanent and believe in more than just this life. I seem to struggle more with the rush of all the other people surrounding me's emotions. It's hard for me to contain so I did what usually do in these situations. Deep breaths, normal expression and gave myself space.

Some people had a problem with that. So I didn't cry. It doesn't mean I'm not sad or that I didn't love her. I also didn't attend the visitation. That was actually accidental due to some thins I couldn't control. I don't know anyone on that side of the family and there's drama so I needed space so I could focus more on my grandmother and not the family drama. I didn't appreciate people who chose to spread rumors and/or lie about why I act that way. Doing that took away from my grandmother. It was selfish of them. You may choose to dive into that family and that's ok. But to me, aside from my siblings, they aren't my family. And it hasn't been that way in 20 years. And I'm going to deal with my grandmother's death my way. Respectfully, quietly, invisibly if I could. Doing the best that I can. My siblings sat up front, took roses and stood in the line by the casket so they could talk to the people who went up to see her. I didn't do that because I know that my relationship is different to that side and I didn't want to pretend that all of a sudden it wasn't and take away from my siblings or try to bring any attention to myself.

The funeral started about 15 minutes earlier than it said it would in the newspaper (where I got my information so that tells you how close I am to that side.) So of course, when I thought I was a little bit early, I was in fact late. And embarrassed to be late. I missed the eulogy so I'll say a few things for myself about my grandmother.

I used to call her Rattail Grandma. She had a long rat tail when I was a kid. I thought she was so much fun because she liked to watch cartoons and wrestling. She had a passionate love for all things Elvis and every Christmas she was gifted with Elvis mugs, Elvis blankets, Elvis clocks with moving hips. She also had a quirky thing for pigs which resulted in some fun gifts too. My grandma's phone was always ringing from friends who just wanted to check in on her. Always. People she'd met years and years ago just wanted to call and see if she was ok. My grandma was a dog person and always had these funny ratty mutt dogs that would live beyond natural dog years before they would pass on and she'd get another funny ratty mutt dog. She looked forward to getting old because she hoped that she would get gray hair. She ended up with a couple silver streaks here and there but she never quite managed to go gray. Her apartment was filled with pictures of us, her grandkids and filled with her music. 8tracks and records and cassettes and CD's. She loved music. She had the most interesting color of blue eyes I've ever seen and to this day I still can't quite describe them and do them justice. She was a tomboy and her grandchildren clinged to her like she was their mother, the boys especially. I loved her.

Waste of Time

2010-01-07T17:47:00.003-05:00

Today was our Education Class for C's Hemophilia. It was about an hour and a half away from where we live and we made arrangements for P to spend the night with Grandma so we wouldn't have to get up so early. Well, yesterday, the Hemophilia Center called so make sure we were still coming in around 11ish for the class and see the doctor about 1ish to 1:30ish. First, that really irritated me, because I made specific appointments for 10:30am and 12:30pm. I was still feeling less than impressed because of how we drove all the way up there last time for something we could have done closer to home. But D arranged to have our class at 11:30a and to see the doctor right after so there wouldn't be any time in between. That was fine. A little more sleep, a little less hurry.

So we get there right on time expecting some sort of "education". I was thinking maybe a video or something. We were there an hour. The first part was them giving me papers to sign for me to be treated if I need it, but I just rolled my eyes and gave it back to them because I don't have Hemophilia. Then they joustled more papers around making sure they had everything. Then C had a major, biggest of his whole little life blow-out. That took 20 minutes to take care of. Then another 10 minutes of "Oh my goodness he's so alert what an adorable little boy." Then I thought it would be our "education" part. Basically the nurse shoved some books at us and let us know that she was there for us if we needed anything and had a 5 minute explanation of Hemophilia and how it works. The doctor called and asked if she had to meet with us. The nurse said, "Well, yes, they really want to meet you." (Which we never said.) So then the Doctor said she could see us at 2. Well, it had started snowing and I wasn't waiting around another hour and a half to maybe see a doctor who didn't want to see us in the first place. So we left.

And I was SO irritated. When the Hemophilia Center called to make an appointment for the education class I was very specific and said that I didn't want to waste my time again and that if it was something I could do at home I would. They were so adamant about how important it was that we go there and it was so necessary. So of course I made the appointment (that they didn't keep right) and convinced my husband it wouldn't be another waste of our time (which it was) so he'd take off work and go with us.

I didn't learn anything that I hadn't already learned from my first google search. They could have mailed those books to me. Really, I'm just mad because I drove for 3 and a half hours today for nothing. NOTHING. Then they said the doctor will want to see C every 3 months just look him over. No way. Don't get me wrong, the people there are sweet, likeable, but the operation in and of itself was unprofessional and I don't like to drive so much for something unnecessary.

We have been less than impressed with the Hemophilia Center from the first time they called. They're really weird sometimes. Like the nurse asked if C had bled a lot when he got his shots in the hospital and I said "no". And she goes, "Oh, well that worries me even more" so I said, "But isn't that a good thing?" and she just responded with an, "well, yeah..." Anyway, we're going to check out the Hemophilia centers in Columbus because they're only an extra 20 minutes away. Has anyone dealt with them before? I want the best care for my baby. I want to be able to know how to take care of him. I'm going to have to learn how to give him shots and how to recognize a bleed, etc etc and so far, these people have just played with us. They didn't go over any of that, which I figured would be the "education". So if anyone knows of somewhere else in Ohio we can go to I'll be much relieved. Ridiculous.

Already He's 1 month

2010-01-03T17:28:00.002-05:00

So far we've survived an entire month of having two babies. C, for the most part, is the easiest little guy. He's pretty quiet like I knew he would be, except at night when his gas seems to get the best of him. It's really sad. Being terrified of SIDS, I even have let him sleep a couple hours here and there on his stomach, it's that bad. I leave the fan on which I read decreases his SIDS risk by 70%. I don't know how much stock I put into all of that, but it does make me feel better. The terrible gas is probably because he eats a TON. He's gained 2lbs since birth and his doctor was pretty surprised. P was pretty smallish, so maybe this one will be one of those chunky babies with the thigh and wrist rolls. I especially love wrist rolls.

Everyone said that having two would be so hard. It hasn't been. I'll let you know once the little one gets mobile. P is just as rambunctious as ever of course, but has taken to sleeping in our bed at night. Not that we really encourage it, but we're so exhausted that P sneaks in when we're dead asleep and we don't notice him until much later. It has made for a few funny surprises. We're going to have to figure out a system for hearing him as he gets up so we can direct him right back to his bed. Maybe a bell around the neck.

I'm really grateful for D. On our days off and at nights, he lets me slack off while he goes in full force with P. Right now he's giving P a bath while I play around on my computer. I really love hearing them laugh. I don't even feel guilty for letting him take over everything when he's here because I do all the getting up at night.

Right now, C can lift his head pretty easily and turn it to all different sides. He also moves his arms and legs a lot and when we swaddle him, we have to leave an arm out or he gets really upset. He really seems to love his womb freedom. He looks a lot different than when he was fresh too. His eyes are open wide and bright and he's gained a lot of cheek chub. His eyes haven't settled on color yet, but I'm sure they'll be brown. Just maybe not as dark chocolate as his brother. Milk chocolate? He's satisfied for hours at a time during the night, so I think I'm going to have to have him make the big move to his crib upstairs. It's my favorite room and it makes me sad that it's not being used except as clothing storage. Where, C seems to have outgrown all his NB clothes.

I'm a little sad that he's grown so fast, but I'm really looking forward to him being able to do stuff. This is totally different from P. I just loved every single stage he was in and never wanted him to go backwards or forwards. Maybe I'm just more looking forward to them doing brother stuff together. (Already they have some matching clothes.)

Thursday is our date at the Hemophilia Center. I'm looking forward to going that way because I want to get a couple of sweaters from stores they have there that we don't have here. I still have a few pounds to go until I'm back to my normal weight. Having a baby right before Christmas did not fit in well with my game plan and it feels weird to not be comfortable with how I look. I'm sure things will get to where they're going now that all the Christmas treats are out of my house. Mostly though, I'm thrilled to have my boys and I feel much happier now that C is here, and I was never sad before. Everything is exactly where it should be and there's not better feeling than that.

Babies and Holidays

2009-12-28T11:05:00.003-05:00

So my laptop somehow got a virus on it and so we're out of commission right now. It's a shame because I can't download any pictures and my husband just got me an awesome new camera for Christmas.

The holidays were joyful. Our family and friends were so generous with us and I can't thank them all enough. I feel bad because we didn't do very much for them this year since we just bought a house and had a baby. We usually do something for a family in need and go easy on our family. This year we sponsored coats for a family through the Lion's Club D is a member of. But Christmas was a lot of fun because P totally gets the whole presents thing now. He had so much fun unwrapping them and going "Cool, Awesome!" And he had a funny laugh that sounds a lot like the way he makes a horse sound. It was precious. Baby C of course was totally excited too. You just couldn't tell what with his snoring and all.

P has been a perfect big brother and covers C with kisses and hugs. Sometimes too much, but at least we haven't had any jealousy issues. P likes to get bottles and hold C while he plays. (Meaning mommy holds C on P's lap while P plays.) P also likes to cover C with blankets. He's wonderful.

After three different blood tests, we finally have confirmed that C does have Hemophilia B or Christmas Disease. I'm just relieved that we're done with poking my newborn with needles. Hemophilia is where the blood is low or missing a protein called factor that helps it clot. C is low on Factor 9. If he gets hurt he'll need to get an injection of factor 9 to help him stop bleeding.

We have an education class on Jan 7 up at the Toledo Hemophilia Center. They'll help us recognize bleeds and let us know what to do and help us work with our hospital so there's always factor available if C should need it. We're also working with C's pediatrician so she can be a liaison for us with the local hospital.

This will be an interesting journey and I'm wondering if there are any other moms out there in the blogging world that have babies with Hemophilia. The plus side of all this is that since it's a genetic thing, I have my parents to ask questions to since they went through it all with my brother.

Other than that, C is getting really big. His ped says he has big hands and was impressed with his weight gain. C isn't much for regular feedings, but I don't time them or anything. He's eating and gaining weight and is healthy. He does have terrible gas and keeps me awake with his grunting.

This has been a wonderful year. New house, new car and our new little Baby C. We've truly been given everything and we are so, so grateful.

Oh Boys

2009-12-05T14:02:00.007-05:00

Well first of all, welcome to this great world C.M. Brooks! He is truly a miracle. And so is me getting some pictures up this quickly because I also just got Halloween, etc off my camera too.

Here's our details:
I knew something was up on Wednesday and thought, "Today is the day we go in." So after dinner we decorated our tree and I felt a couple of things, called the good doc who said to come on in to check us out!

So we did and I was pretty sure we were staying. I came in and was 5cm dilated and two hours later when Dr. S came in to check me I was 8cm dilated. Wow that was fast! So D and I mostly just chilled and talked and enjoyed the hospital's semi-cable. I was having contractions that started out pretty irregular and didn't hurt at all. I was stuck on 8cm for a good 3 hours and the contractions started to get pretty powerful in that they no longer are just in one place, but spread over the whole belly. So I considered sucking it up and waiting, but I remembered how my body didn't want to go from 9-10cm last time so I thought, "Screw it! This hurts and it doesn't have to so drug me up Dr. Man!"

The drug doc came and needed a little convincing to give me an epidural. My platelets were down all the way to 103 and lower than 100 and they won't do it. Plus I was so far dilated. Anyway, he did. And I bet every woman loves him. I could feel a little spot where my contractions were still happening and he felt bad and asked if I wanted him to up my meds, but I said no since I like feeling what's going on. I just wanted to take the edge off. He def did not get that and said, "You're certainly one of a kind. I know I'd want more drugs."

So it was good that I did because I was able to relax and C's head shot down a couple of stations and I went to a 9, but still could not get to a 10. My last baby the doc made me push past that, which caused pushing to be 3.5hrs but Dr. S said, "I know you don't want Pitocin, but it could help get to that last cm." And I agreed, b/c really I just didn't want to be started on Pit. I figured if I needed it to start, then he wasn't ready yet. Anyway, a little Pit and we were at an easy 10 and I could really feel the contractions which was fantastic b/c it didn't neccessarily hurt. The good doc came in and less than 15min later we very easily pushed out our little boy! He was born at 6:46am Dec 3 and weighed in at 7lbs 5oz and is 20inches.
The nurses were wonderful and it was the easiest most relaxing experience and I felt SO good!

He and P look an awful lot alike, thank goodness since P is beautiful. C's hair seems to be lighter and is very fuzzy. It's almost crimped and he has really golden fuzzy shoulders. His eyes look like they'll be the same color as P's too. Two beautiful boys! We shot out of the hospital pretty fast, but C didn't lose any weight and I felt really good and was walking around. It feels good to be home and even more wonderful to be with P again. I missed him to tears. I'm happy to not be pregnant and to be able to hug my husband without two feet between us.

Thankful

2009-11-26T13:19:00.002-05:00

So while I wait for the rest of my family to get here and the food to finish, I think it's appropriate to take a couple minutes and jot down a FEW of the many things I have to be grateful for:
1. My husband. It's wonderful to know that I'm loved everyday. That he wants to be with me. He does so much for me especially now that I'm so close to B Day. But honestly, he'd do it anyway. Plus, he's dang hot.
2. My son. Everyday I keep a journal of the best things that happened to me that day. And everyday, at least 4 of the 5 have my baby boy in them. He's such sunshine. He's made me so much better. I can't believe this is my life!
3. New baby. The Lord has really blessed me to be able to take care of one of His very special children. While it's scary to think about how my normal everyday will change drastically, there's no better way to do it.
4. Church. Because of the gospel of my church, I know I've made the decisions I have that have made my life so Blessed. Not only do I get such a blessed life now, but knowing I have my family forever is amazing. it makes me want to work harder and be better just so I can be worthy of them.
5. Our home. D's job has certainly come with it's challenges. It's been one of our most trying years financially. But during our most trying year, the Lord has blessed us with a gorgeous new home. We really can't complain! I get to be here everyday with the people I love most!
6. Extended Family. I don't have any complaints about my in-laws. While family always comes with drama, I still get to enjoy my family. My parents and in-laws and everyone I'm related to are so generous. We have been so well taken care of an so loved. Thank you!

Because this pregnancy rules my life...

2009-11-18T13:25:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I really felt a lot better. Blogger is so nice for venting and getting support. And you all really make me laugh so hard.

Yesterday was our 38 week appointment, although I won't officially be 38 weeks until Sunday (scheduling conflicts I suppose). We are about 3cm dilated!, 75% effaced and C's head is still at a -1. So I'm up one cm and 15% more effaced. Awesome! I'm really hoping that C keeps this up. I'd really love to go in a little bit early as long as he's healthy, but what woman doesn't say that? For me, it will probably happen somewhere on Thanksgiving between turkey and pie. And all I have to say is that I'm still eating my pie. But I won't complain!

D and I have put ours and P's bags in the car along with the carseat. So even if we aren't at home when I go into labor we have everything we need. We'll just call whichever set of parents doesn't have work the next day to take my precious little boy overnight and in we'll go! It's so nice to be prepared. We also have M&M's stapled to our birth plan to give to the nurses so I'm sure that will encourage a few to read it. Or else.

I've been scrapbooking a ton and am almost halfway through P's 2nd year. I really need a lot more paper, but I'm not in too big of a hurry. Now that new baby is all prepared for, I have to shift my focus on to Thanksgiving as we're having 18 people over. I'm so excited for a full house! And for the food! My grandma and mom will probably do most of the cooking and I'm only doing the easy stuff like Turkey and cranberry sauce. I'm trying to think of cheap ways to decorate the tables.

Well, blah blah blah, I'm rambling on again. I think I'm in huge need for a nap so I might go lay down and get some uninterrupted book time with this new book I'm reading, City of Glass. I love the Mortal Instrument series.

What the crap!?

2009-11-15T17:41:00.003-05:00

Eugh- (insert disgusted grunting noise here). What is it about a pregnant woman that makes people forget the rules of social etiquette and make them feel free to make whatever comment about her body they want? It's unreal.

This last month of pregnancy is rough. Not because I get up like an old man or that I hear my hip pop at night trying to roll over- but because I look dang good for 37 weeks and every cashier at every register I come across feels the need to make a comment about my size. Tactlessly, nonetheless.

I hate the phrase, "You like you're ready to pop." HATE IT. I'm used to those moron comments by now. But last night, some fool in the baby section at Wal-Mart went way too far.

Fool- "Geez, are you alright."
Me- Excuse me?
Fool- When are you due?
Me- 2-3 weeks.
Fool- Wow, my daughter is due in a month and she isn't anywhere near as big as you are.
Me- Wow, people are just so polite everywhere.
Fool's Wife- See, you've offended her.
Fool- I didn't mean to offend her.
Me- (giving a nasty look)- It's not EVER ok to make a comment about someone's size.
Fool- Well, she's tiny everywhere else just like you are-----

This is the part where I just turned and walked off and didn't bother letting him finish.

So, naturally, what with hormones and my general precious feelings, I was upset. My good husband goes, "Well, he wasn't trying to be malicious.But if I were there I would have called him a dumbA-"

And I had to think about it. I'm sure these people aren't trying to be mean. BUT, I know that they know better because no one will make comments about me if my husband is there. That's because instinctively, they know better. If I have someone there to "protect me", so to speak, no one dares. They keep their mouths shut and their comments to themselves. Obviously, if you're afraid of suffering consequences for what you're about to say, maybe you shouldn't say it.

So you know what, maybe I'm tired of being nice all the time. SO to the old tactless fool in Wal-Mart: I'm more than 9 months pregnant. I'm still wearing size 2 regular people jeans. You can suck it.

Now, as a disclaimer, not everyone is awful even though I kind of want to stay hidden for the next month. A woman at church today told me she could tell I was having a boy because of how beautiful my skin is and that I just look so pretty. It was really sweet and I really needed it. And sometimes there's humor to it all. Last night my 2 year old niece was pointing at my belly and wanted to know if she could play with the ball. I only wish it were that easy. Love her!

Caution: Mommy content Ahead

2009-11-12T14:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was our 37 week appointment although I'm not officially 37 weeks until Sunday. It was fantastic! (Other than waiting an hour+ b/c one of the doctors got caught up in surgery.)

So...

We are 2cm dilated (twice as much as we ever were with P), 60% effaced, very soft and the baby is stationed at a -1, so the doctor could feel his head.

Yay! I'm so excited! Roughly, that means that C could be here anytime from next week to next month. BUT, when he does decide to come, he'll just "pop right out" were the docs terms.

It made me think of that episode of the old Ellen Show where this girl told Ellen she had "birthing hips so a baby would just shoot out of her" and Ellen said, "Well, I better watch out so I don't poke someone's eye out."

We also gave the doc our birthplan:

Labor-

1. DO NOT give me any injections, shots, medicines, etc; without my express permission.
2. I DO NOT want Pitocin or any other medication to speed the labor along. A Heparin Lock is ok, but I don’t want an IV unless I become dehydrated. I would like Cole’s birth to be as natural and pharmaceutically unenhanced as possible.
3. Please help others respect my privacy. During vaginal exams and pushing, refrain from allowing others into the room until I am finished.
4. You have our permission to give our family any updates. Family is to be in the waiting room during pushing.

Afterbirth-Mommy
1. DO NOT give me any injections, shots, medicines, etc; without my express permission. (While this may seem redundant, there actually was a nurse last time who gave me a medication I would have refused and she did so without talking to me or asking permission or even letting me know what she was doing. We will respect your job. Please respect us.)
2. After Baby is born, we will want to get cleaned up as soon as possible so our family can visit and we can rest.
3. If we are resting, do not wake us up to ask about or perform any checks or procedures or to fill out paperwork. Please wait until we are awake.
4. Daddy wants to assist as much as possible in the birth, cutting the cord, bringing the baby out, etc.

AfterBirth- Baby

1. I want to hold baby as soon as possible.
2. Baby may have Hemophilia and will need to be tested before circumcision.
3. Baby's pediatricians are Dr. Beck and/or Dr. Savage.
4. We brought our own clothes for Baby to wear (identical to yours for convenience) because last time the hospital clothes gave our son a bad rash.
5. DO NOT give our son any injections, shots, medicines, etc; without consulting either one of us. This may be frustrating as things happen fast after the birth, but we want to know what is happening with him at all times. All of his exams are to be done in our presence.
6. Baby is to stay in our room and not the nursery.
7. I plan on breastfeeding/pumping for my son.

So the Doc loved it and said we were well prepared and that I wasn't rude at all, which was my biggest concern, although I plan on attaching candy to the birth plan we'll pass out to the nurses. I love Dr. Schutz. He apologized about having to do a Cervical Exam when I was expecting to see Dr. Perkins (who's female). So I go, "Well, I do prefer her small lady hands." Then he told me he only wears a 6.5 glove and has the smallest hands of everyone. He's really funny. He also compared having a baby the second time around to blowing up a balloon after it had already been blown up. Good comparison. Makes lots of sense.

Anyway, all of our bags are packed and ready to be put in the trunk when D gets home. The carseat is washed and ready and everything else is in place. If my water were to break right now I'd only be worried about the dishes in the sink- which I need to get to by the way. Of course, C will probably be late, and that's ok too, I'm just so happy that we're progressing!

9 months

2009-11-06T14:32:00.002-05:00

Ah, 36 weeks pregnant. Really though, I'm doing great. NO swelling at all, which has been my greatest relief since I was like a memory foam mattress with P. I can still wear my wedding rings and I feel really good with way more energy than I had a couple months ago.
We went to our 36 week checkup and I am 1cm dilated. So there's something! I'm excited that my body seems to know that not only is is supposed to help my baby grow, but also get him OUT.
I've been a crazy shopping woman lately and have nearly everything bought. I couldn't find any nursing pillows at Wal-Mart? but I never actually used the thing for nursing anyway. I also need to buy a little baby tub, but I'm thinking that with one tub being old and the other being super deep, I'll just clean up little C in the sink.
I STILL need to make a decision on a futon. Why is it so hard? Apparently, D is planning on it going in his office when I'm done with breastfeeding so he's going for a totally different style than I was thinking. That man really needs to let me inside his head sometimes so I know what's going on.
I also need to pack our bags, but that's a no big. We are having a GIANT Thanksgiving this year, so D has some stuff to do around the house and he can start by removing the vole that fell into our basement and sadly passed away. I'm about to make him a list. Geez.
The whole world seems to have the flu or some sort of virus and thus far P and I are clear. Can't speak too soon of course.
Anyway, so there's our life in a nutshell. Baby-waiting, futon-shopping, husband-nagging life that it be!

The Nicest Thing

2009-10-31T21:36:00.004-04:00

This has been one crazy week and before I hunt down batteries for my camera to download pictures, I wanted to tell everyone about one of the nicest things anyone has done for me.

My sister on D's side decided to surprise me and throw me a diaper party/baby shower! I was not expecting anything like this at all - especially since I just had P 2 years ago and she has a little boy and we share things. (Which is amazing by the way.)

She really went way out of her way. She booked us at the Rose Gate Cottage Inn which is a cute little b&b that I've been in love with forever. It's very Victorian and lush and the china they had for us to eat on was beyond beautiful. Anyway, if just the location wasn't enough, she bought a ton of decorations and planned all these games and activities and made the most awesome food. No kidding, it was incredible. She just put a special little touch in everything- like she put her own cloves and spices in the apple cider and it smelled and tasted great.

We didn't play any of the games because literally nearly every person I know has either the flu or had to work or both. The games she had planned were cool though. She put different baby foods in diapers and we were going to guess what they were. And of course it looked really realistic. So we decorated little onesies for my baby and chatted and watched her son eat cake (which was hilarious). He had cake everywhere and was so SO excited. Of course his mommy got food all over her jacket, but that is the mark of motherhood. Speaking of cake, she said she knew that I'd want a hottie picture and she had this one of me that I had airbrushed and playd with every touch up tool in picnik with put in the middle of it. I could only dream of being that tan (sigh) It was really a funny touch:

Everyone brought me diapers and little odds and ends that just saved me a fortune at the store. I was just thinking about all of that too. We have the big stuff already, but this baby is due in 5 weeks and I didn't have diapers or baby soap.

Mostly, I just felt so honored that someone would do this for me. I've never had a surprise party before. I really felt like it was about me and that this was a special day for me. And for her to go to such great lengths and spend so much money on making me feel that is literally one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me. I am so grateful to have her as a friend and so blessed to have her as family. What a wonderful day!

What-Matters-Most

2009-10-18T14:52:00.002-04:00

This is a good little video:

What-Matters-Most

Shared via AddThis

Nice to have a reminder because I feel like I really take advantage of my husband, especially lately. I always count on him to be the one who is calm and level headed. He's the one who is supposed to make ME feel better when I'm in a bad mood (which has been happening a lot lately).

If you have a minute and a half, watch that video. I always like to have a little perspective.

Holy cow I'm 8 months pregnant!

2009-10-11T13:41:00.003-04:00

Happy 32 weeks to me and C! We had our doctor's appointment and his heart beat is super strong and super fast which probably means he's no where near ready to come since the heart usually slows down the closer they are to coming. That's good since we have 8 weeks left. My fundal height is 29 cm which seems low, but my doctor said no need to worry about anything yet. I've gained 4lbs making my grand total 21 since starting my doctor's visits.

Eight months seems like I'm so far along, but having 8 weeks left seems so far away. I still feel really good and really healthy although I'm starting to feel big. That could be because I'm tired since P has gotten up really early the last couple of days.

C is not much of a kicker at all. P used to kick at the doctors all the time and he'd wake both my husband and myself up at nights with all his movement. C just rolls and rolls. Last night we were watching 30 Rock (love that show) and I got a weird bump off to the side of my stomach. I felt it and figured it must be a knee. Then C must have gotten uncomfortable because I could see his knee go up and roll all the way to the other side. Now that I'm over that whole Aliens vs Predators scene, I love watching him move around. I guess pregnancy isn't that bad.

Finished Nursery!

2009-10-09T18:50:00.007-04:00

So we finally finished C's Nursery (except for a futon). Here are some pics:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

30 Weeks DOWN

2009-09-29T18:09:00.002-04:00

Just like that 30 weeks have flown by. My weekly countdown is in the single digits. YAY! I have a ton of updating to do and lots of pictures, but a little monkey took off with my camera cord somewhere...

I am doing really well. I don't have any big problems, except that my belly seems to get to places before I do. I have to re-evaluate my belly to counter ratio often and my poor baby seems to get in the way of me closing my mother in law's car door...

Anyway, I'm still wearing these:

I can still do this:

But am really feeling this:

Like everything is all squished up. Which it is. And that must be why. Especially my lungs. I am definitely feeling a lot more pressure on my lungs than I did with P.

So with 10 weeks (ish) left I have the big things done:

Nursery - Check (not our actual room. photos to come.)

Closet full of adorable baby boy clothes - Check

I still have to make decisions about diapers. I'm totally unmotivated right now to do the cloth diaper thing. Maybe after he's here and I have a schedule down and I'm not so tired.

I think the only other real thing to do is make our birth plan. It's going to be pretty simple. Basically I want to be left alone. I don't want to be hooked up to anything unless I decide to get meds. Last time a nurse gave me a shot without telling me what she was doing or askin for permission and if I had known what it was and what side effects there were, I would have declined. I was pretty ticked afterwards because I don't know who thinks it's ok to inject someone without any kind of warning. I had JUST given birth so maybe she thought I wasn't lucid enough to talk to, but behavior like that will not be tolerated so I need a way to word it that's firm but hopefully not rude. I'm willing to be rude if necessary. Any ideas?

FreeBirthing

2009-09-15T23:00:00.003-04:00

So I watched a documentary tonight on freebirthing. It's when women not only want to have their babies at home, but with no midwife, doctor or even a doula. They say that women have been having babies for thousands of years and it's a natural thing and that they don't need anyone there.

Now I don't know the exact numbers, but I do know that the fatality rate for mother and babies was sky high back then... Just a thought. And when they were asked about things that could go wrong, they all just said, "Oh, we don't like to think about that."

Only one woman looked like she had it together. She had her baby in a little blow up pool in her living room and said, "I'm attempting a pain free birth." Me too. I mean, I'll also attempt a pain free birth. I'll let you know how that goes. But she delivered her baby all by herself, pulling him out and everything. No screaming or hollering or swearing and what not.

The other three women were nothing like that. They were all screaming. A lot. And saying they were scared and "DON'T TOUCH ME!" The thing was, they were so uneducated. One girl didn't even know where to cut the cord after her baby had been born. I mean, if you're going to deliver a baby, especially your own baby, don't you think you should know what you're doing? At least? It was so ridiculous. Then her placenta didn't deliver and she waited hours and hours before going to the hospital where she was very demanding asking the doctor how he was going to fix it. And he was just kind of, "Well, what will you let me do?" Then she actually had the nerve to say, "I'm glad I did it myself. My baby could have been in danger if someone professional had been there."

Anyway, the short of it is this for me: Home births can be great. All though the ones kneeling down in a narrow tub of 4" of water didn't look it AT ALL. I'm all about water births and midwives, etc etc. If you can do it drug free, good for you.

BUT, I don't see any glory or trophies in freebirthing. While having a baby in the hospital is obviously not the only choice, why deliberately deprive yourself of some of the good things that have come from medical technology? Why risk your health and especially your baby's? Midwives (some of them) are brilliant and help you have a more peaceful atmosphere than a hospital. Most doctors now adays let you have complete control over your "ambience". Mine is great.

So I'm planning a hospital delivery. I'll get an epidural if I feel like one. I'm not knocking home births or midwives or anything in anyway. But don't be stupid and put your family at risk. Saying you did a freebirth for the sake of a freebirth, especially if you're so dim you don't even bother to research where to cut the cord, just makes you sound stupid.

Happy 3rd Trimester

2009-09-13T22:25:00.002-04:00

So that is a baby in the seventh month. Wow. Seven months makes it sound like I'm pretty far along. But it's not. I still have 3 entire months to go. SIGH. I can't complain though, things are going very well.

So far I've had little to no swelling. I'm thinking my toes look fatter than normal, but that's a good thing as they were too skinny. I can comfortably wear my wedding rings. My belly button hasn't popped, but it's only a matter of time. Right now it's unrecognizable. I don't have any new stretch marks and I've gained about 20lbs from my start date, all which is where it's supposed to be. I can still bend over, just not without a fatty grunt. I actually feel less tired, but P has slept in until 8:30a the last couple of days. I have no problem walking around and all my shoes still fit. Sitting down though, I can feel pressure on my lungs and have to take big asthmatic like breaths. 90% of the time I wear maternity shirts, but maternity pants are a problem because they all slide off. Like I need that problem! I have two pairs of old jeans I can button and one pair I bought a size up that can button. The rest of my jeans I can still fit into, I just use a hair tie as a belt since they are unbuttonable. Remembering when most of them were too big...

We had our 28 week dr appt complete with our third ultrasound to check my placental location, which is no longer an issue :) It was really neat to see an ultrasound of our boy this late in the game too because he's so big and takes up a lot more room on the screen. A couple of cool things: I got to see him squish up his tiny face like someone had shined a light on him AND I saw him kick on the screen and felt it at the same time. Technology is amazing.

D got called in on business last minute, so our two visiting grandmothers went with me. His grandmother had never seen an ultrasound before and she was so cute and excited like a little kid. It was neat she could be there and the tech took a long time explaining what everything was.

My platelet count is on the low end of the normal range so we'll test that later. Our baby isn't measuring too small anymore, but he is measuring only in the 11 percentile, which is ok by me. His profile is a lot different from P's and he seem to have full lips and chubby cheeks.

I asked the tech if there is ever an issue of the baby being too big and a normal birth isn't possible and she thought that was ridiculous. Which is what I thought. I had asked P's doctor that and they didn't answer, just set an induction date. I told her I definitely didn't want to be induced again and she said that they won't induce unless I'm more than 10 days late because risk to mother and baby increases a lot more at that time. I know conception dates can be off anyway so I'm not worried about it. I like the adventure of not knowing when he'll come and trying to figure out if I'm having real labor. In my head I have a Father of the Bride II scenario going with D running to get our hospital bags and P and nearly forgetting me.

Time to make our birth plan! And here's to no swelling! (yet. hopefully at all.)

I would do anything for Twilight...

2009-09-08T13:08:00.002-04:00

But I won't do that:

Umm... WOW.

County Fair!

2009-09-01T21:50:00.005-04:00

Saturday on a whim, we decided to go to the fair. It was fun to take our son and go with our best friend. We actually were only there for about an hour, but we got a lot accomplished. We took P to look at all of the animals, which he thought was Awesome!

Then I saw the pony rides and just had to take him! Let's just say he humored me because he wasn't near as excited as I was.

The boys found time to get in some target practice.

But really, let's face it- I'm 6 and half months pregnant, so after taking my baby on his first pony ride, I was mostly excited about the food. And we tried all of our favorites! To our credit though, I shared my cheesecake on a stick with P and all four of us shared the cotton candy and elephant ear. YUMMM!

Decorating my house this last week!

2009-08-31T13:24:00.008-04:00

Saturday to Saturday was very busy for us, and that's just how we like it. So far I have managed to finish painting my boys' rooms and get their hallway decorated. It doesn't look great, so I'm desperate for ideas. One thing I have learned though, I am terrible and choosing paint. TERRIBLE.

Baby boy C's room:

This actually turned out much much brighter than I thought and the picture doesn't do it justice. Let's just say that during the day, the hallway glows. But I still really love it. When else do you get to paint an impossibly bright color.

The Boys' Hallway:

The quote says "Prince- son of a Heavenly King". I think it would all look much better painted, but I had to make a compromise with D. It was either don't paint the upper hallway, or the lower hallway. One is still orange, so no brainer. It looks kind of bare but don't forget the glow! Each picture is matted w/ scrapbook paper and ribbon. I'm waiting on pics of Baby C for the middle one. I couldn't really put much else there since my boys'll probably destroy it:(

P's Dinosaur Room:

I was so disappointed when I was finished because the paint turned out much darker than I wanted. True I want him to be able to grow into it, but I still wanted something brighter. Once I get his accessories up, it will look better. I'm especially excited to get a full-sized bed b/c his dinosaur bedding is to die for. Then we'll make a headboard and toybox. Please forgive my child's mess. It takes him all of 2 seconds.

And FINALLY, Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it. The weather, the smell of leaves, clothes, EVERYTHING. So since the weather has cooled off and Fall is too short, I went and bought some candles that are making my house smell like Fall Heaven (*sigh).

Summer Fun-ness

2009-08-17T11:48:00.005-04:00

Look at me! I'm posting pictures! So we did just a couple of things this summer other than moving and being pregnant. We decided to not go on any big vacations since we bought a house and wanted to take it easy.

We went to the zoo with D's sister and her husband and 4-month old. LOVE HIM. P was so much fun this time around because he knows all of the animals and made all the noises when we saw them. We had an especially good time in "Ape Land". The zoo has a lot of new kids parts and it was Fisher Price Day where they had a bunch of toys to play with and gave you promotional DVD's.
Next we went to Missouri for a family reunion for D's Dad's family. We only stayed a couple of days, but it was fun to meet lots of new people. P loved playing with the other kids his age. He and I spent lots of time at the lake and it was so nice to play with him. My MIL got lots of great pictures. I'll have to get them from her sometime so you can tell I actually was there (and at the zoo, too. My SIL too much better pics than me too.) Anyway, D's grandparents have a lot of land so the boys all spent most of their time on the mule carting around. P also loved the horses. Unfortunately I could not convince him to stop calling them cows *sigh*.

Oh, Update on the 'reassessment of my placental location'. It's called Placenta Previa. All it means is that part of the placenta is blocking the baby from cervix which means he'd have to be born via c-section. BUT, only 10% of women that it's noticed in still have the problem at the time of birth. Best case scenario, it goes away, no problems. Worst case, I get put on bed rest and have a c-section at 37 weeks. No worries though, it was just nice to figure out what it was all about!

Reassessing the Placental Location

2009-08-15T12:39:00.002-04:00

Does anyone know what that means, exactly? We had our 6 month doctor's appointment yesterday and everything went great. Weight-good. Blood pressure-good. Baby's heartbeat-good. So far I've gained 12 pounds (since I started going to the doc anyway, haha) and I'm measuring at 23cm which is perfect.

I have to go in and get my gestational diabetes test done in about a week and a half and at 28 weeks they want me to go in for another ultrasound. They want to "reassess my Placental Location". They said that during my 20 week ultrasound the placenta was 2 cm away from the uterus and usually they want it to be less than one. If it doesn't fix itself I could have some "bleeding during labor", but that was all that they would tell me.

The doctor skirted around my 'what if' questions and therefore couldn't really explain much about the reassessment. I imagine a lot of moms would freak out at the 'what if'. It's just a normal reaction question. I'm not really worried about anything, because they noticed it a month ago and I won't get it rechecked for another month. Obviously it's not too big a deal, especially at this point.

Really all I know is that the placenta and uterus are attached. As the uterus moves up, obviously, the placenta moves up too. All I can figure is that my placenta hadn't moved up as fast as my uterus as of last month anyway.

But has anyone else ever had their placental location reassessed? What a mouthful. Google isn't too helpful.

P went to my appointment with D and me and was very good, uh, very loud. But that's just how he is. His face was so funny listening to the heartbeat. Then he tried lifting up everyone else's shirt to see their bellies.

Oh, but the baby is kicking around more and my mother in law felt him squirm. I'm absolutely delighted at the additional movement. I love feeling him playing around in there. Soon the hiccups will come! But he definitely has his own personality and I love him. I'm getting more and more excited for December to roll around. So is D, but that's probably because I seem to be getting pretty darn cranky...

Being a Woman- I never noticed until now...

2009-08-12T20:07:00.002-04:00

In my family and religion, women have always been honored. In our church, a man wont' be called into a position with a lot of responsibility (such as the Bishopric) without the permission/ support of his wife. My husband lets me know almost daily how much he appreciates what I do with our home and family and that he recognizes how hard I work and that it's something only I could do. My dad was always the same with my mother.

So growing up and hearing about women's rights or how they still aren't treated the same even today, it never stuck with me. I figured that those old times were past. I'm a strong woman. Surely those things wouldn't happen to someone like me. But lately, fully entering the grown up world, I've noticed that that is not always the case.

When my husband and I first came to look at this house, the people showing it TOTALLY ignored me. Until it came to the kitchen and what kind of sink it had. Joke was on them, D was more interested in that than I was. Then there was our mortgage broker who never did really talk to me. Every bit of information, every question was directed at my husband.

Then today, I met with our landlord to return our keys and he tried to bully me and take advantage of me. He told me to agree to his terms or he'd find more things to charge me. He told me I needed to just agree to it already because my little boy was hot and hungry. Now I know better, having been a property manager and in the business for the last six years. So I know what is a legal charge and what's not. But then! After having come to an agreement about touch up paint, he said that I needed to agree to it or he'd charge me more, I told him that wasn't honest. Then he told me I was suspicious and that I wasn't honest.

You might be wondering what that little story has to do with being a woman. Well, my husband called later to clarify a few things and the landlords told my husband that I kept threatening a lawsuit (did not, small claims is a pain) AND they treated D totally differently. They were pleasant and wanted to try and work with him. They didn't treat me like that at all. Calling me dishonest and trying to pressure by making insinuations about my baby? That would ONLY happen to a woman.

Now I'm not quick to jump on any women's lib bandwagons. So I don't go arounding calling foul or throwing tantrums every time something happens to not go my way. But I was very angry and in uncharted territory. How am I supposed to be a strong woman when I have to rely on my husband so much? How do I make certain people (because it's not everyone) take me seriously? I don't know the answers to that. There may not be a solution. D agrees with me though and hates it when I get treated that way. He always tries and makes them listen to me or tells them that they need to get my opinion first. I love that about him. They say behind every good man is a good woman. I'm also willing to say that behind every strong woman is a strong man.

So as far as those landlords go, I'll just wait to see if they try and pull anything. And while I don't threaten to sue people left and right, I sure won't hesitate if they try and do something wrong. It is my money afterall.

All in all, because this a long blog, I don't wan to be a man. I'm happy being a woman. Even a woman who is a stay at home mom. I find a lot of strength and there are lots of lessons in that. I'm very blessed with these men in my life. From that big one who is a bed hog to that little one who is a bed hog. And to that even smaller one who kicked me for a good half hour this morning and will probably ALSO be a bed hog.

And the winner is...!

2009-08-10T11:29:00.003-04:00

So I appreciate everyone giving me ideas for baby names. Over the weekend we finally made a decision, and to my surprise, it is the simplest most common of names:

Cole Michael

Thursday I talked to my Grandma for a long time about the world, and she just said, "I sure hope D talks you out of Paxton. I like Cole myself." I love the way she is. No sugar-coating, but she's never rude.
Then on the drive to Missouri (pics to come), my father-in-law decided that Cole was a perfect name because it's "tough" and a 'Cole' can be anything he wants. I almost was going to NOT name our baby Cole to spite him, but I really do like it.
Anyway, Michael happens to be the name of our fathers, my daddy and D's dad and Pops, who has always taken care of us, kind of like a second dad to my husband. And, I really like that it's simple.
So there's a very long explanation of my second son's name. And wow, it's weird to say I have sons. See him in December!

Did I mention an update?

2009-08-05T12:10:00.003-04:00

Here's what happens when your baby thinks he's hilarious and you ask him to "Say Cheese and Smile! We're in our new house!" King of funny faces...

I'll post pictures soon. We don't have too much to do and our house will be finished with painting and arranging, etc. I'm still trying to decide what to do for my boys' rooms. I'm looking for a cheap dinosaur mural for P's wall. Anyone know of where I can find one?

Baby #2 is still called New Baby... My husband like the name Gabriel for a few days, but got sick of it. Then he liked the name Korben for all of 2 seconds. Right up until I told him we absolutely would NOT use the middle name Dallas. Which is the name of the character from the movie 5th Element, btw.

I fell in love with the name Paxton. But one friend said it sounds like a prescription (paxil) and D HATES it. He's still waiting for the lightning that will hit him and scream "THIS IS THE ONE".

I'm still taking suggestions even though you all have been great :)

I also like Decker and we only kind of like Christian. I seem to have a thing for -er names and -an names.

We're visiting family this weekend in Missouri which is a 12 hour ride. Hopefully in that time we can come up with something. Meanwhile, I keep searching website after website and reading all the credits to every movie I watch. It's a good thing we're starting so early!

I skipped my last dr appointment because I had an ultrasound around that time and our baby was doing great. I've never had any problems. So my next one comes next Friday. I've only gained one pound in two months, so I wonder if they'll say anything about that. Believe me though. I'm eating. I actually bought dozen donuts on Saturday. ME. Well, they're still in the fridge. Maybe I'll go eat one for lunch...

Wasn't expecting this after the 90s

2009-07-30T22:46:00.003-04:00

I often get on here and complain about the terrible things industry does to pregnant women. Killing time before bed, I found this monstrosity:

Yes, that is a horrible red christmas plaid meant for the summer. And yes, that is a nifty little frilly collar to take the grunge that plaid is known for to feminine. Pregnant women everywhere: RUN.

check it out check it out

2009-07-29T17:49:00.004-04:00

Ran into this website while figuring out how to decorate my boys' rooms and the rest of my house. HOLY WOW! And what great prices too:

http://www.dalidecals.com/

PS Check out their toilet decal. I'd so never do that, but they are funny.

PPS Some sunshine today- D said he likes a name! It's Gabriel, which may have some potential, but this is the first time he's made a suggestion other than "Minion" or "Justin Case". I still owe my brother in law for that last one.

During the Hiatus

2009-07-27T16:02:00.002-04:00

So we moved one week and D was gone on business for another. I have painted my little heart out and result is a crappy job that meant well. No one told me that paneling would be so difficult. We are spent to say the least. All three of us. D hasn't rested once since he got back from his business trip. P is having difficulty adjusting to new house, new room, new bed and where did daddy go? My family pampers me, but I'm tired.
Our house is coming along. When I've had decent enough rest from painting, I'm going to start in on my boys' rooms. Oh, and I did say BOYS as in plural! I am very excited to have another little guy in the family. Of course I feel disappointed that I can't buy girl's clothes, yet. But every mama needs a little son to love her and cuddle her the way mine does and I'm excited to add another.
Our ultrasound went very well. We are completely healthy. And as I have become somewhat wiser this past year, I was very grateful and a healthy baby is all I can hope for. Our little guy didn't move much which is very different that any of P's ultrasounds. From the very first he was kicking his little legs. This one doesn't. He was moving his little mouth which was precious and he had his legs crossed and one leg up around his head most of the time. When he eventually uncrossed, it was very obvious he was a boy. Even I could tell! The technician said that he is measuring a little bit small, but for right now, it's nothing to be concerned about. P is teeny now, but he wasn't when he was born and D and I aren't large people, so it's ok.
We have no name yet. We have nothing that feels right so far, but I do love Ryan more and more. Surprising, since I go for "unusual but not weird". Maybe I exhausted all my best efforts with P. Anyway, someday I'll have something to call him other than "new baby" or "mystery brooks". Or the quiet son, as this guy has his own personality.

What a Week This Will BE!

2009-07-13T21:18:00.002-04:00

This is going to be a good week. Today we closed on our house! We are officially home owners and it feels great. We're so excited that we're FINALLY in the settle down stage. No more running back and forth across the country and worrying about school and jobs, etc.

The people we bought the house from were really nice and cleaned it really well and left us a bottle of wine. We don't drink, (any takers anyone?), but they also gave us a DVD of all the renovations they did and did you know HallMark has a card for occassions like this?

We went to a lawyer's office and signed all of our paperwork. There really wasn't too much and I figured there'd be way more. P was perfection and WOW I wrote the biggest check of my life. Our loan officer was there and I appreciated that he admitted that the banks were shady when it came to appraisals. He said he has a couple that want a house that had appraised for 165, but since they're getting it at 145, he knows the appraisal will be at 146. Still very deceitful of the bank, but I like it when people can admit it. And our loan guy has no control over that stuff and he was great to work with.

We spent the rest of the day unloading one trailer full and taping up the walls for paint. The people before us liked warm orangey colors and we prefer much cooler tones.

D is taking and unloading another trailer full TUESDAY all by himself. I'm going to spend all day cleaning this place.

WEDNESDAY, my dad has off, so he's going to help me paint in the morning and move our big things in the afternoon. I'm SO grateful for his help. My mom is dying that she can't help paint, but believe me, there is PLENTY more to paint.

THURSDAY will be a loose string day and hopefully we won't have to come back to Upper again and we can start to put our house together.

FRIDAY is our Ultrasound! I'm really excited for it. We're officially 19 weeks along. This time is different than with Baby P. With him I just figured everything was perfect and I wanted to confirm he'd be a boy. This time, while I'm excited to find out the gender, I want to make sure there are four heart valves and two brain halves and all the organs are in their place.

Anyway, it's a big and VERY exciting week!

ANGER

2009-07-08T11:25:00.002-04:00

Remember how before we applied for our loan we went to the bank we were going to use and used one of their House Appraisers for our house? Well that appraisal came back at the exact amount the home owner was asking for. No big surprise.
Well, now that we have applied for our loan, the bank sent someone over there (again). And Wonder of Wonders, the appraisal came back at what we're paying for it. $15,000 LESS than the original.
Thank goodness for the bank, because that 2nd appraisal means our interest rate goes up an ENTIRE 1%!
They said the difference is due to the fact the first appraiser overlooked some trailers that were nearby. Really? Like she didn't notice them the first time around? Really?
Is there anyone honest out there anywhere? I'm so angry. I don't want to do business with people like that. It's so shady and blatantly dishonest. These people are liars!
And we have to move to town so we're trapped and don't have any choice.
By the way, we're going through
1st CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.

An Attempt to Narrow it Down

2009-07-07T22:21:00.006-04:00

While I still don't have any fella names that satisfy me, and my husband keeps throwing names at me like "Minion", which coincidentally divorced him from the project, I have narrowed down a few favorites and want to get the public's opinion. See Side Bar to vote:

Names

2009-06-30T09:51:00.002-04:00

With our BIG ULTRASOUND being 3 weeks away, we've decided to start thinking about names.

The problem is, my husband can't really think of any on his own. So I start spouting things off, he hears one he likes, and that becomes the name of our future child. EXCEPT, just because I'm spouting things off doesn't mean that's what I want to name our baby. I'd like to at least explore other options. That is how P got his name. I said it once and that was it. D is NOT a contributor.

Last night we bantered about GIRL Names. We don't have any boy names picked out b/c we're not so secretly hoping for a girl. Not that I wouldn't love another little boy, but really I just want to pick out dresses and girly colors. Which I could do with a boy, just not without damaging him somehow.

So here are the girl names I like. D only likes the first one. He won't even think of another one. Stubborn stubborn man:

RILEY
Monroe
Emmy
Violet
Livvie
Lilah

Right now my brain is fried and I can't think of any other ones that I like. Give me lots of suggestions! The ones I like the most I'll put up on a poll!

PS We're most likely having a boy ;)

SCIATICA

2009-06-27T11:52:00.003-04:00

I fell down the stairs a little over two years ago before I even knew I was pregnant with Piercen. I had to do a little bit of physical therapy since I WAS pregnant and they didn't want any back pain to get worse. Turns out I broke myself a little bit. But I've never been accused of being graceful.

So a little while ago, I noticed this pain deep down in my hip and I thought, "Well shoot, it's from when I fell and I'm still broken." But the good news is, it's just my Sciatic nerve! Sciatica is a well-known term around pregnant women. The uterus can press on it and send pain anywhere from the lower back all the way down the legs. But usually in the third trimester. Since this has been happening since day 1, and this mornin I was gimping around like a lame horse, I may start to fear for the third trimester just a little bit.

If anyone sees me in a wheel chair, know all my problems will be solved around the first week of December.

Turtle Power

2009-06-23T09:53:00.005-04:00

Once upon a time, a handsome prince went into a mall. At this mall, was an evil stranger. "Take these little turtles," he said, "They are only $5, make wonderful pets and will stay this size forever." See quarter: "What a great deal!" exclaimed the handsome prince. What he didn't know was that the evil stranger was evil. Snickering to himself, the evil stranger said, "Muwahahaha, not only is it illegal to sell these turtles, but they will grow as large as dinner plates. Muwahahaha."

And six years later, after the prince was married to a hottie, this is what they got:

And after much convincing by the hottie and after spending much MUCH money on maintenance, here is what they did:
And the prince was said. But he'll get over it. And don't worry. I read up on the proper way to release the turtles into the wild and they will live

Happily Ever After.

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-06-21T21:14:00.004-04:00

D had a Regional meeting with his company this weekend and they took us all to Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio. Wow, his company isn't at the top of Forbe's Best Fortune 500 companies to work for for nothing.

So we got all packed up and headed down on Friday. They also had babysitting during meetings (I had a couple they wanted me to go to as well.) P loved his babysitters and it was so nice to hear people other than me raving about my child. They all told me how much fun he is and how funny and the little silly things he does. And they looked genuinely sad when I picked him up. They couldn't believe all the words that he says and one lady couldn't believe how polite he is with all of his 'Thank You's', etc. Then he blew them kisses bye-bye and that knocked him dead. I'm so proud of my wonderful son.

It was a little weird to be with all the people that work for D's company (I'm not supposed to mention it by name because the company doesn't want me to use my blog as advertising for my husband.) Anyway, all these people are loaded. To put it in perspective... You know all the toy diamond rings you play with at the store, it's weird to see them be REAL. There was an awards ceremony where they mentioned what some people made in a month. WOW. One month, one guy brought home $40,000. It's literally jaw-dropping. I just can't imagine what I'd do with that kind of cash. I'm just so happy being poor-ish!

Anyway, moving away from the dollar bills... After D's meetings, we all had time to go to the water park! It took P about 15 minutes to stop being terrified of the water. He's never really liked it. We convinced him it was funny to splash people and then the three of us ran around all of Great Wolf Lodge havin the time of our lives. It didn't even matter we couldn't go down the big water slides because P is so teeny. It was wonderful. We spent a lot of time floating on the lazy river and P just cuddled up and D and I talked and it was the perfect time together! Here are a few pics:

The Water Park

P in his new swim diaper. He's so cute in it. Glad it's reusable!

D putting on P's life jacket. P was mad already!

Lazy River with my cuddly boy. My tan is a result of a week's worth of lotioning up. The best I can say for this pic is "Wow I have skinny legs."

My boys. P played very hard and was out like a light!

Past Bit

2009-06-11T11:51:00.003-04:00

We finally signed our contract for the house. Our mortgage guy just needs us to sign some papers for our loan to go through then we'll have the home inspected. When that's all said and done, less anything horribly unexpected, we will close on July 31! We'll start cleaning and painting in August and have the whole month to get things right so we won't have to move out of our apartment right away. AND our mortgage will be less than our current rent, so I'm excited about that.

P is saying so many words now I've lost track. He can repeat almost anything. And does. He said his name last night and pointed at himself and I'm so in love with him I can't stand it. He's full of kisses and holding hands and mischief and funny-ness that D and I just adore him completely.

My belly got really big all of a sudden. With my last pregnancy, 14 weeks is when I had to get new jeans too. I'm still wearing my old ones, but a rubberband is necessary. I'm definitely out of my old shirts though and have to wear my in between ones. My old shirts are grossly too tight and my maternity shirts are just too big. So I have a belly now but this is the part I've been waiting for so it's good.

I'm reading a lot but the libraries never have the books I want to read. I'm debating on starting Twilight (again) and I just finished the Host (again). I think I'd like to wait until we're in our new house because it has this awesome tub with jets and prego wonderfulness that I have fantasies of sitting in there reading and eating chocolates. Mmmm...

Funny pic: My mom bought me a Team Edward shirt and before I got to wear it some Mysterious Stranger took it and put it on to make fun of me. Joke's on him! I win!

EDITED*** First Trimester Belly Pics

2009-05-31T16:13:00.003-04:00

So I decided to have a little bit of fun with picnik.com as you can see. I thought that it was a little odd that I look much bigger in week 8 and week 10, but then I remembered that the placenta and everything raised around 12 weeks, so I guess that makes since to me? Anyone else? Anyway, on to the blessed 2nd Trimester!

EDIT**** I know it's weird I look so much bigger. All of a sudden I can buttom up my pants that I couldn't before too. Weirdo baby.

PS I really appreciate how picnik apps make me look tan.

Mystery Baby appt #2

2009-05-29T10:18:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my second appointment for Mystery Baby. I really love Dr. Schultz's office because everyone there is really nice. I didn't wait for 3 minutes. So I went in and got weighed. I'm up to 123! That means I'm up 5 pounds, which is more than you're supposed to gain your first trimester. I'm consoling myself by saying I was too skinny before and my MIL told me she gained more the first trimester with her second baby too, but didn't gain more overall. AND I still weight 5 pounds less than I did when I started out with P. And I can still button up my pants.

That was a long explanation about my weight, but let's face it. For most pregnant mothers, the first little while the baby is doesn't feel real. You don't feel any little kicks, you're usually not buying a lot of baby stuff and except for nausea, you don't feel pregnant. You just feel like you're gaining weight.

Anyway, they took my BP and it was good. They didn't tell me how much it was but that doesn't matter anyway because I wouldn't know if it was good or bad. Then I waited another 3 minutes and the nurse came in. She was SO nice. She introduced herself and sat and talked to me for 10 minutes about my little boy, being pregnant, any concerns, and stuff in general. And it wasn't polite talking where they're waiting to leave the second they get a break. It's such a relief from the last place. I never knew who my appointment was with, if they were a nurse, doctor or tech. They were always in and out and nice but curt. They never explained ANYTHING ever which is bad for a first timer. Especially when you're expecting your first ultrasound to rub jelly on your cute little belly and see your baby.

So the heartbeat was 166 which is what it was with P's. Jolene was really happy we could hear it b/c I guess sometimes it's harder at 12 weeks. And that was it. It was a short appointment but I'm good, there really is a baby in there who's alive and well and I'm not just gaining chub :)

Mommy Musings

2009-05-26T15:48:00.002-04:00

Why is it that I can pull a crazy awesome James Bond move to save my baby from falling down the stairs, but I hit his head on the car everytime I go to put him in his seat? Anyone?

And
Why do I feel guilty if my baby goes out without his hair done and adorable outfits on, but I go out with mystery goo all over my clothes and am just grateful so long as it's clear?

And

Why does my boy think it's cool to stick his apple slices on the back of the sofa and eat them from there instead of his bowl? Anyone?

Babies are a mystery. But I think sometimes, so are mommies.

How Doctors can be WRONG

2009-05-24T10:58:00.002-04:00

www.carleighmckenna.blogspot.com
www.babyfaithhope.blogspot.com

Both these women had the doctors tell them to abort their baby due to anencephaly. Both decided to play no part in the death of their child. Both of them inspired more people in a too short amount of time than I could ever have dreamed of doing myself.
Myah's baby Faith unfortunately just passed away. She lived 93 days. UNHEARD OF. Look at your baby and imagine what you would do to have 93 more days with him.
Holly's baby was born still, but she got to hold her and see her face and touch her. I would give anything to have that blessing and Holly doesn't regret it for a second. In fact, she's an advocate. Check out her blog for her charity events. It's really amazing.
So what I really mean to get at here is, doctors don't always know. God can get you through anything and just LOOK at those amazing blessings. No matter how dark it looks, there's light. A lot of light. A sun full.

Backhanded

2009-05-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

A lot of my friends have had babies recently and many, including myself, in the last couple of years. People try to be nice, but sometimes, their "compliments" just don't quite work out:

"You look good...............................for just having a baby."

Why can't we just look good? Or glowing from motherhood? Or healthy? Or just bite your tongue and compliment our beautiful baby.

Buying a House 201

2009-05-19T11:52:00.003-04:00

So the first house we looked at we want to buy. I know, we're such shoppers. We did go to a couple of open houses and looked at 6 more with a realtor just to be sure. AND WE ARE. We feel like we're getting a great deal and we know that our Father has blessed us b/c there's no way we could have fallen into this alone.

We're not going through a realtor so the owner showed us the house. It's much nicer than other homes in that price range, PLUS I got him to go about $16,500 down on the price. I told him there was no way I would pay what he wanted and I'd only pay a certain amount. I'm glad I did that b/c D would have offered a little more. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the owner really only talked to D and didn't pay any attention to me until I started talking money. So anyway, reluctantly, he agreed to our price.

We decided to get the house appraised and we just got that back. It came back $10,000 more than what we offered! BUT, we bartered with her and she said that she would appraise the house for an extra $5000. THEN, we talked to our loan guy about borrowing a couple extra thousand dollars to do our bathroom. It's not a lot, but we get a good advantage doing it. See, since we're borrowing the money from the bank, the appraiser will do what's called a ProForma appraisal. Meaning she'll appraise the house at what it will be worth once the bathroom's done. She said that she'll make the appraisal and even extra $5000 on top of that!

So this means our house as appraised $20,000 MORE than what we're paying for it. We'll already have equity. This also means that with the Government's $8000 you get for purchasing this year, we'll have 80% into our home. Which means D and I don't have to put forth any of our own cash. All we have to do is give the extra govt money as downpayment. AND we don't have to pay PMI. AND we get a better interest rate- so lower monthly payments. AND we get an extra bathroom AND a remodeled one.

It seems like we're getting a lot for free! Oh, AND the goverment pays $1500 to you if you make your home more energy efficient. So D and I will put in a new hot water heater and hopefully will have an extra grand or so.

The home owner is having his lawyer draw up our contract which D and I will look over and have looked over. So all that will be left is to sign, do our bank paperwork (we're already approved), put down cash and have home inspected. Uh, not in that order.

PS. Our little guy has taken to lifting up my shirt and poking me yelling BABY! Of course at inopportune times. Like at the grocery store...

P's first ER trip

2009-05-17T21:54:00.007-04:00

So I realize I'm a pretty protective mother. So I make a valiant effort to be laid back or else I can't enjoy my son and will spend all our time together worrying. So when this first happened: I thought, "Oh, that looks pretty bad. But he's acting normally with no fever so I'll just keep an eye on it." It's a bad picture but you get the general idea of this weird rash. Anyway, he was sitting in a high chair at a restaurant so I thought maybe they washed it with a harsh chemical and it was bothering him so I washed off his arm and it seemed to go away pretty well.

So we got home and I put my little guy to bed for a nap and when he woke up the rash had spread all over his arms and legs and on his face in full force. I definitely did not like that it spread so fast so I called Dustin and told him we were taking P to the ER. Just in case. P wasn't acting funny and still didn't have a fever, but it didn't sit right with me that these huge welts were wreaking havoc on his perfect skin. So I washed his skin again with a wet wipe and off we went.

You know that little booger was a charming and sweet and smiley and of course the rash went away waiting for the doctor. All of it. Turns out though that the doctor thought that it was HIVES. I've never seen them before so who knew? Better safe than sorry I guess. And NO, I did not change laundry detergent, use a new soap, etc etc. All that I can think of is maybe cleaners from the high chair. It was one of the old ones with plastic backing. I don't use harsh cleaners so it would be new. Anyway, the doctor had a horrible bedside manner with children, but P didn't cry and he got stickers and a stuffed dog (which he mimicked barking until the nurse came in and he switched to it mooing. I think he does it on purpose to get me.) And he ate crackers the whole time. So all is well, they haven't returned, and we all had a little adventure.

Waiting with his book. Pretending to be Afflicted
Trying to wrestle with Daddy (who looks so handsome)

I've hit the double digits!

2009-05-12T10:26:00.003-04:00

Yay! So we're 10 weeks into this baby-ness. I'm no longer crazy (phew!) and I'm not as nauseous as I was. I really just have brief moments so I'll either eat or go to sleep and all is well. Mystery Brooks is around the size of your shift key, so every time you capitalize you can think about her (or him).
I'm fast growing. I don't really enjoy that because I feel like I had just lost my Baby P weight even though he's 18 months old. I still look like I'm growing through that "is-she-chunky-or-is-she-prego" stage. Another month or so and I think I can pull off 100% pregnant.
There isn't a whole lot to do at this stage of the game. I can't buy anything because we don't know what gender Mystery Brooks is and I'm not pregant enough to buy myself clothes.
Anyway, we're having our potential home appraised tomorrow. We have not put in our application with the bank yet so we'll have a fair appraisal. Although, the person appraising it is the same person who works with the bank, so they won't be able to go back after we put in our application and say it's worth less. Very sly Brooks family...
Oh, and the man who took our pre-approval application at the bank called us to say that interest rates have really gone done so when we do decide to put in our official app, we'll get the lower rate. Which means we can get more money for lower payments to help fix things up. Really, all that needs done is a new tub downstairs. Plus we want to put in a bathroom upstairs and repaint. Not bad for a new house!
Little man is learning a word a minute and out of no where remembered who Elmo is. Except it comes out Melmo. And I love it. This does not mean, however, that I want Elmo clothes, hats, bedding and pictures in his room. I just love hearing his little voice.
PS I fixed my link from yesterday. I don't know what I did, as usual. But please check out my friends site and if you can donate $5 towards their adoption you could win an iPod.

For a Friend - Edited!

2009-05-11T14:14:00.003-04:00

My friends are going through the process of adoption which is EXPENSIVE! Their story is truly amazing so you should check it out.

http://fromthetrenchesofmotherhood.blogspot.com/2009/05/wanna-know-secret.html

Then click on the "Secret".

it's not easy being green

2009-05-07T15:54:00.003-04:00

Cheesy, I know. But it's not cheap either. So many people go so far out of their way to be "green". It seems like it's the newest of the Hollywood trends. But rolling my eyes at these trends and celebrities aside, it's good for us to do what we can. So what do you do when you're on a budget?

A few of my friends swear by cloth diapers. People who've never used them say it's such hard work. People who have LOVE it. For mystery baby, I'm definitely planning on using cloth. The Trick is: buy them gradually before you need them. You need about 24. They are expensive if you buy them all at once. But it would also be expensive if you bought all the diapers you would ever need for your little one at once. Even if you went Wal-Mart brand with a coupon, the cost would be staggering. I'm sure there's a stat somewhere out there for that.

Cleaning Supplies: I like to try them. I hate HATE cleaning my bathtub. It's my cleaning BAIN. Over the course of the last several years, I've spent a small fortune on different products. You know what has worked the very best every single time? My .55 cent package of baking soda. No kidding. Baking soda and a steel wool scrubbie. I can clean my bathtub more efficiently 8 times for less than a dollar.

For dusting, I've never seen anything work better than a little bit of lemon juice mixed with olive oil. I really like these methods because my baby takes baths in that tub and I don't want him sitting in water with residue chemicals. You can eat baking soda and lemon juice and olive oil. Plus they won't hurt his skin. Or mine, which seems more sensitive.

I've also stopped buying papertowels and napkins. Instead we bought kitchen towels for a $1. If I bought the cheap papertowels, I'd go through a roll a week. Instead, I have towels 4evr! I'm planning on buying Table Towels which you put on a roll and are washable. They're a tiny bit more money than my kitchen towels, but they're super cute. PS. This was a friend of mine's idea and I jumped on the bandwagon. Thanks Holly!
I also stopped buying disposable kitchen sponges. For cheaper, I bought washable ones with a velour side and a scrubbie side. The velour works great for washing my windows and walls and dusting. The otherside cleans all my counters and dishes easily.

A lot of places now offer Eco-Friendly dish soap and dishwasher detergent, etc etc etc. Most of these are cheaper than the normal products which is how I stumbled across them. I'm pretty dang cheap.

So I've saved money. I don't think it's feasible for most of us to go out and only buy organic or spend a fortune on so called 'green' products. But the little things are really what makes the biggest difference.

Mystery Baby is a BIG Deal

2009-05-06T10:43:00.003-04:00

but I didn't think it would be. I mean, D and I are so excited. So when I couldn't button my jeans (ALREADY!) we thought we'd just casually tell our friends and family. Except my dad. I had to tease him a little bit since it was his birthday.
We put P in his Big Brother t-shirt and went to meet my Dad, Grandma and my nieces and nephew for ice cream. My dad didn't notice there. So we went to my dad's house and an hour later my dad walked into the living room where I was talking to my grandma with this funny look on his face. "Uhhh, is there something you want to tell me?" "What's that Daddy?" "Well, there's this song on your blog about some baby, and P is wearing a big brother t-shirt." So I laughed. Then he got all excited. I think I could have told him I just happend to like the song (real reason its up there) and that the shirt was a hand me down and he would have believed me. But you can't mess with my dad too long.
I was really unprepared for how excited my family was! I thought they'd be more like, "Oh cool. Can't wait." But it was more like, "AWESOME, I bet it's a girl, when are you due are you sick what do you need, AWESOME".
And D's family didnt' believe us. So that was funny too. Surprise!
I haven't really had time to think about this baby since I babysit, write for the paper and work for my father in-law. AND I have my own little P. AND D. So it's funny when it comes up a lot when we're out. So at any rate, Mystery Baby #2 is definitely a big deal.