Oh my goodness this week was so busy but there were a few great highlights.  As I washed dishes, Nathan and Lucas played with the drum set and accessories on the kitchen floor.  They were doing very well and cooperatively playing together.  Yes I know that will probably end soon but for now it is absolutely priceless and I adore watching them interact.   I turned to check on them and found Lucas just going to town on Nathan’s chocolate milk.  Of course all I could do was laugh.  I got Nathans attention to tell him get his cup which he tried to do but Lucas has an amazing grip and Nathan was trying to be nice and not take it too forcefully.  Well he did finally get the cup but Lucas maintained a grip on the straw and continued to suck on that until Nathan realized it and finally got that back too.  It was hilarious!

We went to the fire dept complete with a puppet show about fire safety and a tour of 2 of the fire trucks.  Surprisingly Nathan was full of questions and made sure the fireman didn’t skip over any of the doors.  He wanted to know what was behind each one.  He was quite fascinated by the cat litter they kept on the truck for oil spills and such too.  It was fun.

Nathan and I made pine cone bird feeders on Wed by covering pine cones in lard and peanut butter then rolling them in millet, sesame seeds and pistachio nuts.  We still haven’t seen any birds eating from them and I’m about to do the bird dance.  It is sad to see him go to the window and ask why they aren’t eating from our feeders.

Lee was gone most of the week and got home late Thur night and I was grateful to see the whites of his eyes.  I’m not use to having to put both kids to bed by myself and go without adult interaction day after day. 

 

This evening as I was trying to do too many things at once, I pulled Lucas away from the stool, chair, dresser combo in order to protect his head.  He of course is not aware of the fact that hitting your bare head hurts since he always has the helmet off.  Anyhow Nathan saw me do this and shortly thereafter also pulled the baby across the room, across the hallway and into my room where I first realized what was going on.  Nathan was laughing and saying come on baby; all the while pulling him backwards.  He really enjoys interacting with Lucas.  Hopefully it will last for many years to come.  A Mom can wish right?

This week we went to the children’s museum in Hendersonville NC called Hands On.  Nathans favorite part was helping me build cars out of legos and them racing them down their car track.  It was a large track to race them down.  Lucas enjoyed the rice table but only because I put his pacifier in his mouth to keep the rice out first.  I picture us being at the beach one day and him having to experience the dreadful sand in the mouth experiment in order to learn not to do that.  He puts everything in his mouth.  Urgh, Nathan didn’t do that.  Well actually he is worse about it now that he’s older when he pretends to be a cat.  I won’t go into detail. 

Talking

Earlier this week London stayed at our house and slept over at night.  She and Nathan were busy playing and Nathan came up to me and said, “Mommy there is way too much talking going on in that room.”  Ok so London does talk a lot, bless her little heart!  Wendy told me she did but I had no idea since I thought Nathan talked a lot.  Well, he doesn’t.  She went to bed talking and woke up talking.  She is so cute!  Nathan actually seemed a little overwhelmed it was kind of funny.  It took him 2 days to recover from them playing so hard.  J They are getting along so great now and I’m so glad they are back.

The Balloon

This weekend Lee’s parents were here and took Nathan with them to do a few errands.  It was nice to have them take the munchkin for a while.  He returned with a helium filled balloon that he was thrilled to have and Lee even had to tie it to his bed so it could be close to him during the night.  In the morning he brought it out to me declaring Grandmom and Grampy need to take this balloon back, it’s broken.  Aww, sniff, sniff.

The card

Wed was Lee’s 35^th birthday so I told Nathan I would print off a card for him to give to his Daddy and then he could draw on it.  He asked to sit in my lap so he could pick out the card.  We randomly looked at several before he asked me if Daddy likes dogs.  There was a cute little doggie one as an option so that is what he was leaning toward.  He also asked me if Daddy likes blue; the cards main color was blue except for the dog.  So we printed that one and he drew on it.  At first he told me it was a picture of Daddy then it turned into the letter B because it went around a lot then he said it’s a rock so I guess it was one of those 3D pictures you see lots of different things in.  He asked for dots so he could sign his name too so of course I obliged and he signed his name.  The whole thing was just precious.

Who did it?

I new this would happen eventually but not quite this early.  I found sand on the office floor today.  The container was put away but I new it was from this little box that I let him play with sometimes but with my supervision only.  At first I didn’t say anything as I tried to collect my thoughts and come up with the best plan of action so as not to accuse but still be firm.  He new I was in the office but never offered an explanation on his own so I finally said, “Nathan I see that you had an accident in the office that I need you to tell me about.”  I figured that way I wasn’t accusing him but took out the issue of who did it since it was obvious to me who did it.  But apparently he didn’t see it that way.  At first he just kept meowing which he does anytime he’s nervous.  So I just told him to let me know when he wanted to talk to which he blanketly states, “The baby did it.”   Somehow I managed to contain my laughter and state the obvious of, “Honey the question is not who did it, Mommy knows YOU had the accident with the sand but can you tell me about it.”  He did then tell me he was making circles in the sand.  I reminded him we all have accidents everyday and he didn’t need to feel bad or like he needed to hide it.  We would clean it up together which we did.  It was a great chuckle for me though, picturing the baby who can barely hold his head up dumping out the sand and also picturing Nathan formulating this craziness in his head. 

The Sneakster

Getting Nathan to drink his water is not a typical problem really but occasionally he decides he just doesn’t like it.  Mostly it keeps me on my toes to think of ways to make it fun.  Fri I gave him his afternoon water around 1p and just asked him to drink it before we went swimming later.  After a few reminders, he was doing pretty good but still had some left when I told him it was time to go change into his swimsuit.  I heard him coming down the hallway and I peaked out of Lucas’s room to see what he was doing and noticed he had the top off of the water cup.  I went and asked him what he was doing to which he replied, “Uh, nothing.”  I simply took the cup and put the top back on telling him it might spill that way and asked him to sit on the floor to drink it.  Then I got down on his level and asked him why the top was off.  To which he firmly replied, “So I could finish it quickly down the sink.”  On my toes again I asked him if it was too much too drink all of it right now?  He suggested we could take it with us to the pool today.  I told him that was a great idea and reminded him that it’s ok to talk to Mommy and tell me his great ideas rather than pouring his water out.  We also discussed how Captain Carlos from TV encourages us to drink our water and how he would be proud of Nathans idea to take it along.  We also discussed that Mommy is only doing this to keep him safe and protect him from the heat, the same way we protect Lucas.  He seemed to like it that I was concerned about protecting him the same as Lucas.

our little fish

We decided to get Nathan some private swim lessons this summer and I am so glad we did.  First of all, he has always loved the pool and isn’t really afraid of the water.  Before lessons he always wore his arm floaties except for rare instances when we would convince him to play with us without them for a bit.  He usually asked for them back after a short time which we always agreed to.  He liked jumping off the diving board and would put his head under the water and blow bubbles.  But now he is swimming with his head under water and coming up for quick breathes.  It is so amazing to watch this little 3 yr old swim and he is loving it.  He is so proud of his accomplishments.  His greatest feat is jumping off the diving board without any floatation device and then swimming to the shallow end without any assistance from us.  He can also retrieve things off the floor with his hands.  He’s so great with the pool as far as respecting it and knowing I have to be there with him to swim but I feel so much better knowing he can get to the edge if he were to fall in or jump in his case. 

Leaps and Bounds

In just one short month Lucas has really taken off developmentally. He is now pulling himself up while holding onto my hands into a sitting position and then standing as well. He's doing push-ups all the way up on his hands while lying on his belly on the floor and he's laughing outloud. He's holding objects in his hands while playing or chewing on them. He's so much more interactive this month it's amazing and so fun.

Baby shower

You may be guessing where this is about to go but just in case, I'll explain anyway. I have 2 friends that are pregnant and a baby shower is being given to John and Jackie this Sunday that we have been preparing for by discussing which gift to get and the details of attending. I explained to Nathan the ins and outs of a baby shower with regards to gifts, party, cake, pregnant lady etc. This Sunday as we were discussing the gift again, Nathan told Lee we were going to wash the baby. After a split second, I of course was laughing hysterically.

The empty container

I was nursing Lucas tonight just prior to putting him to bed while Lee was with Nathan accross the hall in our room. Through the monitor I asked Lee to have Nathan shut their door. They can get a little rowdy reading books believe it or not. After a few minutes I heard Nathan leave the room shutting the door behind him and then he came in to Lucas' room. He gave me a cute grin then sighed a big heavy sigh and said, "Mommy I just want you to brush my teeth." I quickly replied, "Yes dear, when I'm done I'll be there now go back with Daddy please" in an effort to keep things short and sweet. He left just as he had come and I began to smile as I thought about my effort to contain the noise. You see, the noise was contained while he was in the container (the closed room), but he left the container and even shut the container. It's funny to me that he truly has no idea that the door was shut to keep him and his noise contained. The container can only contain the noise if the noise maker stays in the container! lol!

The Power

It seems that when God speaks to us, it’s often repeated.  This is the third time that He has spoken to me about His power.  The first time was through a study with Beth Moore about the life of John.  She discussed the power of the Holy Spirit.  Then Nathan’s VBS week at church was titled the Power Lab and each day the theme was about power; like the power to be thankful and the power to help others.  The 2 that struck me the most however was on day 4 and 5. The theme was Jesus gives us the power to live forever.  The bible story was about Jesus dying and coming back to life and the fact that b/c He lives, we too can live forever through Him.  Then day 5 was about the power to tell others about God.  The bible story was about The Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost and that we are to go into all the world and preach the Good News.  The third time God spoke to me about His power was today at church.  Our pastor kept speaking about the power of the Holy Spirit to change our hearts.

My heart is broken about our nation, and how ironic that we are celebrating our freedom this weekend when in fact much of our God given freedom has been misconstrued in some fashion or another.   It astounds me that only 20% of Americans are in church; my heart aches over this fact.  I think people are really missing out on the joy that a relationship with God brings and the fact that our purpose in life is to spread the Gospel.  When people seek out the church to meet their needs, we (us, you and me) need to be there to love on them.  I know we can do this in ways other than being in church, but we miss out on so much by not being a part of this one entity.

Then our pastor also spoke about the KS senate opening prayer and this so hit home with me.  I’m downright fearful of what will happen when Obama takes office.  I know we have nothing to fear but fear itself and I am so thankful to know that my God is always in control.  It’s too bad you can’t hear the passion in my voice as I type this.

 

The Kansas Senate Prayer Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that: We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Christ. Amen. What awesome insight !!! With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called a Christian nation that fears the Lord!   As Paul said why do I do the very things I don’t want do and I don’t do the things I want to? We are sinners yet Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.  When we are at our worst, he died for us.  Not only that but then He gave us the greatest threat to Satan, The Holy Spirit.  Jesus didn’t just send His spirit to be with us but to live in us.  Think for a moment about our spirit, it makes us who we are right?  Well then think about the fact that Jesus sent His spirit to live in our sinful bodies just waiting for us to call on His power.  He is there waiting for our beckoning call to give us POWER and if He’s in us then he knows our thoughts without us even speaking them.  Wow! So we can’t hide anything from Him.  Nor should we want to after all He can deliver us from anything. According to 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.  We have the power to do so much more than we even know capable.  Our nation is torn and weary in so many ways.  We have the power to be faithful, to pray, and to love His people the way He did.  This is spreading the Gospel.

 

 

nice evening

This afternoon Nathan wanted to go swimming and Lucas was not wanting to nap. It was pretty close to dinner time and with Lucas awake, I told Nathan I would take him swimming but I couldn't get in. I wasn't sure if he would go for that or not but he did. The wind was blowing and it was rather nice outside so I decided to take Lucas with us and just sit in the shade with him. I put his little sun hat on and we watched Nathan splash around for about an hour. It turned out really great as I got to be with Nathan and Lucas. Lucas likes to be outside and enjoyed looking at the water and watching Nathan play and after a while he fell asleep. I don't get to hold him sleeping too often so I really enjoyed that. It was the best of both worlds.

The Book

Last week Lee took Nathan to storytime at the library and they had a train book that he wanted to check out but Lee forgot his card. Actually there was one on the keychain but he didn't realize it. Anyway Nathan was disapponinted and has talked about it since then. So today when we go he tells me he's going to look for the train book. He has really gotten into picking out some of the books lately. While I was searching for a few books, he was on the prowl. After a few books that were "really cute" according to him, he came over with the train book. This wasn't the same one he saw the other day but was one we had several months ago. Surprised I said, "Wow I'm surprised you found that." He replied, "I sniffed it out with my nose." I don't know where he comes up with these things. Too cute!

My addiction

Ok so yes I'm an addict. I guess we all are to something but mine just so happens to be cloth diapers. It's for a good cause of course, my precious babes adorable tush. So here is my latest addition to the stash. No I don't really have that many, actually only enough for 2 days of wear.

Contest

Here is a great contest to win a babywearing package.

http://www.alongfortheride.biz/contest-s/49.htm">Win
The Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Contest

There is a new diaper winning contest in town and here's a link. I love cloth diapering and would love to win this!!!

http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2008/06/beat-heat-summer-con-test.html

Recycle

Nathan and I were going through his toys yesterday to sort them and such.  He saw that I had thrown away a few things and put a few more in a bag to take to the Goodwill.  But for the most part we were just putting things in their correct place so that we could find them.  He had blocks, bells, cars, markers and paper clips on his train table and his tool bench had blocks, legos, play cash and plastic people on it.  We also found things that were lost that he was very excited to get to play with again.  It was like getting a new toy.  He kept wanting to hold all the things that I had laid out to put in their respective places The toy box in the craft room had tons of random things in it and when he saw me going through that he finally broke down and said, “Mommy I don’t want you to recycle my toys.”  I realized then that he was afraid I was getting rid of everything that was laid out.   I assured him that we were just organizing them and only getting rid of a very few things.  He was more relaxed after that but it was cute how he thought I was “recycling” his toys.  I guess he must be catching on to the whole reuse and recycle thing.

The Birth

I would love to write Lucas' birth story before I forget all the great details. So here goes. On Wed March 26th when I went to see Dr Brown I was dilated 3cm. I of course had no idea. He wanted me to go ahead to the hospital then but I objected and went home instead. I didn't want to be one of those women pacing the hall waiting when I could be waiting at home. He convinced me to come back in the morning if I didn't go into labor that night. Well of course I didn't go into labor and went to the hospital in the morning as planned. We dropped Nathan off at a friends house, Jenny that was willing to keep him. We got to the hopital about 8am and I was 4cm and having contractions but never really feeling them. It was like, maybe that's one, yeah I think so. But I was having them consistently about every 8 minutes. They got my IV started and gave me an antibiotic. Then started some pitocin to try to move things along. I really wanted Dr Brown to deliver Lucas and he wasn't going to be on call again until Mon. So I felt like it was now or never. By 1030 I was pretty bored and ready to get the show started so I got up and started jogging in place. This made Lee laugh and it made the contractions stronger and more frequently. Well according to the monitor that is; I still couldn't feel anything. The nurses were surprised and kept asking me if I was ready for my epidural. I didn't want to be confined in the bed so I said no not yet and I wasn't hurting in fact I took a nap after that for a while. At 1:30 dr Brown came back to check on me. I was about 5cm dilated and I asked if he could go agead and break my water. My mucus plug broke easier than he expected and the water was broken so to speak. I immediately felt each and every contraction. At first I though I should wait a few minutes before asking for the epidural to see if this is real pain from contractions. I'm not sure what I was thinking exactly. But by 1:35 I was sure I was hurting and did ask for the epidural. The contractions were coming strong and regular and now I was feeling all of it. They were coming every minute in a half and lasting 45 seconds. I was sure I was going to loose my mind. I wasn't prepared for this. I wanted my EPIDURAL!!!!! I was having natural labor but in no way wanted to. Urgh!! Lee was great, holding my hand and telling me how to breath since I was doing it all wrong. Well yeah, I couldn't even think at this point, must less remember how to breath. I asked the nurse how long it usually took for the anesthesiologist to get there and she said about 15 minutes. I needed to know how long I was going to have to mentally handle all this pain. He finally arrived at 1:45 which was less than what she had said but still seemed like eternity to me. Somehow he got it in but I was having contractions while trying to lean over in that terrible uncomfortable position. Oh if I had only known it would all be over soon. I finally got my first dose at 2:00 and as he prepared to leave, he asked the nurse if I had been checked lately as he suspected I was pretty far along. So she checked me and I was 10cm! How did that happen so fast and now Becky my nurse is telling me to push. I'm like no way, this isn't how it's suppose to be, I want my epidural to work first. She tells me I need to push and that it will feel better if I do. But I'm thinking, yeah right! At this point I looked her in the eye and said please tell me the truth when is my epidural going to take effect? She looked me back in the eye and sternly said it might not. If you push, you could have this baby out before it takes effect. I'm thinking this is not how it's suppose to be. I wanted, ok it's time to push now hunny, look the baby is coming, yeah. All the time smiling, calm and pushing my little baby down the canal. But nnooo. It was more like awww, he he he, ha ha ha. Ok so she did convince me to push because if I could get him out and stop hurting that would be good to. And hey it actually worked, pushing did in fact feel better. With each push, he came down the canal a few inches and I could see him crowning. It was the coolest thing and because I could see his head I knew it would be over soon if I kept pushing. Dr. Brown arrived about 2:20pm and I pushed. Lucas came at 2:25p. I never did get fully numb and could feel the stitches but it wasn't unbearable just the sensation was there.

I think the hardest part was that I wasn't mentally prepared to hurt. I planned on getting an epidural when the pain started becoming noticable, but didn't realize it would just hit me like a ton a bricks. I think if I had planned a natural birth, I could have done it with mental preparation. But because I had mentally prepared for a pain free labor, I was not prepared at all and was quite upset about the whole issue.

Ok the best part is of course the baby. He was so cute, healthy and beautiful! Even better was my wonderfully supportive husband that was there for me every step of the way. Overall the birth experience was great. It was fast and I was healthy too. No HELLP syndrome this time so I was walking later that evening and back home the next day.

I know it's been a while

Well I'm now a Mama of 2 boys. It's quite exciting really! Lucas is already 14.5 lbs. I can hardly believe how fast he is growing. He loves to smack his lips at me. So cute. Of course swinging is his favorite past time. He's a funny little dude; he falls asleep in it at bedtime then I pick him up and put him in his bed about 30 minutes later. He just will not go to sleep in the crib hardly ever. Oh except for in the middle of the night after he eats. I put him in the crib then and he goes back to sleep without any fuss at all. He's a great baby though. Last night he slept from 7p till 5a. It doesn't get much better than that and he's so cuddly. ahh, I love holding him.
Big brother Nathan is a great helper these days. I think he has finally adjusted and realizes Lucas is here to stay. We went swimming together this afternoon and had a great time. He really loves the pool.