Show Me Your Face

My Nathan is the cutest kid ever. He is so cute, I can hardly stand it. He is 22 months old now, and he is so fun (when he is not sick). He does and says the funniest things. Whenever I clean his face after he eats he tries to get away from me. He doesn't like getting his face washed. But, if I say "Show me your face" he will turn around and stick out his tongue. I thought it was really funny and couldn't figure out what he was doing. But, a few days ago we realized that he is making a face. It is funny how little kids get confused about the way we say things. We were eating jelly beans and Jacob was asking to play Candy Land. So now when Nathan wants candy he asks for candy land. He was at Grandma Wardle's house one day when it started to snow. She said something about making a snowman. Now when it snows he calls it snowman. It snowed this morning and he looked out the window and said, "Oh, snowman". He makes me laugh. He is just getting over RSV. After two weeks it is so good to finally see his personality coming out again.

36 Weeks

Seriously, can I get any bigger? I guess I will, I still have four weeks to go. I really hope it goes fast. In my experience the last month is the hardest. So far this pregnancy has been better for me than my last one. I think that loosing 20 lbs in between made a big difference. I am not as achy as I was with Nathan. My feet, legs, and back, don't hurt as much, even now. But, I still feel ready to be done. I am having trouble sleeping. I actually get more achy when I am sleeping. The hip I am laying on will start to ache and I have to turn over, not an easy feat when you are as big as a whale. I also get leg cramps, heart burn, and my arms go numb (pregnancy induced carpal tunnel) at night. And it is the time of day when my baby is the most active. He flip flops all over the place all night long. I hope that isn't a problem after he is born. He is going to sleep all day and be up all night long. I am contracting much more that I did with my other two. Still, I am preparing myself to go all the way to my due date and possibly over. That way I won't be disappointed. I expected Nathan early and was frustrated when he didn't come on his own.
In another sense I am not really ready to have this baby. I still don't have anywhere to put his things. It is going to be a challenge to put three kids in one room. I also don't have a car seat yet. The one my other two used broke. I figure I still have time to take care of some of this stuff. I can't imagine what life will be like with three little boys. It will be an adventure. I am so glad that I have such a good husband. Randy is such a good dad, he will make this job easier for me.

How I got my kid to stop picking his nose

Nose picking has been a problem for us for a long time. Anyone who knows Jacob knows this. I finally got fed up with it after telling Jacob to stop picking his nose about 50 times in a day. So, I decided that he needed a bribe. Jacob has always been very susceptible to bribes and rewards. He was the easiest kid to potty train. All I had to do was sing a song and give him two M&M's every time he went potty. It worked like a charm. I decided to bribe him with jelly beans this time. I put 20 jelly beans in a jar. I told him that every time I saw him picking his nose I would take a jelly bean out of the jar and at the end of the day he could eat what was left. I thought 20 would be good because he picked his nose a lot. The first day I had to take away one jelly bean and it was traumatic for him. I said, "Well, don't pick your nose and I won't take any more away." He said, "OK mommy, I won't pick my nose any more." And he didn't. He got to eat 19 jelly beans that night. The next day he didn't do as well. I ended up taking away a lot of jelly beans. But, he got better every day. It took less than a week to get down to where I only had to take away one or two jelly beans a day. The jelly beans are all gone (we all enjoyed them), and so is the nose picking, at least for now. We will see if we really broke the habit. Unfortunately he has developed a new habit. Now, his hand is always down his pants. I have to tell him several times a day to remove it. If it is not one thing it is another.

Sick Days (and Nights)

Can I just say I am so sick of winter and being sick. It feels like we have been sick for the last two months. As soon as we get over one thing we start another. In January we had colds. I lost my voice for about two weeks and Nathan had such a bad cough I took him to the doctor. He had an ear infection and the doctor was worried about the cough going into his lungs so he put Nathan on antibiotics. Then in February we had the flu. Nathan got a fever during church two weeks ago. A few days later Jacob had a fever, and then by Wednesday I had a fever. It was awful. Luckily Randy never got it so he was able to take care of us. That was one of my worst weeks ever. We didn't leave the house for a week. Finally after about 10 days we were all better. We had a great illness free weekend last weekend. No coughs, no runny noses. Then on Sunday night at about 11 I hear Jacob in his room, "Oh no, oh no, I need my daddy." Then he came into our room. I asked him what the matter was and he said, "I frowed up, that means I'm sick." He threw up on the floor in front of his bedroom door. Randy and I jumped out of bed and got everything cleaned up as best we could. For the next few hours I was up ever 20 to 40 minutes with Jacob who totally emptied his stomach and then continued to dry heave. Sometime in the middle of the night I made Randy take a turn. He had the joy of cleaning up after Jacob had, I'll just say, problems out the other end. The next morning I had to totally strip the bed, clean up Jacob and his room and wash everything with vomit and other stuff on it. But, by morning Jacob was better. He didn't eat much that day, but he didn't have any more stomach problems. I was glad it was short lived. No one else had symptoms until last night. At 5 Nathan threw up in the living room. He had the exact same thing as Jacob had. We had another sleepless night, followed by a morning of laundry. But, he has been acting normal today, except for a poor appetite, which is highly unusual for him. Please, please, please, don't let Randy or me come down with this stomach flu. That is the last thing I need right now. I guess I would rather get this all out of the way now, before I have a new baby. But, really, I can't wait until this winter is over.

Freedom

I am writing this posting from my living room couch on my brand new laptop computer! I love it! I have been wanting a laptop for a long time, years. We have a desk top, but the only space we have for it is in the master bedroom. I just never really liked it there. Well, we have been looking at computer ads since about November and getting a feel for pricing and such. I finally decided that it was time to stop looking and buy. I figured that if I just worked three extra shifts I would have enough money for it. We found a great deal and bought it. It took two weeks to actually get it because they had to upgrade it and ship it from China. Of course during those two weeks all of my regular shifts were canceled and I ended up working on Saturdays just to make up hours and not make extra money. But, it turned out okay because we got our tax return. I love how the government takes your money and then makes you feel good when they give it back to you. Anyway, we got the computer on Monday. I got the wireless connection working on Tuesday (without Randy, I felt so smart) and I have been enjoying the freedom to move around the house with my computer ever since. This will open up a whole new world for me. It is very exciting.

My First Ever Blog

Well, here I go. This is my first ever blog. My sister-in-law Kristin told me that I should do this, she said it would be a great way to keep in touch with my family in Washington. This morning I looked at her blog (she asked me to about two weeks ago and I finally got around to it), it was fun. I noticed that my sister-in-law Erika has a blog to. I thought if Erika can do it, I can do it. My little brother and his wife also just started a blog. I guess it is the thing to do. I should really be doing something more productive like folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom, or mopping the floor, but this is more fun. Both my kids are asleep, so I have a rare minute totally to myself, why would I want to clean the toilet? Oh, the minute is over, Jacob just woke up.


My oldest son Jacob just turned 4 on January 25. We had his first ever friend party on his birthday. I didn't want to do it, I was afraid it would be too much work and that my house would be a wreck after. But he wanted a party so bad. He has been going to his friends birthday parties, why shouldn't he have one to. I just couldn't say no. So, I decided to go simple. I got this idea from a friend. I only invited a few kids, well it turned out to be seven kids. It only lasted for one hour. We played some games, opened presents, had cake, and that was it. It was the perfect length of time for a preschool party. I made a green dinosaur cake. It was fun to make, and looked awesome, but it didn't taste very good. Oh well, no one cared. Have you ever seen 4 year olds opening presents a birthday party. It is hilarious. All the kids are handing him their presents and he is tearing them open and barely looking at them before throwing the present aside to open the next. It was great fun. After the party we went to Carl's Jr for dinner. It is Jacob's favorite restaurant. We had a fun day.

Nathan, 20 months old, liked wearing his brothers birthday crown.