All things Christmas

So our Christmas festivities went much better than I could have imagined. Way better than the horror I imagined in my previous post. Bodie was very well behaved in Chruch. Although he spent most of his time sitting with Grandpa, which I think would make any kid behave well. I didn't even have to pull any distractions out of the bag until mass was more than half over. And mass was only about an hour and a half. I think I had confused Christmas Eve with Easter Vigil, which is very long. I did try to feed Bodie before we went but he really wouldn't eat. He more than made up for that later, putting away pizza, bread sticks, spaghetti, cookies, and some candy at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Bodie was very much into opening gifts this year. With each package he unwrapped he exclaimed, "what's that." Although the way it came out sounded much more like "Wuz up" so I just cracked up every time he said it. As always, my parents were very generous with the gifts they gave, and we had fun spending time with everyone.

Today we opened the gifts we received from Curt's family and the ones the boys received from us. Curt and I didn't exchange. Instead, he gets to go to 2 golf tournaments next year and I bought myself a new camera and I'll also get a new purse and pajamas, as soon as I can find ones I like.

Grandma bought each grandchild a Santa hat. Unfortunately she couldn't figure out how to get them on so there is no photo of all the kids wearing them, as she'd imagined. Curt came to the rescue and put Bodie's on, and he wasn't taking it off.



We bought Bodie a football outfit (helmet, shoulder pads, pants and jersey). He wore the helmet but didn't want anything to do with the shoulder pads. Thankfully Barrett had no opinions on the situation.

A Christmas-time Vent

Before there were any grandchildren in our family, we typically would get together for Christmas Eve mass and head to my parent's house for pizza and presents. Since the kids have come along, my brother and his wife have been attending their home Church's service and then coming down afterwards. Last year we went to mass on Christmas day, and I had figured that would be our routine for the next several years, at least until the boys are old enough to sit through a longer mass. Well this year my brother and his family decided to come down for Christmas Eve mass. Since they are not even Catholic, and are coming to mass at a Catholic Church, we are pretty much expected to go as well. I am soooo not looking forward to this. Do they remember how long the service lasts. That it goes right through dinner time (obviously not a big deal to me but I'm just thinking of the kids). Maybe their 1 and 3 year olds are very mature and can sit for 2 hours. I know my 2 year old cannot. I fully expect someone will be spending at least half the time with him in the back. And then my mom decided to order pizza for dinner tonight. Fine. Except the pizza place closes at 7 so she'll be leaving mass early to get it. Really? How does that even make sense? At least I told her she can take Bodie with her if he is misbehaving. I'm about ready to say we will not be going to church and they all can go themselves. We can just go tomorrow. I guess my strategy will be to feed him a meal before we go (still tough given we don't have our fridge yet) so it will be fish sticks and easy mac. Lots of distractions for mass - books, colors. Maybe we'll make it and I can get past my debbie downer attitude. I'd so been looking forward to the holidays this year, I'm hoping this won't ruin it for me.

**Edited to say: I was going to run off my aggressions on the treadmill, which is now apparently broken. So that's just great...

What is this, a blog?

My blogging has taken a back seat to life over the past few months. Back in October, Curt broke his leg officiating (he had to correct me when I wrote refereeing in our Christmas letter) and I got super busy at work. I won't dwell on all of this, but things were very crazy at our house for a period of time. Thankfully Curt was off his crutches by Thanksgiving and we are slowly returning to normal. Or normal for us anyway. I don't think I've really cleaned our house since before the leg breaking incident. I was able to keep it unembarrassingly tidy until this past weekend. I knew I was off work the next 2 weeks and am focused on organizing and cleaning, so I didn't bother to pick up a thing this weekend. And then my mom came over today. Yikes. I warned her it was messy, but I could still tell she was shocked to walk in. Cleaning is definitely a big focus of my tomorrow. Today was spent finishing the Christmas shopping, wrapping, and assembling a new shelf to hold some toys in the basement. Also we are without a fridge right now because the compressor went out on our old one yesterday. We have a new one that is scheduled to be in on the 24th, but we are unsure when we'll actually get it. We thought we'd borrow my dad's truck and pick it up, but he is working that day. Curt called tonight to see if we could switch to delivery and, after calling several different numbers, someone was supposed to be calling him back. That was several hours ago. We might see about borrowing a friend's truck that day. We really don't want to wait until Friday to pick it up as it is a huge inconvenience to not have a fridge. We've tried keeping some of our goods in the garage and they just end up freezing. Tonight Bodie had what he dubbed "apple juice ice cream" which he was actually very excited about eating. Good thing too, because we could whip that up again tomorrow night for snack.

I guess the point of this post is to say I'll be back blogging with some regularity. Hopefully my posts will be a little bit more focused than this on is :)

Four Months

Barrett had his four month doctor visit on Monday. He is so good at the doctor, really calm and lets the doctor do his exam without fussing. It is a huge contrast to Bodie. Barrett seems to be doing great. He does have a little eczema but we got a script for some ointment that should clear it right up. I guess both of my boys inherited their daddy's sensitive skin.

At four months Barrett's stats are:

Height: 26 inches - 89th percentile

Weight: 15 lbs 12.6 oz - 74th percentile

Head: 16.5 inches - 45th percentile

We will wait another month or so before we begin Barrett on solids. I know Bodie was over 5 months when he started so that is our plan with Barrett also. Of course Curt thinks maybe we should think about starting sooner if Barrett keeps waking up during the night. He had been doing so well sleeping through the night, until the past few weeks. He did sleep through last night so hopefully the trend is returning on its own.

Potty Training... or Lack There Of

We thought this nice, four day weekend would be a good time to gauge Bodie's interest in and readiness for potty training. After 2 days I've decided his interest is about a 5 and his readiness is about a 2 (he can sit on the pot with out falling off, usually). Yesterday morning he asked to wear his underwear (I'm guessing because we had talked it up so much all week). He had it on and we took him to the bathroom about every 15-20 minutes. He went willingly and sat on the toilet fine but would never go. Then we were enjoying a snack and I thought I felt something warm against my leg. Of course I didn't think it would have been Bodie peeing in his pants, but right after the snack we went to the bathroom and he was wet. He hadn't even phased him when he did it. I knew that couldn't be a good sign. He insisted on wearing underwear again so we let him until his nap. He managed to stay dry the rest of the morning, but never did go on the toilet.

Then today we decided to try again. Since Bodie and I were going shopping in the morning we waited until after his nap to bring out the underwear. I'm not sure if I would consider what happened today more of a success or failure but he ended up with 2 accidents and no peeing in the toilet. The only success I can make of it is that he was clearly bothered each time he peed in his pants. That has to be better than Friday when he didn't care at all. I think we are going to wait another month before trying with him again. Maybe by then my fantasies of Bodie waking up one day magically potty trained will come true!

A Thursday evening conversation

Me: Bodie, guess what tomorrow is.

Bodie, excitedly: Tuesday!

Me: Noooo

Bodie: Your Birthday!!

Me: Noooo, it's Friday!!

Bodie, disappointed: Oh, Friday.

Random thought from our trip

• How do you avoid weight gain from your mother-in-laws cooking - vomiting! Not advocating an eating disorder here but Sunday morning was a little rough for me. Thankfully I got it all out of my system before we left for home, but it made the trip home even longer than it was.
• Bodie loves garlic german sausage. He gave up his pseudo-vegetarianism to down this stuff like candy Sunday morning. I wasn't at the table to see it but Curt said it was a crazy display. When we got home Sunday evening we went to my parent's house for dinner and Bodie took 2 bites of his hot dog without us asking. Insane!
• Curt thought it would be great to leave around Bodie's nap time so he'd sleep in the car for part of the drive home. Unfortunately Bodie stuck to his strict no sleeping in the car rule and stayed awake coloring and watching DVDs. Thankfully he is pretty adaptable on no nap and was well behaved considering his lack of sleep.
• Barrett is evidently a chunky baby. We went to visit Curt's aunt on Friday and the first thing out of her mouth was "he's a fatty!". Then when we went back to school yesterday Barrett's teacher commented on how he looked more "filled out". I had to go and buy him size 3 diapers yesterday because he has leaked out with every single poo for the past week. They are labeled to be from 16 pounds and I have a tough time believing that Barrett would weigh that much now, but I don't know why else he'd be leaking out of his diapers so much (we had him in 3 different brands and he leaked out of all of them).
• Barrett was a great traveler - sleeping or staring at himself in the mirror toy for most of the trip. It was a refreshing change from Bodie at that age, when he wouldn't sleep much and would scream a lot.

Fooball Game

Today we headed up to Chadron to watch a football game. We went up a little early to spend some time at Curt's brother Doug's house. We brought Grandma Cheri along to babysit Barrett at Doug's house during the game and we thought Bodie would enjoy going to the game with us. Unfortunately the game started right at nap time and Bodie was horribly whiny. I bought him a balloon, but nothing could get him in a better mood. I'm guessing a lot of it had to do with him waking up at 5:30 this morning and the fact that it was a fairly chilly day. He kept saying "Doug's house, Doug's house" so I took him back there after the first quarter. He must have been so excited to be leaving the game he didn't even notice the balloon fly out of the car as I was buckling him in. I took him back to Doug's and then returned to see part of the 2nd quarter and half-time (not that there was any half-time entertainment at the game). I was kind of torn about whether or not I should leave a bottle for Barrett or just go and feed him. Ultimately I decided I didn't want any more to do with my breast pump than necessary so at the start of the 3rd quarter I went back to feed Barrett. Lucky for me I walked in to 2 babies with dirty diapers. So by the time I got them both changed and Barrett fed, I got back to the game part-way through the 4th quarter (it was a pretty quick moving game).

For a kid who whined about being at the football game, he did great hanging with Grandma and Doug. Especially great for not having any nap at all. Of course he got to snack on cookies, chips and juice all afternoon (yikes!) and wouldn't touch his dinner at all but I guess that is what happens when you hang out with Grandma. On the car ride back to Grandma's Bodie slept for maybe 45 minutes. Needless to say he was ready for bed when we got back tonight.

Titles are over rated

Yesterday we made the trek out west to visit my in-laws. They had not gotten to meet Barrett yet so we finally decided it would be better for us to visit them than wait for them to visit us. At 6:30 yesterday morning my mother in law called to warn us that it was very windy out here, and by the looks of things, windy along our entire trip. The wind was annoying and we also ran into rain and a little snow. We stopped to eat lunch in Ogalala and at that point decided it would be better to get off the interstate (away from the semis) and instead take the highway the rest of the way. That really helped calm my nerves (and I wasn't even the one driving). Bodie and Barrett did alright on the drive out here. Barrett mostly slept, except when he ate. I tried feeding him at the restaurant while we had lunch but that turned out to be too frustrating for everyone involved so, after I quickly ate, we headed to the van so Barrett could get his lunch too. I think he was too hot under the cover up thing I had tried using and he was just very fussy.

Once we got here Bodie was being a bear and we tried getting him down for a nap. Thankfully Bodie is very well behaved for Curt and Curt was able to talk him into laying quietly in bed. I was a little nervous because he isn't used to being a such a big bed and the room he is in is upstairs, away from everyone. We put a gate in the doorway so he can't come out by himself. He did ok with his nap and when he went to bed last night but he heard Curt get up at 4:45 this morning to use the bathroom and got out of bed. I brought him into our bed, which ended up being a bad move. Curt finally took Bodie back to his room and laid down with him for a couple more hours. Hopefully tonight will go better (and Curt's bladder will cooperate).

My mother in law is already spoiling us with her great cooking. We had Chicken Noodle soup (with mashed potatoes?!) for dinner last night and a really good breakfast pizza this morning. I'm pretty sure I'm going to gain back the 10 pounds I've lost the past few months.

Am I right or Am I right?

Each day my routine at daycare is the same. In the morning I drop off Barrett and then Bodie and in the evening I pick up Bodie and then Barrett. Today there is a sign on the door of the infant room which I casually glanced at as Bodie and I walked in to get Barrett. I noticed something about wearing booties when you come in the room and wondered if it was a new policy or just because it was raining out (I always slip off my shoes or put booties on when it is wet out). I started getting Barrett ready to go and the teacher told me about the sign on the door. I told her I'd seen it but not completely read it. Then she told me what else it said. They no longer want older siblings to come into the infant room. Are you kidding me??? What am I supposed to do, take Barrett into a room of 2 year olds that cannot keep their hands to themselves? I explained to the teacher the reason for my routine (so Barrett doesn't get mauled everyday). She said I could quickly put Barrett in the room in the morning, take Bodie to his room, and then come back to get things situated with Barrett, and then the opposite in the evenings. The reason, she tells me, is to cut down on the amount of germs in the infant room since RSV season is upon us. So I guess it is better for Barrett to go to the 2 year old room, get exposed to all of their germs, and bring them back to the infant room to share with all his friends. Yeah, that makes complete sense to me. If anyone has a defense of this new policy, I am all ears (eyes). I just cannot see how this makes sense. And you better believe if I see the teacher's daughter in there at the end of the day I will say something. I should also add that Bodie doesn't touch anything in the room, except for Barrett and our car seat (he likes to put it away). Oh and should I also wrap the car seat up in plastic - I'm sure it is carrying just as many germs as the bottoms of my shoes!

I had a emotionally draining day as it was so I did shed a few tears on the way home from work (I know, a silly thing to cry over, but I've got all those mommy hormones overflowing today). Anyway, Bodie was sitting in the back seat, acting a little crazy. I was ignoring him and he finally said "Booty no funny?" Awww...he can always make me laugh!

Amen Barrett

Probably more than a month ago we were praying before dinner and for some reason Curt said "Amen Brotha" at the end. Of course our little repeater chimed in with an "Amen Baby". That quickly put an end to Curt screwing around with prayer time but Bodie kept at it with an "Amen Baby" at the end of each prayer. Until last week...now each night we say grace and Bodie ends it with an "Amen Barrett".

So far so good...

Our daycare was closed today so Curt had the privilege of staying home with the boys, since he too had the day off. After Bodie's use of the word dammit all weekend, I was hoping an extra day home would help get it all out of his system. We tried ignoring his use of it for most of Sunday, but by the end of the day I ended up telling him, again, that it is not a word that we say. I don't think it is something I can send him to time out for because I truly don't think he understands that what he is doing is wrong. Anyway, since my last chat with him we have not heard him say it. Curt said Bodie even dropped things today and didn't say anything, so I am hopeful that when he goes back to school tomorrow he won't be "that kid" teaching all the other kids naughty words.

Dammit

Curt has been warning me for months now that when Bodie uses his first expletive I will have no one to blame but myself. Around Bodie I only use those words when something really bad happens, like I shut my dog's paw in the window (Deuce is OK though). So Friday night Curt was gone refereeing and before 7:30 Barrett started getting really fussy and I knew it was time to feed him and put him to bed. Typically when Curt is gone it works out that I can feed Barrett while reading Bodie his bedtime stories but it was a little early for that on Friday. I talked Bodie into coming upstairs to my room and watching TV while I put Barrett to sleep. Sounds good in theory but Bodie has a short attention span when it comes to TV. He'll watch for somewhat longer periods if it is Blue's Clues or his Tractors DVD but the DVD player in our room quit working, so I had to resort to the (annoying) Wonder Pets on Noggin. Bodie was pretty restless and climbing all over the bed, which was making Deuce a bit nervous. Deuce jumped over my legs and knocked the remote off the bed and I said "Dammit". Which Bodie then repeated, and repeated, and repeated. I couldn't help but laugh. Yesterday he was pulling his wooden train off his shelf when it fell apart and he said "dammit!". Yikes! I explained to him we do not use that word (nice example you set mommy!). But he continued to use it all day yesterday when things didn't go his way. So I continued telling him not to use it. Curt thinks our new method should just be to ignore it and maybe Bodie will quit using it. This has taught me a very valuable lesson though. When Joe Ganz threw that horrible interception during overtime last night, all I could say was "shoot" which Bodie dutifully repeated over and over again...

Our Family

Over a week ago, daycare asked me to bring in a family picture for Barrett's room. Due to just plain busy-ness (and mommy not being put together enough to look descent in a picture) we couldn't seem to get it done. Late last week Barrett's teacher asked if she could snap a picture of the 3 of us (meaning me, Bodie and Barrett) to use as our family picture. Well, um, at the risk of sounding horrible and judgemental (which I know I can be) I didn't want to look like a single parent family, so I politely declined and promised to bring one on Monday. Finally yesterday our neighbor came over to snap a pic of us.

Funny Things

Bodie does so many funny things now:

• When you stop hard in the car he says whoa.


• He says hereyago as if it is all one word. Also likes saying ohhh-kaaaay and allriiiight.


• He will say Hi Becky to me. And I'm no longer mama, I am mommy.


• Milk has gone from no to nolk. Water is sometimes oh and sometimes tahter.


• We were screening our calls one evening when SIL called. Bodie decided to go ahead and answer it himself. Then, while I was (stuck) talking to her, Bodie decided to hang up.


• When a song he enjoyed is over on the radio he claps and says yay.


• He calls a lot of his friends and teachers by name.


• He gives us running commentary from the back seat on whether Barrett go nite nite or Barrett awaaaake.


• When I get him up in the morning he will ask if dada go work. When I pick him up from daycare he will ask if dada ruh-reeee (referee).


• He searches endlessly for (grass)hoppers.


• If he finds them, he will try to smash them.


• He has a book called Mommy Hugs that shows how all the different animals hug their babies. He was looking at it one night and then would hug me how that animal hugged their baby (with a squeeze, pat, tickle, etc).


• He wants a bowl of cheerios every evening for snack time.

2 Months

Barrett had his 2 month appointment today and is growing by leaps and bounds. He is now 23.75 inches long, 12 lb 11.6 oz and head circumference of 15.75 inches. His length held steady at the 75th percentile. His weight jumped from 45th to 75th and his petite head is now average, at the 50th percentile. He seems to be on track developmentally which is nice to hear. The poor guy did have to endure 5 shots plus the rotovirus oral vaccine today so he was a bit on the crabby side this evening.

For some reason Curt thought it would be "easier" to bring Bodie along to Barrett's appointment. I can't really say I agree since the doctor is just about Bodie's least favorite place to be. On the way there we really tried to talk up the fact that Barrett was the one seeing the doctor and not Bodie but Bodie still freaked out when the nurse called Barrett's name to take us back to the exam room. Once we had Barrett undressed Bodie began to relax and really was good for the most part. I still think it would have been easier just to stop back at daycare to pick Bodie up after we finished with Barrett's appointment though.

Such a little boy

Bodie is definitely "all boy". He loves to climb and jump off things. He has to point out every airplane or motorcycle he hears. Last night as we were leaving daycare I opened the door of the van to Barrett's seat. Bodie immediately climbed in. I thought he was just going to go over to his seat and wait for me to put him in and buckle him up. Instead he went to the front (driver's) seat. He sat there and steered the car and messed with the controls (thankfully the keys were in my hands otherwise I wouldn't have let him up there). I couldn't help but laugh at him, which doesn't help matters when trying to get him to his seat so we could go home. Curt warned me now that Bodie will probably try this pretty much every time we are going somewhere. I'm sure after another time or 2 I won't find it quite as amusing and definitely will put a stop to it.

At our 2 year doctor visit back in July, we had to answer "no" when the nurse asked if Bodie referred to himself in the 3rd person. He is finally starting to do that. Last week I told him we needed to go to Bodie's side (of the van) and he repeated Booty's side. Then all weekend I asked him what his name was and he'd say Booty. Now he points and name's himself in pictures and refers to his things as Booty's xxx. The funniest was earlier this week I was getting ready to take Barrett to bed and Bodie said Booty go nite nite too?

Great Weekend!

What a great weekend we've had! On Saturday we went down to the Farmer's Market, mainly to pick up some honey (a vendor there has very tasty honey and it is cheaper than you can find in the store). We also picked up some sweet corn, which was a huge hit with the younger crowd.Then mommy got out of the house for awhile to get her haircut and grocery shop, all while driving our new (to us) mini van.The mini van was great for hauling around our groceries (not that I bought that much - I actually stayed within budget!). And it is nice and spacious for trips with the whole family. I think we will enjoy having it.

The one down fall of the weekend was Bodie's stereotypical 2-year old behavior. Curt put him down for his nap at 1, and at 1:30 he was still awake. Then at 2:20 we heard banging coming from his room (we figured he was just kicking the wall or head board of his bed). There were strings of "hi mommy" and "hi dada" (I've told him in the past to say something when he wakes up so we know to come and get him). Since he'd already had a time out that day I told Curt I thought Bodie should stay up in his room for 2 hours if he wasn't going to sleep. Sure enough pretty soon we heard deep breathing over the monitor. We had decided to go to 4 pm mass Saturday night but given Bodie's behavior we arranged for him to hang out at Grandma's instead. Curt went to get him up around 3:30 and could only crack the door to Bodie's room open before hitting something. Turns out Bodie must have gotten very tired trying to get out of his room and feel asleep right infront of the door.

After church a father/son combo came to look at Curt's truck (it had to go since it isn't at all family friendly) and they bought it on the spot. Curt had only listed it on Craig's list Friday morning so we were surprised it sold so fast. The son had just had surgery and couldn't drive due to the meds he was taking, but they came this morning to pick the truck up.

We didn't have too much planned for today. Curt wanted to mow the lawn this morning so I took both boys to the park. Bodie was very well behaved and did well playing on his own (I carried Barrett in the Snugli so there wasn't a lot I could do with Bodie). It was a good way to burn off some of his energy so maybe he'd nap today (and he did...woohoo).

Then tonight was the topper. For so long Bodie has been asking to go potty (and now likes to ask Curt and I if we "go poopy" every time we go in the bathroom). He likes to sit on the pot, wipe (someday I will explain to him boys don't need to do that for peeing), and flush. Tonight he went and sat on his little potty chair. Usually one of us goes in with him but since he's never gone I just let him amuse himself while I cleaned up from his snack. I looked in the bathroom and saw him brushing off his legs like he'd gotten something on them. I didn't pay too much attention, finished what I was doing, and then went in there. He'd finally done it!!! Unfortunately since he was unsupervised, only a few drops made it in the potty chair and the rest were all over the floor. I laid the praise on thick and Bodie was very proud of himself. We'd promised him ice cream when he finally went, so it like we'll be headed to the dairy sweet one night this week (thankfully it doesn't close for the season until this weekend).

But does it have a TV?

I go back to work on Thursday. I have really enjoyed my time off with Barrett, but it will be nice to start finding our routine. The one (well not the only one) part of my return I am not looking forward to is the time I'll have to spend with my pump. After I had Bodie I became well acquainted with my pump, too well. I only pumped, never really breastfed him at all. I think that is why I've been so reluctant to use my pump this time. I pumped enough early on that I probably have a couple days worth of milk stashed in the freezer, and then enough lately so that he's had a bottle each week to practice on (and he does pretty well with it, thankfully). My return from work will mean a return to a little room where I get a couple of breaks from work each day to take care of business. With Bodie that room was in the basement. I really don't think anyone else used it as when I first went down there there were power cords in the doorway so I couldn't even completely latch the door shut. Then there were bugs crawling on the floor. Not exactly a nice, relaxing environment. In the week before my maternity leave I was back in that room - it had been turned into a pretty nice conference room. At least I knew I wouldn't be back in the dungeon when I returned but I didn't know where I'd end up. Thankfully today my boss gave me the scoop. They evidently now have a pretty nice room with a microwave, fridge and bathroom. A little sign on the door that says open or occupied. And a key for that door which completely closes and evidently locks too!

TV Junkie

Before I met Curt I was a TV addict. I had my VCR set to record all of my favorite shows (maybe that is why I was available when we met). Once we started hanging out more my TV watching consisted of Thursday night NBC (Friends, ER) and ESPN. It was either that or spend less time with him, since he didn't share he same love of TV that I did (well he did but only of sports on TV). A few years ago we got our DVR and slowly my addiction crept back. I've kept things under control until my maternity leave. There has been so much great television on that I really feel I will go through withdrawals when I return to work in less than one week. I was able to catch up on the last 7 or so episodes of Ugly Betty. I watched the entire season of Breaking Bad. One day I watched a marathon of Tori and Dean goes to Hollywood (or whatever it is called. It was like crack - I just couldn't stop watching). I've been trying to catch up on Weeds but since I watch that on-line it has been a bit tougher. I've stayed caught up on the new season of Mad Men. I think I've seen every episode of Babies: Special Delivery. The Olympics were great for 2 weeks of TV watching. The U.S. Open (tennis) was also on. Last weekend we had a free preview of HBO and Cinemax. So far I've watched Hairspray, Dreamgirls, Waitress, and Evan Almighty. This weekend is a Starz and Encore free preview and I've already watched Dan in Real Life. I'll have to immerse myself in TV for 3 days next week before it is yanked out from under me and I am back in my TV-less cubicle.

lil gangsta

...and his beagle entourage.

Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy

Those are the words of a song Bodie learned at daycare that he is always walking around singing and fits Barrett's doctor appointment today. At Barrett's 3 week doctor visit today he has grown 2 inches (now 22 inches, 75th percentile). He weighs 8 lb 15.5 oz (naked - we paid attention this time). The pediatrician wanted him to be 9 ounces above birth weight and Barrett was 11.5, which is great!. His weight is only in the 45th percentile. It is definitely a change from Bodie who was always in the 90s for height and weight during his first year. His head is also only in the 40th percentile. I knew his head was little but I didn't think it was that small. Hopefully he won't look like he has a disproportionately small head as he gets bigger. So I think I'm done worrying about weight gain. Obviously we are doing somethings right in that area. Our next adventure will be to introduce a bottle, hopefully this weekend. I just need to find some time to pump but Barrett is so erratic in his eating I am afraid if I pump he will want to eat again soon after that. He usually sleeps well in the morning so I guess I need to stop being lazy and pump first thing. It is just hard to get out of bed to get that done :)

Oh Bodie

I don't know if it is because Barrett is such a little guy, but all of a sudden Bodie just seems so much older and grown up to me. He is talking so much and wanting to do so much on his own. He can now open our patio door. I tried putting a stop to it by locking the door but the little smarty pants simply unlocks and opens it himself. It is nice because he will stand there and let the dogs in and out, but I am afraid he is going to open and walk out there with out us knowing. This wouldn't be such a big deal but our deck is fairly high up (we have a walk out lot) and I am still afraid of him going up and down the deck stairs on his own.

Since Curt has been taking him to school the past 2 weeks, Bodie has gotten very excited about being in his new room. When I was taking him, I'd have to carry him in there and hand him off to his teacher. Now Curt tells me Bodie just goes running down the hall and the teacher has to ask Bodie to say good-bye. I'm afraid when Barrett and I start taking him next week he will regress back to his old ways.

Bodie has also become obsessed with ice cream. We had some root beer float bars from the Schwan's man in our garage deep freezer and every time we stepped into the garage, Bodie would open the freezer door and exclaim "i scheam, i scheam". Once those bars were gone we tried giving him some sugar free popsicles instead, which seems to have put the kibosh on his ice cream cries. Last night I was craving some real ice cream though so I told Bodie to be good and he'd get a special treat, which he immediately knew would be "i scheam".

Some random funny things:

When watching the Olympic swimming events, Bodie exclaims "oh oh" and "fish fish" (oh = water and fish = swimmers, who I guess do somewhat resemble fish).

He'll say "bite mama oh" when he wants a drink of my water. I get the bite for drink part but not why he insists on calling water "oh" (and he calls milk "no").

The other morning he found a pacifier in the corner of Barrett's crib. He grabbed it and immediately put it in his mouth. The kid hasn't had a pacifier since he was 6 months old! I explained to him it was for babies only and he didn't need it since he was a big boy. Thankfully he hasn't tried that since.

On Saturday my family was over to have dinner with us. My mom and sister in law took my niece to the bathroom so of course Bodie had to join them. He stood in front of the toilet and "grabbed himself" trying to use the toilet like daddy would (fully clothed, of course). He has such an interest in using the toilet, he just hasn't actually gone yet. His teacher told me this happens a lot and all of a sudden one time he'll just surprise himself and go. Until that happens we are not going to push potty training at home, even though he insists on "no more di di" each morning when he is getting dressed.

Weight Update

We went back to Milkworks this afternoon and Barrett is up to 8lb 5oz. Since Curt and I don't (over) analyze things at all we've come to the following conclusions...

• He is above his birth weight
• He has gained 12 oz since we left the hospital (12 days ago)
• He has gained 3 oz in 4 days since he was last weighed, which Curt says is average of what "they" say (1/2 to 1 oz per day)
• We really believe the weight at the doctor's office was crap
• His color is looking really good, still peeing and pooping plenty, and eating every 2-3 hours

We go to the doctor on Thursday for his well baby visit. Hopefully we won't have to defend his weight gain (if they measure based on the 7lb 15oz mark) but I feel prepared if we do. Our pediatrician is fairly relaxed about things so hopefully he won't try to say there is an issue.

We celebrated the good news with lunch at Lazlo's...Mmmm... We had planned to go there as my "last meal" before Barrett was born but wasn't able to make it with the birth getting moved up like it was. Definitely a nice way to spend the afternoon with Curt before he goes back to work on Monday.

Independent Baby

Bodie has become very independent lately. We can no longer completely peel his bananas, just get it started for him. He has to scoop the cottage cheese into a bowl all on his own. And yesterday our fear of fears came through...he figured out he can get out of bed without mom or dad there with him. I was awaken from a dream at 7:30 to hear a banging at Bodie's door. Sure enough he was standing at the door trying to get it open (thankfully our door knobs are a bit high and he can't quite get them turned yet). I hope this isn't a new habit for him, but something tells me it probably is.

Bodie is still getting along great with Barrett. We do need to keep an eye on him though because sometimes his hugs borderline on tackles.

Scale Obsession

When Barrett was discharged from the hospital he weighed 7lb 9.6oz, down from his 8lb 4oz birth weight. Since he was a little jaundiced we had a follow up appointment at our pediatricians office the following day, where Barrett weighed in at a hefty 7lb 15.5oz. Curt and I were so surprised and excited, thinking how great breastfeeding was going. Although we did think that was a pretty steep gain in around 33 hours. Today we decided to stop by MilkWorks to check on Barrett's weight. Much to my disappointment he only weighed 8lb 2oz, not even back to his birth weight. We came home and checked the reading materials the hospital gave us, which indicated the baby should be back to his birth weight by 2 weeks of age, which for Barrett won't be until Thursday. And I also read the breastfed baby gains about 6oz a week, and Barrett has gained around 9oz in 8 days (going from the discharge weight), which seems good. He is also wet and/or dirty every time we change him. Curt also pointed out he thinks the doctor office may have weighed him with his diaper on, which could affect the weight by a few ounces (he'd gone with the nurse to weigh Barrett at the doctor office but couldn't remember for sure if the diaper was on or off), and today we weighed him in the nude. Plus different scales can weigh a little different. I'm trying not to worry too much (pretty much trying to forget the doctor's office weight). I think we are going to go back and weigh Barrett again on Friday and if I'm still worried I can put in a call to one of the lactation consultants at our doctor's office. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he is doing fine though - he certainly seems bigger to me than he was just a week and a half ago.

Medical Drama

Sunday morning my mom called me at the hospital to let me know that during the night one of our dogs had gotten sick. Since the dogs had been at Grandma's I figured they'd probably just had too much to eat or helped themselves to something they shouldn't have. I told Curt about it but really didn't worry too much. Monday morning Curt woke up to find a big mess in our house. It was pretty apparent that both dogs were sick, Deuce with vomiting and Tahj appeared to be a bit backed up and was possible having some related bleeding. So I called the vet and Curt took them in. The vet ended up keeping Deuce all day for tests and observation, as well as giving him IV fluids. In the end the only thing they found on Deuce was an elevated white blood count. We took in a stool sample of Tahj's where an elevated bacteria count was found. Both dogs are on antibiotics and seemingly cured. Curt has joked that was the beginning of Tahj's weight loss regimen (he weighed 45lbs at our vet visit last Wednesday!).

Our other drama happened on Wednesday (I think - all my days are running together). Curt and I were going to run to Super Target so he had to bring in Deuce's dog kennel so he could be crated while we were gone. As he was walking across the living room he stepped on Bodie's John Deere loader and sliced the side of his toe open. I had a look at it and it was pretty deep so he put a call in to his doctor's office and got an appointment a few hours later. He ended up needing 3 stitches in it, but thankfully it doesn't hurt him and he really can't tell anything is wrong with it.

Our new arrival

Wednesday afternoon I went to my last scheduled prenatal appointment before my Monday, August 4th c-section. I commented to the doctor that I'd been having contractions that day and some of them had been a little painful. She examined me and I was still only dilated 1 cm, but I was 90% effaced, losing my mucus plug, and definitely "had some things happening". She didn't think I would make it to Monday so she thought it would be best to do the surgery at 7:45 Thursday morning - yikes! Thankfully we'd spent Wednesday tying up some loose ends (getting new tags for my car, getting the dogs to the vet for their vaccinations) so we were pretty much ready. We got Bodie's things packed up that evening, and delivered him and our dogs to my parents, who graciously took them all in during our hospital stay. Curt and I finished packing our bag and tried to get some sleep before the big day. I woke up around midnight having some pretty intense and frequent contractions. Since I never experienced contractions with Bodie, I really didn't know at what point I needed to think about going to the hospital. I waited about an hour and a half and at 1:30 asked Curt if we could just go in early (which of course he said it was up to me since he had no idea either). I figured that at least if we went in they could give me my epidural early and let me sleep until our scheduled time. We got to the hospital, checked in, and I was completely thinned and 2.5 cm dilated. Thankfully my doctor was on call that night and she decided to just come in and do my c-section then. It was actually kind of funny when she came in my room and commented that she was afraid this might happen. At any rate, we welcomed Barrett Joseph at 3:30am on July 31st. He was 8 lb 4 oz and 20 in long (just a little guy compared to Bodie who was 9 lb 15.5 oz and 21.5 inches long). He did get a bit jaundiced in the hospital, but never enough to require any therapy (just a little sunbathing when we got home). All in all things are going very well. We feel very blessed to have our new addition here with us.

So far Bodie is getting along very well with Barrett. He loves giving him hug, kisses, and tickles. The other morning Bodie came into my room while I was still in bed. He climbed in the bed and started looking under the pillows for "baby". I found it a bit humorous and then explained that the baby was in his crib. Bodie gets very excited every time he sees Barrett, but I'm sure that novelty will wear off soon enough.

2 year doctor appointment

Bodie had his 2 year doctor appointment yesterday. He was so well behaved at the doctor. Usually when we go he will start fussing as soon as we pull in the parking lot. Yesterday he held it together until we were in the door! Then Curt walked in just a few minutes behind us and Bodie stopped his fussing until they called his name (props to the doctor office here - we didn't even get a chance to sit before we were called back). Bodie did his normal fussing for the nurses as they tried to take all of his measurements. His stats:

Height: 37" - 96th %
Weight: 28lb 8oz - 65th %
Head Circumference: 19 5/8 - 80th %

He's growing well. His weight percentile keeps dropping at each visit but the doctor isn't concerned since his height and head measurements have held steady. He claims Bodie will just be tall and skinny.

Bodie wouldn't really talk to the doctor but he did talk to us while the doctor was in the room, which is another improvement. The doctor gave us some tips on things to do when we bring the baby home to keep Bodie from feeling left out. Bodie did have to get one shot, which he was not at all happy about, but after a few tears he was fine. All in all it was a good visit.

What a great night

Lately Bodie has been a very challenging toddler. I am not sure if it is the whole "terrible twos" or he is still recuperating from a couple of sick days last week, but he has been very very whiny. He keeps whining about all of his "ouies" (that looks completely spelled wrong but sound it out and it'll make sense). Morning and night he has ouies. I'll ask him where his ouies are and he'll just give me a blank stare (except for 2 instances - once his toes had an ouie and another time it was his teeth). It has been making Curt and I very nervous that Bodie is hitting this stage right as the baby is coming, since we figure his behavior probably will not be the best when we bring a new baby into the home. Anyway, tonight was a really good night. Bodie got home from school and wanted to eat applesauce. We are usually eating dinner within about 15-20 minutes of getting home thanks to Curt getting things started when he gets off work, so I told Bodie I would let him have applesauce with his dinner. I arranged on Bodie's plate, broccoli, potatoes, pork chop, and a side bowl of applesauce. Dinner time has been another struggle at our house so I didn't know what Bodie would do with this food (we've learned asking for a food is no guarantee he will eat said food). Bodie ate the bowl of applesauce and declared himself all done with dinner. We asked him to try his other foods and he responded with no bite. I put broccoli on the fork and fed it to him and then he could not get enough. He ate every piece of broccoli I had cooked. Then he topped it off with trying a bite of potato, and getting seconds on his applesauce. He never tried his pork chop but this is probably the most he's had at dinner time in awhile, so we were very excited.

Then we went outside to enjoy what turned into a descent night, not as hot as it has been. Bodie played very well, only crying about an ouie once (which was justified since he fell down and told me his ouie was on his knee). Then we decided to head to our local ma and pa ice cream stop for a special treat. This kid can put down ice cream like no one I know. We came home, went for a short walk, took a bath, played and laughed. Definitely one of the more enjoyable nights we have had lately. It also made me a little sad, thinking of how happy Bodie was, and how good of a time we were all having, and wondering how all of this will change soon when the baby comes. Hopefully we will still be able to find a good happy balance for our family.

I did have another doctor appointment today. Somehow over the past week I've lost 3lbs (which is why Curt decided we should go out for ice cream tonight). Even with that loss the baby is now measuring a week ahead (he'd been measuring ahead by ultrasound but my belly measurement was always right track for the number of weeks I was). One funny moment came when the doctor was trying to find the heartbeat. She'd found his butt at the upper left side so she checked for the heartbeat at the lower left side. She couldn't find it there so she moved to the lower right side where she was able to pick it up. She commented about how he must be a pretty big baby to have his heart so far from his butt. She guessed he'd be around 9 lbs or so when we delivered, which made Curt pretty happy since that is his guess for the baby's size. Otherwise no real news from the appointment. I've dilated to 1 cm and my cervix has thinned a bit more than last week.

My Sister-in-Law

I have 2 sisters-in-law, Curt's sister and my brother's wife. They are both pieces of work in their own ways. Curt's sister lives in Boise, so thankfully I don't have to deal with her too often (caller ID is a wonderful thing). My brother's wife lives just an hour away so I end up seeing and talking with her fairly often. She is very nice but really says some crazy things. There is usually something from those encounters that leave Curt and I shaking our heads. A few gems:

When we registered for gifts while pregnant with Bodie she checked out our registry and wanted to offer some advice (she was a mom for 6 whole months before we were so I'm sure her knowledge was at a level I could only hope to achieve someday). When we registered I did a lot of research (I highly recommend the book Baby Bargains when it comes to picking out baby goods) about which products and brands I wanted to register for. We ended up registering for the Jeep stroller. Her advice - "are you sure that is safe for infants?" As if I am dumb enough to register for a stroller that will be useless to me the first 6 months of my son's life (it is safe for infants and Bodie really enjoyed his walks in it).

Shortly before my niece was born, my SIL quit her job to take on her new job as a stay at home mom. Once she remarked to me that she would like to work outside of the home but just didn't have anyone to watch her kids. I'm not even sure what to say about this. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything to her face when she made this comment to me. Of course I have come to learn she really doesn't "get" quality daycare...

When Bodie was just over a year old we went to visit SIL and to see our new nephew. When we walked in their (new) house Bodie had a bit of a melt down. He is definitely a shy boy and back at that time he did have a tough time when we would go to new places. She remarked that it was odd he acted like that since he went to daycare - you would think he'd be used to lots of people and different things. Well...at our daycare Bodie is in the same room, with his same friends, and same teachers everyday. It isn't like they are all thrown in a room with random people coming in and out all the time.

Finally we got our last gem at Bodie's birthday party. She asked if Bodie had learned any naughty words at daycare. Um...at the time he had been in a room with 18-24 month olds. None of their vocabularies really expanded much past the things they needed to meet their basic needs, let alone saying anything of the naughty variety.

This weekend is my nephew's birthday party. Hopefully I will get some great material from her at the party to share.

Baby Update

I can't believe that 2 short weeks from today our new arrival will be here. Of course last week I was getting so frustrated with work I told a co-worker I may cut the baby out myself just to get me out of there (joking, of course). Anyway, slowly but surely we are getting ready. We've washed all of Bodie's 0-3 month clothes and put them away in his room. We moved the crib into our room - which is making me a little nervous. Once the baby is sleeping through the night the boys will share a room, but until then the baby will stay with us. I just hope that having the little guy in our room doesn't somehow backfire on us, or cause the baby not to be a good sleeper. Bodie was sleeping through the night around 8 weeks, about the same time he started at daycare. Of course we aren't expecting this baby to follow suit, although it would be really nice if he did. I also bought and have started painting the letters to his name, that we will hang up in the room he is not sleeping in. We still need to get out a few baby gear items - car seat, bath tub, bouncy chair - and get them cleaned up and ready to go. Ideally (because I am totally nesting) I want to shampoo the bedroom carpets and also the stairs. I am thinking of taking a "work-at-home" day on Friday if all goes well, which should let me get somethings done here.

I had a doctor appointment last week with an ultrasound to check my placenta. It finally has moved up and shouldn't be an issue for delivery! Also at almost 37 weeks the baby was estimated to weigh 7lb 3oz. At this same point in my pregnancy with Bodie, he was estimated to weigh 10lb 1oz, so I am pretty confident this guy isn't going to come out as big as his older brother. Bodie came 10 days after that estimate, weighing 9lb 15.5oz. I told Curt I think the new guy will be a good 8.5 lbs, but Curt really thinks he'll be over 9lbs. We'll have to see who is right on that guess (but as they say - mom's know best!).

Happy Birthday

My little guy turned 2 last week. Curt and I took the day off from work and took Bodie up to the Henry Doorly Zoo. Bodie had a great time, and was very well behaved for getting so far off of his schedule. I can't believe he actually petted the animals. At the Lincoln Zoo the petting animals are behind a fence and Bodie won't get near them. I think he must have wanted to do it because Curt was and encouraging Bodie to do the same.

Bodie was not at all fond of this peacock though. We sat down to give Bodie a snack and Curt purposely fed the peacock a cracker and then the thing wouldn't leave. Bodie was not impressed at all and was sure to keep the rest of his crackers close at hand so the bird might leave him alone.

We had a small birthday party for Bodie this past weekend and Bodie received a new tricycle from his Grandma and Grandpa. It was definitely the hit of the party.

Bodie loves riding his new bike, although I had to declare it and "outside toy" because Bodie already has a riding toy in the house and, well, trikes are more suited for outdoors, in my opinion. He also kept riding over Deuce's paws and legs, which Deuce would never move and never seemed bothered by (although I was bothered watching it happen).

With his turning 2, he has moved into the 2s room at daycare. This has not gone well at all. Monday was the first day I dropped him off in the new room, or I should say attempted to drop him off. I had let him walk down the hall to his room and when we got to his old room he was set on going in there, eventually melting down and crying on the floor. His new teacher told me to go ahead and drop him off in the old room and they would move him after breakfast. This morning we tried again, but this time I carried Bodie down the hall and into his new room, when he immediately started crying. The teacher from the 3s room kept peaking over the half door at Bodie, which finally got a smile out of him. I handed him off to his teacher and he started crying again. As I was walking out of the door I heard him cry "maaa maaaa" and it just melted my heart. They assured me that when they bring him to the 2s room he is completely fine after a few minutes and seems to enjoy being in there. I've know with our past room moves it takes a few days for Bodie to adjust, but hopefully he will love it as much as he loved his old room.

Successful nap

Bodie and I had a great morning together while Curt was at his golf tournament. We went to the park and then to the zoo, where we got to ride the "choo choo". Must be a special day at the zoo since the train went around 3 times instead of the normal 2 (mommy could have done without the 3rd trip but Bodie loves it so it was fine). We stopped at the store, made lunch and then it was the dreaded nap time. Bodie seemed pretty worn out from our morning so I had high hopes he'd go down easily. First he wanted to brush his teeth, which ended up in him just messing around in the bathroom so off to bed he went (without brushing), where he was still having a fit about not getting to brush his teeth. So we went back to the bathroom, he brushed, he went right back in his room, but he did not want to get in the bed. So I left him in there for several minutes, went back in and he was sitting on the bed holding his blankets for me to cover him up. He handed me his blankets, laid right down and I covered him up and left. Ahhh success!! Unfortunately I had hoped he would be starting his nap around noon since he, Curt and my dad are going to look at tractors this afternoon around 3 and he actually didn't get down until 1:15. Hopefully today will be an hour and a half kind of nap day as opposed to the almost 3 hour one he took at school yesterday - we'll have to wait and see.

Thing I love about my toddler

So I feel my past few posts have been kind of negative regarding Bodie, so to show it isn't all bad I thought a post about what I love about my toddler would help me focus on the positive...

• I love when I walk into his room in the morning, he is sitting in bed and greets me with a "hi mama". He then crawls off the bed and gives me a big hug and kisses.
• Speaking of hugs, I love that he will hug you on one shoulder, then he turns his head and hugs you on the other shoulder.
• When I pick him up from school I usually try to peak in on him through the window to see what he is doing. When I catch his eye, he tosses down his toy and runs over to the door.
• I love when he gives my belly kisses (ok, he only does then when I tell him we kiss the baby not hit it, but it is still very sweet).
• I love that he loves making us laugh. He does a silly walk/run/dance thing that just cracks us up, and he keeps on doing it so that we will keep laughing at him.
• I love that he is such a great sleeper at night. He goes to bed wide awake and doesn't make a peep (there have been times we've checked on him an hour later and he is still awake, but we would have never known since he's so quiet).
  

Doctor time

I decided to take Bodie in to the doctor today and we found out he had a sinus infection. I feel bad saying that I'm glad something was wrong, but we've had a rough few days around here, and if this is what I was in store for as he turned 2, I just don't know what I'd do. I'm really hoping MY irritability and foul moods are just do to being at the end of my pregnancy and things will improve after the baby comes. Anyway, Bodie was very well behaved (for him) at the doc's office and later when we were getting his script filled. He had some fussy moments but all in all I was pleased with how he acted. He even sat on the scale without a melt down so we could get an accurate weight for once (28lbs 7oz). After just one dose today his mood improved markedly and we spent a very pleasant evening together. Just in time too since I happened to forget that Curt has yet another golf outing this weekend. I really did know about this one for a long time but I have huge memory issues these days (and I also blamed my lack of remembering on the fact our calendar still said May). In any event I'm hoping for a nice mommy-son Saturday and that Bodie will - for the first time in his new bed - go down easily for me at nap time.

Me have crazy times in 70s and 80s

I was cruising televisionwithoutpity.com today and came across this post, which includes the following very funny clip from the Colbert Report. It cracks me up everytime I watch it.

A Hard Day's Night

I'm not sure if we are in the terrible twos, Bodie is sick, or Bodie is just teething, but we have had a rough weekend. Yesterday was the better of the two, we went to the Farmer's Market in the morning and then Curt took Bodie to the Tractor Museum on UNL's East campus (this kid has a huge tractor obsession) followed by the park. Bodie took a nice nap, was whiny but not terrible during the evening. Today was a whole other story.

Curt was going golfing today, so it was me and Bodie. Last weekend I dreaded Curt being gone all day to a referee clinic but Bodie behaved so well, I hoped today would be more of the same. I learned quickly it wouldn't be. After Curt left Bodie and I went outside. He was alright but it was so hot out already I seriously was feeling light headed, so we had to come in. Then Bodie whined until I put on his tractor DVD, we watched that for a bit and then Grandma came over and we went shopping. Thankfully Bodie is (usually) well behaved when we go out and about. After shopping we went on a picnic lunch, and drove through Pioneers Park to look at the animals, most of which must have been taking shelter from the heat. Then we came home, had a pineapple snack, changed diaper and it was nap time. Or so I thought. As soon as I changed Bodie's diaper he started crying for a diaper (a sign of impending poo). I waited another 10 minutes, nothing happened and I took him up to bed. He kept getting out of bed wanting a diaper, nothing was happening, I left for 5 minutes, went back to his room, and this cycle repeated itself for a good 30 minutes. Finally he "went", I changed him, and then the struggles continued - minus the cries for a diaper but plus the cries from mama. I ended up calling Curt, praying he was on his way home and he was. Bodie ended up falling asleep by 2:30, just after Curt got home. We let him sleep until 4:30, when Curt got him up and he was in a fog for a while after. The rest of the evening never seemed to get much better. We had to give him a haircut, which ranks on his list of least favorite activities. I did manage to feel that he finally has a 2-year molar coming in which could explain a lot of our issues. He is pretty snotty (literally from the nose not just behavior-wise) so I am contemplating calling the doctor. We've been giving him benadryl before bed but it makes him very sleepy so I can't see giving it to him during the day time. It has helped though, before we gave it to him last week he woke up a few mornings with snot all over his face but has been clean ever since we started him on it. I guess I'll see what his mood in the morning is like.

Saturday Scattegories!

I think this is the 3rd Scattegories related post I've seen on Beth's blog, and I'm finally giving into my urge to play.

SCATTERGORIES - it’s harder than it looks! Play here or play on your blog. Saturday is game day! Use the first letter of your Mother’s name (first or middle) to answer each of the following.

1. What is your Mother’s name? Barb
2. Something you would find in the freezer section? Bread
3. A beverage enjoyed in the summer? Bacardi
4. A word to describe your butt? Big
5. Something you would find in your garden? Bell peppers
6. Something a cat would drag in? Bird
7. A favorite book title? Big Russ and Me
8. A fancy entree at your favorite restaurant? Burger
9. Something that is on your amazon wish list? Billard table
10. Something you have hidden under your bed? Books

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Another night, another tornado warning (or several warnings in a row). Last night the radio mentioned a wall cloud about 10 miles southwest of Lincoln heading northeast, right towards us, so we decided it would be best to hang out in the basement.
Bodie became pretty restless as the clock crept past his bedtime. We pulled out the hide-away bed, hoping he'd lay down with us and go to sleep. He was more interested in talking about the lights, pillows (lillows), eyes and shirts than to sleep. Finally about 8:20 the weather seemed to be letting up so Curt took Bodie upstairs to bed. We received a total of 4.10 inches of rain last night, with about 3.5 of that coming in just a couple hours. Here are a few pictures of the lovely "commons area" behind our house (which is typically a grass filled ditch with no water).

My thoughts and prayers go out the the families affected by the tragedy at the Little Sioux Boy Scout camp in Iowa. This really hit close to home and I am saddened by what took place there. I don't know if I feel especially struck by this because I am a mom, soon to be of 2 boys that very well could be boy scouts some day. Today I definitely feel blessed and thankful for all that I have.

A successful night in bed (G-rated)

On Saturday we got Bodie his new twin bed. We were excited to try out the bed on Saturday night but it just didn't happen. It was Curt and mine's anniversary, and we planned an early date so that we would be home in time to put Bodie down in his new bed. Bodie spent the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa and went to Papillion for Uncle Jason's 30th birthday party. Due to some bad weather Bodie did not get home until almost 10 pm, waaaaay past his bed time. When he walked in our house with a totally glazed over look on his face we knew there was not even going to be an attempt on the bed that night. Due to going to bed so late, Bodie slept in until close to 10 Sunday morning and skipped his nap that afternoon (he rested in the crib but never went to sleep). Sunday night we tried the bed again. I took Bodie up to bed, laid down with him, and tried to get him used to the bed and want to sleep in it. Every time I got up or tried to leave he would stand up on the bed and scream and cry. I was pretty tired that night, as was Bodie from having missed a nap that afternoon. So after 20 minutes I put him in his crib for the night. Last night was daddy's turn to put him to bed and after about 15 minutes with Bodie, Curt left the room and left Bodie to sleep. He wailed for about a minute and then was quiet. I checked on him about 30 minutes later and he lifted his head and said hi to me. I darted out of his room pretty quickly, and Bodie didn't seem disturbed at all. I woke around 1 am and checked on him again - he was laying across the top of the bed, sans blankets. And at 6 am Curt checked and found him laying backwards, with his feet at the head of the bed. When I went to get Bodie ready for school at 7:45 this morning I found this:

Tea Party

It is nice to see Bodie can hang with the ladies, when he usually seems to be "all boy' to us...

Bad weather, late nights, very cranky mama

We had a lot of severe weather in our area last night. I was up until after 11 (late for me) watching the news and listening to the radio, until I was certain we were in the clear and I could safely go to bed. Although we were in a tornado warning, we didn't take shelter. Curt and Bodie were already in bed so I kept my eyes and ears open so I could go get them if need be. Thankfully the worse of it went north of us and, even though the sirens were sounding, we didn't even get enough rain at that time to wet the ground. My dad's hometown of Ulysses was hit by a tornado but thankfully my aunt and uncle that have a farm there did not suffer damage (although the pivots on either side of them were destroyed).

So I hit the bed shortly after 11, only to get awoken at 3 by the loudest rain I'd heard in a long time. This morning on my way to work I saw a lot of flooding. The "commons area" (drainage ditch) behind our house is flooded, a local creek is very high and appeared to have flooded a bike path that runs along it in one area. We are forecast to get more rain and severe weather tonight, hopefully we will be lucky to not have the damage they are having in some parts of the area.

My lack of sleep last night has put me in a horrible mood today. First Curt was being a little loud outside of Bodie's room and he woke up shortly after 7. So, of course, I am the one that has to deal with him. He was being very whiny and I didn't know what on earth he wanted (silly me to think when you ask for crackers you want crackers). And then I went in search of my favorite Kashi cereal and it was gone. I only opened it 2 days ago, taking a small baggie of it to work with me each day. So I don't think I was lying when I called Curt (on his way to work) and pretty much bitched him out for having eaten 3/4 a bag of cereal in 2 days. He claimed there wasn't even enough for a bowl this morning when he ate it. Whatever. I checked the box today and there are 12 servings in a bag and I ate 2 (I'm confident I had 2 actual servings because I used to measure out my servings when I counted calories in my pre prego days). Seriously ridiculous! He also wasn't very happy that I called to complain to him about it, but I didn't really care today. We might have a little demonstration tonight to show him what I ate and what he ate, in 2 days!

The last thing irritating me is my crazy mother. My brother is having a party for his 30th birthday this weekend and Curt and I were invited. Well it is our anniversary (5 years) and silly me wants to spend the evening with my husband and not my entire family. I finally got my mom to understand this but now she is hounding me to at least get him a card. Ok, I am 31 years old and pretty sure I don't need my mom telling me when it is necessary to send a card or not. How could I have possibly survived out of her house for the past 13 years with out her telling me exactly how to live my life. It is a miracle I've turned out as well as I think I have.

A Conversation

Curt: Are you in a good mood?
Me: Yes
Curt: I love you
Me: What do you want to do...What fun do you want to go have while I'm stuck at home?

He wants to go to a golf tournament about 2.5 hours from here - fine - about 2 weeks before the baby is due - not so fine! I thought I had him talked out of it a few weeks ago when he brought it up, but after seeing some old college friends last weekend he learned a lot of guys he hasn't seen in a long time are going to be there. Now I'm all for seeing old friends and having fun, and I try not to be "that wife" that doesn't let him go do anything, but there are times I will put my foot down. Even though we are having a scheduled c-section that is no guarantee the baby will wait until then to come (we learned that lesson with Bodie). There is a chance I'll pull out my beyotch-card and say things like "well if I am in labor, don't expect a call" or "I hope you miss the birth of your child". It is so frustrating that he isn't respecting my wishes on this one.

On a completely unrelated note Bodie is in his crib singing a little song. It goes something like this:

A guy...dada a guy...one two...shoe...puppy (various whispering I can't understand) papa...dada...

I better go get the little guy up.

Oh Trasher

Bodie came back from his trip to the farm with a tractor obsession. Grandma and Grandpa had 3 tractors that Bodie loved looking at and driving!

Ignore the fact that daddy is wearing a jacket from his football days.

He has a tractor book at home that he wants to read all the time. He opens it up and says "oh trasher" over and over. I'm thinking a tractor themed birthday party might be in store this year. I'm not sure how far to take this obsession but Curt suggested we get him tractor bedding for his new twin bed that he'll hopefully move to next weekend. We'll see what I can find when I shop for bedding this weekend.

Dreams and Reality

Saturday night I woke up around 2:30 am to my mother-in-law yelling for her dogs to come back in the house. The yelling lasted for probably about 10 minutes then they all came inside and I drifted back to sleep. I started having a crazy dream that I was staying at my in-laws house and there were people with guns there. I begged them not to shoot Bodie and I as we were climbing up a ladder. Then my mother-in-law yelled "oh God no" and I was awake. Now I didn't know if she was yelling in my dream or yelling in real life, and I was very freaked out. I sat up in bed and listened, trying to hear if there was any sort of commotion happening downstairs. I figured if someone had broken into the house, the dogs would be barking - and they weren't. Then I thought maybe something happened to my father-in-law, who isn't in the best of health. Or I thought maybe there was a phone call that something happened to Curt or his brother, with whom Curt was staying. After about 15 or so minutes I convinced myself I heard sirens and looked out the window - it was completely dark outside. I thought if there was an ambulance coming the porch lights would at least be on. Finally I decided to go downstairs and check things out (well I really needed to use the bathroom, so I had no choice). I went down, used the bathroom (conveniently the 2nd story was a later addition to the house and the stairs are in the bathroom, seriously). Then I stepped out, looked around, and nothing was going on. I went back up to bed, still freaked out, and I think I was up for at least another hour and a half before dozing off.

The next morning I told my mother-in-law about my dream, and we had a nice laugh about it. She figured it was because she had been out yelling at the dogs earlier, which makes sense.

Sunday night Curt and his brother (and his brother's dog) showed up at the in-laws. Monday morning we sat around the table for breakfast, while all the dogs played outside. All of a sudden the dogs spotted a car at the end of the road, and started running towards it. My in-laws dogs are country dogs, they chase and come back, but my brother-in-law's dog is a city dog, although he spends some time at the farm also. Anyway, BIL stepped outside to call his dog back and the car got closer and closer to the IL's house and ended up hitting BIL's dog. And then my MIL yelled "oh God, oh God," eerily similar to what she yelled in my dream. Very odd. Anyway, the dog seems to be fine. Curt and MIL watched the whole thing unfold (I couldn't bear to watch) and then they both ran outside to check on Hunter, along with BIL. The dog had been knocked unconscious, but all of a sudden sprang up in a bit of a daze. Then the dumb thing tried to chase the car that hit him as the driver left the scene a few minutes later. My MIL called a 24-hour vet and told them what had happened and how the dog was acting, and the vet said all seemed fine (now if it were my dog I would have taken them straight to a vet to get checked over, but whatever). When we talked to MIL last night she said the dog was sore but acting good, so hopefully he will be ok.

Jealousy

We are still hanging at the in laws. Daddy left yesterday to go on his big golf outing weekend, so Bodie and I have been hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, and are being exposed to more of the Fox News Channel than I really think is healthy for anyone. Bodie has taken an immediate liking to his Grandma Cheri, which I am very happy about. I was worried he'd stay shy and clingy to me while we were here. I'll admit I've almost been a little jealous about just how much Bodie is liking her though. There were a few times yesterday that I was carrying Bodie and he wanted to go to his Grandma instead. Now I've been trying to remember if he does that with my mom too. If he does it obviously doesn't bother me or it would be fresh in my mind. He does still come to me to change his dirty diapers, so I guess that is love on some level.

Bodie has started wanting to have any seat I am sitting in. He is very cute, grabbing onto my leg and saying "pease mama". And yesterday MIL was convinced he said, "where mama go" which would be his first 3 word sentence. I only heard "mama go" but I was across the room, and I guess not paying as much attention to him as his grandma was.

I'm exhausted

I don't know why I'm blogging instead of napping but I am. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and never fell back asleep before the alarm was to go off just after 5. We traveled to my in-laws this morning, and now I am just exhausted. Bodie is upstairs, needing to nap, but has been crying for the past 45 minutes. I was up there with him for a bit but I thought I was making things worse being up there with him. Curt is up with him now but that hasn't stopped Bodie from crying. The weather here is cold, rainy, and very windy and foggy. Really it is good napping weather. If only Bodie understood that. He did have a pretty good trip out. We bought a DVD player (off ebay for only $42, which included shipping). He was mesmerised by Elmo, so that kept him occupied for a good part of the morning. He only napped about 20 or so minutes which is pretty typical of him in the car, much to the dismay of mommy and daddy.

Yesterday I had a baby doctor appointment, along with an ultrasound to recheck my placenta. My placenta is still low and in front of my cervix. It is possible I'll have one more ultrasound before delivery to check and see if the doctor will have to cut through the placenta to deliver the baby. I guess there is no risk in that, but it can make for a longer more complicated surgery. Otherwise, the baby looked good. With my new adjusted due date, I was just short of 29w, and the baby measured around 30w, with an estimated weight of 3lb 7oz. To me that sounds pretty big but it is only 79th percentile. My belly only measured 27w but I guess that is fine. Actually I think it was only the 2nd time this pregnancy that a doctor measured me so I don't know how that stacks up to my past appointments. I just remember with Bodie the measurement never being very consistent and dependant on the doctor that did them. I am now on appointments every 2 weeks (already!) and I've scheduled my next appointment with the doctor that will do my delivery so hopefully I can get a date scheduled. I also need to talk to HR because I've heard that the maternity leave policy may have changed (for the better) since I had Bodie.

All sounds quiet upstairs - I may try to sneak that nap in after all.

Please

Tonight at dinner Curt filled Bodie's cup with milk, sat it down in front of him, and said "milk" very deliberately. He was trying to get Bodie to repeat him to help him start calling milk milk instead of "no no". Well instead when Curt said "milk" Bodie said "please". Curt and I laughed...it really is hard to argue with that level of cuteness.

Over the weekend I began working on the task of organizing Bodie's pictures into an album. I'm not into scrapbooking, but I would rather flip through an album of photos than look at them on-line. Plus there is something comforting of having hard copies of your favorite memories. Anyway, I just can't believe how much Bodie has changed over the past 22 months.

Look at that double chin and rolly polly arms!


I think I see a neck there now!

A Guy

This weekend we were listening to the radio and the song I'm Still a Guy by Brad Paisley came on. Curt was singing along and then Bodie chimed in by saying "a guy" over and over. It was pretty cute.

We had a very nice weekend, with a ton of much needed family time. Saturday we went to get family pictures taken (I know odd to do since we are expecting, but it was through our church). Our appointment was at 9:50 and they were already 1 hour behind so we didn't get them taken until close to 11. Bodie was a champ during the wait, but not so much when we sat down to get the picture taken. One funny thing about the picture experience. Curt asked me what Bodie was wearing so that he could coordinate. Um...what about what I am wearing??? Of course I didn't wake up in time to wash the shirt I wanted Bodie to wear so we had to improvise. However I had been planning to wear a magenta colored shirt, which I told Curt, only to have him put on a red shirt. Hmmm...yeah that wasn't going to look good together. Finally after a lot of my going to the dryer and upstairs, then back down again, he finally changed into something different. I'm not that happy with how the pic turned out but I guess we can only go up from here.

After pictures we headed to our first Husker baseball game (well, Bodie's first and my first since I was in High School). Our neighbors Cory and Jodee gave us 2 tickets that they were not using. Then, as we waited in line to get our 3rd ticket, someone from Big Brothers Big Sisters came by saying they had a lot of tickets left over that they were giving away (since they were donated they could be re-sold) so we all went for free. We had a nice time. The weather was a bit on the windy side but Bodie really enjoyed eating popcorn and M&Ms, as well as throwing all the garbage away in the trash.

After baseball, it was home for a quick nap. Then we went out to dinner to Chili's, using a gift card I received for getting an award at work. Bodie's medicine has been affecting his appetite (or maybe just being sick in general is) so we weren't sure if he'd eat much, but he did great feasting on marinara pasta.

On Sunday we enjoyed a family trip to the zoo. We decided not to take along the stroller this time and ended up paying for it. Bodie didn't act as afraid this time but we (mostly Curt) ended up carrying him for the most part. His favorite thing to see is the seals (bish) and his least favorite is the camels. We did get to ride the train this time. I'm not sure if Bodie liked it or not but I'm going to take his not fussing as a good sign.

An update on his medicine. I bought some apple juice to try mixing with the medicine Saturday morning (I decided against apple sauce because if he wasn't going to eat it, apple sauce is much harder to force him to have). We mixed a little juice in a bowl with the medicine and gave it to him in the syringe. On Sunday he finished up eating some pineapple and it dawned on me that the pineapple juice might work much better (Bodie isn't much of a juice drinker - we rarely have it in the house. He does love his pa pa though.). He has done significantly better with the pineapple juice but it was a bit tough this morning for me to do it solo. Curt has volunteered to get Bodie up this week to help give it to him, but we'll see. I'm sure I can manage if he is still sleeping hard at that time.