Note to Self

The "BOOGY MONSTER"!!

2011-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

YIKES! I haven't blogged in awhile and things have changed on blogger. It's going to take me a bit to get used to it. I have a bunch more pictures and topics to blog about, but my time is really limited having 3 little ones at home (one of them being an infant who is still nursing). One of the topics I'd love to blog more about is the "schooling" we're doing at home. It's not officially homeschooling at this point, but it's been fun to do some structured things with the boys. This week the book we were reading was "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans. It just so happened that on Thursday we were scheduled to talk about health (in the story Madeline gets her appendix taken out) and Micah also came down with a bad cold. It was a great opportunity to talk about hygiene as cold and flu season is just around the corner. Here is the visual lesson we did on spreading germs. The original lesson plan used cooking spray and glitter, but I didn't have glitter and I wasn't able to get out to buy it seeing as I had a crabby and sick child at home. So, I borrowed some green washable finger paint from my neighbor and I think it worked just the same. I put some clean objects on a tray.

Then I put GERMS (green finger paint) all over Jackson's hands. I figured Micah already had germs on his that he could keep for himself.

I had Micah leave the room and had Jackson touch several of the items. Micah then came back in and had to tell me which items had germs on them. I then asked Micah to pick up one of the objects with "germs" on it. He refused. (Perhaps that means he grasped the lesson a little). I picked up one of the objects to show how the germs then got on my hands.

We read a couple of books: "Germs Are Not For Sharing" by Elizabeth Verdick. There were a couple of other books on health that I found at our local library as well. We've also checked out this great book in the past: "Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo" by E.S. RedmondWe colored signs to hang in the bathroom. The first one tells when to wash your hands and the other one tells you how to wash them.

Then later this week I found a project on Pinterst that we like to call "Boogy Monster Boxes" basically it's a discard box for used tissues with "boogies" in them. The boys had a blast, but ended up just wanting to play with the box instead of using it for it's intended purpose. Oh well.

Micah demonstrated how to use it once and then just played with it. :)

If only you could hear him saying "I LOVE BOOGIES!!!" in his monster voice.

Well ... gotta go feed the kiddos lunch and attend to my sick little baby. I'm hoping when they're all healthy again I'll have a few minutes to post some of the other fun things we've been up to lately.

Anora's 2 Month Check Up

2011-06-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

She'll be 12 weeks old next week, so I thought I'd better get around to posting her 2 month check up... you can tell she's child #3!

Her 2 month stats:

Weight: 10lb 9oz (50%)
Height: 22 1/4 inches (50%)
HC: 38cm (40%)

She's got blue eyes so far and they seem to be getting lighter, so maybe they'll stay, but we won't know for several months yet. She's eating every 3 - 3 1/2 hours during the day and going 8 - 9 hours at night time.

It's a good thing she's been sleeping so well at night because her day time naps (up until about a week ago) were not going well at all. She'd sleep for 30 minutes to an hour and then wake up screaming. I'd usually get a few burps out, but then she'd have a hard time putting herself back to sleep.

We tried everything from propping her up for 30 minutes to an hour before we laid her down. Laying her on her side for naps. Letting her nap in the swing. Letting her nap in the wrap. What finally seems to be doing the trick is a combination of me cutting back on my dairy intake (I've been drinking almond milk instead of cow's milk) and consistently giving her Gripe Water and gas drops before her feedings. I also give another dose of gas drops right before I put her down for her naps. She can usually make it the full 1 1/2 to 2 hours for her naps, but sometimes wakes up early and I have to burp her, but then she'll go right back to sleep.

This past week we have been trying to give her a bottle more consistently as well. She seemed to take to the bottle really well around 6 weeks old, but then we didn't offer it enough for her to continue to take it, so it's been a challenge. In fact, Colin and I had a date night this past week to celebrate our anniversary and decided we needed to come back in the middle of it to nurse Anora, so that the babysitter didn't have to battle it out. I've given her a bottle once a day for the past three days and so far it gets better each time. I'm hoping that if we continue she'll be able to take the bottle easily for a babysitter in the future.

We had the chance to travel with Anora when we went to Colorado for a house hunting trip. She did great except for the fact that she does not like to nap in her car seat. Honestly she hadn't spent very much time in her car seat until then because we only have one car and I hardly get to use it because goes to work so early. I'm hoping she'll out grow that with age, but we'll see I guess.

Her personality is so sweet. She smiles with her whole body and loves to "talk" to anyone who will listen when she's awake. She has yet to giggle, but smiles all the time. She's such a doll. I love her curly little eyelashes ... we're all smitten with her and lover her more and more each day.

The 5 Year Report

2011-05-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jackson turns 5 on June 15th, but we'll be moving to Colorado only a couple days after his birthday, so we got him into the doctor for his 5 year check up early. He was VERY nervous about his shots. He came to Anora's 1 month check up and even asked Dr. Macias if they were going to hurt. The doctor was so great at explaining what the shots would be like, but Jackson still worried.

Jackson had his check up first while I nursed Anora. He's 60% for weight and 25% for height which the Dr. said was perfectly fine. His eye sight is 20/25 in both eyes, which means that the ptosis in his left eye is not affecting his vision at all. My favorite part of the older check ups are when the Dr. asks questions to determine cognitive development. Jackson's answers got a few smirks from the Dr. because he's a pretty sharp kid. Overall, Jackson is right on track and is a healthy growing boy!!

When I write these posts I ask myself, "What do I want to remember about Jackson as a 5 year old?" Hmmmm...

Jackson is such a sensitive and compassionate boy. He has a gift for making others feel loved. Whether he's doting on his sister or verbally praising his brother or shouting "I love you!" to the friendly cashier at the grocery store as we leave. He's quite the gift giver too (even if it is a rock wrapped in tape) because he loves to make people smile.

Sometimes his sensitivity can cause him to over react at times and worry on occasion, but for the most part he's still pretty logical and we can reason our way through those tough moments with him. However, those same reasoning skills can get him into trouble when he becomes argumentative with Colin, me or even Micah.

Jackson is a learner by nature (he takes after his dad and mom). I'm sure most kids his age are, but he has a hunger for knowledge beyond the typical "whys" at this age and retains what he learns as well. He has a gift for memorizing and has memorized quite a bit of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and several Bible verses. Not only does he have them memorized, but he continually surprises me with the theological questions and discussions he has with Colin over them.

Jackson has also picked up on reading and writing quite a bit this year and loves to read simple stories to Micah and Anora at bedtime (the Bob Books are great for this.) Although (like me) he tends to be a perfectionist and doesn't want to try something new unless he knows he can do it well the first time. (Both of my boys seem to have this trait.) Our household mantra is "always, always, do your best." It doesn't matter if you get it right. It matters if you try and do your best. With this constant reminder, Jackson has been more and more willing to push himself out of his comfort zones.

Finally, Jackson is imaginative and creative. He loves to pretend. He loves to create. His favorite toys are his project box (which consists of empty toilet paper rolls and the like and his own roll of masking tape) and the dress up box. When he can't find a costume he needs in the dress up box, he makes his own out of the project box. He's constantly making projects (i.e. puppets, swords, rockets, new inventions, etc.) I have to admit that sometimes it drives me NUTS to have all of the project "mess" around the house, but I'm trying to be better at not viewing it that way and Jackson is trying to be better at not leaving his projects all over the floor.

It's exciting to chronicle who Jackson is growing up to become. I often day dream about what kind of man he will be. What he will choose for a career. How he will treat his wife. How he will interact with his children. How he will serve our God.

What a gift the Lord has given me to watch my children grow in every aspect of life.

Anora: One Month

2011-05-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

Anora's one month check up went well. Despite the fact that plans changed at the last minute and I ended up taking all of the kids with me to the appointment. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal if it was a 10 minute drive to the office, but it's a 45 minute drive so we ended up making an afternoon of it. Anyway, that's a later post perhaps.

Stats:
9lb 5oz (50% - I'm not used to an average sized kid at this age)
21 1/2 inches (70%)
37cm HC (50%)

Dr. Macias said that everything looks great. I asked about vitamin D and iron supplements for her and he said I didn't need to start those right now. I let him know that she slept 6 hours a couple of times at night and he said that she's gaining weight just fine and to let her sleep as long as she'd like at night, but continue 3 hour feedings during the day.

Anora has been fairly easy so far. She fell into a sleep, eat, awake routine pretty naturally which is great! She prefers to sleep on her side and she likes to fall asleep with her pacifier, but spits it out when she's almost asleep most of the time.

From day one she was a great eater and I hardly had any latching issues with her. As a result, she went longer between feedings right away (2 1/2 - 3hrs during the day and 3 1/2 - 4 1/2hours at night). That was great EXCEPT it made my engorgement period more difficult and I ended up with Mastitis. NOT FUN! If you don't know what that is, it's a breast infection caused by clogged milk ducts and the symptoms are high fevers, some breast pain (some women have pain while nursing, but I didn't) and flu-like symptoms (body aches, headache, etc.) Once I was on the antibiotic for 24 hours I was 100% better.

Last night (at 5 weeks old) she slept 6 hours (this is her 3rd time doing that) between feedings. Luckily her last feeding was at 9:30pm and I pretty much went to sleep right after I fed her. Yay for a good night's sleep!

Her naps during the day were not the greatest at first, but then we figured out that dairy was making her gassy so I cut down on cheeses and switched to almond milk for awhile. In a couple of weeks I'll slowly bring it back into my diet and see what happens. We also started giving her Gripe Water at night and Mylicon gas drops during the day which seemed to help a lot.

We also figured out that she does not like to be cold. I put her in a onesie, pants, socks, night gown (with little mittens over the hands) a sleepsack AND swaddle her in a blanket at night. Part of that is because I like the room a little cold while I sleep and she still sleeps in the room with us (well, sort of ... she's in our emptied out walk-in closet).

Anora is such a sweet baby. I wouldn't say that she's laid back because she definitely has to speak up if she wants something with two other little boys in house vying for my attention. Half of the time I have to wake her up for her day time feedings and half of the time she wakes up on her own. Usually she fusses herself to sleep and/or I have to put her pacifier back in a zillion times.

She's pretty easy to console when she's upset with the exception of a few times she's woken up almost in a panic in her car seat (I hope she out grows that). Jackson has mastered the "shh-shh-shh" technique, although he thinks if he does it louder it will work better. HA. He's also a HUGE help with her in the car. Micah just thinks the car seat is a toy he can play with.

Anora is smiling more, but it's not predictable or easily coaxed yet. She's also started to make some vocal coos just this week. I LOVE that stage and can't wait for her to verbalize more. I'm sure we will since her awake time during the day is getting longer each day. She's usually awake for about an hour and a half to two hours in her 3 hour feeding schedule.

She handles the attention the boys give her very well. She lets Jackson touch her hands and head without a fuss and he does it a lot. Both boys are pretty good at helping me burp her and they can usually get one out better than I can. Overall nursing her has been easier than Micah because at the time Jackson had no one else to play with and now Micah and Jackson can go off and play with each other while I feed Anora. I LOVE the fact that they play so well together.

Emotionally going from 2 to 3 has been easier than from 1 to 2 so far. Logistically I'm able to handle the scheduling of 2 to 3 better than 1 to 2 AT HOME, but when we go places it's much more difficult going from 2 to 3 than it was 1 to 2. I TRIED to take all three kids to church by myself yesterday ... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!! Next time I need to make sure I ask church family to help me with the boys (especially if I have to feed Anora in the middle of the service).

Overall, Anora has been such a delight! I'm so excited to see what kind of little girl and woman she will become.

Anora Jean's Birth-Day

2011-03-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Moms-to-be usually hear the scary/traumatic birth stories thanks to shows like TLC's "The Baby Story." I know when I was awaiting the birth of Jackson, my first born, I heard several birth stories that made me want to "cross my legs."

Well, I think the normal and uneventful birth stories are just as worthy of being heard. So to you first time mommies waiting for your child's birth-day, you can read Micah's story here and keep reading on for Anora's. (I wasn't blogging at the time of Jackson's birth, but one of these days I should share that one too.) May these birth-day stories inspire you and give you hope for a beautiful birthday for your child. You can do it!

Early Saturday, March 26th -
I had several strong contractions while still in bed that I thought might turn into full blown labor, but then Jackson woke up with a terrible cough and sore throat and the contractions petered out on their own. I spent the whole rest of the day taking care of all three of my boys (including Colin) who were very uncomfortable with head colds. However, I never managed to catch it my self.

You may think that that's not technically a part of Anora's birth story, but I find it interesting how God's grace is so sufficient even in the little things. He knew we needed one more day for me to look after the boys and to have Anora quarantined in my belly while they were pretty sick.

Sunday, March 27th -

The boys did not make a peep and I slept all the way until 3:15am when I started having regular contractions about 10 minutes a part. After an hour they got stronger and I woke Colin to inform him that we may need to get ready to have our little girl.

4:30 am I could no longer lay in bed and just breath through the contractions, although they were still about 10 minutes apart. I got up and took a shower and once I knew the contractions weren't going to subside, Colin jumped in the shower and I began to gather our things for the hospital and get the house ready for the couple we arranged to watch Jackson and Micah who live about 30 minutes from our house.

5:00 am Colin calls the couple to have them start heading over to the house. My contractions are 8 - 10 minutes apart, but I can no longer talk or walk through them. The most comfortable position during those contractions was leaning on a table or counter and standing on my tip toes. Colin and I both eat breakfast.

5:30 am - Jackson wakes up coughing and Colin goes in to his room to give him some honey and comfort him. Several days prior, Jackson told me that he had a bad dream that I left and didn't tell him. So Colin and I both decided it would be best if we told Jackson when we were leaving. Jackson was a little weepy about us leaving, plus he was still sleepy and not feeling well. However, I was able to talk to him between contractions and remind him that there was a present waiting for him that he and Micah could open when we were at the hospital. That seemed to do the trick ... but I ended up having to go up there a second time before we left to talk with him again. That time I didn't make it out of the room without having a contraction and here's how the conversation went:

(Me taking deep breaths and holding on to his bed posts.)

Jackson: Mommy? Why are you doing that?
Me: Because baby Anora REALLY wants to come out.
Jackson: Mommy? You can go now.
Me: (still taking deep breaths) Give me just a minute.
Jackson: Why?
Me: Mommy can't move right now.
Jackson: Oh.
(My contraction stops.)
Me: Okay. We're leaving for the hospital now. I love you.
Jackson: You're going to the hospital right now?
Me: Yes.
Jackson: Okay. I love you.
Me: I love you too.

(I leave the room just before another contraction comes.)

5:30am - My contractions are about 3 - 5 minutes apart lasting about a minute each and we're not sure if we can wait until our friends arrive in order to leave for the hospital so we call our neighbor to come over. Colin says, "I'm going to call the midwives and have them get a hotel room ready for us." (I love that slip up, so I had to put it in the story.) When he calls them we find out that Helen (who also delivered Micah) is on call and will be delivering for us.

5:35am - Our neighbor arrives.

5:45am - We finally have everything we need for the hospital and have the house ready for the caretakers. The couple from our church arrives and we head off to the hospital.

The contractions continued to be 3-5 minutes apart and it helped tremendously to just moan through them. Every other contraction was very hard and longer (closer to 2 minutes long) but I had almost no pain in between contractions. I also had a couple of double peak contractions (contractions that would peak and then never fully subside before the next contraction peaked) and those were challenging especially given the fact that I was sitting in a car.

6:30am - We arrive at the hospital (pausing a few times in the parking lot and foyer for contractions) and go back to the delivery room. The nurse has us fill out some quick paper work, they draw blood, checked my cervix (which was 4-5 cm dilated and fully effaced and Anora was low enough that the nurse could feel that she had a lot of hair)and monitor Anora's heart rate and my contractions for about 15 minutes while they filled the tub.

THE TUB! I love the tub! The hospital we delivered Micah and Anora in has a portable tub that they can fill up for laboring moms while they have contractions, but not for delivering. The warm water and the buoyancy took the edge off of the contractions for me. As soon as I could I got in there.

It's at this point that I lose track of exact time. The contractions continued to be 3 - 5 minutes apart and getting more intense and a little more pushy. I also had some back pain with a few of the contractions as well. Nothing sharp, just radiating pain in my back during the contraction. It helped to be on all fours in the water while I was having the contractions. It also helped to have Colin rubbing my back between and during those contractions. But I still had little to no pain in between contractions. Helen came in during that time to check up on us and see how we were doing. Then left us alone for a bit once she got the low down of how things were going.

After about the third or fourth pushy contraction and feeling a little doubt and nausea, we called Helen in to have her check my cervix again. I was 7-8 cm dilated, but she could easily stretch me to 10 which meant I was ready to push.

9am - Helen broke my water to help speed up the dilation. It took her a few times because the sac was so strong, but that wasn't painful at all. The fluid was clear, but just trickled since Anora's head was very low.

I pushed a couple times through the contractions, but I still had a little lip of my cervix that wouldn't move out of the way. It felt like a had longer breaks between each pushing contraction with no pain at all. I even said between contractions once, "I feel bad that you guys are just sitting around waiting for me to have another contraction." Helen laughed and later Colin told me that he thought that was adorable.

Eventually Helen held my cervix back between and during contractions. THAT was painful, but only when she was holding it. After a few pushes she suggested I move to the toilet to see if I could get the cervix to move with the help of gravity. After a few really hard pushy contractions on the toilet I moved back to the bed. My cervix still had a lip.

Helen held my cervix back through 3 or 4 more very strong and long pushes until Anora began to crown. I had the mirror there to watch her come into the world for the very first time. Helen coached me through those pushes to insure their was a little tearing as possible (I ended up with only one stitch).

9:33am - Anora arrived and was placed on my belly immediately. She yelled right away and pinked up within seconds. She was GORGEOUS! That moment is the most wondrous, most beautiful and rewarding moment God could give to a woman after all of the hard work and pain of childbirth. I'm continually amazed at how God is a just AND gracious God all at the same time in so many areas of life.

After the cord stopped pulsing, Colin cut it and soon after I delivered the placenta. I got my stitch and Anora and I jumped back into the tub (which I guess was bending hospital rules, but ... eh). She nursed beautifully in there for quite awhile. In the mean time Colin called everyone he could think of.

It wasn't until about 2 hours after she was born that we got out of the tub and got all of her stats and by then she'd already had two meconium movements:

7lb 14oz
20 1/2 inches

We are all just smitten with this little girl. We praise God for his grace and provision and protection during her beautiful birth-day and stand, once again, in awe of his sovereignty and providence over HIS creation.

Big Brother Present

2011-03-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

As I've been getting ready for our baby girl I've been preparing the house and the boys for being taken care of by church family while Colin and I are at the hospital.

One of the ideas I had was to wrap a present for the boys and put it out ahead of time and tell them they can open it when Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I wanted it to be a cool enough present that they would be distracted by it while we were away from them for a very short while.

As you know from my previous post, my boys love GeoTrax. I was able to to find THREE tunnels/bridges for the price of one on ebay the other day. I plan on giving one of them as a future present to their cousin in Iowa who shares the same passion for trains, but these two are wrapped and waiting for the day I go to the hospital to give birth to our little girl.

I really want to celebrate the life of our new little girl, but I also want to celebrate this new phase in the boys' life. Micah becoming a big brother for the very first time and Jackson taking another sibling under his wing.

Colin and I have been stressing the importance of their roles as big brothers to take care of their little sister. They are the princes and she is the princess. I believe they are up for the challenge and I can't wait to see what that looks like in reality.

Keeping Ourselves Busy

2011-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things the boys and I have been keeping busy with lately:

Making Cards:
Ever since Valentine's Day and my birthday, Jackson has especially enjoyed making cards. Here's one he made with his babysitter for my birthday. I LOVE the picture of the two boys in it!!!

Here's the inside of a get well card Jackson made for his friend Patrick.

Inventions:
Jackson wants to be an inventor when he grows up. Here's one he made out of the "project bag" present I gave him for Christmas. It's Rodney Copper Bottom and Wonderbot from the movie "Robots." He assembled it all by himself.

Of course there are LOTS of Lego creations around here too and Jackson is getting REALLY good at coming up with some very creative designs ... he takes after his daddy!

Anything Musical:
Micah especially loves music. He walks around with his guitar and loves to sing songs. It isn't unusual to have pandora.com playing on my laptop throughout the day around the house.

"Animal Shelter"
It's a game both boys came up with that consists of getting out all of their stuffed animals and putting them in bed or on the couch with them. They pretend to take care of the animals ... Grandma Deb's got her genes in them for sure!

GeoTrax and Cars:
We got a few extra pieces of track for Christmas that allows for a bit more creativity and now the boys play trains almost every day. Jackson loves to build the track and Micah can watch the trains going around for hours ... well for a while anyay.

Getting Ready for a Sister:
Oh yeah ... and the boys have been getting ready for the arrival of their little sister. They are pretty excited to get to see her face to face and teach her all of the things they know and do everyday.

My Husband is Amazing!

2011-02-17T22:52:00.001-08:00

I kind of feel bad for my husband ... only kind of ... because my birthday is the day after Valentine's Day and he has NEVER short changed me and planned a birthday/Valentine's celebration. My husband loves to spoil and surprise me!

The weekend before Valentine's Day he got a sitter and we drove up to Santa Barbara with a printed off google map (because we are a little behind the times when it comes to GPS and smart phones) and had an adventure finding the Riviera Theatre to watch "Troubadours" (a film documentary about musicians in the 1960s and 70s like James Taylor and Carole King) as a part of the Santa Barbara film festival. It was a free night to see it and we almost didn't get in, but luckily my pregnant bladder kept us there for an extra 5 minutes and we were able to sneak in at the last minute due to a few extra seats becoming available. It was so fun to watch a movie with 400 other people in the audience.

Then we went to Pacucci's in downtown Santa Barbara for a nice Italian dinner.

One of the things I love to do is go to new restaurants that have a very different and unique cuisine and Colin knows this about me. For me it's all about quality vs. quantity and I'd rather have a little bit of something tasty and unique than a lot of something that I could just make myself at home.

Colin usually gets great recommendations from his co-workers, but he also has found a website that he's found very handy called Open Table. You can look for restaurants all over the country and they break it down into different cuisines and price ranges and give links the restaurant website where you can look at the menu ahead of time.

For my birthday we went to Luna Red in San Luis Obispo and because we wanted to see a 7 o'clock showing of "The King's Speech" we looked at the menu on the way and already picked out what we wanted to order before we even got there. We had the strawberry basil spritzer, lamb koft kebabs and crab lasagna by the way ... very tasty.

Almost every date we go on we usually end by going to a coffee shop or some place to just sit and "be." I love it!

Did I mention that I think my husband is amazing!!!? (BIG SMILE)

P.S. Of course I love to brag about my husband, but my main goal in posting this was to share the resources he uses to plan date nights so that you and your loved ones can utilize and enjoy them too!

Happy date nights to you and yours!!!

Lifeguarding Skills Applied to Parenting

2011-02-10T20:58:00.001-08:00

No we did not have an incident at the pool that needed lifeguarding skills.

When I was in high school I worked as a lifeguard at the YMCA. One of their policies was to enforce rules with positive redirection. Instead of saying, "No running!" they encourage you to say, "Walk please!" Instead of "No diving!" say, "Feet first only!"

It took a little bit of getting used to, but it made complete sense, after all, "No running!" left open a variety of other options (skipping, sliding, dancing, jumping) and "Walk please!" was clear and to the point.

Positive redirection stayed with me and frankly kept me quite sane when I worked 40+ hours at my daycare job and now as a parent. I think it may have saved me from having 15 2 -3 year olds screaming "NO!" at me all day long because they were mimicking me. Here are a few phrases I've learned to switch in my daily interaction with my kids:

"No whining!" - "Happy heart please!"
"No hitting!" - "Be loving please!"
"No yelling!" - "Inside voice please!"

Even saying "No thank you" instead of "No!" I think has helped my kids minimize their "NO!" stage in life (notice I said "minimize").

I've been surprised by this lifeguarding skill's most recent application. As my boys get to the age where they are playing together instead of just next to each other I often hear:

"STOP! STOP! STOP!"
"NO!"
(SCREAM)
"DON'T, DON'T, DON'T"
"I HAD THAT FIRST!"

There have been many opportunities to teach both my four year old and two year old the old lesson "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar." They're still learning, but everyday it seems to get better as they realize that yelling at each other is extremely unproductive.

Jackson is learning to tell Micah what he wants instead of yelling about what he doesn't want him to do. Instead of, "Micah, don't do that!" I'm hearing "Micah how about you play with this toy instead of taking mine away?"

My Love/Hate Relationship With Travel: Part 2

2011-01-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

Day 12 - Sunday

Micah has a great night sleep with only one suppository before bed. Colin and I take turns at church with Jackson, but leave Micah at home. He's more himself eating a really good breakfast, but still just snacking throughout the day. He's also much more lethargic as the day progresses.

However, he takes a great uninterrupted nap in the afternoon allowing me to rest as well. He's somewhat interested in snack, but just lays on the floor most of the late afternoon. By supper time I go to pick him up off the floor and he empties his stomach all over me. It came on so quickly and without warning that I am actually a little flustered by it, which seems odd since I should be use to it by now. Perhaps because I feel like he was getting better it is the shock and disappointment that crushes my spirit.

I call Marie again this time on the verge of tears and she is very sweet in reassuring me that I'm not over reacting and that at this point Micah needs to go back to the doctor's to be looked over again and be sure there isn't anything else going on other than a virus.

I'm so flustered and exhausted and worried ... I cry a lot. I think of those parents who know that their children have terminal or chronic illnesses and I cry for them too. My imagination goes wild and I have to pray that God doesn't let Satan use that as a foothold to feed me lies. I pray, "Lord, I know you are the Great Physician. I believe you can heal Micah if it is your will. Help my unbelief."

Day 13 - Monday

I call the doctor's office and explain that I would like Micah to have an appointment that day due to the fact that he has been throwing up for a total of 9 days now and that he has an ear infection that I am not sure is clearing up with the antibiotics he was prescribed.

Here's a rough recollection of the phone conversation with the nurse:

Nurse: "Does he have a fever?"
Me: "No."
Nurse: "How often is he throwing up?"
Me: "About once or twice a day."
Nurse: "There's not much we can do for him."
Me: "Really?! Even though he's been throwing up for 9 days now?"
Nurse: "It's most likely a virus and he'll be fine in a few days."
Me: "Ya, but for NINE days? Doesn't that seem like a long time for a virus?"
Nurse: "Viruses can last from 10 -14 days."
Me: "Well I'm also concerned that the antibiotic he's been on for 4 days is not working on his ear infection."
Nurse: "Well you need to finish the doses before you can say that."
Me: "It's a 5 day dose. Shouldn't it be working by now?"
Nurse: "You can make an appointment if you want to, but I don't think they're going to be able to do anything."

...

Blah, blah, blah, blah

I tell her I'll talk with my husband and call her back.

I call Marie first ... bawling my eyes out.

I didn't much care for the way the pediatrician dealt with me when Micah was diagnosed with the ear infection on Friday and now I feel even more like an incompetent mother talking to this nurse who was not sensitive of my concerns AT ALL. Again, Marie was so sweet. She reassured me that I was being quite conservative about bringing him in even this late in the game and that I should feel no shame in insisting a doctor see Micah that day.

I call Colin ... bawling my eyes out.

I tell him the whole story and ask him if he'll call the doctor's office to make the appointment because I can't hold it together at this point. I also tell him to ask for the nurse I normally talk to on the phone. She is much more understanding and we get an appointment for that afternoon. Colin takes Jackson to a friend's house and comes with me to the appointment to be a second set of ears and mouth.

So far Micah has kept all of his food down, but I haven't been letting him eat much. His normal weight is around 29 lbs. and on Friday at the doctor's he was 28 lbs. This afternoon he is 26 lbs. Poor guy.

However, he was in a playful mood despite all of the circumstances. Meeting with the Nurse Practitioner (I was really glad to not have the Ped. I saw last Friday) who listens closely to the whole 10 day ordeal of sickness and witnesses first hand Micah's behavior and physical appearance she agrees that it is a long time to have a virus, but that there is a small strand of viruses that can last up to 14 days and wants to wait a few days. If in a few days his symptoms haven't changed then she would like to look into other options.

She looks in his ears and sure enough they are worse than they were on Friday and both are infected, but she doesn't want to prescribe any new antibiotic if his stomach is still upset. She suggests we make another appointment for 2 days later and then a follow up for 3 weeks (we can always cancel the one in 2 days if he's completely back to normal).

You know, looking back at the conversation with the nurse on the phone, she was right ... in just about everything. BUT what if she wasn't? Could she really comfortably tell me that my child was just fine over the phone??? Without looking at him?? Although they couldn't really "do anything for him" I wanted them to make that decision in person after they looked at him with their own two eyes. And PLEASE ... a little more sympathy and the conversation would have gone over MUCH better.

Day 14 - Tuesday

Micah keeps everything in his stomach and had MUCH more energy, but is clearly still in pain from his ears and is a CRAB! We alternate between Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen to help with the pain (his first time on oral medicine in several days).

He snacks ALL DAY!

I debate about whether or not I want to cancel the appointment and end up calling the NP to ask her thoughts about Micah's ears.

She is delighted to hear that his tummy is feeling much better, but agrees with me and wants to take another look at his ears to make sure they are getting better.

Day 15 - Wednesday

Micah sleeps well with one middle of the night dose of pain meds. He wakes up hungry and has his first full meal since he came down with the flu about 12 days ago. I am a little nervous and keep the bucket close by just in case, but he's insistent on eating and stops himself when he's full in a much happier mood.

He's 27 lbs this time and the NP said his ears were much better.

He's back to himself aside from the fact that he's catching up on his calorie intake now and his sleep. I can't complain about that though.

The buckets are still lingering in the car and around the house. I wonder how long it will take before they are put away? (smile)

I really do think he's finally better and the virus is gone.

GOOD RIDDANCE!!

My Love/Hate Relationship with Travel

2011-01-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

I love spending time with family. It's probably one of the most important and valuable things in my life aside from spending time with God. If it's possible, Colin loves it even more and of course our kids love it too. We have so many fond memories with family playing, laughing, celebrating, talking, reminiscing even mourning and weeping. Those moments are priceless and lately have been few and far between because we live so far away.

However, the distance we have to travel makes it a challenge for our family especially during the cold and flu season. In the three years that we've lived in California we've traveled home about 5 times. Of those 5 times we got pretty sick 3 of those trips. Christmas 2008 - we all got the stomach flu (except 9 week old Micah). I will forever have memories of nursing in a hotel room at 3am while puking into a garbage can (yes, I said "while"). That flu spread like wild fire throughout the ENTIRE extended family... it was terrible. At the end of that trip Micah came down with croup. I remember the panic I felt as he coughed and tried to breath worried that I had no idea where the closest urgent care was as we were driving the 4 hours from L.A. to our house. Easter 2009 - Micah (6 months old) came down with croup and a pretty bad case of hand, foot and mouth disease that took several weeks after our trip to recover from.

The third trip was only a couple of days ago and we are still trying to recuperate from it all. I'm distanced enough now from the most traumatic parts that I feel objective enough to write about it, but it hasn't been too long that I can't remember the details. So, I've decided to give you a glimpse into why travel and I have such a love/hate relationship by recalling each day of our travel adventures.

The Planning Phase

I love my husband's anticipation for the future. For example, it's not unusual that we get done with a really good lunch and he says, "what's for supper." I take it as a compliment that he looks forward to my cooking. It's the same with travel for him. We get done with one trip and he's already planning the next. I, however, need time to recuperate from the most recent trip (regardless if we all got sick or not) before I can even think about doing it again. I've equated traveling (especially over the holiday season and with young children) as "tax season" for Moms.

The conversation usually starts with a very ambitious Colin who wants to see every possible family member we can at or around Christmas whatever that means as far as expense, flying and driving and I think we should just stay home and play it "safe." Weeks and months pass with discussions and research into airline prices, work vacation available, etc.

This year I really was dead set on not traveling during the cold and flu season, but then the "that means we won't see family for almost a year" card was played due to the fact that our little girl is due to be born around the Easter holiday knocking that off of the possibility of traveling to family then. So, we made the compromise to travel shortly AFTER the crazy holiday season which would hopefully reduce our risk for illness and most certainly cut our costs in airfare.

The Anticipation

As the travel time draws closer and the last trip gets farther away we all, including myself, are excited about our trip. Jackson and I did school lessons about snow in anticipation for playing in the snow. Every time we skyped with Grandma and Papa the excitement in them and us grew stronger. The cousins can't wait to play with each other and both Jackson and Micah ask on a regular basis when they get to go to Iowa.

Day 1 - Wednesday
I do my usual house cleaning before we leave for a trip. It creates a little chaos, but I'm always so glad when I get home to a clean house after a busy trip. I also have a prenatal checkup just before we leave. We've made lists and packed reasonably since although we are allowed 8 pieces of check luggage and 4 carry-ons we only have 4 hands to hold it all (we've resigned to the cart rentals at the airport). I must say that we've perfected the packing.

We've planned when is the perfect time to leave for my grandparent's so that we don't hit too much traffic. The planned 3 hour drive is usually 4 hours due to traffic, but the boys are in good spirits with lots of anticipation, snacks and a portable DVD player in the back seat with all three of us (both Jackson and I get car sickness, so it's only out of necessity that I have to sit in the back of a Sudan wedged between two car seats ... 7 months pregnant mind you... a mini-van will be a must with #3) arriving at my grandparent's house just in time for bed.

Day 2 - Thursday
Colin and I wake up around 5:30am (an hour later than we had planned) and scramble to shower and get everything packed up and the boys ready to fly out of L.A. Luckily we've found that the car rental place will drive us straight to the terminal dropping our luggage off at curb-side check in making checking in a whole lot easier for a family with little ones.

The first leg of the trip is so short that we don't even take toys out of the toy bag. After a very short lay over we start our longer flight to Omaha. Colin and I divide and conquer now that both boys are required to have a ticket. Our ritual is to wipe down everything the boys will touch with a anti-bacterial wipe and make sure the vents our closed to help cut down on exposure to germs. For the most part the boys handle the trip very well. After we land we get our luggage and Colin gets the rental car.

Jackson is chomping at the bit to play in the snow and I let him for a little bit until we have to get into the car and drive another 4 hours to Grandma and Papa's in winter weather (luckily for us the weather was perfect).

We arrive at their house by bedtime, but to the kids it still feels two hours earlier so we let them stay up about an hour later so that they can enjoy a little bit of family time before we rush them off to their beds giving us time to get beds made and suitcases in their places for the week.

Day 3 - Friday
The day is spent rediscovering toys in Grandma and Papa's basement, playing with cousins and catching up with the whole family. We just hang around the house and visit and eat good food, decorate cookies, laugh and just enjoy being with each other.

We also got the cousin Christmas picture taken ... I'll have to get a digital copy from my sister-in-law to post because it turned out SO ADORABLE.

Jackson finally gets to experience what it's like to get bundled up to go out and play in the snow. He so desperately wanted to make a snowman and couldn't understand why it being too cold made it an impossible feat. (I wish I had pictures to post, but those are all on my sister-in-law's camera, so I'll have to get them from her and post them on a later date.)

That night at around 11pm Micah wakes up sick and I move to the basement couch and leave Colin in the bedroom the three of us were sharing to take care of him so I can get some sleep. Colin was up with him about every 2 hours.

Day 4 - Saturday
We have our family "Christmas Morning" but let Micah and Colin sleep in as long as they can warning everyone in the house (which was a total of 8 adults and 6 kids) that the stomach flu has hit the household and beware.

Despite the sickness we still enjoy opening presents and celebrating the gift of Jesus.

Micah only eats cheerios, but is still able to play and seems as though it may have been only a short bout of the flu. However, I am overly conscious of the toys that are shared and hands and toys put in mouths and become a bit of a germ Nazi to most of the kids while playing.

That night Micah wakes up in full force sickness and Colin is up again about every 2 to 3 hours and I'm on the couch.

Day 5 - Sunday
Colin and Micah stay home from church, but the rest of us enjoy worship and fellowship together. There is nothing like worshiping with family. It feels like a little taste of heaven to me. We had a relaxing Sunday and Colin was able to take a good nap to help catch up from his lack of sleep.

Micah seems to be doing better during the day, but doesn't eat much and is not his usual self.

Jackson wakes up at 11pm in full force sickness.

I move back in the room with Micah and Colin sets up camp out in the basement family room next to Jackson to be with him. He's again up every 2 - 3 hours.

Micah starts a fever and a cough and I'm up with him about every 3 hours.

Day 6 - Monday
The other brothers hope to get a head start so they can avoid the winter storm on it's way. The cousins have to say their tearful goodbyes and the troupes load up in their vehicles filled to the brim.

Orin gets sick on the way home.

Thatcher gets sick that night at home (he's scheduled for a major surgery the next day so I'm sure my sister-in-law was a tad bit anxious to say the least).

Jackson and Micah are so sick that we have to follow them around the house with buckets ... no joke. We gave up on doing laundry right away knowing that we'd have a pile to do at the end of the day.

We watch quite a few movies!! Almost all day in fact ... with a short break to explore Grandma's attic though.

The fever comes and goes for the both of them during the day and at night, but Jackson makes it through most of the night resting soundly. Micah was up about every 4 hours. Colin still slept with Jackson and I with Micah.

Day 7 - Tuesday
We call friends in Omaha to cancel our get together due to the boys being sick. We also call the airline to see if we can get a flight for 48 hours later, but they informed us that that would cost us at total of $1600!! YIKES!! If we rescheduled for a week later it'd cost us $800 ... so we opted to fly with two very sick boys.

We pack up our stuff at a leisurely pace. Jackson takes voluntary naps on the couch throughout the morning, but is able to keep down some bananas and toast. Micah finally goes down with a fight for about an hour allowing us to pack the car.

We drive 4 hours to Omaha in a little more questionable weather this time only stopping once for McDonald's for Colin and I. However, we attempt to give the boys a little bit of chicken nuggets. Jackson does okay, but Micah ... not so much. I'll spare you the gruesomeness and just say I'm glad it hadn't been in his stomach for too long because it didn't have an awful smell yet.

We were going to stay with friends in Omaha, but we decide to spare them and their family this illness by getting a hotel room close by.

Colin was gracious enough to still let me go visit with my girlfriends and put the boys to bed by himself. It was such a gift to be able to catch up with women that I love so dearly.

However, by the time I get back to the hotel at 11pm Colin is sick too... and I was so looking forward to being able to finally sleep in the same bed with him. Luckily all three of my boys sleep through the night although I'm pretty sure they ALL have fevers.

I spend most of the night praying that I won't get sick and keenly aware of the boys ability to wake at any moment sick as dogs.

Day 8 - Wednesday

Thatcher and Lilly have their scheduled surgery ... I pray for them lots! And their little brother Tucker comes down with the flu. Both of their grandma's were able to come to the rescue and help with the three kids all in need of special attention in one way or another. Papa was left behind at his house having finally caught the flu himself.

We booked a later flight out, so we were able to sleep in a little. Jackson and Micah are actually playful, but by the time we check out all 3 boys were pretty exhausted.

We make it through check-in and security discovering that our flight is delayed by about a half hour. The attendant at the check-in counter warns us that we most likely won't make our connecting flight to L.A. out of Denver, but that they've reserved us seats on the next flight out 3 HOURS LATER!!!

Man was I praying!!!! PLEASE LORD LET US MAKE THAT FLIGHT!! I did not want to be stuck in an airport for 3 HOURS with 3 sick boys.

Colin found a bench to sleep under and I occupied the boys. So far no throwing up, but we'd been alternating Ibuprofen and Tylenol with Micah every 3 hours because he was visibly uncomfortable and still had a fever.

I talk to the lady at the ticket counter to see if we can arrange to have the first or second row of seats (it's first come first serve on Southwest) due to the fact that we have so many sick people traveling in our group and that we'd need to rush in order to make our connecting flight ... uh ... no ... they were NOT helpful AT ALL! GRRRRR!

Fortunately the flight arrivs a little earlier than they thought and they hold the L.A. plane for us in Denver. Good thing too because I am surprised that the flight even took off looking out the window. I bet our 3 hours would have been much longer. Once our plane is de-iced and in the air I am much calmer.

Micah sleeps on me most of the way. Jackson plays so nicely by himself close by Colin who was able to sleep some more. The flight was pretty empty and I am glad for that because on the descent Micah finally loses it and we are changing his clothes and wiping down his seat as we land.

Unfortunately the car rental place doesn't pick up at the terminal so we have to haul all of our luggage to a bus stop and wait for the rental bus to pick us up. It takes a little longer than usual. We get our car and get situated. Only to get on the interstate and "crawl" the 4 hours towards home.

Jackson gets sick, but I'm pretty sure it is just motion sickness.

Eventually we drive through a fast food place trying to find the most mild food on the menu for the boys (Jack In the Box has a rice bowl and were able to put the rice and toppings in two separate containers).

By this time Colin feels more rested and can stomach more subtantial food, but decides not to have his normal coffee or Dr. Pepper and that says a lot for him.

We arrive home at around 10pm, but it feels like midnight to us. Jackson is delighted to be in his own bed and Micah goes down for the night with a pretty empty tummy, but we were still giving him medicine which he threw up later that night.

Day 9 - Thursday
Colin goes in late to work.

The boys wake up in good spirits and play while I unpack until about 10:30am when Micah is feverish and only wants to be held. Colin comes home around 11:30 and picks up Jackson so they can go see the rocket launch and really to give Micah and I some down time. Then Colin works the rest of the day from home.

From about 11:30 until 4pm Micah sleeps on and off on my chest and does not want to be put down. He has a mild fever, but I don't want to upset his tummy by giving him more medicine. He threw up his lunch by this point and is not even really interested in water.

I call my girlfriend, Marie, who is a pediatrician in Omaha to ask her advice. Seeing as Micah's fever was going on day 5 she advices me to make an appointment with our pediatrician suspecting that he may have a bacterial ear infection. When they call back to set up the appointment I expressed my concern about giving him pain medicine and they suggested a suppository of acetametaphin. NOT my first choice of a solution, but Colin got some and luckily we have a good friend who has to do suppositories for one of her children on a regular basis, so she was able to give us good advice.

Poor Jackson is feeling the fact that I can't spend time with just him and although he got special time with Colin he has an emotional meltdown at bedtime wanting me to put him to bed. Fortunately Micah is exhausted and goes down quickly so I can spend time reading with Jackson.

Micah sleeps SO much better and we end up giving him one more suppository in the night.

Day 10 - Friday

Micah wakes up fever free and in much better spirits and even keeps breakfast down. We are off to the doctor's and Colin works from home with Jackson. The doctor confirms that Micah has an ear infection and perscribes an antibiotic.

We get it filled as soon as we're back in town and I give it to Micah at lunch only to have him throw it up 5 minutes later. I call Marie once again and she says it's fine to give him another dose. He keeps that one down.

The boys take great naps, but they are not all that interested in supper and Micah tosses most of it anyway. Poor Colin cleans that one up because it didn't make it into the bucket we've been following Micah around with and I put the boys in a bath for almost an hour.

We... I decide to spare Micah another suppository and see how he makes it through the night, but he doesn't make it past 11pm without tossing his cookies in bed and we have to change him and his sheets. We give him a suppository and he sleeps much better. Finally we're connecting that dots that his ears hurt and cause him to have coughing fits which trigger is gauge reflex and ... well you know the rest.

Day 11 - Saturday (Today)

I give Micah his antibiotics on an empty stomach and rock with him in his room for 20 minutes to be sure that they actually absorb before we attempt breakfast.

Jackson and Colin are back to normal.

We decide to feed Micah smaller amounts of food every hour rather than smaller meals every 4 hours and we continue to give him suppositories during the day and into the evening.

So far Micah's kept everything in his stomach. He has moments of being weepy especially when I wouldn't allow him to be over indulgent on certain foods, but I can tell he's feeling better.

We've got 3 more days of the antibiotic, so now I'm just praying that it works. If we don't see any imporvement tomorrow or if he regresses I think we'll be back at the doctor's on Monday.

So our one week trip turned into just about a two week ordeal. It's no fun to be sick in your own home, it's even worse in someone elses' home, but it is by far the PITS to be sick in a hotel room and/or airplane and/or traveling long distance in a car. I wouldn't recommend it to ANYONE!

BUT, we survived! Colin and I are slowly catching up on sleep and our boys are starting to act like the boys we knew before they got sick. Laundry is folded but not put away, I was able to buy a few groceries, but not with much planning for meals (Colin has been amazing and dealing with most of that) and the clean house we came home to is in disarray. BUT my boys are feeling better ... FINALLY!

Can you see the dicotomy? The joy in the pictures and stories I've posted, but the exhaustion and anxiety present too? Can you understand why it's so hard for me to want to travel, but miss my family so much that I do it anyway? Perhaps not, but at least I was able to get this all off of my chest.

So, don't ask me about when I'll be traveling next ... at least not for a few months.

Review: "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"

2011-01-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

When I mentioned several months ago that I was looking into homeschooling and at least going to start some educational curriculum with Jackson at home this year a friend of mine suggested doing "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Seigfried Englemann, Phyllis Haddox and Elaine Bruner.

I was able to get a copy to try out at my local library, but eventually bought my own copy when we decided we found it beneficial to us as a family.

Here's how the book generally works. Each lesson is broken down into several short "tasks." You can do all the tasks in one sitting or you can do a few at a time. Each lesson contains an average of 11 tasks. The tasks range from "sounds instructions" where new sounds are introduced, "say the sounds", etc. and the entire lesson takes only about 15 minutes. By the end of the 100 lessons the child is reading entire paragraphs without pictures.

Here are a few things I really like about the book:

1. The book even goes as far as writing the instructional narrative in red to aid me in my teaching and eliminating almost any need for lesson planning.

2. The authors have clearly thought through all of the skills a child needs in order to learn to read like; how to use their finger as a guide for reading from left to right, rhyming, memorization, etc.

3. As we are getting into more reading of words and away from just letter sounds (we're on lesson 27 by the way) the book incorporates reading comprehension through the use of pictures. It encourages the child to think of what the picture will look like before they actually see it. Then when they get to see the picture the lessons ask comprehensive questions about it as well as open ended questions to encourage them to be creative on their own.

4. It's SUPER redundant ... almost to a fault in the first dozen or so lessons, but there is definitely a rhyme and a reason for it. I found it built confidence right away and what Jackson has learned has REALLY stuck with him. The more confident he gets the more he's willing to try new sounds and write new letters and read new words not only during the lessons, but also in his everyday play time too.

Overall, I feel that this book was really well thought out (perhaps the benefit of having 3 authors). It's been simple enough that it's not too overwhelming, but at the same time it's been challenging enough that it doesn't feel as though we are not learning anything or wasting our time.

Of all of the tasks that the book does I think that Jackson struggled with the printing the most. It took him quite awhile to actually want to write. He's kind of a perfectionist and would get really down on himself when he couldn't write a letter correctly the first time.

Here are a few things that I think have helped him work through his hesitation in printing:

1. Prayer. We pray before every lesson that he would do his best and be proud of the work that he does whether or not it's perfect.

2. Talk. We've had A LOT ... and I mean A LOT of conversations about how mistakes are not "bad." That mistakes are a part of the learning process and everyone makes them. "Mommy and Daddy won't be disappointed if you make a mistake as long as you are doing your best. We will be disappointed if you don't try though." Boy have we said that A LOT!

3. Grace. If Jackson is particularly discouraged one day we just skip the printing. We don't make a big deal out of it, we just don't do it.

4. Praise. We encourage and praise him whenever he attempts to write ANYTHING! Once he began to show more confidence in his writing we allow him to pick which letters he feels he printed the best and put a smiley face next to them. Then I pick the ones I think he did the best on and put a star next to those. Jackson really thrives on words of affirmation.

5. We used the EXTRA wide ruled lined printing paper. Jackson does especially well with the "Smart Start Writing Paper" from Frog Street Press, which has the picture of a sun on the top line and the flower on the bottom line because it gives him really good points of reference for his printing.

6. Interestingly, he does better writing each letter in a column rather than a row. I know it's not ideal since it's not teaching him to print from left to right, but at this point I figure just getting him to print anything repeatedly is a good step.

Christmas Letter 2010 by Colin

2010-12-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

Click on the image below twice to enlarge and read:

Disneyland & Ridemax Review

2010-11-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

We don't normally do huge, extravagant and eventful things to celebrate a birthday, BUUUUT ... This past August when Colin's parents were out here visiting we planned a trip to Disneyland.

However, Micah got sick with Roseolla and had high fevers off and on and the temperature was supposed to be in the hundreds, so I was planning on staying home with him. I got online the day Colin, Jackson and his parents were heading out for L.A. and bought 1 child and 3 adult tickets to Disneyland.

Minutes after I printed them out Colin's dad hurt his back somethin' fierce and we all ended up staying home. Instead of a wonderful and memorable trip to Disneyland, my in-laws got a wonderful and memorable trip to the local chiropractor.

Of course time with family is still precious time with family whether you're at Disneyland or not and we made the most of it. But, the tickets are non-refundable.

So, our next trip down to L.A. was planned for Micah's birthday and that's why we decided to go to Disneyland then. We had one extra adult ticket, so we invited my sister and her husband along too. It was a special time seeing as our families won't be geographically close for much longer. (Side note: we'll be staying in California until this coming summer. I'm hoping our little girl will be around 3 months old when we move ... or at least sleeping through the night.)

Anyway, while I was planning the trip to Disneyland in August I knew that it was going to be crowded (1. because it was the last weekend before school started and 2. we were going on a Saturday) and I began researching tips on making the most of your Disneyland trip. That's when I came across Ridemax (a download-able software program that helps you make an itinerary for your Disneyland and/or Disney World trip so that you avoid long lines, most large crowds and spending an exuberant amount of money). I want to say it was about $15.00 for a 90 day software download and I think it was well worth it.

Although we ended up going on a day when it was not very crowded at all (it being the Friday after Halloween weekend) the tips from Ridemax were still very helpful. We arrived at the park around 9:30am and left a little before 8pm. Even with a 2 year old, a 4 year old and two pregnant ladies we were able to hit at least half a dozen rides (if not more), see the parade and a show. All at a somewhat leisurely pace with plenty of potty breaks and time to sit and eat our meals.

Anyway, enough of the commercial ... I promise Ridemax didn't pay me anything to mention them in my blog ... here are a few pictures from our trip:

Ridemax recommended doing either the "Nemo" ride or "Peter Pan" but not both because they tend to have the longest lines and they recommended riding them first. It was our longest wait in line (about 20 minutes)all day.

The armada of strollers outside of "Peter Pan."

Micah loved all of the rides (with the exception of "Winnie the Pooh"). Here we're on "Casey Jr. Circus Train."

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention above that we were first in line to see Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore and it wasn't even a part of my itinerary ... extra BONUS and the boys LOVED it!!!

Jackson steered the whole way on "Autopia."

We planned "Tom Sawyer's Island" during Micah's nap time because we knew all of the walking may put him to sleep. SUCCESS!

"Tom Sawyer's Island" was definitely one of Jackson's favorite places. So many things to explore including caves. He was very adventurous! However, if he was at all apprehensive about a dark cave he'd say, "Dad, can you go in there and check it out?" As soon as Colin gave the all clear sign he was off to the races.

The two times we've been to Disneyland we've always gotten Mickey ice cream bars, so it's sort of become a tradition.

We didn't have the best seats in the house for the parade, but that was by choice and we didn't have to stand behind anyone either. The boys loved all of the music and dancing.

If you ask the boys what their favorite ride was that we went on they'd say "Buzz Lighyear," hands down. It had a laser gun you could use to shoot Zurg and all of the aliens and it had a joy-stick for moving the car around in circles. Even though it was near the parade route and the parade had just ended so there were crowds headed toward the line we used FAST PASSES to get through the line in about 7 minutes.

Here's the birthday boy at Grandma and Grandpa K's house. Notice the Mickey Mouse cake pop. ;)

Micah at 2 Years Old

2010-10-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

2 Year Check Up:
Weight: 27.7lbs 50%
Height: (I can't remember the inches) 50%
HC: 49cm 50% (The doctor made a comment about him growing into his head. Haha.)

All of the questions asked concerning development raised no red flags for autism. Micah is ahead in his verbal and cognitive development. Dr. Macias was impressed that he can already count with little assistance to 10 and knows at least 2 colors and can recognize almost all of the upper case letters in the alphabet. He's also impressed that he's been saying 7 word sentences pretty consistently. He said a 3 word sentence is usually a sign of a 200 word vocabulary so Micah has obviously exceeded that. I just pointed to his big brother as the attributing factor because as much as I would LOVE to take credit for giving Micah one-on-one attention in that area it doesn't always happen.

Potty Training

Micah shows an interest in potty training every once in awhile, but it's definitely on his terms. He has gone pee several times in the potty and poop only twice, but he has to sit there a looooong time. I'm okay with letting him choose when he wants to be trained, but I've also got a few tricks up my sleeve (like a few toys he can only play with while he's on the potty). I know Jackson being potty trained at 2 years old was an anomaly and I'm not going to rush Micah because that could back fire on me big time.

Personality

Micah is my strong willed boy. He can be stubborn when it comes to saying "sorry" and when asked to do something specifically. Discipline takes longer because of that sometimes, but I know it will all pay off later.

A positive spin on the strong will is that he usually knows what he wants and rarely changes his mind about it. That made his birthday and will make Christmas really fun this year. (He's been eyeing a toy guitar in the Toys R Us ad as of late.)

He loves anything with buttons and anything having to do with music. Singing, the piano, the guitar, etc. He regularly makes up songs about random things he plays with or sees and loves it when the rest of the family makes up songs too. Although he can be pretty bossy about what bedtime songs he wants sung to him at night. :) But he also loves to sing along and I think that's adorable!

He is such a goof ball sometimes and gets the giggles right before bed. I love it and probably give in to it too often making it harder for him to settle down for the night, but I just treasure the times we have alone in his dimly lite room giggling about his silliness.

However, he's pretty shy around strangers and it takes him awhile to warm up to even family members, so don't be surprised if you don't hear him singing or even talking when you first meet him.

He ADORES his older brother and wants to do what ever he's doing. Most of the time that makes for a great play situation, but sometimes it can cause conflict over toys or my attention. I've resigned to the fact that I may have to buy multiples of the same toy to keep the peace (cheap toys that is ... I'm not that crazy). For example, one of my smarter purchases lately were two $1 flashlights. They will play in a closet with those together for at least an hour. I love that my two boys are such good buddies.

One of Micah's favorite things to do is find a place to hide and be alone. He loves forts and I think for his sake we might have to have a club house/tree house in the future. I remember doing that myself as a child and even now I tend to be rejuvenated more when I'm by myself than when I'm with other people.

Micah is almost hyper observant at times and catches on to things I would have never thought he would. He is such a little sponge lately ... the other day he was trying to say "hypothesis" and "ominous" because he heard us talking about it. He has a great memory too. That mixed with his strong will may be a challenge for Colin and I as he gets older. We're just praying he uses it for the greater good.

Our Prayer

Dear Father,

Thank you for Micah. Thank you for 2 years of life with him. He belongs to you and is a gift to us. Use him and everything about him for your glory. Help him to desire to know you more and be more like Jesus all the days of his life.

Amen

Birthday Cake on a Stick

2010-10-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Micah turned 2 years old today! We celebrated his birthday yesterday since Colin was home all day.

The day started out with birthday signs (made by Jackson and me) and decorations,

blueberry muffins with birthday candles and scrambled eggs (made by the boys) and pears (a few of Micah's favorites).

Then we opened presents and played until it was time to go to church.

We enjoyed a wonderful worship together as a family and then came home and had a quick lunch and long naps. After naps we all had cake pops!

Why I haven't heard of cake pops until now is still a wonder. It is SO much easier for a young child to eat and easy for Mommy to clean up afterwards. It helps with portion control and it's just plain fun to eat just about anything on a stick. It was my first attempt at making them and I think I'll have to make a new batch for the celebration we have with family on Novemeber 5th. If your adventurous and want to try them out and get lots of good decorating ideas you should check out the Bakerella website here. It's where I got the idea for the Mickey Mouse shaped cake pop.

After cake pops, Micah picked out a movie of his choice and we sat in front of the TV and ate chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, broccoli and smoothies (more of Micah's favorites) as a special birthday dinner treat.

That night as Colin and I were reflecting on the joys of the day he said, "I've come to realize that my parents probably got more enjoyment on my birthday than I did growing up." SO TRUE! What a blessing to be able to celebrate LIFE! May we never take it for granted.

P.S. Micah has his two year check up on Thursday, so I'll be sure to post another blog with his stats then.

"School" Part 2

2010-10-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote a blog entitled "School" laying out the fact that Colin and I haven't decided what we are going to do in regards to schooling for Jackson yet.

We still don't know.

Partly because we still don't know where we'll be living, but partly because we just haven't made up our minds.

Since my first post I was able to go to a homeschooling conference here in town. Here are a few things that I got out of the event:

1. We've got time! Jackson is FOUR! Most states don't require you to declare your intent for education until age 6. I think I was just feeling a little peer pressure watching friends and family send their kids (who are actually older than Jackson) off to school this fall.

2. We can make our educational decision one year at a time. If we choose to do homeschooling for the first year that doesn't mean we have to commit to it for the rest of Jackson's academic life. However, I've heard from several parents that it's much easier logistically to start homeschooling first and then move to public or private schooling because of the hoops the government requires you to jump through when you change (each state is different though).

3. Homeschooling is a lifestyle. It will affect our family as a whole ... perhaps not more than public or private school, but differently. It will be a lot of work on my part.

4. Homeschool communities are essential. Parent's swap tips, curriculum, set up co-teaching arrangements, group field trips, events, sports, etc. You name it, they do it. I'm not sure I'd even consider homeschooling if there is not a homeschool community where we will eventually live.

5. Every body's reasons for homeschooling are different and not all of them are because they want to "shelter" their kids from the world. I wanted to walk away from the conference with "my reason to homeschool" or even "my reason not to homeschool", but I didn't want to walk away on the fence or with someone else's reason for homeschooling. After a looooooong talk with my husband, I think we both concluded that our reason for homeschooling and what excites us most about homeschooling is being able to tailor our children's education to their strengths and weaknesses.

Like I said before and contrary to what it sounds like from the list above, we STILL have not decided officially what we'll be doing once Jackson turns 6 years old, but we've got a little time.

In the mean time I decided that I needed to do "School" this year with Jackson to see if I could handle having more structure in my days, weeks and months as the "teacher."

So, at the beginning of September we started the "Five In A Row" curriculum that I mentioned in my first blog. Only this time I am much more consistent and structured in what I'm doing for Jackson. It also means that I take weekly trips by myself to the library to load up on books for the week's lessons.

We've also started "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." Jackson has had a grasp on phonetics for a long time now, but has yet to have the confidence to just put the sounds together and start reading. We're only on lesson 8 of 100, but so far I can already see his confidence level growing in reading AND writing.

Anyway, here is what we do for "School" in a typical week. Note: "School" lasts about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how much I want to get accomplished and how quickly we can get Micah down for a nap in the afternoon.

Everyday: Calendar, Prayer, Weekly Bible Verse, Reading and Writing

Mondays: Review the Sunday School lesson from church.
Read the story for the week.
FIAR Christian Character and Bible Supplement

Tuesdays: Read the story for the week.
Social Studies

Wednesdays: Read the story for the week.
Art/Literature
Supplemental worksheets (optional)

Thursdays: Read the story for the week.
Math/Science

Fridays: Review/ Catch Up
Pbskids.org

Friday's are typically my days to clean the entire house, so we don't have "School" on those days. However, Jackson does get some time to play on the PBS Kids website and they have a lot of fun educational games on it that I'm comfortable with.

Here are a few pictures from the week we read through "The Rag Coat" by Lauren Mills

Jackson's "Quilt" he made during his art lesson. He LOVES to cut with scissors!

Pretending to be a "coal miner" in my closet during his science lesson on coal was one of his favorite lessons for this book.

Anyway, I know this was a long post and I know it may seem like I've dropped off the blogging planet, but I'm here! I have SO much I want to blog about and so little time ... isn't that just about every blogger's mantra?! ;)

Summer Vacation Photo Book 2010

2010-08-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Transitions

2010-08-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

We've had a few transitions in our household over the last couple of months that I wanted to take note of.

Micah Night Lights

After we returned from our vacation to the Midwest, Micah had a rough time going down for naps and bed time. He would cry and cling to me almost as if he was scared. If Colin put him down he seemed to do a little better, but he'd still wake up early or in the night and cry until we settled him down.

Out of pure desperation one night (I think Colin was out of town for work) I put a night light in Micah's room thinking perhaps he was just getting to the age where he was scared of the dark. It didn't solve the problem immediately, but after a couple of days the crying and clinging stopped.

We don't have a timer on it like Jackson's. We'll probably start doing that once he's in a big boy bed which we'll be after we move to wherever we're going next ... that's another blog for another time. However, I do turn off the night light before I get him out of bed and turn it on when it's time to get into bed just so he gets used to the idea.

Jackson Shorter Naps

Lately Jackson has been taking FOREVER to go to sleep at night and it's not without being called into his room a MILLION times for water or a shadow or just one more hug.

Jackson has been a good napper for most of his life. He's 4 and he still takes a 2 hour nap every day. About a month or so ago I tried to cut his nap by an hour and that just made him weepy, so I stuck with the 2 hour nap. UNTIL this past week when he was taking longer to fall asleep.

This week I've cut his nap by 30 minutes by setting his night light to go off that much earlier. The first day he had a playdate and slept right through the night light going off (which is really rare) and woke up at his normal time. I guess he played hard. Today he woke up with the night light. We'll see how bedtime goes tonight.

Me Exercising During Pregnancy
I'm 9 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow. Before I became pregnant I was doing circuit training 4 days a week and doing cardio 1 day a week for about 45 minutes each workout.

Since I've become pregnant I've continued to circuit train for 3 days a week and cardio for 1 day a week for about 30 minutes each workout. I've noticed that my heart rate goes up pretty quickly and I lose my breath just as easily. It's kind of annoying actually, but only in the beginning of the workout.

There have been a few days that I opted to sleep in instead of work out and although it was probably the right choice I did notice a change in my mood and energy level.

I'm still "Shredding" but have taken the intensity down a notch especially during the cardio sections. Around 12 weeks I plan on modifying any abdominal workouts that are done on my back. I'm thinking I may need to find a prenatal workout DVD, so if anyone has any good suggestions let me know.

Fun Vacation Memories

2010-07-31T07:35:00.001-07:00

I realize my blog can be overly practical at times and my last blog about vacation didn't mention any of the fun stuff we did. So here is a list of the fun memories from our family vacation in no particular order.

1. Playing on the beach every day with the kids.
2. Micah's excitement as lake waves reached his chin and he'd smile and say, "More!"
3. Sun bathing with the other moms as our children took long naps in the warm cabin.

4. Going running with those same moms after our kids went to bed.
5. Learning how to play "Hand and Foot."
6. Sneaking into the bedroom at 11:30 at night as 3 boys slept in nooks and crannies.
7. Finding those 3 boys playing when they were supposed to be napping in the bedroom.
8. Papa telling stories at midnight to help Jackson be brave during a big storm.
9. Taking Lilly and Jackson to their first evening movie "Despicable Me" in 3D.

10. Jackson shouting, "I wish Papa were here, he likes M&Ms" at the movies (my in-laws stayed home to watch the 4 younger kids).
11. Going out to eat for my mother-in-law's birthday and announcing that we are expecting our 3rd child in March.
12. Caravaning with my sister and her husband to WI.
13. Jackson shouting, "My mommy has a baby in her tummy" right when we arrived at the Door County cabin ... so much for timing.

14. My brother teaching me how to play "Texas Hold 'Em."
15. Playing dominoes with Becky, Lora and Jackson.
16. The AMAZING burgers and steaks Brian and Lora made.
17. Getting alone time with my sister.
18. Learning how to make "Cloud Nines" (chocolate chip cookies, Reece's Peanut Butter Cup and roasted marshmallow) over a fire pit.
19. Playing "BS" with Taryn, Caitlin, Diana and my dad (turns out he's not very good at it).

20. Witnessing Caitlin and Taryn becoming teenagers.
21. Seeing Ericka with the rest of the family even though my brother wasn't there.
22. Bible Story times as a large family.

23. Watching my two boys bond with other family members!!

There really were so many good memories to mention them all in this blog. I will truly treasure this trip for a life time.

Vacation Notes

2010-07-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a lengthy vacation to the Midwest and I wanted to be sure to take note of the things that I'd do for next time.

For the first leg of our trip we flew out of Ontario (which was a lot less hecktick than LAX) and flew into Omaha and drove to Spirit Lake all in one day. We didn't actually arrive at the cabin until around midnight, but it felt like ten o'clock to us. We stayed there for one week with the rest of the Doughan families arriving about a day and a half after we arrived. We had a total of 8 adults and 6 kids (under the age of 5) in a small two bedroom cabin.

At the end of the week we drove 4 hours and stayed in a hotel and then the next morning drove another 4 hours to a cabin in Door County. We were there for only a weekend and the adults out numbered the children almost 4 to 1 which was a nice change of pace. After a short weekend we drove 3 1/4 hours to my dad's and spent about two days there.

Overall, (if you include the night we spent at my grandparents' in LA) our trip spanned 14 days and we had about 32 hours in an airplane or a car.

If you know me or spoke to me or read my facebook at all before we left you'd know that I was a little stressed about the possibility of the craziness that could have arose from the long trip we had planned. I truly tried to give my worries to the Lord and enjoy each and every moment I had with family and by God's grace the vacation was a lot less challenging than I thought it would be.

For next time I would:

1. Guard our schedules before and after the trip to make sure we get plenty of sleep and eat healthy well balanced meals. This helped us all have much happier hearts and also made sure our immune systems were in shape.

I was nervous that my boys would get sick like they usually do when traveling on airplanes, but I think it helped that we weren't traveling during cold and flu season.

Arriving at the cabin a day or so before the rest of the family helped with this too. The boys were able to get a good night's sleep and get adjusted to the two hour time change before they gained some roommates/playmates at night time.

2. Be okay with snacking while we travel and bring healthy options for snacks so we don't fill up on junk (airport security had no problems letting me bring pre-sliced apples and carrots on the plane).

The time zone changes, pressure changes in airplanes, motion sickness, being out of routine, etc. all lend to snacking. I'm okay with it the days we travel all day long, but I try to quickly get us back on regularly scheduled meals as fast as possible.

3. If we have to eat out make sure we choose healthy options because vacations tend to lend themselves to having lots of "treats" be that chocolate brownies or hot dogs and potato chips. Subway was a lifesaver for us many times on this trip.

4. Be okay with watching more DVDs than normal in order to give the kids a little down time after a long day of play and to get through long car rides. Our portable DVD player came in VERY handy.

Note: I did bring some new toys and even wrapped them so the boys could open them and play with them in the car, but they lost interest in them very quickly.

5. Drive a bigger vehicle if possible for long road trips. We ended up renting a Ford Flex (about a mini-van size) and I put Micah in the third row behind Jackson in the second row on the right side of car so that I could reach both of them easily without making myself get motion sickness (which can happen to me pretty easily).

As a result we all got a few naps in in the car (with the exception of Colin who drove), but I'll know for next time not to rely on those naps because they may or may not happen.

6. White noise is a MUST! The Spirit Lake cabin had lots of fans running and even though most of the kids were sleeping in the same room with each other I think the fans really helped them stay asleep even if someone woke up crying.

It was an adventure when we had a huge thunder storm the first night (100 mph wind) and we lost power for 24 hours. Luckily our sound spa can run off of batteries and my sister-in-law's dad was able to bring over a generator so we could run the fridge.

7. 14 days is LOOOOOOOOOONG vacation for little kids. By about day 10 Micah was having random melt downs every day and Jackson was more irritable ... to be honest, so was I.

I loved having that much time with family, but I may either have to mentally prepare myself for that again or cut the trip by about 2 - 3 days for my sanity. We may have to see my dad first next time though since he had the "burnt out end of the trip" this time around. :)

8. Make sure to give our family about 3 - 5 days AFTER our vacation to fully adjust back to our normal routines. Time zone changes are hard and Micah's been having some big issues with napping since we've been home.

However, I must say that even though it seems anal and can be a frenzy to do a good house cleaning before we left on a long trip it was a huge sigh of relief to come home to.

We had SUCH a good time on our trip!!! It was so good to see everyone especially the Fanning side in light of the past years' events. It may sound crazy to me know, but I really am hoping to make this more of an annual event.

Spirit Lake, IA

The one-year-olds! These three boys are each 4 months apart in age starting with Micah then Orin and then Tucker.

The two oldest cousins ... 4 years old and also 4 months apart in age.

Micah making "soup" with sand and lake water.

Jackson having some bonding time with Great-Grandma Heyer.

Door County, WI

Union Grove, WI

BOYS! Jackson loved to wrestle and play with his older cousins.

I think Micah's favorite part of the trip was Gomez ... my dad's dog.

Grampa Fanning giving the boys fresh blueberries and raspberries from his garden.

Jackson's Birthday Buddy

2010-07-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

This post is about a month overdue, but it's been a busy month (translation: don't be surprised if you see me posting multiple blogs over the next couple of days to catch up).

Jackson's best friend here in California is two weeks younger than him and last year they had a joint birthday party together. Little did we know at the time that we'd be here for another birthday party this year and of course we wanted to do a joint one together again.

Those two boys are best buds! We had a great turn out for the party, but the boys are such best buds that they would have been perfectly content if it was just the two of them.

4th Birthday and 4 Year Check Up

2010-06-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

This year was the first year that Jackson REALLY anticipated his birthday. For several weeks before his birthday we heard "is it my birthday yet?"

The weekend that we went to my grandparent's house in L.A. to celebrate his birthday he said, "but it's not my birthday yet." When we sang him happy birthday he said, "but I'm not really four yet." He can be very legalistic at times ... although that didn't stop him from opening presents and enjoying the birthday treats.

We had such a great time with family in L.A.

I think Jackson's highlight was playing treasure hunt with Auntie Sarah.

On his actual birthday Jackson really soaked up the special attention. "I get the special plate because today's my birthday." "I get to eat first because today is my birthday." "I don't have to clear the table tonight because today is my birthday." It was the first time he could really recognize and appreciate being treated extra special and it was really fun for him AND me.

I'll need to remember that kids feel special even with the littlest things ... sometimes ESPECIALLY with the littlest things (i.e. birthday signs and balloons around the house, phone calls from family members who were calling just to talk to him, special birthday only privileges, etc.)

He got a birthday cookie this year since he's having three different celebrations (one with family, one on his actual birthday, and then a joint party in July with his best friend who is 2 weeks younger than him) and I didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of leftover cake. He got to eat the blueberries off of the cookie for breakfast, but waited to have the actual cookie until his birthday supper.

Jackson's big presents this year were two Hotwheels track sets! One from Grandma and Papa and one from Mom and Dad. I'm not sure if I was more excited or if he was. Jackson LOVES playing with cars, but his cars are pretty conversational and I get a little exhausted trying to keep up with his imagination and energy while playing "cars." I was looking forward to actually zooming some cars around the tracks. He's still getting the hang of setting it all up, but this is DEFINITELY a toy that he'll be playing with for quite a while ... and I have to admit that I was tempted to play with it while he was taking a nap the other day. :)

Last Wednesday we took Jackson for his 4 year check up. I thought it'd be quick since there were no shots or anything to be had, but still dropped Micah off with a friend for the morning so I could have some alone time with Jackson. It turns out that they did a lot more than I expected and boy did Jackson feel grown up. Here's what they did:

An eye exam with a chart of shapes - his left eye is a little weaker than his right and we'll have to watch for that as he gets older due to the ptosis in that eye.

A hearing test where he had to wear earphones and listen for different pitches and volumes - he passed with flying colors.

A urine sample - I don't have those results back yet, but he thought it was so cool that he got to pee in a cup. The nurse reminded him that we only do that at the doctor's office as he was gloating about it on the way out.

Dr. Macias was very impressed with his cognitive skills and reassured me that he was ready for school (although we'll be waiting for at least a year or so). After his appointment we went out to lunch with just Jackson, Colin and me to make it a special day.

My little man is getting so big and I'll need to make sure that as he gets older and life gets busy for him and me that we take little moments like days with doctor's appointments to slow down and enjoy special time with just the two of us.

Premiere 5K and Pancakes

2010-05-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

What's with the random title? I was going to do two different posts, but I just thought I'd save time by combining them, so bare with me.

Over the past two months or so, I've been trying to get more physically fit for various reasons. One being that my family has a history of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes and I know that staying healthy can hopefully prevent all or some of these.

The other is because I want to be a healthy weight before I start trying to have another baby. I know it seems fatalistic to do all of this work and then gain 40lbs during my next pregnancy. However, I figure if I do it now I'll only have to lose 10lbs instead of 30 - 40lbs.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of things got get fit. I've been doing Jillian Michaels' "30 Day Shred" workout DVD for 4 mornings a week (it helps that Colin is willing to be a workout partner), I'm also doing a Jillian's "Yoga Meltdown" DVD in the afternoons and running/elliptical at least 3 days a week. On top of all of that I've cut my calorie intake and tried to cut back on processed foods using a meal plan through www.jillianmichaels.com . It's actually been really fun to try new and healthy recipes. Here's one of my favorite ones so far because they taste so good and they are really filling without a lot of calories:

FYI: I made a double batch of these and put them in the freezer because they reheat very well.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup(s) flour, whole-wheat
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup(s) cottage cheese, fat free
2/3 cup(s) milk, lowfat (1%) (I used skim)
2 large egg(s)
1 tablespoon honey (I added about 1/2 tbsp more)

Preparation

In a large bowl, stir together flour and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cottage cheese, milk, eggs, and honey. Stir wet ingredients into dry ones.
Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium. Working in batches, drop pancake mixture by 1/4 cupfuls into pan. Cook until bottoms are set and tops have small bubbles, about 1 minute. Turn pancakes and cook until just firm in the center, 1 to 3 minutes more. Repeat. Serve with fresh strawberries, blueberries and/or bananas (add an additional 91 calories).

Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 10 mins

Nutrition Facts
Number of Servings: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 193
Total Fat: 4 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 110 mg
Sodium: 221 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 26 g
Dietary Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 15 g

All of the workouts and calorie cutting has really paid off. So far I've lost 12lbs, in a little over 2 months. I have about 5 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight. Hopefully just in time for swimsuit weather! ;)

Before I began doing the "30 Day Shred" DVD a friend of mine and I were doing the "Couch to 5K" challenge. I wanted to continue doing that too, but I really cut back on my running. So, when I entered for a 5K this weekend I didn't really know what to expect.

The 5K was in Huasna Valley and was GORGEOUS! It was a fundraiser run for a girl named Holly Navolt (they called it Hike for Holly and you'll soon find out why), she's an 18 year old girl who has severe Cystic Fibrosis and needed a lung transplant. The plan was that I would run and Colin would walk the 5K with the boys in the stroller. We had heard that that the route was pretty flat except on section that had a pretty steep incline. WRONG!

When we got there you couldn't tell where the 5K trail was because of the surrounding forests. It wasn't until the actual run that I found out that it was more of a hike than a run. There were several steep hills that had rocks, sticks, deep holes (from cattle and possibly ground hogs), mud, etc. They weren't just little hills, they were hills that were hard to walk up AND down let alone run. If I would have known I would have taken a camera with me to prove it to you.

Needless to say Colin couldn't make it up the first hill (which was the most mild of them all) with the stroller and Jackson was devastated that he couldn't "run" with his mommy. However, the trail looped back near the starting line a little less than half way through, so Jackson did get to cheer me on then. It was SO adorable to hear his little voice yelling, "Go Mommy, go!"

There was a straight away at the end of the race where the boys met up with me and Jackson could "finish" the race with me in the end. He was very proud of himself. Although I added about 5 minutes to the 3 mile time I ran earlier in the week, I'm still VERY proud of my 35:59 finish time.

Even though they couldn't participate in the run, the morning was still really fun for the boys. The event planners really did a great job. They had a bounce house, a band, a BBQ and a mini petting zoo. The boys had a great time ... we all did.

However, I'd have to say that the best and worst part of the morning was when Jackson had a melt down as we were leaving because he dropped his uneaten banana on the ground and his balloon animal popped out of it's shape. He yelled through angry tears, "now I won't have anything special from the race!" It was probably one of the worst public tantrums he's ever had. It was also a REALLY good opportunity for me to remind him of the reason why we were doing the race to begin with. We talked about Holly and her sickness and how she needed new lungs because hers were broken ... it was a good reminder for the both of us that we shouldn't be so focused on ourselves.

Breakfast of Little Champions

2010-05-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that when my kids are in the pureed baby food stage I have no qualms about mixing different foods together to speed up the feeding process. That mixing has resulted in some experimenting over the past years and a few creations that my kids love and I feel are a really tasty and healthy choice for them.

Here is a GREAT breakfast that is a good source of protein, iron, fiber and vitamin C.

PB&J Oatmeal
1 serving

1/2 c. prepared instant oatmeal
1 - 1/2 tablespoon of natural peanut butter or almond butter (if allergic to peanuts)
1/4c. unsweetened applesauce
fresh or thawed frozen blueberries and/or strawberries

Mix the first three ingredients and top with fruit. Serve and enjoy! (Note: sometimes I'll use yogurt instead of applesauce for a little extra protein and probiotics).

18 Month Old Check Up

2010-05-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

Micah turned 18 months on April 25, 2010. His personality over the last several months has just blossomed and the paths of the two boys are now starting to diverge a little (as they should).

The Stats:
Weight: 24lbs 2oz 25%
Height: 33 1/2 inches 75%
Head Circumference: 49cm 80%

Micah's Schedule:
6:30 - some days he'll jabber in his crib and then go back to sleep
8:00 - wake up (sometimes he'll sleep till 8:30 if I'm lucky)
Noon - lunch
12:55 - small snack (we've found that he sleeps better at night and for his nap if he has a little snack (i.e. a cup of yogurt of peanut butter toast) right before he goes down).
1:00 - nap
3:30 - jabber or cry (depending on the day) in his crib until about 4pm if he doesn't just sleep until then ... more on this later.
4:00 - snack (not too much though otherwise he's not hungry for supper)
5:30 - supper
7:15 - bedtime routine including a little snack
7:30 - Bible story time, which he's gotten much better at sitting through over the last several months.
8:00 - in bed
8:30 - usually asleep

18 Month Challenges:
NAPS, NAPS, NAPS!!! Micah was sick over Easter and it took him awhile to bounce back which had a direct affect his naps.

At first he'd sleep about an hour and then wake up frantically crying. If I went in there to calm him down it only seemed to wake him up more, but if Colin went in there he'd go right back to sleep ... go figure ... it was the same if he woke up in the middle of the night, which he was doing during the time he was sick.

Eventually I tried rocking him for the rest of his nap to see if I could at least get him to take a full nap on me ... NOPE. My only choice at this point (knowing that he was perfectly healthy and perfectly capable of sleeping a full nap and through the night) was to let him cry it out. The evening cry outs were short lived, but the day time naps were not seeming to get any better UNTIL...

... one day Micah went over to a friend's house for a play date and came home after lunch, but right before nap time. I had no idea how much he had to eat for lunch, so I fed him some yogurt just in case and HE SLEPT AWESOME!!

Since then we've been giving him a snack before his nap and bedtime and he's been sleeping much better. He still has days where he wakes up early and sometimes he wakes up crying, but other days he wakes up happy (which I can handle much better), either way he stays in his crib until 4 o'clock because Mommy needs to have some down time.

18 Month Joys:
TALKING, TALKING, TALKING!!! Micah's vocabulary has taken off this past month and he's now even streaming two words together. Here are a few things you might hear him say:
"Mees!" - please
"Mee Mama!" - please Momma
"Hi,hi" - hide, hide
"Ah-min" - amen
"Da!" - yes
"No?" -no (I wish you could hear his intonation because it's so adorable)
"Moe" - more
"Up" - up
"Puppy" - puppy or any animal
"cows" - cars
"caka" - cracker
"me-mow" - Nemo and/or fruit snacks
"choo-choo" - train
"Ah-ah!" - monkey/Curious George
"Em-oh" - Elmo, but also elbow
"ni-ni daddy" - good night daddy
"da-di" - Jackson
"wee-oh" - wheel
"bi-boh" - bible
"dee-dus" - Jesus
"oots" - oops
He actually has quite a few more, but I won't bore you with a longer list than what I've given here. He's SO adorable when he "talks" and especially when he mimics his older brother ... thankfully Jackson is eating that up right now.

Micah's also showed some beginning signs of potty training readiness. The day of his 18 month check up he told me that he was poopy during lunch, but when I went to change him his diaper was empty. I asked him if he wanted to go poopy on the potty and he said, "Da!" (see above for translation) and to my surprise he went poop and pee on the potty! I've tried several times since then with no luck and it seems he has lost interest, so I'm not going to push potty training at this point, but it's a glimmer of hope for the future.

PLAY TIME! Micah and Jackson are now starting to play together ... okay well at least in the same room next to each other without me having to be present. It's been fun to watch them develop their relationship as brothers. Since this has taken place here are a few phrases you'll hear me say to both boys at various times and most likely several times during the day:

"You need to use your words if you want that toy and not just take it from him."
"He doesn't like that, you need to stop."
"Tell him 'no thank you' if you don't like what he's doing."
"Let him have a turn."
"Are you being loving?!"
"Go play in Jackson's room!"

Playing "together" at a children's museum.

Micah has caught Jackson's love of cars, but he also loves trains and puppies. He has a stuffed puppy that he sleeps with now (mostly because then he can play with it in bed after his nap until I'm ready to get him up). He'll walk around the house cuddling, kissing and talking to the puppy. He really is a cuddly little man and it is not uncommon for him to stop playing and find me just so he can cuddle for a minute or two (I LOVE THAT!).

He's starting to get more interested in reading entire books even with more than just a few words on a page, but he loves anything that he can take apart and put back together or that has multiple buttons on it. His absolute FAVORITE pass time is sitting in the parked car and playing with the steering wheel and all of the buttons and levers with Daddy. I may have to invest in a few more small motor skill toys in order to keep him busy in church and occupied on the potty once we're serious about training.

Micah's favorite thing at the children's museum.

Micah's personality is free spirited, adventurous and even at such a young age has some great comedic timing (although I'm not sure he's aware of that quite yet). He's shy around strangers, but once he warms up he can be such a HAM! He's a Momma's boy when he's out of his element, but when he's up for an adventure he runs straight to Daddy or his brother! :)

What more can I say?!

You are such a treat and a delight Micah! We love you SO much!

Motion Sickness

2010-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Colin had it when he was a boy and I still have it and it seems like the day Jackson turned 3 years old he inherited it too. MOTION SICKNESS! Here are a few things that have worked for us when it comes to motion sickness in the car:

1. Always keep a large cup in the car. It's even better if it has a lid just in case you have no place to stop and rinse it out once it's been "used."

2. Cover the window adjacent to the child's seat with a thick blanket to block out any motion in their peripheral. We've found that by putting Jackson behind the driver's seat we can tuck the blanket in such a way that the driver can still see out of his blind spot.

3. Just recently we got Jackson a Leapster2 to play while we travel and bought kid friendly ear phones like the ones pictured here to go with them and that seems to have made a HUGE difference. I'm not exactly sure why, but it did.

4. I always keep a pack of gum and a few extra munchies in my purse when we travel. I know a full tummy helps my motion sickness, so I figured it'd help him too.

5. Now that Jackson is old enough he can tell us when he is starting to feel motion sickness and we can tell him to close his eyes until he feels better. Colin will also crack the windows for a few minutes for fresh air and that seems to help too. We've avoided having to use "the cup" several times this way.

Those are the things that have worked for us. I'd love to hear solutions from others whose kids struggle with motion sickness.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

2010-04-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

While traveling over Easter Micah got hand, foot and mouth disease. It's a sister virus to the chicken pox that starts with a fever for 24 hours and then creates blister like sores in the mouth and on the hands and feet. Most children get it when they are young, but the symptoms are rarely noticeable and sores may not even appear on the hands and feet (in fact we're pretty sure Jackson had it too since he had the 24 hour fever as well, but he had no other symptoms).

However, poor Micah got this virus pretty bad and there was nothing we could do for him but wait it out. He had a fever on Easter Sunday that lasted 24 hours. A day or two afterwards his eating habits were strange. I thought perhaps he had a sore throat because he was spitting out some of his most favorite foods(even sweets).

Then a few days later I noticed that in between his toes were raw and blistered and finally noticed his hands had a few little blisters as well. That's when I put two and two together and realized he had hand, foot and mouth. We had already been giving him Ibuprofen because we thought he was in pain from his throat, but it turns out he had visible sores on his tongue too. Poor guy.

We continued the Ibuprofen and put triple antibiotic cream on the open sores on his feet and covered them with socks, which seemed to ease his discomfort. After a couple of days of eating just eggs and drinking just milk the sores in his mouth went away and he slowly went back to his normal eating habits.

Micah was so exhausted from this virus that he fell asleep at the lunch table.

The virus was a doozy for Micah. It's now been over 2 weeks and he still has remnant blisters on his hands, but mostly his feet that are peeling and healing. He's been sleeping through the night for a little over a week, but still struggles with his naps, but we're getting it all worked out.

LOTS of Pictures!! Enjoy!

2010-04-16T17:26:00.001-07:00

February - April 2010!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Diapers

2010-03-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of facebook status updates about diapers and diaper brands, so I thought that I'd do a quick little blog so I can remember for the next child.

Newborn
Pampers Swaddler diapers are much softer and more absorbent than most diapers and don't cause rashes. I made the mistake of using off brand wipes on Micah and his poor little tooshie paid for that mistake. Next time around I'll definitely use the sensitive wipes until I feel like their bottom has toughened up a bit.

3 Months and Up
Once their bowel movements are a little more predictable and solid and their bottoms are a little tougher, I switch to off brand diapers during the day and the name brand diapers a night in order to save a little money. The only off brand that isn't really a "bargain" has been the Walmart brand Family Choice because I have to change their diapers more often due to leaking. Although, I have friends who have had good luck with them. I've also found that although Pampers is a little more expensive than LUVS or Huggies, they hold more and cover more of the boys' bottoms and are worth the price. I also have a "Strike Three" rule - after 3 blowouts/major leaks I up the diaper size.

Between 12 & 18 Months
Both of my boys began to wet through their night time diapers even though I was putting them in name brand diapers as well as in one size bigger than they wear during the day. Micah woke up several nights in a row one week soaked ... I quickly mastered changing a toddler's clothes and diaper in the dark. Eventually I gave in and bought Pampers special overnight diapers. Again, they are more expensive, but if it saves me having to change an entire outfit every night and getting more quality sleep for both me and Micah it's worth it.

Potty Training
I don't do Pull-Ups (you can read my potty training blog for more details). I think that I can just as easily take off and put on a normal diaper for early potty training and save the extra dollars. When Jackson was in his later stages of potty training I put him in underwear and never looked back ... I just hope I'm as lucky with Micah.

Cloth Diapers
I'm not an expert on cloth diapers all I know is that there are SO MANY different brands to choose from. I have a lot of friends who use them for various different reasons. I'm a just a little too lazy for them perhaps. If you have questions about them I know some great women who would love to answer any questions you have!

Click!

2010-03-16T14:45:00.001-07:00

At various stages in children's lives things just click! Before that moment you think "they'll never learn to walk, talk, feed themselves, climb stairs, jump, use the toilet, ride a bike, pee standing up, etc." But then one day it seems that they wake up and they set their mind to a task and they "get 'er done."

Here are a few things that have "clicked" for Micah and Jackson over the last couple of weeks/months:

Jackson:

peddling his big wheel

coloring and beginning writing skills

and ...yes ... peeing standing up (I don't have a picture for that one folks).

Micah:

talking, talking, and more talking... (this one counts for triple)

It's SO FUN to watch skills magically happen! It's the wonderment of learning that I love the most. You never know when it's going to happen ... when they'll FINALLY get it, but they do and I feel so privileged to get to see it happen.

My First Dentist Appointment by Jackson

2010-03-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

So first we went in. And then we played with toys. There were Duplos and there were stuffed animals (a giraffe, a polar bear, a panda bear) and there were more, but I don't remember them.

Then the waitress said, "Colin it's your turn." And then we went into the room where there were chairs and tools. There was a big chair and there was a small chair (like a rocking chair) and I sat in it and then I rocked. Then I read books while Daddy climbed up in the chair and then they started fixing his teeth.

Later Daddy put on an apron (a really heavy apron) and then ... um... cuz they wanted to take a picture of his teeth. The picture looked like a big picture with five pictures on it and it was turquoise color.

Then Daddy got out of the chair and then it was my turn.

I sat in the chair and then they looked at my teeth and they had a hook and mirror. They kinda got in between my teeth and then they counted my top teeth (there were ten). Then they counted my bottom teeth and I had ten teeth down there. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, TWENTY!

Then when I was all done I got to ride up and down on the chair. After that she showed me "Mr. Thirsty." He's a tool that sucks up water. They put it in a cup with water and he drank up all the water. Then I drank a cup of water and spit out in the sink. Then Pat (the dental hygienist) gave me a toothbrush and some toothpaste and some floss and some other floss... two toothpastes and a pencil. Then I said, "goodbye."

Then Daddy talked to a lady and I got a sticker to put on our calendar to remember when we would come back.

THE END

United States Flag

2010-03-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Our next door neighbors (the ones that I've blogged about before) are both in the military. When we moved in the father was deployed and now the mother has been deployed since August. We've become good friends with them and their daughter and Jackson are inseparable. So, we sent a thank you letter and picture to the mother soon after she was deployed and yesterday she sent us this in the mail:

Yes, that is Jackson using the USA flag as a blanket.

The certificate says that the "flag was flown over the skies of Afghanistan on the 9th day of February, 2010... in a Close Air Support mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in finding and destroying all those who threaten our very way of life. With great appreciation we present this certificate to those who support the few that fight for the freedoms of many: Colin, Corinne, Jackson and Micah.

We thought that it was WAY cool to receive that gift and what a wonderful teachable moment for Jackson to learn about our country and what we stand for. As a result we are now beginning to work on memorizing the "Pledge of Allegiance." I'll be sure to post the video.

Video taken on 3/10/10:

Sleep Over Party

2010-02-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

Jackson and his best friend Patrick had a sleep over at our house a couple of weeks ago. Both boys had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures... we also went to the discovery museum in Santa Maria, but I forgot to bring my camera *snap* bummer.

A Surreal Reality

2010-02-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Today is my 30th birthday. Perhaps if circumstances were a little different I'd be blogging about how old I feel and how my body has changed, but I'm just grateful for one more year of life.

My brother, Jason, died in a car accident at 1:30 in the morning on Valentine's Day.

Reality as I know it has changed forever.

I'm not really sure how to process this all or how to interact with/react to others. I've been in their shoes before and always thought, "I don't know what to say." I still don't know what to say.

The days come in waves of surreal moments ... waiting for my brother to call and tell everyone it was just a big prank (he was like that) and then waves of emotion with the reality of his death emanate and tears flooding my eyes.

Micah is obviously too young to understand, but I did explain to Jackson what happened. I could tell he understood intellectually (we talk about heaven a lot I guess), but I don't think he understood emotionally except for the fact that I was crying and that made him a little sad.

We've decided to leave the kids with church family and Colin and I will travel alone to Milwaukee to mourn with family. My thoughts are that we can then be free to go wherever and whenever and stay however long we need to and not worry about nap schedules and bedtimes, etc.

Surprisingly, facebook has been a huge healing balm for me (besides the obvious fact that God is sovereign in every way and in everything). Jason's life really did touch a lot of people in so many different ways and I've been able to see that more through facebook. It comforts me to know that other people share in the sorrow and to hear the funny stories about Jason.

Yet, I can't help but feel a little unworthy (for lack of a better word) of my sorrow because I think of his wife, Ericka, and how much pain and sorrow she must be feeling. The bond a husband and wife have is SO much stronger than a sister and brother (as it should be). I CANNOT imagine what she is going through.

My reality has changed forever, but not NEARLY in the same way as my sister-in-law's. I've just barely begun to wrap my brain around the fact that I'll never see my brother here on earth again, but I don't think I'll ever be able to comprehend what it's like to wake up one morning and miss the other half of me ... his dirty laundry still in the hamper, leftovers in the fridge, toothbrush still in the bathroom, ...

My brother's in heaven... he's not in pain ... he's not missing us ... he's worshiping our LORD who is in control of all things in Heaven and on earth, both life and death. It brings me comfort to know that.

I pray for my sister-in-law and all of those who love Jason and remain here on earth, because the reality is that we are in pain and we do miss him. Please pray for us ... may we cling to the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, that one day there will be a new Heaven and a new earth where no one in Him will be in pain and no one will be missed and all will worship Him.

Nap Transitions at 15 1/2 Months

2010-02-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

Micah transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap this past week. He will be 16 months on the 25th.

I started to notice his need for this transition when he was taking a really long time to go down for his second nap in the afternoon. Prior to this he'd take two 2 hour naps one from 10 - 12 and the other from 2 - 4.

I tried just giving him one nap right away, but then he was crabby that evening and sometimes even into the next day. So, I made his morning nap shorter since I wanted him to eventually take his long nap in the afternoon when Jackson was sleeping (although, I think he would have naturally taken a longer nap in the morning and a shorter nap in the afternoon).

For about a week or so he was taking one 45 minute to an hour nap in the morning from 11 - 12 (I'd have to wake him up from that nap otherwise he'd sleep longer and not take an afternoon nap) and a longer 2 hour nap in the afternoon from 2 - 4. He did that until he was having a hard time falling asleep or woke up early on a regular basis from his second nap. (There were even a few nights that it disrupted his night time sleep too, but that may have also been due to sickness/teething.)

Every once in awhile I'd skip his morning nap to see how he handled it. Once he could skip a morning nap without being cranky that night and/or the next day, we tried skipping the morning nap for two or three days in a row. That naturally happened on the weekends because 1. Saturdays can be pretty busy, and 2. he has been skipping his morning nap at church for several months now, so then we'd just skip Monday's morning nap as well.

It's been one full week with only one nap in the afternoon and although for a couple of them he only slept 2 hours (again I think that was due to sickness/teething) for the most part he is sleeping 3 hours for his afternoon nap, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Meta-sepatary

2010-02-04T15:36:00.001-08:00

The Monarch butterfly has a migration spot every year at Pismo beach, so I took the boys to see them a couple of weekends ago. Here's my interview with Jackson on the life cycle of a butterfly.
(By the way, when he doesn't know how to say a big word he inserts "sepatary" at the end of it.)

Here are a few more pictures of the butterflies and Pismo beach:
Make sure you look very closely at the above picture because although at first glance it seems like there are only a hand full of butterflies there are many, many more.

15 Month Check Up

2010-01-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Weight: 23lbs (although he was pretty wiggly and I think he's closer to 24lbs) - 25%
Height: 32in - 75%
Head: 49cm - 90%

Mobility
Micah now walks everywhere and can get up and down the stairs with ease. He can also open and close doors and drawers. He's usually pretty persistent and determined when he wants something he can't have or do like turn on and off the T.V. or dig through my night stand drawer. As a result I have resorted to locking some doors from the outside (particularly bathroom doors) when I cannot devote my attention solely to him.

Feeding
Micah has at least 11 teeth now and handles table food very well. He has breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, a snack at 4pm and supper at 5:30pm. Most of his meals now are finger foods with ocassional things I spoon feed him like applesauce and yogurt.

He prefers to feed himself and lets you know what his preferences are at meal time refusing to eat anything unless he gets what he wants. However, usually the old "out of sight, out of mind" trick seems to work well with him.

Sippy cups are no longer an issue and he drinks about 20 ounces or more of vitamin D milk in one day.

Sleeping
On average, Micah sleeps from 8:00pm - 7:30am. Sometimes he'll wake at 6:30am and go back to sleep and other times I have to wake him up at 8:30. Regardless, the earliest I'll get him out of his crib is 8am unless we need to be up early for a specific reason.

He's transitioning from two naps to one by taking one short nap in the morning usually at 11am that's about 45 minutes to an hour and one longer nap in the afternoon from 2 - 4pm. However, lately if he sleeps an hour in the morning he's less likely to take a long afternoon nap. There have been a couple of days that he has taken one long 3 hour nap, but then he's usually crabby the next day. My goal is to get him to take one long nap from 1 - 4pm every day.

Communicating
Micah communicates very well. He can sign: "milk," "all done," "more," "book," "nigh, nigh." He can say: "mommy," "dada," "da-din" (jackson), "cra-grr" (cracker), "nigh, nigh," "ah-me" (amen), "Bapa" (Papa), and he mimics and tries to say more and more every day.

He'll cry and or throw a mini-tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants, but it usually lasts seconds and as he gets older we will definitely begin to discipline the behavior, but right now I feel he's too young to understand when he's throwing a tantrum.

However, he gets disciplined on a pretty consistent basis when we know and MICAH knows that he is being directly disobedient. Usually that entails touching something he's not allowed to or going up the stairs when we tell him not to.

I've thought about "baby proofing" those sort of things to prevent having to battle with him. I think I would if I was convinced that he didn't understand what I expected from him, but it is SO CLEAR that he understands when he's disobedient. I've come to the conclusion that the battle is worth it now so that I don't have to fight a WAR months or years from now. Consistent boundaries bring a sense of security (especially to children) and Micah is testing those boundaries which is a good and natural thing for him to do.

Playing
Micah's favorite toys right now are anything that has buttons and makes noises and anything his big brother is playing with at the moment.

As of late he's also taken a liking to fleece blankets (which is what he sleeps with) and the other day insisted on carrying one around. I'm trying to put the kabosh on that one, but we'll see.

He also loves to hide in closets, forts, cupboards, etc. He can sit through whole books now, but Bible story time is still a struggle (especially when we're explaining the story to Jackson).

Micah ADORES his big brother and mimics him in just about everything that he does. (I'm secretly and publicly hoping that that will aid in future potty training, but we'll see).

Micah is a pretty active player and I now have to use the cry room in church (we do not have a nursery) during the sermons, but he'll sit through most of the singing.

Micah loves to play outside when we can and is very brave at the playground going up stairs and down slides without any fear or hesitation. I may have a dare devil on my hands.

Personality
Micah is quick to laugh and smile and even quicker to make someone else laugh and smile.

He's shy around strangers and will cry with a babysitter or at the doctor's office, but once he gets to know you he's a hoot. He's definitely a child that should make you worry if he's off playing by himself not making a peep (that usually means he's into something he's not supposed to). I think he's going to be my "sneaky" one. So far he's not a "people pleaser", but loves doing his own thing. He loves to cuddle unless he's really tired and then he'll insist on laying down in bed. His exictment and smile when you walk in the door makes you feel so loved.

I'm blessed to have you Micah! I love you SO much!

School

2010-01-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Why is this such a difficult and confusing decision for me? I guess it's a sign that I'm taking it seriously and wanting to make the right choice for my children ... right?

Anyway, Colin and I have talked about school a lot more this year than we ever have because Jackson has definitely begun to show interest in more structured learning and because we have several friends whose kids are starting school and/or making decisions about home school, public school or private school. We still haven't made an official decision and I realize that the decision might change a million times even after we think we've made it.

I feel like part of my lack of decision making is because we don't REALLY know where we'll be living when Jackson hits school age. Which, by the way, Colin and I do agree that we'd like to start Jackson in Kindergarten when he's six ... at least we've made that a final decision. Where we are will make a difference (in my mind) of how we decide to school.

Colin and I still have a lot to talk about as far as what kind of educational experience we want for our children and how socialization fits into that as well. We need to answer big lofty questions like: what do we want our children to get out of school?

Whatever we decide for our children's future education I'm also trying to live in the present and presently Jackson is HUNGRY for learning. So, we decided to start a curriculum called "Five in a Row."

"Five in A Row" is a literature based curriculum that takes one piece of children's literature per week and extracts different subjects each day.

For example, the first book we read was "The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese.

Our "school" time (which lasts about a half hour to an hour) Monday - Friday starts by reading the story of the week (I LOVE the idea of redundancy in teaching)and then we move on to a subject that is brought out in the story.

On Monday we studied Math and counted all the ducks in the book and practiced reading larger numbers.
Tuesday we studied Art and learned about different mediums and mixed primary colors to make secondary colors (I helped him draw the duck by the way, but he colored it).

Wednesday we studied Social Studies and talked about natural consequences and family relationships.
Thursday we studied Science and learned about buoyancy.

Friday we studied Geography and took a trip to China on YouTube.

You get the idea. It's been really fun for me and for Jackson and he begs to do "school" and will only call me "teacher" when we are. We've been doing "school" now since the middle of November.

The break we had with Thanksgiving and Christmas allowed me to see if Jackson was really interested in school or if it was just a phase ... he really does love to learn (surprise, surprise ... Colin and I are BOTH learners).

"Five in A Row" is really flexible and I really feel like it'll grow with Jackson until he's in the upper elementary school ages.

The only qualm I have with the curriculum is that the books can be hard to find in the library (at least our library) and I end up having to do inter-library-loans more often than I want to and our library doesn't have a smooth system for that. I recently went online and found a great website www.betterworldbooks.com and found most of the books on the book list for an average of $7.00, except the rare few that are out of print and are running for about $300.00 (I'll just skip those), but let me note that the proceeds go towards world literacy.

We're going to keep plugging away at "Five In A Row," but I'm going to remain flexible knowing that Jackson is only 3 1/2 years old. I'm excited about his love of learning! All the more reason to continue to keep prayerfully considering our education options for the future.

Thanksgiving and Christmas Pictures

2010-01-03T15:32:00.001-08:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Catch Up

2009-12-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve written any blogs that were notes to myself about the development of my children and I have a lot of catching up to do. Here are the topics I’ll be covering in this blog: weaning, separation anxiety, naps, sleep sacks, crawling and walking.

Weaning
4 weeks before Micah turned one year old I began to drop his nursing times and replaced it with a feeding of whole milk from a sippy cup. It was nice to ease him into drinking milk and using a sippy. However, at first Micah didn’t like the sippy cup (perhaps it is too much like a bottle which he protested for several months) and we discovered that he preferred a cup with a straw. Eventually he switched to a sippy cup without a one way valve. Now he drinks from a sippy with a one way valve all by himself).

At 11 months old he was down to 4 feedings a day (8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm). I dropped the 4pm first because he was least interested in that feeding and my milk supply seemed lowest. We also tend to be busy around that time of day so it was convenient to drop that one first. Then I dropped the following feedings in the following order – 12pm, 8pm and 8am.

The morning feeding took a little longer to drop since my milk supply was greater for that one and a couple of times I nursed him because I was uncomfortable and he was cranky. A little after his first birthday I lost my milk supply and Micah was content drinking whole milk.

It wasn’t that long ago that I weaned Micah, but my brain has already forgotten what it’s like having to nurse every 4 hours.

Separation Anxiety
Around the time I dropped the last nursing Micah began to show signs of separation anxiety. He’d cry when I’d leave the room, cry when he encountered strangers, cry when I put him down for naps and for bedtime. I’m not sure if the weaning triggered it, but it seems logical that it might have, but then again it could just be the age.

Of course this came right at the time that I needed to leave him with relatives for a couple of days. I felt bad for my sister-in-law, but was so grateful for her patience.

There wasn’t much I could do about this stage he was going through except reassure him of my presence when appropriate and ignore it when appropriate (I had to let him “cry it out” a couple of times during his naps… luckily it never dramatically affected his night time sleep).

Towards the end of our two week trip he finally began to warm up to people he didn’t know very well and the crying/separation anxiety seemed to wane. (whew)

Sleep Sacks
When I was on vacation my sister-in-law asked me when I was planning on not using a sleep sack anymore. I really like them for when my kids are younger because it keeps them warm at night and brings me peace of mind that they are not going to get tangled up in a blanket and suffocate.

I stopped using sleep sacks with Jackson just before his 1st birthday because the weather in the Midwest was getting warmer (he’s a June baby), but with Micah (an October baby) the weather was starting to get cooler. I also had the added challenge that Micah was chewing on the collar of his sleep sack to sooth himself at night and during naps when he had teething pain.

I was a little nervous that I’d have several nights of “crying it out” when I finally took the sleep sack away, so I decided to wait until we were back home to do it. I was really surprised that when I switched him from a sleep sack to a blanket (and I transitioned cold turkey) that there were no problems at all (although I’m pretty sure he still chews on the blanket to sooth himself from time to time).

Crawling, Walking & Naps
Micah started to really crawl around 11 months and then took his first steps between 12 and 13 months. He’s almost 14 months and is still not walking consistently, but I think he’s more comfortable crawling at this point and he can crawl pretty fast.

I want to note that when he learned to crawl and walk I noticed a change in his napping habits. He’d have a hard time going to sleep and then when he did finally go to sleep he’d wake up early from his nap. I thought that he might be ready to go down to one nap, but then he was a beast and wouldn’t take ANY naps and I was NOT going to let that happen.

I switched him back to two naps and some days he sleeps great and other days he fights them. He did this both when he learned to crawl and when he learned to walk and I’m wondering if it’s all connected. I read somewhere that when babies learn new skills like crawling or rolling over that sometimes it does affect their sleep habits.

It’s just a huge transitional period for Micah right now. He really is going from baby to toddler very quickly. I’m toughing out the naps right now, but he’ll probably need to go down to one nap in the near future anyway, so I’ll just have to take that battle one day at a time for now.

Well that pretty much covers it for Micah. I need a whole other blog for Jackson who has grown leaps and bounds developmentally these days. Stay tuned for that one!

Anticipation

2009-12-19T16:30:00.001-08:00

Making Memories

2009-12-06T19:11:00.001-08:00

On My Heart ...

2009-12-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

According to the given statistics in the United States of America, one out of every four girls, and one out of every six boys will be sexually abused before they turn eighteen years of age.

Once again God has put this topic on my heart. My heart aches just thinking about those statistics! It seems silly (to me) to worry about swine flu and such when this statistic seems (to me) to be even more of a "national epidemic!"

As I've looked for books at the library on the topic there were a few, but most of which were out dated. We have drug awareness programs in our schools for kids (at least I think they still do D.A.R.E.), but what about abuse awareness programs??

Anyway, I say all that to let you know that I truly do pray for your little ones ... OUR little ones. That God would protect them from becoming a sexual abuse statistic.

... and as I was thinking and praying for them this poem came to my mind:

"You Are NOT the Naughty One"
by Corinne Doughan

It seems like there are lots of rules,
but it's okay to break each one.
When someone wants to touch you there,
you are NOT the naughty one.

It's okay to throw a tantrum.
Kick, scream and shout a ton!
When someone wants to touch you there,
you are NOT the naughty one.

It's okay to tell a grown up "NO!"
and turn around and run.
When someone wants to touch you there,
you are NOT the naughty one.

It's okay to be a tattle tale
(even if they say it's secret).
When someone wants to touch you there,
you are NOT the naughty one.

They'll lie and say, "You're naughty."
They'll say, "Come on it's fun!"
But you NEED to know, my precious child,
you are NOT the naughty one!

Christmas Letter

2009-12-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Our Dearest Friends & Family,

God has blessed us in so many ways this year, but we know that the most wonderful gift we’ll ever receive from Him is the life, death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So, without further ado, here is the Christmas story told through the eyes of a child (with a little help from his mommy)...

An angel came to Mary and Mary was afraid and the angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I have good news. You’re going to have a baby and you are going to name him Jesus.” Mary said, “Okay. Who will be the daddy?” Angel said, “God will be the daddy.”

Then an angel came to Joseph and he was afraid. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I have good news for you. Mary is going to have a baby and the daddy will be God. Keep Mary and the baby safe.” Joseph said, “Okay.”

Later the king wanted everyone to be counted. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to be counted. When they got to Bethlehem the baby was coming out. Mary said, “The baby is coming out, I think the baby is coming out!” And they had to go to the farm to have the baby. After the baby came out they put him where the cows eat.

Then angels came to the sheep and shepherds and said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary had a baby named Jesus.” (The sheep were eating because they were really hungry.) Then the sheep walked to see Jesus and they all sang.

Then three wise men saw a star and they followed it. They found King Herod and they said, “Where is the King of the Jews?” and Herod said, “I don’t know.”

Then an angel came to the wise men and said, “Follow the star to find Jesus.” The angel threw them because she didn’t want them to talk to Herod (just remember that he’s three). And they found baby Jesus and they gave presents to baby Jesus and worshiped him and sang songs … “Gloria in excelsis deo” …

Then Jesus grew up and died on the cross so we could go to Heaven.

May we never forget, our beloved ones, the true reason to celebrate and rejoice this season!

Merry Christmas,
The Doughans

Feeding Baby On The Go!

2009-12-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

I really need to write some serious blogs ... Micah's birthday, Thanksgiving, weaning, sleep sacks ... just to name a few future blog topics, BUT with the holiday busyness that will have to wait.

HOWEVER, I just had to write a quick note about a product a friend of mine introduced me to (thanks Michelle) that I absolutely LOVE!

It's called Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Food and it's baby food that comes in a pouch. There's a lid that you can screw on and off and your baby can suck the food right out of the pouch. Isn't that brilliant!?

They have all different flavors and they are SO easy and mess free. I will admit that they are a little pricey, but TOTALLY worth it when you have to feed a baby pureed food in a car and/or airplane!!! (I fed Micah one of them during church last week and I didn't even have to take him out of the service!! By the way, I'm NOT AT ALL opposed to feeding these to Jackson either ... it's WAY better than the food we'd feed him in the airport!)

Anyway, I hope you find them as ingenious as I did ... so far I've been able to purchase them at Babies-R-Us and I've heard you can get them at Costco. I hope this makes some of your holiday travels a little easier!

Happy Holidays and Happy Travels!

12 Months

2009-11-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

Okay ... I'm really behind on this post because Micah had his 12 month check up before we left for a long trip to the Midwest.

I also left his stats on a piece of paper that I left in the Midwest ... oops. I don't remember the exact measurements, but I do remember the percentiles.

Weight: 48% (about 22lbs)
Height: 75%
Head: 90%

He's been done nursing since we left for our trip (note: I plan on writing a weaning blog soon) which worked out well because we had to leave him with his Aunt Katie for a few days while Colin and I packed up our house in Omaha.

The unfortunate thing for Aunt Katie was that he started separation anxiety around the same time. It started right before we left ... he wouldn't even let me leave the room without crying (perhaps it may have been related to the weaning?).

It took him quite awhile to warm up to his relatives and by the end of the 2 week vacation he was finally becoming more comfortable being without me. Since we've been back home the separation anxiety has seemed to lessen ... go figure.

I try to get Micah to drink about 20oz of whole milk a day (about two sippy cups worth) and he drinks it best when he uses a cup with a straw, but we're working on a regular sippy cup as well (although we take the one way valve out to make it easier for him).

He eats three meals a day and gets one snack in the afternoon. I'd say he's eating about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups worth of food ground up in the baby food grinder for meals and has about 1/2 - 1 cup of cheerios or crackers for a snack in the afternoon. We've slowly been adding more texture/chunks to his ground food (i.e. oatmeal with raisins) and offering more finger foods as well. I also want to note that we've introduced him to honey and peanut butter now and he loves them!

His hemoglobin test came back low during his 12 month check up so we've been really pushing the cheerios and the baby cereal as well as adding a vitamin supplement with iron to his diet in the evenings as well. We'll go back at the beginning of December to check his hemoglobin again.

Micah's taking two naps a day (10:00 - 12:00 and 2:00 - 4:00), but it seems like he'll sleep his whole morning nap lately and shortens his afternoon nap showing signs of being ready to go down to one nap soon. The past couple of days I've tried to wake him up early from his morning nap to see if he'll sleep longer for his afternoon nap (so that both boys are taking long afternoon naps and I can have a few more moments to myself to get things done), but that hasn't been working.

However, I can't complain because he's still sleeping wonderfully at night. There were a couple of nights when we were on vacation that he woke up in the middle of the night, but that was because he was sick and/or not used to having us sleeping in the room with him. I feel the need to dedicate a future blog to our travel adventures though.

Micah has become VERY efficient in his crawling and can get around pretty fast. He LOVES to be chased ... it makes him giggle so hard that he buckles over and can't crawl away anymore ... it's pretty adorable if you ask me. He's also cruising more and walks pretty well holding on to one hand. It won't be long until he's walking on his own. Although we are entering the season of bumps and bruises until he can master walking and running.

Due to his mobility, discipline has been coming more frequently. When Jackson was younger he'd cry even if I had a serious tone to my voice let alone give him a spanking. Not true for Micah. He will sometimes laugh after I give him a spanking (SIGH)...oh boy ... it takes a few corrections before he obeys, but he eventually obeys. He's a pretty persistent little bugger sometimes, but that will be to his advantage in the future if he learns to use it "for the greater good."

Micah is a go, go, go kind of guy. I rarely see him sitting still to examine a toy or book, but that's usually because he's trying to keep up with his older brother. He's showing signs of being a tantrum thrower, but he has yet to have a full blown tantrum yet.

As far as communicating is concerned Micah can say/sign the following words:

Dada: Dad
Mama: Mom
Da-Din: Jackson
Aye: Hi
No-no: No
Nigh-Nigh: Good Night
dant-du: Thank you
(signs) please
(signs) all done
(signs) more (sort of)
uh-oh
t-t: touch it

I've found that it's REALLY hard to keep up with his vocabulary when I have a 3 year old talking in my ear 24/7. Don't get me wrong ... I'm grateful that my 3 year old is very verbose, BUT there are times when I wish I could pay sole attention to Micah. I'm sure there more "words" he's saying, I just am not able to pay attention to them.

Micah is such a delight! He's so curious and he loves to be with his family. He loves to cuddle more than I remember Jackson cuddling. He's SO ticklish and can be such a silly goose sometimes (I'm wondering if I have a class clown on my hands here). I LOVE that his personality is really starting to shine lately.

That's about it! I'll leave you with this picture of Micah on the morning of his birthday with blueberry muffin shoved in his mouth!

Happy 1st Birthday Micah!

2009-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to our dear little Micah who loves to give kisses and make silly sounds. Who loves his brother with a passion and wants to grow up faster than what is possible. You are so precious to us and we thank the LORD for you daily!!

Our birthday prayer is that you grow up to be a warrior for Christ. That you would love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

Life is but a fleeting breath and we give you over to our sovereign Lord every single day because we know that you ultimately belong to Him.

We love you Handsome Prince.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!

Love, Mommy, Daddy and Jackson

No More Mullet

2009-10-23T11:21:00.001-07:00

Micah's mullet (although cute and curly) was getting out of hand and starting to drive me crazy so I cut it off. Here are the pictures:

The "mullet" ... I mean ... the "before" picture.
Be afraid ... be very, very afraid (I was).
The "after" picture. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Micah didn't cry at all! Neither did I for that matter. ;)

39 Cents a Pound

2009-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I've ever seen sweet potatoes this HUGE (I put the knife and potato in to give you some perspective) or bought them for this cheap!! It won't take long for Micah to eat this one up though with the appetite he's had lately!!

100 Things I Hope I'll Always Remember...

2009-10-14T16:08:00.001-07:00

It's my 100th post and I wanted to celebrate it by making a list of 100 things. Since this blog is purposed to be a reminder here is a list of 100 things (in no particular order of importance) I hope I'll always remember:

100. to smile daily.
99. to live life with a positive attitude.
98. to buckle my seat belt.
97. the smell of rain.
96. the smell of my husband when his cologne settles into his skin.
95. the smell of my children after a bath.
94. the first time my children ever smiled at me.
93. my babies cooing at me instead of nursing in the early early morning.
92. my babies' first laugh.
91. the first time my husband held my hand.
90. the first time my husband and I kissed.
89. my wedding day.
88. to tell my husband that I love him every day.
87. to tell my children that I love them every day.
86. the excitement and joy I felt the day my children were born.
85. to encourage my children regularly.
84. that friendships are an investment.
83. to learn from my mistakes.
82. to forgive as I have been forgiven.
81. to ask for forgiveness when I am wrong.
80. the funny things my children say.
79. to take time to cuddle when the opportunity arises.
78. to date my husband.
77. to seek after God daily.
76. to pray continually.
75. to taste my food.
74. how blessed I am.
73. to not "bite my pants with gum in my mouth."*
72. to savor my family.
71. that relationships are more important than "stuff."
70. that I am a sinner saved by grace.
69. the wonder of feeling my children move inside of me.
68. to support and encourage my husband in his everyday "dragon slaying."
67. to take care of the body God has given me.
66. to rest.
65. that growth rarely comes in the comfortable.
64. that everyone is created in the image of God.
63. to be patient.
62. to trust in my sovereign LORD.
61. "to whom much is given much is required."
60. to put others before myself.
59. the times I laughed so hard my head hurt.
58. to listen first.
57. to pray for the salvation of my children and their spouses.
56. the delight my children have in each other as siblings.
55. the special bond I have with my sisters.
54. the grandeur of God's creation.
53. when my children first show an understanding of Christ's sacrifice.
52. the awe of worshiping with other believers in spirit and in truth.
51. that the Creator made me creative by nature.
50. that life is but a fleeting breath.
49. to let my children be imperfect.
48. to show grace.
47. not to compare my children.
46. the month after our wedding when we almost had to move back in with our parents.
45. the first time my children say, "I love you."
44. to live below my means.
43. that I am a work in progress.
42. to write down my best impromptu recipes.
41. that obeying quickly, completely and with a "happy heart" applies to me too.
40. to be more concerned with my children's "heart" rather than just their actions.
39. not to discipline out of anger.
38. that my husband likes venti non-fat mochas with whipped cream.
37. to read to my children every day.
36. to encourage my children's creativity.
35. to listen to my children ... REALLY listen.
34. the Iowa winter I was blown across the ice standing still.
33. the night my husband proposed to me.
32. the first time I auditioned for a play.
31. the excitement of discovering I was pregnant.
30. the three hour talk I had with my husband before we were officially dating.
29. my honeymoon.
28. to thank my parents.
27. to ask when I'm upset, "will this matter 10 years from now?"
26. that "when Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy" is true.
25. that it's okay to not have all the answers.
24. to practice what I preach.
23. not to buy clothes that need to be ironed ... my husband and I hate ironing.
22. to sincerely ask my husband on a regular basis "how I can be a better wife?"
21. to not let "the sun go down upon [my] anger."
20. to celebrate my children's victories ... even the little ones.
19. that "he who dies with the most toys wins" is NOT true.
18. to keep learning.
17. I am loved.
16. to say what I mean and mean what I say.
15. to sing to my children.
14. to send love notes to my husband.
13. the people in my life who have influenced who I've become.
12. to play with my kids.
11. that my worth comes from who I am in Christ.
10. that I'm a child of God, wife and mom ... in that order.
9. to be silly sometimes.
8. to love others.
7. to buy two pairs of jeans when I finally find a pair that "fit like a glove."
6. that beauty is more than my appearance.
5. to dance like no one's watching from time to time.
4. that the world doesn't revolve around me.
3. to pray with my husband and children.
2. to be flexible.
1. to be heavenly minded.

*inside joke with the Doughan family. If you want to know ... just ask.

Family Portraits

2009-10-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

Once again, Jill Martin did an amazing job on these! She also did Micah's one year portraits today, so look for that post soon!

Language Skills

2009-10-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Micah's words at 11 months:

Dada: Dad
Ma: Mom (I've been trying to get him so say this when he wakes up rather than fuss. He's done it at least twice now.)
Ah duh: All done (he also signs "all done")
Ear-a-go: Here you go.
Uh-oh: Uh oh
Nigh Nigh: Good night.

He also signs please as well. I have a feeling there are other words he's saying consistently, but with two little ones to pay attention to I'm sure I haven't picked up on all of them.
He doesn't sign please on his own chest (here he's rubbing his hand on his tray), but it's close enough and he's very consistent with the sign now, so I'm not going to complain.
This is "all done."
He also folds his hands when you ask him to pray.

Besides the lanugage skills he's also crawling on his hands and knees and pulling himself up consistently and has even started climbing stairs as of late (he made it all the way up both flights of stairs in our house by himself the other day).

I'll blink and tomorrow he'll be running and talking in full sentences.

"It's a Hard Knock Life"

2009-10-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

Jackson has started participating in chores around the house. He doesn't get compensated for doing them, it's just part of being in our family.

Everyday he makes his own bed and helps clear the table after supper.

He's also helped dust the living room shelves and vaccum the kitchen floor, but I don't expect him to do those regularly ... not yet anyway. ;)

Jackson prides himself in "becoming more of a man."

Eleven Months Old

2009-09-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here's what's going on in Micah's life at 11 months old:

He's still nursing 4 times a day (every four hours) and sleeping 11 - 12 hours at night time.

Sometimes he'll wake up around 6:30 and talk to himself and play until 7:15 or 7:30 when I give him his first feeding.

He's tried just about every type of food except milk/cheese (he has had cottage cheese and yogurt), nuts and honey. Although I'm debating about whether or not I want to start weaning Micah this month. Four weeks before Jackson's first birthday I dropped one nursing a week and replaced it with a sippy cup of whole milk and it seemed to work out well.

Although Micah has mastered self feeding with cheerios and the like we still spoon feed him quite a bit. In the past couple of weeks I've even pureed some of our families left overs (smoothies and pulled apple-chicken sandwiches) and put them into ice cube trays for Micah (FYI: I've found it helps to spray the ice cube trays with cooking spray before I put the pureed food in them so I can get them out easier after they freeze.)

Micah takes two naps. Usually one is 1 1/2 hours and the other nap is 2 hours. However, a couple of weeks ago he was struggling off and on with his naps.

All in about one weeks span he popped 3 new teeth, learned how to crawl, sit up on his own and pull himself up and he had a cold. All of that combined was interrupting his sleep cycles at nap times (and a few nights too).

After trying everything I could think of I finally swaddled him, put him in his crib and put my hand near his face until he fell asleep. I've only had to do it a couple of times when he was too tired (usually when he's been standing crying in his crib not knowing how to sit down again). Once he gets a full nap, he wakes up happy and gets himself out of the swaddle by the time I come in to get him.

He needs a little more time to wind down before he goes down for a nap or for bed. He loves to cuddle for a few minutes before I put him in his crib and I LOVE it when he grabs my face and gives me a big-slobbery-open-mouth kiss two or three times in a row.

Micah's also been jabbering and communicating more. He definitely knows what he wants when he wants it and we are working on changing whining into words through sign language and simple words.

Micah can say and sign "All done." Although it sounds more like "Ah duh." He has yet to clearly sign or say "please" (although he sometimes signs "please" on his leg). Some of that may be due to pure stubbornness on his part. Just this week he started saying "uh oh" sounding more like "uh uh."

Micah lights up when Colin comes home from work. Colin will play with Micah for a few minutes and then go upstairs to change out of his work clothes, which is when Micah starts yelling "DA?! DADA!?" over and over again until Colin says, "yes?"

He mimics Jackson in his intonations and even some rough pronunciations and it is SO ADORABLE!!

He definitely has a grasp of when we say "no" to him and has received a few swats for disobeying, but overall if we say "no" he's obedient.

His favorite toys to play with would have to be anything we'd prefer he not play with (cell phones, remote controls, cords, books, toys with small parts, etc.). He's gotten MUCH better at not putting toys in his mouth though and we've been more lenient with what "big kid toys" he can play with now.

We have made a few drawers and cupboards that he can play in (DVD drawer, sock drawer and Tupperware drawer) and he stays pretty content with those.

He's in a "go go go" stage right now and would walk holding on to our fingers all day if we let him. He's so eager to be running along side his big brother and that day is just around the corner.

That about sums it up. I'll leave you with these pictures. If you have any clever captions you'd put for each picture I'd love to hear them!! ...oh by the way ... that's a leaf in his hand.

edited 10/2/09: my cycle this month was 38 days

High Chairs vs Booster Seats

2009-09-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

When Jackson was younger we asked our friends who had already had children what they recommended for high chairs and they highly suggested a booster seat with a detachable tray, so this is what we got.

When we moved to Santa Maria and Micah was ready for eating solid food Jackson was still using that booster seat. However, our neighbors (the same generous ones who let us use their trampoline) had a high chair that they said we could use. It's an older model, so I'm sure some of my qualms with high chairs may not be valid if I would get a newer high chair.

Anyway, it was free, so we used it. Here is my list of pros and cons for a high chair versus a booster seat that I have discovered in my experience with each.

High Chair:

Pros :
The trays are much larger and less food ends up on the floor.
It's easier on my back because the baby is higher up.

Cons:
They take up more room (when you're using them and when you have to store them later).
They are harder to clean.
They don't travel well or at all.
They are more expensive (the cheapest I saw at Babies R Us was $39.99, unless you can get a used one or one given to you).
Babies grow out of them quicker than a booster seat.
I've noticed it's harder for Micah to use sign language because he's much more enclosed.

Booster Seats:

Pros:
They are much cheaper than most high chairs (the cheapest I saw at Babies R Us was $16.99).
They are very portable.
You can stick most of them into your dishwasher to be cleaned thoroughly.
They are not out grown quickly.
They don't take up a lot of space.
They can be pushed directly up to the table (when the tray is removed).
I've noticed Micah signing more because he's not so confined.

Cons:
Babies tend to slouch in them at first.
The trays are smaller and more food ends up on the floor.
It uses up a chair (which is inconvenient when we have guests, but if I really had to I could just put him on the floor).

If I had to choose one over the other I'd pick the booster seat. We kicked Jackson out of his first booster seat so that Micah could use it and bought him this one for $12.99 at Babies R Us (it does not come with a tray). So far we're happy with it.

Jackson's First Big Purchase

2009-09-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Jackson has been receiving allowance for quite some time now. (You can read more on our views on allowance here.)

When he first began getting an allowance it burned a huge hole in his pocket every time we went to the store. It was important to have that time though. He quickly grasped the concepts of cost and payment for material goods.

Then we decided we needed to teach him a lesson in delayed gratification/saving. So Jackson picked out a toy in the fisher-price catalog and we cut it out and made a little count down calendar of how many weeks it would take to have enough money to make his purchase (9 weeks to be exact). Every week he could rip off a piece of paper and the last piece had a picture of the toy of his choice.

This week was the last week!! We are so proud of Jackson. He had many opportunities to spend his money before the end of the 9 weeks but he stuck to his goal. When he got his allowance on Saturday he and his dad sat at the table and counted out the amount he needed for his toy. (That was a good lesson too.)
All of the money he used to purchase his toy I put into an envelope and labeled it "Allowance $$" so that I could just keep using the same money over and over ... it makes it a little easier on Colin and me come Saturday (before we were scrambling around the house, car, couch, etc. for loose change because we weren't very good at planning ahead).

I pre-bought the toy (which I'm glad I did because they only had one left at the store) so that he could "purchase" it from me that morning and then play with right away (I even made sure we had batteries for it). He was SO excited and proud.

While counting what he had left in his bank I had the idea to start using dry erase markers directly on his piggy bank to keep track of his money (at least a rough amount) and it works great!

Jackson's already starting to talk about what he's going to save up for next. Did I mention that we are very proud of him? Delayed gratification is hard for most adults let alone a 3 year old.

Finger Foods

2009-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Micah has begun to feed himself more recently. He's done cheerios, green beans, papaya, etc. Some of the foods are hard to pick up (like bananas and avocado), but he does his best and almost prefers to feed himself now. Although feedings take a lot longer when he feeds himself, so I still feed him ground up food as well.
He wanted his "toy" back.
Don't let him fool you though ... he's a happy boy!

Teeth 3 and 4

2009-09-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Micah's doing a little bit of cross teething (his teeth are not coming in in the usual order) and it's kind of cute. Here's a picture.
They've only come in part way, so I circled where they are for you. I guess it's more painful to get teeth this way, but Micah's been a trouper.

To answer the question I had in a comment ... here's how Jackson's teeth grew in.

Exercise for Toddlers

2009-09-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

It seems like when Jackson turned three something happened. Mysteriously my content-sitting-and-reading-books-child became my spontaneous-bursts-of-energy-running-around-the-house-like-crazy-child.

We are pretty good at taking regular walks, but Jackson was needing more than that in order to get out his excess energy. It's been hard to get him outside to exercise when Micah is still taking two 2 hour naps during the day and I don't have a fenced in backyard to let him run around in. As I mentioned in a previous blog our neighbors were gracious enough to let us use their trampoline. That has really done the trick and here's how I get him to jump on it.

Every morning at around 9:30am (when I'm putting Micah down for his morning nap) I put the trampoline in front of our computer and let Jackson watch playlists on sesamestreet.org. It's really cool! You can pick a character, theme, subject and videos and/or games.

Each playlist has about eight games and/or videos and runs for about 20 minutes (although I've never timed it). I usually let Jackson pick which character(s) he wants and I select sports/physical activities for the theme and do only videos. I figure that way he'll at least get some videos that encourage him to be physically active.

The deal is that he needs to jump on the trampoline for every other video and rest on the alternate videos otherwise I turn it off and he can go play with toys (I don't want it to become an opportunity for him to veg out in front of the computer all morning).

There's also a playsafe feature which prevents Jackson from being able to navigate away from his playlist and from accidentally deleting anything on our computer. It's just a quick download and really easy to use.

Jackson loves his new workout routine and we can definitely tell during nap time and night time when he hasn't had his exercise for the day. Not to mention the fact that he's also getting really good at jumping which is fun. We still get out for walks (and runs), but it's nice to know I have a back up plan on those days when we just can't seem to make it out the door.

Humble Parent Moment

2009-08-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

Jackson has collected three Lego cars from McDonald's Happy Meals.

Today, while I was getting ready to take the boys to the park, Jackson suggested he take one of the cars he had a duplicate of and give it to a child at the park. I didn't want to discourage his generosity so I said that would be very nice.

On the way Jackson asked, "why do I want to give this car to a kid at the park?" and we'd then recite one of his memory verses: "Do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God is pleased." (Hebrews 13:16 NIV) Like most 3 year olds he insisted we repeat this dialogue at least two or three times.

The park is a good 15 - 20 minute walk from our house, so I totally thought he would forget about it or chicken out once we got to the playground, but he didn't. There were two girls around his age playing and the first thing he did was run over to them and give them his car.

I had to reassure the parent several times that it was really what Jackson wanted to do and that there was no coaxing involved. I think both the parent and I were completely shocked, the little girl was excited to have a new toy (and friend), Jackson was proud of himself (but not too proud) and because of what the Bible says I know that God was pleased.

I was originally going to title this blog "Proud Parent Moments" and I am proud. Yet, God uses my children every day to humble me and remind me of the lessons I should be learning and applying in my own life as well.

FUN with Photos

2009-08-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

These next two are the same picture just opposite sides.

I had so much fun making these and I hope you laughed as hard as I did (thank you Katy for the idea and link). You can make your own here.

10 Months Old

2009-08-24T22:06:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Micah is 10 months old tomorrow. I don't know why 10 months seems so old to me ... maybe it's the whole double digit thing. Anyway, here's what he's up to lately:

Yup, he's started to "crawl" (more like creep like a cute little inch worm) just this week. He is SO adorable when he does this. As soon as I can figure out how to upload video from my camera to the Internet I'll have to post a video of him creeping across the floor.

Here's his typical routine:

6:30am - Wakes up and talks to himself. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep and sometimes he'll play until I feed him.

7:30am - Nurse. I've found that he nurses much better when I keep the lights off so that he's not distracted by anything (that's also why I nurse him BEFORE Jackson wakes up).

8:00am - Breakfast, usually it's applesauce (or some sort of fruit) mixed with oatmeal (he eats both infant oatmeal and regular oatmeal now).

9:30am - Nap. He still wears a sleep sack for nap time, but doesn't use a pacifier or anything else to put himself to sleep. I usually turn out the lights and turn on the humidifier (for white noise) and cuddle/pray with him for a few seconds and then lay him down while he's still awake and leave. Sometimes he'll talk or fuss a little before he goes to sleep, but most of the time he'll fall right to sleep.

11:30am - Nurse.

12:00pm - Lunch. Usually a vegetable, a fruit, grain and some sort of protein (that can be meat, fish, eggs, beans or dairy (he's had yogurt and cottage cheese so far, but they both make him a little gassy, so I have to give him gas drops afterwards)). I've still been making some pureed baby food, but I'm definitely using the baby food grinder more often and feeding him foods that the family is eating. He also gets a cup with a straw with about 1/8 or so cup of water.

1:30pm - Nap. Usually one of his naps is 2 hours and the other is 1 1/2 hours.

3:30pm - Nurse.

5:00pm - Snack (usually cheerios while I'm fixing him supper).

5:30pm - Supper. Same type of food as lunch (although I may not do a protein). Micah has a hard time making it all the way to 6pm when the rest of us eat and if he does it's hard for me to eat while feeding him, so I tend to feed him a little bit earlier on some days.

7:30pm - Bible Story. Micah LOVES Bible story time. More than any other book we have this is the book that he whines to look at and touch every time we pull it out.

7:45pm - Nurse. I do my best not to nurse him to sleep. Obviously there are some days that that is unavoidable. Most days though it's important that he stays awake enough to at least burp ... other wise I'm up with him a couple hours later when he cries because he's gassy.

NOTE: Micah still will NOT take a bottle! So, we've decided that when Colin or a babysitter has to put him to bed we just mix about 2oz of breast milk in cereal and put 2oz of breast milk into a cup with a straw and feed it to him in his high chair before bed. It seems to be working so far since he hasn't woken up in the night when we do it that way.

Micah LOVES his brother and often mimics him in his play (screams and growls, etc.). As soon as I let him he'll play cars with Jackson ALL DAY, I just know it.

Micah has started to show an understanding of the word "No!" and I now feel comfortable that he knows when he is doing something I've asked him not to ... I say "no" and he gives me "that look" and does it anyway ... you moms know what I'm talking about right?

Discipline is just around the corner and I have swatted his hands a couple of times when he's endangering himself (pulling on cords, etc.). I'm thankful for the tender heart he has when I do (he usually cries (Jackson doesn't like that)), rather than a determined defiance ... I'm praying that sticks.

He still moans and whines a lot when he wants something, but he is getting more consistent with signing "please" (although it's on his leg instead of on his chest). We're working on it.

Jackson is getting a glimpse of a brother who will soon be able to wrestle with him and he's pretty excited about it, but I have to pull back the reigns every once in awhile when Jackson is a little too rough. Those two boys are going to be such good buddies I can tell already by the way each of them light up when the other one is in the room.

Well, I think that's all for now until I hit "Publish Post" and think of a million other things I wanted to blog about. It's the same when I leave the doctor's office too ... I think of a million and one questions after I leave. Ah well.

**********************************************************************************
FEMININE INFORMATION BELOW DO NOT READ OF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW
**********************************************************************************

My cycle was 41 days this month with a spike in temp on day 35, but I was not able to take my tempurature on several days because of getting up with Micah early in the morning when he was sick, so this month's predicted ovulation date may be wrong.

Completely Random But Fun

2009-08-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Just some randomness... enjoy.

"Ask and ye shall receive." I mentioned to our neighbors that I was thinking about getting Jackson a trampoline because he's had SOOOOO much energy lately and they pulled theirs out of the back of the closet for us to use! How cool is that!!!

Colin had his company picnic last weekend and Jackson got his face painted like a monkey. I was surprised he sat for it. This is his best serious monkey impression.

It looks like Jackson chopped off some of my hair in the front... nope... it's just finally growing back in after falling out... ah motherhood.

I didn't really have anything randomly new about Micah, but I thought I'd include this fun picture.

WARNING: A Sensative Topic

2009-08-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

According to the given statistics in the United States of America, one out of every four girls, and one out of every six boys will be sexually abused before they turn eighteen years of age.

SCARY!!! Considering those staggering numbers I would dare to say that most Americans are affected in one way or another by sexual abuse, not excluding myself.

My mom taught me about sexual abuse prevention at a very early age and I can recall at least two specific instances in my life that if I didn't have that knowledge I may have fallen prey to sexual abuse.

Now that Jackson is becoming more independent I've found this topic popping up in my mind over and over again. How early is too early to teach sexual abuse prevention? I don't want to steal my children's innocence, but I don't want to avoid the issue and have them unprepared if ... I can't even write it.

CAVEAT:
Please don't hear what I'm NOT saying:
I'm NOT saying that it's my job to be over protective as a parent or that if I don't teach my child about sexual abuse prevention that it's my fault if they are.
I'm also NOT saying that my children will be immune to sexual abuse if I do teach them about sexual abuse prevention.
I know that God is sovereign and the BEST thing I can do for my children is place their physical, emotional and spiritual well being in the hands of GOD. However, I do know that God can use me to help my children, but I guess I'm wrestling with exactly what that looks like.

So, I'm writing this very touchy blog looking for advice and to document what I've done in this area of parenting.

So far, Jackson and I have discussed that his private parts are just that PRIVATE.

We've also talked about the importance of being obedient to God versus an adult or even Mommy or Daddy. So, if Mommy asks Jackson to do something that is disobedient to God like steal, lie, cheat or touch his private parts, it's OKAY and right for him to say "NO."

We've also talked about how it's important NOT to keep secrets that promote sin or hurt other people emotionally and physically.

We've also discussed that if someone MAKES him do something that is disobedient that it is NOT his fault. For example, if Mommy says that she would hurt him if he told the truth to Daddy about something she did wrong, that's MOMMY'S SIN, not Jackson's.

I've really tried to keep it simple, but it's so hard with such a complex topic. I don't want to talk about it SO much that I start planting ideas in my sons' heads, but at the same time I want them to know that they can come talk to me about ANYTHING!

My plan for right now is to talk about it as the topic arises and may once in awhile get age appropriate books from the library on the topic. I'm thinking of getting "The Right Touch" by Sandy Kleven. Anyone read it? Do you have any other books or resources you recommend?

What about you? What are your thoughts about sexual abuse prevention? Do you have any advice?

I plan on blogging more on this topic as it comes up in our lives, but I look forward to hearing about how you are handling and wrestling with this difficult issue and gleaning insight and advice from what you share.

Eating on the Go!

2009-08-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I'm not the only Mom who makes meals intended to be eaten in the car or in a stroller. Often times, when I do, I struggle with how to make it a nutritious meal without having a million different baggies of veggies and fruit. So, I thought I'd share what we did for our meal on the go today:

Ingredients:

1 flour tortilla
1 Tbs. peanut butter (although I think cream cheese could work too if there are allergy concerns)
shredded carrots
raisins

Warm the tortilla in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Spread peanut butter on one half to 2/3 of the tortilla and put desired amount of raisins and shredded carrots on top of the peanut butter. Roll up like a burrito and serve immediately.

FYI: I actually ate one of these myself and it was really good. Jackson loved it and as long as you don't stuff it too full it doesn't make a mess at all.

Giving All

2009-08-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

Since Micah hasn't been sleeping well this past week I decided to give him a chance to catch up on sleep and get well by staying home from church. It's always hard for me to make that decision, but God's timing is so perfect.

I listened to an online sermon from our church back in Omaha and the topic is so relevant to what God put on my heart in my last post. I encourage you to listen to the sermon too.

The lyrics to the song at the end of the sermon are typed out below. They are my prayer for Jackson and for myself and my praise to Jesus for giving His all, His life, for us.

What If I Give All?

Words by Ray Boltz, Music by Ray Boltz and Mark Pay

He heard the preacher say
A single dime can feed
A hungry boy or girl
With nothing to eat
So he pulled a dollar
From the pocket of his jeans
And he asked his mama
How many will this feed?
She just smiled
And when she told him ten
He reached back again

CHORUS:
What if I give all I have?
What will that gift do?
My child, a gift like that
Could change the world
It could feed a multitude
He didn't close his eyes
Or turn away
I can see him standing tall
He saw the need
And I can hear him say
What if I give all

Three birthday dollars
Could have bought a special toy
But he reminds me
Of another little boy
Who gave to Jesus
A gift of fish and bread
I wonder if he said

CHORUS (repeat)

And long ago a Father and a Son
Saw the children lost in sin
Can you see the tears
In the Fathers eyes
As Jesus says to him

What if I gave all I have?
What will that gift do?
My Son, that gift
Will change the world
It will free the multitudes

What if I give all I have?
What will that gift do?
My child a gift like that
Could change the world
It could feed a multitude
We cannot close our eyes
And turn away
When we hear His Spirit call
We see the need
Now let Him hear us say
What if I give all?
What if I give all?

1996 Shepherd Boy MusicASCAP (adm. by Word Music) and Screaming Toad MusicASCAP (adm. by Addison Music).

Materialism/Idols

2009-08-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! Three posts in two days! I'm on a roll! The Toys R Us ads in the previous post reminded me of something I wanted to take note of for when Micah gets older.

Jackson has started getting allowance (here's the post about our family's views on that subject)and ever since then we've had more opportunities to discuss saving, spending and giving money.

Well, Jackson received a Fisher Price catalog along with one of the birthday presents he got in the mail and it's become his new favorite "book". In fact, in order to help him learn how to save his money to buy something bigger than a 97 cent Hotwheels, we've cut out a picture of the toy he wants to buy and we made a little count down calendar for how many weeks it will take until he can buy it. It's been a really good lesson in delayed gratification.

However, now he'll spend more time looking at the toys he "wants"(said in a whinny voice) in the catalog than he does playing with the toys he has. It's prompted some good conversation about materialism. Here's how the conversation happened the other day:

Mom: Jackson please get into your high chair it's time for lunch.

(Jackson still looking at the catalog.)

Mom: Jackson did you not hear me or are you choosing to be disobedient?

Jackson: I heard you... Mom, after I get my Lightning McQueen train I want to get this ...

(Mom takes the catalog away and Jackson throws a mini tantrum.)

Mom: Uh-oh.

Jackson: What?

Mom: Did you know that you just made toys an idol? What does the Bible say about idols? (pause) What is the first commandment?

Jackson: "You shall have no other gods before me."

Mom: Did you know that when you chose to look at the catalog instead of obey Mommy you also chose to disobey God and that means you are putting your toys before God and making them an idol? Is that good or bad?

Jackson: Bad.

Mom: You've been thinking about your toys a lot lately. What should we think about more? God? or toys?

Jackson: God.

(We pray that God will help us to think about Him more than our toys.)

Mom: It's okay to have toys, but it's not okay to think about them more than God. Let's put this catalog away for awhile so we stop thinking about toys and think about God.

Jackson: Okay(getting into his high chair). Mom?

Mom: Yes?

Jackson: When I was getting into my high chair I was thinking about Jesus.

Mom: I'm glad.

Of course materialism is something I struggle with too. I just wrote a blog about matching outfits for cryin' out loud. I'm glad that God is using me to keep my boy's heart in check and that He's using my boy to keep my heart in check.

As a result, we've also been working on memorizing a few Bible verses regarding the issue of materialism:

"And He said to them, 'Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.'" (Luke 12:15 NKJV)

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Luke 16:13 NIV)

I don't pretend to have all the answers to this tough issue. How do I raise my children with a healthy view of money? Money in and of itself is not bad, it's the LOVE of money that's bad. But it's hard to distinguish what the LOVE of money looks like sometimes because it can creep into my life so easily.

I've made it clear to Jackson that I struggle with making "things" an idol too and that this will be a life long battle for us, so we need to keep praying that God will help us to worship Him only.

Yet another reminder of God's grace in our day to day lives.

Matching Outfits ... Okay PJs!

2009-08-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have the joy of having little girls you know how fun it can be to find matching outfits for them to wear. The options are unlimited!

However, BOYS are a different story. Someone must have decided that it's not okay to match your sons' outfits because I have a terrible time finding them. I don't normally match my boys ... I don't normally buy brand new clothes for them either (unless it's a really good sale or I need something very specific), but on occasion (like Easter and Christmas) I think it's fun.

Maybe I'm too frugal and I'm shopping at the wrong stores? I've tried Walmart, Target, Kohl's, Babies R Us, etc. I just can't bring myself to pay the price it costs for an adult outfit for clothes my children will out grow in only a couple of months.

Anyway, I kind of chuckle at the fact that the matching "outfits" I finally got them were $7.00 pajamas at Walmart. Ah well. They're still pretty cute though.

I love that they look like they are enjoying a nice morning reading the paper (Jackson's been into reading the Toys R Us ads lately) and a book. I almost had them pose with coffee mugs.<

Growth Spurt ... Maybe?

2009-08-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Micah caught a cold last week, but he'd been doing really well at night time regardless of all of the congestion he was having.

We also had friends in town from Omaha on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so Micah was out of routine for most of those days.

On Monday morning (5:00am) Micah woke up crying. I gave him some medicine and then ended up nursing him so that I wouldn't wake up our guests and he went back to sleep until around 8am. Then he did fine the rest of the day and we even went to the beach.

Tuesday morning he woke up at 4:00am and was inconsolable. I gave him medicine, gas drops and sucked out his nose and after an hour and a half of crying I could finally rock him back to sleep(I didn't nurse him this time because I didn't want to create a habit) and he slept until around 8am. I figured he has had a cold for one week now and may be battling an ear infection. His morning nap was perfect, but I had a hard time getting him to sleep for his afternoon nap although he eventually did go to sleep and slept quite awhile. When I put him to bed that night I gave him medicine and gas drops just in case.

Wednesday morning he woke up at 4:30am and again was inconsolable. I gave him medicine and gas drops but didn't suck out his nose thinking that would wake him up too much. After an hour and a half of crying I finally gave in and nursed him. He drank it ALL! As soon as he was finished he was sound asleep.

I feel TERRIBLE that he cried for that long for nothing. I could have just nursed him and put him right back to bed and we would have all been much happier today. But, in my defense, he's sick and teething and trying new foods and out of routine and I thought all of those combined were my problem.

Looking back I'm not really sure I would have done anything differently except try nursing a little sooner, but I still would have tried everything else first. (SIGH) I still feel terrible though and that's only magnified by the fact that I'm exhausted.

Well, I'm going to try to increase Micah's calories today (mix some breast milk in his food and add an extra nursing) to see if that helps tonight.

I'm still not fully convinced that it's a growth spurt, but part of me hopes that it's only that. Poor little guy.

We'll get this all straightened out soon.

Additional Note Made 8/7/09:

The day I fed Micah more calories he did sleep through the night, BUT he had a very difficult time falling asleep and I moved him to his swing where he slept all night long. I'm now almost certain that he had some sort of ear infection that would feel progressively worse throughout the day and made night times uncomfortable for him.

Last night he went to sleep well (a little fussy due to separation anxiety) and stayed asleep ALL NIGHT!! (SIGH) Let's hope this is the end of this cold.

Additional Note Made 8/8/09:

NOPE! He was up again this morning at 5:30am! Finally fell asleep again after I nursed him and put him in the swing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Rough Night

2009-07-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if it was the nursery on Sunday or the doctor's office on Monday, but Micah is not feeling well. He's got a cold, is teething and may have gotten bad gas after trying yogurt for the first time yesterday.

He was a little fussy on Monday, but I chalked it up teething.

Yesterday morning he was a little more fussy, but not bad. He tried plain yogurt for the first time at breakfast. He woke up during his morning nap sounding congested so I gave him Motrin (just in case he was in pain from his teeth) and had him finish his nap in his swing.

He ate great for lunch, but had a hard time going down for his afternoon nap. He ended up sleeping in his swing again after I gave him some Tylenol. At this point his nose was noticeably running.

He was happy after nap time, but by this time his nose was gushing and of course his teeth were still bothering him (made evident by the fact that he kept sucking on his upper lip).

Bedtime was a beast! He'd only fall asleep if I was holding him and when I'd put him down he'd cry. I tried the swing again, but he slept for only an hour or so and then woke up crying.

Finally, I tried putting him in his car seat in the walk in closet in our bedroom (so he wouldn't wake up Jackson), but that didn't work. I brought the rocking chair into our room, but it was too bright and Micah just wanted to play and look around then.

So, we moved the rocking chair to the walk in closet (by this time it was 11pm and he'd already had a dose of Motrin at 8pm and a dose of Tylenol at 11pm). He pretty much cried himself to sleep in my arms in the rocking chair in the closet. I carefully transferred him to his crib, but he only slept for 2 hours.

Around 4am (after battling with him for quite some time) I noticed that every time I'd pick him up when he was crying he'd either burp or pass gas. So, I gave him some gas drops and nursed him in case he was hungry.

After that the rocking chair was getting uncomfortable for me, so I moved us to my bed (Colin had moved down to the couch LOOOOONG before this). I laid him down thinking I'd have to battle him rolling all over the bed.

I was surprised that he laid perfectly still and almost fell asleep as I was rubbing his tummy. He passed a little more gas and had a few more burps and then he was his happy self again. So, I put him back into his crib wide awake and he went to sleep and stayed asleep until 8am and had a great breakfast this morning.

His nose is still gushing so I filled the humidifier, propped his mattress up and gave him Motrin before his morning nap. He's been sleeping soundly for an 1 hour and 45 minutes so far (crossing my fingers).

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, but I think I went insane last night trying to figure out all of the different ways that I could help my little boy sleep.

I know this too shall pass.

9 Month Check Up

2009-07-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

My Progress: (skip this if you don't care about the feminine stuff) I started my cycle this month.

Micah's 9 month stats:

20lbs 14oz (48%)
29" (75%)
47cm HC (95%)

Micah sits up without assistance and rolls as a means of getting to where he wants to go (hence the 48% for weight). He has yet to crawl, but definitely shows an interest in it, but gets easily frustrated when he tries to. He can also clap too and would clap for several minutes at a time in his crib after he woke up when he first learned that skill.

He also has begun to master his pincer fingers and can pick up cheerios and other finger foods and feed himself. He's had the following foods so far: Yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, chicken, black beans, salmon, beef, ground turkey, avocado, applesauce, papaya, banana, blueberries, peaches, apricots, tomatoes, oatmeal, rice, cheerios, watermelon and I'm sure there's more that I just can't remember. (I plan on trying egg yokes and yogurt some time in the next few weeks too, since I've gotten the go ahead from the pediatrician).

He's just starting to sign "please," but instead of rubbing his chest he'll frantically grab at his bib or pant leg. Overall his communication is whining when he wants something ... I'm looking forward to the next couple of months when HOPEFULLY he'll learn how to sign a few words. He's jabbering consonant sounds now like: dada, baba, adah (no mama yet).

He LOVES books, but mostly the mechanics of how the pages feel, turn and taste ... we're working on not putting everything in his mouth, but he's definitely in the oral stage right now. He's got two bottom teeth and I'm expecting the top two to pop through any time now.

His favorite thing to do is go for walks in the stroller. He also loves to be with his big brother. I will often find him mimicking Jackson at the dinner table or when they are playing together ... it's SO adorable.

Micah takes two naps during the day for about 2 hours each, but on Sundays he takes a shorter morning nap and then a longer afternoon nap because of church. I still put him in a sleep sack for naps and night time and he likes to suck on the collar (I hope that's not a bad habit that I'm letting happen there). He sleeps great at night (12 hours) even when he stayed at a different house without mom and dad for a couple of days.

While we were traveling without the boys I was able to see how much milk Micah drinks based on how much I pumped. He drinks about 10oz in the morning, then 6oz around lunch, 4oz after his afternoon nap and 4oz at bedtime for a total of 24oz a day.

His stranger anxiety has waned a little, but I think he's starting a little separation anxiety now too because he'll usually tolerate strangers as long as I'm right next to him. However, once he warms up to a person he does great. I was really glad that he got to spend some time with his Grandma Deb this weekend.

One year is just around the corner ... I'll blink and he'll be going off to college. I'm doing my best to every second!

Traveling and Babysitters

2009-07-17T21:26:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't know we are living in central coast California for a year and a half through Colin's work and the time has come for us to start thinking about where we'll be going next.

If you had asked me this time last year I would have said that we were going back to Omaha, BUT ideas and opportunities have come up in the mean time and it looks like we may be heading to Colorado.

SO, Colin had a work trip out there this week and I went with him to check out Denver neighborhoods, churches and pediatricians. We did NOT take the kids with us. I debated about that a lot before we left.

It was a no brain-er to leave Jackson because we have to pay a full price ticket for him and he's a little less dependent on me these days. Micah, on the other hand, was a little tougher decision. He was STILL not taking a bottle very well (only taking about 2 oz at a time when we'd tried).

But we bit the bullet and left him with church friends who have really been surrogate grandparents to Micah and Jackson while we've lived here. We've also known them for quite some time (they attended the church we went to in Omaha).

Anyway, I'm doing this blog so that I can remember a few things that really worked for this trip regarding traveling, exploring a new city and leaving my kids with a sitter:

1. As anal as it may seem I'm really glad that I wrote out a detailed schedule for the couple that watched Micah and Jackson (I even included when to ask Jackson to go to the bathroom and what types of food my kids like). My thought was that even if they decided to deviate from the schedule (which was totally fine by me) they'd have an idea of what the kids are used to. It made my life SOOOOO much easier when I came back home ... it's like I never left! (sigh of relief)

2. I had the boys go to the sitter's house rather than come to our house. I felt like that would make the sitter more comfortable. The boys and I spent the night all together at their house a couple of nights before we left for Colorado.

3. Micah didn't take a bottle for almost the entire time I was gone, but he was fine. I thought about working really hard at getting him to take the bottle before we left, but then I thought it'd be better to hand the babysitters a happy baby rather than a disgruntled baby when I left for my trip.

He slept through the night and for his naps and he ate solids like a champ (I decided to provide pureed avocado among some other foods (it's healthy and yet high in calories) just in case he didn't take the bottle well). I make my own baby food so I was also able to put exactly what I feed him for each feeding into individual zip loc bags and then put them all into a gallon freezer bag so that it was more convenient for the babysitter to make Micah's food. I have no idea if he was crabby the whole time, but my friend still seemed to have her wit when I came home, so he must have been pretty content.

4. We only stayed in Denver for about 4 days. I packed just a carry on that contained my purse and I also carried a breast pump, so that I could avoid checking and claiming luggage and avoid paying an extra $20 because we flew United Airlines. I didn't get heckled through security with the pump as long as I told them what it was before it went through the x-ray.

5. I had to pump and dump because I had no way of taking the milk back home (sad, I know). Next time I'll remember to bring my nursing cover just in case I can't find a bathroom off the beaten path that has an outlet close enough to a stall. I was smart though and brought along a car adapter for the pump, so I didn't have to go into a retail place to pump when I was driving all around Denver.

6. I'm really glad we had a real estate agent for this trip. She gave me some GREAT city maps and marked out all of the houses with map quest directions. The homework she gave me while I was there was to just pick a neighborhood. I think I found a really good one across the street from Clement Park about 10 minutes from where Colin would work and 10 minutes from the PCA church we'll probably go to.

There is one house up for sale now that meets most of our requirements, but it's a little out of our price range. Luckily it's a buyers market right now and we've got a little time before we need to nail down a house.

7. I checked out two different pediatric offices and my first impression is that they both seem like a place I'd be comfortable. Although I'm still going to ask other parents in the Denver area and will hopefully be able to make October and January appointments for Micah in August before we move.

8. I also visited the PCA church (Deer Creek Church) in the neighborhood. The staff was very friendly. It's a bigger church than we're used to, but I got a really good feeling about it. I think we'll listen to some sermons online before we move.

9. I drove A LOT!!! I'm pretty comfortable with the area we'll hopefully be in and could tell you, generally speaking, where to find a Super Target, a mall, the library, the nearest hospital, parks, etc.

Colorado felt like a hybrid between California and Omaha and I'm at peace if that's where the Lord would have us move next.

P.S. Next time I go to the Denver area I'll need to remember to stock up on lots of water because I did experience altitude sickness.

I know this was probably REALLY boring to most of you and if you made it this far I'd be surprised. Thanks for hanging in there and I hope it was of some value to you too.

Brother Photo Shoot

2009-07-01T22:27:00.001-07:00

A Black Book Story: Big Lyrics for a Little Man

2009-06-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Jackson loves to sing. He'll sing songs like "The ABC's" or "Jesus Loves Me," but he prefers to sing songs he makes up about anything and everything. I posted a video awhile ago of one of his made up songs.

The other day I heard him singing in his bed to a made up tune with the following lyrics, "because you're my favorite one, you're my favorite one, beeeecaaaause yoooooouuuu'rrre myyyyy faaaaavoooorite oooooooooooooonne." I'm pretty sure he was singing about his his new cars he got at the store.

I love that Jackson loves to sing. I love that his creativity is unbridled by what other people think. I hope he can keep that for a long time.

Of all the things Jackson sings I love it most when he sings praise music. Lately his favorite song is "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong.

I love hearing his little voice sing such big words. I don't just mean literally how big the words like "compassion" and "author of salvation" are, but rather the grandeur of their meaning. There's something about it that makes the meaning even more magnificent.

I love that he will sing them at random times during the day without any prompting at all. In the grocery store, for example, for everyone to hear. I caught myself being paranoid when he was singing "my God is mighty to save, he is mighty to save" over and over again. I didn't want anyone to take offense or judge me or ask me about what he was singing for fear that I might actually have to evangelize. My paranoia was only for a split second, and a good reminder of my fallen nature.

The Holy Spirit is at work in that little boy and I love seeing the fruit! It shines new light on the idea of faith like a child (Matthew 18:3). I pray for that kind of faith.

Our Surrogate Family

2009-06-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest times to live far away from family is during holidays and birthdays. I can't tell you how many times Jackson asked me if Grandma and Papa and Grandma Deb were going to come to his birthday party and I had to disappoint him by telling him that it was too far for them to travel.

So, I wanted to have a birthday party for Jackson and his friends this year. I thought about what I would do and where I would acutally hold the party because we are living in a townhome right now with no backyard. There's a common's area, but it's not the same as having it in the comfort of your own home. I was also thinking that since Jackson's friend,Patrick's, birthday fell in the same month that the parents could share the task of throwing a combined party for the to boys. Mostly I just wanted a party where Jackson would be able to play with other kids his age ... where he could celebrate being a KID!

My friend Katy, Patrick's mom, gracisouly said that she would help throw a joint 3rd birthday party for the two boys at her house. She had already had some ideas of what she was going to do for Patrick's party and was going to go with a water theme. We each invited some of the boys' friends and Patrick's family members.

On Thursday night Katy and I went grocery shopping at 8:30pm at night for the party and also had a mini girl's night out at Kohl's and Starbucks (I hadn't done that with any one besides my sisters for a little over a year ... THANK YOU Katy!).

On Saturday Katy picked Jackson and me up at 9am so that Colin could keep the car and let Micah nap at home until the party at 11am. Patrick and Jackson got to play while we set up the back yard. Here are a few pictures of the party, but first let me just say ... Katy and her family did ALL of the work for this party!!

Patrick's Gramma Kitty made both of the boys a cake!

Patrick's other Grandma let them use her bounce house and water slide for the party!

Jackson's one request was a pinata!

It really hit me when Patrick's family sang happy birthday to Jackson how special this whole event was. I had been sad that all of Jackson's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins wouldn't be able to share his special day with him. Having Patrick's family as our surrogate family made missing our real family a lot easier.