NEWBIE!

It's only been 3.5 months since I've blogged.. but sometimes life takes over.

The last few months of pregnancy were uncomfortable, but I survived it! There was even an extra weekend thrown in.. just to keep me waiting. (Thanks Newbie.)

I didn't do a very good job of taking belly pictures during this pregnancy. It's true that you take fewer and fewer pictures as you get more and more kids. I DID however, make this on Newbie's due date:



Neat. Huh.

Three days later, on October 12, 2009... at 4 in the morning... Newbie made HER arrival!



I was only in labor for 4 hours and 45 minutes! I thought things might be happening around 9:30pm on Oct 11th, but they seemed to fizzle out until 11:15pm, when I started counting contractions because the first one I had was pretty painful. They came every 4 minutes! Thirty minutes later I was ready to go to the hospital, but decided to wait to wake Bond until after midnight. At 12:03am I had a contraction and woke Bond and called the babysitter, who got pulled over on the way to my house! Oops! We were in the car and on our way by 12:30am. Unfortunately for me, it was a slow ride... the roads were icy... and the air was foggy.

Note: Bond will drive in ANYTHING... but he hates driving in FOG the most. It's my guess he doesn't like the disorientation....

So.. yeah.. God gave us fog and ice... and every possible red light on the way to the hospital. But we still made it!

It took awhile to find our way into Labor & Delivery because for some reason (hmm.. maybe it was the horrible pain I was in) I couldn't remember how to get in. Thankfully a nurse saw us and opened the doors. (You're supposed to stand in front of a camera and push a button and then tell them who you are and what you want. I think if we'd have done this.. I'd have said something like.. "I'm in labor and I want my epidural NOW!"

Other than my whining, the hospital appeared empty and silent... Everyone was very calm. I started asking for the epidural as soon as we got into the admit room. She said I had to wait. Boo. The pain made me sick. I'd never gotten sick in labor before! Not pleasant.. but it did help with the pain.. weird.. right? Pain.. makes you sick... which makes pain go away for a short time.

We got into the L&D room about 1 or 1:30am... Got my epidural very soon after that.. and a few hours later I was ready to push!! No kidding! So they went and woke the doctor up about 3:30am.. I pushed a little.. and then we had to wait for the doctor to get in before I pushed anymore... he got there... we got Bond out of bed... I pushed.. baby came... TA DA!!! A beautiful little girl.. 7 lbs 9 oz... 20" long.. 13" head circumference.. 4 am On. The. Dot.

We tried calling family... but they were all asleep.. and no one wanted to answer their phones... so most people didn't find out till after 6am!

It was pretty surreal.. such a fast labor.. in the middle of the night... nobody knew except us. It was a really quiet and peaceful labor (once I got the epidural).. and it was just. us. And I LOVED that. Like we stowed away in the middle of the night to have our baby in secret. So cool.

Newbie didn't get a name for another week. It was all we talked about for 5 days. There was a point when myself, Bond, Bond's mom and dad, Bond's grampa and grandma, and Bond's sister and brother-in-law (I think that's everyone) were all sitting around in our living room talking about what to name the poor little girl known as Baby Girl and "B.G." at the doc's office and hospital.

I think we discussed every name in the book.

Twice.

She did finally get her name and I think I might have heard the Hallelujah Chorus when I announced it. Praise God! The child has a name!!

Newbie spent her second day of life on phototherapy for jaundice. She was my glow-baby... My Neon Smurfette..



Sunshine and Tank were so taken by her!! It was SOOO cute. Sunshine kept laying his head down on the carrier.. staring and smiling at her!!



As for me... I think she's the most beautiful baby girl..



..God ever put on this earth



And I'm the lucky one..



Because I get to put bows in her hair!!!!!!!!!

Heavyweight

There must be something about carrying around an extra 12 lbs of weight.. weight that has the ability to poke and prod and pinch you.. weight that sits on your bladder, giving you a constant urge to go to the bathroom... weight that suffocates you by way of diaphragm compression... weight that makes you wonder if you'll ever be able to eat spaghetti again without experiencing the most insufferable case of heartburn on medical record..
There must be something about this weight that keeps you from cleaning your house.. or writing on your blog. Something about it that causes you to fall into a 3-hour coma every day at 1:30pm, on. the. dot.
It absolutely MUST be the weight. I just couldn't admit to being so lazy!!!

(And no.. I don't have a picture of the weight. But I do have some new pictures of Newbie I'll have to post someday.. along with some pictures of camping a few weeks ago. I'll get to it one of these days!)

When God Goes Bowling

Sometimes you have to lie to your kids. If they're cute lies... that makes it okay, right?

Today we had a sudden thunderstorm come on just as I was putting the boys down for their naps. It's a little distracting for a 2-year-old and 4-year-old to go to sleep when they're hearing random, crackly booms come from the sky!



Tank didn't seem too bothered. I thank God that I have been given some time with a child who actually looks forward to naptime for the most part. Sometimes I'll get some complaining.. but usually.. he's sweetly telling me "nigh-nigh" as I close his door. I don't know how long this phase will last. But I'm holding onto it while I can! Because I know it's a phase... and that it will end eventually!

Sunshine was the one who kept mentioning the thunder. He's also the one who fights naptime, especially when I make it at a decent time like 12:30p or 1p instead of like.. 5p.

I should mention that thunderstorms are loud at our house. We have three skylights that really amplify any noise that comes from the sky.. like rain.. hail.. and thunder... and bird poop. I'll have to tell you about Sunshine and bird poop another time though. You get the idea though... it's loud.



Wow... check out all that hail! It looks like snow!

K. I'm back now. So, it's loud.. and I'm trying to put my loquacious and reluctant 4-year-old down for a nap. If there's a distraction to be spoken about.. he's gonna spoke about it. (Yes, I meant to type spoke. It's not a typo.) So he was saying something about the thunder.. and mentioning how he wasn't brave.

Ah great... I thought to myself.. How am I gonna get this kid to go to bed and be quiet for a few hours? I think I need my quiet time more than he does.

"You know what? You're going to be hearing that thunder during your naptime today. But don't let it scare you, okay? Because it just means that God and the angels are bowling," I blurted out.

"Bowling? Where?"

"In Heaven!"

"They have bowling in Heaven?"

Hmm... I don't know if they'll have bowling in Heaven... we'll all be busy worshiping.. won't we?
"Sure, Honey. Can't you hear it?"

BANG! rumble... rumble... rumble...

"Uh huh.. I want to go bowling with them sometime.."

"Oh you will. So you just sit here and listen to God bowling during your naptime, okay?"

"Okay!"

Well that worked. Both Tank and Sunshine took wonderful naps!

Bond would rather me tell Sunshine the real reason thunder happens... like.. something about.. hot air from the lightening.. meeting cold air? ... and... that makes it loud? How do I explain something to someone when I don't quite understand it all myself? I dunno.. I think the bowling explanation is more fun. I won't mind when Sunshine comes home from his first day in preschool and tells me that thunder is NOT really God and the angels bowling.. that it's really hot air meeting cold air blah blah blah that makes the thunder. I guess I'll need to come up with something smart to say about why I told him it was God and the angels. I probably have some time.

I learned something about Millie today too: While every other dog on the face of the planet is deathly afraid of thunder.. she could care less. And we're talking THUNDER here people. Oh she'll perk her ears up a little.. maybe look out the window if she's near one. But I think she's probably thinking someone just shot a really big gun and.. "Hey... where's the bird? Where's the bird? I'll go get it! Let me at it! I'll bring it right to ya!!"

A new rug on the other hand? Oh she'll run to the ends of the earth to get away from that... that... whatever it is! I love my dog. But she's a little confused. At least she'll let me take a nap without making me make up stories to calm her down!

My Dog Millie

"I shall call her Millie.. and she shall be mine and she shall be my Millie.." - adapted from Finding Nemo

Oh... how I love this dog. I didn't even know I could love a dog. But I love her and she is mine now.
She should probably be Bond's dog.. since he'll hunt with her this fall (yes, when I'm 9 months preggo, or maybe in labor, or.. maybe when there's a newborn in the house... I'm letting him do this.. I don't get it either.)
But I'm the one who trains with her during the day. I say "train"... we work with her. She's special. But she's a GOOD dog. And she's doing so well. I'm so proud of the progress she's made. Anyway... during our 15 minute training sessions.. she'll give me this look..



"Oh Mommy... please don't make me do this anymore! I don't want to learn any new tricks. Look, I'm sitting.. where you told me to sit. Good enough, right? Can we be done now?"

It's hilarious when she's learning something new.. and I laugh at her.. I don't think she appreciates it a whole lot.. but she's a dog.. not a cat.. so she forgives me.

I've learned a lot owning a dog. I'm going to share 2 things with you now that you may have never known about dogs...

1) They blink.. just like us.. and can end up blinking mid-capture!


The difference is that they look a lot cuter mid-blink than we do.

2) They can get camera-shy...


It's either that.. or she wasn't liking the flash.

Do you feel smarter now?

My Millie is a bird dog. She LOVES to run and fetch stuff. She didn't used to bring it back to us.. I think she might have been afraid we'd keep it.. or something. But she's since learned to bring it right to our hands (a good thing for a bird dog to know) and immediately set herself up for another run.

My favorite thing about her return run...



is the way her ears flop up and down. Those cute, adorable, fluffy ears!



Flip, flop...



Flip, flop!! I LOVE her ears! :) That's where I pet her too. She plops her little face on my leg and I sit there and rub her ears. She loves it. It's her heaven. And mine too, I think!

How can you not love that face?



Can you see the dirt and foamy slobber?



Take a break, Mills!



'Cause you know what Dawg??



You deserve it!



My sweet, sweet, adorable puppy!

Distractions!

What's this you ask? Very... technical-looking... diagram..

My goodness.. it can't be! Why, yes! It is!! It's a..

DIAPER!!! Not just any diaper.. a CLOTH diaper!!!

I'll wait while you get your "eews.." and "acks!" out.

Better now? Good.

Yes.. this is what has been eating my time. (Ha! And I'm not even using them yet!)

The world of cloth diapering has changed a lot in the last 20 years or so... even in the last 4-5 years. It's amazing! Just as easy, and almost as convenient as disposables, except you're not having to dig a new landfill for each baby's dirty diapers! Isn't that wonderful????

By the way, this is only one of many many many diapers they make these days. This is a BumGenius 3.0 one-size diaper. You can find info on them here from where I stole the diagram, and you can buy them here.

Anyway. I just thought you should know that it's the research of a carefully constructed piece of equipment which will eventually hold the waste product of my future child that has kept me from my blogging. Aren't you glad you know that now??

Speaking of Newbie...



Cute right? See the foot kinda toward the top? Almost looks like Newbie is wearing a sock!!

Sweet sweet baby. This was taken at 20 weeks plus a few days. I'll have more pictures in a few weeks because Newbie was a curled up in a ball and refusing to show us the heart. So we have to go back and hope we aren't being as obnoxious. ;) The gender is still God's little secret! :) It's fun that way!

Oh yah... and have you ever seen this sweet face?



My sweet Millie dog has been taking up lots of time too!!! We've been training her and she's quite hilarious during the trainings... she gets these amazing expressions on her face.... stoops her head all low.. and sags her ears... and gets those big brown puppy-dog eyes LOCKED in on us.. hoping they're break our hearts into a million pieces....

*pout pout pout*

I just laugh. It's funny. It's all I can do to keep from crying and rescuing her from learning to be an obedient puppy!!! I'll take some pictures sometime in the future of that. You'll love it! Or you'll hate me for allowing such a beautiful dog to be burdened with such a thing as behaving!

I just need a reminder or two...

I just wanted to remind myself that it's aaalllllll worth it. So I'm posting a cute picture of my two sweet boys smiling at the camera at the same time. Tank is sweetly reaching toward the big brother he idolizes, and not getting punched for it. Sunshine is showing off those gorgeous dimples and both boys are CLEAN because they've just had a bath.. their hair is combed.. teeth are brushed.. and it's almost bedtime.

*sigh*

I'll just sit in this moment for awhile I think.

Yeah... that's nice.

The "aaalllllll" that I'm referring to, by the way, isn't just the complaining when his socks don't fit right, or the screaming when he doesn't get what he wants, or the beating up of one another over a stupid toy. I'm trying not to think about that part yet. I'm talking about the one who I will affectionately call "Newbie" until further notice. Sunshine and Tank don't know it yet, but they're in for a little surprise this fall. Bond and I knew about it.. Newbie isn't that kind of surprise, for goodness sake. But, we don't know if Newbie is a boy or a girl.. and we won't until this fall when Newbie is born. So that's why Newbie is the name.

So. The "aaalllllll" is in fact, the pregnancy of course!!!

My body is on strike, or maybe it's working overtime. And it's laughable. I guess this is just what happens when you're baking yet another child.

Pregnancy is funny. Everything takes forever the first time. You're not wearing granny undies two sizes too big until Week 35. But by the third time around, I think someone down there picks up a megaphone around Week 4 and starts pep-talking..

"Okay people!! We're back in baby-bearing business! You know the drill. SPREAD OUT! That's right! Lefts.. a little further please! We don't want to be uneven. Rights.. good good. Let's do this fast people. No point in waiting till the last minute! Pubic bone.. you're gonna bruise a lot sooner this time around.. just hold your ground! Don't give in!"

Luckily....

I have something that first-timers don't have...



Yeah baby... *drool*

I'm just kidding. First-timers can have donuts too. :) They will definitely help your hips widen.. just.. not in the right way.

But what I have that they don't have... is this:

Reminder #1



And Reminder #2



:)

Heck yah. It's definitely aaalllllll worth it!

Model Material

So, tomorrow came like, a week late. I do have another job you know. ;) BUT - Without further ado, HEEEeeeeeeerrrrrrrrre's Tank!!!



He saw me snapping away at Sunshine and totally wanted in on the action. He ran around the couch, stood up straight against it, and promptly said "Cheese!"

*Snap snap!* *Snap!*


Nice smile kid!


Ah... and the posing begins. Now give me a little tongue. Something cute...


No no.. no. That's too much. A little less tongue.


Okay uhm. Better! Yes.. definitely better. Let's uh... let's get away from the tongue thing now.


OH YEAH! THERE we go! Now you got it kid!! Gimme more of that!! Now you're workin' it!!

Hey, Kid... Kid???



I see. You're distracted. Fine.. fine. Watch Thomas. What do I care, anyway?

Fish Face

So Sunshine has had a cough for 6 weeks or so now... he just finished his 2-week run of antibiotics this morning and the cough is still here. We're back on the nebulizer 3 times a day, and the morning and night sessions last FOR-E-VER. I thought I'd show you the many faces of Sunshine during the 20 minute time period he's stuck on the couch "being a fish."


Ah.. he's smiling! That's nice. Thanks for smiling, Dear!


Oh, okay... the TV has caught his attention. He's forgotten that mom has the camera.


Now he's playing with the steam type stuff that comes out of it.




You get that medicine steam, kid!! Catch it!


Uh oh. It's been too long.. we're getting tired of being a fish. We're whining and making other sounds that might earn some empathy. See that white stuff in there? That's foam. That's what happens when you put 2 medicines in there and then shake it around. It also means it's going to take longer to finish the treatment.


Tank looks on with concern...


.. but he's over it quickly. Thomas is WAAAAY more interesting.


And Sunshine turns his worried glance back toward Thomas.. still whimpering.

Before Tank noticed Sunshine in distress, he was posing for me. I'll post about that tomorrow.

Toilet Doom

I have a love-hate relationship with my toilet.

I love my toilet because it's essential to civilized living. I guess a hole in the ground would work too.

It's not the toilet, I guess that I hate so much. It's the water in it.

My children. My sweet, darling, beautiful, perfect children. They really love the toilet water. Not to drink, I don't think. But to "fix" their hair.

I think that's really gross.

I'd shut them out of the bathroom forever. But then I'd be stuck changing diapers forever.

And I think that's really gross too.

So, unfortunately. I'm stuck.

PS - Don't mind my dirty toilet.

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

It's time.

I've been wanting to blog for a while now. It wasn't until my friend started her blog using code names, that I realized I can spill my thoughts online for friends and family to read and keep my identity safe from... whoever's out there to get me.. too.

In all reality, I think I'm pretty invisible anyway. But you'll be seeing some changes over the next few days. Weeks. However long it takes me to get it the way I like it. :)
I'll be going through my previous posts (all like.. 20 of them) and erasing our real names etc.

Hope you enjoy the process!

MTA: Oh, and by the way.. I'm not completely happy with some of the blog-names on here. So, I might be changing those... like.. when the right name pops up. I had a horrible time naming Tank.. I renamed him like.. 3 or 4 times while he was in-utero. Thank goodness I found The Name before he was born!!

Conversations with an Almost-4-Year-Old

I had a really good conversation with Sunshine today.
Just after 8pm I went downstairs where the kids had been watching Blues Clues.. (I know, I'm such a good mom, letting Blue and Steve or Joe babysit my babies.. and borrowing more videos from the library than books. You can chastise me later.. or maybe this makes up for it a little bit.)

So anyway.

Sunshine was mad because it was bedtime and he wanted to watch Blue. He complained all the way upstairs, while his younger sibling Tank was happy as a clam. By the way, it makes no sense to me why a 2-year-old would be any happier about going to bed than an almost 4-year-old.. but.. whatever. I don't make the rules. Well.. actually I do.. but not those rules. Those rules are made by 2-year-olds and almost-4-year-olds.. and I used to be them.. but I'm not now.. so I'm sure the rules have changed.

So. Anyway.

Sunshine was complaining that he didn't want to go to bed.. moping all the way to his room. Once he finished going potty he climbed into bed and said..

"I don't want to talk about God."

"What?"

"I don't want to talk about God," he repeated.

"Why not?"

"I want God to leave my heart."

I finished tucking Tank in and went over to Sunshine's bed and sat down. "Now why would you want that?"

"So He can't see me anymore."

"Oh, well.. God will see you no matter where He is."

"He will?"

"Yup."

"Why?" 'Why' has been the question word of the day today. I'm guessing it will continue to be the question word of the day for a long time. But at least this time I had a decent answer for it.

"Because God loves you."

"He does?"

"Yup. You know how I love you very very much?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, God loves you even more."

"Why?"

"Because He made you!"

"He did?!" Sunshine's face lit up and he smiled. His whole mood changed.

"Yes He did!"

"Jesus loves me too!"

"Yes!" I agreed.

"But Judas is a bad guy and he's going to get me." We talked a little bit about how Jesus died last week.. reading out of our kids storybook bible. One of the stories was about how Judas betrayed Jesus. So now Sunshine is talking a lot about how Judas is a bad guy.

And I said, "No, he's not. Judas can't get you."

"Why not?"

"Because God's in your heart. And God protects you."

"Oh. And Jesus protects me too!"

"That's right!"

"I love you Mom." ... *heart melts*

"I love you too, Sunshine. Night night."

"Goodnight Mom!"