Anything but boring

This week has continued last week's theme of crazy with Micah becoming an incredibly clingy mama's boy. I have even been wearing him again, with the wrap and soft structured carrier, doing my best to work around my 20 week belly. He won't even be comforted by Kevin, which is a truly rare thing! Kyle went back to preschool today, Kevin has been able to work two normal days so far this week, but I'm still a pregnant, emotional wreck.

Kyle had his first baseball game tonight and it was awesome; like I couldn't stop smiling awesome which is a great thing because last year all I did was wince during his practices and games because of the awfulness of the league and coach. The kids had an amazing time and the parents were fantastic! I am so thankful we found the extra money to switch leagues because it was worth it; every pinched penny! Kyle couldn't stop talking about the game and playing baseball on the way home, which has never happened before. He has practice tomorrow and another game on Sunday. I am so thankful for this positive sports experience for him; it is exactly what I had in mind when thinking about my little guys learning to play team sports.

I'm feeling baby boy a lot more lately, but nothing uncomfortable. I didn't gain any weight last week, but that could just be due to the food poisoning episode. Either way, I don't mind since the weight went on fast the first half of this pregnancy! Nursing is becoming more uncomfortable and I'm at a loss on how to wean Micah. Kyle weaned himself and it was so easy! Guess I need to do a little research.

Today has really taken it out of me, so I'm off to bed.

A long week led up to an even longer weekend

Kevin has been busy this weekend, playing the role of Mr. Mom even more than usual while I recovered from food poisoning. Additionally, he cleaned up the vomit in our back seat from a Micah episode on Friday :

I took the boys to walmart on Friday morning and just as we pull in, Micah throws up not once, but three times, all over himself, his car seat, and our back seat. It was an unseasonably cold day, but I had to strip him down outside the car then pop him in the front seat to put on the spare set of clothes I keep in the diaper bag. Of course, with it having been in the 80s all week, I had switched the clothes out to warm weather gear. Now, what to do about that car seat? Well, I got it uninstalled and threw it in the trunk, then cleaned the back seat best I could. We headed in to walmart for a cheap booster seat for Kyle to ride home in, so Micah could use the five point harness seat (they both have the exact same car seat, just adjusted differently for their heights). We got to the car, got everyone situated, and it took all my will power to overcome my queasiness and make it home. I cleaned up the car seat if you ever need tips or tricks on that sort of thing, while Kevin tackled the car.

Back to everything Kevin has been doing: my laundry closet looks amazing with its new cupboard and shelves installed and he is currently steam cleaning our carpets downstairs! He knows just how to keep a nesting mama happy!

I picked up a new bedding set today and black out curtains for our room! We have had black out curtains in the boys room for several months now and with baby brother arriving, I wanted some for our room too since that is where he will be sleeping for awhile.

That's about it; crossing my fingers for a more normal week across the board, from physical health to sleep to work and school.

And after all that

I am recovering from a night of food poisoning.

Date Night

Finally, a couple hours alone with Kevin. It's been months because, well, we have no "village" here. I was going to make reservations for the kids at a "parent's night out" program run by a local play place we have frequented so we could celebrate Kevin's birthday tonight, just the two of us. However, once our retired neighbor heard about that she offered to watch the boys for free! She's a mom and grandma many times over and has watched our dog before, but I'd never thought she would watch the boys. I made sure there was a $5 carry out pizza on the counter and "Cars" in the blu ray player. Then we went out, waited for a table, and there were even cloth napkins! I felt like an adult for a couple hours, the food and company were fantastic.

Crossing my fingers we won't have to do a middle of the night breathing treatment, but not counting on it. Off to bed we all go; here's to the weekend!

Not allergies

At least not for Micah; let's just say his "allergies" escalated quite a bit last night and at the doctor this morning they told us that after visiting them with severe wheezing 3 or 4 times by the age of 2, well, they prefer to just go ahead and call that what it is: asthma. We did a breathing treatment at the office and were told to do them every 4 to 6 hours through the weekend. Well, due to our insurance, the breathing machine needed to be delivered to us at home, not given to us at the office and then billed to our insurance company. Micah woke up from his nap ready for another treatment and there was NO respirator at our house. I called the company and they had it scheduled for delivery at 7:15 tonight. They had neglected to put in the notes that it was a pediatric patient who needed it for immediate use. So we made due with the rescue inhaler and it was delivered within an hour of me calling.

Allergies

I think we've been hit by the allergy gods, and not in a good way. Poor Micah, this is his first "real" allergy season and he is suffering the most. Last night was long, with a lot of coughing, dry heaving, and some throwing up of mucus (he has a super sensitive gag reflex). Kevin and I are exhausted and a little foggy ourselves from sinus back up. Kyle seems to be doing the best of all of us thus far. There's little Micah or I can do/take to help due to our age/condition, but probably time to buy some claritin for Kevin and Kyle. Ready for this loooong week to be over.

Totally off topic

So, it seems to me that even though we patiently went through the membership process for a church we really do love and enjoy on Sundays, we just keep getting these little issues, pokes, and red flags that make me feel like it may be time to move on and keep looking for a church here in the Nashville area. This also makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Pity party time, just close the window now if you'd prefer not to hear me complain. I am so tired, frustrated, and beaten down trying to plug in, make friends, find a church, etc... We will be "celebrating" (and I use that term loosely) two years in TN this July. Two long, lonely, socially depressing years. I just don't know if I can drag the kids around to different churches every weekend, again, for months and months at a time. I can count on my one hand how many times people have accepted a playdate invitation to our house and actually shown up. It's frustrating because I put in the time, I connect, invite, plan, attend everything we can to invest in relationships with other people here, but there must be something I'm doing wrong or missing about the culture here because it's not working.

The question I get asked everyday now,

by friends and strangers alike is: Do you have a name yet? Well, no, actually we don't. Kyle has Kevin's initials, Micah has mine, and I really thought our next children would be adopted and might already have been given names, so I hadn't considered what we might name additional children our family was blessed with in the future.

Neither of us seem set on using initials again, but it's not completely out of the question. At this point, we joke that at least one boy could be named Kevin Jr. (something we had briefly considered when pregnant with Kyle)! Of course, naming this child isn't on Kevin's immediate radar, but he indulges me by listening to a litany of potential boy names every night before we go to bed. I am so used to being able to call my womb by name after finding out the sex, that it's a little unnerving calling him "baby boy".

Kyle has already latched on to a name Kevin was throwing around (in jest, in regards to a sports figure) and asks us every night at bedtime if we've decided on his baby's name yet. I think it helps make the whole process of a new sibling arriving more tangible for him when the child has a name.

I stuffed all our cloth diapers, folded them up, and popped them in the diaper basket along with our cloth wipes, all ready for baby boy. Micah's skin is just so sensitive we've never been able to use but one cloth diaper a day before he breaks out in a rash, and that's after just one hour! It doesn't matter what brand, material, liners, or inserts I use.

That's what's on my mind tonight. I'm so glad we're doing this blogging thing again because it really helps clear my pregnancy brain before bed. Goodnight!

Rub a dub dub, three boys in a tub!

Well, not quite yet, but soon enough! I'm sorry for slacking on the posting this week, but good news: Kevin bought us a new "family" desktop computer; I guess he was tired of hearing me complain about how I could no longer do a single thing on my 8 year old Windows XP machine! It's nothing fancy, but did take a few days to set up and we ordered a few extras: wireless card and webcam (so if you see me available to video chat on gmail, ring us up, we will answer if we are around or call you right back if we miss you). It sits upstairs in our room, on our dresser and I will buy a pilates ball to sit on this week as my "desk" chair and soon to be birthing ball.

Things are changing around here! Kevin put together the crib again so we could start piling baby stuff in to it. We've received a few toys from my work, I pulled several 12 month outfits out of the box I was planning on sending to Goodwill and threw them in there, and I keep finding little blankets, crib sheets, shoes, socks, swaddling blankets, and slings in the big boys closet, so all those have been tossed in too. We're making room for a rocker/glider and a small computer desk, but our poor bedroom is going to be full of furniture! I figure the baby's clothes and diapers will live under his crib in some cute wicker laundry baskets I got at Micahel's a few months back because those will need to be repurposed since Kevin is installing a cabinet and additional shelving in our laundry closet! I'm soooo excited for this, because it means some extra pantry space!

Kevin has really gotten in the mood to start doing some upgrades around the house since this pregnancy started and I love it! It totally feeds my need to nest to see him come home from the hardware store with bags and boxes or research how to diy for sealing a porch or putting down hard floors. My one contribution to all these upgrades will be new linens and towels for us; we bought the current sets right after we got married, so almost 8 years ago. Yikes!

We had a great weekend, spending a lot of time outside, an afternoon at a kids concert about an hour away, and tonight at a sports bar with fellow U of A alumni cheering on the wildcats to victory in the NCAA basketball tournament. Kyle is on spring break this week, so I hope to take the kids on nature walks at two nearby parks and hit up the discovery center where we have a family membership (it's about 30 minutes away, so we don't make it there but about once a month).

I am going to work on uploading some pictures from our new camera this week, so keep an eye out for those. I'm off to bed!

*Gasp*

It's a boy! You probably already know that from Facebook or a text you received from Kevin or myself, but I am still in shock; is that okay to admit? A house full of boys, three of them! Don't get me wrong, I love my boys something fierce, and always will; in fact, even though Kevin and I still get sent reeling in the parenting realm, I like to think we're starting to finally get the hang of this "raising boys" thing. Truth be told, we haven't been doing it that long, but it kind of becomes a way of life: Everything, from clothes to linens to toys comes in the primary colors. We have seen, read, and reenacted every Thomas the Train story known to man. What does Daddy play when he gets home from work? WRESTLE! We have a basketball hoop in our family room, a closet full of ride on toys (bikes, scooters, cars), and several "collections" from our daily romps outside. These include sticks, rocks, and other treasures. A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the back porch, nauseous, watching Kyle and Micah play in the backyard and I could see it in my mind: three little boys building, playing, and exploring together.

And so we are "blessed with boys"!

Our day in short

So what did we do today?

Well, Kyle went to preschool and learned about the letter "U", played indoor hockey, and his special job today was the door holder. Micah and I went to the zoo immediately after dropping Kyle off; his favorite place was the farm. He would call the animals by what they say, for example: he would say "moo, moo" for a cow, "baa, baa" for a sheep, and "cluck, cluck" for a chicken. We went home for lunch and an early nap. Micah woke up just 15 minutes before we had to go pick up Kyle, so we cleaned out the car and went back to preschool.

After school it was a balmy 53ish, so we stayed and played at the playground. After school, we all headed home for a few minutes before strapping on the bike helmets for a little bike riding until it was time to make dinner. I started "Toy Story 3" for the boys because Friday is movie night around here and prepped dinner before Kevin arrived home (usually we pick him up on Fridays, but today his meeting was canceled and he made the carpool, so no rush hour drive down to Vandy with the boys in tow = a very happy mommy).

After the movie we put the boys to bed, Kevin did a pregnancy food run for me since dinner didn't sit right, then he headed out to catch the Arizona game at a sports bar, while I relaxed here at home. It is well past my bedtime, but I will try to post here often for all of you giving up Facebook for Lent :).

And time rolls on....

Wow, it's been a long time since that last post and well, a lot has happened since then. Our boys have been growing up in leaps and bounds:

I swear Kyle wakes up inches taller every morning! He is reading a lot in the past two months, very curious about everything, and excited to start "real school" next year. He continues to be an amazing brother to Micah, even when annoyed by how "babies ruin everything!" (his final exasperated comment when he just can't figure out how to play with his little brother anymore). He and Micah often sleep in the same twin bed all night long and wake each other up in the morning to read and play. Kyle wants to teach Micah everything, but doesn't always appreciate it when Micah mimics him in everything! Kyle is eating more foods lately, with a happy attitude towards "trying new things". He loves being/playing outside but, this crazy TN weather has not cooperated much this winter. He keeps asking when we'll be wearing shorts again and why can't we play outside today (because it's 35 degrees, sorry sweetie). He is growing more patient and thoughtful, growing up in more ways than I can describe to you.

Micah is quite the charmer, as was evident at dinner out tonight with every server and chef stopping by to ruffle his hair and say "Hello amigo!", only to be rewarded with a giggle or grin from the unexpected attention. He is a talker, repeats EVERYTHING we say in earnest. He is also the most empathetic of all of us, completely stops what he is doing if someone says "Ow!", sneezes, or gasps in order to ask "You okay?" as he peers into their face intently. He eats with abandon, trying everything on my plate, although not necessarily on his own (even if it is the same food). He is most definitely tall for his age, but still my baby, crawling up in to my lap at every opportunity or asking "I hold you?" if he senses I may be standing up or going somewhere he usually can't go. He just recently discovered Thomas the Tank Engine and has shown the maturity to leave the track put together so everyone can play on the train table. For several days he would pick a train or two to carry around with us as we went about our tasks. He is all about technology, wanting the speaker phone on for all calls, or to add his own "comments" to chats and facebook updates if he can reach the computer. He also LOVES to be outside, just like his brother, so when the weather is good we drop everything we are doing and head outside. The boys make up games with sticks, leaves, rocks, ride bikes, scooters, and coaster cars, draw with chalk, blow bubbles, and just explore. Micah adores his big brother and I know it will be hard for him when Kyle begins school in the fall.

And lastly, I have been feeling downright crummy lately due to the fact that we are expecting baby #3: SOMETHING I NEVER THOUGHT I'D BE WRITING HERE. Maybe that's another reason why I haven't updated since December. Shortly after Kyle accepted Jesus in to his heart, I started feeling crummy. Chalking it up to the flu, I found it odd that every time I nursed Micah, my crumminess seemed to disappear for awhile. I joked with Kevin that we must be pregnant again and he retorted with "I'm surprised you haven't bought a test yet". Well, I was near the dollar store that day, so why not buy a couple of tests. I waited until Kevin got home that night from work and took one of the tests, then laid down on the couch feeling crummy again. Kevin gushed from the bathroom that it was negative and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that there was no way on this earth I could be pregnant in TN: FAR FAR AWAY from any support system at all; no friends and no family. A few minutes later he told me he was going to throw it away, but I asked him if I could see it just to make sure he had read the test right. KEVIN, IT'S POSITIVE! There was the faintest line on the test and he says "It's been more than 10 minutes, it says not to read it after 10 minutes". Ah hu, I was having flashbacks to our pregnancy tests with Kyle where Kevin responded with "How often do they give false positives?" in all seriousness. Kyle ran around with glee finding out that we were pregnant again and let us know in all that it's a girl; that he has been praying for a sister and God must not listen to us, but listens to him, LOL! (No, we don't know what we are having yet, but Kyle will always tell you it's a girl if you ask him). We had just given away all of our baby gear, and were about to sell the crib when we found out we were pregnant again. We are also a one car family again after many strange circumstances: one very, very tiny car that I continue to thank God for, but often miss the roominess of the vans I had over the past several months. We have no idea if we will get another vehicle to accomodate this child, or do some creative car seat buying/rearranging when the time comes.

I have to say that I am floored by this pregnancy, but excited nonetheless. Micah has continued to nurse and I have had the easiest pregnancy as far as morning sickness goes of all three thus far! Not to say I completely escaped the puking or queasiness, but it was totally tolerable this time and I even kept working part time! All of our tests have come back good and my appointments have been routine. We are delivering with the Vanderbilt midwives, at the hospital, which I'm nervous about. My stomach popped waaay early this time and I already feel huge. Our anatomy ultrasound and next appointment are on Wed. March 16th and I'm definitely curious to know what we are having this time around. I have my hunch, seeing as I dreamed about this child, just as I did with Kyle and Micah before our ultrasounds with them. Only God knew we could handle a pregnancy being so far removed and not quite settled in TN if it were an "easy" one and I thank him everyday for that grace.

We are traveling to AZ April 12-19. We will be in Tucson while Kevin works during the week and in Phoenix for the weekend. I can't tell you how excited we all are to see everyone and reconnect. I must go to bed, the unisom has kicked in.