My, How Time Flies

Wow! It's been over a year. Much has changed:

:: I'm no longer pregnant (or blogging in my underwear. So sorry about that!).
:: Baby Sister Sophia Noelle was born.
:: Big Brother Noah is almost four.

And much has stayed the same. We're working. And playing! And we're busy.

But not too busy to blog...anymore. More coming soon!

Maternity Dilemma

It's hot. I'm 23 weeks along. Very few of my clothes fit, and the idea of maternity wear thrills me not at all. (Plus, it's neatly packed away & the whole closet conversion process will take me hours.)

So it's come to this: I'm blogging in my underwear.

I promise I will put clothes on by the time Noah gets up from his nap. And there are no pictures attached to this post, thankfully!

Best Friend

Dave returned late last night from being gone all week for work. Noah is so excited to have him back home!

Tonight, as we were eating dinner Noah told me, "I love Daddy so much!" He then put his arms around Dave, gave him a tight squeeze and added, "He's my best friend."

Wow. He's never said anything like that before, about anybody! So cool.

Lessons

Please excuse the long post - this is as much for me as anyone else...

This parenting thing can be really, really hard. Sometimes, it's "I'm so tired, I just can't deal with this today." Other times, it's "this is going to take every ounce of my energy, every ounce of my determination & every ounce of my stick-to-it-ness-or-my-son-is-never-going-to-learn." It's been one of those days.

It started out fine, until I finished my shower & came downstairs to find Noah, emptying an entire container of dog food all over the kitchen floor, his little table & out the patio door. Argh.

Me: "What are you doing, Littles?"
Noah: Quite proud of himself, "Feeding Lucy."

Still proud of his accomplishments, marveling at his mess & not yet realizing what this might mean

At this point, I'm still calm. Granted, he had good intentions. But this throws a wrench into my plans for the day. Wanted to run some errands & hit a few stores before taking Noah to the toy store as promised. Didn't really want to spend time on my hands & knees cleaning up gritty dog food.

I descended the stairs & did my best to engage Noah in the task. He wasn't at all interested, grabbed a toy & went in the other room.

Me: "You made this mess, so you need to come clean it up."
Noah: "You made the mess, you clean it up."

Oh, goodness.

So there I am, sitting in the middle of hundreds of pieces of dog food, making my choice. Go easy: clean it up & get us on our way? Or go tough: enact the lesson, engage in the battle of wills & hopefully emerge on the other side a better mother & son?

I set my jaw & chose to go tough.

The protest commences - he's realized that I'm not going to give in

The ensuing 2 hours included:
- a nice, rational talk
- a stubborn boy dead set against cleaning up
- an even more stubborn mother certain that he would 'finish the job', even if it meant withholding all food, toys & movies for the rest of the day
- a LOT of Noah tears
- even more Noah whining
- a quick break to hug & regain composure
- a little lesson on big-boy breathing techniques (to ease the crying)
- and an enormous amount of coaching: "You can do this." "You made this mess, you need to clean it up." "Keep on going." "It doesn't matter if you don't want to - you need to finish the job."

Frustrated, crying, lying prostrate & trying to avoid picking up the last 6 pieces

And yes - 2 hours later, he finally picked up the last piece and put it back.

Completely exhausted, we ascended the stairs for his nap. We talked again about how necessary it was that he finish what he started, that he help out & clean up after himself. And I made sure he knew how proud of him I was.

I think we both learned a lesson. Not an easy one, that's for sure.

And I think it's time for my nap.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE!

Dave's birthday is today!

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

And what a day it's been! Noah decided to be 'super big boy' all of a sudden, and ate an entire bowl of hamburger & rice with a spoon (ok, a spork).

We have been trying for weeks to get him to use a spoon completely on his own, but he hates the mess (yes, he's my child). But he decided today was the day & went for it. He had a few casualties, but kept going.

And then he asked to wash his hands. I'm so proud of him! (It's the little things!)

Here's my boy, quite proud of his accomplishments.

(Note the Hans Solo Return of the Jedi shirt - got it at a garage sale last week. It's an original from 1983! Love.)

My great success of the day was surprising Dave with a big cookie delivery at the training he's conducting in Wenatchee. He's actually out of town today, and birthdays are big celebrations in our house - so I had to get creative. It took some energy & research, but was totally worth it!

(Props to Jodi at Jeepers Bagels. If you're ever in Wenatchee, support them!)

Think Pink

Here she is...our beautiful baby girl at 19.5 weeks!

More pictures and the beautiful hydrangea we bought after the ultrasound & a most fabulous lunch at Goldy's, our fav breakfast spot.

p.s. - my apologies to all who were waiting so long for this news. i promise i wasn't trying to be elusive (though i can't say the same for my husband)! i just wanted to get this post together & didn't have a moment to do it until now...

Zwei

But let's be honest. The biggest piece of news in our world lately is...

...due October 18, 2010

(What about that post title? German translation = "two")

The Story...

Well, you already know the beginning of Baby Zwei's story. Not too tough to figure that out. (Kids, go ask your parents. Expect a sit down.)

I found out first - expected such a thing was true, but waited plenty of time to make sure. Told Dave through his Valentine's Day gift (a baby outfit, paci & bottle drying rack - long story). My boys got me a beautiful orchid (still as gorgeous today as it was almost 4 mos. ago). I was 5 weeks along at that point, and Baby was the size of a poppyseed.


Incidentally, I think my blog hiatus began about then, too - when I started sleeping instead of posting. (And all of you who gave me hell now feel really bad, right?!)

We told our families at Week 9. The plan: for Noah to share our joyous news by sporting a "Big Brother" shirt & yelling "SURPRISE!"

The reality: at the Jones farm, he demanded to go down for a nap moments before lunch, when our plan was to be staged. So we showed them the shirt instead. We at least got him in it for the Redmans, though it was our first morning at DisneyWorld & he was grumpy, so he ended up bursting into tears when everyone saw his shirt & got excited. It was classic!

Ah, the best laid plans...

My pregnancy has been uneventful (thank you, Lord) & has flown by. It's pretty textbook 2nd child: no pictures, a tardy blog mention, & very little to-do thus far. The one outside my tummy currently demands far more attention than the one inside!

But we are having fun introducing Baby to Noah. Noah has decided he has a baby in his tummy, too, and is already preparing to teach 'Mommy's Baby' how to sleep & play trains. We think he'll be quite the Big Brother.

At this post, I am days shy of 20 weeks (halfway done). We just had the big ultrasound yesterday, but I'll leave you hanging with the "pink or blue?!" question for another day...

April/May

Yikes! Am I really 5 months behind on posting?! Yes. So here is your April/May 2010 update...

April: For Easter Sunday, Noah wore one of Dave's old outfits: a fabulously 70s vest/pants outfit just perfect for spring. He loved it & was adorable!

My boys, all ready for church!

May: Noah, sporting his favorite T (I promise, again, that he has chosen this favorite all on his own) & Thomas backpack...and striking quite the JCPenney model pose in the 2nd pic!

Quarterly Report

So it's been awhile. Long enough, in fact, that I'm going to condense a string of posts into

Noah's Quarterly Report: January - March, 2010.

January: We snuggled; watched movies; made brownies (licked the bowl!); read books (can't believe how lanky this boy is!); & made 'Engineer Saucy Noma' (translation: a train-driving Frosty the Snowman)...
February: We played; watched more movies (I promise we don't watch that much TV); enjoyed a 'new to us' recliner; & Noah got me flowers one day for absolutely no reason. I love that kid!

Also in February: my Mom made matching BSU tuques for Dave & Noah, which set off a whole morning of silliness...

And Dave cut Noah's hair for the 1st time (along with Uncle Mike's. That's why Noah wanted to do it in the 1st place - to be like T-Bone!)

March: We played trains. Here, & at Papi/Yaya's house. And built tunnels. And put Daddy in Lucy's cage. And went to Walt Disney World, but that's the subject of another post (I've got to organize pictures before that one will happen)!

All in all, it was a great Quarter. We are sincerely looking forward to summer (Dave/Noah are itching for warmer weather so they can live outside!). I continue to be amazed at just how big our little man is getting...