it's been a while

I have not posted in quite a while. I have been busy with having the new baby and all that goes along with that. Plus, I don't really feel like I have much to say because all of our friends know we had a baby. And there isn't a whole lot to add to that since our days are spent primarily at home feeding, cleaning, changing diapers, and just trying to keep up with the every day stuff. Not very exciting I'm afraid. But we are very excited about our new addition, Isaac Jase, and are getting adjusted to life with 3 children ages 3 and under. Isaac had a doctor appointment today and seems to have reflux. So they gave us some medication for that and I am very hopeful that it helps, which might allow me to sleep a little more. I'm hoping it will also make him more comfortable and generally less fussy. Seth and Lilah love Isaac and really get excited to "help" with him. They are actually very good at keeping him company and talking to him when I have to get things done and he's being kind of fussy. I guess the one nice thing about having kids so close in age is that they never really get used to having all of mom's attention, so they don't seem to care when you have even less time for them because of a new baby. They just kind of adjust and entertain each other. =)

overwhelming pride

I caught Seth doing something yesterday that made my heart swell with pride. I was checking on him after he had gone to the bathroom and found him standing in front of the toilet, meticulously wiping up his little dribbles with a piece of toilet paper. Then he washed his hands and came out to play. I had wondered why I could never find any potty training accidents the past few days whenever I would check the bathroom after he used it. Now I know, my precious, 3 year old with OCD tendencies has been cleaning up after himself the way he sees mommy do it. Now, I realize that for some of you reading this, the whole thing might not seem like that big of a deal. But let me preface this milestone moment by reminding you all that I grew up with 3 little brothers. I spent my entire childhood with bathroom duty because my brothers were too incompetant to effectively clean the bathroom that we all shared. This should not have surprised me because they were also too incompetant to pee successfully into the toilet bowl. My saturday mornings (super cleaning day in my house) were spent scrubbing urine from the toilet rim, the toilet base, the bathroom floor, and any part of the bathroom wall that was unlucky enough to be positioned near the toilet. I have groggily fallen into more open, peed on toilet bowls at 3am than I care to remember. Let me tell you, having your rear end soaked with toilet water as you try to pry yourself out of the bowl is an incredibly unpleasant way to wake up in the middle of the night. And as of very recently, I have learned from my unsuspecting sister-in-law that I probably spent my whole youth living at home showering with a loofah that had been peed on. (Yes girls, apparently if you hang your loofah on the faucet down low, it will most likely get peed on by any boys attempting to pee into the drain while in the shower) My sister-in-law was lucky enough that my brothers cared enough to tell her that they accidentally peed on her loofah. I doubt they gave me the same courtesy when we were 10. Anyways, all this to say that my greatest fear of having sons was that I would spend the rest of my life cleaning up urine and falling into toilets. (I now know better about the loofah and hang mine up high in shower) I have trained my wonderful, cooperative husband to keep our bathroom clean and sanitary. And I sincerely appreciate his willingness to honor my bathroom hangups. (He does know my brothers after all and seems to feel sorry for me) But I have to say, I NEVER expected my three year old boy to be so willing to spare mommy from urine puddles and disgusting bathroom incidences. I am too proud and only hope that Seth continues with his considerate, bathroom behavior. And I just have to say to Lilah (the sister) and Seth's future wife right now... you're welcome.

I Lilah Ann!

Lilah learned her name this week. She's been quite passionate about her newly understood identification. I can no longer call her any of the pet names that I have so affectionately bestowed on her during her short little life. The other day I said, "Lilah, are you my precious baby girl?" Her brows furrowed and she responded in her passionate, low growl of a voice by saying, "No! I Lilah Ann!" We get the same intense response when we call her by Lilly Lou, sugar pie, baby doll, or any other term of endearment that we tend to use. And if we laugh at her insistance on who she is, she melts down into a frenzied, high pitch squeal of repetitve pleas (all the while pointing to her chest to emphasize the point) "I Lilah Ann! I Lilah Ann!" At least she has a strong sense of identity. =) Seth, by the way, thinks the whole thing is hilarious and has taken full advantage of the opportunity to call her any name that is not actually hers, simply to get a reaction. But if I remember my own childhood with three brothers correctly... that's what brothers are for.

I'm done!

Put a fork in me... I'm done being pregnant! I'm not really. I have two weeks to go. But I want to be done. I'm big and uncomfortable and tired and everything hurts. I'm getting crankier by the minute. (And the election results didn't exactly help cheer me up today). I think I've just hit my limit of what I feel up to doing. I pretty much just want to sit like the beached whale that I am and wait to go into labor. Unfortunately, I have two toddlers who don't seem to understand that mommy has started a boycot on moving... at all. And this annoys me too. Because as irrational as it is, I feel that my children should understand that I need them to be perfect and calm and obedient and to clean up all their own messes so that I don't actually have to engage in active parenting for the next couple of weeks. lol... Today during naptime, Seth climbed on top of his dresser and somehow toppled the entire dresser and 20" TV over. He was not hurt, but the TV broke. And I'm pretty sure that I pulled every last muscle that wasn't already hurting just trying pick up the furniture and television. I called Josh and he said that it makes sense that Seth would climb on furniture and potentially destroy everything in his wake (because he's three). I find that to be an absolutely ridiculous argument and am no longer interested in Josh's opinion about parenting. Seth should have forseen all the potential consequences of his actions and how much they would irritate me. (I'm just kidding) But it was kind of a rough afternoon. =) I'm just worn out and wish I had a husband who was home more to help me out a little more often. I can't even vacuum without going into a serious episode of contractions. Sometimes I watch the Baby Story on TV and see the dads cleaning the house and giving back rubs and doing all this stuff so the huge pregnant women don't have to move and I feel incredibly jealous. Don't get me wrong, Josh is fantastic when he can be. But he works too much and usually has so much to do when he gets home that I feel bad even asking for help. Although, he did give me a pedicure over the weekend because my feet were too gross (even for him) and I can no longer reach them. That was great. Anyways, enough complaining for now. I just want to have the baby and be done with this stage. =)

On a brighter note: It was a good week overall. Halloween was fun. I took the kids to my parents' because Josh was on call. We had a candy scavenger hunt in our costumes with some friends. The kids enjoyed it and it sufficed for trick-or-treating this year. Seth was Eeyore and Lilah was Piglet, but refused to wear her Piglet face. So I did. then we enjoyed Sunday with Josh as he had the day off and just kind of relaxed. On Monday, Seth had his preschool evaluation for the Hilliard City School District preschool. They just have the kids play at different stations and look for signs that they are on target for normal development for their age. (It's a peer model program where Seth would be a peer model in a classroom with 8 children who have IEPs, that's why the peer models have to be evaluated) Anyways, Seth was accepted into the preschool, which was exciting because it seems like a really great program. He'll start next August and I think he'll really enjoy it. He's already talking about school and how he loves it. He kept saying "Thanks so much mom for taking me to school." Hopefully, it works out well for him. That's about it for us lately.

Heads Up!

This is not a fun blog to have to post. but I wanted to give everyone we hang out with a heads up that I think Seth and Lilah have gotten Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. We noticed on Sunday afternoon that Lilah looked like she was getting a diaper rash. And then Sunday night we noticed after we gave the kids baths that Seth looked like he had a rash too. (Which doesn't make sense because he wears underwear.) Then we saw what looked like little bug bites on the kids' ankles. So, we thought they had gotten into some chiggers at the park this past weekend. However, today I noticed that Seth had these "bug bites" all over his hands and forearms. He also started complaining this afternoon about his mouth hurting. So, I took a couple pictures and sent them to Josh and he says it's HFMD. I don't know where the kids got it. But I wanted to pass the word along because they most likely picked it up someplace we hang out at where our friends may have been too. I also want to apologize to anybody who may have been exposed to our children since this past weekend. I feel terrible that the kids were probably contagious before they ever even showed a symptom. Here's a link to a page on HFMD so you know what to look for, just in case...

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm

Love vacation week!

So things have been great for us this week. Josh has been on vacation and it's been wonderful. I had forgotten what it's like to have a husband who is rested enough to stay awake with me in the evening and watch a movie or talk or whatever. Josh is usually so exhausted that he gets home from work at 8 or 9pm and is alseep on the couch by 9:30pm at the latest (or studying, which still means I can't talk to him or bug him). He's gotten a couple things done around the house that needed to be done and we've done some fun stuff with the kids. We went to Cosi Science Center on Wednesday and watched a 3D movie called "Fly me to the Moon." It's about 3 little flies who hitch a ride to the moon with Apollo 11. The kids liked it and Lilah sat there the whole time trying to catch the flies or touch the space ship. It was funny. Then we went to the Sesame Street "Learn about the Body" exhibit. It was fun until Seth got attacked be some crazy kid who clawed his face. They kind of got into a traffic jam going into a toy thing and the other boy clawed Seth's face. Seth was bleeding and has some pretty serious scratches on the side of his face and eye lids. It was crazy. We had to take him to the bathroom to disinfect his face since they were pretty deep finger nail scratches. Anyways, it was a fun day other than that. =) Yesterday, we went to the Zoo and it was an absoluetly gorgeous day for the zoo. Josh and I went on a date night last night while his mom babysat. We ate at La Scala (pretty good) and then saw Fireproof at the theater. It was a great storyline and a good movie (highly recommend for all married people or those who are getting married to see it). Although, I can't say it's going to win any academy awards for the acting. Kirk Cameron did a pretty good job, but the supporting cast was pretty weak. Today we went to the harvest festival at homestead park. It was fun, but I was pretty hot. I can't believe it's like 80 degrees in Ohio in October. That's about it for us. It's been a nice week and I'm already dreading next week when Josh has to go back to work. 

Lilah is napping now and Josh and I have found ourselves engaged in a battle of the wills with Seth about using the toilet. He wants his pull-up on so that he can poop in it and we are insisting that he wear his big boy underwear. He has been screaming for the past 2 hours now. We allowed him to be naked if he wanted (because he kept taking off his underwear). But then he peed on the floor right in front of us. So, now we are sticking to the "must wear underwear" rule because it seems to bother him a lot more to pee or poop in his underwear. We are hoping to break his will and force him to simply use the toilet. I never imagined that potty training a boy would be this awful. Oh well, we'll get there. It's not like he's going to graduate high school and still be pooping and peeing in his pants. Thank God Josh is home this week to help me with this.

why????

Just another typical day with Seth:

Me: "Seth, I want you to go potty."
Seth: "Ok!" (and he runs to the bathroom and stays for a curiously long time)
Me: "Seth, come back out here. It doesn't take that long to go potty."
Seth: "Ok mom!" (and he walks out of the bathroom, naked, carrying his stuffed dog)
"Look mom, my doggy got a shower."
(Upon closer inspection I see that the dog is indeed soaking wet)
Me: "Seth, how did you give the dog a shower?"
Seth: "Because he was dirty!"
Me: "Seth, where did the dog get a bath? In the bathtub, in the sink, or in the toilet???"
Seth: (laughs as if this is a ridiculous question) "the toilet!"


WHY???????????

Apple Eating

So it looks like EVERYBODY went apple picking this past weekend. And we are no exception. It was a beautiful weekend so we had to take advantage of the weather and enjoy the great outdoors. I took the kids to Lynds farm for apple picking and they had a lot of fun. I really can't say that Seth and Lilah went apple picking though. I picked the apples and they pretty much just ate them. I had to bring home a bag full of apples with bites out of them because the kids just kept picking up the apples I already picked and taking bites. At one point they stopped even pretending like they were picking apples and just sat down to enjoy their apple snacks. Needless to say, Seth and Lilah have eaten like 20 apples each over the past few days. Every time I turn around I find them sneaking an apple and hiding in a corner to eat it. So now I need to start making apple pies and apple sauce and other apple treats. Any great recipes with apples? Please send them my way. =)

We had a nice weekend with family and friends and the beautiful weather. It was pretty relaxing just kind of hanging out and eating apples all weekend. Seth and Lilah got into a pretty heated fight on the way to my parents' house. (I think Lilah kept putting her feet in Seth's car seat). Seth called to me in the front seat and said "Mom, when we get home I'm just gonna have to get my magic wand and zap Lilah into a mosquito!" I guess he thought she'd be easier to squash (or at least ignore) if she was a mosquito. Other than that the kids were fairly mild mannered and cooperative this weekend. Which is a huge blessing when it happens, let me tell you. Especially when Josh is working all weekend. There was only one other particularly infuriating incident when I sent Seth to go potty and found him five minutes later standing in the pee filled toilet. I don't even know what to do with that... I just kind of shrieked and washed his feet off in the sink with soap. Anyways, the kids are sleeping now after a busy, fun-filled day at Cosi Science Center and playing outside. I am enjoying the quiet. Good night!

potty training woes

Parenting can sometimes feel like something of an uphill battle when it comes to training your children to become adults and more specifically to be the men and women God created them to be... to reach their fullest potential with character, integrity, and grace. When they are really young (like mine), your accomplishments towards these end goals are what might feel like small victories in development. For example, we are working on feeding by themselves, picking up toys when asked, sharing, getting dressed without help, and potty training. And while you work on the developmental skills, you do your best to instill quality of character in your children such as kindness, gentleness, peace, love, and so on. (We focus on the Fruits of the Spirit found in Ephesians) Sometimes you start aiming for a developmental goal and discover that your child catches on immediately and you decide that he/she must hold a certain level of brilliance. Your pride swells and you might even go so far as to think that you must be doing something right as a parent. Other times, it takes them a little longer to grasp a certain concept and it can be frustrating... but you just kind of blow it off and delight in the quirkiness of your child. And then there are times when you are sure that they are deliberately resisting the attempt to accomplish a certain goal for the pure and distinct purpose of driving you to the brink of insanity. And this is where I find myself right now with Seth. We have been working on potty training for about 6 months now. I waited until he was really ready. I did not push him because I didn't want to engage in a battle of the wills over this issue. One day, he decided to do it and peed in the potty consistently with nearly zero accidents for 2 months. And then he just stopped. He won't tell me when he has to go potty and always prefers to go in his pants. I remind him to go to the potty regularly and he screams and melts down. We were totally and completely confused by this until this last weekend. I finally realized that the issue was that he is terrified to put down his toys in fear that Lilah will get them. He has been seriously struggling with sharing lately too. So, in short... he won't potty train and it's because he is going through an incredibly selfish phase. Basically, I am a failure at both potty training and instilling a sharing spirit in my son. Two key areas of parenting. And I think he really is trying to drive me crazy. I can see the gleam in his eye and the curl of his mouth when he tells me he peed in his pants. This may all sound very dramatic, but I am at the brink of madness with 2 kids in diapers and another diaper baby coming soon. Help!

First blog

Ok, so I'm not much of a blogger because I feel generally confident that I don't have anything interesting enough to write about for people to regularly check-in. And then I'm sure that my dearest friends and family will simply have to add one more thing to do during their day (read my boring blog) so that when I say something about something I have blogged, they will be able to act as though they are riveted by my writing and read it religiously. So, for the record, I don't expect everybody to read my blog all the time. Although, I will be secretly offended if nobody does. =) I'm kind of kidding.

I pretty much decided to start a blog because everybody else does it and it is kind of a convenient way to keep friends and family posted about the rare, important things that pop up in our lives. As of right now, there is not really anything much to write about. Josh is home this weekend, so we are trying to spend some time as a family. Although that has been easier said than done because I swear stuff always comes up that pulls him away. And then we get to the end of the weekend and realize that we hardly spent any quality time together at all. There's my gripe for the day. For those of you who don't know me quite as well as some, I am an enduring cynic. I know most people brag about being an optimist and always looking for the positive things in life and in people. I won't even pretend to be like that. I used to pretend. And then realized that even when I said positive things or tried to encourage people, I was usually sugar-coating the situation and was often times faking my optimism. I'm sorry to say that I am genuinely a kind of negative person who usually braces myself for the worst. I once read, though, that cynical people tend to handle crisis better because they have privately been preparing for it their whole lives. I cling to that when I start to feel bad about the way my mind works. I also appreciate the quote on my best friend's blog that says "It doesn't matter whether the glass is half empty or half full, it only matters what you're drinking." =) It doesn't help right now that I am 7 months pregnant and find myself unbelievably irritable. I've never understood women who talk about how emotional and sensitive they get when they are pregnant. I just get annoyed. I don't know why and it's not really with everyone. But my tolerance level drops considerably as my pregnancy progresses. So let me just apologize for that right now. Anyways, hopefully the rest of the weekend will go well and we'll get some good time together with Josh. Tonight is the Ohio State game and a couple friends are coming over to watch the game, so that should be fun! And I guess we'll just see how this blogging thing goes.