Smart Boy is at it again!!

It's the Alphabet this time...

At Christmas, when Finnegan was 3 months old, my sister-in-law sent Finnegan one of those LeapFrog Fridge Alphabet Magnet Sets. We pulled it out when he was 12 months old, and each of the magnets landed on the floor, just for fun. So we put it away and pulled it out again after Christmas. Since then, Finnegan plays with it each day. If you've never seen this toy, it has a magnet for each letter and when they are placed in the music box, it plays the name of the letter as well as the sound(s)of the letter. Crazy enough... Finnegan is 18 months old and he can recognize several letters and their sounds.

Tonight, he picked up his "Old McDonald Has a Farm" Book. An he always says "EIEIEI" when he picks it up -- its the cutest thing ever!! Anyway, I pointed to the F and he said "FFFF", and although he couldn't tell me the name of the letter, I was impressed. We tried another one... The "M" He knows this letter, and knows that it makes the sound "MMMMM". I then asked for the "D" and he said "Deeee". So precious!! Earlier today, we were reading another alphabet book, and he told me that the letter P made the "pa" sound. CRAZY!! Hopefully he'll know his alphabet by the time he's 2 :)

Update on some of the other topics I've raised...

We haven't decided about the bed. I will probably try to start switching him in a couple of months. And see how he does. I don't know that we'll get a toddler bed, but use the convertible bed that we have. But then just get another convertible crib for the new baby.

Potty Training: Well -- This has actually halted a bit. He is starting to tell us again that he's going, but after he's gone. So I'm sure in a couple of months or so, we'll have better success. He still likes to sit on the potty, but sometimes, he HAS to sit on it before having a new diaper on. Whatever makes you feel like a big boy, I suppose!! I ordered a couple of potty books last week, so hopefully reading those will spark more interest too. :)

Quietly playing...

This is one happy moment of my day...

When I don't have to entertain my toddler, and he plays quietly by himself... whether that means putting block in a zip lock bag and then out again, or playing with lego toys. So wonderful to watch him play and enjoy a few moments by himself.

So the verdict is in...

Today I had an OB appointment for the baby! I'm currently 13 weeks along! Only 27 more to go! :) While at my appointment, the nurse gave me the handy dandy chart for me to follow with all the tests on them that I'll be doing and when they need to be done and what they are. It is very helpful! On it listed the blood test and the diabetes test and the ultrasounds. The last line on the chart said "Repeat C-Section". At first I thought perhaps this was a generic chart she just plugs that dates into, and hands out... but then I asked...

"So, what is the Dr's policy on c-sections? Does he allow vbacs or is he a "once a c-section, always a c-section" Dr?

Let me back up a minute... Since I had a c-section with Finnegan (due to his breech orientation) I had never discussed this issue with my doctor. He seems to be an "old fashion" guy so I thought he might have an "old fashion" idea of how it should work. And I didn't really know how I felt about going either way. I'd never had the extreme desire to birth a baby (like some women have) and yet, I know that you heal MUCH faster with a vaginal birth, than a c-section. And this being my second child, I knew I'd need to be back on my feet a little sooner than I was last time to help attend to the baby and my toddler. Although with my medical "history" I always feel more safe being in a controlled environment, especially when dealing with the blood thinners and the blood volumes. So in that light, a c-section is a bit more appealing to me. So, it all boiled down to I felt more drawn to the vaginal birth due to the time constraints I'll be under afterwards, but health wise - for LABOR ONLY, I feel more comfortable with a c-section. I knew the doctor would be able to help me make this decision...

Back to the story... the nurse told me that it is the hospitals policy to not allow vbacs. WOW!! Really? Well, that really did answer my question and solve the problem for me!!

When the doctor entered, we talked about it for a few minutes, and he gave me an excellent explaination as to why the hospital doesn't allow it... One that makes complete sense to me, and I agree with the hospitals decision. (I can go into detail later if any of you are really that interested). And actually, the doctor went on to explain that I'm not a great candidate for having a vbac. He explained that a perfect candidate for a vbac is a women who's body has proven that she can deliver a baby vaginally without any trouble... So someone who's first child was delivered vaginally, the second child was delivered by c-section and then she wants to try a vbac for the third child. Because my body hasn't proven itself to be able to safely deliver a baby (especially with the family history - Andrea pushed for 2 hours only to have a c-section because the baby was stuck) it is safer to have a c-section, again. So, that's what's planned.

He has it planned for week 39 of my pregnancy - unless I go into labor first. So, there's the news... C-section it is.

Oh, and the countdown is on... On May 6th, we'll know if this baby is a boy or girl :) Anyone wanna take a guess of what we're having??'

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Also - please keep our friends Angie and Ernesto in your prayers. They had a very successful revival this weekend, but have received more threats from those who wish to silence them. Please continue to pray for their safety and their protection from evil!!

Big Boy Bed...

Well - Jess asked this question in the last post, so I'll tackle it and get your opinions on this one too...

Will we transition Finnegan into his big boy bed before the baby comes or after?

Um... I don't really know. We'd talked about doing it before and then we talk about doing it after. Since we've never done this before, I don't really know what to do. We had a friend who tried to transition their son at 15 months and he just wasn't ready. Finnegan is 18 months, and my inital thought is that we'd try around 20 months or so... that would be 4 whole months before the baby was to arrive, and enough time, I hope, before the big transition. So he'd be fully into a routine in his big boy bed, before the sibling comes.

Like I said, that was my inital thought. Then, I thought I'd let him stay in his crib and chill until after the baby comes and then try to attempt when the baby was 3 months old or so.

We have a "conversion" bed or an all-in-one bed. It transitions from a crib to a toddler bed (like a day bed) and then into a twin bed (you just add the mattress). But the thing with that bed, is that once it's a toddler bed, its a pain to make a crib again. Everything that I've read says that its best if you can do the toddler bed during the day and then the crib at night during the transition. How did you families do it?

Any other thoughts or suggestions on how to do it?? What worked for you guys??

To sleep or not to sleep??

Ok, Mommies!! I need your help!

We have a little bit of "problem". It's not really a problem, but a curious situation.

We put Finnegan to bed each night at 8pm. This means that at 8pm, he has jammies on and makes his way upstairs for teethbrushing, and hops into bed. He lays in his crib, I turn the music and night light on, while he lays with his Moosie and his Paci. I leave the room, closse the door and retreat to adult time.

8pm has always been his bedtime... even when he was a baby. But we're noticing that he is staying up later and later. Sometimes, its only an hour, awake, enteretaining himself in his crib. But last night it was 2 hours. Granted, yesterday, he got a later nap, but not much later than he's used too. (about 1.5 hours later - because we all got up late in the morning). Anywho --

Here's the questions we're toying with:

• Should we push his bedtime back until 8:30 (he is 18 months old)??
• If we push his bedtime back - even if he doesn't go to sleep any later than he already is - will he (in theory) wake up later in the morning??

Any thoughts??

Do you really understand what's going on??

Ok, so lets talk politics for a minute.

AIG bailout money... So AIG paid its former and current execs TONS of money as bonuses after receiving money from the recent government bailout. The government/media continues to use our emotions (based on our reactions and feelings of the recession) to envoke agreement with their currently headlines that AIG is in the wrong for paying these bonuses. Since when do we allow the government the ability to tell a company how it should be run and how it should use it's money? Granted, the bailout money was from the government and AIG and other companies asked for the $$ and help. But really... We really want to support a government that overlooks the line items of the original bailout - because we know most of them didn't read it, and neither did the president --that explained that the money was to be used for bonuses for AIG and other companies.

How about this... Have we really granted the government the power to CREATE A BILL to TAX a company so that it must pay back 90% of the $$ that the government gave in the bailout? REALLY?? What would stop the government from writing a bill to take 90% of my income... just because it wanted it "back"???

I understand from a countryman's point of view that the recession is rough and why would a company that is ready to go under, pay 165 execs bonuses, some worth over $1million dollars. However, have you looked at it from the companies point of view... The fact that most, if not all of those execs signed a contract at the beginning of the year, saying that they would be given and accept that bonus. Many of which could turn around and sue the company if they just up and decided NOT to pay the bonuses. Also, have we thought about it from the governments point of view... WHY is the government so hell-bent on exposing AIG's doling out of bonuses, rather than focusing on the cause of this problem... the fact that THEY signed to give this money too them!!

Ok, so I suppose the rant is over. Those are just my thoughts on the subject.

I think that writing a bill is wrong to get the $ back, and I think that its wrong for the government to ask for it back. What will stop them from doing this any other time, in any other circumstance?? Really?? A bit scary if you ask me!!

One Smart Dude!!

Here's a video of our smart boy! About 2 weeks ago we started teaching him the states. He does pretty good. He knows about 8 of them, which I think is impressive at 18 months. We add a new one every few days!!

Enjoy!!

Fattening up the Husband!

Ken was pretty sick last week with the sickies that are going around... the stomach flu that caused him to not eat for 3 days. Well, if you've ever seen my husband, you know he's not that big of a guy, with not a lot of extra fat to get rid of. Most of us would welcome a healthy dose of the sickies to shed a few pounds now and then, but my husband just can't afford it.

Since having this (and the food poisoning back in Dec) he's lost about 4 or 5 pounds. We didn't really know he'd lost that weight, as he isn't obsessive about weighing himself like I am. But I kept asking him over the weekend if he felt well because he kept looking to me like he was still sick. Then I put my finger on it... His face was gaunt and he still had a bit of dark circles around his eyes. It wasn't because he was sick, but because he'd lost too much weight. I asked him if he'd weighed himself and he said no... Then, the next day he did, he was down about 4 or 5 pounds from his normal weight.

On Sunday I found him scrounging in the pantry... looking for "fattening" food. He wanted to fatten himself up after losing so much weight. On Monday, he didn't eat dinner with us, as he had had McD's for lunch. With a LARGE FRY and a LARGE STRAWBERRY SHAKE!! HAHAH!! I just laughed when he told me. Perhaps he won't eat with us tonight... I won't know for an hour or so.

UPDATED** Ken did eat dinner with us tonight... although he had McD's again for lunch today, but Medium size today, but with his strawberry shake :)

Let the Potty Training Begin...

Ok, so perhaps its a little early to be in the full swing of potty training, but we've begun to introduce the idea to Finnegan. I'm a big believer (in this instance and in others) to not broach the subject until the child is ready. But what do you do when your son starts telling you he's going potty (or he has to go potty) each time he goes, all day long?? And he's only 18 months old???

So, we went to Target today and got a potty seat (one that converts to sit on the big potty too), a potty book and some pull ups. We set up the potty today and Finnegan took a turn sitting on it with his clothes on. We'll start reading our books and openly talking about the potty and hopefully it will peak more interest. If not, not big deal. He'll get it later. But if he's interested now, cool!!

In other news, Finn's been talking and signing up a storm. Although he can say many words, he's signs at the same time too. Crazy thing happened this weekend... Finnegan loves to eat Crackers. I think he could eat them all day and never get bored. When he was LITTLE... like 10 months old, we did our signing class and we learned many signs including the one for cracker. I never really used that sign because it was so advanced. Although he has seen it some. This weekend, he started doing the sign. He remember the sign and is using it correctly!! What a smart kid!!

Three months in and I already hate it...

Not being pregnant, mind you, but the medical steps I have to take to continue a healthy pregnancy. The worst part, I think, is the one shot in the morning. Some mornings it doesn't hurt but other days it does... it stings, like a bee sting. And it stings for a full 5 or 6 minutes. Then the second worst part is the compression hose. Last time, I had the thigh high kind. They were annoying because they'd always fall down to my knees and required a lot of maintenance. The ones I wear this time are the full leg, and fully belly ones, like panty hose, only much thicker. It's not even the summer and I loath putting them on. The front panel is so high in the front to cover the full belly. Oh!! Not so fun!! Once I have them on, i suppose I get used to them, but getting them on isn't fun, and I'm sure that the larger my belly gets, the more difficult this challenge will become.

UGG! I suppose today is just a day of whining. Sorry about that. I'll get over it. I always do, and I have too, seeing that I have 6 more months of it :)

On a completely unrelated note, please keep Jenney and her family in your prayers. She's posted a new post about their first day in he hospital with Baby J. You can check it out here! Jenney and I went to highschool together.

Amazing Video

Check out this video. It's made by our friends Ernesto and Angie and their new ministry in India. Its very moving of just one event that's taken place since they arrived 2 months ago. It's amazing to see what God is doing there in India!

Continue to pray for Ernesto and Angie and the threat against them is still very alive and scary as the Hindus in near by villages are unhappy with the spread of the Gospel.

UPDATED:

Please keep my friend Jenney in your prayers today. She took her second son Jack to the doctor because of some lingering health issues. He was diagnosed with the flu today and quickly admitted to the hospital, as he still weighs what he did when he was 3 months old (he's 8 months old). Pray for Jenney, Matt, Jack and the doctors.

Sickies at work

Against his better judgment, and ALL my commentary, Ken decided to go to work today. He said he felt ok, and he was going. He's got work today and a presentation tonight that he's obligated to be at (for school). Darn him for feeling obligated to do anything!! Hopefully he doesn't get anyone else sick!!

On a unrelated yet related note... I'm very annoyed today by selfish people. GRR... I've tried to write it out and explain it and it just seems petty. So this is all I'm gonna say :)

Sickies

Ken's been sick this week. He woke up on Tuesday not feeling his best. I won't go into the details, but will just say, he's sick. He decided (and I was thankful) not to go into work yesterday. He rested most of the day and was able to eat a little dinner. Neither of us slept well last night, and he woke up in the same place he was yesterday. So he stayed home again today. He's eaten less, but still is nauseous, chilly, and achy. He feels well just about lunch time and is able to get in an hour or two of work, but then starts to feel crummy again. I feel so bad for him!! Hopefully, he'll feel better soon, although I love having the company during the day!

Finnegan's also been a little under the weather. He loses his appetite at least during one meal of the day, and has messy diapers (we'll just leave it at that). He doesn't seem to be bothered by it, as he plays and drinks all day long. So I'll continue to watch him and perhaps take him in if the diarrhea continues :) Finnegan also seems to have a small rash on his cheeks. I'm pretty sure this is unrelated but I think its from food that he gets on his cheeks that are a bit harsh to his skin (He's had it after eating cinnamon and ranch dressing - different meals) :)

On the other hand, I feel pretty good. I was pretty tired yesterday, more tired than I've been in a long time. I thought perhaps I had a touch of what Ken had. But I seem to feel better today.

So how am I feeling, you ask??

Many of you asked the question that I anticipated... so here's the answer. I feel ok, for the most part. My many prayers have been answered (about my morning sickness - I'll explain shortly) and I am finding that my first trimester is very different this time around. When I was pregnant with Finnegan, I couldn't get out of bed without each a few crackers first. And I was nauseous until 2 or 3pm. And then just tired the rest of the evening. It seems that things have flip-flopped with this pregnancy. I can get out of bed just fine in the morning and feel generally good. I even worked out every day until I was 8 weeks (from 6-7am).

Most of my "morning sickness" starts around 3 or 4pm. For about 3 weeks, I suffered from migraines at night, starting around 3pm until bedtime. Those were rough days. I had trouble seeing and was just having a miserable time. Then my doctor suggested I drink some caffeine, and sure enough, it works!! If I feel a headache coming on, I can drink a few drinks of soda or coffee and I'm good for a couple of hours. Recently, I've been getting nauseous at night. About 8pm, I get an upset stomach and have TONS of saliva (gross, I know). But normally I am starting to feel better by bed.

I'm starting to show a bit. They say that with your second or other pregnancies, you show earlier. I think I'm showing but Ken's not sure. I definitely feel the stretching and pulling of that growing baby and even think I've felt the baby move a few times. Which is rare this early, and I am the first to say it was probably gas. But I don't feel it too often, so that's why I think it's a squirm. :)

Oh, and as Jenney mentioned in her comment on my last post, I am taking it easy with the working out. After the spinning incident, I decided to take it easy. And up until my 8th week, Shawnta and I were working out each day. Since then, we haven't worked out but plan to walk a couple times a week once the weather permits. Shawnta and I had worked out a total of 15 weeks (i think) together consistantly. We both lost about 7lbs and over 10 inches each!!

I am definitely starting to crave different foods. I crave sweets again with this pregnancy but I also crave meat. There was about a 2 week period where I would drool everytime I saw steak on TV. I made Beef and Barley Soup and even made steak and potatoes myself :) I really LOVE McDonald's Cheeseburgers too. Kind of weird, but LOVE THEM. Who knows what that means... I hear it one way and then I hear it the other (gender wise).

So that's the deal! I'm also pretty excited to hear that my friends Ben and Audrey are pregnant too with their first baby! They are due a couple weeks before me. They were married a week before Ken and I and Ben was my VP when I was the President of the Student Body at CU. He's very dear to me... And I even let him borrow my sewing machine so he could make Audrey a pair of pj pants for Christmas, that year. :) Congrats, friends!

Long Awaited Post...

Many of my blog readers are writers themselves. Many of them write about when something particular happens in their lives, they think about how it might come out in the blog, or how you might phrase it. And I would be lying if I said that I don't do this. I most certainly do! This particular post, I've thought of writing, and even attempted to write a couple of weeks ago, but didnt ever post it. Well, now I have the guts (and support of the spouse) to say with PRIDE AND EXCITEMENT that...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Yippee!! I am 11 weeks pregnant and due Sept 29th. If you have any other dates on the calendar regarding our family, you'll know that Ken's birthday is the 18th, Finnegan's birthday is the 19th and if this baby even comes a week early, it puts three birthdays in one week!!

We don't know if its a boy or a girl and won't know for a couple of months. Ken didn't want to tell anyone that I was pregnant until we knew that it was a boy or girl... that's 5 months!!! I could barely wait 3 months!! :)

We told our parents and then our sibilings and now the news is to the rest of the world. We sent a fun card with a poem about Finnegan and his new sibling. I'll post the poem later this week. And then for extended family we sent a card that said "I'm gonna be a big brother!"

Here's baby's first photo at 9 weeks. :)

Sleepless nights!

Having a sick child is never fun. I have to say, I've been so blessed to have a child that sleeps well through the night and takes good naps. I hope all our children are like this!! These sleepless nights just aren't my cup of tea!!

Finnegan started teething last night about 5:30... He was cranky and crabby. So I gave him his "normal" dose of Tylenol and 8pm came and I put him to bed. At 10pm he woke up and was crying, so I went back up and gave him another "normal" does of Tylenol. He was burning up and I took his temp and it was over 100. Almost 102. About 45 minutes later, he was still awake and kind of out of it. But awake. So I did what any other mommy would do... I pulled out my "What to Expect the First Year" book and began reading. Obviously I knew it was from teething and the temp was normal. I was reading about temp taking. Oh, how confusing!! The books says that recal temps are the best. Where under the arm and ear temps are acceptable but the under armpit is the most inaccurate. I decided to do the under the arm as that's less invasive. That temp was about 101. I have an ear temp guage, and I've heard over and over that they aren't accurate because you can't always get the same angle and blah blah blah. And I was finding that the ear temp wasn't always giving me the same temp. All I knew is that the temp was over 100 and less than 102... or just hovering at 102. No higher.

I got a cool washcloth and put it on his forehead. And he actually layed with it on his head for a while before moving. I then removed his jammies (footed fleece ones) and put the wash cloth on his back, as we rocked for a while. After changing his jammies into some cooler ones, he's temp had gone down about a degree (from cooling) but the tylenol wasn't putting him to sleep or breaking the fever as fast as I thought it should. So I pulled out the bottle and began reading about dosages... I'm an idiot. My child is 18 months old and weight about 27 lbs. Therefore, I'm allowed to give him the full dose - 1.6mg of baby Tylenol - which is TWO droppers full. His normal does.... was .4mg = 1/2 a dropper full. I'm an idiot. I immediately gave him one dropper full to help his little body. He seemed to go right to sleep after a bit more rocking and snuggling. At 4am, he woke up, and I gave him another full dropper full of Tylenol, as his temperature still hadn't broken... It was still hovering around 101. We rocked for a little while and I gave him another cold wash cloth, and he slept until 7am... when he woke up screaming... Obviously, he was awoken by the pain. But the good news was that his fever had finally broken. So it was Baby Orajel to the rescue, and then a couple more hours of sleep for the both of us. ** After some thinking, I decided that we'd started giving finnegan Tylenol at such an early age - .4mg at 3 months when he first started teething. And we really shyed away from giving him tylenol if we didn't have too. And when we did, we just gave him the does he was used too. He'd never teethed so bad before and always seemed to do just fine with the "normal" dose he was used too. So now that we've had this problem, we've adjusted his dose and it's closer to the suggested dose on the bottle :) **

When we woke up at 9am, he was refreshed and ready for the day. I was ready to just chill for the day but he was playing and back to his old self, other than the small loss of appetite. So we got out and ran some errands, and even took a walk with Daddy when he got home!

I sure hope Finn doesn't suffer from this too much. I know it's those darn molars! Hopefully he'll be done with the teething soon... at least this stint of it :)

Photo Blog

I hadn't posted a lot of photos recently, so I thought I would. Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks...


Finnegan is a huge fan of Grapes. HE LOVES THEM!! And he'll do anything for grapes. It is pretty cute!

He loves the cell phone, just like other kids!

Finn was taking a ride in the wheel barrel and daddy was pulling him along!
More grapes... just like a dude watching sports on the floor... with his grapes in tow. :)
One more with the phone. He just loves it!

So many prayers, so little time...

Here are some prayer requests that have been heavy on my mind and heart recently...

• Again, our friends Angie and Ernesto. They are in India, and busy telling the dalit people (the lowest of the low in the hindu/indian hyerarchy... they are below animals...) about Jesus and that Jesus came to save them too, and loves them. They've been there for 2 months and really just up and left the USA and moved to India. They've recently received a disturbing phone call. The person on the other end had been watching them and knew that they were converting people to Christianity. They essentially told Angie and Ernesto to back off. CREEPY!!! So, I've been praying for their safety a lot. I'm concerned about them but KNOW that God is moving and God called them to go and will reach people through them, as He already has. I just pray for our friends...
• For my friend Jenney... Her husband (#1) has Grave's Disease. He was just diagnosed. He is starting a radiation treatment and working with new meds as well. Also, her second son has been deemed "failure to thrive" at the age of 8 months. So very sad. They have countless doctors appointments and tests. Please pray for this little family and their health.
• As always, I've been praying for my dad who is still out of work. He's been out of work for about 8 months. God is still faithful to our family and we know that he will provide something in the perfect timing. I just pray for peace and rest for mom and dad as they work through the details of each day.
  

Manicure Monday!!

On Monday, some friends of mine took me to the mall for my birthday! It's kind of a tradition now... we did it last year and now again this year. Although this year, they had arranged for me to have a manicure, while they strolled around the mall with the kids for 30 minutes. And what a blessing it was! I was completely surprised, and was not expecting it at all. I had a wonderful time with the nail technician and could have sat in the chair all day long! I chose a deep pink color for my nails, something I only wear on my toes. And when we were all done, I felt like my hands were as pretty as a lady from my church... there's this lady that is a dear friend of my family and she always has pretty manicured hands. And her nails are always painted a pretty deep pink color. And come to think of it, she has painted nails all the time!! But, I digress...

It was a nice time with the ladies and the kids. We weren't able to make it the full day, but it was a nice time to spend together!!