Monday, August 31, 2009

all about colton, chase, aiden and annslee

my new philosophy is to enjoy the tranquil and quite days until this baby is born. today is the first day that i have had totally alone since last year on tuesdays and thursdays when the boys and aiden were all in school. aiden spent the night with granna and grandaddy last night since i had an 8:30 doctor's apt this morning. i came home and chad left shortly after that for work. i have just been enjoying my pumpkin spice frap, no whip and a tall glass of water since then. i have been able to chat with a friend and just enjoy the morning. i started thinking that i should enjoy it while it lasts.

on to the doctor's apt. i was worried at first because i had lost a pound and did not grow any since my last apt, however the ultrasound put me at ease. i may not have grown, but our baby girl has! she is weighing in at close to 4 pounds and her measurements changed her due date to october 24th, which is my birthday. that also moves her from the smallish 17th percentile to the 45th. i like to think of that as just a gentle, little rub on the back and a wink from God...letting me know that i was doing good work at growing this baby and that he is keeping her exactly where she should be. if i have annslee when i had aiden, it would make it october 7th...so anythime after that, i'll be one happy individual!

aiden annee-grace starts preschool on tuesday. she is very excited and ready to be with some friends. she is also ready for her little sister. every day she tells me something else she is going to teach her.

the boy's have been in school since this past tuesday and on thursday night, chase came down to our room at 2:30 and announced that he had thrown up in his bed. i must confess that this was a rough night. i can't thank God enough for giving me chad for a husband. he jumped up, got chase in the tub and started getting all the sanitizing under way. i went upstairs to assess the damage and started making laundry piles. unfortunately, we had some stuffed animal casualties due to him having about 28 of them in his bed with him. i was trying to help although moving kinda slow. chad, very sweetly and gently told me to go lay down and that he would take care of all of it. he did...and i was able to go behind him and spray everything with lysol or bleach and then he did a thorough cleaning after that.

i have been on my knees, (figuratively...i'm sure the Lord understands how hard it is for me to actually get on my knees) begging that whatever it was would not spread to the other kids and to chad and i. i'm really trying hard to not stress about all the potential threats this season to all pregnant women. every time i turn on the tv, i'm hearing about how dangerous this flu situation is this fall for pregnant women and their babies and how i'm supposed to stay away from public places and people who come in contact with it. and, i'm also hearing how bad the flu already is in the schools here. i explained to the school nurse my situation and she said that she would let me know as soon as it is on their halls, but i can't help but be apprehensive. this, evidently, is not the best season to be pregnant. the nurse also told me to get the regular flu vaccines for the kids now...so they are getting them next week. i will just keep praying. we are all in God's hands, right? i need to keep reminding myself that they are very capable ones.

Monday, August 24, 2009

meet the teacher...

...could have been a scene out of meet the parents as far as i'm concerned. at my last appointment, i got special permission from the doctor to be able to go up to the school today for "meet the teacher." i explained that as long as i wasn't putting the baby at risk, there was no way that i could send my other, bigger babies to school without knowing who their teachers were, being able to talk with them in person, finding out where their classrooms were, and making sure that they felt comfortable with the situation. yes...chad could have done this on his own, but there are just some things that a mom wants to be a part of. annnnnnddd...maybe a little of me wanted to make sure that the teachers understood "the situation" and that if the kids talk about their mom being at home on the couch, they didn't picture a woman in a moo moo, watching soaps and eating bon bons with her hair in those old fashioned, pink, foam curler things.

so...off we go.

now, it was no secret to us that there was one teacher that colton did not want to get. this is not a reflection on the teacher, mind you...but the common knowledge that this man was very outgoing and loud and had the kids get up and dance on occasion. for my little shy guy...this was not appealing. i made the choice to let it play out and told him that the chances of him getting in this particular class were slim and not to worry. but all summer long, whenever we would talk about this year...he would say, "i just hope i don't get "mr. so and so." on friday, chad took the kids up to the school to see the class lists. i was on the phone with colton when he walked up and made the discovery that sent him into a tailspin of worry for the next 2 days. he got mr. so and so. and to top that off...he did not know one kid in his class.

we had long conversations over the weekend about how sometimes the things that we are most afraid of end up being the things that are the most meaningful. that was then translated into...sometimes the teachers that we are most afraid of in the beginning, end up being our favorites. this seemed to put him in better spirits until this morning. he was so nervous that he had a stomach ache. i pulled him close as we walked from the parking lot into the building and said, "don't worry. you've got this in the bag." chase...who never meets a stranger...or someone he doesn't like, was not worried at all. he was super excited to meet his teacher...and his allotted time to do so came first. after hugging his new teacher, hugging his friends in his class, and attempting to get the snake out of the display case, we headed to the other side of the tracks...known as the upper elementary side of the school. however, colton's teacher, mr. so and so was walking down the hall. colton said, "there's mr. so and so. he overheard colton say his name and said very friendly and outgoing like, "hey colton! you're in my class this year." colton was so nervous that he didn't say a word. however, chase did. he ran up to mr. so and so and pointed at him and said...very loudly i might add, "yeah...only he really didn't want to get you for a teacher."

you know when things start going in slow motion...and you open your mouth but nothing comes out except for a little squeaky noise...and you realize that there is no way to salvage what just happened...and all you want to do is run? well...that about sums it up. mr. so and so handled it with great dignity, especially since there were a ton of other parents and kids standing around who heard this honest outburst from a concerned sibling. as he walked away, i thought, "welp...our work here is done. let's go." however, we still had to make it to colton's classroom for the "formal" meet the teacher, although i wanted to slink out the door...never to return...making up some excuse about why i needed to home school my oldest instead of send him into the classroom where the teacher knows exactly how he feels about him. meanwhile, chad had a conversation with chase about the need to pretend there was tape on his mouth the whole time we were in mr. so and so's classroom. i'll spare you the rest of the details, but chad and i managed to salvage the situation once we were in there and colton became ok after he found a box of legos in the classroom that all the kids were playing with while their parents were putting there best foot forward for the teacher. i figured i didn't need to do that...seeing as my chaser had already put his in his mouth.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

conversations with aiden

i have noticed lately that aiden has become quite the little chatter box. when i was little, my mom used to have to tell me that her ears were tired and needed a break. i now understand what she means. i can't get one of a's questions answered before she asks the next one these days. i don't think that i could have possibly talked as much as she does. (chad would, most likely differ in opinion.)

here is how one of our MANY conversations went tonight:

Aiden: Mommy...take my feet off and turn them around backwards and put them back on.

Me: Why?

Aiden: So that I can walk backwards.

Me: How would I take them off?

Aiden: You could cut them off...then turn them around and put them back on.

Me: How would I get them back on though?

*pause*

Aiden: tape.

Monday, August 17, 2009

who knew?

welp...who knew you could outgrow sweatpants?

i like to tell myself that people are wearing things tighter these days and that all my sweatpants are the "tighter style" and that is why i have suddenly outgrown them and that it is actually a good thing and that it is "all baby" and that these 1 or 3 pair of sweatpants that i can no longer get over my hips are made of a fabric that is way less stretchy than other sweatpants.

however...i am still somewhat annoyed at my sweatpants and have been since i tried to get them on this morning.

and furthermore, all my maternity shirts are feeling uncomfortably snug and the maternity tanks are tight and short and nothing feels comfortable except pajama pants and my sleep shirts. i know i have nowhere to go, but sometimes a girl wants to put on a cute, stylish outfit and it does nothing for my declining mood to have nothing cute and stylish to wear...even if it is to just sit in the chair.

and let me just give a piece of advice to any other pregnant women out there...or anyone who is hormonal for another reason...or just plain annoyed..........refrain from getting long hair cut off. it only makes you cry. and obsessively look at all girls on tv that have the long waves that you used to have.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

an update of the serious and not-so-serious kind

the not so serious:

the other day, chase came and sat next to me on the couch and touched my belly. i could tell he was thinking about something. he said, "mommy...i want the next baby you have to be a boy so we can name him obi wan kenobi."

i believe it was that very night that chase came over to the couch and told me he had a secret. i said, "whisper it in my ear." he leaned in close and whispered, "at granna's house, i put a lego head in my mouth. and then i swallowed it. BY ACCIDENT. you can't tell ANYONE."

this morning, aiden was drawing and coloring a picture. i asked her what she was drawing and she said, "a picture of you mommy." i said, "thank you aiden. i want to see it when you are done." a couple of minutes later she said, "mommy...i'm not able to draw a flower in your hair. but i can draw a cookie in it!" i said, "a cookie will be perfect!"

an update of the serious kind:

i had the ultrasound yesterday afternoon and the baby looks good. she was moving around a lot, which the technician said was great. her exact words were, "sick babies don't move." she is measuring 2.5 pounds and that is on the small side. she said that was the 17th percentile and that she is just petite. my fluid level looks good and she said that if there was a problem, my fluid level would, most likely be down. basically, she said that i just have small babies. however, colton was 8 pounds 2.5 oz...so he was no small thing. chase was 5 pounds 11 oz at 38 weeks, so he was small. but he had stopped growing and i had very little fluid when they broke my water with him. aiden was 6 pounds 11 oz at 36 weeks and 5 days, so she was on her way to an average weight. so...all this to say, i'm not sure about all that. i will feel better when i see the doctor and she tells me that she has grown since the last time. at least then i'll know she is thriving in there. needless to say, my mother is now stuffing my face with fat and calories to "grow" annslee. i now have an un-natural relationship with cinnamon powdered sugar donuts.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

bed rest quote of the day

-"mom...i want you to get up and just try to run around."

aiden

Thursday, August 06, 2009

28 weeks

apparently i've reached some sort of milestone. 28 weeks is a good place to be. at least that's what my doctor said when she greeted me today at my appointment. after waiting forever, and getting quite uncomfortable sitting on what is becoming a tinier and tinier table with nothing but a sheet separating me from the rest God's creation, she decided to grace me with her presence. something about rushing from a delivery, blah blah blah...okay...i guess that was a good enough reason to keep me waiting. it doesn't mean that i wasn't getting super uncomfortable though.

everything "down there" still looks good, however she set up an ultrasound on tuesday because i didn't gain any weight (and i was expecting to have packed on quite a bit due to the ice cream, cookies, brownies, candybars, and sedentary lifestyle) and i'm starting to measure small. they will do measurements on the baby then to make sure she is still growing like she should be. let's just hope she is.

i also got special permission to go lay on my mom's couch. we are going to try and go over there a couple time a week. that'll be like a vacation. maybe i'll have lemonade to drink that day instead of just plain water. with an umbrella. (thanks for the suggestion kara. ;)

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

my entertainment thus far

there's really not much i can say to add to the above...

after a long time of insisting that he never wanted to ride a bike...the other day, colton announced, "ok...i'm gonna ride a bike today." and he did.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

changes...

...they are a good thing.

i was tired of cute-sy bloggery.

now...onto the living room.

this is what happens when you spend a lot of time sitting...and looking...and thinking...and planning.

blog...check.

now...onto the rest of the house.

sorry cute husband...who wears his hat backwards...that i love.