Bonding time with Aunt Rachel

Since Rachel graduated from her ortho residency in Oklahoma, she's been around Iowa staying with us, other family, and visiting friends. She's been here a number of nights and we've all loved having her around. Myself especially since I don't see her that often, and the kids totally loved having her around too. They got some great time with Aunt Rachel. Makes me happy that they know her and will remember her! She got Violet a couple early birthday presents which she opened, because Rachel wouldn't be around for her actual birthday. She got her some new dolls (she called the dolls Violet and Rachel) for her doll house in her room and the game Twister. I got some silly pictures of the last few weeks with the kids and Aunt Rachel:

Calvin's tent

And it might not be with you think. Over the last two months, my little Calvin (um, not so little anymore though) has made my mornings miserable. He has been consistently climbing out of his crib every morning around 6 am and walks into our room and asks for his little meow, blankie and pacifier. When he found his new freedom he did it every single time he couldn't find them in the dark, so most mornings I would get woken up way too early and he would get out of his crib a number of times after I'd put him back in and tell him to go back to sleep. Nothing was working. A few times I spanked him but he didn't seem to respond to that very well either. Mornings became a time of dread and much frustration. Sooo.....I resorted to caging him in. I was so desperate to find something that worked, I was willing to try anything. I got him a crib tent (I searched the market, there really is only one out there), ordered it, and paid for the quick shipping. I got it in two days! It took Rachel and I about a half hour to install it. It totally works, and I love it. This morning I slept in til until a lovely 7:40 when Violet woke up (she is easy in the mornings, she doesn't wander around and do dangerous things like Calvin does) so I took a shower, got ready (she played with her doll house in her room under strict orders to not go in Calvin's room), and then went into Calvin's room to get him out of bed when I was ready about 15-20 minutes later. It was soooo nice. He was ready to get out of bed, but he wasn't crying or anything. He was just standing there in silence waiting for me. I got him out and said "Calvin, do you like your new tent?" He enthusiastically said "Yeeeeah!" So its a good thing. I never would have thought I'd do this in the past...just seems so "silly" to "cage" in my kid, but its working, and I really like it so far. When he is older things will change of course, but for now, it is the perfect thing. There is no possible way he could get out of it. There is an inside netting that completely wraps underneath the mattress and connects to the dome top and when the zipper is shut the pull tab gets tucked into an outside pocket. The only thing it makes more difficult is changing his crib sheet, but its still possible.

Oh be careful...

You all know the little kid's Sunday School song. "Oh be careful little eyes what you see, (repeat), for the father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see..." and it goes on warning about ears, etc. Violet has extrapolated the lyrics to anything she sees or thinks. She was spending some time in the bathroom after breakfast and while sitting for some time, I started jotting down the verses of the songs she was singing to this tune. Here are some of them, I'm sure I didn't get them all: -- "Oh be careful little mom what you hug, oh be careful little mom what you hug, for the father up above is looking down above, oh be careful little mom what you hug." -- "Oh be careful little shirt what you put on..." -- "Oh be careful little stroller what you push..." -- "Oh be careful little finger what you move..." -- "Oh be careful little hand what you plant..." -- "Oh be careful little pants you pull up..." -- "Oh be careful little door what you shut..."

Harold and the Purple Crayon @ GBPAC

I took the kids to the performing arts center at UNI today for a live production of Harold and the Purple Crayon. This book happens to be one of my favorite childhood books and has become one of Violet's. She has heard us read the book to her so many times that she can recite almost every single word on each page, down to the "hungry moose and the deserving porcupine" and the "trim little boat". She was looking forward to this day for so long, and I gotta say, I'm glad its over. It was just OK. The play was creative and mostly accurate to the whole story, in fact, Harold in the play acted out the whole book with animations in the background that helped make it feel more real. But at the end of the book when Harold gets in his bed and "drew up the covers", that wasn't the end of the play. It kept on going, and going, and going. Harold ended up in the middle of many other adventures. Violet was so confused why the story kept going. She kept saying things like "Why didn't Harold go to bed? Why did he have a bad dream? Why don't we have this part of the story? Why does Harold keep going to bed and waking up? Why does this keep going? Why this, why that..." it didn't end. She was so inquisitive about this Harold story. Calvin sat on my lap the whole time and just stared, he didn't seem to be that affected by the story. There were some very scary parts to the play, when the drawing of the dragon under the apple tree became real, and many other things. Every time she got scared she had to jump in my lap and verify with me that it was just a person under there dressed up in a costume pretending, and that it wasn't real. We went to the production with some friends, and the conclusion was the same...not so good. The beginning was great and fit the book, but the play just went on and on and didn't seem to have a point or an end. All the kids got pretty scared, but while we were eating lunch with everybody at McDonald's after wards, Violet told me that she wanted to go back and see Harold again. When we walked back to the van after lunch, she sighed, buckled into her car seat, and said "Well! That was really fun. I want to go see Harold again! When can we go see Harold again mom?" I was happy to say we probably couldn't go back because they weren't going to play it again. And she would be just as happy reading the book over and over and over again to herself.

Dave gone this week

Its time for the quarterly sales meeting at Dave's work and he's going out there to meet his new boss and new co workers. He didn't get a different job, but someone was placed in charge of professional services (he is a project manager for professional services) to give the department more direction and develop it. So, he's looking forward to it. His new boss is a lady in her 50s or so, he has spoken to her and said he thinks they'll get along. That's good news. His flight left around noon today, and Violet was not taking the news well that he had to leave. We didn't tell her til yesterday because we knew she would get weepy and clingy. She did, and didn't handle daddy leaving all that well. He was packing, and she wouldn't stop hugging him. I had to distract her and ask for her help in preparing lunch so he could finish up packing. We made PBJs and she spread jelly and peanut butter from here to timbuktu by the time she finished. She made a huge fuss if I tried to help her so I just allowed her to be distracted, and he left with a few goodbyes, kisses and hugs. She got disciplined during lunch for whining back at me when I asked her a question so after a slap in the leg, she started crying hysterically for daddy. I have a feeling its going to be a rough week. I haven't been feeling the best. I think the worst is over though, and I'm glad it was yesterday, not today. I had some type of indigestion and couldn't function well, I was popping Rolaids every couple hours for stomach comfort and sleeping as much as I could. On Saturday (yesterday), I slept from 10:30-5:30 in the afternoon, with a few breaks in between there to do a few things. Dave took the kids to the store by himself to exchange some shower heads (we're looking for a new one for our shower, its proving to be a difficult task!) so that gave me a little quiet time to rest. Dave was itching to go out to eat last night so we made a trip out to Waterloo and had dinner at Red Lobster. He got a lobster tail, snow crab legs and shrimp, and I nibbled bites of potato soup, which I could not finish. My body was just saying "don't eat right now". I had no appetite. Kids were pretty restless while we waited for a table (the line was super long) but they kept themselves mostly busy staring at all the live lobsters in the cage. Violet was disgusted and intrigued all at the same time that daddy was eating a lobster. She asked a million questions how the lobster got killed, did it hurt the lobster that he was eating it, etc. He offered her a bite but she didn't want to try any of it, saying it was yucky. We left and by the time we got home it was 9 pm. We were in high gear getting them to bed ASAP. Mornings have been rather difficult for me lately. Calvin is always the first to wake up around 6:30 and he walks into our room and immediately says "Meow?" asking for help in finding his precious little white stuffed kitty. Dave took him back to his room and Calvin said to him "poopoo" - much to our surprise, he was actually right this time. Dave did a quick diaper change, put him back in bed, and he just kept getting up and getting up, probably 5 times. Its so hard not to get incredibly annoyed when I am just not ready to wake up. He even walked into Violet's room and woke her up, which annoyed me even more, because she was crabby and not ready to wake up. I've resorted to locking her door when they go to bed so he can't get in there. I am ready to start locking him in his room too. Or put up baby gates on his doorway or something. I just CAN'T deal with the kids climbing all over me in the morning when I'm trying to sleep. It makes for a very frustrating time and a bad start to my day. I've learned that I can not get by with less sleep than I need. Being pregnant, I am generally very tired all the time, and getting to bed too late is detrimental to my survival during the days. I fell asleep at 10 pm last night and I don't feel like it was enough sleep. Getting to bed at a decent hour is a big struggle for me since I never want the nights to end. They're so nice, quiet, and peaceful, I love night times after the kids go to bed. Dave and I some times watch movies, or stay up and watch favorite TV shows, whatever, its just a nice relaxing time for the two of us and its so easy to let 11 pm slip by and go to bed around 11:30-midnight. Not good...need to change that.

Visitors for New Year's 2009-2010

Dave's mom, Martha, was one of the guests we had over for New Year's. We had wanted her to come visit for some time and decided after Christmas was going to be the best time. She came out late Wednesday night (the 30th of Dec) and stayed til Saturday the 2nd. One of the main goals of her visit was to allow Dave and I help her transition over her budget system to an electronic form. When Dave and I visited her a few weeks back on our way home from Ohio, she showed us her paper system of budgeting with the envelope method. Her binder of papers was categorized with all her expenses, how much she budgeted per month, etc...it was a painstaking (well, that was our perception of course) effort of budgeting that method on PAPER, of all things and required so much of her time to organize and keep up. Dave and I have our finances (the envelope budgeting system) on a software program called Money Map which is designed by Crown Financial Ministries. Anyway, we saw the work she did to record just one transaction and knew immediately if she converted her work to the software that we used, it would be MUCH easier for her to manage. In our opinion, of course. :) She was very willing, however. She brought out her computer and we got the software downloaded onto her computer, and over the course of three days, converted her work on paper to the software. It is all the same information and the same way of budgeting, it will just take her awhile to learn the functions of the program. She feels very lost and confused, but she knows we'll help her transition over. There were moments during the set up process that she "saw the light" and got very excited at the prospect of having all this information at her fingertips. With her paper system, she never really knew if the envelope balances added up to the balance in her checking account, and the software program calculates everything to the penny so you're never a cent off. I also helped her log on to her internet banking, sign on to her credit card online, and when the time comes, I will help her pay her first bill online. We're rocketing her into the 21st century world of banking (which is SO much easier! I can't fathom actually writing a check, sticking it in the mailbox, and putting a stamp on it, I haven't done that for 10 years). She's nervous, of course, because she tried convincing me that her generation of folk doesn't trust the internet, but with our guidance, she will figure it out soon. We told her to call us if she has even the simplest of questions about the program, and we're confident we can help her transition over. I know once she learns it, she'll be glad too. Shawn and Kim Thompson also came for New Year's. We have a tradition going with them for the past few (4 or 5 maybe?) years of getting together to bring in the new year. They came back to Iowa during Shawn's break from school and spend Christmas with their parents (who live in Mason City and Greene), so they get together with us for New Year's. They came on Thurs the 31st and stayed overnight. Martha, Shawn and Kim joined us for a few hours at Bethany Bible Chapel's New Year's Eve celebration, which was really fun. There was tons of yummy food to munch on, games to play, and silly home videos to watch (small groups made videos). We only stayed a couple hours so we could put the kids to bed around 9:30 pm and we stayed up and played Balderdash. The first day of the New Year was a delicious one. Martha made a favorite recipe of Dave's, her egg/cheese/bacon frittata, cinnamon coffee cake, and I cut up and served red juicy grapefruit, melon and strawberries. What a great way to start the new year! New Year's Resolutions? That question got asked many times. Dave started working out in December. He's following a year-long fitness program that he used years ago and really likes. He actually started in the last two weeks of December to get his body used to working out in the morning. Three times a week he gets up early and goes to the rec center and follows the weight-lifting routine. He is enjoying the work outs, he says they're not too strenuous and it starts fairly easy. He enjoys the feeling of being sore and knowing he's making progress. Me? Nahhh, no new year's resolutions. I'm gonna have another baby, there we go. But I'm very proud of Dave for sticking to his plan so far, I guess my resolution will be to support him in his effort. I know I play a big part in his success, being OK with him being gone three mornings a week. At least its not in the evening.

Calvin's 2nd birthday...

was barely a celebration. He woke up and climbed into our bed, Dave and I started singing him happy birthday, and he yelled "mo! mo! mo!" (no, no no) motioning for us to stop. I guess he doesn't like singing, lol. At least that early in the morning. We had nothing special planned. The night before we had gone to the grocery store and gotten some cake mix and frosting in a tub. On Monday, his birthday (December 28th), we baked the yellow cake and I frosted it using green food coloring to make the frosting colorful. I stuck two candles in the cake, lit them, and everyone sang happy birthday while he blew out the candles himself. He wasn't satisfied just blowing them out one time only, however, so we re-lit them a couple times and let him blow them out over and over, which he just thought was super fun. I had to re-lite them at least once for a photo op, the camera wasn't ready at the right time. He didn't mind doing it over again. Violet was the most excited about his birthday, she kept trying to smother him with love and get in the way when the camera would try shoot at him, she stuck her head in many pictures which turned out to be a little annoying. She kept whining that she wanted her birthday to be here and was barely handling the fact that Calvin's birthday is "before" hers. Well, in order of the months and the way it "seems", yes, his is in December, and hers is in January. She's keenly aware that she's older than him, and knows he turned 2 and she is turning 4, but she still wanted to celebrate her birthday first. Too bad, girl, that's how the calendar works. We let Calvin have a big piece of cake on his high chair tray similar to how a kid eats his first birthday cake. He didn't want anything to do with the cake itself, he just used his fingers to swipe off all the frosting and suck it off his fingers. And we didn't even have presents ready for him. In the coming years, I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to plan for his birthday, since it is only 3 days after Christmas. Not exactly the best birthday timing, but oh well. He didn't even care or notice about anything birthday-related. He just had fun with what we did, and we have great family time. Rachel was with us, she enjoyed celebrating his birthday with him too.

20 week ultrasound

I had my 20 week ultrasound this morning. It was originally scheduled for 8:30 am, and I'm so glad we were able to move it to 11:30 am. Dave and Rachel both wanted to come with me so that meant taking the kids along. Since we were up so late last night coming home from the swimming pool they slept in a little later. The u/s felt like any other u/s I've had before. We told the u/s tech that we wanted to keep the sex of the baby a secret so she didn't even look herself. Baby is developing great! They estimated the weight at 12 oz and predicted a due date of May 19th, which doesn't really change anything since I'm "due" May 16th. Or maybe its the 14th. I can't exactly remember, it has been calculated a couple times. Baby is well developed, all bones and body parts are totally formed. Approx 10 inches in length. We saw the heart beat, complete skull, back bones, ribs, hands, legs, feet, face profile, eyes, stomach, kidneys, the mouth moving around and sucking. The placenta is located on the front of my belly so I suspect that is why I haven't felt the baby moving that much. Violet was curious about the picture on the screen, she asked a lot of questions. We just told her it was a picture of the baby moving around and even though it was hard to see, the baby is really happy and healthy right now. Last night when we went swimming, Violet asked me if the baby inside my tummy was going to go swimming too. She thought that was really fun. :)

Swim night

Dave was looking through the Cedar Falls Rec services online and reminded me of Sunday night swim nights at Holmes Elementary. We decided it would be super fun to go, so we packed up the family, brought Rachel along with us, and had an hour and a half of fun in the water. We were the only 5 people in the whole pool so it was nice to be all alone. The three lifeguards on duty played cards near the pool and watched us. They let Violet wear her life jacket (normally that isn't allowed) so she could swim anywhere in the super big pool. She could touch in the little hot spa everywhere and quickly got bored. She swam all around in the large lap pool (all the lane lines were out), watching Rachel and I do silly things off the diving boards. Dave created a few big splashes. I held Calvin to let him watch Dave and Rachel do flips. His reaction to the first flip he witnessed from Rachel was "Whoaaaa!!!" I did a few flips, I know, I know, I'm 20 weeks pregnant. Didn't really stop me though. I suppose it would have been dangerous but I knew what I was doing. Baby is fine! We had a LOT of fun. We stayed out entirely too late, making a trip to the post office and the grocery store on the way back. We picked up some groceries and stuff to make a cake for Calvin tomorrow. We got home and unloaded the groceries, and both kids ran around the kitchen like CRAZY monkeys eating what we had left for bananas. Got them to bed finally by 10:30. We're all tired and my back is especially sore, maybe I can score a back rub from Dave later.

Calvin turns 2 tomorrow

I can not believe it, time has just flown! I know, that sounds SO cliche, but its true. I remember the day in the church nursery when I told someone that it was his first birthday. And some how it is now his second. He's close to 30 lbs, give or take a pound given how squirmy he was when we tried to weigh him. We don't really have birthday plans. We'll make him a cake and celebrate somehow, with just our family. My sister Rachel is staying with us for awhile, she is back in Iowa for a few weeks until she moves to New York in the middle of January. She can help us celebrate.

Vla-vla

Calvin came up with a word for "Violet" in his own vocabulary. He says either Vla-vla or La-La. I think its so cute! He likes to go around the dinner table and say "Hi Mama, Hi Daddy, Hi La-La." :)

I tried, but Calvin proved it was time.

He climbed out of his crib yesterday after his nap and opened his bedroom door looking very tired and lost. He has never done this before. So, in my attempt to keep him contained, I removed the wire mesh mattress support that was suspending his mattress about 6 inches off the ground in his crib, and lowered the mattress to the floor so he wouldn't be able to climb out. I thought for sure that would buy me a few more months before I had a kid who could escape their bed. Nope. He climbed right out of it after his nap today. I guess its time I just give in and get him his own big bed with guard rails and some how block off his bedroom door so we don't have a wandering kid around the house before we wake up in the morning.

Return of the "Hop Truck"

Have I written about this before? I can not remember. But the "Hop Truck" has returned. A few months ago the kids got attached to this card board box they climbed in and (Violet mainly) pretended it was a car they could drive anywhere. It became so fun that we cut doors out of the side so they could open and shut them. The box was eventually destroyed from so much use and it ended up in the recycling pile. Another FedEx delivery provided the perfect opportunity for another one. I thought they had long forgotten about the beloved "hop truck" (Violet came up with that name and I have absolutely no idea why), but when she caught site of the big empty box in the kitchen, she immediately said "A new hop truck!" and it was almost love at first sight. She climbed right in it, pretended it had a steering wheel and said she was driving over to a friend's house. I cut some doors, drew on a steering wheel with permanent marker, and today we spent an hour taping colored paper on it to decorate it. She helped Calvin put stickers all over it and she took some time to write "Hop Truck" on the door and also write a bunch of other things, drawings, etc...all over it. Calvin is starting to "get" these games she invents. He often tries to play along but ultimately frustrates the living daylights out of Violet because he's not "playing it right" and she freaks out. *sigh* Some times they play so well together, other times they're like two feisty cats in a cage.

Questions

Yesterday while we were eating supper, Violet started asking me questions about the new baby. She notices my tummy sticking out more every day and asks if she can hug and kiss the new baby. Calvin copies her, but he has no clue what is going on! She had some interesting questions, which gives insight to how a 3 yr old's mind thinks about this situation: "Does it hurt when the baby is in your tummy?" I answered no. "Where is the baby's mommy?" I said to her "I am the baby's mommy, silly!" She was like "uhhh...OH!" "Well....how is this going to work? You take care of Calvin, daddy takes care of me, who will take care of the baby? What are you going to do with THREE kids? (while she throws her arms up in frustration)" (She couldn't have gotten that from ME!? ha! I say that all the time to myself!) This made Dave and I laugh. I told her we would make it work. And I reminded her of lots of families with one mommy, one daddy, and lots of kids. Her cousins for example. There are three kids in Austin, Renee, and Wesley's family. There are seven kids in the other LaMarche family. And I reminded her that some of her friends have lots of sisters and brothers. I told her with in a family, one mommy and one daddy work together to take care of all the kids, no matter how many there were, and we love them all the same. She seemed to be happy with that answer. :) And she's been fascinated with the way the baby is going to come out. Daddy told her that God opens a little door when its time to come out, and the doctor can help. She wanted to see the door, I just told her no. I guess we'll see when the time comes how God allows this baby to come out!

Oklahoma/Texas

I wish I had brought along a computer so I could have blogged more accurately. We got home from a week-long trip in Oklahoma and Texas. This will be logged from my brain which has a very poor memory, which is also trying to recover from a week of intense travel and less sleep than desired. The time in Oklahoma was spent celebrating with family to honor Rachel's graduation from her Orthodontic residency at Oklahoma University. She completed the 30 month program with excellent reviews from her professors. She is so passionate about orthodontics, I know this is the right field of medicine for her to practice in. We scheduled our flights to leave on Thursday evening last week the 10th. We flew from Waterloo to Minneapolis, then Minneapolis to Oklahoma City. It was a rush getting to the airport for some reason, even though we had all day to prepare, pack and load the car. Life with kids just seems to do that and operate that way, no matter how much fudge time you allow in. We pulled up the van just in time to check our luggage. Dave got the kids inside the airport, I parked, and ran inside. Just as we got through security and into the line where we boarded the airplane, Dave realized we forgot to unhook the car seats and bring them with us. Oh noooo!! How annoying. We were stuck...the security people wouldn't let us back through with 8 minutes to departure. So that was it, we just had to deal with it the whole way there. And it wasn't fun. We made sure to purchase four airplane seats so the kids would be sure to have their own seats their car seats could be strapped into. If anybody has flown with kids, yes, its a pain to lug along the big car seat (not to mention two of them) but its SUCH a blessing once you get on the airplane. Kids just know (well, mine do) that when they're strapped into their car seats, that is as far as they can move. The air travel to MN and OK was a struggle the whole time, Violet and Calvin were buckled in their seats, but with a pathetic lap strap that they could both wriggle out of. They were difficult to keep in one place and neither slept a wink even though we got in late around 11 pm. Both were whiny, tired, cranky, and miserable. I had counted on them getting sleep on the airplane (the 2nd flight was over 2 hours and it could have worked beautifully but nope). I communicated with Rachel and my dad (who was already there) that I'd need their help. I asked them if they could run by Walmart and buy two car seats for our kids and leave them at the airport for us to use when we got our rental car. Thankfully, they made time in their schedule to run that errand for us. We could have rented two car seats from Hertz but I never like to do that, who knows what their history is, they could be gross and peed on, and could have possibly even been in an accident and nobody would have known. Not safe enough for me...if anybody knows me they'd know I am a little on the particular side when it comes to car seat safety. Anyway....that problem was solved. Besides, renting the car seats was $26 a day ($13/day for one) and we needed them for 6 nights. That would have been more expensive than buying two new ones for $52/piece. And the beauty of buying them was the ability to return them when we got home. So essentially they were free. :) The three nights we spent at the Hilton hotel in Oklahoma City went by slowly. Even though the kids got to sleep by 11 pm or midnight each night, they some how woke up at the crack of dawn by 7 am each morning. Don't they realize there is always the option to sleep in!?! Apparently not. The first morning was a little tense between Dave and I. Neither of us do well on low sleep. I think we got maybe 4 or 5 hours, since neither kid slept soundly through the night. I think Violet had a night mare, Calvin lost his pacifier, etc...I'm sure there was more, it is all a blur. One nice thing about Dave's status with the Hilton chain of hotels is that he got coupons for free breakfast each morning. It was a full buffet with cook-to-order eggs, all free. So we all ate big breakfasts. On Friday we kept ourselves entertained by going to the mall about 10 min north of the hotel. There was no way we were going to spend all day cooped up in a hotel room. Dave shopped for a blazer to wear at Rachel's graduation ceremony, I shopped for maternity jeans and a winter coat to accommodate my large belly the whole winter. We got lunch at McD's on the way back from the mall and the kids took naps from around 3-5 pm. Friday night was Rachel's graduation party. It was so fun. We all dressed up and had a party with her friends and family. My grandparents were there from Arizona, my great aunt Lucy drove up for the party from Little Rock, AR. Jay and Molly drove from Iowa, and my parents came too. Violet was in some crazy social mood, running around and talking to everybody she could get to talk back to her. She even climbed up into the department head's lap (Dr. Currier) and played some little silly games with him. She bounced around from lap to lap. The meal they served was really delicious too. The first course was a salad, and I've never seen Violet dig into a salad before like I saw her eat it that night. It was a regular lettuce salad with ranch dressing and other things, crunchy little chips, some nuts, I don't even remember what was all on it since I was busy feeding Calvin, but she kept taking huge bites, she almost cleared her salad plate. I didn't know she even liked lettuce. She's always turned her nose up at salads like that. I guess I should start making those more often. :) The night was fun. All the graduating residents did goofy things on a slide show, comparing their professors to famous celebrities and saying what great teachers they are and the individual things they did to progress their studies in the program. The 2nd year students put together a slide show for the graduates, funny pics and songs. The night ended with a yummy chocolate fudge torte cake thing, I don't even know what it was. It wasn't a cheesecake, but it looked like one. It was really late by the time it was over. Calvin was glossy-eyed and just wanted to sit in his stroller and be wrapped up by his blankie and hold his kitty. Violet remained social until the moment we left, and then by the time we got to our hotel room, she was a crying mess. Saturday we spent with family again, we met for lunch together at a BBQ place with Rachel's friends and our family. Dinner was a different place. I got a chance to get away with Rachel for a short time and drive around to look at some pretty neat Christmas light displays. The hot thing this year is to use LED Christmas lights and wrap them around every square inch of the tree trunk and all the branches. All the rich neighborhoods had fabulous light displays. Sunday was our day to travel to Texas. Since we were so close to Dallas (where Dave's sister Lisa lives), we thought we'd take a couple extra days and visit them. We scheduled our flights to return home from OK to IA on Wednesday, so we drive in the rental car to Dallas and back. Sunday morning Rachel took us to the church she called her own for the last 2 1/2 years. It was neat to visit them and get to know the people who have been there for her and encouraged her while she was all by herself in OK. We checked out of the hotel when it was over, got lunch at Jimmy John's with Rachel, and said our goodbyes and took off for Dallas. The kids were so tired. The drive was three hours long and both of them slept the entire way. We didn't stop once. We arrived at StenErik and Lisa's apartment around 5:30 pm, and they were all happy to see us. Their apartment is pretty small. Their girls slept on the floor in the living room and they let us sleep in their room for the three days we were there. Violet told her Aunt Lisa "I am so glad I came back, I told you I would come back because I love you!" We didn't really have a schedule for the next three days. I was really hoping to relax and catch up on much needed sleep, but some how that didn't happen. It was too easy to stay up late and talk to Sten and Lisa since we rarely get 1-1 time to talk to them. The kids didn't sleep that well. Calvin learned how to climb out of the pack and play crib he was sleeping in (he could also climb out of the crib he slept in at the hotel, which made for unexpected visits from Calvin in the middle of the night), so he was one of the biggest challenges. We would put him down for a nap or bed, and he'd crawl right out and go play with Violet who was trying to sleep on the couch. Ugh...that kid. I think we had to put him back in his bed multiple times before he actually went to sleep. One night he threw his paci out of the crib and around 2 am he woke up and started screaming for it. The kid can't get to sleep with out that darn paci. Dave and I were searching for his paci at 2 am with the light of our cell phones. Finally I found it tucked underneath a dresser next to his crib. The best part of the trip to Texas was connecting on a more personal level with Lisa. We worked together to de-clutter their apartment and get rid of things they didn't use or didn't need. Her girls, Violet and Calvin also had a blast together. At any given moment, someone was always cuddling with someone on the couch, giving hugs, playing, running around, and just having fun. Violet is almost 4 (Jan 20 is her birthday!), she comprehends everything and can communicate extremely well, so she just seemed like an older kid blending in with what her older cousins were doing, not like a younger toddler who didn't get anything. Calvin played that role instead. He really fell in love with Emma. He was immediately comfortable with Emma holding and comforting him, which was weird. He doesn't warm up to people that quickly. Nice to see, though. Kristina is 11, Emma is 10, and Anja is 8. I found Anja and Violet up in their loft coloring in Violet's coloring book a lot of the time. This week was finals week for Sten (bad timing on our part), so he was often writing papers and studying and at class. We had "Christmas dinner" together with their family the last night we were there, on Tues. Lisa baked a ham, and we made three-cheese garlic scalloped potatoes, and ate green beans. It was so delicious! Our trip home went much better. The drive back to the airport on Wednesday was at a great nap time for the kids. They slept, I took a nap, and Dave (although he was really tired) drove to the airport. We got our rental car checked in, and boarded our flight. The next two flights went much smoother than the first two on our way there. Calvin was comfy in his seat and calm for the entirety of the flights. He slept the last one. Violet sat next to me on the last flight from MN to IA and she was so cheerful, saying silly things, playing impromptu games she could make up in her mind, and we both had fun drawing on our styrofoam cups that the flight attendant gave us when she passed out water. We were greeted in IA with 5 degree weather and a thick layer of ice on our windshield. Not so cool when we forgot to put our ice scrapers in the van. We had to let the defroster fun for about 15 min in the parking lot so we could see well enough to drive. Calvin was mad he had to wake up, so he cried pretty much the whole drive home. We stuck them in bed as soon as we got home. The house was soooo cold too. We turned our heat down to 50 when we were gone, so it took Violet awhile to get warm in her fleece jammies and tucked into bed. I layered on an extra blanket on her bed. Calvin was so happy to be back in bed. Violet took awhile to get to sleep. She must have been overstimulated. I think she fell asleep around midnight. The poor girl, I had to wake her up and take her to preschool the next morning. Any other day I would have just let her sleep in and skip it, but she was assigned to bring snacks for her class that day. And "snack day" is a BIG deal to her. In her class, whoever brings the snack that day also gets to be the leader in the front of the line when the class goes places together, like to the gym to play and run around, or to any other place with in the facility. She also got to select the weather on the board, write what day it was on the calendar, all sorts of very special things. Last time she got to bring the snack, she talked about that day for WEEKS. She loves being the leader, so I knew this day would be one to not miss. I woke her up at 8 am, and she just snuggled with me for a few minutes trying to wake up. I told her what that day was and how special it would be, and she perked up enough for me to get her dressed and get her to eat a bowl of cereal. Since we had just gotten home the night before really late, I had nothing planned for the snacks that she was to share with her class. We made a quick run to the store before I took her, and she wanted to bring yogurt tubes, cookies and grape juice. We got exactly that, and she happily brought along her snacks when I dropped her off a few minutes later. The teacher said she did pretty good that day, and didn't seem that tired. I was happy to hear that. They both slept good three hour naps Thursday afternoon, which was their attempt at catching up on much needed sleep. That night both kids spent about an hour in the bathtub. They were so happy to be home, and both got to bed at 8:30-8:45...a great time. Dave and I actually got a little time to sit and relax that night, even though my list of things to do was enormous. Laundry, catching up on bills, updating the budget software with all our transactions the last week, grocery shopping, filing papers, etc...the list goes on and on. So far I've gotten the laundry all sorted, washed, dried, and put away and updated the budget software but my list is still long. I knew I would forget a lot of the trip the longer I waited, so I blogged today during nap time. Violet just woke up and is snuggling in my lap so I should get off the computer. Thanks for reading my long account!

Took Calvin to the doctor today

Since Saturday morning, he's been breathing really raspy and coughing at night. He had a bout of this same thing about a month ago and it took a week to clear up. This time I decided he should see a doc, his breathing was not improving and seemed really bad when he would cry. Doc determined he had the croup virus and prescribed a liquid steroid to help reduce the swelling in his bronchial cords which just treats his worst symptom, although not helping the virus which just has to run its course. Its gonna be a long winter if he comes down with this all the time. He already has his first dose in his system and already seems to be feeling better. I am praying that he will get over this before our flight which leaves on Thursday evening, and also that Violet would not catch it. We're heading to Oklahoma City to celebrate Rachel's graduation from orthodontic school! Then a few more days we will spend in Texas with Dave's sister Lisa and her family. Violet is very excited about the plane ride. I also got my flu shot this afternoon. Violet came with me to help me be brave :)

Snow blower

Dave has been stressing about getting our old 1983 Ariens snow blower working. The snow blower went through the flood and did get wet and rusty in a few places, we don't remember the extent of the damage so his goal was to work on it knowing it was a trusty machine and would start up if everything was working properly. He's worked on it on and off for a few weeks now with no success. He took apart the fuel lines, cleaned out the carburetor, messed with the spark plugs, oil and gas. He isn't a huge engine guy but has learned a lot since getting the log splitter running. We were wondering how the winter would be last year with no snow blower, and it would rough. We got SO much snow, Dave and I were outside shoveling so much, it was such hard work. We have a big 3 car wide driveway so it was no small task. I wasn't pregnant last year either so helping was no problem, this year I knew I would be much less help not being able to lift and throw snow like I could have if I wasn't pregnant. I was getting worried that we were going to have to pay someone to plow our driveway or see Dave suffer and shovel. Well, last night Dave had some time to work on it. He initially went to the garage to put up some metal hooks for his tools to hang up on the peg board near his work bench. He was hanging up tools for a long time, and told me he kept looking back at that snow blower and thought "Ya know, I haven't prayed about this yet!" So he stopped and asked God to help him fix the snow blower and show him what needed to be fixed. He took off the engine cover, looked under the engine, and noticed a little pin or screw underneath the engine and thought to himself, "huh, what is this thing?" and twisted it. Turns out, this little pin was the thing that changed the flow of gas that entered the engine, and he tried starting the engine, and it fired right up! He was so amazed. He called me out to the garage to "show me something quick" and turned it on. I was so surprised! He was like "This was totally a God thing, I would never have figured this out...I just prayed about it and he showed me the answer, just like that." We're really excited about not having to shovel this winter. :) :) :)

I found Calvin's soft spot

and its for kittens. He bonded so well with Kala's kitty. He couldn't stop thinking about the kitty the whole time we were at the Butler's house. If I even suggested to him "Hey Calvin, want to go see the kitty?" He would burst into a yell of "YEAH!" and beeline upstairs to the bedroom where he knew the kitty was. I mentioned this before in my post about Thanksgiving, but I was really surprised how sweet he was to the kitty. He picked him up gently, held him, cuddled him, gave him kisses, and played well with the kitty. He was never mean, didn't pull his tail, and was patient to let the kitty come out from hiding every once in awhile. He figured out how to use the little cat toy that was suspended on a string attached to a stick. Tonight I was reading him a book before bed, and one page of the book featured pictures of cats. There were four little kittens on the page, and at the first glance of that page, he excitedly said "meow!!!" and promptly started rubbing his hands all over the page. There was a spot on the book where it had a piece of fake cat fur so he could actually "feel" the cat. He rubbed his hand over the cat fur for a long time, and kept saying "meow, meow". The kitty in the picture was even orange just like Kala's kitten. He brought the book to his face the started kissing each kitty picture. He just had this look of endearment on his face, I could so tell he was just enamored by these kitties. He held out both hands to the book near the picture of the orange cat almost like he believed he could reach out and pick him up. It was so sweet. He kept kissing the kitties and saying meow. Makes me want to get a kitten for him to play with. But I know that would never happen ~ Dave is so allergic to cats, he would be miserable in his own house. So he'll just have to dream about cats for now until some day we get a puppy, and I'm sure at that point, he'll forget about the kitty!

Calvin's first little sentence

The morning we woke up at Martha's (Monday) Calvin came up with his first little sentence. The kids were both eating bowls of cheerios, and they love a squirt of honey over their cereal. They each got a drizzle of honey over their O's and after awhile, Calvin said "mama!" so he got my attention, then said in his own little Calvin way: "Honey, please more." How sweet, he thought to ask for more honey and even used the word please! It came out of his mouth sounding like this though: "Honey, bee, mo" I don't think anybody else but his mommy could have interpreted that one! His newest saying is "I do it!" with everything, from buckling his car seat to flipping on the light switch.

Thanksgiving 2009 with the Butler/LaMarche family

I found some time at the moment to sit down, even though 5 load of laundry beg for my attention and the room next to me is scattered with toys. I have already sorted the laundry into piles and made lunch for the kids, I think I can sit down for awhile. They went down for naps a little while ago, and it is a good thing they are napping today. Today was a rough morning, transitioning back from our trip to Ohio and back, I am not sure I was ready for today. Even though Violet was at preschool for 2 1/2 hours, I think Violet and Calvin fought the most they have since leaving on our trip in the 2 hours they were together when she got home from school. She got upset that I made her eat spaghetti sauce with her noodles (she loves them plain), her and Calvin ended up in her play tent together and with the door zipped shut, they flipped it over a few times and Calvin came out with a lot of bruises. Anyway, I'm just glad they're sleeping. They both missed naps on days on Ohio for one reason or another, so they are both lacking sleep and a schedule. Anyway, enough complaining! Last week Wednesday morning we woke up early and got ready before the kids woke up. We packed the van with everything we packed the night before, woke them up, fed them breakfast, and loaded into the car. We backed out of the driveway 30 min later than we had planned, but leaving at 8:30 am was still a good feat for our family. We had in front of us the entire distance to Ohio that day. We ended up stopping two times on our way to Chicago for potty breaks and made it to Dave's mom's house in Chicago around 1 pm. Martha kindly had lunch ready for us. She got the kids hot dogs and the adults italian beef sanwiches from Dave's favorite childhood restaurant, Novi's Beef. That lunch was enough to pack us full and not have to stop for supper. I had lots of snacks for the car trip anyway. The kids got a chance to run around and burn off some energy at Martha's house. Her front porch has two kid slides and lots of toys so they kept themselves occupied for an hour or so, then we got Martha's things packed up and loaded into the van, and took off for Ohio around 2:30. Kids slept for a couple hours, I tried to sleep but I didn't actually snooze off. Dave and Martha chatted away in the front seats, I was trying to rest in the back seat. Violet's car seat got moved to the third row center spot, which she loves to sit in so the third adult riding in our van could have a comfortable spot to sit in the 2nd row captain's chair. Calvin rode in his seat behind the driver. I don't remember much about the trip, it got pretty bad towards the end with lots of whining but it eventually ended. I think we stopped once on the way. We arrived in Ohio around 8:30 that night, a full 12 hours of travel. Ohio is an hour ahead of central time, so I guess that would only be 11 hours. Anyway, long enough. Sean & April and family arrived about 30 min after we got to Tim and Deb's house. Their family of 9 really fill a house! Kala was there already, and Roger and Mary arrived on Thursday morning. So there were 10 adults and 9 children in one house for 4 days! The kids occupied themselves most of the time, they watched a lot of movies and played a lot of games. The toy that got played with the most was this enormous container of legos. I didn't think my kids would enjoy them as much as they did, but they both came up with some fun lego creations! Thanksgiving dinner really delicious. Tim had prepped the bird the night before in a brine and grilled the whole thing in his outdoor grill the morning of Thanksgiving. It was really yummy and juicy. The rest of the food was soo good too. Deb's sweet potato casserole I think was my favorite. It was so sweet, it almost tasted like a dessert! There was also sourdough stuffing, mashed potatoes/gravy, and green beans with onions and panchetta (sp?). Pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert, of course! The rest of the visit was pretty unscheduled. Some of the ladies woke up at 5:45 am to hit the stores and shop on Black Friday. I was NOT in the that crowd, nothing in me wanted to wake up early and be shoulder to shoulder in the middle of a crowd trying to get stuff. I really dislike shopping on BF! Kala, Deb, Aunt Mary and April woke up to go, they came home with a trunk full of stuff. Sleep was more important to me! Kala and I went to see the movie New Moon and some others in the crowd went to a different theater to see the Christmas Story movie in 3D. Saturday we spent most of the afternoon outside at Tim and Deb's friend's house. It was on a farm a few miles from their house. They graciously allowed our clan to come and spend time on their property. We got to feed horses, the kids got to take rides on a horse, go fishing in their pond, and take rides on their 4 wheelers. Dave showed me how to ride one so I got to take off on a 4 wheeler and go out on my own, it was SO fun!! Violet tried her hand at fishing, but no fish bit any worms the whole day. Calvin was tough to watch wander around. He was only interested in chasing the cats around. Kala brought along her little new kitty, Jackson. Jackson is only a few months old, and still a teeny tiny little cat. Calvin and Violet LOVED the kitty. Especially Calvin. He was enamored by the kitty, he would pick up the kitty and say "hi meow!" and play with him, chase him, and hold him gently. It was enough to convince me to get a cat, but Dave could never live with a cat since he's so allergic. At night, Calvin would say "bye bye meow!" and the first thing he would say when he woke up was "meow?" The kitty stayed in Kala's room since the house cat Mimi did NOT like her. We drove to Chicago on Sunday afternoon. I think we left Ohio around 2:30 pm (Ohio time) and got back to Chicago around 6:30. We called a pizza ahead at Dave's favorite pizza place, Salerno's and ate there before going back to Martha's house. We spent the night there, and left in the morning by 10:45 am. Kids woke up TOO early on Monday morning. Calvin popped his head out of his crib at 5:15 am and said "hi!" We told him to go back to sleep, which I think he did for a little while. Violet climbed out of her bed at 6:30 and started playing with Calvin in the pitch dark. That was it for Dave and I, we woke up then. Martha left for work and we got ourselves ready. We made plans with Carrie to stop at her house on our way out of town to see new baby Wesley. I stayed at her house with her for about three hours and Dave met Josh for lunch. We didn't leave til 2:30! The kids all played well together with their cousins Austin and Renee. Carrie said she was glad to not be pregnant anymore. Monday was Josh's first day back to work since Wesley's birth so it was her first day "on her own" with all three kids. I think she was glad we stopped by, she gets exhausted pretty quickly. Wesley is a cute baby. I think he looks a lot like Austin...more like Josh...but I can't really tell. Violet got to hold him, and she loved it. She stared at him, stroked his hair, and acted fully responsible for the baby during the time she held him. She told me she was excited when our new baby came out of mommy's tummy. I also took home my maternity clothes that I lent Carrie. Violet and Calvin were SO exhausted when we packed them in the car to leave. We pulled out of their driveway and with in a few blocks, we pulled up to a gas station to fill up before the drive home. We looked in the back seat and both of them were totally asleep. That has never happened before. I guess the combination of an exhausting weekend with not as much sleep and the fact that they woke up at 6:30 and played hard until 2:30 just wore them out completely. They slept solid for two hours. The drive home was fine...we stopped at McDonald's in Galena for a quick supper (they ate cheeseburgers faster than I have ever seen them eat cheeseburgers) and we made the last leg home. We pulled into the driveway at 8:15, and Calvin said "home!!" They were still really tired...so they went to bed quickly. Dave and I unloaded everything and decided to tackle unpacking later.

Pancake morning

Some times I wonder if my kids are bottomless pits when it comes to eating. Its Saturday, I got in the mood to make pancakes. I always make them from scratch, I don't like the taste of box mix pancakes. My recipe is very simple, it comes from Betty Crocker's basic pancake recipe using flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, eggs, oil and milk. Violet got REALLY excited when I told her I was going to make pancakes, and she decided she was going to help. She dug out her apron and pulled a chair up to the counter top before I could say anything! So, we went for it. I doubled the recipe knowing how quickly the pancakes get eaten. She searched for her pink measuring cups in the drawer and proudly pulled them out, saying she was going to use each one. I let her scoop the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar (I leveled all the ingredients off) an she poured everything into the bowls. She mixed the dry stuff, then we moved onto the wet stuff. I let her crack all the eggs and she did perfect, she was really proud of herself for not getting any shells in the bowl. She knows how to crack them once on the counter top and look for a long crack, and pull the egg apart gently. Once we had the milk and oil in with the eggs, it was time to mix them. I decided to let her do it, and she did an OK job. The batter can't get over mixed and needs to stay slightly lumpy so I took over when it started to look like she needed help. The pan was preheating the whole time we prepared the batter, but I poured the pancake batter onto the hot griddle. I set Calvin up in his high chair next to Violet who was still standing on the chair up by the counter top, and just let them eat together. She loves eating right next to Calvin, she kept yanking his high chair closer to her. And they ate pancakes like they were starving children. Before I could get the first 4 off the griddle, I was plating 2 pancakes for each kid, and they had polished them off before the next 4 were done. I think I lost count how many they ate. Calvin had 4 or 5 pancakes (all covered with peanut butter and syrup!) and Violet probably ate 5. She said she didn't want peanut butter until the third pancake. Ohh-kay. So she had peanut butter on pancake number three. They eventually slowed down, but it was a pancake feeding frenzy for the first 10 or so pancakes that came off the grill. I didn't get to eat any until they had finished. :)

I need help finding my brain

because I've lost it and can't find it. Seriously, I feel so absent-minded this pregnancy. I can't remember a thing and do things I don't normally do. On Monday I was driving the van home from taking the babysitter home and Violet came along for the ride. She was in the back seat looking at a class picture that her teacher had given her and asked me to turn the light on so she could see better. I turned the van light on and let her look at the pic while I drove home. After we pulled in the driveway and shut the garage door, I forgot to turn off the light. So the next morning when I went to take Violet to preschool, the van battery was dead. Thankfully we have the truck and it was running fine so I took that. Dave tried to use our battery charger to charge the van battery, but it didn't take the charge. Apparently it was just "too dead" to be charged. *sigh* So, Dave had to go buy a new battery, $90 later, it was fixed. And this morning, I completely forgot about going to Bible Study. My google calendar that I organize my life with wasn't updated since we moved the Wednesdays we meet back a week. I didn't update it, so never got notified to go. I have to trust the calendar because it always emails me when I have an appointment or something, but this time it wasn't updated. But I did end up remembering to go to a playdate that was scheduled through one of my friends from MOPS. I got a phone call while at this playdate from Dave, he told me a friend called from Bible study wondering where I was. I was so upset I forgot, I would have much rather gone to Bible study than a play date. Oh well. I forget so easily when things are going on. Some times Dave will tell me that he's going to the garage to work on something and once he shuts the door, five minutes will pass and I'll walk around the house calling for him because I have no idea where he went. I feel like I'm going crazy!

Our first parent/teacher conference

Dave and I went to our first-ever parent-teacher conference last night for Violet's preschool review. Dakota came over to babysit for a couple hours, and we turned the night into a small date night. Violet's main teacher, Miss Stephens, took the full half hour time slot to review Violet's school work, stuff she has worked on, things they love to do, and things they say. We left pretty happy, as Miss Stephens had a glowing report. She is really impressed by Violet's ability to speak and communicate how she is feeling, her ability to draw and trace things, and noted her improvement in writing her name in a few months. She said she gets along well with everyone in the class (there are 11 boys and a total of 5 girls, including her), and she said her favorite friend is a girl named Maddie. Her teacher gave us a copy of a picture of their whole class. Violet didn't make it in the picture though, the day they took the picture Violet was in TX with Dave. But she was happy to see the pic when I showed her at home. She could tell me every kid's name. The only thing we need to work on with Violet is trying to help her remember the number 15 in sequence with the other numbers. She can count up to 26 but she consistently skips the number 15, breezing right over it saying 13,14,16, 17. This reminds me of when I was in kindergarten. I remember learning the months of the year in order but always forgetting to say October. September, November, December. haha! The next hour we spent at Los Cabos munching on my favorite chips and salsa, we both also ordered a small meal. Dave got a latte from Cup of Joe and we headed home.

Mo

That is what Calvin says for "no". It usually sounds very sad and drawn out. His way of communication is improving, but he still yells a lot. He can say even more words, but he doesn't know effective ways of communicating yet. His favorites are "bubble, apple, and dooo for juice".

Carrie had her baby last night

I got a call from Josh last night around 7:40 pm. He said Carrie had just given birth to their third baby, Wesley David. He was 10 lbs, 11 oz and 22 in long. What a chunk!!

Violet got the goonies last night

She and Calvin were up way past their bed time. The whole family made a trip to the grocery store and we left our house at 7:40 pm, I should have known better. They actually did alright while we were at the store. Dave pushed the little car cart and had fun with them while I focused on knocking things off my shopping list. Before we left for shopping, she told daddy that even if she got bigger, she would still always be daddy's little girl. Dave is always saying things to her like that. "Don't grow up on me! I want you to stay my little girl!" and she made him tear up a little when she came up with that on her own. She even gave him a kiss and a hug. Of course they had their whiny moments while getting ready for bed at 9:30 pm, but once Calvin goes to bed, Violet has the attention of both mom and dad while we try to get her to bed. She just started saying the goofiest things, talking about what her and her friends and her were talking about (not sure when the friends conversation occurred, must have been days ago). She was having a hard time explaining something, Dave and I kind of gave up trying to understand. She could tell we didn't get what she was trying to say, so she gave us a smile, threw her hands up in the air like a frustrated teenager, and said "Oh, just forget it!" and then collapsed on the ground in laughter. We had to laugh at that, it was hysterical. Then as we tucked her in bed, she got all silly saying "ooh-aah" over and over again which for some reason we don't understand, set her off into a heap of uncontrollable giggles. She could barely breathe was laughing so hard. It was a funny night.

Calvin reached an unfortunate milestone

He climbed out of his crib the other day. I don't think he even knew he could do it. Violet climbed in his crib to play with him, I lifted him in. I thought they'd be there for awhile, but Violet climbed out herself and Calvin just followed her. I was shocked when I walked back in his room and they were both on the floor. I said "Violet! Did Calvin climb out of the crib by himself?" and she proudly said "yes! he did!" Great. But, I'm thankful he hasn't tried to do it any other time. I've known he was CAPABLE of doing it for a long time now, but he hasn't tried until this one successful attempt. It has been a few days and every morning I still find him sitting his crib just waiting for me to come get him. His first priority when waking up is locating his paci and blanket, so once he has those items he is usually content. I have no plans to switch him to a bed any time soon, he's perfectly happy sleeping in his crib, he just loves it. Sooo...I guess we'll figure it out once baby #3 shows up. Its a borrowed crib anyway, we are using a friend's crib. She said we can use it as long as we need to, but part of me just wants to get our own.

Got it removed today

It was really no big deal. My mole is gone! I could barely feel the numbing shot, it was so teeny tiny. The doc had it off in 2 seconds, bandaged me up and I was out of there in 5 minutes. Violet saw my band-aid and of course, asked a hundred questions about it. "Can I see it? Did it hurt? Did you cry? Where did it go?" She is sensitive to getting shots lately. She hasn't had to get one, but she watched Calvin get a flu shot and she took it worse than he did. She screamed, got very upset, and cried and hid behind the curtain in the doctor's exam room when Calvin reacted to the needle. When I picked him up he got over it quicker than she did, I had to hold both of them before she calmed down enough to walk out of the exam room. Just shows me that she was really concerned about her little brother and the small amount of pain he went through. It was really sad and sweet at the same time.

13 week belly

Silliness

Violet must be in a goofy mood today because she's made me laugh a lot today. What she just said: "Mom, I like butterflies. And I really like bugs too. I am liking bugs more and more because I'm going to be four, like this (and holds up four fingers)." And another conversation: V: Mom, do you like my shirt? Me: yes, I like it! V: Would you like to wear it some time? Me: But it would be too small because I'm bigger than you. V: Oh! But when you grow small, THEN you can wear it! I am happy to share! Me: Ok, thanks! Then I coughed, and she said "Remember mom, cough in your ARM!" That must be a preschool thing.

Airplane

You can bet that if there is an airplane flying overhead, Calvin will hear it and find it before anybody else in the house! That skill was useful today when we were outside on a walk. Dave had just left for the airport, so Violet, Calvin and I went outside. Violet rode her trike and I followed her with Calvin in the stroller. It was such a beautiful day, it topped 70 degrees I think. Violet was wearing shorts even. We left on our walk as a distraction from daddy leaving. He flew to Florida today for Calix's user group conference. I'm not sure what all that means, but he is there to meet a lot of their customers. As we were just heading home on the last part of our walk (and we had gone a long way! About 2 miles), Calvin heard an airplane. It was really close, too. I thought to myself "Could that be the plane that Dave is in right now?" So I pretended it was. Violet saw it, and said "bye dad!!!" as loud as she could muster. Calvin excitedly pointed and said "ay-pane!" Dave called me about an hour later when he landed in Minneapolis. He said "I could tell we were flying over our neighborhood, I was looking out the window for you guys but I couldn't see you." So it was! I asked him if the plane he flew in was silver, he said it was. So it was true, we saw the same airplane that Dave was in fly right over our house! It would have been even cooler if he had spotted us. The plane was still flying pretty low. Every time we see an airplane in the sky, Violet tells me that that is about how high she was when she went on the airplane with daddy. I think she is going to remember that time with daddy in the airplane for a long, long time!

No go

The dermatologist thought the area was too infected to remove the mole, so I was sent home with a topical antibiotic, and re-scheduled the surgery for next Thursday. I am feeling better, though. I pretty much feel back to normal except for a slightly stuffy nose. I hope this is it for awhile!

Got an appointment Thurs

So I called the dermatologist this morning. They had an opening at 1:15 on Thursday so I am scheduled to have it removed then. I can only guess that the pregnancy is related...its grown bigger since being pregnant with Violet and Calvin, just this time its really swollen and painful. Be gone, mole! I'm not at ALL tempted to eat the leftover halloween candy. The thought of extra sugar making my throat hurt is enough to turn me away, I haven't eaten any of it. We bundled up and went to the park for an hour this morning. The kids had a blast, I know they enjoyed being outside. I kept my coat zipped all the way over my mouth, the cold air made my throat worse. When we got in the car to head home, Violet said she was ready to go home, I knew she was tired. They're both sleeping right now and I anticipate long naps today. I really hope she's back to 100% so she can go back to preschool tomorrow. She's still coughing and sniffling a little.

Well, now I'm the sick one

I must have caught the cough that Violet had. I have a sore throat and a cough that makes the inside of my throat feel like its on fire. Its sooo painful. I took some tylenol to reduce the pain, that is about all I'm allowed to take right now. My body feels really tired, but no muscle aches or fever. There is also one more medical thing that is really concerning to me. I've had a little mole on the side of my face near my right eye my entire life...and over the years it has grown very very slowly. Its always been light brown. Just in the last day or so, the tissue underneath the mole has become extremely tender and sore, almost like there's an enormous pimple underneath it, but I know that's not it. The mole has turned pinkish, and I can't wait to get it removed. I took a nap this afternoon and found the pressure of the mole against my pillow was even too much pain to tolerate. I had an appointment to have it removed last year some time (per a dermatologist's recommendation, sort of a preventative thing) but that was scheduled pre-flood, and once the flood hit we went into survival mode, so I canceled the appointment thinking I would reschedule soon. That never happened, life got busy, and I forgot about it. Now I'm really wishing I had gotten it taken care of. I'm going call the dermatologist as soon as I can tomorrow and find the first appointment to go get it taken off.

Halloween pictures

Halloween 2009

Up until today, we didn't really have plans for Halloween, but we came up with some costumes last minute that would work for the kids to go out for an hour tonight. Violet wore her dress up princess dress and Calvin wore the costume we got for Violet last year (she was too scared to wear it). At first glance of the Elmo costume, Calvin FREAKED out. He is scared of live puppets and things like that, so he was not a fan. Dave decided to trick him into wearing it though. We put a hat over his eyes so he couldn't see, and we stuck the cost over his head, and made him wear it. At first he cried, got a glimpse of the front of his costume and said "Elmo!" in a horrified tone. It was so funny though. He got over it quickly. We went outside and started trick or treating around the neighborhood and he eventually warmed up to the idea that people were ready and willing to hand him candy. Dave kept him entertained with skittles and milk duds the whole time. Violet walked up bravely to every door and said "trick or treating!" before even waiting for the person to open the door. She had a lot of fun, and knew that a house was available to walk up to if the porch light was on. Calvin melted down quickly after a few houses, so we traded off carrying him around. I took him back to the house so I could start handing out candy for the remaining hour and Dave and Violet went to a couple more houses. Soon they came back in. We bought too much halloween candy, so now we're stuck with a few pounds of sugar. I don't know what we're going to do with it. Each kid had quite stash of candy. Violet was only interested in the suckers, and Calvin was interested in anything he could get his hands on. I think he had a few M&Ms. Both kids were wired. They were jumping and down all night, climbing on the chair and couch like crazy. The night turned quickly sour when Violet hit a wall, she just started whining and needed to go to bed. Didn't help much that she slept about 30 min for a nap today. Anyway...got them in bed quickly. We brushed the kids' teeth extra long tonight trying to get all the sugar off their teeth. I flossed V's teeth. Then Dave and I cleaned up the house, and right now he's vacuuming. :) He apparently caught a cleaning bug in the picking up process. I feel like we pick up the house and make it look presentable every single night, its a battle that never ends. Put toys away, do dishes, clean up papers and magazines, pay a bill here or there, sweep the floor...etc. At least I have a husband who likes it just as cleaned up as I do! He is a great help.

She's feeling better today

Violet slept through the night with no problems last night, and she even woke up really happy, so I think the worst is behind us. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Dave and I had a lazy morning. Well, I did. He got up around 7:30 am and went downstairs before everybody woke up to get in an hour of work. When Violet woke up I sent her to the basement to see daddy, she was more than happy to do that. I slept in til 9:30 when I heard Calvin screaming. So I got him up and took him to the basement to see everybody. He sat on daddy's lap and watched Violet play a Thomas the Train game on daddy's second computer. We headed upstairs for some breakfast. Dave made me two eggs and some toast, and got both kids breakfast, it was a nice change. We spent some time discussing travel plans for Ohio (to see the Butler family for Thanksgiving) and finalized our travel plans to attend Rachel's graduation from ortho school in December. We got our flights and hotel booked. The kids destroyed the house with toys (I felt like it was a toy battle field!) while we were talking. Tonight we'll head outside for as long as we can stand it and take the kids trick or treating. I don't know if Calvin will do it, but we've got an Elmo costume downstairs he can put on if he doesn't freak out wearing it. Violet is going to wear her princess dress up dress that Aunt Rachel got her. We'll head down our street and back up like we did last year and hand out candy for the rest of the night. It will be a busy street, like it was last year! I bet some of the freaky costumes will scare Violet and Calvin!!

Violet isn't feeling so good

Since they got home, I almost expected that she would be sick having traveled across so many states. Calvin and I were very happy to see the other half of our family. Calvin was SO happy to see Violet, he was shrieking and jumping up and down when he saw the truck pull in the driveway. She has croup. It is the worst at night, she struggles to breathe well. The cough started Thursday morning when she woke up and it sounded horrible. She had to skip school and miss her Harvest party. She seemed fine during the day on Thursday but then at night, she woke up around midnight coughing. It definitely sounded like a croup cough, it was a loud bark. She's also kept up a low grade fever around 100-101 for a couple days.

He is more talkative lately

The last couple of days I have written a list of things that Calvin says, and I'm going to post it just for recording sake. A couple of these he just came up with today. hah-hee = horsie ah-mah = oatmeal ah-di = Aldi an-yee = candy bubbo = bubble appo = apple mo = no duu = juice eye home whaa = why pea-buh = peanut butter choo-choo = Thomas the Train video Eh-mo = Elmo He opened the cupboard today and came running over to me with the peanut butter jar. The kid loves peanut butter. He said "pea-buh!" so he got a few spoonfuls. That was a new one. His newest thing lately is to say "whyy?" after everything I say to him. It was only cute for the first few times.

my first "conversation" with Calvin

Since I've figured out that his word "an-yee" is "candy", I am starting to realize just how often he uses that term and stands at the door and points up where he knows a little bucket of treats is. This morning when he woke up and got downstairs, he walked over to that door and pointed up. He said "an-yee?" I said "No, Calvin, you can not have candy for breakfast." He said "whyyy?" and I said "because I am your mommy and I said no. How about some oatmeal?" He replies "Aht-mah!" and went for a bowl of oatmeal instead. The little gears in his head are working, just very slowly in the speaking department. :) Boys.

Dave and Violet are off to Texas!

Its 5:45 in the morning, but I couldn't go back to sleep just yet! Dave scheduled this work trip with Violet for the first time ever. It is only going to work because Dave's sister Lisa lives in Dallas where Dave is working, and they are going to stay at their place. Violet with stay with Aunt Lisa and her three cousins (Kristina, Emma and Anja) during the day while Dave is working. They left this morning, and he'll work Mon and Tues and fly back home on Wed morning. I can't tell you how much Violet was looking forward to this trip. Two weeks ago when Dave asked her if she'd like to go with him on the airplane some times, she beamed and said "yesssss!" and jumped up and down like a crazy girl. Almost every sad moment for the last two weeks has resulted in her wanting to go on the airplane with daddy. She kept saying "everything just takes too long". Dave was just in CA last week for work (Sun thru Fri), so he got home on Friday late, then had to turn around and leave again on Sun morning. He knew she wouldn't be a big fan of him turning around so quickly and leaving again and felt bad for her, so this time he made the extra effort to take her with him because she would have a place to stay during the day. And it gives her a chance to bond with her three cousins that she doesn't know real well. I know they are looking forward to seeing her, they will have all sorts of fun. So, this morning their flight takes off at 6 am. We woke up Violet at 5 am, and we had talked to her many times about having to wake her up in the middle of the night to prepare her, knowing that she could very well be a big cranky pants. When our alarms went off, we got up and walked to her room, and woke her up. Dave gave her a big hug and picked her up. She woke up immediately, and he said "Its time to wake up, get dressed and drive to the airport so we can get on the airplane and go to Texas." She said "ok! I'll wake up now!" and immediately went into cheerful mode. Dave got in the shower and I helped her get dressed in the clothes we had picked out the night before. She just kept up the cheerful mood the whole time getting ready, offering to help with things and get her shoes on right away. She had packed all her favorite shirts in daddy's suitcase the night before and packed her little back pack with all her favorite things to do: her CD player with favorite music (lots of favorites here, I'm noticing, lol), her coloring book, colored pencils, a few sticks of gum, extra batteries, three tubes of chapstick, a notebook and a pen. Daddy just couldn't get ready fast enough. She knew as soon as he got dressed that they were going to take off. She anxiously waited til he was packed up, and in the mean time, we packed all her blankies, pillow and baby into his suitcase. I decided to put her pink blankie in her back pack so she could sleep with it if she got tired on the airplane. She had a little drink of milk, brushed her teeth, and soon they were out the door. I managed to stop them for a second to snap a picture of them together. I can tell that Dave is really excited to take her with him this trip. He loves knowing this is special and she is excited, and he just loves to spend time with her, I'm so happy about that. She was really missing her daddy a lot this past week since he was gone so this is a great time for them to reconnect. I wonder if later in life she will remember this. Soon they were in the truck and heading off. She told me to be brave if I started to be sad and to give Calvin a big hug and kiss if he gets sad. I'm a little worried that Calvin isn't going to understand all this (well, of course he won't, he just 1)...I just know that he won't and I hope he gets through the next 3 1/2 days with out too much anxiety about daddy and Violet being gone. I am gonna try get some sleep before I have to wake up in an hour and a half. I'm a little sad because I will really miss having Violet around. She's a big personality that fills this house up quickly. But I have to appreciate the break as well, knowing that this could be a very good thing, too.

I figured it out

"An-yee" means "Candy"!! The mystery word is solved. Tonight Violet asked for a piece of candy. I told her she could have one piece after dinner, and she didn't let me forget. So after supper she went over to the storage closet where she knows some candy is and asked for the piece. Calvin ran over and stood with her, and shouted "an-yee! an-yee!" as she was saying "candy! candy!" Each kid got one starburst chewy. :) At least I know. A few days ago he was pointing at that closet saying "an-yee" and I didn't have a clue what he meant. He is learning a few more words: Bubble, apple, Aldi, oatmeal, and poon (spoon).

Calvin got braver

Calvin is my kid who would climb to the top of the slide, sit there, then freak out and turn around and not go down. He's done this ever since he could climb, but yesterday he got brave! I took both kids to a park yesterday because the weather was sooo beautiful. They seemed so happy to be outside. Calvin followed Violet right up the stairs to the slide, and I climbed after him prepared to help him back down the stairs, but he saw Violet go down, and followed right after her. He was happy at the end of the slide, so he kept going! He even went down the big long twisty tube slide a few times. They went down on their tummies head first many times, and giggled the whole way down.

Great day

Today has been a great day! Dave and I got to sleep in a little bit (a little bit meaning til 8:00 when Violet walked in the room) and we all cooked a yummy scrambled egg and sausage breakfast. Both kids gobbled up the scrambled eggs like it was cereal, I didn't expect them to like it so much. Daddy makes the best scrambled eggs, apparently, because when I make them they never seem to care much for them. I went to Elements Massage to redeem the last of the three massages that Dave got for me LAST Mother's Day. I used two of them, and I had lost the third little coupon, so I called the store and asked if they could check their records and allow me to still use the third one even though I lost it. They said I could, so I scheduled an appointment for today. I got an hour long massage and it felt sooo good, I almost fell asleep. I felt my arm twitch a little, I had to force myself to stay conscious. When I got home, Dave was outside mowing and Violet had already woken up from her nap. She was just wandering around the house when I walked in. She said "mommy, did your back scratch feel good?" The whole family (once Calvin woke up) joined Dave outside for some yard work. He was using the edger to spruce up the sidewalks and edges of the driveway. I used the yard vac to suck up all the extra grass left behind after mowing. Usually we don't have to do that since he mows weekly and the little bit that gets cut off is mulched into the ground, but this time there were big hefty chunks of grass left in the yard. Violet and Calvin walked around the yard while we worked, and we sort of traded off who was watching them. Violet is pretty much fine and trustworthy outside, but Calvin...he's much more difficult. The kid doesn't listen all that great. He sat in the stroller for most of the time so he wouldn't wander into the street. We had to cut off working on the yard and didn't quite finish because I had to be at BBC for a music rehearsal. I'm playing my flute along with some other players for tomorrow's music, and the rehearsal went great. Dave hired Dakota to babysit (he didn't even tell me until last night!) because he decided tonight would be a date night. After the music rehearsal was done, we went out to eat at CU. It was a nice time. The restaurant wasn't very busy, so our orders came pretty quick. We split a veggie risotto, each had a different cup of soup, different entrees (he had shrimp and scallops, I hate pork tenderloin), and we split a dessert. Yuuuumy! Dakota said the kids did great and went to sleep easily. This coming week is going to be a challenge for me. Dave is going to California Sun through Fri.

Due date moved

My first appointment with the midwife's nurse was yesterday, it took an hour! The same nurse (Kathy) remembered me, and said "oh yay! you're back! You sure look skinny." when she saw me in the waiting room. I just gave her a big smile and said "here we go again!". I was a little thrown by her "skinny" comment, and I just chalked it up to her seeing me last 40 pounds heavier extremely pregnant and overdue with Calvin. I guess her last memory of me I must have looked very different, lol. I got the paperwork, stuff to do, things to remember, stuff to avoid, and I signed a bunch of papers declining some DNA testing. She took a pregnancy test in the office and set me up with my next appointment. She also moved my due date to May 14th. Not really sure why, but I changed my ticker anyway. I'll take an extra week just like that in a moment's notice. I suppose it could change with an ultrasound, it doesn't matter much to me. I'm just thrilled to have a baby in the spring time...NO winter baby for me...YAY!!!

Back home from Jeff's wedding

We're back from MN. The kids are napping now and that is exactly what I should be doing, but I would have felt bad taking a nap. There are piles and piles of laundry to do, and I just spent the last half hour sorting the colors into piles...whites, darks, brights, and towels. One load is in, and I can't really snooze off now since I know in the next 45 min the kids will wake up. Sooo, its OK. I might as well be thankful that my kids take good naps in the afternoons which give me a little break. We spent the last half of last week in Minnesota. Seems like we've been on the road an awful lot this summer! Dave was Jeff's best man, so he planned the bachelor party for Thursday night. We left for Minneapolis Thursday right after Violet got done with preschool. We picked up a cake Dave ordered for Jeff at Target on our way out, which added what seemed like an hour to the trip. The drive took about 4 hours...and I don't remember how it went. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Maple Grove. We had a quick supper at the hotel's restaurant, then I took the kids to the pool while Dave went out for the bach party. They went to Dave and Buster's, then came back to the hotel and had cake together. I think they spent some time in prayer for Jeff. Friday morning we visited Dave's grandma Florence and his aunt Joyce. We joined them for lunch in their apartment's cafeteria. The kids didn't like the food served, but they ate the side items (bread and diced peaches). We made the two hour drive to Willmar, MN that afternoon and arrived at the tux shop (we got lost, imagine that!), grabbed his tux and made it to the rehearsal at the church in time. There was really nothing for the kids to do. The church wouldn't open up their nursery (they said they'd have to re-disinfect everything and apologized for the inconvenience). So I was stuck...they had been in the car all day and just wanted to run around and be loud. Martha volunteered to come with me back to the hotel so the kids could swim a little so I went for it. We figured Dave could find a ride with someone to the rehearsal dinner location. The rehearsal dinner was at a senior citizen's center - and Jeff's cooking crew made a yummy batch of jambalaya. More and more people started showing up at this rehearsal dinner as the night went on - the room was packed. More people we knew kept filling the room, and we ended up staying and talking to people til 9 pm. There was a big room off to the side where a bunch of toys were so the kids got to run around for awhile. We finally left and got them to bed in the hotel, and spent the last hours of Friday in the hotel lobby talking to people. It even started snowing that night. It came down all night, and by the time morning came, there were 2 inches of packed snow on my van windshield. No snow brush, either. I used a friend's credit card to scrap it off. Dave had to leave early on Sat morning to be in some wedding pictures, so it was up to me to entertain the kids and get them all ready. Martha was a big help. We swam for a an hour or so, then bathed them and got them all dressed in time to leave. The wedding was beautiful. Everybody on both sides of Jeff and Denise's family were so happy to see him them get married. The reception downstairs was beautiful. Jeff created the menu (yummy chicken topped spinach, bacon and mozzarella, a yummy salad, and creamy pasta) so everybody enjoyed the food. Denise had made all the cakes. That day my voice slowly declined. I could barely speak by the time the reception started. It was dark, and I had a hard time conversing with people since my voice was shot. Both kids were seriously starting to melt down. They didn't eat anything (they got into their whiny upset moods and refused to eat) so by the time we left they were hungry. We all changed into comfy clothes after the reception was over...we had a 6 hr drive ahead of us. I was exhausted, but couldn't rest in the car. Dave drove the whole way home, and I think the kids slept the last 2 hours of the journey. When we got home, the transfers to bed went much smoother than we had anticipated. Calvin fell asleep right away when we put him in his crib and Violet fussed for a little bit while we got on her PJs, but she curled right into bed and said goodbye with no bedtime ritual requirements. It took a couple days to adjust to being home. Calvin slept in til 9:40 the next morning. Dave and Violet headed off to BBC in time for the first meeting, I stayed home and waited for Calvin to wake up. I wasn't about to wake him up - he would be a horrible crab if I did that. He had a little bowl of cereal, and we arrived at 10 am. My voice was still completely shot so I couldn't say much. I was super encouraged though, by the 2nd meeting. We're going through a book on Landmines in the christian life, and today's focus was how to deal with disappointment. Just what I needed to hear, so I was glad I didn't miss that.

Can't deal with it

The other night a couple hours after we put Violet to bed, we heard her door open. Dave went upstairs to find out what was going on. She informed him that she was having trouble - she said: "Dad, my baby keeps falling out of bed, my blankie keeps falling, and I just can't deal with it!" She's also having patience issues (what 3 yr old doesn't?) with the new gym being constructed over at BBC. The steel structure is up, but the roof and sides are not done yet. It won't be until near Christmas time that it is completed. She cries every night about going to the gym, and wants to see it finished every time we pull up to the church building. She told Curt Smith (the guy who is working with the construction company on building it) tonight that he better hurry up and build it so she can go in and play and run around. We saw him at the church building tonight because Dave was helping replace light bulbs and things and I was cleaning the nursery room.

Told Violet last night

Sat, Oct 3rd. We spilled the beans today. I am definitely sporting a little belly so I decided I’d end the confusion and tell people. I’m 7 weeks along so far…I didn’t start showing with Violet til I was close to four months. I guess that’s what the third pregnancy will do to you. Dave called his mom while I called my parents. Mom and dad were congratulatory and happy. I called Rachel and she was very excited. Then I called Jay and he and Molly are both very happy. I could hear Molly in the background saying that we were going to have a baby party next time we got together! Lol. Today I feel tired and slightly nauseous. I even took a long nap but I still feel tired. I read online that this week, baby doubled in size from 2 mm to the size of a pinto or black bean, about ½ inch long and that as every minute passes by, more than a hundred more nerve endings form on the brain. Amazing. Dave told Violet about the new baby while we were putting her to bed. He talked about mommy having a new baby and her first question was “Is Calvin going to die?” Poor girl, she thought we were replacing Calvin. Then we told her no, that there would be three kids in the family, and Calvin will still be here.

Baby #3 on the way

The journal entry is taking place on Sunday, Sept 13th. I just found out yesterday morning that I am pregnant with #3! I would normally be journaling in my blog but I don’t want to tell anybody yet until I’m further along. Dave and I had been “trying”, sort of. Well, purposely choosing days as opposed to things being more random the last few months. I don’t like the idea of “trying to conceive” because that stresses me out, so it was more making careful choices in my mind. He and I both want another baby, so we are both very happy. In fact, he told me he wants 4 children. I’m not so sure yet. But anyway. I was on day 35 of my cycle, and I knew I could either start that day, or not. I took a pregnancy test the first thing in the morning yesterday and it came up positive showing two lines (as opposed to one if you’re not pregnant) before I could even put the white cap on the test strip. I grabbed Dave’s hand and made him look at it right when he woke up. He was still groggy and plunking around the bathroom half asleep. Those test results woke him up! I think he said “oh no!” which made me laugh. Finding this out is always a little stressful … as if he never really thought it would happen again so he was really surprised. He didn’t mean to react that way, he was very happy. Its still a lot of news to absorb and a lot of information at once. Now we’re going to be officially outnumbered by our kids. I am pretty sure I didn’t forget about it the rest of the day. We went to Cedar Rapids to have a picnic with some relatives. My grandparents stayed the night on Friday night as they were passing through from Mason City back home. We haven’t told anybody yet, not even Violet. I don’t want her blurting the news out to anyone, because I knew she would. Time will tell! So far I’m feeling great. My mind is messing with me. I’m convinced I’m really tired today with a big appetite.