More Pictures from Yesterday

Playing Cowgirl

Blowing Bubbles for Bubba

On the slide

Loving the feel of the paint

Showing sissy his art work

Scavenger Hunt

List and completion

Wearing the Kids Out

Today, I realized that I haven't had a date with my husband in who knows how long. Since I will still have the kids tonight, I figured out an alternative.

I was going to get the kids so very tired out today that they were begging me for sleep an hour early so that Michael and I can snuggle on the couch tonight and watch a movie without having to pause it a hundred times.

So, that was my goal when I set out this morning.

We woke up early--too early, since Gabriel had us up at 3 am on apparently starving to death =P

I don't mean to brag, but I made a great breakfast--

The kids had sausage and soy cheese biscuits with a side of fresh grapes, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon with warm cinnamon-vanilla milk to drink. (In case you were curious, I had fresh strawberries, pineapples, and mango with cottage cheese and a mug of tea.)

After breakfast, I realized it was too chilly outside to head out yet, so I got us doing the intellectual activities first:

Which means that we started out with some letters to Daddy-we drew pictures and Emerald worked on writing her alphabet. Gabriel really got into it, having a great time.

Then I made them clean up their toy room--it's good to get them when they are in a good mood!! Emerald was much more helpful than Gabriel, obviously, but Gabriel is still pretty helpful--he will pick stuff up and put them in the baskets, but Emerald will actually separate them into the different containers that they are supposed to go in.

Block time was mostly for Gabriel--it was a way to show him how to take turns. Mom puts a block on, Gabriel puts a block on, Emerald puts a block on...you get the idea. It's also really good for him to learn to share his toys with others. He is not willing to NOT play with the mega-blocks, so he has to learn to share.

Emerald's blocks are wooden, and she was able to work on separating them into categories--colors, shapes, sizes, etc. She really had a great time, but by that point she was getting a little frazzled.

To calm us down a bit, I get out snack--hopping around and wrinkling our noses, we pretend to be bunny rabbits and eat baby carrots. Gabriel really enjoyed bouncing all over the living room, though I think the main purpose alluded him. They both start drooping noticeably.

So we cleaned up our toys and laid down for nap. They were both exhausted--normally, Gabriel will sleep about 2 hours, while Emerald sleeps for about an hour. Today, they each got half naps. Intentionally, of course--if I let them oversleep, they are more likely to give me a stink when I try to put them to bed later.

At this point, I am just totally not feeling like making lunch, so as a reward for eating well all morning, Michael brings us home McDonalds for lunch.

I truly regret that decision--bleh!!

But the kids loved it--they are just as much as they could stomach. While they were finishing up, I was able to straighten the house just a little and get us ready to go outside!

Now, the kids LOVE going outside. And it is starting to get into that weather where it really is a lot of fun to be outside every day. So, banking on this, I planned most of our active activities outside.

Gabriel HAS to swing first:

It is his absolutely favorite and he won't be able to do anything else until he gets a chance to swing. He will gleefully sign Please or More if only to get pushes. Setting them up on that, I arrange the rest of our activities.

After swinging and doing some more turn-taking by sharing the slide with Emerald, we have a scavenger hunt! We start out really easy and obvious, since everyone likes a win to feel good about themselves--rock, leaf, pecan. Then things get a little harder, as I use descriptions instead of proper names--something cold, something hard, something blue. Finally, we get more abstract--find something pretty or find something that makes you happy.

Emerald really loved the scavenger hunt--truly. She had a great time running all over the place trying to find the things on the list.

When we had exhausted that, I brought out the cardboard boxes.

Every parent knows that a kid will be happiest if you throw out the toy and just give them the big cardboard box. Well, as everyone knows, Michael recently bought a new popcorn machine. Which came in three boxes--two of which were big enough to be little kid houses.

I set the boxes up and let the kids finger paint them. Tomorrow, when the paint is dry, we are going to draw flower boxes and windows and doors on them. Today though, Gabriel enjoyed swirling all the colors together and Emerald loved making pink polka dots all over her box.

The best way to clean up?

Gabriel's birthday present from Michael and me was a water table. So I filled it up and let them watch the colors change as the paint washed away. The water was frosty because of the chill of the season, but it got the job done.

By this point, I am dragging a big and trying to figure out how to dry off the kids.

Pepper is running like crazy cakes, so I tell the kids to catch her. I sit back and watch them squeal with laughter as they chase the dog from one end of the backyard to the other. It allowed me to catch my breath, and their clothes dried off nicely =)

They are wanting to kick back a bit too, so we sit in the grass and I blow bubbles for them. Emerald is getting really good at blowing the bubbles herself!!

When we come inside, both kids are just worn out, but it's time for speech therapy for Gabriel! Cassie and Gabriel play-wrestle for a while and they have their popcorn snack.

Here we are, with two kids two and a half hours before bed time and they are looking positively exhausted! So, I am hoping my efforts were not in vain--after dinner, bubble bath, and tuck-in, I'll let you know how it worked out!!

--Andie--

Gaby Baby Update

My Gabriel has been changing so much, he deserves a post. J

Back in October, I went through that whole "potential seizure/could be autistic" thing with him. It was overwhelming and depressing, but Michael and I pushed through. Test results didn't show anything abnormal, which means he didn’t have a seizure during the EEG, and if he was having them at all, then the MRI didn't show brain damage. It did show a bad sinus infection that antibiotics were unable to clear out on their own, but another round of antibiotics was able to knock it out without resulting to steroids.

What does all that mean?

It means that as of now, we treat and act like Gabriel is normal and isn't having any problems. But we keep an eye on him. There is a lot about his behavior that is suspect--he doesn't seem to take pleasure from social interactions, and that's why he's not talking, why he doesn't like making eye contact. Why he doesn't play with other kids. He doesn't want to communicate with us. That could be autism, or Asperger’s. It could be that he's just an unsocial butthole.

Why freak ourselves out over something that could or could not be true? Early detection gives him the best chances for this to not interfere with his life. Worst case scenario, Gabriel spends the next couple of years in Speech therapy learning how to communicate. He isn't losing anything from us being cautious and neither are we, so we are just being aware.

As it is, he has been in speech therapy for about six months now, and he is finally warming up to Cassie (the speech therapist) and Tammy (who pays attention to his social development). Since then, he has started greeting them at the door with smiles, allows them to talk to him, interact with him, and he seems happy to see them. At school, he is participating more in class, and his smiling and laughing, which his teachers never saw before. He seems less stressed and is zoning out less, and he is starting to use signs to try and get what he wants. Sometimes he even makes eye contact.

At home, he is using more and more signs, and even the correct signs (more, food, drink, please, thank you, on, etc) for the thing that he wants. He is still searching for that cure-all sign that he can use no matter what and get what he want, but that is expected--we are all a little lazy. He is happy to see people that come over and pulls heads in for kisses, offers hugs. He still would rather give up a toy and never play with it again than have to share it with someone, but that is actually not horrible--in these situations, normally the kid is frustrated and angry because he doesn't have the words to stop the other kid from taking his toy, so he becomes aggressive and hits. But not my Gaby =-) He is patient and practical, knowing there are other toys in the world.

Through all of this, we have learned a lot about our little guy:

One, Gabriel just takes a long time to warm up to people, He is cautious of strangers, which is a commendable trait and one that I don't want him to abandon. The more he sees of a person, the more he warms up to them, wants to interact with them.

Two, Gabriel is a very patient little boy. He's not stubborn, which is what we originally thought...he just knows what he wants to do, wants to try, wants to explore, and he sees anything preventing him from doing that (i.e. me and Michael) are just obstacles he has to overcome. Which means that it is about as useful as banging our heads against the wall trying to punish him until he stops--our better bet is finding a way to allow him to explore and experiment like he was wanting, but in a more appropriate fashion. (Like setting up bowls of water for him to splash in outside when he won't stay out of the toilet bowl).

And three, Gabriel could give a rat's *** if we spank him. Physical discipline like swats, hand swatting, spankings, time outs....don't even faze him. He is more concerned with Mom or Dad being mad at him and scolding him. Don't know why--most of the time, he couldn't care less about what we think....but maybe that's his cool guy act, lol.

We are definitely seeing progress =-) Might there still be something wrong? Yeah. But maybe he is just reacting to our more casual parenting. With Emerald, we encouraged her to hit milestones before it was time so she was always ahead of the curve. But Gabriel we let develop at his own pace, discover things as he was ready. Or maybe this is just who Gabriel is. But like I said--it never hurts to be aware =)

--Andie

Tuesday, March 8th

Today we get to go see the belly-bumbler!!

Emerald has speech therapy at 11--she adores it--and I think I am going to take Gabriel to the park if the weather is still lovely. Then Miss Beth will come over and watch the kids eat the suckers their Oma sent them for Valentine’s Day while Michael takes me to my doctor's appointment.

Michael had to switch his day off so that he would be available to take me to doctor's appointments, which have to be on Tuesday or Thursday because that's when my doctor sees patients.

Anyways, the Bumbler is still growing along a pattern along with all the other babies this age, so just shy of 13 weeks, he should be about the size of a peach but weighing less than an ounce. All the pieces of the baby are there--all the organs and limbs and everything all ready exist and are in place, so for the next 6 months, it's all about growth. Last week, he got his thoracic diaphragm, which means he was constantly hiccupping inside me as it was forming. J

This week, he's starting to work his reflexes--his little arms and legs will kick and stretch, and his fingers and toes will curl and uncurl. I won't be able to feel it though yet, since he's just so teeny.

Every morning though the little baby comes right out under my belly button and presses against my tummy so I can feel him before Mike scares him off. J

As of now, I am not getting any read personally on what gender the infant will be. While its little genitals are all ready formed, we are talking some teeny tiny little baby bits, so there is no way to tell on the sonogram yet either. But I hate calling the baby "It"--it feels so wrong. So I will try and switch between genders, but I tend to favor "He"--maybe it's my subconscious trying to tell me something. ;)

What I know was that with Emerald, I was exhausted all the time, I threw up everything I ate that wasn't cereal, was very sensitive to smells, lost tons of weight, and cried at the slightest drop of the hat. I craved sweets, mostly cereal, but also avocados by the bucket full. And throughout the whole pregnancy, I lost weight and couldn't put it back on.

Gabriel, however, I still had my energy, smells didn't bother me; I never threw up or had nausea, didn't really feel like crying, but boy, was I angry. Everything made me so mad, and I was ten times as aggressive and as feisty as I had ever been. I craved salads, fruit, and peppered things, such as Marie Callender's Alfredo dinners, grilled chicken, Campbell's potato soup, etc. But I had no problem gaining weight, I didn't lose any either, and the pregnancy was pretty much smooth sailing.

This time, I feel queasy all the time and have been sick a few times; gag daily. Hate every smell, nothing ever sounds good, except salads and avocados and sweets. I eat about my weight in sweets a day, between cinnamon toast crunch, Raffaello's, lemon heads, and fruit. I have no energy and just want to sleep all day. One minute, Michael will say something and I will burst into tears even though it wasn't that upsetting if I think about it; the next, I am picking a fight with him and yelling and so angry I can't see....and he is baffled and frightened and just wanting to run the heck away from me.

Amber says its twins.

I hope her birth control fails. :P

But I know every pregnancy is different, but that's why I can't get a read on this baby. We'll find out soon enough--April 20th!!!

--Andie--

New Baby!

I haven't been writing because I was afraid I would accidentally give away our secret, but now that the news is out...

Mike and I are having another baby!

Okay, so you probably figured that out by the title of the post, but there you have it anyway.

The basics:

I am due September 14, 2011, which means that as of yesterday, I am 12 weeks (three months) along.

We do not know the gender yet, but as of now, we are planning to find out and we are planning on telling people the gender. We should have the gender ultrasound on April 20th--Amber's birthday.

The name is going to remain a secret until you meet the baby (more on that later).

Michael and I found out on January 9th because I was feeling very tired and sleeping all the time--Michael bought me a pregnancy test, and what do you know? I was pregnant.

At that point, we decided not to tell anyone until after we had spoken to the doctor--I was having a lot of health problems last year that culminated into a emergency room visit and we didn't want to get our (or anyone else's) hopes up until we were certain everything was okay. Plus, both my last pregnancies were "high-risk" so it was prudent to tread carefully.

I wanted to tell my parents in person, but unfortunately they were not able to come for Gabriel's birthday, which means they found out when they got the explanation of benefits--I am currently on their insurance. Oops! That was Friday the 25th of February--Gabriel's party was February 27th, that Sunday, so we decided to wait and tell Michael's side of the family then.

We got a picture frame that said something like "Grandkids are the Sunshine of Life" and stuck a sonogram in there. Since Rhonda's birthday was on the 24th, we wrapped it up as her gift so that she could open it in front of everyone.

The shock on her face was pretty funny, especially since no one else in the room knew what was going on. I thought I was going to throw up, I was so nervous!

Everyone was very happy, and it went well. J But now everyone in the world knows, since the announcement has made its debut on Facebook.

Note about the name: We are not discussing names with people. My first pregnancy, I tried that...and people are rude to the point of cruel about the name you are considering for your child. They think that if they don't like a name, it is their duty to tell you how awful it is before you can "burden" your poor baby with it. But the truth is....90% of names are perfectly nice, acceptable names. What people find so objectionable is that THEY don't like the name...which frankly does not matter.

I know that sounds harsh, but it is my baby, Michael's baby. We are the ones who get to decide what is best for the baby their whole lives, starting with his moniker, and we don't need or want negative feedback on our thoughts. J

The doctor says my due date is looking around September 14th--three days after Emerald's 4th birthday, but we will probably schedule a repeat c-section close to Labor Day weekend, which is Friday September 2nd. Depending on how the inevitable diabetes affects this little one, it may be later though (a la Gabriel), this is just a tentative date. J

So! Coming soon--Baby Wearden # 3!