Those Pictures I Mentioned...

A Tulip!

Yesterday and the day before and today were all absolutely gorgeous, sunny, warm almost-like-summer days. We've had the kiddie pools outside and the ceiling fans inside in just about constant use. This picture though, was taken during a brief sunny break in what seemed to be an unending stretch of wet. That day Butler, Ricka and I discovered our very own tulip flower in the front yard. I think it was a volunteer from one of the neighbors since I've seen two or three lovely tulip gardens on our street.

Ricka has decided she's too big for her crib. Nearly every night I find her somewhere in Dolly's bed, often sprawled across Dolly somehow. She has also decided she's too big for diapers. So she switches them out for a pair of her older sisters' underwear. Sometimes I notice. Often I do not because she's smart enough to cover the evidence (the underwear) with her own clothes again. So now I've taken to checking all of her layers multiple times throughout the day. I will be glad when we're both ready to potty train her.

That same night that I took pictures of Ricka in Dolly's bed? Well, I peeked on the top bunk and found this. Earlier in the day Emma had been telling me how she needed sunglasses because they 'protect your eyes'. I um hummed, and we both went on with our next thing to do. What the camera didn't catch very well was all the rest of the stuff this little pack rat saves IN HER BED. Like the puddle boots (rain boots), the school uniform, cowboy boots, spare pajamas, notepads, pens, stickers, lotion, germ killer, play outfits and coloring books.

Bus Anyone?

A couple of weeks ago, we found a bigger van. We've been looking for one since February, but they're not so popular anymore apparently. We were really looking for the old 12 passengers kind, but those are even more hard to find. This one is a 15 passenger, but for it's age it's mileage and engine quality were really good. We're planning on taking the last bench seat out to make a bit of cargo space, and that will still leave us three benches to fit 6 kids onto. As soon as we sell our current van, we'll switch over to the big van. The kids are all excited about that happening, because then we can have sleepovers again!

And finally, the pictures that prompted these last two posts... The smiles I was talking about. Butler was holding our little guy and I was able to get a handful of pictures in the various stages of a full smile/grin.

This picture was my favorite and it's what's basically gotten the worst of the cobwebs swept away when it comes to my blogging again. I think I'll call him 'Hal' around here. If something better comes up, I might switch, but so far, I like the sound of it.

But right now, I'm going to bed before I fall asleep on my desk. Good night.

Starting Over

"Huh?"

I took a picture of this guy smiling last week. He's been smiling for more than a month now, but I just hadn't caught it on film (I guess 'film' isn't the right term anymore, but you understand). And yes, I realize, he's not smiling in this picture - he just looks like what I thought when I discovered that in my most recent blogging slump, Blogger changed a whole bunch of stuff and I had to start figuring it out all over again. I hate strongly dislike change. Most of the time at least.

Anyway, after I finally got a picture of him smiling, I immediately went to blog it. After all, I've not blogged anything for so long, if I finally had a minute to post something, and something to post (that wouldn't take ten years to reiterate) I should get to it. So I uploaded the pictures on the camera and though, 'hey, if I'm posting, I might as well throw in a few other recent pictures of life around here' and I chose a few, edited them on my computer and started my post. But some of the pictures refused to cooperate. My edited changes were being ignored and I didn't have any more time to figure out what the problem was. After all that, I realized I don't even have a blog name for my youngest son. And by then I didn't want to blog anything at all. Too many obstacles and frustrations and not enough time to sort it all out.

I complained to Sir, but he was up to his ears in his own problems like college exams to study for, and fixing his computer that had given up the ghost (which included salvaging data off his dead hard drive) and getting over his latest bout of being under the weather. Busy husbands do not immediately understand that when you complain about your blog that you want them to tell you how to fix it. Or that you want them to fix it for you. They think you're just venting (which is usually the case when you just want them to listen and not fix anything). So, Sir just listened and went back to his own problems and I was still stuck and frustrated that I didn't have enough time to figure out my blog problems before my next interruption was due. A few days passed and I complained to Sir again after I tried to figure out what Blogger had changed. Eventually I figured out I'd need to ask for help. Sir spent five minutes experimenting and then told me what was causing the trouble I was encountering. He even told me what I'd need to do to fix it. And then he went back to his own pile of things to attend to that was still up to his ears. I'm not even sure I remembered to thank him for taking time out for me. I think I did, but it won't hurt to do it again.

So, now that I think I've got my blog working properly again, the rest of this is just a handful of pictures that I took during the last half of April with a few comments sprinkled in.

Puzzles!

Butler is a puzzle whiz. He loves doing them and he's actually pretty good at them. He's up to 100 piece jigsaw puzzles now, and he never looks at the box until he's done. And that's just to check that the picture he made matches the box it came in. I think that's pretty good for a 3½ year old. :)

Hmm! There's that yellow bucket the bean bags belong in. It's been missing since about when this picture was taken. I guess I could just go find another ice cream bucket and put the bean bags in it. The yellow bucket will probably reappear within 24 hours once I finally stop waiting for it to show up.

I'm not sure what to call this guy here on my blog. J3 'cause he's my third son? I kindof think that's a bit boring. Besides, I don't like to type numbers - they slow me down. Jaelsy or Jailsy because that's his initials spelled phonetically? I'm not too excited about this, but it's better than typing numbers. Halibut or Hal? I think that's the fish with both eyes on the same side of its head... this little man of mine seems to be permanently pulling to his right side. I'm sure he'll grow out of it eventually, but he often reminds me of those funny looking bottom fish. Mr.Manny? Little Mr.Man? That's what I catch myself calling him at home, but to tell you the truth, I think it sounds a little corny. I guess I'll have to think about my options for a bit or keep thinking up new ones.

In this picture, I just missed his smile. He'd been grinning at me until I pulled out the camera and then he didn't get any better than this expression. I think he does that on purpose. Eventually I did catch him in the act of smiling - even if it was on a different day. That picture however, will have to go in my next post because I'm going to bed now and I don't want this to stay a draft any longer. After all, I might not get back to posting it for another week. :)

I kindof like the sound of 'Hal'. What do you think?

September 2007...

"I think that move is not allowed."

Announcing...

3:54 PM, Sunday, February 17, 2013.

8 lbs 8 oz, 21.75" long.
Mother and baby are healthy but tired.

"But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him:
for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them
to inherit the land which thou shalt see."
Deuteronomy 3:28


8 lbs, 8 oz


Wide Awake


Mommy & Baby

And the Pressure's On...

It has been for a while now, but it's getting worse. Still, there is no new baby here.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a flaming sore throat. By Thursday it was feeling better, but now I'm congested. And it's going to my lungs. (That's where most things end up with me).

Thursday Sir and I finally made the last decision on a baby name. I know it wasn't a huge deal in reality, but it always has been a huge deal to me. So having complete names for both genders was a big relief for me.

Friday I saw the Dr. I told you, I thought the due date might actually be tomorrow right? Well, paperwork rules in these parts, and the numbers said I was 5 days overdue. I was 5 minutes late, but that's usually not a problem because they make you wait 30-40 minutes before they get to you most days. I ran up the two flights of stairs anyway and when I walked through the door... there wasn't a single person in the waiting room. I submitted my urine sample, they rushed me to the scale - down 3 lbs from last week to their surprise, not really to mine since I've been battling this cold all week. I had less than five minutes to wait for the doctor to show up, and then it wasn't my normal doctor! I do not adjust to quick surprise changes very well. On top of that, this new doctor's original language WAS NOT English, so that made communication that much better. I did figure out my normal doctor was in the building and would join us later. Ok great, so now I have a doctor in training. I figured if my normal doctor was going to come in later, I could handle a newbie for a few minutes. So first she takes my blood pressure, but I had to sit 'just so' while she squeezed my arm off. I could feel the stress levels increase at each step of this appointment, so I was only a little surprised when she claimed my pressure was high. It's never been really high, so I asked her what it was, and she said it was 155/80. For most of the pregnancy it's been 110/70.

Anyway, my normal doctor came in right after that, and there was someone to communicate with! She re-took my blood pressure and got 120/80, which was understandable I think. I also think I've mentioned that this baby seems smaller than the rest of my kids... the chart has backed me up on that. I've been measuring smallish throughout most of the pregnancy. All the more reasons to think the due date might just be a little off. Wait until I tell you about the dating ultrasound way back in July...
It was scheduled for 6pm and they'll cancel it if you're not there 15 minutes early, so I got there and checked in at 5:42. There was no wait. I was in, scanned and driving away at 5:58. It was a "so when do you think you're due?" I answer "Feb 10-17ish probably". Jot jot jot - they write down my answer, took a few ultrasound snapshots and sent me on my way. It seemed like, yeah, the baby appeared to be in that range... let's just pick a day. But somehow my doctor missed the actual EDD (estimated due date) indicated on the report. That said Feb 12th (kindof in the middle of the range I gave, huh?). And somehow the 10th was written across the top of my paperwork and that meant the prenatal chart said I was 5 days overdue - only 3 based on the ultrasound report (which I did point out). So, I now have 4 days left to have this baby whether the baby or I think it's ready or not.

They've already scheduled a 'non-stress' test for this coming Tuesday. That's where they put a belt on me and monitor the baby's heart rate for 45 minutes. And their plan is to send me in on Wednesday (a whole 24 hours later) to be induced if the baby isn't already here by then. Believe me, my blood pressure never went back to normal yesterday. I was a wreck. Ask my family - actually, don't.

Now if I can stop stressing about getting over this cold in time to meet my 'deadline', I'll probably just have the baby already. But you kindof need to breathe during labor... at least that's been my past experience. It would probably help if I can somehow also ignore the feelings of being pushed into doing something before I'm ready. But for now, I have other things to do, like feed my children breakfast before they finish taking the house apart.

And taking a deep breath.

On a more cheerful note: Ricka came to me this morning with her diaper down her pajama leg and fussing about 'potty'. So I let her rush to the bathroom and she successfully went! Usually, she fusses after the fact so this is progress for us. :)

Fattening Up...

I figured if we're all going to be waiting around for this baby to decide to make it's debut, we could play a little estimation game in the meantime.

Object: Guess the exact weight or be the closest to the actual birth weight.

To help you out, I've included pictures of the other kids and a small blurb of information regarding how close they came to their due dates.

Dolly in grams and pounds/ounces.

I thought Dolly was due around January 15th that year. The detailed ultrasound indicated she'd be born around the 22nd. She was born on January 30th.

PC in pounds/ounces. He would have been 3345 grams.

I expected PC to arrive around July 5th. The dating ultrasound suggested the 7th and the detailed ultrasound claimed the 10th. He was born June 30th.

Emma in pounds/ounces. She was 4369 grams.

My calculations indicated her due date was September 12th. The ultrasound opted for the 18th. Emma was born on September 22nd. I did know before she was born that she was going to be bigger than both the other kids had been.

Butler in pounds/ounces. He was 4301 grams.

For a change, everyone agreed on the due date for this guy - Mama, ultrasound and baby. He was born on his due date - November 8th. I did think Butler was going to be bigger than Emma though, and the nurse actually laughed at me when my first response to his weight was, "That's all?!"

Ricka in grams and pounds/ounces.

I expected Ricka on June 20th, the ultrasound said she'd come around the 19th, and she surprised everyone and came on June 11th.

For this baby, my original due date guesstimate was either February 10th or the 17th. The ultrasound suggested the 10th and that was yesterday. I think this baby is small compared to most of the others if that helps any, but that doesn't mean much... remember Butler?. Now we just wait and see how long this little one wants to fatten up before meeting the rest of us. :) I'll start the guessing off at... 8lbs 4oz on February 17 minus an ounce for every day sooner and plus an ounce for each day after. So if it's born tonight that would put my guess at 7lbs, 14oz.

What do you think?