My Little Models

A couple of my friends and I started a small business doing monogramming/appliques, baby goods (burp cloths, bibs, etc), and note cards. Erin did Christmas shirts for my boys; so, I put them to work modeling them for the business blog ;-). Thought the photos were too cute not to share here, too.

Both boys in their camo tree shirts this morning before school.
My happy, silly, kid-who-is-always-up-for-having-a-photo-taken model.

My not-so-happy, loves-my-paci-and-mom-took-it-out, kid-who-doesn't-live-to-pose model ;-)

But, both of my models are just way too cute!!! Love that they can be so similar in so many ways; but, so different in others. It's what makes the world go round and keeps our house exciting ;-)

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas!!

I love this time of year. From halloween until new years, I am one happy gal! We had pumpkins, hay bales, and scarecrows in our lawn from the first of October until the Friday after Thanksgiving. And now, they are gone and the lights and Christmas Thomas the Train went out! Hooray! My awesome family helped me decorate the house this weekend. I love it!!! The sweetest moment, so far, has been this one....

I walked into the family room and found Owen, alone, doing this....
He had put the Santa hat on, turned on the snow globe, and was watching, entranced, as it played Christmas carols and swirled snow around. So cute.

Today, we decorated the tree. So much fun with a little helper to lend a hand. I told Owen the "history" of each ornament, and he would find a place for it on the tree with the help of his daddy. A few of the ornaments, though, he thought I needed to do myself (if I told him they were mine when I was little, or if my Aunt Dona had given me this one for this reason). The ones that were his, he took special pride in. A few times telling me that he made them when he was "wittle." Uh, buddy, you are still "wittle."

The decorations are up, the Santa gifts are ordered, the Christmas music is in the CD player. All we need is a new baby to complete this holiday season!!

Happy Thanksgiving

from our {growing} family to yours!

on the mend.

yay!!! Sweet baby Liam is finally feeling a little bit more like himself! He had a rough day on Saturday, his neck and ears seemed to be bothering him (which we were warned about) and he ran a fever. He hasn't wanted to have much to do with me since I have been "couch-bound" and unable to play with him, carry him around the house, or do too much to distract him from his discomfort. But, on Saturday, he hung around with me playing peek-a-boo for a while.
it was great to see him smile. Then, on Sunday, he was a whole new kid! Today, even better! he is running around, playing happily outside, mad when Owen won't share with him...you know...NORMAL again!!

I am so happy to see my baby boy coming back around, even if that means that he won't want to spend much time on the couch with me. At least he's happy!

This bed rest is for the birds. Oh my goodness. The first few days were nice, I'll admit that. I enjoyed being able to sit down, watch t.v., read a book, and play on the computer, all without feeling like I had to get up do do anything. I felt spoiled, rested, and relaxed. But, now that its been 2 and a half weeks, I am over it. I am so tired of being house-bound. So upset by watching my boys (well, Liam) get less and less attached to me and more and more attached to their nanny. I hate the burden this has been on my hubby. He has been such a trooper, getting up at night with Liam, keeping the kiddos entertained, getting them bathed and in bed. And then going to work all day just to repeat the routine again. I am so tired of being a couch potato.

But, I really am lucky. At least this is a temporary situation for me. In a few weeks, I will have three beautiful children, my blood pressure should return to normal (I have gestational hypertension that should go away within 6 weeks of the baby's birth), and I get to resume my normal life. It makes my heart go out to families living through terminal illnesses. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in a situation where you are stuck in the bed/couch/hospital, feeling like crap, watching your kids have to learn to live without you, and know that you don't get to return to life as you knew it before. It would be absolutely heartbreaking. So, as I get frustrated, sad, angry, or bitter, I remind myself that it is temporary. I do get to "reclaim" my life and my boys. And, that I should just sit down and enjoy all of the pampering ;-)

So, I am trying to.

masks, hats, and drippy noses.

Chippie sent the boys' masks that she found in England for Halloween this year. Owen has really gotten into wearing them. Since then, he also got some furry ones as a party favor from Parker's 3rd birthday. And, we already had lots of hats. Put all of these fun dress-up things together, add a creative 3 year old, and you can have a super fun Saturday night ;-)

Liam won't really put the masks on. He will, for a very short time, don a hat. Most of the time, though, he is on the receiving end of his brother's antics. Sometimes he just looks at him like he is nuts (see Exhibit A, above), sometimes he laughs, and sometimes, well, he is sleeping in his crib when Owen sneaks in to "scare Wiam."

Fun times 'round here!

An update on Liam....he is not recovering well from having his adenoids removed. I feel so bad for the little fella. He has spurts of energy, where he will play and laugh and seem happy. But, for the most part, he still isn't sleeping well, his nose is so drippy from the surgery it's insane, and his neck and ears seem to bother him (they warned us of this). Today, he ran a low-grade fever most of the day and just seemed puny. Its 5 days into recovery.... the docs all said the first 48 hours may not be great....but, 5 days!?!? Oy. Please pray that he feels better soon...he is just miserable right now. BTW...I did call the doctor on call today and learned that everything is "normal" and that "some kids just don't bounce back as fast as others." Hrumph.

oh owen.

Owen has been such a trooper with me on bed rest. He is old enough to understand that I can't do very much because my doctor has told me not to and that it is so the baby can keep growing bigger. He will sit on the couch with me and watch tv, play games on the computer, read books, etc. for a lot longer than I ever expected. The other day, he was upstairs playing with Lina and Liam, and I heard him tell Lina, "I'm going to go down and sit with my mommy for a while, I will be back." It was so sweet.

He is growing up too fast, though. He seems to have decided that if I can't be the one to help him do something, well, then he'll just do it by himself. He told Lina that he only needs one mommy, not two. So, he now goes potty completely on his own (this is quite nice). He gets himself dressed and undressed with very little help. He will carry a little stool around the kitchen so he can get his own silverware, snacks, drinks, etc.

Overall, he has adjusted pretty well to the change in our routine. There are times when I can tell the stress of it is getting to him. He has had a few very major melt downs over seemingly small things. But, overall, he is being such a trooper.

adenoidectomy.

A couple of weeks ago, at book club, somehow the topic of adenoids came up. I am not sure how we got on the topic. It may have started with me expressing concern about Mr. Liam not yet sleeping through the night and that his words all sound the same so its hard to know what he wants and that, oh-my-goodness-we-are-having-another-baby-in-a-few-weeks... Either it started with that and Shanon asked....have you had his adenoids checked? Or, Shanon started talking about adenoids and I started putting the puzzle together. Not sure what came first; but, oh my word! Am I glad that somehow at book club, the topic of adenoids arose.

I did some research when I got home, and from what I read, decided that adenoids might be causing problems for our little boy. He seems to always have a cold. He snores. He breathes through his mouth so often that Owen thinks its part of the games they play and he mimics him when they play. He snores. He gets choked on his food when eating. He snores. He wakes often in the night. He snores. He almost always still seems tired upon waking no matter how long he slept. He snores.

I took a "break" from bed rest to take Liam to the doctor the following Monday, who agreed it was worth looking into and gave us a referral to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doc. Took another "break" from bed rest to see the ENT doc on Wednesday and learned that, yes, our second born had icky, swollen, awful adenoids. In fact, 95% of his nasal passage was blocked by the things.

Fast forward to this morning. 6:00 AM Mr. Liam arrived at the surgery center for an adenoidectomy. Something that, less than two weeks ago, I had never heard of, we were having done to our son today.
Will the procedure help him sleep better? feel better? breathe better? The doc sure thinks so. Once he got in there, he found they were full of puss, very large, and quite gross. Liam was in and out of surgery in 30 minutes. He took about 45 minutes to calm down as the anethesia wore off. He slept for about 4 hours after that. Ate a little. Played a little. Slept some more. And, then had a pretty rough evening, but is finally in bed, again, sleeping soundly.

Today was a rough day for the patient. But, tomorrow will be better. And, if all goes according to what the doctor predicts, in about 2-3 weeks, he should be feeling like a new boy. I regret that I didn't put all of these symptoms together sooner and determine that maybe there was something amiss. But, I am relieved that, at least, we figured out he needed the procedure at 16 months rather than 16 years ;-) I hope it really does help him. He needs good sleep to grow, learn, and be happy. And, we sure would appreciate having to get up in the night with only Baby #3 come December ;-)

Finding what works.

Taking pictures of the boys is fun for me. Taking pictures of both boys looking at the camera, with a natural expression, and in a natural pose. Now...that's a challenge. I usually LOVE challenges, but since I am on bed rest for high blood pressure, something tells me challenging is not what I need at the moment.

This morning, though, I was taking a "break" from bed rest to get the boys to school. They are wearing their coordinating truck shirts. I ordered both shirts a couple of months ago from a vender in England. Liam's came in right away. Owen's was on back order. Owen had picked it out himself from the catalogue, so was very sad it wasn't there. Everytime Liam wore his, Owen asked about where his shirt was. Well...it came in the mail yesterday. Owen was so excited that he carried it around all evening.

Today, he got to wear it to school. Before school, I asked if he and Liam should have their picture made in thier shirts. Oh yes.

Since Liam has started trying to do just about anything Owen does, I decided to see what happened if I asked them to stand next to the fence,

let me count to three,

smile and then....

run toward me.

And, this is what I got.

Not bad...but, nothing I could put on the front of a Christmas card either.

So, while I still need to work on finding a good trick for getting great images of two energetic boys, I am also struggling to find what level of "rest" works for my body. I over did it today. I thought that I could take the boys to school, rest, and then pick them up. I can't. It was too much. I almost passed out in the church while getting Owen. It was scary. Not good.

So, it looks like I will be in bed a lot, which means that even thought I will have loads of time, I won't have too much to blog about. The blog may be quiet for a while. But, bear with us. I will, sooner rather than later, have lots and lots of photos of THREE healthy babies that am sure to keep the blog buzzing.

Soccer Tot

A few weeks ago, Owen started SoccerTots. I thought it would be a fun thing for he and I to do together on Monday mornings before baby number 3 joins us. I was right...he loves it.

He is one of just 4 almost-three year olds in the class. The other kiddos aren't, how shall I put it, well...they aren't as driven to "do what coach says" as Owen is. So, most of the time, Owen gets to be the example kid -- which, he likes. I wonder who he gets that from?

My kiddo isn't always eager to perform, though. At least two to three times per session, coach will tell the kids (at least the ones paying attention to her) what the next activity is. Then, she'll ask Owen if he is ready to take his turn. He sometimes says "nope, my not going to do that, Coach." Hmm. So, I tell him he needs to do what coach asks. He repeats that he isn't going to. And, Coach quickly comes up with something else to do. Somehow, Owen has become her "class barameter." Too funny. Since he is typically more of a follower, I haven't pushed him when he says he doesn't want to do something. He doesn't throw a fit...he just says he really doesn't want to try it. Most of the time, though, he comes home and tries the drill, and then will tell coach at the next session that he is ready to do whateveritwass. What are you supposed to do with that?

The one "activity" that ALWAYS gets the attention of ALL of the kids is stamp time. Look at these little angels waiting for their "tatoos".

Owen is so excited about them each time....

...and so sad when bathtime makes them go away.

We've done three weeks of SoccerTots. Hopefully that won't be the extent of it, since Owen does enjoy it so much. But, since I have now started having blood pressure issues that have landed me on bed rest, we may not have the option to continue to go. What a bummer....