Keep Your Damn Sick Kids Away From My Babies

I forgot to mention in the last post that the reason Roanen slept so long during his nap was, as I soon found out, that he has developed a cold. He was sneezing a lot last night, and was more tired than usual and therefore cranky, then he kept waking up all night with a stuffy nose. He ended up in our bed, restless and waking up every hour or so whining and crying. This makes me think of an interesting story about Toybus this week:

Wednesday morning was the last Toybus before summer break (why they take a summer break is beyond me because God knows I particularly need to take my kids to a fun, controlled, air-conditioned place during the summer). I noticed right away that one of the regulars, a little guy who is several months younger than Josey, was sneezing and snotting all over the place. Lovely. Then one of the little girls said "Mommy said she hoped *insert Little Snotty Guy's mom's name here* wouldn't be here today because her kids have pinkeye". Uh, excuse me? I went over to her mom to check out the story and apparently the kids HAD pinkeye, but she didn't know how long ago it was. Then, speak of the devil, Little Snotty Guy's mom came over and, when asked about it, told us that her three older kids had it a little while ago. And Little Snotty Guy? She was hoping that he wouldn't get it (zoom into Little Snotty Guys' really red eyes). And boy, was that dirt road at her house dusty today and he must have suddenly inherited her allergies, you know, with all that snotty sneeziness. Sounded a little sketchy, if you ask me. And, lo and behold, here we are three days later (the perfect incubation period for a common cold) and Roanen is sick. Now I'm royally ticked off about it because I keep my kids at home if they've got runny noses, even if I know they're no longer contagious. Why? Because it's just respectful to do so and I don't want the other moms to be talking trash about me like I now am about Little Snotty Guy's mom. So leave your sick kids at home, or else come over and comfort my Little Snotty Guy 30 times a night when he can't breathe through his nose.

Death 101 - Postponed (For Now...)

On Thursday afternoon while we were playing outside, Josey excitedly informed me that there was a snake under the van. I meandered over to check it out because, although there are a ton of them around our property, I think they're pretty cool, and I like the fact that the boys are so interested in them and want to encourage them not to be scared of stuff some people consider creepy. It was a little grass snake, all curled up lying in the dirt. I thought that it was pretty weird that it was just lying there instead of bolting like they usually do, then when Josey touched it and straightened it out I realized it was injured, probably by one of the cats. It could move the first inch and a half or so of itself, but not the rest of it so it couldn't get away. We got a shoebox and put some grass in it, then Josey picked it up and put it in (after carrying it around and talking to it for a while). It drank a little water that we gave it, and I Googled snakes to see if there was anything we could give it to eat. I figured that there was really nothing we could do for it and that it would probably die anyway, but Josey was so happy to have it and proud of himself that he "saved" it from the cats or another animal that I played along. I also though that it would be a good introduction to death when it finally made its way up to snake heaven.
Surprisingly enough, the next morning it looked like it might have actually eaten a couple pieces of earthworm that we gave it, and he had a little more mobility in the rest of his body. Today he's pretty much the same, but we're all hoping that he just needed a little care so he could heal. I'll keep you updated on our new temporary pet "Snakey" (named oh-so-originally by the child who has randomly decided that the new baby is going to be named Bobby or Sarah, names that he has never heard).

Adventures in Babywearing is holding another contest for a Moby Wrap from Supermomz and I'm determined to win a wrap before this baby is born! She also had some really cool clip-on lights from Supermomz shown that I would love to get for oh, about a million different purposes.

Yesterday after Roanen's extra-long uninterrupted nap *sigh of relief* he sat on the potty for quite a while and actually peed! I was really excited, but I don't think he really knew what was going on. He did like the jellybeans I gave him for it, but I think it was just a fluke. I'll keep trying, if only to get him used to the idea of sitting on it. I'd really like to start seriously training him around now, but I don't know how that will work out with the baby coming so soon. At least I can take some steps to get him started and we can play it by ear from there.

Happy Naps (And Bedtimes...)

I haven't blogged in great detail about the shared bedroom situation (other than the hysterical-ish rant about my hellish day), mostly because it requires so much energy to just deal with it, let alone rehash it and find enough synonyms for "awful" to fill a post. I had a near-nervous breakdown the other night after Russ (once again) managed to get them to sleep in record time, while I had had a ridiculously horrible nap experience, and we discussed what the problems were. I was fully prepared to move Roanen back into his room because, really, do I need this kind of stress right now? Fortunately the past few days have been easy and relatively stress-free for both naps and bedtimes so all the furniture will stay where it is for now. I did notice that Roanen was extra needy in the middle of the night two nights in a row, so I ended up having to sleep in his bed for hours both nights, but I think it had to do with the stifling heat upstairs here because I didn't sleep well either. Last night they went down easily (with me!) and Josey slept right through, while Roanen only woke up once and I just sat by his bed for 5 minutes patting his back, then was able to go back to our room. He slept until 7:30 (!!) and woke up in a really good mood. I'm relieved, but still wary that things could fall apart again at any time.
I won another contest! The endless hours of signing up for them is paying off ;) This time it was the Zen Momma contest from Pinks & Blues Girls and I won a sample of body lotion and 50% off all purchases for a year. Hello, can you say Christmas and birthday presents? Hopefully they ship to Canada...and hopefully that doesn't disqualify me from the Summer Bling Contest Giveaway they have on ;)
My mom and I took the boys strawberry picking this morning and behaviour was actually pretty good. We managed to get 4 5-litre buckets full, while Roanen ate about a pound of berries straight from the patch. Looking forward to that diaper. We took a bunch of cute pictures but I'll have to upload them from the cameras before I post - so you'll see them in January or so.

Wordless Wednesday - Coming Up For Air

Now That Things Are Calmer...

Yesterday was the day from hell. Actually the morning went well, but the afternoon sucked bigtime. I woke up as "Good Mommy" who made the beds, cleaned and vacuumed the boys' room, organized bookshelves, and did 2 loads of laundry, all before breakfast. Then, feeling bad about not taking the boys to the last Douglas Toybus before the summer break (it was a potluck and I didn't have anything to bring, nor did I want to spend a morning with a bunch of moms who never talk to me), I brought a bunch of containers and utensils outside, and let the boys go crazy with the hose. I was able to sit on the porch and knit, in a very domestic stay-at-home mom fashion until lunchtime. The first inkling that things were going to start going wrong was when I guiltily made a box of genuine KD for lunch (and didn't even put peas in it like I usually do - gasp!). For the last year or so, when Russ insists we buy mac & cheese so he has something to eat when we spend the night in Ottawa, I've insisted back that if we're going to buy it, it has to be the PC stuff geared towards kids that is apparently healthier because it doesn't have any artificial colours or flavours or preservatives. Last weekend we saw that the No Frills had a special on a 9 pack of 3 different kinds of KD, including spirals, so he coerced me into buying it. While eating my share of the sweet cheesy goodness, I took out a box of the PC stuff to compare nutritional values and ingredients and found that while the PC stuff doesn't have any unnatural crap in it, it does have a ton more of all the other bad stuff like sodium and cholesterol, and not as many vitamins. I am annoyed with PC for making me believe I was doing the right thing (ok, deep down inside I know KD is never the "right thing"), but I digress. That was really a mild annoyance compared to what was to come.
When we finished lunch, we went upstairs for stories and naps. Stories went well, then I attempted to get Roanen to go to sleep without me in the room. In hindsight, doing something completely out of the norm like that when he's just had his entire routine shaken up by being moved into different room was not the greatest idea, but he had actually fallen asleep the night before while I was out of the room so I thought I'd try. He immediately got off the bed and ran over to Josey, who was delighted at this fun new visitor. Pulling a Supernanny, I picked Roanen up, put him back in bed and walked out of his line of sight. What a fun game! As soon as I turned around, he was off the bed and running again, laughing hysterically. This continued for half an hour, with Josey getting increasingly wound up and laughing, leading to me getting extremely angry and frustrated and dealing out some spankage. Then the hormones kicked in and I felt really bad that they were now wound up AND crying so I got Roanen calmed down and they both fell asleep after about 1 1/4 hours. Naturally, since they weren't settled down before they fell asleep Roanen woke up crying about 30 minutes after, then went back to sleep (in the meantime I was crying over the computer because Adventures in Babywearing had a cry-inducing post about her son and I felt like the crappiest mother ever for getting so mad when I had caused the problem myself in the first place). Josey then got up about 30 minutes after that and I had a talk with him and apologized for spanking him and explained to him why I had been so angry. He understood all this, then proceeded to smack me in the arm angrily (violence begets violence, people - remember that) when I told him we couldn't go outside until Roanen woke up. He ran into their room screaming that he wanted to wear another shirt and woke Roanen up. I sent him downstairs and tried to get Roanen back to sleep for the third time in an hour, which actually worked, amazingly enough. Josey was relatively calm while I started dinner, although he was pretty liberal with the "Mommy, you don't let me do things!" and the "Mommy, you don't like me!", and was even gentle when we had to go wake Roanen up (which felt counterproductive after all the time I spent getting him to sleep). We didn't go outside, as Josey's punishment for waking Roanen, so the boys fought and screamed at each other for the rest of the afternoon. Oh, and they smashed a glass on the island too. And Josey hurt Roanen every chance he got. By the time Russ got home I was completely depressed and stressed out, so we ate dinner (even the boys - Josey even said "I like this! Make it again Mommy!", not that that helped my mood much) then Russ took care of them for the rest of the evening. Last night was the first night since Josey was born that I didn't start missing them an hour into their bedtime, and I was totally dreading having to deal with them today. Fortunately, as usually happens after a crappy day, they've been angels today, or as close as they can get. They read for a long time this morning while I got some stuff done, then after breakfast I filled the pool up and they played in there and around the yard all morning. Even Josey didn't require much attention, other than the occasional presentation of "tea and cakes" for snacks. I felt bad dragging them away from their fun to have lunch (tuna on whole grain bread with veggies - making up for yesterday's white flour garbage lunch). The ate well, went down for their naps easily, and are now awake and eating the fudgesicles that this morning's Good Mommy made. And I'm still feeling like Good Mommy! Yay! Hopefully she'll stick around, because Russ "has" to go out for coffee with his buddies tonight, so I'm alone with them all evening. Wish me luck ;)
And speaking of luck, Adventures in Babywearing has another contest to win a Solarveil ring sling from Kimzkreations . I'm determined to figure out a sling when this baby comes, so hopefully I'll win!
For those of you asking, I did win a prize from Cool Mom Picks last week. It was the "A to Z with Dr. T Supergoop kit" with sunscreens and a t-shirt. Yay me!

Contest Addiction

Despite all the craziness with the bedroom merger/naptime situation today, naturally I still found time to enter a few contests :)
Mums The Wurd is giving away 4 BusyBodyBook organizers. Of course I need one so I can become even more anal than usual.
Sophistishe.Org also has a great contest for a $50 gift certificate to Kangaroodle, which carries a ton of stuff that I need, including some really nice diaper bags and shopping cart covers (which I keep saying I'm going to make myself, but in reality I'll just end up buying one...or continuing to obsessively antibacterial-wips every inch of shopping carts).
I'd post more, but the aforementioned craziness led to ridiculously short naps so I'm in demand again.

The Merger

This weekend we are going to be moving Roanen's bed into Josey's room and having them share. The original idea was to leave everything as it was with the boys and set up the crib for the baby in Josey's room, since there's a little crib-sized cutout in the wall, but Josey tends to fool around way to much and make a lot of noise if he's not quite sleepy enough, so we axed that idea. Then we thought we'd move his bed into Roanen's room so they could share that one. We were going to paint the room and put up a border exactly like Josey's room at the old house (because I loved that room and only got to enjoy it for less than a year before we sold the house) and leave the fish room as is for the baby because it can be used for a girl or a boy. Being all pregnancy hormonal, it really bothered me that we were taking Josey out of his room, so I decided, despite it being a little less conducive to 2 beds (not that it's not big enough, but one whole wall is taken up by built-in bookshelves) that we would move Roanen in with him. There will have to be a few changes, like getting Josey a little light for under his bed canopy so he can read before bed without the main light on, as it usually is, and putting some of the larger items in the room into the other bedroom, but I don't think it will work out too badly. I think they'll adjust pretty well, although I'm guessing that there will be some punishments doled out to Josey for waking Roanen up with his silliness. Overall I'm not too thrilled about the idea, since I'm still resentful of having to do this now, rather than in a couple of years when we were originally planning on having another baby, but it's probably just my whacked-out hormones not enjoying change.
On a more fun note, Adventures in Babywearing is having another contest, to win a handy diaper purse from Strollermama that has a built-in wipe holder. It's called "My Royal Heinie". Hee hee. Since I'm in the market for a new diaper bag (my 4th in 4 years thank you very much), this would be an awesome addition so I don't have to dig around through extra clothes, plastic bags, and unrecognizable food items for an elusive diaper, as usually happens. Good luck to me!

Another Contest, and Some Not-So Negative Parts of the Trip

I found another contest on Mums The Wurd where you can win a really cute tank top from Jasper Hearts Wren. It's light blue with a little bird on it, pretty girly, but of course I'd stick it on boy #3. ;)
And I guess I was pretty negative in that last post about the trip. Overall it was good with some highlights: (yes, here comes another list from the list queen)

1) We stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in Vaughan, which happens to be attached to the hugest mall I've ever seen (no I don't get out much). There I discovered things previously unknown to me, like there's such a thing as Ben & Jerry's ice cream stands. Naturally we had just told the boys that they could have grapes and cherries for dessert after lunch (cue ominous music) so I wasn't allowed to get an ice cream cone for myself, even though the baby needed it. Someday I will return and indulge.
2) Josey got to play in the pool at the hotel and is getting to be a really good swimmer (in his life jacket). He was even jumping in off the steps, and screaming with joy while studiously ignoring the cranky 900 year old women who sarcastically told Russ "So cute. He thinks he's the only one in the pool. You should teach him (something inaudible)".
3) Josey stayed dry the the entire time we were away, even going to the bathroom by himself without asking. He also took great pleasure in peeing in a bottle while in the van at the African Lion Safari and twice on the 401.
4) Both boys actually napped in the car while we took a second drive through the game reserve at the park. We purposely went through again, hoping they would fall asleep and they both did within 5 minutes of getting into the van.
5) We got to overhear an extremely interesting conversation in Pizza Hut between a woman and her 17-ish year old son and his 17-ish year old girlfriend. The woman had just been told that son and girlfriend were expecting a baby. She was very supportive, although she didn't really think it was a good time for this to be happening. One of her jewels of advice was "The first three months are incredibly hard. They get screaming and you can't figure out why and you just want them to fucking shut up!". I wish those kids had been around 20 minutes later when grape/cherry poop incident happened. That might have put a damper on their happy family plans.
6) Overall the kids were really good in the car, considering we did about 16 hours of driving over the course of 3 days.

Can you tell the kids are napping? I'm also procrastinating checking my bank balance so I can pay my credit card bills. But we needed that vacation, right?

Educational Trip With The Children

For Father's Day (who am I kidding, it was more for me than Russ), I arranged a trip down to Kitchener and the African Lion Safari from Sunday to Tuesday. I was expecting a nice, relaxing few days away with my husband and lovely children, which clearly shows how pregnancy-induced retarded I can be. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it certainly wasn't very relaxing, except for the 5 minutes I allowed myself to sit immersed up to the hips in the hot tub at the hotel. Here are some things I learned on our trip:

1) Mapquest hinders as much as it helps sometimes, particularly when dealing with obscure country roads.
2) The more entertainment you provide for normally self-entertaining children in a car, the sooner they will get bored and cranky, and the more they will demand.
3) If the small waterpark at your destination is what a 3 year old is most looking forward to on a trip, they will ask "When are we going to the waterpark?" every 15 minutes from the time you leave home to the time you actually go the the freaking waterpark.
4) "I want to go home!" (3 year old language) translates to "I'm overstimulated, exhausted, and need a nap".
5) 17 month-olds find car seat buckles much more interesting than the giraffe licking your windshield.
6) 17 month-olds find power windows fascinating, particularly when you're stopped directly between a hungry-looking lion and a sign that states "Dangerous animals! Absolutely do not open windows!"
7) Just because the pamphlet states that the African Lion Safari has 10 different places to buy yummy food doesn't mean that any of them are open before prime season. Oh, except for the place with the crappy-looking burgers and chicken fingers charging $10 for a combo (but if you want salad instead of fries that's an extra $2 please).
8) The sign saying "Hot Pretzels" doesn't mean said hot pretzels haven't just been sitting under a heat lamp for the past year getting ultra-stale.
9) Small children pick the salt off of hot pretzels and eat only that, leaving $7 worth of hard, stale, yucky bread to be tossed into the garbage. Thank goodness for that container of grapes and cherries we brought!
10) Grapes and cherries should not be used as a pacifier or meal replacement.
11) 17 month-olds do not chew grapes and cherries before swallowing.
12) Unchewed grapes and cherries pass through the digestive system relatively unscathed.
13) Too many grapes and cherries lead to major stinky carseat accidents which require more wipes than one has brought on a trip.
14) Whole-fruit-filled leaky diapers smell oddly fruity.
15) The air conditioner, blowing straight back, makes a 6+ hour car trip in a fruity-poop-smelling van mostly tolerable.
16) Washed and dried fruity-poop-smelling carseat covers still do not smell fruity-poop-free.
17) Febreze is a good thing to keep on hand.

I hope you've all learned something from this. Namely, don't take your kids on vacation until they can drive you there.

Cousinly Love, AKA "What The Hell is He DOING To Me and Why Aren't You Saving Me?"

Mad, Madder, Maddest.

Oh, he suffers so.

Love The Cows! No! Hate The Cows!

Roanen has developed a love/hate relationship with the cows across the road. He talks about them frequently, and always looks out the windows or into the field to see if they're there, but has now decided that he doesn't like to hear them moo loudly. Normal mooing is ok if we're outside, but if one moos particularly loudly, he will come running over to me, very upset. Now when we're trying to put him to bed, if his window is open and he hears any kind of mooing he starts to cry and says "Mommy/Daddy! Cows! Bad!" until we close the window (leading to many hot stuffy nights in his room). Not sure exactly what the cause of this is, as noises usually don't scare him.
Adventure in Babywearing is running another contest, this time for a $75 gift certificate to Mama Kanga. I loved the wrap I got for Roanen, so if I win I may get a wider one (for some reason mine was really narrow), or a mei tai. They also have really cool leg coverings called BabyLegs, which are exactly what I was thinking I needed in the winter when I wanted something extra to put on Roanen's legs. I was going to invent them, but apparently someone beat me to it... ;) Wish me luck!
Oh, and I had another routine prenatal appointment yesterday where they gave me my form to get my glucose test done (boo to having to sit in the waiting room for an hour, yay to getting to drink something that tastes exactly like orange crush - which I don't usually allow myself - even though I can't enjoy it when I have to chug it all in less than 3 minutes) and they also booked another ultrasound at 29 weeks. Apparently at the last ultrasound they saw something that could have been some kind of extra lobe of my placenta. If there actually is one, the doctor has to make sure he gets it all after I deliver or else I could hemorrhage. Alternately it could have just been a Braxton Hicks contraction (of which I have been getting many) that caused it to look like that. We'll find out for sure on the 12th, and no, we are not going to find out the sex this time either. You will all just have to wait and be surprised.

1 Year, 2 months and 28 Days, Give or Take a Few

I will now post about something that is constantly on my mind, but is so complicated and awful that I can't speak about it for more than about 10 seconds without feeling like I'm going lose it.

Josey is going to school next year.

I already know that the day that happens is going to be one of the worst days of my entire life. It's a given that Russ will have to take at least one day off work because I'm going to be too much of a wreck to deal with it on my own. Why, you ask? Because I hated, HATED, school. To this day I dream (or nightmare) at least once a week that I am back in school, without having been to class for a long time ("but I haven't even touched a clarinet in 8 years!"), not knowing where my next class is, or not knowing anything about the subject, with a test or exam coming up (ok, that one definitely stems from actual recollections of Mr Lamperd's OAC biology class and Mr Cheng's gr. 11 math). Although I'm sure there were more good times, my selective memory only remembers dreading having to go back to school after lunch in elementary school, feeling like everyone was picking on me for years, panicked homework and cram sessions, and teachers that I disliked. I was so disillusioned with it all by the time I graduated that I opted out of going to grad, and wish I hadn't even gone to the graduation ceremony, where I frantically had to invent where I was going to university after hearing the audience - students AND parents - laugh at the one other girl in the same situation as me (no awards for high marks, technically graduating but still going to another high school for a semester to finish up her OACs - all they announced was her name...nothing else amongst the "Brainy McBrainerson! Award for all marks over 90% and highest mark in OAC Latin! Headed off to Harvard to study Rocket Science!" (insert audience screams and cheers) Oh, and then the nastiest guidance counsellor that has ever lived gave me crap about it because it "messed up the records"). School just seemed like a disaster from start to finish and although I know that it will very probably be different for my kids, the thought of sending them off so tiny to a place where I can't control what people are saying and doing to them just kills me. I'm trying my hardest to not inflict my own fears and bad feelings on them, but what am I supposed to do when one of them comes home in tears because they're being bullied, or because they just don't like it? It's going to take every ounce of my strength to fake cheeriness as I put them right back on the bus the next morning to send them off to my personal hell. Homeschooling would definitely be an option if I wasn't so concerned about properly socializing my kids, and if I knew they wouldn't just drive me crazy for 7 hours a day that could otherwise be mine alone. I'm already contemplating holding Josey back for an extra year, despite the fact that he's a January baby and will be nearly 5 by the time he starts school. Naturally the baby is complicating all of this, because if it's anything like the last two, it will completely consume all my time for the first year of its life, which brings us to - oh yay - September and the beginning of school. "Hey Jose, I've neglected you for the past 3 years thanks to your siblings, and now that things are settling down and I actually have time for you, I'm shipping you off to a place that you may very well hate, but where you have to go for the next 14+ years! Happy happy!"
Well, it's 11 PM - time to climb into bed and spend the night dreaming about "the best years of my life", or so they say :P

Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!

Ok, it's official. I should have a girl, if only for the shoes. I was checking out Lara's list of websites with contests and found Adventures in Babywearing. They have a contest to win a gift certificate to Vincent, which is an awesome online shoe store for kids with an amazing selection of the cutest shoes. While I thought the boys' shoes were pretty cute, I was drooling over the girls' shoes, particularly the styles called "Betty" and "Mini Betty", which were all girly and covered with flowers. They would look so cute in my closet next to the pink leather booties and pink-trimmed socks that I'm saving for this baby, who is probably a boy doomed to a childhood of being dressed like a girl.

Van-Driving Non-Soccer Mom

I officially drive a van! Although I was initially totally disgusted with the idea that I'd have to drive one, since they're such FAMILY vehicles, and they're big and frumpy and not-so-sexy looking (you know, as opposed to my ultra-sexy, dirty black, rust-pocked, trim-falling-off, loud-rattling VW Jetta), I've definitely changed my tune. The very first one we test drove was a burgundy 2002 Ford Windstar Sport with light beige leather interior, 4 captain's chairs, tons of space and all the electronic bells and whistles. Naturally I fell in love with it, and long story short, after test driving a few more and looking around for other vans, we ended up getting it. The only issue is that we have to bring it back in sometime in the next couple of weeks to get the A/C fixed on it. I love that there's so much space and I can walk right to the trunk through the seats. Having A/C and a CD player in it are awesome too, not to mention the fact that it's in great condition with no nasty rust marks, major scratches, or parts falling off/rattling. Yesterday I was trying to get the kids buckled into their carseats, leaning in through the door while my back got soaked in the rain, when I realized that I could actually get into the van, close the door, buckle them in from the inside, then walk to my seat. Heaven! I've come to terms with the fact that it is not, and never will feel like, a sexy vehicle, but I will adjust my electric lumbar support and pedal distance, set the cruise control, blast the A/C and CD player and hold my head high.
Josey has been acting up lately and yelling back at me when I try to talk rationally to him. He just goes to insta-yell as soon as you tell him no or try to explain why he can't do or have something, which gets really irritating. He also responds to everything with "Fine!" as in "I'm sorry, but we can't go outside right now Josey because it's raining out, you're not dressed, and we haven't had breakfast yet" "Fine! I'm going to go outside then!" Yesterday we went to Toybus and I ended up dragging him out to the van kicking, slapping, screaming, and spitting well before it was over because he wouldn't settle down and stop running around in circles at song time. Hopefully a reminder of that will calm him down next time.
We're still having pee issues and he wets himself at least once a day. I find that nagging him constantly helps, as does making sure he pees right before we go anywhere. He's not even remotely close to staying dry at night, but I'm not really concerned about that right now. I figure we'll start trying for that when he's about 4 or so, if it doesn't happen naturally.
Roanen is talking up a storm, so I'm not even going to bother continuing that list. He comes up with new words every day, and has started putting 2 words together. He says things like "reach" when he can't reach something, and if he can't get the lid off a marker or something he says "Hard!" When you give him food he likes he says
Mmmm! Good!", and he'll scribble on a piece of paper, or pet the cat and say "Nice!". Lately he picks up Russ' belongings and says "Daddy's stuff", and when Russ gave him a penny to hold he walked around all day saying "Money money money money". The farmer across the road put cows into his field and Roanen is obsessed with looking for and listening to them. He gets so excited when he sees them, and on Sunday he stood on a stool on the porch calling for them: "Cows! Cows! Mooooooooo! Moooooooo!" When they didn't respond, he informed Russ (very sullenly) that they were "Bad cows."
Once again I'm rarely getting a full night's sleep, as Roanen has been waking up at least once and I end up falling asleep in his bed. On the positive side, he seems to be going to sleep a little easier most nights since we've been sitting in the chair next to his bed rather than at the foot of his bed where he was distracted by being able to kick us constantly (most annoying). He's not eating nearly as much or as well as he used to, and he enjoys tossing food on the floor when he gets bored. Russ has decided that we should be consulting a child psychologist about his extreme clinginess with daddy, as he had to carry him around in one arm while mowing the lawn with the other on Saturday. I can't wait to see his reaction to daddy holding baby Bobby/i.
I am 24 weeks pregnant today (according to the ultrasound) and getting increasingly uncomfortable. A second hernia has popped out, in the same place as the other one, but on the opposite side, and this one seems to pop out a lot more readily and cause more discomfort. The left side of my sacrum is also causing a lot of trouble, although I think it's actually from a lack of physical activity since it seems to feel a lot better after I did some heavy gardening and scrubbed the bathroom. The baby was kicking really frequently for a while, but it has slowed down a little in the last couple of days. Maybe it's running out of space in there. At least it seems to have turned so it's not kicking directly down anymore. Instead it seems to lodge its feet right up under my ribs, which is a new feeling since the boys didn't do that as much. I've started to nag Russ about helping me decide on names. He shoots down every single name I suggest, or mocks it. Did you know every name rhymes with or can be changed into at least one disgusting or inappropriate word? Just ask Russ. He finally gave in and let me pick a boys name (thank goodness because it was the only name that I liked for a boy), although he did find a way to make fun of it. And no, I'm not going to tell you what it is, so don't bother asking. Anyway, he only agreed to it because he's convinced that the baby is a girl and we won't have to use it anyway.
Ok, a long blog like that more than makes up for not blogging for two weeks. I'll have more soon, I promise.