Monday Musings

I....

~want to thank everyone for all the kind comments on our 'news'. We are so excited, and it's so nice to know that there are so many other people who are excited with us and for us!

~cried when I dropped Colin off at school this morning. I wasn't feeling overly emotional, but he jumped out of the car and ran up to the building like such a big boy. All of a sudden, he stopped, turned around, and gave me a big smile and a wave. And I hadn't even told him to do that. It just....got me. I miss him.

~am amazed, but Cameron is now training-wheel free--at three! Colin was out of training wheels at three, but I just didn't see that coming with Cameron. Shane was confident that he could do it, however, and he took them off yesterday. Cameron took off for the first time like he had been riding for years. We took a long, long ride around the neighborhood today, and he did great. I'm so proud of him!

~am having trouble being creative when it comes to packing lunches everyday. I pack one for Shane, and one for Colin. I would love suggestions of what you pack in your lunches--I'm desperately seeking variety!

~am hooked on my raspberry sweet tea right now. Mmmmmmm.

~am going to bed earlier and earlier these days. 6:30 a.m. start + two very energetic boys + no nap + growing a person = one tired momma!

~am astonished at how rapidly my bladder is shrinking. Oy.

~am totally coveting:

Say it with me now....awwwwwwww!!

And tights!? I've just discovered these!
{I'm in trouble....}

And matching pj's....
{on clearance, no less!}

*sigh*

Happy Monday everyone!

It's a....

BABY!

*giggle*

We went yesterday for the sonogram, and I must say, I was.....nervous.

I can't really explain why I was feeling that way, but my hands were clammy, my heart was racing, and I sort of felt like I was back in high school again, getting ready to play an important volleyball game, or getting ready for a big music competition.

Except, on a much higher and more important level.

We walked in still 'having discussions' about whether or not we were going to find out. I still didn't want to. Shane did.

We entered the sono room, and almost immediately, the tech asked us "If I am able to tell, do you want to know the sex of the baby?"

Now, I will back up here and say that, with all the other babies, I didn't want to know either. But, as soon as I knew that that tech knew what the baby was, I folded and had to know, too.

This time, I didn't feel like that. I really, really did not want to find out. I just thought 'to be surprised at the end' would be so cool.

Did I mention that Shane did want to know, though? He likes to be prepared for things, and I really do understand that.

So, we told the tech that we weren't sure yet; that I didn't want to know, and he did. We also chit-chatted a bit, and told her about the three boys we have at home. We were still chatting when, a few minutes later, I saw something on the screen.

Two little circles, and one bigger more oval shaped thing in between.

"SHANE! I see something! Do you see that!"

The tech froze the screen.

"I see that. Right there! *pointing* What is that? Is that....what I think it is? A little you-know-what?" I said, ahem, shrieking a bit.

The tech laughed.

"Well," she said, "considering that we're looking at a cross section of the baby's head and stomach right now, I would have to say that, NO, that's not what you're thinking it is!"

We had a pretty good laugh over that one. And, to think that I was feeling pretty experienced when it comes to knowing what I see on a sono screen!

We did get some great pictures of little Peanut.
A beautiful profile.....

....and then, another profile later with the hand up by the face.
I just love this one!

We also got good looks at the heart, brain, many different organs, both arms, legs, hands, and feet, and are praising the Lord that everything looks healthy and within normal ranges. The one thing I can't figure out--why Peanut weighs 8 ounces, but I've gained 10 pounds. Hmmmm.....

I want to thank you all for praying for us yesterday. It really means so much to know that we were covered in prayer by so many people! The one thing that I would ask everyone to please continue to pray about is that I seem to have a very low-lying placenta this time around. Enough so that it was a cause for concern for my doctor, and he put me under a few orders for the next month: no lifting the kids or any other heavy things, and a couple of other things too. I go back in one month to have another sonogram, to check and see if the placenta has moved any higher, and, at that point, if it has, I'll be released to 'normal' activity again.

Oh, and, by the way--Shane won the 'argument'.

I'm so thankful that the Lord has given us a healthy baby....

....and I'm so excited that now, I will finally have someone in this house to share all of my makeup with.

*grin*

Off to the Doc!

Please pray with me for an uneventful sono....that they find nothing in there but a healthy baby!

Wordless Wednesday: No, that's not Peanut under there....

(If you look carefully, I think this picture almost looks like the images you see on sonograms....you can see outlines/shadows of eyes, lines for a mouth, a bump where the nose is...I just thought that was so funny!)

Made my whole day

A few minutes ago, I dropped Colin off for school, and his teacher told me something that absolutely filled my heart with happiness:

"Colin's a real joy to have in class."

YAY!!

Name that sport

On Friday, when Colin got home, the boys began begging me to go outside and play. It was a beautiful day, so we all headed out the front door. I got comfy, and, all of a sudden, not a minute and a half later, Colin yelled:

"Let's play hopscotch!"

which was greeted with a squeaky chorus of "Yeah! Yeah!!" by his brothers.

That translated (albeit, silently) into:

"Mom, will you puh-lease drag yourself up off of that comfy chair, put your book and your ice cold sweet tea down, and come over to the driveway and bend over your seemingly-gigantic-and-very-cumbersome-belly for at least five minutes while you draw us up a huge hopscotch on the ground?"

Moaning and groaning With a half smile on my face, I obliged. Colin wanted not a regular hopscotch drawn, but an 'extra huge' one. That meant, in Colin terms, going past the number ten and all the way to 20.

So, that's what I did. I even used two different colors of chalk. *grin*

And I ended up with heartburn from being bent over so long, too, in case anyone was wondering.

The boys were excited, so it was worth it.

What made it even more worth it was hearing and seeing Cameron, as I was headed back over to my comfy chair, wheel his bike around to the start of the hopscotch, look directly at Colin, and say:

"Okay. This will be called 'extreme hopscotch'. I hope you can handle it."

Monday Musings

I....

~go to the doc for the 'big' sono on Thursday! Not sure whether or not we will be finding out the gender of the baby yet...

~would be really curious to know how far I actually walk--distance wise--around/outside my house everyday. Up and down, back and forth....those steps have got to equal some serious distance.

~am loving this wonderfully cool August weather. Highs of lower 70's? I'll take it!

~am praying for another dear friend today.

~am really glad to have Shane back after being a single parent for the whole weekend. Whew! I sure miss him when he's gone....

~hate it when you are putting pillowcases on newer, thicker pillows--and you can't just put the pillow in and go 'shake, shake' and have it fall down into the case; but rather you actually have to take the pillow and painstakingly shove it into the case little by little because it's so tight. That irritates me.

~am having a bit of trouble adjusting the littles to an 'early to bed, early to rise' schedule. I know we'll get it eventually, but we're such night owls around here....any seasoned Mommies have any good suggestions for me?

~really like mowing the yard, but Peanut doesn't. Yikes. S/he gets all riled up in there when I mow! Must be the movement of the tractor?

~can't believe how self-sufficient and helpful Cameron has become in just a few short days. He is just stepping right up into those big boy shoes. It's great to watch him help me and Ethan!

~have all my Fall decorations (interior) out already. I just couldn't stand it. It is, after all, almost September, right? (And, on that note, it smells amazing in my house thanks to these! Easily B&B's best fragrance for this time of year.)

~miss Colin terribly.

~think, even with that said, I am enjoying the dynamic of having just the two smaller boys with me. Cameron and I talk a lot more, I notice....Colin has always been the one leading/participating in most of the conversations, but now that he is gone, that role has gone to Cameron. As usual when you're dealing with Cameron, we have some quite funny moments.

Case in point:

This morning, I was trimming fat off of some chicken {*blech*} that we are having for dinner, and I happened to mention to Cameron that he needed to stay away from the counter where I was working because there were 'chicken guts' all over it and it was very, very dirty. A few minutes later, he came back into the kitchen, where I was now scrubbing the counters and sinks clean. (I am paranoid about salmonella poisoning, and with good reason--maybe I'll share that story one day....) Anyway, I was scrubbing, and I thought I could squeeze a learning moment in. I asked Cameron if he knew why I was scrubbing everything. He answered:

"Because there are chicken pox all over it!"

Close enough. *grin*

Happy Monday everyone!

The bright spot in my Thursday

Thursday was a rough* day for me.

*Understatement, understatement.

Cameron seemed to know, and to understand. He spent most of the day being a complete goofball...and gave me more smiles than anyone else that whole day.

These were captured in the span of about five minutes--him just being silly on the front seat of the van, and making me laugh like crazy.

{*Pieces of Cami*}
(Oh, and....this one? Not so much. Stinker.)

Colin's big day

Note to self: on the night before your first child starts Kindergarten, do not--I repeat, do NOT--try to read "The Kissing Hand." Even if you've read it before. A zillion times. And you love the book. And you know it is a perfect book to read on the night before the first day of school. And you think think think you can get through it without shedding tears.

You can not get through it without shedding tears!!!

Ahem.

If you don't know this book, the gist of the story is that little Chester Racoon does not want to go to school. His mother reassures him that she will always be 'with him' by telling him the very old secret in their family of 'The Kissing Hand'.

Excerpt:

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester's left hand and spread open his tiny fingers into a fan. Leaning forward, she kissed Chester right in the middle of his palm.

Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart. Even his silky, black mask tingled with a special warmth.

Mrs. Raccoon smiled. "Now," she told Chester, "whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think, 'Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you.' And that very kiss will jump up to your face and fill you with toasty warm thoughts."

She explains that, no matter what Chester does--like, eating or washing his hands--the kiss will always stick. So, Chester decides that he can do it. He stands in front of his school on the first night, thoughtful.

Suddenly, he turned to his mother and grinned.

"Give me your hand," he told her.

Chester took his mother's hand in his own and unfolded her large, familiar fingers into a fan. Next, he leaned forward and kissed the center of her hand.

"Now you have a Kissing Hand, too," he told her. And with a gentle "Good-bye" and "I love you", Chester turned and danced away.

Mrs. Racoon watched Chester scamper across a tree limb and enter school. And as the hoot owl rang in the new school year, she pressed her left hand to her cheek and smiled.

The warmth of Chester's kiss filled her heart with special words.

"Chester loves you," it sang. "Chester loves you."

*sigh*

This morning, however, I did really well. We got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and took some pictures. Everything was going great, and all involved were very happy and excited!

The boys

Colin in front of the door, insistent upon showing off the backpack that 'he picked out!'

In front of our tree....
....and the front door.

Then it was off to my friend Jen's house to drop off Cam and E while I took Colin in. I knew there was a potential of staying with Col for a bit, so it was easier just being the two of us.

I was fine. Until I left Jen's house and began walking to the van, where Colin was waiting. Then, I started to feel a bit sick to my stomach, knowing what I was getting ready to do. I managed to hold it all together though. We got to the school, parked, snapped a picture.....


....prayed, and then filed in with all of the other children. I showed Colin the way to his classroom, and as soon as he walked in, you could just tell that everything was going to be great!

Hanging up his backpack

Finding 'his' seat

He looked so small to me in that big classroom!

He soon found a friend

Putting away his supplies

Time for some instructions!

Then, Colin's teacher led us all on a tour of the school.

We got to see the library....

....and the gym, along with restrooms, the nurse's station, the office, and the other classes.

Then, we headed back to the classroom. Mrs. W. instructed all of us that she was going to be reading the children a story now, and then they were going to have an assembly in the gym. Parents were welcome to stay as long as they wanted, but many started filing out....and I took my cue.

I went over to Colin, and told him that I was going to leave now. That lump was forming.

He said to me, "Okay, Mommy! See you in a little while."

And then, I opened up his little fingers and spread them out into a fan. I kissed his hand, and gently closed his fingers back into a fist. He looked up at me with a big knowing smile and said, "Now, you'll always be with me Mommy!" I gave him a big hug, whispered that, yes, I would always be with him. I kissed him again, and left.

Then I stood in the hall and cried.

But I watched him. He didn't look back. Not once.

He's gonna do great. That's my comfort.

We were back in about an hour to pick him up. As well as I know he did, his face still lit up when he saw me in the car pick-up line. (Mine lit up even brighter, I'm fairly certain.) He had to show me his goody bag from his teacher....

....and then promptly share the goods with Cameron.

Hard. Sad. Happy. Sad. Exciting. Emotional. Sad.

But, somehow, it was still a good day.

**I'm so proud of you buddy, and I love you so much.

I can't wait to see what this year brings for you!**