What shapes tessellate?

Last week Dean, Walter and I were out on the playset swinging. As I was pushing them, Dean (3 y.o.--ok 4 at the end of the month) asks, "Mom, what shapes tessellate?"  I was pulling out of the back corners of my brain that tessellation was a repeating pattern, so I said, "I think all of them do buddy."  To which he replied, "No mom. Shapes that tessellate can't have any overlaps or gaps when you put them together."  HA! When I asked where he learned that he said, "Cyberchase." (a PBS show/games online).  At least he's learning things when he plays those games...there are some redeeming qualities to certain gaming.


So, I decided to print out some shape pattern pages from this site and let them color them. When Dean got out the shapes I made he says to himself, "Tessellation.  When you use a single shape in a repeated pattern without any overlaps or gaps." He is a little dictionary! I cut them out and Dean really enjoyed playing with them as long as they cooperated (didn't leave any gaps or overlaps--a little tricky with paper). I wish I had the little pattern blocks since it would have been easier to work with, but this was cheap and accessible.  While we were doing it he kept saying, "MOM! Hexagons really DO tessellate!!!!" After we finished and we were playing in his room, he asks, "Mom, do rhombuses tessellate?"  My answer? "Let's go see!" (ie., I'm not totally sure what a rhombus is, so lets go look at pics on the internet.  For any who may have forgotten like I had, a rhombus is just a diamond.)

My amazing parents at the St. George Marathon

This weekend my parents and brother ran the St. George Marathon.  Yes. 26.2 miles.  While Eric is a veteran marathon runner, this was my parents' first. They are such an inspiration. It's amazing to think that when my mom first started running (~25? years ago) that it was a major accomplishment to make it 1 mile. After they ran their first half marathon, my mom didn't think they'd ever do something like that again. So instead they ran a full one! haha. They got the right gear, had a good training program, hit some bumps along the way, and kept on going all the way across the finish line. My mom finished in 5:05, and my dad, who had been nursing 2 sever injuries the last month and a half, finished  in 5:58.  His goal was to "stay ahead of the bus" and make it in under 6 hours, and with my awesome brother by his side every step of the way, he did it!  They are such fighters and are absolutely amazing. I hope to be in as good of shape as them (and look as good) when I'm 60+!  They knew my sister Julie was going to be there, but they didn't know her kids or my sister Amanda and her kids would be there as well. 

 

My sister Amanda said it like this, "Yesterday my sister and I surprised my parents at mile 25.8 of the St. George marathon with our kids. Then we all ran with my mom as the kids cheered, "Go Grandma! Go Grandma!" Then my dad cam in an hour later determined to finish even though he had been nursing along back and hamstring injuries for 6 weeks. They are both at the top of my "Heroes" list, along with my brother Eric, who ran every step of it with my dad to make sure that he made it. I love my amazing family!"

Here's my brother Eric's account of the race:

I have never cried in a race but could not help many times as mom pulled away and left us at ~ 8 miles.  She looked so young and vibrant and visiting with a very nice lady from Ghana.  Dad started having issues about that time with his hamstring but I have never seen anyone with more determination.  I had to keep reminding him to stand up straight and breath.  There were several times I was extremely worried but he would put his hand on my shoulder and kept going.  There were several times people asked if he wanted to get into the shuttle but he would have none of that.  At mile 13 I told him he would have grandkids waiting for him and he started to cry to the point of barely breathing.  I told him he could not cry again until we finished.  Luckily you could see the mile markers at about 3/4 of a mile and I would say what can you see and he would say a yellow balloon then remember they were silver (we grab one after the race).  He was amazing and when we had .2 miles to go he had three minutes to get under 6 hours (his goal) and we picked it up and finished to what we think is under 6 hours.  It was one of the most rewarding weekends of my life.  It meant so much to mom and dad to have Amanda and Julie bring their kids.  I cannot express just how proud I am of mom and dad.  They are amazing parents and it was humbling to hear dad talk so sweetly of mom and you could just feel the love flow from him.

 

We truly have amazing parents.

Very, very clear confirmation at 20 weeks

Well, the sonogram technician didn't even need to tell us what we are having. It was VERY clearly a boy from the very first picture that popped up on the screen. And the name game begins.  Now we just need 2 more for a basketball team or 3 more for a hockey team (including the goalie).

It was fun to have the sonogram nearly a month after we normally do because there was so much more detail and the baby looked so much bigger!  He was 1 lb. 1 oz. at this point.

I'll spare you the generic ultrasound photo.

I am a child of God

A couple weeks ago Walt was in his room with the ukelele and started singing his favorite church song, I am a Child of God.  Of course when I pull out the camera he stops and has to be coaxed into singing it.  It was cute nonetheless.

Last night I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast.  It was an amazing conference for the women of our church. The first three talks were good, but I have to admit that it was the last talk that really hit home for me.

Here are my notes from it:
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf began talking of the tiny blue flowers called forgetmenots and then created a metaphor for its 5 petals.

1. Forget not to be patient with your self.

• God is fully aware that we aren't perfect.
• He is also aware that those we think are perfect are not
• Don't compare your weaknesses to others' strengths
• Eventually we will all be able to turn our weaknesses into strengths with Christ's help. It's okay that we're not there yet. Stop punishing yourself.
• Be thankful for small successes in the home.

2. Forget not the difference between foolish sacrifice and worthy sacrifice.

• Am I committing my time and energy to those things that matter most?
• It might be good to sacrifice a little sleep to read and study for a class you are going to teach in church.
• It might not be good to sacrifice your sleep to stitch the theme of your lesson onto a potholder for every woman in your class.

3. Forget not to be happy now.

• Are we too worried to find a golden ticket instead of enjoying the candy bar?
• Don't put your happiness on hold while you are waiting for something else (perfect marriage, perfect kids, bigger house, less debt, etc.) to appear.
• The Golden ticket may never appear.
• If we spend our days waiting for roses, we may miss the wonders of the tiny forgetmenots.
• Don't close your eyes and hearts to each day's everyday-moment-wonders.

4. Forget not the why of the gospel.

• The gospel is not just a long list of tasks we must somehow fit into our already busy schedules.
• The gospel of Christ is not an obligation, it is a pathway. It's a light that illuminates the road before us.
• The gospel ceases to become a burden and becomes a light.
• What and how mark the way, but the why sanctifies our actions.

5. Forget not that the Lord loves you.

• YOU are not forgotten.  You are NOT forgotten.
• No matter how dark it may seem or how insignificant you feel, God, the King of infinite space and time is your Father and has not forgotten you.  God loves you even though you make mistakes. Allow His divine love in your life.

Every bit of his talk resonated with me and I felt (as many other people have expressed as well) that it was exactly what I needed to hear at this point in my life and motherhood. I can't wait till it comes out in frint so I can read it again.

Yes. I am a child of God, the King of infinite space and time. And I know that he loves me.

"I have been dreaming..."

Dean has a couple of new phrases he employes a lot recently.

One is, "I really would love...

• to fly on an airplane
• to go to New York
• to stay with you in nursery (said while hysterically sobbing. Matt took Walt and Dean home from church early last week since Walt was sick. They both fell asleep on the drive home!)

Another is, "I have been dreaming..."  (Or I really have been dreaming...)

• of making a circle of pillows around me (he said that this morning on my bed...)
• of making the kind of cookies you can frost with red frosting and yellow frosting and blue frosting (etc.)

These are just a few of the examples I can think of in the last few days. He uses them a lot thought. It's pretty funny.

I couldn't resist and we did end up making the cookies. I basically hate using food coloring with the boys at the stage that they're at because it seems to get EVERYWHERE!!! But, it's worth it in the end. Walter ate as much cookie dough as he could get in his mouth. And probably just as much frosting by itself. I don't make sweets with them often, so when I do I TRY and chill out a little about my sugar freakishness. They had fun.

I got the recipe from a friend. It's kind of a soft, pillowy sugar cookie that makes me think of the Granny B's sugar cookies with pink frosting. The best thing about the recipe was that the dough was not hard to work with at all and I didn't have to chill it.  The boys had a lot of fun and though it was messy, I was able to keep up with it without it getting too out of control (though Walter's face and hands may say otherwise...)

Big, Soft Sugar cookies:
Combine
3 C flour (original calls for 3 1/4, but it seemed pretty floury so I used the last 1/4 to dust the table)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine and mix for 2 min.:
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter
1/2 C. sour cream

Combine wet with dry ingredients, roll out (not too, too thin) and cut shapes. Bake on greased baking sheet at 375* for 7-9 min. (Done, but NOT brown.)

Cool and frost

Her frosting recipe was as follows:
1 pound powdered sugar
1/3 C. evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick melted butter (mine was very soft, but not melted)

Baby 3 Belly @ 18 weeks

I kind of feel like I exploded the last couple of weeks. I am now in maternity tops (or maternity tanks under regular shirts at the very least).  I put away most of my regular shirts, two of my regular shorts, and got out all my maternity wear.  All of the maternity bottoms are HUGE, but I had forgotten I had put some of my old "fatter" pants and shorts in with my maternity wear, and those are still a little big but will work for now. 

Up until last Sat. I could jog 6 mi. at about 10.5 min/mile pace, but my running partner is doing her marathon this weekend, and I think she'll be doing recovery walking after that. So I'll probably just switch over to that soon. Maybe some jalking (walking and jogging) for awhile. This week I'm painting the last room in our house, so I better go get that all taped off so I can get it done in a timely manner.

Tonight at Home Depot I turned around after getting a cart and an employee was kind of looking at me funny. He then explained, "From the back you look so tiny, and then when you turn around...well, you're still tiny but pregnant! You carry your baby well." haha. I had someone at a yard sale on Sat. tell me almost the same exact thing. "Oh my goodness I didn't realize you were pregnant until you turned around. You carry your baby well."  So, that makes me feel good at least even though I'm looking 24 weeks pregnant at 18 weeks. =)


Dean told me to make silly faces, so this is what I came up with.  He said, "good job mom!" when I was done. I think I only wrote it on FB, so I figured I'd write it here as well since I actually print this out. The other day my stomach was growling a lot at breakfast and Dean said, "Is that the baby talking?" hahaha. Love it.

I was supposed to have my 18 week check up today, but had to reschedule for next week. We haven't had our "official" ultrasound yet to confirm the 12 week ultrasound results as to the baby's sex.

Here's what I looked like at 20 weeks my last two pregnancies to get kind of an idea of how I progressed each time.

Helping Daddy

Matt removed the last of the vinyl in our house last Saturday. Yippee!  Walter absolutely loves, loves, loves tools and loves to help out around the house, so he wanted in on the action.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Play with your food!

My kids traditionally don't love eggs, but I make them about once every one to two weeks just because I think they need an opportunity to get used to them. The other day I saw a post on facebook about doing a "quick dye" to boiled eggs to make it more colorful and appealing to kids. I thought that was a good idea, but I tweaked it for my kids and my temperament. I boiled eggs (usually the kids only eat about 1-2 bites of a boiled egg) and gave them markers. Dean didn't want to peal his artwork off, but I promised him that I'd take a picture of it and that sufficed. The kids LOVED drawing on their food. The real test was would they eat it? YES! Dean ate his WHOLE egg and Walt got through about 3/4 of his!!! Crazy.

"No, that's a daddy"

Tonight I was reading the boys a Halloween book with flaps. Each page was a door you opened to find different trick or treaters in costume. On one page it said, "Who's behind the door?...A mummy!"

Walter replied, "No, that's not a mummy! That's a daddy!" hahahahaha. Cracked me up.

"I changed my name to David"

This morning when I picked Dean up from Preschool, Ms. Marie (the office manager) said, "Dean told me he wished his name was David." I knew exactly where that came from, but I thought it was funny he was still hanging on to it. Last Thursday he had a "getting to know you" sheet that asked his full name and why he was named that. Then the last question was, "If you could change your name, what name would you choose?" He immediately came up with David. (I think it's because his cousin had a mii on our wii that Dean used to play pretty regularly.)

I didn't say anything about it to Dean, but later this afternoon he said, "Ms. Marie didn't want to call me David." "Well, your name is Dean, not David." "No. I changed my name to David."

HAHA.

Caught napping

Since I've been 1. pregnant and 2. getting up to run around 5 am 4 days a week, I basically have to lay down for about an hour every day or I can barely scrape through.  Walt's always asleep for his own nap, and Dean usually just plays on the computer, wii, or watches a little TV.  When I woke up from my nap today, I came out to find him like this:

He usually doesn't nap, but the last 2 weeks or so, he's fallen asleep more than the last 6 months combined. He hasn't gotten enough sleep this summer in my opinion (the boy cannot sleep past 6 am and without naps and a slightly later bed time for summer...), and with me out of the equation, he finds himself bored enough to actually fall asleep. I almost dread it, though, because like now, as I type, he generally wakes up crying inconsolably and has a horrible time recovering from the nap unless it's 3 hours long!

Dean's first week of Preschool

While I did a co-op preschool last year for Dean, I didn't think I'd have the energy or the gumption to do it again this year with a new baby coming early next semester.

He started this past Tuesday at Little Saints. The first day he was crying when I came to pick him up, not because he'd had a hard time being away from me, but because he wanted to stay and eat lunch with the two boys who do extended day in his class!  He was sad again today he couldn't stay for lunch.


The first day Walter was sooo sad Dean wasn't here. He kept asking where Dean was and he threw a lot of fits. Today was much better. He asked a couple of times where Dean was, but his behavior and attitude were improved. Before we left for school, Walt came up to me and said, "I go to preschool with Dean today?" It was so precious. Dean actually had asked if he could come with him "And just go to the 2 year old class."

Both days after school when both Matt and I asked him what he did at school, he said, "I don't know!" Sheesh. I'm going to have to pry info out of this kid!  It sure starts young. =) 

Dean really wanted to take a picture, so here's one he took of Walt.

Me, myself, and I (and a lot of other random things)

(Disclaimer: this is a random post with a hodge podge of events and items I've wanted to blog about but just haven't been able to bring myself to do yet. Sorry no pics!)

Big breakthrough over here! Dean has been speaking in the first person the last few days! He occasionally still refers to himself in the third person, but he'll often catch himself. I think it's partly because Walter has really been picking up on it and using those words correctly in sentences, and Dean's heard us praising Walt. I also just think it's because he's getting older and understands more. Good timing too since he's starting preschool next week!

We had Dean's meet the teacher yesterday and I think it will be a great year with her. They only have 7 kids in their class, about half girls and half boys. He seemed to really like it. It's a non-denominational Christian preschool. They have different play stations, circle time, snack, art, music, story, an outside recess time, soccer, and have a 15 min. chapel time once a week where they sing songs about Jesus.  It's based in a Presbyterian church, but there are actually a ton of Mormon (and other faiths) kids who attend.  I'm happy I chose to put him in a preschool as opposed to a co-op. I think the co-op was perfect for last year, but I'm not sure I'd have been up for that this semester, and I couldn't have done it next with the baby coming and all. It's relatively affordable ($160 for 3 hours twice a week), way cheaper than anything else around here, so that's a plus too.  Plus, I have TONS of friends who recommended it and said their kids loved going there. I hope he has a fantastic experience.

School started this week for the public schools. My running partner is in the last few weeks of training before her marathon, so she has been getting up between 4-5 to go running so she can finish in time to get the kids up and to school! I've gone running with her 4 times this week, twice at 5 and twice at 5:30 where I jumped in with her in the middle of her run since she had like 10-20 miles to run and I could only do about 5 mi.  I've run about 23+ miles this week, which I think is fairly decent considering I'm 16+ weeks pregnant. I have noticed it affecting my runs a little, though. The water belt has been so cumbersome. I wear it above my belly, but sometimes it feels so heavy so I switch it to below. I can baaaaarely hook it below my belly! I'm definitely feeling more pregnant this week! I'm about 10-11 min. miles, too, so slower than I was a month ago. I'm hoping I can keep running long enough to help Kirstin finish her training before her race.

Walter's still anemic. Boo. We took him to get his blood tested again (I put it off for more than 8 months and the doctor just issued another order for it.) We had done this so many times last year that he because absolutely terrified of going to the doctor, even if we weren't there for him. We'd walk in and he'd start bawling. We've finally gotten over that fear, so I wasn't happy to take him in again and start the process all over again. They had to stick him 3 times to get his blood since he kept jerking around so much.  I'm giving him the flinstones vitamins and today I bought some black strap molasses. He wouldn't take it straight, but he drank it in some juice, which I guess is good since Julie told me vitamin C helps the absorption of the iron anyway.

Last night Dean packed up one of his tool boxes with a bunch of random things and said, "This is my emergency kit. I am going to sleep with it just in case there is an emergency and I need to take it with me." Haha. I don't know where he got that from. If it's from our 72 hour kits or if he's heard us talking about Hurricane Irene or something?

One night last week we forgot to put a pull-up on Dean before he went to bed. He woke up dry and felt like such a big boy!! We let him try it in underwear. About half the week he had accidents and half the week he was dry. I think we'll keep trying and probably wake him up around 10-11 to go. Matt did that last night for him and he totally had to go and went right back to sleep.

Walter went poop on the potty (for the second time) last night before bed.

We've been contemplating the need for a new house and a new vehicle. Our Rav4 can fit 3 carseats if we get rid of our monster Britax seats and switch them for Sunshine Kids Radian 65. If we had 2 of those on the sides and an infant seat (or the smaller Britax) in the middle, we can still shut the doors, but there's really no room between the door and the seats. So, we're not sure how safe that would be in a wreck. So, doable, but not sure if we want to do it. I really don't want to have a car loan (or at least a significant one) so we've started making a "car payment" into our savings account once a month. Once we have 10K+ for our car down, we'll start looking more seriously. We're already over half way there, so that's good.  As for houses, well, everything is dependent on if we can sell this house and what we can realistically get for it. Matt has now started on the living room floor. He's going to do a little at a time. Today he ripped out the linoleum in front of the boys' rooms/entrance to the garage and cleaned it. We bought all the laminate at Costco a few weeks ago when it was on sale. I'm hoping  by Thanksgiving/before Christmas it will all be done. We'll probably list the house in March or April when the buying season starts back up again. In addition to the flooring, I think we mainly only have trim, kitchen cabinets, and one room left that will need painting. We've put a lot into this house this past year!

We're on the 61st day over 100* here in the Dallas area this summer! That is second only to 1980 when they had 69 days over 100*. We have had a record breaking August for heat. Yesterday we beat the record for that day by 7 degrees!!! That's a huge jump!  We've only had 1 day with rain in the last 4 months!  That was only for 4 hours (and I actually ran 5 miles in the downpour that day), but we were grateful for that.  I've been going in and out of anger over the heat, but in the end we'll live through it. I just hope that next year will be better. I just hope our foundation doesn't get hurt from it. Since we have clay for ground here, it shifts like crazy and pulls away from the foundation when it dries up, so you actually have to water your house!

I met with a potential Doula on Thursday. I liked almost everything about her, the only thing that put me off a little was the dead fish handshake. haha. I like it when people have some sort of grip! She's very reasonably priced and I"m sure she'd work fine if I went with her, though I'll probably interview one or two more people. She's helped over 30 mothers who have delivered with my doctor (a number of which were vbac) and said the one thing about him is that he uses the foreceps a lot more than other doctors. She said most docs use the vaccuum now a days, but that if you're skilled with foeceps, it's actually safer and more accurate. He only uses them if the baby isn't descending properly and when he does use them, he doesn't pull the baby all the way out. He pulls the baby to the pubic bone and then has the mom push the baby out. I thought that was interesting. Good to know before going into labor I think!  Of those 30 with him, she's only seen him have to do 2 c-sections.  One was for a breech baby with a cord wrapped, and  the other was for a mom doing a vbac after 3 c-sections. She had 3 separate bands of scar tissue around her uterous and when she contracted it contracted in all 3 places keeping the baby in! I have good hopes for delivering vbac with him. Anyone have recommendations on laboring methods that you swear helped you during labor (besides an epidural!)? Hpnobirthing? Bradley? Something else?

Shockers are quite possibly the best candy on earth.

I am still incredibly addicted to salt right now.

Baby 3 Belly @14 1/2 weeks

Pictures are courtesy of cameraman Dean.

Matt's 30th

Well, somehow we're half way through August and I have yet to post about Matt's 30th birthday that occurred July 31st.

Two years ago I made Matt a birthday cake the day I got home from the hospital after having my c-section with Walter. Last year I made him a cherry pie from scratch since we had Walt's birthday cake a mere 4 days earlier. This year Matt really wanted his traditional "Safeway" cake he got growing up every year. Vanilla cake with a raspberry filling and butter cream frosting.  Luckily we have Tom Thumb here, which is Safeway under a different name. We bought the absolute smallest one the had (half of a 1/4 is what they called it) since we'd just had Walt's cake. It really was good.  I was happy that very cake was on sale for 60% off on his birthday weekend as well so we only had to pay $5 for the cake!

We basically did all of the celebrating on the 30th since his birthday was on Sunday this year. We got free ice cream cones after lunch for Walter and Matt (Dean and I shared one that we paid for).  We did a late lunch/early dinner for the boys so we could have cake with them before bed. After we put the boys to bed we went out for a late dinner at Taste of India (YUM. One of our favorites.)  We both got our norms (this is the only place that I go back for the same dish nearly every time because it's just so yummy I can't pass it up.) I got Mali Kofta. YUMYUM!!!!  Matt got Beef Vindaloo and Chicken Tikka Masala. And of course naan. Yes it was more food than we needed, but it makes for some fantastic leftovers.

After dinner we went to see the last Harry Potter movie in the theater. We both thought it was really good, though Matt remembered some things that were different from the books that I'd forgotten. Overall I thought they did a good job, though they probably could have improved a few minor things. It was a good end to a looooong run of books/movies.


The next day we got to talk with his parents on Skype. That's pretty much all we did to celebrate his birthday on the actual day.  Pretty anti-climactic.

Walter's the big 2

Yesterday [by the time I'm posting this, his birthday was last week!] was Walter's 2nd birthday. It was pretty fun. For breakfast I made him puffy oven pancakes at his request. In the morning we had swimming lessons. During his nap Dean and I made his birthday cake and some party hats. We ran a few errands in the afternoon, and when we got home Dean was in total melt down mode. Both of the boys have had a little cold, and Dean was complaining about his nose being raw. He was whining and crying so much I asked him to go lay down in his room. As I was making dinner, he fell asleep.  I normally wouldn't let him sleep so late, but I welcomed the silence.  We woke him up to have dinner. Walt said he wanted sausages and french fries, so that's what we had (plus veggies and dip).During dinner he had a birthday call from Grandma and Grandpa Waterman, so that was fun. He even said his ABCs and counted to 11 for them.  Today he was pretending he was on the phone with them and started singing happy birthday to himself. =)

After dinner we opened presents and had cake. He got:
HABA basic block set.  I have really wanted a good wooden unit block set, and this did not disappoint. Walt's still in the "knock over" stage, as opposed to the building stage, but we've had hours of fun already.  These blocks are heavy, smooth, and really well cut and made. I wanted something that wouldn't ding or splinter or have paint flake off, and it really is a fantastic set.

A "grabber" from Dean. He told Walt weeks ago he was going to buy him a gun, and that's all Walt would talk about in connection to his birthday. So I was surprised when Dean picked out the grabber. He was sure it was the perfect gift. He contributed 27 cents to the purchase.

A robot plushy from me, requested by Matt. I started this 2 days before his birthday because I was having some motivation issues, but I got it finished by 1am on his birthday. I think it turned out really cute. He likes to take it in the car when we go places.

A very last minute squeeze ball gun from us. When we were running errands before dinner, I slyly picked this up since Walt couldn't stop talking about the gun he was getting for his birthday!  He loved it. (Though they've already ruined all but 1 ball from chewing on them.)

I bought some punch balloons, which he loves. He also got cards and presents/money from grandparents. It was fun. 

Dancing to the music card Grandma Brasfield sent.

For the cake I made a double layer velvet cake (sans red) with cream cheese frosting. It was good. I attempted my very first "decorating" of a cake as I tried to put a robot on the top.

I let the boys play until 9 since they had late naps. They had lots of fun. Dean kept saying, "Thank you Walt for getting this for your birthday. Dean really likes this." hahaha.

What is Walt like at 2??
He's speaking in sentences nearly full time.  Some of my favorites include:
"Where you going mommy?" usually followed by "Where you going Dean?" and "Where you going Walter?" or "Going with you mommy? Dean and Walter going with you?"
"Dean did it."
"Bye Daddy. I love you!"
"May please take off my shoes, mommy?" (When we're driving around in the car.)
"May be excused?" (from the table)
"I so hungry mama. I sooo hungry." (all the time! Seriously. He is a bottomless pit. Kind of. If I feed him snacks, he doesn't do great on his meals, so I try and not give him too many snacks in between, but it's hard to resist his persistent pathetic voice!)
"Do you like [...]?" Some that caught me off guard were "Do you like ABC's mama?" and "Do you like dogs?" He loves dogs and animals, but I've never been much of an animal person.
When I ask, "Who wants some (Isagenix) shake?" He usually yells, "I want to!"
He'll bring me a book and say, "Read a book to Dean." and I"ll say, "To who?" and he'll remember and say, "To ME!"

Some misprounounced words that I love are:
Coom-coomer (computer)
Bananaid (bandaid)
Pock-i-pul (Popsicle)

He's starting to get bossier and is constantly mimicking me when I tell Dean to do something.  "C'mon Dean!" "No, no Dean!" He knows what he wants and realizes that Dean often purposefully takes what he wants, and he's starting to fight back and get made about it. They fight CONSTANTLY with a few breaks of good playing together. He's even recently been experimenting with "swatting" me and Dean on our hands if he thinks we're doing something inappropriate. Sorry bud. That gets a time out. He gets into everything, especially if it has to do with food or sweets. He is in love with gummy vitamins (never again am I getting those! He asks for them 20 times a day!) and he also loves and asks for Isagenix chocolate snacks. They're these little waffers that you can eat while on a cleanse. He thinks they're candy. I don't mind giving him 1 or 2, but he'll honestly climb up onto the counter, open the non-child proof lid, and try and eat as many as he can stuff in his mouth without me catching him!

The only TV he likes is They Might be Giants Here Come the 123s and ABCs, though he prefers the ABC's. He'll sit through a Curious George, though, if Dean's watching it. Most everything else he tries to turn off every few minutes.

He's very good about returning his cups to the sink, something Dean's never done.

He'll ocassionally start singing songs out of the blue. "ABC's" being the most frequent, but he'll also bust out with Twinkle, Twinkle, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. He'll always choose "I am a child of God" and the "Hello" song at home evening.

Overall he is just as cute as can be with a few tantrums here and there. He's a very loveable, loving child, and will often give his stuffed toys hugs and kisses before he'll part with them to go into a store or church or some place I don't let him take them.

I really love that little boy.

The decision

I decided to go with Dr. Cummings rather than the midwives. I had my first appointment this morning at 6:30 am. It was waaaaay better to be the first patient. I will do that every time from now on. No 1.5+ hour waits and no kids since Matt was able to stay with them.

I liked him even more today than I did at the consultation, so that's good. At 10 weeks I'm 129 lbs., up 4.5 lbs. from when I got pregnant. I've been exercising regularly and eating fairly normally (I do have a little more snack after dinner than normal since I'm starving by 8:30), so I don't want to really dwell on numbers if I can help it.

It took him two tries to find the heart beat since he miscalculated where my uterus was. That was a little nerve wracking for a few minutes. I'll have a sono in 2 weeks just to make sure everything is progressing normally. He mentioned that my uterus was measuring a little bigger than 10 weeks, and said something about, "wouldn't it be fun if it were twins?" but he didn't really think there were twins in there.

Baby 3 Belly @10 weeks

I love to do the baby belly progression and since I'm showing much earlier this time around, I thought I'd start the pics earlier as well. Here I am at 10 weeks. Dean took these pictures for me.

And since the camera was out, the boys wanted me to take some pictures of them as well. Dean wanted one of him showing his muscles, and so I tried to get one of Walt flexing as well, though he didn't quite get the concept. =)

And here is Walter "cheesing" as Dean likes to say.

The relationship of Grace and Works

I gave a talk today in church on the relationship of grace and works. I had been working on it the last two weeks, then on Friday I was told there was a mix up and they wouldn't need me this week. Then last night at 10 I got a call from our Bishop asking if I could still give my talk because one of the other talks fell through. I was glad I had 3/4 of the talk written! I finished it up this morning before church. I absolutely love speaking in church because it gives so much more meaning and direction to my scripture study. It's also nice preparing something for adult "consumption" since I've been in the nursery so long. It was definitely the talk I've had the most people request I email to them.  I've tried to copy and paste word docs to blogger and it always gets messed up, so I turned it into a google doc that you can read if you want to click here.

ramblings about weighing my options

Today I got to do a consultation with the "famous" vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) doctor, Dr. Frederick Cummings.  When I asked my doctor if she would consider a trial of labor for a vba2c (after 2 c-sections), she said she wouldn't and that she didn't know anyone who would do such a procedure. I thought that sounded like baloney, so I started checking around with a midwife friend and she directed me to the ICAN group of northern Texas. It's a yahoo group forum for women who have had c-sections and want to avoid it if possible for future births. Cummings is far and away the most recommended OB for vbacs, especially after multiple cesareans. He has a really high success rate. Most of the others who don't use him use midwives in home or at birthing centers. 

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to do a consultation with some midwives out of Sherman.  I LOVED their birth center/house. AWESOME. I wish I had done that with Dean. I bet I wouldn't have had to have a c-section since they're not so quick to jumpy on that. The doctor I was doing a vag birth with Dean sounded panicked and screamed for the nurses to call my doctor to come in the very first time Dean's vitals dropped. I had to beg to even give it a second shot before they carted me off to the OR. Both the midwives and Dr. Cummings said it's not abnormal for vitals to drop and that they probably did a c-section prematurely. The biggest drawback to the ladies in Sherman is that they're not certified nurse midwives.

I did a repeat c-section with Walter out of fear. Matt felt like it was too risky, and my doctor, while she would do a c-section after 1, was not really that "excited" about it since I couldn't be induced, blah, blah, blah. The recovery for me was just not a happy one. I know it's hard adjusting to two, but it was doubly hard not being able to pick up Dean for 6 weeks, especially since he wasn't even 2 years old yet and was still in his crib!  I felt like a crazy woman - seriously, I yelled A LOT and cried A LOT those first 6 months.

Anyway, the midwives said they'd be willing to try a vba2c with me. Dr. Cummings also said he is more than happy to do a trial of labor with me as well. On the one hand, I felt more comfortable with the women at the birthing center. It had the right feel to it. It wasn't cold and uninviting like a hospital. It was really, really nice.  On the other hand, if something were to go wrong, I'd be transported to a hospital in Sherman to do a c-section there with whatever doctor is on-call.  With Dr. Cummings, I could do a trial of labor (he strongly suggests having a duola) and he said the likelihood of having a c-section is small, though he could do it himself if he were doing my vbac and something went wrong.The worst thing about my visit with Dr. C today was waiting 1.5 hours to see the doctor with 2 boys along for the wait. His office was very hospital like (he's in a medical building in the Presby Hospital in Denton). And to be honest, I've grown very accustom to having women doctors. I don't think it would be a big deal to have a male doc., but it's definitely different.

Between the two choices I have now, I think I'd choose Dr. Cummings. But, as I have been doing more searching today, there are other birthing centers closer to me. The one in Allen has all certified nurse midwives who have delivered in hospitals, at home, and in the center. Now if they'll consider a trial of labor I may just go with them! I wish this were easier...