A few highlights

Wow, getting online to blog is hard.

A few things Jack has said over the last week or so:

Jack has discovered that he can peek out under his door, and he'll figure out who is in sight by their feet. One morning when I was up and in the kitchen, but he wasn't out of his room yet, he said; "It's not a tauntaun" stemming from last week's viewing of The Empire Strikes Back.

On Saturday morning, he was in the basement with Jeffry. He comes running up to ask me if he can watch a show. I tell him he needs to go ask dad, and he just as happily trotted off to do just that when Jeffry came into the room. So I asked Jeffry if he'd sent Jack to ask me about a show. He had. I wonder how long we could have kept him busy anticipating a show by telling him to go ask the other parent.

On Friday night, we went out to eat. At the restaurant, Jack would observe the other patrons and say things like; "Hey Guy."

I do not recall what I did yesterday, but it prompted the response; "What a big helper!"

Today's mammoth sentence; "Can I have a little bit of water?"

Leesha got to go to the Twins game with Grandma Darlene, Uncle Craig and cousins Nathaniel and Aaron on Friday. On Saturday, she went to the YMCA with a friend from church. Today, she's at the home of a friend from school. I think this has been the busiest summer for her that I can remember. I hope she's having fun.

Maggie has had a couple of days where she simply does not stay asleep for long enough naps. It's amazing how much I need her to nap. I have really been beside myself at the end of those days. Yesterday was such a day. She finally stayed asleep at 11pm. I fed her a couple of times, but she didn't really wake up until 11am. Must have been tired, just like I was telling her all afternoon yesterday.

Shortly after we got home from church yesterday, Hazel came over for a 10 day visit. Jack is nuts about her, and was a handful for us. With Maggie not sleeping, and Jack being so very difficult, we were all worn out by the time he went to bed. Leesha was such a huge help in taking Hazel out (on her own accord), holding Maggie or helping with other little things. This morning, when I got up, Leesha had taken Hazel out already. I love seeing this responsibility.

Almost A Smile

Maggie's muckers

The next post by Cara precedes this one, or most of it does.
For Small Group last night, we went to one of our group member's homes and worked on some landscaping. Jack got rather dirty in the process, so when we arrived at the house, he went straight into the tub. Once he was done, I was heading into his room with him to get him ready for bed. Jeffry was on the way from his room to the bathroom with Maggie. She had pooped and some of the poop had evaded the confines of her diaper, so she needed a bath now. We swapped children. I usually just rinse the bottom half of Maggie off if she needs a washing, or else I take her in the bath or shower with me. (she prefers showers) As I was rinsing her off, I managed to tip her head the wrong way and got some water in her nose. Poor little girl, she got and gave quite a scare.

I was just thinking about my birth experiences.

With Leesha, I had a 5 hour labor. I knew it was the worst pain I'd ever experienced, I remember the difficulty sitting afterwards.

On our way in to the hospital to have Jack, I remember telling Jeffry that it was a good thing we forget the pain. I wanted to remember more with Jack since I don't recall a lot from Leesha's birth. So I tried to be more cognizant of what was going on. I also had the benefit of having someone I loved with me throughout the entire process, someone who hadn't been through it before and was looking to me for direction. I don't know that I gave Jeffry a lot of direction, but he survived the 4 hour process.

I expected Maggie to come in weighing 10 lbs or more in 3 hours. She surprised me on both accounts. Although I could have been in "labor" longer, I'm only counting the 1hr 42min of the real stuff since I hadn't really had much pain nor regular contractions before they broke my water. And she was just over 8lbs. I think it was the last 15 minutes or so before she arrived that were most intense and painful.

Now as I look back, I wonder if I've forgotten the pain with Maggie the fastest. Ah, who am I kidding, I still remember the pain.

Maggie smiled at Jeffry yesterday morning. She still sleeps in a laundry basket on our dresser. He was getting ready for work and him using the drawers made her open her eyes and then she smiled. She smiled for Grandma Darlene this morning too.

The last two nights, Jack has fallen asleep on his floor. He hasn't fought bedtime for a little while, but will stay awake for a long time. He has figured out that the can peek out under his doors and that's where he falls asleep - watching for and talking to us. Sunday night, it was the repeated; "I need to go potty." Sometimes with mom, dad or again attached to the end. He also overheard Leesha coming home and said something to her. When her dad left, he asked; "Where Joe go?" That stemming from Friday evening when Jeremy picked her up. Since it was the opening night of G.I. Joe, Jeffry came upstairs to greet Jeremy and said; "Yo! Joe." Now, Jack thinks Jeremy's name is Joe.

On Monday, I talked to a friend of mine who moved to Florida a couple of years ago, and also just had her third child. He was born on Jack's birthday. She was having a tough morning and said talking to me was a big help. I miss her, and can only hope I was an encouragement to her.

Today, I get to spend some time with my old friend and former neighbor who is visiting from Pennsylvania.

Just moments ago... Jack was playing with one of Caryn's old toys called "The Sunshine Family". One of the chairs comes apart and he pulled it apart, then came to me saying; "I ac-sha-ly (actually) broke it. I broke a chair momma. It's pieces."

That was mostly written on Tuesday, now it's Wednesday ...

At Small Group last night, we were keeping Jack entertained by allowing him to watch some of The Empire Strikes Back. Much of the way home and many times today, he's asked; "Why dinosaur die?" I keep telling him it's because Han Solo sliced it open with a light saber, and that it's a Tauntaun.

I survived a trip to the dentist with all three kids! Maggie fell asleep in the car, so she stayed in her "bucket" with Leesha out in the lobby. Jack went in with me and got to watch part of Finding Nemo.

Leesha was such a big help yesterday and today. During Small Group, she helped with digging window wells. That made me realize that modifying our basement to give us another legal room might not be as far fetched as I thought.

This afternoon, Jack was in his room for his "rest" (I'm trying to not use the word nap). He said something about muckers or yucky, so I went in to investigate. He'd pooped, so I took care of that. While he was out and about, he told me; "I need-a go to Boundary Waters." Later, it was; "I need to go to work."

Last, but very important, we got a letter yesterday stating that Leesha may still get half of her scholarship!

Smile horsey!

The little ones and I spent the day with Grandma Darlene. We went to the mall. Before we left the house, Grandpa Steve and Grandma Holly called. Jack talked to them for a little bit, and when we got off the phone, Jack wanted to be sure to say; "I love you!" Too bad they missed it.
On Thursday, Willis West came to celebrate Jack's birthday. When they neared our house, Simon stated; "Jack's house!" Impressive!
Before heading home again, after I'd fed Maggie, I swear she smiled. Precious. She's snuck them in while she's sleeping, but this was a fully awake and possibly intentional.
Last night, I got groceries and returned to the house at about 10:45 pm. Jeffry and I were watching an episode of Torchwood to end the evening. During the show, I wondered if I heard Jack crying. Jeffry went to check and found he wasn't, but did discover that he was sleeping on the floor. A few moments later, I was sure he was crying, so we both went upstairs. He was crying because of the storm. So, we spent a few moments comforting him before putting him back to bed. When Jeffry left, Jack asked him to close the door.
While at the mall, we took Jack to the play area. He was sitting on the horse ride when mom discovered a dirty diaper. It took some doing to get him cleaned up and in fresh clothes. A little bit later, I asked mom if we needed to clean up anything on the ride. She went back over and realized it was fairly dirty, so she told the mall janitor. Glad we discovered it before someone else did.

4 weeks and counting

i'm not going to bother with caps and such tonight since i'm doing this one handed.

leesha has been a big help the last two days - mostly in just being nice to jack. yesterday, we met some others from our small group down at the lake by our house. leesha kept an eye on jack while he was on the playground and then in the water. it was highly amusing to see his diaper absorb a lot of water. today, grandma darlene came over and helped leesha sew some clothes for her doll.

jack is a bona fide (sp?) two year old. he cimbed up on the kitchen counter to get maggie's bottle yesterday, and started to climb up on his dresser today. today, he stayed dry from the time i took his night diaper on until just before bedtime minus naptime. before bedtime, i took his undies off because he'd gotten water on them. he went and chose a ew pair of undies, then another, and another and finally a fourth pair. then he wet all of them. FAIL on my part. after dinner tonight he wanted to give maggie some attention. she was sleeping in her carseat in the kitchen, and at one point, he said; "i love you margaret." when jeffry came in to the kitchen and hugged me, he told jack to look. jack came over and joined us.

maggie seeme to be gaining some baby fat and, in our opinion, seems to be getting cuter. her eyes are still very blue. i'm hoping for green, but blue will be cool too. she took a bottle from me yesterday after not liking one at all on sunday. she showered with me laast night and much preferred that to her first bath. unfortunately, the shower seemed to initiate cradle crap. i was hoping to avoid that with her. after our shower, she got her first blow dry. i'm no hairstylist.

guess thats it for now.

Yo JOE!

The G.I. Joe movie came out today. This afternoon Leesha's dad, Jeremy, was coming over to pick her up for the weekend. He and I have talked about what we might expect from the G.I. Joe movie. As he arrived and rang the doorbell I greeted him with a "Yo Joe" (which is the call the G.I. Joe characters often yelled in the '80s cartoon). Jack was right there for all of this. In his mind he now recognized Jeremy as Joe. So he goes about showing 'Joe' his sippy cup and his new truck, "Joe, this is my truck", etc. We tried to correct him a few times, but Jeremy is sealed into Jack's mind as Joe.