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.

The long absence

We'll see how long Maggie stays asleep while I type with both hands - what a luxury!

Maggie will be 4 weeks old on Thursday. It still doesn't seem real to either Jeffry or I. Maybe once life slows down a little bit - ha ha, like that's going to happen anytime soon. I have managed to make a few notes, so now I'll fill those in.

Highlights during my blogging absence ....

Jack was in his room for a nap. I heard a strange noise and asked him what he was doing. He said; "I rub a leg." Not feeling like we'd gotten the whole story, we went in to find out what he was doing. He'd gotten the sunscreen off the top of his dresser and was (just as he said) rubbing it on his legs. As Jeffry helped me get things and son cleaned up, Jack informed us he had "Ice cream rub a leg." I think he knows it's sunscreen now, and not ice cream.

One of his other antics is to run around the "loop" in our house - through the kitchen, his room, the living and dining area saying; "Superhero" or "Superman" with his fist raised.

On the way home from our vacation in Vergas, MN, he realized the power of the words; "I need to go potty." Not that he actually has to go potty or will go, but he knows those are magic words. We have good days (yesterday) and bad days (today) when it comes to training.

Before we left for our trip, I told Leesha to make a note that we needed to pack his "Maggie Doodle" (Magna Doodle - the little screen with the magnetic pen).

While on vacation, one of the many things he enjoyed playing with were some coasters. He asked me what they were. I told him they were coasters. He looked at his cousin Caelyn (age 5.5) and asked; "Can you say coasters?" just like we ask him about new words all the time.

For those of you that check regularly, you already know about his birthday phone call with his cousin Simon. We'll have to do it again sometime with both sides recording the conversation on camera. It was very cute. He kept looking at the phone as though it were Simon. Jack's birthday went by with little other fanfare. We'd done a party up at the lake for all the cousins, and his actual birthday was right after the vacation and another reunion, so I was just too tired to do anything else. It's a good thing he's only 2, because he doesn't care yet.

Maggie decided to eat right before we headed home from our vacation. We'd had enough chasing Jack around and dealing with his not wanting to eat, so we were in the parked car waiting for Maggie to finish and listening to Rush. I was sitting there with Maggie, then got out at one point. Jack said; "Mom, you sit a you seat." When I did get in the car, he said; "Good listener Mom!" Well, I guess he's heard that before.

When I was a baby, my family made up a song ... Cara Joy we love you, Cara Joy we love you. All the time we love you, little Cara Joy. With each of my kids, I've sung their names with the same tune. Jack has been overheard singing "Maggie Mae we love you ..."

A new baby means new stuff in the house - the bouncy seat is back, the carseat is inside, rather than out in the car, etc. Jack loves the bouncy seat and has informed me; "I sitting Margaret's bouncy seat backwards." We've been trying to teach him about 'in front of", "behind", "beside", etc. I guess it's a good thing we have two exersaucers - not because we won't have to transport a single one up or down the stairs, but because Jack will want to be in one if Maggie is in one.

Maggie tends to look to the right and simultaneously kick her right leg. On the rare occasions we've gotten her to look left, only once have we noted a left leg kick.

Jack has told Maggie; "Don' worry." when she's crying and I haven't gotten to her yet.

Jeffry cleaned up what I refer to as his "lair". It looks so nice when that happens. He felt bad that I didn't notice it for about 2 days, but I think that's because I wasn't downstairs.

Jeffry has changed Maggie a couple of times. At least one of those, she peed in the process. It's happened to me too.

That's it for the highlights, here's some more mundane stuff ...

We've enjoyed lots of time with family. My sister and her family returned to Thailand a week ago tomorrow. Their visits were wonderful, but a definite whirlwind. Caryn has an amazing energy and activity level. I guess being 8.5 months pregnant and recently delivered while she was here may have accounted for my lack of energy. We're looking forward to their next visit when the kids are older. Maybe if they move fom Thailand and get jobs in Europe, we'll actually be able to visit them ...

During our vacation, our carpenter friend re-finished our living/dining/hall floors. Jeffry and I moved all the furniture out so Jon could work. What a [lovely birthday] surprise when we got home to find all the furniture back where it belonged thanks to Willis West!

Jeffry was amazing on our trip. He was basically on "Jack watch". Jack, like any little one, wanted to keep up with all the big cousins. Activities weren't always toddler friendly, and nobody was old enough to keep an eye on him. Jeffry was very busy. Guess that legitimizes how he got naps and I didn't take any.

On our way up to the cabins, Maggie had a screaming episode. It started just outside of Sauk Centre and continued for about 10 minutes. We pulled over at one point, then I had Jeffry turn around so we could all eat at McDonalds. Otherwise, she was great on the trip. It was really exciting for us to ride alongside a train for a good chunk of one of the highways. Most fun for Jack - or that's what we think.

Jack didn't like the water much. Jeffry tried taking him in the lake a couple of times, but we think it was too cold. Good thing he didn't seem too disturbed when he fell in face first. I was glad he had the life vest on as it gave me a good means of retrieving him from the water.

It was great to spend my birthday with my whole family. I don't know how long it's been since I last had that blessing. We went out for pizza and took the kids miniature golfing on a warm day. Just days later, we got to see all but 2 cousins on my mom's side of the family. Another whirlwind trying to keep track of Jack, but good nontheless.

Sunday was a trip! Jeffry stayed home with napping Jack while Maggie and I got groceries. All was going well until the last few things on our list when she started screaming. That made for slow unloading of the cart as I held her. At one point, when I'd put her back in her carseat, she started coughing from her screaming and the lady behind me in line thought she was choking and jumped to her aide. I think the other lady had more of a start than I did. Thankfully the staff were willing and available to pack the groceries up while I nursed her. Paid and loaded, we carefully made our way out to the car where another lady came to help me load the car.

And, now, I think I'm all caught up.

Thomas the Tank Engine

Jack got his first Thomas the Tank Engine train for his 2nd birthday. His Great-Aunt Doris got him a Gordon train.

His cousins visiting from other countries all were or are into Thomas the Tank Engine. As they start to grow out of it they are hading down some of their extras to Jack. So now he's received several additional tank engines to his Gordon.

However, he is having a real hard time sharing with anyone. If we sit down to play with him he stumbles over this sharing issue saying "that's my train...". It is impossible to play trains with him.

Moments ago I sat down and tried again. He said "that's my train". I asked him which one I could play with. Show me which one is mine.

He put his hand on my arm and said...

"Go sit at your compoo-pee-oh"!

I think he meant computer.

Jack Willis

This morning Jack was wearing a good looking outfit. Leesha and I were complimenting him on it. Leesha said, "You look cool! Are you cool?"

and Jack replied, "No! I'm Jack Willis."

Jack and Simon on the phone

Jack's Bible Stories

Maggie grew hungry while we were at church this morning. So Cara took her to the nursing room and fed her. There was a technical problem with the video feed in the room causing the moms to miss a majority of the sermon.

At dinner, this evening, Cara asked what the sermon was about and I started to describe it's theme. While I was explaining the message, Jack gets out of his seat and starts asking Cara to read him a Bible story. He wouldn't let up, either, running off to go retrieve one of his Bible story books. Finally Cara had to page through it as she listened to my retelling of Greg Boyd's message.


It seems he picked up on enough of my words to know what I was talking about and associated that with his Bible stories. He is amazing.


(This image is not from the book Jack selected. It's here jsut to add humor).

Our fist week with Maggie Mae

Wow, I'm feeling overwhelmed which seems strange since;

Maggie is a very easy baby - so far, very content to sleep - even at night

Jack has not responded to big-brotherhood with the ignore tactic nor the being mean one. He has acted out a bit, but seems okay after we give him a little attention which can even be done while I'm nursing.

Leesha has been surprisingly helpful - carrying Maggie to and from the car, holding Maggie, opening doors, etc.

Jeffry has helped with household tasks as well which sometimes just means holding Maggie while computing just so that I don't have to keep the older ones from annoying her.

I'm feeling really good. Still recovering, but up to most things I normally do when at home - cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. And the last few nights, I haven't missed much more sleep than usual. I also fit into some of my pre-pregnancy clothes already!

Anyhow, I suppose anticipating 5 days away from home next week and all the preparations necessary for that could be considered stressful for a new mom.

Enough griping, on to the last week ...

Maggie and I stayed in the hospital until Saturday. I let her sleep in the nursery so that I could get some sleep. That proved to be a good choice Friday night since she apparently had a choking episode and they put her on oxygen for a little bit. Glad I didn't have that stress. The normal heart murmur she had disappeared by the time we checked out. Again, our stay at Regions was wonderful. I almost feel bad I won't be going back.

So, Saturday morning, I got all ready and we waited for Jeffry to come get us. Then we waited for the nurse to go over my discharge instructions, and we were on our way. We headed up to mom and dad's for lunch and (more importantly) to pick up our little man. Funny how when thinking about Maggies birth, I never thought to make accomodations for Jack and Leesha while I was at the hospital. Thankfully, mom and dad were willing and able despite their own busy schedules.

(One of the most amusing things about my stay in the hospital was reading the following instruction on the package of sanitary pads; "use adhesive side away from body". Every time I read instructions like that, I wonder just what sort of situation necessitated that.)

Arriving at their house, Jack was excited about Maggie. He kept asking her questions almost seeming to expect her to answer. So far, he's been good with her. A little unaware of his own weight or strength at times, but hasn't seemed to do any permanent damage.

In the car, on the way home, I realized that I feel happy and complete. My family is complete now. Even though all of my kids weren't in the car, I still felt complete. I had really missed Jack and Leesha while in the hospital, and even considered going home on Friday instead of Saturday just to be with everyone. After Maggie choking though, I'm glad we stayed.

We went to church on Sunday and Maggie got oohs and aahs from several friends and people we don't know yet. One of the kids I babysit, Grace, was very excited about baby Maggie and I'm told even thanked Jesus for her during her bedtime prayers. Leesha got home from being with her dad while I was outside in the yard trying to nurse Maggie and let Jack run around a bit. He just loves being outside, and I don't think to take him out much, which is awful since we have such a great back yard.

On Monday, we had to put Maggie on our insurance and then get her to the Dr. We picked Jeffry up at work before heading downtown to take care of the insurance thing. That was quick and painless - except for the fact that the kids regular pediatrician isn't on our health plan, so we've still got to figure that out. We let the Monarch staff ooh and aah over all three kids before stopping at mom and dads to feed Maggie. The Dr. we saw in the afternoon was full of praise for all three kids and thinks Maggie is doing just fine.

Tuesday brought the need for groceries to a head, so we went shopping. Leesha pushed Maggie in one cart while I had Jack in the other. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. We'll see what I think when Leesha's back in school .... For Small Group, we went to help friends of one of the couples in group. We worked on some painting. Maggie got to meet Abby who was the other recent addition to group. The girls are about 3 weeks apart. Jack hung out with Grandma and Grandpa. Apparently while he was there, he told them that Maggie eats applesauce.

Willis West (Jeffry's brother and family) came over on Wednesday to meet Maggie. It was surprising to realize how much Maggie will grow in the next 4 months when we looked at Smith. Jack and Simon got along pretty good too. Jeffry was surprised to get work since Summer School let out on Tuesday. We were expecting him not to have work for the rest of the week, but are being blessed with more hours than he's had all summer so far. We'll make up for it with our week of vacation next week. Emily from our group brought dinner by, so I had a night off.

Thursday, Jeffry had work again! Mom had arranged to watch my nephews Nathaniel and Aaron, so the kids and I met the three of them at Como Zoo. Great zoo. We didn't have the best timing with many school groups also being there when the doors opened. But we survived - even with the double stroller. Poor little Jack, since I shouldn't be chasing him around, I made him stay in the stroller. He kept asking; "Ma-ge-out-a-st'oller please?" (May I get out of the stroller please?) While the bigger kids were enjoying a couple of the amusement park rides, I went and found the playground so Jack could have some fun too. It was so precious to see Nathaniel and Aaron attend to Jack on all the equipment - going down the slide before him to catch him, going down the slide with him. So very sweet.

On our way to the zoo, Jack asked if we could listen to some music. Leesha found a station and Jack started copying the short phrases in the song. He's learning to sing. Another very sweet moment.

Later in the evening, while I was nursing Maggie, Jack was playing with his new favorite set of toys - the little plastic animals and the wooden barn - on the couch beside us. He pulled out the dolphin and said; "That's a walrus. No, it's not. It's a dolphin. That's a dolphin." And then, quoting Raffi's "Baby Belugah"; "Dolphins play. Splash all day."

We've heard a lot of "Yashur" (Yeah, sure.) and "Gank you's" (Thank you) as well as several "I'm shawwy" (I'm sorry) (even when he hasn't done anything wrong) recently. So cute how he says it.

Now that it's been a week since Maggies arrival, I can't help but feel sad that I'll never have that again. I'm enjoying it as best as I can.

We'd describe her as a squaker. She does cry when she gets worked up enough, but when she's hungry, she usually just squaks a few times.

This last week, we also learned that the organization that's been providing a scholarship for Leesha to attend North Heights won't be able to help this next year. Ouch!