Thanksgiving......

Seems like a million years ago already; Paul outdid himself as usual with a terrific menu of turkey, sausage stuffing, homemade cranberries, and sweet potatoes. I made my usual chocolate pecan pie, and Granny and Grandad and Aunt Jo, Sarah, and Peter joined us.

Big Boy Bed

Today we assembled Noah's new big boy bed and put away the crib....well, no, we didn't put away the crib- we just moved it to the "new" nursery. But anyway, Noah was beside himself with excitement jumping around and playing on his new bed- but any parent who has taken a child out of the crib wonders how it will all go down......when the child is no longer confined at bedtime. Well...Noah was breeze! He went right to bed, no fuss, crawled in and put his head on his pillow. Fell asleep without a peep! I had to sneak in and take a photo because the boys are so cute together! Paul and I can't wait for morning when the boys can get up and play- Noah no longer confined. What big boys they are!

Halloween

....has come and gone, but we still have buckets of sweets for the kids (and Daddy!) to plow through! We celebrated Halloween week (yes...it's not just a day around here)....beginning last Sunday, with Heather and Dave's annual Halloween bash. They truly outdid themselves. Not only did they have the moonbounce, but Dave made 2 "ghostly" bowling lanes, and they had several other games for the kids to play, and even a craft table! It was the best ever, and the boys had a great time. The only downside was when Jake cleared out the moonbounce after throwing up in it (!)...poor kid.....

So for Halloween, Jake dressed up as a member of Lightening McQueen's pit crew, and Noah was a monkey. Some how, Noah's daycare teacher worked a miracle and actually got him into the costume (which he had refused to wear prior), and he wore it all evening! I even left it on through dinner because I was sure that if I took it off, it would never go back on.

Finally, the kids trick-or-treated with their cousins (also becoming tradition). Noah tried his best to keep up with the big kids, and managed to say "Treat" when he was able to toddle up to a door in time. He was continually confused because he kept wanted to actually enter the houses, and would get frustrated when I carried him away. He did get his own little stash of candy, which was very cute. Jake was beside himself with excitement and had no trouble hanging with his cousins- they didn't require any urging to go to houses this year as they did last year!

Now it's time to think about Thanksgiving....only 3 weeks away (how is that possible?)- thankfully, Thanksgiving is Paul's gig- I just make dessert. The holidays are upon us. Hard to believe!

Noah in the news...

Noah in the Potomac Almanac last week.....

It's a........

boy! (Right side of bottom pic is a shot of tush and boys parts pointing to the left ;-)). Yes..I am the proud mama of 3 little boys. I adore my boys, can't wait to meet our new little fellow! So when we weren't able to identify the gender on Thursday, I decided to investigate 3D sonogram. Long story short, Paul Jake, Noah, and Heather and Charlotte and myself went this morning to a great place in Potomac (their machines are newer and of better resolution than what my OB uses), and in no time at all, saw evidence of boy-ness! Anyway, in retrospect, I'm very happy that we found out on our own! Another month seems like an eternity! So here are a few pics. More soon!

Disappointment....

while everything health-wise is fine with the baby, the sonographer was unable to determine the baby's gender today (partly because baby wasn't moving around so much, partly because the tech didn't seem terribly motivated to get the info anyway). So, argh! I am frustrated beyond belief and am in total disbelief that I have to wait another entire month before we can learn more about this baby! I'm thankful that all seems well, but was just so excited to learn the gender, and today was just a huge let down. In the whole grand scheme, not a big problem, but I'm definitely bummed.....

Jake's 4th Birthday and other news....

The cake that Mommy made!


Jake and pals at the bowling alley.


Noah enjoys Jake's birthday breakfast!


Jake turned 4 years old last Wednesday- he was far more excited about taking cupcakes to school than about the presents that we had for him (briefly, at least!). We got him a 2-wheeler bicycle that he likes, but is a little scared of, too. His "CARS" themed bowling birthday party was attended by 12 of his pals. It was fun, the kids enjoyed playing duckpins, and I didn't have to cook or clean up anything! ;-)

Later on Saturday, the grandparents came over for dinner and we celebrated birthday party #3. At this point, it was getting a little ridiculous, but Jake really enjoyed himself.

Jake takes a spin on his new bike!


Otherwise, Adam received news 2 weeks ago that he passed the Colorado Bar exam on the first try! He's being sworn in on 10/22 and my parents will be driving (yes, I said driving!) to Denver to attend.

And finally, we're anxiously awaiting our sonogram on Thursday. Can't wait to know how our family will be growing changing! Short post, not much time, will write more on Thursday, I'm sure!

Excavators are very distracting to 4-year old boys and girls.....

This we learned at Jacob's soccer practice last Saturday. The scene directly adjacent to the soccer field:



Number of times the kids had to be recalled to the field after drifting, slack-jawed and eyes-glazed: innumerable!

Fall is here! Thank goodness; I'm so done with summer. Done with the swampy, sticky heat. Jake loves playing soccer, and he's fairly good at it (he's always had good aim!).





Noah likes to chase after the big boys....



Otherwise, we're all doing very well! I am just about 16 weeks along, feeling great, haven't gain but a few pounds, and thanks to the awesome nutritionist that I go to, my blood pressure is the lowest that it's been in a very long time (120-130ish/70-80ish)!!! I go to the OB tomorrow, and pushing for my next sono SOON!!! I want to know this baby's gender! Believe me when I say that I REALLY don't care either way, I really don't! I adore my boys, and would be happy with another, but a girl would be....well...unexpected, to say the least! Anyway, I'm very curious. Will post when we know!

Noah is having eye surgery soon; he's had blocked tear ducts since infancy, and as his hasn't resolved (as they usually do), the time has come for intervention. It sounds like a very minor procedure, actually- he's given a general anesthetic (via mask, not IV, my mother has assured me), and the doc inserts a small wire into each tear duct to open up the blockage- it's a stuck valve, actually. The process of the anesthesia reportedly takes longer than the procedure itself. We'll schedule...well....when Children's calls us with an opening...I feel bad for little Noey, but it's quick and not very invasive, so he shouldn't be in much or any discomfort afterwards, we hope. Never a dull moment!

Bedtime Blues

This was kind of funny.....it's circulating around the moms list serve that I'm on....

First Sono 7/25/07

Heartbeat was easily visible, and thankfully, there was only one baby (my mortal fear....TWINS!). I was actually seriously worried about twins this time because, truth be told, I totally knew that I was pregnant before I took the test at almost 5 weeks..had never been so sure before, but this time, I didn't feel right, and I just knew it. Paul was like, duh, this is your third time, of course you know what it feels like. Then I thought about what he said...third time...third time....I felt a little like an unrestrained reproducing Catholic when he said that....not that 3 is alot, but it kind of is in this day and age, and some people hear "three", but their brain says "eight", and then I get the whole "Good luck with all of that" look...my favorite was my dear friend Ena, who asked if I had fallen and hit my head. It was something close to that ;-) Okay, joking aside, not that any of you speak to Jacob on a regular basis, but he has no idea about this yet, we're going to wait a bit to tell him (lest I have to explain to him daily for the next 7 months where the baby is and why it's not here yet). Last week, however, Jacob did have an interesting observation. He told me that Noah was eating his vegetables and was getting bigger. I agreed, but said that Jacob would always be the "big" brother. Jake then said that when Noah gets bigger from eating his vegetables, we were going to have to go buy another baby (from the people store, of course). At least he's open to the idea. It's progress from earlier this summer when he told me that we didn't need anymore babies because we already had one (after he became alarmed that somehow Elizabeths' baby was going to reside at our house!) Okay...now I'm really off to read Harry Potter. Will post soon (I hope).

Well, this was unexpected.

But only because my husband and I are total morons! But seriously, it's a blessing and we're very excited and we had planned on having another, just not quite this soon. Everyone around me is rooting for a girl, and I have to be honest. I want a boy. I didn't realize it until my mom said to me, "It's a girl, I know it", that I came to this realization. OF COURSE, all that I really want is a healthy and happy child, first and foremost. But if I had to express a preference...well, I adore my pair of boys and would love to add another to the troop. Heather says that we need a little more estrogen in the house, and she may very well be right....

Anyway, that said, we're technically due on March 7, but as this will be my third c-section, they will schedule me no later than 38 weeks, which is February 22. February is now getting crowded (Noah on 2/15; Eric on 2/19). As for me, I feel great, more energetic than my other first trimesters. At 9 weeks along, I'm still going to boot camp, which I think I can attribute the extra energy to. I'm hoping to stave off the blood pressure nonsense for as long as possible. So that's all I have to tell right now.

Otherwise, we're all great- boys are big, cute, funny, smart, and so silly. We thought Jacob was a ham; then Noah came along and is an even bigger clown! We celebrated Pauls' 35th Birthday with a luau party last weekend. I have to say that it was one of the best shindigs that we've pulled off (if I may say so myself); good company, fun decorations, good (and easy!) food; I was not stressed out at all about hosting 35 people at my home, and all-in-all, it was pretty easy. Will post some pics when I get them.

There's a brief update for now. I'm going to go try to read a little Harry Potter before bed (I'm a late convert...just getting into book 4...DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING!)...

Jake cracks me up...

Short post, but wanted to jot these down before I forgot! A couple of things; first, about a week ago, I was telling Jacob that Noah and I went to see Elizabeth and John for their baby shower in Philly; told Jake that Elizabeth has a baby in her tummy. Without missing a beat, and I guess, in case I wasn't clear on the matter, Jake immediately told me that we don't need a baby because we already have one (lol....). He was very firm in his indication that we've met our baby quota. No worries, Jake need not concern himself about such things. Not in the plans for now.....ALSO....I've been asking Jake what he wanted to get Paul for Father's Day. First, he said "instruments!"....he wants to "get" Paul a big black drum set to put beside his little red drum set. He was actually "air drumming" when we were putting him to be tonight...this kid is too much. Finally, yesterday, I again asked Jake what we should get Daddy for Father's Day...and he replied, "A lighthouse". Hmmm. "A real lighthouse, Jake, like a big one?" "Yes. Do you think that Daddy will let me go in his lighthouse?" "I'm pretty sure he will Jake. What color is it?" "Red and white". Okey Dokey then. Drums and a lighthouse. No problem.



Noah is quite the little man these days, feeding himself well with fork and spoon...and saying a few words....we thought that Jake was a ham......Noah puts him to shame....this kid is a riot!

Sunday Evening on the Green

Paul took the boys to play at the "Green" last night....

This is the cutest thing that I've ever seen....

the boys really love each other! Paul sent me this when I was in Michigan over the weekend..talk about missing my boys! Noah is such a cuddler to begin with, and he adores Jacob. Jacob is very good to him, too!

Adam is a lawyer!

I went to Michigan solo over the weekend for Adam's graduation from law school. (This is us at the airport) Crazy, isn't it? Lansing is a shithole and I don't recommend going there. Ever. Adam's school was state-of-the-art and very nice, though. He showed us around campus and the library, and showed us the area where he pretty much holed up and studied for the past 3 years. What a huge accomplishment...I'm very proud! The graduation ceremony was very nice, and I must say that his cap and gown were much nicer than what I wore last year! Anyway, he's back in PA for a brief stay, then off to Colorado to study for the Bar. I just started studying for my board exams, hope to take them in August or September or so. No fun. But it's almost over.....or is it just starting ;-)

I found a vanilla wafer in my bra today.

How was your day?

...Realize I didn't paint the full picture....today I found a vanilla wafer in my cleavage...unbeknownst to me....obviously dropped there by Noah at some point. At what point in motherhood to you begin to not notice cookies in your bra?! Geesh!

Noah Learns to Walk

Live action...he's so cute!

Guess who is walking!!

Guess who's walking! 13 months old...not too shabby, given that he just started crawling a few weeks ago! And yes....that IS drool on his shirt...his two front teeth are coming in right now...and the drool is a flowing, for sure! We're so proud of our little man!

I love Christopher Walken

Thanks to cousin Nate for reminding me about this clip...its spectacular! Hadn't seen it in awhile, wanted to share ;-)

Fergie.

Hideously awful.

Alanis Morissette

She's a smartie. I like her. Truth be told, Fergie isn't really my thang (wow, isn't that shocking?!), so I had to check out the original vid on You Tube before I fully realized what Alanis was mocking...

The "Snuggle Buggle"

Some time last fall, out of desire to snuggle with my rarely-still 3 year old, I started "snuggling" with him at bedtime. This consists of he and I cuddling and chatting for awhile before he/we fall asleep. Frequently (but not ideally, I realize), I fall asleep and wake up 30 minutes to 3 hours later...more recently Paul's been getting me after a half-hour so I don't snooze the whole night away (although it is bliss when that happens). So the point of this post isn't to just explain the "Snuggle Buggle" as well call it, but to relay exchanges that Jake and I've had over the past 2 nights. For those who haven't seen him lately, he is in full-on questioning mode...wants to know "why" about everything, and it's quite amazing seeing how he is trying to figure out his world and how we all fit into it. He's been asking alot of questions about God and Jessie and my grandparents, and, while I've been able to circumvent explaining death to him so far, we're right around the corner because he's realizing that something doesn't add up...like, where do these people go, anyway? It's funny, as a psychologist (almost), I know exactly what I'd tell Mrs. Doe, mother of Johnny Doe, about death....but when it comes time for me to tell my own 3 year old...I just don't want to go there. I don't want to scare him....and don't want him to be aware of his own mortality any sooner than he has to. But boy oh boy, isn't that MY stuff all over the place (psychologist/friends, you know what I'm talking about). I'M just not ready for him to start worrying about what will happen when we are gone......heck, I had to talk to him this week because I found out that he had been saying the f-word at daycare. The f-word! We're boggled as to where he got that from....we (and by we, I mean I) learned my lesson last summer after the "what the hell was that" incident. We'd have to be nuts to think that ANYTHING that we utter around this child will not get back to us. Anyway, we talked to Jake and told him that it was a very dirty word and we did not use it. I told my Dad that I was ready to send him off to Catholic school at this point, when he reminded me that Catholic school is EXACTLY where I learned the f-word...in the 1st Grade, after it had been carved in the bathroom stall!!! But I digress (again and again and again)....I just wanted to share a few snippets from our last 2 snuggle buggles....

Last night:
Jake: (completely out of the blue) "I don't like dinosaurs. Or monsters. Or sharks."
Me: "Well, Jake...you don't have to worry about dinosaurs because the are none on the Earth anymore, and monsters are just pretend, and sharks are only in the water, and as long as you stay near mommy and daddy in the water, you will be safe."
Jake: "There's nothing living under my bed because it's too dark."
Me: (this poor kid...time to get out the "anti-monster" (AKA a squirt bottle filled with water) spray..a stellar idea that I came across to banish monsters hiding in little children's bedrooms... "Jake, there is nothing at all living under your bed. Remember we just cleaned under there and it's empty."
End of discussion.

And tonight:
Jake (looking at his fish tank): "I used to live in there."
Me: "Where?!"
Jake: "With the other fishies when I was a fish."
Me: "Jake, when were you a fish?"
Jake: "I used to be a fish and I swam in the water with the other fishies."
Jake: "The fishies are hungry."
Me: "Jake, Daddy already fed the fish."
End of discussion.

I love, love, love these little moments. He's such an amazing little guy, and I'm so amazed by how his brain works. I know that someday I'm going to have to wean him from the snuggle buggle, and it will suck. But I'm not doing it yet. It's priceless.

Jacob Skiing

Jake and Paul played hookie yesterday and went skiing..Jake's second time...Paul says that he's a natural!

Argh...I just lost my whole post

I hate you sometimes, blogspot!

Okay, brief recap b/c I'm not doing this all over again:

Noah's birthday- great!

I started bootcamp! Also great! www.sarge.com

My SIL, Heather is getting stronger everyday! Follow her story at www.heatherzupdate.blogspot.com

Support Heather and Lymphoma research at www.cafepress.com/heathersteam

Have a great weekend! More soon!

Greetings from Portland, OR

February 9, 2007

So I’m in Portland, OR for the INS Conference where I did my first poster presentation today. I’ll get to that in a minute, but I just got off of a webcam call with Jake, Noah, and Paul (who is now back East), and I’m so sad that I could cry. I’ve had a day and a half of doing generally whatever I want to, and that is a nice change from the marathon that my life typically is. But I’m never away from my boys, and when we hung up just now, I got such a raw emptiness in my stomach. I’ve barely been gone, and I’ll be home in 3 days, but I MISS them. And I’m so far away. I love being their mom ;-)

That said, my poster session was pretty exciting. I had no idea how many handouts to prepare, so I just made 25. And I ran out! So an additional 25 or so folks signed up to receive follow-up emails from me about my research. Very exciting! Many folks stopped by and indicated an interest in the direction of the research, and for a need to publish it. A journal editor gave me his card and suggested that I consider them for publishing my data. That I consider them!? Whoa…that’s pretty exciting, makes my stomach flutter a bit (I’m very visceral today, clearly). And I spoke to the TOVA people who also wanted to see my poster and want more information from me. All in all, made me reconsider my direction in my career. I really do like research, but I’ve always been afraid of it. I guess that’s one manifestation of my inferiority complex- that researchers are so brilliant and I can’t compare. I won’t lie, I know that part of this reluctance on my part is because I feel so statistically inept. Literally. But I got through my dissertation, and I actually understand what I was talking about. And I can think of a ton of things that I’d like to look at (scientific questions), but I just don’t have the resources to do that right now. Or do I? I need to talk to the director of my practice and see about running some data. Oh, the TOVA guy said that I could send him my TOVA outputs….ALL of them…and he would throw them into SPSS for me. How nuts is that? I have to say, while I enjoy the report writing (at my job), the testing (while at times, interesting), often times feels like manual labor. Just because I give the tests so frequently, that I can almost do it automatically. Can read the instructions, and go through the motions while not even thinking about it (like how when you attend mass every Sunday for your whole life, you get to the point where you can recite all of it, and stand up, sit down, kneel, stand up, kneel…without hearing a word that you, or anyone else is saying). It’s like when you’re driving on a road that you’ve driven a million times, and you forget where you are because you weren’t paying attention. Because you don’t have to. Yeah. It’s kind of like that. Anyway, maybe I want to publish more and teach. Maybe I want to do research. Maybe clinical work, at least in my current capacity, is quite numbing. Maybe.

And in closing:
If I hear one more word about Anna Nicole Smith, I'm going to engage in a self-injurious behavior.

Jake's Toy Drum Medley

This is before he got "big drums with cymbals" from Santa. I'm sure that more video will follow!

Train Driver

I would love to sit down and compose some sort of organized compilation of the past three months, but instead, I'm going to do a stream of consciousness thing here (NOT a la Britney Spears..puhlease!)....but I'm kind of disorganized and random in life right now (everything is fine, I'm just not very organized right now), and so my post is going to be the same (not out of design, but because that's just how I am right now!). ANYWAY, a few things I wanted to note:

The other day when I was driving the kids home from school, Jake spontaneously told me that he wanted to be a "Train Driver" when he grew up. No surprise there, right?! He said that he wants to "drive" a blue diesel engine and pull boxcars, oil cars, coal cars, flat cars, and a little red caboose. Very specific. I thought that it was cute. Two days later, he still is forecasting "Train Driver" as his future profession;-)

Long Time No Post

I've been quite out of touch over the past few months (it flew by so quickly, I can hardly believe that is HAS been months!). Quick update for now and more later.

First off, my incredible sister-in-law has started her own blog, www.heatherzupdate.blogspot.com to chronicle her cancer treatment and life in general. Please check it out:-)

As for the kids, Jake is now in the 3-4 year old room at daycare and is loving it. Much more structured and "academic" if you will, but he's doing so well.

In the past week, Noah has pulled up, stood on his own (briefly), and started cruising. He just may be on the move by his birthday (next month!). He seems to be skipping the whole crawling step. Guess he doesn't think that it's necessary.

Paul just got a great new camera, so I hope to upload some new pics soon of the whole fam in action.

Okay, I just spent 30 minutes trying to log INTO this blasted account (long story, couldn't remember user name OR password), had to trial and error it for an annoyingly long time. Anyway, no time for actual writing, but I will have to update soon to discuss the holidays, family happenings, work, friends, the saga of the mice (!), and our upcoming travels this Spring. More later!