Yuck!

With kids, some days are better than others. Today has been one of those not so good days. I've literally been cleaning up bodily fluids since this morning. It started with Amy Jo. She has had poop go up her entire back and all over clothes twice today. And the day isn't over yet! But, I'm used to that.. so no big deal.

But, then Micah started throwing up. And throwing up. And throwing up some more. It started this morning when we went to get in the van. Just as he got in, he spewed all over the seat and the floor. He quickly jumped out (smart boy!) and continued to throw up all over the concrete. Bleh! When he finished he was so exhausted he could hardly keep his eyes open. So, I put him in the bed and went outside to wash out the van. Just as I was finishing up, he came running outside crying saying he had thrown up all over his bed. Ahhh! So, I cleaned up him up, sat him on the couch and went to clean up the bedroom. Not two minutes after I finished that, he threw up on the couch. We cleaned that up and now we've been laying on the couch for a few hours. We've got our system down. He will motion to me to pick up the garbage can, he'll spew, and we'll keep watching movies. It seems to have slowed down, so I'm hoping the worst might be over. But, I feel totally gross. Hopefully Chris will be home soon and I can shower up. I'm hoping it's just some sort of food poisoning since he doesn't have a fever.

Katie seems to thrive off of the opportunities to show compassion. She keeps checking on Micah and rubbing his head and says "Are you okay, buddy?" Cute stuff.

Okay, back to watching Cars with Micah...

Quick, let's get out of here!

News Flash: My kids have very different personalities!

This was made very apparent today in a situation we encountered at Chick-fil-a when I took Katie and Micah to the bathroom. As Katie was in the midst of doing her business, the electronic sensored paper towel dispenser suddenly started dispensing all by itself. Katie's reaction was "wow, cool!" and she laughed very excitedly. Micah's reaction was complete opposite. He got very nervous and tried to get Katie to hurry up so we could get out. I tried to tell him it was okay as I got Katie's pants pulled up, but I looked over to find his lip quivering. I asked him why he was getting upset and he hesitantly asked me "Is the whole bathroom going to fill up??". It was kind of funny, but I knew it was very distressing for him. I couldn't help but hurry us all out of the bathroom to relieve his fears.

My friend recently lent me a book called Nurture by Nature which goes through the Myers-Briggs personality types and helps you identify the personality type of your kids. I'm finding this extremely helpful in parenting them. I hate to say it this way, but Micah has been much easier for me to interact with than Katie so far. After reading the personaility profiles, I now realize that it's because we are very close to the same personality types. Micah is ISTJ and I'm INTJ, but I think the N is boarderline S for me. It's always easy to understand someone who is just like you! :) Katie on the other hand... I've had a hard time figuring out what makes her tick. But, after reading the book, I've determined her to be INFP. INFP's can be pretty emotional - An emotional INFP doesn't always fit well with a level headed INTJ. But, there are SO many positive things in her personality profile as well. Now that I know what to be looking for, it has been so fun to focus on her strengths and see how it makes her light up with delight when she gets that praise. She is certainly very loving and concerned for other people's well being. And I think slowly but surely, she will teach me how to lighten up a bit and enjoy the little things as much as she does.

So, 2 kids down. 1 to go! And, after today, I doubt Micah will want to use the Chick-fil-a bathroom anymroe.

Chris for President?

Who'd of thunk I might be First Lady one day. Check out his campaign: http://chrisandjudy.blogspot.com/

In other news, Katie is officially potty trained! That's a relief, and an extra $50 bucks in our pockets each month. Hooray for Katie!

Mommy, I want one more.

What am I to say when Micah is cuddling with me after waking up from his nap today and looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I want one more baby." ?

Sometimes I wonder if it is bothersome to him having to be the big brother, getting less attention than he used to get, and having to help with the other two all the time. But, it is becoming increasingly apparent that he absolutely loves his little sisters. And he enthusiastically continues to tell me he wants another brother or sister. It is so much fun to see the way he dotes over Amy Jo. I think she has captured his heart even more than Katie did just because he was old enough to understand what it meant for me to be pregnant and what it meant to have a new sister.

So, at least he has made up his mind on that topic. Now if Chris and I could make up our minds, we'd be good to go. :)

Victory!

I'm not much for sewing, but when it comes to my kids waking up earlier and earlier, I'll do just about anything. I like my sleep too much!

Over the past couple months, it has continued to get brighter and brighter earlier and earlier. Micah and Katie used to sleep consistently until 7am, if not 7:30am. But, since it was getting brighter earlier, their internal clock seemed to be adjusting. First it was waking up at 6:45am, then 6:30, and lately it's been more like 6:15am. I usually wake up an hour before them so I can have some perosnal time, but waking up at 5:15am every morning was not sounding too attractive. Amy Jo seems unphased by the daylight - she still consistently sleeps until 8am. But, now that she has become mobile over the past week, she has decided to wake up once a night for an extra feeding - I assume for the extra calories she's burning. I know some moms deal with their infants waking up several times a night until they are a year old or older, so I really have nothing to be complaining about. But, I've been sleepy and grumpy lately, so I figured I owed it to others around me to try to do something about this waking up early deal.

So, yesterday, I borrowed a sewing machine and put together some black out shades for their room. Let's just say... the extra hour of sleep this morning was heavenly!

There's a first...

For the past several weeks, Chris' mom has been staying with us one night a week to attend a class down the street from our house. So, she keeps her makeup bag in one of the drawers in the guest bathroom. Yesterday, Katie decided to sneak in there, close the bathroom door, and play with Grannie's makeup. Of course it only makes sense that she would then need to climb on the toilet and onto the counter to see in the mirror to put the makeup on. When she realized she couldn't get off the counter, she began calling us. When Chris went to open the door - denied! Due to a poor cabinet design in the bathroom, the drawer that Katie left opened before she climbed on the counter completely blocks the door from being opened. And since Katie couldn't get off the counter to close it, we couldn't get her out. Sooooo.. we had no choice but to bust the door down. Chris got a crow bar and began beating a hole through it so we could reach in and close the drawer. Needless to say, Katie was pretty shaken up. I don't think she'll be getting playing in the makeup anymore. I can only imagine what the garbage men thought when the picked up the door this morning. :)

Katie turns 2!

Katie's birthday was Monday; our little girl turned 2! I can still vividly remember the morning I went into labor with her. Chris was getting ready to go to work and he didn't believe me. 3 hours later, Katie made her debut!

We had a small birthday party for her this past weekend - a princess party! She proudly adorned her princess garb throughout the day. I think she was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. With two siblings, she's not used to that much undivided attention. :) But, she was adorable and she is definitely a princess in our eyes.

We also received an incredible blessing this weekend - my sister Cathy surprised us with the purchase of a swing set for the kids! And it was no small task putting that gigantic thing together. Cathy, her boyfriend Don, and Chris spent several hours Friday night and all day Saturday putting it together. It was at least a solid 12 hours worth of work. In the end, the kids have had an absolute blast on it. The first thing they want to do when they wake up in the morning is go in the backyard to play on it. Our house is definitely the place to be right now for all the neighborhood kids. A huge thanks to Cat for that one! She has always been one of the most giving people I've ever known, and once again we were humbled by her graciousness. I can only hope God will shape my heart to be even half as giving as hers one day.

Painted nails, lemoNsines, and Jon Jon.

It's been tough for me to post regularly lately. I guess having 3 kids is taking up more time than I had anticipated. :) Here is a quick update on the latest in our household.

Katie got her first nail painting this weekend. Chris painted her toenails and fingernails and now she thinks she is hot stuff. She walks around saying "Ooohh, look at my toes. They're preeettty." I've started planning for her birthday party. I can't believe she'll be 2 at the end of this month!

Micah is turning into more of a comedian every day. He definitely gets those genes from Chris' family. The other day we were eating at Bono's (surprise, surprise). He started putting all our lemons from our drinks on one of the cardboard advertisements sitting on the table. Once he had them all meticulously arranged, he looked up with a big grin and said "Look everyone, it's a lemonsine!" He also had one of the most exciting moments of his life this week at our favorite Japanese restaurant. Over the years, we've become friends one one of the cooks there named Jon Jon. Micah thinks he is a super hero or something. So much so that he pretends to cook like him on our coffee table at home and he has been saving up money for the past few months so he can buy a spatula like Jon Jon's. What 3 year old has the diligence to save money to buy something like that over toys? Micah told Jon Jon about how he was going to get one of those as soon as he had enough money. So, when the meal was over, Jon Jon graciously gave him his spatula. Micah was so excited. He has even been taking the spatula to bed with him at night.

Amy Jo has been so much fun. She is smiling and coo'ing up a storm right now. She is such an easy going baby. I can't wait to see how her personality develops over the next several months. She seems like she is going to be such a delight.

I've had so much fun being home with the kids for the past 10 weeks! It's kind of bitter sweet that I have to begin going back into the office next. I enjoy my job, but I enjoy being a mom even more!

Here I go again.

Here I go complaining about customer service again. I guess having been in that industry for my entire working career, it's hard for me to overlook crummy service.

So, Chris and I got new cell phones a couple weeks ago. We didn't change providers, just exchanged our old phones for new phones. After several people had inquired about my lack of response to their text messages, I realized this weekend that my text messaging had not been working since we got the new phones. No big deal, just call Verizon and have them fix it, right? Noooo. Chris spent 30 minutes on hold and talking to 2 different techs this morning as they went through several troubleshooting steps only to be told we needed to take it in to a store to have a technician look at it. We go to a store this afternoon and "sign in" using a kiosk to be queued up to see a technician. They only have one technician working, so it took almost 30 minutes for us to be called. At the counter, Chris explains the problem and the guy doesn't do much of anything. He just quickly writes a ticket saying he'd add it to a queue to have a technician look at it and we could come back after 8pm to find out the diagnosis. You can imagine our expression. We just waited in queue to wait in queue again? Huh? I quickly pipe up and let him know this is a brand new phone and it hasn't worked since I got it. He responds telling us we should go see one of the Customer Service Reps and just have them replace the phone because it would be quicker. Quicker. Right. So, he readds us to the queue so we can be seen by someone else. 20 minutes later (while we watch 3 guys not helping anyone), we're called. We hardly finish telling him the story when he tells us he can't replace the phone if we don't have the box it came in. The box? Why would we have the box with us when we thought we were just trying to get text messaging fixed? After some "polite" discussion back and forth, he ended up replacing the phone. So, 4 people, 4 queues, and an hour and half later - I have the ability to text message again. Am I crazy in thinking this is a poor way of handling customer service?

In lighter news - we were watching some of the all time most popular viral videos tonight on internet tv. Micah and Katie really got a kick out of the "Ok go - Here it goes again" video. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth a watch. Not only is it hilarious, it's quite brilliantly done. It's funny to watch two little kids enjoy it as much as us. As soon as it was over, Katie piped up and said "Again, mommy!"

Bleh.

That's how I've felt all week. I've got a cold and have mostly lost my voice. And there's nothing like having a cold, having two kids who are sick as well, and being 8 months pregnant. At least the kids have been able to take medicine to help them get through it. Me, I'm pretty much just stuck with warm salt water to gargle with. Chris has been quite the hero though. Tuesday and Wednesday he let me lay down for a quick nap (I asked for 20 minutes, he let me sleep for over 2 hours both times). He watched the kids and cooked dinner with no complaints. Talk about an amazing husband.

So, I don't have much to write about this week. I've been so out of it that I don't even know what has happened this week. The only slightly amusing commentary I can give is an incident that happened tonight. We went to Target to buy a humidifier (to help with the colds). It was super busy in there. While were checking out, Micah walked over to look at the candy rack. When he turned around, he didn't see us and began to panic. In a tear jerked voice, he was calling my name and frantically looking around. I grabbed him immediately as he began to cry. It definitely gave him a good scare. As I'm consoling him, Katie leans over the cart handle and says "Sowwy, Micah. Sowwy, Micah. It's okay, Micah." I wanted to laugh, but I figured Micah wouldn't have appreciated that. Katie is turning into quite the nurturing little girl.

Gotta love technology.

It's been several days since I've posted. Not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't. Our DSL has been on the blink since last Wednesday. Chris and I being the techies that we are were able to narrow the problem down to the line pretty quickly. But, that means nothing when you call the phone company. It's so hard for me to sit calmly while they ask me silly questions like "Have you rebooted your computer?" 2 hours on the phone later, I was able to convince them to send someone to the house. In the end, they had to replace the phone box outside of our house.

The night before they came out, Chris decided to make some new network cables to clean up all of the wiring in our entertainment center and make it a little easier on the phone guy. Micah had his first lesson in splicing cables. Gotta tech 'em young!

On another note, Halloween was a lot of fun last night. Micah was a "motorcycle man" (that's what he calls it) and Katie was a horse. They had a blast walking the neighborhood with all their friends. We live in the best neighborhood ever.

Birth Order?

I think I've been in denial about this for sometime, but I'm finally starting to come to grips with it. My kids are different. Imagine that.

From the day he was born, Micah has always been out to please. He usually only needs to be told once not to do something. When he was 15 months old, we moved him to a big boy bed and told him not to get out of his it on his own. To this day, he won't get out of his bed in the morning unless Chris or myself comes to get him. We told him a few weeks ago that he is old enough now to get out of his bed on his own in the mornings, but he is still very hesitant to do that. He is always telling Katie, "Katie, don't do that. Mommy and daddy wouldn't like that!"

Katie.. well, she's not Micah. I was finding myself getting frustrated at times because I might have to tell her 20 times not to do something. And just when I think she has accepted the "no", I turn around and she does it again. Why? They're kids from the same parents with the same discipline. Don't get me wrong, Katie is a great kid in lots of ways. She's funny, loving, super smart. She's just a little more stubborn. Hmm.. maybe a little like me, huh?

Someone at my work today recommended a book called "Birth Order". She suggested that Micah and Katie are the way they are because of the order in which they were born. She said I should hurry up and read it so I can see what kid #3 is going to be like. I'm not sure kids can be pegged into holes like that, but I will probably pick up the book to see what it says.

In the end, I think it has more to do with the fact that God blessed these two kids with different personalities. I think I just needed to be reminded of the verse that I've spent countless nights reading as I nursed them. It's painted on the wall in the baby room: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139:13-14

Do they do that on purpose..?

How do kids know when it's Saturday? The one day of the week when mommy and daddy can sleep in a little. We're not asking a lot - just to sleep until 7am. We were optomistic that Micah and Katie might let us do it today because every day this week they have slept until 7:30 or 8. So, we were hopeful that if we didn't hint around that today would be Saturday, they might do the same this morning. But, noooo. Not today. Today Katie decided to wake up at 5:45am. And since they are sleeping in the same room now, Micah woke up even though he wasn't ready.

But, once we got past that ordeal... it was a pretty good day. We did a bunch of work around the house. Micah loves helping his Daddy when he's doing projects, especially the part where he gets to bring Chris some Gatorade. Since he's not allowed to drink it regularly, he usually sneaks a gulp or two as he's taking it to him.

We also got to visit with my childhood best friend, Steph. She was in town today helping her parents set up for a big neighborhood party they're having next weekend. Micah was not surprisingly a little scared of all the Halloween decorations. Skeletons and ghosts are over the top for him. And Katie, being Micah's complete opposite in almost every way, thought they were "cute" (her words, not mine). It's funny to watch how different their personalities are. I can't imagine where our next kid will fall in the personailty spectrum.