New Year, New Us

This is going to be a long one (longer than usual) because we have A LOT of things going on right now. For this reason, I’m going to break it down by person…

Keith

Keith graduated from UAB’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program and is now a full-time Physical Therapist (with a temporary license) for Therapy South. He takes his boards on January 29^th and has been studying NON-STOP for two months now, so feel free to keep him in your prayers!

Keith's Doctoral Hooding

Landen – age: 3 ½, height: 39 inches, weight: 36 pounds

Landen is doing much better with the whole potty training backsliding situation. We had an additional backslide when the WHOLE FAMILY (immediate and extended family) came down with the world’s worst stomach/intestinal bug the week of Christmas. The boys actually had a good three weeks of stomach/intestinal torture and had to remain in diapers around the clock! Luckily, we are all better now. PTL! Landen can finally say Declen’s name right and usually does so without us correcting him, so thankfully we have a baby /DEC-len/ instead of what sounded disturbingly similar to baby /DUCK-ling/! As always, living with young children brings a wide array of bizarre logic and funny sayings, so to add to the Kids Say the Darnedest Things (KSDT) log…

1.      We were watching Disney’s The Rescuers DownUnder and Keith told Landen that “Down Under” is referring to Australia, a place that Keith has visited. The conversation went something like this…

Landen (as he examines the DVD cover pictures): “What we watchin?”

Keith: “We’re watching The Rescuers Down Under. Down Under is a place called Australia. It’s a country that’s a long long way from here.”

Landen (still looking at the DVD cover pictures): “ohh…”

Keith: “Did you know that daddy went to Australia one time, a long time ago?”

Landen (looking at Keith with amazement): “OH! You went there when you were a mouse?!”

Keith: “Nevermind…”

2.      We were driving down the interstate one day and heard Landen start singing.

Landen: “Happy Birthday, Uncle Raece! Happy Birthday, Uncle Raece!”

*Note: we hadn’t seen Raece in several weeks and it is NO WHERE NEAR his birthday…

3.      Last week, Landen came home from daycare and was telling us about his day and a new student in his class.

Me: “Who did you play with today?”

Landen: “Mario.”

Me: “Mario? I didn’t know you had a boy named Mario in your class. Is he new?”

Landen: “Yeah, he’s new. I like him. He has a black face. He’s my friend.”

(Landen’s class has SEVERAL different cultures and ethnicities represented in it… he has never noticed before. I guess he is starting to be more observant these days…)

4.      I was nursing Declen and Landen was talking to Brayden and me.

Landen: “Hey Mommy, what you’re doin?”

Me: “I’m feeding baby.”

Landen (turning to Brayden): “Mommies have two tummies. One tummy to grow babies and then one tummy to feed babies.” (Turning back to me): “Right Mommy?”

Me: “um… something like that.”

5.      Landen talking to himself while playing with the magnets on the refrigerator. He was “driving” the car magnet to different “places” represented by other magnets.

Landen (Picking up the cross magnet and placing it in front of the car magnet): “This is the Promised Land. That’s where we go at church. That’s where I’m driving… and then to the zoo!”

6.      Talking about the alphabet.

Me: “What does an A sound like?”

Landen: /a/

Me: “What word starts with the /a/ sound?”

Landen: “um… apple”

Me: “That’s right! Good…”

Landen (interrupting/screaming): “AND ACROBAT!”

Me (in shock): “Good job, buddy! Where did you learn that word?”

Landen: “I dunno…”

Christmas Football #4

Brayden – age: 23 months old, height: 29 ½ inches, weight: 24 pounds

Brayden is a funny little stinker, I mean he is hilarious! He is FINALLY on the growth charts (in height AND weight)!!! He LOVES to play football and shouts, “AL-O-BAM-MA” repeatedly as he runs around with the football in his hand. His favorite song is Christ is Enough for Me (with I Have Decided to Follow Jesus) and he randomly starts singing “No turning back, no turning back, no turning back” as he is playing with his toys. After singing/running in circles to Ring-Around-the-Rosie with Landen one day, he got up and started running in circles in our living room and would spontaneously shout “DOWN!” and would drop to the floor. Brayden is very sensitive. If Landen gets in trouble and we have to correct him, Brayden will stand in between us and Landen and say, “No Mommy, no Daddy.” I think Brayden is even more of a talker than Landen. He also gets a little confused with his responses sometimes.

KSDT for Brayden

1.      We can ask him pretty much anything, and he will reply with, “no.” He isn’t being obstinate or stubburn (though he definitely has that in him), it’s just the first thing that comes out of his mouth. For instance, he can be devouring something that he LOVES to eat and if we say, “Is that yummy, Brayden?” or “Do you like that?” his response is, “no.” When he wants more of something he’ll say, “more” but when he wants someone to share their food with him he’ll say (and repeat), “some?” When he wants to be held or picked up, he’ll ask, “down?” If he needs help, he’ll say, “help you?”

2.      While we were doing the bedtime Bible story, Keith was sitting in the floor (with his shirt off) reading the Bible to the boys. The boys were in their pajamas and Brayden was wearing onsie pajamas

Brayden (sticking his finger in Keith’s belly button): “Belly Button!” 

Keith: “yep”

Brayden (sticking his finger in Keith’s belly button, again): “Belly Button!”

Keith (trying to get back to the story):  “yeah, that’s my belly button. You have one, too”

Brayden (looking at his pajama covered belly): “belly button? Belly button hiding”

Brayden (tugging on his pajamas trying to get to his belly): “Belly Button? BELLY BUTTON?”

Brayden (Frantically pulling on his pajamas): “BELLY BUTTON!? BELLY BUTTON LOST. BELLY BUTTON LOST!!!!!” (Hysterical screaming and crying)

We had to strip him down out of his pajamas to prove to him that he still had a belly button…

Christmas Movies

Declen – 2 months, height: 21 ½ inches, weight: 13 pounds

Declen is such a sweet little guy. Over the past few weeks, Declen has started smiling and cooing. I’m pretty sure it’s the sweetest thing in the entire world. Right now he is wearing size 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. He can’t handle when his big brothers cry, so he pouts and cries, too (no sense crying alone!). He is my first chubby baby and I LOVE it! Declen won’t go to sleep in a crib or anywhere for that matter, unless he is physically touching another human being. He’s eating every 2 ½ to 3 hours. For those two reasons, we have discovered that it’s just so much easier for all of us if we co-sleep. He is colicy and despite trying diet changes and various formulas, nothing has helped much. He is MUCH less fussy when I give him reflux medicine (prevacid) and occasionally we get some relief from Colic Calm. He has a lip tie and possibly a tongue tie which could be affecting his ability to eat without swallowing excessive air. He absolutely despises his car seat and will make sure everyone is aware of this, sometimes for the entire duration of the car ride. We have found that he really enjoys swinging and for a while (since our swing motor died) we had to swing the swing by hand. Fortunately, a sweet, longtime friend of my sister (and our family) gave us her children’s old baby swing!! The world is a MUCH better place now with a working swing.

Me

My high blood pressure and gestational diabetes left with the pregnancy, so I don’t have to worry about pricking my finger or taking blood sugar/blood pressure medicine anymore. My recovery from the c-section was pretty smooth (aside from an infection at the incision site that looked/felt/smelled awful but cleared right up with antibiotics). Breastfeeding baby #3 has it’s perks and it’s challenges. On the one hand, I am pumping 18 ounces a day (I ONLY pump when I’m at work which is two times, usually 9:00am and 2:30pm), so it works out to about 9 oz each time I pump. On the other hand, my letdown flat drowns the babe! 

Life with 3 kids is a big adjustment and a sense of humor is vital for survival! I’m pretty sure that every time I think I have my act together, I discover that a) I have my shirt on backwards at work (yesterday), b) we left the van door open all night (Tuesday), c) our toilet has been decorated with dry erase marker (twice in one week! At least is was dry erase!), d) someone mixed up the cat food with cat litter in the cat’s water bowl (Saturday), e)-z) you name it! I DO love it though, and would not trade it for the world! 

My 3 Boys

Since Keith got a job, we would have to put all three kids in daycare which would cost us more than my salary. For this reason, beginning mid-February, I will be transitioning to life as a stay-at-home mom. I’m super excited (and super scared)! I have no idea how to be a stay-at-home mom for ONE child, much less THREE! But God has always provided for us and I know He will continue to do so! I do look forward to actually spending significant time teaching/raising my kids, rather than hoping to spend 2-2 ½ hours with them at the end of the day! It’s a major change, and any advice is welcomed!

Santa's Delivery
Christmas 2013