Family Update

With baby's arrival soon to happen, I thought it might be nice to do an update an each family member to remember what everybody was doing right before our lives drastically changed. So, from oldest to youngest....

Kevin has been very busy lately. Crabbing has been a different experience for us this year. Instead of Kevin being gone for days at time, he is actually home every night even when he fishes several consecutive days in a row. This is because the boat he's running this year is so small that they fill it up in one day and come back to the dock to unload each night instead of staying out on the ocean for days at a time. On the days Kevin does fish back to back, we don't see him much (he'll get home around 8pm and have to leave around 4am) but the kids really enjoy getting to see him before they go to bed.

A couple of you have asked if we eat crab a lot, so I might as well answer that now. No, we don't for several reasons. One, the guy Kevin works for doesn't want them to take crab home and thus take away from his profit. Two, Kevin could bring some home from his seafood store, but that would take away from the store's profit. And, three, cracking crab is a LOT of work for not much meat and we just don't like to go to all that effort! But we do enjoy eating crab so occasionally Kevin will bring a crab or two home...sometimes without telling me, such as the picture below shows when I walked up to the kitchen sink one night and found this surprise wiggling at me:

Ben soon got in on the action and had fun "torturing" the poor crab with a spatula. But don't worry, we put him out of misery shortly after when we dropped him into a pot of boiling water. :o)

Anyway, back to Kevin....on his off days, he's been working long hours in the backyard building a shed and also working on getting his cars fixed. His cousin Shane has been staying with us off and on over the last few weeks to help.

(yes, Ben is wearing one of Abby's pink boots because I couldn't find his other one! :)

As you can see the shed is coming along and is close to the semi-finished stage Kevin wanted it by time baby arrives. The guys were able to fix Kevin's Geo Metro so he doesn't have to keep driving his pick-up anymore, which had been such a waste of gas money going back and forth to Westport all the time! The Civic is still taken apart in the garage and I'm getting a little antsy about it getting finished before the baby arrives because I want my inside, warm and dry, garage parking spot back! ;o) That part was written last week...I have given up all hope of the car getting fixed and out of the garage before baby arrives. :oP

Sara - I am plugging along with the pregnancy. Honestly, I'm doing better at this point than any previous stage, which is nice. Sure, I can barely bend over and my trips to the bathroom are more and more frequent, but the acid reflux has abated, the temporary carpal tunnel is gone (with Ben it didn't go away until I delivered), and even my overall swelling has gone down a bit (although definitely still there!). My main complaint is fatigue and back/hip pain, but that is to be expected. I try to take a nap every day, but sometimes everything seems stacked against me (i.e. the pounding/sawing/etc going on outside in the backyard, one of the children waking up early, the cat meowing, etc). And, of course, nap time is the best time to get all those little projects done! :o)

40 Weeks!

My biggest concern about labor and delivery is tearing again. That was a very miserable experience for me last time, especially since complications made the healing exceedingly long. I'm also semi-freaked thinking about how I'm going to handle going places by myself with three young kids. Oh, and bedtime (the routine can be trying at times even without a newborn thrown into the mix!). And nursing times (i.e. keeping track of ornery Ben when I'm strapped to the couch). And nighttime wakings (what to do if I'm nursing the baby and Ben is screaming in his room and Abby is hollering that Ben woke her up? :). Thankfully, Kevin will be around a good bit at first, but by May he'll be gone most of the time salmon trolling. Anyway, I know it will all work itself out, but that doesn't mean I'm able to keep myself from worrying about it now. (I know, I need to reread that post I wrote on worthlessness of worrying :o)

I've been keeping busy trying to get various projects done and purging clutter. I finally got all the necessary baby projects done yesterday (i.e. get the baby clothes out, wash the bassinet sheets, put all three car seats in the car, etc), but there are still plenty of other projects to keep my attention if baby tarries a few days. And, actually, at this point I'm hoping baby will hold off until at least Monday because, once again, my doctor is not on duty this weekend. :oP

Sometime in January I gave in and decided to spend the $8 to purchase the Motivated Moms Chore Planner. I had been hoping to devote an entire post to my experience with it, and hopefully I will someday, but for now let's just say I'm decently happy with it and that it has been helpful. If you go to the website to check it out (they have samples to view), be sure to use my link as I'll get a $1 for referring you if you purchase it! :o)

Abby is growing up so quickly! She is quite excited about getting another little brother and talks often about how she will help me with him. She is a wonderful little helper and it is fun to see her grow in that area. She has become quite good at folding washcloths (her main job when helping me with the laundry) and the other day even asked, "Mommy, do we have a load of laundry to do today?" I love how she said WE. :o)

Since the beginning of the year, Abby has gone from just scribbling to actual drawing. We can't always tell what she has drawn without asking, but there are definite shapes and patterns that show she is deliberately drawing things instead of just scribbling. Some of her favorite things to draw are snowmen and caterpillars. She also can write her name now.

She also likes to color in her coloring books and gets them out just about every day. Sometimes Ben will join her. These are the moments I cherish - when brother and sister are happily playing together:

Abby continues to be the slow eater in the family and we often resort to helping her just to speed her up, even she is obviously perfectly capable of feeding herself. In the picture below, Abby had just finished her dinner...and hour and a half after getting into her booster seat. She is quite content to sit there forever, SLOWLY eating a bite every five minutes or so even after everyone else has left the table!

Another recent development is Abby's growth in spiritual matters. We have been going to Sunday School much more regularly over the past few months and Abby loves it! She is no longer afraid to go in alone without Mommy or Daddy, and she looks forward to it every week and likes to share with us what she has learned. It's neat how out of the blue she will say things like, "Mommy, did you know Jesus is God?" and I know that she must have learned it in Sunday School if it's something we hadn't covered at home. She is also learning to pray on her own. Frequently when she gets upset (usually after a squabble with Ben), she will head to her room and about five minutes later she will come out and tell me that she prayed and is much happier now. She also prays for Ben when he's upset that he will have a better attitude too. It is a good reminder for me too that I should take a break and turn to God in prayer when I'm having a bad attitude (if only I could go into my room and shut the door for five minutes too! :).

A few other random things: After a short period of no naps, Abby is back to taking a good 1 to 1 1/2 nap most afternoons, which is nice for Mommy for both kiddos to be sleeping. :o) She has a hard time making up her mind and will switch it often, which can be frustrating (yes, she gets it from me!). Abby continues to love singing and sings songs to herself off and on all day long.

Ben is as ornery and rambunctious as ever, but his sweeter side has been growing lately - much to our relief. :o) One of my favorite things that he does now is hold hands. Ever since he could walk on his own, he refused to hold hands anywhere. But within the last month or so, I guess he realized that holding hands can be nice and isn't just an infringement upon his independence. I love walking around holding hands with my little guy and I especially love it when he initiates it by saying, "Hand, hand!" and lifts up a hand toward me. He also cuddles more now, gives more hugs and like to be held more often. All of these things are very nice, with the exception that a little too much of his affection has been directed toward me, as he is currently going through a "mommy-only" stage (this is hardest for me during the middle of the night, when Kevin would be willing to help but Ben won't let him!). I keep reminding Ben that he's going to have to get over that VERY soon! ;o)

Another recent development that has pleased us very much is that Ben if FINALLY into books! Yay! Just a few weeks ago, he finally sat still enough to listen an entire book (and we're just talking a short baby board-book, people!). Since then, he's been enjoying reading more and more, and can handle longer books and sometimes even several books in a row. Honestly, we were a bit worried that he didn't take to reading early on like Abby did, so we are quite relieved that he is finally showing interest in reading and it's so fun for us to have him bring a book on his own for us to read to him.

Ben is no longer obsessed with lights (for months he talked about lights all the time and pointed them out wherever we went). Now his current obsession is his Aunt Becky. He LOVES Aunt Becky and asks for her at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes a hundred times a day. No joke. I think part of it is that he just likes to say her name, but other times he goes to the window and looks out to where she usually parks her car and asks for her. He also occasionally brings me the phone and asks to call her. And everywhere we go he looks for her too, such as church, the grocery store, etc. And whenever he sees the Pepsi logo he points to it and says, "Becky, Becky!" since that is her favorite drink.

Some of his top interests right now: money (especially coins to put in his piggy bank - he always asks anyone who comes in the door for money and will even try to dig into their pants pocket!), cars and trucks, boots (he loves to wear his boots around the house and, as long as their clean, I've given up trying to get him to stop), and playing at the kitchen sink.

Ben thinks boots are proper attire even with jammies!

Ben's talking abilities and vocabulary increase daily. He talks "gibberish" less and less, and is becoming more understandable all the time. He's starting to speak in short sentences and phrases. One of his most common is, "Wook, Mommy, wook!" when he wants to get my attention. He also likes to help direct me and anticipates where he wants me to set something by saying, "Right there!" When he is mad, he angrily says, "Push it, push it!" and then proceeds to push the object of his frustration or whatever is closest to him, which is often Abby (oh the joys of dealing with that day after day! :oP ). He also likes to add a y-sound onto many words, such as carsy for car, shoesies for shoes, and milky for milk and water.

Ben has just recently started to show his own interest in prayer. He and Abby are both quick to remind us if we begin a meal without praying. Ben says, "Amain! Amain!" and folds his hands. Sometimes he will even ask at random times to pray and, very recently, he will ask us to pray again and again at bedtime by saying, "More, more, Amain!" And speaking of bedtime, it has been going much better lately. Ben loves to stand and sway when we sing "Jesus Loves Me" and he can even sing parts of the song by himself too. Both kids have been going down with less fussing and crying...much to Kevin's and my relief! :o)

Kudos to anyone who actually read through this terribly long post! When I do these long, summarizing posts like this, I know that my readers will be bored but I do it mostly for us so that we can have a snapshot of our lives before everything changes and we forget! Perhaps my next post will be to announce baby boy's arrival... ;o)