Life Changes

So my mom says I need to do more blogging, because I always tell her the random things the kids do, but never get it written down. I've already forgotten all but one of the stories I was supposed to blog about. I guess I'll just share the one.

A couple weeks ago Gabriel and I were cuddling on the couch, he needed to chill out before Mommy was committed. He was holding his "baby" aka a little blue elephant he hauls everywhere and his "sister" aka the little lion with a mane he got for his last birthday. His "sister" was introduced to the family when he finally accepted that #3 was in fact going to be a boy. We were sitting there and he looked up at me so seriously and said, "Mommy my sister needs to nurse." I told him to go ahead and nurse her. He looked back at me pretty indignantly and said, "I'm a boy, yooouuu have to nurse her." So he held her up to my shirt (yes she can nurse through clothes) for a good 20 minutes before she got full. Funny boy he hasn't seen me nurse for nearly 2 years now, but it must have made quite an impression on him.

About that #3...I'm now at 35 weeks. That means in two weeks I'll begin my labor dance. We have NO name. We're lousy namers and have given up on even trying to talk about names before we can see what they look like. My brother and sister-in-law call him Baby 'G'. I really, really want to avoid another 'G' name, but I thought baby 'G' was super cute. This has been a crazy painful pregnancy; my hips and legs and well everything have hurt the whole time. Movement is really more than I can make myself do most of the time. According to the old wives tale, with the amount of heartburn I've had lately this kid better have a TON of hair when he's born. I've been sick for most of it, there were a very few weeks in the middle that I wasn't puking or about to puke. That just gets annoying and makes me cranky. Yeah nausea cranky on top of two destructo machines, on top of I can't bend over or eat more than 2 bites, on top of I'm still trying to get settled into the house we moved into almost 7 years ago, not such a good combo.

I have to give a little brag time to Stephen, I am the luckiest wife ever. He's willing to help with kids and housework, and even go shopping. He now has an extensive collection of pictures of me sleeping in random places. I guess as long as he doesn't wake me up he can take all the pictures he wants. He was even able to keep the kids quiet enough one day to let me sleep till 10 am. This was quite a feat because the only time the boys are quiet is when they are sick. I was happy to see that I still have the ability to sleep that long. Sometimes I get so excited to think that some day they'll be teenagers and we can all sleep in all morning. :-D

Lastly, the big 3-0 hit this week. It was a little hard. It's one thing to feel old, but still be able to say you're in your 20's; but now I just feel old... Next year I'll be that old lady standing in the hall at school to pick up my kindergartner. What a strange new stage of life I'm entering. We had a family dinner at my mom's house. Gabriel and Garrett helped Papa wrap my gift. They were sooo excited about my surprise that they got to help Papa with. I was excited to open it and see that it was some more of the shelfreliance can rotators. Costco had them for cheaper than buying online. Woo-hoo!! When we got home that night I found a yummy surprise waiting for me at the door from a sweet friend. Stephen saw it and said, "Ahhhh, look somebody likes you." He's such a romantic. What a fun surprise! Gabriel thought it was "so cool dude". We're not sure where he picked up dude from, but he uses it in his sentences correctly so we'll just let it go.

Garrett carries on a Christmas Tradition

Ever since Gabriel was born we've been in the Urgent Care every single Christmas or Christmas Eve, except last year. I thought we were going to get lucky again this year....until Garrett woke up Christmas Eve morning with a fever of 102. I thought we could manage it and just tough it through...till he came in screaching that his ear hurt. GRRRR, an ear infection, his FIRST ever, and of course it had to hit on the 24th. We headed into Urgent Care once again this year. I knew he wouldn't travel to Bisbee well if his ear hurt. The Doctor confirmed he had an ear infection. I thought we'd managed to get out of the ear infection fun with Garrett. That's what I get for counting my blessings too soon. :-)

What is it with these kids? Is it too much to ask to develop a fever on the 23rd or 26th when it would only be a $15.00 co-pay, instead of the Urgent Care fee?

We're grateful that it was only an ear infection; during one of our traditional Christmas trips we discovered Gabriel had pneumonia. We're also grateful that he waited to get his first ear infection until his language had developed well enough to tell us that it was his ear that hurt.

I love traditions!

Gabriel's Christmas Joke

We've had the busiest Christmas ever!! Maybe I'll get pictures posted....maybe not. I'm having some serious nesting urges set in, which means I must get ready for little our little "baby boy Maskey" to arrive. I have to get this written so I don't forget.

While we were eating Christmas breakfast Stephen told Gabriel a joke that went like this:

Why was six afraid of seven?
Because seven eight (ate) nine.

Yeah, real knee slapper, considering Gabriel hasn't learned about homophones yet. Gabriel was not about to be out done, so he made up his own joke right there on the spot. It went like this:

Why was the booger afraid of the tissue?
Because it was gonna get blown out.

I'm always a little worried when something begins with booger or some other bodily function. I think it was a pretty cute joke for a 4 year old to come up with. We all got a good laugh, and a great start for our Christmas Day.

We are never sure what will come out of these kids mouths, it keeps like exciting.