RSV

I freaking love The Office.

Anyway, I figure I better start blogging again before I get so far behind I never catch up. So even though there is a LOT I want to talk about, I'm just going to start where we're at right now and hopefully the rest will follow in future posts.

So, I currently have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. What?! When and how did this happen?? Did I mention the 2 year old is a SON and the 3 month old is a DAUGHTER? I'm just, I dunno, in awe of the blessings that are Thatcher Benjamin and Vada Marie. Life is just wild, WILD I tell you!

Thatcher's birthday was a lot of fun, we went to the Children's Museum in Downers Grove where my dad and our friends the Papageorges (minus Dave) met us for some fun. Then that night we had a family party with Ben's parents and my mom. Thatcher continues to amaze us every day with all that he learns and says. He talks non-stop, and sometimes I have to act as translator to his "Thatcher-ese," but a lot of it other people are starting to understand too. He is wild funny and so active, and just adores his baby sister, who he affectionately calls "baby Vee-ah." He had his first ever ear infection, an then what will forever go down in history as "the time the kids had RSV." SUCK. RSV sucks, being sick sucks, winter now sucks. I'm not complaining though ;)

Vada Marie graced us with her presence 3 months ago and words cannot sufficiently describe the love and joy she has brought to us. I am currently working on her birth story, I'm about 90% done. I think she looks like my baby pictures, with some Thatcher and some of my Grandpa mixed in. She has dimples on both cheeks but the right one is a little stronger, and boy do we love to kiss those dimples. She talks and coos and makes rasberries, lifts up her head tall and strong during tummy time, has rolled over a few times and her absolute favorite thing to do right now is to be sitting straight up or standing so she can look around. She smiles at everyone and you can really tell she gets a kick out of her big brother, and loves him so. Vada had such a great eating and sleeping schedule going on, but being sick and these meds have thrown a wrench in that :( I think she is finally on the upswing, she is such a trooper. Oh, and she's following her big brother's growing patterns, currently weighing in at 15lbs at 3 months old...

So now we're just waiting on our doctor's appointment Wednesday to see if we are going to keep their baptism/birthday party for this Sunday. Can't wait to see how this all unfolds!

Ketchup

My oh my I am quite behind in my postings.

Vada Marie was born.
My sweet beautiful grandma passed away.
Vada's first holidays, including a wonderful visit from Sam & Amanda on Turkey Day and a great Christmas.
A new year.
And now my baby sister is turning 24, my baby boy is turning 2, and my baby girl is turning 3 months.

I have a lot to catch up on.

Pee pee in the pot-eh!

In one of the Look Who's Talking movies, Mikey finally uses the potty and John Travolta and Kirstie Alley sing "Pee pee in the pot-eh! Pee pee in the pot-eh!" Ok maybe you had to be there. BUT it is significant today because:

Thatcher went pee-pee in the potty!

Ben made me get a little potty for Thatcher a LONG time ago, I want to say around Thatcher's first birthday. It has been sitting in our bathroom next to our toilet, and Thatcher knows what it is but mostly plays with the bucket inside, using it as a hat. Ben has tried many many times in the past to get Thatcher to pee in it by sitting next to him for long stretches of time, reading him a book or something. But he has never actually peed in it.

Fast forward to today. (We have not mentioned his potty in a long time). I have been having a lot of pressure "down there" lately so I decided we would just hang out at home today so I could rest. I took off his pj's and put on a clean diaper (we have learned that he likes to take his diaper off if he does not have pants or a onesie on to stop him). I let him run around in his diaper, he took it off as usual but this time he pointed at the potty and said something in his jibber jabber language. So I put him on the potty and sat next to him for almost 20 minutes reading him a book while he drank some juice. Nothing. So we put the diaper back on and went about our day. Not too long after that he took off his diaper and asked for the potty again. This time I gave him some goldfish crackers to munch on while sitting there. Only a few minutes went by and he looked down at his penis so I looked too and I could see pee! I was so excited but I gave him a minute before getting him up. Sure enough, there was a lot of pee! I praised him over and over again.

This may have been a fluke, he may not do this again till next year for all I know. But I think it shows that he might be ready to really start trying this since he asked me to do it with no prompting. We shall see. If anything I have something to write in his baby book :) He is one smart cookie!

Not every day...

...can be a good day.

Today my heart is heavy. I feel attacked in the earthly and spiritual sense. This too shall pass, I know. I just wish it didn't have to be the way it is in the first place.

Cold Turkey

So a little over a week ago Thatcher hid both of his bottles on me. I decided that was as good a day as any to try and make the official switch over to sippy cups only. I am happy to report that Thatcher has done great and no longer uses bottles at all. At first I was worried that he wasn't drinking as much, but slowly as the week has gone on he has become a pro and sucks down all the liquids I give him. I personally miss the bottles. They were way more convenient, easier to clean, I knew he was getting hydrated, and they don't drip or leak AT ALL. But alas, they are put away until the baby needs them :)

Last night we decided to try our first family movie night. I bought Toy Story so we gave it a try. Thatcher sat inbetween Ben and I on the couch, and he watched EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of it! It was the cutest thing ever! He was so into it and kept pointing at the screen saying things. I think he might have been a little confused that his Woody doll was on the TV, but he loved it. The movie was over around 7pm, and normally he would have been heading to bed soon, but we (or I) decided it was the perfect fall night to run to Starbucks and get a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Thatcher was in his pjs and we went in instead of going through the drive through. Good thing we did because Ben knew the barista and we got all of our drinks for free.

To add to the sudden gorgeous fall weather, Amy Bagwell (darn cute preggo) is in town and it's Frankfort Fall Fest weekend, WOO-HOO! Ben dropped me off and picked me up at the Fest today so I could shop with Amy and her family, I lasted 4 hours :) But today was just a day to scope things out, the real shopping will commence tomorrow...

Dear Thatcher

Dear Thatcher,

I wanted to write you a letter to tell you how special our time together this summer has been. Before I even typed the second letter, I started crying my eyes out :) Don't worry, it's happy tears. I'm crying because I am overwhelmed with joy and love when I think about you, and when I think about all the special memories we have together as a family, and as mother and son. I make it a point to cherish every day we have together, just the two of us, because soon your baby sister will be joining us. I know you probably won't remember much of your life before the age of 3 or 4, so I wanted to journal it for you in a sense.

Last summer you weren't walking yet, and it was a nice cool mild summer. It never got too hot. This summer, not only can you walk but you can RUN, and you can especially outrun me because I am big and pregnant. And it has been HOT. We have done a lot together this summer, play dates with friends, the zoo, the children's museum, and the public pool. Some days we just hang out with each other at home too, playing outside, going for walks, or watching cartoons.

One of my favorite memories this summer has been taking you to Joliet Splash Station. That's where the picture above is taken. We would go at least once a week, tried for 2, and sometimes even got a third day in. I was very proud of myself for taking you there on my own, and I was very proud of you because you were always a good boy there for me. We would arrive, find a chair, put on sunscreen, and then you were off and running into the pool. You LOVED it and squealed with glee every time. We would spend about a half hour to 45 minutes in the pool, sometimes we would go in the lazy river, but then we would take a break to go eat. We usually shared a bosco stick or a soft pretzel. You loved dipping your food, whether it be in ketchup, cheese, or marinara sauce. I loved to watch you as you sat with me at the table eating, enjoying our sunny day together. Then after we ate we would dip in the pool for about another 20 minutes, then we would head home.

Thatcher I love you more than words can say, you are more than I ever could have dreamed of. Even though we have a new family member coming soon, you will always be my first baby, my first son and I promise to always make time for just me and you. I cannot wait to see you as a big brother; I know you will adore your sister and she will absolutely adore you. Protect her and love her always; she is your family.

Love and many blessings,
Mommy

My dream house.

Thatcher and I are sitting here on the computer waiting for the house appraiser to come. He gave us the window of 9:30 to 10:30. I'm really clueless as to how all of this works, but 5 years ago when we bought the house we took out two loans, and the one loan is coming due this year, September 1st. With the new baby coming and the loan coming due, we thought we'd give selling the house a shot. We only had two showings, and really the thought of packing up and moving 7-9 months pregnant or with a newborn is not too appealing to me. So we pulled the house off the market to refinance. Now the prayer is that it appraises high enough for us to be able to refinance. If not, we owe a lot of money very soon.

My dream house is one that allows me to have a place for my family that is safe, clean, and cozy, where we are all together. The house we have now provides all of that. Even as I sit here I am tearing up because of how blessed we are. This is our first home, where a lot of our blood sweat and tears went into making it a cozy place for our family. I really do love this house and I know I will cry a lot when we eventually move and leave it. People keep asking me "What are you going to do??" in regards to bringing another baby home without a bedroom just for that baby. Well hello, what would you do if you were in this situation? You would survive and make the best out of it. People throughout time have had a lot less space with a lot more kids than this. Our family will have no choice but to be close and spend a lot of time together :) We will list the house again in the spring, and see how things go. Waiting allows us to save more money, and I believe God has the right buyer and seller in mind for us in His timing. We are very blessed that we don't have a huge house to try and sell that has lost $100k in value. We have a very humble home that I really think we can break even on.
So, with all that being said, here are some things I would love in our next house (my "dream" house):
A fenced in backyard.
A breezeway (I grew up with one and just happened to have one now, it's weird to me when houses don't have them).
A basement? (Not sure about this one, we are fine without a basement now, and not having to worry about a basement flooding is kind of nice)
A master bedroom with a master bath (and if that bath could have 2 sinks that would be wonderful).
A master bedroom big enough so that our bed can be in the middle of it instead of one side pushed up against a wall, so we can both have a nightstand.
At least 2 other bedrooms for our children/guests.
A big beautiful kitchen and dining area. I love to have people over.
A nice open floor plan. Some houses are "big," but they are broken up so much they feel small.
A second bathroom.
I would prefer an older house with character instead of a cookie cutter house.
Garages aren't really a big deal to Ben and I, so one big enough for one car is fine.
A lovely safe neighborhood, like the one we live in now. We love this location.
WALK IN CLOSETS. LOTS OF CLOSETS. CLOSETS EVERYWHERE. (I really do miss having closet space).
A porch in front and/or a deck in back.

I think that about sums it up.
And FYI, the guy didn't come until just after 10:30. Way to push it mister.