YOU KNOW YOU'RE PREGNANT WHEN...

...you are sitting in the room next to your daughter and you can smell that she has a poopy diaper.

My nose works as well as a "hound dog" these days.
The other day, I could smell the peanut butter sandwich Jackson was eating while he sat in our living room watching T.V. - I was sitting on the couch behind him, about ten feet away.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE PREGNANT WHEN...

...you struggle to stay awake past 8:00 p.m. and find yourself in bed before your 4-year-old at least two nights a week.

Naptime + cooperative kids = one happy mom!

Every day, between the hours of 1 - 3 p.m., the only sounds coming from our house can be heard by the dishwasher, my fingers typing away at the keyboard, and the occasional "whisper voices" coming from my "big kids" room.
While napping is mandatory for all my little ones, I give my big kids (Jackson, Dawson, Gwen, and John) the option to nap or take quiet time. If they choose quiet time, the rules they need to follow are: they must use whisper voices, and they must stay in their own beds while doing quiet activites (reading books and puzzles). Yes, I know it may seem like a lot -to ask 3 and 4 year olds to be quiet in the same room together for 1 - 2 hours at a time, but beleive it or not, they do a pretty darn good job!
Of course, we have our moments (in which I have gone in and needed to seperate one or two of the kids by bringing them out into the hallway or onto the couch), but overall, the teacher in me gives all my big kids a "B+" for their willingness and cooperation efforts at naptime.
As far as my little ones (Jessica, Carson, Natalie, and Easton), they all get A++...never any problems.
I feel lucky to have such great kids and daycare kids!

At last! A Snowman!!

After dinner tonight, Jason and I took the kids outside to play for awhile...
much to our surprise, the snow was actually pretty decent snowman-building-weather.

And, here's the nice snowman Jason and Jackson made...


A few other pictures from our night...

Another little riddle for you...

What is about three and a half feet tall...




weighs about 36 pounds...




is an omnivore...




whose best friend is an herbivore...




and never misses the opportunity to ask a question or talk your ear off about something that interests him...









:) It's Jackson! :)

Last Friday, Jackson had his 4-year-old doctor checkup.
He measures about 41 inches tall, which places him within the 25th percentile for height (as compared to other boys his age in the U.S.).
He weighs in at a whopping 36 pounds, placing him in between the 25th and 50th percentile for weight.
Jackson has a blood pressure of 86/55, which, I guess is normal and good for a boy his age.
The doctor said he has all the teeth he is going to get (minus any wisdom teeth, of course).
While we were there, a vision test and a hearing test were performed on Jackson; both tests came back perfectly normal.

All in all, we have a healthy little guy, growing and developing just as he should!
--comforting news for any parent to receive.

Oh, and fyi - "Steggy," the stegosaraus dinosaur is the herbivore best bud!

Jessica's big-girl bed.

I'm happy to report Jessica is doing just great sleeping in her big girl bed.
She lays right down for her nap and at bedtime. So far, she has not been climbing off her bed to either play or come out of her room; instead, she will wake up talking or crying until Jason and I go in and get her.
Because we do sleep with all our bedroom doors open at night, we have gotten into the habit of closing our stairway gate at night --this is a precautionary measure we have decided upon to ensure our lovely daughter doesn't take a tumble in the middle of the night (that is, if she ever decides to venture off her bed and come out of her room).

What a BIG GIRL!...


Uhhh...not sure why exactly she chose to sleep sideways in her bed on this particular day??




One BIG step we can cross off on our "to-do-list-before-baby-comes!"
Next, it's on to the potty-training. Yikes! Wish us luck.

Mom and Dad get stomach flu.

All I have to say is, "YUCK" --what a HORRIBLE illness!!

Sunday afternoon the stomach flu began to show its ugly face within my body. Jason came down with it around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night.

Within three hours of its onset, I had checked myself in to the hospital and was receiving intravenous fluid and anti-nausea medications. After 3 liters of fluid and a double dose of the anti-nausea medication, I was feeling much better.
Baby girl seems to be doing just fine as well.
Jason was able to take a dissolvable tablet for his nauseasness (a prescription I had filled earlier when I was at the hospital), so he was able to improve his condition almost immediately.
We took Monday to re-group, and are both feeling much better and back at work today.

Quit getting up at 5 a.m.!!

Or this is what happens...
Daddy and Jessie are trying to catch a few more ZZZZ's while laying on the couch. Makes for a cute picture, but gets old very quickly!

More outdoor fun...

Yesterday afternoon, the sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid-30's (pretty nice weather considering what it's been like around here recently); so, after the kids woke up from their naps, we went back outside for some more winter weather fun.

Jackson had fun sledding down the small hill on the side of our house.


Jessie insisted I give her a stroller ride. Although she couldn't really move her arms, she seemed to enjoy the short walk around the block.


I guess this coat is a tinch too big...
She liked it because she didn't have to wear her mittens; she could just keep her hands warm by placing them inside her sleeves.


Check out these wheels...


Thanks Grandpa Mark and Bonnie for this super nice wagon! The kids love it.


And, this is what we did with the box the wagon came in...


although a large refrigerator box would work better, the kids had a fun time squeezed into this space for a little while.
You can tell by the expression on Jessica's face, that "little while of fun time" was just about to end...

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday everybody!

While we were playing outside this morning, Jason and Jackson made a snow fort. Jackson was so proud of it that asked me to take a picture so he could show all his grandmas and grandpas his "cool" fort...




Wishing every day could be filled with fun and exciting snow-fort-building moments like these!

No more crib for Jessica!

Early this morning, at about 4:15 a.m., Jason and I heard a giant thud which came from Jessica's room. When we went in to investigate, we realized our worst fears had come true...

To all the grandmas that are reading this right now, please calm down...
she is fine!

We found her kneeling on the floor; actually, we believe she must've fallen onto her side or her bottom --definitely not onto her head though.

SO, this afternoon, Jessica will be allowed to enjoy one final rest in her crib during naptime (since I have a video monitor, I feel comfortable doing this). Then, tonight, our little Jessica will begin a new chapter of her life as a "big girl" sleeping on a "big girl bed" (a matress layed on the floor).
I will keep you posted to let you know how she does with it.

Stomach flu hits our household.

Tuesday afternoon, during naptime, the kids (Dawson, Gwen, Jackson who were all in the same room for quiet time) started yelling for me. I went in the room to find Jackson had vomitted in his bed. Gwen was crying because she was scared, Dawson was just in a daze, and poor Jackson continued to vomit on his way to the bathroom --all over the hallway, bathroom floor and finally into the toilet. This was the first time Jackson had ever really vomitted (there was one other time when he was about 16 months old, he threw up once while he slept in his crib), so as you can imagine, he was pretty freaked out. After calming both Jackson and the other two kids (I had Gwen and Dawson stay in the room and finish out their naptime). Jackson moved out onto the couch with me and continued to vomit about every 20 - 30 minutes. Our poor little guy was SO miserable! I ended up taking him in to the clinic later that afternoon; he was given a tablet to dissolve in his mouth to help reduce his feelings of nausea. This medicine lasted in his system 6-8 hours, so although he still vomitted, it was less frequent and he was able to play "catch up" a little bit with his fluid intake.
It turned into a long, sleepless night for all four of us - Jessica began to vomit at about 8:00 that night. Her vomitting episodes only lasted for a few hours, totaling four times in all. Jessica did not run any fever. Jackson's vomitting episodes lasted for a full 12 hours, totaling about 12 times in all. Jackson ran a low-grade fever for most of the night.
We were all exhausted by morning; luckily, Jason was able to stay home from school on Wednesday (and, of course, I cancelled my daycare) so we were all able to rest and the kids could heal.
Both Jackson and Jessica are doing just fine now. It is Thursday morning and I have daycare as usual, and Jason is off to school for the day.
We hope all of you are healthy and well.

Our two little artists.

The kids were busy coloring pictures to give their cousin, Maddie, for her birthday party today.

Jackson did a great job coloring this pretty pony...



And, Jessica...



well, let's just say, she's not quite ready for magic markers yet... I guess we're going to have to stick with crayons for awhile...

Fun times at Lisa's daycare...

Ahhh, yes, it's great to be a kid!

Jessica: the not-so-good roomate!

Up until today, Jessica has never had to share a room with anyone. It just so happened to work out today, however, that I needed to put John (a daycare child of mine) in the room to nap with Jessie. John has his own bed on the floor and Jessica is still in her crib.
After I put Jessica (and the other little ones) down for their naps, I relax on the couch with all the big kids for storytime. Today our storytime took at least 15 minutes, then the big kids took turns going potty --so, about 20 minutes after I had put Jessica down, she was still not sleeping. Instead, she was just laying quietly in her bed playing with her hair. No doubt that she was well on her way to dreamland when John and I entered the room; she stood up to greet us with a great big smile and then watched as I helped John get cozy in his bed on the floor. While passing her on my way out, I put a finger to my lips and whispered, "shhhh...it's naptime time." Yeah, as if she was just going to say "ok, mommy" and then lay right down and go to sleep! As I exited the room, I thought of how Jessica will soon be sharing a room with Jackson (we plan to make that transition in the next month or two so they are both used to sleeping together by the time the baby comes); so, this experience is a good thing for her. Nonetheless, I knew it was going to be a little bit of a struggle...
I was right. About 10 minutes later, I hear Jessica begin to cry. I went into her room, she had pulled down her blanket (which hangs on the side of her crib to block the light shining in from the window, but more importantly today, was blocking her view of John on the floor), and she was standing up pointing towards John as she cried.
Luckily, John is the "world's best sleeper" --I mean it, this boy can sleep through ANYTHING, just as he seemed to be doing at the moment with Jessica having a meltdown five feet away from him.
For about the next twenty minutes, our routine went something like this:
I layed her back down, she began crying again (about 10 minutes after I left the room), layed her back down, she began crying again (about 5 minutes after I left the room), layed her back down, began crying again (about 2 minutes after I left the room)...each time, her cry was less hard and she seemed to finally be "dealing" with the fact that she was going to have to share her room for naptime today. The fourth time I went in to her room, she laid herself down before I could even touch her and she closed her eyes and went to sleep!
Since then, it has been 45 minutes of peace and quiet in our house. Finally, all the little ones are snoozing and mom is enjoying some much needed break time!

Daddy's little girl

Today is both Jason and my first day back at work. Jason is back to teaching and I have daycare here at the house (we've been on Christmas break since Dec. 23).
Overall, we had an excellent time, as a family, over break. There is one issue our family deals with on a regular basis (when Jason is home) that is sort of bothersome...
The problem we are facing is Jessica being such a HUGE daddy's girl. And I don't just mean the occasional wanting to be held by daddy, we are talking about a full blown "obsessive need" for her father.
For example, whenever she wakes (from her naps or in the morning) her first words out of her mouth are always, "dadda... dadda... where's dadda?" When we ride in the car as a family, she will sometime cry for Jason to hold her. At the grocery store, daddy has to be the one pushing the cart she is sitting in, or else he has to be holding her. Whenever Jessica gets hurt, "dadda" is who she calls for. Jason puts her to bed every night (while I read books to Jackson). And, when Jason comes home from work, Jessica will run to him and wine for him to hold her... UGH! I know, I know, poor Jason. Believe me, he's not too happy with this stage she is going through. We are in the process of coming up with a "game plan" of how to resolve this issue, or if it's going to be something she just has to outgrow?...goodness, we hope not!
Since Jackson did not really have a severe attachment to either of us (if anything, we would label him as more of a mamma's boy than anything else); this is totally new and uncharted territory for our family to be dealing with. If any of you have any ideas, we are open for suggestions. Email me, or feel free to leave your comment below.

Oh, and btw, she is totally fine today (on days when Jason is not around). We only have this problem on weekends and during holiday breaks when Jason is home; otherwise, she is as happy as can be. She plays with her daycare friends very well. Towards me, she is affectionate and loving, even more so when Jason is not around. She will still call for Jason when she is hurt, but other than that, she is a completely content little girl... only turns on her winey, "I need my daddy" switch the minute he walks through the door.

Here's a picture of the little "cling-on" as Jason refers to her...

2010 New Year's Resolutions.

Well, it's that time of year again...
Actually, last year was the first year (that I can recall anyways) I set a New Year's resolution and accomplished my goal --which was to run 300 miles in the year 2009. At about the same time my '09 resolution was made, I became a member of our local YMCA AND pulled out several of my old exercise videos to do at home...yep, I was determined to lose the baby weight I put on while pregnant with Jessica, and I wanted to feel "fit" again.
I'm happy to say, I accomplished (in fact, exceeded) my 2009 fitness goals. This was a huge boost for my physical and mental health, plus, it boosted the confidence I have in myself as a mother of two (almost three) young children to be able to still make the time for myself to workout. And, as an added bonus, I made a new group of friends while working out at the Y; it's been a great social outlet, and helps keep me motivated to stay on track. Also, I discovered I enjoy, and sometimes prefer, different methods of exercise: group strength training, step aerobics, and boot camp classes are among my newly discovered ways to maintain my fitness. Running, however, still holds a "special place in my heart" (afterall I've been a runner, off and on, since my freshman year in HS). So, I've decided to set two fitness goals for myself:

2010 Fitness Goals:
1. Continue to exercise six hours a week.
- During pregnancy: maintain heart rate of 120-140 bpm during exercise
- After baby comes: bump up intensity to improve my overall level of fitness
to where I was pre-pregnancy.
2. Run a 5k road race in 25 minutes or less.

2010 Personal Goals:
1. Read 5 books for enjoyment.
2. Continue to expand and improve my cooking knowledge and techniques.

It's been great reading about and hearing about others 2010 resolutions. Thanks for sharing.