March 2012

Samiah talking on a play-phone. Christopher "who you talking to?' Sam "uh...a boy."

Samiah threw potato chips in the floor. Christopher "Mia, why did you do that?" Elijah "cuz she could."

Elijah pretending to drink out of empty water guns. Me "whatcha drinking?" Elijah (holding up one) "water" (holding up another one) "chocolate milk" (holding up the last one) "juice coffee".

Elijah getting Sam for me to change her diaper "Samiah Ruth, change diaper now. Go. Come on. Samiah Ruth. Go. Change diaper."

Elijah was standing on one of Sam's toys, and she was grunting and fussing trying to get to it and she says what sounds exactly like, "Whatsa matter with you?"

Getting ready for breakfast, I give both the kids a spoon, Sam got an adult spoon (but one of the little ones), and Eli got one of those plastic baby spoons. He gets into the silverware drawer and pulls out a plastic baby spoon for her. Me "What was wrong with the one she had?" Elijah "It wasn't good enough for her."

Elijah kissed one of the baby dolls and said, "Hello little princess"

Elijah was sitting on the counter and he dropped the Kaleidoscope, and I asked him, "What did you drop?" He said, "The fighting wand"

Me drinking a beverage at McDonald's, Elijah insists that it is "coke", "No Elijah, it's Dr. Pepper, can you say Dr. Pepper." Elijah says "Dr. Coke".

*~*~* I love it so much! Stay tuned for more. *~*~*

NEW NEW NEW

Getting Elijah dressed after his bath. Elijah "I need a shirt". Me "How about this one". Elijah "That one is awesome!" Then, putting his arms through the sleeves, Elijah "I'm stuck, I'm stuck!"

Elijah noticing Samiah's runny nose and trying to tell me I need to suction it "Mia sucks nose."

Wow, I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting something on here. Ive been pretty busy with 3 children, all of my housework, a small crochet business, and just life in general. Let's see if I can do a quick update for everyone without being too long and tedious.

Elijah (just barely 2.5) is learning new words every day. However, he does have a very odd speech pattern. To say Samiah, he really breaks it up into 3 syllables, taking his time Sam-eye-uh. It's almost like three separate words. He's very polite with his "Thanks" and his apologetic hugs. He's also real good at telling Samiah "Don't do that!" (while shaking his finger at her) or even "Come over here" with his gesturing han.

Samiah (who is officially 1.5 yesterday) has several words in her vocabulary now, baby, no, and Mamma being among them. She takes after her Mamma quite a bit, and definitely has the attention span of a 1/yr/old. When doing our "toddler activity" for the day, it usually only keeps her entertained for a few minutes (maybe 15 if I'm lucky), and then she wonders off to play by herself. Whenever we have friends over, she likes to play with them, but she'll take several breaks to play by herself for a while. She's been to Bible Class twice by herself, and does really well with it. So far, she's my social butterfly, not shy or timid toward anyone.

Eliana, just at 2.5 months, can now roll over from stomach to back. She looks JUST like Samiah, and so far is exhibiting a similar personality. She smiles easily enough, but you gotta really work to get her to giggle. She's been sleeping through the night for about a month now. At first I would wake her up in the middle of the night to feed her because I was paranoid, but after her 2 month check-up, where she weighed in at 12 lbs. I decided she could sleep for as long as she wanted. She's my giant baby, born too big for newborn clothes, and outgrown a lot of her 0-3 month clothes already.

I'm doing great. Got bits of depression thrown in, but it's to be expected (postpartum and all that). I was down to my pre-pregnancy weight at 5 weeks postpartum, and I've given myself 6 weeks to get down to my pre-Elijah weight (yeah right!). Got a photography session to be done either the end of April or in May. Christopher and I are planning a kid-free getaway in April (I'm SO excited about that). My crochet business is really taking off with consideration of adding another seller. I'm not making a whole lot with that, but it's enough for me to get a few things that I want/need and wouldn't otherwise ask for. Most sales are coming through facebook with a few through Etsy. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any from my website (which has also recently undergone a make-over). But that's ok because I like using my website for blogging :-)

Christopher is also doing pretty good. He's been spending more time working from his office, which actually works pretty well for all of us. I get more done around the house, I value my time with him more, he gets more done and has more opportunities to set up studies and the such, *the television stays off during the day*, and etc. I love that he has the flexibility to work from home, but things are just happier when he doesn't.

That about sums things up. I hope that wasn't too tedious for the small few who are still on pleonast :-)

I FINALLY got Eliana's birth story written down. If you want the straight facts of the event, check out Chris' blog. If you want the emotional and physical turmoil of the event, then check out my website: http://www.familybugs.net/Family/Entries/2011/12/16_The_Labor_and_Delivery.html

WARNING: I didn't paint a pretty picture. It wasn't a pretty event.

All things considered, I have to remind myself that I finally got the labor/delivery that many women dream about (fast, natural, and medication-free), everything really could not have gone better. But, if I ever do it again (and that is a pretty big IF), and if I have a choice in the matter, I'm not doing it that way every again. Even a week and a half later, looking back, I remember it as my worst birthing experience yet. In my opinion, unless there is a huge health risk, going all natural is just not worth it.

I think that if anyone else asks me where I'm going to put another kid, I might just scream at them. I don't know. I'm sure there will be times when all of them will need to be carried at the same time, and I don't know how I'm going to manage. I don't know what I'm going to do when they all start screaming in the middle of one of Christopher's sermons. When the youngest is hungry, the middle is sleepy, and the oldest is being stubborn. I don't know how I'm going to manage every-day life when my children outnumber my arms. I have cried, stressed-over, wracked my brain, and tried to figure out how things are going to work...but I don't know.

There was a time when I didn't know how I was going to handle two children. I didn't know how I was going to be able to hold one child while feeding the other. I didn't know how I was going to manage a newborn with an untrained 1-yr. old. We figured it out. I learned to carry a child in each arm. That 1-yr. old grew and learned and matured while that newborn was still acclimating to the world. I learned how to manage each child with just one hand.

If you want to ask me where I'm going to put another kid, I will tell you: "I don't know, but we will figure something out." And we will. For the first time, I am not only ok with the idea of not knowing how we are going to manage, but I am looking forward to the challenge. It is something that we aren't going to be able to figure out until we are faced with it. Right now, I don't know where I am going to put another kid, but in four months, I bet I'll be a pro at it...whatever it ends up being. I will learn how to carry a child in each arm with another holding my hand. The testy 2-yr. old will learn his limits. The squirmy 1-yr. old will learn that there are times to be still and quiet and times to run and be loud. We will all figure out a way to manage. I don't know what that way is yet, but it will work for us.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The oldest and the middle have grown and changed so much over the past two months alone! Elijah's verbal development is really starting to take off. He'll repeat everything that we say, and has quite a few words that he will say on his own, unprompted. With Samiah's mobility, has come a spike in maturity. We expect more of her, and she rises to meet that.

I realized the other night that I LOVE having my children so close in age. It has been very difficult for me to get them to be so close in age, but the relationship that Elijah and Samiah have with each other already is just incredible. They play together, they love on each other, they wrestle with each other, they build off of each others humor, they have arguments (or rather "grunt"-uments, that can easily be translated into "You took my toy", "you took it first", "I want it back"). They are both learning to talk at the same time, they are learning from each other. It is a relationship that wouldn't be as amazing if there were years between them instead of just months (well, it might still be amazing, but it wouldn't be the same).

Did you notice that I wrote "they are both learning to talk at the same time"? Because yes, they are. Anther amusing factor in having multiple children is the opposites that occur. Elijah is a late talker, Samiah will be an early talker. Elijah is a super picky eater, Samiah will eat any and everything. Elijah prefers his Daddy, Samiah prefers her Mommy. There are also a lot of similarities thrown in there too. Early walkers. Slow weight-gainers. Loud noise-makers. Easy to bed-ers.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A request to leave you with: prayers for me please! I am going into the final stretch of this pregnancy, and like I always do, I am becoming anxious about the labor, delivery, and recovery. I am determined to have my ideal labor this time, which is basically as God intended: No medical induction, no epidural, no surgery, etc. But it is one of those situations where a lot of it is out of your control and in God's capable hands. I don't know what's going to happen...and there is no way to know. So, yah, prayers would be appreciated. :-)

After she is born and we go through the initial adjustment (about 6-8 weeks), I'm gonna put up an abbreviated version of the start of her adventure (starting from conception), so that's something you can all look forward to ignoring :-P

I am thinking, with all the craziness that has, and will be going on the next couple of months, that a break from pleonast is in order. HOWEVER, I will still be writing on my webpage as time allows (www.familybugs.net for those who need a reminder). Writing is a method of working through things for me, and it's therapeutic for me. BUT, in trying to kick off my crochet sells my writing has been put on hold (sadly).

I've got several more hat patterns that I want to work-up, and I haven't even LOOKED at scarf patterns yet, but eventually they will become available. I have to remind myself that it has only been a week (or two, I forget), and that things like this take a bit of time. Hopefully I'll have a good selection of hat patterns for people to choose from (child AND adult, male AND female), by the next two weeks, and I'm planning on selling my sample hats on etsy, so we'll see how all of that goes. It's just going to take a bit of time to get things started and once I have enough choices for people to choose from I can stop searching and making up NEW hats and just work on CURRENT hats (if that makes sense), and then maybe I can start adding other objects (like scarfs, gloves, other items). Who knows, I might become so popular that someone else would want to join in my selling adventure (to help with back-orders and make a bit of money for themselves)? But, perhaps my hopes are a bit high to start off with?

Please please please check out my page on facebook and invite your friends! This is an internet-driven shop, and word of mouth is going to be one of my best marketing devices.

www.facebook.com/familybugs

AND as soon as I get my etsy shop online, I'll pass on THAT web address as well :-) I appreciate it all!!