Busy, Busy, Busy and Funny

You know, as I was typing that title, I found myself thinking tht I must have misspelled the word "busy." It just doesn't look right for some reason.

Anyway, busy has been how things have been lately. We have found ourselves going to bed late most nights, then getting up early and just going and going. Benjamin has still been with us and he has been an incredible help. His time at our house is at an end, though.

I have been trying to convince Kathy that he needs to come back to our house after his doctor's appointments and that I should just keep him...at least until the end of the summer, but she will not agree to it. She says that she misses him to much. Can you believe that?! What about how much we will miss him? And especially what about how much Samantha will miss him?! She just has no sympathy! ;)

Yesterday, we went to Ladies Bible Class and the luncheon afterward and then left straight from there to meet Kathy in San Marcos. The plan was for the kids to sleep most of the way. They did sleep. Jacob for 1.5 hours and Samantha for one hour, but our 2.5 hour trip took a little more than 3 hours because of rain and stop and go traffic from north of Round Rock to south of Austin. So there was a little bit of grumpy time for Jacob before we finally got to San Marcos.

Samantha tried to amuse him by singing, and that seemed to help a little. Then she asked me "Mommy, when will I get a baby like J-bub?" "When you are all grown up and married, honey," was my answer. I couldn't help but smile. Isn't she a little young for this? But it was still very cute.

We met Kathy at around 3:45, shopped a tiny bit, and came on to San Antonio. Right now, Kathy and Benjamin are at the hospital for his first doctor appointment, and Samantha, Jacob and I are at the hotel room. I knew we would be having quite a bit of hotel time , so I brought plenty of toys. For Jacob. That's right, I didn't remember to bring a single thing for Samantha to play with. Ugh. What a great mom thing to do, huh?

Fortunately Aunt Kathy came to the rescue. She brought some toys that Benjamin has outgrown to send home with us, including a huge tub of duplos. So Samantha has something to play with after all. Yeah Aunt Kathy! You are our hero!

Well anyway, since I am here with my kids, and don't have a single chore to get done...I think I will spend some time playing with them. Talk to you later!

A Week of Cousins

Benjamin has been with us since July 9. And then last Monday evening Staci and her kids came to stay with Brent's parents for the week. That means that our kids had all 4 of their first cousins in the same place all week long. That doesn't happen very often. So we went over there every day. Trying to get 3 kids up and out the door in addition to cooking and cleaning and trying to run our household somewhat normally is not the easiest thing in the world, so blogging fell a little behind.


So here is a glimpse of how much our kids love and have fun with their cousins :)




I am so glad that we live so much closer to everyone. We will have so much more family time AND, we will see Dave and Staci and their kids a lot more often since we will see them every time they come to see Brent's parents.

We also live much closer to my family and won't have to worry about dealing with traffic to get there. Yeah for closer to family and small towns!

To My Sister

From a tiny baby to taller than your big sister. Through sharing a room, clothes and shoes. Sharing ups and downs, joy and sorrow. Sharing our kids. I am so glad you are my sister and my friend. Happy Birthday!

Sadness

I found out the other day that one of my friends is having twins. My first thought was that I am so happy for her. How exciting! Also scary to have TWO babies to take care of when just one is so much work. But exciting more than anything.

That thought was almost immediately followed by silent tears.

What is this?

I have said for quite some time that I am grateful there is only one of Jacob. I don't think there is any way I could have handled twins. And yet, I am crying because I don't have twins...because the baby who would have been Jacob's twin is already in heaven and I don't get to ever feel that sweet little one in my arms on this earth.

Apparently my head and my heart are still having a disconnect. I wonder if that will always be the way it is? I'm beginning to think so. That there will be times when I am surprised by that grief again. Just when I thought everything was fine.

A Visit With Benjamin

Benjamin has been coming to spend a week or two with us every summer since he was three. This year we have him for 2.5 weeks...and I still think I should keep him for the whole rest of the summer. He is great about playing with Samantha and reading to her. He even helped her go potty yesterday. And having an mother's helper around the house is just a little bit of the reason I like having him around. He is really a sweet, loving kid, and I enjoy just spending time with him as he grows up. I certainly hope he never gets too "grown up" to spend part of the summer with us.

Monday's Child - Life According to Samantha

Samantha has all kinds of interesting ways of seeing the world. I thought I would share some of her references with you...and make sure that I can remember them later, too.

"Benjin"
Her own special name for Benjamin. I think it's so cute, that I may just start calling him Benjin, myself, so that the adorable way of saying it is perpetuated. His mom already refers to him as Benjin anytime she is talking to Samantha, so why shouldn't I, too?


"My baby Ja-bub"
She is definitely possessive of her brother. We frequently hear her state (very strongly, I might add) "Him MY baby Ja-bub!" Then we have to remind her that yes, he is her baby brother, but he is also Mommy and Daddy's baby.



"Mine 'oggy boots"
Absolutely necessary for walking around in the country. I didn't tell her that we were looking for boots for her when we went to the store, but as soon as we got to the shoe section, she saw these and yelled "Mine 'oggy boots!" So I told her that as long as they had them in her size, we would get them. She was SOOO happy that they did have them in her size. It is never a problem to get her to put them on...but we do have to work on getting her to leave them on the entire time she is outside rather than taking them off somewhere and walking back to the house barefoot. I guess she does take after me sometimes :)

"Foot flops"
Great for anytime the froggy boots are too much...as long as she manages to get them on the right feet.



"I making him happy, Mommy"
Hmm...it looks to me like you are making him cry more rather than less...but at least you are trying to help him feel better.



"Yucky charms"
One of her favorite snacks for anytime of the day or night.



" Mine willy, willy 'ig bed."
As opposed to her "'ig bed" which is the toddler bed, or Jacob's crib which is the "baby bed."



"I read story, you say words."
Translation: I will choose the story, hold the book and turn the pages, but you must sit beside me and read the words to me. You can see the somewhat pouty face that was a result of Benjin holding the book and turning the pages. Sometimes she refuses to stay for the story unless she is the one holding the book, but this time she wanted a story badly enough that she settled for staying to listen and just pouted a bit.

Catching up?

I had such great intentions.

I was going to write everything that I would normally blog about down and then actually put it on my blog once we got internet again.

That didn't happen, though. I found that I liked sleep more than getting up and writing every morning. Particularly since no one would be reading what I wrote anyway.

So I didn't keep up with everything for the last month. You probably won't have a month's worth of extra posts to read. I did, however, take some pictures and jot down a few things, so I will be sharing those with you over the next few days.

And I will work to be disciplined enough to get out of bed and write each weekday morning...and maybe sometimes on Saturday. We'll see what happens. But I will be more consistent again.

See you soon.

7 Months

Another month has come and gone with our sweet baby boy. He is definitely NOT little, though! He weighed 19 lbs 15 oz on 6/28/10.


Jacob wears 12 month clothes now...and a few things in 18 month. Many of his 12 month one piece clothes are almost too short, so we will probably be moving to more 18 month clothes before too much longer.

We still have some issues with eczema, but it is mostly on his cheeks now, and comes and goes. Hopefully it will continue to get better as we get closer to his being a year old.

He is a very social baby. He will happily play on the floor...as long as someone is close enough for him to see and make eye contact with every few minutes. But he is definitely happiest when someone is actually talking to him or playing with him.


Jacob has had a couple of firsts this past month...he got his first tooth on 6/12/10, he sat himself up for the first time on 6/14/10, he got his second tooth on 6/22/10 and he started crawling on 7/6/10.

He finally figured out the whole eating solids thing, so now, in addition to the rice cereal he has been getting for the last couple of months, he also has had green beans, peas, squash, oatmeal, prunes, carrots and biter biscuits. This boy LOVES to eat...and he really loves to feed himself the biter biscuits. He will finish one in no time flat.

He is almost always very happy and content, but in the last few days he has been very clingy to his Mommy. Even Daddy holding him is not good enough for him...it has to be Mommy. Sigh...I suppose I should be grateful that he wants to be held by Mommy. After all, I am often asking his sister to snuggle with me and just hear "Not 'ight now. I playing." (In fact, she just woke up and came in here right after I typed that. I asked her if she wants to sit in my lap and she said "No. I play" and ran off to play.) I know that Jacob will be doing the same thing in a very short time and I should be grateful for all the Mommy time he wants right now...and most of the time, I am. Sometimes, I just would like a little break, though. Like a chance to brush my teeth without listening to a screaming baby ;)


This picture just cracks me up. What do you think? Is he the next baby model or what?