37 weeks

I am nearing the end, and finally have hit a good spot in the energy department!  I am finally feeling that surge of energy that hits right towards the end of pregnancy, and this is making life easier for me and those around me I am sure!  The house is starting to feel a little more like a home, and less like a disaster, and for the last few days my swelling has been less.  Baby is still doing great, he is rocking and rolling in my belly and sometimes a kick to the ribs makes me jump, but I know that means he is strong and healthy, so I am pleased to endure all his exercise routines.  My OB says I am around 3cm and 30%, which doesn't mean too much right now I know, but at least we know he isn't coming this weekend and I am doing some work at home... so the wait is on! 

Mentally I have packed my overnight bag for the hospital, but still need to complete the task, and Derrick has figured out the new video camera, so things are almost ready to go.  Everett is getting more excited; daily he asks if the baby is in my belly and has been giving him sweet kisses every now and then.  I still am not 100% sure he understands what is going on, but to hear his sweet voice say "baby in there?" while he points to my belly, helps me know he at least knows something is going on. 

Ethan continues to be a big helper at home, helping retrieve things out of my reach and even helping get breakfast and snack ready for himself and Everett every now and then.  We started a routine where he helps cut fruit for snack and he is loving the freedom to help in the kitchen.  I enjoy cooking along side him too... he is a great kid!

Overall, we are blessed beyond imagination and excited to meet the newest addition that God is bringing into our lives.  I can only imagine how busy life with 3 little boys is going to be.

36 weeks... getting closer!

The end of this pregnancy is right around the corner and I have so much to do yet.  The bedding still needs to be washed and the co-sleeper needs to be set up in our room along with diapers, wipes and all the other baby goodies... but I am counting on having a few more weeks to get things done, so hopefully I am right.  Saturday we attended Derrick's youngest sister's graduation party, and since I was all dressed up, I asked Derrick to take my picture.  Big mistake... I didn't realize how big I am getting!

36 weeks pregnant with baby boy #3

Me and my big boy Ethan

So far this pregnancy has been the hardest of the two.  My heartburn brings me to tears and the pain from the muscle separation almost does the same when baby moves in the wrong spot or when I brush up against something.  Friday, while wiping down tables after the Family Fun Night, I clipped the side of the chair with my belly and almost flew through the roof in pain! 

Baby on the other hand seems to be doing great.  He is pretty active at night and doesn't like me to lay on my right side, just like his older brothers didn't, and every time the doctor has checked his heartbeat, he has been perfect (and very active). 

Today, I have had some longer, more intense, but still irregular, contractions, and a few I had to breathe through, so I know we are nearing the end.  My legs look like tree trunks, my face is starting to swell, and almost everyone I see says "Wow... you are huge!" which you know is going to get old as the next few weeks go on... but still I feel so blessed.

I absolutely love being pregnant, there is no other experience like this, and even though my butt is huge, my arms are flabby and my feet look like they are going to blow up... and my neighbors yell "Lisa, you are HUGE!" across the street when they see me walking by... I know this will all be over in a few short weeks and all the aches and pains of pregnancy will be a forgotten memory.

I pray for God's timing with the delivery of this baby and His strength and grace over the next few weeks to get me through.

School's Out for the Summer!

Actually, we plan on homeschooling year round, so I guess this isn't completely true, but our schedule is starting to lighten up as some of our regular activities are ending, so I guess that counts for something. 

The weather was beautiful today!  We had a nice relaxing day at home, got some much needed cleaning done, did some errand running with Derrick in the afternoon, and ended the evening with a nice walk around the neighborhood to chat with some neighbors and pick up a few misplaced golf balls.

I love the flexibility of homeschooling:  some days we work a lot, some days we play a lot, some days we cook a lot, and some days we just sit around and talk a lot... it is wonderful!

Over the last few weeks, Ethan has been in the math grove.  We have started to commit to memory, and really work hard on addition facts before moving on to our other lessons in our Math-U-See Alpha curriculum, and he has been craving math problems all day long!  He loves to be quizzed and asks often for us to give him an addition problem and he will "equal them up".  In the past, Derrick and I would just give him the "easy ones" (as he would refer to them), which were the addition table facts that he was learning (such as 2+7, 5+7 or 6+3), but now he has been working some pretty impressive math problems for a child his age (like 28+36 or 42+38).  He does all of these in his head, and actually impresses us at times when we give him something that we think we will stump him on and he tells us exactly how he thought out the problem.  He doesn't always follow the columns as I was taught as a kid, he rounds and subtracts from the smaller number and sometimes beats me to the answer as I am trying to "think it out" in my head to check his answer.  I am so amazed.  For example, in the 28+36 problem, he would round up the 28 to 30 and take those extra 2 he used from the 6 in 36 to get 4 and then he would add 30+34 to get 64.  Pretty impressive if you ask me, especially coming from a preschooler! 

So, this is one of the reasons why we will continue to homeschool all summer, off and on... he is loving it and I don't want to shut off what he is doing so wonderfully right now.  If asked, he will say that Math is his favorite subject in school! (Like father like son.)

Yesterday in the car he asked me what comes next after he learns all of his addition facts.  I explained to him that we will work on learning subtraction (and after giving him a few problems for an example he quickly decided that he was not finding that much of a challenge) so we talked a little about multiplication.  He thought multiplication was a fun concept and said he can't wait to work on this area of math!  Derrick and I looked at each other and smiled, we are so blessed to have a child that enjoys being taught this much.  I thank God for Ethan's ability to quickly catch on to new concepts, which helps make our decision to homeschool so much easier!
 
On the other end of the spectrum... Everett has been doing amazing too!  He counted to 4 today while reading a book with me!  I don't always know what is getting in with him, as he is a totally different child in the way he learns, so when I see things come out, it is so much fun!  I thank God I have the opportunity to teach my children at home.  I really do love what I do all day!

Breaking out the Sorting Bears

Everett is going to be 2 at the end of this month, and his vocabulary is really starting to grow, so I broke out a few Montessori activities yesterday to see if he is ready for some more structure in his learning day. 

I pulled out the sorting bears, grabbed some colored pieces of paper and started showing him how to do the activity.  (I tried this a long time ago and it quickly lead to him showing now interest in sorting and bears flying all over the house, so I had zero expectations for this trial run.) 

Ethan and I showed him how to sort a few colors and with pauses of him running around the room, grabbing the bears and making them eat us and the other items in the room.  Overall, we eneded up sorting about 10 bears.  With all the chaos, we didn't get to the second activity, as my frustration started to rise and I decided he wasn't ready for structured "school time" yet.  But, as I found out today, it was not for nothing. 

This morning, Everett came into our room carrying the bears in a bucket that we had sorted yesterday.  He wanted to sort them so I got out the colored paper and let him to sit and do the activity on his own, expecting colored bears to be flying around the bedroom in less than 30 seconds.
To my surprise, he pulled out handfulls of the bears, sat still, and sorted all of them on all 4 colored paper sheets!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  Amazing!!

I was surprised he sorted all the bears on his own.  Every now and then he would get the wrong color on the wrong paper and say "nope" and then move it to the correct place.

After all the bears were sorted, he still wanted to do more.  (Maybe he has caught the Montessori Bug?) So I got out the second activity that we didn't get to the day before.  Ethan was chomping at the bit to do this with him as soon as I got out the bag of the magnetic pieces, but he sat back and let Everett explore on his own after I explained this was Everett's "school" time.  Hopefully this will lead to many more days of semi-structured lessons.  He is really growin up and every day amazes me how much he knows and wants to learn.

As he gets older, this activity will advance with him making pictures with the magnetic shapes, but right now just putting them on the board is a fun activity. 
Plus, he has to figure out what side sticks and what side doesn't, as there is only a magnet on one side.

Screaming at 2am

Derrick and I woke last night to hear Everett screaming at the top of his lungs, obviously frightened by something. 

"He probably fell out of bed... go help him, he's scared." I said as Derrick rushed out of the room.  A few seconds later the screaming was done.  Minutes later Derrick came back into our room. 

"What was wrong?" I asked. 

"You would never believe it... I went into his room and didn't see him right away, then I realized his little feet were sticking out from under his bed.  He was way back in the corner by the wall!  I had to pull him out by his feet... he was way under there!" was his reply.  We both chuckled. 

Poor little guy.  He probably rolled out of bed and then wiggled up (like he would normally do if he was in his crib) until he hit something firm (which happened to be the wall). 

He was fine, I don't think he will be scarred, but it is a pretty funny story for the first night in his "big boy bed".

New Beds and Sleepy Heads

Everett has a new bed!! This past week I purchased a bed off of Craigslist and today Everett and I put it together. First we had to take down the crib, and move it into the nursery, then we went to work to set up his new bed. He was very excited and very happy to help. When we were all done he couldn't wait to show Derrick and Ethan, they were at Ethan's t-ball game, so we had to wait for them to come home. As soon as they walked in the door Everett rushed into his bedroom to show them.

At bedtime tonight I couldn't resist taking his picture. He was so excited I didn't know if we would ever get him to sleep, but he sweetly snuggled into his new bed and before long he was out.


Derrick went in to check on him after he had been asleep a while, and this is what we found...

  

Two tired boys! :)  I thought I was going to wake them up I was laughing so hard at the way Ethan was sleeping... I mean... who sleeps like that? 


Before I headed to bed I went in to check on Everett once more, and he was sleeping so sweetly in his little bed I took one last picture.

Camping at Backbone State Park

This past weekend we went camping with my extended family at Backbone State Park near Strawberry Point, Iowa.  It was a great weekend and thankfully wasn't too hot outside.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with extended family and the boys had fun playing outside all weekend, cooking on the fire, and of course, roasting marshmallows! 

We left Des Moines on Friday afternoon and drove the 3 hours to get to Backbone.  The kids were very excited and when we arrived, couldn't wait to run around and play with their favorite doggie family member, Abe. 

Derrick and I decided, since I am 8 months pregnant, that we would go the easy route and stay at a small Bed & Breakfast near the park.  As it turned out, it was less than 5 minutes up the road from where the rest of the family was camping, so it worked out great.  It was called, Aunt B's Inn, and was more of a converted roadside motel than your typical bed & breakfast, but it was quaint, clean, and fit the 4 of us nicely.  We stayed in the Iris room.  It was decorated with flower wallpaper, flower bedspread and had a lace canopy bed with another queen bed for the boys.  I spoke with the owner over the phone before we arrived and told her our situation and asked about her facility.  When I arrived she knew me by name (I guess she didn't have any other 8 month pregnant women staying there that weekend) and was very friendly.  I really would stay there again, and I am not a fan of motels.

Gary and Cheri had their camper, as did Craig and Kevin.  The first night we hung out and cooked brats over the fire, and just enjoyed visiting with each other.  It was a beautiful evening for sitting by the fire under the stars.

The next morning, all the guys went out fishing and Ethan went along.  Everett and I slept in and then joined Cheri and Toni at the campground.  Later on, Alan arrived, and after lunch we all spent time fishing, hiking, geocaching, enjoyed a big dinner together, and stayed up late to roast marshmallows and visit by the fire. 

Uncle Kevin gave the kids some cool flashlight/glow stick/whistle things and the kids went crazy running around with them in the dark.  They were the coolest things I had ever seen and a must have for camping!  Thanks Uncle Kevin! :)

Everett, sitting in his new camping chair!

Everett and Uncle Alan

Ethan and Uncle Gary, inspecting the morning catch.

Hello Mr. Fish!

Everett couldn't figure out how the string was in the mouth of the fish.

Fish face.

Another fish face.

Uncle Gary went to gather supplies to clean the fish.  Everett made sure they didn't hop away!

Silly face!

Happy camper!

Derrick and Ethan played Frisbee and Everett joined in the fun.

Daddy helped some.

Doesn't look like any fun at all, huh?

Everett needed a nap so we decided to drive and do some geocaching.

Do you see the geocache?  It was a micro cache and hard to find.

Excuse the dirty fingernails, but this shows how small it actually was.
That is the log all rolled up inside the tiny cache.

Ethan and Derrick finding the second cache.  This one wasn't as small.

We even found a friend along the way.

Before fishing, we decided to take a hike to see a waterfall. 
We had to go through a Boyscout Campground to get there.

This was along the back side of the camp. 
It reads: On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country and
to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake and morally straight.

The water fall was a nice treat.  It was so peaceful there.

Fishermen

Ethan and Derrick had a few bites, but didn't catch any trout this time.

Uncle Gary and Abe, fishing.  Abe is a great fisherdog.

"Let me help you little brother."

For as far along as I am in my pregnancy, it was a pretty enjoyable short vacation. I am glad we had the opportunity to go.