So busy!

I can't believe it has been 2 months since I posted... I was trying to stick to it! Christmastime is here and we are all enjoying the season. Gregory and Kelly are here from Oregon and a couple of nights ago, we had our 2nd annual "gingerbread" house party. We made houses from graham crackers and frosting and decorated with candies and cookies. It was so much fun. Gama and I have so much work to do with Christmas and to get ready for our trip to Mexico. We are driving and we leave as early as possible on the 26th. Lots to do!

Chicken-hair, watching The Sound of Music

Last night, we needed Junior to do some extra reading at bedtime. We had him go downstairs and Gama sat with him, reading the paper. As much fault as Junior has in not doing his reading lately, part of the problem really is that our house is always so noisy. Somebody is always watching TV, running around, etc.

Anyway, I had to do something to keep Chicken-hair in his room until Junior came up. He gets scared if he is alone. Several months ago, we put an old TV/VCR in their room so we could set up the Wii upstairs while we had stuff going on downstairs. We kept putting it away and pulling it out, etc. Finally we decided a couple of months ago that Junior and Chicken-hair can have it in their room just for videos and Gamecube. Luckily they barely use it. But I figured it would come in perfectly last night and put The Sound of Music on. I told him I was going to leave him watching it but that movie has a powerful draw LOL I couldn't leave.

We were sitting there, watching the part with the nuns arguing about Maria and going into the song about "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" and Chicken-hair was getting very upset with the crankier nuns, especially when one called her a demon. He looked at me and said, "Somebody should tell the Priest on them! They are being mean!"

A few minutes later, it was the part where she in on her way to the Von Trapp home and she is singing that song "I have confidence in me" and skipping down the street and singing loudly and he got this funny smile and said, "Isn't she embarrassed to do that? Anyone can see her!" At the end of that bit, she trips and runs to the door almost screaming "... in meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!" And he said, "Yeah... she should DEFINITELY be embarrassed about that!"

He was marvelling at the size of the house and asked me why some people have such big houses and I told him that some people have a lot of money and buy bigger houses. He said, "Well... we could make one, but that would take a lot of wood!"

We stopped the movie a few minutes later, right after she finds the frog in her pocket. He can't wait to watch more today. I am so excited because I really had to talk him into it and now he is hooked!

Yikes!

I am going to start out by saying Facebook has kept me so busy, I haven't been keeping up with this blog! Since my last post, Bucket started walking, got thrush one more time, stopped nursing, and started sleeping in his crib all night... how is that for catching up? LOL Anyway, I don't think anyone else really reads this so it doesn't matter. It is just for me.

Why Kidney Boy is cute...

About three days ago, we were heading out to get dinner. We were all being a little silly, walking through the backyard to the garage. As we got to the garage door, I asked Kidney Boy, "Why are you SO CUTE??" and he turned around and threw his hands up and said, "Because I'm LITTLE!"

It was so cute. I was not expecting any answer at all... just being silly. But he had that answer ready to go as if he has known that simple truth all along!

Bucket is ONE!!

Bucket is one! I can't believe my baby is a year old. We had his big birthday party yesterday, combined with Kidney Boy's third birthday. My Bucket is such a little sweetie. I feel like it couldn't possibly have been a whole year ago that he popped his little head out before the doctor even got to the bed!

I remember that all day Friday I had contractions. Friday night, I thought about going to the hospital but my mom had offered to babysit so we went to Spaghettini for dinner instead! We even almost went from there to the hospital, but went home to see what would happen. I managed to sleep but every time I woke up to go to the bathroom, I felt the contractions still there!

Saturday morning, I called my mom. She heard me huffing and puffing through contractions and said she really thought this was it and that I should go to the hospital. I told her I'd take a shower and we should just go ahead and go to lunch and if it got much worse, we'd leave her with the kids and go. LOL After lunch, I decided to try to make it to the mall first. Chicken-hair needed new shoes for school. When we got to the mall, I went to the bathroom and saw a bit more blood than what I had been having the last few days. So I called the on-call doc and he said to go ahead in and get checked out. I hung up and said, "Let's just go to JC Penney first. They might have those Z-Strap Skechers that he wants!" We checked and they didn't have them so we left the mall, put the 3 kids in my mom's car, and went to the hospital.

Of course, as soon as we got there, the contractions slowed way down. For the next 5 hours, they were fewer and further between. But when I was checked again, I had dilated another centimeter, to six! So stuff WAS happening. And he had moved down to -1 station. So the doctor broke my water, and the next contraction had me hollering for the epidural already! I guess it was because he moved down so quickly... I have never gone from being OK to needing an epidural that fast LOL About 30 minutes after getting numb, I started feeling pressure. The doctor checked me and I was ready! He told the nurse to let me "labor down" for about 20-30 minutes, until my own nurse got back. Basically that just means you let the baby move down into position before you push, if you can manage it.

I was feeling a lot of pressure so after about 10 minutes, the nurses that were in with me told me to go ahead and give a few pushes to see what was happening. A couple of pushes and she said, "OK! Stop for a minute. I think I better get the doctor." She left the room and suddenly, I felt his head moving. I was watching in the mirror and said, "I think his head is going to come out RIGHT NOW!" The nurse came back in the door saying, "It's OK! Go ahead!" and as she came towards me, the other nurse on the other side of the room came towards me, and his head just POPPED right out LOL The doctor came running into the room and I said, "I can't stop him! He is coming!" and he said, "It's OK! You're fine!" and as he came up and grabbed his head, his body came out in one more pop! Just like that, he was on the bed in front of me. The doctor was still getting his gown and mask on. The bed wasn't broken down. There was no catching him. He just plopped out in front of me LOL They suctioned his mouth and nose, Gama cut the cord, and they put him right on my chest. It was heavenly.

And now he is a whole year old... unbelievable how fast it all goes!

Kidney Boy is THREE!

Kidney Boy is three years old. May 26 was his birthday but I didn't get to my blog. Anyway, I made him a chocolate cake with lots of FRINKLES on top. We ate dinner outside, BBQ, and afterwards, my parents came over and we gave him his presents and had cake. His big party was combined with Bucket's. It was yesterday, May 31. I will probably get around to blogging about that sometime in the next month I hope hahaha...

My Mother's Day =)

This morning, we went to Church. Junior sings with the choir and today they did a beautiful Ave Maria song (not the Ave Maria) for Mother's Day. It was so nice. After church, we went to eat with my parents and gave my mom 2 of her presents. One didn't get here in time! Darn shipping! After that, Gama and the boys took me to Roger's Gardens. It is a great nursery not too far from where we live. I haven't been there in a few years. Here is a picture of what we got...

Afterwards, we stopped at a Starbucks and then went into Costco. That is not normally the place I want to be on any weekend day, let alone Mother's Day, but I was looking for grapes that come in little snack cups, all ready to pop into school lunches. We didn't find them. But we put Kidney Boy and Bucket together in the cart and it was so cute. Here is a cute shot... Bucket realized he could reach Kidney Boy's drink!

We came home and Gama went to work in the backyard, making space in our planter for some of the plants we bought. After a couple of hours of playing around back there (LOL) he finished. The potted plant is not actually potted, but just sitting in this pot for now. He will probably do that tomorrow. But the planter has 4 new plants.


There is one more plant too... it is a big vine-y plant with pink flowers. Gama needs to put it in a different section of the planter, where we have big things for the vines to grow up and around. But right now, we have these big scary pumpkin plants. Gama planted a few seeds about a month ago and THE NEXT MORNING there were 7 little sprouts poking through the dirt. Later that afternoon, there were 14! And the next day, 25! Within a couple of weeks, they were getting tall. Here is a shot of them. They are really pretty... big, green, heart-shaped leaves. But we need to move some of them over so we can put the new plant in there. Check this out... seriously, there was nothing there just a month ago! hahahaha...

My Angel

Twelve years ago today, my first pregnancy officially ended at three months. I had found out two days earlier that the baby had stopped growing a month before. The baby actually died right around the time I found out I was pregnant. But my body showed no signs of it for a month. That month was the happiest time in my life. We had been trying to get pregnant for three and a half years before we finally succeeded. I spent that month buying baby things way too early. We even painted the crib.

When I started spotting, I knew it was over. But everyone told me it might not mean anything. Spotting can happen during healthy pregnancies. I know this myself because I spotted with three of my four healthy pregnancies. But unfortunately my spotting was the beginning of a miscarriage.

I miscarried at home, after promising the doctor I would go to the hospital if the bleeding came too fast. Thinking back, I can't believe I stayed home with that much going on. I had strong labor pains and bled so much. Finally, after three hours, I wrapped myself in towels and laid down on the floor to sleep. I was so exhausted. I am so lucky that everything went OK! I should have been in the hospital but I had no health insurance and still owed the OB $500 from my prenatal visits.

For a long time, I was so sad, thinking I wasn't meant to have a baby. It was a hard time in my life. I went on to have my four healthy boys, and one more miscarriage, right before Kidney Boy. That one wasn't as brutal, physically or emotionally. I think having Junior and Chicken-hair cushioned the blow. And I was only five and a half weeks so it wasn't much worse than a very bad period.

Now, when I think back to that first miscarriage, the saddest part is remembering how heartbroken I was at the time. As for my Angel (seemed like a fitting name), I know I will see him again someday. He and my other little angel, who I named John Paul, are probably playing together in Heaven.

I used to listen to this song and cry... It was my little song for him, but parts of it are more like what I imagine he'd want to say to me. After a while, I stopped listening to it because I didn't want to cry anymore. And then when Junior was about a year and a half, I decided I wanted it back and started singing it to him and dancing around the living room at bedtime with him, with this on the stereo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LraZEoRnkPc

Bucket

So, either he has a very poppable left eardrum, or he has a hole in it. Last night, with no signs of infection, suddenly he started leaking a bunch of pinkish discharge. I took him to the urgent care and the nurse practitioner said it must be popped because she couldn't even see his eardrum through all the gunk. The other ear looks fine. Then she said it is a possibility that there is a hole so tiny that they aren't seeing it and that this is just fluid and wax buildup that is leaking out from time to time. It would explain why he never has a screaming fit when his eardrum "pops" and also why it seems to have popped this time when we didn't even think he was sick at all. She put him on antibiotics because there is no way to know right now if it is infected and if it is, it is bad enough to pop his eardrum so we can't mess around. But she said she really thinks we need to see an ENT after the 2 week follow-up to see if there is a hole or what. She said if there is, most of the time they just watch it. If it never closes up, she said sometimes they put a "patch" on it.

I am not too upset or stressed out so far. He seems fine and happy. If he does have an infection, the meds should clear it up. The only thing I am a little worried about right now is the thrush. He has gone almost 2 months without it I think, but antibiotics can definitely bring it on. So we have to watch for that.

Bucket crawls!!!

It was so exciting! He has been so close for a few weeks now. He would get almost into the crawling position, but with one leg tucked in. Sometimes, he'd even get that leg stretched out, but then he'd lay on his belly and that would be the end of it. If he was on a slippery floor, he would push himself up on his hands and end up sliding backwards. But that didn't even seem like a big accomplishment because he certainly wasn't doing it on purpose LOL

But today, he finally got that little leg untucked and went for it! He really wanted that empty green glass Perrier bottle that my dad put on the floor! hahaha... And after that, he went for the wires that connect the TV to the Wii! Now it is definitely time for Round 4 of babyproofing the house!

You should see how hard he went to sleep tonight... such a big day! =)

It takes 4 tries...

4 tries to get 4 smiles in one picture!

Chicken-hair can ride a 2-wheeler!

He learned on March 30! It was such a thrill and happened so quickly. We've been trying to talk him into it since Junior learned last year. He kept saying he just wanted to roller skate. But we ran into his "fairy" godmother Vivian on Saturday and her twins were also there and she was talking about how they learned already. So Chicken-hair said he wanted to.

Monday night, he suddenly remembered and asked if Gama would take his training wheels off. We have like 8 bikes so he just took another small one that didn't have training wheels and lowered the seat. He started running behind him, holding the back of the seat. And he said, "Keep pedaling! Keep pedaling!" and he let go! Chicken-hair kept pedaling and that was that. He learned just like that. In the span of about 10 minutes, he learned how to start himself off, ride, steer, and brake! I can't get over how fast he picked it all up.

Before learning how to brake, he just kept steering into the grass and crashing LOL At one point, he crashed into a neighbor's (and a cranky one, at that!) lightpost and knocked the top off of it and broke the reflector off the front of the bike! hahaha... but Gama fixed the lightpost and Chicken-hair didn't care about the reflector or his own injuries. He never cares if he falls down. That is probably why he was brave enough to keep pedaling on his first try.

We are all so proud. Junior was cheering him on. And they have been outside each day, riding around together. =)

Kidney-boy... WHAT kind of bird did you see?

It was a humping bird!
(hummingbird LOL)

My first blog award!

My fellow loopy broad Mandee gave me a blog award! How sweet! Thank you Mandee =) I am just trying to get back into the swing of things with this blogging business!

So along with the award comes some rules...here they are...

Rules do accompany this honor:"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I have to start this off by saying I know some of these girls have already gotten the award... but these are the girls I want to give it to! I am sure they have fulfilled their obligation already and don't need to send it on again!

Jen! http://jenzrb238.blogspot.com

Valerie! http://aubreyclairesmommy.blogspot.com

Sheila! http://runninlateagain.blogspot.com

Nastassja! http://nastassja85.blogspot.com

Gingie! http://mommyisblessed.blogspot.com

Dani! http://mylifewithchildren.blogspot.com

MJ! http://thebarbosabunch.blogspot.com

Shana! http://shanamama.blogspot.com/2009/03/every-words-mother-longs-to-hear.html

Red Envelope Day!

http://www.redenvelopeday.com/index.php -- Go here to send your own red envelope fast and easy online!

When: March 31st, 2009

Get or make a red envelope (using a red marker). You can buy them at Kinkos, or at party supply stores, or get one with a single card purchase at a $ store. On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington , D.C. 20500

Please put your return address on the envelope. This shows that different individuals are sending them, not just one individual sending out multiples.

On the back of the envelope, write the following message: "This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because that life that was taken is not able to be part of our world."

Mail the envelope March 31, 2009.

Forward this event to anyone you think would send one too. I wish we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died [in the U.S.] before having a chance to live...

It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it's shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard.

Together we can try to change the heart of The President and save the lives of millions of children. We continue to pray and work for conversion of hearts and minds and the salvation of lives and souls, through Jesus Christ our Saving Lord. Amen

No longer the silent...... we will send a message.

"Life begins at conception when the spark of the Divine is infused into the new creation"

Star of the Week!

Chicken-hair was star of the week at school last week. This is the poster he made to share with the class. You probably have to click the picture to look at it bigger in order to see everything. The last box says "If I had one wish, I would wish for..." and without missing a beat, he said, "a baby sister!" Poor kid LOL =(

Sweet Kidney Boy

We were sitting on the couch and he looked so sweet...

Our Day at CA Adventure

We all went to Disney's CA Adventure on Sunday -- Gama, the kids, my parents, my brother, my SIL, and I. It was such a wonderful day.

We started out at Soarin' Over California, which is my favorite ride there. You all sit in rows and then the rows are lifted up and forward so that you are in front of this giant screen. You see all sorts of scenes and feel like you are paragliding through them -- over skiiers, a golf course, hikers, Yosemite Falls, orange groves (and you can smell the oranges!), forests (smell the pine!), the beach just after sunset... drifting over the water... and it all ends by flying through Downtown LA (can't help wishing it were Manhattan though LOL) and then over Disneyland, finishing off with the fireworks over Fantasyland!

We tried a new ride for me -- Mulholland Madness. It is a really small roller coaster but with a few swift drops and at the beginning, you are whipping around the top of this thing, feeling like you are going to fall right out the side, over the edge and onto people walking by! Aidan LOVED it and had his hands up the whole time. Junior loved it too but didn't put his hands up... he's mine LOL

Poor Chicken-hair couldn't go on two of the rides that he wanted to. One was this thing that shoots you way up, while you're sitting down, and then drops you back down. The other was the big Mickey roller coaster that flips you upside down. He is not tall enough for either and had a major fit over both!

Everyone except for Gama, the babies, and me went on the big swings in the Orange. I have done that one before and regretted getting on the instant it started LOL

We went through A Bug's Land and took Kidney Boy and Bucket on all the little kiddie rides. Then we headed to Hollywood's Backlot to go on the Monsters Inc. ride. After that, all the brave people (everyone except for me and the babies LOL) went on Tower of Terror. If you want to know what this is like, go to youtube and search "CA Adventure Tower of Terror" and watch somebody's video! You drop freefall 13 stories -- no thank you! Even worse, my brother told me that you never really know if you are about to shoot up or down, except for when you get to the very top and then you can see out the top of the hotel! Yikes!

Anyway, that was our fun day. I am so grateful for days like those. We all had so much fun together. Bucket ate a churro! He loved it! We walked around and told funny stories and had big laughs and didn't worry about a thing. Gregory and Kelly went home last night and we miss them so much already! But we are so lucky -- they get to visit often and this visit was truly special! =)

Darn thrush...

I think it is coming back again. We finally got rid of the pacifiers like 3 weeks ago. But he has some suspicious stuff on his gums and now what looks like a yeast rash on his hiney. It looks like the pacifiers weren't causing the thrush but maybe they were making it spread and grow faster? I don't know.

We will have to go back to the doctor probably tomorrow or the day after. I am not sure what he will say about it. He said something like "We have to see if the thrush will come back after we get rid of the pacifiers." So I don't know what he will want to do next. I am trying not to be nervous though. He seems happy and healthy otherwise. And now he is eating great and gaining weight.

Bucket's Skinny pics

These are the pics I took like 2 weeks ago. I am going to take some pics in the next couple of days and see how much chubbier he looks. He is definitely gaining -- finally!

About Bucket...

Isn't he adorable? We found out at his 9 month visit that he had lost half a pound since his 6 month visit. Doc wasn't happy and said we had to work harder at getting him to eat. Part of the problem is that he had no interest in food. The other part was that he had ear infections for a month before his 9 month visit.

We started working with him and the baby food and within a week, we had him up to 3 jars a day, gerber puffs, even a piece of pizza crust! At his follow-up visit 2 weeks later, he had gained about a pound! Yay! And then he got some crazy stomach bug, refused to eat and kept barfing for a week. 6 ounces lost... boo!

He is back to enjoying food now. He definitely seems to be gaining. And I have decided to just let him eat whatever he wants, within reason. I know they can't have honey or peanuts right now. But we gave him a couple of french fries the other night. And at Disney's CA Adventure a few days ago, we gave him a churro! He loved it! He went to town on it LOL

I am going to post some skinny pics of Bucket that I took a week or 10 days ago. And then over the next few days, I am going to try to take some new diaper pics of him and see how much chubbier he looks!

So behind!

I haven't blogged in ages. I keep meaning to and then I don't.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Greg and Kelly were here and we had lots of special days. Unfortunately, I got deathly ill on Christmas Eve and stayed sick for like 5 weeks. It was crazy. Everyone else got sick too but everyone else got over it faster.

We got a puppy in early January. She is a long-haired Chihuahua and we named her Speck. She is soooooooooooooooo cute!