Haircuts and Birthdays

Here are a few long overdue pictures... We got a new computer a few weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to where I'm pulling pictures off of our camera's card. We've been slacking lately on taking pictures, too, so that hasn't helped. Here's what's been happening...

Tyler's hair has been getting longer and longer (as has Brayden's, but we'll buzz his), so he's been needing a haircut. We were going to get one for him the week before this, but the wait at walmart was 1.5-2 hours!! Eek. So I went to Chickasha one Monday and met Mom there. She kept Brayden busy while I sat with Tyler. He did a great job! Here is is Before Haircut:


Here are the boys (see Ty's nice short hair??) watching TV together. Yes, Tyler has a huge bandaid on his face. He had a little zit or something and he just keeps picking at it. The only way to keep him from messing with it is to have a Nemo bandaid on his face. But aren't they the cutest little brothers you've ever seen???


Mom, Dad & Erin came down on Monday to celebrate Mom's birthday a day late, and Tyler's a week early. We had burgers, Erin's potato salad, baked beans and LOTS of birthday cake. YUM!!! Tyler got to open a few presents, too...


He got a Percy the Train!!


PaPa got the train track out with the boys and built a nice big track in the living room for Thomas, Percy and Henry.


This is Brayden's "usual" face right now. Every time he talks to us he frowns like this. I have no idea....


Playing trains with PaPa

Instrumental to Brayden

This is his second or third attempt... He got a LOT better about 10 minutes AFTER we turned off the camera. John was very impressed with the way he picked it right up and can make the right mouth positions and stuff. He plays better than Mommy does.



I am always amazed at the things Brayden can do. He doesn't really listen to instructions, he just does his own thing. But he will watch how you do something and then try to imitate it. He's very musically inclined. He plays drums, piano, trumpet and sings. He can almost sing a song pitch perfect! But music isn't his only talent. He seems to just soak up anything and everything from day to day. He knows how to make things work, take things apart, put them together...it's just amazing. He plays on the computer, too!

Last night John and I were talking about how much of a challenge it is parenting such a curious and strong-willed child and he made the comment that he thinks Bradyen is just one of those kids who longs for stimulation. When he isn't active enough, it just has to come out whatever way it can, and it's usually destructive. (See Ex. 1: The crayon marks on my coffee table.) But I'm very awed by him and his abilities. I can't wait to see what the next few years bring us with him.

Little Thing

Appointment update.

Baby's heartrate is 162, everything looked great to the doc. I lost 5 lbs since last appointment, but with last week's 12 hour date with the toilet, I understand why. We got the "big" ultrasound scheduled for 4/15 which is just a tad less than a month away!!! Too exciting.

Not Much...

I don't have much to say, but I was really trying to blog more since I've been a slacker lately.

Um... John and I had our 5 year anniversary this past week (3/13, which, yes was Friday the 13th this year). I celebrated it in the bathroom. Sick. Very. Not fun. Today is the first day that I've had any semblance of normalcy. I pretty much just had to tell myself that tired or not, I had to get back to the Mother Land. ;) We needed groceries, the boys were getting restless, and John's tired of fending for himself on all fronts. So I called for reinforcements (Mom) and went shopping in Chickasha. Of course, I forgot my money at home (isn't that the way it goes??), so I was very lucky she was along to bail me out. Phew. Funny how being sick can totally mess with your mind along with everything else important.

I have my next dr's appointment tomorrow (and John will be left with the boys alone again... poor guy). I'm hoping that we'll be scheduling the "big" ultrasound at this one. It's weird to think that I'm already into my second trimester. But honestly, the thing that's excited me the most about this pregnancy (and yes, I know this is totally weird and messed up) is labor. I didn't really have pregnancy fever - I had no desire to be all tired and big again - I had labor fever. Every time I watched A Baby Story or anything, all I could think about is how much fun it is to wait for those labor signs and then head off to the hospital and then getting ready to push... Oh!! It's just so exciting!! Of course, with both of my boys, I kind of missed out on a lot of that because I was induced with both. I'm really hoping that this time everything kind of goes according to nature's plan and I get to say those, "I think it's time!" words. Only time will tell.

We've got Brayden and Tyler in a bedroom together (again)... It's only sort of working. It's been rough to figure out how to do naps because Brayden is still only sometimes taking naps and is very hard to get down when he does. Last night was trying, too. About 3:30-4ish, I hear Brayden calling me. So I drag myself out of bed to see what, or more appropriately WHO, is up. Both of them are. So I get them both something to drink and get them all settled down again. Or so I thought. A few minutes after getting nice and comfy with my body pillow again, I hear, "Mommy! He's making NOISES. Mommy, he's making LOUD noises." *sigh* Off to figure out what's going on. Obviously Tyler figured that if they were both going to be awake, they needed to play. Good thing he's still confined to his crib (which is an amazing thing in and of itself). So I get Brayden up and take him to the guest room for the rest of the night. Back to bed... snug and slipping off to dreamland around 5 am I hear, "Mommy! I need a snack." SERIOUSLY?!?! And when Brayden gets his mind set on needing something, you may as well give in if you ever want to go back to bed or whatever else it was you were doing unless you're prepared for a few hours worth of struggle (which happens VERY often around here - one struggle to the next, I tell ya). So he got two crackers, a pat on the butt and a pillow under his head. Thankfully the boys slept until around 8:30 this morning!! I don't know what I would've done if they decided to get up for good around 6 or 7.

But speaking of... I've got Tyler in bed and it's time to go try to get Brayden settled down in there. Wish me luck.

A long week...

This has been a LONG week. Trying. Very. Both boys (mainly and mostly Brayden) tried their best to see how far Mommy had to go until she was permanently riding the crazy train. They like trains, you know. It wasn't too far, but luckily, I have a great hubby and sister who rescued me from the loading platform.

This is how I felt most of the week:


But then Erin came out from Thursday night until Saturday afternoon and, if nothing else, took us out to eat a few times so I didn't have to worry about fixing food. She also cleaned my kitchen!! :D I had to go get her and take her home - which wasn't horrible since they only live a little over an hour away... While I was at Mom & Dad's house, John called and said HIS sisters were coming to stay Saturday night with us!! MORE HELP!! Yippee!!! So last night the boys got two more aunts to entertain. And I got to go to bed early! Well... I WOULD have if it weren't for the "spring forward." But whatever. So they left today and decided to take Brayden with so they could drop him off for the week with Grandma Rhonda and cousin Nikolas. Can I just TELL you how quiet my house is?!?!?!? Wow. It's amazing how much stress and noise a three year old can emit. I sent the pullups with him... I have high hopes maybe Grandma can potty train him in a week. (Yeah, right.)

Oh, you don't even wanna know....

There has been so much stuff going on lately, I don't even know where to start. But you probably don't really want to know everything anyway. And who am I kidding, I write this stuff mainly so my wonder of a mommy brain doesn't forget the cute little things. lol

Anyway. Like I said last time, we're pregnant. Went for my first visit the other day and had the bravery to take Tyler in with me. John had Brayden, but they went to Sears during my appointment. We both kind of made the agreement that it wouldn't (or couldn't) be all or nothing for either of us, so we each took one. I have no idea how we'll split baby #3. Haha. Back to the doctor, though... Tyler and I had to sit for just a little while - it was mainly waiting on me to get all the initial paper work done and what have you. He was pretty good. I won't even venture to say that he WAS good, though. Finally we get called back. My "starting" weight is officially 128 - even though I've probably already put on a few pounds because at that appointment I was already 12 weeks. But we did the whole lovely long history thing and then the nurse let us hear the heartbeat. Tyler really liked that - he said it was a choo-choo train. :D The heart was beating at 170. I like the old wives tales right now because the faster beat means girl. But it's pretty unreliable.

The weather turned nice for a day last week - Thursday. I loaded up the boys that morning and took them to my mom's so that they could play outside all day. Which they did. They helped her plant some flowers, rode in their truck, and played in the mud. After that was supper and bath... THEN Brayden escaped the house before getting dressed. So... yeah... he played outside for a little while with nothing on but a smile. (I think the whole neighborhood probably heard his little chant, "I nakkid!!!") Fun stuff that we will forever have photo blackmail proof of.

So we come home on Friday and had a wonderfully crazy weekend of boys who had been spoiled a bit too much at Grandma's house. I'll just skip all that because I don't want to try to remember it.

A few nights ago Lord of the Rings was on TNT, and I hadn't seen it in a while, so I was watching part of it while the boys ate supper. They got done and came to join me on the couch for a few minutes... Tyler pointed excitedly at Gandolf and said, "Jesus!!" John said that we now know what Tyler's perception of Jesus is. lol

Brayden on the other hand is a bit more creative. He and I have a little thing we do while scratching each others' backs called "Desert Island." He loves it and makes me do it multiple times. I finally got him to do it for me the other night. He told me he needed to do it on my back so he pulled the back of my shirt out of the way (cause I always do his on his bare skin). As he pulled up my shirt, he let me know that I had a seat belt on (the back of my bra). I about died laughing at this. It's funny how little kids put what they know onto things they don't. Oh, by the way - to Brayden, it's called a "beat selt."

Last one, I promise... Brayden's been playing on an online letter recognizion website (starfall.com). He LOVES this thing - and he's really good with the mouse, too. It's almost scary how quickly he took to using a computer. It's worked wonders with him and his letters, too. He can click on almost any letter you ask him to if you help him by saying, click "t" for "train." Well, we were watching Super Why on PBS the other morning and they were sounding out "ladder." I paused the dvr after each letter trying to get him to tell me what the right letter for that sound was. I didn't get to L in time, but they did the short a - and he got that. He tried to tell me that "d" was actually "b"... they didn't do "e" because I think they skip vowels that are confusing?? I don't really know. But they said "e is next." I paused and asked Brayden what starts with E? I expected him to say egg or elephant... but he broke out the big guns and said, "Erin." That's my little genius. I have no idea where he learned that, but my jaw hit the ground. I think he'll be reading before too long.