Our Goin Life

/me shakes fist at sky

And yet again Andy has spent the last day and a half on the toilet. Whatever this tummy bug going around the entire country is, it needs to finish its attack and be gone. I am over it. Thankfully, I have yet to contract anything with this go round. I am very fortunate to have a pretty die hard immune system and almost never get ill beyond my allergy/asthma issue. Even being pregnant is pretty easy on me. But Andy gets sick every time we took Andrew to the doctor’s office so the poor man has been ill a lot since we started having kids. And it seems to have gotten worse since the move to our favorite little big city here. We hang out with other kids a lot more. Like a whole lot more. Andy has been hit with colds and bad tummy issues at least once every 2 weeks it seems since the move.

Andrew was even a little sick last night but fine by the time he got up today. He took a short nap this afternoon and still went to bed by 930 so I think he may be fighting it off a bit too. he also hasn’t eat as much as usual. And he is strangely drinking a ton of milk. He usually asks for chocolate milk (I use Ovaltine) but today all he’s wanted is milk. he also regularly asks for juice water and tea, but today it has literally been only milk all day. Not sure what that’s about but I trust him to know what his body needs and I get it for him.

I feel so lucky to have not been hit with this go round yet but you never know, tomorrow is another day…

We have missed church the last 2 weeks due to Andrew just plain not wanting to go. I don’t like the idea of forcing him to do this since we are doing it mostly for him. We like the place but it is my memories of good friendships at church that make me want to take him to a church family where he can have that too. But if he just doesn’t want to go then I dont’ want to force him. He and Paul T are so young yet that this is all lost on them anyway. We’ll go if we’re all up and feeling like going out but no more pressure. Last week we forced the issue and when Andrew fell asleep in the van on the way there we turned around and went home. And had a long talk about what is important and why we do things! Andy and I are both very happy to have found a church we are comfortable with and accepted at and are looking forward to going regularly when the kids are a bit older and can make friends and truly appreciate the experience.

My internet fasting is going well. I knew it’d be hard but it has also been very rewarding. I did check my emails today but coudln’t quite get through them all before Paul T decided I was done. I’ll try again in a few days. Andy helps me with it too. But mostly it has been nice to not feel burdened by constantly checking to see if I have more emails. And not be so distracted from my day by the computer. It’s funny how much I miss it though! Especially the morning that Paul woke us up at 730. On those days I would normally sit at the computer reading emails and trying to get with it while Andrew watches cartoons trying to get with it as well. But this time I sat with him and watched cartoons! I think he preferred it that way. So did I! It is nice how connected to the kids and the home maintenance I have been. But it is weird to feel so disconnected from my friends. I wonder what they are up to!

Andy is one of those few people that has several ‘looks’ and he looks great in all of them! One is a neat haircut and shaved face. Since Andrew has been born and Andy hasn’t had a job that involved going somewhere daily, he has usually kept a beard or some kind of scruff. Andrew loves it! Daddy gets his belly with whiskers and has since he was a baby and he loves it. So when Andy decides to shave on occasion, Andrew isn’t quite sure about it. Used to not be a big deal. He’d notice but go on about his day. These last 2 times however, Andrew has been capable of voicing his dislike. He told Andy to “put the whiskers back on.” Then this last time when Andy thought he’d try it just once more to see if Andrew would be OK with it, no go. Andy tried to not make a big deal out of it. Just came out of the shower like nothing was going on. We were playing as usual and talking about going out for a walk, it was a nice day. So Andy said, yeah let’s go, I’ll go too. And he asks Andrew, who had not yet even looked at his daddy yet, can I come too buddy? Andrew said yes then looked at him and said “whiskers?” And Andy laughed and said he cut them again. Andrew was saying something we couldn’t quite understand, sounded like wipe it or something. He is still learning to annunciation and we often have to have him show us things to figure it out. Well Andy squatted and said what buddy? We were in the bathroom getting ready to go outside and Andrew turned to the cabinet and pulled out a roll of toilet paper, got some off and started wiping Andy’s face saying wipe it. Not sure what he thought Daddy was doing to get the whiskers to go away but I guess he figured they were under there somewhere! I keep telling Andy to have Andrew join him when he shaves to see what he does. I don’t think he has done it yet though.

I know I promised a video last time but I don’t think that one will get posted. Paul T had naked butt in it and rolled on his back once. I tried to keep his wiener out but couldn’t quite all the way and I guess a 4 month old penis is considered lewd by youtube because the video still wasn’t done processing today. No big deal. He’ll probably be grateful I didn’t post that when he is 13! Though there is nothing wrong with some naked baby if you ask me. I’ll get a new video soon, I swear! And I’ll put pants on everyone. And believe me, around here that ain’t an easy task to accomplish!

Oh my what a week! Between the kids last week was a no sleep week for mommy. I am just starting to feel the recovery but still tired and have a lot of catching up to do. It was kind of funny but if Andrew went to bed early, Paul T would stay up late, then Paul T would sleep in and Andrew was up early. Most often though, Andrew fought about bed time and Paul T was sleeping easy, then Paul woke at 7! This often woke Andrew too. Then he’d be over tired all day and nap at 5 and stay up till midnight. Oh it was a mess!

And to add to the chaos we were busy and out and about every single day. I finally decided on Sunday to go to Walmart and stock up on food for meals and snacks and keep everyone home for 3-4 days straight and get some sleep. The boys were both so over tired that on Monday they each ended up taking naps for over 2 hours! Then they both went to bed pretty easily and Paul didn’t get me up until 9 this morning and Andrew was in bed until 1030! Just what they needed. I think I am ready to consider going to story time and park day tomorrow. No pressure though, if we’re too tired or Andrew doesn’t want to go we will skip it or go to park day late. No biggie!

Well, update on Paul T: He is mobile! Not quite crawling but boy does he try. And not backwards yet but almost forward. He may go backwards yet though. he pulls up on his toes and pushes forward. And he rolls all over the place. It has inspired me to vacuum the floor much more often! And I have to keep picking up choke hazards off the floor. This morning I put PT down in the middle of the living room with some of his toys and space cleared away around him, then went to do a laundry rotation. I came back to check after pulling out the dry and transferring wet to dryer and low and behold, the boy was over by the couch getting daddy’s boots! Happy as can be but no where near where I put him!

Andrew never got that opportunity so this is a first for me. When Andrew was 4.5 months old we had hardwood floors and could barely put him on the floor. Even with a blanket it was still very hard. And I never liked sitting on it to play with him. Hard wood has major advantages but it is difficult with small babies and toddlers. I think when our kids are older and we are done bringing new babies into the family, then I would like hard wood again. Until then I need carpet for them!

I have a video of Paul rolling I uploaded yesterday but youtube hasn’t managed to finish processing it yet. I’ll post it next time I update here, it should be done by then!

In case you didn’t know we do have a youtube channel now that we are using for all new videos. Our old ones are still on google videos but since they are stopping that we switched to youtube for our new ones. Don’t worry google owns youtube too!

Our family videos!

btw – for lent I am giving up my constant emailing and listing and such so please call me if you need me. I will still check emails occasionally out of necessity but if I need to reply to someone, I’m going old school and picking up the phone! Well, I’ll use the computer phone so not too old school. lol

Happy Shrove Tuesday, everyone enjoy your pancakes tonight. We are staying home but I will make oatmeal pancakes for supper. YUM!!

As you may know Andrew likes to take pictures. Sometimes I leave the camera set to video on accident when he gets a hold of it and we end up with some short blurry clips not worth too much for anyone but me with my adoring mommy eyes. But occasionally we get some good ones. So here is one I think is cute because you can hear Andrew saying a line from his favorite show “Go Diego Go”, he says ‘Say Click!’ It’s what the camera on the show says:

I think it’s cute!

And this is just an example of what Andrew must see when we go to Grandma’s house. He loves it there and often asks to just call her and talk to her. If I am available to help him we will call her upon request and he is getting better at speaking on the phone but still answers her questions with nods sometimes. She does so great ont he phone with him though and often will push herself to her very physical limit when we visit to play with him. So here’s a short clip of Andrew at Grandma’s:

You can hear Paul T in the background too!

And this one is funny I think. We were playing on the floor one recent morning. Andrew loves to wrestle his brother. It isn’t really wrestling, but with someone holding him he’ll grab Paul and pull him over on top of him and he’ll get over on top of Paul while Paul is on the floor and lay across him, with guidance of course. This day he was doing forward rolls over Paul and Paul T was just loving it I had to get a video. It scares the jeepers out of me but I know I am right there and watching closely. I also feel it is better to let Andrew try things and guide him through the best way to safely do these things then to just forbid him from even trying. Unless of course it is truly dangerous (I do not let him jump over Paul T because as skilled at jumping as he is, he still falls sometimes), but for the most part Andrew is very conscience and capable i believe because we let him try many things. OK, here it is, get ready to hold your breath!

We had the most wonderful VD with our family! Who btw is finally all well and up to speed, no more sick bellies or sinuses!

Originally we planned to go to a Wiggles Place out in Frisco to celebrate. I know Andrew would have loved it! But, poor Paul T had had a rough week. We went to the farm again a few days earlier, and he cried most of the way home from being so over tired and out so long. Then the next morning I woke both boys very early and dashed to a friend’s house to watch their kids for them all morning and into the afternoon. While there Paul again couldn’t get relaxed and cried in my arms for an hour and a half, then passed out from exhaustion. So I thought it best for him to not make the over an hour trip to Frisco to play for a few hours and get him all wound up again. I know Andrew would have enjoyed it, but an advantage to the closeness in age of siblings is that Andrew will still be of an age to enjoy such a place when Paul T gets old enough to make the trip comfortably.

Instead we decided to stay here and make it a family day about town! We started early as usual, around 8am with me and the boys. We all played and Paul got a nap in. Then Daddy got up and we thought it would be fun to take Andrew out to pizza at Cicis. Sure I know it’s crap, Andy knows it’s crap, but it is fun for kids so we wanted to go for Andrew. By the time we left there though Paul was getting over tired again.

We decided to go to a park. Andrew said he wanted to go to ‘the black park’ and I figured out he meant a place called Southlakes where there is a huge dark wooden structure. Paul managed to fall asleep on the short ride there thankfully!

Tragically however as we pulled in the parking lot, gigantic rain drops started hitting our van window! OH no! Not going to let a little rain stop our fun, we went along anyway and Andy and Andrew headed out, it was only dribbling a bit, and got to work on swinging right away while they could. I stayed behind to get Paul put on in the carrier and a boob out for him to nurse which of course he wanted to do once I woke him to put in the carrier and is complicated when dressing for warm weather. While I was doing all this of all the things, HAIL started to fall on the ground behind me! The sun was still so bright in the sky I couldn’t believe it. I managed to work Paul and all my clothes into the carrier with him nursing and sleeping, wrapped a blanket over him and started to head into the park as the rain came down faster. I found Andy and Andrew walking out as I headed in!

We figured with the sun out this couldn’t last long and since Paul was nursing we decided to wait in the van and see if it passed. No such luck after about 10 minutes Andrew started saying ‘drive Daddy!’ Where to? The mall of course! He just loves the mall. I think it is the candy machines. Fortunately we had a few quarters handy and headed out.

Thankfully living in town has made it easy to do all these things since they are all within 10 minutes of each other and our apartment!

We went and ran around the mall stopping at various places to play, like at the 2 train places and got candy. We even went to the movie theater and saw about 45 minutes of a cute movie about a dog named Bolt. It only cost us $4 for the movie too! For that price a 45 minute walking break for my sore back was a relief. Paul slept the whole time too! Then I woke him and asked Andy to give my poor back a break and wear him for a while since he was finally done nursing. My back was sore from playing on Thursday with the 2 other kids, I gave plenty of horsey rides!

Anyway, back into the mall to play more. Then off to the grocery store for ingredients for Andy’s dinner he planned to make us, chicken fettucini alfredo! We decided on Target so Andrew and I could play around while Daddy and Paul shopped. It was so fun. We played swords and chase and hide and throw a ball and all kinds of stuff! It was a blast and a rare treat for me since I am usually the one with the baby and doing the shopping while daddy and Andrew play with toys!

Back at home we enjoyed some Dora and Diego for Andrew with our new cable and ate our scrumptious dinner prepared lovingly by Andy. Andrew really enjoyed it and kept stealing the chicken off Andy’s and my plates!

It wasn’t super easy getting everyone to sleep that night but it went as smoothly as you can expect for a happy, fun-loving, exploring, energetic 2 year old who is never ready to stop learning and go to sleep!

I was so exhausted I went to sleep as soon as Paul T did too.

Andy and I were both very happy and satisfied with our joyful family Valentine’s Day together and wouldn’t have traded it for all the baby sitters and romantic dinners alone in the world! We’re of the strange variety pf parents that really truly enjoy hanging out with our kids!

Hope you all had as lovely a day of love as we had. May all your days be full of love not just Valentine’s!

As soon as I get time on my computer I will put up a few videos too!

Maybe not the best way to drop those last 5-10 pounds of baby weight but it sure worked for us. Catch a stomach virus, or flu or food poisoning, whatever the heck we’ve had around here the last 2 days. Fortunately our babies are in perfect health and show no signs of it. But when you have everything you’ve eaten int he last few days coming out of your body from both end for over 24 hours, you’re bound to shed those excess pounds!

We’ve been down right miserable here! It started for me about 430am yesterday morning, that was Thursday and has been getting better super slowly. I am still plagued by dehydration and exhaustion. Andy fell ill about 4 hours after I did. We have no clue what caused this since Andrew isn’t showing any symptoms. He eats everything we eat and we’re in tight quarters so if it was contagious, he would have it. He could still get it I suppose but we’re really hoping he misses this one.

We were really hoping yesterday when we went to bed we’d wake up all better but no such luck. Though we aren’t nearly as bad off as yesterday we are not well. It is so much more difficult to be sick when you have kids! I hate it 100 times more. I cannot play with Andrew, I can barely lift Paul T, my milk supply is low so Paul is nursing nonstop which is not helping the dehydration. What a hassle!

And to stack on top of it, we have a class tomorrow at DUUF (that’s our church) for new members. I was really looking forward to it. I want to truly learn what this church is about before I say for sure we want to be members. But seriously, even if we are feeling better tomorrow I can’t imagine sitting through a 4 hour class after these past 2 days. And yesterday was the only other day this whole week we had anything to do and we could do none of it.

Alas, such is life I suppose right? At least we got up enough today to get some food.! Poor Andrew only had rice, banana and crackers toe at yesterday because that was all I could handle. I did make him a bowl of Cheerios before bed and he ate the whole thing, even drinking all the milk! It’ll be easier for mommy to be sick when Andrew is older and capable of getting his own food.

~~**ADDITIONAL NEWS**~~

OK, I typed this first part last Friday and had to go before I was done. And that was before our weekend adventure fully began! Now it is Monday evening…

We had hoped to be well enough to go to church on Sat morning. Well, we were well enough alright. but Andrew woke at 430am (what is with that time!) and started vomiting. Poor baby has never vomited in his whole life! He had a tough time at first. I had to tell him to stop trying to swallow it back and just relax and let it go. He also had diarrhea through all his diapers cloth and plastic. So Andy had to go out the next morning to get some more.

He threw up and slept pretty well all day. He kept wanting to eat though! Not that I blame him, I know he was hungry after emptying his belly so much but then he’d get sick and throw it up.

This lasted up until pretty much last night. He kept claiming to be feeling OK then he’d get a sick look on his face after eating and I’d say do you need to go throw up and he’d nod so I’d run him to the bathroom and he’d let it fly. Andy taught him how to do it, he said grab the bowl and just go for it! We started telling him good puking and he got into it. It was so sweet and so sad. Andrew is such a happy child in almost every situation, I swear.

He puked in the bed Sat night and I had to wash the whole thing along with 2 pillows. Took all day Sunday to get that and several loads of dirty clothes cleaned. But he hasn’t thrown up since Sunday night during dinner, which btw he returned to eat more of after vomiting – 2 year olds! But today he has complained of a “belly hurts” pretty much all day and has eaten very little. He has had one bout of bad poops so I am hoping once he gets all that poison out he’ll feel better. I have let him nurse a little more than usual to make up for the lost calories. When he was vomiting so much I think it contributed to his nausea so I still limited it as much as I could without listening to him cry. It’s so hard. And he’s so extra cuddly with mommy.

This afternoon we went for a walk to a local shopping center to get out because I was going crazy and I carried Andrew in the mei tei on my back while Andy wore Paul T in the Snuggli. Andrew did not want me to put him down anywhere and just laid his head down on my back most of the trip. He did look around a bit and cht about things he saw.

It’s so cool when he talks! He’ll tell you about all kinds of things. And if you can decipher it, even better!

Paul has decided to start rolling from back to front this weekend too! The funny thing is he seems to have forgotten how to roll back to his front so he gets stuck. If he realized he could roll both ways, he’d be on the move. I am so not ready for that.

So we’ve had quite a sick several days around here. Thankfully Paul is OK. he has had a bit of diarrhea and vomiting but he is still nursing and sleeping fine. He’s also had some tummy ache issues I think and it is so sad. For both of them. i just wish I could make it go away but it is all a part of the life we live in these earthly bodies and something that has to be dealt with.

We are surely getting through this together and looking at the bright side. All in all it is just a little tummy ache, it could be much worse and we are truly blessed o be as healthy as we are!