Trigger Thumb

Not getting the "mom of the year" award this year. Micah's thumb had been weird for the last few weeks.  He got it caught in the refrigerator door but seemed fine right after it happened. A few times I had asked him to straighten it and he wouldn't do it.  I thought he was just being a stubborn two year old.  He hadn't acted like it hurt him.  He was coloring, eating with a spoon, and doing everything else he normally would with no problems.  The other night we were sitting at the table and counting.  Nathan noticed that he couldn't straighten out his thumb.  We thought he had broken it at this point and rushed up the the ED to have one of Nathan's colleagues take a look. It didn't appear to be hurting him and the x-ray looked like it wasn't broken.  Nathan put it back in place and we splinted it with a band-aid so he couldn't bend it.

Trigger Thumb

We followed up with his pediatrician who agreed with Nathan that Micah has "trigger thumb". It wasn't caused by the refrigerator incident, but the injury probably irritated it enough that we were able to notice it. Basically, Micah's thumb is getting locked in a bent position.  Sometimes he can bend it and straighten it with it popping, but other times it will get locked.  We have been giving anti-inflammatory medications and  keeping it taped to prevent him from using it.  It's hard to keep a two year old from using his hand and he hates having it taped!  Even more than he hates having it taped, he hates us having to pop it back into place.  He will be keeping the tape on from now on.  We are hoping that the inflammation will go down after a week and that we can avoid any type of surgery.  If not, Micah will have to have a procedure to clip one of the bands in the thumb to release his trigger thumb.  Please keep this little guy in your prayers!

All he does is study!

Has anybody seen my husband?  He's been missing for the last three weeks.  Oh yeah, he's studying!  Nathan has been studying for 8+ hours a day for the last three weeks.  I really don't know how he's doing it! I certainly don't have the drive or motivation to do what he does. He takes his Emergency Medicine boards on Monday and we're going out to celebrate his passing it that night. They take inservice exams every year of residency as a practice for the real exam.  He's done well on these and will have no problem with the written exam.  Eleven years of post secondary education boils down to this one test. But wait, he's not quite done yet.  After this he has to take an oral exam and then retake the written portion every ten years.  It really seems to never end.

I'm ready to have my husband back. The house is a mess, dinner hasn't been on time, and Micah is getting himself into all kinds of trouble because Mom can't keep up with him on her own. My boys are ready to have their daddy back.  He comes up from the basement for meals and to shower.  That's about it.  So we've not had any quality time in the past month.  Micah is sneaky and will tiptoe downstairs to get a peak of daddy and make up some excuse as to why he's down there. Usually he comes back upstairs with a random toy but no daddy.  Just today he said, "Daddy, take off your eyes (glasses) and stop working".  I said, "Just three more days buddy". He knows when daddy's sleeping or working that he can't play, and it's killing him!

Fall Crafting

Micah loves to paint, color, or do anything messy.  We haven't done much of this lately since Owen's arrival.  It's hard to keep an eye on Owen and have Micah with a handful of paint.  The night before Halloween we had some painting fun.  Micah and Owen spent a few days with Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa earlier this month.  They went to the local pumpkin patch and came home with two small sugar pumpkins that were just their size.  I hoped to get Owen's footprints on one but it was an epic fail.  Our washable finger paints were not dense enough to leave a good print.  Micah took advantage of this and had two pumpkins to paint instead of one.  He had a blast!  Maybe next year we'll be a little more brave and get to carving a pumpkin, but for now this   what we've got.  

My little artist

My sweet smiling Owen. 

"I wish I could chew on my toes.  They look tasty!"

"Punkin" patch

"I've got a pumpkin for my baby brother!"

My little Micah and I snuck out of the house during Owen's morning nap to go pick some "punkins". Don't worry, we didn't leave baby alone.  Dad's been studying for his boards (more on this later) so he was home too. I really wanted to make this a whole family event, but the days that we could go it was too rainy, too cold, too late, or they weren't open.  It was the last weekend for pumpkin picking so we headed out to Kristin's pumpkin patch just off of Toronto road. If you're in Springfield you have to check them out!  Not super busy and well worth their price. It was so much nicer than I'd expected.  It seemed like an odd location for a pumpkin patch, and the directions sent us right to one of the nearby neighborhoods. Once we got out of the car, we picked out our wagon and headed to the field.  They had a huge corn maze but I'm not a fan of spiders so we passed on this.  Micah and I picked out one large pumpkin and two mini pumpkins, one for each of the boys.  We had a blast!  Just wish Nathan and Owen were able to join us.

I picked this one

Trying new foods

We seriously have 2 of the worst eaters out there!  Poor little Owen has a tight frenulum (tongue tie) and he wasn't a good nurser.  After struggling for 2 weeks and supplementing every feeding he still wasn't back to his birth weight.  We gave up and went with bottles, but he didn't do much better with that either.  We tried 3 different formulas and finally found one that worked.

And Micah.  Where do I even begin.  I thought I was doing everything right.  I introduced new foods one at a time to look for allergies.  I followed everything by the book.  We took his bottle away at 15mo and he really didn't drink much milk for the next year.  He just now at 2 1/2 started drinking milk!  I'm hoping he will start eating some new foods.  He's too busy to eat and asks to play or go to the bathroom through the entire meal.  We started using a timer and setting it for 20-30 minutes.  He can either finish his meal and get up to play, or wait for the timer.  I'm so surprised, but he's actually sitting the entire time!  Still not eating much more, but taking a few more bites than he would have.  He lives on cheese/yogurt, crackers/bread, fruit, and cereal.  I've always let him try anything that he asks for.  Today it was my Fiber One bar.  He picked some of the chocolate chips out of it but thankfully didn't eat much more.  I don't want him to have an upset tummy.  I'll never get him to try anything new if it does!

I sure hope Owen doesn't pick up on Micah's poor eating habits.  Maybe Micah will start eating better before Owen picks up on it.

Potty Training Success!

I was putting off potty training Micah as long as I could.  We had a big move and a brand new baby all within about 12 days of each other, and potty training was just not on my agenda.  Micah had shown some interest and I could occasionally get him to sit on the potty.  He would rarely do anything on it but if he did we always made a big stink about it.  His cousins Cole and Noah were both potty training and I kinda felt like Micah should be too.  I had received some advice from a friend with 5 children.  She said that she struggled training her first child and he finally trained himself around the age of 3.  All 4 of her other children did the same.  So I thought, "I'll just wait until he's closer to 3 and then we'll get him trained".

Micah has been waking from naps and nighttime dry for some time now.  One day he'd gone from 12:00-5:00 and was still dry when he woke from his nap.  This child had to go I was sure, so we sat in the bathroom for about 2 hours playing and reading books.  All of a sudden he looked at me, ran to the potty, sat and peed!  Yippee!  We made a huge deal of it, gave him a handful of M&M's, and then called it a day putting a diaper back on him.  I still didn't think he was really ready to potty train.

Well the next day he refused to put on a diaper, and we started potty training in full force.  He was a trooper. He picked out a pair of Mickey Mouse undies and we were confined to the playroom the rest of the day with the potty nearby.  I'd read a blog about potty training in a day and it truly worked!  Check out her blog for details of this method.

http://www.themoesfamilyintexas.blogspot.com/search/label/Potty%20Training

Basically we stayed home for the first 3 days.  Micah really had it down after the first day and a half.  We drank lots of juice, set the potty timer for every 15 minutes, ran him to the potty whenever he did go, and kept the potty close. We rewarded him immediately with M&M's and Dum Dum suckers and he got to choose his treat of choice.  We called different family members to share our successes.  We did a happy dance to celebrate each time he went potty, and we made it fun to run to the potty.  We had luck letting him go bottom free, and he even went on his own the first day! I was in shock!  After the first 2 days we moved the potty back into the bathroom and it didn't seem to confuse him. I heard little boys were hard to train.  He's been so difficult with other things like eating and throwing temper tantrums that I think God is giving me a little break.

We've had some accidents here and there, but overall it's been a success!  He's never had an accident on the furniture thankfully.  We're going on nearly 3 weeks without an accident (knock on wood).  I'm so proud of this little boy!  He's growing up so fast!

Roll over, roll over

Our little guys has kept us on our toes.  For being so small, his muscle tone has always been advanced.  At just 3 weeks old he rolled over!  I'm not making it up.  Nathan and Micah were both there to witness it too.  We were reading books with Micah, and Owen was on the floor doing some tummy time.  Before we know it, he'd pushed himself up and was over.  We didn't believe it.  So we had him do it again and in just a second he'd flipped himself over again!  It wasn't until about 2-3 months that he was rolling over consistently.  He's sleeping on his tummy now most of the time.  I've tried rolling him to his back and he just flips right back to his belly to sleep. He's sleeping nearly 12 hours at night and that makes this mama happy.  We couldn't love him any more!

Micah showing Owen how to roll over.  

Welcome Owen Jones!

So I know I'm about 4 months late on this, but I'm trying to get caught up on blogging.

Owen William Jones entered the world at 12:20am on June 10th, 2012. Owen weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 19.5in long. Our little man was a full week late but certainly worth the wait.  He arrived very quickly and our doctor didn't even have time to make it to the hospital.   Micah is such a good big brother and always very protective of his baby brother.  He's really made the adjustment quite well.  We're so happy he's here!

Our new home!

We take possession of our new home in just a little less than 3 weeks!  We're so very excited.  I just found these pictures that we saved to our computer and a link for the video tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1VGkvfMn7w .  It needs some decorating but it has some nice features to start.  We won't have to worry about paint and the home looks as though it was never really "lived" in.  We're buying from a single radiology resident who worked most of the last 5 years and bought it new.  Super excited to be starting this new chapter of our lives!

Home Sweet Home

Kitchen



Laundry/mud room right off of kitchen

Dining Room (probably will be a playroom for a few years)

Family Room

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Boys Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bath w/ His & Hers sinks

Backyard. New fence coming soon!

Waiting on baby

So it's official, I am ready to have this baby!  It's not that I'm terribly uncomfortable or that I have zero energy because I really do feel great.  I'm just ready to meet this baby boy and move on to the next step in our lives.  With moving day just 16 days away, I really need this baby to get here!  I just don't want to rush him.  I want for him to pick his birthdate and to be ready to enter this world.  I just need it in my timeframe too.  Nathan had 5 great days off right in a row and we were hoping to share them with our little guy.  Tomorrow he goes in to work nights and I have no back up.  Kind of makes me nervous if something happens in the middle of the night.  We have a few neighbors and friends "on call" but I really don't want to have to make that call at 3am.  We've been praying that God will allow for Nathan to be there for the delivery and that he'll provide someone to care for Micah too.  I'd hate to have both of them in the waiting room while I'm pushing by myself.  Nathan said tonight "there's really only two people that have to be there for the birth. You and baby."  Guess he's right and everything else will fall into place.

The doctor said everything was looking good on the exam and he was ok with me going a few extra days.  Right now baby boy is measuring 7# 8oz and a height averaging about 36 weeks so I guess we're ok on size.  I couldn't imagine being told "you're going to have a 9lb baby"!  Going back on Thursday for another non-stress test and hoping they'll schedule an induction for that night or the next morning. 
We've done just about everything you can imagine to start labor.  Went on 3 walks today, ate spicy foods, and going to mop the floors on my hands and knees tonight.  My mom is 100% sure that baby will make his appearance today June 5th but at 9:20pm, it looks like we're running out of time.  And if he does come tonight, we're going to have to scream to the hospital before family can get here for Micah.  We already called Nana Jill in on a false alarm so I'm going to be really hesitant to say I'm in labor again. Hoping to meet this little boy soon!

My New Job!

Well I guess you can't call it a new job, but it's now my full time job.  Mom and Wife are the titles I'm referred to often, but I'd like to call myself the "family manager" and even better yet "chief family manager".  It just makes everything sound more important if you put the word "chief" in front of it, doesn't it? Well I started full time on May 13th and I've gotta say, it's one of the hardest jobs I've ever done.  My last day working as a dietitian was the prior Friday and it's been quite the adjustment for me.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE being at home with my boys, but it's a big change.  Nathan's been on an easier schedule this month and doing an elective (tactical emergency medicine).  From what I gather, he just shoots a lot of guns and plays cops and robbers.  But seriously, he's training with the SWAT team in Peoria.  Not quite sure how I feel about it, but he says its "safe".  I never realized that marrying an Emergency Physician would be worrisome.  He flies with as a Doc with Lifeflight, one of the most dangerous jobs second to crab fishing, and now is training with the SWAT team.  Still pretty cool, but I try not to think about it too much. 

Anyhow, we've had a fun filled last few weeks. I've got to see more of both of my boys now that my schedule is free. Before, it seemed like all of Nathan's days off were days when I was working. We went to the farm park to see the farm animals and petting zoo, visited the zoo, and headed to Monkey Joes. We're trying to squeeze in as much one on one time with Micah before baby gets here. This weekend we're heading to Splashdown water park. At 39 weeks pregnant, I'm sure I'll be a sight. Oh the things we do for our kids. I can't wait to see Micah playing in all the water toys.  He's just now to the age where he's brave enough to do some of the bigger things on his own.   It's going to be so much fun!  I just love my new "job"!

Fun at the farm park

Just monkeying around and Monkey Joes

I love the zoo!

Getting Ready for Baby!

It's so much different getting ready for Baby #2 than it was with Baby #1.   To make it even worse, we're moving 3 weeks after baby's due date and there's no nursery to get ready.  It kind of makes me sad but then I realize, we're not buying any new bedding because we already have boy bedding, Micah's still in his toddler bed until the baby is out of our room, and really we wouldn't have much to fill a nursery right now.  There's not much to shop for either. I wandered around Babies R Us for an hour one afternoon and came out with a pack of pacifiers. I have really everything I need for now and don't want to buy things that we'll just have to move.  I'll get a few bigger things once we get to our new place in Springfield but that's about all I have to do.  I've made many freezer meals for when baby arrives and have a list of quick and easy suppers to prepare as well.  Our moving allowance is covering all of our packing and moving expenses.  We'll just need some help getting things settled and organized once we get there but that's about it.  I say I'm not ready for baby to be here yet, but really there's not much else to be done.  Twice now I've thought I was in labor.  It's happened at 3:00am when I wake up from Nathan coming home from work.  I think this baby is going to make it's start into the world at night.  Both times a big glass of water fixed it but not until I'd already taken a shower and packed my bag.  Really glad we didn't head to the hospital, but I'm hoping I don't blow the real thing off like it's nothing. 

Micah listening for "baby's heart"

Micah's been getting ready for baby too.    The other day we went to the doctor which are now weekly checks.  Micah woke up saying, "baby's heart" because I told him the night before that we would be going in the morning to listen to baby's heart.  He didn't forget and talked about it the whole time we were there.  He even had to check himself to make sure.  We've been talking about baby a lot.  He calls his glow-worm "baby" and it's really cute.  Today we fed baby, changed baby's diaper, and rocked baby to sleep.  I hope he's as loving with his baby brother as he is with "baby". 


Diapering Baby

Feeding Baby

Cuddling Baby

We're still working on a name for our little man. Part of me wants to settle on a name but another part wants to see him before we decide for sure. At the hospital with Micah, Nathan said "why didn't we name him Eli" and I was like "he does look like an Eli". But we'd already settled on Micah. Don't get me wrong, I love the name Micah and it totally fits him now. I just want to bee 100% sure on a name before we call him that for the rest of his life. Guess we'll all be surprised when he gets here.  We just can't wait!

38 weeks 4 days

New Occupation: Stay at home Mom

Such a bittersweet moment.  Today I gave my notice to work that I would be leaving before baby #2 arrives and moving to Springfield shortly thereafter.  I'm not gonna lie. I shut my door and cried a little after the conversation with our Chief Dietitian.  I'm so excited to be able to stay at home with my boys, but I never thought it would be this hard to leave my career.  I truly LOVE what I do and up until Micah was born, it was the most rewarding job I've ever done. My mom always worked and I've had a job since I was 12 years old! Prior occupations include selling food at the State Fair, teaching dance, swim coach, swim lessons, waitress, retail, residence hall nutrition educator, waitress again and again and again, graduate assistant, and registered dietitian. Until becoming an RD, none of the other jobs really seemed to make much of a difference to others.  The Veterans that I work with are so grateful and I love seeing their progress. I've had one guy even lose 80+ pounds over the last year!  I'm sure he would have done it without my coaching, but it just reminds me of why I made this my career path.

Before having children, I never thought I would be a stay at home mom.  My heart was changed three years ago when Nathan had a horrible child abuse case where a daycare worker caused shaken baby syndrome in a 1 year old little boy.  The outcome was devastating.  Nathan came home and said "when we have children, your staying at home".  I wasn't going to argue this, but I sometimes feel like being a stay at home mom is not enough of a "job" for our society today.  Trust me, you spend a day with my toddler and you'd wish you'd gone to "work" some days.  Why is it considered "work" if it's a childcare provider watching my child while I work and not considered work for me to stay at home and care for my own children?  I listened to a sermon by Pastor Van at New Hope Church in Effingham and he made an excellent point.  He said, "there's nobody better to raise your children than you".  How very true.  God gave me the boys that he did because I'm the best mom there could be for them.  If raising my family is not the most important job I could have, I don't know what else would be. 

So my new official title is "Chief Family Manager".  Well at least that's the title I've given myself.  Nathan's not too keen on calling me "chief" but I'm sure he'll warm up to it :)  Other jobs included under this title: financial advisor, chef, purchasing coordinator, security officer, janitor, plumber, gardener, childcare provider, taxi driver, and personal shopper.  I'm going to find joy in this new job and welcome all the opportunities that come along with it.  I'm sure I'll make it back into the workplace as a dietitian some day, but for now this is the job that suits me and my family best.  So looking forward to all that it has to offer!

Time out time

So I just have to share about our time out method of discipline.  It applies to all in our house who misbehave.  The other night Micah, Nathan, and Champ were playing ball.  All of a sudden I hear a crash and "uh-oh".  I go running to the other room and the clock is on the floor along with a few picture frames that had fallen down.  When I asked what happened, they all looked at one another.  Micah and Nathan were throwing a ball to Champ.  Nathan threw the ball with Micah right by his side, Champ bumped the ball with his nose into the table knocking everything to the floor, and Micah was the tattle tale.  They all went to time out.  It was a long 28 minutes for Nathan but you do the crime, you do the time :)



The time out chair.

Happy Valentine's day!

My Little Heartthrob!  Just love him to pieces!

 Today was a great day!  Micah and I started our day off early and left a surprise for Nathan, cards and candy for him to find when he woke up.   Micah had a fun party planned at school and he came home on a sugar high with all kinds of valentines from his friends at school.  I just love that they do so many fun activities with them and celebrate all the holidays! On our way home, we swung by Papa John's to surprise Nathan again with a heart shaped pizza and cinnamon bread.  It was a working day so there was no way I could prepare a nice Valentine's Day dinner.  Micah was so cute.  We went to pick up the pizza and he kept saying "pizza, pizza, yummo".  He was really interested in watching them make the pizzas and was excited to see that we were taking one home with us.  The whole way home he kept saying the same thing "pizza, pizza, yummy, yummy".  We came in and were surprised to find red roses, a card and candy!  That man knows the way to my heart!  It was really sweet and I love him more and more each day!
 

We had the pizza out on the table and to our surprise Micah just dug right in!  He was eating the mushrooms, cheese, and even a few bites of the crust!  Who's child is this!  Not mine!  He hasn't eaten anything except for bread, fruit, crackers, and mac and cheese for months!  He was loving it and we were getting a kick out of him too.  We just love him to pieces!  Not a truly romantic Valentine's day but the perfect end to our day, spending it as a family!

Had to get a picture of this one!  I don't think anyone would believe me that he ate mushroom pizza!

It's a Boy!

It's a boy and we're so excited!  Micah is so much fun that I couldn't even imagine anything other than a boy.  I had thought it would be fun to have a girl, but two boys two years apart is going to be a blast.  Nathan and I went to lunch today before the appointment and we were talking about "what if it's aboy, what if it's a girl" and Nathan made an excellent point.  He said, "wouldn't a little boy be fun for Micah.  They'll be so close and such buddies."  I hadn't really thought of it that way.  I knew Micah would be great with little brother or sister, but I can't imagine the fun he'll have with a little brother to romp around with.  He's a pretty rough and tumble little boy.  I can't imagine what the two will get into.  I'm sure I'll never sit down once baby boy gets here!  Most importantly baby is healthy.  It has a 4 chamber heart, 3 vessel cord, 2 kidneys, and 1 little boy part (he wasn't shy). 
Micah doesn't quite get the concept of mommy having a baby, but we're getting there.  We talk about it often.  When we mention "baby" or he sees a picture of a baby he quietly says "shush" and puts one finger over his lips.  He'll grab his baby pictures and give them kisses when we talk about the baby in the picture.  I can't wait to see how much love he'll have for his new baby brother!

Feeling Defeated

I am totally controlled by a 20month old little boy!  How did this sweet little boy get the best of me!  Well I've got to set some clearer boundaries and not give in to everything.  Tonight he went to bed at 6:30 and with no dinner.  It wasn't because I wouldn't feed him.  I tried many times, probably 5 or more.  He just doesn't want to sit in the chair at the table to eat!  We've been pretty laxed lately and let him sit in front of the TV to snack while he watches cartoons and now that's all he wants to do.  Strawberry yogurt and my living room couch are not a good combo for a 1yr old, so this isn't going to go on for long.  On top of all this, we're getting rid of the pacifier again during the daytime.  He was good with just having it at naps and bedtime, but we gave in when he got his bottom incisors and it's been a struggle taking it away again.  Nathan was on nights, Micah was cranky, and I couldn't deal with 2 crabby boys.  We were all happier with the pacifier until now, and we're all going through withdrawls.  Day 2 complete and hopefully we'll only have 3 bad days.  Our pediatrician says, "he'll be cranky for 3 days and then be ok after that" when referring to any changes like giving up the bottle or pacifier.  I wonder if he just says that.  With baby #2 on the way, Micah has got to be good and done with his "baz" (paci) by the time he's 2.  I figure it's not going to get any easier so we'll just tough it out now.  He talks so much without it and absolutely none with it.  I want his language to develop so thats just another reason to say "buh bye Baz".