Weighty Things

My back hurts. I should say that my back always hurts, but yesterday and today…it really hurts. Like the kind of hurt that my mom had when her little 5 foot nothing body tried to heave open our big, heavy, wooden garage door, and then her back hurt, kind of hurt. When I woke yesterday to find that the vertebrae in my back had seemingly fused together while I slept, I began scrolling through the events of the previous day in my mind only to realize that I did nothing out of the ordinary. A real puzzler.

A couple of hours later I honed the inner sloth in me where my movements were slow and calculated in order to load a squirmy Josie into her car seat, and then offered a little prayer as I tried to heave Jameson’s car seat into the car, all the while thinking, “Please don’t drop him! and please don’t drop me!!” Being stuck on my cold garage floor with two screaming babies hollering at me from above is a nightmare of mine. Thankfully, though, with a grimace and a loud groan I was able to heft him into place. I eased myself into the driver’s seat and we were off to Jameson’s 6 months check up.

I had time to think of when I sustained my back injury while in the waiting room, but still came up with nothing.

Finally, they call us back. “Take off his clothes to his diaper and we’ll weigh him.”

Okey dokey. I, too quickly, spring into action, trying to disguise my excruciating pain to the doctor…in hindsight, duh! I should have let it shine, she is the one with the prescription pad for the good stuff! and we took Jameson to be weighed.

18lb 2 oz. 6 months old.

Then, the pieces start to fit together.

18 plus pound butter ball + mom, with the bone structure of a sparrow up top (*special to note only up top. structure more like an elephant down below). holding him all the time = very sore back.

This is the simplified version. Other factors to be included would be lazy night time feedings with very poor posture on my part, and residual damage from his three siblings.

Oh, but he is worth it. Sweet and squishy, every bit. The doctor was asking developmental questions and stated more than asked, “He recognizes when someone is unfamiliar and pulls away,” but this couldn’t be less true. If you get in his face, he is happy to have you there as long as you are smiling at him. No stranger danger yet. This is a far departure from Josie. She was pretty much birthed being skeptical of everyone (besides her mama of course). What’s important is he is healthy. Healthy and heavy.

Onto lighter things. I took my kids to a big indoor bouncy house place. I had been holding it over them forever trying to get desired behavior from them, and when I knew I had milked it too long I gave in and we went.

Here is Josie after she finally warmed up to her strange surroundings. She had a lot of fun, but it was short lived since she soon after got a messy diaper. I did take some pictures of the boys, but my camera isn’t fancy enough to keep up with all of their movement. Just blurs. While we were there I noticed a lot of other moms there with their kids and they bought the pizza and drinks that the place offered, and their kids had pockets full of change for the arcade, and I started adding up how much this excursion would cost them, and it was easily close to $70! and I swear I heard one say to the other, “Meet you here next week?” Who has that kind of money?! I love my kids, but not like that. I love them more like, “Who wants to help mom with the dishes? I’ll let you play in the bubbles afterward!” I was clearly out of my league there, especially since we used coupons to get in at half off. Besides, I have a bad back, I can’t carry around that kind of financial burden. I suppose we are all better off this way

*Post edit: I just looked and at the same age Josie was 3lbs lighter, but an inch longer than Jameson. I knew he seemed round.

“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

 

Me and the babies walking to get the boys from the bus stop on our last non-snowy, nice day. 

It has been a strange winter everywhere this year, right?  No snow for anyone!  Except those poor people in Alaska with 15 feet or something.  Crazy.  It was so strange that I did something that I still can’t even believe that I did.  The end of Josh’s schooling is finally in sight, by that I mean 2 1/2 years away still, but that is nothing compared to the 8 years we’ve been at it, and we were discussing residency places after he graduates.  For the first time in the 5 winters we have been here I said, “I don’t think I’d mind staying here if we matched here.”  What?!  Every winter previous to this I would say something more to the effect of, “I want out! Send me somewhere warmer where I don’t have to bundle my kids up EVERY day in full snow gear to go to school!” 

But this year was special…warmer, no snow.  We have snow now, and I want to report that my previous feelings came rushing back as I took my first step over the mound of discarded snow pants, wet boots, hats, gloves, coats, and neck gators, just to have my freshly socked foot land right in a slush puddle in the middle of my floor.  I want out!  or at least I want a mudroom to contain all of the yuck.  It really is winter now.  My car is all salty.  My socks are always a little wet, and then when I take those off because, brrr! wet socks make for cold toes, my bare feet land squarely on the bottoms of my cold wet pants which can’t help but soak up the slush as I try to push my grocery cart through a hardly plowed parking lot, rendering the wheels on that thing completely useless.  It might as well be on 2x4’s because it’s through pure muscle power that this mama bear hurries us into the store to protect my cubs from the cold.  So winter, now that you’re here, please don’t stay too long, I really don’t like you, not hardly at all.

Around Here

Now use your imagination and take Jameson’s smile from the above photo and place it on his cute little fleece jacket in the below picture and then we have the perfect picture.

It has been a while since I wrote a general update post. 

I mentioned before that Josh is working a lot.  He is still working a lot, only even more now.  I joked with someone at church that I see him 2 minutes a week, and I was willing to give up 30 seconds of my two minutes so that they could speak with him.  He is gone a lot, but people’s sympathy expressed to me is completely unnecessary.  He is blessed to be in the situation he is in, and so am I.  We’re the lucky ones, so the next time the ladies at Wal-Mart look at me with my four kids and say, “My! You have your hands full!” I can honestly respond that yes, I do, but hands full of kids is better than most things.

On to this guy.  He is almost 6 months old now.  It’s nuts to think that this is how old Josie was when I got pregnant with Jameson.  I stand by my original feeling…it felt crazy then, and it still does.  Jameson, however, is my little squishy and is so worth it.  Doesn’t his chubby face just look heavy with all those cheeks?  He is such a lovable baby.  He is a lot more accepting of others than Josie was at this stage.  He’ll let pretty much anyone hold him as long as they’ll talk to him and smile at him.  Josie was already exclusively mine at this point.  It seems that to my babies my hip is the equivalent of a lazy boy recliner, because they love to sit perched there facing out at all the action.  Jameson is no different, except he is heavy, and by the end of the day my not so sturdy back is screaming. 

He started rolling over just before he was 5 months old, and then took off.  Within the first day of rolling over, he could roll both ways (back to tummy and tummy to back) and then just started scooting all over.  So at not even 6 months he is scooting all over the floor.  Pretty good for a little chubby kid!

Jameson is sometimes the sanity at the end of my days.  It’s his chubby neck and gummy grin that make everything worth it.

 

Jo dressed for church.  Josie is…what’s the word for her?  Josie is a riot.  She is hysterically funny, sassy, stubborn, a tease, solemn around strangers, and delighted at the prospect of eating pancakes.  She adores Jameson.  She is for the most part gentle with him now, and lights up when he wakes up from a nap.  He returns these feelings.  She loves her older brothers, and one of the highlights of her day is picking them up at the bus stop.  She is learning more and more words.  She is easily won over if you’ll read to her, and moments of quiet come for me when she is occupied with Yo-Gabba Gabba.  What a bizarre show! 

 

William.  Will is changing from a little boy to a kid.  You know what I mean?  It’s an interesting change for all of us since he is the oldest.  He is smart as a whip.  Just like his dad.  He likes to read, but only if it’s non-fiction.  He doesn’t see the point of reading about something if it isn’t true   (also like his dad)  He is Mr. Football right now.  He is counting down the days until he is old enough to play little league football.  If he is home you never see him without the football in his hands-if not in his hands then heading back toward his hands after he has thrown it up in the air for the 50th time in a row despite my constant warnings to “get that thing out of my living room!”  He is still so enamored with his dad.  I’m ok with that sticking.  No need to grow out of that.  Daddy is a pretty good one to have as your best friend.

Mr. Gigglesworth.  I chose this picture of Isaac because he happens to be licking something sticky off his fingers, so it captures the true Isaac.  Isaac makes us laugh all the time.  At all the times as a parent when you are not supposed to laugh because they are misbehaving, you just can’t help it.  Isaac proudly claims that he is the stinkiest in our family, and will some day be the chubbiest because of his love of junk food.  The other day he got off the bus and told me that someone had thrown up on the bus that day.  I asked if the bus was really stinky.  He looked at me puzzled and said, “No! not because of the throw up.  It’s only stinky around me when I fart.”  Gross.  I looked at him horrified that he was farting on the bus, and he quickly responding, “what?  it’s just those quiet little ones!”  That is our Isaac.

In addition to his silliness he is also a super sweet big brother.  He now shares a room with Josie, and he takes such good care of her.  (Between us, she loves him the most).  He is doing great at school, and his teacher loves having him around.

Whew!  See what I mean?  We are blessed. 

Christmas…From the Top!

 

The boys and Jo eating Christmas Eve dinner.  Josie looks like she could care less.

The kids in their new Christmas pj’s.  Aren’t those babies adorable!

Looks like Santa came

Nana, McKenna, and Grandpa Brian skyped in to watch present opening.  The kids are saying, “hi”

Our Christmas was brought to you in part by the NFL and Reebok.  When the boys opened their jerseys they immediately put them on and opened the rest of their presents that way.

Josie and her new baby.  She wasn’t completely sure what to do with the presents, but found herself quite tickled to get a baby and new shoes.

Isaac and his Packer pillowpet

The aftermath

We clean up ok, don’t you think?

Jameson’s little hand on his face is too cute

Josie getting ready for the Packer game that night.

We had a great Christmas.  The best part for me besides seeing my kids to crazy with excitement was to just have my husband for a full day on Christmas.  We drove to church together, and even came home together!  It was a real treat.

Eye of the Beholder

Our church was hopping this weekend. In addition to the yearly crèche display that was taking place, our ward had also arranged for a rummage. At our rummage nothing is sold. Everything is free. What people don’t want we donate to goodwill. Great idea. Right? As mentioned, the crèche display was being held simultaneously, and I was asked to perform at it. I had gone over to the church earlier in the day to practice my songs, and while there I meandered through the rummage. If you know me well at all, you know that the chances of me picking something up and taking it back to my house were slim. I love to get rid of stuff, not accumulate it. True to form, I easily walked in and out without anything.

Flash forward a few hours. I’m back at the church, this time with my posse’. The crèche is a relatively reverent event, so I knew we were in trouble when the boys both started whining about being “so bored they think they might die” after only being there two minutes. Josh had the great idea of sending them into the rummage while they waited for me to finish. I made it through, and was seated at a table listening to Sis. Treter play beautiful viola music, when the big wooden doors to the gym creak, loudly, open and in walks Isaac with his arms brimming with treasures. I’m sure that my face showed exactly the horror I was feeling inside, when he quickly said, eyes wide, “What? It was all free.”

I nearly tackled him when he said he was going back for more.

If you are wondering what the blobs are, they are soap sponges that grow when you put them in water. A gorilla and t-rex. I touched them to throw them away and I think they gave me a rash. I’m just sayin’.

Thanksgiving Surprise

This year, the original plan for Thanksgiving was to go to my oldest sister’s house in Kentucky.  With all the work that Josh is trying to get done, that kind of trip became pretty much impossible to do.  Josh and I thought it would be fun instead to do a little mini vacation to Chula Vista.   Then we thought, let’s make it a surprise!

So, on Wednesday afternoon I secretly got everything ready, and loaded up the kids to go get Josh at the lab so we could go to a buffet for dinner (something they love to do).  We told them that we were going to a buffet that was pretty far away, so that they wouldn’t start whining when it took longer than fifteen minutes to get there.  Surprisingly, we were at least an hour into the drive before Isaac started mumbling under his breath that he thought it was pretty dumb to go to a buffet that was so far away.  Will didn’t seemed phased by the distance.  Another 15 minutes goes by and Isaac starts complaining again.  Josh and I decided to tell them at that point.  It took a few minutes and hints before it really sunk in that we were indeed going to a buffet, and that it was at the Dell’s, and that we were staying overnight.  The following picture captures that exact moment when the stars aligned for them.

Unfortunately, this is the last of the pictures from the fun getaway.  I put the cameral in the glove box and forgot all about it.  We stayed in one of their ultra nice 2 bedroom condos, that Josh got a screaming deal on at 90% off!  Plus, he managed to land us our Thanksgiving dinner for free too!  When we got in the room Isaac started hollering, “I never want to leave this place! This is the best place we have ever lived!”

Didn’t feel terribly Thanksgivingy, but I didn’t have to cook, so, all in all a pretty awesome time.

I never would have thought that we would have gotten so much use out of all the headbands Josie has.  I was sure that by 19 months we would have moved onto  barrettes and pony’s, but not so.  She’s still pretty cute though.

 

A random bit,  to everyone who wished me a happy birthday yesterday, thank you.  30 feels old, but my visiting teaching partner made me feel a little better.  She remembered my birthday was coming up, and asked how old I would be.  I told her 30 with my nose all scrunched up in disbelief that my 20’s were over, and she said, “oh crap! I’m more than twice your age!”  My response to you, Jan, is I have twice the amount of kids as you, so that makes it a wash, right?

Because He Deserves it, and Other Stuff

 

This is the typical scene whenever Daddy comes home.  Really, an every day occurrence.  Daddy dog pile.  So fun.

This is also another classic daddy moment.  He did it with Will, Isaac, and now with Josie, and each responds in a different way, but all love it.

“Down!  Set!  Hut! Hut!”

Will would run screaming (gleefully)

Isaac would attack him

Josie mirrors his position.  It’s so funny.

Why the special tribute to fun daddy times?  Well, because they are getting to be more of a treat with all the hours he has had to work lately.  Josh met with his thesis committee last week, and we got the great news, that graduating with his PhD is pretty much a sure thing in June.  Hooray!  However, in order to make this happen he is working so hard.  That is saying something, because he has been working really hard all along, but now it’s border line crazy.  I know it’s so hard on him to not wrestle his babies every day, but I’m grateful for all that he does.  Yay Josh!

Some other stuff…

Hey, Josie, do you feel the burn?

Oh yeah, mom, I’m feeling it!

If you look closely, you’ll see tears streaming down her face and her eyes are all red, but just try and take the chips and salsa away from her.  I dare you.  Trust me when I say that she didn’t mind.

At least I offered some relief.

 

I call the next series of pictures “Ooh, a little red light”

There aren’t many pictures of Jameson, because I’m always holding him while I’m taking everyone else’s picture, and you just read how daddy is shackled to the lab, but I did try the other night.  He was so smiley and cute, but the red light on the camera got the best of him.

This was the closest I got to his normal face, and it isn’t very close.