He would love to suck his thumb. Unfortunately for him, we swaddle him before laying him down for bed. That puts a serious kink in the thum-sucking attempts.
Just Another Day/Morning in Paradise
by nathan3:00am- Awaken to Ethan standing quietly next to Nathan’s side of the bed. He has something to say, but he doesn’t want Mama to hear. Isaac wakes up to nurse. Nathan gets new pj’s for Ethan.
5:30am- Isaac wakes up to nurse again.
6:40am- Audrey and Ethan are up and in our bedroom. I get up to shower and Nathan tries to stay in bed. He is unsuccessful in this endeavor since Ethan and Audrey are not cooperating.
7:00am- I’m done with my shower and remind Nathan that Audrey needs to be taken to the bathroom when she first gets up. I take her and, to my shock and delight, her Pull-up is dry. Hallelujah.
7:15am- Nathan gets in the shower. Isaac is awake and I feed him even though he just ate 1 1/2 hours ago because that’s how we start our day time routine.
7:30am- I dress E&A and dry my hair. E&A watch Caillou on PBS.
7:40am- Nathan leaves for work.
7:41am- Nathan comes back and grabs the correct car keys and then leaves again!
8:05am- Buckle Isaac in his car seat, put shoes and socks on E&A, grab diaper bag, potty insert and purse and head to the car.
8:15am- All kids are loaded and buckled safely and we’re on our way to Waconia.
8:45am- Get E,A&I out of the car and into church to check Ethan in for VBS. Take Audrey to the potty. There will be lots of potty trips today since I waited too long to take her yesterday afternoon and Audrey ended up peeing in the garage when we were coming in from the car. Anyone know how to clean urine out of tennis shoes? Trying to avoid that experience again.
9:00am- Go to Target with A&I.
9:33am- Feed Isaac and change his diaper in the car in the parking lot at Target.
9:50am-Take A&I to the grocery store.
10:45am- Back at Church to watch the closing portion of VBS and pick up Ethan. Take Audrey to the potty.
11:30am- Load the kids into the car and head to McD’s to get a sandwhich for the kids to eat on the way home. Ethan promises that he will keep Isaac happy is I buy him an “ice cream drink”. Sounds like a good deal to me.
12:00- We’re back home. I unload the kids and then the groceries. Isaac needs to eat again. Kids get to watch Sesame Street.
12:40- I lay Isaac down for a nap.
12:45- Another trip to the potty for Audrey and I lay her down for a nap. She comes out a minute later because she needs her cow. Yes, Audrey sleeps with a stuffed cow. It’s actually a bottle holder we got as a present for Isaac.
Ethan is using the computer during his quiet time.
1:00- Start a load of laundry and load the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
1:10- Blog about my morning and think about what I should accomplish before Nathan gets home.
Here’s a shot from VBS today:
Everyday Life (and fun with Picasa collages)
by nathan
I’m starting a new scrapbook that will serve as a “snapshot” of my everyday life. Here are a few photos that I shot today to document different areas of our house as I’m working on this project right now. I can’t wait to get going on this project. I love having pretty photos and fancy layouts, but my real emphasis on this scrapbook is to capture my life at this moment. I want to be able to look back and remember what my life felt like during the summer of 2009.
This collage shows our piano with pictures of E&A, Audrey’s bed covered with stuffed animals, toys on the floor, Isaac lounging, Ethans wall letters, our messy book corner that needs attention, Audrey laying on the couch all by herself because Ethan is at VBS, my scrapbook stash that is curently spread out in our bedroom, A&I’s closet that they currently share, library books we are reading, and another shot of the floor of Isaac’s closet.
My goal will be to do a 2-page layout every 6 months. I’ll probably use a smaller 8×8 book for this one. I’m looking forward to this as it’s easily sustainable and it’s easy to stay caught up with this project.
A post in which I use the words "vasectomy" and "poop"
by nathanI took at call from a nurse from our clinic today. I was surprised to see it come up on the caller ID, but then the woman identified herself as the nurse of Doctor B. and was looking for Nathan. Dr. B. performed Nathan’s “male procedure” (That’s how it was listed on our insurance statement and I think that’s hillarious. Apparently, even the insurance company is embarrassed to say “vasectomy”). I told her I would have Nathan call her back since he was at work. Nathan followed up and gave me an update this evening. He told me that the nurse said that the testing they did on the parts of the vas that were removed couldn’t conclusively show that it was completely severed. We aren’t supposed to be working under the assumption that we are sterile until Nathan has a follow-up analysis done.
After a stressful day, I found that news very funny. I immediately asked for permission to blog about it. Nathan said to go ahead. So, you don’t have to be embarrassed for him. He doesn’t care. In fact, he wants you all to know that he loves me so much that he was willing to do this for me.
While we are at it, lets talk about potty training and poop. I’m a mother. I talk about things like this and it’s considered normal! Audrey is on day 5 of potty training and she did fabulous today. She stayed dry all day except for her nap when she was in a pull-up. And yes, she even pooped in the potty and I did a little dance and gave her about a thousand M&M’s and called Nathan. She described the process in great detail to him. Later, we called Grandpa Fritz and also told him.
I love a life where it’s perfectly normal to talk about vasectomy’s and poop.
Ever have one of those days?
by nathanEver have one of those days when you have a lot of your mind and you would really like to talk about it on your blog, but you aren’t sure how to say it?
Me neither.
How about some photos?
Isaac’s 2 month check
by nathanOur doctor was booked through the end of the month so we saw a different doctor today. I’ll have to plan ahead to get our doctor next time.
Isaac weighed in at 12 lbs, 12 oz. and he was 23 inches. He has gained 6 pounds and 4 inches! Our 3rd and final(we’ve made sure of that!) child is measuring above average for size. This is a first for us. Ethan and Audrey were a bit smaller. Ethan was only 8lbs, 8 oz at two months. Audrey was only 9lbs, 14 oz. I hardly know how to deal with this 
Isaac has almost doubled his birth weight.
He didn’t like the shots much. 3 shots in his leg and one dose he took orally. He was sad and grumpy all afternoon. I hope he sleeps well tonight.
Catching Up
by nathanIsaac- After giving me fits about laying down and sleeping for awhile, he has now become the miracle napper. Seriously, I am in awe. He takes 1 or 2 hour long naps in the morning and then in the afternoon he takes a nap that is 3-4 hours long. Wow! Thank you, Lord! I needed that. And he seems so much happier. He gets cuter every day and I’m enjoying getting to know him. In the evening, he loves to just lay on the floor and kick and wave and talk. Sometimes when he is tired, he just prefers to be laid down and not held. Isn’t that crazy? I love it! I rescheduled his 2 month check-up for tomorrow. I decided I didn’t want to wait for the one I scheduled with our doctor since she isn’t available for another month.
Audrey- We started potty training on Saturday. When we went to bed on Friday, Nathan decided it was time. Saturday morning, we stopped putting her in diapers. We’ve had accidents, but not too many. She goes when we ask her to and we still need to help her with her clothes sometimes, but she is getting the hang of it. I’m hoping that after a few more days she will take initiative to go without reminders. I’m still putting her in Pull-Ups for her nap and overnight. I’m not that brave yet. In other news with Audrey, she believes that her name is “Princess Audrey”. We have tried to explain otherwise, but she is adamant about this.
Ethan- Ethan keeps getting smarter every day. I was singing “Be careful little eyes what you see….” when we were in the car yesterday. He asked what it meant. I said that it meant that there are some things that we shouldn’t look at like certain movies and books that were bad because it made Jesus sad. Then he announced that he thought it made Jesus sad when Daddy let him watch Stargate once. I had to hide my laughter. You’re busted, Daddy!
Nathan- Work is VERY busy. This happens every August. They plan their projects out ahead of time for the summer, but other people always have last minute projects (huge things) that get dumped on them and they end up scrambling to get to it all.
Me- I’m finding my groove with 3 kids. 2 months into this and I’m starting to feel normal again.
Our van is still having some troubles. We had to stop on the way to church yesterday. We ended up adding lots of coolant since that was low. At least the dashboard indicators are working (for now). I think we probably need to just buy a different used vehicle and retire this one, but we’ll see.
Parade Day!
by nathan
We had a lot of fun yesterday. We had the parade go by our house and we had the Franson family over. Here are a couple of photos. Amber and Audrey decided to walk around with Audrey’s dolly’s pack and play on their heads. Silly girls! I’ll be back later with a full update on what we’re up to (potty training!).
