Rejoicing

Last night I was blogging while waiting for Judah to get tired so I could rock him to sleep. He was in his cradle watching his mobile and he fell asleep! I couldn't believe it. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the mobile, he loves it! I did flip Judah over on his tummy since he really likes to sleep that way. And he didn't wake up until around 5:30!

Random

Here are several random thoughts:

I have wanted to take Asa to story-time at the library for a while now. He is just now old enough to go to the story-time that's at the library we frequent. We have successfully attended each Monday morning in September. It's not so easy to take a baby and a little boy who doesn't sit and screams when you yank on his arm to come back. Yes, he screams like a girl. I can't believe it! Today I left Judah with a friend and took her little boy and Asa to story-time. It was so much easier. The boys were pretty well behaved. Asa kept giving Caleb hugs and kisses. Caleb ignored him. They also got to "make" a craft. It consisted of gluing two eyes on a dog face and taping a stick on the back to make it a puppet. Asa did like putting the eyes on. I'll have to take a picture of the "puppet" to share with you.

I love the time of year when you can leave the air conditioner off all day and not die from the heat! Similarly I like the days when you can turn the heater off and open the windows.

I also like staying up later than everyone and getting things done. I remember right after Judah was born I would fold laundry and clean up the house after everyone was sleeping. I seemed to have an extra boost of energy. I guess it was just the only time I had to do those things. Now there is usually some time when both boys are sleeping and I can do my laundry then. (I don't know why there is so much laundry! It drives me nuts!)

I love sneaking in and covering people up. It's pretty easy to do to James, but it's risky to do with Asa. I am always afraid he will wake up, but I sneak in sometimes despite the risk.

James and I got some bug bites a couple weeks ago. Mine are pretty much gone, but James' bites are a big problem. He has itched so badly that he stands around and scratches and can't do anything else. He went to the doctor Thursday and got an antibiotic for the infection. I don't see that it has worked yet. The red spots around the bites are getting so much bigger. James has taken cold baths, oatmeal baths, put ice on the bites, taken Benadryl, used ointments and a million other things. I think if he's not better tomorrow he will have to go back to the doctor.

He gets it! Any time we are getting ready to go somewhere, I have to ask James to get things ready. It frustrates me that I'm the organized one who knows what we need in the diaper bag. We were talking about it one day after we walked out the door. I said that it would just be nice if he knew what needed to be done. I hate telling him what to do all the time. I feel like his mother instead of his wife. (No offense, Sandy.) Tonight I went to the grocery store (no bread in the house) while James put the boys to bed. (Judah actually had to get up later to eat again.) Anyhow, a couple minutes ago I noticed that there is a container of wipes and some diapers for Judah on the bookshelf in our room. James brought those things out of Asa's room so I don't have to go in there in the middle of the night to get supplies. I am so happy that he thought of that. I want to wake James up and thank him, but I know how tired he is.

I also like reading the blogs of my friends.

I think that's all the random thoughts... at least for now!

Breakfast

I'm sitting at the table watching Asa eat his waffle and I'm amazed at his skills. Just a few months ago he was a baby like Judah. Asa said thank you without being prompted when I got him a fork and again when I gave him a drink. He does pretty good with his fork. If he can't successfully poke the food, he will pick it up with the same fingers as are holding the fork. If he can't get it all the way in his mouth, he uses his other hand to shove it in. Oh wait, now he's just using his other hand to pick up the pieces of waffle. I'm glad he doesn't stuff his mouth full of pieces of food and gag like he did a few months ago. A bit ago he dropped a piece onto his seat and was quick to pick it up and eat it. I guess he treasures his food! I also am surprised how much he is eating. He is almost finished with his third section of a Belgian waffle. He ate this much yesterday as well. And he is quick to say more when he finishes what is on his plate.
Judah on the other hand is starting to be very content playing. He really likes the play gym we have and the mobile in his cradle. He lays and talks to the toys and screams and kicks his legs.
I realized something inconvenient this morning, or maybe it was in the middle of the night. We have another crib, but no mattress. My mom has an extra crib mattress that we should have brought home with us in August. Judah is starting to outgrow his cradle, but I don't think we have another option until we get that mattress. When we have the crib ready to set up, we'll have to face our next hurdle: the boys sharing a room. Will Judah wake Asa up at night? I don't know if I'm ready for this.

Fallout, Final Game and Coffee

Saturday a few minutes after we put Asa in bed, we heard a thud in his room. I knew instantly that he had fallen out of his bed. There is a problem with the crib that should probably have been fixed by now. The side that goes up and down doesn't lock up all the way on one side. We had never had a problem before; I guess we were just lucky. So we ran upstairs and found Asa on the floor. James thinks he was standing up and leaned on the railing when it went down and flipped him out. He really didn't cry for very long, so I'm thinking he didn't fall straight on his head. We have a newer crib we got from some friends for Judah. I think we'll get it out for Asa in the next couple of days.
Sunday after church we went to the final Royals home game. We had pretty good seats. Someone had given tickets to one of James' co-workers who in turn passed them along to James. We had a good time at the game. After wards we waited in a long line to run the bases. Asa really liked that. As with a lot of other things, I think he mostly liked watching the other kids and imitating them.
Asa, Mommy & Judah running:
ey {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.
Asa running:

Today I had a cup of iced coffee with a straw in it. Asa has recently learned to drink from a straw and wanted a drink. I let him have some, thinking he wouldn't like it. He drank a lot, took a break, giggled and then said "more, more." I guess he likes coffee.
Also, Asa can remove the safety plug-in covers we have. I guess they're not working so well. I'm not sure if I can get any that will work because we have pretty loose plugs.

Talking

Asa says a lot of things. Most of them only make sense to him. For example, yesterday he was taking a bath. I realize that it's not safe, but I don't stay in there with him. I do listen closely to make sure I can always hear him. During his bath there was a bump and splash. I assume he was standing up, or at least on his knees, and he slipped. I ran up and asked him what happened. He told me all the details of what he was doing, I just had no idea what he was saying.
His latest new word is drum. He says bum. Just a minute ago he was walking around saying "zhoo, ba doodle bum." I guess he was looking for his drum.
Another thing Asa does that is really helpful is putting things in the trash and hamper. It's cute because as he is walking, he says "trash, trash, trash" or "hamper, hamper."
Here's a picture of Judah and Asa wearing matching outfits. It's just luck that they had something the same that fit at the same time.

Dancing King

Here's some video of Asa dancing. He's so funny! I love the head nods and when he dances with the book.

New Look

I have finally figured out how to do some different things on my blog. I hope you enjoy! It's a little embarrassing because James is so good with technology and I have to ask him all the time to help me with things. I'm going to be terrible when I get older. Our kids will be in high school and they'll say stuff like "Mom, I can't believe you don't know how to use this ______. It's so easy." I'm going to be dumb. I'll just take classes about the latest technology from Margee and Melinda.

Stupid but Lucky

This weekend is James' grandpa's birthday. I got a card ready this morning and decided to order some pictures to send as well. Since I waited until the last minute, I had to make a special trip to Wal-Mart to pick up the pictures. Did I mentioned that it has rained most of the day? When I got to the store, I put Judah in the snuggly and let Asa walk inside since all the carts outside would be wet (even though there weren't any carts nearby). I was hoping that Asa didn't run away and get hit by a car. I was also hoping that everyone would be driving carefully. We got inside safely and I saw that ALL of the carts were wet. Since I was just picking up pictures, I figured that Asa could walk with me to the back of the store and get them. For some reason I thought it was unacceptable to put Asa in a wet cart. When I was halfway to the photo counter, I was thinking that I was totally stupid. I was just waiting for Asa to run away. He actually kept walking with me. We got to the photo counter and picked up our pictures. Asa handed the lady a dollar. He was so proud. I let him hold another dollar until we got back to the van. I couldn't believe it, Asa didn't run away or have any melt-downs. He did trip once in the store, but he got up quickly. I was so proud of our big boy! Looking back, I think that next time I won't risk it and I'll just put Asa in a cart, rain water and all.

Labor Day

We went to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead Labor Day weekend. Here's a short video.

Asa & a goat:

Judah while Asa was playing with the goats:

Asa and James by an old John Deere:

the Lights and the Terrible, Horrible, no Good, Very Bad Day

Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but Saturday didn't go as we had planned.
It all started on Friday. James went with a co-worker to Cosco to get some diapers for Asa. When he got home, he remembered that he left the diapers at work. We only had a few diapers left for Asa so we had to decide if we would drive to Nazarene Publishing House Saturday or buy some over the weekend.
We had tickets for the Royals Game from NPH for Saturday night and were planning to take the boys. So we came up with a plan. We would drive to Independence, return something at J C Penney's, go to Family Christian Stores, get the diapers from NPH and then go to the Royals Game. We had done some figuring so we knew what time to leave home so we would have time to do everything and make it to the game.
We started out at about 2:00 and made our way to J C Penney's. It's in the mall in Independence, about 10 minutes away. The area is always full of people on Saturdays. We had to wait through a couple red lights just to get onto the street that goes by the mall. When we pulled in the parking lot, I was trying to remember where the J C Penney's is in the mall. Then it hit me. It's not in the mall, but a couple blocks in the opposite direction. I broke the news to James. We were both glad that I remembered before we got inside the mall. We made it over to the actual J C Penney's and James found a pair of pants that fit and was on clearance.
When we were loading up the van, I remembered I had forgotten the gift certificate for Family Christian Stores. James asked if I happened to grab the tickets for the game. The answer was no. So we had to drive home to get them. Meanwhile Asa was frustrated to be in his car seat. He was happy if he could hold my hand. So I sat with my arm uncomfortably in the back seat holding Asa's hand.
We drove home to get the tickets and gift certificate and then back to the Family Christian Store. I went in with Asa to get the Superchick CD we wanted. Everything went smoothly. We drove over to NPH to pick up the diapers. It was raining a little bit, but James had told me that it was supposed to clear up. We didn't have umbrellas or anything to shelter us from the rain at the game. We got to NPH and James couldn't get in the building. His key card worked, but he still couldn't get in. We drove around and tried every single door. So we drove out of our way to get the diapers and couldn't get in. Totally inconvenient.
Next we got to the game. I sat in the van and fed Judah while James changed Asa's diaper and got him bundled up for the game. We didn't have the snuggly so I carried Judah and James carried Asa. That was probably the worst part of the game, carrying the kids around. They did pretty well during the game. Asa especially liked the occasional fireworks and videos on the big screen. He also enjoyed eating peanuts. Judah pretty much sat around and was happy.
When we got home, I went to Target to get diapers. We hadn't really eaten dinner, so I stopped by Taco Bell to get something. I couldn't remember what James liked and none of the items on the value menu jumped out to me. I got James a rice and bean burrito, thinking it was what he liked. I got home and gave him the surprise, then realized that's not what he would want. I felt so stupid because it should have been obvious to me that he wouldn't like something with beans. It really wasn't that big of a deal. It just seemed like if something could go wrong all the day, it did.
Looking back a couple days later, I don't think it was all that bad. We were able to laugh at the irony of our bad luck on what we had carefully planned to be a fun day.
Most of the family at the game:


Asa likes holding Judah:

Exercise

Last night I went to Borders and found a kit with an exercise ball, resistance band that attaches to the ball, book and video. I really think and hope that I will be able to exercise during the day at home. I haven't been successful at getting out to walk with one or two kids. Previously that was my only hope for exercise. We'll see how this works out.
Today I put on the DVD and started the warm-ups. They were pretty intense for someone who hasn't really done anything in months! Anyhow, I did a lot of stuff but I did end up just watching some to see what it was like. I had to take a break to comfort Judah and never had time to pick it back up. I'm guessing I'll have to break the 70 minute video up into at least two days.
Here's to a six-pack!

End of Summer

Editor's note: this draft began two weeks ago and I'm just today finishing. Oops!

It is August 18 and teachers and kids are going back to school. I can't believe that summer is over. However, since we aren't really involved with the school system, summer continues for a few more weeks. As I think back over the summer, we have made a lot of changes and memories along the way.
In April we went to North Carolina to visit James' sister for our vacation. We decided to take a real vacation and go early since we would be having a baby in the middle of the summer. The highlight was probably going to the ocean and playing on the beach.
In May my mom was watching my oldest sister's kids while she and her husband were in Florida. We got a call early one Sunday morning that Mom was having some trouble breathing and was being taken to the hospital. I drove up to Cedar Rapids with Asa that afternoon. As I was driving, I remembered the last time I had driven to Iowa in my seventh month of pregnancy. It was for a wedding but we ended up staying for almost a month because Dad was nearing the end of his life. I was glad that this trip didn't have the same ending. It turned out that Mom had a heart attack. She only needed a stint put in one place in her heart and was released after six days in the hospital. That weekend was Mother's Day and I was glad to get to return home on my second ever Mother's Day. James had made a beautiful book full of pictures of Asa and our family. The other gift James had for me wasn't exactly a physical gift. He had finally refinished the dresser for Asa's room. It was such a blessing since we had more room for clothes and a changing table!
In June we had VBS at our church. Asa liked the singing at the end. The kids would cheer and scream for the music leader to come into the sanctuary. Asa also learned how to scream like this. For a while, every time he heard applause, he would throw his hands up in the air and scream! In June we also met the man that would become our new senior pastor at New Beginnings Church. He and his family joined us in Lee's Summit at the beginning of July and they have been a big blessing so far!
The most exciting part of June was the Friends Reunion. James' parents have been friends with three other couples for about 30 years. Everyone from three of the families were able to come to the Kansas City area for a weekend. It was great to see our family and the others that seem like extended family. We even had the chance to show James' family around KC and Lee's Summit. I was glad that Asa isn't afraid of "strangers." He knew that these people who loved him so much were family, even if he didn't remember them. And he loved playing with them.
The end of June marked the beginning of our journey with two kids. We took Asa to our friends Brad & Janelle's house the evening of June 29. The next morning we went to the hospital to have our second baby. Of course, Judah didn't help us move things along very quickly and he wasn't born until July 1. He was a big boy with lots of dark hair. We loved him instantly, well it took me a little longer. He was pretty goopy when he came out! Asa did well without us and we enjoyed his visits to the hospital. Asa liked giving Judah kisses from the very beginning and he still does today.
I would say that life with two hasn't been too bad yet. We actually have been in and out a lot and have had a lot of visitors. The first night home was the worst. Judah had trouble sleeping and Asa was all out of sorts. We had both boys in our bed for a while. And Asa wouldn't sleep with us; he just rolled around. I finally laid him back down in his own bed and he slept fine. The other terrible thing that happened is that Asa somehow contracted hand, foot and mouth disease. That was no fun. My mom changed some plans and came down for a few days. Thank you so much Mom! I would have died without you.
In August the Stonebrakers came for a visit. A week later we celebrated our fifth anniversary by going on a picnic and just spending quality time together. Judah joined us; Asa stayed with a friend. I spent a week in Iowa with the boys. It was great to see some long lost friends and my sisters and their girls. James came up for the weekend and we went to my friend Abbie's wedding in Pella. We had a great time: dancing, eating, laughing... it was so much fun!
The Crawley family came down for Labor Day to mark the end of summer. I am so glad my family lives near enough to visit occasionally. I love you all!

quiet

Asa was being quiet again today when I thought he was playing. What was he doing? Playing in the trash. What was in his mouth? Kleenex. Yumm.