Our Week

It doesn't seem like anything very interesting has happened this week. Wednesday Judah did this:

(That is in Asa's bed)
While Asa did this:

And then Asa did this:

I'm working on getting a video of Asa singing. He's pretty good at part of one song. You'll have to wait and see what that is.
I put the boys in similar red shirts and tried for a photo shoot. Judah did very well. Here are some of him:

And this is the best of them together:

We also have been working on our Halloween costumes. We have Trunk or Treat at our church Saturday night so there wasn't a rush to have the costumes finished for the actual day of Halloween. However, James asked if we would visit him at work for lunch today. I thought that we could get the boys in their costumes so everyone at work could see them in all their cuteness. It was successful, really not too difficult. James and I are still working on our own costumes and tying that in with what the boys are. And we'll try to decorate our van to go along with the theme. Stay tuned for photos and the unveiling of our amazing costumes!

Playing with a Pan, etc.

Judah really likes playing with blankets. He holds them and brings them up to his mouth so he can chew on it. He also is starting to like holding toys. With Asa we made the mistake of giving him a hard toy to start with and he hit himself on the head with it. We're smarter with Judah and give him soft toys with a ring on it. Those are pretty easy for him to hold.
We had cookies in a pan earlier this week. It was empty so I let Asa take it off the table. He had a lot of fun playing with it for quite a while. He finally was sitting in the pan. It was pretty cute. Later as I was washing it I read "Roasting Pan" on the bottom. I guess I could have roasted Asa if he would have laid still in the oven.

Feet, etc.

I was just changing Asa's diaper and he was holding onto his feet. That's not normal since he usually is trying to get away or is turning the light on and off a million times. I had to laugh because he said "Yeah" and was clapping his feet together. Then he had them up to his mouth and was trying to talk. It sounds so different when there's something right by your lips! Then I asked Asa to take his jammies to the hamper. He gladly did it, saying "heeper" the whole way there.
Asa also has his eye teeth coming in. They're so little and pointy. I think they look like little dog teeth! Are they called the canines? I'll have to ask my dentist friends.
Judah is really growing up. I do believe that he will be as cute as Asa.

Asa must be growing. Suddenly his 18-24 month jeans don't fit. This morning he ate a bunch of beer bread that was left from my Tastefully Simple party last night. He also had a scrambled egg and now is eating a peanut butter sandwich.

Can we be healthy and bored again?

It seemed a few weeks ago that we had a pretty mundane life. We had fun as our little family, but nothing too exciting happened. We usually would end up getting a Redbox movie on Friday nights and falling asleep half way through it. All day Saturday we would sit around trying to think of something to do. We would watch the grilling shows on PBS and long for those beautiful steaks and lamb chops.
Now all of that has changed. Not only is our schedule busier, but we're now taking turns being sick. I had mastitis last week. It has cleared up and I'm feeling so much better. I was really only sick for about five days. Saturday I did a 5K walk with some friends. James stayed home with the boys who didn't wake up until 11:00! Can you believe that? I've never been so lucky.

Tuesday Asa was hanging out like normal and then suddenly he was throwing up on me. I wish we could get kids to communicate with words we understand at a younger age. "I don't feel so hot" would have been a nice sentence to hear when Asa woke up (at 10:00). I called James and asked if he could come home. Luckily it was a day that he didn't carpool, so that was actually an option. It really wasn't that bad of a day. Asa threw up twice, although there are several spots on the carpet that are a darker color now. Once I knew he was sick, I stopped feeding him and we cuddled a lot and I made him hold an ice cream bucket. That made everything better. By the time James got home, Judah was sleeping and Asa was watching a movie. I snuck out of the house to get some supplies at Target late in the afternoon. It was nice to shop by myself. Asa was pretty normal by the evening.
Here is my to do list for this week:
Monday: Tastefully Simple party (I have another one next Monday)
Tuesday: meeting with an insurance lady (canceled)
Wednesday: make snacks for youth group, go to rehearsal for women's retreat music team, go to Wednesday night church, get together with friends from Indiana
Thursday: call people to make sure they know what they're bringing to the retreat, set up for women's retreat at church, buy remaining supplies for retreat
Friday: make scones for retreat, go to retreat
Saturday: go to retreat
That's a pretty conservative list of the things I've done this week. You can see that it's much more exciting than our normal week.
But wait, it gets better...
Today James called from work and said he was getting sick. He ended up throwing up before he left work. I would have driven to pick him up since he carpooled today, but by the time he called it was too late. I would have gotten there about the time he normally leaves. I think James has thrown up three times since he got home. I had to take the boys to the church with me tonight since he couldn't take care of them. They really weren't a problem since there were some older girls there who played with them. When I got home, well I'll just say that it didn't smell so pretty in my house. I won't explain what happened. (Melinda, I'm sure you remember the story from when James was sick last time. It wasn't that bad.)
James is currently sleeping on the couch. I just got Judah to sleep and I'm trying to decide if I should go to the grocery store. We have no bread.

Where Have I Been?

For the hundreds of you who regularly read my blog, I believe I owe you an explanation about my absence from blogging this week. I think I can sum it up in one word: mastitis. For those of you that have nursed your babies, I'm sure you understand. For the rest of you, mastitis is an infection typically caused by a clogged milk duct.
Here's my story:
Saturday we went to the Nelson Atkins Museum (pictures and the story will be posted sometime). In order to avoid nursing in public, I took a bottle for Judah and pumped when we got home. I was feeling rather full by the time I pumped and was starting to feel a little pain. Saturday evening we had girls/guys night. I had the boys at my friend Wendy's house for a movie. While we were there Judah wasn't wanting to eat for some reason. The pain increased. When we got home, I was cold and my back was aching while Judah was nursing. I asked James to take my temperature, fearing the worst. I wasn't running a fever so I figured that I was just super tired and went to bed.
Sunday morning I felt a lot better. I had a headache so I took some Tylenol and went to church. After church we went to someone's house for lunch. We cut out early because I was starting to feel feverish. By the time I got home, I definitely had a fever.
James was on the phone talking to nurses and doctors, my sister, someone to watch the boys and he was also taking care of me. It was pretty hot in the house but I was freezing. I ended up with four blankets! I talked with a doctor and she told me to go to the emergency room. As soon as our friend Dawn got here to watch the boys, we headed for the ER.
I won't share all the details from the emergency room, mainly because I can't remember all of them. I was mad that they didn't give me a blanket since it wouldn't have helped lower my fever. The most interesting thing is that I was loopy. I said a lot of silly things and I knew it but couldn't stop. James was a little scared since I wasn't acting like myself. If you want more details about the things I said, you can ask James. He's much better at telling the stories. My fever finally broke after a couple hours. Our pastor and youth pastor and his wife came. We're good friends with all of them so it was comforting to have them there.
Once my fever was down and I was diagnosed with mastitis, we went home. We were shocked to find that Dawn had made some chicken noodle soup. She took such good care of our boys. Anyhow, James drove to Independence to get my prescription filled while Dawn stayed with me. My mom and sister Melinda got in late Sunday night. They have been a huge help.
I have felt a little better every day. Monday I had a huge headache. Tuesday I think I had more pain, but less headache. I also went to the doctor. She said I was doing all the right things and told me to see my normal doctor on Friday. Melinda and little Lea also went home on Tuesday. Wednesday I felt almost normal, but would get light headed when I tried to do things around the house. Today I feel a lot better. I have a little bit of a headache, but I've been trying to cut back on the Tylenol and Ibuprofen.
On another note, Asa has a new tooth. We thought he was getting close to cutting some new ones. It's the left eye tooth. He also threw up in his bed at nap time today. I don't know if it happened before or after he fell asleep. I think this is his first experience really throwing up. And James wasn't home to see it. Asa isn't acting sick now so I don't know what's wrong with him. Maybe I'll blog again next week...

Swinging

Asa suddenly thinks it's fun to sit in the baby swing. He turns it on and sits down. Then he says "wee, wee." He's too heavy for the swing to actually swing him, so he just rocks. I think he needs a chair of his own to sit in.

Messy Play

Parents as Teachers is an organization run through the school district in Missouri (and other states) where teachers come to your home and talk with you about your child's development and give you lots of ideas of how to teach your child things mostly through play. They have a lot of activities you can go to, play times, music classes, classes about parenting, baby massage... Last night they had messy play. We took the boys. James was very excited. There wasn't much for babies although they said it was for kids birth through age five. Judah did sit in a tub of shredded paper:


There was shaving cream, clean mud, silly putty, play dough, finger paint, pumpkins to draw on with markers, face paint crayons, bubbles, rice & pasta and a bunch of other things. Asa didn't really like being messy. We had to force him to touch the shaving cream and later the clean mud. By the way, clean mud is a mixture of soap, toilet paper and water.
Here's shaving cream:

Clean mud is funny:


See Flickr (link to the right) for more messy play pictures!

Funny Pictures

Sitting in a basket with the pillow and teddy bear, eating breakfast.


I can't believe he fell asleep with his legs hanging off the couch like this:


Here is Asa after nap one day. He insisted on getting all the blankets and animals out of his bed: a pillow, State Farm bear, a dog, tags blanket and a regular blanket. Yes, he's still wearing his pajamas after an afternoon nap. He wore the same jammies to bed that night!

words

We need to learn a new word. Asa has "more" down. When he wants something, he says "mo" and touches his fingers together, the sign for more. When I ask him if he wants some peanut butter toast, he says "no." I know that he means yes. We just have to learn to say "yes." It reminds me of the phase when Zoe said, "Want sumpin else."