Update

Well, I figured I should update everyone after that last post.
Michael if fine now. He had a fever the next day, but then all was fine. He however, would have loved for the babying to continue...
Jon is sleeping a bit better. He is still up a couple of times a night, but not every hour anymore, which is at least a step in the right direction. Just keep praying that I continue to function ok on interrupted sleep!
And I'm off to upload some new pics if you want to check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchaig/

Why I took two naps today

Here is the story:
Jon, up until a couple weeks ago was a pretty good sleeper. We had our share of times up in the middle of the night, but nothing really bad. Then two weeks ago he started waking up every 45 minutes to an hour - day or night. We had been swaddling him and having him sleep in what was his favorite space - his bouncy chair, so we thought maybe he was out growing this. About a week ago, we only half swaddled him and put him in his bed. Same result. Every 45 minutes - and hour he would wake up wanting his pacifier back in his mouth. Most of the time giving the pacifier back works the first time, but then when he wakes again he is almost too tired to suck on it, so it just keeps falling out of his mouth, and he just starts crying. So we finally decided to let him have a try without the paci to see if he could figure something out. Well, we had a couple of days of that and really not much luck yet. So I've been trying to get a nap in each day.

But last night really tops it all - here is the rundown (I think... I was a bit groggy by the end so things might be a bit mixed up there.)
7:00 Jon is tired and we put him to bed.
8:00 Michael to bed, Jon up crying - he cries/whines off and on for an hour or so - we pop in periodically to let him know we love him.
9:00 Both boys sleeping
9:30 Jon crying again - we repeat the process
10:30 Jon crying again - we repeat the process
11:30 I go to bed because all is finally quite
12:00 Jon crying again - we repeat the process
12:45 Tim and I head to bed hoping for a couple of hours of sleep from Jon at this point
1:30 Michael is crying - I go in and comfort him from what seems to be a bad dream
2:00 Jon is up crying - I feed him and he goes back to sleep
2:30 Michael is crying - I go in and he has thrown up all over his bed. I get him to the bathroom and cleaned up and put new sheets on his bed.
3:00 Back in bed
3:30 Michael is crying - I go in and he has thrown up all over his bed (yes again). I get him to the bathroom and cleaned up and set up a sleeping bag on the floor of our room for him.
4:00 Back in the bathroom with Michael who is throwing up again - but not on his bed this time - way to go Michael.
5:30 Jon is crying - I go in and feed him and he goes back to sleep.
6:00 Back in the bathroom with Michael who is throwing up again
7:00 Jon is crying - I kick Tim out of bed (who by the way has slept through this whole thing :)) - Tim gets Jon up and tells Michael he should go back to sleep.
8:00 Michael is up and we head downstairs for the morning.

:) Got to love being the mom! And now you know why I loved my two naps today!

So you don't worry, I should follow this up by telling you that Michael has had a fever today and been more on the calm side, but seems to be doing just fine. He loves the taste of his medicine (calls it a special treat so I guess I should make sure to put it away out of reach...) and has been playing fine today.

Jon is mostly happy even due to the lack of sleep this week, but has taken to slipping off into sleep whenever we give him a pacifier (but never for more than 45 minutes of course!)















It however has not stopped Jon from learning new things. This week he has begun rolling over!

Jonathan has learned to play!

After 3 1/2 months of just laying around and that he can interact with it - or at least with looking at the world, Jonathan has finally realized the toys hanging in his play gym. Sunday, I put him down on the mat and watched as he accidentally hit one of the hanging animals. He studied it for a bit and then his hand went back out and batted it again. He sat in intense concentration for probably 25 minutes hitting the animals, grabbing the animals, and trying to bring them down to his mouth (or actually bring his mouth up to them since they are attached). It was adorable.


































And here is a super cute picture of him all bundled up for our car shopping outing yesterday!

And it continues

To tag onto yesterday's post: I spent the morning looking into car insurance for our new car. We were planning on checking a quote with the company we had our old cars insured with and the company that insures our house. As I was looking through the paperwork, I was having a hard time understanding all of the different coverages and amounts, so I ventured online for some help. I ended up at the Geico site - they really do make it "so easy a cave man can do it" by the way. There they had explanations of all of the coverage options. To get a feel for things I started plugging in the numbers from our old car coverage and then playing with the amounts to see how they affect the price. And I ended up with what seemed like an extremely low quote. So I called to talk to a "real human." He pulled up my quote and he started laughing because he couldn't believe it was so low, but told me it was true. He said it's cheaper than he gets for an older car with his employee discount. He just kept laughing dumbfounded at the price throughout our phone conversation. So, we have our new car covered with very high coverage now for $200 for 6 months. God is SSOO GOOD!

God is so GOOD

I'm going to start out with a rather insignificant story, but trust me - it will come in handy later. Do you ever get surveys in the mail? You know, the ones asking you what tv shows you watch or what cleaning products you've heard of? I've been told by people not to fill these out because then you get put on a list of people who will do these things and your mail box will be flooded soon. But you see I'm home all day with a baby and a toddler. And while I love that, sometimes even the little mental stimulation that filling out a survey involves can be a welcomed change - answering questions asked by other adults instead of by a 3 year old. So I have been known to fill out surveys from time to time and I don't think it has really flooded our mail box - at least not yet.

Well, back to my title - God is good. Tim is now part time at the church and going back to school full time online through Liberty. I'm still home with the boys and making a little spending money online through my scrapbooking businesses but not much yet. Anyway, it's meant we've had to readjust our budget and pull from our savings this year. However, we feel very strongly that the first thing we need to do with our money is to tithe. Ten percent goes to the church each month regardless of how little we are making. (If you are a Christian reading this and don't tithe, see my earlier post from Oct 4.) And God is blessing our socks off! Let me just share a few things.

First, we get a letter from our mortgage bank saying that they overestimated how much our taxes would be and there were hundreds of dollars extra in our escrow account. Enclosed was a check for this extra money and a lower adjusted monthly payment we need to make for our mortgage. Next, I open a random survey envelope and out falls $30 in thanks for filling out the last one and would I mind filling out one more. (See I told you that first story would come in handy. :) ) Not much I know - but enough to let us eat out one night. And finally, just today we went car shopping for a van (I know, bit by bit, I'm turning into a soccer mom). And we happen to get a deal on a 2006 Town and Country that was well below what we were hoping to spend.

God is so good!! He provides for us in ways we can't even imagine. Praise Him!

Growing

Jonathan has almost lost his newbornness. The tiny arms, legs, nose, and fingers are filling out into squeezable, cuddly baby chub. The "I'm lost in a new word" cries have morphed into "I know what I want and I want it now" screams. And the blank stares are being replaced by smiles, coos, and inquisitive looks.

I know that many of you see these changes especially pronounced because you don't get to see him very often, and every time you do he is in a new stage of development it seems. But sometimes it feels that way for me too - babies go through so many changes in the time period when parents are so sleep deprived they don't always know when one day begins and another ends. After a night of getting up every couple hours I seem to make it through the following day in a daze, enough aware to make sure the boys are safe and cared for, but not enough for much more. Then Jonathan will bless me by sleeping 8-10 hours and I will wake up with new life and wonder where the time went. Jonathan is now almost 3 months old and loosing that newbornness.

And not to leave Michael out, he is growing too. Every couple of weeks he looks taller to me - is able to see over and reach more and more things around the house. He is participating in big kids worship now at church with a love and excitement for praise songs that can often put his parents to shame. He is learning letters and numbers and learned to use scissors the other day.

You can see updated pictures of my big boys here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchaig/

By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving

As I looked outside today, I noticed that the leaves on the trees here are starting to change color. Their tips are transforming into beautiful shades of reds and golds. God is so creative and so consistent. Every year the trees decorate creation glouriously.

It remined me of a forum post I made the other day about whether Christians are worried about the economy right now. Here is my post:

"I am learning what I can about the stimulus plans and things so that I can be well informed about what is going on. But I don't feel worried about it. I think that many people (including us probably) are in for some tough times in the next couple years, but God is BIGGER than that. He has promised to care for those who call on His name and he has never failed in that. A friend of mine always said, "I serve a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills!" and it is so true - He is able to provide all that we need.

I would also like to encourage all of you Christians not to give up tithing during rough times. Keep bringing your tithe to the Lord. He tells us this will lead to blessings in our lives. I know it can be hard to trust that giving money to the Lord first when there are so many bills to pay will not lead to destruction, but I've never heard anyone say, "I went without the necessities because I tithed to the church." God always provides."

I'm so glad to be serving our great God. I truly can "not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Phil 4:6

Mommy's New Man

I got some great pictures of Jonathan today.













We are loving the fact that he is smiling so much now! In fact the other day I strapped both boys into their carseats and Jonathan looked right at Michael and giggled. For the next couple of minutes, they just laughed in conversation with each other in true brother camaraderie. It was the first moment they truly interacted with each other. And it was then that I realized all the trouble they were going to get into together and how much they'd love doing it together.

Here's the merote mom

To quote my 3 year old when he wants to watch a show on TV.

Sleep training

Jonathan, thankfully, likes to nap and sleeps pretty good. During the day, he has adjusted easily to a nap, eat, play, nap routine. Some of you know from talking to me that he likes this routine so much that he was continuing it through the night. When he would wake for feedings he would then be up for an hour before falling back asleep. I'd spend the time rocking him, bouncing him, giving him his pacifier, reading my Bible, praying, and wishing I could go back to sleep. I kept the lights dim and kept interaction to a minimum and it finally worked.
I am proud to announce that for the last 5 nights, Jonathan has gone right back to sleep after feeding in the middle of the night. I'm so proud of him. I can feed him, wait a few minutes while he grunts to get cozy, and then head back to bed - to toss and turn for the next half hour.
So, how do you sleep train the mom?

The difference between 1 and 2

Well, I find myself with a few free moments! Both boys are down for a nap and I have sat down at the computer without someone hanging on me! I did just hear the dryer buzz so I will have to attend to that shortly, but for now, I'll indulge in a post.
Being a stay at home parent with one child was definitely work, especially when the terrible 2s drain you of all you have. But often it wasn't overwhelming. Maybe this is because I don't clean my house from top to bottom every day like some people or spend hours in the kitchen cooking each night (10 minute meal prep for me! :)). I found that I could manage to spend a lot of time with Michael, do some house work, and find time for myself during the day. In fact, even when I was pregnant we had a pretty good balance going - albeit that most of "my time" was spent laying exhausted on the couch.
Now I have two boys to care for and instead of my Michael time - house work - Michael time - me time routine, I'm stuck in a cycle of Michael time - Jonathan time - Michael time - Jonathan time with maybe a bit of house work time or me time thrown in. But you see, even the house and me time has changed. I always seem to have one of them touching me. Either I'm holding Jonathan or Michael is trying to climb on me, run the race car over me, or sit on my lap.
As I sit here typing now, I feel so free of little hands and bodies. I realize that I'm still me! Wow - it is great to be JUST ME again for even a few minutes! Well, I hear one of the little bodies stirring and so I'd better get to the laundry quick - who would of thought that folding laundry by oneself could be such a treat.

Glad I'm not an elephant

We have made a couple of fun trips to the Pittsburgh zoo this summer. Michael loves to see the animals and it gives us a fun day outing to keep us from getting shut up in the house too much. Recently, there have been two baby elephants born at the zoo. They are so absolutely adorable and I just can't get enough of watching them.















Well, today I went to their website to find out some more information on them. First of all the two babies were born weighing 298 and 248 pounds. Can you even imagine?! How in the world does one even hold something that heavy in one's body? Wouldn't gravity just make life miserable? Then I read this: "Zuri's mother Moja, was pregnant for 688 days, the longest pregnancy recorded for an African elephant." Now I know I'm glad I'm not an elephant!

Welcome to the world....

Jonathan! This little one likes to make an entrance. My contractions started at 4:30 on Sunday morning and by 6:00 we were on the way to the hospital. So there we were, making phone calls to family to let them know we were on the way, calling friends who were going to watch Michael, and calling people at church who would need to cover for us, and waking up all of these people in the process! But after all the commotion of him choosing one of the busiest days on our calendar, he made his debut into the world at 8:45am, only 4 hours after labor started! :)















And it was a good thing we got this new wonderful baby, because our first child seems to have grown up overnight. For an early birthday present Grandma and Grandpa bought him a two wheeler and he is already riding it like a pro!

Ever changed a diaper on a baby boy?

For those that have, you probably know instantly where I'm going with this. Let's just say that you can get "sprayed" in this endeavor. It's happened to me a couple of times as I suppose it has to any mom of a boy. :) Well, I was just online tonight and came across these: PeePeeTeepees. I simply could not stop laughing. Check them out and make sure you scroll down to see the little hat ones with the pompom ball tops!
Oh, and a comment I saw earlier was, " I heard that they can shoot off like rockets if your LO has a strong enough stream." I am just cracking up over here!

Exciting News

I am so proud of my hubby! He has been a worship leader for many years now and during that time has written some songs to help lead congregations in worship. We just found out that one of his songs, Hallelujah Forever, is going to be published in a book of modern worship songs. I'm so excited and so proud of him that I just had to share! :) I don't know anything else at this time about the book, or I'd try to presell it to you! I told Tim that even if we get a free copy of it, we should buy another so that we can use one copy and frame his song from the other.

I'm in love

I have lots of fingerprints and marks on the walls of my house - well I did. I'm sure you will tell me as I would tell others, "When you have children, that's just what happens." I have tried all sorts of soaps and sprays to clean them with very little success. I had recently resigned myself to live with them until we repainted or something. When this man came into my life:

These magic erasers are amazing. Put a little water on them and scrub and fingerprints and marks just disappear. It was addicting.... Each time I tried to stop, I saw the line of clean wall which made the uncleaned wall look all the more dirty. I have found that it also works great to take scum off the shower walls and tub. Wow - I'm in love.

One caution, I have heard that some children have shown up at the hospital with chemical burns from these things, so don't try to clean your children with them! And you might want to be careful if you let them use it too.

So while this whole cleaning frenzy was going on, Michael kept pointing to the box and saying, "What is that." I told him it was Mr. Clean and when the question was repeated, that it was a special cleaning sponge. This conversation repeated for 10 minutes or so before Michael said, "No Mommy, his legs!" I couldn't help but laugh. We settled on the fact that Mr. Clean's legs were hiding which mildly satisfied him although he kept looking strangely at the man.

Today's Treasure

I just started a Bible study at church by Beth Moore called "A Woman's Heart." In the lesson for today (which the kids I sit for allowed me to do in the early afternoon by all napping at the same time!) :) Beth introduced the lesson with the verse from Exodus 14:14, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." How cool is that!
With all of the crazy things in life and the enemies that come against us, trying to keep us from living for God's kingdom, we don't have to worry. We don't have to run ourselves ragged trying to fix everything or hold everything together. We just need to give it over to God - He will fight for us. Praise God!

The Baby Moving

So many people tell me that they either hated being pregnant or absolutely loved it. For me, I really don't have that strong of a feeling about it. With Michael I felt fine with being pregnant but didn't figure I'd miss anything about it. For the most part I was right, but then I started missing the feeling of a baby moving inside. OK, let me back up:
The first week or two that I felt Michael moving around inside my belly, I was intrigued, but pretty weirded out. It was like having an alien inside you. It was real that there was a live being, separate from me, living inside me. Then I got use to it and started to really enjoy feeling him move.
This time around I'm absolutely in love with it! What an amazing blessing that God has placed a life inside of me. Every time I feel him move, I'm reminded of how much I already love him so much. I just love feeling him and know that he is doing well and growing strong.

And did you catch the pronoun? Yes, we found out that the new baby is a boy! We are so excited about it and hope that he and Michael will be great friends. The only time it freaks me out is when I see a rerun of Home Improvement and realize we have the potential to be like that some day. :)

This is the Day

This is the day, my God has made.
I've got a reason to celebrate!
To jump up and down,
And spin all around,
And shout it, "HEY, This is the day!"

This is Michael's favorite song. He sings it at least 10 times a day and it probably runs through my head at least 50 times. Just thought I'd share. :)

Hey, at least it's not, "This is the song that never ends....."

Well it happened

We were lucky with Michael when he slept in his crib that he never tried to climb out. I never had to walk in and find him precariously balancing on the top rail or anything like that. When we moved him to a bed, the funny thing is that the trend continued. He never got out of his bed until one of us came to get him. And then yesterday morning - Sat we didn't have anything we needed to get up early for and I was awoken around 8:00 to Michael climbing up onto our bed. When I looked at him a bit baffled he proudly said, "I wake up!" grinning at me. So then again, 20 minutes into his "nap" he comes down the stairs proudly saying "I all done - nap." When I told him that no, he wasn't and that he needed to stay in bed until I came to get him after his nap, his response what a pondering "Oooohhh." Hopefully that will keep things from getting too crazy. Tomorrow is another sleep in day for us so we'll see what happens....

Groceries

Monday is usually grocery day for me. Often times I get to sleep in while hubby gets up with Michael and then I take Michael off his hands to go to the store. However, this morning I got up first and then left Michael home with dad while I went shopping. Sad to say that going shopping alone is like a treat for me, but that is the life of a SAHM.... Anyway, it seems that each month our grocery bill gets more and more expensive! It is getting unreal. This week, the bill was 50% more than it was just a year ago. Now to put things in perspective I am eating more than I usually do since I'm pregnant but still. I hope that this trend comes to an end soon!
Budgeting for things like this can be so tough. How do we know how much we will need to buy groceries in a year? The great thing is that I know that God will provide. In our small group Bible study on Sunday we all shared ways that God has provided for us. What a blessing to look back and see all of the ways God has taken care of us over the years and to know that He will continue to. Praise God!

I need two more!

Well, my sister always teased us that by giving our son the initials MTH we were predestining him for a math major in college and true to his initials Michael is fascinated with numbers already and seems to understand them pretty well. Today we were making play-doh balls and counted out three of them. Michael said he needed more, so I made another and held it up. He said "4." Then we did #5. I stopped and Michael said, "No, 6 and 7. Need two more!" He just amazes me! I've spent hours and hours with kids saying "If we have 5 and we need 7 how many more do we need?" and the like.

No longer a chicken noodle soup virgin

This is not to say that I've never eaten chicken noodle soup before. I highly enjoy the meal actually, but I'd never made it. It was always one of those things that seemed so easy that I was afraid to try for fear I'd mess it up and then the world would know my true ability in cooking!
I poured some chicken broth into a pan, added some carrots and celery. Brought this to a boil and then added some left over chicken and egg noodles. As I cooked it for about 10-15 minutes, I added some original Mrs. Dash seasoning. I am happy to announce that it turned out really good! I was so proud. My hubby even decided to eat the leftovers for lunch today instead of his beloved chili which is really saying something! lol

I'm back with news!

Well, I obviously haven't been on here much lately. The main reason is because I have been purely exhausted. Any guesses why? Yes, I'm pregnant. And it has stripped away all of my energy. I am close to 4 months now, and starting to get some energy back. So here are the details:
We have been trying for baby #2 since about Dec 06. This past Nov we were out to dinner with the pastors from our church and shared with them that we were getting frustrated that it had been almost a year without any results. I was ready to go to the doctor to start some test to see what was wrong. Our pastor prayed for us and in a couple of weeks, we had a (+) test! How exciting is that?!
The baby is due Aug 7. And the other big date is that my ultrasound is on March 24. Hopefully our little peanut will cooperate and we can find out the gender.
This pregnancy has been so different for me. With Michael I was tired and of course had frequent trips to the restroom, but other than that not much out of the ordinary but a growing belly. This time, I was horribly nauseous for three months - mostly from noon until dinner. For a while I couldn't even look at "raw" food including uncooked noodles. I had to sit in the living room and talk my husband through making dinner step by step. Luckily he was a good sport about it. :P I am also even more tired than the first time around (maybe because of a toddler running around my house?!) and find myself in the bathroom more times than I can even count. I'm having trouble sleeping already and am uncomfortable a lot.
OK, well I guess that's enough of that. I don't want to just sit here and complain. My point is though that things are so different this time around. How can I have the same pregnancy hormones going through my body and react so entirely different? When people ask me what I think I'm having I say, "All I know is that this baby is a very different person than Michael."
In other news, we just celebrated Michael's half birthday. He is fascinated with birthdays and especially with singing Happy Birthday that I thought it would be fun to let him celebrate his half birthday since his full birthday is so far off. I had baked banana bread that morning, so we stuck 2 1/2 candles in the bread and sang "Happy Half Birthday" to him. He had a blast.