Feeling Better

Sunday night/Monday morning were a rough start to our Christmas break.  Sunday afternoon I started to not feel well, which peaked Sunday night, turned out I had a stomach virus.  Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep and was extremely weak and dehydrated.  Monday was my regular visit to the doctor so Bryce took Jack to daycare and we went to the appointment so we could check up on the baby and see if there was anything they could do for me.  They were able to give me 2 bags of an IV and some anti-nausea medicine which helped tremendously.  After we left the doctor's office we went to Chick-fil-a and I had some chicken noodle soup.  Once we got home I slept for a while, the anti-nausea medicine knocks you out! 
I am feeling much better today, just exhausted from simple tasks trying to build my energy back up.  We tried to take Jack to see Santa today but couldn't get a good picture (well not worth $25, anyway!).  He did however smile big for this picture before we left.

Jack?

Ok, so no new pictures of Jack.  It is extremely hard to take pictures of a target that moves so fast, as soon as he looks at the camera and I try to take a picture he has moved on.  Tonight I showed him this picture of his daddy and he smiled and said "Jack!"  I put a picture of Jack from this summer below to compare :)

He is such a funny little boy.  His nana taught him a song the other day with a line that says "and the alligator snapped" and Jack loves to yell "nap!" at that point in the song (sn blend isn't quite there).  He is also learning the letters of the alphabet.  On his own he can pick out the letters B, C, Q, Y and Z.  He likes to press the button on his fridge phonics that plays the alphabet song and he "sings" and dances along.  If you say each letter Jack will repeat each letter after you.  Sunday morning Bryce had to put Nala in the kennel because she was bad.  So yesterday he kept saying "trouble trouble" and I asked him who had gotten in trouble and he answered "Nala."  It is amazing to see how much he retains everyday.  It is funny how when he was little he would "feed" the dogs, now as soon as he gets his food the first words out of his mouth are "back off!" 
3 more days until Christmas break.  We are super excited and can't wait to celebrate the birth of our Savior! 

Be Humble

Okay, let's face it, who couldn't love that sweet face of a little boy eating french toast!  As much as we love Jack and the joy that he brings into our life, being a parent is becoming more challenging as time passes.  Jack is getting into more things than ever.  Sometimes he is just learning his boundaries and sometimes he is being defiant (like playing in the dog water, drinking dog water, sticking things in the dog water, are we sensing a theme?)  I came across this peice of advice while reading my daily parenting devotional a few days ago:
"Our fear of mistakes may tempt us to aviod making decisions, but parenting requires us to act. Thankfully God does not ask us to rely on our own wisdom.  When we acknowledge our dependence on Him and seek His guiance and strength, He promises to provide them.  Be humble enough to seek God's will, and bold enough to make decisions."
Being a teacher, I see so many parents who have avoided making decisions when it comes to their children.  Their children are now in high school and do not know how to act or they think that their parents will always "save" them.  The parents are worse than the kids, they never believe the teacher and they never think it can be their little angel's fault that they are failing a class.  But thankfully God is always there for us when it is time to make a difficult decision.  The line that spoke to me the most was the last "Be humble enough to seek God's will, and bold enough to make decisions."  As hard as it is to make decisions especially when it comes to disipline, avoiding them makes things worse in the long run!

Baby C #2 Update

Thursday we had our ultrasound.  The ultrasound tech said that everything looked perfect and the baby was growing well.  She did say that the baby was small and only measuring at 15 weeks, so they have changed the due date to May 10th instead of the 1st.  It didn't really surprise me since it took 2 weeks for us to get a positive test.  It was so special to see our new blessing!

In other news Jack is learning so much everyday!  Today we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey said to march and started marching so Jack said "march" and started marching too :)  We are super excited to be flying out to Maryland tonight to see my family!  Although we are sad that Bryce will not be joining us, he will have football practice and a football game on Friday. 

Ultrasound

Ok, I know it is a lot of pictures, but this was the easiest way to share with my family.  Another post will shortly follow with information from our visit :)

Our Little Monkey

It's been a busy few weeks at our house.  Last week Jack had a virus and had to stay home from school for 3 days.  Fortunately he felt pretty good while he had it, didn't have a fever or feel sick.  It started out as what looked like red dots on his hands and feet.  Then the next day they were bigger and started to raise.  By Monday morning a lot of them looked like little pimples on his hands.  Since he didn't have a fever I thought he was having an allergic reaction to something.  They got so itchy at school Monday we had to pick him up early and Bryce took him to the doctor.  Verdict was: a virus, but the doctor didn't know what it was exactly.  He said it was in the same family as hand and foot and mouth and chicken pox but it wasn't either one of those.  So Jack stayed home with Bryce the rest of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  All we could really do for him is give him benadryl it seemed like the bumps itched.  When Bryce gave him the medicine Jack said "mmmm good" and wanted more :) 
The previous Friday was Jack's Halloween parade at school.  Bryce was able to go and he said it was interesting.  He described it as herding cats.  I can only image trying to get 10 not quite 2 year olds to walk in a line, collecting candy, dressed up wouldn't go over well.  We dressed Jack up as a monkey or as he says "oooo-oooo."
Jack's teachers at school say he is very inquisitive at school.  They say that he loves to name everything and if he doesn't know what something is he brings it to them so they can tell him.  They said that when they are filling the class' cups Jack can name who's cup is who's.  He has learned quite a few shapes and colors.  Shapes that he knows are square, circle, oval, heart, and triangle.  The colors he knows are green, brown, purple, and yellow.  His favorite color is green.  He loves for us to read books to him and he loves to point out things that he knows.  There is one book in particular he can name the item on each page: caterpillar, strawberry, leaf, sun, pear, apple, orange, pickle, cheese, cocoon, and butterfly!
We keep asking Jack if he wants a brother or sister and he responds with "no" each time.  We are excited to see the new baby on Thursday when I have my ultrasound :) 
Here are a few pictures of our stinkweed :)

 I like to pull my chair up to the coffee table and eat snacks or color.

 Tried it on a few days early

 Little Monkey trying to escape!

 At school

 The little bee is Jack's girlfriend "phia"

 Being silly in Daddy's shirt!

Big Brother!

We are excited to announce that Jack is going to be a BIG brother!  We are almost 13 weeks along, baby C #2 is due May 1st.  Here is Jack sporting his Big Brother shirt!

Risky Business :)

It's been another long week of work, so happy it's the weekend!  The week started off rough for me, I had a cold and could hardly talk Monday or Tuesday.  Jack has been getting over a little cold too.  But we both seem to be getting better!  Jack had a good week at school his teacher says he enjoys playing with his friends.  He also enjoys coloring. Today Bryce brought Jack to school to eat breakfast with the football team.  It was good to be able to see him a school, I miss him so much during the day!  Especially when my students are a pain, I can't wait to get home to spend the afternoon with my precious boy, even when he is being difficult :)  Here are a few pictures of the sill boy from tonight :)

Pa-kin Patch

Fall is officially here in Alabama, well for the weekend anyway :)  Today we have beautiful weather, clear skies with temperatures in the low 70s.  Harold came down this morning and we all headed out to Eufuala to the Paradise Pumpkin Patch.  We had a great time.  There was a petting zoo with pigs, goats, cows, horses, llamas and alpacas.  Jack loved the pigs :)  We were even there for the pig races which were really cute.  After seeing the animals we picked out a small pumpkin for Jack and he got to paint it.  They had stands all over the farm with head cut-outs and he loved sticking his head through the openings.  I would have to say though, the highlight of the trip for Jack was seeing his Daddy with the corn shooter.  He just thought it was hilarious.  Every time Bryce shot off another ear of corn he laughed and laughed.