Gibbizarre

how old am I? what day is it?

2012-01-26T08:17:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday night, Matt and I had this conversation..

Leah: Is it Monday or Tuesday?
Matt: Tuesday
--- then less than three minutes go by ---
Leah: Wait, is it Monday? No, no... you just told me it's Tuesday.

Next. I seriously cannot remember how old I am for the life of me. I am 27, I think. But I literally spent a decent amount of time the other day trying to figure out if I was 26 or 27... and don't laugh and ask me to subtract the current year from my birth year. In the moment, such logic had totally escaped me. I had convinced myself that Henry was born when I was 25 and that Sam was born when I was 26. Somehow I missed a year in there, but eventually did the math and realize that I am 27. The sad part about this, though, is that I've probably had the same conversation with myself two other times in the last three or four months. Can't even imagine how bad this will be in the future... Oh well.

Pictures

2012-01-25T06:28:00.001-06:00

Since I've been overwhelming you with words lately...

I now love instagram. This is me and my sweetness!

Here is Henry after he fell asleep on my bed while I was posting about naptime on Monday.

Henry decided that he wanted Sam to cuddle with his penguins. Isn't he a sweet big brother to share his penguins?

This is Henry taking up our entire bed. I wanted to show you for proof.

Look at those baby blues. I love him.

Sam's eyes are turning out to be quite blue as well! Isn't he a precious little doll? I love him too!

girl scout cookies, door handle covers, and random thoughts

2012-01-24T22:09:00.000-06:00

First of all, Matt called me from work today to ask if we wanted to order GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Umm, yes please. You may remember this post from two years ago in which I confessed my love was lacking for thin mints. Fortunately this year, Matt consulted me before ordering a gazillion boxes of thin mints! So we will be getting Carmel Delights, Peanut butter chocolate patties, lemon whateverthey'recalleds!!! They will all very soon be MINE ALL MINE! (Oh, and Matt got thin mints for himself.)

I must say that I got my hopes up thinking that maybe, just maybe, Matt was actually getting the cookies AS he was ordering them... only to be disappointed when he walked in the door cookieless. Oh well. Anticipation makes it all the better.

AND... thanks to "my fitness pal" I can now enjoy the girl scout cookies in moderation, instead of scarfing down entire boxes and/or completely depriving myself. Usually after dinner is over, I assess how many calories I have left to eat, and I plan my dessert accordingly. Some days I get to have a brownie AND ice cream. Other days I just get "light ice cream" or like one cookie or something. And, a grand total of ONE day, I have skipped dessert entirely. So it will be with the Girl Scout cookies.

NEXT. I finally worked up the resolve to get some of those handle thingys you put over the doors so the kids can't get out of them. Click here if you don't know to what thingys I am referring. So it's installed, but tell me... Why is it that this is making me and Matt so SAD for little Henry? I mean, is it any different than standing at the door and holding the knob? He actually gave up on the door very fast tonight with the knob cover, so maybe it's better for him to not have the false hope of being able to open the door. Who knows? But the very worst part is thinking about how he will respond around 1AM when he decides that he wants to come cuddle in mommy and daddy's bed and can't get out of the door. Poor baby! I can't help but make a frowny face just thinking about it.

Lastly, let me share this random thought I had with you the other day... I should drive an ambulance or a fire truck. Seriously, how awesome is it that everyone just gets outta their way! And if people DON'T get out of the way, the fire truck gets to HONK, HONK like nobody's business. There's something in me that just wants to lay on the horn sometimes. For no reason at all. YES, that sounds like fun to me! Let me drive a fire truck!!!!!!!!!

Now that you all think I am certifiably crazy, I am going to go "night night." Peace.

they're playing a trick on me

2012-01-23T14:39:00.000-06:00

I can't tell you how many blog posts have been interrupted during nap time recently... meaning that I've started about 15 posts that have never been posted... The fact that I am even starting this one is a success.

Let me tell you about nap time, and you tell me if you don't think my children are secretly scheming so that they can drive me crazy. (This is not supposed to sound like complaining, more just like picture me running frantic through the house trying to get everyone to sleep so I can have 20 minutes of peace... and laugh because I fail about 95% of the time.)

Here's a timeline of 12pm - 2:30pm ish.

12PM - Time to feed Sam. Henry realizes that mommy cannot 1- pay attention to him or 2- move, so he literally destroys the entire house. I tell you the kid's goal in life is to take everything from where it actually belongs and put it where he thinks it belongs... THE FLOOR. Mommy's thinking, "Why does it take you so long to eat, Sammy?" By the time I finish feeding Sam, it's time for Henry to eat lunch say around...
12:20 PM- Feed Henry lunch, while Sam is in his bouncy chair and/or swing and/or both. Sam is mostly happy, but then decides now would be the time to have a big poop. Okay, sorry Henry, mommy has to change Sam's diaper, I'll be right back so you can finish eating lunch... In the 3 minutes it takes to change Sam's diaper, Henry finds more things to destroy... what, that pile of folded laundry is on the bed? It should definitely go on the floor? What, there's a clean pacifier sitting in Sam's bouncy seat? I definitely need to put my hands all over it and throw it under the couch. Somehow feeding Henry lunch and paying attention to Sam while he is awake takes a little bit of time... then it's time for mommy to eat lunch.
12:45ish - Mom eats lunch, but needs to entertain Henry, so she gets out the crayons. But Henry doesn't want to color by himself, he wants mommy to color. So she's trying to finish a bowl of salad, but she has to take a break every 20 seconds to pick up another crayon and color... no biggie. But it takes awhile...
1:00 ish, mommy swaddles Sam and puts him in his swing and he starts to fall asleep. Meanwhile, we get some milk in a cup for Henry that he drinks while we read books and/or watch a TV show together.
1:15- Sam is finally asleep, and it's time to put Henry in his room for a nap... not fun. Mommy (and Daddy at bedtime) literally have to stand by his door and hold it with our hands until he falls asleep. We hold the door handle in one hand and the monitor in the other to make sure Henry is falling asleep. He will go back and forth from his bed to the door, from his bed to the door, hoping that at some point the door will open. Usually he gives up after a few minutes and goes to sleep. Today he finally gave up after about 20 minutes. I got 20 seconds to go turn on the dryer (for the noise barrier, friends) and run to the bathroom before I started to hear Sam working up to a fuss... mainly just because he was stirring, but it doesn't matter... ONE cry, one tiny PEEP will ruin the whole thing and wake Henry up... so it's now like
1:40 ish- and I RUN to Sam in the swing, SHOVE the pacifier in his mouth, pick him up as fast as possible and RUN into my bathroom where I plug in my hair dryer and turn it on (it's still on right now at 2:15) The blow dryer will block out Sammy's screaming and it calms him down, so it's a winner. At this point I reswaddle Sam and put him down... funny that now that I actually have the nerve to let him cry for 5-10 minutes, I totally can't because I can't deal with Henry waking up.
1:50 - spend the next 10 minutes simultaneously watching the monitor, cleaning up the house that Henry has literally turned into a disaster area, and keeping Sam quiet while he stirs/sleeps etc.
2:00 - I pick up my computer to write this blog post, and Sam is still trying to get out that ONE peep that will wake Henry up and ruin it all... (I just turned the blow dryer back on, by the way)
2:26 - I am almost finished with this post and guess what! It's time for Sam to eat again. :) Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So fun. When Sam is finished eating, Henry will be ready to wake up from his nap. LOVE it.

Okay but Sam can wait three minutes for me to tell you this awesome story from today. We were in Target this morning ~~because I just had to get out of the house~~ buying things I legitimately needed. All was well, but then something happened and Sam decided it was time to GO. He was supposed to be sleeping, not due for eating for another 45 minutes... so I don't know what that was about. Anyway, he started crying, which got the attention of another mom who exclaimed to her children, "Oh that is a really little baby! That's a newborn cry!" So as I am sticking his paci in his mouth, she asks me, "How old is he?" "Six weeks and very loud," I answer, as the pacifier totally fails me and does not get him to calm down. And then I tell you the truth, she looked straight at my chest and said, "I bet that [referring to the cry] is triggering a letdown." Umm. Okay, woman! Really? For the record, NO, it was not triggering a letdown. And is it just me or is that a weird/ mildly inappropriate thing to say to a stranger? Okay. And let me just say that I RUSHED to the checkout line, and as soon as I payed, Sam decided he was just fine and stopped crying.

Wait, I kid you not. It's now 2:35, and Henry just walked into my room having woken up from his nap 45 minutes early. Oh it's true. He fell back asleep on my bed in less than 5 minutes, but there's no way he gets his full nap in now that Sam needs to eat. Thankfully today I am laughing about it... some days I have literally started crying, other days I have gotten a bit too angry.

I gotta go. Sam's about to lose it. BYE!

I thought of something!

2012-01-19T22:22:00.001-06:00

My apologies for the "not really a post" post yesterday. You'll be happy that I finally thought of something to tell you.

Apparently we now have what some would call a "family bed." Not by choice. Shoot me in the face, did I just admit that to you? No offense, of course, if that's how you like to sleep. It's not for me, but it happened...

A couple of weeks ago, Henry just showed up in our room in the middle of the night. He walked in and very enthusiastically greeted us. "Hiiii!" Like it was totally normal. On that particular night, we took him back to his room and laid down with him until he fell asleep.

A couple of nights later, the little stinker found his way back into our room, this time, with his pillow in tow. Matt and I, at this point, were both totally out of it, so instead of ushering Henry back to his room, we both just told him it was time to go "night, night." When we didn't hear him crying/talking/awake anymore, we just fell back asleep... only to wake up a couple of hours later (around 3 AM) to find him asleep on his pillow on the floor next to our bed. Not exactly comfortable, seeing as our floors are hard laminate, not carpet. (By the way, I am still mad at myself for not getting a picture of this.) So we felt sorry that the little fella had spent two hours asleep on our floor and pulled him up into our bed. Little did we know that would be the beginning of... family bed!

Now, EVERY NIGHT, Henry wakes up, usually around 1-2am, and comes and crawls in our bed with his pillow. The problem is, we are too exhausted to deal with it... neither of us really wants to go into Henry's room and lay down with him, so we just let him keep doing it. You'd be surprised how much space a little 36 inch toddler can take up in a king-sized bed.

Anyway, since Sam is still in the bassinet in our room this means we are all sleeping in one room. Sweet, yes. But this ain't really my vision for nighttime sleep in our household. (You're welcome for the ain't.) Yeah, family bed is not gonna cut it. I like sleep way too much to let this keep happening for long. One day soon, I will work up the energy to put an end to it.

In case you're wondering... and I know you are... that lack of discipline on my part at nap time yesterday came back to bite me in the rear. Oh yes, it did.

Here's to sleep. Goodnight.

warning: brain not working

2012-01-18T14:15:00.002-06:00

Both kids are asleep... it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Although, I will confess that in order for this to happen, I had to cheat on Sam's "eat, play, sleep" routine so he just went "eat, sleep" and I had to compromise with Henry (*something we do a lot these days) and he is sleeping on the couch, not in his bed. This means that neither kid will sleep as long as they actually should, our schedule will be messed up later (hopefully not in the middle of the night), and I will pay for it, but in the moment, my discipline went out the window and all I wanted was peace and quiet. So here we are.

Go figure that here I am with a free moment, and I don't even know what to talk to you about. There's a brain dead mom for you. I am always thinking all week long that I "should blog about this and that," only to get here and forget it all. Therefore this post will be random and full of things that I just want to talk about- if I can think of any of them. Disclaimer made.

Who am I kidding? I have sat here and written three or four paragraphs, only to decide that they are too boring to post and delete them. With that, I am going to sleep. See ya on the flip side.

a mom post about kid stuff

2012-01-10T21:40:00.000-06:00

Henry is wanting to do all things baby. Examples? He had me swaddle him yesterday. He pretends to suck on a pacifier. He sits in the bouncy seat. (And also gets very upset if we put Sam in the bouncer.) And last but not least, he tried to NURSE the other day. Oh yes. I was feeding Sam, and Henry crawled up next to me. I thought he was about to kiss Sam on the head, and he went straight past Sam's head for my youknowwhat. Okay, so I won't lie, it was actually a tiny bit sweet. But you guys all know how I feel about breastfeeding (nothing's changed there, I don't love it - even though it has been 100000 times easier this go-round), and so we put an end to that little attempt very promptly.

Here's some bouncy seat pics.

22 month old Henry in the bouncy seat

Ham in the bouncy seat.

A little newborn Henry in the bouncy seat.

There hasn't been a lot of sleeping going on in this house. Sam was doing awesome at night, and then since he was sick, it's been hit or miss. I will say that the night Sam did sleep like a champ, we got bombarded with very loud thunderstorms - so instead of being up for hours with a newborn, I was up for hours with a toddler who was understandably scared and disoriented. Just another day in paradise.

And since I know you are all wondering, Sammy Wams did awesome at his 1 month check up. Unfortunately I left the little sheet that had all of his percentiles in the room at the Dr. office, so I need to call to see if they can get me another one... I do remember that he is 10lbs, 3oz and that he is 22.5 inches long with a normal sized head. They had to remeasure his length bc his percentile jumped so much, but he was 22.5 both times. (I personally think they got it wrong last time and that's why it looked like such a big jump.) Whatev. So that was that.

Lastly, I just wanted to inform you fellow bloggers that because of my aforementioned iPhone, I have been reading a lot of your posts on the phone and therefore have not been commenting. Please accept my apology and know that I am keeping up w/ your posts! That's all for now folks. Here's to hopes for good sleep tonight!

short month

2012-01-08T21:57:00.000-06:00

Today marks Sam's 1 month bday! Tomorrow is his one month check up!

Apparently we are continuing the trend where everything that has to do with Sam goes by ten times faster than it did with Henry... starting with the pregnancy, continuing with the first month. One month was like a lifetime with H... probably cause all I did was sit at home and stare at him all day.

Here's a pic of sweet Sammers. (Other nicknames include: Ham, Hammers, Sammy, Sammy Wammy... list goes on.)

Don't judge me for wearing Christmas pjs in January... judge my parents!

Since he's been sick, I haven't been snapping tons of pics, so this is the same one I put on FB today. Sorry to those who have seen it twice. He gets so mad when the flash goes off in his eyes, so he's asleep or squinting in about 99% of pics.

For the record, I typed this whole post with my left hand! Motherhood at its finest.

my fitness pal

2012-01-07T14:39:00.002-06:00

I'm sure you will all be glad to know that the pity party has ended, and the last three to four days as a mom of two has been quite pleasant.

For the record (and I might take this back in a month or so), the transition from one kid to two kids has been nowhere near as difficult for me as the transition from zero to one. One to two seems much easier to me - perhaps I will expand on that in a different post.

In the meantime, let me tell you about the latest excitement in our marriage. Matt and I both recently downloaded the "my fitness pal" apps on our iPhones. If you don't know about it, it's a calorie counter and exercise log to assist you with your weight loss (or in Matt's case, weight gain) goals.

So. I am allotted approximately 1500 calories a day, although it doesn't take into account breastfeeding, so I pretty much exceed my limit every single day. The main reason I am using the app is because I could easily down a large bag of peanut butter M&Ms in one day and think nothing of it. By writing it down, I am less likely to eat 1200 calories worth of junk food in one day (something which I actually did one day last week). Not just 1200 calories, people - 1200 calories worth of candy, cookies, ice cream - in addition to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So my commitment is to enter every single bite.

Meanwhile, we decided that Matt would make a goal to gain about half a pound a week. Apparently when I deliver babies it has the same effect on Matt as it has on me - weight loss. The only problem is that he's never gained any weight to begin with, and there's not a baby coming out of his uterus. Very problematic. So in order for Matt to reach his goal weight, he needs to gain half a pound a week for almost 30 weeks. Long way to go.

Anyway, the result of this goal is that he is supposed to eat... wait for it... 2500 CALORIES A DAY!! TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED! That is assuming that he doesn't exercise (and he always exercises). Now, let me be honest here. I am serious when I say that I think I could easily eat 2500 calories in a day. I think I could easily do it several days in a row. Junk food just doesn't register in my brain. I have no problem consuming empty calories. Matt, on the other hand, is different. So 2500 calories (plus) is going to be a big challenge for him.

Last night before dinner, I had less than 300 calories left that I was allowed to consume. Matt had 1800 that he needed to consume. For the record, he failed and so did I.

So long story short - we have opposite problems. Somehow it seems like if Matt was also trying to lose weight, it might be easier for me. Instead, while I am not eating, I will be spending a good amount of energy making sure Matt IS eating. We will keep you updated. :)

ya know...

2012-01-03T20:08:00.000-06:00

After that last post, I thought of an awesome new year's resolution!

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself!"

Yep, sounds like a good one for me. Cheers.

reality bites

2012-01-03T19:40:00.002-06:00

I kind of like the title to my post, even though it's super negative. I knew I wanted the word "reality" in the title, and "bites" just came rolling off the tongue. The goal isn't to be negative, but I'm not so sure I won't be...

There's nothing like ringing in the new year with all FOUR of us being sick with a terrible cold. Yes, even baby Sam. We are all sick- coughing, congestion, sore throats, and runny noses (and the children are quite fussy as a result). To be quite honest, it sucks. Fortunately for Sam (and us), he hasn't had a fever, but the rest of us have.

Like, honestly, the transition to having two children instead of just one isn't difficult enough... we also must ALL feel like crap during this major transition. I'm not bitter or negative or anything.

Ask me if there is anything sadder than listening to a newborn cough. I'm sure there is, since otherwise, he is healthy, but it's so sad to hear that little man cough. His eyes are all red and sickly looking too. :( Ugh.

Henry was the first to come down with the cold about a week ago, and we tried SO hard not to get his germs and not to let him touch or go near to Sam. Oh well. We failed. That's life. Now we're all hacking, sneezing, etc. GERMS EVERYWHERE! It's unavoidable.

I think the hardest part about this is that we have to go on being parents. Unlike any other job where you can just stay home and take care of yourself until you get better... we still have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed one baby, and wake up (or rather, get woken up) before 7 AM by the other one. If we stopped doing our jobs, then our kids wouldn't eat, bathe, get their diapers changed, or sleep... which would actually be more of a punishment for us. So there ya go.

On the bright side, maybe when we all feel better, having two children will seem like less of a challenge. Cause literally right now when the day is getting started I think to myself, "How in the world am I going to do this today?" And somehow I survive. I'd like to say that I'm thriving and that this is all bliss... but that would be a lie. So that's it, I survive.

Anyway, I'm sure you've heard quite enough complaining! Must get back to life... back to reality... plus my newborn is crying quite loud. He at least gave me 30 minutes, which I appreciate. Thank you, Sam.

2011

2011-12-31T22:55:00.001-06:00

Since I stopped using Google Analytics like a year ago, I don't know which posts were my most popular of 2011. So, based on my impeccable mom memory alone, I will share with you the highlights of each month. I'm sure I will miss something important, but oh well!

January- Henry' first stomach virus- shared by both me and Matt and my mom, an innocent bystander. H also got his first haircut.

February- Henry's first birthday! Also the day I finally stopped breastfeeding.

March- Henry and I took a trip to Alabama to see my mom and grandmother. My sister and her boys came too... She was pregnant with her baby girl, and I was about to be pregnant with little Sam.

April- We found out we were pregnant!

May- The main thing I remember in May was going running... a lot. I also probably slept a lot, which may be why there is nothing else to note from this month.

June- Took a trip to NYC with Henry to visit Uncle Michael and Aunt Brittany.

July- Henry and I went to the pool almost every day, and we also survived many, many days with 100+ degree temperatures and no rain.

August- Trip to the beach with my mom, my sister and her family!

September- My very first niece, Laura, was born!

October- Took a trip to LA with my two best friends, Sarah and Rachel. Henry enjoyed his first Halloween as a Penguin.

November- We had a grass fed turkey on Thanksgiving and probably ate the least amount of meat in a given month of our lives EVER due to the viewing of "Food Inc." the previous month.

December- A very crazy month in which so much happened. After what seemed like the shortest pregnancy ever, we welcomed sweet baby Sam into the world. We also said goodbye to Matt's sweet grandmother, who left to be with Jesus on Christmas day.

Another year and God continues to be faithful to all His promises. And it's now officially 2012. Couldn't quite finish it in time. Happy New Year!

life with two

2011-12-30T13:20:00.001-06:00

When your first kid is born, you sort of hibernate for a month or two until you realize that life must go on and you must return to society... or at least I did. Then I spent the next 20 months figuring out how to be a mom. Then the next kid was born. No hibernating this time. Almost-two-year-olds don't lounge around the house "enjoying" their new baby brothers. So we just keep on, keepin' on. Now I can stop figuring out how to be a mom and start figuring out how to be a mom of two. Gee whiz, I'm still learning how to be a wife!

That's about all I got... Short posts better than no posts at all, I say.

invasion!

2011-12-29T11:33:00.000-06:00

Help! My house has been overtaken by Christmas presents, toys and baby gear. The walls are closing in on me...

At the very least we have taken down the Christmas decorations. I might start selling stuff soon.

Shortest post ever. Till next time.

not an excuse, but a reason

2011-12-21T16:11:00.000-06:00

Hormones can make me feel crazy. Hear me clearly, I know hormones are not an excuse to be crazy, but it's nice to have a reason for feeling not myself.

I read the other day that when you are pregnant, your estrogen and progesterone levels are soaring at an all time high. Then literally within minutes of delivering your baby, both estrogen and progesterone (which are responsible for producing your body's "feel good" molecules, endorphins) plummet to the ground. Not to mention, the hormone your body produces when you nurse your child, prolactin, suppresses your estrogen and progesterone levels to make you more or less like a menopausal woman. During the first few weeks postpartum, your prolactin levels are at an all time high. The article I was reading (and I should probably find it to quote) likened the first few weeks of postpartum "baby blues" to the worst case of PMS you've ever had.

So the way this plays out in real life over the past few days is that I literally cannot let myself see, hear, think about anything that is remotely sad or even things that aren't sad that could be considered sad. Also things that are "scary." No scary allowed.

Examples. (Note, these are meant to be funny because looking back, they are. So like, even though you might be tempted to feel sorry for me, just try to laugh with me cause I' definitely "laughing" at myself.)

During Henry's Sesame Street episode this morning, Elmo and his friends were singing "Goodbye Binky" to their pacifiers because they were all grown up and not babies anymore- so it was time to give up the paci. Not sad. In fact, I think I remember watching that when I was pregnant and thinking it was totally lame. Not today. I had to keep myself from tearing up.

Also, I saw a picture of a puppy cuddling w/ another bigger, dog - I could have burst into tears. Not to mention that last night that dreaded Sarah McLaughlin commercial about the abandoned, neglected animals came on TV, and I immediately made Matt change the channel. I think the only "safe" thing on TV these days is ESPN.

Henry threw his toy hammer at me this morning, and when it hit me in the face I got angry with him and wanted to discipline him, but when I tried I just started crying instead.

While I was in the hospital, I was about to go to sleep and the light above my bed would not turn off. The nurse had to call a technician to come fix it, and I literally started balling uncontrollably. "Why can't the light just turn off?" I asked, as I sobbed unashamedly in front of two nurses and Matt, who I am sure was totally embarrassed.

And don't get me started with ACTUAL sad things. (Not that abandoned puppies aren't really sad.) But you know, real people's "real life" sadness... I can't even mention the examples here.

Anyway, after last pregnancy, I didn't really believe in hormones. I mean, I knew they were real and that I could get a little crabby during that "time of the month," but I didn't give them much more credit than that. So I literally thought I was going insane w/ the ups and downs, highs and lows that the first few postpartum months can bring. It's nice to do it again a second time without feeling totally crazy and guilty for the hormonal roller coaster.

And also, it's nice to know that God is the one who controls my hormones, who decided that this is how my body would work, and whose strength is stronger than my crazy, crazy hormones. So when I have to face the sad or the scary, He is strong for me.

How is it already December 21st?

not gonna happen

2011-12-19T15:18:00.000-06:00

I had big plans to get a family picture taken and a newborn picture of Sam taken, both added to a Christmas card/ birth announcement, stuffed into envelopes, addressed, stamped and sent off in time to make it out before Christmas.

Without going into detail, we've had a CRAZY December (not including a new baby), and getting something out before Christmas is just not gonna happen. So, if you are on our mailing list look for a New Year's card/birth announcement - although it might not come till mid January!

Matt contracted pregnant brain... and mom brain.

2011-12-17T04:55:00.005-06:00

Matt's a little scatter-brained. Friends have referred to him as the nutty professor. He is super smart, he has his stuff in order and is extremely responsible, but sometimes it seems as though he is just spinning around in circles. I can't tell you how many times he has "lost" his wallet, or left it at work, or "lost" his glasses, or gone frantically searching for his keys. See this post or this one or this one. (Or you could just click on the label "Mattisms" and read more about this nutty professor type.)

In the past week or so, with the arrival of the new baby, a lot going on at work, and having to deal with health insurance companies/Christmas time/and a lot of other stuff in life that's going on, Matt has said some awesome things.

First of all, a couple of weekends ago, I was having some contractions that weren't painful, but hurt more than braxton hicks, so I figured I should at least write them down and pay attention to how often they were happening. Matt saw my little paper sitting out, and he asked me very naturally, "Are you timing your transactions?"

Yes, I was timing my contractions. No, I was not timing my transactions, whatever that means.

Today Matt and I were talking about a deal we saw on Facebook where you could get a free restaurant.com gift card w/ the purchase of a Target Gift Card. "Restaurant.com isn't that great," I said.

Matt replied without hesitation, "I'm sure we could use a way to find it." And after he said it, he didn't even notice that it came out wrong.

I should start calling him Nutty P.

I don't have genes.

2011-12-16T05:16:00.010-06:00

When little Sammy man came out, he did not look like Henry. So, the family, for a split second thought that maybe this sweet baby would have some of my features... but after just a day or so it became evident that this child, too, looks exactly like his daddy. And, if I might say so, may even look MORE like his daddy than his big brother does.

The main difference between the two, from what I can see, is that Henry's eyes were VERY big and opened really wide, whereas Sam's eyes are a little more squinty. Now. I know you're all going to roll your eyes and tell me that I am vain or something, but I would like to just say that as a child, I had BIG, WIDE eyes, and as a child Matt had little, squinty eyes. I'm not saying Matt's eyes aren't wonderful. (Would I dare try to compete with my husband whose senior superlative in HS was "best eyes?" Absolutely not.) So, obviously Henry gets his beautiful blues from Matt, but I don't want to give up the possibility that perhaps the shape of Henry's eyes comes from his mom. Perhaps if I get motivated enough, I will post a picture of Matt as a child with his squinty eyes and a picture of me as a child with my big, wide eyes so you can see (and judge) for yourself.

Anyway, in the meantime, here's some Henry/Sam comparison photos.

Henry

Sam

Henry

Sam

Henry

Sam

Henry

Week O' Fun

2011-12-15T16:16:00.000-06:00

My mom, Matt and I have been taking turns getting out of the house with Henry/staying home with Sam (or as Henry affectionately refers to him, "Ham"). Henry has had quite the week!

Shooting basketballs or "abooaballs" at Chuck E Cheese.

Mom and Henry had their picture "sketched" by Chucky.

He wouldn't eat, just wanted to shoot hoops, or "slam dunk."

We took him to 37th street to see the Christmas Lights!

At a local, indoor trampoline "park."

He loves to "dump" or jump.

Part 2- Apparently contractions have a purpose.

2011-12-14T09:34:00.000-06:00

So, about two hours or so after delivery, the nurses wheeled me over to postpartum, and I got put in the biggest room they had! Awesome! My nurse told me to let her know if I passed any "big clots."(TMI.)

It's funny she said that because I definitely didn't remember anyone telling me that last time. But anyway. I had a little bit of a headache and the nurses told me it was probably because I hadn't had anything to eat all day, and just encouraged me to rest till my food got there. I was in the room by myself, Matt was in the nursery with Sam, and our families had gone to get us food and/or back to work, etc. I layed down to sleep, but I couldn't.

Maybe about 20 minutes after being in postpartum, Matt and Sam came back, and I was finally going to get to feed him and hold him because I hardly had done that! Two nurses also walked in my room right at the same time as Matt and Sam. I sat up, and out comes TONS of blood and a huge clot (gross, I know) like the size of a small cantaloupe.

Honestly, if the nurse hadn't said anything, I would have probably not thought much of it - or wouldn't have told anyone right away, but fortunately she was right there, so I told her, casually, thinking it was no big deal.

So she came to check it out, and within about two minutes I probably had 10 nurses in my room. They were pressing on my stomach, trying to get clots out, paging other nurses, calling my doctor, etc. Sam's nurse had taken him out of the room and back to the nursery. Needless to say, I was clueless as to what was happening, scared, and crying - asking Matt, who had a very concerned look on his face, to please hold my hand.

They started giving me all sorts of medicine - more pitocin to make my uterus contract more, some prostaglandins (also used to induce labor) that make bleeding stop, a shot in my leg that hurt REALLY bad, plus some other stuff via IV (and lucky me, I had TWO IVs, not one). They also gave me some sort of pain killer that they told me would make me "loopy." A combination of the medicines and the blood loss made me start shaking uncontrollably. It was weird to feel completely out of control of my body. I could not stop shaking. I could not do anything for myself. I was thinking at best I would pass out, or I would need a blood transfusion, or I might be getting a hysterectomy, or at worst, I could die. Later Matt told me that a surgical team was outside the door in case they needed to do an emergency hysterectomy. While I was still shaking they wheeled me back to labor and delivery so they could pay more attention to me there. (Note, I lost my huge postpartum room.)

During that whole mess I was doing the only thing I knew to do, which was praying and thinking about Jesus. One, I was praying that he'd heal my body, but that more importantly he'd heal my heart so that He was all I wanted. Two, as I thought about why this was happening, I heard Jesus saying, "Because I love you." Everything He does, He does because He loves us. So, even though I was shaking, crying, and asking the nurses tons of questions, I was feeling His peace because I knew He was present.

Eventually they gave me some drug to stop shaking, and within a few minutes of getting back to labor and delivery I had mostly stopped bleeding. They kept me there to take my blood count and make sure I didn't need a transfusion. Fortunately, I DID take my prenatal vitamins during my pregnancy, so my blood count was good to begin with and I didn't end up needing a blood transfusion. But, since I am me, I figured that I must have done something wrong to make this happen, so I kept asking my doctor and the nurses what I did to make this happen, and my doctor said I was telling too many lies. (Ha ha.) I think God is just trying to nail it in my head that I am not as in control as I think I am...

Anyway, apparently when you have a fast and easy delivery combined with a big baby, and your uterus doesn't have to contract as much, it can cause hemorrhaging, which is what happened to me. The doc told me that if I decided to have another baby, then next time they will start me on the medicines to stop bleeding immediately after delivery - your risk for this increases with each pregnancy. I told my doctor that I just wanted him to earn his paycheck, you know, since it took him like five minutes to deliver baby Sam.

After all that mess was over, I was still pretty darn loopy, which not gonna lie, was quite fun. My family members, at least, were enjoying me without a filter. Unfortunately, I wrote an e-mail to some of my friends telling them what happened while I was in that loopy state, and when I woke up the next morning and re-read it, I was a little bit embarrassed. (I mean, I already share TMI on my blog without being loopy, so you can imagine me on drugs writing an e-mail to my friends.)

The next morning my doctor said, "Not to alarm you, but what happened to you is why women die during childbirth - they bleed to death." I had already figured that... Anyway, that's the "drama" you were waiting on. Thankfully, the nurses were AWESOME and they did such a good job, and all turned out well and I'm still here to tell you about it. :)

My dad started getting all teary-eyed thinking about it, and I told him he wasn't allowed to do that. Because for real, let's just be thankful that what could have been bad is good and let's not concern ourselves with what could have happened. My hormones, emotions and lack of sleep can't handle anything else besides being thankful right now anyway. :)

Some Pictures

2011-12-13T12:55:00.000-06:00

I know, I promised I'd share the rest of our hospital experience. The thing is, it's kind of a long story (but I'm sure the longer I wait, the shorter it will get), so to hold you over until I have a good chance to write, I'll post some pictures. :)

Poor Sam already has like 1/3 as many pictures at this point in his life as Henry did at this point in his. Don't worry, I do not really feel sorry for him.

Last Belly Pic! 39 Weeks and 6 days.

Henry coming to visit Mommy before it's time to push.

After Sam is born, Henry comes to meet him and opens a present "from Sam" - a football, which he loved!

Henry watching Sam through the nursery window.

Mom and Sam later that night after our drama had gone down. Notice my makeup is all gone and I look more like I had a real labor experience. Man, are you guys just hanging on a thread? I'm sorry bc the story is not really THAT exciting.

Henry and Sam. :)

Hi handsome baby!

Leaving the hospital.

He has a Matt mouth... same as Henry.

Sam and his cousin Laura. :)

Henry, Sam, and Laura. So precious.

Hey blue eyes! Will you stay blue or turn?

Brothers!

Part 1 - Labor and Delivery (the easy part)

2011-12-12T10:15:00.001-06:00

Apologies for being SO late on the details of little Sam's birth! (Although, it may have something to do with the fact that we have two children at home now, and literally within five minutes of walking in the door from the hospital, both children had pooped.) Anyway, we had quite the weekend. :) I will share the details in a little series. Labor and delivery can best be explained in a timeline. Enjoy. :)

Thursday
6:15 am - Leave for hospital
6:30 am - Check in at registration
6:45 am - Get put in delivery room, told the nurse would be there in 5 minutes
7:00 am - Still waiting. This is when we officially chose the name Samuel (Sam) Keith. (Details on that later.)
8:00 am (NOTE, that's way longer than 5 minutes) - NursES (plural) come in to room and start getting me set up for induction. We were told there was a miscommunication, aka - they just straight up forgot about me. They had three nurses setting me up because they had been running behind. Unfortunately, Matt and I have gotten used to waiting at the Dr.'s office, so we didn't think much of it.
9:00 am - Start on pitocin. I had already gotten to 5cm all on my own without hardly any painful contractions at all. Be very jealous.
9:30 am - After feeling about two real contractions, epidural is ordered. Two contractions was enough for me. :)
10:00 am-1:00 am- Visit with Matt, visit with our (very chatty) nurse, text people out the wazoo, see Henry, let family come say hi.
12 ish pm - Dr. comes by to say hi. Tells me he thought I stood him up this morning! Ask me how happy that made me, since I am Miss Punctual. The nurses never told the doctor that is was THEIR mistake that I supposedly "no-showed" that morning. Bad form! :)
1:00 pm - Two practice pushes with nurse. I have to keep myself from pushing while they call the doctor because I feel like baby was going to fall out.
1:10 pm - Dr. gets to room, gets everything ready.
1:15 pm - Start "pushing" except I was literally afraid the baby was going to fall out on his own. Dr. makes me hold off on the pushing because he doesn't want me to tear (more TMI). Dr. literally just pulls the baby out without a single push. I push one more time to get the rest of the body out.
1: 21 pm - Baby Sam is here!

That was the easy part! Sam came out looking like a C-Section baby, and I am not just saying that. It was quite welcome since Henry, handsome though he is, came out looking like E.T. My family, in laws, etc. were all telling me how great I looked - because seriously I did NO work. I woke up early that morning, put my make up on, curled my hair, and then sat in bed all morning until the baby fell out. It was quite awesome.

But, if you are very jealous of me, don't be, because we had some drama go down... that story will be next, and hopefully I won't have to leave you hanging too long.

In the meantime, I am SO glad to finally be at home w/ our little family of four (plus my mom who's helping big time)! And I am SO thankful for my devoted blog reading friends. Missed you guys! hahaha.

Samuel Keith Gibson

2011-12-09T16:24:00.002-06:00

Born at 1:21 PM on Dec 8, 2011. Height 20.5 inches. Weight 8lbs, 6oz.

We're calling him SAM!

Plenty of fun hospital stories to follow...

You decide, baby. Now or Thursday.

2011-12-07T05:41:00.001-06:00

My friends, I am happy to say that baby will be here on THURSDAY, unless he decides to come before that. Although if I were to go into active labor today, I might have him in the middle of the night (Wed-Thurs), and my doctor would not be on call, so if he wants to wait on the pitocin, so be it. (Also, I would have scheduled it for Friday, my due date, but they did not have availability, and there ain't NO WAY I'm taking a chance on this thing going into the weekend when I have the option NOT to.)

Supposedly if I get to the hospital on Thursday morning for induction but have had something to eat after midnight, they will straight up cancel it on me and send me home. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but the past two nights I have woken up HUNGRY around 3 or 4 AM. Obviously getting my baby out will be more of a priority than feeding my hungry tummy, but I can't say I wasn't a little nervous about breaking that rule on accident.

This whole pregnancy, I have straight up just tried to ignore thoughts and feelings about how life is about to change big time for my sweet little Henry. But he's had me wrapped around his finger for about a week now. It's like he knows something's about to happen! But really it's just me. (So, for example, I haven't been letting him cry to sleep, but laying in his room with him for almost 45 minutes each night. Bad, mama!)

But I've avoided letting myself get too emotional or think too much about having another child and what it will do to Henry because I KNOW it will all turn out just fine. Everyone talks about feeling anxious, sad, worried about their first child when the second comes into the world. And as far as I know, no one, after that second child comes, wishes they could give that second baby back. So I've pushed all those thoughts to the side...

Yes, let me put myself in Henry's shoes over the next couple of months. Yes, let me give him some grace because surely this transition will feel huge to him- he's a BIG time momma's boy. But it's no use letting myself get all sappy about it (and I could, easily).

So for the record, Matt got on some baby name websites last night. I was like, "What are you doing? You're wasting your time." And he was. I think he was secretly hoping that the world had invented some new name and it was going to show up and pop out at him. I think we are down to two names, and as of last night the one that Matt was leaning toward is NOT the one that I was leaning toward.

Should we draw from a hat? Should we take votes from our nurses? Should we let the doctor decide? Should we wait till we see him? Should we rock, paper, scissors? And what if I straight up do not like the middle name, but it has family significance? Having some sort of family significance is something that matters to both of us - can I go through with giving my child a middle name that I do not like?

Well anyway, unless things happen really fast (which they could), it's looking like Thursday will be the day. So today, we are going to enjoy our last day as a family of three (plus my mom), and give Henry his last few hours of totally undivided, only child attention.

Oh my gosh! I'm having a baby tomorrow or sooner! I guess I've been pushing the feelings of excitement aside as well because, holy moly, that just hit me. Maybe he's just been waiting for me to tell him that I'm ready to meet him. I'm ready to meet you, baby! (Or maybe he wants a name before he comes out.) Don't worry, baby, God knows your name.

Thanks to those of you who stuck it out through this most random post. Happy Wednesday.

jinxed myself

2011-12-06T06:30:00.001-06:00

The thing about weekly OB visits at this point in pregnancy is that they don't really do much as far as predicting the onset of labor. My appointment yesterday was exciting... so exciting in fact, that the doctor offered to induce me TODAY! Talk about being caught off guard! Much to everyone's surprise, I said no. Anticipation can be exciting. I like that part of it.

...But let's not get too carried away here. Going past my due date would NOT be exciting. So I called back later to see if he would induce me on Friday. The nurse had to check with him and I am still waiting for them to get back to me on an answer. However, doctor thinks I should be in there by natural causes in "the next couple of days."

So after the appointment, I made a rookie mistake. Embarrassing since I am not technically a rookie. I called my mom. She had a flight for Wednesday, but she changed it to today. I ate spicy food for dinner. I told people that I might not be "there" tomorrow - you know at events I previously planned to attend. Basically, I alerted the media, but there was really no news. Not in labor. I will be there. Sorry you spent an extra 50 bucks to change your flight, mom.

To top off the rookie mistake, I had been having approximately one contraction every hour for the last three days. Nothing painful. Nothing to write home about. But overnight they were either so weak that I couldn't feel them, or more likely, they went away all together.

Unlike last pregnancy, I am not going to throw a hissy-fit and spend all day researching natural labor induction techniques. (Although I won't lie and say I didn't stoop so low this morning at 3AM as to watch a couple of YouTube videos on accupressure to induce labor.) Instead I'm going to pretend to be a mature adult and assume that this is God's way of giving me time to wrap up the last 3-4 items on my to-do list that I have put off until now.

Since I know you care to know, some of those "to-do" items include:
- Getting Henry a present "from his baby brother." Supposedly this is a good way to help toddlers cope with the new addition.
- Getting unnamed baby 2 a baby book so I can get his footprint in it, and so later in life he won't wonder why his older brother had a baby book and he didn't. (Note to world, I still haven't completed Henry's 1st year baby book, so I'm not extremely excited about this purchase, but it must be done.)
- Reclean. I had a nesting frenzy one day last week. Apparently that was a week too early because everything is unclean and back to normal now. I'd like to get it spic 'n span again today... but a nap might be more necessary, seeing as I've been wide awake since 3:30 am now.

My actual written to do list is much longer, but it's not important that you know all the little things I put on there just so I can feel better about myself when I cross them off. Happy Tuesday!

a pinterest fail

2011-12-05T12:01:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I saw this on Pinterest.

Source: grilledcheesesocial.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Brilliant idea if you have a regular toaster instead of a toaster oven, right? Not going to lie, I actually tried this - because apparently putting cheese on toast and sticking it under the broiler for two minutes is really far too difficult.

MAJOR. FAIL. The crumbs that were already hanging out inside of my toaster seeped down into the sides of the toaster and smoke started coming out... along with the burning smell.

Now I wonder if someone put that "brilliant" idea on the internet just so some smarty pants like me would be silly enough to try it.

let's talk pedicures, shall we?

2011-12-04T16:26:00.000-06:00

I got my "I'm about to have a baby" manicure and pedicure today. While I was sitting there, I realized that I'm probably more picky about my $25 pedicure than I am about my $20,000 (estimate, epidural included, possibly on the high side, but who's paying attention?) labor and delivery experience.

You see. If I did write up a "birth plan," which I won't, it would look something like this: EPI-FRICKIN-DURAL. The end.

However, if I had the option of writing up a "pedicure plan," it would be much more detailed.

For starters. I would like my feet to not be soaking in lukewarm water please. Make that water HOT! I want it "hot tub" hot, you know. It should be uncomfortable for about five seconds, like when you get in a hot tub. Then it feels great once your skin gets acclimated. None of this lukewarm business... because if it's lukewarm when you put your feet in, it basically just feels cold the longer they sit there.

Next. When you take that dirt scraper thing to scrape dirt out from my pretty toenails, DIG IN THERE! I should be able to feel you digging around for dirt. (Sorry if that grosses some of you out.) Don't be wimpy, woman! Don't just halfheartedly drag the little scraper underneath my nail! You can't sufficiently remove the dirt that way! Same goes for the cuticle cutting and the removing of callouses... actually get them off, don't just pick up the tools and pretend!

Finally, the lotion you're rubbing on my legs. SHOW ME SOME MUSCLE. Massage the lotion INTO my legs. Don't just pat, pat, pat it on. You are stronger than that, lady! Take pride in your job. :)

Okay, so maybe I'm a little high maintenance. But you know, there's gotta be some consistency. If I've been going to the same nail salon since like 8th grade, and most of the time they massage my feet and do a great job, then that will be what I come to expect. I think they should have called this "pedicure lite" and charged me less for it - you know as opposed to the deluxe where they charge you more.

On the bright side, the manicurist gave me a neck massage, so I can't complain too much. I can't lie and say that the whole experience left me wanting more... like a full body, "let's-apply-labor-inducing, accu-pressure," "let's-make-up-for-the-sorry-pedicure" massage.

In other news. I love the raised eyebrows I get now when people ask when I'm due. When I can answer, "Friday," it's much more exciting than, "two weeks" or even "next week." But let's be honest, baby probably won't come on Friday. Really, I'm not getting my hopes up. And we've pretty much decided he will be named in the hospital. Scary thought.

I think that's all for Sunday. Let's chat soon.

Thankful: Day 30 [Community]

2011-11-30T22:53:00.001-06:00

Were you afraid I wasn't going to finish? Waited till almost the last hour, but I made it!

Today, I am thankful for community. For best friends, family, family friends, my church and my small group, my mom's group and all the people that God has placed in my life...

Who rejoice when I rejoice, who mourn when I mourn, who are just there.

Confession. I sometimes wish I could be best friends with everyone. And sometimes I even get upset when I see other friendships form around me because I long for community with everyone. Yes, I am guilty. I want to know people well and I want people to know me well.

But today I was thinking that God HAS given me the best of friends, the best of family, a community to love and that loves me. So, to wrap of this thankfulness series- I am thankful for friends and community - all of them. Or should I say, all of you? You know who you are!

Thankful: Day 29 [Sleep]

2011-11-29T00:10:00.000-06:00

"Unless the Lord builds the house,

its builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early

and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

for he grants sleep to those he loves."

Psalm 127:1-2

"I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, O Lord,

make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4:8

lose the attitude, barista

2011-11-29T00:01:00.000-06:00

So on Saturday, Matt graciously drove me through Starbucks - he was going to make me get out and go in to order, but I gently reminded him that I was very pregnant and it was cold outside. I ordered my usual - a tall Pike's Place coffee with cream. It wasn't till I was about to take my first sip, maybe 5 minutes later that I realized they forgot the cream.

At that point, we were already nearby another Starbucks, so I ended up walking inside anyway to put cream in my coffee - I've tried drinking it black before... just can't do it.

Fast forward to today. I really needed coffee in order to get OUT of the house, but alas, there was none in my house at all. I managed to pull myself together ENOUGH this morning to get in the car with Henry and go for a Starbucks run. And it's a good thing because without that caffeine, we really might have stayed in our pajamas all day long. In fact, I left the house in Matt's sweatpants - a risky move if I might say so.

This time, I ordered a GRANDE coffee w/ cream. When I reached the drive thru window, the barista tried to hand me a granola bar that I had definitely not ordered. So when she handed me my coffee, I considered the granola bar mix up combined with Saturday's incident. To make sure they didn't have my order confused with the person's behind me in line, I politely asked if the coffee had cream in it while removing the little "splash stick" to make sure that it was light brown colored and not black. (I was also thinking that if they forgot cream, I would NOT want be getting out of the car in Matt's sweatpants to fix the problem.)

Barista rudely interrupted my question in a very snotty tone. "The coffee has everything you asked for in it." I drove off.

Everything, huh? Because I only asked for cream - so what else did you put in there, smarty pants? Apparently she was offended that I would even think to ask if they got my order right.

It's a good thing that I drove off before I felt the intensity of my reaction to barista, otherwise I might have been rude to her face. (For the record, this barista has a track record with me... I was in the store when she was applying/interviewing for her job, and I cannot forget her because of the incident that happened that day. Another story, another time.) She's got an attitude.

How badly do I want to write the regional Starbucks manager and share my experiences with this lovely lady? Unfortunately I don't know her name. Also thinking maybe I should give her some grace. Times like these when I appreciate grace the most - when I realize how difficult it is for me to give it.

Thankful: Day 28 [Feeling Justified]

2011-11-28T05:11:00.037-06:00

Most of you were probably not around to pay much attention to my most recent hair debacle over the Thanksgiving holiday - which is a good thing for me. The drama and recovery are chronicled here and here, in case you missed it.

Anyway, I will have everyone know that I got it fixed on Saturday, and it looks much better. Based on all the comments, I know you were very, very concerned. (That or you're thinking, "Shut your mouth about the hair already!") HOWEVER...

Let me just say that the truth has come out NOW, after the crisis has been averted. You see, I went to dinner with my most honest father and brother on Saturday night after everything was better. At that point my dad said with some serious emphasis, "Oh, your hair looks MUCH better. It looked really bad yesterday compared to this." I almost thought he was just joking to poke fun at my overreaction (which he actually knew nothing about), but I kept asking him "Are you joking, or serious?" And it turns out, he meant it. He admitted that he didn't think it looked "that bad" until he compared the old, messed up hair, with the newly improved hair. My dad's wife at that point felt free to comment that she agreed it also looked much better now, etc.

So you see, people probably really didn't think my hair looked bad, but this just proves that my suspicions were accurate. Fortunately, Matt is not very observant, like at all, so I could look like I got hit by a train or an ugly stick, and he'd be happy regardless.

I am thankful to feel like it wasn't all in my head. Thankful for the stylist who was really sweet to fix it for me and not take too much offense... Thankful for the honesty of my male family members who have at times told me that I look "grungy" and other really nice adjectives like that. Matt could never get away with such honesty.

Happy Monday!!! Only two more days of this thankfulness series, and I can't lie and say I am not happy about it because I'm tired of hearing myself talk.

Thankful: Day 27 [Real Peace and Real Rest]

2011-11-27T14:11:00.000-06:00

Confession. I only really clean my house when my mother in law (I shorten it to MIL and FIL) is about to come over. I used to clean for my church group, but now that they've been coming each week for three years, I am over trying to put on a good front for them. They know the dirt in my heart, so why can't they see the dirt on my bathroom floor?

Matt's parents just started coming to our house sometime in the last year. They come almost every week to babysit. Which means Friday is cleaning day. I used to get a little frantic trying to clean for them because, to be honest, my MIL might be the cleanest person on the planet. (She will not take off her shoes in hotel rooms, she is constantly cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees - or making my FIL do it all for her.) (P.S. We have a good relationship - no need to worry she will take offense to any of that.)

Anyway, another confession. Sometime this summer I realized just how sinful this "freak out," frantic cleaning actually is... because what I'm doing is trying to gain approval (or realistically just not lose approval) from other people, in this case my MIL.

I already have ultimate approval from God through Jesus. I do not need anyone else's approval. So what does this mean? Does this mean that I just let my house get sloppy and never clean again? No absolutely not. What I was thinking about last night and this morning is that because I do already have approval, and because I do not have to earn it from anyone in any form, I can clean my house in a different way - a free and relaxed way. I can have peace before I clean my house, while I clean my house, and after I leave my house with my MIL still in it, even if I don't clean it perfectly or have time to accomplish all of the cleaning I want. Whereas, when I don't trust in the approval I have from God, I can only have peace after I have sufficiently cleaned my house. It turns out that chores and cleaning can actually be enjoyable in themselves when you don't try to complete them out of an unmet need for approval or control.

An another example of this is working out and body image. In my deepest heart, I really actually do enjoy to run, to workout, and to compete. But you want to know what sucks the joy right out of running? When I feel like I absolutely must run in order to be fit, in order to look good, in order to get approval from people. On the other hand, if I believe that I have approval, on every single level, from God through Christ, then I no longer feel the need to workout in order to meet a need for approval but because that need is already met.

Does that mean I shouldn't workout? Does that mean I should not try to run or to compete in races or to enjoy physical activity? No. It means I lose the frantic need to workout (or ironically, as is often my case, the lazy rebellion of not working out because doing it for approval is so dang exhausting), and replace it with a peaceful, restful, enjoyable working out/running/what have you.

Before Jesus started his ministry at the transfiguration, God said concerning him, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased..." When Jesus died for me, the pleasure God had in his Son Jesus got transferred to me. Now he is pleased with me. This is what I am thankful for today. Real rest, real peace that comes from real and total approval from God through Jesus.

Thankful: Day 26 [Litte man is 21 months!]

2011-11-26T17:53:00.000-06:00

It's the 26th, which means Henry is officially 21 months. He will not be 22 months before he becomes a big brother. SO WEIRD. I am so thankful for our sweet little baby and the 21 months we have gotten to be his parents.

This was taken today at the park. :)

Ignore the burnt orange.

We are sad it didn't get cold soon enough for Henry to wear this hand me down letter jacket more. It's too small now.

Apologies for the ugly clothing he has on.

Taken a couple of weeks ago at the park. He loves to hang from these rings.

I'll do my best to write a somewhat brief account of what he's up to these days. But let's be honest, it probably won't be brief. Those of you who are not great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles can feel free to skim and/or skip the rest of this post. Although I can't possibly understand who wouldn't want to obsess over my child. JK.

Talking. He talks so much, and is starting more and more to put words and phrases together. He needs an interpreter (me or Matt) for about 50% of his words, but I definitely see some improvement in a lot of pronunciations, so that's good.

I think the funniest word he says is "cold." He says, "duuuuuuke." No one except mommy and daddy know that he is saying "cold."

Another popular phase is "hop duum" which means "hop down" which actually means "stand up from the chair you are sitting in and follow me to wherever I want to go." He got "hop down" because whenever we sit on the couch and he wants off, I ask him if he wants to hop down.

He can also recall activities from the day. For instance, after he and Matt got home from the basketball game the other night, I asked him if he had fun at the game, and he started telling me everything he saw there... "Band, slam dunk, Mary!!" ("Mary" is his aunt, and she dances on the drill team for her high school - so Henry calls all dancers "Mary.") If they go to the park, he tells me about the slide and the swing. I find it amazing that kids this age can already remember so much.

He mimics me... I realize how much I use the filler, "Ummm." It's almost embarrassing because I'll be in a situation when I am about to say it, and he will say right before I was about to say it.

He also recognizes certain parking lots and places we frequent, so when we pull into the Taco Deli parking lot on Saturday mornings he says, "TACOS!" He knows a lot of our familiar places. When we leave the Starbucks drive through, he says "Eat!" (This is because sometimes when I get coffee, I will get him a pumpkin loaf or something for us to share.)

Playing. He loves to jump. Today we took him to an indoor trampoline park (for lack of a better description), and he LOVED it. The kid was so excited. He jumps pretty well on solid ground now, but also likes to jump off of furniture (dangerous) and off of curbs, etc. And of course, he loves jumping on his bed.

He still loves his toys, which I am thankful for - they could easily feel like a waste of money AND space, but he actually will sit and play with them. He also loves any and every kind of ball, blocks, toy animals and even stuffed animals. In fact, he shows A LOT of affection towards his stuffed animals - hugs and kisses them a lot.

Matt's ipad has proven to be the problem toy - aka the toy he is most addicted to, and the one we have to actually hide from him. However, I will say that the ipad is to credit for teaching Henry almost all of his colors and shapes. They have tons of educational apps for all ages. We are cheap, so we get the free ones. Since he has colors and shapes (mostly) down, we are going to start working on letters.

Henry is also obsessed with books - so much so that Matt and I are ready for him to have some new ones... I'm pretty sure we have all of them memorized at this point. (The other night Matt was reading goodnight moon, but obviously slipped into autopilot when he said, "And there were two little mittens and a pair of kittens." In case you don't have the book memorized, it reads, "...two little kittens and a pair of mittens.") So yes, Henry will be getting new books for Christmas this year.

Eating. Henry has a sweet tooth. The two of us together all day makes for a very dangerous pair. He loves his sugary condiments - jelly, ketchup, honey, brown sugar, etc. The upside to this is that he also loves fruit. And also, we can use some of the sugar to get him to eat healthy stuff (like I sneak veggies into quick breads and spaghetti sauce, etc.)

I would love for him to eat more vegetables, but for now I spend a decent amount of time figuring out how to sneak them into his food. The best we've accomplished is getting him to eat a TON of spinach hidden beneath layers of cheese and sauce on a pizza. I have also cooked and pureed mushrooms to add to pizza and quesadillas which has been successful. Baby food veggies have also been added into soups and sauces. It's the best I can do. I would also love for him to eat more beans, nuts, etc. We'll work on it. He's skeptical of new foods, so it's difficult to get him to try new stuff.

Ever since I watched Food, Inc. I've been pretty picky about what kind of meat he gets to eat, but that's been easy since Matt and I are eating the good stuff too. I am proud to say that he has only eaten at Chick-Fil-A ONE time since I watched that movie. I really did not want him to, but we were going with a group of friends, and I'd rather eat Chick-Fil-A every now and then than be a psycho and sacrifice the community aspect of food.

He's also very independent when he eats. Sometimes he won't eat if he's in a highchair because he just wants to sit like a big boy... or he wants to feed himself something that is so messy that we know will end up all over his hair and the floor. This can sometimes be a problem in public - we are still trying to figure out which battles to pick with him.

Sleeping. Still a great sleeper. We are at about 11.5 hours a night (much better than this summer when he was sleeping like 10 a night) plus a 1hr, 45 min nap each day. Doing great on the big boy bed - he's only woken up on the floor a handful of times. :)

I know I am leaving stuff out, but that's to be expected. Once again, so thankful for this little man and the smiles, laughter, and joy he brings us every single day.

38 Weeks

2011-11-25T14:30:00.000-06:00

Yours truly is 38 weeks today! Matt took this picture at a favorable angle the very first time, and to be quite honest, I don't think it does the size of my belly justice, but I am not complaining. Nevertheless, here I am, ten minutes out of bed, fake smile and all...

I will be getting my hair fixed tomorrow, even though you can see that it really doesn't look too different from normal (and "banana blonde" might have been an exaggeration). The most embarrassing part about all of this is that I told the girl before she mixed the color, "You really can't screw it up - I'm not picky." Eat your words, Leah. Eat them. Lesson learned: tomorrow and from now on, I will be VERY, VERY, VERY specific about EXACTLY what I want.

Thankful: Day 25 [Went to sleep at half.]

2011-11-25T06:16:00.003-06:00

Today I am thankful I went to sleep after halftime last night.

I have not watched an Aggie football game all year long, and I had a bad feeling about that football game yesterday. We watched the first half at Matt's parent's house, which was more than I wanted to watch, but it was fine. Then we got home at the start of the second half. While I was putting Henry to sleep in his room, the Aggies were destroying themselves. When I came back in the room, I took one look at the TV, saw that tu had taken the lead and that Tannehill had a look of fear in his eyes, and I made the very wise decision to not stay up for the rest of the dumb game.

And that's a good thing because at 5:45 AM Matt got up to go to the bathroom, and that's when I asked him if the Aggies lost, and he confirmed my suspicions. My blood pressure shot up immediately, for sure. It was best not to have had it elevated for the entire rest of the second half last night. Then I checked my phone, and I had a couple of "rub-it-in" messages from my tea-sip friends who apparently really needed a confidence boost. Hope you got what you were looking for.

You know, on second thought, maybe if I had stayed up, I would have gone into labor... Nah. Still thankful I went to sleep. I think I'll also stay away from Facebook for a few days - no need to watch the tea-sips gloat. Bad for blood pressure.

Thankful: Day 24 [Your sins are forgiven!]

2011-11-24T09:35:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I think I have mostly recovered from the drama that went down yesterday, and this post will shed more light on that. I think it just might speak to you, too, so if you feel like you are in need of grace, read on. :) (Oh, and feel free to laugh at the previous post from this point on.)

I couldn't sleep this morning, and so I got up and started to read this book, into which I am only three chapters deep, but each chapter is so good that I've read them all twice.

God decided that he would be full of grace towards me, even just a few hours after I wrote last night's post. When is he not full of grace towards me? But you get what I'm saying.

Keller, in his book, is basically preaching through the book of Mark, and the chapter I just read was from Mark 2:5, Jesus tells a paralytic that has come to him to be healed, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Keller has a brilliant commentary on the whole story, which was particularly fitting for me today, considering my severe overreaction to a bad hair coloring experience. Without sharing too much detail from the book, Keller points out how we come to Jesus to get our problems fixed, and Jesus graciously chooses to first focus on solving our biggest, deepest problem - our sin against Him.

I could keep sharing more about what Keller had to say, but as soon as I read those words straight from scripture, "Your sins are forgiven." It was everything I could do to not pick up my computer immediately to share with you how thankful I am that it's TRUE! Is there a better thing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day? I do not think so.

Psalm 32:1-2 "Blessed (or happy) is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity..."

You see, what's is even more upsetting to me about the fact that my hair got screwed up yesterday is that I care way, way too much about the whole thing. Quite honestly, I wish that I did not care, that I would not get upset, and that I could just laugh about it and move on and let Jesus be enough for me... I hate that my overreaction points to deeper insecurities, deeper problems. I hate that even though God has given me grace upon grace, victory upon victory in the vanity department (and he has), that I still can go ballistic like that.

So what does Jesus do? Does he say, "You bad, sinful, brat you! Don't you know that there's people out there who can't afford to eat on Thanksgiving, and you are upset about your hair!?" No. He tenderly, graciously comes to me in the morning, and says, "Dear child, it is okay. Your sins are forgiven. I love you." Ah. Forgiveness. Exactly what I need.

Oh, and then he proves it by living righteously in my place, dying in my place, and coming back to life.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1

"God shows his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (or atoning sacrifice) for our sins." 1 John 4:10

So, on Thanksgiving Day, I am elated, overjoyed, BEYOND thankful that in Christ, I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins! To the praise of his glorious grace!

Thankful: Day 23 [Umm.]

2011-11-23T23:32:00.000-06:00

I had plans to write this post earlier on in the day. I was going to say I was thankful that I was getting my hair highlighted today. A sneak peak into my vanity - I had a small, secret fear that the baby would decide to come before I had a chance to get my hair highlighted and the roots were looking pretty bad. Not that anyone cares.

Fast forward to now, and I would actually be much happier if I could have the baby with the hair I had before 4:30 PM today... roots and all.

Long story short - my normal girl (of like five years) got moved to another salon, so instead of going to her - which I should have done - I figured she left my formula in the computer and just went to the chick they were sending all of her old clients to. (I know that sentence isn't right, and I don't care.) Except my girl didn't leave my formula in the computer, and apparently "highlights" to me is equivalent to this new chick's "BANANA BLONDE." Ugh.

I'm not gonna lie, if I let myself, I could still tear up about it right now. I've actually been crying an embarrassing amount tonight. Okay, I still am.

Let me qualify all this by saying that I know my hair does not look THAT bad, and that probably no one will notice or care. However, I do notice and care, and to be honest, I don't really mind if you like my hair or not - I want to like it. So the problem is really with me and my attitude... I get that. I take that back, if I am being honest, I do care if you like my hair, but if I don't like it, I won't believe that you like it, even if you say that you do... so it doesn't really end up mattering if you like it or not. Got that? Good.

So anyway, when you are really pregnant- weighing way more than you feel comfortable weighing and your five year old nephew is calling you fat because he doesn't know any better... and people are commenting about how you are breathing too heavy... and other people are commenting about how BIG your certain unmentionable body parts are (which you hate and already feel self-conscious about), you want to do SOMETHING to feel attractive. Or at least I do. Call me immature or vain or whatever- I realize my issues - just being honest here. (Funny in light of yesterday's post, but whatever.)

So yeah, when I walk in the salon as a brunette with blonde highlights, tell the lady that I want "the exact same as last time," and leave looking like pregnant Barbie, I'm probably not going to handle it so well.

You might be wondering what this has to do with being thankful. And well, I am trying to figure it out too. So, off the top of my head, even though I am crying, even though my husband has no idea how in the world this situation could possibly justify so much drama, and even though I am angry that this happened and that I might possibly have to face the girl again because I'm not sure I can live with my new hair color.... I will find things to be thankful about even though I'm not quite passed the "pissed off" stage... (Forgive me for being so blunt.)

1. Thankful that no one cares about my hair more than me.
2. Thankful that situations like this actually do unveil sins in my heart - and things that matter far, far too much for me. It's not really fun, but at least when God shows me that dirt, I have hope that he will also free me from it.
3. Thankful that in two or three weeks I won't be breathing too hard, or being called fat by five year olds. Wish I could say that the unmentionable body parts would be getting smaller, too, but we all know that's not what happens...
4. Thankful that I have a blog - writing about this has been therapeutic. I am definitely over-sharing. Oh well. I'll regret it when some random person at my ten year HS reunion next year comes up to me and tells me that they read my blog. For now I'll just be thankful that writing this post has given me some temporary sanity.
5. Thankful for Henry. I managed to stop crying enough to read him some books, say prayers and put him to bed. He is a great distraction from myself.

I think that's good enough. I also would like to add that mirrors are the devil. With that, I am going to go apologize to my husband for being a psycho. Good night!

Thankful: Day 22 [Things I'm Tempted to Complain About]

2011-11-22T03:45:00.001-06:00

Thanks to waaaaaay too much caffeine yesterday (don't judge), I am up at 3:05 AM. I should go back and add a label too all the posts written between the hours of 2AM and 5AM. Chances are, I wouldn't have much of a blog if it were not for my insomnia.

Anyway, today I am choosing to be thankful for things that I am most often just tempted to complain about. Isn't it amazing that even when we are totally blessed beyond blessed, we can still find the negative about things? I will look on the dark side no more...

I am thankful for Matt's job. I am thankful for the obvious things about it like the fact that we have food on the table and I can stay home with Henry and it requires no travel and is very flexible. I am so spoiled for sure. So spoiled that when, once in a blue moon, Matt has to be there early or stay "late" for a meeting, I manage to find a way to complain. And while we're on the topic, Matt is pretty amazing when it comes to drawing work boundaries - even though I know he is incredibly busy and could easily work 20 hours a week more than he actually does. He is so great to get off early so he can see and play with Henry. He tries to wait till Henry wakes up in the morning to leave. He gets off in the middle of the day if I have a Dr. appointment... or a hair highlight. :) And, he's even taken Henry to work with him when I've been sick before. Not only that, but he still makes time to workout (not as much as he'd like), to spend time with me, and to spend time with the Lord. So, God forgive me, when I complain about this blessing of a job and blessing of a husband.

Since that was so long, I'll go with just one more. Maybe tomorrow I will continue this theme.

Anyway, the other thing I will choose to be thankful for today is my pregnant body. It's no secret that weighing almost 35 extra pounds is not really my idea of a good time. I avoid cameras, wear black almost everyday, and try not to look in the mirror. But, how often do I forget what my body is accomplishing with that weight? I mean, first of all, I got pregnant. A gift in itself. Then tack on the fact that my body is literally supporting a life. I need to do a lot less grumbling and a lot more thanking. (I'll have to remember this when I am breastfeeding too. I am not one of those whose weight just "melts" off when I am nursing. In fact, I'd say the opposite - that nursing 1, makes me hold onto about five more pounds and 2, makes me certifiably insane hormonally.) So, with all that, I am thankful for extra blood, extra water, placenta, seven pounds of baby (Dr. estimate as of yesterday) in my uterus, and even the extra fat that comes along with all of it.

And, even though it's kind of scaring me right now, I am thankful for the fact that there is torrential downpour outside! Always thankful for rain in Austin, Texas.

Thankful: Day 21 [More Lists]

2011-11-21T09:19:00.000-06:00

Music. Specifically the song "Tarzan Boy." You may lose respect for me after I've admitted to liking that song, but for some reason it puts a smile on my face. I heard it at a restaurant when I was on a date w/ Matt sometime this Summer, and I immediately Shazam-ed it, and then downloaded it. And back in the summer when I was ~~not sedentary~~ still working out a lot, it got me through many a flight of stairs on the stair master. I don't deny that I am a nerd.

Crafty and creative people. While I am not one, I can appreciate those of you who are. And I will not lie, I CAN be inspired. For now, however, I am going to concentrate on getting pictures up all over my walls, which have literally been bare since we moved in our house almost FIVE years ago. Man I am old.

People who don't like Starbucks. I am thankful for people who don't like Starbucks and here's why. I'm sure most of you, whether you drink coffee or not, have received a Starbucks gift card sometime in your lifetime. Well, what are people who don't like coffee and/or don't "speak" Starbucks language going to do with Starbucks gift cards? Obviously they are going to give them to their addict friends. For example, my friend, Rita (not her real name), who is preggo and due exactly one week before me, recently re-gifted me a very generous Starbucks gift card, and I am not sure I could be more happy w/ any other re-gift ever. So there you have it.

Short work weeks. Family time. Thanksgiving.

Dramatic toddler. I'm not sure if I've told you that Henry really plays up his injuries. Matt tells him that he is already a perfect soccer player (because I guess soccer players are very dramatic about their injuries). When Henry bumps his finger, he immediately will grab it, put on a frowny face and say in a whiny voice, "Hinger!" (Finger). The funniest is that he sometimes gets his knees confused with his elbow, so he will grab his knee and go, "Elbooooow." And we always look at him (probably reinforcing the drama), and say, "Did you hurt your [insert body part]?" (And by the way, not only does he play up real injuries, but he fakes injuries and pretends to be hurt when he is not.) Anyway, last night he fell off of my bed, face first, onto the ground and got a really ugly blue knot on his head as a result. It was ugly, and not a fun fall. Anyway, for the rest of the night, even after it was clear that he was feeling better, he'd grab his head and say, "BUUUUUUMP, HEEAAD!" Really I can't do the drama justice. But I am going to say I'm thankful for it because it is just so funny and provides endless entertainment.

Not sure what happened?

2011-11-20T22:19:00.001-06:00

I just went to check the latest on our baby name poll, and it looks like somehow the poll either started over or got erased or something? Because last I checked (probably Friday), Sam was definitely in the lead and there had been at least 20 votes. Now it's saying that only 9 have voted. So thanks, blogger. N-O-T.

It does not matter anyway because we are now somewhat certain (I know I have said that at least two other times on here), that we DO have a name. However, I am feeling hesitant to share it "just in case" something changes. BUT it is most definitely the longest we've gone without changing our minds (approximately 48 hours).

I know you're all just DYING to know the name, and that you can't sleep at night not knowing, but you'll have to just hold out a little longer... till I feel like you've waited long enough.

And you're welcome for multiple posts in one day.

Thankful: Day 20 [Refining Relationships]

2011-11-20T04:30:00.000-06:00

Marriage, children, family, extended family, close-knit community. These relationships are so good, and yet, at the very same time, these relationships are the ones that have the potential to drive us off the wall in a matter of nanoseconds. The closer we get to people, the more friction we are likely to experience.

I'd guess that a large majority of frustration in these tight-knit relationships comes because we want other people to be all about us.

Examples (Not that these have ever really happened):

I don't want to be embarrassed in public by my fussy (sweet, but fussy) toddler. Can't he understand that mommy needs to look like she has it all together in the parenting department? Not to mention that I really just don't want to bother with his behavior. So, really, Henry's behavior (in my mind) becomes not about him, or about God, but about me.

Or, I am pregnant (if you haven't gathered that). Therefore I must not do any work if ~~Matt~~ someone else is available to do it for me. And clearly, I should never have to ask him to help me- I thought I married a mind reader? Obviously it's okay for me to feel like a great injustice has been done to me when I have to bend over (pregnant) and pick up Henry's blocks and sippy cups. Can't Matt SEE that I am pregnant? Nevermind all the work he's got going today. This is about me. I AM PREGNANT.

I'm thankful for these relationships today for a specific reason, and that reason is this: These relationships serve as a reminder (a sometimes inconvenient reminder) that the world does not revolve around me but around Someone greater than me. So when I feel the friction- when I find myself unjustifiably (or in rare cases, justifiably) frustrated- with the people that God has placed closest to me, I can move my attention from myself (and my supposed unmet needs) to Jesus and find the freedom that comes when I choose to revolve around Him instead.

If I do not want to be miserable and angry, then these relationships force me not to dwell on all of my unmet needs, and instead dwell on Jesus, who died in my place and met all of my eternal needs. They force me to ignore "injustices" done to me and concentrate on the grace of God towards me. Then I am free to truly love, forgive, and enjoy these people that God has placed in my life- so that hopefully they, too, can revolve around Him.

If I do want to be miserable, I could continue to insist that all these people revolve around me, but who wants to be miserable?

Thank God that He is greater than me. It's worth it to center my life around Him. And thank you, Lord, for these refining relationships.

Thankful: Day 19 [Productivity & Rest]

2011-11-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

I'm tempted to say, once again, that I am thankful for Saturdays because seriously, Saturdays are awesome, but that would be a cop out. So instead I will share with you specific things that I am thankful for, which often happen on Saturdays.

I am thankful for productivity. During the week, getting anything accomplished that it outside the realm of laundry, cleaning, dinner or dishes has proven to be a challenge - especially when I am pregnant (aka moving at half my normal pace) with a toddler (make that 1/5th of my normal pace). Because Matt is such a good daddy and does all sorts of fun stuff with Henry on Saturdays (today it was Frisbee Golf), I am able to accomplish between three and five errands instead of just one. Somehow it feels so good to cross things off that to-do list. So today, I am thankful for productivity.

I am also thankful for rest. The BEST part about Saturday is that there is time to be productive AND time to rest. And on that note, I am going to take a nap.

Thankful: Day 18 [Full Term]

2011-11-18T05:36:00.000-06:00

Baby boy would not be considered a preemie if he came today. Yes, I am officially 37 weeks. When I was a rookie, I thought this meant "any day now." So I didn't make any plans, and I pretty much was always warning people that I might not be around next week. Now I know better - my babies like the womb. And if they don't, well I'll just be ~~terribly unprepared~~ surprised. Three more weeks!

I will try to take and post a belly picture today, but I woke up in the middle of the night again, and I will probably look zombie-ish all day so no promises.

Thankful: Day 17 [CBS, etc.]

2011-11-17T06:28:00.001-06:00

Thursday is CBS day. That's Community Bible Study. Last year was the first year I went, and I liked it enough to keep coming! We are studying the book of Revelation - you know the last book in the Bible that's really scary and confusing and that no one ever wants to read. We have a fabulous teacher, and even though I am about 99% sure that I am the youngest person in the entire Bible Study (of over 100 people), I still love it.

And while we're at it... the etc.

I'm thankful for my wedge pillow and heating pad. I fall asleep on them every single night. When I try to fall asleep without them, I can feel my back throbbing. (Perhaps if I had used them during my last pregnancy we might not have ended up splurging on a king-sized bed with a really comfy mattress... definitely a pregnancy "impluse" buy, but neither me or Matt ever buy anything that costs more than $5.00 impulsively, so you can't really call it that.)
Thankful for floss. Because who likes food to get stuck in between their teeth?
Thankful for Christmas pajamas. Matt's family gets Christmas pajamas every year. Today I found a pair of Matt's long but light Christmas pajama pants from last year - he had never even taken the tag off! I stole them, and they are now mine. If there's anything hotter than a pregnant woman, it's a pregnant woman in her hubby's pajama pants.
Thankful for easy posts and simple things like those mentioned here. Promise I won't cop-out like this every other day in November.

Overposting, Oversharing

2011-11-16T12:18:00.000-06:00

It's my blog, I can do what I want to.

I thought I'd share (since I'm in the business of oversharing) this very ironic story about our "Henry" song. Ironic considering some of the names that are in the lead over there on that poll.

My mom makes up songs for all of her grand-kids when they are born. (Or more accurately, changes the words to songs that already exist.) One of Henry's songs is just different words to the song, "I'm Henry the 8th."

It goes like this:

I'm Henry Webb I am, Henry Webb I am, I am
I was born into the Gibson clan
They welcomed me with open hands
Everyone called me Henry
They wouldn't have a WILLIE or SAM
I'm the first grandson, I'm Henry
Henry Webb I am I am, Henry Webb I am.

And looky there! William and Samuel are up there at the top of the list. (At least as of now.) So would we have to change the words to Henry's song? And my goodness, I had no idea people liked the name "Sam" so much. Seriously. Or maybe you just don't like any of the other names, but I don't really care.

Anyway, here's to spending way, way, waaaaaaay too much time thinking about this over the last 48 hours.

Thankful: Day 16 [Another List]

2011-11-16T05:47:00.000-06:00

So many good things to be thankful about. I will have to do more bullet points today.

It RAINED yesterday. Henry thought the thunder was an airplane.
High school friends. I get together every couple months with some good friends from high school, and I am thankful that I still have these relationships after like 10 years. TEN YEARS, PEOPLE.
Now, Henry might have not gone to sleep till 9:30 or 10:00 the past two nights, but yesterday morning he slept till 9:15, and then I finally had to wake him up. Dreamy? Yes. Thankful? Yes. Although we should probably shoot for 8PM - 8AM instead. That's a little more doable at night.
Baby name polls. Even though, not going to lie, it disrupts my ability to decide even more. Perhaps when this is all said and done - or before then - I will share with you the journey of this naming (or no-naming) experience - and all the rational and irrational thoughts that have gone into the no-naming of our #2. Maybe I should just name him "Dos." Or "Gibson (meaning: son of Gib) Gibson."
Finally, I'm thankful that life is not all about me. Life would be pretty boring if the world revolved around me. I'd be a pretty miserable person if the world and everything was all about me. Thank God that it IS all about Him and what He's doing. Even scratching the surface of that truth brings freedom and joy.

VOTE for a NAME!

2011-11-15T07:18:00.000-06:00

Okay, friends, we are feeling desperate for a baby name. When I'm asking my five year old nephew and my less than two year old son what we should name our child, it's bad. It's worse when I start typing into Google, "What should I name my baby?" Then I get routed to a site called "baby genie" and it literally just produces a random name for me.

So, if you'll direct your attention to the side of my blog, there is a poll with FIVE NAMES in no particular order. I made a poll last night on Baby Center, and the names on that poll were different (some were the same- oh, and one is spelled wrong, but it's out anyway). Quite honestly, I don't love or hate any of these names more than the other. Some of them Matt likes more than me and vis versa. Our families seem to have strong opinions in opposite directions, so most likely, this poll won't get us any closer to a decision. There's a chance that the name we give our child isn't even on this list. (Matt has been trying to make up his own names.)

Anyway, please vote, so we don't end up leaving the hospital with a baby named "Brother Gibson" or "Boy Gibson" or "Gibblet Gibson" (as Matt has been fondly referring to him against my will).

Oh and feel free to be brave and comment with your own potential name ideas. We could have literally added five more to this list.

Thankful: Day 15 [Mom's Group]

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

Tuesday is mom's group day. I'm so thankful for my mom's group- or whatever you want to call it. It's a group of women, not necessarily from my church, who love God and help me love Him more. Our kiddos go upstairs or outside with babysitters (also thankful for them), while we get some adult time over coffee and snacks to read and apply the Bible to our lives and to pray for each other.

Thankful: Day 14 [Undecided]

2011-11-14T04:59:00.000-06:00

Today's post snuck up on me. Somehow I could not go back to sleep after waking up at 3 AM, but I am going to try here in about two minutes when I finish this post. Since I could not choose just one, here's a short list of things I am thankful about today.

I have my 36 week appointment today. Exciting. Thankful we are down to weekly appts.
I'm thankful for water. It has been an integral part of keeping my swelling down.
Thankful for spell check. Without it, you guys would know how dumb I actually am.
Thankful for Matt, an awesome hubby and daddy who took Henry to his first UT basketball game last night. Thankful for the "free" time I got as a result.
Thankful for my church.
Thankful for the rare moments when everything in my house, including Henry's toys and the laundry, are put away and cleaned up.
Thankful for cereal because 1- it's good and 2- it does something to my blood sugar that helps me fall back asleep after I've been awake for two hours in the middle of the night.
Jesus. Always. I love Him.
And finally, thankful that I'm tired enough to fall back asleep now, so I will hopefully get at least two more hours before it's time to get ready for my Dr. appointment.

Thankful: Day 13 [Picture Posts/Silly Toddler]

2011-11-13T06:19:00.035-06:00

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This thankfulness series is ambitious. And it's starting to get brutal because, quite honestly, I don't like to "hear" myself "talk" this much. Plus it's a big jump to go from two to three posts a week to posting every single day. And, as a blog reader, I'm sure you feel the pressure. I can only assume "readership" (is that a word?) has dropped off, and I can't blame you because I'd be overwhelmed too.

So, to keep you from reading your brain out, I'll make this post a picture post. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll make the rest of the thankfulness posts filled with pictures. Much more pleasing to the eyes. (And it will give me a reason to take pictures of something other than Henry.)

Henry has been sleeping great in his "bih-buh-beh" (translation: big boy bed). He went from 10.5 hours a night to 12 hours a night! That probably has more to do with daylight savings/less sunlight, but I am very thankful for it regardless! I took this picture one morning this week when he literally would not wake up, even after I went in his room and tried to wake him.

I know I already posted one in his Halloween costume, but I feel as though this is justified since this picture was actually taken on the night of Halloween and the other one was not. Plus I do think he might be the cutest penguin on the planet.

Henry LOVES to steal my camera and take pictures with it. Normally we get blurry pictures of nothing, but with a little help from mommy, he actually got a decent self-pic in this one.


And then he snapped a pic of his feet. Also with mommy's help. They kind of look swollen, don't they? You could have confused them for my feet!!

There you go. Day 13 - Thankful for picture posts and a silly toddler named Henry.

Thankful: Day 12 [Staycations and Babysitters]

2011-11-12T06:19:00.000-06:00

Matt's parents are watching Henry this weekend, which I am so thankful for! They are such great grandparents - they babysit weekly, and then they act like we are doing them a favor. It really is dreamy.

So Matt and I were going to go out to the lake, but plans changed, and we are staying at home without the little guy. I've decided I'm also thankful for this last minute change of plans because I am in serious nesting mode, and unless I make myself think differently, all I think about all day long is getting stuff done around the house. So being "stuck" 45 minutes away from home and not taking an opportunity without child to actually accomplish something this weekend would have been brutal for me.

Thankful for staycations and babysitters!

Oh, and of course, the one day that Henry is not sleeping with us, I wake up totally restless at 4:45 am.

Thankful: Day 11 [Awkward Preggo Situations, Etc.]

2011-11-11T05:38:00.000-06:00

One good thing about my insanely painful nerve pain: it leads to funny and awkward interactions in public. I'm thankful for these situations because who doesn't love a good laugh?

I wish I could describe this nerve pain for you. Let's suffice it to say that I can be walking along normally and all of the sudden I get shooting pains all the way down the front or back of my legs (that's femoral and sciatic nerves, respectively) which sometimes literally causes me to fall to the floor (if I am at home), and no that is not a dramatic overreaction.

Yesterday at Target, I was finished shopping, approaching the checkout counter, when this terrible pain struck me in both legs at once. I literally had to stop in my tracks, I hunched over at the waist and was squirming, and I let out an "Ooooh... Ughhh!" I then looked up at the sweet, young, innocent checker girl who had a look of fear in her eyes. (I'm about 99% sure she thought I was having a contraction.) Instead of setting the record straight, I just go, "Sorry about that."

It wasn't till a few seconds later that I realized how funny the interaction actually was.

Then I started imagining how fun it would be, if I was a better actress, to play pranks on people all the time.

Like, Matt's been dying for me to pretend like I'm not pregnant when someone asks me when I am due. He wanted me to do it in the last pregnancy, and he still wants me to do it. Just to act really offended and/or confused, and then say, "Oh, I'm not pregnant."

It would also be kind of fun to pull the "I'm in labor" trick on someone when I'm actually not, but then you have the whole "boy who cried wolf" thing, and that wouldn't be cool.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it WOULD be funny to pretend that my water broke. It would have to be the perfect situation (Thanksgiving Dinner maybe?), but it would be awesome...

Anyway, this reminds me of one prank I did pull on Matt last pregnancy. As you all know, I am a fan of epidurals. As you may also know, my pain tolerance is low (EXCEPT WITH THE NERVE PAIN - I'M TELLING YOU THAT'S REAL), my drama level is high, and natural labor has never been a thought for me. (I'm also thankful for the freedom to get an epidural.) So sometime in the last few weeks of my last pregnancy, I decided to play a trick on Matt, and our conversation went something like this.

Leah: Hey babe, I've been praying about it, and I think that I want to go natural in childbirth.
Matt: Really? (Like, with a half smile, trying to figure out if I am joking or not?)
Leah: (Continue in serious tone) Yeah, you know, I've been thinking, if I ever have to suffer physically for the gospel, natural labor would be really good training for that. Also, God made our bodies to be able to handle this pain, so I think he just wants me to endure that.
Matt: (Face turns serious and he secretly wonders whether he or anyone else can make it out of the delivery room alive with me not on medication) "Okay. Wow."
Leah: (Can't take it any longer.) JUST KIDDING!
Both of us: laugh! hahahahaha (And he probably called me a butthead or something of the sort.)

So there you have it day 11. Thankful for humor, awkwardness, pranks, and the freedom to get an epidural!

Thankful: Day 10 [Peppermint Ice Cream]

2011-11-10T05:13:00.002-06:00

I am thankful for Blue Bell Peppermint Ice Cream. Need I say more?

I guess to save this from being a cop-out post, I will list some more food stuff I am thankful for.

I am thankful that yesterday's Groupon was for "Branch Ranch Natural" meats. I just recently watched "Food, Inc." and I am not sure my life will ever be the same - at least as far as meat is concerned. Trust me, I watched "Supersize Me" in college, and it doesn't even compare to "Food, Inc." I won't lecture you, and I'm going to try not to become a total fanatic (because our grocery bill might quadruple if I did- and I'd have to give up Blue Bell Peppermint Ice Cream), but I will say I was super excited about that Groupon!

Other food I am thankful for?

Soups that I can cook on Monday and then eat all week with leftovers to freeze so that I don't have to cook next week either.

Breads/Muffins that I can bake on Monday and then eat all week so I don't have to prepare breakfast in advance for Henry or for me. Plus, I can sneak healthy stuff into them without anyone knowing.

Creme Brulee. (My dessert of choice at my surprise baby "shower" on Monday.)

Pizza. I mean, isn't it just so good? And I have a new-found appreciation since it is a meal in itself, even without any meat. The next pizza joint Matt and I are going to try is Promise Pizza, which uses all organic ingredients. I've heard it's good, and we have a coupon, which you need if you are going to be eating organic pizza. Bonus.

TACO DELI!!! I LOVE myself some Taco Deli. It is so dang good. And I recently found out that they use organic eggs. Very important, obviously. JK. No, but it's just an added bonus. Matt and I started a tradition during our first year of marriage where we go get breakfast tacos almost every Saturday. We used to go to Rudy's, which is still good, which we still frequent. But we were introduced to Taco Deli, and it is now the favorite. I like the migas tacos. And, oh my, they have the best salsa! It's so dang good. Taco Deli is located right by the hospital where I am going to deliver baby #2, and you better bet that (in addition to the breakfast I will order from the hospital) Taco Deli will be my first postpartum breakfast.

Wow. To think I was going to cut off this post after the second sentence. I had fun just writing about all the foods I am thankful for.

Thankful: Day 9 [One Month Till Due Date]

2011-11-09T08:46:00.060-06:00

I am thankful that today is November 9th. My due date is December 9th. Until about last week, I was pretty darn comfortable. Then all of the sudden last week, I started waking up in the middle of the night, swelling, getting terrible sciatic pain like all the time, etc.

I finally feel pregnant and ready to meet this no-named bundle of joy that's been growing inside me for the last 8 months.

Here's to one month with a whole lot of stuff to do!

Thankful: Day 8 [Sneaky Surprises]

2011-11-08T06:26:00.001-06:00

You may remember that I don't particularly love baby showers. Of course, I've had to get over that in the last 3-5 years because lots of people around me are making babies. I've gotten pretty good at GOING to baby showers, even HOSTING them. But, I won't lie and say that I was sort of relieved when we found out baby #2 was a boy because that meant that a baby shower was pretty much entirely optional and/or not going to happen at all. (Don't ask me why... I think I just don't like being the center of attention in those particular situations.)

Except it turns out that I have a few sneaky friends who love to celebrate things, even against my "no baby shower" will. You may remember Sally - who I would easily describe as both sneaky and celebratory. (She is pregnant with her 3rd girl, by the way, and we are due about 3 weeks apart, which is almost the same exact timing between Henry and Lucy- Sally's 2nd. Oh yeah she has a blog.) I think I can pretty much blame Sally for what went down last night...

I showed up at what was supposed to be a low key girl's night (with 4 other girls) to celebrate baby #2 and much to my surprise, there are 12 other girls there! Sneaky stinkers! Fortunately, it was still low key, but you know, they gave me gifts and stuff... stuff I totally don't deserve when I stiff-arm baby showers like nobody's business.

In case you were wondering, my nose immediately started sweating. My nose sweats when I feel nervous, surprised, insecure, embarrassed, etc. I can't hide it. However, in spite of the nose sweat, I still felt so very loved, and am so, so thankful for sweet, thoughtful friends who ignore my baby shower anxiety disorder (that's what I'm calling it for now).

And I guess as long as I am friends w/ Sally, I can't expect to get away without celebrating ALL of my babies! (I never blogged about it, but she and some other friends did this last time too.)

Thankful: Day 7 [New Mercy]

2011-11-07T07:15:00.002-06:00

I wrote the following yesterday...

---------------

Title: Ever just want to start the day over?

I interrupt my thankfulness series to share with you some lovely things about today. Matt will vouch for me - I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I do not want to be bothered. It's mornings and days like these that I am SO easily bothered though - you know by just about everything. Such as...

I woke up to find that the bones in my feet had disappeared. Aka - Swollen. This will probably (hopefully) get better, and has a lot to do with the fact that I ate a salty meal last night and didn't drink enough water yesterday. Silver lining: swelling = I'm getting close to the end. However, I wanted to puke every time I looked at my feet today.

Next, I get home from church to find out that my maternity jeans have a humongous hole in the crotch. I have no idea how long it's been there, but I work in the nursery at church, and I was definitely crawling all over the floor with babies, sitting "Indian style" (sorry, I know that's not PC), ALL morning long. Nothing to make you feel better about 30 extra pounds than a hole in your crotch, huh?

Speaking of the church nursery. I was in the baby room today, and we had SOOOOOO many babies. And since babies don't know anything about daylight savings time or extra hours of sleep, those babies were TIRED. And fussy. And I did not have the baby touch this morning (aka they didn't stop crying). And isn't it amazing that you can be holding something as sweet and adorable as a baby, but still have like ZERO patience when they just don't cooperate with you? Don't get me wrong, I love those babies, but I was ready for church to be OVER this morning!

On top of this, I am bratty. There are people God puts in my life that I feel like are a joy to love and serve - that I am excited to love and serve. Then there are the people God puts in my life that are a pain in the butt to love and serve (just being honest)- you know, the ones that you just wish would go away, but God made them be your next door neighbor. (And no, I am not specifically referring to my next door neighbor, or to anyone who would be reading this blog post...) So yeah, I am no better than Jonah - and I have lots of Ninevahs.

It just spirals out of control from here... I don't want to hear Henry cry so I let him play with Matt's ipad for waaaaaay too long. I get sciatic pain from pregnancy and I think I'm justified to spit out a cuss word in front of my 20 month old who, by the way, tries to repeat everything. I want a cinnamon roll, and I end up eating one that has 770 calories in it. (But of course I didn't look up the calories till after I finished it... you know, so I could dwell on it.) Then when Matt gives me a look that says, "You need a new attitude like now," I look at him and basically explode with, "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME HOW TO ACT! WHY DON'T YOU TRY BEING PREGNANT!?" Real attractive.

I know you guys think I'm perfect, and so this probably comes as a big surprise to you. Whatever. This is just honest, and probably funny to some of you who know me better than others. The point is that these are the days when I just want to start over. These are the days when I know that I am a sinner, but I just wish that I wasn't because sometimes it just sucks to feel like a loser.

-------------------

So today I am thankful for this:

But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
   his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23)

I suppose it's days like those that God makes it so abundantly clear that I will never ever not be in need of Him. And the reason it's so great to have new mercy this morning is NOT that I have a clean slate so that I can try harder and be better today. It's not about me getting another chance, but about Him being faithful to keep His promises (in spite of me), day in and day out. That way I know that when God shows up and does something cool in my life, it's not because of me.

Thankful: Day 6 [Jesus Better than Santa]

2011-11-06T07:35:00.082-06:00

I went out and got Henry the "Christmas Classics" DVD with the old school movies such as Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, etc. I mainly did it because Henry is starting to get really excited about snowmen (poor guy was born in the wrong city), and he made me sing "Frosty the Snowman" like 100 times in a row the other day.

So, naturally, the first classic we watched was Frosty. You probably don't remember, but Frosty has a magic hat, and long story short, there's an evil magician who tries to melt Frosty because he wants that magic hat. But SANTA intervenes. He saves Frosty from the magician by telling the magician that if he hurts Frosty, then Santa will never bring him any presents again. AND, if he wanted to get any gifts on Christmas morning (which was the next day in the story), then he better go home and write, "I'm sorry for what I did to Frosty" 100 times.

In other words, if you are naughty, pay back your debt by feeling and proving that you are sorry, and then Santa will reward you with Christmas gifts.

How thankful I am that God doesn't work that way!

Ya see, I was on the naughty list with no way of getting to the nice list. Jesus was on the nice list, but he chose to erase my name from the naughty list and put his name where mine was. Then he wrote my name on the nice list where his was. Now I get all the benefits of being on the nice list. Talk about a great Christmas gift!

We have a debt to God we could never pay back, so He sent his Son to pay it for us! Even if we tried to pay our debt by feeling sorry enough for hurting Him, we would always fall short - our best efforts are always, always, always completely lacking, completely incomplete. Only God could completely pay our debt. He did, and now we get the benefits of being children of God!

Thank goodness that the way we get good with God is NOT by any of our own doing, but by trusting that Jesus became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So today I'm thankful that Jesus is way better than Santa Clause. And, no, I'm not a Santa hater.

Thankful: Day 5 [Saturdays]

2011-11-05T10:01:00.006-05:00

Today I'm thankful that it's Saturday. I'm also thankful for Saturdays in general. By the time Friday rolls around, I am so, so, sooooo ready to have Matt at home. I love Saturdays.

Thankful: Day 4 [Uneventful Annual Checkup]

2011-11-04T06:15:00.002-05:00

This thankfulness series is ambitious, I can say that much.

I am thankful that Henry's annual surgery follow up went so well yesterday! We saw Henry's surgeon, an ENT doctor, an audiologist, and a speech therapist (I think that's what she was?). They are basically making sure his development, hearing, etc. is all on track. I guess if it wasn't on track, that might be a sign of pressure in his head or something? Not really sure. But anyway, we "passed" all the exams, and we don't have to go back for another year so that's nice.

Plus, bonus. Henry saw his ophthalmologist last week, and she and the surgeon have decided that we can space out his semi-annual check ups... now he only has to go to the ophthalmologist once a year. Yippee! The ophthalmologist also looks for pressure in the brain via the eyes with some pretty amazing equipment. Henry's eyes look great.

We also briefly met a couple in the waiting area today whose little 6 month old girl was meeting with the surgeon for her two month follow up of the same exact surgery. I was sort of bummed that I didn't get to talk to them longer because, as you'd expect, we NEVER meet other kids who have experienced the same thing. It was so fun to see that zig-zag scar on someone else... not that I wanted her to have the scar, but you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, enough is enough. Thank you, Lord, that this appointment was uneventful.

Thankful: Day 3 [Big Boy Bed]

2011-11-03T07:15:00.025-05:00

I like this series because I literally spent the whole day today thinking of things and trying to think of things that I am thankful for... so that's good.

I've thought of quite a few, but for today, I am going to say that I am thankful that Henry has officially switched to a big boy bed. And, to add onto that, I am thankful that it doesn't so much seem like he realizes that he can get out of it by himself.

And, even though initially I don't feel particularly thankful that we have to re-endure him crying before he falls asleep (you all may remember I don't handle that well), I am going to choose to be thankful for it. At least he has vocal chords that work, he loves us and misses us, he understands transition, he's growing up! And, I'm sure enduring those tears does something else good in me, Matt, and Henry - though I can't say exactly what that is. :)

Here's a picture of his unfinished big boy room. We just need to hang a few pictures on the wall and he will be set!

P.S. Today we are going to the annual follow up appointment for Henry's craniosynostosis. FOUR HOURS LONG! I will be sure to post an update. :)

Thankful to Whom?

2011-11-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

I'm like 50% sure that title is supposed to read "Whom" and not "Who." So clearly that's not very sure, but I'm not willing to look it up right now.

Figured I should just go ahead and clarify that when I am saying that I am thankful, I am not thankful to the Universe, or to chance, or to something ambiguous like that.

So when I say I am thankful, I am thankful to God, the Creator of all things, the Giver of life and breath and EVERYTHING. The Bible says that every gift is from Him. And for those that love God, even suffering is a gift because He's working all things together for good. It's great... there's no limit to what I can be thankful about... something as small as Halloween candy, or a good parking spot, or something big like salvation or even suffering of any and every kind.

I think God probably likes it when we acknowledge Him in all of these things. :) Thanks for letting me clarify.

Thankful: Day 2 [Halloween Candy]

2011-11-02T06:00:00.004-05:00

Today I am thankful for HALLOWEEN CANDY! I have a major sweet tooth. Everyone who knows me knows that.

On Mon night, we walked to a block party down the street because we had gotten an invitation on our door, and since we've been trying to meet some of our neighbors it seemed like a good idea. The plan was to trick-or-treat after mingling for a while, but we ended up having such a good time that we never ended up trick-or-treating. AND (bonus) we met some neighbors who have a little boy just about one month older than Henry.

So, before it was time to leave, I realized that I was probably not going to be stealing a lot of trick-or-treat candy from Henry, which is the whole reason I wanted him to go anyway.

You can decide if this was appropriate or not - probably not - but right before we left the party, I took about two handfuls of candy from the bowl that the hosts (our new, previously mentioned friends w/ little boy) had out in their yard for the kids. And, you should remember that I have man hands- I can take a lot in a handful.

So maybe instead of being thankful for the Halloween candy, I should be thankful for my man hands. :) Or maybe I should be thankful for some new friends? Eh, I'll keep it simple and stick with Halloween candy.

True Story: Yesterday, in an attempt to save myself from myself, I knotted up all of the leftover Halloween candy that we didn't pass out in a plastic grocery sack, and placed it at the very top of the pantry, hoping to forget about it. Then, 20 minutes later, I returned to the bag, tore it open, and continued eating candy.

Another true story: I had been saving a mini-pack of grape Nerds to eat after dinner last night. When I finished dinner and went to look for them they were gone. MY HUSBAND - the guy who NEVER eats candy or sweets - had snatched them! I may or may not have called him a bad word... joking of course. Sort of.

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 1 [Everyday Gospel]

2011-11-01T06:00:00.003-05:00

Since it is officially the month of Thanksgiving, and since I would like to be intentional about giving thanks in all circumstances, I figured it would be fitting to do a 30 day thankfulness series for each day of November.

So, today, I am thankful for... an everyday gospel.

What do I mean by that? Usually, when you hear the word "gospel," if you have grown up in church, you think "way to go to Heaven when you die." We cheapen the gospel to this: God is holy, man sinned, God sent Jesus to die and be raised for sins, and if you believe that, you go to Heaven.

So sure, the gospel is not less than that, but if that was ALL of it, then it's no wonder there are so many who call themselves Christians who have no joy, no power, no peace, no fruit in their daily lives. There's a big disconnect between today and eternity if the gospel is just the way to go to Heaven. And, if that is ALL of it, then no wonder unbelievers mock those who preach that there is nothing more to it.

The actual "good news" of the gospel is that right now, I am reconciled to God because of what Jesus did for me. Today, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Today, I am set free from sin, from anxiety, from fear, from slavery to this world. Right now, because of the gospel, my heart is set free to live for the God who is worthy of my life. Heaven is an extension of the work that the gospel has accomplished today.

Ultimately, the gospel is about how Jesus made it possible to be near to God. Heaven is heavenly because God is there. But God is also here, today, and we can have confidence to approach him if we have trusted Jesus who became sin on our behalf and gave us his righteousness, so when God looks at us, he sees his perfect and beloved Son.

That's what I mean by an everyday gospel, and that is what I am thankful for today. :)

gluten free

2011-10-29T00:59:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Matt and I went to Galaxy Cafe w/ some friends. We got there late, our friends had already ordered, and so Matt was sweet to offer to stand in line by himself to order, while I went back to the table to socialize.

I told Matt I wanted the Gluten Free Veggie Wrap. Seems easy enough, since they specifically had a gluten free menu. The gluten free wrap is made w/ a rice tortilla, whereas the other, normal veggie wrap is made w/ your choice of flour, corn, or wheat tortilla.

Matt ordered the wrap exactly as it read from the menu, but the girl taking his order confused him. She said, "So do you want the rice tortilla?" Obviously he wasn't prepared for this question, so he responded, "As opposed to what?" At which time she mentioned the flour, corn, and wheat tortillas as viable options, even though he had specifically ordered the gluten-free wrap. Matt apparently didn't know what actually qualified the veggie wrap to be gluten-free - the rice tortilla.

So obviously he thought a flour tortilla sounded best, and somehow managed to get away with ordering a gluten-free veggie wrap with a flour tortilla. Ooops. I thought it was funny enough to share. And Matt now knows where gluten is found.

And come on Galaxy Cafe! If someone orders a gluten free veggie wrap, please don't offer up a flour or wheat tortilla., for cryin' out loud. :)

20 Months!

2011-10-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

Henry is 20 months today. I cannot believe my baby is SO big and old! My mom's group through church had a little Halloween party yesterday, and Henry got to sport his costume. (Pictures below.) The party was in the morning, and there was a breeze, so he wasn't too hot. We are getting a cold front at the end of this week, so it should be the perfect temperature next Monday on Halloween!

He has a new obsession with penguins - made for an easy costume choice.


Mom, what is going on?

We love you, sweet Henry! You are going to be a GREAT big brother!

uh oh, getting weepy

2011-10-25T05:20:00.003-05:00

I would apologize that all of my posts are about pregnancy, but I wouldn't really be sorry, so that would be a dumb thing to do. The short of it is that this is the easiest thing to talk to you about right now, and if I didn't write about easy things, then I probably wouldn't write enough to justify having a blog. Glad you understand.

Anyway, I went out this weekend and bought these. I almost started crying when I picked them up at the store. Then I almost started crying when I showed them to Matt. Clearly, the hormones are kicking in. I got weepy at the end of my last pregnancy. I should just be thankful that I haven't been weepy the whole time.

bling bling

2011-10-24T06:07:00.001-05:00

Last pregnancy when my fingers started to swell toward the end, and I could no longer go all day wearing my wedding ring, I went out and bought a cubic zirconia ring in a larger size. (You know, so I wouldn't feel like a teen mom - not that it would matter, but anyway.)

Well, we are back to that point in this pregnancy, but the thing is that the ring is so obviously fake that it's embarrassing. So I end up telling people (random strangers) that it's fake anyway. It's actually serving the opposite purpose for which I originally bought it because instead of not feeling like a teen mom, I feel like a teen mom who's trying really hard (or maybe not hard enough) to look married and/or engaged.

Since my camera isn't so great, this picture really doesn't do it justice, but for your viewing pleasure...

For the record, I know that I have man hands.

One, the "stone" is like kind of big - maybe equal to what a 2-3 karat diamond would look like. Two, it's "gold" but the "gold" obviously leaves a green ring around my finger. (And does anyone else besides me remember that Saved By the Bell episode where the class rings did that to them?) Three, just trust me, if you saw it in person you'd laugh.

ma'am, we're thinking about getting rid of our sprouts

2011-10-23T21:50:00.001-05:00

I promised you in my A-Z post a sprouts story. So, here it is...

Sometime in the last 10 months or so (probably before Henry was walking), Matt, Henry and I took a trip to Jason's Deli. After we ordered, our hands were completely full with Henry, diaper bag, wallet, receipts, the little order number thing you are supposed to put on your table, drink cups, etc... It was at this time that the guy who took our order handed us a piece of paper and asked us if we could please fill out a survey. Since, like I said, our hands were obviously very full and we were trying to put our money back in the wallet, and just get out of the way and get to our table, I asked the guy if the survey was mandatory. Or, more accurately, I said, "Do we have to?"

He then, sounding very offended and authoritative said, "Ma'am! We are thinking about getting rid of our sprouts!" I wish I could do it justice by repeating it for you so you could understand his tone of voice. (Anyway, this was obviously a very important decision that I needed to be a part of via survey.)

At that point I wanted to say, "Seriously, dude, I could care less what you do with your sprouts." Instead, practical Matt asked him if we could fill out the survey at the table (you know, after we had put all of our armfuls of junk down), and he said that was fine.

explanation and other updates that I know you're concerned about

2011-10-22T13:06:00.001-05:00

Two posts in one day. It's like the more I talk to you, the more I have to talk to you.

So I told Matt about how in my A-Z post, I said I played the harp and that my job title was priest. He asked me why, and after I told him, he told me that you guys would just think I was weird. So I will explain myself here.

First of all, I don't play any instruments - so that's a boring answer. My thought process when I wrote "harp" was that maybe in Heaven I will get to play an instrument. Clearly, the harp is the instrument I will play in Heaven. Okay, you are probably thinking I am even weirder now. Whatever. I thought it was funnier without the explanation.

Next. Priest. This is very simple. Revelation 1:5-6 (ESV) says that "[Jesus] loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom [of] priests to his God and Father..." So, my job description is priest, although I should not have capitalized it. The weird goes on.

Also, in case you were wondering, I definitely do plenty of laundry. If I go one day without doing laundry, I feel like I am falling behind. Since I wear the same clothes almost every day bc of maternity, especially pants and jeans, I kind of have to do a lot of laundry. (This makes me feel justified about obsessively changing underwear. I just assume that I'll have to do laundry anyway.) This probably makes no sense, but oh well.

I have some updates for you. One, I caved and ended up BUYING Henry's Halloween costume. It's definitely going to be warm. I might have to poke holes in it. Who was I kidding about making his costume?

That being said, I have (annoyingly) jumped on the pinterest bandwagon (everybody's doing it), and I actually have a few DIY projects that I HOPE to have time to make before Henry's brother comes.

We might have a name. I know I've said that before, but I'm feeling more confident this time.

Henry is going to be switching to a big boy bed REALLY SOON, like potentially tonight if we aren't too lazy. I'm not certain how in the world this is going to work, but I will update you.

copycat

2011-10-22T08:17:00.001-05:00

I starred this A-Z post a long time ago by my friend/sorority sister, Amanda, who is hilarious and awesome (you're welcome :)). I knew that it would make for an easy post one day, and since I currently feel as if I could post on about 30 different topics (and am having trouble making any sort of decision), I figured now was the time to steal the idea.

A. Age: 27

B. Bed size: King. A purchase that I felt was necessary during my first pregnancy. May not have happened if I had known that my back pain was due to AN ELLIPTICAL MACHINE, not pregnancy or my old and awesome queen sized mattress.

C. Chore that you hate: All of them? Mainly ironing and cleaning our dark laminate floor.

D. Dogs: Do you know my husband?

E. Essential start to your day: It used to be Bible and coffee. Now I just roll out of bed when Henry wakes up (or, like this morning, I wake up at 5 because I can't sleep, and instead of doing something valuable, I write and read blog posts).

F. Favorite color: don't have one.

G. Gold or Silver: Gold, obviously.

H. Height: 5'8

I. Instruments you play: the harp.

J. Job title: Priest.

K. Kids: Henry (almost 20 months) and NO NAME BOY (negative seven weeks).

L. Live: Live music capital of the world. Fitting, since I love live music so much.

M. Mother’s name: Mom. Her friends call her Becky. Her grandkids call her Honey.

N. Nicknames: From my mom: Leebers, Leebs the Creebs, Weenie Head (yes, she called me that as a child). From my friends: Slim, Lillian, Lily

O. Overnight hospital stays: after I gave birth to Henry, and then staying w/ Henry in the hospital after his surgery. I don't think the stomach virus of 2011 can be considered an overnight hospital stay.

P. Pet peeves: when Matt tries to read my blog posts before I am finished with them. oh, and bad drivers. (Note: I am a bad driver.)

Q. Quote from a movie: “Your mom goes to college!" - Napolean Dynamite. Sorry, that was just the first quote to come to my head. No lie.

R. Right or left handed: Right. The best.

S. Siblings: 1 older sister, 1 younger brother, 4 sister in laws, 5 brother in laws.

U. Underwear: Not sure what this question is asking, but I'll give you a little TMI (ooh la la). I go through about four pairs a day, and that's without working out. I have an obsessive compulsive thing about feeling like my underwear is clean. Also, if you want more TMI concerning this topic, feel free to read about my bra shopping experience.

V. Vegetable you hate: sprouts. Which reminds me, I have a story. I will post it soon.

W. What makes you run late: I hate being late. However, if I am running late, I can blame it on last minute diaper changes and or having to gather Henry's essentials before leaving the house (ie sippy cup, diaper bag, shoes, snack)... also if I can't find a parking spot.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: teeth, and I think I had one in high school, but I don't remember what it was for...

Y. Yummy food that you make: My mother in law's homemade pizza

Z. Zoo animal: Umm I don't have a favorite, but the last time I went (Houston Zoo) I liked the kangaroos. I also saw the pandas at the Washington DC zoo a couple of years ago (they aren't there anymore), and they were pretty awesome. And lions are fabulous too.

non-maternity maternity clothing and 33 weeks!

2011-10-21T07:57:00.000-05:00

With the ushering in of the cooler weather this week, I've had to make a bit of a wardrobe change... What I've conveniently discovered is that I have about four non-matertnity cardigans that actually fit my maternity body. All of them were purchased in the last year or so, between having Henry and getting pregnant again.

So, should I a) be happy that I have stuff to wear in this weather, b) be unhappy that the type of clothes I was purchasing one year post baby were suitable for an 8.5 month pregnant belly, c) get over myself?

Clearly, C is the answer. Admittedly, A would be a good response. Not shockingly, B was my initial reaction.

Since I did not post a 28 week or a 32 week pic, I figured why not post a 33 week pic? I literally took this 20 minutes ago, after having been up since 5:45am. My laziness beat my vanity today, because what I want to do is blur out my face, but that would take too much effort. The truth is that this is probably how I look about 90% of the time (minus the un-brushed bedhead and tank top). So be proud, I'm getting over myself - or at least pretending.

I did some comparing, and my belly definitely looks bigger this time around than last time. I don't have a good, post-able picture for comparison, but during the last pregnancy, I looked about that pregnant when I was 36 weeks, so that is lovely. (In my defense, I'm pretty sure Henry was a lot lower, and this baby is hanging out up top.) The good news is, assuming I don't gain more weight than I should over the next 7 weeks, I will end up weighing the exact same at the end of pregnancy #2 as I did pregnancy #1... even though I have worked out probably 1/2 as much or less. The bad news is, after Henry was born, Matt lost a perma 10 pounds, and I will be passing him in that dept. shortly. (Something I was very happy did not happen last time.)

Happy Friday!

it's still hot

2011-10-13T02:06:00.002-05:00

I never stop sweating.

I turned the AC down just two measly degrees lower than we normally keep it tonight, and Matt was seriously concerned that we were all going to freeze to death. (Which, by the way, it was NOT that low.) I then informed him that I sweat in my sleep every single night. Have some mercy on the pregnant lady for crying out loud! He's more concerned that our sweet child is going to be cold.

Back in July, when I told people that the baby was due in December, they'd say, "At least you don't have to be huge in the heat of the summer..."

It's officially mid-October, I am ALMOST 32 weeks into this pregnancy, and I am pretty sure the high has been in the 90s at least twice this week. Am I glad it's not 112? Absolutely, but it's not exactly cool outside.

This also poses a problem for Halloween Costumes. Most retailers probably assume that on October 31st it will be cold outside. So if you do a quick search for toddler and baby costumes, 95% of them are "plush" or made of fleece, or of some material that would make a Texas toddler sweat like a maniac... which Henry does anyway when he's wearing cotton.

So, get excited, I MIGHT ACTUALLY MAKE HENRY'S HALLOWEEN COSTUME. And, for once, I have successfully decided what he is going to be. Until about 10 minutes ago, I had not decided. I suppose this is the week for decision making. Maybe a name for #2 will also be decided upon before the week's end... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

You might be wondering why in the world I am up at 2 AM. This is where confession comes in. After my post about stopping caffeine, I fell off the wagon (is that the correct terminology), and made a very poor decision to get a cup of coffee at 4:30 PM today. So, even though I am exhausted, I am awake. I'm about to crash though, so I gotta get outta here. Peace.

gastrointestinal issues

2011-10-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

Since I know you're all dying to know about my GI.

No but really, let me start by saying this. When my stomach growls, it's all on the left side of my abdomen. I've concluded that the baby is on the right side, and my stomach has somehow been pushed to the left side of my belly. It is so weird.

Next. I've had some stomach issues this pregnancy. In addition to the virus heard 'round the world, my stomach has not been able to handle anything too fatty or greasy. When we were at the beach in August, I woke up in a cold sweat (actually it was more like a hot sweat) with a yucky stomach "bug" that was probably just my body's way of telling me that fried shrimp wasn't the best choice for dinner. Sunday night it happened again after eating some fatty, greasy, cheesy Italian Fare. I've never had problems like this before; my body tends to embrace fatty goodness. I guess I should be thankful that this has been a nice, easy way to regulate my diet.

I'll spare you the details, but I have also had some general digestion problems over the last two to three weeks, and after cutting 1- caffeine and 2- artificial sweetener out of my diet, the GI issues are all resolved! I find that simply amazing, but that's probably because behind this cool cover up, I am a little bit of a science and anatomy nerd at heart. I totally chose the wrong degree.

Oh, and you read that right, no coffee or diet coke in this diet anymore - for now. (And let me defend myself by saying that my doctor approves of less than 300 mg of caffeine a day during pregnancy, or about two caffeinated beverages a day. Sure, maybe I overdosed a handful of times, but mostly I was in the range. ;) )

TTYL, Alligator.

not to us, not to us...

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!" Psalm 115:1

That is perhaps one of my most favorite verses in the entire Bible! It's so easy to make our lives about being a certain type of person. We long to be great and to do great things.

But there is nothing more freeing than losing my desire to be great and living to exalt the one God who actually is GREAT. Only then, when we are nothing and Jesus is everything, will we ever be able to truly do anything "great." And all glory will be His.

hiatus much?

2011-10-09T23:35:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to lie, I've tried several times to post over the past week but to no avail. It's difficult to decide just what to post after not posting for such a long time... though that's clearly not the only decision I've had difficulty making recently (see below).

I suppose I owe it to you all to explain what in the world I've been doing.

First, I took a girls' trip to L.A. with my two best friend's from high school.

Here we are outside the Chinese Theater.

Santa Monica Pier


Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills - Owned by a "Real Housewife"

We've been enjoying the last two days where we got to watch this stuff called "RAIN" fall out of the sky. We felt like modern day Noahs. Henry for sure felt like Noah, since we realized that he probably has not seen rain since he can consciously remember. Needless to say, we were soo soo thankful that God gave us some real rainfall this weekend!


He was totally fascinated.

We have also been watching some college football (and by "we" I mean Matt). I was so excited for Henry to get to sport this shirt my cousin gave him for his birthday!

It says "genetically confused. So cute, huh?

Today, we realized that we officially have TWO MONTHS till Baby #2 is due to enter the world. I like the way Matt put it, "You only have two more months of this [pointing to belly, referring to pregnancy], then you get a break for awhile." Ha ha. Gee thanks. With that said. Here is a list of the things we have NOT been doing.

1. Choosing a name.
2. Decorating a room.
3. Nesting in any form or fashion.
4. Exercising. (Matt has been, Leah has not. Just thought I'd throw that in there.)

Although, I FINALLY think I decided on what to do with the rooms tonight, and so Matt will get to work on that next weekend. After we made our game plan, I sternly told him, "DO NOT LET ME CHANGE MY MIND."

You see, I have suffered from a complete inability to make up my mind regarding almost everything during this pregnancy. It's not unlikely that we will be taking our name list (which currently has about 5 or 6 names) to the hospital.

More posts to come soon. Love!

Some September Pictures

2011-09-27T21:24:00.001-05:00

Henry turned 19 months yesterday! Here are a few iphone pics from the last month. :)

Aren't these just the sweetest cousins ever! This is Henry and Benny in the hospital room when we went to see my new NIECE!

Matt and his brother, Mitchell, took Henry to play frisbee golf two Saturdays in a row!

He's so proud of this big stick he found!

This was a couple of minutes after he had fallen out of his stroller and hit his head. Apparently it made him feel better for Matt to pour water all over his head.

Sad, but this isn't the iphone camera... this is my camera. Henry's building towers with his blocks... one of his new most favorite things to do.

Wanted: Dream Interpreter Please

2011-09-25T22:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, I am starting to wonder if there is something wrong with me. You may remember that I had some strange dreams during my first pregnancy, but most of them were either recurring dreams that I had always had OR they were about the baby. Well, since I have been pregnant with baby boy Gibson #2, I have had a whole new recurring dream, which I never had before. I have had it THREE times now, and so I'm really starting to wonder what's going on subconsciously that's making me dream these dreams... or nightmares. (And, for the record, I have not had ONE dream about the baby this time, whereas last time I think I had three... so that's a little weird too.)

First Dream. I am riding in the car with my father-in-law (yes, just the two of us - weird) down a winding road, and there is a tornado VERY close by. In this particular dream, my father-in-law acts cool, calm and collected... he is very confident that we won't get sucked up by the tornado... and we don't. We safely drive RIGHT BY it, which was freaky, but we make it out safely.

Second Dream. This time, Matt is driving, and I am in the front seat, and Henry is in his car seat. All of the sudden, there are several tornadoes very close to our car. We are driving along, and I think we are going to make it, when all of a sudden, we start to spin. At first, I get mad at Matt because I thought he drove straight into the tornado, but then we realize that the tornado came straight out of the sky and sucked us up. In this particular dream, we were 100% confident that the three of us would definitely be separated and very likely all die, so I was actually telling Henry that I would see him in Heaven and saying goodbye to both of them forever... at which I woke up with a serious stomach ache that turned out to be a gross virus. (I originally thought I was just sick because of the dream.)

Third Dream. Last night. This time, we were at my in-law's house (theme here?), and for some reason we all decided to leave the house. Matt, Henry and I left in our car, and we were following my in-laws in their car. As we were following them, we noticed a tornado outside the window... so we decided we needed to pull over at the elementary school parking lot right up the street... so we and Matt's whole family were in the parking lot seeking refuge from the tornado (???)... and while we were there, Matt was selling some parts of his old car to some dude in the parking lot who wanted them... anyway, after a few minutes, we all decided to pile in Matt's parent's car again. Matt's dad was driving, and he had a choice, he could go one way where the tornadoes were clearly still active, or he could turn and go the other way where the sky was perfectly clear and sunny. For some reason, he started driving towards the tornadoes, but NO ONE IN THE CAR SEEMED TO CARE EXCEPT FOR ME. So I was yelling, "MARK (that's my FIL's name), WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" And he just shrugged his shoulders, hardly acknowledging me at all. Meanwhile, Matt and his mom were both "sssshhhing" me because I guess by questioning my FIL's decision to drive straight into a tornado, I was being disrespectful. As we drove closer to the tornado, we passed several houses that had been destroyed by the tornado. Since no one was listening to me and I wasn't allowed to openly question his decision to drive into the tornadoes, I decided to send Matt a text message that said, "Where is your dad GOING?" Apparently, Mark was headed to HEB, where the tornadoes were supposedly the worst. This dream ended at this point (thankfully) when my alarm went off.

So, I mentioned in my last post that my husband is constantly telling me to relax, and maybe you can get a hint of that from these dreams where I have pretty much been panicky in all three. I don't really think of myself as having a lot of anxiety - though I am sure there is much more beneath the surface than I've really discovered. And, admittedly, I have struggled more with anxiety since Henry was born. (Which, to be honest, has been a huge blessing because it's forced me to press into the God of Peace!) Anyway, if any of you are named "Moses" or "Daniel" and you want to tell me what the deal is with these dreams, I'd welcome your interpretations. :)

moms vs. dads

2011-09-24T15:58:00.001-05:00

I have recently been accused of "coddling" Henry... I was accused by the guy in the picture up there at the top, my sweet husband.

I guess, naturally, as a mom, I am a nurturer. And as a dad, Matt is supposed to provide strength and security. It makes sense that he wishes I coddled a little less... and I wish he coddled a little more. :) It's nice to be able to even each other out.

Here are just a few examples. (I realize this post is not going to be "fair" because Matt will not have the opportunity to defend his case, and I will probably defend mind endlessly, but as long as you all know that and know that we respect each other, it's okay. Right?)

The other night, we kept Henry out WAAAAAAY too late, and he was so tired. That's an RX for a meltdown, by the way. So, when we got home, Matt gave him a bath, and he slipped just a tiny bit in the bathtub - didn't hurt himself or anything- but it caused him to start crying like a little baby. So, I of course, hate to hear him cry so I dash into the bathroom, where Henry is clearly looking for comfort. From Matt's perspective, nothing happened. He isn't hurt, so he needs to get over it and stop crying. From my perspective, he is too tired to have the self-control to stop crying, so he needs sweet words of affirmation and a back rub to be better. Sure, if he had started crying for no reason and he wasn't exhausted, I would probably agree that he needed to just get over it, but he was so tired!

Matt, and other guys in general, think it's "fun" to "mess" with little kids... BABIES! They get a sick pleasure out of it - or maybe they think they are making him into a MAN... not sure. So even if it is clearly unpleasant for Henry to be tripped over and over again, or poked in the tummy, or what have you... guys think it's hilarious to keep doing it. Once again, mom ears can't stand baby cry. I can't tell you how many times I've said, "Leave him alone! He doesn't like that!" And somehow it's funny to the dudes.

I try very hard NOT to be overprotective, since really, what happens to Henry is not in my control anyway, but I'm telling you, I feel like I am constantly gritting my teeth because I am afraid he's going to... trip on the concrete and chip his tooth in the process? (Ooops, already did that.) Fall off a chair? (Oh, he fell about 2 feet, face first out of his stroller today - thank goodness I wasn't there.) Poke his eye out? (Almost did that yesterday - he tripped over my foot while holding a thermometer and poked himself in the cheek.) So, even though I spend a decent amount of time feeling anxious that he is going to hurt himself- as if I could really protect him from it- he still hurts himself. Matt, on the other hand, does not seem to have this feeling of angst. As a result, if Matt is supervising Henry, I am constantly saying things like, "Can you go watch him?" "Make sure he doesn't [fill in blank]..." I guess I stress enough for the both of us, which is probably why my blood pressure has been a little on the high side this pregnancy and why Matt is constantly telling me I need to RELAX!

So there are probably at least 100 real life examples that I could share, but here's a short comparison. Mom vs Dad. (This could easily be changed, since I am sure these traits have more to do w/ our personalities than our parental roles, but whatev...)

Mom- Hates to hear baby cry. Dad- Do you hear him crying? Do you have ears?
Mom- Sees every potential danger to child and tries to remove it. Dad- Does not see potential danger, or does not care.
Mom- Baby falls down and hurts himself, so I want to pick him up and hug him. Dad- Baby falls down and hurts himself, so he needs to get up and tough it out.

Okay, that's it for now. For the record, I have noticed that if we tell Henry that he's okay or if we clap for him when he falls down, he gets over it really fast. Whereas if I try to coddle him, he will milk it for all it's worth and cry like 10X longer... so what we actually do is a case by case scenario. I just wanted to share the way each parent naturally bends in this post... THE END.

preggo mom brain

2011-09-19T22:42:00.001-05:00

I've been seriously messed up in the head.

I have been putting things that belong in the pantry in the fridge and vice versa. Example - nonstick cooking spray in the fridge. There was another one, but I can't remember it right now.

More than once at the grocery store (or McDonald's), I have handed the cashier the wrong amount of cash. Example - the total is $54, and I hand the cashier two twenty dollar bills, three five dollar bills, and five one dollar bills. That's $60, if you weren't counting, but I could have just left the five one dollar bills out.

Or last night my total was $30.21, but I handed the cashier $30.50 instead of $30.25. I should just tell the cashier that I wanted to see if they were paying attention, but that wouldn't be true.

Then today I was making an appointment for Henry to get his 18 month shots and his flu shot, and I originally asked for a 3PM appointment. (After changing the day of the appointment twice.) Then, after she had booked the 3:00, I asked to change the appointment for the third time, "Actually can we make it 3:30?" The receptionist replied, "I have a 3:00, but not one at 3:30." To which I replied, "Okay, great. So the appointment is Wednesday at 3:30." Obviously receptionist was probably like, "WHAT IS UP WITH THIS WOMAN!" But I caught myself fast enough and said, "I'm so sorry, I am pregnant, and I have lost my mind. We'll see you on Wednesday at 3:00." At least she laughed.

That's all I got right now.

five mini posts in one big post

2011-09-17T06:40:00.002-05:00

The following five items may not be blog worthy, but ready or not, here they are...

Yesterday at Costco, I literally watched a woman take three cartons of eggs (w/ 18 eggs each) and swap out all of the bad and cracked ones into a single carton... she then returned the carton with the bad eggs back to the shelf and kept the other two cartons with the good eggs. I literally sat there, watched her do it, and then stared at her as she took the eggs back to the shelf. She was not phased. I guess I'm not very intimidating. I was totally appalled.
Last night, Matt and I were on our way to a dinner date, and Matt sarcastically said to another driver (who obviously could not hear him), "Nice lights buddy" because this particular car had not yet turned on his lights. It was about 7:30 pm, definitely dark enough to require headlights. At this point I realized our car felt a little dim and asked Matt, "Do you have your lights on?" Nope, he didn't. Oops. We got a nice laugh out of that.
Another thought - ACL(Austin City Limits) is SO not my thing and never will be. I know, I am not cool. I went ONE time, and I don't know, something about a lot of drunk, smelly people and 100 degree temperatures surrounded by port-a-potties just doesn't appeal to me. I didn't handle it well when I was 24 and not pregnant, so now that I am 27 and officially in my third trimester, I'm pretty sure I'd like it even less. And my friends, who still consider themselves young and cool enough to go to such a festival, know that I hate it and know better than to ever try to bring me along. ;) But more power to you if it's your thing!
The reason I am up right now is because I slept with Henry in the guest bed last night. We have spoiled him recently, letting him sleep in big beds - something he's going to learn have to do on his own pretty soon anyway - but he's got about a 100% chance of falling about three feet to the floor at this point, so I decided I'd share the guest bed with him. When I wake up in the middle of the night and look at Henry, he looks EXACTLY like Matt... so I guess there's not much of a difference which one I sleep with. Except that Henry sleeps diagonally across the bed with his arms spread out, taking up at least three feet of space, and he tries to nestle his head into my armpit while pushing me further and further to the edge of the bed. Matt, on the other hand, knows that cuddling and sleep do not go together in my book, so he lies perfectly still on the edge of the bed and gives me all the room. Thanks babe.
Yesterday I officially reached the THIRD TRIMESTER! I am 28 weeks! YIKES! We tried to take a belly picture, but vain Leah kept me from liking any of the ones we took, so maybe I'll try again today. In the meantime, our kiddo still has no room and no name.

oh, my naive, 19 yr old self!

2011-09-12T19:47:00.001-05:00

So, I'm just now in the beginning stages of nesting as we prepare for number two, which has basically led to the cleaning out of closets. As I have mentioned before, I LOVE throwing things in the trash. I am a minimalist, and I hate extra stuff - especially extra stuff that takes up room in closets, or anywhere.

Anyway. As I was cleaning out my closet, I came upon BOXES full of scrapbooks and scrapbook materials that are waiting to be finished. I have a college scrapbook, a scrapbook from a mission trip I took to Zambia in college, two wedding scrapbooks, and THREE Henry scrapbooks - and all their potential pictures and scraps - taking up way more space in my closet than that of the future finished products.

So to get the satisfaction of throwing all the extras away, I actually have to do some work. But anyway... while I was rummaging through my box of "college scrapbook stuff" as it is labeled, I actually did find ONE finished scrapbook. This is the scrapbook I made for Matt for our one year "dating" anniversary. So that would have been in October of 2003.

It was mostly hilarious and cheesy. But one page stood out, by far, to me. Let me retell the event I was documenting if you don't mind...

When I came home for Easter my freshman year of college, I made the most terrible mistake of asking my best friend, Sarah, to highlight my hair using one of those bleaching caps, where you pull the hair through one strand at a time and bleach it. In my defense, I had a friend at A&M who actually successfully used one of these bleaching cap kits, but she was a natural blonde (I was not).

Also, I remember telling my mom my plans for that night, and that I was going to get Sarah to do that for me, and today I sit and wonder, "MOM, why oh why didn't you stop me?" Anyway...

So, as you'd expect, it was a disaster. And I didn't freak out much at first because it was really late on a Friday night, and I was totally exhausted. But then I woke up on Saturday morning, and I saw the skunk-ish looking mess we had created, and I freaked out a little more, especially since I was going to be going to church the next day on Easter - sure to be seeing people that I hadn't seen since high school. But, I knew that there were professionals out there who were supposed to fix these types of things... unfortunately, I didn't really know that "Tony and Guy" (in the mall) is not like super great at that kind of thing. (Not trying to be snobby - nothing against Tony and Guy- they just aren't the people you go to during a disaster.) Once again, I am not sure why I didn't get my mom to take me by the hand and assist me to a salon that could potentially do it right, but somehow on my own, I ended up at Tony and Guy, and when I left, I was BLONDE... totally blonde. No "highlights" or anything... just blonde. At which point I went totally ballistic because the night before I was very brunette.

I'm not really sure where Matt was in this whole process. I know that I was super disappointed that I had to spend the day on Saturday getting my hair fixed instead of actually hanging out with him, which would have been my first choice since we were dating long distance. I DO, however, remember crying to him and freaking out after leaving Tony and Guy. I also remember going over to his parent's house that night and feeling totally awkward because I had a new hair color and he had very obviously told them not to say anything because no one made a peep about my new blonde. I felt totally self-conscious. Looking back, I should have just embraced the blonde, but I was not so daring at that point in my life. Or now. So anyway, back to the main point...

I don't remember how badly I acted that day about my hair. I do remember that I skipped out on Easter Service- because obviously the way I looked at church was the most important thing on that day. JK. And I remember crying a lot. But nothing TERRIBLE.

So, back to the scrapbook. I had a picture of myself w/ the bleach blonde and then a picture of myself with some at home brunette hair color in my hair (which I applied that Sunday- yes my hair took a beating that weekend). And then I have written on the page a hilarious quote. I wrote, "THIS DAY GOES DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE DAY YOU SAW ME AT MY WORST!"

.......

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh how young and naive I once was! If only the worst my hubs had ever seen me was upset over a hair dilemma! How great that would be...

Now, obviously I was not referring to my worst appearance, but worst behavior. Either way, I am pretty sure after three and a half more years of dating and five and a half years of marriage, that I can come up with at least ten situations where I have been ten times as badly behaved as I was on that day. In fact, I can probably come up with ten situations that have been worse in just the past two years. This post, where I have documented two of them, comes to mind.

Well that took longer than expected. Thanks for letting me share and lasting to the end.

.......

P.S. I feel totally better from the stomach virus, but I am technically still supposed to consider myself contagious. In case you were wondering.

I just like racking up medical bills, that's all.

2011-09-10T22:05:00.001-05:00

Last night I woke up at 3 AM on-the-dot after having a nightmare about getting sucked up by a tornado. When I woke up, I felt nauseous, and I literally thought it was because of the "near-death" experience in my dream.

Then about 15 minutes later, I started to vomit (and the other crap - literally, pardon me) almost every 20 minutes for the next 3 hours. At which point I was just dry-heaving. So at about 5:45 am, I was feeling pretty gross and out of control and dehydrated, and since I have learned that dehydration can onset pre-term labor, I decided to call the after hours number at my doctor.

No idea the on-call doc would tell me to go to Triage at the hospital, but she did. So Matt and I woke up little Henry and off we went. This post is about that lovely experience.

They asked me about 100 questions, as if I was actually in labor... way less exciting when you know that you have 3 months to go. For those of you who have never been in a labor and delivery triage, they ask you everything from "Do you feel safe in your current relationship?" to "Do you live in a house?" to your weight. When she asked me how much I currently weigh, my response was, "Too much." She didn't laugh, so I went ahead and confessed the actual number. Obviously I answered "Yes" to the "Do you feel safe in your current relationship?" question, but what I should have said is, "Yes, but I'm not sure my husband does." Ha jk.

Immediately after a gazillion questions, the nurse left, and I vomited again - don't know how I was able to keep it all down for like an hour while she was interrogating me.

Side note: Since about 3 different people asked what the gender of the child was... and what I had at home, let me just say that people act like they are sad for me when they find out I am having another boy. This kind of disturbs me. Maybe because most people choose to only have two kids, so they think I don't have another chance? I'm not really sure... either way, it's getting old to have to reassure people that I really am EXCITED to be having another boy.

I was really crampy off and on all morning - to the point that I seriously wondered if my cramps were contractions because they were consistent and they only lasted a minute or so at a time... but since they were monitoring my uterus, they were able to tell me that it was just cramps... and the cramps went away after they hydrated me via IV. They also were TRYING to monitor the unnamed baby in my uterus's heartbeat, but he was literally so freakishly active that I had to just take of his heartbeat monitor, bc the sound of him moving was making me have a headache. And I'm sure his movement was not very helpful in my effort to keep from vomiting and "you-know-what-ing."

So they did a few tests to rule out food poisoning and a bladder infection. Get excited, but they had to take a urine sample via CATHETER, and let me tell you, getting a catheter put in (and removed) with no epidural is NOT A GOOD TIME.

Side note: the bed in triage is so uncomfortable that you seriously need an epidural just to sit in it. Seriously, my whole back is sore from that bed this morning.

Also, my IV tube got disconnected at some point, causing blood to literally pour out from my arm all over the bed and my gown. (You're welcome, those of you who love the thought of blood.) The best part of this is that in my right mind, I might have actually put some pressure on my arm to try to stop it, but pregnant Leah just sat there totally helpless with her arm in the air letting it drip all over. Something about having a nurse at your beckon call makes you act totally helpless.

After all the tests they were able to determine that it was most likely a stomach virus, not an infection or food poisoning. Although I am swearing off Mexican Food for at least a week, since that's what I had the night before. So now we're just hoping God has mercy and that Matt and Henry don't get it. Matt is currently disinfecting the whole house.

Clearly, since I am writing this, I am feeling a little better - keeping food down and I pretty much just have a terrible headache. I just thought you guys would love to hear about my lovely "I'm not in labor but I get to go to the hospital" experience.

Okay, all done.

my brain can't think of a title so deal with it.

2011-09-01T23:14:00.000-05:00

Deceptively Delicious FAIL. This morning, I used steamed, pureed cauliflower in a Jessica Seinfeld recipe for peanut butter and banana muffins. Sounds delicious, right? Oh my goodness. They were bearable right out of the oven- Henry had half of one- but I came home this afternoon and after one bite I couldn't have forced myself to finish it if I had wanted to. Matt actually thinks they are good, which only tells me one thing... they must really be healthy. (I must admit that the recipe called for an egg, which I didn't have, so Google told me to use mayo instead. Sick out. I still think it's the cauliflower that makes them disgusting though.) This recipe was neither deceptive or delicious.

How bad would it be? Would it be wrong if I just hid all of the toys that have a gazillion parts - even though Henry LOVES them - so that I don't have to get my pregnant self down on my hands and knees to fish them out from underneath the couch, the table, the bed, etc.? I mean, Henry loves himself some mega blocks, but I seriously find blocks hiding in every corner of the house! If mean mom emerges, she might hide all toys that have removable pieces.

Foot in Mouth. In the 18 month update, I mentioned that I don't really have to chase Henry all day. Maybe that's because until this week, he never actually RAN. Today at Target, he ran away from me, and he ran FAST! Pregnant mommy chasing toddler = laughable.

I am beyond exhausted, so this post is over.

the name of the game this week...

2011-08-31T19:02:00.000-05:00

...is getting rid of all of the groceries that are about to go bad in my pantry and fridge without actually throwing them away. Soooooo, I am steaming a bunch of veggies (to puree and sneak into Henry's spaghetti sauce... oh and I guess I will eat some of them too), making "rice krispie" treats out of cheerios and lucky charms, and giving watermelon to homeless people on the corner.

I went grocery happy at the store last week, forgetting that 1- there are only two adults in my household and 2- those two adults like to eat out. I also made the mistake of buying things that I thought would go well in phantom recipes. In other words, I thought I would use them to cook, but I had no recipes in mind, nor did I try to find any- well I guess I'm doing that now in mass.

I can't tell you how many times since about Tuesday that I have Googled, "What should I do with [insert perishable food items] that are about to go bad." What would we do without Google?

Dinner tonight should be interesting. I have quite the assortment of things just sitting out on the counter that must get cooked or eaten.

Why am I posting this? Good question. Just thought I'd let you into the daily life of the Gibsons.

Just an update: The "chance of rain" that the weatherman predicted last week has totally disappeared, further supporting my theory that it's better just not to look at the forecast. Okay, since I basically burned the marshmallows for the treats, I should probably stop "talking" now.

one year ago today...

2011-08-31T07:34:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe it's been a year since Henry had surgery for his craniosynostosis. At the time, we felt like the surgery was the big trial at hand, but now, we realize that the surgery was a MIRACLE! Without the miracle of that surgery... well, let's just say to think about how Henry's life (and ours too) would have been without the surgery... could bring me to tears if I let it. Jesus was good to us. To God be the glory, for sure.

Here are some pictures from that day in 2010. I still remember how sweet he was in the waiting room, even though we were pushed back hours and hours and he couldn't eat at all. It still makes me sad to think that he had no idea what was coming for him, but now we have the joy of knowing that it was definitely the BEST thing for him.

Side view of sweet head.

He was such a happy baby!

Fell asleep in daddy's arms before the surgery.

Just after surgery, sleeping. I love this little man.

We are glad to be celebrating a whole year later! In case you were wondering, our follow ups for Henry include semi-annual trips to the ophthalmologist to check for pressure on the brain (the first of which was successful), an annual follow up with the surgeon, and then starting when he is three, he will have to have CT scans annually. HOWEVER, I don't quite like the idea of that, so I am praying that there's a way we can space out those scans, or avoid most of them altogether.

Here's a picture of the side of Henry's head from a few days ago. We just got his haircut before this picture. You can only see tiny part of his scar right after he gets a haircut, and in this picture it's difficult to differentiate between what is blonde and what is the scar. The scar is the part closest to his ear - everything else (that stuff above it) is just blonde hair.


It definitely looks like he's having a real conversation in this picture. :)

Thank you all for your love and support throughout that whole event last year. Happy Last Day of August!

10 ways to be miserable and angry

2011-08-30T06:04:00.001-05:00

Surely there are 1000 ways to be angry and miserable, but I just thought I'd give you 10. Enjoy! In no particular order...

1. Take everything personally. Because, after all, people definitely make most of their decisions with you in the forefront of their mind.
2. Try to be perfect. Then, dwell on all of your imperfections because it will definitely make them go away.
3. Expect other people to be perfect. Then, dwell on their faults, especially those of your spouse and family members. Then, try to change them.
4. Don't acknowledge God or do what he wants.
5. Spend a lot of time thinking about all the things you want that you don't have.
6. Compare yourself, your life, and your accomplishments to other people regularly.
7. Dwell on the past and especially on what might have been if only you had _________.
8. Complain as often as you'd like... preferably very often.
9. Carefully guard your time and money, being careful not to volunteer too much or give too much attention to other people's needs.
10. Don't share the gospel. Keep Jesus to yourself.

Hope I gave you the tools you need to be miserable today. :)

Love,
Leah

the weather family

2011-08-28T22:38:00.002-05:00

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that Matt is obsessed with the weather. The Weather Channel app rivals the ESPN and MLB apps on his iphone.

Enter record breaking temperatures and Hurricane Irene... and it now seems we must bend over backwards to find conversation topics that don't revolve around the weather. (On that note, the cable news channels don't seem to be trying AT ALL to find any other news topics besides the hurricane. I guess there's nothing else interesting going on in the world?)

Anyway, I thought it was bad on Saturday morning when Matt woke up and the first thing he said to Henry was, "HENRY, let's see what's happening with the hurricane!" Oh my goodness... that was seriously the first thing on his mind when he woke up? You have to admit, it's kind of cute.

But then I went over to Matt's parents' house today, and it turns out he gets his obsession honestly. I told his family that I wish I had been keeping a tally of how many times they brought up SOMETHING concerning the weather. I kid you not, it was nonstop weather talk. (Not helping was the fact that my sister-in-law had to endure the anticlimactic Irene drama in NYC, so the family must have felt as though they got to be a part of both the heat and the hurricane drama.)

All afternoon, I heard things such as...

"Yesterday was the 2nd hottest day in Austin history."
"It's 108 degrees right now."
"There is currently a 40 degree difference between the temperature in New York and the temperature in Austin right now."
"I heard we were supposed to be getting a break from all this heat sometime in September because there is supposed to be a change in the weather pattern."
"There is rain in the forecast for FOUR DAYS IN A ROW NEXT WEEK." (To which I responded, "I'll believe it when I see it." - oh me of little faith, jk hahaha)

I mean, this wasn't it, people. These were just a few of the things I started to note once I realized JUST HOW MUCH they were talking about the weather. And when I brought it to their attention, my mother in law responded, "Is that weird? Don't other families talk about the weather like this?"

Maybe. But not my family. I mean, SURE, the hottest summer on record is gonna get talked about. But I mean, there's only so much you can say... then it just gets DEPRESSING! Yes, we live in a desert. Thank you, Jesus, for air conditioning. I guess for me in this situation, ignorance is bliss. And talking about it just makes it feel hotter outside. Let's just ignore the facts until October, please!

Next time I go over there, in addition to keeping a tally of the weather conversations, I am going to introduce a new game, which should be interesting... "Who can name off the most number of weather facts, statistics, records?" You'd be amused. They are CONSTANTLY spouting facts about the weather, those Gibsons.

I should also mention that they know every reporter/meteorologist on The Weather Channel (TWC), and they talk about them as if they are famous people who everyone else should know as well. TWC is on their TV about 90% of the time, even when there's NOTHING exciting going on with the weather. And if the TV is not on, my father in law is getting constant weather updates on his iPad.

So basically, you know who to call when you need to know the forecast.

18 month old!

2011-08-26T13:08:00.000-05:00

I can't believe my sweet baby boy is 18 months old today! He is so much fun, and makes us laugh every single day. "What is he doing these days?" you ask. I will tell you... (The categories are more for me, so I can try not to miss anything, though I am sure I will.) And I know that only a handful of you will sit through and read this, but it's really more for me than for you anyway. :) To the others of you who are keeping up with Henry through my blog, fair warning - it's long!

Talking
He has so many words, and he's started to put a few words together (but mainly only if he is repeating us). He tries to say pretty much everything, but some of his new words include...

chocolate milk (pronounced, a-muh-a-milk) - he actually asks for chocolate milk whenever we open the fridge.
orange - he loves himself some clementine oranges. he tries to peel them himself, but to no avail. but his favorite fruit of all time is watermelon. he might turn into one.
bubbles - because he LOVES his bubble bath, and he will say "bubble bath."
fountain (pronounced "ba-deen") - there is a fountain at the pool we go to, and he very much loves to go swimming.
sleep and sleepy (pronounces "heeps")- when he first wakes up, sometimes Matt and I bring him into our bedroom and close our eyes and he'll point at us and say "heeps" or "daddy heeps"
teeth- this kid is obsessed with brushing his teeth. he asks to do it as soon as he gets out of the bathtub. i think he just likes the way the toothpaste tastes. (and, he's recently decided he really likes how tylenol tastes too.)
again (pronounced "adin") - he asks to do EVERYTHING again... and again, and again and again.
Matt (pronounced "batt") - He has heard me calling to Matt across the house, and he does the same!

He has repeated a few things that are super cute too. He will say, "Oh no!" And when I say, "Let's go," He will repeat "Hets go." If he is trying to get up onto something, I ask him if he wants to "hop up" or if he is getting out of the bath, I ask if he wants to "hop out" and he repeats both of those. He has started to say, "Hi [insert name here]." So if I am on the phone with his Mimi or his Honey, he'll say, "Hi mimi" or "Hi Hah."

He is getting better at saying his OWN name, but we are still a little off. He says, "Heh-hee."

Interests
Well, the kiddo is obsessed with balls. He thinks every piece of fruit in the grocery store is a ball. He loves to "slam dunk." He tries to shoot the ball from far away like he sees Matt do, but he often ends up just dropping it behind his head. He has started throwing the ball more often. Matt has taught him to kick the soccer ball, and we've bought him a little baseball tee and bat, so he's started to practice taking cuts, too.

He also likes cars and trucks (both are still "ducks"). My mom got him a little tractor while we were at the beach, and he was obsessed with that for a little while... I take him to play with the train set at Barnes and Noble sometimes, and it will keep his attention for a good 30-40 minutes.

He also is fascinated with basically ALL animals. Dogs, ducks, birds, cats... The kid is afraid of people (more on that in a second) but he waves at birds. He kisses and hugs his stuffed animals, which I think is so sweet! I always say, "Awwww," when he hugs or kisses the animals, and he has started to say it too.

Favorite toys? Henry's always been good about playing with his toys. Besides balls and water, I can't tell that he really favors any toys over the other. He sleeps with Scout "Howk" and Glowworm "Go gum," so those are the only toys he really mentions by name.

He LOVES himself some Veggietales, which he pronounces, "De-Di-Da." And he asks to watch it almost EVERY TIME we get in the car, even if we have gone for a week without any Veggietales. And of course he still loves Elmo.

Eating
Henry is finicky when it comes to food. First of all, he will not eat NEARLY as much if I feed him as he will if Matt feeds him. Do not know why this is, but he will refuse things from me and take them from Matt. As far as variety, I can't say that he has TONS of variety. He will pretty much eat every kind of fruit. But I broke down and bought the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" because I am nervous that he doesn't get enough veggies. That cookbook sneaks pureed veggies into all sorts of normal foods, so that the kids don't know they are eating them. Since Henry doesn't like to try anything new, and since texture seems to bother him w/ some foods, I am hoping this book will help.

Unfortunately, he hangs out with ME all day (as opposed to his healthy-eating Father, Matt). So he has tried his fair share of candy and chocolate. This is actually good for me, though, because I know if he sees me eating candy, he will ask for some, so I've had to show some restraint so that he's not also eating candy all day. :)

His favorite foods are: spaghetti, watermelon, grapes, chicken nuggets and mac n cheese.

Some of the stuff he used to love, like yogurt, he will now turn down sometimes. I think this is mainly because he wants to feed himself with the spoon, which we allow about 50% of the time, but the other 50% of the time, I just cannot emotionally deal with the mess he will make, so I don't let him.

Social
Sweet man has been having what I am calling "stranger anxiety" (not to mention, separation anxiety) for about two months now. What I mean by that is that if someone says "hello" to him in the grocery store or tries to talk to him, he starts to throw his head back and fuss. He is very dramatic in his facial expressions and body language. Example? We were walking through the mall earlier this week, and a sweet old man smiled and said hi to him, and Henry collapsed to the floor and started whining/crying. It's nothing TOO loud or obnoxious, but it's definitely DRAMATIC.

Sometimes he does the same thing to other kids, but "secretly" he really is interested in what those people are doing... he tries to watch them, but doesn't really want eye contact. He does like to be around people though.

As with most kids, he is most himself at home or when we are with his aunts and uncles who will get down on the floor and play all sorts of games with him. He spends a lot of time with Matt's family, so he is pretty much himself around all of them. And he seems pretty much himself when we are at my dad's too.

I was shy as a kiddo, but I gave people the cold shoulder. I am hoping that Henry is a LITTLE more social and outgoing than his momma was.

We are also still working on getting him comfortable being dropped off at church, gym, mom's group etc. Sometimes he will fuss the whole time - but like I said, he's not too loud or obnoxious when he fusses.

Physical
Henry is not so active that I have to chase him all day, which I am thankful for (though I'm sure the next one will make up for that).

He can climb pretty well (he started climbing way before he started walking), and goes down the big boy slide by himself at the park. (Not gonna lie, I haven't seen this because I don't go outside in this heat, but Matt has assured me it is true.)

He does his fair share of "push ups" and "sit ups." After watching Matt complete the 100 pushup challenge and do his crunches, Henry has started to do them himself. So cute!

His favorite games are "peek a boo" under the pillows on the bed, and he loves to sit on Matt's back while Matt does push ups.

As of today, he is officially...
Height - 34.5 inches (95th %)
Weight- 27 lbs, 14 oz (75th %)

And as usual, his head is gigantic!

Because he is so tall, he is CONSTANTLY reaching onto counter tops and into drawers to see what treasures he can find. (I'm sure that this will result in something dangerous or scary taking place in the future, but so far we've avoided catastrophe!) He wants to get a spoon out of the silverware drawer almost every time I open it. He is always reaching in my bathroom drawers, etc.

He can open the kind of doors that have pull down handles, which is really fun when we are in the dressing room at the gym because that's the kind of handles that are there. Usually I am in the middle of changing out of my swimsuit, and Henry is trying to open the door. It's lovely.

Behavior/Temperament
You can probably gather this by the other information in this post, but Henry has a very mild temperament. When he wants to cry or be dramatic, he can totally turn it on, but generally he is very laid back.

Something new he has started doing... tonight at dinner he accidentally hit his head on the table, which resulted in water works. He apparently LOVED the attention he got as a result because later on during the meal, he started PRETENDING to hit his head on the table, and then he would cry (like real, crocodile tears) to try and get our sympathy and attention. We just laughed at him, which made him cry a little more. Then Matt and I started pretending to hit our heads on the table and pretending to cry, and he thought that was hilarious and started laughing a lot.

I'm sure I have missed a ton, but I figured I would hate myself in 10 years if I never recorded some of these sweet things about my baby! We are getting some 18 month professional pics taken next Wednesday (which also happens to be the anniversary of his surgery), so hopefully I can find a way to share those with you when we are done!

what a gift!

2011-08-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

1. Guess what! After breaking the record for number of days the temperature has gotten over 100 this year, God gave us a break today and only made the temperature go up to 94 in Austin. Wow! That's gift number 1. Tomorrow, however, we will most likely start again with day number 71 of 100+ temperatures. I'm looking for the silver lining.

2. Guess what else!!! I passed my glucose tolerance test with "flying colors" according to my nurse Judy. Since that was left via voicemail, I will have to call back and get my actual numbers, because I am interested to know what "flying colors" means. Either way, I am thankful I'm not a diabetic. And next time I get pregnant, I will ask to please skip the 1 hr screen because obviously it doesn't work. That's gift number 2.

There are thousands more gifts, but I'm thankful for those two things today. :)

bye bye mitch!

2011-08-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

We just had a bittersweet lunch with Matt's youngest brother, Mitchell, who is leaving for college today. Henry is so lucky to have the best aunts and uncles! He's gonna miss Uncle Mitch a lot. :)


Poor kiddo wasn't smiling, but I wasn't gonna be a perfectionist.

And, oh my goodness, my pregnancy hormones combined with the "back to school" environment have not been a good combo. It was sort of depressing to be out and about yesterday since the stores were all empty. Then, don't tell him, but I cried after Matt left for work today. Weird. Then I had to watch Henry say "bye" to his Uncle? There's only so much a hormonal pregnant lady can handle! Let's just hope I am not pregnant when Henry has to go to Kindergarten... or college. (Okay, that was a joke.)

So, for some reason I am not handling the transition from summer to school very well- which is funny since nothing about my daily life is changing - just everyone else around me. I never said I wasn't crazy!

24 weeks!

2011-08-19T13:43:00.002-05:00

I failed my 1 hour glucose screen again this morning. That happened last time too, so hopefully it's just my body being dumb and NOT gestational diabetes, but we'll find out for sure after my THREE HOUR diagnostic test on Monday. Here's a 24 week belly pic.

I should definitely win points in the no-vanity department for this one. No makeup. First thing in the morning. I sort of want to just blur out my face.

While we're on the topic, my doctor had 2 deliveries and 1 emergency "procedure" during my appointment this morning, so I had already spent about 2.5 hours waiting... It would have been nice if I could have just done that 3 hour test today!

I can't believe I am already 24 weeks. Last pregnancy, I felt like I was counting down at 24 weeks. Right now I still feel like I am just getting started... which might explain why we still don't know where we are going to put this baby when it gets here. :)

Oh, and because I am sure you are all wondering, my weight was back on track at this appointment. :) So there was at least a silver lining on the 2.5 hour wait and the glucose fail.

Have a happy weekend! I'll try to post more - our internet has actually been very shady lately.

Summer Pics

2011-08-13T22:31:00.000-05:00

We are terrible picture-takers! Fortuantely, Matt's new iPhone has been a lifesaver this summer... like when I forgot my camera at the beach... and when my pregnant brain seriously cannot remember where we put our video camera. Here's some pics from the last two months.

at the cows at the arboretum...

messy hair after going swimming!

park swing... he loves it!

henry loved playing in the sand at the beach

he also loved the waves in the ocean... he got so relaxed at one point that he actually fell asleep in his float in the ocean.

happy babes!

water and sand... quite possibly his favorite combination.

we had a very difficult time getting pictures of the boys. benny and henry wouldn't sit still, and peter wouldn't smile.

not sure what was happening here... they were all being very silly

this would have been great if benny wasn't blurry!

henry at the cows AGAIN... yes, that is a different shirt.

he cried when we were finished dropping pennies in the fountain...

want what you have...

2011-08-09T13:51:00.001-05:00

Hola peeps! I'm kind of excited right now because Henry just went down for his nap, and my first course of action wasn't to jump straight in my bed. (Don't worry, if this post doesn't take his whole nap time, then I'll be headed there eventually... cause, well, why not?)

Four months from today is baby #2's due date! We all know how that went last time, so I'm not gonna plan on him actually getting here any sooner than that. I might just try to tell myself his due date is the 16th instead of the 9th so I won't be disappointed when the kid wants to overstay his welcome.

Anyway, none of the above is what I wanted to talk about today, but I really wanted to share something totally different.

Do you ever feel like the Lord is just pounding you over and over again with a theme - something specific He really wants you to do, learn, or understand? Well, it took me about 1.5 years (or 18 months in mom language) to realize that God's been doing just that to/in/for me...

The theme = contentment and/or thanksgiving. They really go hand in hand. But it all started with the book "A Praying Life" which I started to read the day AFTER Henry was due because I needed to pass the time thinking about something other than downing castor oil.

Anyway, in that book the author quoted the verse 1 Thessalonians 5:17 OVER and OVER again, which said, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." For some reason, that word really has stuck with me over the past 18 months and I think about it all the time.

Next. You remember when I shared this post about Leah and Rachel - all about contentment. Once again, God used his word and a gifted teacher to highlight this whole contentment and thanksgiving thing... how it might have possibly been missing in my life, and how I was looking for satisfaction in things other than Him.

The next two ways God has spoken to me are even more awesome because they have been through CDs and DVDs that I've been playing in the car to entertain HENRY! Without going into too much detail, one song on a CD is all about being thankful. And then the latest, a Veggie Tales DVD has a story about a "very BLUE berry" who is so sad that all of her friends and neighbors have nicer things than she does, so she goes to "Stuff Mart" to buy whatever her heart desires, but then realizes that "a thankful heart is a happy heart" and decides to give thanks for what she has instead of trying to get everything she doesn't have.

It doesn't end there! I recently ordered the book "1000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp from Amazon. I ordered it because I had heard it was good, but I really had no idea what it was about - and I definitely didn't know it was a Christian book... on the very subject of thankfulness. And it was soo, soo good. (Side note: She writes very poetically, which is sooooo not my style, but I was able to look past it because the content was so great.)

Oh and how could I forget the little devotional book my mom gave me for Christmas that is filled with the themes of thanksgiving and contentment. Not to mention - the Bible.

My new years resolution was to replace complaining with thankfulness. Which, let me just say that grumbling = sin, and thanksgiving = the will of God for me... so yeah, that should have been a daily resolution, but oh well.

It wasn't till I picked up the 1000 gifts book that I was like, "Oh, goodness, Lord, it looks like you are trying to teach me something here!" Dumb dumb, Leah.

Until now, I always gave thanks as a response - I was more of a passive thanks-giver. I was passively content, assuming I had everything I wanted. But what God has been doing is showing me that thanksgiving and happiness is an active CHOICE, and they aren't limited to circumstance because God's PRESENCE is not limited to circumstance. Giving thanks is a way of seeing Jesus in all circumstances and letting Him be enough for you...

In the garden, Eve did not look at all she DID have, all that God had given her. Instead she looked at the one thing she didn't have. Discontentment and the lies that fuel it are the very cause of the fall.

So what are the things that you are looking to for contentment? Surely there are a gazillion. I truly hope that you and I both can replace our discontentment with thanksgiving and watch God work miracles as a result of our choosing to see His constant love in our lives.

I could totally keep going, but I think I've written quite enough.

where have I gone?

2011-08-07T05:21:00.000-05:00

I usually don't announce our vacations in advance... since there's a good chance that all you readers out there would try to rob my house. Hopefully you know I'm kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, we just got back from a week-long trip to Orange Beach, Alabama with my pregnant sister, her hubs, her two crazy boys (5 yrs and 2 yrs), my mom and her hubs.

As luck would have it, I forgot to bring my camera, so we relied on Matt's iPhone to document Henry's first trip to the beach. Pictures to come. (Oh and I promise to get those ultrasound pics up soon.)

Thoughts on the trip?

-Vacation is NOT the same w/ a toddler. It is still work. To actually get R&R, there'd have to be no children there. But I loved watching Henry have fun, which must be why parents ever take their children on vacation!

-That being said, it was nice for Henry to have a 24/7 playmate, his cousin Bennett, who is about 10 months older than him (and could easily beat Henry up if he wanted to). They just LOVED each other and were so freaking cute together. So we weren't responsible for entertaining baby boy 100% of the time.

-Call me crazy, but hanging out in a maternity swimsuit (an ugly one) on the beach isn't really my idea of a good time.

-To add to the last thought... hanging out in a maternity swimsuit next to my also pregnant sister isn't very fun either. My sister and I currently weigh about the same and she is due in 4 weeks. (I'm due in 18 weeks.) We are 14 weeks apart, but we looked more like 4 weeks apart. It was lovely.

- I wore 50 spf the whole time. My family looks like we have been in an igloo... not on the beach.

-On our way home, at about 11 pm at night after driving all day long, I was barely awake trying to decide on names for our next child (and surely I was not helping Matt stay awake as I spewed my thoughts about the names incessantly), and we just might have finally settled on one... but we aren't 100% sure so I'll work on that and get back to you.

And I had two diet cokes at dinner tonight, definitely putting me over the limit for the amount of caffeine I should have in one day... so that is why this post was written from 4-5 am. :) Where would my blog be w/out insomnia?

you can't do it all

2011-07-28T07:48:00.002-05:00

You've probably heard the popular phrase, "God won't give you more than you can handle." Is that true? If God never gave us more than we can handle, why would we need to depend on Him?

I might, in fact, argue the opposite! God ALWAYS gives us more than we could possibly handle on our own. (Not more than our faith in Him can handle, but more than our own strength could handle.)

He did it with Israel. He gave them the law. Why? So that they would realize how incapable they were of keeping it on their own and turn to Him instead. He gave them more than they could handle so that they'd realize that they need a Savior, Jesus.

Since we are not God, our plates are always filled with more than we can handle, whether we realize it or not. This is God's grace - so that we'd stop trying to pretend that we are gods and that our strength is sufficient and that all things are in our control and that we have all the resources to make things happen. He gives us far more than we can handle so that we would turn to HIM, the One True God, who is all-sufficient, all-powerful and whose resources are truly infinite.

So he gives us trials, he gives us insanely busy schedules, he gives us demands that compete with each other, he gives us sickness. He gives us a Standard of righteousness that we could not ever meet. What is out of your control at the moment? What is causing you anxiety? What are you constantly failing at?

God has given this to you as a GIFT so that in your weakness, He could be strong. He has given me these things as a gift so that I would cease my silly striving, know that HE is God (not me, not anyone else). He will be exalted in our weakness!

it is a...

2011-07-25T14:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, before I reveal the gender of the babes in my tums, let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Leah. Leah was pregnant. For about six weeks during her pregnancy, Leah worked out and bragged about it on her blog.

But then, all-or-nothing Leah stopped working out as much. But you see her appetite was through the roof. But Leah pretty much despised healthy food, so she ate a lotta junk. She ate McDonald's, Chick Fil A, DONUTS, Ice Cream, Candy Bars, Candy, Coke, Dr. Pepper, Root Beer. She ate breakfast two to three times a day. She ate dessert after every meal. She ate CHEESE, FRIED FOOD, BROWNIES from a box. She loved every minute of it.

After about three weeks of this lifestyle, Leah went to the doctor for a routine visit. It had only been four weeks since she last went to the doctor. As per usual, Leah hopped on the scale. Leah watched as the nurse KEPT SLIDING THE MEASURER-THINGY TO THE RIGHT. Leah watched in disbelief as they confirmed that she had gained quite a bit of weight since the last appointment. [I'm NOT exaggerating.]

Leah waited nervously for the doctor to enter the room because she feared his reproof. The doctor said that blood pressure looked good, but when he started eye-ing the weight chart he exclaimed, "Wow! You had a big month this month! Did you go on vacation or something?" "No, no vacation.. that's NEXT month," Leah replied, sheepishly. "Okay. You were just eating a lot of ice cream because it's so hot outside, huh?" He said. "Sure," Leah replied. "Well, let's try to slow that down, okay?" said the doctor. "DON'T YOU WORRY!" said Leah.

And we will ALL live happily ever after.

You'd think as vain as I am, I'd try to "reign in the cravings" (as Matt would say) just a little bit. Well, this was a wake-up call. To be honest, after I worked my bottom off during the previous 4 weeks and I had gained just the right amount of weight, I just sort of wondered if my body would naturally do the right thing, even if I didn't work out. Turns out... NO. OH WELLSERS! At least I got some motivation.

And for the big reveal...

It
IS
DEFINITELY
A

BOY!

I'm super excited. God is SOOOO good to us - so much better to us than we deserve! Anyway, I am already picturing Henry and baby 2 being BFFAEAEAE. We have no leads in the name department... so that should be fun. Perhaps I will put up some ultrasound pics soon.

Twenty Down, Twenty To Go

2011-07-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

Here I am, yours truly! 20 weeks pregnant today. I decided to also sport my new mom haircut and no makeup, so I get a couple of points in the "not being too vain" department. Huh?

People don't even think I'm pregnant, and you can probably see why.

In other news, a friend brought it to my attention that THIS might be the real reason my back aches at night. And to think I'd blame it on Henry. (Some of you may not have seen that post if you don't subscribe to my blog with a feed reader. I took it down, and decided to re-post.)

Happy Friday!! Here's to 20 more weeks of pregnancy. (Oh and we find out the gender on Monday!)

Can I have the epidural now?

2011-07-20T00:14:00.001-05:00

Like seriously, when I take my naps at about 1:30 pm (every day), I fall asleep NO PROBLEMO. But by 10:30 pm, or whatever time I try to hit the sack for good, my upper back just pounds and aches, and there seems to be no comfortable position to take me off to dreamland.

BUTTTTT... I'm thankful for this aching back because it reminds me of that sweet toddler that I get to love on all day long!

Also, is it bad that when I toss and turn, trying to fall asleep in bed, that I begin to daydream about the bliss of the epidural? Probably. December, come quickly. JK, JK. No but seriously, I LOVE me some epidural!

Anyway, on a totally unrelated note, I decided that the ipad (and or iphone, whichever you prefer) is equivalent to 1,000,000 issues of sports illustrated. Without getting too descriptive, let me just say that my man's bathroom time has definitely multiplied since the ipad came into his life.

This is classic men vs. women if you ask me. I like to get my business done. For Matt, the bathroom is like an oasis in the dessert (no, not the dessert, the desert- definitely dropped the ball on that one), a break from the chaos... so he shuts the door and takes his time.

Also, for those of you who found it extremely annoying how much I had been bragging about what a hoss I'd been at the gym, I'll inform you that that last two weeks have pretty much been a bust in that department. Which is funny because I 1- have a big weigh in on Monday and 2- am going to the beach in less than a month.

"You see, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care."- Thank you, Peter Gibbons.

You're welcome. Goodnight.

"duck"

2011-07-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

Henry has some trouble pronouncing a few words. As a result, he uses the word "duck" for the following words:

-car
-cow
-dog
-duck
-dark
-truck

(On top of that, he thinks everything with wheels is a car or truck, so trains, tractors, airplanes are all also "ducks.")

The other day we were at Barnes N' Noble and there was a picture of Lightning McQueen on the cover of a book, and he was really excited about it. So he pointed and exclaimed, "A DUCK! A DUCK!" (Car.) The ~8 year old next to us thought it was really funny, but it got funnier when two seconds later, Henry spotted a stuffed puppy and pointed and exclaimed, "A DUCK!"

I love this sweet shirt. It is Paul Frank and it says, "Chicks Dig Scars," and it has a band-aid on the monkey's head. It was a gift from a little boy who had the same surgery as Henry about a year before Henry did. :)

Henry is obsessed with his "Belly Butt." He LOVES to show people his belly button.

I love being that little man's official translator.

just waiting for Starbucks to open...

2011-07-15T04:59:00.000-05:00

Seriously, maybe the reason Starbucks is not open 24 hours isn't because of the lack of customers they'd have between the hours of 11pm and 5am. Maybe it's because they don't want to be full of crazy insomniacs like me who shouldn't be drinking caffeine anyway. Whatever.

I have been tossing in bed since 2:45 am thinking about a slew of things. Lucky you, I'm just gonna divulge.

1. What in the WORLD did I DO before I had children? I'm not going to lie, I hate when people say this. And I hated it even MORE before I had a kiddo because I was like, "What, you don't think I'm busy?" So to answer your question, person without kids, trust me, I know that you're busy. Not the point. I'll just leave it at that.

2. Thank goodness babies aren't born as toddlers. It's really nice that kiddos start as newborns. Cause their needs actually grow and grow as they get older. They actually demand a lot more from you as they become toddlers and so on.

So instead of having to start with a toddler who requires SO MUCH attention, it's nice to start with a little baby who doesn't move, talk, eat real food, and who, honestly, sleeps most of the day. Not that you don't need to give that sweet baby attention!

I remember feeling like it was kind of a pain to have to sit Henry down to feed him real food because it took for-freakin' EVER! A lot of the transition phases were just rough because they required more work and more time. (AKA less time for me, which btw is a good thing.) What's amazing is that eventually you get kind of used to it and you start wondering what you did before you had kids... ha.

3. Baby in tummy is preparing me for 3am wake-up calls. Little guy or gal inside of me likes to be active in the wee hours of the night apparently. He sent me straight to the pantry for a peanut butter sandwich. While we're on the topic... can I just share a pet peeve? (Which, mom brain, I have probably shared before.) There's some certain terminology that people use in the context of nursing babies, which literally makes me want to curl up in a ball and BARF MY BRAINS OUT.

The first one is the word "FEEDING." (When used as a verb in reference to what the baby was doing.) I used to HATE when Matt would say, "Is Henry feeding right now?" NO! Henry is EATING. He is not a pig at the trough. We don't FEED. We eat. Don't ask me why, but I cannot STAND when people say that their baby woke up to "feed." You woke up to feed the baby. The baby woke up to eat. People do it all the time.

Next. "I'm just going to give the baby a little SNACK." (This in reference to breastfeeding just a few minutes instead of a full "feeding.") A snack? That is just SO GROSS SOUNDING to me!!! Yuck. I'm sorry, but my kid will not be getting "snacks" from my body. I mean, if a short feeding is a snack, then why don't we just name ALL the meals? The first feeding can be breakfast, then brunch, lunch, a snack, dinner, and dessert. Why not?

This is coming from a person who didn't so much love breastfeeding to begin with, so just excuse me if you feel offended right now.

(Don't worry, that's just about a tenth of the stuff I was thinking about at 3am.) All that, and Starbucks still doesn't open for another hour!