I've been meaning to write more......

I've had a lot to say, but little time to write it down. Honnest, I've composed many blog posts in my head! But when I sit down to type them my mind goes blank because I have so much going on......if I could ever get caught up around the house!

Two Christian Breastfeeding links

Just ran accross these today and thought they were neat. Most, if not all, of you won't be interested.

Milk of Kindness, a Christian perspective of breastfeeding.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/190/story_19083_1.html

A catholic web page on Mary as a nursing mother. Includes many images of Mary and Jesus-paintings and sculptures-even shows Mary breastfeeding a toddler Jesus and often (gasp!) an exposed breast! Once upon a time those things were not scandalous but commonplace.
http://www.fisheaters.com/marialactans.html

Theives, beware!

Check out the link:
After some thieves stole a friend's purse at an afternoon protest rally, Erin Schrode, a 16-year-old Bay area high school student, gave chase. That's pretty in awesome in itself, but what makes it even better, is that Schrode was wearing a prom dress, tiara and combat boots....San Francisco ne'er do wells: beware, there's a new hero on the loose -- and she's ready for Spring formal!

I'm amazed!!

Timothy ate some of my salad tonight-I saw him eating mainly celery and cucumber, but a little onion and carrot too. He may or may not have had some radish, I'm not sure. It had Ranch dressing on it, maybe that helped. But wow!! I can't believe he ate salad!

Just a sweet picture

The Imposssible Dream

I keep trying to get a nice picture of all three kids together. I'd like one anyway, but I particularly would like one for the birthday scrapbook my Aunt is making for my grandmother. This is pretty much how they all come out though. : (

Enjoying the sun this afternoon

Food

Justin tries to break into a pineapple himself.

I hesitate to even mention it, but every now and then I get the boys to eat something healthy! They've both eaten fresh pineapple and cucumbers lately. Not a lot, but it's a start. Timothy's chewed a little bit of snap peas. It gives me hope that eventually they may eat almost normally.

Double party this weekend

We went to Ryan and Natalie's 2nd and 3rd birthday party this weekend. It took us a while to warm up, there were a lot of people there, most of whom we didn't know. It took toys and a beautiful outdoor day to break the ice. Justin was so thrilled-they had a toy lawnmower! Timothy loved kicking around a soccer ball. And Leanna enjoyed the toy dishes for the kitchen set.

Birthday Cakes

I was impressed that Jeff, the kids' dad, made the train cake. He also prepared the food for the party. I asked, and Kim said that he makes suppers, unless he has a late shift (which means they just eat cereal). I am jealous!

Birthday fun

I think the kids had the most fun outside. They had two toy kitchens and a huge yard. It was beautiful outside too. We didn't see much of Ryan, I think he was busy with relatives. Justin got along just fine with Natalie. He was kissing her too, but Tom couldn't catch a picture of it. Justin liked Natalie's Mommy too! Leanna was a little dissapointed since she didn't really get to play with the other kids much. I was very impressed that she went and picked up the toys they got out-all on her own. No one told her to pick up she just knew it needed to be done and did it secretly. I was very proud of her.

Just an observation

For "Tension Tamer" tea to work properly, try not to let little hands shred the tea bags into millions of little herb peices all over your table, floor, and blender.

Maturity

I was just discussing with my Mom (breifly) this morning how Leanna seems to have been going through a real maturity growth spurt lately. She has a tendancy to rush and do sloppy work at school and in the past month or two I've noticed her papers are coming home much neater. Her handwritting is easier to read and it's not as all over the page as it used to be. Even her coloring is neater. She's getting good at sounding out words. She's been voluntarily helping out more at home. Even her understanding of how things work seems to be improving. I'm very proud of her growth.

More brotherly love

Timothy has been starting to voluntarily let Justin hold him, or will go over to give or get a hug from him. It's really sweet, just melts your heart. Justin gets so happy, he would hold Timothy every day if he could!

There's a lot of fighting between the three siblings, but there's an awful lot of love there too. Watching that develop would have to be one of my favorite parts of parenting.

Toddler fears

These are funny, check out the link it is toddler fears-they fear the oddest things sometimes!

For my kids:
Leanna is deathly afraid of automatic toilets. One time she was taking too long and it flushed on her and since then she will still ask if the toilets flush "matically" and will sometimes refuse to use them even if I show her they are regular. Everyone says, just cover the part so it doesn't flush while she's on. But she's too afraid of public toilets now for me to even do that-she won't use them unless she's positive they're not automatic.
She's mostly over hear fear of vacuumes.
She still will not go alone to any part of the house where no one else is. As in she won't go to the bathroom alone she won't go upstairs alone, etc.

When Justin was 9 months old for his first Easter Nanny Sue and Pop-Pop gave him a blue Easter bunny that sang and danced and he was terrified of it. Didn't want to be anywhere near it!

Need to shred?

For anyone who spends time with kids......

or likes to garden.

You can make an online flower garden!

I cannot wait to NOT be pregnant!!

26 weeks pregnant-98 days to go!!

The baby now weighs a little less than 2 pounds and measures about 14 inches. His weight will more than triple between now and birth as he rapidly puts on baby fat.
I cannot wait!!

Imagini-from Jamie

I always have trouble picking just one, I think I usually read more into them than the average person. For most choices I was torn between two options.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

In Justin's Belly

Justin drew this picture of the baby.........in his belly! Sometimes he has one in there too, LOL. He's kind of fascinated with the idea right now. At first he was a bit scared, if I'd ask if he wanted to hear the baby moving he would refuse and move away. Now he tells me he loves the baby in my belly.

Leanna's dinosaur

I think this is pretty good.

She even knew it was a stegosaurus.

(We read a lot of dinosaur stuff because Justin likes dinosaurs)

Riding dinosaurs

While Leanna was at school today Justin and Timothy were "riding dinosaurs" in the kitchen. That was Justin's own idea, I have no idea where it came from. And there's really no need to worry, they do soooo much climbing every day, chairs are nothing to them!

Using Easter Presents

The kids loved their umbrellas the Easter Bunny left at Nanny Sue & Pop-Pop's house. In fact they were excited that it rained today so that they could use them. My Mom actually watched Timothy today while Justin and I walked Leanna to school so that Justin could walk with his umbrella. If I had Timothy too he would have had to sit in the stroller with it, which just isn't as much fun!

Leanna's umbrella is a butterfly with ears, and Timothy's is frogs with eyes. Leanna pointed out to me today that hers has ears, Justin's has a duck bill, and Timothy's has eyes-so they kind of have the whole see no evil hear no evil speak no evil thing in reverse!

Shane's Wish

"Shane Bernier is a courageous seven-year-old boy from Lancaster, Ontario who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was only five. On June 6th, 2006 Shane and his family received some unfortunate news: Shane experienced a relapse after completing 108 of 130 weeks of treatment.
However, despite the bad news, Shane has managed to keep a positive outlook on his situation and has made a heart-warming wish... He hasn’t asked for money or toys or anything of the sort. Instead, his birthday is on May 30th and he would like to break the world record for the most birthday cards ever received. "

Visit his site to send him a card.

Leanna and plants

Leanna's class planted seeds today. I'm not sure what kind, she said they didn't tell the kids. I'm glad to hear they are doing something like that-so much of what she does at school seems rushed and advanced. I worry that her education will be focused on meeting certain standards on tests, and not on what is beneficial to actually learning.
I remember being thrilled to see plants finally growing at school-kids got all excited when their plant would finally sprout!

One I'll Have to think about........

I think this is interesting, the blogger read the book The Secret (ask my Mom about that-she's a fan) and it inspired her to come up with a list of what she most wanted for her children. I've read a book by Deepak Chopra's daughter, Mallika Chopra, called 100 promises to my Baby which is pretty much the same theme.

cars

One of the things I like about having multiple kids is the opportunity to see the different ways they develop. I can't claim that I treat each one identical, but basically they are being raised the same, in the same environment, and I get to watch the individual differences in them.

It's funny, Justin likes opening the toy cars he's received and may play with them a little or carry them around. But they're just another toy to him. Timothy loves cars, and anything he can push around, since he was old enough to figure out how to do it. I tried to keep them away from the little matchbox type cars for as long as I could since really they're still a choking hazzard(little wheels and parts that can break off). But Timothy enjoys them so much that I just try to watch him and keep them out of his mouth.

Chemicals

Twice now I've heard Justin say something was because of "the chemicals in my body." I think he's been listening to my Mom a little too much, LOL!
It makes me wonder, what does he think that chemicals are?

More from Nanny Sue's

Tom and the dogs napped, the kids played, and everyone had fun. It was a nice close to the day.

At Mimi's & Nanny Sue's

You can see on Leanna's dress that the layers aren't laying right. Right before we left for Mimi's we discovered that Leanna had somehow pulled open one layer of the dress, then she managed to do another at Mimi's.

Claire's back from Scotland

I'm eagerly awaiting pictures from Scotland, and I got to see a few of Claire's purchases on Easter.

More Easter

Easter outfits

Easter morning

After I finally got everyone to bed then it was time to clean a place for the baskets and clean the floor so I could make bunny tracks. And get the clothes ready for the next morning. And make the Easter baskets themselves. I ran out of time for a shower and had to get one the next morning. Once I knew Leanna and Maree' were up it was time to wake Justin. I told him that the easter bunny brought baskets downstairs-virtually no reaction. Then I told him, "Look! I see the easter bunny's footprints on the floor downstairs!" That did it. Then he was excited!

More from Egg decorating

Timothy enjoyed running around getting into things, as usual. And Justin(minus his shirt so no egg dye would spill on him) had to be banned from the decorating table. He kept cracking open the eggs and only half eating them.

Busy Weekend

Friday afternoon was taken up by a trip to the doctor's to make sure Justin's foot was ok. He had cut it at some point while we were all sick and it got forgotten with everything that was going on. Then when he complained it hurt we found a giant green bubble under the skin. Tom lanced it and it looked much better. But there was still a small green bubble and he still said it hurt so I spent an afternoon waiting at the doctor's office. When we finally saw the doctor she said it was healing and looked pretty good but to call again if it got pus again. On the bright side I got Justin's follow-up lead test done while we were there(so at least I don't have to make a separate trip for that!)

Later that night we rushed off to Mimi's to visit with Aunt Jackie, Uncle Jonathan, and Josh who were having a quick stay in PA. They were gone before Easter so we had to go that night to see them.

Saturday Tom was actually home for a change, I think mainly because I strongly suggested that it would be wise for him to occasionally see his family. So it was off to see the Easter bunny, then pick up Maree', pick up a little money owed, and then visit with Nanny J. at Gracedale. Then rush home to decorate Easter eggs with Aunt Laura and Aunt Claire.