Happy Birthday Justin!!

He's three years old today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another not surprising link

Babies with at least one parent who smokes have five times as much cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, in their urine than infants whose parents are non-smokers, UK researchers report....."Our findings clearly show that by accumulating cotinine, babies become heavy passive smokers secondary to the active smoking of parents....."

How we pick our partners.......

This actually doesn't surprise me......

" The results of this study "show for certain that the quality of a daughter's relationship with her father has an impact on whom she finds attractive. It shows our human brains don't simply build prototypes of the ideal face based on those we see around us, rather they build them based on those to whom we have a strongly positive relationship. We can now say that daughters who have very positive childhood relationships with their fathers choose men with similar facial characteristics to their fathers," study author Dr. Lynda Boothroyd of Durham University said in a prepared statement."

What does your checkbook say about you

Very short article that makes a good point.

Just a few more pictures that I like

I just wanted to show how pretty the table looked with the flowers and pictures and memory jar.

I tried not to put up any bad pictures of people, so there were a lot of people not shown here. Everyone kept making strange faces when my camera was pointed their direction.

It was really nice to see family that we don't see often. All seven of Mimi's kids were there. Her sister and sister-in-law were there. All of her grandchildren except two were there (that makes 14 of us present). Her three grandson-in-laws were there, and one granddaughter-in-law. All seven great grandchildren were there too. Like any big family, there's a lot of dysfunction and a lot of love! I still love it when the whole family gets together.

My Aunt Cindy had put together a scrapbook of pages of people's memories of Mimi as a big present. It was really sweet-there were so many nice thoughts people had of her. They had a memory jar there to add any little memories. Maree even added a few to it. Laura and I were the only ones to make our own pages for the scrapbook. It was a big pain in the butt for me to do (just because I don't have time alone to work on it) but I'm glad I did. I did one on me & Mimi, one on Tom and Mimi (he and my Uncle Bob were the only husbands to get their own pages! Aunt Cindy thought it was appropriate), and one on the kids.

It was a late night.....

More relatives

Justin shows off the "patch" that was put on him. When Chrissy first put the sticker on Uncle Jonathan he said he was on the patch(to slowly wean him off alcohol).

More family pictures

Anyone who was at our wedding might remember Michael as the one who sang while his friend played the guitar.

Laura was very photogenic that night so she ended up in a lot of pictures also.

Claire's rendition of Mimi's house

Claire drew a picture of the front of Mimi's house for her:

Relatives

The kids playing

Justin and Christian running through the hall,

Leanna and Mckenzie giggling on a chair,

and all the little ones running back and forth in front of the house while Mimi opened presents and cards.

I thought it was really great to have the house full of people and noise. I told Mimi, this is how this house was meant to be! And she nodded and said, "yes, this is how it was when you kids were kids!" And it was. Twenty years ago that was me and my cousins, running through the house, playing hide and seek, playing "music" on the piano, making all kinds of noise and enjoying each other's company. Her house felt like a castle, complete with a secret passageway-a great place for a kid's imagination. It was just awesome, and I'm glad my kids got a little taste of what that was like. My grandmother's house was a big part of my childhood and it's neat to see it full of life again.

Birthday Party Pictures

Leanna, Timothy, and Justin at Mimi's 80th Birthday Party

Housecleaning and kids

I'm quoting one of the commenters on the Lactivist blog. The post they are commenting on is ab0ut her realizing that it's ok to ask for help and that women can't do it all alone. I'm posting this because it sounds just like my house. I tell people that I clean, really I do......but the majority of them think I'm just making excuses. Everyone always says, oh it's ok, we don't mind the mess.......(but who's really going to say to your face, Wow! This place is a mess! You need help!) It's one of those things where unless you see how it is, you really don't understand.

"Like my sister just came to stay with me for a few weeks. She kept talking about the messes in my house and I told her that I don't worry with certain things because I know the kids will run right behind me and mess it all back up or I'll wind up spending 4 hours trying to do it because they will whine the whole time.She laughed and I said...'ok, I'll show you.' So I sat on my butt all day and watched tv/played online while she tended the house and kids. After that she said 'omg, the kids were doing this and this and this' and I said 'I told you that's what happens'To my dismay though, she still went home and ran her mouth to my parents. Rather than telling them what a tough job it is to chase 4 kids around and try to keep house she told them that I just sit on my butt all day and let the kids do what they want and let the house stay a mess.(Mind you it was only that one day I sat around to prove a point.)"

With apologies to my unborn child......

Ok, I circled both eyes, the nose, and the mouth. The arrow points to one of his chubby little cheeks. Now can everyone see the face?

Feeling Relieved!

This is the baby's face(the hollow parts are eyes and mouth). It looks like this baby has chubby cheeks!

The ultrasound guess was that he's about 6 lbs now but you can't take that as gospel. I've heard many many stories of babies who were supposed to be a certain size based on the ultrasound and it was way off! It happened to me with Justin-they thought he was measuring two weeks ahead of his due date and was going to be big! At 7 lbs, 4 oz he was not a big baby!


I saw the midwife this morning, and she felt my belly all over trying to determine the baby's position, and cracked Leanna up by saying, "I'm not sure if that's a head or a bony butt." (Leanna had a Bevis and Butthead moment-she laughed and said, "She said Bony Butt!") We did the heartbeat, and again, she had to keep moving the doppler to hear the heartbeat(this child just has places to go!!) and then she even did an internal exam and was somewhat certain that it was a head that she was feeling down there. But not positive enough, so I had an ultrasound this afternoon. I'm breathing easier now because the ultrasound shows that he is head down, but he does tend to lay a little to the left. Quite a relief for me! Now this is a VERY active child, so just keep your fingers crossed for me that he now STAYS head down!!!

Announcing.....

When Tom came home one night, Justin announced, "Tom's in the house!"
(He said it with glee too, because he was calling his Daddy by his name) and it really cracked us up!

LOL

When I wished Leanna happy birthday this morning and told her she was born this day six years ago she replied, "Wow, right on my birthday?"

6 years old!!

At 2:17 AM six years ago Leanna was born! Happy Birthday!!!!!

This day in history.....

June 19th-birthdays, deaths, historical events

The craziness is spreading........

Ok, Tom would seriously not mind naming his boy child Maximus, a name from his favorite movie, Gladiator. We had a discussion with my Dad about that just this past weekend and he said he wouldn't have had a problem using that name either(for a second son, because the first one was always to be named Justin). Now I just saw this on a snarky website:

Send sneakers quick, size 000: LeBron James, a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and his girlfriend Savannah Brinson welcomed their second son, Bryce Maximus James on Thursday. He was named after the lead character in James' favorite film, "Gladiator." Maximus, the character played in the movie by Russell Crowe, is a powerful Roman general who seeks revenge for his family's murder as a gladiator.
Let's hope Maximus can help the Cavaliers, as they are one loss away from being eliminated in the NBA Finals.
[photo: people.com]

If you're curious......

This link has photos of a vaginal breech birth-warning they are photos of a birth, so they're graphic-where the Mom gives birth to her third child with no drugs, no interventions. It sounds very painful!

From Wikipedia: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breech_birth ) (Visit the link for more info, risks, positions, etc.):

A breech birth (also known as breech presentation) refers to the position of the baby in the uterus such that it will be delivered buttocks first as opposed to the normal head first position. At 28 weeks' gestation 25% of babies are breech, and the percentage decreases approaching term (40 weeks' gestation). Certain factors can encourage a breech presentation. These include multiple (or multifetal) pregnancy (twins, triplets or more), excessive amounts of amniotic fluid, hydrocephaly, anencephaly, very short umbilical cord, and some uterine abnormalities. Babies with congenital abnormalities are more likely to present by the breech. It is postulated that the baby normally assumes a head down presentation because of the weight of the baby's head. As the mass of the fetal head is the same as that of the pelvis, it is more likely that the enlarging fetus is more and more restricted in its movements, and simply becomes entrapped. The shape of the uterus is a more likely determinant of the final fetal presentation as uterine shape anomalies are strong predictors of breech presentation and other malpresentations.

End of the School year

The last day of school is Thursday for Leanna. She's been coming home with all kinds of little prizes. Yesterday she got an attendance award, although she did miss 3 days due to sickness. Today she brought home her final report card. They don't get letter grades in kindergarten, it goes by numbers 1-4. She received mostly 4s, but with a smattering of 1s in weird places (for example she got a 1 for recognizing and producing rhyming words, which is weird because she's been doing that at home for a couple years now). I was so happy to see on her Specialist progress report (the report card for Art, Library, Music, and Physical Education) that she got all positive comments. She had satisfactories for everything but art-in art she had an Outstanding and the teacher commented that she listens and follows directions, she completes work neatly, and shows talent in this area!
For library the teacher commented that she follows the rules, for Music the teacher said she participates in class and displays a positive attitude. (Gym didn't comment).
Wow! For a kid that my Dad was sure was going to be earning calls home from the kindergarten teacher every day that's really great! I'm very proud of her!

Girly fun

Mia's room was the girliest room I've ever seen. She has princess EVERYTHING. Her Mom hung some of the decorations from her princess birthday party last year and even a pink ball light hanging. They joked that the boys were going to come out of Mia's room wearing makeup, and sure enough, Timothy came out carrying a little thing of girl mascara! And necklaces. Here you see Leanna, who did her own makeup. They enjoyed playing dress-up, among other things.

Leanna and Mia

Leanna and Mia were really adorable together. They are both bossy too so I think they made a good match for each other. Leanna's two years older, but I think they look like they could be sisters. Here they are driving Mia's car-stop, start, lurch forward, run into chairs, the kid picnic table and through the swings! Justin was really fascinated by the car too but when he rode with Mia she went too fast for him and he got really scared!

Even though the picture's a little blurry, I love the one of Leanna laughing in delight as Mia drives so fast. They really had a blast together!

Huge yard

To give an idea of the size of his (rented) property.......the land extends way back beyond the truck you see parked in the back.

Baby Lexi

This is Alexis ( I don't know how they spell it though) she's three months old. Justin really wanted to hold her and kept asking, but her Mom wasn't comfortable with that-which I completely understand.

Cookout

We visited Jerry's family over the weekend and his yard is like a kid's paradise. He had one of those bouncy things that kids jump in (deflated in the picture of his yard), a mini pool/slide, a swingset, a sandbox, and tons of room to run around and play. You can see the temporary cage he built for the rabbit we brought him. Originally he was going to take three of them, but he couldn't find his cages.

New Van

With the help of my inlaws, almost-family, and the money we got from our truck getting totaled, we were finally able to get a family van. It's a '99 Chevy Venture. It will be so nice not to have to travel in a filthy vehicle loaded down with tools. That always worried me-if he ever had to come to a quick stop or got in an accident some of those heavy tools could go flying and seriously injure (or kill) someone. And we have air conditioning now! And it should be better on gas milage-another big plus.

At the midwife's today I found out the baby's breech right now. He's extremely active, so hopefully he'll change positions on his own before the birth. She gave me an excersize to do everyday to take advantage of gravity to hopefully move him into position. I have to go back again next week and if he's still breech then we'll do an ultrasound to see exactly how he's lying. And talk about options then. He could be sideways, feet down in a pike position, or feet down in a cannonball position. So send positive thoughts my way!

Also checked and found out she has no problem showing Leanna the placenta-she's very curious about that and the umbilical cord. We asked what color it is(before you cut it and it gets black), and she turned to Leanna and nicely explained a little to her. (It's white, almost clear, the color of a medical glove with three vessels)
I also asked if she by any chance had an empathy belly. Unfortunately no, she said they're very expensive. She laughed and asked who I wanted to wear that, and I said "My husband!" and she laughed even harder. She asked why and I told her, he has absolutely no conception of what this feels like, and no sympathy. Getting a chance to feel it even temporarily might help a little.

Little boys can be so sweet

I handed Justin a bar of Irish soap to wash his hands with (Don't ask why) and he saw the lettering carved into the soap. "It says I love Mommy!" he told me.

Birthdays....

Birthdays are fast approaching. In my family we do lists for birthdays and christmas (at least if people cooperate with giving you a list!) and I wasn't sure if I should post one here. I don't want to sound like I'm asking for things, but at the same time it's nice to have a list and to know what sort of things they're into right now. But then I figured it also makes a nice list of where their interests lie. They (or I) can look back and say, oh yeah! that's the year he was really into finger paints, or whatever. Sooo........

Justin likes:
Trains, especially Thomas
Dinosaurs
books
tools
finger paints
play doh or clay
a watch
Spiderman, Nemo, Curious George, Bob the Builder
cars (but not as much as Timothy)
He's generally a 3 T in clothes and needs shirts

Leanna likes:
Craft stuff
paper
her own calculator
purses
Beanie Babies
baby doll wipes and diapers
Trains
Dinosaurs
books
barbies-the dolls, the clothes, accessories, all that stuff (No Bratz please though)
Princess, Strawberry Shortcake
She's generally a 6T and needs summer clothes and pjs.

Belly

I had to laugh at this post on parentdish about having a wierd belly button during pregnancy. My sister felt the need to lift my shirt a bit ago to see what that weird thing was. I don't know what she thought I was storing in there, lol. My belly button's been popped out for months now.....it did that at the end with Timothy too. It didn't do that with the first two pregnancies though. I asked the midwife if it would go away after the baby came out and she laughed. She said yes. You probably have to loose a certain amount of weight before it goes back in?

With Leanna and Justin I had that line on the bottom half of my stomache. If you don't know, sometimes when you're pregnant you get this line which goes straight up the middle of your belly. It was the darkest with Leanna, it was much fainter with Justin, and I haven't had it at all the last two pregnancies. Wierd.

Dreams

Justin had a dream that there was a rabbit on his pillow the other night.
I love that he remembers dreams now. One night he woke up crying that there was a spider on his pillow, but I think that was actually inspired by the mane of the lion on his pillow. It does kind of look spider like.

Tom's had a two parter dream about winning a million dollars. The first time he had the dream he was waiting to hear if he won when he woke up. Then this week he had the dream again and he actually won. So he's waiting to have the dream again and find out what happens.

I had a dream where I was in labor and walking around waiting to give birth. But Timothy woke me up before I could have the baby so I don't know what happened. Probably just symbolic of the fact that I'm just waiting and waiting for this baby to come OUT!!!!
(I only had one other baby dream, probably about a month or so ago, where they were doing a c-section and as soon as they cut me open Tom reaches in to grab the baby. And the nurses were like Hey! You can't do that! But he was just too excited to wait for the doctor. Then I woke up. )

Gear for the expectant father

Ha, I wonder if he'd wear this: it's a diaper vest. For the man who doesn't want to carry around a sissy diaper bag.

(Under the most popular section they have a onsie/tshirt that says ipood. That's cute)

Soy

I'm posting this here for me to checkout later when I have time. For the two of you who might be interested also. : )

"I like what John Robbins wrote about soy on his website here and here. But I think the site I would most recommend is Bryanna's Soy Concerns FAQ -- it's very comprehensive and well-researched. Thank you, Bryanna!If you're worried about soy there are plenty of other things you can eat, even on a vegan diet. Some people decide to limit their soy consumption to traditional soy foods, like tofu, tempeh, soymilk, and miso. A lot of Jo Stepaniak's books contain soy-free recipes, including the Food Allergy Survival Guide, which is perfect for those out there with soy (or other) allergies."

Food rainbow

I happened to check out the vegan lunchbox and she had put this picture up-I love the rainbow! I just thought it was really pretty so I'd share it.

Genetics

You will probably think this is a strange picture. But I look at it and Wow! the eyes are mine but the expression is pure Tom. His face looks just like his Daddy's here.
I think that kind of stuff is so fascinating. It's neat how they can look so much like one person one minute, and the next with a change of body language or facial expression they're the spitting image of someone else.

Little cutie