Seth is 2 years, 4 months

Seth looks so different this month with his hair growing and getting longer.  I am really really loving him at 2 years.  He is SO cute and sweet.  I especially love his high high voice and the cute things he asks all the time.  He always asks hilarious questions, like, “You like blood, Mama?” (from when they took a drop of blood to test for anemia like a month ago) or “Did your band-aid fall off?” (also from a month ago when I got a flu shot).

Seth is really loving dropping Andrew off at preschool and getting one-on-one time.  He still prefers going to the park, so we end up going to a couple different parks and shopping or the library afterwards until it’s almost time to pick Andrew up and then we sit and read stories until he gets out of preschool.  He takes a nap about 50% of the time, usually falling asleep on the way to/from picking Andrew up from preschool.  Otherwise, he really really resists naps.  Although sometimes I can still get him to fall asleep by reading to him.  But then he goes to sleep almost instantly at night, which is nice.  Well, nice, if you can stand his total breakdown from like 3-6 pm, where he whines and cries continually.

Seth gets more and more into sports by the minute.  And it is all of them.  In any one day, he wants to do all of the above: play catch, play basketball, kick soccer balls around, play baseball by using either a shoe or a play tool as a bat, play tennis using a huge bubble wand as a tennis racket (this does not work particularly well as the hole in the wand is bigger than the ball), playing frisbee outside, and playing football by tossing around a little sand necklace with a football shape.  In other words, he is obsessed. 

Unfortunately, I bought the present the baby is “giving” him while he was at the store with me – a football.  I thought I could just slip it into the cart when Seth wasn’t looking – okay, I was obviously delusional.  Seth cried for like 2 whole days about how I needed to give him his gift.  Then, he forgot about it for a few days, but whenever we are at a store or somewhere where he sees a football, he remembers the gift he needs NOW.  I will be so glad when we can finally give it to him.

I tried to hide all the shorts and T-shirts because it is too cold, but Seth is very upset about missing his “soccer” shorts.  Very upset.  Much tears and drama.  Now, he tells me that all his shorts are “long” and “warm”. 

Seth has such a different style than Andrew – when he wants something, he first tries a little sweet negotiation, then tries just talking and being sweet for a little and then sneaking through what he wants in the very end.  I guess younger siblings really are better at negotiating.  However, Seth negotiates only when it is something that he really wants.  Most of the time, he likes to try to appease other people.  Andrew always tries to negotiate snacks away from Seth because Seth eats his up so much faster than Andrew.  Seth is usually sweet and shares some, but he isn’t  a total pushover and stands up for himself.  Seth is also a bit violent.  If Andrew is being mean or annoying him, Seth just starts pounding Andrew on the back.  I really should punish him more for that …

Seth really plays well by himself.  I am still amazed at how well he does.  We were at a Parents-as-teachers meeting and I was commenting to our educator about that, and she observed that he had been playing on his own for already half an hour.  And that is pretty typical.  He is really getting into imaginative play and I love to just listen to him while he plays by himself and hear the story lines he comes up with.  He really really loves playing with trucks and animals.

Seth is still super obsessed with fire trucks.  He checks the same movie out of the library like every week and always wants to check out any book with fire trucks or fire fighters in it.  And what he wants to be when he grows up – a fire fighter, of course. 

Fun things that Seth did this month:

- Trips to the zoo.  We saw everything with both boys one afternoon, at the boys insistence.  I also took Seth one morning by himself – we got there early enough to ride the carousel for free (Seth wanted to ride the elephant) and we also went to the Children’s Zoo and petted the goats.  It was really fun to see all the Halloween decorations up.

- General conference.  Seth was somewhat interested – VERY interested in the special snacks that we bought and made, and somewhat interested in watching, but spent most of the time playing happily by himself in his bedroom.

- Halloween party at the library.  So early, huh?  But the boys were SUPER excited to wear their costumes (they love being dragons!).  Seth ate all of his candy right away, but was pretty good about not being jealous as Andrew hoarded his candy.

- A day at Grant’s Farm (yay for Groupon!).  Seth was SUPER excited and it was fun because there are spooky Halloween decorations everywhere.  The boys were a little scared feeding the goats – those goats are all over you – from milk bottles, but really enjoyed the carousel and their first snow cone.

- Hiking at Emmennger Nature Park and Powder Valley Conservation Center with the whole family for Columbus Day.  The boys always LOVE hiking and like sitting on park benches the way back as much as possible.

- Finishing swim lessons.  Seth loved it.  We will have to sign him back up starting next year.

- Another Music and Movement class at the library.  Seth really is in love with the Blankies right now and wants to dance to two of their songs continuously – Jump, Walk, Spin where he jumps SO cute, and also one about sports

- Crazy birthday party weekend.  Seth went with all of us to a bounce house party at Monkey Joes.  He loved it.  He went on almost everything, regardless of whether he was really big enough.  I can not believe how high we can climb.  He was one determined kid.

- Magic House – Seth has not been here since he was under 1, so we all went for the monthly free night.  It was crazy and packed, especially so since it was (unbeknownst to us), a Trick-or-Treating night.  The boys collected a few toys from the costumed workers, but mostly had a blast checking out the exhibits.  Seth LOVED the huge slide.  He and Andrew always went so they were together and you could hear them coming because they were laughing so hard.  He also really loved the construction site part and worked really hard there.  It was a really fun evening and the boys were exhausted when it was all done.

- Weekend with Daddy!  Morning at the Clayton Vehicle Fair – the boys LOVE this, seeing the trucks and the helicopter coming in (how cool is that!).  Then, they went to a Chinese buffet and also went to their favorite rocket ship park.  Unfortunately, Seth spent the rest of the day throwing up – poor kid.  But it started out fun …

Funny things that Seth said this month:

- Andrew (as walking up to a girl on a playground): Hi! I am Andrew, I am four. What is your name?
Girl: I am Samantha.
Andrew: Samantha? That's a pretty name. What are you doing. Can I be your friend?
Girl (Looking somewhat uncomfortable): Ok
Andrew: Do you like going on a slide? We can go on a slide!
Seth (Noticing that Andrew's introducing himself, comes running over): I'm SETH! I am two I am two I am two I am TWO!!!! YEAHHH!!!

- Amanda: what does daddy do at work?
Seth: He eats!
Amanda: He eats? What does he eat?
Seth: Umm... Apples!
Amanda: He eats apples? What else?
... Seth: He sits!
Amanda: He sits? Where does he sit?
Seth: Umm... Train station!

- Amanda:  I am leaving.  I am going to a baby shower (for someone else, not me)

Seth:  Are you going to push the baby out?

Amanda:  Umm … no not yet.  I am going to a party.

Pregnancy Recap

I realized that I am great at keeping track of the boys once they are born, but my records at pregnancy / birth are kind of week.  So, since I am full-term now, seems as a good a time as any to write out Pregnancy #3.

We really liked the spacing between Seth and Andrew, after all.  But it didn’t seem like we could do because there was no way on earth that I wanted to have child #3 before finishing my PhD.  I felt like I was kind of fading out on my PhD and I knew I just had to finish.  So, it was a bit of a (happy) surprise that I found out I was pregnant at the end of February (that makes Seth and the new baby about 2 years, 4 months apart).  Which meant that the race was on to finish my PhD.  Within a week of finding out I was pregnant, my advisor also decided that I should finish my dissertation and defend this semester (Winter 2011).  So, the first trimester certainly started off with a bang.

My ObGyn, to my surprise, did not see OB patients and so I chose a new doctor, Dr. Bryan, from the same practice.  He has been great – of course, I haven’t had many issues/concerns with this pregnancy, so the visits are easy.  But his wife got a PhD, so he was understanding of that whole thing and we scheduled stuff the first trimester accordingly so I could devote the most time to finishing my PhD.  I had my first appt on March 29 and then another appt and ultrasound on April 13.  The baby, of course, just looked like a little bean – not too exciting to me, but the technician was excited.  The due date from that scan was Nov. 5, so they just left my due date Nov. 3.

The first trimester was a blur.  I felt sick to my stomach all the time, with only brief relief by eating.  And I don’t throw up.  So between the two, I always gain way too much weight my first trimester.  Oh, well.  It was making it difficult to work on my PhD – finishing my research, writing my dissertation, getting ready for my defense – but I didn’t have any options, so between lots of saltines and SeaBands (which did offer a bit of help), I got the work done, and thanks to a friend babysitting the boys A LOT while I worked in the basement.  I also got some new work out videos (I love the Pilates for pregnancy) and tried to do good at working out /eating well.  Of course, the main thing that I was craving was pizza – actually, throughout the entire pregnancy.  I swear, I could eat pizza almost every day!

My dissertation defense was on April 28th and also the date that I hit 13 weeks.  From there, my nausea started to get better but almost to the date, my pelvic pain and sciatica started.  Luckily, the sciatica wasn’t too bad and mostly lasted just for the second trimester.  The pelvic pain on the other hand … it was very bad through the second trimester, started to ease up a little bit half way through the third trimester, but is back with a vengeance, now.  I have also been pretty exhausted almost the entire pregnancy.  Probably from being pregnant and taking care of two little boys and finishing a dissertation.  The heat of the summer was especially hard (note to self: having a baby in the late spring is way better!).

The big ultrasound was scheduled at 18 weeks on June 6 and the technician was sure the baby was a boy.  Seth and Katsu came along to this scan and enjoyed watching, and everything looked good.  Andrew was at Vacation Bible School and was very sad that he missed it.  However, he was much more sad that we were having another boy.  From even before I was pregnant, he wanted twin girls (“one for me, one for Seth”).  I told him from the first ultrasound that it was only one and he has mostly gotten over not getting twins, but still will tell the whole world he wanted a sister.

Otherwise, the second trimester was uneventful but horribly hot and I was miserable.  I don’t remember EVER feeling as hot as I did this pregnancy.  Boy, it was hot here with heat advisories for half the summer, plus, even now in October I still just feel so hot.  Luckily, not too much swelling, but still … YUCK.  I also measured big through the second trimester (by fundal height), by 4ish weeks for a couple months, so I had a third ultrasound again on August 15th.  All the measurements looked good (Katsu came along, just in case something looked wrong, but almost missed the scan because he had to urgently use the bathroom) and it was again a boy, so we were feeling pretty sure.

This baby has also been extremely active, at least as much, if not more, than the other boys.  I started feeling movement pretty early in the second trimester (something I probably should have written down … oops) and it hasn’t gone away much since then.  This baby seems to do more like flips, head jabs, and butt jabs more than kicking.  And the movement seems a lot more painful than I ever remember from the other boys.  Katsu is always worried I am having a contraction – but no, that is just the baby sticking some body part into my abdomen very very hard.  And leaving it there.  During the active times of day (most especially around 10 pm and 4-5 am), you can certainly see my belly move a lot.

We finally made a hospital tour on Sunday Sept 11 at Missouri Baptist hospital where we plan to deliver.  The hospital seems nice and I LOVE that it is not a teaching hospital.  And so nice that this time around my own doctor should be there.  You do have to switch rooms after delivery, which is new to me, but they still have you keep the baby with you (unfortunately, not when they do exams/tests on the newborn, but the rest of the time).  But it seems like a very good hospital and very open to letting you do birth your way.

The third trimester is a little more miserable, of course.  I have had difficulty sitting on any hard surface for more than like 10 minutes (makes church very interesting … lots of roaming the halls and I don’t even have a baby!), so that is hard.  And of course, sleeping can be a challenge, but I think I am sleeping pretty well this time.  My weight gain sure picked up since the weather turned cooler – I didn’t have too much of an appetite for a lot of the summer.  And this pregnancy, I have heartburn, which I don’t really remember before.  I have had a few Braxton Hicks contractions here and there, I think, but I still have a hard time telling what is or isn’t a contraction since I have never really had out outside of the hospital before.  I do have a bit of anxiety about what it would be like to go into labor naturally.  I also have had what feels like pregnancy-induced allergies.  I swear, I only get them when I am pregnant, but they were thankfully only around for a couple weeks.  And I had another horrible sinus infection this pregnancy to the point where I was crying from the pain (and I don’t cry easily), but thankfully antibiotics cleared that up.

The only real complication I had was some tachycardia, a very high pulse.  One day early in September, it was really hot again and I guess I overextended myself (I don’t remember anymore than usual), but I did NOT feel good.  I could feel my pulse vibrating in my head and I just felt really sick and lightheaded.  My pulse was pretty high – like 120 or something, at least.  So, I laid down for awhile and drank lots of water, but nothing really helped.  It was still high a few hours later when Katsu got home from work early to take care of me (but I was starting to feel a little bit better).  By the time the boys went to bed, my pulse was down.  It hasn’t happened again, but my doctor said if it happened again for more than like 20 minutes, I needed to go to the ER.  I have been a little worried/paranoid about it since than and have really tried to take it easy and have also basically stopped exercising because I have been worried about elevating my heart rate too much.  But otherwise, this pregnancy has been normal.

The boys both seem pretty excited about the baby, but Seth definitely more so.  He likes to talk about being a big boy and a big brother.  He loves to lift up my shirt and kiss the baby and he will just come over and say “I love you baby” to my belly.  It is so cute.  Lately, the boys have been fighting over who will get to take care of the baby.  Seth has already picked out a little gift to give to the baby when he gets here (and the “baby” has picked out presents for the boys, too).

I don’t look as pregnant as I am.  Everyone today was expressing amazement that I am less than 3 weeks to my due date.  I definitely carry small compared to other people (I swear, I said that like 20 times today) and I think also that my rib cage expands tons during pregnancy (my bra band size goes WAY up when I am pregnant), so that kind of hides it.  Plus, the baby is never terribly high – I never get that feeling of someone kicking me in the ribs (yay!).  But I still feel just as pregnant, let me tell you.

We still have not totally decided on a name.  I was kidding (sort of) in the beginning that if we had boy/girl twins, the names would be Luke and Lorelai (yes, I have been watching Gilmore Girls almost all 7 seasons this whole pregnancy).  But alas, such easy names was not to be.  Boys names are SO hard.  I think we have mostly decided on a boys first name, but still working through what to do for the middle name (all Japanese boy names sound So foreign to me, so Katsu mostly picks with me getting the veto, like “yeah, that kind of sounds like a cuss word” kind of thing).

I realized that this is a fall baby (duh) and so going through the clothes, we really had nothing warm for the 0-6 month stage.  But luckily, I ended up with a HUGE amount of onesies, sleepers, socks, etc. that looks immaculate off of Freecycle.  Almost all Carters and looks brand new to me.  I swear, their kid must have never needed to do laundry (or maybe we just live off a lot less clothes than other families do).  So, we have totally scored.  And we bought a new crib (with money from studies and such, we only paid like $30 for it and it was a nice one, too!).  I really like it, though it really just barely eeks into our room and that is with 0 floor space between the futons and the crib.  I guess I will just have to step on Katsu to get the baby out to feed at night.  We also have some diapers and I feel like there isn’t much to get.  We don’t have any of the big baby equipment this time around (bouncer, swing, exercauser, etc.), nor do we have any room for it, so this baby better like being in a sling or on a blanket on the floor.  It feels kind of weird to feel like there isn’t much to do to get ready.

Even with all the yucky symptoms, I have been a lot more relaxed this pregnancy.  It has been so nice that the last 2/3rds of my pregnancy, I have not had to do school work!!!!  Such a relief.  And I have really tried not to try to take on too much.  But I do feel like I have spent every evening vegging with the TV and my cross-stitch, but hey, I deserve it right?  On the happy note, this baby’s stocking is almost done!!!!  I started pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant.  It’s a cute but very very full cross-stitch of baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph.  I can’t totally finish it before the baby is done because there is no way on earth, I would take out the stitches if we decided to change the name, but I am hoping to do all the rest.  I also think this baby is going to be instantly calmed by hearing the theme song to Gilmore Girls since I have been doing a marathon since I finished my PhD.  But so nice to be able to relax during pregnancy.  Now if only that would translate to some new napping superpowers … why do I feel like the only person on earth physically incapable of taking a nap?

I still feel like it is a little unreal that I am pregnant and now I’ll have a new baby sometime in the next month!  Crazy!

Andrew is 4 years, 5 months

What a difference a month makes.  I feel like Andrew has really grown leaps and bounds from being in preschool for a month.  It’s funny, because it’s a play based preschool.  They do have a letter of the week that they use for arts and crafts and also for show and tell every week.  And they also write their name every day and do a little practice each week writing the letter (as far as I can tell, mostly just on the bag they bring home for show and tell).  But otherwise, they don’t focus on academics – mostly playing and learning through play, following directions, that sort of thing.  Which I love.

Anyways, things are really starting to click for Andrew.  First of all, our Andrew has never shown much interest in coloring, drawing, writing, etc.  Anytime I tried to get him to do it, he would instead glue or cut or paint, which he loves to do (anything messy, pretty much).  Now, he LOVES to draw and write.  His pictures actually are starting to resemble things!  He can write his name pretty well and other letters, too.  He even colors pictures inside the lines (more or less).  Massive improvement.  I was worried how he would do in kindergarten next year before because he showed zero interest in writing or drawing, but now I am not worried at all.  He is totally ready.  One sunday morning while I was getting ready for 9 am church, he even glued together pages and wrote and drew on them to make himself a couple books.  I was pretty impressed!

Besides this, Andrew is really starting to go further with the letters.  He can identify the first letter of words and comes up with his own ideas for show and tell each week.  Funny story – for B week, he told me he wanted to bring his bobblehead – it is of Matt Holiday from the Cardinals baseball team.  I was surprised that he even knew it was called a bobblehead and that he knew it started with b, but thought it was a great idea.  So, he brings it in.  That night, I am looking through his class list and realize that Matt Holiday’s kid is in his class … ha ha ha.  And get this – two other professional athletes (a pitcher from the Cardinals and also a tennis player) also have kids in the class.  We are a little out of our league, here, I guess, but now I certainly feel obligated to be a Cardinals fan (unless they play the Red Sox, of course).

Andrew is also starting to rhyme.  So, I would say preschool is going really well.  He has expanded his friend (stalkee) circle to include another girl (yay!) and basically only likes to play with girls.  I am trying to convince him to play with boys, too, but he is not so convinced.  He does play with a couple kids from his class last year on the playground each day (and one is a boy), so maybe he will change his mind.  And his favorite color – pink.

Andrew remembers things so well and is always saying such interesting things.  We went to the zoo this month and it is all torn up while they are constructing a new sea lion exhibit.  We were talking about when it will be done and Andrew says “It better be done on time or else the tax payers will be angry!”.  I guess they talked about it in a construction movie we watched once, appeasing those tax payers.  Ha ha ha.  He still talks constantly, to everyone he meets, and in the loudest voice ever.  However, he can whisper.  He went to a baptism with Katsu on Saturday (which Katsu conducted) and sat next to his old nursery teacher.  She said that he talked to him the entire time, but in a good whisper.

I don’t know if Andrew is particularly excited about the baby – he is still upset that it’s not a girl.  We’ll see how that goes.  I am sure he will be helpful, though.  He is pretty good about helping out around home and doing his chore (putting away the utensils).  He also loves helping out with dinner.  I am thinking of getting him some of his own kitchen tools for Christmas.

Andrew was in the primary program last month.  He did a good job with his line, especially since we weren’t great at practicing with him since we were all sick that week (Katsu and Seth didn’t get to see it since Seth had croup).  Andrew enjoys parts of Primary, but still complains about going to church.  He really dislikes singing time and sharing time – I hope that will improve since they were practicing program songs SO intently until now.   His sunbeam teacher has snacks and toys, so sunbeams is a very fun class.  He loves reading our Book of Mormon books and spiritual things and is a huge fan of Family Home Evening and doing board sets.  He also likes learning primary songs at home and is a huge fan of “Follow the Prophet” and “Nephi’s Courage” which they unfortunately never sing in our Primary.

Fun Things This Month:

- Flu shots!  Andrew refused to do it and it took holding him down (while he kicked the door and me and anything he could).  I knew he would be a pain, though.  He really hates shots.  As soon as it’s August, he starts talking about how much he hates flu shots.  Too bad that kid won’t be able to have the Flumist because of his allergies.

- Forest Park Balloon Race.  Andrew played ball/frisbee with Katsu while Seth slept in the car and then we went and watched the balloons come in.  Andrew loves watching the balloons and tried to spot every one before Seth could.  He loves to make everything a contest with Seth now (more, better, faster, winner, etc.)

- Apple picking.  We were going to go to a place close to the airport when we picked Katsu up, but they were all out of u-pick, so we came home.  But Seth was INSISTENT.  So, we looked up directions to Eckerts and after some interesting directions from Katsu (who is still convinced if we somehow even drive through East St. Louis we will promptly be shot and die), we finally arrived.  Andrew loved picking out the apples himself, although he is not a huge apple fan.  I think he did eat one or two, though.

- Primary program.  Andrew also got a little bag of candy for participating and a jar of cookie mix.  He had fun making the cookies with me, but in my opinion they turned out pretty awful.  Creaming butter with sugar without adding other ingredients really makes a big difference, in my opinion.

- Trip to the zoo.  We saw everything, at the boys insistence.  Andrew was running down a hill and tripped and fell and so we had to take him to First Aid to get a band-aid.  He thought that was pretty eventful.

- General conference.  Andrew was SO excited when he heard it was coming on the next Sunday.  We usually eat the food (and try to rotate it) from our 72 hr kits … but the kits had already been raided, so we had to purchase some fun snacks for the kids.  The kids did watch all the sessions with us (more or less) and Andrew LOVED watching for President Monson.  The best part, of course, was playing outside with Katsu between sessions.  But he did tell me today that he is glad that General Conference is all over.  That’s a lot of church for one boy.

- Halloween party at the library.  So early, huh?  But the boys were SUPER excited to wear their costumes (they love being dragons!).  Andrew got really into bingo (his first time to play) and wouldn’t stop playing until he finally won (a Tootsie pop, yay!).  He has diligently squirrled away his candy and finally finished it today, much to Seth’s chagrin who ate his right away.

- A day at Grant’s Farm (yay for Groupon!).  Andrew was SUPER excited and it was fun because there are spooky Halloween decorations everywhere.  The boys were a little scared feeding the goats – those goats are all over you – from milk bottles, but really enjoyed the carousel and their first snow cone.  Andrew also really liked the animal show and was upset we didn’t have a seat for the elephant show.  He even remember that last time we went (over a year ago) we saw zebras on the tram and this time we didn’t.

- Hiking at Emmennger Nature Park and Powder Valley Conservation Center with the whole family for Columbus Day.

Happy 10 years!

Katsu and I met 10 years ago hiking in the mountains of New Hampshire on a Columbus Day FHE activity.  There was gorgeous foliage, snow on the ground (!!!) and Katsu was great at pushing my bum up the trail.  Ha ha ha.

Today, he took part of the afternoon off and we and the boys went hiking.  Yes, me at almost full-term pregnancy and it was great.  The foliage is starting to pop out here.  First, we tried a trail I had done before with the boys by myself … I should have checked the map more carefully because we thought we were following the trail, but it seriously looked like a tornado had hit it – trees EVERYWHERE.  Finally, we turned back because we couldn’t navigate it.  And the trail was right along the Meramac River, with a pretty steep drop off and downed trees everywhere.  Turns out we were on a little spur and should have gone back to find the path.  Whoops.  So, we went hiking on a new-to-us trail at Powder Valley Nature Center.  A short little .67 mile trail, but steep up and down.  The boys loved it, especially all the deer – we probably saw like 15 and very close by, too, and the foliage was beautiful.  And I didn’t have any contractions (unlike when I went hiking sans-Katsu but with the boys a couple times this summer).  Maybe we should do more hiking before the baby comes.  We even had ice cream for a treat when we came home (and at the boys’ insistence, popped in a quick FHE on the abrahamic covenant.  Can I say how much I love the church’s new OT resource DVD.  We use it ALL the time).

Yay for 10 years of knowing each other.  I can’t believe how fast it passes.