New Babysitter

Since Mom is going to Texas to visit T.J. and Holly for a few weeks, I had to get a fill in sitter. I only work two days a week at the most, so I have never really had to rely upon anyone but my mom. Kellie Mixson said she would be willing to help me out. This morning was the first time I left the boys with her. She has two boys, a three year old and a one year old, so I was sure that she would be good with the kids. However, I was a nervous wreck this morning wondering how Noah would react to a new environment and if Kellie would be able to handle Jonah. I even typed up and printed out three pages of instructions for her. I had to force myself not to call all day to see how they were.
When my day at work was finally over, I rushed to go get them. She still had all of her hair, and agreed to keep the kids tomorrow, so Jonah obviously was not too difficult. I should not have worried about Noah even for a minute. He cried all the way home because in his words, "I wanted to live there forever." They must have had a busy day because both boys were asleep before 7:30 tonight. It is such a relief to find someone who will take care of my babies that way. Now I can go to work tomorrow and actually concentrate on what I am doing.

Willie Blue Fishy

Noah has a blue beta fish named Willie Blue Fishy. A few nights ago, after being told not to, Noah decided to feed the fish by himself. In the process, he dumped half of the bottle of fish food in the bowl. Upon seeing this, Joe said something along the lines of "what are you trying to do, kill him?" At this point Noah breaks into tears because of course he wasn't trying to kill his fish. While Joe tried to calm Noah down, I tried to get the fish taken care of. After I dug through the fish food for a while, I finally found him, got him out, cleaned the bowl, and got him back in. I think the shock of everything was a bit much for such a tiny little fish.
Yesterday, Willie Blue Fishy was floating backwards near the top of the water. I watched all day as it got worse. I could not stand the thought of the fish dying and Noah thinking it was all his fault. Joe was working late, so I dropped the kids off at Mom's house and headed to Wal-Mart to buy another blue beta and switch them out before Noah noticed. When I got home, Willie Blue Fishy looked worse but was not dead. I could not bring myself to flush a live fish down the toilet, so I decided to wait until this morning to take care of it.
Yep, you guessed it, this morning Willie Blue Fishy was swimming around as if nothing had ever happened. Not only did I make a trip to town for nothing, now I am stuck with $3.57 fish that is identical to Willie Blue Fishy and can't go in the same bowl.

Easter Fun Day

Today was the annual Easter Fun Day that the Sunday School puts on. The boys had a great time. Noah played lots of games and won lots of prizes. His favorite was the jumping castle. Jonah enjoyed being outside and getting cooed over by everyone. The puppet ministry that came was great and the clown performance was very funny. Noah was scared by the clown at first but was soon laughing. After such a big day, I hope the boys hit the bed soon and sleep all night, I know I sure will!

No More Soccer

Hallelujah!!! Soccer is over. Today was Noah's last game and it could not have come quick enough. Noah decided a few weeks ago that he no longer wanted to play soccer. He wanted to quit and play baseball. I refused to let him quit, thinking that I was teaching him an important lesson about finishing what you start. Boy was I in for it! I think he tried to do everything in his power to embarrass me enough that I would just take him off of the team. Last week he stood in the middle of the field and dug a hole while everyone else played soccer around him. This week was totally humiliating. I noticed that Noah seemed to be rather aggressive toward the other players. By this I mean that whenever he ran by someone he would stick his arm out to purposely hit them. This progressed to all the other players being chased off of the field by my son because they were afraid that he was going to smack them. AAARGH!! I could have died of embarrassment. By the way, Noah will NOT be playing baseball. If he runs the players off the field in soccer, just think of what he would do with a bat!

No More Puke

I have been afraid to post this before now because I did not want to jinx things, but I think that we have finally "fixed" Jonah. The medicine has almost completely stopped the vomiting. We still have the normal baby spit-up, but nothing like before. A big thank you to everyone who prayed us through this. Jonah is enjoying life so much more now and we are all enjoying him. Noah has been such a good big brother. Noah is very gentle with Jonah and I love watching how they interact with one another. I know it will not be long before they are fighting over toys but for now it is a beautiful sight.

The Doctor's Office Again

Jonah has been doing much better since we have started with the newest medicine. I had cancelled the appointment with the specialist on Monday and was looking forward to a week with no doctors. I had such plans for the day, clean the house, practice soccer with Noah, get baby food made up for Jonah, the list goes on and on. My plans however went out the window when Joe called at about 10:00. He apparently had slipped while getting off the loader at work and in the process of trying to catch himself, ripped a gash in the palm of his hand. We ended up at the doctors office with him getting six stitches and a tetanus shot. For those of you who know my husband, this was no easy task. My Joseph is wonderful, but he can't stand needles or blood. He even leaves the room when the dog has blood drawn. Thankfully he made it though this time without passing out, although there was one time there that I was a little worried. I wanted to video the whole thing for future blackmail, but I figured as the supportive wife, maybe that was a bad idea. I did manage to get a quick picture of Joe and Noah just before they started stitching!
Silver lining in it all... Joe has to take it easy with his hand for a few days. This means no work and more time at home. Yippee!!

False Teeth And Deviled Eggs

Today at the dinner table, while comparing whose teeth were "sharper", Uncle Roger took out his false teeth and showed them to Noah. The look on my son's face was priceless. Memories came flooding back of when I was a little girl and my Uncle Bill took his teeth out and showed them to me. I remember spending hours in front of the mirror trying to get my teeth to come out. I was sure everyone would be impressed when I learned how to do that trick.

It is amazing that the older I get, the more I want my children's childhood to be like mine. I grew up surrounded by both my Mom and Dad's very large families. As strange as they all were (and still are) I would not change that for anything.

I love that now my family has dinner every Sunday at my Grandmother's house, surrounded by lots of other family. Amidst all the chaos and arguing over who ate the most deviled eggs, my children are not only experiencing the love of their family but are making memories that they will hopefully cherish for a lifetime.