Pregnancy Update

I thought I would share with you briefly what's going on around here. Most of you already know a good part of this, but to round out the details, I'll post here.

After having lots of fairly strong contractions at close intervals, we went to the doctor on Friday. I was monitored and given a shot to lessen the contractions. That helped, but as soon as the shot started to wear off, the contractions picked up again. I ended up in the hospital on Friday and spent the night there to be monitored, put on IV's, and given medication.

Over the weekend I took the medicine and stayed off my feet as much as possible. We are so blessed to have a wonderful church family and within a few hours of one person being made aware of what was going on our Life Group (small group in our church) had planned meals and child care for the weekend. What a blessing. I hadn't even had time to think through what would be needed before someone else had thought of it and made sure it was all taken care of. We are truly blessed.

We are blessed to have family in town as well. Bob came over and watched the kids when we had to go to the hospital, and today Jennie watched our kids and Bob took me to the doctor for a follow up appointment.

After my visit today, I feel like I know a little more what to expect long term. My contractions had decreased (thanks to the medicine and rest) to about one every 10 minutes. Since they had been coming every 4 minutes this was an improvement. I am going to have to stay on the medicine probably long term and monitor my activity. My doctor is wonderful and is very balanced I feel in his approach. He realizes that I have two small children and so has told me to do what I need to in order to care for them, but also to stop and put my feet up as much as possible. I'm not supposed to do any strenuous activity as well.

Basically, what this all means is that I need to follow my body. If contractions pick up, I need to do less, etc.

How you can pray:

1) That the baby will stay where he is for a good long while!
2) That I will have wisdom in following the clues my body is giving me and rest when I need to, eliminate what activities I need to, etc.
3) That I will submit to my husband's wishes when he warns me that I'm doing too much. I can be pretty stubborn about things like that. Ahem...

Thank you so much for your prayers. As long as things continue status quo, I will be taking the medicine every few hours and will have weekly visits with the doctor to check things out. I think I will start to feel like I'm living at the doctor's office:).

While I don't like the side effects of the medication, it is the lesser of two evils and I'm happy to do whatever is necessary for the health of our baby.

Home

Since Brian and I got married just over four years ago, we have lived in four different homes. For those of you that grew up in the same house your entire lives, and then when you moved out of your parents got a home down the street and have lived in that house ever since this will seem very strange. That's just not how we roll :). We've moved. A lot.

One of the things I've learned from moving so much is that every place has it's unique things that you love and some you don't love so much. The bottom line, though, is that it doesn't matter where your stuff is, if we're together as a family, it is home. I've also learned to let go of said stuff. The more I move the more I want to get rid of things. But that's a whole different post!

Guess what this month marks for us? Drumroll...we have now lived in our current home the longest of any home since we got married. Yep, that's right!

So, in honor of that (the longest home we've every lived in, that is) I thought I'd post about it! This home just got dropped in our laps when we desperately needed a place for an affordable price. We're grateful to have amazing landlords that we can also call friends from our church. (Are you reading, Tressa? )

Our home was built in the 1920's and with that comes some very unique characteristics. For the very first time in my life, I now understand why people like to buy old homes and fix them up. I'm not saying I'm doing that, now, but I do understand it! There are definitely some things about this home that I love and that you would never find in a newer home.

So, enjoy a brief tour of some of the fun characteristics of our less than 1000 sq. ft home.

First off, and the thing that everyone mentions when they first walk in the door, is the gorgeous wood. It's everywhere. And it's real. Beautiful. I often just sit and admire it from my seat in the living room.


Beautiful built-ins.

All the windows have this wood around them (and there are nineteen windows in the house!)
And look at that crown molding? That's not fake, folks!

Check out our mailbox! Yes, this is inside the house. Stefan loves when the mailman gives an especially good shove (which he usually does) because it all goes flying to the floor! How fun! The other nice perk is that we don't have to step out of our home to check the mail. Talk about luxury.

How many of you have light switches that look like this? Come to think of it, light switch is not an appropriate term. I wonder what they called them? Light buttons?

Those are just a few of the fun aspects of our home. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Growing, growing, growing

This week we had check-ups for both Stefan and Olivia.


3 years old:
Weight: 33.6 pounds, 60th percentile (probably a little off due to sickness)
Height: 39 1/2 inches, 90th percentile

1 year old:
Weight: 21.4 pounds, 50th percentile
Height: 28 inches, 20th percentile

The difference in height percentiles couldn't be more stark. Makes me laugh.

Little Stinker

Been wondering what the new one year old is up to?

Well, I found this around my house the other day...



Oh, and that milk I left sitting within reach for all of two minutes? Yep...on the floor. She wanted a drink, what can I say? And yes, she was actually lapping it up like a dog. Oh my. I was laughing so hard and I didn't get a picture of that. Oh well. Daddy mopped the floor for me after this so it's all good.

She keeps us on our toes, this one. No doubt about it!!!

Olivia's Birthday Party

A little cuteness for your Monday morning! (We all need that don't we?)


Uncle Bob, Aunt Jennie, Patience and Corban came over to help us celebrate. It was a fun Lady Bug party. I went over to a friend's house to decorate the cupcakes. We had fun doing them and I learned a lot from her in the process. Olivia got spoiled with some really nice toys and clothes.

Oh, and blowing out candles and eating cupcakes were of course part of the event! She loved her strawberry cupcake!

Children's Bible Books

It hit me recently that I talk a lot about books here, and yet I have not mentioned the book (s) that get read daily. So guess what? I'll tell you about them now! Each night (mostly, anyway) before the kids go to bed we have family Bible time. This is something that I am privileged to look to my parents as a model. Ever since I can remember that was part of our day. It would sometimes vary if we did it in the morning or evening, but except for rare occasions we always did it. I'm grateful for a husband that has established that in our home as well. For us, right now, that includes Daddy reading a Bible story, catechism questions/answers, sometimes a verse we've been working on learning, a song, or two or three, and praying. .

I love listening to Stefan's prayers. They can't be captured unless you hear them yourself, but they are just precious. We get a little glimpse into what he "gets" from the day through his prayers. Usually, his prayers consist of recounting every detail of the day or talking about what he hopes will happen (the other day it was, "Maybe Mommy make muffins tomorrow...") hint, hint. Sometimes, though, right in the middle he'll add in a phrase such as, "there is only one God" (a phrase from a catechism question), or an account of a Bible story. We love those moments because that is when we realize that things are being learned and taken in even if we don't always see it.

Here are our current favorite Bible books. Obviously, these are age-appropriate for the stage we are currently in. As our kids get older we'll adjust and find other materials.

Some of the reasons we like these books specifically:

- They are Reformed in their theology.
- They emphasize the progression of Redemptive history and not just individual Bible stories unrelated to one another.
- They introduce theological truths on a child's level.


The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm is a beautiful children's Bible. The pictures are captivating for toddlers and there are few words to each page. Perfect for the attention span of young toddlers. It reads more as one big story flowing smoothly from Old Testament to New Testament and sets the stage nicely for children to understand that the Bible is a complete, unified book of the redemptive work of Christ.


The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones is another very well written Bible book. The subtitle, Every Story Whispers His Name captures the message beautifully. More than once, I have read an Old Testament narrative and thought to myself, "I never realized that was a picture of Christ," or something similar. This book has slightly longer narratives which is great for a growing attention span. The artwork on this one is not as captivating as The Big Picture Story Bible, but Stefan still really enjoys them.

The Snowy Day

Do you know the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats? If not, and you have young children you should get to know it. (It's a Caldecott winner, by the way) It's a perfect book to save to give to your kids on the first day it snows. In fact, once snow season is over again, I think I will put it away for the summer and pull it back out in the winter again. It will be like getting a new book all over again!

This video of Stefan right after our big snow storm a couple of weeks ago reminds us of these lines in the book.

"He pretended he was a mountain-climber.
He climbed up a great big tall heaping mountain of snow--
and slid all the way down."

(special thanks to Auntie Donna for thinking ahead and buying the book for Stefan in anticipation of our many snowy days. He loved getting a new book--especially one he could relate to so well!)

Happy 1st Birthday, Olivia!

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since our little Olivia was born. We are so grateful to God for blessing our family with Olivia.

Happy Birthday, Olivia!
We love you!

(shots from her birthday breakfast)

Giggles!

A few giggles from our almost birthday girl!

Caps For Sale

One of my favorite things is when I can tie in learning to a specific book. It makes it so much more fun and memorable. This week we had a lot of fun reading, playing, and learning with the book Caps For Sale.

Last Saturday when Brian and Stefan went to the library, one of the books on their list to check out was Caps For Sale. I really couldn't remember the exact story line of the book since it had been so long since I had read it, but I knew it was a classic and had been a classic for many, many years. Generally, if a children's book has been around that long and is still loved and read there is a reason for it. That was reason enough for me to check it out. Brian also remembered having loved it as a child. I was slightly amused at how the first time we picked it up to read Stefan immediately loved it and wanted to read it again and again.

Then my mind started musing. And we all know that's dangerous! I started thinking about all the things we could do using the book as a springboard. Oh the fun! And the learning! We didn't do everything we had originally planned because Daddy unexpectedly got two snow days this week. We're always happy to throw out the original plan in favor of spending extra time with Daddy!

I cut out a tree from cardboard. At some point in this project, I started feeling like I was crazy, but thankfully right about the time I started thinking that, Stefan started jumping up and down yelling, "Tree, tree, I love trees." Then the feelings changed to "super mom!" Which of course is so far from the truth, but to Stefan I'm super mom and that's all that matters. Some day he'll know the truth, but for now, I'll hang on to that:) We also cut out and colored monkeys and caps.



One thing we did was match uppercase and lowercase letters. You can't really see this in the pictures, but the monkeys have uppercase letters and the caps have lowercase ones. Stefan matched them and stuck them on the tree. This was a great exercise as his lowercase letters are a little harder for him (think p's, d's, and b's).

We also got out a bunch of hats that we had around the house. We had so much fun putting the hats on and playing, "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and other crazy things! Oh the giggles and fun we had!!

We also used the hats to work on our numbers. We did this a couple of different ways. We each put several hats on our heads and then had to stand on top of the number that corresponded with the hats. We also did it where I held up a number and Stefan had to put the correct number of hats on his head. Or mine.


There are so many other things to do with this book. My mind is literally racing with them and there are also a lot of ideas on the internet. We may do some more next week or we may get the book back out of the library in a few months and do them. We'll see. I hope you can see, though, that there is so much to do with a simple book.

Have fun reading! Have fun with your kids! Have fun learning!

It's a BOY!!!!

We're pretty excited around here, because yesterday we found out that we'll be having another little boy in the family! The ultrasound was so fun. I was a little leary about taking the kids to it, but I'm glad we did as Stefan was completely fascinated with watching the pictures on the screen. Our ultrasound technician was wonderful and took lots of time pointing every detail out and he was enthralled, as were we!

He has been talking about a brother ever since, and it has been so fun to see how excited he is. Olivia, of course, has no idea what is going on, but I'm sure she'll be happy to remain in her spot as Daddy's only little princess for right now:)

I just love the pictures we got. This is a picture of the ultrasound so it is a bit fuzzy, but it is still good. It is absolutely amazing to me that he only weighs around 13 ounces and yet we can see all his little features so clearly. Our Creator is truly amazing.

Ba-ba-ba-ba

Half Way!!!

Can you believe we're at 20 weeks already in this pregnancy? Neither can I, and I'm the one pregnant so that's saying something. Whoa, Baby! Time's a flying! Let's just hope that the next half of the pregnancy goes as quickly (ha!).

Horrible picture quality, but you can see that baby is definitely making an appearance. No hiding that bump anymore. Except when I'm wearing a huge winter coat. Which is most of the time these days. Hello, we're expecting 15 inches of snow today! Anyway, when I don't have the coat on the bump is obvious. Now start the "oh poor thing" looks. You know...walking around the the grocery store with a 3-year old, an almost 1-year old and a BABY BUMP?!?! That's when I just want to walk right over to "the look" person and say, "children are a blessing." You hear that? A blessing! Anyway, off my soap box now...



And if you're wondering what the baby is looking like these days, according to babycenter.com he/she is about the length of a banana.

And if you're wondering what I looked like with Olivia you can click here.

Stay tuned. Later this week we're hoping to be sharing some exciting information!