So Far...

This is the first time I've officially written a post about being pregnant again (for real this time, no April Fools!), but I thought it was time to catch everyone up to speed on what's been going on. I'm 10 weeks today and I have been so much sicker with this pregnancy than with my previous 3. Some would claim that means I'm having a girl this time, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Not that I wouldn't love to have a girl, but, you know, I'm 0 for 3 in that department, so another boy would be just fine at this point. :o) Anyway, last week I went for an ultrasound at this little medical clinic near my house. I can get ultrasounds here for less than $10, so I thought it was worth going to hear the heartbeat and making sure everything seemed normal. Originally, I wasn't even planning to see a doctor for any prenatal stuff because I'll be in the States by the time I'm 15 weeks along. I didn't see a doctor until at least 7 months along with the others, so why go now? ;o) Anyway, the ultrasounds have always been a good check-up for me, especially since they're so cheap. So, Daddy and I go, and the technician and nurse are talking to each other in the local language (which we don't speak very well at all), but basically not really telling us anything because they don't speak any English. This is a normal experience for us, so we didn't think anything of it. We were glad to only see one little baby in there, and to hear his/her heartbeat. Being the 4th baby, we kind of know how to look at ultrasounds. :o) After it's over they take us back downstairs to the front desk where they whisper something to the girl at the desk who speaks "some" English. She proceeds to tell us, "There is a problem. Your womb is too tight and you may lose the baby. You should see your doctor as soon as possible." That was all she could say, basically, so that's the information we left with. Oh my. Needless to say, we were a little disconcerted at this news. So we went home and Daddy started to translate the ultrasound report (using Google translator) to see exactly what the problem was. Local medical professionals here tend to overreact or exaggerate about things at times, so we weren't totally freaked out, but we did want to find out what was going on. Once we had the translation, we found out that I have a blood clot on my placenta, which does happen to some women. It often works itself out by the 20th week. However, it does mean that I have had some internal bleeding for some reason. We've contacted my midwife as well as an American doctor here and they both told me that the best thing I can do at this point is just rest and take it easy as much as possible. I've had to quit exercising and I can't lift anything heavy. This unfortunately means that I can't pick up Micah who is currently pushing 30 lbs at 17 months old. That has been difficult, to say the least, but we're doing our best with it. Getting him to climb up on stools to get into his bed is the hardest thing. And when I just need him to do something, I basically have to talk him into it because I can't just pick him and take him where I want him to go. Okay, maybe that's the hardest thing. I've tried to spend a lot of time just sitting near him on the floor so I can hold him and be close to him, so I don't think he feels stranded or anything like that. In fact, he'll walk up to me and pat the floor and say "down" so I'll come down to him now. Very cute. I have been trying to rest as much as I can in this household. :o) I'm usually able to take a little nap/rest in the mornings after Micah goes down for his nap while Joshua and Luke play together. They can "usually" last for about 30 minutes without needing direct supervision. I rest on the couch so I can hear them in the kitchen. Then in the afternoons I get 30 minutes to an hour long nap when Luke and Micah are both down for their rest times and Joshua is playing his computer learning games. Sometimes I have to lay down for another 10-15 minutes in the evenings just from being worn out by the day. But, all of that to say, I think I'm getting my rest in, so I feel good about that. Now if I could just stop feeling queasy, then this would all be so much easier to handle. I'm pretty much eating ALL day long, but I'm still almost constantly queasy. Most of the time I can keep going with my day, but it does cause me to have to lay down from time to time, which is frustrating when I need to be doing something else. However, I'm just thankful for this little one growing inside me right now. If I have to put up with queasiness and resting all day long, then he/she is worth it. I might forget that from time to time, but ultimately the Lord brings my perspective back to the right place eventually. Please keep praying that the baby and I will be healthy and that this blood clot will clear up quickly. I'm due for another ultrasound in 3 weeks to monitor it. As time gets closer to our departure (at the end of January), it will be harder and harder to rest as we're packing up our whole house. I'm going to do my best!

The Twirling of the Hair

All 3 of my boys twirl their hair in some form or fashion. I've only recently discovered Micah doing it, confirming that he is indeed a Wideman boy. Joshua runs his fingers around the swirl on the top of his head. He used to play with the front of his hair as well, but he doesn't really do that anymore. Luke plays with the back of his hair and it's only in conjunction with sucking his thumb. He only plays with his hair when he's sucking his thumb and he cannot suck his thumb without playing with his hair. What's funny about him is that he can also play with someone else's hair while he is sucking his thumb. It doesn't really matter who it is, his parents, his brother, or a friend. If someone is sitting next to him reading him a book, they can't count on a small head massage from Luke. And finally, the other day when I was singing Micah his last song before his nap, I noticed that he, too, was playing with the back of his hair. It was really cute. I know that I say everything that he does is cute, but you would say the same thing if you could see him for yourself. :o) Anyway, all 3 of the boys only do the hair twirl when they're tired (well, that is, except for Luke who always does it when sucking his thumb). If they were girls, their hair would be in knots when they wake up in the mornings! Here is a picture of J&L that I caught one morning with both of them playing with their hair (I made Luke take his thumb out for the picture). They're so funny sometimes!

Addendum to My Last Post

So, I wrote lots of cute things about the Mikage (a nickname) the other day, but later that day I thought of several things that I should have included in that post about him. So, here they are...

Micah does this adorable little "food dance" when he thinks he's about to get something to eat that he really wants. He will dance at other times if hears music, but this is a special dance reserved only for the prospect of yummy foods. It's usually when he's in his high chair (since that's where he eats), and he just sort of rocks back and forth really fast while kicking his legs 90 to nothing. It's hard to describe, but really funny to watch. I might ask him if he wants a cookie, and instead of nodding or saying "yes" (which he normally does both of those things) he will do the dance in giddy anticipation of said cookie. Wish you could see it!

I mentioned that he's talking more and more these days. One of the cute things he does is repeat the last word of whatever song that I'm singing. I almost always sing a little song to him before I put him down for sleeping. Lately almost every time I finish the song, he will sing the last word after me. It's so precious. He's also asking (at least I think this is what he's doing) how to say things. He points to something and says "that" in a a questioning way. He says "that" a lot in reference to anything and everything that he doesn't yet know how to say. It's kind of like the word "smurf" for him.

And lastly, he is reaching for everything these days. Nothing on the kitchen cabinet or table is safe anymore. At least he hasn't started climbing up on the stools to grab things, though I'm sure that's only a matter of time. The other day I was at the kitchen sink and turned to discover him holding the bowl of honey without the lid on it. Thankfully there wasn't much honey left in it, so it didn't make a big mess. But he's come very close to turning things over and spilling things on the floor. I suppose it's only my fault when I leave things too close to the edge. I still remember when Joshua was this age and he brought me a big knife that he had pulled from the sink of dirty dishes. I was sick! But I was grateful that he hadn't hurt himself. Another time he brought me a glass mug with water in it that had been sitting on the table. He hadn't even spilled it! Hopefully Micah won't have these opportunities. :o) We just have to be more careful now that's he bigger!

17 Months Update

For all the fans, I thought I'd give a little update on what Micah is doing now. His cuteness factor has only increased since the last time I wrote about him. He can say most words now and repeats a lot of what he hears. We may be the only ones who really understand what he's saying, but he's communicating nonetheless. He will ask for his "wawer" when he's thirsty (that's water). The other day in the middle of breakfast he refused his yogurt and said "tootie" to me, meaning he wanted to eat a cookie right then. He didn't get the cookie, but it was cute when he tried. Recently he's started saying his version for the word cucumber because he knows I'll give some to him before it's actually time to eat, "tumber!" He also likes to ask for "apa" which is apple. He loves looking at "bopes" (books) and will ask for them. His two most favorite recent words are "Wook" and "Josh-a". If he can't see his brothers, he is looking for them. Sometimes he'll stand in the hall and yell their names trying to figure out where they are, "Woo-ook". I wish you could hear him!

Other than talking up a storm, he's just a very playful little fella. As long as he's well-fed, he's pretty happy. And I do mean well-fed. He can eat so much if it's something he likes. There are times he eats more than his brothers. Speaking of which he currently weighs 28 lbs. I wouldn't say he's chubby at all, just solid. He's beginning to outgrow some of his 18 month clothing already. In unfortunate news, I think he's ready to move to one nap a day. This is kind of really bad timing for me as we're getting ready to start packing up our house and I really need him to take 2 naps. :o( He's just all over the place when he's up. He will sit at the table doing activities like stacking and sorting for a little while. But he doesn't last long doing that if I'm not right there. He does want to be helpful, he'll take off to do things you ask him to do like throw something away, or wake up a brother, or put something in his room. We'll see what happens with the nap situation. Maybe I can just cut them short and still get two out of him for a little while. If we can just make it through the next two months...

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. Currently if he sees a camera, he just puts this big grin on his face that's really adorable. And he loves wearing hats! I can't wait for many of you to meet him in person!

Another School Update

We've done a lot of fun things in our homeschool lately. I thought I should post some pictures of our fun times!


Recently we studied rocks, so this is the boys painting a rainbow rock garden.


We did 4 weeks of wild animals. Penguins was one week. So I drew (at least attempted to draw) 3 different penguins as their actual height. The Emperor penguin is actually 4 feet tall! I learn so much when I'm teaching them.

Micah wanted to measure himself against the life-size penguins also (since that's what big brothers did). He is about the same height as a chin-strap penguin.

One week was about elephants, so we made these ears and trunks. The boys really liked these! We also watched some great footage on Planet Earth of elephants. Yay for Planet Earth!

The boys put on the pilgrim hats (thanks Grandmother!) and we made a feather headdress for Daddy so he could pretend he was Squanto. They had a fun time acting out the story of the pilgrims.

This picture is not actually school related, but I included it so you could see Micah's cheese face. He's totally into getting his picture made these days. So cute. I'm hoping to post a cuteness update soon!

Pumpkin Pancakes

We decided last year to begin a new tradition of eating pumpkin pancakes for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. So we've been building it up for weeks now, how yummy they were going to be, how unique they are, etc. Thanksgiving morning, I'm slaving away in the kitchen making these yummy pancakes when Daddy walks in and tastes one. He looks at me and says, "Have you tasted these?" A horrified look crosses my face, what have I done?! Luke comes in and sneaks a taste of one and his face screws up into an ewww-yucky-kind of-face. Now I'm almost in tears. I taste one, hoping they're exaggerating, only to realize that somehow I've ruined our Thanksgiving morning special breakfast. :o( Daddy suggests that we try to eat them anyway, maybe the boys won't really notice. Of course, Luke had already noticed. We sit down at our lovely decorated table with cute little Thanksgiving plates. Joshua starts tearing into the pancakes. Finally, he says, "Usually I like pumpkin pancakes, but when I swallow, I don't like these very much." In the end, I had to confess to the boys that I had messed up breakfast and maybe we could try again the right way the next morning. We threw the rest of the pancakes away.

It was the vinegar. It calls for 2T of vinegar. When I was pouring it into the measuring spoon, I spilled a little. So I just figured that maybe I had spilled more than I realized. The thing is, the vinegar taste was SO strong in the pancakes that I couldn't figure out how I possibly could have spilled that much. The more we pondered (and tasted) the problem, the more we tried to figure it out. Later Daddy had to run outside to get some eggs for me at the little store in our apartment complex. He noticed the vinegar that he had bought for me the day before (which I had used that morning) and saw that it said 70% proof. When he got home, he checked out what we were using before he had bought this new stuff. It was 6% proof! No wonder my pancakes were awful! The vinegar I used was more than 10 times as strong as normal vinegar! Just another adventure of living overseas and not really being able to read food labels. Later that day we bought a new bottle of "normal" vinegar and I made the pancakes again the next morning. They were very yummy! And I was able to redeem myself in my children's eyes. :o)