Pregnancy and Popping

My midwife told me that around 32 weeks pregnant women seem to "pop". This was intriguing to me as I had never heard or noticed that before. She said that somewhere around 32 weeks the pregnant woman's body changes shape and all of a sudden she looks like she's going to have the baby any day now. Or it just looks like she's going to pop. :o) This totally happened to me, maybe because I was watching for it, but I really seemed to change around 32 weeks. After my difficulties in the first trimester (including being sick to my stomach 24/7 for months), I've had a terrific pregnancy. I've really been watching what I eat and have significantly limited my carb intake in order to keep my blood sugar under control. I've eaten more salads in the last several months than I probably have in my whole life. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed yummy American foods that I don't normally get to have, but I have just limited the amount that I take in and I really have felt great. For months now everyone has commented how I didn't look like I was going to have a baby anytime soon and how small I looked. So much for my vanity. I hit 32 weeks and the most common question I get now is, "Now when are you due?" And though not everyone says it (though some actually do), they all mean, "Wow, you look like you could be having that baby any day now!" Yeah, even at 32 weeks, I still had at least 6-8 weeks left and people were saying that to me. Now I'm in week 35 and looking pretty pregnant, which is to be understood. My first 3 babies were all born in the 38th week, so I really could be looking at just 3 weeks now. Wow. The reality of that has not quite set in yet in the busyness of everyday life around here. As a matter of fact, I only started reviewing the natural birthing techniques yesterday. :o) We're planning on doing a home birth with a midwife. I've done natural every time, but this will be my first home birth, so I'm excited about that. I just finished ordering the birth supplies to make sure we will have everything we need. At least I don't have to worry about packing my bag! And though my body did seem to "pop" around 32 weeks, I have felt better in the end of this pregnancy than I have with my others. Of course, I'm uncomfortable a lot of the time and have a hard time getting around sometimes, but overall I'm feeling pretty good/healthy to be this close to the end. I'm so grateful! And now that it's after midnight, I'm going to eat a little snack and head to bed. No problems sleeping here, by the way. I'm so exhausted by the end of the day that when I lay down at night, I'm out. Good night!

I'm Thankful For...

One of the things we want to instill in our children is gratitude and gratefulness. So every night each one of us says something that we're thankful for from that day. It can be as simple as what we had for dinner to something really special that happened that day. Recently Micah has decided that he is big enough to join in this ritual. It's not possible to skip over him because he will get this adamantly angry look on his face and say, "No Mommy! Micah's turn! Micah thankful!" So, we ask him, "Micah, what are you thankful for today?" And he always says, "I'm thankful for..." then he pauses to think about something. The thing is, he pauses so long that he forgets what he was saying and we have to ask him again. Then he starts over, "I'm thankful for..." pause. We go through this several times. Every. Night. If you try to suggest something to him, he gets the angry look again because he wants to come up with it himself. It can be really cute, but it can be really painful as we wait every night for him to think of something he's thankful for. He used to get on a roll and say the same thing every night. For example, for weeks he was thankful for Uncle Mike. Now he's more into a varied response that takes forever to come up with. Oh well. We press on in our pursuit of grateful children, I guess.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke is the first of our summer birthday season. He turned 4 on May 12th. It's strange to think that the last time we came back to stay in America for a while was to give birth to him. That was 4 years ago now! Luke is my energetic one. Not that all 3 of my boys are not energetic at any given time, but Luke seems to possess a greater amount of energy than seems humanly possible at times. He just can't contain himself sometimes. I used to think it was just the age that he was at, now I just think that's the way God made him. :o) Along with the energy God has given him, Luke also possesses a sweetness about him that so often blesses my heart. He will often just walk up to me and tell me how pretty my shirt is or that he likes my hair. And he loves to give hugs and kisses as well as snuggle. If you're reading a book to him (which he greatly enjoys) he will snuggle up next to you and twirl your hair as you read. When he's not in Tasmanian Devil mode he can be very gentle and tender, especially around babies. He's often a very good helper to Mommy when the table needs to be set or cleared; he can rise to the challenge to do a good job for me. Luke's favorite color is still yellow and he likes pretending that he's a super hero. Sometimes he'll just be running back and forth and tell me that he's Flash. Or if you want to engage him in some wrestling, watch out! He loves to beat up bad guys like Superman or Spiderman do. Luke can be very silly, too, making up words and "jokes" that don't really make sense but crack him up at least. :o) Lately he's shown a real interest in t-ball and will hopefully be able to show his stuff next month as his games begin. He likes playing outside and getting dirty. When we went to the amusement park in Branson, Luke was the first of all the little kids to ride some of the "scarier" rides. He can be very brave. He also likes to do school with Mommy or Daddy. We've been going through some preschool workbooks as we spend time together each afternoon. His tracing and coloring skills are impressive and he's really getting into cutting and pasting these days. Recently he's discovered "Tom & Jerry" and can't get enough of it. He just sits there and giggles and giggles as he watches it. It's really fun to watch him. He also likes Super Why, which is a cartoon that comes on PBS. It's a great cartoon as it teaches them skills to read. Luke likes to pretend that he is Super Why with the "power to read"! That's the theme we went with for his birthday party. Here is Luke dressed in the Super Why costume he got from the Morriss family.


Since the cartoon is kind of not well known we couldn't find any party supplies, so we had to improvise a little. Aunt Stacey came through with the cake decorating again this year. The cake was a book with a little Super Why figure on it. And we decorated the walls with "super letters" like the cartoon. Luke loved it all!


We had a fun party with family and friends and Luke's favorite foods. Luke enjoyed every bit of it. Here is Luke with one of his new Super Why puzzles. He got several new puzzles and loves putting them together. He's still a puzzle fiend and will do them several times every day.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Luke! I'm so glad that you're 4 now, and I'm so glad that you were born!

Mother's Day

I love being a mother. Though it is certainly more difficult than I ever dreamed, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Raising my 3 little boys is one of the greatest joys I have ever known. This year on Mother's Day we were still in Branson with the extended family, but we had a great time together. My boys made special cards for me and Daddy helped them give me a gift certificate for a pregnancy massage in the very near future. Totally looking forward to that! Here is a picture from that day of the wonderful reason I get to celebrate Mother's Day!

Branson

We had a great vacation in Branson with my husband's family the first week of May. Sorry I'm just now posting pictures. I have great intentions and all kinds of posts in my head to put on this blog, but alas. So, here is the incredible house we stayed in for the week. It was in the mountains and was just a great place for us all to stay: 7 adults and 8 kids (6 who are age 5 and under). Fun times.



We went to this butterfly palace where you could enter a room with literally thousands of butterflies flying around you. It was very cool. They had these cute little safari hats, binoculars, and magnifying glasses for the kids.



Here are the boys doing their best not to fall in this fountain, though I'm sure they would thought that was great fun. We had a good time visiting Ben & Shauna and their 3 kids down at Branson Landing one evening.



We spent a whole day at Silver Dollar City - so much fun! They had great rides for the kids and Daddy got to ride lots of roller coasters with the bigger cousins. Pregnant mommy was not allowed on any rides, but I had a great time watching the kids enjoy themselves. :o)




And, last but certainly not least, we just had a good time being all together in the house. Lots of late night games for the adults after the little ones went to bed. And LOTS of fun times with the cousins and grandparents. What great memories for us and for our boys!

Catching Up (Again)

So, I guess the fast-paced American life makes it more difficult for me to keep up with this blog. We're doing so many fun things and the boys are having so many new experiences that I want to record it all, but there never seems to be any time to do it. Today is Mother's Day and I've had a wonderful day so far. Because my terrific husband is letting me laz around all day, I actually have a few moments to at least catch up a little bit...

After our fabulous trip to New England and week in Richmond, we've been pretty much home for several weeks. Daddy had to make another 5 day trip by himself, but my parents came up from Plano to hang out and give us a little help while he was gone. We had a fun week with them! We've also been doing some catch-up homeschool every day. Joshua has shown great progress in his writing ability and his reading is incredible. Luke has enjoyed working through some pre-K workbooks with Mommy. One day each week we've gone to the library, which is only 4 blocks from our house. That's been a really neat experience for the boys and I to have together. You don't really get to take your kids to the library when you live in foreign countries. :o) It really has been great to just be in our house and have a normal routine every day. We've had meals with friends around town and from our church, and just been being a normal American family while we can.

This whole past week we've been in Branson, MO on vacation with my husband's family. Two grandparents, 2 aunts, 1 uncle, 5 cousins, and our family of 5 have been here since last Monday and we've had a blast! We're heading back home tomorrow, but I have lots to write about from our week here. When I get the pictures off my camera, I'll be sure to post about our fun week! More to come soon...