Speech

Mira is really catching on with communication and is adding new words every day. She woke up the other day and looked out the window then made the sign for 'bird'. The birds were chirping loudly outside so that made lots of sense! She nods her head for yes and shakes her head for no. She says 'peek a boo'. She is coming along with the potty, too and we can get through most days on two diapers. She uses them at nap time. If she is nakey butt she will take herself to the little potty we keep in the main area of the house. If we are out and about, I will just try her on the potty when we make stops. It is going great and I have ordered some training pants to make the process go a little easier.

Joshua is coming to the end of his first year in preschool. He has been letting me leave without a fuss about every other time. This Thursday is a Mother's Day tea and I can't wait. All he will tell me is that, 'I can't tell you it is a surprise'. He has been more involved and social recently. I think that a new friend is helping. He has latched on to the most social girl in the class. What a match!

Baby Tres is now at 25 weeks! Welcome to the third trimester. Time is flying by. I am just now starting with heart burn. But if that is my only complaint, I am happy. I still feel pretty good and energetic. I sometimes have trouble sleeping but nothing too bad. Jason and I are getting away to a bed and breakfast at the beginning of June with his and hers massages and two nights of uninterrupted sleep! I can't wait. It will be a nice break from this LONG semester of PhD classwork.

Off to bake some bread!

Breaking Through

Joshua and Mira both had great break throughs before we even had lunch today. At preschool, Joshua's teacher is asking more of him each class. She is judging whether he is truly having a problem (and being hesitant) or if he is just being stubborn. So last week Joshua would not wear a smock and therefore could not paint with the other children. This week, the teacher insisted but found a different style of smock for Joshua to wear. He still wouldn't put it on and paint. She just kept re-iterating, 'After you paint, you can go outside to play.' Finally, he sighed as if giving up, put on the smock and PAINTED! Wahoo! Next week she plans to ask him to dance with the other children. This is something he has resisted doing all year. I can't wait to hear the result.

Mira has been working on getting to the potty. So, today while we were out I took the potty with us and offered it to her periodically. She was dry ALL morning. Yesterday we only used two diapers. I am so excited. She doesn't like to go poo on the potty but catching pees is great. I know that she will have a set back when the baby is born. Even Joshua did and he was almost a year older but at least we are heading toward diaper freedom. I just don't need two in diapers at once!! I think I'd have to go back to disposables if that happens.

Strangers have been asking me questions about being pregnant. That is always my big sign that I am 'showing'. Guess it happened a whole lot sooner this time. Seems like I've 'popped' in the last week or so.

23 weeks

Joshie, Mira and I trudged out in the rainy weather today for an OB appointment at 10:15. Everything is looking good size and heart rate-wise for the baby. My weight increased by 6 lb since the last visit and my blood pressure is back down to 110/60 (a normal rate for me). It had been high since January but this last month when Jason also came back from the dr with higher than normal bp I started getting us out the door for short walks with Jack to exercise and de-stress, added more salads and veggies into our diet and started watching our salt intake. Seems to have worked. I'm interested to hear how Jason's has changed.

After the appointment we stopped into Ikea to recycle batteries and lightbulbs and then to Target to pick up a prescription. Now the house is quiet while everyone naps. Joshua is finally resting after 2 grumpy days of no nap and some really nasty behavior. I unplugged the tv this morning and the Easter candy is gone so I hope that helps things!

Happy Easter

Joshua was SO excited about Easter. On Ash Wednesday, we made a paper chain and for each of the 40 days of lent we took a link off and said a prayer. Joshua's prayers developed well over the 40 days and he went from praying for rc rockets and robots (as if praying to Santa!) to saying prayers for people and things he was thankful for. It was wonderful to see the progression. Then as Holy Week passed he became more and more excited about the Easter Bunny coming and having an Easter egg hunt. It was to the point where he was just a little monster! But Easter came and he got everything out of it that he wanted and Monday, even with the sugar high from all the candy, he was a MUCH better behaved boy. He had parent conferences at preschool on Tuesday and the teacher praised his progress from the beginning of the year. She even surprised me by sharing that during circle time he will speak up when it is his turn! I was shocked. When she asks the children to imagine something (like a fish) and then describe it he comes up with and shares detailed descriptions of his imaginary fish. That's my boy!

Mira is 'talking' a lot more. She has a few new words including 'light', 'sheep', 'thank you', 'Bear', 'pee-pee' and I am sure there are others.... BUT, the biggest change is that she has taken to sign language. She makes all the signs (Baby, Signing & Time) to the intro song on the videos that we watch. She also says 'Thank You', 'More', "All Done', "Eat", 'Milk', 'No', 'Please', 'Night Night or Sleep', and 'shoes'. So, we are definitely going to continue with those videos. Joshua has also started using the signs and understanding Mira's language and that has been a big help.

Baby Tres is now 22 weeks along. It is scary to think it will only be a little under 3 weeks and we will be at the point when we found out about the pre-term labor with Mira. He/She seems to be doing great and I have an appointment on Monday. I am looking forward to it. I have been working on watching my salt and getting more exercise (walks with the dog) to help my blood pressure. Jason has been working on the same thing because his was pretty high, too. 1 more month of school and he is done (for this semester)!

Profound statements from Joshua

We were out with Joshua's Godmother, Carie, her sister-in-law and two nephews yesterday when Joshua said, 'They have two babies just like we do.' I thought at first he was referring to himself but he doesn't usually call himself a baby. He went on to clarify, 'Just like Mira and the baby in your belly.' How wonderful that to Joshua Baby Tres is already part of our family and to be counted along with the rest of us.

We had a wonderful morning at Storyville, an interactive children's museum like add on to one of the local libraries. We had lunch at McD's afterwards and then home for non-naps, errands and a nice walk on the promenade downtown. It is a busy week for us with school, field trips, play dates, family visits and three nights of work for me. I hope I don't forget it is Easter and take a moment to celebrate.

Permissions and Photos

As you are probably already aware, we are making changes to the blog and our photo sharing account to make it more secure. We feel this is safer for the kiddos so I hope you will bear with us on these changes. If you are reading this blog post it means that you have an account now on our blog. You have an email address and password that you use to log in to view it.

The same will also be true for our flickr account. You can view the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlowens/ . I am currently making changes so that the photos will only be viewable by friends and family and will not be publicly viewable. I think you will need to create a flickr account (it is free) and ask to be our friend. I'll work with you to work out the kinks.

Thank you for your understanding!

1 yr checkup for Mira

Mira FINALLY had her 1 yr check up yesterday. She is 28" long and 19lb 6oz in weight. Both measurements are the 25th percentile for her age. The dr. would like to see her gain in percentile for weight or at least not drop. She has been steadily dropping percentiles over the year. So, we are the high fat family. Joshua, Mira and I have been told we can add fat and calories to our diets :-) How fun! She also got three shots and impressed the dr by imitating the dr's actions with the stethoscope. Dr. Paxson said,'I haven't seen a 1 year old do THAT!' :-) Smart kiddo! She also had her final thumb check yesterday and everything is healing well.

Baby Tres is 20 weeks now, halfway! He/She is kicking up a storm. Quite the wiggle worm in there.

At church on Sunday, the children had a seder dinner. Joshua participated and actually tried some of the various foods. I was shocked. He also ate 'Green eggs and ham' at preschool yesterday.

While Mira and I ran all over the place, Memaw and Grandad kept Joshua out of trouble and raked leaves in our yard. What a HUGE help. We all had a fun lunch at McDonalds and the kids were very well behaved. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Lastly, Happy Birthday Papa!

Blueberry Pancakes

It's Sunday morning, foggy and early. We are up making and enjoying blueberry pancakes. Mira has plowed through two so far. I think Joshua has had the same amount.

Last night at dinner Joshua and I got into a conversation about the effects of drinking too much pear juice. He went on to say, 'Mommy, there are two kinds of poop.' Oh? Was my response. 'There is squishy poop,' he said. To which I replied, 'And what is the other kind?' 'Stick poop,' he said. Jason pointed out what a fine job he did with categorizing and describing. :-) Little budding scientist, LOL

Mira said, 'diaper' this morning. Maybe that is it for the bathroom talk right now :-)

Both the kids are enjoying getting outside more. Mira loves to go down the slide and Joshua likes to go down holding her. They both enjoy swinging. So, as much as we can we go outside to play. Can't wait until it is 60 consistently!

Joshua is counting down the days until Easter. He made a paper chain for lent and we have been talking about prayer with each link that he takes off. I think I will save his 'Prayers" that we have written down. It has been fun to see them progress.

We had a sonogram for Baby Tres on Friday. Baby seems to be growing just right. We watched him open and close his mouth like he was yawning and wiggle around. Each time we tried to get an image of his/her face baby pulled away or turned his head. Little stinker.

Signing

Mira had her first significant temper tantrum. She really likes phones of all kinds and got into a pretty big huff when I needed our house phone to call for pizza on Friday afternoon. She went into a screaming fit and was REALLY mad. It was the second time I needed a phone that she had on Friday and neither time was pretty.

We picked up a video of babies doing sign language for Mira to watch. I've noticed that she likes to follow along with Joshua's videos and will mimic or do what the characters are asking so I figured it was worth a shot. She did 'please' yesterday and that was on the video only she signed it on my body instead of hers. It was very sweet.

The weather was warmish today. Almost 60 and sunny. We spent a lot of time playing outside to take advantage of it. This evening we compiled a potluck bbq dinner with our neighbors. Jack was in his glory since he also got a playdate with their dog Rori. Joshua enjoyed having Staci and Stephanie (and the dogs) to chase and play with. I know he has sad some great things recently and I just can't remember them right now.

Tomorrow is a checkup with the ob. I am 18.5 weeks now and things seem to be moving along rather well. Today we had Omar, Arnoldo and Tio Jose over helping us work on finishing the basement playroom. It is almost ready to paint! Oh and I got to play 'plumber' when I went to clean the traps in Jason's and my sinks and ended up having to replace the pipes under my sink. So much for saving myself some time!

Checkup

Mira had an appointment yesterday to remove the surgical dressing and check her incision. Everything looked to be healing well. The dr suggested that she could just have a bandaid on her thumb from this point forward. I honestly just stared at him. A bandaid on the thumb of a 1 year old....any other suggestions? So he ended up wrapping it again. This time smaller and I can take it off and re-dress. The wound just needs to be kept clean. She sits and sucks on her hand, even with the dressing on it. I can just imagine how many bandaids she would have eaten by this point.

It was an almost warm day that ended up sunny after the morning. We made our way down to a local garden shop and picked out pansies to plant. Joshua chose burgundy ones and purple ones. Tomorrow we are going to start a few seeds indoors. He is enjoying watching the ones he planted from Nanny grow so I thought we could do a few more. Every days he does in and waters the seedlings. He is very good about remembering.

1 week out

It has been 1 week since Mira's surgery and she is doing great. She has managing to keep this third bandage on just fine and we are mostly able to keep it clean. She uses her hand a lot and has not complained at all about any discomfort. We will go tomorrow and have the bandage and stitches removed. Joshua is going, too so we will see his opinion of the whole thing. I think he is curious as long as whatever is happening is not happening to him.

Mira finally got her 2nd top front tooth in today. So that completes 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top. I think she can take a break now :-) 6 teeth in about a month is enough for Mommy!

Baby Tres is a little gymnast and is already moving around a lot. I am almost to 18 weeks and am getting kicked regularly. I even felt one from the outside the other night. I have an OB appointment on Monday and a thyroid appointment Friday of next week so I went for my blood draw today. I hope my numbers are better this time. I am pretty sure my weight is up. I've been checking it and by my scale I have gained 5 pounds. So that is good news. Now that the weather is starting to warm up I've been getting out with the kids, Jason, Jack (whomever will join me!) to walk when I can. I can't believe how out of shape I am! I guess a winter of sitting around trying not to be sick all day will do that to you. Other than that, YES I am taking it easy! I nap with the kids pretty much every day and do only the stuff necessary for taking care of them or the house. I wonder now if I didn't have contractions throughout my pregnancy with Joshua and just not realize it. I have already been feeling some this time around.

The basement playroom we have been working on is coming along well. We are almost done with the drywall and spackling and ready to move on to the painting stage. I can't wait! We are really trying to thin things out in the process and that has been a great motivator, too.

Operation

The past two days have been a whirlwind but I think that the tornado is calming down. My parents came out Sunday evening to be able to watch Joshua first thing in the morning on Monday. Jason, Mira and I were up and out by 5am in order to be at the hospital at 6am on Monday. We navigated our way to the pediatric pre-op room and waited for our turn to be seen by first the nurse, then the surgeon and lastly the anesthesiologist. It was comforting being in a place where the people do these kinds of procedures every day and there is a steady routine to how things work. On the other hand it was also very comforting that the dr's and nurses did not treat us like having surgery was an every day occurrence. I felt especially comfortable after the anesthesiologist came in, sat down on the floor where Mira and I were playing, examined her there and explained what was going to happen. He truly got down on our level.

The surgery itself went quickly. Jason took Mira in and I am very glad. I could not have seen my baby girl like that. We waited about an hour and then got the call that the surgery had started. They were with her for about 40 minutes and then she was wheeled by the waiting room screaming, alert and awake. We were able to meet her in recovery about 5 min later and sit with her while they monitored her and discharged her. We were only there another hour. She was intermittently groggy, fussy and thirsty until we left. When we walked out of the hospital she immediately perked up and calmed down. She slept on the drive home and when we got home she ate a little bit before we laid her down for a nap. And by eat a little bit I mean a bowl of applesauce and a bowl of yogurt. She was hungry!

She slept for about 2.5 - 3 hours and then woke up when I went in to check on her. My mom noticed that her fingers had slipped pretty far down into the cast. I called the dr and within about 10 min she had the cast completely off. So, we headed back to the hospital (a 45 min drive on a good day) and went to the ER to have a full cast applied. That lasted until 11:30 am today when that one fell off, too and we had to head back AGAIN. This time they padded her hand well and then basically taped her hand and up her arm. They put it in a makeshift sling and we are hoping this one will last until next Tuesday when the dressings can come off.

Her thumb looks good though. The incision is clean and the stitches are intact. She is in great spirits and hasn't had an pain medications since 4pm yesterday. I had a sigh of relief when the surgery was over yesterday and we were heading home. I guess that was premature. I will sigh again after next Tuesday and I can stop worrying that I am going to have to race down to the hospital on a daily basis. She has a bit of a name for herself among the staff at the dr's office as a Hudini. Although I can honestly say she didn't make the casts come off they literally just fell off. I hope this one sticks!

One more tooth

Mira's bottom right tooth came in that we have been waiting for. She now has one more that is on the brink and then she will have gone from two teeth to 8 in about a month.

We are set for surgery tomorrow at 7:30 am. Now it is time to actually think about getting down there and stuff. I've been putting it off but I have to think a little so I know what time to set the alarm for.

Busy Week & Preparations

So the week started out at 8 degrees with 7.5 inches of snow and now today it is going to be 68 and sunshine. Doesn't seem possible! I hope that we are able to get out and enjoy the lovely weather. I hear there is some rain on the forecast for tomorrow but as long as it is warm, I don't care!

On Tuesday, Mira had her pre-op appointment for her surgery this Monday. That went fine. It was mostly paperwork. She did get weighed and measured though and she is STILL too tiny to turn her carseat around. She only weighs 18 lb 12 oz (needs to weigh 20 lb) and is 28 inches tall.

On Wednesday we mostly stayed in. Tuesday and Thursday tend to be our big running around days since we are already out for Joshua's preschool.

On Thursday, Mira had her first big blood test and did great. She just watched the whole time while the technicians and I sang to her. She didn't flinch when the needle went in and she didn't cry or fuss one bit. It was amazing. I had to wait until later in the day to have her x-ray done when Jason was home.

On Friday we had story time at the library and then Joshua's dr. appointment. We were able to get outside and play since the temperature was in the 50's. Jack took advantage and ran away. So we had to get him back. Thankfully Staci and Alex (our neighbors) were able to chase him down.

I have been giving Mira a chance to go potty on the training potty and she is doing great. Earlier in the week I was sitting her on it and asking her to go potty. Then within a day or two of that I could tell she was actually trying to go when I asked. So I took a risk and yesterday morning I let her run around without any pants on. She took herself to the potty by herself all morning and didn't have one accident. She went poopy on the potty later that day and today we are trying again. I am so proud of her! I think we will keep this up for a week and then I am going to see if I can get her to start telling me. It is so much fun!

Snowy Day

By the end of the snowfall today we had about 7" or so. It was enough for Joshua to spend a good deal of time outside sledding, building a snowman and throwing snowballs with the neighbor kids. The weather was NOT WARM. Ok, you might be saying, 'When is a snowy day warm?' however there are snow days when you could survive with heavy clothes and gloves and not loose a limb because of the cold. Today it was in the 20's/low 30's and very, very windy. I was surprised at how long Joshua stayed out because he usually doesn't like the cold but he was entertained and when he did come in he snuggled up in a blanket to get warm.

We had soup and muffins for dinner. It just seemed right!

Snow Day!

We went to bed last night with the snow falling and estimations of 5-8" by morning. It was only 2" or so when we woke up but the snow is still falling so we may yet get a few more inches. It is certainly enough for Joshua to go sledding. Mira isn't thrilled about the snow but she does like to ride in the sled. I guess March is coming in like a Lion! I love these late winter snows. But really only when they bring mountains of snow and shut everything down. Jason was off to school this morning and said that NO ONE was on the road but he also said that school didn't get any snow and was therefore not closed. So he is driving slowly. He has midterm review today for a test on Wednesday and homework due.

We are without a water heater for the moment. I hope that the snow doesn't get in the way of getting another one in place. We could have had one installed on Saturday but I found an energy efficient one that qualified for rebates and it was not available until this Thursday. So we are washing our dishes as though we are camping and turning on the water heater just to take a quick shower. It has a slow leak out the bottom. I hope it doesn't bust!

The teeth are coming!

Mira got another tooth in yesterday, top middle left, and has three more that are just below the surface. She is dealing with this all rather well but has moments of fussiness.

Joshie has been needing our attention more and more but school (for Jason) and house (for both of us) have been draining our time. The hot water heater went up this weekend and took some time of research and phone calls to get straightened out. There are, of course, always a dozen pots in the fire and Joshua does not understand why at any given moment we can't go outside to ride his trike or play legos. So, things have been escalating more and more but we are managing.

Mira has her pre-op appointment this Tuesday and then surgery next Monday for her thumb. We had a taste of warm weather on Friday and are back to snow and cold today. Spring is March 20 and I am counting the days!

Baby Tres is 15 weeks old. She has relieved me of my nausea and I can stay up a bit longer without crashing so all that is good. I have been tossing and turning in the early hours of the day but it may just be all the other stuff going on and not the pregnancy. But between that and Josh and Mira taking poor naps, I am tired. Baby's little body is almost fully formed and now she will spend time growing and fully developing all her parts. Seems like time is flying!

new teeth and new skills

Mia is now crawling down the step from our kitchen into our living room. She has been able to crawl up this step for a while now but usually just stood at the top and hollared when she wanted down. As of Friday, I think, she started making her way down the step. Guess it is time to show her how to go down the flight of stairs.

Mira is also cutting teeth left and right, top and bottom. She has a new front bottom tooth on the right and her two top middle front teeth are coming in as well.

Happy 1st Birthday, Mira!

Sunday we celebrated Mira's 1st birthday with a teddy bear themed party. Aunt Jill came down and Grandma Owens flew out. It was a really fun time and we enjoyed having our guests!! Joshua and Mira were very sad to see Grandma go today but thankfully she AND Papa will be out after Baby Tres comes along.

Mira just loved her party. She was very social, toddling around entertaining her guests. She loved when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her and smiled and clapped along. She opened presents with lots of help from Joshua and was just plain cute for the day (well she is every day!)

She was scheduled for her 1 year appt today but due to a flat tire we could only take 1 child 1 place and since Joshua missed school twice last week his needs trumped hers. The appointment has been rescheduled to MARCH 31!!! Very frustrating but there was just no other option today. Her hand surgery is scheduled for March 9 and she will be in on March 3 for a pre-op appointment.

So I don't have any updates on her height and weight and all that jazz but I imagine that she weighs about 20 pounds now. She is just moving from 9mos to 12 in clothing. She has grown a little but I am just tired of the 9 mos clothes!!

It seems that everyone is finally over that nasty flu bug. Until Sunday Joshua was still having residual issues but it seems that they have finally worked themselves out. Jason is going crazy with school and work and has midterms tomorrow and homework due. He is working hard to complete it all!

I had a checkup on Monday for Baby Tres. We heard the heartbeat, a wonderful 150 bpm. There was some concern since I have managed to loose 3 pounds but both my dr and endocrinologist are working together to try and figure out the cause and hopefully get me back to gaining weight soon. :-) Trust me, I AM trying!!

Have Hair Problems? Call Joshua!

Joshua was patting Mira's head a dinner tonight and said, 'If I pet her head like this, it will make her hair get BIG.' If that's all it took, we could market his magic hands to the hair club for men!

We had been very busy AND THEN the whole house came down with a stomach bug. Mira started it out and I didn't realize it. Then Sunday morning at 7:30 I started and thought it was morning sickness that thought vanished quickly as I was on and off sick every 30-60 min until 3 and again at 6. Jason started in next and then Joshua. When I called the dr she said, 'Don't eat anything, it will just come back out.' We were a mess. None of us are up to speed yet and we are trying to get enough food in with just a bland diet but everyone has at least returned to a functioning level. At 4 on Sunday I called out the door to my neighbors who were visiting outside and passed Mira off to them with a few diapers until her bedtime at 7. She was just wondering around the house and no one was really able to care for her. Unfortunately, she managed to infect two other people in two different households. Typhoid Mira.

So, in trying to explain this illness to Joshua I said there was a bug or a virus in our blood that was making us sick. Later that day he asked if I still had 'Spiders in my blood pressure' it is interesting what his brain translates to!

We are still working on getting the house and everything ready for our guests and Mira's first birthday party on Sunday. It would have been impossible if my parents had not come out Monday and stayed until this evening. They took care of us and cleaned the house. Amazing. Things may not be exactly as I had envisioned them but the house is clean and the important stuff is getting done and that is going to have to be enough, this time.