What a week!

Things have been a little beyond crazy around here this last week. Starting from last Wed. We ended up in the ER that night for Andy's newest kidney stone. We knew this was a stone he had several of his classic symptoms but no pain. Still we needed to be sure. Without health insurance it was a tough decision but the hospital worked out a deal with us and I think it'll be OK.

He has only one stone, thankfully, usually it has been 3, and it wasn't stuck anywhere like the last time when we had to have emergency surgery same day! This one is small and on the move out so hopefully he'll pass it on his own no problem.

It was a super late night however and Andrew was up until about 230am. Then the days that followed left him with little Daddy time. I should say Daddy's special play time that Andrew usually gets daily. Daddy is really the good rough houser, not Mommy, though I do my best! ;) Andrew and I have a lot of fun playing together too but Daddy is a much better wrestler. And Andy did what he could to keep up but it is more important for him to take care of his body so he can get that sucker out.

Daddy always does bath times. Most always, and tonight was the first night he's been able to give Andrew his bath since the attack. It has also been his first day symptom free. Which is good and bad. Mostly hard to read because the way we figure it if the stone is in the ureter moving, he can feel it, if it stops moving, it backs up his kidneys and causes severe flank pain and bleeding. He's had none of the above. This could be good because it could mean it is in the bladder and ready to come out! But we won't know until it either comes out or some sensations return.

Without Daddy doing bath times and our late night hospital visit left Andrew with quite a shaken up bed time routine. Like no routine! I would shower with him and we'd play but we do that during the day sometimes right now because I get so hot, so it wasn't like a definite, 'Oh it's bed time' trigger for him. One night he even stayed up until 530am! Last night we got him to sleep a little after 4am. But tonight with Daddy back in the tub and a very short nap today he was out a little after midnight! I am so glad we have a bedtime routine. But it is nice to lead the sort of lives that can be flexible too. If we had to get up early for anything this last week would have been miserable for us all. As it is, it's been nice!

We've stayed home for about 5 days straight now. We haven't done that since moving way out here! And with gas prices it's been extra nice. I have had time and energy to relax and read and play and watch movies with Andrew, AND clean up! Usually cleaning up was sacrificed to the Andrew time. And running all over the place driving here and there taking 30 minutes each way, really wears me and Andy out. It left little energy for anything else but playing with Andrew when we were home.

So for me it almost seems like this stone was a wake up call to us to slow it down a bit. We really don't need to be out of the house 5-6 days a week going to see this person or that person or this place or that place. 1-2 days a week is plenty. And there's plenty to do in Sanger that we don't need to go to Denton (or Aubry or Gainsville or Krum or wherever our day took us!) every time we want to do something.

I think it was a bit of an adjustment for Andrew too. He's used to all the going going going! And that may have made it harder for him to sleep too. We'll see.

We have plans to go to Denton on Wed this week, it will have been an entire week since we have last been. We need some more groceries from the old Walmart and we have a play group we're meeting up with. It should be fun. And as long as Andy isn't in pain we can go and enjoy ourselves. I still hold out hope that he'll have passed it by then!

Our new little peanut seems to be doing well in there. I feel it moving all the time now! I didn't feel Andrew this much this soon! It's so cool. And there's a lot of room still so it's like a big swimming pool with room to groove. It won't start getting too cramped for another month. Then the movements start to feel more like stretching motions. Now it feels like someone is playing in my belly! I love it!

Andy felt it the other night. I was sitting at my desk with my hand on my belly and I felt some movement. I thought it was worth a shot though you know how it is when as soon as you ask someone else to feel, the moving stops! At least that's how Andrew was, he was always so shy! :D Well that started to happen again and Andy persisted. he started talking to my belly. "Hey in there it's your daddy can you hear me." Stuff like that. And the fetus can hear external noises at this age. And it worked! It started going crazy! The most movement I had felt yet actually. Must like the sound of Daddy's voice, guess someone may be called upon to sing the old Hey Song again!

And speaking of growing, our first born is quite the big boy! His vocabulary is really growing though it isn't all easy to understand unless you are with him all the time. He says go, up... I know there's more that i can't remember right now - little sleep deprived! But a lot of them sound very similar so you have to pay attention to what he is doing. he also picks up the sign language after about one time being shown. I wish I knew more!

He is also getting the big motor skills more under control Sure he still bumps his head a lot and falls down sometimes (sometimes on purpose to be funny!) but he can now climb things he never could before. he did it a few weeks ago on a jungle gym at our local park and the other night he climbed straight up a chain ladder on the jungle gym at our apartments!
Here he is climbing and sliding a couple of weekends ago.


Here we are at Andy's Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa's for their daughter's birthday. Lori loves to play with the kids and was probably happier to play with Andrew than us though she's my age! He shows off some sign language skills here.


Remember to scroll down and catch him doing monsters if you missed it from last night!

Time to Watch Monsters

I have a lot of videos to show you but only a moment of time right now so here is one we just did tonight! His new favorite movie - move over Cars - is Monsters inc. here's how he asks for it.

The Halfway Point

I just reread this week in my last pregnancy, for those of you interested, it's May of 06 and still in the archives. It was the week we had the fire in our neighbors kitchen and were awoken early by the firemen coming in. It was also the week before we moved to this little apartment in Sanger. My belly pictures make me laugh from back then too. I think I was that size like 6 weeks ago with this one!

Some of you know we've been thinking of moving again this summer. We'd really like to try out a house. We both think it is a good time in our lives to get out of the apartment life. However, upon some serious looking, we've found that we're better off just waiting.

House renters are really crappy the houses they live in and the landlords just don't seem to want to make repairs before rerenting. Then they also want essentially two months up front between first month and deposit. Once we paid all of that plus our last months rent here, we'd have no money left for repairs.

And our 60 day notice wouldn't be up until July, by which time we'll be in the icky heat of summer and super fat times of pregnancy. Not a good combo for a move. I'd be packing and unpacking and then we'd be having to try and fix up our home for the arrival of our new little one.

Sure we are already a bit cramped here. We haven't optimized our storage options perhaps and could get rid of some more things. But we both think that overall for right now, it'd just be best to stay put. We have a bit more debt than we like to carry at this time also. And we're still trying to rebuild savings from the van purchase. Andy is really working hard right now and making more money than he has since starting the business so we want to see where this goes before we blow our last dime on getting into a crappy house. In 6 months we may be able to move into a much nicer place.

And sure we'll have a tiny baby and a 2 year old, so it still won't be easy, but it won't be summer and I wont' be pregnant! Ah there's pros and cons all around. For now though after weighing it all out we have decided to go with staying for a bit and seeing how our money works out and just going to a month to month so we can get out when we are truly ready.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out with looking for places! we're still keeping our eyes out on the market trying to see where it goes. Who knows, maybe by the time we're ready it'll be a really good time to actually buy a house and we can skip the rental game all together.

I knwo I said we'd get the sonogram pics scanned in and we still will. There are right by the scanner! But I'll need Andy's help with it because things have been moved since I last scanned and I am no longer sure what to do. And as I said he's been crazy busy. But I'll try to think of it at a good time very soon.

I am feeling fine btw. No major complaints except the heat is starting to bother me. I also am much bigger much sooner this time around. Today we had to go buy some sun dresses and boxers for me. That's about the only things I feel comfortable in. For Mother's Day I got some maternity shorts and nicer dresses from a second hand store, but the dresses are made of rayon and stuff and still very hot. The ones I got today are all cotton! A bit more expensive being brand new even from Walmart but they are cute and will be comfortable and for right now, that's about all I am concerned with. I am showering every afternoon to stay cool too. Andrew and get in there and play all kinds of games in the tub, it's been a fun activity for us before nap time. Which for the last few days has been in the blue chair! Both of us together! It's pretty comfy till my arm falls asleep. But I enjoy the closeness. And Daddy can nap on the couch right next to us!

I just uploaded a couple of videos but google is taking forever to process them so they will just have to wait until next time!

Some fun vids

These are from last month.

Seeing the dogs in the park.


One mommy shoe one daddy shoe.

Little Update

We had our sonogram today and from what the tech could see, everything looks perfect! She even says it looks like it has Daddy's toes - ah another one that will look like Daddy I am sure. I can't wait for the birth to find out the sex but I am enjoying the pregnancy so much at this stage. I feel our little Peanut moving every day, sometimes it's movement and sometimes it's just pushing, either way, it is comforting. It was wiggling all over the place in the sonogram. S/he had their hands all over their face too, even stuck one fist in his/her mouth and I think we got a picture. We got a lot of pictures so we will see if we can scan them in and show everyone.

Also, we had a friend stay with us for a couple of nights over the weekend. It was really neat and Andrew always enjoys a new person to impress! He is a photographer by hobby and had an excellent camera so he took a bunch of pics of us. We couldn't get them all because he has a copyright on his files but he did some without it for us. I posted them in the new moths folder on our web album. But i wanted to post one here that he really fancied up for us. Hope you like it!

Another Word

Andrew, as you probably know, has had only 3 words for the last 6 months or so. Well, he has also been saying a fourth, and I just today figured it out. He tells the cat to shut-up! He just says "up" and throws his arm like he's doing his ball sign. He usually does it at night when I am trying to put him to sleep so I hadn't taken the time to notice what it was before because I was caught up in getting him to sleep. But today he did it to Raven sitting at he table. Very clearly, "Up!" I was like, OMG! He's telling him to shut up! Just like Mommy! lol I tell Raven to shut up several times a day and Andy tells Thunder to shut up a lot too. Hmmm, wonder where Andrew could have picked it up from... ;) It does make me a bit sad that he still calls me Dada but now says shut up, but oh well. I think it is funny. Since we now know that is what he is saying we can coach and guide him on it. Like only yell it when the cat is being loud inappropriately. Only say it to the cat. And let mommy and daddy handle the cats at night!

He's such a smart little cutie pie!

Here's some vids from last month:

He doesn't know what to think of this! It's his first time to see sand. We're at the Gainsville factory Outlets.


Our little Gardener



More to come!