Throwback Thursday... or Something?

Alexander

Jack (I had pinkeye)

Kai

Noah

Annual Santa Visit

We had our annual visit to Santa this past weekend. As always, we really enjoyed ourselves. We managed to be first in line to see the Big Guy. Alexander and Jack were so thrilled! We eased Kai onto Mrs. Claus's lap and, while he didn't smile, he didn't freak out, either. Jack was very animated this year, and told Santa that he wanted a DS (hand-held Nintendo game system). Alexander asked for the same, and Mrs. Claus commented that Santa would be making a lot of those this year! After our time with Santa and Mrs. Claus, we did crafts, played games, and won prizes. Justin commented how next year we'll have a kid for each knee of both Santa and Mrs. Claus! I hope they're prepared for that!

The New Baby is a BOY!

Apparently we won't have much trouble with this rule. The new baby is, according to our ultrasound today, another boy! We are very excited to have FOUR amazing boys to raise.

Still Outnumbered!

If all goes as planned, in April 2012 I will be even MORE outnumbered. Perhaps this time we'll get a little estrogen to even out all the testosterone here, but we will be thrilled with either outcome.

Coming April 2012.... someone who looks less blobby than this:

Can we say "WHALE?"... and can we say "RUDE?"

Cashier to me: Due any day?
Me: I still have about a month.
Cashier: Whoa. How many are in there? Two or three?
Me: Just the one.
Cashier: Whoa, that is going to be a big baby!
Me: Yep.

Boy or Girl?!?!

Before Justin and I were told the sex of the baby, plenty of people asked if we had a gender preference. I would say, "If we had to choose, we'd choose a girl since we already have two boys. But, three boys would be a ton of fun, too." Of course that was mostly just to cover my bases in case it was a boy, because I wasn't quite as non-chalant as I pretended to be. I badly wanted a girl!

I was surprised that when the sonographer pronounced the baby a boy at 16 weeks gestation, I just laughed. I wasn't disappointed at all. And soon after we were told that we were having our third boy, I was already getting attached to the idea, to Kai. So, when people would ask how I felt about having three boys, I would say, "I wanted a girl at first, but I think that now if they suddenly told me it was a girl, I would actually be disappointed."

I'd just really gotten into picturing my life with three boys. Three little guys wrestling in the playroom, comparing pictures of three little guys at the same age wearing the same hand-me-down outfit, three little guys dressed identically for professional photos, etc. I even got to picturing myself with three tall, grown, handsome young men who would (I hope!) still retain a bit of their "Mama's boys" personas and dote on Dear Old Mom just a little bit. I'd come to really, really love the idea of three sons. Of course there were times, looking at the little girls we hang around sometimes, or seeing girl clothes in the store, or hearing that another pregnant mom found out her baby was a girl that I'd wonder if I'd really be happier with a girl. I've always, always wanted a little girl.

The other day at my OBGYN appointment, the doctor was doing a sonogram to check the level of fluid around the baby. He asked, "Do you know if you're having a boy or girl?" I replied, "Yes, a boy." The doctor scanned around a little more, then asked, "Uhhh.... wait. What did you say you think you're having?!" I think my heart must have started racing a little. "A boy??" I repeated."Oh," he answered,"I thought I heard you say you thought you were having a girl. It's definitely a boy!"

And, without thinking, I quickly responded, "Geez, don't scare me like that!"

WHAT?!?! I mean... I did predict that I would be disappointed if I were to find out that Kai was actually a girl, but I guess I didn't even believe myself completely until this happened.

So, YES, I am really, really happy to be having another boy. NO, I wouldn't trade any of them for a girl. And no, I don't even feel the tug to try one more time for a girl. What a joy my boys are. I love my three sons! :)

*Melting*

No, this is not related to snow...

Me: Jack, what's in here? *Points to belly*
Jack: Kai Baby.
Me: Yeah! He is still growing. Soon you will have two brothers. Alexander is one brother, and Kai will be another brother for you.
Jack: Thank you.
Me: *Melts a little.* Are you going to kiss Kai?
Jack: Yeah!
Me: Are you going to hug Kai?
Jack: Yeah!
Me: Are you going to share your toys with Kai?
Jack: YEAH!
Me: Hmmm... sometimes Kai might cry.
Jack: Aw, man! *Looks devastated.*
Me: *Melts more.*

My big guys

In "honor" of Alexander's birthday, he had his five-year well visit with his new pediatrician today. She was a great doctor and she and Alexander got along very well. He was quite talkative and charming, as he sometimes can be. He really entertained her with stories of preschool, his birthday and birthday party, and what he likes about snow, among other things. I was not surprised to find that he is developmentally on track, healthy, and growing properly. He continues to be above the 97th percentile for height and was at about the 80th percentile for weight, which is great. They also now share the Body Mass Index, and his was at the 60th percentile which is also just fine. At last year's four-year well visit, Alexander's vision and hearing tests were inconclusive because I believe he was a little confused about what we were asking of him. Today they repeated the vision test and referred us to an eye doctor. He only tested at 20/40 with both eyes open, so probably needs glasses. No surprise there, although he's a little younger than I would have expected. We'll see what the eye doctor says.

As Alexander was attempting to do the eye exam with one eye covered, Jack randomly lost his balance and fell into the corner of a wall. Given his obvious cold symptoms and apparent loss of equilibrium, the nurse's assistant became concerned that he may have an ear infection, so she swiftly made us an appointment with an available doctor who confirmed that he has a double ear infection, so we were off to the pharmacy to pick up an antibiotic. We abandoned Alexander's vision test since he had already "failed" with both eyes open. Closing one would only make it worse. Jack doesn't seem miserable and hadn't complained about his ears, so it's not too big of a deal, but we did end up at the Kaiser medical center for over an hour and a half. Thankfully the kids were wearing their pleasant pants and did not cause me too much trouble. They were rewarded with Happy Meals. :)

On an unrelated note, a woman in the waiting room of the pharmacy struck up a conversation with me, asking me if I was expecting a third boy or a girl. I answered that we would soon have another boy, and she said, "I have three boys, too. I know what that is like!" I looked at her twin daughters in confusion. She expanded, "I had three boys and was done, until I was surprised by these girls. Are you planning to have any more?" Uh... I wasn't planning on it, but you've scared me now, Lady!!

Aaaand, on another unrelated note, we are in the midst of Snowpocolypse II and are expecting 20-30" of snow by tomorrow night. Please, don't expect pictures this time. I plan to stay warm and cozy in my house. I am not sure how I will reward my husband for his shoveling efforts, but it may involve something cooked with bacon and cheese, or perhaps something apple-cinnamony.

Happy Snow, everyone!

MORE babies?

The other day, after Justin put Alexander to bed, he came to relate a conversation he had with Alexander.

Alexander: While we were playing play-doh, Mommy was putting more babies in her belly.
Justin: Oh yeah, did the mailman stop by?

So of course Justin was wondering what would have made Alexander say such a thing. Too bad it was because of HIS own sick sense of humor. I reminded him," Don't you remember the other day when I was giving myself an injection? Alexander asked what I was doing and you told him that I was putting more babies in my belly! [The injections go in my stomach.] I gave myself a shot while they were doing play-doh this morning!" "Oh yeah." lol. Now you have to wonder what Alexander is telling people at preschool!

Some thoughts on being a third time mom

How things change...

When I was pregnant with Alexander, I was petrified of the delivery, having little idea what to expect besides PAIN. After I delivered him, I wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, and only spent one night in. I was happy to be home where I could at least sleep in half hour chunks in between soothing and/or nursing him.

When I was pregnant with Jack, I was mortified that I would have to be away from Alexander for almost three days while I while I was in the hospital with Jack. Since being diagnosed with the clotting disorder, I was not allowed to leave early and had to spend a total of three nights at the hospital. Oh, how I missed my big boy while I was there. I was so happy to be home so that I could play with him again. Jack even let me sleep in one hour chunks!

Now that I am pregnant with my third child, the post-delivery hospital stay almost seems like a welcome break! Sure, I'll be uncomfortable, in pain, and getting used to a newborn. I'll be poked by needles, prodded by nurses and doctors, and get little to no sleep. Blood pressure monitors will beep through the night. IVs will impede my movement. I'll have to wear inflatable stockings to make sure my blood is flowing properly through my legs. Nurses will badger me about how often and for how long Kai has breastfed, and on which side(s). I'll have to eat hospital food and smell hospital smells and wear hospital gowns. But I won't have to clean anything, pick up after anyone, entertain anyone, scold anyone, enforce rules with anyone, make anyone meals (aside from producing breast milk, of course), and I'll *ONLY* have to take care of a newborn. ONLY?! What planet am I from where that seems like a break?! You may as well sign me up for the loony bin now.

Baby Pictures!

4D Sonography has been around for a while, but I only recently experienced it with one of my own babies. I was chatting with the sonographer the other day as she checked out the anatomy of the baby, and I told her how silly Justin is; he thinks he can tell what the baby will look like from the sonograms. She laughed and said, "Now he'll really think he can," and switched to 4D. I gather that they can't tell as much about the really important stuff like anatomy from the 4D ultrasounds, and they can't really measure or anything, but man are they COOL. The black and white stills that she printed out are really neat, but seeing Baby, in color, on the big screen moving around in there was pretty surreal. He looks like a real baby! He was moving his arms all around in front of his face; it looked like he was sleepy and was rubbing his eyes! He probably was sleepy after all the moving around he was doing during the scan! In any case, the quality of these scans isn't the greatest, but you can get the general idea.

My baby lion?

Alexander: I wonder what the new baby is going to be.
Me: It's a boy, remember?
Alexander: Yeah. I wonder if it is going to be a boy lion or giraffe or cat or....
Me: I'm pretty sure he's going to be human.
Alexander: Yeah, or maybe human.

(Just for the record, I am 99.9% sure he was just being silly.)

He remembers!

Alexander: I liked your belly when it was flatter. That felt better.
Me: I know. It will be flatter again after the baby is born.
Alexander: Yeah, but then it will be crazy around here again.

This one made me a little sad. :(

I am sooo outnumbered!

For those of you who may not be my "Facebook friends," and for posterity, I would like to announce that we found out on Tuesday that our third child will also be our third BOY. Trust me, it was pretty obvious in the ultrasound even to my untrained eye. ;) I've requested the immediate installation of urinals in every bathroom. We are not at all disappointed, and are very excited to meet our third son. We will likely name him Kai (rhymes with sky) Davon (David+Vernon/ combo of our dads' names/ prounounced like David but with an "n" at the end). Maybe I'll change my blog name to "4+1=Me Outnumbered!"

Randomness

A "World According to Xander": Mommy, you are made out of hugs.

An update:
Alexander LOVES preschool and seems to be getting the hang of the whole structure and authority figure things! They got another kid in the class, another girl! So now he is outnumbered 5:1. 7:1 if you include the teachers! He was excited to bring the snack this week and he got to be a "Preschool Star" and put up a special poster about himself in the hallway. He very much enjoyed making it, especially the glitter glue. He got school photos taken, and I will post them as soon as I get them scanned this weekend. They're pretty darn cute!

Jack had his speech evaluation with the county yesterday and qualified for speech therapy. They said that on every aspect except expressive language, he is at or above age level. But for expressive language, he is at the level of about a 17-18 month old, giving him a 25% delay. The speech therapist will come to our house to work with him twice a month and will assess his progress in six months to see if he still qualifies. He's a very smart little boy, he just doesn't seem to want to talk. They said he had an awesome attention span and was especially dexterous for his age.

Jack also continues to want to potty train and I don't think I can resist much longer. Today he's been naked or in underwear for more than 4 hours and has not had an accident. I haven't even had to prompt him to go to the bathroom, he either indicates with gestures that he needs to go, or he just goes to the bathroom and goes! I know he's not completely trained yet, but as I said, I don't think I can resist much longer. He's READY.

Baby #3 continues to grow and make my belly grow! I actually feel pretty good, though! :)

Pictures next time! :)

Will the pee never end?

Right now, I am hoping this baby inside me is a girl. Because at least when girls go potty, it goes straight down. Right, parents of girls??

Jack has decided to potty-train himself. I'm really pretty serious. I could tell he was just about ready to start training, but I wanted to wait just a few weeks until we were into the swing of things with school and we had gotten past a flurry of frequent doctor appointments (they will space out more soon, until they get more frequent again towards the end.) In any case, the child basically just started taking off his diaper, going into the bathroom, climbing up on the toilet himself, and doing his business pretty much every time he tries! He still goes in his diaper quite often, but when we start potty-training in earnest, I think that'll stop pretty quickly. Last night he got to the point where he was refusing to put a diaper back on, and that is what he's done now, too. But these darn boys and their penises! "Point it down!" I say, to no avail, as pee flies across the bathroom.

Alexander STILL has no aim. Half the time he pees, it's ALL over the seat. Sometimes he gets extra crazy and pees on the toilet shelf, the wall, the floor, and/or the trash can.

Seriously. I am tired of cleaning up pee. I want a girl this time. A girl who pees straight down.

(Of course I would be thrilled with another beautiful, healthy boy instead. I could have a lot of fun with three boys. But I might need some help cleaning up the pee.)

Blog Name Soon to Change

News Update:
Mark your calendars! If all goes well, you can expect that the name of this blog will change to "Two Plus Three Is Five" in mid April, 2010.