Think Family.Net

November 18th, 2008 by Natalia

I’ve been having pretty regular contractions for a while now. They come and they go. Last night they started up around 8pm and went all night long and have continued all day today. They are uncomfortable, but not really what I would consider painful. Pain is a relative term.. Anyways… to see if I could keep them going or get them going stronger I loaded Jax up as I have done almost everyday for the past few weeks and we went to town. Today, we hit Wal-Mart to walk around and to get diapers. Let me just tell you a FEW of the comments I received:

1. I passed a little girl in a basket not much older than Jax who said to me… “Why are you hiding a ball in your shirt?” I laughed. Her mama explained to her it was a baby and not a ball. She then said, “well why is it round then? Babies aren’t round.”
2. Random manager approaches me and tells me that I’m “flushed and sweaty and should probably be at the hospital and not out shopping.” She said she didn’t want me to have the baby in the store.

Everyone that I made eye contact with asked when my baby was due. When I told them last Saturday they all had advice on how to get her to come out faster:

• One lady said to do some deep knee bends.
• Another told me to go home and have a beer.
• A very old lady told me it was time for castor oil.
• Another indicated that she was afraid my hips weren’t wide enough…
• One insisted there was NO way it was only one baby.

On the way to the register, I refused to look at anyone or smile at anyone… because I’m contracting, my back hurts and I’m so ready to have this baby so I can not be so pathetic looking anymore. I miss the days where people don’t speak to you in the store unless they run you over with their cart.

I get home to where I think I’m safe. I got Jax to sleep and then I put up the junk that I spent way too much money on. As soon as I sit down to a glass of Ginger Ale and the freaking door bell rings…. Two very nice ladies are going door to door handing out pamphlets about “The Truth.” I open the door and she doesn’t even talk about what she knocked on my door for… The first thing she said was “OH, MY I hope you are going to have that baby soon. This let to a 5 minute conversation about being huge and talking about dialation and yet more things I should do to speed up the process. At the end she says they will pray for me and reaches out and lays her hands on my belly and begins praying that this baby will come out today… I don’t like it when random strangers want to touch me…. much less when they do it without asking…

It’s been an exhausting day. I think I’ll relax and hopefully have the baby soon….

November 11th, 2008 by Natalia

A lot of people say that there is an influx of babies born on or around the full moon. A lot of hospitals increase their staff around the full moon….

Interesting Article - Water Tends to Break More Around Full Moon

Well, the full moon is approaching and I’m counting on it or gravity or whatever - to persuade Kylie to COME OUT! Two more days until the moon is full. Come on moon, work your magic! PLEEEEEEEEAAAAASSE! I can not possibly retain anymore water or I’m quite sure random body parts will soon begin to explode. Here are some FULL moon pics to get us all on the same page. Come on people - think FULL MOON! Chant it with me- FULL MOON! FULL MOON! FULL MOON!

Well, I’m off to an appointment at the birthing center… Wish me luck! Hopefully, she has some good news for me! Keep thinking about the full moon!

November 10th, 2008 by Natalia

Oh, the joys of pregnancy… The heartburn. The nausea. The weight gain. The “I can’t bend that way.” And now… I officially have the beautiful pregnancy induced Kankles… I’d take a picture but I can’t. Sorry… I can’t even get my flip flops on anymore… My feet look like a bunch of marshmallows shoved together in the shape of an elephants foot..  This child NEEDS to make her entrance into this world soon… I DONT want to have to serve her an eviction notice…. but dang… I don’t think my body can take much more before it explodes.

September 11th, 2008 by Natalia

We got Jackson this trike for his bday.

It is made by a German company. It’s a neat trike and all.. but the instructions SUCK.  The trike came in about 100 gazillion pieces. It came with ONE page of instructions, if you can call it that. It was just an exploded diagram with pictures. No words.. At least not any of them I could read. There seemed to be some German on the back, but what good does that do me?. There was no order to it.. Luckily, I’m pretty smart so it took me about an hour of glaring at the stupid paper and cursing at the trike to get it put together. I’m sure these type of instructions are not uncommon, but couldn’t they include some numbers or letters or something to tell me to put the underside together before putting the outside on? So that I didn’t have to take it apart and put it back together again. Just a thought!

It was all worth it.. Jackson’s face lit up and he loves to ride the trike. Now, hopefully, Kevin’s face will light up the same, when he comes home tonight and doesn’t have to assemble it!

August 11th, 2008 by Natalia

Ashton’s been gone visiting family in west Texas for a week now. It’s been a busy week. I thought I would write her a letter and include pictures of all the happenings that have happened while she has been gone… (I’m sure she will be glad she missed them.)

Dear Ashton,

We all miss you very much, BUT we are glad that you are having fun square dancing, inner tubing, shopping, golfing, playing with baby goats, pizza baking, taco making, watching movies, and just plain relaxing! While you’ve been away Jax and I have been very busy.

First of all, Jax is taking very good care of your baby while you are gone. He has been giving her baths every night.

He’s also insisted on wearing your hat, almost every day. (Maybe it reminds him of his “SHISHIE”)

On Friday, I was cleaning out my office and Jax was playing in the living room as usual. I hear him giggling hysterically so I go to check on him. Here is what I found!!!

Jax had blanketed the entire living room wit baby powder. It took me and Carmen forever to clean this up. Our vacuum broke in the process. Ash, aren’t you glad you weren’t here? HA! I thought the shirt he was wearing on this day was very apropos considering his FATHER did this with AJAX when he was little.

Yesterday, I walked in and Jax was smearing diaper cream all over his lips and face…. Saying YUMM! I don’t think he got any in his mouth… Thank goodness! AGAIN… like father like son…. Kevin diaper creamed his poor brother from head to toe when he was this age. He cream the poor guys eyelids shut… I definately think genetics are playing a role in this!

Now, on to what you really wanted to see, my little Ash E. Poo… Your new bedding! Here it is! I hope you like it… I love you! I spent the ENTIRE day today cleaning out and cleaning up your room. I hung all your laundry and your room is spotless! (THANK YOU MOMMY!) I thought you could use a more grown up bedding set since you are going to be a 3rd grader soon!!!

Sheets…

Well, I need to go cook dinner. I love you and look forward to seeing you real soon.

Hugs and Kisses,

MOMMY

July 29th, 2008 by Natalia

I went to the chiropractor last week because of a numbness in my arms. After we were done and were just chit chatting about what the plans would be… Ashton climbed up on the adjustment table and passed out! I mean, we were only talking for maybe 5 minutes. Ashton was out cold. What a NUT!!

July 29th, 2008 by Natalia

Anyone who knows Jax, knows that he and sleep have never been great friends. He has always woken up every couple of hours searching for me. He’s always had to be held down to go to sleep. Whether it was in the high chair or carseat or in our arms… sleep just wasn’t something that he was going to do on purpose. Well, about 2 weeks ago we finally got him a twin bed and have been pretty consistent about making him sleep in it. Most nights I was having to lay with him until he fell asleep and then sneak off only to be woken up a couple of hours(if I was lucky) later to start the whole process over again. We’ve had a couple of good nights, but mostly not.

Then all of the sudden, two nights ago, I think he came to peace with the idea of sleeping alone in his bed. For the past two nights he has crawled in his bed, after his bath, around 730 saying “night night.” I’ve turned on his one and only favorite DVD - Sponge Bob and told him “night night” and that I’d check on him in a bit. I shut the door and leave the room. He lays there a while and when he starts to doze he jumps up and starts flipping the light on and off. He throws his blankets and pillows on the floor and puts his feet on the wall and kicks a little. After a couple of hours….he passes out. This I can handle… He’s not screaming as if someone just took his favorite toy away. He’s just restless. What’s super awesome is that last night and the night before… he didn’t wake up upset or get out of his bed until 630 am when Kev was leaving for work!!! I know to most people this is no big deal… but for us… 930- 630 is a HUGE accomplishment…

At this rate, I might just make it through his childhood without having to visit the insane asylum. It’s amazing how much better you feel when you get your rest!!! I hope it continues! Now let’s just pray that Kylie is a good sleeper…

March 22nd, 2008 by Natalia

WARNING: This will be a long post. I’ve been gone all week and I have a lot of catching up to do! It’s worth the grueling time it takes you to read it though. Yup..

Last Sunday the kids and I ventured out and took a 6 hour road trip to visit the family in W. Texas. We left the house before the sun came up, hoping that Jackson would sleep most of the way. He slept for a little while, but not as long as I had hoped. So Ashton had to find random things to entertain him in-between shoveling cheerios into his mouth. She tried baby dolls. But he wasn’t thrilled.

Trying to keep Jax happy is a hard job. It made Ashton a little crazy!

Being the only adult in the car made me a little crazy so I started taking random pictures of things on the way. Like these lovely windmills.

We did make it to our destination in time to rest… for a few minutes. We had quite a busy week.

Monday we went to a kids science museum. They had a really neat dinosaur exhibit showcasing the “new” dinosaur that they found in S. America, the Gigantosaurus. It’s supposedly bigger than the T-Rex. It was huge. I’m not sure what Jax thought of all the giant moving monsters, but his expression never changed from his normal very serious look. I’d love to know what goes on in his little mind sometimes.

Here is my “Ashyosaurus”.

Ashton and Nana had a great time doing all of the little experiments while Jax and I headed to tot land. There, Jax had a heck of a time playing in the water.

There were SO many things for him to get into, that he had a blast. He LOVES those kind of places. He was in heaven!

On Tuesday, it was COLD and WINDY. I HATE the wind in W. Texas. I’m quite sure that’s the reason that I never moved back there. There is just something irritating about constantly having sand in your teeth. Not sexy… Anyways… remember those goats? Well, Ashton wanted to go check on them. So we braved the cold wind and went to visit those stinky things. There is really no way that one could confuse these animals with one spec of cuteness. Their eyes are strange. They make the ugliest, tongue thrusting , BLAAAAAAAAAA, noise. AND… they don’t really care about hygiene. I suppose some people eat them and call it cabrito, but I can’t imagine that they taste good at all… They are nasty… They eat food covered in their own waste… (Ashton pointed this out)

That being said… We got a goat! KINDA… Well Ashton was given a goat. It WILL stay there on the farm, but she was able to name it. It’s her goat. It was 4 days old. Here it is. Introducing “Taylor”.

Jax wasn’t quite sure what to think about the goats. He seemed to want to squeeze their noses for some reason. He did perfect his “BLAAAAAAAAAA” and has now begun speaking the language of the goat.

Ashton was beaming from ear to ear.

Ashton was fascinated by the goats jumping on their mother’s backs.

While Ashton was playing with the goats and I was taking pictures… (I’m not going in their pin) Jackson took his great Nana on a hike.

On Wednesday the weather was MUCH nicer and we were able to take the kids to play with Unca Bubba at an awesome playground. I wish they had something like this in our neighborhood.

At first, Jackson was asleep, but I woke him up. This playground was too much fun to miss.

After a couple of hours at the playground we were enticed by the nice weather to go see the goats again, since our previous visit was cut short by the freezing wind. This time, Jax got a kick out of throwing baby pumpkins to the goats. He was so fascinated by the pumpkins that we somehow ended up bringing two of them home with us.

Jackson got really brave and was feeding the goats some bread. He almost got a kiss from one of the goats. Nana saved his life!

While Jax was fascinated with the pumpkins… Ash was worried about the “lop-sided” pregnant goat.

Thursday we came home. The kids watched movies all the way home.

We had a great trip, but are glad to be home.

February 25th, 2008 by Natalia

While Ash E. Poo was visiting the folks in west Texas, she got to hold some 2 week old baby goats. She was so proud of this and has decided that we need a pet goat.(I don’t think so) She says that they are so sweet and don’t really cry even as much as Jackson.

She’s got it all figured out. She’d be the mommy and her baby goat could sleep in her room. She says she would hold it, and love it and help it to grow up and be a good adult goat! (Not the kind that eat stuff - she assured me)

Here are some pictures from her adventures with the goats..

We might think about a puppy someday…. but NO goats. Sorry Ash E. Poo!