Think Family.Net

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

I’m so proud of my little man! For the past 6 days Jax has been totally content being put to bed wide awake… in his own bed. As you can see from previous posts, this is a huge accomplishment for him. I am so happy to put him in his room and not have to lay with him at all! ALL NIGHT - he sleeps alone in his room. It’s so refreshing…

Now, we’ve conquered 2 things on my “I DON’T THINK IT WILL EVER HAPPEN” list. 1. Weaning… I thought I was going to have to go to college with him! I’m proud to report that the little stinker has been boob sober since January 26th. 2. Sleeping in his own bed - YEAH!!!

Now, our next projects to tackle on the list will be potty training and getting him to talk more… then we will move on to kicking sissy’s boyfriends in the shins… but that’s much further down the road. Afterall, he’s only turning two next month! Gotta start early!!

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…

Yes, I’m alive and well! It’s been so long since I’ve written. Things have been so busy around here…

• At the beginning of July we went to San Francisco for a week for Kevin’s grandmother’s funeral. That was a neat experience. I love the weather there.

• When we got home, my mother came for a visit. We shopped till we dropped and then tried to make some plan as to how I’m going to clean out my office/weight room and make it a baby’s room. You know… where to put the desk, the TV, the weights, and all the miscellaneous junk that has accumulated in here over time. That left me we a huge task and a huge mess that I am still trying to dig out from under it and figure out where to put another baby…
• On top of that, I’m just swamped with web design work….

Update on the kids

Jax:

• 22 months and STILL never stops moving…
• He has however been evicted from our bed and has his very own twin size big boy bed. He does pretty good. He still wakes up a couple of times a night and cries for me… I go and lay with him until he’s back to sleep and then go back to my bed…or sleep there…if I fall asleep. Man, I’m tired….
• He’s now taking a Gymboree class. He’s not much of a “group” person. He pretty much does his own thing until they break out the bubbles or the little purple clown.
• He’s saying quite a few new words and phrases such as oh-well, mine, GO, Ready-set-go, Natalia( NaTahyiah), bubble, Ashton(AhEEEY or Sissy) and baby… just to name a few. He knows a lot more… he just chooses not to say them most of the time.
• I’d like to say that potty training is in our near future so that we could get him out of diapers before the new baby… but I don’t think he’s anywhere near ready yet….
• His eating habits are getting better… He’s still eating ALOT of fruit and downing the soy milk like you wouldn’t believe..but now he eats chicken and steak and CORN on the COB!! He still won’t try the normal things kids love like mac and cheese and potatoes….I guess I shouldn’t complain.
  

Ashton:

• is getting ready for a big 2 week trip to west Texas. She’s going to visit Grandy, Nana, and Unca Bubba in August. I’ve heard them speak of trips to a huge playground and out to the farm to see her goat who has had babies recently( I think). There will be lots of golf and boating… She is super thrilled.
• She will be starting the 3rd grade at the end of August at a new school that is within walking distance. She is so excited to walk to school. I will be meeting her half way for a while.. I’ll walk to where I can see the school. I just don’t trust all those nuts out there and I need the exercise.
  

The new baby-

• Who we are calling Kylie Marie (unless something was hiding on the ultrasound).
• I think we are going to do a 3D ultrasound in a few weeks.
• I’ve sold some of Jax’s clothes and bought some girly things, but not a lot. I’m still a little scared!
• I’m now 23 1/2 weeks and she’s kicking like crazy.
• MOST of the morning sickness is gone…FINALLY.
• I have developed some weird issue where something is pinched and my arms go numb when I sleep or type (like right now). It’s quite annoying and painful sometimes. I’m seeing if a chiropractor can fix it. She thinks it’s pregnancy induced. I’ve been once and I think it’s helped a little. We’ll see.

That’s all I can think about right now. I have lots of random pics on my phone to share soon. Look forward to those. I promise I won’t wait another month to post again. Sorry!!! I’m off to the chiropractor now…

Well, as you already know… I am. This is my third time around and I am determined to do it differently this time. Let me give you a little back ground info… How about a shortened version of my two previous births?

Ash E. Poo - January 27, 2000 - I was 18 and had NO idea what the heck I was doing. I went into the hospital at night with contractions about 5 mins apart and I was slightly dilated. They decided to admit me. I held hostage in the bed by fetal monitors and an IV tainted with pitocin, which is like the devil’s venom or something. I was starving and they starved me, feeding me only ice chips. I laid there all night trying to sleep. By morning, my OB came in and things weren’t progressing (duh) so broke my water and kept upping my pitocin. After the overdose of pit, I was talked into having a little medicine to take the edge off the pain, so they gave me Demerol and phenya-something which made me drunk (like room spinning, NOT fun drunk) as heck. I felt out of control. I couldn’t keep my mind focused, all I could do was cry and fall asleep between contractions. It was horrible. By this time, I NEEDED an epidural. Along with that came a lovely catheter that caused pain that I could feel through the epidural. Ashton was born at 1:55pm.

Jackson: September 5, 2006 - I went into the pregnancy with birth plan in hand only to have it pretty much be dismissed by my OB as unnecessary. She said, “she does things her way, and mommies and babies come out fine.” I trusted her. Same story. Strapped to bed with fetal monitors coming out of every orifice of my body. Starved. IV’d with hell water (pitocin). Waited all night. Doc comes in and says that I was taking to long so she broke my water and all hell broke loose with it. Got all the way to 10 and my body was ready to push… but where was the doctor? Not there… She left.. so they tell me to freakin PANT, PANT, PANT and not push until they could get her back. What the heck? It hurt so bad… I was like hook me up… I need an epidural NOW… and guess what they did? They gave me one… just in time to push. Jackson was born at 10:22am. I received a “generous” episiotomy which resulted in the nurses coming in and lifting my covers every 20 minutes for the next two days to violate my privacy. NICE!!!

Peanut #3 and I will NOT subject ourselves to the needless torture and unnecessary medical interventions this time around. I’ve done a lot of research and I believe whole-heartedly that a woman’s body was made to birth babies. It’s a natural process, not a sickness. We will be under the care of a Certified Nurse Midwife and will birth in a comfortable birthing center. Now, don’t get me wrong. I think medical interventions are AWESOME when needed, but I think they cause more problems when they aren’t. It’s a domino effect. Give pitocin, it hurts worse… need epidural or drugs.. Labor slows… give more pit… baby goes into distress… c-section.

I watched an a really great eye opening movie last night about all of this. It’s called The Business Of Being Born. It’s produced by Riki Lake. I highly recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or thinking about having a baby some day. It’s a good look at the whole business of birthing babies.

Call me crazy… but it all makes perfect sense to me.

Sometimes, it’s easy to come up with that perfect name for your child. It may come to you in a dream, or maybe you have a great uncle whom you owe allegiance to. It can be that simple.

When I had Ashton I was 18 and didn’t put much thought into the name. I just liked the name Ashton Makayla. And that was it.

With Jackson, I was a few years more mature, so Kev and I put a little more thought into his name. His name is actually Thomas Jackson. He is named Thomas after his dad, his dad’s dad, my grandfather, my brother, ALL whom are “Thomas” something or another. “Jackson” is just a cool name that we liked. We didn’t disclose his name until right before he was born.

Now, baby number three on the way and I decided to start early this time and get some opinions from everyone. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl and probably won’t find out until at least June. So right now, we have to explore both genders!

Sooooooo… Here are some of the names we are kicking around… Well me and Ashton… Hopefully Kevin will give me some input soon too.

Scroll through the names and then click on vote and tell me what your favorite three choices are. THANKS!!!

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(Disclaimer: Hopefully no one will get their feelings hurt if we don’t name our little kumquat after them)

Click on the link below and enter our poll. See if you can be the one who predicts when our baby will be born. Tell us what sex you think it will be. And if you think you know… how big will baby #3 be?

Insider tips:

• Peanut #3: due date 11/15/2008
• Ashton: due date 2/13 born 1/27 (37.5 weeks), 6lbs. 4 oz., 19 3/4 inches
• Jackson: due date 9/12 born 9/05 (39 weeks), 9lbs. 7oz., 21 inches

Ok… Guess away!!!

I have come to a point in my life where I am in love with stretchy pants.

Whoever invented them is my hero. Stretchy pants are comfortable. They stretch and don’t restrict. I am in great need of this comfort these days. BECAUSE my waist seems to be expanding for some reason! dun dun duhnnnnnn..

Yup! That’s right. Our third “hellion” is due in November. We are excited to bring yet another wonderful member into our family. Wish us luck!!! Now I’m tired and need a nap!

Disclaimer: Stretchy pants are a privilege and not a right. To the women who go in public in their stretch pants- check ass carefully before leaving home. If your rear looks like someone took a steak hammer to it and you can see this through your stretchy pants…. put on a long shirt or don’t leave the house. This is not good for public consumption.

NO This is NOT a mean April fools joke! This is for real! Ha!

1. Write a book about my life.
2. Obtain a degree in psychology.
3. Cruise the Mediterranean.
4. Tour Canada by train.
5. See my kids graduate from college.
6. Have grandkids(not too soon though).
7. Go island hopping in Hawaii.
8. Go to Disney World.
9. Tour castles in Ireland.
10. Celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary ( August 27, 2055)
11. See Kev happy in his job or see him CHANGE careers.
12. Visit Mt. Shasta..I’ve heard so much…
13. Take a gondola ride in Venice
14. Eat in one of the restaurants of the following people: Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Gordan Ramsay, Mario Batali
    
15. See a president elected that will do our country some good
16. Build a custom house (not with my hands… but have one built)
17. See teachers get the pay the deserve
18. Learn Spanish
19. Save someones life
20. Take a month long vacation exploring Europe
21. RV or SUV across the Eastern US.
22. Eat lobster in Maine
23. Visit Australia
24. Catch a Jackalope
25. Eat Swiss chocolate in Switzerland

I ran across this piece of advice on a friends BLOG. (Thanks for sharing!!!) It’s so true! Enjoy!

Thinking of Having Kids?
Do this 11 step program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel…
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive) Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store.
Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air. You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you’re thinking What’s ‘Noggin’?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying ‘mommy’ repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Still want kids?

Kids are great. I can’t imagine life without them!

My “Goats”