A Proud Moment

This happened a few days ago and I considered blogging it then, but then thought "Nah. It's not THAT important." So anyways, I deemed this event to be un-blog-worthy. But darnit I'm still thinking about it and it still makes me happy to think about it, so I'm writing it down.

On Thursday I took the kiddos to the grocery store. As we're walking in Adam doesn't want to sit in the cart (he's been resisting it more and more), so I told him "Fine. You can walk but you have to hold Sissy's hand. No running. No touching." I wasn't expecting this scenario to last very long, but Frannie and Adam grabbed hands and they walked sweetly behind the cart. They did this through the whole store!!! It was the cutest thing ever and it just made me so proud of my sweet kids. A little four year old and almost 2 year old walking hand in hand and giggling and just being little dears. They sure made me look good that day!!

I'm Bored

Hi All. I need a forum to visit or something. Do any of you have one that you visit and like?

Various Things

Little Vegetable Garden


Green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, jalapeno, and yellow squash. I've got lettuce growing in the back.

We don't get much sun at all in the back area and I've been wanting to have a food garden for years. Now that I finally have a patch of dirt to plant in...it won't work. It seems that when it comes to Growing Vegetables 101 they need water and FULL sun. Full sun translates to 6+ hours a day of direct sunlight. There is just no way any of my plants receive that kind of sunlight in the back. So container vegetable gardening is my creative solution to hopefully get some sort of food production this year. (Lettuce and spinach do well in partial sun.) If it works well, I'll add to it next year.

If I didn't live in an association, I'd be very interested in yanking out the front lawn and creating an interesting food/flower garden in the front. A really neat book on the subject is Food Not Lawns.

Figuring Out Adam

I know I've written a few posts about my trials with Adam and his temper tantrums. And this is something that keeps evolving so here is my latest update. Time outs only work to a point. I've learned that he has certain triggers that set him in a bad way and if I don't steer clear of the triggers then I'm almost asking for problems. I've noticed that on days when we are outside all morning at the park he is a little dream boy. He'll just play the whole time with a ball or whatever and just wander around. When we go on long walks he will jog and jog and be chirping away. And I'll have no trouble with him. When we get home he takes a nice long nap, and when he wakes from sleep it's good if we can go outside for a second time before dinner. He's sweet and funny and my happy Adam.

Here's where I have trouble. Last Wednesday I was at a Moms Club meeting and he did the same thing he always does: started whining and burying his head between my knees and pulling on my finger to go with him into the playroom. He won't leave my side. Since I am the club secretary I really need to be in the main room taking notes, I can't just go with him into the playroom. When I tell him no, he starts to cry and whine and eventually throw a big tantrum. This then becomes really frustrating to me because I feel like I can't give my attention to ANYTHING because he will always flip out. I left the meeting as soon as it was over. I couldn't even enjoy hanging out with my Mom friends, I was soooo annoyed.

When I got home, I started thinking about the times he is good and no trouble and the times when he frustrates me the most. And I realized that my boy needs to be outside exercising. He doesn't like it when we are in rooms or houses especially with a bunch of other people. He will always be yanking on my finger to follow him and be right next to him, and if I leave him in a room in any way, once he looks up to find me he'll start to cry if I'm not there. So then it hit me...Why am I doing this to myself? If my boy needs to be outside and running around to be happy, then why am I creating problems for the both of us by forcing him into situations that make him uncomfortable? True, it means that I really can't have any Moms Club responsibilities right now, but maybe that's just the way it needs to be.

So I've decided that to make us all happier, my Adam needs a good walking every single day. He needs to get his energy out and be outside. Time outs work pretty well for the other tantrum things.


Some recent pics

This is Adam's friend Mona from across the street and her sister Sara. Frannie with her new scooter. Thanks Rachele and Alana! Adam with Daddy :)

Pregnancy Update- 31 Weeks

I figured it was time to update again. My dad was here this afternoon so I asked him to take a picture of me. The Belly has grown quite a lot in these last few weeks. Some say I look bigger than last time, others say smaller. I think I'm just carrying a little differently. I'm carrying more similarly to when I had Frannie. I've gained 25lbs so far which is normal for me. I gained 40+ lbs in both pregnancies. With Frannie I gained 40 exactly and with Adam I just stopped weighing myself after I got to 40 :P. Because I began this pregnancy 10lbs heavier I hoped to only gain 30lbs but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It feels like every week I'm gaining at least 2lbs so I'm on track to gain 40 again. How I do I feel about this? Well, I have mixed feelings about it. I have had very straightforward deliveries, so if this is what my body wants to do to grow a baby then I don't care how big the bootie gets. But I'm definitely feeling like a "big girl" right about now. Even my maternity jeans feel too small, so I'm spending more time in workout pants.

As far as the health of me and baby, we are both doing well. My blood work is good. Blood pressure good. Baby moves a lot as he/she should. I pray for a healthy baby. I have my request in for one of those painless deliveries. We'll see how that pans out :P.

I have two more months to go. I'm enjoying this time, and I'm not feeling guilty about letting the kids watch TV in the morning so I can sleep in, or when I take an afternoon nap instead of do the laundry.

Adam's Vocabulary

From time to time, I like to post the things the kids are saying, because soon enough they drop certain habits and I'll forget they ever did things this way in the first place!

Adam will be 2 in June, so that makes him...what? 21 months? I start forgetting and stop really counting after 18 months. Then it becomes "uh...he'll be two in June."

Doody= thirsty
Manan= vitamin and M&M (It started out as his way of saying vitamin, and then one day I ran out and gave him an M&M as a pretend vitamin, so now the word is interchangeable).
Go! WAY!= Go away!
Sissy= sister
Ball= anything round and globular. Grapes, oranges, seeds from plants, and of course, balls!
Boon= balloon
Ah fawet= I farted
Gi go= Here you go
Giyup= Get up

A word about balls and balloons. He can play with a ball all day long. It's really the only toy he needs. I was at my Grandma Lois' home in Lancaster last weekend and she didn't have any toys AND she has a home that invites lots of exploring little hands (I let her know when we arrived that I'd probably be doing some redecorating aka child-proofing). Anyways, I asked her for some aluminum foil because it crunches into a quick ball. Don't you know he threw that thing around the entire visit.

Now balloons are a different matter. He LOVES them, but they kind of make him manic. If we are at a grocery store that has balloons as decoration the child gets all agitated in the cart. Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what in the world he keeps "uh! uh! uh! uh!" over. When we pass car lots on the freeway he shouts from the backseat BOOON!! See a balloon is always surprising in the way it moves, but it never really does what you want it to do. So it both delights and frustrates him. The best balloon is a day-old balloon that still floats a bit, but will eventually come back down.
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A little update on his behaviour since my last post. All four of "said teeth" have popped through his gums so he isn't acting like the terror he was before. I'm not sure why it took me so long to connect teeth=behavior. Probably because the kids typically do quite well with teething, however I don't think I've ever had to deal with so many teeth making their debut at once. Anyways, I'm sure that was part of it, because he is now back to his normal self.

Now, "normal self" still isn't always such a great thing and there are some things I'm working on with him. He is VERY quick to throw temper tantrums when he doesn't get just his way. The week that I was going nuts (and wrote my post) I chose the "just ignore it" method. Well, I found that the "just ignore it" method means that he will just keep screaming and screaming and screaming, and then at the next slight he will continue to scream and scream some more. This just isn't acceptable. And it wasn't working. So I decided to try time outs as soon as he started one up, and that seems to be very helpful. For example, if I'm putting him into the carseat and he starts up with the arching and screaming and flailing, then I take him out of the car and sit him down in the garage right next to the car. Then I give him a stern talking to where I tell him "no cry in car" and "that's not right". The boy does seem to understand English and he quiets down quickly with that. After awhile I sound a little "beep beep" like time's up and then I can pick him up and put him back into the car and we're good. I've been doing this with lots of tantrum things and it seems to be really helping. I can even do it at a moment's notice in a store. Now remember this is a Work in Progress! He isn't perfect all of the time, nor am I. We're working on it.

My hope of course is that by the time Baby comes he'll be a little more minding because I can't be chasing him all over creation and I can't have him flipping out over everything.

Adam throwing a tantrum for Daddy. He had been at this for awhile by the time he got the camera. Listen to Jason's explanation for WHY he's crying.

Bradley Reunion Day!

Today we had our Bradley Reunion for the latest batch of sweet babies born.

Pictured from left to right are April and Julius with Melody; Armida and Stephen with Armida; James and Alisha with Ariana; Mande and Guy with Boaz; Laurel and her sister Carol with Matthew, there's good ol' me; and at the bottom is Michelle with Julie.

Missing were Deanna and Janay with Janai; Leslie and Robert with Julia; and Autumn and Jason with Emma. And Michelle's hubby Jerome was missing too. Can't forget him!

Edit: And as Laurel rightly mentioned, her hubby is serving our country in Iraq which is why Carol was her coach. He was a great support overseas though! Thank you David!

Limited Time Offer!

My friend Kristy had this on her blog and I thought it would be fun to do it myself. So here goes...The first five people who respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I hope you will!)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what it's going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same thing to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to leave a comment will win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!

***Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it***