I have to admit that I was heading into today with a pretty pessimistic attitude. Mallory’s teachers have been having a lot of good luck with her using the potty at school. Some days she’ll go without having to change her pull-up at all. The only problem is that the same level of excitment about using the potty doesn’t seem to follow her home. On Friday, her teacher finally said those magic words. . . “We are ready for big girl panties.”

Could it be true? Could we be on the verge of saving $120,000/year in diapers? I left school excited, however over the weekend, Mallory did not volunteer or cooperate with going to the potty once. Nada. Zilch. So I was a little less than excited about giving it a try today. My fear was only reinforced when Mallory exclaimed to me about 1/2 mile from her school that she had “pee peed in her panties”. Sure enough, her pants were wet, so I took her into school first thing wet. Her teacher was nice enough to take it from there.

I wondered a few times throughout the day how well she would do. I truly expected to come to school and find her back in pull-ups. When I arrived, a teacher (not her normal teacher) told me that she had a small accident and she changed her pants. But to my surprise, she was still wearing panties. This mean that she had only had one accident at school that day… what a BIG GIRL. Continue reading →

Mallory has moved up into a new class both at daycare and at church. She’s getting to be such a big girl, and she says some of the funniest things. I guess more accurately, they are funny because she is putting thoughts together on her own. She’s been telling me on the way to school in the morning to “Drive faster daddy… so the policeman will get behind you.” This morning she was saying “wow, that’s a big cloud way up in the sky”.

Her teachers say she is doing great. I think she was ready for the challenge and would prefer her to have some kids to look up to. The biggest benefit has been the peer pressure on going potty. I believe today is the first day that she has not had an accident at school… meaning that she went to the potty every time. We need to find a way to get the same response at home. They don’t think it will be too long before she is ready for some “big girl panties.” I think that will be the act that seals the deal, since it won’t be comfortable at all, and will probably be embarrassing to use the bathroom in her panties.

Calen went to Dr Leeper for his 2 month appointment today. He is just above 50% in all of his measures (head size, height, weight). He weighed 12 lbs and 2 oz. Dr. Leeper said he was looking great and that what we thought was cradle cap, or infant acne, was actually something where his body is replacing skin cells faster than it needs to. I can’t remember what it was called, but dandruff shampoo is supposed to help. Calen got 3 shots and the roto-virus vaccine today. He wasn’t too happy about the whole thing and turned a shade of red that I don’t believe I had seen before. Only a couple minutes though and he was calmed back down. Continue reading →

Well, we’ve made it to the 8th week. It’s funny what you forget. Like, I can’t remember how old Mallory was before I got enough sleep to feel human again. My mom seems to think Mallory was easy, but I remember having to put her in the “sleeper hold” on occasion. At any rate, Calen is a pill. His fussy time is at night. It varies between just after the 8:00 feeding and the 11:00 feeding. I prefer the nights where he is fussy after the 8:00 feeding (like tonight). And after a week of a full house, he has decided that he is a lap baby. (great) Now, not only does he not want to sleep at night, he also doesn’t want to sleep during the day. . . unless he’s being held. ugh I’m working on him.
Saturday night, he kept me up until about 2:30, but then he slept until 7:30. Last night, I fed him at 10:30, and he slept until 5:30. Unfortunately, I woke up every 2 hours checking on him. We are hoping the extended sleep is a trend. . . and my anxiety is not.
Other than that, things are pretty much as you would expect with a newborn. We’re tired. But now that he is starting to open his eyes and smile and coo, he’s irresistible. I can’t wait to see what his little personality is like. I look at Mallory and see that it goes so fast. I have to say that the first milestone I look forward to is him being able to hold his own bottle. Wow the freedom!
Kylie is doing well at school. . . we think. It depends on the day. All we can pray for is that she does well enough to keep her scholarships. I do think she is getting a lot of life lessons though. The first year of college is all about figuring things out anyway, right?
Then, of course, there’s Mallory. I wish we carried around a video recorder with us at all times. Some of the things she comes up with are hysterical. We were coming home one Sunday and were discussing taking a nap. She said, “We get in mommy/daddy’s bed and watch Mickey Mouse. . . how bout dat?” What a little negotiator. By the way, we’ve tried that before thinking that we could sleep while she watched tv, it doesn’t work. The last time we tried she told Johnathan to turn it up because she couldn’t hear. He did without saying a word, and we heard a little voice say, “tick you”. She surprised my mom over the weekend. They were up in the bonus room and the sunlight was disappearing. She said, “It dark in here. Turn on lights.” Mom did and Mallory said, “Dat’s much better.” But, the latest was Monday morning. Normally, if she doesn’t get a bath at night, she takes a shower with daddy in the morning. Well, Johnathan asked me if I thought she needed to take a shower since she didn’t really do anything on Sunday. She said, “No. . . I just take a baff tonight.” I’ll try to keep track of more. There are just too many to remember.
She is moving up to the next class as school. The teacher says that she is more mature than some others that have already moved up. Her biggest obstacle is using the “big girl potty”. She is resistant. She says she wants to, but she just doesn’t do it. Over Thanksgiving, we tried something that was suggested by her teacher. We set a timer, and every time it went off, we took her to the potty. Well, the little snot started using the bathroom in her diaper when the timer went off. We even tried putting on “big girl panties” (training pants. . . wait till you see that video). She had an accident. She cried because she had pee’d on the floor. We tried that a couple more times, but she started refusing to go sit on the potty. By Saturday afternoon, I had given up. I know that she can do it. She is just being stubborn. I figure that once she is in this new class full-time, peer pressure will get to her, and she will want to potty train. Then, maybe we’ll get somewhere. But I will say that she pooped in the potty for the first time tonight. That was an experience. Very exciting! I’ll keep you posted.

I have so much to talk about, and if my youngest child wasn’t screaming his head off right now, I might actually be inclined to blog about it. Calen has decided to fuss from about 10:00 pm until 12:30 or 1:00 (it’s 10:05 now). Why that time? Why not early evening like all other babies? Who knows. But it’s quite exhausting.
I did manage to upload some more pics today (you’re welcome, mom). In the family category, there are some in Calen – 0 Months, Calen – 1 Month, Mallory – 2 Years Old and a couple in Kylie (she’s not around much anymore). In the Events category, there are Halloween 2009 and Mallory’s First Dentist Visit (that was actually fun).
If I get some time over the weekend, I’ll catch everyone up. Enjoy the pics.

While Johnathan and I were engaged, we talked about our future a lot, which of course included how many kids we wanted. He said he wanted 12. My response was, “You better find someone else to marry.” :) He said it so much that when we took the initial “test” for our pre-marital counseling, he was worried that I wouldn’t be able to accurately answer the question of how many kids my fiance wanted. I tell you this story because our first night at home, he looked at me and said, “Honey, I’ve changed my mind. Two is enough.” :) I have always said that man-to-man defense is the best.

In the hospital, Mallory was all about holding Calen. And the way she holds her hands out and cups them for you to put him in her arms is the cutest thing you have ever seen. But when we would take him and give him to someone else, she would get big tears in her eyes and say, “I want my baby back!” It was so sad and cute at the same time. We had no idea what to expect when we got home. It was one thing to deal with the baby brother in the hospital – a neutral location, but what would it be like when the baby came home with us? A couple of weeks before the birth, I bought Mallory a big sister gift. It included a baby doll, a high chair, a cradle and a stroller (her favorite piece). So when we came in from the hospital, the first thing we did was pile up in the bed and let her hold Calen for a few minutes. Then, I went to get the gift. Her attention quickly turned from baby brother to her new baby. Daddy and MeeMaw put it together…with some “help” from Mallory. She was so excited. Continue reading →

Apparently, I have a knack for breaking my water at 2:00 am on a Sunday. Of course, this one didn’t create the same sense of urgency as the first one did.

As I told you last time, we were scheduled for induction on Monday (10/12). Well, true to form, our baby got impatient. There were signs all week that we were getting close. I think our children just like to give everyone a chance to gather. My mom flew in on Thursday, and my dad arrived on Friday. My preference was to go into labor on my own and avoid pitocin. My plan was to go natural, and it is my understanding that labor is more painful with pitocin (me and my big ideas). Once I knew dad was at least halfway, I started trying to coax the baby out. Mom and I ran some errands and went shopping. I had contractions but nothing consistent. On Saturday, I got out and walked the neighborhood a couple of times. Again, I had contractions, but they didn’t turn into anything productive. Over the course of those two days, I had moments that seemed promising, but they didn’t last.

We went to bed on Saturday night with a firm belief that we would be going all the way to Monday. With all of the anticipation that week, I was having trouble sleeping. I was awake every couple of hours or so. Saturday night was no exception. But at 2:00 am, my trip to the bathroom was a little different. I had a trickle that I was fairly certain was my water breaking. I wasn’t positive. It was a little different than with Mallory. I ate some applesauce, walked around for a little while and decided to go back to bed. I was up again around 3:30. This time, I decided to tell Johnathan. I was pulling my books out and reading, trying to determine if this was really it. We decided that we would wait a while to call the doctor since it wasn’t really an emergency…and she would probably appreciate the extra sleep. At 5:00, I was confident that my water was broken. Knowing that food would not be a possibility once I got to the hospital, I decided to eat. As long as I was vertical, there wasn’t much of a problem (apparently, the baby’s head acts like a cork). But when I laid down, my “output” got progressively worse. We finally called the doctor at about 6:45 (my doctor was not on call), and she told us to head in. We still didn’t get into a hurry. We both showered. Johnathan packed his bag, and I threw the last minute things into mine. We made the calls we needed to make and headed to the hospital around 8:00, where they finally confirmed that, indeed, my water had broken. This was it. Continue reading →

First, I should catch up before going on the exciting news. I have been having horrible pains underneath my ribs. It hasn’t just been in the front (kind of stretching the muscles) like it was with Mallory. It has been in my side and back, and it has been excruciating. No idea what it is. Maybe Tater 2 is pushing on organs…I don’t know. What I know is that I don’t wake up with it. It usually comes on around lunch time. And the longer I am vertical the worse it gets. I have to lie on my left side to get rid of it. And the worse it is, the longer it takes to go away. Kylie was in town two weekends ago. On Sunday, we didn’t get home from church and stuff until around 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to do Mallory’s laundry. I was leaned over our mud sink, treating and scrubbing stains, while I was moaning and writhing in pain. I laid down for about an hour and then made dinner. By 9:00 that night, all I could do was lie on the couch and talk to Johnathan and Kylie while they played pool. Not fun.

The next day was my 36 week check up. I told my doctor about it (Johnathan had accused me of not being completely honest with her about my pain). She said she could take me out of work, but I had way too much going on. I said I would work with my boss to start cutting my office hours back. She said if that didn’t work and the pain became too much, we could look at inducing early…but she really wanted me to make it to 39 weeks. The risk of the lungs not being developed goes from 5% at 37 weeks to 1% at 39 weeks. She recently had an example of a baby born at 37 weeks that had to be on a ventilator. That was enough to convince me. She checked my cervix. I was 1 cm dilated and about 40% effaced. My body was working but not in overdrive. Continue reading →

I hit 38 weeks on Tuesday. I’m tired. I hurt. I’m grumpy. I’m ready to be done.
On a brighter note, I uploaded pictures. Pregnancy 2 and just a couple in Mallory – 2 Years. Check them out. Maybe after the doctor visit tomorrow I’ll be chipper enough to blog…that totally depends on her telling me that it’s not going to be 2 more weeks. Wish us luck!

I think sometimes things just work out right. We have a new CIO at work, who’s coming to Nashville next week for his first visit, which has things a little busy there getting ready. The Franklin Classic is this coming Monday (Labor Day) and planning for that has been exhausting. So even though it’s been planned for a while, without any knowledge of just how badly it would be needed, our “Babymoon” couldn’t have come at a better time.

Angie scheduled it as an opportunity for us to get away for a weekend, without the kids, and to relax before the new addition comes along. We haven’t actually gotten away for more than a quick overnight stay since Mallory came. The chosen location? Evins Mill in Smithville, TN. It’s about an hour east of here and is a bed and breakfast on steroids. Different from other B&B’s that I’ve either heard about or stayed at, this was really more of an “Inn”. It was made up of 40 acres of land, with a winding stream, an old mill, and a 50foot waterfall… There was a main house where we ate, which was very well thought out. They had a computer room (which we did not enter), there were always drinks and snacks out, and a dining room. Separate from the mainhouse were 3 “quadplexes” each with room for 4 couples… the first night we were there… well, I’m getting ahead of myself… let’s back up.

Angie’s stepmom, Kat, came into town on Thursday to watch Mallory for us. Part of the thought was that it would allow Mallory to get comfortable before we left, though it was quickly apparent that “separation anxiety” would not be a problem here. We both went to work on Friday, and left around lunch to head out on our journey. It was a nice drive… uneventful. We found the place after only missing one turn. Pulling up, it was obvious this would be a relaxing stay “close to nature.” Jason greeted us at the door… he’s the chef and was already working in the kitchen preparing dinner. Jason showed us around the main house and then to our room. He was very pleasant and we later found he was also a very good chef. ALL of the food was fantastic.

Angie thought ahead and order sandwiches from Honey Baked Ham. She packed them in a picnic basket and our first journey after unloading the car was to find a place to eat lunch. There was a bridge down from the house that was across the dam where the mill used to run. We crossed it and found a little spot down by the water next to the water wheel. It was a great start to the weekend… relaxing… just us… perfect weather. We had a bottle of wine opened, and just enjoyed each others company and the peaceful surroundings. Afterwards we headed up to the room and took a nap… naps are good.

Jason had indicated that there were only a few couples that night, so it was indeed very quiet. We headed up to the main lodge at 6:00 for dinner and were greeted by Chris… our server. Chris was a fun guy who was one of those “closet extrorverts” as Angie puts it. He couldn’t be serious if he had to be, but it made all of our main meals fun. Our first night we had 2 other couples there, but I have to admit we didn’t spend much effort to speak with them… we were just fine by ourselves. After dinner we were off to our room, where our cell phones didn’t worrk and the TV didn’t pick up a signal.

The next day we wanted to see the falls, so after breakfast, we cut out ont he “North Trail”. This was supposed to give us a view of the falls from the top. It was actually a pretty tough hike, so I have to give Angie a lot of credit . . . she didn’t complain once. The falls were beautiful, but I don’t think we truly realized what we were standing on. We didn’t stay long, but instead headed back and got ready to take the “South Trail”. Jason made us us some bag lunches and we took them with us down toward the falls. The “South Trail’ was pretty flat except for the last bit which drops down to the bottom of the falls. We stopped just before that and had out lunch… though both of us were still full from breakfast. We ate some of the food and then hung up our bags on a tree so that we could pick them up on the way back.

Angie again impressed with her descent and the view from down at the bottom of the falls was fantastic. It was there that we noticed that where we were up top, was actaully a ledge. We saw what I believe to have been a cottonmouth snake swimming through the water… which pretty much finalized our plan to NOT swim. Instead we just relaxed, took some pictures and ate a pack of cookies. Before we left, some kids came down the trail… which seemed odd since it was private property and no kids were supposed to be there that weekend.

We treked back up the hill, but when we got to our bags we found one of them on the ground. Our first thought was that the kids had gotten into our food, but at first glance we didn’t see anything missing. Then as we continued walking Angie realized, “Those kids ate our other pack of cookies!” Sure enough, the cookies were gone… not the banana and apple mind you. The water bottle was gone too, which thinking back we remember seeing one of the kids with a bottle of water. No wonder they didn’t want to look us in the eye when we passed…

No big loss, and not worth the trip back down the hill, so we headed back for a much needed nap.

Dinner was again fantastic, as was the quiet room again and the opportunity to sleep late. Sunday morning they prepare brunch, so you can come up whenever you want. We made it up around 10 and ate outside on the deck. Brunch was rediculous… the amount of food was amazing, and much of the vegetables were grown by Jason personally. We said our goodbyes and headed out, much refreshed and well rested. We agreed that we need to make it a point to get away, even if it’s just for a weekend, at least once a year. We’ll add that to our MIP… our Marriage Investment Plan.

Angie has uploaded some pictures of the trip for those interested. She’s also added some more to Mallory 2 Years, and maybe other albums as well. Hopefully the new SmugMug albums are working out for everyone.