Yikes.

I've always been a bit accident prone while pregnant. I like to blame it on the stretching ligaments, or something like that.

I have recently taken it to a new level with this pregnancy though. On Christmas day I fell down the hardwood stairs at my parent's house and practically broke my elbow. Thankfully my bottom took most of the impact and, well, let's just say it has a little extra padding right now so no problem there. I do have a huge bruise on my arm though, and it still aches.

Then just in case I was looking for a bit more drama, I stabbed myself in the hand with a new butcher knife while making dinner last night. We're talking squirting blood and everything. I'm still finding splatters the next day. So gross. And off to urgent care we went. After some debate as to whether or not a pregnant woman can have the numbing medicine used for stitches and if I needed a tetanus shot, they finally just decided to glue the wound shut. The doctor encouraged me that it was actually better to have a puncture wound (squirting blood and all) than a laceration because the tissue underneath closes in on itself and heals better. Great. I'll keep that in mind next time.

And, I kid you not, while I was typing this, the newly one year-old Brody just picked up a glass, walked off of the carpet onto the hardwood floor, and threw it down. Shattered. What is going on here? Maybe he was jealous and wanted some attention of his own :).

Why??!

Dear Pink,

Why did I just spend a whole day painting the nursery two different colors of pink and completely hate it? Pink, you have let me down after all this time of hoping for your arrival. You fooled me on the paint swatches and made my back hurt for no reason. Now I am walking like an 80 year old. But don't you worry, I WILL be back and I will tame your outrageously bright ways so that I no longer need sunglasses when I look at you.

Sincerely,
A design conscious soon to be Mommy to a little girl (who better REALLY like pink)


I'm not kidding in the above letter. I finally got the crib bedding after waiting 6 weeks (special order or something), dutifully looked at swatch after swatch of paint--in the daylight and evening--all to no avail.

Gotta fix it.

Will post pictures some day if I'm satisfied :).

Happy Birthday, Joel!

Wow! Our "little boy" is 5 today! I'm not going to say these five years have flown by so quickly, because to be honest, they haven't. They actually have been the five hardest years of my life. Little did we know that five years ago, we would face cancer, moving 3 times, 2 job changes, Autism, and the addition of 3 more children. That is a lot to take on, and while I wouldn't have necessarily chosen our circumstances, we have seen God's grace, mercy, and blessing so clearly through it all--especially through Joel.

Three years ago his diagnosis of Autism was devastating. Today he is a thriving 5 year old who truly loves life! Yes, his challenges result in extra diligence, patience, effort, research, prayers, tears, and attention, but we have seen a miracle in his life and he always challenges us better parents. Nothing like paving the way for your siblings, buddy!

So, for the one who has been counting down the days until his birthday since the day after it occurred last year, Joel has been eagerly awaiting this moment. We actually celebrated on Friday and Saturday evenings so he got two "parties"! Somehow Brody injured his ankle Friday afternoon and we were sent to the hospital for x-rays to see if it was broken--thankfully it wasn't, but he did have to wear a sad looking splint all night. Side note, when I was on the phone with the on-call doctor that night, she asked me what happened to him. I honestly had to say that I wasn't sure--we were in the same room with him when it occurred, but we didn't actually see it. Meanwhile, in the background, Zac is wrestling with Joel and Jesse and during a pause in my conversation, Joel shouts out "Daddy, give me another body slam!!" I'm sure at that moment the doctor had doubts about our parenting skills :).

This cut into our plans for Joel that evening so we just had a nice family dinner with cake and presents. He was very gracious about the change in plans when we explained we'd do the second half (going to a nearby museum that has a Christmas celebration and trail of lights) the next night. Because after all, the only thing better than one birthday celebration is two!

So now he's saying cute things to me like, "Mommy, don't you like having a 5 year old boy now?" He also enjoys reminding me of the upcoming birth of his sister by saying, "Mommy, soon you are going to have two babies in the house. Aren't you excited??!!" To which I reply, "Yes, I'm very excited but since you are 5 now, I'll definitely need your help". Little does he know that responsibility also comes with age :).

Many blessings to you on this day, our sweet son, we can't imagine life without you!