Funny

We still have a man down here. 103 this morning at 6 am. So sad. But Jesse is really a trooper. That's not why I titled this blog funny, either.

Yesterday we bought a car seat for the new baby. It's weird because although this is our 3rd child, there are a lot of things we don't have. The last two times we either borrowed things that have since been returned, or stuff was handed down from families and has been used for 4-5 children by now and has no more life. I know we'll eventually get everything that we need, but the process is sort of overwhelming.

Anyway...Joel has been very interested in the idea of the baby in mommy's tummy lately. He likes to look into my belly button and telly me the baby is in there. On the way home from getting the car seat, he informed me that his baby in his tummy was growing bigger too, and when it got big enough, it would come out--probably on his birthday. Jesse also has a baby in his tummy, Joel told me. Their babies will be sisters (girls) like their friend Nikayla. Too funny. He also glanced at me several different times yesterday and said, "Mommy, your tummy is really getting bumpy!"

Man down...

I think I was in denial yesterday because I'm convinced that kids don't get sick in the summer (it's God's special blessing for moms and kids). However, something about Jesse's eyes just didn't look right to me. That and the fact that he only wanted to be held. Duh, Mom.

Well, he's down for the count. When I went to check on him before I went to bed last night he felt unusually hot to me. After scrounging around for the thermometer, I discovered his temp was 102.7. Motrin time. Better this morning, only 101.8. More Motrtin. Worse now, 103.5. Oh, dear. Strange though, because he has absolutely no other symptoms of sickness. Poor guy. He really is such a compliant and relatively happy little sick person that I have to watch him kind of carefully to monitor how sick he really is. He is sleeping quietly in his room and I hope he feels better soon. We've got another big weekend ahead of us!

Moving along...

The summer is moving along and our busy "week" continues into week 2. A good friend of mine is in town visiting until tonight so I have gotten to do a lot of fun girl things with her! She has two kids at home close to Joel and Jesse's ages and so she's really enjoying a little break from the daily rigor of motherhood too!

Each day I'm adjusting more to the little boy that will enter our lives soon. I know this last half of the pregnancy will go quickly and I'm trying to cherish time with the family just the way it is now, before things radically change for us. :) I feel so blessed right now--we have wonderful children, great friends and family, a job Zac loves, a perfect home for us, and I am appearingly very healthy (cancer-wise). We praise the Lord for this season of blessing and goodness and are trying to absorb all that comes along with it!

Happy Birthday!

That's what Joel was saying to me all day long, and then Jesse would echo, "Birthday, Mommy!". It was quite sweet. We also wrapped up a long week of VBS this morning and everything seemed to be a great success.

A special part of my birthday was having the ultrasound this morning. I think I was in such shock (and focused on getting to church for VBS) that Zac and I left the doctor after the ultrasound but then got a call while we were in the car telling us that we still had to meet with the doctor. Oops! We turned around and did the second part of our visit. I thought the ultrasound tech told us we could go... :) There was one view of the baby's heart we couldn't see (he is quite the mover and shaker) so I'll have a repeat ultrasound next month just to check it out, but they aren't concerned. I will be a fun memory to have received the knowledge that we're having another little guy on my b-day.

I would like to officially note that Zac was super dad today (a very wonderful present for me). He held my hand through the ultrasound, let me go out shopping with my mom, installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom (I told him that was the gift that will keep on giving), fixed our bathroom door, and lastly, did major potty duty today.

Potty duty, you ask? Well, we had a difficult afternoon around here. Joel wet his bed, for the first time ever, during his nap (it was our fault, we forgot to remind him to go beforehand). Zac was here when he woke up and did the whole mattress, sheet, clothing cleaning. Then Jesse went pee on the floor while I was running their bath water. Then after the bath, while I was getting his diaper out, he pooped on the floor in two places in Joel's room (also not his fault, he must have had an upset tummy because it was the 3rd time he pooped today--and we aren't talking little, hard pieces). My dear husband cleaned everything up, with very little drama, I might add. What a guy!!

Joel served me birthday cake, the boys helped me blow out the candles, and I received some wonderful presents for myself and our new little baby! My parents, and bro and sister-in-law came up with little Stella, too. That's here in the pics with me. A great day, indeed!

Drumroll please...

It's a boy!!!

I actually must say I am a bit surprised by this. Although I have been telling myself in my mind all along that it's probably a boy, somewhere deep inside I truly felt like it was a girl. My intuition is officially wrong in this department because I have been wrong with each one of my kids.

This marks the beginning of chaos in the Hicks' household (as if we weren't really there already). Things on the ultrasound looked good and we are so thankful to have what looks like a healthy baby so far. Plus, we know how to do boys already, right?

My deep heart's desire is to still have a girl one day but we will take it one child at a time. Who knows, if we try again maybe we'll have boy #4! Our doctor told us about a family she worked with during her residency who had 3 boys and were going to try one more time for a girl. In God's great irony, they ended up having identical, triplet boys!!! Not only did they not get their girl, they doubled their boy population :).

Here are some pics of the little guy...his profile looks just like the other two boys in their ultrasound pics (but secretly I think almost all ultrasounds look alike). In the first picture he is waving (you can see his little hand). And sorry to be offensive, but you can see how "clearly" we knew that it was a boy. This was actually the first thing that popped up on the ultrasound screen!

Crazy days...

This will be a really crazy week for us...VBS at church every day (I'm in charge of snacks for 325 people each day), swimming lesson for Joel, big ultrasound for me, my birthday and party, a girl's night out, a doctor's appt for Joel, plus all the regular "stuff" we need to do!

Oh, and while Zac was gone last weekend, I cut all of my hair off! I really and enjoying the ease of the new "do" and it's nice and cool for summer. I'll post a pic whenever I get one!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a crazy day around here--at least one of us was at church from 7:30 in the morning until 8:30 last night. Not too much celebrating, but we did that the day before. I got Zac some large pictures of the boys individually and of us as a couple that are framed for his office. He recently got a "new" office space and so this was the final touch! A friend from church who also does graphic design (and photography on the side) took an incredible picture of Joel and Zac last week at the church picnic. Joel is crying because he hit his head and Zac is holding him. The friend put the text of a verse about God's comfort around the picture and framed it for Zac. It's really amazing...maybe I can take a picture of it and post it on the blog. Zac is keeping it at his office and it's funny because when the boys saw it they were both quite concerned that Joel was crying and you could tell they were wondering why we would want a picture of that :).

Since we are talking about Father's day, I'd like to take a minute to say what a WONDERFUL father I have. I really could go on and on about that. But I also wanted to say what an amazing father Zac is becoming. He and I have talked about this before (he doesn't care if I share this) but he's never really been a kid person. Not interested in holding other people's babies, babysitting, or hanging out with kids too much. Then we started having kids (and he was still sort of a kid himself at age 24). It was a huge adjustment for him and something that he has been growing in ever since. We've had some extra challenges parenting a special needs child, and then having two kids a year and a half apart, but just in the last year, Zac has truly blossomed. It's like he is hitting his stride with the boys and feeling pride about his role and abilities in fatherhood (especially since he is used to excelling in everything else that he does). The love him so much and I cannot wait to see him with the new baby. He was out of town this weekend and the boys kept asking me where he was! He is so missed when he's not around and hoepfully he feels deeply loved all of the time.