I thought this was cute

The boys and I were sitting reading books this morning. We were reading O Say Can You Say, by Dr. Seuss. Near the end there is a little diddy that talks about what you want to be when you grow up. It goes something like this:
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A cop in a cop's cap?
A cupcake cook in a cupcakes cook's cap?
A fat flapjack flapper in a flat flapjack hat?
Or perhaps you are one of those choosy chaps who likes cooky captains caps?


Then we had a little conversation that went like this:
Ewan: I want to be a fireman when I grow up.
Mommy: That is great! Isaac, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Isaac: CAKE!
Ewan and Mommy look at each other and laugh.
Ewan: Isaac, you can't be cake when you grow up! Maybe you can be a fireman with me when you grow up.
Mommy: Isaac, what do you think? Do you want to be a fireman with your brother when you grow up?
Isaac: Yeah!

Ewan is so good at inviting others along to join in the fun he is having. It warms my heart that he thinks about his brother and wants to be side by side having adventures together. I think it is every little boys dream at some point to be a fireman. Can you blame them though?

Sooooo Tired

Sorry it has been so long since I posted! The reason is: I am exhausted.

I am tired of being tired. I nap when the boys do but I usually spend the afternoon in a fog. It seems like napping maybe making me more tired in the afternoon but I feel like I will pass out if I don't get some sleep.

I started having more nausea and vomiting at 9 weeks. I am 11 weeks now and the nausea/vomiting is getting more intense. I was eating more often to curb the nausea but it doesn't really matter if I eat or not. Meals (with a good amount of protein) seem to be the only thing that keeps the nausea away for a couple of hours. One of the worst things is when one of the kids wakes up at night and I have to go check on someone. I get back to bed with my head swimming in nausea. It usually takes me at least 1 hour (last night 1.5) to get back to sleep because all I want to do is puke. I don't want to get back out of bed because it is warm and cozy so I just "think" the nausea away. It really sucks. Jon is really good about checking on the kiddos if they wake up at night but he doesn't always hear it first. And it seems right that he shouldn't have to get up EVERY time.

Sadly, I have gained 3-4 lbs already. Thankfully my clothes still fit fine. A lot of my pants were a little loose anyway. I was hoping not to start gaining any until after the 1st trimester. Because I have been so tired, I am not doing as much activity, plus I am eating more, plus I am sleeping more. Not really a good combo to keep off extra pounds. I can't wait to start exercising again (right now it makes me pukey--but if I am going to puke all day anyway then maybe I should do it anyway.) Actually, I am worried that it would make me MORE tired--but perhaps it would give me more energy. I am too scared to try it now.

I don't remember being this tired with the boys BUT it has been almost 3 years since I was in the first trimester with Isaac so it's kind of fuzzy. I am hoping and praying that the
nausea/vomiting is short lived and that I start getting my energy back soon. I really think this will be the last pregnancy. I know I always forget what it is like but I don't think I can do this again!

We have several projects to do to get the house ready to sell and it is much more difficult to have energy to play with the boys and work on house projects. The house officially goes up on February 12th. Hopefully all the work will get done and I will be feeling more energetic.

I am going to go crash on the couch and stare nonsensically at the tv before heading off to bed.

Awesome Husband!

I went to our church's women's retreat this weekend. It was a one night deal at a hotel about 30 minutes away from our house. I think I will write more about the retreat later but I wanted to brag about my incredible husband for a minute...

Here are some things I am thankful for:

1. Husband encouraged me to go to the retreat.

2. Husband made phone calls after the deadline passed to make sure I could still go because he wanted to bless me with some time with God.

3. Husband happily made the boys dinner and put them to bed on Friday night.

4. Husband worked hard ALL day playing with the boys and fixing their meals.

5. Husband topped it off by catching up on laundry (something that has been at the bottom of the list since pregnancy tiredness showed up), vacuuming the house, and putting things in their place.

Why is it so sexy when husbands do wonderful things like that? I know some of you may argue about this but I think I have the best husband ever!

What kind of (non-sexual) stuff do you find sexy in your mate?

Is This Normal?

I think I have mentioned before that my children like music. They both are however, some of the pickiest music listeners. They are usually very hesitant to try new music but once forced usually are won over by their parent's great taste in tunes.

Their first favorite is Veggie Tales, or "Bob", if you will. I know almost every word to every song ever made and I mostly enjoy listening to The Veggie Tales gang singing "O, Where Is My Hairbrush" 7 out of 10 car rides. Believe me though, sometimes I am tuned out on another planet when I can't take another round of "Silly Songs with Larry".

The other favorite of my children is Johnny Cash. It all started about a year ago when I saw the movie, Walk The Line. If you haven't seen it, please go and see it! I became a huge Johnny Cash fan and bought a few CDs. Well, I think I actually bought about 4 or 5--okay maybe 6 in about 2.5 months. What can I say, I had some Christmas cash! I could NOT stop listening to Johnny Cash. Every day, all day long the music played. Mostly old stuff--although Jon had a CD of some newer Cash music. I don't know what it was about Johnny Cash's music but it just hit my soul in a way that I have never been able to put my finger on. Perhaps it has something to do with getting in touch with my darker side. I like the novel songs--A Boy Named Sue, One Piece at a Time. I like the more spiritual songs too. The only songs that I usually skip past are the patriotic ones. (That is a whole other post!)

Two days ago we were all in the car and Isaac says, "I want to listen to Johnny Cash". Now, he is 2 years and 3 months old. He has been requesting Johnny Cash for about 6-8 months already. It started off as "Cash" when he got buckled into the carseat but as his language has developed he is becoming more specific. In the car two days ago the sentence that followed the one above was, "I want to listen to Ring of Fire". A first time request for that specific song. Usually it is for Jackson. In 20 or 30 years Isaac will probably think of Johnny Cash as comfort music because it will take him back to some significant developmental time in his life.

We do listen to other music in the car other than Bob and Johnny Cash but it is usually with a fuss beforehand. Sometimes the request is for John Mayer. They finally like The Fray and they like "Jesus music". I worry though that somehow I have somehow misguided their God-Orientation because of my own obsession with Johnny Cash. Perhaps they should have been listening to more worship music and gotten the words and truth of Christ in their hearts.

I am past my listening to Johnny Cash all day, every day and am choosing to be a better listener to how God might be speaking to me by choosing worship music more frequently in the car.

Is it normal for a 2 year old to request specific songs from Johnny Cash?

As a side note, here is an interesting phenomenon. When we had the Honda Element rental while the Civic was being fixed, the kids would listen to ANY music I wanted to listen to without complaining. I could even listen to the radio (gasp--a normal forbidden fruit). Why you ask? Because they associate THEIR favorite music in the cars we regularly drive in. If we are in someone else's car, a strange car, it doesn't matter and they listen to whatever is on without question. I think we went wrong when we continually gave into requests to listen to what they wanted. We love our children and thought it was a great way to show them our love by letting them pick. I think we bent too far in their direction and yes, I admit, sometimes we would rather give into listening to "Bob" again rather than choose a battle where one of the two babes would throw a fit. I do think we are buckling up more and telling them, "You don't always get to listen to what you want to listen to" and "Mommy and Daddy are going to pick something now and you can pick something later" and "How 'bout we just turn off the music and talk". I know, I know, WE are the parents, WE call the shots. I think it took us a while to realize that we had accidentally created two music monster moguls.