I was wrong!!!

John took the afternoon off for my 20 week ultrasound. We loaded up the kids and when I got on the table and the tech started in with her measurements I said to her, "Oh by the way I have been refering to her as a girl, you get the pleasure of telling me I'm right or not." She said she would go down there in a minute. When she got there she's like, "Sorry, there is DEFINITELY something there." And sure enough there was.
~~~
John kept telling me to stop calling it a girl. But I said, "Hey, if I'm wrong, I'll be wrong. I won't be disapointed, It will be fine." And I am fine. I was calling it a 'he' 2 minutes later and it still felt natural, I haven't slipped up once.
~~~
However I had myself totally convinced it was a girl, not that I cared either way it's just this pregnancy was sooo like my pregnancy with Vivian. The past few weeks I have actually noticed the similarities between this and when I was pregnant with Theodore but I haven't wanted to tell anyone that because I was so sure it was a girl.
~~~
Here is a breakdown of pregnancy symtoms
~~~
With Vivian:
-normal breast pain in 1st trimester
-fatigue
-nauseated ALL the time
-heartburn in last trimester
-major aversion to most foods
~~~
With Theodore:
-normal breast pain in 1st trimester
-heartburn the whole pregnancy (probably due to weight gain)
-aversion to eggs and sweets
-pelvic pain unless I took it easy
~~~
With #3:
-breast pain in begining of 2nd trimester (I guess they don't need as much prep since they did this last year)
-heartburn (I try to avoid the foods that cause it but it's hard because that includes like 80% of foods)
-pelvic pain unless I take it WAY easy (even sneezing hurts sometimes)
-nausea (unless I sleep 8 hours and keep food in me. I also take a nausea pill and drink a yogurt before I get out of bed. Also drink a B-vitamin energy drink (don't worry it's caffine free) in the mid morning.)
-small aversion to eggs
-addiction to sweets
-fatigue (the energy drink helps though)

-hot flashes
~~~
Overall this pregnancy seems like a mix between the two. I was hoping it was a girl because then I would know within the first 2 months what the gender would be b/c I would assume if I got nausous it was a girl, if I didn't it was a boy. Oh well, I guess I can't judge it by that anymore. But I have been under a little more stress this pregnancy than last.
~~~
So now I just need to get used to the fact that my family isn't going to be balanced like I thought. Instead of 2 boys and 2 girls I am going to have 3 boys and 1 girl. And our other girl will just have to wait to join us. I know she is up there but she will have to wait a couple years.
~~~
Speaking of Heaven. Debra (MIL) kept telling me to ask Michael and Vivian what they thought it was. She says they are closer to heaven and they just know certain things. I had asked them before but it was always the same, Vivian wants a girl and Michael wants a boy. So today I was telling Michael where we were going and asked him if he thought it was a boy or a girl.
He said "I think it's a boy"
I said, "Do you think it's a boy or do you want it to be a boy?"
He said, "I think it's a boy and I want it to be a boy."
I said, "What if it's a girl, wouldn't it be fun to have a girl."
He said, "We can have another boy and then a girl."
~~~
Interesting huh? Now we just have to try and find a boy name we like. Such a hard battle. Wish us luck.

Well I was hoping to have good news to report about a clean organized house but the only good news I can report is that Theodore (and the rest of us) are alive.
~~~
On Friday after I finished here I decided I would be more productive if I was clean and in actual clothes instead of pajamas. So a couple minutes after I get out of the shower (around 12:35ish) I hear Theodore screaming his head off. I knew that Tammy and Regina were out there but this wasn't a normal scream so I hurried to throw some clothes on and I get out there.
~~~
Tammy is holding him in his room trying to calm him down but it's not happening, I grab him and try and it's still not happening. We notice he is purple and a little shaky. I figure maybe throwing him in the warm bath might calm him so I try that. Nothing. Still screaming, still purple. We take him out wrap a towel around him and I give him some tylenol. I had no idea what was wrong but figure it couldn't hurt. I put a diaper on him then wrap him in a blanket.
~~~
I went in the front room and tried to rock him, he calms a little but he still isn't breathing right and he is still purple. I call Debra (My nurse of a Mother-In-Law) and she says he is probably choking. "WHAT?" so I put him on my lap and start pounding on his back and nothing. She calls Kenneth (My Father-In-Law) and he drives over to take me to the hospital. Tammy had made sure the neccessities were in my purse while he was on his way and then we were out the door.
~~~
I sat in the back seat of our van holding Theodore while Papa drove 90 miles an hour down Airport Road honking his horn through red lights. While we were on French Camp Road (heading to San Jouquin General Hospital) Theodore calmed down enough to get his color back. He started looking around and even talked a little bit. I said this is not worth an emergency room visit (and co-pay) so we head down to Manteca to his doctors office.
~~~
They put me right into a room and the other doctor came in to look at him. I have never had her before and she is kinda scarry looking and seemed like she was trying to make it sound like it was my fault for child neglect. I said, "No I had babysitters out there while I was in the shower" Even if I didn't are you telling me that I'm not allowed to take a shower if no other adults are home? I can name a few moms that shower and leave their kids alone in another room. It's not a big deal. I've done it before with all three of them awake. I didn't say that to her but seriously!
~~~
So while we were waiting the 10 or so minutes for the doctor Theodore had been playing on the floor as normal as could be. Then after she had been in there for a couple minutes he started crying again. It was normal at first but then he started the same grunt he had earlier where it seemed hard for him to breath. I think that helped my case with her because she didn't believe me until he started doing it again in her presence. Luckily she could tell it wasn't a normal cry.
~~~
So we head over to Doctors Hospital of Manteca for x-rays and bloodwork. Since I am pregnant I couldn't be in the x-ray room. Papa had to hold him in whatever awkward positions needed. Meanwhile I was outside the door listening to him scream but also very aware that I hadn't eaten lunch (or really even a good breakfast for that matter) As I am sitting there slowly getting hungrier I see this doctor cut himself a nice peice of chocolate cake and then proceed to eat it in front of me. HOW RUDE!!! Luckily I knew that chocolate cake wasn't the best thing to stick in an empty pregnant ladies stomach and since I was fairly distracted with Theodore's whole situation my stomach hadn't had a chance to get nauseated yet.
~~~
After the torcher of the x-ray room I had to take him across the hall and subject him to more torcher. This was the first time his blood was drawn and I felt so bad for the little guy. They tell us we can go and that the doctors office should have results in 1 hour. This time when we got to the car I actually put him in his car seat and with in 2 minutes he was out. Poor guy. I would be tired after all that crying and torture too. Papa drove me to wendy's where I ordered a 10 peice of chicken nuggets and we headed home.
~~~
I called John on the way and informed him of our adventure. I hadn't bothered him before that because I knew he wouldn't be able to do anything except worry and that would distract him from work. I downed to whole wendy's order before we got home and said thank you to Papa for driving me around and aiding in the torture of Theodore (also assuring him he wouldn't remember it later and for sure wouldn't hold it against him).
~~~
I called the doctor's office at the appropriate time and she said there was no evidence of foreign substance or pnemonia from the x-ray and the blood test showed he was fighting a minor stomach virus. She said if it happened again to go to the Emergency Room.
~~~
Theodore has gotten pretty upset several times since then but he's never gotten purple again. He has had several bowel movements so we just have to let his body fight this and keep him as comfortable as we can.
~~~
Vivian woke up saturday night screaming in pain. She said it wasn't her tummy it was her "breastes" which means chest pain. Sunday I stayed home from church with the two little ones and Vivian spent the entire day on the couch with a fever. I don't think it went past 102 so I didn't give her any meds. I wanted her to burn it off and get over it quicker.
~~~
Sunday night (or rather early monday morning) Michael came in complaining that his tummy hurt. Then proceeded to throw up 4 or 5 times over the next couple hours.
~~~
I am so grateful for a husband that is willing to take over those night shifts when the kids are sick or fussy. This pregnancy it has been very important for me to get a good nights rest otherwise the next day is just no good. I usually try to stay up to put Theodore to bed but once I am in bed John is always so awesome at getting up for crying children.
~~~
On a lighter note here is a video of how much Theodore loves dogs. He laughed so hard every time Buddy licked him.

Michael, Kindergarten and Me

I decided to put Michael into Venture Academy which is less than 3 miles away. It is a Charter School and the only program they offer for Kindergarten is called Synergy. It is an ALL home school program that offers on-site classes 2 days a week. So I am responsible for all lessons and bringing him to school as well.

On Tuesdays he starts school at 9:40am for phonics, then science and then playground time. On Thursdays we start at 8:00am with Wood shop or Rock Climbing (depending on the week) and then more phonics and exercise class. Then we have a Parent/Child Workshop which is just doing different things together. Once a month we will have a Field Trip and one week out of the month is called "Check In" week where there are no on site classes but we have a meeting with the Teacher to turn in our work for the past month. Also he has Dance class every Monday morning at 8:00 am.
All in all the schedule confuses me. Even if we do get into a routine with the Home school lessons, then Check In week will come around and throw us off. I'm not going to back out because I have already started and I love the Teacher and the kids in Michael's class. He is such a lovable kid and makes friends very easily.

Because it is kindergarten and it is a big school they want us to stay with them the whole time. Also some of the classes (mostly rock climbing and wood shop) require a parent there to help their kindergartner. I am very lucky to have people at home that are willing and available for babysitting Vivian and Theodore while I am off at school with Michael. During Phonics we have to sit outside the classroom because it's not big enough. Most of us sit in the Lobby of the school which is just down the hallway and we can see when they are about to go on their walk to the bathroom. I use this time to read or talk with other parents. But for all the other classes we are supposed to be in the room with them (of course those are the classes that need our help so they better have room for us.)

Traditional Public school was not an option for me. This may sound stuck up but I still want to control who my child knows. Not that I completely shelter him from the world. If there are kids playing at a park that I don't like it's not that I pack up and leave or anything. But for something as regular as school I didn't want him associating with who knows who from who knows what kind of family. I know several families from church that attend Venture Academy and they all say that the parents are great.

They kind of have to be to go there because a Charter School is all about parent involvement. If you put your child in there you have to be willing and able to put in time with your kids to do homework or lessons. Which means if they are willing and able to put time into their children they are probably good strong families with some sort of value system. The parents I have met so far have all been great! The kindergarten class has 19 students but not all of them come to on-site classes. A few are strictly home school and might show up for Field Trips and such. Which means the class size is nice and small with an average of 11 kids showing up each time.

Like I said, I love the program (despite it's crazy schedule) and I will not back out but I do have a confession:

Anyone that knows me knows it is hard for me to put time and effort into my children. Part of my desire to do this (Home school) was to force me into it. So far I have failed miserably. I am awesome at bringing him to on-site activities (whoop-de-do that's the easy part) but when it comes to the lessons at home I have yet to develop a routine. I know it's something that doesn't necessarily require a routine but the way me and Michael work is best under routine. He thrives on them and it provides me with some sort of discipline so that I can't excuse it if I'm not feeling well or if I want to put priority on my projects over school.

However I have given myself this road block that I haven't been able to get over. John and I like to call it "sharpening our pencils." We both feel like we have to have a certain amount of preparation before we can begin certain things.

I have told myself that before I can get into a routine with Michael's School I need to have my office/craft room and my front room organized. The front room is what I am using as a school room. I have posters up and all sorts of stuff. I have room to put learning games and I even have some of the bookshelves for all the kids books so he can have a reading center. I have a lot of plans for school but I can't get to any of it.

Before I can access it all easily I need to get several boxes of random stuff sorted and put away. This includes 2 huge tubs plus a few boxes and smaller tubs of random papers to sort. Something we have ignored for the past 3 years which is why our collection has grown so big. It's one of those things that is so overwhelming that you don't know where to start.

I have told myself I am going to start it... TODAY!!! If I make a big mess then I will have all weekend to clean it up. I have to do it so it might as well be now right? Wish me luck and hopefully I will have good news to report next week.

PS. The pictures were of August 16th when we were heading to the Kindergarten Orientation. Michael was bored the whole time but it was still technically the first day of school and my only real opportunity to take first day of school pictures. I also took a video where he told me what was in his back pack and what he would be doing at school. He counted to 50 or so and sang the alphabet song then we shape searched for a minute and talked about colors and how his back pack and his shoes were camouflage. It was a cute video but it wouldn't upload for some reason.

Vivian got Wet

In all the times I have been to the Mistlin Sports Park in Ripon, Vivian has never gotten wet on her own... Until August 7th. John came with us that day and for some reason I was able to talk her into it. We were going to go to Grandma's after this and I told her I would tell her where we were going if she got wet with me. She had a blast. My little girl is growing up!!!

Break is over

I know I've been a complete slacker when it comes to this blog and I'm sorry to those who actually read it and have been wondering where I have been. I love the idea of blogging and journalling all the cute things my kids do and say. But I also know that instead of blogging about it I should be enjoying it because I had a habit of spending all my time on the computer reading others blogs and playing games on facebook that I was just ignoring my kids. So I told myself that I shouldn't spend so much time on the computer anymore. However I can't say I have been better about playing with my kids either. I was probably just wasting time elsewhere. So in an effort to change habits I think blogging should find it's way back into my life as well as a more assertive effort to spend time with my children. Here are a few pictures from August to enjoy.

Mr. Potato Head glasses on Theodore.

He is my binky baby. But lately he has been hiding them and we have no idea where all of them are anymore.

He gets a good workout in the jumper.

And then falls asleep eating.

We had to make a bed in the living room for him on the bad teething nights so he wouldn't keep waking up the kids.

Such a happy boy!

I don't know what Vivian is wearing or why she is holding Michael's pajamas. Michael found a pair of maternity pants.