MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

Tuesday August 2nd - Monday August 8th

- Ever heard of Zingo? Well I'm sure CJ could tell you all about it because it is his new favorite game and we play it multiple times a day, almost every day.

- For some reason, CJ has been really into teeth lately. He keeps talking about his small teeth adn how he wants big teeth. And he does the same thing with hands. He keeps talking about babies and little kids having small hands and grown-ups having big hands. I guess he's just being super observant.

- And CJ's new thing to say when he is frustrated is, "Oh maaans!"

- We started potty-training Mattie this week (8/4), but since I'm pregnant and feel like I never have any energy, and I swear we never have just three straight days of not needing to be anywhere, we're taking a real casual approach. So far, we've learned that Mattie can hold it FOREVER! In a period of several days, I've only cleaned up about 4 accidents. I don't mind that, but it would be nice if we she went a little more often so that she could have more opportunities to recognize it and maybe get on the toilet, and then get rewarded. Anyway, we've also learned that she likes to cry wolf. After rushing her to the bathroom several times after her telling me, "I'm peeing! I'm peeing!" I learned that when she really is peeing, she doesn't say anything - she just looks at you wondering what you're gonna do. I'm not a huge fan of this process and I'm hoping that by next weekend she'll have it down.

- Mattie and CJ also met with the pediatrician this week. CJ had his 4 year check-up which included 5 shots! I didn't realize that until we were there in the room. I wish I had known earlier because I would have tried to better prepare CJ. That's ok though because CJ is such a trooper. When it comes to medical procedures, he's as tough as nails (wish I could say that about other things :). He had to get two shots in one arm, and one in the other arm and one both legs. And one of those shots was a tetnus shot, which really hurts. But our little guy didn't cry at all. He barely even grimaced. The nurses kept commenting on how he was the best 4 year old they had seen. Later though, and the next day, you could tell he was hurting, poor guy.

- Besides getting shots, everthing seems to be great with CJ. He's perfectly proportional with his height and weight, and he's smack dab in the middle - 50th percentile - for his height and weight too. Knowing that Bryce is 6'1'' and I'm 5'8'', Dr. Jantzen seems to think that CJ will hit a growth spurt as a teenager and be even taller than Bryce. That's great news...but I'm a little skeptical. I didn't tell Dr. Jantzen about how Bryce and I both have short genes in our families too. Anyway, for CJ's sake, I hope he is tall.

- One more thing about CJ at the doctor's office: athe appointment, he and Mattie were eating their suckers watching Cars in the waiting area while I made another appointment for Mattie. Suddenly I hear CJ calling for me and I look over and he is on the verge of tears. When I went to him to find out what happened, he pointed to another little boy who had taken his sucker! I was totally bugged that some other kid had the nerve to just walk up to someone they don't even know and take a sucker out of their mouth! I often have to remind myself that children are children and that, as an adult, I cannot be mad at them or hold them too accountable. So I guess my frustration was more at the parents. Where were they? Why are they letting their kid do that? Or why are they not aware of what he's doing? Anyway, I'm not the type of person to try to parent other people's kids - especially strangers - so I didn't say anything to that little boy and just got another sucker for CJ instead. And then as we were leaving I talked to CJ about how it's not ok to just take things from people. CJ knew it. He told me how you need to ask first. And then I went on and on telling him how proud I was of him that he wouldn't do something like that (because he wouldn't), and that he reacted the right way. A lot of kids would have freaked out - maybe thrown a tantrum, maybe hit the other kid, I dunno, but that is just not CJ's personality and never has been. I hate that he's on the receiving end of some many things with other kids most of the time (getting pushed, hit, things taken away, bossed around, put down, turns lost, accused of things he didn't do, etc), but I am so grateful that he's not the aggressor. He's not the one pushing or yelling or taking (most of the time :) and I hope he's always like that. He really is an example to me and I love him so much!

- Now about Mattie. We met with Dr. Jantzen about her VCUG results and it was great news! He doesn't seem to think that she needs to continue to take her prophylactic that she's been on for the last year and half and that she won't even need to have another VCUG because her reflux grade is low enough that it's not a huge concern. He even said that they've recently done a study where they question whether someone with a higher grade (Mattie is a grade two and the study was looking at grade 3) reflux even needs to have another VCUG, so that was all positive news. He did suggest a urologist in the area who specializes in children that we could talk to to get a second opinion, which we decided to do, just to be safe. So that was much welcome news and such a blessing. Now I'm just worried about Mattie and potty-training. They say that kids are more prone to UTIs when they're potty-training because they're holding it, which Mattie does...forever! So here's hoping that we can get through this without any yucky UTIs.

- My sister-in-law Gaby had her baby on Saturday so we headed over to see our new nephew/cousin. Little Domenic Thomas was 7 lbs 3 oz (CJ was 7 lbs 4 oz) but seemed so tiny! I don't remember CJ ever being that small (and Mattie never was :), and it makes me so excited to get this little baby inside me here! But I still have 7 weeks to go!! Everyone keeps asking me when I'm due because, I can only assume, I look like I'm due right now. I already know this is going to be the slowest 7 weeks ever. Ugh. Anyway, we were really excited to have the kids see the new baby, especially CJ because he seems to get it more and is way more excited about a new baby brother than Mattie is. We hoped that seeing the baby would really help them understand a little more what is in Mommy's belly and what we're going to have in our home soon. CJ was excited - a little timid - but happy and curious. Mattie wasn't that interested. I'm guessing it won't be that different when it's our baby next month.

- Speaking of next month, I feel like I still have so much to do before the baby comes! Mainly just organizing and cleaning. The kids are all moved into one room, but I need to finish organizing the baby's room, go through CJ's old clothes to see what we want to keep and use again, organize the closets in both rooms, plus general cleaning and organizing, in our room too. And then on top of all that, we have things that need to be done in the yard (namely staining the fence) and around the house. Ugh.

- We did however, get the Expedition fixed this week...or rather, we gave the go ahead on the 3k of repairs that need to be done. The car should be up and running and good to go this Friday. So excited! And praying that those repairs will keep us covered, especially on road trips, until we can afford to buy another car (so like, 5 years or something :).

- And to end on funny note, Mattie's new thing is to shake your hand and say, in a silly voice, "Nice to meet cha!" :)

Happy Monday!