Stubborn...Like His Mother

John still hasn't turned. I'm still having faith! But either way, we'll have a healthy baby in the next few days. That's the important part. I had a dream last night that he turned. I hope it was prophetic! The little widget baby is now head down now too. It's been head up all this time...

Today at church, I took a picture with my friend Kim. Our due dates are two weeks apart. We thought we needed one last picture together. We're both having boys.

Stay tuned for the arrival update...

It's True, Noah's Two!

Believe it or not, Noah turned 2 on the 18th. Has it really been 2 years???

2008

2009

2010

I made Noah a special breakfast for his birthday. He took one bite and wanted his usual oatmeal. Oh well! I then proceeded to store the egg, sausage, and cheese biscuits in the pantry. Greg found them at 8:30 that night. I was so irritated that we had to throw them all away. What can you do?

We had lunch with daddy...at Fortel's. Oddly enough, that's where we had Noah's birthday lunch last year too. Life father, like son...

For dinner, we went to Longhorn. After we ate, they brought out a birthday treat for Noah, ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream...lots of whipped cream. Noah is not a big fan of the whipped cream. We tried to scoop it off and just let him eat the ice cream, but he wasn't very interested.

For his birthday, we got him a basketball goal. He loves it. We've had a little trouble pulling him away from it to get dressed, or leave, or whatever... He always says, "I want to shoot it." He's pretty good too.

MiMi and Poppy came on Friday. MiMi and I took Noah "fwimming" as he says. He always wants to go and I keep telling him I'll take him... I thought I'd better do it before the opportunity is gone. At first, he had a death grip on me with all fours. Eventually, we got him to loosen up. He had a very good time. My mom took some video and posted it on PhotoBucket. (Click here to watch it. There are two.)

Saturday we had Noah's party. He had so much fun! He was bouncing off the walls. I think he was still on his sugar high today. He wanted to blow out his candle twice.

You Never Know What He'll Say (or Do)

Noah says some very funny things. I decided to start posting them on the blog. Where else can you shamelessly talk about your babies excessively??

On occasion, I have to use the nasal aspirator on Noah when he wakes up in the morning. He calls it his boogie. I use a Nasopure for myself, which Noah refers to as my boogie or nose hose. The other day, I was using it and he said, "That's a good job using your nose hose, mommy. Doesn't it feel better to get your boogies out?" (I always say that to him because he usual fights me when I try to use the aspirator on him.)

His birthday is this week. I went out to get the mail yesterday and came in with a package. He said "Who gave that to me, mommy?" as soon as he saw it. Now how did he even know it was for him?


A few days ago, Noah ate the last graham cracker. On more than one occasion since then, when we've been out running errands, he's said, "We need some graham crackers." I told him we'd get them at the grocery store. Today we went to the grocery store. He reminded me on the way. Then, he was not paying attention when I put them in the cart. On the way home he said, "Did we get some graham crackers, mommy?" As my mom says, an elephant never forgets.

Yesterday, we went to church for Bible study. When we got out of the car, Noah found the only puddle between the car and the door and stomped in it. He then stomped through the snow even though I was trying to guide him away from it. This was all going in. He did the same thing coming out only in reverse order. Boys...

A Scheduled Arrival

We have scheduled a c-section for little John. It will be next Thursday, February 25. They will check again before they begin to make sure he hasn't turned. I'm praying and hoping he will turn before then...and still standing on my head.

The Results

So, we had the external version this morning. All went well, except he didn't turn. A little disappointing, but there were no complications which is what we were really praying for. So, now the plan is to have a scheduled c-section...unless of course, he decides to turn on his own between now and then. We still praying for that and trusting that God has a plan for us.

The version was not as bad as I was anticipating. Greg said he kept waiting for me to wince. It was quite uncomfortable, but really not like I expected. My stomach feels a little raw now, but the spot where the IV was hurts worse.

We took a picture of me before we left the house this morning, just in case... (I've been really bad about documenting my growth. But let's face it, I was with Noah too.)

Funny Dude

My mom is currently on a mission trip in Jamaica. When she's home, every evening she asks me if Noah said anything funny. Generally, the answer is yes. So, mom, here is a brief list of just a few of the funny things Noah said or did while you were gone.

One morning I was cleaning him up from breakfast and I said, "Noah, you have toast in your ear." He replied, "How'd that happen?"

Last weekend, Greg was skiing and as mentioned, my mom was gone, so my dad came for a visit. Saturday morning after I came out from getting ready, my dad said he changed the batteries in Noah's drum. I asked how he knew where to find the batteries. Noah told him where to find the batteries and the screw driver.

Our brother-in-law went skiing with Greg. He left his car parked in our driveway. Noah never saw him. He was in bed when he got here and left. He looked out the window and said "I don't know whose car that is, mommy."

Saturday morning when my dad got up, his hair was slightly disheveled... Noah said "What happened to your hair, Poppy?

Monday night, I went to get a pedicure. As I was pulling out of the neighborhood, Greg called and asked if his wallet was in the car. He said when he hung up the phone, Noah said, "Where's your wallet, daddy?"


When Noah wants something, he'll say "It's my turn, mommy." For example, he wanted to zip his coat himself...

John's Room

Not totally finished yet, but close...

Deep Questions, by Noah

Where is heaven, Mommy?

(Is an almost 2 year old supposed to ask questions like that?)

The Things a Mother Will Do...

...to try to get her baby to turn.

"Hang upside down"



Wear motion sickness bands on her ankles at a particular pressure point.

Still Breech

We went back to the doctor today. John is still breech. Now he's bottom down instead of feet down. My doctor said that was better. I didn't ask why... Perhaps he'll just keep moving until he's vertex.

We decided after much praying and discussing to go ahead and try the external version. It's scheduled for this Thursday. I'm still praying he'll be vertex when we go in Thursday morning.

Even though this isn't how I want things to work out, it's all part of God's plan. Most importantly, we're just praying for God's peace, and his protection though the remainder of the pregnancy.

Whatever happens, we'll have a sweet baby in a few short weeks...or less.

Upside Down

We went for our weekly doctor visit Wednesday. We had an ultrasound, which is always fun! John weighs approximately 6 pounds, 5 ounces now. We could see his hair floating around. We think he looks a little bit like Noah. Everything looks great and he's on track...but he's upside down (or I guess right side up depending on how you look at it).

We're considering trying to external version to try to get him to turn. If he doesn't turn with the version or on his own, we'll have to schedule a c-section. We're praying he'll flip on his own. There are all sorts of "home remedies" to get them to turn. Nothing scientific or foolproof, but it doesn't hurt to try, right? We're so thankful he's healthy, but if you could just pray for wisdom for us and that he will decide to turn.

Mommy's Little Helper

A few weeks ago, Greg was out of town, so Noah and I headed to MiMi and Poppy's house. I think it may have been 4 degrees while we were traveling. (I'm not kidding either!) My mom and I worked on making the bedding for John's room. Noah, of course, thought he needed to help. He wanted to sit on my lap. I told him he could sit in a chair beside me. That just wasn't good enough. He threw one leg up over mine and the next thing I know...

He also helped MiMi... (Who knew you needed a tire gauge to sew?)

Greg's afore mentioned trip was to Colorado for snowmobiling. He ordered some new boots for the trip. Noah modeled them. He tried to walk. His little legs were moving up and down in the boots, but nothing was happening. It was quite funny.

Greg bought me a new hat on his trip. Noah also modeled that...

I've been trying to teach Noah to hold up 2 fingers. (Can you believe he's going to be 2 in less than a month??? Is that even possible?) He's not quite got the hang of it yet. It's pretty cute to watch him try though.

There is never a dull moment when Noah is around. Today we were at the grocery store. I got him all buckled in his seat and was putting a few more things in the car and he said, "We need to slam the door."

Earlier this week, I made him a quesadilla for lunch. I was just about to put him in his chair and he said "We need to turn that off" and pointed to the stove. I was just about to say it is off but noticed I had only turned it down, not off... What would I do without my little helper?

Noah and I have been cleaning up and organizing the basement (better known as nesting). I let him wear his slippers down one day. After the fact, I realized that was a bad idea and he should have had shoes on. He had cat hair all over the bottom of his slippers. (In my defense, the basement is unfinished and is rarely vacuumed. That's why we've been down there cleaning.) I set him down to clean up his slippers and he said, "I have cats on me."

John will soon be making his appearance. I can't believe it's almost here. Last night, one of my friends asked me how many weeks I had left and I held up one hand...only 5 weeks left. At my weekly check up this past week, my doctor couldn't tell if he was head down or not. I'm having an ultrasound next week, so we'll know for sure then. I'm praying he's head down. I've been trying to pay really close attention to exactly what it feels like when he moves to try to determine. There is this hard knot (either his bottom or his head) that I can always feel on the right just under my ribs. There is the possibility that he's diagonal. That would be better than "upside down."

Merry CHRISTmas!

Where to begin... We've been pretty busy since the last entry.

We've been working to get John's room ready. It feels like we're not making much progress. For 2 years, I've been putting off moving files from the old computer to the laptop so we can get rid of the desktop. Now I have not choice but to do it. I am, however, nearly done!! As usual, it wasn't as big of a task as originally anticipated.

Noah and Greg put together John's dresser. I was in the other room and I could hear hammering and then a little tap, tap, tap.

Once the room is done (hopefully soon!!!), I'll post a picture.

I had to do the 3 hour glucose test...again! With Noah, I was 2 points above the cut off. It was very annoying. I tried really hard to not eat things that would affect the one hour test this time. It was unsuccessful... I had to do the 3 hour test again. Noah went to Mom's Day Out at church while I went. I told him he was going to school. He said "I ride on the school bus." Here he is with his lunch box. He was so proud of it. On another note, I've gain 10 pounds less than I had with Noah at this point. Who says chasing a 1 year old around isn't a good workout?

Noah had what may have been his last play date with the Hunters until John and Champ are born. The Hunters are building a new house and are "homeless" currently and are therefore in Texas. So, we piled them all on the chair to take a picture of the 4 of them before they become 6. We couldn't get them to all look at the camera, so we settled for happy faces.

We also celebrated Christmas...lots! The weekend before Christmas, we traveled to Albany, MO (where my dad grew up) to celebrate with his family. Noah was very in to tearing the paper off the packages.

Taylor, Aiden, Noah, and Jenna with MiMi and Poppy (There were about 60 cameras going off. They're all looking at the camera, just not the same one.)

Aiden and Noah in their matching Christmas jammies.

Playing Connect Four

Sunday morning when I came out after taking a shower, this is what I found... (That's a cupcake, in case you can't tell.) MiMis and Great Aunts let little boys do things their mommies wouldn't let them do. But, hey! It's Christmas, right?

We spent Christmas Eve at home. We opened presents with Noah and then went to Christmas Eve service at church. There was no nursery during church. Noah did really good. He made it for nearly the whole hour. I had to take him out about 5 minutes before it ended. After church, we went out to eat with our sweet friends, the Gilberts.

Oh, I forgot to mention... Noah looked like he'd been in a fight. He had sort of a rough day on Christmas Eve. He fell off the bed (for the first time ever) and got rug burns all down his face. Then later, he tripped and fell in the hall and busted his lip open. He had been sick and was a little behind on his sleep, which generally equates to clumsiness.

Noah having a snack at his new table while daddy plays with Noah's new toys.

Christmas morning, we traveled to Pilot Grove...in the snow. It was dry as a bone here when we left. By the time we got to Columbia, we were traveling at a very slow pace because the roads were covered. We spent the day there with Greg's family and most of the following day. Here are most of Noah's cousins...okay, some. Seven of them were missing (one was sleeping, two were home sick, and the other four were not able to make it).

Saturday afternoon, we went to Columbia. Where poor little Noah and Aiden were forced to wear matching jammies again.

Noah with his new slippers. For several days, he'd say he wanted them on and then I'd turn around and they were off. Today, he left them on all day, which was good. The windchill was -6.

The ABCs of Pregnancy

A - Aches (back, feet, hips...)
B - Bathroom anyone?
C - Charlie horse
D - Dry skin
E - Endless appetite, at first anyway.
F - Forgetfulne... Wait, what was I talking about??
G - Granny panties
H - Hernia
I - Insomnia
J - John John (as Noah likes to call him)
K - Kicking at all hours of the night
L - Ligament pain
M - Morning sickness (or so I've heard)
N - Numb spot
O - "Overactive" bladder (did I already mention that?)
P - Pinched nerves
Q - Quick trip to the bathroom...again.
R - Relaxin (Ouch!)
S - Stretch marks
T - Tests
U - Ultrasounds
V - Vivid dreams
W - Weight gain (Seriously, how can you gain 25-35 pounds and the baby only weighs 7-8 pounds?)
X - X-ray free (what else can you say of X?)
Y - Yucky glucose drinks (Ick!)
Z - Zipperless pants (But I still feel the need to periodically check to make sure they are in fact zipped.)

Baby Boom

I have 6 friends at church who are also pregnant. We're all due within 2 months of each other. (Don't drink the water, right?) We've been trying to get a picture of all of us together before the babies start coming. We couldn't get all 7 of us, but we managed 6.

We're in reverse order of due date: Shelly (due April 30, boy, #4), Kylie (due April 30, unknown, #2), Leslie (due April 25, girl, #3), Jennifer (due March 29, girl, #2), Kim (due March 19, boy, #6), me (due March 4, boy, #2). Some of us are a little bigger then others...

One of my mom's friends got Noah this alphabet magnet toy when he was born. I put it in the basement for safe keeping. I've been wanting to bring it up, but he has this other toy that has vehicle magnets. Every time I would go to the basement, he would throw all of them down the cat door. I thought 26 more pieces to pick up every time I went to do the laundry was a little much. He finally quit doing it... So, I brought up the alphabet toy. He loves it. (In fact today, he was signing the ABC's. He missed some, but I couldn't' believe how well he did.) He likes to get out my grandmother's Tupperware pie carrier and sit on it to play. (Excuse the hair... He'd had on a hat.)

Noah is obsessed with Christmas lights. Each morning when we get up, I have to turn the tree lights on first thing. When we're out driving, he points them all out and then says he wants another one. It's really very cute!

Noah went pee-pee in the potty today. I was changing his diaper and he wanted to sit on the potty, which is in his room. So, I let him. As soon as he sat down, he said he needed a wipe. He sat on it for quite a while and then he went. I'm not sure if he knew he needed to go or if it was just a coincidence. But either way, he did it. I made a big deal about it of course.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Better late than never, right???

My mom and dad came for Thanksgiving this year. My mom worked like a dog the whole time she was here. (It was her idea to do it over Thanksgiving.) Greg said I was a slave driver. She painted doors, the crib, a bookshelf... I just have the best mom ever to come and work so hard to help me out.

My mom's sister sent Noah a cute little hat. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's got tiger stripes on it. First thing he did was break it. I taped it and Noah announced it had a band aide on it. Jinx also liked the hat. He was trying to drag it down the cat door. (It has a similar texture to flip flops which he loves to chew on.)

We had the works for Thanksgiving dinner. Noah's favorite: mashed potatoes. (And, no, he did not eat all of that food on his plate. Greg's eyes were bigger than Noah's stomach.)

Noah loves to play outside. He doesn't seem to care if it's hot or cold. He just likes the fresh air. Can't complain about that can I?

Playing on his swing set

Checking out the neighbor's nativity

Always on the go

Usually we take things to Goodwill a couple of times a year. We haven't taken anything in 2 years. I've been collecting things in the basement. We decided it was time to get it taken care of. Greg was going to take Noah with him when he dropped it off. There wasn't room in the car... That's a little sad really. But, hopefully someone will be blessed by it.