Monday: 29 weeks and stuff

Joshua is 29 weeks old today.

For his birthday, the car got a flat tire at Joann's.  Luckily, I recalled the lessons of my youth and was able to fix it.  (Well, someone came over to help when I was about half way done.  But I could have done it all on my own...I was doing fine.)  Dad made me change a tire before I could drive by myself.  (There's a picture of me jumping on the lug wrench, but apparently I don't have a copy of it.)  I never felt like it was a silly thing to do, but today I was extra glad that I did it.  The picture probably helped because I was reminded of it once in a while.

He also almost got to ride in the seat of the shopping cart, but Isaac decided he didn't want to walk after all.  I was a little sad, but oh well.  Once it warms up Isaac might not have as much of a choice because I won't have to take the carrier in the store to keep Joshua warm.

We had a short picture session.

And made a new "baby marble" track.  Joshua practiced sitting and knocking over block towers while we did it.  (Do you see the camel?  It causes traffic jams by plugging the hole because my arm was getting tired.)

Sunday: Valentine's Day and snow

I took a few Valentine's pictures yesterday of the boys with their puzzle hearts.  The setting with them together didn't go very well.  This was probably the best I got:

I thought I'd try with just Joshua.  That worked better.

Today was bitter cold out (it was supposed to be 0F at noon, and that was without the wind chill) so I brought snow in the house to play with.  I tried putting some in the tub yesterday (I saw other people do it on Facebook) but that didn't work well.  I just kept putting down a new towel when the previous one got wet.

Isaac enjoyed "chomping" anything I made.  For the most part this worked well.  It was interested to see the snow go through stages...first it didn't clump at all, then it clumped well, and then it clumped too well.  It was also surprising how dirty the snow was after it melted.

Saturday: baptism and other videos

Video time!

I finally got Joshua's baptism edited for the blog.  YouTube has a very nice editor that I didn't realize they had until nothing else worked.


Joshua bouncing.  He recently figured out how to bounce and not just be a lump.

I: Good job Joshua
I: Oh no! [Isaac is going backwards]
I: Good job Joshua
I: Oh, he needs a nose wipe
A: Oh, he does?  OK

Bouncing with a rattle.

I: Joshua wants to hold that rattle [after Isaac couldn't get it on the jumper]
A: Oh, ok.
I: Joshua did want to hold that rattle.
A: Well, thank you for bringing it to him.
I: Joshua did want that rattle
A: Yeah.
I: He did.
I: Now he's happy.
A: yeah.
I: Cause he has more rattles

The wiggle dance...a fast version of it apparently.

I: Too fast! boom.
I: That was too fast.
A: That was too fast? ok.
I: My try again. [something I can't get]
I: Really too fast.
A: Woah, yeah.   You bumped into the wall.
I: Way too fast.
A: Boom.
I: Way too...

Friday: a funeral

(TL;DR: I went to a funeral and was sad.)

Today I went to a funeral.  I'll admit, I was rather dreading it.  The circumstances had so many similarities to my mom's death: a person that wasn't that old, a cancer diagnosis quickly followed by death.  So they were already triggers on feeling sad.  But since it was my sister-in-law's father, I went.

I made it through the funeral itself without crying, mainly because I realized I didn't have any tissues so crying would be disastrous.  But I couldn't stop myself at the end.  I just remember how sad I was at Mom's funeral and how unreal it felt and how sad I was that Allison was (probably) feeling the same way.  I remember walking behind the casket on the way out of church and not being able to see because there were so many tears in my eyes.  I told Ben that I wasn't sure I could face Allison right then, and he said that was ok.  Phew.  I felt selfish, but I also remember being sick of crying and sometimes it was nice to be able to hold it together.  I expected we'd both be crying if I talked to Allison.  I managed to pull myself together at least a bit during the reception and talked a bit to her, but we kept it pretty light.

And I'm kind of thinking that the pain of losing someone doesn't dull or diminish after time, it just changes.  The sharp pain of their passing doesn't come as frequently, but there are still intense feelings of loss at times.  A big difference is that you also know you'll be able to keep going since you've made it this far.  Also, the intense pain will pass, at least until the next time it comes back.

The wonderful thing though?  It means I had a wonderful mom.  I wouldn't miss her otherwise.

Thursday: sickness

Yesterday Isaac seemed to be a lot better, even before the medicine.  (Although the internet said that croup is worst at night/early morning.)  This morning he seemed a bit off, but I just thought he was being three.  (For example, I was feeding Joshua and had forgotten to given him the bib that he wanted for his yogurt.  He started crying a real cry, so I came out to see what was going on.  He told me he needed a bib and I said, "oh, yeah.  Let me get that for you."  While I was getting it out, he shows me why he needs a bib by violently putting a huge bite of yogurt in his mouth, almost gagging himself, while convulsing wildly.  I just looked at him and wondered what in the world was going on.)

The people at daycare said he did great, but once we got home he kept talking about his head.  I didn't really understand what he was trying so say, so just brushed it off.  (His head is rough?  What is he talking about?)  He still was acting a bit weird, but not too much.  We were eating dinner (his favorite - chicken and tots) and suddenly he was done.  Laying on the floor done.  I passed Joshua to Ben and he came over and just laid against me.  The type of unmoving that you know something is wrong.  I think he had a headache.  Anyway, we gave him some Tylenol and then he fell asleep against my shoulder.

Hopefully he'll wake up happy!

Wednesday: the day

Everyone slept in until 8:45 today...crazy!  Isaac is usually the first one up, promptly when his alarm clock turns green and is ready to go.  This morning Joshua was the one that got me up.  I had finished feeding him and was getting him dressed when I heard I weird noise...it sounded like a squeak from when you rub your finger on plastic.  Then another noise...this time I thought the cat was about to throw up.  Then another noise...oh...they were all Isaac coughing.

Once he sat up and cuddled a bit he improved a ton, but I still ended up bringing him to the doctor and he's on some steroids for croup.  I feel like I've seen our new doctor more in the last 6 months than I saw our other doctor in total since we moved back to Michigan.

So we took it easy at home.  Joshua fell over while he and Isaac were playing and I had stepped out of the room.  When I got to the room Isaac was about to try and help Joshua up and was trying to calm him down.  It was super sweet.  Isaac went out and found a pacifier after I picked Joshua back up.

I had been looking through old blog posts to see if I could get a "compare Isaac to Joshua at the same age" outfit and came upon this video, where Ben threw up a swimsuit and clapped and Isaac found it funny.  I tried it today to see if Joshua would find it funny.  Isaac again found it very funny, but Joshua looked at me as though I was crazy.

We finished Isaac's valentines.  I'm glad they're done.  It might have been good trying to spell his name over and over, but I'm not really sure it helped at all.

Tuesday: Break

Today was winter break.  I was eagerly awaiting an afternoon all too myself...but what would I do?  Nap?  That sounded lovely but it could also eat up most of my afternoon?  Chores that are hard with children?  That sounded ok as they would at least be interesting chores.  Fun things?  That sounded nice.

Surprisingly, I didn't end up napping.  I did a combination of easy chores (things that didn't really matter but I've wanted to do them for a while) and fun things.  It was nice.