Food Allergies

My poor nephew Cooper has severe food allergies... anything with red dye (like ketchup or anything tomato-y) and peanuts are the worst. (He has more.. but these are the most severe) This poor child has been subject to my pregnant memory on more than one occasion. I had him for a week in March and gave him spaghetti-o's one day for lunch.... severe rash resulted. A few days later I gave him a peanut butter sandwich... this is when they discovered the peanut allergy and blood work was done to see how serious his allergies are. He now carries an Epi-pen in the event he has peanuts again and goes into anaphylactic shock.

Anyhow... I've had him again for the past two days (seriously.. I can't believe they still trust me with him). Today my neighbor came by with a cookie for the boys... I didn't even LOOK to see if there were any peanuts in it and handed it over to him. As soon as they ate them I realized my mistake and frantically called the neighbor, then my sister, then my brother-in-law. It was hours later when the neighbor finally confirmed there were NOT any peanuts involved. (Travis told me it would be an immediate reaction if there were nuts, but I was still stressed about it.) Very stressful. I hated myself for not checking. Poor Cooper. I came up with a solution.. pulled out my handy purple marker and wrote it right there on his forehead. NO NUTS. It sounded better in my head. I think tomorrow I'll specify... NO peaNUTS.

Nudist Colony

I was doing some yard work yesterday and had Brodey running around without his shirt on... I got distracted with a plant for literally a minute and turned back around to find him completely naked sitting in the tub of water I was using to water the shrubs I was planting. When Brock woke up from his nap he joined his nudist brother and they both ran around the backyard for hours completely unfazed by their lack of clothing. Thankfully our yard is surrounded by trees... it was too funny to correct, so I took pictures instead.

A haircut

As I'm sure previous pictures have shown, Brock was WAY overdue for a haircut. I took him for his first ever real haircut yesterday... 22 months old. My friend Jessicah cut it and he did a great job sitting still for her. I was shocked.

Emotions

I wish I would have time stamped these two...

less than 2 seconds later...

A day in the life of Brodey.

Morning Conversations...

This morning Brodey and I were snuggling on the couch and he put his hand on my belly. (a much bigger belly than you would probably imagine for only 21 weeks... but that's a whole different story)

Me: are you saying good morning to the baby?

Brodey: I don't fink I wike (like) the baby.

Me: WHY??

Brodey: It looks scary.

Me: My belly looks scary?

Brodey: No.. when it had it's picture taken it looked scary.

The morning of my sonogram I told him we were going to "see a picture of the baby"... no wonder he cried! Maybe I should have explained that when the baby is born we will be able to see more than just it's skeleton. I think I would have cried too if I thought that's what the baby was actually going to look like.

20 Weeks!

Believe it or not,we were able to make it through our sonogram without finding out what we are having! The technician said everything looked great and the baby is measuring right on target for August 29th. I asked her about a minute into the sonogram if she could tell what it was already and she said "Oh yeah.. I can tell." Which makes me think even more that it's a boy. (She said the same thing during Brock's sonogram) Plus, nothing sounds more delicious to me right now than a pickle wrapped in pastrami with cream cheese. Sounds like a boy craving to me.

We brought the boys with us because I thought they would like to see the baby... I was wrong. Brodey cried because he thought she was hurting me and Brock just really wanted to lay on the table. He did yell a few times, "BABY!! TV!!!". But who really can tell that's a baby anyway??

In this picture the baby has it's legs up by it's face. So I'm told anyway... I have a hard time seeing things in sonograms. I think she kept trying to give me a crotch shot and I was too confused to know what I was looking at. It's okay... I can wait 20 more weeks to know for sure!

I am a girl.

I am not a princess, or the girliest-girl you will ever meet... but most definitely a girl. It becomes more apparent with the more boys we bring into this house. And the older they get. My hobbies include: knitting, sewing, gardening, cooking and painting (and not the roller to the wall kind of painting my husband so much enjoys). Sometimes we laugh about how much I have in common with elderly women. I'm okay with that. I used to claim to like to fish... turns out what I like about fishing is sitting on the boat. I will not bait a hook. I will not touch a fish. I like casting, reeling and sitting. At the pet store I can't even walk by the rats or mice without gaging. Bugs, lizards, snakes.. all disgusting. Boys love these things.... they like to TOUCH these things. Boys love to be dirty, play rough and find great humor in announcing when they "scooter-toot". Yesterday I caught Brodey standing on the curb, FACING THE STREET, with his pants down relieving himself right there in front of the neighbors. It takes WEEKS to teach a boy to use the potty... yet no one has to teach them how to use a tree, the yard, or even the road. Would the "there are some places it's not appropriate to go potty" conversation even need to be had with a girl?? I wouldn't know. It's odd that God has given me two boys... and what is feeling like a third. Even more odd how much I ENJOY living with all these boys (aside from the bathrooms). Maybe it's because of how much I truly look forward to living in an assisted living home and won't need a daughter to take care of me when I'm old. Boys are fun. Very amusing.

Random things

Last week I caught Brock licking Jeff's deodorant. He licked it twice before I got it away from him... no telling how long he had been licking it before I saw him. This from the child who will eat NOTHING.

If Brodey wants to do something he knows he's not allowed to do he'll first come to me and say with his most serious face, "Mommy... why don't you go check the puter (computer) for a minute?" (or he'll tell me to check it for 4 minutes.. which is his only measurement for time)

Brock calls the garage "home". If we are inside and walk out in the garage he'll say "We're home!". This is probably because that's what I say when we are driving into the garage.

EVERY single day when it is time for a nap Brodey will tell me "but it's not dark outside!". And every single day I remind him that it is never dark for nap time. This has been our conversation for months... and still he thinks it's worth the argument.

A couple of months ago I was gone for the day and came home to find that Brodey had drawn all over one of the walls in his room. I went to find Jeff to see if he had seen it... he had. I asked how he punished Brodey for it... he didn't. "I had no idea he could draw so well! I was so impressed it didn't occur to me that I should punish him for it!" was his response. Shocking as that response was I did have to smile at the thought of Brodey beaming with pride as daddy marvelled over his artwork... even if it was on the wall.