Counting

Awwwww! I work with Jaden all the time on various things. He’s known ALL, and I mean all, of his animals sounds for a long time. He knows every body part on his little body. He knows a few colors. He knows the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider, If You’re Happy and You Know It, and some of them to Wheels on the Bus.

I have been trying to get him to count “1, 2, 3” forever! I work with him almost daily. He just won’t do it. He will copy me, but will not do it himself at all.

Right now, he is sitting in his Spider Man chair watching Tom & Jerry (which he loves) with a book he’s flipping through. I just heard him, looking at the book, saying, “1 2 3”.

I’m so proud of him! I wonder if he does the ABCs while he’s in bed and I’m not around. He was the kid that would only roll over in his crib without anyone present for the longest time! He’s getting so big!

I have the car seat installed for Kara now and he is always pointing at it saying, “Baby. Baby.” Oh how is world is about to change! I’m going to miss being home with just him during the day. It’s always kind of scary adding another to mix. It feels like you’re taking away from the ones already here. I’m going to miss snuggling with just my lil man. *sigh*

Gun Play

It’s interesting how when Migc was Jaden’s age, he wasn’t allowed to be anywhere near play guns. He didn’t have them as toys and wasn’t allowed to pretend them. My motto was “Guns hurt nice people.” In Chicago, in our lifestyle at the time, that was all he needed to know. Guns were spoken of in context of kids on the street getting shot.

Now, we’re in Kansas, where hunting is everywhere. Plus, I’m married to a military man that almost specializes in firing weapons. In fact, rarely in our house are they called guns, they are normally called weapons and in our house, the context that guns are used in is usually war.

Migc has a handful of nerf, cap and bb guns now but certainly never had them at Jaden’s age. Jaden walks around the house almost daily with one of the Migc’s gun saying, “p-que p-que”. The real kicker though is that I think it’s kinda cute.

Few Random Thoughts

I’ve discovered that rental duplex or not, I really like this place. No, I don’t want to live here forever, but for now, it’s simple. It’s easy, and I like it. We are all always on the same floor and share more family time. The kids play outside more and watch less tv. It’s easy to get the entire house picked up and kept clean daily. I’m enjoying the simple life. And,it’s very sunny. I’m going to enjoy that after Kara is born!

I’m feeling good today. It’s kind of been a rough week for me. I’ve felt very incredibly pregnant and moving seems to be a chore, but today, I don’t know, it’s not so bad. I got great sleep last night. The weather is a tad bit cooler today, which I think is helping. Yesterday felt miserably hot, but not hot enough to turn on the AC, so after house shopping, I was swollen and tired. Today is good day though.

36 weeks and counting! I’ve been putting together her clothes and blankets and getting stuff prepared. OK OK I’m digging the pink stuff. :) As long as there is no lace and it’s not frilly, I’m awwww-ing all over the place.

I think this will be our last. I’m really feeling like it’s time to focus on the ones we have. As much as I’ve enjoyed this pregnancy, I’m thinking I don’t really want to do this again. It really separates my time from those already here. I don’t feel on top of my mommy game, especially right now. I think I’m done dividing that time. I’m pretty sure 4 is enough for us.

Things Left to Do

This is my checklist of things I need to do within the next week. I am feeling the crunch – officially.

*Call Military One Source to find out where I’m delivering this child
*Put together a hospital bag
*Put together a list of things needed for everyone else for the couple of days away from the house
*Fill out the hospital admissions stuff and make a folder with it and several copies of the Birth Plan
*Put together an emergency delivery bag in case we don’t make it to Wichita
*Get the new purchases laundered
*Buy the bassinet & this very cute stuffed animal that I saw today
*Work on knitting baby legs
*Return Kate the doula's call

I bought some blankets and little stuff today and now I really feel like I’m having a girl. :) It’s funny because everything I bought is very pink and very girlie, but somehow it doesn’t feel too much for me. I don’t know. It’s cute!!! I’m excited to meet her! I’ll be checking off my list this week, so this entry will be edited!

Week 35

We had Kara’s sonogram last week to make sure the placenta cooperated and moved up and sure thing, we’re SAFE! And sure thing, she is definitely a she. Funny, none of the pictures were very good, except the one of girl parts and there is no denying!

I know I said in my last post that I felt like she was going to be late, but yeah, I’m not sure about that. Today actually felt like the day may be approaching within the next month. God knows! I just feel a little more pressure than I have been lately and I had a few intense braxton hicks this evening.

She has gotten really active lately too and is quite the mover and shaker. She also has a head full of hair according to the sono, and her size is right on track.

I’m pretty much ready for her. I have lots of newborn clothes – plenty really and I have girly diapers and socks. I need to pick up a few girlie blankets. I can’t stomach the ones at Wal-Mart. They are just too…pink for me. Pink is ok, if you mix in some brown or blue or anything other than purple. I’m hoping I find some better ones at Target. I also need to pick up a new bassinet, swing and diaper bag. I suppose I’ll do that next week or the week after. Craigslist here sucks! I looked at some diaper bags on etsy today that were pretty cool. I’m thinking I will probably need a real diaper bag just because I’m sure we’ll be making more trips with Kara than we did with Jaden. I also have some baby legs I’d like to finish knitting too, but I just don’t know if I’ll get those done.

There is lots of talk about what/who she will look like and what we are hoping for. Of course, she’ll be amazing no matter what, but Justin and I are hoping for either brown hair/blue eyes or blonde hair/brown eyes. I’m sure when she’s born, she’ll have dark hair though regardless of how it ends up. Jaden did and it turned blonde. It’s crazy that the more children I have, the more I realize the possibilities when it comes to physical features and personalities.

It’s all going to be exciting, that’s for sure!

The Condensed Version

I’ve started a few mother load updates, but cannot seem to get them finished. Too much happened too quickly, so here is an email that I sent to friend that felt left out of loop. Sadly, pretty much everyone was left out the loop because there was just no time. So, here is a condensed version of our last few weeks.

We are living a little over an hour north of Wichita. Justin got a full-time military job doing pre-mob training - right before troops deploy they go to their mob station for a short amount of time & right before that, they go through pre-mob training, which includes everything from learning the culture of where they are going, how to spot IEDs & what to do if your gunner truck rolls over, etc. Justin is 1 of, I think, about 10 guys that do the training in this region. He *loves* it! His hours are crazy. When they have troops on the ground, he is gone all day and pretty much night too. When they are between troops, he's home a lot. Right now, they are between troops so I get to see him quite a bit & they get lots of days off. The next group coming is supposed to be pretty big and he won't even be doing his training here, and it's supposed to last like 45 days...right through Kara's birth. So, I'm over 2 hours from our family and about to have my 4th child without my husband. Sounds fun, huh? He says he'll make it for the birth, but anything else is a crap shoot.

We've been here about a week & a half. Schools were on Spring Break last week, so the kids just started. They love it. It is a nice town. It has about 50k people and is a mini-Wichita. We really like it so far!

We found out on a Thursday that he got the job & had to report to on Monday morning. We rented our house in Wichita & found a duplex just a few blocks from where Justin works and were moved completely within 2 weeks. Justin had troops on the ground and didn't get back for any part of the move whatsoever. It was very, very stressful & I'm glad to have it behind me! The duplex is nice and nice sized. We signed a 6-month lease so that we would have time to learn the area & find a house that we really like. The pay for this job is great, so we have a little more to work with this time and we want to take our time. God has just opened one door after another & we couldn't deny it! It's been crazy but not a really hard transition for any of us. The moving & the 1st week were very hard for me, but now it's all fitting together & I'm doing a lot better!

And yes, I'm feeling very pregnant. This pregnancy has been soooooo easy & even during the moving stuff, I would have to remind myself not to do things because I was so pregnant. Other than the emotions, it didn't really seem to effect me much. Just think about being 32 and 33 weeks pregnant with 3 other kids, no help from your husband or family or friends & packing & coordinating the entire move of your household to another city within 2 weeks, including utilities, schools, etc. and preparing to have tenants in your home! Thankfully, we did have lots of amazing help for the actual move! Now though, I think God was saving the big pregnancy part for after the move. I'm 35 weeks and I feel huge & she feels big finally & I'm becoming more & more aware that I have a very short amount of time to get everything put together for her arrival! I've reached the huge part now, but she hasn't dropped at all! She is still very high and I feel like she's going to be late, but we'll see. :)

There we go. Now, maybe I can move on to more fun stuff that I think about posting here and there and don’t do because this part was left undone.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

At some point, I'll update with all the current happenings. (!) That will have to come at a point in time when I have more than 3 minutes and am thinking clearly though. For right now, it's random facebook updates and that's all I've got!

I did start an update several days ago, but it has not been completed nor do I remember what in the heck I wrote about!

New job. New home. New life.

...coming soon!