The Metamorphasis

We spent last Tuesday afternoon with the Martins! It was great! We had lunch at Chic-Fil-A with Kyle, Heather, Benjamin, and little Alex. Of course, we had to sit at two separate tables because we have too many kids! ;) The boys all played great together. When we first arrived Elijah had so much fun watching 3 motorcycle policemen get on their bikes and ride off. I did a good job getting excited with him and smothering my animosity toward police officers.

Now for the good stuff.

After lunch we followed Heather to HEB and did some grocery shopping. We started off in the produce section and things were moving along quite well! I'll add that this was Heather's first time to the grocery store with boy of her boys! Go Mom! Anyways, I digress. We had stopped briefly to get something and I was coming around the cart from putting some type of produce in and I see a flash of orange exchange hands from Shooky to Elijah. Before I finished saying the sentence, "Don't put that in your mouth!!!" Elijah had given me his smirky look and taken a big bite. His face portrayed the look of, "Am I going to get away with my current bout of rebelliousness". Then, the metamorphosis began. His eyes get HUGE. Then his face just melted. He spit out the habenero in my hand and started screaming the 'I'm very hurt' cry. Mom's you know what I'm talking about. Luckily we had a little bit of milk left in Shooky's bottle which he downed in 0.0001 of a second. We were right by a soda fountain, so Heather filled up the bottle with water and he downs all of that in 2 seconds. Poor guy. We get to the dairy section and I grab some string cheese. After he finished that he joyfully exclaimed that his mouth didn't burn anymore. Phew. I also knew this to be true because he was instantly jabbering on about muffins and Spiderman or something else.

Lessons to be learned here: Don't take things off of the shelf; Don't take things from your brother; Don't eat things that aren't given to you by your parents or someone deemed ok by your parents; Always carry a bottle of milk with you while grocery shopping; ALWAYS OBEY MOMMY! Feel free to add anymore you can think of. ;)

The offending party.

This was totally the boys fault and I by no means am trying to put the blame off, but this leads me to ask...why do grocery stores put the hottest peppers closest to the ground??

Surgery

So my sweet Elijah had surgery about a month ago and was a super star!! I won't go into the details because I want to respect his privacy when he gets older, but I do want to share the experience.

Mary Liz had written a book about surgery for Ryan when he was a kid and we borrowed it from her to help prepare Elijah for his big day. Ironically enough less then a week before we found out he was going to have to go under the knife I was telling Mary Liz that she absolutely HAD to get it published. Anyways, he loved that book. As a matter of fact, it was what he wanted to take into the OR with him when they asked if he wanted to bring a blanket or a stuffed friend! I'm getting ahead of myself.

We get there and we're sitting in our little nook doing all the prep work. Mary Liz was with us to help with the baby because I'm still breastfeeding and he refuses to take a bottle. Elijah starts right off charming the nurses. They take his blood pressure and count his respirations. The aide was telling the nurse his vitals to record and Elijah pipes up, " No, I'm three!". At different times that morning Dr. S , the anesthesiologist, and some nurses all came out to discuss the surgery and again Elijah would eagerly insist he was three when a figure was said. He was very adament about it and it sort of became the theme for the morning. Kim, or pastor, joined us while we waited and we all got to enjoy an episode of VeggieTales. Both Kim and Mary Liz were a great comfort to me that day. :)

Skipping forward to when it is time for the surgery, Elijah had attracted a crowd of about 5 or more nurses and doctors around our little pod just charming them all! He chose cake for his anesthesia scent and the last time I saw him before he had stitches, he was riding Dr. S's back piggyback down the hall and through the OR doors.

They moved us all to his recovery room and I walked up and down the halls pushing Leland to get him to fall asleep and prayed. With the baby fast asleep I settled down in our room to wait for Elijah. The surgery wasn't very long, but what must have been a total of 30 - 45 minutes total before I saw him again felt like hours. The doctor came and told us everything went great and that they would bring him back once he came out of the anesthesia some more. Kim went ahead and left and Mary Liz toke Leland to go get lunch for us.

I heard him before I saw him. It is common for kids to be upset when they come out of anesthesia. You can and should try to prepare yourself when they inform you about this little detail, but, after being on pins and needles waiting to have my child back in my arms and know that he's ok, nothing can prepare you for that initial sound of your baby screaming and crying. I'm not quite sure if I recall who it was but I think it was a nurse who walked around the corner with Elijah in his/her arms and set him in my lap. Oh, just to hold him in my arms brought tears to my eyes.

He was a bit shaky. He was a lot sweaty. He wasn't quite sure what he wanted for about 20 minutes. Then he was definitely hungry. :) He wanted to know if he was going to get to stay the night there like in Grandma's surgery book. He was very disappointed that he wasn't. So, thank you Jesus that it seems as though he has come through this whole process without being afraid of doctors or hospital like settings!

We were on our way about an hour later. He tried to insist that he could walk (he had a type of epidural) and tried to stand on his legs. It was like watching an old cartoon where his knees just wobbled back and forth and I quickly scooped him back up! Of course, he was right next to me and there was no danger of him hurting himself or his surgical site.

We broke the rules and he had his favorite breakfast meal for dinner. Sweet potato belgian waffles, homemade peach compote, bacon, and eggs. Grandpa Boston joined us and we all feasted!

He bounced back super quick! He was playing again by the next day and completely back to normal a week later.Maybe one day, my sweet Elijah, Dr. S will be your new step-grandpa. ;)

New House?

Soooo, yeah. The title says it all, right? If only it were that simple. (sigh)

The new news in the Boston household is that we're looking at houses! We had found a fabulous house in the Anderson Mill West subdivision, but we decided to put an offer on it HOURS after some other chumps did. How's that for luck. Here's the clincher. The owners had really wanted to sell the house to us, too, since we were a young Christian family just starting out, but they had just come back from a Campus Crusade for Christ conference all about Godly decision making. Just our luck. I would be putting it mildly to say we were disappointed to lose that house. But you know me, ever the optimistic one. My outlook was that if God wanted us to have that house it would have worked out, so He must have had something better out there for us. And, I think we found it.

On Sunday (not today, a week ago.) we went over to my besty's house so I could feed Hendrix and chat. When we left we passed this house that was for sale right behind them. Ryan pulled the flyer and a short hop down the road while Ryan ran into Randalls to grab a pizza for the demanding Elijah, I called Scott, our realtor, and talked to him about this house. He pulled it up online and we got all excited about it. Anyways, we went to go see it Monday before marriage group and we put a contract on it Tuesday. The only thing that's not perfect about this place is that it's 20,000 more then what we wanted to pay. Ouch. So we will be on the tightest of tight budgets until the Brentwood house sells. I'll post pics once we get past the option period and know a little more for sure that it's actually ours.

Please keep us in your prayers. :)

Oh. And look at these cute boys. :D
Errrrrr.

Punk.

Sorry for the delay in writing. I've had some, um...ehem, issues to iron out. ;)

The boys continue to grow much to my adamant protesting. Elijah is a very unruly 2 year old who likes to constantly push the envelope. "How much can I push Mommy today and get away with it?" Punk.

Trip to Zilker with friends and family. Naughty's on the table...

Hendrix is my sweet little smiler. He's 15 weeks (3 months) old and getting nice and plump. He should be ready to pluck and stuff soon. ;) We've extended our feeding schedule this past week and I think he's liking it so far! Here are the stats:

• Sleeps about 9 1/2 hours through the night.
• Eats 5 times a day. Every 3 1/2 hours starting around 7:30 AM.
• Takes about 3 naps a day averaging anywhere from 1 - 2 hours. We're still trying to figure out what's "normal" for his naps because we're out and about so much and, like I said, we're on a new schedule.
  

Hendrix is my smiler. I really can't say it enough. He laughs, like down-right giggles and belly laughs, already much to our enjoyment! Nobody can make him laugh like his Daddy can. That's a snapshot in my life I'll remember when I'm old and gray. (I have to upload my pictures! I'm low on options at the moment.)

Not that long ago...

Elijah continues to be a wonderful older brother with only occasional hand flapping of the babe. I know. Sounds weird, but there's really no other way to describe it. He gets his little hand fluttering like a baby bird trying to take flight and "flaps" little H on the cheek or back or arm... Punk.

This morning when I went to go get Elijah out of his room, he wrapped his little arms around me and ohhh...I almost started to cry. There really is nothing like it in the world. To feel your precious child intentionally wrap their tiny little arms around you and give you a fierce little hug, and if you're lucky a kiss, too. I sat him down on his changing table and gave him another squeeze and we just smiled at each other. I might be more then twice his size, but he sure knows how to bring me to my knees. Punk. ;)

Eskimo Kisses

I haven't forgotten you!

I've been looking for my camera so I could do normal pictures instead of always using my cell, and the good news is I've finally found it!! Now I just have to find the memory sticks and we're golden. I'd feel bad making tons of posts with all those annoying words without cute pictures like this one...

or this one...(awwww!)Big Brother Kisses

So, hopefully, we'll be more consistent very shortly!

Just to catch you up to date, Hendrix had his 2 week appointment on March 23rd and he got all A+'s!! He's more then regained his birth weight weighing in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. And he grew 2 inches!! He was 22 1/2 inches long. His head circumference was 37 cm. So we're off and running!

Monday, March 9th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENDRIX FINNIAN BOSTON!!!

The day my 2nd baby was born. This is mostly going to be pictures because I've had a lot of requests for them. :)

Just to catch you up to current though:

We were discharged from the hospital Tuesday evening. After spending Monday night in the hospital and having the AC go out,I was ready to get outta there asap! Buzz, as you already know is the best doctor ever, helped get us out of there in record time! He preformed Hendrix's circ. right after we talked and then the paperwork was all taken care of. We decided to stay for dinner because they did a special Mommy/Daddy dinner that evening. I had steak and Ryan had fish. It was actually pretty good! They had a heaping side of broccoli on my plate, and if you know anything about m broccoli incident with Elijah, then you know I left my brocs untouched! My advice to all those soon-to-be-Moms out there, when the hospital tries to feed you broccoli, PASS ON IT!! Really, I can try to blame our wanting to leave on the AC, but this is the real reason for our wanting to get home:

We missed our big baby boy. :)

Oh, it was so nice to sleep in our own bed! Since then we've been doing great! Hendrix had his first check up Thursday and his pedi gave him an excellent review! My milk came in Wednesday night, so since then we've been changing diapers nonstop it seems like! And, thank God for friends and family who have kept us fed since we got home. Mary Liz brought us dinner Wednesday and Thursday night, Kim brought us dinner Friday night (tonight), and Randy is bringing us dinner tomorrow night. Our neighbors Ryan, Allie, and Audrey came to visit and our friends Ryan and Stacy Lambert dropped by, too! When you're stuck in the house (especially for a social butterfly like me) visitors are the highlight of my day! My cousins Chuck and Angie are coming by tomorrow to visit. I look forward to seeing them as they live in San Antonio. My friend Marianne might try to stop by, too. I think that's all for the lineup. ;)

On to the good stuff:

L to R: Dr. Moreno, Penny, Ryan, Hendrix, Me.

The one, the only, Buzz; Ryan cutting the cord.

My little dude saying Hi!

Conked out. See that square thing on the white thing sticking out of his diaper? They tagged my kid! It's great! It's like a clothes sensor that sets off alarms if the baby goes beyond a certain point. The tag is attached the clamp on his umbilical cord.

Angie holding H.

Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute!!!!!!!!

More Cuteness.

Family shot.

One of my very best friends, Erin (who's 5 months prego), William, and Neal

Kit, my bestie, with H.

Mother-Son photo opp.

Big Yawn!


Bitter Beer Face...

Awww....

Happy Meesh, Stoic Ryan, Slumberin' Hendrix

Going back a little in time...

The last post I wrote was March 2nd and a lot has happened since then, so I thought I'd start at the beginning. Sort of...

Saturday, March 7th:

Ryan, Elijah, and I went over to our friends, Travis and Kit's, house to celebrate one of my very best friends, Erin's, birthday. Her mama, Penny, was there and we started talking about my going into labor. She told me that since my body was so ready for labor that I could get some contractions going, even if it wasn't true labor, and they could break my water and it would send me into labor for sure! As I'm sure you've already guessed, I jumped at the opportunity. :)

Sunday, March 8th:

So...what can I do to get some contractions going??? I know!!! I'll sing at church! Nothing like some good old fashioned adrenaline to jump start my uterus! I had previously decided to not get on stage for that very reason. Anyways, that helped a little bit.

We went and had Taco Bell for lunch with my family. That helped a little bit.

Went home and took a nap and Ryan contributed to the uterus contracting. ;) That helped, a lot!

We headed over to Mary Liz's for our routine Sunday night dinner. Ryan, Elijah , and I walked to the playground in her neighborhood and had some fun playtime! That 1 mile walk there and back was awesome! We made a new friend at the playground and her daddy said they were expecting again, too! They were pretty much just like us just 2 months behind. We had fun talking about the kiddos and comparing notes! :)

After we got home and put Elijah to sleep, I called the on-call nurse to see if I passed the test to go to the hospital. I got a call from Penny saying they had just called her and said they had me down to come in!! So, I passed! (In case I didn't mention this before, Penny is a L&D (Labor and Delivery) nurse there at Seton)

I called my Aunt, who came to stay with Elijah, and she was here in in a jiffy! Ryan and I finished up some last minute things (I washed dishes and Ryan updated my labor mix on the iPod.), we packed up or things in the car and we were off!! Yay!

Sorry for the delay!

I'm sorry I've kept you guys on the back burner for a bit, but I've been super busy and tired. N0t what you think, unfortunately! :) I had contractions all Wednesday night and Thursday, but they've died down today. So, in an effort to throw myself into active labor I had been running around like a crazed june bug running errands, CLEANING, and having Elijah time.

My doc is going out of town today for a Father-Daughter weekend at his daughter's college, so I'm 'laskin', as my nephew used to say for relaxing, for the weekend so he can come back and deliver H. So get this, my very very good friend almost like a mom to me, Penny, is an L&D nurse at the hospital where I'll deliver and is actually the one who recommended my perfect-fit OB/GYN (I know, probably not the best choice of words...) for me was working the night shift with my doc last night. Penny said he leaned over and said his daughter was only a little more more important (pinching his fingers together with only a smidgen of air between them) otherwise he would stay in town. Then later on that night, I guess when he was leaving so that would be this morning, he screams...yes SCREAMS down the hall to Penny, "Tell Meesh to keep her legs crossed and to keep Ryan out of there until I get back!". Oy vei. LOL. Let me say it again, I love my doc!!!!

So, I've made plans (major jinx, I'm aware) this weekend and I'm keeping my legs crossed and Ryan out! My birthday is Sunday, March 1st. Our plans are dinner at Korea House and cake at my house. I prefaced the invite with, "Of course, I'll probably have to cancel...", so maybe that will undo the jinx.

I'm shooting for the 3rd. Let me tell you why. My birthday is March 1. Elijah's is May 1. Ryan's is June 3rd. So I think it would be great if Hendrix's was March 3rd. :) Anyone else agree??

Ok, time to go feed the bun in my oven. Fish Tacos at Berryhill are $1.99 on Fridays during Lent. Mmmmm. Soooo good. I'm not going to proof read, so sorry if it's incoherant or if things are misspelled. (mwah!)

Sonogram News!!

I had my weekly appointment with my wonderful, amazing, fantastic doctor on Friday complete with sonogram! I'm at 37 weeks and they wanted to check little dude's weight. The sonographer said everything looked great! I had good fluid still, his bones were measuring well, I was measuring right on for my due date! She said that's something they don't see often. The verdict is 6 lbs. 10 oz. Makes me so, so very happy! :D

Here's a facial for you guys. The big ball on the right is his massive head! (She did say it was measuring BIG. She stopped being worried, though, when I told her all the babies in our family tend to run on the big-headed side. ;) He's lying on his left side. The dark hole is his eye socket and the darker splotch under that and to the left is his nose socket. The other side of his face is shadowed. His heart beat was resting at 128. Here's my baby!!!

Some sadder news is that Elijah still has that pesky rash. It looks just awful now, but it still doesn't seem to be bothering him. Pray that it will start to fade tomorrow, or I'm going to have to call the doc again. Ick.

My wonderful mother-in-law has graciously agreed to kidsit Elijah tomorrow so I can go to church. I was a little sad that I would have to miss church (so E wouldn't contaminate the other kids in the nursery) because it very well could be my last chance to go for awhile. But, thanks to Mary Lou, I'll get to go. Thank you, Mary Liz! You're the best and I love you so much, even if you couldn't watch Elijah!! :D

I'll have to post a blog soon detailing my complicated and extensive family tree. I'm so, so sorry to those of you who might not be familiar with either branch of my families. That blog will probably just tie your brain in knots.

So, I'm supposed to dish all my dirty little secrets on here, right? I have something to admit. I'm very happy about finishing a project tonight that I have been working on for the last week, but has been in the making for over a year! Ryan, being the worship leader at our church, has binders full of disorganized music that he uses and goes through on a weekly basis. I, being the huge, organize-loving, dork that I am, went through all of his music, resorted it, made sure it was in alphabetical order, catalogued each song on an excel sheet complete with all keys the song is available in, how many different versions of the song we have, and what binder it can be found in, and arranged all the hard copies in brand new, non-tattered, working binders! It was a massive undertaking, but immensely rewarding! Now. If only I can organize and clean my house that way...

Btw, I'm definitely nesting. More to come later!

Jammin' With the Boys.

Our day was eventful.

Elijah had a dentist appointment. We show up at the office looking cute and we find out that we didn't need to come in until August! Apparently, the office clerk made a mistake. Well, no biggie because like I said...we looked cute today. :D Poor E was a bit freaked out by the big chair, the bright light, and, oh yeah, the people holding him down. But, he was very brave and didn't struggle too much. I learned that his first 2nd year molar is already making it's appearance on his bottom right side. The bottom left one can be felt right under the surface, which means it's next. We finished our adventure with a quick hello to our good friend PJ Hildebrandt (who works there) and an awesome big boy's Cars toothbrush!

Well, Elijah's trauma was soon assuaged with a little bit of TLC from Daddy. Mmm, and I'm sure the queso at Taco Cabana played a large role, too, along with some hits from Mommy's deliciously sweet strawberry slushie! My boys are huge fans of Taco C. I don't think there's anything that place couldn't make better for them.

Listening to a chorus of "Buh Brush" (toothbrush) E and I made our way thorugh World Market for some floral goodies and Babies R Us because, well, just because. He loves his new toothbrush! You'd never know the heartaches he endured for that thing the way he goes on about it. Anyways...I digress.

We'll skip naptime because Elijah mostly did, too.

Poor Ryan had to come home to a screaming child and his wife gabbing on the phone! We quickly rounded everyone up and made our way to Trav and Kit's place to jam. I enjoyed a very lazy evening at their house, beached in the middle of their big bean bag, eating pizza, and watching some of my favorite shows: Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice. I could tell you what everyone else was doing, but the title of this blog pretty much sums that all up. And, Elijah? Well, no. It was just all about me. As it should be. But, of course, never is! Ha! So thank you to Trav for geting me that water, Kit for refilling my water and playing with my child, and Ryan for EVERYTHING! It was nice to just sit there and veg after my long, long day with a cantakerous kid.

Yikes! It's late. Get ready kiddos! I have a sonogram appointment tomorrow!!! :) G'night.

New Blog!

Soooo, I'm very new to this blogging business, and I must admit that I turned my nose up at it at first. Now? I find myself addicted to my friend's blogs! It just seems like fun and what a great way to keep up with everyone. (Or if we want to be honest, what a great way to be a snoop! Hee hee) Please be patient with me as I try to figure all this out and if you have any advice, feel free to share it. So welcome to my new journal!

Here's my family as of December. Ryan, my husband, the Daddy. Me, Meesh, and obviously the momma! Elijah, our first son, is the one flying. Hendrix hasn't made his debut quite yet, but is evidenced by the rather large bump in my tummy area. His due date is March 10, 2009, but I'm hoping he'll come in the next couple weeks.

Ryan is our bread-winner, and boy do we love him for all of his hard work! Due to his diligent efforts in the money making area, I can stay home with our child(ren)! He works for a large risk management company, which I'll refrain from naming because I'm sure I'll vent about them on here, and he's the worship leader at Marshall Ford Fellowship church. Elijah is my full-time job and sweetheart of boy...except when he practices for those 2s. Lord, help me!

One of Elijah's new big things is finding the Moon. "Moo! Moo!" accompanied with pointing in an upward direction usually tips us off that he has either found the moon or wants to go look for it!

He'll wake up in the morning and I'll hear him over the monitor babbling about feeding the cat or dog. Too cute! After our morning routine, he'll run into our bedroom saying "Daw! Bites!". Translation - "I want to give Rolf, the dog, a doggie treat!". Then he'll run into the dining room to the cat food bin saying, "Meow, Meow! Bites!". After explaining to him (again) that we feed Sasha in the evenings, he'll normally insist again with, "Sha Shash! Bites!".

And, you just think we're done. ;) After breakfast, it's "Ish! Ish! Bites!" and we then feed the fish. My day in a nutshell.

I'm so proud of my little man, too, because he has discovered the potty. He's doing pretty well with it at 21 months of age, too! I went out and got him a Froggy Potty shortly after he started excitedly running into the bathroom saying "Pee!" and tugging on his pants. He's successfully used his big-boy potty around 5 times now! Grandma Mary Liz has jumped on the band wagon and added a big-boy potty to her house, too. That one plays music when you pee in it. The first time it went off, his eyes got a little big, but then he started bouncing up and down. It was a hit! We've been at it for a few weeks now and he's still as interested as ever! Yay! It would be great to not have 2 in diapers at the same time for long! God, please be merciful!

I'm 37 weeks pregnant. For those who aren't familiar with baby speak, a pregnancy is based on a 40 week period. So, I'm HUGE and almost to the finish line. Definitely waddling and groaning everytime I stand up or get up off the floor.

It's funny the things that become important to you in the last gasps of your pregnancy. Sugar. My main things are sweet tea and ice cream. Not together. Mmmm. Cleaning the study. It could end up being Hendrix's room, so I think about that room constantly. Getting our vehicles up-to-date on stickers and maintences. I'm sure there are others.

Ok. It's late. I should at least attempt to get some sleep tonight. :)