What's Been Going On?

Life in the Baird household is just trucking along.  We've had our highs and our lows and our just normals.  Here is some of the latest...

Two days ago, both Micah and Adam got to feel Baby Boy kick, finally.  I've been feeling him for quite awhile now, but it hasn't been strong enough to feel on the outside.  Micah was at work with me on Tuesday when I felt quite a few good thuds.  I knew he would keep it up, so I told Micah to come over quick and see if he could feel the baby.  I'll never forget the look on his face or the excitement he expressed at being kicked by his baby brother.  His eyebrows raised and he got that big smile on that I love so much.  He felt him twice, then ran into the other office to brag to G-pa and Uncle Z that he was the first one to feel the baby.  That night, while lying in bed, Adam got to feel him, too.  Since the inner ear bones are beginning to harden, that means Baby can start to hear us.  So, Adam was talking to him, and sure enough, he got kicked at.  I love this stage.  It just becomes a bit more real that there's a little baby in there when you can feel him.  Tonight, Seth joined the club.  As soon as he put his little hand on my belly he could feel the baby, but he kept his hand there much longer to feel it again.  So sweet.  It won't be too long before we'll all be tripping out at seeing him move across my belly.

It's no secret that Seth is a wrestling man.  Both the boys love to wrestle around, but Seth is usually the instigator.  His love for Nacho Libre is also well known in these parts, and that's why he received a specially made Nacho Libre costume from his Aunt Alli for his birthday.  This boys LOVES his stretchy pants.

Don't mess with this kid.

I mean he really loves them.  He wears them any chance he gets, even to bed.  When he goes to Grammy or Nanny's house, his Nacho costume must be in his backpack.  Before church last night, we gave the boys a shower and got them dressed.  I sent them into their room to play while we got ready.  When I called for them to come get in the car, I noticed Seth had a red butt.  He had pulled the red underwear over his khaki shorts and really thought he was going to church that way.  He's nuts.

A side effect of wearing the Nacho pants is that when he gets them on, he thinks it's time to throw down.  It doesn't matter when or where.  The other night, after bedtime prayers, a wrestling match somehow got started.  I don't even know how because one minute they were in bed and we were kissing them goodnight and the next minute, they're on the floor.  I mean the lights were off and everything and yet there they were, in the glow of the hall light, tossing each other around.  This particular match was so hilarious that we couldn't do anything about it for a long time but laugh.  We may be biased, but they're really getting good.  They were pulling out moves that we've never seen before...and Seth was holding his own pretty well against his older brother.  At one point, he was standing behind Micah, who was sitting, and had his arms wrapped around his head in a choke hold and was attempting to lift him off the ground that way.  You just had to see it.  Well, after about 15 minutes of laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants (a lovely pregnancy symptom), we told them it was enough and past time for bed.  Seth asked for his Nacho pants.  We are pretty used to this request before bed, so Adam put them on him and told him to get to bed.  As soon as that elastic snapped against his hips, though, something took over him.  Instead of climbing up into bed, he shouted, "Now we wrestle!"  As if the past 15 minutes never happened or they were just taking a break or he wasn't really serious until the pants were on.  I don't know.  Like I said, he's nuts.

Today was the first time of many (I'm sure) that we contemplated taking our boy to the emergency room for a wound.  Micah was at work with me.  I was sitting at my desk while he was playing across from me on Disney Junior on our laptop.  Suddenly, he fell off the back of his chair, which pulled a cord, which was connected to a candle warmer, which had a LARGE jarred candle on top of it, which fell right on top of his noggin, then landed and broke on the tile.  I saw him when he first started to fall so I was already over to him by the time the jar broke.  He instantly started screaming bloody murder.  At first, I thought it was just going to be a bad bump on the head, but then the blood came.  All over.  All over the floor, me, and him.  To make it worse, he had his hand on his head, then rubbed his eyes from crying, so it was all over his face as well...like something out of a horror movie.  It was an act of God that I stomached it so well.  My Dad heard the commotion and came running in and I ran Micah to the bathroom.  It was so heart-wrenching to hear him cry and scream things like, "Why did this have to happen?" and "Why does it have to hurt so bad?" and "I don't want to sit in that chair anymore!"  I would have traded places with him in an instant if I could.  We got the bleeding to slow down and were able to see that underneath his thick hair, was a pretty good sized gash.

I wasn't sure what to do, so Zech and I took him (complete with a bag of ice shoved into an oven mitt) over to Adam's work to get his opinion.  We chose our course of action and it was then that I called Amber, as she is an experienced wound super-gluer.  She explained how she & Chris had done it before, but it was never in a hairy area.  When we discussed shaving part of his head, Micah had a cow.  He's been talking a lot lately about how he wants to grow his hair out because that's what Uncle Noah is doing.  I really didn't know what to do.  We went to K-Mart.  I left Z & Micah in the car while I ran in to find hydrogen peroxide and super glue.  While I was in the store, Adam called me.  It was then that I decided I couldn't do this alone and it was about time for him to take a lunch break.  So, I re-parked the van under a tree in the parking lot and Adam met us there.  We laid Micah down in the back of the van using a Bible covered with a towel as a pillow.  Recounting this makes me laugh even now.  Adam brought some gauze, Q-tips, and rubbing alcohol from work.  We cleaned off as much dried blood as we could with the peroxide.  Then, we were able to move the hair aside so that not a precious strand had to be cut and while Adam held it, I put the glue in.  He squeezed it shut and I must say, it didn't look half bad.  Not that I want to do it again.  

Well, you have to know, that all of this didn't happen without some bribery.  While performing our little mini-van surgery, we kept telling Micah to stay still and think of Yogurt Paradise.  And think of it, he did.  In fact, before we went there, he even got the evil chicken McNuggets I swore I would never let him eat again.  I think that grosses me out more than all the blood.  Major mom-guilt over here.  Anyways, while he was eating his frozen yogurt, I checked out our handiwork again and noticed a small bead of blood that had formed in the corner of the gash.  I figured it would scab up and left it alone.

A couple hours later was naptime.  When he woke up, I checked it again and saw that the little corner had managed to make a small river of blood down his head.  (Isn't that disgusting?)  We would need more glue, darn it.  The boys and I got home shortly after that.  Adam and I got out the superglue again.  The superglue pen I had bought at K-mart wasn't being as productive this time and Adam was getting frustrated with both it and Micah's impatience while he tried to fix it.  So, he got out another tube of superglue that we had in a drawer and was previously used.  Of course, it was clogged, so he got a pin and shoved it down there.  He then put it over Micah's head and started to squeeze hard.  Next to nothing was coming out.  He tried unclogging it again, put it over Micah's head and squeezed.  A little something started to come out.  He squeezed harder.  All of a sudden, that little something popped out along with a puddle of superglue...right there, on the back of our son's head.  My eyes just about popped out of mine.  There's absolutely nothing you can do.  You can't try to sop it up with anything, because whatever you sop it up with will be glued to his head!  We tried our hardest not to say anything or sound too freaked out because we didn't want to excite Micah.  So, we were just silent and exchanged MANY faces over his head.  Needless to say, our previous "great job" now looks like a bird pooped or camel spit on the back of the poor kid's head...but the wound is sealed!  And as if he didn't have enough of a cowlick problem before, his daddy just bestowed a new one upon him.

In his shower tonight, I tried to get some off, but it's as hard as a rock.  I put conditioner and coconut oil on it.  That got me nothing.  I guess he'll just have to be like that for awhile.  Good thing he's not in Jr. High...that would just be brutal.  Before bed, he shouted, "Mom!  I felt the glue!" and then he wanted to see it.  I got him a mirror and showed him the back of his head.  I was a little worried about his reaction.  He has such a good sense of humor because I think I would have been crying, but he thought it was kinda funny.  "That looks weird," was about all he said with a giggle.

A Third Boy in Training

Sometime around the end of June/ beginning of July, I had a dream.  This is nothing out of the norm...I dream a lot.  I think it's genetic.  I've had a couple dreams before that have been "prophetic;" most of them are nothing but nonsense.  For some reason, this one was especially strange to me and stuck out in my head long after I woke up.  I told Adam about it as he was getting ready for work and I was still laying in bed.  I couldn't remember all the details and most of them are completely ridiculous anyways, but I tried to recall what I could (or what I thought was important).

The basic premise of it was the baby coming WAY early.  I was only a couple months along, but the baby came out full-term, healthy and a boy.  We were completely unprepared.  No crib, no car seat, no name.  So, after getting home from the hospital, I left the baby at  home with Adam so I could go to the store.  On top of baby gear, we were also in need of groceries.  Here is the really weird part:  While I was out driving, God gave me a name for the baby.  I don't remember how; I think it just popped into my head...but I knew it was God and I knew it was our baby's name...even if the first name was one I had honestly never heard of outside of this dream and the middle name was one that neither of us was fond of.  The name given was Elias James.  I called Adam right away to tell him what the baby's name was supposed to be and try to convince him that although it sounded strange, it was from the Lord.  Haha.  I don't remember too much after that.  I don't even really remember his reaction.

His reaction in real life was a funny face...which was about what mine was.  That first name especially just sounded so strange to me.  Then I did some research on it and found out it's not entirely unheard of and it's even kind of growing on me.  Not so much for Adam (yet).  I did a search on Blue Letter Bible and found that it's another name for Elijah and only used in the New Testament of the King James Version when referring back to him (can you tell I don't usually read the KJV?).  It means the same as Elijah, "The Lord is my God."  On an unrelated note, I also found out it's Walt Disney's middle name from a random Disneyland facebook post.

From the beginning of this pregnancy, I never really got my "hopes up" for a girl.  There's no written law that says once you have two boys, you must have a girl.  Our goal in having another baby wasn't even to "try for" a girl.  After having that dream, it just confirmed my thoughts that it was a boy...and I was totally okay with it. Happy, even.  I love our boys so much and though they drive me crazy sometimes, they are a lot of fun.

Our ultrasound with my doctor where we get to find out the sex is scheduled for September 12.  Fortunately, Adam's great-aunt is an ultrasound tech in Murrieta, CA which is exactly where we had planned to be (months ago) for the first few days of our vacation.  I didn't think I'd be far enough along to be able to tell the sex, but I looked at the website of where she works and saw right on their homepage "Gender reveal starting at 14 weeks."  YES!  I would be almost 16 weeks when we were out there!  I e-mailed her to let her know we were coming and ask if she would be able to fit me in.  Turns out, the day we were coming was a good day for us to stop in.

So, a month early, we got to see our baby BOY together with his big brothers.  It was such a special time and Aunt Kathy blessed our socks off.  On top of the ultrasound, she gave us a DVD of it so we could share the experience with our families and a CD of pictures.  They have an incredible ultrasound machine and we were able to see him sucking, waving, and of course, his telling features.  (Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

His imitation of "The Thinker"

He's pointing at us.

"There's a stem on that apple!"

Just kickin' back.

He loves us already.  :)

In a few months, I imagine this stretching out is going to hurt me.

In this part of the ultrasound, we could see him moving his mouth.

The ultrasound basically confirmed what Adam & I both already knew.  We had a date night a few nights before and were talking about the baby.  That's when we told each other that we had both been thinking it was a boy.
On the way into the ultrasound, we asked Micah what he thought the baby was.  He kept saying, "Oh, it's a girl."  I told him, "Daddy & I think it's a boy.  You'll still be happy if it's another brother, right?"  He replied, "Yeah, but I think it's a girl."  Then, when we found out and rubbed it in a little that we were right, he said, "NO!  I didn't say it was a girl, I said it was a girl OR a boy."  What a  back-pedaler.

We're all very excited.  Adam & I feel so blessed that God has blessed us with another little man and the boys are happy to have another brother.  I just pray Seth is as good of a big brother as Micah is.  So far, he tends to be a bit more relentless and merciless...so we'll see how this goes.  :)

BIG imagination

My mom has told me many times that Micah is much like I was at his age.  Goofy yet hilarious, tall & lanky, klutzy, and possessing a BIG imagination (I still do...maybe that's why I have such crazy dreams).  I've seen videos of myself when I was that small, and I believe she's probably right.  Today alone, Micah gave two instances of his imagination.

I picked him up from "Nanny's" house and told him to get into his carseat.  As he was doing that, he looks over at the neighbor's house and notices their tall, stucco, retaining wall.  Suddenly, he says, "Mom, do you think a spy could climb over that wall into their yard?"  These out-of-the-blue musings crack me up.  Of course, I told him that a spy could most certainly climb that wall because they get all the cool gadgets.  "Oh, you mean like those hook things?" he asked.

After we got home, the boys dove into their new ninja LEGO sets I got them a couple days ago.  They were playing for a while, but Seth got bored and started pestering me to play the Wii.  I told him, repeatedly, that the TV was not going on and that they would not be playing video games tonight.  He kept nagging at me, and I got tired of saying the same thing over and over, so I got very stern with him...I might have even yelled.  I think he finally realized that I was serious, so he started crying...VERY loudly.  I took him over to the couch near where Micah was still playing with his LEGOs to calm him down.  I forgot to mention that when Micah plays, he gives voices to his toys and has conversations back and forth between them, etc.  So, Seth is still crying crocodile tears and I'm trying to talk to him and explain why he can't play the Wii, when Micah exclaims, "Seth!  Could you stop crying?  I can't hear my LEGO guys talking!"  This kid is straight up crazy...and I love it.

Another Little Baird in Training

Baird Bun number three is a-cookin' in the oven!  We are so excited about the newest addition to our family.

After "Do you want this one to be a girl?" the most common question people have asked is, "Were you guys planning on another baby?"  Adam and I have discussed this in great detail and we still come up with the same answer..."Yes and no."

Here's the truth:  A few months before getting pregnant, I was bitten by the "baby bug."  Adam calls this, "getting stupid again."  He says that after awhile, women forget about the pains of pregnancy and childbirth and can only think of little baby toes and onesies and the smell of baby heads, etc.  Call it what you will, I had it.

Along with that, I also had reality...and the reality was (and is) that we were not financially prepared to have another baby or for me to stay at home and do full time "mommy-ing."  That is something I've always longed for.  So, despite baby-dreaming and getting Adam to admit that if we were financially stable, he would want a baby, too...we resigned to be babyless for now.  I even sent him this article, telling him, "See?  We're not the only ones."

There's this verse in the Bible...

"A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

Our method of "birth control" is called natural family planning, so I'm pretty tuned into what's going on with my body and cycle.  Well, in May, I came across a startling revelation as I was feeling pain in my lower abdomen (mittelschmertz) and looking at my chart.  I ran it over to Adam and plopped it in front of him at the dining room table (and no, he was not eating).
"Look at this," I said.  "It is only day 9 and I'm pretty sure I'm already ovulating!  I've never ovulated this early before."
He just kind of shrugged and said, "Okay...so what does that mean?"
"That means that we could definitely get pregnant this month."

Sometimes, we ladies really gotta spell out for the men.  For the next week and a half, we were just left to wonder.  I was on high alert for any pregnancy-like symptom.  I experienced some immediately, but was also able to explain them away with other possibilities.  "Maybe I just  have to pee again because I drank more water than usual today."  "Perhaps the heartburn is from that meat being too spicy."  It was so frustrating.


Then, we went to Zech's graduation from Bible College in Murrieta.  Tom Mauch, who was one of my teachers when I went to school there, had gotten quite close to my brother during his time there.  He is a wonderful old saint with a smile that just shines Jesus.  During the reception, he came over to our table to say hi to the fam.  When he got to me and Adam, he was asking about the boys.  We introduced them.
As he was looking at them he says, "Ah, children are wonderful.  Have more."
We laughed a little and looked at each other.  "Have more?" I asked.
"Yes, have more.  We only had one daughter and I'll always regret it.  She never married, so no little grandbabies for me."  As he said this, he cradled his empty arms.  It was so sweet, yet sad.  "So, have more.  Don't worry about the money."
Adam and I looked at each other with wide eyes.  The very thing we had been talking about holding us back from having another kid was the thing he was telling us not to worry about.  After he walked away, I said to Adam, "I'm pretty sure that's a word from the Lord."  
He replied, "It would be weird if we were pregnant, huh?"
I said, "Even if we're not, that sounds like a green light to me!"


After that is when I think the peace came and we even got a little excited about the prospect that we could be pregnant.  I even told Adam that if we weren't, I wanted to try for a March baby.  For some reason, that sounds like a good month to have a baby.  I'm sure Michelle Lubow would agree (all three of her kids were born in March).  Still, it was impossibly early to know if we were really pregnant or not, so I went back to scrutinizing whether any symptoms were true or just my imagination.


Four days later, Adam was to go on a "man-cation" with my Dad and Zech to Florida for a week.  We had planned on me taking a pregnancy test the morning before he left, but we never got a chance to buy one.  There was always someone else around or the possibility of running into someone we knew was too great.  Ah, small town life.  I thought I could wait it out, but when I went later in the day (after he had left) to pick up my prescription and saw the tests right by the counter near the checkout, I couldn't resist.  Even though I was at least 3 days away from when I was supposed to start my period, my curiosity could stand it no longer.  I grabbed a box that had three tests in it and as soon as I bought them, stuffed them into my purse.  It was a good thing, too because on our way out, the boys and I ran into someone we knew.  Imagine that.


At first I told myself I'd wait until the next morning.  As it turns out, I tell myself lies.  As soon as I had laid the boys down for their nap, I ran into the bathroom and peed on that stick like there was no tomorrow.  Watching the test work seemed agonizingly long as I waited for the line or lines to appear.  Sure enough, there were two.  Even though we had so many suspicions, I couldn't believe it.  I was so excited and instantly fell in love with the little one growing inside me.  My motherly instinct kicked in and I wanted to do everything I could to protect and nurture him/her.  Mostly, I wanted to tell Adam...but he was thousands of feet in the air somewhere over Texas.  Talk about torture!


I was faced with the decision to tell him right away or plan something really neat out to tell him when he got home.  For about two hours, I stuck with the latter plan.  Once he called me after landing and I heard his voice, that all changed.  I told him I had a picture to send him and sent him the one I had taken earlier of the test.  We hung up so he could look at it.  He called me back and said, "So...what does that mean?"  Do you see why I said before that sometimes we ladies really gotta spell it out?  Haha.  When he finally "got it," I could hear the excitement in his voice and I was so relieved.  For some reason, even after all we had talked about and been told, I still had this small fear that the news would only bring him stress.  Thankfully, that was not the case at all.


When I told him, he was driving around the airport in the rental car waiting for my Dad and Z to get there.  They did, all too quickly.  It was hard enough telling him over the phone and not being able to just hug him and rejoice together, but on top of that, we had to clam up almost immediately about it.  Maybe it would have been better if I had waited to tell him, but I just don't have it in me to contain myself!


It was all good, though.  He got home at the end of the week, and I got that hug I needed so badly.  We were able to keep it under wraps for a few more weeks, then we just had to tell the boys.  We figured once we did that, we'd have to tell the world, considering their young ages.  Here's the video we took of us telling them:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDYHErkIuY&feature=channel_video_title.
After telling our families and close friends, we put the video up on facebook to tell everyone else.


Now, I'm almost 9 weeks along.  Only 31 more to go!  The other day, I had my first prenatal appointment and we got to see our little peanut.  We had the boys come in to see the ultrasound, too.  I wanted to try and make it a little more real to them and show them there really is a baby growing in Mommy's belly.

I love ultrasounds.  As weird as this might sound, I wish I had a constant window to see our baby grow.  What a miracle life is!

So, there's the first story of Baby Baird's life.  The first of many, I'm sure.  Now, if I can only occupy my mind until we find out the sex....

Micah's First T-ball Season

This past Tuesday, Micah had his final T-ball game.  It's amazing to see how far he has come in just the past few months since it started.  During the first few practices and games, we were having to coax him just to stay on the field the whole time.  By his last few games, he was an eager participant and would ask the coach if he could play certain positions while on the field.  His next to last game, he FINALLY got to play first base.  In fact, in that game, he played all three bases and had lots of fun.  I'm so proud of my boy and can't believe how big he is getting.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the season.

There's a lot of power behind that swing!

Amazed that he got a strike!

Yawning while coach is giving him a pep talk at bat.
Saturday morning games weren't his primetime.

He loved sliding into home...every single time.

Slide marks.

Mr. Hollywood

Going into home

Man, I love his laugh.  Melts me every time.

Tough guy

He just has to be different.

The stance he picked up from watching the coaches.

See?  Haha.

Micah ran to claim his spot at third base oblivious to the fact that his team was in a huddle.

Hallelujah, New York!

Yet more words coming out of my kids' mouths that for the life of me, I can't figure out where they come from.

Lately, it has been Micah yelling out, "Hallelujah, New York!" at random times.  Why?  

Well, Seth has been hearing this along with the rest of us and put it into action today.

My mom had the boys and she took them to SARA park along with Noah & Caleb.  While they were there, Noah sees Seth licking a pole...another habit that I wish to know the origins of.  Anyways, as he sees Seth doing this, Noah shouts, "Hey, don't do that!  It's icky!"  Seth turns around, looks at him, and shouts back, "Hallelujah, New York!" and then runs away.

What is with these crazy kids?!

The Boom!

I realize there have been a lot of Seth posts lately, but he must be at that age.  This story I'm about to tell happened on our anniversary and I wasn't there for it, so I'll be telling it as Adam told me.
April 9, 2011 was a stormy day.  I was helping with and attending Ricci's bridal shower that afternoon and Adam had the boys.  For lunch, he took them to El Mariachi.  He got Seth out of his carseat and sent him towards the building.  As he was getting Micah out of the car, a flash of lighting struck very close by.  Adam thinks it hit something on the island.  Almost immediately, the thunder followed and it was LOUD (I heard it at the church).  Poor Seth got scared out of his mind and, with hands over his ears, started frantically running into the parking lot to find Adam.  Adam stopped him by shouting his name and he ran over to Daddy's arms.  By then, the thunder had stopped rumbling, and he told Adam, "The boom!  I don't like the boom!  The boom just scared me."  Poor kid.  He really believed it was the end of the world or something.  He had Adam cracking up.  He then told everyone about his horrible experience with "the boom" for the rest of the day.  In fact, he still will randomly bring it up, especially when we're tucking him into bed.  "The boom scared me when I was with Daddy at the 'achi."

The Singing Face

Seth takes after his Daddy in that he is the boy with the rubber face.  Ever since he was a baby, he has been making BIG faces.  When he was only 7 months old, he invented his own version of "The Cheesy Smile" and would give us a big one whenever we requested it.  Here's a couple pictures of the first time he ever did it:

Well, since then, we've seen many Seth faces.  His most recent one is no exception in cracking us up.  Of course, it has a story (and a couple back stories)...

I think I "baby" Seth a bit more than I did Micah.  Micah has always seemed more mature than his age and it seems that since he had a little brother at only 20 months, he grew up even faster.  Besides their difference in personality and birth order, perhaps part of it is my parenting style has relaxed some.  Example:  On Micah's 2nd birthday, we told him that he was a big boy now and he didn't need his "sucky" to go to sleep anymore.  I didn't even like that he still had it, but we were only giving it to him to fall asleep at that point.

Fast forward to Seth's 2nd birthday and found ourselves in the same spot.  Except Seth was the baby...and much more attached to his "sucky."  More specifically, the "blue sucky."  I just couldn't do it...and I didn't really want to, either.  It was easier to let him have it, so we did, for just a little while longer.

Then on December 8th, almost 4 months after Seth's second birthday, Adam decides (with no warning) that he was taking the "sucky" away.  I was less ready for it than Seth was, but once you go down that road, there's no going back (unless you want to drag it out for another year).  So, we cut him cold turkey.  The way he would ask for it was so sad, almost like he had lost a friend.  I tried to supplement it with his "binkit" (blanket), but it just wasn't the same.  Instead of hearing him cry in bed for half an hour, I decided a better alternative would be if I rocked and sang to him for a little while before laying him down.  It helped, but added a lengthy amount of time to the already long bedtime ritual.  It started out with one song, then he started requesting more.  The way he would ask was irresistible:  "Mommy, do LaLu?"  C'mon people!  Who's gonna say "no" to that?  The songlist went from just "Lalalu" and grew to include "Baby Mine," "Big Moon," and "Jesus Loves Me."

Lately, it's become more obvious than normal that he doesn't just want me to sing to him, but he just wants to stay up later.  A little more than a month ago, he started squirming and trying to tickle me and holding on to the crib while I was rocking so that we would come to an abrupt halt, etc.  During this time, we has sitting up in my lap, facing me, with his head (supposed to be) on my chest.  To cut down on the goofing off, I moved him to where he was cradled in my arms like a baby.  There was nothing for him to grab this way and I could control his little limbs better.  This left  him with little option...except for his rubber face.  In a last ditch effort, he decided the only thing he had left to do was make me laugh in the middle of the lullabies.  I looked down into his sweet little face to see this expression: 

That picture is obviously a re-creation of that first night, because we can now tell him, "Seth, do the singing face," and this is what he does.  Just put yourself in my shoes.  Imagine singing to your (not-so)small child and looking down, expecting to him half asleep...only to see this.

Needless to say, we've cut down on the singing time...I think he may have been using it for his advantage.

Current Boy Sayings

Some things that Seth currently says that I love:

When I'm tucking him into bed, he'll grit his teeth together into a smile and say, through his teeth, "I SO cozy!"

To make Micah mad (I still haven't figured out why it does), Seth will look at him and through the same gritted teeth smile, and say in a high voice, "I got some goodies?"  Yes, with a question mark at the end.  He'll do it over and over again in Micah's face until he freaks out.  I don't even know how he figured out that it bugs Micah.  Now, he just has to say it once to annoy him.

If anyone is wrestling with Seth, and pins him down, he has created a word for such a person.  While he is down, he exclaims, "GET OFF OF ME!...YOU KOOLOO!"  Sometimes I'll pin him down just to hear him say it.  Is that wrong?

When he hears something and doesn't know what it is, he'll ask me, "What's that noisy, Mom?"

He has his own name for the show "Avatar:  The Last Airbender."
"Avatard."

He has currently replaced all his yes's and no's with "uh-huh" or "uh-uh."  And it's really cute.

He comes running into the kitchen (in his underwear, as usual), and explains, "I am Batman and Micah is rubber."
"Micah is rubber?" I ask.
"No, raaawwwber."
"Micah is a robber?"
"No.  Raawwber!"
"OH!  You are Batman and Micah is Robin?"
"Yes," as he smiles, "robber."

In the car, on the way home, Micah asked me what we were having for dinner.  "I don't know" was my reply.  Seth exclaimed, "I don't want 'doe-no' for dinner!  I don't want to eat 'doe-no!'"

He calls an elevator an "alligator."

Speaking of elevators...
While on our trip in California, Micah learned some elevator etiquette.  Now, whenever we approach one, he lays down the rules.  "I'll presh the button on the inside and Seth can presh the button on the outside."  Then, while we're waiting for the elevator, he'll tell everyone, "Ok, we have to back up because there might be people trying to get off the elevator!"  It does not matter how many elevator trips we take, he MUST say these things each time.

This morning, they were both in our bed, trying to get us up.  This is a pretty typical occurrence for Saturday mornings.  Micah crawled all the way under our covers then popped out and said, "I'm from Nouse Snork...how ya' doin'?"  The sudden and unexpected way he did it cracked us up.

California Adventures

We've had quite the trip all over Southern California for the past week.  The main reason we came out here was for Adam's work conference in San Diego.  Our intent was to combine it with our anniversary trip and spend a bit more time out here, relaxing.  That kind of happened.  Unfortunately, our dear friends, Gary & Jess, who were watching the boys, had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the first night we had left the boys with them.  After spending way too long in a hospital, they figured out that Jess had a tubal pregnancy and had to have emergency surgery.  We are still praying for her complete and quick healing.  Thankfully, until we could go get the boys, a friend of theirs stayed the whole day and watched them.  On the way back from Apple Valley to Anaheim (where we were staying), we were asking the boys how their day was and what they did...

Micah:  We played with Alyssa.  We were hoping Uncle Gary & Auntie Jess would come back, but they didn't.
Me:  Yeah, Bud.  That's because Auntie Jess is very sick.  We need to pray that she gets better soon.
Micah:  I think we should pray for her right now, Mom.
Me:  Okay.  Do you want to pray for her?
Micah:  Yes.  Dear Jesus, please help Auntie Jess feel better...and just touch her body.  Amen.

(EDIT:  Mr. Gary Malkus would like me to mention that when they did get to watch the boys on Saturday afternoon, a friend of theirs brought over a full-blown bounce house for the boys to play in and they set it up in their living room.  The boys had a blast and we all regret that they couldn't spend more time together with them.  We have promised a redo, though...maybe next year?)

The next day, the boys got to spend the day with Aunt Alli, who kindly took the day off work to watch them so Adam and I could continue on with our evil plan of going to Disneyland sans kids.
She took them to Petco, where Micah helped her pick out a new beta fish and named him "Raymond" and Seth "sniffed the wall" in the restroom.  I actually found out today that he didn't say he was "sniffing the wall," but rather, "facing the wall."  There's a reason for this...poor kid.  There was one time that I had to take him to a public restroom with me...and the stall was very small.  So, to avoid scarring my child, I told him to turn around and face the wall.  Haha.  Now, he must think that every time he goes into a public restroom with someone, that's what he's supposed to do.  I found this out today because we took Micah to the bathroom, and as soon as we entered the handicap stall (stroller and all), he went into the corner and stuck his nose in the wall.  I asked him what he was doing and finally figured it out.  Glad my kid isn't a wall sniffer after all.  He has been known to be a trashcan licker, though.

We stopped in Murrieta for a night and saw Z and some other fabulous CCBC kids.  We took Holly, Charley, and Z to dinner (Mike & Rachael couldn't join us).  They went back to the school after that and we went to Old Navy with the boys.  Then the flip flop incident happened.
While I was perusing the clearance racks, Micah came up to me with a pair of bright orangey-pink flip flops.  He proclaimed, "Mom, I want to get these for Holly."  I thought it was funny and cute, so I told him, "Go tell your Dad."  He went and told Adam, who assumed that I had told Micah that we were getting those for Holly, so he told Micah to put them in the stroller.  Later, I told Adam that Micah had picked them for Holly, and since he was so intent on getting them, we were going to let him...but I wasn't so sure about the color.  So, I took him back over to the wall of flip flops and said, "Micah, are you sure there's not another pair you'd rather get for Holly?  Look at how many kinds there are."  He went back and forth a few times, but finally decided on a purple pair with little flowers.  While Adam was in the changing room, we put the new selection in the stroller.  Adam came out and while I was elsewhere in the store with Seth, thought that Micah had picked out the new pair on his own and didn't think they were any better than the first.  So, he made Micah put them back, which resulted in a meltdown.  I came over and told Adam he had picked the purple ones out and had his heart set on them.  Now that they were back on the wall, I said, "Ok, Micah...look at them again.  Are you sure you want the purple ones?"  He looked at them, then narrowed it down to four, including the original orangey-pink and purple.  "What do you think is Holly's favorite color?" I asked.  "Let's call her," was his quick reply.  So, I dialed her number and put him on the phone.  "Hi, Holly.  What's your favorite color?"  When she told him purple, you'd have thought he had won a lifetime supply of cookies.  "YES!" he shouted as he threw the phone back to me.  "I knew it!  That's so awesome!  I told you!"
Holly stayed with the boys later that night while they fell asleep so we could go to the Roman Spa.  He gave them to her with great pride at that time.  Silly boy.

Now we are in San Diego, where we have been for the past four days during Adam's work conference.  The boys and I spent our days hanging out in the hotel room, at Balboa Park, and the Fashion Valley Mall (mostly the Disney store and food court).  The Brewer's (minus Cameron) came down yesterday and we played in the Balboa Park playground (lots of stick fights happened there), ate at the Amigo Spot where a Mariachi band serenaded us with "The Chicken Dance," and then came back to the hotel where a lot of epic battles went down.  Today, after Adam finished his work (as the boys called it), we went to the Mission Valley mall. They had a bull ride there, which both boys thought they were old enough for, and also something we hadn't seen before.  They called it "Wobble Bobble."  It was basically a large, shallow Doughboy pool with human-size, clear, inflatable balls floating on top...with humans in them.  It looked like a lot of fun, but they wanted $7 for 3 minutes, or (DEAL OF THE DAY!) $10 for 5 minutes.  Wow.  We might have let Micah do it just because he was so excited about it, but they only took cash and of course, we didn't have any on us.  So, we had to break his little heart and tell him that he couldn't do it.  As I was carrying him away, he tells me, "I was really excited to do it, but as it turns out, I cant."  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  He had us laughing pretty hard, but we had to hide it since he was obviously so sensitive about the whole thing.  We made up for it later, though, when Adam turned in to Belmont and we paid a ridiculous amount of money to take them on a carousel, tilt n' whirl, and vertical plunge carnival rides.  Plus, we even got them frozen yogurt!  AND, it was after their bed time!  See, we're not such bad parents after all.

Tomorrow...is home (after lunch with Z).

Excellent "Rememberies"

I have always been amazed at the ability a child possesses to recall memories (for example, you tell them they will get a treat the next day after lunch, and they remember it) or to recite things they hear (songs, rhymes, Bible verses, etc.).  Their minds are like little sponges and they just soak everything around them up.

We were in line in the grocery store the other day, waiting to check out.  Micah had just been put into the cart because he was driving me nuts; touching everything, trying to hide behind the area where the checker next to us was working, and anything else a four year old boy in a confined area can think of to do.  He started singing something while sitting in his shopping cart prison, but at first I couldn't make it out.  Then, I realized that he was singing the entire first verse, word for word, to this youtube video:
600 Pillows Backwards Video
Rhett & Link are one of our favorite youtube artists, and this video is one that is often requested by the boys.

The first youtube music video that Micah learned word for word was this one (complete with dance):
Coffee Coffee
Seth also joins in on the chorus.

Seth is also displaying how well his memory works lately.  Usually, Micah goes to Taekwondo practice twice a week.  Seth either watches or gets into trouble during that time.  We really didn't think we was paying that much attention until the other night when he started saying, "Ma'am!  I will practice in the spirit of Taekwondo..."  He was reciting their opening pledge!  (You can see the whole thing here:  Songham Spirit of Taekwondo)  A lot of it was mumble-jumble, but he knew what he was saying.  He then started doing his version of sit-ups, push-ups and kicks, while counting them out.  It was so funny to see a two year old lay down in the sit-up position, and try to crunch up, "1!  2!  3!..."

These are just a couple of examples within the past couple of days.  It seems they do this kind of thing quite frequently, but no matter how many times it happens, it always amazes me.

Scaredy Cat Micah

Micah asked me to walk him to the bathroom. This kid has such an imagination that he can't stand it when the lights are off in the hall and the bedroom doors are open. I told him he's being silly and even Seth will go to the bathroom by himself. So, he had Seth hold his hand and walk him to the bathroom!  They then proceeded to go together:  Seth on the little potty, Micah on the big toilet.  I thought only girls went to the bathroom together?

Coming Home

It seems that from the moment I got home from retreat last Sunday, the boys have made it their mission to crack me up.  Maybe I just really missed them, but not only did it seem that they grew while I was gone, it also seemed that they got funnier!

I know I'm not going to remember everything they've done and said the past week right now, so I'll have to add to this post as it comes to me.

• At dinner, we were going through our usual battle with Micah to eat his dinner.  It came to the point where he got a small swat on the bottom from Adam.  Nothing life changing, more like a warning.  After he was back in his seat, Micah explains to Adam, "Dad, you know what I do when you spank me so it doesn't hurt so bad?  I just squeeze my butt real tight together."  At four years old, he's already figured out a strategy!

• After dinner, Micah came over to my side of the table and burped VERY loud and long.  I'm not sure if that ability is just built into the male anatomy or what, but for whatever reason he can do it and do it well.  I raised my eyebrows at him and instead of  "Excuse me," he said, very slowly, "I love it...when I belch...like a man."
  
• We started potty training Seth on February 26...almost two weeks now.  So far, he has been MUCH easier than Micah was to train.  Perhaps it's because we are more experienced, but I also think it's because we didn't push the issue until we knew he was absolutely ready and waited longer.  Before this date, he had been a casual toilet user.  You know, just using it when it was fun or to impress us or get our hopes up.  The first time he pooped in the toilet at home, he looked behind him and exclaimed, "EW!  It's so gross!"  Apparently, he didn't think it gross enough to change his pooping-in-pants ways at that point.
  While I was gone last weekend, I was glad to hear that he had done pretty well and not had many accidents.  Not bad for only one week!  Even better, this week he has started telling us when he needs to go rather than us asking him every half hour.  He tells me now that he needs to do it by himself, without my help.  While I am very much looking forward to that day, I don't think he's that accomplished in his toilet capabilities yet.  So, much to his disappointment, he still gets accompanied.  This often results in some great conversations.  Today, for example, he told Nanny (my mother-in-law) after depositing one into the toilet, "Watch, Nanny, and I'll poop some more!"  I can't blame him for thinking that we all enjoy this gross display, considering how excited we get and the rewards he receives every time he goes.

• Sometimes when I am getting Micah dressed, he goes off into his own little world and talks to himself.  I guess I'm used to it, because half the time, I don't even pay attention.  Well, the other night, for whatever reason, he was saying, in a silly,  high voice, "Yellow, green.  Yellow green."  I realized what he was doing and laughed and he looked me in the eye and said, "Yellow, green, RED."  On "RED," his voice got low and sinister and he cocked his head to the side.  I don't know why, but it got my funny bone and had me laughing so hard I was crying.  We even busted out the camera and took a good 5 minute video of him.  He's such a ham that he really stepped it up then.  Maybe I'll have to put it up on youtube so you can all fully appreciate what I'm talking about.

Starting Out

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."

Raising kids is not always easy, but it's always exciting.

My boys are a constant source of entertainment.  Sometimes they make me laugh so hard I cry and other times they frustrate me to tears, but it's always entertaining.  Much too long ago, I tried to write down all the hilarious, rambunctious, witty, brilliant, or silly things they do and say.  Unfortunately, my head contains more words than my hand can handle to write down in one sitting, and I gave up altogether.  While I regret all those months of wonderful memories that were not properly preserved, I am looking forward to trying to keep up on it now.  In addition to keeping on top of the daily material they are throwing my way, I am going to go back and try to remember things that happened long ago and post those memories here.  I pray that I can keep up with them and that this will be a wonderful gift for all of us to look back on one day.  Here goes nothin'!