Playtime!

One of the best things about having 2 kids is the playtime. Emma still sleeps a lot, so playtime with them is still rare. Jason and I have been doing our best to encourage them to spend time together. Here are a few of those moments.

Ethan loves this toy. He has been playing with it by himself. 

It's so funny to see him under there by himself kicking. He's way too big for it!

Bedtime. We have Baby Sister give Ethan a hug and kiss when we tuck him in at night. He really likes it.

Tummy time. 

Emma is starting to like the Bumbo.

Ethan is remembering his times in the Bumbo.

I added this one, just because I like it! Jason is so worn out now that he is at home with us. It's because he's a great Dad.

Crazy Town

It's crazy town here. Having 2 kids and a husband with a demanding job is trying my friend.

Emma is 5 weeks old now. In the last 2 weeks we have....

- won an election! Woo hoo!
- had my mom stay with us.
- begun to adjust to having 2 kids.

Let me just say I totally respect Moms more than ever before. This is going around on facebook right now and I get it. This is my life sometimes with my toddler.

Do you want to go to the park?
No.
Do you want to go outside and shoot?
No.
Do you want to have a snack?
No.
Would you like a sandwich or pasta for lunch?
No.

It's enough to drive a woman mad. And her husband too. What a few days we have had. To give the kid a break, we have had lots of transitions. Emma being born. Dad being around more. Grandma being here and living with us and then leaving. Mom not being as focused on him during the day. It's been a lot for Ethan and our family.

Everyone has been wanting to help. We have had so many delicious meals brought to us. We have had so many people offer to do things and take Ethan here or there or come over to give me a break. I get it. I want that too.

But, what I want most right now is to figure this out. How do I parent 2 kids by myself during the day? How do Jason and I stay consistent with discipline and love? How do we help each other out? How do we teach Ethan about how to play with his sister? Or that she is fragile?

I just want some time to figure this out. To get in the trenches and find out what works. To pray and ask God and Godly friends for wisdom. How did they get through this? How did they honor Jesus in it? How do I?

Prayer is needed right now. And some reviewing of the early letters to the church in the New Testament. On my part. For me, having good perspective helps me to love my kids well. Why do we love? Because Ethan can tell me he loves me? Or Emma smiles at me? Yes. What about when it gets hard and Ethan throws a tantrum in public or refuses to obey me or when Emma won't stop crying and I'm tired. Why do I love then? Because I am loved first by God, my Creator. The one who loves me far more than I can love my kids. Because I know and understand that love, I can love my kids well. Perspective, my friend. Perspective.

Emma is here!

Both of my children are asleep... and I am using this precious nap time to blog. It's been a battle to blog. Between being pregnant with a toddler and a husband who is campaigning, it didn't happen. Now with a newborn, a toddler, and a husband who is campaigning, it's even more challenging!

But, I want to get some thoughts out.

So, Baby Emma Grace was born 2 weeks ago. She was perfect. I wanted to try to have a natural birth- meaning without drugs. I had an epidural with Ethan really early in labor. It was great for me during labor, but made the delivery hard. Ethan had turned sideways and I ended up having a lot to recover from... because it was difficult to get him out. I wanted to have the option to move around if Emma was in a bad position... to try to get her to move if needed. So, I wanted to try without drugs. At least in the beginning, until they told me she was in a good position.

I went into labor at 1:45 Saturday morning. The contractions were 10 minutes apart. I woke Jason up at 3, when they were 5 minutes apart. We timed them together for a while, and then started making calls. He called Grandma Patty to come over, and Dr. Wolanski to let him know we were headed to the hospital. Patty got to our house at 5 and we got to the hospital at 5:15. They admitted me and got me in a delivery room. I opted to labor in the tub for a while. I did that for about 30-45 minutes. Then I said, I think I'm ready for some drugs. The nurse went to get the doctor. Dr. Wolanski said if I wanted to push she would be out in 10 minutes. I thought, I can do anything for 10 minutes. So, I tried and she was out in 10 minutes. She was born at 6:46 am- 5 hours after my labor started.

I still can't believe I was able to give birth without any drugs or complications. What a blessing. I had been meditating on this verse when I was praying about labor. Trying to keep this in front of me that God would take care of me even in pain....Isaiah 46:3-4

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

The recovery has been really fast. My milk came in super fast this time. I am so thankful. It's made being a mom to 2 kids much easier.

But, when we came home from the hospital a snowstorm dropped a foot of wet, mushy snow on us. We lost power. We ended up at Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lucy's house for 3 days and 2 nights. Those were rough nights. Jason slept with Ethan- who kept kicking him in the face, and I slept with Emma. We were glad to get back to our normal sleeping arrangements and try to figure out what "normal" would look like with Emma.

It's been nice having Jason home during the day to help take care of the kids. But, he has been busy with campaigning at the same time. He goes back to work Monday and my Mom comes Wednesday night and will stay for a few weeks. Now, just to get through this election and hope that Jason gets to keep his job. There's a lot going on for us this month!

Remember- April 2nd (on Emma's 1 month birthday)- vote for Jason to be the next Treasurer for Charlottesville. :)

Musical Rooms

We have done the room switch for the kiddos. Here is what they look like now.

Ethan's Room

 Sister's Room

We had sister's room painted purple yesterday. It is really purple. We didn't realize it would be that dark. With Ethan, we picked out 3 sample colors and put them on the wall. Then we picked one. With sister, we were at Lowe's with Ethan shooting paint sticks into a bucket when we were picking out color samples. Our conversation went something like this....

F: I want to do purple. What do you think?
J: Sounds good.
F: This one is a little gray.
J: This one looks good to me. How dark do you want it? I like this one.
F: Ok. Sounds good. It's very purple and not gray. Good.
J: Let's go before Ethan starts attacking the paintbrushes.
F: Sounds good.

We didn't spend as much time picking the perfect color. :) But, I think once all the other stuff is in there, it won't be sooo purple. We'll get used to it. I think we're used to it being blue.

Ethan moved himself into his new room. Soon after we found out we were going to have another baby, we turned our guestroom into a playroom. We knew it would eventually be Ethan's room and we wanted him to like being in that room. I didn't think I had enough toys for a playroom. We bought a cute play tent at IKEA and put all Ethan's toys in it. It filled up pretty fast. :)

In the last 2 months we have been seriously moving stuff in to the playroom to make it a bedroom. We got Ethan a toddler bed and mattress. He helped Jason put it together. We put a sheet on it and he thought it was fun to jump on. We talked about how it was Ethan's new bed. He kept pointing at it and saying "E new bed!". We put our dresser that was in the guest room back in his new room and moved all his clothes into it. I cleaned out the closet and put his things in there.

The next weekend we put up the curtains in his room. Ethan decided that was the day he would move in. He went to his crib, stuck his little hand in, and one by one threw all his stuffed animals out. He picked them all up and put them on his new bed. He announced "E sleep in new bed!". At nap, I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his new bed or his crib. He ran and laid on his toddler bed. He has slept in it ever since.

We have had one awful night where he got up every hour wanting us. And a few rough nap times. But, for the most part he has transitioned really well. I'm surprised!

Now, I can fill the nursery with baby girl stuff and start to picture having a little baby in there again. It's getting close! I am excited!

Ethan's Progress

Ethan will be 2 in less than 2 weeks. This year has gone by so much faster than his first year. I think it has something to do with him sleeping through the night and taking good naps. Being tired is so hard... and makes time drag by.

Ethan continues to amaze us with what he can learn. He has learned:

- the entire alphabet in uppercase letters
- most colors including pink, black, and white
- his numbers- can identify 1-10, can count 1-6 on own
- some shapes
- animals, etc.

He is talking so much now and putting 4-5 words together regularly. He refers to himself as "E". He'll say something like "E play stairs". meaning Ethan wants to play upstairs or downstairs. We can really understand what he is trying to tell us now. It's fun. Although he still does have meltdowns. We tell him that we can't understand crying and to try to use his words to tell us what he wants. That helps a lot. But, when we tell him no... it doesn't help. :) We usually tell him wait or we'll do that later. That helps. If he knows he's been heard and what he wants can happen at some point, he's pretty good.

He is still obsessed with basketball or any sport with a ball. He even likes golf. He loves to watch tv with sports on and will commentate the game. "Ball shoot! Ball miss! Kick Dooball! (football) Hit ball!" It's pretty cute to watch him watch sports. He stands right in front of the tv and watches it.

He will play basketball for long stretches of time. He can dribble 15 times in a row and dunk the ball on his little hoop. He's been working on his long shots lately and can almost make the shots from a fair distance. He has a hoop inside and one in the driveway.

He is also a very sweet kid. We have a Clifford book where Clifford is sad and so is Emily Elizabeth. Ethan talks about that part of the book all the time. If he is sad about something he will say "E sad!" and make a sad face. He's working on being compassionate. We're helping him with that.

He is sleeping in a toddler bed now. He's still wearing diapers and can't dress himself. He can feed himself and do a lot of things independently- like stairs.

I'm realizing that he's not my baby anymore. He's such a big boy. Probably good timing for me because we're about to have another baby soon!

I don't know why the pictures are turned and I can't get them to move. Sorry! Enjoy our little man. :) We do.

In the Running...

Jason is running for treasurer here in Charlottesville. He's currently acting as interim treasurer and working hard to keep his job.

When we met, we thought we were going oversees to be missionaries. But, the organization that we wanted to go with wouldn't let you go until you had been married in the states for a year.

Jason got a job as a teller at a bank. I got a job as an inner city middle school teacher. It was stretching to say the least. We needed a year of marriage before we made some big future decisions.

In that year, God taught us a lot about ourselves and what we thought "missions' should look like. I thought it meant going somewhere and doing something crazy different. God showed me it wasn't where you were, it was how you were. Abiding in Him, following Him, living to glorify Him. Our church had a term called "missional living". It meant you could be a "missionary" where you were. Just with your heart and mind set on Jesus. Living to please Him. Living to be in step with the Holy Spirit.

It was a little painful, but God was patient with me and showed me where He wanted us. He brought us back to Jason's hometown-- obviously Charlottesville. He continued to show Jason that Jason is gifted in handling finances and being a compassionate leader. God gave Jason a place he could do that-- the City Treasurer's office. Missional Living at work. At home. With friends and family.

Jason had his public announcement this week. It was fun to pray for him that morning and then meet him at his office with Ethan and pray over Jason before the event. I can see God preparing the way for us.

It's a tough journey right now though. Jason is a hard worker and is working on campaign stuff every night. He is compiling email lists, checking his fundraising efforts, working on mailers, meeting with local students, preparing to go door to door, etc. etc. It's a lot of work and things to organize. I am trying to do my best to help, but it is still a lot.

It would be wonderful to have some extra prayer during this time. I am super pregnant. We have a 2 year old. Jason is running for public office- with a special election date. April 2nd in case you were wondering. We'll have a new baby right around the time when he needs to hit the streets and campaign super hard. It's going to be a stretching time for us. Will you pray for us? We need it!

Thanks friends. Love you all!

Here's a little Ethan video for those of you who like seeing him in action. Jason and Ethan on working on their bowling skills...

Celebrating the Christmas Season

We're getting in the Christmas Spirit here. We have put up and decorated our tree....

Made a Christmas Fort...

And hung out with some friends to make Cinnamon Ornaments...

What are you doing to get in the Spirit this Christmas?