Christmas in September

Don't you just love when complete strangers go out of their way to make your day? I sure do!

I posted an ad on craigslist stating that I was looking for any crafting or sewing scraps that someone may be willing to give away. I just have a few projects that I would like to work on, but didn't have the supplies or really the budget. Well, this nice woman contacted me and ended up driving to my house and dropped off a big box of supplies at my house! Buttons, snaps, thread, fabric, fringe, filler... it was like getting Christmas in September! I was so touched by how sweet and thoughtful this lady was for bringing them to me (helpful, since I'm on bedrest!). I'll post pictures if I get a chance to make something out of these new Christmas presents!

Time crawls so slowly when it's flying by!

Well, 5 months of bedrest down... only {just under} 7 weeks to go! I am getting very anxious for this new little guy to make his debut into the world. But, in the meantime, Eli is LOVING school and Jax & Ty are keeping Gigi (Grandma Newton) very busy. Ty is literally all over everything. Here are a few things he has recently discovered:

1. He can pull out the drawer below the stove, stand on it, and use
the handle on the stove to climb as high as possible before someone catches
him.
2. Climbing on the couches gives him access to the living room window,
where he loves to pull out the wooden slats between the blinds and look
outside.
3. Climbing over the gate at the bottom of the stairs is as simple as
strategically placing his toes in the holes as quickly and efficiently before
being caught doing so.

What a busy boy! Jax is very busy too. As mentioned before, he has started preschool and is loving it. Every day he comes home with the cutest handouts, art projects, and stories from their "literary focus" time. We have started a binder to keep all of his preschool projects, and it is the first thing he pulls out ever Tuesday and Thursday when Eli gets home--Jax loves to show mommy and daddy what he has been learning. He is getting great at recognizing any letter and is quickly learning all of the sounds that each letter makes. Not bad for a 3-year-old.

Gauge (that is what we plan to name our new baby boy!) is moving, flipping, and kicking. Jax thinks it is hilarious when he can feel Gauge get the hiccups, and usually assumes that anytime he gets the hiccups Gauge has them as well. He always comes upstairs to lay on my belly and talk to Gauge... Jax is very excited for Gauge to get bigger and be able to come out to our house.

Jax is really funny and getting even more aware of everything that goes on around him--he doesn't miss a single thing! Last week he laughed when he saw a picture of a cow and said, "Hey mom, look! That cow has a pink wee-wee!" I tried to explain that it wasn't a wee-wee; instead, it is a nipple called an "udder" (I didn't think I needed to have a 3-year-old running around talking about a pink "teet") and that is where we get our milk. Well, that really threw Jax into a laughing fit! He knew that we get milk from cows, but apparently the thought of getting milk from the cow's pink "udder" wee-wee was just too funny. It's the mommy moments like this that I hope I remember forever and can re-tell at his wedding reception! :)

14 months, now time for toddler bed?

Apparently I am raising a monkey.

Jax has always been a good climber, but he is cautious and very deliberate in how and where heclimbs.

Ty, on the other hand, could care less about caution and is very deliberate about climbing however and whenever he can.

Case in point:

Here is how we found Ty this afternoon when we put him down for a nap. So now the dilemma is this: do we try to put him in a toddler bed? He is only 14 months old, so he's not going to be able to really understand the concept of staying in bed. But, I can't leave him in the crib with the risk of a direct dive bomb from the changing table! We can't detach the changing table without removing the sides of the crib--the "built in changing table" that was a selling point when we bought the crib is now starting to seem a bit like a nuisance :) This afternoon I did put him down in the pack 'n' play, and he didn't climb out of it... maybe we'll stick with the pack 'n' play for a while! YIKES!

30 weeks down, less than 10 left

This past Friday marked 30 weeks for me... the countdown has officially begun!

Okay, let's be honest for a minute: The countdown began the day I found out I was pregnant, seemed to speed up when it actually sank in that I was going to have three kids three-years-old and younger, and then slowed down dramatically when I was put on bedrest in May.

Since May I have had plenty of time to look at the calendar and count the days. But, at least at this point I can say that I have less than 10 weeks! We are so, SOO excited to meet our new little guy. Three little boys, I still can't believe it! Good thing I love blue!