Going on Bacation

It started out last night that just Isabelle was going on “bacation” but now Bear is too, once he heard her plan this morning. Last night Isabelle packed her bags and outlined to me how she was going to get to grandma’s house, who would be taking her and who would be picking her up.

With her bag all packed she unloads it to show me what she is brining with her. Three sets of clothes, an extra pair of shoes, two toys, her camera (she must take after me there), Bitty Baby, a “sleep bag” for Bitty baby, and after I reminded her, socks and underwear. Oh yes and a pair of jama pants and two shirts. Now she is all ready for going on her bacation with Grandma Susie.

Bear on the other hand packs very light. He only needs one diaper with a liner, his “Guy, guy, and E,” plus a pair of shoes. No need for clothes, he’s just going to wear the jamas he has on. He is going on bacation with Oma.


As I sit down to write this, here is part of the conversation we have about said bacation:

Isabelle: “It’s just time for me to go, Mom.”

Mom: “No, you need to wait until later; you have to go to dance today.”

Isabelle: “No you need to take us now. We are going on a bacation. Can me and Bear just go on bacation. We very do want to go.”

Mom: “You’re going to have to wait a little bit.”

Do you think I should tell her that Grandma Susie is coming to town on Wednesday? Oh yea she is also taking a picture with her. No not of her mom and dad but of her cousin Gabby, Grandpa Bernie and her building the teeter totter from last summer. At least Cooper has elected to stay with me, probably so he can be close to the boob.

Springtime

Ok so I do not usually like to talk about the weather because it seems so impersonal, but I have to give some pros and cons of Texas springtime. Today is overcast, humid and supposed to reach 80 degrees. I know those of you in Utah would kill for 80 degrees in March. But to bring us back to reality on Wednesday it is going to be in the 50's. Yes that's right a 30 degree temperature drop in two days. Normally spring is a great time of year in Texas, it's not too hot and not too cold, but frustrating. You can't fully get rid of those winter clothes nor can you bring out your summer ware. You have to be completely prepared for anything. And take advantage of those nice days when they come. Because when summer hits, who wants to work in the yard, with 100% humidity and 90 plus temps. I guess I just would like the weather to pick a course and stay that way, preferably nice pleasant days where the kids can play outside at anytime, and you don't have to worry about heat stroke, or jackets for those colder days. The kids did come in one day with Popsicle hands because it was so cold. Ah Texas spring!

Roll Over??

Cooper is really strong and has been since his arrival. Today he might have been showing off or his head is too big and pulled him over, but I set him down for tummy time and I came back into the room and he was on his back. Of course I asked Isabelle first if she turned him over and she said no and my Mom backed her up. I tried to get a shot of the action again but no such luck but you can check him out holding up his head. He thought the soccer ball was pretty cool to look at.

Isabelle's new room

After months of asking for her room to be painted Isabelle had her request granted. I think it turned out great. She really wanted a diamonds and a rainbow on her wall, so we went with diamonds in Purple and Pink. Imagine that! It looks great if I must say so myself, after all I did help pick the colors and paint the room. My parents did come up and help me since Ben has been working so much and they did a fantastic job. I think that Isabelle is very please with her room. I just need to finish decorating it. Print out a few more pictures and my Dad is going to make her a window seat. My Mom is going to make a pretty cook window treatment. More on those later, once they get her. For now it is painted and it looks great. I hope you enjoy our creativity. Now we just need to decided what type of bed to get her and she will be all set.

February Review

Here is my book review for February, sorry it’s a little late, but painting took precedence for the weekend, and I was having some internet issues. Technology can be so unreliable. I wanted to do something a little more deep than a chick lit book but the book I really wanted to review was not at the library when I went, so instead I am choosing to talk about Love the One Your With by Emily Griffin. At first I was not going to choose this one since I did not really care for the book, but decided that good, bad and in between reviews should be written, not everything can be good or have a gushing review. Life just does not work out that way.



Basically this book is all about one woman and her thoughts about her life and where it has taken her. Her old flame and her husband did she make the right choice and I guess you could say the need for closure. Let me start off by saying that yes I’m sure at one point everyone thinks about the past and what might have happened if things turned out differently and then they move on. Instead the main character Ellen dwells on her past almost to the point of wanting to relive it after she randomly runs into her old love interest. Who knew that one woman’s thoughts and a few intermingled conversations could make a book. If that’s the case I over analyze almost everything and should write down my thoughts and call it a book as well.

Shortly after running into the former love of her life he calls up with a job opportunity for her that would really help out her career as a photographer. This is all well and good except for the fact that she never tells her husband who got her the job and that she ran into her ex. Of course it all comes out later, which is more damaging because then it seems as though she has been hiding the truth. All the while the reader is dragged through her random musings on whether or not she should tell her husband everything but she feels that it is too late, therefore justifying her actions or lack there of to herself.

As the story goes on Ellen and her husband Andy make a big change in their lives and move back to his home town of Atlanta, Georgia from New York City. This affects Ellen because she is basically moving to run away from her past, only to return to see if things would have been different. The only thing that stopped her from throwing away her charmed life is her sister who calls Ellen while she is with her ex; therefore saving her from herself and a marriage ruining mistake. I think the main reason I did not enjoy the book was the lack of courage in the main character, which I know was part of the point but still if you are married then move on from the past and go with today and the future. I felt that she was just a bit whinny as well. She had established herself in her field, had a good, new marriage and still seemed too interested in the past that had been over for many years. I would say if you still want to read Love the One Your With, go for it, you might see more than I did.

Barrett Jack Thesing

Today Bear and I were looking through his most recent scrapbook, I finally got the book to put his pages in. Anyway, and I always ask them who is in the pictures with them, that way they remember who friends and family are. As we are going through he points to himself and says, "Barrett Jack Thesing" it was the cutest thing. And when I would not ask he would turn the page back and say wait Mom, that's Barrett Jack Thesing. It was too much fun, and the way he says his whole name is just too precious.

Yummy!??

Leave it to the creative people at Saturday Night Live to come up with a new alternative to cloth and disposable diapers. Most of you know we use cloth diapers or a variation of cloth, flushables, so this new diaper option might be right up our alley. Enjoy!

Mug Shots

Here are the mug shots of the kids, I thought it was pretty funny, so I had to share. If only I had numbers as well. Cooper doesn't need any though, he's just cute.

Four years of hard work gone

I was going to make cookies with the kids today but instead, we had the joy of going to the hair salon, so that Isabelle could get her hair cut again. This is after she decided to cut her hair all by herself to go with her costume. In all the time that they were playing I did not actually look at my kid to see if anything was different, only when I came up stairs and noticed that there was hair on the floor did I take a look and notice that it had been cut. I asked who did and Isabelle has the biggest smile on her face and says me. Of course this happens to be the day she goes to dance, so I could not leave her like that. I had to get it fixed. Since I was so upset that she cut her hair that I had been growing for four long years, I did not plan very well. We had to come back before dance to eat lunch then leave right away to go to dance. Of course since both kids were wide awake at 4:45am this morning they feel asleep in the car on the way to the hair salon. This is when a parent thinks to themselves wouldn’t it be nice to be able to leave the sleeping kid that still has hair in the car to sleep, but no you can’t do that. At least it turns out, she did not make a horrible mess of her hair by cutting it to close to the scalp, where it had to be grown out first. It actually looks pretty cute! Except for the fact that it took four long years to grow it out to where it was and now it will probably take at least that many to get it back to where it was.

But she is so proud of what she did and had no remorse what so ever. If only she understood. I know it could be worse.

Nursing another child

As I sit here reading a story about Salma Hayek nursing a sick infant in Sierra Leone, I am surprised to find that my body decides to react as well by having a let down. Not to gross anyone out but it just happens periodically throughout the day at odd times when Cooper is not nursing. Who is to say why? I am moved by her generosity and willingness to nurse a child she has just met and help show the women in Sierra Leone that it is ok to continue nursing your child. Hopefully her actions will help change the stigma that men and women can not have sexual relations while the mother is nursing, and more mothers will continue to nurse for longer periods of time. In the clip the medical professionals talk about wanting the mothers to nurse for at least two years, to help decrease infant mortality rates and malnutrition. Why would a mother not want to help her child to live if she could do so? I could not imagine stopping nursing if it was the best thing for my child, and would help to keep my child alive. If it came down to helping save the life of another child I would nurse that child in order to give him or her the best chance at life. With that said I hope that more people choose to nurse their children, to give them the best start in life possible by what is natural.

Creative or Dangerous

Why should you play on your jungle gym in the way that it was built? Why not create a new game or add elements to it, so that it is more exciting? I think that these are just some of the thoughts that go through my children’s heads throughout the day. At least for us they must have been thinking this when I checked on them playing outside only to find that they had wrapped the hose around the top of their play structure and then were sliding down the fireman’s pole and “hanging” by the hose towards the bottom. I was worried at first that they would wrap the hose around their necks but no they knew what they were doing the entire time. The first time I saw Bear go down I did not realize he was doing it on purpose until he was done. I’m sure I’m a horrible mother for letting them hang by a hose but they did come up with this game all on their own. Creative or dangerous you decide?

What are you reading?

I decided that since I read a lot, I know even with three kids, that I would try (key word try) to do a monthly book review of one of the books I’ve read that month. I’m not sure how I will approach them, if I’ll just tell a little bit about the book or give stuff away in the process of giving my opinion. Hopefully it will be good but if not let me know and I’ll change to something else or keep things the way that they have been, just updates and random thoughts in the world of Allison. Here goes my first review:

Late last year I had asked my friends who read, what they were reading and if they had any books to recommend. My friend Katie in Utah sent me a few of the books listed on her to-read list. My most recent selection from her list was The Next Thing on My List, by Jill Smolinski. The author leads us through an easy tale about a woman who is completing a strangers list of things to do. She is completing this list for a stranger because the women who wrote the list is dead. She died in a car accident while, June the main character was driving. June felt as though her death was her fault when the fault lies with someone else. June is compelled to finish the list of twenty items before the previous women’s twenty-fifth birthday. With only two items completed by the list maker, June has her work cut out for her and she is not really known for finishing a task or staying on target, but spurred by the love of the woman’s family and her willingness to complete something June trudges on.

I think I’ll leave it at that since this book was a very quick and easy read; I had a very lazy Saturday after Cooper arrived and enjoyed reading the book then. The story flows very well and you are drawn immediately into June’s life and root for her during the entire story to complete the list. The story moves quickly and you never tire of the characters or the writing. Smolinski has done a great job of engaging the reader to make you feel that you want more, but not too much at the same time. I recommend this book for the uplifting spirit it embodies and hope that it might bring you, to write your own list and accomplish those tasks.

If you want to see other books I've read or check out my reading list please feel free to visit Good Reads.

Just a silly note. . .

Before Ben went to work this morning I noticed that he had shaved his beard and went back to having just a goatee. I said hey that’s great, now I don’t have to beg you to shave it before family pictures. His response to me is anything for you babe, plus winter is almost over. I thought all my Utah hotties would appreciate that last bit. Since winter is the “reason” he grows a full beard for in the first place.

Cooper Finn Thesing

At last we have a new baby boy! That’s right Cooper Finn Thesing finally made his appearance on Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 10:36am. He weighed in at a big 9 pounds 2 ounces and 20 inches long. He is doing well and is too cute! But hey I grew him so I can say that.

It is so nice to have him home and out of my belly. What a relief to have room to breath and one day see my feet again, hopefully sooner rather than later. I was also excited to of had a natural birth, with no need for an induction, this boy came all on his own. Here is the story of how his birth day went.

At about 2 am, I’m really not sure I could not see a clock, I had to pee and when I came back to bed I noticed that I was having some contractions and they were stronger than usual. So after about five I decided to get up and walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes to make sure they would stick around. I really wanted to have this baby. By 3:45 or 4 am I was convinced that we were going to the hospital today to have this baby. I set about getting things ready for the kids and cleaning up around the house. I did not want to go too early incase they decided that I was not ready to have said baby and then be sent home. At about 6 am we put the kids in the car and made our way to Ben’s sisters’ house, where they would hang out until baby arrived. We were at the hospital around 6:45 am and went to triage to be checked and see if we could stay. I passed the first test and was admitted to the hospital. I was contracting fairly regularly, and I say it that way because I was lying down and my contractions seemed to be stronger and closer if I was moving, so while we were waiting on the room and antibiotics to be made, Ben and I walked up and down the hall. I just had to stop and pause while I waited for my contractions to pass. At about 8:15 am we made our way back to the room and I was hooked up to the machines to monitor baby and get my IV. Oh what fun! At about 8:45 am the doctor came in and broke my water. By 9:15 am my contractions finally started coming stronger and a little closer but not too close. At 10:15 am I was feeling the pressure, literally, I was not quite far enough along to push the baby out, and let me tell you trying to hold a baby in is no fun, but by 10:30 am I told the nurse to get the doctor or she was going to have to catch the baby herself. Once they had the squat bar in place up I went and two pushes later, out came our new baby boy. He probably would have been out in one push had I gotten a decent breath but that did not happen. In the span of about a minute and half, we went from a family of four to a family of five. I asked what the baby was then looked down; novel idea I know, and found out that we had a big healthy baby boy.

We are all very excited to share him with each of you and hope that you will be able to stop by soon or send an e-mail. I hope you enjoy his pictures I’m sure there will be more soon, because if you know me I’m never one to miss a photo opportunity. We are all home now and doing well. Isabelle and Barrett are very excited about their new sibling and seem to really like him. They always want to give him some kisses and see what he is doing. Isabelle is going to be a big helper, she already is telling me what to do and when. I think Bear will be excited to play with Cooper once he is a little bit bigger not to say that, that will stop him now. Until then we’ll just have to really watch Bear, but I think he will do great!

Baby Update

Here is a hopefully brief baby update. Yesterday I had one of my regularly scheduled doctor’s appointments, oh what fun. Usually things have been boring and normal but finally I am 1 centimeter dilated. YES! We are on our way. Plus he always checks the heart beat to make sure baby is doing well and today the heart beat was low in the 112-115, which is low but he wanted to make sure everything was fine. He did not really think anything was wrong since baby was visibly moving around my belly the entire time. Oh yea I’m measuring at 41 weeks, yikes, I’m only at 39 weeks. Makes you wonder how big the baby is. Anyway, after seeing the doctor he wanted me to jaunt across the street to have the baby monitored for about 30 minutes just to make sure. Of course labor and delivery triage was super busy. Some women were actually coming in while in labor, others just seemed to be sad, and some like me were just there to be monitored and checked. After about 25-30 minutes I finally got a bed and was hooked up and ready to go. I had to switch sides to see if baby would respond more on one side over the other, which of course happened. Needless to say after about forever, 45 minutes or so, I was finally able to go home. The baby’s heart rate was just fine, in between moving around (that is the baby not me) and I don’t think I had a single contraction while I was there. Bummer! The triage nurse was little overwhelmed she had a lady waiting and need to check two, discharge me and answer the phone, her day was pretty crazy. Plus they actually ran out of beds and had to use a room. Once she was done on the phone I was finally on my home. I guess it’s a good thing I had Ben come home to watch the kids since things were very crazy. The end of this story is that I am still pregnant and who knows when baby will make an appearance.

44th President

This past election year was amazing! The first viable woman candidate ran an incredible race and had the chance to show America that even a woman can run this country. Change definitely took place today as the first African-American President was inaugurated into office today at Noon EST. I think that this is one for the History books no matter what happens. I do think that positive changes will be made in the next four years and possibly the following four. I know my kids do not understand what happened today but they know who their President is and will probably know more than that as the years go by. I am looking forward to see what policies and issues Obama works on first, and how a change of perspective will affect the country as a whole.

Too Cute!

I think my kids are too cute! Now why wouldn’t I, since I grew them and have watched them grow over the years. But let me show you what I mean. Here we are at dinner and Isabelle runs out and say “I have to put my crown on.” This of course prompts Bear to run and grab his construction hat. And of course who runs to get the camera, not Mom but Dad. He just could not help himself, and the kids were too cute posing for their pictures and then requesting to see the picture. They get a long so well, I just love it. I hope the third kid won’t hurt the mix too much, and that everyone will stay happy go lucky and continue to get a long. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to see just how cute the third one is!

The Results

Ok folks here are the results of the baby poll. (Sorry you could not see what people choose as we went along.) Katie, the 14th has come and gone, maybe next time. I see that a lot of you have chosen this Friday as you birth day of choice, we’ll have to wait and see what happens. I think that at this point I’m just ready to be able to sleep like a normal person, without having a big ball in the way. So hard to turn over and bring a pillow of almost any size with you. Other than that things are great.

Your Name? What is the What day will How much will
sex of baby? baby arrive? baby weight?
Katie Girl January 14, 2009 8 lbs 12 oz
Christy Boy February 6, 2009 9 lbs. 3oz
Aimee Carr Boy January 22, 2009 8 lb. 10 oz
Melissa Belter Boy January 31, 2009 8 lbs. 7 oz
Missy Dunn Boy January 24, 2009 10 lbs 2 oz (sorry Al)
Jordan Girl January 26, 2009 8 lbs 10 oz
Jenny Girl January 16, 2009 7 lbs 8 oz
Mom Libby Boy January 16, 2009 8 lbs 2 oz.
Anjie Behunin Girl January 16, 2009 7 lbs. 13 oz.
Ben Boy January 16, 2009 10 lbs 7 oz
Cara Boy January 28, 2009 8 lbs 6 oz
Shelann Boy January 23, 2009 8 lbs 8 oz
Angelina Libby Boy January 16, 2009 8 lbs. 5 oz
(Great Grandma)

Home Depot

I feel bad for some Olympic athletes whose sponsor was Home Depot. They just announced that they are pulling out of sponsoring the Olympics at this time which make the athletes have to find someone else to “help” them out. I really liked Home Depots program because they allowed the athletes to work part-time and receive full time pay while they trained and went to events. I always thought it was pretty cool to see their ads as well featuring the Athletes who worked for them. I hope that the decision made by Home Depot does not jeopardize any athlete from being able to compete in their sport. I would imagine it is hard to find a job while training that would be flexible with hours and pay. I mean really we completly helped Home Depot have a wonderful fourth quarter, so I just don't see what the problem is.



As a side note having small children and cleaning your house come sometimes be pointless. I mopped the floors yesterday and today have a huge mess in the kitchen that I will have to mop again on Sunday. It just sucks, don’t they understand Mommy does not want to or have time to mop more than once per week. When will they be old enough to mop and maybe then they can appreciate where I am coming from. Sorry for my incoherent thoughts above.

Lead

Once again our Government is hard at work attempting to protect our children from the dangers of lead poisoning. Or are they just trying to make restrictions on overseas importers on the products that are being sold by our retailers today? Last summer a law was passed that will be put into action on February 10, 2009 that will ban all sales of consumer products to children, 12 and under, that contain 600 ppm of lead. The real kicker here is that as the years go by that standard will decrease, so long as it is technologically feasible. At this point you might be asking yourself how this will affect your buying power and what you purchase for your children.

This new law covers all children products, clothing, books, toys, playthings and anything else that is directed towards a child. The ban also includes reselling of items. Although it does state that resellers “. . . are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits. . . However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content. . .” If you like to purchase some of your child’s wardrobe at resell shops or consignment sales, there may be a few challenges in making that happen. I can understand not reselling an item that has been recalled for safety issues or what not but clothing and books. How are we to know what is safe unless we all start buying 100% cotton or other organic materials for our children’s clothing.

I still feel that this law is really focused on trying to change the standards in which items are made after the February 10th date, especially on retailers like Wal-Mart or Target who have a majority of overseas imports to stock their store shelves. Realistically not every parent in the US is going to log onto a web site to see what items have been recalled or to verify the lead level before making a purchase. For those of us who register our new children’s products once we get them home should be notified if for any reason there is a recall but probably will not be notified if the lead level is too high by government standards to resell. What do we do with all those products now? Ship them off to a landfill where it will take hundreds of years for it to decompose. As opposed to sending them on to a nice family who could use the product but maybe could not afford to purchase a brand new model.

Don’t get me wrong I am all about caring for my children and making their home environment the safest it can be but what about the environment they are growing up in. What will we leave behind for future generations? Will all of our natural resources be used up because of these types of laws? How will this law affect our economy?