wysereeser + 3

As January nears the end, I can’t help be morn the passing of time a bit.  I of course am happy for the present and the future but would like to take a moment to reflect on the past months.

Where do I start. We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Ohio. This was the first family gathering with the aunts and cousins since my grandmother’s passing which was over a year before. We hadn’t ever gone that long without such a gathering.  She was in my thoughts constantly.

December was a busy month. Chloe turned 4 months! She was 16.3ish oz at her appt. Let’s just say she is a big girl. I think 95% for weight and fairly equally tall percentage-wise. She is doing great. She is so laid back. She loves watching everything around her. She loves her brothers and just loves it when they give her attention, (which they love to do)  Chloe is THEIR baby.  She has been dealing with her first fever and cold and cough symptoms this week. She has had the cold but the fever is new. This has caused her to be a wee bit more cranky but in the scheme of things not too bad.  Sleepless nights but who wouldn’t have sleepless nights when they aren’t feeling good. At just over 5 months, she currently loves the exasaucer and she is able to grab at toys and bring them to her mouth. She has rolled over a few times from back to front but as of yet hasn’t repeated it. She is close but not quite.  She loves being carried around in the moby wrap and is starting to show a particular fondness to mom over anyone else especially at bedtime and I believe that she is less likely to take a bottle when I, her mother, is around.

Legos, mom

Mitchell, So close to 2. Just one month away until the big date. He is such a cuddly guy. Loves monkeys (probably because we think he is such a monkey).  He is learning how to play with others,  but still occasionally tries to take away what he wants. …

.( a week later and I will try to finish this blog)…..

So these last few days have been big days all around.  Mitchell just pooped on the potty this morning!! Chloe rolled over many times yesterday (front to back and back to front) and Nate got 2 stitches yesterday. His first major injury. He was jumping into his snow pants and slipped and bumped his chin really hard on the floor.  Ouch!

Nate is now reading. He is doing great and impresses us every day with his knowledge.  He seems to like math and he is always wanting to “do projects” that usual pertain to Batman. He also likes to make us cards. The other day he made computers. He has a wonderful imagination.  He seems to enjoy things at his own pace.  When I am frustrated I try to remember how wonderful it is that he is not yet concerned with time. In our society we are always on the go and rushed to do the next thing. Nate doesn’t feel the pressures of that yet.  This past Sunday someone from church gave us the

Badger Hockey with buddy Sam

Little House on the Prairie series. Nate was excited about new books, so we started to read one of them. It is a bit different since there are very few pictures and some older terms that Nate may not understand (so I have to stop to make sure Nate understands) but we are trying it. If he gets bored with it now, we will just start them again when he is a bit older, but I will keep going while he is interested.

As Chloe nears her 6 month birthday and dedication coming up and as Mitchell’s 2^nd birthday approaches, we have a lot to look forward to.

Ok, ok, so it is past due for a post. Since the last post, Chloe has joined our household and Nate has started school. Two super huge things in all of our lives.  I will start with Chloe.

She was born on 8/16/09 (one day late). at 8:04 in the morning. Scott thought it was interesting that my birthday is 8/4.  She has been the first 3 weeks of her life being pretty content. She is a noisy baby but not in a super fussy kind of way.   For the first week of her life my mom was here to help out and then my mother in law came for the 2nd week. Both mom’s were super helpful.  Both boys have adjusted well to having a new little sister. They both love to hug and kiss her and hold her.

Nate started school on September 1. After his first 4 day week he was exhausted. I know that Scott and I have truly enjoyed walking Nate to school every morning. I am already sad for the day that I will be doing it by myself. It has been a nice family activity while we are all off of work. Each day Nate talks more and more about school. The first week he didn’t have much to say but it seems like today even he just opened up about a bunch of stuff. When he walked out of school he handed me his back pack and found his new friend , Trevor, and ran to the playground to play. He is in a class room where the teachers are team teaching. There are 30 kids in his class and there are 3 full time teachers. 2 teachers are certified teachers and the 3rd is a certified reading teacher.  Nate seems to like them all. We tend to touch base more with Mrs. Melea Renk.

I went to my first PTO meeting.  It was helpful to know what is going on. To think of the parent percentage that was present it is pretty sad.  I can’t imagine not getting in there and getting as involved as possible in order to know what is going on in the school.  I hope to volunteer in the classroom come this January but I didn’t think that at this time it was very possible with little Chloe.

Mitchell had his 18 month appt. yesterday. He is almost 25lbs. and in the 50th percentile for height, 35% for weight and his head was closer to the 90th%.  The doctor commented on how she wished that all 18 month olds were as cooperative as Mitchell.  He did awesome. He was limp for her to be able to accurately check reflexes and did everything she requested. When she asked him to open his mouth when she put the tongue suppressor in his mouth, he wouldn’t however, when she gave him the tongue suppressor and asked him to do it, he did. He put it on his tongue and opened wide. What an awesome guy. He is so good with other people.

On to teeth. Nate=all Mitchell=10 (all molars plus 4 on top and 2 on bottom) Chloe=none

As parents we are slow and really now just thinking about how we need to raise the kids differently. Equally but differently because they are different.  Nate was flexible and went with the flow. I would never have said he was shy, but compared to Mitchell who is super social, I would say Nate was shy.  Mitchell is a very happy camper as long as things go his way, but he is much more adamant about things going his way and knows how to show it if he is upset.  I wonder how verbalization will help.  he is becoming very verbal. He knows a lot of words. I am not even keeping track any more. He isn’t clear with all his consonants, but Scott and I know what he is saying and at this point, that is what is important.

We just hope that what we are doing now is ok with all our kids and we aren’t screwing up big time. I am guessing that is always every parents concern? 

The last several weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of emotions. There’s times when I freak out at where Angie and I are in our lives. I think about her family and mine. Both of us grew up in families of 5. Its strange to think of myself as becoming my parents. Not that its bad, just odd. 10 years ago when Angie and I got married, I would have told you flat out undeniably that we would stop at 2, fate decided differently.

I look at Angie and wish I could carry more (literally) of the burden she’s had to bear each time we go through this process. I’m amazed that she can do it, she has to though at this point. Every once in a while I ask if we’d be satisfied with three. She messes with me to make me think that she wants more. After I bite, she reels me in to say “FORGET IT!” But I know its hard for her to think about some degree of finality.

I find myself standing at the edge of a new realm I have NO frame of reference.

Girls. Yeesh.

Up to this point I’ve taken a degree of delight in the fact that my boys will be the ones the fathers of other girls will have to worry about. “Whew! Glad I won’t have to worry about all ‘that’ …. NOT!” Jokes on me. Luckily we’ve had several influxes of pink this and that, some decent — some absurd. Hopefully we have enough that it won’t require much shopping. I remember this one outfit that Nathan got as a baby. All that was missing was the wide brim hat with a ribbon and a big ass lollipop.

We have mostly boy toys. Trucks. Tractors. Tools. Matchbox Cars. I suddenly have this image of Angie’s Strawberry Shortcake dolls making a reappearance alongside my old Transformers. (Yes I still have them and no I don’t know what I’m going to do with them.)

Another dad that lives in our neighborhood is the Yin to our Yang. He has 2 daughters, both roughly the same ages of our boys. They just recently had a baby, a boy. He sounded pretty excited for an opportunity to ‘relate’ with someone of his own gender in their household. The concerns from his daughters daily over what to wear was one thing he noted that was getting a little old. Nate oddly enough has done this a few times, I suspect his mother’s influence.

As I write this, Angie mentioned to me earlier in the evening that she stayed up a little later because she was having some odd feelings. The last day or so, I really don’t want to go through the process. I’m scared. I don’t care how, but I just want everyone to come through it okay. This nonsense of sitting through the day, getting a phone call, thinking “Is this the day?! Is now the time?!” only to have it be a call asking if I’m coming home for lunch today–drives me crazy.

I do NOT, repeat, NOT want a minivan. But I will likely buy one in the future (<– Angie note this). I can already hear my brothers cackling at me.

I’m finding myself oddly at a point where I would genuinely like to smoke a cigar after the birth. I didn’t with the other two, but the finality of this one seems like its worth sitting down for some reason.

As I write this we don’t have a name finalized. We’ve settled on a first, but are having trouble with a middle name.

As most should know, Angie and I had considerable difficulty getting Nate and Mitchell. This time around it is a surprise as we’d originally hoped it would be. With both Nate and Mitchell, I had hopes we’d get a girl. This is truly a gift. We’ll see what the next few days bring.

Dammit, I just realized that I’ll need to update this blog title/location again.

Yes, my boys are already my family but I will soon no longer be able to refer to my family as my boys.  With a girl in the mix, I will have to use other terminology like my family or my kiddos or.. the list goes on. As I contemplate my last moments potentially as a family of 4 I have to say that I have truelly savored and enjoyed almost every moment. This past week I have made an extra effort to have that 1:1 time with Nate. He had swimming lessons this morning and then we had lunch before I took him back to the Wenger’s. Tomorrow again he will have swimming lessons and he will accompany me to my midwife appt. I hope to take off early tomorrow and if it is warm enough  we will probably spend the afternoon at the pool.

So I should update you on the boys.

Nate is truelly a fish in the pool this summer. He can swim across the pools. He loves to bob, jump in, swim and float on his back and front etc.  He is excited for kindergarten. Just this morning his kindergarten teacher in fact confirmed that she will be his teacher. We met her at the pool yesterday and she looked on her list to see if he was on it and she ran over to tell us that he is indeed in her class.   I think he is so ready. Am I ready? I don’t think so. It felt weird to go school shopping.  To get the list and purchase all the supplies needed.  I think I will be a crying sack of….. on September 1, his first day of school.  He has really gotten into the idea of racing and wants to be a part of a race. Scott and I will have to look out for one for someone his age. Hopefully Nate will continue to prod Scott also about going out running together.

Mitchell is full of words.  He actively says no but nods his head when saying yes. Yesterday on our way home in the car he would point at all the cars we passed and clearly say “car”. He likes to say “bet” for “blanket” and he likes to say “pee pee” and sit on the potty. He has yet to do anything on the potty and to get his diaper back on afterwards is a bit to be desired.  I should really be doing a better job of writing down all the words that he uses as he uses them so that I remember. He says “sit down” “sit here” go there” “what’s that” “cat” all dogs are “bails” “opple” is all food.  “more” means pretty much when he wants something he points and says “more” He is generalizing things like “hat” that means, hat, glasses, lids etc.  There are other words he has generalized that aren’t coming to mind but as I am thinking about it, I am realizing I must head out to my next meeting.

This short time as a family of 4 has really been a blessing as I believe will be as a family of 5.  As one friend said: “I don’t think Mitchell will allow anyone to let him be the forgotten middle child”. I worry myself more about Nate. He is so independent. Are we going to be able to fullfill his needs after we are taking care of the other 2?  I sure hope so!!!! I will definitely always have lap space for him when it is cuddle time etc.

So this weekend we had some visitors (Jon and Katie, Ivan and Nina) Katie wondered about a night light for Ivan’s room. I asked Nate to help get them a night light since he has an extra one just hanging out in his room. He came downstairs afterwards and said “mom, I gave him my night light because I am too big for night lights and don’t need mine anymore”  I didn’t know that we set any age requirements, but either way, he has decided he doesn’t need one anymore.  He has become such a great helper, as long as it is only one or two tasks and doesn’t entail picking up a slew of toys =)

So with all that has been going on, I thought it time to blog again. Ok so I thought this awhile ago, but just now am finding the time. Mitchell is down for a nap and Nate and Scott are on a bike ride.

Where do I start? I think we will start with Nate’s birthday.  On May 25th (yes over a month ago) Nate turned 5. He chose the theme of a bug party so we had a butterfly pinata, plastic bug hunting, stick the stinger to the bee etc for his party. He had a lot of fun and really enjoyed getting bug things as well as many other presents for his party.

It is hard to believe he is already 5. When I look at photos of him when Mitchell was born which was just 15 months ago, I can’t believe how much he has grown in so many ways.  He is such a big boy. Of course he has moments when I wonder if he can hear me or is just ignoring me, but as a whole he continues to add so much to our lives. He is excited about so many things like the bat house that he helped dad make, the slide that he helped dad build in the back yard, the bees of course etc.  He also seems to enjoy being the big brother. Of course there are moments when he instigates something, but he loves to hug and wrestle with his brother, help him when he can etc. He keeps a good eye out for him.  He loves to pick flowers for me and purchase flowers for me (with my money of course)  He continues to love to cuddle. I let him do it as much as he wants even if it means going to bed a little later when there is nothing going on the next morning because I know cuddling won’t be on the top of his list forever.  For his birthday we gave him a bycicle. He loves it! He wants to ride it when he can. I think today is going to be one of his biggest rides yet. We are just sad that we don’t take him out for bike rides more often, but my excuse is that since I am so front heavy this summer, I am not going for rides.  Poor guy.

Nate is heading to Ohio tomorrow morning for  a week. We sure will miss him, but I know he will have an awesome time with Grandma and Grandpa and Connor and Quinn and Keegan and family. He will be joining us on the 5th or 6th of July.  What a big boy he is…..

On to Mitchell… He is talking up a storm and every day we are understanding more and more.  He now says things like “get down” “sit down” “thank you” “go” “shoes” “ball” (his favorite word, anything that is round is a ball) He also says “Uppy” and “apple” apple currently means apples an most other foods. He does know a few food names like banana. He also says NeNe for Nate. “Mommy” is another favorite. He also says “mama” which I think sometimes is referring to me and other times just referring to wanting something. He calls daddy “dada” but he also says mama to him which is why I think he means it as a general term as well.  Scott is trying hard however to get him to say “daddy”  This morning I asked Bailey if she wanted to go outside. I did not make any movements to get her to go outside or even walk to the door myself. Mitchell on the other hand stood up and started walking to the playroom. He said “Bailey” and motioned for her to come. Since she doesn’t understand him, I helped pursuade her his way. He continued to walk towards the back door and call her name and motion for her to come.  It was obvious that he was trying to help out and let Bailey out this morning.  He understands so much of what we say or ask of him. When he gets up in the morning, the first thing he likes to do is to put his shoes on and our shoes if he can. He likes to get ready to go for the day.  He is a man of many smiles and he is quite the character. He loves to see his brother first thing in the morning and hug and wrestle with him.  He loves to do whatever his brother is doing. It is fun to see him look up to his brother so  much.

Since Nate’s birthday Grandma Reeser came up to help watch the boys for a few days,  which they purely enjoyed. We also went to our friend’s cabin on Sugar Lake in Minnesota for an extended weekend this month. The whole family enjoys the trip including Bailey who likes to swim constantly for the 2 plus full days we are there.   This past week and next week childcare arrangments have been different since the Wenger’s have been out of town. Scott and I have been covering the 4 mornings and we have hired Reade to watch the kids 4 afternoons.  This has worked great because she is able to take the kids to the pool every afternoon. They love it!  We joined the pool down the street. They had a huge discount this year and since Nate is so into swimming it is hard to not. We have done a good job getting down there regularly and Nate is taking swimming lessons 2-3 times per week.

On to me. I continue to get bigger and multiple times a day am told how big I am or how suprised someone is that I have 6 weeks to go etc.  It gets a bit old. Yes I carry big and yes I have big babies and yes it can be miserable on the hot days but to have it all pointed out multiple times a day…. ughh. I know people who carry on the smaller end feel the same way about comments that happen on a regular basis. As usual, in some ways it would be nice to be holding the little girl, but in other ways, I have a lot to do work-wise etc to be ready for her arrival.  As far as names, Scott has a name picked out, I can either go along with it or continue to find another name. All of my attempts have failed. I think in the end the name is fine and I would be happy with it so needless to say I probably haven’t tried to hard to find an alternative.

Yes this is the 3rd post in one day, but since I was behind and each post has its own topic, I thought I would separate them. I am sitting in my office contemplating work and thought I would type about bees. Honey bees that is. Downstairs Scott and the boys are building the top box of our beehive. After someone at church mentioned that we can have bees in the city of Madison, we decided that maybe this is something we should and could do. Living in the city after being farm raised we do sometimes miss out on those things that the country allows. We are taking this opportunity to think about those things we can do. I guess for me it comes down to bee population. In recent years I have heard that bee populations are on a decline. This is concerning since the world relies so heavily on bees. How best can we help but to have our own bees. We are also thinking about hosting a bat house on our property but that means building a bat house. We have the plans so it just means taking the time. What better way to work on the mosquito population than to have bats. Just this past Friday we ate supper outside and already there were mosquitoes!! Nate’s legs were eaten alive. He had about 20 bites on them. Poor guy. If anyone has other ideas of things we could have in the city (other than chickens, not sure we are into those) we would love to know.

Yesterday (April 21st)  I asked Micah and Nate to pick out some books for me to read to them. Mitchell said “book” and I said “yes, book”. He then proceeded to also bring me a book. Mitchell has brought things to us on command before but it is usually things he already has. This was a new thing. This morning after he brought a book to me, I started to say the words in the book. Mitchell was repeating all the words I was saying. He doesn’t quite have the end sounds yet but he is getting there. He definitely likes “b” words like book, ball, bailey, bottle etc. He also has been heard saying kittie and other words. Again, he isn’t quite clear on them and you have to know what he is saying to understand him but he is getting there. He is trying and I believe will soon just start throwing out words. He has become very strong minded about his opinion. He likes to take the toys his brother is playing with and gets upset when he is told he can’t have them. He also likes to play with the “big boys” he gets very excited when he is included in their play. We are starting to wein him from a bottle. He only gets bottles now before naps and before bed. I foresee that soon we will wein the before nap bottle and just have the bedtime bottle. My goal is to have Mitchell comfortably bottle wiened before the next one arrives. Mitchell still only has 4 teeth. The 5th did pop through just the other week, but I am not sure it can be called a tooth yet, it is barely rearing its head. Mitchell has gone this whole week with not getting upset thus far when I put him in his car seat. Habit for him is that while putting him in, he throws a fit, but as soon as he is buckled he is fine. Recently he has been fine with the entire process. He also gets upset less often while we change him. Just yesterday I was putting his pajamas on and he actually gave me one foot at a time to aid in putting his pajama pants on. Usually as mentioned earlier he has fought this process.