I'm back!

 I know, I know. It has been a month and a half since I last posted. I have sat down a dozen different

Oh baby!

times, but never get it done. But I am determined! Sam and Jack are down for a nap, I mopped the pumpkin guts off my floor, and I have at least 90 minutes before the boys get up. It has been 7 weeks. 7 LONG weeks! Before I get into my adventures in babysitting, letme tell you about my latest adventures in baby growing. That's right! I've got a little chicken nugget cooking away, due to greet us May 20! We haven't told many people, and wanted to wait until we made sure that the baby had really dug it's fingernails in and had a good hold. Now that I've had several appointments and got to see him/her kicking it's little legs and waving it's arms, I feel comfortable sharing the news. That brings me to why I haven't posted in 7 weeks. I

Sam loves his giraffe!

have been sick with a capital S. I mean SICK! I was naseous with Sam, didn't want to eat much, but only threw up once. Not this time! I have lost a total of 18 lbs, and couldn't keep more than a few spoonfuls of peanut butter a day down. If I tried to eat anything else, or God forbid take a sip of water, I would be hanging over the toilet or the kitchen sink within minutes. I'm sure I have traumatized the kids more times than I can count. The first time I got sick in front of them, I had 3 toddlers crying at my legs, and the 3 year old plugging his ears in the playroom. Oops. They're use to it now. Sam has seen it so many times that I caught him in the bathroom the other day spitting in the water making throw up noises. Nice. What a great thing I've taught my son. My doctor has me on

Out hiking with dad.

extra B6, unisom, and zofran, but nothing works. At my appointment yesterday she said “You've lost another 10 lbs, you really need to work on eating more.” Uh, Ok! Why didn't I think of that! Thanks doc. Luckily I have a very kind and understanding husband who, after a full day of work, will come home, grab Sam and take him out to the park and dinner so that I don't have to smell food cooking. Now, that doesn't happen every night. Some nights he comes home starving and has to fend for himself.

So proud of his tower!

These are the nights that I'll hear him moan “I miss Sandra!” She would totally be picking up the slack and cooking for Joe every night. No such luck! But any who, it's all for the baby, blah blah blah. This better be one freaking awesome baby, because this mama misses food! And leaving the house! And shaving my

Sam would say "Brrrr! after each bite"

legs!


Babysitting has been full of adventures. There have been many, many days where i'll spend most of my time laying on the couch while the kids play. Only getting up to cook, change diapers, or break up fights. I'm not the world's greatest babysitter those days, but I'm just trying to survive. But other days I try to entertain them with art projects (which flop), playing outside (hardly never because it's always

The whole gang.

pouring), and story time. Each kid has 1 book that is their favorite. For Sam, it's the Mickey Mouse book my mom sent. For Jack, it's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. For Cedar, it's Down by the Station, and for Rosie it's Goodnight Gorilla. All of these books are currently living in a cupboard because I am so sick of reading them. I don't even have to look at the pages. I can recite each one from memory. And I have a million books! It's not like they don't have choices. But those are the only books they want to read. Ever.


Sam is doing awesome. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds every day! It's sooooo fun to

Let the chaos begin!

watch. Joe will come home from the park and tell me all the new words he heard Sam say, and I'll do the same when Joe gets home from work. When the kids are all here, his favorite word his “mine.” At any other time his favorite word is “mouse,” for Mickey Mouse. He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse. But he'll name pretty much anything and is close to knowing all of his primary colors. He is such a lover, and I can't tell you how cute it is to watch him walk down the hall in his footie pajamas, dragging his gator and dinosaur, on the way to bed. He'll always turn around and wave to me before he goes into his room. I love that kid so much!

We play outside rain or shine...sometimes.

So, in case you didn't know, it rains in Sitka....a lot. Like every single day. I knew we were going to experience a lot of rain, but I don't think I prepared myself for this kind of rain. Joe just told me that we got 15 inches of rain in October which is more than Missoula gets in a year. Ha! We try to get out whenever we can, and sometimes that means dressing Sam in his blueberry rain suit and just doing it. The preschool put on a pumpkin patch kids day a couple of weekends ago, and we took Sam for

Eating dirt to make mommy mad.

about an hour. Sam didn't mind the rain. He stayed dry, splashed in puddles, and picked out his first pumpkin. Joe and I did not stay dry. We were soaked to the bone. But at least Sam had fun. We're planning on taking him out trick or treating tonight, and guess what? It's pouring. Another mom said to put a garbage bag on Sam and then his costume over the top so at least people can see that he's dressed up. So I'll do that, and then I think Joe and I are just going to go as the Hefty Twins in our super cool black trash bag ensembles.

Jack and Sam

I promise I will try to blog again soon. I am very much hoping that what they say is true about week 12 being the magical week where morning sickness disappears. From what I understand, it's all due to the placenta becoming fully formed and taking over. I'll be 12 weeks on Monday. Come on placenta!

Ole!

In the meantime, I hope the ton of pictures I posted will make up for my absense the last month and a half. Hey come on! I'm giving you all a baby! Happy Halloween. :)

Playing at the park

Because 1 cracker just doesn't cut it.

Rock anyone?

We took popcorn to the ducks...the ducks didn't get any.

Static boy!