New pictures

Here are some new pictures from the past couple of days. Andrew is feeling better, but Keith and I are now fighting off his bug. We both feel like we have a mild case of the crud. Fortunately Jonathan seems to be fine. Thank God!

Da Boys

I sat Jonathan on the chair in the playroom and Andrew wanted to sit next to him. How could I not take pictures of my adorable boys?!


Andrew's new obsession is baseball, and he believes he has to wear a hat to play baseball. Keith has been trying to get him to wear a hat since the day he was born so Keith is very supportive of this new phase! And Andrew's little Red Sox hat no longer fits, but Daddy's hat when adjusted tight enough fits just right.

Sick Boy

Here's a picture of my sick little boy. He started puking around 8 last night and it continued throughout the night with some diarrhea mixed in for extra fun. He's such a trooper though and would reach for his bowl and kept his bed clean for the most part. We went through many pairs of jammies, though. I think we all averaged just a couple hours of sleep and so everyone is very tired today, except for Jonathan who blessedly slept through most of the chaos.

And of course, yesterday was one of those days where I question why I signed up for motherhood. Every form of discipline I could think of was used and none of it seemed to work. I was ready for some Zoloft, so I could just be a constantly happy mother and ignore all of the unpleasant behaviors of my child! Do you ever have those days or is it just me? And then at bedtime, the sickness surfaced, which was probably the cause of all the acting out throughout the day, but how was I to know. Does the mommy guilt ever end?

Here are a couple of the highlights of yesterday: Andrew refused to eat lunch. He refused to take a nap. I checked on him twice to try and "scare" him into sleeping to no avail, and all I wanted was a nap. I did try to rest and was quickly roused when I heard him say, "Oh mommy, look at all those poopies." WHAT?! So I run to his room, expecting the worse, only to find he has taken off his diaper, again, and peed in 3 locations, which he was happy to show me. *sigh* I think potty training is in our near future. Any suggestions from you moms with boys would be greatly appreciated!

So, I cleaned his room and let him watch a movie "Baby Red Sox," which he loves (thanks Fleury family!). I then tried to make dinner, but Jonathan started to fuss. I ignored it for a minute because it wasn't serious crying. Big mistake! He was laying on the floor in his gym and Andrew decided to take matters into his own hand. I glance up just in time to see what looks like Andrew jumping on his brother. Then Jonathan started screaming. I immediately have horrible thoughts of internal bleeding, broken legs, etc. Turns out Jonathan was fine, only scared, and who wouldn't be?! Andrew went straight to time out and lost his TV privileges. And I could go on and on, but I won't in case anyone is thinking they should call the authorities. :) We did survive, belive it or not. And then the sickness came with a vengance. All this so that I could have even more mommy guilt. They don't show any of this fun stuff on "A Baby Story!"

So now we are praying that the rest of us don't catch this awful bug. Ahh, life with a 2 year old. Never dull!

I have a little verse of the day thingy, which doesn't get changed every day and for good reason. This was the one I read yesterday and today:

"...Strengthened with all power according to His glorious might...have great endurance and patience..." Colossians 1:11

and on the back was:

"Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts..." Romans 5:3-5

Yummy new recipe

I'm copying Theresa and posting a yummy recipe. I got this out of the newspaper and was a little skeptic, but curious. It was submitted from Toni D's deli here in Wichita and now I want to eat there! It's very tasty and easy! My kind of food.

Chicken with rice and chickpeas
2 lbs. bone-in chicken breasts
water
2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1/4 cup butter or olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cans (16 oz. each) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon

Place chicken breasts in a Dutch oven or large sauce pot and add enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 30 minutes or until chicken is done. Let chicken stand in cooking liquid until cool enough to handle, then remove chicken. Discard the skin and shred meat. Skim off any impurities from the broth and pour it in a bowl.

Place rice in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover rice with water and microwave for 7 minutes on high. Drain off excess water. In the sauce pot, melt the butter and saute the onion until soft. Add the chickpeas and seasonings. Layer the chicken on top of the chickpeas, and the rice on top of the chicken.

Pour about 4 cups of the reserved broth over the rice, or enough to come just below the top of the rice. Bring to a boil, then cover pot and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook about 20 minutes, then turn off heat and let pot stand about 30 minutes. (I had to let it simmer about 40 minutes to get the rice tender.)

Serves 6-8

Happy Baby

Jonathan has really started smiling and cooing lately. It's so sweet and wonderful to have interaction with him! I tried to catch some pictures of him smiling, but he seems to stop smiling when the camera comes out. Here are a few I've captured the last couple of days...

This baby has eyelashes movie stars would kill for. I'll have to take a picture with his eyes closed so you can see how ridiculously long they are!







Here's a little video of Jonathan "talking." Please disregard the silly-sounding mother.

catch up time

I haven't posted any new pictures in a while. We've been busy recovering from sickness and I'm happy to report that we are all healthy now! Andrew was better about 24 hours after we started the antibiotics, so he definitely had a sinus infection. Jonathan did not improve with the antibiotics, so I think he just had the same bad cold I had. He's still a little congested, but nothing like he was! Here's a few pictures from the past couple of weeks. I can't believe it's mid-April already. Where does the time go??

Andrew got a new haircut and this time without any major crying/screaming fit! YEAH!

Gym time - Andrew likes it almost as much as Jonathan.


Sweet brotherly love - Andrew is into giving kisses lately. It's so sweet!

We made binoculars last week out of toilet paper rolls. Who knew you could have such fun with tp rolls, glue, paper and markers?!

Keith had the great idea to save this stroller box for Andrew. It made for great rainy day entertainment. He cut a few windows and a door in the box and Andrew would play in it for hours. Sadly, the box had a hard life and had to be retired, but we enjoyed it while it lasted!

Easter eggs

Here's what Jonathan thought of our egg-dye time. He was not happy to be left out of the fun!

Here's a couple of pictures from our Easter Egg dyeing adventures. I'm happy to report that we only had one casualty and all the others were safely decorated. And while the eggs are pretty, happy colors, Andrew still won't eat them. He does like to carry them around and show them to everyone. And he likes to try and peel them for you to eat. Oh, well. I guess it's a start!

Glashagel visit

Zach and Andrew giving Peter a workout.

Jobe, Kathy and Andrew reading books.

A rare picture of all three boys together, holding still.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Glashagels were in town from the cold north known as Minnesota last Sunday and the boys had a great time playing together. Andrew is exactly in the middle of Jobe and Zach age-wise, so they all play really well together. It helps that they are all rough and tumble and ALL boy! Here's a couple of pictures from our fun afternoon together. Megan's mom, Kathy, came too and spent some time trying to quietly read to the rowdy boys.