Sleep deprivation; poop in the tub; Idol Wrapup

Just when you think you've got things under control...Abigail's been sleeping 8-9 hours a night for a couple weeks now. We get her down by about 11PM and she sleeps until well after 7 the next morning. Joshua's been even better, generally going to bed by 7:30-8PM and not waking up till 7:30 the next morning. We've been really blessed by this, we know and we try not to take it for granted.

A couple nights ago, the two of them woke up around 6:30 and didn't go back to sleep. Fortunately, I had already left for work. Danielle wasn't that fortunate. Last night, Abigail woke up just before 5AM. So, Danielle fed her and put her back down. What made that hard for me is I had set my alarm for 5:30. I knew if I tried falling back to sleep, it'd be a major struggle getting up when the alarm went off. So, needless to say...I'm a bit sleep deprived. Danielle usually can get a short nap in during the day, but she's even more tired because she has to take care of the kids all day. Let's hope tonight is not a repeat.

A new ability Joshua seems to have is to poop in the bathtub. I think he's done that three times now in the past week. What makes it even more funny is the fact that he'll grab the shower curtain and hide behind it before doing it. We just think he's being cute with the curtain until we realize he's grunting back there! And in the "it's all about your perspective" category...at least they're solid. Maybe he's at the beginning stages of potty training already. Wouldn't that be a treat.

And what Tuesday wouldn't be complete without my take on American Idol. Granted, I missed reporting last week's festivities. Last week they sang the classics and Rod Stewart was their coach. I guess he's old enough to remember the classics. I wasn't really impressed with much of the performances. Ace was voted off which wasn't surprising except that I thought he did better than some of the others. I think what was even more surprising is having Kellie be in the top 3...I mean she even admitted that "ah butchered it".

So tonight, they did love songs. I again wasn't all that impressed with most of it...except for Chris' performance of a Bryan Adams song. Kellie again butchered it. Man...if she doesn't get voted off this week...actually, I have no idea what I'd do. Screaming doesn't seem like it would cut it. But she just seems totally out of her league right now. I used to like her, but now she's just an annoying ditzy blonde. She's way outlived her usefulness in the competition and it's time for her to leave.

I ran across a couple of sites that offer their own comments about the show that are pretty fun to read: http://althouse.blogspot.com and http://www.imao.us. You'll have to scroll down if you're reading this a couple of days after the fact. Have fun!

Sick again; Portraits

Another lag between posts...shame. Joshua got sick again this week. This is just weird...he was so healthy his first year and now in the past 6 weeks or so, he's just getting sick over and over. I ended up taking him into Urgent Care on Wednesday night. You know...that makes it sound so...well...urgent. It really wasn't that bad. It's just we didn't want to wait till the next morning to take him into walk-in hours. Not to mention the fact that Danielle would have to do that on her own whereas I could take him in to Urgent Care myself without having to take Abigail. Anyway, it just worked out better. The doctor said he had a lot of snot build-up in his ears which I guess is a sign that an ear infection is budding...which is really what we wanted checked. So, we got another prescription for that. I think he's beginning to feel better now, which is nice. Now if they could just come up with some prescription medicine for whinyness and tantrum-like symptoms.

On Friday, I stayed home from work and we took the kids to get some new portraits. We were supposed to do it as Abigail's 2 month and Joshua's 18 month portraits, but that didn't happen with everyone getting sick so darn much. So, now it's more like Abigail's 3...almost 4 month portraits and Joshua's 19...well, almost 20 month portraits. Nonetheless, we got 'em done. One things for sure...we won't be doing them together at the same time for awhile. OH MY GOSH!!!! Perhaps we just have to schedule it a bit better. But something was in the air that day that wasn't entirely right. Granted, we got some really cute poses. But that doesn't communicate what we went through just to get those. Maybe when they're teenagers, we'll try it again.

But I thought I'd post a few of the proofs so you could enjoy them. We got a pretty full package and since I have no idea who's reading this blog, if you're interested in one of these in wallet size and we have one, I'd be happy to mail one off. I suppose I could try scanning them in once we get them to make them email-able. Hopefully Sears doesn't get mad that I'm posting these.

UPDATE: After posting this, I realized I should comment on Joshua's outfit. We actually got those outfits BEFORE Joshua was born. They were a baby shower gift from friends at our old church. We loved them, but they're size 2T and we thought we'd never get around to wearing them. But Joshua is already fitting into 2T clothes, so we thought we'd try them for the portraits. The tops fit pretty well. The bottom part on the other hand...you can see the plaid shorts...yes, they're shorts, not pants. We didn't quite feel socks and shoes were appropriate in this case. For the other outfit, we used another pair of tan slacks we already had.

Easter

Happy Resurrection Sunday! It is good to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, though we should celebrate it every day. We had a pretty good day, although it started out late. Not only did Joshua not go to bed at his usual time, he decided to wake up between 5 and 6am this morning for no particular reason. Actually, the last time I went in to check on him this morning, he pointed to a pillow on the ground. I put it in his crib and he laid down and fell asleep until past 8.

At church, they had an easter egg hunt between services. I hadn't really considered that he'd take part in it. But when the time came, we gave him a bag and set him up. We tried to explain to him what he would do and when it was time, he sprang into action.

After that, his dad relented and allowed him to have a cupcake that they made available to all the kids. Joshua REALLY enjoyed that. I'll post pictures of that to our photo site sometime. We took a family picture while we were there and while it would've been better had we taken the picture earlier, it turned out pretty good.

When we got home, we made sure to take a cute picture of Abigail. After Joshua's nap, Danielle put some eggs around our patio and did another easter egg hunt here. He loved it and it was very enjoyable to watch him "get it". We videotaped that, so I don't have any pictures of it to post. Hopefully, someday, I can create some streaming video to post.

Getting together with family

Today we had my brother, Brian and his wife and son (Sharon and Jefferson, who's turning 4 this month) over for dinner. They were up from the San Diego area (Poway) and staying at Sharon's mom's house in La Mirada. Anyway, Danielle cooked this really good dinner with pork tenderloin and red potatos. Joshua was kind of a pill at first, but I think it was because he was hungry and smelling all the food being cooked made it worse. But it all turned out pretty good with the kids and Joshua and Jefferson really enjoyed taking a bath together. Danielle was quite brave taking on the task of bathing both kids while the rest of us chatted. She did great and got some great pictures! One of which is here.

Earlier in the day, I was supposed to be watching Abigail...which I was. But I was so tired and she was playing so well, that I fell asleep. Of course, Danielle was right there to take a picture of it. So her caption for this picture is "Brent's idea of watching Abigail". I guess I got caught sleeping on the job.

Fun With Kids; Good Friday

We've had so many photo ops this week, it's hard to know where to begin. So, I'll post a few here and hopefully get our photo site itself updated soon with a full range of photos.

Joshua is such a funny kid. He's totally into the "I want it my way" attitude and yet he's so funny sometimes, it's hard not to laugh so as to encourage the behavior. The past few days, he'll come over to me (or Danielle), take my hand and literally try to drag me over to where he wants me to go and then show me what he wants (a drink, go outside, food, video, etc).

Wednesday night, I took this picture. Danielle was going in to put Abigail into her crib and she comes back out quickly for me to get the camera and take a picture of this. Turns out tonight, the same thing happened. Of course, about a half hour after taking that picture, Joshua wakes up coughing and ultimately throws up. *sigh* I'm not sure we were expecting that. But it wasn't too bad...we cleaned it all up, got him back down and he slept fine.


Thursday, I took the kids for a ride in the wagon...really just to get the mail. But they seemed to enjoy it. I think Joshua had a kick out of having Abigail with him.

Sometime this week, Danielle got this picture of Abigail wearing some small sunglasses. Of course, she could've been asleep here and no one would have known. We have another one of her wearing bunny ears for Easter, but I'll post that another time.

Tonight was the Good Friday service at our church. It started at 7 which is a challenge for a kid who normally takes his bath about then and goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. But Danielle gave him some Benadryl before his nap (because he had some drainage going on) and he slept for nearly 4 hours!! So, that made it a little easier to expect him to stay up a little later and he did fine. He didn't get his bath, but that's okay.

Haircut, Fever and Idol

So much for being healthy. Joshua woke up Sunday morning coughing. We took his temperature and it was 99.8, so we decided to keep him home from church. After his nap, it was at 101. Since then, it's hovered in the 99 and 100 range dipping occassionally to normal. So, it's not enough to really take him in, but it sure makes him hard to live with. We love him dearly, but he's being such a pill this week. Either that or he's just exerting his will more. I think he just doesn't feel good. We started to think today that maybe he's teething again. He's got his bottom two molars now and perhaps he's starting to his top ones.

Of course, what one kid has typically gets passed to others. Abigail has shown a slight fever the past day or two. Nothing alarming, but enough that it makes her uncomfortable sometimes. Then I've been feeling under the weather the past couple of days as well. Mostly a really bad sore throat and just a general "blah" feeling. *sigh* I feel like it's been forever since all of us were healthy.

Saturday, we took Joshua to a kid's place to get his haircut. We had tried cutting his hair a week ago and he would have nothing of it. At least at this place, they have videos and games and other fun things to distract him. He did alright and they did a pretty good job with his hair. They even put gel in it and made a little ramp on the front as you should be able to see in the picture. He really looks like a little boy now. Kinda fun.

Finally, since it's Wednesday, I must provide my brief thoughts on American Idol. Bucky is finally gone. Unfortunately, this week, I'm actually sad. He did pretty well...especially compared to Ace. They all did the music of Queen. Ace attempted to do We Will Rock You and butchered it. I don't mind his falsetto so much, but that song was not the one to do it with. Last week, I thought it would be great if Bucky did Bohemian Rhapsody. Instead it was Kellie. Aside from her hair, I thought she did alright.

Top 9 Idol Results; Healthy Again; Kids

Just got done watching the American Idol wrap up show and I'm a bit sad. No...I'm really sad. At least you can't say..."it's just a TV show, Brent!" It's not just a TV show...it is reality. Someone really got voted off this week that I liked. Mandisa...or as some had called her...Mandiva. She exited with class, though, and even blessed everyone in the name of Jesus...on national TV! I bet the censors went crazy :-). Actually, to see Paris, Elliot and Mandisa in the bottom three was even more shocking then to not see Ace, Katherine and Bucky there. But like I said before, because it was country week, Bucky was likely safe for another week. Speaking of next week, they're doing the music of Queen. I'd love to see Bukcy try to do Bohemian Rhapsody.

Back to the family...so, Joshua is beginning to really assert his independence and display some tantrum-like episodes. I think I've always felt like he has the potential to be a strong-willed child. This is beginning to confirm that. He's still a joy, mind you. But when he starts to throw a fit because he doesn't want his pants or sweats put on, that's a problem. Of course, 5 minutes later and we can put them on without a struggle *sigh*.

Tomorrow, Danielle is taking the kids back to the doctor for what is hopefully to get a clean bill of health from all the sicknesses they've been passing between each other. It's been three weeks since Joshua initially got sick. I feel like it's been three months. Glad everyone's healthy again.

Abigail turns 3 months tomorrow. We finally transferred her to her crib in Joshua's room (which is hard to say since it's not just Joshua's room anymore). We would have done it sooner, but when she got sick and was having so much congestion, we felt she wouldn't sleep the whole night and would wake Joshua up. This past week, she's been sleeping consistantly for 8 hours (like between 11PM and 7AM). I don't know if I blogged about this, but she is smiling and cooing so much more now. It's SO cute! For whatever reason, she smiles almost everytime we pump her legs. She's also started sucking on her fist. We tried giving her a pacifier, and she would take it initially and start sucking. But inevitably, it gets spit out...but I don't think she intends to. I think her bottom jaw doesn't come out as far as most and so she can't keep the pacifier in her mouth very easily.

Danielle's Birthday Week and the Mall Story

Trying not to be so far between posts, but oh well...life goes on.

The other day, we went to the mall for a little family outing...and we needed something to do. At one point, we let Joshua get out of the stroller to walk around. He really enjoyed looking at different things, but he especially seemed to like looking down from the top level through the railing. I didn't concern myself too much because I didn't think he could fit through the bars. But he did end up putting his head through to get a better look. Then he started crying. Turned out, he couldn't get his head back through. So, I went over to help him and tried pushing his head through. It wouldn't go through! I tried a few times and it just wouldn't go through. For a moment, my head spun as I thought "oh no, what if I CAN'T get his head through? What are we going to do? Who would I call? Wait a minute...how'd he get his head through it if I can't get it back out? That's frustrating! This can't be happening, it's not logical!" There was more, but you get the idea. Then I repositioned his head once more and out came his head. He was still crying and just wanted to be held. Who would blame him? But it wasn't long before he was back at the railing looking down. Hopefully, he won't need counseling for this later in life.

We finished up Danielle's birthday week by letting her have a nice long nap on Saturday and then going to her aunt's house on Sunday to get a lengthy massage. Her aunt is a licensed massage therapist. She really enjoyed the pampering.