Big Brothers

Week 2, and I'm keeping up with my goal - so proud of myself! Last weekend the boys had a "big sibling" class at Christ Hospital. They got to go and learn all about what it will be like to have a baby in the house.They got a tour of the hospital, too. Matthew seemed to really take on the idea of having a baby. He was really tring to be responsible and take to heart what they said. All week he has been processing things like how big of a toy and what kinds of toys the baby can have. I think he's going to be a great big brother. Jacob, well, let's just remember he's not quite three.... ;) He was paying attention a lot of the time, but also consistently dropped his doll on it's head :) We'll have to keep an eye on him. My guess is that he might have the hardest time with the transition. And if Matthew's having a hard time, he will have no problem telling us!

Here is a picture of them leaving their class

Baby Update

This week I had my glucose test (don't have results yet) and another ultrasound. At 20 weeks, one of the baby's kidneys wasn't measuring right. So they checked again now and everything looks great. Praise God! It's been fun to watch how the baby has changed throughout various ultrasounds. At 20 weeks, we thought he looked a little more like Matthew. At this one, he had filled out. The technician thought he had Jacob's cheeks and nose and Matthew's forehead ;) I'll have to post some pictures. I don't have them with me now. But, he weighs 3 lbs 8 oz and is in the 38th percentile.

First Day of School

So another two months have passed since I've upated. I'm a slacker at a lot of things right now! With blogger, I feel like I already spend too much time at the computer, so adding one more thing is a lot. But at the same time, it's the only way I usually keep track of what my kids are up to. Now that school has started, I have about 1.5 hours on Friday mornings to myself. My goal is to do an update each Friday. So here is today. The first day of school. Matthew started at a new school. Because he is 5, he could have gone to Kindergarten. But since he has such a late birthday, we decided to wait a year. We just didn't want him to be the last to do anything. I'm sure he would have been fine to go, but there just seemed like more risks in sending him than waiting a year. And selfishly, I'm thankful I get to keep him one more year before he goes to school for the rest of his life! We are going to do some unofficial homeschooling two days a week while Jacob is at preschool. Then on Fridays he is doing Pre-K Friday at Forest Chapel, right around the corner from our house. It gives him a place to go, some structure, some extroversion, etc. So I drop him off at 9, then take Jacob to Northminster at 9:30. Matthew has been so great with this transition. He told me he was nervous to meet new people (which I kind of find hard to believe ;) He's a kid who will make friends with someone on a playground.) But he went right in. I can't wait to hear how it went!
Jacob on the other hand, has been protesting going to school for weeks now. Everytime we ask him about it, he says "No, I stay home with you." or "I go with Matthew." This morning he had every excuse in the book to not do what he was supposed to do (get dressed!). I heard everything from, "I'm too tired." to "I'm comfy." When I tried to get a first day of school picture, he threw his backback into the yard. He was a goober in every sense. I was sure he was going to throw a fit when we got to school. But, he surprised me. He went in, washed his hands, and sat down to play playdough. He didn't make a peep when I said goodbye. I set both boys up with a little rock with a heart on it that they put in their pocket so they could get it out when they missed me. We'll see if either one of them even remembered it was there. Here are a few pics of our morning:

Matthew at home

 Jacob throwing one of many fits.

 Matthew in front of his school.

 Jacob in front of his school.

Little Fish

So don't fall off your chair...I'm updating the blog. The real reason I"m doing it, is because David is out of town for the week and I wanted to show him the amazing progress Matthew has made in swim lessons. He's doing College Hill's Swim Ministry, about which I can't sing high enough praises. He made awesome progress last year and I was so excited to see what he could do this year with another year of maturity on him. In three days, he can now swim quite a bit (which he couldn't at all do on Monday). He's still working on figuring out how to breathe while he's swimming. Right now he just holds his breath, so he eventually has to stop to breathe. It has been so fun watching him all week, because he's working so hard, and he's smiling while he's doing it. I'm just so proud of him. So, above is a little movie clip of him swimming to his teacher. She has been so dear to him. I feel like she is just as proud of him as I am, and she just met him on Monday!

 (He's so good, he's walking on water ;)

 He throws the toy and then swims to get it.

 A look I've gotten a lot lately...can you tell what he's saying?

All the great grandkids...and it's not even a holiday!



He Loves Me

This morning David offered to take the boys to the zoo to give me some time to do a project I have been working on. Matthew came up to my room, because I was still in bed at the time, and he was all choked up. He was getting upset because he wasn't going to see me all morning. He wouldn't be home until rest time and it really bothered him that I wasn't going. So sweet. We had some good time together yesterday, so I think he had really enjoyed it. I'm going to remember this moment for a long time. I'll try to remember it in a few years when he mutters under his breath, "Bye, mom", because he has to ;)

Extroversion to the Max

To say Matthew is extroverted is kind of an understatement, bless his heart. He will talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime, about anything, whether the other person wants to or not. Most of the time, he uses this characteristic in a positive way - he includes others while playing (note that I said "most" of the time), again, whether the other person wants to or not. Last night we ate dinner at Brookdale, where Great Papa Rudolph lives, and Papa works. There was a fish fry. After Matthew was done eating, he asked me, " Can I go downstairs and see how everyone down there is doing?" I told him he could (Older people usually love little kids, right?) Next thing I know, we hear him (we were up in the balcony) down in the lobby singing B-I-N-G-O in front of everyone. Hilarious. As soon as Jacob heard him, he went running to join, because it's his new favorite song. He didn't quite get there in time. And poor Matthew, the crowd really just wasn't into his song this time :) I wish I had had my camera with me to tape it!

6 Chairs

Sorry I'm so bad about blogging. I need to try and just capture more of the little moments of our lives. Our good camera had to be sent to be fixed (the LCD screen died...thankfully still under warranty!) and I just am not quick to remember to use our little camera. So in my attempt to write down a few things, here's something heard tonight at our dinner table:

Matthew: Since there are 6 chairs at our table, the baby will take up #5. That means we need to have one more baby after that so all 6 are full!

Glad you have it all planned out, Buddy....but now's not the time to mention having another baby :) Maybe after I forget about all this getting sick stuff... :)