Happy Birthday, JT

I know I sound like every parent but i can not believe John Thomas is three! He is definitely growing up. He looks and acts like a big boy now.

Some of John Thomas’ favorite things

- Dinosaurs!! He loves to play with dinosaurs, he loves to pretend he is a dinosaur, he loves cartoons/movies with dinosaurs, he loves to pretend his food is a dinosaur flying into his mouth.

- Other animals that are a second to dinosaur include dragons,spiders and dogs. He crawls around the house growling and I never know if he is a dinosaur, dragon or spider (dog is easy because he barks:). They are always scary and he wants you to run away from him. If he is a dog he does tricks and gets treats.

- He has been to a few movies and does a great job sitting through them, his favorite movie is Finding Nemo. I recently bought him the Land Before Time, a dinosaur movie from when I was growing up, and we snuggled on the couch watching it together. I was completely happy.

-He is going to preschool two days a week from 9-11:30 and loves it. We never have a problem dropping him off, he runs in, gives me a kiss and starts playing. I love picking him up and seeing all the two year olds lined up with their backpacks on. So sweet!

-JT goes to bed around 9 and wakes up between 7:30-8, takes an 1.5 to 2 hour nap everyday.

- He is a decent eater. Doesn’t eat a lot but I feel I feed him healthy foods, he has still yet to eat meat. I truly believe it is one of the reasons he never gets sick. He has never taken an antibiotic and only had two colds (that required dr visits) since has been born.

- He says the funniest things! When he goes potty he tells his pee “Pee I’m going to put you with your friend water” “poop I’m going to put you with your friend pee” then he flushes the toilet and says “Bye pee/poop, hope you like your new home” so funny! The other day he was being a dinosaur and I told him it was time to potty and he said he couldn’t because dinosaurs don’t have a penis. Ha I had to think about it and I’ve never seen a penis on a dinosaur either

- He will not let you call him a baby. If he is crying and I say it’s ok baby while crying he says I big boy not baby. Sometimes he says baby is in your belly, I big boy.  I will even call him little man and he says I big man.

- He is very aware of emotions. If I keep asking him to do something (sit still while I get you dressed, a big struggle) he can tell when I am starting to get annoyed and he will say Mommy don’t be mad at me.

- He is all boy. Loves playing got you (tag), hide and seek, he’s sees monster or dinosaurs or dragons that we have to run and hide from. Every day when Daddy comes home he yells hide, hide and makes Daddy come find him. Which is supper easy because 1. he goes to the same spot everyday 2. he giggles 3. Tommy will say where’s JT and he says “right here” it’s really cute

I love love love being a mom to John Thomas. I am so thankful that I am able to spend so much time with him. Tommy is a great dad! I am so thankful that I married a man that loves and desires to spend time with his children. We are blessed

A few pictures from his birthday, birthday party is today!

John Thomas woke up on his birthday to balloons, a donut (I think his first one ever, he called it cake), candles and presents

 

I picked him up from school and took him out to lunch. He requested chip restaurant (Mexican) and he got a birthday treat.

 

I let him also pick what he wanted to do that night, movies or bounce house. Bounce house it was. Unfortunately Tommy had an away ballgame so it was just JT and I but we had a blast.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE LITTLE MAN!!

 

A couple pictures from earlier in the week

Paw Paw came for a short visit, JT and Paw Paw at the Flyers basketball game

We found out the sex of the baby!!! I will see my mom and sisters this coming weekend then we are announcing to everyone

Pregnancy

I do not know why I have not blogged about this pregnancy, yet. Probably out of fear, I don’t want to jinxed it. I’m scared. Tomorrow I will be 18 weeks pregnant! It was been a long road but i am so thankful of where I am.

I will start at the beginning so our baby will know how much he/she is wanted and loved.

Francis and our third baby both had chromosome testing done (number reason for miscarriage is abnormal chromosomes making the baby not fit for life. Both babies came back normal. My doctor then referred me to a fertility doctor to see if they could help us. No one wants to end up at a fertility dr but if you do,  they are amazing! At least mine is. They take such good care of you! And spend as much time as you want with you. My eyes were also opened to how many couples have to take this route. I feel very blessed because I already have one healthy baby and I know so many woman in there would love to be in my shoes. I also know I can get pregnant.

We started with a lot of blood work. (one time I had 37 tubes of blood drawn! – then taught a group fitness class, not smart) I had to get in drawn at different times of my cycle so the process took a couple months. I had a few levels come back  abnormal. But all were relativity easy fixes. Praise God!

We started with clomid. I pray I am never on this drug again!! When the dr was telling Tommy and I about it he said the number one side effect was mood swings. Ha! At least Tommy was there to hear it :) It took me two months to get pregnant on clomid. I think I spent a lot of that time crying, fussing with Tommy (over who knows what) having nightmares and eating constantly. Thank God I got pregnant the second month!!!

 

Once I found out I was pregnant I had to give myself a shot. I will continue to give myself a shot twice a day until delivery. One of my blood levels came back high showing that my blood is likely to form blood clots. The drs believe my body slowly cut off the blood supply to Francis then when I became pregnant the third time my body realized what was happening faster and cut off the blood supply sooner. (Notice in the picture below I am only pretending to give myself a shot because Tommy said he couldn’t actually watch me do it:) We also decided we would be awful drug addicts, we both hate shots!

The fertility drs do an excellent job on monitoring you!! I had blood work done every few days between week 4-7. At week 7 the baby was big enough to see on an ultra sound so I started getting ultra sounds week 7 –13. It is so amazing to watch your baby develop!! Week 10 was the biggest week for me. We went from seeing a round circle with a heart beat to arms, legs, head, everything. It was so amazing. The next three ultra sounds the baby was moving, arms waving, legs kicking. Honestly, amazing!! I was also put on progesterone for the first trimester mostly as a safety precaution.  At the end of the first trimester you “graduate” (with a diploma and baby present) from the fertility dr. I was thankful and disappointed at the same time. I loved it there. I loved weekly ultra sounds! I am now waiting for the 20 week ultra sound.

I have been to my regular obgyn once and will go again on Monday. The baby’s heartbeat sounded great last time. I am praying I will have a good appointment Monday.  Honestly, I am so nervous every time I go to the dr. Even at the fertility dr I braced myself multiple times for the dr to tell me there was not a heartbeat. I even cried to Tommy before one appointment telling him I thought I had a miscarriage. I am trying to stay positive and trust in God’s plan for my life. I do feel better since I have made it past the first trimester and week 16 (when I lost Francis)

Hebrews 12:1 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us

 

Pregnancy pics so far

Week 4 vs. Week 8

Week 8 vs. Week 11

 

Week 15

 

since I will be 18 weeks tomorrow we will call the Week 18

I forgot to mention I’m not really allowed to work out. I have to keep my heart rate under 120. It wasn’t tough in the first trimester because I did not feel good and honestly didn’t care about working out. Now that I am feeling good again, I miss it! It is a big change for me. But if it’s what I need to do, I will definitly follow the guidelines. I will have plenty of time to workout after the baby is born (that maybe an exaggeration but I will make time!)

Praying for a healthy full term baby!!!

Christmas, Round one

since we randomly used different Iphones and Ipads to take Christmas pictures the first round comes from my phone. When I can slow my husband down enough for the other picture I will add more.

We had a great Christmas! It was the first year we did not travel and it was so nice! The past few years we have all flown to Minnesota for Christmas then John Thomas and I go to Alabama (Tommy only gets three days off so has never been able to go to Alabama too). John Thomas is at the age we can start making our own family traditions and he can enjoy it.

We made cookies for our church. They delivered close to 200 dozen cookies to the surrounding nursing homes, police and fire stations! JT had a play date with his friend Cole and we made cookies.

They enjoyed eating sprinkles and dumping them on the cookies:)

 

John Thomas got to see Santa plenty this year and Kennedy even made one trip

 

We made two trips to different Christmas lights in the area, Woodland lights and Clifton Mill lights. Woodland lights has kids rides too, which JT rode last year too.

 

 

Clifton Mills has over 3.5 million lights. It was beautiful!

Next Christmas post will have Christmas Day pictures!

Christmas Play

John Thomas had his first Christmas play last week. It was so cute! Thankfully, Tommy was at home and was able to attend. There something about seeing your child get up on stage and sing and dance in front of a room full of people that makes you SO proud! It actually brought tears to my eyes. It was one of those surreal moments where you realize you are a parent. He did great. His class sang two songs and he sang and danced (did the movements) to the songs.

The first song they did was the Dancing Christmas Tree and they all wore Christmas trees on their head. Then they “sang” (along with a tape) Away in a Manager.

Random, Catch up post

I am inside all day with a snow day and a sick boy. I pride myself in how few times John Thomas has been sick (never taken antibiotics but has been on steroids once) it breaks my heart to see him sick but there is something so great about him wanting to curl up and sleep on me all day. Anyway, perfect day to catch up on here.

Beginning of November I finally decided to potty train. I heard all these horror stories about potty training so I kept postponing. However, it was fairly easy! He had a couple accidents the second day and that was it! We stayed home Friday afternoon-Sunday and he went back to school on Monday and playcare at the gym that night with no accidents! He had a chart that he put a sticker on every time he used the potty and it worked like a charm! Sunday night Tommy and I took him to the pet store to get a fish as his big boy prize. He, of course, named the fish Dinosaur Fishy. We have had a couple accidents here and there but overall I am amazed at how easy it was:) I am sure this is a plus to waiting so long, he will be 3 the end of January.

Dinosaur Fishy being moved to his new home

 

Basketball season has started. Dayton is ranked 25th. YAY!!

 

This makes me laugh! Just eating a little popcorn:) JT has absolutely zero interest in basketball. He likes Rudy (the mascot), popcorn and playing the ipad.

 

Tommy had a basketball tournament in Hawaii over Thanksgiving which unfortunately JT and I were not able to go on so we did the next best thing – spent a week in Alabama

On the plane to Alabama 

 

Paw Paw was moving a newborn calf and the boys got to pet her. She was only about 45mins old! 

 

While in Alabama we celebrated one year since I had Francis. I could  never imagined what all I would go through in the next year. I can’t wait for the day to hold her in my arms again.

All the kids – JT, Gavin, Seth, Jackson. Cole and Molli Kate. I loved getting together with my sisters and some of our best friends and watching all the kids play.

Boys having fun! Baths before going to the movies to see Frozen!

JT and Aunt Mandy

I managed not to get one picture with my family or pictures of JT with anyone! I wish I was better about taking pictures, especially on Thanksgiving day.

John Thomas did manage to capture this one picture of himself. I was impressed!

 

One final picture in case my husband wins the battle and cuts his perfect curly hair

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year mostly because it was the first year John Thomas really knew what was going on and he was excited. He picked out his costume for the first time, had his face painted and went trick or treating. Unfortunately it stormed Halloween night and the city did not move the day:( I was able to take John Thomas early when it was sprinkling and windy but Tommy wanted to take him also. By the time Tommy got home from work it was raining hard. My sweet husband grabbed a large umbrella and braved the rain with 30mph winds. The weather did not bother JT at all! Tommy was just going to take him to a couple houses but after every house JT would say “One More”  He got several one mores :)

His school had a trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween which prepared him for Halloween night. In the beginning he was shy and wouldn't say anything but by the time we got to the last car he wanted to do it again. He did great Halloween night, knocking on the door and would say trick or treating at every house. It was so cute! Tommy and I were talking last night about how JT makes everything so much more fun. I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year!

We also participated in the ghost and goblins 5k. It was a lot of fun! So many people were dressed up and John Thomas loved seeing all the costumes. It kept him entertained the whole race! He keeps asking to do ghost and goblins race again.

 

Trunk or treat at his school and first face painting.

Tommy and I wanted to carve pumpkins because we thought JT would enjoy it. Not the case, he colored on the pumpkins then played with his Lego's while Tommy and I carved pumpkins. Halloween day. He wore his costume to the gym then we went trick or treating

Fun memories, looking forward to many more!