Poop

This morning while getting dressed, I can hear Carter downstairs hollering about something.  I go to check it out.  He meets me at the bottom of the stairs and says,

"Poop."

Ok buddy, let's go change your diaper.  He grabs my hand, says "poop" a few more times and starts walking with me.  Then we walk past the diapers.  And I become increasingly more concerned.

"Carter.  Where is the poop??"

To which he replies in the most adorable sing-song voice you can imagine ......

"Floor!"

And sure enough.  We end our journey in the kitchen.  And there is, indeed, poop on the floor.

Fortunately, Carter saw the situation as a problem that required my attention and not an opportunity to finger paint.  And I'm thankful it was on the kitchen floor and not the carpet.  But still....

So I removed the leaky diaper, threw him in the shower, hosed him down, dressed the child and cleaned & sanitized the floor.

Just another day.

I miss Mama

Mom.  That's my name.  Sounds obvious, right?  Except it's not always been my name.  From the time Brooks was born I've been Mama.  I like Mama.  I've embraced Mama.  It sounds loving and sweet, yet can grow with a child.  Or so I thought.

A few weekends ago, Chris and I got away.  Not too far away.  Just to a Bed &Breakfast in Lennox.  But it was the first time ever (yes, ever) we left our kids overnight.  We had a great time and I don't think they even noticed we were gone.  But something changed in that 24 hours we were away.  During that time my four year old grew up.  And I became "Mom".  Not Mama.

I thought it would just be a phase.  Carter still calls me Mama.  Chris still refers to me as Mama.  But no.  I'm Mom.  And it seems the more I try to encourage Brooks to call me Mama, the more he calls me Mom.  Perhaps he feels more grown up saying it.  Or perhaps he likes pushing my buttons.  Because when he's not thinking about it, a "mama" will slip out.  And he seems to weave it into every sentence he speaks to me.  "Hey mom.  Mom, what can I do now, mom?  Let's do a puzzle mom.  I have to go potty mom.  Mom, what are you doing mom?"

But perhaps it's just a sign that he's growing up.  That happens I hear. (sigh)  But I miss Mama.  I miss hearing it.  I miss my little boy's first word.  And now when Brooks says it, Carter will repeat it.  It won't be long until Mama is phased out all together.  But at least I'm not alone.  Chris has morphed into Dad too instead of Daddy.  I guess we're growing up into our "big kid" names.

Growing ....

Yep, it's true.  Our family is growing.  And, consequently, so is my belly!  Quite rapidly I might add.  We're all so excited as we prepare and await for Baby #3 to arrive sometime in January.  This baby is what we'd like to call a "planned surprise" ... or something like that.  Back this winter/spring we knew that we were wanting to grow our family.  We made some plans, set a timeline for when we would get pregnant (bahahaha ... are you laughing yet?  Because I am!) and (surprise!!) none of it came to pass.  So the positive pregnancy test came a little sooner than we had "planned" but we're still so happy!

And to answer your questions ....

... I'm feeling great!  I was really tired & starving the first trimester, but not sick.  And now that my energy has returned and my appetite has subsided some, I'm feeling pretty much back to normal.  Whatever that means.
... we're due the middle of January.
... no, we don't know what we're having and no, we're not going to find out.  No ultrasound = no gender reveal.
... we've nicknamed the baby "Poppy".
... yes, I'm really only 16 weeks pregnant, even though I look much bigger than that.  (ok, no one's really asked that question, but I know some are thinking it)  When pregnant with Brooks, I wore my pre-pregnancy jeans until 16 weeks.  With Carter, I fit in them until 10 weeks.  Baby #3?  6 weeks.  Six whole weeks before having to break out the stretchy pants.
... yes, we would like a girl and no, we won't be disappointed if we have a boy.  We're looking forward to the surprise and will obviously be happy either way.
... Brooks wants a girl.  He's made that very clear.  His reasoning?  "Well, I already have a baby brother.  Now I need a baby sister."
... We're still seeing a midwife with this pregnancy, but not the one we saw with the boys.  We hired a homebirth midwife.  Because we're having a homebirth!  And we couldn't be more excited about it!!! I'll tell you more about that later.

All in all, things are going really well.  I love being pregnant and I'm looking forward to when I can start feeling baby move around!

Once upon a time we went on vacation....

... and here I am a week and a half two weeks later telling you about it.  (it's been a busy summer friends and we've been soaking up this short lived warm weather while we can.  Which, unfortunately, means less blogging. Oh well.)

Anyway ..... during the week of 4th of July, we ventured on what I would call the "Anderson family tour".  We covered a whole lotta miles in just six days.  But it was so great to visit family - some of whom we haven't seen in almost 5 years!

We started our trip on Tuesday, July 2, which, I would like to point out, was our anniversary.  Driving 10+ hours in a van with two small children was not exactly my idea of a fun way to celebrate, but I guess that what's happens after 8 years of marriage.  We did make up for it later.

Our first destination?  Crosby, ND.  Go ahead.  Google it.  It's in the middle of nowhere - which, let's be honest, is most of North (and South) Dakota.  Chris' Grandma Ardis (his dad's mom) lives there along with many of his aunts and uncles.  We hadn't been to Crosby since his Grandpa Jim passed away in September 2008.  A visit was long overdue.  The boys had fun playing with Grandma's piano, swinging on swings and discovering her fun new toys.  We spent Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday there.  Wed night all the relatives gathered at Grandma's house for a BBQ and the boys had a few cousins to play with.  Well, not first cousins.  In fact, I have no idea exactly how they're related.  They're Chris' cousins kids.  Whatever that makes them.  Anyway, we had a great time visiting!  Family is such a blessing!!

Chris and his cousin Ryan

Getting a ride from (great) Uncle Doug

the boys with Grandma Ardis

On Thursday morning, we packed everything up and drove two hours to Sidney, MT where Chris' parents live.  They moved there about three years ago and this was our first visit (ooops).  The boys, as always, had fun seeing and playing with Grandma Lue and Papa Les.  We ate good food, lit a few quiet fireworks (to appease my noise-sensitive first born) and mostly just hung out.  Chris and I did sneak away one evening for supper while Grandma & Papa watched the kids.  That was nice.

Papa Les & Grandma Lue

Uncle Tim introduced the boys to his bunny "Baxter".  They both loved him!

 Fireworks ....

 Brooks really does hate loud noises.  And even not-so-loud noises.  He was covering his ear while doing snap pops.  Seriously.  Snap pops.

Brooks was able to open his birthday presents from the grandparents too.

A new pool and squirt gun!!

Reading stories is a MUST with Grandma Lue.

Saturday morning we packed up all our stuff (again), left Sidney and drove another two hours to Baker, MT for Chris' cousin's wedding, in which Brooks was the ring bearer.  About 45 minutes into the drive, the alternator on our van decided that the "middle of nowhere" would be a fantastic place to quit and die.  Quit. and. die.  In the middle of nowhere.  Awesome.

Fortunately, Tim and his girlfriend were close behind us and pulled over to help.  We found a little "drive" into a field and pulled over there.  We moved the boys' carseats into Tim's car, moved all our stuff over and headed to Baker, while Chris stayed with the van.  And there's a few things we learned during this whole van breaking down adventure.
~ Glendive (the nearest town) has four mechanic shops.
~ Apparently in Glendive, a Thursday holiday warrants taking the entire weekend off from work.  This includes mechanics.
~The nearest tow company (who actually answered their phone) was 100 miles away.
~My in-laws SUV is capable of towing a mini van.
~Glendive (thank God) has a Napa auto parts store that carries alternators.
~Chris' Uncle Dan is a great mechanic and is capable of replacing an alternator in a K-Mart parking lot at midnight.

So yeah, that was fun.  Anyway, while Chris was dealing with van stuff, Tim, Jennifer, the boys and I pull into Baker, have lunch with my mother-in-law's family and get Brooks ready for pictures.

And I would like to throw out there, that the boys were totally cool with this whole adventure.  Sleeping in different places all the time, hours and hours of driving, meeting dozens of new relatives they've never seen before, not having Daddy around for half a day, being thrust in front of a camera for wedding pictures.  I, on the other hand, was getting a wee bit stressed.  But we survived.

After lunch I began my duty as "keeper of the ring bearer".  It started with the multi-piece tux.

Oh my beating heart.  I definitely had one of those "I can't believer you're my baby" moments.  I hugged him and made sure to tell him just how very proud of him I was!  And I also made sure to take this picture before we left the bedroom ... you know, before the cheek-pinchers got to him.

And Brooks absolutely amazed me during the whole wedding celebration!  He was so patient waiting for his turn for pictures, he actually looked AND smiled at the camera when asked to (shocking!), he performed his very important ring bearer duties flawlessly (including standing ON STAGE for 45 minutes during the ceremony) and then not eating supper until 8pm.  The kid was a champ.  Seriously.  I couldn't have been more proud of him (and Carter).  There were no tantrums from either of them all day.  

At the reception, they had a whole table filled with bowls of candy.  And for once, I gave Brooks carte blanche.  Here's a cup kid.  Fill it with whatever you want.  You deserve it.

This flower girl (I can't even remember her name) cracked me up!  After the ceremony, she kept toting Brooks around on her arm and calling him her "prince".  It was hilarious.  And apparently Brooks is cool with being bossed around by girls, because he just happily went wherever she told him to go.  (We may have to work on that) 

Before the wedding, Brooks kept asking ,"Carter, do you want to watch me get married?"  To which Carter emphatically replied "Yes!"  And seeing these two, they were like a little mini bride and groom :) 

We left the reception pretty much right after we ate.  The boys were exhausted.  I was exhausted.  And Chris headed out with Uncle Dan to fix our alternator.  We all slept hard that night.

We stayed at Sue & Steve's house (Chris's Aunt & Uncle and parents of the bride).  They're farmers in Plevna, MT so on Sunday morning while Sue cooked breakfast, Steve took the boys out for a spin on the four wheelers.  Brooks had fun but Carter was in heaven!  He hopped right on, grabbed the handle bars and was ready to drive!  Then Steve showed them the tractors.  I didn't think we'd ever get Carter to leave!

Being on the farm, even for such a short amount of time, made me wish we owned some land instead of just a small patch of weeds in the middle of the city.  (sigh)  Perhaps someday.

After breakfast, we said our good-byes, packed up all our things one last time, and began the eight hour trek back to Sioux Falls.  Our boys traveled so well during this whole trip.  I think I did more complaining than they did.  But by the time we hit Chamberlain (two hours west of Sioux Falls) we were all getting pretty crabby and were ready to be home.  We powered through the last few hours and finally made it home Sunday night around 9:30pm. And although I had a mountain of laundry and a filthy van staring at me, we were at last home.  And happy to be.

4 years ago ....

4 years (and a week) ago a big thing happened in our house.  I mean really big!  I became a mom.  Chris became a dad.  Brooks David was born.  And this year the celebration of his birth happened to land on Father's Day (we knew it would happen eventually).  So we had two special guys to celebrate!  Not gonna lie though.  Although we tried to celebrate our Daddy as much as we could, Brooks received most of the attention.  Neither didn't seem to mind.

The festivities actually began on Saturday night with a little party at McKennan park.  This mama really didn't have the energy or ambition to host a pinterest-worthy party, so we settled for pizza and cake in the park with a few close friends.  Brooks thought it was awesome!

Brooks requested, of all things, a Viking cake for his birthday.  And unfortunately he didn't mean the nordic pillagers.  So this die-hard Packer fan mama swallowed my pride and made a Minnesota Vikings birthday cake for my special guy.  He loved it!

Oh, and what's a 4 year old party without a little shuffle board?  No really.  They played shuffle board.  All the equipment was set out at the park, so the dads and kids went and played a few rounds.  Brooks still talks about it!  Who knew it was so fun!?

Birthday presents!

We ended the evening with a baseball "game" with Brooks' new bat and ball from Auntie Heather.  He still loves playing with balls.

Blowing bubbles

Uncle Joel and Grandma Gale

Katie & Eric aka "Jake's mama & daddy" :)

On Sunday we started the day by going to church then had a low key lunch.  After that Brooks opened presents from Grandma Marty and Papa Dave that they had sent in the mail.

A whole drum full of instruments.  My little musician LOVED it!

Anderson Family Band.  Watch for us.  We'll be big someday!

He makes this marching band mama proud!!!

While the "musical" ruckus was going on in the living room, Chris started assembling Brooks' new scooter he received from Grandma & Papa Gale at his party. 

Then while Carter was napping, Chris and Brooks did the ONE thing Brooks had been looking forward to for weeks.  Going to the arcade.  And it was extra special because it was just him and Daddy.  He had so.much.fun! 

We ended the evening with Brooks' requested birthday meal - hot dogs and chocolate milk.  No joke.  That's what he wanted.  And the rule in our house is you can have whatever dinner you want on your birthday.  But while he and Carter ate hot dogs, Chris and I enjoyed bacon wrapped sirloin steaks with fresh sauteed mushrooms and mashed potatoes.  I was NOT going to feed him hot dogs on Father's Day :)

A Letter to my Dad

Dear Dad,
Today I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for letting me play with the bait at your tackle shop and doing my hair with rubber bands and fishing spoons.

Thanks for coming to all my band concerts and dance recitals, even though I know you didn't really want to go.  It meant a lot that you came.

When you worked out of town, thanks for calling and playing "our song" over the phone for me.

Thanks for being silly and dancing around the kitchen table with me.

Thank you for teaching me to be an attentive driver.  For teaching me how to brake "gently" and to not cut through parking lots like a "Wisconsin driver".  Thanks for teaching me how to use jumper cables, check the oil in the car and change a flat tire.

Thanks for teaching me how to build a campfire, the difference between oak and pine logs, and the proper way to belch (sorry mom).

Thanks for encouraging me to get a good education, get smart and get a good job.  That's worked out well for me.

Thanks for teaching me to stand up for myself and others, even if no one else will.

Thank you for demonstrating generosity and giving to those who need it.  You've always been willing to 'help a guy out'.

Thanks for not totally freaking out when I told you I was getting married at 20 years old.

Thank you for welcoming Chris into our family.  Thanks for taking him fishing and hunting and for stuffing the ducks and pheasant.

Thank you for being a wonderful Papa to our two boys!  They adore you just as much I do.

Thanks for loving me dad.  Forever and always.  Happy Fathers Day.

Love,
Bug

pantless

I have many more important things to write about (and someday I'll get to them), but for now ....

a pantless toddler with a frog wrapped around his neck.  'Cause ya know ... why not?

Ooooh, I love me some chubby legs!!