I have a collection...

A collection of quotes from the Tate-o. I've been scribbling them down, texting them to Glenn, and trying to remember them for a while. It's time I get them recorded before I forget them all!

Lately he's been playing a lot of make believe. He becomes an animal or a character from a movie and suddenly I'm another animal (the mommy animal) or another character from the same movie.
- "Mommy, I'm a dinosaur. This is my blue tail. I'm extinct!"
- "The little lion cub named Simba is sleeping on this grey couch while his mommy lion is doing her exercise movie."
- "Mom, you are Kanga and I am little Roo."
- Sometimes he doesn't clue me in on the animals we're playing, he just calls me an animal. Most of the time it's just fine but every once in a while he calls me something unflattering. I was talking to him about how he needed to tell me when it's time to go potty and he just looked at me and replied with a , "Yeth mommy walruth."
- Sometimes he likes to distinguish the kind of animals we are by the color of shirts we're wearing. I was wearing a pink shirt and Tate was wearing a black shirt with an orange car at the time, "The pink elephant wants to take the.....(looks down at his shirt) orange car elephant down the stairs to get him some orange juice!"
- When he's in a Fox and the Hound mode, I'm Copper and he's Todd. "We'll always be friends forever, right Copper?"
- When we play Winnie the Pooh I'm Christopher Robin and Glenn is Eeyore. "Christopher Robin, can you juggle?" No Winnie the Pooh. I'm sorry, I don't know how. "Eeyore can juggle. I think he'll be home soon."
- In the movie Bolt, the dog thinks he has super powers that have been taken from him by being in contact with Styrofoam. Tate was trying to lift something really heavy one day and muttered under his breath, "Ooo, must be made of styrofoam."
- One day on our morning walk we stopped to feed the ducks our left over pancakes and one snuck up and bit a piece right out of his hand. He jumped, whimpered a little, then shook it off and said, "Wo, that thurprithed me!"
- "I know just what to do! Watch Toy Story!"
- He has this darling idea that hugging makes everything better. So once when I was throwing up he heard me and told Glenn, "I want to make her happy." Glenn tried to hold him back for a minute but Tate just ran in and hugged me over the toilet and said, "Mom, I'm hugging you to make you happy again."
- When he was sick and about to throw up he'd just start sobbing and saying, "Mommy, make me happy. Make me happy!" Broke my heart.
- In the bath tub, "Mommy, you want to kiss this mean turtle so he'll be nice."
- Crying in his room while not taking his nap, "My face is all wet! Wipe this water off my face!"
- Sometimes he narrates what he's doing as he's doing it. "The big boy hugged his mom." "The baby tiger is playing with his train."- When Glenn was playing with him the other day, "Daddy, you will take me to the movie theater and we will watch the lion king and you will get popcorn!"- Then there's the just plain sweetness. "Mom, I'm happy playing with you." - Lately he likes to hide under blankets or especially under the covers on our bed. "Daddy, can we all three hide in the cave?" Most of the time he wants to be found. Sometimes he gives us instructions that go something like this, "Mommy, can you say, 'Where's Daddy and Tate?'"
- When talking about new baby brother and how sometimes he will cry, "I will make him happy. I will sit with him and we will watch my Christmas tree train. And I will show him how to watch a show. We will snuggle on the couch and watch Toy Story.
- And my latest favorite on a particularly emotional morning in his high chair, "I have tears that are wobbling on the corner of my eyes and splashing onto the tray. Make me happy again."

Changes

Today was a big day. I took Tate to my OB appointment this morning. We had a really long wait so he got super antsy, but he's been sick again this week (bronchitis this time) so I didn't feel like I could pass him off to anyone. We've been reading books lately about new babies and he remembered from past appointments and books that when the nurse puts the "microphone" up to my tummy we can hear baby brother's heartbeat. This time he sat really still, listened to the swishing sound, then started mimicking it from across the room. It was really funny. The nurse just smiled.

Today my Dr. gave me some GREAT news. I'm trying not to get my hopes up...but I am getting my hopes up. She's going to be gone a few days before Christmas until a few days after new years so she may let me be induced as early as December 21st. I'm thrilled. I love to plan so very much and having that date as a possibility and all that entails (planning early for Christmas, being home from the hospital for Christmas day, not having the possibility of giving birth on Christmas day, knowing when to ask for help with Tate, etc.) makes me very happy. There are a lot of reasons the Dr. is willing to let me go that early. It's 10 days before my due date but little boy is measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule and she says considering Tate was so large this guy would be very big if we let him go full term. I hope that can stay the plan. I love having a plan!

I spent all morning just elated at having a plan and having so many concerns taken away. Then there have been a few melancholy moments this afternoon. Realizing that our time as a threesome is quickly coming to a close makes me a little panicked. And at the same time I can't wait to see and hold this little boy, introduce him to his big brother, watch his daddy love him to bits, snug his possibly tiny body. I'm so excited that Tate will be the big kid and get to help and be the example to this little guy...and at the same time I'm mourning the loss of my first little baby boy. He's not a baby anymore and that fact is really in my face this week.

Tonight is his first night in his new room. His room is now painted (thank you Glenn) and has a big boy twin bed and a little dresser of his own. A few other things need to be hung and finished up, but his little body is in that big bed tonight and that makes me...pretty sad. He's excited about his new room, which makes it easier. I'm going to have to figure out how bed time songs are going to go. There has got to be some snuggling during the songs. Tonight I missed the snuggling in the rocking chair during song time. It's my sweet snug time with my not so little boy and I'm going to figure out a way to keep the snugs coming even though he's in his big bed.

Lots of mixed feelings today which I'm sure are going to be tumbling around in my brain for a while. I know this all comes with the territory. I know it will all work out as it should and we'll be a very happy foursome in the end. Right now, I'm missing the way my little tiny baby Tate looked in his great big crib. I swear it's like someone pushed a very fast forward button the moment we became parents and all we can do is try out best to savor the moments as they fly by.

Still Pregnant

I'm now 34 weeks along and I don't think I've recorded anything about this pregnancy since I first recorded that the little guy existed. I figured I'd better get on that before it's all over and I forget everything!

This pregnancy has been different from the first one. Either I forgot how sick I was last time, or I was just more sick this time. It was pretty bad for a long time and every once in a while there's still a bad day or a bad smell that just kicks up the contents of my stomach. Good stuff. Even so, it was still not too miserable. I'm grateful I'm not one of those people who is throwing up constantly through all 9 months, or who has to be hospitalized because literally nothing stays down. It's not that terrible for me, and for that I'm very grateful.

This time I was having crazy sciatic pain until about 6 months...when I finally stopped jogging. Turns out that was the instigator and since trading my morning jog for a longer morning walk, that pain has almost completely vanished. While I miss being really sweaty after a little run and all of the good mental health and confidence boost advantages that come with it, I'm glad to not be in terrible pain most of the time! Fair trade I suppose. This whole loss of the control over the way my body is going to grow and change during pregnancy is not my favorite. Wouldn't it be nice if you could decide where and how much pregnancy weight you were going to gain? Mmmm, I would really like that. I just keep telling myself that I got back into shape once and I can do it again. It's part of the process. And if this process results in another sweet little baby boy...I'll take it.

While the beginning of my pregnancy was rather rocky (Glenn was a sweet, patient angel), the last month or so has been great. I'm enormous. I hear that it's normal to be more enormous with #2 but it's still kind of unsettling. How on earth is there room for 6 more weeks of growth in there? How enormous is this little boy going to be? Does he know that he's welcome to come out a little earlier if he's ready so that he doesn't surpass his big brother's birth weight? Tate was quite big enough, thank you. While I feel like I look like...something huge...I still feel great at this point. I know that the really uncomfortable last few weeks are coming, so I'm just trying to savor this time of not feeling claustrophobic in my own body. It's nice right now.

I'm amazed with how fast this pregnancy has gone. These last six weeks look rather long from this end, but the fact that I only have six weeks left and that over 7 months have passed is crazy too. Just six more weeks of being a family of three. Six more weeks of being able to give 100% to Glenn and Tate. I'm just planning on the adjustment period after babe is born being pretty rough. Then if it's not so terrible I'll be pleasantly surprised. I hope Tate handles it well and knows I'm still crazy about him. I wanted him to have a sibling for so long. There were times I wondered if that would ever happen. I know it's the right thing for our family. I know he'll adjust eventually if not right at first. And I know that in order to be a well-rounded person he has to learn that he isn't the center of the universe. He can't have everything he wants in life and he can't have everything right now. He needs to learn to be patient, to share, and to take turns. What better place for him to learn those things than in a home where he is loved so very much? This will be good for him and his little brother will just adore him...and hopefully be just like him.

Messy Job

Yesterday there was a very wet accident at church. It was gross. Will there ever come a time when potty training is 100%? Will it be years from now?

This morning I was lucky enough to have Glenn home for a few hours. He's playing in a company golf tournament today and he didn't have to be there very early so he had breakfast with us and then went for our morning walk with us. On the way home Tate threw up. A lot. He was soaked, huge puddles in the stroller, and he kept unloading in the woods. Excellent. I was SO grateful that Glenn was there! My poor sense of smell has been pretty sensitive lately and we would have had to take several barf breaks on the way home if I had had to carry little soaked boy and push the stroller by myself. Oh yes, and our washing machine isn't working so all the vomit laundry will have to just pile up for a bit until the guy comes to (hopefully) fix it tomorrow...or I make a run down the street to a neighbor's house.

All in all, today could have started out much worse than it did! Glenn helped hose things down before he left for golfing, we don't have anywhere we have to be today and kiddo is acting quite happy in between barfing sessions so hopefully it will pass quickly. It's funny how your perspective on mess changes when it's a sweet little boy who you adore making the messes and he's saying things like, "I'm not very sick mom (as he's crying and vomiting). I'm very happy!" Or, "Mom, hug me and make me feel better!" It's one of those things that are hard to imagine being possible before you have a kid of your own and you love them enough to just keep cleaning up after them. Sure, it gets tiring and there are times I get fed up, but he's a very sweet boy and the snugs and sweet paybacks are frequent with this job too.

Halloween Festivities

We had a whole weekend of Halloween this year. Friday night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. Tate was so excited to wear his Peter Pan costume. He still hasn't seen the Disney version, but he LOVES the musical and kept wandering around the house us as Glenn and I got ready saying to himself, "I look just like Peter Pan" and smiling.

Glenn decided last minute that we should dress up for the trunk-or-treat too. His idea was that we should dress up as each other. So there we went, to our ward function, Glenn dressed in my maternity clothes stuffed with a pillow, and he suited me up in his lacrosse gear. The stake president is in our ward. I'm pretty sure he didn't approve...oh well. We thought we were funny.

Tate got lots of lollipops. He would have been just as thrilled with just one. Kiddo loves lollipops.

On Monday morning I wrestled Tate into his costume again (for some reason he was very anti-costume that morning) and we went to visit Glenn at work. We brought him some Halloween treats, Daddy got to show off his cute little boy at work, and Tate got to watch Daddy fly his toy helicopters in his office. Tate knows that Glenn's toy helicopters live in Glenn's office and always asks to see them when we visit.

Finally, last night we got kiddo in his costume one last time and took a few pictures out front.

Here he is showing off his flying skills.

Then we walked down the street to a little neighborhood partywhere we shared pizza, conversation, and toys with neighbors before heading out for some trick-or-treating. Tate was quite happy borrowing other kids' toys. He needs a bike in a bad way.

Then he and Glenn went around the neighborhood while I manned the door. It was so cute watching little Tate walk down the street in his costume holding his pumpkin bucket and his daddy's hand. This year he "got" Halloween and was thrilled every time he said the magic words and people put candy in his bucket. He thought it was so cool. It was a very fun weekend. I've never been a huge Halloween fan. But this year, with Tate having so much fun, I quite enjoyed it. Happy Halloween!