Sam update

1. Says dada, mama, nana, baba. Says "a tee" for a tree. Says "dee-dee" (kitty) for every animal. Says "tee-tee" for train. He gets really excited when trains go by our house or when Thomas shows are on tv. We may have another train fan on our hands.

2. Knows the signs for eat, more, apple, and thank you. He doesn't say a whole lot, so I appreciate the signing. It helps me know what he wants.

3. He loves playing with balls, blocks, and cars.

4. He studies everything Isaiah does.

5. He loves to put his head down on the floor and have me help him do a somersault. He laughs and laughs at that.

6. He is beefy. He almost 15 months old and has outgrown his 18 month sweaters.

7. He can throw away his own diapers.

8. He is obsessed with turning the tv on and off. He also unplugs the rca cables so there's either no picture, no sound, or nothing at all.

Withholding information

I have learned the hard way with Isaiah that I shouldn't tell him all our family plans. There are two reasons for this: 1) Nothing's a sure thing until it happens, and when plans change, he tends to freak out. 2) The longer he knows about something, the more questions I will get about it, to the point it drives me crazy and I'm sorry I told him.

On Tuesday Isaiah's class had a joint fourth of July party with the 4th graders. He is very intimidated by the big kids at his school. So I knew if I told him that he would be paired with a fourth grader, he would worry about it and not want to go.

I see a parallel with our lives and how God only shows us one chapter, sometimes one page, at a time. If we saw the whole book of our lives, we would worry about things. We would only think of the future and not make the most of today.

For Patty

You all have to check out this parody of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" entitled "Steeler Ladies." It should put a smile on your face.

Bye

My 14-month-old son understands the concept of waving bye-bye. When he feels like it, he will oblige his mom and give a goofy little wave to whoever is leaving.

But have you noticed the new trend where people don't say "bye" at the end of phone conversations anymore? I'm about to say "bye" and all I hear is dead air. This has happened several times to me lately, and it always catches me off guard. Curious.

Sweet

Yesterday I had my hair in a pony tail. Isaiah said, "Mommy, I like your hair like that. You look like a princess."

Sharing his opinion

On Friday I told Isaiah I was going to get a haircut. He replied with:

Isaiah: What?! I like it that way!

Me: Well, it's not going to look that different. I'm just getting it a little shorter.

Isaiah: Well, don't you want flat hair?

I think he was afraid I was going to roll my hair with my spiral rollers like I did a few weeks ago. When I did that, he took one look at it and said, "Mommy, I don't like..." and he stopped.

I said, "You don't like my hair like this?"

He said, "No. I like it flat."

The little guys shares his opinion freely.

Some days you're the pigeon. Other days you're the statue.

Everything was fine this morning until Sam spilled water on himself at which point he broke down and could not calm down. He's been working on cutting a few molars the past few weeks, and one is just about to pop through. After a dose of Tylenol he was still out of sorts and giving me major "I'm tired" signs, so I put him down for a nap at 9:15 - at least an hour earlier than normal.

Isaiah was giving me problems all day, just being very moody, cranky, and overreacting to everything. Sometimes he acts this way when he is in pain, so I asked him if anything hurt. I asked him several times, and he kept saying no. His behavior got so bad at one point that he even ended up with a 30 minute time out in his bedroom. That rarely happens. At dinner he was playing with his ear, and after we asked him, he said his ear hurt. So that would explain the behavior. Poor kid.

After dinner I guess Sam was still hungry because he took grilled cheese crusts (from lunch!) out of the garbage and ate them. Ew! After the crust-eating incident, Sam took the sour cream container out of the recyling and tried to take a drink out of it. Yuck!

Add to that an incident with poo going everywhere (I won't go into details) and you have an interesting, exhausting day. Time to relax.

Life

Just in case you wonder what moms do... We don't just sit around watching soap operas and eating bon-bons. (I'm still not sure what a bon-bon is.)

No, we watch c-span. At least this mom does. This election has gotten me pretty interested in American politics, and now, more than ever, I am interested in what our government is doing. Maybe I want to keep my eye on them because I have more mistrust in our government than ever before.

Today we mark the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling. Also, today is the March for Life in Washington D.C. I know that several students from Eden are there today participating in the march.

With all these thoughts on the right to life, I turned on c-span, where I was happy to find Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas giving the most wonderful and heartfelt pro-life statement. Here are some bits from his address to the Senate:

• He estimated that approximately 40 million abortions have been performed since 1973 and that one in four pregnancies in the U.S end in abortion
• 80-90 % downs syndrome babies are aborted even though the quality of life and life expectancy is better than ever for a downs syndrome child
• He mentioned the March for Life, which he acknowledged will get little if any press coverage
• Below age 25 is the sector of the U.S. population with the largest percentage of people who are pro-life
• It seems a sure thing that Obama will repeal the Mexico City Policy which will allow taxpayers' money to be used to pay for abortions world-wide (this leads to so many other blogs...)
• He said that there is dignity in every human life
• Some say that quality of life is the measure which determines whether you will be given the gift of life, but in a dignified culture, every life should be celebrated. That is real change. That is what people really want their country to be like. (Liked his use of the word change here...)
• He also cited a statement issued by mental health professionals about the impact of an abortion on people who had them. Abortions can lead to severe depression and loss of self-esteem.
• He and another senator have worked to establish a list of people who want to adopt down syndrome and other special needs children.
• He said that each of his four children is such a precious treasure and that to imagine any one of them not being there would be tragic.
• His heart was really into everything he was saying, as he was near tears once or twice, especially when talking about his own children.

What followed next was pretty interesting. The senator noted a lack of quorum and asked for a quorum call, at which time the audio on c-span went out. So I guess we're not allowed to know who's in attendance and who is not. This controlling of information - is this Orwell's 1984 or what? Yesterday Obama urged government to be more transparent and present more information to the American people, not to use their legal right to withhold information. Just thought that was interesting.

But I was encouraged by Senator Brownback's statement, that there is still a reasonable voice in Washington, although a very small minority.

Changing the tire

Today we called AAA to change a tire on the Prizm. I watched the guy drive his big flatbed up our road, and his tires started spinning as he approached our driveway. After about four or five attempts, he finally got his truck into the driveway. While he was changing the tire he said, "You guys have a wicked driveway." I can only assume he meant wicked awesome.

Through the eyes of a three-year-old

Isaiah called these 'snow toothpicks' today. I had to laugh! Now he knows what they're really called.

Conversation

On Wednesday the boys and I went to the gym in the morning. Then I came home, put Sam down for a nap and got a shower, as I usually do. I realized that I wasn't going anywhere else for the rest of the day, especially with the forecast of a few inches of snow. So I put my comfy pj pants on with a sweatshirt.

Dan came home for lunch because he was going to be working late and wouldn't be home until 9 or 10 pm. Since we were going to have AAA change a flat tire on our car which is parked in our driveway, he asked me:

Dan: Hey, are you going to be around this afternoon?

Me: (laughing) No, I have several appointments and will be out all afternoon.

Dan: Oh yeah, I can see you're dressed for success!

Me: Just keep talking. You're giving me more and more blogging material...

Hehe

Oh yeah. That's how you get it done

Pittsburgh is going to the Superbowl. Woo-hoo!!!

Around half time, we were feeling slightly comfortable. As the Ravens caught up, we were slightly less so. This game was all about Polamalu who was a total beast. At the Carter interception at the end, Dan and I lept off our double recliner, nearly tipping the thing over in the process, threw off the blanket, and cheered our hearts out. Phew. I'm exhausted from watching that game.

The next two weeks are going to be INSANE in the 'burgh. Steelers fever baby!

Sam eating his Polamalu donut (hooray for leftover church donuts!) while wearing his Polamalu jersey.
Isaiah eating a Steelers donut. His jersey is missing. This is a problem that must be solved before the Superbowl.The boys.

The Snuggie has arrived

Dan ordered a Snuggie for me as one of my Christmas gifts. It was on backorder and didn't arrive for Christmas, so Dan printed out a picture of one and gave it to me with a note. Now, I had never heard of one. Apparently I am the only person in the country who hadn't heard of it. It looked pretty nice... kind of Jedi knight-ish.

The day after Christmas when we went to Dan's parents' house to open gifts and eat dinner, somehow we got talking about the other gifts we got. Everyone laughed and thought we were kidding when we said Dan got me a Snuggie. I think it was that night when I first saw the infamous commercial. WOW. What in the world? Wear it to a sporting event?! Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... thanks honey. So it has been a source of jokes between Dan and me since then.

Well, yesterday Dan came home, holding something behind his back and said, "I got you a present." Now I have learned NOT to get excited at this point. His "presents" are... well... usually freebees or something else strange and unusual. But he said my Christmas present had arrived. Ok. So I bravely opened it up and looked at it. I had no idea how to put it on. Turns out it's like a robe but the opening is in the back. After trying out and wearing my snuggie a little I have realized:

1. One size does NOT fit all. Mine is about 6-8 inches too long requiring me to have quite a bit of grace when I wear it. When I walk I have to lift up the side/front elegantly like I'm wearing a gown or wedding dress with a train... in the front. Dan says you're just supposed to wear it sitting down. Ok...

2. Last night I was making an applesauce spice bread and noticed that those big loose sleeves are pretty inconvenient when baking. They kept dragging and I kept pushing them up... also too long.

3. It is pretty warm when you're sitting down. It's basically like having a fleece blanket on, but your shoulders and arms stay warm, too! If you get up, you might notice a cold rumpus, as the opening is in the back, just like in the doctor's office.

So I'm going to have my mom make a few alterations: sew the back closed, and shorten the length and the sleeves. I might have her make the extra length into a belt, so it's more figure flattering... Then it should be perfect. =) Hehe.

So it's kind of goofy but pretty awesome.

Deep freeze (updated...)

So today has been interesting. Because of the weather forecast last night, we left our water running just a little bit overnight last night. Well, apparently we didn't have it running fast enough....

Normally Dan can thaw our frozen pipes in about 15-20 minutes. He has it down to a science. This morning after 45 minutes of using every method possible, our pipes were still frozen.

After a few phone calls, we got a plumber to come over, but because our pipes are plastic, he wasn't able to do much except offer some suggestions of what we could do.

So Dan rented a heater, bought some plastic, and closed off the area where our outside pipe from the well enters the house. The plumber said to heat the enclosed area up to 70-80 degrees and just leave it. So that's what is going on right now. We are waiting.

It's making me nervous because the kerosene heater is really smelling up the house. The rental note said that it emits carbon monoxide. I'm sure if the kerosene fumes are entering the house, so are the carbon monoxide emissions. So I have the windows slightly cracked (just what you want to do on a freezing cold day...) and we're hoping for the best. I would really love to get a shower, run the dishwasher, or just wash my hands. Hmmmmmm..................

*** After two hours of the rented heater, the pipes thawed!! I promptly got a hot shower and washed the dishes. Dan is out returning the heater and buying new heat tape. =)

January 15

Estimated taxes were due today. Exciting. Now that Dan's at the Lighthouse and they take his taxes out for him, paying our estimated taxes is a lot easier for me. (I'm no genius and I can figure it out. I'm not sure I can say the same for our possible future secretary of the treasury, Geithner, who may head up the IRS but can't figure out how to pay his estimated taxes... or chooses not to... I'm not sure which one.)
***
Four years ago my sister married Matt. Yeah! Now they have two beautiful daughters with hopefully more to come! =)
***
On the way home from school today, Isaiah started faking a sneeze, saying ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-choo which made Sam giggle. So he kept doing it, more and more exaggerated each time, making Sam laugh hysterically. For the rest of the afternoon, Sam kept saying ah-ah-ah, which was really cute because he couldn't figure out the 'choo.' =)
***
My mom took the boys out for dinner so Dan and I went out for dinner too. It was nice to sit and eat while carrying on adult conversation.
***
That plane crash in the Hudson river was pretty crazy. It's really fortunate that everyone survived.

Feeding time at the zoo

Dan was working late tonight, but Isaiah, Sam, and I had a fun time at dinner anyway. Isaiah hasn't been eating very well lately, so I just made them grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner because I knew he would eat that pretty easily. Well, somehow we started taking bites for different animals. So I started going through all the animals at the zoo, and telling them to take bites for everything from the polar bears to the stinky bats. Sam knows how to wave his arms up and down when we say 'bird' so he kept doing that. It was hilarious. They got pretty wound up but ate their dinners pretty well!

Keeping house

This is a phrase that has gone by the wayside. I learned it from my grandma. Sometimes when I'm talking to on the phone with her, she'll ask what we're up to, and I'll usually say that we're not doing too much. She'll reply with, "Well, just keeping house is more than a full time job."

I think the work associated with keeping a house going is often underestimated and under appreciated in our day. A messy house just ends up with a stressed out family who can't find anything and can't walk from one side of a room to another without stepping on something (in our case, toys!).

Most days, I just try to keep up with the never ending tasks, like laundry and dishes. Even that is tough while I'm busy occupying the boys. Occasionally I'll have the chance to wipe down the counters or table or (gasp!) vacuum. Honestly, vacuuming usually happens when there's some accident which results in a mess that must be cleaned up immediately. For example, Sam broke off the baby-proof latch that keeps the bottom of our hutch closed. Then he grabbed the sugar bowl that goes with my grandma's set of china and spilled the sugar everywhere. That was yesterday.

Some days I feel like I don't do much that's worthwhile. But then I remind myself - at least I'm keeping house, which is a pretty big job! And maybe my family is a little happier because of it.

Hmmm.... I wonder how much merry maids cost. =)

Reclining love seat

Because we wanted to be just like Jon and Patty, Dan and I got a reclining love seat from Levin's today. It is literally the second piece of furniture we've ever bought, aside from small bookshelves, etc. Anyway, we were considering buying one, and Jon told us what a great deal he got at Levin's, and so we went and got a pretty good deal, too.

Getting it in the house was quite an adventure. We borrowed a Lighthouse van to pick the love seat up. Of course we couldn't get the van very close to the house because of the snowy driveway, so we had quite a long way to carry it. But before we could get the love seat in the house, we had to get the futon out. We decided to get rid of the futon because those things just aren't meant to be used as couches. The one side was hopelessly squished and quite uncomfortable. Anyway, we tried to take it apart a few different ways, but ended up just struggling until we got it out of the house, almost falling down the outside stairs only once.

Then we tried to get the love seat up the outside stairs. I was on the bottom, and Dan was dragging it up the stairs, and I had visions of the thing falling on me and killing me, so I started to freak out. It really was pretty heavy, basically being two recliners hooked together. So we ended up getting my mom to help (she came over to watch the kids while we were doing all this...) taking it up through the yard, across the bridge, then in. We also carried out another couch which seemed light as a feather compared to the love seat. Go figure. So hopefully someone else will get some use out of the futon and couch.

Then we had a fun time rearranging the tv room and the living room, going through some toys that we're going to "share" with the gym and/or church nursery.

This was all between church and the amazing Steelers game! Now on to the AFC Championships!

Snow fun

This is my third post today. Oh well! I just thought I would put up some pictures of the boys playing in the snow. We were supposed to get up to eight inches, but we only got about three! It was enough for some fun sledding though. Our yard is very hilly, so there are all sorts of fun places to sled. I even got Dan to start at the top of the hill, sled down, jump over a two foot drop (ouch!), across the driveway, and down the rest of the hill. It was great! Sam and Isaiah both went sledding with us, but neither of them liked the snow spraying in their face. Dan convinced Isaiah to go by himself, but Sam and I were inside by that point.

Isaiah heading right toward me with a big snowball!

About to go down the hill with Daddy.Just lovin' the snow!

Horse

I could write a separate blog (not a separate post, a separate blog!) about what goes on while I'm in the bathroom, which is not often or for long periods of time!!

This morning I went into the bathroom for just a minute. I heard Isaiah saying "Giddy-up-up-up Giddy-up-up-up." This should have prompted me to ask what he was doing. Instead, he offered the information, "I'm pretending my brother is a horse!" "Isaiah get off your brother right now!" followed immediately. The thing is, Sam never complained, so I guess it wasn't bothering him!

Breakfast man

The other morning, Isaiah and I had a conversation like this.

Isaiah: What are you doing?

Me: Getting my breakfast ready.

Isaiah: Why?

Me: Because I'm hungry.

Isaiah: But why didn't you eat already?

Me: Because I just didn't get my breakfast yet.

Isaiah: Well, why didn't you just ask Daddy to get your breakfast?

Dan always gets Isaiah's breakfast, because they're usually the first two up. I guess Isaiah thought Dan should get everyone's breakfast! Sounds good to me!

Tough questions

So Isaiah has been asking some tough questions lately. When he hears wind, he asks me if the trees are going to fall over. See, he knows from playing with blocks that tall things fall over easily. So I drew him a picture of the trees with roots, and he sort of got the fact that the roots hold on to the ground, so that the trees don't fall over.

Then the other day he was bummed that it was raining, so I said that rain is really good for the trees because it gives them a drink. Of course he asks, "How does it give them a drink?" So I had to explain how the roots absorb the water from the dirt. "Well, how to the branches get a drink?" Ok. This is going way back to 7th grade earth science. I really had no idea, so I just said that the water goes up the tree like you suck water up through a straw.

Then sometimes he quizzes me, like today in the car.

Isaiah: Does God ever choose the wrong person?
Me: The wrong person for what?
Isaiah: No, just, does God ever choose the wrong person?

Me: No.

Isaiah: You're right! Like on Gideon (veggie tales), they say, God never chooses the wrong person!

Isaiah: Does God ever make mistakes?

Me: No.

Isaiah: You're right!

He's only 3. I'd be lying if I said I don't dread how much more difficult the questions will get in the years to come!

Icy Tuesday

Today has given me so much to blog about. Where do I start? I'll just share a few thoughts.

Today was our first day back to our regular schedule of preschool, band, lessons, and worship team practice. It definitely feels good to be back to a routine, even though I always kick myself for trying to pack too much into one day.

I was a little concerned about driving all around the north hills today because of the weather forecast... freezing rain... not fun. Turns out all the roads were fine except for our road and our driveway. We've lived here for over four years now and have seen our fair share of mixed winter precipitation, but this has been the worst. The hilly road leading up to our house is literally a solid sheet of shiny, wet ice. It is as smooth as a pond. I've never seen anything like it on a road. When we left the house for worship team practice tonight we couldn't make the one turn and ended up going sideways, almost backwards, down the hill. It ended up in a slightly tense moment between Dan and I! (He was driving...) When we came back, we parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up. THAT was interesting. Nothing like taking 25 steps to go one inch forward! Slippery wet ice is the worst! So I've decided I'm inventing a new sport: downhill ice skating. Our hill would be PERFECT!

Then there's this other part about Dan walking my mom down to her car, while my mom was using a shovel for a walking stick. Two people walking through the dark woods with a shovel... sounds like a horror flick!

So that's just part of my interesting crazy day.

Rest in peace, Obadiah Zephaniah Borchert

Ok. The middle name was kind of a joke. But unfortunately we did have to get Obi enthanized this morning. He had a uti a few weeks ago that resulted in a few not-so-cheap trips to the vet. Yesterday he was vomiting throughout the day, and he had a really rough night, roaming the house and meowing. Poor thing. Dan read that excessive vomiting in cats can be a sign of liver malfunction, so I was kind of prepared for the worst. I called the vet first thing this morning, and she determined that Obi had a full bladder and was unable to urinate, meaning he had a blocked urinary tract. At first I was happy, because that didn't seem like that big of a deal. But once they explained about the anesthesia, probing the urinary tract, chances of the problem recurring since he is a male cat, special canned cat food, the total came to $750. Wow.

I called Dan since I couldn't make the obvious decision by myself. Thankfully Dan was only five minutes from the vet and came right over. My mom had Isaiah for the night, so she brought him right over to say good bye. It was sad. Of course Sam had no clue what was going on. He just kept laughing and giving everyone kisses. I wonder if he'll realize that his dee-dee (how he says kitty) is gone. Isaiah seemed sad at the vet, but I think he is starting to grasp the concept of illness and death, so we'll see how he does with it.

Twinbrook sent Obi home in a lovely cardboard casket-shaped box. It was really sweet actually. Dan told me they'd probably just stick him in a garbage bag! Thank goodness he was wrong! =) Dan buried him in the woods beside our house.

Twinbrook and everyone who worked there was just so wonderful. They gave us as much time as we needed to get everyone together and say good bye. It was a great place to make a tough decision.

By the way, I had to include the first picture above. Have you ever seen a more pathetic picture?! It was real. In the second picture we tried to look a little happier.

New Year's Trip

We left Wednesday afternoon to see my dad in CT. We really didn't know how long it would take us to get there. We got caught in some traffic for 20-30 minutes because of a multi-vehicle accident, and when I say multi- I mean 10+ cars. It was crazy. We only stopped for one bathroom break, then later we stopped for a quick dinner at Subway. But it only took us 9.5 hours. We were expecting it might take us up to 10.5 hours. We made it there at 11:00, just in time for the new year! When we parked the car at my dad's, Sam and Isaiah were both sleeping, but Isaiah popped his head up and said with a peppy smile, "Well, that didn't take too long!"

We had a good time though. We ate great food constantly. Dan and I got to have lunch with my good friend from high school, Elizabeth. We drove around by my high school, my old neighborhood, and my old church. I hadn't been to CT in over four years, so it was good to see what changed and what didn't.

The trip back was a dream! Beautiful weather, relatively quiet kids (portable dvd player!!), and absolutely no car trouble. Amazing! We only stopped twice, and made it home in eight hours. Yahoo maps said it should take 8.5 hours. Yes, Dan drove the whole way (he doesn't trust my driving!), so it's to his credit that we got home so quickly. =)