Sad news

This is definitely not what I thought my next blog post would be about but here it goes.... we lost the baby. I went in today for my 19 week check-up and the Doctor couldn't find a heart beat. She then did an ultrasound and we couldn't see a heartbeat. I then went over to the hospital where they did an ultrasound and confirmed everything for insurance purposes. I think every ounce of liquid in my body has come out in tear form. Of course the first thing to pop in my head was, "Did I do something wrong? Did I lift too much? Did I not eat enough? Did I push myself too hard?" This was all followed closely by the thought, "The Lord is in control. For some reason you need to wait." My Doctor even said they never know why it happens like that. That someone can come in for their 15 week appointment and have a strong fetal heartbeat and then come back for their 19 week appointment and find no heartbeat. It just happens sometimes. Just as a side note, my doctor was fantastic through all of this. She was very kind and loving and she took care of all the details that needed to be attended to that I would have no clue about such as insurance issues and other doctors visits. What a blessing! I don't know why it happened like this but we're going to be OK. That's not to say that I'm done shedding tears but I'm OK.

My little tease

This post is about Austin. I've noticed some things he does these past few weeks. Climbing is a huge one but the one that surprises me is what a tease he is. At first I just thought he was testing his boundaries but after multiple incidents I realized that Austin is a tease. The kid loves to pester people. Here are a few examples...

Carter was quietly playing with one of his trains. It has four cars and he was lying on his side driving them along the carpet totally content. Austin was playing with some other toys in the same room and I was knitting. Pretty soon I noticed Austin staring at Carter. Then he walked over to where Carter was playing and bent down like he wanted to watch. Carter kept playing and then Austin quickly grabbed one of the train cars and RAN across the room laughing his head off. He thought he was so clever. I gave the train car back to Carter who resumed playing and then tried to get Austin interested in some other toys. He played for a second and then decided it was way more fun to grab the train away from Carter and get chased so he proceeded to do that. Luckily Carter found it funny too so they played chase for a while.

Second incident.. I was sitting on the couch knitting. I don't know what it is but my kids are fascinated with yarn. I ended up putting a few balls of left over yarn in the toys so they could play with it and would leave mine alone. Anyway, I'm knitting away and Austin discovers that I've got a skein of yarn hidden between my body and the couch and comes over to try to get it. When I wouldn't let him have it he turned away and acted like he was trying to decide what toys he wanted to play with. I turned my attention back to the hat I was working on and as soon as I was preoccupied Austin turned, grabbed the yarn and started to run. When I got up to retrieve my yarn Austin ran faster and put my yarn in his mouth!! He ended up falling because he was laughing so hard and I was able to pry my yarn from his fingers and mouth. What a goofball!!

Austin totally gets what he's doing. He knows he's teasing you. I never would have thought that a 15 month old could be such a tease. We are going to be in so much trouble when he gets older. The sad thing is I can't blame this on anyone else, well maybe my Dad. I'm almost positive he gets it from the Doney side of the family.

Goodbye Mom and Dad....

That's right, Carter rarely call us Mom and Dad anymore. He seems to prefer Melissa (pronounced Meyissa) and Zach. I really started to notice it last week and it's still going strong. He's gone through stages before where he realizes that I answer to names other than Mom. For instance, when he was little he noticed that Zach called me Masha. It apparently stood out to him more when Zach was in the back of the apartment and needed something so he would semi-shout "Masha" and I would respond. So Carter had a stage when, if he had to call me for something he would always call "Masha" not Mom. Then next time came when we lived with my family this last summer. Out of the seven kids I'm the only girl so all my brothers, my parents and even some neighbors call me Sis. Carter notice this and would try it out every once in a while. It was kind of comical because whenever he called me Sis he would kind of squint one eye and raise his eyebrows like, "Will it work? Will she answer me?". I'm not sure how long this current trend will last. We'll have to wait and see. I'm sure it will pass eventually but until it does I answer to Meyissa.

The number three.

Some of you may have noticed that I've had three blog posts every month. I cut it pretty close in January but I finally did get three posts up on the 31st. I know, February's nearly over and here I am on only my first post of the month. Don't worry, I plan on at least three. It's not that I don't have things to blog about. I have a whole list of things on my fridge and calendar. I just can't seem to find time to sit down at the computer without one of the boys coming and peeking their head around my shoulder until we're nose to nose and they're asking me to do something. I'm sure you're thinking, "What about after you've put the boys to bed?" My answer to that is, that's usually when I go to bed as well. Seriously, I've been in bed around nine o'clock almost every night this week. Now, you may be wondering where I'm even going with this whole thing. It all ties in with the title of this post. The number three. I'm pregnant. Little Holmstead number three is on his way. I had my first doctors appointment this week. I'm 11 weeks along and due September 8th. Anyway, that's the news!!




Isn't that cool!? I've never had an ultrasound so early. It was fun to see the little heart beating. We're excited about our little peanut.

Happy Birthday Austin!!

He's one! My baby is one!! I can not believe how fast the time has gone. Wow!!

Playing in the snow

Austin is such a fun boy. He loves to do whatever his big brother is doing. He loves to play with cars and trucks and even makes the "brrrm brrrm" sound when he's driving them.

He wants to eat whatever Carter is eating. Austin has been begging to eat real food since he was eight months or so. He loves chunks and pieces. His latest favorite food is peas and even if he's just eaten a full meal he will never turn down something that comes off of our plates. If I have to blow on his food to cool it down he seems a lot more interested in eating it. I'll blow on a spoon full and his eyes will get really wide, then as I go to feed him the bite he'll put his lips together and blow on it too before he'll eat it. It makes me laugh.

Austin has been walking since the beginning of December. He's now running and climbing. Seriously, this kid is fast. He'll climb on and in anything he can. His latest climbing trick is to get up on the couch and grab the TV remote. He gets really proud of himself when he does this. He's also discovered that when the dishwasher's open he can lift things out and climb on the door. (I can only do dishes if he's in his high-chair or sleeping.) He's gotten up in our window sills a few times and is constantly climbing on Carter's train table.

climbing

He's a double-fisted player. This kid is always walking around with a toy in each hand. And the two toys are almost always similar. For example, two cars, two plastic animals, two stuffed animals, two bottles, two TV remotes, two books, he's always got to have something in each hand.



We are so glad to have this sweet little boy in our family. We love you Austin!!

New Do

I finally went and got my hair cut at the beginning of January. It had been eight months since my last one. Here it is! What do you think?

Christmas 2008

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Carter still didn't really get the whole Santa thing until Christmas morning. He woke up around 5 o'clock and came into our bedroom. I tried to get him to go back to sleep, and he did for about an hour. Then he was back up and wanted to watch a movie (his usual morning routine) but it wasn't 7:00 yet, which is when he can watch a movie. (We made this rule hoping he would sleep longer. It isn't working!) He ended up playing in his room for a little bit and then he would come in our room every couple of minutes, walk over to my side of the bed and say, "Excuse me mommy, I need something." At one point he wanted a drink. I told him to go in his room and get the cup of water I'd left there for him. He scurried out of our room and was gone for about five minutes. When he came back in he was so excited. "Mommy, there's a great big train and lots of presents. A great big train that I just walked passed. Dead Marose (Santa, in Russian) did bring them for me." It was so cute! Austin was still asleep so we let Carter play with his train while we waited for him to wake up.

They both really enjoyed opening presents. It took a lot of convincing to get them to take the wrapping paper off a bunch of them before they started to play with them all. One of the first gifts Austin opened was a rattle that Carter had gotten for him. He was totally content carrying that one toy around for most of the morning. I think my favorite thing that Carter said while we were opening presents was, "Dad, let's go gun something." He'd gotten a little gun that shoots those little suction cup darts and was ready to use it. Even better, we told him they were called bullets, (he'd been calling them "gun things") to which he replied, "Dad, let's go gun something with these gullets." Hilarious!!

The rest of our Christmas day was spent playing with toys and just hanging around the house. The boys were both sick so I'm glad it was so laid back. (By the end of Christmas week I hadn't left the house in two weeks due to sick kids. Goo!)

One thing that really surprised me was the after effects of Christmas. For three days Carter woke up at 5:00 wanting to go get a drink and see if there was a train waiting for him in the front room. Seriously, there was no getting him back to sleep those mornings so I just sent him out to play with his toys. Crazy kid!

My favorite thing from this Christmas, and something I hope to make a tradition, is that Zach and Carter decorated and undecorated for Christmas. Yes, you read right. Zach and Carter dug the tree out of our storage closet and set it up, we all put the ornaments on, and then the day after Christmas Zach and Carter undecorated the tree, took it down and packed it away. It was wonderful!! I really think this is our new Holmstead family tradition.