Saturday

I'm snuggling my little man and have a few semi-quiet moments, thanks to Daddy being home, so I thought I'd say hi!

Graeme and I watched the video I posted last week late one night and laughed and laughed...into bed...the next morning, the next evening, etc., etc. I don't know why we found it so funny. I suppose because it was just so bizarre.

Levi is four months now! I can't believe it. He's getting so big. His first food was a lollipop at three months. Noah fed it to him.

Noah continues his early Friday morning arousal due to the garbage truck coming through the neighborhood. He gets so excited by having a big tough garbage truck that close by. We quietly tuck him back in...only for him to get up again when the recycling truck comes through!

Elijah has been having fun riding bike, doing math, hoarding toys in his bed and cup holders in the van, and really enjoyed playing with the neighbor's "herman crabs".

Sophia says her favorite toy is her real baby brother and is especially fond of trying to get him to smile and also holding him up with her hands under his arms like a mommy. We just went through a major emptying of her room. She loves stuffed animals, but they were overtaking our lives. So, now they are resting peacefully in the black trash bag in the great below of our basement. She's okay with that, and likes having room to walk in her room. :)

Yesterday we got to go to Sight and Sound to see In the Beginning! My Mom watched the two little boys and we took the big kids. It was so much fun...the kids really enjoyed it.

I want to post some pictures, but my computer is giving me problems. Ta-ta for now!

Is it just me or is this hysterical?

Noah and the burger

We were at Chick-fil-a the other day and Graeme was giving Noah his chicken sandwich. He said, "Here Noah, here's your burger". Noah took the sandwich and opened it up and said, "Where are they". He was looking for the boogers (burger).

It's fun to have a 2 year old in the house.

'Lijah

I love how Elijah still says some words wrong. It's some of the last baby-ishness in him. I asked him if he could say vanilla, to which he said enthusiastically, "this time I know how to say it, ba-nel-a!" I love to ask him and then hear him say it as Banella.

We have been doing some phonics in school this year. he's PreK, but we are having fun together. We did the letter "r" one day and I didn't even realize that he says "r" as /o/ or /w/. It's so cute to hear him say, "/o/ you coming?" or "we wan to the pool". Stay little my sweet one.

Eli's favorite things these days are to "sit right next to me" at the table and spread his person all over my lap if I am sitting on the sofa or bed. I love his cuddly-ness.

Bees

Bees are an apparently very in demand insect at our house lately. I keep "losing" the bug spray bottle and the hair spray bottle and the water spray bottles to eager bee-slayers. Picture me running around the house when we are late for church trying to find the spray bottles for the boys' hair because they are in the back yard with the eterminated bees.

Noah got stung by a yellow jacket earlier this summer. It was so sad to see his little eye so swollen. The swelling didn't seem to bother him. I immediately went to grab the ibuprofen to give him some, but we didn't have any, he downed nearly a whole bottle of Ibuprofen just the week or two before. Did you know if your 35ish pound 2 year old drinks 4 ounces of Ibuprofen they do not have to go to the emergency room!? Just in case you were wondering.

Okay, back to the bees. The kids are very aware of the yellow jackets and bees in the air and like to talk about how they saw the biggest and the bestest bee and so on. Sophia and Elijah hunt the creatures with shovels, brooms and hairspray, and upon their unfortunate end the bees end up in a plastic sand pail filled with water. This is a tremendously popular pastime at our house this year. Noah, who wants to join in on the big kid fun saw a bee and mused, "Look! A bumble jacket!"

I love that little mischeif maker.

More Noah Funnies

Mommy: Noah, are you a queen?



Noah: No, you are a princess and I'm a kinger.

Noah Funnies

Here are a few of the latest from Noah...

When strapped into his car seat and excitedly wanting to be released, "Buckle me out! Buckle me out!!"

My Dad took all the grandkids on a train ride. Noah and PopPop have a mutual interest in trains, and afterward Noah spoke very fondly of the event, "I went on a runaway come-boose train ride". He rode the steam train, and now he wants to go on the "runaway come-boose diesel ride". I love that little train lover and his PopPop.

For Posterity

When something tastes good, Noah says, "it tates!"

Sophia still calls crutches, "crunches". I don't correct her...it's too cute. :)

Noah: "I'm sick, I need some lettuce-in (medicine)".

Elijah: "tatoes", for potatoes

There's more funnies, but I can't remember them now that I'm sitting down to record them! :)

Levi is 6 weeks old...yee-haw!

Graeme is home tomorrow, double yee-haw!!!

Mom Pedicure

What you'll need:

1 set of rowdy hooligans
1 pair of callused Mama feet complete with chipping nail polish
1 childrens swimming pool
1 nursing infant with coordinating nursing pillow
1 chair to sit next to the pool
Snacks for said hooligans
Patio umbrella to shield infant from the sun's rays
1 foot file

Directions: Sit next to pool in chair with nursing infant. Insert callused feet into pool filled with water AND dirt, rocks, sand and grass clippings. Feed snacks to children, continue to nurse and nurse and nurse while refereeing kiddos. Put sleeping baby to bed. Feed more snacks to children. Hold crying child. Put child down and file away.

The result: Smooth feet with always attractive chipped polish.

Couple this treatment with a bi-weekly shower and you will give Katie Holmes a run for her money.

3 Week Weigh In

Levi turned 3 weeks old yesterday! He is such a sweet baby, and he is starting to sleep longer....hooray!!!

We grow big babies in these parts. I thought it would be fun to record the kids' weekly weights as they are quite astounding at this stage. Here's a run down of each of their weights at 3 weeks old:

Sophia: 11 pounds 2 ounces
Elijah: 11 pounds 8 ounces
Noah: 11 pounds 2 ounces
Levi: 10 pounds 6 ounces.

As you can see, Levi is our lightweight. However, all is not lost as he only weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce last week. I think he is trying to catch up. :)

Levi

The man has been here for almost three weeks. I got 7 hours of broken sleep last night...5 straight hours then 2 more...it felt like heaven on earth. :) Since the man was born, Sophia and I have had strep throat, Levi had to go back to the hospital for a jaundice test which involved the staff losing our paperwork which equalled an hour long wait, then an inexperienced nurse dug around on my poor baby's heel for 10 minutes before finally extracting enough blood for a blood test, Elijah has an infected finger, Noah got a bee sting, Sophia got an allergic reaction to her antibiotics, and Momma was/is t.i.r.e.d.. There was/is a lot of people to Dr. around here.

The littlest is soooo very wonderful. I love to smooch him as does his other mother (Sophia). The kids love him, Sophia especially. It's cute to see them interact. On Sunday afternoon I took a nap, and Sophia brought him into our room in a different onesie and told me that he had pooped and that she had changed his diaper and put a clean onesie on him. Then she had taken his poopy clothes to the laundry room for me...ah, bliss!Here are some pictures of the new little man...

Levi's Pregnancy pictures

The first two were taken on Mother's day and the last one was taken on Wednesday. Once again, I have donned "big blue" for the occasion...

Don't mind my Dorothy Hamil hairdo. My stylist got a little scissor-happy. :)

I thought I looked small-ish in the first two, but then when I saw this one, I changed my mind...

What do you think? How big do you think ole' Levi will be???

Noah's Pregnancy pictures

Here I am in the same outfit I was wearing in the Elijah pictures. I was about 6 weeks from delivering in this picture too.

Here I am in my resident "big blue" shirt which I reserve for the last weeks of pregnancy. I was late in these pictures. My eyes look so tired in these pictures. I think this was a Sunday and he was born the following Saturday.

Elijah's Pregnancy pictures

All I could find from Elijah's pregnancy was these pictures from about 6 1/2 weeks before he was born. So, I guess they don't really compare very well because they were taken so long before he was born...

These aren't pregnancy pics, but I couldn't resist sharing them. Wasn't my Man handsome in this picture?

Sophia was so cute and small and edible! I forget how small she once was. My baby is growing up...wah...

Sophia's Pregnancy picture

All right girls, here are the pregnancy picture. Don't laugh too hard at this one! Don't you love my "amazon woman" hair??? Notice my rather large elephant feet. All finished off with a lovely red jumper for extreme style...lol!

This is the only picture I could find from Sophia's pregnancy. I know there are others, but I would have had to search the basement for them.

Noah's Birth

Noah means peace and rest from the Lord and his entire pregnancy was wonderful. Of course, I had the normal discomforts, but perhaps because he was my third I had grown accustomed to them because I really enjoyed my pregnancy with him. It was wonderful. I felt even keeled the entire time. I thoroughly enjoyed my pregnancy with him.

I was due November 10, 2006, but after Elijah's late arrival, I fully intended to be late and I most definitely was! I remember getting all kinds of phone calls once I was late from friends and family wondering if "anything was going on" or "what's happening", but nothing happened. I was at the Dr.'s office on the 16th for an U/S, non stress test, and check. I was having some contractions and was already 4-5 cm, but no labor.

This time around, I was fully prepared to be late and really didn't mind. I felt fine. Friday, the 17th, I decided to re-organize quite a few things in the house, I babysat Abbi's kids and I can't remember what else I did. I should have known that the time was coming! That evening we ordered pizza (see Friday night pizza brought on labor for both boys, LOL) and our family danced around the living room all evening long to the demo music on the digital piano. Chopin and 9 months pregnant, no wonder I started having contractions!

I started having contractions that evening. We went to bed. I called my sister for someone to talk to, as I couldn't sleep and Graeme was already asleep. The third...husband sleeps through labor. :) Finally, in the night we decided it was time to go to the hospital - Graeme did wake up. My Dad came down and slept at our house with the kids. I wore my nightgown to the hospital. Every bump on the ride was very painful.

When we got to the hospital I was 7 cm and got to use my favorite labor-aid, the jacuzzi. That was calming. Noah was not posterior as the others were, which was a huge answer to prayer as it made labor much more manageable. He was in a good poisition and they told me that if they broke my water I would be complete in 45 minutes or so, but I was gunshy after having my water breaking with Elijah and then stalling, so I waited.

Noah's labor was surprisingly easy, my contractions stayed far apart, but each contraction was long. I had an on-call Dr. and I can't remember when I was complete, but I started pushing - my least favorite part of birthing - and nothing happened. Finally, the Dr. came, and I was told my cervix had swelled. Which brought about a lot of admonition from the Dr. with very unpleasant bedside manners and a lot of painful poking. He was so unassuring, I didn't know how bad this kind of a complication was, but he made me very scared. I remember pushing so hard that everything went black several times and also thinking to myself, "I suppose this is what death feels like". I have never experienced that kind of pain in my entire life. Elijah's birth was exhausting and long, but the pain of Noah's delivery was much, much more intense. Thankfully, however, it didn't last too long.

He was such a little handsome thing when he was finally born at 7:53 am on Saturday, November 18, 2006. He weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long.

So, there you have it, the records of all my chitlins births for posterity. We'll see how #4 goes, but as I write this I am thinking, "epidural?"!

Elijah's Birth

Elijah, our little Slovak boy, our meatest little-big-mite. Affectionately referred to as "Bubba" and "Boaz". The largest Anderson on record. My darling firstborn son 'bout did his Mother in.

The pregnancy was rough. I was deranged in the head the entire time. I felt like a different person the whole pregnancy. My belly was ginormous. I will never forget looking down and barely seeing my toes after we arrived at the hospital on his birth-day. Quite a few pregnancy discomforts were experienced with the pregnancy.

I was hopeful that he was going to be early, like I was for my Mom, and like my sister's little man who was 10 days early the year before. I was induced with Soph, so I didn't know if I was an early-bird or not.

October 10th, 2004 was his due date. October 10th was also a Sunday...a church day...not a good combination for an over-anxious, deranged pregnant Mama. Our loving church family (300 strong)was so excited for us, it seemed as if all 300 people asked my why I hadn't had the baby yet. I too, was wondering why I hadn't had the baby, so it wasn't a really joyous combination. For the record, the words "still here" can get old when you are pregnant. I have said and I'm sure, will say them again, but I was especially sensitive this Sunday as it was my due date. One man said to me, "aren't you going to have the baby" or something like that, and I just about lost it. He was being kind, but I wanted to say, "you have know idea just how much I want to have this baby!!!"

In came the due date, out went the due date, and I was beginning to realize that I was not following my Mom and sister's early-bird birthing schedule, and I was not happy about that. :) Like Sophia's pregnancy, I had been 3 cm for several days or a week, I can't remember. On Friday night after having pizza with my sister and brother in law - we used to live down the street from each other, sniff, sniff - I was having some contractions, but they weren't very strong, so we went to bed. After a few hours, I would wake with each contraction, then go back to sleep.

At about 4 or 5 am, I couldn't sleep anymore, so Graeme and I got up and starting timing the contractions. We called Scott and Abbi and arranged to send Sophia over to Scott for the day. I remember Graeme leaving to walk her down the street to their house. She had her little pink ruffle coat on, and I was teary eyed to leave my baby. She wasn't going to be our only little baby anymore, and a big change was coming and it made me sad...see I was a nutcase the whole nine months. :)

I don't remember when we left for the hospital, maybe 8 am or so. I can't remember how far I was when we got to the hospital, but I remember my contractions being very manageable and not very painful. By 1p.m.-ish I was 8cm, but my labor had been lagging all day. Finally, they broke my water, which made my contraction pick up in intensity quite a bit. They reeeeelllly started to hurt. However, I wasn't making any progress. After 2 or 3 hours of stalling at 8 cm, my Dr. helped me get into a position to hopefully help Eli's head move, he was posterior, and his noggin was large. He also started pitocin in there somewhere. I remember the nurse coming in and turning it up a few times. I didn't appreciate that. I was laying in bed, in total agony. I was sooo tired, and I remember thinking, if the next time he checks me I haven't made any progress, I'm going to beg him to cut me open and take the baby out. It was so awful. Finally, on one of his visits, I asked my sweet Dr., can you hold my hand. So, he sat there and held my hand for an hour or more and talked to us and said comforting things, etc. He was really nice to do that.

Finally, I was complete and when pushin' time came I wanted this baby out! I don't know how long I pushed, but it wasn't too long before our burly 9 pound 7 ounce brown-eyed boy with the large noggin' was born. 6:01 p.m., October 16, 2004, our handsome Elijah Graeme was born. My longest and most miserable labor. I was so exhausted after his birth. And then, the ravenous large child wanted to nurse constantly! They brought him to me all day and night long.

I remember getting an hour of sleep the second night and the nurses bringing him to me saying that he had been crying for 45 minutes and they tried everything, even sugar water, but he wouldn't be calmed. As you can imagine, I was afraid to bring the ravenous little booger home for I feared I would never sleep. However, big isn't all bad, as he slept through the night by 4 weeks because he had a nice big tummy.

He was such a fat and happy little baby, and I remember my arms hurting from holding his chub-licious body. :)

Sophia's Birth

Sophia was due to arrive on July 29th, 2002. 2002 was an EXTREMELY hot summer, especially because I was enormously pregnant. I craved gummy candy when I was pregnant with Sophia...then it made me sick. I also craved pop tarts, oh so healthy. I remember my feet being so swollen that summer that they were purple. I had only one pair of sandals that fit, they had lots of elastic.



Sophia's pregnancy was the one in which I gained the most weight, even though she was my smallest baby! Almost 60 pounds, believe it or not. I don't have any pictures on my computer, and I am too lazy to scan one, so suffice it to say, I was large. I used to cry when I left the Dr.'s office because I was gaining too much weight. I've never gained less than 40 pounds whilst pregnant, so now I think my tears were kind of funny. The Dr.'s told me I would be obese for life, blah, blah, blah, but I'm not...yet. :)



Four days before my due date I had a Dr.'s appointment and to my surprise, my blood pressure was high. The Dr. ordered me to bed rest and sent me home with a jug for the 24 hour urine-protein test (sorry, not trying to be gross), but it really was gross. It was a Thursday or Friday, and I had an appt. at the hospital on Sunday at 7am to check my blood pressure and decide whether or not to induce labor.



Saturday night rolled around and I could not sleep. In hindsight, I think I had bad acid reflux, but I was a newbie and didn't know why I was so uncomfortable. That night at around 2 am, a group of coal miners who had been trapped in a mine were rescued, slowly, one by one. I had the unique opportunity of watching Geraldo Rivera commentate as all 9 miners were pulled to safety, slowly, one by one in the middle of the night. It was a long night.



Sunday we were off to the hospital at 7 am. My blood pressure was still high so they decided to induce. I cried because I was terrified of induction and the dreaded "P" - pitocin. I was already 3 cm so they gave me cytotec and at noon they broke my water. That was all it took and labor had officially begun at about noonish. I remember my Dad saying Hi after church and trying to smile and be pleasant, but it was really starting to hurt!



Our hospital has a jacuzzi tub and I remember spending a lot of time there. It really helped. It was my favorite labor-aid! At 7:30-7:45pm. I started to feel ready to push, but I wasn't quite complete so I had to wait a few minutes. I never felt that urge to push with either of the boys, ironically.



Finally at around 8 I got to push, which I thought and still think to be the most dreadful part of labor, and at 8:43 p.m. on July, 28th, our little princess was born! She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, was 21 1/2 inches and she looked just.like.Graeme. She still does. I love that girl.



I remember remembering giving birth on each Sunday following Sophia's birth and thinking each week how I never, ever wanted to do that again. I changed my mind, but as I write this on the eve of the due date of our 4th babe, I am again wondering why I wanted to do this again. :)

Birth

The closer I get to D-day, the more I think about birth. Such an exciting event, yet, oh-so painful. I am totally looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. I have spent no time preparing for it as I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about much of what's going to happen after the baby's born.

I purposely stop myself from thinking about "how I am going to do it" after the baby is born because my theory this time around is that what comes will come and if I try to anticipate everything that could/may happen during the birth/post-partum period I will be worried and anxious. So, I have saved myself a great deal of anxiety by simply avoiding the topic all together. Good planning or bad planning, I don't know? We'll see soon enough.

My plan is to roll with it...who knows what's going to happen. Each of my pregnancies, births, and post partums have been very different. I have never recorded any of my birth stories, so hopefully I will over the next few days in preparation for the arrival of our newest little sweetheart!

Old Chair, New Chair

I inherited this chair from my parents. As you can see, it was a lovely 1990 hunter green. Not bad, but not great. I wanted something else in my foyer, but the green just had to go. So, here is my picture tutorial on "re-upholstering, ghetto style". My Mother, the world's most fantastic seamstriss has re-upholstered several times and she does it the right way...this is the wrong way, I have sewing ADD. I am too impatient to do it the right way. So here's what I did...

Start with chair. Buy 7ish yards of movable, easy to work with fabric. I bought the cheapy bolted decorator fabric at JoAnn for around $6/yard. Grab a staple gun, get lots of staples and of course, a glue gun!



Cut fabric and staple it around wing backs and around arms, leaving 12 inches or so draped over the front of the arm.



See the fabric hanging off the arm?


Pleat the fabric with your fingers and pull around the side of the chair.



Like so...and staple in place with your handy dandy staple gun.



Staple or hot glue a piece of fabric to cover the front part of the chair as seen below...


Just leave the fabric hang off the bottom of the chair, we'll finish the base of the chair later.

Staple the arm fabric down, just below the arm.

Hot glue the fabric in place in all the seams. Pull your fabric tightly to avoid sags and puckering, etc.

I don't have a picture, but next I think I stapled fabric below the arms. I am not a details person, did I mention my sewing ADD? I stapled the underside of the fabric and then pulled the fabric over top of my staples, does that make any sense? That way you don't see the staples.

Next, cut a piece of fabric to fit the back of the front of the chair.

Hot glue the seams and staple it over on the back of the chair.

Next, get yourself some upholstery tacks to make your chair look purdy.

I have no idea what I am trying to show in this picture, but the pictures are in sequential order so see if you can figure it out. This is the back of the chair. :)

Hammer the upholstery tacks in anywhere where the fabric is not yet secured and where you would see staples...upholstery tacks are so much prettier...and only $.99/package at Walmarts.

Cut a piece of fabric for the wing back outsides and fold it under around the curves of the wing.

Riddle the wingback with tacks to keep everything neat and orderly. can you see the tacks around the edge of the wing?

Now, fold and tuck fabric up around legs of chair, and staple fabric up in between the legs to hold in place.

Finally, Cut fabric, and staple it to the top of the chair on the underside of the fabric (so the staples don't show. Turn in the sides of the fabric so there are no raw edges showing.

Staple the fabric under the bottom of the chair. Use upholstery tacks down the back side edges of chair to hold fabric in place on the sides.

I am not going to tell you how to do a seat cushion because I can't describe what I did to mine. It's really not very good, I lost patience for "taking my time and doing it right" (my Mom always said that phrase to me when I was a kid!). You can take apart your original seat cushion and make a pattern out of it.

Anyway, mistreat yourself a seat cusion...and Viola! You have a ghetto-style, re-upholstered chair!

Total time it took to complete project: 2 1/2 hours with children hanging around. Not a bad time investment for the result.

Markers

Apparently markers are meant for your face, not the coloring book.

Nothing Has Changed

My awesome husband is, you could say, Mr. Organization. I never realized just how terribly disorganized I was/am until I married him. Almost 9 years of marriage to Graeme has forced me to become organized, to get to bed on time, to leave church at a reasonable hour, and I have to say, I really like it! One of the cardinal rules of organization/accomplishing tasks is sticking to your list...if you promise to do a task on a certain day, do it. Don't make up unrealistic lists and not accomplish your tasks. Set achievable, measurable goals, blah, blah, blah...

While visiting with my Mother in Law recently she shared this childhood story about Graeme and it made me laugh!

Graeme was the baby of his family and when he was preparing to go off to nursery school, his Mom was, as most mothers are, sentimental about her baby leaving for the first time. They talked about his going off to school for the first time, and when the big day came, my Mom in law was sad to see him go, of course. Hoping for some sort of loving reassurance from her son, she asked, "are you sure you really want to go to school today?" Graeme replied, "Mother, this is the decision we have made, and we need to stick with it". Nothing has changed in 30 years.

Graeme's Project

Anyone who knows my hubsville very well knows of his love for scripture memorization. He has memorized a few N.T. epistles and has a passion for God's Word. He is an inspiration and an encouragement to me to memorize more and to teach the kids more...it's a very good thing!

We both really enjoy listening to Alexander Scourby's audio Bible . It helps me to listen to a passage before and while I am memorizing, besides he has a fabulous accent and for some reason that helps me memorize because when I recite verses that I have listened to, I remember them with good 'ole Alexander's accent.

This year and last he started memorize the book of Psalms...he's doing one chapter at at time because he doesn't think he could recite all 150 books in one shot. Graeme has done various internet searches for Free downloadable Bible MP3's and it's hard to find decent ones (and Alexander Scourby is not free), so he decided to make it his personal goal to record the Psalms this year. He has a website going here where he is uploading his recordings. Check it out and listen to my man's passionate recordings and debonair voice read God's Word! Please let us know if you are or are not able to download his files if you decide to check out the site.

I heart my man. :)

Easter

Here is my favorite Easter group shot. :) This picture is like life...nothing is ever perfect! The big kids had it totally together, but Noah was oh so not happy!

Mama's Boy

Noah has suddenly become a Mama's boy, crying for me all the time! I hope he gets over it naturally before being forced out of the baby position in a few weeks! Poor little man doesn't know what's coming!

Still on the Throne

She will not relinquish her role as Princess of the house this May, and she is proud of it. I love my helpful little girlie! She loves her brothers, can wrestle with the best of them, yet can dress up and play Mommy in the gentlest way.

Recipe for Fire Hero

Ingredients:

1 too small fireman costume
1 humidifier
1 vacuum cleaner hose
1 creative sister
1 fireman loving little boy

Directions: Mix them all together, and you have hero lessons for a happy little four year old!