Difference between baby #1 and baby #3

I feel like I've become somewhat seasoned it parenting. Or more specifically in parenting toddlers. I was watching a new mom act like I know I did when I was a new mom couldn't help but internally roll my eyes. I wanted to see what things had changed for me from having my first kid to now preparing to have my third.

• baby #1- if you didn't ask to hold him. I was ticked off.
• baby #3- I don't really care if you hold him. As a matter of fact, want to take him for a while?

• baby #1- if your child was younger than 8 there was no way he or she was going to hold my baby.
• baby #3- as long as your kid is sitting down and depending on their age- ANYONE can hold him!

• baby #1- no one in the world was getting close to him unless their hands were washed.
• baby #3- please just don't stick your fingers in his mouth. 

• baby #1- I wanted to stay as LONG as I could at the hospital. Going home terrified me.
• baby #3- I will be staying the required 24 hours and getting the heck out of there!

• baby #1- if he was sleeping, I would do everything in my power to keep my house quiet
• baby #3- well, quite isn't really possible anymore. He better learn how to sleep through things.

• baby #1- I'd carry him in his car seat all the time.
• baby #3- hahahahaaha..... yeah, I don't think so.

• baby #1- No one was going to babysit him because I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.
• baby #3- Honestly, I hope people will still be willing to watch my kids now. 

• baby #1- I had to collect everything cute and perfect for a nursery so it looked magazine appropriate.
• baby #3- He doesn't even have a crib. Welcome to your port-a-crib kido!

• baby #1- everything about being pregnant was exciting and new and interesting and a little scary.
• baby #3- am I done yet? No? I'm only 22 weeks along?...... uuuuuuugh.

• baby #1- I thought it was cute that my hubby wanted to run to the store at 1am for my food cravings.
• baby #3- I tried asking him that once a few weeks ago. He didn't take me seriously. :)

• baby #1- random pains from bending, stretching or moving terrified me. Especially if they really hurt.
• baby #3- welcome to being pregnant. You're going to have random pains!

• baby #1- everyone on the planet wanted to give me advice. ALL the time.
• baby #3- No one gives me advice. They just secretly question my parenting skills. 

I do feel like I've learned quite a bit. I'm sure there's more I could add to this list. But for now, we'll just leave it at that. New moms out there. Chill out a bit, it's okay for some stuff to happen during pregnancy and after pregnancy when your little peanut is here. Yeah you should still be safe with your baby, but take things in perspective. My kids have eaten dirt, eaten food they found under the kitchen table after hours have passed since the last meal, and milk that was sitting out a little too long. They've also eaten food they've found IN the dirt that wasn't ours WITH their dirty hands AND they're still alive. :) 

The best thing I've learned though? Don't take yourself too seriously. Because honestly, you've never been a parent before, you're going to mess up and you're going to keep messing up. I might be a pro at toddlers--ok, I can't even say that with a straight face-- I'm not even a pro at toddlers. You're kids are going to challenge you each in new and different ways and we as parents are all just hoping we don't mess them up too severely! *or at least I'm hoping for that*

What love is

Do you ever just have those little moments that when it's happening you know it'll be immortalized in your mind forever. It doesn't even have to be a great moment. I remember small moments from when I was little that I knew I would remember forever. Like when I was about 5 or 6 years old, a neighbor of ours had a garage sale. She was selling scarves and had them set up on a rack in her garage. There seemed to be SO many of them and I remember feeling like I was in a cave made of scarves! I remember playing near a pond at our house where an old tire sat in the middle. It was planted just low enough in the water to scare me. Every time I saw the pond I thought the tire was an alligator. Today I had another little moment that I hope will become part of my collection of forever memories. Both my little boys were filthy from playing outside and frankly, from just being boys, so they earned a much needed shower. They're both big enough now to use regular shampoo, which makes things a bit of a process when trying to clean them. I have to tell them to keep their head back to keep the shampoo out of their eyes, but for whatever reason, as soon as I pull their heads up they spring back down. With my youngest I have to have a vice grip on his head to keep it back. Then I have to try and wash the shampoo out AND keep it out of his eyes while he tries to thrash his head out of my hands. I have to be honest. It's not entirely endearing to deal with this. When he screams because he's inevitably gotten soap in his eyes, I find I have very little room in my heart to feel bad for him. Luckily, this is not the memory I will be keeping forever. It was of my oldest son letting me wash his hair. He was very good to listen. I asked him to back up toward the water and instantly he closes his eyes backs his little bum up into the water and tips his head back. With his eyes shut tight he smiles the biggest smile and at that moment it hit me that this is my son. My little boy. What an amazing blessing I have to raise this cute little person. Who is just that. His own person, with his own thoughts, emotions and ideas. What a huge amount of love I felt for him at that moment. Watching him with his eyes squeezed shut, smiling up at me, completely trusting me to help him. I love my kids!

Not always a happy place for some

A few days ago we found out the gender of our 3rd child. Very exciting!! Before the appointment I had some time to kill and sitting at home waiting to go to the doctor didn't sound all that exciting. So the boys and I went to BYU. It was a fantastically beautiful day it would have been wrong to not enjoy it. It would, however, not be such a fantastic day for my youngest son, E. His first tragedy struck while we were on a walk and discovered some beautiful flowers on a little tree. I helped the boys up onto a 2-3 foot ledge where the tree was. My oldest, A collected his flowers first and brought them to me. E, eager to do what his brother does hurried to grab some flowers too. He picked a handful, turned, his arm outstretched with his prize and began to run to me to give the flowers to me. The problem was, he had forgotten he was up on a ledge and instead of running up to me, he sort of swan dived off the ledge and landed completely on his face. His feet flew sky high as his head connected with the cement. As I hurried to make sure his face was still connected to the rest of him, I could hear gasps in the background, I looked, and a little crowd had collected. Great people. Just great. Please, just stare at the horror OR maybe you could MOVE on! Under close inspection I could see that yes, his face was still there and not sitting on the pavement, but he had lost some skin. His entire left eyebrow was scraped off, as well as part of his left cheek and his chin. No missing teeth, no bleeding, and his eyes weren't skeewompus. I washed his face off and put a band aid on him and just held him. He cried on my shoulder for quite some time until he was ready to lay down in the stroller and rest. I decided it might be a good time to go somewhere inside where it was quiet. So we went to the art museum. Pretty boring for kids-- and this time, me too. They were featuring Egyptian artifacts. Could have been cooler if I wasn't so focused on E and his head trauma. I noticed that a lady was following me and when she caught my eye she came up to me and said, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be offensive, but I just wanted to make sure your little boy was okay. Do you know what the signs of a concussion are? I just want to make sure you know the signs." Surprised, and a little curious of how long she was following us I just responded with, "Thanks, he's fine. I work at a hospital, I know the signs." Then of course, after she left, I text my mom to make sure I actually DID know the signs of a concussion, haha. And no E does not have one.

After the museum, E was feeling much better about life. His brother A was anxious to get out of the museum and go back to the little man-made waterfall we were playing at earlier. They had little ducks there and the boys loved them. This also happened to be where E second tragedy occurred. We made it to the pond fine. Found our little sitting spot and proceeded to play. I was at this time letting Daddy M know what had happened to E while the boys played in the water. A few minutes in, I hear an angry screech, look up and see another parent rushing over to where my kids where playing. I get up to see what has happened now and see E going at it with a duck. Apparently he had corned some of the baby ducks so he could play with them and mommy duck went berserk. She was flapping her wings all over the place and chasing E, who I am proud to say, did not back down. He fought back, screaming and yelling at the duck, while she furiously beat her wings at him and tried to bite him. I told the boys to come here and explained to them why the mommy duck acted the way she did. They were satisfied with my answer and wanted to keep playing. Buuuut, I decided to go since the parent who watched all this unravel was looking at me with a 'you are a bad parent' stare. I'd like to see him take care of two boys when all he has is two dainty little girls over there, delicately playing near the water!

Thus ended our adventure at BYU. We left to pick up Daddy and drove to the doctor's office to find that we will be adding yet another BOY to the crew. Bring it on scary ledges, angry ducks, and judgmental people!