I'VE MOVED US!!!

I'm no longer using this blog for posts people. So if you want to go to my new one. Here's a special little link for you.

http://jmkunz1.blogspot.com/

ciao!

Confession

I don't know if it's the hormones still raging inside of me or a bad piece of chocolate cake, but I have a little confession to make. I wish my two older kids could go on a vacation for six weeks while I'm on maternity leave. I want to have time with just myself, the baby and my husband. Is that awful? Or normal?? Because I honestly don't know. It's just that everything they do right now makes me want to kick them out of the house and stuff them in a dog kennel in our backyard. It's not like my older boys have become jealous monsters or anything, they're just doing what they always do: play, wrestle, fight, get all up in my face, make messes, and act cute- BUT, for whatever insane reason. . . it's really tweaking all of my irritation buttons I have.

*For those of you out there horrified that I just said I would stick my kids in a dog kennel, I want you to know I do not have a dog kennel or a dog.... AND I'm not mean spirited enough to actually do that. And quite frankly, if I did, my kids would just think it was a game and probably love it.*

I could get all therapeutic on my buh-hind and think about why I might be feeling this way. My best guess? It's because my 5 and 3 year old are reminding me that time doesn't stand still. This precious new little miracle in our family isn't going to stay this small forever.... and right now, I want time to freeze, I want him to stay like this forever.

Call me a bad person, but who wants to borrow a 3 and 5 year old for about a month??

Body Pains, Teacher Pains, Homework Pains and Couch Pains

Well, I'm down to the wire now. This little baby could come any time now! I'm due the 28th, but I'm hoping my body keeps its routine and this little man comes early. We've FINALLY picked a name! But I'm not telling you what it is. Mostly because it honestly could still change. I'm on maternity leave now. I didn't think I'd go on leave early, but when your body decides it doesn't care to walk anymore, there's not much you can do. This pregnancy I think has been the hardest on me.

My right leg hurts every time I take a step. Occasionally- or more often than not- it'll just give out on me. I can't actually sleep on my right let. I still try to though, which means when I'm ready to turn my body, my right leg burns like fire. Good thing to wake up to at 3am. Yep.

My acid reflux is a constant up in my throat. I'm popping tums like a drug deprived addict.

He's "ahead of schedule" meaning my belly is rather large and even though that doesn't seem like a big deal, this means I am a little sensitive about my belly and kind of over emotional about the fact that my little body, for whatever reason, wants to give me big babies.

I pee all the time. Not surprising.

I keep having braxton hicks contractions. It's really depressing to me now since I'm so close, because I honestly would really love them to become REAL contractions!

In other news! Boys are doing great. A is really loving kindergarten. He has some new friends and is doing great on his homework. Although, Daddy M and I are pretty certain that he has more homework than a college student. He has to document the amount of time that he reads by coloring in apples. And then Daddy M or I have to write down the book he reads and whether or not he reads it. And then he has daily homework that he has to do, but he doesn't turn it in until the end of the week. BUT we still have to sign this paper every day that says he's doing his daily homework and turn that in. Anyway, it's just a major pain.

E is doing fantastic with his pre-school class. I am a little worried about his teacher though. She sends home a newsletter each week and her grammar makes me want to cry. She'll post stuff like, "We just learned the song Were Going On a Bear Hunt" or "I am so proud of are students!" and " There our lots of things we did today." She doesn't do it just once though, I've found errors like this SEVERAL times and the only thing I can say to my hubby about this is, I'm just glad that she's not teaching him grammar or what word is supposed to go where. I went to pick E up Thursday from school and I couldn't even look at her.

We're teaching E how to spell his name at home. We've been working on his E's this week and as a homage to his letter E, he took a pen and wrote his 3-year-old E on my couch pillow. Very cute and fairly aggravating seeing as it's pen on my couch and he didn't just stop at signing his E. There's pen lines all over my couch now. I just hope when people come to visit, they understand how dedicated I was to keeping these couches clean for the first several years of their life and then I just couldn't beat the never-ending battle with my kids. I could be cleaning the couches daily or I could throw in the towel, clean them every now and then and do something better with my time.

Baby and School

I haven't really had a chance this summer to take very many photos, that probably has to do with the fact that I've run out of memory on my memory card and I'm too cheap to buy another one AND I don't like deleting photos off of them. Although, I should probably invest in a new memory card soon since we'll be adding a 3rd child to this family soon!!! I'm about 8 1/2 months pregnant now.... or somewhere around there. And don't let people fool you into thinking being pregnant is only a 9 month process, because it's not, it's 10. Count with me: 40 weeks = 10 months.... NOT 9. In any case though, I'm closer to being done than not!! This picture here was probably me around 7 1/2 months. I don't feel like I look much bigger, but I'm sure I am. At least my feet aren't swollen. We'll just forget about the constant back pain, the charlie horses that wake me up, the acid reflux, the constant need to pee, AND the braxton hicks contractions that have been plaguing me for months now! :) Hey, at least I get a cute little baby out of this.

On other news, I am still working full-time. My poor co-workers have never had a slower person to work with.

A and E are both signed up for school! How crazy!! A is going into kindergarten and we're all very excited for him. He is especially excited. At least once a day he looks at the calendar and asks me to remind him of when he starts school. Just the other day we went to Jump On It- a trampoline park with a foam pit- and A, my very cautious, self preserving child was doing front flips!! Tons of them! And it was terrifying to watch. Every time he started a flip I was pretty sure that he was going land on his neck, scrape his face up or hurt himself in a way that would make him never want to do front flips ever again. He did land on his head a few times, but he got right back up and kept doing flips. What a proud moment for me! I did realize that landing on his head/neck is a little different for him than for an adult. For one, he's barely off the ground when he does his flips, he only has about 40lbs of weight to throw into a flip and when he flips his body around- he's not rocketing his body over himself at intimidating speeds. He just lets his head stay centered and goes fast enough for his body to follow. All in all, he did a great job and I'm giving props to myself for not jumping up every time he landed on his head.

E is excited to go to school too, but I don't think he quite knows what he's getting himself into. To be honest, I'm not sure the pre-k teacher knows what she's getting herself into either. So, at Jump On It, he head butted a kid who threw a foam block at him. EVEN though they were both doing it and having fun. E just decided that he was done and proceeded to nail the kid right in the head. Honestly, I think that would hurt my head, but he looked at me like it was no big deal, while the other kid wailed behind him. I think the other kid was acting a little dramatic. :P I'm just curious to see how pre-k works out for this little man. I don't know if any of you remember, but some of the high schools in Oregon and apparently here in Utah, have a child development class, our kids were called the Baby Gophers and the class was awesome! So that's was E is doing here in Utah, he's going to be a Wee Wolf.

Daddy M is starting school soon as well. We're hoping if things go as planned that he'll be done with BYU by next September! I'm excited and a little scared of all the change that has to offer us. We won't be done with school, but hopefully we'll be starting M's 4-year program into his doctorate! I'm just glad that for the time being, he just needs to focus on school and not work.

Next post? I think will be after baby is born!!!!

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!