Tuesday, July 26

Have to Get Away

Sometimes, no matter how much I love the boys and how wonderful and cute they are, I need to get away.

I know Amber spends far more time with them than I do and probably needs more of a break, but we have really learned to appreciate the weekly break we've been getting. Amber's parents have been taking the boys overnight once a week for nearly a year now. This allowed us to go to choir rehearsal and not have to pick them up at 10 or 11pm. It also gave us a full night of sleep, which made us appreciate our little ones even more when they came back.

Yesterday, I came home from a long, boring day alone at work. I was feeling quite sick and not in the mood for wrestling and yelling. Daniel had been in one of his "bad boy" moods all day and wanted to jump on me the minute I got in the door. We ended up calling Grandma and Grandpa and they took the boys overnight. I went to bed at 9:00 and slept right through until almost 8:00.

We are going to be moving in just over a month. 7 hours from Grandma and Grandpa's house. So, we need to get all the breaks we can now. And both sets of grandparents are happy to get a little more time in with the boys before we leave, so this should make for an interesting next 5 weeks.

Tuesday, July 19

We Finally Did It

Last night we took both sets of grandparents out for dinner and shared all of our news. We told them that we had been offered the job we had been waiting on in BC and that we were buying a van. We were trying to think of a clever way to share the news of our growing family

We ordered our food and when it came, I prayed for the meal. I ended the prayer with something like "And keep us all safe over the next months - especially Amber and the baby. In Jesus name, Amen."

They took it okay. I think my mom smacked me and said, "You are so clever."

It's a lot of news at once. It even seems like a lot to me and I've learned it all gradually.

It's going to be exciting and scary moving away from our families and having the baby, but we've done it before. Daniel and Josh were each born in Winnipeg - 14 hours away from the grandparents - and we survived. We have loved being back and having our familes close by and convenient, but we really enjoyed our time on our own in Winnipeg. We grew as a couple and as a family and learned to rely on each other a lot more.

Now I'm starting to tell other people. I told a couple of friends last night. Work is next I guess. I need to tell them that I'll be leaving at the end of the summer. Unfortunately, at this small business with about 15-20 employees, two other full-time staff and three part-time have decided to quit this summer too. I'm torn between giving them lots of notice and trying to wait for the "right time" to tell so as to not go in on the same day as someone else. I guess it should be sooner than later.

Friday, July 15

When to Tell

We still haven't told anyone about the new baby yet. Therefore, we haven't told anyone about this blog - so it's still just Amber reading it. :)

We are planning on doing it in the next few days. We are waiting for news about a new job opportunity and were hoping to hear by now. We wanted to tell our parents at the same time and also break the news about the new job too. But it's been a longer process than we had imagined and we're getting a little impatient.

Daniel's birthday party is on Sunday and we are thinking about telling the grandparents after that. We've had so many events in our life that might be overshadowed by this news, that the baby might get here before we finally decide to tell.

The grandmothers are starting to act suspicious. Amber's mom has touched her belly and Amber thinks she caught my mom looking at her stomach last weekend. We've been so adamant about not having any more for a while, I think people have stopped asking.

I'm excited about this whole prospect. We've picked out our first set of names for the baby. If history has taught us anything, it's that these names will change several times over the next 7 months, someone will "steal" at least one of them, and 10 minutes before the baby is born, I will be 100% positive that it's going to be a girl. We'll see...

Tuesday, July 5

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

I'm about to freak out. Amber went for a girls' night out with the ladies from our couples Bible study tonight leaving me to put the boys to bed.

We put on a LarryBoy movie and let them relax and I got them into their jammies and Josh's eye drops in. I put him to bed and then stayed up with Daniel about another hour watching TV and reading and stuff. Then we came upstairs to go to bed and Josh was waiting at the gate, so I took both of them to read one more story and put them to bed. It's been about an hour and I've had to go in about 10 times. They just won't stay in bed. Nothing is working.

I don't know what to do with them. Apparently Amber had a really bad day with them - a usual occurence the day after we've spent time apart from them. I'm calming down and realizing it's not that big a deal. I think they are being quiet now so I'm going to go down and relax on the couch. And if I hear anything, I'll pretend I didn't. ;)

Growth and Fluids

It's amazing how fast little kids grow and develop - even over a long weekend.

Amber and I were out in BC on a job interview this weekend and left the boys with the grandparentses. They weren't home Monday morning when I left for work, so I didn't get to see them until I got home. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I got in the door and they both rushed to give me a hug.

Josh seems to have learned a bunch of words and is copying Daniel every chance he can get. Daniel learned about "Knock-knock" jokes from his 3.5 year old cousin in Winnipeg and now he's taught Josh. He's using longer sentences and his pronunciation is so much clearer than even just 4 days ago. He's even starting to exert a little independence and is not quite as clingy as usual.

Daniel has been amazing me lately too. He turned 3 on Wednesday but he acts like he's about 7. We got him a computer game for his birthday and he's figured out how to use it by himself. Mousing, clicking, typing, as well as matching, counting, and problem solving, he does it all. I know what it's like trying to live up to one's "potential", (I hated the p-word growing up) so I won't push him too hard, but he's such a sponge for knowledge we have to keep feeding him.

We're all still pretty sick around here these days. Daniel got a bad cough in Winnipeg that is taking forever to go away. He threw up for the first time in over two years last night at supper before he even had a bite. Josh has an eye infection so he's got all sorts of goop and ooze and as of last night seemed to be starting on the same cough. I've been coughing and stuffy as long as Daniel and I'm not sure how I made it through this candidating weekend. And Amber, of course is feeling 10 weeks pregnant.

So we're all pretty leaky and miserable this week - and my brother's wedding is on Saturday - and I'm performing the ceremony. I should really be trying to get some extra sleep, but thinking about that is what kept me from falling back asleep. It's 6:10 and I've been up since 4:00. I'll go see who's in the family bed and see if I can squeeze in another hour or so.