Football Insomnia

Tyler came out from his room tonight very concerned because, " My football won't close his eyes". Daddy suggested putting the football back in the toy box so it could close its eyes. Tyler thought that might work, but maybe he should put the flashlight in with the football so it wouldn't be in the dark. :)

Let's hope these two little guys are closing their eyes....

Modern Day Pregnancy

Since I'm discussing pregnancy I figured I'd better share at least one pregnancy photo. I have no photo's of myself with this pregnancy so far...I'm not a fan of having my picture taken pregnant or not. :) This picture was taken the morning we headed to the hospital to "deliver" Zachary. I will probably wait to have my one photo of this pregnancy taken the morning we head to the hospital...so I've got another 11 weeks left for my big photo shoot.

It is amazing to me society's views on pregnancy, and how many children you can or should bring into this world. I had to laugh when Jonathan and I went out to eat with the boys awhile ago, and the waitress looked at us and said, "My, you have a big family". chuckle. Maybe she was struggling with good conversation material for that day. I wasn't even pregnant with baby number three yet, so if she thought two children made a big family...Wow, she would have been blown away by us having three children. ha.

I have since determined that by society's ratings the correct number of children to have would be around 1.75. We are currently at 2.75 children so we are most definitely over the national average. ha. I have had some crazy comments made to me this pregnancy, and honestly I just laugh them off. We all are different, and that's fine if you choose to have one child, two children, ten children...as long as you can support them go for it. :)

Jonathan and I decided before we got married, or maybe not long after we got married that we wanted four children. (Although, these days I'm thinking there's kind of a melodious ring to three children.. hehe) We also decided that we would space our kids about two years apart...so here is our history for the fun of it.

We got married and 26 months later our first bouncing baby boy was born....fast forward another 26 months and along comes baby boy number two (he's not quite as bouncy) and fast forward another 23 months and baby number three will enter our lives (hopefully, he will be the least bouncy of them all:). Some may call us crazzy...hey we call ourselves crazy...but we just wanted to keep our kids close and be young when we had kids.

I gave you that history, before I shared some of the crazy comments I have received during this pregnancy.

1. I've been asked if I was a rabbit...I guess rabbits have bundles of babies. :)

2. I've been asked if I knew what was causing these pregnancies, and how to prevent that from happening.

3. My favorite...she is trying to keep up with the Duggars. Just for the record, this is only my third child...not my 23rd child. haha.

4. Another variation, I was talking about my strong willed child, and was commented to Girl, and you are having more children.

Anyway, I won't keep going with all my funny comments, but there definitely is a new trend in society. Don't even get me started on maternity clothing...

I love the scriptures in Psalms that say:

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children^a of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.^b

Truly children are a blessing, and a heritage.I'm thankful and blessed to almost have three little such people in my life! God is good.

BIG BOY BED!

Tonight Zachy made the big move from his crib to a toddler bed. We tried the "big move" last night, but after the 5,000th time of his climbing out of bed, and the fact that it had been a two hour ordeal we decided to embrace the motto, "If at first you don't succeed; try, try again". Tonight was a much better night. He only escaped out of bed twice, and although it did take him awhile to go to sleep...he, in fact, did go to sleep.

This big move was not only to a new bed, but also to a new room.( He and Tyler are now sharing a room.)  I'm so thankful tonight was a much easier night for the big boy bed....and I'm not even going to begin pondering how  nap time will go tomorrow. ha.

This is how he fell asleep with his legs flung over the side rails. There is a children's book by Karen Kingsbury titled "Let Me Hold You Longer". Have you read it?? Its a tear jerker. I get tear bubbles almost every time I read it to the boys. It starts out by saying, and I quote, " Long ago you came to me a miracle of firsts; First smiles and teeth and baby steps a sunbeam on the burst. But one day you will move away and leave to me your past And I will be left thinking of a lifetime of your lasts...
The last time that I held a bottle to your baby lips. The last time that I lifted you and held you on my hip...Precious, simple moments and bright flashes from your past-Would I have held on longer if I'd known they were your last? It goes on to highlight the entire childhood up until the child leaves for college, stating over and over," would I have held on longer if I'd known they were your lasts?".  Its a good reminder to cherish the times we have with our little ones because time slips away too quickly.

If you haven't read this book, get it! You can even stop by my house, and we can read it together. I promise to cry with you. :)

Nap Time Saga...

This is Zachy conched conked sleeping soundly during nap time today. I think he must have been practicing the wedding march before he fell asleep... all though, his veil is a bit high on his forehead. ha. And yes, Zachy still takes his pacy. Shame on Mommy. I have less than 3 months to break him of his pacy loving ways before hopefully another pacy loving baby enters our lives.  Then we have the other side of the coin....

This is Tyler with half of his toy box unloaded on his bed during "nap" time. Even though it pains me greatly to say this, I believe his days of napping are coming to an end. I'm a firm believer in quiet times though, so he's not off the hook. :) Just think, twenty years from now, he will be wishing, begging, pleading for those nap times again.

A Perfectly Blustery Day At The Park

Yesterday we took the boys to a local park since it was such a beautiful day! They thoroughly enjoyed it, and we loved being outside in the beautiful weather. If only Florida would stay this nice all summer long....let's just say Tonya is one grateful girl that she gets to deliver this tiny baby at the beginning of June and not the end of August. :)

 Little Mr. Zachary gave us a big scare Sunday after church. He fell with his arm under him on the concrete floors in the church. He fussed a bit, but it didn't last long and he got right back up and went about his business. When we left church, he started holding that right arm, and crying every time it was moved. Zach is tough, a bit too tough sometimes, so we knew something wasn't right. We ended up taking him to urgent care, and they splinted his arm, and surmised that it looked like a fracture or a sprain. Thankfully in the end it was determined it was a sprain. We took the splint off Monday afternoon, and he refused to use his arm and just let it dangle....that is until big brother got a hold of him. We caught Tyler pulling him across the floor with his injured arm and Jonathan heard a pop. After that little escapade, he went back to using his arm, and is doing great now. So great in fact that he was back to his climbing ways yesterday. I caught him happily perched upon the bar, table, etc. We are wondering now if he fell and jammed the arm...not sure, but thanks Tyler for the extra "tug of love".

While we were at Urgent Care with Zach, Tyler was regaling my Mom's lunch company about how he had fallen and broken his bottomem (bottom). He didn't want to be left out of the Zachary drama, or upstaged by him I guess. The joy is that he shared this lovely story at least four times.

Tyler always wants Daddy to "do the underdoggies" on the swings. I tried to capture it, but my photography skills are lacking.

Tyler decided he just wanted to sit on the bench for a little bit to watch us as we played. :)

“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.”
― A.A. Milne

Truly these two little guys have sent me on many adventures, and helped me to grow and stretch (against my will at times) in ways I could never have dreamed. Let's just say, I believe  God sends children into our lives to help train us, not just for us to train them. Many lessons have I learned and continue learning not only about parenting, but about myself. I have found several areas in my life that need to be put back on the potter's wheel for further molding. Patience being at the top of that list! So thankful that God blessed us with these precious little guys!

When Daddy Does The Laundry....

Just kidding. Daddy doesn't do laundry at our house...but Daddy did remove this teeny tiny shirt from a teddy bear and placed it on our son. It looks like an outfit a football jock would wear.

If Zach isn't wearing a hat then you can just about guarantee he is wearing sunglasses. Upside down, at that...and yes, while eating lunch.

 And, if he is wearing a hat he might just want to check himself out in the mirror. I catch him in our sink quite often... precious little child. Earlier this week I caught him sitting in the sink letting the water run over his sandal clad feet. I'm sure my little angel was just trying to clean his dusty little toes off. He is a quick little guy..one minute he is playing with his toys...the next minute he has scurried away to mischief. Blessed Quietness is not a blessing in my house....it send pure terror to my frail heart...just knowing that quietness means that Zachy is into something AGAIN. :)

And, of course, a hat is also a necessity for bedtime attire too. I bought Zach and Tyler's Easter basket "gifts" today. Bet you can't guess what Zach is getting?? Bing. Bing. A HAT. His very first hat of his own...the others he wears are technically his brothers.

Not to leave Tyler out, I thought I would share a few Tylerisms from our day. He saw some cows in a field today, and wanted us to look at the cows, "They are from Houston, Texas". Ha. Must be pretty special cows. When he saw Jonathan this evening, he said, "What's going up, Dude."  And, my favorite from the day was when he saw Zach in his lovely football style/ tiny teddy bear shirt he said, "He's so cute I could puke". :)

One last thing, we have been "decorating" for spring a little bit this week. I believe in refurbishing my decor...in other words, I robbed a little something from every  room in the house to redecorate my hutch. I took a couple pictures just for the fun of it. I'm not crazy about some things...so I still need to do a bit of tweaking, but I love the change. This is about as spring has sprung as we get here at the Slagenweit's. Hubby was a bit concerned about why I had decided to put our one Easter decoration " The Bunny" out. I had to remind him that Easter was right around the corner...well, sort of. Let's just hope "Bunny" survives this spring season...he has Zachy to contend with this year.

 This last picture is my favorite. Tyler was "helping" me decorate, and he was incredibly proud of his bead creation.