A Good (Boy) Friday

Friday, April 22, was Good Friday. Mamaw called that morning to see if we'd like to join her, Grace and Faith at the mall to look for some Crcos for the Bean, who has handed his down to Caleb Luke. I said sure and got the boys dressed. They were wearing the cutest little sweaters that coordinated, but I didn't get a picture of them (that said, it was a COLD morning!). While the mall didn't have the Crocs Joshua liked in his size, Mamaw bought him some dinosaur jibitz (sp?) and a pair of Lightning McQueen sandals. I had a coupon for Kohl's to take $10 off any purchase, which I gave to her toward her purchases (that also included some bigger big boy undies for the Bean). Thanks, Mamaw! When we got home, Joshua said "I LOVE SHOPPING!" I wanted to ask "since when?" but I think he was saying that he enjoyed his time with Mamaw, Grace & Faith and he also likes receiving new things. Even being a boy, I think he enjoys when someone gets him a gift.

Caleb, on the other hand, does not really enjoy shopping. He didn't get anything (nor did he ask for anything) and he laid down right in the middle of Kohl's, telling me he was tired. He had been up throughout the night, so I could see why he would be tired. When we got home, he went right to bed, and his forehead felt feverish when he woke up. I asked him if he was feeling okay, and he said his knee hurt. It was always the same knee, so I didn't think he was making it up. Yet, what did that have to do with a fever? He said his throat didn't hurt, he wasn't schnarky, and he didn't have any other cold symptoms, so I decided just to monitor him. By that evening, he seemed back to his normal self. So, I took out the eggs I had boiled earlier that day and prepped the area to decorate them with the boys, changing them out of their nice clothes into things that I thought wouldn't be ruined if they would accidentally spill something on them.

I lined a cookie sheet with newspapers, and I got out these little cups that Daddy got from his work. I think I filled them a little too full as the boys like to just plop the egg inside, but with the cookie sheet, it didn't matter. They enjoyed watching the bright pink, bright blue, yellow, orange and green. Unfortunately even with adding a splash of lemon juice, the green was a little bit meek. But, it didn't matter. They still LOVED getting to dye the eggs.

They took turns putting them into the colors, and I scooped them out and put them into the egg cartons. I loved the precious smiles on their faces!!!!

Later that night we had talked to Papaw, and he asked if they had hid any Easter eggs in their shoes. The boys thought this was such a funny thought that we heard about it the rest of the weekend. "You don't put eggs in your shoes, SILLY!"

Shawn told me later that night how much it means to him that I do these activities with the boys. It was one of the best compliments he's given me, and it meant a lot. I didn't think he liked the traditional activities, but he enjoys watching the boys enjoy themselves doing fun things together as a family.

Even with trying to be careful, many of our precious eggs cracked. Such is life! We also had to dry them more with paper towels the next day. And even after they were dry, the stickers we bought wouldn't stick to them. That was okay because the boys enjoy putting stickers on paper, etc.

I realized between the hand paint from preschool the day before and the egg dye, my hands were a rainbow of colors. I scrubbed and scrubbed and couldn't get my nails and skin to go back to their normal color for a day or two. :) :) :)

The boys had fun, and the mama enjoyed it, too! Happy Easter!

Giving a Hand

On Wednesday, April 20, Grandpa Georgia came to our house to watch Caleb while I went into Joshua's preschool to help with a special end-of-year craft. Joshua was extremely excited to be star helper of the day, too! Unfortunately, this was his last 'special' day of being the star for the year. The day before he had helped get out items for his show-n-tell which included his little Harold the Helicopter (and he was going to tell folks how it had dropped eggs for us to hunt), his Southwest airplane (which we take when we fly to Florida) and a little red train (which looks like the Strasburg Railroad that we've ridden on). The theme for show-n-tell this month was our choice, so he stuck with transportation.

When we arrived, Joshua sat down next to Mrs. Wolfe to work on his "tomb" craft that he absolutely loves. He uses it to tell people that the stone was rolled away (the 'stone' is stuck on with tape, so it can be moved) and that Jesus is ALIVE so He's not in the tomb. :) :) :)

As soon as everyone arrived, Mrs. Dearborn took another parent and me to the area where we were to help the kids decorate their pillow cases. I couldn't believe the set-up work that was done in advance by the teacher! She had put all their names on each pillow case in a strategic fashion so that they would have room to put their hand prints. She also had put newspaper on the inside of each one and spread them out around the room. Then she gave us the fabric paint and brushes to brush it on the children's hands. What a clever idea! I always just dipped my kids' hands into the paint, but it was way more even when we painted it on.I will definitely use this trick in our crafts from now on. The kids thought the paint tickled (or the brushes) but did well with the craft in general.

There were three of us moms helping that morning. We were each able to help our own child, which was nice. The kids had to have their hand painted and placed down 16 times. There were a small handful of pillow cases on the tables, and the rest of it was completed on the floor. I was SO tired by the end of our time there from getting down on the floor, crawling around with the kids to the different ones and getting back up with the paint, etc. I can definitely feel how pregnant I am!

 Joshua did a great job with his craft, and the rest of the class also listened well. I was very impressed. Afterward, we went outside and hid Easter eggs for the class to find. They had a great time! Here's the Bean with his bag.

Soon enough, we went back to the room and it was almost time for preschool to end. Mrs. Dearborn handed out bags of treats (a snack or two and erasers, stickers, etc) and their tomb crafts. Then they were allowed to eat one of their pieces of chocolate, but I asked if we could leave to go relieve Grandpa Georgia, who had plans that day at noon. Since they were already done with their activities, it was a great time to leave. Joshua was sad to give his "star helper" necklace back, but he told me how much fun he had in preschool that day.

Here's his finished pillowcase. Each child put their hand print next to their name, so then the order of the names in the middle changed from case to case to accommodate the change in position. Unfortunately for the Bean, that meant that he had two orange hands next to each other as well as two purple. But, it would have been impossible to get them all different with the color choices we had. It's still cute. I'm not sure how practical, but cute.

Here's a snapshot of all the ones on the floor:

How I love my boys! I am thankful to be able to help in their classrooms while they still think their mama is "cool." :) :) :)

A Praise Report Worth Sharing

On Monday night (Joshua's 55-month birthday), Shawn came home from work and suggested we go to York for dinner. He wanted to see if the Target there had some things he was looking for, and the pizza shop that has the arcade for kiddos also has a special on Monday nights. I was all for it! We hopped in the minivan and headed west on Route 30, over the bridge where they were doing work. While we were in the construction zone, I told Shawn that he should watch his speed - he was doing close to 80 in a 55 mph speed limit. He was zipping right along in the left lane but at that point the construction signs ended as he slowed down. Even though Target didn't have what we were looking for, we had a great time at dinner. The pizza was delicious and the boys had fun in the arcade area. [Even though I had taken along my camera, I didn't snap any photos - bummer!]

As we came home from our evening of fun, we noticed that there were quite a few cars being towed away off the westbound lanes of the Route 30 bridge into York with police everywhere, a WGAL camera crew, and no actual traffic, which was being detoured. In fact, as we continued to travel, we saw miles of cars inching along and we praised God that we were on the side that was moving along steadily. That night, I turned on the 11 pm news because I was interested to see what the story was. Was it a big pile-up accident? What happened? I was curious.

And I was genuinely surprised at the answer! A steel beam had come loose and was sticking up, DESTROYING cars in the right-hand lane. We watched as they interviewed motorists. One driver said she saw it and swerved, but it slashed her tires. Another said they didn't see it and heard an awful noise, which made him pull his car over. He said underneath his car was completely ripped up. Yet another said that the minute he hit it, his oil light came on as his pressure dropped to zero and he could see that his oil pan had been slashed and all his oil had spilled all over the road. When they were talking about the timing, we realized it was the EXACT time we had been on the road. Praise God, Shawn had been flying up the LEFT lane (not the right) and our brand new minivan had been saved. The drivers were furious - thinking their cars were demolished and wondering who was going to pay for all the damage.

The bridge continued to be closed until the following day, and all that traffic heading west was stop-and-go at best. I was SO glad that we weren't stuck in traffic. But, I was even more glad after seeing the news report that we weren't dealing with the loss of a vehicle, having to pay an insurance deductible or any kinds of trouble. I felt sorry for the other motorists, but we couldn't help praising Jesus and thanking Him right there on the spot (in bed, watching the news) for His protection over us. To see Lancaster Online's account (which varied a little from the newscasts we saw), you can go here: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/377744.

Praise You, God, for Your faithfulness to us!!!

Happy 55 Months, Joshua!

Monday, April 18, Joshua turned 55-months old. I can't believe how much my little guy is growing, both internally and externally. The day after this milestone, he had a doctor's appointment, which was a pre-op physical for his upcoming surgery scheduled for May 2 (please pray for him!). His stats include:

Height: 3' 6" (54.69%)
Weight: 37 lbs 8 oz (41.36%)
BMI: 14.95 kg/m2

The pediatrician gave him the 'all clear' for surgery, but gave me signs to watch for that would make the anesthesiologist not go ahead with the procedure. It drives me crazy to go into an office that is filled with sickness when my children are healthy, but I guess this gives them a baseline if something were to go wrong. And I'm thankful to have Joshua's current stats. I love to have snapshots in time!

Lately, Joshua has been really into stories. I tell him Bible stories, and he LOVES it! We've moved on from Noah & the ark, Jonah & the whale and even Moses & the Israelites to also include David & Goliath, Daniel & the lion's den, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (which I'm not positive this is how you spell their names, but then again, these weren't their God-given names anyway...). Joshua listens intently and tells me if I've left out any details that he remembers hearing before. As I was telling him again yesterday, I asked if he could tell me a theme throughout the stories (explaining that a theme is a common thread between all the stories). He said "how about that they obeyed God?" I was surprised that he understood what I meant and even more surprised that he really grasped the stories and their meanings. I said "ABSOLUTELY! And they trusted God!" How I pray that my Bean will always trust and obey God like these Biblical men!

Joshua also loves to tell the story of Jesus dying on the cross, and the stone being rolled away from the tomb to reveal that His body was no longer there. He made a tomb craft in preschool with a 'stone' that can be removed (since it's taped in place) and he loves to show it off to whoever will listen. I love it! I'll have to take a picture of it. I also love to hear him say his Bible verses. His latest one from preschool is Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." He has little motions that go along with it that are just precious!

He is also at the age that he can teach me new songs that he's learning. For example, he came home singing "Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, won't you shine down on me?" I asked him to teach me the words (Lord, we really do need sunshine!!!) and he did. Now Caleb & I can sing along with him.

Joshua still loves singing, and he still loves to play with his trains, cars, planes, balls, coloring books, etc. We've been working on his puzzle books, and he loves them! We've done all the activities in the ones that arrived that he can do (he's not great at coloring within lines completely yet, so some of them where you have to be precise aren't done, but the rest he did really well with!). Joshua loves puzzles and games. We've moved on to add a new game to ones that we typically play where I say a word and the boys tell me what letter it starts with (rather than them just coming up with words that start with a letter). They both do really well with it.

Joshua's memory has amazed us these past couple weeks. For example, when we were driving to Nonie & Poppy's house, he said "Do they still have that bird on their garage?" After thinking about it, I said "Yes, I think there is something there." When we arrived, he said "Whoops! It's above the garage, not on it." Indeed, there is one of those bird things that used to be a decoration on siding that was popular when the house was built (we had one a long time ago as well). The fact that he remembered it and it's been a long time since we'd been there really surprised us. We went to Target the evening of his birthday, and he said "The last time I was at this store, I was with Mamaw buying my big boy car seat." It's been months since Mom took him shopping to Target, and I rarely go there, but he remembered. He also can tell you what we're near as we're driving, just from his observations. If we as parents say something, we had better stick to it because he remembers!!!

My boy still hates to have his hair or nails cut or get his head or face wet in the bathtub. I'm wondering if these are things that he'll outgrow.

Joshua is showing independence these days. He completely dresses himself and has been for awhile. He also likes to pick out his own clothes (although sometimes I veto them if they really don't match or if I have something in mind for a special day). He also likes to read books himself. If we read one together, he'll climb off my lap and take it to study it. It only takes a few times of me reading it to him before he has many of the pages memorized, so he can pretend to read it himself.

He still carries his bags of toys around, but he doesn't sleep with them anymore. They do pile up in his room, though, until I make him put things away in the office and only keep a few "treasures." He also remembers who bought him what when it comes to gifts. He'll say "this came from Great Grandma Good" or "Mamaw & Papaw got me this" or "Mamaw bought me this when we were shopping."

There are so many things I love and appreciate about Joshua. I love how he's mellowing in many areas as he gets older, even though he still has a fiesty personality. I love that he's still willing to give hugs and kisses and hold hands with us as parents and enjoys cuddle time. I love that he really enjoys playing with his little brother and tells him often how they are friends. I love that he has a gentle spirit and heart and would never hurt anyone intentionally. I love that I don't have to worry about him getting into things, even if I give him some independence. I love that I can trust him in the big things, even though I know he still needs guidance. I love his smile and how it brightens up any room. He is such a sweet boy! Happy 55-month birthday, my little Bean! As you tell me every night when I give you 12 kisses and one to grow on (at your request), you're growing up....but not too big and not too fast!!! You'll wait a little while until you're as big and strong as Daddy. :) :) :)

'Cause We're Cousins...

After the Easter egg hunt last Saturday, the boys came home for naps. When they woke up, I packed their suitcase (not realizing that we didn't have a small one any more because it got destroyed on Daddy's last trip) and we headed up to Reading to Nonie & Poppy's house to play and spend the night. I think Joshua may have only been there overnight once before, and Caleb never had. Nonie wanted to see how the boys would do at their house since they could have them for a night while we're in the hospital. The kids always enjoy playing with their toys, particularly the trains. And they also LOVE their older cousin Jordon, who's pictured in between them above, reading them a story (thanks for taking the photo, Aunt Alicia!). In this picture, they're hanging out in Jordon's room (since they live right next door).

After we dropped them off, Shawn & I headed to our dinner reservations at Hayden Zugs. It was POURING out, and you have to walk a little bit from the parking lot to the actual restaurant. We had a coupon to use, but it was still extremely pricey. That said, we would normally not go somewhere like that with our kids, so having a babysitter already lined up gave us the chance to go to a nicer place. The food was absolutely delicious! And the company was the most special part, as always. From there, we had talked about going out to see a movie. But, with the extremely stormy conditions, we decided instead to go home (stopping for dessert along the way to bring back to our house).

We both got into comfy clothes and watched the movie "Sanctum" here, which is one that I wanted to see. I thought it was good; Shawn didn't seem all that impressed. We paused it for me to go to the bathroom (ah, the joys of pregnancy!) and Shawn turned on the regular TV just in time to see an update about the weather. They were calling for tornadoes in our area at that exact moment (with the typical lightning, thunder and even hail that was already coming down). Every broadcast had been interrupted for the newscasts to tell folks to move into their basement. I was worried about the boys, seeing that the severe weather alerts were for our area during that hour and Berks County the following. I asked Shawn if we should call, and he said no. Then our doorbell rang. WHAT!?!? I wasn't really dressed for company, so I made Shawn answer it with his pajama pants. Here it was our really sweet neighbor, braving the elements to tell Shawn that he left our lights on in the minivan when we came home. He had noticed them an hour before but when they didn't go off and we didn't turn them off, he feared we were going to have a dead battery in the morning. How nice! I wouldn't have gone out in that storm for any reason (maybe I would have offered to give them a jump in the morning???). We are truly blessed with some fantastic neighbors. Shawn went out and turned them off right away. Then we finished the movie (after all, we were already in our basement!).

After the movie ended, we watched a little more news and went to bed. Only I couldn't sleep thinking about my boys. I kept dreaming that Caleb needed me...to the point that I woke Shawn at 3 am to tell him we should go get them. He told me to go back to sleep. After church the next morning, we called to see how they were doing, and it sounded like they were doing fine. Please pray for them while I'm in the hospital. I'm so worried already! And I know that worry can't do anything for me. But, it's the worst part of giving birth to have to leave your other kids. That afternoon since I hadn't slept most of the night, I took a nice nap. Then we headed to life group, where we were asked to lead the discussion because we had volunteered to preview the videos. It was quite a lively discussion, which I enjoyed. One of the "debates" was whether or not God cares (and therefore provides for) the smaller things in our life like a parking space or a sale on something we want to buy, etc. The group was rather split. I personally think He does care (in fact, I prayed for a good parking space the following Tuesday when it was pouring, we were running late enough that I feared we wouldn't get any space, and I was wearing heeled shoes... and the moment I pulled into the parking lot a woman left the space right next to the door. Coincidence? I truly don't think so. So, I had to give God credit and thank Him for it!).

After life group, we went to pick up our boys. I was missing them tremendously. Shawn laughed at me - they'd only been gone from us about 24 hours. Our little guys gave us big hugs and told us how much fun they had - what they ate, where they played, how they pretended to be on a rocket ship outside with Jordon, where they slept, etc. Alicia also blessed us with three bins of clothing for the boys... as Caleb keeps growing, he's catching up with Joshua! We are thankful for borrowed clothes. :) Joshua keeps wanting to wear everything that Jordon used to. [He does the same thing with his cousin Grant; these clothes become special to him.] We visited with the boys for a little while when we got home, but soon enough it was time for PJs and bed. I was glad to sing to them, pray with them, and tuck them in their own covers. I love my little buddies! And I'm thankful that they had a great time over the weekend without us.

We Want Eggs!

We had been looking forward to Saturday, April 16, for awhile and praying that the weather would hold out for the kids' Easter egg hunt. This year we went to the Grace Church helicopter drop once again with our friends Chris & Lisa and their daughter Isabella. The egg hunt was scheduled to start at 9 am, so we met earlier to make sure we had a game plan. It was only in the low 30s that morning and they were calling for severe thunder storms, which hadn't started yet. We weren't sure what to expect as far as the egg hunt, but I had called the church, and the secretary informed me the event happened rain or shine (with most of the activities being indoors).

In the parking lot, we told the kids to 'hold hands' and Isabella & Joshua wanted to hold each others' rather than their adult parents'. Adorable! You can see Shawn & Chris in the background of the above picture making sure they were okay.

We saw that the field was already covered with eggs, and they informed us that they were still doing the helicopter drop for this group. The kids were excited even though we as adults were frozen! They told us we could wait inside until it was time for the helicopter to come. Shawn & Chris ran for coffee (and little Caleb followed Daddy) and Lisa & I stayed with the older kiddos.

Just before 9 am, they told us we could go line up outside. Before leaving the building, we took a couple pictures of the kids holding hands, excited for the helicopter to "drop those eggs!" I LOVE their cheesy expressions in the picture to the right.

Since the kids wanted to stick together, we decided to venture over to the 3-5 year old section as a group. Caleb will be three this summer anyway.

Lisa took a few close-up pictures of the kiddos excited faces.

 The emcee started telling jokes to the kids, most of which were over their heads. One was "which day of the week does the egg like least?" The answer? Fry-day. "Why do we paint Easter eggs?" It's easier than wallpapering them. Soon enough, it was time to start chanting for the helicopter. This year, they shouted "WE WANT EGGS! WE WANT EGGS!" Our kids were all prepared to say "drop those eggs" like last year, but this worked, too.

 

I had my zippy and a heavy coat on, Shawn had only grabbed his zippy, the kids had warm coats but no hats or gloves on, and we were all chilly. But, it was the question of when the rain would start. You can see in these pictures with the helicopter that the skies were BLACK.

 

I was thankful the kids still got to do the egg hunt. Here's a picture of Joshua that Lisa took since the older kids took off with the rest of the group and I stayed behind with Caleb Luke, who only got a few broken eggs.

He seemed chilly!

Soon all the eggs were found, and we rushed back inside. Once there, I grabbed our family's coats and Chris got his family's and we left to go hang them up. Shawn & Lisa and Lisa's parents (who came to see Isabella) took the kids to get little balloon hats while they waited for us. I have NO idea what they were supposed to be, but the kids enjoyed them.

Then Isabella wanted her face painted, so we waited for her. My boys wanted neither paint nor tattoos but were happy just to try and bonk each other with their balloon ends.

As we waited for Isabella to be transformed into a bunny (or kitty, I'm not sure which now that I'm looking at her), we ran into the Easter bunny. Caleb was too nervous to go meet him, but Joshua went right up to say hello and we snapped a quick picture. Isabella got in line to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny as a pose. We knew our boys were too anxious to get to the activities, so we didn't make them. Her picture did turn out cute, though.

In the meantime, we headed to the activities. There weren't as many this year. That said, we didn't make it to even half of them last year, so that was just fine. It did mean that there were longer lines for the few that were available, though. The first one was to throw a soft bunny through a hoop. The boys did great and got to pick a prize (which wasn't just candy - they had things like bracelets, crosses that were little games, little bouncy balls, etc). Next we headed to fish a ducky out of the pond for a prize, which you can see in the picture below.

Joshua begged Daddy to go to the bounce houses at this point, so Shawn agreed to take him while Caleb & I stayed behind to play more games since Isabella had caught up to us at this point. The next game we did was the bean bag toss. Caleb made it through the hole on his first shot!

Caleb & Isabella decided to join the bouncing fun, only they weren't tall enough to be in the one that Joshua was in. Joshua was right on the line of 'eggs' so he could go on either one - the big kid one or the little kid one. He had been doing the bigger one (with a shorter line) so Caleb & Izzy headed to the little one and went through. Then Joshua joined them, and we saw his little buddy Kyler there from his Sunday School class. Kyler's Grandma had brought him. Here are my two boys going through the smaller of the two bounce houses, which was still fairly big.

Since the lines were long for the bouncy areas and we didn't have long until the magic show, we decided to head back to the games. Joshua went back to the bigger bouncy area that wasn't as full. In the game below, the kids had to toss a balloon through the hoola hoop.

Then they went to this 'ski ball' and once again, Caleb got his in on the first try, which amazed me.

They told us it was time for the magic show, so we went and got the kids seats. The guy was very fun to watch, and the kids LOVED it! Joshua has told us that he's going to pull a bunny out of his box ever since.

That was the end of our morning there. We read in the newspaper that the 9 am group was the only group that got to experience the helicopter this year. It had started to rain, and they called off the 11 am and 1 pm egg hunts. I am thankful that our boys got to see and experience it, even though it was chillly. Hopefully next year will be warm and sunny! We still had a fun time with our friends. And Caleb will still chant on occasion "We want eggs!" in his soft little voice. :) :) :)

A Fantastic Friday

For how awful I felt on Wednesday, Friday (4/15) was looking up. We had scheduled UGI to come clean our HVAC system, and the guys said that everything looked really good. That's always good news (even though the system is only three years old, you never know what you'll hear when it comes to your house!).The day before, we had received some new puzzle books in the mail from Mamaw (thanks!) and the boys enjoyed working on them together while the men were working. Caleb loved the look and finds, and Joshua could do 90% of the activities. Some of them were "put stickers on the picture of the opposing page to make the two match"; others were "put the puzzle piece stickers on the pages to finish the pictures"; while others included tracing a map to get from point A to point B without hitting any 'road blocks,' connect the dots to make a picture, color by number, and count how many of X items were in a picture, etc. We had fun with the books, and here's Joshua posing next to his.

Then our friends showed up to drop off videos for us to preview for life group. After everyone was gone, I called Shawn telling him that I was going to go to the fruit stand near his work because I was craving watermelon, and I know they get things shipped in even though it's out of season. He agreed to join us, and we went to three different stands that were all closed for one reason or another. UGH! But, we still got him lunch (the boys & I had already eaten) and stopped at Giant on the way back through for some things we needed. My friend Renee had called to see if I'd like to borrow her infant car seat, and she also lent me the combination stroller that snaps together with it. She warned me the handle on the car seat doesn't always work, but I'm praying it does for our little guy. While I had a seat, it always stuck and I hated it! I also didn't have the stroller that went with it, so I'm hoping that this is a vast improvement to my experience with my other little ones. Either way, it was really sweet of her to let me borrow them. We picked them up at her house, and I was SO excited! It was also nice to chat with her for the few minutes we were there.

By then it was late enough that it was time to go in for naps, but we may have played outside a little beforehand since it was a nice day. I don't honestly remember now. I had thought ahead and put dinner in the crock pot so when Shawn got home that evening, everything was ready for dinner. We had a nice evening as the boys ate a good bit and so did we. I always enjoy when the boys eat (and enjoy) what I make for supper. We knew we had lots of plans for the following day, so we put the boys to bed at a decent time, excited for the weekend.

A Park Date

On Thursday, April 14, I had a doctor's appointment for baby. So, after I dropped Joshua off at preschool, I headed to Lancaster Physicians for Women. And while they've been great in the past, I have to say that almost every appointment I've had for this baby, I've been given the excuse that they're in surgery or overbooked or busy and I'm going to have to wait. This time, after being there 15 minutes with my well-behaved Caleb Luke, one of the sweetest old nurses came out and said that the doctor was still in surgery and we could expect to be there at least another half an hour; we were given the option of waiting or rescheduling. Now, to reschedule at this point, I feel like I'd almost be bumping into my next appointment, so I asked her if she thought I'd be out of there by 11:10, when I needed to leave to pick up my oldest son at preschool. She said yes. Then she came back a few minutes later and called my name and another waiting patient and said that we could see Dr. Jones instead. I was glad. Dr. Jones was about to enter the room (I'm guessing) when Caleb announces that he MUST go potty. So, I took our fold-up potty seat and walked out the door, almost bumping into her as I asked where the bathrooms were. By the time we came back in, she was waiting for me, but seemed very understanding about a little guy's need for the potty since she has three little boys herself (the youngest of which was due at the same time as Joshua). The baby's heartbeat sounds fine, my blood pressure looks good, and they'll see me back soon. She quickly left, and so did we.

When Caleb & I left, we went home to grab the lunch that I had packed for the boys and me. Then we headed to preschool to pick up the Bean. From there, we headed to Rapho Township Park to meet Kelley and her son Lincoln and Kristen and her son Elliott and daughter Charlotte. Kelley & Kristen and I had all worked together at the ad agency before we each left to give birth to our firstborn sons. The weather was windy and chilly while we were eating but got warmer as we went to play at the playground in the sunshine.

Lincoln just turned a year old and isn't walking yet, so Kelley had some freedom to walk around as our kids played. My boys, on the other hand, went running for whatever looked good to them at the time. So, that kept me moving too. Kristen's kids are the same ages as mine (in fact, each are one month older) so she followed her little ones. It was fun to catch up for the little time we were able to spend together. When we were there, both my little guys had to go potty, so we walked through the muddy field to get to the bathrooms, which I was thankful were there.

It was great to be in sunshine and out with friends! But soon enough it was time to head home for naps. Thanks for the invite, friends! We'll have to do it again sometime soon!