We’ve had a fun summer around here but not as fun outdoor wise as I’d like… it’s been so hot and being pregnant in the heat is not working out well for me. I’m not into it. So we haven’t gone outside nearly as much as I’d like. We’ve only used Noah’s baby pool a couple of times. We went swimming, & then went to Holiday World and we have discovered that Noah loves the water! He loves to jump in from the side of the pool, which of course we had to put a stop to b/c that’s just not safe and it gives Mommy heart palpatations!

Right now I feel like super mom. Not because I’m doing anything spectacularly great- but because I feel like I’m “working” on SO much at one time. It’s very overwhelming. As far as Noah goes (which is all I’ll talk about in this post since there’s SO much going on!) we’re working on several things. I’ve decided to ditch the sippy cups altogether and go straight to normal cups. This is going to be tricky when we’re in the car but I’m thinking as long as we’re not going too far, he can wait until we get somewhere to have a drink. I think I’ll get one of the cups that has a built in straw or just bring juice boxes for when we’re out & about.

Secondly with Noah, we’re still working on the potty training. He’s still in pullups and we decided to wait until the first part of Sept. to try the training underwear. Until here recently, I don’t think he knew when he had to pee. He’s been pooping on the potty for quite a while now, which I have to say- is Fantastic! I love not changing poopy diapers anymore! He can even hold it if he has to go and we’re in the car or something. He’s plopped himself down on the potty so quickly and just let it go and it’s kinda funny really to see him get control of his body like that. Maybe TMI- but you mothers out there know or will know what I mean!   Right now though, we’re setting a timer and every half hour he goes to the potty. He’s fine with it as long as he gets to stand up “like Daddy”. Then he’s pretty well gotten used to going #2 at certain times of the day (i.e. around lunchtime and before bed) so he knows to sit down at those times. It’s nice having this routine but Again, when we’re out & about this is really tricky. He hates to sit down on toilets in public. He doesn’t like the feel of the plastic or toilet paper on the toilet so he has yet to poop in public. Usually I just hold up him and he pees.. wonderful thing about boys

The next thing is the whole fit/whining/timeout situation. He doesn’t have too many fits or go to timeout very often, but when he does decide that he’s not going to cooperate, & a tantrum ensues, he goes to timeout. Sometimes he’ll run over to the area and cry a little and that’s it, but other times I literally have to drag him there (again, this doesn’t happen often, but it’s enough that we’re “working” on it). Today was one of those dragging him days. And when that happens he will lie down in his time out area and scream and kick his legs in a full out tantrum. It’s awful. So today I sat down there with him and literally held him upright on his bottom. He got several spankings in the course of the 10 minutes it took me to get him to sit nicely and calmly. Then we had a talk and I made him repeat that he needs to sit on his bottom, and that he doesn’t talk back to Mommy and when I ask him to go to timeout, he needs to behave for his 2 minutes or he will have to stay there longer, and that if he throws a fit or whines, he gets a spanking. I have no idea what other parents do in these situations. I’ve read that some just let their kids lie there & scream (which we’ve tried)- and others spank and others simply sit & talk calmly to their kid. I’m basically combining them all. I try to stay calm although I have a bad temper and when he acts like that I have no patience for it. I just know that me yelling & getting all angry never helps. It onlymakes him more upset & riled up! Ugh. When one of my parents raised their voice to me, I paid attention and it made me stop whatever I was doing. But that is just the opposite for Noah. It’s like it scares him and makes him defiant at the same time- he yells right back and kicks his little feet and then it’s all I can do not to throw him right out the window! BUT- we’re sticking with it and most people are complimenting him on his good behavior. He acts up at home but in public is a pretty good boy. He’ll see other kids crying or having a fit in public and say “He needs to go to timeout”.

Next thing we’re working on are the letters & numbers. I’m trying to hit those a little harder here recently. I feel like he should know a lot of them but as of right now he only recognizes a handful. He knows all the letters in his name and one or two others, but that’s about it. I got a Preschool activity book the other day at Sam’s and we’re going to work on doing a page out of that every day. Maybe it’s the teacher in me but I know he might start preschool next year and I also know how difficult a preschool teacher’s job is! I’d love for him to already know most of his letters & numbers and have some practice with writing them. It’s so difficult to go around to 10-15 kids and help them all write their letters, etc.

Preschool is a whole other story. I have heard from friends around here that if I want to get him enrolled in a good one, we need to look into that now- for next school year! I haven’t even begun to really look around or research much about the schools around here and I have no concept of what it costs. When I taught preschool I didn’t deal with the money aspect of it. And most of those kids came to the daycare and just came over for preschool so that was obviously a different fee than what we’d be looking at. I’m not looking for him to be there all day- just the couple hours or whatever it would be for preschool only. A friend is taking her child to The Woods (st. mary’s) and she says how wonderful it is- but her kids are going there for daycare and she says they pay $170 per week!! Now that’s for daycare plus preschool and I’m not sure of the hours, etc… but it still sounds so expensive to me. Then I remember the crappy daycare/preschool that I worked for and I know it was at least $100 for that one. So we’re in for more than I think we’re expecting. Part of me thinks he doesn’t need preschool at all b/c I can teach him all those things very easily, but it’s the social interaction and practicing for school that we feel is super important. I felt good about the fact that we have a good year to figure all this out but now that I’ve heard we need to look into it now, I’m panicking a little bit! IF any of you have ideas of good preschools around here, please do let me know!

Last thing we’re working on with Noah is the bed thing. Right now I’m still sitting in his room, rocking in his chair until he falls asleep (not rocking him, he’s in bed.. i’m sitting & rocking). He was rocked to sleep for such a long time b/c it became a habit from when he had terrible reflux. Then when we converted to the toddler bed it became easy to let go of that little habit! But he still wanted me in his room and he will stand at the gate FOR-E-VER & cry “mommy, I need mommy” until I eventually cave. I can’t let him cry for an hour.. it’s just ridiculous. SO, we’ve continued on w/ this little routine and I sit in there for a short time until he’s mostly asleep. We’re going to convert him to the twin bed around the first of Sept., too though so he can get used to that before the baby comes so I’m hoping that at that time we can start a new routine/ritual that will include me saying goodnight and leaving immediately. That is what I had intended to do with him from birth, but it didn’t work out. I’m praying VERY hard that our next child will not have problems with reflux b/c I desperately don’t want to get into any of these terrible habits again!

Anyway, there’s much more since I haven’t written in so long- lots about the new baby & pregnancy. I’ll keep up with this more now that I have a computer upstairs (Steve’s afraid I’m a little too humpty-dumpty-ish and will fall down the stairs). Hope everyone’s having a great last week before school starts!!

Summer is approaching rapidly and things are just good right now in the Reed household. I’m so happy to finally be saying that. It seems like we’ve had such a batch of bad luck  and just hard times this past couple.. well, years! With the exception of our angel baby Noah, things have been very stressful.  And even with him actually, with his reflux and allergy problems & just being a first-time mom, it’s been A LOT to deal with.

But (*sigh*), I finally feel like I’ve got a handle on things. I think this next baby is doing really well! I’m 14 weeks now! Woohoo! Over the big 12 week mark and things are looking good. I’m anxious to go to the Dr. again next week to find out if things really are going as well as I feel they are.  I still feel crappy a good portion of the time but it’s not constant like it was for that first 11 or 12 weeks! I got to stop taking my medicine and now it’s mainly headaches and sinus issues I’m dealing with.

My belly feels ginormous already. I had my first “rub down” the other day.. already, which is annoying but at least it was someone I know!  Yeah,  I am definitely showing and it’s kind of  awful, but kind of nice because I just don’t care anymore. Everyone says you show a lot more easily with the second baby and man, they were not lying. I’m in maternity jeans and buying extra long shirts. Maternity shirts are mostly hideous. I am starting to feel a little movement in there, too! I didn’t feel Noah move until week 16 but now I understand what everyone was talking about when they said that “butterflies” feeling. I never had that with him but I think I didn’t know what to look for. With him it literally felt like he was taking his tiny little finger and poking me. No kidding.. it was so weird. With this it’s the little flutters that I’m feeling. It’s exciting!

Noah is gearing up to be a big brother. I think he’s going to handle it well.. he’ll be one of those kids that’s saying it’s “his” baby and wanting to hug & kiss it all the time. He never gets jealous when I’m holding & playing with other kids so we’ll see if that stays the same when he’s getting a tiny bit less attention! I’m sure we’ll have some tough times but I think he’ll be a very big helper

We’re getting ready for summer around here. The flowers are almost all planted, which always makes me so much happier. We’re able to take Noah outside to play, which is a huge relief and lets him get a ton of energy out! I can’t wait for even warmer days so we can play in his baby pool and the sprinklers. That will be nice.

I’m trying to figure out some fun summery crafts to do with Noah. I just got flash cards for him so we can work a little harder on his letters, numbers, and shapes. He has so many other things around here with those on them but I felt like I needed something compact like that and I couldn’t find the ones I used to have for school. He’s already loving it. He can count to 14 now but he doesn’t know his numbers really by looking at them. He can sing his ABC’s very nicely, too which I think is hysterical to listen to. And he knows all his colors.. shapes we have not really worked on much so we’ll have to do that this summer.

AND.. the big thing- potty training! We’re in full swing with that now. He is doing pretty well with going on the potty whenever we ask him to but he still doesn’t have a sense of when he needs to pee. He can pee on command! haha, but he won’t say “I need to pee” and run into the bathroom the way he does when he is getting ready to poop. The poop thing is not going so well either really b/c usually he actually starts pooping in the diaper, then realizes that he’s doing it and is like “uh-oh!” and then he runs in there saying “don’t poop in my diaper!”… lol. So we’ll get about half in the diaper and half in the potty. I’m not the slightest bit worried about it right now. He’s just 2 and they say not to even worry about it until closer to 2 1/2, plus he’s a boy so they normally take longer. I just want him to be pretty darn close to all the way trained by the time Nov. gets here!

Well, I could write forever about all the things I’ve neglected to blog about in the past few weeks, but I better head upstairs and relax. My head is not feeling so well today. I will catch everyone up on stories & fun stuff as soon as I can! Gotta get back to blogging..  while I still can!

I am now 7 weeks pregnant and I’m feeling AWFUL. I know this is a good sign and I really do feel like things are going “well” for this pregnancy. My Dr. always says, when you’re feeling awful, that’s a good thing! I’m on a stronger dose of progesterone this time around so hopefully there will be a smaller risk of miscarriage.

Lately I’ve been feeling awful and nauseous and just tired so the chores & duties I have around here have fallen a little by the wayside. I’m still doing most of them but I’m finding it much more difficult. I want to lie on the couch all day and sip juice and nibble on things to keep my nausea at bay, while watching TV or movies with Noah. Actually, getting outside in the fresh air helps too, so we’ll be doing that a lot more now that it’s warm.

Speaking of Noah, he’s now 2!! I can’t believe it. He had a wonderful time at his birthday party. A ton of people showed up and it was a tad crowded, but still a lot of fun. He had an awesome treasure chest cake and a little pirate head just for him. He enjoyed having this little cake all to himself.. although he didn’t end up eating anymore than the one slice. It wasn’t quite the mess it was last year with the cake though! Thankfully! I didn’t have to change his outfit

Then on his actual birthday his grandparents and aunt & uncle came over for a bit to see him and we had some brownies and ice cream. It was a nice time. He opened the rest of his small presents, which included big boy underwear! Haha.. yes, we gave him undies for his birthday. But hey, it’s big stuff! I’ll have to save the potty training stories for another time.. i’m exhausted and going to bed.

I’ll leave you with this though.. if you’re a mom- and especially if you’re a stay-at-home mom, you’ll appreciate this! I found it online on one of my mommy sites..

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.
Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, ‘What happened here today?’ She again smiled and answered, ‘You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?’ ‘Yes,’ was his incredulous reply. She answered, ‘Well, today I didn’t do it.’

We’ve been talking about this potty thing for quite a while here now and in the past few days my mom basically figured it out for me. This past Fri. night she was here and took Noah outside (at the advice of her friend from work) and let him pee in the yard. They did this without me knowing and came in to announce that he peed. Then he wanted to pee over & over in the yard. It was hilarious.

So the next day I left to go on my girls’ weekend with my friends and my mom calls me the day she has Noah. She tells me that he’s gone basically all day without peeing or pooping in his diaper and that she’s gotten him to sit on the potty & go! I have been trying to get him to go in his little baby potty and he just was uncomfortable. We tried the training pants and that didn’t work so much (although we gave up after about half an hour and 3 wet sets of them!). So we had gotten the Baby Alive doll to try out after his 2nd birthday. Well, now I can officially take the doll back because he’s basically potty trained! I came home and now we’re just continuing with what my mom started. I’m going to go tomorrow and get the little seat thing that goes over the normal toilet so he can sit on that & go easily enough without us having to hold him on there.  We take him in there about once an hour and ask him to try & go… and he does! We do a big celebration after every successful time and give him a little candy or treat (going outside, watching a video, whatever). And we don’t get upset or make him feel negatively about Not going in the potty.

I think what we’re going to do now is keep the normal diapers on and continue doing what we’re doing until those are gone. Then when they’re gone, we’ll use the training pants most of the time and keep a diaper on for naps & night time.

I have to say, I’m SO excited that my mom took the initiative to just “try it out” and “see what happens”..  I was all paranoid about a normal toilet b/c we’re going on a road trip in a month and I want him to be able to use the little travel potty we bought. We’ll see how that goes… I’ll probably get the travel seat cover thingys that go on public restrooms too, just in case! And of course we’ll have diapers on at that point, too b/c it IS a long drive.

Anyway, I’m ecstatic, refreshed, and am feeling pretty good about all this! My girlfriends gave me a new outlook on a couple of things and it was a much needed break for us all. I’m feeling better than I have in the past few months, even though this nausea seems like it’s starting to really take over But it’s nothing I can’t handle!

We’re getting ready for Noah’s party on Sat.! I can’t believe he’s going to be 2.  I think we’re heading into a happier season this Spring/Summer. Hopefully the pregnancy will go well and not be too incredibly hard. Noah’s having a ball outside, things are blooming, it’s getting warm again and I’m feeling better spirtually and mentally. *sigh*… it’s about time! All I can say is Thank You God!

I found out last week that I’m pregnant! This is now my fourth pregnancy, which seems really weird. I’ve been pregnant 4 times now, with 5 babies and so far I only have one child! Hopefully that number will increase to two by November. I’m having high hopes for this pregnancy. I kinda feel like it’s the type of thing that might be every other one.. like, we had a miscarriage, then a baby, then a miscarriage, so now we need a baby! Right? I hope so.

I have been praying like crazy this whole last 6 months that God would allow me to get pregnant, but only if it was a pregnancy that would last and give us a happy, healthy baby. I know that He won’t give me anything I can’t handle so if I do have another miscarriage I’m sure things will turn out OK. It’s just the stress that it puts on us as a family and the trying again process is so difficult. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s fun for a while but it becomes a job after a couple of months. Especially with someone who’s psychotic like me and is using a fertility monitor. I know exactly when things should be happening and thanks to my Aunt Marta (and confirming it with the Dr.), I know when you need to try to get a girl and when to get a boy.  I know, it sounds crazy. If you want further explanation though, I’m very open about it! This time we’ve been trying for a girl, which is often said to take longer because you’re not trying right when you’re ovulating.. it’s a few days before. Well, it just so happens that this time, the way things happened, it could be a boy or a girl. So all those months of trying specifically for a girl are out the window! I’m nervous now about that.

Dont’ get me wrong, I’d love another boy. I think it would be so much fun for Noah to have a brother to play with. I just know myself, and I know I’d still want a girl. And Steve is not into having more than 2 kids. Really, I’m not either. I wouldn’t mind more, but the way things go with pregnancies and me… it’s all too stressful to try for more! Plus, you get into the difficulty of having more than 2 kids and the stress it causes as far as family outings, traveling, … tons of things. When our kids are in school I’d really hate to miss one kid’s recital to go to another kid’s game, and then have one kid that has no one there b/c their other two parents are at their other two siblings’ events! That’s uncool and I’d really hate that. I want to be able to go on vacation and have Steve sitting in the seat next to one kid and me in the seat next to the other. A family of four is just plain easier. So that’s what we want. And I have a bad feeling that if I never get to have a girl, I’ll always feel like something’s missing. I don’t know, like I said, I will love a boy just as much. I just have that fear in the back of my mind all the time that I’ll want more later.. or more specifically, that I’ll still want to have a girl later. Right now, I just want a baby! A happy, healthy baby that will add that much more love to our family! And I’m feeling so blessed right now to have Noah and to be pregnant so I’m going to try to cherish every minute of it! Kids are such a blessing no matter what form they come in! And this whole baby-making process has been the biggest, most challenging roller coaster of my life! So a baby is a baby and they will be loved SO much.. I just want it to all work out this time for us! Please say a prayer for me! I have tons of Faith that God will give us another baby.. you just never know if this is the pregnancy that will do that or not. I’m trying to keep the Faith and Not stress!! I’m going to focus on the angel that He already gave me and count myself lucky to have been able to spend a couple of years showering him with all the love I have!

The last couple of nights I’ve been thinking how funny it is that Noah has taught me a lesson about prayer. Every night we say prayers and it goes like this.. “God Bless Nanny, God Bless Papaw Lance, God Bless Grandma, etc. etc.” until he names everyone in our immediate family. If someone has been over at our house recently though, he will start to say their names during prayers. Last week my aunt Pam and uncle Mark and cousin Jordan were here and we were finishing up an order on Jordan’s senior pics (which is scary really b/c I babysat for him!). Every night since then Noah has said “God Bless Pam”.. and he will say it several times. He had a lot of fun with her so she obviously made an impression. I just think it’s funny that he remembers these people and every night he insists that we “bless” them.

It got me thinking, I always pray for people when something comes up. For example, if a friend has a death in the family or a miscarriage or an accident, I will pray for them for a few days and that’ll be that. But I just thought to myself the other night… Why don’t I continue to pray for them? I mean, just because it’s been several months since my friend lost a loved one or a few weeks since my other friend had a miscarriage, doesn’t mean that they’re not still going through it and in need of prayer. Sure, I may have moved on and I still think about them and what they must be going through, but why not continue to pray for them? I feel this pressure to pray for every single person that I know every single time I pray and that’s just not reasonable. I have learned over the years that it’s ok if I happen to think about a person in a casual moment (like doing dishes) and pray for them at that moment and not again when I do my “formal” prayers at bed time. I need to spread it out! I always fall asleep while praying because I have such a long list! I’ve learned over the years that I can talk to God constantly and it’s not like he only makes time for me at night when I’m lying in bed! I can say a little prayer when I see that someone is having a hard time on facebook! Or I can pray for a few people while I’m sitting in Noah’s room waiting for him to fall asleep. There are all kinds of times when I have a quite few seconds and I’ve learned that those are valuable seconds! At night I feel like I should be praying for our world leaders and those struggling with Cancer, Divorce, Loss, etc…. ya know, the “big stuf”! But my little prayers about keeping my sanity while waiting to see if I’m pregnant this time around, or needing help with potty training, or maintaining my sanity with all the things around here I need to get done!.. those are the prayers I say when I’m in the shower, or folding laundry. That is, when I’m not watching Noah swing his golf club around or yelling at him for taking all the Q-tips out of the drawer in the bathroom. Aw, life.. so much to squeeze in and so little time. Our kids teach us a ton of lessons though, don’t they?

So…. I think I have a disease.  I’ve talked with my mom about this because I’m pretty sure it’s hereditary on her side. I seem to have the “ability” to put my foot in my mouth whenever possible. I butt in where I’m not wanted or needed, I feel the need to fix things when they’re not my business to fix, and I just want everyone to be happy! This combination is not good. Because inevitably (like today), I listen to people and I hear what they have to say and I’m good at making them feel like they can talk to me and I want Desperately to help them with whatever their problem might be. But then there’s always someone else involved who I ALSO end up talking with. And then it becomes a “he said, she said” type of situation. It always starts out with me wanting to make the 1st person understand where the 2nd person is coming from b/c Obviously they are not communicating effectively and this is the source of their problem. Or so I seem to think. So I do a little of  this type of thing where I say “well put yourself in their shoes and try to think about how they might feel if..yada yada”. I infer things and decide that one of the people must’ve meant “this” when they said “that” and then I go and tell person #2 that that’s what I think is going on. But that ALWAYS makes things worse! Because then person #2 goes back to person #1 and says “so this is how you feel, huh?” and it causes an argument of epic proportions, not to mention making me look like an idiot b/c I’m the one who communicated this stuff to the both of them…. and on & on it goes.

The thing here is, I genuinely believe that I’m helping.. or at least it starts out that way. And sometimes, I do help! That’s why I keep doing it because seriously, if it never helped I’d realize that I’m just an idiot and stop trying. But for the most part, people are just hurt that other people are talking about them. Person #1 is just hurt that person #2 told ME something about their relationship. Most of the time I’ve found that I end up being the one who tells people what they don’t want to hear. And sometimes I’m OK with that, but other times it causes so much drama and all of a sudden I’m in the middle of something that isn’t my problem/business, etc. and I’m stressing out about it and simply cannot let go & just let the people work it out themselves! I will keep calling or emailing or whatever until I feel I’ve done all I can to repair the damage.. and usually that makes it even worse.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one with this disease, I just wish there was a pill I could take. The main thing I’ve learned from all this, is that people do not like to hear anything (at ALL) negative about themselves and they sure don’t want to hear it from a 3rd party b/c that means someone they trust is talking about them. And I just want to yell at them sometimes “if you think no one ever talks about you, you’re naive!”, but I don’t. And the thing I really don’t understand is when it’s two really good friends. I’m sorry but why can’t we all be like Oprah & Gayle?? My mom and aunt/cousin & I were talking about this… why are friends so sensitive with each other? They’re your FRIEND! Friends should be able to say to other friends “Yeah, your hair is messed up”, or “You have something in your teeth”, or “you have bad breath”, or “you’re being really clingy with that guy”, or whatever! Sometimes the things we want to tell each other are just too serious I guess. People are stinkin’ sensitive man. It’s ridiculous. I have grown up with my mother and have been pretty desensitized (sp?) and therefore, I say a lot of things that I’m thinking when I Really shouldn’t! Most other people are not nearly as…. let’s see, Blunt, or straightforward, or honest, or well…. Rude as I am. I kinda feel like you can be a little rude to a friend though, and I realize that’s probably just my backward foot in mouth disease talking. I’m very happy to say that I know have surrounded myself with people (a small # of people) that are like me and can take it if I say to them that I’m not a fan of their outfit, or I think they’re kinda off/wrong on this point, etc. etc… and I don’t get upset when they do the same for me. I try to give as many compliments to my friends as I can think of but I do think I could use some improvement in that area in general.. with everyone in my life. Compliments and praise are don’t come out of my mouth as easily as a criticism. I guess I shouldn’t say that b/c I don’t criticize a ton, but I think it! As we all do! And when asked (which is the KEY!), I will give my honest opinion to the best of friends. And I think that’s how it should be! darnit!

I went to dinner the other night with some friends & my mom & Lance, my brother & sister-in-law, and we were going to go to a movie (well, the girls anyway) but we didn’t get out of the restaurant in time. So I started home and it just so happened that I was in Steve’s car that evening because he had taken Noah over to his parents’ house that night while I was out with the girls and he needed the carseat.

The girls decided to come to my house to watch a movie & Steve was on his way home with Noah. I was about to turn off of Hwy 41 onto Evans St. when I saw this car out of the corner of my eye as it was bouncing out of the ditch to my left and it came barreling across the street right in front of me into the next ditch & hit some trees. The airbags deployed and I stopped  with my headlights pointed straight at this car and got my phone out to call 911. I remember saying aloud to myself “oh my gosh, I just saw an accident… oh my gosh, oh crap, etc.”.. and then the 911 dispatcher picked up and I was trying to explain to her where I was & what had happened. All the while I’m watching as this kid, who looked about 10, got out of the front seat and ran around to the driver’s side. He was there for a minute or so and then this woman emerged from the car and they came around and started hurrying up the hill (of the ditch) and coming toward me. Then they turned and started running down Evans! I rolled my window down really fast and yelled “are you guys ok?!” and they said “Yeah we’re fine!” and kept on running. So of course I told the dispatcher what was going on and thinking to myself that they must be disoriented or something crazy or maybe they lived nearby.. ?? Then I saw movement out of the corner of my right eye and they were running full speed back to my car. I said this to the dispatcher as I started trying to think how I could switch the phone over to my right hand and figure out how to roll Steve’s car window down when they HOPPED IN MY CAR!!! I looked at them stunned and managed to say that they were in my car (I’m not sure how, but I just remember the dispatcher being like “they’re in your car right now!?”). The lady was in the front seat and the boy was in the back. This woman started telling me I had to hang up the phone and begged me not to call the cops. She said “Please don’t call the cops” probably around 15 times. Then she said “Please hang up the phone and just go” and that really jolted me into reality. I mean I was sitting there trying to listen to the dispatcher b/c I was hoping she’d tell me what to do but at the same time this woman was in my face pleading with me to hang up so I did the only thing I thought I could do. I told them that if they would get out of the car, I’d hang up the phone. I probably said this over 10 times before the kid finally jumped out of the car and opened her door and started screaming and pulling at her to come on and just run away. He convinced her to go and they left. I was shaking a ton by this point and got my head together enough to lock the doors, then I told the dispatcher everything that had happened, what they were wearing, etc. etc. and she assured me the cops would be there any second.

First let me just say, I never would’ve let them in my car. I mean, it didn’t even occur to me that someone would just run up & get in! That’s insane! It was very clear that she was on something and totally not in her right mind. She was hysterical, crying, she wreaked of smoke, neither of them were wearing coats.. they were a total mess. I figured out pretty quickly that she didn’t want me to call the cops b/c she was on drugs or alcohol but obviously I was not going to hang up that phone. All I could think when she first jumped in was to watch her hands & make sure she didn’t have a gun.

So back to the story- an older couple pulled up and made sure I was ok, checked the car for more people (which there were none), and told me to turn my blinkers on. I realized at that point that I had better call Steve. Not only could I not find the blinkers button, but I figured he was probably wondering where I was at this point since I’d called him to tell him I was on my way home. Not to mention, Joy, Janessa & Michelle were all on their way over & had probably beaten me there! None of them would’ve recognized my car as the one sitting there at the turn so they could’ve passed me right up without knowing it was me (which a couple of them did, it turns out).  Steve was totally freaked out and wanted details and wanted me to get out of there but I told him the cops were coming and at this point I wanted to make sure the cops knew what had happened, both to that little boy & to me.

Then when I got off the phone and got out to talk to this older couple, I saw the woman & the boy over standing outside of this apartment (there are buildings right there off of Evans and I had last seen them running in that direction). The cop got there a couple minutes later and a few minutes after I told him what happened the woman & boy started walking back toward us with this other woman who apparently lived in the apartment. When the cop took the drunk lady (who at this point was claiming she had only had 3 beers) over to do the breathalizer it was just me, the lady from the apartment, and the kid standing next to our car. That lady told me they had busted into her place, begged her to hide them and not call the cops, and eventually had said they were scared because the drunk woman had just gotten out of jail. Yeah… so thankfully the nice lady talked them into coming back up to the accident to talk to the police because she didn’t have anywhere else to go and she wasn’t going to hide them or let them stay. 

I was standing there for a little while longer, just waiting for the cop to write down my info. and the kid was still just standing there with no coat, obviously cold but doing everything he could to tell us how his mom wasn’t at fault and how it was the car’s fault somehow.. something about the steering wheel not working or something. It was so sad. Then he explained that his brother would be there soon to pick him up. Sure enough, a minute or two later a car pulled up from Evans (East) and two adult guys got out in t-shirts and shorts and one of them walked up to the accident scene and started wailing louder than any man I’ve ever heard in real life. He was hysterical and the other guy was trying to console him. The kid kept yelling at him “Bubby?!”.. obviously just wanting him to pay attentionto him.. all I could think was that the guy seemed way more concerned about his car than he was about the poor kid. After a minute or so of the extreme wailing, he turned around and screamed something at the woman.. some profanity and then telling her how she’s really done it this time and how could she do this to his car, yada yada..  Then the cop went over to talk to them.

When another cop pulled up I went over & asked him if the kid could sit in his car because he had no coat & it was too cold for him to be standing out there freezing, waiting for God knows how long. It was clear nobody seemed to care about this poor kid, including the cop really so it was a little disturbing.

Anyway- the cop basically came over, took down all my info. and said “yeah sorry about this.. this woman is drunk and it really pisses me off that she was driving around with this kid in the car”… I’m sure he sees that type of thing all too often. I got to finally go home and share the story with all the girls who were waiting patiently at my house! Noah was still awake so thankfully I got to hold & squeeze & kiss him. I am still thinking about it a ton lately. That poor kid.. the whole situation.. she could’ve killed someone………….. yeah it’s just awful. But I’m mostly thanking God that this woman didn’t hurt anyone else in her stupidity. How a mother could be so selfish and put her son at risk like that is absolutely beyond me. I can tell you one more thing for sure- I will always make sure my car is locked from now on!! And if that woman had jumped in my car when Noah was in there this would’ve gone much more unpleasantly for her. Ohh.. my little Noah is our “Noah Bear” and let me tell you, I will get into “Mama Bear” mode Real stinkin’ quick! It makes me sick to think he could’ve been with me and she could’ve hit me.. or she could’ve hit Steve with Noah in the back. Wow.. thank God it wasn’t a much bigger tragedy.

Steve & I had decided on getting Noah this big playground type thing for his birthday. It was expensive, but it’s something he’d use for the next several summers. Then we found another one that was similar (Little Tikes 8-in-1 Adjustable Playground), but a little cheaper, and I was ecstatic! THEN, the item was no longer available on amazon.com, which is where we’re definitely buying from because we can get free shipping. The shipping on those big items is insanely high since they’re so big & heavy. Basically, we were back at square one.

The main thing I’m concerned about is making sure I have lots of outdoor activities for him to do this summer. He is an outdoor kid for sure and he loves to climb & play in the water, anything outside is really OK for him in general. So I looked around at Toys R’ Us, One Step Ahead, Amazon, etc. and we’ve found several things we like, I’m just not 100% sure about any of them. I thought a sand and water table would be cool. He would love to play in sand and water both, but then I read some reviews on those about how kids turn them from sand and water to mud & mud! And I could easily see Noah doing that. I then saw this adorable little “Anchors Away” water table type thing and it’s in the shape of a Pirate ship and has all these cute little things to do all around the table. Lots of areas for multiple kids to play with it and lots of water, too unlike several other sand/water combos that I saw where the water was sparce. So I think we may go with that just because it’s his type of thing, it has lots of areas to play with, AND his birthday party is pirate themed anyway! Haha.. I thought that was funny. We’re going a tad far with the pirate stuff at this point, but it’s all too cute, what can I say? I even found him the cutest pair of swim shorts that are blue & navy striped with a pirate ship picture on one of the legs! It was on sale at the Gap & I had a gift card, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to get them.. and I got him a little navy polo so he can wear the whole outfit at his party. I realize it’s swim shorts but they look a lot like normal shorts really and it’s cute with the polo.. really..

Anyway, back to the birthday present situation- I THINK we’re going to go with that water table and possibly get a sand table separately. We definitely want to get one of the sand tables that is on legs and doesn’t sit on the ground and kill all your grass. We found one that’s not too bad and has a lid and all that. We still don’t have anything for him to really climb on though, which is what is bothering me the most. I would love to get him one of these climber playground sets with a slide & all.. he’d love it and it would be something he could climb all over without me having to have my hands out ready to catch him at any second b/c he may fall! That’s how it is at the local playground (Deming). It’s a great playground but it’s geared toward older kids for the most part and I have to follow him all over the place to make sure he doesn’t try to climb on anything that isn’t safe. So I’d love to have something at home that he’d have free reign of and I wouldn’t have to be his shadow, ya know? *sigh*… O’well, maybe once it’s summer we’ll just see how it’s going with the water & sand table and his other outdoor toys and if he needs something more to do we’ll think about it then. Decisions, Decisions… 

If any of you moms out there have a suggestion of something great that your children love to play with outside, please let me know!

I’m starting back in the Wee Village at MCC this Sun. morning. We normally go to church in the evenings but there was some mix-up so I told them I’d help out this week. Steve & I are going to start volunteering back there once a month now so I’m excited about that. I hate to miss the service/sermon but I feel like it’s only fair to go back once a month & help out when they’re asking for more help and we do take our child back there!

Noah has gone 4 straight weeks in the Wee Village without us having to go back & get him after a little while. Steve takes him back and he does cry & freak out to begin with but after he hands him to someone and leaves he’s been calming down and staying back there. One main reason is Carlee (I Think that’s how they spell it but now I’m 2nd guessing myself.. )- who is the granddaughter of both the head pastor at MCC and our family friend, Peg (other side of her family) who’s my mother-in-law’s boss. Carlee is something like 12ish or so I think and Noah is in love with her. She’s fantastic with him. He’s stayed back there b/c of her and I think that’s really helped him to see that it’s no big deal to stay and that we’ll be back to get him! He keeps saying “daddy be right back?.” It’s adorable. Every time I go somewhere, he’ll say “Mommy going bye bye? be right back?”… and as long as I reassure him he seems to be fine with it lately, which is working out really well for us! We have always been able to leave him with people but only very specific people and now I think he’s going to do well with just about anyone as long as you give him a few minutes to get warmed up to them. He went to any and everyone until he was about 10 months old.. then the clingy-ness began! All the women back in the Wee Village would say to us “It’s just a phase, don’t worry”,  and I believed them but I wondered very much if Noah’s “phase” was going to last a whole lot longer than most kids! But I think we’re in the clear now! I’m so excited. As soon as we turn into the church parking lot he now starts saying “gonna play?” and he’ll list everything he can think of that they do back there.. “color?, pretzels?, singing?, play?, goldfish?”..

The thing about MCC is that it’s a huge church and there’s always someone different working back there. So he wasn’t able to get used to anyone in particular. Now that Carlee has helped us out I really think it’ll be smooth sailing. And now that Steve & I will work back there together once a month, I think the probability of him having a fit & freaking out are going to go down more & more. Hopefully we’ll get to know more people and he will, too, and that’ll help us out even more. We shall see!! I’m just ecstatic that we will no longer be seeing his number flash on the screen every Sun.! I won’t be praying with one eye shut and one eye on the screen ready to see that number pop up! Yay for Wee Village!!