CJ 3 1/2 years

Little update on Carson. (his half birthday was Dec 11)

No new stats really. I can't even remember what they were from his 3 year apt. But he might... just might... have broken the 30lb mark with soaking wet clothes on!! He's a skinny dude, but we always knew that. And he's somewhere around 38-39" tall.

Carson has been going to preschool since the beginning of Fall. It's just a small group at a church close to our house and he goes 2x's a week. He actually really likes school, but you wouldn't know that when we first get there. He cries every time... STILL does-although it's getting better.

He's always been shy when it comes to publicly (and by that-i mean in front of ANYONE) displaying his knowledge or excitement about something. But in the last couple of months he is coming out of his shell and has started actually singing the alphabet song for us out loud, and other songs that we have sung with him for a long time and thought je just didn't know-like "twinkle twinkle.." and "wheels on the bus", etc...

He also joins Ethan at the babysitters while I am at school. He cries there too, but enjoys being able to play with friends during the day and is hardly ready to go home when it's time.

He still loves to help me cook in the kitchen as well as play with his play food. He absolutely loves trains and, like Ethan, can not get enough of them since Christmas. The geotrax have been a big hit! (but they also brought back new life to the Thomas trains which was surprised about) He loves to help me clean whenever I allow him because "he's a really good helper".

He is loving that Ethan is getting old enough to play with. They don't always get along, but it's fun to see them playing together and I absolutely love hearing Carson say, "Com'on E." Or "E-you want to go downstairs and play trains?" He's a really sweet older brother, with just a bit of antagonizing in him. (He must get that from me!)

He also loves to play outside. I've been busy with school or too lazy to go out when it is bitter cold, but I allow him to go out front and play while I watch him from our front window. I peak my head out frequently to check on him and he just lights up-saying things like "I was just talking to our neighbors." Or "That man just walked by. I talked to him. He had a small shovel. Like mine. It must be for his boy."

He's becoming very self sufficient. Once he knows how things work he just wants to do it all on his own. The other day we were walking in from the car and he grabbed my keys, went in the front door, took his shoes and coat off and put them where they needed to go, then put the keys in the basket, and said.. "Ok-what should we do now?".

He's a joy to have around! (even though he usually only wants his dad :( ... )

Still won't smile for me...

He always loves to help me wash the car. (when I do it!!!) He has taken over my childhood job of washing the tires/wheels :)

A few Carsonisms... (I'm not the best at recording them and am really sad.. there was something that he said the other day that almost topped his funniest comments yet, but neither Chris nor I can remember it!!!!)

10/15-

Chris is super tired at night and Carson is trying to get him to play with him. He says "Dad-you want to play cooking with me right?" Dad-"no, I'm just going to lay here for a bit". C-"No dad ,you will obey me (in a really sweet voice). Yes, you will obey me right? It's time to go cooking."

10/20-I was sneezing quite a few time and he asks me "mom-why you have the bless-you's?" Then I was sniffing a bit and he said "why you have the fluffies?"

10/23-while at the farm with the mccarthers-carson chris and ansley were running and playing red light green light. Carson was playing along and then Chris shouted out red light so ansley could keep up and carson kept on running pointing to the back of his head saying he had a siren on it. (So he didn't have to obey the rules-clever stinker!)

10-24-carson and I went out for a walk tonight. At the beginning he wanted to run or walk faster and he said "we need to change the word to go faster" I said "ok-what should we change it to?" Carson "quickly!".

After he got tired of walking and running he said "mom, I'm so tired, my shoes and feet are done walking."

10/29-

woke up this morning and said "mom, I had 2 rocks in my eyes!"

10/30-

tonight we were at 5 guys and when waiting for our food carson said "how many guys are cooking?" and proceeded to count 4 guys. He then said "Where is the other guy?" When I asked him about it tonight he told me that the other guy went to the back of the store to get more stuff! :)

1/4

The other day I cut my finger pretty bad with a knife. The next morning carson was recounting how it happened and said in the sweetest voice "I should have told you to be careful mom. Next time I will make sure to tell you to be careful earlier." How sweet is that?

Flashback Friday

This flashback brings us back to July 15, 2010-Ethan's First Birthday!

First Stats:

Weight 19lbs 5 oz (8th%) up from 17lbs 4 oz at 9 months and up from 3lbs 8oz at birth

Length 29 3/4" (50th%) up from 27.5" at 9 months and up from 17" at birth

Head 18 1/4" (47th%) ... I think they had messed up on the 9 month stat.

(note: these stats are on the normal 1 year old curve-not preemie curve)

So he's doing well! The doctor was slightly worried about his weight, but then just blamed it on him being a preemie :)

What a difference a year makes...

We were in UT/ID (without daddy :( ) over Ethan's birthday. We have quite a few July birthday's in the family so we had a combined celebration. Very low key, but perfect. My intention was to have a party for him when we got back from UT, but that just never seemed to happen with getting prepared for school starting, etc.

He was still a little baldy, but look-he's getting hair in his eyebrows! He wasn't very interested in his cake (a small bundt cake from "Nothing Bundt Cakes" yummmmmm!!!!), but he was also feeling pretty crummy so we'll cut him so slack.

Updates on him:

Between 9 and 12 months Ethan gave up his binky (sad day!), got his first tooth, then the second shortly after. He started babbling mama and dada. He signs all done, bye, milk. He started rolling everywhere, then scooting, pulling to a stand, cruising, and eventually crawling. He started sleeping through the night, then quickly changed as soon as all the aforementioned mobility stuff started.

Ethan never wanted to be left alone or walked away from and really would rather be held ALL.DAY.LONG. as long as he was not in a sling or the ergo. Stinker!

He also got pretty sick at the end of June. We tried our best all winter to prevent him from getting RSV-we kept him and Carson away from places with lots of germs and continued to get his monthly RSV shots. What do you know-he got RSV at the end of JUNE! Really, not that big of a deal now that his lungs were more mature, but still not the best thing. Some of the symptoms were bronchiolitis and a double ear infection. Poor kid was NOT happy. We debated on going to UT, but when he quickly responded to the nebulizer treatments and antibiotics we decided to give it a go-we just brought the neb with us on the plane and dealt with everything else in UT.

Ethan was an is such a blessing to have in our family. We love his little sweet spirit-how excited he gets when music comes on. How he lights up whenever daddy comes home. How much you can already tell he admires and adores his big brother. We're glad you're here buddy!

How Does that Crayon Taste E?

Apparently we still can't let him play with crayons alone...

Flashback Friday

Ignore the poor photo quality. New camera-weird settings or something. Really bad time to have bad photos :(

Regardless...

This flashback takes us back to June 11, 2007-the day of Carson's birth. My clinical rotation right now is in L&D, postpartum, c-section, etc... so... I've been thinking a lot about the day that Carson was born (and Ethan, but we'll get there later...). It has me thinking about my "journey" getting back up to NJ from VA to deliver him. How his birth went. How excited and naive we were. How tiny he was. Those first few days in the hospital. Our journey back to VA to start our new lives there...

It then gets me thinking about how Ethan was born. How scared we were. How lonely it felt in the hospital without my family. How TINY HE was. How scared we were. How. scared. we. were. We don't have these pictures-any of these same pictures and in some weird way that is still hard for me. We had some many great moments though with him-just different. And I think about these moments-Carson and Ethan-every time I see a new mom in the hospital, or one about to give birth. I get excited and giddy for her and her family. I'm excited and giddy for me and for MY little family. Just praying for a healthy baby!

Flashback Friday

Since I've been such a horrible blogger, I've wanted to start the series of "flashback friday" in order to catch up a bit on things of the past...

Lately, I've been longing to be here....

And do a little of this....

This trip was pre-baby days and will always have a special place in my heart-it was a trip that very nearly saved our marriage. Chris, Scott (his brother), and I headed out to Ouray Colorado for a slightly extended weekend over Valentine's day in 2004. Ouray, in and of itself, is a beautiful small town with victorian character. It's surrounded by huge mountains and has it's own hot springs throughout. It's beautiful! But a bonus for the outdoorsy people is that there's also a canyon there that has been somewhat "rigged" for some good ice climbing. They put up pipes across the top of the canyon and open them up once the weather is cold enough to create sheets of ice of all varying levels to climb on. It's pretty awesome.

We had a great time climbing-the weather was fantastic and enjoyed our hotel that was heated purely on the hot springs below it. Look how young and carefree we were!!! I hope that one day we will be able to do things like this with our kids and they will enjoy it as much as we do (or did-since we haven't done anything like this in FOREVER!)

PS-I have the cutest ice boots ever! My husband is pretty good to me!

PPS-Chris has a huge mop of long redish hair underneath that beanie. Pre-military days-gotta love it!

New Years Eve-Discovery Museum

Not much plans for New Years Eve-especially with two young boys that have early bedtimes and we don't likes to mess with much! That morning we decided to head up to Baltimore to go the Children's Discovery Museum. Yea-everyone else had the same idea, but luckily we were smarter than half of them and when we saw the line outside to get tickets, decided to purchase ours online using our phones and head right on in!

Going on a day with so many people isn't optimal for our kids-especially Carson. But with our assistance they both warmed up and had a great time. It was too crazy to take pictures, but I managed to snap one with my phone at the water center (both boys probably would have stayed there all day if possible-we DID visit it twice) and then later when we were about to leave I got some of Carson in the convenience store. He loved this one almost as much. Again, fun outing, but next time it would be better to go during the week when school is in session! There IS one in Richmond that I'm interested in checking out as well. Hmm.. that night-I think we got the kids to bed, watched some shows or something, and called it a night. I didn't even make it to midnight. Waaa waa... way to bring in 2011!

And a minor improvement on "documenting" friend's visits, here is a commemorative photo of our dear friend "Aunt" Rachel and the boys. She came down from New Jersey for a visit the weekend after New Years. Unfortunately Chris had drill, so we weren't all able to hang out. We had a great time being completely lazy! Thanks for coming Rachel! We miss you!

PS-Rachel wishes she had yellow "underwears" like Ethan! :)

Christmas

Chris and I have never felt the need to subject Carson to meeting/sitting on Santa's lap. It's just seemed like pure torture and for Carson, it would have been, until this year. He was really excited that Santa was coming to our ward Christmas party and on other occasions had asked if we were going to see Santa at the mall. So Chris appeased, but of course, this is the closest Carson would get! We didn't even both with Ethan....

Carson still had a Christmas list though:

Geo trax! (he's been asking for these for 2 years now!)

new tools

a christmas tree his size that he can keep up in his room-his will have lights.

a christmas tree for Ethan's room-his won't have lights because he might eat them! :)

**of course-he would have loved a new kitchen. He kept telling me that he needs a new one so Ethan can play with his old one. They needed more space!

Ethan-he's still too little for a list, but told me that he would love some new books and trains and anything cooking.

Chris and I got our present from the boys first thing! We got to "sleep in"!!! Yes, Ethan had been awake at some point of the night for a bit of time, but Carson made it until 6:30am or thereabouts and we were able to keep him calm/quiet until Ethan woke up at 7am! We then got Grammy and Papa up and headed for the stockings.

Carson was pretty excited to see his tool set all for him. Ethan couldn't even get enough of it! After looking and playing with everything in their stockings we headed on to the presents. Carson was an excellent helper with opening presents! Ethan wasn't so bad himself. He's getting it! It was a relatively quiet morning, but fun that we could take our time and let the boys play with each present before we headed on to the next.

Some highlight presents:

Carson: Santa brought him: books, ornaments and hooks for his tree next year, toothbrush, paste, cars, candies, go fish, and the big tool set. Oh and grammy helped Santa out with bringing Carson a long awaited for piggy bank! Others: geotrax from grammy and papa and $$ to buy some more from GG. Books, some clothes, melissa and doug activity, etc.

Ethan: Santa brought him: a little airplane/airport set(probably too old for him yet, but he'll have fun with it. Carson likes it!), books, treats, toothbrush, paste, large magnadoodle, oh and my favorite.. a cooking tub set since they are always bringing in their "real" cooking stuff into the tub. Carson probably likes it more than Ethan. Should have gotten two. It's pretty fun! Others: geotrax to share with Carson from grammy and papa and $$ to spend on some more from GG. Books, some clothes, melissa and doug sandwich set, hmm.. I'm blanking.

The rest of the day, and really, the rest of my parent's trip out here looked like this-playing with trains! The boys can NOT get enough of them. We're so glad that my parents were able to come out and share this special holiday with us. It was fun having some special one on one time with them! Thanks for making the trip!!!!

PS-I love having photos, and I even don't mind taking them, I just don't make the effort to do it. I guess I just don't want to be inconvenienced by it or something. It actually really bothers me that over this past year we really only have maybe 2 pictures of us as a family and that when we've had visitors over, I have hardly any, if at all, documentation that they were here. The boys sure do love having visitors at our house and I need to be able to show that to them in the future-so they can see and remember how much they are and were loved. So this is a new goal of mine. Take more pictures!

Christmas Eve-Capitol, Cake, and Dinner

My parents have seen most of the DC sights in past visits, but a Capitol Tour was something they hadn't done in a long time. Our friend Brant used to work as a Capitol Policeman and was able to hook us up with a more inside tour. Again, we met up with the Olivers on Christmas Eve to do this. I always enjoy walking around in the Capitol and imagining all the important politicians (old and new) that have and continue to work there. The boys were having a particularly fun time in the Statuary Hall. They were hiding in the fireplace pretending Santa was coming down it. I don't have a picture of it, but we also frequently found Carson and Joshua attempting to push down the columns inside-pretty entertaining.

At the end of the tour we went into the new visitor's center that recently opened at the end of 2008. We weren't able to spend much time there, but I particularly enjoyed looking at the models they have of how the Capitol has changed over the years. It has really grown! Thanks Brant!

As I mentioned before, we've never had our "own" Christmas-we've always been at one of our parent's homes. So we're still working on our own traditions. This Christmas Eve we worked on making the "birthday cake for Jesus" and making minestrone soup (soup is a DaBell family tradition). Later that night we read some of our Christmas books with the kids, opened the traditional PJ present, and watched the Nativity. It's hard to squeeze stuff in when your kids go to bed at 6:30/7pm! We of course, set out the cookies for Santa and later that evening Chris and I had fun playing Santa for the boys. Oh.. and finished wrapping presents!

Grammy was nice to allow Carson to help her with most things in the Kitchen while she was here.

I usually allow him to, so it was nice to pass the torch on to someone else for a bit!

Ethan was a happy camper!

Christmas Botanic Gardens

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents came out to visit this Christmas. This was the first year that we have stayed at our home and even the first year that we were even able to put up a Christmas tree!

With them here, we met up with some of our other good friends, the Olivers (our boys are the same age), at the Botanic Gardens-mostly to see the train set up. All the boys were in heaven! They just kept running from one train track to the other. This year the set up was of famous places around the world all made out of organic plant material. It was pretty impressive.

We finally pried the kids away to walk through the gardens. I've never been when it's dark outside which was pretty neat. We then headed over to Union Station for some dinner! :)

(photos are courtesy of my dad)

Official News

Surprise! We're having another baby!!!

July 4, 2011

This really was a bit of a surprise for us. I was in denial! Usually I'm on top of my game and quite in-tune with my body, but this go around, with school and the boys, I didn't have much of a clue. When I started falling asleep on the couch at 7/8pm it didn't even phase me-I was just tired from school. Craving chips and salsa-I got this crazy non-stop craving in my other 3 pregnancies but really thought nothing of it. Late period? I was wacky anyway from the medication I had been on to keep nursing Ethan. It wasn't until I was walking around in target one afternoon and I passed the pregnancy tests, that I randomly thought to grab one test just to be sure. I only grabbed one, because I was in such denial I only needed the one to prove to myself that I wasn't. Hmmm.. got home, took the test, and had immediate results. Immediate. I sorta freaked. In all honesty, I didn't really want to have another baby during school, let alone even be pregnant! But I guess someone higher-up has greater plans for us and really, it couldn't have worked out better! We are really excited! Logistics will work themselves out.

It has been fun keeping this one a secret. I figured we could wait to tell people until my parents came out for Christmas. By then I was 12 weeks. The plan was to pick them up from the airport with both boys wearing the above t-shirts, but Ethan needed a nap so it was just me and Carson. Later Chris and Ethan met up with us all for dinner and said Ethan had a bit of an announcement and showed my parents the shirts. :) Later we took this pic and plastered it on facebook for people to figure out. We like secrets... some people are still just finding out!

I'm now 16 weeks. Feeling pretty good. I've only had slight nausea off and on, tired.. oh so tired... and headaches. Oh and my lovely vericose vein is back and kills. But I'll take anything compared to what I went through with Ethan. Everytime I get crampy I'm nervous that it's the start down the same road, but it always disappears. We' have 2 sonograms so far and baby looks perfectly healthy as well as my placenta. I'm back on lovenox shots once a day and being followed by a high risk group that I absolutely love. The only thing I don't necessarily love is that they have a no VBAC policy so if I want to stick with them I have to have a repeat c-section. I need to figure out what I want and fast! Regardless, we feel blessed for our health and can't wait to meet this little one. Well... we can wait to term, how's that?!?!!!

I *hope* to keep this blog more updated this go around... we'll see!