In keeping with tradition of being sick on all major and minor holidays, I decided to get Christopher’s cold just in time for Valentine’s day. Thank goodness for the extended Presidents’ Day weekend to lay low. I spent the first day or two of the weekend feigning productivity while being followed around by two toddlers, neither of whom can let me out of their sight for more than 30 seconds at a time. Even when Jason is here, if I disappear to use the restroom they immediately send out a search party. Last night (after a day that left me feeling quite exasperated) I asked Jason if they really follow me around or if I just imagine it, and he said “Oh no. They follow you everywhere. Constantly.” I guess there’s some solace in knowing I’m not making it up.
Christopher is definitely in a “mommy” phase. Sometimes daddy just won’t do. I try to let Jason spend time with him, but he is my little buddy. While William will choose to stay home and play, Christopher 
almost always wants to come to the store and run errands with me. He’s pretty good company running errands so that part I don’t mind. He disappeared around the aisle in Walmart this weekend and when I came around the corner I discovered he had picked out his very own Valentine’s girlfriend! (I just wish the picture was better). The part that is tough is at home when I’m trying to do something (like can spaghetti sauce) and the 
little one is right under my feet to the point of being dangerous (reference hot boiling liquids around toddlers). I canned 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce yesterday and it is a miracle nobody got burned. There are also now two talkers who constantly say “excuse me mommy” until I’m almost at wits end. Somehow every night when bedtime comes and it is quiet I think to myself “that day was pretty good” even though in the midst of it I am usually pretty frazzled. This past month Christopher has managed to get 3 out of 4 eye teeth. He hates letting me look in his mouth, so sometimes it’s hard to know what’s going on in there. We recently took him to a pediatric dentist because his front teeth looked discolored. I feel like we brush his teeth better than we ever brushed William’s so the discoloration seemed strange. Turns out the kid has a really tight frenulum on his upper lip, which has both
contributed to the decay, and is probably a reason he doesn’t like me trying to look at his teeth. We’re set for an appointment to get caps on the decaying teeth and have his frenulum clipped in May. Perhaps in the future I’ll get to see more of those top teeth when he smiles! The good news is we caught a potential problem early, and it should in no way effect his adult teeth. His vocabulary is expanding rapidly. He now says lots of two and three word phrases. He has taken a liking to William’s Kindle (I’m going to get him his own shortly). He’s currently obsessed with taking snacks to daycare in his coat pockets…I may have tricked him back into wearing his coat using this idea. I hope he enjoys having a new little brother. I fear his mommy phase and being a cuddler will make it a bigger transition for him than it was with William. He’s my little buddy, and my little helper. I guess time will tell.
Two weeks ago (somewhat on a whim) I moved both boys to sleeping together on the bunk bed one 
night while Jason was working late. We’d been preparing to move Christopher out of the “baby room” for awhile now. William had been sleeping on the top bunk for a couple of weeks in preparation for Christopher sharing his room. However, when the time came, William decided that if Christopher was going to be in the bottom bunk, then he wanted to share it with him. So for the past two weeks the two boys have been sleeping side-by-side on the bottom bunk. It hasn’t been without its challenges, but I was very pleased with how easily Christopher understood that bedtime was time to STAY in bed. 
He’s not always happy about bedtime, but he rarely gets out of bed once he’s been put down for the night. It helps that we have a routine, and big brother sets a great example. We’ve had some hiccups from teething+colds+bad dreams, but most nights we make it through with no interruptions or a minor binkie adjustment. Have I mentioned that seeing them sleeping next to each other is CUTE? They seem to appreciate each others company. Here is a good post from Facebook to remember how this transition went: “For those of you without children who are playing along at home (or those of you with children suffering along with us): Night 3 room-sharing: Went to bed like a dream. Christopher fussed briefly at 10. Jason got home from work at 11:30. At 4am, William hit his head on some part of the bed. At 6am William decided it was time to get up an hour earlier than usual (I have a hunch he woke up and didn’t see Christopher right away and thought he was gone). So far falling asleep better than expected…staying asleep, slightly worse than usual. Try again tonight.”
William is excited to turn 4 next month. We have a height chart on the wall and he’s convinced that at 3yrs he was 3′ so that at 4yrs he should be 4′. I have explained to him it doesn’t work quite like that. My best discovery from the entire weekend is that in his imaginary world “dolphinator” is actually “Darth Vader” (as confirmed by showing him a picture of Darth Vader on the internet). Apparently Jason had made this connection some time ago, but I just assumed dolphinator was a character in one of the hundreds of kids shows I’ve never seen.
The end of January marked my 34th birthday! We celebrated with a date-night out and a morning to sleep in while the boys went for a sleepover at Grandma Marion’s house. It was perfect! I am excited for Springtime, and this baby boy to arrive! We scheduled a repeat c-section for 3/22 at noon. At this point they won’t really let me try a VBAC anymore, and after the 
first two I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be in my (or baby’s) best interest anyways. It is nice to be able to plan around a scheduled appointment. The current plan is for me to work through Friday, have a baby on Tuesday (the 22nd) and then be off from work until around the 6th of June. The ironic part is I think I went back to work the 6th of June after William was born. I finally have an answer for what I have been craving this pregnancy. Sparkling cider!–especially sparkling grape juice. I put it in a fancy glass and wander around sipping it before bedtime. To all of my concerned neighbors: I am NOT a pregnant alcoholic (it only looks that way). Please don’t call protective services.
Jason’s work continues to be busy. He is looking forward to 6 weeks of paternity time as am I! April is typically a very pretty month here in Utah, and it will be nice to spend some time with him and the boys (alternating nap times of course!). My parents are planning to come and visit in April. My brother and his wife may visit as well if my brother stops travelling for work long enough to plan a ‘vacation’ to Utah.
I may have at one point said I was done with projects before baby #3.
Then I decided what our kitchen really needed was a dresser. “A Dresser?” you say. Yes. I bought a Hemnes dresser from Ikea after deciding it would be much more functional than the oval table that only acted as a place to catch junk. Now at the very least I have a dresser with a longer top (aka counter space) and drawers below it to catch and conceal more junk than the oval table ever imagined. I even took the extra time and painted to to match the kitchen cabinets. It’s not perfect, but Jason is calling it the 2016 kitchen remodel. It cost us about $300 (including the a new pot rack) as opposed to the $50k kitchen remodel we’re still saving for. I like how it turned out, and I’m finding the extra storage space to be quite handy. (We’ve also taken to calling baby #3 Hemnes after the dresser, but I doubt it will stick).
It has been a very productive Valentine’s/Presidents’ Day weekend! Jason caulked around the tub and fixed a drawer. I painted a cracked spot on the wall that has been bugging me for weeks and replaced a couple broken plastic drawer slides in the boys’ room. I mopped the floors, canned spaghetti sauce, defrosted the freezer, and we picked up a few places in the house that haven’t been looked at in months. Today Jason got a pan of lasagna and William got a pan of apple crisp. I took no less than 3 naps. I guess we’re in Spring cleaning/nesting phase now for sure! The boys played at daycare today, allowing us a little more time for household tasks. We even managed a lunch-date together!
Here’s another picture or two for the road…
