Hi, it's me, your big brother!

I think Spiderman says this about 75 times a day to Baby. Though it can be a bit repetitive and quite annoying, it's very sweet. I am pretty sure that Baby will know very soon that this high-pitched, loud person standing over him is an important person in Baby's life. :) I am really looking forward to seeing the two of them grow together as brothers in the next few months. I think it's going to be pretty amazing to watch Spiderman learn to care for another person and realize that he's not the center of the universe. And I am curious to see if Baby picks up on things quickly because he sees his older brother doing them!

Today Baby had a weight check. He's now 8 lbs, 10.5 ozs! We are doing awesome!!! Tomorrow he is getting a procedure done at the ped. and then Friday he goes in for another lab test. It's different when you don't have a baby in a hospital...when Spiderman was born, all these tests and procedures were done in the middle of the night while I slept, completely unaware! I am nervous to take him in for both of these things because it will cause him to cry, scream, etc. It's really difficult for Mama, too!

Mr. Oz gets to be home Thursday and Friday with us. We are getting to spend lots of time with him and it's great! I think for once he's glad to stay at home (he normally does NOT like having to take days off!!!) to be with his boys. And of course he doesn't mind that I am around, too...

Least Enjoyable Part

Is dealing with insurance companies and schedules with doctors. Yuck.
I will be glad when this part is over and done with...

Baby News Day 2, 3, 4

Well, I thought that I would try to post each day a little bit more to the story, but that was a silly idea (to think I would get to it!)... So I am sitting down for a few minutes while everything else is being taken care of by other people and Baby is with his daddy...

Monday night was interesting! Everything was going along nicely but around 2am, Mr. Oz received a call from work--he had to go do snow removal the first night his son was home! Yuck! So, off he went and I spent the rest of the evening with Baby just in bed with me. Easier that way, and less lonely. Mr. Oz came home about 8:30 am and we left shortly thereafter to go to the pediatrician. Unfortunately, we were stuck in that little teeny-tiny room with Spiderman and Baby for almost an hour! They were really busy! Apologies accepted, the appointment went well. Everything looks good, minus the bruised face... which as of today appears to be completely gone, except for bloodshot eyes (which will also go away soon). After our appointment we swung by Walmart for Mr. Oz to run in and grab a few things we realized we needed. We spent the day, quietly, at home. Grandmom and Auntie stopped by for awhile to visit. Tuesday night wasn't as good as the first night--Baby wouldn't go to sleep until midnight. But after that things went better. I think he just needed some more time to get better and better at nursing, etc. We're still working on it, of course, but it keeps improving each time. Wednesday morning was a busy one. Errands and last minute gift wrapping. We went to Auntie's house for Christmas Eve. Lots of food and fellowship. A bit of watching ELF (one of my favs) and then back home again.

This morning was really nice! We got up around 7:30am and went out to open gifts just us, the four Shaws. Baby was wide awake the whole time. Spiderman enjoyed opening his gifts for Baby and of course opening gifts for himself as well! After that we prepared for the family to arrive. Followed by a yummy breakfast of sausage gravy and eggs (Thanks, Mr. Oz!), sweet rolls (Thanks, Grandmom!) we opened more gifts...

Grandmom and Grandpop spent the rest of the day with us and we watched basketball on TV, played a game of Cootie, ate dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes, broccoli, 3-bumped rolls) and had some pie and ice cream. Very low-key and quiet. Very different from normal, but very enjoyable!

How was your Christmas?

Baby News Day 1

I'm home. It's been about 28 hours since my little son came into the world and we are so glad he's here! He was born December 22nd at 2:44pm at the Mercy Family Birthing Center in Nampa, ID. He weighed 8lbs 2ozs. He's 20 1/2" long. Just under his big brother, who was 8-5 and 21" long! Seems to us like he's Spiderman's twin, just born 4 years 8months later!

Here's how Day 1 went...
Yesterday morning, Mr. Oz and I got up around 7am; dressed, ate breakfast, and prepared for the day. We left the house a little before 8am. The roads were snow covered! We are so glad the MFBC is only 3 minutes away! We arrived shortly and were greeted by our AMAZING nurse, Hazel, who brought us into the room we were to spend the day in: the water birth room. We got settled and went over some preliminary paper work, get-to-know-you stuff. After that, she checked to see my progress (which was still 2 1/2 cm, 60% thinned out--but she could feel the little head!!!) and gave me a little tiny pill (Cytotech) to put under my tongue. A few minutes later I was crampy! The doctor came about 9:50am and broke my water. After that contractions started coming regularly, about 2 1/2 minutes apart with some strong then easier ones, sometimes double-peaking, and some we called a "p.s." contraction--another one right after a big one. :) My sister and my mom were sitting with us while I went through this. My niece went back and forth from room to waiting area to running errands. I did really well for several hours with my breathing and remaining calm. I got checked again and I was 4 1/2 cm, 90% thinned out!!! After that things began to move fast! I got in the shower for quite awhile and let the warm water soothe my back. By the time I was done in there it was time to get into the tub to prep to push! I couldn't believe I was already at that stage, but I was SO THANKFUL! A little while later, and past the point of no return when it came to me and my pain... I was "in the zone" and realized that this was happening, like, now! I pushed through only a handful of contractions and he was out! I want to guess that I pushed maybe 7 or 8 times (real pushes, not practice ones).

The little guy had the cord wrapped around his neck when he began coming out. The doctor quickly fixed the situation, but unfortunately his precious little face was "bruised" from the ordeal. I am going to wait a few days to post some pictures because I would like to include some nicer shots of him with the earlier ones. It's strange to see a blue/purple faced boy if you don't know that he actually is fine and will begin to look normal soon!

After some oxygen, he got checked out, was given the OK, and started getting passed around to the various people in the room. I was fixed up (stitches) and prepared for bed while my family got to know the baby. After all the scary stuff was cleaned up and put away, we brought the Big Brother in! He was a bit overwhelmed and unsure of what to do or say... when asked what he thought, he said words like "good" or "cool" but when asked to sit with the baby and hold the baby, he cried and said "yuck!" As of today, he's over it and loves his baby brother! I have a video of their meeting, I will try to post it in some way soon!

I came home around 7:30pm last night to a housefull of family and a big balloon "It's A Boy!" which was great! We all went to bed around 9pm and prayed for a good night!

Today is the last day that I will be a mother of one.
Tomorrow we meet our new baby.
Finally! :)

We'll post as soon as we are able with pictures etc.
Have a wonderful holiday week!

Merry Christmas!!!

Predictions

I had another appointment on Monday... not too much new information. I was about 2 1/2 cm dialated and 60% effaced. The doctor thinks that if I were to go into labor on my own, it wouldn't be before this weekend... so we are pretty much just waiting for Monday.

I go in Monday morning at 8am. Take a tablet. Get my water broken. Then wait for contractions to pick up. If they don't pick up by 10:30am I get another tablet. Not sure what happens after that if things aren't moving along. They should be! So, looks like we'll have a baby by Monday evening if all goes well.

Please keep me in your prayers. I am swollen and uncomfortable. But with the advice of my sister, I am resting and trying to get myself psyched up for the work I have to do on Monday. It should be a pretty amazing day!

Superman "Shredding"

So my son's newest love is air guitar. He does it constantly. And it's very loud and very intense. But also extremely funny!

Goings On...

What's Up Dude?!

Driving Mr. Crazy!

Here I am, apron at all, at the Canyon County Christmas Show,

helping my sister with her Cathedral Soap booth.

Should we get this tree, Mommy?!

Calli and Mr. Oz

Doing my art projects...

O Christmas Tree... O Christmas Tree...

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We are off to Auntie and Uncle's house to spend the day with our family.

Mommy is providing Broccoli Casserole, Rolls, Apple Pie, Truffles and a few random ingredients for other foods... I am providing the entertainment and lots of hugs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Spiderman

Flying Solo!

My first pie, made completely from scratch, by myself.

For Thanksgiving Day!!!

FrameFrames

I hung my new CM FrameFrame in the baby's room. It's over the changing table/dresser. I really like it! Of course there's no picture in it yet... but that has to wait for baby's arrival. If you can't tell, the caption below says "One perfect moment" and so I plan to put a picture of Baby and Spiderman (first meeting) in the frame until another "perfect moment" comes around to replace it!!! Cool, huh?

Bundle Baby

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Shaw, for the first gift for Baby!

We were so thrilled to receive a package in the mail for our little one.

We'll keep your grandchild nice and warm in this "Bundle Me"

Thank you!

Working Woman

So as most of you know, I have several jobs. First of all, I am a wife and mother, which happily takes up most of my time. One of the reasons that we moved away and "started fresh" was so I could step back from responsibilities working for other people and take care of my family. However, due to the nature of things, I still need to pull in some kind of income. So, here's a little bit of what I have been up to:

1. Creative Memories
This job has proved to be a good thing this past month! It's only half-way through the month and I have had my best sales in all of the 3 years I have done this business! I have had very successful events this month and loyal customers who are very good to me and come to me for all their scrapbooking needs! I did so well this month that I will be receiving a huge commission bonus check and some free stuff from the company. :-)

2. Piano and Voice Lessons
I currently have six students each week. There are several people "in the works" who are considering taking lessons and there are also a couple kids who had to take a break for awhile... hopefully they will be coming back soon! I donated lessons to Tiernan Irish Dance this past weekend for their fundraiser dinner and both the piano and voice lessons sold, so that may bring two new students, too!

3. Transcribing
At the very beginning of this month I completed my last interview from the project I have been working on since July. I was so thankful for this opportunity... it just kept going and going! Originally I thought I would only have work through August... but it lasted so much longer! Praise God for answers to prayer in ways that are just so simple and easy for me to do. I know that he always answers prayer, sometimes in ways I don't expect or see right away, but it's amazing when some things resolve themself in such an obviously good way. I enjoy transcribing and hope to keep doing it for years to come! What a blessing to work from home, on my own schedule, while caring for my family!

Anyway, these things have been keeping my pretty busy the last few weeks. But things are going to slow down now as we approach the holidays... now it's just time to wait for the baby and hopefully not get too anxious!

Oh, I forgot #4... teaching Spiderman! This month we have started a new pre-school series which is being provided by a friend who has extra copies for her own pre-school that she runs out of her home. So we are getting to use their same worksheets and projects. This week is "Manners Week" so he is learning about "please, thank you, and excuse me"... we are also reading together and of course, coloring and doing playdough!!! (Two favs!)

33 Weeks!

50 days...

That's what the countdown says!!! Yeah!!!

However, it should officially say "45 days" because I just found out yesterday at my doctor's appointment that we are going to induce this little baby on Dec 22nd! So, unless he/she decides to come out earlier than that... we know we'll be having a birthday that day!

Trick-Or-Treat! Arg!!!

Here he is, "Jack Sparrow, the Pirate," getting dressed!

Don't forget to add the scary scar and scruff!

Is that really my cute little boy?!

He was in a horrible battle and lost an eye!

Getting ready to go Trick-Or-Treating!

At each house, he said "Thank you--Arg!"

He made lots of people smile.

The result! Yum!

"Let 'Em Bee Little" Preschool Halloween Party

Spiderman and his big cousin worked hard to create a spider snack, made of a chocolate covered donut and 8 pretzel legs, Yum!


Hey, that's cheating! You were supposed to eat the hanging donut without using your hands!


Pin the nose on the Jack-O-Lantern!



How about a coloring activity, using orange and black!

Carving Memories

Blues Clues

Linder Farms

Spiderman joined a local preschool group (run by a friend of mine) for a field trip to Linder Farms last Friday morning. For $5 the kids were able to participate in a hay ride, pumpkin patch search, coloring activity, corn maze and a popcorn snack! They had so much fun!!!



I was really proud of my son, he picked out his own pumpkin and carried it back out of the patch all by himself!

The hay ride was pretty crowded, so we had to snuggle up and sit together.

When we got home the coloring activity was a gift for Daddy. Spiderman scarffed down his popcorn and drink, all that pumpkin searching made him hungry!

Next week we are going to a Halloween party with the same preschool group. I am thinking you can expect pictures of a pirate! Arg!

While driving to Linder Farms this morning, Spiderman saw a pile of burning leaves in someone's field and promptly proclaimed: "Mom! Oh my dear! Smoke!"

I felt like transcribing something more fun...

What are you going to do Elmo?

I am going to have cookies.

What are you going to do Grouch?

I am going to stay asleep in my trashcan.

You go to sleep, you go to sleep, you go to sleep.

Goodnight!

Stop it!

All right Elmo.

Go to bed.

What about you? What about you? What about you?

You? You? And you?

Wake me up!

Goodnight! [growling voice]

Goodnight! [sweet voice]

Goodnight! [low voice]

[Dramatic Yawning...]

You sleep in your bath.

You sleep in the cookie jar.

You sleep in the garbage can. Garbage truck.

You. You. You. And You.

We forgot to say goodnight and pray!

I'm not going to sleep yet.

He said that we forgot to say goodnight.

He said that we forgot to pray and say goodnight.

Goodnight! [repeated in different voices]

[Prays unintelligible words]

You wake me up! [repeated in the different voices]

This continued for several more minutes...but I got bored.

Today is Saturday!

One of the things that I have been trying to teach him this fall is the days of the week, how to use a calendar, etc. Unfortunately, he thinks that every day is Sunday because he thinks that the name is describing what it looks like outside--hence there is "dark night" and "sun-day." So, we still have some work to do in that department... Each morning he moves his apple sticker to the next day, although all week long the apple moved closer to the weekend faster then one day at a time... hmm. Spiderman determined that Wednesday was library day, which it is--we always go to Storytime on Wednesdays... and Friday was "_______ Day" (fill in the blank with his cousin's name). So, this involved me requesting a sleepover from his Auntie. Which worked out great!

Last night Auntie and I went to a Ladies Social event with women from our church. We had a blast getting to know some of the women during an introduction time where we all shared about how we came to Boise and to All Saints PCA. I don't know if everyone else thought we were funny, but Auntie and I sure thought we were! :) After that we went on to the Red Letter Cafe in Boise to hear our friends' band, Beloved, play. Our drummer is their drummer--we stole him. We also attempted to steal their soundman last night! I think he said he'd at least teach someone how to do it for us! (cross-fingers!) Anyway--while we did all this fun stuff, Spiderman and Mr. Oz entertained the star cousin for the evening. I believe they shot each other with nerf guns, took a bath, watched a movie, ate popcorn, and fell asleep reading a book about Winnie-the-Pooh. Overall, everyone had a great evening!

So today we began our day pretty early (Mr. Oz had to leave early to go down to the church to help get the parking lot started for painting parking lines, etc.) and the boys woke up pretty early... so there was donut eating, followed by some crafts (playdough and stuff to glue!) and some more nerf wars, etc. They had a blast! Spiderman was pretty sad when his cousin had to leave later in the morning...

But never fear because tomorrow (which actually is Sunday!) is another day with cousin-fun! We have church and then small groups at cousin's house. So Spiderman rests easy tonight. Speaking of which, he must have had so much fun that he tired himself out... he put himself to bed tonight. :)

Getting Fat!

Taken at 30 weeks.

Only 10 more to go!

To Have and To Hold

My niece, Nicole, is marrying her man: Matt, in 6 days!!!

Sorry we won't be able to be at the wedding, but best wishes to the happy couple. We love you and miss you and can't wait to see pictures and hear all about your day!!! Lots of love!

Fireman!

Well, we braved the cold 38-degrees this morning and headed out to the Caldwell Fire Station with a friend's pre-school group. The firemen weren't exactly sure what to do with a bunch of 3-4-5 year olds, so they skipped the lecture on "stop, drop and roll" and went right for the fire engines!


The pictures didn't turn out so great because no one would hold still and the lighting was bad inside the station, but at least you get the idea. Peter Parker began brave enough to try on the fire-fighter gear, but turned shy half-way through!

Sunday School

My husband has been teaching Sunday School at our church for the 12-14 age group. He is really enjoying it. Right now he is taking them through the Shorter Catechism and basically the objective is for them to walk away ready to say why they believe what they believe. I think that these are important lessons and tools for young people of that age... about to step it up and become young adults and then adults! My father always put a lot of emphasis on the Catechism, and I am thankful for that! I can still recite the answers to the questions that Hubby is using with the students right now.
Peter Parker has been learning the Children's Catechism. He is up to question 14. It brings tears of joy to my eyes to hear him say things like [Why should you glorify God?] "because he made me and takes care of me!" PP's teacher says that he does a really good job in SS and seems to really be absorbing the lessons and is very responsive. It's encouraging.
I am also enjoying SS. I am participating in a class about CS Lewis' book, Mere Christianity. The teacher is awesome and I am learning a lot. I was orignially supposed to be in a different class, but chickened out the first day because there wasn't enough seating in the room and by the time I tried to go in, the door was closed... so I went upstairs and sat in on the other one. I am glad that I did! Hopefully they don't care that I switched! The reason I was late to SS is because I am playing the piano for the children's song time (SS starts at 9:30 and they do singing from 9:30 to 9:40 before they go to class)... I am enjoying that as well! PP is very good at participating in the singing. He has been given an opportunity to play rhythm instruments each time. Maybe there's hope for a musical career after all! If I can just get him to match pitch!

The First Commandment

So this past Sunday my pastor began a sermon series on The Ten Commandments. Obviously his first sermon was on the first commandment! It was GOOD! I hadn't thought about a lot of things that he said before now and as I was listening... and then later involved in a discussion (we have small group on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month) that evening, I came up with a challenge for myself...

Idols do not just come in the form of tangible things. For example, if asked to think of an idol, a person might say: TV, computer, clothes, money, cars, a really good American singer, etc. But what about the things that are intangible???

Relationship with Husband/Wife, Friendships, Desires for Self or for others, Protection of Children... these things can be both good and bad... (wanting to keep your kids safe isn't a bad thing!) HOWEVER if they become more important than Christ!!! What then?!?!

I am going to try to nail down some of these for myself.
For starters... being organized and sticking to a schedule. Oh boy is that an idol for me! I'll let you know my progress on conquering it!

P.S. if you want to hear the sermon, go here. (not sure when it will be posted, so keep checking back)

An Apple A Day (w/ Pics)

Friday morning, Auntie Wawa, PP and I hopped in our car and drove up to Emmett, ID to visit Candy Apple Orchard for a morning of apple picking! We met up with some of Auntie's friends, as well as a family from church (who were going with a homeschool group). The orchard had Romes, Red and Golden Delicious. Goldens were just what we wanted for making some yummy homemade applesauce! PP really enjoyed reaching up and pulling down the apples he could get to. We even ate a few while we were at it! It was a very enjoyable morning out in the sunshine. Yesterday, Auntie and I canned the apples we picked!
I was able to get 9 jars of applesauce and 8 jars of apple filling (to be frozen in bags later). I believe Auntie got about the same amount. We saved some just for eating as well.
It was hard work, but fun! And it was especially great doing it with someone, and in the fabulous kitchen designed especially for such a job!

Then and Now

So what did I do last week?
Well first of all, as always, my days consisted of the norm: feeding my son, feeding myself and therefore feeding Baby Shaw; transcribing; mediating fights between boy and dog; and of course many more mundane tasks...
But the fun things I did were: Monday--went to Titus Two rehearsal in the evening, but first got to see some new baby piggies at CKM Farms. Tuesday--morning consisted of taking the pictures (from last night's rehearsal) and designing/creating a new flyer for Titus Two to be handed out and posted at LWB&C. Tuesday afternoon I taught some kids how to play the piano. Wednesday--went to Storytime with Peter Parker, who loved learning more about cowboys and horses (that was the book theme last week) as well as singing some of his favorite songs: "Bitsy-Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Star." We also hosted a woman for church for a few hours to discuss worship music (I am playing the piano for church Oct 5 and Nov 2). I taught some more kids how to "tinkle the keys." Thursday--dealt with a throwing up little PP from 5am on... rehearsed anthems with some lovely ladies in the afternoon. Friday--had a CM meeting with my downline regarding upcoming events! Went shopping at Costco and enjoyed some pizza. Oh! And I dropped flyers off at LWB&C and got great compliments from the owner's wife. They want us to play there as much as possible! They love us. :) Dropped off more copies of "In The Shelter" CD as well. Saturday--up bright and early at 5:30AM to head down to Boise Center on the Grove to sing the Canadian, Irish and American national anthems before the start of the Boise Feis! Did that with those lovely ladies I mentioned earlier. Went well. Got SOAKING WET walking back to my car in a horrible rainstorm. Hubby says that it was recorded as the heaviest downfall in Caldwell since (some impressive date). Sunday (yesterday)--played the piano for children's Sunday School, went to church, ate a donut (yum!--been craving!) and came home to rest. We had Covenant Group last night which was fun, we did a Taco Bar and I brought yummy tomatoes from our garden. The men and boys tried to see how many of Hubby's jalapenos they could eat without passing out.

This Week!
Monday (Today)--more transcribing and Titus Two rehearsal.
Tuesday--more transcribing and teach some piano.
Wednesday--more transcribing and teach some piano + Storytime!
Thursday--more transcribing and a CM Borders Class in the evening.
Friday--more transcribing and going to the Apple Orchard (pick apples for 60cents a lb?!?! Uh, Ya!), Titus Two gig at LWB&C.
Saturday--you guessed it...more transcribing! Applesauce Canning! (if we make it to the orchard the day before)

One Hundred Days

Just want everyone to notice that the baby countdown to the right is one 100 today! Tomorrow I get to drop a digit and be that much closer to my due date! Yay!

Girls' Night Out!

Here we are at the Sara Evans concert last night!

Here is I, enjoying a tasty beverage. I was thirsty... Sister doesn't look too sure about me drinking my Pepsi in such a way...

No one knows why her face looks like that... :)

Pre-Schooler

Here he is! The big boy, putting his sticker up for "washing his hands"... as you can see, he had already eaten his breakfast and brushed his teeth.

We like good hygiene in this house. :)