Our oldest son Andy is slated to have the second (and hopefully final) surgery done tomorrow to correct a minor birth defect. This surgery will be longer and more extensive than the last, plus it will be a harder recovery… one that will require about a week to ten days of “down time.” (Down time is a funny concept at our house, so pray for us!)

If the previous surgery was any indication of how he’d do, he’ll be absolutely fine. He took it like a champ. In fact, the only thing he’s worried about is the fact that he can’t eat breakfast in the morning! Anyway, keep him in your prayers. We’d appreciate it.

We’re back! I’ll write a bit about our week later, but for now, we’re happy to be home. My house may be small, but at least the sheets stay on my bed. More later!

Just so no one thinks the morning sickness swallowed me alive (today has actually been good so far!), I’m letting you know that I’ll be AWOL for a week. We’re heading out of town so my husband can serve as an instructor at a nation-wide Honor Guard Academy for police officers and firefighters. (Just another one of his million talents. )

For the boys, this means a week of hotel life: jumping on the beds, eating the majority of our meals out, visiting local parks, and as much swimming as Mom & Dad can tolerate.

For me, it means a week of repeated lessons in patience and creativity. I try to come up with as many “settle down” games as I can in one small hotel room. The quality time is priceless, though. And, hey, it’s a week away from housework and a nice break from my many design projects.

So, if you start to miss me next week, peruse my previous entries and comment away! We’re still looking for names, of course. Some of the suggestions are already on our short list, but we’re still open!

And, finally, if you’re a burgalar looking for a big heist, look no further. We’ve got quite a bounty for you here:

• Trash cans full of dirty diapers
• Sippy cups of various styles
• Dog bones
• All kinds of toys for little boys, most of which were given to us… many of which Nana has given our kids from McDonald’s happy meals
• Mr. Clean Magic Erasers (you could load up!)
• Dust bunnies
• Balls of dog hair in the basement
• Loads of laundry, both clean and not

So, go ahead and break in. We’ll only notice if you clean up. And don’t mind the bazillion police officer friends Nate has stopping by various times throughout the day. They may look mean in their black uniforms, but most of them are only trained in various forms of physical tactics and in firearms… They’re actually nice guys. Have at ‘em. My money’s on the good guys.

See you in a week!

I should start this post by explaining that right behind our house is 14 acres of protected natural wetland preserves. It’s beautifully wooded (so is part of our yard) and has a neat stream running through it. We’ve had deer in our front yard on Christmas Eve and huge woodchucks in our backyard — despite its fence!

Nate was home on his dinner break tonight when he got called out suddenly on police business. Since he thought he still had a-half-an-hour left, his police canine Sirus was in the backyard doing what dogs do in backyards. Nate ran to the back door and called for Sirus to come in so they could leave. Sirus seemed to take a little longer than usual, and we soon saw why.

He brought a possum into my house! EWWW! Quick thinking Nate had Sirus stay, which sorta trapped the disgusting thing in our back entry way and Nate kicked it outside. Gross.

I’ve never been happier that my husband thinks on his feet and wears big boots to work. It doesn’t hurt that he carries a gun, too.

I’m at 14-ish weeks or so along in this pregnancy. For most people, morning sickness ends around 12 weeks. Mine is just getting worse.

Morning sickness is sick. And I’m in mourning.

We’re in serious need of some help, here. As many of you know, each time I’m expecting I fret over finding the name for the baby until it’s settled. I have to like the name itself, its rhythm and its meaning. And it has to sound good being shouted from the Little League bleachers. It should be more than one syllable, since our last name has just one, short, harsh syllable. Plus, to make things even more complicated, we’d like either its first or middle name to be biblical and  it must, must, must fall in line in our crazy alphabetical order scheme. (When you plan to have a large family, it’s just easier to give those you meet a fighting chance at remembering your kids’ names.)

So, here we sit and stare at the pathetic choices listed under F in the baby name books. We’re really scratching the bottom of the barrel, here. It’s rather scary… or should I say frightening.

Here’s just a cross section of what we’re working with:

• Fadey (Slavic boy’s name), meaning “praise”
• Fabunni (African girl’s name), meaning “God has given me this”
• Fatima (Arabic, girl) = “Daughter of the Prophet”
• Feo (Italian, boy) = they say it’s short of Feodora, but I know it’s also the Spanish word for ugly!
• Fifi (French, girl) = shortened version of Josephine, but more appropriately, in my book, a perfect name for a poodle
• Forbes (English, boy) = “prosperous” but we’re naming a baby, not a magazine
• Fudge … who cares what it means! Who would do that to a kid?!?!

So, you see my dilemma. I’m struggling here and am now open to suggestions. If you have any ideas, please comment! If we chose yours, you will win the ever-present No End in Site prize: good old-fashioned bragging rights.

But seriously, please help!! I know we’ve got time (since the baby isn’t due until March), but for my peace of mind, let’s tackle this now!

So, my Cubbies are at it again. They won a great game tonight and are still in first place. (I feel like I should whisper that… ) We were watching the game tonight whle my husband was home on his dinner break. When an exceptional play was made, he shouted, “YEAH, BABY!”

Connor has since been running around the house with a ball yelling, “Ya, Baba!”

What’s even funnier is that during last night’s seventh inning stretch, Connor tried to correct Ryne Sandberg (the greatest second baseman of all time). When “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” ended, Ryno added a rousing cry of, “Let’s win this one!” Connor immediately looked up and disgustedly said, “No. Let’s get some runs!”

Yup, he’s my boy.

I know there’s a lot of skepticism surrounding this idea, but all of our kids have learned sign language and it’s been invaluable. We bought this book after seeing it featured on our local news. I read it and thought it was worth a shot. It turned out to be worth a lot more.

Starting around six months, we’d begin signing basic words to our babies while saying the words… “Eat,” “Drink,” “More,” “Thank you,” “Down,” “Please,” “Hurt,” and lots, lots more. By the time they turned 10-12 months old, each of our boys could sign what they needed! It saved so many headaches and frustrations. I cringe when I see a baby throwing a frustrated fit in a restaurant. Our kids could tell us when they’d had enough by signing “All done!”

The words seem to follow shortly, but it’s been fun to watch our older kids teach the younger ones to sign, too. We’ve had no negative experiences with this and I’m always happy to answer questions.  It’s simple to teach and simple to learn. When it comes to understanding what your children want, sign language definitely works for me!

Now, if anyone has different (i.e. forget saltines, ginger ale, eating before you sit up, etc.) ideas for how to curb morning sickness, please let me know. You can check out my previous post for more info.

For more great Works for Me Wednesday ideas, go check out Rocks in My Dryer.

With Andy, Brady and Connor’s pregnancies, I was very sick. Morning sickness lasted all day. Every day. With Andy, I got sick while I was in labor. Fun stuff!

I’ve tried every trick in the book. And still, I’ve thrown up (sorry!) in more places than anyone else I know… including the median between the parking lot of a busy restaurant and the highway…. Also, out the door of my husband’s squad car in more than one grocery store parking lot. My husband says I should write a book about the best places to throw up and the foods that taste almost as good the second time. I’m not trying to be disgusting (I don’t have to try — it comes naturally), I’m just stating that morning sickness comes hand-in-hand with pregnancy for me.

When I was pregnant with our fourth child, Baby D, I never got sick. Deep inside, I knew something was wrong. I ended up miscarrying this precious child at 12 weeks. While we were distraught over never getting to know our baby, we were soon blessed by another pregnancy. When I started getting sick again while pregnant with Evan, I knew everything would be fine.

Odd as it is, I now see morning sickness as somewhat of a twisted blessing. To me, it means the baby is healthy. So, I’m here to tell you all that Baby F will come out weighing about 19 pounds, doing one-handed push-ups, reciting the Gettysburg Address.

I’m sick. I can’t go near my kitchen, because everything smells weird. I can’t change certain diapers. I can’t get too close to the dogs. And I’ve spent more time with the toilet today than with any one of my kids.

Yup, Baby F will be one healthy baby. He or she will probably not every be named, but at least he or she will be healthy.

The kids have definitely been enjoying all the extra space in their new, big room. There’s more than a 5′ x 10′ area with nothing there, so Evan has been crawling all over and Andy and Brady have been, of course, playing baseball in their room! And in the past two days, Connor has figured out how to climb out of his crib. I’d say my life is over now, but since we plan to move him to a “big boy bed” very, very soon, it’s not really a big deal.

Last night I was in the kids’ room talking to them before bed time. I started to leave and Andy asked that I shut off the little light that has served as their ward-off-all-things-scary-like-evil-baseball-team-mascots-and-scary-clowns nightlight for more than a year. I was amazed. I asked, “You won’t be scared?”

Andy replied, “No, Mommy. We’ve got Brady — the bravest boy in the world!”

Brady immediately sat up in the top bunk and argued, “But I don’t want the light off!!”