Update

Right now our living room is full of plastic storage bins. They're piled up to the ceiling along one wall. I can't believe we have SO MANY! (I count 23 right here, and there are at least 10 more scattered throughout the townhouse). It seems like with each move we buy at least 3-4 more bins. I'm not sure how we end up with more stuff every time, despite our efforts to downsize with each move. We decided that storage bins would be best for us since they stack easily. It also means we don't have to gather moving boxes every time we move.

Anyway, we're moving on Saturday. We feel so blessed to be able to move into a house that my friend's dad rents out. (Thanks, Holls). We're so greatful to him for working with us to keep the rent within our budget; and we're looking forward to having a yard and 3 bedrooms... Most likely we'll put the boys together after a year, and use the third bedroom as an office, but we'll see.

Toh-Toh had his 2 month appointment this week. He now weighs 13 lbs and is growing like a weed. Moochy is so much fun and is talking more and more all the time. Both of our boys are great, and we love having them around.

Morphology

I saw this on a friend's blog. I thought Moochy's & Toh's were pretty funny.

I thought this one was hilarious:

Tagged

Holly tagged me. So, here you go, Holly. At your request:


How long have you been married? 3 1/2 years
How long did you date? 1 1/2 years (with a couple of "breaks" in there).
How old is he? 32
Who eats more? It depends what we're talking about. He can eat more in a sitting, but I definitely eat more sweets than he does.
Who said I love you first? I did
Who is taller? Allen
Who sings better? He would say I do, but he doesn't give himself enough credit.
Who is smarter? When it comes to most things... Allen knows A WHOLE LOT. But I have a handful of things I know more about than he does. I still won't play Trivial Pursuit with him, though. :)
Whose temper is worse? Mine by far.
Who does the laundry? Mostly me. But he does his own laundry when we have a washer/dryer in our own place.
Who does the dishes? Mostly me, but Allen often helps out.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Allen sleeps on my right.
Who pays the bills? I do, with Allen's money. :)
Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn now; but we will soon, and it will probably be both of us.
Who cooks dinner? I do, but sometimes Allen.
Who drives when you are together? Allen (unless he needs a 10 minute nap while we're on a road trip).
Who is more stubborn? Probably me, but we can both be pretty stubborn.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Allen
Whose parents do you see the most? Mine
Who proposed? Allen
Who has more friends? I'd say we're about even. He's on the phone more than I am, though, but mostly with his family.
Who has more siblings? Allen has 6 brothers, 2 sisters.
Who wears the pants in the family? We share the pants.

Snow

We had a big snowstorm this weekend and ended up with a bunch of snow. Unfortunately, it has mostly all melted away. It snowed all weekend, but ended up raining all through the night. When we woke up there wasn't much of anything. I'm glad I got a few pictures in the snow. Who knows when we'll see snow again after we leave here.

Ok, bad hair, but I had to get a picture of Toh-Toh in his first snow.

Moochismo enjoyed the snow a lot more than last year.

Toh-Toh's Blessing Day

This weekend we had family in town for Toh-Toh's blessing on Sunday. We did a joint blessing with Toh's cousin, who was born a couple weeks after him. It was nice to have family come from Seattle, Montana, Boise, and Utah for the blessings. As we were getting ready to load up in our cars and head for the church that morning, our keys ended up locked in the car (with it running)! I was so glad that Toh-Toh wasn't already in the car, otherwise I probably would have just broken a window. Since his carseat can strap in without a base, we were able to make it to the blessing on time in other cars (as our car sat in our parking lot running). LOL It made for a very memorable day.

Here are a few pictures. Our little guy obviously has no problem gaining weight. He has turned into quite the little chunk. Maybe he'll surpass his brother afterall.

Our adventure in Cheney...

... is coming to an end. For those of you who don't know, we'll be moving back to the Seattle area in December. After much thought and prayer, we've decided Cheney's just not the right place for us right now. Allen has decided to pursue another path with school, and we really feel that moving back to Seattle is the right decision. I spent a couple of days in Seattle this week (with Toh), and found an apartment for us. We'll be moving back to a 2-bedroom apartment (and paying twice the rent we are here!), but that's ok. Toh-Toh really hasn't used his room yet anyway; and the apartment is pretty big, so there should be plenty of room for us for the next 2 years. Allen will also be working at his old job, which means they'll pay for his tuition. We're not really excited to move again, but are hoping this will be our last move for at least 1-2 years... then we'll be able to settle down for a while.

Thanksgiving 2007

Allen had to work on Thanksgiving this year, so we had our own little Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday. It was just our little family, but it was nice. It was the first time I cooked a turkey, and it actually turned out pretty good... and I finally got to use my platter (a gift on our wedding day). I felt like I was baking for two days (pies, rolls, cheesecake, turkey, etc). It seemed like a lot of mess & hassle for a 20 minute meal. But it was worth it, and I will always remember our first Thanksgiving as a little family. We really DO have a lot to be thankful for.

I'm such a dork. I just had to take a picture of the turkey.

My boys today.

HAYDEN/MOOCHY
He loves to pick up ANY phone and just start talking (even when there isn't anyone on the other end). His "conversation" goes like this: "Hello? Hi. Me. Sup? Oh. Sorry. Bye." haha. I'm not sure where he got the "Sorry" part from.

TORRIN/TOH-TOH
He's a month old today. How did that happen??? I took him to his 1 month checkup and he already weighs 9 lbs 5 oz. That's almost 3 lbs in a month!!!

ALLEN
He's an amazing dad. He has this natural calming ability when it comes to the boys. Kids in general are drawn to him. Random kids just come up and talk to him all the time... even when they have never met him. And babies often stare at him. I don't blame them. I mean, he is a good looking guy, but I wonder if these kids know something that I don't.

See you later, naptime.

It's a sad, sad day. We have been struggling with naptime & bedtime lately with Mooch. I thought it was just his way of trying to adjust to Toh-Toh being here, but now I'm not so sure. On the days he does get a nap, he will stay up until 10:00 p.m. and won't go to bed without a fight. And some days he will just fight a nap and want to play, and he'll be fine until bedtime. Then there are the days where he will miss his nap and fall asleep at 4 or 5 p.m. He'll get a good 10 minute "power nap" and be up again until 10:00 p.m. (He definitely takes after Allen.)


The other day, after a particularly difficult 2-hour struggle to get Moochy down for a nap (ending in my giving up completely), our neighbor came over to visit with us. She mentioned that her 4-yr-old quit taking naps at about Moochy's age. She said, he just didn't need them anymore. Hmmm. Interesting. I thought. Not my boy, though. He still needs his nap. (Or is it just his mom that needs his nap? LOL)


So, for the past two days we have been expiramenting. No naps. (And that means no naps for this sleep-deprived mom either). And wouldn't you know it... Moochismo has gone to bed both nights without much of a fight. In fact, two nights ago his eyes were closed before I even turned the light off, and he didn't need his precious two fingers to help get him to sleep. WOW!


We have now designated a daily "quiet time" (mostly for my sanity, but also for Mooch), where we will just relax, read some books, and/or listen to soothing music. I know that Moochy will still need naps on some days, but I'm hoping this "quiet time" will give him the chance to just relax and build up some energy for the rest of the day. And hopefully (fingers crossed) our bedtime battles will be a lot smaller.


Now, I can't say that this doesn't make me a little sad. When Mooch was a baby, I used his naptime as my workout time. It looks like that's not going to happen with Toh (I was hoping they would nap at the same time), so I'll have to figure out another time to workout or else incorporate them into my workout somehow.

Moochy loves his little brother.

I can't believe how big Toh-Toh is already.

Almost a month old!

Halloween 2007

Mastitis, thrush, and things that go bump in the night.

These are just a couple of things I've been dealing with. When Toh-Toh was about a week old, I went to bed one night with chills and felt achy all over. When I woke up I had a fever of 102. I discovered that day that I had developed mastitis. I was given antibiotics for the mastitis. The antibiotics worked to treat it, and the fever & chills were gone within a day. What I wasn't told was that taking antibiotics increases the risk of developing thrush since it also kills off the good bacteria that keeps yeast in check.

So, between the antibiotics I was given during labor for GBS and the antibiotics for mastitis, I pretty much have no good bacteria left; and here we are with yeast/thrush. It is terribly painful to nurse, but I'm determined to get through this. Luckily, Toh doesn't have the white patches in his mouth (a sure sign of thrush), but we're taking all the necessary precautions to make sure I don't pass it to him & he passes it back to me, etc., etc. And hopefully within a couple of weeks we'll be back to normal again.

Here is a picture of Toh-Toh with purple lips. LOL We are using Gentian Violet (among other things) to help treat this, and it stains EVERYTHING it touches. So, his mouth will be purple for a few days.

Carving the pumpkin and some other random stuff...

Last night we carved our one little pumpkin... The big one ended up being rotten.

Mooch hates getting anything on his hands, so it was interesting.

At one point he had a seed on his hand, and he just sat there staring at it. LOL

This is how Toh enjoyed carving the pumpkin.

Mooch likes taking new "toys" to the bath every night.
On this particular night, he decided to take my laundry basket.

Here are some pictures from our camping trip this summer. It has taken me forever to upload them. Our trip was to the Ensign Ranch, and Uncle Shawn went with us. Thanks to him, we got some pretty great pictures of Moochismo.

The river was freezing, but Moochy didn't seem to mind.

He loved to run off down the dirt road in front of our campsite.

I could never keep up with him, so I let the boys chase after him.

Before we left, we went to explore the rest of the ranch.

Nothing can come between a boy and his sticks.

The Best Diet Around.

Have a baby!

Ok, really though... I know I still have a long way to go, but it's nice to see the pounds drop so quickly after having a baby. I've lost 10 lbs since I came home from the hospital with TW (and that's NOT including the 8 lbs I lost in the hospital). Unfortunately, though, I had to actually GAIN the weight first. I still have 10 lbs to lose to be at my pre-pregnancy weight, and another 15 lbs to be at my first goal after that. I know I'll probably have to actually work to get those off, but a girl can dream, right?

What Allen has learned so far...

Here's a little list of things Allen has learned so far in his classes. Obviously, we don't share the same views as his professors and classmates.

1. Communism is the purest form of government.
2. Having kids is reprehensible. (When TW was born, one of his professors told Allen he should be condemned, not congratulated!)
3. Mormons and Catholics should be forced out of the country.
4. We should not help starving children in Africa.
5. People should not be allowed to live past 65. (These last three are b/c of over-population issues.)
6. The amount of respect you deserve is determined by the number of times you're arrested. (One of his professors thinks that students today don't deserve as much respect because they're not out there protesting and getting arrested.)

These are just a few of the things Allen has "learned" in class. LOL No wonder he is miserable in this program!

Just a couple of new pictures...

Hayden trying out his new costume.

Toh-Toh found his thumb.

2 Weeks

Little Brother is 2 weeks old today, and things have been a lot better over the past few days. I think the "baby blues" are behind me now, and I'm starting to feel a little more normal. We're also getting into a routine that seems to be working for us. Two weeks has flown by, but at the same time it feels like Toh-Toh has been a part of our family forever. Big Brother is really starting to adjust well to having Toh-Toh around. I just can't wait until Toh starts to interact more. I think Mooch will LOVE having a little brother to pal around with. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but Moochy likes to do "This Little Piggy" to Toh-Toh. He also like to mimic him when he sneezes or has the hiccups.

I'm also looking forward to all the little cute things that babies do. I really do like the newborn stage, though, so I'm enjoying it while I can. Toh won't take binky yet, but a couple times he has found his thumb, and I think it's just the cutest thing!

Allen has been working a lot lately. He's been working at the hospital for a month now, but they are still considering this "training" and "orientation". I personally think it's just an excuse for them to schedule him for more hours than they hired him to work. He's been working 40 hours a week, and they only hired him to work 24 hours, so it has been difficult for him to keep up on his school work. After this week his "orientation" will be over, and he'll be able to focus more on school. So, hopefully things will be less stressful for him after this week.

One to Two

I have to say that going from no kids to one was a breeze. When Moochy was a newborn I could sleep whenever he did. I never really felt sleep deprived, and I actually had a lot of energy. But this one-to-two thing is really tough so far. I had my first real break down today. I forgot how emotions rage in the first couple weeks after having a baby, and today it just hit me.

Moochy has never really been good at getting to sleep on his own--and I know this is mostly due to our parenting style. Since Little Brother came home he has REALLY been fighting naptime & bedtime. We've been lucky if we get him to sleep before 10 p.m. We've been trying to stick to our routine, but that has been difficult because I'm usually the one who gets his bath, book, & lays by him when it's time for bed. That's hasn't really worked out, though, b/c Toh-Toh wants to nurse at least every two hours, and he always seems to be fussy when it's time for Mooch Man to go to sleep. Another thing is that Mooch has never really wanted me to comfort him when he's upset. He always wants Allen.

So, today Mooch woke up 45 minutes into his nap, and he was MAD. He didn't want anything to do with me. I wanted him to go back to sleep, but I just gave up. Luckily, Toh was ok at the time, but the emotions came streaming in for me. Then I looked around and saw how messy my house was and thought Some homemaker I am. So, there I am bawling and Moochy is crying and throwing a tantrum; and all I can think about was how Allen has to work for 9 days straight next week and How in the world am I going to handle everything?

After crying for 10 minutes, I prayed and told Heavenly Father that all I needed was for Moochismo to give me a hug. (He usually just laughs at me when I cry, which makes everything worse). Immediately after saying my prayer, Moochy came and gave me a hug and climbed up onto my lap. That was enough to pull me out of my rut, and we picked up the living room together. I know that things will get better and that we just need to find a good routine that includes Little Brother. I know it will take Mooch Man a while to get used to having Toh around, and I just need to remember that and try to be understanding. In the meantime, I will probably have to be more lenient when it comes to bedtime & naptime--at least until things calm down a little.

I really love my boys, and I'm SO greatful that Heavenly Father answers prayers--even the little ones that seem so insignificant.

Welcome Baby Toh-Toh!

As many of you know I had some “false” labor on Sunday night/Monday morning, and we spent most of the night at the hospital. I was really frustrated that the contractions stopped on Monday. (My mom & Courtney had driven the 4 hours in the middle of the night to be here to watch Big Brother). Contractions picked up again Monday night, but this time my water broke at about 11: 15 p.m. (PST), so we got ready and headed to the hospital. They checked me and I was still only 3 c.m. and 80% effaced. I continued to have contractions through the night, but I guess they (the nurses & doctor) weren’t too impressed with them because I “didn’t seem too uncomfortable.”

At 7:30 a.m., after Allen arrived (my mom was with me b/c I wanted Allen to get some sleep at home), they told me to go walk around for 45 minutes. I was fine with that because I didn’t want to be strapped to the bed. But I was also upset because they were already talking about giving me pitocin without even checking me to see if I had made any progress! I know this was partly due to the fact that I was GBS+ and my water was broken, but sheesh—at least wait until I’m showing some signs of infection or something! (And my water had only been broken for about 8 hours at that point). I was adamant against having pitocin because of it being a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean), so I was ready to put up a fight after my walk.

After walking around for a while, we got back to our room (8:30 a.m.), and my contractions immediately started hurting A LOT more. I was at 5 c.m. at this point. After two or three of these “new” contractions, I was ready to give up my goal of an unmedicated birth, and asked for the epidural—Bawling at the same time because I was convinced this is why I ended up with a c-section with Mooch Man (pushed for 3 hours w/no progress). I was given some Nubain to take the edge off, but all it really did was make me feel extremely tired & like the room was spinning. Then the nurse informed me that the anesthesiologist had to go to an emergency c-section, so I would have to wait. (I wasn’t too happy about this). She gave me some Stadol (I think) to help until they could give me the epidural, and turned me on my side b/c the baby’s heart was dropping. The Stadol didn't do much either.

Literally, on the next contraction my body started to involuntarily push. I told the nurse I was pushing, and that I couldn’t stop. She checked me, and I was at 8-9 c.m. On the next contraction, I told them that the baby was coming. I was at 10 c.m.! The nurse yelled down the hall for the doctor, and she came running over from the clinic across the street. Little Brother was born at 9:49 a.m. after 4 minutes of “active” pushing! (7 minutes total pushing time). He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, and is 19 ¼ inches long. He had the cord wrapped around his neck once, but had apgars of 8 & 9. The doctor did end up doing an episiotomy (I think b/c they were concerned about his heartrate and wanted him to out quickly), but it's still a lot better healing than my c-section.

The whole thing felt like a dream (mostly because I was extremely tired & dizzy from the drugs). I remember hearing everything and feeling everything, but I felt like I was apart from my body. I still can’t believe I went from 5 c.m. to complete in about an hour, and that I only pushed for 4-7 minutes (especially after pushing for 3 hours with Mooch)! I also can’t believe I had one of those labors where they were yelling down the hall for the doctor. LOL I thought that only happened on TV. ;)

We are just thrilled to have our little man. He looks just like my dad & grandpa, which is fitting because he and my dad share a middle name. Mooch likes to look at the baby and say “bibi” and get’s very concerned when he cries. No jealousy issues yet, but I’m sure they’ll show up soon.

Update

Hello from Cheney, Washington! We are doing well and starting to get into some sort of routine around here. Allen started classes last week and enjoys learning about the planning process. His training & orientation at work will be over this weekend, and he will finally be working just on weekends. It’s nice to see him during the week more (and get to sleep in and take naps some days. LOL). Weekends will be harder on him since he’ll be working two 12-hour shifts, but we’re proud of him for working so hard.

Mooch is doing well. He is as busy as ever. His new favorite thing is to climb all over us. (Allen tolerates this much better than I do.) Allen will sit on the floor in front of the couch or recliner, and Moochy Man will get up on the couch/recliner and jump off onto Allen. He does this even when Allen isn’t prepared or lookiing, which shows how much he trusts his dad. I took Mooch to playgroup the other day at the Church. He had fun running around with the other boys (our ward only has boys in nursery). At one point he decided to scream (like a girl) in the middle of the gym. I’m just waiting for him to do this in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. He’s definitely a two-year-old.

I’m doing ok. I’m just counting down the days until this baby comes. Allen laughs that I seem to sleep better during the day than at night. I told him it’s much easier to sleep when you don’t have a 2-yr-old waking up multiple times, no “bear” snoring next to you, and as much room on the bed as you want. LOL For some reason I have no problem getting comfortable when I’m just laying down for a nap. A girl in our ward has offered to watch Moochy when I go into labor (until my mom can get here). She has a 2-year-old son as well. Our ward is very small, which makes for some interesting comments/lessons in Church; but the people are VERY nice. It will be interesting to see what our callings are. My guess is I’ll be in the primary (since they are WAY understaffed). Allen will probably get called to teach EQ again.

Guess when TW will come!

I made up a fun little poll to guess when TW will be born. If you're interested in participating, just go to http://www.expectnet.com/, and type "bday2" in the game search box. You can guess when he'll come and how much he'll weigh, etc. (Or you can just follow this link, and type in the poll name.)



For what it's worth, my due date is October 24. I'm currently at 3 c.m. and 80% effaced, which really could mean nothing at this point.

Blogs n stuff

I was reminded that the title of our blog is Wilcox Weekly. Well, I haven't been posting weekly, so either I'm going to have to think of a more clever name for our blog or make up for lost time by posting more. LOL What can I say? It's a work in progress. I've been wanting to post more pictures, but Mooch Man got ahold of the camera and stashed it in the fabric of my recliner. Luckily, I found it (along with lots of other treasures Mooch decided to hide).

Amanda requested that I post pictures of our townhouse. Here's a picture of the front (It's the only one I have so far). The little boy running at me is Moochy. hehe How dare I go outside without him!

It's really pretty boring, if you ask me. It's much more "exciting" inside. LOL They obviously don't do much with the landscaping, though the townhouses in the front of the complex look better. I think they get lazy near the back, which is where we are. We may have to do our own, though we do have some strawberries growing out front. We are lucky enough to be on the end, and we don't have to share an entryway with anyone. :)

Cheney

I just have to say that we love Cheney. It's nice to be so close to Spokane (with a Target, Wal-Mart, and whatever else), but such a relief to come back to this small town, where everything feels so relaxed. We just love the small-town feel. Behind our townhouse we have a big field of wheat, so we don't have to look out and see someone else's house or hear a lot of traffic buzzing by. We can even hear coyotes back there at night and watch the sun set over the hill. We have a fenced in back yard (that we share with a few neighbors) and a small playground back there that Moochy loves to play in with his new friend "Kiki".

I have to say, though, that I am a little worried about the winter. I don't like driving in the snow or being out in it (unless I'm snowboarding), but I do love to look at it out my window. LOL Yesterday morning we took Allen to work and I was surprised that it was so cold! It's not even October yet and it was about 40 degrees. The wind off that hill behind our place is going to make it REALLY cold in the winter.

Allen got a new job working at one of the local hospitals. It's not exactly his dream job, but it will pay the bills until he can find something within his field of study. He'll probably be working two to three 12-hour shifts on the weekends, which will allow him to use his weekdays for studying and spending time with us. We are so proud of him. He works so hard to allow me to stay at home with Mooch. I know it's not easy for him, but I sure am greatful that he allows me to have my "dream job." I sure love my time with Moochy, and I can't imagine missing any of it.

I'll take this moment to brag a little about Moochismo. He loves to count. Sometimes when we wake up in the morning we just lay there and count our fingers and toes. He can (kind of) count to twenty by himself (except 13-19 all sound the same. LOL). It's so fun to watch him learn and grow. I wonder how he'll respond to Toh-Toh. I'm sure he'll be such a good big brother.

We are so blessed that things have fallen into place so easily for us. The Lord has answered our prayers, and it makes me realize that we really ARE supposed to be here at this time in our lives. The next two years will probably be very challenging, but we are greatful that the Lord has a hand in things and He continues to bless us.