He keeps growing and growing!

2 months old… Legacy Park pumpkin patch.

14 months old…Berry Patch Farms pumpkin patch.

2 yrs, 2 months…Berry Patch pumpkin patch.

3 years, 2 months… Berry Patch pumpkin patch.

Happy Halloween!

“Is today Halloween day?”

That’s the first thing that came out of James’s mouth this morning.  Next he asked if he could have his halloween cupcake.  Funny kid. 

Watch it Grow!

One of my friends, Summer, is a photographer.  She lives just around the corner from me, but has never ventured out of the model, or family shots, and asked if she could take some pictures of me and my growing belly.  She also has two friends, Ben and Matt, who wanted to break into the maternity shots for their portfolio, so they are taking them, too.

So far they have taken shots of me at 12 week, 16 weeks, 20 weeks, and 26 weeks.  I think my next shots will be somewhere around 30 weeks, or the beginning of November. 

Here is a peek at the growing belly.  I felt like I was really big in this one… I was only 12 weeks and none of my pants were fitting me.  I couldn’t quite fit into maternity pants yet, so getting dressed each day was quite frustrating.

At this point I wasn’t feeling like I looked as if I had eaten too many cookies from the cookie jar anymore.  I was 16 weeks and I felt like most people could look at me and tell that I was pregnant, even if they were still afraid to ask. 

This one was at 20 weeks and we had just found out that we were having another little boy!

This is pretty much my stance every day now.  I have my little shelf, and this is just where my hands end up most of the time.  You might notice that I am no longer wearing the wedding bands that Jim gave me, but instead I am wearing one of my Grandmother’s anniversary bands. 

I have been feeling really pregnant the past week or so.  It could have been all the work that I did over the weekend and have continued to do each night and I just need to rest, or it could be that I just am really pregnant.  I caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror the other night and I asked James, “Hey James… do you think this is a bowling ball or a basketball under Mommy’s shirt?”

His response?  “I think it’s a baby.”

Down for the count

Friday night Jim and I had discussed going down to the basement to do some “fall cleaning”.  We skipped the spring cleaning, but have all these grand intentions on what we’d like to do down there. 

Currently he’s just built another stage, this time just a middle piece, to go in front of the current stage that he already has down there.  He’s also built a riser for a couch so we can have some sort of stadium seating down there. 

On top of that he’s hanging dry wall in the theater room, and is going to build a sub floor, though he won’t nail it down to the slab.  By doing this, according to DIY and all those other fun home fix it websites, our floating floor can vibrate with the base of the movies.  Nice. 

He’s also placed another two feet of insulation between the drop ceiling and the kitchen above it to help soften the sound of music coming from the basement to the other areas of the house.  Hopefully this will insulate the basement some, too.  We don’t have an additional HVAC down there, and for the most part we are OK with that.  During the spring and fall it’s fine down there, but the winter months are quite chilly and the summer months can get to be stifling if we don’t have our trusty window units in place.  (Shhh… don’t tell the HOA about those, ok?)  Jim did put in some floor board heaters a few winters back and those seem to keep the chill off during the cold winter months. 

Other than that my sewing room, which he worked so hard on, has been neglected, to say the very least.  It’s been months since I have even attempted to sew a thing, and it’s doing nothing but collecting dust, and probably a few cobwebs.  I’ve actually contemplated turning that room into a nice TV room since the TV room we had down there is now the music room.  If the boys end up sharing a room, which I hope they will, then when this new little man moves out of the nursery and into the big room down the hall with James, my sewing machine will make it’s way up two flights of stairs and I can have a crafting room accessible to my every need.  (Not that the current one isn’t accessible… I just don’t go into the basement that often.)

All of this being said… we had every intention Friday night after James went to bed to go work down there.  When Jim finished up some emails he came to find me.  This is what he found…

I’d like to say that I didn’t wake up after the picture was taken, but that’s a lie.  But I did fall right back to sleep, remote in my hand and all.

Beware!

As many of you might know, Jim’s favorite holiday is most likely Halloween.  He loves this holiday and over the years has collected his fair share of decorations.  I gave him permission this year to go get some more, and didn’t really give him a limit on what he could buy. 

In the past we have had a lot of decorations out, but nothing to this extent.  At least he’s not to the point where he’s building coffins and popping out of them… not yet anyway!  He found these scary monsters and has hung them from our trees out front.  He has since bought another one that isn’t pictured. 

There are more decorations to come.  We haven’t set up the grave yard yet, and we still have some more hanging skeletons to put out.  It’s was just a busy weekend and looks to be a very busy week.  Hopefully we’ll find the time soon!

Another opportunity lost…

James has had this thing about jeans.  It’s plain and simple… he won’t wear them.  He just won’t.  He used to, and he looks so damn cute in them, too, but for some reason now he won’t wear them.  He’ll even comment on me or Jim wearing jeans and about how we like to wear them, but he doesn’t.  We have tried to convince him that jeans are great, but no dice. 

Not knowing his aversion/resistance/whatever you want to call it to jeans, my mom bought him a pair of brand spaken new crisp jeans, and a pair of jean shorts during her past visit.  And man, are they ever cute.  Considering it has been a good six months or so since we have had the need for jeans in our neck of the woods, I thought that this might be a good opportunity to convince encourage him to wear them.  We pulled the “Big Boy” card on him. 

For the past week and a half I have been talking up these jeans.  “Man… these are really some cool jeans!”  “Look at your new big boy jeans!”  “Aren’t these some really neat jeans?  They are big boy jeans just like daddy’s!”  It all seemed to be working. 

Last night at dinner I told James that it was going to be a cold day today and that it was going to rain all day.  A lot of times we refer to why it rains as it’s God watering the flowers.  He’s come to accept this explanation and usually reminds us why it’s raining outside once a drop or two falls.  In any case, the temperatures are not supposed to get out of the 60’s today.  No shorts for James!

I asked him this morning while he was in the bath tub if he wanted to wear his new big boy jeans.  With a mixed look of fear, determination, and excitement he said, “Yea…” 

I quickly picked out a cute Halloween shirt and grabbed the jeans.  They are size 3T, a little big for him, but I figured with the adjustable waist band they should be OK.  I quickly pulled each side over one button and hoped that it was the right amount.  If it was too tight, my chance was lost.  If it was too big, I might not get them adjusted before my chance was lost.  I chose one button to be safe…hoping and praying that it was the right choice. 

WAY TOO BIG.  I quickly made the adjustment while he was engrossed in Diego.  Ends up that I had to cinch those suckers four buttons on each side!  I thought that might be enough, but he looked down, tears ready to form in his big brown eyes and said, “They are too big!  I need a belt.”  Quickly thinking I asked if he wanted his blue, green, or camo belt.  Camo! 

Now, he’s never worn this camo belt before, and as luck was not on my side this morning, wouldn’t you know it that the belt was too big, too?  Of course it was!  I ran back for the blue belt, but by the time I got back he had taken the jeans off, was close to tears, and was telling me that he wanted his shorts. 

Quickly thinking I ran back to his room and grabbed a pair of jeans from last season.  Size 24 months… it might work!  Big might, but still, it might work.  I grabbed a plastic hammer that was on his tool table at the door of his room and quickly shoved that little red hammer into the carpenter hook, hoping and praying that for some reason Diego had decided to morph into Bob the Builder or Manny during this particular episode and was wearing a hammer on his jeans, too!  Again… no such luck.  Diego was wearing cargo pants and they were khaki.  Nothing close to jeans. 

Of course, this didn’t work.  I couldn’t convince him, by any stretch of the imagination, that these jeans were the “cool” thing to wear.  He wanted his shorts.  And not wanting to be the “bad mom” that sends her kid to school in shorts on a cold and rainy day, I was stuck. 

I went back, now with James screaming with anxiety and frustration, into his room and grabbed what seemed to be the coolest pair of cargo pants he had.  These were pretty cool.  They were khaki (like Diego’s), and could roll up into shorts if he really got hot today and wanted to wear shorts instead of pants.  It was a fight, a nasty, drag down fight, but they ended up on his body and no one really got (physically) hurt.  A few nasty words (under the breath by me- out loud by him) were said, and a remote was even thrown, but like I said, no one was physically hurt.  We both ended up in time out, but only for a few minutes.  He came out telling me that he wanted his “lesson”. 

His lesson?  Is that what he was really saying?  His lesson?  So I asked him.  Yep… he wanted his lesson.  My mind quickly calculates what he’s trying to tell me and I realized that he wanted to “learn his lesson” and come out.  Now where did he ever come up with that?  Surely not from me or Jim…  we’ve never said that to him. 

I asked him where he heard about learning a lesson from(in regards to time out) and he said that he just knew it.  Boy, you better believe a phone call was made to school today.  I had an administrator promising me, and a teacher too, that this phrase is not used in the classroom, at least not by them.  So which kid is “learning his lesson” at home by being sent to his room?  I have a few guesses, but I’ll keep them to myself. 

But back to the main part of this story… will James ever wear his new jeans?  I’m thinking no, but then again, Jim has had a way of convincing him in the past.  Let’s see if he can do it again.  It’s going to take time, that’s for sure.

And yet another year has passed…

It was four years ago today that Jim and I traveled up to North Carolina for our one year wedding anniversary weekend.  We were camping in the middle of nowhere at a music festival with no touch to the outside world.  We had just finished setting up camp and I had gone back into the camper to take a nap before the first show started. 

Jim walked around, set up his video camera and recording equipment for the first show, and then had a gut feeling to check his cell phone.  We had been to this festival in the past, and like I mentioned, there was no tie to the outside world.  Cell phone signals were pretty much unheard of.  Surprisingly, he did find a signal.  He had a few messages, but the most important was one from my mom.  She said to please call her immediately. 

As if by magic, Jim now had complete coverage and was able to call my mom.  That’s when he heard the news of my brother, Richie, passing away.  To this day I think it’s the hardest thing he has ever had to tell anyone. 

Richard James Cox

December 29, 1969 – October 7, 2003

I miss Richie…  I really do.

Our apple treats

When we got home my mom and I made an apple pie.  It was delicious.

Here’s your sign…

Of course, we HAD to take a picture of this sign on our way out.

More fun things…

Here are some more fun things that we got to do while at Hillcrest Orchards.

He got to play on a really old rusty tractor…

Race a John Deere tricycle…

Ride a pony…

 

Watch pig races…

And ride a zip line…

It was a great day.  He fell asleep within minutes of being in the car.