Thought

We are attending the Marriage and Family relations course in our ward during Sunday School. It is wonderful. The instructor pretty much shows quotes and we discuss them. There is really no 'teaching.' Here is my favorite quote from today. I am not making a statement to men, it is simply a reminder to us Mommies who at times feel our tasks our menial and/or our needs should always come second.

“It was not meant that the woman alone accommodate herself to the priesthood duties of her husband or her sons. She is of course to sustain and support and encourage them.

“Holders of the priesthood, in turn, must accommodate themselves to the needs and responsibilities of the wife and mother. Her physical and emotional and intellectual and cultural well-being and her spiritual development must stand first among [their] priesthood duties.

“There is no task, however menial, connected with the care of babies, the nurturing of children, or with the maintenance of the home that is not [a husband’s] equal obligation” (“A Tribute to Women,” Ensign, July 1989, 75).

Pat Myself on the Back

Look what I did! I cut all of this stuff back and clear out some old plants. Our agreement when we moved in is that he would take care of the lawns and I would take car of the beds. I have seriously slacked on my duties for good reason. It's not that he won't take care of them, he just has no idea how. I figured I am feeling pretty good and it's not going to last so I might as well get it done in one day. Aaron came back out and cut everything down and got it all into barrels. After all of this, some housework, rearranging our closet, and making dinner I was seriously immobile. I could hardly make it to bed. I totally overdid it but it felt good at the same time, I can almost stand to look out my windows!

Cutest Buns On The Block

After a few days in a row of being willing to sit on the potty and actually going, I was really hoping for progress. Thursday she decided on her own to go sit on the potty, I jumped all over the chance. We packed up all the diapers and bid farewell. Noelle was really sad to see them go and really cried some bitter tears. But, I am ECSTATIC to say that it has gone amazingly well. I have been cautious about announcing the big news for fear of jinxing it but I really think we're good to go!

Check....one more thing done before baby Madeleine comes!

Conversation

Noelle: Wanna watch Strawberry Shortcake?

Mommy: Let's go potty first.

Noelle: I'm gonna go wash my boogers then.

Mommy: Alright.

Where the heck do they come up with this stuff?

A Week In Review

We were at Auntie's house last week and after Noelle had been playing outside she was awfully dirty. She asked Unc for a bath and I guess he could not resist. Normally I take jammies when we are there in the evening but I did not have any with me. So, Auntie took an old shirt and after some magic with her scissors and sewing machine. Voila! We have a night gown!

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Noelle's first real hair cut. She needed it so bad but I could not decide what I really wanted. Aunt Lorrie finally convinced me to just do it, so we did! It really was a good experience all around and she looks cute!

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I just know when Noelle is going to wake up early, I always wake up. So, at five this morning I was mostly awake. Around six I hear her door and then she is saying, "Mommy, sleep with you!" Which to my utter amazement, she did. She snuggled in right next to me and fell asleep. Soon she took over my pillow and pushed me right over the edge so I got up. Noelle and her Daddy look EXACTLY the same when they are sleeping. It freaks me out!

Daddy Doing Laundry

Yes, Aaron was putting a load of his own clothes in the machine last night. He is very unaccustomed with doing chores in general, let alone with a toddler underfoot. Just like another munchkin she is constantly grabbing the clothes, messing with the soap, trying to fill the Downy ball, etc. Our laundry room is little so it can be annoying. Since I am such a tender and loving Mother I just tell Noelle to scram and leave me alone while I take care of business. Last night she was, of course, being her helpful self. This is what Aaron says....

First of all be squats down and gets her to make eye contact with her grabs hold of both her shoulders and the speech begins, "Noelle you are growing up too fast and trying to do too much! You are still a baby and too little to be touching soap and softener. Only Mommy and Daddy can touch these things. You have to be a little bit bigger to do that, OK? You will grow and get bigger and be able to help later but right now you are too little. Do you understand Daddy?"

She looked him right in the eyes and said, "Yes, Daddy I understand and I will no longer touch the soap and softener. Thank you for teaching me. " Ha. Ha.

As much as I would like there to be....there is really no potty training going on in our house to speak of. She just wants control so I am biding my time. She wants to sit on it sometimes...at least she is picking up some good habits along the way like reading!

Doctor's Appointments

I have been to many of them in the last 4 days....

• Dr Tabsh (MFM) for level 2 ultrasound....baby looks great!!!! Back in 4 weeks.
• Dr Mach (Endo) for blood work and exam. My T3 levels still high, T4 within the high normal range (yea!), TSH still low but can take up to 6 months to regulate. Because of T3 I still need to stay on high dose of PTU but weaned off of labetalol. Goiter is noticeably softer (really great!) Talked about post delivery options....which aren't many because I will breastfeed. Focus on getting control now so that I can take as little PTU as possible to not interfere with said breastfeeding. Labs showed my bones are still turning over at a high rate, should work itself out. Answers why I am still have so many muscle cramps even though I am taking extra calcium...take more. Follow up blood work in 4 weeks, see doctor in 6 weeks.
• Dr Cooper (OB) all is great. I will go back on my own for the glucose test because Noelle was bouncing off the walls and there was no way I was going to hang out for another hour. I am going back by myself with a book! Agreed to see me in 3 weeks rather than 2 because I am being doctored to death!

Memory

This Baby Girl...

Two days went by and little baby was very quiet, not moving very much. The third day I had not felt her move at all. This is a huge contrast to her constant movement. I called Copper's office just to ease my mind. The nurse told me to drink some sugar water and do kick counts. 60 minutes later, zero movement. I should have felt 6-10 movements. I called back and the nurse sounded really worried and told me to go to the nearest hospital. Seriously??!! I really KNEW everything was just fine but it still was worrisome. She must be like her Daddy...a marathon napper.

I go to Simi Valley hospital, which was amazing, by the way. I knew their terrible reputation but the intake nurse pretty much jumped (leaving some guy with a hurt foot) to wheel me upstairs. The new building is just gorgeous and the nurses were fantastic. All is well, as soon as the monitor was strapped on my belly she started having a dance party. Such a stinker.

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This brings me to the name dilemma we are facing. From the moment I knew I was pregnant I knew baby's name would be Madeleine but I could not come up with a middle name. It's not an easy name to match something with. I decided on M'Liss which is my sweet Mama's name. It's the only thing that sounded right. (Notice I am saying I and not we, Aaron has not had a lot of input thus far.) But my darling light of my life niece Evynn's middle name is M'Liss and I did not want to stir anything up family wise or take something away from her.

Our little friend Amanda REALLY wants us to name the baby Joy so that both girls have holiday names, which I would have liked. Joy was a no go but Aunt Lorrie pointed out that Madeleine Joy is really pretty. I do like it! Importantly, so does her Daddy, he was not hip on M'Liss for whatever reason but did not have any input so I told him too bad. Now I am conflicted even more. I also wanted our kids to have family middle names....no one in our family remotely has a name sounding like Joy. It's not a name I ever particularly liked but neither is Noelle.

So......Madeleine Joy Jones???