12 weeks pregnant!

Yes that's right folks. I am pregnant again! I saw the doctor today and got an ultrasound so it is official :) It was a total surprise and "mistake" but we are so excited. Randall and I are both really excited and looking forward to having this child added to our family! Here's an ultrasound picture from today:
It's a bad picture but it's all I got. The ultrasound was much better. You could see the cute little feet all curled up like a frog and it still looked alien in the head, but it was definitely a little baby! I am 12 weeks today. I think I've gained somewhere around 2 pounds. I have been feeling pretty good. I'm really exhausted and I'm hoping that gets better soon since I'm in the end of the 1st trimester!

today!

I put a picture and video up on Facebook, but I'm not sure how to get them to here yet. But I just had to document that today Ender pulled himself up to stand by himself! I was cleaning up his room and he was in his crib playing and he's been pulling up on his knees for a couple days, and today he put his one foot right and I said Oh boy you are gonna be standing soon. Well as soon as I said that, like to prove me, he pulled himself up to stand!!!! My big boy is getting so much bigger. That boy is gonna walk soon, and let me tell you he is already giving us a run for our money! He is all over the place and into everything.

Ender is 10 months old!

Ender man is 10 months old! I can't believe how fast time is flying by for our little guy. He is so special and brings a smile to all our faces. Ender has learned a couple new tricks this month. He can now sit up all by himself. He gets up on his knees and pushes himself to the side. It's really cute! He also has officially learned to crawl. He can crawl on his hands and knees but he does not go that fast. So he often resorts to army crawling to get around. It's really funny to watch. But even this week he has gotten sooo fast at it. I have had to put a chair in front of our down stairs to keep him from going down, but he is now pushing that chair out of the way. So, we are gonna have to put gates up.
Other than that nothing has really changed this month. Ender still goes to bed at 8 and wakes up around 8. He has 4 bottles a day. Sometimes he drinks it all sometimes I'm lucky if I get 3 ounces in him. His other two front teeth have popped through. So he now has 5 teeth! He will eat anything you put on his plate unless it's green. If I put green beans or peas on his plate he literally picks them up and puts them overboard. I think we are going to have to start a little bit of discipline to teach no. I always hate that. But it worked great with Julietta so I am hoping that it does the same here!
Ender still does not like watching baby einstein. He could care less. But he LOVES watching anything that has cars on it. We walk in a parking lot and he just starts laughing when a car goes by. He'll watch Nascar with Randy like there is no tomorrow! It's really cute. The only show that Julietta watches that he loves is Mickey Mouse. He loves it. I think we'll do a Mickey birthday for him!

~Went to wake Ender up today and he was already sitting up playing just not making any noise :)

Parents and Children

I got to do a lot of thinking this week about being a parent and disciplining. We are at a stage with Julietta that is a little hard. She is so understanding that 99% of the time it's so easy to reason with her. My church is very into the Love and Logic parenting and I have come to agree with a lot. They are so much more forgiving and loving than I feel that the Ezzo's are with their older books. The whole premise is giving your children choices that you are ok with but it teaches them to make the right choices and it also validates them as a person very early on. For instance you give them the choice of what they want to drink :milk or juice. You are fine with either but they get to pick. Same as letting them pick their clothes. In my case Julietta always wears dresses but I feel that it is okay because that is really fine with me and in the long run so what if she doesn't wear some of these cute outfits I have for her. But every now and then the choice doesn't work with Julietta. Most often if it comes down to it and I tell her you can choose to obey or you can use to get a discipline she will choose to obey. But there's that one chance that she just holds her ground. Food has become a topic that is hard as well. If it looks funny or not something that she always eats she chooses not to eat even if she's hungry. The problem is most often she will eat snacks somehow inbetween. I have found a book that I am going to go buy that is about the responsibility of the parent and about creating good eating habits for your child. So I am hoping that we can take care of that problem and also establish my part before it affects Ender and so on. I am looking forward to reading this becuase I don't want to have to bribe to eat, and I don't want to discipline over food either. But I'm off on a bunny trail. I feel that we are coming to a point in her life that spanking should be on the way out. I feel that she understands enough that physical discipline should stop soon. It should be only used for very strong boughts of rebellion and straight up defiance. I also think it should be a last resort. She should (and all our other kids) be given the choice to change her actions before that severe of a discipline. Saying that I know that there are still situations that will call for immediate discipline if her safetly is at risk that that will still be a spanking for a while I'm sure.
I know that there are a lot of Christians who believe that spanking is the only and the right way. I do not beleive that this is what Christ is speaking about when he talks about not sparing the rod. I believe that it is done in love and it is more about discipline and guiding of your children than of actual physical punishment. It has been documented and studied that physical discipline can and will cause agression and possible violent actions later in life. Also a child gets to the point where they can break and they will begin to resent you instead of actually learning out of love that what they are doing is wrong. So, all this to say is I'm not against spanking as a whole but I think some parents can take it to an extreme. I also think that there is a age to cut it out and use other forms of discipline. I think my last spanking was around 5 or 6. I have no resentment or embarassment about my disciplines in that area. I also think that sometimes parents can take it to the extreme and it can fastly become a form of abuse. A child should never NEVER be spanked or hit anywhere other than their butt. It should always be done in love as well. If a parent is angry and they hit they are twice as more likely to hit harder than they would if they weren't angry.
Anyway, it just breaks my heart to hear about children who learn to live in fear of the punishment and never learn to obey and respect out of love. A home should be a place where a child feels like they can mess up and know that their parents love them and will help them through their difficult times, not a place where they are so scared to mess up because they will be punished so severely.Should a child ever become afriad of the parents hand? I think not. Is this unconditional love? Aren't we as parents supposed to emulate Christ to our children? Do we fear Christ because we are scared of what He'll do to us, or do we fear Him because we respect Him so much and we know we are so loved and what He has done for us?
I know this is a hot topic but just thinking about it this week I just wanted to put it in writing that I never EVER want my children to fear Randall's or mine hand. They should never be afriad to mess up in front of us because of what will come to them. They should know that when we discipline it is because we love them and because sometimes we all have to get put back on the straight path. Discipline is to teach and train our children in the way of the Lord, it is not to make them become who we want them to be and to "beat" the bad out of them.
It literally hurts my heart and makes me want to cry thinking about children who do not live with love but live in fear.

Air and Space Museum

Well we went to the air and space museum to check it out while Sarah and Josh were here. IT was really awesome so Randy treated us to a year membership. We have already enjoyed it so much! It's really cool, but it also gets us into other museums around the US and a lot in Raleigh too, which is awesome! Here's some fun pics from there!

Ender is 9 months.

Well Ender is 9 months old! He is a ball of energy and fun. We love that little boy so much. He has lite up this house so much! He smiles and gets so excited whenever he sees any of us. He loves loves LOVES his daddy! When Randy comes home and Ender sees him he just starts to do this shaking thing on his tummy and starts to laugh. He does this crazy laugh to get attention that's more like coughing but it's so funny! He also got another tooth this month. He got his upper right sharp one! Rather funny since he didn't get his front two teeth. He's my little vampire!
Ender and Julietta get along great still. They love to play together and Julietta loves to make Ender laugh.
Another great couple accomplishment is that he learned to finally sit on his own! He still falls over some and since we have hardwood we still put pillows up around him, but he's doing it! He also got onto his hands and knees. He will do it for about 5 seconds and then he falls when he tries to go anywhere. But I don't think it will be long until he is crawling!

8 months old!

Ender manes is 8 months old! I can't believe it. Some exciting things happened this month like Ender getting his bottom 2 teeth! Some sad things happened such as he completely weaned himself. I am trying not to focus on it and trying to remain happy that I made it to 8 months. :/

Ender has gained a little bit more weight. I took him to the doctor yesterday. He was 17.2 pounds. He was in the 28th percentile for weight. He is 28.5 inches long, which is the 80th percentile for height. So... he is tall and lean. I am hoping the tall and lean stays with him the rest of his life. I am hoping that my children do not have to struggle with weight like I do. I am also hoping that the height thing keeps up, and that he's not short like I am. Other than that Ender is doing great. He is still not sitting up by himself. Dr Mack was a little worried about that, and put it down in his chart as being delayed but then tried to sit him and put a toy in front of him and Ender totally sat there to reach the toy, so then Dr Mack said well he can do it he just doesn't want to. And I said yeah that's about it! So he said it wasn't developmental and that he was fine. After going back and forth I did deciede to go ahead and keep Ender on his shot schedule, so he got them yesterday. He was quite cranky, and today his little chunky thighs are still sore!

Other than that, Ender hasn't changed much. He rolls all over the place and is trying to crawl. He will move all over the floor to reach anything, especially shoes. He LOVES shoes! He still chews on everything. Our schedule is bedtime around 8-8:30, and Ender generally wakes up around 8ish. He takes 2 naps and sometimes a cat nap at night. It is wonderful to finally be in a schedule. Julietta takes "rest" time during his naptime in the afternoon. Her rest time is a movie in our bed, but it is nice because I at least get an hour to myself!