Things have been a bit busy in the T house since Jack's birthday. A few days before Thanksgiving, two big things happened:
(1) Thomas started walking.
He was just a few days shy of 10 months old, which is right around when his brothers started too. (This is fun when the first baby does it, but much more difficult when subsequent babies do as there are more little folks running in opposite directions to chase around.) This has been uniquely challenging with Thomas, also, because he is very very tall. Tall enough to reach items on the kitchen counter already, yet young enough not to understand danger or consequences. It's forced me to have to rethink what items I can just leave on the counter to go help someone with the potty, for example. Thank God he's never been hurt by anything, but I've seen his little fingers just about ready to grab some of my sharpest knives and it's very frightening.
(2) We found out we're expecting again.
This came as a complete and utter shock, as we were definitely not trying and instead working to give ourselves a little more time to decide when we might be ready to have another. Apparently, God made that decision for us and while it took a few days to sink in, we were both happy about the prospect of adding a new little somebody to our family.
We visited family for Thanksgiving and even got a little snow that day. It was such a nice holiday.
Christmastime had me really feeling nauseous and tired. Exhausted, actually, and really nauseous too, I guess, since we all got a stomach virus the week before Christmas. It just picked us off one by one, starting with Thomas, and ending with me. I'm pretty sure I spent all day Christmas eve in bed with a trash can. Not exactly a holiday to remember, but the boys got to play with their new toys all day, which they loved, and I just tried to get myself to keep down a few sips of apple juice. It was weird to wish I was only feeling the pregnancy nausea and not the virus nausea, but I was praying for that several times a day.
A few days after Christmas, I had my first ultrasound for this pregnancy because I was feeling a little bit bigger and the doctor thought perhaps my dates were off.
Wrong.
Here's what we saw.
I'm glad I had a little inkling (I knew I was feeling larger than usual, and I also knew that my dates were probably not wrong), otherwise I may have just rolled right off the ultrasound table. So, rather than adjusting to the idea of one new addition to our family, we're mentally preparing ourselves for TWO! And the idea of five children under the age of five. It's been scary and overwhelming and exhausting and daunting, but also exciting and amazing (and did I mention exhausting?) and leaving us feeling tremendously blessed. Five years ago, as blissful newlyweds, we could never have imagined that we'd have five children one day, and now, here we are. The doctor is pretty sure they're identical twins, and while we usually wait to find out the gender, we'll be finding out this time around. Our big ultrasound for that is on March 9.
January brought lots of snow
and Thomas's first birthday.
My, that year went quickly! He is the most happy, outgoing baby and it's hard to imagine life without him. He makes us laugh. He tells us knock knock jokes. (Really.) He keeps us on our toes. He says Mama, Dada, knock-knock, up, cracker, ba ba (bottle), ball, hi, and bye-bye. His smile is contagious. He's a dancing machine.
I also got to visit my sister in San Francisco in January and somehow managed not to take any pictures of our time together. We had a great time doing a few things for her wedding in March, walking around San Francisco, and playing Scrabble.
It's hard to believe it's the last day of February, and March and springtime are just around the corner. This year, I could not be more thankful. It's been a long winter cooped up in the house feeling tired and nauseous with three energetic little boys. We're all anxious to get outside and play!
Jack was so excited to pull the sled.
Here, we're in our back yard, as Jack heads over to the slide and PJ and I prepare to sit for a little while and watch him go down a few times.
Such a cutie pie, PJ is loving being outside with his big brother. Look at that face; he still has no idea.
He sits, sucking the snow off his toasty, covered hand while we watch Jack.
He starts wiggling to get out of the sled and I figure, what the heck? He can sit next to me here in the snow. But rather than sit, he was anxious to be on the move. The suit had no little gaps for the snow to get in, so I just let him go.
Yup. Here.
And then...here. I said the suit had no little gaps, but it did have one big gap right around the face. Yes, PJ, snow is cold!
What kind of mean Mommy not only lets that happen, but is hysterically laughing (not to mention snapping pictures) while it's happening?