A Potty Post:
So these are moments in (Levi's) potty training history. Today has been a good PT day. He has been dry all morning minus one accident (#2 is still an issue). And I think I can safely say that he is physically capable of being potty trained. Here is why...

It had been a while since he had gone potty this morning so I asked him to try again. We are in full potty mode so him saying no doesn't fly around here. So when he said no, I threatened him with punishment. (I am not expecting him to pee every time, but I want him to obey me and sit on the potty when he is asked). He then proceeded to sit down like he was asked...30 seconds later, he jumped up and said, "I did it!" I was overjoyed because not only did he pee in the potty, but my intuition was right. I did the usual and made a big deal out of it and took it to the toilet. Then I placed the potty back down and grabbed Rachel to feed her. He then sat right back down on the potty and peed again. Yeah!!! I was surprised that he peed twice in the matter of 3 minutes. I then cleaned up the pee (still feeding mind you) and sat the potty back down, and guess what??? yep you guessed it, he did it AGAIN...and then AGAIN. So, in the matter of about 6 minutes he peed four times! All of them he waited until his potty was back in its spot before peeing. This is the first time he has actually done this type of thing. I know he enjoys the praise, but that seemed to take real muscle control to pee so many times in a row. My goal is to have him #1 PT at home by the end of the year...does that seem lofty?

It's True, He's Two

Well the big day has come and gone. Levi is officially two years old! I can hardly believe it. We tried to make his day as special as possible. However, we celebrated as a family the day after because that is when Matt could go and do stuff with us. We started the morning off by going to breakfast. Then we headed to Grandma Judy's to drop Rachel off. From there, we headed to Monkey Joe's. If you haven't been there yet and you have a toddler or older child, GO! it was so much fun. I am not sure who had more fun, him or us. We were able to go with him on everything because he is under the age of 5. Here are some pics




And of course, we have to include a video:

Then we ended our "Levi time" with a trip to CC's pizza...yum! Then we took him home and he gladly went down for a nap. Our extended families got together the following Saturday for a little birthday party. We had a great time and Levi LOVED his presents.




I also have some funny stories to share. As Levi gets older, these are happening more and more. I am going to try to put them up on the blog right after they happen so that I don't forget them...that seems to be a real issue with me :(

FUNNY STORY MOMENT:

One of the many things Levi is constantly getting in trouble for is getting on the computer. Well, the other day I saw him climbing on the chair to play with the computer and I said, "Levi, get down from there." To which he replied, "Mom, I'm busy, I workin." oooh the joys of a toddler.

The other day we were driving in the car to Grandma Judy's house and Rachel started crying. He looks over at her and says, "Rachel...enough." hmmm wonder where he heard that???


The last of my post has to do with pictures. We went to JCPenny's to have portraits of the two of them. I was really happy with the turn out.

Probably my last post before Levi turns 2!

The dynamic duo

We are just zooming along it seems. Halloween is gone and Levi's birthday is in less than two weeks away. Then we will blink and and it will be Thanksgiving. I am really enjoying this time I have with my kids, but sometimes it feels like it is going too fast. Thankfully, I have my camera and this blog to help me put a bookmark in time so that I can go back to it anytime I need to :)

Here we are at Zoo Boo...
(Rachel is asleep in the stroller next to me).

Do you like my rally cap?

We had our first official trick or treating with Levi. (We decided not to go out with him last year). He dressed as a monkey (very fitting if you ask me). I am proud to say that he was very polite at each house...as a matter of fact, when we got to the first house I said, "What do you say?" and Levi looked at the woman and said, "Pwease"...I was expecting "tricky treat" I was secretly glad to know that that is what he thought he should say.

They will enjoy this picture when they are older.

She is the cat's meow :)

A monkey on the inside and the outside.

So to backtrack, in the month of October, we have been tackling the art of potty training. I hate it to be honest. I want to pull my hair out! HOWEVER, I am sticking with it. I have revamped my approach and started with little victories. We are going with pull-ups until he gets the idea of it and then we will transition to the cloth version of pull-ups. Then onto big boy underwear...To all of you that have your opinions on this tactic...remember, I have a newborn and I have to do what I can with her here too. We are trying to be realistic about where we are in life right now. I will keep you posted on our progress. At this time, he is going to the potty successfully when he gets up in the morning and when he gets up from his nap. He is still too busy to stop what he's doing and go to the potty...it is just going to take time. I am willing to take baby steps. This process is teaching me a lot. I am trying to embrace this challenge as it shows me some of my weaknesses. God is molding me even in this! **UPDATE** I wrote this last night, but today I was adding my pictures and getting ready to post when Levi decided to pull his own pull-ups down and go to the potty ALL BY HIMSELF!!! I was SO EXCITED!! Now I know that he is starting to get the connection between the feeling and the pee pee. It was just what I needed today, Thanks God :)

Here is how we passed the time the first weekend we introduced potty training.

Rachel is 1 month old!

I know time is already flying by! Here is her one-month picture. I also put up Levi's one-month picture to have a side-by-side comparison of the two in order to answer the question: "Does Rachel look like Levi at one month?" My answer to that would be not really. They look like siblings, but not as much as I thought they did at first...


Now here is Levi's...

Maybe it is just me, but I see lots of little differences...

So, I needed to post some more pictures of things that have happened the last couple of weeks.

Now that Levi and his friend Grant are both big brothers, they wanted to show off their big-brother-baby-holding skills.

One day Levi got a hold of my mascara and just as I looked over at him he was holding the wand up to his eye and blinking on it. Thankfully, I got it away from him before he did any damage to himself or my furniture...however he did manage to get some on his face and his eye lashes.

I had wiped the mascara off his face but decided it wasn't worth it to try to clean his lashes so I left that to come out on its own...The best part of this story is when later that evening Levi got into trouble and started to cry...in the middle of my lecture I noticed the tears had made is mascara run down his face! I had to stop my lecture and turn away because I was laughing so hard.

Another fun adventure we had this month was a trip to Stony Creek Farm. They have a pumpkin patch and you get to take a hayride to the patch and pick out a pumpkin.

At first he looks overwhelmed by all the pumpkins.


Then he tries to go for the big ones...too heavy for any of us to carry.

Then he began narrowing it down...


And finally, the perfect pumpkin!
"Mommy can I keep it?"
We plan to decorate it tomorrow.

Life with two...

So I have spent the better part of Levi’s nap today going back over the earliest posts of this blog. It was fun to see his baby pictures and reread the stories of his first few months. It is also interesting to compare how I feel as a new mom of two versus how I felt as a new mom altogether. I had a lot of redefining to do as a person the first time around. This time, I was already a mother; I just have to figure out how to balance myself between the needs of a newborn and the needs of a toddler. The toddler part is relatively new…the newborn part is not. So Levi will forever be my “new territory” child. Although, I have the added blessing of experiencing both genders in each stage in life, I am sure I will learn a lot when Levi goes through that stage first.

So the question of the hour seems to be:

How is it being a mommy of two?

My standard reply is that it is great! I love having more than one child. My in-depth answer is that daily I am coming to my new normal as a mom with more than one child. It takes time for the dust to settle, but after the first few months I can see that you start to resemble the masses that also have more than one child. These first couple of months are the hardest but I have a vision that makes me want more children…and this is just me so don’t feel I am judging anyone who wants only 1 or 2 kids…you do what works for you, but when I see my later years I see at least 3 adult children coming home and filling my house with noise, happiness, and love. I am willing to work hard to care for my children now in order to enjoy them (now and) later.Yesterday, we were at Matthew’s mom and dad’s house, and Judy (his mom) had 5 of her sisters in town for the weekend. Now, I don’t think I have the heart for that many children (there are 14 of them all together), but I was just thinking how great it would be to still be getting together after all these years. I mean there were probably many years where kids and other life obligations kept them from seeing each other as often as they would have liked, but they are truly close in a way that I hope my kids are one day.

So, on to life with Levi and Rachel. Well, Levi is adjusting wonderfully to Rachel. He asks to hold her multiple times a day...this comes with its own challenges. I have to constantly be watching him if she is where he can reach her. He is always poking and kissing and pulling on her. He loves her a little too much these days. I am sure that will wear off, but I just like that he seems to like having her around. He is also doing well with learning his colors and the alphabet. He knows the song, but we have been working on letter recognition. That has actually been a lot of fun. He is learning so fast these days!! I can hardly keep up with all of it, but I love teaching him new things.
Rachel is starting to come into her own schedule of sorts. Her eating is about every three hours and she is starting to sleep in her crib for part of the night. I don't rush these things I just let them happen at their own pace. She is wonderful and everything I had hoped for. I look forward to the coming months when she begins to show her little personality more and more.

In case you were wondering...

Here is how the labor went. I started contractions at about 8am. I was downstairs having some quiet time. I did my devotions and checked my facebook. Then I started to write Rachel a letter. I did this with Levi too. I write them a letter about how the pregnancy went and just what I hope for them. As I was writing the letter (around 9am), I began timing my contractions. They were consistent, but not real close together. I called Matthew around 10am to check on his lunch plans and let him know that I was having contractions. He said he was working until almost 12 and then going to lunch with his brother. At 11 I called him back to let him know that I was in labor and that he needed to come home as soon as he could and that he woudn't be going back to the office that day. He got home around 11:30 and Levi got picked up by Grandma Judy around 12. The midwife arrived around 1pm and when she checked me at that point, I was dialated 6 and 80% effaced. Things were moving fast. I labored downstairs until it was time to deliver. At around 2 o'clock I went upstairs to prepare to deliver my daughter. It was a harder delivery than Levi's, but all in all, it was not too bad. She was born at 2:48. I spent the rest of the night in the bedroom either nursing her, or visiting with family. It was wonderful, she is wonderful, and I feel so blessed to have two safe deliveries. God is so good!

She's here she's here she's here!

This is probably not news to anyone at this point thanks to text messages, email, facebook, and the good old fashion telephone, but I still needed to make a quick post announcing the birth of our daughter and Levi's little sister, RACHEL MILENA FERRIS!

She was born at home on September 14th at 2:48pm. She weighed in at 8lb 9oz and is 22 inches long...I know bigger than I thought she would be too :)

Here are some pictures. More to come :)

The big day is approaching...

Even though Saturday is my actual due date, I am in the "any day now" zone. I could go tomorrow, I could go a week from tomorrow...God only knows :)

I am dealing with the wait better than expected at this point. Humor and God have helped me to be content with where I am. I am definitely ready to be a mommy of two instead of a prego with a toddler, but I am happy to wait for the day to come on it's own.

We have been working like mad men to finish up the projects around the house. Due to the hail storm in June, we have gotten a new roof and siding...which included paint and gutters. The entire project was officially finished today. We went from a gray house with aluminum siding and a black roof, to an olive green house with khaki trim and a brown roof. We love the new colors and were thankful that we didn't have to paint it. (If you would have seen our house a month ago, you would have noticed how badly the trim needed painted.)

Moving to the inside, we have finished both kid's rooms this summer and also Matt worked diligently to close up the loft. He is not completely finished, but he is at a stopping point until the baby comes. The next step would require mudding and sanding...which is a bad idea with a newborn to arrive anytime...plus the fully pregnant wife can't handle the mess it makes :) We will pick back up in the spring but the pictures show that he really made some great progress, and I am so proud of him!!

On to Levi...what can I say about my ever-changing boy. He is always saying something new, trying a new physical skill, or amazing me with his ability to entertain himself and be in a pretend atmosphere. He has started a Mom's day out program on Fridays. He did really well at the first one and I think it will be a great thing for him throughout the next 8 months as we adjust to a 4 person family. We have been trying to do a few more fun things with him these last few weeks since life is about to change drastically for him. We went to the pool this past weekend and he started jumping in the pool without being caught. (He wears a suit with floaties in the chest and back area.) He would go completely under and then pop back up. I couldn't believe that he actually wanted to do that! He did it again and again. Each time he would pop back up without gasping or spitting...somehow he knows how to not let water up his nose!?? We have been hitting the park and playing in the backyard more than usual...it is doing us both some good. We have been trying to get the skill of coloring without eating the crayons down in the last week, and I think we are making progress. He is asking to color now and I have only seen him eat one crayon in the last couple of days (seeing him is the tricky part...there may have been more casualties...who knows). That brings me to a cute story: Today I opened the fridge after he had colored and moved on to something else, only to find two crayons in the fridge...granny smith green and plum...I enjoyed the irony of that :)

Well enough blabbing for now, on to the pictures:

The House Before...



The House After...

They even painted our mini barn :)

Now the new "loft" which is now a 4th bedroom. The outside is done, but the inside needs mud and sand on a few walls and paint on all of the walls.

Now the promised pictures of Baby Girl's room. I was able to decorate for less than $70. The entire bedding set came from ebay!

Now an update from Levi's head injury: He healed in record time and we have some photos to remember it by:

Now you can hardly tell it happened. The hair will grow over it nicely.

Here is his first day of Mom's Day Out program

Four Weeks AWAY from a big change in our family...

Well, here I am at 36 weeks prego and we are trying to pack a lot of fun into the weeks ahead. We have also been packing in the projects at home. Recently Levi has developed a love for climbing and jumping and other dare-devil activities...this has prompted us to close in our loft. It will remain a play room, but it will be closed in like a bedroom.

(The loft did have rails before this picture.)

I will post pictures of the finished product when I have a finished product, but just so you know, the walls were put up the same day the rails came down :)

The project that I talked about in my last post has been completed for a while now, but my ability to update the blog was hindered by a password glitch. So, here are the pictures of Levi's big-boy room!

It's pretty basic, but I thought with this general theme, we could hold on to it and add to it for several years before he outgrows it. I still need to hang pictures but otherwise it is finished.

I know the chair looks weird, but it was just sitting around the house so we use it to read stories to him at night before he goes to bed and it is nice to have something to sit on when we are in his room. The recliner that we used to use is now in his sister's room waiting to be used again. I will post pictures of her room soon, but I forgot to take any before it got cluttered with the toys from the loft.


We have also been filling our time with going to the Fishers' Concert Series each Tuesday in June and July. Well, I should say Matthew and Levi have gone to almost all of them. I only made it to the last one because I work on Tuesday nights. However, the time I got to go was a lot of fun. I got to see Levi get down and boogie...

So, all of those activities were actually in July...with that being said, what have we done in August??? Not a whole lot unfortunately. We have been busy, but not with the fun things. We have gone to the pool lots of times, and we have tried to do some things as a family, but this weekend and the next couple of weeks should be a blast! We went to the zoo as a family yesterday and Levi really enjoyed the animals this time. He has only been one other time, but he has learned a lot more about animals since his last visit.

We went to the dolphin show...


He sat in silence the entire show and just stared at the dolphins. We had a good time.

Then we saw all kinds of animals. He was able to identify a lot of the basic animals by just looking at them...those books are starting to pay off :)
Here he is in front of the "elesants" as he calls them.



It was a hot day and he was exhausted by the end of the 2.5 hours that were spent at the zoo. But our fun didn't end there. Later that evening we headed up to my cousin's house in Marion. We had a cookout and all the kids were playing and having a great time. Levi was the youngest by at least two years, but the other kids did a great job of including him. They even let him jump on the beds with them...which is where my story takes a nose dive...Levi couldn't hold his own and before I knew it the kids were coming out of the bedroom saying that the baby was bleeding. I, of course, turn on my super speed and am at his side in milliseconds. He comes out of the bedroom under his own power, but he is crying. I don't see much at first, except a little blood on his hand. He points to his head and that is when I see it...he has a gash on the crown of his head. For those of you who don't know, head wounds bleed profusely! I knew this but momentarily forgot. I see the back of his neck drenched and it is running down his shirt. I pick him up and immediately take him to Matthew in the dinning room. He takes him from me and rushes him to the sink to start washing away the blood. For a minute or two I just look at my hands covered in blood and sit and watch him be practically dunked under the running water in order to clean the blood. They clean it up enough to start compressing it. This is where I pull it together and decide to help. He is asking for me so I take him in my arms and hold the towel on the back of his head. He then stops crying and looks at me and says, "I poud uh you".
This is what we say to him when he is being brave. So I just smile and say to him, "Buddy, I am so proud of YOU. You are being so brave." He then continues to tell me that he wants to go play. He wants to go jump. I tell him that's really not a good idea right now.

So in the matter of 5 minutes he goes from crying and gushing blood, to asking if he can go play again...kids are so resilient. The update to this story is that the gash was significant, but stitches were not necessary. We have cleaned the wound and he has a bald spot where Matthew had to shave him a little to help the wound close. The bad part is that he has to wrap his head well so that Levi can't pull the bandage off. Thus, it looks worse than it is. Here is the only picture I have of the head dressing.


Sorry about the picture...I have tried rotating it and it still appears like this when I upload...not on my desktop though...go figure. Anyway, until next time :)