Long Over Due Update!

Where to begin? Its been a busy year for us this year. To start, I will share a pregnancy update. Currently I am 37 1/2 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. So now our family will be even, two and two. After, the rough first trimester, things have gone fairly smoothly. The baby is currently not head down so a c-section has been scheduled. I will be honest, I was rather disappointed initially about the possibility of a c-section, especially since I haven't had one previously. I am no longer disappointed but am slightly nervous as it is a whole new experience for me. As far as having things prepared for this baby, I have been procrastinating more than I ever have. I have a rather lengthily check list to work on before his arrival in a week and a half. Fortunately, my mom is flying in tomorrow to help out. Besides the pregnancy, I have returned to school and have started work on a master's program. I have completed the first three classes and will be taking a break for the birth and recovery of the baby. Now on to the rest of the family.

Hubby began his second year at seminary at the beginning of September. It has gone by rather quickly so far. The big news for hubby is that he was recently sworn into the Air Force as a Chaplin Candidate as a 2nd Lt. His plans are to join the reserves after graduation. He will be gone for most of the summer as he will be training. He has also been busy with basketball practice.

The girls have had a busy start to the "school year" as well. They both are attending karate class at the YMCA as well as religious education class at the local parish we attend. I thought life was busy with three young ones but now with various activities it has gotten much more busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Pic Pic and I started school in mid August this year as to give us a head start before the baby's arrival. This year we went with My Father's World curriculum. So far, we have both have enjoyed it. We have taken a break since coming into to my last month of pregnancy and with that break we have noticed how much more she is working on reading. She tries to read everything she sees. It is such a wonderful thing to witness. Dan Dan is finally completely potty trained. It was such a different experience with her than with Pic Pic. Dan Dan defiantly had to make the decision on her own that she was ready regardless of any encouragement from Mommy and Daddy. One day she pretty much decided that she was done wearing pull ups and that she was going to go potty on the toilet. It is such a relief that we are done with her potty training. She is also doing some "school work". When she joins us with school she works on hand writing and letter recognition as well as gross motor skills (mainly lacing and cutting activities). Right now she uses some of Pic Pic's old preschool workbooks that have uncompleted sheets. I plan on purchasing Christian Liberty Press Preschool Workbook for her. We used it for Pic Pic and she enjoyed it.

Ice Man is defiantly in the two year old little boy stage where he is all over the place. He is still on the small side but has grown tremendously. His vocabulary is expanding, with everyone of the kids it is such an amazing experience to see them state new words or expressions. He has transitioned to a big boy bed and is out of the crib. We initially thought that we would wait until after the baby was born to work on transitioning him as the baby will be in our room for sometime. However, once he saw a big boy bed in his room he was ready for the change. Although, most nights he sneaks into our bed. We have begun potty training him. Our potty training techniques have been to sit them on the potty first thing in the morning and then before bath time to get them use to the potty. Then when we notice that they are "taking care of business" we place them on the potty. This worked with Pic Pic and by the time she was two and a couple of months she was going number two on the potty. However with Dan Dan, this did not work. She had to do it on her own terms. Ice Man, however is doing well with this method. He doesn't tell us when he is going but we keep an eye out for it and he goes willingly when we notice it. Yesterday we purchased his first set of pull ups.

So that sums up our life in a nutshell. My hope is to blog more to have a family record or journal of sorts to document our life. I also want to utilize the blog to help with motivation to work on various tasks pertaining to family and home life.