Tuesday, January 8

Chillin' with Charlie

Right now at this very moment in time, both of my children and my husband are all at school. So I'm sitting here in my house. Alone. A lone woman. I don't even know what to do with myself. So far I have laid on the couch, peed with no interruptions, wandered aimlessly from room to room, eaten an oreo, looked at facebook, played solitaire, eaten another oreo, and finally, sat down at the computer to blog. Imagine it. Me! Blogging! What has this world come to?


I'd like to say that I'm going to use the alone time I now have every Tuesday and Thursday to update my blog and stay in touch with everyone a little better, but I know myself and that's not a promise I'm willing to make. But for right now, it is what I am choosing to do with my free time, and I'd like to think that I might start blogging once a week (until I have this baby, anyway). Here is blog post number one, and I hope it finds you all well! 

I shouldn't say I'm alone, necessarily, as I do have a little bitty snuggler keeping me company right under my right rib (seriously kid, get OUTTA THERE!). We call him Charlie, although that's not necessarily going to be his name. It's just his fetal name. A way to refer to him in some other way than "it", "him", "the baby", etc. I realize I haven't posted about Charlie at all. Which makes me a little sad because I posted about his brothers so much better. Allow me to rectify the situation (I don't know why, but the word rectify just made me giggle....). 

Charlie is an awesome kid. He is less part me and part Sam than he is half David and half Trevor. Physically, he looks like Trevor from the bridge of his nose up, and David from the tip of his nose down. At least his profile would suggest this. Personally he is very territorial like David was as a fetus, and very regimented like Trevor was. He also has his own little quirks. I've noticed that how my children behaved in embryo has very much been indicative of their little personalities as little boys. So here are the things I have noticed about Charlie. I'd like to have it documented somewhere so when he is older I can look back and laugh at how much he is still the same little baby that grew within my belly.

*As I stated before, he is extremely territorial. If something is touching my stomach, he WILL fight it. If my waistband is too tight (a common occurrence, unfortunately), he will kick at it with his ferocious ninja feet. It makes me laugh because it's never a hard "get outta my way" kick, it's hundreds of tiny little rapid almost playful kicks. He does the same thing with seatbelts over my lap, things resting on my stomach, belts that I might wear, or pretty much anything else that might be trying to invade his little home. He also gets really mad if I try to, even gently, move him from where he's resting in my tummy. If I nudge or push him in any way, he will kick and flail so hard until I give up. Which leads me to believe he might also be very stubborn.

*He loves to sit in this spot right under my right rib cage, but he does it in a way that makes me think he's going to break my ribs. It is so uncomfortable, borderline painful, that I'm constantly trying to shove him out of there. Which only results in much kicking and flailing. It may or may not be worth it.

*I also mentioned before that he is regimented like T was. Not as much, but slightly. Trevor was like an alarm clock. He would wake up every night at 10pm on the dot. It was so accurate you literally could have used him as a timer. Every night. 10 pm. Charlie's not as precise, but he does usually wake up around 10:20 every night, give or take a few minutes. When he wakes up, he does so with a flourish. It is very dramatic and quick, like he's being startled awake. It always makes me laugh. He thrashes around for a few minutes, and then just wriggles around merrily. Silly silly.

*He is by far the most active and forceful child I've carried. The doctor told me my uterus is measuring 4 weeks big, but Charlie's measuring right on schedule, so it has given him a much roomier surrounding than most babies have. He's just chillin' in his little tummy mansion. Basically (the way the Dr has described it), this has given him ample room to build up momentum. So instead of sweet little baby fluttery kicks and punches, he has some room to get some momentum going and is able to land blows with considerably larger impact. It's pretty funny actually. Sometimes it makes me yelp it's so startling.

*Funniest fetal moment (in keeping with the above "Charlie fact"): The other day in the shower, he kicked me so hard he knocked the wind out of me. Not even kidding. He was nestled in his favorite spot right under my right rib, and was kicking backwards a bit, so his kicks were landing toward the back of my ribs rather than the front. I gave him a little nudge, and being the territorial child he is, he gave me a swift hard kick right towards the back of my ribs. I gave out a loud "oooof", loud enough that Sam came in to see what was wrong. He found me on my hands and knees, coughing and sputtering in the bottom of the tub. It wasn't a big one, obviously, but he knocked my breath out good enough that I couldn't breathe for a good 3-5 seconds. I have never had that happen before. This baby is ca-razy! I laughed about it for weeks. I actually still laugh about it. I'm laughing right now just remembering. I can already tell this kid is going to be a character. Spunky and funny, just like his brothers!


Here are just a couple little things I want to remember about David and Trevor with their new little bro....

*David loves this baby so much more than I ever thought possible. He talks to him every day. Reads him books, sings him songs, tells him about his day at school. He always starts with "Hey, Charlie! It's me! Your brother, David!" He gives my belly kisses constantly. He tells me to lay down sometimes to rest, and will cover me with blankets and bring me and Charlie stuffed animals to sleep with. He shares all of his food with me and tells me it's for Charlie. He brings me food all day and tells me it's been too longs since I've eaten and Charlie's probably hungry. He loves to put his hands on my belly and feel Charlie move. He belly laughs every time he feels him, and opens his eyes really wide. I love to see the awe on his little face. I can't wait for him to officially meet his little brother. I know he is going to take such good care of him.

*Trevor loves the idea of Charlie, but I'm not sure he fully understands that this baby is really going to come out of my belly and be a full fledged member of our family. He had a bit of a hard time at first. He got mad when my belly started getting too big to snuggle with me the way he wanted, and he would push my belly and say "MOVE, Charlie! It's my turn to lay with Mommy!" He acted out for a while and resorted to a lot of baby talk / behavior that he hadn't been doing for a while. Fortunately that's all done now, and he is really excited about Charlie coming. He likes to play cars with Charlie and he brings him all his favorite cars to play with. After a while he'll say "Mommy, Charlie's not really doing anything, so I'm just gonna let him be a mountain." Then he'll drive cars all over my belly for a while. He will give my belly hugs and kisses randomly throughout the day and tell me "Mommy, that's not for you, that's for Charlie." He asks me a lot if Charlie's sad or crying. I assure him he's happy and warm in mommy's belly, and he seems to be appeased, although not fully. I love the concern he has for his brother. It will be fun to see Trevor in the role of big brother for a change. 

I think Charlie is the luckiest baby in the world to have two brothers who care about him so much!

On that note, I will end my very long post and go enjoy the rest of my alone time until I go to pick up the kids. I'll probably eat another oreo. Thanks for reading! 

Wednesday, December 5

Long overdue (but not literally)

I know, I know. It's been a year since I posted on here. And I don't know if this.means I'll start posting again, or if it will be another year. But (for those who haven't heard) we ARE getting ready to have another baby, and I don't want him to be the only undocumented pregnancy. So here's a quick post. I am 24 weeks right now, and so for some time people have been asking (pestering, demanding, insisting) for belly shots. I'm hesitant to post them because I am sooooo much bigger with this baby that it's a bit depressing. But it is what it is, and even if I don't love the belly, I love, adore and cherish the baby inside. So here are the long awaited pictures. They were taken at 14 weeks, 16 weeks, 18 weeks, 20 weeks, and 23 weeks. I think it's fun too see the changes every couple weeks. Thanks for checking in!

*post edit: I can't seem to rearrange my picture order (at least not quickly and easily) so they're a little out of chronological order. They are as follows: 23 weeks, 20 weeks, 18 weeks, 16 weeks, 14 weeks, and a 23 week front shot.*

Thursday, October 20

Baby Talk - Summer Edition

*This is a long post. I haven't done a monthly installment of Baby Talk, so you're getting all summer's worth in one post. Sorry*

To say I am not great at blogging is a huge understatement. I am really horrible at it, and despite my best attempts to be better, I just continue to fail at updating anything. Consequently I have about 1.5 people that read my blog, which keeps my motivation at the lowest of the lows. But I do at least have a post for you today. No, there are no pictures. But there are sickeningly cute offspring quotes. Hopefully they'll tickle you, my 1.5 readers, as much as they tickled me.

*for clarification purposes, David is 3 and Trevor is 2*


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Every Sunday the kids (12 and under) are encouraged to bring their "B.E.A.R.S" book to church with them. It stands for "Be Excited About Reading the Scriptures". While I think it's a great program, it's also a very new program to me so I have a hard time remembering to give it to David before church. Not to mention the fact that if he finds it during the week, he tears the pages out of it. So I had to put it away in a "special place" (a drawer) so he couldn't get to it and tear it up. Which again makes it hard for me to remember to send him with it. Here's how the conversation went down when his teacher asked him if he had it:

Teacher: David, did you bring your bear book today?
David: No, my parent's took it and put it in a "special place".....which probably means they lost it.

Yes, he sells us out on a regular basis.


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When David was potty training, he didn't want to go "number 2" in the potty, so he would hold it until it had been a week since he went and it would be really painful. So our doctor recommended giving him activia or miralax so he'd have no choice but to go, and he'd learn that the potty wasn't scary. *sidenote - I'd recommend this to anyone. It worked so amazingly well.* We still give it to the boys sometimes if the need ever arises. Anyway, we never told him what activia was for, but I guess he figured it out because he said this the other day:
"Daddy, can you wait just a second? I gotta go potty cuz I ate some of that poop yogurt last night."


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While walking with the boys the other night, we saw a baby rattlesnake in the road beside us. David says, "That must me a girl snake."
Me: "Why do you think that?"
David: "Because she's got diamonds on her."
Good boy. The ladies are gonna love him.

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It's fun to hear the random things my kids are thinking. They have such great imaginations and sometimes the things they say are so bizarre. Case in point:
David: "Mommy, what would happen if we were all bellies and no arms and no hands and no legs and no feet and no heads and no faces and just bodies?"
????? Um.....I have no answer for that.


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David and Trevor were playing so sweetly with their toys. David was a lizard and Trevor was a firetruck. They were all smiles and politeness, until I overheard this:
David: "I'm not a bad lizard.........(coyly) but I'm not a good lizard either."
Trevor: "Don't matter. I'm still gonna crash you in the face."
Can I just chalk this up to boys will be boys?


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By 10 months old, David knew what sound EVERY animal made. He still has a hard time with, and little interest in, recognizing letters of the alphabet. Trevor, on the other hand, could recognize most letters of the alphabet by 16 months old, but still doesn't know or care what most animals say. It's always funny to hear him make animal noises because it seems foreign coming from him. Also, they're usually wrong. The other day I hear him say, "DIS is a puppy! Barf barf! Barf barf!"


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The boys have some strange obsession with exercise. I don't know why, because we don't really do it in our household. I mean, I'd understand it if Sam and I were lifting weights and doing pushups all the time, but I can literally count on one hand how many times I've done either of those things in the last year. We do, however, have all of the equipment for it and the boys know where it is. They are constantly getting out my little pink 3 pound weights and pretending to work out. David got them out the other day and was pumpin' some iron. Then he drops them on the floor and got a really sad look on his face. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I'm tryin' to exercise, but I just can't do it with these wittle arms."


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The boys have a little dump truck toy that talks, based on how you play with it. Like if you put something in it, it says "Is that all? I can take more!" Or if you stop moving it, it says "Hey, we're not done!" Yeahhhhhh, it's pretty annoying. Anyway, Trevor was playing with it and would put his toys in the back and then drive it around the house. Well, he hit a little bump and his toys went flying out the back.
Chuck (the dumptruck) says, "Uh oh! Did I drop something?"
Trevor: "Yes you did, bump truck! Yes, you did!"


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Last week I watched a little 6 month old baby for one of my girlfriends. The boys LOVED having him in the house. For starters, David has been talking for some time about how he wants a "new baby". Brother or sister, he doesn't care. He just wants a baby in the house. Sam and I always respond with the "we'll see...." and change the subject. Trevor just loves babies in general, so this little baby was a dream come true for both of them. My girlfriend dropped her baby off at 6 am, so when the boys woke up the the baby was already at our house. The next hour was the cutest I'd ever seen my boys be. Here were some of my favorites of the day:
David: (seeing the baby for the first time) "OOOOOOHHHHH MOMMY! Is THAT our new baby????""" (If only it worked that way, bud).

Trevor: (right in the baby's face, showing off everything he knows) "Baby, this is how I laugh - ha ha ha ha ha!" "Baby, this is how I close my eyes! (squints eyes shut)" "Baby, this is how I push my belly button! (lifts shirt and pokes his chubby little finger right in his button)" - and so on and so forth. For 15 minutes.

David: "Baby, this is my froggy. He's a lovie. That means I sleep with him eeeeeeeeeeeeevery night, and he's my favorite. He has wittle arms like you have wittle arms, baby! Do you see?"
Alex (aka baby): laughing and cooing, tries to grab David's face.
David: (laughing hysterically) "Mommy, did you see that? That little baby likes to poke children's eyes!"

David: (I had gone to the bathroom) "Hey wittle baby! Our Mommy's going potty real quick. But don't worry. I will take real good care of you, so you don't need to cry."
It really was so touching and heartwarming to watch them with the "wittle baby". They were so sweet to him all day.


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David and Trevor like to make up words. It has been embarrassing, like when David "made up" the word "b!tc#in'" and used it for 2 weeks. Or when he "made up" the word "f***er" when we had the missionaries over for dinner. At my dad's house. Who is the bishop. Or Trevor's new "made up" word "pimp". That he uses loudly. And for everything. No these are not words they hear, they are just putting phonetic sounds together, usually resulting in things like "gleeber" or "oogie" or "mushmush". But sometimes, unfortunately, they turn into real words that my kids don't realize aren't nonsensical but very very vulgar. Especially coming from a 2 or 3 year old. Anyway, David has now started making up words for things that he doesn't know the real word for. He does understand context and tenses, so usually his made up words are pretty dang close to what they should be. But my all time favorite, that I haven't had the heart to correct yet, is "moke". As in, the past tense of "make". I haven't "made" anything, but I have "moke" a lot of stuff. It's so cute. In case you need it used in a sentence, here's one I heard last night:
David: "Trevor, you better take at least one bite. Mommy moke this yummy dinner for us, and you need to eat it."
Think he's heard that phrase before? Ha ha!


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The boys love the old He-Man cartoon (the one from the late 70's) and we have it on DVD, so they pick that to watch a lot. One day when I asked Trevor what he wanted to watch, he said "T MAN!" (which is really cute because that's what we call him). So I turned it on, and out of curiosity asked him "What's his name? (Pointing to Skeletor)" Trevor says "Ski-Man!"


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David is a very sensitive boy. Which I love, but can come with problems. Like getting his feelings hurt easily, or blowing things out of proportion and being dramatic. But I will take all of those things because his sensitivity also extends to other people and makes him very thoughtful. He just has a very tender heart. And he gets upset easily if he thinks someones feelings are hurt or something is sad. Case in point, I sing the boys a lullaby every night before bed. We have quite a few, some made up and some not, but sometimes David will ask for something new. So a couple months ago I busted out "hush little baby". I started singing it, and about halfway into the song David started bawling. Not like tired, dramatic crying. But real, heartbroken, very upset crying. I had no idea what happened, but after calming him down a bit I learned that he was very upset about all of the things in the song going wrong. He was so broken hearted that the horse and cart would fall over, that the bird wouldn't sing, that the dog wouldn't bark. It broke my little heart for him. So we sang the song over, this time correcting everything, "if that mockingbird WILL sing.....if that looking glass DOESN'T break......if cart and bull DOESN'T roll over..." It was the only thing that would calm him down. He now requests that song regularly, but we can only sing it in the new opposite state. If I forget, he still gets upset and will remind me that the bad things don't happen.


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Trevor seems to associate mostly with the "jerks" in tv shows. He loves Gerald on Sid the Science kid, "Ski-Man" on "T-Man", and Swiper the fox on Dora. Which brings me to my new favorite (read: the one I would give up meat to get rid of, which if you know me is REALLY saying something) game of Trevor's: the Swiper game.
The premise of this game is simple: Trevor steals something right out of your hands, throws it across the room, laughs his evil laugh (which is pretty dang funny, actually), and says "You'll NEVER get it back. Heh heh heh!"
I've been trying to get a recording of this because as annoying as it is, it's also really funny. But the kid does not perform.


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David is learning some new songs in Primary for the program coming up in a few weeks. One of the songs is "Praise to the Man". Not really a 3 year old song. Here's David's take on it.
David: "Mommy, who is the bad guy in that prophet song?"
Me: "Huh?"
David: "You know, who's that bad guy that stole the prophet?"
Me: (confused and thinking through the song but coming up with nothing) "I don't know David. Nobody steals the prophet. What part do you mean?"
David: "In the song! Sing it!"
Me: (singing the song to myself and coming up with nothing again) "David, I don't hear anything in the song about stealing the prophet."
David: "Sing it out loud...to me!"
Me: (singing the song and getting to the end of verse one) "Kings shall extol him and nations revere"
David: "Yeah! That one! That guy! That mean king! That mean king that stole the prophet. He's the bad guy!"


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Me: "David, you need to sit on your bum."
David: "I can't sit on my bum, mom."
Me: "Why?"
David: "Because it's cracked!"
He didn't mean this as a joke. He was being dead serious. Which made it that much funnier!


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Trevor loves the show Yo Gabba Gabba. And let's face it, I do too. Because it teaches your kids all kinds of useful things through songs, like "don't eat things off the floor", "don't bite your friends", "don't knock your friend's towers down that they've taken a long time to build", "just try your food, you're gonna like it", "hitting people hurts", and so forth. It really is incredible. Anyway, Trevor sings these songs, and oftentimes fills them in with phrases he finds necessary that were left out of the originals. Such as:
"Don't bite your friends! No no! Don't bite your friends! That's scary! Bite bite bite? No no no! That's scary!"
*the phrase "that's scary" was added by my little songwriter. Way better than the original, if you ask me!


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David had to give a talk in Primary last week. He did so great the whole time, and even remembered to close it properly. Then as soon as everyone said "amen", he turns to me and pleadingly says "I'm gonna give it ooooone more time." So cute.


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If you've been around Trevor for any amount of time in the last month, you will know that he has a crazy obsession with Buzz Lightyear, and more specifically, being Buzz Lightyear. He is adamant about it. And walks around the house all day saying "to uhfitity, and beyownd!" I don't think he's gone more than 5 minutes all month without saying that. Well on Sunday I went to pick him up from nursery after church, and I hear (very loudly) from the hallway "to infinity, and beyond!" Only it wasn't Trevor's voice. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the nursery to find 8 little kids, all "flying" around the room, being Buzz. I hope he doesn't discover his amount of influence until later in life, otherwise we could have some serious problems.


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Well, if you are reading this, that means you made it to the end. Congratulations Nicole and Shelley (since you're the only two who made it this far)! Hope at least one of these gave you a chuckle.

Thursday, August 25

All About Trevor

I stole this idea from a girlfriend's blog. I thought it was cute. I have written down all answers exactly as they were spoken.




This kid is a crack up:





Trevor Benjamin Banks, age 2


What's your favorite book? "that" (pointing to When You're Not Looking)


Really? Cool, Trev. I thought you would have said your firetruck book: No. That.


What's your favorite animal? the firetruck book


What's your favorite food? Um, bananas


What's your favorite movie? Um, Ironman


What's your favorite season? (silence) There's summer when it's hot, fall when it's windy and rainy, winter when it's snowy, spring when it's all green with lots of flowers; what's your favorite? Spiderman


If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Outside


What would you do outside? Go up the mountains


What's your favorite birthday memory? Toy Story bowl! (we had TS plates for his cake and ice cream)


Where would you go on vacation if you could go anywhere? Um, outside


What's your favorite thing about summer? Um, going up the mountains


What's your favorite sport? soccer ball


What's your pet peeve? (silence) something that bothers you? (silence) Something you don't like? Um, fire


What's your favorite thing about home: watching Ironman


What makes you sad? Um, fire


Tell me a joke: Um, I don't know. David: Trevor, say why do chickens poop? Trevor: I don't know. David: because they like to. Both laugh hysterically


How old do you wish you were? 1


Tell me something you like about Daddy: I just get him kisses and hugs


Who's your best friend? a boy


What's your favorite scripture story? Um, playing outside


What do you want to be when you grow up? Be outside


When is your birthday? Toy Story bowl


What do you want for Christmas? Um, I don't know


What's your favorite color? orange and brown


Tell me something fun you did today: I put on Mommy's runnin' shoes!


What's your favorite hobby? Um, this one (refused to answer what "this one" was. Apparently he felt is was a self explanatory and sufficient answer)


What's your favorite song: ABCDEFG


What's your favorite dessert? icicles (otterpops)


Tell me something good about you: I'm funny (followed by laughter)

All About David

This little man is awesome:



Samuel David Banks, age 3 1/2


What's your favorite book? Where the Wild Things Are and the Cow book



What's your favorite animal? A horsie



What's your favorite food? cheeseburger



What's your favorite movie? Phineas and Ferb



(me prompting) That's your favorite TV show, so what's your favorite movie, like a DVD? Nemo (he's never seen it)



What's your favorite season? When we go to the dinosaur museum and it's Christmas.



If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? to the dinosaur museum



What's your favorite birthday memory? When I got my Ironman toy



Where would you go if you could go anywhere on vacation? Grammy and Paw Paw's house



What's your favorite thing about summer? my Tiny toy



What's your favorite sport? Basketball



What's your biggest pet peeve? (silence) I mean, what's something that bothers you? bugs and spiders and dragons



What do you like best about your home? Your phone and my bullseye flashlight



What makes you sad? When you leave me behind



(concerned) What do you mean when I leave you behind? Where am I going when I leave? Um, maybe the dinosaur museum or Grammy's house



Tell me a joke: Why do chickens poop?

Me: hmmmm, I already heard that one when we were asking Trevor these questions. Tell me a new one.

David: Why do chickens eat? Me: I don't know, why? David: because they got beaks! (laughter)



How old do you wish you were? 3



Tell me your favorite thing about Daddy: when he gives me water when we go to bed



Who is your best friend? Trevor



What's your favorite scripture story? The one with the tiger and the guy prayed and the tiger sat down (Daniel and the lion's den)



What do you want to be when you grow up? a kid



When is your birthday? when I have my Kung Fu Panda party



What do you want for Christmas this year? 1 more



One more what? 1 more.



What's your favorite color? Red and pink



Tell me something you did today that was fun: sleep tight in the night



What's your favorite hobby? playing outside with Daddy



What's your favorite song? Spiderman and Rolling in the Deep



What's your favorite dessert? otterpops



Tell me something good about you: when I don't get owies.



What's your favorite childhood memory? Mommy