Out of the Mouth of Babe's III

Sam and I were discussing something that happened at school, something he shouldn't have been doing (I can't remember now for the life of me) but our conversation went something like this....

"Sam why did you do that?"

"Well everyone else was doing it...."

"Sam, if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you?"

(Sam scratching his head....thinking)

"Well I would if I had a parachute"

Impeccable logic, how do you argue with that?!!

I'm slightly worried, that he actually may be smarter then me.

So I stole this from another blog BUT....

I thought this was too stinkin funny. Glad to know my children are just as insane as everyone else's!!

Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

For some reason Gabe has fallen in love with Sam's AWANA (for those of you that don't know, AWANA is an acronym for Appointed Workers Are Not Ashamed taken from 2 Timothy 2:15. It is an international evangelical children's Bible program.) handbook from last year. He calls it his Bible. This afternoon he sat with me on my bed while I nursed Joel and flipped through the book, at first I thought he was just mumbling, but then I heard what he was saying......he was quoting several of the versus we have been teaching Sam and Ethan. It was so cute, I just had to take ANOTHER video. I guess it just goes to show you that he is always listening, and always picking things up, not all are as sweet and good as this though :0)

Gabe the Stunt Man?

I have to admit, at times I fancy myself a good Mother. Yes, I pat myself on the back for having such wonderful children while also, at times, "judging" others for not having children as perfect as mine (Honestly what Mother doesn't think her children are the best?!). I suppose this is a good trait. I do work hard to raise good, athletic, handsome, musical, thoughtful, compassionate, sweet (the list goes on...) God fearing and God loving little boys but at times the Lord reminds me that pride does really go before a fall (literally!!).

This week Gabe has tested the limits of our parenting patience. Well first let me start with what happened a few weeks ago....I was upstairs doing something on the computer when I heard Gabe call my name. I yelled down to let him know that I was upstairs, to which I heard him say "okay, I'm coming" followed by the front door opening and closing. Hmmmm....I thought to myself.....NOT a good thing, surely my two year old did not just exit our residence, all by himself?! First thought, yell down to my very responsible six year old, "Sam, did your brother just go outside?" no response...."Sam....Sam"....well darn where is he, I thought as I bounded down the stairs as quickly as I could. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I realized that not only was Sam gone, so was Ethan. I threw open the door only to see all three of my sons RUNNING bare foot down the sidewalk towards the street!!!!!!!! WHAT IN THE HECK?!! HAVE MY CHILDREN LOST THEIR MINDS?!

After screaming my head off like a CRAZY woman, I managed to get all of the boys back in the house and sat them down to see why in the world they were barrelling down the sidewalk at break neck speed. I never found out why Gabe went out (I guess he thought I was outside) but Sam had just learned about initiative in Sunday school and decide this was a good time to practice his newly learned "skill" by saving his brother from near death....Ethan had just followed everyone, because well, everyone else was running, why shouldn't he?!

More recently Gabe has given new meaning to the term terrible twos. On Wednesday I had to take Sam to Walter Reed. Thankfully Greg was able to come home from work early to watch Gabe and Ethan. Well you would have thought I was leaving Gabe with the Wicked Witch of the West. He threw a ROYAL fit as I was leaving, complete with sobbing, feet stomping and just general freaking out, I was frankly quite surprised that his head didn't spin around! On the drive home from DC I called to see how Gabe and Greg were fairing. Poor Greg, during quiet time Greg heard Gabe crying and when he went in to find out what the problem was he found Gabe with his dresser on top of him! YIKES!!!

When I got home from Sam's appointment we ate dinner and then it was time for soccer practice. This time Gabe was pretty happy with staying with Dad. Halfway through practice I received another call from Greg, it's never good when the conversation starts with "YOUR SON....". Well this time, Gabe had emptied an entire brand new bottle of shampoo into the tub while Greg wasn't watching, there were bubbles everywhere! Greg wasn't happy, but Gabe had a great time!

Last night when I got the boys out of the shower Gabe's toe was bleeding. After cleaning it off I realized that the cut had the tale tell marks of a safety razor. We are still not sure exactly what happened. Sam says he knocked off the razor when he was trying to get his shampoo. I think the razor hit Gabe's toe and that is how it was cut, Greg's pretty sure Gabe had a wild idea to try to shave off his toe hairs, either way, the child never even shed a tear!

This last story sums up Gabe's personality. The boys have a "tornado in a bottle" that I brought them home when I was in Kansas. It is a lot of fun to play with, but can be broken. In order to keep us from having a "tornado on our carpet" I had placed the toy high up on a shelf in Gabe's room. This afternoon Gabe was carrying the tornado around. My first thought was to ask Sam and Ethan if they had gotten it down, they both were very sincere and certain that they had not touched the shelf. My second thought was no way could my sweet little two year old have....my thoughts were broken by Gabe yelling "Mommy, I step on this and then".....that little turkey showed me exactly how he uses his bed to climb up on his dresser and then STAND up to get anything he likes off of what I thought was a safe shelf. UGH that kid keeps me on my toes! The best is what he had to say about himself. "Mommy, I can't get hurt....I SO brave". Oh my are we in trouble, or what?!

Below is a picture of Gabe "performing". (I know, I know, we should never have taken a picture, now he thinks he's cute, but really, frankly, he is!!)


Finally, a video of Joel smiling. (I'm really into this new video thing, so bare with me!)





Hope everyone has a FAB week!

Well It's Been Awhile....

Well to all you loyal Spencer fans (read: Karen and Nancy, who are stalking me to post again, seriously though, thanks girls, it makes me feel like someone besides the grandparents actually read this thing!) I am finally posting again. Things have been CRAZY around here. In the words of my Mother "Let the games begin!". Life is always insane once school starts. In the last two weeks Sam started 1st grade, Ethan started preschool (for those of you who know me well, that is a HUGE step) Sam and Ethan started AWANA and Sam started piano and soccer. I am so excited to have them involved in some fantastic programs but it does equal a lot of stress. For instance last Tuesday went something like this (now granted all my days are not like this):

• 0630 Wake up and feed Joel.
• 0700 Take shower and get ready.
• 0730 Wake up boys (who have actually been awake since 0630 acting like wild men).
• 0800 Feed three big boys and get everyone ready to go to the bus stop.
• 0855 Get Sam on the bus.
• 0930 Take Ethan to first day of preschool.
• 1000 Feed Joel in the commissary parking lot while watching videos with Gabe.
• 1030 Shop as quickly as physically possible with a 6 week old and a 2 year old.
• 1200 Drive home from commissary, unload all groceries (with Gabe's help of course) and fix lunch for Gabe and I.
• 1255 Drive to preschool. Sit in parking lot and nurse Joel
• 1330 Pick up Ethan. Try to talk to Ethan about day. Conversation goes something like this, "Ethan, how was your day, what did you do?" "Good, if you want to know what we did Mommy, look at the schedule". What a twerp!
• 1400 Rush to hospital pharmacy to pick up my allergy meds. Pick up number and sit for 10 minutes only to realize I don't have enough time to wait.
  
• 1420 Rush to peds for Ethan's Drs appointment.
• 1445 Rush to hospital pharmacy to pick up my allergy meds. Pick up number and sit for 10 minutes only to realize I don't have enough time to wait. You would have thought I would have figured that out the first time, huh?!
• 1500 Rush home and make snacks for everyone. Throw everyone in the car and drive to Sam's school.
• 1530 Feed Joel in the car while Ethan and Joel watch videos and wait for Sam to get out of school.
• 1600 Sam gets out of school. School has recently instituted new program for "Kiss and Ride" students. School will not let me have Sam until I jump threw a bunch of hoops. Finally get Sam, throw him in the van and drive like a mad women to piano lessons.
• 1630 Drop Sam off at lessons. Now what to do for an hour with three children on a rainy day.....drive to girlfriends house and hang out with her and her three boys.
• 1730 Pick up Sam from lessons. Drive like mad women to McDonalds. Shove Happy Meals in everyone's faces, clean everyone up and shove them back in the car (lots of shoving going on...)
• 1845 Drive back to school for "Back to School Night".
• 1900 Politely listen to Sam's teacher drone on and on about her discipline procedures.
• 2000 Drive kids home, nurse Joel, bathe EVERYONE get everyone in bed.
• 2100 I'm drooling in my pillow, watching TV, surprisingly happy with life but exhausted.

OH and did I mention Greg was at Fort Sill for all this! Figures!!

Of course don't want to leave the two little boys out....they had some big milestones as well....
Gabe is now officially binkie less and Joel is officially smiling! Funny story about Gabe...I'm not quite ready to potty train him but he's definitely showing interest in that direction. One day I was in the shower and he asked if he could flush the toilet. He loves to flush it so I said sure. Well he flushed and got so excited he decided to cheer with a binkie in his mouth. (I'm sure you can see where this is going) Poor Gabe cheered and that binkie fell right out and went right down the toilet faster then you could kiss a goose! His face was classic, poor kid he was traumatized. That was the day I decided it was probably time to get rid of the binkie for good. When we went to the store to buy a toy in honor of the achievement he told the check out lady..."I threw out my binkies and one went down the potty". Poor kid, he might need therapy!

Check out some pics from the last month:

Joel checking himself out. What a looker.

Sam and Ethan Labor Day weekend at Nancy and Ryan's.

Sam's first day of school.

The first day of school is EXHAUSTING when you are only five weeks old!

Sam's first soccer game. This year they actually have goalies! Sam's pretty darn good!

Ethan's first day of Pre-school. Notice pre-binkie throw away.

Sam at soccer practice.

Gabe at soccer practice. This would be the night he poured rocks in his ears and had to go to the emergency room to have them flushed out. Also the night I had a 102 degree fever and found out how AWFUL mastitis (sp?) is. (If you are a boy and are reading this, do not wikipedia this term...trust me you don't want to know.)

Waving at Sam's bus.

Lastly, here is a video of Sam playing the piano. I think he might be the next Beethoven, what do you think?




Hope all is well with everyone. I will try to be better about posting now that we are getting into a schedule!

P.S. Sam's other "first" that he had that day on the video was HOMEWORK!! My baby officially now has homework, he is so old!

Her Mother Must Be SOOO Proud....

Out of the Mouth of Babe's II

"Mommy can I put all these turds in my mouth?"

"I'm sorry what Ethan!!!?"

"Can I put all these turds in my mouth?"

"Nerds.....Ethan.....they're Nerds, and yes you can put them all in your mouth...."

Oh children.....they crack you up everyday!!

Hope all is well with everyone.

H

First "Camping" trip

On Wednesday the two oldest boys (Sam and Ethan) and I (Greg) decided to try camping in the living room prior to trying it in the great outdoors. After lots of movie watching, hide and seek, favorite snacks and fun with the camera, we finally got to sleep aroung 10:30 p.m. At 5:45, the boys were ready for the next day and we went to the river to throw rocks at stick "battleships" and eat doughnuts. The rest of the day was pretty rough with a couple of tired little boys but all in all it was well worth the effort.

Fun with the camera while telling spooky stories

Sam shoots at the bad guy battleships

Is this what we have to look forward to in 15 years?!!

All last week Sam and Ethan went to Vacation Bible School. The theme was "King of the Jungle". The church did a great job decorating and putting on an amazing exciting week. Throughout the week they made jungle crafts. They made a drum, a rain stick, sunglasses and a picture frame complete with their handsome pictures. When Greg and I got out Ethan's picture we were a little taken back by his picture....we both had visions of him fast forward 15 years....YIKES!! The kid could have smiled....the silly thing looks like a mug shot. What a goof ball! Below is an edited picture sent to us from "Papa"....thanks Dad!!


If you haven't already be sure to check out my other posts!

Funny you should ask Nanc.....(AKA Joel's first bath)(AKA All the tags fell off so we have to keep him now)

Well, my girlfriend Nancy mentioned that Greg should get some close ups of baby "parts" with his new camera, funny you should ask, because yesterday afternoon we spent an hour shooting pics of all of Joel's cute little baby parts.

Yesterday morning we awoke to discover Joel's cord had fallen off as well as his plastibell (sp?) from his circumcision. Since all of the tags fell off I guess there are now officially no returns, wink, wink. I always love the day this happens because it marks the end of "spit" baths and we can pull out the handy dandy baby tub for official baths. Here are some pics from our evening.

Before the bath, what a sweet little hand!

First bath, out on the back porch. Is that humiliating when your 10 days old?

Ethan was very helpful!

Baths make a fella' mad!

Cleanin' out the belly button.

Clean belly button!

Cute little baby foot.


Baby ear.

Cute baby nose!

Another owie! Gabe thought he could climb the stairs of the deck all while sitting on a push car. Not a good idea! He fell backward and hit his head on the concrete. Once again we were icing an owie. It's been a rough week for the Spencer boy's heads! We would have taken him to the emergency room but the Doc we talked to about Ethan's owie told us they don't do CAT scans anymore because they can dramatically increase a child's chances of having a brain tumor. Instead Gabe was "iced", given tylenol and we woke him up several times in the night to make sure he was okay. Poor Gabe :0(

Summer at the Spencer's

Well as you can see from the rest of our blog, we have had a very busy summer! From camp, to swim lessons, having a baby, trips to the Smithsonian and Vacation Bible School, the Spencers like to stay busy. Here are some pictures from everything we've been doing!



Mad Baby!!

One night after dinner we decided we would go for a walk to the playground. Of course someone had to get hurt. Poor Ethan fell while hanging upside down and hit his head on a ladder (we have bad luck with playground ladders!! ie. Sam's missing teeth!!). He had a NASTY knot on the back of his head that won him a trip to the emergency room. Fun, fun! In this picture he's icing his "owie" with a bag of frozen broccoli....which by the way is not very effective!

Happy baby after a bath!

Gabe checking out his new competition.

Cute baby!

This summer Sam and Ethan took swim lessons for SIX weeks. They are now both little fish in the water. Ethan passed the Red Cross's Level II and Sam passed Level III. We are very proud of them both!

At the beginning of the summer, Sam wouldn't go near the deep end. After swim lessons all he ever wanted to do was go off the diving board. You should see him swim!!

Ethan going off the diving board.

Gabe patiently waiting for swim lessons to be over. What a looker!!

Mommy and the Spencer boys!

The boys meeting Joel for the first time. Gabe is a Momma's boy and wasn't sure he liked the newest addition as evident by his face!!

There is a park in Old Town Alexandria that is literally within a stones throw of the Ronald Reagan Airport runway. You can park and watch the planes as they land and take off. It is quite a sight. The night we were there the planes were taking off directly over our heads. Here the boys are pretending they are airplanes.

This was the first time Gabe discovered he had a shadow. It was hilarious to watch him run and watch his shadow chase him.

Watching the planes take off.

There are so many museums to go to here in DC. One afternoon, in late July, Greg decided to take the boys to the Smithonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles (I'm sure this isn't the correct name....so sue me...I'm nursing and tired ;0) The boys (including Greg) had a great time looking at all the planes and watching an IMAX film. Here the boys are pretending they are being sucked into the planes engine....what a bunch of crazies!!

Joel.....the rest of the story....

Joel, Dr. Kunar (shocking, yes he is old enough to be a doctor), and I

Joel in all his glory. Future blackmail picture :0)

Well, as you ladies know, it seems that whenever women get together they love to talk about their "birthing stories". Of course, I'm no different so sit back and humor me as I describe the events of August 1st.

As I had said before Dr. Kunar agreed to strip my membranes on Tuesday the 31st. I had been fairly content being pregnant (as compared to my other pregnancies) and wasn't quite sure I was going to have him "strip me" and thought maybe I would just let Joel come on his own. On Monday we went to Panera and when we got home I decided to go into Labor and Delivery because I thought I might be leaking fluid. They ran some tests and decided that I probably wasn't leaking and Dr. Kunar told me to come back the following night to be stripped. When I got up on Tuesday I remembered that that night was my neighborhood Bunco group. I was pretty certain that I didn't want to miss Bunco, so I pretty much wrote off having my membranes stripped. Throughout the day I was feeling yuckier and yuckier. By the time I got to Bunco I had decided that if I was going to feel crappy, I might as well feel crappy and go ahead and have a baby! Half way through Bunco (around 8:00) I walked down to the hospital and Dr. Kunar "stripped me". As he was doing it he reminded me that it could take a couple of times to actually work, to which I thought heck no...if this doesn't work, I'm done, this baby is just coming whenever! Afterwards I walked back down to Bunco and proceeded to win $15!! Not too shabby, considering I missed half of the game!!

After Bunco I came home pretty frustrated. I hadn't had any contractions and figured I was in for the long haul. At about 9:30 I started contracting, but they were about 20 minutes apart. By 11:30 they were all over the place, some were 14 minutes apart others 20, but nothing regular. I figured I might as well go to sleep and turned off the lights at around 11:45. At 12:20 AM I was awakened by a really strong contraction. I got up and went to the bathroom and tried to lay back down, but the contractions hurt too badly. They weren't close together but they hurt bad enough that I thought, I'm going in to have this checked out! I packed my bag, woke Greg up and then walked back down to the hospital. When I got there Dr. Kunar checked me and said I was a five, 80% effaced and Joel's head was engaged so it was time to be admitted, YEAH!! I immediately told him of my desire for an epidural....in Kansas they have to page the anesthesiologist at night (which can take FOREVER) so I didn't want to take any chances of having another baby naturally. Dr. Kunar kind of laughed me off, but the nurse assured me the doctor was on site and they would be letting him know of my desires.

My nurse, Sarah, who was WONDERFUL, got me into my room and into a gown. I had a HORRIBLE gown and was constantly flashing everyone...gotta love Army hospital wear, how humiliating!! I was the only woman on the floor so I had every nurse in my room. One nurse started to get my IV going and immediately blew out my vain (fun, fun), she then got the IV going in my hand, which hurt like crazy (I hate IV's in my hand, arms are much more comfortable!). After a bag of fluid and another blood draw (the first clotted) the anesthesiologist came in and started my epidural. We went through all the risks and told him of my horrible spinal headache after Ethan. He was pretty confident that my experience was a fluke and everything would be fine.....

The doc had warned me off a shock down my leg but nothing could have prepared me for the shot of electricity that went down my leg when he was putting in my epidural. I nearly kicked the nurse across the room and it was totally reflex. I really don't think I could have stopped it had I been more prepared. Two words you never want to hear from someone digging around in your back....."oh honey"......I was devastated. (When I jumped, the needle went farther then it should have and fluid pushed back at the doctor, a wet tap) Memories of the 10 scary days I spent flat on my back, sure I had a brain tumor, came flooding back to me. For those of you who don't know about my spinal headache with Ethan, I spent 10 days with the worst headache of my life. I was taken back to the hospital in an ambulance at one point and remember begging Greg to move back to Louisville to take care of the kids, fairly sure I was going to die. I had three blood patches (they take blood out of your arm and shoot it into your back hoping to patch the hole that is causing the leak in your spinal fluid), IV meds in the emergency room, major narcotics at home and an MRI. Needless to say this was an experience I was more then happy to not go through again! When Greg heard the distress in the doctors voice, he was sick too. In fact I thought he was physically going to be ill, I've never seen someone turn so green and pasty so quickly! As the anesthesiologist finished the epidural, all I could do was cry. We discussed options for what we could do to avoid the headache but he said I had a 70% chance of having one. Greg and I spent the next 30 minutes or so very quite. I felt like such a weeny for "needing" the epidural but I was so upset that I had such horrible odds of having a headache.

After all the epidural "drama" my contractions completely stopped. I was at a 6, so Dr. Kunar broke my water and started Pitocin. Dr. Kunar and Greg are both chit chatters....they were on either side of me talking about army, politics, medicine, etc....twice I told Dr. Kunar that I was feeling some "downward" movement but he didn't seem too concerned, by the third "movement" in about three minutes I told him I thought he better check me. When he raised the sheet he and Greg could see the top of Joel's head....glad they stopped talking long enough to listen to me ;)

The nurses got the room ready and Dr. Kunar asked me if I was a "good pusher"....was that a challenge?! I pushed two times and Joel was out...how's that for pushing Doc?! I had to have a few stitches because Joel had his hand on his head as he was coming out...what a stinker! Joel was born at 0322, so from the time I was admitted until he was born was 2 1/2 hours, not too shabby!!

After Joel was born, the anesthesiologist came back in and told me that he had done some research and thought my best option was for them to go ahead and do a blood patch in the epidural line. He took 20cc out of my arm and then "shoved" it in my back. I am so glad we listened to him. I am also so thankful for everyone who prayed for us that night and in the following days.

That night as I laid in Labor and Delivery I kept hearing Jeremiah 29:11 in my head, For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. I took a lot of comfort in knowing that either way things turned out, that the Lord was in control.

The rest of my hospital stay was very uneventful. I was given a private room thanks to my wet tap which was such a blessing. I had a very small headache on Thursday but it was managed well with Motrin, rest, and lots of fluids. My biggest complaint right now has been a very stiff back and left leg. The doctors feel it is normal from all the blood they put in my back but it is still rather uncomfortable (but I am certainly not complaining!!).

Joel is beautiful, he looks pretty much exactly like his brothers. I am excited to watch him grow and become a little boy and then man. Right now he's sleeping next to me and grinning in his sleep, ain't life grand!!

Thanks for all of the encouraging words on the blog. Sorry for such a long story....stay tuned for more annoying baby stories and LOTS of baby pics!!

P.S. Excuse all of my non medical person lingo!!

Joel William Spencer is here!!!

Hi everyone,

Heather is still in the hospital but I just wanted to let everyone know that our fourth son decided to make an appearance this morning.

He was 7 pounds and 19 1/2 inches. He was born at 0322 on 01AUG07 at Dewitt hospital on Ft Belvoir. Mom and Joel are doing well but Heather had a wet tap on her epidural so she is at risk for a very painful spinal headache. She asks that everyone prays that she won't have a headache (she had one for 10 days with Ethan).

I'm sure that she will write a better post when she is released from the hospital.