Accomplishments

We've had several big and small accomplishments this week.

The first being that I slept through the night with no aches or pains for the first time in a month! I'm retaining enough water with this baby that I could make a camel jealous. Which is causing back pain, leg pain and carpal tunnel which radiates up my arm and to my shoulder. I'm realizing why women used to be done having kids by 35. I'm too old for this. In any case, I only got up 10 times last night to go to the bathroom and I feel fantastic today.

Ben learned how to eat a cherry and spit the pit out. Up until now, I either had to bite off half a cherry and give him the part with no pit or he simply ate the entire thing. He has about 50 cherry trees growing in his belly. Whenever he spits a pit out he raises his fist in triumph and yells, "I did it!"

When one learns to spit the other learns to swallow...

Emily learned how to swallow her allergy pill. Poor girl is always a little stuffy. Instead of spending 5 times the amount and getting half the doses for the children's version of claritin, I just bought the adult Costco generic and split the pills. She's been chewing them with her vitamin. But this week, she gave swallowing it a go and after 3 tries, she got it. She was so excited the first time that she ran to me and gave me a high five.

Emily is making huge strides in swimming lately. I took the kids to the pool one day this week and she learned how to dive down (in the 3 foot section) and pick up one of the diving rings. She will do this over and over. I was so proud of her. We had to go back to the pool right after dinner to show David her new trick. She is also swimming a good 20-30 feet with no problem and starting to incorporate a bit of a breast stroke with her arms. She's doing really really well and does not want to wear her floaties at all.

Ben on the other hand almost drowned the other day. How is this an accomplishment? Well, we all went to the pool and Emily headed for the stairs. She hangs out there or in the 3 foot section until we get in. Then, Ben went running in that direction. David was getting undressed (well just his shirt, it's not THAT kind of pool) and I was getting the essentials out of the bag (goggles, diving rings, Ben's floaties). Ben's floaties. I look up and he's on the second step as the words are leaving my lips that he needs his floaties, he's leaping into the water. David jumps in immediately and is swimming to him across the pool. Emily is watching as he's in a little too deep for her to become a lifeguard. And Ben is almost drowning? No, he's actually treading water, keeping his head up and holding his breath when he'd dip down. He obviously wouldn't have been able to do this for minutes, but for the 15 seconds it took to get to him, he was doing great. Luckily, a nice man who we see often at the pool was in a lounge chair right there and got to him seconds before David. Ben didn't even cough or choke. He hadn't swallowed any water. He was just a little scared. He got out and came over to me to get his floaties on. All he had to say about the experience was, "Tat was welly deep." I on the other hand was almost in cardiac arrest. But, I'm proud of him for being able to stay up and use some of the skills he has learned in swim lessons instead of sinking to the bottom. It's just a reminder of how quickly accidents can happen.

I'm also able to hold 2 wretches of Ben's throw up in my very own hands. When he was done, he looked at me with those eyes and said, "I throwed up." Ya think?!

We decided on a baby name. Noah Gregory.

Oh, and the best thing, David learned how to make fantastic chicken wings courtesy of The Neely's on the Food Network. Thank you Pat and Gina!