admittedly:

using raisins as going potty motivation works a lot better than force. i suggest you learn this lesson outside of the panera restroom.

a two-year-old incorporating pronouns into their vocabulary may be one of the cutest things in the entire world. also amazing: adverbs, such as, "mine (pronoun) was eating this, too (adverb)" spoken by sweet boy when i found him sitting on my bed sqeezing air into his nose with the nasal aspirator as he held up jude's pacifier with the other hand.

yes, yes, i did in fact google "parts of speech identifier" for that last one. annnd my degree is in journalism. oops.

i could live in fall forever. also, i'm a little terrified of winter coming soon but not too soon, right? being outside in the fall is just so wonderful. and it keeps toddlers pretty happy, too. joseph and eeny have way fewer incidences of one making the other cry when we're playing outside. my theory is that it's because nothing belongs to either of them so the whole sharing thing is taken out of their interactions. the whole sharing thing..i'm wondering what material possession in my life that i really like i'm always happy about sharing. hmm..

sometimes as a mom, my main perogative is to keep my son from hitting other kids. sometimes i spend most of playgroup attempting to prevent joseph-attack from the sidelines. i suspect a lot of it is that i think good moms have kids who never hurt other kids. not true. but a lot of it is also that i'm responsible for the little guy, and i have to teach him not to hit. or bite. or tackle. well, tackling is okay in certain contexts.

i think it would be kind of amazing if the facial expression a person thought communicated "i care about & understand what you're saying" actually communicated the opposite except that they never knew. i was just thinking about that today for some reason, probably unadmitted fear that i'm that person. oh no, am i? :)







i'm off to (attempt to) transform a green hoodie into a snap-snap (some sort of green reptile with teeth and horns..most likely a crocodile but could be a dinosaur) for joseph's halloween costume. happy tuesday, friends!

thus far

my two and a half week old son gained two pounds since his two day appointment #kidishuge

the three of us survived jude's doctor's appointment and two unexpected catch-up immunizations for joseph #sweetboydiscoverstheringpop

made it to the afternoon of mama and boys day 2 with only one minor (mama) break-down at miss ann's house #chocolateicecreamisinstore

going on a coffee date with dada and jude while joseph plays at a friend's house this afternoon #pumpkinspicelatteorchaihmmm

both of my sons are sleeping #mamahurrytakeanap

jude victor linneman

jude victor linneman.
born at 10:53 am on september 25, 2011.
9 pounds and 12 ounces. 21 and 1/2 inches long.



early saturday afternoon, the maybe-this-is-labor contractions of the week prior became oh-this-is-actually-labor contractions. we went to the hospital around 9:30 that night with intense contractions and thoughts of a babe by early-early morn. oh, what have we learned about waiting? little boy's birth was hard. harder than i remembered birth being. jeremy and i had a conversation in the middle of it to that extent: me -- "i forgot this was going to be really hard." jeremy -- "i know. it's hard." after a long night of start and stop posterior-babe labor, shortly after the sun came up on sunday, our little boy, jude, was born. i got to hold him right away. he had angry eyebrows. i'd probably be angry, too. moreso than joseph's birth, i was very surprised to meet a baby at the end of labor.

joseph got to meet him about an hour later. he brought baby kobe, the teddy bear we'd planned for him to give the babe for weeks leading up to his birth, saying, "here you go, jude."

it's been a good week. we were able to come home a little over 24 hours after jude's birth. jeremy's mom came in town last wednesday, and over the past week provided more rest than i ever thought possible to a home of new-again parents, a babe, and a two-year-old. we have been so well taken care of.

joseph has already taught jude how to suck his thumb and how to make tunnels in mama and dada's bed. he also began using "mm-hmm" for yeah, yes, and general enthusiasm about an idea, which is even more adorable when he realizes halfway through that his answer is actually no. "mm-hmm-no. no."

tonight, jeremy celebrated with another new dada and friends. and i was blessed by a beautiful simple joseph in airplane jammies jude sleeping in my arms three stories and joseph singing amazing grace bedtime.

i love these boys so much. all three of them.







welcome, jude.

i was sitting waiting wishing

so, it turns out, we are not having a tuesday hour babe. this week anyway. :)

we are, however, perfecting the art of waiting. it hasn't been easy. i doubt we're going to perfect it; in fact, i know we're not going to. but we've been learning and praying and growing. it's been good and really tough and alright and resulted in take-out dinner last night.

one thing i have perfected, though, is the art of making simply limeade into a delectable slushie consistency. wanna know how? first, freeze place empty glass in freezer for 1-2 hours. second, fill frozen glass 2/3 full with well-shaken limeade and place back in freezer for 1-2 hours. third, take frozen limeade and slush with a fork, attempting but not forcing consistency in size of frozen particles and place in refrigerator. fourth, once the resistance has reached its maximum, remove glass from refrigerator and allow to warm slightly at room temperature. re-slush with fork. enjoy.

i'm enjoying one right now. am i obsessive compulsive? maybe. but it's reallllly good.

off to finally finally finish the crocheted aviator hat. goggles are harder than you'd expect.

happy tuesday, friends!

some photos from the last few days -- posting on sunday, you know, in case we're having a baby on tuesday or something. :)

heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn

the moon stayed up until morning today.

i turned off the light in the kitchen and let joseph stand up on the counter to look out the window at it. clearly, i'm not like other moms; i'm a cool mom. :)

i remember days before joseph was born, there was a full moon coming soon, so i googled "full moon and labor" (in addition to "eating pineapple to induce labor") to find out if there was any truth to that whole thing. and by that whole thing i mean i think around that week somebody had said something about a full moon and more babes being born by way of the gravity and the tide and such. i didn't find any compelling evidence that the full moon was going to help me out, but did you know that there are many people who actually believe that the entire moon landing was staged? now that's somewhat compelling.. for the record, there was actually a huge surge of births the days around joseph's birthday, so much so that we saw a couple from our birth class in labor but in the waiting room.. eeeeh.

have i mentioned that this book is one of my favorites of all books ever? it's true. i love it. aunt sarah gave it to joseph along with the runaway bunny when he was a few months old. i just purchased a copy of on the night you were born to give to elliott as a much-delayed birthday present. i just love it so much. you should read it. and own it. joseph and i have it memorized.

enjoying this could-have-a-babe-any-moment-but-life-as-usual-proceeds season for now. i'm off to complete some projects -- crocheting the goggles for joseph's aviator hat he's been requesting (with each babe hat i completed, he'd respond to my "joseph, guess what i made??" with "jophes hat?") and the pre-babe assembly of birth announcements. excited to put a photo on the front and announce our babe on the inside slash meet/hold/smell/hold/love/look at/hold this baby.



happy tuesday :)

thinking lots about:

- my home. how it feels now and how i can glorify God in the ways i care for it. i am desiring simplicity in so many areas that are right now lacking but potentially could change with a bit more thought on my part. there are lots of little ways that our home's aroma is affected by simply doing one thing instead of another, and i'm on a quest to discover the ways i can move in the direction of more restful, more ahh-i'm-home, more i-don't-constantly-feel-like-i'm-forgetting-something-where-are-my-keys feelings. one area of needed simplifying begins with admitting that i'm terrified of meal-planning. really, i'm terrified of any kind of planning. there i said it. first challenge, right? although, i have a feeling the week or so prior to welcoming newborn babe linneman may not be prime-time for me to take on meal-planning, but in time? what are ways you are simplifying in your home? what are things you really like about your home/routine/rhythm? i'm really interested.

- this babe who's growing and moving and pushing my ribs up-up-up. i can't wait to meet this autumn baby. soon oh soon.

- joseph bourne and how to help him thrive and enjoy and wonder in this stage of life. yesterday we walked around our friends' apartment complex for over an hour and he loved it. more enjoyable fall temperatures could not come at a better time for joseph or mama. and for the coming stages -- i'm thinking about education and what jeremy and i think about it. and what joseph will think about it. and how he'll best learn. and what learning even is. and where i can find a big roll of newsprint paper so that he can have a bit more room for the lightning mcqueen marker creations he's been working on. probably where they print the newspaper; we just have yet to make the trip there.

huh. i thought there were more thoughts, although, the above thoughts have lots of thought-layers to them. i think i think too much. hmm...

pictures instead? :)