19 Months!

I purposely stopped the monthly updates of Mr. Newton after he turned one.  They can't continue on forever.  But a lot of time has passed since then and my blog has gone through some droughts in the meantime, so I thought it was good timing to give a little update.

Dear Mr. Newton,
You are now 19 months but you think you are 4 like your big brother.  You try to do everything he does.  You still have a smile that takes up your whole face.  Now you squint your eyes to go with it, which is adorable.  But you've also developed quite the scowl, which you will flash often when you are not happy with something.

You LOVE your big brother.  You call him Mamo and he's always the first one you ask for in the morning.  If I give you a snack, you ask for one for Mamo, too.  It's so sweet.  I love watching you guys as brothers.  You hold your own against him when it gets a little rough.  You even learned to drop the elbow on him when you wrestle!

And you get really excited to sit on the froggy potty.  Every time I change your diaper, you say "Pee! Pee!"  because you want a chance to go in the potty.  And when you actually go, you clap your hands and dance as we sing our family favorite whoop whoop song for you.



You have lots of cute words and you like to shout them out when someone is talking and you hear a word you know.  One of my favorites is when you say, "oh" when we tell you something, like you are glad we clarified that for you.  You are so funny.

You love to sing and dance. Your foot gets tapping subconsciously and you sing and drum so loudly.  I can't wait to see you and your brother in a band together someday.

Oh, and you still love your dog Orange Juice, or Do-Do as you call him.  We almost lost him again - we thought he was left in a parking lot in Pittsburgh but thankfully we found him.  The world is a better place with Orange Juice.  And the world is a much better place with you!!

Soon you will be a big brother - only about 10 more weeks to go.  You love pointing out the baby in my belly.  I can't wait to see how much you love our new brother or sister!

loved and missed

Mr. Mister must have read my last blog post!  After his nap this afternoon he and I read all of his new library books together for a long time while his little brother kept sleeping.  When Daddy finished working and I had to get ready to leave for my Thirty-One party, Mr. Mister sadly told me he didn't want me to leave and that he wanted to come with me.  He was sincerely sad the whole time I was getting ready and even tried to sneak out the door with me.  It's nice to be missed :)

Mommy and the Mister

One of the things I love love love about the stage Mr. Mister is in is that he still wants to marry me someday.  It is so sweet.  He often gets the jacket from his ring bearer suit on or another less official groom-like costume (see picture below) and asks if we can get married.  I walk down the aisle and we repeat after Daddy that we will love and honor and respect each other and then he kisses his mommy and we do a little slow dance.  That is everything he has gathered from the two weddings he has been to.  I love it and will be so sad when he wants to marry a girl from school someday instead of me.



These times also redeem comments like this one:

As he cried when Daddy had to leave for a meeting the other night, I asked him, "Why don't you cry like that when I leave?"

His answer:
"Well, I like you.  But I like Daddy better because he wrestles!"

I guess if you ask a question you have to be ready for the answer!  It is true that a pregnant mommy is not good for wrestling. but I still make a good bride for my little guy.

The Wells We Built

Two years ago around Christmas time, I set up a fundraising page for charity:water to help bring clean water to people around the world.  We are huge fans of this organization for many reasons.

One example of how effective charity: water is at carrying out their mission is how they follow up with every donation and communicate exactly how and where it was used.  I received an email from them a few months ago letting me know that the projects that my fundraising went to have been completed.  I was so impressed to see the detailed report they gave on just how this money was used!

Check out the latrine that was built at an elementary school in Ethiopia, which sounds so simple but will have an incredible impact on the people of this village.  They even provide the GPS coordinates so you can see exactly where it is.

The funds also went toward a well in Ethiopia that provides clean drinking water to a village of 220 people who used to walk 2 hours to collect dirty water.  Now, they walk less than 15 minutes and have an abundance of clean water!  It's really cool to see also how they have taken ownership of the well.

I hope you take a minute to check these out.  Some of you were part of these projects with your donations.  Thank you!

School Pics

Here's Mr. Mister's school picture.  He's looking so handsome and grown up!

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photo by Lisa Deaton

Mid Life Awakening

Is 30 too young to have a mid life crisis?  But I guess I wouldn't call it a crisis.  I'm not tempted to go buy a tiny red sports car and travel the world.  Quite the opposite actually, as both of those would be impossible at this stage of life.  I think it is better described as a mid life awakening.  An awakening to the fact that yes, I actually am getting older.  I know, 30 isn't that old.  But it's older.  And it's not slowing down.  Here was the scene of my awakening...

We are on the verge of buying a mini van today or tomorrow. We have one we like and are just finishing all of the thinking through of the details.  I don't fear being a mini van mom.  Actually, I've been excited for it because bending over with my 28 week pregnant belly and cramming the boys into the Civic has become harder and harder every week.  So I've actually been looking forward to this so that I can have more room.

But there I was, sitting in the driver's seat in the parking lot with the sun shining down and I noticed as I glanced in the mirror on that sunny afternoon that I had a few more gray hairs sparkling in the sun than I had ever noticed before.

Then I got out and looked at the outside of the van and could see my reflection once again.  Pregnant belly with baby #3, staring at a mini van with gray hairs sparkling.  How did I get to this place in life already?

That's more my question.  It's a great place to be.  I love it and am very content in this place.  It's just really hard to believe that was me staring back at me in the reflection.  Life just keeps going.  And it's not slowing down.

Halloween

I thought I'd post some Halloween pictures before Thanksgiving is here!

We carved pumpkins in early October (you can tell by the shorts and t-shirts).  It was a lot of fun - Mr. Mister was very involved this year.  He designed one of the Jack-O-Lanterns in the picture below.  See if you can guess which one :)  Mr. Newton was happy to spoon pumpkin insides from one bowl to the next.

The day before Halloween we had some friends over and the kids all wore their costumes.  It was a beautiful fall day and we got some great pictures of them in the leaves. 

By the time Trick-Or-Treating came on Monday, Mr. Newton decided he was done with the pirate outfit.  He cried when we tried to put it on him and I think he would still cry today if I held it up. He was a cute pirate though! He wore a fire helmet instead and still got a bowl of candy way too big for an 18 month old.

Mr. Mister definitely did not get tired of his Darth Vader costume!  He would probably wear it every day if I let him.