Danny's Imagination

Danny's imagination seems to have truly kicked in! He has been pretending to be different animals. He was imitating being a dog for about a week. He would pant with his tongue hanging out, bark when he wanted something, and sniff everything. He would also lick your face.

Two days ago, he decided to change animals. He is now pretending to be a horse. He neighs, prances around on all fours, and even rears! The most common time of day for his animal antics seems to be breakfast time. Right when we are trying to get him to eat something! He is so cute.

He also is starting to get scared by things he sees. We are having to pay attention to movies now. Many of the monsters in Fantasy movies scare him, and since I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night to a nightmare, we are reserving those shows until after he goes to bed. So. . . Disney all the way!

We are still trying to figure out a way to get him to sleep past 6am. He will wake up anywhere between 5:30 and 7, but mostly at 6. The rest of us exauhsted Adults are trying to savor the morning sleep we have. We all have to get up at 7 anyway, we just wish he would let us sleep till then! We have tried everything short of letting him cry it out if he wakes up early (cause that makes everyone in our house wake up!) Any suggestions would be wonderful. He goes to bed at 9pm, and does take a nap during the day. We have thought about taking his nap away. . . but it is just too precious to me. It is my nap time too!

Meanwhile, 37 weeks and counting! Tiana Suzette can make her arrival safely at any time. . . however, the midwife doesn't think it will be this week.

New Job!

Car Sales have been very slow, due to the gas scare. Usually summer time is the busiest time of year for us, and usually brings in enough money to survive the winter famine (no one buys cars in the winter unless they are desperate.) This year, however, seems to have hobbled along. The cars that are sold now have so little profit to them that it hit us hard last month. Usually, when Scott sold 5 cars, it was a good month. Last month he sold 5, and it wasn't enough to cover bills. So he started looking for something else.

When we made it through half of this month with only one sale, we knew he had to do something, but couldn't find a job that would work. Scott was so frustrated, people would come and look, but wouldn't buy. He said it was like the weather, it looked like it would rain, but never did. When Sunday's deluge hit us, I was so thankful. It felt like this beautiful promise of refreshing moisture after a drought.

Yesterday Scott called about a couple of jobs, and thought to talk to his friend. Charlie told him he would call him right back. A few minutes later, Scott was on his way to Tunex for a job interview. He was told he could start tomorrow (or rather. . . today.) After talking to his Sales Manager, he was told to go ahead and start the new job. See, when you work straight commission, they don't really need or want you to stick around for two weeks. This way the other salesman can make a larger profit for their families.

So this morning, Scott left to work for Tunex. I don't really know what he is doing, kind of a grease monkey with focus? Scott is nervous, he has only every fiddled and tweaked his own vehicles. He is willing and able to learn, though, and he will be working with two good friends.

A sudden change for us, but so needed! I just hope that he enjoys it!

Nesting

I know. I go nearly a week and half without writing, and then have 3 blogs to post all at once. I really meant to post something during last week, but I kept finding other things I HAD to do. I blame it on the Nesting Instinct.

I am now 35 1/2 weeks. On Saturday I can consider myself safe from premature labor, and ready to have a baby any minute. Not that little Tiana will grace us with her presence that early. I am well aware that babies come when they want to. Danny was 8 days overdue.

However, it does mean that I am doing everything I can do get ready. Since I am having a home birth, it involves a little more than the normal preparation.

Last night, we rearranged our bedroom, so there will be plenty of room for the birth. Last week I went through Danny's room. I packed up all the toys he doesn't play with anymore, and decided to organize his closet. Since I am going to be putting Tiana's clothes there too, I thought I would go get some plastic drawers. We are on a tight budget this month, and so when I saw that the drawers were $10 and that it would take $60 to do what I wanted, Scott and I looked for another alternative. This is what we came up with:

For $3 a piece, these storage bins were perfect!

Anyway, I have been constantly distracted by this NEED to get my home in order. So, sorry for the lack of updates, I just kept finding something else that had to be done.

Nose Bleeds

I never expected to be woken up in the middle of the night by a nose bleed. Vomiting, fever, diahrea, even bed wetting, but not nose bleeds. I rarely get a nose bleed, let alone have it burst upon me while sleeping. Scott, however, gets them fairly often (compared to me) and so it must be genetic. Either that, or Danny picks his nose while he is sleeping.

Last night was the third time in the last 4 months that I heard Danny crying, and came in to find his face, hands and pillow covered in blood. The first time I nearly panicked, wondering where he was bleeding. Last night, half asleep, I hardly woke up to handle the emergency.

So, to you mothers who may have a cronic nose bleeder (and it only happens at night! So weird!) Let me give you a wonderful tool to stop the bleeding. Being the daughter of a chiropractor, my father sometimes surprises us with new and odd ways to solve problems. They always work, but you often wonder how. . .

Anyways, last year Dad solved a nose bleed for my sister by making her lay down on the ground, flat on her back, then he KICKED her heels! Twice on each heel. And the nosebleed stopped. I have no idea why kicking the feet cures a nosebleed, but it works everytime.

In the middle of the night, it is difficult to get Danny to lay flat (he is half asleep and crying too,) so instead I cradle him in my lap, straighten out his feet, and hit the soles two or three times. Sometimes I have to do it twice before it works (not as effective. . .) but it stops the nose bleed within seconds. This technique is so much easier than trying to plug his nose (he hates that!) or putting cayenne pepper up his nose (that works too, but try getting a toddler to let you do it!) or anything else I have tried.

Last night, I was up less then 8 minutes. I came in, found his nose bleeding. Got the diaper wipes, and cleaned his face and hands (I do this first so I can see if the bleeding stopped,) then I thumped his heels. I did it twice tonight. After heel thumping, I wiped his face again, and cuddled him while he immediately went back to sleep. Cake. Then I fell back in bed.

4th of July

Here are our pictures from the 4th of July. Oddly enough, these are the only ones I had. I must be remembering things wrong, cause I thought I had a TON of pictures! Oh, Well. It was a very memorable 4th, as we had my uncle and cousins there to celebrate with us. For three days we partied, chatted, and laughed. The boys played Halo, basketball, volleyball, while all the girls jumped in to play when they felt like it. (Needless to say, I didn't, but I still had a blast.)

I love seeing my extended family, we have so much fun! My mom had alot of fun stuff planned, but most of it fell apart at the last minute. It sure is great to know we can enjoy eachothers company without fancy planning. Us Logans aren't extensive planners anyway. I remember laughing when I saw my Aunt Becky's itinerary for the family reunion last year. It had a list of possible activities for everybody to do if they wanted, followed by "or whatever. . ." Our "whatever" tends to take the shape of gathering in the living room and talking. . . as the younger generation it mostly involves listening and laughing while Aunts and Uncles bring in memories of thier childhood. I love it!

Just in Case

We do have boys names picked out "just in case." Depending on how we feel when the baby is born, if it turns out to be a boy, we will name him either Isaac Ryan, or Steven Wayne.

However, I am pretty sure of my little girl. I knew she was coming right after Daniel since before he was born.

It's A Girl!

Early this morning, we went and had an ultrasound! Finally. We were wondering if we would get lucky, cause at this stage the baby is so big, she could have hidden from us. Especially as everytime we had tried to get a sonogram, we had been stopped.

The technitian was as certain as she could be that it was a girl (they can't be 100% sure.)

I must say, however, that the girl parts definately look different than Danny's parts did. Both Scott and I had thought we would be having a girl anyway, but it was nice to have it confirmed.

Now I get to do some shopping! We are at 33 weeks, so in 4 weeks we are safe. I am suddenly in the urge to rearrange and wash baby clothes, and get everything prepared for her arrival. I am so excited!

Her name will be Tiana Suzette.