My Voice

I just sent this to 596 people in the government:
(If you want to know how to fax your own message, let me know. If you disagree with me, talk to your dog about it. I DON'T CARE!!)

As a mom of 4 children, I am outraged at the government's attempt to take over my family's life. It is my responsibility to take care of myself and my kids. I want the government out of it! If politicians would allow the American people to take care of ourselves, our economy would heal itself. Obama has taken a bad situation and turned it into a disaster. I feel sick when I think of what this administration is doing to my future and that of my children. Shoving a health care bill, that no one wants, down our throats is nothing more than a plot to take away our freedoms and turn this country into a socialist nation. I have never been so angry about something in my entire life!!! I REALIZE THAT YOU PROBABLY WON'T READ THIS because you don't care what the people want. (It feels good to rant, though.) This is no longer a government of the people, by the people. This administration has proved that it is an oligarchy of elitists who are completely removed from the people. Use some common sense instead of your political agendas to run this country, and we can get back to being a flourishing free nation. DO NOT VOTE FOR OBAMACARE!! It is a bill created by evil, arrogant leaders who should have never been given power.

Brand New Things

So many new exciting happenings going on in the Patterson household. I'll start with the big move. It happened the same week as a children's production at church in which Bryce, Evyn and Lynn were involved. So much for a weekend of moving. It was a weekend of chaotically scheduled events with a new house involved. Lots of boxes to open--that's all I remember. I was so excited to have a place for everything in my kitchen. I have often since just stood in the kitchen (as well as the bathroom) thinking how wonderful it is to have space. I'm currently awaiting many more boxes to arrive from storage. I'm in no hurry for this to happen. I'm enjoying not packing or unpacking. It seems that's all I've done in my "spare time" for months now.
In addition to a new house, I've gotten a new dining room table (that we desperately needed), a big comfy new couch (which has made me dangerously lazy at times), and a new Dyson (woo-hoo!). What a Mother's Day! I've really enjoyed my family much more without the cramped space. When 2 children are singing 2 different songs, a toddler is trying out all of her new sounds and a baby is letting us know she's still there, it's much easier to handle in a large room than a tiny one.
ahhhh...
Moving on...
Zoey has impressed me this week with how much she can say. I'm sure I've said it before, the learning-to-talk age is my favorite. Here are some words that people besides me can understand: doggie, puppy (which is anything with 4 legs), car, I love you, bye-bye, hi, hey, yeah, uh-oh, mine, Macy, uh-uh, no, Bryce, grandad, dad, baby, waffle, ice, and mess. (I'm sure there are some I have forgotten) Notice I did not say Mom. I'm ok with that.
Zoey's not the only one rapidly climbing up the milestone hill. Shylo rolled over for the first time Sunday. She did it about 4 times in a row. Fortunately she did it once more while I got video of it on my phone. Then she stopped. Hasn't done it since. I guess she doesn't want to show off.
Equally big in the baby news department...dun-du-du-dun...
Zoey pee-peed on the potty!!
She's noticed the stream going down into the bath water as she gets in each time. The first time she did it, I tried to put her on our toilet, but she wasn't havin nun uh that! So we got her this cute little princess thing that plays a tune when you get the bottom wet. Well, she apparently wasn't ready yet because every time I would extend the ivitation at bath time, the answer was always, "uh-uh" with a vigorous head shake. No problem. On your own time kid. So, we haven't had the potty out since we moved. Tonight at bath time, she looked down to her legs (where the stream usually flows)as if to say, "I know what's about to happen..."
And there was this promising gleam in her eyes. Hmmm...should we pull out the princess potty?
Lynn unpacked it and brought it in. I asked Zoey,"do you want to go potty?"
She sat down. The potty sang a joyful tune. I did the potty-training-mommy-squeal-of-delight. She jumped up in confusion. Lynn popped his head in followed by Evyn and then Bryce. We all clapped our hands and sang "Good girl, Zoey, you went potty!"(Every mom has been there.) Even Shylo got an excited smile on her face. Zoey began to proudly clap. Hopefully she understands the origin of our delight and will repeat the process many more times to come.
My original plan was to reward her with a tiny M&M with each accomplishment. However, we've eliminated sugar from our diets recently, so that plan is out the window. It actually makes me happy that she waited so I didn't implement the M&M plan only to have to stop abruptly. That could have been disastrous!

A Little Joy

Shylo Video

My Funny Kids

It's been awhile since I've blessed you with the funny things my kids have done. I have a couple in my head, so I thought I would share. Enjoy!
The first one will take a little introduction. Because Zoey was born at home, and Bryce is 7, he remembers the experience quite well. I was very fortunate to have my sister here during the birth, if for no other reason than to take my dear son out of the room. Poor guy was nearly traumatized. The worst part for him was that scary looking umbilical chord. I knew it had scared him, but hadn't truly known the full effect until Shylo's arrival when he again mentioned the umbilical chord. Not knowing it's name, he just called it that thing coming out of her belly. He was very pleased that he wouldn't have to see it. His description is the funny part!

He said in disgust, "It looks like a dinosaur pee-pee!" wow!

Zoey is staying in Amarillo this week so Mommy can get a few hours of sleep. Grandma followed her into a room to see what she was doing because she looked quite determined to accomplish something. She got into her bag, took out 1 wipe, walked deliberately into another room, where she had seen a spot on the wall, and began to clean it off. Amazing! That's her personality, though. She loves to clean! She'll clean her tray after lunch. She can barely play outside without wiping the dirt off her hands. She will also run to the nearest adult to wipe off her jeans if she fell down and got them dirty. (After, of course, she's attempted to clean them herself.)

Zoey also loves to talk on play phones. I think I've mentioned that before. She was holding her toy phone today, and Lynn's mom noticed that she was running both thumbs across the keys as fast as her motor skills would allow. Grandma finally realized that she was texting. Apparently, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Speaking of apples...it's not funny, but she has said both "apple" and "nana" this week. We know she was requesting a banana, and think she was requesting applesauce. She has also said "up" to get on the couch. Have I mentioned she's brilliant?

Bryce has a Star Wars calendar that he loves to keep track of. He religiously pulls off each page and knows exactly what day it is at any given moment. Lynn's mom noticed that he had missed a few days, so she asked him about it. He was a little surprised, but then said, "Grandma, we just had a baby!"

After writing this, I realized that Lynn's mom has experienced way more funny-kid-moments than I have.
But, I did just have a baby!

Zoey loves me!

Zoey wasn't too happy with the arrival of that new baby. I've never seen her bottom lip out so far as the day Shylo arrived. She did show relief when she saw my sister in the hospital holding her. I'm assuming she thought, "Oh good! Aunt Crystal's here to take her away." Then once I got home with Shylo, Zoey wanted nothing to do with me. She wouldn't look at me. You may notice some of the pictures of Shylo's first day when Zoey looked quite disturbed with the whole situation.
She's displayed small moments of affection toward Shylo in the last few days, giving her big kisses and patting her gently.
Then this morning, Zoey actually laid next to me, gave me a big kiss and hugged and patted me. She's been interacting with me all morning. I guess she just needed to be reassured that she wasn't being replaced.

Shylo is Here

I'm sure most of you have visited www.patterson-pack.com and have been updated on Shylo's arrival, but I need to put my thoughts here, of course. Shylo Re Patterson was born on February 16 at 1:13 pm weighing in at 8 lbs, 9 oz. and measuring 21 inches long. It was the smallest baby I've ever birthed, but the most painful, longest birth yet. There was a point in the process that I was so mad at the whole hospital situation that I wanted to hurt someone! (I actually let out an explative at one time, but I'm sure i will be forgiven.)
Birth is, to me, one of the most beautiful, incredible experiences I have ever had. That is until you sit me on a towel made of sandpaper and tell me I'm not allowed to stand up, drink or eat. Then pump me full of a drug that unnaturally pushes a baby out at a rate that was in no way planned by my body or God. Then the absolute worst--force me to lay on my back to push a huge head against gravity when I'm not even fully dilated.
I now totally understand why so many women think it's necessary to have pain medication to birth a baby! I wanted an epidural at one point just for my butt on the sandpaper towel!
That's all I'm going to say negatively about the situation. I have a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Nothing went wrong. It's over, and I've now experienced the torture that so many women have talked about when referring to birth. And they think I'm crazy for having babies at home. If the experience were the same at home without the option of drugs, it would be crazy! My roomful of attendants thought I was crazy for opting out of no pain meds. I think a lot of things that happened in that room were crazy, but my choices were the only sane decisions being made.
Sorry, I said I was done being negative...
The nurses, with one exception, have been amazing! The food is even good. Shylo is the perfect baby sister to join our family. She truly lives up to her name--"His gift". What a precious gift for us!

checked

I'm 4 cm and 60%. Procrastinator! 2cm for 3 weeks, and now we progress in a matter of hours. It's going to start going very fast now! If you don't hear from me it means the pain has gotten too much for typing...
Maybe we'll have baby pics posted next!
10:33

irritable

My contractions are getting stronger. I know I'm not the most pleasant patient. Most women, I'm sure, would want to be here. Just keep thinking of seein' the baby. But my butt hurts!! whose bright idea was this?! Oh yeah! the doctor's! It will be over soon. And I will have a new baby...
10:15

big one

I just had a big contraction. The time on these blogs is way off, so I'll let you know it's actually 9:37 at the moment. At least the beeping has stopped. Maybe we'll have a baby soon. My thoughts aren't coming out as smoothly as usual, but you can figure it out, I'm sure. It's hard to type with a heart monitor on my finger...and there's another contraction. not as big...9:40. I wonder why they aren't regular and getting worse. I know they're the real thing, but it's not following the rules.

all I hear is beeping

I'm having contractions. There's lots of beeping. It says "inclusion downstream" whatever that means.

still beeping...

Probably too much info

They won't even let me pee!

hospital birth update

My water has been broken. I'm awaiting petocin. The hospital has blocked facebook, so I'm updating here. I hate IVs. I hate having to sit in a bed very still so they can monitor me. This goes against everything I stand for. I'm holding onto the thought that although this is not ideal, I am very fortunate to have a healhy baby. OK, nurse just came in to start petocin.

Meds

Bryce had a fever today and it occured to me after reading that he would need 4 children's tylenol that our household needs baby pain reliever, children's pain reliever, junior pain reliever and adult pain releiver. Not too many families can say that.
I gave Bryce some junior motrin this evening and Evyn tried to convince him to take it by saying that it was bubblegum flavor. I told her it was actually orange, so she said, "oh, yeah, I've had it before." To which Bryce reacted, "No you haven't, Evyn! It's Jr High!"

Zoey Words

Zoey has started putting lots of different sounds together. We're entering my favorite baby-age. I love it when they start "talking". It is sometimes frustrating not to know what she wants, but the cute factor totally makes up for that. Instead of everything being "mamamama" and "dadadada" and "babababa", I hear "dadabootitlaw" and "kestabeeeeyda". I especially love it when she looks like she's really saying something deep. The eyebrows get invloved, the head cocks to the side, fingers point, hands rest on hips. Precious!
I love it when she actually seems to be talking to herself, just slightly above a whisper. Or when she says something to us and laughs like she just entertained us all. Today in the car, she was pointing and babbling and making Evyn and I crack up. Of course, Evyn always knows what she said. And why wouldn't she? It's obvious! (to a 5 year old who knows everything...)

She walks around talking on anything shaped like a phone--remotes and of course toy phones are her favorite. "alla" sounds just like "hello". And when someone is really on the other end, it changes a bit to sound like "allalla" which I believe is "I love you". The other day Grandma called and she gave a big kiss. She opens her mouth big and says "mwa". (Zoey, not Grandma)
She has also learned that "guns up" makes everyone freak out, so she'll do it on command now. We say "Guns Up!" and she holds her "gun" way up. Of course, this is followed by Oohs and Aahs and a huge, proud, adorable grin from our Littlest Tech Fan.

We're working on signs, but I've totally been slacking in that department. Apparently teaching time dimenishes with each new baby. I hope Shylo has the opportunity to learn something before she gets to school. ;-) Zoey can say "more" but that's about it at this point. Evyn is re-learning what I taught her as a baby, so I told her to help me teach Zoey. It's fun to watch.

39 Weeks

Reminds me of Baskin-Robbins...yum! (39 flavors...)
anyway!
I went to my 39 week doctor appointment today. Typically I don't have much to say about my doctor visits, which are every week now. Today, however, I was very happy to hear that he thinks this baby is about 7 pounds. He said that if she stays in until next week, she MAY be as much as 8 pounds. I have felt the whole pregnancy that this baby is smaller than the other 3, which have gotten progressively bigger. Bryce was born 8 lbs 12 oz, Evyn weighed in at 9 lbs 3oz and Zoey a whopping 9 lbs, 5 oz.
So, barely 8 lbs will be quite different for me. In a good way.

Little Green Tag

The dirt on our new lot was being dug up last week as the first step to building our house. Monday was the first day of inspection. Lynn drove by the lot and saw that 2 other lots near ours had little orange and pink notices on them. Ours did not have the pretty little tags, so he got out of the truck to see what they said. Apparently, pink and orange means "did not pass inspection". I'm glad we didn't have one of those. I'm not sure of the details of why...something about the dirt not being compacted enough. I don't really care about the details. He drove by again today and saw a little green tag. Green means "go". I like green.

Bryce and Evyn's birthdays

This weekend, we celebrated Bryce and Evyn’s birthday. Earlier in the week, we celebrated their birthdays individually on their actual birthdays, which are 2 days apart. In the past, I have just combined the two just because it was easier. We decided this year, they are old enough that they need to start having their own special day. It was difficult for Bryce to understand why Evyn got presents and he didn’t. It all worked out though.

We still combined the party for them to save me time, money and sanity. We took them to Jump N Jive in Amarillo and invited a few friends and family. It was fun for the kids and easy for me. Jump n Jive is a big building full of bounce houses and air games for ALL ages. Even Zoey had a blast. Most of the time, I let the kids play and the adults switch off with Zoey. That meant I got to sit and watch it all happen.

We also fed everyone a big tray of chick-fil-a nuggets and cheap wal-mart brand fruit punch. It was absolutely the cheapest, easiest double-birthday I’ve ever been in charge of. I’m usually determined to make homemade invitations, elaborate cakes, food and decorations. And I stress myself out to the point of missing the joy of the birthdays. I’ve recently come to the realization that I don’t have to do any of that. The kids don’t care one way or the other…except they probably don’t enjoy the frazzled, irritable mommy that comes along with the Martha Stewart parties. Of course, I still couldn’t resist making the cakes. But I focused on easy instead of elaborate. This was my favorite part! I made a wii-mote cake for Bryce—very simple. And EVYN made her own cake. She loves to help me bake, and the memory of the experience will last much longer than the perfectly piped fluffy dog cupcakes I would have made.(and I still promised I would make her those on another day without anything else going on) So, she poured, measured, stirred, helped bake and iced the cake…and don’t forget the sprinkles!!(the Hannah Montanna colored cake at the top was her creation. I added a bit of frosting from the last picture to the one above it...but she then added all those yummy sprinkles) She loved doing it, and it came out delicious. And I loved the time I spent with her instead of the time I spent fussing at her because I was busy making her cake.

I’ll probably extend myself unnecessarily on occasion, but I’ll always, from now on, remember that simple can be much better.

(I have put the cake pictures on here, but if you want to see more action shots from the birthday, go to our website (www.patterson-pack.com) and go to our family photo gallery. Then look at the birthday pictures. Lots of good ones!!)

Cliche

Evyn actually asked me yesterday why the sky is blue!

Resting....Sort of

I went to the doctor yesterday, and apparently have high blood pressure. There was talk of toxemia, but I'm sure my high score is due to the fact that I have 3 kids, one of whom is 1 year old, and another who is Evyn. Most of you probably don't know Evyn like I do. She wears me out. Not only does she ask about 86,975 questions a day, but then she either argues with your answer or tells you that you obviously didn't understand her question because you are so wrong. And don't even try not to listen! One day I was just responding with 'yep' to everything she asked because I was so tired, I couldn't think. She said, "mom, you're not even listening! I told you I am 5 and you agreed. I am not 5, mom, I am 4!"
It's not the only time that's happened. Just the first time, so I remember it.
And it's not just concentrating on her conversations that wears me out. You see, she is the boss in her mind. Anyone that disagrees with her on that, namely ME, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So, my job in relation to raising her--not easy. I hope that someday she will be a great leader...just not in our house at age 4!
When the doctor said that I have high blood pressure, my thoughts were that I've got a lot going on right now, and just need to slow down. I did have to have my blood drawn, (and I won't go into the details of the elaborate pee test!) but only as a precaution. The doctor told me that if it is toxemia, I will have to be induced. Not into that!! I will do whatever I need to for the safety of the baby, but I would rather rest and prevent it, then have a baby this weekend. That would not be convenient at all!! I have said that this whole hospital birth business felt like a God thing, and now I'm wondering what would have happened had I not gone to the doctor yesterday. I know for a fact I wouldn't be resting right now.
When I told Lynn that the doctor said I need to slow down, he said,
"Oh! Like I've been telling you for months." yes, dear, but I don't have time to slow down. Well, now apparently I've been forced to. Except that today we had 2 people come look at the house we're trying to sell, which meant I spent half of the morning cleaning, and the rest out and about being out of the house and going to pre-construction meetings and picking up kids and going to karate and coming home to cook dinner...
But now I'm resting. I always feel guilty when I "rest". So, it's really not that fun. At least I have been ordered to do so, which makes it a little easier to handle. But I still sit here and think about the laundry piling up...

pre-construction meeting

We went over the plans for the house today to make any final changes before they start building. I have moments when I just don't believe it. It doesn't seem real yet. Apparently they will start preparing the land within the next few days. you know I'll be there like everyday! Maybe once the frame is up it will seem more real. Lynn and I have done multiple remodeling jobs and had every intention of taking before and after pictures, as well as everything in between. Did we do it? Nope. Maybe when we're not actually doing the work it will be easier to record the process. that doesn't mean I'll necessarily get the photos on here, but I'll certainly try.
We did walk through the model home again with our plans in hand to compare and contrast with our future home. I noticed new things I'd never seen before. It's fun to picture where I will put things. That craft room is still my favorite! We also got to see how big the back yard is. All I care about is if it's big enough for a trampoline, pool and swing set once we get our 15 foot back porch and Lynn's shop in the yard. It will be. Plenty of room to run and giggle.
We also made sure that 3 beds would fit in the girls' room, and made plans for the furniture in the Master bedroom. By the time this house is built, I will have walked through the model home enough times to walk through ours with my eyes closed.

Exciting News

Well, it's exciting for me and my family. We have begun the process of building a new house. We will be doubling the square footage and adding a bedroom. the girls will all still be sharing a room, but we will have a separate playroom which will open up quite a bit of space in the room they will sleep in. I also get my CRAFT ROOM!! I've dreamed about having a separate area for my expensive little hobbies for a very long time. Lynn will get his office. We're all happy about that. As much as I love having a cluttered desk in the living room...

Anyway, we have just begun the process, but our new house will be here before we know it. We also have to sell the house we're living in before we can actually pay for the new one, but I'm sure it will happen with perfect timing. Getting the house ready to sell and thinking of a new one has kept me distracted from the fact that I am expecting a baby in less than a month. So, we have a lot going on. This is a particularly busy time, but it does make the end of the pregnancy go by more swiftly.

We had originally discussed building a house by ourselves. Lynn could do all of the building, and we could hire people to do parts he doesn't want to do. It would probably save us money, but it would also take years to accomplish--at least in my opinion, it would. This way is a lot easier and doesn't take away from the time we have as a family. So, we prayed and looked and priced and questioned and compared...and decided to go with Betenbough. The lot we are getting is on the bigger end of the price range spectrum as well as across from nothing. that nothing should someday become a park where our kids could play as we watch from our large front porch.

Last week we picked out all of our tile, counter tops, cabinets, brick, carpet, etc...Even though it took 3 hours, it was less painful than I expected. The fact that we can always change the things we don't like (aside from the brick)made the decisions a lot easier. Honestly, I think it took less thinking for each decision than it does sometimes for me to decide what to eat at a new restaurant. This week we will sign more papers (only the beginning of that, I'm sure) for them to begin the actual building. The house should be finished in April, around Easter.

I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about it. You may even be subjected to photos of the whole process. If you want to go look at a virtual tour of the model home, you can go to the betenbough website (www.betenbough.com) and look for the Jina home. The inside is the same floor plan, only flipped with the garage on the other side. The front porch is different on the house we will get, but it gives us a better view of the kids playing across the street.

Zoey has a new and quite unusual behavior for a 13 month old. She is enamored with pen and paper. She loves to draw or color, but really just holding the two together will suffice. As a matter of fact, I was rather annoyed at her determination to hold them the other day. She was obviously tired and wanted to be held, which I was fine with at that moment. However, she was also obsessed with carrying her pen and paper at that very moment. This caused somewhat of a problem since her paper was actually a legal-sized notepad and could not easily be removed from my face area while she rested her head on my shoulder. Try cleaning a kitchen with a toddler in your arms, a huge notepad on one side of your face and a pen on the other. All while 9 months pregnant. The situation gave supermom a whole new meaning. So, I gently removed the paper from her chubby little hand, which threw her into hysterics! Maybe she will sit quietly next to me and draw...um, think again, mom! Not anywhere in Zoey's plans for the day. This fight went on for quite sometime until I gave in and just stood there holding her with that frustrated, exhausted look you can all imagine...paper on one side, pen on the other. She won that battle.

It made me think that she may someday become a wonderful writer. Her Granddad is not only an award winning/published play write, but he has been writing hilariously for as long as I can remember. (see his blog linked off to the side as Wm the Great)I know there are other accomplished writers in my family tree, but I don't know the exact details of their talents. I used to be able to write before all of my offspring sucked my brains out.
I just hope she doesn't start carrying a computer around, since that's what we all use to write now. That could get hairy.