Kitty Bath

One of the funny things that Halle did today that I just had to laugh at (of course discplined her first then laughed to myself later) But she went upstairs (of course while I was feeding Bennett- so for those of you wondering what it was like with 2 kids... here you go) and stuck a tissue in the toilet...got it wet byt putting her hand in the toilet and waving the tissue around and went to bathe Klio (the cat). She did this repeatedly because when I was walking up the stairs I heard the toilet lid shut and her little feet running back towards the bedroom. I walked in the bathroom and first off the floor around the toilet was sopping wet, the hall into our room was wet, our bed were Klio had been was wet, our treadmill (found right by our bed) had water all over the top of it...and Halle with this smirk on her face telling me that Klio was so dirty so she is giving her a bath. Then a big smile on her face as she looks up at me like aren't you oh so proud of me mommy?? So I think from now on I will be turning on a movie every time I feed Bennett...and locking the bathroom doors.

My Big Kids...

A little late but had to share. Halle went to the Doctor last week and we found out that she is in the 75% for height and weight (great) and of course the size of her head is still of the charts. (She ot that Martino big head...) Love it! Well, we also went to the Doctor earlier this week for Bennett and found out that he, 2 weeks after he was born, now weighs 10lbs. That was Monday...by today...he is outgrowing his 0-3mo. clothing!!! SERIOUS!! The funniest part about Bennett's apt. is the doctor said "Samye, you are going to have a big boy...I mean a BIG BOY!" I thought that was pretty comical! Needless to say I think my kids are going to be bigger than me in no time!!

We love Grammy...and the truth

Grammy is in town!!! (dustin's mom) and we are LOVING it!! It is such a nice help so far, and she has only been here for 24 hours! It is so nice to have her here helping us for this next week- and I am super excited to get to show her all around Bloomington starting bright and early tomorrow morning with Bennett's doctor apt!

Anyway- a lot of you have asked what it is like having two kids and have expressed that you want the honest truth. So here is the non-sugar coated honest truth. Two kids are GREAT! I think that two years apart is the perfect amount for us. 18 months and I think I would have slit my wrist. Halle for the most part just ignores Bennett's presence for the most part but when she does notice him she is a big help and wants to put his binky in for him, and other really cute things. When Bennett screams she just completly ignores it...almost like he really isn't crying. The one hard thing so far is the nursing. When I am nursing unless I get her watching a show of some sort she will destory the house in the 30 minutes it takes to nurse him. Halle is in a big girl bed but can't open her room door so in the afternoon I am adament that Halle takes the 2 hours in the afternoon to nap- and if she isn't napping that is fine but it gives me a good break. And for the most part I am getting a good night sleep every night so I am not walking around like a zombie during the day. The one thing that I tried doing (which might sound bad) is I really worked hard on getting her to play by herself a lot and not to rely so much on me to play with her- that way when Bennett came I had already been "ignoring her" so for me to be taking care of Bennett wasn't too big of a deal. I do try every day to do something special with Halle while Bennett is down or while the moms are here- playing outside...reading stories..going on picnics... fun things that only we can do. We are using the "Oh Bennett, you can't do that because you aren't a big girl...only Halle can do that" a lot. Which I think makes her feel really special. Anyway- that is my honest opinion... i will keep you updated if my opinion changes. Let me know if you guys have any more questions- it is late and as we all know mommies brains don't work all the way at night.

Two weeks and a big helper

Well Bennett is now two weeks old, and yes it is still flying by! He is the best baby...and I know that everyone says that about their kids but he is SO much easier than Halle EVER was!!! He is already waking up just once at night- 3 or 3:30 then will wake up around 7!! SO NICE! He is really easy going, and loves to eat (burn those calories right??) Halle is a great big sister, she is always helping and trying to keep his binky in...that is until I change his diaper than she just doesn't know what to do. We have been doing well since my Mom took off but are super lucky because Dustin's mom or Grammy flies in today to stay with us for a week to help out. We love having such great helpers!!!
On another note- Halle has now grown out of size 5 diapers...do they make a size 6?? I don't want to potty train right now but I don't know if they make diapers that can handle her!?!? I am going to take off today during the kids nap time to see if they make a size 6...and if they don't does that mean we have to start using pull ups?? I think this is about to get really really expensive...as apposed to the regular just expensive to keep kids in diapers!! Wish me luck!

Daddy son time

Too Cute to not pass up! Bennett just couldn't stop looking at Dustin, I thought it was way too cute!

What happens with two kids

I have got to get it together... as any mom will agree with me when you are pregnant you forget a lot of things...and then you have a child and you forget more. THEN you get pregnant with #2 and you forget even more, and #2 comes along and you loose all control. What happens if I have more than 2?? As this picture can prove I have got to remind myself that Halle still wears a diaper, and she knows how to take it off- so I HAVE to make sure she keeps it on at all times. I caught her watching Dustin grill up dinner tonight and hence the picture!!

Ladies only...

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME!!!!!!!!!!! This is a story that was sent to me that I just had to pass on!!!!!!

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now. . . the wax.

Read on.........

"My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: "Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet."

So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom. It was one of those "cold wax" kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off. No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. ("Cold wax," yeah...right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works!

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this!

Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my hoo-ha and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (it was a long strip)

I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRRRIIIIPPP!!!!
I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!...
OH MY ******!!!!!!!!!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. CRAP! Another deep breath and RIPP! Everything is spinning and spotted. I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...must stay conscious. Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe.................. OK, back to normal.

I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair.

I hold up the strip!

There's no hair on it.

Where is the hair???

WHERE IS THE WAX???

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip...it's not! I touch. I am touching wax.

I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair. Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped upon the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down.

Sealed shut! My butt is sealed shut. Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself, "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!" What can I do to melt the wax?

Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right???

*WRONG!!!!!!!*

I get in the tub - The water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together, is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub ... in scalding hot water. Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax.

So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cemented myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!! I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter "So, my butt and hoo-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!"

There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, "Are we talking cheeks or hole or hoo-ha?"

She's laughing out loud by now ... I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box.

YEAH!!!!! Right!!

I should be the joke of someone else's night. While we go through various solutions I resort to trying to scrape the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better than to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace .... the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax.

What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and

OH MY ***!!!!!!!

The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. Its sooo painful, but I really don't care.

"IT WORKS!!

It works!!" I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....

THE HAIR IS STILL THERE.......ALL OF IT!

So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts.

I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color......"

We love our sleep

So we have decided that Bennett already has my sleeping habit! He loves sleeping with one arm above his head...and as you can see so do I. That was the biggest draw back of being pregnant- I couldn't sleep on my back, so i couldn't sleep with my arm above my head. You better believe I am enjoying sleeping with my arm now...as Bennett is too!!!

Why we love Sugar!

For those of you who don't know, my mom's "grandma" name is Sugar. Yes, interesting- but it really works with my mom and Halle loves it! Anyway- it has been SO nice having my mom here to help out. She takes Halle on an adventures every morning which gives me a change to relax. Bennett is such a good baby, he has taken right to our nightly routine...and when he doesn't want to participate in our nightly ritual that is when we are thank full for our Sugar! The routine is, we keep him up from 6pm-9pm so that he will sleep great at night. My mom had a pediatrician who told her to do this and in no time her baby would adjust to sleeping at night and be more awake during the day. IT WORKS!! Bennett is now on day 6 of waking up twice at night...once at 2am and then again at 6. I think this also has to do with the fact that he is quite the eater and is close to if not 9lbs already. These pics are of my mom helping us keep Bennett awake...he hates it, and my mom has even admitted that she just feels so bad for him when he is screaming his lungs out-but it works and we will continue!!

Bennett's first bath and more

Hello to all- we are back! It has been such a wonderful week for us and had to share it with everyone!! Bennett is such a good little baby- we are so excited to have him in our family...especially Halle!! She loves having someone to take care of, and of course enjoys all the special jobs that come with him. I am doing great, for all of those out there that only have one and question if they will ever have another- well the recovery for Bennett was so much faster than with Halle. I am feeling really really good- still just a wee bit sore, but really really good. I am also feeling great because I am no longer pregnant (yeah!)!! I am really excited because my mom is coming up today to help out- it will be nice for Halle since I can't really go anywhere right now (nursing way too often) so my mom can take her places and keep her busy!! We went to a Doctor's apt. today - and as I mentioned before Bennett is such a good eater..well here ya go- I had him last Friday and he weighed in at 8'7. When we left the hospital on Sunday night he weighed 8'1. Today, Tuesday morning he weighed in at 8'8. Yes he does enjoy his food, and yes I think he is going to be a BIG boy!! Oh and these pics are of Bennett's first bath at home- he LOVEs having his hair washed. He just looked at us and cooed the entire time. Now his body...not a fan of having that washed!! Oh well... I will post more pictures later!!

More Bennett

Bennett Dustin Peterson was born on September 7, 2007, at 3:21 pm after 25 minutes of pushing by the beautiful and brave Samye. He weiged 8 lbs 7 ounces and is 21 inches in length. As you can see from some of the pictures, he has a ton of hair. Halle really took to him after initially being a little stand-offish. One of the pictures shows her going in for a kiss. She LOVED holding him on Daddy's lap and definitely felt like a big helper. She gave him a little toy that she had picked out at the store, a blue teddy bear, and she beamed as I picked her up so that she could place it in his bassinet -- she chucked it from about 4 feet away and it landed on his face. :) He had no idea, and it is a light, soft bear. It was one of those "Here ya go bud....enjoy; now where's my movie" type things. However, she loves watching him and I think she will be a great helper with the binky. Bennett is eating like a champ and latched right on to Mommy after merely a few minutes out of the womb. He knew exactly what to do and, according to my most recent call from Samye, he has fed 6 times in the past 6 hours (they usually strive for 4 feedings within the first 24 hours). Samye finally told the nurses to just take him and feed him formula because he is being to leave her in a little pain. Anyway, Samye is feeling great (considering) and we are excited to get them home on Sunday morning. For those of you in Bloomington, Samye is in room 2817 at the Bloomington Hospital and feel free to give me a call at 812-272-1710 to verify that she is available for a visit. For those who aren't, feel free to call her phone and leave a message or drop her a comment or email.

Thanks for all of your support! More pictures and updates are on the way!

Bennett Dustin Peterson

Ouch!

Samye's Faithful Readers:
I am writing on behalf of my lovely, brave, in-pain wife. We are in the Labor and Delivery at the Bloomington Hospital, as the picture suggests. I am freezing. They keep these rooms sub-zero/borderline antartctic for these pregos, but enough about me. Samye is dilated to a 6 and 90% effaced (not sure what any of that really means, but I'm sure some of you can relate). She has been having contractions since 1 am, we arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am, her water broke at 10 am, and I don't think we are far off from a baby now at 1:30 pm. She wanted me to keep the blog up-to-date (as a true blogger desires). We will keep you posted.
The less-talented of the two bloggers,
Dustin

Potty Woman

Well not to change the subject, but lets keep talking about life here and all the funny things that Halle does on a day to day basis. So, I had to share the moment with you all- tonight Halle is in the bath tub just playing away (baths usually last about 30+ minutes these days). I am just sitting there reading when all of a sudden she stands up and tells me
"Mommy...I go peeps"
I reply with "yes i know" while still reading my magazine
She says "mommy NO...I go peeps" and starts trying to get out of the bathtub.
So, I say Ok, what the hey, we can give this a try. I put her little potty seat on the toilet and throw her little soapy bum up there just to show her that she can sit up there.
She sits there and tells me "it's not working"
I say "hold on...let's wait just a minute"
"not working"
"one more minute"
when all of a sudden . tinkle tinkle....
"IT WORKS!!"
tinkle tinkle
"IT WORKS AGAIN"
wait a minute
"ok I'm done"
She gets down and climbs back into the bath tub to resume play.
What?? This is what I am asking myself. We are not pushing potty training at all...in fact I have pretty much decided that we weren't even going to try and potty train the child until after Christmas...that way we didn't have to worry about potty breaks etc during traveling time. Needless to say- I am thinking it might have been the Princess panties we saw at Target today..I told her that when she went potty in the big girl potty she could get princess panties... believe me though... there is no way I am going to go for potty training with a new born on the way. Up until tonight she has never had a problem going to the bathroom in her diaper... (and this includes the big stinky mess at Target while talking about the Princess panties) Anyway- i think we have a while to go..I just thought it was hilarious about "it not working"

No news

Sorry, once again no pictures but had to update everyone...we have been up to nothing. Today was my official due date and since it is 10pm here I am going to guess that "little dude" will be late and not arrive on his due date. I tried though...yesterday I walked 5 miles, and today I put in another 2. We had Pinapple for part of dinner (suppose to help) and I have been (yes picture this) sitting on my ab ball rolling around (rolling my hips) to see if that would do anything. The good news is that he will be healthy and happy when he comes...and by golly he better be sleeping through the night by week 2 because he is going to be so healthy... (wishing??) Anyway- we will keep everyone updated. and when we do head to the hospital...(in 2 weeks??) we will let everyone know via blog- we will take our laptop with us. So let us all pray that little dude decides to show up really really soon!!
*oh and I just got a good kick out of this. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, I have had a counter going as to when "little dude" will be born. As of today he has arrived...please do tell me where ?? Obviously I am missing something... oh well!!

The "day after post"

Haha, love the title. Anyway- had to catch everyone up! We didn't end up going to a movie (sad I know) but we only have 2 movie theatres here, and all the movies either started at 7 or at 10. None in the middle! Our sitter got off of work at 7:30 so that would mean that we would go to a 10' showing...and neither of us wanted to stay up that late!!(That is when you know you are getting old!!) But we did end up going to Chilis to celebrate with a birthday dinner (always a good safe choice) and then we came home to a Cheesecake birthday cake (thanks to a wonderful husband...and Sara Lee) and opened presents. I have to admit, Dustin is really creative with his gifts!! He (and Halle) got me 2 Yoga outfits, and a gift to the local Yoga place for classes this fall after baby comes (if he does come) and they even specialize in post maternity yoga!! (I must also say the clothes are actually really really cute...and they match really well)!! Dustin bathed Halle and put her down for the night (another wonderful gift) then we watched Hitch with Will Smith (great flick). It was a great night!

Right now Dustin is away at a retreat for work...Yeah I know, I am due in 3 days and he is on a retreat?? Luckily the retreat site is only about 30 minutes away and he took the car so that he can come home either really late tonight or early tomorrow morning so that he won't have to be gone on Sunday and miss church (which is so nice!) ! Halle and I are enjoying playing... we did play outside this morning before the heat kicked into full gear... and now we are working on puzzles! Anyway- i hope everyone enjoys their weekend and I do love hearing about everyone's weekend through the updates on blogs!! We will keep everyone posted on little dude...