Flanagan Clan

Samuel is actually feeling a lot better. He still has a lot of crud in his lungs, so it sounds terrible when he coughs, but I’ve been using the inhaler on him. I can’t tell if it’s working, but hopefully things will clear up soon!

Yesterday he was “bouncing” off the walls… he was creeping all over our entire downstairs and getting into anything he could find in reach. When I put him to bed I noticed the first thing he did was try to pull himself up onto his bumper, so I took that out immediately. I had originally taken out the bumper when he was about 4 months old, when he started to roll, but placed it back in a few weeks ago when he accidentally got one of his chubby legs stuck in between two crib rails.

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed is that Sammy’s legs don’t seem so fat and chubby anymore. I think he’s finally starting to lose some of that baby fat. Once he’s walking, I’m sure it will start coming off even faster!

Here are a few pictures I got of Sammy last night when he was being cute (not that he is ever not cute!!!).

Sammy discovers the fun of getting stuck inside a chair!

Peek a boo!

Somebody looks guilty!

Sammy loves his crib!

One other thing: By now you’ve probably all figured out that we’re going to be finding out the gender of our baby in two weeks. Well, to spice this pregnancy up a little bit, I’ve decided that I’m not going to announce the gender or name of the baby when we find out! Instead, I’ve come up with another game!  I will be putting up clues on this blog every week, and I’m going to make you all “work” to find out.  As soon as someone gets the correct answer, we’ll post it on the blog. However, if no one figures it out, we’ll announce it when the baby is born! The first person who guesses correctly will also receive a prize. If I’ve already mentioned our name ideas to you, unfortunately you won’t be able to play, but you’ll also probably figure out the answer sooner than everyone else. I’ll give more details as soon as the game starts!

Sammy has been pretty sick for over a week. He’s had a fairly bad cough, lots of green mucus clogging up his airways, and has felt generally very unpleasant. After seeing him look so miserable on Saturday, I scheduled an appointment for him to see the doctor this morning. The doctor took a look, told me his ears were slightly inflamed, which is a sign of an ear infection, though he said that he’d like to keep an eye on them and not administer antibiotics too hastily. However, Sammy had some pretty bad wheezing, so they gave him a treatment of medicine using a nebulizer in the office. He hated it! He cried so hard the entire time I was holding the little mask to his face. He wriggled and squiggled and tried so hard to get it off of him, but I had to hold it there for 5 minutes. He must have been pretty traumatized afterwards, because he cried and seemed really mad at me for several minutes after that, until I was able to distract him and help him forget his terrible nebulizer experience. The doctor came back, said that Sammy sounded slightly better, and sent us home with an inhaler for him. Thankfully, he said I could do this instead of renting a nebulizer! I’m hoping his inhaler will help clear him up!!!

I’m a little worried, though, because Patrick was very fussy today and is in middle of taking his second nap for the day. It might just be because he’s still worn out from a very long day we had yesterday. I’m really hoping that he’s not coming down with Sammy’s little bug…

Things haven’t been totally “sick” here though! On Saturday we had a garage sale and were able to get rid of some things that had been taking up a lot of space in our garage. We’ve been able to hang out with the aunties quite a bit (when they aren’t working!). We’ve been busy taking walks when the weather is nice. I’ve also found some motivation to begin working on some of my craft projects, mainly a baby cross stitch. My personal goal is to work on it an hour each day, though that doesn’t always happen. I’ll be lucky if I get anywhere close to done by the time the new baby turns 1! Speaking of which, Sammy turns one in a month, and we’re doing a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme for his party. Diane and I designed the cutest invitations! I am looking forward to being creative with his party!

Here are some pictures from the past week.

The boys taking their “first” bath together (apparently, the aunties gave them a bath together while Mommy was in Hawaii, so she didn’t know and couldn’t be there…)

Patrick seems like he’s having fun, at least!

Sammy is getting into trouble a lot more… here he got stuck behind our futon!

Patrick graciously gave Sammy all his goldfish crackers… by dumping them all over the floor. Sammy didn’t mind!

Patrick looking guilty!

Sammy feeling sick and taking a nap in the stroller

The past week has been very crazy and busy for us. I don’t have half the amount of energy that I normally have, so it’s been taking me so long to get the house clean. Normal tasks like sweeping and washing the floor take a big effort on my part, and require several breaks before the chore is completed. I even find I need to take breaks while cooking a lot more… I just can’t manage to be on my feet all the time. This baby is definitely sucking all the energy out of me!

Sammy hasn’t made things much easier for Mommy lately. He was just starting to creep around the living room when we left for Hawaii, but we came home to find him cruising around the entire downstairs!!! He’s everywhere now, and it’s taking a lot of effort on my part to make sure that we don’t drop anything or track anything into the house that Sammy might try to eat. This is much harder due to the fact that we have Patrick, who is constantly breaking things and dropping things on the floor. Sammy has also discovered the bookcase, thanks to the help of his older brother. He’s been trying to pull things off of it. When Patrick was his age, he was tearing and eating paperback books, so it’s just a matter of time, I think, before Sammy starts doing the same.

In addition, Sammy has been fussy. He’s getting his 5th tooth in, and he’s not been the happiest of little guys. However, he hasn’t figured how to pull himself up yet, and to be honest, I’m hoping that he’ll take his good old time!!! I think he’ll be a little on the late side with learning how to walk, too, but I think I’d rather keep it that way… because once he starts walking, Mommy’s job is going to get MUCH more difficult!

Today I hit 17 weeks with the pregnancy. I need to pull the pregnancy ticker back up to the top… it got buried while we were in Hawaii. For the past 11 weeks or so, I have found myself to have no motivation at all to do any of my cross stitch, sewing or crocheting. For the first two weeks after I found out I was pregnant, I was so busy working on all that stuff, but then the morning sickness started and I lost all motivation. When I was pregnant with both Patrick and Sammy, I really kept myself busy with sewing and cross stitching birth announcements for their rooms. I also had birth announcement cards designed by now, but I’m leaning heavily this time towards just buying some premade cards this time.  I have started a baby cross stitch for this one, but I haven’t gotten very far at all. It’s just been strange… usually I really enjoy doing all that stuff, but I just can’t bring myself to do any of it anymore. Most of the time, I’d much rather pass out on the couch during naptime… getting in any naps is usually pretty rare these days!

One of the things I have been able to accomplish was I was able to finally finish reading a parenting book while we were in Hawaii. It’s called “Don’t Make Me Count To Three” by Ginger Plowman. I would really recommend it. We’ve been struggling with how best to deal with our very willful little Patrick, when and how to spank him, what to expect of him, how to raise him in a Christian home, and so on. The book talks about dealing with heart issues, rather than just the outward actions of a child. We don’t want a child that obeys to avoid punishment, we want a child to obey because he loves God and wants to honor his parents, and this book talked about that a good deal. I will probably go back and reread the book again soon… I’m sure there is much that I missed the first time. I also need to finish reading “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp… it also deals with teaching parents to work on reaching the heart of a child, and not just focusing on the outward actions. I never realized how difficult child rearing would be… and now I just pray that we learn how to be good parents to our children.

Other than that, not too much is new! I’m still just trying to catch up after coming back from our trip. Also, this weekend our neighborhood is having their annual neighborhood garage sale, so I’ve been trying to dig things up to get rid of… it’s been very cathartic to clear out our closets!

Andrew and I got home safely early yesterday morning, and since then, we’ve been feverishly unpacking and trying to get our house back up to the high standard that Andrew and I hold :o). Right now I’m suppose to be unpacking Andrew’s suitcase and trying to figure out where everything goes before he gets back to Costco, so I probably shouldn’t be on at all… but I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a WONDERFUL time in Hawaii. Aside from us both getting a little sunburned (well, more than just a little in my case… I burn way too easily… and it was overcast the day I got burned on my shoulders and chest… really stupid of me, considering I was trying to be so careful about the sunblock!), Hawaii was fantastic, and we’d love to go again someday. I think we might want to bring the boys with us next time. I think they’d find a kick out of going snorkeling, once they’re a little older. Patrick is absolutely in love with the stuffed turtles we brought home. He calls them “Curcles”. We got a large one for him (Dada Curcle) and a small one for Sammy (Baby Curcle), but Patrick adopted both. Yesterday he tried to feed his lunch to his new friends. Our hope is that the turtles will replace d-u-c-k-d-o-g, the toy that shall not be mentioned in our house anymore :o). We hid the d-u-c-k-d-o-g right after giving him the turtles, and he actually went to sleep last night without it. Wish us luck!!!

Patrick’s new friends

I’ll post more pictures later. Also, if there is anyone interested in an inexpensive but really nice place to stay on the Big Island of Hawaii, let us know. We really enjoyed the place we stayed, and would recommend it freely. Just let us know if you’re interested!

Hello! This is now Diane and Rachel! We are the two who were scammed into watching these two boys for these ten days.

It has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! Both of us work full-time jobs, but it works out well.. Rachel works until 4 (taking off an hour early) when Diane drops off the boys in the car and then takes the other car to work at Target until 11 at night! This last week the weather has not been the best, so we have been making the most of our time inside.

Here is Patrick having fun in the puddles: make sure to note he has his special rain boots on, which he is very proud of!

Despite what it seems like, Patrick and Sammy have been having a good time together. We think Patrick is finally realizing he has a brother who is actually fun to play with! Here are some pictures of the two having a good time:

Sammy trapped Patrick in his Laundry Bin! (Maybe Sammy has a not-so-nice-guy side after all!)

The two playing together:

We are sad that our time with our little boys is coming to an end… but it was work. Here are the “instructions” we were left with:

… and most of those are a list of things Patrick may not do.

Also, we were supposed to water the yard, but (hooray!) it rained most of this week.

Patrick got dressed for the occasion.

Today we also visited Opa in the hospital and gave him a card and a balloon. He was very thankful to see us there, however he was tired after the procedure he had been through. (By the way.. It went VERY well and he is feeling so much better!) Patrick was a little unsure of getting out of his stroller.. it was a little different to see Opa all hooked up to wires and in a new place, but Sammy got to lay with Opa a little while, trying to help him feel better. We have some cute pictures but we have to wait until Jonny downloads them!