A few updates...

This will probably get a bit lengthy so I will bold letter the topics in case you are only interested in reading specific things. Topics: Farming, Josiah and Pregnancy.

Farming:

On April 12th (2 weeks ago) I made the first tractor lunch of the season for Brett. It was a bitter-sweet moment as I knew it meant we were getting in the field to plant the crop but knew that it was also going to mean hardly seeing my husband. Now let 2 weeks go by and I just made his second tractor lunch of the season. Yep, that's right we had two weeks in between our first day of planting until our second day of planting. Due to a lot of snow and rain we are finally just getting back into it (although we have a forecast of rain this week). We were blessed to be able to get into the first the first time as no one else was planting yet and we were able to get 300 acres done. Brett has already informed me that when we start planting again (which is today) that I can plan on him not being home including through the night as we are late getting our crops into the field this year. This makes me sad but I also know that this is what has to be done.

Josiah:

Josiah and Daddy waiting in the room before he got tubes

Two weeks ago Josiah got tubes put in his ears. He had been struggling with a chronic ear infection and was on his fourth round of treatments to try and get it to go away. We were thankful to be referred to specialist where we were told he should get tubes put in his ears. The specialist told us that with the amount of fluid that had been in Josiah's ears (probably most his life) it was decreasing his hearing by 30%. He said basically it's like having those squishy ear plugs in your ears all the time. Since Josiah is doing speech therapy we were excited (yet sad) to hear that news in hopes that it would help with his speech. Getting tubes went great, no problems at all. We were warned before he left with the doctor to get the tubes that he would wake up screaming and would most likely be screaming off and on for awhile after as he would be confused about where he was and have a bit of discomfort in his ears. We were expecting the worst since we have quite the screamer on our hands in the first place but were thankful that his screaming did not last long and was way better then we thought it would be. He was back to his normal self within an hour.

As for his speech...
I was half way expecting him to just come out of the procedure and be talking sentences to us (I know, very unrealistic) and as the next few days went on I was thinking that maybe his lack of hearing had nothing to do with his speech as I didn't notice a change in his vocabulary. Now 2 weeks later I am thrilled to see all the words he is picking up in just a matter of weeks! Of course what I am most thrilled about is that he is now saying Mama and Mommy (more like Mom-EEE). Brett is a bit jealous as he is saying mama and papa but still not daddy. He has learned the names of his favorite characters on Veggies Tales (Larry & Bob)...Larry being his favorite. Seriously, if we are watching Veggie Tales and Larry is not on right away he gets pretty upset. There is also a movie where Larry gets taken away by a bad guy and Josiah begins to scream at the tv and gets really upset until we reassure him that Larry will be ok. Some other words he has picked up in the last weeks: Rhino (his favorite stuffed animal), ball, movie, more, please, thank you, bye (before he would just say See-ya, now he does both), "it's ok", Pooh (as in Winnie the Pooh), baby, cow (and Moo when we ask him what the cow says) and again. I think there are more but that's all I can think of right now. As you can see his vocabulary is picking up and we are so excited.

Playing outside in our driveway that is a huge puddle most of spring

Loves: He loves to play in puddles (typical boy), enjoys wearing his new rain boots of which is was not a fan of at first, loves to wear his jacket around the house which is hilarious to us since he hated putting on a jacket most of winter, loves to eat and drink/ask for juice, loves Veggie Tales, loves to hold hands (unless we actually want him to so we can cross the road or something), loves going to the farm (Papa's) and knows exactly which roads will take him there and which ones will not, loves tractors, four-wheelers, and the gator, loves to swing, loves to read books and loves to be outside. Loves to have us sing to him and says "again" every time we finish a song.

Hates: Hates getting his diaper changed unless he has his blankie or rhino, hates sharing and really lets you know it, recently he does not like having water put on his head unless he does it himself (never had a problem with this before), also recently screams for about 5 seconds when we put him down to bed or a nap (another thing he did not use to do), hates being seat belted in the pick-up but is completely ok with it in the van, hates when daddy leaves in the morning.

Not sure that this is a hate for him but he now has started getting up crying usually once during the night. This started about two weeks ago and we can't figure out why. He has always been such a good sleeper. Some night we go into his room and rub his back or hold him for a min and then he goes right back to bed and other nights we just leave him and let him cry it out for a little while. I can't figure out for the life of me why he is doing this but I hope it ends soon.

(I apologize for the poor quality pictures of Josiah as they were from my phone)

Pregnancy:

This pregnancy has been different in a lot of ways yet similar in the fact that I still really dislike being pregnant, I had morning sickness (though a lot longer this time around), I have bad acid reflux, and my ankles are swollen. The main difference is how huge I am getting so much quicker this time around. Seriously, this is not a joke...I'm huge. I am 32 weeks pregnant and feel like I did (comfort wise and in size) when I was ready to give birth to Josiah. This is the first prego picture I have taken thus far for this pregnancy simply because I feel so unattractive, but to give you a comparison here you go.

34 Weeks prego with Josiah

32 Weeks prego with baby girl

Side by side shot.

I even tried to wear the same outfit to show the difference. Let me remind you that the most recent picture is two weeks earlier in the pregnancy (I didn't have a 32 week picture from Josiah). I'm large and in charge this time around. I am constantly worrying about having a baby that is really big. Josiah was 8.1lbs and I don't think my body can handle birthing a baby larger then that.

I've also been entirely into "nesting". I blame it on the fact that I didn't get to next when I was pregnant with Josiah because we were moving a month after he was born from Illinois to South Dakota. This time though I am in full force, for nesting that is. Brett laughs at me a lot about this but has been very sympathetic and supportive in me doing it though this is probably because he is afraid of the ever waving roller coaster of emotions that I am. Last week I painted what will be the nursery and bought another gallon of paint to paint Josiah's room since he never had a properly decorated room. Besides our living room these are the only other rooms in the house that don't have white walls and I'm not sad to see them go.