Can Your Husband Do That?

Well, I suppose that now is as good a time as any to make an announcement. Justin and I are expecting our second child in September! We are very excited, and so is Matthew; he just doesn't know it yet. I haven't been to the doctor yet and normally I would wait to make a formal announcement until I knew that everything was progressing as it should, but Justin performed such a feat today that I couldn't let it go unpraised; and the story just wouldn't make sense if I couldn't tell the truth.
The truth is that I have pretty much been feeling crappy lately. I'm not as tired as I was with Matthew's pregnancy (I attribute that to not working and being able to get more sleep and rest during the day) but I have been much more nauseous. With Matthew I only threw up from brushing my teeth. Well I learned a good trick from a friend to use children's toothpaste and it wouldn't make me sick. It totally works and I don't throw up while brushing my teeth anymore. I thought I would be home free, but it wasn't meant to me. I still throw up all the time just because. Eating has also been a lot harder for me, but if I don't eat I get sick, which can make meal times fun. Anyways, my housekeeping has pretty much gone to shambles and I find it so hard to stay on top of everything. Justin has been amazing at picking up my slack.
The past few days have been a little busy and I only have so much feel good time each day which I pretty much had spent fulfilling other responsibilities and cooking dinner (yes-I cooked a real dinner by myself 2 days in a row!!) Needless to say the dishes in the kitchen were beginning to pile up pretty high and there was a slight odor. Yesterday for lunch while I was away at a Relief Society activity, Justin made tuna fish for lunch. Bad idea. It mixed with all the other lovely smells in my kitchen and it was too much for me. I even had to barricade Matthew and myself in his bedroom to play for a while during the afternoon to escape the smell. We had an event to attend last night so the house didn't get cleaned then either. This morning the kitchen was a looming area of nausea for me.
Okay, enough background, here is the story. Matthew has been sick all week with a cough and runny nose so we decided not to take him to church today. I needed to go to Relief Society however to finalize some last details for our Visiting Teaching Conference tonight. So Justin stayed home with Matthew who went down for a nap right as I was leaving and I headed off for church. When I came home Justin had completely cleaned the house. The bedroom was picked up and the bed was made. The front room was clean and all the toys were put away. And he had washed ALL the dishes. To give you an idea, the drying rack is full of clean dishes, as is the table, and part of the counter-that is a lot of dishes. And on top of all that, he had baked chocolate chip cookies so that the house would smell good for me when I got home. So I just have to ask: Can your husband do that in 1 hour and 30 minutes? (I know we're not supposed to brag, or compare ourselves to others, I'm just saying...) He is the best and deserves 50 gold stars!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Justin!

All Grown Up

Last Sunday Matthew finally reached the grand age of 18 months. The highly anticipated day of sending him to nursery had arrived. I was very excited and looking forward to spending a nice, quiet, still day at church. We were the first ones there that day so I took him in and he started playing with the toys while we waited for his teachers and the other kids. I sat and visited with his teacher for a minute and then said, "Bye Matthew! Have fun playing." Like I suspected he had no problems and was great the whole time. Afterwards his teachers told us that he was the model kid in class and they couldn't believe it was his first day; he played the nicest with the other kids and didn't get upset when they took his toys away, he ate his snack the nicest, sitting and eating but not trying to steal everybody else's food, and he sat and colored his picture the longest. What a sweet boy! (If only he was that perfect at home all the time.) Justin was in the primary room when they brought the kids in for singing time and he said that Matthew just sat on the blanket and didn't move or crack a smile the entire time. This did surprise me because Matthew loves to sing and dance at home; I think he just needs to acclimate to the new environment and all the other kids bouncing around. He does get a little hesitant when there are lots of other kids being crazy. Anyways, he did great and I enjoyed being able to open my scriptures and actually follow along and participate in Sunday School and Relief Society. Justin picked him up and I met them in the chapel and there was Matthew holding this:
Sending him to nursery didn't bother me at all but seeing him hold a church picture that he had colored almost brought tears to my eyes. My little boy is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. I am excited for him to learn and have fun in nursery but I did feel a little lonely without him. At least I still get to play/wrestle with him during Sacrament!

Ouch!

Matthew has been very whiny lately and I haven't exactly felt like catering to his every need every second of the day like he seems to think I should. But then he goes and does silly things like this and I forget that he was whiny all day and I just love him!

He loves this game and he will run into things on purpose or just go and bang his head on the wall. He did it forever the other night and we were laughing so hard.