Andy & Jessica

Jude is a fun, high-maintenance kid.  He never runs out of things to say and loves to interrupt adult conversation.  Often he’ll interrupt just to interrupt and when he is acknowledged he might say, “Nevermind” or “I forgot” or “I thought you’d never stop talking.”  We’re working on that.  Jude loves playing in the front yard and riding bike.  He always hopes that his friends from across the street will see him and come outside too.  He hates coming inside and always whines or cries when it is time to come inside.  Jude loves to play “pow” with foam swords and catch with various objects we find around the house (e.g., we play catch the ketchup with fast food ketchup packets).  Jude enjoys wrestling and getting spun around, reading, writing me emails at work asking me if he can have a treat (getting an email from Jude is always a highlight of my day), playing computer games, watching “English shows” rather than the German cartoons that he normally watches and making messes and not cleaning them up.

Levi is really too mobile, smart and curious for his own good. He started walking at 9 months and attempts any trick that Jude tries. Levi is always getting himself into trouble. A couple weeks ago while I was at work, Andy had the front door propped open and the screen door shut but not locked. Levi opened the screen door and wandered outside. Thankfully, big brother Jude saved the day by tracking down his Daddy to tell him.  We’ve found Levi sitting in the sink in our master bathroom (he must have climbed up there using the vanity chair).  He also frequently climbs up our bar-stool sized kitchen chairs and plays on the kitchen table.  He’ll even attempt tricks like balancing on the top of the sofa.  Levi still is a huge fan of computers, remote controls and cell phones.  I typically will let him play with phones or remotes because I don’t like hearing the poor darling cry, but Levi knows that when his Daddy comes in the room, he had better ditch the evidence and run.  He’ll throw a remote control on the floor and run away as fast as he can when Andy comes in the room or he’ll voluntarily hand the contraband over to Andy.

It has been forever since we wrote.  Part of the reason for that is that Andy has several other blogs he maintains and would prefer to spend his time on and I’ve been working crazy hours (at least 6 days a week) all year.  I don’t have time for sleeping, shaving my legs or certainly writing on a blog.

Being a working mom  of 2 busy boys who like to be constantly entertained and adored and also being responsible for keeping a house clean and organized is a huge responsibility and I’m pretty much stressed out 100% of the time.  I got even more stressed out at the end of December when I learned that I had gotten pregnant.  I was bleeding and cramping badly and figured I was miscarrying another baby.  I was really surprised when the ultrasound tech said that she detected a heartbeat.  I was sure that the baby would be dead.  But, we got the good news that the baby was alive and that the bleeding and cramping was related to a subchorionic hemorrhage in my uterus.  That increased the risk of miscarriage but the hemorrhage resolved itself over time and my baby survived it.  So, now I only had to worry about how we could manage all these kids since this new baby and Levi would be only 1-1/2 years apart.

At some point, we got used to the idea of another baby and then we got excited.  We had another ultrasound a few weeks also and learned we are having another boy.  I just hope that Levi and the new baby won’t be so close to each other that they leave Jude out and I hope little Levi (as the middle child) will get enough attention.

Of course at the back (or front) of my head at all times is whether Jude’s tumor will come back and what his future will be like.  We were relieved to learned last week after his regular 4-month MRI that the tumor is still gone.  We are still waiting for the results of the blood work, but I’m not expecting any changes.  What a relief for now.