Cute Kids and Pneumonia

This is the picture that is on my desktop of my computer. It's one of my very favorite pics of my kiddos ever. Last night just before bed I was ready to close the computer and this picture happened to catch my eye. I just looked at it for a while and had to smile. First off, seriously, how cute are they?!?!? :) It makes me REALLY want to meet this little person growing

in my belly! I've been feeling really great and have gotten TONS accomplished lately, but I am to the point now where I am ready for him to be out of my womb and into my arms! Plus, when I see my other cuties, I just can't wait to see what he looks like! In my mind, he has dark hair like Claire did and beautiful blue eyes like his daddy, but guess we'll just have to wait and see! My dr says he's not real big (thank goodness!! :)) but that's ok with me. I would like to have at least one chubby little baby since my other 3 were rather scrawny, but tiny is so precious too, so whatever he looks like, I'm sure I will think he's beautiful (or awesome-Darren INSISTS that boys aren't beautiful, they're awesome! :)).

I think we are pretty much ready for Little Man's arrival. The cradle and crib are set up, one more small load of laundry to finish for him, clothes in the closet, and carseat washed and waiting to be installed! :) Daddy is shopping tonight for Little Man's coming home outfit-something that he has done for all the kids. As much as he despises shopping, he comes home with pretty cute outfits, so I can't wait to see what he gets for this little guy!

We had a little scare with these horrible coughs the other kids have had lately. The girls are both definitely on the mend, mostly coughing first thing in the morning if at all, but Darren's actually turned into pneumonia! When Claire was born, Darren had RSV, so he couldn't come to the hospital and he had to be away from home until she was a week old. He was pretty little yet, so he didn't really care. Now, it's a different story! He is a gigantic Momma's boy (which I love! :)) and is absolutely BESIDE himself with excitement for his baby brother to be born. If I had to tell him that he couldn't see his Mommy or his brother for a week, well...I just don't know what he would do! Thankfully though, I don't think that will be a problem! His dr switched antibiotics 2 days ago and he has done AWESOME since then! The dr could still hear a little rattle in his lungs today, but he is sleeping so much better and not coughing so much, so we are SO thankful! We also found out that since he responded so well to the antibiotics he more than likely has bacterial pneumonia. Pneumonia is not good, but if you have to have it when your mom is having a baby anytime, bacterial is the way to go! :) That means that since he is on antibiotics, he won't spread it to Little Man! We have to go back in a month for a follow-up chest x-ray just to be sure, but that's definitely do-able! :) I'm just SO thankful this has all worked itself out. One of my newest favorite quotes holds very true here-"Worry ends where faith in God begins". LOVE IT!!!!

So, now that I can breathe a sigh a relief that we aren't spreading pneumonia to helpless infants, I am moving on to hoping this baby comes out SOON! 13 days or less-COME ON BABY!!! We love you and are all anxious to meet you!

Cuteness from the Brandt Children

I decided that since my kids are so adorable you know :) that I needed to post a few of the cute things they've said lately. So here we go~
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The other day I, feeling particularly huge and preggo, commented to Darren that I sure was ready to get his brother out of my belly. He looked at me, looked at my belly, and said in a very mature, grown up voice "Mommy, you 'dis have to wait. He 'dis needs to grow a little bit more and then he can come out." LOL! Can you tell I've been responding to the question of when Little Man is going to be born A LOT!?!? I looked at him, laughed, gave him a squeeze, and thanked him for reminding me.
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My little Claire Bear is definitely my "challenge child". She's VERY determined and gets into everything! The last week or so we have been butting heads and by that I mean, she is even MORE determined to get her way than normal so that means that Mommy has to more determined also. These phases are exhausting! Anyhoo, it was after a particularly "challenging" day, we had taken a quick shower and I had passed her out to Sam to dress while I finished up my shower. He was drying her off, lotion, etc. She was not in trouble in the least. They were talking and out of the blue, I hear her little voice, sweet as can be, say "Daddy, don't give me a 'pankin"! I busted out laughing. I obviously couldn't see her, but I can just imagine her big 'ol eyes blinking innocently at her beloved Daddy. I don't know if she figured it had been a couple hours since she had one and she was about due or what, but she was just so funny that I couldn't help it. I tell her all the time it's a good thing she's so cute!
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I think we have finally decided on a name for Little Man. The other day, I asked Darren what he thought of it and he looked at me for a sec, cocked his head to one side and said "Mommy, that's so SILLY! We're going to name him RACECAR!!" Oh dear...I thought he knew we were kidding...
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This morning in meeting, my dad stood up to pray and Darren looks at him, puts his little hand on his hip, then looks at me and whispers "Wow! Grandpa sure has a fancy lookin' suit on today don'tcha think Mommy?!?!?" HAHAHA It's the same suit my dad has worn for a while, but apparently today, he looked extra snazzy or something! :)
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So Claire has started telling jokes. Except she either just makes something up or mixes several together. Her very favorite is "why chikin' cross road, Mommy??" "I don't know, why?" "To get to other SLIDE" and then she DIES laughing! She's so funny and so stinkin' cute when she says it that you just can help but laugh too and that's what she loves.
(For the record, the actual joke is "Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide" just in case you were wondering. Shout out to Uncle David Harbaugh for that one! It's one of my kids' favorites!)
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Ellie is having surgery on Tuesday to get tubes put in her ears. Not a big deal, but she is understandably nervous about it. We have talked about it a lot, she called Grandma Harbaugh to get details since Grandma used to do lots of them when she worked in surgery, etc. We were coming from her pre-op physical when she gave me the look that she gets when she's thinking. Usually there is a doozy of a question coming, but this was just cute. "Mom?" "What?" "You know when I have surgery..." (SIGH from me, thinking We've been over this 600 MILLION times! What more can you POSSIBLY want to know????) "Yep, no big deal, right?" "Right, I know that Mom, but....(I can tell she's trying to phrase it right in her head) do people get presents when they are done with surgery???" LOL!! I just busted out laughing. I tell her that nope, sorry-no presents after surgeries. "That's what I thought, but I was just checking" was her reply! :) She doesn't know it, but there may be a few things in it for her on Tuesday.... :) What a sweetie!
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As I think of write their funny little sayings out, I just have to thank God again for them. They make my life worth living and put a smile to my face. I am so blessed. :)

Beloved Blankys

In our house, I pretty much make the kids share all toys, books, etc. However, each kid has their special blanket and that is THIERS. They never have to share, and no one can ever mess with it. It's sacred. :)
Tonight I was tidying up the house and getting everyone's rooms ready for bed. Darren was in the living room with Sam, when he came and asked me if I knew where his racecar blanky was. It's not his "blanky" but since I've stopped trying to figure out why they want certain things, I helped him find it and he headed back to the living room. When I came in, he was watching cartoons on the floor covered with said blanket, and his special "blanky" was on the footstool. I asked him if he wanted that one, and Sam asked if he had told me WHY he needed his racecar blanket. I said he hadn't, and Sam said that Darren told him that he was going to give his beloved truck blanky that he sleeps with every night to his little brother. He apparently decided that since he couldn't cover his whole body with it ( "my toes are pointing out the end Mommy") that he would just give it to his brother because he would like it. He was just so nonchalant about the whole thing. It absolutely melted my heart that he would so willingly give up one of his prized possessions to his little brother. What a sweetie. I almost got tears in my eyes, I was just so proud of how unselfish he was! I got down to his level and assured him that if his brother liked truck blankys too that we would find him his own and that he could keep his truck blanky even if it was too little. I told him that it's still great for snuggling with, even if it was too small to cover up with. He looked a little relieved and when I tucked him in tonight, guess what was right on it's usual place behind his head on his pillow??? :) Man, I love that kid! :)

Our Scary Couple of Days!

Tuesday afternoon, we were, as usual, running a couple of minutes late to preschool. It was afternoon preschool that day (usually Ellie goes in the AM-Tuesdays it's afternoon), and there were several mom's around having just dropped their kids off. I was rushing with Ellie and she turned in front of me, and my feet got a little tangled up. I'm sure it was hillarious to watch. My arms were spinning, and my feet were trying to catch up with themselves. Unfortunately, they didn't quite make it and I fell, quite ungracefully, on my face! I didn't get hurt really-skinned my knee and my hand, and got the wind knocked out of me. I was absolutely MORTIFIED-beyond motified actually. Being that I have a little extra on the front these days, I couldn't even hardly stand up by myself, but thankfully, there were some nice moms there right away to help me up. Ellie was yanking on my arm to hurry up since she was excited to get to school. I could hardly breathe, and was so embarrassed, I seriously wanted to just die on the spot. I delivered the excited little girl to school, and made it back to the car keeping myself upright thankfully. I didn't think too much of the fall, being that this has never happened with any of my prior pregnancies, but figured I better call the dr just to make sure there wasn't something I should watch for, etc. I thought she would just tell me to watch to make sure there was no spotting and that my water didn't break-things like that. Ummm...nope!
My first clue was that the nurse returned my call IMMEDIATELY! They are great about returning calls, but this was around lunch time and I figured they would call me after I had the little kids settled in for naps and I would be able to talk. Jacque (my OBs nurse) called me and said with a very serious tone that I needed to get to the hospital immediately, as in RIGHT NOW! I was in shock, but after a few questions, I understood that when you fall as hard as I did, it can cause the placenta to pull away from the uterus, which could have serious consequences for the baby AND me! Holy Smokes-I started to panic. I couldn't get ahold of my mom-she was at work, I didn't have anyone to watch the kids, I was trying not to be hysterical, started bawling as soon as I heard Sam's voice...ahhhh!! My mom called me right back and told me she was going to get off work as soon as she could and to meet her at Sam's office, where I was meeting him. I got the kids ready as soon as I could and headed for CF. In the meantime, I realized that, while a friend had already planned to drop E off after preschool, there would be no one there when she got home, so I had to try and make arrangements for her too. Looking back, it's easy to know who the important people in life are when you call them in semi-hysterics and they don't blink an eye. You guys know who you are and I love you for it!
So, we finally get to the hospital, and the hook me up to monitors only to find that I am having a few contractions. My nerves are about shot to pieces at this point, but I hold it together admirably well I think. Little Man seems to be doing good, and I breathe a sigh of relief. My doctor happened to be on call for which I was SOO thankful. I like the other doctors in the practice, but she is definitely who I am most comfortable with. She assured me that placental abruption ( I think that's what it's called) while very dangerous, is EXTREMELY rare. However, if anything is going to happen it would happen in the next 24 hours and since I fell hard enough to knock the wind out of myself, she wanted me to stay overnight and be in the hospital until that 24 hour window was over. Now, these things get a little challenging when you have little people that depend on you and need to be places! My mom was wonderful though, and even with her crazy life, she said she would keep my little crazies with her that night. Dad was working late, so her and Trav had to feed all five kids-I can't even imagine the chaos THAT supper was!!! Mom had to work the next day though, so that was our next challenge. Seriously, I don't think my cell phone even had a chance to cool from the time I called the doctor until about 9 that night. It was crazy. In the end, Sam ended up going early in the morning to get the kids from Mom's, took D and C to Andrea's who didn't blink an eye when I called her watch them, brought Ellie back with him, took her to an appointment with the ENT, and then brought her to hang out with me until they released me around 11:30 today. WHEW! We made it! :) I was pretty pooped when we got home, and just kind of chilled. My awesome hubby once again picked up the slack, but this time, there are so many others the filled in the blanks. From Tiffany Asche for agreeing to go out of her way to bring Ellie to Mom's after school, to Andrea for kiddo watching and even supper tonight! My mom was WONDERFUL (and Dad and Trav helped her), and even everyone who called or texted letting me know they were worried-I felt very loved. Even Ellie's ENT called me while Sam was there so I could ask him my questions! Like I said, situations like this make you realize what and who are important and it makes me feel really REALLY good knowing that while situations like this are scary and not fun at all, people surround you with any help they can and love in abundance, and THAT, my friends feels WONDERFUL!
**Side Note: Little Man and I are both fine-a little tired and a little bruised but feeling good!***

So THAT'S how it works!

My Ellie-girl is an EXTREMELY fussy eater. There are lots of nights that she doesn't eat anything for supper at all because of it. I'm not a short order cook, so while I will slightly modify her meal (i.e. raw carrots instead of cooked or PB & J instead of grilled cheese-you get the idea) if she doesn't like what we eat, she doesn't eat. I was worried for a while. So much so that I actually talked to a nutritionist who said to look at what she eats in a week, not a day. As long as she eats decent amounts of all food groups in a week, she's good. She usually does and her doc says she is growing perfect, so we don't stress about Ellie and food. HOWEVER, like most kids, she LOVES desserts and treats. She doesn't get them if she doesn't eat her supper, because "if you are too full to eat supper, then you are much to full for dessert" as I like to say.

Last night, she informed us about how you can be too full for supper, but still have plenty of room for the good stuff. She's sitting in her chair, big ol' brown eyes just as earnest and serious as they can be and says "Mom, I'm really NOT too full for dessert. See, the food goes like this (finger goes down throat to her tummy) but the dessert just goes like this (finger goes down a short way down her throat and to a random spot between her shoulder and her neck). That's the dessert spot Mom." I paused for a sec and then Sam and I just busted out laughing. "Perks for being creative Ellie!" Darren pipes up that he wanted perks too, so I had to say "Perks to you to Darren!" and then he was happy even though he hadn't a CLUE what it meant. :) It was a great note to end supper on and everyone had eaten good, so desserts all around!

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On a completely different subject, last night's supper conversation was again about baby names since we STILL got NOTHIN'! Darren had the winner, so if all goes according to his plan, his brother's name will be (drumroll please.....)

Jarsandwichcookie Refigerator Brandt

LOL! I don't know where the kid comes up with these, but I think they're awesome! :)

Just a little chuckle...

So this weekend, Joe, Heather, Mia and Owen stayed with us! It was a crazy, hectic, crammed, fun FUN time! :) Friday night, we hired a babysitter (she's a BRAVE girl!! :) We LOVE her!) and Trav, Joe, Heather, Me, Sam, and Becka went to ROADHOUSE! SOO delicious! :) Those rolls....oh so good!
Ok, back to the story~Since it was Friday night and we had a larger group, Sam went right over when he got off work to put our name on the list. He told me later that while he was sitting there waiting, he saw a family that "looked like they had a TON of kids!" Then I looked some more, and they had FOUR"! LOL! It still makes me laugh when I think about it. In just a few short months, WE'RE going to be THAT family!! :) I can't wait! :)

Hey, that MY name!!!

My hubby, without really trying, has given all our kids nicknames when they were really small that seem to have stuck. Missy Moo (Claire), Belly Boo (Ellie), Darrey Doodlepants (Darren) are the top contenders, but there are spin offs and shortened versions. The main one is that we call Darren "Darrey" or "Darrey-doo" a lot.
So the other day, Claire told me her ears were "owie" and didn't want me to touch them. With the blizzard that is supposed to be coming this way, I didn't want to take any chances of having a poor baby with ear infection in the middle of a blizzard! SO, off to the doc we went to make sure. I had to pick E up from school at 11:15 and our appt wasn't until 12:45. I decided that we were going to make a MAD dash thru Wallyworld to get some groceries before our appt so I wouldn't have to make another trip later in the week. I was on a MISSION and my poor kids were literally running alongside the cart as I hauled thru the aisles. I was so focused on my list that I was very confused when Darren stopped short and said "Mommy! They're calling me!!!" Me: "Who's calling you??? Is my son hearing voices in his head??? He's being summoned by aliens!!" He was SOO insistent! "Mommy, they called me-they said my name at Wal-Mart!" This went on for some time with me being thoroughly confused and him being so upset because I didn't hear his minute of glory where they called his name at Wal-mart! Finally it clued into my thick skull when they did a second call over the loud speaker for someone from DAIRY to pick up the phone!! HAHAHA! "Did you hear it that time Mommy??? They said my name AGAIN at Wal-Mart!!!" He was so excited by this time that he was almost jumping up and down. I assured him that I did indeed hear his name, and tried to explain, but finally gave up. There was no convincing him that they weren't talking to him on the intercom! Ahh, they make me smile! :)