Wits End Ranch is a great place for kids. It is only open to reserved parties but this year they are going to be open to the public on October 22, 2011 starting at 10am.

They have all kinds of unique pets, including pop belly pigs, minature horses, rag doll cats, turtle races, pigmy goats etc.

Kids will love the zip lines and forts located throughout.

They have a fun hayride and real life maze. Don’t forget your free pumpkin to take home and decorate.

You can bring a packed lunch or buy a hotdog lunch from the party barn.

A really amazing thing that you wouldn’t expect to see is the small runway and airplanes that take off right from the Ranch. When we were there chopper 7 landed. We got to see a really old airplane made out of material instead of metal.

To get to Wits End Ranch you must follow their directions on their site: witsendranch.net

I will be returning there next year and I recommend it to you too. Hope to see you there!

The morning of my birthday, I woke up feeling blah. I hadn’t slept well because I was having some cramps. Little did I know that I would be sharing my birthday with the life that had been growing inside of me. I wasn’t feeling movement which was uncommon for the mornings for little Noah.

I went to the bathroom and saw that I was bleeding. I called Thalia, my midwife, at about 7:50 and told her and she rescheduled my appointment from 2pm to 9:30am. I started eating breakfast with John Adam. After eating an orange and yogurt little Noah started moving around and I felt like I couldn’t eat anymore.

I started having uncomfortable cramps that were getting quite painful. My husband, Donny, was up when I had a contraction and then another one about 10 min later. He decided to come with me to the appointment. Donny put the infant car seat and John Adam’s (our son) bag in the car just in case (my bag was already in the car). We headed out a few minutes early. Contractions started to become too painful to pretend nothing was happening; in other words I couldn’t be still and quiet and John Adam started to look concerned for me.

I sent a text to Donny’s parents to let them know that this was probably “it”. Contractions were 10, 8, 5, then 3 minutes apart on the way to the birthing center. We stopped for bottles of water at a gas station then arrived to the birthing center. Jerry was there and took my blood pressure and talked to us and said that I may be in really early labor but it will be a while if I am. I felt like if I’m told that this isn’t labor I’m going to look like a wimp. John Adam started to cry, which made me feel horrible. I told John Adam that it’s ok and that my stomach is making big squeezes but it’ll be ok. Donny took him out of the room.

Thalia arrived and checked me and said I was dilated to a 4 and the water hadn’t broke yet. She said that I was definitely in labor and she closed off that side of the birthing center from the side that people were getting their check ups. I asked if I could get in the tub to help relax my body and bare the pain. Melena, a nurse came to assist the birth. They got the tub ready for me and I sat in it maybe 30 minutes. The tub felt great. Donny’s mom came by to wish me happy birthday and pick up John Adam for the day. I decided to get out of the bath and lay in the bed. The contractions were getting more intense and nothing felt good.

I quickly dilated to a 7. I didn’t want Donny to touch me and then I did want him to touch me. I went into the intense pain and threw up and started to feel afraid. I knew I had to release the fear so that my body wouldn’t tense up. I tried the breathing techniques but my allergies were horrible. Thalia was telling me that I was a strong woman and I was kind of laughing on the inside because I’m the type that freaks out when I stub my toe and here I am trying a drug free birth. I felt the need to stand up so I did and it helped move things along. The contractions seemed to be one right after another and Donny put out the birthing ball for me.

When I sat on the birthing ball it hurt in a good way and I felt Noah move down into position. I again felt like if I was in the tub I could bare the pain better so I got in and as soon as I sat in it my body made me push. The next push really hurt and Thalia said not to fight it but work with what my body is doing. That made perfect sense to me and the next push I didn’t tense up but just let it happen. There was no counting while pushing which was great.

I let out a moan when I pushed and that seemed to help me not tense up. At about 11:50 am, I pushed my baby’s head out and felt an amazing rush. I’ve never been sky diving, but I imagine that it’s a feeling like that. It was a wonderful feeling. Yes, it hurt, but it felt good too. Then I pushed his body out and Thalia picked him up out of the water and put him on my chest. My baby boy looked straight into my eyes. My first look at him was him looking at me. I didn’t think newborns could see very well right at birth. I started talking to him and thanking God for him.

His umbilical cord was in a crazy knot. I was still having small contractions and felt like holding on to something. I felt a little nervous holding my delicate newborn. I delivered the placenta, but before that was a decent size blood clot. I thank Jesus for keeping baby Noah safe (that’s what my two year old prayed about every night of my pregnancy- “keep baby Noah safe.”) He was 7 pounds 6 ounces and healthy. He was nursing about 20 minutes after birth and in a few hours I was getting ready to go home. My recovery has been much quicker this birth than with my first.

I definitely loved using Childbirth Services as opposed to the hospital. I’m so happy to have little Noah share a birthday with me. It was the best birthday ever!

I’m not sure why the cross has been taken out of children’s Bibles. Maybe the authors found it too violent. So how are children going to give their lives to Christ? Are they going to read that Joseph got a colorful coat then realize that they are living in sin and need Christ? My son needs to hear about Jesus’ death. The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Beginning of 2011 I have started reading the Bible to my son more regularly. At first I wasn’t for sure how he will sit still and listen. He is 2 and a half years old and hyper. It has been a challenge and I’m not sure how much he understands. He has to sit down with me while I’m reading (no toys). I usually can only get through one chapter then do a minute or two of discussion with him. I’d rather read the whole truth to him and he not understand half of it than to tell him half of the truth and him understand all of it and be stimulated by pictures.

I believe that the right way to raise a child is to have Christ as the focus. Much secular literature on raising children is child focused and some is very parent focused. Both children focused and parent focused are dangerous and lead to division in the family. If I’m putting my child first, he will grow up thinking the world revolves around him and become selfish. If I’m putting myself and my husband first then the child could be neglected or my control will not show humbleness or that I need a Savior. Christ needs to be my center in all that I do. His sacrifice on the cross must be what I turn to daily. I should teach Christ to my children and focus on Him. No one is a perfect parent and no child is perfect. We need a Savior. We need the cross.

My mother in love (who is called “Dammie” instead of “Grammie”) brought up to me that maybe he is trying to speak as fast as he is thinking and it turns into jibber jabber. That made sense to me because he will really want to communicate something then start speaking really fast and omit a lot of sounds making it hard to understand what he is saying. I don’t think it’s a matter of him not understanding because he seems to understand what I tell him, reword or explain what he is trying to say, and make a few signs that he learned.

My husband and I try not to baby talk to our child. We hope that by speaking normally to him, he will mimic us and speak clearly back. Of course we do still say cute little sayings because he’s our baby and only 2, but we try not to change our voices when we say them.

I went to Adventures in Learning earlier this month and purchased a phonics sing along CD. He really enjoys listening to the CD although he hasn’t done much singing along yet. I try to make up fun ways to learn sounds without frustrating him. Correcting him can sometimes be a little too overwhelming for him at this point. I have been saying “look at mommy’s mouth” and say the sound a few times, but sometimes even that makes him cry. Maybe he thinks he’s in trouble because when he does something bad and I give him a talking to, I say “look at mommy’s eyes”.

When we are having fun playing, I try to teach him then because that seems to be the most effective and never frustrating because he doesn’t realize that I’m trying to teach him a new sound. If daddy and I talk to him a lot and read to him every day I’m hoping that he will pick up the sounds that he is omitting.

Like daddy, he is very drawn to electronics. He loves to play on daddy’s ipad or mommy’s iphone. The touch screens are very easy for him to use and interact with as opposed to a mouse and keyboard. Daddy has purchased several apps on his ipad for him. I think his favorite is fish school where he learned matching and counting. He also likes a spider game where daddy and I recorded our voices singing the itsy bitsy spider. I recently uploaded an app on my phone called starfall abc’s that teaches early phonics. I believe it was $2.99 and it has been a life saver already. Today we had to wait about an hour at the doctor’s and we played starfall the whole time.

One other thing that he does is not say “hi” to people in public that say “hi” to him, but just totally ignore the person. This however has nothing to do with his speech and I’ll just stop there before I rabbit trail too much.

If you have any ideas or thoughts on early phonics or toddler’s speech, please feel free to share. Thanks!

One idea is to bring a small table or a blanket out in the yard and do a craft outdoors or have a picnic. There are lots of fun Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts that involve collecting things from outside and making them into some cute decoration. Google Thanksgiving crafts and you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you have pine cones, then google thanksgiving pine cone craft, or if you have leaves, then google thanksgiving leaf craft, etc. You will find lots of fun craft ideas. 

But don’t just have a structured craft time, let them run around some, go for a walk, etc. Fortunately in Texas we have nice weather to be outdoors most of the year. We don’t get snowed in much.  One thing that we purchased for outside is a sandbox which my two year old plays in almost every day.  If you have a toddler I strongly recommend getting or making a sandbox. Lowes sells some good play sand.

We also recently purchased a playground which my husband is putting together. Those can be kind of pricey. Going to a park is lots of fun. We go to parks kind of regularly. Lately my pregnancy has me going to the bathroom often and keeping my 2 year old from touching anything in the nasty park bathroom is quite difficult. If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. Really kids can have lots of fun without a playground, just exploring in the woods, and playing with sticks, etc. My son’s favorite things to play with are sticks and rocks.

I admit, sometimes I get so bored of going outside and watching him play with a stick for 30 minutes, so I bring my iphone to play on or a book to read because I know being outside is best for my son. Kids never seem to get bored of playing outside. Well, I do have a nephew that says he is bored and wants to play a Wii game inside.

For older kids I think it’s good to play ball with them, bike, or have some quality interactive play that also involves skill outside. Older kids seem to have a lot of alone time in their rooms as opposed to young children who have more interaction and play in the same room as the parent inside. My two year old seems to thrive when playing more independently outside and have more structure inside. I have to be more watchful outside and set a boundary because we have no fence in the front yard. Sometimes I use the water hose as a boundary not to cross.

I try not to overwhelm him with too many rules outside. It should be a place where he can run around more freely (within the set boundary). I hope all of the playing outside is good for him. I plan on having a few classes outside every now and then when we start structured classes.

And after:

I decided to use some white paint from an old project to brighten it up a little. I know this closet will be very helpful when trying to think of a fun preschool craft instead of searching throughout the house for this and that.

Since I found out I’m expecting my husband has cleaned out two other closets and rewired a bedroom to make it safe for a baby room. I’m excited about decorating that room. I’m going to wait till I find out if baby is a girl or boy.  

I’m not trying to take over my husband’s territory, but just trying to make things a little more practical and safer for a growing family.

My husband and I are just taking one project at a time and trying to make our house nicer and safer for the whole family. We are pretty happy with it so far.

We just had our home office professionally painted before we found out we were expecting. Looks like that will be a baby room instead. We are both happy about the change of plans. It was a room we weren’t using because we thought that we’d have another baby. After a year and a half of no pregnancy we decided to turn it to an office/guest room. Now we are starting the process of clearing and cleaning it out for baby stuff. I love the thought of making a baby room.

I’m so thankful that God has blessed us with two children. One child is great and two is twice as great!

Get your free online pregnancy calendar from WhatToExpect.com

Now I’m doing art and crafts with my child. I find myself thinking, “what do I do with all of these papers?” Most pages have a couple scribbles and a sticker. Am I going to be a hoarder and keep all of it or throw them away? Surely I can’t keep all of them. Who does that? I have to throw it away and if he’s upset then he will have to get over it, right? I asked my mother-in-love what she did with my husbands pictures when he was little and she actually still has a whole bunch. She put them in a filing drawer. I thought that was a good idea.

A few days later I found a frame at WalMart that can be easily opened and closed. I bought it and am trying it out. Each day I have been putting his new picture in it. His old one I can take out and put in a file folder. I realize that someday I’ll have to go through the file folders and throw away most of the pictures. But I’m saving that day for later and will try to throw pictures away when he can’t see me doing it. I’ll hold onto the special ones.

So for the question to keep or throw away, I have decided to keep, for now anyway.