TTT: Season 2, Episode 5

1. It's been a crazy busy week for The Asmussens. Involving a hospital visit (for my ribs), a flight back to Lubbock, a job interview in Dallas, a sonogram, two other doctors appointments (for me), an evening of 103 degree temps (for Kolbe), a doctors visit for him (involving barfing during a throat swabbing), and plenty of snow and near zero temperatures. We like to keep it interesting. But the best part of all during all of these shenanigans was seeing this guy's little face:

Uncle Andy says he's destined to be a priest...already making the sign of the cross!

Actually he spent most of the sonogram trying to get his thumb into his mouth, but I'll hold on the thought that he might be a priest some day.

To most of you, this probably looks like a bunch of blurs on the screen. But to a woman who is on sonogram #25 or so  (for real) of all boy babies, I knew what this was without the tech having to tell me.

Profile shots are my fave. Pretty amazing, huh?

Is it just me or do those 3D sonograms make babies look so much more real!?! I swear he looked like a little squirt just a month ago...and looked so much more like a real person on Monday. I've said all along that I knew he was a boy. Not because I feel the same as with my other pregnancies or have progressed the same. 'Cause I haven't. It's been slightly different. I just knew. And sure enough, I was right! I have to admit, I've been kind of sad at the number of times I've been asked if I was "disappointed" when I found out that it was another boy. Honestly, to Mark and me, it's not another boy. It's another baby. Another child. And we're happy that God has blessed us with him. Not to mention the fact that we have enough boy stuff to raise an entire football team and enough experience to get him through at least his first three years of life! How could I be disappointed when God has given us the grace to raise two boys so far and sees us fit to raise another? How could I be disappointed when I've been blessed to be able to have babies and so many others haven't? And don't you know I had four brothers to love on me growing up (and I'm pretty sure they haven't stopped!) and now I'll have four fellas to love on me in our very home. What can I say? I'm a very blessed girl! We haven't picked a name yet for this little guy but we know that he'll fit right in with our little family. He's got two big brothers that can't wait to get their hands on him!

2. Which brings me to a great conversation that I had with Kolbe this week. He is so thrilled that he's going to be a big brother again soon. At first he began with insisting that he wants to give his baby a bath...without mama's help. He took it to another level on Monday after we got home from the sonogram and he knew for sure that he was now having a brother. My good friend, Melanie, watched the boys while I was at my appointments. She has two precious little girls that are right around Kolbe and Rudy's ages and also keeps a baby boy during the day for a friend of hers. The conversation when we got home went a little like this:

Me: Are you excited it's going to be three brothers now?
Kolbe: Mama, Miss Melny has two girls, Molly, Ellie, and one boy baby too.
Me: Kolbe, that boy baby is not Miss Melanie's baby. She just watches him during the day.
Kolbe: Where's that boy baby's mama?
Me: Well, his mama goes to work. She takes Zach over to Miss Melanie's house in the morning and then she goes to work and then she comes and picks up Zach after she gets off of work. Miss Melanie just takes care of him during the day while his mama is at work.
Kolbe: Mama, when our baby gets here, then I want you to be a dada and go to work and me and Rudy will stay home and take care of our baby all by our elfs.
Me: Oh really! You think you could do that? What would mama do?
Kolbe: You would go be a dada and go to work. Me and Rudy will watch the baby.
Me: Ok, well we'll have to talk to Dada about that one.

SO entertaining how his mind works. How he's starting to perceive things. I love his eagerness to take care of his new brother. His desire to be responsible. I love that he perceives himself as someone capable of doing all that caring for a baby entails. And I find his perception of me "being a dada" in order to be able to go to work fascinating. Apparently he hasn't caught on that being a dada is something only a male can do. I guess right now he knows that he has a dada and he has a mama and his dada is the one who goes to work. And if I went to work, well then I'd have to be a dada too. So smart and clever, yet so much ahead of him to learn at the same time. He makes a fantastic biggest brother.

3. I figured out the cleverest little trick yesterday that I'm just too excited about. For months I've been trying to figure out a way to get hairspray off the tile floor in our bathroom. Let me start by saying that I'm admittedly a hairspray fanatic. No, I don't have huge Texas hair. But I have thin hair. Lots and lots of thin hair. And the only way to thicken it up (and sometimes to reduce static) is to give it a good coating of hairspray. Most people use hairspray to hold their 'do in place. I do this sometimes. But usually, I just spray a good coating on and then literally brush it out. You know, to distribute it properly and thicken it all up. So needless to say, plenty of hairspray has accumulated on my floor over the past few years. And when I clean the bathroom, I often make the mistake of of attempting to mop the floor. Instead of getting them spic and span, I end up with a sticky mess. So usually I just avoid mopping all together. And here we are, nearly six years later and these tiles aren't even the same color as the tiles in the other bathroom. Even though they're supposed to be. But a while back Mark accidentally left his glasses on the bathroom counter during one of my spraying sessions. Needless to say, his glasses got a thick coating of hairspray and he wasn't too happy. We had some random alcohol swabs sitting on the counter (from God only knows what) so I ripped one open and cleaned the glasses. Sure enough, the hairspray came right off with little to no effort. So last night, I decided to get my Cinderella on. No, not the part where she dresses up in a ball gown and gets swept off of her feet. The part where she's on her hands and knees with a scrub brush and a bucket of water. Oh, and a monster-sized bottle of rubbing alcohol too. And wouldn't you know it, tile by tile, I poured a little alcohol on, scrubbed it with my little brush and had a spotless floor in less than thirty minutes. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes thinking duh! Did she seriously not know that rubbing alcohol removes all kinds of stuff!?! Seriously. I didn't. But I'm thrilled that I figured it out! I had tried all kinds of stuff before to no avail and was wondering if I'd just have to rip the whole floor up and re-tile it! So pumped! And also cringing that something so domestically boring could excite me so much. Good grief!