I Love You This Much Bullet Train

Okay, so for those of you who don't know, Ben has a bit of a fetish with Geo Trax (and for those of you who do know, also my breast pump, but that is a story for another day). So anyway, he loves his Geo Trax trains, especially his "Bullet Train". He has to take it to the babysitter every day and then take it to bed with him every night. He loves it so much, that he now also incorporates it into every day speech. So, every night I tell him I love him "this much" (accented by me stretching out my arms) and he used to tell me "I love you this much too, mom". However, in what I can only imagine he deems as the ultimate terms of affection, he has changed it to, "I love you this much, Bullet Train". Isn't that sweet? He also loves trains of any sort. Yesterday we had to go to Von Maur and they have a train table there that is a God send, but also a thorn in our side when it is time to leave. We seriously had to leave, because they were closing the store and of course, he did not want to come with us. So, we just pulled the "Okay, Mom and Dad are leaving with Maddie and Zach. See you later Ben" and started to walk away. This usually works really well with him, because he will quickly say, "okay, I want to go too". However, this time he started to cry and said "you were going to leave me here", making me feel of course terrible for implementing such parenting tactics. However, by the time we got to the car he seemed to be over it, so I guess, all's well that ends well.

Matt and I have been marveling at how maternal Maddie is, not only with Zach, but also with her dolls. She now informs us every time Zach even whimpers saying "crying, crying" and pointing to the baby (as if we were immune to hearing him cry and it is her personal mission to make sure we know what is going on). She also enjoys carrying her babies around, getting me diapers to change them with and feeding them bottles. It's pretty cute.

Zach continues to be a pretty content baby. Friday night he slept in two four hour stints, which was awesome. He is up to almost 11 pounds, so he is doing great. We have an appointment at an ENT April 8th, so hopefully he can provide us some insight into what may be a potential hearing loss. I'm hoping their tests have just been wrong, but we will deal with whatever comes our way. It's kind of funny, because Matt and I were talking about how I'm sure they didn't test our hearing in the nursery before they sent us home, so who knows if one of us maybe had some hearing problems at birth. It almost makes you wonder if they test for almost too much these days. On one hand you want to know what is going on, but on the other hand, you really don't.

Matt and I's 4th wedding anniversary is this week so we are going to try to (gasp) get out of the house on our own. There is a great girl at church that watches Maddie in the nursery every week who (bless her soul) has volunteered her services, so we are going to test her out. I'm not sure what we will do with an hour to ourselves, so wish us luck. It's crazy that our life together has produced 3 great kids in 4 short years. It's been a whirlwind, but a good kind of whirlwind.

Anyway, I have laundry to fold and thank yous to write, so I better get to it.

Girls Are Truly Superior

At least when it comes to potty training. We are still really struggling with getting Ben to poop on the toilet. He has changed from never telling us when he has to go to either telling us right after he has went (in his pants) or being trigger happy and telling us he has to go about every five minutes. Maddie, however, has been doing a great job of going on the potty. So, hey, I guess it is an ongoing battle, but hopefully one day we will win it.

Zach is going to have his hearing inspected a little further. He failed his hearing test again, so he will have to be referred to an ENT for further testing. Of course, it makes us worry, but what can you do? We will just have to deal with what comes. He's still one of the three cutest babies I know.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post. I'll try to update later this week:)

Clean Bill of Health

Well, Zach and I have both officially had our post-birth two-week check ups and have both received clean bills of health. I told my doctor she does good work...two weeks after my c-section and I am feeling relatively normal. I might have some residual carpal tunnel that may eventually result in some further action, but we are going to wait a couple more weeks to see what happens.

Zach went to the doc today and he is officially one ounce over his birth weight...in other words, he is already a member of the elite "Good Eaters" Club. Okay, so it's not that elite of a club, but to be a member at such a young age is quite the accomplishment. Everything else looked good, with the exception of a failed hearing test. At the hospital they couldn't get him to pass his left side neo-natal hearing test, nor could they get him to pass it a week later. The doc looked at his ear and thought everything looked normal, but did refer us to an Early Development Intervention clinic where they will hopefully give him a clean bill of hearing. He seems to follow our voice and startles, so we are not too worried.

Ben may have officially entered the terrible threes. He was great at two, but man, has he ever perfected the whine. He is going to really test my patience and he is still at the babysitter five days a week! Yikes! His favorite thing to say is "I don't want to "insert what we want him to do, i.e. eat supper, go to bed, come inside" ANYMORE". Somehow, anymore becomes about six syllables accentuated with vigourious shaking of the head. It is funny, but also really annoying. However, then he can turn back to his normal fun-loving self thirty seconds later. Might be some growing pains with having to share even more attention than what he is used to.

Madilyn adds to her vocabulary every day. I'm really impressed with all of the words that she knows, and is even starting to put them together into phrases. She is such a different kid then Ben was at this age. She absolutely adores the kitchen we got her for Christmas and wants to go play in her room right away when she gets home. She puts her stuffed pig in one chair and then she sits down at the other chair for some quality play time. It's pretty stinking cute. I'll try to get a picture to post.

Anywho, it is a beautiful day outside so I think I'm going to take Zach for a little walk. I'll update soon!

I'm Back!

I can finally (sort of) type without pain, so I thought I should do a quick update. My swelling must finally be going down some, which is good, and I wish I could say the same for my pregnant looking stomach, but so far, no such luck:)

But enough about me. Baby Zach has proved (so far) to be a great baby. He is calm and content (especially since he sleeps about 20 hours a day). The only time he fusses is when he wants food, which I can handle. He is so cuddly and since the other kids have pretty much outgrown that stage, it is so nice to have our own little built-in heater that enjoys nothing more then sleeping on mom or dad's chest. I could keep having babies just for that reason:)

Madilyn has been a card lately. You can tell she feels like such a big girl lately since there is finally someone in the house who is smaller then she is. She is a great helper and throws away diapers, grabs wipes and of course, tries to force feed the baby string cheese and gold fish. Yep, we are going to have to keep an eye on her.

Ben is Ben. He is starting to talk more and more and he is just plain funny. He has two new phrases which crack me up including "I'm going to Batman you" which means he is going to run into you and try to tackle you and "I'll let you know". I have no idea where he picked this up but he likes to throw it out there when I tell him that he can't do something. For instance, I told him last night that he couldn't go up and play in his room and he said, "Okay, I'll let you know". You can tell he feels like a big grown up when he uses such phrases and it is pretty stinking funny.

Being a mom of three has been great so far. Especially since I'm at home during the day with just the really easy one to take care of:) Once all three of them are home at once, I am pretty sure I will be singing a different tune...or checking into the nut house...but I'm sure it will be full of great stories to share!

Attack of the Zach

Well, I wanted to write a real quick entry to announce to the world that Zachary Matthew Brogan has arrived. Unfortunately, some pregnancy induced carpal tunnel has not allowed me to type, nor will it allow me to type very long. However, the wonderful combination of Percocet and Motrin will let me type a real quick entry. Zach is here, he is beautiful, and so far, really calm. He weighed 9 pounds and almost 6 ounces and was 22 inches long with quite a bit of dark black hair. More on Zach and the family soon!

T-Minus 13 Hours

Until the arrival of Baby Brogan #3. I will try to update this as soon as I can to get the information out to everyone...who reads this at least. I'm a little nervous, but mostly ready to have the whole thing (pregnancy, c-section, etc.) over with. I think anyone who says they enjoy their last month of pregnancy is either crazy or lying. But that is just my opinion.

Ben and Maddie got new beach balls to play with today. Of course, these are for play in the house as it is March in Iowa and there isn't nary a beach in sight...nor will the weather be cooperative for several more weeks. However, Maddie's beach ball is just about as big as she is and Ben has taken it upon himself to introduce her to the harsh reality that she is a lot smaller than he is. Several times to night he ran into her with his beach ball, pretty much just to knock her down. Finally, Matt took away the beach ball and said he couldn't have it back unless he promised to not hit Maddie with it anymore. So, he asked "Ben, are you going to hit Maddie with this ball anymore?", to which Ben promptly answered "Yes" (three times, they had this conversation). So, at least Ben is honest...by the way, he didn't get the beach ball back.

One other small tidbit about Ben's brutal honesty involves a picture of me immediately following his birth. We were having such a feel good moment, looking back at pictures of when he was born, in which he likes to say "I'm a little tiny baby" (which to the untrained ear comes out as "I have diabetes"). But as he looked at a picture of me holding him right after my c-section he promptly pointed at me and said...Grandma Laura. Yep, you better believe no one is snapping any shots of me after this c-section until I at least get to brush my hair:)