Leger Christmas...

The whole family... Dawson having a good time...

Nadia just had to have a picture with "Camera"

Granny and Papa and all the grandkids.

The grandkids all alone.

Donham Christmas pics...weekend before Christmas

I have no pics of me or Baylor from this! I promise, we were there!

December Updates...

Here are pics from December....
This is from the Favorite Faculty home game. Our basketball team members each chose their favorite teachers, and invited to attend the game wearing their jerseys. I had no intention of leaving work at CHS, driving all the way across town to pick up the kids, go home for about an hour, and then get back in the car to drive all the way back to CHS.

However, this wonderful senior named Jeremy walked up to me and said, "Mrs. Donham, you're my favorite teacher, and I'd be honored if you'd wear my jersey to the game." Of course, I called David and told him not to make any plans for the evening since we had a game to attend!

Let it sneaux, Let it sneaux, Let it sneaux!
Can you believe the snow we got? I was so upset to discover that school was not canceled, and I could not go out and play with my kids in the snow. Baylor didn't have school, but I did, so it was off to school I went. I had no more than 6 kids in any of my classes...free day!I can't figure out how to rotate the pictures...just turn your head to the side while I try to figure it out.

I'll get some sleep tonight!

My mom has all three of my kids for the night! Yippee!!! Plus, Kiki brought my Christmas present over today, and it's some aroma therapy candles and bath salts. I'll get to take a hot bath and rejuvenate. I'll probably take another bath in the morning just because I can!
We've been getting so many adorable Christmas cards in the mail. I love seeing the pictures of everyone's children. Kiki and I were planning her card for next year with her two dogs on it.

Well, it's been awhile!

I've been back at work for three weeks, and I'm finally off again for two weeks. Dawson has three or four nights a week that he wakes up at 1 am, 3 am, and 5 am...on top of Nadia waking up once or twice. David does get up with Nadia, but her crying and moving around still wakes me up. Then I've been having to get up at 5:45 or 6 to get dressed for work. To say I'm exhausted is a great understatement. I felt like I was stuck in that movie "Groundhog Day." I've just been doing the same thing everyday, and then waking up the next morning to do it again.
I still have my moments of joy, though, like Friday afternoon when David picked the kids up from Kasie's so I could have a couple of hours to myself. I really do have a great husband!
Nadia's vocabulary is rather impressive, I think. She was in the tub with me yesterday and said, "Mom, can you move forward?" I had no idea she even knew that word.
She can also be very polite when she chooses. For example, she'll say, "May I please have some orange juice?" Too cute.
Last night she woke up twice. We're sleeping in Thibodaux to do Christmas this weekend, so I think that may have something to do with it. The first time I was up nursing Dawson, and I heard a THUMP followed by her screaming her head off. David took off running (from a dead sleep), and figured out she had fallen out of the bed. He rocked her and Mimi rocked her, and she went back to sleep. Fast forward to about an hour and a half later. I was feeding Dawson again, and I hear her screaming from the living room. She was screaming, "Mom, a spider bit me, Mom, a spider bit me!" Baylor came in and said, "Mom, Nadia is crying that a spider bit her." I put Dawson down, threw on some pants, and took off running. She had been sleeping in the recliner, but by the time I got there she was standing behind the recliner up against the wall. I picked her up, put her down on the floor, and took her pj's off so I could check. There was NOTHING there. By this time, David was in the living room, Mimi was in the living room, and Nadia was still screaming.
The best we can figure is that she had a nightmare about a spider. Poor thing. She was really afraid. I rocked her some more, and she feel asleep. At this point I just brought her into the bed with us because I was so tired.
Baylor is still loving his school with Mrs. Elaine, and seems to be doing pretty well. I'm noticing that his handwriting is better, and he's starting to voluntarily read things at home, like tv commercials and things in the mail.

I'm back at work.

It hasn't been too bad considering I prepared myself for the worst. I did have my last name written on the floor of my classroom with circle around it and a line through it. The balls in my computer mice were stolen, so they don't work anymore.
I have a thirty minute lunch everyday. In that 30 minutes, I have lunch duty for the first 15 minutes, and I have to pump during the second 15 minutes. So during my lunch break I can't use the restroom or eat lunch!
Dawson is behaving himself at Kasie's house, but not taking a bottle. He only drank 4 oz Monday and 3 oz today. I don't know if it's an eating strike, or if he just prefers Momma so much he'll go six hours without eating, but he's not eating. He has been nursing every 2 hours in the afternoons and evenings he's with me.
Nadia has been hysterical. For Thanksgiving, we were all at my Mom's house, and Nadia looked down at her plate full of ham, rice dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, etc... She picked up her head and loudly said, "Hey! Did anybody bring some noon-als? Anybody have some noon-als?" It was so cute.
Baylor has been at Raymond's since Thanksgiving day, and he just came home today. He has a soccer game tomorrow and a tournament this weekend. After that, we're done until next fall!

Donham Thanksgiving

The excitement this weekend was just too much for the little man.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend with David's family in Thibodaux. Everyone was there, and we had a really nice time. It was so cute to see Marissa (David's sister's daughter) and Dawson "talking" to each other. They are only three months apart, and they seemed really interested in each other.

Baylor had a blast playing with the neighbor's kids, and was impressed that they remembered his name. It makes me wish that we lived in the kind of neighborhood where he could have friends like a normal kid.

Nadia acted like a normal two year old. For example, I asked her if it was time to change her diaper (I could see that she needed a change!), and she looked at me and said, "Oh, don't worry about my pee pee." We laughed and laughed at her.

The food was great, as usual. We had so much that we ate it again for supper.

We had a picture appointment Saturday afternoon to take pictures of Mimi and Papa with all four of their grandchildren. Since we were all there, we took a large group shot, and several other shots. They came out okay, especially considering we were at Wal-Mart!

Here are some pictures from this weekend: Here's Danny with Marissa and Dawson.

Mimi and Papa with Baylor, Nadia, and Dawson.

What do you think?

"Pees" on Earth...

and Goodwill to all men!

Finally! New pictures!

I finally uploaded some pictures to my new computer, so enjoy!
October 2008

Dawson in his fancy outfit...

Daddy and his UL fans. Geaux Cajuns!

November 2008...Mommy Rocks!

Nadia worked so hard that she fell asleep!

Nadia is desperate to have "two babies", so every chance she gets she acts like Dawson. We had a photo shoot!

She fought the soap, and the soap won. You can't imagine the mess she made "cleaning" herself.Finally got a decent picture of Baylor, Nadia, and Dawson. It took a while!

Hey, What about me?

This afternoon I brought my three children to the mall to walk around. As soon as we passed McDonald's, Nadia started asking for a cheeseburger. Since it was suppertime, I stopped and ordered us cheeseburgers. The cashier asked for our order, and then asked if we'd like anything else.
Nadia looks up at him from the stroller and says, "Hey, What about me?" He looked at her like he was about to ask for her order, and she waved her hand in his direction and said, "Oh, I just kidding."
This child makes me laugh and laugh and laugh!
Dawson has been sleeping better lately. He actually has slept six hours in a row once. I have less than two weeks left of my maternity leave. Hopefully he'll continue this trend so that I'll be able to function at work on December 1st.
Baylor is doing really well in school. I'm so pleased with our decision to pull him out of school and have Mrs. Elaine homeschool him. God has really blessed us with Mrs. Elaine. We love her!

Thinking about going back to work...

...makes me sad. I go back December 1st, and instead of enjoying the time I have between now and then, I've been focusing on how little time I have left. The funny thing is that I know I'll enjoy being back at work once I get there.
My weight is another problem. None of my clothes fit. None. I mean a lot of my maternity clothes are too tight. What am I supposed to wear to work in December? I started seriously watching calories yesterday after I had to buy a super large size suit to wear for the Poverty Seminar that Jessica and I presented last night.
I want to lose at least 30 lbs. I seriously need to lose the nasty belly baby fat flap that is hanging around my middle. I'm just so disgusted.
I need to go take a walk and do Wii Fit. Daily. Anybody want to come join me?

We've hit the age of the difficult questions already!

This morning I was driving Baylor to school, and Nadia asked to sing "Bible songs." Baylor and I know that this means "Jesus Loves Me," so we both started singing it. Nadia tried her best to sing along, piping in when and where she knew the words.
After our concert in the van, Nadia said, "Momma, where is Jesus?" I responded that Jesus was in our hearts.
Her reply? "What's he doing?" I must admit, I was stumped! How do you explain where Jesus is and what he's doing to a two year old?
I told her that he was in our hearts and that he was loving us. Then I asked Baylor to ask Ms. Elaine how she would explain it to a two year old. Baylor immediately responded, "I know what Ms. Elaine would say....she would say that Jesus is in heaven and in our hearts, and that he's preparing a place for us."
I was so proud of him. He has been paying attention after all. Good job Baylor!

Nobama!

If this is too small for you to see, just click on the cartoon and it'll show up bigger for you!

Rocker needs batteries!

Nadia was up in the living room at 2 am screaming her head off for me. I was in the middle of nursing Dawson, so I nudged David to go see about her. She threw a fit for me again, so David let the two year old dictate the sequence of events and came to get me. Momma was not happy!
I went in the living room to pick her up and realized she was SOAKING wet. I brought her into the bathroom to sit her on the potty and went to get her some dry pajamas. She began screaming and crying. This was BAD since Dawson sleeps in a bed in our room. I lifted her off the potty and tried to quiet her quickly. Of course, this did not work, so she got a few swats from Momma for not listening. She began whispering in a hurry.
I brought her into the living room, and went to her room for a diaper and PJ's. I noticed her bed was soaking wet as well, so I had to change sheets in addition to changing Nadia.
I rocked her for a minute or two in the rocker, but it's broken and doesn't rock. We moved onto the stool where I just rocked her back and forth myself. I started checking my email (the stools are in front of my computer) and I got distracted and stopped rocking her. She picked up her head and said, "Momma, your rocker needs batteries!" I busted out laughing...that girl is so funny.
Another story from McAlister's last night that I forgot to mention: David handed her the pickle spear that came with his sandwich. She held it up and said, "Wook. The moon." She held it up, and sure enough, the pickle resembled a crescent moon! I'm pretty sure this means that our daughter is a genius. That seems like some serious higher order thinking to me!
Last night David, Kiki and I went to UL's homecoming game. My parents came to our house to baby sit the little ones (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) and Baylor is still at Raymond's, so we had some grown-up time. It was so much fun. It was UL's 1000th game in the history of the university, and Tyrell Fenroy became the 7th individual in college football history to run more than 1000 yards for four years in a row. (This is all of college football in the nation, not just at UL) They actually stopped the game and had us all cheer when it happened! On top of all of that, they won with a score of 49 to 20. It was really fun.
Well, it's 2:44 am, and I'm going back to bed. Hopefully I can sleep at least three hours before Dawson decides he's hungry again.
I'm ready for Baylor to come back home. I miss that little man!

'Basco Hot!

Last night David, Nadia, Dawson, and I went to eat supper at McAlister's (Baylor is at Raymond's). We were visiting and eating, when Nadia noticed the bottle of Tobasco sauce on the table. She picked it up and tried to open it. David removed it from her hands and told her it was hot. I piped in, "It will burn your mouth."
Of course, this did not satisfy the ever-curious, super strong-willed Nadia, who kept saying she wanted to "see it."
D: Well, do you want to try it?
N: Yes
D: It's hot
N: I want to see
So David opens the bottle, puts one little dab of Tobasco on his index finger, and rubs it on her tongue. She had stuck her tongue out willingly at this point!
The look on her face was hysterical!
Pure shock and horror...
David immediately gave her a big sip of water, and she choked out very loudly, " 'Basco Hot!"

Good idea for anti-abortion campaign...

David had a great idea this morning while he was driving back from bringing Baylor and Nadia to school...
Scroll down and look at the 3D picture of Dawson and the picture of him right after he was born.

He said he could take those two pictures with this caption, "This is my son Dawson, and he was alive before he was born."

Dawson's baby dedication was at church yesterday, and we had a small family gathering afterwards at our house. It was a lot of fun. I'll upload pics when my friend Mona emails the ones she took. (Her camera and skills are SO much better than mine!)

SLEEP!

Nadia sporting her new jacket, hat, and gloves.

Last night we had an impromptu movie night at our house with Kiki and Scott, Mom and Dad, and the three kiddos. It was so much fun! Before that we went to eat the pizza buffet at Sicily's, and were on our way home to watch a movie on the big screen when Kiki called to see if they could come visit. She mentioned they had "Ironman", so they decided to join us.
Mom and Dad dropped by to bring Dawson's outfit for his baby dedication Sunday, and we invited them to stay.
The movie night ended about 11:30 pm, and I fed Dawson and rocked him to sleep. I put him in his crib in the boppy pillow and a thick blanket. He slept from 12:30 am to 4:30 am! I was almost giddy when he woke me up and I realized what time it was. He was up from 4:30-5:30, and then slept from 5:30 am to 8:00 am. Yippy! I have no idea what I did because nothing I did last night was new, but I'm so glad he decided to sleep.
Today David is working, and Baylor and I are going to clean up the house. I'm going to get laundry done and clean the kitchen. Baylor is in charge of the living room and his bathroom. In between all of that we need to pay some attention to Nadia, and I need to feed Dawson every two to three hours. At least I got some sleep last night! Baylor and I are going to bake a dessert or two for tomorrow and hope they come out alright.
Tonight I'm hoping David can stay with the little ones so Baylor and I can go see a movie or something. If not, we'll watch a movie on the couch or play a board game after they go to bed.
Dawson is officially 6 weeks old as of yesterday. I can't believe how fast time is going by! Here are some pictures taken on his 6 week birthday!

More Nadia funnies; Dawson sleep update; Baylor game night

I pick up Nadia every afternoon from Kasie's house, and she usually says, "Momma, I wanna talk a my daddy." So every afternoon I call David on my cell and she talks to him in the car.
Tuesday's conversation went something like this....
N: Hewo Daddy. What you doin'?
D: I'm working.
N: Havto make a duh money?
D: Yes
N: So I go shoppin'?
She also has her personal pronouns mixed up, which is just beyond cute. She comes up to us and says, "Momma, hold you." or "Hold you, Daddy." I'm going to be so sad when she figures it out and starts saying it correctly.
Last night I was sitting on the couch with her feeding her some soup. She clasped her hands together, bent her head, closed her eyes, and said, "Tai-to for Daddy, Tai-to for food, Tai-to for food. Uh. Amen!" Then she beamed up at me waiting for me to respond. (In case you can't read Nadia-ese, she prayed "Thank you for Daddy, Thank you for food, Thank you for food, Uh, Amen!") I gave her a big hug and told her how proud I was of her for praying, and she said, "Again" and proceeded to pray again. It was so cute.
Dawson still isn't sleeping. I've begun sleeping with him in the recliner just so I can sleep a little better. He lays across my chest and sleeps. He still wakes up every two hours to eat, but it's a lot easier to nurse him when I'm already holding him, and I don't have the fear of David rolling over on him in the middle of the night. He'll be six weeks old tomorrow, so I'm hoping that means the sleep patterns will improve soon.
Baylor has been asking me to play a game with him, and I've been totally brushing him off because I'm just so tired. I then realized that he is already 10 years old, and he won't be asking to spend time with me for much longer. So last night when he asked, I told him that we could play a board game after Nadia went to bed. (It's just impossible to play anything with pieces with Madame Curious running around.) When she went to bed, he took out "Guess Who?" and we played four or five rounds. It was really fun, and I enjoyed laughing with him. We don't get to do that too much anymore...
This morning was chilly, and Nadia didn't have a thin jacket. She does have her winter coat from last year, but I'm not too sure it's going to fit her, and it's so thick that it doesn't fit well in the car seat. I went to Wal-Mart and bought her a thin fleece zip up jacket. It's pink, reversible, and very cute. I also bought the lunch stuff for Dawson's baby dedication at church this weekend. I'm serving baked potato soup, a caesar salad, a fruit salad, and some raspberry dessert bars. Hopefully I have enough food.
This morning we also left the house early enough to drop Nadia off first, so Baylor and I went through the drive through at McDonald's for breakfast.   It was a special treat, and we both enjoyed it.
My 2nd substitute for my maternity leave quit last Friday, and the 3rd one started on Monday. I've talked to her two or three times, and it seems like this one will be a keeper. Apparently the other two weren't teaching my kids at all. They were writing the assignment on the board and sitting down without explaining. This new lady is researching things on the internet so that she can explain the material to the kids better. Wow! Thank you Jesus for Mrs. Savoie...
Well, Dawson is napping, so I'm going to join him. Then it's laundry time.

Nadia and Dawson's first UL football game!

On October 18, 2008 a very bored little lady named Kiki REALLY wanted to go to a UL football game. You see, she had never been to a college game before, and was interested in the whole experience. She mentioned it several times, and finally the rest of her family agreed it was a good idea. (She even got Granny and Papa to come!) Dawson was so excited that he practically jumped into his infant carrier, and Nadia couldn't wait to wear Frere's UL shirt, even though it reached her to her knees! UL won in a most exciting manner, and we all went home on a natural high!

(I have no pictures of me, Kiki, or Granny and Papa at the game, but we were there cheering loudly for the Cajuns.)
All in all, the game was much better than a snowball (inside joke), and was a wonderful way to make memories.

I was lounging around with Nadia and Dawson last week (October 11, 2008) while David was camping in Sunset with Baylor. I took some CUTE pictures of Nadia loving on her brother.

We stayed in our pajamas for a good portion of the day, but we had fun anyway!

Dawson is five weeks old already! Here's some pictures of the day he was officially five weeks old! (10/17/08). You can kind of see his smile in the right one. It's so hard to catch him smiling with the camera. I keep trying and missing! You can see his dimple, which was also visible during the 3D ultrasound.

Last night was a little better.

Dawson actually slept from midnight to 2ish, then again from 3 am to 6 am. (From 3 to 6 I caved in and put him in the bed with me.) I know this is a bad habit to start, but at this point I'm so tired I don't care. I'd do just about anything for some sleep.
He's asleep in his swing now, so I'm going back to bed.
Thank goodness David was able to bring Baylor and Nadia this morning, so I also got to snooze from 6:30 to 7:30! I've also taken a bath, and I feel kind of human again.

Dawson is a month old already!

I can't believe how fast it's going by. I also can't believe how tired I am. When he starts crying at night, I want to cry too. I can't even tell you the last time I got more than three hours of sleep. I'm just grumpy and cranky and always on the verge of tears.

Thank goodness Nadia goes to Kasie's during the day so that I can at least take an hour or two nap. I'm sure I'd be in the looney bin by now if I had to deal with a two year old on no sleep.

This weekend we did go to Festival Acadiens, and we had a good time. The food was so good. We spent a lot of money on food, but it was so worth it. We went with the Karoly's from church. They're from Ohio, so I had to take them around to each food tent and explain words like ettouffee, boudin, and tasso. It was fun! Baylor and I danced a couple of times, and I really enjoyed that. He's such a good dancer. I can't believe how much rhythm he has for a 10 year old.

Nadia is still making us laugh. She's also starting to assert her independence. This morning, I told her to go get a diaper so I could dress her for her doctor's appointment. She said, "Uuhh, No." She was told a second time and chose to obey, so she's not fighting us too bad.

Sunday night we had small group and David was working, so I went with Nadia and Dawson by myself (Baylor was with Raymond's parents for the day). Kenny (our group leader) offered to carry Dawson's carseat to the van when we were done so I could carry the diaper bags and put Nadia in her seat. When Kenny picked up Dawson's carrier I thought Nadia was going to have a stroke. She said, "Don't cake Dawson!" (she says "cake" instead of "take") She then proceeded to follow Kenny out to the van without ever taking her eyes off of him! She was so worried about her brother. After Kenny got Dawson snapped in and was walking back to his house, Nadia picked up her finger and said this to his retreating back, "Don't carry that Dawson...Don't carry that Dawson!" (And she would point to Dawson when she would say his name.) It was so cute how protective she was over him, especially considering that she hurts him all the time. She has "giggled him" (ticked him) and drawn blood on his poor little face.

I also wanted to post Dawson's picture next to his 3D ultrasound. I think it's pretty cool to look at. I emailed it to the people at Sneak Peeks, and they said they hung him on their wall.

I weighed him while we were at the doctor's office for Nadia's check-up, and he weighs 11 lbs 13 oz! (He was 8 lbs 9 oz at birth on September 12.)

My weight loss has stopped, and I'm going to have to start exercising if I want to lose more. The thought of finding the energy or stamina to exercise makes me want to cry. The fact that I'm fat makes me want to cry. Getting dressed depresses me terribly because I look ridiculous in my maternity clothes because I'm not pregnant anymore, but my regular clothes don't fit me yet. So I'm wearing maternity clothes and feeling and looking like a cow. (The fact that I'm nursing for about 7 hours a day adds to that whole "I'm a cow" feeling.) I've tried walking the mall and even the track at Girard Park, but I guess I'm not physically healed enough yet for that because it causes me physical pain. Then all of this crap rolled up together makes me want to eat, which only complicates the situation.

Oh well, it'll get better...just not today!

More Pictures

Dancing with the Stars; New kid pics

I finally uploaded some more recent pictures of Baylor, Nadia, and Dawson.


First, a video of Nadia watching Dancing with the Stars. It's worth watching, trust me! She was having such a blast dancing along, and then even more fun having us play her video over and over again so she could watch it. This was filmed September 23, 2008.

I have tried repeatedly (and unsuccessfully, I might add) to get a really good picture of my three kids together. Here are a few attempts: