Outer Banks

This past nine days we have spent at the outer banks at a house called Ha Sea Enda. It was a blast. We got there on Thursday of last week and we were prepared to spend 9 days with 16 people total.

My dad had to quickly introduce us to the pool table/ping pong table, which dad eventually fixed during the week. See one thing about my dad is he can't sit still idly by and do nothing when there is stuff to fix. So we quickly made a list of stuff he started to fix and the first one was the pool table.

Then on to Friday night when I made my first meal, white chicken chili. My good friend Jessica had made this amazing meal for us that I wanted to replicate. I went to the store, bought what I needed, and put it all together in the crock pot and boy did it ever smell so good.  Time for dinner and I served it up and Joel was setting it on the table and he dripped a spot on to his finger which he licked off as he was coming over to me and said is it supposed to have a bite? To which I responded no and tasted it. Boy, it set my mouth on fire and I said make sure you put sour cream in it. Yvette's family all loved it but the rest of us could barely eat it. Turns out that I put jalapeño peppers in it instead of chili peppers. So it became a running joke to make sure Michelle isn't cooking or we will definitely lose some weight this week.

We mostly just rested for the first couple of days to recoup from the drive down. Fourteen hours in a car was a bit much. Melinda came down on Friday and we went to the aquarium on Sunday and it wasn't big, but it was fun to break out and do something. Each night it seemed like a ping pong, pool table or air hockey game was going. Lydia and Seth loved running around with their cousins and there seemed to never be a quiet moment until they all eventually crashed.

Sleeping was somewhat of a challenge but it all worked out in the end. We all took a drive down the beach to try to see the wild horses but we didn't see any. But we enjoyed some waves and cold water.

My dad discovered a new game called Catch Phrase Scrabble. He was so fun to play with. Between his descriptions of the words/phrases and his body movements we laughed a few pounds off. Clay really loved to see Papa first thing in the morning, dad could always get a good smile or coos out of him.  Lydia, Seth, and Chloe enjoyed morning time cuddles with Aunt Yvette and afternoon cuddles with Mimi.

It was cold and windy most days but we made the most of it. Allyson and Andrew were mega helps to us with the younger kids. We got to play games a lot because they kept their eyes on the kiddos. Adam and Alex spent their time playing hide and seek, dolls and doctors with their 3 younger cousins sometimes playing mediator between the three. I always had a good relationship with my cousin Stacey. Lydia and Chloe are the same age apart that we are and so I am happy for their relationship and how much fun they had together since Lydia is surrounded by mostly boys.

We are looking forward to the next time we can celebrate being together and being thankful for the family God has blessed us with.

Big Boy

So I haven't blogged about Clay in awhile.  But he has now been deemed our Big little boy.  By big we mean fat and by little we mean short but he is a great little boy.  He is super interactive and he is sooo loving.  He smiles and coos and he is living life large.  He is 15 pounds and he if our miracle baby 3 times over now.  God healed his foot and he struggled a bunch with going poop and on the verge of having a biopsy on his colon to see if he had a nerve congenital disease in his intestines the doctor cancelled it because he started to go a little more regularly. So thank you God for providing him relief from this.

This Boy

This boy was my first ever favorite boy until that boy joined in and now I have 2.  Sounds like a fun story.  By this boy I mean our little big boy Seth.  Last week I finally took him for his wellness checkup. After having a baby and then starting school work, doctors appointments weren't very high on my priority list.  He is 32 pounds and weighs more than Lydia did at 3 by 7 pounds.  He is 3 feet 2 inches tall which means he is short.  He is fun loving and very spunky and sometimes says the funniest things that make you just want to squeeze him.  His loves for books is amazing, i hear the request mommy can we just go look at books at the library a lot.  I try to make a habit to get there and let him chose many books that I read over and over again.  His favorite one right now is Dirty Diti Dinosaur.  He can almost quote the whole book which is amazing.  He loves to be a part of school with Lydia so I am currently teaching him the letters in his name.  He has started asking a lot of heart question about hell and if he will go there?  I pray that this is a great beginning for his salvation.  What a gift God has blessed us with in our little man.

Time goes by fast

I just wanted to post this for the stats so I would remember Clay's growth.  Yesterday at the doctors he weighed in at 10 pounds 1 ounces.  He is 22 and half inches long.  I can't believe how time flies.  But then I said that about Lydia and Seth.  Here is a recent picture of all of them.  Lydia 5, Seth 3 and Clay 7 weeks.

Summer is leaving

Well I am sad to see summer go.  Summer is my favorite season.  I love the sun, the heat and swimming and just continually being outside.  A lot happened for us this summer.  We went on vacation in June with Joel's family were I struggled a little bit with contractions. I attended and helped with my first VBS at our church.  Lydia loved it and can't wait for next year.  Then we waited not so patiently to meet our little boy so we could finally tell people his name.  We celebrated birthdays here at our house and with our friends.  Then at the end of July we welcomed our new little son Clay into our family.  Which takes us into the month of August were it was none stop action here.  My mom and cousin Shawna came to visit to meet Clay and to help out around here.  Then just as they left Mom and Dad L came to visit and meet Clay in person as well.  Which bring us up to the last week in August where I started to learn what it was like to be by myself with 3 kids and homeschool.  Sometimes my days just slip by me.  I nurse, teach, clean, do laundry, go to bed and start the day all over again.  It was nice to have a long holiday weekend to have Joel's help around here.  I got to sleep in a little and we just enjoyed being together as a family of 5 now.  This month of September I am sure will also float by me without me knowing it as this is also a busy month.  But for now I will enjoy one day at a time.

Lydia will be 5

We threw Lydia's birthday party today instead of on her birthday because as you all know she shares it with a bunch of other celebrations.  I decided to throw her a fancy Nancy party because if she reads books she mostly likes to read them. I had been thinking about her birthday for about a month because of Clay's due date being between her birthday and Seth's.  I decided to make it Bonjour Butterfly and Beauty Spa together in one party.  So we painted nails, painted faces, made tiara's and most of all just had fun being together. I am thankful for all of the mommies that jumped in and helped out.  My amazing mother in law helped me shop and decorate and we both feel exhausted but we had so much fun. Lydia shared her birthday party with her friend Isabel because today was actually her birthday. Lydia you are one amazing little girl.  You are so loving and compassionate.  I am looking forward to seeing how you will grow and change this new year and I am thankful for the love you have for your family. Most of all I am praying that this is the year you come to know Christ as your Saviour.  I pray this for you every day. Love you little munchkin.

Seth is 3

I have been blogging a lot lately, but I couldn't help but share about our little buddy who turned 3 yesterday.  He is one spirited little boy.  His favorite things right now of course starts with his sister, although sometimes I think he hates her.  His second favorite thing is cars and then legos.  He is such a love bug.  Daddy is his favorite person and looks forward with eagerness for him to come home from work.  Seth, daddy and mommy are so grateful you are in our lives and we look forward to a new year with you.

Clay David Leineweber

This makes for my birth story Part 2. July 22nd I celebrated my 30th birthday. My goal was to make it past my birthday before I gave birth to our sweet little man. I was super excited at church that day because I knew that labor was near. Up until this day I had been struggling with high blood pressure.  They had asked me to monitor it and to keep a close eye on the bottom number because that was the one that kept being really high. They had also up until this point basically put me on bed rest because i was already dilating very rapidly and then i stayed 4 centimeters dilated for 4 weeks. I also had contractions pretty frequently for the past 4 weeks so by Monday morning, July 23, I was 37 weeks and pretty much ready to have this baby.

I went to my appointment and my blood pressure was still pretty high but not high enough for them to do anything. So I came home deciding that it was good for me to keep the baby in as long as I could.  Within a couple of hours I started to experience some intense contractions that were about 5 to 6 minutes apart and thought “what in the world did the doctor do to me?” But oh well and here I was contracting and trying to breathe through them. I wanted to stay home as long as possible because I didn’t want them to send me home. I waited until Joel came home and made dinner through my contractions. We said that if they did’t go away within the hour we would go to the hospital.

I wanted to go out to with my friend Candace that night so I was determined to wait it out. She was taking me out for my first ever experience at Orange Leaf. By the time she came the contractions had pretty much gone away. I thought well at least I didn’t go to the hospital. I spent all night wondering if they would start up again, barely sleeping due to being so uncomfortable.

Sure enough about 4 am they started back up again only this time they were a little closer together. I asked Joel if he would run some errands with me so that I could walk to see if these contractions were here to stay? We went grocery shopping and had run some stuff to the OB and then came home. The contractions never got stronger or closer together so off to work Joel went. I was pretty tired out by this time after being up all night and then having contractions through the morning always wondering whether I should go or not.

My contractions started up again around 2 and I called the doctors and they told me to come in. I was 4/5 centimeters dilated and I was well on my way to having this baby. After being admitted and getting my epidural I stalled out. I got stuck at 6 centimeters and even went backwards a couple of times despite my ongoing contractions. Around 2 the started Pitocin and I was finally ready to have my water broken. Soon after that I pushed 6 times and the baby was out.

Clay David was born July 25th at 9:32 am and weighed in at 6 pounds, 3.5 ounces with perfect feet. I had never seen such a more amazing miracle of perfect feet than I did that day. I am so grateful for all of my kiddos and I am thankful that Clay is another blessing added to our family.

Birth Story part 1

This blog post may be kind of long but I want to remember all I can about this story. Back in the beginning of April or May I am not exactly sure the date, I read a blog post where a person had invited a good friend into the birthing room to take pictures and write a story about the birth of their daughter.  During this same time we found out that our precious baby who was unborn could have a small birth defect called club foot. As I read the birthing story that this person had written I thought how awesome it would be to have someone be there to remember things that me or my husband wouldn't.

So I began to consider allowing someone in the birthing room while I gave birth to our baby boy, because God has already worked so many miracles in this baby’s life that I wanted to remember it all.  As I considered it I wondered how Joel would feel. I just threw the idea out there and said what if I invited someone into the room while I was laboring and giving birth? At first he was like, “Really? You want to do that?”

Up to this point we had never let anyone in the room with our other two kiddos because we wanted it to be just the two of us. So as he thought about it we thought about what friend we could ask that has already had kids and would be willing to do it.  So we asked our good friend Candace to be a part of this birth to which she agreed. She was amazing. From the time she stepped into the birth room till we had our baby she was an amazing coach and a wonderful encourager. She was even joyful all the way till 1:30 in the morning, and then again at 7:30 am. until I had the baby at 9:32 am.

I wouldn't trade making the decision to have her in the room for anything. Thank you, Candace, for making labor and delivery so much easier for me. I will always remember how your encouragement kept me going.

WOW it is almost time

These days I am starting to have a harder time walking up and down stairs and doing laundry isn't the easiest thing in the world.  But as I sit here in my discomfort I can't help but think about in less than 7 weeks we will once again have a baby in our house.  I have been feeling very nostalgic as I have been thinking about bringing Lydia home from the hospital and how in 5 short years she has grown so much.  One of her favorite things to do is talk, kiss, and hug my belly waiting anxiously to meet her new little brother.  We pulled the baby clothes out from Seth and she helped me go through them picking out all of the newborn to 3 months clothes.  She asks me daily, Mommy how many days until poppy comes out?" I love the fact that she is already taken with her little brother.  5 years seems so short but yet that is how old she will be.  Then there is Seth, who in the past few months has been fully potty trained and getting ready as well to except his little brother into his room.  I told Seth that when the baby comes he was going to share his room with the baby.  So he anxiously awaits the day he can share his room with his baby brother.  Joel and I well, we have been busy getting close out, cleaning the car seat, setting up the basinet and trying to get a little bit of rest.  I however, anxiously await to meet this little miracle that God has given us.  Remembering to be thankful for the short time we have left with just a family of 4.  Also, I am looking and thinking about pictures and these are 2 of my favorite pictures of our growing kiddos. 

What if Healing comes through Tears

Many of you will recognize this post title from the song by Laura Story called Blessings.  The reason that I titled this blog this way is Joel and I have experienced blessings through tears.  My last post I was able to share with you how our baby boy had club foot and how God has been using it in my life to change who I am and How I perceive His blessings.

I must admit that not knowing what God had in store for us and this little boy caused me to cry out with tears to God to show me that He is an ever present help in time of need.  God has taught me that He is a God full of Love and Truth and one of His greatest attributes is Healer.

When I think about miracles I think about all of the miracles in the New Testament and how Jesus raised people from the dead and He makes the lame to walk again or the blind to see.  When I think of miracles today I don't really think I see them as much.  God is however a God of miracles just by breathing life into my body and the miracle of carrying a baby in my womb and how God is knitting together our baby boy for His glory.

This past Friday Joel and I went to have my second high risk ultrasound done to make sure that the baby is continuing to grow and to check on his foot one more time so as to further look into what we would need to do once he is born.  As the technician was going through the different measurements and looking at his head and the rest of his body she looked at us with a questionable look on her face and asked "What foot was clubbed again?"  We both answered her and said his right foot. She said "Hmmm, everything looks normal to me I am going to go get the doctor to double check."  The doctor came in and asked us if we had been told about his club foot and to which we answered yes, she said ok lets take a look around.

When she found his feet she looked at the ultrasound machine and looked at the technician and said do you see those toes they are pointed straight at us.  The question in my mind was well it was probably his left foot the one that isn't clubbed.  Then she said I need to really look at this as she turned on the 3d image of his feet. She turned and looked at us and said I am pretty sure that his foot is straight he doesn't have club foot.  It was then at that moment I realized that God had healed our little boy.  We have proof from other ultrasounds showing us his club foot and it was very clear to us that God worked a miracle in our little boy's life already and he isn't even born yet.  She looked at us and said congratulations on a perfectly healthy little boy.  I cleaned myself up walked out of the room with Joel and was in awe of what God had done for our little boy and for us.

Deuteronomy 10:21 says He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen." I can honestly say I have seen God in this and He deserves all the praise because we know that God has take care of our little boy but not just our little boy but us.  So praise be to God our Healer and blessings do come through tears.  So as Jesus made the lamb to walk He has made our son able to walk and hopefully proclaim one day that his God healed him.

In Trials

Sometimes I wonder why it takes trials for me to be dependent on God's grace and mercy in my life.  I have been meditating on 2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  This verse was spurred on by the fact that we just recently learned that our unborn baby boy has a small deformity.  I got a call on a Wednesday night at 7 from my OB doctor telling me that she has just received the ultrasound pictures of our anatomy scan of the baby.  She said she was requesting a follow up ultrasound, because she was pretty sure there was something wrong with his right leg.  So as I started to panic I said can you tell me something more specific and she said not really it could just be the angle of the ultrasound picture.  I had an appointment the next day for my regular 4 week checkup, she said just go ahead and make the appointment for the ultrasound then.  I went in the next morning only to have the doctor call me back into his office instead of the regular exam room where they listen to the heartbeat.  He proceeded to show me the pictures of little boy's foot and he said there are several things that could be wrong with his leg but not limited to that he may have a chromosome disorder that would take his life once he was born.  So of course now in sheer panic i try to keep my composure and he said I am making you an appointment today to have an ultrasound done with a high risk doctor.  I went out with him to the counter and the receptionist began to make the appointments for me to see the high risk doctor, a genetics counselor, and have a high risk ultrasound taken of him.  It turned out that they couldn't get me in until the following Monday.  So as I drove back to get my kiddos from my good friends house, I just started to feel incredibly alone and had no idea what to think or do.  So I started praying that God would work a miracle in this baby and just show me that I wasn't alone in this.  So as I went through the rest of Thursday and the weekend I just kept trying to keep myself busy trying not to think about all the stuff that could be wrong with the baby, Still feeling as if I had to walk this road by myself.  Monday morning came and Joel and I both prayed God please help us to be willing to except whatever He had for us and whatever we were about to face and learn about our baby.  I then all of the sudden didn't feel alone anymore, I felt God saying Hey, I got this and this is for your good and my Glory.  From the time we walked into the doctors office until the time we left we both felt so comfortable and knew that God had put these specific people in our lives for his good.  We learned that yes indeed the baby's foot is turned in but it is very moderately turned in and from what they could see on the ultrasound no other problems were causing this so no down syndrome or no Trysonomy 13, 14.  So the gave it a term which is club foot and they said here is the plan here is what you need to do and the baby will most likely wear a cast on his foot/leg until the doctors feel like it is back to where it should be and then he will wear a brace at night until he is 2 or 3 while going through some physical therapy.  So back to the verse showing that the surpassing greatness belongs to the Lord and not to me.  We are still praying that God would heal his foot but we know that God's got this and we don't have to fear the unknown because the power belongs to God and definitely not to me. I also realized that having a turned in foot is the least of baby boy's problem.  His biggest problem is they need to know our Saviour so outside of praying for a miracle I am also praying that God would save him and his sister and brother.  As I explained this all to Lydia she said, Mommy its ok if he can't walk we will just carry him.  I realized at that very moment that God is carrying little baby as well as his mommy, daddy, sister, and brother.

Great Grandparents

This week Joel's parents brought the 3 grandparents that Joel still has, here to see where he works, lives, the kiddos, and of course us.  This is a blog to mostly remember them coming and to help me remember to tell the kiddos when they are older.  Pop and Grammy Leineweber have celebrated 60 years of marriage and their request was to come here.  It has been fun, interesting, and tiring.  But the pictures will last forever.

Baby Boy!

Here is baby boy's profile!  Things I am learning about pregnancy this time.  Lydia is absolutely in love with her unborn brother.  She gives him hugs, kisses my belly and says I love you poppy.  She asks daily what he is up to today.  She often will just bring him up with out any prompting from us.  She enjoyed seeing his ultrasound done today.  Seth still isn't completely understanding about the new baby.  But he does know there is a baby in my belly.  He will say hi to him sometimes but most of the time I don't think he really thinks about it.  During my ultrasound today baby boy was pretty stubborn and the tech pushed really hard on my stomach and it was painful.   I am able to still do jazzercise.  I don't crave food a lot but when I do i try to give in.  My favorite thing to eat right now is still chips and salsa.  I am already having braxton/hick which is interesting.  But overall I feel great and I am still excited to be pregnant again.

Spring

We have already experienced some summer like weather, but now it is back to spring time and a small bit chillier which I enjoy because it was a little too hot for this pregnant mommy. We got to do a lot of summer type activities like play in a big bucket of water and we planted half of our vegetable garden already and some bulbs that we hope will grow. We basically lived outside for 2 weeks straight. I love spring and summer because I love to be outside but what I love even more is that my kiddos like to be outside too. Just a few pictures of our days so far.

I am tired!

This blog may seem like a pity party but just bear with me because I know that in the End Christ is sufficient for me. Lately, I have just realized how I am a complainer. I am tired of sin and so I complain about that. I am tired of trials and so I complain about that. I am tired of having a overly dramatized life and so I complain about that. Then after sharing a life event that happened to me someone said to me, wow your life is just full of drama so I once again I am tired of that. So as I lay in bed last night I kept thinking about ways were I didn't have to tell people whats going on in my life to spare them the over dramatized life I lead. Then I kept remembering 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." I realized that the only way we grow and become more dependent on Christ is when we walk through weakness and calamities and hardships and so on. So what if I am tired i need to just keep keeping on. But then the question aroused in my mind was how can I do this without sharing every little scary detail of my life, like a car accident, uncomfortable pregnancy pressure and so on? How can I keep a joyful attitude when talking with people? How can i fashion my life by pure rejoicing? I haven't figured this all out and I will probably spend a life time trying to not focus on myself and my hardships, but for now I am just going to rest in my weaknesses, knowing this is just what God has for me in time of my life. So when people ask me whats knew I may just not much but all is well.

My Valentines

I was wondering what I would write about recently and so I decided that this would be a good day to blog. So I have had the best 10 years with my hubby. Granted we have only been married almost 8 years we have spent almost 10 together. His birthday and valentines day are very close together so I try to make both as special as possible while still watching our budget. But what I have learned over these past years is that Joel doesn't need extraordinary surprises or lots of gifts, he just likes to be noticed and loved on. So this year was his 30th birthday and I did throw him a surprise birthday party but to him his favorite thing was the thought that went into it. So this year I am going to focus in on how servant hearted he is and how he puts a ton of thought into everything he does. I love you Joel Leineweber!

Moodiness

With this pregnancy I have experienced moodiness that I never remember having with the other 2 kiddos. It is the most frustrating thing in the world to not be myself. I wake up in the morning and I am just as grumpy as I was the night before and it last all day long. Then within minutes I can be the most happy person in the world ready to be joyful and take on the world but in just a few seconds it can all change. So after going to jazzercise yesterday and having a conversation with a fellow Christian she said Michelle you create the atmosphere in your house. If you are grumpy things are going to be hard and if you are joyful things will seemingly go better. So after thinking upon our conversation today I decided to start out my day with a word study on joyfulness and here is a passage of Psalms that I will hopefully be meditating on. Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. 2 The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! 5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD! 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! 8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together 9 before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. If anyone else who has read my blog and have struggled with this in pregnancy I sure could use any advice I can get. I am praying that it goes away along with the normal beginning pregnancy stuff.

All Recipes

So in December we had the pleasure of having a family live with us for 2 weeks. While my good friend was here she showed me some amazing ways to save money on grocery shopping. First of all we would find a recipe on all recipes and then if I didn't have an ingredient we would look up how to make it on all recipes. Like we didn't have enough ketchup one night so we looked up ketchup on all recipes and sure enough we made our own ketchup. Then tonight I decided to make beef stew for dinner and one of the ingredients they called for was italian dressing. Well I didn't have any italian dressing so I looked up how to make it and I was able to make Italian dressing and it turned out pretty good. So I am super excited to learn a little more on how to save money on groceries. Definitely so I don't have to run to the store every time I am missing an ingredient for my dinner. I will let you know later on how the beef stew turned out.

Blessings upon Blessings

I know that for most of you, you probably already know that for 20 months now Joel and I have been trying to have another baby. After the first I would say 11 months I would get very and I mean very discouraged because I would find out that I wasn't pregnant. I cried I sometimes even screamed I questioned why God wouldn't give us another baby. I wanted so desperately to have another baby. It seemed like to me every day someone else was announcing they were pregnant. I would fall under the weight of once again I wasn't pregnant. Finally, God called into action a very good friend of mine who showed me very lovingly that I was so caught up in wanting a baby that I was forgetting to see God in it. She also encouraged me to start praying that God would make his desires my desires, Though difficult in the beginning to pray that and mean it. Another one of my good friends encouraged me by saying maybe this is just your time to love on other peoples kiddos. So after listening and praying I felt God starting to change my desire. It was amazing. I began to rejoice over the birth of many of my friends babies. It was nice to be asked to babysit for them and love on their kiddos. It was still very difficult at times not to think about the fact that I wasn't pregnant but I would again pray that God would make His desires my desires. Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. This is the verse that I would cling to. I prayed that my desire would be only to serve my Creator and not my desires. God showed me that I have 2 amazing kids. They were my ministry right now. I finally came to terms with the fact that maybe 2 kids was all God wanted us to have. Then on December 11, after experiencing some really weird things happening with my body, Joel and I decided that I should take a pregnancy test and sure enough I saw very clearly the plus sign for pregnant. I laughed I cried I couldn't help but thank God for changing my desires so that I would learn to rely on Him and not myself. It was the most amazing thing that I could have gone through. It was very hard and very emotional but I a thankful that our God reigns over all and He deserves the Praise.

A couple of post

So Joel and I decided before we left to go to my parents for Christmas that we would take away Seth's pacifier as soon as we got back. So this is a memory I will want to share with him one day. So today I took Lydia and Seth to the dentist. Turns out he has a slight under bight because of paci as we call it. So the dentist told me that the sooner that we got rid of the paci the sooner that his bight would return to normal. So we took the plunge and I took the paci and snipped the end of it while Joel explained to him that he was a big boy and that he was going to get his present for throwing away his paci. So he took the paci and under Joel's encouragement threw the paci's in the trash with the end cut of it. So tomorrow I will update you on how he did paciless. Here to not having a sleepless night and much rest for Seth., who by the way has cut 8 teeth in the past 2 weeks.