23 Weeks - Busy Baby & RAOK reminder

I had my 23 week appointment yesterday and I made the mistake of dragging both kids along with me. Never again. Josie waited until I was securely fastened into the blood pressure cuff before she bolted down the hallway - laughing the entire time. Hilarious? No. Then Jack announced that he was "bored" while I chatted with the midwife. Thank you, Dear Children. Your manners are impeccable.

In other news - the midwife tried to find a heartbeat for our little guy...but every time she found it, he moved or kicked. Finally she said, "okay, he's in there...things sound good, but I'm not going to chase him around." Seriously. I looked over at my "bored" four year old and thought "HERE WE GO AGAIN." Check out THIS POST from my 23 week appointment with Jack {October 2009} - I kid you not...SAME THING! Freaky! Anyone who knew Tyson as a child and knows Jack now...knows the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Silver Lining: Baby Brother will have Jack to keep him busy and Josie to keep him in line {unless she runs away}.

Finally, today would have been Christian's 3rd birthday...and it's a great day to make someone smile! Do a RAOK in his memory! 

My Favorites & a call to Action

Here are couple of my favorite pictures from the past two days. Jack and Tucker are "best friends," so I was excited to catch "a moment" between them. I'm not kidding when I say that Jack calls Tuck his best friend. The other day he told on Tucker because he wouldn't play with him! It went like this:

Jack: (yelling from his bedroom to Tucker in the kitchen) Tucker come play with me or I'm not gonna be your best friend anymore
*No response from Tucker
Jack: Mom, tell Tucker to come up and play with me or I won't pet him anymore
(I relay the message to Tucker, who is sleeping on the floor)
Jack: Is he sad, Mom?

Seriously. Is that not a) the cutest? and b) a SERIOUS cry for a brother to play with?

While Jack was riding his bike with his buddies - Josie insisted on a stroll through the neighborhood. And if we're walking around the block - she MUST hold my hand. In a store? Nope. Parking lot? Always a struggle. But a stroll around the block? Of course! She's becoming so independent. It makes me a little sad.

And finally - a CALL TO ACTION! One of my friends from grad school, Erin, lost her sweet baby boy, Christian, {almost} three years ago. She always finds such special ways to remember him and this year, she's asking people to do a Random Act of Kindness (RAOK) in his honor. When I read her blog post about this I was in tears (because I'm on the brink of tears 99% of the day, thanks to hormones) and thought it was an AMAZING idea.

Here's the thing - how often do we go out of our way to think about a total stranger? How often do we do something just for the sake of making a person's day a tiny bit brighter? I know I don't do it often enough. So this is my mission for the month: three RAOK in honor of Christian...and the HOPE that some of you will join me!

It doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive or time consuming. Buy coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks, take a treat to your local firemen or police officers, pick up someone's tab at a restaurant, or drop a card in the mail to a friend you haven't talked to in a while... You never know how your small act could make someone else's day better. And honestly, we need more kindness in this world. We really do.

You can read Christian's story HERE, you can read Erin's post about the R.A.O.K. HERE, and you can print cards (if you want to pass Christian's story on when you do a RAOK) HERE. Find the event on Facebook HERE!

Thanks, everyone!