E's Letter to Santa

I just 'found' this picture.  It reminded me of how far E's handwriting skills have come in the last year.  She's grown up so much.  Last January, our dear friend, Lindsey, joined the Peace Corps and left for Thailand.  E was so sad.  So, we started writing Lindsey letters.  E could write the letter "E" and that was all.  She wanted to learn how to sign her name at the bottom of her letters.  Consequently, we started 'school' in the afternoons while X was sleeping.  Now, I'm not very scheduled (I blame pregnancy and a newborn) and we don't 'do' school nearly enough.  I wish I had the energy/time to do it more, but she is progressing.

For Christmas, she was bound and determined that she was going to write Santa a letter by herself.  So, I spelled out the letters for the words and she wrote Santa a letter and addressed the envelope.  She was so excited.  The envelope says, "Santa Cla North Pole".  I didn't take a picture of the letter because I was hoping to do the old bait and switch at the post office and never send it and take a picture of it later.  However, she insisted on going to the post office to mail it and insisted on putting a stamp on it and insisted on putting it in the drop box herself.  We thought that the post office might just return it to sender and Jut did think to put our return address on it.

The post office did not return it.  Instead, "Santa" wrote a letter back to Miss E.  It was very nice.  She loved getting a letter from the North Pole.  I didn't know Santa wrote back to good little girls...but he did.

E didn't get anything on her wish list to Santa for Christmas.  She didn't seem to mind.  All of her wishes came out of a catalog that is very similar to American Girls and revolved around things for her dolls to play with...Santa had other ideas in mind for Miss E...that she could play with.  Thankfully, she hasn't complained or questioned one bit about her wishes not being granted.

It is amazing to see the changes that happen within a year's time!  Bring on 2012...especially if one of the changes means C sleeps all night!!!  :)

C at 2 months

My little man still likes to sleep...especially if he's being held! Aunt Stacey didn't see him awake all Christmas weekend because he was too cozy and comfortable to wake up.

C starting 'cooing' this month. He's not a big 'talker' yet. I think his siblings make too much noise for him to see the need. But, he does make the sweetest little noises.

C figured out how to quickly end tummy time this month. On the 10th, he was doing some tummy time at Mom and Dad's when all of a sudden he was back on his back. He surprised himself and us. I still don't know how intentional his flips are...but he commonly does it.

Smiles are becoming more common place and intentional. Nothing is cuter from a baby than a big toothless grin.

Sleeping is still an issue. He sleeps in the bassinet most nights. He gets up about every three hours to eat. He usually wakes up at least once each night with gastrointestinal distress. Needless to say, we sleep with his gas medicine. So, I'm usually up with him at least three times between 11 and 7. Makes for short nights.





Daytime sleeping is also not going well. He falls asleep fairly easy when rocked but doesn't stay asleep for more than 20 minutes...and usually it is really about 5. We are both frustrated by the end of a day. However, if you hold him, he'll sleep for at least an hour. Ugh.

Otherwise, I think that is all that is happening in baby land. Happy 2nd month B'day, little man!

Merry Christmas!!!

Becoming the Mother Merchants Fear

Today I needed to go to the post office and the grocery store. Jut had the car but it was a realitivly mild December morning, so I bundled us all up and out we went. We haven't meandered downtown since well before C joined us and I decided to make several stops along our journey.

Before I begin recounting our adventures, let me paint a picture of our appearance. Two visible kids with a double stroller and me. First there's E...adorable as always. She's looking stylish in her light pink coat, mittens and hat...with hot pink sweatpants that look huge on her skinny little frame. X is sporting froggie mittens and an orange tiger hat because he won't leave a hat on right now and so I can rarely find matching sets. However, I look the 'best' out of the three of us. I have C in the Moby wrap under my ski jacket. He looks like a very large lump...not a preggo bump b/c he rides entirely too high but he is a peculiar lump. I couldn't find my hat and so I have Jut's black knit hat that is awful. My mitten lost its mate and so I was wearing one mitten and one stretchy glove of a different color. C-L-A-S-S-Y, yup that's me. But, if you've forgotten life with a newborn...you have about a 2 hour window to get things done before they need to eat again. Searching for things is a forgotten luxury right now...especially when you don't start searching until the other two are ready to go. So to start the adventure we look the part of high class society.

We make our first stop at the Culli*gan store. No problem. We are quickly in and out with X is sitting nicely in the stroller. Our second stop doesn't go so smoothly. I stop at the shoe store for 1 item. A little thing...should only take a minute. Well, X wiggles out of the stroller as soon as I stop it. But, I figure it's not a big deal. It's a shoe store. No big deal and he has mittens on so he has very limited dexterity.

Well, I was wrong. First he decided to climb up on the foot stool...then he was climbing on the chairs...then he started bringing me the displayed shoes. E and I seriously spent less than two minutes deciding upon the item. X was like a little Tasmanian devil on the loose. The salesman was a young fellow that obviously did not have any little boys in his life...nor should he ever play poker. I could read the expression on his face..."you need to do something with that unruly child and get him out of my store!". Lovely. Glad I don't typically shop there.

Stop three was down the street and around the corner at the post office. We left the stroller outside because it is a small business area and it was packed. X stays with me willingly for about 1 minute. Then he starts wandering over to the po boxes and disappearing from view. I'm wearing C who is probably 13 lbs...and X is 30 lbs. Holding X is not really an option. After chasing him down the second time, we start playing "What letters do you see?". Probably annoyed everyone else waiting in line, but it kept both kids occupied and close by. Then, a train went through. No one had come in behind us, so we went outside and watched it until I noticed 5 people converging upon the entrance. I hurried the kiddos back inside. X told everyone about seeing the train...repeatedly. When someone didn't acknowledge him, he just repeated himself louder until they commented something back. Then, he proceeded to lay down in the middle of the floor and started scooting across it making train noises. I remarked something about being a tripping hazard and thankfully it was our turn at the counter and he got up without trouble.

Our fourth stop was the new jewelery store. I again left the stroller outside. In the first two minutes in the store, he's pressed his face against the display cases and dashed behind the counters checking everything out while I am questioning the owner about some things. I see a kids corner...PTL...and direct X to a book we've read before and thankfully another salesperson comes up and starts reading the book to the kids and I can finish my conversation with the owner.

Stop 5 was the local meat market. Carla gave them suckers upon arrival and they were angels.

Stop 6 was the second hand store and I kept both munchkins in the stroller and we zoomed in and out.

Our last stop was the grocery store. I needed one item for dinner. Unfortunately, I turned the wrong direction. We toured the store. When we located the dressing, I was looking for the off-brand and X said something about Chex. I was still looking at the shelves when E screamed, "Mom, X is running away!". Sure enough, I turn in time to see X's little legs running as fast as they go turning the corner down the far end of the aisle. Thankfully, it is a small store that we frequent regularly. I knew just where the end cap of Chex's was located. Sure enough, X was stacking boxes in the aisle when we reached him. We go to the check out and he was doing something mischivieous and the guy behind the counter laughs and says "You aren't being a tripping hazard anymore." to X. I said, "You were at the post office.". He smiled and gave me my change.

We obviously made entirely too many stops!

My Little House Girl

Last spring E and I started reading the picture books based on the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. E LOVED them. This summer we started reading the little novelettes that they made to corellate with them. By September, E was ready to tackle the actual books. I didn't know if she'd stay interested in them...the chapters were longer and there weren't many pictures. However, she continued to love the stories. We'd spend a week or two in each book reading every day before rest time and bedtime. On some days, we'd read for over a half hour and she'd sit there and listen attentively. It was our cuddly mother/daughter time every day. We both enjoyed it. Yesterday we finished the last book in the series. I was sad to see the series end. E informed me that we are going to start over in the Big Woods and read the series again.

All of E's dolls have names from the Little House series. They go for rides on covered wagons, go hunting with Pa, help Ma cook...her imagination is wonderful. I love listening to her imagination go. She is in love with he Little House story and characters. I'm so glad Laura is her hero right now and not a current socialite.

C at 1 month (although the post is 2 weeks late)

At 5 weeks old, C is 12 pounds 2 ounces and 24 inches. He's a growing boy! Tomorrow the 3 months will be put away and the 6 month clothes will take their place. C has finally learned that he can stretch out his legs and his sleepers are just way too short.

C started out life preferring to sleep while being held.  While we are still battling that preference, he is sleeping at least part of the night in the bassinet finally.  I am finally getting some good sleep since I don't have to hold him all night long.

 

My sister and I wondered we would ever do with a mixing bowl that was so big...the answer is that it is perfect to bathe a newborn...even if he is a big newborn.  C loves his baths.  He enjoys them very much and never poops in it like his brother always seemed to do.  :)

E and X are very smitten with C.  Although, they do tire of listening to his crying.  X loves to stick his finger in C's mouth when he's crying because he's seen me do it all to often.  X also loves playing peek-a-boo with C in his carseat in the car.  We try to discourage it because that means C is being exposed to the cool air of the unwarmed car.

The laundry of two in cloth diapers is a bit daunting, but when C was about 3 weeks old, we made the switch to him being in cloth.  It does give him a butt and makes his pants fit much better.  He's long and lean like E (at least right now), which makes getting pants to somewhat fit a bit of a problem.  But, cloth certainly helps with that issue.

E is 4.5!

Wow! Time is flying around here. E had her half B'day last week. We celebrated by measuring how much she's grown in the past 6 months. She has grown about an inch and a half. She's towering over X by about 9 inches. She's such a tall, thin little waif.

E is generally a delight but she has entered a much more challenging stage in life. She deems many things in life 'not fair'. Her dramatic reaction to things not going her way makes me crazy. She loves to aggravate X by playing with his toys or stealing his things. The two of them make me want to pull out my hair some days.

Dolls are E's favorite pastime. Our neighbor gave E bunk beds for her babies. Every night she has to put them to bed. During rest time, she reads to them and cares for them. She has renamed them Laura, Mary, Carrie, Grace and Nellie Olson...in honor of the Little House chapter books that we have been reading this fall. She loves her babies! Her Christmas list to Santa only included items for her babies this year...a high chair, a piano and something else that I can't remember. I'm a bit worried she'll be sadly disappointed when Santa doesn't deliver once she wants.

E got to be in her first parade tonight. She loved being on the float and throwing candy to other kids. It was cold at thirty degrees but she was a trooper.

Planning parties is a favorite pastime. She always wants to have her friends from church or the neighbor girls over for some type of party. One of these days, I'll have to actually have to make one of these parties happen. She's been to two 'girls only' parties this fall. One was a high school girls event and the other was a birthday party for one of her friends from church.

The neigborhood girls love to come over and play. E loves them! One is a year older than E and the other is a couple years older, but they play with her so well. They had a new brother born in April...so they have that in common also.

She loves drive X crazy...although he returns the favor quite well. She constantly wants to play with what he's playing with or be in his space. Their bickering drives me crazy.

Tonight she lost her dolls due to poor choices and she was trying to buy them back from Jut. She loves money and thinks she rich with her $8 and change of B'day money. She is always wanting to buy something. She's funny when she's not being exasperating.

She's a great big sister and helper and retrieves all sorts of things for me. I enjoy her help in the kitchen. She loves helping me bake and stir things. She loves kneading bread or biscuits. Her favorite thing is getting her own piece of dough to knead and put in the oven.

One thing is certain...life with a 4.5 year old is not boring. She's great!!

X at 2

X turned 3 two weeks ago...another long over due post, but when your baby brother arrives five days before your B'day, it tends to overshadow your B'day.  However, it does mean that X got to have 3 birthday parties...one with the Darons, one with just us, and one with the Flegels.  How much more could a two year old want?  Three cakes, lots of presents, lots of attention...plus there were several 'big brother' presents thrown in over the course of the last four weeks.  I don't think he minded C's arrival overshadowing his birthday at all.

X is a lot of fun right now.  He's a generally happy, go lucky, little guy.  He loves to run everywhere.  He talks nonstop and he keeps repeating what he said until you acknowledge his statement.  Sometimes he keeps repeating himself anyway.  He's a bit of a broken record unless his thoughts are redirected elsewhere.

He loves counting...he tends to skip 10 and ends at 11, but he's getting it.  He loves saying the ABCs.  He misses some of the letters between K and O, but he's doing great.  He recognizes almost all the letters.  His memory impresses me!  I attribute it all to PBS and mostly Super Why.  But, he's doing great!

X's smile and twinkling eyes spell 'mischief' all day.  He loves pushing his sister's buttons and getting her upset.  He's loved doing that since he was six months old and he learned that he could roll over and touch her toys...and nothing has changed.  He still loves running over and messing with her things.  He loves to get into the 'school' supplies and creating havoc.  Coloring is a favorite pastime.  He also enjoys playing with Play*Doh with us.

X's favorite obsession right now is Thomas the Train.  He loves watching Thomas episodes.  He loves playing with his Thomas toys.  He got some new engines and play sets for his birthday and they are still the first things pulled out each morning and the last to get put away each night.  He sings the songs, looks for Thomas each time we pass a railroad track and just generally loves all things Thomas.

Singing is still a favorite pastime when he runs out of things to talk about.  His favorite song is the "nah nah" song (Every Move I Make).  But he also sings the theme song to Thomas and a few other songs.

He's a wonderful big brother.  The first few days home he loved coming up to C, patting his head, and saying "Baby so cute!"  He gives C things to play with when he's crying and always informs us if C is crying.

Checking out C when arriving home

Dad's buddy

Loves singing...and with a mic it is even better

Obsessed with the Ipad and playing "Thomas and Snowplow"..or angry birds or anything else

Favorite b'day present...Thomas and the Misty Island playset

Trick or Treat

This post is a bit late, but we've been pretty busy for the last three weeks with our newest little guy.  

For Halloween, E changed her mind constantly what she wanted to be...and we didn't know when C would arrive and if she'd even have the chance to go Trick or Treating.  So, I did not know what to do about a costume.  Then, I went to the Mom to Mom sale and found a red full body leotard for a quarter.  So, the next question was what to do with the red leotard.  E wanted to be a rose or a plethora of other difficult ideas to institute.  Luckily, I found this "lady bug fairy" costume for 50% off and it pretty much matched the leotard.  Consequently, E was a lady bug fairy for Halloween.

X wore the cow costume that E wore last year.  He thought that it was fun.

Jut took the older kids to a couple places in town.  Afterwards, they came back to the house and picked up C and myself and we went out to Mom and Dad's.  C was dressed as a green bean...or a pea pod.  Can you tell?  :)  He slept through the whole ordeal.  Ah...the life of a 4 day old.

Our newest blessing

C arrived just about 24 hours ago. He weighed in at a healthy 10 lbs 13 ounces and was 23 inches long. He certainly doesn't look the part of a newborn...but his sounds, actions and smells are 100% newborn.

The preparation fot C's birth story started 4 weeks ago at my 35 week check up when we discovered via ultrasound that he already weighed a whopping 7.5 lbs and I was already dilated to a 2. I started praying for an early delivery or that the ultrasound was inaccurate. The dr and I discussed that I would have another c-section if this baby was bigger than 10.5 or 11 lbs and that we'd do another ultrasound at week 39 to see where we were at.

Week 39 rolled around and I just kept praying that I would go into labor. My appointment was on Thursday. Wednesday I was just begging God to put me into labor. Around 2 pm, I thought God answered my prayers. By 3 my contractions were less than 10 minutes apart and getting stronger...so I texted Jut and called Mom (the babysitter). By 5 when Mom arrived, I was down to about 4 minutes. I knew it was time.

We packed the kids off, packed the car, and headed to Wal*mart to pick up a couple big brother/big sister presents. My contractions slowed a bit at the store and so we decided to go out to dinner. By the time we got home, they were fizzling.

As the kids were already settled at Mom and Dad's for the night, we decided to leave them in case contractions started up again in the middle of the night. Well, despite the fact I was up almost all night, labor didn't kick into gear. But between the contractions that happened several times per hour and the dancing baby between the intmintient contractions, sleep alluded me. I was so frustrated! In the morning, Jut went and picked up the kids so my parents could go to work.

At 4, I went to the DR's office for my check-up. He checked me and offered to break my water the next morning at 7:30. He was shocked when I agreed...but I was shocked that he offered b/c of my VBAC status. But, he thought all systems were ready to go. He told me to come in at 6:30 and get prepped, he'd be in at 7:30 and we'd have a baby by noon. Sounded almost too easy to me...and that should have been a warning of things to come.

So, we had dinner as a family and then took the kids back to Mom and Dad's for the night. We went home for the second night in a row by ourselves. It was so wierd. X had never spent the night away and now he'd done it for two nights. We did some last minute things and set the alarm for 5:30 so we had time to go out and have a nice breakfast before starting the festivities.

Breakfast was nice but I was ready to get to the hospital...so I rushed through it. Big mistake. Jut kept telling me the entire time to slow down and enjoy it. I should have listened. We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 and were ready waiting in our room by 7:30. And there we stayed waiting...little did we know we'd wait for another 9 hours...

So at 10, we hear the nurse call the drs office. He'd be over at noon. Since I'm a VBAC, I'm under a no food/beverage rule once I'm admitted. Thankfully my nurse had compassion and gave me a couple of glasses of water after we found out he wouldn't be over until noon because my mouth was already horribly dry. She also allowed me to take off all the monitors that were recording nothing as I wasn't actually in labor.

At noon, the dr comes in and apologizes for the delay. Since I am a VBAC, he has to be on the floor while I'm in labor. He forgot about that when we discussed the induction the day before. He also explained that he still had some patients to see this afternoon but he'd be back at 2:30 and we'd get everything started. We were very frustrated. We could have spent the majority of the day with the kids and let them stay home last night. Mom brought the kids to the hospital for lunch, as we were doing nothing. It was apparent that they were melting down and we didn't have a baby yet.

Well, 2:30 comes and goes...3:30 comes and goes with no news....4:30...Jut keeps telling me that we won't see him until 6 and I'm having a difficult time keeping a positive attitude. At 4:45, the dr finally arrives and breaks my water. Yippee! He says we'll have the baby by 9.

My sister texts at 5:24, "are you in labor yet?" and I reply no and boom! It starts almost immediately as I hit send. Awesome! Dr comes in sometime and says its going great. If I was on a pit drip, he'd turn it down, but since it is all natural, away we go. I did find watching all the monitor numbers throughout labor very interesting. I didn't pay any attention to those during X's delivery. However, towards the end when the contractions never fell below 100, it did become more depressing rather than interesting.

At about 8:30, phase 2 started...pushing out an almost 11 lb baby is NOT fun. It only took 5-6 regular pushes (and lots of little tiny pushes) until C appeared. After push 2, dr said he was almost here and I accused him of lying. I pushed for 2 hours for X and didn't anticipate only 15-20 minutes of stage 2 with this delivery. Jut quickly backed up the dr with that he was coming. Sure enough, baby came out not too much later. No one wanted to wager a guess as to his size but the nursery nurse figured he was well over the 10 lb mark. When C was weighed, he tipped the scales at 10 lbs 13 ozs, and was 23 inches long.

Jut called Mom and Dad to share the news with the kids and they brought them right over. They were so excited! Of course, they were the most excited to recieve their big brother and sister presents...but they were excited to see and hold the baby too. After some of the excitement died down, Jut took the kiddos home so that they could sleep in their own beds and I got some wonderful cuddle time with my newest little guy. It was a LONG day of waiting but worth it all in the end!

Some life in pictures...

X attempting to ride a trike...he thinks he can

E very excited about something...

E riding her bike with my bike helmet...we can't find hers so she always wears mine

Leaf wars...we have lots of fun raking

X getting ready to be pounced on...we love the leaves

E's turn to enjoy the leaf pile

My biggest headache...Thomas the Train and Friends...The kids most loved toys

X playing with Thomas on his 'track'...he spends hours here

My hoarder...E loves collecting engines.  In my humble opinion, she does it just to annoy her brother

I did find the camera and actually took a few pictures last week.  Batteries are charged.  Memory card has been deleted so that it is ready for baby.  I cleaned out our shed last week and I hoped that it was a sign baby was near, as I have never cleaned out the shed prior to last week.  Monday I cleaned the house.  Today I made bread...one of these days baby will come.

X finally started saying "yes" (or 'hes') this week.  That is a nice change.  He also yells, "Momma, R' you?"  when he can't find me now.  He randomly started twirling in circles tonight.  Crazy boy.  He is very polite when he doesn't want to do something and says, "No tank you!"  It is much better than the typical "no" that many toddlers like to say.  I like to say he's turning two with a vengeance right now because he can be pretty willful at times, but generally he's still my adorable little guy.

Not too much is new with E these days.  She does like to be my helper.  Today was our 'baking' day.  She helped me bake and prep pie pumpkins and make bread.  She also helped me wash dishes.  Sometimes her 'help' causes so much extra work that it makes me crazy, but I know it is important to let her help now so that she'll help me later when her help will be more helpful.

The Little Happenings...

I'm finding myself these days wishing I knew where our camera was...or wishing the batteries were charged. Hmmm...maybe I need to figure that out before baby arrives. Guess I'll put that on the 'to do' list as well. However, that assumes that I'm getting things done on said list and that is a falicy. But regardless...

We are having a lovely fall. The kids enjoy playing outside so much. When the grouchies strike, we have recess outside and it seems to banish them away. E loves riding her bike. We've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books. She pretends to be Laura or Mary and 'rides' to the town of Pepin to get supplies for the winter. She's all excited to buy a farm someday and raise cows and make cheese and do all the things that Laura and Mary do. Crazy girl! As ready as she is for that adventure, I'm sure I'm not up to that much fun on a farm! Living 'off the grid' really doesn't appeal to me, but I let her imagination run. It is fun to see it go. Today she harvested 'wheat' from the backyard. She was so excited to find wheat and be able to grind it into flour. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was just grass that had gone to seed. It was her treasure and she had big plans for that 'wheat'.

X loves playing outside, also. He says, "Truck outside?!" He loves riding his truck. He can make it go so fast. Jut and I have enjoyed our evening walks with the kids so much lately. X doesn't need the stroller anymore. He just zooms away on his truck. That leaves Jut and I to meander behind. We can actually hold hands and enjoy each others' company. Novel. E rides her bike and waits at the corners. She's such a good, reliable first born. She's becoming more and more of a mother hen.

My other favorite thing that X says right now is, "Tank you, Mama!" Any little thing that I do for him, he replies, "Tank you, Mama!". Sometimes I think that he says it just because he's learning that I'll always say, "Your welcome." So, he knows he'll get a response. He loves being understood and being able to participate in a conversation. That is a conversation that he knows "the rules" of...so we repeat it over and over and over. He's such a polite little guy. It melts my heart...even when it is the 1000th time we've said it in a day.

We are still hearing the "nah-nah" song frequently...but not daily. That is another thing I should video. E will sing the words to "Every Move I Make" and when she gets to the part X can sing, she lets him sing it. They are cute. It is really funny when X doesn't want to sing and yells, "No nah-nah!" as E sings. They crack me up.

Thomas the Train is a favorite at the house. We have engine wars constantly between the kids. However, we can only usually find 2-3 engines. Slowly but surely they are disappearing. But, that doesn't keep the kids from fighting over them. Refereeing isn't my favorite 'mom' job. One of these days they might all disappear...

Baby is due in 4 weeks. Dr thought that anytime he/she could make their appearance. Probably since he told me that baby will make me wait another 5 weeks. We'll see. I've decided it is a boy and so I'm not washing any of my girl stuff. We'll see if I'm correct one of these days. The dr is concerned about the size of this little fish (or big fish as it might be), so I have another ultrasound tomorrow to judge baby's size.

Someday I'll get the camera out/working again. Then maybe I can update so new pics of the kids. They are both growing llke weeds. E is so long and X is getting taller all the time too. I need some pictorial evidence.

Whirlwind Weekend

It has been a crazy weekend.  We left Friday morning to go down to Lan*sing to test drive a couple of minivans.  However, after spending almost three hours at the first dealership, we decided that it was time to continue our journey south to Jut's folks.  I couldn't believe how well the kids behaved at the dealership.  Three hours in one place is a long time for two little ones but they did great.

We journeyed to Jut's folk's house.  E was anxious to get to their house because Joye had been telling her all about the toy room designed especially for her down in the basement since they had moved in.  I think the toy room was all that E had imagined.  She loved it and loved playing with all the dolls and houses and whatever else was down there. Aunt Jenna was there with her friend Rachel and they played all evening with E down there.  She was in heaven!

So, we got to see Aunt Jenna and her boyfriend and Rachel Friday afternoon.  Plus, Jut's aunt, uncle and grandmother came for dinner.  It was his g'ma's 83rd birthday.  So, we had a fun celebration with the family all together.  Family gatherings are few and far between for his family, so it made the evening even more special for them.

On Saturday, we found out that X is severely allergic to beagles.  Poor little guy.  The dog got dropped off and wasn't in the house for more than 5 minutes, but X's face started swelling all up, his eye was swelling shut, both his eyes and nose were running like a faucet.  Poor thing.  Fortunately, as soon as we washed his hands and face, changed his clothing and left, everything went back to normal and he started feeling much better.  I've never seen such a quick reaction.  Guess beagles are not in my family's future.

For lunch, we made the 40 minute drive to Jut's aunt and uncle's home.  We drove by the location of Jut's childhood home when he was E's age.  He enjoyed showing E some of his favorite spots when he was her age and she loved seeing them, as she still loves to hear stories about when we were little.

Lunch was a wonderful time catching up with Jut's cousin and his family from Day*ton.  E got to play with her two cousins that are several years older than her, but they played with her wonderfully.  They explored the attic and upstairs closets of Jut's aunt and uncle's house.  E talked about it for the majority of the way home.  She loved being one of the 'big kids' and doing everything that they did.  We enjoyed the chance to catch up with Jut's cousin.  It was a great afternoon.

We headed for home late afternoon and stopped at my folk's house for dinner.  The kids 'helped' mom pick raspberries...and then ate most of what she picked.  We always enjoy Saturday night pizza.

On Sunday, our good friends from Al*gonac stopped at our house on their way home from Musk*egon.  It was so much fun to see them.  They also have a 4-year old and a 1-year old.  So, it was fun to watch our kids play and interact together.  E and their son had a great time running around together.  I was a bit worried about lunch.  We decided to go out to a restaurant...and I knew their boys had already been cooped up in a car for a couple of hours and my kids don't do well in restaurants on Sundays after church.  I thought that our plans had disaster written all over them.  However, the kids amazed me.  They did great.  The older kids entertained each other at one end of the table, and the little guys sat together on the other end of the table and did great. It was a relaxing lunch!  We got to chat and catch up.  It was so nice.  They came back to the house and the kids continued to play wonderfully together.  It was such a great afternoon.

We had such a wonderful weekend.  However, I was glad that the kids and I had nothing going on today.  We needed the day to relax and unwind from our crazy busy weekend.  Visiting is fun but it is tiring!  :) 

Hopefully, this all makes sense and isn't too disjointed...I typed it once and everything but the first paragraph disappeared.  Ugh.  Things are never as good when they are written the second time.

Fun in TC

Jut was in school last week.  So, my parents took pity on me and took me and the kids up to TC with them for 3 days...or as E told a little girl at the playground, "My dad took his own vacation.  So, G'pa and G'ma took us on vacation with them."  Nice.  Dad leaves 9-month looking preggo mom with 2 kids to go on his own vacation.  Sad thing is that probably that is the reality for many couples out there.

We stayed at a cabin in a campground.  Both the kids had a great time playing in the cabin and at the playground there.  We took a walk in the woods, which X loved.  It was a very cozy cabin for 5 but at least it had a bathroom for middle of the night excursions.

 

On Thursday, we ventured out to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  The kids had a great time playing in the water, making sand castles and running up and down the dunes.

X loved feeding the waves sand.  It wasn't the warmest day and I failed to put bathing suits on the kids, but by the end of the afternoon, they were both soaked from playing in the water.

 

After playing in the Lake, we went to dune climbing.  G'pa taught E and X how to roll down the dunes.  X wasn't super proficient at it. He kept his mouth wide open each time he tried and ended up with sand in his mouth, which he didn't like.  So, he decided scooting was a much better option.

G'pa took E to the top of the dune.  E loved running down it.

On Friday, we did a simple picnic lunch at the Bay in TC.  The kids loved playing in the sand and water for a second day.  We loved the peaceful, beautiful view.

My parents never fail to surprise me as G'parents.  On the way home, G'pa decided that E needed to have some ice cream.  So, we got off in Cla*re with sole purpose of finding E some ice cream.  We did locate a nice little ice cream parlor with hand dipped ice cream and we all enjoyed a bit of a treat.  E loved that hers had a face...X thought it was a bit scary and wouldn't eat the face.

 

But, it was a good time for everyone.  Jut enjoyed his classes, and we enjoyed our time away.  But, Mom and Dad were happy to get back to their quiet house...the comment was made, "Do you realize your children start talking when they wake up and don't stop until they fall asleep?!"  We were ready to be back to our normal routine and naps and bedtimes.  It is fun to go away but it sure is nice to get home.

 

Just some life

Life keeps going. Baby could be here in 2 months. We've got a ton to do before he/she gets here, but he/she will come regardless of our preparedness. But, I would like a place for the little bundle to sleep in once he/she makes his or her appearance and it would be nice if we had a vehicle that could carry all three children before we have three children. So, maybe I need to work on at least those two things. However, I have gotten my kitchen cupboards cleaned and organized. The toy room bookcases clean and organized. One of the closets in the office has been reorgainized. And, I got a new Dy*son vacuum...I love my vacuum. I love seeing how much junk I can pull off my floor every time I use it. My next task is to clean the office and reorganize all the cupboards in there. Jut will be gone for a week soon and maybe I'll get really ambitious when he's gone.

X is doing great. He's at such a fun age right now. He's finally got a reply to an affirmative question. He says, in the cutiest, sweetest voice, "Me too". You'll ask, "X do you want to go outside?" He'll reply, "Me too." and nod his head. It is so adorable. He's got a mischievous little smile and a twinkle in his eye all the time. He is too cute for his own good, in my opinion.

He's got so many words and he adds words daily. His vocabulary amazes me. He's saying new things all the time. He loves trains and trucks and tractors. He's infatuated with Thomas the Train right now. Reading Thomas books and watching videos is his favorite. He'll look at you and say, "Thomas...remote." Nod his head and say, "Me too." E likes to play with his trains, too, and that leads to sharing wars. But, mostly they do okay.

E is doing very well also. She's already to start school this fall, but we are going to do some preschool activities at home. I've been planning some activities to keep her engaged this fall. She's very social right now and always wants to play with other kids. I feel a bit guilty for not putting her in school just because I know she'd love the social aspect, but we will have a great time cherishing our last year at home together before we have to start following the craziness of schedules that schooling dictates.

E is ready to read, too. She wants to read and gets frustrated that she can't read. I don't want to push her academically, but it is nice to see that drive. We'll work at her pace. Right now she is enjoying the Little House chapter books and is excited to move into the 'real' books later this fall. She also loves the little books with pictures for some of the words so that she can 'read' with me. I enjoy listening to her read to herself...she makes up stories and it is fun to listen to.

She started off the summer riding her trike. Our neighbors gave us their daughter's old 2 wheeler with a bell and training wheels and she LOVED that. Then, my cousin gave us his son's old bike...a 'real' bike with brakes. She just has gotten brave enough to try that bike. But, she can't work the brakes very well yet and ended up in the road, which scared her. So, she won't ride it far but she loves that she can go fast on it. She wants to 'polish' it and change it from blue to pink or turquoise so it looks more like a girl bike.

X loves riding bikes too. Unfortunately, he can't reach the peddles on the trike. So, he scoots himself along with his toes and tries to keep up. He can't wait to be able to do all the things that his big sister, "Sissy" as he calls her, does. It is a 'monkey see, monkey do' household around here.

Well, my time is almost up. I've been at the hospital since 7:50 this morning. I failed my glucose tolerance test last week and so I'm doing the 3-hour fasting test this morning. Fun, fun. The good news is that I'm now registered into the hospitals new computer system and won't have to go through all that again when I'm in labor. There are benefits to some things even if they are annoying.

Warwick Community Days

 One of the benefits of having G'ma moved to Warwick in June (other than it gave me the opportunity to see her 6 times before she passed away) was that we found out about Warwick Community Day at the end of June.  They have the largest mobile petting zoo in Michigan on premises, two inflatables and lunch all free of charge.  Plus, there is some other things that cost extra, but the kids spent several hours just enjoying the free activities.

 I didn't take many pictures of the animals, as I was busy keeping my eyes on X.  But, they had  two huge tortoises, slues of goats and sheep, a kangaroo, a couple camels, some little monkey species, an armadillo, a couple parrots, some little pacing cat animal and a bunch more that I don't remember.  E was excited to touch an albino Burmese python because we had been reading about how they are invading the Everglades from our library book Eco Dogs that week.  They had an entire reptile trailer but we didn't go in there.  We just got to see the Burmese python as one of the workers was holding it outside of the trailer.  X, however, didn't want anything to do with the big snake...and that was okay with me because I didn't really want to get too close to it either.

 The kids loved looking at the goats.  Numerous people thought that they needed to share their goat treats with the kids and so they got to feed them too.  X mainly threw the feed at the goats because he didn't really want them touching him.  E enjoyed having them munch out of her hand and chatting with the goats as they did it.  She was much more adventurous here than she has been at other zoos.

The next stop were the inflatables.  Both the kids loved them.  They had an obstacle course and a bounce house with a slide.  E loved them both.  X loved the bounce house.  He laughed and laughed and laughed as the bigger kids jumped and he'd get knocked down.  He hadn't figured out how to jump yet and he loved the feeling of jumping as the bigger kids jumped and he'd go airborne.  It made me nervous but he loved it.

E ran up and down the obstacle course again and again and again.  She loved chasing the other kids through it and coming down the slide at the end. 

The slide on the other side of the bounce house was fun too.  Although, I didn't particularly appreciate the fact that X thought that he needed to climb up to the top.  He came down the slide once and the other times that he climbed up to the top, he came back down the ladder.  He thought it was cool to be up there with the bigger kids but didn't always enjoy all the 'help' that the bigger kids tried to offer him.

It was a very fun day.  The kids had a blast.  There were many tears when it was time to leave the inflatables but they had a good time.  Then, it started to sprinkle and it didn't seem so bad to be leaving.