Family Movie Night

We had a never-before-attempted-Family-Movie-Night-in-the-middle-of-the-week yesterday because Tangled came out on DVD... Truthfully, I don't think we've ever counted down to or celebrated or even bought a DVD when it first came out before.  Yesterday was probably the longest day of my life, trying to keep the kids occupied until 5:40 when Jason walked in the door and we could finally press play.

We spent the afternoon painting pictures so we could make our living room look like Rapunzel's tower.  Leah really put her heart into recreating the floating lanterns, boat, forest and tower.  And she had only seen the movie once- 4 months ago!  Now our living room looks like this, and I love it!

And the movie was every bit as enjoyable as we remembered.  I am always happy to expose Leah to independent-thinking, strong, likeable female characters, as opposed to the sniveling and whiny mermaid princesses that she otherwise adores. 

She's also discovered our collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic books.  They make for great conversation about what is real and ways to use your imagination, although most of the concepts fly right over her head.

And this picture just breaks my heart.  I have started pulling out the camera and taking a picture of Leah's best pouty or whiny or crying face, and it usually distracts her away from her emotions and gets her smiling again.  But not today.  She was very upset that I wouldn't give her another muffin.  I have to remember that, when someone else is the boss, life can be pretty tough.

These pictures are not sequential.  The smiling muffin-induced happiness picture came long before the sad muffin-denied picture of the evening.

I have to remind Leah often lately that when I say "no", it is not an invitation for her to whine or debate or throw a fit until I change my mind.  Of course, that means I have to be really careful about what I say no to, because I'm not dumb enough to think that these little power struggles over muffins or wearing clothes that match (see the above Calvin and Hobbes picture for today's ensemble) are the most significant thing we'll ever butt heads over. Although, wouldn't that be nice?

Messy, Messy, Messy

Adam does not like messes.  He is a great cleaner-uper (when he wants to be) and always calls messes to my attention by pointing frantically and saying, "Uh-oh!  Uh-oh!"  He made a great mess out of my church bag today and had no problem fessing up to it.  This is a fantastic reenactment, although originally he raised his hand, too.

He also has developed a great love for the four stuffed animals that keep him company in his crib.  He calls roll every night to make sure they are all there ("Woody? Monkey? Puppy? Crab!").  Oftentimes I will find him at night with his arm draped around one of them, sleeping peacefully, and in the morning with one or more of them tucked in under his blanket.  This morning he needed to bring the whole gang down for breakfast.

And he's discovered his eyebrows.  He loves to catch my attention and raise them up and down at me.  He kept us all entertained through dinner tonight with his adorable faces.

First Portrait

Leah drew this picture of her baby sister.  The one on the left is what the baby will look like after she's born- complete with "three puffs of stick-up hair!" and the one on the right is what the baby looks like now.  "The yellow circle is the womb, the yellow dot is the baby sister, and the red squiggles are the umbilical cord."

We've been reading lots of baby books around here lately.

In other baby sister updates, I'm feeling more and more drawn to my box of maternity clothes every day.  I am still in the not-quite-showing-but-something-is-obviously-there stage.  I don't have any maternity jeans that fit nicely this time around (my weight has seriously fluctuated over the years) so I am just trying to get into spring so I can start wearing capris and shorts.  I tried on the cutest and most comfortable pair of maternity pants the the other day, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend $50 for something that I won't be wearing until 40 weeks.  Unfortunately.  Given the kicks that the baby sister is delivering to my slightly-too-tight waistband right now, it might be worth the cost to get us both a little more comfortable.

Choose The Right

Leah came home from church yesterday with this-

her first CTR ring!  

She is so excited to have one- every prayer since has included, "please bless me to not lose my CTR ring".  This morning I spilled something on the table an she said, "Hold out your hand." She popped the ring on my finger and said, "There!  Now it was just an oopsie!"  I think that is her way of saying that the ring reminds her to Chose The Right, but if she forgets and makes a mistake, she can repent to make it better again.  She just loves Primary- and so do I!

Didn't I Mention?

We went to Italy this weekend.  The Leaning Tower of Pisa is amazing!  

Okay, no, not really.  This half-sized replica of the tower is in Chicago, just 15 minutes away from the temple.  We took a day-trip to go to the temple, and since we met up with some friends, Jason and I even got to go into the temple together.  And the rest of the time we dealt with judgmental stares from strangers wondering how we could possibly have 5 kids under the age of 6 (with another on the way!).

We also scouted out the nearest Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in hopes of scoring the best tasting caramel apple ever, but they didn't have my favorite kind.  Boo.  And despite the persistent check engine light making another appearance on the way home, we made it there and back in one piece. 

Shh!

When Adam hears something he doesn't like, he shhhes it... it's usually me telling him to eat, get ready for bed, or just about whenever I sing.

And he thinks he's funny!  Okay, he is pretty funny.

Colors

I'm always surprised when Adam correctly identifies a color- something he's been doing for a while now.  My favorite to hear is "yellow".

The Way It Is

Adam has always preferred that I read him his bedtime stories and tuck him into bed.  For months now, he waves "buh-bye" to Jason as soon as we say "Amen" and cries loudly whenever he realizes that I am leaving his room to read stories to Leah. 

But for the last few nights, instead of crying, he just hops off of his chair and books it into Leah's room. I can find him tucked into her bed with a book in hand.  Smart little cookie- he has figured out that to get the stories from Mom, he can just go wherever Mom is.

Leah is working on perfecting her written alphabet.  If she's not sure about a letter she'll write it out and then ask, "Will you accept this as an 'n'?" or "Will you accept this as an 's'?"  I guess I have the final say.

Leah is slowly figuring out the criteria for strangers versus people we know, and people on TV are a very gray area for her.  After I hung up the phone today, she asked me, "Were you talking to Denise Austin?  Do you have her phone number?  Is she your friend?"  All because I invite her into our home via the television for a little prenatal workout a few times a week.  That makes me very cautious about who else we invite into our home via the few hours of television we watch each week... although we only ever watch PBS Kids, so I think we're doing alright.  Elmo and Tiny Pteranodon are great visitors!

A Busy Morning

Leah refused to clear her breakfast dishes this morning until I took her picture.  I have no idea why, but I finally obliged so we could get on with the morning.

Of course, Adam had to have his picture taken, too.

I have started the monumental task of sorting through both Leah and Adam's clothes to find those that will be acceptable hand-me-downs for their baby sister.  (Side note- I had no idea what spit-up would do to a white onesie over time!  Adam was my first projectile vomiter, and I was shocked to see how gross all of his once-pristine onsies look now!)

I took this picture for those who I have tricked into believing that my house is magically always clean.  I may or may not have left it this way and just tossed Adam in and shut the door behind him for naptime.  Either way, the work isn't even close to being done.

I had fun sorting through Adam's clothes though- I found the outfit that Adam wore home from the hospital.  I asked him to hold it up so I could see how big he is now.  He didn't quite get what I meant when I said, "Now show me your eyes!"

I just realized we didn't get a picture of him in it on the trip home from the hospital- he's about two weeks old in this picture, and the outfit only looks small because he had slid down in his seat.

And this is a green outfit I remember Leah wearing-

She is a week old in this picture.

And now we get to pass it on to our new baby girl!  I've had such a mix of emotions this morning as I've remembered how tiny babies are when they are first born, how quickly they grow out of those tiny clothes, and as I've boxed up clothes from Adam's first 18 months.  Will he ever have a brother to pass his clothes along to?  I guess only time will tell.

Regret

I cut Adam's hair.  Not the first time, but this time around I was too lazy to pull out the scissors, and I just buzzed his whole head.  So he went from this-

to this.  

He was saying, "Cheese!"

Now, instead of my sweet little 20-month-old baby, it looks like there is a punk 9-year-old walking around my house.  All he really needed was a little off the top and off the bottom.

I'll remember that for next time.  Assuming there is a next time.

Thank You Letter

Dear Auntie Michelle-

Thank you for sending me a package in the mail!  The stickers are great, and I really like the color of the toy-sized blanket and pillows you made.  I put the blanket to immediate use, although not for my Barbies, as you suggested. 

But my T-rex is loving it!

We're having lots of fun with our new dinosaurs.

Lots of love,  

Leah

Heading South

The kids and I headed down to the Children's Museum yesterday.  It has been a while since we've been, and with two new exhibits, it was time.

I've long since decided that trying to get children to pose for pictures in a museum is a waste of time.  I always feel bad for the kids that have to listen to "Hold still!  One more shot!  Just one more!" when all they want to do is explore the museum that their parents paid so much to get them into.  (Now when the day finally comes that Leah is standing next to Ariel in Disney World, you can bet your season pass that I'll be barking those same directions until I get the perfect shot!)  Anyway, the point is that I tried to take a few pictures yesterday since Jason wasn't with us, although I still refused to request any poses.  You get what you get and you don't throw a fit, right? 

But I had to document the Buying of the Cotton Candy. 

Call me a scrooge, but there is no way I was about to spend $3 on a giant bag of sugar- especially when neither Adam nor I care for it- but Leah convinced Jason to give her the money the night before.  She was so excited to buy a "loaf" of cotton candy and debated the whole drive down whether she should buy pink or blue.  She tucked her money into a purse and that was our first stop of the day.

After that we had a great time exploring Dora and Diego, dinosaurs, and trains.  I even dragged the kids through the new Incredible Costumes exhibit.  And they really were incredible!

Why yes, that is the real Wicked Witch of the West's hat, Luke Skywalker's severed hand and light saber, his jumpsuit, Indiana Jones' whip, goblet and jacket, and I Dream of Jeanie's costume and bottle. Makes me very excited for our trip to Washington DC in June.  Smithsonian, here I come!

Not surprisingly, the biggest hit of the day was the dinosaur exhibit.  Leah and Adam are both really interested in dinosaurs right now, and we spent a good bit of our time playing with dinosaur toys, digging up fossils, and touching dinosaur bones.  Leah even got to hold a real T-Rex tooth!

This picture alone made all of my camera-whipping out totally worth it.

Happy Helper

Leah is in the height of the "I can do it myself" stage, and I try my very best to encourage her independence every chance I get.  Even when it makes fantastic messes that I get to clean up- like her above attempt at making lunch today.  Which was delicious, I must say.

She's working on putting on and zipping up her coat, pumping on the swings, becoming more independent in the bathroom, buckling and unbuckling her seat belt, not screaming my name through the house, but instead coming to find me, and the neverending quest to get dressed the first time I ask.  That one is really tricky for her.

She's also full of funny words- my favorite is , "a whole junk of it", which somehow means "a lot".  And she asks, "pretty, pretty pinky please?" and I "double triple want to".  Her enunciation and articulation have always been pretty spot on, so it's funny to hear her say silly things in such a perfectly sensible way.

And she still has a pretty bizarre sense of time- 30 years is hardly more than 5 minutes in her book.  Makes the concept of running late or trying to get somewhere on time pretty much lost on her.

Her independence is something that I know will come naturally, and she is fantastically independent for the most part.  But now, as I observe the things she needs help with while considering that in just a few more months I will be stretched in three directions instead of two, I realize that there are a lot of things that she can do herself if I would just let her.  And there is no time like the present to figure out what those things are!

Happy Feet

It was a glorious 72 degrees outside today, and we all loved it!  Adam even did a little happy dance to celebrate.

Guilt

I didn't do a darn thing for St. Patrick's Day.  Truthfully, some days I feel like I'm still getting over Christmas.  Plus, Leah is a little leery of leprechauns, cherubs, gnomes and other small fairy tale creatures, so really, why bother?  And I couldn't figure out how to explain the holiday to her anyway.  You wear green and hunt for gold and hope you don't get pinched.  Meh.

But then the guilt settled in around noon.  I loved this holiday as a child.  The green!  The gold!  The pinching!  I knew I had to do something.  I resisted the estrogen-charged urge to head to the store and buy all of the gold-covered chocolate I could get my hands on (thanks, baby sister!) and instead when the traditional route of dyeing dinner green.

I told Leah why we were doing it, and of course her first question was, "So... who is St. Patrick and why are we celebrating him?"  Bah!  Who really knows that anyway?

 Nonetheless, I do think they liked the pancakes-and-eggs-for-dinner celebration anyway.

Halfway There

The first half of this pregnancy mostly quietly crept by- I can't believe I'm halfway there and at the same time can't believe that I've only been pregnant for 20 weeks.  It seems like forever- especially now that I get to field the never-ending (and adorable) questions from Leah about, "When will my baby sister be born?" and "Is my baby sister ready to come out yet?"  She prays for her baby sister at every chance, hugs and kisses my belly, and has decided that her name should either be Emma (the most popular name of the decade) or Leah (ummm.... no.)  I'm just glad she hasn't mentioned the name Allah- the baby that has been growing in her tummy since Adam was born.

I'm in that weird in between stage where none of my clothes fit and people are still kind enough to act shocked when they find out I'm pregnant.  Really?  I've already gained 30 pounds, people!  But thanks for making me feel good. 

I would also swear that I can feel the extra estrogen coursing through my body- now that I know it's there.  More emotional, more swollen, more prone to devour chocolate and then wonder where it all went.  At least I can blame the baby sister now!

All in all, things are good.  I've had more than a few people ask me (as politely as they can) how old Adam is now- he's 20 months.  His birthday is July 17th, and assuming that this little lady comes around her due date of August 4th, they'll be two years apart.  Leah will be 4 and a half by then.  Are we crazy?  Who knows?  And who cares?  It is what it is, and we'll take it!

And Adam was doing something silly out of the corner of my eye while I was taking this picture, hence the silly smile.

The Annual Haircut

It's only her third one, but Leah's new haircut is a hit!  It took a few months of convincing, and she made me hold her hand the whole way through, but once I caught her admiring herself in the mirror and declaring that she really did want short hair after all, I knew the haircut was a success. 

Just how tiny are you?

I love finding my kids in these little nooks and crannys around the house.  Reminds me how tiny they really are.  (Don't mind the post-lunch nakedness- that's just another perk of being tiny.)

And a trip around the kitchen in Mom's high heels is always another reminder of how tiny those feet really are!

It's A....

We had the 20-week ultrasound yesterday.  I was so excited I could barely sleep.  I dreamt most of the night about a big neon sign flashing the baby's gender in my bedroom- the wrong gender, no less.  I realized how truly motivating it would be to take the excitement we felt and use it to power through labor and decided that is something I definitely want to do someday.  Maybe with our last baby.

Everything looked good in the ultrasound, at least from what we could see (the techs never tell you anything!) and we decided to have a special FHE last night to tell Leah and Adam.  They were bouncing off the walls crazy all night long (this is a Monday night trend in our home) so I was a little concerned about how they would act or if they would even hear us over their own shrills and shrieking.  We had a few ultrasound pictures from each of my pregnancies and a few books from the library to cover the basic questions we expected to get.  Earlier in the day we practiced what we were going to say and even Jason couldn't deliver the "very special hug" line without cracking up.  Our kids are in big trouble, indeed.

And it went great!  As soon as we told them Leah declared, "Just what I've always wanted!" and began petting and poking at my stomach.  Even Adam sat quietly for a few minutes to look at pictures and said, "bebe" once or twice.  We talked about how big the baby would get and how long it would take to get to August.  Then before long Leah decided she wanted to act like a newborn baby and Adam went back to jumping off the couch and the craziness resumed.

So what were we talking about all this time?

It's a girl!

We are all thrilled for so many reasons- Leah is so excited to have a brother and a sister now, this baby girl will share my birth order in our families, and Jason is confident that he knows how to handle girls (he does just fine with his boy, too).

I'm thrilled to have the cat out of the bag.  Leah immediately became more cautious about jumping onto my lap and now I can say things like, "It's naptime.  I'm tired and the baby's tired, so let's all go to sleep."   And it works!

Now the work begins, too- I have saved just about every piece of clothing my kids have ever worn, and now I have to sort through it all.  I'm not sure what I'll find- Leah was born the dead of winter, and this baby girl is coming in the height of summer, so it could have all been for nothing.  

And there's the name game.  I think my criteria is still the same- two syllables, soft sounds, nothing crazy-unusual, possibly Biblical.  In the meantime, we'll just be calling her this-

But mostly it's just excitement.  We're having a girl!  A sweet, cuddly little baby girl- yay!

Say My Name

This video is a perfect example of Adam's talking ability- perfect diction and know-how, it's just a matter of whether or not he feels like saying the words.  I always worry that he is so quiet compared to Leah- not that that's hard to do with Miss Chatterbox around.  The poor boy can't get a word in edge-wise.  But Jason assures me that it's just the difference between boys and girls.

Adam Overload

I have been gathering up lots of pictures of Adam over the last few weeks, with nothing really noteworthy to write about any of them.  Adam is still my cheerful little baby.  At least, I think he's a baby, until I see him next to a real baby and realize that he's going to be a competent little two-year-old by the time his little brother or sister gets here. 

Jason calls Adam a little tinker-er.  He loves to sit and pull thing apart, put things together, just figure out how things work.  He has zero interest in watching television, but he will flip through the page of a book or pull apart a stack of post-it notes (one at a time) for hours.

He is getting to the insisting stage- his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, but he still chooses to grunt most of his requests at me in hopes that I will just give him what he wants without insisting that he say the corresponding word first.  But he insists on doing things the way he wants to do them.  He has finally made peace with the vacuum and insisted on helping Jason vacuum our room the other night.

He is also developing a major love for the outdoors and insists that we go outside- in the front yard, together- several times a day.  He always wants to put a helmet on his head and loves to be pulled around in the wagon.

He's also full of mischief and knows to clear the room fast if he's caught doing something against the rules.  He makes my heart skip a beat at least seven times a day.  

And if you're wondering if he's having a little brother or sister... so are we.  We find out on Monday!

Go Fish

For no known reason, I have been collecting metal juice can lids for years now.  I have just always assumed that some day I would come up with a great use for all 55 of them.  That day hasn't come yet, but this week for FHE I came up with a fishing game.  The fish are glued to the metal lids, and a magnetic fishing pole picks them up perfectly. 

The kids loved the game for about 5 minutes, and then Classic Box Syndrome took over- they just wanted to play in the "pond".  But we have been having lots of fun with the pond for the rest of the week. 

Now what to do with the other 45 lids...?  Make that 46- I made orange juice again this morning!