Baby Sister's Room

The boys have (I think) finished adding art to sister's room. Here is what they had put up a few weeks ago.

Here are pictures of what the room looks like today.

Not much added, except for a picture Colin drew that he wanted up by the animals.

Some art above her crib. Kevin wanted it where she could see it all the time. It is a picture of a chick in an egg waiting to hatch. Beneath that is a snowflake.


Here is a close-up of the chick. (It has a beak!) He made it at school.

This is the far wall of the room, and Kevin wanted to cover it in food so she could learn. There are also letters (more of them), an eagle, and a drawing by Colin.


See if you can find Mr. Potato Head, a waffle, grapes, orange slices, pizza, a hot dog, a donut, and a couple more snowflakes. (The kid likes snowflakes.)


This is a close-up of the eagle. Kevin traced it while at Pappy Grandma's and brought it home for the room.

Party Time!

Saturday, while I was resting, all the guys came in and invited me to a party downstairs. Kevin told me that the boys had been working on cleaning and setting up for a party. This is what I saw when I came down. A table prepared for a party!

The boys put out the table cloth, plates, cups, food, and chairs.

Then Kevin started serving the food.

Colin even shared his food with me!


Cleaning up after the first party.

Doing dishes after the first party.

They even set the kitchen table up as well. We moved in here after they cleaned up from the first party. (The flowers on the table were made for me last Mother's Day. Colin has kept them in his room for almost a year now. This week he decided that they would be on the kitchen for everyone to see.)

One of the reasons we had such a set up inside is because of the 5 inches of snow we got today. On Monday and Tuesday it was about 80 degrees outside, and now snow. It is very pretty, but a bit strange.

A Few Things To Remember

Almost 38 weeks

Before sister is born, there are a few things I would like to remember about her impending arrival.

• Kevin has told us numerous times that he will teach baby sister how to climb. He has added to that list running and letters. He has hung up several signs around her room with letters on them.
• Colin has demonstrated how he will teach her to walk. "First walk with one foot, and then the other. Then do it again!" He has added to his list "eating big boy food" and climbing. (Kevin said "I will teach her to climb high things, and you can teach her to climb low things. That is a good deal."
• Colin has taken to talking to baby sister. When I walked downstairs the other morning, he said "Good morning baby sister!" Yesterday, when he went potty, he yelled "Mommy! Baby sister! Come see!" Then I had to lift up my shirt to expose my belly while he showed her.
• I am getting less and less mobile each day, and the boys have been very understanding. It isn't even easy to sit on the floor anymore. Today, while playing with dinosaurs, they brought the toys to me and sat next to me on the couch. "This way you can still play with us," Kevin said. Then Colin put two small dinosaurs on my belly and said "These are for baby sister to play with."
• My doctor expects me to deliver within a week or so, and I told the boys this. Both of their eyes lit up when I said they will get to meet her in a week or so. Colin tells me that he will give her a big hug and "kiss her like this." (Gives soft kisses.)
• They both know that they will be her two favorite people for a while.
• Anytime someone new walks in, Colin excited tells them "You need to see Baby Sister's new room!" and then takes them upstairs.
• Colin sticks stuffed animals in his shirt so he can be pregnant too.
• Kevin tells us that he loves "mommy, daddy, Colin, Baby Sister, and myself. That's 5 people."
  
• Colin's note from school today said "Colin matched the small frogs and looked for a mommy and daddy - Colin put five 5 frogs on the gak, pointing at the mommy, daddy, big brother, "me," and baby sister frog!
  
• Colin leaves his blankets with me for "baby sister to snuggle with."
• Kevin sings at my belly trying to walk up baby sister, and then waits for her to kick.
• Colin started putting dinosaurs in front of Baby Sister's room at night to protect her from the "mean T Rex."
  

I think they are ready!

The Circus

The circus was in town this past weekend. It was at the family arena, which is less than two miles from our home, so we had to go. Kids got in free which made it even better. The available show times weren't the best, but we decided to attend the Friday evening show and let the boys stay up late. They rarely fall asleep before 9:00 anyway.

Baby sister was making Mommy feel very uncomfortable, so she stayed home to rest. Daddy and the boys arrived a little early to see what activities were available. Amazingly there were pony rides, elephant rides, face painting, bouncy houses, etc. The boys got to ride the ponies and enjoyed that a lot.

The general seating was filling up fast, but we still got good seats. The show started off slow with all the Shriners being introduced and some driving there funny cars around. Shriners are those old guys that wear a fez. When they host the circus, that's what you have to sit through to get to the fun stuff.

The first act was the Tiger Tamer, which the boys really enjoyed. Following that were various trapeze, clowns, tumbling, horses, and the like. At intermission it was getting late and Kevin and Colin were asked if they wanted to leave or stay. They both responded, "We haven't seen the elephants or motorcycles yet." They knew there was something to do with motorcycles because they had asked about the giant steel motorcycle ball cage. So we got some popcorn and a pretzel and sat back down.

More acts came out and the two of them started to get bored. We had been there for a few hours at this point. Luckily the elephants were next. Following that it went straight into the motorcycle act. Now the boys were ready to go. After going down the stairs and almost walking out the human cannon ball was introduced. So back in to watch from one of the entrances. This was perfect, because that was the end of the show. Its always better to be the first ones to the parking lot to avoid the traffic getting out.

When they got home the boys were very excited to tell Mommy everything she missed.
Colin: "First there were two motorcycles going around and then there were three."
Kevin: "There were three elephants and a baby. And the baby sat on the Mommy."
Colin: "We got to ride a pony. And a tiger jumped through fire!"
Kevin: "The clowns were held up with a balloon and then one of them popped it and they all fell."

The both fell asleep very quickly.

(Our Best Attempt In) Getting Ready For Baby Sister

Week 36

We are doing our best to get ready for Baby Sister. (That is all she is called for now!)

Things that are going well:

• Colin very excited! He makes sure that my shirt is lifted up whenever I read a book so that "Baby Sister can hear." He also loves to give her kisses and lots of hugs. All requiring me to expose my belly.
• Kevin is very excited! He now includes Baby Sister in conversations. (For example, the other day he told me "There are more boys here than girls. There are 3 boys. Me, Colin and Daddy. There are only two girls. Mommy and sister.") And Kevin has already made sure that she has artwork in her room. "Not just a couple. She needs a lot!" There are pictures that he moved from his room so she can see the farm animals. There are also a couple pictures with the alphabet on them so "she can learn her letters."
  

• Kevin saving up vacation time. (He thought this was worth mentioning.)
  
• The pregnancy has gone pretty good. My overall health has been great. I have gained a good amount of weight (Until January I hadn't gained enough.), my blood pressure has been typically low, and I was feeling wonderful until 2 weeks ago. (Continued in next section.)
  
• They are ready to share with her. Here is a picture of her crib. They know that when she is here, they can not put toys and blankets in her bed, but for now they like to "share with her." Here is a picture of the crib with most of the things they want to share. Overall, they are very excited to meet her!
  

Things not going so well:

• Cleaning the house. Not so easy to do. We have A LOT of stuff that we just need to get rid of or organize. We have been slowly working on it, but projects take much longer when there are two boys "helping" as much as possible. It doesn't help that we need to organize our basement and that we just redid the boys room, and cleaned it out too.
  
• Selecting a name. It took a lot longer than we thought it would, but we finally agree. (Mostly.)
  
• How I feel in the past two weeks has dropped dramatically! My hips are hurting again (They did with Colin.) and my tendons are stretching so much that it brings tears to my eyes several times a day. I am carrying her differently, and stretching differently. I don't remember being this uncomfortable carrying the boys. It is not even comfortable to sit. I am not excited about this last month. Luckily, Spring Break is coming up so I have a week off work to relax.
• Neither of us has packed anything. I guess we should get on that...

Overall, our family is very excited, but no one is more excited than the boys. We have told them that they will be the first to hold her and meet her (after Mommy and Daddy) since they will be her favorite people for a very long time. How could they not be?