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?

Pregnancy Update 2

Week 32

Since there are several of you who don't see me regularly, I thought I would give you an update. I am almost 34 weeks pregnant. She loves to move around, and is getting stronger each week. I am kind of looking forward to when she runs out of room to move so much.

We have started getting her room ready. We have all the furniture and toys, we mostly just need girl clothing! The crib will be reassembled this week, and the swing will also be put out. We are putting her toys and things out very early to give the boys time to play with them. (They already play in her bathtub, Bumbo, and rocker. If they are too big for it, like her swing, then they like to put toys in it!) This way they are more accepting when she arrives. It worked with Kevin and Colin, so we are hoping it works again.

The boys are so excited for her to arrive. As they tell everyone, Colin "will teach her to walk," while Kevin "will teach her to climb." They both like to feel her kick, and Colin loves to sing to her. He makes me lift my shirt up so he "can see her."

We are trying our best to be ready for her April 8th due date! We will let you know the name when she arrives!

Week 19

Week 25

Week 33

Week 34

Kid Art

Here are some recent art projects completed by the boys.

Colin's art is simpler, but no less adorable.

Here is a painting he brought home from school this week.

Colin's cutting face. He has been working with scissors lately, and gotten much better. Now he can cut all the way across the paper all by himself!

What he did with scissors last week...

Compared to this week! Unfortunately this coincided with Valentine's Day. So all the Valentine's he made for friends were small scraps of paper. We struggled to get him to even draw on the paper hearts we had cut out.

Here is Kevin's recent art:

About 2 months ago, Kevin's class had different materials out for art projects. All the other kids just glued down straws and toothpicks and scraps of paper. Our kid made a fire truck. All by himself. They weren't told to make a truck. (We were told that he did have help making the wheels.)

At the coffee table creating. It is a nightly thing in our house!

Last week he started tracing his train and adding coaches to the back. He told me his have seats on the top and the bottom, so he drew windows for the seats. He started adding faces in the windows, which you can see in the bottom two trains.

When we told the boys we were going to make Valentine's for friends, Kevin just started making these. They are drawings of pumpkins.

Wednesday, Kevin brought home this. It is a map to get from daycare (bottom left) to home (bottom right). The stripes at the top are the bridge by our house, and the river is the blue line below it. At the top is an orange airplane in the blue clouds. We pass two airports on the way home. He told daddy to use it to get home.

The Boys' New Room

Since the boys were in two different rooms, we needed them to move in together so the baby can have a room. To get the boys excited about this, we let them pick out the theme for their new room. They chose planets and stars! (Kevin was okay about moving in together. Colin was not. He told me that his room "makes me happy, and Kevin's room makes me sad." But once we let them pick out outer space things and started calling it "the boys' room" he has been all gung ho.) We have painted the room blue, put up the mural, hung up glow-in-the-dark planets, and moved their furniture in. We are still waiting to hang up the glow-in-the-dark stars, for their bedding to arrive in the mail (well, Colin's is here), and for bunk beds. (The bed will be purchased after baby sister arrives so the boys get something big for themselves.)

So a few weekends ago we moved most of Kevin's stuff into the hallway, and his bed into Colin's room while we painted. This also gave them time to sleep in the same room before the big move. (It takes much longer to get them to fall asleep when they are in the same room! LOTS of giggling and playing!) Then we started taping and painting.

Both boys loved helping paint, and were great at following directions about where to paint and where to avoid. (Colin kept moving around the room saying "Okay to paint here. Not here though. No.") After a while they got bored. Kevin decided to be "the boss." To him, this meant telling us we could take breaks and saying "good job" a lot. Colin decided to be the ice cream man. He would give us pretend ice cream on our "breaks." Later on, they even brought instruments upstairs to play music for us!

Now that they are moved in, they are having so much fun. They read every night together in Kevin's bed, and have conversations while they fall asleep. (Sometimes I sneak close to listen. Last night they were pretending that the music-and-light machine on Colin's bed was showing a movie. It was Spider-man. And it had commercials.) Here are a lot pictures:

Before any painting

Break time!

Yes, I am pregnant and on a ladder. I survived!

In house entertainment while we finished up.

The mural on the dark wall.

With their current furniture.

They line up toys each night to protect them while they sleep.

"Reading" in Kevin's bed.

If we turn the lights out before they are finished with their books, they read by nightlight.

He-Man!

The following is what is being said while I take the pictures:

"By the power of Greyskull!"

"I have the power!"

I love my boys.

Jail

The other day I walked up the stairs to see Kevin and Colin closing our bedroom door. They looked very suspicious. Kevin told me to be careful when I opened the door because it is now a jail. A while later I opened the door and saw this.