Why William might ring in the new year at midnight

We put up his new map today over his bed. He is totally in love with it and asked to skip stories in order to look at it some more. For this boy to skip stories, you know it has to be good!

Merry Christmas

Sent from my iPhone

Christmas cheer

We have a nativity set finally. I spent a lot of time finding a kid friendly set that can't be broken.

Here you can see the holy family visiting the airport....wouldn't that have been a sight to see!!

Christmas spirit

Here we have Rudolph (Amelia) pulling her sleigh (Daddy) while Santa (William) drives.

Jesus's Birthday

Scene: Tonight, as we were trying to make dinner come together. John and I are trying to have a conversation about what we have time to make. William chimes in with this:


W: Christmas is celbrating Jesus's birthday, right?
M: (distracted) yes. (continues previous conversation with John about cornbread)
W: Christmas means it is Jesus's birthday?
M: (impatient) yes. (for the record, cornbread is vetoed due to time constraints
W: (puzzled look)


W: So how old will Jesus be on his birthday this year?

Both Mom and Dad stop previous dinner conversation and send frantic signals to the other indicating "YOU answer this one" and "It is SO your turn to field this one"

Hello, little one

Little bumps this morning made today so sweet!

Sent from my iPhone

Christmas elves

Here are the cute little elves that showed up to help us hang lights on our house. One Saturday before thanksgiving, we pulled onto our street and saw our next door neighbors hanging their lights. John and looked at each other and mentally rearranged the rest of our afternoon. We didn't even fight it. At least it was a beautiful afternoon to be outside!

Ben's quilt

My nephew Ben turned 13 last month! Officially a teenager! To celebrate, I whipped up this big quilt. The first I tire shows the quilt and the next are my wonderful quilt holding helpers!

November- first braids

Amelia's hair is finally long enough for me to braid it! Even more important, she LET me!

Proof:

What do you think?

William: Mama?
Me: Yes?
William: Is Santa nocturnal?
Me:............

How do you even answer that?

Barbie and her...

At the gym childcare area last week, Amelia picked up a coloring page on her way out. Walking to the van, we had the following conversation:

Amelia: It's Barbie.
Me: yep. What is she doing?
Amelia: She's holding her bear.
Me: oh? Who is she with? Where is she?
Amelia: she is with her daddy. This is Barbie and her Daddy. They are at the toy store.
Me: (laughing, trying not to show it)

I mean, really, who else would be with Barbie? What does a two year old need with Ken anyway? They should make a Barbie's daddy doll, shouldn't they?

Name Advice

John and I have only briefly talked about naming our new baby. Being decisive naming type people (no. we are not. we always wait to the last minute and then question if the name is "right"), we are going to worry about coming up with some name candidates another day. However, the kids have had plenty of excellent advise on the subject.

Q: What should we name our baby if it is a girl?
Amelia: Ca ca ca ca ca caca
William: Fuga Fuga


Q: What should we name our baby if it is a boy?
Amelia: Pa pa pa pa pa papa
William: Boo-ga Saroo-ga


How can we go wrong?

Updates

Here are a few posts I finally got put up tonight:

Big Day
Cleaning Guy
School Pictures
Picture Dump
More
Halloween
Thanksgiving


Yes, yes. I'm still here and still planning on (trying) to keep this up. I have been so busy lately with Thanksgiving, traveling, wedding planning and cooking a baby. Unfortunately, writing updates has fallen to the wayside. So, here is my quick midnight update:

Amelia: Hilarious. Frustrating. Adorable. All at the same time. She has such definite opinions about EVERYTHING it makes simple tasks like getting dressed a battle of wills. If you didn't know, I have lots of wills. Taking a step back and choosing the battles is something I am becoming well practiced at (notice: I didn't say "good"). She is also telling jokes, trying to keep up with her brother in all areas AND totally adorable. She crawls into my lap and snuggles in at least three times a day just to spend a quiet minute with me.

William: Reading. Reading. Can you believe it? He started reading in September and hasn't looked back. Getting him to sit down and read isn't always on the top of his list, but he is totally capable of reading some pretty impressive words. He is also loving school, especially the friend component. Everywhere we go, he makes a friend. Exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. Within the first 2 minutes at the park, he has a new friend. He happily disappear to play "chase" which all 4-8 year old boys must just instinctively know.


John: Also tired. Still working. No changes have been reported.

The Baby: yes. I'm pregnant. Yes, I'm exhausted. This has to end because Christmas is looming and....well, I cannot keep operating on the "bare minimum" strategy for much longer. Eventually, I am going to have to get off the couch and go to the grocery store. Overall, things are going very well. We've had several dr visits which have confirmed our pregnancy, confirmed there is only ONE baby in there and drawn multiple vials of blood. Below, you will find a long winded whine about pregnancy. Feel free to skip.

However, I'm tired. So tired I'm falling asleep on the couch at 8:30 watching TV. Food is also not my friend. I'm finally going to document this here: FOOD IS NOT MY FRIEND. I do not get morning sickness. I just get very strong food aversions. In the beginning it is the worst and I think I must forget just how strong the aversions are. All three pregnancies I have struggled with eating healthy foods because many foods are so repulsive. In particular, I cannot stomach vegetables. Yesterday I was eating a very tasty cheesy pasta dish that also happened to have tomatoes and spinach in it. I literally could not look at the food while I was eating it because the spinach in particular was so disgusting, it made me nauseous. Nauseous like someone had placed BUGS or WORMS into my food. The other fun part is most food I usually like is no longer appetizing. Even food I liked yesterday is no longer appetizing. Even the food I ordered 10 minutes ago is not longer appetizing. Most disappointing is my total aversion to soups/stews. I love winter soups/stews/chili/etc. However, at this moment I cannot imagine anything more disgusting than chicken noodle soup or chili, both of which are huge winter cooking standbys. Again, I'd compare it to how I would normally feel about eating worms or bugs. Soup=bugs.

It also appears that by Baby #3, the body remembers the drill for pregnancy quite easily. I'm already looking more pregnant (you'll just have to take my word for it) than any other time. I'm currently in that frustrating in between stage where the normal pants are too small and the maternity pants are too big.

Cleaning Guy

William got in the car after preschool with a new plastic ring from a birthday cupcake. I wasn't exactly thrilled to see it was SpongeBob. I won't get in to the specifics of my dislike for SpongeBob. I will say that my kids aren't allowed to watch him. So, I was very entertained when I heard this coming from the backseat:


W: Clean, clean clean, cleaning up!
Mama: Whatcha doing?
W: Oh, just having my SpongeBob guy do some cleaning up
Mama: (......silence, processing)
W: You know, because he is a sponge. SpongeBob is a great guy for cleaning up because he is a sponge.
M: (laughing, trying not to show it) Of course! What else would a sponge named Bob do?*


*If you correct him on this vision, I may just have to seriously harm you. Because I totally love that SpongeBob is a great pal for cleaning things up.