32 Weeks

Can you believe it? 32 weeks! That means that I have 8 weeks left (likely less!) Craziness. Sadly I have no belly picture today. Things got busy and it never got done. I'll try to do it tomorrow.

I did have an OB appointment today. My only complaint for the doctor was that I am getting tired of reading the same magazines while I wait in that little room. She promptly went and threw away all the old magazine and said she'd have new ones for my by next visit in two weeks! Hurrah! There ARE bonuses to being a "regular".

Everything went well at my appointment. No problems at all. We got to listen to the heartbeat and that sounded great. And we discussed the new flavors of Girl Scout cookies - a conversation that came about because I gained 1.5 lbs in the last two weeks! Evil Girl Scouts! Really though my overall weight gain is only 14 lbs so far. That is a bit higher for me than in the past - but certainly well within reason. Especially since if you subtract the weight of baby, placenta, water, extra blood volume - it's really nothing at all!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

Fancy Clothes

I love and hate that my little girl is becoming - well - a girl! Emmaline has been noticing a lot how things are "cute" or "girl things" versus "boy things". Well yesterday, I was helping her get ready for school and she chose to wear a jumper that has a ribbon and bow on it. As she put it on, she told me that she sure was glad that she was a girl, because girls get to wear "fancy clothes" and boys don't. Very observant and very correct! It really is better to be a girl when it comes to clothes!

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

Night Owl

So about 3:30 am this morning, I woke up to the sounds of doors opening and shutting. The first one I didn't think much of - likely Emmaline or Liliana going to the bathroom. But then I heard it happen a few more times. My Mommy-Radar turned on so I went out in the hall to investigate. There I found Idgie, wandering around in the hallway - awake and happy! I'm not sure exactly what she was doing or trying to do - but I found it quite worrisome that she was just wandering around in the middle of the night, completely unsupervised! Luckily we do have a mounted gated at the top of the stairs so at the very least she couldn't head downstairs! So now we need to figure out a way to keep her trapped in her room for the night while we sleep while simultaneously allowing Lil to leave the room to use the bathroom.
Otherwise the toddler bed thing has been going pretty well . . .

Rating: 1 Sour Patch Kid

The Mother's Curse

Everyone knows about THE Mother's Curse. You know - "I hope you have children just like you . . ." Well I had a little problem when I was a child and so I've known for a long time that my time would be coming soon.

This is the face of a child who has been caught cutting their own hair:

Instead of getting mad, I just explained to Emmaline how sad I was, and then told her two stories of my own. She got the abbreviated version - but I shall preserve here on the internet, the full tales!

The first was when I was five. There really isn't too much to tell about it. I cut my own bangs and of course I did it right before school pictures. My mom fixed it by pulling down more hair and turning those into bangs in order to hide the chop job underneath! If you look closely you can see it here:

The worst was when I was ten though. TEN! I should have known better by then! That was 1989, a time of big hair, hair spray, gel, curling irons, the works - and I was a tween! I was trying to grow out some of my bangs so they weren't so heavy (probably still heavy from trying to fix them 5 years before!). They were in that awkward stage where they are too long to be bangs, but too short to pull back into ponytails. For some reason I was anti-barrette so that meant that I just dealt with and struggled with them.

Well one day, I wore my hair to school in a ponytail, and I was annoyed with them all day. They wouldn't stay back no matter how much I hair sprayed them and it was embarrassing! By the time I got home from school, I was completely frustrated. I went into the bathroom and in a moment of clarity I decided that the only way to get rid of the problem was to get rid of the hair! I knew it wouldn't be a big deal because it was *just a few* hairs afterall. So I took out my mom's hair cutting scissors - and cut that hair off right at the scalp.

Guess what? A few hairs at the top turns out to be a LOT more hairs at the bottom! I suddenly had this bald patch front and center of my head! Oh the panic! And seriously - how do you tell your mom? But I did have to tell her. So I went to find and her and said, "Look mom! Look what happened!" and showed her my head. She questioned me how it happened, and of course I played dumb and said that I didn't know. My mom concluded that what must have happened, is that I had so much hair spray in my hair, that when I went to use the curling iron, the heat just burned the hair off. Yeeeessss..... I was more than happy to agree to that assessment.

My mom got me an appointment at a local salon. (I wonder if it is still there? Anyone in Alaska remember Charlie's?). We went in and the gal took one look at my hair and informed my mom that it was NOT burnt off - it was cut off. Whoops. And that is how I got a comb-over for the rest of 5th grade. She had to part my hair quite far at the side and cut in some layers and such to hide the bald patch underneath. Overall, it hid it quite well - that is until my hair started to grow back. That was just the salt in the wound. At one point the hair was just long enough that it stuck straight up all bristly-like but not long enough to lay flat. As a result the little tufts stuck straight through my comb-over. Lovely.

As luck would have it, I have no pictures of me during this time. Not on purpose - just none were taken. A bummer for all those of you reading - not a bummer for me so much.

So yes - when I found Emmaline with her hair like this today . . .

. . . all I could do it hug her and tell her how sad I was and tell her to never do it again. Afterall, it could have been a lot worse!

Rating: 2 Sour Patch Kids

Toddler Bed

It seems like less than two years ago we were putting Liliana in the toddler bed . . . oh wait - it was!. Well last night we decided the time had finally come to move Idgie. Overall I would say it went very well! First we had to move Emmaline to her new room, which used to be the guest room. Then we moved Liliana into Emmaline's old bed, and then Idgie into Lil's toddler bed. Idgie got tucked in beautifully and was so happy, but the moment we left the room she fell apart. We spent the next hour taking turns putting her back in her bed. Then with just an hour of work, she fell asleep for the rest of the night! Not bad at all!
I was a bit worried that Lil would be a huge issue but she did really well too. She stayed quietly in her bed and only talked to Idgie a few times - and just to tell her to be quiet! I am actually a bit worried about Idgie's safety since Lil can be so rough with her - but so far we got through one night!

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

30 weeks

This 30 week belly shot comes to you compliments of Emmaline!



I'm on appointments every two weeks now. My doctor walked in today and said that she is always happy to have me to end her Fridays. She said I was always cheerful and happy and positive. I told her to wait until I was in labor!
It was a pretty basic appointment today. Baby had the hiccups while she was listening to the heartbeat, so that was fun. We also talked a bit about labor. She of course encouraged me to go straight to the hospital since my labor was so fast last time. She wasn't too fond of my back-up plan of giving birth in the bathtub and calling the EMTs! I also asked her if I could cut the cord this time! She said that she has never had anyone do it before, but she didn't see why not - so that is currently in my plan. I don't know if that is weird but whatever. AJ has had a shot at it so I figured I'd have a go this time for funsies.
Pretty much that is it!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

Conversation

A snippet of a conversation this morning:

Emmaline: My Valentine's party is today!

Me: Would you like to wear your pink hair ribbon to school?

Emmaline: WOOHOO! Because Valentine's Day is all about PINK!!!

Rating: 4 pink candy hearts

Just Pictures

My mom was asking for some more recent pictures of the girls the other day. Something must have been seriously out of alignment in the universe today, because not only were we ready for church on time - but we were ready 15 minutes early!!! I took the opportunity to take a few quick shots of the girls. For every one decent picture, there are at least 10 silly pictures to go right along with it - so I give you some of each!

Imogene - 19 months

Idige is finally able to wear a small ponytail. This is big step for her recently! The best part is that I will sit the other girls down on a stool to do their hair, and Idgie will insist on sitting down and having her turn too! Idgie is still very much into shoes as well. Mostly she prefers other people's though. You can often catch her wandering the house in Emmaline's sneakers. She is also talking more and more everyday. The pronunciation is still a bit garbled, but she is putting out 2 and 3 word sentences easily. She is also learning how to fight back as the little sister. Liliana tried to steal a toy from her the other day and I watched Idgie strong arm her and make Lil cry.

Liliana - 3 years

Lil is very hot and cold lately! She feels everything so passionately. One moment she is stubborn and ornery, and the next she is wrapping her arms around you and giving huge hugs and kisses. She actually loves to cuddle, and loves to have her own way. The funniest thing she does lately is add a big "HRMPH" to the end of things. I really need to catch it on tape to give it the full effect, but it goes something like this: "I no go to bed! HRMPH!" She does this while crossing her arms and flipping her head away to not look at you. It really doesn't work out well for her because all it does is make us laugh. She also wants to part of everything that everyone else is doing. She is very insistent, for example, that when Emmaline does her homework, that she wants to do homework too! She'll get over that in another few years!

Emmaline - 5 years

Emmaline is just soaking in school. She has recently discovered the fun of just pulling a book off the shelf and attempting to read it herself. She is also starting to notice fashion and design more. She will look in shop windows, or at pictures in catalogs and comment whether something is "SOOOOO CUTE!" or whether is "boy stuff" or not. Emmaline has also been helping a ton in the kitchen lately. She thinks its a huge treat to be a part of the dinner making process. She can stand at the stove and brown hamburger, she can slice small vegetables, rip lettuce, scoop and pour things. She thinks it is all great!

The Whole Pack

It's quite a spectacle when the three of them are doing something all together! Idgie is to the age now where she gets involved in the play - and the fights - too. The play imagination games, build things, run around in circles, and even cuddle on the couch all together! It is awesome to watch! They can also brawl with the best of them (Idgie too!). A fight between the three of them is something to behold. It is amazing that they can own 20 My Little Ponies, yet still fight over one!

How in the world is a little boy going to handle living in this fray???

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

I'm going insane

For multiple reasons.

I have dug back through, and I could have SWORN that I wrote about this little incident. But for the life of me I can NOT find it! I think I am slowly losing my mind!

So way back in December (the 23rd to be exact). I caught Lil doing this to my kitchen floor with a permanent marker:

Thanks to the "magic" in the Magic Eraser - that incident is but a distant memory.

That is until today - when she got a bathtub crayon (when she was supposed to be napping) and colored on her bedroom carpet:

Magic Eraser doesn't really work on carpet - in case you didn't know. I did have some carpet cleaner that got most of it out, but if you look closely, there is a pink tinge to the carpet in that spot. Oh - and a greenish tinge in the hallway where she used the other crayon.

Anyone want to buy a three year old off of me? The money would go towards new flooring . . .

Rating: 1 Sour Patch Kid

Thankless Jobs

I go to the store specifically to purchase the kids chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner. The kids greet me at the door when I get home, talking about french fries and how excited they are. When I get in the house, I notice that Enchanted is playing. I make a comment about it and Emmaline says, "Daddy put it on because he is a nice dad!" Meanwhile I'm pouring the french fries out on a tray to cook them, and she continues her thought saying,"and you're just a mean old Mom."
It's good to be appreciated.