The Reason For My Silence..."Morning" Sickness

That's right, we have a NEW BABY on the way! It came as a bit of a surprise to us, so soon after our loss in March. But we couldn't be more thrilled.  The Fifth member of our family is due to arrive in mid to late January 2012. Phew! Missed the December boat by a hair! :0D (In case you don't know we have The Holidays, my birthday, Hub's birthday, Roo's Birthday and our Wedding Anniversary all in December!)

Baby playing with feet here.

Sweet Newby was kicking and rolling and playing with his or her feet. And so active the tech had a hard time getting all the measurements necessary! It was amazing to see baby rolling around. And I actually felt a few kicks- during the ultrasound. Feeling and seeing the movements I realized, I've been feeling a lot of movement from this new little person. I'm not kidding this kid's got some LONG legs- I couldn't believe it! Perfectly formed teeny tiny LONG arms and legs. The tiniest feet ever.

We're zooming towards the end of the 1st trimester... Another week to go! And I'll be glad to leave (hopefully) the fatigue and nausea behind. I have been sicker than I remember being with Friendly. And the foods that I "could" eat have been the most weird and specific foods I have ever had to eat with a pregnancy. It's nice to be able to branch out a bit. Nice to be able to be up and about with out feeling ill constantly. Yes, I'm starting to feel better... I have lots to catch up on.

More soon!

Recent quotes...delightfully 3.

Roo really wants to ride a roller coaster. We live pretty close to a fairly large amusement park, we pass it regularly when we go to visit Nana. Every time Roo asks to ride on the roller coasters "some day". We're not really amusement park kind of people. We love family trips to the swimming pool, camping, long walks in the park, trips to the beach...But paying $100+ bucks to spend the day waiting in line for hours on end (often in sweltering temps), for a 10 minute ride? No thanks.

But the Fair is coming to town in September. . And they have little roller coasters for little people like Friendly and Roo. Every time we pass the amusement park I remind them that they can ride the coasters at the Fair "in September".

Thursday we were driving and Roo announced that she didn't want to ride a "little coaster" at the fair. "I wanna ride a BIG one!!" I (don't know what I was thinking) tried to explain that she had to be 4ft9inches to ride on the big coasters.

Always logical Roo piped back, "But my feet are FINE!! Look how big they are! They really big kid feet."

She got me there.
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One day a week or two ago Roo realized she had outgrown her brown play boots. She tried unsuccessfully for 10-15 minutes to cram her feet into them. It wasn't happening. She was so sad to realize she had grown too big. She asked that we go to the store and get her new boots. I told her in the Autumn we'd see about getting her new brown play boots. We were home with Ryan's car (that didn't have the carseats installed in it) and that was the excuse I gave for not going out that morning to find her boots (I find we need to have good logical excuses with Roo). Always the problem solver, Roo came out of the bedroom a few minutes later and said, "Mommie, it's okay that we don't have car seats in Daddy's car... Friendly and I can sit in the back seats. See, we're big enough because my arms are REALLY long."

I can't say I understand her logic there.

Roo is a very logical person. And she is a problem solver. Every thing is "because" she always has a reason for things being a good idea. And she really comes up with some shockingly good solutions.

The other day in the car we had been talking about some options about what we would do that morning. After discussing it for a while we all agreed on what order we'd do things. Roo said from the back seat, "Thanks so much for giving me good choices Mommie."

3 has been a very challenging age so far. But the little thoughts she articulates... So precious.

Ouchies

Tonight after dinner Friendly fell and scraped her knee. You'd think almost 2 years into having her around, we'd be used to how different our kids are! They're different people, it's just the reality. But it always surprises and refreshes (and yes, bewilders) us to see how unique they both are.

Anyway, Friendly fell, fussed for a second and popped back up and kept playing. Every time she does this, or gets hurt we hold our breath. Roo has conditioned us to dread "ouchies". She doesn't handle pain very well, at least at this point in her life. Any small injury is met with at least 15 minutes of crying bloody murder. We've adapted a cool "oh you're alright" kind of attitude about it, but if any one [who isn't aware of the "Roo etiquette of injuries"] gasps or makes a "ah oh no!" when she's falling she gets so scared that it makes the whole thing so much worse.  More often than not she is weepy for the next several hours. Randomly erupting into a fresh set of tears processing the pain in her...wherever. She is an extremely sensitive little soul, we love that about her. Really we do! We may have to deal with long drawn out water works over a scraped knee...But we also get to enjoy some one who is very in tune with other people's feelings. A little person who really cares about relationships and how people feel.

Anyway, that was what we were used to. This "ooh my leg's bleeding, ah well off to play some more" business of Friendly's still takes us by surprise.

But the pain did come back to bother her later, it always does! At bedtime Friendly was fussing about her knee so I put on a band aide on it after bath. As I was securing the bandage on her knee Roo was sitting next to her little sister talking to her and helping her stay calm through the whole ordeal.

"It's okay Friendly, you'll be all right. Mommie's going to put the band aide on it, and it will heal. Jesus will make it all better. But it will hurt a lot for a few days..""

So much for sensitivity! :0D Well she was being honest...right?

Outside....Playgrounds and Bikes

 Roo has recently really figured out the pedaling deal on her tricycle. She could do it last summer, but it was more work than fun...This summer she's caught the bike bug and would live on that thing if we let her! Riding her bike is seriously her very most favorite thing to do right now.

On her mile loop, "riding on the donkey" she said it's a donkey when she holds onto the streamers.

She rode her little trike 1 mile around the 1.25 mile loop at the park last week! I was floored when she just kept going. I'm definitely glad she made it that far, because it got a bit exhausting that last .25 miles pushing her in the push car, carrying the trike (it folds up) in one hand and wearing Amity on my back. Definitely got a good bit of exercise in!

This little push car has gotten SO much use! Some one was going to throw it away at our apartment complex....We took it home, cleaned it off and it's been WONDERFUL! It's so much fun for the girls to take turns riding in it on our walks around our neighborhood.

Riding in our "driveway"

Friendly loves her baby stroller, she pushed that thing all over the place the other day.

Some one got really tired after pushing baby around (she insisted baby be buckled in with her)

 

Our new neighborhood is AWESOME! We live near TWO playgrounds within close walking distance (and another two with in 2 miles of our house). Our complex also backs on two very quiet neighborhoods (we see maybe one car in 30 minutes of circling around during the day!) It is SO wonderful being able to take the girls on walks, or end my runs at the play ground.

Friendly playing the "I seeeeee you game" at the local play ground

Friendly in a nutshell

Friendly taking a turn on a walk around our neighborhood.  she insists on "balance" ing on the curb, she goes SOOOOO slowly, but she stays on!!! Only ocassionally stepping off into the grass. She truly is amazing.

The girls watching the malards.

More to come!

How I LoVe...

This post uses real names, but it's too cute to resist. We have a song hubby wrote for the girls last year...

It goes

How I love, how I love I love, How I love my _________Joy. She's so cute and so precious to me! How I love my _________ Jooooy!"

Friendly has started singing it almost constantly, she loves to sing about Roo...About "Mommmie Joy"...About "Daddy Joy". She loves to SING.



And this is the other singing one...It is incredible! For the last month she's not been napping or sleeping well, she's been extremely frustrated and cranky: BAM this past week she's started speaking 4 or 5 new words a DAY! Verbal explosion, incredible.

In this video when the timer goes off she says she's scared of the timer... A lot of what she says isn't very intelligible, but she's really trying, it's cute. Oh and when she says at the end of the one song "alligot" she's saying "that's all I got" when she's done singing. :0D

Easter Sunday 2011

Easter Sunday morning was beautiful! It had poured a lot the week before (and the day before)- But Easter was was sunshiney and WARM..Hot an muggy actually.

These little Easter Bunnies were waiting for the girls to wake up the next morning. The Bunny on the left has a twin...But he couldn't make the appointment because Roo was snuggling with him all night. The Bunny on the right was from Roo's very first Easter, he's Floppy.

The girls shared and Easter basket this year... They got a bubble bucket, some Easter Eggs, and some sidewalk chalk (plus 2 bunnies from Grandma and Grandad and some goodies and gifts from Nana)

Friendly LOVES shoes. She was so excited to wear her Easter shoes she put them on first thing in the morning (while "helping" Daddy make the coffee cake)

Easter Breakfast: Easter Eggs and GF coffee cake, yuuuummy!

The Easter Dresses!

Roo had been looking forward to these Easter dresses for MONTHS. She loves to dress up and she was really excited about NEW dresses. We were doubly blessed this year with TWO sets of Easter dresses from proud grandparents.  I want to take their pictures in a nicer setting with both dresses soon... Hopefully we'll have a sunny day with out plans soon!

 I was blown away that they actually would pose for me! Roo just kept saying "take another Mommie", and so I did. And as Friendly follows the lead in almost every thing Roo does, she stood there and posed too!

Easter dresses from Nana.

snuggling

kisses

 

It's just such a rare thing for them to snuggle (and pose!) like that! They have recently started playing this game they named "minga minga" where they run at each other and hug each other until they fall down in a heap on the floor...They continue to do this until a) some one gets hurt b) we pull them apart because we're afaraid some one is going to lose air supply. They will do this happily until some one truly does get hurt or we tell them they have to stop before some one does! I have a few videos of them playing "minga minga" (Friendly named it that??)

Anyway... Easter day was kind of strange, the girls had been really sick with the colds, it was hot and muggy and a storm was brewing in the late afternoon, and every one was just tired. We went to church as a family, home for naps, and then to spend an hour or two with my family for lunch.  But the whole day didn't have the wonderful celebratory feel Easter usually carries. The PRAISE JESUS! VICTORY! HE'S ALIVE! kind of buzz.  It was just another day of reality . Reality that is living with 2 small sick-ish people, who were both kind of off their game and cranky. 

But  thankfully those circumstances can't change what Christ did for us. What we have because of His gift to us. Relationship. Freedom. Peace. and Hope. 

So even though our Easter will probably  always be remembered as "the one where we were all just plain cranky", its a very good reminder that, Grace is amazing. 

And I'm so thankful that never changes.

Easter...THE EGGS. 2011

Easter this year... Well it was a lot of fun! We've never bothered dyeing eggs or any thing because it just seemed like a giant mess waiting to happen. I'm so glad we did it this year...Even though I was nervous about Friendly drinking the dye (and she gets wild when she has food coloring, I can't imagine what she'd be like if she DRANK IT!), of just in general staining every thing in sight. But it went really well and the girls had a blast! A very happy memory indeed!

waiting patiently for Daddy to have the dye ready.

Friendly was SO into it, she would just dump and egg in any cup, even if it wasn't available  yet! We got some really pretty eggs because of her exuberance!

drying waiting for faces...

The girls were so excited to start the faces...

They picked out every single faces...We added a few noses for them when they asked...Roo put on every single one of her faces all by herself. And Friendly tried a few, but mostly told Daddy where to stick them. We had some happy Easter eggs!

Friendly and Daddy. More to come!