31

I had a wonderful 31st birthday on Saturday!  Got to go to the gym (by myself), brunch with my friend Sarah, cake with Jason and the kids, and Japanese hibachi dinner with Jason.  Simple and perfect!  I don’t need too much these days

Kid Quotables

Quotes from our kids and random phone pictures:

Meredith (coming up to me with a book): Snuggle up, Mommy!

Meredith: fussing and crying in her carseat. 

Me: What’s wrong? 

Meredith (stops crying; totally normal voice): Hi, Mommy.  Why’s Meredith crying?

Russell (upon hearing a baby cry): Mom, that baby is crying.  What’s crying start with?  /k/ /k/, Oh, crying starts with K!  (That was a really good try and I hated to tell him it was actually a C!)

Russell often says: When baby Emily comes…(he has decided #3 is a girl and her name is Emily (which is not a possibility)!  Good thing we find out on Tuesday!)

Everyday

Snapshots of the everyday:

She always knows what she wants, and she wanted to wear her sunglasses inside…and to put them on herself…upside-down:

One of her favorite things to do is sit in the mud room and try on everyone’s shoes.  It’s common to see her walking around the house with one of her shoes on, or Russell’s shoes on the wrong feet.  Also, if you come over and wonder why the shoes are strewn all over, Meredith is the answer.

Russell loves to help.  He will often ask to pull up a chair while I’m cooking breakfast, or to help put away the dishes from the dishwasher.  Sweet boy!  He told me in this picture that he needed a potholder.

We had a car wash in the bathroom sink, which resulted in a floor wash for me:

Science experiment: What happens when you squirt vinegar into baking soda?  They enjoyed watching it fizz and bubble.

That’s a little of our everyday in January!

Snow!

On Thursday night, it started snowing!  The kids were both very excited.  On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow.  It was just the kind I can tolerate: didn’t affect the roads too much but was fun to play in!  It was, however, a pretty icy snow, so we didn’t make a snowman, which disappointed Russell a little.

As you can see, Meredith downright refused to wear a hat or gloves, and therefore got quite upset when her hands got cold and wet!  I got Meredith’s cute snow bib and both kids’ snow boots (all for $5 each) at consignment sales!  Russell didn’t have any snow pants but we put windbreaker pants under his camos and he didn’t get wet, even despite laying in the snow with Jason.  Success!

Jason’s work was delayed 2 hours so he got to play with us a little!

They just can’t resist saying “cheese!”

We went on a little “snow walk” which they enjoyed.  Russell wanted to walk through snow at all times, so when the sidewalk was clear he would walk on the grass so he could walk through snow!

It was a fun little morning, especially since it had been raining ALL week and this was the first time we’d gotten to play outside!

Boys’ night/Girls’ night

On Friday, Jason and Russell and Russell’s friends Cole and Chase and their dad Jamie went to the Monster Truck Jam at the coliseum!  I was so excited for them.  As a friend of mine later said, “I imagine that will be Russell’s Heaven – cars and monster trucks everywhere!”

Jason, being the great dad that he is, decided they all needed to get pit passes beforehand so that the boys could have an up-close and personal look at the trucks.  Also, he was concerned that the pit would be all they could make it to, since the actual show didn’t start until 7:30 and it was going to be very loud.  (They brought head piece/ear-muff-looking things but we weren’t sure if Russell would keep it on.)

He didn’t need to worry.  According to Jason’s report, Russell was totally enthralled with the show, kept the ear things on, and didn’t mind the noise.  His favorite part, Russell tells me, was when Megasaurus ate a car.  (It was a huge, metal, fire-breathing dinosaur that picked up a full-size car and chomped through it.  Jason showed me the video he took on his phone – it was wild!)

Some of Jason’s Instagram pics:

 

While the boys were doing that, Meredith and I went over to Grandmother’s house and then to CiCi’s Pizza to celebrate her 91st birthday!  Meredith really loved having our attention to herself – she was very good, but also a ham at dinner!

Safe to say that everyone had a fun night!

Russell at 3.5

Russell is 3 1/2! 

I am truly loving this age.  I know a lot of people say the 3’s are tough, but it’s not been that way with Russell.  He is fairly compliant, has a sweet heart, loves his sister and says funny and sometimes insightful things.

A few funny sayings:

“Mom, I’m quite a looker.”  (This came out of nowhere while eating lunch.  Neither of my children have confidence issues!)

After taking off his wet shoes and socks on a rainy day and discovering his feet were still wet: “Mom, can you please change my feet?”

When a Sunday school teacher asked him if his eyes were bothering him (she thought they looked glassy): “My eyes are like this because I’ve been exercising at the gym.” (No, we hadn’t been to the gym!)

His sister is his best friend.  They are really playing well together now and will go in her room and all I hear is laughter.  She still isn’t at the age where she completely understands turn-taking or sharing, and he is so generous with her, usually giving her longer turns even when we tell him he doesn’t have to.

Russell knows all of his letter sounds now and loves to figure out what letter particular words start with.  When I stress the beginning phoneme of a word, he can always tell me what letter it starts with.  He does not like to draw or write.  I know at this age he should be beginning to write letters and draw real pictures, but we’re not there yet. 

He would much rather an adult do something for him than do something independently.  He is completely capable of (mostly) dressing and undressing himself, but it is a struggle to make him do it.  Same with going to the potty, and he would even rather have someone spoon-feed him than feed himself (and I absolutely draw the line there!)

Russell has never met a stranger.  He talks to everyone and charms them all.  One of the gym childcare workers told Jason this weekend that Russell will surely grow up to be a talk-show host because he is hilarious.

Russell’s favorites: Still cars, of course – the boy is obsessed; McDonald’s over Chick Fil A; the colors green and red; anything sweet to eat; TV (he likes most cartoons (that we approve)); running – he would rather run around than play a sport; the Memory Cars game on my phone; Hi-Ho Cherry-O

Breakthrough: He is tolerating hair cuts now!!!  He still doesn’t like them (and will tell you that), but he will also tell you that he’s doing better and that he gets to watch CARS while he gets a hair cut   He still usually has a little crying spell, but nowhere near the freakouts he used to have.

It is so much fun to watch him learn and grow – but I can’t believe how the years (but not the days) are flying!

Our Third Little Blessing!

Maybe I should say, our last little blessing!  We’re happy to say that baby #3 is expected to arrive later than 7/13/13.  (I say “later than” because these babies are not so timely with their due dates!)

After we had Meredith, Jason and I both felt that we weren’t quite done with kids, even though we had originally said we only wanted 2.  I kept thinking about both of my brothers and how, despite having to watch more G.I. Joe than I would have preferred or yelling that I was the princess and as knights they needed to save me when all they wanted to do was swordfight, I can’t imagine not having both of them.

We knew we would never regret having a third, but we might regret not having a third.  God says that children are a blessing and that’s what we’re hanging our hats on.

Many of you saw this photo on Facebook:

Of course Meredith doesn’t quite understand it.  Russell has a much better understanding this time than he did before.  Of course, he doesn’t get why the baby can’t come out now, or why the baby won’t be sharing his room (I told him he and Meredith will be sharing a room, and he thinks the baby should too), or why we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl.  But he really likes babies and he’s excited.  Meredith loves her baby dolls but real babies don’t interest her as much yet.  Also, as she’s still very attached to Mommy, I think she’s in for a little shock.

Jason, Russell and Meredith were all saying for a long time that they think it’s a boy.  Russell has now decided he thinks it’s a girl.  I am not so good at guessing so I’m staying out of it!

Here’s my belly at 13 weeks (pardon the dirty mirror):

You won’t believe this, but I’ve actually lost 8 or so pounds since getting pregnant.  (Chalk it up to morning sickness and a miserable virus.)  So, there is no real explanation for looking like I did at 26 weeks with Russell!

Pregnancy #3 first trimester summary:

• night sickness – I’ve always had morning sickness, but this one has given me night sickness
• lots of headaches; like, every other day
• lots of different cravings, but nothing sweet: a bag of sour cream and onion chips with dip one day, ham and mayonnaise sandwiches, jalapenos, tacos – to name a few.

Family of 5, here we come!