Dad, you're the greatest!

Mark and I always joke with one another by saying, "Dad/ Mom you're the greatest!" when one of us has done something the other appreciates. Tonight Mark calls from the lake to see how my day of scrapbooking solitude has gone, and asks how many pages I've completed and have I posted on my blog today. I love having a husband that cares what I'm thinking (the blog part) and who is so enthusiastic about preserving our family memories he willingly takes the kids for days at a time so I can work on our scrapbook! I am blessed that God gave me a husband that loves me and our family above all else.

Ragweed and Mommy Guilt

They tried on shoes for about 15 minutes in the laundry room today.

Even Luke looks good in pink!

If you don't have allergies you might not know that it is the time of year that seasonal allergy suffers are starting to suffer. I am sneezing in the house and outside and my eyes are starting to itch. Unfortunately, I can't take allergy medicine to help with these annoying symptoms, so I've just decided that it is best if I stay inside. Enter "mommy guilt"... I feel badly for my children that I am keeping them from the great outdoors. Last night as Brooke and I were eating dinner she looks outside at the sunshine and tells me it looks like a lovely day. Yes, it did look lovely...but not lovely enough for me to take them out to play and sneeze!

Today, I decided that I was too tired to take the kids anywhere and going outside was out of the question, so we stayed in all day (except for the 20 minutes before bed when we were telling Granna and Grampy bye). It felt a little like winter, but it all worked out. Brooke and Luke played fabulously without much fussing/fighting and played for over 2 hours by themselves!!! It allowed me time to pick up and put stuff away (things I usually can't do without them getting involved, hence making it not worth doing while they are around). I was even able to reorganize the toys in the basement while they played. We didn't even eat lunch until 1:00 because they were so content.

After our rest/ Luke's nap my parents came over for dinner. Actually, I should clarify...I called my mom this morning and invited her to bring dinner to my house. Anyone want to come over tomorrow night with dinner? :) I'm a piece of work, but you can get away with that sort of behavior when you're pregnant.

Tomorrow Mark is taking the kids to the lake so I can get more scrapbooking done. He's trying to set up some sort of "sweat shop" at our house because he wants me to finish our current pictures before we are inundated with pictures of Stella. Luckily, I enjoy working on the pages as much as he likes looking at them and I also get 2 days by myself. Yay, Me!

Planting Seeds of Thought

After dinner the kids were playing and I was folding laundry in the living room when before my eyes appears the neighbor that planted the tree next to our garden. She was out there to water the offending tree. I sat there for a while folding and deciding if I should take this opportunity to let her know that we're not happy with their latest landscaping endeavor. I figured by the time I decided to go out, she'd be gone. But as it turns out, the tree is so close to our garden she had a hard time setting up the sprinkler without water our yard. Go figure! So I casually walked out to the back of our yard and gave her a friendly "hello" followed by "I was just wondering why you planted your tree next to our garden?" She kind of stumbled over her words a little and said they were just trying to get a little shade in their yard. Yeah right!! If I could draw a diagram of their yard for those of you that don't know what it looks like, you would clearly see how ridiculous this reply is! If they wanted any "usable" shade they should have planted it within a mile of their house! Really, this Bradford Pear tree would have to surpass any Guinness Book of World records to even come close to shading their house or patio or any where they might hang out in their yard in the next 20 years. When I realized she didn't have a leg to stand on and that I got my point across I graciously changed the subject to the weather and other non-offensive topics. I wished her a good evening and waddled back into the house satisfied as a cat that just caught a big fat mouse. You better believe that our garden will be a topic of conversation in their house tonight. Just wanted them to know we were thinking of them. Mission accomplished!

Potty Humor

Our house is starting to get a little too dirty for my liking. I have been slacking on the cleaning as my belly has gotten bigger. Today I was having a little pre-labor cramping and started to worry that if I went into labor I didn't want anyone to come to my house and see the rings in our toilets. How's that for keeping a secret? If you want everyone to know just how dirty your toilets are... post it on your blog! Anyway, I was cleaning the bathtub before I put the kids in so while they were playing happily, I could clean the toilet and sink and then I'd cross that off my list. Brooke comes in the bathroom stating that she has to "go" and when she was finished announced that she went pee and poo which means I'm on wiping duty. I told her it would be a second and until I finished, and then I would wipe her. In the mean time, my back is turned to the toilet and I hear Luke saying over and over, "Hi, fish!" I turn around to find him squeezed in between the sink and toilet peering into the bowl at Brooke's poo, obviously thinking there were fish in the toilet! I tried to set the record straight but in between my fits of laughter, he kept yelling "Hi, fish!" and laughing like a manic. That's okay, I guess I was laughing like a maniac too because it was so hilarious!
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Big Babies

The last time I went to the doctor, he could not tell where Stella's head was. For most it would be too early to really even care, but because I will likely go early we needed to know so I could work on turning her (and also since I've already had a breech baby-Brooke). Today I went back to the doctor for my 34 week check up and an ultrasound to check for the baby's positioning. She is in fact head down (yippee!) and everything else looked good too. I asked the tech to give me her best estimation of Stella's size (this is not really accurate...as the tech said it could be give or take as much as a pound) just for the fun of it. She estimated her to be 6 lbs. and 7oz already! She informed me that if she goes to term, "she'll be giant". Just what I want to hear when I am attempting to get this baby out of my vagina! Not... In my hypnobirthing class we are told to practice positive affirmations and one that I have be rehearsing in my mind is "My baby will be the perfect size for my body." Yeah, if she comes out in the next two weeks! At the very least, I can stop worrying that she'd be too small if she came now. She's likely already surpassed Brooke's birth weight of 5 lbs. 14 oz (born at 34.5 weeks). Mark is hoping for a September 16th arrival. I think maybe a little sooner, as long as I can get my scrapbook caught up. :) The good thing is we're not in charge and I'll leave all that heavy decision making up to the one who's really in charge...God!

Barefoot in the garden

Yesterday the weather here was unbelievable! So much so that it had me rethinking my idea that I'm not ready for summer to be over. We were able to eat dinner (fresh corn from the farmer's market, our home grown tomatoes, and juicy grilled hamburgers) outside on our patio without sweating. After dinner Mark and I sat at the table while we watched Brooke and Luke playing happily in the yard by themselves. They played so well we didn't have to get up from our chairs for at least 15 whole minutes. We were not running interference, fretting that someone was going to crack their skull at any moment. or pushing the swings for what seems like eternity. What a break! I looked at Mark and told him it would nice if this is how things always were. However, we probably should stop procreating and let the children we have mature so that we could sit around and just watch! Maybe next time...we are almost ready for Stella and we can't wait! Speaking of Stella and my ever expanding stomach, Brooke this past week told me after I got her up from her rest, "Mom, we need to get you some new clothes because your belly is sticking out of your shirt!" Amen to that!

After the kids played we all got our feet dirty in our garden. Our strawberry plants and tomato plants are in competition to see which one can take over the garden the fastest. And our raspberry plants have been most surprising because when we planted them, they were literally just sticks with a few roots. Last night I picked 6 raspberries off one plant and the others are getting quite big as well. Brooke picked a couple of tomatoes and Luke just wandered around checking everything out. Mark is so taken by our garden it really is all he can think about. It's a progress thing...

Home Alone

Mark being the wonderful husband and dad suggested that he take the kids back to the lake this Saturday and Sunday so I could have a few days "off". I'm not sure if it took me 2 seconds or even if I let him finish his sentence before I was on board with the plan. So yesterday morning I packed up the kids and we headed to the mall when it opened to finish out the fall clothes shopping... B.S.A. (before Stella arrives). Sadly we had to buy Luke's chubby feet shoes at the seriously over priced Stride Rite ($ 75 for 2 pairs of shoes... and that was buy one get one half off!) and then we headed to The Children's Place to exchange the perfectly adorable outfit I had bought for Brooke when she was not with me. FYI Brooke will not be getting any new clothes on a whim because already we don't see eye to eye on what "goes together".

When we were finished with our errands, Mark took the kids to the lake and I was off on my own! I stopped at Motherhood in the mall to purchase 2 new tents (aka size large shirts) and then managed to make it to Once Upon a Child, Scraps etc. (the scrapbook store) and Hobby Lobby. By 1:30 I hadn't had lunch or a nap and thought I was going to die! I made it home to throw myself in bed under the cool ceiling fan. After my nap I had still more errands to run, so off I went and didn't return until I had finished Krogering at 8:30 pm. A little HGTV while I folded 3 load of laundry and I was off to bed at 11.

This morning I slept in until the blissful hour of 10 AM! I woke up several times to go to the bathroom, but at 7 am I decided I would go back to sleep because I could. The only thing that got me out of bed was my grumbling stomach. What I really wanted was breakfast in bed but I think that would be a little too much to ask for! Now after I've posted on my blog, I'm off to try to catch up on my scrapbooking. Happy day to you too!

Lovin' Blond Boys

I've always preferred dark haired boys to blond boys as long as I can remember. When Top Gun was popular, I preferred "Maverick" (Tom Cruise) to "Iceman" (Val Kilmer) and then when Good Will Hunting came out I had a crush on Ben Affleck instead of the blond Matt Damon. However, when I look at my light headed son, how could I not love blond boys? Especially when that blond is the president of my fan club! I never realized that I could love a short blond ...with a lisp none the less!

Luke has always been fun (well ever since he stopped crying and was sleeping better). He poses for my camera, gives kisses willingly, and has a laugh that can melt even the coldest heart. What is most fun about Luke lately is that his vocabulary is growing every day. With that we can always tell what's on his mind.

A few examples:

-When we were at the lake my mom was playing with him and she told him his feet were stinky. So taking matters into his own hands, he starts yelling "bath" over and over. He climbs off the couch and starts going upstairs to get into the bath so he could get his feet cleaned!

-When the phone rings he says, "ringing...telephone" and gets very distraught if I let the answering machine pick up. The sweetest is when he says "bless you" to anyone who should sneeze or cough.

-Usually after Brooke goes to the bathroom and Luke hears her flush the toilet he's yelling, "hands" to remind her that she needs to wash her hands before she comes out the the bathroom!

-And in the morning when you get him out of bed he says first thing "Mornin' ...open shade" because he's ready to get up for the day.

I could go on forever...because he can sing "Rock a bye Baby" but I'll stop because eventually you'd get bored and stop reading...if you haven't already.

However, with Luke his highs are high, and his lows are low. Just because he can say what he wants doesn't mean we are going to give it to him. When he doesn't get his way, he will follow us around the house throwing himself at our feet whining and crying. I'm not quite sure what to do about this because you certainly can't reason with a 20 month old. I feel my knowledge of "behavior management" really gets going after they turn two. Thanks Brooke! But for now I need to go back to the drawing board.

I can only imagine what fun is in store with Luke as he gets older. He already can scale bunk beds and tries to do tricks on the stairs. I can tell the fun is only beginning.

Stop this train...I want to get off!

This year I am having a hard time gearing up for a change of seasons. Usually I don't mind, after all, fall is my favorite season. However, these last few weeks I feel a sense of dread as the night time temperatures get cooler and cooler. Mark tells me just not to think about it, but I pointed out that my body is a ticking time bomb reminding me that summer is almost over.

We've been having such a great time at the lake, it's no wonder I am feeling sad. Yesterday we all took an after dinner boat ride and fed the ducks. Everyone has enjoyed fishing no matter how big or small the catch is. Today Carly and Brooke went tubing and after dinner we all went to DQ for ice cream. So much fun, so little time!

I think part of the problem too, is that I know after we close down the pools and lake, I'll be waking up all hours of the night taking care of a new baby. I went to the doctor last week and I go back on the 27th for my next check-up. It is possible that I have only a month left! We still have a lot to do at our house to get ready for Stella's arrival. After we leave here, it's back to our "to-do" list. Maybe we'll never go home...

A boy and his cars

Having a daughter first I had no expectations of what boys would be like. But there is no denying that Luke loves sound effects, noises made by bodily functions, and all vehicles... especially school buses. When we drive past a car dealership he excitedly starts yelling, "cars, cars, cars!" Since we have mostly "girl" toys it is only recently that we discovered that Luke was old enough to play with "Hot Wheel Cities". I was surprised that these cars could capture his short attention span and for longer than 5 minutes! I guess we know what Santa will be bringing Luke for Christmas this year.

Lazy Days at the Lake

I've been at the lake for less than 24 hours and already have managed to take a nap and read and finish an actual book for my pleasure! The lake has cooled off with the milder temperatures, but I didn't have to concern myself with that minor detail since Mark is the resident "activities director" when he's home. I am psyched because he doesn't go back to work for a whole week! I'm feeling more rested already. :)

My parents and my niece Carly are here and they've already been successful fishing. My dad is chomping at the bit to get some real bait, apparently fishing with hot dogs is beneath him. When Mark is finished making cookies this morning (oh the bliss!), it will be off to the Marina to get something more acceptable to fish with.

I took Luke down to the dock last night for the second time all summer. This time he was more agreeable to the life jacket he had to wear and was able to walk around (with me following him like a shadow) and check things out. He loved the fish my mom and Carly were catching and seeing the ducks on the water. He attempted to climb down the ladder into the lake so maybe today we'll see if he wants to get into the water. I highly doubt it considering he melts if a drop of water hits him from the hose but you never know...my children routinely surprise me.

Shopping with Brooke

I know the few ladies shopping around me today in Kohl's probably thought I was nuts. I'm sure they overheard me asking my almost 4 year old "does this shirt go with these pants?" Who in their right mind would ask a 4 year old that anyway??!! I must have said it almost a dozen times today and by the end of our shopping excursion, wanted to claw my eyeballs out!

Not only did I have another opinion to contend with, it seems that Brooke is in between sizes. Definitely not a toddler but not quite a big girl. We almost had a brawl in the dressing room (the second time we had to go in to try on smaller or bigger sizes). And just because my daughter wears a size 5 now doesn't mean she needs to look like she's 10! The clothes are not only more mature looking but the prices are more "mature" as well. Bummer for my budget... We ended up bringing a lot of stuff home including a pair of "Dora the Explorer" shoes with lights. Yay for me...really. I can't stand "character" clothing or accessories but she is totally in love with them and even I couldn't say no.

I should know better, but I also have lots of clothes to return because I attempted to do a little shopping without her after I dropped her off at my parents for lunch. I got a perfectly adorable outfit from The Children's Place and she tells me she doesn't like the orange pants. Do we really need 5 pairs of pink pants? As you can see from her picture (taken this past spring), she has a mind of her own. She'd give Stacy and Clinton from What not to Wear a run for their money! Can you nominate a 4 year old for that sort of thing? At least I'll have the last laugh when she's older showing her friends old pictures of Brooke's signature style.

Happy to You!

Luke loves to sing "Happy Birthday" except he skips the birthday part and just sings "Happy to you..."

Below-A squirrel munches on the sunflower in my parents garden today. He could join the circus!

Today my mom turned 63 and we celebrated with a little birthday dinner and cake at her house. I brought the ingredients for the dinner and had planned on making it for everyone, but after shopping with Brooke I was so tired my mom made it instead! (more on that later) My mom is very understanding and laughed when I apologized for making her make her own birthday dinner! What a bad daughter I am! She has a lot of energy for someone who has "one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel". :) Actually, my mom has clothes and accessories that my sister and I still borrow. How's that for old?

A few years ago my dad stumbled upon "picture" cakes at Sams Club and has insisted on one for every birthday since. Personally, I think that no one over the age of 13 should have to be subject to such torture. It's a neat idea, but tonight I think there was a picture of my mom from at least 5 years ago on her cake. Think different glasses and different hair and not in the "look I was trendy then" way. At least my mom looked very thin in the picture! It tasted great though especially with Greaters ice cream...even Luke thought so! (Luke's eating progress has a theme- he'll eat most sweets we give him. Can I serve my son cake for breakfast with a clear conscious?)

Tomorrow we are headed to the lake for 4 days with my parents for a mini vacation. My friend Christa and her family were supposed to be coming too, but her son caught the "Hand, Foot, and Mouth" virus which is very contagious. I decided that me being already fat and miserable, would be even more miserable if I or my kids caught it from them! It's very disappointing, but better them than me right now.

Seriously!!??

This afternoon I was doing my duty and watering Mark's garden while he is away and I noticed something out of the ordinary near our garden. It seems while I was resting today our inconsiderate neighbors planted a tree in their backyard. I am all in favor of trees, in fact we really need to plant some in our yard. However, would you plant a new tree five feet from your neighbors fence and garden? Probably not! They have a giant backyard, one that they hardly ever step in so why they chose out of their entire yard to plant a tree next to our garden is beyond my imagination! It's not bad enough that it exists, but it mocks me every time I look out my kitchen window. The problem with that is I am constantly in the kitchen looking out the window and now I will be stewing! If I see them out (which they hardly are) I will ask them if we have offended them in anyway because planting that tree so close to our garden just seems mean.

While I was stewing in the backyard, my children were oblivious to my negativity and were happily playing in the yard. It's so funny to see what captures their attention. For Luke it was a kiddie golf "bag" that he wheeled around the yard for 15 minutes straight. A mere feat of concentration and attention span for any 20 month old. And Brooke skipped around the yard with her duck umbrella in her pajamas. (She occasionally puts her pj's on for her rest and then wears them until it's time for the bath.) She wanted to know when she could get a new umbrella. Could she get a new one when this one breaks? Consumerism at it's finest. Let's trade it in even though it works perfectly well! Could we trade in our neighbors new tree too? I hope it makes it through the winter...really.

My Little Diva

On Wednesday Brooke said, "I've changed my mind, I'm going to have a good attitude!" My little strong-willed daughter has opinions about everything and isn't shy about letting me know what she is thinking. One thing Brooke feels strongly about is her wardrobe. Since this past winter, Brooke has chosen her clothes almost everyday. It was a battle I was unwilling to fight. When she needed summer clothes I went shopping and brought a bag home for her to choose from. My only mistake was not buy monochromatic outfits since I knew that's how she likes to dress. So one shade of pink got paired with a completely different shade and so on it went. She had perfectly cute outfits to wear, but once she decided what went with what, that was all it could go with. As a result, there are clothes in her drawer that she refuses to wear because in her mind they don't "go with" anything.

I've decide to cut my loses and take her with me to get her fall/winter clothes. I feel that maybe it will save money if Brooke can decide what matches in the store. Then when she gets home there will be no struggle and she'll wear everything she picked out! Sounds good...we'll see. This Sunday is shopping day. My mom will keep Luke and Brooke and I will set out to get a fall/winter wardrobe she can live with. This is one of the things I need to cross off my to-do list before Stella arrives. I am not ready to think about warm clothes because I don't want summer to be over yet. But if I wait, then I will be trying to buy winter clothes while nursing a newborn. That would be quite a feat considering the average length of an outing in between feedings is about an hour and a half tops!

Luckily, the only preference Luke seems to have is for the one yellow shirt he owns. He wants to wear it if he sees it in the drawer. I think it reminds him of school buses which he absolutely loves! I hope it can always be this easy with him.

Hooray!

If you remember my older post about bribing Brooke with the mini-trampoline to "save her pee for the potty"... it finally worked! This morning, I heard the toilet flushing in the hallway and then when Brooke got dressed she brought her dry pull-up in to show me her accomplishment. Right away she wanted to know if she could jump on the trampoline. So after breakfast, Mark set the timer for 3 minutes and she jumped her heart out. Then we put it away and told her she could jump 3 more minutes tomorrow if it was dry. (We will let her have it for good after the 4th dry pull-up and then she can wear her underwear to bed!) I am hoping that she will continue to be dry and then we'll be done with the pull-ups for a long time.

Another exciting note, Brooke has finally taught herself how to ride her bike. Mark and I attempted many times to coax her into riding her bike, but she apparently wasn't ready. The past few weeks, she would get it out herself and give it a go. This week she finally can ride to our friends house around the corner. She desperately wants to ride it to our community pool like other big kids she's seen, but that requires going up a pretty descent size hill that she is not ready for. It wont be long though and she'll be a great bike rider.

Finally Finished

It seems like creating a new room for Brooke shouldn't have been a big to-do. However, I think we've been working on it for almost a month now. There are a few details that need to be taken care of, but for the most part it is complete. I was a little nervous with the pink I had chosen, but I need a shade that would work with the bargain bedding I found at Kohl's. I wanted Brooke to have a Pottery Barn quilt but I couldn't pass up a $40 bed-in-a-bag that came with sheets, a bed skirt, comforter, and a pillow sham! Pottery Barn will just have to wait for maybe Luke. One of my favorite features of Brooke's new room is the shelf (that caused us tons of grief) we got from IKEA. It holds an unbelievable amount of toys and books. This room is also bigger and has space for Brooke's doll clothes and accessories. She is so sweet because many times she has said, "Thanks mom for making my new room!" What's not to love about that?

Sabotaged!

It's difficult to harbor ill feelings towards a little boy with such a sweet face, but this morning I am feeling a little disappointed. It's not the fact that he slept in to the glorious hour of 9:45, but rather the missed opportunity that went along with that long of a slumber. You see today was to be my "off" day. Mark finally got home from work (a day late) and today he was going to take the kids to the zoo so I could have some time by myself. Things were going smoothly but as Mark and Brooke were nearly ready, Luke was literally still snoring peacefully in his bed. I felt guilty making them wait around for him to wake up and then still have to wait for him to eat breakfast. So I reasoned 1 child would be less work than two, and I would still get a break...right? That's what I was telling myself as Mark is strapping Brooke into her car seat and I hear Luke push his music box in his bed signaling he's awake for the day. Talk about internal struggle. I wanted to run out and tell them to stop, but that stupid feeling of "mommy guilt" washed over me and I decided to stick with the 1 child is easier than 2 mantra. I feel a little silly worrying about just having Luke for the day when in a few short weeks I'll have 3 kids to contend with! I guess today's theme will be "thankful" to have 1 child in my care instead of 2...or 3. It's all about perspective which apparently I need.

FYI- Brooke's pull-up was not dry and she did not mention a word about the mini-trampoline. I guess we'll try again tomorrow!

A little thing called bribery

Today Brooke, Luke and I spent several hours at Aunt Pauline's house playing with the cousins-Joe, Emily, and Dan. Brooke was desperate to go to their house if not for the company, then for the wide selection of toys to play with. They had a blast playing with one thing and then another. One of the highlights for Brooke is playing with Emily's things (American Girl dolls, My Little Ponies, etc.), especially jumping on her mini-trampoline. I told Mark's sister that I had intended on buying Brooke one for her fourth birthday in a few months. That's when she said her kids were getting too big to jump on it and rarely played with it at all and that we were free to take it with us when we left! Pauline suggested that we use it as an incentive for Brooke' behavior and that's when I shared with her that I was determined not to waste my money on night time pull-ups any longer. So it was decided that we would bribe Brooke into "saving her pee for the potty" or getting her lazy bottom out of bed in the morning to go to the bathroom. We dangled the carrot when we were headed out the door and Brooke seemed motivated and thrilled. Score one for me! As I was reading books before bed, Brooke wanted to know if she could jump on the trampoline tomorrow. Initially we said she had to have a dry pull-up for 4 days, but I decided that everyday until the fourth day, if she was dry, I'd let her get a taste of victory by jumping for 3 minutes. Who doesn't need a little incentive along the way? I hope this works! I'll keep you posted on her progress.