What's She "Expecting"?

Annalise showing off her "baby bump" :)


hard to believe she's due in "Hoo-li"

I know that a new baby changes everything for little kids. Caleb, I feel, really understands that we are having a new baby. But Annalise, I'm not sure what she understands. Sometimes she will tell me she is the new baby, but more often she'll pat her belly and say, "New baby in MY tummy!" and "De gonna cut me open." Hmm, maybe I gave her too many details!

Two Favorites of Annalise

Annalise has a new favorite book character:
And I have to admit, Lyle is my kind of character too! Bernard Waber wrote a whole series about Lyle the Crocodile. The stories are kind of silly and at the same time have the most lovely vocabulary. This is my kind of educational book. You never get the feeling that he wrote the book to teach, but you can't help but see kids will learn new words reading it.

We also read Waber's book Ira Sleeps Over and liked it a lot too. It's about a boy who is sleeping over at a friend's house for the first time and is indecisive about bringing his teddy bear along.

And her "for now" favorite Youtube:


I thought it would be funny if we remade the video with Mako, but these pictures will have to suffice, I'm pretty sure we won't be able to get him to dance!

Wordless Wednesday

Io Moth Caterpillar

We have an unexpected visitor in our garden these days:

I am pretty sure this is an Io Moth caterpillar...and yes they sting.
After looking up the Io Moth online, I am pretty sure I saw a momma moth under our porch light a while back. I noticed two like this, but only one has stayed put long enough for me to get good picture of it. I'm not planning to put it in the butterfly cage. Their metamorphosis is more dependent on other things (leaves, dirt) and I'm not eager to kill it with kindness.

So not a butterfly, but I'll class it with those posts for now :)

Funny Things the Kids are Saying These Days

I've been collecting these for a while, it's interesting that Annalise is in Caleb's old stage of mispronouncing everything and kind of having her own little dialect, while he has moved on to making funny observations about life. The funniest thing with Annalise lately is that she will suddenly repeat a cliched quote that I told her a week ago - like saying "A yiddle bit, goes a yong way!". Caleb is more poetic, he is much more likely to include allusions to books we've read in his speech - asking if my "heart is filled with joy" instead of if I am happy. Two of his quotes are things he's repeating from books - the one about rain and the one about the star.

Annalise: I a fip fop wea-in’ gull! (I’m a flip flop wearing girl!)

Caleb: I’ve been thinking; let’s mow an A in our backyard.

Me: It looks like it might rain.
Caleb: And wash away all the hurt and sadness in the world?

Annalise: I do it by my-own-self.

Caleb: Do they sell buffalo meat at Publix?

Annalise: Pick me up Mommy
Me: I need to carry the laundry basket upstairs, you can walk, why do you need me to carry you?
Annalise: Because you love it.

Caleb: Has anyone ever seen a pirate?
Me: Yes, lots of people.
Caleb: Tell me all their names.

Annalise: No-ba-ee! (nobody)

Caleb: If you smoke, your lungs will turn GREEN! (innocently, but emphatically told to our neighbor…a smoker)

Annalise: Me-mowe, me-mowe (it’s what cats say)

Caleb (on the phone with my parents): I love you as big as a star!

Annalise (patting her tummy meditatively): Momma, they cut me open and took you out.

It's a...Baby!

We went as a family for the "big" ultrasound today. I have already had two ultrasounds for viability, so it wasn't the first time I'd seen the baby, but this one was for checking out all the "parts". Unfortunately, baby was shy and huddled in a corner, so I have to go back in a month for further checking. Here is what they did see:

Profile


Face


Legs and feet - I think the one of the left is clearer.

We also saw the heart very well and the backbone. Annalise noticed the backbone and declare, "I see baby's TEETH!" Well it did look a little like a long row of teeth :) Caleb paid close attention to when the tech measured the baby's head, he said, "The baby has BROWN hair! It's going to look just like ME!"

She did not tell us what the baby's gender is, and told us when to look away when she checked the bladder. Basically she didn't get a good look at all of the head and part of the spine. Annalise did something similar, except with her it was her heart we couldn't see.

Besides the just incredibly amazing opportunity to view life in the womb, I was also amazed at how fast we got in! I came totally prepared with lots of healthy snacks and a few desperation pieces of candy hidden deep in my purse, a stack of High 5s, and a coloring book and crayons. I have waited at this office for 3 hours in the past! But we were in and back in the car in an hour! Another amazing thing was that I was chatting with the tech about how Caleb was breech because of my bicornuate uterus and she looked surprised. Evidently, the division can get so stretched and smashed in a first pregnancy that it doesn't affect further pregnancies. At least I hope not! In any case, it was so changed that she didn't even see it.

Wordless Wednesday

18 weeks is about 4 months...I think

Before I had any kids, I thought of pregnancy in terms of months, but once I was pregnant, I saw that it is much easier to think of in weeks (you seem to make progress much faster that way too!). I'm 18 weeks today and it's the 6th of February, since the baby will be born around the 4th of July, that's 5 months to go, so I guess I can say I have 4 months down. Here is the evidence:

I've noticed that when I get up in the morning, I have very little belly, but by the time bedtime comes around I seem to have advanced at least 2 months. So this picture was taken around mid-day to be as honest as possible about how much belly I have. And honestly, the picture is not as dramatic as I feel like it should be. Evidently I feel a lot bigger than I look. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure I am bigger at 4 months this time than with either of the kids.

I found this survey on a couple of different blogs and thought it fit with the belly pic:

How far along? 18 weeks today

Total weight gain/loss: roughly 10lbs (gained)

Maternity clothes? not full time, actually I avoid them right now because they look too big still. I have two pairs of pants that can be adjusted, so that works for now. If they are both dirty I just wear maternity pants and hike them up all day.

Stretch marks? nope, hoping to go 3 for 3 on this one

Sleep: ok, I can sleep on my tummy sometimes. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable like that other times I don't, it's weird.

Movement: YES! And this time I am sure!

Food cravings: EVERYTHING! But lately, I'd really like some onion rings (deep fried, please) and a big juicy hamburger off the grill (our grill is out of service)

Labor Signs: none

Belly Button in or out? in

Wedding rings on or off? on

What I miss: I don't have any food habits that are off limits during pregnancy, I'd kind of like to sit in a hot tub though, but wouldn't have the opportunity to anyway!

What I am looking forward to: ultrasound next Thursday

Milestones: baby kicks!

An Adventure in Babysitting

Today I babysat 3 kids plus my own 2 and somehow adding 3 kids to your normal 2 kids makes the 2 act unusual, so it was really like babysitting 5 kids. They got here at 7am and left at about 6:45pm, so I fed them 3 meals and 2 snacks. I also took all 5 of them to the park where they discovered a mud hole and made "muck shoes". I had planned to walk to the park, but found out 2 of them didn't wear or bring shoes, so we drove instead. The park is very close to a duck pond, so we walked there and I had each kid walk into the water and wash off the muck shoes and their equally mucky hands. When we got back home, 4 of the 5 had to have complete clothing changes - my 2, plus the 2 from the other family, who did not bring a change of clothes. One I dressed in an outfit Annalise hasn't grown into yet and the other I made put on an adult sized t-shirt and told her it was a "dress". We had lunch, and took break-time. I'm guessing making muck shoes wore them out because they were all eager to rest, but only Annalise slept. Then I made Jello Cookies (really a good recipe) while they played and after Annalise woke up they watched Toby Tyler (a much cuter movie than I expected) while I mopped, folded laundry, and did dishes. I made dinner and fed them and then their mom took them home. If I can't sleep tonight, I'm blaming the Jello Cookies because I have no other reason not to!

The interesting thing about babysitting is that when I do it these days, it is crystal clear what I had wrong about teaching and why I had trouble keeping my class in order. I let them make too many decisions - or I guess I allowed them try to persuade me to do things their way. These kids marched into my home and of course immediately started testing limits - not bad behavior, but seeing what I would give them - snacks, TV shows I know they usually don't get to watch, etc. A few years ago, there wasn't much structure in our house, but now there's a full blow schedule and routine, so when they tried to step out of it, I immediately pulled them back in. After a time or two, they just submitted. The main problem I had was having 5 kids pulling out toys at once all over the house, if I babysat them all the time or had 5 kids of my own, this is an issue I would definitely address, and since I'm close to having 3 of my own, I need to find a good way to address it now! Our current routine at least confines the toy explosions to one part of the house, but I couldn't confine 5 kids and myself anywhere in our house! ...except when I fed them ;)

Groundhog Day Craft

I found this super easy craft online. The kids really liked both making it and playing with it later. If you'd like to make it, search for groundhog day crafts in google images and you'll see it. There is a link to a template for the groundhog. Otherwise, I think it is pretty obvious how to make it!


Before we made them, we found a youtube from this morning of Puxatony Phil giving the forcast. I tried to explain to Caleb about how it was a pretty, sunny day today, so that meant it would be winter for 6 more weeks. So the kids, while they were playing with the craft, pretended the groundhog was saying/singing "Six more weeks of winter!!"