30 weeks - Sorry, No Belly Pic

Here is Caleb holding a bean we grew - our neighbors are from Slovakia and they gave us some beans to grow that are from there. The beans are not mature yet, but that didn't keep Annalise from picking one. I opened it up and showed the tiny, immature beans to the kids. I told them that it was kind of like the baby - that if he or she was born now, he or she would be small and not really ready to be born. Then I scooped Annalise up and took her inside before she could pick more beans!

We have made some progress in the nap department with Annalise. I changed Caleb's break time to 60 minutes, but he gets a little more variety - he can read books or rest or draw and color. Annalise has the same 60 minutes, but behind the baby-gate in their room. She usually looks at books or plays a little, but a couple times she has snuggled up and gone to sleep! So she is totally out of the crib day and night and that is great because although I am still keeping up pretty well, changing the crib sheet was starting to be beyond my ability!

My c-section has been scheduled for July 1st at 1:30pm. Which makes me realize that thinking of being pregnant during July is kind of silly for me - I should only be pregnant in July for a little over 12 hours! But that doesn't mean I'm getting to miss out being pregnant during the long hot summer! We've already broken out the swimsuits because we skipped directly from winter to summer - tomorrow the high is 88.

Children's Book Reviews: Kevin Henkes and The Fat Cat

Just wanted to highlight a couple of our recent finds at the library:

Kevin Henkes must like mice because as far as I know, that's what he writes about! But his little community of mice is as cute as can be and my kids love them. Shelia Rae, the Brave is the first one we've picked up at the library, but they have a Scholastic DVD of 3 of this other stories - Chrysanthemum, A Weekend with Wendell, and Owen. Shelia Rae, the Brave is about two sister mice - the older sister Shelia Rae is very brave! Her little sister Louise is quite timid. But when Shelia Rae gets lost, it is Louise who comes to her rescue and proves that she is actually pretty brave herself!

I like this book, What Will Fat Cat Sit On? (by Jan Thomas), a lot more than I expected to. In fact, when we go to the library I sometimes weed out a few of our selections and discreetly return them in the drop box by the parking lot. The kid-friendly part of this book is that it is really funny and really simple at the same time - all I have to do to get my kids giggling is to say, "Sit on the Pig! Sit on the Pig!" But as a someone who taught first graders to read, I can see this book would be great for a kid in kindergarten or 1st grade to read on their own. Most of the words are short vowel words. Caleb knows most of his letter sounds and the short vowels, but hasn't been interested in stringing them all together (and that is fine with me), but he does have this book mostly memorized and I can see how, if he were personally inclined, he could connect what he knows the book says with the letters he does know and gain a little ground in reading.

Wordless Wednesday

Just off the Nightstand: David Balfour

When I read Kidnapped a few months ago, I had no idea Robert Lewis Stevenson had written a sequel to it. David Balfour tells the further adventures in politics and love of, well, David Balfour! David was the main character in Kidnapped and because I really liked that book and already had made friends with him, I liked David Balfour.

However, I have to admit, it wasn't the best story I've ever read of Stevenson's - not by a long shot. Most of his books are adventures for boys and this one was mostly about David's romance with Catriona Drummond, which was fine for me. Kidnapped left David in a sort of optimistic, but unfinished place and this second book wrapped things up. The style was highly conversational, comparable with a Jane Austin novel, but not quite as girly. It also used a lot of Highland Scottish speak, which was a challenge to decode. The copy of Kidnapped I read actually had a dictionary in the back.

I read somewhere that it was written at the very end of Stevenson's life, while he was living in American Samoa. Also it wasn't extremely well received. I guess he liked David enough that he didn't want to just leave the boy hanging.

Next I'm moving on to a non-fiction book and then I am going to grit my teeth and read something recent, unless of course I run out of time before the baby arrives.

America's Sweetest Town

Yesterday we attended the 2010 Sugar Festival in Clewiston. Clewiston's nickname is "America's Sweetest Town" because their main industry is growing and processing sugar cane. The sugar festival has been going on for 24 years and is always held after they process the last load of sugar cane - traditionally the 3rd week in April.

Although there is more to it, the part we attended was basically a fair. Here the kids are coloring their free coloring books - Caleb's was about not smoking and Annalise's was about voting. Lately coloring has been super appealing to both of them!

Well that and they had to wait until 10 to go on the rides! I guess traveling carnivals are a little lax on their ride restrictions. Annalise got to ride almost everything.

The rabbit ride was pretty tame.

She wasn't able to ride the swings, but I thought Caleb was kind of little for it too. Rob said that the force of the swing held him in the seat. I guess it did.

Some big tractors on display.

Farmer girl!

You'd think being the "sugar festival" that there would be an inordinate amount of sweets available, but really the food selection was pretty balanced. This is my authentic Mexican style corn on the cob. It's coated with mayo, a mild chili sauce and Parmesan cheese. Very good :) And a free shot of my 29 week belly!

One kind of fair food I'd never seen before was deep-fried double-stuffed Oreos. A station volunteer's mom bought them to share...honestly, I didn't think they were that good. But they were novel!

My little non-napper - overcome from getting up at 5:30am and playing hard in the sun.

And as a "Welcome to Miami" when we got back to town, we saw this sight: A Uhaul with the back door open and 3 guys sitting on the bumper. They were going fast enough to pass us like we were standing still. We caught up with them when we went through the Sunpass lane and they had to go through the toll lines. That's how I got my picture :)

Any Ideas?

Houston, we have a problem:

ok, folks, I need your help. Annalise has not taken a nap in FIVE days. Obviously the crib no longer confines her and:
1. There is really no other good place to put the dresser.
2. I could close and lock the door, but she knows how to unlock it.
3. I could put up the baby gate, but she knows how to get through that too.
4. She is at some exhausting 2 year old phase where consequences are meaningless compared to getting her own way.
5. I really needed her to keep napping for a few more months!

I should have seen this coming. She was getting to where if she took a nap, she'd be awake til 9 or 10 reading board books by the doorway.

Before
After
I think Caleb being asleep in the room with her rather than playing downstairs helped keep her in the room for that. The upside of all this is, at bedtime, the kid is practically putting herself to bed, she is so tired. She falls asleep as soon as she lays down.

I am stumped. Caleb napped until he was almost 4. It's like physically she doesn't need it, but emotionally, she isn't old enough to handle not napping (i.e. she can't "take a break" like Caleb does) - and I, both physically and emotionally, am not ready for her to quit!

Two and a Half

Annalise is 2 1/2 today, so we defrosted our half cake and got decorating :)

Originally, when I asked Annalise what she color she wanted the cake to be she said she wanted a "pink cake". What should be on it? "Candles!" I kept asking her for specifics and she finally decided on "pink cars" (???) we morphed that around to a cake themed on Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, because she LOVES Goldbug.

Here is Goldbug, he shows up just about everywhere!If you are familiar with the book, you'll notice the "5-seater pencil car" above Goldbug's pink car. We also had Mistress Mouse's pink tow truck.

Annalise at 2 1/2. Two and a half seems to be a big step towards becoming a kid. I notice things about her all the time that seem less baby-ish than before. She still has a lot of baby to work out (our last potty training attempt ultimately had me crying "Uncle!") but it is a lot less baby than 2.

Ears and Fish

Lately we have been coloring a lot around here. Many months back Caleb went through a coloring phase and then sort of moved on to other things. Now he is back in full swing and has taken Annalise along with him. Personally, I've found coloring to be incredibly relaxing lately, so I join them a lot. Maybe that's because when they color, they sit kind of quietly coloring too...

Annalise has also been drawing a lot. Her first self-portrait emerged this week:
There is some question as to what object she is standing on, but there is no doubt that those two little sticks coming from her head are ears!

Here is Caleb with a sampling of his latest work:
It kind of fit in well with his recent requests to decorate his bedroom in an ocean theme.

***

Tonight the kids mixed things up and Annalise fell asleep on the trundle bed. I found Caleb on the floor awake and suggested he get in the twin bed. He did and he leaned over the edge to peer at Annalise and in the sweetest voice ever said, "Bless her heart!"

Of course after I left the room, I heard her crying and it turned out she wasn't too cute to wake up and kick out of the trundle so he could have his bed back.

Waiting for STS-131 to Launch

I meant to post this sooner, the shuttle is going to return soon. For the record, only Rob and Caleb were up before dawn on the Lake Okeechobee levee - Annalise and I were home in our beds, asleep.

Wordless Wednesday

A Quick Proverb

Proverbs 14:16

A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless.

It seems like shunning something as awful as "evil" would be straightforward, but the second half of this verse offers a clue to something deeper - "hotheaded" - one who is easily angered falls easily into evil. Anger is such a two way street. I know it is popular to dismiss it as a feeling, but the more I read of Proverbs, the more I have come to believe that it is a "feeling" to greet with great caution. A wise man is slow to become angry, which to me says many things that anger a fool don't bother a wise man at all.

6 Months

I am convinced I am bigger than this picture looks, but I was farther from the camera than in the other pictures and it looks like my arm is disguising how far my front is from my back. Plus I was really trying to stand nice and straight :)


How far along? 27 weeks today - I think that's the official first day of the 3rd trimester.

Total weight gain/loss: 23lbs or so, our home scale isn't very accurate

Maternity clothes? yes

Stretch marks? debatable - are they stretch marks or spider veins? Whatever it is, I think it's come from picking up Annalise (because lately she seems so heavy!) Regardless, it doesn't bother me like I thought it would.

Sleep: deteriorating, I am not a great side sleeper and was having trouble with my arms falling asleep. Clarissa showed me a stretching exercise to do with my arms when they get like that and it has helped a lot.

Movement: yes

Food cravings: not as crazy as at first, I do still have this craving for lots of toppings on things that can have toppings - for example, if I make myself a sandwich, I add an extremely large variety of extras - I feel like Dagwood.

Labor Signs: none

Belly Button in or out? flatish

Wedding rings on or off? on

What I miss: being able to carry Annalise farther than 6 feet.

What I am looking forward to: (honestly?) burping less! (that is, after the baby is born)

Milestones: at 27 weeks, the baby has a 90% chance of surviving if born today, I certainly hope the baby is not born today, this week or this month, but I still think that is pretty amazing.

Just Off the Nightstand: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

So far, 3 for 3, being pregnant makes me read a lot! After reading Connecticut Yankee, I decided I must sample some more Twain, and I decided on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

First off, I think I read this before, or at least read an excerpt. Although I never felt like I knew what was going to happen, a lot of the story seemed familiar. The copy I had quoted several modern writers basically describing this story as utter perfection - and it is good. It is so full and yet easy to read.

As a preface, Twain explains the difference in dialect used by the characters - he says, "The shadings have not been done in a hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech." That part in itself is fascinating, particularly to me because parts of the story were set in Arkansas.

Of course in a book like this, you can't get around the "n" word, which seems to be used on almost every page. It's important because Huck has to decide what is right in regards to Jim - a runaway slave. Is it immoral to not return him to his owner (who is a kind and gentle woman) or to not assist him in his escape. Yet, the "n" word is never viewed as a slur - Obviously it refers to the color of Jim's skin, but it's also used as interchangeable with slave or servant. It is perfectly balanced because you know that is how people talked back then, a real novel about those times, not some modern historical novel dancing around trying to make it seem like the main character has a modern, unoffensive sense of right and wrong. Not that I believe morality is relative, but that Huck's thought process is consistent with someone who had been brought up knowing black people only as slaves.

Three minor characters stood out to me:

1. Tom Sawyer, I guess now I need to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! He is an interesting character to compare with Huck. Huck lives out these incredible adventures, but Tom is this utterly romantic character - extremely well read and somehow able to see all his fantastical ideas as real without ever doing anything real at all.

2. Colonel Sherburn - a small town Arkansas lawman who shoots a drunken farmer named Boggs. Boggs routinely had come to town hopelessly drunk and threatening Sherburn and Sherburn was fed up with him. He gives him an ultimatum to leave town, Boggs doesn't so he shoots him. The townspeople had been critical of Boggs, but upon his death gang up on Sherburn intending to lynch him. Sherburn is unmoved, "I know the average all around. The average man is a coward...You didn't want to come. The average man don't like trouble and danger. You don't like trouble and danger...Now leave..." and the crowd disperses.

3. Dr. Robinson - a discerning man who sees through the scam of the "king" and "duke" instantly. The contrast is similar as with Colonel Sherburn - he is totally unlike all the other people in town.

Particularly the 2nd two seem interesting characters for Huck to observe. He is a sort of backwards boy with a haphazard upbringing, but actively sorting out morality at the same time. Although he makes no judgment in the case of Boggs, I think both of these stories go along with the overall theme of trying to choose what is right.

To Read Like a Child

I ran across a link to an interesting online article. It was called "Read More, Read Better". It listed several tips on how to become a better reader - specifically from a Christian perspective, but overall the tips were not spiritual/religious.

Basically all the tips boiled down to read a lot and read a lot of different stuff - fiction, history, theology, art, science, etc. A couple of the more specific tips were to read an old book for at least 3 of every new books you read and occasionally read light books just for the fun of reading.

Personally, I read a lot more old books than new books. This article made me see that I shun all of the new stuff rather than carefully selecting a few new things to read. Also I don't read enough non-fiction...and come to think of it, in about 3 months, I probably won't read much at all!

But the whole discussion kind of sat with me throughout the day and that night I found myself reading a book to my kids - and I realized "Read more, Read better" describes exactly how my kids are read to - in fact the exact mixture of styles they like to have read to them. They like to be read stories, they like to be read the Bible, they like to be read science books, history books, music books, counting books, sports books, animal books, everything! They are voraciously curious and learn constantly. And all the eating things off the floor and mismatched clothing aside, that is how I would really like to be!

Guess the Medium

To the first correct guess as to what we used to spell Caleb's name, I'll send you as much as you want of the Smarties, Tootsie Rolls, and Generic "Chews" we got from the Easter egg hunt this weekend as your prize ;)



And for the record, none of the "things" were modified in any way, we found all these letters!

Eggs, Exhaust, and Easter

Our Easter weekend started off in a pretty typical way - with an egg hunt. Caleb has gotten much more serious about egg hunting since last year.

Rob said Annalise wasn't eager to pick any up at first. She thought it was like picking up her toys! Once she saw there was candy inside, she got into it.

Our haul - it is really ridiculous - almost halloween candy levels. Only no chocolate!

Annalise's balloon puppy - we took this picture before we came home because Rob correctly predicted it would pop before we got another chance. Fortunately, Annalise thought it was funny that the popped balloon looked like a worm.

The rest of our day was pretty calm - nap time, bike time, snack time and right before dinner, Rob reminded me that he was planning to go to the drag race - not that this is something Rob ever ever ever does, but last week, the station had a police officer come by the studio to do an interview about illegal street racing.

The police have actually set up a program called "Beat the Heat" where anyone can race a police car. Kelly, the morning show host, got the chance to race and she actually won! Not by speed, the officer was disqualified on a technicality, but she got the t-shirt prize anyway.

Let's just say it was loud at the race track!

Loud and cloudy - clouds I'm sure were made of aerosolized tires. When we got home, my hair smelled like burned rubber.

Did I mention it was loud?

Loud, loud, loud.

The race went longer than we expected and our plans for the next day included a sunrise Easter service in Immokalee - 2 hours away! Which meant, we planned to leave around 4am. It was late enough, I told Caleb he would probably fall asleep in the car and wake up in the car - he's a deep sleeper and probably wouldn't wake up "in transit" from the car to bed and vice versa.

We deposited him in bed and hit the hay ourselves...and at 12:20am Caleb ran to our room in tears, "You were supposed to put me in the van!!" Rob and I were both zombies at this point, so he basically lay down on our floor and cried himself back to sleep. At 2am he woke up again, still very upset. I knew Rob would be driving, so I decided to take care of it - I took him back to his room and lay down with him until he fell asleep. Now, Caleb sleeps on the trundle, which is a crib mattress and I'm pregnant, so you can imagine my utter comfort.

Immokalee is a farming community, so early is normal there. The service was held on a soccer field and in the distance you could hear a rooster crowing. The morning sun revealed a soft low fog that fascinated both kids. They had never seen fog before!

After the service a church hosted a pancake breakfast and then we moved on to Naples.

A church there was holding a cookout after their Easter service and asked the station to be there.

They also had an egg hunt - nicer candy, fewer eggs.

...and live bunnies. Annalise was mesmerized!

Easter clothes - which being in south Florida were also their Christmas clothes!

After our long weekend, I cannot express how tired I was. I slept 10 hours last night and I still took a short nap this afternoon.

They're Back

After a significant hiatus, the monarchs are back in town:

This isn't a super picture, but I liked how you can see that the newborn baby caterpillar is actually smaller than the ant in the picture. The other dark spot is an egg about to hatch.

This has been the longest break I've noticed without monarchs since we started butterfly gardening a year ago. They were gone long enough for all of my plants to really grow back and one of them bloomed about 5 times before we got any eggs. This picture is from the front yard, but we also saw a monarch in the backyard this afternoon. We also saw a Zebra Longwing. I still haven't done anything to attract them on purpose, but they show up from time to time.

They are not really big. In wingspan, I don't think they are much wider than monarchs, but they are pretty "short" so it makes their wings look long.