Updates, part 2

My garden has been doing ok. I went on a little buying binge and changed my plan around, but I’m happy with how its come out. Somehow I ended up with 9 tomato plants! Holy moly, all my local peeps, you may be getting bags of tomatoes from me later this year. We had like 2 days of very strong winds, complete with rough crosswinds, and it demolished some of my tomatoes, despite my efforts to protect them. I had to replace all the special ones I ordered online which was a major bummer for me. I just pray that everything else goes fine. Gardening is supposed to be fun, not stressful! I’m going to try to get a new picture up soon. Here’s what I have though:

• 9 tomatoes (Purple Cherokee, Gardeners Choice Cherry, Black Krim, Black Cherry, Brandywine, Goliath, Manitoba, Patio, Roma)
• 1 Brussels sprout (Thanks Aunt Margaret!)
• 2 squares of beets
• 3 basil plants
• 2 parsley
• 1 thyme
• 2 rainbow Swiss chard
• 2 chive
• 2+ zucchini
• 2 sugar snap pea plants
• mint/lemon thyme
• 1 butternut squash (thanks again to Aunt Margaret!)
  

I finally completed a year long project of obtaining a new seat for our Suburban. We have bucket seats in our first row and we needed a bench to comfortably seat 4 kids plus guests. Gray leather bench seats that fit our Suburban are much harder to find than you might think! But I bought one, sight unseen, from a junkyard in Bellingham and I think it will be great. My Dad is going to pick it up on Monday (he is up there for work all the time) so hopefully by Wednesday I can have it in! It’ll be nice to have the full space utilized in the car.

Yesterday we went with G’s pre-k class to a local fire station. What fun!

Ethan, such a good helper, pushing Elsa for me.

Gwen

Elsa in her fire hat

Fireman giving the kids a talk

Inside the ambulance

Gwen driving

Ethan in the captains chair

Elsa liked the back seat

Sisters

Talking about the Jaws of Life

Showing off their newly remodeled kitchen. I love how Elly immediately found the one item of food out in that whole building.

The closest thing they had to a fire dog

Later in the day, I was about to Elly in the tub and noticed how much gunk there was in her hair. Its very fine and straight and resists most attempts at controlling it. So I decided I was going to cut in some bangs. Now I’m bad at cutting hair. Last time I tried it was on Ethan when he wasn’t even a year! And it was bad. But I just got an urge to do something so I did.

Before

After

Now, I don’t think I did too bad considering that it was basically snip here, snip there, between keeping her distracted and happy. Since its dried, it looks a little football helmet-ish on the front, and honestly, she doesn’t even look like my little baby any more! She looks older. But its really nice not to have to constantly battle with the hair.

As for me, well, I haven't been doing so well. For about 3 weeks I've felt like a walking ball of stress and tension. Crying at the drop of the hat, zero energy, just blah blah blah through and through. I posted on Facebook how I feel like a little black raincloud settled over my head for a couple weeks and it still lingers. Everything seems difficult and hard and frustrating. Hoping that things improve soon. There is so much to do and not much time to do it.

Much to update

We’ve had an exhausting and stressful couple of weeks around these parts. Blogging was something I couldn’t even think about! But I *think* we’re slowing down now and there is so much to write about.

The 25th was Gwen’s birthday and it started off inauspiciously with Elly throwing up a couple times the night before and the morning of. We cautiously hoped that it was a 24 hour bug and made the decision to bring her with us to the party and keep her somewhat isolated. She did ok. My Mom tended her and she held it together for most the day. Unfortunately (or fortunately), right after the party ended she threw up all over the floor. But the staff of Pump It Up! barely batted and eye and had it cleaned up right away. Everyone had a blast and you can’t beat a bouncy house place for wearing out kids (and adults!).

One set of slides. So fun!

Gwen coming down head first

Sick Elsa

 

Gwen posing

Aunt Jenni taking Elly for a slide

Another of the bouncy things

Group pic

The birthday throne

Ethan and his friend directing gift opening

The boys got a kick out of being teased by the girls

  

After the party, we decided to go to Burgermasters as a treat and get dinner. We figured since Elly had already puked she wouldn’t do it again, right? Oh wrong. WRong wrong wrong! We placed our order and BAM! Elsa pukes all over herself and the car seat. I hustle to clean it all up and I’m feeling like this is not going to be fun and we need to get home. Our food comes and I’m holding Elly and she throws up again! Oh heavens. Nothing ruins a meal like the odor of vomit. So I tell Jason, “Lets go, NOW!”. He goes to start the car and… nothing. Nothing at all. Huh? He tries again and again and the car is dead. This is not happening. But it is. Our car battery died! We just got AAA so we give them a ring and they say it could be an hour or more. That bites. However, the Burgermaster lady notices our dilemma and says, “Hey, we can jump you right here with this neat thing” and she does and we’re on our way in 10 minutes. What a day! What a stressful, stinky, messy day :)

Unfortunately, the fun did not stop there and one by one we all fell sick. For Elsa it was the worst. She had both vomit and diarrhea for 10 days. For everyone else it was a 24-48 hour thing. We didn’t have it all at once though, it staggered out through the week so it felt never ending!

After recovering from that, I decided to get Elsa off the bottle. She usually had one at nap and bedtime, but since being sick she’d been totally off them and we thought this was the time. It was hard because she did start to want them again, but we persevered and she seems ok with it now.

Then I decided last weekend to potty train Elly. I don’t know why I decided to do this when we were all still recovering from the stress and hassle of being sick, but there ya go. My friend April had recommended http://3daypottytraining.com and I used their method to good success! She’s now 100% dry during the day and naps. She was dry for a few nights but has started wetting again at night, so I think we may put her in pull ups at night for now. She’s still so young and might not be ready for night time dryness on a consistent basis.

Mother’s Day was rather stressful for me as well! We’d made plans to celebrate at my Mom’s house and combine it with Elsa’s birthday (which is on the 19th) since May is busy for everyone and we weren’t sure we could all get together again later in the month. My Mom came down with the flu though and thought we should cancel because she didn’t know how long she could still be infectious after feeling better. I didn’t get this email though until I’d just completed a HUGE 3 layer 9 x13 cake filled with lemon-white chocolate whipped cream and strawberries. It must have weighed 10 lbs! The thought of all the time and money put into this cake being wasted was enough to drive me into my bed in tears. Luckily though, everyone decided to still get together and we had a wonderful day. I got no pictures because I’ve been HORRIBLE about that lately.

See the next post for more…

Gwendolyn

Our bright star, the heart of our family, always tender and kind with her little sister. She graces us with (many many many) drawings and her humor. She was born at around noon this day 5 years ago. So tiny. She was a pound lighter and an inch shorter than her brother (6lbs, 5 oz and 18 3/4 inches), but seemed like a fragile little doll compared to him. We are so blessed to have her personality and spirit in our house.

Newborn

1 year

2 year

3 years

4 years

Today

3 years

3 years ago this week my Grandpa died. I had forgotten about it until I saw the date noted on my Mom’s calendar.

In one way, it seems like such a long time but it also seems like such a short time. We all still miss his presence in our lives.

Boy!

Today we had our ultrasound and found out that we are being blessed with another boy! We are thrilled!

Everything looked perfect and based on measurements the baby is about 4 days ahead of my due date, but nothing will be changed of course. That's not big enough to make any difference and is really meaningless as babies grow at different rates. They said the baby weighed about 8oz.  It was so nice to finally “see” this baby.

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

T-Ball

Ethan is participating in Lake Stevens T-Ball this year and today was their first real game. He did great, and really enjoyed himself which is the important part!

Posing in his Titans uniform

Elsa bewildered by the fence (that ended just a few feet over) and Gwen trying to guide her

Ethan snoozing on the bench…

There, that’s better.

 

Calling his hit to right field

He made it to first!

Running to home

 

Gwen and Elsa doing their respective poses

Gorgeous view from the field

My beautiful baby girls

Ethan getting a good throw into first

All and all it was a good day, but extremely long to be entertaining a 2 year old. I think we may come about halfway through next time.

Just a few pictures

Not much to say, except that my ultrasound was bumped up to Monday. THIS Monday, the 12th! I’m sooooooo excited. Usually by this time we’ve had at least one ultrasound but not so with going through the stand-alone birth center. I’m eager to see the little baby, and I’m eager to find out if its a boy or a girl. I have no patience, I just HAVE to know these things as soon as possible!

Other than that though, nothing much happening. Just wanted to share these photos I took yesterday.

We were at MOPS all morning which means Elsa missed her morning nap and was played out. We got home, had some lunch, and she just crashed out on Gwen. Its so cute how these two love each other and enjoy sitting and snuggling. Any time Gwen is on the couch, you’ll hear Elsa saying, “Gwennie wap? Gwennie wap?” which is how she asks for Gwen to lift her up to her lap.

Later in the day I was making some cookies and I caught Elsa and her stool (they are constant companions in mischief) sneaking some cookie dough from the bowl. I have never had a child so interested in kitchen workings. She fiddles with the stove, tries to stir pots, cut veggies, and just do everything I do in the kitchen. It’s a little scary!

Today we have Ethan’s first t-ball game, along with his pictures and all that. Its gonna be an full afternoon event, so I better get moving and prep everyone for the day. Look for an update on Monday when I’ll definitely be sharing if a little boy or girl will be joining our family!

How time does fly…

It does not feel like two weeks since my last blog post! Many days seem very long, but the weeks just slip by before I know what is happening.

Nothing too exciting has been going on the last two weeks. Ethan is now reading simple stories quite well and I'm so proud of him. Every unit (which lasts about a week) ends with him making a little story booklet. Here's a video of him reading one of them. I've noticed that he tries to memorize the book, which you'll notice I missed in the beginning part of the book, when he didn't read it correctly. I caught him in the later part. But he can and quite easily does read the booklets.

Gwen has started reading as well, but it doesn't come very easy to her and she doesn't like doing it. Well, I take that back. She likes it, but its hard and one thing about Gwen is that she likes to do things well on the first or second try. Going back over and over something is very frustrating for her so if she thinks it will take a lot of effort she'd rather stop before she starts. For now, I'm dropping her lessons and letting it lie. I'll pick it back up in a few weeks and see if she's in a different frame of mind.

The kids are so different in their styles. Honestly, I always thought Ethan was going to be the more difficult one to school, but I've found him quite willing to work on something until he gets it right and doesn't need constant parental interaction and affirmation. Gwen, perhaps suffering a bit from the wunderkind traits that many people attribute to her, wants a lot of feedback and affirmation. For instance, she'll be practicing her letters and EACH letter she will stop and look at me and wait for positive feedback before moving on. She'll read one word and stop and wait for that affirmation. Its very frustrating and time consuming! I'm not giving her the constant affirmation because I don't think its a good habit to get into, so we often bump heads and she feels like she's not doing it right because I'm not there constantly telling her how good she's doing. We're both learning!

Elsa is very two, though her birthday isn't for another 6 weeks. Perhaps I don't recall the other kids at two very clearly, but she seems to be more precocious than they were! She talks very very well and figures out how to get into absolutely everything. She wants to do everything herself, from warming up her own milk in the microwave, to stirring pans on the stove (which I've scarily found her doing a few times!), to changing her own diaper, to adventuring down the street or across the parking lot in a few seconds time. Yet, she's very funny and loving to her siblings and she makes us all laugh when we need it most. What a lovely little child she is, despite the near heart attacks she gives me on a regular basis.

Pregnancy is rolling on fine for me. I hesitate to post this, but I haven't had a severe headache in a couple days and I'm cautiously optimistic that perhaps that stage ended very early this time? I don't know... I'm not getting my hopes up! I'm still wearing my regular clothes and am barely showing which is surprising! I'm kind of ready to get into the comfy maternity pants!

Last night we had an Easter/Passover celebration at my parents house. I made a huge pot of matzo ball soup and we had other goodies there as well. It was a long day but it was a fun mix of both mainstream Easter traditions (candy, egg hunt) and Passover. My Mom had gotten some EXTREMELY hot horseradish and Ethan put a huge spoonful on his matzo and literally erupted in pain! I tried to give him a drink and he spit it all out and started crying and screaming. I took him to my Mom's room and flushed his mouth but there isn't much you can do but wait it out. As he was crying, he said, "Mom, I'm peeing my pants!" and I just busted out laughing and then so did he, but he was still sobbing too. Oh, my poor little man. His face was so red from the pain and the crying. At first I'd been annoyed and thought he was over-reacting, but when I saw how much he'd taken, no wonder he was in agonies!