So, this whole 3rd trimester thing is really starting to wear on me. I went for a walk the other night, with Trav pushing the girls in the stroller, and the next day I was incredibly sore. Yesterday morning, I woke up with the pain down the inside of my leg that I had for the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Audrey, and fortunately it went away after a bit, but it really made me dread the next 9+ weeks. I'm already slow, sore, sleeping a lot, and just not able to physically keep up with my girls. But, it's not like I'm anxious for this baby to be born, because I know it's only going to get more exhausting in different ways.
I got confirmation that Emily is signed up for the older 4's preschool in Johnston, meeting M-Th afternoons. I think it'll be good for her, but it's just that it's so many months away, still! I think the countdown is really just until the baby is born, after which point I'll have the girls go to Ms. Teri's a couple of mornings per week, and pick them up after lunch. Then, I'll go back to work at the same time as school starting. It's kind of crazy to think how that's all going to work out.
We've sure been enjoying the beautiful weather. Just having the house open makes a difference, even though I'm generally too much of a moose to get outside with the girls. Travis was happy to get started on his landscaping project, and the girls have had a good time "helping" move dirt around. It's weird to have things green and blooming so early, but if we can avoid a frost, it's nice to think we have that much nice weather ahead of us!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
More bragging. Too bad. :)
If you're tired of hearing me brag about how amazing my kids are, you shouldn't read this entry. Or this blog anymore. :) I'm pretty conceited, but this format is for me! I'll be modest and polite in other mediums, but this has turned into a documentation of their growth and accomplishments that they might like to read someday (if they can stomach their mother's writing style), and you all get to be fortunate bystanders, if you choose. And I may have posted about this particular thing earlier, but I am too lazy to review my entries to find out for sure. I'm copying some of the rest of this posting from an email that I sent to my grandfather last night, after being so impressed by Audrey's writing. I thought he'd appreciate it because he spent 60+ years studying how children grow and learn, and he would appreciate the details of what I noticed while watching Audrey work. I seriously am not one of those "DO YOUR WORKBOOK!" kind of moms. These girls are seriously driven, and I find that my role is actually to redirect their activities to something not as intense when they get frustrated, and help them decompress.
Enough disclaimer. I'm sure the suspense is killing you all. :)
I bought a dry-erase alphabet book for Emily for Christmas, thinking that she would enjoy tracing over the letters with erasable marker. She thought it was all right but wasn't too interested because she does so well drawing letters on her own. She likes to draw me notes that say MOM, DAD, EMILY, AUDREY, MILO, and if I help her spell other words, she'll write them too. You saw all the lovely writing she did on her valentines!
But Audrey, at age 2 years 4 months, just spent nearly an hour working on the dry-erase alphabet book with me. Not only can she identify every letter, upper-case and lower-case, she traced them all exactly with the marker. The only thing that tripped her up was getting the lines to cross to draw the letter "x", but she was totally fine crossing a "t". Then, she traced a line that was drawn across one entire page, curving and sometimes hiding behind other figures on the page, and she connected the curving line in between and kept going. Earlier today, I saw her adding an "A" to one of Emily's notes to me.
...and then this morning, I saw her tracing letters from a wooden alphabet puzzle on a Magnadoodle. Over the past week, she's been tracing her left hand using crayons on paper, and doing such a great job that I can't immediately tell which girl did the work. Emily's artwork has mostly been faces lately, which are absolutely adorable. I need to get a few pictures of them in addition to archiving my favorites. The eyes she draws are circles with dots for pupils, equally sized and spaced and not "googley-eyed", and the noses are the lines for the bridge of the nose instead of dots for nostrils, which I find very novel. And the smile is literally from ear to ear. They are the happiest looking creatures!
Today, both girls are dressed in hot pink from head to toe. Emily is busy serving up imaginary breakfast, and Audrey is snuggled next to me, asking me to eat her toes - hee hee! Is there any better way to spend a Saturday morning? The only thing that would make it better would be if I weren't sore from working around the house yesterday. Only a few more months and I'll have another little girl to be fascinated by... and I won't be pregnant anymore! ha! bonus! :)
Enough disclaimer. I'm sure the suspense is killing you all. :)
I bought a dry-erase alphabet book for Emily for Christmas, thinking that she would enjoy tracing over the letters with erasable marker. She thought it was all right but wasn't too interested because she does so well drawing letters on her own. She likes to draw me notes that say MOM, DAD, EMILY, AUDREY, MILO, and if I help her spell other words, she'll write them too. You saw all the lovely writing she did on her valentines!
But Audrey, at age 2 years 4 months, just spent nearly an hour working on the dry-erase alphabet book with me. Not only can she identify every letter, upper-case and lower-case, she traced them all exactly with the marker. The only thing that tripped her up was getting the lines to cross to draw the letter "x", but she was totally fine crossing a "t". Then, she traced a line that was drawn across one entire page, curving and sometimes hiding behind other figures on the page, and she connected the curving line in between and kept going. Earlier today, I saw her adding an "A" to one of Emily's notes to me.
...and then this morning, I saw her tracing letters from a wooden alphabet puzzle on a Magnadoodle. Over the past week, she's been tracing her left hand using crayons on paper, and doing such a great job that I can't immediately tell which girl did the work. Emily's artwork has mostly been faces lately, which are absolutely adorable. I need to get a few pictures of them in addition to archiving my favorites. The eyes she draws are circles with dots for pupils, equally sized and spaced and not "googley-eyed", and the noses are the lines for the bridge of the nose instead of dots for nostrils, which I find very novel. And the smile is literally from ear to ear. They are the happiest looking creatures!
Today, both girls are dressed in hot pink from head to toe. Emily is busy serving up imaginary breakfast, and Audrey is snuggled next to me, asking me to eat her toes - hee hee! Is there any better way to spend a Saturday morning? The only thing that would make it better would be if I weren't sore from working around the house yesterday. Only a few more months and I'll have another little girl to be fascinated by... and I won't be pregnant anymore! ha! bonus! :)
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Weekends with grandparents
The girls are pretty spoiled. Each of the past two weekends, they've been able to spend some really good quality time with their grandparents. Last weekend was the Clifford show, and Emily had a fabulous time. Audrey got to hang out with my dad after she woke up from her nap and before Emily and her grandmas returned from the show, so that was pretty special for her. And this weekend, we were in Barnum and came back to Des Moines in time for Milo's birthday party. I can't believe he's ONE already! What an awesome kid he is!
It's really starting to set in that I'm in over my head with having another kid. I know that in the end I'll be glad we're a family of 5, but it's intimidating when I think how full my hands are already. I think I may have a slight advantage in that I tend to operate in the jack-of-all-trades category, but when it comes to parenting each of my children, I hate to think that I'm master of none. If there was anything worth doing right, it would be that, wouldn't it? There are times when Audrey's "do it myself" 2YO mind is just too much to deal with... just put your damn shoes on or I will do it for you!!! And I know Emily isn't a whiney girl, but just because she hardly ever does it, doesn't mean it's any easier to tolerate when she does. I just think to myself, how will I be able to mentally handle all this commotion and Audrey's inevitable 3-5 potty accidents per week when I'm nursing a newborn and running on zero sleep? How can I give this new baby girl the same joy and devotion I was able to give Emily?
I'm ready for winter to be over. It snowed most of today, and was cloudy and depressing. It's nice to see it light out when I get up around 6:30 each day, but I'm willing to give that up for daylight savings time and a little bit of light in the evenings. I think it might help my overall attitude. I suppose eating better and getting some exercise might help, too... guess I'll blame winter for my inability to do those things, too.
I also think I'm going to axe the new daycare search. The two places we looked at were both really dull. "We just hang out, no set schedule.." "they'll get enough structure once they get to school..." "we don't watch much TV..." I guess I will take a little bit of dog dander (and whatever else) for someone who genuinely cares about teaching my kids each day. I think the idea of finding a new daycare has been stressful for Emily, just thinking that there's something unknown coming has been enough to make her a bit on-edge. Maybe this fall, if it doesn't work for the baby, I'll look into a center or something. *sigh*
It's really starting to set in that I'm in over my head with having another kid. I know that in the end I'll be glad we're a family of 5, but it's intimidating when I think how full my hands are already. I think I may have a slight advantage in that I tend to operate in the jack-of-all-trades category, but when it comes to parenting each of my children, I hate to think that I'm master of none. If there was anything worth doing right, it would be that, wouldn't it? There are times when Audrey's "do it myself" 2YO mind is just too much to deal with... just put your damn shoes on or I will do it for you!!! And I know Emily isn't a whiney girl, but just because she hardly ever does it, doesn't mean it's any easier to tolerate when she does. I just think to myself, how will I be able to mentally handle all this commotion and Audrey's inevitable 3-5 potty accidents per week when I'm nursing a newborn and running on zero sleep? How can I give this new baby girl the same joy and devotion I was able to give Emily?
I'm ready for winter to be over. It snowed most of today, and was cloudy and depressing. It's nice to see it light out when I get up around 6:30 each day, but I'm willing to give that up for daylight savings time and a little bit of light in the evenings. I think it might help my overall attitude. I suppose eating better and getting some exercise might help, too... guess I'll blame winter for my inability to do those things, too.
I also think I'm going to axe the new daycare search. The two places we looked at were both really dull. "We just hang out, no set schedule.." "they'll get enough structure once they get to school..." "we don't watch much TV..." I guess I will take a little bit of dog dander (and whatever else) for someone who genuinely cares about teaching my kids each day. I think the idea of finding a new daycare has been stressful for Emily, just thinking that there's something unknown coming has been enough to make her a bit on-edge. Maybe this fall, if it doesn't work for the baby, I'll look into a center or something. *sigh*
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