Play Time (mostly for Christy)

This week has been a blast because two of my sister's kids have been over. My sister is in process of transition from Utah back here to Missouri and sent two of her three kids ahead to make things easier on all involved. I've had the pleasure of watching them during the day while my mom is in school.

Here is what we've been doing:

Sadly, this is the only pic I got for Monday. Andrew loves these sunglasses but for some reason can't figure out how to put them on right. We also played with playdough, Hundry, Hungry Hippo and explored all the toys in Emmaline's room.

We made noise makers (at first I called them instruments but changed that after I realized they aren't...they are just noise!) and danced to Disney music. The kids got to color the paper plates before we folded them up. Andrew didn't like coloring so his got a few crayon marks. Carolyn really enjoyed coloring a boarder on her plate and using brown and purple. Emmaline asked for help coloring flowers and really liked using purple. After the noise makers got old the kids started spinning on the floor. It was comical- I wish I had a video instead of just pictures.

Emmaline gets such a kick out of kicking her feet in the air and Carolyn quickly followed suit. They say 'Wiggle Wiggle' over and over until they get tired.

The kids also played 'Ring Around the Rosie' which was fun to watch because it was self initiated. This picture is funny to me because of the three kids. Carolyn obviously is oldest and therefore more capable of moving around quickly. Andrew, being not quite two was sort of stumbling and dragging after the two girls. So when Carolyn yelled 'Down!' She sort of pulled Emmaline down and made it very dramatic! Emmaline of course just fell down, not quite understanding the point of the drama yet but Andrew tumbled, rolled and finally came to a stop laughing so hard! It was very enjoyable to see them all having so much fun together. Yesterday Andrew decided his favorite thing was going to be wearing Emmaline's shoes around. Part of me wanted to tell him 'no, Andrew! you're a boy!' but then I decided it really didn't matter. So he's enjoyed wearing 'pretty shoes' a few times this week.

Also yesterday I helped the kids make a tent. The girls enjoyed reading their books under the tent. I think Andrew only ever looked under the blankets, I dont' think he ever actually went inside. I feel like we are constantly eating with two more kids around. With just Emmaline I put her snack in a sandwich bag or small tupperware and send her off to eat while she plays. But with three kids I feel more like I need them all sitting down to eat. So we have two snacks and lunch- all two hours apart. So far they've all enjoyed the snacks (I'm not trying to give them bressel sprouts or anything :) which makes life so much easier!Hopefully plans for the rest of the week go as I am expecting them to. Some point during the week we'll play with puppets, we'll string beads and we'll color. And hopefully we are all still on one piece by the time Christy arrives here!

For Matt

Emmaline loves to exercize just like her daddy. I'm impressed with the number of times she'll walk up to me and tell me she's going to do pushups or sit ups. And she tries to count them! I wonder if she'll be a track star or love sports or something?

Emmaline is getting good at counting and saying her abcs. You can see with the abcs that she is trying to do the sign language for some of the letters but her fingers aren't quite able to move that fast yet.

Emmaine loves to sing. Its so fun to hear her learning more and more words from each song. I hope she loves singing for the rest of her life!

Rock-in-roll

Family Updates

Baby moves a lot! This morning I was actually seeing my tummy jump. I tried to have Emmaline feel the baby kicking but she didn't really understand why her hand was on my tummy... I'm now almost 26 weeks and I've started on the every two week appointments. Today's wasn't the best in the world, the doctor made me wait 45 minutes just to have my tummy measured and listen to the heartbeat! Ayayay. I know they are doctors but really? Really? 45 minutes? My appointment was only an hour after the office opened, being that late already seems weird... On better notes: My sister's kids are coming to live with my mom for a few weeks and then she'll arrive after she gets things in Utah taken care of. I get the honor of babysitting MWF while my mom is doing some classes for school. I'm looking forward to having something to keep me occupied and busy. Right now I feel bored half the day! I'm glad that Emmaline will get a chance to spend time with her cousins before we move to Guam. And I'm glad Emmaline will get to interact with other kids on a more regular basis as well. Its all around a good situation!

Pregnancy Moments

1. I dropped the container of fish food after feeding the fish. It spilled all down the back of the tank! Luckily it landed right side up so it didn't all spill out!

2. I droped the sugar shaker in my malto-meal! I had to take it all apart and clean it all and let it dry before putting sugar back in it. I felt pretty silly.

3. I tried grabbing the butter out of the fridge and dropped the container three times before I was able to get a firm grip on the tub!

4.

Emmaline's Obsessions

Generally having kids who put things back in the exact right spot is a blessing but not when it causes melt downs, tantrums and other issues because she can't do something exactly like she wants to. I'm hoping this is just a phase.

1. The other night Emmaline climbed out of bed and came into the living room because she remembered one toy she forgot to put away. She cried until I came and opened the closet so she could put the toy away.

2. Emmaline has to have her blankets and dolls in the exact right position before she goes to bed. If her blanket is upside down or her dolls are on the wrong side of her, she'll cry until you help her fix it.

3. I tossed a kleenex into the garbage can as I was leaving my bedroom and it landed next to the can (Kleenexes don't fly well). I had to drag her out of the room as she was saying 'fix it! fix it!' over and over. Its just a kleenex! Don't worry about it!

4. When Matt was home he helped her brush her teeth. He put the tooth brush holder back on the counter (after letting her grab her tooth brush out of it) and put it on the wrong place on the counter. Emmaline freaked and tried to tell him it was wrong. Unfortunately Matt didn't understand what she was saying and that one became quite the melt down.

Life around here is entertaining to say the least!

Pregnancy woes

I'm now 24.5 weeks along and I'm about ready to be done. The first trimester was plagued with nausea (no throwing up, thank goodness) and exhaustion (a TON of that). The second trimester started great. I had new clothes, was seeing Matt every few weeks, got over most of the exhaustion and nausea. But now. Oh, now. The end of the second trimester has not been nearly as nice. My back hurts. I've figured out that I can stand up for about 10-15 minutes before my back hurts too bad to continue. If I force myself to (like for grocery shopping) then I wind up with a back ache for the rest of the day. Guess what today was? Grocery shopping day. I set out knowing that I had to go quickly or else I wouldn't make it. Somehow I was out for an hour and a half and just about crying at the end. I finally forced myself to get all the groceries in the house, sat down to eat and then realized I couldn't walk the length of the living room without a break and holding onto furnature. It hurt that bad. Luckily Emmaline went down for a nap and I could lay in bed with a heating pad on but it didn't altogether fix the aches. I've been trying to get up and walk around every so often to keep myself from cramping up and getting stiff. But sitting down hurts and standing up hurts. I just hurt no matter what. Matt wants me to do something but the question is what? I've thought about a brace...but do they make them my size? And if so, would it help me? I've also thought about a chiropractor but from what I hear you have to go in several times before there is any relief to begin with. And I don't know if insurance covers any of that. I'd have to find out. I've also thought about going to the gym and working specifically on strengthing back muscles (I hate seeing my money go to waste on my unused membership every month) but then realized that my back hurts just walking. I can't imagine that lifting weights is going to help... The problem here is that it'll just get worse. I'm going to get twice as big, guaranteed, and since I have a toddler I don't really have the choice to lay around and do nothing all day. Or maybe itll be like the nausea and just go away after the second trimester. Ha! Here's to hoping.

Its amazing how boring life is when my other half suddenly isn't here. I put Emmaline down to bed with the express purpose of vegging in my room and watching Stargate (season 2 since Matt and I watched season 1 while he was here). It turns out that the DVD player in my computer doesn't work and I'll have to buy an external DVD drive if I ever want to put any DVD or CD in. So I borrowed my parent's TV (we put ours in storage becuase of lack of space and figuring that I could watch movies on my laptop) and popped in a DVD. Then I realized that I don't have a remote. That means that I can watch the first episode on the disk by repeatedly pressing play but I can't get to any of the other episodes. I've already watched the first episode. So I'm online but I already took time today to check all my email, the headlines on Yahoo and MSN as well as everyone's blogs and facebook statuses and the update on how my baby is doing on pregnancy.com. What to do online when everything I usually do is done? If Matt were here we'd play a card game or board game. Or we'd read. Or cuddle. Or clean. Or just talk. But the point is that I wouldn't be bored because Matt would be here keeping me occupied. On a side note. Emmaline is sleeping in her 'big girl bed' today! The first time I put her on the mattress on the floor (before we even got the bunk bead) she freaked out. Like, screaming her head off and pounding on the door to be let out sort of freaking out. And once we got the bed she enjoyed playing on it but any time I gave her the option of sleeping there she opted for the crib instead. No biggy. I have 4 months to get her into the big bed. But today she asked to take her nap on the bed and I said yes, figuring she'd chicken out and climb into the crib and she didn't! She slept for 2 hours in the bunk bed and when it came time for bed tonight, there was no question about the crib. She climbed into the bunk bed and cuddled up in her blankets. Its crazy how big she is getting. I don't really want her to keep growing yet I love seeing her learn new things. It'll be good to have a baby in the house again.