Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Springtime

Except for this unexpect cold front last week, we have been enjoying an early spring.  I love being outside with the kids.  I also love flowers, so just as soon as I could, I planted pots and pots of violas and ranunculus.  Eliana helped me plant them, telling me where each one should go.  William "helped" me dig in the dirt and spread it all over the patio and front step. 

Eliana watering my daffodils.  I transplanted the bulbs from my grandmother's garden last spring.  They didn't bloom this year, which I am not sure if it was because this is the first year after the transplant or because this yard has the rockiest soil known to man.

Ranunculus (one of my absolute favorite flowers!) and violas on the front step.
Here are some pictures of our early spring activities:

We got a bird feeder.  Eliana painted it many colors.  Will and Eliana both enjoy filling it with birdseed.  We can birdwatch from the large front window of the living room, although you are just as likely to see squirrels eating from it as birds.  Which actually is just as exciting for the kids as the bird.

Playing outside.  This scene would make David proud.  Eliana usually has no interest in balls or playing/throwing/kicking balls of any type.  But this one particular day, she wanted to play soccer, and kicked her ball around in the back yard for a long time.  It was the most athletic I have ever seen her.

William loves sticks. You can constantly see him on walks or just wandering around in the backyard holding a stick of some size or another.  While Eliana is usually interested in outside toys such as chalk or bubbles, William is content to just poke at the ground or whack a tree with a stick.

Both kids were happy about the "reopening" of the sandbox this spring.  Now I am back to having tons of sand in the house all the time.  Eliana's bed feels like a sandbox at times!

We're having a baby!

I think most people know already, but just in case you missed the news, I'm pregnant!  Our sweet little baby should be born sometime in September.  We are all really excited, especially Eliana who is already telling people she is having a baby sister (wishful thinking - we won't find out until next week the sex of the baby).  Eliana keeps telling me that she has been praying for a baby, specifically a baby sister, and likes to gently hug my belly and whisper to the baby.  She tells the baby the cutest things, just whatever she is up to at the time.  Like whispering to my belly, "Baby, I'm going to brush my teeth now, I'll be right back!"  William is not so gentle and likes to body slam my belly or give it a good smack.  I'm always having to tell him to be gentle.  Eliana told him that babies say "Goo-goo, gaa-gaa" so he often comes up to my belly and says goo-goo gaa-gaa, I assume trying to talk to the baby in baby language.  He will however, now respond with "baby" when you ask him what is in mommy's belly. 
Eliana has always seemed to me to be older than her age says.  When I got pregnant with William, she seemed totally ready to be a big sister.  We told her right away and she seemed excited about having a sibling immediately.  The "Big Sister" role seemed to fit her from the very beginning.  She has always loved babies and held other friend's babies since she was little enough to sit still and not drop them.  She was 30 months old when William was born.  Will, however, still seems like a little baby to me.  Maybe because he has always been the youngest, while with Eliana I had no one to compare her to.  I had to make a conscious effect to switch from calling William a baby to a toddler.  For example, telling Eliana that William gets to ride in the stroller and she doesn't because he is a baby and she is a big girl.  Now I have to say "because he is a toddler!" to which Eliana responds, "He is a baby toddler."  I guess she is not ready for him to grow up either.  I didn't make a big deal to William about having a baby in my tummy like I did with Eliana when she first became a big sister.  I have a hard time thinking of William as a big brother.  The title doesn't seem to fit him yet.  But he will be 26 months old when this baby is born - really not that much younger than when Eliana became a big sister.  However every day William is showing me more and more that he is growing up and really isn't a baby anymore.  He speaks in really long sentences - 4 or 5 words usually with appropriate grammar.  He has opinions about what books he likes to read and definitely what foods he likes to eat.  He can climb all over the place, is very independent at the playground, and is constantly getting into danger.  Just yesterday he helped me make waffles for breakfast and managed to stir the batter (mostly) without spilling.  So really, he's not my baby anymore.  Plus, seeing him interact with his little cousin Claire has shown me that maybe he is ready to be a big brother after all.

Pregnancy after miscarriage has been difficult.  I was very nervous at first (an understatement), and we told no one until after the first doctor's appointment.  I had a lot of spotting with this pregnancy at first, which was extremely scary.  I didn't have that with William and Eliana, just with the third pregnancy.  I was an emotional wreck and crying a lot until we finally saw the little heart beat on ultrasound at 7 weeks.  Even after that though, I was still very scared.  I felt like I was holding my breath until the next doctor's appointment when I could hear the heart beat again.  Luckily, God saw fit to relieve some of my anxiety by allowing me to feel this baby move very early.  At exactly 15 weeks, I started to feel little kicks and flutters.  Now at 18 weeks, I feel them getting stronger every day, which fills my heart with joy and hope.  Just like the baby saying, "Don't worry Mom, I'm still here, safe inside of you." 
At first, I wondered if we should have waited a little longer to get pregnant again.  I had such a hard time emotionally with this pregnancy.  Plus, physically it was hard to go through morning sickness and fatigue all over again so soon.  But as with the last pregnancy, we had just left things up to God.  We really had no reason to avoid getting pregnant, so we were just allowing God to bless us with a baby when He saw fit.  So while MY plan might have been to wait a little longer, God had a plan of his own.  But I can already see how this baby is blessing our family.  Eliana is so happy, and I think her prayers may be a big reason why I am pregnant again so soon.  She must have a direct line to God's heart - she prayed for snow and after a mild winter of 60 degree days in January and February, we had an unexpected snowfall in early April! I also think God knew I would need David's support, emotionally and physically, during the hard first trimester.  During this chief year, David has so much more time than he will come July.  So he has been my rock.  He took on a lot of responsibilities with the kids and the household while I laid on the couch sick and exhausted.  God's timing is perfect.  Luckily now I am feeling much better.  I am very excited and hopeful for this pregnancy.  As I said, we will have our next ultrasound next week week and find out if we are having a boy or a girl!

Hard to see the baby - just looks like a tiny blob because I was only 7 weeks along.  But most importantly, I could see a little heart fluttering just as fast as could be - about 150 beat per minute.  I cried when I saw that, I didn't even need the doctor to point it out. 

From Easter - 15 weeks

Couple of happy kids with my belly

Friday, April 8, 2016

Easter

David had to work on Easter day (bummer) so we stayed in Columbus to be close to him.  We started out the morning going to mass all together before David went to work.  It was quite impressive that we managed to get up, check out Easter baskets, get ready, and make it to church by 7:15 - much earlier than the 8:45am mass that we usually attend.  I wish I had been able to get a family picture at church as we all looked so nice.  But David had to rush off to work immediately after the service was over.  After mass I let the kids watch an Easter movie and have a little candy while I cooked for a friend's Easter potluck.
Found their Easter baskets waiting for them in the morning.  Eliana was super excited about the Easter bunny coming while she was sleeping.


Joy!

Reading his new book.

Love this! William was feeding his toy chick some of his Easter candy.
Can you tell their favorite part of Easter?


For lunch we went over to my friend Morgan's house.  She is from out of state, so for many holidays, she hosts big dinners for all of her friends whose families are also out of town.  We have joined them for other holidays such as Thanksgiving a couple of years ago.  She and Anthony hosted a beautiful meal followed by an Easter egg hunt for the kids AND a beer hunt for the dads!  Besides the eggs, Anthony hid multiple bottles of beer outside, and all of the dads were given an empty six pack carton to hunt for their "Easter Beer."  The best part was that David was done with work by 1pm, so he was able to join in just in time for the egg and beer hunt.


Eliana was so sweet - she was one of the oldest kids at Morgan's house, so I told her to be sure during the egg hunt that all the little kids had a chance to get eggs too.  After she had about 6 eggs in her basket, she stopped collecting eggs for herself and instead gave the eggs she found to William.  He only managed to find two eggs before he was distracted by the many fun toys in the yard.  I love that she listened to me and that she loves her little brother so much.
We had a great time, and Eliana and her friend Sam were inseparable most of the day.  After the egg hunt, I took William home for a nap while David and Eliana stayed a little longer.  We had quite a full day because that afternoon my brother, sister-in-law, and niece came over the celebrate Easter with us too.  I made roasted lamb for dinner (first time for me!) and we spent most of the evening outside since the weather was so beautiful.  Claire got to experience the sandbox for the first time, and while I think William put sand in her hair, she successfully did not eat any of it.

cousins!
 Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! 

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Egg Dying

On Holy Saturday, we attempted to do one of my favorite Easter traditions - dye Easter eggs.  The kids were really excited about this adventure.  Eliana was especially fascinated by the egg dipper.  I tried to show her how she could use it to dye an egg half one color and half another.  She liked the full egg dunk better however.  William just liked the color green.  All of his eggs were green.  I tried to get him to use yellow, but after we dyed his egg yellow, he insisted on putting it in the green dye as well.  This was a short lived activity for William because he really wanted to do everything himself, which resulted in several broken eggs.  I insisted on helping him, which made him cry.  Oh well, maybe it will go better next year.  Both kids loved eating the hard boiled Easter eggs after Easter, which surprised me a little bit.  William and Eliana are the perfect combination.  Eliana liked the whites of the eggs and William liked the yokes.  It's like a nursery rhyme - between the two they licked the platter clean.

So many colors to choose from!

I choose green!

Tears because he wants to hold all the eggs.


Mom won't let me have any fun.

Our kit came with stickers, which Eliana really enjoyed.  Her favorite color dye was purple.


Our finished eggs.  Note the cracked one that we didn't dye.  That was courtesy William.