Children's Museum

My little darlings on a recent trip to the Children's Museum. Loving it!!!

Teachable moments

As a teacher, I am forever looking for those moments to teach my very own children. They are sponges right now and I take advantage of that at every opportunity, possibly a little too much! Anyway, Annie has loved reading from the start, but in a very different way than Brenden. Bren loves to look at the pictures and only wants to know the "real story". He very rarely makes up stories. But Annie, man she'll "read" anything you put in front of her and make up stories til the cows come home. It has been a real treat to watch them grow as little readers.

I came up from doing laundry in the basement to find my kids sitting and "reading" instead of watching the movie I put in for them (yes, the TV makes a great babysitter for this mama doing laundry)! YES, they are reading the phonebook! Yes, Bren is wearing a Boston Red Sox hat (so much for the Brewers). The phonebook has been one of Annie's favorite reading books. She loves the white pages and gives the yellow pages to Brenden. Simply amazing!

Cold days lead to...

Cold winter days lead to crazy nights!!! Even the dog gets into it. You do notice that Troy is being a good sport about it all. I however, was loving being on the sidelines!

Winter Days

Living in the cold for several months a year leads to wondrous play! Roo got the kids this wonderful gift for Christmas and we saved it for one of those days. It is a Crayola crayon maker. You know all those tiny bits of crayon that "can't be used"? Well, Crayola has invented a way to put them into good use again. You choose all the tiny pieces, mix them up, and put them into this little machine, wait for about 20 minutes AND presto...new crayons!!! They suggest mixing light and dark colors to create amazing crayons. Wow!! You know what we used to do in my days? Shave the "no good crayons" onto wax paper and then iron them until they melt making beautiful hangings. Maybe a project for yet another cold day...

PICTURES

I lost the cable that will allow me to send pictures to my computer!!! They will come very soon...I hope.

Being pregnant

Being pregnant, as you women know, offers its rewards and its pains. Really, I mean you can have the best of two worlds in the same moment! For example, I feel this child o'mine move as soon as I wake up! Which means I feel my entire stomach rolling and pushing out at all waking moments. A blessing and a pain!

Being pregnant with this third child has been very different from both of my other pregnancies. I never swelled with Bren or Annie, but with this one I have to wear braces on both hands at night to keep my hands from falling off (not literally)! I waddle! I can't sleep. I can't stay still. I am trying to enjoy it because this is our last baby, but at times the only place I feel OK is crying in the shower.

Now, bitching aside, we come to the more serious side of this pregnancy. Recently my blood pressure has risen, my blood platelets has dropped, and I have tested positive to Betta strep B (need antibiotics during delivery). This means not going full term with this baby. I'm nervous and scared. You know that I have to be in control of everything or else I freak out. Well guys, I'm freaking out! I am trying to come to the realization that this is not in my hands. I am not qualified to make the decisions here. It has been 5 days of me trying to get a handle on this. I'm trying to slow down and sit more, but really what mother can sit down for more than 5 minutes without having to DO something?!

So, I will keep you posted on the delivery date. We should know more soon. Thank you for the prayers that I know are coming my way!!