Sneak Peek

Look who we got to see the other day!

Bacon

Here are the big sisters, for comparison.

the Boogie

Peabody

The girls went with us to the ultrasound. They were very interested, especially the Boogie. Both kept asking, "What's that? What's that?" We saw some great shots of tiny hands and feet! It's pretty amazing to see so much. Everything looked great, for which we are very thankful.

And no, we did not find out the gender. I think Eric would like to know. He's wanted to find out each time. With the Boogie it did seem practical to find out. With Peabody I wanted to be surprised but Eric didn't, so I humored him. This time it's my turn to be humored. I do have a suspicion ... but I'm keeping it to myself! I will truly be delighted with either way.

This And That

The Boogie was chatting with FIL, discussing caterpillars and moths or something, when FIL said, "I'm perplexed! Are you perplexed?"
"Well, I would be," the Boogie said, "if I knew what it means."

Sometimes we watch old tv shows on MeTV, things like I Love Lucy and The Brady Bunch. The downside to watching things on tv is that there are commercials, and the channels that play older shows have commercials aimed for older people. So it follows that while watching Leave It To Beaver Peabody informed me, "I want a alert. If I fall down I can push da button," she indicated an imaginary necklace around her neck, "and da firefighters will run to me. And da police will get da bad guys away."

We watched one episode of Gilligan's Island. Just one episode. Almost a week later we went to Chick-fil-a, and the girls played in the play area for a while after they ate. There were two little boys around the same ages playing with them -- both boys were dark-haired with bowl cuts. In the car on the way home Peabody talked about them, referring to one as "dat boy wif hair like Gilligan's." Ha! She was right!

(Sidenote: since I've now been writing this post for approximately 27 days, I should point out that two or three weeks later she still talks about "dose boys dat look like Gilligan.")

Eric laid on the Boogie's bed for a few minutes at bedtime. After prayer and hugs they traded places and she immediately complained, "Daddy made one of my spots hot, and I don't like it when my bed is hot."

While snuggling Peabody I accidentally tickled her and she squirmed and giggled. "Dat tickles!" she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry," I apologized.
"No sorry!" she said, growing serious. "Don't say sorry for tickles. I LOVE tickles!"

Every now and then Peabody will come up to me and ask, "Can I see your uvula?" I don't know where that fascination came from.

Sometimes she will randomly exclaim, "Nip it! Nip it in da bud!" Bonus points to the person who knows where that came from.

One evening we had hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli for dinner. When Peabody's plate was clean she announced that she was finished. "Would you like any more?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied, "May I have some more broccoli, please?"
"Is that all? Do you want some more burger or mac'n'cheese?"
"No," she said, "just broccoli."
A few nights later she asked for more peas and carrots. What a weird kid.

She prefaces words with "un" unnecessarily: glue is unglue, tie is untie, cut is uncut etc.

She and the Boogie play often with baby dolls, pretending that they are the parents. One day from out in the living room we could hear Peabody in the playroom sternly reprimanding her baby: "Don't do dat anymore! I told you five ... I told you six times!"

She asked to have her nails painted. "Honey, can you paint my toenails? Because dey are really not byoo-ah-ful."

The Boogie has been asking to do jobs for pay so she can save up money for a certain toy. After one of our "what can I do to earn some money?" conversations, Peabody asked, "Honey, can you give me a quarter for playing?" I guess it never hurts to ask ...

Since the Boogie is now in first grade, she's graduated from the beginners Sunday school class to the primary one, and to the older junior church class. She is SO excited to be in what she calls the "second" class. Every time someone asks her what grade she's in, she tells them first grade, and the second class at church. It's very strange for me to not have her in my class anymore, since I've taught her for almost four years. But I've still got Peabody who will be around for a while yet, and by the time she graduates up Bacon will probably be starting!

The Boogie has been asking for a jump rope for a while. The week before school started we found some at the dollar store so she chose a yellow one while Peabody picked blue. The Boogie couldn't wait to try hers out and as soon as we got home she went right to the backyard to practice. Within ten minutes she tripped up in the rope, did a face plant on the patio, bruised and scraped her chin, split her lip pretty badly, and knocked out a tooth! For a few seconds I panicked, thinking that she'd lost one of her adult teeth, but thankfully it was the last of her baby teeth in the front -- it had been loose though not quite ready to come out, so her gum was bruised too. Poor kid. What a way for her wish to play out! Once she got over the initial shock and pain she was pleased that she'd lost another tooth. She healed up pretty quickly. Thankfully it didn't happen any closer to school picture day!

Mama Dog has been banished from carpeted areas ever since we had them cleaned in the spring. At first we kept the pet gate up, then we took it down and chased her with a spray bottle back into the kitchen enough times for her to get the idea. She did pretty well staying on her rug just inside the kitchen door, but lately she's been pushing the envelope by laying just outside the kitchen door. The command "Get in the kitchen!" is heard multiple times a day. We let it go a lot, though, and just ignore her, as long as she stays just outside the door. Sometimes we'll tell her to get in the kitchen and she'll get up, turn around, and lay back down on the carpet with just her head on the kitchen rug.

"What? I AM in the kitchen."

At night the gate is put up and a drying rack blocks the door as well because, although she knows she isn't supposed to, she can easily jump over the gate. So:
1. Mama Dog knows she is supposed to stay in the kitchen.
2. Mama Dog knows she is not supposed to jump over the gate. If she does, she usually lays down right outside the kitchen door with her ears down, because she knows she's about to get into trouble.
3. For 17.5 of the 18 months that she has lived with us, she has not been allowed up on the furniture. Ever.

So, how is it then that when we occasionally forget to put the drying rack up, she will jump the gate, venture all the way across the living room, and sleep on the couch in the middle of the night? Usually Eric catches her since he's the first one up in the morning, but the other day she jumped back into the kitchen before anyone caught her -- the only way I knew she'd been on the couch was the fur on it! She is such a sneaky little booger.

And now, since I've been working on this post for forever, I think I'll just go ahead and publish it.

So stylish. Please note the hair sticking out of the hole on the side, since the hat is actually for a teddy bear.

Teatime

This Kid

 ... chose her own clothes and then proceeded to cover her legs, feet, and face with stickers.

... asked me to drop her off at work this morning. I suggested she could walk, to which she agreed. Then she cried bitterly because I would not actually let her leave the house by herself.

... thinks it's hilarious to repeat back to me each sentence that I say to her.

... gets all wired on chocolate milk or lemonade.
... knows how to push her sister's buttons.
... can turn a perfect somersault.
... asks every night if she can sleep in her sister's bed.
... covers her ears and tells me, "I'm brave!" when it's time to wash her hair.
... still sucks her thumb when she's sleepy or upset.
... loves to cut and glue.
... is generous with hugs and kisses.
... makes us laugh every single day and brings great joy to our family!

The Boogie Begins First Grade

We had our first day of first grade yesterday!

If I was a forward-thinking person I would have planned something yummy for breakfast ... like donuts. Or baked some muffins or something. But I didn't think of it.

The first day was super easy.
Bible: "In the beginning God created ..."
Phonics: "A says 'a' as in 'apple'."
Math: "What is the number that means not any? Zero!"
Handwriting: "Trace then write this letter."
We will add a couple of subjects in the next week or so.

Peabody was tired and crabby but she did a couple of workbook pages, too. I am impressed by her cutting and matching skills. I thought the book would be over her head but I underestimated her.

In the afternoon the Boogie called my mom and told her all about it.

Last night while Eric and I were watching tv in the living room, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye ... and it was a tiny frog! We caught it in a glass. It must have come out from under the couch because it was all covered with lint and kept rubbing its "hands" over its eyes to clear them. (Note to self: vacuum under the couch.) Eric took it outside and released it in the front yard. I don't know how it got into the house -- I guess it was small enough to get in under the crack in the front door. I wish we'd taken a picture. I hope no more frogs come into the house, though. There are two slightly bigger ones living in the back yard. Somehow they have escaped Mama Dog.

Yesterday I went through the playroom and filled a laundry basket with accumulated papers, old coloring books, cardboard-boxes-turned-craft-projects, partially used sheets of stickers, pieces of pipe cleaners, random lengths of yarn, and odd plastic thingamajigs from kids' meals. Toys were put away in proper places, and children were lectured about the importance of returning things to their homes. We shall see how long that lasts.

The contents of the laundry basket were sorted through after the girls were in bed so as to avoid conversations that start like this: "Honey, don't throw away that boat I made out of a box, tape, and yarn! But I really want to keep all of those old Sunday school papers! I need that craft I made in kindergarten!" I even braved the dark side of the house at nighttime (spiders) in order to conceal things in the outside trash and recycling cans. Hopefully sneaking them out of the house means they will never be remembered.

Next I will have Eric bring down the bags and bins of toys that I put in the attic in the spring -- my original plan was to pack things away for a while until they are forgotten, then cycle some of them back into the playroom while donating some of the rest. It's trickier to hide the things that are going to be donated. I might have to take them straight to the garage, though it's more convenient to have a box in the house to toss things into as I go through closets and drawers. Peabody especially has a lot of summer clothes that she rarely wore, so as we near the end of the season I am getting rid of some of them instead of packing them back up. Can you tell I am in my semi-annual "purge everything!" mode?

I've been doing a little sewing, finally learning how to use my machine, and yesterday I finished my latest project:

I'm kind of in that in-between stage of clothes. Some of my regular clothes still fit, and some maternity things are starting to fit. I do have enough clothes to get me through to cold weather and full maternity wardrobe, but I was lacking in the skirt department and wanted a comfortable lightweight one to help bridge the gap. I think it turned out fairly well for my first try! I'm pretty happy with it.

I've also been trying my hand at turning old t-shirts into tiny diapers for the baby. So far the results haven't been that pretty, but I figure they don't need to look great to be functional and it's good practice for me.

My hand has healed up really nicely. Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since I cut it. I was able to take the bandages off after ten days. It's sensitive and I don't have quite as much flexibility as before, but I think that will improve with time. I'm very, very thankful that it healed so well and I didn't have any infection at all.

Today marks 18 weeks pregnant! Eric has given the baby a nickname and now refers to him/her as Bacon. Lovely. I'm feeling lots of little kicks and thumps. I can sometimes feel it when I rest my hand on my stomach -- Eric felt one good kick once but hasn't felt anything since. Peabody lays her head on my stomach then immediately sits back up and says, "The baby kicked me!" I'm looking forward to when both girls can really feel it!