Monday, October 29, 2007

15 minutes

I've got 15 minutes while I wait for Abby's blood sugar to come up....so I thought I'd sit and write. She's 42...yikes! I mixed her insulin tonight, and it obviously was a bit much for her little body. Oh, this rollercoaster. You can do the same thing two days in a row and get totally different results. But we keep on trying. And we will every day.

Halloween....that's the big topic of discussion at our house right now. We don't celebrate Halloween, and we've told Abby that. Everywhere we've gone though, people have innocently asked her what she's going to wear for Halloween. She just looks at them with a blank stare, or she tells them, "We don't celebrate Halloween." She's gotten some crazy looks from people, but I'm so proud that she isn't afraid to tell people how we feel. She doesn't even know what Halloween is other than that we've told her that people dress up and get candy and that almost everybody doesn't mean anything bad by it....but some people do. Anyway, she told me that she was going to be scared to go anywhere on Halloween because Halloween night would be scary. So she's obviously hearing things from somewhere....and the only time she's not with me is at childcare at church. I'm guessing some kids were talking about Halloween in Sunday School. Anyway, she's peppering me with questions. Matt and I have chosen not to do Halloween or any of the fictional guys like Santa or the Tooth Fairy. We tell them that they are fun stories and characters just like Dora or Diego. They can enjoy them, but we will not tell them that these random strangers come into their homes. We just won't do it. So we'll get flack from people I'm sure. We've already gotten some from family.

Anyway, I'm beginning to show. My belly popped out about 2 weeks ago.....early, early I know. I guess it's having 4 kids back to back that's done it. Anyway, I'm actually doing really well. I am nauseated most mornings but nothing like with the girls. Does that mean it's a boy? Old wives' tale! I'm worried I'll be wearing a tent from like March on if this doesn't slow down though. Yikes!

I taught the girls how to play freeze tag and hide and seek today. Isabella doesn't get freeze tag yet at all. She just likes to run and poke people. Abby loved it! She is really into games and winning at this age. It's so cute!We got lots of good exercise while Ali Kate took her morning snooze.

Abby's starting to read now. She can read about 20 words by sight or sound. I'm really super impressed with her. She loves to try new words....it's fun for her. We're not pushing at all. If she wants to work on it, we do. If she doesn't, we don't. She's only 3....so I'm not going to push her.

Isabella is becoming the sweetest thing ever. She is constantly giving "smoochies" and "smoosh hugs." She never kisses though. She asks for a kiss and then gives you her cheek so that you can kiss her. It's adorable. She loves being near me. Today she brought her pillow into the bathroom and laid on it on the floor while I took a shower because she didn't want to leave. So pitiful. She has been saying "I love you tons" all the time. It's so sweet.

Ali Kate is charming as usual. She's doing the pre-crawling steps like getting on all fours and twisting around. I give her about 4 weeks. She's so easy-going....always waiting for the next adventure. She can say mama, dada, bye bye, and baba. She can clap and play peekaboo. She's getting so big...18 month clothes! At 9 months old!

Anyway, I need to go recheck Abby.

Night, night.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Out of the mouths of babes

This morning when I was changing Isabella's diaper, we were talking about when she was going to start wearing panties. I asked her if she wanted to wear big girl panties like Abby, and she said to me, "Abby wears huge panties." Then she told me that she wears Elmo diapers and Ali Kate wears diapers with numbers.

At church this morning Abby had a helper in her room named Yasmine. Abby kept calling her Jasmine, and the teacher kept correcting her. Finally the teacher said to Abby, "What if I called you the wrong name? What if I called you Isabella?" Abby said, "No, that's ok. You can just call me Sleeping Beauty."

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Ali Kate- Hooray!

I haven't written much about Ali Kate yet. Last week she mastered her new skill of clapping. I don't remember the girls ever clapping so enthusiastically. She just lights up and grins (with drool running out of her mouth) as she claps over and over again. I think she's secretly proud of her new feat. We're proud of her. And I haven't written yet about it...but her first word is officially "mama." She's been saying it for about a month now, and it's the only recognizable language that she has. She babbles some, but her "mama" is very clear. It tickles my ears to hear her say "mama." She's working on that baby move where they go from sitting up to laying on their bellies. I keep putting toys farther and farther away from her so that she has to reach farther and end up on her tummy. That skill seemed to be a prerequisite for the other two learning to crawl. She's not interested in moving yet. Isabella was rolling across the entire house at this age, but Ali Kate just rolls back and forth within a 4 foot area. I don't think she's interested in what's far away.

She just got over a yucky case of bronchiolitis a couple of weeks ago. She was miserable, and of course the albuterol she took made her scream non-stop. We took her off quickly. She's doing great now. Hopefully she'll avoid that the rest of the season.

She got her flu shot today, and she barely whimpered. She did great (unlike her big sister Abby who kicked and screamed for dear life). Isabella did great too...not one single cry. Isabella heard us tell Abby that we had to do it in the leg to get it in the muscle. So when she got on the table, she said, "I have muscle." She repeated that for the next half hour. I guess her "muscle" (translated chunky legs) helped it not hurt so much!

Sneaky Noses,Tummy Kisses, and More

Isabella said the cutest thing the other morning. I was waking her up for the day (well, actually getting her out of her crib...she was already awake), and she looked at me and said, "I have a sneaky nose." I asked her how it was sneaky, and she just said that she had a sneaky nose. She proceeded to tell me that throughout the entire day.

Two nights ago we were lying on the couch reading bedtime books, and Abby said, "Mom, can I kiss the baby goodnight?" I said, "Of course." So she came over and lifted my shirt a little and whispered good night to the baby. Then she gave my belly a little smooch. It was one of those moments that just melt a mommy's heart.

I told her that I was going to go to the doctor the other day (I had to go to the dentist). Anyway, Abby asked me if they were going to take the baby out. She totally knows how that works, but it suprised me that she forgot about the long wait for the baby. I thought it was so cute that she was ready to meet the baby. I only hope that it wasn't a comment on the size of my belly. I'm only about 6 weeks, but I promise I'm pooching. Not that I had an even kind of flat belly.....but it feels different to me. Maybe I'm just crazy!

I'm Pregnant!

I can barely contain myself as I utter those words. Yes, this is the fourth pregnancy, and it's still as exciting to me as the first time. I absolutely love my babies, and I love being pregnant (despite the nausea, vomiting, etc.). So far, I've felt 100% awesome with this pregnancy. Now we only found out last Sunday night (a whopping 10 days ago), so I still have time to start getting sick. But with the other girls, I was already sick at this point. I'm praising God for every day that I feel so great!

For baby number four, let me tell you how we found out about you. About two weeks ago now (around September 20th or so), I started eating mounds of food. Now, I do love to eat, but I do normally eat like every other person. Anyway, Matt casually said that maybe we needed to make a Walgreens run. That's code in our house for picking up a pregnancy test. On a sidebar, every test I've ever taken (and I've taken quite a few) are the First Response ones, and they've been purchased at Walgreens. All except Abby's were purchased at the Walgreens off Swinnea. Anyway, I digress. We didn't get a test then. I figured that it was just the pre-menstrual munchies. I've been known to eat us out of house and home the day before I start. So a couple of more days passed. On Saturday morning (Sep. 22), I got out of the shower and told Matt that I thought my period was late. I went and checked the calendar, and I was three days late. Not usual for me. I'm pretty much regular at 28 days. So I said I was going to Walgreens. Want to know his suggestion? Why don't we wait a couple of more weeks, and then we can get a test if I don't start? Oh, Matt....let's be a month late before we take a pregnancy test! Crazy!

So I said I'd wait a few days. Sunday I began to wonder if maybe I really might be pregnant. Could God have really given us another child so quickly? Ali Kate is only 8 months old, so this seemed pretty sudden. Well, Sunday afternoon, I went to the grocery store and made a quick Walgreens run. I didn't mention to Matt that Walgreens was included in this outing. So I came home and made a beeline for the bathroom. I didn't tell Matt anything other than I needed to go to the bathroom. Well, I took the test. Let me just say that this was the most pregnant I've ever been when I've taken a test. As soon as I took it, both lines turned up bright pink. Usually, the control line turns up bright and then another very faint line appears after a couple of minutes. Not this time! They both turned very bright very quickly.

Well, I always envisioned how I would creatively announce our last child to Matt. I'd thought about creative visits to his office, a romantic dinner, a package sent in the mail that contained the test, etc. However, I was so excited when I saw those two lines that I literally ran out of the bathroom screaming and jumping up and down. I was a wild woman! Matt and the girls looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Perhaps I had. Matt didn't say anything for several minutes. This was the first time he hadn't jumped for joy with me. It was a very hard moment for our family. I was thrilled before I even took the test at the possibility of having another child. Now my dream was real, and I could not contain my excitement. Matt, however, was having visions of more children to care for, a bigger mortgage, more late nights, etc. He was truly scared I think. By the next morning, I think the Lord had calmed his heart....and I'm now so glad to say that he's genuinely excited about our new baby.

We were going to wait to tell people so that we could tell them creatively, but Matt decided to ruin that. My mom called a couple of hours later, and Matt said to her, "Your daughter has something to tell you." I gave him the evil eye, but he just smiled at me. When she asked me what I needed to tell her, I said nothing. But I have a persistent mother. My "nothing" was not good enough. After she pestered me a few minutes, I finally broke the news. She screamed in excitement. Then of course I called Andrew to tell him. The next morning I told Laura and Dad. We then kind of slowly told people one by one last week until I got to church Thursday. After I told a few people, everyone knew. Leave that up to a bunch of women! It was fun telling our big news. Of course, we got some "Are you crazy?" and some "Was this planned?" But all in all, I always love announcing pregnancies.

In MOMS, I handed out announcement cards that had a place to vote boy or girl. We had two votes for girl and the rest for boy. I think everybody is rooting for that boy. We've also had lots of mentions of twins from people. I couldn't even imagine having twins with three young ones already! I could easily do twins the first go round but not with three little ones.

Anyway, I go to the doctor Monday, and I can't wait to see my tiny baby on the ultrasound. I love having ultrasounds and getting to peek at the baby. Woo hoo!