Why I have great kids...

I'm only eleven days away from my due date with our third kid, and in the last couple of days my first two have been doing little things that really have made life easier for me. So I thought I would share with you why I have great kids...
We sprang forward this weekend due to daylight savings. On Monday morning, not only did my kids sleep until 9:00am, when they did get up, instead of coming directly to me and demanding breakfast, they played in their playroom until 9:45! After Christmas, we turned our office into a playroom. So now there are three beds in the sleeping/dressing room, and loads of fun toys in the playroom. This has been one of the best decisions I've made as a mom. I use the playroom as a place for them to go when I'm cooking dinner or when Stephen is running late and I just can't handle having the kids underfoot. Plus, EVERY Saturday morning, they wake up and go to the playroom for an hour and let us sleep. And did I mention they get along most of the time. So I can hear them from their playroom giggling and talking which is a great reward as a mom.
Yesterday, I had some contractions in the morning which prompted me to run some of those last minute errands that needed to get done before the baby came. After we returned, I left the purchased items on the counter and went into my room to take a nap. D'arcy proceeded to put everything in the bags away...contact solution was put in our bathroom, paint brush was put on the shelf in the garage, toothpaste was put under their sink. This was extremely thoughtful.
Julian has given me the best gift of all. Faithfully going to the bathroom on the toilet! He is doing so well, I'm considering putting him in underwear during naptime to see how it goes.
We are definitely gearing up to have this baby. I bought a St. Patrick's Day Onesie as anther little suggestion to God. D'arcy is crossing off the days on her Monkey calendar given to her by Uncle Alex for Christmas. We've had a couple of conversations about how the due date is just a suggestion and that they baby could come any day. She got to come with us to our appointment last week, and she helped the midwife palpitate my belly and check the baby's heartbeat. She will most likely be at the birth, and she insisted that we pack her digital camera so she could take photos. It will be great to share that moment with her.

No more standing on toilets!

On Saturday night while helping Julian brush his teeth, I discovered that he had chipped his front tooth. Yes, I know, he'll get a new one in about three years. Still, I was pretty upset to think that he'll have a chipped tooth for the next THREE years. We aren't sure how it happened, but we are suspecting he fell off of something...
Which leads me to my next story, which occurred on a separate occasion (make that 2 separate occasions). Julian was standing on the toilet on Sunday morning in our bathroom talking to me as I got ready for church. He fell and hit his chin on the sink which led to a mouthful of blood. We later discovered that he had bitten into his tongue on both sides. Then again tonight, he was brushing his teeth in the bathroom with D'arcy and came out screaming and once again had a mouthful of blood. The story goes that he was standing on the toilet to reach the sink, fell, and bit into his tongue again on either side leaving little gashes right behind the first set of healing gashes from Sunday. Sigh. So it has become clear to me that the toilet should not be used as a stepstool.
If you have ever had a two year old, you probably are familiar with their eagerness to climb. D'arcy and Julian are notorious for pulling a chair over to reach what they need in the kitchen. Heck, I still have to pull a chair over to reach what I need in the kitchen so I shouldn't be surprised that they think it is perfectly acceptable. Now, I'm just going to be paranoid that they are going to fall over and knock out all of those little teeth.

Continued Success!

I put a diaper on Julian for naptime today. He came out about fifteen minutes later, went to the bathroom, pulled his diaper off, sat on the toilet, looked at me and said, "Leave me alone.". All I could think was, "No problem, dude. I am more than happy to not be involved in this process!"

My birth suggestion

On Sunday, I will hit a couple of milestones in this pregnancy. I will be exactly 37 weeks along. Sunday is also the first day of March which means we will have finally made it to this baby's birth month. Last week, we went to the midwife appointment and found out I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Holly, our midwife, casually predicted that I wouldn't go past my due date this time. The co-sleeper is set up in our room, the swing is up, the carseat is ready, the baby clothes are washed, and I bought a new robe and swimsuit top to wear during the labor. Besides buying some little diapers, we are "ready".
All this sounds so exciting until I realize that on Sunday, I'll be 3 weeks away from my due date. Which means that I'm going to be pregnant the majority of the month of March. And yes, I'm 2 cm but the baby is still pretty high. Plus, I have a couple more photo sessions scheduled between now and my due date that I would prefer not to cancel. AND, Julian is on the VERGE of being potty trained. I think three weeks might make a huge difference. He is wearing underwear everywhere now!
So basically, It's finally here, and yet, it's not here. And I'm ready, but not really. And yes, I feel huge, but I'm still sleeping all night :). It's a strange place to be. I'm excited to meet this baby, to see what it looks like, and find out if it is a he or a she. Frankly, I'm looking forward to comparing this baby with our other children. But if I think about it too much, I find it more difficult to wait patiently. So I'm trying to take this three weeks day by day, and try to get myself excited about what we are doing from week to week.
With all that in mind, I am making a suggestion (not a prediction because I know this scenario is pretty unlikely)to God that this baby should be born on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) and it should be a girl named Maggie. I think that name makes perfect sense for the holiday, don't you? Stephen can happily celebrate her birth with his favorite beer each year.

Grammy & Poppy's visit

Grammy & Poppy visited Texas in January. It turned out to be the coldest week of the year up north so it was a great week to visit San Antonio. Dianne, Emmett, and I worked together to get all of the baby clothes down from the attic, washed, and ready for Baby Sprocket's arrival. The clothes are sorted into neutral, girl, and boy clothes. We bought some new drawers for the clothes to go into, but they weren't big enough to put everything. I was tempted to fill the drawers up with girly clothes (because I have my fingers crossed for a girl), but decided that wouldn't be fair to baby if he is a boy. So there is an equal amount of boys and girls clothes in the drawers, and the rest are in a box on top. My silly mind games : ).
D'arcy and Julian enjoyed spending time at Grammy & Poppy's vacation house downtown. We have a rule in our house...we only jump on hotel beds so they always get excited to stay in a hotel. Besides bed jumping, they spent quite a few moments of the week dressed up in their new star wars gear.

 

 

Those other maternity shots I promised...

 

 

 

 

My Potty Training View