Outer Banks

We're just finishing a fabulous vacation at the Outer Banks (North Carolina). One of the best things about being in Virginia is that you can drive to the beach, and we love the fact that Ryan's family gets together there every year. It doesn't get much better than a huge house, great pool, and a one-minute walk to a perfect beach!

Ultrasound News

I haven't blogged at all about the fact that I'm pregnant. It would have been mostly complaining, anyway, so that's probably a good thing. Now I'm a little over 17 weeks, and feeling much better, so it's a happy topic.

I indulged myself and paid for a 10-minute ultrasound so that I could know the gender at 17 weeks instead of having to wait until 22 (that's the policy at my OB office). I also used to sneak peaks at my Christmas presents--what can I say?

Mason and Katie really like things that have patters, so they were very excited to find out that the order will be boy-girl-boy-and another girl! I'm excited to have another girl, and I'm especially excited that Katie will have a sister. They'll be the same amount of years apart as my sister and I, and although I'm sure I drove my sister CRAZY when we were younger, we are great friends now.

I'm due right around Halloween, which will follow another pattern: having all my babies in the fall. November-October-December-October. I've never gone late, and I'm hoping this won't be any different. Between four birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, those three months will be pretty busy.

So 4 months down, 5 to go!

Family Time

Ryan was gone for 13 days on a trip to Australia this month. He's been home a week, and I think we're both finally recovered from it. This time it was business, but he did squeeze in a trip to go see his parents in Alice Springs and go to church "out bush". He got me a beautiful Aboriginal painting for Mother's Day (a day which he spent with his mother), so I forgave him for being gone.

It really makes me appreciate being together as a family, though. We've started back to our tradition of evening bike rides with the kids. This is our best year ever for it, because Andrew loves to ride in the bike trailer, and Katie doesn't need training wheels any more and can keep up with Mason. We have a great little cul de sac where they both learned to ride their bikes before we take them out through the neighborhood. The first trip out past the cul de sac has been a little scarry for both of them (and for their parents), but it's so fun seeing them overcome their fear and learn to love it.

I can't think of many things I enjoy more than watching my kids zooming up and down the hills (while we shout "look out for that parked car!" "stop at the intersection") and enjoying the challenge of keeping up with each other. After the bike ride, we head to the back yard to jump on the trampoline or play in the sandbox. Good weather makes me so happy.

I look at my kids growing up, and although I guess it's going fast, I'm glad they've gotten to where they are because they can do so much more now that we can enjoy together--the books we read, the bike rides, watching the Celtics games together (well, they only get the first 45 minutes or so...the curse of living on the East Coast). Even Andrew has gotten easier lately now that he's communicating better. I love that he's getting the concept of "after you do this, then you can do this". Being able to bribe my kids always helps to make things easier.

I look at all the tragedies happening throughout the world, and it makes me so grateful for my simple little life. You never know when it can all change, so I'm trying to make it a point to enjoy these moments.

Beauty and the Beast

First, I'll start we the beast. Andrew woke up in quite a mood today. It was as if he had a list of naughty things he felt like he needed to accomplish and wasn't going to quit until he'd crossed everything off. If I wanted him to do something, he wanted to do the opposite. His favorite activities: Messing with the outlets, my computer, the satellite receiver, the dishwasher and the refrigerator; climbing up on the bunkbeds, scaling the pantry shelves, running out into the cul de sac (at every opportunity); dumping any small object (batteries, puzzle pieces, chalk, etc) into the water that fills the base of our basketball hoop; trying to eat vitamins and toothpaste. And that was all before lunch time. I was seriously ready to shut him in a closet just to keep him out of trouble. I had lost my temper more than once, and it was not a happy morning.

Now for the beauty. I went upstairs to grab something before heading outside, and found "mom's maolbox" taped onto Katie's door. I looked in the mailbox, and sure enough, she had left me an envelope. I opened the envelope and inside was a beatiful purple heart that said "I love mom." She totally made my day.














It didn't stop there, though. We went out on the trampoline (since that's where Andrew had escaped to and was shouting for me), and she bounced with him for over an hour. He had a great time, and she worked on her "flips"--she loves doing tricks. After an hour, it was finally naptime (hallelujah), and now we get to have a pleasant afternoon together. There are some days when I wish Katie had been a month older and could have gone to kindergarten this year. Today is not one of those days.


Katie was nice enough to leave a second envelope in my "maolbox". I opened it, expecting more loving expression. But, as I said, Katie loves tricks, and instead I found a dead caterpillar. Her response? "It was alive when I put it in there!"

Start Them Young

I guess American Idol is really working to get kids interested in their show since they teamed up with McDonalds and put AI toys in Happy Meals. Seeing as how the average age for a Happy Meal consumer is probably around 3, I have to admit that I just don't get it. Neither did my kids, who asked a dozen questions about why a show that isn't on until after they were in bed would put advertisements in their Happy Meals (we've talked once or twice about the evil world of marketing).

If it were actually a good toy, maybe I'd let it slip. But it really has to be one of the lamest Happy Meal toys I've ever seen. Here's a video someone posted of it, and yes--that's all it does. http://video.aol.com/video-detail/mc-donaldand39s-devo-toy/1911476129?icid=acvsv2

I think my kids were feeling a little ripped off until I made the mistake of saying that it was one of the stupidest Happy Meal toys I'd ever seen. Somehow that changed the whole value of the toy and it became something to taunt me with by making it play the one annoying song it plays over and over.

And lucky for us, the girl filling up the boxes messed up and gave Mason 2 of the toys, and forgot his hamburger. So now I have 4 American Idol toys (all the same) that will soon be finding their way to the landfill.

But I will hand it to McDonalds for making it a very pleasant evening. Happy Meals at the park, even with annoying toys and not enough hamburgers, can really hit the spot.

Tis the Season

Which season you ask? Caterpillar season. We get hundreds of these little fuzzy caterpillars every spring (they turn into moths...not quite as cute as butterflies). Mason and Katie are obsessed with them and spend hours in the yard collecting them as pets. It's all I can do to keep them from bringing them into the house either on purpose or inadvertantly attached to their clothing/hair/etc. They would love it if we could get a dog, but for now they are going to have to make due with caterpillars--pretty pathetic.

And yet another update on the little nest of birds above my door. Yes, I am obsessed with them. I watched them again today and counted at least four if not five little beaks poking out of the nest. But as you can see from the picture, that many birds leads to a lot of output. It kind of makes me hope the baby birds grow up quickly, because as much as I love the baby birds, I don't love their poop all over my door!