Have I Mentioned? She's a GIRL!

It was Friday, June 5 and I was awakened by my sweet Elisabeth as she climbed into my bed. "Mama, guess what, I woke up and my room was fiiiiiilllllled with light!" That's what she first said to me. Right she was, because the night before, daddy removed the trim and blinds from her window in order to measure for a replacement. But that's neither here nor there. Then, as she snuggled me under the covers she added, "Guess what today is?! TODAY IS THE DAY WE GET TO FIND OUT IF YOUR BABY IS A BOY OR A GIRL!!" At this point, legs kick and arms swing and celebration is already underway.

Fast forward to early afternoon. I relax on a table with Dear Hubby holding my hand. The ultrasound technition comments, "you have a boy and a girl at home, huh? so no pressure on this one!" Wellllllllll, mostly, I inform her, although our oldest is a girl, and she really wants a baby sister.

Measure a head, measure a femur, count fingers and toes, 4 chambers of a hard working little heart, kidneys functioning, baby yawns, kicks and stretches, beautiful spine, hand on baby's head, look at those feet (we are informed they're they same length as the femur... not just our baby, baby is not a freak, all babies at this age. incredible huh?), and it's time to take a peek at baby. "Good news," we're told, "your little girl got her sister."

Yay! Praise the Lord on all accounts. Sweet little girl appears to be developing perfectly and healthily, and has 4 adoring family members awaiting her arrival. One of which told me tonight, she cannot wait until she gets to hold and cuddle and feed the baby. Xander doesn't yet understand to the same extent as his big sister, but our little man knows there's a baby in mommy's tummy and insists on hugging (gently!) the baby before every naptime and bedtime, and gives her plenty of (gentle!) pats of adoration. Little baby girl, you are dearly loved.

So, you pollsters are mostly correct. It's a girl!

Boy or Girl?

Well, have you cast your vote? Soon and very soon baby 3 will be revealing some personal information! Friday afternoon is our 20 week ultrasound, and we are looking forward to confirming the baby's healthy development, and we are very excited to learn the gender of this little one. In the meantime, the question lingers... is it a boy or is it a girl? I get asked nearly everywhere I go. So, I'm asking you. What do you think? Chime in on the right, polls close at midnight on the 4th!

Summer Time and the Living is Good

Oh me oh my oh how I love summer! Something about the sunshine and the warmth, the freedom to run and play outside, soak yourself with sprinkler water, eat under the shade tree, stay up way past bedtime, lick up popcicles... yes, dear southern friends, I know you get to enjoy these blessings year round, and oh how I would love to join you. But in the meantime, I will celebrate the blessing of the season of summer, and thank the Lord for his kindness and praise Him for his brilliance as the creator.

Here are some shots, most of them taken on my new camera (thank you dear hubby and sweet children, for my wonderful mother's day gifts!) so some of them turned out better than others, as I'm playing with settings and learning the ins and outs.

isn't this part of what being a child is all about? eating lunch in the fort? clearly, my kids think so.

and owies. or, "owdies" as xander calls them. he's full of them. particularly on his legs and feet. praise the Lord we've managed to avoid black eyes and stitches (i know, these are coming) but we've gotten scratches and bruises and blisters and scrapes. xander loooves talking about his owdies, and if you ask him about owdies, he'll show you his right knee, the location of his first scrape, his first skinned knee (with blood even!), despite the fact that it's been all healed up for a couple of weeks. he also requests medicine for this owdie (neosporin is his medicine of choice) at least every other day.

our summer evenings have been chalk full of outside fun and entertainment, and the joy of playing with our friends and neighbors. donovan (or dah-dah, depending on who is calling his name) is a lot of fun. and his incredibly cool parents allow playing in the back of the truck, which is so novel i don't know if standing back there will ever be not fun.
**note libb's outfit, which is pretty horrid, perhaps one of her worst, and has been referred to as an 80s workout video gone wrong. yes, that shirt is outgrown and those are headbands in her hair. but the girl was in a rush to choose an outfit to replace her soaked swimming suit that was suitable for play. yes libby, i don't mind if you play in that getup, though i'd prefer if it were in the privacy of our own home.**

me and my baby-baby

josh takes xand on his first bike ride, and d, who has loaned his bike and helmet to his young friend, scoots along on libb's trike.

i have so many cute pics of my kids that i have to post this one. oh my how sweet they were that day in the mall. libby holding xander's hand, guiding him along and talking to him in her sweeter than honey voice. he's holding their puppy, and is just thrilled to have his big sister caring for him. they turned heads time and again as they cooed to one another, giggled, walked along behind me in all their cuteness. but then, i got out the camera. and something entirely disgusting happens to xander's face. he puts on his camera smile. it's hilarious. and ruinous. but, i post anyway. :)

playing with sepia, sipping on refreshment

giving a shout-out to nalgene. if you don't have a nalgene sippy for your kids, you're missing out on one of the greatest products we own. no break, no leak, any exceptions and they'll throw a replacement in the mail the next day. i only wish they offered more colors, because we need more nalgenes in this house. oh, and yes, they're bpa free.

a girl who gets to bake cookies then put on her swimming suit for outdoor delight just might find herself in a suit-snapping sort of mood.

and may even have to do some twirling round the kitchen

faith, libby and gracie enjoying the scenery. yes, faith is there, swallowed up by the big blue chair

there you are girls! blinded by the sun...

baby-baby loooves his blankie and his milk. and lately, he loves laying with them on the kitchen floor. whatev.

some kids have a natural fear of danger, such as heights. not this one. when i put xander at the bottom of the stairs, i anticipated him climbing up to the first or second landing, and taking the respective slide back down to ground level. friad not. little man hiked straight up to the top of the gym, and joined the big boys at the big slide. he liked the middle (bumpy) slide so much that he ran straight back for more and decided on this, his second attempt, that he's go for the swervy slide on the left. he's fun to watch.

oh but life's not all action-packed ups and downs. my kids know the joy of a relaxing afternoon in the swings. libby doesn't typically stand for swings of this "baby" variety, but because i needed to be here by xander she joined him. she lasted a few moments past my attempt to get a cute pic of them swinging together and then ran off to put her feet in the sand. xander, however, continued to swing alongside his friend joshie dooders for at least 20 minutes. the two of them watched each other and reminded one another that "weeeeeeeeeeeee". i think x would swing all day if i had the energy to stand there next to him. in fact, even when i retreat to sit and rest, he is content to chill in his swing, motionless, for several minutes before he calls to me, "all done!"


okay, so that's all for now. but i'll have more. it's SUMMERTIME!!!!!! YAY!

Metamorphosis

You may have heard. We've undergone a metamorphosis at our house. They arrived in a package on our doorstep, a birthday gift for our 4-year old... 5 caterpillars. Five teeny tiny little guys who were destined to become painted lady butterflies.

Here is my Libby, holding her caterpillars. They're soooo tiny! If you click on the picture you can see them a little better. We literally watched them grow from day to day. In the mornings Libby would run over to her bookshelf and check her caterpillars and drag us in to her room, where we would find ourselves genuinely astonished that she was right, they really had grown overnight. She named them, but you know, it was really hard to tell them apart. So, in the end she had Allie, Aniss, and Ellis. Those 3 names covered the 5 caterpillars. And the name Daisy emerged the day after release. More on that later. She was really thrilled about these caterpillars.

Kay, I'll admit. I don't know how many days later this was, but see how much these guys have grown?! My estimate, this was around day 5.

Okay, day 10 we noticed that the caterpillars were following the rules. They were headed to the top of their little jar, where they were to begin forming their chrysalises. (This is something I learned, a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, a moth emerges from a cocoon. I'm confident that in second grade, I was incorrectly taught that butterflies come from cocoons.) This picture is Libby, and she's pretending to be a caterpillar. See how her hands and feet are attaching to the ceiling. yep.

Here's a better image of the caterpillars on the lid. They started out so tiny and cute and they got so ... big.

Okay, within 2 days each caterpillar had completely disappeared inside its chrysalis. So, we had the task of removing the lid and pinning it to the inside of Libby's soon-to-be butterfly sanctuary. I don't know if you can tell, but she is REALLY nervous in this picture. We put the fear of chrysalis death in her, when we told her that if they are bumped off the top of the jar it can hurt them. Libby was insistent that daddy be incredibly careful when handling her little babies. Thankfully, he was.

Fast forward. 10 days after forming their chrysalises, the painted ladies emerged. It happened really fast, and all 5 of them emerged within a couple of hours. We got to watch one come out, and it was very exciting! The next few weeks were a flurry of excitement, watching Allie, Aliss and Aniss flit around with their two friends with same names. Xander LOVED seeing the bustle in the sanctuary as the ladies danced about. Libby still ooohs and aaaaaaws when she thinks or talks about them. She developed a real fondness for those little critters. We fed them sliced oranges, and bought them beautiful bright purple carnations to coat the bottom of their "home." Then, we daily squirted sugar water into the flowers, which they ate. And this was really fascinating. We watched the ladies unroll their proboscis (a straw from their mouth) and suck the sugar water or orange juice until they were satisfied, then they'd roll it back up under their "chin" area and move along. What an educational experience! for all of us!

The ladies were to have the potential to live 5 weeks in their habitat in our kitchen. We noticed a loss, and then another. Trouble! We had to have 55 degree weather outside before we could release them. Another loss, and another... within a day. That evening, it was exactly 55 degrees and we headed outside to release the last butterfly from the habitat. Libby and Xander look in on her and get ready to unzip the lid and free their little friend.

Aniss turned out to be a little shy, so we coaxed her onto a stick and said our farewells. Libby was so excited for her to be free, as you can see in the picture below. (don't miss Aniss on the end of the stick!) She danced and cheered, until it was time to leave her butterfly behind. Then the tears started to flow. Poor sweet Libby was heartbroken to lose her last butterfly (she later named her Daisy). Daisy is free, and Libby still mourns her. It's really very sweet. At the thought of her dear Daisy, Libby's face turns sad and she softly whines about how much she misses her. And can we go outside and see if she's come back? Do I think she's still in Omaha? Maybe she went to Chicago?


Daisy, we don't know where you are or what you've been up to, but we miss you. Thanks for coming and showing us the wonder of your metamorphosis. We are amazed all the more at our great God and his creation after we were able to open our home to 5 painted ladies.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to a really great book that we bought to accompany the butterfly habitat. It's called "My, Oh My -- A Butterfly" and it's fantastic. It's a Cat in the Hat book (written to sound and look like a Dr. Seuss, but it's not). This little book is incredibly educational, we learned so much about the life cycle of the butterfly, and found Libby identifying various butterflies at the zoo when we visited the butterfly pavilion, as she had learned about them in this book. It's told in rhyme, is super cute, colorful illustrations... you'll love it.

Bilingual Brilliance

I hate to boast, but Xander is beyond brilliant. He's now bilingual. He's replaced the word "yes" with "si".
M: Would you like a grape?
X: Si!!!!!!

M: You want your blankie?
X: Siiiiii!

it's hilarious. seriously, i don't know where "yes" went, and why he's now saying "si" but hey, it's working for him.

Sprinkler Fun

Yesterday was another beautiful day and in celebration of warmth, we ran through the sprinklers.  Well, I use "we" loosely.  Libby ran through the sprinklers, I watched, and Xander..... well, see for yourself. 

Oh wait!  My camera is dead.  Sorry, no pics.

Hooray for Play!

Hooray for Play! That's what we say!

I snapped some pictures of the kiddos playing in the back yard, they have so much fun out there. Xander repeatedly chants, "shide?", and throws in some "swing?" when he wants to go outside and swing. When he's really enthusiastic he throws in the convincing head nod. With as much fun as they have, it's not too hard to convince me... as long as the weather's good. When it comes to coldness or wind, I'm kind of a baby. There, I said it.

sweet libbs on her swing

xander making his way from the ladder across to the slide

And here are the videos. I took the first one to mark how well he is doing at climbing the (tricky) ladder to get up to the slide. While I'm still a little nervous watching him, overall, I feel relatively comfortable with him doing this (second child... I think I panicked last year when Libby tried) and certainly felt well enough to stand by with camera. Anyway, so up he went, and I found myself talking some (and I don't like my voice on video), plus this was laryngitis week, so I sound even stranger. BUT, there's one moment that kind of made this video worth it to me. One real life moment. See if you can spot it, it's the moment Libby goes down the slide and bonks me in the head with the broomstick. I took it like a pro.

Second video, better in some ways, not in others, tells basically the same story. But it gets posted because I like it too. And I like it because I like the kids' interaction, I like Libby offering to take Xander down on her lap, I love Xander blowing by her and taking the slide by himself, and I love that for the second time, Xander kicks his left leg up in the air as he slides and glides. The boy's got form. It's cute.

So, enjoy! Two simlar videos, marking just a few typical moments of life at our house. Or, outside it.

Easter Pics

If the whole family is dressed up, and we have photographers in house, we have to try for an updated family portrait. We have the header, and this one. Which is better? I don't know... Each has ups and downs.




Then, camera on tripod, we tried to get a shot the family celebrating at our home with us, mom, Aunt Brett, and Uncle Mason. This was attempted 6 or 7 times, and in the end I'm settling on this as the official portrait. Despite thumb sucking and fake smiles. :)

Libby's turn to play photographer. Here's the adult gang.

Okay, and hopefully I'll have more pics to blog on this subject soon, but Libby got her hair cut on Saturday. So here's a before...

and her self portrait (using tripod and timer) after...

we love you and your beautiful "do" libbadibba!

Libby Goes to the Dentist

Two posts in two days! What can I say?
Libby went to the dentist today, for the first time. The hygienist told me they recommend a child's first visit at 18 months, and they may scream through the whole thing, but they'll start getting used to it. I can't agree. 18 months? Dentist? My kid barely has 7 teeth (unless you count the 6 half teeth poking through). I'd rather wait till he's old enough to prepare for and handle a trip to the dentist, sometime before he gets a cavity or needs braces.

Anywho. Here are some pics to document the adventure. Libby did a great job. Brian
did a great job prepping her for the morning's events when they played "dentist" last night.
Dr. Daddy even scraped at her teeth, you know, to warn her that the dentist does
that sometimes. Good thinking; teeth scraping isn't the best part of the appointment.
Neither is the x-ray, which is the one thing I wasn't expecting this morning.
But this appointment was the real deal, 4 years old or not (if she'd been coming since 18 months, painful x-ray film would be old hat). X-rays. And you know how it is,
biting down on that film is uncomfortable. I think it downright hurts sometimes.
After the final one, Libby looked at me with a brave face and tears streaming down her
cheeks. So sad was mama! But she recovered brilliantly when it was time to recline
for her teeth cleaning. She asked if there would be any needles, was quickly reassured
that no way! No needles whatsoever! And then it was time for the headphones. Yeah, headphones.




Here she is, showing those beautiful pearly whites. I should have taken a picture
before bedtime tonight, they're even brighter. And they should be, in addition to the professional cleaning and flouride treatment she got this morning, Libby personally
brushed her teeth 4 times today, and flossed. The dentist made quite an impression.

X-rays. First one's are a piece of cake. The front teeth.

**did you know that if you click on a photo you can see it much bigger? it's true.
and in the photo above, if you click it and view it larger, you can see the official
"first trip to the dentist" photo of libby on the computer behind her. what a cutie.**

X-rays. The third and fourth pictures hurt. My poor baby!
I believe she explained it to Brittany something like this,
"I had to bite down on paper, and it wasn't even candy, but paper!"

Getting those pearly whites all cleaned up. But what's she looking at?
And what's playing on the headphones?

Dora.

Dentist gives the final once over. Does some daddy-esque scraping,
reports that there are no cavities and Libby's teeth look great. See
you in 6 months. Six months turns out to be a couple of days from baby 3s
expected arrival and I say, see you in seven.

Wednesday at the Zoo

This lovely day we headed to the zoo to meet Grandpa Larry, Grandma Anna, Aunt Em and her friend Karen for a day of excitement. Well, it didn't start out all THAT exciting, aside from the natural excitement that is the zoo. We headed first for the butterfly pavilion (sorry, no pics), then off to the aquarium, picnicking for lunch and then what?... it's nap time, but we've only accomplished two exhibits. so what to do? Well, how about we hit the Rain Forest on our way out. As it turns out, that was a good plan.

Libby poses in the aquarium. Well, not really IN the aquarium...

oooooh, Libby! Let's take another, there are fish swimming by.
*enter fake smile.*



Xander was freed from the confines of stroller for much of this zoo trip,
and he had a really great time with his "hands on" exploration.
Next time, I may have my hands full. :)

Excited by the sights, and one another, Xander and Grandma
Anna had a great time.




Aunt Em and Xander, who isn't quite sure about something.

Time for a picnic. Xander gives his best camera-ready smile.

Grandma Anna shows Libby the.....

peacock.



Okay, and then it happened. We went to the rain forest. Shed some layers,
acclimated to the balmy temps, and noticed some little orange monkeys
(a fantastic mom would have double checked to find out exactly what
they are, but we'll call them monkeys) drawing a bit of a crowd.
The monkeys were feeling friendly, and were almost allowing their visitors
to touch them. They were certainly entertained by all the attention. We
approached for a closer look. Wow! Monkeys! When suddenly,

this little fella decided that the apples Xander had rejected for lunch
looked quite delicious. He leaped right onto the stroller and snatched one for himself.
(About now, I'm pretty proud of myself for capturing that photo. And no, Xander is not in the stroller.) Oh, what a crowd pleaser that was!
Little did we know, that apple tasted pretty good to Mr. Monkey,
and he'd be back for more...

Well, by the third time we were ready, I posed Libby near the stroller
(not TOO near!) and we waited. Time after time, one at a time, monkey snatched up
our apple rejects, ran off and chewed it up in the privacy of his tree, then returned for another until they were gone.

Yes, with this visit the apples were gone. But we weren't really ready to be done playing
with the monkeys. After all, we've had some pretty incredible animal encounters
before, sometimes with monkeys, others with polar bears, tigers, seals...
but monkeys eating off the stroller is a first, and probably a last.

So, we noticed that some of Xander's lunch crumbs had fallen into the seat
of his stroller, a couple of strawberries and a piece of angel food cake.
I'm a regular at the zoo, and I'm confident that it's very good for little orange monkeys
to eat these things. So, with bait laid, we waited. And monkey did not disappoint.

In case you missed them, Libby's words are "ooooh.... cute... oooh.... oooh! Ooooh he found a good choice, he found the cake!" Yes, monkey seems to have Libby preferences.
See ya next time pal,we'll be the ones with apples and cake stuffed in our pockets.

...strolling along, noticing more of this and that. and beckoning other monkeys
to come. I think Xander thinks that's a typical part of the zoo experience. When we saw
other monkey creatures, he held out his hand and did his, "come here,
gimme, gimme, gimme" gesture. like, "come on over, monkeys. we're over here!"

and there's nothing like getting soaked as we head out
the door, which both kids thoroughly enjoyed.

What a fun day at z00bilee z00!