Dodging bullets.

Today, I encountered one of my greatest fears. As a mother, you make many sacrifices. Today I made one that goes down in the books...for me anyways. To set the scene, I am 31 weeks pregnant. I have my hands full. Every outing is an adventure. While walking out of Target today, as usual, I had Pike in the cart, Jovie hanging onto one of my pockets and Pear hanging on the side of the cart. We looked both ways for cars and began to cross the street. Halfway through the intersection I felt a warm splat on my head and it went all the way down my arm. Yes, a stupid seagull got me and all because I couldn't dodge his bullet! I couldn't run and leave my kids stranded in the middle of the intersection.

So there I stood, disgusted with big white doo dripping down my arm. I looked down and saw that it managed to not only get my hair and my arm but also on my purse and the inside of my purse. At the car (after making a fool of myself by my frantic disgust) I pulled out the baby wipes and began to clean up but the baby wipe did not suffice cleaning my hair. Going through the drive-thru on our way home I noticed that somehow the doo even got in my wallet. This was massive bird doo. GROSS!

So, though you may have had reason to laugh in the past as I ducked or dodged away from birds EVERYWHERE, I am now justified for my fear. They have no social etiquette. And for some reason, my full head of hair must be a good target. And, as Pear told me when we got in the car, "mom, now we need to look both ways for cars and look up for birds when we cross the street."

Bored sleeping...

Jovie's disposition is so sweet and caring. She genuinely wants to help others out. She is tough and tries hard not to cry even when she's hurt. She is also sensitive, and sometimes when her feelings are hurt, she will cover her eyes with her hands and when she regains composure she'll say, "my eyes are just watering," or, "I was just doing that." She can be silly. She can be stubborn! Oh my, can she be stubborn. She is ticklish. She smiles with her eyes. She really is a joy! I am so glad that she is who she is and I delight in the fact that I get to nurture this beautiful little girl and watch her grow. The part of Jovie that is truly wearing on me as a parent though, is that Jovie gets bored doing just about everything. Jovie won't sit through a movie. She won't sit through a book. She can hardly even make it through a game. She has a hard time relaxing. She loves to work. She loves to do chores and be productive- which is great! But, sometimes, I just want her to be entertained. Jovie even gets bored sleeping! I am not kidding, there have been many times, in the middle of the night, that she walks into our room and says, "I can't sleep. Can I have water." She is tired. My kids do not get too much sleep. Jovie sometimes takes a 30 minute nap. She is usually asleep between 8:30-9:00pm and she is awake at 5:30am. You can't tell me she is getting too much sleep. She simply wakes up and rather than laying there and trying to go back to sleep, she gets up. Now, I will admit I am somewhat like this. I get bored easily. But not that easily. Stephen seems to think she is my mom's clone. If you don't know my mom, she doesn't know how to relax. She admits that is why she likes car rides and a simple drive into town- it forces her to relax! Yep, I think that's where Jovie gets it! At least I know she'll be a wonderful wife and mother someday, as my mom sure is! I guess a lack of laziness isn't such a bad thing.

Pictures

Jovie and her hot chocolate.

Pear with her hot chocolate.

Trevor & Livi with Jovie & Audrey.

Jovie & Pike snuggling & reading a book.

Enjoying a brisk day playing outside.

Jovie has a hard time smiling naturally. :)

I'm tired.

A lot has been going on. I am exhausted. Not just in the physical form of being tired, but mentally and just in general, I am exhausted.

Sleep- Ever since we transferred Pike to a big boy bed in mid November, I haven't slept through the night, nor has Pike, you might guess who's at fault here. On top of adjusting to a big boy bed and waking up and running down the hall at random hours of the night, Pike has broke 4 molars over the last 8 weeks. His darn teeth take their sweet time and cause us all grief. Oh, and besides not sleeping through the night, he wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30 every morning. Not only does he wake up at this awful hour of the day, he begs for breakfast at this hour. I hear friends say that their kids come in and snuggle and drift back to sleep at this hour. I've heard friends say that their kids wake up and play for a while in their crib. I've heard friends say that their kids wake up and cry for a while and then go back to sleep. No. Not here. I have learned to accept it and I can't wait for the day in a couple of years that I actually get to sleep through the night and sleep in until 7am! Oh, and another thing, my kids (including Pike) go to bed around 8pm. Jovie is usually the last to fall asleep and is often up until close to 9pm. If you do the math, consider that I'm awake most nights for 1-2 hours trying to get Pike to go back to sleep, I'm up by 5am and I usually don't go to bed until 10:30pm, I'm averaging 5 hours of sleep per night. I'm also pregnant and rarely have a chance to take a nap...there's no wonder I'm tired!

Mentally- I don't have to use my brain a whole lot at my job. Talking to kids, training kids, teaching the alphabet, basic math, counting and doing crafts doesn't wear me out too much. But there is something mentally wearing about being the constant go-to for all of these little whims coming from my children. "I'm hungry." "Mom! I need wiped!" "Can I have bubble gum?" "Num-num? Num-num?" "I'm bored." "Mom! I was playing with that first!" "Can we watch a movie?" "She took it from me!" "Pike's wrecking my tower!" I hear all of these phrases at least 5 times in a day. And there are many more. It's not that they are difficult to handle, it's simply that it is hard to have a focused train of thought when you are constantly interrupted and that is mentally exhausting.

And then there is my amazing husband. Stephen is such a hard worker. He comes home from his job, many days cooks dinner, plays with the kids for a bit and then works on his side jobs. And most days he manages to spend a little bit of time with me too! He really is amazing and I'm looking forward to all of his hard work to pay off in the years to come. That being said, I am exhausted by all of his hard work. I feel selfish saying so but it's the truth. He is my best friend and as such, I enjoy his company. Not only that, I don't get a ton of social interaction with adults, (other than with kids in tow and all of the above interruptions,) and so I depend on him to be my companion to talk to at the end of the day and when he is working so much, there is only so much talk that can squeeze into 15-30 minutes.

Stephen's parents are building their house across the street from us. His grandparents are building the house right next door to us. His parents should be moving in in a week or two. And his grandparents should be moving in in April. I am really excited about a lot of aspects of having them close by, (close babysitters are nice!) And I'm a little nervous about some aspects, (I'm not real outgoing and though I love people, I am not a "people" person.) Currently it's adding a little bit of chaos to my life (well, not really chaos, just a new phase) because along with all of the interruptions I have with the kids, I have been having random packages coming to the door. (Jovie now calls the UPS man the "Ding-Dong Man" because we sometimes get a couple of doorbell rings a day.) And then there are random bathroom needs as their bathrooms don't work yet and these things may or may not coincide with nap time, (which is my time to sit down and rest without kid interruptions.) None of these are big deals just little things that add to my crazy life. I am sure it will all mellow down a little when they are moved in.

Bottom line- I am blessed and tired!

Holidays

I don't know how I managed to not post anything over the "most wonderful time of the year"! We had a lot of fun over the holidays. We hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new home with Stephen's family and then my family joined us for dessert. We intended it to be just our immediate family (parents and siblings) as we don't have a whole lot of furniture yet but somehow we managed to squeeze in a few extras.

At my second appointment with the midwives in the beginning of December, I was given the thought that I might be pregnant with twins. My midwives suspicions were because I was measuring big and she thought she may have heard two heartbeats. At my ultrasound two weeks later, we were relieved to find out that we have ONE healthy growing boy in my womb. We have yet to find a name for this little guy but I am so excited to have another little boy around.

I had an enjoyable birthday as my mom offered to watch the kiddos and let me take a trip with the hubby to Seattle. We browsed an antique store, ate lunch at Ray's Boathouse and purchased a (much needed) dresser from Ikea. I am 26 now! I feel so grown up.

Christmas was a whirlwind, as usual. I tried to soak it up as much as I could and I am already looking forward to next Christmas. We got the kids a wooden kitchen set from Ikea and I made a bunch of felt food to go along with it. All three of them love it! Tara and Brian flew home on Christmas Eve and spent 5 days here. I spent as much time as I could at my parents' for those few days.

a monkey birthday!

My little Jovie is 3. I took her to Target to pick out some birthday stuff (plates, napkins, etc.) in full expectation that she would want a Tinkerbell, Princess or Butterfly themed party. What did she pick? The Paul Frank monkey stuff. That's my Jovie. My sister, Piper, nicknamed her "Monkey Girl" a while back and ever since, she has taken to monkeys. So, a monkey party we had! I found the cake idea on Smitten Kitchen and since I originally had no idea I would be making a monkey face, I didn't make ears. Instead, I improvised by using ladyfinger cookies we had in our cupboard, stood 3 of them upright and simply frosted around them for the ears. It worked great!

Jovie is such a joy. She has a terrific attitude and shares with Pear so nicely. Jovie really has a giving heart and it is neat to watch her go throughout her day and bless her family. I love that anytime she forgets what she was going to say (example: she comes up to me, "mom...mom...mommy," I finally say "yes Jovie?" ....pause) she looks at me and smiles and says "I love you." I love that she is so girly. I adore her big blue eyes and the chubby cheeks that she's holding onto for a little bit longer. The way she talks makes those around her smile. I've enjoyed three years of my little girl's life, I am looking forward to the rest!

It's 5:45am here. Good morning birthday girl!

My little monkey.

Waiting for her guests to arrive with her monkey mask.

The monkey cake.

My beauty in her birthday dress.

Pretty girl.

Libbi.

Pin the tail on the monkey. Props to Stephen's mad drawing skills.

Make a wish!

The boys, being boys in the back yard.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little pumpkins...

It's that time of year again. The time that Stephen tries as hard as he can to skirt around going to the pumpkin patch. The time that the kids and I anxiously wait for the sun to peek out in hopes to go to the pumpkin patch. And finally, the day comes that I convince Stephen that we will go to the big dirty fields full of pumpkins. We really had fun! Pear went from one to the next debating whether it was the right one for her. Jovie seemed to gravitate to pumpkins that were rotten, had no stem or some other such flaw. And of course Pike simply loved the fact that there was a field full of "balls." He'd pick on up and carry it a couple of yards, then drop it for another. What fun it is to celebrate life with the changing seasons!