A Great Way to Wake Up

My kids wake up at insane hours of the morning. They always have and likely they always will...until they're teenagers and have early morning seminary. In any case, mornings always come way too soon for me and I'm usually not very happy about it. Today, though, Benjamin woke me up in a way I couldn't get angry about. As he came into my room pre-6am as usual, he jumped into my bed, laid on top of me and said, "Mommy! I just realized, you haven't had a hug yet!" Then he proceeded to give me a big, tight squeeze. Ahhhh...that was worth waking up for.

Crazy Kids

As my kids age, their personalities are so fun to watch. My kids especially seem to make a good team. Isabella is always the first to approach people. She'll walk through a store, library, gym, church, etc. waving and smiling at people, saying hello to friends and random strangers alike. If she has a coat or shoes on of which she's particularly fond, she'll approach anyone she sees and point these items out to them. In the case of shoes, she'll hold out one foot to them,"shoe!" she'll triumphantly declare (sometimes many times until they acknowledge her). Then she'll hold out the other foot, "Mehr Shoe!" (more shoe!) she'll proclaim, in her half German, half English combo. Benjamin, of course, acts completely uninterested the entire time. He would never have approached this stranger and still seems ambivalent at first. However, once the ice is broken and the stranger has proven a kind person, he'll jump right in, "I have shoes too!" or any other random comment he feels impressed to share, "I made a snow man and a snow dog in our back yard!" At this point I usually make some brief comment to release this poor unsuspecting stranger who would likely really like to get on with his/her shopping and we're on to the next person Isabella sees.

We went grocery shopping yesterday and spent some time in the toy department. Isabella approached no less than 7 people to show her the various balls, dolls, or other toys she found interesting. Each time Benjamin would wait to see their reaction and then join in. At one point his excitement to share resulted in a beach ball to the head of the innocent stranger who wasn't ready to "think fast." Such a funny team.

Isabella is also very quick to learn people's names and knows not only her own friends, but Benjamin's too. She can point to his class picture and name people in it. She knows the names of my friends as well. I went visiting teaching today and on the way there I said, "We're visiting Julie." I only said it once and yet 45 minutes later as we were leaving, Bella said, "Bye Julie!" Amazing. Benjamin on the other hand still thinks that my friend and her daughter are both named Annika because he has never picked up on what I call the mom. How different they are.

To lend credit to Benjamin, however, he's incredibly physical. He was invited as a guest of a friend to a toddler gymnastics class yesterday and after 10 minutes in class the teacher came up to me asking how old he is. When I told her, she said, "Well, then he isn't technically old enough for the next class, but if you'd like to register him for it, I would allow you in. He's by far ready for a more advanced class." Make a mother proud. :)


Here's a picture of the crazy pair and their friend Annika, who had an entire playground to enjoy but found the driveway up the street far more interesting. Nothing like a some puddles of slushy, dirty water and some sticks to make an afternoon enjoyable.

Now I Am Officially Pregnant

Yesterday as I stared into my fridge feeling nauseated by everything in there, including the smell, I thought how yummy some pickles would be and wrote them on the grocery list attached to the fridge door. As soon as I'd written that I laughed out loud. Truly, pregnancy has begun. The only thing funnier would have been if ice cream had followed on the list.

One more thing that I just had to write, especially with everything going on in Haiti and the inherent increase in gratitude it's given me for my own charmed life: It was 9pm tonight and I remembered that I never bought grapes for nursery snack tomorrow. Church doesn't start until 1pm, but I'm not going to go shopping on a Sunday so I put on my big coat over my pjs and went to the store. On my way home I thought how amazing the whole trip was. I was able to decide at 9 pm on a Saturday in the middle of winter that I wanted green grapes. So I put on a wonderful warm coat, got in a heated car and drove a mere 1.3 miles to a beautifully stocked, warmed, well lit, and safe grocery store which is open 24 hours/day 7 days/week, and within 2 feet of the front door, there was a table covered in bags of sweet, plump green grapes for a mere $1.89/lbs. I purchased them with a swipe of a plastic card and within 10 minutes of when I'd decided I needed grapes, I was back home enjoying them. God bless America. May we never take beautiful stuff like that for granted.

Announcement

Now that both sides of our family are aware, I finally get to post this picture.


We're excited to announce that we're expecting our third child on August 14th (our wedding anniversary). That puts me at 9 weeks right now and deep in the the throes of morning sickness (although it always hits at night) and overly-hormonal weepiness. So if you catch me sobbing at odd moments or every time I watch Oprah, you know why.

Bella is unaware of what's going on, although she was the only one with me when I took the pregnancy test and started jumping up and down and laughing. Benjamin, however, is excited about a new baby in the house, as long as we name it Lucas. I told him the names we're thinking of and asked if he liked them and he said, "sort of." So I asked him what name he wanted and he firmly and immediately replied, "Lucas. How about we name him Lucas? I like that name." Kelly and I aren't so sure. We really like the name, but there are a few too many boys named Lucas in our life already. We'll see if Benjamin's strong will wins out or if his fickle 3 year old desires come around to our side in the end.

Milestones

Benjamin just keeps growing up. He entered the Sunbeam class on Sunday in church. He was so excited. He's in primary now! I finally get to see my little boy in the primary programs and help him with talks! Wow! I worried that Bella would be upset in nursery without him, but she seemed completely unaffected. She even walked herself in there because I was busy finding out to which room Benjamin was supposed to go.

Then he celebrated his 3 and 1/2 birthday at school yesterday. Since all summer birthdays would miss a school celebration, the teachers let those kids have 1/2 birthday parties. So, I had to be very clear that it was not his 4th birthday, but rather his 1/2 birthday, so he wouldn't get too confused. (Of course, he still pointed to various toys at the store that day and said I should buy them for his birthday and mentioned to several strangers we passed that it was his birthday.) He had a great time, though. I got to stay for part of circle time during which the teacher presented him with a crown and let him put candles on a felt board cake. Then he sat on her lap while the class sung Happy Birthday and all the kids tried to blow the teacher over while she held the cake in front of her.



Lucky me also got to bring the snack for the whole class. And of course, being me, it wasn't cookies or cupcakes, it was blueberry muffins and cheese cubes. But I have to say, there were several cries of "I love muffins!" when the kids heard. And one cry of "I love cheese!" which was Benjamin. (And of course, one cry of, "I can't eat muffins or cheese!" from the kid with an allergy to gluten, dairy, and all types of nuts. I am so happy my kids are allergy free!!) Benjamin really loves his school and apparently so does Bella! She had come with me and was so devastated when we left after the birthday portion of the day was over. She screamed and cried to be let back in and even started to pound on the door crying, "School! Go school!" (Of course it sounded like "Go Shoo.") Who wouldn't love a room full of brand new toys, food, and your cool older brother?