A-OK

Just thought I’d do a quick follow-up post to let you know that Book Boy and Book Baby are both A-OK.

The pencil erasers that BB stuck in his ears? The doctor managed to get one out on Friday, and the other one fell out at the playground on Sunday. He ran up to us with a little eraser piece in his hand, laughing, and said that he bumped his head (never did get more details about that) and caught the eraser as it fell out of his ear. He has definitely learned a good lesson, though, as it was most unpleasant to have the doctor remove the eraser on Friday. (And I have no idea what she would have done to remove the second piece if it hadn’t fallen out – might have had to refer him to an ear, nose and throat specalist.)

Book Baby has gained some weight – about 5 oz. from Friday to Monday, and her color (i.e. jaundice) is much improved. We’re still keeping an eye on her weight, and trying to make sure I nurse her as much as possible, but I’m not nearly as worried as I was last week.

Poor Two, on the other hand, didn’t have such a good day today – Book Girl woke me up this morning and said “Mom, you need to put Two back together!”

(Fortunately, it was a simple fix, and Two is good as new now.)

Breaking Me In

Tim and I are painfully aware that as the parents of three children, we’re now outnumbered.

So far, that hasn’t been a big deal. Tim was home from work the first week after Book Baby was born, and the second week he was back at work but dropped Book Boy off at school and left work early enough to pick him up in the afternoon (charter school, no bus service). That was the perfect way for me to kind of ease into being a mom of three - especially the “staying at home with a newborn and preschooler while having to pick up the third grader at 3″ part.

But on Friday, boy did those kids break me in!

In the morning, Book Girl, Baby and I were upstairs. I had to use the bathroom, so I put Book Baby in the bouncey chair and told BG I’d be back in a couple of minutes. When I came out of the bathroom, BG was carrying the baby across the living room. Which meant she had carried the baby DOWN THE STAIRS! I nearly had a heart attack, and poor BG cried when she realized how upset I was. (We had a nice little talk, and she now understands that she is NOT to carry the baby without expressly asking permission. Of course, I thought she understood that in the first place.)

Then in the afternoon, all three kids had a doctor appointment. BG was getting her four-year checkup, Baby was having her two-week checkup, and BB was just getting a flu shot. It turns out that Baby hasn’t gained any weight since leaving the hospital, and is also jaundiced, so the doctor wants me to make sure I feed her every 2-3 hours, etc. Great, just what I need in my already sleep-deprived state.

And, to top it all off, as the doctor checked in BB’s ears, she said “What did you put in your ears?” We thought she was joking until she continued, “Something pink? Bubblegum, maybe?”  He shook his head sheepishly. Then it hit me … the boy loves to pick at pencil erasers, and I find them all over the floor. “Pencil erasers?” I said. He nodded. Great. He had a piece of an eraser stuck in each ear. Dr. was able to get one out, but the other eluded her. We were sent home with a syringe and instructions to flush the ear several times to see if the eraser came out. It didn’t come out with flushing … but apparently it did come out when he bumped his head at the playground today. I was so very glad, because I can’t imagine what the doctor would have had to do if the eraser was still in his ear at our follow-up appointment tomorrow. (He was in tears when she was trying to remove it on Friday … and this is the boy who says “I want to watch!” when he has to get a shot.)

Cross your fingers that this week is a little less fun-filled!

Falling In Love Again

Tim and I are pleased to announce that our new baby was born on October 23, healthy and weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring 20″ long. (She is much smaller than her sibings were, and we actually didn’t have any clothes small enough to fit her.) We are totally in love with her.

And my goodness, Book Boy and Little Sister are more in love with her than we ever would have predicted!

Before she was born, I thought that Book Boy would be somewhat excited but mostly ambivilant about having another little sister. However, from the moment he first laid eyes on her when she was just a few hours old, it was clear that he was totally enamored with her. The day we brought her home from the hospital, he sat on the couch and just held her for about an hour. He runs in the door after school and says “Where’s the baby? I want to hold the baby!” It’s very, very nice.

Little Sister, on the other hand – well, I knew she was thrilled about the baby. In the months leading up to the birth, LS came running whenever I sorted through baby items, she asked to look at baby things every time we went to a store, and she practiced with her dolls all the time. She’s little enough that we don’t let her hold the baby as much as we let Book Boy, but I have a feeling these two girls are going to be very close as they grow up.

(Yes, I know it took me forever to get this posted – I swear, every time I started to write and edit pics, Book Baby woke up and needed me!)

Nesting

I guess I’ve reached the nesting point of my pregnancy. You know, where you want to everything ready and “nice” for the baby.

A few weeks ago, I asked Tim to take this past week off so that we could do a few projects around the house that have needed doing for a while – paint the kitchen/dining room, clean out the garage, move/weed stuff out of the kids’ rooms so we could actually accomodate a baby and her things. My folks were also gracious enough to take Little Sister from Sunday – Thursday so that we could work without her underfoot.

Boy, does it feel nice to have all this done! Some things took longer than expected (garage, kids’ rooms), we did some things we didn’t expect to do (touched up the hallway and part of the living room because they looked so crappy compared to the newly painted rooms), and I’m still weeding through some of the clutter that we boxed up. But the house looks nice, and I feel like we’re just about ready for the baby now. (Well, maybe not quite ready mentally, but the crib is up, the room is ready, and the car seat is waiting for her.)

Book Boy helped us paint after school, and insisted that I take a little video of him. (FYI, the area that he is painting is where the fridge usually is – the rest of the room did not look as bad as these walls did!)

School Days

School has been back in session for almost two weeks. School supplies, homework, worksheets, etc. We spend at least an hour on this stuff every school day.

Oh wait, you probably think I’m talking about Book Boy, don’t you? Well, yes, third grade started on September 8, and he does have homework almost every single night (sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes more, once in a while less). But I’m really referring to Little Sister!

She’s not in preschool this year – we just can’t afford it right now, with me unemployed and a baby on the way. But she and I are working on letters, numbers, and the like every day and she has really taken to it! She is eager to do school (not play school, as she often corrects me) every morning when BB is away. We color, count, sort, do workbook pages and mazes (she loves mazes), practice writing (though she doesn’t have much patience for or interest in this right now), and other learning activities. We even have recess! LS really gets into it, even calling me “Miss Mom” throughout the day, and sometimes insisting that I call her “Student” rather than her name.

I’m really trying to capitalize on her interest before it starts to wane (as I’m sure it eventually will). She asks for more workbooks? She’s got it! Mazes? I’ll find some on the internet (they’re great pre-writing activities). She wants a stack of printer paper so she can draw “Christmas presents” for us? No problem! She and Tim also work on letters during bathtime, with foam letters that stick to the tub – I’m convinced that doing this helped BB become such a good reader, and I think it will help with her, too.

In addition to all these learning activities, I’m pretty pleased that we’ve mostly managed to keep the TV off during the day (the kids get 1/2 hour of cartoons before school, none after school). I don’t think she’s even asked to play on the computer lately, though I don’t object to 30 minutes of SesameStreet.com and the like every now and then.

Let’s just hope we can have her up to speed before she starts kindergarten next year. I have no doubt that she’d be more than ready if she were in day care/preschool this year … I just don’t know if we can do it on our own. (I’m not expecting her to be reading or doing math problems by then, just want her to be ready to learn how to do them.)

Getting Closer …

Now that September is upon us, the pressure is also on – Tim and I have less than seven weeks until our baby arrives! We still have so much to do. Not to actually buy, really – we need to get the crib, but have one picked out; we need to get the infant car seat, but I’m borrowing one from a car seat tech friend and will have it soon; we still need a few other odds and ends – but so much to do. 

I somehow have to squeeze three kids into two already over-full bedrooms. Bedrooms that are full of toys, books (and more books!), clothing, etc. We’ve got sleeping arrangements figured out – Little Sister will sleep on the bottom “bunk” of Book Boy’s bed, and in fact we moved the mattress there a few days ago (at the kids’ request), and the crib will go where LS’s bed was. But by removing LS’s bed (putting it in the basement for now), we also lose the three spacious and full drawers that were underneath it. And we can no longer put toys in or on the changing table, since we’ll actually be using that for changing the baby. (We’ve never really been a “change baby on the bed or the floor” kind of family.)

Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to slowly weed stuff out of the rooms, but it’s hard. (I actually tossed a whole garbage bag full of stuff from LS’s room while Tim took the kids to the park today.) I think part of the problem is that since we have another kid coming along, it makes sense to not get rid of the nice toys/books, since she will be able to use them in a couple of years.

I hope I can get this all done before the baby actually arrives! (I think that I will have to devote naptimes to this chore once BB starts school on Tuesday.)

Am I the Only One?

As summer winds down and school starts up again (Book Boy starts Tuesday), I hear so many parents – especially moms – rejoicing. They’re happy to get the kids out of the house, happy to have them in school all day again, etc.

Am I the only one who doesn’t feel that way? I’m extremely sad that summer is over and Book Boy starts school next week. Oh, sure, there are days that I”d like to get rid of BB and Little Sister for a few days. Maybe it’s because I only have two kids (for now). Maybe it’s because I only have one kid going back to school. (I can imagine why my mom – with four kids - was thrilled when school started.)

Or maybe it’s because, in all likelihood (if things go as planned), I’ll be employed again by next summer, so this will be the only summer that I’m home with the kids full-time. BB, LS and I have had a great time together. Oh, we didn’t do everything we planned (at least one new park every week? lots of trail walks? etc. Hah!) but we did have fun. Walking at the botanical gardens, several trips to new parks that we like, trying out new fresh fruits and vegetables from the Corn Stand and the produce market, playing in the backyard pool, double features at the dollar theater, reading for hours at a time, “chasing” the Blue Angels when they were in town …

Yep, it’s been a great summer! But the ending, as endings so often are, is bittersweet.

2009 August Happiness Challenge: Day 31

August 31: Today is our anniversary. Tim and I have been married 15 years! If that’s not an “August happiness,” I don’t know what is.

2009 August Happiness Challenge: Day 30

August 30: Little Sister and I went to the grocery store this evening. I sort of forgot that this is “move in weekend” for the two local universities (one of them a huge Big 10 [11]) university – and the Meijer we went to is the closest one to both of them. The store was extremely crowded, and we had to wait in the checkout line for nearly a half hour.

And Little Sister? She was perfect! Despite the crowds and the long waits, she didn’t fuss or complain at all, except to mention that she was hungry. (A sample cheese slice from the deli solved that problem.)

2009 August Happiness Challenge: Day 29

 

August 29: Today, Tim and I (and my parents) took the kids to Detroit’s Eastern Market. Billed as “the largest historic public market district in the United States,” the area features an enormous farmers market with every type of produce imaginable (and cheap!) along with a variety of meat/fish markets, grocery stores, wholesales, etc. in the blocks directly adjacent to the farmers market. The diversity of products for sale along with the people at the market is great, and really adds to the atmosphere.

I didn’t really have any plans other than to buy some items in the farmers market (whatever fruits/vegetables struck our fancy, really), but we walked through the farmers market first, then visited a number of shops, then went back to the farmers market to make some purchases. The kids were also able to pick out some “penny” (i.e. bulk – certainly not a penny) candy at Rocky Peanut Company, courtesy of the handful of quarters that my dad gave each kid. They really had fun with that.

Once we got back to the farmers market – located in four vast “sheds,” as they’re called – we perused the stalls to find the best looking and best priced produce. That wasn’t hard, since it all looked good (and most was locally grown – either in Michigan or just over the border in Canada) and most of the prices were similar. We ended up with corn on the cob, bluberries (Little Sister’s request), green peppers, red/yellow/orange peppers, tomatoes (ours just aren’t ripening fast enough to keep up with how many we want to eat), cucumbers, and a package of bakery cookies (Book Boy’s request). Everything we purchased was grown in Michigan, with the exception of the red/yellow/orange peppers, which were grown in the Windsor area, which is just across the river from Detroit.

It’s so much more fun (not to mention tastier!) than buying produce at the grocery store.