ZZZZZ's

Maggie slept through the night last night. I put her down at 10:30 and she woke up at 7 this morning. Of course I still didn't get to bed until midnight - it is too tempting to be productive when both kids are asleep and I still have some energy left. However, after sleeping uninterrupted for 7 hours, I felt amazingly rested this morning.
I am a realist and certainly don't expect this to be the norm yet, but let me just say that sleep like that is wonderful.

Sayings

Here's what Tjabe is saying lately.
"Trust me." (used accurately)
"Oh my goodness!"
"I have a question for you." (even when he doesn't, but just wants your attention)

Look Who's Three!

Tjabe actually turned three Sunday but we celebrated today because our schedule was a little more flexible. We started the day with our weekly adjustments at the chiropractor, then took Tjabe to Barnes and Noble where he played with the Thomas train set and got to buy Harold the Helicopter for his own train set. Then we went to the wine store to buy some wine for our gathering tonight. Then we took Tjabe to the library where we got some fun books to read. Then it was home for a delicious lunch of boxed macaroni and cheese and an avocado (one of his favorite meals), opening his presents (he got spoiled some more, of course), playing with presents for a little while, and a nap. We had some friends over for homemade pizza and cake, including Tjabe's good friend Austin, and they had a blast playing together all night while us adults drank the wine we bought. Tjabe opened his remaining few gifts and went to bed after nine, more than an hour and a half past his bedtime. It was a good day for everyone. Here are pictures.

The gift from Molly, Mike and Micaiah: A Nerf dart set complete with protective eyewear and a target vest. You can see I've already been shot multiple times, while Tjabe remains uninjured.

Bond. James Bond.


Ridding the world of evil one foam-and-velcro dart at a time. With the glasses on backwards.

Ah, I'm hit!

Here is the cake I made. I got the pattern from another blog on the internet and attempted to copy it with a few variations, the big one being I used buttercream frosting instead of Fondit (sp?), mainly because I have heard that Fondit doesn't taste good and is expensive. Not sure if either of those are true, but they also didn't sell it at the grocery store I went to and I didn't want to make another stop. I consider the cake a success in that it somewhat resembles Thomas and Tjabe recognized it as Thomas, plus he could read his name on it. Be glad that you couldn't read my mind late last night as I was trying to frost the thing, though. Some of the smaller pieces turned to crumbs the second I applied frosting (yes, I froze the cake first - it didn't help). This leads to another variation - the removal of some smaller detail pieces. Oh well, it was cute and we all enjoyed having blue and black tongues when it was over.

Tjabe, Austin, the cake, and an empty bottle of wine

"Mmm, that looks good."
(Actually, it was.)

Christmas Pictures Galore

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We did...

The kiddos Sunday before Christmas

Maggie's dress and sparkly red tights

Tjabe's new Thomas robe and pj's, Christmas Eve

Maggie's new bracelet - so cute!

Tjabe's new John Deere hat - the winter version

Tjabe opening his train track set

Tjabe, after playing all morning and afternoon, right through his nap. He loves his trains.

Maggie's Christmas dress and elf/Mary Jane tights- I love this!

Same thing about 5 seconds later

The Gift

Below is Tjabe opening the train track set he got for Christmas. The computer microphone is about ten feet away from him so I'll interpret. He's opening the gift and as he realizes what it is, his response is (softly, under his breath) "Oh wow, wow, wow." I didn't catch what else he said but he really was excited. I especially love when he drops it off the table. The second video is Sam and Tjabe playing with the now-assembled set. The coughing and gasping for breath at the end is Maggie choking on milk, which she does about every time she eats.

Thankful

Last night we asked Tjabe what three things he was going to thank God for during our prayers. In all seriousness he replied, "Toots, toots, toots." And yes, toots are what you think they are.

More Pictures

About a week ago...

About 2 weeks ago...

The longer she's out of the womb, the cuter she gets. As my mom puts it, she's had time to "fluff."

It's that time of year again...

Time for ElfYourself! I think it gets better every year. Here is the one my mom put together for our family, plus Megan (the one in the sunglasses). Good work Mom.

More Maggie

Here are some more recent pictures of Maggie, although even these are over a week old. I forget how quickly newborns change! She looks different from these pictures already. I also threw in a picture of Tjabe enjoying his first sucker. He licked it like an ice cream cone until he got bored with it and left it somewhere in the house to "finish later" (which I knew would never happen, so I threw it away, mean mom that I am). For the most part he is really good with Maggie, probably because he's not that interested in her. But the times he has been interested in her have been mostly positive, except when I'm feeding her and he wants me to hold or play with him. Today she was laying on the floor in his room where I had just finished changing his diaper. I ran out for a second to throw away the diaper and wash my hands, and meanwhile she is crying because she's getting tired. So as I'm coming back into the room I hear her crying stop for a minute and then start again, and I find that Tjabe has found her pacifier and put it in her mouth. He explained it to me when I got there and saw the pacifier lying next to her. I thanked him for trying to help. It's really sweet to see moments like that, even if the help isn't exactly what is needed. And then today at Target, there was a little girl (maybe a year and a half) in line with us who liked babies and wanted to see Maggie, so Tjabe pulled back her blanket and pointed to her, then patted her head. "See, isn't she cute?" he asked the little girl's mom. Ahh, the proud big brother.
And here are the pictures...





For those interested, Maggie is doing great and growing like crazy, mostly in plumpness. At her one week appointment she weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz, and now at three weeks I think she weighs about 30 pounds. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but she is definitely getting chubby.

New arrival

At 1:14 am on Monday morning, November 10, Margaret Anne (Maggie) entered the world, complete with a round face, shock of black hair, and miniature dimpled chin. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 6 ounces and 21.5 inches long. The birth was great and Mom and baby are healthy. Below are some pictures.

The Disclaimer

I just had way too much fun looking up Celtic girl names online and trying to guess how they were pronounced. Especially since most of the websites don't include the pronunciation (seems like it would be pretty important, but that's just me). Some of the names are especially funny late at night when you can't sleep. I hope I haven't offended anyone who might actually have one of these names.

Girl Names

As of now, we are still pretty sure we are having a girl, hopefully in the next couple of days. Everyone is asking what we are naming her, and we haven't shared this with anyone (so don't take it personally when we don't tell you what we're thinking of). However, we have a couple of ideas that we thought we would put up here for your comments and votes, because everyone knows that you will have comments. You might just not normally share them with us. Feel free to do so here though. And to give credit where it is due, I got this idea of voting from Holly's blog - Thanks Hol! Now if only I could figure out how you set it up in such a cool way...

We've decided we want a Celtic name. And the choices for first name are (drumroll please)...
- Blathnait
- Conchobar
- Uchtdealb
- Narbflaith
- Slagathor

Pronounce them as you will, although the last one is pretty much phonetic. Leave comments and let us know which one you like best - this will make the decision much easier for us. Thanks for helping us out!

More Pictures

Here are some pictures from Halloween and the rooms in our house that were somewhat recently rearranged.The guest room/baby's room/former office

The wall of books on my new shelves in the guest room

The baby's "nook" in the guest room

The living room, minus the red couch and plus a couple of armchairs

The dining room with our new benches that Sam built

Tjabe's room minus the green chair (now in the living room) and rearranged

Fireman Tjabe

Christmas gifts...

This may seem early, but Christmas and Tjabe's birthday are only a couple of months away, and I am assuming we will start getting questions on gift ideas for the little ones. So to assist our loved ones, especially those who shop early, here are some thoughts.
- We have PLENTY of toys, stuffed animals, and blankets for both Tjabe and baby. We don't even have enough room in Tjabe's room for all the toys he already has... we have been very blessed.
- We have more than enough baby girl clothes through age 6 months. We have some clothes for a girl that are 6-9 months and 9-12 months.
- Tjabe is currently on the border between wearing size 3T and 4T clothing, depending on what it is.
- Some gift ideas, if you would like to get a gift for Tjabe or the baby, are the following:

• Books. Sam has started a wish list for books for our kids on Amazon.com. Click here to get there. The nice thing about this is that we obviously don't have books listed that we already own, so you don't have to worry about getting the kids multiples of the same thing. And Sam would say, "You can never have too many books."
  
• Trains. Sam and I decided to get Tjabe one main gift for Christmas and his birthday combined. His favorite thing to do right now (whenever we go to a friend's house that has one) is play with their train set, or read about Thomas the Tank Engine, or really anything to do with Thomas. So we bought him a wooden train set, with some cars, signs, tracks, bridges, etc. to open on Christmas. I think he will be really excited. This is a generic set, however, because the quality was the same as a brand-name wooden Thomas set but the cost was about one-quarter of a new Thomas set. However, the Thomas cars do fit on this set, and he would be overjoyed to receive some Thomas cars. If you do decide to get some cars, however, be sure to get the right ones so they fit - apparently there are several different types of Thomas and Friends train cars and they are all different sizes. Make sure you get the all-wooden cars with the magnetic connectors. Some of the engines are battery-powered and some aren't , but either one should fit on these tracks as long as they're all-wood and magnetic. Tjabe's favorite engines are Thomas, Percy, and James, but really he knows and loves them all and likes the freight cars too. I know you can buy them at Target and online. I haven't seen them anywhere else but also haven't looked for them... Feel free to email me or post on this blog if you do get him a certain engine so we know not to get him the same one.
  
• Money. We would like to eventually open an educational savings account or 529 college savings plan for each of the kids, so any monies they receive will go towards reaching the minimums for opening one of those, unless you would specifically like it for something else. Of course, they won't have any idea about this gift, but they'll appreciate it when they're older, right? I'm starting to sound like my dad...
  

I hope I haven't been too presumptous with this post. The main thing is that Tjabe and the baby really don't need anything, but if you want to get them something, these are some ideas for you. I always like to have some ideas when I'm shopping for others and hope this is helpful. And of course, if you already have other things for them, even if they're things we didn't mention, please know that we are very appreciative and grateful. By no means do I want to keep people from giving our children special things that they really want them to have. Instead, I just want to provide some guidance, for those who want some and maybe don't know where to start. Our friends and families have been more than generous to us and our kids, and we are so thankful for all of them.

Birding

Saturday Sam and his birding buddy Radd took Tjabe birding at a lake around here, while I helped host a baby shower for a friend. They left pretty early and got breakfast at a little po-dunk (how do you spell that?) cafe - kind of a birding tradition for them. Tjabe told me he got a pancake. Anyway, here is a shot of father and son scoping out the lake for waterfowl.

Last night

My computer has been down for a while, so I actually have a good excuse for not blogging lately (much better than my normal laziness excuse).

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We've been asking Tjabe to think of things that he wants to thank God for during our family prayer time at night. Last night he wanted to pray first, and it went like this:
"Lord God, Thank you for lights and books and pants. Thank you for [something I couldn't understand, that went on for a few seconds]. Now Dad, pray."

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Tjabe was playing with this little game he has, that is all of the planets cut out of a piece of thin foam, and then he can put them back into the "puzzle". He and Sam were goofing around and Tjabe ended up throwing all the little foam planets into the air several times, then gathering them up and repeating the process. At one point we couldn't find Jupiter, which is, sensibly, much larger than any of the other foam pieces. We finally found it, but I have been forbidden to disclose on my blog where it was or what Sam's comment was when we did find it. So if you want a laugh, ask me in person some time, where I can give the appropriate disclaimer and preserve your good opinion of my husband.

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We learned yesterday that Tjabe likes to say the alphabet backwards now. I was impressed - I think he does it faster than I could. He must have gotten tired of singing it the right way, loudly, every ten minutes, as he has been known to do lately. On that note, have fun with him this weekend, Mom! Nothing gets stuck in your head like the ABC's! And when he's done with that he sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! It doesn't drive me crazy at all! I love going to sleep with it running through my head, and waking up to it, and eating to it, and ...! Whoever gave those two songs the same tune had a death wish.

Picking Pumpkins

Last week Tjabe and I went with some other moms and kids for a hayride and pumpkin picking at a local farm. He loved the tractor that pulled our hayride and was really excited to run into the field and get his own little pumpkin. There are also some stacked haybales that they made into forts for the kids to play in. Here are some pictures. Thanks Elizabeth for taking pictures for us!

Baseball

The MLB post-season has begun, and Sam is loving it. Yesterday after work he came home and promptly turned on the TV to watch whatever game happened to be on at the time. I'm pretty sure the Cubs were playing. Tjabe had just gotten up from his nap* and rushed into our room to join Dad on the bed for some baseball-watching. After five minutes he was fast asleep, and he slept this way for about an hour. Sam is still awake in this picture, by the way; he's just looking down at the TV.



*"Nap" is such a relative word. What Tjabe had actually just done was talk and play in his room for an hour and a half. He's getting over a little cough/stuffy nose, so I was really hoping he would sleep. Especially since he hasn't been sleeping for naps these past few days, and we had a bedtime melt-down one night because of it. So after him persistenly asking if he could come out of his room yesterday afternoon after his nap, and with me still wanting some Mommy time to get things done, I told him he could come out when his clock (the one is his room is, unfortunately, digital) said "four-zero-zero." When Sam got home I think it was around 3:57, and he asked for three minutes if it was time yet, with me reminding him repeatedly, "What does your clock say?" I think that's a concept that will take some time for him to grasp, but we'll keep working on it. Let's just say that when it did finally say 4:00, he was thrilled and ran out to see Dad (and the TV).

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Sam, being the nerd that he is, wrote out the baseball game schedules for the rest of this week on a photo-copied page from his calendar. He listed the games with three-letter abbreviated names of the teams that were playing. Out of curiosity (and to be supportive of his interests) I was reading this schedule last night. I thought I was doing pretty well at recognizing the teams. For someone who only watches baseball if it happens to be on and I have nothing else to do, I was proud of myself for being able to identify "MIL" as the Milwaukee Brewers, and "CHC" as the Chicago Cubs. Then I saw "LAD."
Me: Who is LAD?
Sam: Los Angeles Dodgers
M: I thought it was the Brooklyn Dodgers.
S: It used to be - they moved to LA.
Me (with surprise at this disruption in my entire thinking of baseball): Really?! When?
S: Oh.... in the 60's, maybe?

Can I help it if my only exposure to the Dodgers is when I read "In The Year Of The Boar and Jackie Robinson" in sixth grade?

Random shot

When we were rearranging furniture a couple of weeks ago, Tjabe decided to get involved. He's in the desk.

Words Cannot Express...

... how much we love our son.

Ball Gown

Sam and I went to a much-anticipated formal ball at the beginning of September. I had a friend make me a maternity ball gown, and promised I would put up some pictures of the final product. Unfortunately I didn't take any good pictures that night, but this one shows the dress the best. I was going to Photoshop out myself but that just looked freaky. The dress was beautiful though. There is a black floral pattern on the top part that the light catches, kind of, in this picture. And if anyone ever needs to borrow a formal maternity ball gown, I now have one.

Things I Love About Being Pregnant

- I can feel my baby girl moving inside me all the time
- My belly is in a perfect size and location for Tjabe to rest his head on when we're sitting on the couch
- I have the great anticipation of receiving another little one into the world
- Some of my maternity clothes are really cute
- I have two great doctors and a wonderful doula that I get to see all the time
- I have other really good friends who are pregnant with me (and some even due at the same time!)
- It's a great conversation piece with strangers on the street
- People get me massages! (thanks Mom)
- I could totally work the tired-hungry-crabby-pregnant woman angle if I really wanted to (but I don't)
- Nesting is fun
- I am getting some adorable baby girl clothes
- I am getting much less afraid of having my blood drawn
- The good parts of pregnancy completely outweigh the bad

Things I Don't Love About Being Pregnant

- Absolutely everything I put into my body is affecting another person
- I really do get tired
- I really do get hungry
- I really do get crabby
- My hormones make me crazy (see potential future post, "Diary Of A Mad Pregnant Woman")
- I have to involuntarily grunt whenever I bend over the sink to brush my teeth or wash my face
- It takes a lot longer to get comfortable before falling asleep
- I can't take a deep breath from certain positions
- I can't sleep on my back or stomach, and sometime when I sleep on my side I feel like my ribs and huge bust are crushing my lungs
- I am constantly spilling food that will undoubtedly land either on my enormous boob shelf or the baby belly shelf below that
- I am running out of cute maternity clothes that are still comfortable
- I don't like needles and often have to get my blood drawn
- Hospital bills
- I always want to exert myself more than I should
- I can't sneeze or laugh too hard without wondering if I just peed
- There is definitely no sneezing when in the squatting position
- I worry about every little thing that could potentially go wrong with the baby (maybe that's just a mom thing)
- It's hard to not feel frumpy and somewhat mutated with a big belly
- I can't put on my socks or shave my legs without taking a deep breath first
- Tjabe's "Mommy As A Jungle Gym" routine is starting to get more painful
- It's hard to hold a screaming toddler over my lap while I spank him because my belly gets in the way

Can I get an amen, sistas?

What do you say in a moment like this?

Last night we drove by the grocery store and Tjabe said that he needed to go there. When asked what he needed, he replied, "Wine." Sam is so proud.

Our Fashion Guru

Sometimes Tjabe gets a wild streak and wants to don some of his favorite gear (i.e. rain boots, helmet, mittens...). He also, unrelatedly, likes to get my watering can and water the plants outside. This photo is a combination of the two hobbies. To quote from one of my favorite movies, "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize."

Demoted?

Our 2 1/2-year-old is growing up. No longer do we hear the happy sounds of Dada and Mama in our house. Now, everything is Dad and, though less often, Mom. I mean, where does he get this? I think I was at least eight or nine before I switched from Mommy and Daddy to just plain Mom and Dad. What is the world coming to? Thank goodness we have another one coming...

Tjabe's Baby

Mixed in with all of Tjabe's stuffed animals is a baby doll that I had when I was little. He has recently become attached to it and carries it everywhere now, constantly interacting with it and, in a way, mothering it. He is always talking to "Baby" (that's what he named her - very original, I thought), telling her it's time for a nap, trying to put her pajamas on using the actual baby girl clothes we have started to collect, bringing her to the table to feed her, and just showing her around the house and his world. If you have a little girl of your own, this may sound very normal, but we thought at first that maybe it was a little effeminate for a boy. We aren't too worried though. First, it's definitely good to see him being so loving (usually) to a pretend baby, so that he is all practiced up for when the real baby comes. And second, while he can be very maternal with her, he will also remind us that he is still all boy by carrying her around by the throat (no coddling with this kid), throwing her to the floor whenever he hears the garbage truck come by so he can go watch (that is the highlight of our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings - the garbage gets picked up in the parking lot right outside our dining room window), or announcing to me, "Look Mama, I poke baby's eyes!" as he does so. So we obviously still have a few things to work on before he gets babysitting duty.

Random quote

"Big hunky blokes with picks and shovels."
"Yes, and a couple of deck chairs."
"Deck chairs?"
"Yes, so we can sit and watch."

Sayings

More things Tjabe has said lately:
- "I need an adjustment." (on our way to the chiropractor)

- "Aaawwwww.... cute!" At the time he was referring to the gummie vitamins I was handing him, although I don't know why, but he often says the "Aaawww" part whenever he is referring to the baby. For example, before bed he says goodnight to Sam and me, then we go through this discourse:
Tjabe: "Open." meaning "Please scoot up your shirt Mama so I can see your belly." Apparently his goodnights to the baby don't work through fabric.
I pull my shirt up to show him my belly.
Tjabe: "Aaawwwww...." placing both hands on my belly button. Not my stomach, but right on my belly button. I think he thinks it is some kind of port hole to the baby, or maybe even the baby itself. He holds them there until I make my stomach move, so he thinks the baby has "kicked him". He would never hold it there long enough to actually feel her move though. Then he puts his face up to my belly until I move again, then he laughs and puts his hands up again. We do this a few times, and I get another "Aaawwwww," and then he kisses my belly button and goes off to his bed. I can't wait to see how he reacts to a baby actually coexisting in his house with him in a few months.

- "In the moon like, In the moon like." He was trying to sing along to a song that was playing that actually goes, "In the moonlight, In the midnight..."

- "Go Mama, go!" wanting me to push him faster in the shopping cart.

It's been a while...

I don't really have much to add right now. Things are going well. I and Baby are healthy, as are Sam and Tjabe of course. Right now Sam is cooking a fabulous roasted chicken for dinner while Tjabe and I play. He and Tjabe have gotten some quality time together while I've been trying to get some extra work in this summer. Here are some recent pictures of Tjabe.

We did some watercolor painting - it's about time I got some use out of all those art supplies I bought for college! Of course Tjabe soon realized that it was much more fun to just make the rinse water turn colors with the paints than to actually create something on paper.

An intense artist at work

A not-so-intense expression of Tjabe's

Tjabe found a sunbeam coming in through the window and was mesmerized by it - he kept wanting to walk through it.


A not-so-flattering picture of my pregnant belly, but you get the idea, for those of you wondering how big I am. Tjabe is in there for scale reference. And yes, I could take him out with my stomach if I moved too quickly.

I just realized that Tjabe is topless in most of these pictures. It has been pretty hot here, for my standards. I would be the same way if it wasn't offensive (or dangerous...). That is how hot it is.

Our baby

And the verdict is... It's a girl! I'm always a little unsure about the girl findings, thinking maybe they just missed something, but we basically had the ultrasound done twice yesterday, once with the tech and again with the radiologist, and both agreed that it seemed to be a girl (plus they got two different views of that telling region). Everything else on the ultrasound looked great, and I am still set to be due November 12. We took Tjabe, who seemed interested while it was happening ("I see baby on TV?"). He liked looking at the pictures afterward too. We didn't explain the pictures too much to him, but just told him that this was the baby. Sam thought he might have nightmares if we tried to explain the pictures to him, especially the face one, thinking he was going to have some kind of monster sibling. They are all pasted below for your viewing pleasure. It always amazes me how strange the baby looks in ultrasound, especially the face shots. Kind of creepy if you don't know what you're looking at... Anyway, we are excited to have a daughter, and Tjabe still doesn't really have comprehension of boys vs. girls, so he was just excited that we let him watch the baby on TV (poor kid doesn't get to watch much TV).

View of the arm making a fist on the left ("You talkin' to me?"), the knee/shin on the right

Baby's face on the left, rib cage on the right

Baby's right leg and foot(upside down)