Frugal Fred and Swiper Sally

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
This week has been mostly drama free and calm. As usual, we have been trying to keep ourselves busy with fun activities, but a few interesting things about your personalities have emerged this week. I'll explain more about those things as we go along.

Today we attended the last of the Austin Childrens' Art Park Day. We met up with a good friend and for the most part, enjoyed our time.

 Nathan really wanted to skip the loud music and go do crafts, but once you heard some spanish that you recognize a bit, it wasn't too bad. At one point, I asked you Nathan, if you wanted some lemonade. (They sell $0.10 cups of lemonade) Immediately you asked me if it was free. I told you that it cost money, but it was ok. You surprised me and said, "I only want it if it's free. I don't want to spend any money on lemonade."

This was just one example of how recently you've become more aware of the value of money. I have no idea how this has been instilled in you, but it is a good thing. Now we need to do the same thing for Hannah because while we were at Costco today, she asked me, "Mommy, can we just buy everything?"

Hannah you enjoyed dancing along to the music. We listened to an artist named Natalia, who wrote music to teach her kids Spanish. I was very inspired until I remembered that I lack musical talent (especially in the voice department).

With 2 pregnant ladies well into 30 weeks, we took some time at the potty and then finally, Nathan you were able to do what you were wanting to do all along...crafts.

 And then you guys banged on some drums for a bit.

 Afterwards, we took our friends to an authentic Chinese restaurant up north. We ordered some Chinese BBQ and a plate of seafood pan fried noodles.

Photo Credit: H. Lozano

Nathan, you told me you wanted just white rice and soy sauce...because it's free.

Hannah chowed down on the shrimp, scallops, and noodles. You even copied Nathan by partaking in some of the free rice and soy sauce.

Photo Credit: H. Lozano 

Afterwards, we went next door to get some bubble "tea." You guys agreed on an avocado smoothie and tried to convince your friend that chewie balls are yummy. He had other ideas.

Temps have been reaching 100 degrees lately in the afternoon, so we've been trying to do things indoors, cool things outdoors, or go swimming.

One day we uncovered some treasures from a big block of ice. I let you guys come up with the tools to use and it was pretty priceless seeing your faces as you freed the treasure from the block of ice.

 Hannah, you have been very interested in doing "homework." While Nathan works on his Chinese alphabet, you have been practicing your letters.

 Nathan, you continue to really love spending time putting legos together and then playing with the end result. One afternoon, you and Hannah played with each other for almost 3 hours (without fighting) as I got work done downstairs. This has yet to happen again, as Hannah, you've been "swiping" things that Nathan is playing with. We've talked about what you need to do when you want to play with a toy, we've role played different situations and it seems like you know what to do and what to say, but when push comes to shove, you actually push and shove to get the thing that you want from Nathan, and Nathan usually lets you have it, but whines heavily about it.

I am so proud of you, Nathan, for keeping your anger under control. I can tell that you are frustrated and angry, but you never hit back or try to hurt Hannah (even though there have been times when I wish you would just stand your ground and push her away...which is bad thinking, Mommy!) I'm not quite sure about what to besides praising your pacifist behaviors and empathizing with how you must be feeling.

One thing we are working on, though, is to respond to frustrating events by using your words; not shrieking like a dinosaur who just had their eggs taken away; and by not flailing your arms and body around, which in the end hurts yourself.

 Another cool Pinteresty thing that we did this week was salt painting. I had you guys draw an ocean picture, I traced your paper with glue and then you guys put the salt on the glue. Then you dabbed water colors over the salt crystals, observing the colors spreading and mixing with adjacent colors.

In the end, Hannah, most of your salt was rubbed off, and I found you sticking your fingers in your mouth a lot...which now I realize that you were simply licking the salt off of your paper.

 And Nathan sat patiently and created a colorful design, full of rainbow fish and sea weed.

 Hannah, you are still interested in drawing. To encourage you to draw on paper (as opposed to walls, furniture, and random things around the house) I got you a notebook as a prize for finishing swim class. You love taking the notebook around the house and you pretend that you are a waitress, taking our orders at a restaurant. For some reason, whatever I order is always out...

Another thing you earned this week is a Cinderella dress. You earned this by filling up a chart by having dry undies. This ended up being very good motivation because it didn't take you long to fill up the chart, but once you earned the dress, things kind of slid a bit, so I've put in a new rule about if you wet the floor, I take the dress away for 2 days. If you have a little bit of an accident, it's ok. You not 3 quite yet and may not have enough bladder control to hold it while you get ready to climb on to the potty. 

 You really love the dress. On the first day, you wore it all day. Nathan actually really likes the dress too and has unofficially claimed the dress as his on the days when Hannah's dress privileges have been revoked.

Last Thursday, we visited Daddy at work. You guys had the usual and then we played arcade games for about 30 minutes afterwards. Hannah can now roll the skee ball so that it passes the ramp and does not roll back down. You are so proud of yourself and you jump with excitement when that ball pops up that ramp, even if you don't earn any points. 

 I've also discovered that you like crispy salmon skin. You have become very curious about the things that I eat (if they are different from what you get to eat.) I let you try everything, and most of the time, you end up liking it. I'm finding that your taste buds are becoming more similar to mine.

 On Saturday Austin Parks and Recreation put on a City wide play day and had lots of activities for kids to do. The lines were long, but we got to do a few of the activities. Nathan was super excited about all the different things, and raced from one activity to another.

 Hannah, on the other hand, was perhaps needing a nap. You would tell us you wanted to do something, we would wait in line and then when we got to the front of the line and it was your turn, you would give us this expression. This picture was taken inside of a trampoline, after we waited in line for 20 minutes to jump in it.

 Outside, they had a bike course set up and Nathan and Daddy were able to show off their bike riding skills on the obstacle course. They had balance bikes for kids like Hannah who don't quite know how to ride a bike yet, but you were set on having a specific color bike, and refused to do anything unless you could have it. Well, you can't ride bikes with pedals yet, so we sat on the side and watched.

There have been sweet moments this week where you two have shown your deep affection for each other. When Nathan gets hurt, Hannah is always there to ask if he's ok, or if Hannah gets hurt, she makes sure that Nathan knows about it, as if she wants him to comfort her.

For the past few weeks, when Hannah has made Nathan mad, Nathan would say, "I'm so mad and angry right now that I don't want you for a sister anymore." Hannah would angrily respond, "But I love you! " and then the banter would go on back and forth. However, yesterday, I witnessed something so sweet: Hannah had just taken something from Nathan, leaving him mad and frustrated. I sent Hannah to time out, we role played the correct thing to do, and then I asked her if she had anything to say to Nathan. She walked over, gave him a hug and said, "I'm sorry I swiped your toy." Nathan responded with,
"Ok, just don't do it again. Even though I am so frustrated and mad at you, I still love you very much."
[heart melts]

A few phrases I want to record you guys saying:
Hannah: What's that aweful smell?

or when Nathan asks the same question Hannah usually answers, with "I tooted!"

Hannah is becoming more capable of doing things. You can put your own shoes on. Put your own bathing suit on, put on your undies the right way (most of the time), and just today, you figured out how to unbuckle yourself from your carseat. You are also very observant and will ask things like, why does that bridge have legs? But you are also getting good at ignoring us. I'm pretty sure you hear everything that we say, but you pretend to have selective hearing, which is quite annoying.

Baby Update:
Tomorrow marks week 32. According to the chiropractor, it seems like the baby's head is already down. I can feel her move her arms, and her feet and she shifts her back from one side of my body to the other side, depending on how I'm laying. I feel like she's dropped into my pelvis, because my appetite has grown, but my desire to urinate has increased. Sometimes I feel like I have to go so urgently, but when I try, just a small trickle comes out.

I am currently at the weight that I was when I gave birth to Hannah. It looks like this time, I will be able to gain an appropriate amount of weight, which should make milk production more efficient.

I'm starting to see the midwife every 2 weeks, which means the due date is drawing near. Steve and I actually came up with plans to make sure the kids are taken care of during different scenarios.

My mom will actually be able to come and help out after the birth of the baby. Originally, she had said that she would not be able to (she's taking care of my aunt who has developed dementia), but she messaged me the other day, telling me that there's a good chance that she would come. I had spent quite some time mentally preparing myself on how Steve and I will survive after the birth without help, so when I heard of this, I was bitter and probably not as grateful as I should've been.

Other than being short of breath after climbing stairs, and feeling like a beached whale all the time, pregnancy is going well. I still remain relatively aches and pain free. With Nathan and Hannah my water broke exactly 2 weeks before each of their due dates. I'm anxious to find out how baby number 3 will announce her arrival, and how much time we will have to prepare (since Nathan's birth came so quickly). In the meantime, I have puppy pads and paper towels in the trunk just in case we don't make it to the birthing center on time.

Final Days of Swim Lessons and Afternoon Naps for Hannah (31 Weeks)

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

These past 2 weeks have been busy. Between botany camp for Nathan and swim lessons for Hannah, we've been busy in the mornings running back and forth around town. This week Hannah has started to not want to take an afternoon nap. For awhile, you were ok with about 20 minutes of quiet time in my room and then you would lay down yourself and take a nap. But as the days progressed, the wake time got longer and longer until one day this past week, you just didn't take a nap. Why would anyone want to sleep when "schedule time" sounds like so much fun. Well, the past 2 days, you are finding out just what schedule time consists of and I have a feeling that it's not as exciting as you thought it was. (You really enjoyed doing Chinese homework with Nathan though...) 

On Friday, there was no swim class, so Hannah, you and I spent the morning at the Wildflower Center participating in their Sprouts program. We got to look at things up close and then made observations about living and non-living things in a small field study. 

 You did a great job sketching your observations. (Your drawings are starting to look kind of like what they actually are supposed to represent)

 Nathan's been very into rebuilding Daddy's old legos lately. Right now you are working on a space shuttle and you've been working on that during your spare time for the past 3 days.

Nathan you are also doing a great job with keeping your undies dry during the night. You are now officially a big boy who is done with diapers (finally).

I really love Nathan at this age of life. You are generally helpful and insightful with amazing questions always spewing from your mouth.

Hannah is also starting to really understand cause and effect and able to problem solve pretty well.

On Saturday we participated in a Supper Club where we visited an apartment complex and shared a meal and just hung out with the residents there. I'm really loving that our church is doing more outreach mission projects.

Hannah still loves to help out in the kitchen, while Nathan, your interest is starting to wane...even when there's chocolate brownies involved.

 On Monday, my car battery died, so we didn't get to go to swim class. However, we did end up going to our neighborhood pool and just practiced swimming there. We had lots of fun and we basically had the whole pool to ourselves. The water was cool, not warm, and the weather was overcast...a perfect Texas day for swimming.

Hannah is doing so well in swim lessons and is able to doggie paddle for about 10 feet before having to come up for air. In fact, you are able to jump from this high ledge into the water and swim to the other side all by yourself. You don't really like jumping, but when I tell you that you only have to jump 2 times, you are ok with that. 

Nathan really enjoys cheering you on and recording you while you swim. 

Baby Update:
Baby is positioned with her head down already, so as long as she doesn't make any major permanent shifts, we will be ok. So far, we are all healthy, the only inconvenience is that I'm not able to eat as much as I'd like to: I'm always still feeling hungry.

Well, since Hannah is not taking afternoon naps, and I have taken on a new part time job (helping coordinate a mentoring program at a local elementary school) I think these posts will not occur as regular as they have been for the past few years. I imagine I will be writing these mostly at night now, so for those of you (grandma and grandpa) who've built reading this blog into their weekly schedule, I apologize.

Well, until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Hot, Hot, Summer Heat, Solar Cars, and Fire Stations

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

I don't know if it's the pregnancy or the heat index, but it sure is hot outside! We've been trying to do as much stuff outside, but try to stay cool at the same time...which is tough. Well, here are this week's highlights. 

Nathan is attending the wildflower's center's camp session on botany and Hannah has started swim lessons with Ms. Cathy. Today is day 2 and she is already diving into the pool and swimming 15 feet to the other side. Ms. Cathy's methods are unconventional, there's a lot of crying in the beginning, but the kids get over their fear of the water by day 3 and they actually enjoy jumping into the pool and showing off by completing the little task games that Ms. Cathy has them do. 

We've tried cooling off outside by running through sprinklers, but you guys didn't last too long outside. It's too hot under the sun and too cold under the shade. 

 This past weekend we drove to the Circuit of Americas race track to watch the formula Sun races. Universities from across the US along with Canada and Puerto Rico race their solar cars around the track. It was really neat to be able to sit in the best seats on the track (because that will probably never happen for us during a F1 race) and be able to stand right next to the pit.

 They even had a workshop to talk about energy, specifically renewable energy, and the kids got to build their own simplified solar cars.

 Of course we got to race it in the sun. The sun was so intense that the reflection of the light off of the street was powerful enough to actually power the car (when the panels were facing down towards the ground). That shows how intensely hot it is right now.

 And we also celebrated Daddy's birthday. Hannah helped with making the cake and Nathan came up with the flavors. Chocolate cake with cookies and cream frosting. Green sprinkles for Daddy because it's his favorite color.

 The next day we went to one of Hannah's friend's birthday party. They live right next to the fire station so part of the party was at their house and the other part took place at the fire station.

 We got to tour the fire station, climb inside one of the fire engines, and shoot water out of an engine hose.

 Pregnancy Update: Tomorrow I will be going in for my 30 week appointment. Things are getting pretty cramped, but the baby still has plenty of room to perform somersaults in the womb. I am constantly feeling hot and my appetite now is smaller than the kids'. Therefore, I just eat more often. My chiropractor visits have gone down to once a week and it's keeping aches and pains at bay.

Well, that's it for this week. I apologize on the brevity of the post, but it's a busy week.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Summer Fun VBS and 4th of July

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

This summer has been quite busy. Who knew life with preschoolers could be this exciting. Last week we finished up a week long session of VBS and Nathan, you absolutely loved the experience. You were sad to find out that you would have to wait another year before VBS happens again. You even tried to convince me that it was still going on this week. 

 The decorations were pretty awesome. On the last day, you both wanted me to take pictures of you guys at your favorite spots.

 On Saturday, we went to Home Depot to participate in their workshop. You guys got to make your own bug houses.

 It was crowded, but luckily Daddy suggested that we bring our own hammer and you two were happy to take turns with each other to complete the project.

 We even met up with some friends and had a great time wood working together.

 Hannah, you have recently become very interested in drawing. You are getting pretty good at coloring things in... and you can even tell when you don't do a great job. I was surprised to hear you ask our neighbor if your picture was bad. Your little voice, desperately asking, "Is my picture not good? Is it bad?" And our neighbor, who was so sweet, replied, I'm coloring, don't ask me any questions. I quickly ran over and complimented the good things that you did, like you used different colors and you colored in the details of the picture.

We've also recently discovered that you enjoy to do mazes. We've had a few opportunities to sneak off on our own and complete some mazes. 

 And then you wanted to draw, so I watched as you drew a picture of me with the baby in my belly (that's the little circle between my arms) and then you drew some hair on top and said, H for hair!
I was a bit surprised because first of all you wrote the letter H and you related it to hair.

 On Monday, we went across the street to the elementary school to watch fireworks with our next door neighbors. While Nathan really just sat back and enjoyed the show, Hannah was sitting with anticipation to watch a drumming show. Apparently all the flashy bursts of light exploding in the sky was not enough. You wanted to see where the booms were coming from, and to you it was pretty obvious that there was going to be a drum show after the fireworks. Well, with it being 2 hours past your bedtime, you threw a pretty big tantrum when you realized that there would be no drum show.

 After a good night sleep, you two woke up normal time, ready for the neighborhood parade. Nathan, you rode your bike and you were so proud of yourself when you saw kids way bigger than you still in training wheels. And Hannah, I was so proud of you for riding your scooter the whole time around the parade.

 Although afterwards, you did get pretty tired and required some extra hugs.

 But in the end, we were all rewarded with snow cones. You both decided that you wanted to make a rainbow with all the different flavors.

In the evening 2 families came over to our house for dinner and since we already saw fireworks the night before, we got you both to bed at a more decent hour. 

Week 29 Pregnancy Update. 

Well, baby is getting to be big and kicking a whole lot more. Hannah did not kick a whole lot (probably due to hip dysplasia) but this one is moving and wiggling and kicking all the time. I don't think I'm much bigger than I was last week, but things are starting to fill up inside and getting cramped up. 

Regular visits to the chiropractor have been very helpful as I haven't really had to ask Steve for back massages at all. 

My iron levels are borderline low, so I've been trying to eat more iron rich foods and taking a B complex vitamin has done wonders for my energy levels. I have not taken a nap in over a week. 

I'm not quite sure if I have allergies, a minor cold, or pregnancy induced sinus congestion, but I've been feeling sniffly the past 2 days. 

Overall, this pregnancy is going very well. I have another appointment next week so I'll probably have more detailed updates then. 

I love you both very much and I look forward to seeing how both of you will rise up to take on your new roles as our new baby will join our family soon. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy