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.