Mother's "Day" Adventures & Baby is almost 22 Weeks

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Your baby sister is now almost 22 weeks old. She is now the size of a least weasel or a baseball hat. I'm starting to feel her move more and my belly is now the size of a standard balloon. We just had a prenatal visit and everything is going well. Her heartbeat is strong and this week I've been feeling her move a lot more. I've been feeling a bit tired, needing to take naps sometimes in the afternoon, but for the most part, I'm still able to function fully.

Hannah you are pretty much convinced that you have a baby in your belly too! Your belly is pretty big (especially after meals), but I can assure you, there is no baby in there. 

On Wednesday, the school had a special mother's day tea. I got to visit with you two at school, receive amazing gifts that you had made for me and share some snacks.  

 There was a lot of love in that room. You could feel the excitement, warmth and energy as soon as the kids walked in. When I left, I felt a little bit lonely. It was such a great reminder of how much love and energy you two bring into the house.

On Thursday we met up with a few friends and went to the nature center. This was a neat visit because for Hannah, it was the first time that you actually realized that we were digging up dinosaur fossils. You were so excited as you brushed the sand away, revealing the bone underneath.

 And then we went on a walk around the lake. You all wanted to look for frogs because there were so many lilly pads on the lake.

 Some days it's so nice to just sit back and watch you two play independently. I think back to just 2 years ago and am amazed by what both of you have learned to do.

Hannah, you love drawing, playing with play-doh, playing pretend mommy, and taking things apart (aka: destroying things).

 Nathan, you are really into building lego sets and playing with your transformers. Both of those activities will occupy you for a long time. But out of everything, you probably enjoy playing games on my kindle. We really have to limit your screen time because it's so easy to lose track of how much time you are spending on the screen, especially when I'm busy with something else. So now we set timers for 30 minutes most days of the week during quiet time while Hannah is sleeping.

We still love going to Costco and seeking out the samples. Some days we are lucky and will be able to score 5-6 samples. You two are very good at indicating how delicious the sample is...especially Hannah.

 On Saturday, we had a super busy day. We packed into the car after breakfast and headed out to Camp Mabry for their annual touch-a-truck event.

 There were lots of things for kids to do. Hannah didn't quite like the giant slide.

 And we all know who got really excited to take a picture with Mater.

 And there were more than enough trucks and engines for you guys to climb into and honk horns.

 HEB gave out free popsicles and that was a nice treat to cool us down from being under the hot sun.

 Afterwards, we drove downtown to an event sponsored by facebook. I am part of Austin Mom's Network, a facebook group started by my incredible friend to build a network of support for Austin moms. There was free food from food trucks that I've always wanted to try (because someone in the family does not like food trucks),

 fun activities for you guys to participate in,

 including really neat and creative crafts.

 After 2 hours at the event, we were all exhausted and ready to head home. It was quite the day. We made lots of memories and spent lots of great family time together.

Mother's day Sunday was a pretty typical day. Church, lunch out, Chinese school, but I couldn't help but take a picture of what we call the "baby mosh pit" at our church service. It's become a tradition that during the last song, all the kids flock up to the front to twirl, dance and rejoice. It's really the cutest thing ever (this picture hardly does it justice)

 I think as far as siblings go, you two really play well together. Hannah still follows Nathan's directions for the most part and Nathan doesn't think Hannah is too annoying. Nathan, you definitely are proud to be the big brother because whenever I phrase things that I would like you to do as "Why don't you show Hannah how to..." your chest puffs up just the tiniest bit and you call to Hannah so sweetly, "Hannah, let me show you how to..."
For example, you two wanted to plant carrots in the planters that you guys built last weekend.

 And then you help each other spin dry the kale for kale chips while I prep dinner.

 And this morning, we stumbled on this happening. Hannah was actually helping you out by looking for the pieces that you need to build your Lego set. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

 Hannah you are a creature of habit. I am pretty much shocked to find that everyday after we come home from being out somewhere, the first thing you do is you take off your shoes and you put them in your cubby. Since you have started to do this, Nathan has also followed suit. Now I just need to work on putting my shoes away when we come home.

Hannah, you've also got the skill of summarizing down. For example today you and Nathan were both finishing up lunch out on the patio as I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch. I overheard Nathan ask you to relay a message to me. You pitter patter in and ask if I could go outside and show Nathan my yellow nail polish on my toes. I told you that I was busy cleaning and that you guys could come in and see them when you were finished with lunch. You ran back out. I hear Nathan ask you, "What did she say?" I was expecting you to reply with what I had told you, but instead, you just said, "She said, No." Short and sweet.

Another thing happened this week. You two both decided to open the front door to check the weather outside. Teddy peeks out and sees a neighbor, so he darts out to greet them. I scolded you two with, "You two let Teddy escape!" as I rushed out to retrieve him. After capturing him I come home and I find you both sitting out in the time out area. Both of you looked a bit sad and sincerely apologized for letting Teddy escape. I quickly gave you both hugs and told you both that I forgave you. How could I stay mad at you two when you do something like this?

As Hannah emerges out of the terrible two phase I'm starting to really enjoy and cherish motherhood more than I have ever enjoyed it before. I look forward to see how your personalities play out as you go through this life journey. I love you both.

Love,
Mommy

Week 21: Crawfish, Corn, and Crafts

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

This week has been busy, but very fun. A little update on the pregnancy. Your little sister is moving quite a bit now a days, being especially wiggly right before bedtime. I'm feeling really great and actually craving/liking spicy foods. Now, I normally a wimp when it comes to anything spicy, but it seems like my tolerance for the heat has gotten better. 

The weather has been amazing lately. We've been able to eat outside on the patio for most meals. Usually, we can only do this for about 2 weeks before the heat becomes too unbearable. So, I thought that before crawfish season was over, we could take advantage of the nice weather outside and host a small boil. We invited Hannah's Godparents and a good neighbor family over. 

It was definitely a multi-step process and you guys did a great job helping me out. As I rinsed the crawfish, getting them to purge out all of their yucky swamp nastiness, you guys shucked a dozen ears of corn and kept watch for runaway crawfish. 

While we were getting dinner ready, you guys did some "cooking" yourself. 

At the end, out of all 5 kids, we find out that Hannah is the only crawfish lover, so we ended up with quite a bunch of leftovers. 

 Hannah, you were very excited to see your God-brother, who was only born 2 weeks after you and this time around, your God-brother's sibling will only be a few days behind your little sister.

 This is what 30 pounds of crawfish looks like. We only lost about a dozen due to pre-mature mortality. After dinner, we actually found 1 flattened crawfish in the middle of the street. "Freedom!" [squash].

 After our feast, we walked over to our neighborhood's food truck community night and hung out at the kid zone for a good hour. While the adults enjoyed a few free beers and listened to local live music, the children chased bubbles and played various lawn games. It wast the perfect activity for you guys.

Earlier on Saturday morning while Daddy was playing hockey, I took both of you to Home Depot to participate in their monthly craft project. This month it was a little planter. Nathan, you were able to do most of the hammering yourself, but accidentally broke your planter in half. 

 Hannah, you attempted to hammer the nails in, and you were hitting the head of the nails, but you just don't have the arm strength that it takes to completely hammer them in yet.

 Afterwards, you two got to paint them and were very proud of your work. Once Nathan realized that there was an actual pot where we could plant seeds, you asked if you could pick out something to plant from our seed library. We will be putting carrots and broccoli seeds in the pots later this week.

 Hannah, you are getting to be such a big girl these days. You love going on bike rides with the family and now you are even able to sit on the little attachment behind Daddy's bike. You simply love zooming around the neighborhood and racing with either Nathan or me on our bikes. The only thing you get upset about is that you don't have a bell on your bike.

 You have also recently started to ask to sleep with Nathan. Since Nathan is working on just wearing undies at night, he is sleeping on the bottom bunk with a washable puppy pad. So far we've had success when we limit liquids to before dinner and when we bring him to the potty at around 11. You usually stir a bit when we wake him up, but you quickly go back to bed. I actually think you are ready for this training as well, but we are going to wait until you can easily slip your undies off and on by yourself and when you are completely daytime potty trained.

 Hannah is taking soccer kids with the big kids. You technically are supposed to be in the younger age group, but the coaches let you join in Nathan's class because you are close to 3 and you are pretty coordinated. You really enjoy the class. Nathan too. Today, we had our old soccer coach come in to sub and you guys were so excited to see him!

 After soccer class, we stopped by Daddy's work for lunch. While we waited for him, we played a few arcade games and today, Hannah, you learned how to get the skee-ball up the ramp and not have it roll back down to you.

Often I try to find the most fun activity for you guys to have fun with and often I'm reminded that you guys are happy and excited by things that I have now found to be very ordinary. I need to remember that you guys are new to the world and need to experience it one small step at a time. 

Little things that make you excited and happy are: 

1) "Elsa hair" Hannah, you love it when I braid one side of your hair even if it looks nothing like Elsa. 

 2) And you always get super excited when the purple plate is clean and you can use it for dinner.

3) Each morning, lunch and dinner time, you guys want to go out and check on the 1 red cherry tomato that we have growing in the garden. Apparently we have to wait for the tomato to come off easily, that's when it is really ripe. I am a bit nervous because this is the one opportunity for me to get you two to like cherry tomatoes. If you two end up hating the first bite, that's it for a long time, you two will automatically associate cherry tomatoes as not good. It's all in your head with new foods. If I can convince you two to try a bite of new food and you end up liking it, we are golden.
Little things.

This week winds down a bit with a mother's day tea at school. Once May is over, summer will be here and we'll have a busy schedule then as well: swim lessons, camps and VBS.

Whew. Well, until next week.

Love,
Mommy

We totally could've named our kids Jay, Kay and Elle.

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

You two waited 4 days to find out whether or not you were going to have a baby brother or sister. And just in case you need a reminder, here's a video to share the news! 

We met up with a few of Nathan's oldest pals and as you can tell from the video, you guys weren't quite sure what this stuff coming out was. A bit shocked. But once we handed you guys the cans, you all went crazy chasing each other and parents too. 

Photo Credit: Juan Ojeda

 Afterwards, we sat down for a feast of pizza, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and fruit.  A few minutes after we finished eating, a cold front blew through and pushed the humid and stuffy air out. The cool, fresh breeze was much nicer to play in.

Otherwise, things have been pretty normal around the house. Usually at bed time, Hannah insists that I do everything with you. Bath, story, and song. We've been trying to get you used to the idea that it's ok for Daddy to do those things even when I'm around. 

 One of our favorite places in town is the library. There we can get all sorts of cool books, listen to story time and check out videos ( the things you two really look forward to the most). Well, this week the library celebrated its 20th birthday and had a birthday party.

Sometimes Hannah, you like little things. Little cookies, little toys, etc. But sometimes when you find that being small hinders you, you feel the need to grow up fast. Or sometimes you feel like you are big enough to do something, you will say, "See, I big!" 

 You are doing lots of big girl things like being able to scoot up on the potty yourself, steer and ride the scooter by yourself, and clean up after yourself. The thing I find most amazing is that every day when you come in the house, the first thing you do (without reminder) is to walk over to the bench where we keep your shoes, and you take them off. I've been very impressed by that.

On Friday, we ended up having a play date with one of your friends from school. She lives in our neighborhood, so it was nice to be able to just walk there. When your friend pulled out all the dresses she had, Hannah, you were ecstatic! I've never seen you so excited in your life!

You two danced and twirled, and ran around the house like little princesses. It was too cute!

 And then you all switched gears and changed into super hero costumes, something that Nathan could get behind as well.

 On Sunday, you guys helped out with a fundraiser at church. Every year, we have a fundraiser to raise money for the South Austin Pregnancy Resource Center. We pass out empty baby bottles, people fill it with coins, cash and checks and then return it to church. We turn them in and they get to keep whatever is in the bottles. Well, this year, with both of you working the crowds, we passed out over 150 baby bottles! Who could refuse a kid?

 And then today we started up soccer class again, this time, Hannah gets to join in on the fun. We have a new coach this time around, but I can tell that Hannah will love this. You just got so excited during all the drills and games. I could definitely tell that both of you were having a great time.

 Nathan was being such a great big brother too. You even saved a spot next to you for Hannah to sit each time it was pow wow time.

 Today, we worked on little dribble kicks, not touching the ball with our hands, and briefly, trapping the ball. Who knew you could multi-task like this? Even though this was a class for 3-5 year olds, at 2.75 years old, Hannah, you were able to hang with the big kids and was able to do all the things that the older kids could do. Now, you got distracted more easily (as in you would wander off running for no apparent reason) but when you were on task, you did great!

Listening to coach Bobby

The weather is getting warmer so we may be able to go swim soon. We are definitely enjoying our back yard more and are finding regular little critters who have found a place in our yard. For example, there is a little lizard whom we call "Lizzie" and a Katydid that we've discovered in the vegetable garden that keeps reappearing.

Nathan still thinks that Hannah is pretty "terrible" at the age of 2. If anyone asks you about Hannah, you tell them that you think she's pretty terrible because she is 2. Slowly, she is starting to learn how to use her words, share and becoming less terrible.

Well, that's about it for this week!
Until next week!
Love,
Mommy