Archive for May, 2013

End of the Year Shenanigans

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

May has been an insanely busy month so far.  The end of the year really surprised me, even though I’ve known we just had two weeks of school in May!  I had birthday treats, Serenity’s end of the year assembly, Field Day, Preschool Concert, and then I had volunteered to help at the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon.  That was one crazy week of fun!

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Serenity has a summer birthday, but Ms. Parent lets them bring treats so they can celebrate their birthday at school.  Serenity wanted donuts and mermaids for her treats.  I ordered strawberry and regular donut holes, put them in a little cup with a mermaid sticker that I designed for her.  Serenity said we needed a blue napkin to look like the water.  It turned out cute!  And it’s really easy to pass out at school.  Donovan and I stayed for the last twenty minutes of school.  I always love when I get a chance to see what they learn!  They did their riddle book, where Ms. Parent reads a riddle and the class guesses.  Serenity got two of the answers!  I loved seeing her raise her hand.  They also have Chinese, which is so cute at this age.  They follow after the teacher, repeating words.  They reviewed the whole body, with the whole class wiggling their feet, touching their nose, and speaking Chinese!  Then they watched a Little Pim video and repeated words after the video.  Even Donovan repeated the word for bubble!  It was something like pow pow.    So DZ is already ahead of me in Chinese 😉

 

Mermaid donuts =)

Mermaid donuts =)

Singing Happy Birthday to Serenity =)

Singing Happy Birthday to Serenity =)

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Thursday was the awards assembly.  EC doesn’t have awards, but they did sing a skit they learned in class, their time period skit.  They have verses for the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc.  Mrs. McBride told me that Serenity and Harper have become special friends, and Serenity did make sure she was next to Harper for the assembly.

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Thursday evening was the preschool concert.  My favorite moment was when they showed what Mrs. Hall called their dramatic side.  They sang a song about how they can spell cat, and rat, but they can’t spell Hippopotamus.  All the kids pouted and looked pitiful when they sang about not knowing how to spell hippopotamus.  Hilarious!  Serenity was with Lorelai for this whole show, and they were so cute together!

 

Group hug with Abby and Dannesh =)

Group hug with Abby and Dannesh =)

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Friday was field day.  It was a lot simpler than last year, but I still took 130 pictures.  =)  So super cute!  They basically ran around the playground playing little games like sack races, frog stomps, and such.  I asked Serenity if she remembered what field day was a few days before this years field day.  She said “Yes!  It was when my daddy came and ran the sack races and egg races.”  She was so proud that her Daddy helped =)

 

Sack Racing with Daddy

Sack Racing with Daddy

Three Legged Race with Lorelai

Three Legged Race with Lorelai

Playing with Harper =)

Playing with Harper =)

Stomp Frogs

Stomp Frogs

Snow Cones!  Purple for Serenity =)

Snow Cones! Purple for Serenity =)

Then Monday was my pinterest triumph. =)  Kelly let me help decorate the party, and I made little arrangements with flowers, books and school supplies.  And an apple.  Chalkboard tablecloths and little pencils with thank you notes finished the look.

 

 

Oh, I nearly forgot!  Teacher gifts!  I got to shop for group teacher gifts!  It was so much fun!  And I made these little books with interviews from the kids as a keepsake.  The interviews were hilarious, and I think it turned out cute.  Serenity wanted me to redo it because I didn’t put her on the same page with Harper and Lorelai.  Next year maybe =)  teachergiftpage3 copy teachergiftpage4 copy teachergift copy copy teachergiftpage2 copy

 

Pregnancy Journal #3

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Abbey pointed out that I wasn’t very good about posting about my pregnancy with Donovan.  I wrote it all down still, but I guess I didn’t share much of it.  So I’ll try to do a little better this time.  =)  Here’s the journal entry I wrote when I was still keeping everything a secret!

We’re having another baby!  I was just as surprised and thrilled as with the other two.  I suspected I was pregnant because of a few symptoms…I was really thirsty.  The main symptom was total klutziness though.  In just a few weeks I fell off the sidewalk, dropping Serenity and spraining my ankle.  I tripped on my own feet walking across the kitchen and got my finger stuck in our dining room chairs. And I backed my car into a parked car!  Total baby brain.  Jennifer figured it out first after hearing about my klutzy moments over a few weeks.  Then I finally took a test.  I told Eric I knew what I was going to give him for his birthday, and he was like, “well, are you going to tell me what it is, or just keep me in suspense all year?”  Then I blurted out that we were having a baby and his whole face just lit up.  I love him so much, he is just the best Daddy.

 

I’ve been keeping it secret for three weeks now!  Crazy, isn’t it?  I’m terrible with secrets, but I got my heart set on telling the kids first at our next photography session so I could have a picture of their reactions to the news.  But we couldn’t get in to see the photographer until Mother’s Day so we haven’t told ANYONE!  It feels SO weird, but I just don’t want to risk the kids finding out too soon.  I have to be really sneaky with Serenity.  Writing this journal while she’s at school for example, since she can read anything and she notices everything now.

 

So far this baby has thrown me for a little bit more of a loop than the other two.  My digestion is slowing way down so I have to figure out how to eat without getting queasy afterwards.  Smaller meals more often seems to help, and lemon water which I’m drinking constantly.  But sometimes I forget and eat like I normally do, and that’s not fun.  I’m still so grateful to not be sick to the point that I have to throw up.  I don’t know how people with real morning sickness have second babies.  I got food poisoning or a stomach bug (the whole family did) and it just took forever to get my equilibrium back after that.

 

I had a couple of weeks where I dreamed about soft carbs… the kind I almost never eat because they are so bad for you.  White cake, dinner rolls, white bread.  Jennifer made me her delicious dinner rolls.  It was such a treat!

 

I feel like the baby’s a boy, because it feels more like it did with Donovan, but I’m already anxiously awaiting our week 20 ultrasound when we might get to find out for sure.  I’ll feel happy and sad either way, because I would love to have two of each, but we’re pretty sure this is the last one for us.  Serenity pretends everyone is her sister, including her friends Harper and Lorelai from school and Vanaema, so I know she’d love a sister.  But Donovan would love a brother too.  I love this baby already though, whatever the case may be.  =)

 

Oh right, I’m due the end of December, so birthday buddy for Barrett!  Christmas and Advent are going to be very exciting this year!  Daddy’s birthday is possible too.  It’s so funny, I always said I’d try to avoid a December birthday since we have so many in our family, but I just don’t care anymore.  =)

 

This photo at the top is the moment when I told Serenity and Donovan we are having a baby.  Serenity’s first question was, “What’s his name?”  When I told her I didn’t know, and I didn’t even know if the baby would be a boy or a girl, she said, “Don’t worry.  If it’s a girl, we will call her Pearl.  If it’s a boy, he can be Starfish.”  Serenity said it was thrilling news!  Later in the afternoon, she started chanting baby and got Donovan started as well. =)

 

Donovan is 23 Months Old!!!

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Ok, more than a week ago.  But I’m almost caught up now =)

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Donovan is growing into such a funny, sweet boy!  Here are some of his current phrases that are so adorable!

Whee-Ha!

Whee-Ha!

Swords.. and instant hit.

Take a bow!
Take a bow!
Whee-Ha!
One of their favorite games right now is making huge constructions using every pillow and blanket in the house.  They spend a lot of time working together on this!  I love that part... not so much when I am putting it all back. =)

One of their favorite games right now is making huge constructions using every pillow and blanket in the house. They spend a lot of time working together on this! I love that part… not so much when I am putting it all back. =)

Arrrr!  Pirates =)

Arrrr! Pirates =)

This is a rocket Donovan built out of legos.  He builds a lot of airplanes and rockets, although usually they are just rectangles, he spends a lot of time perfecting the and flying them around the house!  He has a great lego attention span =)  He really loves playing with the big boy legos at his cousin's.

This is a rocket Donovan built out of legos. He builds a lot of airplanes and rockets, although usually they are just rectangles, he spends a lot of time perfecting the and flying them around the house! He has a great lego attention span =) He really loves playing with the big boy legos at his cousin’s.

Robot Zot.  We inherited this book about Robot Zot, so we built a Robot out of legos.  Donovan LOVED it!  And one of the lines from the book is "Robot Zot, never fall, Robot Zot, conquer all!"  He repeated this over and over, and hilariously, nearly always dropped Robot Zot when he got to "never fall!"

Robot Zot. We inherited this book about Robot Zot, so we built a Robot out of legos. Donovan LOVED it! And one of the lines from the book is “Robot Zot, never fall, Robot Zot, conquer all!” He repeated this over and over, and hilariously, nearly always dropped Robot Zot when he got to “never fall!”

Donovan loves Rescue Pack!  He sometimes wears it to take Serenity to school =)

Donovan loves Rescue Pack! He sometimes wears it to take Serenity to school =)

Learning about Green Lantern

Learning about Green Lantern

Serenity sleeps in Donovan's room once in a while.  They both love it!

Serenity sleeps in Donovan’s room once in a while. They both love it!

Donovan takes a bow!

Donovan takes a bow!

Snuggling =)  They hug each other so much =)

Snuggling =) They hug each other so much =)

“Whee-ha”  I’m not sure exactly how he came up with it, but he says it very enthusiastically when things are fun, like riding on Daddy or zooming around on his Pillow Racer.  He also seems to really love cowboys these days, and often says Whee-ha instead of Yee-ha or Wahoo!  So cute.  He has a cowboy hat now and waves it around wildly in the air.
He’s starting to show off a dramatic tendency.  In some exciting shows, he’ll say “I can’t look” while holding his hands just under his eyes.  He does this for peekaboo too, putting his hands over his nose instead of actually covering his eyes. 
“I too happy to see you!!!” with wide open arms.  He is so snuggly and loving with his greetings.  His c’s and s’s sometimes sound more like t’s, so cowboys sounds like towboys, and so sounds like too.
Kisses and hugs for everyone mandatory when leaving.  He’s perfectly calm about people needing to go places, unless they don’t follow the proper goodbye protocol.  He’ll say “Hugs!” and give Daddy big hugs, and then he will declare “Sister hugs!  Mama hugs!”  And Daddy can’t leave until everyone hugs him.  Sometimes high fives or kisses are also required, he lets us know. 
Loves buses, bulldozer, cars, trains.

He’s really a pretty chill guy overall.  I’m so lucky!  I especially love the play that is developing between Serenity and Donovan.  They are adorable!  He’ll invite her to play legos and she will, and then she’ll come up with an airplane game and she’ll encourage him to race all over the house with her.  They sometimes go upstairs and I lurk downstairs listening on the monitor.  It’s so cute!  Not perfectly tranquil of course, occasionally there are boundaries crossed, but I don’t have to rush in to rescue them anymore, they usually work it out.  LOVE IT!!!

He says “I know!” or “idea!” and holds up one little finger.  Like today I told him he couldn’t have cookies, and he said, “I know!  Pretzels!” 

He has the cutest biggest belly laugh these days, and finds so many things funny.  He keeps us all giggling.  Oh, and he has the cutest bow ever.  I even got a picture of it! =)