Spring?

We woke up to about 2 inches of snow this morning. :( It has all melted already which is nice since we are supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow. On the way to school this morning I told the kids about March being like a lion and a lamb. They thought it was pretty funny. All the kids at school, including Lucy, seemed very clingy or in bad moods this morning. I think the weather was depressing them too. They all put on their gear and went to the playground anyway, which seemed to cheer them up. Lucy, at least, was happy when I picked her up and she told me she and her friends made snowmen. I love that her school takes them out as long as it is above 20 and not raining hard. Sadly this winter the temperature requirement kept them in for a few weeks straight. It has been a long tough winter! As for me, I think I am having sympathy agony for Julie! I feel giant and kind of down today. I hope my niece feels better soon and my new niece shows up soon!!! I wanted to give you an update and Freddy and the bed. He is doing great!!!! He has not once gotten out of bed. Today he did not fall asleep at nap time, something unusual for him. He didn't get out of bed at all though. I am so proud of him!!!!!! Tonight Lucy is going out on a date with her Daddy. She has made it very clear that she expects ice cream. :) To make all of you out-of-town-Rochester natives jealous, she has chosen Tom Whal's (her very favorite restaurant). I think Freddy and I will order a pizza, which is his very favorite food. :)

Lucy and Ponter are taking a nap. She told me the couch is a camper and she is pretending they are camping. :)

Freddy has a black eye.
This one can be chalked up to his being a clutz. He was at the kitchen table when he dropped something. He bent over to pick it up and smacked eye first into the edge of the table. I have no idea how he managed to hit his eye so exactly, luck I guess. :/

Big Boy

It seems that Freddy has made some big leaps in the last couple of weeks. He is very quickly becoming a little boy and leaving babyhood behind. It's exciting and sad (I would probably feel more sad if I weren't getting kicked by the new one at the moment ;) ). He is speaking more clearly and with more words. He is also stringing more words together. I am finding out that he is catching a lot more than I thought. Yesterday he said "Julie, Momma, baby." I didn't think he really understood about the babies but I guess his does, a bit at least. He and Lucy have been playing together really well lately. Yesterday they played for almost an hour before I heard any fighting. This morning they even played a game together without me. I did the important job of sitting with Gus so he wouldn't mess up their game. ;) The biggest development happened last night, Freddy slept in a bed instead of the crib for the first time! Yesterday we went up to Ganny and Poppa's and got a bed. The kids were both super excited, they even helped Daddy and Aunt Joyce carry it. When we got home we cleaned and rearranged their rooms. Lucy got her mattress moved up to the bed, and Freddy got the box spring and mattress in his room. As soon as we had it made he climbed right in. When I put him to bed I told him that he had to stay in the bed all night, until the sun came on, and if he didn't he would have to go into his crib. After I read his story and kissed him goodnight I didn't hear another peep from him until 5:30 this morning! I checked on him twice after tucking him and he was still awake but silent and still, one time he looked up at me and smiled. He was so proud! He handled naptime perfectly this afternoon too! I am keeping my fingers crossed but am realistic that it probably won't prove to be this easy. I feel like I am neglecting Lucy. Last Thursday we had our first parent-teacher conference. We got a stellar review from her teacher. The one thing she said we should work on with her is to keep up her love of books. :) She has excellent pre-reading skills, has friends in the class, and is above and beyond on all of her fine and gross motor skills. She is perfect, but I wasn't surprised at that! :) And not to forget the little one, I went to the midwife last week. There isn't much to report, all is well. It's kind of boring 3rd time around. Next month I get to do the always gross blood glucose test where you drink the sugary nasty stuff. After that we switch to appointments every two weeks. This pregancy is flying by! Speaking of pregnancies flying by, we are all hoping to welcome the new baby girl soon! The kids are excited for a new cousin! I keep hoping it is soon for Julie's sake. ;) Hope we hear soon!! p.s. For some reason Blogger and I are not getting along. I have gone back and put spaces in this post 3 times but everytime it goes up the spaces are gone. Also, it won't letme spell check. Sorry, hope it is them not me.

Check out our cool new animals!! We got a Pinto horse family and a Texas Longhorn cattle family. I won them in an online drawing!! They are so cool the kids are already fighting over them. :)

Its a house!!1

Afternoon snack outside!!!!!!!!

A picture to amuse Julie while she waits. :) This is the fattest/wooliest sheep I have ever seen!!

A lovely (almost) spring day!!! In this picture: Lucy is saying cheese while trying to keep her balance, Freddy is pushing her and yelling "Sissy" in an angry voice, and Gus is chewing on something (probably something gross) he found in the yard. But we are outside and my crocuses are about to bloom! :)

Settling In

Gus is settling in nicely. He is definitely making himself at home.

We need a theme for a tea party so what do we choose? Tie dye of course!

Here he is!! Our new boy. We've named him Gus. :) The shelter told us he is 9 months old but we think he might be a little bit older. We 'll have to wait and see what the vet says. He is super sweet and loves the kids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCILLE!!!!!!!!!!

Pregnancy Emotions

Yes, I am totally copying Julie with the title of this post. :) My post, however, is about how my family is using my pregnancy emotions to manipulate me. Tomorrow I am going to do something really stupid: we are going to check out a puppy and possibly (read: most likely) be bringing it home.
Since the day after Mae died, Dave and Lucy have been asking, crying, begging, guilting, looking generally pitifully at me to let them get a puppy. At first I just cried because I miss Mae. Then I yelled absolutely not! After that I sat them each down and had long talks with them about how much work puppies are. After that didn't work either I made a deal I thought they could not make. I said we could get a puppy if they could find a basset hound. Well, they found basset hounds (actually Linda helped them a lot with this final push). Tomorrow we are driving to Binghamton to see a 9 month old basset at a shelter. There is a basset rescue group waiting for our call on another puppy, but that one is even farther away.

As of tomorrow we will probably be dog owners again. It will make a certain little girl extra happy on certain special day of hers. To tell the truth I am pretty excited too. We all miss having a dog around, especially Dave. The only time in his life that he has not lived with a dog was when he was in college. That fact is what pushed me over the edge. Granted he has a HORSE now but he still needed a dog too.

Yes, I am a sucker and I blame it on the hormones! ;)

(By the way! Did you notice my ticker at the top? I am half way there already!)

This is what I just found Freddy doing. While I was blogging about him (instead of paying attention to him) he was filling the cash register with Cheerios. What a goofy boy. :)

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Check-ups

Both kids had their annual physicals this morning. They were super well behaved at the doctor's office and even talked to her. Yeah for our new pediatrician!! They are both in the 25th percentile for height. Lucy is in the 40th percentile for weight, she is a very muscley little girl. I can't remember what Freddy was but I do remember that he isn't too many pounds under
Lucy.

The doctor looked in Freddy's ears and said to me "he isn't much of a complainer is he?" Both ears are infected which would explain why he has woken up at night a few times recently, but he has not acted sick or in pain at all. He also got a shot today but he is totally happy playing with his sister now. He is a very happy and, other than his ears, a very healthy growing boy.

Lucy got a referal to see an orthopedist about her feet. Her feet are a bit curved and the worrying (to me) part is that she is still wearing the same size shoes as she was a year ago. Kids are supposed to blow through shoes right? It's been good on my wallet but worrisome. They got us in with doctor's P.A. in two weeks, we would have had to wait more than a month to see the doctor. Lucy will get checked out and possibly have some tests ordered (like an xray). Then if there is something going on with her feet she will have an appointment to see the doctor. Overall, Lucy is a happy, healthy and very smart little girl.

My kids are awesome!

Something Different

As almost everybody knows, I have been doing lots of crafts lately. Just now I was checking one of my favorite crafty blogs (Gingercake). Her post today is about a sew-a-long she is helping a friend put on. They will be hosting a blog event to get as many people as possible to make pillowcase dresses which all participants will then mail off to a lovely charity. You can get the details by clicking here or by clicking on the little picture of the dress I added to the right.

Pillowcase dresses are simple and quick to make and I know we have lots of crafty people in this family, so I thought I would share. For a change I am going to participate instead of just watching others do good deeds.

All next week there will be patterns, tutorials and embellishment ideas posted on the Little Big Girl Studio blog. I think I will check out their ideas next week an make at least one dress for the charity and one dress for Lucy.

And now by having posted this I have to do it because you all know about it. :)