Kitty, Mommy

This morning I was sitting watching TV and Steven was in the room with me playing. He walked over and looked out the window, and started saying to me, "Kitty, Mommy, kitty." I kept saying, "yeah, is there a kitty in the backyard?" I was feeling very lazy so I didn't want to get up and actually look, but he was just not going to let it go until I did so I got up and looked. I was very surprised that instead of a kitty I saw two deer just feet away from our window. They were looking at Steven and he was looking back. We went outside and got a few pictures. The funny thing is that this is the third time we've seen deer in just a week. The other two times we saw deer walking down the middle of the street in front of our house. Also, I have had two separate neighbors report that they have seen a bear on our street this week. We are missing a family reunion in Yellowstone this summer, but I guess we don't need to go that far to see wild animals and the wilderness.

Four Year Old Conversations

Yesterday I picked Elise and her friend Zach up from preschool, and while we were driving Zachary home they were talking about babies. Elise was telling Zach how she was getting a new baby in her family, but she and Steven were still really babies. She was then explaining to him how everyone is still a baby to their mom and dad, even moms and dads. Where does she get these things from? Anyway, Zach replied with, "Yeah, Moms and Dads are big fat babies!" They both laughed and then Zach thought for a minute and said, "Except, my mom and dad aren't fat." Elise quickly said back, "Oh, well my mom is really fat!" Thanks Elise, you really know how to make a very pregnant lady feel good :-).

A Little Bit of Denial

Denial about what, you wonder? Well, I can't believe that this baby is due in less than 2 weeks! Although I am very ready to be done with the whole pregnancy thing, I am in no way ready to bring a baby home. This last week it hit me how close I am so I finally bought diapers, formula, bottles, etc. However, so many things are still undone. I haven't washed any baby clothing, I haven't gone up to the attic to bring down things like crib sheets, blankets, burp cloths, etc., and I haven't gotten out the portacrib, bouncy chair, baby bath, or carseat. I hadn't even thought about packing a bag of stuff for the hospital until I picked Elise up from preschool yesterday and a mom that is due 3 days after me mentioned she spent the morning packing a hospital bag and getting things ready. Hmmm.... I guess that might be an important thing to get done. I have way more general family laundry stacked up than I care to think about, and no motivation to go down to the basement to do something about it. I really need to spend today getting ready, but instead I am sitting here eating Oreos and looking at pictures of my two other kids as babies and wondering if this one will look like either of them. The sad thing is that truth be told I don't even like Oreo's, but it is the only treat in the house right now and I am desperate for a treat, so it will have to do. I guess I better get up, put the Oreo's away, and go get something done. But before I do, here is a picture of each of my kids as newborns. Any guesses as to who this one might look like? Or if it will be a boy or a girl? Or any name suggestions? We don't even have a list of names ready, so we are far from being settled on one.

Elise as a baby:

Steven as a baby:

Swim Lessons

Elise started swim lessons this week, and she is having a ton of fun with it. I debated whether to sign her up or not because I really could teach her myself, but I decided to go ahead and do it. She is a bit of a scaredy cat, but when she sees other kids doing something she is much more likely to try it. Also, she is a lot more likely to do something her teacher asks her to do than something her mom asks her to do. The first day she was a little timid and afraid to try things, but by the second day she was jumping in, putting her head under the water, and doing everything her teacher asked. She is loving it. Here are some pictures from her first day.

Preschool Trike-athon

Elise's preschool does an annual trike-athon as a fundraiser. This year it happened to fall on a very busy Saturday for us, so I was hoping to sort of skim over it without her even realizing what she was missing. However, they talked it up so much at preschool on Friday that she was just not going to forget about it. It was all she could talk about when she got home from school, so we ran to Party City last minute on Friday night and got some stuff to decorate her scooter. Since she has a Tinkerbell scooter anyway, we went with a Tinkerbell theme and it turned out cute. She was pretty cute at the trike-athon too. They rode around in circles for about 20 minutes, and after about 15 she was so worn out that every time she passed me on the track she would yell to me, "Mom, I'm soooooo tired." She is a bit of a drama girl, and so the "tired" looks on her face were just priceless. I would tell her, "Okay, it's almost over, just ride slower if you're too tired." Really though, I had no idea how long they would have them ride or if it really was almost over, so it's a good thing it turned out to be true! Steven was pretty sure that it was his job to run around the track chasing after Elise, but once I talked him out of that he was content to stand by me dancing to the music and yelling "Go Eeese," everytime she came by.

By the way, wondering why most of the other kiddos in the pictures are wearing matching red T shirts and Elise is not? Well, they sort of rope you into selling raffle tickets by playing up to the kids that everyone who sells at least 5 will get a matching T shirt. I wasn't about to sell tickets, but I was sure Elise would be crushed if the whole rest of her class had matching shirts and she didn't so I just ended up buying 5 tickets myself. Then when they gave her the T shirt my little fashionista took one look at the shirt (which was sort of ugly, by the way) and wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted to keep on her green shirt because it was prettier, and after all, it was a much better Tinkerbell color to go with her theme. That little stinker!