lately

• we have baked (granola, cookies, garlic bread, and more granola)
• we have had fun playdates with fun friends
• we have cleaned the house
• we have let the house get messy again, and then cleaned it again, and then....
• we have rearranged the furniture (inspired by a dream I had!) 
• we have revised the budget and adopted the cash envelope system
• we have made homemade yogurt, chicken stock, and tortillas. and whole wheat bread that rose like a brick
• we have sewn up lots of baby pants
• we have almost completed a new quilt top (a Christmas present for someone! am I on the ball or what?!)
• we have seen and killed three house centipedes recently {shudder}
• we have had two dates in two weeks (go us! we're usually not that good) one was an at-home Q&A session followed by a movie, the other was dinner out at a hibachi grill - so yummy!
• we have had lots of early mornings, and consequently some early evenings
• we have found a perfect playmate for Snick - they are new best buds!
• we have tried out almost every possible thomas the train name for the baby - the only one still in the running is henry. percy was vetoed early on.
• we have found the hypnobirthing cds! (they were hiding behind the couch)
• we have put taco salad in the permanent menu rotation because we can't get enough of it
• we have watched an inordinate amount of netflix
• we are growing (me - out, Snick - up)
• we have snuggled
• we have hugged
• we have danced
• we have blown bubbles
• we have played baseball and soccer
• we have gone for long walks (like four hour long walks!)
• we have played at the playground
• we have started swimming lessons
• we have been feeling the baby kick and squirm
• we have read books - Cows to the Rescue! is a new favorite
• we are gearing up to learn how to read - Snick has more and more interest every day

          what have you been up to lately?

Big Brother/Little Brother

I sewed up a pair of big brother/little brother PJ pants tonight, and I couldn't wait to see if they fit Snick, so I went into his room, manhandled his little sleeping body into those pants, and then, because I couldn't help myself, turned the light on and took pictures! What is wrong with me? Lucky for me, he slept through the whole ordeal and is wearing those new PJ pants, which should be a fun surprise in the morning!

 

Snick continues to be obsessed with the baby, whose name has evolved into Squishy Baby (always accompanied by a pinch to my tummy). The baby is never far from his thoughts. The other night, Daddy was reading a book to Snick, and at the end, he said, "I like that book." Snick replied, "I like the baby." This morning, as we were headed home from a walk to the park, we ran into a friend who has a brand new baby. After we talked for a few minutes, we parted ways, and Snick said, "That was a really cute little brother. But we have an even cuter little brother!!" Yes, even though we've never seen him, I can safely say that we will think he's cuter, because that's just the way it works! 

Snick has a pretend window on my tummy that he can look into to see what the baby is doing at any given moment (sleeping, swimming, and blowing bubbles are the baby's preferred activities, it seems), and sometimes, Snick pretends to take the baby out to show him something, and then he pretends to put him right back where he came from. 

When Snick is upset, he often wants the baby to comfort him. I'll give him a hug, and he'll yell, "NO! The Baby!" The other night, Snick woke up just before we turned in for the night, and I knelt down beside his bed to give him a hug. He told me he wanted the baby, so I stood up, and he hugged and kissed my tummy. Then he happily laid down, saying, "The baby needed a kiss," and went right back to sleep. 

Such a funny kid! 

Youth Conference

Saturday's Youth Conference turned out differently than anyone expected! The bus company that was supposed to take all of us to Ellis Island for our Family History themed conference called the organizers at 8:30 p.m. the night before and announced that there would be no buses the following day, due to a subcontractor's bankruptcy three months ago. I can't even imagine being on the receiving end of that phone call. So frustrating and disappointing. We all arrived at the church at 4:15 a.m. the next morning, none of us knowing what was going on, until they made the announcement at 5 a.m. that the show would go on! They showed a movie for most of the kids while the leaders and the youth planning committee had a 30 minute pow-wow to plan the day. The kids were such good sports and we heard very little complaining. We adapted the activities that had been planned for Ellis Island to our new circumstances, and the kids ended up having fun and learning stuff, so that's what's important!

I, for one, was so glad to cut the eight hour bus ride out of the day, so I could come home at 2 p.m. and take a nap! My body was not meant to get up at 3:15. Or walk five miles. Or both on the same day.

sewing

 

I've been in a sewing mood lately, and among other things, I whipped up this most adorable outfit for a friend's baby. I don't know why I never sewed anything for Snick when he was a baby, but this next one will definitely be wearing a few mommy-made items. 

I'm off to Youth Conference in the morning - 3:30 a.m. to be exact! I keep telling myself, "It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it...."

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

 

Easter (like all religious holidays turned excuses to buy stuff and consume lots of candy) is a hard one to explain to a three year old. Yes, it's about Jesus, but it's also about eggs and bunnies and chocolate and all kinds of other random things. I've been trying to explain that it's just a convenient time to also celebrate Spring, but I think I'll need to be more intentional about my approach next year.

We have, nevertheless, had some fun with it. I decided to make some natural egg dyeing solutions, rather than use the little kits. Do any of those chemicals really get into the egg? I don't know, but I mostly just thought this would be a fun science experiment - fun for Snick to see that we could take random food from around the kitchen and turn white eggs different colors. It was fun, and it was a LOT of work! To make the solutions, you boil the various ingredients with water and a little vinegar for 30 minutes or so, then cool the solutions off, then let the eggs soak overnight. Red cabbage = blue, turmeric = yellow, and canned beets = speckly brown. Next time we might go to the trouble of using fresh beets to get red, which is actually what we were going for. I buy speckly brown eggs Amish farmers, I don't need to go to all this trouble to get them! 

This morning, it was so exciting to pull out the eggs and see how they turned out! The red was disappointing, especially since it's Snick's current favorite color, but the blue and the yellow! They're so pretty! I wish I could just leave them out on the counter all day so I can admire them. After I took these pictures, we combined some of the blue and yellow dyes, which made this nasty brown concoction that actually turned the brown eggs green! I'll have to take another picture tomorrow.

Here are some links I found helpful, if you're interested in experimenting with natural dyes for eggs.
Serious Eats
The Nourishing Gourmet

Fleep is going to be a...

Another boy! So fun!. And now I feel justified in saving so much baby stuff from Snick's babyhood!

On Tuesday, we went to our ultrasound appointment (40 ounces of lemon water and all). This is a random sidenote, but I find it funny that the "What to Expect" type books make such a big deal out of not laying flat on your back, and then the ultrasound tech has you lay that way for such a long time. Guess I shouldn't stress if I wake up and find myself on my back! Anyway, I dropped Snick off at a friend's house and then met the hubs at the imaging place. He is an awesome ultrasound reader, and had figured out it was a boy before the tech got a clear image of it. I didn't know what she was going for at that point, so I was clueless until it was staring me in the face. 


Other things of note... Fleep is a mover! It was fun to see him wiggling all around. All his measurements were perfect, and he's actually measuring a few days ahead. At one of his early ultrasounds, he was measuring a day or so behind, so I guess he's had a growth spurt since then. Not that it matters, since he'll come when he's ready, but interesting to note. They estimate that he weighs 12 ounces. I remember them telling me that Snick weighed 8 ounces at the 20 week ultrasound, but there must be a wide margin of error on these kinds of estimates. Either way, isn't it so annoying how small a percentage of baby weight is actually baby?

The appointment ended uneventfully, and then we were off to pick up a cute little outfit to show Snick. We chose this "Little Brother" number, along with a sleeper that has fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and helicopters. We thought Snick would really like that one!

We picked up Snick and brought him home to have a cupcake, which I had baked earlier in the day - a few blue and a few pink, so we were set either way. I told him it was a clue about whether the baby is a boy or a girl, but he didn't get the connection. All he could think was CUPCAKE! CUPCAKE! CUPCAKE! If you can picture the way a mulcher devours a tree, you've got a pretty good visual on how Snick eats a cupcake. He pushes with his palm, and chomps until the entire thing is in his mouth - except for the fourteen thousand crumbs that are on the floor! Below is a relatively clean picture - before things got messy!

Anyway, after a lot of prompting, he guessed that it was a boy, at which point he said, "But I wanted a sister!" I don't think he'd really thought through what a brother or a sister would really be like, but he had it in his head that we should even the score in our family and have two boys and two girls, and a sister would do just that. He's a funny boy. We called our families, and let Snick do the announcing (which he sometimes did correctly) and then went out to dinner to celebrate!

Two last pictures to round out the post. On the left, this is the face I get when I tell him to smile! So funny! On the right, lovely portrait of me and the baby, courtesy of Snick.

General Conference Weekend

Oh, Snickerdoodle, my Snickerdoodle. What a funny boy you are. When I tried to take a picture of him in this football player outfit, he did a little dance for me.

We spent General Conference weekend at my parents' house and had a grand ol' time. Except for Snick, who emphatically declared after one too many sessions, "I hate General Conference!" I know someday he'll grow to love it, as the rest of us have. Between the time spent entertaining Snick and the couches at my parents' house that are WAY too comfortable and sleep inducing, I need to rewatch Conference to review and make some goals for changes I should make in the next few months.

Snick took over the camera and documented the important stuff at Grandma's house, and I thought these were kind of fun. I omitted multiple shots of the rug and the entertainment center. :)