Natalie got the giggles

Here is a video of silly silly Natalie with the giggles. She's playing with my friend Tanner (aka "Uncle Tanner"). Maybe she was tinkled pink that he brought over cheese quesadillas for her to eat.

Small thought on gas prices

I was surprised to see gas prices up to $3.65 a gallon for regular unleaded. I remember when I was in undergrad taking a picture with my dad at a gas station that sold gas at 79 cents a gallon! I suppose this could also mean I'm ancient old. Thinking about it, that was 15 years ago! Oh my, I feel old now! :(

Well, for perspective, when Peter was born in December 2004, gas price for unleaded gas was about $1.65 a gallon. When Natalie was born in March 2006, it was about $2.35 a gallon. Now, it's April 2008 and it's $3.65 a gallon. I can't imagine what gas prices will be when our kids grow up and go off to college. Hopefully they won't go far and traveling won't cost us our house!

Family night at the mall

We took advantage of the free family night at the Coral Ridge Mall this past Friday. Kids meals and carousel rides were free, which was nice. Lots of other events were going on, specifically a car dealership setting up a table to make play cars out of candy bars and mints. Peter was excited to see what that was about. I have to admit, as hungry and pregnant as I was, I stepped up to that table rather quickly. Who can pass up a free Twix bar? I know, I know! I'm pathetic when pregnant!

We ate some yummy Chick-fil-A food, which Sam had been wanting all week. Afterwards, Peter and Natalie got to meet the Chick-fil-A cow. Peter was more than willing to meet and greet the burger-saving cow, but Natalie was a little more reserved.

Finally, we lined up to take a ride on the carousel. Peter really wanted the elephant, but it was already taken. I had the talk with him earlier about the possibility of not getting the elephant. I let him know he didn't need to get upset and just needed to find another animal to ride. To my surprise, that talk worked and he just went onto the reindeer. Phew! Making things easy, Natalie wanted to ride on a horse, which there were a plenty!

As you can see in the video below, the kids and Sam had lots of fun on the ride. I, on the other hand, had a little motion sickness! That ride goes pretty fast (or maybe I'm just getting old)!

We're in for a "huge" change

In preparing for the baby to come, I stocked up on some newborn diapers. When I pulled one out fo the package, we were shocked in the size difference!

I guess we'd been so used to the pull-up diapers that we forgot how small diapers got! We're surely in for a change! Peter got a kick out of the size difference.

Tooth fairy came!

Out of sheer luck, Sam found a fragment of Peter's tooth on the floor. For a little background, Peter took a tumble down the stairs almost 2 years ago. In that fall, he knocked out one of his lower baby teeth, but the root remained in his mouth. Every now and then, a fragment will emerge and come out, but we would never find it. This time we finally found one!

We told Peter all about the tooth fairy and put his tooth in a sandwich bag (because it was such a small piece) under his pillow. In the morning, he looked under his pillow and here's what he found:

Four quarters to put into his piggy bank!

Thanks Tooth Fairy!

Peter was pretty excited - enough to forget he had just woken up from a bad dream

(probably about the tooth fairy nonetheless).

Sidewalk Chalk Fun

Today, Peter and Natalie had their first sidewalk chalk fun. They had lots of fun and it took a lot of convincing it was time to get back inside the house! Lemonade refreshment was key! It seems like I'm going to need to buy some more chalk before the spring/summer is over!

One amazing thing that happened on our sidewalk was Peter wrote his name all by himself!

Here is an example of his work:

And here is Peter in action:

Spring has arrived!!!

Ahhhh...the beautiful spring weather has finally arrived! The temps are up to the 60s, even some days into the 70s. Trees and plants are starting to burst with new buds (all except our lost cause of a Japanese maple in the front yard). We're starting to see our neighbors emerge out of their homes after the very rough and long winter. Many are surprised to see that I'm pregnant. I guess that's what happens around here - we 'hibernate' during the winter and when spring comes, you start to see either new babies, pregnant moms or new pets. A lot has happened since November 2007!

With this warmer weather upon us, I'm also realizing how good I had it the first two pregnancies, which were both over the winter months. I've got 2 more months to go and I'm already feeling over-heated. This will be a rough one, hopefully not too bad on our cooling bill! I think I may start to sleep in our cool basement if it gets any worse.

Peter's latest passion has been letters and spelling. The learning computer he got over Christmas from my mom has been a saving grace. He's learning so much from it and catches on very quickly. Many times, we're amazed how much he remembers!

This is a very typical scene in our house:

I've often joked with Sam that Peter is taking after his daddy - getting on the computer first thing in the morning. Luckily, Natalie is more like her mommy - snoozing in the bed a little more before officially starting the day. The only thing that quickly gets Natalie out of bed is the mere mention of Daddy sharing a strawberry (or apple, whichever we have) bar. I'd admit, mentioning a yummy breakfast will also get me out of bed quicker than I can say IHOP! :)

We've been able to get out of the house for walks around the neighborhood. For Natalie, that includes taking Puppy out for a walk:

And as my belly grows, Natalie is ever more convinced it's a great pillow:

On Sunday, we seized the moment to take the kids to a playground. It was great for Peter and Natalie to get the fresh air and revitalize on a playground with other kids. A fearless Natalie had a great time going down the slides all by herself.

It took a while for Peter to warm up to the idea of actually going down a slide. He finally built up the confidence and in the end, he figured out there was nothing but fun to be had.