Update of the peapod

All is good! Ear infections have cleared up and everyone seems to have recovered. Well, Sam still has a little cough but nothing like 2 weeks ago!

Baby #3 progress is going quickly. My 36 week check up was today, and I'm already 4 cm dilated! Today, I'm speeding up the preparations like packing the hospital bag and a bag for the kids, getting laundry caught up, making phone number list, and anything else left undone. "Go!" time is probably just around the corner!

Our primary plan is to send the kids to our next door neighbor's Donna and Mark when we go into labor. They have a 3 year old daughter Lily, with whom Peter and Natalie love to play with. I explained that they'd be going to "Lily's house" when the Mommy and Daddy need to go to the hospital and they might possibly need to sleep there (in case of an overnight delivery). Now, Peter and Natalie couldn't be more excited for this baby to come. Peter has even asked that I go to the hospital now! :)

This morning, Sam took Peter and Natalie for a walk around our neighborhood. Sam told me that Peter kept looking for the perfect flower to pick for Mommy. He was eyeing some of our neighbors nice landscaping, but luckily Daddy was there to prevent any flower swiping! :) Maybe Peter was remembering the flowers I picked from our own landscaping:

I just dropped the hint to Peter that HyVee also sells flowers that Mommy would like! :)

Attack of the ear infections

Just when we thought we were on the road to full recovery, we encountered some pain in our ears over the Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, a clinic was open on Monday where Peter, Natalie and I got checked out. As suspected, all three of us has some kind of ear infection. Unfortunately, after our appointment was over, Sam also felt like he might be getting an ear infection and since then has had more pain in his ear. :( The kids both got amoxicillin and I got an ear drop. I gotta tell you; even for a pharmacist, it's hard to get three drops in your ear canal! One good thing to this story is that Peter and Natalie LOVE their medicine. They almost fight over who gets to take theirs first! Let's hope the infections clear up and we'll all be feeling back to 100% soon!

What a week we've been having!

Sickness took over our house starting last Saturday. It seriously has taken us all to a dark place that we never want to visit again. Our kitchen counter has turned into a little pharmacy of medicines, dosing cups, oral syringes, and cough drops. Even still, we've been plagued with fevers, chills, congestion, body aches, runny noses, coughing, low patience and very whiny kids. We've all sounded pitiful either coughing our lungs out, Natalie freaking out about her nose running, or Peter yelling "TISSUE!" I'm so ready for this cold to be over!!!!

This picture pretty much sums up how we've all felt for days:

Friday night concert

Iowa City has these Friday night free concerts downtown during the summer. This past weekend was the first of the season. We took Peter and Natalie to enjoy some dinner, the playground, and some outdoor music. Who knew they would like it so much to come up with their own "dance routine"!

(not sure why the audio won't upload, but trust me there WAS music)

The funniest part is that they did everything on their own with no direction from us other than to dance to the music. If you can believe it, they also have not seen Dancing with the Stars, so the idea to swing around like that wasn't from that! :) Maybe we should keep an eye on this little talent!

Things I hear from Peter and Natalie

Peter and Natalie both have said the funniest things lately.

I need to document them as they're happening because likely they'll grow out of them and I'll forget about them! (for example, how a year ago, Peter would answer everything with "Rightay")

Some are too funny to ever forget!

Here are a few of them:

"No, [Mommy]! Don't eat all the special treat. Share it!"

"Goonga!" not sure what this means, but I actually heard another kid say it in a store...must be code.

"I just want to watch one show - just a little bit" mainly has been a Peter saying

"Mommy! I need to change my diaper change!"

"Mommy! Music... please!" mainly from Natalie while in the car. That girl loves to sing Blues Clues songs!

"Make a mess!"what I hear in the morning instead of "good morning" when every possible thing in their room is on the floor.

"Be healthy with your food!" just new this morning from Peter to Daddy on the phone

"No, IIIIIIIIIII do it" It's sooooooooo Natalie these days

Kids' First Life Lesson: Remove Fingers Then Bite

I never thought this would be an issue, but it's happened several times in the last week alone. Both Peter and Natalie fail to clear their fingers out of harm's way: their teeth. Their cries from the pain seem so severe - as I'm sure it clearly hurts to bite your own finger. I've learned to discern this cry from all other types by the tell tale sign of the injured finger stinking straight up. It might be even more than one finger, so that needs to be taken into consideration.

So, either my kids are starving and try to eat their own fingers or they are not thinking about their fingers when they stuff that piece of bread in their mouths to chew. I'm confident it's the later since I feel like I slave in the kitchen WAY too much for them to be starving!

But, luckily when a child is crying, nothing is more soothing than a kiss on the boo-boo and a warm hug from Mommy. As a tip to other or future moms, I have convinced Peter and Natalie that their own kisses have major healing power as well. This is good just in case I'm not immediately there to heal an ouchy or if the ouchy is somewhere I'd rather not kiss (ie: booty).

My 4th Mother's Day Weekend

Here's a recap of my fourth Mother's Day weekend.

FRIDAY:

Sam left Friday morning for a conference in Boston. Thank you Siam Conference on Optimization! I had my 32 week OB appointment, which was uneventful other than everything is going well and "see you in two weeks!" At lunch, there was a great moment: Peter ate a raw carrot! The boy who has never liked anything, especially veggies, finally ate the carrot I put on his plate. All be it a baby carrot, it was still consumed without any encouragement, which made me so happy. I took it as a small Mother's Day gift from Peter!

I spent the rest of Friday making a castle out of a huge cardboard box for the kids. I'm not sure why and how I got the inspiration and energy to do such a project, but just went with it. Peter was so excited about the castle. He even said, "I can't wait to show Lily our new castle!" Lily is literally the girl next door who was coming over with her mom for dinner. Talk about pressure! I taped the last piece together right when the doorbell rang at 5pm! The kids and the mommies had McDonald's for dinner, then the kids had playtime for about an hour or so while the moms relaxed. The castle has a hit, especially when I decided to bring out the box of 64 crayons and told the kids to decorate the castle. It was great. After a short walk around the neighborhood, the kids went to bed as smooth as French silk pie. Wish I had a slice of that pie right now! Oh, I'm SO pregnant!

Here is Natalie modeling their castle and showing the gate feature:

SATURDAY:

I got the kids up and out by 9am. We took a stroll through the Iowa City Farmer's Market. My goal was to find some chocolate zucchini bread, which I did find and bought two loaves. I got a few little items as well as this beautiful, fragrant bunch of lilacs for only $2! What a deal and yet another little Mother's Day gift for myself.

Another little gift from Peter was a 90-minute nap upon returning home from our trip to the market and Wal-Mart. Natalie and I had our little time together playing in the castle and vegging together on the couch watching "Colors Everywhere" episode of Blue's Clues. Saturday was mostly uneventful except for the fact that Peter's nap defeated any hopes of an early night. He stayed up goofing around in their room til past 9pm. He constantly told me "But Mommy, I'm not tired". I'm fairly certain I fell asleep before he did.

SUNDAY: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

This could also be called my Super Mom day. The day started gloomy, with high winds and rain. I woke up at 7am to the sounds of Peter and Natalie already at play in their room. I made a pancake, eggs, & bacon breakfast for us all. The kids and I got bathed and dressed in time to get to church by 10am. God gave me a special gift in the form of a parking spot straight across the street from St. Wenceslaus church! Thank you! The kids and I survived mass through the end of communion. Upon walking back to our seats from communion, Peter and Natalie proceeded to walk past our pew and straight to the front door. I took it as a sign that was all the kids were going to handle.

We went straight to Sears where we got our pictures taken together. I've always wanted to have pictures of the kids with me, and what more of a perfect day to get them done. The session went smoothly and quickly, and the pictures turned out great. I can't wait to get them! We ended our morning outing with lunch at IHOP.

I decided on the way home that I wanted to enjoy a warm cup of coffee from Starbucks. As I pulled up to the drive-thru, I heard Peter say "I want to come too. Can I? Can I?" I told him I was just going through the drive-thru. By the time I got my coffee, Peter was fast asleep! Natalie also fell asleep by the time I pulled into our garage!

Peter took yet another nap today - lasting 2 hours! I thought Natalie was also napping, but when I checked an hour into the "nap", I found her quietly sitting on the floor of their room playing with My Little Pony. She gave me the biggest smile and whispered "Peter sleeping on your bed" - which he was doing at the time! Again, Natalie and I had some one-on-one time.

After a simple dinner of grilled cheese, chips, and bananas, we took a walk around the block. The kids absolutely love our walks. We passed a yard that was a field of dandelions. Most people would find it an eye sore, but the kids thought it was a garden to pick flowers for Mommy! :) Natalie gave one to me and said "Make a wish!" My heart just melted.

We wrapped up the evening with a movie night featuring Toy Story with the couch pulled out as a bed. The kids really like staying up later and watching the movie. As you can see, Natalie always takes a moment to strike a pose for the camera while Peter is well into the movie!

Where I got the energy to do all this in one day I will never know. I'm just so happy I got to spend "my" day with Peter and Natalie, the ones who made me a mom.