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We’re having another lovely day here in the northwest, after our very brief “cold snap” last week. I’m tempted to put away all of the winter things but that seems like tempting fate. More likely, it’s a symptom of “nesting”.

We had a fun and busy week around here! After the excitement of birthday weekend, I was really hoping for a relaxing week… and some parts were, but mostly we’re trying to get things done before I’m out of commission for a few weeks.

I had my last “work” day at the preschool until May or so. It was a very exciting day there, too, as Teacher Nancy brought in a real bear skin for the kids to check out. A few were a little apprehensive at first but most of them dove right in to check out the bear’s teeth and claws and roll around on it’s “comfy, cozy fur” (according to CareBear).

Our weekend was productive with errands and cleaning (all gearing up for the new arrival) along with some fun playing. Chris built the kids a couple of tents in the living room that kept them entertained for a long time. Later, we played with CareBear’s new toys and learned all about going to the zoo. I even got to take a bath (it feels so nice not to be holding myself upright sometimes) and a nap!

Sunday night, I took Chris out for his “birthday”… it’s actually next month, but I won’t be in any shape to do much for him so soon after Banjo’s arrival so we decided to do it early! We went to the new-ish Indian place in town since they have belly dancing there every Sunday evening. The dancing was a lot of fun to watch and the food was wonderful… I’d never had Indian food before so it was hard to decide what to try!

This week will be a busy one… I have a dentist appointment, an ultrasound appointment and my regular OB appointment! CareBear has school, her swimming lesson and her 4 year old check up with the doctor (poor kid, I think there are several vaccinations involved). Chris is putting in some extra time at work to get ready for being off when Banjo arrives. And I still have to pack everyone’s bags for the various places they’ll be staying while I’m in the hospital! There may or may not be some fund-raising and field trip fun in there, too. I’m exhausted just thinking about it… but, then again, I’ve been exhausted for months!

By the way, Chris will be sending out a text/email next week when they take Banjo out of me… if you want to be on the recipient list for that, let me know what email or cell phone number you would like us to use.

Waiting patiently for cake…

And waiting…

And waiting…

Waiting patiently for presents…

Present time!

Fun presents!

Good presents!

Love for presents!

The little, human shredders.

LiliBee watches.

Party aftermath.

Well, we did… we managed to pull off a 4 year old’s birthday party successfully! There were around 12 kids there and I don’t think there were any serious altercations or crying fits!

CareBear loved her party. We had it at the local Round Table Pizza so the kids were able to climb around in the play structure while we were waiting for important things like pizza and cake. CareBear got to blow out her candles twice (she didn’t wait for us to sing to her the first time!) and received lots of fun presents from her friends and family (there’s a lot of pink in our house right now). She mostly loved being the center of attention, of course. She’s very impressed with being 4 years old, too. She has decided that she can only wear clothes that she got after she turned 4 since apparently the clothes she wore when she was 3 are too small. Considering she was 3 just a few days ago, I’m hoping to compromise with her on that one!

LiliBee seemed to have fun at the party, too, since there were several relatives available to pack her around and run after her. She’s always happy to watch the bigger kids play and follow them around. She’s been a little worried about not being able to play with any of CareBear’s new toys, but CareBear is relaxing that rule now that it’s been a few days.

Our party plans were threatened by a Friday tummy ache, but luckily that was mostly gone by Saturday morning. We did make a trip to our pediatrician to make sure CareBear didn’t have anything serious (like appendicitis), but we’re still not entirely sure what caused it. Still, no one else has come down with anything yet so I’m happy about that!

The rest of our week was pretty normal… the usual doctor appointment for me, “working” at preschool, feeding the ducks at the farm. I’d like to take a few days off to recover (I just don’t have much stamina these days!) but we’re pretty much repeating last week’s schedule of preschool commitments and doctor appointments! I’m lucky that Chris has been picking up some of the laundry and cooking duties or we’d be in sorry shape around here!

Happy Birthday to my big girl!

Welcome to March… seems like it shouldn’t be here yet! We continue to have unseasonably warm and sunny weather, which made for some fun outings this week.

We took our regular trip out to the farm where CareBear and LiliBee spent some time “feeding” the ducks… which meant that CareBear ate the stale bread while LiliBee chased the ducks around throwing bread at their little heads as hard as she could. It was quite a sight!

We also took our first trip to the park for the year. The girls had a great time climbing and sliding and swinging and chasing. LiliBee looks too little to be on the “big kids” structure, but you can’t tell her that. She has no fear of the climbing or the sliding and she’s actually really good at it. She believes that she can do anything that CareBear does, of course. They also spend a good amount of time running randomly through the field jumping on mole hills. A very good way to work off some excess energy!

Chris took the girls to the mall to waste some time while I had a doctor’s appointment and they were lucky enough to meet some actual daffodil princesses! I hear that it was very exciting. It’s too bad that most of the daffodil festival stuff is happening so close to Banjo’s arrival, I think CareBear would have a lot of fun with the parade this year.

And, of course, we spent a lot of time talking about CareBear’s birthday. She’s very excited to turn four and tells everyone she meets that her birthday is this week. It’s funny to watch her introduce herself to strangers and start telling them how old she is now, how old she will be in a few days and how old her sister is… they usually don’t know what to make of her.

My weekly OB visits continue to go well and we’re on track for Banjo to make an appearance in about 3 weeks. Banjo is an active kid who insists on stretching out, a lot (and my abdomen is about stretched to the limit!)… it will be fun to finally meet baby#3 and see what it’s like on the outside!

Big plans for this week… a 4 year old!

The kids love to take over my camera… CareBear is getting pretty good at taking the pictures that she wants. LiliBee is still learning which way to point the camera. Here are a few pictures by LiliBee:

It’s another beautiful, spring day here in February! The weather has been fantastic lately, which is weird but it’s nice to get out of the house in the middle of winter too.

We had a very busy week! Chris got Tuesday and Friday off to make up for his very long shift last Saturday. Since I was scheduled to be snack mom at school on Tuesday, this was an extra bonus for CareBear. She loved introducing him to the new teacher and showing off for Papa’s visit. We brought bananas and blueberry muffins since CareBear insisted that was what Teacher Nancy wanted. We also made a special trip after school to get birthday party invitations to pass out to her class this week. CareBear had a very good day.

Wednesday was ultrasound day. Banjo is doing well and getting big. We’ve got about another month before we meet him/her which seems like both a very short time and a very long time. I think my abdominal muscles are starting to give up on me. Chris and I were able to go out to lunch on the Tacoma waterfront to celebrate our off year anniversary. The view was lovely, especially with the sunny day.

LiliBee is getting the hang of potty training! It’s more practice than practical at this point, but I think she’s starting to make the connection. We’re keeping it very casual, though, since I expect the transition to “middle child” in a few weeks might set us back a bit. On the other hand, she’s finally growing out of her 18 month clothes! Maybe people will start believing me that she’s two years old pretty soon.

We actually stayed home for most of the nice weekend. Chris and the girls spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the front yard (ok, they mostly watched and critiqued what he was doing) while I took advantage of the extra child supervision to be a little lazy and work on online stuff for the preschool. It was a mellow weekend but, looking back, it was also surprisingly productive!

This week we’re back to normal… and only one dr appointment! After seeing doctors on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday last week, only going once seems almost like a vacation. Of course, we have birthday party planning and flier distribution for the preschool to fit in, but I’m looking forward to a slower week

LiliBee has started acting out stories with her Little People. It’s a lot of fun to watch.

Get back here, princess!

Here comes the prince.

Awwww… poor princess.

The plot thickens!

The prince and princess are together again.

LiliBee’s work here is done.