Baby Boy!

We were super busy over break. I am in full on nesting mode. After YEARS of bitterly complaining about the CARPET in the majority of our master bathroom and the linoleum in the spare upstairs bathroom, I finally just started calling people and getting quotes. Chris was less than convinced that we "needed" new tile, but I was insistent. I won. As a bonus, when we were at Lowes picking everything out, I scored a new refrigerator. The ice dispenser on our old one stopped working when the power went out for a few days last year. I can't begin to explain how hard it was to be pregnant and not have crushed ice at my fingertips. Now I do and I praise God every time I fill up my glass of water. 

When they came to install the tile, we ended up discovering that we had a little bit of a slow leak around the toilets that needed some attention before the tile could be installed. Unfortunately that meant NO UPSTAIRS toilets for over a week. It was awful. 

We also had our painter out to paint the nursery, upstairs bath, and touch up a few areas downstairs. He was here for 2 days. The last day of break I felt really sick. I felt bad for the girls, as we spent most of the vacation working around the contractors/workers that were in and out all week and because of that, were unable to really leave the house too much. Chris tried to make it up to the girls by taking them to Justice and letting them pick out a few things, but apparently, even though they rave about how Justice is their favorite store, they BOTH had a hard time picking anything out. I think deep down they know it's just a racket. 

Leah and Juliet (with Chris's guidance and support) painted pictures for the baby's nursery. We've said that his bedroom theme is "nature"/the great outdoors, but really, it's just things that I like. I picked out art for him that reflects "his story" instead of random woodland animals like I did for Leah and Juliet. He has a map of Maui because that is his "homeland" as we like to say, a watercolor of the "Corn Cob" buildings in Chicago because we were there so much this summer (and they are my favorite), a painting of Blackbirds because Juliet has been singing that song to him since he was only a 6 week embryo, a hanging of the moon phases in stained glass because I love specialty glass and when we saw the eclipse Juliet spent hours there playing with a 10 month old baby--the baby's parents kept raving about what a good big sister Juliet would make and I spent the entire conversation trying not to cry, and a map of the world because Chris loves maps and we all love to travel. 

Miss Leah Bean is unsure about having a Baby Brother. With Juliet, she didn't really "get it" leading up to her birth. Once Juliet was born, she spent the first 6 weeks actively avoiding her except for rare occasions when she thought she was making us happy by holding her/playing with her. She then spent the next few months treating her with cool indifference. By the time Juliet was about 6-9 months old, they were well on their way to being best friends. Now, Leah does "get it". She worries about how the baby is going to change her life. She is sad because I won't be at her school during my maternity leave. She's annoyed she is going to have to take the bus more. Most nights I go in and cuddle with her, and she mists up because she knows everything is going to drastically change in the next few weeks, and isn't sure how exactly her life is going to look. She asks a lot of questions and wants to work though various scenarios. She reminds me SO MUCH of myself when I was a kid. Change is hard. I reassure her that we would never let her feel so very unhappy without trying to find ways to make her feel better.  I remind her that her new brother is going to be part of the family, and that he will only be a baby for a little while. Soon enough (Juliet's favorite saying), he will be able to play with her and will make her laugh. When he gets older, he will be one of her best friends/"people" just like Juliet. She's still unsure. TV doesn't help. Why do so many characters have annoying little brothers? SO MANY teachers at our school have told me that when they ask Leah if she's excited for her new brother she replies with something along the lines of, "He's going to be a part of our family. My mom says it will be okay." 

Miss Jelly Boo, on the other hand, is ecstatic to have a new Baby Brother. She's been waiting for this for years. Yesterday we were putting his room back together after the carpet cleaners had been out. She looked at me and said, "Sometimes, I just walk in here and sit and imagine what he will be like." Any time I go into the nursery, Juliet is right behind me. She wants to help me sort diapers, arrange art, practice reading the board books, and just do ANYTHING she can to "help". She lobbied hard to be the first kid to hold him (wish granted) and is insistent that he sleep in her room as often as possible. When we found out he was a boy, Leah was a little disappointed. Juliet loudly announced, "I don't care! I don't care! As long as he comes, I don't care!" Since Juliet was 11 months old, toddling off upstairs in the dark to find her "baby", we've known that she would make an excellent big sister. Her day is SO CLOSE to arriving and she couldn't be more excited. I can only hope it lives up to her expectations. 

Juliet and Tilly

Tilly was adopted partly under the guise of being "Juliet's pet" (like Ollie is "Leah's pet"), but often Tilly just frustrates or scares Juliet. He's always jumping up and trying to "share" her food or play with her feet as she goes up and down the stairs or sits at the table. A few times now Juliet has asked if she could exchange Tilly for a little white dog instead.  Don't worry, Leah and I give Tilly a lot of love and attention (as do Brain and Ollie)

Lately, though, Tilly has been sleeping in Juliet's baby carriage and allowing Juliet to push him all around the house. It's really built their connection. Now Juliet even picks up Tilly--we joke she picks him up like someone would pick up a pile of poop if forced to--really fast and tosses it aside as quickly as possible.

Chris likes to tell me that Tilly upset the animal balance in our house. Unfortunately, he is right, though I still believe in Tilly's potential for excellence in adulthood. Tilly started waking up the other animals between 4-5 am and then they were all begging for food before Chris was ready to get out of bed for a few months there. It was getting really annoying. I bought some crazy animal pheromone spray from Amazon that we spray at them when they start being annoying at that time and in 3 days, we've noticed a huge difference. Fingers crossed it continues.

Easter 2018

 The girls were very excited for the Easter Bunny to come to town. They were up earlier than normal because they were so excited. As usual, they love me for insisting that they brush their teeth and hair before going downstairs. Even more, they love taking pictures on the stairs while they see candy filled eggs all around. Haha. 

 This year they decided to not have the Easter Bunny put their eggs in separate rooms. Instead, the bunny hid some a little harder for Leah, and some a little easier for Juliet. They both ended up with about the same amount of candy, so it all worked out. They always worry that one girl will end up with more, but we always combine the candy after a few days, so I never understand why it is such a concern. 

 The Bunny hid some of the eggs they painted outside. Also some candy eggs. He must have come pretty early in the morning, because the chocolate was near frozen. 

Chris did his usual egg dying with the kids. I love that he always takes the lead on this. Leah picked a kit with foam eggs. They all turned out sort of brownish/pinkish. Juliet picked out "cosmic" eggs which turned out better. Every year we try different types of kits, and I feel like they are 50/50 on whether they turn out looking good or not. 

 Tilly saw all the fun the girls were having outside and frantically tried to paw his way through the window. It was super cute. 

 It took the girls a while to find their baskets. Juliet found hers first and patiently waited for Leah to find hers before unpacking it. 

The big hits from Juliet's basket included a fairy door decorating kit, some LOL dolls, skittles, and a new game for her Leap Pad. 

 Leah was getting pretty nervous as the minutes ticked by and she still hadn't found her basket. When she did, she was super excited. Chris and I were telling her the tricky places our baskets were hidden when we were kids and how she should expect it to get harder every year. She's concerned whether or not the Easter Bunny is going to hide it in the basement next year. She doesn't feel quite ready for that. 

 Big hits from Leah's basket included the movie "Wonder", 2 new Squishies, new slipper socks, and an origami kit. Because of Leah's expanders, she couldn't get any gummy candy or chewy candy. She was pretty bummed by this.  She very thoughtfully wrote the Easter Bunny a note explaining what she could and could not have. 

 This year Easter was also on April Fools Day. The bunny filled up a giant egg with various condiments. Juliet was shocked. 

 After playing with their new stuff for a while, we set off for Aunt Renee's. We had a great dinner there, and the girls got even more candy and had a ton of fun playing with their cousins and their significant others!  Daddy had fun having a 9 month pregnant wife as the Designated Driver. It was a success!

 Leah picked out this new shirt at J. Crew the day before. It was the first time she didn't want to wear a dress to a celebration type activity. Bittersweet feelings from me. They both looked gorgeous and ready for spring!

Dance Pictures

 Last week the girls had dance pictures. Leah's in three classes this year--ballet, tap, and lyrical. Juliet is in hip hop and ballet. They both love dance. It's an activity that they never, ever complain about. They both have friends in their classes and see their friends from school there, too. 

Pictured are Juliet's hip hop costume and Leah's ballet costume. I liked Leah's ballet costume the best out of all of her costumes. I liked Juliet's ballet costume the best, too. But, they didn't go together, so I had pictures taken with Juliet's ballet costume and Leah's lyrical costume. Between the time change, and it being past 8:00 at night by the time they finished taking pictures, Juliet was super done. In the picture of her and Leah and her and Anna, she looks crazy. She's got this crazy big smile and crazy eyes. Her dance teacher couldn't believe how wild and loud and crazy Juliet was as she posed her and Leah for pictures. She said Juliet is always quiet and meticulous about following directions. I'm so glad she's at least like that for other people.

 I am excited for their recital. I don't know if I'll ever laugh harder than I did last year during Juliet's tap dance. Just from watching the "watch weeks", I it seems like the girls have matured so much and their dancing is so much better than it was a year ago. I'm excited to see how they've grown, but will miss seeing them little and clueless on stage, too. 

Beast and Tilly

Tilly continues to keep us on our toes. Since Christmas, he has decided that he should really be fed at 4:20 AM. Either he or Annie help this along by jumping and scratching the headboard. It's super annoying. However, he does his best to balance this out by cuddling on our laps when we watch TV. He also really enjoys sleeping in the doll stroller when it's parked by the front window. It's pretty cute. I still have full confidence that he will be a fabulous cat one day, just like his big brother Brain. 

Girl Scouts

 This year Juliet replaced Leah as a Daisy. She was so excited. When Leah's troop began meeting a month before hers, Juliet complained nearly every day about how it would never be her turn. After it started, she started asking if Girl Scouts was EVERY week, and why it wasn't. It's pretty safe to say she really enjoys it. I'm a co-leader for her troop as well. It's been nice to see how she interacts with the other kids and what activities she enjoys the most. Like Leah in Kindergarten, Juliet has a pretty small troop (7 total). They are the nicest girls and I have the nicest co-leader and I really enjoy leading those meetings. 

 Leah's troop is over double in size and little wilder. The girls definitely have a lot of energy! Those meetings are a little more stressful, but I have a great co-leader and there are also a ton of sweet girls in her troop, too. 

 Last month we did "Swaps". Our school's theme was "Girl Scouts". Leah's troop was in charge of "Badges", and Juliet's troops were in charge of "Daisy petals". Each girl in the troop made 13 identical pins that represented something from their theme. Leah made the rainbow patch she earned when she bridged from Daisies to Brownies. Juliet made the purple petal from the Daisy flower. Both girls worked very hard on their pins. 

All the troops met in the cafeteria and did a little presentation. Juliet's troop went second. I didn't see it, but another mom told me Leah was waving at Juliet and mouthing, "Good luck!", before Juliet spoke into the microphone. Both troops did a great job with their presentations. Then, they got to swap pins with all the other girl scouts in the school. They had fun with this and admiring their collection at the end.

 Daddy had a rare 3 hour stretch of time at home with nothing to do. He watched a movie. Clearly, he was missed, though. Everyone piled on him immediately after Leah's friend was picked up. 

Valentine's Day

 Valentine's Day was pretty busy. We had our weekly ultrasound before school. While we were gone, Juliet had convinced Hannah that she was too sick for school and was laying on the couch feeling sorry for herself. Since I had already taken off like 5 days with all the various illnesses we had, I left her with Chris. Before I left, we gave her some Advil just in case something was bothering her. Chris and Juliet stayed home for about an hour. For the first half, she complained that she was going to miss her ice cream party and Daisy meeting. Then she insisted she needed a nap. Then Chris turned on the Olympics, and she perked up and was excited and ready for school. It was so random. She was fine for the rest of the day. The right event at the Olympics always perks me up, too. 

 After school, we had Juliet's Daisy meeting. Her troop is so much calmer than Leah's. After that we went home. Both girls had got flowers from Daddy. I had also given them each a squishy (Leah's obsessed with them and carries them everywhere--Juliet could really care less, but would be completely offended if Leah got one and she didn't), a book, and a small box of chocolates. They were pretty happy. 

We went out for Mexican which I declared is our new Valentine tradition (since we did it last year). I love going out. No dishes and I feel like we all talk and connect so much more than we do over the regular dinner table. 

I also appreciated the flowers and card Chris got me. I love having fresh flowers in the house. It was a good love day. 

100th Day and Valentine Boxes

In January, Juliet got a note in her folder about the 100th Day and her classes Valentine party. The girl was obsessed with both. Every day she asked if tomorrow was the 100th Day. Every day she wanted to review her outfit, and make sure that we had ordered all the accessories she deemed necessary. Most days she would panic that various items wouldn't arrive in time. She was devastated when Amazon sent an "old man dress up kit" instead of a kid cane. Then we couldn't find another kid cane that was less than $15 (my budget for something that she would use once), and she was so worried she'd be the only one without a cane. 

 When the day arrived, she was excited. She loved her outfit. Then I did her hair. After spraying it gray (which she had been insisting on for 4+ weeks). She got so sad. She was convinced that she was ugly or "hideous" as she kept saying. She was sure no one was going to dress up, and it was all a trick to make her look silly. So many emotions. 

 Then I offered to put blue eye shadow on her, and she immediately perked up. She was happy again. Then, she got in character of being a "grumpy old lady" and she was happy again. 

 We had spent a great deal of time crafting her Unicorn mailbox that weekend. She was proud, but worried that hers would be better than everyone elses and other people would be jealous. She was most excited about the fake flowers. Daddy was an expert with the glue gun and carving knife. I love when he takes on the worst parts of projects. 

 She also liked the tail or butt and thought it was funny. 

 Juliet was definitely one of the most dressed up kids at the 100th day, but she loved the attention she got. I know how these days are numbered, and think of how tired I am ALL.THE.TIME. So I cherish the times where we both are interested in doing something at the quasi "Pinterest" level. 

 Leah was so sad that she didn't get to make a mailbox. She loves to craft and was sad that she wouldn't get to put all of her creative energy into a mailbox. Randomly, the day before mailboxes were due I was at a birthday party with Juliet and ran into Leah's teacher. She asked what Leah was doing and I jokingly said, "sulking at home because she can't make a Valentine mailbox" (which is what she was doing when we left for the party). Her teacher immediately sent out a text to the class that they could bring in their own box if they wanted to. She kept apologizing saying "I thought I was being helpful to parents!" I told her it was fine to do it whatever way she wanted to, but she insisted that kids could bring their own if they wished. Leah was ecstatic and immediately started creating her own. 

 Leah also wanted to bring a little flair to the second grade for the 100th day, so we sprayed her bun gray. 

For the first time in YEARS, both girls agreed to send out regular boxed Valentines and treats just from Target. For the last few years, I've tied tiny bows or bought random "on theme" treats from Amazon because one kid or another had a very specific vision. This year, both had fun at Target picking from their assortment. It was nice and so much easier than previous years. 

Snow

 This is how Ollie appreciates the snow best. Curled in front of the heater cuddled up with Tilly. Both pets argue about who gets the spot closest to the heater. Ollie has gotten bossier and uses his paw to push Tilly over. Tilly doesn't appear to mind as long as he still gets to cuddle into Ollie. 

 The girls were very excited for a snow day. Luckily they didn't need to wear their jammies inside out, flush ice down the toilet, or put chalk on the window. The snow day was announced at like 5:00. Both girls had a ton of fun playing out in the snow over the next few days. Daddy even built them an igloo. 

When When All Fell Down

This sickness season has been no joke. After being so excited that we were all healthy throughout Christmas break, we were hit like a ton of bricks in January. Leah was so traumatized that she wrote about it in her journal. Most upsetting is that someone was sick every weekend in a row for 3 weeks. She told me I could share.

First Juliet got the flu. Poor girl had a high fever and was so upset that she couldn't come with me to pick out furniture for the baby boy like we planned. After a few days she was recovered, but had gave the virus to Chris. One of my favorite things about Chris is that he is not a whiner. He's a head down and power through type person. The second he said he wasn't feeling well, I knew he was sick. Chris also has the core body temperature of a reptile. So when his fever was 103, I was pretty concerned. I banished him into the guest room and he slept for like 20 hours straight. I was very scared I was going to get the flu, which is the last thing I need this pregnancy. In an effort to be a supportive wife, though, I threw him Gatorade and crackers from the door. Luckily, I didn't get that flu.

After Chris was on the mend, Leah invited a friend to come home from school on the bus with her and play. All the girls were having fun, and playing outside in the snow. After a few hours, Juliet came in and was ABSOLUTELY done with everything. She was melting down like nothing we had seen in years. I took her upstairs, took her temp (she didn't have one) and held her until she fell asleep (at like 7:00). We all went to sleep early. At 9:00 Juliet woke up and was hot. I gave her some Advil and put her back to sleep. 1/2 hour later she was completely delirious. She was crying with her eyes open, but couldn't make eye contact. She kept saying, "It's like.....It's like...." while pushing away air with her hands. It was so scary. It took her what felt like forever (but was probably like 10-15 minutes) to completely come out of it. At first she kept saying that she didn't know who Chris was. She eventually woke completely up. Then puked. We showered her off and then she puked again. Juliet then ran a low grade fever for the next few days, then got an ear infection, but was otherwise okay.

At the tail end of that, Leah woke up one morning saying her throat hurt. I told her that can happen in the mornings, but she would be okay. She promptly ran to the bathroom and threw up. The stomach flu took her down for a few days.

Finally feeling like we were all on the road to recovery, (Leah was still home because she wasn't eating anything besides crackers), I met a friend for dinner downtown. We had a good time, and I came home and went to sleep. I woke up an hour later to one of the worst stomach flus I've had. It was awful. I was in quarantine through the next day. That night, Juliet complained that her stomach hurt and then puked ALL OVER downstairs. Lucky me was still in quarantine. Chris cleaned her up, and she joined me.

Then Chris was on a mission. Despite that fact that we had been washing the towels, sheets, and bathrooms daily for the past 3 weeks, Chris was determined to end it without him getting the stomach flu. He did another big clean to the house. And it worked. And we all hope we don't have a big sickness run like that again.