Moon, Bees, and Mikayla

First of all, Mikayla's still going strong with her desire to take "self-portrait's" of herself. She also took various pictures of objects around the house but they were too blurry to keep. Here's a cute shot she took tonight of her beautiful face. The Moon Festival was Tuesday night so we joined most of the family at our favorite Chinese restaurant to celebrate the festivities. I usually don't take pictures of us eating, due to obvious reasons, but I thought it would be fun to remember the occasion. Fortunately, we didn't have to eat moon cakes (they resemble fruitcakes and are just as inedible, to me).

Here is the picture of me and Mikayla. We had to bring her color wonder colorbook with us because the dinners usually last at least 2 hours and there were no other cousins her age there to play with. I think, in this picture, we were still waiting for the food...and I'm still smiling! Long story...

Yesterday, a swarm of bees decided that our neighbor's magnolia tree looked like the prime spot to "rest" from their daily activities. There first was a cloud of yellow and black, then they hung out for about a day and today they disappeared, on to their next destination. It is a little unnerving to see this in your front yard but we knew it would soon go away so we just avoided the little guys.

Burgers and Bandages

We went out to Red Robin with Kim and Caleb, some friends from high school, and their girls. We went there because Kim and my pregnancy cravings were giving in (she's pregnant too) and we felt like big, juicy, calorie-ridden burgers. Unfortunately, the last few days I haven't been hungry at all. I did still manage to down 2 chicken strips and a basket of fries dipped in every imaginable sauce they make at Red Robin. It was delicious! Will's appetite was in full swing and Tyler realized that he needed a taste of a burger dripping in sauce so I managed to get a picture of his small bite out of the monstrous sandwich. It looked pretty funny.Once we finished with Red Robin, we headed to our house to spend some time talking without the "can I get down" whining from the kids. The girls get along really well together and, toward the end of the evening, decided to make casts out of toilet paper and tape. Mikayla was the doctor and Charis was the patient. They had fun doing it and it kept them out of trouble for a good half hour.

My future doctor?

Room Enough For Two

So, if you've ever been to Costco with children, you know that the carts are so large they have 2 seats for children in the front. This is perfect for my kids because Tyler can't sit alone in the front without his sister by his side. However, Target's carts are a tad smaller. This became evident while shopping in Target the other day. We had a "small" cart by Costco standards and Tyler insisted that Mikayla sit next to him. Due to the desire to avoid the 2 year old tantrum, we satisfied his request and the two sat quite comfortably with 2 legs in each leg hole.

On to the two year old. We've recently discovered there is a two year old under our roof (almost) and, as I put it to some friends, he does it very well. Tyler has started to run around the house in attempts to hit Mikayla with as much force as necessary to get what he wants. When placed in time out he screams until he practically passes out. In addition, his wake-up time in the morning has become an uncomfortable 5:30am. I am praying that this third one actually decides that sleeping has benefits and will also get you on mommy's good side.

I can't believe there are only 11 weeks left until our little one arrives. We're trying to come up with names at the moment which has been kind of challenging. We have a few options so at least we're somewhat prepared.

One Room Down...

After several days of hard work, Tyler's new room is finally done. Due to the inhallation of toxic fumes from the paint that Mikayla's had to endure the last few nights, I think I'll keep her in this room until the last room is done. I figure I can let Tyler experience his own share instead of moving him now and then painting Mikayla's room around her. Equal shares of fumes...

Anyway, here's the new room which looks just like the back room. It came together pretty fast, after the priming, and I'm proud that I'm actually accomplishing the list of things to do before the baby gets here.

What a Mess!

We're remodeling the house to make ready the arrival of the newest Lee in a few months and it has caused some mess to happen in an already toddler-messy world. I try to keep up with it all but lately it's just been overwhelming, especially since there's only so much I can do with such a pregnant belly.

One of those messy moments this past week came after a trip to the grocery store. Now, I must tell you that I rarely venture out with both children into any store with a shopping time of over 1/2 an hour because I end up going insane while they hit each other and purposefully annoy each other the entire time. This especially happens in those oversized "car" carts that will allow YOU and you only to walk down the grocery aisle, much to the frustration of all other shoppers. I must also add that turning the monstrosity, while pregnant especially, is a show in itself and usually takes a good 5 minutes to avoid knocking over the displays that your children haven't already touched. I had promised the kids that if they were relatively good I'd get them a fruit roll (Cara, does that ring a bell of when we were growing up?) Anyway, they were pretty good so I bought two and let them have them in the car. I showed Tyler how to eat it and even started it for him (thinking a 2 year old can eat a fruit roll the right way) and this is the scene I came upon when I opened the door in the garage for him to get out. With him, I just have to deal with the messes. This is normal...
What you can't see is the fruit roll all over his shirt, seatbelt and face. The picture doesn't do it justice.

On to my first child. While remodeling the room, my creative children came across a roll of happy face tape that hadn't been used for anything so I let them have at it and use all they wanted. This is the way Mikayla "used" it. I must admit, it did satisfy the constant chatter for a fleeting moment. She actually peeled it off of herself and tried to tape Tyler's mouth closed with it but he was not too excited about that little experiment.

Here's a shot of the room before I started priming the walls. I told myself that I would take one before I took the pictures off the walls and moved the furniture but this is in the middle of moving it all out.
Here is Mikayla's room after the priming was done. It will soon become Tyler's room and the back, bigger room will be where the girls hide out.

Because we need the whole back room for another bed and dresser, the computer had to be relocated to the dining room. At first, I was wary of having yet another piece of furniture in the living room/dining room area but it doesn't look bad. Not to mention there's no other way of doing it so it either looks bad and stays or looks good and stays. I'd rather be an optimist. =)

So there you have the messes of my week. I'm glad it didn't spill over into MOPS. I'm doing hospitality and being a table discussion leader this year and there's so much to remember that I'm surprised I haven't forgotten something already. Tomorrow is the first day so I'm looking forward to starting off a great year, nice and clean...

One of Those Moments

Do you ever have one of those moments where you are reminded by someone that you may have gone a little lax in your "safety skills" with your children. And even when you're 'reminded' about it, you still feel that if the person herself had children, she'd understand.

It all started with a trip to Joann's Fabrics. I just needed a little "me" shopping. I'm sure you understand. Of course, neither of the children want to stay in the cart and the carts are for little people anyway (they're 1/3 the size of a grocery cart) so I let them both get down with the threat that if they run around, they're back in, with each other. Things were going well until I couldn't make up my mind about a fabric and the boredom set in. Somehow, Tyler found a giant paper clip on the ground and thought that was about the best toy in the world. He set about trying to find different uses for it including his ear and on his finger. I knew it would do no harm since there was no way it was small enough to enter an orifice and stay there so I proceeded to the cutting table with my fabric. A mid-aged lady came up right behind me and silently watched what happened next. Since Tyler had already exhausted the other holes in his face, the next one to try was the nose. Mind you, the paper clip was so big that it was only put in a tiny fraction of the way and I heard this comment coming from behind me..."GASP, that's DANgerous!!!" I must admit, honestly, I saw him put it a little up his nose but it wasn't that heartstopping for me since he still had his hand on it and he wasn't doing his usual jump up and down while I jam this in my face routine. I immediately took the paper clip away and feigned that I was horrified at what he was doing but I had already witnessed it at least 3 times.

For all you moms out there, can you sympathize with me that after she said that, I felt like the mother who lets their kids run wild in the streets and has no thought for their safety. Later, I met up with her again in the check out line. My kids were being kids and playing with a bead on the floor but, somehow, I couldn't help but feel like I wasn't watching them well enough and they should each have halos over their head and stand like statues. It's one of those moments that you have to tell yourself you're doing a good job even if others think you're not.

My thoughts for today.

Beach and Parties

But first, coloring. My son actually enjoys coloring with the most permanent of coloring utensils, the marker. He especially likes grinding the point into the paper to cause the most amount of ink possible in a certain dot of space. On this day, he had chosen the orange marker and tried, with sound effects, to pop open the cap. All of a sudden, it exploded open and caused him to age in mere seconds-an automatic mustache. I'll admit, part of me wanted to draw in the other side but I'm glad I didn't. He had remnants of what I couldn't wash off the rest of the day. He was pretty proud of himself.The beach is somewhere we haven't been this entire summer. For reasons I don't even need to go into with my mom friends, there are just some places that the anxiety level climbs to mere astronomical proportions and the beach is one of them. I choose to keep the 5 years it would take off of my life by staying home. However, now that my cousin, Cheryl, is in town, it seems a lot more doable to go to the beach with 2 children and return with the same 2 children in tow. We chose a small beach in Huntington Harbor area and were the only ones there for a while. The kids had fun in the sand, the water and the play equipment. Tyler spent half of his time grabbing fistfuls of sand and throwing them into the water. Don't pay attention to his pink sand shoes. I don't have any that fit him and Mikayla had an extra pair. If you think that's girly, you should be aware that one of his favorite movies is the Barbie: 12 Dancing Princesses. To balance that a little, he does enjoy cars and the movie Cars as well. He's just well-rounded.

Here is Cheryl pushing both kids on the swings while I manned the cameras.

I thought it would be such a great idea to get a picture of me 27 weeks pregnant with my 2 other offspring but the kids decided that today wasn't their picture day. Not to mention, me at 27 weeks pregnant, in a bathing suit, is enough to say to myself, "now, why would you put yourself in front of the camera looking like that??" Thus, the reason that you only see the top half of my venture. Thanks, Cheryl, for trying. It was going to go in the baby's scrapbook but we'll have to come up with a more flattering outfit for that lifelong memory.

We just attended a 1 year old party for Ellia, one of my friend's kids from the newspaper I worked at. It was so much fun and such good weather, considering it was over 100 last weekend. People actually played softball!! I didn't take too many pictures but this one was just too cute. My friend, Susanna's little girl, Cami, and Tyler were playing with a football that was almost as big as they were. Everything went well until my little sumo wrestler accidentally knocked Cami down to the ground in his clumsy attempt to get the ball. He felt so bad he had to be held for a while but that was the only hitch in the play plans. We had fun, Talitha. The food was awesome, Jimmy!!

The Results are In!

It's a GIRL!!

I can't believe it myself. I was so sure I was having a boy that I had convinced myself that it was! The ultrasound tech was very sure of the sex and sealed it into an envelope. We brought that to Mervyn's and chose a girl and a boy outfit and then brought them both to the gift wrapping table. The girl was so excited to find out what it was and, when we opened the gift at Red Robin, both of us were in shock. Will really wanted a girl but I kind of thought it would be convenient to have a boy. Either one will be a welcome addition to our family but, to be honest, it's going to take a few days to get used to the fact that we're having a girl.

"Dado Pop poke"

This is how Tyler asks for a Dora Popsicle and it took a while to interpret the meaning until my daughter told me what he wanted. For some reason, she can understand him a lot better than I can. Once this phrase comes out of his mouth, it continues to come out until a popsicle goes in so I've become very attuned to its meaning. Here are the 2 of them enjoying their "dado pop pokes."My dad turned 59 this last weekend! He doesn't look a day over 50 but I can't believe he's already 59. We had a great Sunday of hanging out with the family (until food poisoning brough it all back out for me that night) and the cousins enjoyed spending some play time together. I didn't take many pictures because every time I brought my camera out, there was so much going on I'd have to put about 10 pictures together to give you any idea of who was where, doing what. This picture was the only one that had more than 2 people in it. Happy Birthday dad! Love you!

One of the kid's favorite activities is bothering each other. However, sometimes things that bother each other become a game which is what the picture below portrays. Tyler pretends to "eat" things by making a sound and then closing his lips and chewing. Mikayla was getting irritated because he was "eating" her and then decided to join in the fun. They are both attempting to eat the other in this picture. It does, however, look like they're kissing.

Second Chance

Thursday is the big day, or night, to try to find out what this wiggly baby's sex is for the second time. We are going in around 4:00 and, hopefully, he or she will show themeselves so that we can get to organizing the room. You know, if it weren't for the quilt my mom always makes each grandchild or the desire to get all of the unneeded clothing out of the garage, I really could be surprised with the sex of the baby but my nesting instincts are taking over and it's about time I discover who this wiggleworm is. Also, it will help my husband get more motivated to help me pick out names. Will and I have a hard time choosing names. We both have different ideas of what sounds good. To be honest, I'm glad that the children we have even possess names due to all of the "no's" heard throughout the picking process. I'm sure, as I'm laying on the delivery table, some name will present itself as the best option and we'll both be happy with it. It is, after all, the last time we are adding to the population and the last time to choose.