Candy Girls

Lucy's 4th birthday celebration was kicked off on Thursday with Pops and Grandma's arrival. What ensued was two days of gift opening, moonbouncing, candy-themed everything, friends, more gifts, treats and attention. She was so excited about this birthday. Turning 4 is a big deal to her and she officially feels a bit older this year. She thinks she is taller, bigger and smarter. She is taking her birthday as a sign to be even more independent and surprised me several times with her new 4-year old attitude. A couple cases to point out: First, she was thankful, without prompting. At least twice I heard her saying thank you to someone for bringing her gifts and she repeatedly told me that she "was a lucky girl". Second case, after the great pinata explosion, her goody bag was full to the brim. On three different occasions I witnessed her overhearing a friend saying that they wished that they had nabbed a yo-yo, a pack of smarties or some other treat. Without hesitation or prompting, Lucy simply reached into her goody bag, grabbed the wanted goody and treated her friends not only to a sweet, but also a dose of kindness and good-hostessing. Not too bad for 4!

The party was a fast-paced two hours. I think the count was 27 kids, 2 birthday girls, a gazillion treats, 2 cupcake pinatas, a handful of giant lollipops, and one moonbounce, which was suppose to accomodate up to 6 kids at a time. See the video, we stretched that 6 kid limit a bit, just a bit. I thought we were going to be buying a busted up moonbounce, but little bodies prevailed and the bouncy house was no worse off.

Lucy and her girlfriends squealed and ran around trying to get away from the "monsters" graciously portrayed by boy friends Parrish and Ronin, with some little sisters and brothers toddling behind. The kids made "candy" necklaces with fruit loops, bounced on happy hoppers, decorated their own ice cream sundaes and generally ran wild. Lu was a bit overwhelmed when it came to singing happy birthday, for good reason. She and Kylee held court at a table (with candy crowns on) surrounded by their friends while 30-40 parents looked on with cameras and video recorders in hand. Blowing out candles seemed like a bit too much. Once the spotlight was off of her, she was back to inhaling chocolate sprinkles and running with her friends.

Once the party was wrapped up, she had a pow wow with Pops and Grandma in the guest room watching "Pete's Dragon". Then we went to dinner at Austin Grill with Pops and Grandma and finished opening gifts. While at dinner, it was apparent that Lucy was getting tired. She said, "too much birthday!" It had indeed been a birthday-filled, fun-filled, sweet-filled, too-much-birthday kind of weekend.

End of summer

The end of the summer around here has meant a big dip in temperatures and therefore empty pool and and cold water for those that dared to go in. Of course, Lucy will always put up with chattering teeth, blue lips and purple complexion to get in a few more dives, jumps, and laps. And Ian must join in. And Ronin isn't scared either.

The pool is now closed and Lucy is already missing it, even as we gear up for school starting on Tuesday. School will mean a change of pace and a chance to learn new things to look forward to bragging about.

Busy, busy week

We have a shortened week due to Labor Day- yeah! But that also means that a lot of things are happening in just a few days- doctor's appointment, carpet measuring, carpet installation (with any luck!), water heater installation, Lucy's haircut, Lucy's open house for school, Kylee and Natalie coming over to help get ready for the party, Pops and Grandma arriving, pick up moonbounce a couple towns over, getting ready for the big party and birthday festivities and maybe having a baby. It is all happening, but I am exhausted already. Today in the matter of 30 minutes (which happened to be the same 30 minutes that I gave myself to lay on the couch doing nothing) Harper was sent to time out 3 times and Lucy was sent twice. It is a rainy day, the pool is closed, summer is over and there is no basement to play in. Time out for Harper is just another way to spend the day- she could care less. For Lucy who doesn't get sent to time out very often, it is more serious and includes a lot of sucking-up afterwards. All I want is a nap, some real contractions and an excuse to stay at my "spa".
Spa? Yes, that's what Ian and I call my hospital stays. I get help with the baby around the clock, I get to nap and somebody brings me food. I get to watch what I want on tv and everybody who comes in congratulates me. Who thought that I would be looking forward to extreme pain just so I could get a nap?

Goody bags

Lucy is so excited about her birthday party- 4!!! I have been working away at making giant lollipops and candy canes, getting goody bags ready and Ian has been making candy-themed cds for party favors to get ready. Lucy and I made crayons the other day out of her old worn out crayons (we melted the old pieces into heart shaped molds). We have to get ready in case "baby brother" decides to crash the party or, better, comes sometime this week. Not to be outdone and to show her appreciation and excitement for the friends that will be joining her on Saturday to celebrate, Lucy has been in art overdrive. She decided that she would make something to put into each of the goody bags. At first, I was not too game on this idea since the majority of the art involved cutting up little pieces of paper, gluing them together into little piles, adding drawings of facial features and calling them animals. It just seemed like a bunch of mess to put into the bags. But then I realized what it meant to her. She has been customizing "animals" for each of her friends and aren't goody bags about thanking those who came to your party and thanking them for bringing gifts? So I decided to let her do what she wanted. It's her party, they are her friends and the sentiment is beyond sweet. And sweet is the order of the day at a Candyland themed party!

Eggstra Sneaky

Harper detests eggs. At least that's her alibi. Lucy loves them and asks for them for breakfast, lunch or dinner on a regular basis. If I fix them for Harper, she squishes her face up and starts gagging, before even the first bite.

Today Lucy decided she wanted green eggs so we scrambled up a couple. As usual, she was determined that Harper try at least a bite. She doesn't seem to understand that Harper doesn't like them. So, she put an enormous bite on her fork and Harper came around the table. I stood by ready to clean up the egg mess that was certainly going to be all over Harper and the floor in a moments time. Indeed, it was not. Instead, Harper stood next to Lucy and begged for additional bites. Then she returned to her seat to eat her requested breakfast "wapples" or waffles for those whoe don't speak Harper. Lucy then had to go to the restroom. As I was helping Lucy, Harper decided to help herself to Lucy's green eggs. We returned to find the thief with two forks in her hand, a mouthful of green eggs and not much left on Lucy's plate. I said, "what are you doing?" she replied "Snack!"

Caught, green egged and red handed.

Who needs a thing?

Lucy has been thinking about her birthday. A whole lot. It is on her mind at all times. If the subject of school starting comes up then she adds, "and my BIRTHDAY is before school starts!" same with the subject of her baby brother (who we now warn may come before the big birthday), Taylor visiting, the pool closing, and on and on. Presents are also on her mind. But they are not what typical 4 year olds dream of. Her vision of gifts does not revolve around the toy section of any store. Instead her most wanted things are:

1. A camp out with Dad and Ronin in the backyard, in tents, with hotdogs and smores
2. A fish (like Lauren's fish, Charlie)
3. Birthday hats and horns

The list is short and sweet. Anything else that comes up she adds, "my grandparents will probably get that for me". And she is probably right. Plus some.

The Candyland birthday party is set for the 12th. Moonbounce is ordered. Pinatas will be stuffed, as will about 20 kids' little bellies with lots and lots of sugar. There will be gifts, for sure, but how nice is it that our to-be-4-year-old will not be loving her birthday for the toys and trinkets, but rather the experience of a birthday? And a very happy one it will be.

Blonde Bombshell

Add a mole and a white halter dress and we have our own Marilyn in the house. Harper has discovered a new love for the register in the kitchen. Whenever the air comes on she stands over it, dress billowing out and blonde hair blowing in the breeze. She smiles, giggles and tosses her hair around in the air flow. If she starts talking breathy and singing "Happy Birthday" in a suggestive way then I will alert the media, or the studios- she'll be ready for her motion picture debut. Ian caught sight of this for the first time tonight and said, "this is one for the blog!" He's right, and on this blog, gentlemen definitely prefer blondes.

A month and counting????

Went to the doc today. I have strep group b so that means that as of right now I have to have an iv during delivery. If you know me, that is not good news since I have chosen to not have drugs with Lucy and Harper for the sole reason that I HATE needles. I am investigating alternatives so keep your fingers crossed for me. I am going to fight it, within reason and with total regard for the baby's health.
Second, I am already 3 cm dilated. This raised some eyebrows since I have been insisting for some time now that I thought I was further along than what they say I am and since they began wondering the same thing a couple weeks ago. Still no reason to really think that the baby will come early, but also no reason to think that he will stay put. We'll see. Good news, early baby means I am more comfortable sooner than later. Bad news, we can always use more time right now. I told Lucy that the baby just might come before her birthday (it was one of her requisites that the baby not come before her bday). She had a great attitude and said, "a baby brother is a good birthday present". That was all that was said. We'll see...

Ian's Boiling 33rd

We celebrated Ian's turning 33 on Sunday with a weekend long extravaganza. Well, that might be overstating it a bit, but we sure did have fun! Despite getting inches upon inches of terrential rain, we hosted a huge low-country shrimp boil on Saturday with all the folks that have helped us with the move, the new house, etc as well as those we just wanted to see before the baby arrived. 8 pounds of shrimp, 4 pounds of sausage, 16 ears of corn, 10 pounds of potatoes and a whole lotta boiling later, we had a feast fit for a birthday boy. In addition, everyone brought food so we had a hot grill and Ian standing in the said rain cooking up all sorts of other goodies. (The girls helped out earlier in the day by cleaning up the icing remnants from making birthday cake!)

On Sunday, we hit the pool, Lucy hit the diving board, and Harper hit the watermelon. Then to help us eat up the remainder of the shrimp, we invited a couple of friends over for leftovers and cake. Ian started up his new fire pit in 90 degree weather at 4pm to start burning off the mountain of wood and sticks that are in our yard. Cornhole, cornbread and heaping platters of shrimp boil, not too bad! He claimed it was one of his favorite birthday weekends ever and that he would love for it to be a tradition every year. Happy 33rd!

New things for Harper, too!

Harper has a new interest- the potty. She is very interested in what goes into the potty, who goes to the potty and when she goes to the potty. Whenever I notice that she might be filling her diaper, I ask, "Hey Harper, are you going potty?" This seemed to work well with Lucy at this age in getting her to recognize when she was going so that when it was potty training time, she seemed to know what it was all about.

Harper is taking it another step. Today she gave a little grunt and then patted her diaper and said, "I going potty". Then I asked if she wanted to go on the potty. She said, "Yeah!" and ran off to the bathroom. She sat for a couple minutes, concentrating very hard (I'm not sure she was concentrating on going potty, or just the act of sitting on the potty, but it was a stern concentration). Nothing happened but she was very proud.

We are not ready to potty train and have no interest in getting her there anytime soon, but the little glimmers of her interest promise that maybe we won't have two in diapers for forever!

Diving In!

We have told Lucy all summer that if she kept practicing swimming then she could go off the diving board. Well, we didn't actually think she would be brave enough. Then the diving board was broken and we thought for sure we were off the hook. But, we returned from the beach with the new diving board in place, a couple of her friends taking the plunge and it was all she could do to wait until Ian could catch her (I thought it best not to try to catch her in 8 feet of water at 36 weeks pregnant!) Here is the evidence that she indeed has mastered swimming, diving and her fear of anything water related. We were so proud! Not only did she jump, but she actually jumps so that she goes under water, surfaces, checks in with Ian and then swims to the ladder by herself, taking breaths along the way when she needs them.

We read "Oh! the places you will go" last night by Dr. Seuss. When the book was finished Lucy asked, "where was he going?" I told her the book was all about trying new things and the new adventures that always await you. Then we pointed out that swimming in the ocean, getting a new house, a new brother, being a great big sister, starting a new class at school, and diving off of the diving board were all new things to try and be great at. She agreed and added that turning 4 was going to be a new thing, too. Oh! indeed she is going places!

More beach photos