Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

…I love to smile.
…I’ve discovered I have hands and I love to chew on them.
…I drool like crazy.
…I am usually pretty content to lay on the floor and watch my sister and brother.
…I HATE tummy time.
…I weigh 10 pounds 9 ounces and am 22.5 inches long.
…I like to spend time outside.
…my favorite place to sleep is in the wrap.
…I’ve been sleeping better at night most of the time.
…I currently have my first snotty nose (which means I’m not sleeping well).
…I get cuter and cuter every day.

Baby Girl has started smiling (relationally as opposed to randomly) and especially likes to lavish her smiles on her doting big sister.

Sunday morning as I got ready for church Baby Girl sat in her comfy chair happily looking around. Little came up and started chatting with Baby Girl, and, of course, Baby Girl smiled and smiled at her.

After a few minutes Little told me that Baby Girl was giving her all the smiles. And then she told her daddy: “I’m all filled up with smiles because Baby Girl keeps giving me all her smiles.”

And my heart melted at the sweet sisterly-ness of it all.

If only they would still be this sweet to each other in the years to come.

Here are some recent conversational funnies from chez sidetrack’d…

Talking to Little:

Little: Question number one…Mommy. Who makes toes? (this is a little game she’s been playing lately. the answer is always Jesus.)
Me: Jesus
Little (deadpan): Jesus and God. There are a lot of toes.

Then there was this one:

Me (to Matt): Little told me today that I am a princess.
Little: I was just pretending!

Ouch!

And, filed under statements you never thought you would have to make:

“Boo, don’t put your bacon in your ear!”

which ranks right up there with the admonition we had to give Little when she was about 15 months old: “Don’t lick the toilet!”

Yep, never a dull moment around here.

I’m one month old now, and…

…I nurse like a champ.
…sometimes I go four hours between feedings & sometimes just an hour & a half.
…I alternate between good and bad nights (good night/bad night, rinse, repeat).
…mommy and daddy wish I’d get a little more consistent at night.
…I like to hang out in the swing and my new Rock ‘n Play Sleeper.
…my big sister and big brother love me very much.
…sometimes my brother loves me a little too much…and a little too aggressively.
…I love being worn – in either the ring sling or wrap.
…I’m very alert when I’m awake and usually pretty content (if I’m being held).
…my mommy and daddy love me very, very much!

I know there are a few of you anxiously (or not) awaiting an update post on baby girl. Sorry, but you’re going to have to wait a bit longer for a couple of reasons: 1) I want to post this first, and 2) we have to take some pictures of the baby. Poor thing is seriously going to have third child syndrome; she’ll be a month old tomorrow and the only pictures we have of her are the ones we took in the hospital. Yes, I do feel Mommy guilt, so let’s move on.

Little is all about snow this winter. She talks about snow, asks when it is going to snow, and plots the things she will do when she finally gets to play in the snow.

Imagine her disappointment when our first snow of the winter left us with barley a 1/2 inch dusting (in fact, I think the layer of dust in my house is deeper than the snow was on the ground). When she looked out and saw the “snow” the following conversation ensued:

Little: Mom, can I play in the snow?
Me: Little, there really isn’t enough snow to play in.
Little: Can I make a snowman?
Me: No, baby, there isn’t enough snow.
Little: Can I make a snow angel?
Me: Sorry, sweetheart, there isn’t enough snow.
Little: Well, can I at least make a footprint?

Fortunately, there was enough snow for her to make some footprints.

So, that was our first encounter with snow this year. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the weather people started forecasting a big snow headed our way. We were supposed to get 6-8 inches, and everyone was very excited (and very anxious to get to the grocery for bread and milk). This is the South, people!

There was enough for the little people to go out and play, which they loved.

check out the tiny snowman; that’s all the snowman they could build

And the next day the ice made it perfect for sledding. They loved this too!

Little was much more impressed with this snow, but since it was mostly ice it posed challenges of its own.

She couldn’t make a snow angel because she couldn’t push her arms down hard enough to break through the ice crust.

And poor Boo had trouble walking in it. Just about every time he took a step he lost his balance as his foot broke through the ice crust and fell on his bucket. I so wish I had been filming him when he first went out; he stepped over the transition point between our concrete patio and the grass, lost his balance, and went sprawling face forward into the snow. It was hilarious!

That was the first of our two snows in a week and a half span. I’ll post about this week’s snow soon.

Okay, so I haven’t blogged in…well, in forever. I wish I had a really good excuse, like I was caring for a newborn, but, alas, not yet.

So here are a few random pieces of information concerning the baby girl

~In November we bought a minivan. You might remember that I was having a really hard time with the idea of driving a minivan; I have to admit, however, that it really isn’t bad. We ended up getting a Honda Odyssey, and I like it a lot.

~Last week I washed several loads of laundry to get all of her tiny little clothes ready to wear, blankets ready to wrap up in, and burp cloths ready to spit up on. We have approximately 3 dozen burp cloths…is that normal?

~Her crib is in her room and the bumper pads are washed, but there is no sheet on the bed, the changing table is filled with non-baby items, and Little’s name is still hanging on the wall. Guess we still have some work to do there before she moves into the crib.

~She is well stocked on diapers. We should have plenty of tiny disposable diapers to get us through the first week or two, and I’ve got the GroBaby and BumGenius stash waiting in the wings.

~The infant car seat is installed in the van just waiting to bring her home from the hospital.

~I am 39 weeks 4 days pregnant. Officially the longest I’ve ever been pregnant. And she doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to make her appearance. I figure she’s waiting until later in the week when it’s supposed to snow. Or possibly for Spring.

~I alternate between being extremely ready for her to arrive and perfectly content for her to stay right where she is. I think this has more to do with the potential reactions of the 3 year old and 20 month old than the baby herself.

~That said, I can’t wait to meet her. To hold her. To see what she looks like.

And I think that about sums it up. I’ll keep you posted.

The things Little says and the way she phrases things have been cracking me up lately. Here are a few examples of her latest wisecracks.

~A couple of weeks ago she was telling us about an episode of Caillou she likes. In the show there is a big storm and Caillou’s home loses power, so the family has a “camp out” in living room to stay warm around the wood burning fireplace. In Little’s words, “And then Caillou’s daddy puts some wood in the TV/XBox thingy and makes a fire!”

~When we went on vacation a couple of weeks ago my parents borrowed my aunt’s minivan so we could all ride together. The van has a TV/VCR in it, so I was telling Little that she would be able to watch movies in the car while we traveled. She asked (with awe in her voice): “They have an XBox in their car?!” (Obviously watching Netflix via XBox is making a big impression on her life!)

~Wednesday evening we were sitting around the dinner table chatting about our days. Matt and I were asking Little about her morning at BSF and inquired if they went outside since it was a pretty day. She said, “We didn’t get to play outside, but we went on a walk outside. And it was more fun than a duckling!”

~On Thursday’s all of Little’s closest friends are in school or mother’s day out programs. We usually use the day for errands, doctor appointments, or just stay-at-home and chill days. This week Little was asking when she would be old enough to go to school (which is a fairly common refrain around here) and I told her that when she started school she would probably stay at home with Mommy and Jack and we would have school here. Incredulously she asked, “We’re going to build a school, Mommy?!”

~And still on the school topic, on Saturday she was pondering things school related when she asked, “Mommy, when you are my teacher can I still call you Mommy?”

We also had several in-depth conversations this weekend on a variety of topics including Heaven/death/Jesus, school, and automatic car washes. She’s growing up, that girl!

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity through MomSelect to review a Temple Touch digital thermometer. When the package arrived in the mail I immediately opened up the thermometer (that they sent for me to keep, free of charge) and tried it out on the kiddos. There are a lot of nice features on this thermometer – a backlit display so you can take temperatures even when your child is sleeping, memory recall, a timer feature, and it can be used on the temple or the armpit – but what I like most is that it is quick, easy, and accurate.

It is just next to impossible to hold my children still for the 60 seconds or so that it takes our regular thermometer to register the temperature in their armpit, but the temple touch thermometer registers the temperature in just 6 to 8 seconds. I can even keep the 18 month old still for that long without having to hold him down. Taking a temperature is as easy as pressing the “on” button, waiting for the two beeps, pressing the sensor firmly to the temple (about half way between the end of the eyebrow and the hairline), and waiting for the long beep that means it’s finished.

We’ve used the thermometer several times (both with and without elevated temperatures) on the kids, on Matt, and on myself over the last few weeks; every time the readings have been accurate to what I expected. The information that comes with the thermometer states that it “rapidly samples the heat flowing from the blood vessels in the skin surface and translates it accurately to the body temperature” so that you don’t have to worry about adding a degree or remembering to adjust the number in your head so you have an accurate temperature.

The Temple Touch thermometer that I was sent is sold at Walgreens and retails for about $20. Having used a regular digital thermometer for the last three years, I’m looking forward to continuing to use the temple touch with Little and Boo as well as the baby girl when she arrives. I would definitely recommend this thermometer for anyone with children, especially small children.

And, best of all, MomSelect sent me a second thermometer to giveaway to one of my readers. If you’d like to enter to win, please leave a comment on this post (and make sure I have an accurate e-mail address to contact you if you are the winner). For a second entry, tweet about the giveaway and include @sidetrackd in the tweet. I will randomly choose and notify a winner next Friday, October 22.

I saw this meme at Stephanie‘s the other day and thought it would be apropos since we are in the midst of playing the baby-name-game. It’s all about our children’s names.

1. Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?

Not cultural or religious. Little’s first name is just a name I’ve loved since hearing it years ago; although, after we decided on the name we found out that Matt had a great-great-aunt (or something like that) with the same name. Boo’s first name is a family name (on Matt’s side) that has been in every generation dating back to the mid- to late-1500s.

2. Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names?

We came into the marriage both with names that we liked individually and names that we both liked; however, none of those names show up on our children’s birth certificates.

3. Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?

Oh my goodness, yes. I make a huge deal (it could possibly be called OCD) about the flow of names. The first test for any name is how it sounds with our last name. We also consider how the first and middle sound together and how the three names sound as a whole. I’m quite particular.

4. Did you have veto powers?

Veto powers are held and very frequently used by both parties.

5. Did the baby naming cause arguments?

No arguments. It just takes us a long time to name our children.

6. Do you think it is easier to name boys or girls?

Neither! We struggled with Boo’s middle name until just weeks before he was born, and the wee babe remains nameless with less than 14 weeks until her due date.

7. Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind.

Absolutely! We both had certain names that this applied to, but Matt seems to have a lot more negative name associations than I do (at least with names that have been tossed out there). He is also quick to point out crazy nicknames, etc that might arise from the name or initials.

8. Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?

Little was just barely talking when we were naming Boo, so this didn’t apply. Now Boo is just barely talking as we name the wee babe. However, we have asked Little about what she thinks we should name the wee babe – at first it was always Annabelle (with the first “a” being a long vowel sound) which we quickly dismissed; lately she either says she doesn’t know yet or she makes something up that we quickly veto.

9. Did you tell people the name or possible names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”?

We’ve always shared our names as soon as we’ve decided on them. We also share our “short lists” because otherwise people would drive us crazy asking (many of them already think we take way to long to find a name).

10. Did you use baby name books?

We’ve looked at them with all three children, but never found them useful; every name either of us suggests the other seems to shoot down. Mostly we just make fun of the names that are in there.

Let me know if you decide to play along with this meme; I would love to read your answers.

By the way – be sure to stop in Friday for a kid/baby related product review and giveaway!

As you know, unless this is your first visit to Sidetrack’d, we are expecting to welcome baby #3 to our family in early January. Three doesn’t seem like an abnormally large family to Matt and me, but a good size portion of the rest of America doesn’t seem agree with that. Apparently, we are in the process of becoming a full-fledged traveling show.

Now, I will grant that we do have our children fairly close together – Little and Boo are 20.5 months apart and Boo and Baby Girl will be not quite 21 months apart – which I’m sure adds to our oddity. But if you know us well, you know that this is just one way, definitely not the only way, in which we’re a bit strange.

Last Monday was the big ultrasound day. All along we had planned to take Little with us, but due to appointment time, scheduling conflicts, and prior commitments, we decided to take Boo as well. The looks began as soon as we walked in the doctors’ office door. And I don’t just mean people glancing up from their books and magazines to see who’d entered the building, I mean people on the other side of the room fully turning around in their chairs to see us entering (fortunately, Matt was with us or I’m sure I really would have gotten some looks!). The children were well-behaved and fairly quiet (as quiet as a 3 year old and 16 month old can be expected to be), but you could just feel the unspoken comments.

This isn’t our first encounter with this type of thing either. Since I’ve had enough baby bump for people to recognize that I’m pregnant we’ve heard all the “wow, you’ll have your hands full” and “three little ones; you’ll be busy” type comments. And, of course, we’ve noticed the looks that say “are you crazy?!” or something of that sort. I’m sure it will only get more prevalent as we get closer to welcoming Baby Girl and then, especially, when I’m out alone with all three of them.

But it makes me wonder: if we get this kind of censure (at least that is the word that comes to mind) as a soon to be family of five, what do larger families feel when they are in public together?