34 Weeks Pregnancy Thoughts

I'm 34 weeks pregnant today. Sorry, no picture. If I ever get my hair and makeup done today, I might think about taking one, but probably not. I had a doctor's appointment today and everything is looking great, they said. She's measuring like she should be, they found her heart beat right off the bat (they always do) and it "sounds like a girls heart beat", and her head is down. Even though I'm 34 weeks, they still haven't checked my cervix since my very first visit, and they are still scheduling me two weeks out, instead of every week. I'm fine with all of this, really, I don't like going to the doctor more than absolutely necessary, and I like having my cervix checked even less. They say it's because I'm on my third baby and so far everything about every pregnancy has been very normal and boring (which is a good thing). So ya, I guess I'll go back in on July 12.

But I thought since I've been doing a lot of pregnant stuff today, that I ought to post an update about it. I haven't been very good this time about posting pregnancy updates for two reasons #1 I feel like when I was pregnant with Ivan that every time I posted it was a just a long list of pregnancy complaints....and believe me, I still have that list this time, but I've decided that no one wants to read about them now or later, so I've not blogged them. If you are interested in what they are, you can ask Aaron. Poor guy, gets to hear them by the earful. :) #2 I feel like if I ignore my pregnancy as much as possible it will go by more quickly. Of course this strategy is ridiculous, pregnancy is pretty darn hard to ignore, but I'm doing my best to be stubborn about it. But I am going to post some things I thought might be interesting.

My cravings. I had cravings with my other two pregnancies, but not nearly as intensely as I have with this one. Here is a list of some of things I've craved this time. I'll put a * by the ones I'm currently craving.

Avocados*
Artichokes
Hot Tamales*
Lime Popsicles/Margaritas*
Salt and Vinegar potato chips
Snow Peas (this was practically the only thing that didn't make me sick in the 1st trimester)
Cold things*
Chocolate*
Corn on the cob* (has to be on the cob, nothing else makes the cut)
Watermelon**
Protein/steak
Coconut milk
Veggies* (dinner doesn't even sound appealing unless it has a LOT of veggies in it)
Ovaltine
Doughnuts (this one didn't last very long)
Strawberries
Cherries

Baby Quilt. Awhile ago, I mentioned that I wanted to do the baby's room in yellow and white polka dots with navy blue and white daisies. I still think that would be super cute, but I looked and looked and looked and could not find a navy blue that I liked. So, I scrapped that idea and totally changed it. Here is a square from the baby quilt I'm making. These are the colors I will use to do her room.

You can't really tell yet, but it's going to be a rag quilt, so the edges around the flower petals will fray some. My mom found the pattern for the quilt, and I thought it was going to be really hard, but now that I've started, it's not so bad, just time consuming. I'm hoping I finish it before the baby gets here. I always seem to be too tired at night to work on it.

And lastly, we're having a baby name crisis. This stresses me out. I thought we'd decided on the name Adelia Maxine months and months ago. I love the name Adelia, and Maxine is after my dad's mom, who was an amazing woman and I've always wanted to name one of my girls after her. The problem is that her name doesn't leave a whole lot of naming options. Her name was Maxine Harrison, no middle name. Maxine isn't the most awesome name we've ever heard, which is why we weren't going to use it as a first name, but I thought it would be good for a middle name, and then we could still have her named after my grandma. Somewhere in my mind, I thought Aaron and I had discussed this and agreed on it. But apparently, I was mistaken. Aaron does not like the name Maxine. And he never met my grandma, so he doesn't have her to associate the name with like I do, he says all he can picture are the Maxine comic strips.

I asked him what he thought would be a good middle name. He said Lynn. Uhhhggg! If one more person says we should have the baby's middle name be Lynn, I might start pulling my hair out. Lynn is my middle name and my mom's middle name, so I suppose it's the logical choice. And there is nothing wrong with the name Lynn. I love my middle name. But so does EVERYONE and their dog. Everyone has the middle name of Lynn, it must be a good filler name or something. I guess I'd just like to be a little more original than that.

The next issue with the middle name, is that traditionally we've had the middle name of our kids be the name of a family member, and we'd like to keep that going. Both our boys have middle names from Aaron's side, so now that we are having a girl, ideally we'd like to have a name from my side. The only problem is the name selection on my side, most of them make me want to cringe. No offense. I love my family. The ones that don't make me want to cringe, also don't seem to flow, or work very well as middle names. Even my name, Krystal, for example. We have Lincoln Aaron, why not have Adelia Krystal? I'll tell you why, because they sound terrible together. Krystal just was not meant to be a middle name. It's a fabulous first name, and I like it a lot, but as a middle name? No thanks.

After that we decided to go to bed and think about it more later. Unfortunately, I did not go to bed. Pregnancy insomnia strikes again. I was up until 5am. I had lots of time to ponder our name situation. I came up with three possible solutions. #1 Find a way to use Maxine without actually using Maxine. #2 Find a different middle name that goes with Adelia. #3 Change the first name all together and find a new middle name that fits it.

Option #1 seems like the easiest solution. When the baby's name was going to be Adelia Maxine, I'd often pondered the possibility of calling her Adi Mae for short, I just hadn't decided yet if I really liked it or not. But we could have her name be Adelia Mae, and just say that Mae was a shortened form of Maxine, just minus the xin. That way she could still be named after my grandma in theory. I'd really like the middle name to be two syllables, but I could probably get over that. I'll have to run it by Aaron.

Option #2 seems the least likely, mostly because I've been so set on Adelia Maxine for so long that I don't know if anything else will ever sound good to me, not to mention all the other reasons I mentioned in the paragraph above about names. But it's still an option, I'm planning on pulling up our good ol' family tree again and going over it once more, to see if I can find anything exciting.

Option #3 is do-able, I suppose, but I'm not sure I can give up the name Adelia. I love it. And we may not ever have the chance to use it again. Not to mention that there are very few girls names that I do like, and even fewer that Aaron and I agree on.

So, I guess we'll have to keep you all posted on our baby naming saga...don't monogram anything just yet. And I'll probably stress out until we do come up with a name, so I'm hoping it won't be long.

Lincoln's New Roomy

While we were in Washington, Lincoln and Ivan shared a room and they did surprisingly well in there together. When we got home, they went back to their separate rooms, and the next two nights Ivan woke up about every two hours for no apparent reason. We've been planning on having the boys share a room when the baby gets here anyways, and thought since Ivan really couldn't be sleeping any worse at this point, that now would be a good time to put them together for good. Our neighbor came over and helped Aaron rearrange all the furniture, and wha-la! I think it looks great, and not too crowded, considering the tiny size of the room and the amount of things we have in it. In fact the only thing we had to take out of the room was a small night stand. And the best part, Ivan only woke up once last night, and went back to sleep on his own before either Aaron or I had to go in there.

Hogle Zoo

We got home from our trip and jumped right back into the swing of things. Friday our play group went to Hogle Zoo. It was soooo hot outside, but we still had a good time.

Ivan got most excited about the spider monkeys. They came right up to the glass to say hello to him.

If you ask Lincoln what we saw at the zoo, the first thing he always says is, "We saw a big elephant and a baby elephant putting on sun screen!" So I think the elephants were his favorite. When we went by their cage, the baby was rolling in the mud. Somehow Linc picked up on the fact that elephants use mud as a type of sunscreen, but I'm not sure how, since I wasn't the one to tell him that. We didn't get a picture of the real elephants, but I did get Linc riding the trunk of this elephant statue.

We had a great time at the zoo. Someday when we live closer to a zoo, I'd love to get a membership and go more often so I wouldn't have to feel bad if we didn't see every animal all in one trip. I felt like this trip we got to see most of the zoo, but I also feel like we trekked up hill the entire day, but that could just be the pregnant me talking. :)

Washington Trip: Tuesday-Wednesday

Tuesday was Debbie's birthday. It was fun to be there to celebrate with her. Lisa, Sydni, and I took her out to lunch at a really great Thai restaurant in downtown Vancouver. We had wantons, egg rolls, chicken pad Thai, and some really good pineapple fried rice. Then we came home and had some delicious strawberry dessert cake that Syd had made.

Aaron and Chuck had picked out a really nice flower pot with some colorful flowers to go in it. Lincoln made Debbie probably the best birthday card he's ever made all by himself, I wish I'd taken a picture of it. He chose out a pink piece o paper, traced a dinosaur onto it with a cookie cutter, and then cut the paper into small pieces. Then he took the pieces and glued them onto a piece of folded card stock. I thought it turned out great. Abstract, but great. :)

Luke and Ivan playing in the water

Later in the afternoon, Lincoln, Ivan, Zac, and Luke ran through the sprinklers together. It was the first sunny day we had all week. They had a great time. Ivan actually got wet, which is a first for him.  Aaron teased the kids by turning the water off so they'd run over to the sprinkler head to see what was stopping the water, and then he'd quickly turn it back on again getting them all wet. He also "flew" them over the top of the sprinkler to make sure they were good and wet. Especially Lincoln who was really preoccupied with a pin wheel and didn't want to go in the water.

After they were done with the water the kids sat on the warm patio and dried off.

Wednesday was the day we flew home. We spent the morning doing laundry and packing up our suitcases. Somehow, we managed to be leaving with a ton more stuff than we came with. (Mostly baby girl clothes handed down from Lisa.) Since our flight wasn't until evening, once we were done packing we met up at a park with Lisa's family so see them one more time, and so the boys could do some running around before they had to sit still on the airplane.

Washington Trip: Sunday-Monday

I made a discovery on Sunday. I have now officially reached that point in pregnancy where it is seriously physically painful to sit through three straight hours of church. Try as they might, Relief Society room chairs are NOT comfortable. Swollen feet, numb legs, aching back, enough said. Moving on.

Sunday was Father's Day, and it was fun to actually be able to spend it with Aaron's dad, instead of just having to make due with a phone call. Aaron's mom made a really nice brunch that we all sat down together to enjoy. Then we gave Aaron's dad his present. While the whole family was here for the two weddings, Aaron's brother Ryan used his really nice camera to take a picture of the whole family together. It turned out really nice, but no one else had seen it yet except Ryan and us. We decided to give Chuck a 5x7 of it and a nice frame to go with for Father's Day. Lincoln and Ivan also colored him some great pictures, and a little while ago my mom helped me make a really cool card on her Cricket machine. So I think everything turned out well.

We had Father's Day dinner at Lisa's house, and Sydni and Jake and fam came too. I love family gatherings. I love watching the cousins run around and play together, and listening to the adults talking, and everyone helping to prepare the meal together. Something about it just feels right. I wish we could do it more often.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of Father's Day. I know, what a slacker I am. But I did take an overabundance of pictures today, so maybe that will make up for it.

Aaron, Ivan, and Lincoln on the tire-swing at Horning's Hideout

Monday everyone went to this cool campground called Horning's Hideout in Oregon to spend the day. They had a wooden playground that the kids loved. Ivan especially liked the big slide and could go down it all by himself, and did so over and over and over again. There was also a man-made lake that they had put trout in, so you could fish. Our family opted not too, since neither Aaron or I know how to clean one. But Syd and Jake caught one, and I think most of Lisa's kids did too. The best part was that Aaron's mom, who had never been fishing before, also caught one. That was probably the highlight of the day. The kids also used nets to catch crawdads and newts. Aaron helped Linc catch a newt and he was so proud of it. Some of the family members did paddle boats too, which looked like a lot of fun, but not for a pregnant lady :) We had a nice hot dog lunch, and roasted S'mores for dessert. Here are the pictures:

Lincoln and Ivan on a tree stump making their cheese faces

Besides the slide, this was how Ivan entertained himself

Aaron and Lisa on the paddle boats

Lincoln and his newt

Debbie catching her first fish

Lincoln and Krystal walking by the lake

Ivan in the ivy

Linc caught a stick!

Our family at Horning's Hideout 2010

Albino peacock. They had peacocks running around loose all over the place

Here's one spreading it's tail feathers

We didn't even make it out of the campground before these two crashed. Guess they wore themselves out.

Washington Trip: Friday-Saturday

We flew to Washington very early Thursday morning, and got there in time to spend most of the day just relaxing and settling in and talking to family.

Friday morning I got up early and drove with my sister-in-law Lisa and her friend Becky to Puyallup, WA for the Washington Homeschool Organization (W.H.O.) Convention.  The set-up for the convention was a lot like Education Week. They had 6 different rooms and each hour of the day their were different speakers in each of the rooms, and you got to pick which ones you wanted to go and listen to. I sat in on some really great ones, and a couple not so great ones.

One of the ones I sat in on was about how to organize your homeschool year...like making goals and how to schedule everything out. I really liked this one, even though I don't think I'll use her methods exactly, but it was really informative to see exactly how someone laid out their year and decided what to focus on and how to make things fit. That was something I've never seen a whole picture view of before, and it was really helpful.

Another one I liked was an intro to homeschooling. The speaker just talked about the different benefits of homeschooling and how to teach to all the different learning styles that kids have. She was really encouraging and positive and one thing I really like that she said was that homeschooling is about focusing on the relationship you have with your child before focusing on the different academics and how if the relationship is there the academics will come, but if it isn't then it will be a battle the whole way.

We also got to listen to a guy named Jim Wiess, who spoke about how to teach your children through story-telling. He is an awesome story teller and really fun to listen to. He talked about how if you can teach a concept in story form, it is more likely to be remembered. That rang really true to me, because as a kid (and still I'll admit) I love listening to stories. And then when I got to thinking about it, it occurred to me how much of the scriptures are given to us in "stories". Pretty cool. I bought a few of his CDs for the boys and I to listen to while we're driving around in the car. I'm really excited.

But I probably learned the very most just by listening to Lisa and Becky (who have both been homeschooling now for a while) talk about their kids and their different strategies and ideas, and the things that they do. I don't know if Lisa knows it, but she is the role model I look up to in the homeschooling world. She just amazes me all the things she does, and the ideas she has, and her list of resources. And of course her kids. They are all doing so well as far as academics goes, but even more than that, I just love looking at the dynamics of their family. The kids love each other and get along and they all seem to have a genuine respect for their parents and the world around them. They are interested in everything and love to learn and try new things. It's what I wish and hope my family will be like 10 years from now. So it was really great to be around Lisa for two days and just soak everything in.

The funnest part about the convention was the vendors. Outside of the classrooms in a big open area, they just had rows and rows of vendors selling every kind of educational anything you could ever possibly imagine, from toys to curriculum, to computer games to books, and on and on. We spent a few good hours walking around and looking at everything. It would be very easy to spend a LOT of money there. Again it as fun to listen to Lisa a Becky discuss the different curricula they have tried and what they thought about it, and to see the things they wanted to get for their upcoming homeschool year. I thought I did pretty well in the spending department, I only bought an Imaginets board set (which is a magnetic board with a bunch of magnetic shapes, and then cards that have pictures on them made from the different shapes and the person playing is supposed to make the shape on the card using the magnetic shapes) for Lincoln for his birthday. And those Jim Wiess CDs I mentioned earlier. But there were tons and tons of things I would have liked to get.

We did the convention all day Friday, spent the night at a hotel and then did the convention again most of the day Saturday and got home around dinner time Saturday night. I left the convention feeling all pumped up to homeschool. It's going to be a lot of work, but so much fun (I hope). And really, when you think about it, is there anything better to invest your time, energy, and money into than the education of your kids?

Aaron, Luke, Sydni, Lincoln, Ivan, and Zac riding the train at the mall

Aaron and the boys stayed home at Aaron's parents house, and did some fun things with Aaron's parents and his younger sister Sydni, her husband Jake and their two boys. They went to the mall and road the train and the carousel, and then played on the playplace.

Zac, Ivan, and Lincoln riding the playplace cars. I guess Ivan wasn't to thrilled about being in the middle.

Aaron said they had fun and didn't miss me too much while I was gone. :)

Early Father's Day

Since we are going to be in Washington over Father's Day, and we really didn't want to pack Aaron's gifts all the way there and all the way back when he wasn't going to use them there, we decided to celebrate Father's Day early at our house.

We kept it pretty simple this year. I got Aaron a book that will teach him out to make chests of drawers. More specifically, the drawers part. :) He's been building a night stand for us for the last year or so, and hasn't gotten around to finishing it because he can't quite decided how to make the drawer in it. So I thought this would be a good way to encourage him. Plus, he likes working with wood, and someday when he's not so super busy, maybe he'll be able to use it even more.

Lincoln and Ivan gave Aaron a Wedgits starter set. Wedgits are a kind of plastic building blocks that you can do all sorts of crazy things with. I first saw these years ago when Aaron and I were dating and I went back to WA to meet his family. Aaron's mom has a set, for the grandkids, but Aaron spent hours playing with them while we were there, and plays with them every time we visit, and also likes to play with Aunt Karen's every time we go over there. So, I thought we needed a set...so Aaron and the boys can play together....or, so Aaron can play. ;)

I love you Aaron. You are a great Dad to our kids. Happy Father's Day!

New Resource

Tonight while I was blog hopping searching for fun ideas to do with the kids, I came across another blog I really like. It's called Delicious Ambiguity, and she does a lot of things with her blog, but the one I really like is called Tot Tuesdays, it's for "...sharing crafts, activities, tips, recipes and learning resources for TODDLERS." And anyone who wants can post their ideas. I love it, and will definitely be checking back often to find ideas. Here's the link if anyone else is interested:



I love stuff like this, and someday my goal is to be the author of a blog like this. I've got a very small start, but it will take time, and a lot of organizing to get to the big picture. I just think it's great to have places where people can go to share their ideas, and thoughts about what does and doesn't work, in their process of educating their children. I would love to create a resource like that for people. That's probably why I spend so much time documenting the things I test out on my own kids. Not only will it be fun for them to look back someday and see what they did in their childhood, but if at any point along the way it inspires another person to help a child to learn, experience, and create, then maybe that could be my one small contribution to making the world a better place. I don't just do this because "that's what stay-at-home-moms are supposed to do", I do this for me...this is my "life's mission", or at least part of it, or the start of it. I had more I was going to say, but I lost my train of thought...darn pregnancy brain! :)

Anyways, there's my spiel and rant for the evening, now off to bed.

Mixing Colors

 I've been wanting to try this experiment with Lincoln for awhile now, so I made a bunch of red, yellow, and blue ice cubes using food coloring and froze them. But things kept coming up and we never got around to getting them out. Then the other day we went to the library and by chance, Linc picked out a book called Blue Goose. It's about animals that paint their farmyard different colors while the farmer is away, and it talks about mixing two colors together to make a new color. Lincoln loves the book, and asks to have it read to him all the time. So I decided it was time to pull out the ice cubes. We did red and blue first, because those are the first colors they mix together in the book. I put a red ice cube and a blue ice cube in a plastic sandwich baggy and taped it shut (I didn't have any zip locks). I gave one bag to Lincoln and one bag to Ivan. They played with the ice cubes while they melted, and then I pointed out how when the ice melted the different colors mixed together to make purple water.

I didn't know if it would be over Lincoln's head or not, but he really caught on quickly. Now, whenever we read the book and I ask what color you get when you mix red and blue, he says purple every time. And I think he really does understand the concept, instead of just spitting out a memorized answer. We only did red and blue, because of attention span, but another one of these days we'll try out yellow and blue, and red and yellow to see what happens. :) Also, I think once we've done all the different variations in ice cube form, we'll mix paint to solidify the concept. Anyone know of anything else you can mix?

"To Infinity and Beyond!"

I finally got it on video! Haha! Lincoln (and Ivan too, but mostly Linc) has been really into Toy Story. He quotes lines from it all the time, but I can never get him to do it when anyone is around. Well today I finally captured him on video, and I love it. He's very proud of himself that he can now jump off the couch "without hurting myself."

S Day: S is for Ssssssnake!

I was very grateful to have the letter S this week. It just seems so easy compared to the last couple of letters I've had. Usually, for letter day we focus on a couple of different words that start with S, but today I only wanted to use one. Snake. I like the snake word, because not only does it start with S but snakes say sssssss, which is the sound the S makes, and I thought it would be a good way to help the boys associate the letter and the sound.

We started off reading the book Snake Stew by Tami Hunt. It's about a garden snake who tries to steal some eggs from the cook and ends up in a pot of boiling water and has to figure out how to get back home. It's a cute story and has lots of fun rhymes. But what I like about it is that any time the snake says a word ending in S, the S is dragged out. For example, the snake talks about moving through the graSSsssssss. And so on. So the S's really stand out and so does the S sound.

For our next activity, I dug down deep to a song from my preschool days called Sally the Swinging Snake by Hap Palmer. It's a fun song, and while you sing, each kid gets a piece of yarn that is their very own snake, and they have to make the yarn do the actions that go along with the song. Here are the lyrics:

1. Sally The Swinging Snake
Words and Music: Hap Palmer


Chorus:
Sally the swinging snake
She does the shimmy shake
She loves to rock and roll
Feels that rhythm in her soul


Sally can you swing from side to side?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you stretch out long and tight?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you curl up in a ball?
Sally can you jump up high and fall?


Repeat Chorus


Sally can you crawl in a small space?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you crawl all over the place?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you quickly vibrate?
Sally can you make a letter shape?


Repeat Chorus

The boys had a lot of fun with their Sallys and liked making her do the different actions, I think it kept them interested in the song for a lot longer than they would have been just singing it.

After that we colored and cut out "Springy Snakes". I found the template for this activity on the San Diego Zoo website. It's really easy, all you have to do is print it out on cardstock and cut out the snake. I did one for Ivan too, to keep him occupied while the big boys colored theirs, and I think this picture of him shows the template the best.

Lincoln was thrilled with his finished project, he kept running around going "Spring! Spring! Spring!" and making the snake spring up and down. I think once he's done playing with it, we'll hang it up outside so the wind can do the springing for us.

After the kids ran around with their snakes and got some wiggles out, we sat them down at the kitchen table and gave them each a different color of playdough and had them roll out playdough snakes. After they got the hang of the snakes they took it upon themselves to make other kinds of animals too, and even though most of them didn't start with S, we didn't mind letting them be creative. :)

After that we had "Chocolate Snakes" for snack. It's a no bake cookie recipe I found online. Originally, I was going to have them help me make it, but I didn't think we'd have enough time. As it turns out, I'm glad I made it by myself before hand....the recipe has a 1/2 cup of honey in it, and it was a sticky mess! If you're interested here it is:

Snake Refrigerator Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:


•1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
•1/2 Cup Powdered Milk
•1/2 Cup Honey
•1 Tbsp Cocoa
•1/2 tsp Vanilla
•1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts
•1/2 Cup Raisins
•Mini M & Ms


Preparation:

Combine the peanut butter and the powdered milk until blended. Stir in honey, cocoa, vanilla, nuts, and raisins - in that order. Roll your mixture into small snake shapes. Add 2 mini M & Ms for eyes. Attach the Mini M & Ms with peanut butter. Place the snakes on wax paper on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator until very firm.

It probably wasn't the best tasting snack we've ever eaten...but the kids enjoyed it. Especially because I let them put their own eyes on.

An Emotional Ramble That's Not Worth Reading

Typically I consider myself to be a very emotionally stable person. I don't usually get overly upset or angry. I don't cry during sappy movies. It takes a long time for me to lose my temper, etc.Even through my first two pregnancies, I can count on less than one hand the number of emotional breakdowns I had. So, imagine my surprise when for some weird reason, with this pregnancy I'm suddenly an emotional disaster. And I HATE lacking that emotional control, which only makes me more emotional.  I get angry, hurt, and frustrated quickly. Once that happens, it seems I have an inability to express my feeling in words (which usually isn't a problem) and then the only way to let it out is to break down and cry. Sob, would probably be a more fitting word, because once I start, I can't seem to stop.

Today my hormones seemed to have kicked emotion into high performance mode. While Aaron was getting ready to leave this morning, he asked if the boys and I would like to bring him lunch. Normally this would be no big deal, but for some reason I was apprehensive. I was worried that if the mornings events (yet to be planned) made me too tired than I wouldn't be able to make it up to campus with Aaron's lunch. He said he'd take a bag of chips and if we didn't make it he'd go buy something from the vending machine. So the whole morning I was worried and already feeling guilty (even though I hadn't even decided yet not to go) that because I couldn't handle it, Aaron would have to buy lunch, which is something he hates doing because we don't really have the money for it, so he'd only buy something small, and it wouldn't fill him up, and he'd spend the entire day hungry...because of me.

With all that running through the back of my mind, I decided to take the boys to the park because I was feeling bad about them not getting outside enough the last couple of days because I haven't felt particularly well. They are usually pretty good at the park, and they love it, so I planned on spending the whole morning there, because that's several hours that I didn't have to entertain them for, and hopefully that would leave me with enough energy to go take lunch up to Aaron. We walked to the park, it's only about a block and a half from our apartment. It was a really nice morning, not too hot, a little overcast. No one was at the park either, we had it all to ourselves, and I thought, "This is going to be a great morning, the kids can play, I can watch them without using up too much energy. And we'll make it in time to take Aaron lunch, and after all that the kids will be tired and they'll take good naps."

No such luck. Within about 3 minutes of being at the park, Lincoln pushed Ivan off the top of the playset. Linc had been eyeing the fireman's pole, but wasn't sure if he dared go off of it yet, and then Ivan came up behind him, and Lincoln told Ivan to go down the pole first. Ya, right. So I told Lincoln that Ivan was way too small to go off the pole, and was on my way over to them, when Lincoln decided to make Ivan go off of it, and pushed him over the edge. Ivan went head over feet and landed in the bark dust on his back. He wasn't hurt thankfully, I think it just scared him and knocked the wind out of him pretty bad. I was so angry with Lincoln for hurting his brother. The only punishment I could think of was for us to turn right around and go home. I carried Ivan, who was still wailing, and made Lincoln sit in the stroller. It was a slow walk home.

The whole way home my thoughts were about how angry/sad I was at Lincoln for deliberately hurting Ivan. I want them to be good friends, and to help each other out, and to stick up for each other. Not hurting each other and fighting. And I was frustrated with myself because I had no way to convey this to Lincoln. Sure, I could explain that what he did was not nice and that he shouldn't push his brother. But the seriousness of what could have happened, how Ivan could have been really hurt, was beyond me to explain, and even if I could, probably beyond him to understand. But I wanted to be able to explain it to him. I wanted him to understand. And it frustrated me and made me sad.

Not only that, but we were leaving the park. And I couldn't help thinking that in a way that was also punishing Ivan, who would not be able to play now, even though he didn't do anything wrong. And I was worried about what we'd do when we got home. I had no activities planned, and really no energy to plan any. I hate just resorting to the TV, but I considered it, except that I didn't want Lincoln to think of it as a reward. I ended up sending Lincoln to his room for a bit, then trying to explain why he was in trouble, and made him apologize to Ivan. It didn't seem like enough, but I didn't feel like he'd understand anything more severe, so I left it at that. I gave the boys a snack, and while they ate, could help thinking that I'm probably not cut out to be the parent of three kids. I don't think I have the patience, or the parenting skills. I worried that I wouldn't be able to teach them how to be nice people, and to grow up and live in society without being bullys, or caring about how their actions effect others.

With that on my mind, I decided I should probably get lunch ready to take up to Aaron. Only to find out that we had no bread for sandwiches, and really not a whole lot to choose from that would be easy to transport. Great. I ended up slicing an apple (we only had one left), grabbing everyone a cheese stick, putting in half a bag of snow peas, a package of graham crackers (we were out of Ritz and Saltines), some cream cheese, and a bag of mini marshmallows. For Aaron I also threw in the leftover Beef Stroganof sauce from last night, but we didn't have any rice left to go with it, so I brought tortilla shells.

I'll be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to going up to campus. Not only had it been a rough morning in an emotional sense for me, but yesterday I pulled something in my upper leg area and it hurts to walk ever since. When we go up to campus, we have to park in a G lot (graduate student parking) which isn't all that close to where Aaron works (none of the BYU parking lots are really all that close to where anyone does anything, actually) so that meant putting Ivan in the stroller and trying to herd Lincoln up a pretty steep hill across campus, and I just wasn't up for it today. But, like I mentioned before, I felt too guilty about neglecting my (self-appointed) wifely duties, not to go. Needless to say, I did not find a close parking spot, and we trekked all the way up to Aaron's office. Then all the way back downstairs to eat at a table in the commons area. Aaron was disappointed in the quality of lunch I'd packed, and started explaining to me (not in a mean way, just trying to let me know his preferences) that he's rather just have a sandwich sometimes, than whatever leftovers I could piece together from the fridge.

It was about at this point that I started bawling. I HATE crying in public. But the waterworks started and there was nothing I could do about it. I think Aaron felt bad, and probably thought he'd made me cry, when in reality it was a whole days worth of things. It's dumb too, because none of those things are really even a big deal, but these darn pregnancy emotions have taken over my life. I hate it. Especially because it seems that when I start getting overly emotional, I also start to lose my self confidence, and then everything just goes down hill from there, and I end up having a pity party like this one.

Aaron helped me to the car, and I came home and put the boys down for naps. I've searched my house high and low for some chocolate, but we seem to be fresh out. :( I know these feelings will go away soon, and everything will be under control again. But I'm really looking forward to not being pregnant and getting my normal emotions and self back. I sure hope this isn't permanent.

Pirate Crafts

During the summer months, instead of story time, our library does craft time for kids 12 and under. Today they had the kids make these adorable pirate hats and pirate hooks. I thought they were so cute and easy that I would share them.

To make a pirate hat all you need is a piece of black construction paper, a white crayon, and some tape. Turn your paper the long way and cut about an inch thick strip off the bottom. Then on the rest of the paper trace this shape:

and using the white crayon, color in where all the white parts are, or designs of your own. Then cut it out. Next tape the inch thick strip to either side of the front of the hat so that it fits the child's head. Done and done.

To make a pirate hook you'll need 1 pipe cleaner, tin foil, and a large plastic or paper cup. Make a square out of tin foil that's as long and wide as the pipe cleaner is long. Lay the pipe cleaner on the edge of your tin foil square and tightly wrap the pipe cleaner in tin foil. Poke a hole in the bottom of your cup and feed the tin foiled pipe cleaner through the hole. Bend into a hook shape. Leave enough on the inside of the cup that the kids have something to hold onto.

My boys had such a fun time doing this project. And both were able to help making it to some degree (Lincoln obviously could do a lot more than Ivan.) and they loved the finished projects even more. In fact, they wore them all over town while we ran our errands today. :) But I think these ideas are simple as easy enough for a wide age range of kids. They would make great Halloween costume, a good activity for letter P, or just for some fun an old day.

Spinkler Time

It's finally been warm enough that over weekend we decided to bust out the sprinkler. At our apartment complex we aren't allowed to have wading pools, so the sprinklers are about as good as we get for water activities. I bought a really cheap sprinkler head that's shaped like a fire hydrant a while back, and I've been excited to use it. It worked really well, but I wasn't willing to get myself wet enough to get it to stand up straight. :) The boys did just fine with it tipped on it's side.

Lincoln was all over being wet, as usual. He even made his own "car wash" and took all the toy bikes and cars that are out back through the sprinklers to clean them off.

Ivan did a lot better than he does at the pool, but still didn't actually run through the sprinkler. He would get up really close so that the mist was hitting him, and stand there for awhile making faces and then run away. But he had fun.

Shaving Cream Paint

Today was one of those days where no matter how many fun things you have planned, they don't seem to take up enough time in the day, so the day drags on and on and the kids are bored and crabby, and their attention spans only last about 5 minutes max. Days like this make me frustrated, especially if I was planning on accomplishing something besides entertaining children.

We did do quite a few fun things today, but somehow it was still just one of those days, and lets just say I was more than happy to put the kids to bed tonight. I haven't been sleeping super well lately, so that's probably the cause of my lack of energy/patience. This morning I let the kids have their TV time (since we don't have a TV that means cartoons on DVD in front of the computer. Usually I try to wait as long as possible in the day to give them their time, and secretly my goal is to make it the whole day without giving it to them. We reach that goal about 3 or 4 days of the week, I wish it were more.) early, so I could get ready without them being underfoot. For some reason the cartoons didn't seem to last as long as they normally do, and I tried to interest the kids in playing blocks while I looked a few things up on the Internet. Time seemed to drag until it was time to go to Letter Day at Suzy's. The couple hours we were there went fast. And I have to admit, I was really glad it was Suzy's day today, I don't think I would have had the energy or motivation to pull off a letter day today. Thanks Suzy :)

Lunch went fairly well, and the kids went down for naps just fine too. But Lincoln, that little stinker, was up after only 45 minutes. I wasn't ready to cope with him yet, but I didn't send him back to bed because I didn't want him to make any noise and have Ivan be up too. I tried to get him to play quietly by himself, which usually he will do, but today he wanted me to be involved in everything he was doing. I gave up on what I was working on, and took him into the kitchen to color. Lincoln needed to use the potty, which of course I can't deny him, but he was so loud in the process that Ivan woke up too. Grrr....

I decided we'd do some finger painting so I could try something I've been hearing a lot about lately. That is to mix your poster paint with shaving cream. There are various reasons for doing so....it makes your paint last longer (as in because you only have to use a few drops each time), it gives kids a new texture to work with, it takes away the awful smell of the poster paint, it makes the paint easier to clean up...are the reasons I've heard, and I wanted to give it a try. So I put some shaving cream into two different bowls and then added just a few drops of poster paint to each, one orange and one blue, and stirred it up with my finger so the shaving cream and paint mixed. Then I gave one bowl to each boy. For Ivan, he gets a little wild, so I taped his piece of paper to his high chair tray so it couldn't go anywhere.

The kids had a good time with it. And I will say that most of the above mentioned reasons to mix your paint with shaving cream, I found to be true. I used less paint on this project than when we do straight finger painting, the texture turned out really cool and 3-D which I really liked, after mixing in the shaving cream I could not smell the paint at all which I hate the smell of and it usually takes over my whole house whenever we get the paints out, AND my favorite part of all...the mess was a cinch to clean up. Ivan got paint all over my kitchen table, his high chair tray, himself, his onsie, and in his hair, and just rinsing all those things with water took the paint right off, no scrubbing whatsoever. My real only "concern" is that I'm not sure this mixture will ever actually dry all the way. I might have to spray it with hair spray to keep the "paint" in place, but that wouldn't be too bad.

Even after painting, it still wasn't as late in the day as it is when the boys typically wake up from naps. Since Ivan was covered in paint, I decided I would just throw them both in the tub and let them play for awhile. I gave them a bunch of measuring cups and an ice cube tray and a funnel as bath toys. They enjoyed that for awhile, and when the started getting bored, I brought in some magic grow capsules and we watched the little pill shapes turn into sea creature sponges.

After that I got them dressed and we went to Costco and spent what I thought was a lot of time, wandering around getting samples and looking at things. But when we got home and got the groceries unloaded we still had about 45 minutes before Aaron would be home, so we went out to play in the backyard for a bit.

Anyways, it was just one of those days that drags and drags and I can't figure out why. I hope tomorrow is better.

R Day: Robots, Rowboats, Running Races, Rice Cakes

To start off R Day, Suzy read the boys a fun touch and feel book called Rusty Robot. It had lots of great R words in it that the boys got to pick out as we read. (Not to mention that reading starts with R.)

Then we talked about row boats and sang Row Row Row Your Boat. Suzy had saved diaper boxes for each of the boys and made oars out of the top, so they each got their very own row boat. First the boys got to tape pieces of water to their boats, so it would look like they were floating. Then they got to decorate them using markers, crayons, and stickers.

Here's Linc in his completed rowboat. I tried to get him to hold the oars the right way, but he insisted on holding them that way.

Suzy even made a rowboat for Ivan so he wouldn't feel left out. He loved it! He especially loved being aloud to decorate it with markers. He got slightly carried away and also decorated himself and Lincoln pretty well with a green marker. :)

The next activity was running a relay race. We went outside, and Suzy put one full bucket of water in the walkway and then by the stairs she put an empty bucket. She gave each boy a cup. The goal was to fill the cup with water from one bucket and then run to the next bucket and dump the water out and then run back for more water. This was the kids' favorite activity. They would have kept playing all afternoon if we would have let them. Once one bucket was empty, we'd have them switch directions and use the other bucket (which was now full) to fill their cups.

Ivan and Kaitlyn enjoyed watching the older boys running back and forth. Ivan tried to run with them for a little while, but gave up on that idea and decided to just stick close to Mom, and splash his hands in the bucket of water.  

Our cute little relay racers, Lincoln and Nathan

To finish up R Day we had Rice Cakes for a snack. All four kids were thrilled.