My Dear 5 Year Old

Happy birthday today to my Jared boy

He is my helper when I am tired or my hands are full.

He is sweet and kind and sensitive to others.

He loves inventing and practicing to be a Ninja Warrior.

I am so lucky to have him!

Fashion

Rosie has been dressing herself a lot more lately, which gives us some sweet results like these:

Red velvet bolero and purple leggings.

Inside out undershirt, shirt and shorts.

Two shirts, tutu and backwards skort (not pictured)

Now if only I could convince her to wear a single outfit each day...

Gardening: Update 1

Our first weeding.

Note: Freshly shoveled in soil is not compact, like your parents' garden. Be prepared to sink in significantly and don't let it affect your pregnant body image.

I don't think I can get over that fence anymore, so I just put the kids in and put them to work.

Everything is growing!

I've only killed one plant!

Writing and Pets

Ruth and Jared found some bugs (larvae really) in our backyard, during a session of yard work. Jared insisted on coming in and getting a jar, so he could keep them as pets.
He was worried about the past repeating itself, so he wanted to write a note for his dad.

It is his first note! The first time he had the motivation to write more than a word or two at a time!

So proud!

The back story is that a few weeks ago (during a playdate) I noted a scab in Jared's ear. But the scab was not a scab, it was a tick. And he hadn't been outside in nearly 18 hours.
I finally got up the courage to pull it out, with a little instruction from a nurse. I didn't know how I was going to kill it, so I sealed it in a jar for the meantime. Jared immediately decided that the jarred tick was his pet. I did go ahead and kill it (rubbing alcohol in the jar) because it is a tick that had fed off my son and it was not going to live. A day or so later, Ken dumped the dead tick out in the trash. Jared noticed pretty quickly that his pet was gone, and told him that Dad had put it in the trash. He was upset because he has learned (from Wild Kratts) that animals should be free in the wild, not in the trash. He's lectured Ken a few times since.
So this time, he wanted to be sure that his new pet would not meet the same fate.

Duck feeding

 We have a spring activities list that we work on every few days (because if we didn't, I would do very little)

 So we finally got around to feeding the ducks.

 The ducks were timid to start with, but they really kept their distance when the geese came over.

Goslings are adorable, but the mother goose was constantly hissing at us in warning. It was intimidating.

Sweet Teeth

 I've been making a lot more desserts lately. I don't know if it is pregnancy cravings or making memories with the kids or trying to impress Ruth. Anyway, we are enjoying it!

I saw these on pinterest. It was just a picture, so it took some work to figure out the right techniques.

(Getting those sprinkles to stick and to be evenly distributed is harder than it looks)

For Ken's birthday, I made chocolate pretzel nests instead of cake, as requested.

 Ken chose mint.

Jared put everything on top.

Here Rosie is just working with her spoon.

 Candid/slightly awkward picture of me, but check out Rosie. She has moved on to more aggressive techniques.

 Ruth chose to Float.

NO ONE has a sweet tooth like this little lady. 

At lunch, I will give her an option of peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and honey sandwiches and she will reply with, "Hmmmmm. I think ice cream. Chocolate ice cream."

Maybe we do need to cut back on the sweets and have more lessons about what is healthy for our bodies.

37 Weeks

I can hardly believe we will be seeing this girl so soon!

And there is so much to do! No time to nap!
I am most definitely nesting.
Except when I decide I am exhausted, which sometimes happens about 1pm.

I'm feeling every ounce of this baby right now. I don't walk now, I lumber. I'm grateful for slip on shoes and for the days when the kids are independent enough to put their own shoes on.Tums are a daily neccessity.

Ken and I went on a hospital tour recently and it was good to finally visualize her birthday. I'm excited about the midwives I am seeing. I am just itching for the day I get to see this mystery girl.New baby, new hospital, new state.

I'm lucky enough to sleep pretty well, the majority of the time. And fortunately, Jared listens when I tell him it is too early to get up.

Jared and Rosie are really getting into the idea of a new sister. Jared tells people (ie-strangers anywhere we go) that he is getting a new baby, but that we don't know what her name is yet. True. He also likes to tickle her with one finger, wherever I indicate her belly probably is, because a one finger tickle is much more gentle in his mind. Rosie will not hear tell that she will be the big sister (Jared is big, she is little), but she coos at my belly and sings. Or she'll touch my stomach for just a second and yell, "He kicked me!" (Pronouns aren't her strong suit yet). They both like helping me organize the nursery and squeaking baby toys for the baby to "see." The relationship of siblings is one of my favorite things to see with our little ones.

Come soon, Little Girl!

I think I have a favorite color...

While Ken was in India in March, he picked me up this sweet outfit for our anniversary. He's never bought an outfit for me before and I am quite pleased with the results:

 He really did well! He even put the pants with the top and everything.

 We got a good laugh, however, when we realized that I had chosen the EXACT same color for the nursery.

Shock! Camouflage!

Seriously though. This is my favorite color and I regret nothing.

Rosie's Art

I love the little circles she makes. She tells me they are coconuts. And so much color!

Keep going, my girl!

Jared's Dinosaurs

I've had little success with pushing crafts on Jared, so I was pleasantly surprised that Jared started on these the other day.

(T-Rex, brontosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus)

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our Memorial Day in Chicago, it was lovely! The weather was great, I wish we could do that day again.

The morning was spent in the Groves, exploring nature.

 Even seeing some wildlife

 The interpretive center

Ken texts occasionally

Rosie found this letter A

 Ken's texting with a Chicago native led us to Giordiano's for authentic deep dish.

Here was our hot drive home with our sleepy kids.

America!

Jared Finished Preschool!

 This was his end of the year music program. It was so sweet!

KEN IS 30!!!

Happy Birthday!

Ken turned 30 this month!

On his birthday he was on a business trip in China. Super exciting, except for the jetlag and lack of family, of course.
But we celebrated a little bit before he left, mostly with food. Waffles for breakfast and seven layer taco dip for lunch. For dinner, he wanted hummus so I made chipotle hummus and spinach feta hummus. It was delicious!
He had to pack for his trip, so we didn't do much else that day besides talk and play with the kids.
We are so lucky to have him!