Happy News!

We are expecting a baby! I'm 11 weeks pregnant with an arrival date of mid September. We are all very excited. And I am much more nauseous this time around and having a harder time sleeping at night, which is exacerbated by the fact that an afternoon nap is a major rarity given the fact that my two little ones don't nap anymore. So my nausea seems to settle in around 4pm and stay until I go to sleep at night. On a few occasions, I have set the timer for 45 minutes for some afternoon quiet time and gone to lay down on my bed (with the door closed in hopes that I might fall asleep). One of these times, the girls got into the paints and had a grand old time. Another time they found some chocolate and marshmallows. I didn't care. I was just happy to have 45 minutes of peace and quiet.

Today I saw a woman with an infant on her front and a toddler on her back in a pack. I turned to Jedd and said, "Our girls will be able to walk and run without needing me to carry them while I carry this baby". That sounds nice. Sonna will be 3 years and 4 months old and Mara will be 5 years and 4 months old when this baby joins our family. I think that will be just right!

Happy growing, baby! I'll do my part to help - approximately 30 pounds. :)

Sandy Beach in Somers

So we ended our nutty week with a glorious visit to Sandy Beach which is near our home. The girls loved the combination of the water, ice, snow and soft sand. They were pleased that the sand was 'playable', unlike the frozen sand in our sandbox. It was a refreshing finish to our week.

Quite a week

I told Becca I was too tired to post the happenings of this past week but she told me it would be worth it and good to reflect on in years to come. This was a week from he^^. Jedd's dad had two minor heart attacks, I was unable to sleep without the aid of Tylenol PM, we found out our amazing neighborhood dog, Sarah, was taken to the pound, I dislocated Sonna's arm, a dismal job search in a dismal economy, and in an error of parenting judgement we made a consequence that was impossible for Sonna to avoid which resulted in taking her new scooter to the Salvation Army (major tears).

I'll start with dislocating Sonna's arm. Jedd was hosting a retreat at camp for the weekend so I was on my own for bedtime. It was time for bedtime stories and we usually lay between the girls. Sonna wouldn't move over so I could fit in between them. I asked Mara if I could lay on the edge instead and reach over Sonna to hold her hand. Mara said, "No, I need some of your love too". (She wanted me near her too). So I asked Sonna to roll over again but she wouldn't. I grabbed her wrist to help scoot her over and she immediately screamed. She rolled over and held her arm against her body and would NOT let me look at it. Still crying and screaming, I told her I needed to look at her arm. She said, "NO! Not you, only the Doctor!". She was very upset with me for having hurt her. When I asked Sonna if she wanted to watch a video (to get her mind off the pain) she said, "I can't walk!" (I think she meant to say "I can't move". Thankfully, Jedd was able to come home to help and in the meantime, I spoke to my cousin, Kathy, who is a Pediatrician Resident and she was so reassuring. She said that little kids' joints are very lax and that this happens a lot. She said they would probably take an x-ray at the E.R. Thankfully, Sonna's arm seemed to pop back into place all on it's own and she cried herself to sleep. Then Jedd got home and checked her arm (after cutting off her jammies since Sonna wouldn't let me touch her) and it seemed fine. Jedd went back to work. At 3AM, Sonna called me into her room and said, "I can walk again!!!" Her arm was better. She also said, "Tell my Dad I love him". (Thanks to Uncle Mike who was also a supportive consult during this traumatic event.)

This week also included calling Mom names. Mean Mom was what they called me anytime I said something they didn't like. Time Outs were not at all effective and of course, it happened only when Jedd was gone at work. At supper on Wednesday night, I gave a little speech something like this: "I am your mom and I love you very much and I work hard to take very good care of you and when you call me a name it is rude and disrespectful and it hurts my feelings" (insert tears in my eyes). So I asked the girls what they thought would be an appropriate consequence for calling me Mean Mom. In an effort convey the seriousness of the situation, Jedd suggested throwing away their scooters if they should say it again. He was not at all expecting the girls to agree to such a suggestion. But Mara's eyes grew wide and she said, "OK". Uh, oh. At 2 1/2 Sonna is lacking in self control or thinking before she speaks. At 4 1/2, we have been working with Mara to think before she speaks for several months now. We gave the girls several reminders that their scooters would go to Salvation Army for another little kid to have if they said Mean Mom, knowing full well that one of them would slip. We knew this wasn't the right consequence but we needed to follow through. As predicted, Sonna said Mean Mom the next morning and we took her scooter to the Salvation Army. It was a sad day for Sonna. (Just after Sonna said Mean Mom and was reminded of the consequence, her loving big sister said, "Sonna, I will share my scooter with you if you want").

If you're gonna go, go BIG!

Sonna's been potty trained for a long time, but only #1. She's struggled with constipation for almost a year and for whatever reason she is hesitant to use the potty. Sonna grabs her own pull-up and does her thing and afterwards she brings us the wipes and asks for help. Jedd told her that when she goes poo in the potty, he will buy her a big shiny balloon. It worked! She sat for 20 minutes and was so pleased with the results! :) The next day, she got to pick out this Tinker Bell balloon that is bigger than she is! Mara was lucky to pick out a big balloon too - supportive big sister that she is.

The Happiest Part

We bought a Story Reader at the second hand shop before we drove back to MN for Christmas. It helped the girls pass many miles on the 1,300+ mile road trip. It came with 10 Disney stories. I don't care for Disney stories (you know - the mom always gets killed or separated from her children - Lovely, Disney) so my kids haven't seen Disney movies or read Disney stories. Until now. Sonna loves listening to the stories read aloud by the Story Reader and she'll sit for an hour at a time putting in a new cartridge and finding the corresponding story. Lately, she'll call whomever is in the house saying, "COME, this is the happiest part!" She knows that the 'And they lived happily ever after' part is happy and compared to the Scary Parts in the stories the Happiest Part is her favorite part.

Playtime

Oh, the culinary delights that come outof this play kitchen - with tap shoes, leotards, and aprons no less! Check out Sonna's muscle tone. That did not come from my side of the family. :)

Valentine's Day 2010

Mara worked diligently to create a special Valentine for each of her classmates and teacher Carol. She enjoys crafts and enjoys practicing writing letters. I think she was quite pleased with her designs.

The Train!

We were blessed to fly home to be with Joan and Lanny (Thanks Paul and Margaret!) and then blessed to take the train back to Montana (Thanks Lanny and Joan!). The train ride was filled with anticipation for the girls. When we got on the train at 10:30PM, the girls were still wide awake and when we got settled in our little sleeper car, Sonna kept saying "I love the train!". The girls were thrilled to sleep on the top bunks! And they slept well; Mommy not so much. Our breakfast and lunch were included and we had a lot of fun eating, playing games, playing House in our sleeper car, and hanging out in the observation car. One of our bags was forgotten on the train and took a ride to Portland but came back safely to Whitefish the next day. It was a good thing because it contained half of the girls' clothes, good shoes, my shoes and boots, AND our computer hard drive. Thank you, Amtrak!

Tender Times

We took an unexpected trip back to Minnesota because it seemed as though Jedd's dad's death was imminent. Grandpa Lanny was brought home for hospice care for the week we were home and here he is surrounded by his girls: Mara, Sonna, Baby Aasta and loving wife Joan. It was special to see the girls make sense of their grandpa's death (and then not death) in their 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 year old ways. Grandpa Lanny rallied a bit and went back to the nursing home in Minneota, MN. We pray for Grandpa Lanny and Grandma Joan each day.