Monday, July 26, 2010

Last Post on 2 Princesses, 1 Dude & The Little Bean

By this time tomorrow we will know if this little one is a boy or a girl! In fact, we'll be holding the Little Bean in our arms and making room in our hearts for one more baby. I'm a little nervous as to how the induction is going to go. I'm unsure if baby will be here tonight or not until tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that Jason and Mom will both be there for the birth. I'm worried how that will work if the baby decides to come in the middle of the night.

I'm still unsure how the baby is going to affect our day-to-day life and family balance. I'm sure it will all work out, but it feels like such an unknown. Our family seems so busy, so full, so complete I wonder how one more will fit in. But, my arms are aching to hold this little one and I'm so excited to see what Emma, Grace and Cooper think about the new baby. I guess we will know soon...

After the baby is born and we get settled at home, the next question will be what should this blog/journal be called next?

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Quiet Week

This week as been very quiet at our house. Sunday afternoon both of the girls went off to week-long sleep-over camps. Emma Jo spending the week at Mt. Gilead Bible Camp. Jason and I drove her out there on Sunday afternoon. She was so excited, but a little nervous. She must have asked me a dozen times if I had requested any of her friends to be in her cabin. She was so worried she wouldn't know anyone and would be lonely. When we arrived we discovered that not only was Anna F. in her cabin (whom I had requested) but there were actually four girls from school/church in her cabin. And three more in the cabin next door! We got a letter from her yesterday and it sounded like she was having a blast!

Grammie and Grampa watched the little kids while we were dropping Emma at camp. After dinner, Gracie went home with them. She was planning a week at "Grammie Camp" so that she could be big like her sister. Grace loves to spend the night at Grammie's and has been begging to send a week there. We agreed that the week Emma was gone would be the perfect timing. I heard the sleeping didn't go so well the first night (with Grace crawling in between Grammie and Grampa in the middle of the night) but everything has been great since then. She calls every night to share a highlight of the day, but is quick to hang up and get back to the fun with her grandparents.
I think Grampa is having as much fun as Grace. We got this email from him yesterday: What a joy it is to have Gracie visiting. I enjoy seeing her skipping from the house, coming to visit me in the vegetable garden; not a worry in the world. I told her last night I might have to leave this morning before she was up and that I wished her a good day. She comes up to me and said for me to come to her room and wake her up, that she would give me a hug and a kiss. I went in there this morning, but she was sleeping so comfortably that I could not bring myself to waking her to give her a hug. It is wonderful that she seems so comfortable.

Cooper is the only one at home this week. He reminds us that he is at "Mommy Camp". He has asked a couple of times where Gracie and Sissy are but for the most part he is pretty happy to have Mommy and Daddy to himself. He has been enjoying working in the garden and workshop with Daddy and watching movies with Mommy.

It is nice to have such a quiet week because it will be anything but quiet in less than 10 days when the baby get here!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Big Switch

There was lots of activity in our house this weekend. We finally made the switch and gave Emma Jo back her own room. With Cooper becoming such a big boy, we promised Emma Jo that she could get her own room back and Cooper could bunk with Grace. Everyone seemed pretty excited about the possibility. Grace is ecstatic to finally be big enough for the top bunk. Cooper is so proud to be a "big boy" and get to sleep in Grace's bed. Emma is just happy to finally have her own space.
We started the move on Saturday morning by having Emma sort and pack her closet. To make matter really complicated Grace wanted to move from her dresser and her side of the closet to Emma Jo's dresser and closet. Clearly those are to be used by the oldest so it was her rightful place. So Saturday we had to get Emma's things out of her room, Cooper's things out of his room, Grace's things into Emma's old space, Emma's stuff into Cooper's room and then Cooper's stuff into Grace's room. We also had to put the baby stuff into our room so that Emma could have her real furniture, not a baby changing table/dresser combo. Right smack in the middle was nap time so most activity had to halt as Cooper took a nap in his old room. By that time I was exhausted and so happy Daddy was home to help.
Thankfully by Sunday afternoon Emma Jo's room is completely re-done. She is so very, very happy to have her own room and is so proud of how she put it together. We didn't do any painting or even change the window treatments since we're not sure which room she will be in after the remodel.
The little kids' room is about 70% done. Their toys and books need to be organized. Cooper's clothes need to be loaded into his dresser. All of the wall art needs to be shifted or changed.
The biggest work still needs to be done in our room. We have odds and ends from each of the kids on the floor. We have several loads of laundry that need to folded. The baby's stuff is sorted but nothing is washed or put away. It is basically chaos in our room. Jason is frustrated since he doesn't do well with disorder. I'm even starting to feel claustrophobic. Unfortunately I've felt awful today so I haven't been any help at all. I'm counting on feeling better tomorrow and tackling at least the clothes and having Rosie vacuum the floor. I'm sure that will go a long way towards our room being livable again.
I am happy to say that we now do have a car seat and diapers! I just need to wash some baby clothes and we wil be ready for baby!