Why You Won't See the First Picture of Baby #3 on My Fridge

Apparently this kid is an acrobat. It twisted and turned and flipped and punched and kicked its way through my ultrasound. So this is the one and only picture I have. On top, the sonographer did manage to get a view of its foot before it kicked the transducer. The bottom picture appears to show that the kid has at least one eyeball. 

In other news, I am taking any and all name suggestions. Lou and I haven't even discussed names, and I'm pretty sure we won't settle on anything anytime soon. We don't know what the gender is. (I didn't want to know, but Lou did. The sonographer told me that she was soooo relieved that I didn't really want to know because she couldn't have told me with all of its flippy flopping and general lack of cooperation.) So, send me any and all names you think of for this kid. Obviously, names that rhyme with "Sierra" are out. 

No Karas or Sarahs or Taras.

Thanks. 

Super Duper Busy Month

June has been super busy for us. (I actually wrote part of this post when it was still June, but only got to finish it tonight.) Here's a few of the things we've been up to...

Dutch Wonderland

Early in the month we took a trip with the Sierra side to Dutch Wonderland. (Gabbi keeps calling it Scotch Wonderland. I think a wonderland of scotch would be a whole different experience.) Despite it being really hot and poor Micah coming down with a fever, everyone had a good time.

Micah and Daddy chilling at the pool.

Gabbi would like to live at the hotel, especially when I let her eat oreos and watch cartoons in the bed.

Hooray for the choo-choo!

Charlie's First Birthday 

Mom & Tot's Camp

Shannon, Liz, Audrey and I loaded up our kids and drove several hours to Camp Hebron in PA. It was a nice mixture of mom time, kid time, and family time.

The kids were not invited to archery. 

This is prior to the super bumpy "Landon and Micah think they are going to die" tractor ride. Everyone is happily eating their cookies. 

It's Parade Time Again

Gabbi and Micah really enjoyed the recent Deptford Day parade, despite the ear piercing noise from the fire engines and police cars.

Micah is always happy if you give him a soft pretzel.

I would also like to show you an example of appropriate parade marching/dancing and less appropriate parade dancing. I'll let you judge which is which. 

Why My Daughter Loves Me...

Gabbi's preschool made Mother's Day cards this week. The theme was "I love my mommy because..." Here's what Gabbi had to say:

At least I know she's easy to please...

Helpful Hints for the Digestively Challenged

A good friend of mine recently started a blog on her journey with ulcerative colitis. Her diet used to consist of all of the things we all love - coffee with lots of cream and sugar, cookies, and your run of the mill easy to make dinners. After struggling with some digestive, uh, "complications", she decided that she needed to make some changes and she's seen great results. She thought that she would pass along some of the information that has been so helpful for her. If you or someone in your family also struggle with digestive issues, check out her blog here.
We know a little something about malfunctioning digestive systems in our house. Lou was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in his early 20s. After a successful resection of his small intestine and lots (and lots) of maintenance meds and vitamins, the disease doesn't really effect him on a daily basis. I haven't made much change to our diet, but I'm hoping to try to get our family to eat healthier at some point. (Seriously though, when I can't convince Lou that Totino's frozen pepperoni party pizza is a terrible choice for breakfast, I know that I won't have much luck eliminating most dairy, simple carbs, and processed foods. Baby steps...)
Hope this is helpful!

Where My Mother Fathers At?!?

We recently decided that it was time for a larger vehicle. Lou wasn't thrilled with the idea of a minivan, but I pretty much refused to drive a station wagon. We ended up getting a pretty sweet deal on a used Toyota Sienna (in gray! woo-hoo!). When I told my friend Shannon what we'd purchased I believe her words were as follows:

"You got the Sienna because you liked the Swagger Wagon video, right?"

The Swagger Wagon video? I hadn't heard of it, but thanks to the miracle of YouTube we can watch it over and over again. Love it. And even Lou is feeling less dorky about having a minivan in the family.

Now, does anyone want to buy a well maintained Honda CR-V?

A Pencil...

Hello friends!

I know I've been MIA for awhile, and I promise to try not to drop off the face of the earth for so long in between posts. Anyway, I have a whole bunch of stuff in store, and I thought I would start with my favorite Gabbi story from this past December.

First, I need to give props to my friend Julie Veith over at You Know You're A Mommy When... She recently posted about understanding her son's gibberish, which totally reminded me about this story. (By the way, her son and Micah are only a week apart, and for awhile they looked a lot alike. Which means her son is totally, completely adorable.)

It was early December and Christmas was coming up, so I asked Gabbi what she wanted.

"A pencil."

"Really?!? A pencil? Do you want one like this?" I held up a number 2 pencil to show her.

"No." (As she looks at me with slanting eyes.)

I let it go for awhile. I figured that it was just one of those random things that she wanted spur of the moment. Surely she would give me a better gift idea next week.

Nope.

I asked her again. I had both grandmothers ask her. The answer remained the same.

"I want a pencil for Christmas."

So, I had planned on getting her a pack of pencils. The kids are overwhelmed with gifts from their grandparents, so we keep Christmas morning pretty low key in our house. I thought I would throw in a few other art supplies for good measure, but I was pretty sure that she would be happy with the pencils. That is, until I got the Christmas wish list from Gabbi's preschool.

Her teachers asked each student what gift they would like to give baby Jesus, and what gift they would like themselves. Gabbi wanted to give Jesus some frankincense. (No surprise there, Lou had been going over the Christmas story with her since the mall had put up its Christmas display, so that had been drilled into her head for months.) And what would Gabbi like?

"Barbie."

Barbie?!? How does she even know who Barbie is? We don't have any Barbie dolls in our house. We don't even have cable, so I know she didn't see it on a commercial. (BTW, one of the only benefits of a cable free home, other then not having to pay for cable, is that there are very, very few kids' commercials when you only have 9 channels. My kids have little to no idea what the latest toy/cereal/kid craze is.)

I was perplexed. I decided that we needed to have a little chat on the way home. It went something like this:

Me: "Gabbi, what do you want for Christmas?"

Gabbi: "A pencil."

Me: "Oh. I read on your paper from school that you wanted Barbie."

Gabbi: "Yeah, Barbie."

Me: "Do you even know who Barbie is?"

Gabbi: "Barbie is a pencil."

That's when it hit me. Not a pencil. Rapunzel. Holy smokers. She just couldn't say it correctly. Tangled had just come out and there were ads everywhere and I kept talking about how I would take her to see it. Rapunzel. I kept imagining her face on Christmas morning when she got to her "big present" and found a packet of pencils.

That would have been a shame.