Our Anna, continued

I don't know if you noticed, but when Anna colored all over nearly her whole body the other day, she missed her face. 

Well, Anna must have noticed.  Today she got her marker priveliges back, and the first thing she did was rectify the situation.  I caught her nearly immediately, so she didn't get very much done.

If you want to get technical, I told her "...we do not color on our bodies."  I never specifically mentioned the face.  She may have found a loop hole.

Definition of emergency

I was upstairs when I heard Kate yelling, "I need you!" from downstairs at the same time I heard Anna waking up from her nap.  As I came out of my room, I saw Kate's head peeking up the stairs and she repeated, "I need you!" 

Trying to determine if I could grab Anna before I came down, I asked, "Is it an emergency?"

Kate responded, "Yes!" Then, in a voice nearly out of breath with urgency, she explained, "There's a marker, and it fell behind the bench, and it's going to dry out!" and as her voice got more frantic, she elaborated, "And it's a purple one!"

Our Anna

 All right.

This time I was making dinner.  (If you can call turkey sandwhiches, apples, and milk "dinner.")  I wasn't even cheating to catch a minute to myself.

I am just too sore and exhausted to run into the playroom and back into the kitchen, so, despite Kate's report, I tried yelling, "Anna, don't color on yourself," and quickly finished dinner before going in person to stop her.

When I walked in, the little stinker simply stated, "I need a bath, Mama."

Yes, she needs a bath. Did I mention I'm sore and exhausted?

Well, that's our Anna.

One possible upside: this way maybe she'll get it out of her system before she's old enough to consider tatoos. Perhaps all those people with arms covered in tatoos were just never given the freedom to use markers on themselves as two-year olds.
If I had any ambition, I'd consider writing a thank you note to the inventor of "washable" markers.

Boy, is she proud of herself!

Babies in bellies

Anna insists that she also has two babies in her belly.  My favorite thing is when she flinches slightly and then asks if we want to feel the babies kicking.

How Anna is like an innertube

On Father's Day, the girls were making cards for Dave.  Kate had drawn a picture of Dave and her on an innertube going down a waterslide.  She explained to me it was one of the big innertubes with a bottom.  I said something like, "Oh, I know which ones you mean, the big ones with the bottoms."

Anna piped in, pointing to her diaper, "I hab a bottom, too!"

Packing for VBS

Kate has Vacation Bible School this week.  She's a very conscientious student.  Yesterday evening, after coming home, she said, "We should pack up my backpack with the things they say we need to bring tomorrow so we don't forget anything  I need to bring my Bible and some canned food for the food pantry.  Um, they also said I should bring a friend, but that I just don't understand." 

Poor Kate.  I think she pictured packing a friend into her backpack.

"Mason stuck"

What started as a harmless little sore on Mason's side just over a week ago, quickly led to a bacterial infection over half of his side.  He's now on a 14-day oral and topical regimen of antibiotics and is going to be wearing a cone for at least two weeks.

Mason is handling his cone remarkably well.  (The last time he had one was nearly eight years ago, and he was crazy the entire time.)  Anna, on the other hand, is really bothered by the cone.  She keeps trying to make us realize, "Mason stuck.  Mason stuck in dat."  Even though we've explained he has a bad owie and the cone will help him get better, she's not buying it.  She has told us several times, "Mason upset." And she's even gone as far as to elaborate, "You made Mason upset!"

Mason, after his bath when we first put on his cone.

Here's when Anna decided he was upset.

Our growing twins

We had an ultrasound yesterday.  Our boy is estimated to weigh 3 lbs. 15 oz. and our girl 3 lbs. 7 oz.  We're so relieved to see they're coming along well. 

I'm feeling huge.  It's not so much that I feel like, or care if, I look huge, but I'm feeling so uncomfortable.  My back hurts.  I can't catch my breath.  I bump into things.  I have a hard time getting into or out of the car.  I'm simply unable to do things I normally do...

I've grown the most in the last four weeks.  And, the interesting (maybe scary) part is, I have up to 7 weeks more growing to do!

If you look close from the front, my belly is really creepy, too.  It sticks out everywhere possible, especially around the edge where my ribs try to hold it in, and there's a bruise all around my belly button from all the pressure.  If you take the combined 7 1/2 lbs. or baby and add in an extra amniotic sac (2 lbs.) and placenta (1.5 lbs.), it's like I'm carrying a 11 lb. singleton.  No wonder it hurts!  And, there's more to come!!

Our Dells trip

Dave really wanted to go on vacation this week for our anniversary, a final vacation before I'm way too pregnant (despite my insistence that I already am) or the twins arrive.  He'd wanted to actually travel somewhere out of state, so the Green Bay vacation a couple weeks ago didn't satiate him as I'd hoped.  I wasn't sure I was up for another trip, because the one we took to Green Bay nearly killed me, but I decided to give it a try. 

I'm glad I did.  We had a great time.  Kate is now officially an amphibian (I called her a fish, but she corrected me on a technicality).  Anna has started to enjoy the water herself, once we discovered the trick of giving her a few cups and letting her play like she's in the bath.  Dave and I have always loved water parks, and since the water actually helped me swell less, I even had a good time!

(I wouldn't bring my beloved SRL camera to the waterpark, so these pictures aren't the highest quality, but they'll help us remember the fun we had.)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to every father out there, both current fathers and future fathers.

And a special Happy Father's Day to my husband, "World's Best Daddy" to our two girls who currently adore him and our twins who will surely soon adore him, as well.

Slugger

Kate started tee ball last week.  She's by far the littlest one on the team, but she's quite good, and she really seems to like it.

Today at the game, I overhead some other parents discussing the "tiny little red head" out on the field.

Last week, they couldn't get the tee low enough for her, and at her third at-bat, I asked, "Is that all the lower it goes?"  The coach said, "It sure doesn't seem to be hurting her hitting!"

Anna, never wanting to be left out, had the biggest meltdown when the shirts and hats were handed out in the preseason and she didn't recieve one.  Now she always has to wear her "tee ball shirt and hat," which I dug out of Kate's drawer, to the games, too. 

My kids are crazy

Evidence for my accusation of Anna's insanity:

This morning when Anna finished breakfast, she was sitting at the table, drinking her juice and playing with her Wonder Red doll.  (Wonder Red is a superhero from Super Why who wears roller skates.)

Here's the conversation:
Anna (being herself) - "Wonder Red, you drinking juice."
Anna (being Wonder Red) - "I not drinking juice!  You drinking juice."
Anna (being herself) - "Yes, you is.  You hab juice in you rollerskates."
Anna (being Wonder Red) - "I don't hab juice in my rollerskates.  I hab feet in my rollerskates!"

Evidence for my accusation of Kate's insanity:

After picking strawberries and peas and having lunch at Cousin's with my parents, Kate said this to me:
"My stomach really wants McDonald's.  I don't want it, but my stomach sure does."

Yesterday in the car, Kate was typing on my iPhone, pretending to write an email.  She doesn't know how to spell most words yet, but she likes to make things up, including foreign words.  She piped up from the back seat, "Can we pretend 'H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H' spells tee mall!!!"  She said "tee mall" in the highest pitched voice, that we can only assume was meant to be some Asian language.

Scorching

A couple weeks ago, Dave took Kate miniature golfing.  It was a warm day, but it wasn't really hot.  Kate told Dave she was hot, and Dave replied that it was warm, but not too hot.

A couple minutes later, Kate looked at Dave and asked, "Do you know what scorching means?"

Kate's half-birthday

I'd originally told Kate that her half-birthday was coming up, so she would know when she'd be 4 1/2.  But, when I told her about it, she reminded me that last year on her half-birthday I made her a half-cake.  So, I planned on doing that. 

The morning of her half-birthday. however, she asked me when her party was and when she'd get to open her presents.  Although I told her that half-birthdays don't get parties or presents, I felt guilty enough to let her pick out some things from the dollar section at Michael's and wrap up something I'd been saving in the closet for her.

Today's breakfast

I blew Anna's mind today. 

I called the girls to come eat breakfast and then got a pan of blueberry muffins out of the oven.  Anna blurted out, "Tupcakes?" 

I smiled and said, "Yep, cupcakes!  Cupcakes for breakfast."

Anna, even more incredulously, asked, "Tupcakes?  Tupcakes for bresfes?"

I laughed and again confirmed we were having cupcakes for breakfast today.

A moment went by and Anna exclaimed, "Oh, my dosh!"

Any volunteers?

Anyone want to volunteer to watch my four-year-old? 

This is what she told my mom the other day when she was watching her, for no particular reason, just to make sure the facts were clear:

"You know, you're not the boss of this house.  That's my mom and dad.  You don't even live here."

My shower

My dear friend Samantha, with help from her sister, threw me a baby shower at church last weekend.  Although it resulted in many people coming down with the stomach flu, (the first of whom, and the likely cause of the rest, was me) it was an amazing shower.

The two of them thought of everything: from coordinating invitations, plates, napkins, balloons, cake, candybars, and thank you notes to amazing food and the best shower games I've ever played.  It was a great day.  I had a wonderful time.

One of the shower games:  trying to deliver a baby (melt it out of an icecube) first

Another shower game:  Trying to multitask, hold a baby, talk on the phone, play with the dog, and be the first to fold the laundry

Kate and Ashley playing with the leftover babies from the delivery game

Kate trying the multitasking game

Ashley trying the multitasking game

My beautiful and delicious cake