birthing of a baby...

as explained by a 6 year old to her little brother.

On our way home from Grammy's house this afternoon, MB asks me if the baby will be born while his cousins are here. I told him yes he would be. Then he asks, so he just crawls out? Peanut pipes up from the back seat...
No, MB, I'll tell you how it happens. First they stick something in the mom's back so it won't hurt. Then they cut open her stomach and pull the baby out. (I'm not quite sure where she got this from, but not too shabby.) I told her yes that was one way a baby could be born. She promptly asked me how else they could get here. I wish I would have just kept my fat mouth shut.

Then she asked, "do they put jam all over the baby?"

I love little kids!

swimming, teeth & pickles

Update on swimming lessons:

By the end of the week, Peanut could jump in and swim to the stairs. She can now stop to take a breath as she goes now. She is officially pool safe and NOT allowed to use floaties anymore.

MB can jump off of the side and swim to the other side. He pulls himself up out of the pool. So my thoughts, if he falls in, he can get out. But he still needs to work on it.

Jake told them after their first lessons that if they could swim by the end of the week, he would take them shopping and the would get to pick out a toy.

(the only pic of them both swimming)

Well we went to walmart on Saturday afternoon and they each got to pick out whatever they wanted. In MB's case that was a big monster truck that goes by itself AKA - a remote controlled fj cruiser. Peanut had mentally picked out her toy as being a fairy art set. But when we got to the store, she decided on the Rapunzel Barbie that you can cut her hair... and put it back on. Side note: that night as I was checking on her before I went to bed, she was half hanging out so I moved her over. She rolled over and clearly said, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel". Which I'm sure was followed by a "let down your hair" in her dream. :)

Last night as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Peanut flossed and brushed her own teeth. No big deal. When I was check to make sure they were clean, her front tooth was bleeding profusely. Jake checked it out and decided it was ready. He turned it a little and she pulled back, saying it hurt. I looked at her tooth. Totally and completely sideways. Made me a little sick. Needless to say it came out a few seconds later. So the tooth fairy visited again last night. That was tooth #3. And now I have a little girl who looks silly and talks a little bit funny. But she is thrilled and can't wait for her other front tooth to fall out.

This evening I went and picked a few more cucumbers and canned 10 pints of pickles. We'll see how they turn out. The cucumbers smelled wonderful and tasted pretty good too. So hopefully the pickles won't be too bad.

Swimming

I took my first swimming lessons when I was 2, maybe 3. I remember looking under the water at the fishies that were there... seriously. I remember seeing fish, in the pool. If you don't believe me, you can ask my sister, she saw them too. When we moved to the south a few years later, I didn't really remember how to swim. But that was soon to change as we spent every summer at the pool. I swam on the swim team for several years. I was never very good, but it was fun.

Peanut took swimming lessons when she was 18months and the next summer as well. She doesn't have a fear of water, but would refuse to swim without her floaties. I tried teaching her. That didn't go over so well. MB doesn't have any fears. Except maybe riding diggers down the stairs. He has consistently jumped in the pool and kicked himself around with his floaties on. He wasn't very receptive to me teaching him either.

So I signed the kids up for lessons. They started yesterday. About halfway through the lesson I started having the mom guilt. Listening to my babies cry and beg not to do it again. Peanut kept saying, "please don't make me do it again, please, please, please. I'll do something else, just please don't make me do that again." While MB was in the other end of the pool crying and crying and crying. Although if he started to scream, he got dunked. After we got home yesterday they both informed me they NEVER wanted to go to swim lessons again. I talked to both of them throughout the rest of the day yesterday and this morning about how their teachers weren't going to let anything bad happen to them and they were fully capable of swimming. We got back today and they were both willing to walk in by themselves. To be completely honest, that shocked me. Peanut immediately walked over and sat on the stairs of the pool. I took my little monkey's hand and started walking over. He pulled it out and said, "I can do this by myself." I let him try. He got pretty close and turned around and came back. I walked behind him back towards the pool. When he got about 3 feet away, he kept that distance and paced back and forth. I finally had to pick him up and hand him in. He cried just a little bit at the beginning and then settled right down. Peanut was excited about swimming today and asked her teacher if she could keep her eyes open. After that, she was great and started swimming to different locations by herself. Arms straight out in front and little legs kicking. She even kept her face down in the water. Towards the end of the lesson MB came over with his teacher and asked Peanut to watch him swim by himself. He was pulled off the edge of the pool, kept his head down, arms out in front, and kicked like crazy to the other side of the pool. I was seriously impressed. The kid kept drinking the pool yesterday.

After they showed each other they could swim across the pool, my kids loosened up and started chatting up their teachers. MB was telling his that he wanted Peanut to have a princess pool and he wanted a superman pool. When his teacher asked him if he wanted the princess pool, he very slowly explained to him that no the princess pool was in fact for peanut and he wanted the super man one...

Once out in the car, they asked if they could come back later today for more swimming lessons. I'm excited to see what they'll learn by the end of the week.

First Harvest

This is our first year trying to garden. The plants are huge. This morning Jake came to the back door with 3 good sized cucumbers in his hands. Then he told me that there was a red raspberry waiting to be picked. I took the opportunity to brave the heat and waddle across the yard. We found 6 more cucumbers that were ready and a luscious raspberry. I guess I'm going to be learning about making pickles this week. If only everything else would start producing... we have flowers all over the cantaloupe & watermelon vines. And I know the bees are busy, I go down early in the morning to check on the garden and it is always buzzing. The raspberry bushes are quite impressive, but they are lacking any flowers. The blueberry bushes are getting there. Cauliflower looks like the bugs are enjoying the leaves. The bell pepper plants are enormous, we need to go buy stakes for them. Although our tomatoes are still struggling...

I can hardly describe the mouth watering delicacy of the raspberry. I don't know if I can wait for another one... hopefully we'll get more than one.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what to do with cucumbers, besides pickles?

Beach Day

no reason for this pic, i just like it.

There is nothing more glorious for a hugely pregnant person, than to float in the fabulously cool ocean. My mom, sister & I took the kids to the beach last Thursday. On the way down we noticed all the little signs that give you traffic updates said to reduce speed an exercise was in progress. We were trying to figure out what that meant. It didn't take long. There were 3 cops at each exit and at least 2 cops at each median crossing. Seriously. MB apparently thought it would be a good idea to have a little intestinal distress on the way there. And of course he picks the spot without a toilet for 20 minutes. Thankfully the kid has good control. After we got to the beach and we got thoroughly covered in sunscreen, it took us another 25 minutes to finally get down to the beach and get set up. It was a beautiful day on the beach. I was a little worried about my belly peeking out, but then I noticed some of the other people on the beach and realized I shouldn't have worried about it. at all.

Peanut really enjoyed learning how to body surf, thanks to Grammy.

Physcokity kept MB entertained and out of trouble.

I got to float. bliss.

Once I was back sitting under the beach umbrella, MB came running to me crying. Peanut & Grammy were following slowly behind. I was trying to figure out what happened to him... evidently Peanut told him she was going to bury him in the sand (thinking his legs). He thought she was going to dig a hold and throw him in and cover him up... just like a buried treasure. PK volunteered to let us bury her legs. She got a mermaid tail. MB was thrilled with the hole I took all of the dirt out of and chose to sit in it.

After getting cleaned up and back in the car, we picked up some dinner and headed back. Thanks to more intestinal distress on MB's part, a monster storm, and bad traffic, we got home around 9:30. The kids passed out the last 5 minutes of the trip and didn't wake up during the transfer to bed. Unfortunately they didn't get the memo about sleeping in the next morning... 6:30 brought business as usual.

dreams or nightmares?

So this morning as I was getting Peanut ready for her last day of Kindergarten, she asked if she could wear tights with her dress. Of course I thought she was crazy and told her no, it was way too hot to wear tights. While we were driving to school, things became a little bit more clear...

P: Mom guess what I dreamed about last night.
CQ: What?
P: Nathan kissed me in my dream.
CQ: Really?
P: Yep, I was wearing my white tights with roses on the ankle, these shoes, this dress, and I had a pink bow in my hair, you know the one I wore yesterday.
CQ (thinking): crap I'm really glad I didn't put that bow in her hair, I was about 2 seconds away from that. Is she seriously dreaming about boys kissing her in KINDERGARTEN?!?!?! What am I going to do with her?
CQ (out loud): wow, sounds like a crazy dream. You know, you are a little bit young to start kissing boys.
P: Yeah, but it was Nathan and he is my boyfriend.
CQ: yeah, about that, you're a little bit young to have a boyfriend either. You need to be 16 before you can have a boyfriend.
P: I know. Bye mom.

her dreams, my nightmares... I didn't realize these fears/worries started so early. I mean she has already been proposed to this year, but she didn't like the kid and told him no. It's the ones she likes that worry me.

only 2 half days left of school...

Not sure whether to be relieved by that or worried.

Sunday evening... MB decided to climb up onto the counter and partake of his winnings from the cake walk at the school carnival...

I was totally responsible for this loss of hair.

But, Peanut was ok with it, finally. And now she loves it. She is also very excited for the fact I won't have to spend "hours" combing her hair anymore.

Tomorrow at 10 I am going to Peanut's school for an ice cream social. We get to eat and be told how fabulous our kids are... can't go wrong with that combo. Grammy is coming too. Since it is a half day, we're going to hit the strawberry patch after we get our sugar fix. I think strawberry shortcake would make a good dinner tomorrow night. :)