Fun Stuff

Ryan's favorite new game for Mommy to play is "Oh no, I'm stuck". I give him a kiss on the cheek, but my lips get stuck to his face. I have to zerbit (Bill Cosby's term) him to get unstuck. He laughs, and wants me to do it again and again. He's such an affectionate little boy and is always giving Alyna hugs and kisses.

Everytime we get in the van now, they throw a fit if they don't get to play up front for a few minutes first. Most of the time I just plan for 5 minutes ahead to give them that time. Ryan loves to drive, and Alyna messes with all the knobs on the air and radio controls. When we finally get in the driver seat we have to check that everything is set back to normal: hazard lights, wipers, a/c temp and speed, sliding door controls, etc. Sometimes when we aren't going anywhere I just let them play in the garage and the van for extended times. It's good that they like to do this because Barry and I need to prep for the garage sale we want to have soon.

They love to sit on the potty, (usually right after I've gone). The biggest problem right now is that both of them always want to sit on the big potty at the same time. We have 2 little potty chairs, so I make them take turns for who has to sit on one of those. I plan to start taking them more regularly this week, and we'll see how that goes. Barry is off for the next 5 days, so he'll be here to help with all the bending over that it entails.

Alyna was fascinated by her pink pullups with Princesses on them. I put a bunch of boy and girl Pullups in a box in the bathroom, and... well...



Alyna then piled them all up together... she's my little organizer


while Ryan decided to climb... no surprise there.


Update: Upon being asked, Alyna put the pile of pink Pullups back into the box. She's such a good girl.

Feelings

This is one of those mornings where I feel like putting away all the toys that require any help/assistance from Mommy. When Barry starts a shift after I've had a couple nights of very little sleep, I feel very cranky. Two toddlers constantly wanting my attention seems overwhelming.

They are playing with some of Barry's old transformer toys, and whenever they become mis-shapen, I have to fix them. That's about every 2 minutes. The shapes cookie jar also requires assistance because they can't always get it to fit in right. Mommy even has to be sitting right there on the floor for Alyna to do her puzzles even though she has them memorized and can do them herself.

The reason for the lack of sleep is that both twins have molars coming in, and sometimes wake up at night and scream. They usually go right back to sleep, but it's enough to wake me up every couple hours. The past 2 days, Ryan spiked a fever of about 102, and was very fussy and uncomfortable. It's not fun when you don't really know what's wrong. His temperature is back to normal today, but he's still fussy.

BUT... I also feel blessed.

I'm officially in the 3rd trimester with Kellyn. Aside from normal pregnancy fatigue and always being HOT, everything is going well. Nights where the twins let me sleep all night long, I usually feel great the next day.

This week I took the screening for gestational diabetes, and it was negative.

My thyroid levels, which were irregular during the twins' pregnancy, were also normal.

Cleaning Out

As we keep cleaning out closets and our guest/storage room... we keep buying new things too... it seems we'll never make any headway.

But it is a nice feeling to decide to sell or throw away things that made the move here from Washington 3 1/2 years ago, but we haven't used since. I think we'll attempt a garage sale on June 5... if we can get it worked out by then. Our storage rooms are overflowing.

The guest room is starting to look more like a kids room than a storage room. Most of the clutter is out of the closet, and the rest should be able to follow during or after the garage sale.

The plan is that the guest room that already has twin beds will become the twins room in July. That will give us about 6 weeks to get them used to that room before the baby takes over the nursery.

Garage sales are a lot of work... hopefully it'll be worth it. I know we'll end up donating a lot to the clothing room at church, or to the Salvation Army. That's fine, it just needs to be out of my house.

recent stories

Ryan the Flirt:
We went to lunch at a local cafe yesterday with the ladies after Ladies Bible Class. I put in our order and took Ryan back to our long table. He turned around and headed straight toward a blonde teenage girl sitting at a table with about half a dozen other teenage girls. He lifted his arms to be picked up, and she got a wide eyed look on her face. I was about to stop him, but then said, "Go ahead, if you want to." She picked him up, and in typical Ryan fashion he dug his head in to cuddle on her shoulder. There was a collective "Ah" from the group of girls. I just smiled and turned around to get the high chairs situated. They asked his name and how old he was, and he was passed to at least 3 other girls arms as they deposited their trash and prepared to leave.

The Ants Go Marching:
We've discovered a great activity for staying in the shade of the porch on hot afternoons... watching the little ants crawl around. Alyna was the first to notice them the other day, and now we look for them all the time. She gets on her knees, and tries to put her finger on them. She calls them "Ace". Ryan joined in the fun of tracking the ants yesterday too.

Dirty Knees:

Sunday morning Alyna wore really pretty pink dress to church (a hand me down from someone Nana and Aunt Robyn know). It came with a matching duster coat that is pretty long on her right now. Since the wind was still cold in the morning, she was wearing the coat too.

I had Ryan out of his car seat at church, and was holding his hand teaching him to walk across the street to the building. Barry was carrying Alyna at first, but decided she could walk too. She went about 3 steps before tripping on the dress, falling on the asphalt, and scraping her knees. (I think having her hand up to hold Daddy's hand on the one side lengthened her coat on the other side.)

We found the church's first aid kit, cleaned the scrapes, and put a band-aid on the one knee that looked like it needed some coverage as she played in the nursery. She didn't cry, but she was just a little upset.

The funny part came on Monday night. After wearing pants all day, she got in the bathtub and noticed her knees. She took the washcloth and tried to wash the scabs off. I tried to tell her that it wasn't dirt so it wouldn't come off. Tuesday morning she did the same thing when I put her shorts on her. Every time she saw her knees she would try to wipe them off. Silly girl...

Ryan Climbs Again:

This is the first pile of boxes we moved out of the guest room to put out in the garage. Of course, Ryan thought it was a cool new playset we made just for him to climb on.

Week 24 of Pregnancy

Here's what the Mayo Clinic says is going on with baby Kellyn this week:

Week 24: Real hair grows
Twenty-four weeks into your pregnancy, or 22 weeks after conception, your baby is regularly sleeping and waking. Real hair is beginning to grow on his or her head.

By now your baby may be slightly longer than 8 inches (210 millimeters) from crown to rump and weigh more than 1 1/3 pounds (630 grams).

With intensive medical care, some babies born this week may be able to survive.


It feels good to be at the point where our modern medicine could help my baby survive if she were born any time from now on. It's never a good idea to deliver before 34 weeks unless necessary, but at least some of the maternal fear is subsiding.

Her kicks are getting stronger, and sometimes make me wince or gasp. I feel very blessed that our family is growing again this year. Alyna and Ryan play very sweetly with our baby doll and I know they will be a good big brother and sister.