It's Wild Here

A year

Wow, things  have really changed.

41 weeks, 5 days

Can you believe this belly?

this is the due date post

It came and will probably go. If I have a baby on my due date, that will be one quick labor.  Nothing to report, other than the normal late-pregnancy activity.

weekend

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMIAH! At this time, 9 years ago, I was not an especially happy mama. In three hours it will be the time of your sweet arrival.

Here's a look back at some favorite Jeremiah shots.

 

 

Speaking of arrivals,  I know Ryan was born a tiny bit before his due date, but I don't know about this baby. I am thinking he could stay put quite a bit longer. If not, that's great, but I just don't know...

Last night we went to an open house/party and saw lots of people we enjoy seeing, and the kids ran around outside for hours in a pack. Ryan had good food and was amused by a couple of lovely teenage girls with a big station of bubbles and bubble pipes, etc.   It was a nice longish walk to and from the party, and a fun time in between.

This morning, I took Ryan to the toddler park for a little playgroup someone invited me to.  He didn't hurt *anyone*!  He had a particularly nice time playing with a little girl a month older than him, named Elizabeth. All the other moms were very friendly and it seems like a nice group. Should I still be pregnant, I'll go next Sunday.

updates

A Lion in the House  is a documentary created by two lovely local people. I can't tell you how it is because I can' t bring myself to watch it, but as soon as I'm past the late-preg, early-newborn stage, I plan to see it.  I love the village where I live and it's always exciting to see my neighbors achieving cool things like front-page PBS.org status. wow. 

Speaking of PBS, Jamie is up early on this dreary rainy day, sitting in Evan's chair watching this episode of Nova, Newton's Dark Secrets.  It's a pleasure and relief to see that, even in the face of a rigorous and structured academic curriculum, he has retained his natural curiousity about other thinky things.  Other things going on with Jamie:  reading The Secret Garden, watching World Cup Soccer, drawing drawing drawing, in PhotoShop and on paper, hanging out with friends Kira and David, pitching in on housework more and more with very little complaint. What. a. guy.

Jeremiah's occupied by lots of trampoline jumping and Ryan-duty. He's patient and indulgent with Ryan and his very unfair toddler rules. Jeremiah is blasting through the Dragonball graphic novel series faster than our library system can possibly keep up.  He has a couple of standing weekly playdates - Nathan and Daniel/David - and usually sees friends at least 2-3 more times each week. Soccer camp begins next week for both big boys.

There's no shortage of Ryan content on this blog, but a few new obsessions:
the hose (to do list for today: babyproofing gadget for a faucet)
the doorbell (known is the "beep")
3 and 4 word sentences (woot!)
Raffi, on the toddler tape player with headphones
lip-synching to They Might Be Giants, which is acceptable enough to the brothers that it need not be limited to headphones.
helping with household chores - he is a very good clean diaper stacker

Evan:  World Cup watching, in very sane moderation (thank you!), almost daily evening walking with the family, regularly accepting 3-boy duty while I take time for myself, sometimes for shopping and errands, sometimes for leisure. 

playground weather

Fun at Shawnee park - More pictures of the park here

Also, a few new albums of the past couple months have been posted to the left.

Jamie took some pretty artistic photos at the park. Maybe he'll post them on his blog  soon.
Jeremiah was pretty bored. There was a VERY big school/camp group at the park and it was pretty overwhelming.

weekend

[knitting content below]

Rainy Saturday street fair:  Katie and Audrey discovered their canopy wasn't waterproof :-(  Brought Katie a poncho, wished her luck and bought veggies from farmer's market. Oh my, the strawberries around here... we cannot get enough.

Brenda came, defended her supplies against the curious hands of Ryan. She said she thinks I need to eat and drink more regularly - I know, but my appetite is just weird. One day, I eat; the next day, nothing sounds good and I'm just not hungry. It doesn't help that the baby seems to have stretched out into my lungs.  Could I just carry my digestive organs around in a backpack? Because then I think I'd have the space to carry this baby AND nourish myself.  Everything else looks good, and we spent so much time talking about other things that I forgot to ask her some sort of obvious questions about birth supplies. There is surprisingly little required...

Went back to Street Fair with all boys except Jeremiah, who was playing all day at his friend Nathan's house.  We watched the belly dancers, trapese girls, got firefighter hats, balloons, and went to the bookmobile sale. Jamie and I helped pack up books after the sale, and Jamie spotted a couple of reference books he wanted for his writing/drawing. He's been amusing us by reading from his new book of quotations.

Katie stopped over on her way home. Audrey is just about the sweetest thing, geez. She's got this nose you want to grab and the softest head, I just bury my face in her fluff. Ryan, apparently, agrees, and cannot - CANNOT - stop touching her. I know it's funny, but seriously, I think I might have to never sit down with our new baby, because he was not to be distracted from the baby. At all. Wouldn't let her nurse, etc.

Sunday. Groceries and World Cup Soccer. Grammy and Grandpa came for dinner, strawberries for dessert, of course.

OTN: finished two MDK warshrags, starting the MDK kimono. I saw someone did it sleeveless, on the MDK knitalong website. That sounds good - I may do some short sleeved or sleeveless for summer. Right now, I'm using some very badly self-spun yarn and bigger needles than the pattern calls for - hoping for a size to fit when baby is mid-winter, not newborn. The wool is soft, but not on-baby-skin soft.

catching up

So, this is June. Jeremiah was born in June, and this belly baby could arrive in June. As in, this month. More likely, July, but still... soon. The kids are excited. They see baby Audrey and get even more excited. Jamie has a lot to say about Audrey; he loves her toothless smile. Ryan can't wait for the baby to come out and drink from my "milks," with which he is newly obsessed with seeing and talking about but otherwise not interested in other than to talk about their job in feeding the baby.

I started to write that I feel ready, but that's only partially true. I am nesting like a maniac (I am telling you, I've never had a nesting urge this strong - you should see me with the label maker.)  We're ready with a name, short of something dramatic happening. For the most part, we're not telling. I guess it just feels too private right now, I don't know.  Save some kind of surprise for the birth day, right? While he's still inside, he's just Baby Him, Peanut, formerly known as Speck.

So, house, bedrooms, name, clothing and diapers, all set. Big boys and Evan are feeling ready. Ryan and I, maybe not feeling so ready. Ryan, because he's clueless, demanding, and still a baby.  I, because I'm still enjoying pregnancy, for the most part, and I can't say to myself (as I did last time) "Well, we can always do it again." This is it, so it's a bittersweet goodbye. 

Ryan is adding pronouns and articles to his speech. He's still not very clear, needing a family member to interpret a lot, sometimes only understandable by me. Still, I think 75% of what he says is clear enough for anyone to understand. These days he spends a lot of time out in the sand box and at the water table, with occasional runs out to the strawberry bed for a snack. He is thrilled to be allowed to go back there and eat strawberries.  He has this funny gallop-jump-run that he does when he's gleefully on his way.  He's also requesting a few trampoline turns each day, and is quite competent at staying vertical while bouncing around in a circle.  Of course, there would be no chance for him if it weren't for the net enclosure, which most definitely saves his neck every couple of minutes. His brothers kindly oblige and lift him on and off, staying there with him to supervise.

The dogs are visiting. Davy and Bucky are here and the kids find that fun. To me, it's a simple way to pay back a very generous favor from Mom (taking in our beloved but so-dang-loud Davy). Ryan is in charge of letting them in and out of the crate and out the back door. It's a job he takes very seriously. He is also in charge of telling them SHHHHH when they require that.

Jeremiah went to the homeschool science class yesterday at the Beavercreek Narrows Reserve. After about 90 minutes he had a scare with accidentally touching a poisonous plant. I think he was just anxious enough to start with that the plant incident sent him over the edge, and I received a tearful please-pick-me-up call.

Jamie continues to draw and read often, and will take any chance to play soccer in the yard with

Evan, his brother or a friend.  He's also enjoying words more all the time, and has taken our biggest fattest dictionary to his room. The National Spelling Bee is on TV tonight, so we will be sure to see that!

OK... posting these updates and then some more about last weekend and all its parade-carnival-family busy-ness.

their
Thieu
Thor
Thur
thee
Edit...
Revert to "thier"

surprise
sup rise
sup-rise
spires
sunrise
Edit...
Revert to "suprise"

(No suggestions)
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

home school
home-school
homeschooling
homesick
Herschel
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

Beaver creek
Beaver-creek
Beverage
Beefcake
Bergerac
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

business
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

 

this and that

I want to watch Ryan's birth video and I can't find it! Ack. I did find June-Aug 05 video and looked through that - very amusing.  Katie was newly pregnant, Ryan was a more baby-ish toddler, and the big boys were just a bit less big.

Baby4 probably has a name. I'm not inclined to searching through websites and books anymore, and I'd really like to just be set with a name this time before birth. We've never done it this way before. He is in almost constant motion. He isn't a vigorous wiggler, but he does spend a lot of time each day moving around, even when I'm up and around, which is unusual for my belly babes. I think he has lots of room in there still, and is head-down but diagonal. Occasionally I can grab his bum as he presses outward, and I can always feel knees and feet  and arms knobbing around. I could swear I felt fingers or toes the other day - there is just not much between that little guy and the outside world (!) Here he is again (this is an old picture, from way back at 17 weeks):

my pregnancy brain inspires!

Jamie and Jeremiah think they should start "brain cell banks" sort of like milk banks or blood banks, and they came up with the slogans:
Only you can save my mom's intelligence! or....
Are you willing to be stupid for someone?

They are insane kids, I tell you.