JAMBERRY

Last Saturday evening we were at the playground and S tripped over something and basically landed on the cement with her face. The next morning she looked like this, which Paul thought really just made her look like she belonged in Hollywood.

Fortunately for her photo shoot, her pajama top fit the occasion:
Here is R using Dad's water gun as a vacuum-seriously, that's what he was doing...maybe a modern take on the verse, "they will beat their swords into plowshares" ?

That being the case, then I guess he won't need to borrow Dad's camo hat anymore :)

Ok, so the water gun was out of storage for the annual Grace Fellowship Rafting trip which Paul went on this past Saturday. While he was gone I took the kids to the Davis Farmer's Market and bought a half-flat of yummy strawberries and some blackberries to make jam.

Jam in the making:

This is only the second time I've ever made jam, and the first time on my own. The instructions are full of words like, "quickly" "immediately" "exactly" and "precisely." And did I mention that Paul was gone for the day? That said, the kids ran rampant: R emptied out his diaper bag to locate his "emergency" pacifier (which I did finally at least clip to his shirt since he was dragging it around outside;) and they snatched a bag of popcorn off the table and dumped it ALL out and ate it off the floor.

Hey, it kept them busy.

And it was worth it--9 jars of Stawberry-Blackberry jam and 9 jars of Strawberry jam,

and SOOO yummy!

PJs, Tomatos & Ohio

Dear Aden and Jonathan, Thank you very much for all the super cute hand-me-down clothes. Mommy and Daddy love these pajamas; don't I look like a little man?

I think they also gave me your guys' special skills in finding yummy food like cereal to snack on, and inspired me to follow your example of eliminating all distractions to eating (like packaging.)
(Now where's that milk?!) Thanks again, boys! Love, R

Here's a picture of 2 of Paul's tomato plants, taken about 3 weeks ago; he's enjoying the tomatos now! Two of the plants got so big they tipped over the containers so he had to temporarily anchor them with a rope to a nearby palm tree :)

The kiddos enjoyed the pool at my parent's house when we visited Ohio last month, although S looks a little suspicious here :)

My brother's puppy Bailey found one of R's pacifiers...

It's A...(Part 2)

We are in Ohio visiting my family, and Paul’s parents drove down from Illinois yesterday. Since our families live so far away they don’t get to participate in any of our baby doctor appointments/births etc. And since we weren’t able to determine the sex of baby #3 due in October at our last (and final) ultrasound with our doctor, we planned a big surprise for our visit here: We scheduled an appointment at a private 4D ultrasound place and took our parents and my brother and his wife with us! We didn’t tell them where we were going, so when we got there and they found out they would get to be in the same room with me and watch the ultrasound being projected on a wall they were thrilled. Sure enough, the first view we had of the baby revealed: it’s a girl!!! It was very exciting, and we brought home a dvd of baby girl-at one point she was standing up and down., up and down…at least she has plenty of room in there!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!

In One (Lip) and Out the Other

I was in the middle of cooking dinner Wednesday evening when I heard a sudden shrieking coming from the bathroom- R had climbed up on a 1 foot high stool (which S uses to wash her hands in the sink,) and then fallen off...apparently hitting his mouth in the process. Blood was running everywhere, and as I mopped him up there seemed to be a line of blood on his skin I couldn't rub off...turns out he bit all the way through his lip!! Yikes. That was bad enough...until Thursday morning when he tripped over his own feet, smashed his face into the floor and reopened the wound--blood everywhere again. For the rest of the day I had him strapped into either the stroller, the highchair or planted in front of a video--anything to keep him on the good side of gravity! We're glad to report that he is now 33 hours face-smash free and his lip is healing nicely. The wound inside his lip (which you can't see in this picture) is about a centimeter long, and the wound in the skin below his lip is about half a centimeter.

Something tells me this wasn't the last trip we'll be making to the Urgent Care clinic...and pancakes sound pretty good to me too!

S is now in a month of "Summer School" (which is 2 hours a day, 4 days a week) but on the last day of the regular school year they had a Hawaiian Luau party which I was able to attend with R--we brought the pineapple :)

Not sure what message this look is trying to send--"Enough pictures Mom" or "This pineapple is rancid" ?

It's Not A Boy or A Girl, It's...

...A Cheese Burrito?? We had our 20 week ultrasound appointment today, and we were hoping to find out the gender of Baby #3...unfortunately he/she was "folded up like a cheese burrito" (P's words.) Baby was in a breech position (butt-down,) and basically doing a toe-touch with it's head. The doctor said she couldn't even begin to guess what the gender was, and baby wasn't interested in budging a bit. Oh well. We don't have plans for anymore ultrasounds, so I guess we'll have to come up with both a boy and a girl name--or at least one gender-neutral name! But we got a nice long video of the ultrasound and baby looks well. Only 20 more weeks to go :)

So much, So little

So much to do, so little time as they say. Currently 17 1/2 weeks pregnant, and often using the hour when both kids are (supposed to be) napping to rest myself. We've been spending a lot of time and energy too trying to keep up with S's recent autism diagnosis and all that comes with that...more later. Although I don't have any pictures to go with it, R's favorite word right now is "Bubble"--Buh-buhl. The kids love (us blowing) bubbles outside, and they both constantly request it.

Here are pictures going back a month ago when my friend Aimee (from SoCal) was visiting her Mom in nearby Roseville, so we drove over for a few hours of reunion.

Can you find Aden in this picture? The little turkey ducked down just as I snapped the pic. How do kids have such perfect timing? Notice the spoon in R's mouth--eating is definately a theme with him.

R and JonJon loved playing in the fountain!

R says, "Don't you like the shirt Aunt Jenny appliqued for me?"

Here's the latest in the bedhead saga:

"Look Mom, I ate a leprechaun!"

"Look Mom, I caught the gingerbread man!"

(That's actually mud by the way...doesn't anybody feed this child?!)

At the Dixon MayFair, Mother's Day weekend

Petting a pig

As much as S & R love pickles, we had to let them try a Giant Pickle.

They finished it no problem.

R playing the empty water bottles set up as "drums" in a kids play area of the fair.

Daddy did an AMAZING job building me this tire swing-and I love it!

She can sit and hold on to gain muscle strength and balance, and we can put a large pillow cushion on it for her to lay on for "tummy time" strengthening.

S just turned 3, and on her birthday the therapy services through Early Start program ends, and your local school district takes over. So after an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting last week, the school district's psychologist, speech therapist, special education teacher, and our "service coordinator" recommended S start special ed pre-school on her birthday--5 days a week for 3 1/2 hours a day. Yikes. There are only about 6 more weeks of pre-school left, so we'll see how it goes...Here's her "First Day of School" picture

At lunch we celebrated her birthday

Yummy!

This was her second cupcake of the day, since she was allowed to bring some in as birthday treats for her new classmates: 4 little boys--Juan, Pancho, Cezar and Miles. I think she likes Pancho best.

So now you're all caught up--we go in for an ultrasound in 3 weeks, hoping to find out if we'll be getting a baby brother or baby sister!