just my type

three and a half: princesses and taylor swift

A month ago my sister Kelly took Vivi to the "Enchanted Tea Party" that goes on during the weekend the circus is in town (I also took the kids to the circus, too, with Niki, Bella and Bo, where we spent about a million dollars).  I would have liked to have gone with them but I wasn't sure at the time we had to get tickets if anyone would be able to watch Max, so it was a special outing for Viv and Auntie Kiki.

She was so excited to dress up, and I found some sparkly purple eyeshadow and put that and a tiny bit of blush on her - she was in heaven.  She found her "V" necklace from her godmother Michelle and put that on too, plus her fancy boots like Mommy's.  And we tried to put her hair up, but Vivi's hair is not the easiest to do... so she went with the messy look. :)

She was nearly shaking with excitement when she gave me a hug before she left.  Kelly texted me pictures and I gave her our little camera to bring along to take some shots for me.  

Holding her teacup and card... apple juice for her "tea".... so fancy.  

All of the major princesses were at the tea... they sat and talked at the table, gave hugs and took picures, and had a dance.

Vivi was thrilled.  Thanks Kel, we love you!

And, I've been meaning to write down a few things about my Peanut since she turned three and a half.

She is sweet and loving and cuddly.  She actually seems to enjoy long hugs, unlike her brother.  She'll say "Mom, I love you" out of the blue.  A couple weeks ago she looked at me and said 'Mom, I really like your work dress."  One day I was on call and ended up having to work a little bit while I was home alone with the kids, which always sucks.  She just sat next to me while I was on the phone and held my hand and smiled at me.

She's funny.  I don't that often find her funny in the same way Max was when he was three, when he'd say the most hilarious things without meaning to (and still does sometimes).  I think being the second child and having an older brother around to learn from, she is a bit more wise to the ways of the world than he was at this age.  She's funny but a bit more in an intentional, attention-seeking way.

Once in awhile she'll be shy, but most of the time she isn't at all.  The other day she and I dropped Max off at school and went in to chat with his teacher for a minute, and afterwards Vivi was so upset that she hadn't gotten to tell Mrs. K that we were going to visit Grandma and Grandpa after school before the bell rang and she had to go.  When we went to the dentist, the hygenist asked Max what he'd like to watch when he mumbled "Spongebob", Vivi very cheerily told her, "He SURE DOES love Orangebob!"  When we went out for dinner one night the server asked her what she'd like to drink and she told him "Max got punched in the face today at school."  She waits around after gymnastics class so she can give her teacher a hug before we leave.  When we saw Max's after-school teacher out for dinner one night, she lined right up to give her a hug right after Max did.

She wants to be just like Max, right down to watching Power Rangers.  She wants to play soccer like he is and play catch with him and Daddy.   She also wants to play hockey next winter (but makes sure to tell me that she wants pink gear).  Max has a wart on his foot that we've been trying to get rid of, and one day when all four of us were riding along pretty quietly in the van, all of a sudden she said "Hey guys, I'm pretending that I have a wart!"

Despite being sweet she is REALLY bossy.  I am constantly reminding her to ask for things NICELY, as opposed to furrowing her little brow and ordering me to do something.  Add that to being three and just generally demanding and some days I completely lose my patience with her.  We had a conference with her preschool teacher a couple weeks ago and she told us that Vivi is her best helper... that she loves to help the "little kids" open their lunches, get out toys, clean up, etc (she's one of the oldest in the class and definitely ready to move up to Jr. K).  I asked if she bosses the other kids around and Ms. Tara said no, not at all.  I think she maybe has the teaching gene that runs in our families. :)  Maybe it comes out at home as bossy because she is the littlest right now... I'm wondering if she's going to like having a little sibling to "teach".

She is still more of a picky eater than Max has been.  The other night she asked Tom to make her a cheese sandwich without the bread. :)  Cheese is an entire food group in her world.  I did find the first green food she will eat though - guacamole!  She gobbles it right up.  Maybe someday we will add a vegetable to the list.

She says her favorite thing to do with Daddy is play baseball and her favorite thing to do with me is paint nails.  She likes macaroni and cheese, her stuffed animals, the Ladybug Girl books, and pink and purple.

And, she is a big fan of Taylor Swift, or at least this song.  She'll probably kill me for this when she's older. ;)

vivi and her mick-tar from beejo on Vimeo.

sixth birthday

Max turned six a week ago today.  It was a great few days celebrating my first baby; I have been smiling all week thinking about it.  I told him that on his actual birthday he could either pick something he wanted me to make for his birthday dinner or pick a restaurant he wanted to go to.  He picked Blackwoods... where he had never been but said he wanted to try out. :)  So, on his birthday off to Blackwoods we went with Grandma and Grandpa B.  Max and Viv were very impressed with the train that goes around the restaurant.  Afterwards we came back to our house for birthday cake.  Max picked the one from the store with the most frosting. :)

The next night we celebrated again with my parents, grandma and Werner because they were in town.  We went out for dinner again and then had more cake after. :)

We spent a chilly Friday afternoon and evening at Wade watching the baseball team.

Saturday, Max decided to join the team as bat boy.  It was so cute!  They announced the entire roster since it was the conference championship game, and his name got called and he got to run out on the field to stand with the players.  He did great, and lasted the entire game even though I think it was a little bit long for him.  He also got to watch himself on the news (when they showed someone scoring, you could see him run out to grab the bat), which he thought was pretty cool.  I think he might go full-time next year, we'll see. :)

I forgot my big camera... but I took these from the Facebook page of deMarcel Photography, thanks so much to them for capturing a few of Max's big day.

And then post-game (the Saints won), Max even got a tournament champions t-shirt... that he somehow got the athletic director to help him put on.  HAHA... I don't think Tom even got one of those.  I had to take a couple with my camera phone, one with Daddy and one with Cass, who is one of Max's favorites on the team... he is a senior and we'll miss him next year.  It's crazy to think he's known Max since he was two! 

And these are the 45 guys that I battle with for my husband's attention every day. :)

The guys wanted Max to get in the picture (they were even chanting his name) but Max was way too shy to run out there. :)  Afterwards Max and I joined Tom and the other coaches for dinner.  It was a pretty great day.

Sunday was Max's birthday party.  I had asked him if he'd like to have a baseball party this time.  He was excited about it, and asked me if we could set up hitting stations like they do at Saints practice???  Max maybe needs a little adjustment on his idea of "fun". ;)  We decided to do the party at the stadium, and despite not having hitting stations, it turned out to be a great party.  I was worried about the weather because Saturday was pretty crappy weather-wise, but Sunday turned out to be sunny and warm enough.  We ended up with five party guests plus Max and Viv... I think a lot of people had plans for Mother's Day which was to be expected.  Max also invited some of the Saints players; three of them came to help out with his party.  So sweet of them.  

I didn't take very many pictures, and none of them are that great... and in fact we even forgot to sing Happy Birthday to Max and I didn't get a picture of him with his cupcakes at all.  But it was just so nice to finally be outside on a sunny day and we were all having fun.  The party had nine innings: the first inning was a warm up... we painted eye black on anyone that wanted it, and then the Saints took the kids on a run to the centerfield wall and led them through a few stretches. :)

The second inning was a race around the bases.  Tom timed each of the kids and the fastest one won a prize.  The third was a home run derby... anything above the railing in the picture was a home run.  Max won this pretty easily which isn't surprising since he's had quite a bit more practice than most other kids his age.

The fourth inning was a sunflower seed spitting contest, which was pretty awesome to watch.  I didn't want ALL of the games to require athletic skills.  And what kindergarten-aged boy doesn't love spitting?  Actually, even the big boys tried this one. ;)

Then we played a "pitching" game for the fifth inning... where the kids stood on the mound and sort of rolled a ball and tried to get it to stay inside a hoop.  Vivi did so good trying to keep up with the boys and participate in everything the whole time, and this was my favorite part of the party... she won this game fair and square!  She jumped around and had the biggest smile on her face... and got to pick a prize from the bag. :)

The sixth inning was "pin the pitcher on the mound"...

... and the seventh was a pinata (yes, that is a hand holding the pinata... we couldn't get it to stay up so Austin climbed up on top of the doorway and held it while the kids took swings).

The eighth inning was cupcakes!  And then we wrapped up with a wiffeball game for the ninth inning with any kids, parents, siblings, etc that wanted to play for awhile while parents came to pick the boys up.  The boys took home goodie bags with Cracker Jacks, sunflower seeds, bubble gum, baseball tattoos, a pack of baseball cards and a rubber wristband.  I gave them each a rose to take to their moms for sharing them with us on Mother's Day, too.  Other than the cupcakes and some water and gatorade, that was pretty much all I spent money on for the party... it was so easy and cheap.  I'm wondering if maybe Max would want to do this every year? :)

Alex, Jake and Austin (the Saints) stayed after everyone else left and played with Max and Vivi for awhile longer.  Max had them sign a baseball to put in his room.  I gave Austin the remaining half-dozen roses because he was meeting his girlfriend's mom for the first time that day and we thought he would impress her with some flowers (he texted Tom later to say that it went well and she liked them ;).  It was so awesome of them to come hang out and help.  They're all freshmen, and it's hard to believe that when they graduate, Max will be turning nine. 

And speaking of awesome, Tom ran the whole party and made baseball fun for the kids, even the ones that don't regularly do drills for two hours (ahem).  He's good at this when he coaches, too.  I wish he was coaching Max's team this summer but they lost our registration and already had all the coaches in place by the time we called.  He ran the first practice this week because Max's coach was out of town, and he's good at it... I love to watch him coach.  It's fun to watch him do something he has so much passion for.  Although there was an article in the paper this morning that opened with the fact that Tom told Cass that he wasn't good enough to play for the Saints his freshman year, so maybe he doesn't make things as fun when he's coaching college guys. ;) 

I asked Max if he liked his party and his only complaint was that it was too short... we were there for almost three hours.  Just one more of Vivi running the bases:

We didn't do anything for Mother's Day this year.  But in the morning we stopped at McDonald's on our way to Target to pick up a few things we needed before the party that afternoon.  I started crying in the van on the way there because Tom said he loved us and I was just feeling so lucky that we have these two great little people in the backseat and one more kicking me on the inside.  And there were a couple breakfast burritos waiting for me a few minutes away, and dang, I love those things.  Ah, hormones.

So, now my Max is SIX.  He's such a good kid.  Saturday night I was getting Vivi ready for bed and he came in her room.  He had already gotten his PJs on and told me that he just wanted to say goodnight before bed.  He gave me a hug and a kiss, kneeled down on the floor and gave my belly a hug and a kiss... then just went to bed, all by himself.  That made me cry, too.  I love this age.  He confidently runs into school in the morning and still asks for his Baa-baa at night.  I've taught him the square roots up to 100, but he still pronounces mayonaise 'mayo-nay'.  The little bits of independence take my breath away, and so do the times when he still reaches out to hold my hand.

may day

I guess it's only been a week and a half since I last wrote but it seems like that was forever ago.  It's been busy everywhere - work, baseball, kids stuff - and so all I want to do at the end of the day is lay on the couch and try to catch up on my TV. :)  On top of that April was the snowiest month we've ever had or something like that.  At this point I'm just kind of glad it's over.  We're currently in the middle of a bunch of makeup baseball games.  Tom has seven doubleheaders in nine days.  But we made it to May... May means Max's birthday and baseball playoffs and FINALLY some spring.  I hope.

I finally caught up to this year on the photo blog!  So I figured I'd write some random things down here quick, too.

- Vivi and I had a little girls day while Max was in Minneapolis for Ryan's birthday (with Grandma and Grandpa) and Tom was off somewhere.  We went to Barnes and Noble for a snack and some books and got her face painted at a book fair they were having.  Then we went to Old Navy where we picked out a new summer outfit for her.  Then on to the dollar store for a few puzzles, and to McDonald's with the playland for lunch (her choice). 

This is how she was waiting for me while I grabbed our Starbucks (she also made friends with the lady behind her that was coincidenally ALSO wearing sunglasses inside :)

- Max has been asking to brush my hair lately, which is the best thing ever.

- He has also discovered Full House.  I don't really know how it started, but he somehow came across it and ended up watching a few minutes, and now he's hooked.  He has been watching an episode while I put Vivi to bed at night, and I'll hear him laughing hysterically downstairs.  Okay... I don't know that I've ever actually watched Full House since I like, WATCHED it, but seriously, I almost cannot stand to be in the same room as that amount of cheesiness.  Was this really what passed for prime time television back in the day?

- Vivi and I have been showering together lately... therefore I haven't given either kid a bath in weeks, which has been nice.  I wash my hair 2-3 times a week, so on the nights I need to do that I just bring her in with me.  I get to hang out with her, I don't have to spend precious after-bedtime time washing my hair, and she likes to "wash the baby", which means squirting mass amounts of body wash on my belly, because as she told me tonight "the baby is getting REALLY BIG, Mom."

- Tom passed his Series 66 on his second try.  Huge relief.  He is now in he process of getting licensed as an investment advisor, so he should be official sometime in the next couple of weeks, I think.  And then on to the next two tests, which he needs for the job he's going to eventually be doing.  The day he passed his test ended up being an awesome day because I had a massage over my lunch and then he surprised me by taking me out for dinner to celebrate.  

I swear he really did have fun.

- The snow is FINALLY starting to melt here.  I might finally be able to pry our long-buried Christmas decorations from our yard one of these days. ;)  The kids and I spent the past weekend visiting my parents, and Max and Grandpa spent some time in the backyard trying to get the snow to melt faster.

We also attempted to make Lofthouse cookies.  Which were nowhere near as good as the real ones.

- I spied these on a worksheet from school where apparently Max had to draw various animals.

"Various" being the key word.  Although I just noticed the rat has only two legs, so maybe that's how you tell them apart.

- There has been NO progress whatsoever on any of the three kids' bedrooms.  But I guess maybe it will be easier to work on that stuff when we aren't doing seven doubleheaders in nine days?

- My friend Heather is going to take some maternity pictures for me in a few weeks.  I think we'll have fun, except I feel like a huge awkward dork in front of the camera... emphasis on the huge right now. :)  But hopefully there will be some that I can post to remember this pregnancy by.  I have seriously enjoyed it so much so far, much more than I expected I would.  I only have a couple more days until I hit the third trimester though, so things could go downhill fast. :)

- We've been planning tiny bits of summer over the past week - tickets for a little weekend babymoon, soccer signups, wedding RSVPs.  Other than that though we're hoping to not have any plans.  Ha.  I'm just so excited to think that in less than three months now we'll have met this new little one.  Cannot wait.

- I've been meaning to post about Vivi turning three and a half (that was over a month ago now!), so maybe I can get that together this week.  And Max is SIX next week!  

That's all for tonight - time to go lay on the couch for a bit. :)

falling

Friday morning we woke up to even MORE snow... and school canceled for the third time in a week.  Ugh.  Tom had tried snowblowing the night before and our snowblower stopped working.  I decided to work from home in the morning since our driveway wasn't cleared and there was a lot of drifting.  Luckily my in-laws were nice enough to offer to watch the kids AGAIN and he was able to take the Bravada and bring them over there in the morning so I could work and he could study.

I decided to go in to the office a little before noon, and tried braving the driveway in the van... got stuck.  Went back inside, told Tom I needed help, we both went back out, and when I was almost to the car my feet slid right out from under me and I landed on my back HARD.  REALLY hard.  Like started sobbing instantly hard.  It felt so weird... I hit the ground and then it seemed almost like I felt a second impact where the baby is.  It just felt wrong, and scary.  

So I went back into the house, climbed into bed, laid on my left side and tried to feel the baby move to reassure me that everything was fine.  I had been feeling him or her move a lot all morning.  I'm sure there are periods during the day when I don't feel it, but when I think about it, it seems like I DO feel it ALL the time, you know?  But now of course that I was waiting for it, nothing.  I got some orange juice, laid down again.  Still nothing after an hour.  I know that falls are usually nothing to worry about especially if they're not on your stomach, but I know that I can always call my OB and even if I tell them I'm worried about something totally stupid, they'll have me come in and make me feel better... they are awesome that way.

I called and talked to the nurse, and she said that I should come down and they would check the baby and placenta and make sure everything looked okay.

Tom cleared more of the driveway so we could get the van out, we picked up Vivi (Max was heading out for Ryan's birthday party) and headed for the doctor.

And thankfully, everything was just fine.  No problems anywhere... I'm just really stiff and sore today in my back and side where I fell.  

It was really nice to see our baby again.  Although Vivi didn't appreciate it as much as Tom and I did... three minutes in she was asking "can we GO now?"    

I can't tell who he/she looks like... my mom said Max, but now that I'm looking again I think I see a little bit of a Viv resemblance. :)

so spring was canceled this year

I can't believe this is spring.  Last year, we'd been playing outside in our snow-free yard for a month already.  Right now as I write this, we have at least three feet of snow right outside the window.  UGH.  And we have ANOTHER winter storm watch for tomorrow.  I think I'm getting late-onset seasonal affective disorder.  Max was on "spring" break last week, but if he hadn't been, his school would have been canceled on Friday (Vivi's was) and then schools were closed AGAIN yesterday.  

And on Friday I wore a sweater and a huge scarf.  And boots of course, always boots still.  24 weeks... at this point I'm wondering if I'm even going to need any of those warm-weather maternity clothes.

The snowbanks are actually higher than this now.  Almost as tall or as tall as the kids.  Yuck.

Also I have no idea what the baseball schedule is day-to-day and it drives me insane.  At this point I'm not sure we'll have a home game this season at all.  Which means a lot of cancelations and shuffling of the schedule so the team can play further south.  I have no idea what is going on every weekend until late Thursday or early Friday or who knows when.  We'd like to go to our nephew's birthday party on Saturday and are trying to figure out if it will have to involve a hotel room and/or multiple vehicles... but it's pointless to even try because things change by the hour depending on which college coach talked to which other college coach.

So we've still been spending all our time inside pretty much.  I really wanted to have Max's birthday party at the stadium this year but it's supposed to be less than a month away and I'm starting to get worried.  I mean, if I look at the ten day forecast, it BARELY gets over fifty degrees once... on the TENTH day.  Awesome.

I've had a really bad cough for like three weeks now and finally see my OB again tomorrow... I really hate taking anything at all when I'm pregnant but it will just not go away, so we'll see what she thinks.  The other day I thought to myself, hey, I should just go sit in the sauna at work... and then I realized, duh, I'm not supposed to sit in there, either.  Wow.

Viv wanted to take this one of "Mommy and the baby."

I also feel like I've gained about twenty pounds in the past few weeks.  I just feel like I'm being stretched out.  Not to mention that it's Restaurant Week here and so far I've taken advantage of the first two days.  Yesterday I took Niki out to lunch for her birthday.  Today Tom and I had a little lunch date and had fishcakes for an appetizer, followed by a wild rice burger and fries, followed by a big cookie for me and a hot fudge sundae for him.  He had practice from 5-7 tonight so I made the kids a muffin tin dinner when the three of us got home.  It's 9:30 and I still haven't eaten anything.  I'm not sure I can fit anything else in.

The good news is April can only last two more weeks at the most. :)  I'm trying to figure out how it's all going to work... is it just going to be summer one day?