Joy, excitement

That's what we were met with when we told the girls today that I'm pregnant. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Honestly, I thought it was most likely that Nellie and Annie would be mostly oblivious. But Nellie was truly, wonderfully thrilled. There were lots of "hooray, hooray, hooray!" and "A BABY! IN MOMMY'S TUMMY!" Annie would copy Nellie and squeal "a baby!"

One of the first things Nellie said was [and I wish I could inject her tone], "how did Jesus GET the baby in mommy's tummy?" And we responded..."I don't know!" Then she went into detail for Kevin how the baby starts out really tiny and drops into the mommy's tummy. I realized she was reciting what I told her from the baby magazine they give you at the doctor's office, so I pulled it out so the girls could see a picture of a fetus in the third month.

I don't think Annie really gets it, although I have a feeling when the time comes she's going to be a little mommy--she loves babies so much. But for now, Nellie is already smitten, kissing my stomach and asking how big the baby is now every few minutes.

We saw the doctor today, and heard the heartbeat even though it's on the early side (9.5 weeks). That was a relief, and opened the door to tell more family and friends. Not like I can hide it anyway; I already look pretty darn pregnant. But we're thankful; God is good!

Airplane

A few days ago, Nellie saw an airplane and announced, "hey guys, I see an airplane! It's really big, and it's not even flapping its wings!"

Thunder and lightning

Why are my kids not afraid of thunderstorms? Aren't all kids afraid of thunderstorms? I know I was...I'm pretty sure I climbed into bed with my parents as long as I could possibly get away with it. When I was too old for that, I would lay in bed listening to storms and think about all the terrible things that could happen, which were basically tornadoes and lightening striking the house and causing a fire. I remember telling a college roommate that one of the (several) reasons I was anxious to get married was so that I wouldn't have to sleep alone during storms.

So how is it that when I am looking at weather.com and Nellie sees thunderstorms in the forecast, she prances around yelling "yay! stormy night!" as if the circus was coming to town? It stormed all evening yesterday, and it was all very exciting for the girls. I have a vague memory of Kevin and I thinking through how to keep the girls from being afraid of storms, and apparently it worked (though I can't remember what we did.) Oh well, I guess it's a tiny parenting victory. Since we're in a phase of lots of public tantrums, potty training, preschooler attitude, etc., I'll take it.