Regarding Jesus

I've been "sneaking" Annie (at 2) into the 3-year-old class at church, which is a genuine Sunday School class. This allows me to convince her that it's preschool. Because all she wants to do in the whole wide world is go to preschool. So tonight she was coloring one of the take-home pictures she got and while I loaded the dishwasher I asked her what she knows about Jesus. Here's what she knows:

• He's the Son of God.
• He died on the cross but he's not still on the cross, he rose again.
• Now he's in heaven with God.
• He died so that we can live in Papa John's house forever and ever.

I was actually pretty impressed, because I wasn't sure what she was actually picking up in the class (or from Nellie, the evangelist). But I am a little concerned that she may think that Papa John is God and that his house is heaven. Although, having three bathrooms is very nice.

Mother's Day 2012

It was a special day indeed, since this is my first year as a mother of three. (That still sounds kind of weird.) Some highlights:

1. DJ really wanted me to know how much he loves me by waking me up every hour from midnight on.
2. Because of (1), I was still half-asleep at 8:30, allowing for the perfect breakfast-in-bed scenario. Nellie and Kevin had been planning it for weeks - french toast, fruit salad, and sausage, coffee - my favorites!
3. I got my first "real" Mother's Day gift from Nellie - a flower-shaped magnetic picture frame with her little preschool picture in it. Precious!
4. Biggby on the way to church. 
   
5. Lunch together outdoors.
6. Number five was interrupted, however, by a Poop Situation. DJ was in his bouncer (this is new for him; we just got it out yesterday) by the door. Annie was playing with him, when she announced he was poopy. I looked at him, wondering how she could possibly know that. Then I noticed that the bottoms of his socked feet were covered in poop. If you could have seen inside my head at that moment, you would have seen red lights flashing and heard sirens wailing. Maybe also a robot voice saying "warning, warning." Sure enough, he had pooped and because of the brilliant engineering of the bouncer, a tiny bit made it into his diaper and LOTS of it ended up on the carpet. Under his feet. It was like he was stomping in puddles. 
7. DJ got a bath.
8. Kevin cleaned the carpets. Bonus Mother's Day gift!
9. I got a little nap watching Princess and the Frog with the girls. (Kevin and DJ also had nice long afternoon naps.)
10. Annie and I took our babies for a walk in their strollers.
11. I ran into my high school boyfriend's parents, who are now our neighbors. We had a nice chat. Everyone is doing well. :)
12. Kevin made a marvelous dinner despite the poop setbacks - wild turkey (shot Thursday), stuffing, asparagus, and salad.
13. Maybe the best present was that Kevin made this happen:

Mom and kids, matching. I love matchy-matchy family! Nellie's not super happy. See below.

I say "Kevin made this happen" because he literally wrestled Nellie into this dress because "the collar feels funny." Sigh. You'd never know we had high drama from this face!

Nellie took this one.

Girls who wear dresses to play in the mud - Part 2

Just to prove that I wasn't kidding, or exaggerating...this happened while I was putting Donald to bed.

So muddy. So wet.

I sent them out to work on this while I was upstairs. It's a "chalky fantasy."

The girls found mud puddles. We called them in...this is Annie pouring the water out of her boot.

Girls who wear dresses to play in the mud

The blog title really tells it all; I'm not sure how much I really need to expand on it. Seriously, Nellie and Annie won't wear anything but dresses (sometimes with skirts over or under them for good measure), and if there is water and/or mud anywhere in a one-mile radius, they will find it. Case(s) in point:

• On Thursday, I needed to fill up a couple hours before we met Kevin for dinner so I took the kids to a park in Grand Ledge on the river. They played like normal kids on the swings and climbers for a few minutes, then wanted to go down and throw things in the river (grass, flowers, sticks, etc.) Fine. Then they wanted to get closer, so we walked down the trail until we found a good spot. Then they wanted to know if they could pleeeeeease take off their shoes walk in the sand, which is this really this awful mucky mud stuff that might not even be mud at all. But it seemed pretty safe, and DJ was getting hungry/fussy so I was a little desperate for entertainment at that point. In they went. WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN??? For the last two years, any time they were near water they were IN THE WATER. Every time I thought, eh, we won't need swimsuits, they can just play on the shore/stick their feet in/throw stones, they ended up either swimming in their underwear or wearing soaking wet clothes. This time was no exception. They started making mud pies and tossing them in the river and got so dirty that I had to use up all the baby wipes to get the worst of it off, get them in the van, strip their dresses off, and take them home to take a bath and start the laundry before we could go to dinner.
• On Friday, we had to kill some time after preschool before a graduation party for a friend. So we played on the playground at LCS, where a huge pile of mulch had been delivered. Of course, that's all the girls wanted to play in, digging holes and flinging mulch everywhere (in their dresses.) AND there were big mud puddles from storms the night before. Try as I might to keep them away, the mud found them. Annie was sloshing around in her wet shoes, and both girls needed new shoes anyway, so we went to Payless and got Nellie new tennis shoes and Annie new sandals. The party was at my friends house on the river, and the rain left giant puddles in their yard where the girls did extensive jumping until I saw them. So their brand new sopping wet and muddy shoes went into a plastic bag and into the washing machine the day they came home from the store. 

I've gone over this in my head several times, wondering if I just need to put my foot down and refuse to let them near water and/or mud, or insist they wear mud-appropriate clothing. I won't go into all my pontifications. Let me just say that in the end, I've resigned myself to the fact that I will spend the summer removing stains, keeping extra clothes in the car, searching resale shops for cheap clothes, and trying to save one dress each for church and weddings. Because in the end, these girls love all things pink, purple, frilly, princessy, sparkly, and fancy; and they love mud. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

DJ, Four Months Stats

At his appointment Wednesday, DJ weighed in at 16 lbs. 8 oz., which is remarkably less than he feels after carrying him around! He was 26 inches long and his head circumference was...big. I honestly can't remember and I always forget to ask for the info sheet. I do remember that he's in the 79th percentile for weight, 83rd for length, and 85th for head circumference. The doctor looked at me and said, "well you don't have a big head, does Kevin?"

So yeah, DJ's got a big head, but he's got a big fun personality to go with it. He's sweet and snuggly and loves loves loves his sisters. He's also extremely active and wiggly, surprisingly so since the girls were pretty content to lay around until they were 6 months old. DJ started rolling over (front to back) on Easter - April 8th if we want to be exact about it - when he was 3 1/2 months old. He's so squirmy I can barely hold him. I'm anxious to get the jumparoo out because all he wants to do is stand on my lap.

Kevin and I got to spend some quality time with DJ last week in Philadelphia. I had an NCTM conference so Kev came along to hang out with DJ in between feedings. It was pretty nice! I forgot how easy (relatively) one baby can be. It kind of felt like an extended date!

The first night, we met up with Dave and Laurel for an amazing dinner. Then we went back to the hotel for some play time.

Happy DJ! He loves independence, liberty, and all that stuff.

 DJ and Kev hangin' out on the lawn, attracting all the ladies young and old.

Working hard in the hotel.