37 weeks, 6 days and 3 hours

Not that I'm counting......

Baby #3 is due to come soon and I feel like I have been pregnant with him for over a year.  I will spare you the majority of the list of grievances I currently have and only let you know that this little guy is quite comfortable.  Apparently he is so comfortable he is doing somersaults and cannot decide if he wants to be breech or if he wants to cooperate and put his noggin down.  Right now he is fluctuating between the two options.  As I write this entry he is head down, I believe, but I will have an ultrasound later today to verify.  If he's not, I am scheduled to have a 'version' on Tuesday (it will be my second scheduled one).  Basically it will all come down to what position he is in when I go into labor whether I can deliver naturally or if I have to have a c-section.  In the mean time I keep praying he doesn't get tangled up...

Males

Zach's assistant teacher at school had a baby a few weeks ago and today she came in to the classroom for the kids to meet him.  Zach told me about her visit when I picked him up and he asked if her break was over and she would now be coming back to school.  I told him that she wouldn't be back this year, that she was going to stay home and take care of her new baby.  After a minute of silence, Zach asked,

"Do the males ever stay home to take care of the young?"

Brotherly love

(Please don't judge our parenting based on this entry!)

On Saturday morning, Zach and Eli were playing with pretend guns.  Eli was becoming increasingly frustrated at his lack of success with the 'gun'.  As he started getting more and more upset, Zach said,

"Eli, I'm not trying to make you angry.  I'm trying to kill you."

Me too!

The other night at a restaurant I offered Zach a choice of chicken fingers or pizza.  He said that he wanted pizza.  A few minutes later he said,

"Mom, I give up my mind.  I want to have chicken fingers instead."

The Crowd

(This post will only be meaningful to those of you knew my Papou, Marcus Stephanides.)

The other day, while we were leaving swim lessons, we passed by a cemetery and Zach asked what it was.  I told him it was a place where people who had died were buried and that loved ones then put a stone above the spot to remember them.  This led to the question of how a body could be buried but also go to heaven.  So I tried to explain that our bodies stayed here but our spirits went to heaven.  So he asked where Papou was?  I said that his body was buried at a cemetery in town but that his spirit was in heaven.  "Can we go see it?", was his immediate reply.

So...we went to the cemetery.

Papou's burial site is in a large cemetery but his particular spot is very isolated by the water.  Most of the sites are very close together but I guess when my grandfather bought his they had opened up a 'new' area and he is one of the first buried there.  So Zach, Eli and I went to see the spot where he was buried and I read the tombstone to them.  Zach accepted all of this as very matter-of-fact and we loaded back into the van to leave.  As we left the isolated sectioned and drove through the very full part, Zach asked,

"Why was Papou buried outside the crowd?"

Little League

  Little League started on April 14th with a parade.  Zach is loving the whole experience!  He wears a big grin on his face the whole way around the bases.

 

At bat

Running to third.

On third base.

Taking the field

While Zach is playing in the real game, Eli has his own pretend game going on the sidelines.  

Every game he asks if he can play today?

32 weeks....and counting

On Easter Sunday I was 32 weeks pregnant.

Easter

Goodbye Hall Drive

 At the beginning of this month we sold our first home!  Looking back I'm not sure how all of the packing and organizing happened while still functioning as a family, but it did and I am glad it is behind us.  Thankfully the weather was beautiful for the month of March and the boys were able to be outside all day while I packed inside.

After we moved out and before settlement, we took the boys back to the empty house to say "goodbye" because Zach was expressing some confusion as to why we couldn't go back there.  He helped us go through the house and pick out a few last minute bits we 'forgot' (such as a washcloth, baby spoon, garden shovel, plastic bags and other treasures).  Zach collected all the items and then said, "Goodbye Hall Dr!"  He hasn't expressed any anxiety about leaving the house since then.

We are currently living with my parents while we look for our next home and await the 8 weeks left until the baby is born.

In the midst of packing we managed to have a picnic lunch!

This was taken at 27 weeks pregnant.

Perhaps we are making progress....

This afternoon, while I folded laundry, the boys were playing really well together in the other room.  Suddenly, I heard a thud and Eli started screaming.  It didn't sound serious (it could have been a book, a toy or a head) so I stayed where I was to see how it played out.  As Eli ran off towards the living room, Zach poked his head in my door and I asked him what had happened?  He said,

  

"Sometimes mom, Eli is right and I am wrong.  I need to give him a turn to be king."

Another boy!

It seems that we are destined to be the parents of three boys!  This week at my 19 week ultrasound we were told to expect another brother.  Of course we are grateful to have a healthy child and I appreciate that we haven't had the heartache that many families go through with trying to conceive, but I confess to being disappointed that our family will not include a daughter.  It is actually surprising that I would feel this way because I think my personality is much more suited to boys.  I really have nothing of girliness or great crafty skills to pass on and enjoy with a daughter (as evidenced by my great cake-making abilities).  I have always gotten along better with boys and I have very little patience for the drama of teenage girls.  So....what is my problem??  I don't know.  I think that while I will not miss having a 'girl', I will miss the bond of not having had a daughter.

Instead, we will anxiously await the birth of a beautiful boy and the perfect fulfillment of our family!

A man of faith

This was Zach's prayer one night at dinner a few months ago:

"Dear Lord, Thank you for this food.  Thank you for Yia yia and Papa and Aunt Stephanie and Thea and Eli.  And please Lord, don't let anyone die. Even though I know they will.  In Your name, Amen."

Eli sayings

Eli has been a little slower to speak than most children.  He really only said the word "no" consistently up until this past summer.  But August brought about a rapid development in his speech and he went from hardly talking to speaking in full sentences.  I have shared with you some of the amusing things that Zach has said and now it is Eli's turn.

1.  Apple Soup:
He likes to jump on our bed (yes, I let the boys jump on the beds, I figure it's better than the couch).  When he jumps up with two feet and lands on his bottom he says, "Apple (while jumping) Soup (when landing)".  No idea where this came from but we have to watch him 'apple soup' every time.

2.  Whoopsy-weasel:
When he falls down or does something clumsy he says, "Whoopsy-weasel".  (Again, this was own expression not initiated by us.)

3.  Pats:
Pacifiers are "pats".  He started off abbreviating pacifier but even now that he can say the full word he still prefers "pats".

4. Lights on:
The other night when I was changing Eli I took his pants off and flipped them over his face.  He said, "Hey!  Who turned the lights on?"

5.  King Tiger:

The other day Eli kept following me around asking to watch "King Tiger".  After he got very frustrated with me I figured out he meant "The Lion King".

Someplace fun

Zach goes to preschool three mornings a week and this morning he declared that he did not want to go.  Okay, I thought, how do I get around this one? 

So I just suggested that he put his coat on and we would go for a drive and try to find something fun to do. (He looked at me skeptically.) 

We start driving towards school and Zach says nothing.  As we turn onto the street where his school is, I suggest we start looking for some place fun to go. (He graces me with a small smirk.) 

I start pointing to houses and ask if that one looks like any fun. (He cuts his eyes at me.) 

Then I say, "Whoa! Wait a minute (as his school comes into view).  This place looks like fun.  Look there is a school bus!  And a playground!  And lots of kids to play with!  Why don't we try this place for something fun to do?" 

Zach (with his telltale smirk) says in a perfectly dry delivery, "This place looks an awful lot like my school."

Christmas and Birthdays

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around Zach turning 5 years old!  It just doesn't seem possible.  But somewhere in the midst of family-Christmas-craziness Zach did indeed turn 5.

Christmas preparations

This year for Christmas we found a local tree farm that lets you come and tromp through their fields, find the 'perfect' tree and cut it down.  We all enjoyed searching for the one tree that would be great in our house.  I had every intention to pick out a small one this year, since the house was on the market, but what looks small in a wide open field and what looks small in a 1200 square foot home are two very different things.  Oh well.  We came home and decorated our perfect (and rather large) tree and it was "the most beautiful tree ever!"

The boys and I also decorated a ginger bread house, which turned out much better than I anticipated.  (Linds, you will appreciate that while doing a cool activity one of the boys is still in his pajamas!  I won't tell you what time of day it was.)  Zach informed me that I was responsible to do all the frosting bits and he and Eli would handle the real decorating with the candy!

Williamsburg Birthday

In November, my extended family all gathered in Williamsburg to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday.  It was wonderful to all be together but it was our first time gathering since my grandfather's death this past August.  He had stressed before he died how important this birthday celebration was but we all wish he could have been there with us.  My grandmother is amazing and not acting her age at all!

Catching up

I hate trying to catch up on months worth of blogging and pictures that I haven't posted, but here we go...

This fall we found out that we are expecting another baby in early June!  Which has prompted us to put our small house on the market and see what happens.  So in the midst of first trimester fatigue and nausea we have been trying to keep the house clean and ready to "show".  It has been a challenge trying to keep up with all of the demands on my time.  

                                   

 We did manage to squeeze in a quick trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with the Caslers.  The boys loved seeing all the fish and sharks.  I thought that Eli would get bored quickly and need to be carried but he eagerly pressed his face to the glass of each tank!

Fall pictures

Eli has decided that posing for a picture means putting one
hand on your head and leaning the opposite direction.

Halloween

 Zach was very excited about Halloween this year.  He wanted to be a pirate and couldn't wait to dress up!!  Eli didn't really understand what the dressing up was all about but he enjoyed seeing his bucket fill up with candy.  (Unfortunately for him, most of his candy got emptied out once we got home and replaced with peanut-free options.  As he becomes more aware it is getting trickier to keep him happy with having different food choices than everyone else.)