Naptime

Apparently a good, regular naptime is now a thing of the past in this house. When we moved the girls into their room together, Daddy said, "Now begins the millions of words they will say to each other that we will never hear." Two little girls wiggling in bed, maybe falling asleep, frequently talking, giggling, getting up, getting back in. But not really napping all that well in the past week.  Some days are better than others. Some days they talk for an hour before passing out. Some days they talk for two hours and just as we're about to spring them free...they fall asleep. Miriam is certainly past the point of needing to nap everyday. Vivian definitely is more comfortable if she take that nap. Mom and Dad miss the certain peace of naptime. Mercifully, bedtime is going smoothly.

In other news, we got the stomach thing that is going around. It was bad. We won't go into the details. And we won't try to visit your homes for a few more days. Luckily, Miriam has escaped it so far. Heaven only knows how. But we're grateful for that blessing. And for Tim's mom who practically lived with us for two days to make sure the girls got fed and cleaned and played with.

And this picture was taken about a year ago.

As we continue to wait for Baby #3...and to negotiate names for Little One...we realize we're about five (fast) weeks from our due date. And we can't wait to meet the one who will sit next to these two in a year.

Big Girl Beds

Today we moved the girls into their new big girl beds. A set of bunk beds from Sarah's grandma's house. Painted "Snow Fall" with new hardware. In a room recently painted "Velvet Slipper". With quilts and pillow shams that Mommy made just for each little girl. (Basically non-stop painting and sewing around here.)

Before:

During:

After:

Much girly-er. Something on the walls might be nice. But it would probably just be taken down. The adjustment to a shared room and real big girl beds is proving to be just that. A true adjustment. It took the girls two hours to fall asleep at naptime today. We put Vivian on the top bunk in hopes that it would convince her to stay in bed. No such luck. She jumped out several times with no problem whatsoever. At one point, Mommy walked in to find Miriam trying to hoist Vivian back into her bed. Viv's taken down the crucifix above her pillow and there are bite marks in the fresh paint on the guard across the length of her bed. Miriam complained that the bed was just "too cozy" so she couldn't fall asleep. Well, there are certainly worse things.

When we started moving furniture and clothes from Vivian's room (aka The Nursery) into the now shared bedroom, Vivian wasn't sure she liked this plan at all and blamed Baby. "Baby is taking away my bed," she stated as she lay in her old crib as motionless as possible (not very still at all, really, because she is just the Viv after all), trying to reclaim the space for herself. But by nap time she was thrilled about this new bed and could hardly contain herself, much less try to lay still.

They are very excited about their beds. Hence not being able to fall asleep. And we know it will get easier to go to sleep in the same room as time goes on. But we'd really like that to go a little more smoothly in the future. If for no other reason than we'd feel more prepared for Baby.

So we'll keep you posted on the new shared bedroom situation. Until then, pray for our parental patience.

Love, Raincoat, Baby Bump

This week's theme was easy: Valentine's Day. Easy because there are about a million craft ideas, free worksheets, children's books, activities, etc. that people have come up with for Valentine's Day. Virtually think-free for Mommy. Here are a few photos of one of the crafts we did. We'll spare you pictures of every other heart related project this week.

Vivian worked so hard on this Valentine Kitty!

Miriam also face-planted in the driveway this week. Hence the scrape under her eye.

Finished Valentine Kitty

Mommy made the girls valentines with special messages.

And Daddy even bought each of his three Valentine's cards. Glittery as can be!

 We had a red themed supper. Strawberries...

...and Apple Beet Waffles. (Our waffle maker is heart shaped. Perfect!) Sounds weird. Tastes fabulous! And has no food coloring!

Daddy gave Mommy a very sweet card and a bottle of Moscoto d'Asti. Mommy gave Daddy a nice card and a 12 pack of beer. So that was our Valentine's Day.

Also, this week, Mommy sewed Miriam a raincoat! She loves it!

And finally, we are now at 33 weeks.The baby has surpassed the "bump" status. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a cute little baby mountain?

Snow(less) Week

Last week our theme was SNOW. We talked all about snow. Colored about snow. Pretended about snow. Read about snow. Crafted about snow. Snow. Snow. Snow. And it almost feels like this blog post should be titled "Pinterest FAIL". It didn't really snow. Well, not enough to actually cover the ground. And one day it was about 60 degrees. We took a walk in the rain. And as you'll see from the pictures, our snow projects were more messes than anything else.

We attempted to make an igloo out of packing peanuts. Which didn't want to stay together with Elmer's glue, glue sticks, or the hot glue gun.

 

And Vivian ate the glue.

 But Miriam is definitely getting better with glue!

So Mommy broke out the cake testing broom. It was a Christmas gift that is handmade locally and each little "stick" can be broken off and used to test if baked goods are done.

So this ended up being a great way to work on our fine motor skills.

 But not a great way to construct an igloo.

The girls moved on to packing peanut cupcakes!

 And packing peanut jumping bags (which could feel like walking in snow??).

Another day we attempted snow paint. (Mix together equal parts flour, salt, and water.)

They enjoyed it!

However, the "paint" was so thick it was hard to spread around with a paint brush. Snow finger painting ensued.

And of course, snow body painting.

But this week, it is snowing! We have lots and lots of snow to play in. Last night we made snow ice cream. It was actually really easy and really tasty. So snow week is being extended into this week!