Just Joe and I

Amelia slept at my parent's house last night and she came to Target today to ask me if she could sleep there again so tonight it was just Joe and I!  We took a long afternoon nap and then headed to Subway for dinner (with a gift card from Mother's Day!)

He ate his whole sandwich!

When we got back from dinner we started a load of laundry and the plan was to take a quick walk before the rain came.  We made it about six blocks from our house and it started to downpour :(  I must have looked awesome running, with an umbrella stroller, while 24 weeks pregnant in a downpour complete with lightning and thunder.

We mostly played with cars tonight.  They're pretty much all Joe is into these days.  He refers to any vehicle as a do-doo.  When prompted he will say car but for the most part everything is a do-doo.

My beautiful guy :)

This week's favorite bedtime story

It was a very different night with only one kid!  

Off to bed now - I work the weekend for inventory prep!

#3's Ultrasound

Early last week I had my routine ultrasound!  Everything is looking great!

We decided early on that we wouldn't find out the gender of this baby but Amelia led us to reconsider.  She had been very adamant that she already has a brother so now she would be getting a sister.  We couldn't get her to grasp the fact that you do not get to choose what kind of baby you get.  After much consideration we decided to go ahead and find out the gender - to make it easier on all of us!

Well, I am sooooo glad we found out...

...because it's another brother!  I had brought Amelia to the ultrasound with me and told the doctor to make a big deal if it was a girl for her and if it was a boy to just signal to me and I'd deal with it later.  No signal was needed - baby was folded in half and his gender was prominently on display.  I knew what I was looking at before I even had a reference point on what I was looking at, if that makes sense.

On our way out I told Amelia baby was a boy and she told me over and over, "no mom, I already have a brother now I will get a sister."  Finally I just stopped her, looked her in the eye and said, "baby is a boy.  We are getting another brother and we can't change that."  She made an angry face, stomped her foot down (hard) and said, "oh fiiiinnnnneeee, we'll have another brother."  

Overall she is taking it better than we expected but I am still glad we found out before delivery.  We have all summer to pump her up over another brother and I plan to do some "girls only" type stuff with her so she realizes it's okay to be the only girl! 

JOY

Daredevil

Joe has never been afraid of slides, large or small, at the park.  He is much more daring than his sister was at this age.  It might be because I am more relaxed about the whole park thing since he is the second but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he is fearless!  He's taken some pretty big "diggers" at the park and had some gnarly bumps and bruises but he always gets right back out there within a few minutes!

Last night he finally went down the really big, tall, steep slide.  There is a slide similar to this at a local elementary school that is getting taken down because of injuries but I let him try it just the same.  Here was his reaction:

I'm curious to see if he'll ever want to go down this one again ;)

Feverish

I got a call from the school this morning (luckily I was on break!) that Amelia was in the nurse's office with a temperature of 103.8 - a little high!  I called Jason and he went and got her right away.  I came home to her passed out on the couch.

Around five o'clock I checked her temperature and we had gotten her down to 102.8 - an improvement.  We missed speech tonight which really upset her.  She refuses to take Tylenol (liquid or chewable) and ate next to nothing today (which is ok.)  We pretty much sat around watching Netflix most of the night in an effort to make sure she rested.

She went to bed right after Joe tonight and I plan to take advantage of this and get an extra hour of sleep - woohoo!  With that being said - goodnight!

Sunday Night

We had some severe weather come through this evening and the sirens went off several times.  Amelia knows that the sirens mean "take shelter" and I found her in the bathroom like this at one point:

She told me she was hiding from the twisters...  I assured her there were no twisters coming only to have the sirens go off again a few minutes later for a tornado warning.  At that point she went and hid under a chair:

Joe joined her with his truck.

Once the weather passed we had some dinner, took baths and got the kids into some of their new summer pajamas!  (We went shopping this morning and are now officially set for this summer!)

<3

We're winding down with The Sandlot tonight - trying to keep cool.  (We refuse to turn our A/C on just yet and it's a little warm/humid in here this evening!)

Our Big Boy

Joe has been a big guy from the start.  Once he hit one year he hovered at around 31 pounds through his 18-month check-up last month...

Well, in that last month the boy has put on FOUR pounds!  Our nurse (the kids and I see the same doctor!) picked him up at my OB appointment Monday afternoon while I was getting weighed and she asked how heavy he was.  I said I assumed 31 pounds like he has been for the past six months.  Out of curiosity she put him on the scale next and he came out at 35 pounds!  I'm hearing from a lot of people that that is how much their 3-year olds weigh and it is only about seven pounds lighter than his 4-year old sister!

The message on this onesie must be true...

...I mean they say muscle weighs more than fat so clearly he is super muscular ;)

Mother's Day Adventure

This Mother's Day we had most of the day to ourselves since we had celebrated with my family on Saturday night.  We decided to go to a state park for a picnic and hiking to the waterfall.  It turned out to be an adventure! 

Jason found a "shortcut"...which was a bit treacherous!  We had the kids in the wagon because the path I thought we were taking is level and wide.  The path we actually took was winding, narrow, uneven and down the side of the valley.  Oh, and there were downed trees blocking the path in several places!  By the end of this "death trail" as Jason starting calling it we had two crying kids who had started hitting and kicking each other because they were both upset they couldn't get out.  Then when we finally stumbled out on the main path we ran into two park rangers who laughed while asking if we brought the kids down that trail in that buggy.  Oh yes, we did.  Yep - it was an adventure!

Family shot before we set out!

Willow Falls

They were mesmerized.

Two of our deer friends we met along the way :)

A state park volunteer we met along the way showed us this mother hen on her nest!

Amelia helped pull Joe the last leg of the trek :)

We stopped at a park on our way to have dinner (KFC) with Jason's family.

We got home late, bathed crying kids and got them to bed.  I went to bed right after that - I was wiped out after our long day outside!

Winter vs. Spring

I think it might officially be spring around here!  We had a few nice days at the end of April/start of May and then we welcomed 8" of snow on May 2nd that cancelled school!  It melted within a few days and I think we are in the clear now!

We've been getting outside as often as we can - especially this week.  I worked at 2 a.m. (until 1 p.m.) this week so tiring out the kids and ensuring myself some sleep was important!  Joe is pretty good at bedtime but Amelia has been struggling lately.  She comes out several times because she "needs to talk to me" or she "needs something."  All the time outside eliminated that - she was exhausted!

Some pictures from our recent adventures (mostly) outside:

Amelia's new bike - handed down from a co-worker's daughter :)

Joe can bubble-mow for hours - literally!

Rolling out sugar cookies

Horse head pancakes on "Derby Day!"

We watched the Wild in the hockey playoffs

First "flower" bouquet of the year!

Gardening

Swings :)

Slides :)

Fearless guy who loves, loves, loves playgrounds

Fun at the MN Zoo!

We have all been enjoying the time outside these past couple of weeks and are looking forward to a fun summer!