The Girl, the Boy, the Yet to be Known

The last 13 weeks have been filled with a lot of really good things that I would have loved to blog about, but I've been tired. It seems that the third child from the start reminds me that we will soon be out numbered and we should start getting used to the feeling of permanent exhaustion. For a few weeks I managed to nap during Ruben's nap, but times have changed and now I just make it through the days any way I can even if that means I go to bed at 9:30 (like I did last night).

So an update is long overdue, so we'll just cram everything into this one blog post and find out who really reads this blog and who just reads the posts with pictures.

June is 3 and a half and really starting to find her voice in the family. She's detail oriented and is starting to get the hang of being in charge. "Mom (serious face), I think this is a good plan." And then she launches into the plan which is usually something incredibly mundane but that includes her getting a vitamin or a snack (I bought gummy vitamins a few weeks back and we haven't missed a single day of vitamins since). She loves to be helpful and I try to let her help as much as possible even if that means not actually getting the task accomplished up to my standards. Her favorite way to help is to take the spray bottle and rag and spray the front window and wipe it. It is about 80% spraying, 5% wiping, and 15% telling me what she's doing. Tomorrow is her fourth week of dance class. She loves it and starts asking Tuesdays when she gets dance class again. Next week I get to peek in on her progress and they do a little show and tell at the end of class. June also had the opportunity to be a flower girl in Aunt Kristen's wedding. She and Lucy looked adorable in their dresses, but when the time came for them to walk down the aisle, June got a rock in her shoe and cried the whole way and Lucy held one flower petal in her hand as she smiled at everyone, put the flower petal at the bottom of the stairs, and came and sat with me and June who had stopped crying once the stone was out. Five minutes later, Lucy asks when she gets to throw the petals. Oops. Not well rehearsed, but like I said, they were adorable.

On to Ruben. Ruben is a motor mouth and a motor fanatic. He spends the day echoing whatever he hears and coming up with his own adorable conversation as well. Already he's pretending with toy animals. It's crazy. He also is obsessed with motorcycles, trains, boats, cars, trucks, and anything else that moves. He's never without a toy car in his hand, preferably Lightning McQueen. If he can't find a car, he might just turn a piece of food or a scrap of paper into a car or boat. His favorite book is Richard Scary's "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. " Uncle Paul bought it for his for Christmas last year and it sat on the shelf until a few weeks ago and now he reads it 2-3 times a day. He can find goldbug on every page almost as fast as I can. As a child I didn't realize how little plot that book presents. I'd love to read something that had fewer cars and more character development, but those are my preferences, not his. 

We've struggled with sleep with Ruben off an on since he was seven months old. He's cutting his last two eye teeth and we've hit another stretch of fighting sleep. Naptimes were fine as long as he fell asleep in the car, but if we try to fall asleep at home, we're talking an hour of fighting before he gives in or I give in. I've tried letting him read books in bed until he falls asleep - an hour of reading books and still no sleep. I've tried bribing, I've tried punishing, I've tried crying. No avail. Night time is the same, except Karl is usually around to be the buffer and enforcer. He is more effective than I am, but it still was taking nearly an hour of cajoling to get him down. We're tired of all the fighting. This week we're trying no naps and a super early bedtime. The daytime is generally fine without a nap although when he's hungry there is no messing around. Food immediately is what he requires. Last night Karl took them on a bike ride in pajamas in our new kid trailer and Ru fell asleep on the trip. Tonight I took them on a walk in pajamas, and Ru fell asleep on the trip. I'm willing to keep this up as long as the weather holds if it means less fighting the bedtime routine. 

Here are the kids at the wedding. Ruben had his fingers in his mouth the whole time and look, he's got a binky in his mouth. He's not sucking on it. He uses it just for chewing. We have not been conservative with the tylenol.

Baby Fay # 3 was first sighted Monday at our midwife appointment. Karl and I were able to go to the appointment together without the kids. We bypassed the initial ultrasound to save money so were excited to hear the heartbeat together. After hearing the little heartbeat (154 bpm), our midwife very kindly offered to do an in-office ultrasound with their new little gadget. It was from Star Trek and looked like a flip phone iPod. A little chilly gel and 3 seconds later and we caught our first glimpse of Fetal Fay. All curled up in a ball, we saw all the little arms and legs and our third child was all the more real to us. Yikes! We're having a baby!