Opps I've done it again....

Holy cow am I really quoting Britney Spears??

Well I guess that's besides the point and now I hope to discover how many if anyone actually reads these blogs (besides myself and Paul that is).

We are pregnant again! ETA Oct 2006

Of course we are thrilled (as for once we were actually trying) and as importantly the children are thrilled as well. Grayson was estatic when we broke the news. So much so he immediately jumped up and down at the announcement and turned to Paul and said "Thank you so much for fertilizing mommy!".

He then went on to say how he is going to take great care of me and told me all the foods I need to eat (and actually scolded me today when I reached for some potato chips). He has been announcing to everyone the good news and takes to kissing my belly often and repeating little phrases to the "baby".

He has requested a baby brother, but says he would love it if it was a sister as well.

Eme definately joined in the celebration, perhaps a little less jubilent, but is quickly picking up that mommy, daddy and everyone else enjoys seeing a big sibling being so doting and has joined in on much of the fun. She also often repeats mommy needs to go to the hospital, when people ask her why she says matter of factly "because she's having a baby" (duh!)

She's pulling for another sister as she says she wants to keep the boy/girl ratio tipped in our favor.

Anna, thankfully has no idea her "baby" position is soon going to be usurpt.

Today we had a family toast to the new baby (with grape juice for everyone) and the kids really enjoyed being part of such cerimony, even if Anna's only contribution was timly screams as her brother and sister tried to encroach on her glass of untouched juice.

So far I am feeling well, although it is only 4 weeks into this, and if typical with the rest of our pregnancies I should really start feeling it around week 8 or 9. And like any mother at this point I just hope it all goes well.

Wow!

She can talk!!

AS many out there probably know we have spent the better part of the last three years taking Grayson to speech therapy. In November he graduated, and although is tough to understand at times it just about reached average for his peers. Yay Grayson.

Eme has and continues to be the opposite. She, although quieter than her brother tends to have the most amazing vocabulary for a 3 year old. Pronunciation has only been a problem when she is trying to emulate her older brother, as emulation is what little sisters do right? Just tonight she corrected Grayson when he claimed that something was gooder.

Eme: Grayson gooder isn't a word. Good is a word, but then it goes better, best.

Now comes along Anna, and as much as we hate to compare she really seems to take after Grayson in the old speech department. At least now I am confident that all the work I did establishing the best way to get services and who the best therapist are will not all be in vain now that G has graduated.

Not to say Anna doesn't communicate amazingly. Through various intonations, different pitches in screaming and lots of sign language she pretty much can tell us full descriptive sentences. Just the other day, as I was busy playing dinosaurs (see previous posting) she kept saying duck while pointing to a picture. Then she would say "momma". And thinking that she was just trying to get me to validate "hey mom check out this duck" I kept repeating "yes Anna duck". As she kept insisting on "duck" then "momma" I decided to take a closer look at what she was trying to tell me. This is when I noticed the picture she was looking at was indeed a duck, and a momma one at that. Good job Anna. Then she said "duck" and did a sign for baby. Never say I'm not quick to catch on - yep sure enough with the momma duck was a baby duck. Good job Anna. Then she said "agua" (water for those non Spanish speakers). Yep the momma and the babies were on a little pond. Good job Anna. Then as I figured we had to be at the end of this conversation by now, as she is only 18 months old (or at least she was at the time), she surprised and impressed me by then adding one last comment. She made her sound for swim (which happens to sound a lot like the alarm that goes off when the door to the pool opens and says "fault pool door"). Wow no comprehension nor communication problem with this girl - alas only a person with a PhD in Dawes baby signs could actually have understood this conversation but I don't hesitate to state the obvious: SHE'S A GENIUS (okay maybe I am a bit biased)!

But my favorite yet which has sparked this blog this evening was the look of surprise on everyone's face when I was carting her off to bed and she looked up at Paul and as clear as day said "bye-bye dada" as she waved her little hand. Maybe there's hope for her yet and maybe I should start looking for a consulting gig to sell off my speech language knowledge.

Let there be light

ah the joys of suburban country living (I guess that's what you call where we live).

Early Saturday morning (5amish) the dark world became darker as Anna and I sitting in the playroom (yes we were awake at that ungodly hour) and the lights went out. It was the third time in a matter of minutes so I wasn't particularly concerned. Eme woke up (guess her night light going off woke her) and called for me. I stumbled through the darkness (boy is it really dark at 5 am during a rain storm!), and brought her into the playroom, where Anna was still sitting in the same spot not making a single peep. The we waited.
Eme: why can't you turn on the lights mommy?
Me: I explained power outage.
Anna:
Eme: why can't you turn on the lights mommy?
Me: simular response as before (though try to simplify)
Anna:
Eme: why can't you turn on the lights mommy?
...

(this conversation ensues for several more rounds, until we hear Paul and Grayson stirring, and see the tail tell flickering of a flashlight shinning through the windows)

Eme: what's that noise?
Me: daddy and Grayson.
Anna:
Eme: what's that noise?
Me: daddy and Grayson
Anna:

...

ah little did we know the rough start to our saturday morning was just the beginning. It is now Monday and power was finally restored around 6:30 p.m. - ironically less than an hour after Paul finally got the genrator hooked up to light up part of the house.

Well it was an adventure, and I found a whole new respect for frontier women. Thankfully we had water (after the first day and Paul managed to by-pass the pump), and we had gas to cook. And we have one phone that doesn't require electricity, so we could get updates from PG&E and find out that they had no idea when we would be back up online.

some of the livlier moments of our holiday weekend:

I bathed the kids one dark morning in the sink (using heated water from the stove (thankfully gas!!) but that ended quickly as Anna stood up, yelled “poop”. A quick shine of a flashlight in the water proved that she had indeed had a bm in the bath (her first!), and then we spent the rest of the heating water to sterilize and sponge of the kids.

The kids slowly coming to the realization of what works and doesn't work on electricity. What no videos? But hey mom what about the portable dvd player that we use on the plane (clever kid that Grayson)?

Paul and I sycronized (without any words) he at the back door myself at the front, opening and shutting trying to fan out all the smoke that was setting off all the fire alarms (on batteries)- while mom was using the opportunity to drill the kids on what to do in case of a fire. Our lovely antique fireplace (from France) looks magnificent but turns out back a couple hundred years ago they probably didn't worry so much about smoke getting into their house.

And one of the highlights was watching the kids hover around the newly plugged in (running on generator) lamp as though it were a new toy to behold.

Any way our adventure comes to an end and we were able to get the kids into a bath tonight, in the tub sans any extra stuff and with real hot water out of the water heater (it was one of the things that Paul thoughtfully hook up to the generator).

hope everyone had a happy safe new years!