Happy 4th Birthday, Eve!

For those of you who don't remember what happened 4 years ago, I'll fill you in on the highlights. When Laine was 17 months old, I was very very prego. I was all set to deliver at the birthing center in Holladay except for one little problem. My baby was breech. I had known this for weeks and had tried every home remedy known to google to turn the kid. This included the pelvic tilt, moxabustion, acupuncture, chiropractics, and standing on my head. Haha yeah I know the thought of upside down pregnant ladies conjures up such a comical image. But you try coming up with a better method than gravity for turning babies vertex, ok? Anyway, finally, my midwife referred me to an obstetrician who had a 100% success rate at turning babies. Well, that was until she met me. The baby stayed stubbornly footling breech and I was scheduled for a section on election day which I didn't care about because I didn't like either Kerry or Bush. I was devastated about the section though.

The Friday night prior to my section, I started to feel crampy. On Saturday morning, I woke up and was definitely contracting. Luckily, I'd practiced my relaxation techniques and was in no pain. I called in to work and my boss's wife (as well as dear friend of mine), Serena, covered for me while Chris and I dropped Laine off at my parents and went to the hospital to check things out. When the nurse came in to check my cervix, she said "Oh! Body parts!" and ran out of the room to open up the OR. Very shortly afterward, our little feet-first Eve entered the world. Here's a picture of our little 5 and a half pound peanut, stubborn since conception.And here she is today blowing out the candles to her 4th birthday cake.Laine loves chocolate.Eve got SO many presents! Thanks, everyone. Our little fairy princess felt absolutely pampered. And a special thanks to those who got a little something for Laine and James. That always helps alleviate the inevitable SBJS (Sibling's Birthday Jealousy Syndrome for those of you who aren't in health care).

James learned a few new words today. He can say "Up!" As in, "Help me up into Laine and Eve's bed so I can giggle and read and play pretending games with them all night!" He can also say "Mine!" As in "I don't care if it's your birthday and all these things are pink and girly. I want them!"Is "Hmph" a word? As in "Hmph! Fine! I'll go sleep in my own bed, but only after screaming and fussing for 45 minutes!"

By the way, Eve's birthday is actually on the 30th, tomorrow, but I have class on Thursday nights, so we celebrated early.

Our Creative Little Eve

Who else but our little Eve would think to make a wig out of a nightgown? Eve's wild imagination never ceases to amaze me. During today's pretending marathon while Laine was in school, this was one of the many costumes Eve came up with. She was being a lovely fairy named Eve Fairy Princess who had long flowing white hair with flowers in it.

Baby Birds

As you know, every night when the girls are supposed to be asleep, they're busy pretending to be one thing or another. The other night it was baby birdies. They arranged their blankets into nests and have been sleeping in their nests for a few days now.

This Week Was Packed WIth Fun!

This past week was incredibly busy! We had so much to do. Here's a small sampling of this week's highlights. I took Eve and James to the petting zoo to make up for the fact that Laine got to go on a field trip to a dairy farm. Eve loved feeding the little baby goats. She mostly liked feeding the teeniest ones.Over the weekend, it was Laine's turn to bring home her classroom mascot, Phillipe the Frog. We had a very fun weekend with Phillipe. She immediately introduced him to our other frog, Hoppity-Hop and to the rest of the family.As a special treat, we had a tea party outing on Saturday with the frogs. The girls thought it was great.On Tuesday, I chaperoned on Laine's field trip. While the farmer was explaining to us about how they hook up the cows to a machine to get the milk out, I saw a little light go off in Laine's eyes as she turned excitedly to look at me as if to say, "Hey! Just like you!" Thank goodness her verbal filter is improving and she didn't say it out loud.On Monday, just like every other morning that I'm home, I woke up to the grunty squeal of a baby that wants to nurse. But when I reached around the side of the bed to pick up my baby, it wasn't James. No. It was Maryanne. James's sister, Weeeeb, had changed his clothes and his name. Chris hates it when the girls cross dress James, but I think it's hilarious. Speaking of Weeeeb, her cute comment of the week happened when she appeared to be deep in thought. I asked her what she was thinking about and she gigglingly replied, "I wasn't thinking about anything. Notice how there are no clouds with bubbles over my head?"We ended the busy week with a fall family walk. Don't let the pictures fool you. It was miserable. We only got like 1/8 of a mile away from our house before the fussing got to be too much for me to take and we had to turn around.Lately, James loves to grab a stick and use it like a cane. He looks like such a cute little old man.By the way, this little stinker popped all the keys off the keyboard on my laptop this morning while I was enjoying the unusual peace and quiet while I folded laundry. I was able to fix all of them except for the letter "f". Every time I type "f" it takes me like 10 seconds. Do you think James looks more like his dada?Or his mama? We can't figure it out. Half the people we meet tell us he's the spitting image of Chris, and other people say he's all me.
Hope your week's been good. Enjoy fall while it lasts!

Who's Yo Dada?

Sometimes, It is very hard for little boys to remember who's who in their family. This week, James learned how to say his sisters' names: Nainee and Weeeeb.

Halloween Sneak Preview

Here's a little sneak peek at our Halloween this year. As some of you know, Halloween is my all time favorite holiday. On October 1st, the lights went up. Eve is going to be a lovely fairy princess this year. So really, Halloween will be just like every other day of the year for Eve. On the right is Eve's new friend Riley who lives up the street. She's going to be Dora. They decided to dress up during a play date a couple of days ago.Faster than a speeding bullet! That's our very own Super Girl Laine running down the sidewalk there, off to save the day.Eve the magical fairy princess was casting a spell here to make leaves fall from trees.
I didn't want to overwhelm you with cuteness with this blog post, so I'll save pictures of James's Halloween costume for a blog post closer to Halloween. Happy haunting!!!

While Laine is at Soccer Practice...

Eve and James are busy having the time of their lives on the playground! Soccer practice is held every Monday afternoon at Laine's elementary school. Over the past few weeks the kids that are at school for the after school program have gotten to know and love James. When we arrived today, about half a dozen 9 year old boys shouted, "James!!!" and ran over to play with him. I would expect that from school aged girls, but it's really funny to see a bunch of boys go gaga over a baby. Eve loves getting playground time too. Some times our new neighbor friends are there and she loves playing with them.

I can occasionally get a glimpse of James peeking through his entourage of 4th graders.

James really likes it when the kids push him in this swing. He giggles and laughs while he rides it.

Behind Eve is the soccer field where Laine plays. Laine was very excited when she came home from school because she got to be "on the news" today. Apparently her school does a little TV broadcast into all the classrooms in the morning and Laine got to to down to the studio and say the pledge of allegiance in front of the whole school today. Way to go, Lainey girl!

Bad to the Bone

Today, the boy charmed everyone at my company picnic with his stubby little cuteness. He's added a couple of new words to his vocaulary. One is "oof oof" which he says every time he sees a dog or a kangaroo. The other is "Oop!" without the 's' at the end, every time he drops something, which is quite frequently. We keep waiting for him to really talk, but he just has no motivation to. Oh and he also replies, "Ummmmm" every time you ask him a question, unless the answer is "Noooo", but Chris doesn't think "Umm" counts as a word.

October has Arrived!!!!

This afternoon, we welcomed in October by reading some spooky Halloween kids books. As we were eating dinner, I heard the sound of an owl. I glanced out the window to see a huge gorgeous brown and white owl perched on the branch over our porch staring back at me. It must have been 18 inches tall. Our whole family got to see it. I tried to take video footage of it but as I opened the door to get a better shot, it spread it's wings and swooped off into the woods. We decided it must be an omen to put up our Halloween lights. After dinner we decorated the porch with strands of orange lights (pictures to follow). Oooh how I love October!