[Finally] Introducing Mighty Mouse!

 

Though in these pictures I took on September 18th before we left the hospital, he may look like Mighty Sleepy Mouse, he really is "Mighty Mouse".

 

 

Mighty Mouse was all of ten minutes old, and he grabbed onto his Daddy's hand and held on! Tightly! It was both amazing and incredibly precious.

 

At the hospital, he was too long for the blankets, causing terrible difficulty in keeping him swaddled 'properly'.  He was born at 21.5 inches and 9 pounds, 2 ounces. For a baby, there is a lot of him to love! I've explained to the girls that in a room of ten babies, he'd be taller and heavier than nine of them. It was rather fun telling our friends and family his weight and height. After three babies all around the upper-six-poundish mark, no one really expected Mighty Mouse to be a whole lot bigger than eight-or-so pounds. No one, that is, except his Mommy and Daddy! His three pound head start on his sisters explains so many things about our experience with this pregnancy that it really was more affirming than shocking to hear his official stats.  With all the excitement about his size, I should add that we are completely and totally in love with him - every last ounce and inch - and think he is just perfect!

 

So many blog posts have rattled around in my head these past few weeks. I have one on why I am so very thrilled (and terrified) to have a little boy to raise; I have one on our adjusting to this family expansion; I have one on the way Miss Mouse confuses a few words here and there lately as she is expanding her vocabulary into larger and larger words.

 

I hope I remember some of those posts when I have a bit more time to type. I really do. For now, it's taking every ounce of my energy and time to keep our house running now that Mike is back at work and my Mom is gone. Mike got two lovely, amazing, incredible weeks off this time. It was unbelievably great to be together as a family of five for this adjustment. The day he went back to work, my Mom came for a week. Between the two of them, they got me through most of the evenings where I would cry for literally no reason at 9 p.m. My sister did the same thing in June after the birth of her first baby, so I think I'll blame it on hormones or heredity! Whatever the reason, it was a good stage to get through with support around! This past week, on Monday, we started back up with kindergarten, albeit a scaled-back version for now. We're hitting the basics - math and phonics along with some sciency (is that a word?)/social study type fun. We're trying to do lots of projects, too....definitely my way of handling the guilt I feel for all the time that is necessarily devoted to the newest member of the household and, thereby, taken from the older members (mainly of the three- and five-year old variety). I think it's probably best to handle my guilt by project-overload rather than by going out with a credit card to buy them their little heart's desires, but I suppose time will only tell!  So far the guilt is pretty much completely unfounded since Miss Mouse and Sunny adore their little brother and would stand on their heads (have attempted this, I should add!) to help him.

 

Welcome to our family, Mighty Mouse!

 

 

Panda

The girls and I saw on the news the other day that there was a baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo. Miss Mouse picked up right away on the fact that there was a zoocam through which you can watch the little "it" anytime. They won't know if it is a boy or girl for a few weeks.  Though she didn't really understand what the zoocam was, it sounded cool. I explained that it was sort of like skyping with the pandas except that only we could see them, not the other way around at all.

Now keep in mind the girls have just seen video of a giant panda mom and her tiny cub on the news.

Also keep in mind that we did look on the zoo website and viewed the sleeping panda and baby for several minutes. I thought it was fairly boring to watch a bear sleep; the girls thought it was "super interesting".

So, we're clear on the fact that there has been quite a lot of panda watching by this point?

Good. Then my semi-despair at the question of the Mice may be more understandable.  After watching the zoocam, Sunny asks me:
"Mommy, are you bigger than a giant panda?"

Um, no. Not even right now, thank you very much. 

Miss Mouse was so astonished at my answer that she reiterated the question, apparently to be sure I had understood:
"Mom, really, a giant panda is bigger than you?"

Shockingly, yes. Yes, they are. I even googled it, and a giant panda female is around 200 pounds with a giant panda male being around 250. Add to that their massively fluffy hair.....I'm not sure who was more shocked by this conversation, but I was definitely the most entertained!

Harvesting

My parents are beginning their wheat harvest. They've already finished harvesting their peas. My sister and my nephew are up at the farm, ready to help....my sister, at least. Matthias will help by lightening the days for Grammy and Grandpa Bob in between tractor repairs, truck repairs, radio repairs, the normal harvest events!

But we're here.

We love it here. We're doing great with our basic schedule of a relaxed breakfast, kindergarten, play time, lunch, reading time, "Mama time" (each girls' time with me individually)/quiet time (each girls' time alone), more play time, dinner, clean up, and bedtime. I'm a farm girl, though, and it's been several years since I've been home during wheat harvest.

Sooooo.....today we drove out to the farm that grows the food we get through our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to take part in our harvest event opportunities of sweet corn, green beans, and tomatoes. As usual, I overestimated myself and thought I could feasibly do the harvesting by myself with the girls. It didn't seem like something that would really be up Mike's alley.  Fortunately, I'm married to someone smarter than myself, so Mike just shook his head at my "do-it-myself" plan! We loaded up immediately after breakfast this morning and drove the hour or so out of town to "the farm" (I made sure Sunny knew it wasn't really "THE farm").

The first pick we decided on was the tomatoes. To our surprise and delight, the girls' two little friends hopped out of their van with their daddy at the same time we were hopping out! What fun!  Each of our families were pretty happy to come away with two five gallon pails of tomatoes!

For us it was then on to the cornfield. Miss Mouse identified this pick as her absolute favorite. In her words, "I felt so 'big girl' when we picked corn because when Daddy would take the corn up to the van, he left me to keep picking, just like a grown-n-up!".  To be clear, this field consisted of a few rows of corn - long rows, but it was a narrow field, making it definitely safe to "leave" Miss Mouse in the field. Sunny, on the other hand, did not appreciate the corn pick quite as much as the tomato. With the tomatoes, she carefully and delicately placed the tomatoes I picked into the pail we shared. The corn just seemed "scratchy" to her, and she complained basically the whole time that she "could not walk in here".  Thankfully it did not take as long as it could have to pick 120 ears of corn. The enthusiasm of Miss Mouse certainly did not hurt in the speed with which the ears of corn added up!

We had a much happier Sunny when we moved onto the bean field. She refused to pick any beans, but she enjoyed picking bouquets of weeds. Miss Mouse was pooped out by the time we got to the beans, too, and ended up dumping her bucket into mine. So much for my idea of picking three of the buckets full of beans (we have "tickets" to use and could have used two tickets to pick three buckets rather than one ticket to pick two buckets...we actually could have gotten four buckets for two tickets, but I only had three buckets along...and we were already out of bags due to the massive amounts of corn and tomatoes already in the back of the van)! It turned out to be just fine, though, because by the time my bucket was 85% full, my abdominal muscles, the ones that still even exist, were screaming at me that they were completely and totally done bending over, done crawling on the ground, and definitely done having to stand back up again. Thus, we came away with two nearly-full five gallon buckets of green beans. I was thankful that we have grown purple beans in our backyard in the past so that the girls were not as enamored by the purple bean field as the rest of the children there today; my body really couldn't have taken anymore picking.

Sunny's favorite part of the day came just as we were getting ready to leave. I needed to turn in our tickets at the main farmyard garden, so I turned the girls loose on the flower field, which is a "free" pick meaning that we didn't need to use a ticket for it; they could just pick as many flowers as they wanted. While they picked their fills of flowers, Mike headed over to the free basil pick for one last hurrah for me.  All I can say is that this man must love me; he filled our remaining five gallon pail with basil for me to turn into pesto! Yep, I thought it was loving when he engineered a beautiful engagement proposal, but I couldn't have imagined he'd ever be happily picking a five gallon pail of basil for me! 

It wasn't until tonight that Sunny did confess to me that she stayed "close" to her sister "when we were picking fwowers because I was a little scared to pick them alone". She did say the flower pick was her favorite part of the day, but I was glad she was willing to identify her scared feelings (she often refuses to identify a feeling....the best way I can tell if I "hit it" correctly is that the correct feeling is the one at which she shouts, "NO!" the loudest!), even though I felt like a horribly neglectful mother leaving her to pick flowers alone if she was scared!  I did explain to her that I was watching her the entire time and was never far away, though it must have felt like it.

After all this harvesting of yummy, locally-grown, organic (I think?) goodness, where did we grab lunch on the way home? Yep, that's right. McDonald's. Ish!  What a fun day, though!  I still miss the smell of wheat and the taste of it, too, but it was ridiculously fun to harvest so much food with the Mice that we know we'll be enjoying all winter long! I couldn't stop smiling the whole way back home!

Pink

 Pink. It's my favorite color.

 

Apparently the girls were feeling particularly feminine today and particularly fond of pink (thanks to Auntie Steph for the super cute outfits!), so I took advantage of the copious amounts of pink floating around to do some of our own back-to-school shots.  It doesn't particularly matter to me that we started our kindergarten on June 4 or that I have pictures of Miss Mouse leaping into the air with excitement on her first day or that as everyone else is gearing up to start school tomorrow, we are getting set for a break sometime soon.....Between all the back-to-school talk circulating in their groups of friends and all the buy-our-store's-clothes-advertisements during the news these days, the girls were eager to be "models" for our back-to-school "advertisements"!

Our sweet Miss Mouse looks more grown-up everyday! She certainly is a school girl!

 



 

Sunny's been having some sleeping trouble as of late - just off and on nightmares, but she tends to be awake for a looooong time after having one - so she's a little bit more difficult to capture on camera these days. I miss her big, cheesy, for-the-camera grin and am hoping it comes back someday soon (along with many, many, many solid nights of sleep in a row for her....my solid nights are numbered anyway, but as long as she gets them, I can manage without them, I think!).

This isn't a sad Miss Mouse; it's a contemplative Miss Mouse.

 



 

 

Would you believe the day started out with these two Mice in pajamas having a "wrestling contest" in the living room? Now, here by afternoon, they're all frilly and floofy in pink and pearls. I love it!

 

 

Last but not least, I joined the Mice for some 36 week pictures. I've been wanting to get some since Monday, when we were actually 36 on-the-dot, but it appears we have been losing a shocking amount of daylight in the past few weeks. By the time we get the Mice to bed, there isn't enough daylight in our backyard for a proper without-flash photo of my tummy! So, I did what I could with a tripod in the backyard this afternoon. If nothing else, I think these show how deliriously excited these two big sisters are to meet "Brother". The other day I pointed out to Sunny that he will have a name other than "Brother" once he is living outside of me; she was sort of shocked by that and seemed somewhat disappointed even after I attempted to console her with the fact that she could still call him Brother if she wanted! The next few weeks will be an adventure; this whole pregnancy has been quite the adventure sharing it with two small, big sisters - a precious, amazing, humbling, exciting, exhausting, exhiliarating, lovely adventure.

My Nephew's New Blog

I probably should announce this as my sister's new blog, but since she clarified in an early post that she would likely not post many pictures of herself on "her" blog, I've decided to credit the whole thing to little Matthias!  Really, though, Laura is a great writer, often hilarious, and you can find her blog linked on the list to the left or at www.loghomeonthehill.blogspot.com  I'm sure she'd appreciate any comments or emails if you enjoy visiting (and maybe they would encourage her to keep updating it....mainly for Auntie Maria's benefit....!), but I know she sort of wants to keep her blog, its existence, and its address away from facebook; this is sort of important. So, if you have a moment, take time to enjoy a visit to her log home on the hill!

All of a Sudden

It seems like all of a sudden this little Miss Mouse who we were just rocking to sleep has turned into one of the kindest, sweetest, most sensitive, and bravest young girls we could ever hope to be around.

There doesn't seem to be much that phases her or frightens her beyond willingness to attempt. I told her next year Mommy would show her how to flip on this contraption.

Notice that Sunny is developing a bit different attitude toward new experiences....



Miss Mouse no sooner finished the trampoline experience than she started on the rock wall.



This was serious business for her, too! She was pretty pleased to hear that she had made it above the spotter's head.



The weekend after our return from the above adventures, which were enjoyed by my parents, Miss Mouse headed out to visit her other grandparents and her aunt at the lake! This was her inaugural independent visit, so this was a big deal. Notice that her suitcase, which was mine as a child, says "setting sail for grandma's". She was so excited when she got out there that she told her Daddy, who had volunteered to drive her out so that I didn't have to drive her and leave her, that "You can leave now, Daddy!".

Miss Mouse had a great time soaking up all the undivided attention that weekend, for sure! She, I think, would have spent the entire time swimming in the lake if they had let her! It helps that the lake is about the temperature of a lukewarm bath this year, but her appetite for swimming is fairly insatiable, regardless of water temperature. She had a blast thanks to her grandparents and auntie!

Sunny and I had a good time together, too, although I think I enjoyed it more than did Sunny. Our first adventure together was to go to the park. She did play and have fun, but as we left, she wondered if her sister would be home when we got there. We had to call Miss Mouse at least twice in the 48-hours she was gone and sent a couple of emails, as well. Sunny and I shared the special experience of hatching our first butterfly and then setting her free, which was exceedingly cool. We also did a little shopping for "Brother" at a sale at the mall on Saturday. Sunny enjoyed picking out some sale-outfits for him. The first night, Sunny slept fine, but the second night, she was up, quietly crying because she was so "wone-wee" (lonely). For the most part, she just looked forward to her big sister's return through the whole weekend, even though we had some fun and special alone times together.

Readjustment home was actually fairly difficult seeing as how Sunny was far more excited to see Miss Mouse than Miss Mouse was to see Sunny. It made for a heartbroken Sunny, and a Miss Mouse who for several days sulked around crabbily, stating from time to time, "I wish I was still at the lake. I don't want to be here.". 

I knew "our Mouse" was "back", though, on Thursday when, after being ignored by some toddlers at the park, Sunny was feeling very sad in the afternoon, and Miss Mouse agreed to let Sunny help with a puzzle ("help" being the operative word!) as long as I stayed to supervise the, ahem, "helping". Then yesterday (Friday), Sunny threw a fit at lunch about not getting a blue flashlight from the library program; hers was black; Miss Mouse had grabbed the blue one first - at the library. I simply told Sunny she could either have the black one or not have one, so she snuffled around awhile and forgot about it. Later, we were watching a random fire engine parked on our street (?)....when I pulled the screen door closed, it pinched Sunny's finger, and her sad little sobs belied not just a pinched finger but a really difficult week with quite a few hurt feelings. Miss Mouse waited patiently for a break in the sniffling and then said, "I know what will make you feel better. I want you to see something", running off, she returned with, yep, the blue flashlight and continued, "You can have this one. I will take the black one. You can have this one forever. I don't need it back. I love you.".  I wish, I wish, I wish that I knew what to say to Miss Mouse to convey how very, very incredible her gesture was. I hugged her and told her I was so proud of her, but it just doesn't seem that there is enough I can do to express to her how happy I am to be her mommy. Anyway, yep, that was when I knew that she had "adjusted" back to being home and sharing her attention all.the.time.  I know she will look forward to her next independent visit, and I'm hoping we've all (mainly me!) learned a bit about her reintegration to the "us" that she has to live in!

 

Notice anything? As Miss Mouse told someone yesterday, "I have a surprise for you in my mouth!"

Yes, indeed, we have lost a tooth at our house! She has several of them in there that are loose, but yesterday after (and during) breakfast she was particularly working on the bottom left one. I wiggled it after breakfast and squirmed because it really was quite loose.

We were skyping with my sister, nephew, and parents, and Auntie Laura [brilliantly] suggested to Miss Mouse that she should work on "twisting" the loose tooth to really get it worked out! So, of course, the brave Mouse started right away working on the twisting motion.

Then, she decided she wanted to play her kazoo for her auntie, cousin, and grandparents......and then Sunny decided she wanted to play the same kazoo (except that they don't actually play the same one because they have a hyper-clean mommy who insists that they have their own kazoos....Sunny had just figured out that if she put her mouth on the top hole, she could sort of "play" her sister's kazoo without actually touching the same area with her own spit). Before I could intervene, I saw Sunny grab for the kazoo, which was in Miss Mouse's mouth. I clapped my hands over my own mouth as I saw Sunny come away with the kazoo and heard a "snap" sound.....and then saw Miss Mouse approaching with something in her hand.

She couldn't have been prouder. It didn't seem to matter that there was a good amount of blood or that she had to press on her tooth hole with a cold washcloth for a bit; she was just super, super proud and really happy with her little sis for "pulling out my tooth with a kazoo!".

We attended a family wedding last night, and Miss Mouse made the rounds through the entire room telling anyone who would listen the story of her tooth loss "by kazoo". She was hilarious about it, too, using her hands and eyes to really make her story hit home for people. She earned herself a dollar from her Great Uncle Randy and then another dollar from her Grandpa Dick before the night was over. She was in awe of the fact that she was the owner of $2.00! She figured she would be able to buy something very expensive, especially when we talked on the way home about how many dimes those dollars were comprised of (we've been working on dimes as a way of both understanding currency and reinforcing the counting-by-tens concept).

Of course, the tooth was placed in a special spot before bed, with the promise that the Tooth Fairy, who she alternately calls the Tooth Angel, would be stopping by at some point in the night. Personally, I'm fairly sure the Tooth Fairy just really wanted to give her enough money to buy what she had her heart set on - a car from the grocery store - and so she left another $2.00 for this first tooth. Miss Mouse is fascinated by toy cars (she's going to do just fine with little Brother!), and she's been eyeing these cars at the grocery store for months. I've consistently said "no" to buying one for her and just told her to save her money or put it on a Christmas/birthday list, but when she asked if she'd have enough money for the car last night, I was hoping the, hmmm, Tooth Fairy would make sure she did. As it turns out, they are expensive little buggers, so she had to add $2 of her birthday money to get enough for it, but still. She got her vehicle, and that's what counts!

She didn't care whether it was a car, van, pickup, whatever...but it had to be green.

As I'm reflecting on the past few weeks in Miss Mouse's development, noting all the independence she's embracing, appreciating her can-do attitude and her sweetness, I keep thinking that this type of thing should make me want to cry, or to lament that time has gone so fast. Now, I do, of course, shake my head and wonder how it could have been five years ago on August 17th that she got that bottom left tooth, but it's not a bittersweet feeling I'm filled with as much as a feeling of thankfulness. It's hardest for me to believe that I'm so blessed to be a mommy to this lovely little girl; if I focus hard enough, I can still feel how badly I wanted to care for a baby, a child during the time period where my only little girl did not need me anymore. I can feel how unreal it seemed that I would ever get the chance to tuck a child into bed, hold her, hug her, sing to her, love her. So, as these incredible steps of growth come in the life of Miss Mouse, I find myself not dreading them as much as appreciating the blessing of being part of them. That's not an indictment of those moms who have a hard time with teeth being lost or increasing independence. It's just an explanation of why I think it feels different for me. None of our children will ever replace our first two little ones that we didn't get to meet alive here, but having these moments with the babies we do get to care for....it's a surreal feeling. It's sort of like getting something that you thought was stolen from you forever. Of course, those moments were stolen from us with Hope, but to be able to experience them with her siblings? It's honestly incredible.

That said, I don't have to face the separation of kindergarten starting in a couple of weeks the way many of my friends do with their little five-year-olds. I have no doubt their kiddos are going to love it and do great, but I surely can't say that as well as I'm doing with all of Miss Mouse's new independence that I would do well with that! I'm sure I'd be one of the sobbing mommies in the hallway with everyone else! That, again, leads me to an appreciative moment where I am so thankful for the opportunity to continue to spend the entire day with this special little girl (and her sister, and soon her brother, of course!).

Now our biggest question is: Will any more teeth come out before "Brother" comes to live at our house??!

One More Calendar Change!

Today when I changed the calendars over to August I celebrated that there is only one calendar change left until we (likely) meet our new little guy! Yay!

We're at 33 weeks this week and are eagerly, yet patiently, counting down the weeks. The paper chain is getting shorter and shorter, which means the girls' excitement is reaching new levels. Sunny went shopping with me last weekend while her older sister was spending time with her grandparents, so I think "Brother" has become even a bit more real for his three-year-old sister than he was before.

We'll be doing a biophysical profile every two weeks from here on out, although it will be three weeks from the one we had last week until our next one just due to scheduling difficulties. Initially, they wanted to "monitor" us every 72 hours because we fit into the category of "have had a full-term stillbirth". Even though Mike and I appreciate the extra care, we felt like being monitored twice each week was actually more anxiety-provoking for us than anxiety-relieving. When I explained our concerns to my OB, she definitely concurred and explained that the policy was developed for most "other" people who, by and large, don't know the full reasons their baby died. Many couples choose not to have an autopsy performed, and we'd never criticize that decision, as much as we are thankful that we did. It was really a nauseating decision to make, but there were really so many of those.....Anyway, seven years later we continue to be thankful for the information that decision provided us and the encouragement we can take from it (that we are at no higher risk than the average person for ever having something catastrophic happen again - which does not mean nothing could, just that our risk isn't higher).  So, we and the doctor decided that every-other-week monitoring would be helpful for everyone, as long as nothing concerning shows up.

Cravings: Watermelon, cantelope, salad, cold water, cold grapes, ice, lime/lemon water

Weight gain: I think 19 pounds is the latest total.

Sleeping: I have no desire this time to sleep on my stomach - perhaps because it is so massive! With Miss Mouse and Sunny both, I had to fight really hard to stay off my tummy, even as it grew. For some reason I'd wake up and my body would have turned onto my stomach, squishing the poor little girlies! That hasn't happened this time, but I definitely switch from side to side a lot. It's like there is some definite reason that I feel more comfortable for 20 minutes on my left side and then suddenly have to change to my right side. I sleep fine as long as I don't drink like a dehydrated camel before bedtime, but it is funny to me that I don't have to fight the tummy-sleeping this time!

Other: I am finding it hard to get up from the ground/floor these days! The yard needs weeding something fierce, but I'm dreading it! I'm pretty sure our neighbor to the north is crossing her fingers that it gets done before her entire yard is contaminated by our thistles! Other than that, it is just getting more and more exciting thinking about meeting our newest family member and adjusting to life as a family of five. Having been induced with all three girls, I'm hoping that this little guy will just arrive whenever he is ready, so I'm trying not to be too impatient or to rule out a post-September-17th birthdate for him. We are excited, though, to see him!