Hair cut

Yesterday we gave Mallory her very own pair of kid scissors… and she has been having a field day cutting up papers during arts and crafts time. They have a special home and she knows NOT to touch them without permission and supervision.

This morning I was doing a little ‘fall-cleaning’ and was finishing up vacuuming at the other end of the house, when I heard Mallory yell “Mom, I gave Wesley a hair cut!!!!.” I RAN down that hallway sooooooo fast! I was completely terrified at what I was going see.

Thankfully they were just playing ‘pretends’ and she was actually ‘cutting’ his hair with a fake saw (so it looked more like she was doing a craniotomy then giving a hair cut…)! I was so relieved. Not like it would have been the end of the world, since I could just shave his head again. But ALL those blond curls are really growing on me!

 

Wiggle-wiggle

Little #3 started to wiggle around  last week (well actually I was finally able to feel it wiggle last week). I love that feeling. Its like daily/hourly conformation that the baby is doing well. I start to feel less 'fat' and more pregnant when the baby starts moving... like it's a reward for the 11 pounds I have gained already! It makes it worth it, being reminded that there's a reason for that weight. Starting yesterday the movements went from flutters to more forceful or purposeful pushing-type movements. Love it! (not really looking forward to the karate kidney kicks or the bladder head-butting... but I guess I don't get to pick and chose the movements.)

Attack Babies

This morning Mallory came walking out of my closet with this 'great' belt ensemble!

Me: What are you wearing? (laughing a little)

Mallory: This is to keep me from being attacked by the babies. (straight faced).

Me: What?

Mallory: To keep me from being attacked by the babies.

 

Me: What do the babies do when they attack you?

 

Mallory: They teeth on me.

 

Me...dying of laughter.

 

Apparently there are some fears that we need to address before March!

Happy Fall

Life has been good and as busy as ever. Enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather and trying to get outside to exercise.  I am 17 weeks this weekend and I am at the point where I can’t really comfortably wear my ‘normal’ clothes and the maternity clothes are still just a little too big… but I guess better big then small. So today was the first day I wore a FULL maternity outfit. Matthew thought I looked cute, I thought I looked dumpy… sigh…such-is-life.

 

Here are the past few weeks ‘baby size’ pictures.

Week 15: 4 ½ inches the size of the little peoples tricycle.

 

Week 16: 4 ¾ inch's long, just about the size of Mallory's doctor syringe which apparently cures all sorts of ailments (I should bring it to work with me!)

 

Week 17: 5 inches from head to booty… so about the size of all the balls in our house.

 

Today has been a great day. First of all it is my first FULL weekend off in a very, very, very long time! So that alone is fantastic. But we got to do fun family things today… grocery shopping (surprisingly fun when it means that I’m spending time with Matthew and the kids), then Mallory’s pre-school had a Fall Festival (my parents came to that). It was cute. Then while the kids nap at the grandparents house, Matthew and I met up with Jeff and Lindsay to enjoy the Grand Opening of our wine club winery in Healdsburg (I even took a few sips… I couldn’t resist… I LOVE this wine)!  Then we grabbed the kids and all headed to the pumpkin patch for more fall fun! I can’t believe all that we were able to do in just one day! It’s great to have a weekend off!

Happy Fall!

1st School Picture

A few weeks ago Mallory had her very first school pictures taken… and I am shocked to say that they turned out really cute! Especially considering that we all KNOW how much she hates having her picture taken and the thought of smiling on queue is like torture. But these are cute. Our at home ‘practice’ smiling shots… not so much… but funny!

 

As for baby news, sorry I have yet to find/measure a toy for 15 weeks… I will, some time. But prior to a few nights ago I would have practically bet the baby that it was going to be a little girl. Based on how I wide in the booty/hips/waist I am, zero morning sickness, not wanting sugar (but loving carbs). All signs felt like another ‘Mallory’. But the other night I had a dream that it was a little boy. And as of now I’m 2 for 2 on dreaming the correct sex of the baby. So now I’m just confused.

The 14 Week Circus



At 14 weeks I finally had my first real appointment with my midwife. I have a midwife that I love (though there are many wonderful ladies that my mom works with)… but this one was the one that delivered Wesley and was so great then and all through his entire pregnancy that I wanted her again. This meant that we had to shuffle around the normal appointment schedule a little so that I could see her. But it all worked out!

So the FOUR of us loaded up and went to the appointment today. Thank goodness she herself has kids, because it was like a mini circus in that exam room. Balloon gloves to distract the kids, little fingers touching this and that, Mallory constantly trying to get the midwife to pay more attention to her and less to me, measuring tapes that were used for everything but my belly… and all the while I, in a paper gown. The two most memorable bits were Mallory getting to hold the Doppler and ‘finding’ the baby’s heartbeat. She was so proud. She kept telling me ‘Momma, I did that.’ Like she was THE only reason it was there and beating. (It’s little heart rate was Between 158-162 by the way). The second ‘great’ part of this appointment was when the midwife asked if I wanted them all to leave during the “full” exam… I told her I didn’t care and it was fine for them to stay. So there I lay, legs in stirrups, with the paper cover over my knees as a drape and Mallory sitting up on the table with me. Just as the midwife was starting ‘the full’ exam, Wesley walked around to her side of the drape, head coked to one side and is just staring all wide-eyed up at what she was doing, while simultaneously Mallory wanted to know what’s going on so she leaned on and then fell through/over that paper knee drape, practically into the midwifes lap!  

I think that we’ll leave them home next time.

 

14 weeks our #3 should be close to 4 inches… which is exactly the size of Mallory’s Go Fish cards (which she would gladly play with any of you…and by that I truly mean she will tell YOU how to play…at the drop of a hat).

"Fun" With Crayons

 

Over the past 2 days we have been having some serious “fun” with crayons! I have no idea what has gotten into these kids… but apparently they suddenly need constant supervision (What? Don’t pretend like all parents don’t leave their 3 and 1 ½ year old unattended in their rooms for short periods of time.)

Any way… The other day while I was getting ready for work Mallory came into my bedroom crying. I looked down and saw that blood and dark ‘flecks’ were draining from her nose.  I put her into the bathroom and told her to stay there (while I took a few pictures). Then in the course of cleaning up her bloody face I noticed that the right nostril was bulging ever so slightly… I had her blow her nose and out shot a ½ inch piece of dark blue crayon! I still have no idea why she put it up there.

 

Then last night while Matthew and I were cooking dinner, the kids where happily playing together in Mallory’s room.  Then Mallory came out and said “Wesley and I want a little alone time in my room, so don’t go in there.” RED FLAG! Matthew went down there, and quickly came back saying “well, we were wondering when we would have to deal with this… apparently all it took was Wesley.” Wesley (a.k.a The Adorable Trouble Maker) thought that coloring on paper was stifling his creativity… the wall, white board, dresser and coat rack were much more appropriate places to color! Arrrrrgggggg! Mallory, who is typically such a great rule-follower/tattle-tail actually followed suit and joined in. Double Arrrrggggggg! But thanks to a quick Google search, we learned that a damp rag dipped in Baking Soda cleans up crayon beautifully and really easily! Who knew! Thanks Google!!!

Hopefully we are done with the crayon adventures for a while!

Oh and Baby #3 is 13 ½ weeks old and 3 inches head to booty… about the size of this strange block-like construction man.  

Thoughts From a Three Year Old

Mallory has been saying some darn cute things lately… thought I should write them down before I forget them (pregnancy brain and all).

1)      I walked in on her the other day drawing a TON of circles on her paper. I said to her “great job Mallory Rose, look at all those circles!” She turned from her obsessive circle drawing, looked at me with a giant grin on her face and said “Momma, those aren’t circle, those are eggs and I’m going to tell Daddy to put them in your tummy so we can have LOTS of babies!” (Maybe I should stop talking about anatomy with my 3 year old).

2)      The night before lest we were reading a story about a duck that was looking for a safe place to lay her eggs. There was a picture of her flying and Mallory asked “But momma, where are her eggs.” I told her that they were inside her waiting to be laid. To which she put her hand on my tummy and said “Like the tiny baby in your tummy is waiting to be laid?”

3)      There is (still) a ton of construction going on on the highway, including new signs that have been put up but covered with plastic or boards until they are ready to be used. The other morning as we were driving to preschool Mallory started asking me about the signs and seemed to be getting a little worried/work up about them. Then she finally said “Momma, if they don’t let us read the signs, how will we know where to go?”

Week 12 and Stuff

Ok, I'm not even going to pretend to stay up on the blog. My life is too filled with other things... like life. And I have too much to do to stress/feel guilty about the blog. I'm actually contemplating stopping it all together... but haven't decided yet.

Pregnancy #3 is going great. If it wasn't for my ever-growing chest and belly and my constant hunger I wouldn't even know. It's been a cake walk so far (fingers crossed). This weekend I was 12 weeks! One more week and I'm into the second trimester! Here are the past 3 weeks size pics.

 

Week 10: 1.25 inches... almost the exact length of all those broken crayons that I find in Mallory room.



 

 

Week 11: 1.75 inches...Ahhhh "B" is for baby.

 

 

Week 12: 2.5 inches... the size of Little Elmo (one of the few small toys that we have somehow managed not to loose, despite taking it to San Diego, Oregon, Car trips and Shopping. Don't ask me how.)

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Some other fun things that we have been up to are enjoying visits from friends. Janie and her beautiful family came to visit (they had business stuff to do... but I like to pretend it was JUST to see me). It's always amazing to see Baker... and this time was even a little more special (if that's even possible) because both of us are pregnant! Which despite all our pregnancies (her 4th my 3rd) has never happened before! So it was fun to rub tummies. Mallory had a great time hanging out with her older girls too... she felt very special that they wanted to play with her.

Then Jeralyn came to visit! She's such a trooper, she had a smile on her face all day (even after spending 2 hours driving here to hang out with me and my CRAZY children!) :) I love when Jeralyn visits... I get to catch up on all the ins and outs of other people that I don't stay in contact with and live vicariously through her and her dating adventures! :)

And last but not least the 4 (and a half) of us went camping for 3 days and 2 nights. It was all-in-all wonderful... despite forgetting our pillows (Matthew went back and got them), and having to pee multiple times a night in the dark, the crazy velosa-raptor sounding animal screeching ALL through the night and the kids bickering over who gets to hold the flash light... or the pink chalk... or the stick... or the leaf. But we hopefully created some fun memories. At least for Matthew and me!

 

9 Weeks

Now that I'm 9 1/2 weeks, I thought I would post the 9 weeks pic...
Little "final"/"Done" or "China" (Which Mallory has told me we are naming the baby... if it's a girl) is an inch long. Roughly the size of one of the million pieces of sidewalk chalk you can find scattered throughout our back yard.

Catch Up... Again

Working 55-60 hours a week make blogging near impossible…and I’m sorry. I have actually had a few calls/emails/texts asking if everything is ok because it’s been SOOOOO long since I’ve posted any new information. But rest assured all is well with the Klein Klan.

Mallory has started Preschool and loves it! Each morning she asks to go back (she’s just going 2 days a weeks but apparently can’t get enough).  I can’t believe that she’s old enough to be in school.

 

Wesley is doing great, and FINALLY starting to expand his vocabulary from something other than grunting and pointing. He’s totally into mimicking works, sounds and actions. And did I mention how stinking cute he is… sadly his strawberry colored hair is now more blond… but he’s still a stunner!

 

We took a family camping trip with my folks. Just overnight and in town… but it was great! The kids did wonderful. We have a 2 nighter planed for next month and it’ll just be us… no grandparents to help. Gulp!

 

 

As for Klein Baby #3… all is great! I just had my intake appointment today. I am 8 weeks and 2 days… so Due on March 30^th. Baby looks good, heart looks and sounds good… all it good. I am doing the weekly pictures again (sorry that I had not posted them). Since we have a plethora of toys and kids stuff I thought that I would compare #3 to all that… so here they are:

Week 5: A tiny piece of a sticker (found stuck on Mallory’s floor)

 

Week 6: A bead (after which I promptly threw all of them away because I was sick of picking them up again and again and again).

 

Week 7: A small hair clip (we started out with a 12 pack of them… pretty sure this is the last one. The rest must have been lost, broke or eaten).

 

Week 8: A Gummy Vitamin (I thought it was fitting because that’s kind of what #3 looks like right now)….See.

 

I’ll TRY to be better about posting… no promises though.



Tea Party Time

Ok, before I lose any more brain cells to this new little baby, I wanted to write about Mallory’s 3^rd birthday party.
Mallory had decided that she wanted a tea-party, so that’s what we did! I want all out with the decorations; real tea cups, saucers and teapots (thanks to salvation army), loads of dress up clothes and hats (once again salvation army), a tea-room (courtesy of our pop-up tent and dollar-store tablecloths) and more jewelry than the kids know what to do with (thanks to Joyce).  It turned out really cute. The kids loved pouring their own iced tea and lemonade and eating teeny-tiny tea sandwiches. They looked sooooo stinking cute! Plus I loved seeing all the adult friends and family getting in the spirit.

 

Happy Birthday Surprise!

On July 20^th Matthew turned 32 (old man)! It started out as any regular birthday morning. Pancakes, kisses and gifts. Until…the last present was opened up, then life changed…for the THIRD time!

I woke up that morning thinking that ‘Gee, it would be funny if I were pregnant and could tell the birthday boy on his actual birthday.’ Since we went off birth control about 6 weeks ago, I honestly thought that it would be zero-chance that I was already pregnant (especially since we wanted to get pregnant more like sep/October). But apparently with Matthew and me all we have to do is talk about a baby and I get knocked up.  So yes, we are expecting baby number 3 in March!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I then made up a few shirts for the kids to wear that night at Matthews little b-day dinner. Malloy’s is three little stick figure faces, and Wesley’s says “Little bother status expiring March 2014” (though I guess if you want to be technical he’ll always be a little bother AND a big brother).

 

It was fun telling the family. There were lots of tears, squeals and hugs. I’m only 4 weeks, so it’s all very, very, very early, but I can’t keep a secret like this so I figure why not share it with the world! So baby number 3… WOW! I’m a little overwhelmed just thinking about the number 3…but I guess I have 36 more weeks to get used to it. Per my online checking (which is very accurate I’m sure… hahah) I would be due March 30^th. I’ve been early each time though… so we’ll see. And once again we don’t plan on finding out the gender… but will be taking bets. Malloy’s banking on a girl (she said ‘since I already have a brother I need a sister’). Any other EARLY guesses?  

 

Three Today

 

Our little girl is THREE today and I can’t believe how time has flow,

It seems like only yesterday that she came out with just a groan.

Our little girl is THREE today and as tall as she can be,

At first she looked like Matthew, now she’s looking more like me.

Our little girl is THREE today and oh the words that she does say,

Like ‘possibility’, ‘Tyrannosaurus’ and other fun fanciful play.

Our little girl is THREE today and it makes my heart hurt a heap,

Cuz all too soon she’ll wear makeup and find a boy that she will keep.



4th Of July

We had a great 4th! I actually had the 3rd and 4th off (worked the 5th) but then had the entire weekend off too! It was great!
On the 3rd we went over to Dave and Becka's house. The live super close to where the fireworks are set off, so we had a little BBQ and the kids played. I was a little worried about Wes and the fireworks (at the moment he's not what I would call the bravest boy out there)... but he LOVED them! He actually wanted to walk towards them and got mad when we wouldn't let him (I know, what mean parents we are). The morning of the 4th we woke up and Matthew suggested we visit his family in Colfax. So we quickly packed, loaded up the car and drove up there (plus made a really quick stop in Ikea to pee... ok, and to shop). It was great to see the Klein family... we haven't got to spend nearly as much time with them as we used to (darn kids and work always getting in the way). Mallory and Wesley had a blast! A ton of toys, a pool and countless people to play with! What could be better.

What's The Buzz

On Saturday, I gave Wesley a buzz cut! I can't decide if I should feel sad that he looks like a little man now, or to be happy that I don't have to brush it and keep trying to keep it trimmed. Either way, he sure is cute!

Our Colorado Vacation

It’s been go, go, go since we got back from Colorado. At the moment  the kids are napping and I’m not working, so I thought I’d try and get a few pictures up.

 

Like I said, Colorado was WONDERFUL! Each time I look at all the pictures I can’t help but smile. We really had a blast! I hadn’t been back to visit my Dads side of the family in 12 years!!!!!! So needless to say the ‘boys’ (my cousins) are now men, with beautiful wives and stunning children! We stayed the nights with Derek and his family, and got to spend our days with Aunt Dottie and Uncle Blob (Bob). We were welcomed with open arms by everyone. Not once did it seem like anyone thought that having 4 extra people invade their homes and their lives was a nuisance (even when the kids were cranky and getting on MY nerves).  There was almost always a beautiful new face to meet… each of the 4 West boys have 2-4 kids (and we met all but one)! The hospitality from my aunt and uncle was (almost) too much… activities, love, food, treats, gifts, swimming, nights out… it was so sweet, so personal that just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. It’s depressing that we live so far away from each other.

 

The first couple of days were devoted primarily to getting over to see Matthews’s rugby team play in the national rugby playoffs. They placed 3^rd!!!!!! Truly amazing that our ‘little’ team from Santa Rosa is so very talented! During the second game, Matthew obtained his first real injury in his 10 years of playing rugby… he was landed on by a very large opponent and he separated his left AC joint in his shoulder. Now it's raised at a funny angle. He goes to talk with a surgeon tomorrow to see if there is any ‘fixing’ it.

 

After all the rugby, we truly started our family vacation which included Red Rock ampatheater, a train ride (which Mallory hated for some reason),  the zoo, multiple trips to THE most amazing community center ever (pools, playland, ice rinks, workout gym, running and basketball  courts included) and a chance to watch my second cousins in their swim meet. Let me just say these girls must be part fish because NO ONE was able to keep up with them and they won it all!

  

 

 

This trip was truly wonderful. I can’t wait to get out there again (and I am hoping that my aunt and uncle, and ALL of my cousins will come out and visit us soon)! Thank you for an amazing time. I love you all.  

Fishy-Goo

My family and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Colorado!!!! There is so much to write about I’ll probably have to talk about the trip itself later… for now I’ll just fill you in on the adventure that started our trip off!

 

The 4 of us flew out of SFO midmorning. Mallory, being the seasoned traveler that she is, did great! We set up a Curious George video and she was good to go! Wesley on the other had hadn’t been on a plane in a year and he was not nearly as easy going about the whole thing. He started off on Matthews lap as we were taxing down the runway and as we picked up speed we pulled out the bag of Goldfish crackers (both to entertain them and to help keep their ears open with the chewing motion). Mid take off Wes started to freak out about not getting enough fishies (he likes to have a full mouth AND two full hands all at once). As he started to cry he inhaled and he started chocking on a glob of fishies. Matthew started patting him on his back and after a few moments he realized that wasn’t working. At this point I looked over because Wes is no longer coughing and was frightenely quiet and Matthew was saying ‘what do I do now’? Wesley’s face was plum colored! A sickening bright red and deep purple all at once. I whacked his back twice and when nothing changed I grabbed him from Matthews lap, tip him upside-down over my legs and somehow manage four or five good baby-style heimlich maneuver thrusts (all of this in the cramped space of an airplane row). A large wad of fishy-goo went flying from his mouth and landed on my leg (or seat, or somewhere). His color immediately returned to beautiful pale pink and I started to hug him and tell Matthew “I hope I didn’t break a rib” when he grabbed that regurgitated fishy-goo and popped it back in his mouth. Obviously he was (and is) fine.