Transitions

With the upcoming arrival of another baby as well as having BOTH the boys in school this fall, Ryan and I decided there were a couple of things we wanted Carter to be able to do by the beginning of the school year. We tended to do these things earlier with Logan, but Carter has a real knack for destroying most things he comes into contact with, so we tend to do more for him just to avoid having him create more work for us. Nevertheless, here were his goals:

1. Buckle himself in the car.
2. Wipe himself

The buckling into the car has gone pretty well. He's not as "particular" about things as Logan is/was so his belt tends to get all twisted and after a few times, it eventually is mangled enough that it won't retract and we have to fix it...but all in all, he's doing pretty well. It's funny how something so simple can make a parent feel so "free" in the process of getting into the car.

As for the wiping...we still need LOTS of supervision. He lacks the ability to sit still...and also lacks the comprehension that the things that go INTO the toilet really ought to stay there (as opposed to smeared onto the seat or our legs from all of our wiggling or inattentive wiping). I guess he's doing okay. My motivation is that someday he'll enter the bathroom and I'll be free of hearing "MOOOOMMMM.....I POOOOPPPPPED IN THE POOOOOTTTTTYYYY". I think I can add this to the list of less glamorous aspects of motherhood...especially with this type of child (Logan had no problems here).

So, the other day, I was in my room doing who-knows-what when Carter came in and asked if he could get some gum out of the pantry. I knew this was up too high for him to reach, but he offered to get the stool and get it himself...and as long as I'm trying very hard to not do anything for my children that they can do for themselves (translation: everything now takes 4 X as long as when I did it for them)...I agreed to let him try to do that. I could hear the stool being put down, the cupboard opening and some rustling about...and then CRASH!!!...and I knew the sound I heard was the large container of popcorn hitting the floor...and then proceeding to roll into every square inch of the kitchen. AAaaah, the price of independence. And, of course, the most time consuming aspect was actually getting HIM to clean up the mess rather than ME! Good thing we had nowhere to be that day. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but there's little yellow dots of popcorn EVERYWHERE. We're still finding a few strays every couple of days.




One of the other things we wanted to do with the boys was to get them moved to their room downstairs. Most of you know that Logan is a bit resistant to change, so I wanted to make this move during the summer. At least we have some daylight so it wouldn't seem so dark...and I wanted them to be used to it before the school routine began. Logan was very tired after 4 half days of preschool this spring and he'll have 5 full days of kindergarten this fall, so I wanted him to be able to sleep well. He was pretty nervous and even weepy the first night, but they read books and chatted for a long time and then settled down. His greatest worry? That "the new baby will get our old bedroom all slobbery." I reassured him that we've had two babies in that room and no obvious signs of slobber. We left a trail of lights on leading to upstairs if needed, but so far we've had two uneventful nights. Right now they're just using our futon mattress on the floor until Ryan has a chance to tear apart the bunkbeds and get them moved down. Logan even told me today that sleeping downstairs is more fun than upstairs.

And for those of you unfamiliar with our part of Alaska...we've had non-stop nice weather this summer. It's frequently in the 70's and we've even gotten above 80 a couple of days. I realize this is no big deal for other states, but it's AWESOME here. Funny how 75 feels HOT to me now (when I lived in Minnesota, I didn't even THINK about wearing shorts until it was 85). So, we had s'mores in the backyard...which also gave great opportunity for shooting their marshmallow gun.

Apparently Daddy needs to go over a few MORE gun safety lessons...as my kid looks directly into the barrel!

Run, Carter, Run!!! (He ate every one he got shot with)

Baby info:

Not much new to report here. Saw the doctor today and baby sounded good and is growing like he/she should. I actually gained 4 pounds since my last appointment 4 weeks ago, which was exciting for me because I NEVER gained that much between appointments with the boys. Maybe eating 3X the normal amount of protein is paying off and I'll have a typical 9-pound Magee baby this time!

I think Carter's getting a bit impatient for this baby to get here. We have explained the two different "methods" by which this baby could arrive...and they both seem much more interested in the c-section (which makes for much less uncomfortable questions to answer). In fact, Carter came in yesterday, let out a big sigh and said "Mommy, when are you going to be cut open???" Poor buggers have a hard time understanding that we don't know HOW or WHEN this baby will arrive...

As for gender, we're still in the dark. Over the past week, I've suddenly had the urge to find out ahead of time...which is odd for me because I've never even had the desire to know ahead of time with either of the boys or earlier in this pregnancy. Maybe it's some sort of weird subconscious thing. There will likely be extra ultrasounds in this pregnancy and I think I'm afraid someone will "spill it" anyway, so I might as well just decide to find out (at least it's on MY terms then...which works for a control-freak planner like me). Funny thing is, both Ryan and I thought we heard Dr. Richey slip and say "he" and I thought I heard Dr. Barton slip up today and say "she."

Just for giggles, I've worked through a few old wive's tales quizzes for gender prediction. So far, they're usually in about the 65-75th percentile that we're having a girl, but here's a few explanations:

1. When I hung a needle over my belly, it swung like a pendulum as opposed to spinning in a circle, which predicts a BOY (it was kinda creepy...it kept picking up speed!)

2. Ryan is NOT gaining weight with me, which predicts a BOY

3. I seem to be carrying high, which predicts a GIRL.

4. The heartrate has been 150-160, which predicts a GIRL.

5. I have been craving salty foods, which predicts a BOY. However, I always crave sweet foods, so I wasn't sure how to answer here. Craving sweets is normal for me; craving salty foods is not.

6. My intuition says I'm having a boy. I thought Logan and Carter were both boys as well, though I had convinced myself Carter was a girl just because his pregnancy was so different from Logan's. And this pregnancy is completely different than the other two...so who knows???