A Big Boy in a Big Boy Bed

It's a bittersweet day today as Brody made the official move from the "baby's" room into his new big boy room. I'm so proud of Kevin for building Brody a whole new room, and so excited at how it all turned out. We still have some stuff to do - refinishing a dresser, new quilts for the bed - but last night we set up the bed and today we moved all his stuff except his clothes. It was so sweet to see him running back & forth from his old room to his new room with stuffed animals and trucks and books, making sure all his treasures moved with him. And he kept finding little baby toys or blankets as we dug through his closet, and reminding me that "These for the baby, Mommy."

After his bath tonight, he climbed right into bed with Daddy and read his book, then snuggled in and played with his animals for a little bit before falling sound asleep - just like a "big boy"! It feels really good to have him moved and getting settled more than six weeks before the baby's coming, so I can work on getting the baby's room all set up, and so we can go through this phase with him before we have a newborn too. Although if tonight is any indicator, hopefully the transition is going to go pretty well. We are very curious to see what happens in the morning though... :-)

Easter in Many Colors

Because this past week was a little nutty with appointments and things going on, we crammed a lot of our little Easter and spring traditions into today, which was fun and messy and exhausting, considering we also spent the day moving Brody into his new big boy room (another post in itself). We planted our little pot of strawberries, which I have been promising the kids for weeks now -- ever since Sky saw a recipe card in the grocery store that she thought was a seed packet like they have in Home Depot, and shouted out "Mommy, look - cinnamon roll seeds!" :-)

We baked our Easter egg cookies and decorated them, then topped it all off by coloring our Easter eggs. It was hard to tear Brody away from the blue coloring, but he ventured out into green and yellow eventually (note these colors combined do form blue, don't they?). Then both kids ate a couple of the eggs that had cracked, and we discovered that they LOVE hard boiled eggs! So we have another breakfast item to add to our menu to mix things up a little during the week.

It's been sweet to talk with the kids about why Easter is special and why we celebrate the way we do - similar to how we're treating Christmas and Santa Claus, we've shared with them about the gift Jesus gave to us by dying for our sins and rising again. And we do fun things to make it more special, like the Easter Bunny and baskets and eggs - all to remember what Jesus did for us. It's really made us think more about the deep meaning of Easter this year too.

Baby, Baby

We had our last sonogram yesterday at 32 weeks.... Because I'm considered "high-risk" this pregnancy, we've had to go every six weeks to track the baby's growth, which has been both a treat (to get sneak peeks of the baby that often) and a stress (worried that we'll catch a glimpse of gender!). :-) Yesterday's sonogram was definitely all treat though and we were not expecting to see so much detail in our little one's face. Kevin & I were both blown away at getting to see the whole outline of the baby's little chubby face with eyes closed. I have literally been glowing ever since yesterday afternoon, and I feel somehow so much closer to the baby - like I know him/her in a different way now that I can see the sweet little face. Less than seven weeks to go! We can't wait.

Fashion Plate

Skyla has recently taken a big interest in her hair and her clothes, which I'm trying to keep in balance but still encourage her to be a "girl." :-) Her idea of matching is if two things contain the color pink in them, they "match" - no matter what the shade or pattern. She also has just mastered completely getting herself dressed from top to bottom, so I've had to set aside some of my perfectionist personality and let her walk around with her waist through a leghole of her panties, or her hair sticking straight up in the air, or bright princess socks with a cute little outfit. :-) Each day when she comes down from her room after getting herself dressed, I brace myself for the look of the day!

Here's a particularly good day - stripes, polka dots and floral, topped off with Snow White socks. Note that all have pink in them, so they "match."

Brody had to get in on the modeling action. He is on a "blue" kick. Loves blue, anything blue, and if Sky has something that's blue he has to have it, because "blue is for boys."

Artwork is a huge part of our family, for obvious reasons given Daddy's occupation. Brody has been banned from markers till after the baby is born, so I don't have to get down on all fours on the floor to pick up all the caps that he throws across the room (mean mommy, I know). So he is using chalk... :-)