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... :-)

Update on the B Room

It's been awhile since I've posted some photos of Brody's new room, but that doesn't mean lots hasn't been going on. We now have HVAC up there, and Kevin has finished the electrical which means lights, plugs, ceiling fan, all that good stuff. The room is all painted and we did end up putting a closet in the hallway outside Brody's room. So now Kevin is plugging away at the closet doors and trim, then we'll get the carpet relaid and we'll be ready to go.

I am so excited about this room - and so glad we're not down to the wire and still have nine weeks to go before the baby comes. It's nice not to feel manic and panicky about being "ready." And it's so fun to plan out Brody's room, which will be a sports theme. Both previous pregnancies I didn't really do much to get the babies' room ready since we didn't know what we were having. So this time around I am pouring all that nesting energy into Brody's room and having lots of fun with it. We found a great bargain on his bunk beds on CraigsList and he's all geared up for his "big boy bed." More updates to come...

Dormer and closet inside Brody's room

View from the "big room" playroom, looking back toward the hallway where Brody's room is, and the new French door into the balcony of the main part of the house. Look at the new closet on the right - yay!

Looking into the new hallway from the balcony of the main house. New sconces on the wall match the ones on the balcony wall.


I had to take a picture even though it seems weird at first. Last week at the grocery store I let each of the kids pick out a box of tissues for their rooms - Sky has really wanted to have her own box of tissues in her room for some reason! :-) When we got home I sent them both upstairs to put their boxes in their rooms, and thought nothing of it. Late that night, after kissing the kids, Kevin & I did our nightly peek in at Brody's future room to admire Kevin's handiwork :-) and there was Brody's little box of tissues sitting right in the center of the floor. When I sent them up to put their tissues in "their rooms" he just automatically went to his new big boy room and set them down in there. Such a sweetie pie and it melted both of us.

Cruisin'

Just a few days after our big snowfall, it was downright balmy here in Virginia, and we were outside in the driveway riding bikes and pulling out all the outside stuff for the kids to play with. Sky has mastered her tricycle, and has finally learned how to stop so she isn't crashing headlong into the garage door or the rocks. And Brody is back & forth from his lawnmower to his Big Wheel to his tractor. One day it was really gusty and Sky was having trouble pedaling up toward the street so she could coast back down the driveway, so Brody (taking on his "helper" role) would run and push her up to the top of the driveway, then get out of the way so she could cruise down by herself. So nice when they get along!

Snow in March

What seems to be our last snowfall of the season happened on March 2, the day after we got home from visiting Auntie Susan & Uncle Ryan in PA while Kevin stayed here to work on Brody's room. We got a pretty good pile of snow - but much to the kids' disappointment it wasn't great snowman snow. We spent a little time outside but both kids were under the weather (in more ways than one) and little things like getting snow in their face or falling off the sled or losing a mitten brought them to tears - so we didn't last that long outside. :-)