The Fantastic Three

Recently,  Jeff noticed a sign hanging in the basement that read, "Property of the Awesome 2".  Later, after inquiry about Samuel's inclusion, the sign was replaced with one reading, "Property of the Fantastic 3".

I just love watching these kids together.  They don't get along all the time, of course.  I wish I could fast forward through the first and last 30 minutes of each day, for example, and maybe the time immediately after school.  But, other than those times when the kids are overly tired, hungry, and cranky, they get along amazingly well.

Most days, Sam is the first one up.  Every morning he asks, "Where's Mah-wee and My-yah?"  On occasion, he even wakes up crying, "I WANT MAH-WEE AND MY-YAH!" I let him climb into bed with me, and we wait until it's time to wake them up for school.  Or, if it's the weekend, we wait to hear the sound of them emerging from their room.  Then Sam bolts out of bed to greet them with hugs, kisses, and "Let's Play!"

One of the most endearing things is hearing Sam ask, "Who I being?"  He knows Marley and Amelia always have some game of pretend going on.  He generally doesn't care what the game is, as long as he can be included.  And his big siblings almost always oblige.  Marley and Amelia are playing Harry and Hermione?  Sam can be Ron.  Mario and Princess Peach?  Sam is Toad.  Luke and Leia? He gets to be Yoda.  His roles aren't always glamorous.  Sometimes he's their child, sometimes their pet.  He never seems to mind, though.

I really love that they each have a special kind of relationship with each other.  Marley and Amelia are constantly creating elaborate fantasy stories that they act out together.  They choose to continue sharing a room, even though they no longer have to.  In fact, much of the time, they prefer to sleep in the same bed.  We've had to limit the bed-sharing to weekends only, though, because they stay up so late talking and playing.

Amelia and Sam are just as close.  All morning, while Marley is at school, they dress up, play with dollies, do puzzles, and read books together.  Amelia is a natural care-giver, so there are very few conflicts when it's just the two of them.

And, though there are nearly five years between Marley and Samuel, even they share a unique bond.  It's a very stereotypically "brotherly" bond, but a strong bond all the same.  They fight with swords and light sabers, they race cars, and build battle ships.  While Amelia has shown pretty much zero interest in the video games Marley plays (Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Star Wars Lego), Sam wants to sit right next to Marley, holding his own controller, and "play", too!

They're even cute when they're misbehaving - especially when they are doing it together.  Once Marley and Amelia decided that they wanted to see what would happen if they squirted toothpaste on their hair.  All three kids locked themselves in the bathroom, but when it came down to it, the older kids decided that they didn't really want to have toothpaste in their hair.  In the end, Sam stood obediently on the bathroom stool while his siblings squeezed the contents of a tube of toothpaste onto his head.

When nothing particularly exciting happened, they began trying to wipe it off with a damp washcloth.  Realizing that it wasn't working, they tried to get Samuel to stick his head into the sink so that they could rinse it out.  It was at this point that he finally protested.  Not knowing what to do next, they came to me for help.  I stuck Sam in the shower and charged the big kids for the wasted toothpaste:)

Another time, Samuel showed up with a big black "X" on the back of his shirt.  When I asked how that happened, Marley informed me that Sam had done it to himself.  He must have realized how improbable this was, because a while later Amelia presented me with a note.  It read, "Dear Mom, I actually drew the "X" on Sam's back.  From Amelia".  I asked Amelia if she knew what the note said, and she replied, "No", and that Marley had written it and told her to deliver it to me (which was obvious since she doesn't really know how to write yet).

I turned the paper over and wrote him a note of my own.  It read, "Dear Marley, I know that you wrote on Sam's shirt, and I still love you.  Don't worry, the marker is washable and you can help me clean it later." Amelia delivered it, and Marley came up to admit that, yes, it was him all along:)

As I sit here 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant, waiting for our newest addition to arrive, I can't help wondering how she will change our family dynamic.  My sister-in-law, Alicia, made a comment on Instagram* about me being creative with the big kids in these final weeks before baby.  She's absolutely right!  Nesting for me this time around has been a crafting, baking frenzy!  I hope the big kids will remember all the fun projects we've done over the last few weeks next month, while I'm busy nursing, changing, and rocking the new baby. In the meantime, at least I know they have each other.

*If you aren't following me on Instagram, you should be!

Hi Blog! I've missed you!

Yes, life has been busy.  And crazy.  And really busy.  And super crazy.  But, this nonsense has gone on too long!  I need to get back in the habit of updating my blog.  Recently, I was trying to remember when something happened, so I "looked it up" on the blog.  After I found what I was looking for, I got caught up in reading some of the vignettes that I'd written in the past.  I realized how much I missed having this place to keep track of our lives.  And also how sad it would be to no longer have this to go back to.  So, here I am!  

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?  I'll try to just hit the highlights, but seriously A LOT has happened.  Back in May, we moved!  We had been casually looking since Sam was born.  We knew we were outgrowing our house, but we LOVED our neighborhood so much.  Really, we loved our house, too.  It was not an easy decision.  Home prices were up, and there wasn't a lot of inventory out there.  We looked for a long time without really seeing anything that got us excited.  Finally, this house came along, and we jumped on it.  We looked at it the first day it was on the market and put our offer in the next day.  The sellers accepted our offer right away.  We spent the next month suffering from terrible buyers' remorse.  Then, we moved in, sold our beloved old house, and had the most relaxing and enjoyable summer in our new home!  This has turned out to be the PERFECT house for us!  

These pictures are from several months ago, so things look a bit different now, and are only from the main floor.  If I'm ever able to get the rest of the house clean, I'll post those pictures, too.  

Sitting room/library

Another angle of the library

Front room - That's the front door on the left

View from the front door - there's the eating area

Eating nook, kitchen, and french doors to the back yard

View of kitchen from eating nook

Main floor bathroom

Main floor bedroom - currently a guest room

Upstairs is a master bedroom with master bath (!), two other bedrooms (Marley and Amelia share one, and Sam is in the other), and another bathroom.  The downstairs has a big rec room, another bedroom (currently an office/dumping ground), a laundry room, and an attached garage.

We thought the new house would be the biggest news of the year, but mid-summer we got another big surprise. We found out we were expecting baby number four!

This pregnancy has just flown by - I'm already in week 37. One of my goals was to announce the pregnancy on the blog BEFORE baby's arrival:)

Things have gone pretty smoothly so far. I finished the last of my progesterone injections last week, which I have been administering myself (ouch!). I was really sick with bronchitis all throughout January, but am finally feeling better! 

Unfortunately Jeff, who has been sick since the beginning of December, is still feeling pretty cruddy. He had a terrible case of bronchitis, followed by a sinus infection, and now a sore throat (which is hopefully NOT strep). I think he's taken more sick days for himself in the last two months than he has in all the years he's worked for the UW. Bad timing since we'd like him to use those for his paternity leave. But, oh well, at this point we're just hoping he's feeling better before baby's arrival!

And the big kids? I'm working on another post to update on them. But, they are loving the new house, and are SO very excited to have a new baby sister. Well, Marley and Amelia are - Samuel doesn't really know what he's in for yet:)

Arf! The Musical!

Featuring Marley Franklin as Boxer #3

5K

In order to change up my workout routine, and keep myself motivated, I signed up for the West Seattle 5K  on Sunday.  I don't really enjoy running, but I do enjoy goal-setting and progress monitoring (teacher much?). So I've been using the Couch to 5K app, which has me doing walk/run intervals and slowly increasing the amount of running so that after 8 weeks of training - Voila! - I can run the whole 5K!  Except that I got a little behind and am only on week 7.  Oops.

During one of my first runs, a guy across the street called out to me, asking if I was looking for my dog.  I was kind of offended.  As if the only reason I could possibly be running was because I was chasing after my lost dog!  I'm sure the reality was that he'd seen a dog go by and I was the only person in the area.  But STILL.

Having an upcoming race AND a training app isn't quite enough to keep me motivated.  I've also been using an app called Map My Ride.  It's the app Jeff uses to track his bike commute, but it can also be used to map your walk or run.  I even use it to keep track of my Zumba and Rizzmic workouts.  It doesn't usually map those, though one time it said I Rizzmic'ed a mile and half:)

The other great thing about Map My Ride is that it's a social network, and Jeff and I are "friends".  He can see when I've had time to do my workout during the day.  When I haven't, he gently encourages me to get out there in the evening after he gets home.

I don't know if I'll be able to run the entire 5K.  I'll be spending the entire day before the race moving, (Did I forget to mention that we bought a new house and are moving in on Saturday??).  So I might be a little sore. Plus I've only had to run 4K so far in my training app.

Even if I have to walk a little, I'm still feeling pretty good about it.  I think I have come a long way since my early 'dog chasing' workouts. The other day when I was out, a mom pulled her little toddler to the side telling her, "Watch out, honey, a runner is going by."

Monterey, CA

We met my family for a week in Monterey back in February.  We rented an awesome house in Pacific Grove that was walking distance to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row, and just a short drive to so many other beautiful sites.  We drove down and stopped in San Francisco along the way. Golden Gate Park was a big hit!  It was so much fun being on vacation with my family.  I'm ready to plan the next one!

Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

Sam commandeering another little boy's tee ball set at Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park

Matt and Lilyana at Lover's Point in Monterey

Sarah rocking Ashlynn to sleep

Amelia and Lilyana watching some bed time iPhone

Sam hammering out a tune

Dennis the Menace Park

Playing at a nearby park

The whole gang watching the sunset at Big Sur

Giant Jenga!  Fun night out with my sibs <3 td="">

Amelia at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Marley and Amelia checking out the jellies at the aquarium

Sam liked the aquarium, too

Under the giant wave!

Marley reading to Lilyana and Amelia

Sunset at Big Sur

Grandkids!

Sarah at Point Lobos State Park

Grandma and Lilyana at Point Lobos

Exploring Point Lobos

Sarah walking sleepy Sam through the Cypresses at Point Lobos

Getting a drink

Spring Breakin'

We're half a day into spring break, and so far, I think it's going really well!  I decided I would celebrate this success now since one never can tell how long these things will last.  My goals for the week were to get us outside as much as possible while still giving the kids plenty of down time to do as they please, and to not go crazy.  Sounds easy enough, right?  We spent the morning at the beach playing with some preschool friends.  When we got home, I put Marley in one shower and Amelia in the other. I was able to get Sam down for his nap before either of them ran out of hot water!  AND they have been playing together beautifully ever since.  Granted, they're still in their underwear, but having everyone be dressed was not one of my goals, so I'm letting it slide.  

This picture is from our Saturday evening trip to the Olympic Sculpture Park.  Sam and Amelia need to work on their running poses:)

Lego Building

Okay, I will warn you that this is a really long video.  Probably only grandparents will make it to the end.  But, I decided to share it because it illustrates, really well, each of my children's developmental levels, and shows quite a lot about their personalities, too.  Plus, it's Legos, which are still pretty much the most awesome toy out there.  Enjoy!