My Hoi Polloi

i love it when the trees start to blossom.  and just look at that blue sky.  it is 70+ outside today.  it is weird to think that one week ago we were getting half a foot of snow dumped on us!!

corey and i decided that we finally were going to get our backyard fence done and decided that while we were at it we wanted to change a couple things to make the yard more fun and more usable for us.

we woke up on monday morning to see this looming over our house.  kaleb and lyla sat at the window and watched them extend this arm-thingy up and over.  they were in awe for about 15 minutes.

this is obviously a work in progress.  can't wait to post some picture of the finished product.  we are excited to put the yard to use this summer when we won't be going too many places once new baby gets here!

kaleb is pretty sweet to his sister most of the time.  the other day i found them sitting in this giant bucket sharing kaleb's favorite treat, a push pop.  

he would give her a lick...

...and then she would grab it and give him a lick.  notice lyla has blue lips and a little bit of tongue sticking out in this pick. 

they were pretty cute...even though i am pretty sure this is how sickness passes from person to person at our house.

little lyla loves her bath time.  she would stay in there all night if we'd let her.  corey formed her hair into an awesome mohawk that went all the way down her head.  her hair is so long and fine that the mohawk only lasted seconds before it fell to the side...which was still cute.

kaleb is a horizontal toy player...meaning that he can't just stay in one spot and play with his toys.  he spreads them all over one space and instead of cleaning up and then getting new toys out to play with, he leaves the mess and goes to find a new, cleaner spot to spread more toys.  our whole house is covered with his toys.  covered.  lately, he has been throwing major tantrums when i ask him to clean up.  i tell him to pick up some cards and he cries for almost a full half hour before he finally realizes i'm serious about throwing them away if he doesn't clean up.

today i wanted to vaccum the upstairs level, which is all of the bedrooms.  i tell kaleb that he has to clean up his {horrendously messy} room and anything left on the floor with go in the garbage.  minutes later i peek in his room and think, "wow, he really cleaned up good"  and then i step into the room and see this:

a bunch of toys stacked on the bed.  apparently these are the ones he isn't finished playing with yet.

so i laugh to myself as i vaccum and then i go into my bedroom (it was full of his toys as well.  horizontal toy spreading i tell you) and the floor is spick and span but the couch...

again, he isn't done with these yet.

i didn't know whether to yell at him or to snuggle him for being such a smarty pants.  should be interesting when he tries to climb into bed tonight though.

i am starting to freak out a little since the time is coming right up when new baby will be welcomed into our home.  so here is a 33 weeks along photo for your viewing pleasure:

and just fyi:  i have no clue what i am doing with my right arm.  it looks like i am trying to pose by putting it there but really i am just steadying my camera.  whatever.  strike a pose.

oh and another p.s.:  if you look closely you can see a little lyla leg poking out from behind me.  sad that i cover her entire little self plus a third of my king size bed.  i am starting to get a little thick...and they say you double in size these last two months.  heaven help me.  i already can't see my lower half.

this is the goal that i accomplished this week:

painting the walls in baby lyla's soon-to-be new room.  i kinda feel like i went from one blah color to another blah color but i have really been feeling the neutral colors lately.  and i don't know what it is but i can never seem to allow my kids to move into a new room without having a new coat of paint on the walls...make for lots of painting on my part!

next on my getting-rooms-ready-for-new-baby to do list:

* move all toys out of this freshly painted room

* paint the head and foot board on lyla's big girl bed

* find bedding and cute lyla-style stuff to decorate

* get room put together

* move lyla and all her crap into said room

* paint walls in baby room a new color (hmmmm...)

* decorate new baby room with muy cute, muy inexpensive stuff

* organize all the new baby crap into the room

* attempt to clean my house to welcome new baby

* pay some occasional attention to the two children i have

* give birth to new baby

* lose my mind

...all of this and just 7 weeks til new baby gets here...pretty sure i'm having a hot flash right now...is that a sign of anxiety?

p.s. notice that i refer to new baby as "new baby".  kaleb likes to call him "baby crazy".  but really, we need some name ideas.  anyone, anyone??

today, i am sitting at my sewing machine getting ready to start stitching.  kaleb always wants to watch when i sew.  he was getting impatient for me to start and spouts out this run on sentence, "mom, why aren't you sewing yet you need to start sewing so i can watch why don't you start, uuggghh, get sewing already, why aren't you sewing yet?"

my answer to him:  "i'm not ready to sew yet because i have a 4 year old buggin' me!"  

he gives me a hmpff! and leaves the room for about 15 minutes.  then he comes back and tells me to draw some shapes on his paper so he can cut the shapes out (he has some mad scissor skills for a 4 year old!!).  he sits in the chair just looking at the shapes for about 5 minutes.  finally i ask him, "why aren't you cutting out the shapes bud?"

he says, "how old are you mom?"

"26" i tell him.

then he says, "i can't cut the shapes out yet cuz i have a 26 year old buggin me mom!" 

ha!  touche`!

  

my little bean has been a little sick the past couple days.  i think it is just because she is getting another tooth but who knows.  she just wants to be held and loved all day; not an easy feat when i can barely lift all of her 23 lbs. off the floor...this dang belly is starting to get in my way!  the only things that makes her happy is holding on tight to these two balloons we got at the grocery store earlier today.  she hasn't let go of them all morning.  about every 30 seconds she looks up at them and says, "bow loo" (translation: balloon).

you can't really tell in this one but her hair is standing on end from all the static.  and check out those sad, tired eyes.

i made these little beauties for my sister's shower that we put on last night.  as you can see they aren't perfect...at all.  but they were d.e.licious!  i stole this recipe from my good friend abbie (who made these same truffles for a different shower last week...and yes, hers turned out perfect. perfectly round and perfectly covered in chocolate and perfectly yum.) and thought i would try it out.  luckily they were a hit!  and so easy to make.  this is one that i will definately keep making.  yum!

lyla doesn't want me to feed her anymore.  this is rough on me since i have a hard time letting her get sooo messy and take sooo long to eat.  but i guess she does eventually need to learn to feed herself...so i went out and bought one of those bibs that is made of plastic and covers their entire front, arms and all, and let her go to town on her yogurt.  it only took seconds for her to be completely covered.

notice her entire hand covered in yogurt.

on a side note:  yay for the new bib!  it worked.  i wiped off hands and face but the rest of baby was yogurt free.  and luckily the bib is plastic so i could just spray it off in the sink when she was through eating.  good purchase.