Teacher and Student

This video is not the most action-packed, but it captures a favorite daily moment of my day. Katie has taken an avid interest in helping her brother learn to talk, so she conducts a lot of "reading lessons" with him whenever I am busy. They will snuggle together with a book, and she will either have him point at or name objects. She is extraordinarily patient with him, encouraging him every step of the way. I love watching him during the process...he gets so into it that you can literally see his eyes spinning around the page, looking for the right answer. I can only hope that both kids continue this tradition with their baby sister.

Rack 'Em and Stack 'Em

As we mentioned yesterday, Mike had some very important things to take care of here that prevented his travel to Pennsylvania with the rest of the family. First, he did actually have to work. But, more important, he was given the major task of re-organizing the kids' bedroom to make way for baby! He had to dismantle shelves and Katie's twin bed, construct the new bunk beds, move big pieces of furniture around, spackle and touch up the walls, and put shelving into the baby's future closet. Phew! We honestly don't know how he did it all on his own, but the end result is FABULOUS! Both of the kids are obsessed with the bunk bed and its ladder (although it does make Traci very nervous with mischievous Michael around). Last night, Katie successfully slept on the top bunk for the very first time! In a couple months, we will try to transition Michael into the bottom bunk, and then we will truly be ready for baby.

Mike's next project? Find us a mini-van to fit all of the car seats, stat!!

Family Thanksgiving!!!

Traci, in spite of much trepidation, traveled on her own this Thanksgiving with the kids to Pennsylvania! THANKfully (pun intended), both the travel and the company turned out to be top-notch!! We enjoyed lots of family and friend time each day that we were there. We celebrated the actual Thanksgiving day with Grammy's side of the family at Great-Grandma Morrison's (shown above, in picture) farm house. As always, there was much laughter and mayhem in the crowded, ol' house. The kids even got to take a long walk to the farm pond to throw sticks and rocks into the water. Believe it or not, that amused a bunch of them for hours... The next couple of days, we visited some of Traci's friends (to play with their kids!) and some of Papa's relatives. On the last evening there, Katie latched on to a new BFF, second cousin Kira. Poor Katie has no female first cousins on either side of the family, so she is always thrilled when she gets to bond with some sort of girl relative. The girls disappeared for hours, playing Barbies, putting on fashion shows, and bossing the younger male relatives around. She is already asking when she can sleep over at Kira's house...

As for the travel, Traci certainly cannot complain. With the help of some DVD players, the kids behaved like angels for the 13-hour round-trip trek. They didn't even complain when we hit some bad traffic on Sunday. Traci never had to scold either of them, but the McD's ice cream may have greatly helped her cause! And, where was Mike during this whole trip??? More on that tomorrow...

Anyway, please feel free to look through some of our pictures from the trip to the right! Happy Thanksgiving!

Friends Thanksgiving!!

In what has become one of our favorite social gatherings of the year, we met up with about 60(!) of our buddies at Friends Thanksgiving. A HUUUUGE thanks to Ben, Angela, Lyla (almost-5-years-old), Anamarie (3), and Amber (7 months) for once again so graciously hosting all of us (and our mess)!! The pot luck meal was DELICIOUS, the parents had fun gabbing and relaxing, and the little ones had a CRAZY time. (At one point, most of the older kids were outside in the pitch-black dark - except for a fire - playing a big game of chase. Thank goodness for the "Daddy watchers" outside with their beers...) Our highlight memory of the evening? Seeing little Sean G. leaving the party in a coat and nothing else, post-massive-diaper-blowout. He was like a flasher in the making. Anyway, we didn't snap too many pictures because we were too busy having fun, but here is one that sort of sums up the craziness.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Here is how a bitterly cold afternoon goes in our house: Katie wants to play with the matchbox cars? So does Michael. Katie moves on to the animal figurines? So does Michael. Katie wants to color? So does Michael? Ditto on scissors, glue sticks, dancing, dress-up, you name it. Whoever said that gender strongly pushes child's play has never witnessed the power of sibling adoration. Can't wait to see how Baby #3 follows suit.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

What happens when you put two silly girls (Katie and Colleen) together with a Rocknoceros music video? (For those not in the area, Rocknoceros is a major kids' act around here.) Complete craziness!! I don't know that you would call this dancing, but the girls definitely got some giggles out. The brothers were away: Michael, snug in his crib; and Patrick, off actually learning something in Kindergarten. Girls definitely do just wanna have fun!

Afternoon Dress-Up

Yes, even though the thermostat read a balmy 72 degrees in mid-November, our kids wanted to stay inside this afternoon to play dress-up. We could have posted our millionth picture of Katie in one of our princess outfits, but we decided to show you Michael's sartorial style instead. He goes back and forth between a safari and fireman motif most days. He seemed to think that his safari hat better suited the helicopter shirt for the day. But, if he had his druthers, he would honestly just be naked the entire day.

Adventures in Babysitting

Curses! This afternoon, for the second time in three weeks, our sittercity.com babysitter bailed on us at the last minute. Despite having confirmed the date not one time, but two times, including yesterday, she was not even in the state! But tomorrow is convenient for her, apparently. Too bad we had been looking forward to tailgating with good college friends all day in advance of the ND-Maryland game at FedEx Field tonight. So frustrated! This company is on permanent probation...

Some Good, Long Hikes

Katie had the day off from school today, so we got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the PERFECT fall weather. We started the morning by bringing Katie along to Michael's toddler class, where she got to watch how our little dude doesn't pay attention at circle time, tries to get all the props and toys out before their time, and cries if the teacher looks at him. (Sigh.) We then explored the trails behind the rec center where the class is located. The leaves were absolutely phenomenal, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed piling up leaves and throwing rocks into a river. Post-lunch and naps, we met our old buddies Julie, Sam (4.5 years-old) and Oliver (2.5 years-old) at Katie's favorite nature center. We tried a new hiking trail which included some fun bridges and steep hills. Traci certainly got her exercise in when she ended up carrying Michael part-way. The day ended with a fun game of hide-and-seek and warm good-byes. Here's to hoping for more fall days just like this one!

Kiss Me, Kate!

Traci and Katie had quite an adventure today! We were so nicely invited by one of Katie's preschool pals (Peyton) to come and see her mommy in a regional theater production of "Kiss Me, Kate." This was a pretty big deal for Katie because she has had so many sound-fear issues in the past and therefore skipped out on going to most live productions of any kind. She decided to brave this one out because two good buddies would be there. We met our friends for lunch and then headed to the theater for a (long-for-kids!) 2-hour production. Traci got a little fearful when we headed down to our seats because they were in the second row....RIGHT NEXT TO THE ORCHESTRA! She knew that the first big song-and-dance number would determine whether the day would be a disaster. Thankfully, all of the girls loved it, and everybody stayed until the very end. (The intermission, complete with cookies and brownies, sure helped the cause!) Now, Katie can be found happily marching around our condo singing "I HATE MEN!!!" at the top of her lungs. (Apparently, that song...alluding to the "Taming of the Shrew" influences in the play....was her favorite part. Don't ask us why.)

PS - Pictured above are: Front row - Katie, Peyton, and Sophie. Back row - Traci, Heather (who did a smashing job as one of the leads!!!), and Jenny. One funny adult-related story...as we were chatting with and congratulating Heather after the show, another audience member came up to Traci to congratulate her as well. Ummmm....yeah, she's never seen me sing or dance, or she wouldn't have made THAT mistake!

Outnumbered

What a wonderful day! Thanks to the stellar babysitting services of our good friend Kim and her daughter Colleen, Mike and Traci were able to peacefully sneak out to our big anatomical ultrasound this morning. We had a relatively new ultrasound tech doing the scan, so it took longer than normal. (Thanks and sorry again, Kim.) But, it was well worth the extra effort. The baby looked wonderfully healthy, with all measurements in the normal ranges. While we watched, the little one had fun twisting itself into many pretzel shapes (even kicking itself in the face with its foot!), eating oh-so-yummy amniotic fluid, and revealing its gender to us. So, what are we having? Who's ultimately going to be outnumbered in the household? We are thrilled to announce that we are having......A GIRL!!!

I WANT THAT!

It's that time of year again! The toy catalogs have begun arriving in the mail, and the kids have been perusing them with great interest. We think that Katie literally wants at least five things on every page (Santa either better get busy or get rich, fast). It doesn't matter if it is her latest obsession (Chuggington, unicorns) or past loves (princesses, fairies), she wants it and she wants it NOW! (Mommy just chuckles when she makes these proclamations.) Michael just points to every fire truck, crane, garbage truck, and digger that he sees. They are nothing if not predictable! How many days 'til Christmas?

More Costume Clips...

As promised, here is a clip of some of our pre-trick-or-treating festivities from last evening. Katie and Michael both did a great job and actually made it around the complete loop of townhomes this year. Katie seemed to really enjoy herself, minded her "trick-or-treats" and "thank yous" like a pro, was not afraid of the big kids costumes, and is already tending to her stash of beloved KitKats. Michael managed to spit out a few "ta-ta-tas" (i.e., trick-or-treats), himself, and his $8 homemade costume was very well received. He began filling up his bag, but found himself double-fisted with TootsiePops about halfway through. Figuring life just couldn't get any better, he called it a night, but stuck out the rest of the loop in Daddy's arms. All in all, a great holiday!