Quiet Time

This title is a fitting description for several things around here lately.  Mostly it's a description of our lives since we've returned from Boston.  We haven't been up to much due to our colds which are fortunately waning.  We're still not back to optimum health but we're getting close.  On Sabbath we decided we needed to miss another week which was very disappointing but that's the way the cookie crumbles as they say.  Of course, it's a very LONG day to just sit at home during that time so we ventured out to a playground/park nearby that we hadn't been to before.  They had a boardwalk that meandered through the woods for a half mile and we took a stroll along there despite Calleigh's grumblings for the first bit of it ("I want to go to the playground" she kept saying.).  The weather has been comfortably warm since we've returned to it was a very enjoyable outing.

Stretching before the walk.

After our respective naps, it was on to Grandma and Grandpa's for what we call, "Christmas 2.0."  First we had a wonderful sandwich bar spread (my favorite!) and than on to the stockings and gifts.  Calleigh made out again with some of her more exciting gifts being some dress up dresses and shoes (with their own chest), a camera, and dress up crowns which she has basically worn 24/7 since she got them.  I was excited to receive quite a few items for our cabin in Nova Scotia specifically with the "sunflower" theme which is what I had decided to go with (it's seems to go with our bright yellow exterior).  On Monday morning, we surprised the girls with one last gift which was a train set table that I had gotten at a high discount at JCPenney.  We now know why it was on deep discount.  It's virtually impossible to keep the tracks from coming unattached.  But, if nothing else, they can still play with all the pieces and it makes for a neat table.

New leis for Aunt Angie

New shoes.

A new Elmo chair that Grandma picked up a yard sale.  Great buy!

The new train table.

Sunday morning was the big Christmas take down and I'm so fortunate that Duncan seems to "own" this task and did 90% of the work.  It's always sad to put it all away and I had to explain to the girls that part of the reason that Christmas is so special is because it's only once a year.  Calleigh seems to be in agreement with that concept except when it comes to singing Christmas songs.  She refuses to sing any other songs during worship except for Christmas carols.  We'll see how long that drags out.

Yesterday Grandma came over in the morning while I went to my 16-week doctor's appointment.  I got some blood drawn which was the second portion of the Down's and the like testing.  The lab tech said they wouldn't get the results from the first set of tests, that I had done last time, until the second set were done but when I saw Dr. Breit, he told me the first set looked great and that they showed a 1 in 10,000 chance of something being wrong.  So that was good news.  I basically gained no weight since my last visit which brings me to a grand total of four pounds gained so far.  I'm not surprised because I've noticed that I haven't exactly been eating ravenously over the last few weeks and I'm certain a lot of that has had to do with my cold.  But besides that, I usually don't gain much weight until the second half.  I heard the heartbeat and it sounded great and now that just leaves us to three long weeks until we can find out the sex.  Duncan and I have barely talked about names, just because it seems like a waste before knowing the sex, but we did tough on it for a few minutes the other day.  Our agreement for the first two was that I would pick the girl name and he would pick the boy name.  So obviously, I've picked the first two names.  This time I told him he could have the pick either way just in case it's another girl.  That being said, I do have veto power.  Just like he had veto power over my first two picks.  And for the record, Calleigh wouldn't have been Calleigh if he hadn't had veto power.

This morning we got out of the house to the playground (still didn't want to go to story time or something like that but I figured any germs we might have left would be defused by the fresh air).  Calleigh quickly hooked on to a 4-year old boy, Christian, who was there with his grandmother.  At one point, the grandmother commented to Calleigh that she liked her "tiara" (like I said, she wears it 24/7).  So I said to Calleigh, "What do you say?"  And she says to the grandmother, "It's called a 'crown'."  Of course, I told her I was looking for something more along the lines of "Thank you."  

Aubree is completely weaned although she still asks for some booboo if she happens to see the ah, booboos, unclothed which I'm trying to avoid.  That happened today and when she asks for it, she has the sweetest little face and the sweetest little voice that says "Booboos, please."  She's so darn polite that you really hate to say no but I didn't give in.  Honestly, I don't know if they would even work at this point since it's been like four days.  Fortunately she doesn't make a fuss about it and it's quickly forgotten.  Right now she's in the process of getting five teeth which consists of four molars (one in each area) and another bottom tooth (right next to the two front bottom ones).  Thankfully they don't seem to be bothering her.  She does still occasionally wake up once during the night but usually goes back to sleep quickly.

One thing I've noticed for awhile about Aubree is that she's seems to be hungry a lot.  I've mentioned before on here how she always seems to want crackers.  When we were at my parents, the cereal and crackers were at a level that she could get to so I swear, she was almost constantly walking around with a cereal box and her hand in it.  I finally had to move the snack items to a higher shelf in our pantry because every time I would open the pantry door, in a flash she'd be in there trying to get something out.  It's the same with the fridge.  No sooner do I open the door than she's there and begging for an orange, cheese, yogurt, you name it.  I give her as much to eat as she wants during meal time so I don't know that she literally starving or anything.

My other quiet time reference has to do with Calleigh's nap time, aka "quiet time." This is always an ongoing challenge.  While we were at my parents, I basically gave up on the idea of it because she was putting up a big fuss and it was impossible to keep her in her room (unlike here where I can shut the door and she can't get out) and we didn't want her making a lot of noise due to the other sleeping children.  But now that we're back home, I'm back to enforcing the quiet time.  Thankfully things have been going pretty well.  The key is that you give her a little time to play "dress up" and then she'll call you up to put her into her pajamas and to "cuddle her in."  That's her term for you putting the blankets on her and getting her some books to read.  We've just been keeping the futon open full time now and she has her Veggie Tales bedspread/blanket down on it to lie on.  Yeah, I know maybe I need to get her sleeping in her bed but haven't people said "Pick your battles?"  This is one I choose not to fight.  Eventually the futon will be out of there and she'll have a new bed once the baby comes but until then, I'm just going with it.

I would say that's it for now.  Hopefully we'll have been up to more exciting activities next time I write.