Summer before baby:

It's been two months since my last blog post for a myriad of reasons: stress, lack of sleep, random distractions.  Towards the end of my pregnancy I entered my crazy, anxious stage where I regularly went to bed at 2 a.m. (sometimes 3 or 4 a.m. actually) and/or woke in the middle of the night and stayed awake for an hour or so counting baby kicks.  I was tired and stressed and just plain worried that the baby wouldn't make it to delivery.

After the birth, I meant to get back to our family record here, but was consumed with the normal newborn distractions and family visits.  Plus, it's hard to type while nursing and it seems that is what I mostly did the first month. 

Anyway, before I get to the birth and subsequent month, here's the pre-baby part of our summer/end of the school year:

The little girls and I enjoyed a couple "field trips" before Lizzie's school finished up (the one pictured below is our visit to the "Play, Work, Build" exhibit at the National Building Museum):

We enjoyed some ice cream:

Since I was at an uncomfortable point in my pregnancy when summer hit we ended up doing a lot of stuff at home.  When the girls really wanted some outdoor time and I wanted to continue with my AC time I sent them out to the deck with play dough, popsicles, and/or our "bean box" (sensory box).  In the shot below they are "painting" the deck and plant stand with water.  I love that it can be just that simple sometimes:

 Drew and I took the two little girls to see the Playseum (Liz was at a playdate):

 

 

We tried out the National Children's Museum at the National Harbor.  Turns out there was some bicycle event outside of the museum so we went to that before going in and scored some free bike helmets.  If you notice in the following pictures that my girls are on bouncing around on balls with lollipops in their mouth balls, you won't be at all surprised that until we got these freebies my girls didn't have bike helmets.

Andrew repaired a leak in our foundation.  This meant he got to dig a very deep pit father's day weekend.  Turns out we have a lot of clay in our soil and that's hard to shovel over your head because it sticks to the shovel.  It was a lot of work for Drew, but I'm very glad he did it because it rained for about two weeks straight after he finished the project and we had no flooding.

 The little girls and I enjoyed some more ice cream:

 

We went to baseball games.  My first game ever in the new stadium was rained out before it ever began:

 

So the first game I actually saw there was with my family and Drew's coworkers (Liz saw a few more this summer and Drew saw even more):

 

 

 We also spent a morning at a local gun show (it was for Drew--the ladies in the family alternated from being bored to completely freaked out), Lizzie and Lainey did a week of VBS, we spent time with my brother's family, and we checked some stuff off of our summer "to do" list such as #3 Make Jewelry and #29 Go to the movies.  And through it all I continued to grow a big, prego belly:

Classes

We just finished up Zoom today.  Ellie loved it and I was glad to have something that just the two of us could do together.  Lainey's dance class also ended this afternoon.  The parents got to sit in on the last class.  It was adorable.  I have really enjoyed having the girls in the these classes, but honestly I am glad that we'll have a bit of a break starting next week.

Other activities that have also ended this week: Lizzie's pottery class and soccer season (technically the season ended last Saturday but we still had the party to attend this week so it dragged on a bit).

Girl Scouts

We just finished up Girl Scouts for the school year last night.  It was fun--more work than I thought it would be, even with a co-leader, but fun nonetheless.  By the time the year ended I was ready.  It was tricky having Ellie and Lainey at every meeting (can't imagine how next year will go with three little ones running around).  Also, I was just plain tired.  I was feeling the same end-of-the-school-year-burnout with scouts that I feel with school (only five days left and some of those are short!).  I remember saying to my co-leader during one planning session, "Well, we are more confident than we were at the beginning of the year, but also we care a little less, right?"  Still, I'm already looking forward to what we'll be doing next year.

Beginning of the year:

Great Wolf Water Park overnighter near the end of the year (we survived!):

Yeah, so next year I definitely need to take more pictures.

Family Bed

We never intended to have a "family bed," but by the time morning comes that sometimes what we end up with.  Even with a king-size it gets crowded.  At times I have to remind myself, "someday I will miss this, someday I will miss this . . . "

Random updates on Ellie's sisters

At the shoe store Liz begged for heels.  I initially refused to let her have any heeled shoes because, frankly, I think they look really weird on little kids.  At one point during the discussion I said that when I let her start wearing shoes they would be wedges.  So she tried on wedges and started begging for those.  I took a shot of her in the wedges and texted them to Drew thinking he'd say absolutely not.  His response was "those are cute, get them."  I was a little surprised.  When Andrew noticed that Liz had worn (clear) lipgloss to church he frowned and said "I don't like that."  Anyway, Liz got the wedges.  Lainey begged for some too, but she had no chance.  I think heels and even wedges on girls her age make them look like pageant kids.

Lainey toilet trained late (last July, just two months before she turned four).  I was frustrated that it took so long, and continued to be frustrated that she had frequent accidents after that.  One day, completely exasperated, I told her that the next time she peed in her panties she would have to change into pants instead of a dress.  She hates to wear pants (dissolving into tears if we insist on it) so I thought this would be a good incentive/punishment to avoid.  However, when I tried the pants punishment she said, "These are cute!  I like pants now!"  So that totally failed, but it was fun to see how surprised people were to see her in pants.

3 year old Ellie Update

Her stats:
height 37" (50%)
Weight 34 lbs 8 oz (83%)

She picks at her lip, likes to dance and sing, is very cuddly, is unpredictable (hates pink and flowers one minute, insists on wearing them the next), has virtually no volume control for her voice, her favorite colors seem to be yellow and orange, she likes to terrorize/taunt her sisters (especially Lainey), and constantly amuses us with the stuff she says. 

She likes to go on the slide at the pool after swim class and always says the same thing:
Elle - Ready to catch me?
Me - Yes.
Elle - If you say so!

 Along with her glasses Ellie has to wear an eye patch for a couple hours every day.  These patches are not expensive (50 for $20), but they are not free either and she is not at all careful with them.  I have frequently find them stuck to her toys, cereal containesr, the table, and her dresser.  Awesome.

Ellie regularly wears her shoes on the wrong feet, socks with sandals, and unmatched pairs of socks and/or shoes.

Ellie's eye doc wears a sticker on his forehead while he examines her eyes.  Sometimes after her appointments she does the same.