Late night mom-thoughts

I've been trying for days to get some of our Christmas morning pictures posted but for some reason I've been encountering "unexplainable" problems. I'm starting to feel very backed up. I've taken numerous pictures since then with my new camera lens and it's been so much fun--I'm finally able to get better pictures of the kids indoors (which is mostly what I'm able to get right now, with the crummy winter weather) without having to pop up the 'ole flash. Hopefully I can get this figured out soon and play a little catch up.

I'm officially 23 weeks along now. I can't believe we're heading towards the end already. This baby started moving like crazy in the last few weeks; Eric felt the baby move for the first time while we were laying in bed late at night, around 12:05 am January 1st. Happy New Year, honey.

We had our ultrasound over the holidays; all vital organs are in there (including fingers and toes!), thankfully. We (well, I) were torn about being so close to finding out the sex, but we decided to wait until the birth, which now I'm excited about. There's so much more motivation to push when you have waited so long to find out who is joining your family. We've also decided to keep names to ourselves, for those of you who are wondering. I'm too influenced by other people's opinions so I'm going to try to be a big girl and decide for myself what I like. I remember when I was pregnant with Ellie, before we knew she was a girl, sharing some of our boy name options with a friend at church and afterwards she literally shrugged went, "Ehh." Doesn't make you feel too great about your choices! So if you don't like what we choose, it will be too late to weigh in your opinion--ha!

Jack has started to occasionally rub my belly and say "baby." I don't think he really understands it much, but we're working on it. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds. His latest phrases are: "I'm okay!" (whenever he falls down) "Way to go, Daddy!" "One Doh-rah, please" (one episode of Dora) "Gate, bridge, mountain" (or some version of this, from Dora. We'll be driving along and you can hear him chanting in the background some order of places, anything from "lake" or "ocean" to "rainbow" to "Koki's island." It sounds strange, but it is actually really cute to hear). He's also getting more and more interested in potty training, pulling off his diaper and bringing us his "big boy underwear"; I guess we're going to have to make the plunge one of these days...

Ellie is also beginning to talk! She says "mama" and "dada" and "baba" (usually for bottle) pretty regularly. She definitely babbles with imitated expression. There's a Dora episode that Jack loves called "Bugga bugga" and all through the episode they ask you to repeat "Bugga bugga!" and we always hear Ellie saying, "buh buh buh buh" and bouncing up and down. The strange thing is that she doesn't really watch the video that much; she kind of putters around looking at toys and books and climbing--oh, the climbing...more on that in a second--things she shouldn't, all the while listening to the music and chattering to herself. She's also getting VERY independent-minded, wanting to feed herself with a spoon now and do pretty much everything that Jack does, including drink from HIS sippy cup, rather than her own. If Jack is playing with trains, Ellie wants to play with the exact same train Jack is currently playing with. If Jack is running around the house then she starts to run after him. If he is reading books on his bed, then she climbs up with him and wants to sit and hold the book. It's really sweet the way they are starting to interact. They giggle a lot--especially in the bathtub, when the splash each other and play games--which is one of the best sounds to the human ear. I love the age she's at--well, I've really loved the last four months (I think it's the 10-14 month stages). It's just cute, cute, cute, and she's still that tiny little body that can fit in your arms perfectly for a good snuggle. Sometimes I just find myself watching her, running around with her sweet chubby legs and big belly (sometimes we call her "Big Belly Ellie" after she eats), or when I pick her up and she lays her head on my shoulder I just press my face into her hair and take a deep breath...I love her baby smell.

So on to the climbing...that's a new discovery as of this week. She has begun climbing anything and everything she can--piano bench, toy bins, chairs, stools, bathtub (she usually just falls in headfirst). I recently caught her up on Jack's little table (having climbed onto his little chair and then on up) with one leg on the ledge of the window, trying to climb up there, while simultaneously trying to pull a flower out of the vase on the window sill. I ran over to her, rescuing her, the flower, and my freshly shampooed carpet (from stinky flower juice), and as I turned around I saw that Jack was drawing all over the kitchen counters with magic marker. I quickly put Ellie down, ran to him and grabbed the markers, then ran around to the sink to get a rag. As I was scrubbing the marker and explaining to him yet AGAIN why we don't draw on the counter (I know, I know, I need that "magic" paper and markers that only draw on magic paper. We had some but it ran out.), I suddenly looked up and realized that Ellie was in the kitchen, at the oven, opening the oven...the 425 degree oven that was cooking our dinner. She threw her head back, eyes squeezed shut, as the wave of heat hit her face.

Talk about a bad 45 seconds for Mommy. And this was about five minutes after Eric called to tell me he'd be home late that night.

But, I guess it's just another day-in-the-life of being a mom. Although this mom is starting to feel very round in the front, and bending down to pick up toys and food thrown from high chairs is becoming increasingly difficult. Even as I type I can hardly lean forward as I used to, without being terribly uncomfortable and attacked by baby ninja kicks. Being aware of this baby so much more often has caused me to have many thoughts on what life with three will be like...for example, what if, while Ellie was getting into the oven and Jack was drawing on things with markers I had a third child that was, I don't know, into some other kind of trouble...and what if some day I have another child, and then I've got four troublemakers--good Lord, I can't even go there!

One day at a time, I guess. And this one's about over. Looks like picture-posting efforts will have to wait until tomorrow. Assuming we make it through tomorrow. I'll let you know.