Happy Halloween

Here are our lil' monsters... This week our church had a fun fall carnival with a cupcake walk, fishing pond, trunk-or-treat, etc. The kids had such a great time! D was Thomas the Tank Engine. He loved helping me paint the box. Miss H was Blue from Blue's Clues. She also has a cute Dorothy costume for tomorrow, compliments of her Grandma.

My husband won the brownie bake-off for the evening. (The award winning recipe if you're interested: Mix brownie batter according to box instructions and pour into baking dish. Then cream 4 oz. cream cheese, 1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla, & 1/4 c. sugar. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter & run a knife through it for a marbled look. Bake as directed.)

Baby Blessing

This weekend our baby was blessed in church by his Daddy. It was very sweet. My husband's family all came to be a part of it. We all had a great time together- it was fun to catch up & the cousins loved playing together & swimming at the hotel. We appreciated them traveling to see the baby. He sure is fun to show off!

More Baby Pictures

Sleepy Baby. . .
. . . welcome to our world!

We couldn't be happier to have you!

Baby's Here!

Everything went so well with the baby's arrival. We had a planned home birth w/ a Certified Professional midwife who was wonderful. He was born in a birthing tub, which helped so much through those intense contractions. The kids are thrilled as you can see & I am thrilled to no longer be pregnant!

He is healthy & precious & loved!

Living at the Park

I've never met a kid who is happy about leaving the park. Mine are no exception. D recently protested the end of our visit to the park & wanted to know why we couldn't live at the park. The question prompted his parents and G'ma to count the ways children could be jealous of the homeless. Here's what we came up with:

1- You can live at the park
2- You rarely have to bathe
3- No one insists you eat a healthy, balanced diet
4- You don't have to memorize your phone number
5- Did I mention you can live at the PARK?
6- No worries about making your bed
7- Actually, every job on the chore chart no longer applies
8- You can adopt stray pets all you like
9- You can wear your favorite shirt 10 days in a row without your mom stealing it to wash
10-You can LIVE at the PARK!!!

I for one am grateful for my home and washing machine, but kids have their own perspective.

While we wait...

My mom flew in on Tues. to help us with the new baby. Ever since she bought her tickets. I've been saying Wed. would be the perfect day to deliver. That's a week before my due date, which is when I had the other two. But, Wed. came & went with no baby. Even though a due date is technically an "Estimated date of delivery", the closer it gets, the harder it is not to think of it like a library due date... the exact date an item must be received before penalties apply!

So, while we've been waiting, we've had some fun adventures with the kids (pics. below), taken lots of long walks to encourage contractions, and made a soft fleece cover for the infant car seat. (I've never been fond of the original cover design, but was pleased how our car seat makeover turned out. I'm also including a picture of the cute diaper cake that inspired the design.)

Here's to hoping my next blog post includes a happy delivery story!

Machiavelli Mom

What I worry about most with baby #3 is that as parents, we will be outnumbered. Having studied political science, we understand that demographics can affect the balance of power. The more the peasants outnumber the ruling elite, the greater risk of revolution & chaos.

What, then is our strategy for maintaining authority and order? Well, Machiavelli would recommend a careful balance between being merciful, but firm and being generous, but not overly generous thus breeding greed among the subjects. So, we appease them enough to avoid a complete revolt, but don't appease them to the point of undermining our authority.

So, in philosophical terms, we have a sound strategy.

However, I still worry about how to appease 3 crying children when I only have 2 arms to hold them with. Good thing lollipops are effective at appeasing the oldest... I may have to offer that when my arms are full. More cavities to fill, perhaps, but hopefully most revolts may be circumvented. We'll report on our efforts to maintain the balance of power after baby is here. In the meantime, wish us luck!