Happy Birthday Eve!!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Eve… Happy Birthday to you!!

Birthday morning

Here are her small presents from us. I like to leave them little surprises for their birthdays.

Birthday Eve

She said,"Ohh... what is this?"

Pretend cake party

The kids had pretend cake while I made breakfast. I also got her an apron, but she said, "I don't need an apron mom, it's just pretend food!"

Today we celebrated Eve’s 3rd birthday. My baby is growing up! I made her another birthday cake (red velvet with raspberry butter cream frosting and chocolate bunnies). I made a small cake for the family and 12 cupcakes to take to a playdate this morning. We ate cupcakes at 9am with friends. It was fun. Yesterday Lex was very upset that I wouldn’t let him stay home from school. He had it in his head that we were having another party for Eve and almost cried when he realized that our family and friends were not coming back today. It was sad. He decided to go to school and told EVERYONE that it was her birthday. She wore her birthday crown to school too, so it was pretty obvious. His teacher said he’s been talking about it all week :) After lunch and naps (good naps from both of them!) we went to the aquatic center for Lex’s lessons. Eve and I swam and we all had fun. They were both really tired though! We ended up leaving after an hour because Eve was crying (some kids bumped into her on the slide) and she said she wanted to go home now. Then Alan and I subjected ourselves to some parental torture and took two exhausted kids out to a crowded restaurant for dinner. Eve’s choice, but in hindsight we all would have had more fun (and at least three of us would have eaten better) if we had just gone home. Oh well. Once home it was past bedtime but I had pink and red cake in the fridge, so we sang Happy Birthday and had cake. It was a long day! :) Luckily they went to bed with minimum fuss and I hope to be in bed soon too!

Happy cake girl

Yumm.... red cake :)

Big bite

A big three year old bite of red cake!

Red cake

Red velvet cake (a very unnatural color!), with pink raspberry butter cream frosting and Annie's chocolate bunny decorations.

Happy Birthday Eve! We love you!

Party girl!

We celebrated Eve’s birthday this weekend.  A good time was had by all.  As usual we had a crowded house and sugared up kids.  She wanted a chocolate party, which is hard to do for a three year old!  I think it went well though.  My nauseous stomach even cooperated that day, though it was back in force the next day. The party continued into Sunday and by last night we were all exhausted!  Today the kids both eagerly took naps and I napped the entire time with them.  Whewh!  One more recovery day and then a mini party for her actual birthday on Wednesday.  Just one more day until she is a big three year old!

I’ll let the photos tell the party story…

Fruit platter

My lovely fruit platter to balance out the chocolate fest.

The birthday girl

The birthday girl in a new party dress from Grammy Lynn.

Cupcakes

The cake this year was in flux right up to the end. Eve and I had a cupcake thing all planned out, then about a week before the party, she started insisting on cake instead. Turns out she wanted the EXACT same cake as our friend Dylan had at his party. We settled on a different style of cake, but the day before the party I realized I didn't have the right pans. Ugh. Back to cupcakes. I had this vision in mind so I made cupcakes and cookies the day before and during naptime on party day my dad helped me set them all up. Then Rachel came in and suggested putting jelly beans on top. Genius! A complete team effort that turned out really cute, and delicious! Thanks all!!

Eve and her balloon

Eve and her balloon, which she calls Tommy. She REALLY wanted this balloon and was asking about it for weeks. It was a big hit at the party.

Three girls

I took a ton of pictures of these pretty girls sitting together. Caitlin, Eve, and Molly.

Three girls again

One more of the three of them.

Kitty

Kitty. Eve loves, LOVES, soft cuddly things.

Eve and the DoodlePro

I like this picture because it looks like she's saying "ooohhh" :)

Too many crowns

Molly was trying to be helpful and put ALL of Eve's new hair bands on her head at once. Eve was not impressed.

Cake time

Look at how excited Dylan and Eve look! They are so cute!

Chocolate covered Caitlin

Chocolate covered Caitlin

Crazy doctor

Who is this crazy doctor!?

Doctor Eve

Doctor Eve gives Molly a flu shot. Eve likes to make sure EVERYONE (people, animals, toys, etc.) gets flu shots daily.

Leftover cupcakes

Totally coincidentally, the leftover cupcakes left a message.

Pancakes

At breakfast the next morning Eve works VERY hard to cut her pancakes.

Reading with Mema

A very tired girl reading stories with Mema

Updated EDD

I got a call from the midwife this afternoon at about quarter to five. I was so happy because I meant to call her and forgot all day! Anyway, she said the ultrasound from this week showed a 7wk baby, not a 9wk baby and she adjusted my due date to November 9th. A birthday baby!?! I think this date is more accurate based on the late positive test result and “delayed” morning sickness. Based on this new number the morning sickness actually came a bit earlier with this pregnancy and we announced the pregnancy VERY early! Eeek! I’ve already started seeing some weight gain (which is scary after 2yrs of WW!) and I’m a little bummed that I probably have even longer than I’d expected to deal with the morning sickness. Maybe it won’t last the whole 12 weeks. One can hope, right? I keep reminding myself that this is the final pregnancy so I need to enjoy, or at least respect, the whole thing. No complaining! (repeat as needed) For now I take Goldfish to bed with me and the kids get a kick out of sharing a snack with me at 6am as we all head downstairs. The weight gain will be what it will be and I’m going to have another beautiful baby!!! A birthday baby! :)

Shirt update

I know everyone is concerned with Lex’s shirt situation! Lex put up a royal fuss last night because neither of his two “favorite” shirts were clean for this morning. Alan and I stayed firm and survived the fight. Lex eventually settled down and went to sleep saying he would try a new shirt in the morning, with the condition that he could wear his PJ shirt to school if he didn’t like the new one. Alan and I went to bed expecting the battle to continue in the morning. Lex woke up and, with minimal convincing, TRIED A NEW SHIRT!!! And he even liked it!!! Imagine that! Then he said, “I bet my teacher will be surprised to see me wearing a new shirt.” He wore the new (new to him, actually purchased from a thrift store in my attempt to get something already worn and comfy for him) shirt to school and his teacher was duly surprised. :) This afternoon his shirt got dirty and he went upstairs and came down with another NEW shirt!! He’s wearing it now! Crazy boy :)

It’s a baby!

New baby ultrasound

7 week ultrasound

We got a sneak peek at baby yesterday at an early ultrasound. The midwife isn’t confident on my due date (like the date matters anyway!) so she sent us in for an early peek. The appointment didn’t quite go as planned. I scheduled it for 5:30pm so Alan and the kids could all come. The midwife said to stop at the lab first for some blood work. I assumed I could do a quick blood draw with the kids around, so I didn’t ask Alan to get there early for that. The blood draw went fine (Eve even picked out a sticker for me since I did such a good job!) but then the nurse said she needed a urine sample! Eek. That was a bit trickier with both kids in tow. They were fascinated by what I was doing and wanted to help, Eve almost pulled the emergency call string which freaked Lex out, and the whole place was dimly lit with no counter space. The whole process took far too long and talk about no privacy! Then we went up to radiology. While we waited Lex read the following sign to Eve. “If you are pregnant or might be pregnant please alert the technologist.” Alan and I were so impressed with the reading that it wasn’t until hours later we realized the humor in the sign. And error. Technologist?? Anyway, we went into the room and the first thing the ultrasound tech says is, “So, you have a nice full bladder, right?” Umm… no!!! He grumbled when I told him the lab tech had me do a urine sample. Apparently a full bladder “provides a nice clear window into the uterus.” He couldn’t see much through my empty bladder so we did an internal ultrasound instead. Yuck! Once again the kids probably saw more than they should have. Or maybe not, they were pretty distracted with all the stuff in the room to look at. The fun part was when we all got to see the little flickering heart beat! (though if you ask Lex he’ll probably tell you the fun part was all the books they had in the room) The technician isn’t allowed to “read” the ultrasound so I have to wait for a radiologist to read it and then send the files over to the midwives. He said by Friday they should have the files, so I’ll call on Friday to see if they are going to change the due date. We had an early ultrasound with Eve (though not quite as early) because Lex was 8 days late and they stuck with the original due date and she ended up being 6 days late anyway, sooo…. I’m expecting a November baby regardless of what date they choose :)

I showed this picture to a friend this morning. She is a family doctor. I said I know it’s just a little dot, but I want to show you. She grinned and said, “what a nice embryonic sac you have!” I think that will be my new ultrasound picture response. I love it! :)

Swimming

Here are a few pics and a video from swimming yesterday. Eve loves running up the yellow stairs and down the slide, but when they turn on the fountains there’s a waterfall over the yellow stairs and she hates it! The water comes down pretty hard and I think it may hurt her head. I think she is very cute as she tries to make her way through it to get to the coveted slide at the end :)

Under the waterfall

Down the slide

Lex had lessons today but we got a call 20 minutes before they started saying that some kid got sick in the pool and they had to close the whole thing down for cleaning. Ugh! Lex, sweet boy, said “Oh well. I’m having fun at home anyway.” :)

Hugs for doggies

Lex made a very astute observation today during storytime. He said, “Eve loves her doggies and gives them lots of hugs. Eve loves me, but she doesn’t give me very many hugs. When we’re playing sometimes I pretend I’m one of Eve’s doggies so she gives me lots of hugs too.” So smart, and so true. She does give him hugs too, but the boys in this house are pretty hug needy! :)

Alone time together

I was thinking today how fortunate I am that my kids play so nicely together. Usually. Since they have each other, and like each other, I rarely get bugged for playdates or outings. This afternoon I was feeling really low (so tired and nauseous!) and the kids played so amazingly well together. They played monsters and running games and just so sweetly. I did some chores like changing sheets and folding laundry and they were happy to just be near me, playing by themselves.

Yesterday Alan was sitting in the recliner working on his laptop and I was reading the newspaper on the floor. Lex asked me to get down some blocks for him, then he proceeded to carry them into the office. I asked where he was going and he replied, “Eve and I are going to play in the office for awhile. We need some alone time together.” :) Can’t beat that! I finished the newspaper in peace and quiet and they played happily together all morning. Those are the times that I try to hang on to when they are driving me crazy!