It's been a while...

OK- I've been promising Natalie for several weeks now that I would update my blog. Here goes! What's new with us lately? Snow, snow and more snow. In between snow storms it is brutally cold. Literally- the weather man says "Life-threatening wind chill". On the upside, Madelynn has been asking almost daily when the baby's coming and I finally told her not until after the snow melts. At this rate, it could be just about right. She stopped asking. Maybe she gave up on the snow ever melting.

Christmas was fun- except for the blizzard, of course. The kids are at a fun age! Trenton has never really been too interested in opening gifts but this year Santa came to our house early and hand-delivered his gifts on Christmas Eve. We were all so excited! Santa was even excited because he got to watch the kids open their gifts and he said that he never gets to enjoy that particular part of his job! Anyway, Trenton never sleeps and tends to wander the house on a normal night. Christmas morning he was up at about 4:00 opening gifts all by himself. At first I was really mad because I wanted to see his face as he walked down the stairs in the morning- my favorite part of Christmas morning- and then I realized we have new reason to celebrate. He totally understood the concept of gift-receiving this year. We learned he also inherited (or learned) his Dad's vegetable induced gag reflex. I tried to feed him cooked cauliflower the other day and he looked at me and said plain as day "No, I puke". And he was right. Gross.

Madelynn is full of hilarious words and phrases. She was so excited to get a Cinderella dress from Santa this year and she didn't take it off for a week. She also got a Snow White doll that if the Cinderella dress had to come off (like for baths) Snow White had to take a bath with her. Since she wore her dress so much (and Santa was frugal) the Cinderella button fell off the front of the dress. She was surprisingly not upset about this when she brought it in to show me. She said "It fell off, Mommy, but it ok because I already called Santa and he'll come fix it soon." He hasn't shown up yet, but she hasn't noticed.

This morning, on yet another snow day, I tried to put in an educational video for them to watch and they were both protesting. I told them to tough it out because it would make them smarter. Madelynn said "I don't need to, Mommy, I already really smart, actually." I told her until she mastered her grammar, we were still going to work on getting smarter.

The baby, I'm convinced, is going to be able to hold her own with her siblings. (Yes, it's another girl!) The other day I was wearing pants that were definitely too snug but I have pretty limited options right now. She kicked me in the same place the whole day at school- which was unusual- she usually only kicks that much in the evenings. I worked late that night and after everyone left I gave in and unbuttoned my pants. She stopped kicking me and I figured out she must have been trying to kick the button because it must have been just as uncomfortable for her as it was for me. I got a laugh from that!

I'm feeling better these days, except for the occasional pinched nerve which makes me waddle like a fat duck. The pregnancy newsletter I get tells me things I should be doing now. At 21 weeks, it says I need to put the nursery together. We have no place in this house to put this kid. We're going to have to get creative, but right now I don't have the energy to worry about it. We'll just wait until the baby arrives and we'll plop her somewhere. Poor, neglected 3rd kid! Supper's ready- better go set the table!