I'm Your Girl

Maeli is all about Dad right now (except for bed time, Jeremy has to be the bad cop because I can't really pick her up and drag her back to bed.) She waits all afternoon for his arrival, any kind of sharp wind through the car port and she thinks Dad is home, she runs to the door (which she can easily open) and anxiously awaits him. She usually greats him with "I'm your girl, I'm your girl Daddy." Which i think is just so sweet...it gets funny though because Tucker is "your boy." ie-"your boy is awake" or "your boy made a mess" or (my favorite) "your boy is going to get your girl." But only for Jeremy. For me, she's Maeli, he's Tucker, and apparently I have no claim on either of them. She wants to dance with Daddy and wrestle with Daddy and heaven forbid Tucker or Mom try to get in on it. Now, I do realize that I have become way less interesting since the "baby in my tummy" has prevented certain activities--for example, I could not play in her and Dad's fort tonight without crawling under the crib to get in...hmmm. And truth be told, I hope Dad is the favorite for years to come...the things she says are just so funny right now! I wish I could just record her all the time. We were at an indoor play-place on Saturday and Tucker spit up a little on the floor, I was cleaning it up, and talking to this other mom and Maeli walked over and told this stranger-mom "we don't lick puke." This is not a conversation we've ever had to have at my house, but I can only wonder what that mom was thinking.

Smile if you Love Pizza!

I just loved how happy he was to be eating pizza with us the other night. And I realized that I totally forgot to post his 9-month check up stuff. He's 19.5 pounds, and i can't remember exactly how tall, but it was in like the 12th percentile. Turns out that he had bronchitis so we had to do some breathing treatments for him (albuterol in a nebulizer). Its so hard to tell when that kid is really sick because he's ALWAYS happy. We think he has a little sniffle, and it turns out to be bronchitis...it'll be so nice when he's big enough to tell us he's sick. Other than that he's doing great, and is now the proud owner of 4-that's right-4 teeth, all on the bottom, and all crooked.

Santa-Take 1

Tucker did great, but had no hesitation about going back to Dad when Santa was done.
Maeli was all geared up and brave up until the last moment when she decided it was a no go. She was pleasantly surprised that Santa still gave her a present and decided at that point maybe a high-five would be okay.
I think we have one more Santa opportunity this season, we'll see if that goes more smoothly.

Not worth crying about

So Maeli walks into the office with an empty cup, "Mom, I spilled my Milk."
Mom: Not quite looking at her as I finish paying bills on-line "Okay, get a towel and clean it up, I'll be right there."
Maeli just stands there, so I turn and look at her. She has a very worried look on her face. Mom asks, "Where did you spill your milk?"
Maeli, big sigh, "On my brother."

Spokane

We wanted to take full advantage of my parents while they were on this side of the Gorge for Thanksgiving (see last post) so we asked them to spend an extra night so Jeremy and I could go on a date. They lived in Spokane when they were Newlyweds and wanted to take a stroll down memory lane, so we all got a hotel up there for the weekend. Maeli was SO SUPER excited to go swimming with Grandpa so we had to stay at the Red Lion because they have an indoor pool. I love staying at hotels, although it seems every time we do, I'm in a condition that won't allow my to use the hot tub....humph! We had adjoining rooms, so it was great to let the kids wander back and forth without having to worry about the hall. We had a great stay!


The Date:
Jeremy and I had big plans for our 5 year anniversary, which is coming up in May. However, a one month old puts the ki-bosh on most of them, so we opted to celebrate our 4 1/2 year but going to see the Lion King on Broadway. It was so fun! The hotel was right across the river from the performance, and they have a little bridge you can just wander across--perfect! Our first real date after Jeremy's mission was to see the stage production of Oklahoma in Portland, so it took me back a little. Ahhhh. We had a grown-up dinner complete with an appetizer and dessert (a huge switch from the play-place-esque restaurants we normally frequent), and spent some time together shopping for the holidays. It was a much needed break from our children whom we love dearly. And Grandma and Grandpa not only survived, but seemed to even like it! We may have to consider making this a routine thing!

Thanksgiving

So I know I'm a little late, but we had a great Thanksgiving, and I thought I should share it. Plus it was Tucker's first...so I'd be in trouble 10 years from now if he thought I just didn't care. We went to Tri-Cities, where my Grandma lives and met up with my Mom and Dad and her to celebrate. My Grandma doesn't really cook anymore, and my mom and I thought that since it was vacation, no should HAVE to cook, so my Dad treated us to Turkey dinner at The Old Country Buffet. Which was especially great since I don't really care for Turkey and got to eat ham, AND give in to my craving for taco salad at the same time. I was totally shocked at how many people were there, but I guess its okay if we're not the only ones that would rather not cook and clean on a holiday. It was great for the kids too because they both got to eat what they like:
Squash(fitting for the occasion) for Tucker
and mostly Jello for Maeli. It was great to see Grandma, although I failed to take any pictures at her house, I'll have to steal some from my mom. And we had a great time. All the REAL stores in Kennewick on Black Friday were just a bonus. :0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before

During

After
Thank you Jeremy for explaining how to make lattice after I read my cookbook 3 times and still couldn't figure it out.

Its a Boy!

The ultrasound went well, and it is definitely a boy! Lots of great pictures of the heart and brain, but he was very wiggly, so we didn't get a great one of his face. But we saw it, and he does have one. He (we don't have a name yet "something" Daniel (which is Jeremy's middle name, and his Dad's first name) McLain...we're open for suggestions) measured at only 20 weeks, and I'm at 21 according to the first ultrasound...normally a week here or there wouldn't matter, but we have learned that our babies like to cook a long time. So I don't know if they'll push my date back or not. I'll keep everyone posted though. He looks cute!

A Little Family Update

We're all doing great, but I realize its been a while since I gave any kind of scoop on the family. Jeremy has been working a lot, at work, and school, and home...He's a busy guy. He got the car port all painted and cleaned, and then handed it over to me for all my parking purposes. He takes such good care of us! I feel bad that this will be the second winter in a row that I've been pregnant and won't be able to help with the snow removal...bummer.

I'm now officially half-way done being pregnant. We have our 20 week ultrasound on Wednesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday in Tri-Cities, Shopping on Friday with my Mom and on Saturday Jeremy and I are going to see the Lion King to celebrate our 4 1/2 year anniversary (since we'll have a new baby on our 5 year). I'm so excited for this week!! We've been getting ready for the holidays, one week at a time. Last week was fudge week.

Maeli is doing great. We're working on potty training, and our bed-time routine...which both need some serious work, but she's trying. She loves dancing and music... and books and homework. She's just starting to get annoyed with Tucker now that he's quite mobile, but for the most part she tries to play with him. She's starting to get a little taller, but it still just a little thing. She's very excited to see Grandma Terry this week, and to go swimming with Grandpa Pat.
Tucker is getting so big! He's crawling all over the place and is into everything. Its so hard to be upset with him when he's so cute. He has his nine-month check up coming up this week so we'll get to see how big he really is. He's got two teeth and has decided that he's ready to be a man...he wants real food...none of this bottle stuff anymore. He's a lot more self-entertaining and we sometimes find him playing in the kids' room all by himself.

Which is Better? A Car or a Sister?

Tucker recently discovered the joy of riding on things...pretty much anything. He seems to equally enjoy himself whether its the car, or a Maeli.



However, the car does seem a little more stable.

Luckily Maeli is pretty proud of him for being so big that he can ride in HER car. And she thinks its pretty funny when she tries to give him rides, I think the main problem is that he weighs as much as she does.

Halloween

I know I'm really late at getting these posted. Sorry! We had a fun Halloween, the kids got to wear their costumes to school for what seemed like an all-day party. They both had a ton of fun. And then that evening we went to trunk or treat at the church and got the perfect amount of candy. We were going to hit of few of our friends houses on the way home, but by the time we got them to the car, both the kids were done with the costumes. But we had a cute little Monkey:
And a cute little horse. And Jeremy had on his tool belt, but it was packed totally full of baby/kid supplies, ready for any emergency, he was a super-hard working Dad!.

Oh Happy Day!

Both of the kids slept from just before 9:00 last night until just before 7:00 this morning. And the best part...? So did Jeremy and I!! Exactly what we needed after Friday night...Maeli puked all night, I puked once, and Jeremy ended up sleeping on the floor in our room so that he could help with Maeli since I felt like crud and she was in our bed. Our whole family woke up happy! Yeah!

Our Baby Story

So now that word is out that we are expecting number three, here is the story: About 5 weeks ago I became suspicious that we may be headed in that direction when I was laying on the floor in the kids' room, and noticed an obvious "bump." I showed Jeremy, and we agreed that I should take a test in the morning, which of course came out positive because I always pass all my tests. So I called my doctor's office and spoke with the nurse, something like this:
Me, "Hi Tammy, I don't think my IUD worked"
Tammy "Meaning? You think you're pregnant?"
Me "That's what the test this morning said"
Tammy "Oh....Well...Let me talk to Dr. Hall for a second...Can you come in? Right Now?"
So I go in, "give my sample" and a short while later Dr. Hall comes in and says, very sheepishly, "Congratulations." So they found the heart beat, and then sent me for an ultrasound to make sure the IUD we had put in after Tucker wasn't interfering with the pregnancy. It was right where it was supposed to be, just not doing its job. And according to that ultrasound we were a day past 13 weeks. So we had to have the IUD taken out right away, but haven't had any trouble from that. And now we're cruising along at 18 weeks. We are grateful that it seems we have no fertility problems and would much rather have it that way than the other. We were hoping to space our kids out a little more, three under three is going to be a little crazy, but we were planning on three, so our timeline has just shifted a bit. We are getting a tubal with this c-section, we have no plans on being that family with 19--we've been compared to them a lot as people are finding out about our little surprise. But Jeremy keeps giving me silver linings to look at: I get to quit my job, we'll be able to get rid of the baby stuff sooner than later, I can be done with maternity clothes as soon as I don't need them, and our kids will go through stages together so we won't have to spread out braces and teenagers and all the hard stuff....of course it'll be 3 at once of almost everything, but we'll figure that out...focus on the positive. We have a full ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving so we should get to find out then what kind of baby we're having...but they double checked for me last time, and there really is only one. Phew. And we're due April 7th, this one will be a c-section too, but since all the issues with Tucker, the hospital won't due routine c-sections before 39 weeks, so it should most definitely be an April Baby.

On a side note, Thank you to Kate for keeping my kids on my crazy baby day.

Let the record show

It is the week of Halloween and my sweet husband is singing Christmas music. Normally, I hold off until the day after Thanksgiving and am chastised greatly for how "early" it is. Not only is he singing...but he actually found a Christmas Internet radio station and had it one for what I would call "a while."

All the rage at our house!

"Spiderman Kisses"

Chores

Sorry these pics are kind of blurry because my family was working so hard. Maeli was so excited that Dad brought her home presents: "pink glubs" and a "rake for Maeli." The few minutes that she lasted, it looked like she was actually pretty helpful, and oh my word, did they ever look cute out there together in the back yard!


Meanwhile...
Mom and Tuck worked on some of the inside chores. Mr. Helpful found the tupperware drawer and thought it was Christmas! We were not as productive as our "outside" counterparts, but we tried.

How Many McLains Fit On One Pillow?

Thank you Grandma

Everyone gathers toward "the present" while mom looks for the scissors!
Big smiles for Grandma, "I think there's candy in there!"
Tucker loved his prizes!


And after 3 candies when mom said no more, Maeli said, "I never get more candy."
And now our window is so pretty for when Daddy comes home.
Thanks for loving us so much!

Some of our moments

Maeli and Tucker have been waking up very early the last little while, so one day we put them both on the couch with Dora, and it was too cute!
Tuck can feed himself now, but doesn't always make it to the very end of the bottle.
Who needs a puppy when you have a brother under your table to eat your scraps?
Maeli is an expert at sorting "chocolate" whatevers from the "regular" whatevers...
And our proud little Dude figured out how to pull himself up on everything!