Day 241: Flowers

I went to visit a friend at the hospital after her surgery. She told me not to bring flowers, but I wanted to make sure she got some. I gave her some multi-colored daisies in a vase, though the ones pictured above are one of her favorites-- these needed to be planted, and I wasn't sure she'd be able to handle taking care of them right now. The ones in the photo above I actually gave to my mom to plant and can't remember what they're called. If you're reading this and know flowers, let me know.

Day 240: Might just climb

Do you see that leg up? She may just try to jump the gate one of these days. She actually had a bit of a fever yesterday, and though it was gone today, she was still a little clingy and crabby.

Day 239: 13.5 weeks

The bulge is becoming more evident all the time.

Day 238: Playing with Grandpa

Zaria thinks my dad is hilarious-- as soon as she saw he was here to visit, she laughed every time she looked at him. I'm not sure what he was doing to her head here, but she loved it. I think he was mimicking one of the animal noises from a book they were looking at.

Day 237: More houses

The home search continues . . . this one had some potential, but was definitely a fixer. We were also unsure about the neighborhood, but it still made our top five for what we saw today. Lots of space.

Day 236: Missing pictures!

I had some fun photos from Friday Night Group, but they have totally disappeared. No idea how that happened. I uploaded a short video to YouTube from that evening, so I know I both had pictures and uploaded them onto the computer. Maybe they'll turn up later, so I'll leave this spot open. To see the Happy and You Know It video, go here: Happy and Know it

Day 235: Toothy grin

Day 233: Fun visitors

Zaria's Grandma Marla came over to visit this morning, and though Zaria needed a short morning nap, we made it for a little bit of the early childhood playtime at the library and Marla got to show off her block-building skills. Then Cassie and Kami came over to play croquette outside as it was a beautiful 75 degree day today. So Kami, who is not always fond of learning new games, learned both croquette and Mexican Train Dominoes with us this evening. We were very proud of her. Also, today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Jennie!

Day 232: Twin dolls

Becca and Tricia had these twin dolls-- they're supposed to be the younger brother and sister of Dora the Explorer. Anyway, Zaria noticed them during our visit and totally latched on to them. She did not want to let them go and carried them around with her for a good portion of our visit. Renee noticed this, and not only purged a bunch of their existing toys, but went out and bought these twin dolls for Zaria to bring home with her. She saw them on the table before breakfast this morning, and it was all I could do to try to get her to eat breakfast and wait to get these two out of the box to play with. Hopefully playing with these will also help her transition to being a big sister of two.

Day 231: Preparing for home trip

Jamin was able to find a truck load going out to the Detroit area, so he parked nearby for the weekend and enjoyed joining us for the visit with my sister and family. This also meant that when he noticed our tire was low, we were able to just pull up beside him this morning and take care of that problem.

Day 230: Swing again

Zaria finally allowed us to put her in the swing today. She's been reluctant to go in any swing so far this spring, which I've been sad about since she loved to go in the swings last summer and fall. So after looking at it for two days and only wanting to push it, she finally decided it was OK to sit in and swing. We were then able to have all three girls swing since there's a baby swing on the bigger set as well. I turned the one Zaria's in 180 degrees so she could see her cousins.

We also had a chance to visit Renee and Kurt's new church and hear a great message about forgiveness. I didn't realize it until later, but it was also Passover today, but nothing was mentioned about that at church. They did have a great kids' program, so I could see why they chose as they did.

Day 229: Playtime

We tried out a fun Urban Toddler play center with the girls. They had a good time going from one play station room to the next--here Zaria and Tricia are playing the piano. We planned indoor activities as it was supposed to rain today, but it didn't start until well after 9 or 10 pm, so we were also able to have a good time playing outside.

Day 228: Zoo and play

We had a fun time with the girls at the Toledo Zoo today-- they lasted about 3 hours before we needed to bring them home for naps, but we managed to see lots of monkeys, swimming hippos and polar bears, and lots more. And then the girls napped in the car anyhow, so they were ready to play when we got home.

Day 227: Primping with Carol

We stayed over at Mom's cousin's place overnight in Indiana, and Zaria enjoyed watching Carol get ready in the morning. Carol's husband Tom made us a fabulous breakfast of eggs with onions and sausage, so it was a great start for the second leg of our roadtrip to Michigan. We arrived in Michigan later that afternoon to see Kurt and the girls playing outside. I should have a sandbox picture tomorrow-- Zaria loved it and I'll probably need to get her one at our future place.

Day 226: Windy roadtrip

This picture describes two big aspects of our roadtrip today: lots of rest stop visits and a tremendous wind. The latter made it a little hard to drive and it probably affected our gas mileage. Did I mention that gas is really, really expensive? We left Minnesota seeing prices that made me gasp at $3.39 and thought we'd wait to see if it was cheaper in Wisconsin, Illinois, or even Indiana where we stopped. We actually had trouble finding prices below $3.50/gallon! The average has been about $3.60. Maybe not the best for a roadtrip, but how would we have known? Today is also my brother-in-law Kurt's birthday. Mom and I were arguing about whether it was today or two days ago, but I confirmed it. Happy Birthday Kurt!

Day 225: MF Baby dedication

They had another baby dedication at Mothers' Fellowship today (Zaria was dedicated back in late 2007). I had the chance to hold the little girl at the end, who was less than 2 weeks old and adorable, and I also met Nancy, the woman near the middle holding her two sons in MN Twins shirts. Yes, they are twins and they are fraternal. Talking with Nancy after MF, I'm starting to feel less scared about the possibility that I could be carrying two boys. They'll be fun and a lot of work regardless of whether they're boys or girls.

Day 224: Another visit

Since I forgot my camera at their place, I had a chance to visit Shawna and Phil again. They're sitting at the table while their cat Galadriel is winking at me. They also have a Merry and a Pippin in their feline-filled household. I met them at their place after work and they offered to buy me something Greek since they were picking up gyros . . . I just went for some french fries and had a protein shake for the ride.

I didn't know if I'd have much time to eat since I also had my first MOMs meeting (mothers of multiples). I ended up going a little late so I could scarf down some cornbread Jamin made to go with some chicken cacciatore. It was encouraging to see in the "pregnant group" a mom at 35 weeks and another at 38. How they got around was a bit of a mystery, but it was encouraging to see they were able to get around. I've been reading too much about pre-term labor and bed rest for MOMs, I guess.

Day 223: Oops!

I had so much fun at Shawna and Phil's yesterday that I forgot some of my supplies and my camera bag! So Shawna took this picture to commemorate my forgetfulness. It was a busy day, though. I ran sound at FBC in the morning and we babysat for Nils and Emil again finally tonight. They did great, and we weren't even forced to watch Blues Clues again this evening (Emil loves the show and usually wants to see it while we're there--the same episode I've seen 3 times now).

Day 222: Relaxing with Phil and Shawna

Our friends Phil and Shawna decided they needed a relaxing day of crafts and games, so made a nice little party out of it. We were also able to invite our friend Lucas, who lives in their area. It went great-- Mom watched Zaria, I got a few birthday cards done, and we fit in a game of Settlers of Catan before we left.

Day 221: House search continues

I really liked this place, but it was only a 2-bedroom. I just can't see that working very well with 3 kids. There was a possibility of converting the garage into a bedroom and building a new one, but that would be a lot of $ and work. It's nice to be out looking again, although we're *still* not approved for financing yet. I definitely feel like we need to move while I still am getting around well and not wait too much longer.

Day 220: Rain snow

Supposed to get some snow, but so far it's mostly rain filling the "lake" in the middle of our lawn again.

Day 219: Feet

Zaria had a great time putting her feet up against mine while sitting on the Taiko drum upside down. It's amazing what little things will make her laugh.

Day 218: Ultrasound 2

I just found out yesterday that they were going to do another ultrasound, and I was very excited to be able to see little X and Y again. The technician took lots of pictures of both babies, trying to get their extremities and little profiles. There's a fairly good profile of X on the right, and for both of them on the top pictures, showing their heartbeats. The bottom two left images show both sacs, along with a face shot of Y. I think s/he looks a bit like a kitty cat at this point. When we first started watching them, they were bouncing around-- more active than I had expected at only 10 1/2 weeks. Baby X seemed to "know" we were watching him or her because s/he kept waving a little arm as if to say, "Hi Mom!"

Day 217: Climbing

This little blue chair has been a little big for Zaria still, but today she managed to use her piano to help her climb up onto it. It's exciting to watch this new ability, but how much more baby-proofing are we going to need to do soon?

Day 216: Funny faces

We didn't end up watching Nils and Emil tonight because the boys were sick with RSV, poor kids. So instead, we stayed home and made funny faces at each other. Well, OK, Zaria did. Earlier we had the pleasure of sharing lunch with John, Jen and Maria after church, along with our friend Kristie. Kristie had some exciting news-- she had just accepted Jesus as her savior on Tuesday! We joked about her becoming a "fool for Christ" on April Fool's Day. It was so encouraging to hear, as Jen (and I with her) had been praying for her for about 9 years. God is so good.

Day 215: Outside games and firepit

Despite predictions of rain, we managed to play a partial round of bocce ball and roast some s'mores around a fire pit built in Mom and Dave's backyard and didn't have a sprinkle the whole time. Zaria watched from her stroller for the most part, and cheered Mom and Grandma Joy on as we tied for a lead at 5 points before moving on to the fire. She was able to walk around, but the ground is still pretty wet and a bit uneven for her toddler feet.

Day 214: Bears

Next week, Gwendolyn will be starting preschool, but today I had the chance to watch her at our house. When we took a short expedition to the library, she insisted on bringing all three of these bears-- one was Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear and the dark pink one was a Gwendolyn Bear. Fortunately, I convinced her to bring only one of the bears into the library, which we subsequently had to run back in for when it was forgotten in the playroom after an "accident" that cut our library play time a little short. Even still, it was a fun day with the girls, and easier to manage Zaria at home today.

Day 213: Walking with Marla

Marla (my mother-in-law) came for a visit today. We had fun playing a few rounds of dominoes, eating some lunch, and taking Zaria out for a walk on a beautiful spring day. Zaria can say the word "duck" now, so was very excited to see the water fowl swim by on our walk.

Day 212: 10 weeks

Still growing. It's definitely becoming easier to remember that there are twins in there. At 10 weeks they should be just over an inch in length and approximately 0.14 oz. From research I've been doing, twins do actually grow a little faster than a singleton would. It seems to be a natural response to the usual need to come out sooner than 40 weeks. But they're probably not growing faster quite this early. Next week I have my first real neonatologist appointment and can find out if there are special things I need to know about this pregnancy.

Day 211: Skiing

I haven't put skis on all year, but my mom had a nice cross-country trail she'd marked out with our crazy March/April snow dump and she let me borrow her skis. It was melting rather quickly. She'd just made the trail a few hours earlier, and already parts of it were down to the grass. It was beautiful and bright when I tried it, but it was probably just in time.