Things that have made me laugh or be happy lately

Since I'm pregnant and about seven of my friends at church are pregnant too, we do a lot of chatting about babies and swapping pregnancy stories. I find that even though I have a lot of memories of both previous pregnancies, a bunch of things from Spencer are already super vague. That might be a good thing, but it makes me think about the other phases I'm in, like the place the kids are now, and I don't want to forget some of the fun things they are doing. I'll be happy to forget all the hard things, which sometimes feel all consuming, but both of them make me laugh multiple times a day and I want to remember why and focus on that. So here's what's making me smile and laugh at the moment:

Since Spencer was 18 months old eating has been somewhat of a battleground. I've talked about that here a million times. Lately we've settled more into a routine that seems to be working better. I wouldn't say he suddenly eats a ton of things, but he occasionally tries new things and I am a lot less stressed about it, which is really nice. I made some coffee cake yesterday. He didn't want it then, but Bill offered him some this morning and he ate it right up, no complaints, no nudges to eat another bite. That's huge around here. A bit later  Genevieve was eating some and he comes running in, sees her eating it, and says, "You want some more frosting!" No idea why he called it that, but it was so funny. And he ate another piece, which for a kid who I believe is perpetually hungry and doesn't recognize his hunger cues yet, that is really nice. When he's got food in his stomach he is much happier, so that's always a winner.

Genevieve is so pleased with her newfound abilities to talk. She's been mimicking us for awhile, but she is starting to mimic multiple words now. We have a really nice set of tangram shapes and patterns to make pictures with that my SIL gave us for Christmas. Spencer got them out yesterday and he and I were putting some together. He picked it up and wanted to dump it and asked if he could. A few minutes later Genevieve wandered in, saw the pictures, looked at me and said, "Dump it?" She was so happy when I said yes and proceeded to dump the shapes on the floor then run away cackling. 

Spencer has always loved letters and numbers. He started learning them a few months before Genevieve was born. He's got an exceptional memory, which I've always thought is why he developed his vocabulary so fast. Lately he's picked up a few words and numbers that he can type on the computer or draw on the chalkboard. He can draw the numbers 10 and 11 and apparently 8 and 3, as he did that yesterday. He can type dog and cat and I spelled out horse for him recently and he partially has that too. He has a crossword puzzle that uses dry erase markers and he will spell out these words by circling the letters, then erases them and does it again. I have a feeling he's going to be an early reader. The love of numbers has worked to our advantage lately. He's a very typical three year-old who doesn't want to stop what he's doing to come do what we ask him and is pro at freaking out if we pull him away, but I've started telling him that I'll count to some number he chooses and then he happily walks away and comes to dinner or wherever else I ask him to come. His favorite numbers for me to count to at the moment are 60 and 80. 

Genevieve is a very self aware child when it comes to how she interacts with others. It's quite obvious she picked up Bill's sense of humor. If you know him well, you know he isn't one to be the center of attention and make a whole crowd laugh. No, he's always on the side playing off the main person, making quiet comments that get everyone around him laughing. It's fantastic, and to see it in our 18-month old is just delightful. She gets this sly look on her face and then grabs a particular toy that she knows will get a reaction out of Spencer and runs away as fast as she can go. Or she'll come and flop on one of us as we're laying on the floor. She has never been a huge fan of strangers, but at church or in the store she's started to open up and give sly smiles to people while hiding behind us. 

Spencer gives finger kisses. He makes a kissy sound and pokes your face or head or hand or wherever else he can reach. He does it to Genevieve all the time and recently she picked up on it too. I asked her for a kiss the other day and she puckered up her lips and then poked me mouth with her finger. 

For how curly both mine and Bill's hair is, I'm shocked how straight both of our children's hair has been up to this point. Though mine didn't go curly until puberty, so I guess it's not the hugest surprise. Spencer's is still straight as a board, but Genevieve's is finally starting to grow and thicken up more and her ends are getting big curls. They look like they'll turn into ringlets as soon as they're long enough and I'm in heaven about it. With her red hair and now curls she is just too cute for words.

Both kids absolutely love watching movies. Monsters University and Monsters Inc are the current faves, but we've gone through the Lorax stints as well as Finding Nemo. Spencer spends a significant portion of the day quoting movies. Remember his excellent memory I mentioned above? Yeah, he has all four of those movies nearly memorized. This morning while he was eating his cake he threw out a picture perfect quote for the situation. It was from The Lorax when the Onceler gives the Lorax a marshmallow. He said, "I'm going to eat this, but I'm highly offended by it!"  Spencer just quoted the first half and then stuffed a bite in his mouth with gusto. I feel like describing this in words totally takes away from the effect, but just know that the comedic timing was perfect. I guess he liked my reaction because he did it a couple more times while he was eating. :)

Speaking of memorizing things, Spencer also has all the books we read to him memorized. If I stop reading for some reason, he will "read" the next page or line regardless of where we are in the story. His recall is far better than mine, and it blows me away every time he does it. 

Genevieve loves her crib. I'm somewhat anxious to get her out of it so it will be available for the next baby, but I've bottled up that desire because she seriously just loves her crib. The boundaries seem to be good for her for now. We tried taking her out a couple nights and it totally failed. She just wandered around the room crying piteously. When she wakes up in the morning or from her naps she just chills in her bed for a good long while. I used to get her out right away but honestly, she doesn't want to get out, so I've stopped. Sometimes I go in there and sit on the chair next to her bed and we laugh at each other until she eventually decides it's time to get out. Spencer often climbs in and they jump like they're on a trampoline and laugh hysterically. The crib squeaks like crazy now because of it, but I don't even care. They love it and that's all that really matters at this point. 

Spencer seems to have a sixth sense for when Genevieve wakes up from her nap each day. He will come running to find me and say, "I think Genevieve's awake!" in his little singsong voice. Sure enough, nearly every time he's right. I swear they communicate telepathically. :) Of course sometimes he really just wants her to be awake and he'll say it right after she's gone down for a nap or something like that and he's pretty bothered when I tell him she is indeed still asleep. We'll go and look at the video monitor and he gets all sad and says he wants her to get up. That kid. He's a heart melter.

We went to a friend's house the other day and the kids got to jump on their trampoline. You've never seen a happier two kids. They were in heaven. I expect someday when we are in a house not an apartment we will want a trampoline and experiences like this just make me think that even more. 

iPhone Photo Dump

I just put Bill's phone photos on my computer and found so many fun pictures from the last couple months. I've gotta share some.

This girl loves being read to. She's such a cuddler too.

She puts everything on her head. This is actually a little crocheted purse, though it sure looks like a hat.

Awesome bedhead.

You know, just eating an apple before bedtime.

Spencer decided he needed every single one of my necklaces on.

Sometimes we do funny things to our kids just so we can take entertaining photos.

Mid haircut mohawk.

Don't mind me, just eating a piece of pizza.

If Genevieve had her choice, she would spend all her time sitting on the kitchen table munching on whatever she finds there.

She loves to have her hair brushed. She likes playing with her reflection too.

Clemson cancelled school. lol. Gotta love the South.

Another favorite hat, this time daddy's. Both kids fight over this one, actually.

Mesmerized by the falling snow.

And another hat! She always wears baseball caps backwards.

She was pretty pleased to be wearing daddy's coat.

Bill put a headlamp on her and she was so fascinated. It was entertaining to watch.

Oh, and here it really did snow a few inches. We went on a walk and the kids loved it. 

Project + Hike = Good Weekend

And it's mostly finished. I just need to put a couple coats of polyurethane on it so it won't be sticky and this baby will be in action. I kind of love the yellow. So glad we decided to do that color again. 

South Carolina is not ugly. Turns out this little gem is about 10 minutes from our house and maybe a five-minute walk from the road. It'll be a perfect swimming hole this summer. What a find! I can't wait to see it when everything is green again.

Oh, and did I mention we turned Genevieve into a frosted mini wheat hiking there? I guess it was a tad colder for her not hiking. We cuddled her up in Bill's fleece and she was much better. That toothy grin melts my heart.

I piggybacked Spencer for a bit after he got tired, but he didn't really get the concept of holding onto my shoulders, so this is how we hiked back to the road. It was awesome. Jolena, 10 pounds of baby to carry. Bill, 70 pounds. 

A bunch of random thoughts

I like watching the Olympics. I haven't followed most of them for the last decade as I haven't had a TV most of that time. Now I remember how much I love them.

I got an itch to build something again. I thought it would be a bit longer from when we finished our bed, as that took all my desire to build anything and sucked it right up. I thought I'd be able to build some kind of kid bed now in preparation for the new baby, but we are still deciding what setup we want. There are too many variables in the decision for it to be easy and so we're going to hold off for a while until it becomes clearer. So I spent Saturday afternoon building a standalone trash can cover thing instead so my kids can't get in the trash can when they're tiny and like to do things like that. I'll put a picture up sometime when it's done. The door ended up a bit big so I need to redo it and haven't gotten around to it yet.

Spencer and Genevieve have both decided they love hats. They spend significant chunks of time wandering around the house with random hats on. Bill's green beanie is a current favorite, as well as the tiger beanie, the green hat my brother sent us that has a circular brim, and a couple adult sized baseball caps.

We pulled out our old king bed foam topper and folded it in half and put it in the kids' bedroom. Spencer has been sleeping on it. They've both decided swan diving onto it is really fun. They stand on Bill's set of scriptures and jump onto it. I know, super dare devil heights there. :) They've moved to jumping from the toddler bed to the mattress. That is maybe one foot off the ground. They act like it is the coolest thing they've ever done and it makes me smile.

We're working on getting better routines around when we eat and where we sit and stuff like that. It's slow, but the kids seem to be responding positively, especially Spencer, who this should really help over time. He still needs a lot of help to improve his ability to eat well, so I'm holding onto every positive improvement that comes along. I didn't have any idea what a long term process this would be back when we realized it was more than a normal issue with a toddler. It's daunting to realize it is going to take years of effort to get to the goals we want to achieve, but it's nice to be working on things as opposed to just wondering what we can do.

We find out on the 28th the gender of baby #3. I think it's a boy. I've been right the last two. We'll see if my streak continues. Regardless of the gender, we have absolutely no ideas for names. We're in trouble for all the rest of the kids we have. :)

Despite at times feeling quite overwhelmed with my own children's needs and deciding the best ways to raise them, being around other people's kids generally makes me very grateful for my own children. Sometimes other kids know or do things that I then go back and teach my children, which is nice. Just as often I see things that they are still learning that I am very grateful my children already know or don't do that particular thing or whatever it may be. I really do believe we are the best people to raise the children sent to us and the same for my friends and their kids. And that is the extent of my random philosophizing for the moment.