Chillin'

I'm definitely behind on posting pictures from my trip to Florida with Stella and her 3rd birthday. Too much sickness in our house...and all of it has been ME! Here's a picture from last weekend when we got the pool out for the girls again. Andy had spent all morning mulching the yard and decided to climb in with them to cool off! The girls loved it.

Stella's Cupcakes

Stella helped me make cupcakes on Wednesday evening. Then Thursday morning we put the icing on and she helped with the sprinkles. She was so proud. The bottom two pictures are of her and the cupcakes she got to take to school. Stella insisted on strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing. Today Andy and I are taking off of work to spend the day with her! We have some fun things planned!

Coloring

Charlotte is starting to want to color...but only when Stella is doing it as well. However, after about 10 minutes she starts eating the crayons.

Family Dynamics – What's in a Number?

From as early as I can remember, I've always wanted 4 children. So although I haven't even given birth to baby #3 yet, I'm already contemplating the fate of #4 and it's not looking good for its sake. Yes, I was a bit disappointed when it wasn't twins this time, because then I'd be done for sure!

Why did I always want 4 kids? I always knew that I wanted more than one child. Although she may say, "Yeah, right" I have always appreciated having a sister growing up. There was someone to play with, someone to share with, someone to fight with, someone to tease, etc. I learned a lot from having a younger sister to help take care of and to boss around. I couldn't imagine being an only child myself and so therefore, knew if possible, I wanted multiple kids myself.

Then my mom got remarried and my brother came along. Although he is "classified" by research as an "only child" since there are 14 years between him and my younger sister, he still turned us into a 3-kid family. It was fun to have another personality in the house, another birthday to celebrate, another kid to torment, etc. For me, 4 sounded like the perfect number. I like even numbers. Plus, then there would be two kids in the middle and the "middle child syndrome" would be avoided.

Some of the reasons why I wanted a bigger family are more selfish. With 4 kids, there are more available to do chores, right? With 4 kids, one of them is destined to stay close to us after growing up, getting married and having kids of their own, right? One of them will definitely take care of us when they are older, right? One of them will turn out half-way normal, right? I wanted the odds to be for us, not against us. And remember 4 is a nice even number. Everyone will have a partner and no one will be left out. Although with three kids Andy always tells me, "Don't worry, everyone WILL have a partner…just not you." THANKS!

I will admit that the "middle child syndrome" does cross my mind when I think of only having three kids and it seems to stick there. I'm not sure why. I normally don't get caught up in that type of thing. Plus, I realistically know that there are other things that make up a person's personality, etc. How close in age are the children? Does mom stay home or work? Is dad in the picture? How do you parent? What astrological sign was the kid born under? (Yep! I actually have a friend that plans her pregnancies around that one.) The list goes on and on. I think that my concern of this "syndrome" is more of a cover-up.

I think it comes down to admitting to myself that I can break the pact I made with myself years ago. I need to realize that I'm not failing as a parent by admitting I'm tired and want some of my life (and my body) back sooner rather than later. Although I love both of my girls more than life itself and am so looking forward to this 3rd addition and having an infant again, I'm just not sure I'm cut out for another one. As Stella turns into such a little person with her own thoughts and as Charlotte becomes more independent and less "work", I see this preview of how life does get easier from a certain perspective. (I'm often told that as your children grow it's less physically demanding and more emotionally demanding.)

So although I'm ready for the arrival of #3 and the return to sleep deprivation and trying to figure out what certain cries mean, I already find myself thinking "How long will it be again before getting out of the house will not be such an event?" and then calculating how long it will be before baby #3 will reach the stage where Charlotte is today when we can finally communicate and understand what she wants a majority of the time. So that's my clue that although this baby will be worth doing it all over again, I'm just not sure I'll be ready to jump in again for a fourth time.

Plus, I see friends that have 3-4 kids that are older than mine. And I hear about their homework and activities and birthday parties to attend and the list goes on and on. I'm already adding a 3rd to this future chaos…do I really want to do 4 things of homework each night?? Yes, some people over-schedule their kids. I get it. But if each of your 3-4 kids has ONE outside activity, that's already 3-4 commitments each week assuming you only go to it once. When I go down that path, it's overwhelming! So maybe 3 isn't so bad from a balance perspective.

Overall, as a first-born overachiever…straying from a goal I always had in my head, that's HARD! But, I never thought it would take two years to conceive Stella in the first place (so I'm already behind schedule to begin with!), I never thought I'd continue working (but I have caved to my need to get away each day), and I never thought I would drive a freakin' minivan (enough said). Goals change and for good reason. Sometimes we just have to adjust to new ideas of perfect.

I'm going to wait until baby #3 turns one to make any final decisions, but I might end up deciding on my unevenly numbered family after all! Or maybe I'm having a pregnancy moment right now and will want to take the plunge. Because my kids are too darn cute and why not add another?? And, yes, I guess I should see what Andy thinks…are you reading this, honey?

And you? Are you an only child? Middle child? The baby of the family? If you have kids yourself, how did you pick the number you have? What's your perspective?

Cleaning Time

The girls and I did some cleaning Sunday. Oddly, Charlotte was the first to want to get involved while I was sweeping. Then Stella wanted a task. So she started dusting which followed with Charlotte turning her broom into a duster. Maybe having multiple kids IS a smarter idea than I was thinking! But how long will this be "fun" for them??

Fashion Forward

So this is Charlotte's new look. She LOVES to wear the dress-up beads. And now this week she has become obsessed with bibs...seriously. She must put on 10 different bibs every day. Her love of shoes has not ended. And she is very particular about being able to wear the pair she wants to wear. Otherwise a HUGE fit follows. So here is how she looked most of yesterday. On another note, Stella & I went to Florida and then when we returned I was very sick with the worst cold I've ever experienced. So the blog has been a bit bare lately, but I got a lot of cute pictures over the weekend and should have some great posts this week.

The Results are In...

...both girls LOVED the Amish Friendship Bread. With all of that sugar & cinnamon, who wouldn't?

Friendship Bread

I got one of those Amish bread starters...and I LOVE bread, so I actually didn't mind receiving it. Friday night was Day 10 - Bread baking! Stella helped me and had so much fun. How did it turn out? Stay tuned.

Bejeweled Part 2

The play jewelry is still popular this week. The girls can't get enough of it. I just crack up as I watch them wearing my mom's old jewelry from when I was little! And other plastic beads and bangles. And Charlotte can accessorize herself now...didn't take long to figure it out.

Bunnies!

The baby bunnies are BACK! Last summer our lawn kid ran over the nest, but didn't hurt any of them. This year Andy noticed the nest and the lawn kid has been very cautious around it. The other night the mower noise must have scared them because 4 baby bunnies went hopping everywhere! You are not supposed to touch them, so we just chased them out of the grass (they hid in the bushes) so he could finish mowing. Unfortunately both of the girls were already in bed, so only Andy and I got to see them.

The Pool is Open!

We had to invest in a new backyard pool this summer. Our old one was smaller and actually did last us 2 seasons which I thought was pretty good for a blow-up pool. Andy got it all ready for the girls over the weekend. Charlotte was hesitant at first, but loves to do anything Stella is doing. I see us spending many afternoons on the patio this year!

I am a True Believer

I am a true believer of putting food in front of a child multiple times even if they don't eat it. Above is a picture of Stella's 5th or 6th ear of corn this season. The first ones she refused to even touch, then she touched one of the more recent ones, and tonight she grabbed it first and started eating. I have no idea what changed her mind. But I feel accomplishment! Well, Charlotte is still only playing with hers at meals...we'll see how she progresses over the summer.

Graduation Day

On Saturday my baby brother graduated from high school. So hard to believe! We had a very busy weekend of celebrating with family that came in from Florida and Texas. The weather was just beautiful for all of the outdoor activities. I am bummed because I realized that I will not be able to help him move into Purdue this August...way too close to my due date and I definitely do not want to have baby #3 on an Indiana highway amidst a corn field.