Kids in Bed equals Happiness. and a Pregnancy Update

I've been having trouble getting Marky to bed.  so earlier this week I decided to do it earlier.
and it worked.
OK John put him to bed that day- but today he went to bed at seven.
Did I mention that is the happiest thing EVER? well it is. Sometimes I feel guilty when I am happy that I am a mom and then I look forward to bedtime so much. This guilt is quickly drowned by my bubbling up giddiness. Or anger if I find their hidden messes...

This week I made Danielle a skirt.  You might not be able to tell but it has sparkly unicorn fabric and an applique unicorn. It's nice to make her stuff, she likes it. I like her too.

This boy has decided that he doesn't like it when Danielle goes to preschool. He wants me to hold him the whole time. Or maybe he just has a cold. His nose did start spontaneously exploding today... He does like eating lunch out on the porch, which we do quite frequently.

Mark is a model for my etsy shop. He modeled the Bat shirt and likes getting his picture taken. He isn't always very good at looking at the camera but he was very upset when I was done. Maybe I should start making skirts and try to make him my girl model.  I was told he didn't look like a little old man anymore...
I'm still pregnant.  I will be for a LONG time yet. blah. being pregnant sucks- have I mentioned that?  It started to hurt to run the other day.  Then I didn't work out for a week and gained two pounds.  lovely. On the bright side I think I am done throwing up. hooray!
I usually think it's best to hide from everyone I know while I'm pregnant.  Then I get lonely and want people to visit.  The other day I got mad at someone and yelled at them a little bit for saying I don't listen.  This was a person I'm not related to.  The next day I wanted to blog about it.  Actually I wanted to blog about how ladies get together and have the "men never pay attention and are so stupid" competition where they all talk about how dumb their husbands are. I never understand this. Maybe because I didn't marry a complete douche bag like it sounds like they did. sigh...
Maybe they are exaggerating.  maybe what they are saying isn't that bad at all, but I'm just a little on edge. Good thing I followed my rules because there would be a whole lot more crazy if I didn't. Or maybe I would just have no friends at the end to help me with my kiddos.
Less than three more months... I still can't believe I'm actually pregnant. and I want yogurt with those yummy mix ins right now... Have you had those?  They are great.  So is Peanut butter cup cereal. FABULOUS.
still no name.
Names I like: Michael, Rowan (John hates Roman, which I like), Vincent, Thomas, Andrew, Jakob (too popular)
John likes: Finnegan and Jason and some other names that seem cooler than my names when people ask us what names we both like.
We go through a baby name book and mark the names we both like, then eliminate names. I like it.  Also, if you read through one of those books almost any normal sounding name sounds good. Or even semi- normal.
It's always easier to come up with the name for the gender of baby you are NOT having. always.

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Dear Friend,

Dear Carrie,
It has come to my attention that you were wearing highly low cut and not very flattering jeans last night.
Your waist looked non-existent in your tight black pants.  Maybe you should rethink that look a little bit. Not that you looked bad, it's just that it made your torso look odd. My stomach totally doesn't look like that when I am wearing low cut pants.  I think it looks a little bit pregnant. I don't know if you know this but I had stretch marks on my stomach and they were all faded but I feel like they are coming back.  Lucky for me I get the light colored ones, which match my perfectly tube sock white skin. How about you?  It wasn't looking like you had any on Dancing with the Stars last night.  Also how do you fly all the way there?  I'm starting to be convinced that Dancing with the Stars isn't actually live.
Also, get some better facebook pictures, your lack of face shots is really ruining my blog desires this morning.
xoxo
Janae

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Halloween Plans.

Gold Pumpkins Rule

1.  Have a party. This is difficult since we don't drink and many of our friends do.  We will have a kid friendly portion of the party. I've already started stockpiling candy and bought a bat pinata. It's in my grocery budget and that's why I have to start so early... I really need to find a new babysitter so she can go play with the kids and I can just hang out with adults.
2. Gold Pumpkins baby.  I saw the idea HERE and she was talking about a Pinterest person she likes.  I might have to get on Pinterest- just because I'm inspired by the Gold pumpkins.  Our own pumpkins have taken over the backyard.
3. Decide If I should use my pottery barn credit to get those lovely matching Eric Carlisle costumes or get Danielle the Mermaid costume she really wants. my kids wear their Halloween costumes year round as dress ups.  And sometimes Danielle tries to wear them every day but oh well... Why doesn't she want to be the butterfly I want her to be?
4. Go trick or treating with our neighbors church group again.  They have a really nice bunch of kids and Danielle loves them. Mark might be too slow though, maybe I will call the Medical school professor we ended up with last year. He was super nice and I LOVED it. Oh no my mom was visiting last year so I was able to go with the kids even though John was gone.
5. Get someone to come so we can take the kids trick or treating since John will probably be busy. Any takers?  I tried to convince my grandma to fly my mom out- but no dice there.
6. Go to the pumpkin patch.  Danielle is in LOVE with pumpkins.
7. Have pumpkins from my own garden. This year the pumpkins took over the Garden. I don't know what it is but it looks like they are on steroids. We have two plants taking over four beds. It's like the green peppers last year. I wish it was the raspberries though because I was hoping to make freezer jam.
8. Bring treats for Danielle's preschool even though they don't officially celebrate. I wonder how I will pull this off... They don't have Valentines or Christmas either, but it's a Jewish Preschool so that shouldn't be so surprising.
9. Go to the Pottery Barn Outlet to see if they have cheaper costumes and some decorations from last year.  Did I mention my gift card to the Pottery Barn?  It is killing me I want to spend it so bad. at the outlet. Also Danielle needs a twin sized bed but my gift card isn't that big. 
10. Decide what our Halloween food tradition will be- my mom used to always make clam chowder.  But she probably won't be here and I'm a pregnant lady so that might not work.  Maybe we can pick up some soup at Panera Bread for the same effect without the nausea of cooking.

What are your Halloween plans?

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Sunday Thougts...

Baby Mark turned two on Sunday. He still seems like my little baby to me. We celebrated Saturday since John had to work Sunday and it was so nice to see our little family together. It was a little hard for me not to plan a huge party with friends but Mark isn't as social as Danielle so I think he had a good day. He likes other kids but if we have too many over Mark goes and plays alone. mark got a Hokey Pokey Elmo.  and some pets that he has been carrying with him ever since. He got clothes. He was a happy boy. Since he loves Elmo lately we had an Elmo themed family party.
There was much joyful yelling.
After cake and presents Mark was a tired boy. the elmos we also put down for a nap in the play tunnel. In our family we have a tradition that when it is your birthday you get everyone presents and Danielle was thrilled with the idea.  Also happy about: Mark doesn't like to rip open the presents to she got to do it. Parties are a big deal to Danielle. She even changed her clothes to prepare for the party- I guess she wanted a "party dress."
On Mark's actual birthday I was having a rough day (read: barfy pregnant lady) and three people came over- Adrienne did my dishes and I almost cried.  Then Carrie came and the kiddos got to play. Then Stephanie came and we all had fun. It was so nice to have people over when John was gone all day.  For some reason I'm unbelievably tired. My doctor said it was normal when you had a parasite of this size lol. I don't know how some moms do it-I wish I lived closer to family a lot of the time.  but I'm glad I have friends.

tired from partying so hard

My mom asked for lots of photos, so here they are.  Also you might notice that Halloween has started in our family. I love Halloween. More decorations will be added.  I like to check out Halloween decorations after the season is over- but this year the decorations are sadly lacking.  I guess that's what happens when the economy is struggling.

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Preschool clothes

Danielle loves her pink preschool clothes. I love how they all match. A lot. This might be a wardrobe idea I should stick with.

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Babysitting Exchange

I think it's totally normal to be tired all day and then wake up at four in the morning wide awake, don't you?
Carlie visited a while ago and she has a pressure cooker and when I wasn't busy being so paranoid that she wasn't having fun and her kid hated my kid it was awesome. I was just thinking about the pressure cooker Carlie and missing her steel cut oats, which were excellent. Something about Carlie makes me want to work out more. Also having people over brings out the inner food pusher in me. If someone says they aren't hungry- that could just mean they aren't hungry for what you are offering because it doesn't sound that great. Just keep offering and eventually you will find something.
Speaking of which when Danielle wakes up and we don't have any peaches she is going to be seriously bummed.

For family home evening we started decorating for Halloween.  We have a craft of about ten minutes each week and a super short lesson. This week it was making a "bouquet" of bats.  The next morning Danielle was adding knuffle bunny to the bouquet with a craft lollipop stick and duct tape.  I almost died it was so cute.

after careful consideration I've decided I need to start having a babysitting exchange.  But like the Mother's day present one of the guys in the ward here did- where John calls someone and asks them to watch our kids. Seriously my friend's husband got 2 babysitters in one weekend and I had an overwhelming feeling of jealousy.  I would totally have watched her kid- and why didn't John think of that? Then I learned it was a mother's day present.  an EXCELLENT present. It would be awesome to have John plan something like this- but someone else thought of it first and we don't have a massive ward. Brilliant. Still jealous months later. But in a good way.

who wouldn't want to have a babysitting exchange with these kids?  Don't mind the nutella on the corners of their mouths...

I always find that people say they want to babysit trade but they don't actually.  Also when they say so we can go on a "date" do you think they mean "so Janae can take a nap"? I can just never actually arrange things. Which makes me worried that I have two of the "bad kids" that no one actually wants to trade with. Or that I am too unorganized to plan something like that so I am one of the "flaky" people. I would totally start the trade. My friend Suzy and I traded like once but then she had a baby. Those tend to stop progress in my life for half a year or so... So I could trade like I can watch their kid every Friday from 4 until whenever and then they could watch my kids on Saturday or something. Just planning it is overwhelming- pretty much someone should just show up on Friday night with kids and I'll watch them. I will  might feed them Popsicles though so...

Danielle has decided that we need to take more photos of her. like lots more. sometimes I do it even though it's in the middle of the night and there is laundry all over the chair.  after all, she did have quite a lovely dress on.

Mark loves his stuffed animals. Mostly he loves his tickle me elmo which is on the floor in this picture.  Also loves?  Jammas jammas jammas of all kinds.

You guessed it- our babysitter went to college. 
After one week of preschool Danielle has decided she needs to clean all the things every day.  She straightened the whole downstairs during quiet time two days ago and yesterday (a few hours ago) she cleaned up Mark's room and her own room. I was so happy that she picked things up off the floor that I think I might have squealed a little in delight.

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Marky is Turning Two Soon, and his mom is a crazy pregnant lady.

I just realized I haven't done much crazy pregnant ranting in a few days.  In case you wonder why I never write and have dropped off the face of the planet, it is so I can avoid other people being exposed to the joy that is me in my full pregnant glory.
Just wait until I'm in my third trimester and not just 25 weeks.  Did I mention that the way I realized I was pregnant was that I lost my temper and told Danielle I quit being her mom?
yes I just pray that my kids will forgive me and other people won't notice me.  And that my mom will come visit me and let me take a nap. again.
Anyway Mark is almost two, which reminds me of being crazy and thinking about stuff I want to get for him and for the house and the new baby. This takes a lot of my time.

 The other day John said his mom wanted to know if Mark needed anything. I couldn't think of why someone would just randomly think of Mark- until I realized soon his birthday is approaching.  OK maybe that came out funny- well whatever the point is I have a good mother in law. She isn't super invasive but she's nice and a good listener.  And she plans things in advance. I know a lot of people who wouldn't ever ask and she even thought of it before Mark's own mother.  Which is surprising since we already have a few Halloween decorations up and I've purchased some Halloween candy. Maybe she wasn't thinking of Mark's birthday. I didn't ask- you can't ask stuff like that when you are just trying to listen in on a conversation in the next room over.

anyway I was unprepared- because I just always think "nothing" because he has lots of stuff.  he has lots of generous people sending him clothes. And he has a tickle me elmo that he takes with him everywhere and tries to bathe with. I feel like we are blessed to have stuff that our kiddos need.

I couldn't think of anything Mark needs, except maybe some toys to play with that aren't my little ponies or pink. Should I care if my boy has girl toys?  Now that there are going to be two boys maybe I should try to get some boy toys that someone hasn't given to me. Maybe.  It's just that when I am faced with a truck toy or a barbie I just want to go with my gut. He likes duplos and trains though, which I am totally on board with. 

The next day I realized that Mark really wants some sewing fabric for his mom.  we thought up this great idea that on your birthday you get smaller presents for the other members of your family. Actually I think someone else did it and I liked it a lot- it softens the blow a bit for the openly greedy souls of my children.  And my secretly greedy one. I couldn't really tell someone else that Mark really just wants to buy a pressure cooker for his second birthday though- they would probably just get fed up with me and Mark would ultimately be the one that suffers. I had this great plan to make a blog post of a fake birthday list of stuff for "Mark's birthday." because I think he needs THIS ottoman from Ballard Designs in the Malabar Gray Ikat fabric.  needs. Who doesn't?  I know I need it. I'm always looking for ways to hide all kid toys and as I write this i want to put my feet up on an ottoman- out kids wouldn't bang their heads on it like with a coffee table.

Then the idea of the list bored me to death and I thought it wouldn't be cool as much as annoying so I scrapped it. half way.  Well the creative cool part disappeared because I kept thinking about the question four or five days after it was asked.
Totally normal I think.

Mark loves his light up shoes, so he always needs more of those.  Size 8 or larger. The child has enormo feet.

Then today I finally realized it- Mark still has no dresser. But until I learn to build one I'm most likely not going to buy one. We spent all the extra money we didn't really have this month on preschool and now Mark is getting a card from me for his birthday. Maybe I'll put a truck on the front. I never know what to tell people when they ask what you need. The answer in my family is usually "whatever you like buying." John's family is different though- they don't just shop for the joy of it and they don't only want to shop for specific things so I'm not sure how to handle these questions.  It's just interesting to see how different families work- I'm never sure about the gift system in his family and I fear that I'm failing miserably at it.  because I told John he was in charge but I don't know if he thought I was serious and it is still something I feel guilty about. I never realized how different the present giving dynamic can be in different families. I like the presents I get from them.  but they are hard to shop for. hard. (well some of them)
Please tell me I'm not the only one going through this present adjustment still after over six years. And that I'm not the only one who starts thinking about this when someone is just making conversation with John.

Anyway Mark needs a dresser. I am getting sick of folding up Mark's clothes every day after he throws them off his bookshelf onto the floor. Not that he always the one doing the throwing.  Originally I loved the idea of a bookcase for his clothes- mainly because we already had it and I didn't want to buy one.  This idea has been destroyed by my mom.  Because she is sending us cute little things for Madsen number three. and I don't know where to put them. I cleaned out my room and basement and found one of those clear plastic drawers.  Boy Madsen's cute little guitar clothes live in that bin. 
So in a few months I will be behind two dressers- not just one. boo.  A dresser just never seems like something I want to buy.  EVER. They are not fun to pick out.  They all seem either too ugly for words or too expensive. Before Mark was born I thought about the dresser thing. We were going to get Mark Cherry stuff and give him our dresser and maybe get a new one but after about two days I realized I wanted my dresser and didn't want to buy a new one so I took it back. he never found out he was so close to getting a dresser and I don't know if he would care. I think two of those hanging sweater organizers will fit in my closet for new baby.
 I guess when I'm pregnant I feel the need for more drawers. What do you need.
I need to call one of those friends that seems to be able to get things at the Salvation Army for almost free. I'm always jealous of how good those people are at what they do. then I go and don't find anything and get frustrated and buy a stupid Tshirt I don't really like just so I can say I found something.

I cannot find the dresser I want at the Salvation Army, and I cannot bring myself to go to the pottery barn kids outlet with my kids in the car. Oh wait- or charge the dresser I would find there. Maybe someday this will bring me a sense of financial freedom and joy. My refusal to drive with my kiddos is saving me from making irresponsible financial decisions.
Eventually I will go get the cheapest dresser at ikea and get over the fact that his frames and the crib and bookcase don't match. Mark doesn't have a twin sized bed to it's not like I'm breaking up a set.
right now it just makes me want to go  on ebay and buy one of the My little Ponies from before they went all ugly.
Or better yet, go to bed.
good night blog friends.

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End Of Summer

 Summer seems to be ending soon. It's been raining all over.  So Mark has actually stopped trying to exclusively eat Popsicles.  He likes them. All. The. Time.

 Today is the first Thursday that we didn't go to the Farmer's Market.  I was a little sad because I love going with the kiddos. Mark walks over to Paul Plum and picks which fruit he wants and starts eating it.  Somehow Danielle always seems to get free stuff.  She picks the fruit and gives them money and they give her extra stuff. then Mark starts throwing rocks.

On Wednesday Danielle asked me if I thought a stegosaurus or a triceratops would win in a fight.  I said triceratops.  Also I thought a brontosaurus would win against a stegosaurus. Danielle told me that a brontosaurus was purple. then she said- see I did learn things before preschool.
I died a little.
Where did Danielle learn the color of Dinosaurs? Dino Dan. I was grateful that she didn't learn it from Dinosaur train.  sometimes I wonder if I should be watching these kid shows a little closer- because honestly  was that on the show? Danielle started school and her first day she had sports. She was so excited to go.
Then when I went to pick her up she cried because she didn't get to go to the daycare after preschool. Some of the kids go to daycare after the classes. It also took me a while to convince her that she would be able to swim eventually, even though it didn't happen the first day.
I totally have one of these children that wants me to work so she can go be with all the other kids in daycare.  At least Mark likes being with me.

For the second day of preschool Danielle at least didn't wake up two hours early.  but she did get dressed before I woke up and took extra care to wear tights and socks. She told me she wanted to look really pretty. And she asked to wear my necklace from John so she could look extra pretty.  She found an orange flower for her hair but had to be convinced to let me comb her hair.

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Our Little Model

Danielle has decided it's time to start her modeling career. She asked me to take a picture of her the other day and  started posing.  Hilarious. I think she was pretty excited that when cousin Elijah visited they got juice boxes.  She was more excited to drink water out of it though because she doesn't really like juice as much as the awesome containers juice comes in.

For as little as 600 dollars a semester you can sponsor this child going to preschool. She has announced that she is sorry she "quitted" preschool last year. She knows that Eddie goes to preschool, so she also wants to go.

Also for some reason she thinks the past tense of hide is "hood."  Still. Even after I've explained it.

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