There's Just Something About A Sleeping Baby....

That makes you forget you spent an hour and a half trying to get him to settle down. Eli is now sleeping soundly on my pillow, on my side of the bed. It hard enough to settle him down when he is tired, but when he gets silly, it's almost impossible. How do you look into an almost two-year old's eyes and tell him to "Be quiet, daddy's trying to get to sleep." when all he keeps saying is "I love you too!!! I love you too!!!" And then his eyes go all silly and a smile peeks out from underneath his "paby". He finaly gave in, with two of his doggies by his side. Now, to just transfer him to his bed without waking him up or breaking my back.

Our Baby Girl

Here's a picture from our 3D sonogram this morning. She is definitely a she :) She is also extremely stubborn, and would only show us her full face briefly. She prefers to nuzzle into the placenta or cover herself with her arms and even feet. This is a pretty clear shot of her face.
















This one is a little bit harder to tell, but that is actually her foot poking herself in the eye. You can see her nose and mouth right below.
















The technician was impressed with her chubby cheeks and fat rolls :) You can kind of see how she already seems to have the "nursing cheeks"

Not quite a cold winter's eve, but still...

A good night for hot chocolate. At least for the kiddos. My pregnant body has an internal temperature of about 110*, so although the windows are open (despite the rain) and that it's only 54* outside, I am sitting here sweating, while the littles enjoy their hot chocolate. Poor Eli just gets his "pabie" (that's slang for pacifier around here) dipped in the other kids' cups.

Then, we're downstairs to watch Sleeping Beauty. Why oh why would I subject myself to that after the Little Mermaid incident? Well, I don't have quite the emotional attachment to Sleeping Beauty (or, as we call her around here: Sleeping Booty)

Brett is in bed (been there since 6pm) due to an awful headache and (I'm sure) pure exhaustion. No painting tonight. I'm not quite sure why I'm giving the kids chocolate and marshmallows when I'm ready for bed myself. Maybe the kids take after their father with an immunity to caffeine. Maybe.

Watching The Little Mermaid with my children...

This movie came out when I was about 9 1/2 years old. I consider it a movie from "my childhood". A classic Disney film- the movie that brought back animated features- etc, etc.

So, I was pleased to share it with my children for the first "real" time. They've seen clips of it before, read the books (Disney versions, of course) and are very familiar with the storyline and characters. But this was the first time sitting down actually watching it. I must say, the Disney people did a great job of restoring the color to this movie- it looks fantastic!

What are my children's thoughts on this timeless classic from my childhood?

Alyssa: "How come when Ursula gets ploinked by Eric, it kills her?" Ploinked? Where on earth did she come up with that word. I prefer to say "shish-ka-bobed".

Gavin: "I'm gonna puke!!!!" complete with jumping up from laying down and grabbing his throat (for Gavin to move at all when watching tv is a big deal). This comment came during the "Kiss the Girl" scene just as Eric leans over to kiss Ariel. Sometimes, he's such a boy- those would be the times he's not dancing around singing "Popular" from WICKED or playing dolls with his sisters.

Lauri: "Ursula has huge bo*bs!" She had to repeat this numerous times, and once even added, "They're bigger than my head!!!" That's my little princess.

The kids seemed to loose interest by the very end, although they all wanted to know if Ariel was going to come out of the water naked. Ugh. Brett and I ended up having to tell them to be quiet just so we could enjoy the final scene.

They all asked to watch it again soon- it a Hoedl childhood obsession- watch a movie once, then proceed to watch it as many times as possible in the next two weeks. I think next time we put it on, I'll skip it- maybe Brett and I can watch it in peace and quiet one night :)

Back to Blogging...

It's been a crazy month (!) since I've last blogged. Our Disney World vacation was awesome- I'll try and post some pictures this week, but our computer is taking too long to process things these days.

We are redoing the kids' rooms in preparation for the new baby- so our house is in chaos.

Brett started an early morning job requiring him to get up at 3am five days a week.

Lots to do and we are on an official countdown of 10 weeks from today until our newest family member arrives!!!!!!

I'll blog more later- a couple funny stories to share. :)