What's New?

Now in the mornings instead of writing in my blog, I've been reading the bible. BUT, I still want to blog! It's just way more of a challenge to find the time/energy to do it at a different point in the day.

I'm so happy that I've started reading the bible again on a consistent basis. I feel like even just the act of doing this is a good discipline for me and I'm trying really hard not to have regret for not doing it more consistently earlier on.  Regret is pointless. So, I'm just trying to look forward and think how happy I am to have made this choice now instead of in 20 years when my kids are out of the house and I 'have time'.


What's new in my pregnancy? Let's see! I'm 23 weeks pregnant today and still feeling great. The only time that I feel not-so-great is when I'm trying to get comfortable to sleep at night. And I know it's only going to get harder. I totally forgot about this and it's super annoying, but sleeping with a pillow between my legs is helping a bit. The only thing about doing that is, when I unconsciously move in the night, I always get woken up because the massive pillow between my legs gets shifted into a weird position and needs to be adjusted.

But, on a bright note, my energy and mood are high and I've been eating super healthy and really enjoying this stage of pregnancy. AND, Joey is so excited that there will be a new baby sister in the house. When he plays, sometimes he makes one of his cars 'baby sister car'. It's sooo cute. And when we pray, if I forget to mention baby sister, he'll say, 'And baby sister!!!' It's sooo sweet.

What's new with my Joey? He's started to get better at writing letters. It seems to have happened very recently that he can stay on course when he's following the dotted lines on a practice worksheet of, for instance, the letter 'G' on a fairly small practice line. So, that's pretty cool. And I've noticed that when we are working on the worksheets, he can focus for a longer period of time. Oh! And he can color in the lines now (but, he's not really into coloring). As far as crafts go, I'd say he's more into gluing and painting, although he's not eager to do either.

Joey LOVES activities where he can build things.  He got a model car that has a bunch of plastic screws that you can drill out (with a toy drill) and take all the pieces apart and rebuild and he can now spend a significant amount of time on that task by himself and independently build the car.  He also got a train that does the same thing, except with a manual screw driver, that he has perfected. I find it so interesting how into these kinds of activities he is (and how good he is at them!). It's not surprising though, now that I think about it because he was enjoying doing fairly complicated (25 piece) puzzles independently at two and a half.

What's new with my Frankie? She is saying SO many words now and really tries to say things conversationally that just comes out like nonsense and it's super cute. Sometimes, when Stuart and I are talking, I can see the wheels turning in her little brain as she listens to our conversation and language. She knows all the names of Joey's cars and the Paw Patrol gang figurines.

One thing she loves to do lately is put her stuffed animals to sleep in a little box by laying them inside with a blanket. And in the morning after a few sips of her bottle, she'll try to give her stuffed animals the bottle. So cute! She REALLY likes dog figurines. She lines them up, or puts them in her little house, or a box, or her toy microwave, or tries to put them on top of cars. When I was a little girl, I loved little figurines, too! It's so cute how much she likes them!

She's started to sit nicely during Next Step and now does actions to songs! Joey still isn't into participating in this and never has been. So, it's fun to have a kid that likes participating in this kind of thing because I never got to see it with Joey at her age and it's so adorable.

What's new with sibling dynamic?  Joey and Frankie are becoming closer buddies all the time. Sure, there's a little sibling rivalry, but they are two tight little friends.  Joey's always asking Frankie to play with him at home. Sometimes they play separately, but sometimes Joey will invite Frankie to play with him in his room and she'll doddle off behind him and the two will play cars together on his road mat.

In their beds in the morning, I'll hear Joey asking Frankie questions or telling her that she's not allowed to yell, or just to be patient for mommy. And she listens to him! It's so cute. At bed time, Stuart has started to put Frankie beside Joey in his tiny bed and the two lay there together nicely while Stuart tells them a bedtime story that he makes up. After the story is over lately, Joey will ask Stuart if Frankie can sleep in his bed with him. SO CUTE!!! When Joey has a bigger bed and Frankie doesn't need the crib anymore, I'm guessing these two little amigos will sleep in the same bed more often than not.

--- that's all for now because my kids are awake! ---