Thank you, Jacob!

This morning I was frantically trying to finish cleaning up the house in time to be gone by 9:40am. The people buying our house were having their appraiser come out to see the house. Our agent had told us we didn't need to be here or anything so we were going to head to the park. I was vacuuming and then Leyton & Nathaniel wanted to vacuum. So, headed over to the eating area in the kitchen to work on cleaning up the rug - I knew there was a bunch of grated parmesean cheese there on the floor. I walked around the table and there was my cute little Jacob, with the dust pan, cleaning up all the cheese - I had never even mentioned a word to him about it and he was just there doing it happily and without saying a word or asking for any attention or praise about it. It was the sweetest thing and really made my morning. They are all so sweet. Jacob is such a good helper and sweet young boy. He is very good at going along with the flow, yet I so much enjoy the moments I get when it's just he & I and we can share thoughts and enjoy what he has to say. I love you!

hmmm...

Patrick had a meeting tonight, so I was putting the kids to bed on my own. Since Leah is taking a few more minutes, I typically ask the boys to play quietly in their room while they wait for me to be finished with Leah. Tonight went according to that plan. A while later, once everyone was in bed, I came downstairs to relax a bit. I walked into the front living room and found the bowl of chocolate chip cookies sitting on the loveseat - definitely less than were in the bowl earlier. Appears my sneaky little 3-year-old was up to his usual self enjoying his own private treat. Just had to laugh.

Leah's out of the Crib!

We finally made the switch this week. I had been hoping to get her out of the crib earlier, but we had put it off a bit partly due to showing the house and partly due to the fact that we wanted to get a new set of bunk beds for Jacob so Leah could have his twin bed. Now we have that stuff. But, since we aren't showing the house right now, we put the mattress for Leah on the floor as we've done with the boys. The first night was Thursday...worked like a charm. I rocked her for a minute or two, put her on the mattress, laid down next to her for just a few minutes and poof, she was out like a light. I guess I should have remembered that, oh yeah, she's an independent persistent little girl who knows what she wants...runs in the family. I worked Friday night and how did it go for Patrick? After 1 1/2 hours of trying to get her to even lay down, he finally put her back in the crib for the night so he could get the boys to bed. Yesterday, I'm sure she was worn out - she took a good nap when Grandpa Dan & Grandma Sally were here. And then last night - another battle. It wasn't that she wasn't tired, but she just felt the freedom & wanted to get up and play with toys. She's a hoot. She screamed for a long time and finally wore out & passed out. I guess maybe we'll get her in there earlier so she has a bit more time for playing before sleep!

Just to Keep Life Interesting

As I've spent the last several weeks keeping everything in good order to show our house, I'm a bit worn out - on top of being 37 weeks pregnant today (which all seems to be well & good after my doctor visit Friday). Other things in the mix right now are the fact that we do have a contract on the house and the inspection is tomorrow - I sure hope it goes well. We spent the day yesterday looking at several potential homes only to pretty much rule all of them out. We felt they either didn't really give us anything we were hoping to find, cost more than we'd like, OR a surprising number have cats! We've now realized that cat houses are probably not the best for us as Jacob & Leyton are severely or deadly allergic - take your pick. AND, believe it or not, we set up appointments to look on Friday, and between Friday & Sat., 3 of the options had contracts on them. So, out of about 8-9 homes, 6 were ruled out pretty quickly due to the cat or sold aspects. I'm sure there's something out there, but we're still on the hunt. It would be nice to find something that could be a bit settling for us, but we'll see. Time is ticking...the contract on our house includes a closing date/possession date of 7/17 - and yes, I'm due 7/12. But hey, why not keep life exciting. Having a place to move to would sure feel nice!

Brave Little Girl

We've known for a while that Leah is a pretty brave little girl. She learns from the best, I guess...those three big brothers sure give her some ideas. Today we were at the pool and she was swimming around as usual, around the steps & ledge in the 3 ft area. However, she also wanted to go out to 4 ft, jump off the ladder, etc., and was really enjoying going under water. I'm there, of course, holding her. Then, she decided that just wasn't enough excitement. She was very persistent and wanted to go to the deep end and see what that was about since that's where the boys were jumping in with their life jackets on. She knew exactly where she wanted to jump from and it just happened to be 5-6 ft deep. I let her do it once and she had a ball, while I, on the other hand, tried to hold her up & tiptoe back to a little more shallow water so I could stand comfortably and hold her up. She couldn't have been happier. I just hope she doesn't want to grow up too fast; sure made it seem like she was a big girl being so brave.

On the walk home from the pool, it made me think about how her days as the baby in the family are getting short already. I can't believe we only have about 4 weeks - probably at the most - until our new little one is introduced. The kids are all so precious and Leah is just a sweet little princess. She sure captures a lot of hearts already.

Jacob's Quotable Quotes II

Well, lets just say that Jacob has recently been very noticing of his own anatomy and its proportions. Last night and today both, he's let me know that "Mom, my p*! - p*! is big!"

I just didn't really say too much. This will pass, right?

Nathaniel's Quotes

Nathaniel has had a few good things to say lately...

- we have really cleaned out our garage lately, but with 6 bikes, 3 cozy coupes, 2 single strollers, 2 double strollers, balls, etc., etc., etc., we still only park one car in there. Our neighbors had their garage door open yesterday when we walked by and Nathaniel said, "Wow, Mom, look: two cars inside the garage!" Humorous.

- "Mom, your body is cool; it can make milk. How does it know how to do that?"

- Nighttime prayers last night: "Mom, repeat after me...God, please let someone buy our house...fast. St. Joseph, please let someone buy our house...fast. A-men."