Pepper + weekends

It's nice to hang around the house on weekends. But I think weekends are a mixed bag for Pepper. Although I'm sure he likes having company around, perhaps he starts to get a bit annoyed when we're infringing on his napping-in-the-sun time. Seany can't resist playing with sleeping Pepper:

Inspecting Pepper's toes

"Night-night Pah-pur"

Pretending to give Pepper a cookie

Playing

Spending the winter inside with a toddler is a lot different than spending the winter inside with an infant. We've been spending a lot of time playing (or "pie" as Sean says) in the den/family room/play room, reading, crafting and playing. Some of our most recent activities include:

Putting toy spiders from our Halloween craft in "hyme ow" (time out) in the racecar:Adding to the animal collage - Daddy has a nature day-by-day calendar at work and each day he brings home a picture of a different animal for Sean to look at. We save the pictures and on the weekend, Mommy cuts out the animals and Sean "gooz" (glues) them on the paper. This weekend we embellished the collage with some festive stickers, as well:

Of course, Sean is always up for playing with his trucks. He especially loves to run laps around the room with the big truck - running over "cuhlgurs" (crayons), books, and whatever other unfortunate objects are in his way (even Mommy):

Happy Valentine's Day!

Playdough!

Sean plays with Play-doh at school quite often. Apparently back in Toddler A, Sean liked to eat the stuff, but now in Toddler B he knows that Play-Doh is for playing, not eating. After playing outside this morning (hooray for balmy 40 degree weather!), we came inside and mommy whipped up a batch of homemade playdough and Sean got to work:

Cutting out trees:

Sean likes to sing while he works: "Doo doo doo doo dooo...."Ninny the cat:

Squeeze!

It was time to call it quits when Sean discovered that Pepper also likes to eat playdough and Sean started throwing handfuls of dough under the table. Yeesh - what a team these two make.

Pepper Go Home

After daycare Thursday night, I couldn't move Sean from the foyer - he was too interested in going through Mommy's purse and playing with Pepper:

And introducing Sean's cinematography debut:

Riding!

Sean loves his rocking horse - it used to be Daddy's!

He even lets his friends go for rides:

...and he lets them ride under the horse, too.

28 Weeks!

And so begins the third trimester! I'm feeling pretty good except for demonic hip pain that started up early last week. I've been trying to combat it by walking, doing some prenatal yoga moves, and sitting with a heating pad, but I think the only thing that will make the pain go away is to have the baby. Which neither the baby nor Mommy and Daddy are quite ready for just yet. I got to the doctor on Monday, so hopefully he can help me out a bit.

Monday's appointment will be a doozy - the one-hour glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Ick. Yuck. Blech. I am not looking forward to that. Hopefully I pass and won't have to take the three-hour test in a few weeks.

Other than the hip pain, I'm feeling good. Huge like a Thanksgiving Day float, but good. I know I'm carrying differently than I did with Sean because all the tops I wore with Sean are way too short. And the maternity pants I wore with Sean are still loose around the waist. There are two pairs of non-maternity pants in my closet that still fit - they're big pants - but they fit and they're office pants, so that's a major plus. Although I would prefer to wear yoga pants and running clothes everyday.

Another difference between Little Sister and Sean's pregnancies is that I have not felt her hiccup - at all. Sean was a hiccuping champ at this point, but this little girl would rather constantly push her feet up through my ribs, so I guess that's a fair trade? According to the books, Little Sister is also practicing blinking and making breathing movements. She should be about 2.5 or 3 pounds and measure about 16 inches long - the size of a Chinese cabbage. Here's what she looks like from the outside:

We're starting to talk to Sean more about his sister (tister?) and where she is and what she's doing. Last night, when I was taking him out of his carseat, Sean accidently hit my belly. I told Sean to be nice to Sister and he leaned over and gave my belly a loud kiss (kiss tister!) and a big hug. Nice!

Hopefully another signal that things are changing is that we moved Sean into a new bedroom! We're hoping to have the babies to sleep in the same room, but Sean's room was too small for two babies, so we swapped the guest room and the nursery. Sean didn't seem to notice or care that he's in a new room, but maybe he'll get curious when a second crib shows up?

Lemon Love

It lives on!

"More?"

They got me.

The last few Friday afternoons, Brownies have been hanging out at my train station trying to sell their delicious cookies to workweek-weary commuters. So far I'd been able to resist - I'm trying to watch mine and Little Sister's girlish figure, you know. This past Friday, however, they brought out the big guns - Daisies! Who could resist kindergarten girls screeching about Thin Mints? Not me, apparently.
And it looks like Sean wouldn't be able to resist, either:

Snow Day!

This morning we woke up to tons and tons of snow! Unfortnately, Daddy still had to go to work, but Mommy and Sean had a snow day! After shoveling out, Daddy headed out to work while Mommy and Sean spent the day reading, doing crafts, watching Donald Duck cartoons on You Tube, napping, cleaning, and running a couple of errands.

Finger painting, Jackson Pollock-style:

We even baked doughnuts! (We used this recipe, but made some adjustments - switched the bananas for applesauce and added some grated apple.)

Tidbits

Yesterday morning, while Daddy took Pepper out around the backyard, Sean put the wood stick we use to "secure" the back sliding door in place... did I mention that Thom John and Pepper were outside? When Thom John got back to the door and asked Sean to pull the stick out, Sean just looked at him with a blank stare. Thom John ran around the front of the house and got back in through the front door to find Sean banging on the glass door and yelling “Daddy! Daahh-deee!”

Mommy and Sean went food shopping last night and when we got home Sean helped unload the groceries by putting anything he could grab on the bottom shelf of the pantry and then say "bye bye" to it. So, he picked up his half-gallon of milk and carried it to the pantry (saying "heavy!" the whole time), then put it on the shelf and waved "bye-bye, milk!" a few times and went to get something else. If Pepper was getting too close to the groceries, he'd scold Pepper with a "No! Pah-pur! No!"

Sean loves to say "bye bye" to all his teachers and his classmates on the car ride home from daycare. "Bye bye Dawn" "Bye bye Sarah" "Bye bye Aidan"...

Sean is very comfortable with helping himself to stickers from the principal's desk drawer.

We said "bye bye" and "night-night" to the Christmas tree and decorations. Sean helped Mommy pack away all our ornaments and lights. We're still reading books about "tanta" before bed, though.

Sean plays with Daddy before bed:

Daddy's Fingers!

Yup, I'm tall enough to open doors!

Español

Sean shows off his new Spanish words:

23/24 weeks

We're 24 weeks along in Little Sister's pregnancy! How the heck did that happen? The little miss is certainly very busy - she's kicking, jumping, and salsa dancing all over the place. And despite mama's seemingly gigantic belly, Sister only weighs about 1.5 pounds and is about the size of a papaya.

She's developing rapid-eye movement when she sleeps (but it doesn't feel like she ever sleeps) and her hearing is developing rapidly - she should be able to hear mommy's heartbeat, tummy gurgles, and daddy's voice and of course, Sean's voice as he chatters on all day long.

Here's a belly shot for Little Sister at 23 weeks atop the Rock of Gibraltar!

Halllooooo!

We're back from Spain. We've been back for almost a week, but it's been a busy week! Back to work for Mommy and Daddy, a trip to North Jersey for Mommy, a tummy illness for Daddy and then for Mommy, and Seanybear got himself back to daycare, where he was sorely missed. We have lots of stories and lots of pictures to share, but here are a few highlights:

We watched "Beauty & the Beast" on loop, read books, and played with stickers on the flight to Madrid:

Playing by a sculpture at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid:

Happy New Year from Barcelona!

This turtle at the base of a column at Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral set a new standard for Sean - everytime we entered a cathedral from this point, Sean immediately started searching for turtles!

Relaxing in the car on the way to Valencia:

With Mommy at the Alhambra in Granada:

With Daddy, looking for ah-ahs (monkeys) in Gibraltar:

At the Three Kings Day parade in Seville:

The candy Daddy caught at the parade!

Turtles at the greenhouse in Atocha Station in Madrid:

Sleeping in the car after touring El Escorial:

Haircut

Sean's hair was a bit long in the back - kind of like a mullet - so Mommy gave him a trim. New look, new year! Pictures of the new 'do will be posted soon!

Who Needs TV?

Who needs TV when there are sweet potato fries roasting in the oven?