Three under three ...

Well life happens in ways that we don't plan but we believe that there is a Higher plan than the one we have. We have been blessed with a family of three kids under the age of three. Mr. Matthew decided he didn't want any chance of us combining his birthday with his oldest sister's birthday and showed up in July.
Here is our life as defined by our kiddos ...

Grace and Sophie are 15.5 months apart in age.
Grace and Matthew are 35 months apart in age.
Sophie and Matthew are 19 months apart in age.

A few updates ...

Grace's New Thing: "Running" Grace will run around the main level of house saying "running" over and over and over again. She can keep this up for a pretty decent amount of time. The first two minutes or so are cute. After about five minutes of it, you just want her to stop but you realize if she has THAT much energy, you better just let the child run around until she can't any more.
Grace also has almost all of her colors down. Green is still sometimes blue but she is doing really good with her colors.

Sophie's New Thing: Sophie is in love with her brother. She has decided to say "Matthew". She loves to give him kisses. Yesterday, I found her with half the box of wipes out on the coffee table. I couldn't figure out what she was doing with them until I saw a baby doll on the changing pad she had laid out and she was wiping the baby with the wipes like she kept seeing me do with Matthew. Sophie loves to help with anything related to Matthew even it is throwing a yucky diaper in the trash for me! Bless her!

Matthew's FIRST New Thing: How exciting! Matthew is already turning his head side to side. This is pretty huge for him. When he was born, he was a floppy rag doll. He had absolutely no neck control. So for him to be able to hold his head up some and move it side to side when laying on you or during tummy time at a week old is a huge deal!

Matthew is HERE!!!

I think being born is worthy of getting a blog post to yourself!

Matthew arrived this past Monday, July 20th. He decided he was ready to come. I do believe he realized he was plum out of room in my body and the only way to resolve that was to come early. I was 37 weeks, 1 day at the time but they measured his gestational age at 36 weeks in the nursery so he had to a few extra tests. We made it home Wednesday and are very happy to be home.
The girls are getting used to having a little brother. Grace is learning to rub his head when he fusses and will come running if he starts fussing saying "baby fussy!". Grace loves to look at his little feet. Sophie just says "baby" and likes to give him kisses.

Official stats:
Name: Matthew William
Born: July 20, 2009 at 1615
Weight: 8lbs, 10oz
Length: 21 1/2 inches
Head Circumference: 14 1/2 inches

Talking It Up

At some point, you long for your kids to talk. Then not too long after, you wonder why you ever longed for them to talk to you because what you now hear is "ma-ma" twenty times in a row with a short pause before it starts over again. That being said, it is amazing at how fast words appear from our kids.

Grace's Favorite Phrase: "Feel Better" If Grace has a boo-boo or if you say ouch, it requires kisses to heal. She used to come running saying "hurt" but now she comes running and says "feel better" as her request for kisses. If she provides you with kisses then she will ask "feel better?" and isn't happy until you say yes. So a word to the wise, just say yes to her.
On a separate note, she declared that my doormat out front had ladybugs on it this morning. I asked Brian where she learned that and he had no clue. She is right. It has ladybugs all over it.

Sophie's Talking Points: Sophie talks a lot for her age thanks to her big sister. They do have some language between the two of them though. Sophie will say something and Grace will talk back to her (sometimes I can understand Grace but sometimes I can't). Yesterday, Sophie was going on and on and Grace finally came over to me a said "Mama, Sugar is hungry." ummm, ok. That was unexpected but they did both get a snack that made them very happy. Sophie could have told me that. She has the words to say that but for whatever reason she was happy using her little sister language at that point in time.
Sophie's favorite words right now are "stuck", "hot", "whee", "go-go" (this is part of the potty training she has started), and the all time favorite of every child, "nope".
Last week, Sophie gave me one of her super, precious neck hugs (she wraps her arms around my neck and shoves her face next to mine) and said "I love you". That was her first "I love you". She said it twice that day and not since but I still love that I got it.

Little Guy's Responsiveness: Since little guy isn't here yet he obviously isn't talking but I can tell you he does not appreciate it when his sisters scream and yell and cry. Other kids doing those same things bring no response from him but if his sisters are screaming, he gets very active and I wonder if he is screaming too. Two kids screaming at the same time is a lot right now, I wonder how we will deal with three because rest assured it will happen at some point and I accept that fact right now. I guess we will get through that just like we got through having two screamers!
In writing all of this out, I do hope to take time to enjoy the little guy's baby nosies because I know they won't last forever and if he is anything like his Sophie sister then he will be talking before we know it too!

Color of Sweet Success and Growing Pains

"Colors": (Color) Both of the girls are into coloring with the effort being led by Grace. Grace calls crayons, "colors". We have learned to love washable crayons (Brian tells me I say "crayon" wrong but I can't figure out how else to say that word! ugh!!) We have cleaned crayon off the tv (several times), the wood floor, the coffee table, the dining room table, the glass storm dorm, our bedroom window, and continuously off Sophie's face. I do believe that Sophie's favorite place to color right now is her face. Grace will sometimes ask someone else to color. She assigns you colors to use and time limits for each color. If you don't participate, she gets very upset. Needless to say, Brian and I have been working on our coloring skills lately.

Grace's First: (Sweet) Tonight, Grace got a beater from the mixer. I made my grandma's banana cake which in my opinion requires cream cheese frosting to go with it. Grace got the frosting beater. (Just to set the record straight, Sophie was offered the other one but refused it.) She licked that beater for 30 minutes trying to get every speck of frosting off it! Of course she screamed when I took it away and had to get the icing out of her hair. I think she could live off frosting. I have threatened to give her a tub of frosting for her birthday since she will eat the frosting of any "happy cake" and leave the cake there. Maybe I should ...

Sophie's Strives: (Success) Sophie has been working on potty training for over a week and a half now. All her own doing. Some days she does awesome. Other days she drives Brian and me insane by not telling us she needs to go and the clean up duty that is required after accidents. She is trying though and for 19 months, we aren't expecting anything so this is all on her desire to strive to be big. Of course, our diaper budget will gladly take earlier potty training by her since we will be using more small diapers here before we know it.

Little Guy is Growing: (Growing Pains) That is about the only update I have on him. He is growing. He is still a pain in my hips. I wonder how my hips will ever function correctly again. The pain did come and go but now it seems to be here to stay ... well I am hoping it goes when he is born. We did make it to 36 weeks on Sunday so that means this coming Sunday will 37 weeks and he will be full term. I am getting very anxious to meet this little man and carry him in my arms or sling instead of my spreading hips!

Whee, Counting, and a Pain in My ...

Sophie's New Thing: Sophie loves to say "Whee". Sometimes it is very appropriate, as in when she is spinning in a circle or jumping off something. At other times it is completely random such as when we will be driving along and suddenly hear a "whee" from her in the back seat. She might be our amusement park rider one of these days!

Grace's New Thing: Yesterday, Grace counted to three for me several times. One. Two. Three. She always stops at three. I am thinking that maybe I count to three too much for when I want her to stop and listen to what I am asking her to do. Maybe I need to expand my counting so she will expand hers.

Little Guy's New Thing: Little guy has decided to be a pain in my HIPS. Oh my. This is a brand new level of pregnancy pain. Monday of this week I could hardly walk. I thought I was past it on Tuesday but apparently that was just a reprieve from the pain that I have encountered the rest of this week. If another person tells me I look I am due any day when I have 5 weeks left, I might just lose it. Oh and please don't tell me how big he is going to be based on my belly size either. Trust me, I am more than ready to be done but I know he has a little more cooking to do. So stay put little guy but maybe be a less of pain in your mommy's hips, ok?

Sugar, Sleeping Beauty, and a Little Guy

My Sophie Moment: "I'm Sugar". This is Sophie's newest catch phrase. She points to her tummy when she says it. Sometimes when you call her by her name, she will turn around and say "I'm Sugar" and won't do what you are asking her to do until you call her Sugar. The other time she says it is when she does something she is proud of doing by herself such as climbing the stairs to go to bed. We still wonder how long she will be Sugar but it does seem to be sticking for now.

My Grace Moment: "Sleeping Beauty" pronounced "Sleepin' Boooooty" has arrived at our house. While Mermaid is still queen, I do believe Sleeping Beauty is giving Mermaid a run for her money. Grace loves to show off Sleeping Beauty on her panties if she wearing a pair that has Sleeping Beauty on them. She also loves to announce that is what is on the movie. She got choice after her first dentist appointment last week (which she did really good going to with daddy!!) of getting a Sleeping Beauty doll or a Mermaid doll. Mermaid was handed off to Sophie and Grace kept "Sleeping Beauty". Sorry Mermaid!

Little Guy Update: I wonder how long I can call him "little". hmmm. I had a growth check ultrasound at 31 weeks, 4 days. His head measured over 37 weeks. His body measurements were 32 weeks, 4 days. All of that averaged out to a 34 week, 2 day (I think) overall average size estimate. His weight estimate at the time was 4 lbs. 9 ounces. The OB declared he should be 8 lbs. when he is born based on average weight gain between that appointment and expected delivery. I will believe that when I see it. Overall, his measurements were within "normal" so they were pleased and so were we! Now if only I can figure out to squeeze into these maternity clothes another 6 weeks. I am in the biggest maternity clothes I own already. These are normally the ones I break out the last few weeks so I am thinking these won't be fitting come 4 or 5 weeks from now. aye.

so what name do you have?

Grace's Moment: Last week, Grace had a break through and I become "Mommy". Brian became "Daddy". She still says mama and dada but she is tossing in the mommy and daddy more. It is too cute and sure made us feel special.

Sophie's Moment: Sophie is trying her best to say Grace's name. It normally comes out "Gra" or something like that. The other day I was trying to get her come downstairs after her nap and said "Sophie come on". She looked at me and said "I Sugar". She wouldn't come until I called her Sugar. Needless to say, she knows her nickname that Grace gave her.


Little Boy's Name: I have already shared but his name is Matthew William. Grace will say Matthew if you ask her. Sophie still won't say his name but does still like "bubba" when I tell her that Matthew is her little brother. He still has some time cook here but it will be interesting to see what name his older sisters decide to call him when he arrives.