Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Baby fever is hitting our house. Between me being unable to move, the kids' excitement for their new brother, the chores and errands to get ready for the new guy, and the general disbelief and entertainment for all at my HUGE stomach, very little time goes by around here without talk of 'the new baby'. Mallie has been the biggest proponent of helping me get ready. She has helped me haul boxes from the attic, do laundry, fold laundry, organize toys and put things away. She is THRILLED that this is happening and is definately going to someone I rely on in a big way in a few weeks. I am so proud of her maternal instinct and tender little heart. She genuinely loves babies, and I am very happy that she's going to get her very own soon! :)
Annie is also excited. Her last words to me every night before I leave her room (through her pacifier) are, "Mom, can I hold the new baby when he comes out of your tummy?" It's definately on her mind. She will go one of two ways when the baby comes. Either I will see her flourish and become a real big sister who is proud and excited to help. Or she will regress and have a hard time with me dividing my attention. We shall see. And Jack, will get a kick out of this baby for sure. But he will probably be disappointed with how little he will be able to do at first and a little impatient with me, since he is expecting to play a huge game of baseball with me upon my arrival home from the hospital.

The Easter season was enlightening for Jack this year. He had a hard time with the living stations of the cross they saw at school on Good Friday. He told his teacher that he cried a little bit when they nailed Jesus to the cross, and she told him that she cried a little bit too. He spent a lot of time thinking about Jesus' death, almost to the point of me wondering if we exposed him to too much. But he really has an interesting way of thinking things out and a definate spiritual side that helps him understand more about that subject than other kids his age.

When Mallie refers to 'the next thing' i.e., the next Christmas, her next birthday, etc., she calls it the third. Tonight she asked me how old she will be on the third birthday. She's been talking about 'the Third Christmas' since the day after Christmas. Between this and her 'yesternight' phrase, she has her whole time sequencing vocabulary figured out! :)