Life is a Bowlful of Cherries...

... and they are in season! Yum. I can't get enough.

On the Contrary, it's Quite Complimentary

As I was in the shower the other day, Samuel came into the bathroom and asked me, "Mommy, are you not taking a shower?"

No, Sam hasn't picked up some sort of Elizabethan speech pattern. Since he turned 3 last summer, he has simply been in a stage of being contrary.

His being contrary has manifested itself in many ways over the year. Sometimes we can get him to do things by teasing him, saying he can't really do it. (smugly, "oh, I guess you're not putting on your pants because you don't know how.") Or we'll get him to eat his dinner by threatening to eat his ourselves. Hopefully we're not being too manipulative, since he knows we're teasing.

But the way he has been contrary lately is all about questions.
He'll ask me something
("Why can't we take the Corolla to the park instead of the van?")
and after I answer
("Because the air conditioner is broken in the Corolla")
he'll follow-up as if I had answered with the opposite response
("But why is the air conditioner not broken in the Corolla?").

What?!

I try my take each question seriously, even the hard and annoying ones. I try not to lie, even if I do with-hold information sometimes. But this drives me crazy! Thank God I have a sense of humor.

However, Sam has also recently become extremely complimentary. The other day I had my hair in a certain headband that he liked, and twice during the day Sam said to me, "Mommy, your hair is so pretty." I hadn't even washed it that day (which is why it was in the headband). He sent me the following email today with Mike's help:

Dear Mommy,

hhhghhhfgmhrhgghhefjhhhrehifeuugheruyfyjfkkjfyfgfgghhfhhgjgjjghgygjhjyhgrh
tryu8iru80fsouyhouhgtytguhotutyyyjjyjhhjhjhhmhh,h,,lvvipyqfPHTWH9G;HEH
OEGRHJPORGHJGJGJGKJGJLGHGIJFJGJGJGJGJGJYJGHHMMDKPKK.

Mommy, we love you!

Hfhghhgjhjfhkhkkhklhhjkjjjojgjhjphpjhkrgkgpkgkgn.

You are a great mommy!

Gfghghjfhfhghghjgbjjitkgjgjgjjhjhkbfgjgjjjjshghghgjhjhjhjhjhjhnvjkkkckckccckjb.

Hey, you are good, mommy.

Love n td ftdfgfggfofdhhgkbbhghghhlgkgnbhjjfjgjfhfffjfjtyorlggdsggagsbbmm

Sam

Makes your heart melt, doesn't it? Oh, well, at least it would if you were me.

Introducing Baby #3

At the end of April we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we are expecting our third child! He or she is due mid-December. Here's a picture of our 14 week ultrasound:

(Baby's head is at the left.)

Since this is my last baby, I figured I'd document as much as I can. Here's the most current belly picture at 16 weeks:

Here is my 15 week picture when I was pregnant with Sam.

Aparently my abdominal muscles are not what they used to be! Sigh.

It's all worth it. Really. :)

Sam has lovingly named the baby girl (he insists its a girl!) "Egypt". He came up with that on his own.

For some reason, he thinks that instead of pink and blue, yellow is a boy's color and white is for girls. I asked him what he would do if the baby turns out to be a boy. He said, "I'll get lots of yellow things!"

Catching up

I spent part of the morning organizing my pictures from the last few months. Here's a sample:

In April Mike and I had a chance to see the Nationals. It was a very cold, wet night, but we had babysitting and really great seats so there was no turning back. We had tons of fun!

Levi had his first birthday on Easter day, April 8.

On Mother's Day we took brunch to the grounds of the national cathedral. What a beautiful day!

My sweet boys

A chip off the old block -- Levi loves our espresso machine. Every time we use it he's right there wanting to be in the middle of things.

Another chip off the old block: Sam "leading worship" with Daddy.

Sam and his little friend Symon, ready to take on the summer!

Abandoned

I'll admit it:  I abandoned my blog.  I actually had to get an email from blogger.com to find out my forgotten password!

When a friend mentioned that she always enjoyed my "quarterly blogs", (I had intended to write once a week or so) I realized I was at a point of decision.  Would the blog live or die?  Here I am, and the blog lives on!

A lot has happened in the past 4 months.  Here are the details in brief:

• March:  Mike was gone for a week during spring break.  We were having huge problems with Sam's preschool teacher, and decided to transfer him to another school.  Along with it, Sam hit a really rough behavioral patch and parenting wasn't very fun.
• April:  Levi had his first birthday on the 8th!  Sam's new preschool was light years better than the other location.  Even better, he went back to being the happy little guy I've usually known him to be!
• May:  My period was late, and I shockingly realized that I was pregnant again!  After a few weeks of getting used to the idea, we realized how happy we were about it.  
• June:  We went through a few days of adjustment after preschool was over.  Now we're enjoying our summer together.  Levi has been completely weaned for about 2 weeks - yay!  I'm 16 weeks pregnant, due mid December.

So those are the highlights.  Look for more details and pictures to come.  Or maybe I'll just start from here.  Either way, I've come back to blogland.