Beach Trip Before Baby

We wanted to get one more quick beach trip in before baby brother is born, so with me 37 weeks pregnant, we packed up on a Saturday morning and headed to Cannon Beach. Despite a sketchy weather report, it never rained and we were all in t-shirts by the end of the day. The kids played and played—as did their daddy as he found a place to help them make a dam(which they did for literally hours). I sat and dozed and watched. We ate good gluten free meals and headed to the candy shop for way too much sugar at the end of the day. Great final memories as just the four of us! (and also a good time celebrating Ben’s 31st birthday!) The traditional sand castle making Seth was very into making his pathway Filling up the moat Seth, Sam, pregnant mama with the finished product I was trying to start a tradition of a yearly beach jumping picture. Fail. Getting 2 four year olds to jump simultaneously isn’t an easy feat Kids love water and sand…and somehow can ignore the freezing temperatures! After lunch we drove to Arcadia Beach, a couple miles south of Cannon Beach. We LOVE this beach as it’s sheltered from the wind and has some fun exploration areas. Seth, Daddy, Sam Sam Seth

Covering a dead crab with sand The wonderful dam Seth, always his tongue out—just like his mama Sammy My beautiful afternoon view

Swim Lessons 2.0

I know it’s not seared in everyone’s minds as much as mine, but last years’ swim lessons were difficult, to say the least. The boys cried at 4 out of the 10 lessons and I never got to sit in the bleaches with the other parents. I just finished reading about it again here http://benjamiemorris.blogspot.com/2012/10/swim-lessons.html and am definitely feeling REALLY good about how lessons went this year!

After much deliberation, I decided that going every day for 2 weeks was probably the best approach for Seth and Sam. I’ve heard that they learn quickest this way, and I also thought it would help them not have the initial daily anxiety they had going Tuesday/Thursday. On the way to the first lesson, I told them that now that they are “big 4 year olds” I wasn’t going to sit by the side of the pool, but would be up in the bleachers with the other parents. And I also made a point to tell them “how much braver they are now that they’re four.” Their separation anxiety has been much better, and I was about 50% hopeful for no tears.

We arrived, walked to the pool, the teacher said “hi” and the boys froze, stuck to my legs. “Here we go again,” I thought, “Ugh.” I went for tough love/bribery approach—great parenting, right? I told them to obey, and get in the pool, and if they did it without crying they could have skittles from the vending machine afterwards. After some coaxing, they both got in…and I walked away. That’s when the screaming starting. BLOODY MURDER “Mama!!!!” from Seth. I kept walking to the bleachers, hoping he’d stop. Sam wasn’t crying, but also wasn’t letting the teacher touch him. After about 5 minutes of the screaming, I had had enough. Here’s either one of my best or worst parenting moments to date: I walked over to Seth,  gently grabbed his little face and told him, “You don’t scream. You can still in here and cry, but you can’t scream. And if you continue to scream I’ll take away your legos for the rest of the day.” Oh boy, no legos, that got his attention. “I want to play my legos,” was his response. “Well, you better stop screaming then,” and then I walked away. And he stopped screaming.

That’s the extent of our drama for this years’ swim lessons. Day 2 arrived, they didn’t cry, I gave them each a handful of skittles from the vending machine (which gave them both stomach aches for the rest of the day from all the sugar—again, great parenting). Day 3 came and Sam and Seth were already plotting that this time they’d get m & m’s for not crying. I bribed them with swim goggles at the end of the 2 weeks if they continued not crying. It worked, they got their goggles which they want to wear (incorrectly) all the time now. Hilarious.

I felt like they learned a lot this year. They are such earnest learners, trying to keep their legs straight as they kick and their chests out of the water as they back float. They enjoyed their teacher and would even laugh and tease with her. By the end, they weren’t even looking to the bleachers to wave at me—which was wonderful and sad all at the same time. My little boys are growing up so much! Seth, Sam Standing…freezing…at the wall Seth Sam Seth, Sam wearing their goggles

Peaches, Papa, and the Portland Saturday Market

We’ve been busy—really busy! We’re trying to squeeze in as much “fun stuff” as possible for Sam and Seth before baby comes and has to eat every three hours. It’s been great for family time, but a little hard on this mama’s swollen feet. However, I’m keen to do as much as possible these days hoping to go into labor (baby is officially full term as I hit 37 weeks yesterday)!

One evening we met the Willard’s at a wonderful little orchard to pick peaches. It’s such a great place because all their trees are dwarf trees, meaning that they are short enough for even the boys to pick! I’ve found that it’s hilarious bringing Ben to pick with us, because he’s so task orientated that he picks TONS. This time, before I knew it, we had loaded 62 pounds of peaches on our wagon and I was wondering what I was going to do with them all! Luckily the days got a bit cooler and I was able to can 13 jars! This is the size of all the trees at Bell’s Orchard—they have peaches, pears and apples all in dwarf trees!

 

Seth, Sam testing the peaches out to make sure they were good

Ben and Wesley That’s a whole lot of peaches! And it really only took us about 10 minutes to pick! Beautiful canned peaches!

Last weekend my dad came up for a quick visit. We haven’t gotten to see him much this summer and the boys were craving some Papa time! We wanted to do something fun on Saturday, so we thought riding the max town to the Portland Saturday Market would be a good adventure. We ogled all the art work, odd people, flowers, and homemade goods and then ended our time by eating lunch at a food pod downtown. Seth, Sam and Papa checking out the river International section of market All kinds of food! Pulled pork salad, Asian food, a hot dog, and a gourmet grilled cheese. We ended the day with specialty popcorn drizzled in chocolate…yum, yum. The max ride home

Update

With only 4 or less weeks of pregnancy left, I figured I better journal a bit on our life right now. Pretty soon things are going to be MUCH different around here with a very tired mom and a newborn!

How’s pregnancy at 36 weeks? Big. Tiring. But not too bad. I’m at that stage in pregnancy where every one around me always jumps in to help me. It’s wonderful: at the store the other day I swear the checker was going to insist that I get help out—and he placed about 3 items/bag. So silly. Someone on the max this weekend saw me come into the train and immediately jumped up to give me his seat. There are perks to late pregnancy!

Around 30 weeks I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes (I had it with the boys, so the chances of me getting again were pretty high). It’s a big pain to have: I have to check my blood sugar levels four times a day, regulate my food even more than I already had to with food allergies, and I don’t get to indulge in the best fruit season. On the bright side, in order to keep my sugar low I have to eat barely any carbs, no sugar, and take a walk after every meal; this, thankfully has the positive side of me not gaining any more weight. Baby, however, is still growing rapidly. Also around 30 weeks I measured BIG, so big even that I had to get a growth ultrasound to make sure baby wasn’t too big. As cool as seeing ones baby on ultrasound is, I was quite annoyed by having to pay for another ultrasound: of, course I’m big—I had twins last time! Sure enough, baby apparently had his legs stretched out entirely, while babies at this stage usually are curled in a ball. Since then, my growth has slowed down. The BIG comments have not slowed down, however. My neighbor Joyce says something about my size EVERY time I see her (which is close to every day). “How much longer!? You’ll never make it that far! You’re not much smaller than you were with twins, right?” I texted Ben one day to tell him that I could endure pregnancy, but not Joyce’s daily comments. No tact.

Baby continues to move around like every day is a party. He’s my “little rascal,” and I’m guessing he might be a bit more of a spitfire than Sam and Seth. I’ve taken the boys to my last two check-up appointments, and they’ve gotten to hear babies heartbeat. Sam likened it to a jet, and Seth to fireworks. They are excited for baby brother to come. Baby brother doesn’t have a name yet, but it is narrowed down to two. His room is close to being done, I just need my mom to come next week to help me sew a crib skirt and sheets. I’d be happy if I went in to labor anytime now!

I’m excited to read to the boys while they are on my lap and to get rid of this enormous bump!  

Seth and Sam continue to be a daily joy to our lives. They are full of energy and talk constantly to anyone who will listen. They are very active, yet able to sit still really well; they still aren’t going into Sunday School during church and will sit quietly all through the hour+ service (if we can keep Sam from asking questions through that time.) They are imaginative and creative. I’ve been joking with Ben that if we end up homeschooling (we’re not sure what we’re going to do yet), I’m going to have to hire out math teaching, because they are very mathematical minded. They are already doing simple mental addition quickly and easily. For example one boy will say, “Four plus four equals eight,” and the other will pipe in with, “So does 3 + 5!” It is quite fascinating for me to watch them learn math concepts with little or no effort in teaching them. They are doing better socially and will actually talk to other kids at the park, etc. They are getting more adventurous and are really into “hill bombs”, i.e. riding their bikes down the hill on our street as fast as possible (thanks a lot for the idea Uncle Nate).  They make everything into jets. In this picture the horses are the wings, the bin the window shield, and the sword is the top wing. They still love planes.

Jets again (Sam, Seth) Seth is totally off his acid reflux medicine and hasn’t complained of a stomach ache in a month! Praise the Lord! He loves to laugh and is really into making a lot of “Ha!” “Aha!” noises that crack me up. While he used to lag behind Sam a bit in being able to make things with directions and legos, I think he’s now passed him up. I feel like this has happened before—where Sam learns things fast and furious, and then Seth comes slowly behind him and does them a bit better in the end. Seth has also turned into our daredevil and will peddle furiously down the hill while doing “bombs”, while Sam takes it pretty safe. Sam is a very persistent child. He believes he can argue his way into anything (which is NOT going to happen). For this reason, Sam and I butt heads more. However, if Sam knows he’s not going to see me for awhile, he stay real close to me and cuddles a lot; he still wants me to get in bed and cuddle with him every morning—and I’ll take that as long as I can! He’s more touchy and physical than Seth and LOVES to wrestle with his daddy.  He is CONSTANTLY asking questions—so very curious! And now he’s starting to questions anything Seth says with, “How do you know?” His sentences to Ben always start with a drawn out, “Daaaaadd,” and end the same way; this was cute…at first. I came outside one day to this: Seth’s drum set. Hilarious. I love the look on his face. And if that’s not funny enough, Sam was sitting next to him playing the piano.

Oaks Park

Six dollars for 2 hours of kiddie rides—yes please! The neighbors that live behind us have been telling us about Oak’s Park (an amusement park in Southeast Portland) for a year or so now, and we just haven’t gotten there. But thanks to Legoland this spring we know how much the boys love rides, so we knew we needed to get there. Then we were told about a summertime deal where you can buy bracelets for the kids for $6 each and get unlimited morning rides on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So my neighbor Cheri and I put a date on the calendar for all the boys to go together. She was so gracious to go on the rides with all the boys since they won’t let a pregnant woman ride (like I could fit anyways!). Sam, Seth, and Brandon had a blast! Cheri was such a trooper! Sam, Seth (most of the pictures of the boys on the motorcycle featured Sam trying to look at the underside of the motorcycle. When I showed them the pictures, I asked Sam was he was doing: “Trying to figure out why there was two d’exhaust (their name for exhaust) pipes on it when there isn’t supposed to be on motorcycles.”) I love how serious Seth was about steering the vehicle Seth and Sam—notice how Sam is looking the wrong way AGAIN. This time his explanation was, “I was looking behind me for deer.” Call me a stalker, or a groupie..that’s ok. But those of you who look at any of the blogs on my sidebar, you’ll recognize that this is the Pittensbarger triplet family (not the blond kid—he’s an innocent bystander). I had wondered if I’d ever run into them because they also live in the Portland area. And I have to admit I was SO excited to see these little cuties live and in person. I even said “hi” to the mom and told her that I follow her blog (yes, groupie!). She always has such a positive attitude about being the mother of identical triplets and was often an inspiration to me on days where I felt like I couldn’t do it with “only” 2 (compared to her 3!). She even blogged about her trip to Oaks Park here: http://pittsenbargertrips.blogspot.com/. Oddly enough her two boys wouldn’t look at my camera, and I had enough decency to not be overt in getting their attention. Sam, Brandon, and Seth (who’s cracking me up in the picture! At least its not a fake smile!) Hopefully we’ll do this one more time before summer ends! Such a good deal!