Today

Brynlee lost her 5^th tooth today. The little neighbor girl pulled it out. No kidding. She came over for a playdate after school and mid playdate-ing {so a word} Brynlee asked if she wanted to try to wiggle her loose tooth. Gross, right? Well, she took Brynlee up on the offer. She wiggled it just right and the tooth gave in. I think she was a bit shocked when she looked down and realized she was holding Brynlee’s front tooth between her two fingers. Poor girl was still a bit static and pale when the two of them ran to tell me what happened. I couldn’t stop laughing. Mainly because, gross. And also because, the neighbor girl pulled out Bryn’s tooth. I didn’t realize the tooth was that loose. I mean, it was looser than the tooth that she willingly sacrificed for tooth fairy money, but still.


::Friends: moments after the tooth pull::

In other news from today:

+ Today was a “Jake Day”. On Monday’s when Brynlee has school I spend the morning volunteering in her classroom. Brynlee loves when I volunteer.  And I love to volunteer. But, I think Jace loves it very most. Because to Jace volunteering means that Uncle Jake get to come over and play superheroes. Jace thinks he’s so cool. 

+ I did our taxes. Well, everything except stocks and ESPP; I’m still waiting on those tax forms to come in the mail. Is it lame that I get excited to do taxes? I really should have been an accountant, or at very least some sort of billing clerk. Paying bills, organizing paperwork, punching in numbers, documenting expenses. . . all that sort of stuff makes me giddy. {Don’t tell Spencer though. Otherwise I can no longer include it in my laundry list of annoying and time consuming chores that I have to do while he gets to go on business lunches and relax in front of the computer at work. My job as a stay at home mother is so.very.demanding and he needs to know that.}

+ Spence is in process of sheetrocking/taping/mudding our hallway {did I mention that I had to do the taxes today - sheesh I’m exhausted}. Turns out the guest bathroom toilet has been leaking. Who knew? Wish we would have discovered it prior to it ruining the ceiling below it, but ahhh well, if it’s not one thing it’s another I guess.

And for the record – JACE ROCKS AT SUNBEAMS. I mean, sure I’m his sunbeam teacher and never leave his side, but for a kid that only had three successful nursery runs his entire nursery career, rocking at sunbeams {in any form} is a big deal. Last Sunday he started crying because he wasn’t ready for primary to be over yet. Made me so very happy.   

::My Sunbeam::

Do you want to know what else makes me happy? Bed time.

I’m off.

News of the ultrasound sorts

Baby #3. Looks just like daddy.

So we had the ultrasound yesterday.

Here’s what I overheard:
+Daddy, our baby looks like Skeletor. {Brynlee}
+Ummm, why does the baby have no clothes on. {Jace}
+Dad, how can she tell if it’s a boy or a girl? {Brynlee}
+So, is our baby a boy, or a girl, or a butterfly, or a toot? {Jace – that little punk and his little boy potty mouth, seriously.}

Here’s what we learned:
+That there is only one baby.
+That the heart has four chambers and it is beating healthy. {Yea!}
+That the spine looks great.
+That my due date is June 15^th.
+And, that baby is measuring just as it should.

Here’s what we didn’t learn:

+The sex.

Little stinker sat on his/her feet the entire time. Well, except for about 30 seconds when he/she did half a backwards somersault with arms behind the head in sit-up position. But during that time the cord was placed perfectly between his/her legs. 

The ultrasound tech said that I was just going to have to wait for delivery for the gender discovery.

Um, right.

This mama can’t do that. I just can’t. It’s like trying to decorate for a wedding without knowing the bride’s wedding colors. Or trying to pack for a vacation when you don’t know the destination. I mean, sure it’s doable. But it seems like it doubles your work load. You have to wash and prep the clothes from the pink totes AND the blue totes. You have to come up with and agree on two separate names, just in case. Plus, I’ve never been a fan of green and yellow and smiling yellow duckies weird me out.
Like I've mentioned before, I wish a pregnacy test had a pink positive for a girl and a blue positive for a boy. So naturally I’m hoping to sneak a second peak in the next week or so. But until then, care to share. Did you find out the sex of your baby(s)? I’m super curious.

Expecting pink or blue?

 I’m twenty weeks now! I’ve {finally} reached that half way mark. Um, yay!

Which also means we get to find out the gender of our newest family member. Tomorrow. Excited, you ask? Absolutely.

In preparation I decided to take a little poll to see what ya’ll thought . . . blue or pink?

A couple details to help you make your decision:

+before I even knew i was pregnant my face broke out. mainly just my chin. zits, everywhere.

+i’m not certain if the heart beat is fast or not. a detail that i usually pay extra attention too {because my mom always asks}. this time i’ve just been overcome with excitement to hear a heartbeat, any heartbeat.

+i’ve experience morning sickness with all of my pregnancies, but this time around has been the absolute worst.

+i threw up every.single.day from week five to week sixteen {sometimes 2 to 4 times in a day}

+and although the throwing up has all but gone away I still get fairly nauseas during the evening hours.

+i overproduce saliva, it makes me gag.

+i can’t eat junk food. chocolate, sugar, juice, even chewing gum, makes me nauseas.

+i can’t do minty flavors. brushing my teeth is a huge challenge.

+water tastes like straight minerals. and I went through a period where I could only drink water during the nighttime hours when i woke to use the bathroom.

+chinese food, café’ rio, taco soup, and cinnamon rolls are all on the list of food that i may quite possibly never consume again.

+i haven’t had any major cravings this time around. although banana peppers, oranges {any fruit, really}, pickles and salad always taste good.

+the chinese calendar predicts that it’s a boy.

+i get nauseas if i’m hungry. snacking helps me make it through the day.

+i’m still in my regular clothes and i’m not really showing yet.

+if you didn’t know I was expecting you would probably just assume that i’ve gained weight. at a rapid rate.

+and i have gained weight. nine pounds so far.

+my baby bump is wide, not sticking out all cute but spreading from side to side?

+the baby is very active. mostly at nights. and movements are quick and clustered together.

+brynlee wants a girl, jace wants a boy. naturally.

+spence and i both agree on what we think the sex is and will be floored if we are wrong. {mainly because, we are never wrong!}

So which way you leaning!?

Boy or girl?

what's the gender of our baby

In which we self release her first album

A Christmas or two ago Spence and I turned on How the Grinch Stole Christmas for a family bonding night on the couch. Because nothing says Christmas traditions like willingly welcoming Jim Carey into your home. It wasn’t more than five minutes later that Brynlee ran and hid behind the couch. She WAS NOT a fan. We turned it off and deemed Christmas officially ruined. Or something along those lines, but slightly less dramatic.

This year {after watching the original a handful of times} Brynlee decided she was no longer scared and wanted to reattempt the new How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We searched and searched, but couldn’t find a single copy of the show for rent or purchase. So to appease an unwavering child I let her watch bits and pieces of the show on YouTube.

In process we clicked on a YouTube video of a little girl singing “Where Are You Christmas”. Brynlee was smitten. She watched it and rewatched it, over and over again.

Later that day she came to me with an idea that she’d obviously been stewing for quite some time. She was going to learn that song {every.single.word} then I was to “camera” her singing it while dressed in her prettiest Christmas dress with curls in her hair {clarifying: she was to wear her prettiest christmas dress, not me.}. Then she was going to need me to put the video of her singing the song on the same “computer spot” where that other girl was singing.

It was like her first hope for fame and celebrity status.

Within a day she had learned all the words to the song and was ready for her big break. But apparently I’m not cut out to be a celebrity publicists and I never got the video made.

But I decided that it wasn’t right to rewind and wrap up the Christmas season without recording Brynlee singing “Where Are You Christmas”. So today’s the unofficial release date for Brynlee’s first single. Naturally I’m going to need to start negotiating with the people to have only red M&Ms and sparkling cherry mineral water in her dressing room.

Which reminds me, I also need to ask for a dressing room.

A few things about the video:

+ Obviously she didn’t have on her prettiest Christmas dress or perfect ringlets in her hair. But I did try to keep the stain from the gravy she spilt on her dress during dinner out of the video so it’s almost the same.

+She sorta gained a lisp when she lost her last tooth. It makes me smile.

+Don’t ask me what that little jump in the middle of the song was. I guess a little five-year-old burst of energy.

+I realize now that I shouldn’t have recorded her right in front of the big, bright window. It makes it really hard to see. But again, I’m an amateur celebrity publicist. Plus, if she wants grade A work she’s going to have to start paying me a little more.

And as a P.S. Kate and Jake gifted the kids with their very own copy of Jim Carey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas for Christmas. And Brynlee was right, she was no longer scared.