Another Day....

Well, I hope Grandpa Lowell, Uncle Chuck, Auntie Nikki, Uncle Nathan, and Uncle Mark are enjoying Clarence Przekwas and his knowledge, love and expertise of the bovine species today. 

We're missing our little farmer.

He and Adina spent the night at Nikki and Mark's last night.  They love sleepovers with Nikki. :)



(This wasn't last night...it was the last time when just Clarence slept over.)

Anyway, Nikki and Mark brought Adina home this morning before heading to the farm.  I saw Clarence for a few brief seconds.  He had two missions to accomplish before leaving our house this morning: he had to quickly check for fresh eggs, and he had to come in and get his cow book, complete with a purple and yellow marker (because my dad has yellow tags and Nikki has purple tags - he needs to correspond the correct number with ear tag color).  He did that, gave me a quick kiss and was  out the door.  He's having a blast, I'm sure, and being a huge help.  And probably talking non-stop about his cows at home and which cow had a heifer and which  cow had a bull....it goes on continuously.

Adina's been kind of quiet today.  She watched a movie, then played play-doh.  Then I talked her into going out to help Matt for a while, to give her something different to do.  I told her she could take a treat with her for the tractor ride.  She ran into the kitchen and came back carrying five suckers.  Matt asked if he could have one.  She said, "No, dese hor ractor."  She did decide to share one, but the rest all went into her coat pocket for the tractor ride.  I came out of my room from laying Clifford down an hour ago and found her sleeping on the couch.  I hadn't even heard Matt bring her in.  She's still sleeping...

I've got piano lessons here in just a little bit, so the kids will be going to daycare while I go.  Adina loves getting to go and play with her friends at daycare.  Clarence doesn't mind going, but if he can stay home, he does.  He's got so much work to do, you know.

Clifford was baptized last Sunday.  He was such a good little boy the whole day and looked so perfect and darling in the baptism gown....(the gown was mine and my siblings when we were babies, brought over from Sweden for us from my grandparents).






Family pictures are fun, right? :)



And this morning, Matt came in and said that a heifer had calved, the calf was doing great, and he went out to check on things now and she'd layed on her calf.  That's such a frustrating thing! The cow's got plenty of  other places in the pasture to lay down, and she chooses to squash her baby.  GRRR! 

At least the weather seems to be warming up a little, right?

Off to get the kids ready for town.....see ya later!


And this was the kids on Easter at my house....fun times!

Alive

A week or so ago, someone posted this on facebook.  I thought it pretty much fits my life right now, so I did, too.  And, I think it's pretty funny, especially when people post about everything they accomplish in a day, and I look around at my toy-strewn house....

So, Moms who claim to get it all done in a day, (plus have a clean house, fresh-baked bread, bathed kids, and still time for yourself), how do you do it?




Most days, I can manage to feed my kids, wash a load or two of clothes, pick up through the house once (but not twice or three times), sometimes bathe them before bed, and sometimes get my own shower.  I can shove Clarence and Adina outside for a while...Clarence will stay there for hours; Adina will last about 20 minutes.  During that time, Clifford usually wants me, so I accomplish nothing. :) 

At the end  of nearly every day, I look around my little house, discouraged at the mess that is constant.  Will they ever learn to pick up after themselves?  Will I have to remind them every single time until they do learn to do that?  Will there ever be a minute where I can sit down and really not have anything that is yelling my name...kids, laundry, dirty dishes, a dirty floor? 

At the end of every day, at least I know my kids are  happy, healthy and alive, and that I am blessed.  Someday they'll be big and more help, I'm sure.  And someday I'll want these days back again. 

Calving in a Winter Wonderland

As always when we send the bulls out in late June, we're hoping that the following spring will be nice and warm, high and dry, and full of healthy, hoppin' newborn calves.

Well, the healthy, hoppin calves is what we have.  The rest, not so much....as every single one of you knows!

I'm not going to spend the whole post talking about the weather, because there's not a darn thing we can do about it.  However, it's sure nice when the weather's like it was last spring for calving compared to how it is this spring. 

Yesterday, I watched Matt and Bob doing chores for a little bit.  They were going in to feed the calves.  Matt had to unhook the bale processor from behind his tractor, get in front of the tractor pulling the mixer wagon, and pull that tractor through the calf pen to feed the calves.  Sounds like a lot of progress, huh?  Yuck!  I don't know what he's going to do to feed the calves this week...I'd just dread feeding them if it were me.

Matt's now experiencing what it's like (for me) to have a new baby in the house.  What I mean is: I had a baby in January and have been up at least one or two times every single night since then.  We had our first calf the middle of March, and he's been up at least once every night since then, now, too.  Now we both know why we're pretty tired each day.  Oh well...it won't last forever.  Matt's dad has been over the last two weekends to help out.  It's been really nice of him because Matt really needs extra help out there since we still have all this snow, and I have the kids in the house...at least the two youngest.  Clarence lives outside these days. :) 

On Easter, Clarence talked my brother, Nathan, into moving his little fence panels over by the barn with the little square straw and hay bales.  He's been out there every day since then setting them up, pail feeding the heifers right beside his pen, and dragging a bunch of dry straw bales from inside the barn out to his pen.  He told Matt that they'll dry out this summer....no big deal.  He spends hours outside. I look out the window and see him carrying a bucket in each hand full of oats, carryiing them over to his pen to feed to the heifers that have calved right by his pen.  That pen of heifers is special to him because his heifers, Dolly, Regan and Andi all live there, as well as Regan's calf (which is a black bull calf....totally the opposite of what he wanted, which was a red heifer calf.  Regan is red, so he was hoping she'd have a red heifer calf...then he could keep it next year and name it.  But, since he got a black bull calf, he didn't name it and he doesn't want it.) 

Clarence is all business when it comes to living on the farm.  I asked Matt today if Clarence could stay home with him when I go into piano lessons or if he wanted Clarence to go to the sitter.  Matt said, "He can stay home if he wants."  I told him, "Clarence doesn't farm to live, Matt...he lives to farm."  It's so true, too.  Anything and everything about him has to do with cows.  He carries a little black book around with an orange, blue and green marker.  Every time Matt comes in the house, Clarence asks, "Any new calves, Dad? Write their numbers down for me." So, Matt or I will take the book and depending on whose cow calved (Matt has blue tags, I have green tags, and Clarence has orange tags), we use the correct color marker and write down the cow number and her calf's number.  It's so adorable. 

So anyway, we're making progress on the house, but not much these days.  Matt finished our bedroom last week, so we're getting used to sleeping in a bigger room with huge windows.  It's beautiful, too.  I just love my new bedroom.  Thanks, honey!

Adina's been doing well.  One minute she tells me I'm her best friend, then another, I'm not anymore.  She picks out her own clothes, puts on her own undies and pullups, wipes herself, but when it comes to helping me do something, she'll say, "I can't".  She's got Cinderella almost memorized, right down to what the birds say to Cinderella at the beginning.  Talk about movie overload, I guess.  I'm thinking she'll be out more and more as the days warm up (at least I think the days will warm up, but maybe not before the first day of summer!).  She does ask to go outside, and she'll play out on the hill or with Clarence or in the mud, then come back in.  She likes coloring - sometimes.  She can walk in high heels better than I can, and she loves wearing makeup and dresses and looking like a princess. 

Clifford is perfect.  He smiles, eats, sleeps, and does it all over again.  He's just a wonderful little boy, and growing so fast.  He's three  months old today.  Yesterday was his baptism at church.  It was a wonderful day, and we had a bunch of family come and celebrate with us at church.  He looked so handsome in his baptismal gown.  He likes our new bedroom now, too, since that's his room right now too.  Now he doesn't have to take naps on the couch wondering if he'll be jumped on, poked, or be woke up by a yelling or crying sibling.  He's so relieved and sleeps so well in there.

As for me, I'm just trying to enjoy every minute of Clifford's baby stage.  With the other kids, I'd try and prop a bottle, let them cry in their seats a while, or just leave them be, but with him, I don't.  I pick him up, we talk, cuddle, smile, and don't get much work done.  But I know that next year at this time, he'll be walking and not little anymore.  And I'll miss it.  And there will always be work to do....

Well, off to take advantage of naptime.  Have a super day!

So What Else Is New?

1.    This...the picture below.  Clarence lost his first tooth.  Matt's brother, Mike, brought over two snowcats last Tuesday hoping he and Matt would be able to go for a ride.  Instead, he took Clarence for a ride around the yard.  As they were going (very slowly) down the ditch, Clarence let go of the handlebar to point out a cow to Mike, and his head flew forward.  And out came his tooth.  He was bawling when he came in the house, because it hurt, because he'd lost his tooth, and because there was blood everywhere.  For a day or two, he didn't eat much, because he said he couldn't because of his tooth.  Maybe it hurt a little...I don't know.  Anyway, here he is, with one less tooth in his mouth.  And I don't think he'll get a new one until Kindergarten or 1st Grade, the usual time kids lose teeth and get new ones.  Sometimes I forget about it, then he'll start talking to me.  I almost start laughing because it looks so funny. :)






2.   Matt was sick all last week.  At first I made fun of him, saying he was being a baby and such, but on Thursday he woke up and told me he needed to go in to the clinic.  We got there and he had some tests done.  He had strep and his tonsils were huge, so huge, in fact, that the doc was surprised he could swallow.  So much for me giving him a little grief! :)

Thankfully Mike came over Tuesday (when Matt was really starting to feel sick) and helped do chores that day and Wednesday.  And since he wanted to enjoy part of his vacation at home, he went back to Roseau Thursday morning. So, that evening, I made a "tractor rat" out of Clifford and got him acclimated to the tractor.  He was perfect....a true rancher already.

3. Our calves are leaving the farm on Thursday.  We're counting down the days....chores just seem to take forever these days!  It's at least 3 1/2 hours if Matt does them by himself, and he feeds six different pens each day.  Anyway, yay...150 calves are leaving the farm!  Clarence even gets to skip school to help load them on the semi.  He's pretty pumped.

4. Clifford had a really good night two nights ago.  He went to bed at 11 or so, woke up at 4 for a snack, then slept until 7 or 7:30 (until the bigger kids were too loud and he couldn't fall back to sleep).  I wish every night could be like that.  In time, I know it'll happen.  I just want it now! :)

5.  We went sledding at our neighbors' house yesterday for Sunday School.  It was so much fun for the kids. Most of the kids there were preschool age, and they all had a blast.  Matt brought his snowcat over and topped their afternoon off with rides all over the yard. 

6.  It was my six-week appt. in Grand Forks today, but I cancelled it due to this darn blizzard.  I was really looking forward to a day with my hubby and just Clifford! Oh well...hopefully we can plan it again soon.

7. The house is making wonderful progress.  While Mike was here (and Matt was sleeping), he so graciously tiled my downstairs shower.  It's lovely. I can't wait to finish it up! 
Matt put wood up on the ceiling in the hallway and entry, and it looks so pretty.  Now he needs to do our bedroom, although he thinks we'll run out of wood. 
We have a working toilet on the main floor - one of the things that's so exciting.  In fact, every time my Grandma asks me about the addition, she judges our progress by whether or not we have a toilet.  I know
the stairs are hard for her to climb up to the bathroom, so now she'll feel more at ease about coming out for a visit. 
Someday I'll show you pictures, but I don't think that day will happen until I have a new computer, so be patient...the new computer will happen before summer. :)

Have a fabulous evening!

Pictures

Hello again.

I haven't been able to upload pictures on here in forever because of the incredibly slow speed on my computer. However, we were in Roseau visiting last weekend, and I was able to take pictures and put on facebook with Carmen's ipad.  So, here are pics from facebook of my family (sorry if you've already seen all these!).




Meet Clifford Dean.  He'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow.  Where has the time gone?  He's been my easiest baby so far....actually, they were all really easy; I just seem more comfortable and feel like I know exactly what I'm doing now.  Except that life is three times busier  than it used to be. :)  When one is hungry, the other one's crying, and the other one has to pee.  And this is the cycle that continues all day long, except for the occasional argument between Clarence and Adina.

He's a sweet, darling little boy.  And very loved. 



This is one of the three hats that my aunt has made for him.  I just love these darling little hats; they're perfect for his tiny head.  And he looks so cute in them!


We  were in Roseau celebrating Uncle Mike's 34th birthday.  The kids had fun helping him blow out his candles.


Clifford and Grandma Carmen were having quite a conversation, and he was smiling like crazy.  It was fun to get a picture of it!



Here's another:




And here's one from the hospital to show how much he's changed:




And a huge thank you to my friend, Katrice, for the darling pictures she took of Clifford in the hospital.  I love them!

Delicious Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Yesterday, the kids and I spent the afternoon baking.  Matt was out cleaning out neighbors' yards, so I had to entertain them myself for the afternoon.  I decided baking was a good way to pass the time.  They always love to help me bake something.  First, we made banana bread; they both love banana bread so much.  I usually put most of my banana bread batter into muffins because it's so easy to give a kid a muffin rather than cut into a big loaf.  Also, it seems like muffins last a little longer than a loaf.  Anyway, after we'd made those, I decided to try a new recipe.  It's one from pinterest, and the recipe comes from www.shrinkingjeans.net.  I doubled the batch, added the full egg (rather than just the whites), added raisins and nuts, and they turned out great.  I also didn't have any whole wheat flour, so I just used regular. I'll definitely be making them again!

Here's the recipe:

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup nonfat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg whites (I’ve used EggBeaters)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
raisins or nuts (optional but I haven’t used either yet)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Soak the oats in milk for an hour. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Combine the oat mixture with the applesauce and egg whites, and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients (except the cinnamon and sugar) together. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Add nuts or raisins if desired. Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough. Spoon muffin mixture into muffin pan. Combine the cinnamon and sugar and top each muffin with some of the mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done. These can also be frozen and reheated in the microwave for a quick breakfast.

Number of Servings: 12
Calories: 92
Fat: .5
Protein: 2.9 g

Dear Children,

Dear  Clarence and Adina,

I've been wanting to write you a letter for a while now.  I want to remember how fun you are and to tell you what you like to do these days.  We've been spending a lot of time inside because of baby Clifford.  When we first came home from the hospital with him, we were just focused on getting through each day, trying to figure out how to handle a baby, as well as a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 year old.  You spent a lot of time under the card table (that holds my sewing machine) playing.  You'd hide in there and play for hours...you said it was your house.  You also watched a lot of disney movies...Daddy would wake up with you guys in the morning and put a movie in so you'd be quiet so I could get an extra hour of sleep.  It worked sometimes. :) 

Now we're sort of figuring out a new routine.  Clarence, you're back into playing with your farm and animals all the time.  I love how you always ask me if you can play with your animals....absolutely! I love watching you and how you think, how you haul your animals around to different pastures or off to get butchered.  You understand farm life so well.  You also like to go out and help Dad feed cows once in a while.  You haven't been going out as much because it's been so cold.  However, on the nice days, it's fun to go out and play on the big snow hill Dad made for you or go out and work in your pen.  Last week, we worked calves.  Clarence, you were right out helping push the calves through the chute.  I love watching you....you're fearless. That part scares me sometimes.  You need to have some fear when working with the cows.  But I love how you know exactly what's going on and you don't quit until the big guys do.  I also love how much you love your new little brother.  You always want to kiss him and hold him.  Lately you've had a little cold, and you're so sweet and careful not to kiss near his face.  You kiss him on the back of the head and haven't been holding him as much because we don't want him to get sick.  So sweet!  And yesterday, I was upstairs and Clifford started crying.  You grabbed his bottle and started feeding it to him.  You're such a big helper!

Adina, you mostly just love life.  You're pretty easy-going most of the time.  The rest of the time, you're incredibly stubborn.  I love watching you pack your purses full of bracelets, necklaces, toy dishes, food, lip gloss, and baby accessories.  You're 100% girl.  I don't know where your love of makeup came from...probably Auntie Nikki.  You haul all your "stuff" around the house in purses.  You love holding baby Clifford for 15-second intervals.  You put him in your arms, talk really sweet to him, say, "I love you, Baby Clifford," kiss his head, then hand him back.  I get a real kick out of how much you like to dress up, do your hair, and put makeup on.  Then you pucker up your lips and talk about how pretty you are.  Another thing that makes me smile is when you are in a good mood and you're walking somewhere; instead of walking, you kind of skip/gallop with one arm in the air.  It makes me smile every time.  You sleep by yourself most nights, except when you wake up from a dream or if your blankets fall off and you get cold.  Then you'll come into our room and get Daddy, and he'll always go and sleep with you for a while. 

You two are such fun kids.  We love seeing how your personalities are developing, and we hope to help you grow into kind, loving, helpful and respectful kids.

Love, Mom


Dear Clifford,

You're going to be five weeks old tomorrow.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  You've been such an easy-going baby so far.  You're still not that good at sleeping long stretches through the night, but that's okay.  I know this won't last forever. :)  Someday, I'll get a little more sleep.  Last night, you woke up at 1:30.  Daddy fed you a bottle, then layed you down in your cradle thinking you'd fall right to sleep.  Then he immediately fell asleep. You didn't, though.  Nope.  You cried. I woke up.  And we were awake together until about 2:45.  I wasn't real impressed, but at least you're cute.  That helps make up for losing sleep in the middle of the night. :)

You're sure growing fast, too.  You're getting nice, chubby cheeks, and a lovely little double chin.  And you're growing right into all those 3 month clothes.  It makes me sad how fast you're going to grow.  I've already been talking with Clarence about his farm and how by next year at this time, you'll be making a mess of all his animals and pens.  It makes him a little nervous, so we've already been planning a different "safe" place that he can set things up where you won't be getting into them.  I hope to enjoy all the time we have of you being a little baby, because it's going to go so fast.  I am excited, though, for a little bit of nicer weather, so we can all go out and play outside together.  Some fresh air would really do this momma good!

Clarence and Adina think you're great, which I love.  Clarence wanted a brother so bad....I only hope he's as glad to have you in 4 or 5 years as he is right now.  Adina wanted a sister, but she's adjusted to a brother, and it doesn't seem to bother her a bit.  Clarence tells her every now and then that next year we can have a girl.  We'll see, Clarence.  Your siblings love to hold you, kiss you, and pat your head.  Most mornings, Clarence comes in my room and asks how you are.  He just loves you to pieces.

Thanks for being such a good little baby.  You're such a wonderful little blessing to our family!

Love, Mom

Fun for the kids

We went to ECFE last night at school.  Both Clarence and Adina just love it.  It gives Clarence a chance to show off his classroom, his cubby, and what he gets to do at school.  It gives Adina a chance to get acclimated to school and what she's in for next year when she starts preschool.  She absolutely loves going to ECFE...it's her chance to be a big girl at school.

Anyway, last night, Clarence's teacher, Miss Jaime, had some worksheets for the kids to do.  There was a website at the bottom of the worksheets, so today, I took some time to check it out.  It's awesome!  There's tons of free printable pre-k activities for kids ages 2-5.  I downloaded about 6 different pre-k packs, ranging from Christmas activities to fall to birthday.... and I can't wait to print some of them off for my kids.  Just wanted to share with you in case you'd like some of these activities for your own kids!  They'll love the practice, and you'll love that it's free!

Go to: www.overthebigmoon.com  and click on free printables.  From there, it's easy to find what you'd like to download for your own kids.  Enjoy!

Life as a Family of Five

Well, as you all know, we went from being a family of four to a family of five on January 15th.  Life's been going great since then, too, in case you're wondering.

I've had several people ask me, "What's it like going from two kids to three?"

My only answer is, It's an adjustment, and we're slowly figuring things out.  However, it's not as hard as I was really expecting. 

(Maybe that's due  to the fact that: Clarence and Adina just adore Clifford - there's no jealousy whatsoever; my husband works here at home, so I can sleep in if I need to; we've been getting meals from loving and caring friends and church members since we came home from the hospital; our families have been great at helping out - especially right when we got home; I can just be home and figure things out - as do most new mothers...we have a few weeks to adjust to a new routine before going back and trying to fit our old routine in with the new one.)

There are only two real things that make it hard.

#1: It's winter; my other two kids have too much energy to be cooped up in the house all day with me. :)  So, Clarence has been helping with chores a lot, and on the days where the weather is tolerable, I send them out to play, even if it's only for 15-30 minutes...at least they wear off a little energy trudging through the snow.

#2: Going anywhere. It's a chore. I start planning the night before how to go about my morning.  When should I wake up, when should I get myself ready, then the two older kids, then Clifford, then worry about pumping right before we go so I'll have a bottle for Clifford while we're gone.  Our outings have gone okay, it just takes a lot of planning - and help....again, I'm thankful Matt's home with a flexible schedule!


This morning, I sent Clarence and Adina out to play.  They've been inside way too much lately, and they need to play outside and work off their "winter bellies".  So, out they went, quite happily.  Matt's made a big snow hill right out the front door that they like to climb on and sled down.  They did that for a little bit, then walked through the knee-high snow over to Clarence's calf pen. 
From here, I lost sight of them.  So, a little bit later, I went out to check on them and make sure they were okay and safe.  I found them out in the barn, safe, but Adina was crying.  She was crying because when they were over at Clarence's calf pen, he'd told her that he heard a big buck and that it was coming.  So they went to the barn.  Once they got there, her glove fell off, so her fingers were cold.  I calmed her down and told her that bucks don't come in the yard when it's light out - because they don't like people.  She didn't really seem to believe me.

That's when Clarence said, "This morning, I heard a big buck down north.  There was a timberwolf chasing it." 
(Ok, Clarence...thanks. I'm glad you're so good at hearing big bucks. :) )  Apparently this is what he'd told Adina, so she was scared the buck was coming to get her. She told me she'd come in the house with me and help me "make hupper".  Such a nice girl!


And, as for Clifford, he's a great baby. We're sure blessed to have such good, healthy babies.  There were a couple nights he decided to stay up with me and just look around, wanting to be held, but we've seemed to figure that out now.  I try to keep him up during the day for two or three, one to two hour stretches, so then he'll sleep well for the night.  It also helps to give him a bath before bed - it seems to make him sleep better.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not really getting tons of sleep yet, but we're slowly figuring the sleep part out.  And, surprisingly, even though the lack of sleep was one thing I was dreading the most, my body just seems to adjust to the lack of it and I don't feel overly tired...thankfully!

Well, hopefully now I'll get back to more regular posts....hope you're enjoying the beautiful, snowy day!

Adina's Mothering Skills

So Adina received a whole pile of babies for Christmas.  Each time she goes up for a nap or bed, she makes sure all the ones she can find at the moment are in bed with her and nicely covered up with blankies.  One of her favorite babies, though, is a tiny little one she got that goes with a stroller.  It's not even a baby with a hard head and a soft body, like all the others; instead, it's a baby with an entirely hard body, and quite a bit smaller than her other babies.  Anyway, she loves this baby the most right now.  She'll drag the baby, the stroller, the bottle, and two little cardboard boxes that came with it all over the house - upstairs for nap, downstairs after nap, out into the addition (like Matt wants to see her baby and accessories), all over the house, and back upstairs for bedtime. 

Yesterday and the day before, she was wanting to wrap baby up in her tiny taggie blankets.  I usually help her do this so baby gets nice and tight; otherwise, she gets frustrated and will just throw the baby because it'll fall out of her blanket.  She'll wrap the baby up, grab the bottle, then start her "mommy-bounce".  It's something I haven't even thought of...it's been so long since I've had a baby to sit and bounce.  But she'll just stand and bounce/rock her baby, saying, "shhh, shhh", then give it a little sip of the bottle she's holding, then, bounce, say "shhh, shhh", and just sit and smile at me.  It's darling.  I wonder where she saw this?  Maybe at Wendy's house?  I truly have no idea...we haven't had a baby around the house for her to see me "bouncing" yet.  Anyway, it made my day. :)

_____________

Potty Training Update:

We're making some progress.  She always likes to poop on the potty, because she doesn't like the feeling in her diaper.  The last two weeks at least, she's pooped every time in the potty (except when she was ice fishing with Matt and he had to bring her outside for her business).  Sometimes I do have to bribe her to sit on the potty because if I ask if she has to pee, she'll say, "Yater, Mommy".  Then, she'll have an accident later  on.  So I try and bribe her to sit every couple of hours if we're doing well.  One day we went out to help with chores, and she held it for almost four hours...I was really nervous she'd have an accident in the tractor (because I sort of forgot to put a pull-up on her before we went outside, and she was left wearing undies), but she did very well and went right when we got in the house. 

She's also starting to figure out when she has to actually go pee.  It's taken a while, but she can tell right before she has to go, or she'll tell me as she's going (which we then have an accident, but I still feel like it's progress because she's acknowledging that she's peeing and really wants to be on the potty doing it). 

So, we've made a little progress....hopefully when I'm in the hospital with baby next week, Grandma Juli and Grandma Carmen will be able to keep up with pottying some.  I don't expect them to sit and train her, but I don't want her to go backwards, either, so I hope they'll work with her a little bit.

____________________

Bob and Mark came over last night to help with house stuff.  At 4:30 this morning, all three finally went to bed.  They'd finished laying flooring in my hallway and part of my bathroom.  I'm so excited about it! It looks wonderful! Now all I have to do is varnish my wainscoting and Matt can get that hung up in my addition.  Progress is slowly coming together.  My office is nearly ready to be moved into - Matt just needs to hook up the outlets and put trim up.  How wonderful!  I'll be moved in before baby comes (I think and hope!).  Yay!

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It's been really hard to clean the house up to get ready for baby this time around...mostly because I don't know where to put things.  I need to go through and just pick up and vacuum and whatever, but I don't feel like I can really organize anything in preparation because of my mess out back.  Oh well...hopefully Matt will just help me do it when the time comes.  So if you come to visit us when we get home, sorry for the cluttered mess everywhere!  I'm just trying to be patient until I have room to spread the clutter around. :)

Other than that, though, I think I'm ready for this baby...I don't sleep very well, and I'm so sore all day long.  I feel like an awkward stiff old person moving around.  Yesterday I made banana bread and lunch with the kids, and just standing in the kitchen for over an hour made me all stiff.  It was hard to get moving around again.  I'm just plain ready for baby.  Tuesday is the day....come see us if you want!

Have a fabulous weekend!