About time...

Well, I decided that it's about time to put an end to this unintentional silence. I hate the first post after a long lull. It's extremely daunting to try to sum up a period that kept one so crazy-busy that she couldn't even put together a blog post. So I've decided just to write what comes to mind and move on with my life. (Sound familiar? That's because I wrote essentially the same thing here the last time I was trying to get things re-started. Apparently that's how I roll. :))

Well, here goes...

Most obviously (especially to those who have seen me recently), I am now 23 weeks along with Little Rodriquez #4. This has been my most difficult pregnancy, by far. I was horrendously sick from about week 8 until somewhere between Thanksgiving & Christmas and so was pretty useless for awhile there. Poor Seth had a hard load to bear between all his normal duties and mine. Now that I'm past the sick phase, however, things are humming right along with no complications. We found out 3 days before Christmas that we will once again be breaking out the headbands & hairbows for a Baby GIRL, which was quite a surprise as we unanimously thought it was a boy. Poor Benj had his heart set on a brother. He cried when we told him. :( He got over it that same day, though, and is excited to have another little sister to protect. The other night when we were giving hugs & kisses before bed he hugged and kissed my belly and said, "I love you, baby sister. It's going to be a happy day when you come out to see us!" That happy day will be sometime in early-ish May.

In October I somehow mustered up the oomph to make Benj a birthday cake (he turned 6 which, for some reason, really threw me for a loop) and participate in his chosen birthday activity, a family trip to Dinosaur World.

We celebrated Halloween with a "first" -- we actually carved our pumpkins this year! (A luxury that Ph.D. life couldn't really afford.) Leila surprised me by having a definite opinion about what kind of pumpkin face she wanted. We designed our faces here and when we put the mouth on her first creation she said emphatically, "No! Scary!" Benj decided to be a fisherman complete with an enormous cardboard fish on the end of his new birthday fishing pole. Talia & Leila both dressed up as Raggedy Ann in dresses made for me by my mom when I was their ages. :)

We enjoyed a visit with my mom in early November. She came to help me get my house & life back in order since I was starting to feel better at that point. She was a trooper, helping me with all my laundry, dishes, and various projects like our massive seasonal clothes swap-out.

We had a quiet family Thanksgiving, which turned out to be a super relaxing day! We had invited several different families and groups of people to join us, but it seemed everyone already had plans this year. I really didn't want to have a sad, whimpy Thanksgiving so I decided to go ahead with a full feast. This was the first year I have ever made everything myself! It was a lot of work, but so worth it! As an extra perk, Benjamin was able to eat everything this year since I made it. I'm not sure he appreciated the significance, but it made my Mama heart happy anyway. :) Thanksgiving morning we each shared 3 ideas of things we would like to do during the day and put them on slips of paper inside a little bag. We took turns throughout the day drawing activities from the bag and doing them. We played with Legos, started a puzzle, played with the Lite Brite, sang Thanksgiving songs, did a Thanksgiving craft, and lots of other fun activities throughout the day.

Our Christmas season was fun but very, very full. A little too full, truth be told. :) At the risk of sounding grinchish, I was honestly glad when it was all over this year. That's not usually like me, but by December 26th I was ready to move on! We enjoyed a fun after-Christmas visit from Seth's parents. We had a relaxing few days with them, taking a few little field trips here and there, but mostly just visiting and enjoying each other's company. (No December pictures downloaded yet.)

We are now over halfway through our school year, which is going very well. Benjamin is making great progress in reading, handwriting, and math. Talia is enjoying her own preschool work as well. She joins in with Benjamin for reading with Mama, weekly science experiments, and other fun  activities such as language arts games. Leila has taken a renewed interest in her tot school activities (we took a break for awhile since she seemed happier just playing nearby) and has now mastered the art of buttoning/unbuttoning, stringing Cheerios, and matching shapes. She is working on recognizing her colors by name and one-to-one counting. We are hoping to finish our school year just a couple of days before the baby is born!

With the new year came a new burst of second trimester energy for me. I have been attacking my project list with a vengence!

Just after the new year began we moved the kids' bedrooms around. The girls are now sharing a room (and a queen sized bed) in the basement. The transition has gone surprisingly well. Leila has embraced her new "big girl" status with an air of responsibility. She is staying in bed well and the girls don't seem to be keeping each other awake at night like I feared. Benj, who has shared a room with Talia for as long as he can remember, was a bit lonely after the transition. Partly to help him feel like he was gaining something by having a boy bedroom all to himself and partly because the location seemed more logical, we moved him to Leila's old bedroom. He got several new "big boy" items for Christmas so it is nice timing for him to have his own space. Just after we finished moving the rooms around Leila came wandering over to me one day asking "Mama, where's my spot?" Not sure what she meant, I coaxed her to explain more. She elaborated: "Benjamin took my spot!" Poor babe. I reminded her that she had a new big girl room downstairs. She seemed happy with that and hasn't mentioned it since.

Our latest project has been potty training Leila. It's a lot of transition for one little girl, but there's only so much time before this baby is born. The potty training is another story for another time. Meanwhile, I feel purged and ready to start blogging again. :)

Thanks for reading & TTFN,