Bump!

I am just as excited for this baby as I was for each of the boys. And I love seeing her grow, I do. With Tyler we took weekly baby bump pictures. With Carsten we didn't do every week, but we did take them throughout. But I've already seen myself growing twice, and this time I just never really took any. So 38 1/2 weeks later, here's my first baby bump picture. :-)

And just because these moments were so ridiculous, I think they should be documented. Every almost due pregnant person loves hearing comments like this, right?

Two weeks ago I went to Olive Garden with a friend and when the hostess was seating us she asked me if I thought I would fit in the booth! And then if that wasn't enough, when I sat down, she said, "Oh look, you do fit!" Was it that surprising? I'm not that big!

And last Monday Carl and I went on a date. First we went to a coffee shop for a bit and when we were ordering the person at the register commented on my baby bump. And then she said, "I have one too, but mine is so tiny!" Check back with me in 20 weeks. It will probably not still be that tiny. :-)

I also have a few more Tyler quotes. He says so many hilarious things, I wish I could remember them all. But here are a few we've written down.

Tyler: We went to the place with the bull dozers and we got to ride on one. And we slid off in the dirt and our faces got dirty. Do you remember that Mom?
Me: I don't remember that. Where was it?
Tyler: 4511 Road in Minneaopolis.

I'm pretty sure we've never ridden on bulldozers in Minneapolis, but I love that he even had an address for it. :-)

Me: Carsten, you're pretty cute.
Tyler: Why? Because he's not all the way cute?

Tyler is very interested in food lately. He talks about what food is healthy for our bodies and what food isn't, and he asks which foods on his plate have vitamins or protein. He likes to know which foods are the ones that will make him strong. Tonight Carl was trying to finish getting our bathroom painted and so the boys and I ate dinner without him. Carl joined us for dessert though.

Tyler after talking about the healthy foods he'd eaten: Daddy only had dessert for dinner. So he's definitely not going to get strong?

Anytime!

I am so excited to meet our baby girl! There were a few weeks where I was feeling like we had a lot of things to get done around here to get ready and like there was no way it was going to happen. We were still trying to get the boys to learn to sleep in a room together, we had her room to get ready for her and just some general organizing I was hoping to get done. And I was so exhausted and worn out that every night when the boys finally fell asleep I had nothing left in me to get any of it done. Thankfully, Carl is awesome and painted her room himself, and I had some sudden extra energy last weekend and got a lot done around the rest of the house.

Baby girl, we are ready for you!!

I still need to get little hooks to tie the curtains back. But that's the last thing!

I cannot wait to meet this little girl, hold her in my arms and kiss her little face! We can't wait to see how she fits into our family. We already love her so much and we're excited to see Tyler and Carsten meet her. Tyler is so excited. He's been telling people for awhile that she'll be here in a couple weeks, by his birthday. He has been praying for her continually. He is constantly thinking about me and the baby, praying for each of us to not get sick. Almost every time he prays lately he says some version of, "Pray for Mommy to not get sick and that Polly doesn't get sick." And even Carsten (although I know he doesn't fully get it) has been so sweet about her. He loves putting his hand on my tummy to feel her move and giving her kisses. And this is the most melt-your-heart moment ever. He was sitting next to me on the couch and he folded his hands and started praying. His prayers are never actual words, but they are adorable. Anyway, he babbled for a second and then stopped, pointed to my tummy and kept praying. It was so sweet. A few minutes later he sat next to me, folded his hands and started praying again. I asked him what he was praying about and he pointed at my tummy again. SO sweet! I have no idea how much he understands about a new baby coming, but he is praying for her. She is so lucky to have these sweet big brothers to look out for her. I just love their sweet little hearts.

Sometime in the next week and a half we are going to get to welcome her into our family and I cannot wait. Anytime you're ready sweet girl! :-)

These Two

I just love watching my boys together. They are becoming better friends everyday and it just makes me smile to watch and listen to them playing together. They are a team in almost everything they do. It is very rare for them to play by themselves. When they aren't actually playing together, Tyler is usually explaining something to Carsten, Carsten is imitating everything Tyler is doing, or they are happily tackling each other and giggling hysterically.

One of my favorite things is hearing Tyler say, "I'm going to teach Carsten about Jesus." His little heart is so sweet and he loves teaching his brother things.

I just have to point out the underwear Carsten is wearing over his pants. It adds a little funny to the sweetness of this picture. :-)

Underwear is a big topic of conversation at our house lately. Tyler got new underwear and he won't wear any of his old ones anymore. So he gave them all to Carsten and apparently now they are also hats.

My little drummer boys. :-)

They are both into dressing up lately. Tyler's costumes are usually pretty funny. Carsten's almost always involve at least four hats, although I guess I don't have pictures of that.

I found a kids exercise video on YouTube and they are obsessed. Every time they do it I can't help but sit and watch every second. They insist on changing into exercise clothes for it and they are so ridiculously cute doing it together that I can hardly stand it.

This is one of my prayers for them - that they will always be great friends. I love watching their friendship grow and I hope it lasts forever. They love each other so much. I can't wait to see how they are with their little sister!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday we had the best Valentine's Day. Having it on a Saturday is fantastic! First we got up and surprised the boys with breakfast at Perkins. They love going to Perkins so they were really excited.

Then we headed over to the Community Center for a morning of swimming. Tyler has been taking swimming lessons and had fun practicing his "swimming lesson tricks." And Carsten is such a little water baby. He has been watching Tyler's lessons every week and had fun trying everything Tyler has been learning. We all had such a fun morning together. It was a great way to spend our Valentine's Day!

After we got home and had lunch and the boys took their naps they got to open their little Valentine's Day treats. And they also spoiled me a little with a sweet card, chocolate and flowers. It was so fun to see how excited Tyler was to give things to us. He has such a sweet little heart.

And then we made cupcakes. Because is it really Valentine's Day without cupcakes? I don't think so.

They had so much fun decorating their cupcakes, and of course eating them!

I love these three boys. I am so lucky to have them in my life. I am thankful to be married to some one who is so kind and loving and I am thankful to be the mom of these sweet, funny and adorable little boys. This fun day is just one more reminder of just how much I have to be thankful for!

First Crush

I didn't think that we would be hearing about first crushes with a three year old, but I have to tell you, it is pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. On Tuesdays Tyler goes to Super Bible Club while I'm at MOPS. And there's an eight year old girl who helps in his room. He's talked about her off and on all year. But for the last few weeks when he talks about her he gets really shy and cute about it. A couple weeks ago he said, "So. I saw Elianna today." And then he hid his face in his shoulder with the most adorable little shy smile. That night he told Carl about her and I so wish I had that conversation on video. I can't even describe the cuteness. He told Carl he really likes her. He likes her because she is sweet, nice, so super fast and pretty.:-)

When he sees her in the hallway he jumps behind me and hides and even blushes a little. I don't think he ever actually talks to her because he's too nervous about it. But today he told me he said hi to her. :-) Big steps! I just love this boy and his sweet little heart.

I have a few unrelated Tyler quotes I want to get on here too.

"Mom, I'm going to pray to God in my bed for a new baby sister! When our new baby sister named Polly gets here, I'm gonna pray for another one!" That was a few weeks ago, but he told me the same thing today. That he really wants another baby after she gets here and he's going to pray for that. I hope he still feels that way after she gets here!

We used to do most of our grocery shopping at Rainbow, but they all closed and most were turned into Cub Foods. And Tyler misses Rainbows. The other day we were talking about how excited I am that a Hy-Vee is being built near us. And Tyler said, "Can we call the construction workers and ask them to build a Rainbow? I want them to build us another Rainbow. Why can't they?" He was really unhappy when we told him it doesn't work that way and we can't just call up the construction workers to build us a grocery store. :-) He wants to build and open one when he grows up.

At church on Sunday they learned about the last supper. But this was Tyler's version: "I learned about Jesus dying on the cross and the first dinner."

We have still been having some issues getting the boys to sleep lately. And at naps I've been laying down with Carsten to help him fall asleep. I realized one day that it had started to bother Tyler that he wasn't getting snuggled with during that time, which made me feel terrible. And that night when I was saying good night to him he said, "Mommy, I was shocked that you didn't snuggle with me. I was so shocked." And when Carl went in there he said, "Did you know that I was shocked that Mommy didn't snuggle with me?" At least if it's that shocking it must mean I usually give him enough snuggles, right? And I have been trying new ways of getting them to fall asleep so they both get all of the snuggles they need!

Showing off his big muscles.

Totally conquering Super Hero Training Day.

I just love this guy.

The Big Move

Up until now Tyler and Carsten have each had their own room. But we knew they would share eventually if we had another baby in this house. And now we are only a month away from that happening!

So a couple weeks ago we made the big switch. First Tyler moved up to the top bunk. He was SO excited! And then a few nights later Carsten moved in. Tyler had so much fun helping me organize his room, make space for Carsten's clothes and move it all in there. He was so excited to start sharing his room with his brother. I'm so thankful that he was looking forward to it and not feeling like his space was being invaded. I'm sure it could have gone either way. But these two love each other so much - they were both really excited. When we told Carsten he could finally sleep in Tyler's room, he just laughed and laughed and jumped right in.

He doesn't really look happy in this picture, but I promise he was!

Somehow I don't have a picture of Tyler in his new bed. I think because he just wanted to snuggle up with Carsten. :-)

Such a big boy in his big bed!

So how is it going? Ha. These two. The first night we put Carsten to bed first and were going to bring Tyler in after he fell asleep. But Carsten was a little scared in there by himself, so we brought Tyler in. And they talked until 10:30 before they finally fell asleep. The next night Tyler started whispering, "Carsten, get out of your bed. Climb up the ladder!" And of course Carsten listened. For two months he never once got out of his bed. But one night with Tyler and that quickly changed! After a couple nights we did start putting Carsten to bed first. He used to always fall asleep within about five minutes. But he was taking at least 45 minutes and Tyler just couldn't keep staying up waiting. So now we put them in at the same time and let them read in their beds for 15 minutes before turning off the lights. That was helping, but Carsten was still getting out of bed about every thirty seconds. Then earlier this week Carl pushed the music button on the monitor and it was like magic. Seriously. They just stopped everything. Nobody talked, nobody got out of bed. Carsten started swaying back and forth and then laid down and fell asleep, and Tyler was asleep soon after. It didn't work at nap the next day. But it has worked every night since. Not always as quickly, but it is going so much better! Our next step is buying some quiet music and a CD player for their room.

Naps on the other hand, are not going well. There were a couple days this week that I gave up completely and just put Carsten back in his toddler bed. But now it's been turned back into a crib and we are working on painting in there so that's not an option anymore. I feel like I've tried everything and the only way I can get them to sleep is by laying in Carsten's bed with him until he's asleep. Then Tyler is able to fall asleep once there's no one for him to talk to. A friend of mine gave me this brilliant idea to sit in there and read my Bible so they know I'm in there. I really thought that might work. And that it would be a more peaceful way to handle it than going in there every two minutes for hours. But I tried today and Carsten still just continually got out of bed even though I was sitting right there telling him not to. And Tyler kept coming down telling me he just wanted to be sweet and loving and give me a hug and a kiss. :-) I might try again tomorrow and see what happens. But today I gave up and laid down in Carsten's bed again. And he settled in immediately and they were both asleep in less than five minutes. I lay on my side next to Carsten and he lays propped up on my baby bump. It's adorable. He's going to miss that when it's gone. He falls asleep on it everyday, loves to feel his sister move, and today he discovered my tummy makes a great ball ramp. He spent the Super Bowl sitting next to me on the couch rolling balls down my stomach. :-) Anyway, all that to say, bed time is gradually getting better and better. But naps still need a lot of work. They have four weeks to figure it out before this little girl gets here. I really hope they get it before then, because they both need those naps!