Buzzzzzz

In honor of our unseasonably warm weather, guess who got a summer haircut?

Me!

Mom thinks I look pretty cute. And she thinks my hair is so sweetly soft. She keeps rubbing it, anyway. Someone tell her to stop that.

Just DON'T Do It

DO NOT attempt to try on clothing at Target (yup, that's right, I'm a big spender), with two young children accompanying you to the fitting room. Master attempted to open the door, crawl under the door, and eat the plastic card indicating the number of garments taken into the room. Miss loudly exclaimed her approval or disapproval of the dresses I was trying on, much to the entertainment of the other patrons in neighboring fitting rooms. ("Oooooo, you *must* buy it. You could dance all night with the PRINCE in that dress! You must, you must!!")

Master then topped off the whole experience by pointing at me and laughing hysterically when I had my clothes off. Not good for the pregnant woman's self esteem.

I think I'll attempt to recover by making a snack . . .

Adventures in Hospital Tours

Tonight we toured the hospital where Peanut #3 will be born. The tour was wonderful, because it was brief and to-the-point. The hospital looks wonderful because it has gigantic labor and delivery rooms with private bathrooms (including tubs and showers), and it has great big *private* postpartum rooms. When Master was born, we were placed in a semi-private (translation: *not* private) postpartum room. This was beyond unfortunate, because Mr. could not stay with me overnight. Is it humane to ask a woman to push out a 9 pound 4 ounce baby, and then require her to care for said baby alone, overnight? No, I say, no it is not.

And so, we were quite pleased with our evening tour. To add to the excitement in the air, we chose to bring the children along, as the brochure said that they were most assuredly welcome. And welcome they were, and welcome they apparently felt. We were the center of attention throughout the tour, starting with the waiting time in the lobby, when both of the littles decided to do their best impersonations of baby kittens. At the top of their lungs. We smiled at all of the people staring at us, and quietly urged Miss to give the kitten routine a rest. Master does not respond to such pleas at this point, and therefore was a lost cause. Then, as the tour progressed, Miss designated herself as the official director of the elevator, and bragged to the assembled throng that she is "very, very good at pushing buttons."

Miss also entertained the group by jumping up and down for joy while explaining that she is going to have *another* baby brother. She ended her speech on this point with an emphatic "Goodness, gracious, sakes alive!"

We weren't sure if everyone was laughing with us or at us for having a third baby on the way. In any event, the tour was not dull, and Miss did not want to leave the hospital at it's conclusion.

Catching Up

The last weeks have been full of fun and activity around the Peanut household.

We greatly enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandad. Miss was especially thrilled to continue her tradition of looking through Grandma's purse at every possible opportunity. She inspects every *single* item, down to each individual card in Grandma's wallet. She requires poor, patient Grandma to tell her (for the umpteenth time) what each individual article is. Then, she places each item back into the purse, only to start this ritual over again. The unfortunate side effect of this activity is that Miss has been chastising me, since Grandma left town, about the fact that I don't have an Auto Club card. She has recommended that I remedy this perilous situation as soon as possible.

Miss also received her first bike as a birthday present from the grandparents. She was overjoyed and now just has to learn how to peddle it. Being the neglectful parents that we are, we never purchased a tricycle or anything with peddles for the poor child. And so, she has to start at square one. Unfortunately, she isn't a very patient student at this point, and will only peddle for a very brief time before exclaiming, "Give me a break!" or "It's no use!" and storming over to sit on the front porch. She really wants to be able to ride around the lakes, though, so she has some motivation to keep trying.

In addition to the purse and bike excitement, we also enjoyed a day trip to Red Wing, land of shoes and pottery, and various other jaunts around the Twin Cities. A very good time was had by all.

Spring has definitely sprung in the Twin Cities, as was evidenced by the appearance of a lone tulip in my flower bed this evening! I am hoping that more will follow, but I know that many of my bulbs have been dug up and eaten by ravenous squirrels. Annoying little rodents!

The littles are thoroughly enjoying the warm weather, and we are trying to spend a good amount of time outdoors. The simple opportunity to sit on the grass and run around the backyard is beyond exciting to them right now. We are seeing our neighbors for the first time in months, and are enjoying catching up with them. It turns out that one neighbor is pregnant and due within two weeks of my due date. Master is loving the playgrounds at the park, and is attempting all sorts of heart-stopping, death-defying feats on the various equipment. Miss is also enjoying the park, and is loathe to leave for home when the time comes. She made another mom laugh pretty hard the other day, by responding to my instructions to head for home in her usual, dramatic way.

Me: It's time to go, now. You can go down the slide one more time.

Miss: Oh, please! Please! I just can't go!!

Me: Go down the slide, and then come climb in the stroller.

Miss: (*HUGE* sigh) Very well.

Down the slide she went, and then took a sad, sad walk over to the stroller. If only play time could last forever.

A Sweet New Stage

As I ran hither and thither around the house today, picking up toys and scattered objects of various kinds, I paused to appreciate the sounds in our home. Specifically, I was enjoying the sounds made by two children happily playing together. As Master's verbal and motor skills increase, he and his sister are spending increased amounts of time playing with each other.

Lately, they have begun to close themselves into Miss's bedroom, turn on a CD, and just play. They laugh, they squeal, they jump around. They look at books quietly, they play with puzzles, and then they laugh and jump around some more. Miss is the queen of all things imaginary, and she assigns roles to her brother in her various made-up worlds. She creates obstacle courses with books and toys, and they take turns running through them together. I will often open the door to check on them, only to be greeted by Miss running toward me saying "It's OK! We're OK. We just want to play!" The door is then unceremoniously shut in my face.

But, she is right. They are OK. They are having a great time. There is no adult in that room to interfere, to tell them how to play, or to try to direct their activities. Since becoming a parent, I have found myself feeling more and more convinced that unstructured play is really very important for our kids. I am thrilled to see them growing and developing the independence to pursue it. And I am thrilled that I can *gasp* sit down for a few minutes, drink some tea, and listen in from afar.