Over The River and Through The Woods…

Today, I did what I thought was impossible: I fit three full-sized car-seats into the backseat of my Honda Pilot, without having to set up the third row seat (which is a real pain to get to anyway).
It was a scary sight and not necessarily the lowest maintenance way to tote children, but it’s good to know that I don’t necessarily have to lose my membership to the Minivan Holdout Club if, by quite the slim chance, Noah is hiding his twin brother somewhere in the depths of my belly.

At any rate, I took Ali, AJ, and Tessa over the river and through the woods to Gramamma’s house.

Okay, maybe it was more like over the creek…

But it counts.

Being the two least agile members of our day of fun, Tessa and I spent a lot of time together:
…which resulted in a lot of photos of her.

But she joined in the big girl’s fun as well, including the favorite pastime of Gramamma’s house, chalking, then painting The Big Rock in the Garden.

You would think they were having a miserable time…

But I think they just resented the photographical interruption.

Once they realized that smiling was the only way to END the interruption, they were much more amiable.

We then set off for a tour of the property in Gramamma’s Little Car,

Which ended at the creek.

The big girls kept Gramamma busy bringing them more rocks to throw in the creek,

An activity that AJ found to be the “MOST FUN THING EVER!!!”,

While Tessa and I sat, watched, and clapped for their big splashes:

Ali and AJ then explored the dry part of the creek bed with the sole mission of cleaning ALL the rocks.

Of course, Tessa wanted to join them. And she wasn’t unhelpful, either – from the looks of the back of her pants, she did a pretty bang-up rock-cleaning job as well.

It's The Yittle Fings, Part Thirty-Two

This one's just one, long, conversation...

Setting: Grocery store.
Specifically: The Dairy Aisle.

Ali: "Milk comes from Cows, Mommy!"

Me: "That's right!!"

(Basking in a moment of being impressed with her intellect about something I didn't remember teaching her.)

Ali: "So what animal does Apple Juice come from?"

(Okay, not as impressed)

Me: "Apple Juice actually comes from a FRUIT. Can you guess which fruit Apple Juice comes from?"

Ali: "Ummm......STRAWBERRIES!!!"

(All Impressedness is disappearing.)

Me: "No...think about it. What fruit does APPLE juice come from?"

Ali: "Umm....I'm thinking but I don't know."

(So much for intellect.)

Me: "APPLE juice. Listen carefully to what it's called: A-P-P-P-P-P-L-E juice. What fruit does it SOUND like it comes from?"

Ali: "I really just don't know. Will you just tell me???"

Me: "APPLE juice comes from APPLES!!! You hear it? APPLE juice --- APPLES. "

Ali: "OOOOH!!!"

Me: "So what fruit do you think GRAPE JUICE comes from?"

Ali: "Umm..... I don't know!"

Me: "We're going to have to work on your deductive reasoning."

Ali: "So what fruit does Coke come from?"

Me: "umm.....well....touche."

It's The Yittle Fings, Part Thirty-One

Chris and I play the off-brand of Scrabble, called "Words With Friends", on our iPhones with each other and several of our friends. We were talking about one of our games, and Ali asked Chris what we were talking about.

Chris: "I was talking to Mommy about playing Scrabble on our phones."

Ali: "It's CALLED Words With Friends, Daddy. And Mommy plays Mahjonng too."

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Ali is very original in her excuses as to why she can't finish her lunch sometimes... "If I eat all this Mac and Cheese then my tummy will have one hundred food in it and my tummy doesn't want to have one hundred food in it!!!"

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"I'm so very magical...and so beautiful."

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Ali, jabbering in the backseat... "I really, really, REALLY like Daddy. Daddy and Poppa and Nana and Gramamma and Pop and Amanda are my favorites."

Me: "What about me? Am I one of your favorites too?"

Ali: "No, you're just regular."

Me: "I'm not one of your favorites????"

(Long Pause)

Ali: "I think you're one of Daddy's favorites, though."

26 Weeks – 3rd Trimester, 6 Months.

...obviously the THIRD trimester is messing with my mind...since I labeled this post "2nd Trimester" and all...today is the beginning of #3!

Total Weight Gained: 11.8 Pounds.

Cravings: Milky Way Midnight MINIS. I bought a variety bag of mini candy bars at Sam’s and immediately became completely attached to the few Milky Way Midnights that were in the bag. I couldn’t find a bag of JUST Milky Way Midnights anywhere and was sorely afraid that I was going to be spending all of my money on huge variety packs of mini candy bars JUST to get the Midnights. But that was until I discovered that Mars’ website has a retail locator feature. AND that the only places you can get bags of JUST Milky Way Midnights are Publix and Target. Score!!! Now I’m in Midnight heaven.

Also still loving the Buffalo Sauce. YUM.

Aversions: The refrigerator that DESPERATELY needs cleaning out. I spend approximately 10% of my day re-fitting things into the fridge because there’s no room amongst everything that needs throwing out. But I’m determined that the fridge is like the cat litter – TOTALLY dangerous for the pregnant woman to clean out. I keep waiting for the Refrigerator Fairy to pay a visit – soon I’m going to have to resort to putting some moldy food under my pillow.

Random Stranger Encounters: On my way into Publix the other day to buy none other than Milky Way Midnight Minis, there were these two ladies getting out of a car across the aisle from me, talking loudly. Then they saw me, stopped talking about whatever they were talking about, and started talking loudly about their friend who was pregnant and was QUITE larger than she should be at that point. They continued to talk about pregnancy weight gain until we walked into the store together.

I must’ve looked deaf.

Orphaned Photos, Part Eleven

What a difference a week makes….

Last Week:

This Week:

THAT’S more like what a “First Week of Cubbies” photo shoot should look like…

Ali and I went to the Salon to get haircuts last week. As usual, she found the shampooing process to be 100% better than MY shampoo jobs:

Since it’s been a while since I last did an “Orphaned Pictures” post, I have some older ones…

Ali’s favorite part of my trip to Blogher was me coming home. Not because I was home, but because of all the swag I brought her.

She simply couldn’t contain her excitement about her new personalized Dora shirt and all of her highly-anticipated Play-Doh…

And the light-up ring was a hit, too:

We got new Leotards for Gymnastics this year, and they both came with overly-80’s coordinating scrunchies.

And, since Ali had no traumatic-scrunchy-fashion-faux-pas-associations like I do, she of course wanted to actually wear them:Total 80’s queen.

Ali helped Chris put together Noah’s crib and changing table. She was actually pretty good with all the tools:

And REALLY loved the end product.

Here were my four favorite pictures from tailgating:

And finally, Ali’s favorite Summer Fashion Trend:

I bet it’ll be all the rage next summer.

It's the Yittle Fings, Part Thirty.

I was drying Ali's hair with a towel, and apparently yanked on it too hard...

"Ouch!!! Mommy, it breaks my heart when you do that."

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"Issues" has become a major part of Ali's vocabulary...

She's also spending a lot of time trying to figure out how Jesus can be everywhere but she can't see him. Which led to this frustrated comment one day:

"Sometimes I have issues finding Jesus around here."

The other night before bed, she was thinking back to the night before and said, "Last night I had issues closing my eyes."

And then, one day in the car...

"I'm having issues back here!!!"

"What kind of issues?"

"Hair issues!!!"

"What kind of hair issues??"

"ROUND hair issues!!!"

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They have the gigantonormous chairs that I saw in the Sky Mall catalog at Sam's. Ali saw them and was amazed...

"WOW - that chair is NOT just my size!!!"

"It's not my size either."

"It's Daddy's size!!"

"No, it's bigger than Daddy too."

"That chair is GOD'S size!!!"

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And this one really deserves a post of it's own...

Chris was getting Ali ready for bed and had a bit of a loud bodily function...

"Wow Daddy!! Your toot was so loud it hurt my ears!!!! Do you have a picture of it??"

24 Weeks.

Total Weight Gained: 11.4 pounds. Sigh.

Cravings: Buffalo sauce is still so very awesome. SO very awesome. And on the spicy trend (I normally steer away from all spicy foods), I got nachos and cheese at the game on Saturday. WITH jalapenos. and ATE the jalapenos. And they were good. Which makes me look forward to the next game on Saturday…I might get extra jalapenos.

Aversions: Being awake. I have been SOOOO sleepy, and therefore sooooo emotional the last couple of weeks. Like seriously almost-can’t-function sleepy. I’m pretty angry that this second trimester has provided me NO extra energy spurts whatsoever. Also, housecleaning is a major aversion.

So yeah…it’s been a rough couple weeks pregnancy-wise, which really makes for a short update to cut off the whining before it gets worse. Here’s to the 25th week!!!