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This week we remembered what we love about living in the south & about our home, specifically.  Temperatures remained above 80 all week, even hovering near 90 at times.  So with the cover, the pool was holding steady in the 80’s, too!  The kids swam almost every day after school & for a couple of hours today.  Jack had 2 buddies over, Margaret had a girlfriend over, and Will had a smile that could NOT be wiped off his face! 

Here’s Will getting some of his confidence back with help from Daddy:

Margaret doing a happy dance – then getting thrown into the pool by Brad:

Jack in the midst of water gun combat:

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. . . . between swimming in the big pool & playing in the sand box – he is in HEAVEN!!!!!

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Our morning rush is over, and Will has settled down for a little nap  before we pick up the big kids from school.  I just wanted to post a quick update before I head back to work tomorrow & the craziness begins. 

Today was my 28 week check with the OB.  Everything is going well.  The dr. insists that baby is head-down, and I actually believe he might be right this time.  Little #4 moved so much & so aggressively on Friday that I think he decided to make the switch & possibly be the first of my biological babies to potentially cause me to labor at some point.  The dr. found Baby’s heartbeat at the very lower, left part of my abdomen today.  In the past the heartbeat has always come from the top, right. 

Ready or not, my due-date is only 12 weeks away.  It was time for me to get a Rhogam injection.  Will was with me for my appointment, and when the nurse came in with the needle, he ran around the corner & covered his ears!  The nurse & I both laughed.  I called him out & asked him to kiss my ouchie on the band-aid that was already in place.  Will was so proud that I did not cry! 

So as of today, I am registered at the hospital.  The baby has a crib, complete with sheets & a beautiful nursery set.  (Thank you to Linda, from Hope, who handmade & donated a complete cowboy-themed nursery ensemble for our Will & Baby.  You are an angel!)  The blankets, onesies, and burp cloths are out of the attic & in the process of being washed.  Step-by-step, we are getting ready for little brother.  Thankfully, Will did not have a fit about the crib being put in his room.  Instead, he is asking to play baby — laying in the crib, sucking his fingers & making coo-ing noises. 

Between the kids and myself, we have doctor appointments scheduled every Monday (and sometimes Fridays) for the next 8 weeks in a row.  It is exhausting & frustrating & expensive, but necessary.  I feel like all I do sometimes is deal with doctor & therapy appointments! 

I found this cute photo that my mom took on Easter.  I know you will love it!  Will LOVES to play with umbrellas.  Of course, I usually need to buy a new one after he gets his hands on mine – but it brings him great joy to walk in the rain with his umbrella . . . so enjoy, and try to imagine the throaty laugh of his that goes along with that priceless smile!

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Congratulations to Big Will, who is now officially measuring on the American growth charts — making his debut at a whopping 4th percentile for height!  We’re still not on the chart yet for weight.  But when you’re 4-years-old and wear a 2T size clothes, what can you expect?  Whereas last year the pediatrician was cautioning me to watch Will’s diet in fear that he would gain weight too rapidly (he even mentioned the words childhood obesity – huh?), this year he was pushing me to serve a high calorie diet along with nutritional supplements.  Let me tell you, Will eats WHAT he wants to eat, WHEN he wants to eat it.  Even though I am pretty conscientious about what I offer Will to eat, if Will isn’t in the mood for the selection, he will gladly go hungry. 

So the big news for Will was 4 shots.  Yuck!  He was NOT happy about that, but handled the assault from Nurse Wendy fairly well.  Like his big sibs, he gets his tears out & gets over it.  Thank goodness!  The big news for Mama is that 3 different nurses all received irregular readings when performing Will’s vision screening.  We were referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist for further investigation.  My instinct says that Will’s eyes are fine – the nurses just have trouble because his eyes are so dark, so tiny, and so deeply set in Will’s head -  so we are just going to have a routine eye exam done by Margaret’s optometrist.  If  she finds anything out of the ordinary, we will follow up. 

It was an off day for both of us.  The shots had Will feeling a bit puny.  The baby was doing some pre-natal acrobatics that were uncomfortable for me, to say the least.  It rained all day, too.  But we finished off the evening with a walk in the cool spring air and some serious puddle stomping that lifted both of our spirits. 

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What a blessing to have my mom here with us for Easter.  She arrived on Good Friday – Will and I picked her up from the airport while the big kids were still at school.  Later, Margaret nearly knocked her over as she ran out of the school doors and into Grandma’s arms!

The kids had been (impatiently) waiting to color Easter eggs all week.  I boiled 3 dozen eggs so there would be plenty for everyone.  Thankfully, Grandma was available to snap photos while I stayed busy keeping Will from decorating the entire kitchen, instead of just his own 12 eggs.  Margaret & Jack really enjoyed writing on their eggs,  blending colors, and applying a more artistic approach to their process. 

On Saturday, Grandma, Will & I headed to the baby store.  I wanted to test drive some strollers & car seats for both the new baby & his soon-to-be big brother.   The sudden realization that Will was riding in a 10 year old car seat had me in a hurry to replace it with something newer & safer.  If you know me, you know that I am a car seat FREAK!  No exaggeration!!!  It honestly hurt my heart to disassemble & cut the harness straps on the convertible seat that has protected 3 of the most precious things in my life for the last decade.  But Will’s new ride is SWEET, and the big kids actually seem a little jealous of their little brother.  

Easter morning dawned rainy & cool.  We were up early for church – and of course because the Easter Bunny had stopped by.  Jack was up first, as usual, and had Margaret up with him scoping out all the hidden eggs before anyone else would even consider waking up.  They were good sports & left lots of easy eggs for Will to find. 

After church, all three kids indulged Mommy & Grandma for just a few minutes & we took some shots of them outside in the drizzly rain.  The boys, who like their mommy, just cannot wear dress up clothes had settled on dressing alike in their "God Rocks" t-shirts.  (Super-cuteness!) And Margaret looked like an angel as she matched her American Girl, "Little Margaret".  She was way more than willing to pose for the camera. 

Grandma was scheduled to go home Monday afternoon.  Well, as we were on the way out the door for the airport, we discovered that her flight was canceled.  So we got to spend one more wonderful day with Grandma before she finally headed to the airport at 4AM Tuesday morning.  The flight home . . . that’s a whole new story for my mom to tell.  She did make it home eventually & we miss her already. 

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