Lunch

Natalie and I each just had a half a PB&J with homemade blueberry jam and a half with homemade peach/strawberry jam. Yay for Popo's jams!! We love 'em!
Joanna had a big 'ol salad. Seriously! I was so impressed. She said she didn't really want it, but that didn't stop her from eating quite a bit of it. Hey man, when you won't eat PB&J and your mom refuses to cook anything since it's so hot, your choices are limited. :)

22 Weeks

As usual, no pic yet. :)

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

How far along: 22 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: back pain, constant hunger :),

Food Cravings: chocolate, cheetos, fruit

Sleep: good!

Measurement: inches

Movement: Lots!

Labor signs: none 

What I miss: not thinking of anything right now

What I’m looking forward to: ummmm… I guess the next doctor’s appointment.  Oh, I know!  I’m looking forward to getting the kids’ room painted. 

Milestone: I wore my maternity support thingie this weekend for my back.  Whoa it’s too hot for that.

Thoughts from the Girls: I may have already posted this; not sure.  I’ve decided I want to use Joanna’s quilt that Mom made for Baby Brother’s crib theme.  Joanna is totally on board with passing it down to him.  I’m so proud!

Doctor’s visit: not this week

A June Weekend

We finally made it to the real pool.  I first had to go hunt down pool bracelets, which fortunately was easy to do, even though I didn’t fill out the form way back in April like I was supposed to.  :)

I did not go by myself, nor do I think I will this summer.  Gran went with us.  It was still hard work!

The kiddie pools at Elm Grove pool are pretty cool.  There are three: 1ft, 1 1/2ft, and 2 feet.  We may head to a different pool next time though.  Natalie doesn’t understand that she can’t “swim” in the 2ft pool like she can in the 1ft pool, and it makes her kinda crazy.

Joanna has more fear, but still had a little trouble with the 2ft pool.  She stepped right in, not knowing it was so deep!  She got off-balanced and went under.

She liked having her vest and her floaties on.  She enjoyed playing in the little pools and “swimming” with me in the big pool.

 

At church this morning, we had a few minutes to attempt some pictures in the flower garden.

This is a classic Joanna face:

Cutie pie!

 

Isn’t this picture hilarious!  Yes, Joanna was kind of patting Natalie on the face, but no, it was not causing her the distress that’s painted on her face.  That was a fluke.

I snuck a couple of pictures in church later (without the flash, of course).

And Joanna’s favorite part of the service – the children’s sermon.  You can see part of her all the way on the right.  She loves to sit up there and I like to think she’s absorbing something of what Ellen says. :)

After church and lunch today, my helper Joanna and I ran some errands while Natalie took a nap.  We went to the paint store and grabbed a couple of paint card thingies for the kids’ room.  I think I’ve found a blue I like enough to get a sample can to paint a blob on the wall.  I’ve found a no-VOC paint I want to use, but I’m working on an acceptable primer.  I haven’t checked the hardware store yet, but the only low-VOC (not sure if they make no-VOC primers) one at Sherwin Williams only comes in a gallon.  And I just have like half a wall to prime, not several rooms.

We also went to Babies R Us to exchange a cup.  We’re trying out the metal kind that Thermos makes.  Joanna is IN LOVE with the straw-type.  Normally, she doesn’t even drink out of sippy cups anymore, but she’s consumed a lot more water today carrying that thing around!  I’m also looking for a selection of solid-color crib stuff (bumper, crib skirt, sheets) that I can match to Joanna’s quilt (which is getting handed down to her brother).  She never had a bumper and skirt that matched and I want to make this look like a set.  My mom started a crib skirt a few years ago, but life caught up and she never finished it.  She said she may finish it for Baby Brother!  Then I’ll just need a bumper.  So I’m remembering that BRU used to have quite a selection of solid color bumpers, skirts, and sheets.  Either I’m remembering wrong or that’s no longer the case.  They only have baby blue, baby pink, baby green, white, cream, and brown.  I thought I’d be able to find more colors.  The baby blue actually looked pretty good with the quilt, but I want more choices!  :)

So we went to Target to see if they had anything better, but they don’t.  Then we finally returned some shoes to Payless before heading home!.

It’s way too hot outside, but it was fun to shop with my big girl. :)  Especially since we didn’t actually spend any money!

Man, I’ve got some cute girls

These aren’t both mine, but I’ll claim ‘em!

I’ve been picking Anna up for Tennis Camp this week cause it’s just so easy for me and the girls love riding together.

This was Tuesday, I think.  Aren’t they so cute?!

 

I wanted to get a picture of Joanna by the tennis net.

Hamming it up!

My silly Natalie.  Matt’s putting a shoe on her here.  She is so funny.  If she finds one of her shoes around, she MUST put it on!  She’ll usually bring you the other one of a pair if you ask her to, as well.

Today – aren’t they too cute in their piggie tails?!

Also today.  I think this is really the first time Natalie has asked to put on a dress-up dress.

This is her “pose” as soon as I pull out the camera.

It took quite some convincing to get her to stand up for a picture!

We’re watching So You Think You Can Dance (past Joanna’s bedtime!) and Joanna pulled Matt up to dance with her.  She was trying to teach him some moves.  Good luck girl!

Salmon Patties

Due to a request (!!!), here is the "recipe" for salmon patties. My mom made these for us growing up.

Ingredients:

1 can of salmon (big one, not little like tuna cans)

2 eggs

~1/2-1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

cooking oil

To make the patties, drain the can of salmon and mix with two eggs and the half a pack of crackers (crushed into crumbs). If needed, add more crackers for consistency. You're going for the consistency of uncooked meatloaf... basically.

Using your hands, form them into patties. This recipe usually makes 5 patties. I'm just about to need to double it for us. I can remember when we used to have leftovers!

Cook them in a little veggie oil in a fry pan. I'm pretty sure I use about a medium heat. Flip them to cook both sides. Basically you're cooking the egg here. I usually split one open at some point to make sure it looks pretty firm inside.

We think they're yummy!

Natalie stinker head

So Natalie's "comfort" thing is to suck her right thumb and put one of her left fingers into her belly button. (Don't ask me; I'm not really sure.)
Anyway, this means she hasn't been wearing a ton of rompers lately because then she can't reach her belly button.
One of the new cloth diapers, the Bum Genius, has these handy velcro tabs like disposable diapers that make it very easy to put on (and take off by a 17 month old). So after she brought it to me a couple of times this afternoon, I got her dressed in a dress (she's just been running around in the diaper) hoping that would distract her. It didn't, so I put her in a romper.
Sadly, it was nap time and I was just going to make her tough it out without the belly button thing, but she looked at me with those sad eyes, took her thumb out of her mouth, and signed "help me." I just had to unsnap it! Hopefully she'll wake up clothed.

Thoughts

-Every time I start to get whiny about how rainy it's been, I try to think about last June. Remember how horribly hot and dry it was? My grass died, my plants died. The water bills were huge. Even though it's humid and I can't dry my laundry out as much as I'd like, this is better.
-Recently I've had the desire to climb into my freezer, or better yet, the refrigerator case at the grocery store. I think just a few minutes of that would make me feel better. :) I know it's just going to get hotter. And I'm just going to get bigger. :)
-Having one kid around is cake! I mean that two ways. Sure, it's wonderful, but it's not what I want all the time. I miss whichever girl isn't around. It's fun to hang out with whichever one is, though.