Discovery Center

One of the benefits of living a stones throw away from the tracks (probably the only one) is that you can walk to the trax station, catch the train and ride into downtown for the day. Saturday was Jeremiah's first train ride. He loved it, although I must say, the view leaves much to be desired. I've never seen so much... outdoor art... in such a short period of time.

Anyway, the kids loved the train ride and the discover center. We bought a six month membership and it was a good thing too because the very next day he wanted to go again, and each day since. Some friends of ours also have a membership, so I think we'll make a play date out of it in the future. FUN! Here are some photos (sorry, I didn't edit them at all):

A quick stop at the fountain:

Cleaning Day

It happens, those days when I've neglected my home for so long that I cannot ignore the messes any longer. On these days I don't feel like I can just ignore my children, and reason that cleaning is more important than time together, because it's not. Even I know that. BUT I HAVE TO CLEAN. I'll go crazy if I live another minute longer in my messy house. So, this is my plan of attack, Arm Leah with a baby wipe, and Jeremiah with a spray bottle of water (it sometimes has a little vinegar in it) and a washcloth and give them special cleaning assignments. This is what cleaning days look like at my house:

Admittedly it takes twice as long to get anything actually clean, but a little water never hurt anything, and they love it, it teaches them the value of work, of helping and working together as a family, they still think its fun (we'll see how long this lasts) and it keeps them from whining at me to build things with legos (ok, only one whines about that). Have you employed child labor in your homes? How has it worked out? At what age does helping stop being fun for kids? I can't remember, which means it must be pretty young.

Playing Dress-Up

My shoes, Leah's winter had and 1 mitten (because she couldn't manage to put the other one on without fingers) and her hair brush, of course, to tame that crazy hat hair that every girl hates. It also usually involves someones pants, often times not her own.

Baby Girl Hirschi

Lest any of you be confused about whether or not I am excited about having another girl, I am. I just didn't have time to write anything about how I felt about it at the time. It wasn't that I was dissapointed in the gender of my child.I am loving the idea of having two little girls running around my house, though Jeremiah still has no one to play boy stuff with, I'm ok with that. And he is too.

Here are some pictures of the ultrasound. it might be tricky to tell what you're looking at if you weren't staring at the ultrasound screen for over an hour... yes, this little girl had her arms up over her head for most of the time. They made me take a break twice to try to get her to move. My solution? Cat-Cow yoga pose. It worked great. PS. Aren't 3D ultrasounds strange?

Also, no video, it's too big to email a zipped file, and I don't know how to cut the video to only show parts of it, so, too bad for you. :)

In this one she has her hand on her forehead, and her mouth is open a little.

Just saying hello.
Little feet.This is her with her arms over her face, it was worse that this most of the time.

Her profile.

From the mouth of Jeremiah

"One of my girlfriends was fighting with Talon and so I was fighting one of my girlfriends. Because that was not nice"

Ahhhh, the experiences of preschool.

Don't ask me where he heard the phrase girlfriend.

The Wish List

I have everything I would need for this new baby, but not everything I need for having three kids under the age of four. Here is my wish list:

Double Stroller. something like this maybe:

Swing. believe it or not, I have never owned one. Maybe something like this.

A bouncer, our $3 Ebay buy (well, Moms) has lived a good life, but the paint is coming off on the bars, so I think it's time it retired. Maybe this one?

Bunk Bed, yes, we're moving our 21 month old to a big girl bed. This would be FABULOUS:

And a trundle of course, for #3, if the need arrises, and/or guests and visitors:

And this is the WISH part of it all, cute girly bedding for Leah, maybe this one from PBkids (I know, in my DREAMS. Don't worry, I'll come up with something much cheaper that I like just as much, I just love the colors in this):
And maybe one to match for the baby:

I know what you're thinking, WOW she has high expectations. Well, you see, these are not my expectations. These are just on my wish list. In the end, the bedding will be handmade with love (and trial and error probably), The bunk bed will be from Sears or something like that, and the trundle will most likely be hand crafted by my husband and father in law. I will probably skip both the bouncer AND the swing, because I've survived this long without it, I can do it with another child. And the stroller, though a definate neccesity, will either be purchased 2nd hand whatever I can find in good condition, or a completely different brand and style that aren't as pretty (really, isn't that damask print PRETTY!) but still very functional. Ahhh, dreams. Oh well, surprisingly enough in the end I usually find myself just as happy with reality as I would have with my wish list dreaming. I find that a blessing. But it is still fun to dream.

Another one

We're having another girl. More on my feelings about that later and the latest happenings of the Hirschi family. For now I'm busy babysitting and trying to contemplate what it will be like having three children under the age of 4. Gotta love it.

Funny picture catch up

It seems like the only moments that motivate me enough to capture them on film are the ones that are funny enough to be sufficiently embarrassing to the kids when they get older. Here are some of the most recent:

Leah wanted to get in her bed... no problem! So for an hour Leah and Jeremiah were just playing and reading and coloring in/on their beds. Lovely.

Playing Pirates, looking for buried treasure. Leah didn't like wearing her pirate scarf on her head very much. Oh, and do you like the clothes Jerem picked out for the day? yes, race car PJs about 2 sizes too small.

Leah's latest fascination: playing dress up. She puts ANYTHING on her legs like pants. This is her attempt at putting on her inside out brown leggings over her pjs.

You can't see in this picture very well, but thats her shirt that she had both legs in the sleeves and was walking around in it. She also puts on Gregs basketball shorts, Jeremiahs jeans, and any pair of shoes she can find. Funny Girl!

I'm not sure what Jerem is pretending to be here. It was while I was visiting teaching and Dad was in charge. But snow boots, backwards fireman hat and sunglasses are the perfect outfit for playing with water in the bathroom and then dripping it all over the house using his toy syringe.

This is me trying to get an after picture of Leah's first haircut. She also has a pony tail on the top. I didn't take much off, I just cut off the baby-mullet in the back. Don't worry, her curls are beginning to grow back.

I saved the best for last. Jeremiah came house hunting with us a few weeks ago and somehow managed to get a small scratch on his face, just to the right of his mouth. He decided to play Dr. himself rather than wait for mom and dad to patch him up. He did get the bandage on the scratch.... but what to do with all that extra bandaid? Well, just put it where it lands. Right over his right nostril. He came out of the bathroom to show us his handy work. SO funny!

My baby is growing up not out

Some of you with older kids may laugh at this because Leah is still just a baby, but to me, she's growing up.

Last week she insisted on laying down in jeremiahs bed for her nap. I was ready for the worst, playing with the blinds, knocking over the paintings on the wall, falling off the bed. But she just laid there quietly and drifting sweetly off to sleep. How can it be that my 16 month old is getting ready for a big girl bed?! Admittedly I was relieved to find that she did really well, since we're going to need her crib in about 6 months and I've already started eyeing bunk beds.

On another note, she may be growing up, but she's not growing out. This girl is still only 19 lbs. She's up from the heafty 17 lbs she weighed when she was 13 months, but still not heavy enough to officially turn her car seat around. She's still normal height and keeps getting taller, just not heavier. Her Ped. isn't worried, so neither am I. But goodness sakes she's teeny.

Funny kid

Jeremiah was playing with Playdough and set some on a chair under the table. I asked him to move it and he informed me that he could not because those pieces were fossils.

Right.

So we decided to have a little lesson about fossils using some of our toy animals, a dinosaur, a girrafe and an elephant. We made imprints and talked about how fossils are made, and what scientists can learn from fossils about the animals that lived a long time ago. After our little "lesson" he continued to play and then I looked over and saw this: Small bits of playdough stuck all over the front end of the elephant. I'm not sure what he was trying to make, but it was important that he cover THE WHOLE THING. He was so proud of it when he was finished.