Baby Brother's Room

RCW's room awaits his arrival!

A big thank you to all of our generous family and friends who have given us so many gifts for our baby boy.  We appreciate your love, thoughtfulness, and kindness!

Pretty Perfect

Two of this week's top quotes:

1.  "I wish I could go to that school.  It has the prettiest slide."
2.  "It fits perfectly." (accurately said many times when her stuffed animals, little figurines, clothes, etc. had a perfect fit)

Perfect and Pretty are great adjectives to transition to our GRAND REVEAL! It's DONE!

Doug's massive undertaking is complete. I know that I am so lucky to be blessed with a spouse who knows how to do just about everything. Doug transformed his unfinished shop into our master bedroom.  It was the last room in our daylight basement that he had not touched.  It looks professional, polished, and relaxing.  Doug did EVERYTHING: framing, new wiring/electrical work, installation of 3 new windows, heating/duct work, insulation, soundproofing, flooring, drywall.... and lots of other behind the scenes details that I don't know even know how to describe.

I'm afraid that I wasn't too diligent with taking photos of the entire before/after process, so you can't see the incredible transformation that this space has undergone. But here are some photos.  We are in love with our new room. Although Doug isn't a major fan of describing his construction as pretty, it is elegant, modern, crisp...and it fits our needs perfectly. 

There are still little things to be done---hanging art, constructing 2 built-in wardrobe closets, touching up the exterior siding and paint... but we are in. Thank you to my amazing husband who seriously does it all for his family.

And, you know what that means?  That means that our old bedroom became the new nursery and is finally ready for baby boy's arrival.  Real photos to come, but here is a sneak peak:

We have spent lots of time playing in the nursery already.  Sophie says all the right words ("This is baby brother's room, here are his socks, these are his books...") but I'm not quite sure she understands that eventually he will be here in the flesh.  When we picked up our double stroller this week, Doug explained to her that she will get to sit next to him.  She looked around, turning her head from side to side and asked, "Oh, is he here yet?"  When we said, "No, not yet," she was excited to use the extra space in the new stroller for her stuffed animals....

At REI to pick up the stroller, Sophie loved pretending she was asleep in all of the giant tents.

Plus, some photos of Sophie's enjoyable visit with her Gramps last week:

And finally, some photos from our gentle Easter weekend celebrations as a family of 3:

The Easter Bunny must have travelled quickly, because he left bits of his cotton tail behind...not sure if it was more fun to collect his cotton tail or the eggs!!

What kind of Easter Bunny leaves a basket of candy PLUS a new toothbrush?!!

Brunch by the lake!

Perfectly the Prettiest

(I'm sorry for the poor quality of most of these cell phone photos...I'm big enough as it is, so I haven't been lugging around our big camera lately!)

Vegas, Baby

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas....

Yep, that's right.  At 33 weeks pregnant, I went to the one place that all pregnant women dream about: Las Vegas.  With my swollen fingers, my cankles, my plus-sized exterior...with my heartburn, my back cramps, my overwhelming sense of fatigue... it was the trip of a lifetime!

Giving a whole new definition to the phrase "Vegas Belly Shot"...

During my maternity leave with Sophie, I joined a PEPS group.  Over the past 2.5 years, the moms from this group regularly get together for playdates or happy hours. This group has provided great support and friendship.  One of my PEPS moms/friends decided that she was going to celebrate her 40th birthday in a big way--by chartering a jet and taking a huge group (60+) of her friends and their spouses to Vegas for 1 night. She and her husband are incredibly generous with their gifts and took care of everything for the entire group.  I couldn't miss out! The only word to describe the experience: unbelievable.

Our chartered flight

Baby Brother headed to Sin City for the first time....with his parents...

We had arrived!

Some of the PEPS moms in our stretch HUMMER limo....

The Guys

My handsome guy...

I thought that it might make a cool story if I gave birth in Vegas... or if I gave birth on a chartered jet.... neither of which happened.  So, now I'm back home, probably feeling better than the rest of the non-pregnant group who ventured to Vegas for 24 hours...!

In other non-VIP news, we've moved into our master bedroom, the nursery is complete, and Gramps came to visit Sophie.  Many blog post updates to come once I fully return to reality...

Words, words, words...

My seniors are currently studying Hamlet.  There is this brilliant scene in which Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading.  Hamlet sarcastically and slyly responds, "Words. Words. Words." Hamlet loves to play with language to manipulate the people around him. By no means am I relating my 2.5 year old daughter to the complex character of Hamlet, but I am obsessed with her playful use of words and her often sarcastic and inventive conversations. 

Sophie loves to read.  She will trace her index finger on the words on the page and narrate the story that she reads.  The other day, I peeked around the corner to ask her what she was reading.  She replied, "A book, mommy.  With words."  Then she snapped her head back down quickly indicating that I was wasting her time! She definitely made me feel like an idiot :)

"Mommy, I was reading books and Whitney (her nanny) was singing and she detracted me.  I tell her stop singing."  Obviously, Sophie meant "distracted" as opposed to "detracted" but I also found it hysterical that she seemed so annoyed that Whitney would have the gall to sing while Sophie read books!

When Doug is out of town, Whitney arrives very early since I'm at work by 6 am... One morning, around 6, Whitney heard Sophie crying in her room.  Knowing it was much too early for Sophie's wake-up call, Whitney waited a few minutes to see if Sophie would fall back asleep.  She heard Sophie say to herself, "I just don't know why Mommy won't open the door."  It was such cute sentence construction.

"Drive carefully, Mommy.  Be a good driver like Daddy."

This command didn't go over well....

"Stop talking, mommy and daddy.  It's my turn to talk."

Again, another command that didn't go over well...

This sweet high school boy befriended Sophie in line for dinner at Chipotle.  He was on a date with a girl, but he and Sophie conversed about Jamba Juice smoothies, numbers, her favorite color... I told him her name was Sophie, but she corrected me and said to him, "I'm Ernie.  Call me Ernie."  After we all got our food and parted ways, Sophie insisted "I don't want him eat with that girl.  I want to talk more."  Later, she stated, "I want to make a new friend." Is she 2 or 22? How is she already experiencing the life cycle of a crush?

While reading a book, I made note that, unlike the nearly 12 lovies that she sleeps with, the elephant going to bed only had 1 lovey.  Her response? "That's just ridiculous, elephant."

"Auntie Ali should name her baby Recess.  Or maybe Egg Candle. Recess rhymes with baby brother's name."

A.  I have no idea how she knows what recess is....
B.  HINT: "Recess" does sound a lot like baby brother's name...

We were making a joke about the title of the book, Slummy Mummy, that a friend sent me.   Sophie thinks that it is the funniest thing EVER to call me "Slummy Mummy."  We were taking turns calling one another that name when I flipped open the book jacket to the photograph of the lady on the inside cover (the woman who wrote the book).  I said, "That lady is a Slummy Mummy!" Sophie immediately stopped laughing and corrected me, saying, "No, mommy.  You're wrong.  That's the author." You can't get anything past this child...

To celebrate "Clean Plate Club", Daddy asked Sophie what letter does the word "fork" start with.... She said, "Hmmm, that's a really tricky one."

"What starts with J, Sophie?"
"Jaywalker."
Who taught her that word?!

In the middle of a game of pretend at the park: "Let me be a homemaker. I'm going to be a homemaker."  She honestly wanted to make homes...building them with sticks.

Sophie sings and dances all the time.  She makes up her own songs, and they're absolutely hysterical.  Just for fun, I'm including a short video from the park this week. D and I are not the most consistent in taping her antics, but this video will have to do!

AND, I'VE SAVED THE BEST "WORDS, WORDS, WORDS" FOR LAST:

After church every Sunday, we make a trip to Starbucks.  Doug didn't join us today, because he is spending every waking hour on our remodel.  So, prior to our departure, Sophie took Daddy's Starbucks order.  When I asked her what he wanted, she replied "Um, Daddy wants a blond wife."

I assumed she meant a "blond roast".... My dad always told us that it's the little words that matter...