and week 38...

We've begun week 38 of this pregnancy. I've never had this much baby belly! :0)

My hips are all out-of-whack, uninterrupted sleep is a distant memory, and I have no lap when I sit down but PRAISE THE LORD there's an end -- sweet baby will surely decide to come out and meet us any day now.

Thursday night my mom came by and gave me a much needed haircut! YAY! I hadn't felt that pretty in a couple of months! It was sad to say goodbye to three inches of hair, but since it was only growing that fast in two places, it was much nicer to welcome a style with some shape.


Here are a few little arrow updates:

The kids ask daily when babynew will be out of mommy's tummy and we just keep saying, "soon."

N' is all about spelling right now. He really wants to be able to read. He's constantly asking us what some set of letters spells when he spots something on a box, book, flier, etc. He loves spelling words on the fridge with the magnetic alphabet and proudly announcing that he's spelled a word. I'm so excited for him. I LOVE to read -- we're talking serious addiction here -- so it's fabulous to watch N' grow more and more interested in making sense out of letters and words on a page.

J' is in a pouty phase the last couple of weeks that will prayerfully end super fast. Everything is worth wailing over: she brushed her elbow against the wall, B' looked at her and she didn't like it, there's a bird in the yard that she doesn't like (usually a crow), someone took the red block she wanted (even though there are 9 more red blocks exactly like it in the set of blocks)... You get the idea. We're working on talking her through it and helping her understand that the drama and false-cry are not effective. More important, they are not pleasing to God as they exhibit a lack of self-control. I can say she's at least trying: if you call her out when she starts faking a cry, she'll just stop and move on (provided that she isn't too far into her dramatic presentation to step out of it quickly) ;0) On the positive side, she's a great conversationalist. She'll come and sit down and just chat about whatever she can think of. We can't wait to see God's purposes in gifting her with such eloquence at such a young age. She loves to watch my belly for signs of action and then point out, "that baby is wiggling in your tummy mommy!" So sweet!

B' surprises us with new words and phrases everyday! We've also discovered that he's great at playing memory. We've been playing board games instead of doing more physical activities since mommy is sort of unable right now. I really didn't think he'd be able to play successfully at all, but he gets a huge kick out of matching up the pictures on the cards and telling you what they are. He's my best helper. If I declare it's time to clean up and say I need helpers, he comes right behind me saying, "I help." Now if only his attention span lasted as long as the average clean up at the end of the day requires :0)