Picture Post

Last year, Roy brought home two extra shirts from his company's convention and the kids, especially Sam, love to wear them as pajamas.  In fact, Sam has now acquired both shirts and calls them his tent shirts.  The other morning he was crying because he was stuck in his shirt.  If you look closely, you can see that his head is through the arm hole and his legs are through the neck hole.

On Fridays we do a family movie night during dinner.  It has become one of my favorite traditions.  Last Friday we each made our own pizza.  The kids love creating their own designs.

Lydia insisted on wearing Abby's backpack after school yesterday.  She was so cute trotting to the car with a backpack half her size.

Some Days You Gotta Laugh

We are less than 9 weeks away from our due date (HOORAY!).  I have this funny mix of feeling like we've been prepared for our little guy's arrival for a long time and feeling like there is so much to do before he comes.  I've been answering the question of, "When are you due?" with "Oh, not until August."  Once June 1 rolled around, it hit me that my standard answer wasn't going to work because summer was here and this kid is a summer kid.  Wow, as slow as some of this pregnancy has seemed to go (mostly that whole period of feeling gross and exhausted), time sure is speeding up, especially since we are so busy with end-of-school stuff, soccer, starting swim lessons, counting down to a family reunion, attempting to get our house in order, etc, etc, etc.  We're so excited to meet our little guy!

My other kids have been doing things to keep me laughing and I just have to document them.  Sam, in particular, seems to always be in the middle of the antics.  Have I mentioned how I often feel like my brothers or my dad might be living at our house when Sam does certain things?  Whenever Sam does one of those Freebairn things, Roy is sure to point out it came from our side.  Since most of the time, I have tears and can't stop laughing, I'll have to agree...some people are just naturally funny.

• Last week, I sent Abby and Sam out to get the mail.  We have one of those big mailboxes with slots for 12 or so neighbors.  Our box is close to the top and only Abby can reach it.  In an attempt to be helpful or involved or funny (or all three), I saw Sam grab Abby by the legs, lift her up higher and precariously balance her as she unlocked the box and pulled out ads and letters.
• We turned Lydia's carseat to be forward-facing recently and I have had so many more car conversations, back-seat driver moments, and screams of joy as we go up and down hills.  Her favorite thing is to say, "Watch out!  There's a bear!" and then point to the danger area where the bear is located.
• Last week, we went to our favorite Nature Center and Park.  Ahead of us on the path there was a grandfather pushing his twin infant grandsons in a double stroller.  Lydia was in rare form that day and yelled, "Watch out!  There's a bear!  RUN!"  Well, this poor gentleman must not have detected that it was 2-year-old yelling and took off as fast as he could.  (Don't worry, after I caught my breath from laughing, I did yell to him that it was my 2-year-old's very active imagination and not a real bear.)
• Continuing the theme, today Sam, Lydia, and I were playing upstairs in the kid's room (all three big kids have their beds in one room, which means that the vast majority of the time they love each other and love being together, but when they don't, they really don't).  Sam randomly yells, "Look!  A bear!"  Lydia dropped everything and flew into her bed, hiding her special baby, her Lilo and Stitch, and herself under her "beep" (blanket).
• Sam is wearing a pair of shorts today that are a little too big.  He just discovered that if he wiggles just right and then bends over, his shorts will slouch and we can see a few inches of his underwear.  Guess what he keeps doing this afternoon?
• Roy recently introduced the kids to movie bloopers.  When saying good night one night, Lydia sweetly requested to watch, "One booper?"
• We've been trying to give the kids more opportunities to help around the house.  They clear and wipe off the table after meals, clean their room each morning, bring in the empty garbage and recycling bings, etc.  When Abby was bringing in the garbage can the other day, she made the mistake of sticking her nose inside and sniffing.  The whole neighborhood probably heard her shriek, "EWWW!  It's as stinky as Dad's toots!"
• As we walked past the buses at school today, one of them kept making this funny noise.  Lydia kept laughing and yelling, "Bus tooting!"

Life This Week

We have been working so hard with Sam lately to develop his social and emotional skills.  He's so smart and requests to do schoolwork daily.  The picture below makes me so happy because he was happily constructing his own tower at the end of preschool when his buddies came over.  He really did not want to build with anyone else but finally relented.  He and his friend were able to build a really cool castle together and he was so proud of it!  It's always nice to see progress in an area where we have spent so much time and energy.

Roy and I have been really enjoying family history work lately.  It's fun to track down names, figure out bits and pieces of their stories either through written accounts and pictures or tracking their movements through Census Records, find siblings or parents or children who weren't connected before our digging around, and to understand that these are real people who had families and jobs and dreams and who are connected to me through marriage or genes.  Anyway, if you want to do your own family history work, we really like familysearch.org and puzzilla.org.  Both are free and have lots of records and names in the databases already.

Anyway, the reason I even mentioned family history is because we spent part of the day out in Warrenton, VA yesterday for Roy to do some family history work.  One of his relatives lived out in Facquier County, VA and married a lady from there sometime in the 1840s.  Roy could find the wife's name and her mother's maiden name, but not any other information.  So since that information isn't digitized and online, we went out to the library for Roy to do some digging in the Genealogy Center and the kids and I read books and explored Warrenton.  It was a fun adventure and cool to show the kids one of the small towns fairly close by.  Warrenton had tons of patches of flowers and pretty areas to walk so it was a fun morning!

I was so proud and even teared up when the following paper came home from school this week from Abby.  She was supposed to use the word "but" in at least one sentence (my over-achieving daughter took the whole time to write...I love her):

• I liyk my frens but I liyk my family morr.  I liyk you but I liyk you morr.  But why do I haf to do my homework?  But I can tak carre of Androw!  But my Dad is alrgkt to cats!

Interpretation: I like my friends but I like my family more.  I like you but I like you more.  But why do I have to do my homework?  But I can take care of Andrew!  But my dad is allergic to cats!

FYI, we plan to name the baby Andrew Joseph and I love to hear the kids talk to him, talk about him, and make plans for him.

Two Week Catch-up

We have had a busy few weeks!  I'm in the middle of spring cleaning/purging/baby-prepping/rearranging furniture and trying to keep the rest of our busy lives going too.  Luckily the kids are awesome helpers are are really thrilled about the changes that are coming our way.  Here's some of what we've been doing to keep ourselves busy:

• moving Lydia into a big girl bed and into the room with Abby and Sam.  After the first couple nights of slumber party syndrome, they all got used to being in there together and I think it'll be hard for them to ever go back to not being together.

• Roy and Sam did the Father-Son campout for a whole hour or so.  Apparently, Sam was not a fan of roasted marshmallows (he's a purist), but loved the roasted Starburst.  So the girls went out for ice cream...first time ever for Lydia and only second time for Abby.  Neither girl knew what to do with the 30 flavor options, 6 cone or cup options, and an entire counter of toppings (those weren't an option for my wallet, though).  They both settled on chocolate-dipped sprinkle cones and neither had a problem eating their gigantic scoop of ice cream, even though Abby insisted on using the sample-sized spoon.  It was so fun to have a girls date with my girls!  And we were happy Sam and Roy had fun too. :)

 

• Soccer practice, games, and journaling!

• Fun dress up days at school.  This was crazy hair day.  I think next time we'll go a little more wild, but having four twisty buns was crazy enough for Abby :) 

• Lydia very clearly says, "Picture, mama!" now so I obediently take a picture.  Here she is reading to Sam and I after announcing it was school time and I needed to "Sit there.  No, there!  Sit still!"  She read us "Green Eggs and Ham", a family favorite that we all have memorized thanks to the CD we have in the car, but she turned the pages backward.  It drove Sam crazy because he knows exactly what picture goes with the words, but he held back any criticism.

• Lydia loves to feed the birds and squirrels.  She again requested a picture.  Later on, all three kids used the bread as bait for squirrels and then shot at the squirrels with their squirt guns (can you tell that was  Roy-inspired activity?). 

On That Note...

Roy was attempting to take a nap yesterday after I had already told him we had to get through our to-do list first.  A little annoyed, I sent in the big guns.  I told Sam to go tickle Roy.  That didn't work.  Then I told him to poke him.  Nothing.  Then I told him to give Roy a wet willy, knowing full well that not only did Sam not know what that was, he had never heard the term before.  Without so much as blinking, he shoved his finger up his nose and took aim at Roy's ear...

A little Steve Urkel pants action

Funnies

• When I was at school picking up Abby, a kid in her class came up to me, pointed to my tummy and asked, "What are you really growing in there?"
• Abby and Sam raced to the rocking chair and Sam tried to wedge his head in under Abby so he could say he was there first.  When he complained he didn't have enough room, Abby responded, "That's because you have the Zwahlen head!"
• Abby was hiding in the bathroom and Sam was looking all over for her.  He knocked on the door, "Abby, it's me!"  Abby answered, "Who's me?"  If you know my dad, you will know that somehow that sort of humor was genetically shared from him.
• Lydia was walking around with her dress up to her ears and I said, "Hey, come here diaper girl!"  Without missing a beat she said, "Hey, diaper mommy!"
• We went to this really awesome, huge park a couple days ago.  It's one of those parks where you feel like you can lose your child if you take your eyes off of them for an instant.  Sam is self-sufficient and Lydia usually hangs out close by so I wasn't worried about being able to keep them in my sights or close enough that they could find me.  Then Lydia escaped.  You know how I found her?  I heard a little voice say, "Oh, Mommy!  Hi, Michelle!"

Soccer, Week 2

Abby had a great second week at soccer.  I could see her really catching on to the game and learning not just rules but some of the strategy.  More importantly, she had so much fun.  She worked hard the whole game and came away afterward feeling proud of herself and can't wait to go to practice this week.  It's good to see how much she is enjoying soccer!  

When in doubt, look for the pink socks!