Lydia Jane

Our beautiful Lydia Jane was born Wednesday, March 21 at 1:59 pm.  She weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz and is 22" long.  She is an angel and has a calm, sweet disposition.  We are all so very happy to have her here to cuddle and love!

Hidden Pond Park

In an effort to enjoy every possible moment of life, we stayed very busy this week doing fun things!  And in between the fun activities, the whole house got cleaned too, so we're all pretty worn out.  Lydia, we're ready for you!  We spent one morning at one of our favorite parks/nature centers, Hidden Pond Park.  Sam was thrilled to see turtles in the nature center and out in the middle of the pond.  Abby was happy to have her new friend Liam around for 4-year-old fun.  They raced, explored various trails, and experimented with how different sticks and rocks looked as they were thrown into the water.  And the two little brothers (Sam and Liam's brother) were thoroughly entertained by the games and joined in as best they could with everything.  It was a gorgeous morning!

Sam has recently fallen in love with doing art.  He prefers markers and is well-trained to only do them at the kitchen table (after about a zillion reminders and nearly as many fights).  He'll travel the house with crayons and paper and request Abby, Roy, or I do draw turtles and monster trucks.  If you look carefully at the drawing below, you will see that Sam has learned how to draw his own turtles.  On the bottom right corner, you'll see a turtle shell and a head (that's the turtle not in the water).  And in the bottom left corner, you will see a turtle shell, head, leg, and tail (the turtle is in the water).  He drew the picture and then got really excited to tell Roy and I about his turtles.  I am super impressed that at age 2 he can draw a pretty good rendering of a turtle!

I'm hoping our next post is one announcing that baby Lydia is healthy, happy, and here.  No matter what, she'll be here by March 26 because I have an induction scheduled, but we are thinking happy thoughts that she will join us earlier than that.  She has 2 anxious siblings and 2 equally-anxious parents counting the minutes until we can hold her!

Cardboard Boxes

We got several boxes in the mail this week, only a few of which made it out to be recycled.  The rest are used as temporary toy holders ("It's my special place for                   , Mom!"), 3-D canvas for art projects, and children's entertainment.  Thank goodness for cardboard boxes!

Dinosaur Day

A few weeks ago in preschool, Abby learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Imagine my delight when we drove downtown on Monday to pick up Roy from work and Abby shrieked, "That's the Washington Monument!"  Of course we had to snap the traditional picture.

 Our future paleontologist(s) wanted to go see some dinosaurs so since we live so close to so many great, free museums, we made a morning of it.  We were only downtown for about 2 hours, but had the greatest time!  Sam literally ran from exhibit to exhibit in this cute bounce-run.  He was wowing and enthusiastic and we just couldn't help laughing as we enjoyed him taking it all in.  Abby was very intrigued with videos, buttons, and soaking in as much information as she could through the whole Natural History Museum.  She picked up on lots of fun facts and fell even more in love with dinosaurs and animals.

Sam and Roy with Sam's favorite dinosaur, Triceratops.

 Sam, Roy, and Abby with Abby's favorite dinosaur, T-Rex.

A fuzzy and different shot of Abby with the T-Rex.  Seeing the T-Rex was the best part of her day.

Last night at dinner, Abby was picking through her mixed vegetables and very carefully picked up a lima bean.  "What's this?", she asked with a look of pure horror.  "A lima bean."  "Oh," she said and then paused before continuing, "That's disgusting!"  Roy and I were dying to keep the laughter in.  I love hearing the kids as they learn how to appropriately use new words.  It's a recipe for laughter.

We were taking the kids to the neighborhood park yesterday and they were running ahead of us.  Roy saw the puddle at the same time that Sam did.  Roy took off, calling for Sam to stop.  Sam of course either didn't hear or decided not to hear (the second is more likely) and ran even faster, not stopping as he plowed through the 6-foot mud puddle.  Another time where I had to stop everything and double over to laugh.  Man, our kids are hilarious!  I can only imagine how many stories we will be collecting in the future.

Taking the Plunge

We got a 2004 Honda Odyssey on Monday afternoon and we're happy with it so far.  We're really blessed to have been able to get a car with only 53,000 miles on it for less than what we thought it would cost.  It has automatic doors, a CD player, and enough seats for our growing family (although, I must say that Abby counted the number of seats yesterday and was disappointed there weren't enough babies being born to fill the whole van).  Here are Roy and the kids saying goodbye to our trusty PT Cruiser and me and the kids cheering by our new van!

Bon Voyage, PT Cruiser!

Here are my valentines enjoying our pink Valentine dinner.  We are starting a tradition for the more laid-back holidays to have a fun picnic dinner while we watch a movie or show together.  The goal is to watch something along the theme of the holiday...we'll see how long that lasts. :)

We spent Roy's birthday weekend in Williamsburg.  Zwahlen family tradition, at least when it pertains to Roy's birthday, is to celebrate a birthday for as long as possible.  Roy stretches it out as long as he possibly can--this year was Thursday through Monday, possibly an all-time record.  We took the kids to the Bouncy House with their cousins and everyone had a great time.  Even though Sam ended up getting hurt and limping for several days, he was still in tears when we left.  This was the first time I haven't played in the Bouncy House with the kids and while it was still fun to see their faces as they came down slides and around obstacles, it is nothing compared to seeing their triumphant faces when they climb over an obstacle, discover a great corner for jumping as high as they can, or beating me as we race through the obstacle course.  I just wasn't willing to push my body that hard this time.  I'm too close to my due date to risk pushing myself so they'll have to save the taunting and winning for next time.  

The kids discovered the wonder of the jets in Grandma and Baba's bathtub.  Zach was not a big fan initially, but once he tried it for 10 seconds, he loved it.  Jets make a milky foam out of bubbles and all three kids giggled about being all milky, having milk hats, and any other milk reference they could come up with.

Grandma is always willing to read bedtime stories!  She somehow had space for all four big kids to sit on their recliner and they ate up the cuddle time.

It snowed the night before we left.  Abby and Sam played it in for about 5 minutes before they decided they were done.  We came home to nice weather and sunshine and even escaped to a park in the afternoon.  I am loving this winter weather! :)

Abby and Sam are the best little helpers right now.  Abby especially loves to help and enjoys having things clean when she is done.  If Sam can have fun while he is doing it, then he's all there, especially if it involves creating another mess.  We washed both cars after Roy got home from work one afternoon this week and Sam ended up soaked from head to toe, dumping the soapy water bucket prematurely, and polishing the drivers' side door area until it could not possibly have any more dirt.  Abby cleaned every tire, wiped down mirrors, and directed us to extra dirty spots.  It was a fun family moment!

The day has come when we must prepare to say goodbye to the PT Cruiser.  Roy would probably do a better job at doing a nice tribute to this car that carried him from Williamsburg to Provo, was the transportation on our first date, the envy of my sister, brought us and a trunk packed full of belongings to and from CA when we got married, got filled again a month later to travel to VA via Houston, carried us through 3 years of law school, traveled to Wise with us and made us new-to-towners even more distinctive and recognizable, brought two children home from the hospital, became a receptacle of goldfish, lollipops, and Happy Meal food, and has been a reliable, fun car.  It seems silly to be sentimental about a car, but as we have cleaned it out this last week, both of us have been flooded with memories of the eight years it has been in Roy's life and the journey that it represents in our married lives.  It's been a good road, PT!

Kid Summary

I feel like there are moments every day that I want to capture completely--the feelings, the laughter, the activity, the joy.  It is those perfect moments where I feel like we are doing something right as parents, that we are teaching our kids what is most important, that we are spending our time and energy building bonds and strengthening our family, that our kids know that they are loved and important.  I feel fulfillment and happiness in my role as a mother, not just during those perfect moments, but even when the road is bumpy and there are tears and frustration.  I love seeing my kids experience life through nature, music, learning activities, church, family, food, and imaginative play and feel so grateful each day that I get to be with them to soak in their love of life.  There are some things that I am particularly impressed with for each child at this stage in their life:


Abby:

• is becoming a great artist.  She drew a self-portrait today and, for the first time, made her hair yellow and curly.  Usually her pictures of people are all one color, but today she did different colors for different features.  I love to watch as she goes through the stages of art development and more closely observes the world around her to find what shapes make up what she wants to draw.
• comforts Sam when he gets crazy during bedtime.  And when Lydia kicks a whole bunch where Abby is trying to cuddle, she very rationally and calmly explains that she should calm down.  Abby is a great big sister.
• cannot wait for her sister to be born.  She wrote a song about how happy she is to have a sister, talks about how she wants to give Lydia her first bath (she remembers doing that at the hospital when Sam was born...a perk to being in a small town hospital), and already has plans to have a bunk bed in the room so all three kids can share a bedroom.  
• knows more about dinosaurs than me.  She picks out tons of dinosaur books each time we go to the library and quickly memorizes the facts about the dinosaurs in each book.
• seems practically ready to be a babysitter.  We had a sitter yesterday and last weekend and both times Abby helped her find things, plan activities, and gave us a full report when we got home.  Sometimes she seems so much older than 4.
• absolutely loves her family.  We talk about birthdays, interests, and activities of extended family members every day.  She wants to know how many more days until we see them, what they are doing at this very second, and then follows with how much she loves them.  

Sam:

• has recently acquired a great love of monster trucks.  I need to record his fabulous way of growling, "Monster truck!" because his voice is so great and he scrunches up his whole face to say it.
• also loves to growl the names of various family members and turn it into a game where we answer back with his name.  It never gets old for any of us.
• loves when Abby throws snowballs at the sliding glass door (you know, the little tiny snowballs that come from our slight dusting of snow this winter).  He cracks up laughing as they explode and melt down the window.
• counted to 10 the other day with prompting with only two numbers.  Even with a sister who persistently makes him try to say various words and the frequency of time-outs he has to sit through, I was still shocked at my genius boy. :)
• now goes into nursery at church without crying and usually runs into the room without turning back to wave to Roy.
• learned how to ride a scooter.  We take the scooters out to the neighborhood basketball court and he picked it right up.  The handles are about eye-level on him so it's adorable to watch as he tries to steer, see, and push, but heaven forbid he not participate in something so fun!
• now sleeps in a big boy bed!  As long as he has his pillow, blanket, and two stuffed turtles, he does great.  Roy went up the other night to check on him and he was reading "Blue Hat, Green Hat" by the night light.  I remember making great use of my night light to finish up books so I can appreciate the pleasure of sneaky nighttime reading.

Lydia:

• will join us in about 6 weeks!  We are so excited to meet her!
• kicks pretty much all the time when a sibling is around.  If they are cuddling on my stomach, she nuzzles right into them (and usually kicks them in the process, which they find funny).  
• has 2 siblings who talk about her all the time and who cannot wait to cuddle her, give her a bath, and talk to her all about our family.