It's about that time

No, it isn't baby time yet, but it certainly is time for me to start hashing out my to-do list. Or should I call it a "Dream List." I think my list is a tad too extensive to actually be completed before BabyDuck4's arrival, but we shall see.

- Paint all of the walls in our house. We are making an effort towards this, but I think we need to be a tad more focused on getting it done.

- Buy the boys new bunk beds and sell the ones they have. Anyone looking for a twin/full bunk bed? If so, we have a great one!

- Transition Piddle to a toddler bed. This won't happen until the boys have new beds and she is climbing a bit better. She just doesn't seem quite as capable for the transition as the boys were. We still have time though.

- Potty train Waddle. Do you think I can will him to be potty trained? We've been lazily working at this for months and with neither of us being focused, it is very hit or miss. I just want him to wake up one day and tell me when he needs to go potty and poop. I do not want to have three littles in diapers!

- Buy new car seats. With the frequency of my nephew traveling the city with us, we need to be able to fit the maximum number of children into the space we have.

- Pick a boy name and a girl name for our baby. Right now we pretty much have nothing. Neither of us are in love with any of the names on the table........ This one is mandatory!

- Stock pile meals. This one is also mandatory. I hope we don't have to feed ourselves for a while after the baby arrives, but you just never know and it is better to be prepared.

- Figure out how I will handle day to day life with a newborn and three littles getting into everything.... This one may be a "learn as we go" thing.

I feel pretty relaxed about things at this point. Of course, I do have quite a while to go. Albert and I are taking a little mini-vacation soon and the bed transition can really begin after that. Everything else (pretty much) is just things I'd like to do, except for the car seat. We gave ours to some friends and do not have a car seat for the baby. But I am sure all that needs to be done will be done before D day!

19 weeks

Well, I'm almost 19 weeks, tomorrow I will be. Things are going smoothly so far. I haven't had any sickness, a tinge of nausea, but nothing to complain or really think about. I seem to have a bigger belly in the evening than in the morning and it seems bigger when I'm sitting down rather than standing. I feel like I'm still not showing enough for anyone to really notice, depending on what I wear. I have felt the baby move a tiny bit the last three days, but nothing like I seem to remember from my other three pregnancies. Will all three of them I knew I felt a baby move during week 16. This leaves me a little concerned and ready for our ultrasound, which is on the 21st. Hopefully the baby will be moving around like a little wild person!

Widdle is certain we are having a boy. When asked what we should name a girl he first says, "we need a boy too." His name options are Aniken Luke Skywalker or Tinkerbell. According to him if there is a Tinkerbell there will also be an Aniken...... we shall see, though I doubt either of those names will be used. He can call the baby whatever he likes though.

Waddle is sure that he has a boy in his belly. "Waddle" is what he thinks the name should be. While he speaks clearly, I'm not sure he gets it yet. He will though.

Piddle could care less as long as she is held on demand and gets plenty of Mama and Daddy love. I am trying to teach her to be gentle (a hard thing to learn with two big brothers for an example) and she is oh so close to walking. Her latest thing is walking around with one hand on the cabinet or furniture. It is only a matter of time. I think we are going to leave her rear-facing in her car-seat until she is two years old, or I loose my mind trying to buckle two babies in backwards...... whichever comes first. Right now she is still too tiny to face forwards anyway, so it isn't an issue and she doesn't know what she's missing. She is enjoying her bed more these days. It is one of the only places I allow her to have her paci and therefore, she goes in willingly and looks longingly at the crib when I pick her up. She has mixed emotions about telling her paci night-night and watching me put it in the drawer. I think A LOT of tears will come before sleep once it is totally gone.

I think this gives you a good idea of what's going on in baby news and baby prep at our house. Have any guesses what the sex of the baby will be?? Feel free to leave it in the comments along with a birth date and weight. Here are some tips to help you form a guess:

Widdle was 9 lbs two days late

Waddle was 7 lbs 2 oz three weeks early

Piddle was 7 lbs 9 oz nearly four weeks early

My due date is Sept 9. I've had two dreams that this baby is a boy and one dream that the baby was a girl and we introduced her to someone by the name we have chosen. That leads me to think it's either a boy or a girl! HA!

Feel free to leave a boy name idea too. That's always fun!

Brain Purge

It seems that a lot has been going on and not much at all around here. Here's the run down on what's up with the Ducks:

- I read an amazing book that I HIGHLY recommend. It is called "Treasuring God in Our Traditions" by Noel Piper. I think every Christian and especially every Christian woman should invest a bit of time in this book. I only wish I had read it sooner, like while I was single, so that we could have started intentional traditions from the beginning. Also, the spaghetti recipe in the book is delicious! I made it last night for some friends and none of us could get enough. We are going to try out the Breakfast Cake for Easter and the Chocolate Eclair cake next week. Does that have your interest sparked yet?? Give the book a shot, it's amazing!

- We met with a midwife out in town last week. I really like her. She seems to be a MUCH better fit than the doctor I was given through the base. I tried to mentally just stick it out with the doctor I was given, but I just couldn't relax about her and decided to switch. I'm really glad I did! Our ultrasound is scheduled for April 21st and at this moment we are not finding out the sex. Hopefully I will be able to stay strong!

- My belly has semi-popped out. No, you won't be seeing any pictures. If you want to see it, come visit me, though you still won't see much of it. I'm not sure if I'm smaller this time or if I've collected a variety of clothing that flexes with my mid-section. Either way I can still were several of my non-pregnant clothes and a few pair of pants. No maternity clothes yet!! I think that's pretty good for a fourth pregnancy within four years! :)

- We have a 16 year old girl staying with us for 5-6 weeks. Some friends of ours are traveling around the country to raise support for going on staff with Navigators and their daughter was hoping to stay in town and take care of her horse. The first option fell through and at the last minute God laid it on our hearts that our home would be perfect. We are less than two miles from her horse and we have the space. She is a great help and I'm thinking she should just stay here until about Christmas!

- Upon moving M in, we set up our guest room. It isn't totally complete. (That would be nearly impossible since we found out she was coming Sunday morning, picked her up Sunday afternoon and attempted to organize the room for her after church!) But, it is a work in progress and at least the work has started! Since we painted the office two weekends or so ago, we were able to easily move the bookshelves into the office. Albert put the frame together for the full sized mattress that was on the floor, the boy's trampoline is now gone. And we found a use for the three drawer plastic thing that was sitting in our room empty. I think it still needs a fresh coat or two of paint, but it's perfect for a 16 year old girl and we actually have a quilt that goes great with it. It's just right for now.

- God has provided us with a temporary second vehicle. There is a whole huge story behind this (and if there's enough interest I might share it) but we have been using one car for about the last 8 months and for about a year before Piddle was born. Upon moving to the beach, we were hoping to have Albert's Papaw's truck. The addition has taken longer than we expected and we were needing another vehicle. Albert shopped Craigslist and looked at several trucks, none seemed right. Then, a guy from our Bible study offered his truck. It is perfect. Our friend bought a new car and wanted to give his truck to someone or sell it, but he felt that it wasn't worth enough to sell it and it wasn't in good enough shape to gift to someone. So, it is on loan to us until it dies or he moves. Whichever comes first! Hallelujah! For April, we also have M's dad's truck. He wants to make sure it is still running and asked us to drive it. So, for this month we have three vehicles to choose from. God is so good!

Little Lady

A little lady around here turned 1 last week.

Unfortunately she felt horrible and ran a low-grade fever all week. She did enjoy her cake, but it was hard to get a smile out of her. I can't believe Piddle is 1. In some ways it seems like she has always been a part of my life and in other ways the time seems to have flown by. I really enjoy reflecting back on the day each child was born on their birthdays. Piddle's was no different. In hindsight I am still so thankful that Albert was able to make it home in time to see our sweet baby girl enter this world. I wish I drank more water leading up to her delivery, maybe she wouldn't have had to spend a few hours in the NICU. I still remember asking Albert, "So, is it a girl?" Then laughing and asking, "What's her name??" I am so thankful Piddle is a part of our lives. I'm just not sure our family would be as well rounded if she weren't in it. Happy Birthday (10 days late) sweet girl. I love you!

Family Fun

We had a GREAT family day on Saturday. My parents met us down town at the McGuire's St. Pattie's day run, along with about 10,000 other people.

Albert left the house a little after six to pick up all of our packets. Upon arriving he realized that we totally blanked on the whole "green" thing and asked me to bring a green shirt along for him. I obliged and dressed the littles accordingly. We left the house a little after seven. Mom and Dad pushed our trio in two strollers so that Albert and I could run. My 10 year old brother ran with me. We had a GREAT time. We enjoyed talking about all of the costumes, breathing, and trying to pass people without picking up speed. After the run we enjoyed some Irish stew (C@ambell's beef stew) and hanging out. The boys all went up on the double decker bus and we continued to comment on what everyone was wearing. Maybe we'll dress up a bit more next year. After the run, we came back to our house and started the painting project. I can't wait to have the whole house done, but for now I am satisfied with the foyer and office. They look great and very fresh. For dinner, my sister and nephew came over for some brisket. We were all about to pass out by then and turned in early. We sure did have a special time together though!

Unique

We like "different" things. Some of the things around our little pond that make us feel "cool" or "different" are:

- having a lot of littles all close together in age. We are finding more families with a lot of littles, but our's seem to be closer together in age, or younger at this pointe. We love this!

- using cloth diapers

- nursing in public {modestly of course, but it isn't done by every woman}

- baby wearing. This is becoming more popular, but still has a ways to go with the daddies, not at our house though!

- our stroller. We think it's totally cool and really enjoy telling others about it.

- our theology. While we want everyone to love Jesus and worship Him in all that they do, a lot don't.

- Widdle's running bike.

- our new bike seat.

Albert found this bike seat yesterday and just "had" to buy it. We went for a ride last night and Waddle loved being so close to Daddy and having such a special seat. We think it would be a head turner if I could ride farther than 3 miles!

Resurrection Party

At the encouragement of a dear friend, I hosted my first Resurrection Party today. It wasn't very big or fancy and I really hope more people will be able to come next year, but we had a great time. The culture has influenced holidays so much that I think it is easy to forget what we are celebrating. So, today we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the true meaning of Easter. I only did two specific activities and the rest was just free play and visiting. It turned out great. Once our friends were here, we read through the Resurrection Eggs. I found these last year for about $10 at a bookstore in town. The kids LOVED it. I was impressed with their attention span. They all took turns opening the eggs and we talked about the tricky words in the story. Next was snack time. I was going to make a resurrection cake that walked us through Jesus's death and resurrection again, but I could not find a good picture to go off of. I did find the directions for a cross cake though, so I made it instead. It was really easy and tasty!

I decided to make a tomb out of the extra piece and used a R1tz cracker as the rock for the kids to roll away and see that the tomb was empty.

Widdle ate the cracker and now it just looks like a doorway, oh well. We had a great time and really enjoyed the special time with my sister and our friends, the M girls!