Twin Pregnancy

I can't believe how huge I'm getting, and that I have to get even bigger before these babies are born. The human body is pretty amazing, though, even if change is super uncomfortable.

Here I am at 20 weeks, the day before I found out I was having twins. I was still feeling kinda cute with my baby bump.

Here I am at 30 weeks. Only 7 weeks to go! I hope I last that long. We took pictures by our stairs so we could measure my belly by the banister rungs. I'll have to take another picture just before I have a the babies. :)

Jack is five, with photos!

From our little family blog --


True story.  I birthed him, he got bigger, and now he's five!  Holy cow!  I'd say that the time has flown by, but that's not strictly true :).  However, we do love him dearly, and he is such a sweet, smart, funny five-year-old.  For his birthday he wanted a shark-themed party.  So I scoured Pinterest to come up with the best and least-complicated ideas, and I think it turned out pretty fun.  We had the party last Saturday, and Jack insisted that Mike and I decorate on Friday night after he was in bed, so that he could come downstairs on the party day and be surprised.  Very Christmas-esque.  I believe that he may have inherited my great sense of sentimentality when it comes holidays and birthdays.  We have a good time together :).  Anyway, back to the party, we had one of his friends over and he and Jack and Eli partied it up.  They played with a bubble machine that we got for the occasion that drained an entire bottle of bubbles in about 5 minutes flat.  Good thing bubbles are cheap??  They did a shark craft, made sharks out of food (with homemade graham cracker bodies, apple tails, and tortilla chip fins), played a lovely game of Pin the Fin on the Shark, and played Ocean Life Bingo [note to self: the two-year-old will be more interested in eating the chocolate chips than in using them in bingo].  For decorations we had put up a blue sea wall with shark fins and seaweed and shells.  We also hung green streamers in the stairwell so you had to walk through them to get downstairs.  This was a BIG hit.  Food, you ask?  Why yes, of course, we naturally had a shark-themed cake and ice cream and all of the components of the edible sharks, as well as pizza for lunch.  Naturally everything was homemade since it needed to be gluten and dairy free, so there was a substantial amount of work involved.  It was fun but exhausting.  I think that Jack had a really good time.  For gifts this year, Jack wanted some shark and snake stuff.  He's really into animals right now, and he actually knows quite a lot about certain ones.  Side note, we went to Sea World a few weeks ago, and when we walked into the shark exhibit he immediately started naming off what types of sharks he was seeing.  A little later one there was a placard with the names of the types of sharks, and he was dead one.  He's like a sponge I tell you, a sponge.  He's got a few favorite snakes:  Reticulated Pythons (he calls them "retics" for short), Black Mambas (named thus because the insides of their mouths are black . . . creeeeepy), and of course, the diamond-back rattlesnake because what's cooler than a snake that makes a menacing sound before it kills you?  Anyway, he loves sharks, snakes, spiders, the human body, and earth science/geology (earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.).  He got several books, some shark and spider and snake toys, firefighter outfits for him and Eli, and a Magic School Bus Human Body Science Kit [Very cool, by the way.  We made a stethoscope out of it the other day, and it was pretty awesome.].

Ok, on to the pictures.  We've got a wide assortment here, ranging from a picture of Mike that I think is from his last day of work at the firm to the trip we took to Utah during the two week break between jobs, camping, Jack's preschool graduation, to a visit from some of Mike's family (including Stephanie and her husband Adam and adorable daughter Annie), Jack's birthday, and some shots of Jack at his soccer class.  He has loved this class, and his coaches are awesome with him.  Eli was originally in the class with him, but he got mortally offended every time the coaches ever-so-politely reminded the class that "There are no hands in soccer".  I don't think it was so much that he likes picking up the ball with his hands as that he doesn't like being told what to do.  This happens frequently.  Anyway, now he sits on the sidelines with me and watches, but last week he insisted on bringing our football with him to Jack's soccer class, and then he tried to participate in the class using the football instead of a soccer ball.  It was really hilarious.

Click here to go to the Google+ album. [If you click on a picture in the album, it will bring up a slideshow with captions.]

I guess I should end this post with a note about Jack, since I started out talking about him.  He is a very kind, thoughtful, creative, genuine, sharp, happy, child.  We are so thankful for him and for the great brother he is to Eli.  Being a parent is often very -- trying -- but we have very good children who are our greatest treasures, and for that we are immensely grateful :).

The Story

I just posted a new post on our little blog about all the health changes we've been making lately:

http://theharrisblog.blogspot.com/

Valentine's Earthquake Party

I just posted this over at our little family blog -- enjoy!


Yes, you read that title correctly.  For Valentine's Day we had a Valentine's Earthquake Party.  We told Jack that we could do a Valentine's party, and since he is thoroughly obsessed with earthquakes right now, it naturally had to have an earthquake theme.  Oh my.  So we put our thinking caps on, and together we made decorations that reflected this [absurd] theme!  We had hearts with fault lines on them (aka broken hearts), houses that showed earthquake damage, and even signs warning about earthquakes.  We had planned the party for the day after Valentine's, and when Jack came home from preschool on Valentine's day, he was obviously coming down with some sort of bug.  Sadly, we had to tell his good friend that was supposed to come to the party that he probably ought not come.  Instead, we did what every 4 year old in 2013 would do -- we Skyped with Grandma and shared our party with her.  It was pretty hilarious.  We also took copious amounts of photos, so as to document the earthquakey-valentineness in all of its splendor . . . Oh, and lest I forget Jack's most favorite thing about the party -- we did CAKE MOVEMENTS.  What?  What's that you say?  You don't know what "cake movements" are?  Ahh, well, you must not have a four year-old obsessed with earthquakes [and I just might envy you].  Well, for the uninitiated, "cake movements" is a process by which you take a three layer cake (gluten-free, of course) and slice into it and then use two pieces of cake to slide against each other like the tectonic plates do in an earthquake.  The idea came from a book he has that's about dinosaurs, earthquakes/volcanoes, and bugs (it's quite the book).  Jack saw the little "make your own earthquake at home with cake movements" page inset in the book and has been talking about it wanting to do it for months.  He loved it, and he and Eli both loved eating the cake.  It was my first attempt at a gluten free cake (and a three-layer one at that!), and they thought it was great, even though I felt like the recipe could use an improvement or two.  Good thing kids will eat anything with sugar in it!

Ok, so here are the pictures from our little party.  I've also included some shots from January when Mike's sister Melanie and her family came to southern California.  We got to spend some very fun time with them at SeaWorld and at a condo that his grandpa and aunt had rented (with the most incredible view of the beach up in San Clemente).  Highlights:  Jack and his cousin Katie holding hands at SeaWorld and the boys exploring Grandpa's condo and its 25+ dolphin decorations (!) and sun room and deck.  We had a grand time!  We are always so excited to be with family, and this time around we got to see Mike's mom, aunt, grandpa, and sister and fam.  It was FANTASTIC!

Ok, to the pictures, since they are the main event here :).

This is a link to the photo album.  If you click on one of the photos, it will bring up a slideshow, and you can see the captions (i.e. me telling you how cute and bizarre our children are):
https://plus.google.com/photos/103879774977912516893/albums/5849401957927583681?authkey=COPbzuyymszuAQ

The old houses

It seems to be my mission to take pictures of all the old houses--Arlington, the grandparents' houses in Claremont--and now Colorado! The houses are now inside the city of Centennial, instead of Aurora. Here's Prentice Place, Waco Street, and a couple pictures of Trails West. Happy memories for those of you that remember!

My Kiddos

It's time for my monthly post, and it's been a while since I've written an update. I don't even think I wrote about Parker's birthday.  I kind of feel like we're in limbo and I really want to move out of this phase of life, so I avoid writing about it because it's kind of depressing.  Mike is still looking for a job but we've gotten a lot of leads lately, so we have hope. However, my kids are growing and changing all the time.

Parker can now say "uh oh", "what is dat", "do" (dog) "jordin" and course mama and dad and LOTS of babbling and yelling.  He can also imitate the animal sounds for a tiger, pig, dog, and fish. He LOVES animals. He is an avid  waver and waves to everyone but especially dogs and babies, even the babies on the tv.  He can cruise and crawl and walk while holding one or two hands. I think he's still got a month or so to go before he can walk. He still nurses once a day but I will be weaning him soon. I've been pregnant or nursing for over three years now and I want to give my body a break.  Parker is a very sweet baby and a smile or giggle comes easily for him.  His favorite toy is probably any toy car. He can also wield and spoon and fork with increasing accuracy.  Food is big deal to Parker and he loves almost everything, and out eats Jordan on a daily basis.  His favorite foods are anything with a tomato based sauce.

Jordan turns 3 next month!  I haven't tried to potty train him but I think for his 3rd birthday I will get him a potty chair and get him excited about it.  He's starting to show interest so that is good, but I kind of want our own home before I potty train him.  Jordan loves to sing, his favorite songs being "twinkle twinkle" and "row your boat."  For Christmas he got a Bob the Builder tool belt with accompanying tools.  Jordan pronounces it "dog a buildert" and even sings the song to it, at the top of his lungs. "DOG A BUILDERT, CAN YOU FIX IT?! DOG A BUILDERT, YES WE CAN!"  It's cracks me up every time.  His favorite show is currently Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but I like to try to get him to watch PBS shows or leapfrog shows.   His tantrum phase is in full force so we're working on that...he drives me bonkers some days.  He also is becoming increasingly more picky with food.  He'll eat most anything I guess, just not very much of it.  He usually eats one good meal a day and just picks at his other meals.  He's already on the small side, so I hope it's okay.   He still is in 2t clothes and can even wear some 18m stuff, same as Parker. There is definitely some sibling rivalry but generally Jordan is very sweet to Parker and they play together more and more all the time.  They are going to be best buds. Also, Jordan is very good at giving validation and tells us often that we are doing a great job.

And both of my boys are still cuddly and I am so grateful for that. My family is definitely the brightest spot of our lives.

Parker quite literally stuffing his face

I told Jordan to say cheese for a picture... this was his response

Finally getting a hair cut

"dada ad ana mom"

 Christmas jammies.

Family Photo Shoot