1) First and foremost - today is Maggie's 3rd Birthday! We can hardly believe she's three, though she acts every bit of it. I love Jack dearly and what I'm about to say has nothing to do with wishing it WERE this way again - but I truly miss the first few months after Maggie was born. There are few times in life that are as momentous as reveling in the reality and innocence of your first baby. And Mags was a sweet sweet baby. We spent the morning getting hot chocolate at Barnes and Nobles, letting the kids play with the trainset in the kids' section there and picking out some craft books for them.
2) Poor Mags spent the 2.5 days leading up to her 3rd birthday in the hospital. The doc believes she had(has) rotavirus - a nasty stomach virus - that led to her getting dehydrated. So we were admitted Thursday evening and by the middle of Thursday night, she was past the scary, pitiful lethargic stage of dehydration. But she did NOT enjoy being confined to her room/radius of her IV pole. But, believe you me, she had all those peds nurses charmed in no time by greeting them all as they walked in on Friday, "Hi! I'm Maggie Butcher! What's your name?" (The first pic is within an hour of her IV starting so she was still wiped; the second was after 24 hours and she was back to her goofy self):
3) We found out baby #3 is a BOY! And there's no if-ands-or buts to about it. The doc got a money shot. As soon as we scan the ultrasound pics, we'll post 'em (and we're back logged now to ultrasound pics from 8 wks, 12 wks, 21 wks... and we have another at 27 wks which is probably when we'll get caught up on them).
4) Jack is talkey-talkerson these days. He is picking up new words every day and is really impressing the both of us. Just the other day he identified when he heard someone crying by saying "Mimi (that's me to Jack), she's crying" - in so many sounds. If you never met him, you may not have understood that's what he was saying but being his Momma, I sure did. And he is identifying when people are sad, too. His favorite games are playing chase - which he instigates by snatching whatever object Maggie is playing with and running like a mad man - and he loves playing with dinosaurs (thanks Aunt Kiki and Grandma!) and little people. Sometimes the the dinosaurs and little people are family in his little pretend world. And here he his, dressed to the nines for family pictures at Christmas time (cute lil dapper outfit courtesy of Memere):
5) It has been really really cold here. Like, uninhabitably cold. For the past 2 weeks, it's been hovering between 0 and 15. One day we got up to 45. Which was awesome, except all the snow melted just enough to make every sidewalk a death trap. And it keeps snowing. And these little suckers are gettin' might brave. I took this picture today, from inside my kitchen. Those steps are approximately 20 ft from where I was standing and this doe-eye-deea did not care whatsoever that I caught her eating my bushes:
6) Jack got his first haircut! The weekend before Thanksgiving. And he grew into a little boy instantly. It broke my heart. It also breaks my heart how darn handsome he is... just like his daddy :) (see above picture for his new do).7) At least 3 of the 4 of us are anxiously awaiting our annual trip to Hilton Head for a conference that Jonathan attends. I've explained to Maggie recently that she was born at the beach (Charleston, SC) and she now believes she is a mermaid :D. I'm not squelching that little dream just yet...
