My Little Dancer

Here's another video of big sister K for your viewing pleasure. She is dancing to Toby Mac's "City On Our Knees." Again, she's got the whole "cheese, smile!" thing going. I love this girl!

Guess the Song

I have no idea what she is singing, but this practically had me in tears. Apparently the song is from a Disney CD that she listens to in school (any guesses?). I love how resourceful my little girl is, using legos as a microphone. My favorite part is at the end, when all of a sudden she goes, "cheese, smile!"

Accident Aftermath

I went to pick up the police report from our accident the other day. Turns out I could have waited (and avoided dealing with nasty people as all the township employees here are absolutely miserable!) because the next day, we received unwanted solicitation from at least six different law firms specializing in personal injury cases, some providing a free copy of our police report (multiply that by two, since they sent one to M and one to me). I haven't seen our mailbox so full in a very long time. It's scary how easily these law firms can access police reports and get all of our information.

M contacted our insurance company and we went to get an estimate on the damages this morning. The other driver's insurance should be covering all the costs and we were told our premium will not be affected. We were given a quote of $609 and two days to fix the car, but we would have to pay our deductible and then get reimbursed for it at a later time. M also set up an appointment with the other driver's insurance company for next week to get an estimate from them (might be easier to just handle it with them so that we wouldn't need to fork over our deductible in advance).

Mealtime Prayer

Before each meal, we always ask big sister K whose turn it is to pray. She would alternate between mommy, daddy, and herself. Her prayers are short, simple, and cute... always a variation of: "Dear God, Thank you for mum mums. Thank you for this day. Thank you for mommy, daddy, baby, and K. Continue to be with us... keep us healthy... back home safely. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen!" During breakfast today, her latest variation was, "Dear God, Thank you for keeping healthy with us..."

Here's another big sister K moment (unrelated to mealtime prayer but I just wanted to document it somewhere so that I'd remember it). Those on Facebook would have seen this already... my conversation with big sister K about President's Day this past Monday:
K: Is today a holiday mommy?
Me: Yes, today's a holiday... that's why you don't have school. Today is President's Day.
K: It's Presents Day?? Ooh! Can I have a present?
Me: LOL!

Flash Cards

I was going through some Sesame Street flash cards with big sister K earlier today. They have a picture on one side and the word on the other side. Big sister K mastered the tough words like "computer" and "ice cream" with ease, but took one look at the word "dog" and immediately put the card down because she couldn't spell it. Go figure. Naturally being the "tiger mom" that I am, I didn't let her off the hook until she spelled all the cards correctly. When we got to the word "ball," instead of "B-A-L-L," big sister K spelled it "B-A-eleven" (they're in small letters... can't blame her for getting the "l" confused with a "1"). I just started laughing. Then we got to a card with a picture of a baby wearing a diaper. Big sister K spelled "B-A-B-Y" correctly, but when I asked her what the word was, she goes "diaper." My little girl just cracks me up. Who knew I'd get so much entertainment out of flash cards?

Bye Bye Bassinet

The bassinet that baby M is using (and the same one that his big sister used three years ago) was handed down to us from M's sibling. At big sister K's last birthday party, I found out from my sister-in-law that this same bassinet was used by M's eldest nephew, who is now a senior in high school (and it was even a hand-me-down for him). Needless to say, the bassinet has gotten its money's worth and is on the brink of retirement.

I put baby M in the bassinet the other day and noticed that he's nearly outgrown it. Unlike his big sister, baby M is quite picky and never liked being put in the bassinet (not that I blame him), so we barely used it. He cried every time we put him in there; lucky for him we didn't want him waking up his big sister, so he ended up in our bed most nights. Now that he is almost sleeping through the night, I've started having him sleep in his own crib. Fortunately for all of us, he likes his bed.

I told M to trash the bassinet (yes, as you can tell, clearly I hold no sentimental value to it), but he suggested donating it somewhere (though he couldn't think of a place that would take it). I doubt anyone would want a 20-year old bassinet that isn't comfortable, doesn't function very well, and is missing a few pieces, especially not when they have all the fancier stuff out there these days. If it were up to me, I would throw the bassinet out on the curb and whoever drives by and wants it can pick it up. Otherwise, it's off to the trash on garbage day... but let's see what M decides to do with it.

My Growing Boy

Baby M is now over three months old. He's down to the last of his size 1 diapers (which he's pretty much outgrown but I'm having him use them up before switching him to the next size). He is very observant during his waking hours, always looking around with those bulging eyes of his, taking in his environment. Baby M loves to kick and is already building up his leg muscles (he can pretty much stand with me holding him). He's also recently discovered his fist and is constantly trying to put it in his mouth (he favors the right over the left). More excitingly, baby M has started laughing! It's the cutest sound and it makes me smile every time I hear it.

One other thing baby M has started doing recently: sticking his tongue out. Here he is with those bulging eyes:

Going to Disney

Big sister K has been asking to go on an airplane, so I finally caved and I booked an Orlando Disney vacation package for the family. Once I told her, she got very excited and yelled "Hooray! Hooray!" Big sister K has no concept of time yet (she still refers to things we did weeks and months ago as "yesterday"), so I'm sure even though we told her the trip is a long time away, she will be asking us every day about going to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and all her other Disney friends. I'm already dreading all the luggage we'll have to bring with us, not to mention figuring out where I am going to pump while we're in the middle of a theme park. At least we'll be staying at one of the Disney resorts, so that'll make it slightly easier if I have to make a trip back to our room.

Accident

We've lived in NJ for over five years without ever having interacted with the police. Now in a span of less than two weeks, we've had our second encounter with law enforcement. The first one was a 911 call to remedy big sister K's nosebleed on 2/1. Then today, we got into a minor accident where someone hit our car. We were not at fault and thankfully no one was hurt (had both kids in the backseat!), but the van that hit us scraped the area above our wheel and dented it so we decided to call the police and file a report.

I am so grateful that both kids were sleeping throughout the entire ordeal. Big sister K rarely naps in the car anymore, but she happened to knock right out and was in an even deeper sleep than her baby brother (who cried briefly when M swerved to avoid hitting the van) - a testament to God's impeccable timing. Big sister K woke up right when the police officer got done and was talking to M. Her first words to us were, "What are you guys doing?"

On a brighter note, Happy 3 Months to my baby boy!

Pee-Free

Big sister K still has accidents every now and then when she's sleeping. When we're not tending to a crying baby, it's cleaning up pee and giving big sister K a bath in the middle of the night. It's very rare for me to be able to sleep for more than three hours straight.

As an incentive for big sister K not to pee in bed, she gets a sticker every time she wakes up pee-free. However, that incentive might be getting old as it seems like big sister K's accidents have been happening more frequently in the past two weeks. As further incentive to keep her pee-free, I've recently told her she is not allowed to watch television if she pees in bed. I don't think she means to do it, so I feel bad instituting a punishment rather than a reward for something she may or may not be able to control. Regardless, it's worked for the past two nights... I'm still holding out on the verdict but let's see if this does the trick.

Big sister K is very cute. She's so proud of herself when she wakes up in the morning and her bed is dry. She runs into our bedroom and yells, "Hey mommy! I didn't pee pee in my bed! Can I get a sticker??"

Scare of the Night

I can't believe it is February already! We started off the month with a call to 911. Big sister K woke up a little after midnight with a bloody nose. We spent 10-15 minutes trying to contain it, but the blood just kept coming out (it also didn't help that big sister K was crying hysterically and probably swallowing the blood). We didn't know what to do, so M called 911. A cop arrived at our house almost immediately, followed by the rescue squad in less than five minutes. Of course, by the time they came, her nosebleed stopped. They didn't do much except offer to take big sister K to the hospital. By that time, big sister K seemed fine, so we told them thanks, but no thanks.

In retrospect, M probably overreacted a bit by calling 911, but when blood continues to ooze out of your child's nose with no end in sight, it causes one to panic. After the police and rescue squad left, big sister K asked to watch the Fresh Beat Band. She looked so wired that we knew she wouldn't go back to sleep even if we tried, so we changed her, wiped all the blood off her face and hands, and sat her in front of the television while M and I gathered all the bloodstained clothes, towels, bed sheets, etc to be thrown in the washer. It was quite a night. One thing I do have to be thankful for is that baby M slept through it all, so that was one less child we had to worry about.