thoughts on a sunday

• We picked blueberries this week.  Lots of them.  I am loving this berry picking thing and am already planning on picking more raspberries to make jam when my sister Krista comes to visit in a couple weeks!

• I haven't told you this but McKay has beens struggling with baby talk.  This is driving me and Brian a little bit insane.  He can say his r's and s's and every other letter, except he often times chooses not to say them correctly.  We are constantly telling him that we can't understand him and then he knows that he needs to say it the right way.  This is so very annoying.

• Another annoying habit, while we're on the subject, is that he is in a major nail-biting rut.  He can't stop.  His nails are little nubs.  I blame this on the Berenstein Bear books.  We love those books.  I grew up reading them and we check them out from the library often, plus we have them On-Demand so the kids watch the cartoons every once in awhile.  There is one where Sister gets into the bad habit of biting her nails.  I think this is where he got the idea.  I asked him how Sister stopped and he said, "They had a little talk."  Well, needless to say our "little talks" have not gone over as smoothly.  There's another one where Sister says a bad word.  The word they use is "furball".  Guess who has been testing the language waters by throwing around the word furball lately?  I'm beginning to re-think these books.  Perhaps they are more trouble than they're worth.

• Are anyone else's kids getting slivers like crazy?  Or are my kids just prone to them somehow?  There is always a sliver that needs to be picked out around here.  

• I got a new phone today.  It is an upgrade to a downgrade. . .meaning it's not as nice as my old phone, but at least it's new and it works.  My old phone was a touch screen and the screen stopped working weeks ago.  I feel like a new woman! . .and it's purple! . .but I don't really like the color purple.  But I still like my new phone.

• This week we spent almost every day doing something fun outside with water and friends.  Ellery wore her swimsuit every day.

• With all the berries I've been pickin' we've developed a mean case of fruit flies.  I hate them.  They poop on my mirrors and who knows what else and how gross is that?  It's really, really gross.

• Today at dinner Brian said, "I don't even remember the last time that Ellery ate dinner."  It's true.  She is in a phase where she is not at all interested in dinner.  She'll drink all her milk and then we spend the rest of the meal trying to get her to eat, or excusing her into the other room when she refuses.  We have a rule that the kids have to at least try one bite of something they don't want and then say, "no thanks" if they don't want more.  She just skips the bite all together and starts chanting "no thanks" as soon as her milk is gone.  I don't know which is worse, that, or having McKay ask if he can plug his nose when he takes a bite.  

• Just a little potty training update-  She's doing great!  Finally.  With our trip and her being sick after that, potty training lasted way too long.  But now I'm happy to report that she's done it and we can now go out in public sans pull-up!  She even wakes up dry.  I'm still a little reluctant to take away her sleeping underwear, aka pull-ups, because changing sheets on a bunk bed is something that I feel pretty strongly about not doing.

• After a week long cold, me and the kids are finally feeling better. . .mostly.  But now Brian has it.  And he has two clinicals this week and I know exactly how he's going to feel and it's not going to be pretty. Poor Bri.

• Every night this week our room has been roasting at night.  Our whole upstairs has been hot, but our bedroom has been SO hot.  I would wake up several times a night sweating and miserable.  I finally announced that I was going to buy a fan for our bedroom and then Brian told me he could just turn up the A/C.  I am not one who usually touches the temperatures in my house. . .because usually they are fine.  And so I kind of thought that our A/C just wasn't very good and didn't cool the upstairs.  And then he tells me he could just turn it up!  I was so mad that we've been sleeping in the desert and all we had to do was move up a few degrees!  It's better now.  

• The heat isn't all I can blame my sleepless nights on.  Of course my bladder keeps me up and down a few times a night, but I find that I'm just not sleeping that well in general.  I toss and turn a lot and am now a regular snorer.  I hate it.  This happens to me toward the end of pregnancy.  It's a good thing Brian usually falls asleep before me.  Usually.

• I am feeling very pregnant.  I am looking very pregnant.  I feel like I'm due tomorrow.  I look like I'm due yesterday.  I might just have six weeks left.  That seems like forever away. . .but at the same time- six weeks!  I gotta get some stuff done!

• I can't believe that it's mid-July and summer is halfway gone.  

• On Saturday night Ellery was a complete terror and spent much of the evening locked in her room.  Which meant that dad and McKay got to go on a bike ride and she had to stay home with me.  Or I had to stay home with her, rather.  This rarely happens for her.  While they were gone we struggled for about half an hour- I sat on her to remove a sliver that she couldn't stop whining about, I wrestled her into her pajamas, I locked her in her room when she tore off her pull-up and screaming to no end, and then we finally made up and read The Napping House before I plopped her little body into bed at 6:30pm.  Meanwhile, McKay and Brian were riding all the way to Albertson's, which is like a two mile ride, and picking up a family movie for today.  Somebody thought he was the coolest kid in Portland getting to ride two miles (without stopping) and staying up way later than his sister and getting dessert.  

• Up to about two weeks ago I had been wanting sweets a lot.  Then I began craving hot, home-cooking type foods.  Remember the Costco pizza?  (Shhh. . .but we've since been back for more).  Anyway, Brian and the kids were having hot dogs for lunch the other day and really there was nothing in the world that smelled better than their hot dogs.  So Brian offered me a bite.  And I, not wanting my "vegetarian" title to rule my life, obliged.  It smelled better than it tasted.  It tasted better than it felt in my mouth.  I may like the smell and taste of meat, but one thing is for sure- I don't like eating it.  I just don't.  Sometimes this is sad to me.  Like when I really wanted to eat me a hot dog.  

• Ever since my mom had her knee surgery (which she is recovering amazingly from- I hear she is the star of the rehab) Ellery has not let one prayer go by without whispering to the prayer-offerer, "and please bless grammy's knees to feel better."  Every time.  My mom should be happy to know that at every meal-time prayer, as well as each family prayer, her knees are blessed right along with the food.  

• Another habit the kids have gotten into is saying, "Please bless the food, that it won't be hot."  That's what we pray for around here.  

Happy Sunday!