To My Middle Child

Sweetest Beckles - {rhymes with freckles}

You are not so little anymore. You are a big sister to M and you and E can play nicely together. You love doing 'big' things with E. You love to wear E's old pink and blue sparkly shoes but they are really too big for you.

You love playing in the sand and going on the swings and playing Legos. You are still not a huge fan of baths but you tolerate them just to play with your sisters. You like reading Curious George and playing Ana and Elsa with E. You get stuck being Ana and I try and tell you that you can be Elsa too but mostly you just go with the flow and you are Ana.

You go with the flow with most things - but when you don't EVERYONE knows about it. When you are upset usually we can change topics or let you get an ice pack and then all is well in your world.

You love school. There is a little boy there who thinks he's going to marry you and you all adore each other and have even exchanged a few video messages : )

You are super excited about playing soccer in the spring. You've picked the Fire Ants as your team name in honor of the fire ants who bit you last summer and left a scar on your foot because you walked through ant hills on MULTIPLE occasions. You did not like swim class a few months ago but I think we might give those a whirl again soon.

You are getting so big it drives me crazy. You put together words into sentences. You are so cute when you tell me 'I like you' or 'You look prit-tea'. You can be really sweet to M especially when she's crying. E loves to match you. You are finally standing up for your opinion and if you don't want to wear something you won't wear it and that gets E into a fit of rage and you don't give in and usually E does : )

Your favorite foods include cheese sticks and hotdogs and bananas. If you get dessert - which normally you clean your plate unless we have brussel sprouts - you go for the craziest stuff. Like Dum-Dums or Smarties even though there used to be gobs of really good Halloween candy. You say you don't like peanut butter though I'm not totally convinced. You usually win the messy plate, space, seat, seatback and hands which touch the walls on the way to the sink award.


Anyways, you are the greatest Beckles. We love you so so so much. We are grateful to be your parents even though we fall short all too often.

Happiest of 3rd birthdays : )

~ Mama and Papa

The Sisters… An Update

Grace just posted a life update on her kiddos… Got me thinking it might be a good idea. I'll try not to get too sappy.

M - Mother, why am I here???

E - Mother, seriously? Another picture?!?!

E
- Loves school and is missing it during the summer
- Sings Christmas songs pretty much any day of the week - mother's daughter in that regard
- Loves to swing super high and sing random songs from school
- Screams bloody murder at the sight of a dog
- Builds Legos almost everyday
- Claims she wants to do ballet but then at the last second changes her mind

E instructing R on how to trace bodies

And it is not going as planned

R
- Call her sisters Bill-lis and Mon-Ka (one of them is not a fan and the other thinks it's hilarious)
- Hates peanut butter but loves peanuts
- Not a huge fan of showers and really not a fan of the sprinkler much to big sister's annoyance
- Commandress of numerous bumps and bruises and scrapes but generally no worse for the wear
- Mostly potty trained but her laissez-faire attitude to wet undi-wears is not helping her cause
- Loves playing with E but does not like getting yelled at by her so she will stick with M who is happy to get the attention

Flower child

Girl has the craziest way to sleep

Sisterly love

Except when you pull my hair

M
- Sleeping through the night some times - making me really love the mornings she actually does
- Eater of lots of food - those little squeeze food packs are awesome and she's the first Kibbe to use them
- Loves throwing her sippy cup on the floor. Repeatedly
- Not much into sitting up or crawling or growing hair
- Best naps are taken while at work while in the bathroom with the fan on - nothing like a cool dark room with white noise , ya know
- Sometimes will hold her breathe for no reason. Maybe she'll be a swimmer one day

Haha, nope not crawling today

So stinking cute

Hello : ) 

What are you looking at?

It's been said many times, many ways, Happy Birthday… to you!

Sweet, sweet R. How is it that you are 2? (despite you are holding up 4 fingers : )

I, as usual, cannot believe it. 

You have blossomed into a big sister ever since M was born. You are putting words together more and more everyday. You are giving the potty a try and you are not letting E boss you around all the time. 

My favorite thing you do is 'nuggle' on command. I'll pick you up out of your crib and say "Snuggle me please" and you wrap your arms around me tight and bury your head into my neck and we will snuggle and rock for a few seconds. 

You love doing everything your big sister does and sometimes you know just how to get under her skin. You love being a big helper with your little sister and come in the room when I change her and you will announce "Big stink!"

Recently you have really enjoyed reading books especially with Papa. 

You are still a huge fan of eating. "Me eat now?" or "Cup pease" is often heard 10 minutes after a meal or snack. You are not the cleanest of eaters but come on now, what 2 yr old is, right? 

This is frequently overheard at the table:

Papa - R you are a NUT {in reference to your crazy eating habits/behavior}
R - New nut, new nut!

You love yogurt and hotdogs. You cannot stand peanut butter… at all. 

You love to sing. You sing Christmas carols that E learned for her preschool program. 

You are a wild child… especially at church. You don't like wearing your shoes and you would run around in circles throughout Liturgy if I allowed it. You get all your energy out at school where you have the world's nicest bestests teachers a 2 yr old could ask for. You have a friend in there who, it is reported, that you all run together and play together and scream at each other…. ALOT. 

You have already picked out a book bag that you want to take to your 2 yr old preschool class in the fall. I think you are going to have a blast with all the art projects and singing and dancing. 

Seems like just the other day I was at the doctor's office and the nurse says "Okay you need to go to the hospital. Straight there, don't drive back to The Mount"… 5 hours later another Kibbe girl graced us with her presence. 

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet, crazy, loud, loving (not so) baby girl!

My Toddler Ate Soap

and lived to tell…

I don't always eat soap, but when I do it is the pink kind. 

The caption possibilities for R taking a bite out of the bar-o-soap in the bath the other night are endless. Not exactly sure what she was thinking or maybe she was still hungry. After I freaked out and grabbed the soap from her and put it on the counter - she tried to grab it again during teeth brushing - which I stopped - but she proceeded to lick her soapy hand! So maybe this brand of soap tastes good? This girl is soooooo crazy I cannot even stand it!

Hungry? Why wait {for food when there's soap}?

Point of the story, she did not require a run to the ER or anything like that. Hopefully we can limit all future soap consumption so I don't have to make any phone calls to poison control. 

Five Favs - From the Walk of Shame... Getting Sent Home from a False Alarm at the Hospital

If you had asked me about this yesterday I probably would not have told it like this or not even shared.. but I am a sharer so not you know. We rallied Jibbe at 4 am to tell her to come over because the baby was coming and 3.5 hours later... No baby. But there were some definite positives from the Braxton Hicks contraction - false alarm run to the hospital. 

***Super side note. With the girls I NEVER had false labor or BH contractions. When the contractions started it was labor for real and they were born within 10 hours of contraction so last night when the contraction started at 1:30 in the morning I had no reason to believe it was not labor. Leaving the hospital I was totally questioning myself and my idea of labor pain aside from the fact I felt completely silly because really this is kid #3 - I SHOULD know what real contractions are right? I was having legit contractions so up on the monitor at the hospital but unless you are dilating apparently they don't count : ) 

Here's to my day yesterday!

1. Donut Date with R

After failed attempts at getting a nap in before lunch and the girls got home, I decided I was not going to mope around the house. I picked R up from school/daycare early and we had a little mama-daugther donut date - trying to savor her last few days as the bebe of the house. We maybe had a bit too much fun with the camera : )

Love her!


2. Listening to baby

Isn't it amazing listening to your babies heartbeat? Well we got at least a good hour of listening to baby's heartbeat yesterday at the hospital. It is really a miracle. Oh and this baby's heartbeat is running a good 149 so it even strengthens my opinion that we're gonna have 3 girls. : )


3. Finding out the doctors schedule

While at the hospital I found out who was on call basically through the rest of the week. My doc is on call Thursday and Monday and the doctor who delivered R is on call for the weekend. The doc who delivered E was on call yesterday so as disappointed as I was about not having a baby yesterday, I was excited that he was delivering baby. 

4. Breakfast date with Papa

We left the hospital around 8 and we were both INSANELY hungry and thirsty - they would only give me ice chips. I had a craving for grits so Lee and I stole a little breakfast date while Jibbe handled school dropoff AND E's field trip to the pumpkin patch (have I mentioned my MIL is pretty fantastic - because well she is). Lee and I tiredly looked at each other and talked about nothing in particular but it was nice to just spend a few moments of unexcited quietness together.

5. Best night sleep in a LONG time

I suppose one of the side effects of sleeping from 10:15pm -12:30am one night and being up and down and at the hospital and getting donuts with R and going on a walk with the girls means that going to bed at 7:30 pm (and falling asleep) is totally acceptable. I did not wake up until 5:15 am when Lee was going to rock a crying R back to sleep. Ahhhhh.... rested bliss.

7 Quick Takes - A little bit of this and a little bit of that

--- 1 ---

{Here's to Papa}


Me - So when do you think you'll be home?
Lee - Around 5 so we'll have an evening of football and relaxation {big grin}
Me - Football?
Lee - And it starts early since its a doubleheader
Me - Football...
Lee - Yes chicky football



I really should not do as much complaining about football because I will actually watch it and can totally follow the games but I have to put up a little fight, right?

--- 2 ---

I fear our summer days of outside summer bliss are going to change to somewhat breezier, cool temps. Not that I am going to complain because seriously yesterday I was HOT HOT HOT all day long and I probably drank a gallon of water. So so so over this whole thing of being pregnant over the summer. Thank you NC humidity. 

--- 3 ---

R has been taking out her hair tie so much these days it drives me crazy but it is funny to watch her try and brush back her hair with both hairs once she has taken it out. But seriously, the taking out of hair ties is almost as annoying as the taking off of shoes AND socks in the car on the way to school.

My pigtails are not straight!!!! Fix them immediately!

Let's see her try and take out two!!!

--- 4 ---

We had a small, random lunch at the office with Nani this week. She made her Mexican tuna salad - which she let me bring home the leftovers - which lasted for all of 25 minutes. Tuna + tomato + cucumber + avocado + jalapeño + lemon juice + IDK what else = A-Mazing. R wanted to scoop her own which I did not like because I did not want stinky tuna juice all over my skirt. E settled for chips and an apple when we got home.

Yep. I have a great office crew. E conned some markers out of Kriss and did a drawing for Nani. Fortunately I was able to convince her not to use the permanent purple Sharpie and she willingly gave it to Nani for safe keeping. 

--- 5 ---

Here's some 3 yr old class art from the week. 

Must.Have.More.Clippers.

But in other 3 yr old class news... yesterday E LOST IT when I dropped her off. Seriously? Seriously? Glad I got that brain book to read. Every excuse in the book came out about why she did not want to go to class. She was nervous, she was hungry, she needed water. Well we talked last night and she said she did not want me to leave her. So thanks to the book I am trying to connect her emotional right side of the brain with the logical left side of the brain and explain that she does her school work at school and Mama does her work-work at work. Plus I/Papa/Jibbe will ALWAYS pick her up and her teachers have our phone numbers in case she really needs something and I am always really close by plus R is right down the hall. She did settle down before I left but still it is nerve racking plus its not like she is 2 and cannot articulate what is bothering her. Something is bothering her and maybe she cannot put her finger on it at the time of the right brain emotional breakdown but if I could find out what it was in the moment and not 8 hours later so we could talk through it - it would sure make me feel better!!!

Not sure where this is all coming from... Maybe with new baby coming soon? Maybe because we are have reno work done? Maybe just transitioning into a new school year? I don't know, I am really hoping today's drop off goes better. 

--- 6 ---

Papa's cross stitch is really coming along and I am trying not to get my unrealistic hopes up about actually finishing it before January 5.

--- 7 ---

On tap for the week...

E's second round of swim class - fingers crossed
Pig Pickin'
Michael's run to find dots - I have got a story for you about that I totally forgot about
1st round of soccer practice with 3 yr old and 34 week pregnant coach - Don't hate people
Packing up the house - {shutter}

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

                               

R's School of Hard Knocks and other Things

R has been through A-L-O-T this past week.

She took a tumble down the stairs. Fortunately I caught her before she made a total crash landing on the hardwood floors. I seriously had my heart stop for a whole 5 minutes. R was shaken up - literally - but no worse for the wear.

Let's see she took a nosedive on the driveway and her knees were not spared BUT R got right up and kept running on.

Then among the regular bumpies and crashes, during her meltdown at church on Sunday she fell and scraped up her fingers to the point where she was uncontrollably freaking out. There definitely was a bit of blood involved...

Lastly, yesterday afternoon we were out on the swingset sliding and swinging  - the works. E decided to hop on her swing and do the belly swing without looking behind her and R just happened to be perfectly poised to take a foot to the chest and went airborne and well, the rest ended in two girls being in tears. R shook it off though and once she had a squeeze and her cup - she was good to go - straight to dinner of course!

In other news she is talking up a storm. I got her up from her nap yesterday and we were sitting in the rocker just talking. I asked her if she had a nice day and stuff and she was babbling on and I could have sworn she said be-tus and went on rambling about something. Because? You are too small to use such a big word!

She is also doing this super cute... "no, no, nooo" thing when she doesn't want to do something. She'll look you straight in the eye and run around and shake her head.

After breakfast this morning we were checking out the 17+ wild turkeys in the backyard and R made some cute attempts a turkey but could not quite eeek it out. Then I asked what a turkey says? {Blank stare - of course}. Gobble, gobble, gobble - I told her. Goggle, Goggle Goggle - with a super big grin. And then the turkeys were gone into the woods : )

R's Teething Extravaganza

R is going through some insane teething this week. She is getting a tooth in on the bottom and two on the top and I am guessing she'll be getting another two on the top really soon. Due to this teething she goes into this screaming fits of tears and inconsolable thrashes. Usually they last about 5-10 minutes but it is really unnerving and I feel basically helpless because she does not want to be held, does not want her NiNi, does not want anything. I have to let her get it out and then she is somewhat back to normal. I have been giving her pain reliever but those last 2 hours between doses is ROUGH.

So R is getting the orange tooth and the tooth next to is on one side. One the bottom she is getting one of the front four teeth but does not have those bottom back teeth yet... but maybe I should check on those ones too!

Pretty much ready for this teething thing to end so I don't resort to putting R in her crib and letting her scream. I only did that once but SERIOUSLY my mind goes back to everything they tell you about purple crying... Put the baby down and walk away and recollect yourself and then deal with the situation. Yesterday was not that bad probably because we were outside and the screams were not reverberating through the walls of the house.

I also think R frustrated by the fact she is not walking yet so that coupled with the teething is driving her crazy. She now will stand for 10-20 seconds without holding onto anything. Still no steps yet. Hopefully when she does get the courage she will take off running.

Happy 7 Quick Takes Edition

Also hopping on the Catholic Bloggers Link-Up Blitz...

--- 1 ---

What a week!?!?! Respirar profundamente. Ahhhh. Friday. I have so much to say and only 6 more points to make.

--- 2 ---

So who's up for bets on the Papal Bracketology??? The chair is empty. Yep... We currently do not have a Pope. I still have vivid memories of JP2's final days and the sadness that I felt and the Church felt without having a fearless leader. With Benedict retiring the thoughts/feelings surrounding his departure into retirement / 'jubilation' - as it is better translated from Spanish - is so different. He gave us a few weeks to warm up to the idea. Don't get me wrong it was SHOCKING that morning reading the news reports. But there is not an extreme sadness as with JP2. When I went to World Youth Day 2005 in Germany I did get to see Pope Benedict and I am grateful for that experience. It is interesting that Catholic and non-Catholics are so wrapped up in the Pope's retirement. Everyone has an opinion who they think would be a good Pope and what he should do. Jesus picked the first Pope - Peter - and I know this Pope is human and will not be perfect just as Peter wasn't. I mean heck he denied Christ three times! My hope/prayer is that the next Pope is faithful, compassionate and strong - and friendly to Eastern Catholics - especially to those of us not living in Eastern Europe. PS... we could really use a episcopal appointment (ahem) Eparchy of Parma (ahem) so next Pope - let's get on that please? So ready for the white smoke at the conclave. So glad I am a woman and could not be elected Pope because being the spiritual leader of 1.2 BILLION people is an incredibly massive cross to carry.

--- 3 ---

Speaking of carrying a cross... I am reading The Imitation of Christ and I am in a part that talks about the need to carry ones cross and to willingly and joyfully live through the suffering and joys of life. Well that's alot easier written then practiced. Enter my amigas de la oficina who help me to vent/understand the EXTREME importance of patience. So Wednesday was a ROUGH day. Let's just say I like to keep my expectation high and I can get frustrated easily. After a little heart to heart, coupled with the book I am reading I am trying to take a more laissez faire approach with some of my more stress-inducing situations. Today I allotted an additional 10 minutes to our prayer time and took my laissez faire approach and bam! Less stressed me, happier me, happier kids, leaving the house 5 minutes earlier- even happier me!

--- 4 ---

Ahhh yes... now into the not so heavy quick takes. How about the Downton Abbey finale. Lee convinced me to watch it over the weekend. A. Really? That is how you kill him off? Are you kidding? B. How completely horrible for the family? C. Dan Stevens WHY??? You were the only one who was likable in that family and you did not re-sign your contract.... F. A. I. L. Well Lee was glad to see him go because he thought DS was not the best of actors but Lee did think the death and the circumstances surrounding it a bit cruel.

--- 5 ---

Now now, last week I posted about Presanctified Liturgy which was dreadful for all parties involved. Well Friday we headed to our 'local RC' (Roman Catholic, thanks Mark for that one : ) for the Fish Fry and Stations. We got there entirely too early thanks to me so we killed some time in the church basement post-eating. I staked us out in the back pew. I knew we would last a station or two. E was interested in the kneeling and the book and the hymnal and the new Norms page. R was... loud. Per the usual. So it was out to the Narthex to sit and entertain. We could still hear/read along with/pray the rest of the stations. Though E announced she "Don't want to pray" and pouted in a corner - come on godparents there is you update. She did go back in for a station or two with Ms Barbara but it lasted all of five seconds. Otherwise it was one of the more prayerful experiences I have had in a church building in a while. So we are going for round numero dos tomorrow.

--- 6 ---

On another Lenten note, E has been asking about Pascha (Easter) already so we are trying to explain that Lent is when we get ready for Lent. It is difficult to explain fasting periods to kids because well they are not bound to fasting rules and E does not think about meat vs no-meat yet. I think next year we'll probably do no sweets or something more tangible food wise.. Prayer wise, she knows Stations and we started saying the Prayer of St. Ephraim at night (which we'll only say during Lent) It goes like this for those who are interested

Lord and Master of my life spare me from the spirit of indifference, despair, lust for power and idle chatter
Instead, bestow on me your servant the spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love
Yes O Lord and King, let me see my own sins and not judge my brothers and sisters for you are Blessed unto ages of ages, Amen

Pretty sweet prayer, no?

--- 7 ---

R has been a crazy girl these past few days. She has totally taken to walking - assisted - though this morning she SCREAMED the entire way up and back taking E to her room. She loves standing at the toy box and picking out things she wants to play with. Oh and of recent in the tub she has a knack for filling up a cup and drinking the water. That's an awesome trick until big sis soaps up the water with three different kinds of soap!

Fun with flower pots

WATER! / Drowning myself in icky bath water : ) 

Happy Friday! Happy March! Happy Lent! Happy first day of Pope Emeritus Jubilation! Happy Day!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

P,H,F,R - to remember a few moments from today

I'll give this Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real thing a whirl... in no particular order

Today started off kinda rough... I getting over a cold, E had a meltdown - a few in fact, ehhh it just seemed kind of blah-ish

Good Morning World!

Pretty

R wore a pretty coat I scored at the Wil-town consignment shop. The LL Bean coat retails for $100 and I got it for $13 and I pretty sure it was worn a single time. I also got a jumper for E since she LOVES them and a few long sleeve dresses and a jumper for R - as E's 12-18 month clothes are all summer so I need to extend the wardrobe out a few more weeks.

Happy

We had such a great time outside this afternoon. It was in the low 60s and I was super pumped about cycling and walking. Then I realized that I A. left something in my car that had to go out on FedEx and B. I had nothing for dinner. Bummer! So we had a shortened outside time : ( We headed out to FedEx and then to McD's to give the Fish McBites a try -but then I was so happy to remember that OLPH was having a fish fry!!! Sweet! and they accept checks - double score for the mama who carries no cash. R was freaking out because it was time to eat. E was interesting in the fries. Anyway this super nice older lady came over and held R as I stuffed her face and kept her quiet/content : ) The lady was way happy to help - she has 3 grandsons - and we had a nice conversation.

Funny

Okay back track to the outside time. E was on the red cycle ( the big cycle) the one that she does not obliterate her shoes because she is forced to use the pedals. We walked/cycled up to S&J's house - our neighbor friends with little boys about 18 months older than E&R respectively. On the way we saw some birds in the grass and trees. E rung her little bell on her cycle. She said 'Mama I beeped the birds' pause 'Mama I ringed the birds' pause 'I ringed that one' pause 'I ringed that one and that one'. Backstory, we beep people in the car. Actually we playfully beep Nani and I can be an aggressive honker when it comes to bad driving but we differentiate between beeping and honking. So we beep Nani on the road, at her house, we beep Nani at BR Global (E says it so cutely), and we beep Nani's crazy puppies. So clearly it would follow we can 'ring the birds'.

Ringing the birds

                               

Also, hilarious R was mad at me that I would not let her crawl on the driveway. She does this crazy spin move and pivots on one knee/leg and does a 90 degree spin. It is an excellent visual. She also did one round of hopscotch with me. She liked it the first time but the second time she was way mad.

Happily bird watching

                                 

Real

It is really half way through February?  It is really almost Saturday? For real, I got a jump on the laundry for the weekend so I am way ahead of the eight ball - at least until the girls wake up : )