For Sweet Baby Jonas

So, each of my girls has a song that I sing to them from when they were new: Piper's is "The Water is Wide" (also sang at our wedding) and Finley's is "Wildflowers" by Tom Petty, random, I know, but whenever they were upset I could without fail calm them by singing them their "song."

Well, Jonas needed a song, although I am singing to him all the time ranging from Bob Marley to the Indiana Jones theme. But here is his song:

Nothing that I Can Do
- Ben Taylor

First morning ever to have seen the sun
Must have run the other way
Until she found that it was only getting earlier that way
When she spun one-hundred eighty degrees
And beheld the sweet light rising through the trees
She fell to her knees and she began to smile, because
She had been in darkness for a long long while,
She said...

There is nothing that I can do but belong to you
Heaven and Earth and I find myself
Sining this song for you
As luck would have it, it just so happens that there's
Nothing I'd Rather do

And the first lesson ever to have learned its way
Must've been suprised
All i can say is im just glad that i survived,
And the first river to have met the sea,
I beleive he must've sighed, said
All this rambling I'm glad to finally find, that
After all I haven't just been wasting my time.

There is nothing that i can do but belong to you
Heaven and Earth and I find myself
Singing this song for you
As luck would have it, it just so happens that there's
Nothing I'd Rather do.

Just so long as your flying around high
Whatever you find out in the sky
dont forget to fall down sometimes
I'm easy to find, look around you
It's a good thing that I finally found you.

There is nothing that I can do but belong to you
Heaven and Earth and I find myself
Singing this song for you
As luck would have it, it just so happens that there's
Nothing I'd Rather do.

Car talk

Piper: What's the name of this song, mom?

Me: 4 minutes to save the world.

Piper: what are the names of the people singing the song?

Me: Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and Tim-Ba-Land

Piper: well, those are interesting names.

Jonas Michael Grimm

"At one glance I love you with a thousand hearts."

- Mihri Hatun

born Wednesday, April 23rd

7:11 in the morning

8 pounds 1 ounce

20 1/2 inches

39 weeks

I would never want to live more than 5 minutes from a beach. It is all I have ever known growing up here and now growing my own family here. There is just something about living in a place where the air is salty and the breeze is constant. Sometimes it takes my breath away when I walk up over the boardwalk and have the first glimpse of the waves rolling into the shore.

I squint because the sun reflects off of the water, my favorite time of the day at the beach is the early morning or early evening. Both times of day, the beach is relatively empty and waiting for discovery. I feel the breeze rushing through my hair, I breath in the salt, I sink into the sand. I feel my shoulders relax, my face soften.

Our playground. The girls run and jump. They spread their arms as wings and pretend to fly. I believe they could take flight. They search for shells with natural holes to make a necklace. The others, well, they are treasure.

"Here, mama, can you hold these? I don't want to lose them because they are so special."

They skip down to the water's edge to tip toe into the waves, like they are sneaking up on a friend playing hide and seek. The waves rolls in to catch them, they scream in delight and run run run away, "Don't let the water get your toes, toes, toes."

They build elaborate stories around even more elaborate sand creations. Their cheeks are pink, they smell of sunscreen, my favorite. The warmth of the sun on my skin, the warmth of the joy in my soul. We dig and we bury. They are mermaids with tails made of sand, scales from seashells, seaweed hair. Their smiles are wide and my cup, it runs over.

We pack up to leave, we thank the beach for a beautiful day. Tired and sandy, happy and content we go home, but never far from that magical place. It holds so much for me and though it is long and open to anyone and everyone, it is mine and holds my thoughts and secrets. My stress and my elation.

It has been a stressful week but at the same time a week in which I had to consciously calm myself and take it in before our family changes. Change.

babymoon

Piper is 5!

Happy Birthday Bug!

Piper's 5th Birthday Party

more here

Names

so with names like Piper and Finley, you can't just name him Brian so here's our short list. I will let you in on a secret, though, we pretty much have already decided...

Felix
Seamus
Jonas
Callum
Gideon

Piper is insisting that his name is Michael so I think he will have a double middle name: Michael Grimm. Grimm is my mother's maiden name and, yes, she is a relative of those Grimms, the ones who wrote the fairy tales and I have always wanted to use Grimm but is just didn't seem to work with girls.

So, betcha can't guess which we've chosen?

and I'll post more about reactions and such later because I think is will be a novel and I don't have time for novels right now!

and because all our baby bedding is pink and flowery I think we'll be going with one of these:

they're both by Dwell and I'm leaning towards the transportation one because it matches Jason's Christmas present.

Holy Crap!

Pink or Blue

anyone care to make a guess?

today's the day, I'm halfway there!

Happy Birthday Finley (yesterday)

I can't believe she's three...




then again, maybe I can.



I love you Finn.

Happenings

Updates: I have so many that I will list them and then come back to them in future posts, that is if anyone still reads this blog?

1. The girls have new beds and Finley has sort of moved into her "big girl" bed.
2. Finley separated her shoulder last week and we thought she had broken her collar bone.
3. We have new living room furniture.
4. I am now 14 weeks pregnant and feel as though I've been pregnant forever. All the little kids at labschool keep saying, "but where is your big belly?" Yeah, I haven't gained anything yet but heartburn.
5. We are going to Tallahassee next weekend for a football game, just me and the hubs.
6. This may be the first year I don't make halloween costumes.


For today I will write about our plans for this weekend. Up until now I have pretty much felt like crap. It is not unusual for me to feel this way for the first few months of pregnancy, but this time is just seemed more difficult. I am extremely exhausted most of the time and have not appetite really. Until about 2 weeks ago I was taking the generic zofran for nausea and that helped but now I'm out of it nad it is really expensive so I'm just kind of toughing out the few times I feel nauseous during the day. Wow, I'm such a whiner.

Anyway, so this weekend we decided to take a little mini-vacation to Tampa. We are going to the aquarium (that link may not be working) and the zoo and staying near Channelside so we can take the trolley everywhere.

We needed a break and we are going to have fun!

Hope you all have a great weekend as well and do something with people you love.

I wish you well!

Piper Speak

"Hey Mom?

I love you.

And I will never give up my feelings about you."

the joys of pregnancy

We went for a walk after dinner last night...well, some walked (Jason and I), some rode in a wagon (Finley) and some rode their bike and had a meltdown onthe sidewalk (Piper).

A few minutes into the walk I feel Jason staring at my forehead and then he says, "So...is your face breaking out so bad like this because you're pregnant?"

"Yes. Thank you, I hadn't noticed."

Piper Speak

Yesternight - n., the night before last.

my favorite "Piper" word.

I've totally mastered this parenting thing

So today as I was enjoying a sour apple blow pop because I apparently can not stand upright without having to hurl, the girls were begging me for a lollipop of their own.

"I am only sucking on this lollipop because my tummy doesn't feel good."

"In fact, these are special lollipops, just for people who are pregnant."

"You wouldn't even like this because it is like sour medicine."

"Yes, you have to be pregnant to have one of these and you can't be pregnant until you're married."

"Well, you can't get married until you have finished college and have a job."

"And you have to work really hard and pretend like boys don't exist while you're in high school so that you can get into a good college."

"So, that's when we'll talk about you having one of these reallly disgusting lollipops...after you graduate from college and get married, and remember to marry that someone that you really love and don't settle because it's forever, then you can get pregnant, well, maybe be married a few years first and do a lot of traveling and learn about each other but don't wait too long because I don't want to be an old grandma."

"Ok, I'm glad we've cleared that up and no you can't have a lollipop."

A Marley classic - preschool style

and that is purple and blue eye shadow on their faces.

HA! only 248 days to go!

I am so relieved that everyone knew what that drawing was about! And thanks so much for the well wishes, we are very excited. The girls are beyond excited as Piper has been begging me for close to a year for a baby.

I am due around April 18th and that seems like the perfect time. We wanted to space this baby a little farther away because I did not want two in diapers at the smae time again and I didn't want to be giving birth during Piper's first year of school because I remember when i was teaching Kindergarten and there were many kids who were welcoming siblings and it was a tough transition for them. So, I wanted there to be a little time in between when the baby is born and when Kindergarten starts so we can all get to know each other and what our family will be like as a family of five.

It never escapes me how absolutely blessed we are that we don't have fertility issues. I feel very fortunate as I have seen numerous people around me struggle and I know how heartbreaking it can be for a couple. I was a little nervous this time around because I had an IUD after Finley and I didn't know if that would have any affect on getting pregnant, but lucky for me the first time we tried we were successful. It has become a joke that all Jason has to do is whisper in my ear and I get pregnant and this time was no exception. It does kind of take the fun out of the "trying" part though but I am not complaining.

So now we wait what will seem like forever to find out the answer to the "boy or girl?" question. I will honestly be happy either way. I would love a boy but I also love my girls and can't imagine anything other than a girl. And we'll get to find out before Christmas so that will be good!

It's weird...Piper was an only child for almost 2 years but she will never remember her life before Finley and Finley has always had Piper, but I think that they will remember this new addition and what is was like before, I just think that's interesting.

Guess what's different about Mama?

drawing and announcement by Piper on our new toy

Searching

we are in the market for some new living room furniture and I am the worst decision maker ever.

these are the ones I like with comments. I am thinking a sofa and two chairs with one ottoman. I figure that with two chairs it is the same amount of seating with less space taken and a more open feeling and more options for configuration.

These first options are all from Room and Board
1. The Burke Sofa and Burke chair and ottoman with the Quinn chair in spa color



what I like about these is that the legs are almost exactly like the legs of my dining room set which the living room opens to the dining room so they would fit nicely together. I am digging the modern clean lines and the chair looks especially comfy to me. What I don't like about the sofa is the loose back cushions and is it too modern? too stark?

2. The Candace sofa, chair and ottoman and another chair, but I don't know which would look good with this group.
what I like about this one is the tight back with no loose cushions and it looks comfy. The legs are a bit stocky for my taste and I am not in love with the shape of the sofa in general. And the chair does not look comfortable to me at all.

3. The Cole chair and ottoman

I just like this chair and ottoman and that it comes in a different pattern.

4. The Jasper sofa group

like the legs and looks comfy. A little too casual for the living room? and loose cushions not on the top of the list.

Next on the list is from Crate and Barrel

1. The oxford sofa group
I like the tight back and I like the option of getting the chair and a 1/2 twin sleeper with an ottoman. I don't really care for the shape though as it looks "mushy" to me and this is for our formal living room. I also don't care for the rolled arms and squatty legs.


ok, so tell me what you think? any other ideas?