things we do while we wait...

Our baby is due in a week! I've had on and off contractions for the past 10+ days and I'm afraid they're becoming quite the norm for me. In fact, if a day goes by when I don't have them, it feels weird. When I get tired of them or completely annoyed by them, I remind myself they're doing the early work that my body will finish later, in real active labor.
The car seat and stroller arrived, our bags are totally packed and in the car and now we just wait. This is actually my favorite part. Its a bit harder with 3 kids we have to "farm" out for the delivery, but I know in the end it will all work out. And we have awesome friends/family who've so kindly offered to be on call for us.

In the meantime, we stay close(er) to home and wait for our little guy to arrive.
The weather has been mostly warm and beautiful the past few weeks, with spurts of rainy days here and there in between. Its turning into my favorite time of year because of the fabulous variety.
We've spent many afternoons at parks, lakes, riding our bikes in the driveway, going on long walks,
doing our last grocery shopping trips before baby arrives and enjoying our time with Daddy working from home. I've been enjoying this the most. Fun to have my best friend to go back to the office and chat with whenever I want and, you can't forget Mommy being able to actually take a mid-afternoon nap at a moment's notice. I love that part.
This will be our first baby born where Jason gets a whole week off work! I'm not sure what we're going to do with ourselves. In the past the most he's ever been able to take off is a day or two after we're home from the hospital, so a whole week is just dreamy.

Easter Sunday was relaxing and fun. We had a great time doing the Resurrection Egg Hunt and this year I decided that we will read the story one day at a time, leading up to Easter. I think there's a bit too much reading for their ages in one sitting :)

learned how to use Instagram better this week :) 

We went to the 4pm service at church and celebrated Jesus' resurrection {as we do every Sunday} complete with several baptisms and a great sermon, reminding us of the JOY and reality we have in Jesus Christ raising from the grave. 
they gave the kids little coloring books with the 
story of Jesus' death and resurrection to use in church. 


Several weeks back {in early March, actually} we started a chrysalis 'farm' at our house and got to watch the amazing transformation from caterpillar to butterfly! I tried to plan it so that when we released our butterflies, it would be right around the baby's due date {symbolism?} and since the day was earlier this week, we planned it just about right! Rachel was naming each butterfly {our kit came with 4} and Kara yelled at each one as they flew away "send us your email address!!"

 Releasing our butterflies! 

she said this one is 'Debbie'. 
For no apparent reason.


On Monday, we went on a field trip to a farm in Seattle and had a lot of fun! The kids were a bit confused though, as they thought it was an animal farm. Rachel spent the first 10 minutes asking about when she gets to see milk come out of the cow's "boobies" {yes, we need to work on our animal body part terms} and Kara kept insisting this was NOT a farm, because she couldn't see chickens or horses.
When we saw the bee hive habitat they were somewhat pleased, but still insisted Seattle was the new 'confused' city, since they called plants and wildlife a 'farm'. Sorry Seattle....


 SO excited to actually get this close to a REAL scarecrow! 

    We got to eat several different herbs 
and my kids decided mint and oregano were their faves. 
There was one plant that I discovered I like... I can't remember the name now.
I know it starts with an 'S'....  
It looks like lettuce, but has a very tangy, almost sour taste. 
Its SO tasty! I want to plant some in our yard and add it to 
salads every night. 
Stop laughing, Laura Harder ;-) 




 isn't that a pretty wildflower?! 

 the tour guide was a very good teacher. 
I appreciated the way she kept the field trip lingo at the kid's ages 
and really brought it to their level. 
{not to mention enough interesting educational facts for Mom too!}





Comments

Erin said…
Nice! I hope you have a restful, memorable time as you continue to wait on this baby's birth. It is a really special time.
How fun to get to go on a farm tour. Is sorrel the sour herb you want to eat all the day long? You'll want to know the name of it, so you can plant it, right? :)
Stef said…
Thank you, Erin! That's it!!
Gina said…
Funny that the kids were just sure it wasn't a farm. :-) Reminds me of a time that I took Jozsef and Nikolas to visit a friend. I had told them she lived on a farm but their idea of a farm and the actual variations of farms did not match. She has a horse farm and she raises alfalfa. But Nikolas particularly was put off by not seeing a bunch of livestock. On the way home he began singing Old Mac Donald but it went like this..."Old Mac Donald had a farm eieio! And on his farm he had NO pigs! eieio!" :-) On he went about the animals he didn't get to see on the farm. :-)
Stef said…
hahaha! I can totally see Nikolas doing that :)
W and J said…
This post has waaaaay too much fun stuff loaded into it. Yay for contractions!! My bet is you go super fast. :) The morning that Theo was born I had to look up the difference between real & BH because i just wasn't sure if this was it. LOVE Rach's sunglasses & what a fun "farm" to visit!! And those wildflower field looks so fun to frolic through!!

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