Well, actually no, an ultrasound doesn't. Don't we all wish it did? Too bad we need a professional to interpret what each little fuzz ball is and which way is even up. Fortunately for us, as average citizens, we're still pretty smart and the ultrasound to the left gives us a rough idea of what will be coming to Merinate around the 16th of May.
{The labels in orange are what I remember of the professional interpretation given for my ultrasound.}
These are some old baby pictures I found of Ellie at her Aunt and Uncle's wedding when she was five months old. She still has that "new baby" look--she looks like she's still trying to get used to the world. She has those dainty little baby girl hands. She's wearing a bow! She is wearing a beautiful bright pink, homemade dress. Very innocent. (But, she wasn't very innocent I assure you. She kept me up half the night at age five months. )
I have some really cute pictures of Will in a Baby Tux when he was only a month or two old. I wish I had them on this computer. Maybe I will have to edit this post later...
He looked handsome. Even though he had baby hands, they didn't look "dainty." He was not wearing a bow, but a bow tie instead. He looked innocent then too. He wasn't so innocent a few days ago.....
Now, Ellie is by no means a perfect child, and William is a good little boy. But William does things the likes of which Ellie has never dreamed of or would be too afraid to attempt....
Two days ago William out did himself. In one day, he:
1. Put gobs of toilet paper in the toilet after going potty, and held down the flusher. Water was all over the floor. I only found out about this because I went in to check on him. When I found him he was content to stand there holding down the flusher watching the water overflow. He could have stood there for who knows how long without thinking to tell me.
2. Ripped keys off the computer key board. He's done this before. He's already been in trouble for it. Once he ripped off nearly the entire keyboard. Obviously he thought he would try his luck again. The letter "s" is still missing.
3. Took off his clothes and ran around naked outside. I don't know why.
4. Wouldn't get into his car seat when I said now, I told him that I wouldn't give him any candy next time he asked. I gave him about three seconds to learn the meaning of the word 'now'. It didn't work so I shoved put him gently into his seat, and told him that when I say now, I mean now. Then he asked, "Can I have some candy?" I said, "no." He started to bawl. "Can I have some candy?" "NO." More bawling. It was the only thing I could do to upset him all day. Nothing else made a dent. Now a few days later, every time he gets in his car seat he asks, "Can I have some candy now?"
5. Gave me a scare by nearly ruining the computer, by nearly spilling root beer on it it. He knows he can't have food or drink by the computer.
Add to this the normal, everyday messes, and little sadnesses that come in the day of a three year old. Every time I turned around there was another or near disaster. Yes, boys are different from girls.
Have you ever watched the 1990's version of Sabrina, with Harrison Ford? It is about a business tycoon named Linus with seemingly little sense of humor or heart, his handsome and womanizing brother David, and the girl who lives above the garage named Sabrina. I'm not going to go into detail about the movie, however, because I'm not really posting about this movie. I am posting about two scenes in this movie. In the first scene Linus and David are talking in Linus's office. In the middle of the conversation, Linus whips out a gun from his desk and starts firing at a large flat screen television. David is shocked, and we the audience can't suppress a smile. The catch is that the TV screen is indestructible. In another scene in the move, we see Linus trying to sell this TV screen to some Japanese business men. He demonstrates the screen's qualities by beating it with a stick. He then bows over the stick to the Japanese men, offering them a turn to do likewise. Why have I described these scenes to you, do you ask? It is because I want one of those televisions.
Have you ever watched Meet the Colors? For your sake, I hope it wasn't for very long. Meet the Colors is a very educational show in a family of educational DVD's that help young children learn and memorize many useful educational things. My children LOVE them. They love the colors video even though they have known their colors for YEARS. However, what is good for children does not equal good for adults. The method used in these programs to teach children is REPETITION. In a scene from Meet the Colors, a cute little purple puffball floats across the screen painting a purple picture of grapes saying:
purple, purple, purple, purple.......
(the bold letters indicate where the word is emphasized). That is all the little puffballs say. They only say their color. That is the entire dialog for the movie. Over and over and over and.... By about the seventh purple, I'm about ready to pull out a gun and shoot the screen. Unfortunately this would destroy our TV. I would like to buy that indestructible screened TV so that I can have the satisfaction of shooting the colors without actually harming anything. Violent, I know. But you would want to also, I am sure. For some reason I can handle Dora for a very long time, but if I had my way, Meet the Colors would only last for about 2 seconds.
If we are going to have valuable programs that help our children learn their colors, why not also have some programs that make mom personally happy as well? Mine would be called, Meet the Family Rules. It would involve the faces of smiling and adorable cartoon puffballs repeating things like,
"Mommy is always right."
"Mommy is always right."
"Mommy is always right."
"Mommy is always right."
"You must look both ways before crossing the street."
"You must look both ways before crossing the street."
"You must look both ways before crossing the street."
"You must look both ways before crossing the street."
"You cannot eat ice cream out of the carton even though daddy does."
"You cannot eat ice cream out of the carton even though daddy does."
"You cannot eat ice cream out of the carton even though daddy does."
"You cannot eat ice cream out of the carton even though daddy does."
I think it would be a successful venture, except for the fact the the people who make Meet the Colors, Preschool Prep, would probably sue me. It would still be satisfying though......
It was the most amazing rainy day today. It just about rained for three hours straight (and then some more off and on late afternoon through evening.) A monumental feat for Utah, not for Oregon. I lived in Oregon and England for some of my childhood, and it took YEARS of living in Southern Utah before I came to appreciate rain again.
Here are some things that, beyond the obvious (such as, maybe the always-dreaded drought will be vanquished because of this storm), I appreciated about the rain today:
1) That fresh RURAL dessert-rain smell. (Not be confused with a Vegas rain smell--it has a hint of the smell I am referring to, but with Vegas mixed in.)
2) The rain finally washed the nasty smudges from my windshield. (I won't describe them to you, that would be...unpleasant.)
3) The children got to see their first wild snails at ages 5 and 3 because the rain encouraged them to come out of hiding. (Slimy, but still cool. They were by the car and we had to work hard not to run over them. We cheered for them after we backed out without crushing them.)
4) The children got to dance in the rain. (I liked hearing them giggle and I didn't have to get wet).
5) I got to listen to thunder and see some lightning. (I used to love to watch lightning storms off my parents' deck. Still do actually, just don't get the opportunity).
6) Related to number 5 but deserves it's own recognition: We got to drive through the storm and watch the lightning. (Nate and I had a very memorable date once "chasing" a storm in Cedar City. We listened to the Sister Hazel CD, Chasing Daylight.)
7) Our next door neighbors' yard looked like an English garden. (Our yard looked nice, but....it needs a little more love from us I would say...)
ps. I did not take the picture. It is meant to be a general representation of the desert rain.
