I guess we can go ahead and forget the frustrated post I wrote Friday evening.  Kendall and I attended a parenting seminar yesterday, so that should all be behind us now.  Right.  Oh well.  At least we have some new tools at our disposal.  Mwa ha ha!  (That's supposed to be an evil laugh.)
Here's a cute quote from Evan that I've been meaning to post for awhile:  One morning he was still chilly as he left for the bus.  He gave me and the baby a hug, lingering at the belly.  Then he said, "It's so warm!  I wish I could be in your belly!"  You had your chance, Son.  No turning back.

And here's a bit of a peek into Eli's head:  Friday on the way to school I was...stressed out.  (Which you know if you read the post from that day.)  I had found a blue fleece jacket of Kendall's since my jacket no longer zips over my belly comfortably.  The blue fleece happens to match the blue fleece of my bathrobe.  Eli told me later that when he saw me sitting in the van, he thought I was wearing my bathrobe "because you were so stressed out."  Well, I was stressed out, but I did remember to get dressed.

A Dream Come True!

So, Evan got his wish.  He has been wanting blue hair for a very long time now.  He has hardly wavered in his desire for long, blue, hair.  I'm not sure what to do about the 'long' part, but I decided I can do 'blue.'  So, Kendall and I drove all over Winnipeg looking for blue hair for Evan.

We got home and presented him with his blue hairspray.  I put it on for him and he went to the mirror.  He was in love.  "I love it!  I love it!"  He was so excited about his dream coming true!  I on the other hand, had been hoping for more of a "Oh, I look kind of weird.  Maybe I won't wear it out in public."  He liked it so much that he even agreed to go out in public with both me and him having blue hair.  (I was only bluffing.) 

So, my dear little Evan went to school on Thursday with blue hair.  I am an advocate for letting kids express their individuality.  Turns out, it was a bit harder on my pride than I expected.  Of course, I just wanted to send him like that, but, as it turned out, I had to be in the same building with him all day!  Fortunately for my pride, his teachers were more impressed than unimpressed.  They told me, "So, Evan does  have a rebellious streak in him!"  If only they knew...  If only they knew...

As a side note, I would point out that this is the son who has recently developed a sense of embarrassment.  And it's rather misplaced, I would say.  For example, it was so terribly embarrassing for him the day I sent his morning snack in his backpack with no lunch bag.  It was only a banana, so I just threw it in the front pocket of his backpack.  He warned me that it would be embarrassing, but I didn't take him too seriously.  Sure enough, after school he reported how horribly embarrassing it was at snack time to pull his banana out with (gasp!) no lunch bag to go with it.  Hmmm...

The other example he recently gave me takes place when I do lunch duty in his classroom.  He said he likes when I'm there, but it's so embarrassing when I walk over to his table and look in his lunch kit.  Or when I take out the container of food that needs to be warmed in the microwave.  Apparently, it's most important that he carries it to the microwave rather than having his Mom carry it there for him.  Well.  Now I know.

Friday night.  As it turns out, I am alone in my house for a little while and quite happy about it.
It has been a busy week and I'm tired.  Kendall had a training in Winnipeg Monday and Tuesday.  I took the opportunity to go along with him as a last little get-away and take a long shopping list along.  The boys stayed here with friends.  We got back late Tuesday night and the days since have been busy, including substituting in the Kindergarten classes at the school.  I mostly enjoy working at the school, but this 8-month pregnant mama gets very tired.  So by the time I was leaving for the school this morning, I was...umm...grouchy.

Kendall was on a reserve overnight, so after I got the call to work this morning, the boys and I were on our own to get out the door.  It was rather difficult.  I was rushing around being impatient.  Evan and I had some unhappy interactions.  Then, as we were finally driving down the road and I was delivering one of my important, life-enriching lectures, Eli tried to interrupt.  "Just a minute!" I said.  "Is this important?!"  Yes, he thought it was.  Okay, then, What?  "Someone called from the school to say you don't have to hurry to get there."  What?!  After we all yell at each other and fly out the door late, Now you tell me someone called while I was getting ready?!  I needed to pull off the road to re-group.  Well, I tried to re-group and salvage any damage done, but in truth I was still angry.  Not the best way to start 3 hours with 5-year olds.  (By the way, Kindergarten is not my forte.)

I had to go back to the school for lunch and recess duty, then on to the grocery store and a meeting at the bank.  By the time we were sitting in the meeting, I was exhausted.  I tried to formulate a question during the meeting, but not sure it ever came out clearly.  By the time the meeting was over, the banker couldn't help but comment on how tired I looked.  I went home and collapsed into bed.  Unfortunately, I only had a short time to drift off before the doorbell was being urgently and repeatedly rung by 2 locked-out boys.  Oops.  I got them a snack (which we had to argue about).  After snack, they decided to used their computer time.  I took a book out to the deck.  They finished their computer time and one of them lost computer time because of a slight indiscretion.  They were not happy with me.  I was not happy with them.  They didn't realize that the deck door was open a crack and that I was NOT oblivious to all that was happening inside.  Evan came out and announced their plan:  "If you aren't nice to us, we're not going to be nice to you."  I could hear Eli inside saying, "No!  Evan!"  Apparently, this was supposed to be a secret plan.  Now, the previous 12 hours had been rough.  I'm not saying I had been nice.  However, in my defense, some of my 'not nice' activities had been taking away computer time for a blatant lie, taking away a game for fighting over it, and fining a slowpoke for making us wait.

All this to say that by the time Kendall got home, I was just about done in.  And this is where I'd like to brag on my husband:  He patiently listened to me vent.  He took over the supper-making activities.  (He made homemade chicken noodle soup, an old specialty of his.)  Then he took the boys outside to work with him.  I sat down with hot chocolate and finished a book.  Ahh...  We have a busy weekend coming up and this peaceful interlude was just what I needed.  Now I can be ready with hot chocolate to share when the males of the family come in for the night.  Thank you, dear Kendall.

4 Boys! Can you imagine!

2 extra boys yesterday afternoon.  I have no idea what they are examining here.  But at least they're ready for battle.

Oh no!  They've been discovered!  Creepy spying woman with a camera!

Run for it!

Saturday

This is part of what I spent my Saturday doing:

What you can't see is the teeth marks leftover from one of our baby boys chewing on his cage in an effort to escape.  What you can see is the lavender.  Both Kendall and I were struck by how girly our baby boys' bedding was. :)

The week or so before had held more than its share of anxiety/freaking out/overwhelmtion.  One lucky friend got a huge, long email detailing those lovely feelings.  The idea of setting up the nursery was one she gave me.  It really was therapeutic. 

It may be a bit early for a nursery (my due date is 5 1/2 weeks away), but it was helpful.  Also, the "music room," as we've called it, has primarily been used for storage and to hold the keyboard for the boys to practice their music lessons.  So I knew I needed to bring baby stuff upstairs and take the things in storage down to the basement.  Kendall and I are going to Winnipeg for a couple nights next week.  I wanted to go through all my baby stuff and see what I have and what I need.  Then I'll do some major shopping in the city.

I also made 2 packing lists this week- One for delivering in Red Lake and one for an emergency airlift to Winnipeg.  Delivering here is just so different than delivering in Goshen.  Lots of people go to a bigger center to deliver their babies.  There is no surgery, no epidural, no neo-natal unit, no obstetrician, no pediatrician in Red Lake.  So many women just feel safer waiting for their baby to come in a big city.  In fact, if you are at all high-risk, you are told by medical staff to go out of town and wait for baby.  Lots of people living in Red Lake have family in bigger cities.  So they go stay with them.  As we thought through our options, I realized that I felt more anxiety thinking about what to do with Eli and Evan while we would go out of town to deliver.  (Even though this whole epidural thing makes me so curious- I gotta try it sometime.)  And Kendall's job- I would hate to wait in the city by myself and then count on a long enough labor for him to get to me and be there for the delivery.  So, at this point, we are planning on staying in Red Lake.  And I can relax a bit more if I know that I at least have a couple packing lists going.  Just in case there is an emergency, all of that has already been thought through.

It's just craziness that Twila Fern is coming so soon!  I'm having dreams involving our baby almost every night now.  It's exhausting, but exciting.  I'm always disappointed when I wake up and the baby is still waiting to come out.  The most recent dream involved twins!  (Eli is still hoping that the ultrasound tech just missed baby #2.)  It was a happy dream.  Kendall held one baby and I held another.  Of course we knew that at least one was a girl, but I suggested we check to make sure.  Well, lo and behold, turns out they were both boys.  I laughed and laughed.  And cried too.  4 boys!  Can you imagine! :)