Wolf! (?)

The boys just came bursting in the front door with the terrifying news that there was a wolf in the green shed!  They were working on their snow fort near the shed when they heard noises inside and saw humongous, fresh wolf tracks leading in and not coming back out!  It took me a bit in all the excitement to realize that they didn't actually see the giant wolf with their actual eyes, but only heard him and saw his tracks.
They described the noises as sounding like a squirrel dying.  Or a racoon.  (Which we don't have up here.)  Or something playing.  But it was definitely a wolf as evidenced by the tracks. 

I stood at the window and watched for the wolf to come back out of the shed.  Eli and Evan desparately wanted me to wake up Kendall to go check.  When I refused, they wanted me to go check.  Well, I had my doubts about the vicous animal in the shed, but even so, I wasn't about to go check.  When I refused that option, Evan said he would go check.  He was ready to go out there with Eli's BB gun.  That offer was also refused by Mom.

We discussed what to do while I kept my eyes trained on the shed's doorway.  It's true that wolves are known to be in the area and we definately see tracks around, though the tracks that venture into our driveway are likely dog tracks.  Just the other night I saw our cat arching it's back at an unseen predator just outside the patio door.  Kendall looked, then freaked us out when he jumped up in surprise.  Oh wait, just a husky from down the road.  He thought for a second it was a wolf.

So the boys and I stood discussing our plan of action.  I hated to have them leave their play outside, but I was reluctant to send them back out.  Just in case.  Then a movement caught my eye.  Well, well, well.  If it wasn't a sweet little cat happily wandering out of the shed.  So much for the fierce giant wolf.  I did keep watch and my heart did skip a small beat when Evan ran out to look in the shed.  All he found was another happy little cat.

Whew.  Close call.

Gigi: An Pivotal Biblical Character

The other night at bedtime I read to Evan from a devotional book for little boys.  At first when he started hearing the familiar Bible story, Evan protested, saying he already knew that one.  I told him that I've read the whole Bible and I still read things again. 
A few paragraphs into what I was reading, the book said, "Have you heard of Gigi, God's little princess?"  Now, I was completely baffled as to who Gigi was and why she was being mentioned in this book.  As soon as the sentence came out of my mouth, I paused and said, "Huh?"

Evan caught on to that confusion and quickly jumped in:  "Aha!  So you didn't read the whole Bible!"

I guess maybe I haven't because somehow in its pages I missed Gigi, God's little princess.  Or else she isn't in the Bible at all, but I had a hard time convincing Evan of that.

Evan just had a nice talk with the baby.  He stepped right up to my belly and said, "Hi Baby.  I'm Evan.  There's Eli.  You're in Mom's tummy and soon she'll be your Mom too.  And over there is Dad."  (And he poked my belly in the direction of Dad.)

Here's the list of names the boys have gone through so far:

Evan:  Bob, Skyler, Kai (he thought it would be funny to give the baby the same name as a cousin)

Eli:  Coner, Josh

They've been less imaginative when it comes to girl's names.  They heard the name I liked when they were both born and they haven't ventured from that.  In fact, when we first talked about names, they pretty much came up with the one girl name and a boy name each and stuck with it.  They just weren't into thinking of all the possibilities. :)  I haven't gotten too into that yet either. 

Now, Eli and I will go surf some baby name websites while Kendall and Evan continue their game of Monopoly.

One.

Yep, that's the exact number of babies jumping around inside of me.  We are both disappointed and relieved.

It was fun to see that little guy in there again.  The ultrasound tech said he was very active, flipping all over the place.  Nothing like an active boy to liven up this boring, quiet household!

So, yes, that's the second piece of "information" we got, though I hesitate to even call it "information" because the tech was much more unsure of this than she was that there was only one in there.

For awhile, the baby was being modest.  "It has its little foot up in its crotch," she said.  Then the tech said that it was not quite developed enough to see.  But before the end of the ultrasound, she pointed out a pointy little protrusion and said, "Looks awfully 'penisy'."  So we'll see...  Hopefully we'll get a good view at our next ultrasound in a month or so.

In the meantime, I think I'll name him Delmar.

A Bit More to the Story, But Still "2 Be Determined"

So, if you checked in yesterday, you read the attached letter. I received a couple excited grandmother calls, comments and a some URGENT private emails.  And believe me, I was in shock when I myself read the letter.  Of course, the nurse practitioner had already told me what it sounded like and even I could hear two different-sounding heartbeats.  But when I requested a quick ultrasound to know for sure, she wrote up this letter and handed it to me.  There was something hilarious and outrageous about seeing this huge possibility in print.  I immediately drove over to Balmertown to find Kendall in his office just because it was so much fun to simply hand him the following letter:

There is more to the story and I will blame my husband that only part of it was posted yesterday. 

I agree with the people who contacted me that it is all rather astonishing.  Except, that Kendall and I snuck a peek and it really looked like there's only 1 in there.  The ultrasound is scheduled for this coming Monday.  But Kendall has been wanting to sneak me into the hospital to try the new ultrasound machine.  The suspense behind this letter proved the perfect chance. 

Tuesday evening we were on the way home from some friends' house.  We stopped by the hospital for Kendall to pick something up.  Then he came back out to the van and said the coast was clear and snuck me and the boys into the Emergency Room through the empty ambulance garage.  I don't know who was more embarrassed by all of this- me or our easily embarrassed son, Eli.  (Actually, Kendall assured me that it was all totally fine to do and the hospital was just really quiet with an empty ER.  He wasn't sneaking, that was just me and Eli.)

A bored nurse joined us with the ultrasound machine.  Neither she nor Kendall knew too much about it and the first view we tried didn't show much.  But we did see a tiny little heart pulsing so happily!  The second view was much better.  There was our baby!  She was waving her little hands at us.  He seemed to have hiccups.  Even Eli and Evan could clearly see what was going on.  Unfortunately, none of us could figure out for sure how to look for a second baby.  "It's only one," we decided.  Then the other nurse said, "No, wait!  That's not the abdomen!  I think we're looking at the top of the second head!"  (Eli and Evan didn't know we were looking for twins and I think that exclamation freaked them out!  2 heads!)  Well, we kept trying and finally got a good profile of the entire baby. 

Around that time a stranger stuck his head around the corner.  The visiting doctor from the big city!  We were caught!  He must have been confused to find a nurse and an entire family gathered around the ultrasound machine with the patient herself holding the wand on her belly!  Introductions were made.  (He surely wondered what kind of small-town hospital he was at!)  We asked him if he knew anything about ultrasounds.  "A little."  He looked at the screen and seemed confident that there was only one baby, but declined to take a guess on the sex. 

We were disappointed.  (I was also quite relieved.)  But I guess we'll find out for sure in a few days!  I think I would like to have twins.  I've never wanted twins before, but at age 35 and with Kendall and me hoping for at least 2 more kiddos, I say, "Bring it on!  Let's get this done!"  So if you want, you can pray that Baby #2 was hiding behind his sister.

But, oh my, would we actually survive the first year or two?  Would this middle-aged body even survive pregnancy and delivery of two?  It feels so much older than it did 6 years ago when Evan was born. 

Well, good thing we can't choose for ourselves.  I would never know which way to go.

Stay tuned for more news Monday night...

Oh, by the way, I apologize to those of you who nearly had heart attacks yesterday.  Like I said, I am blaming this on Kendall who peer-pressured me into posting only the letter.  I had this post already written and ready to publish.  Kendall read it and convinced me to leave out the rest of the story.  It's his fault.

2 Be Determined

More to come...
Enjoy the suspense with us.