Pregnancy, Treadmill Trauma, Organizing, and Handball

Here I am at 15 weeks with Baby #4. The kids and I like to read online about the baby's growth. At this point the baby is 4 inches long crown to rump (I wish they would still measure people crown to rump, I think it's such a funny term) and weighs a whopping 2.5 ounces, which totally explains the 20 lbs I've gained thus far. I have a feeling this isn't gonna be pretty. We read that the baby empties its bladder every 40-45 minutes--you can imagine how much the kids enjoyed that one. "The baby is peeing in Mommy's tummy!" We were looking at pictures women have posted of their bare pregnant bellies at different weeks of pregnancy. Caleb asked me "Is that you, Mommy?" and I responded with "You think I would post a picture of my belly on the internet?!" Which I guess I just have, but fear not, you will only see this belly clothed.

Moving on, we experienced a slight trauma in our household when Olivia decided to take a run on the treadmill. She was doing fine, until she fell off while it was moving on level 7.

She hasn't let me take any pictures of her scraped-up legs, but they look pretty bad. We have been re-wrapping them every night with gauze, and she still complains that they sting. She was so worried about me writing a note to get her out of PE this week, then of course I forgot this morning. She came home and I just knew I was going to get yelled at about it, but then she informed me they ran laps and she ran the most of anyone in her class. "I beat all the boys!" So even though we get an earful on a daily basis about how painful her legs are, she is still our competive girl. Here is the hole she kicked in the wall when she fell.

The kids have been collecting water bottles for the Cans for Copies fundraiser at school. The idea is, the kids recycle cans and bottles, and that pays for all the copies the teachers have to make. They love to get them all out, line them up, and divide them up equally. We usually don't go through so many water bottles, but during this pregnancy tap water tastes nasty to me, so I mostly drink bottled.

I organized the boys' room. I got this idea of folding clothes and standing them up from a friend's blog. It makes it so much easier to see what they have, and when you just add the clean clothes to the back of the line they don't end up wearing the same shirts all the time. I figured I should get a picture before it gets all messed up, which I know it will because my kids put their own clean clothes away.

Caleb is such a great kid. Being the middle child, he sometimes gets overlooked and doesn't throw a tantrum to get his way like the others do, but he is such an important part of our family. He will go play with Ben for a whole hour, talking to him in his high "talking to the baby" voice, reading him books, and playing along with whatever pretend game Ben wants. Caleb is in first grade and has suddenly become an awesome reader. I must say, I think a big reason is because we started reading from the real scriptures instead of the comic book scripture readers (which we used for years). It has made a big difference in his reading ability. It's funny to hear him rattle off words like wherefore, commandments, and murmured. He is my kid that loves to be silly and say and do things just to get a laugh.

Erik and a family friend built a handball wall in the backyard, which the kids love. They use it all the time. We still need to paint it, but we've had all this rain so we need to wait for it to completely dry out first. They are both really good handball players. They can both hit the ball super hard, and are clever about changing up their shots.

And lastly, a picture of my buddy Ben, who I hang out with all day while the kids are at school. He climbed in a basket to eat his chips the other day. Then he wanted me to pull him around by the piece of duct tape that's attached to it because that's what he does with his baby doll. Mmmm, you're too heavy, bud. He has really gotten into playing baby lately. He will wrap up the doll, give it a kiss and put it night-night in the basket. Then he will pick it up and carry it around. Then he will toss it onto the floor face-first in favor of playing with his garbage truck. Even with the tender heart, he is still a boy.