Our Canal Adventure

Why do I have a picture of two random firefighters standing by our upside-down jogging stroller, you ask?? Well, these are two kindhearted firefighters at Station #13...and they are our new best friends.

*sigh*...let me start at the beginning...

Andra and I were enjoying the beautiful weather at the canal downtown. We were trekking up a very steep hill when our morning took an interesting turn. Andra was out of her stroller walking, so I pushed the stroller to the top of said hill, parked it at the top ON FLAT LAND, then turned around to help Andra the rest of the way up the hill. As I'm helping Andra up the hill, I notice two people yelling and waving their arms at me at the bottom of the hill near the water. What the heck? So I turn around...just in time to see our jogging stroller careening out of control down the steep hill headed straight for the canal!!!! (Note to self: lock the daggone wheels next time!!)

It was out of everybody's reach and was travelling far too fast for anyone to stop it, so we all watched it splash into the water. Cue Andra's screaming because she thinks her stroller is gone forever. Through the crying, I discover the two men who were waving their arms at me are firefighters at the nearby station. What luck!!! So they radio their firefighter buddies (who are clearly bored on such a beautiful morning) to come with their equipment and fish our jogging stroller out of the water, which happens to be floating rather quickly down the canal.

About 10 minutes later, and a lot of teasing at my expense, about six MORE firefighters show up, poles and ropes in hand, and fish our jogging stroller out of the canal. Oh, and don't forget the curious bystanders who all must be thinking I deserve the Mother of the Year Award. By this time, Andra's thinking this is pretty darn funny! And I'm thanking my lucky stars that my camera, cell phone, and anything else of value was safe in my pockets.

At long last, our stroller is pulled soaking wet out of the canal, and the firefighters offer to walk it back to their station while I go get our SUV. We apparently had perfect timing, because lunch was being served when we arrived at the station, and they basically held our stroller captive until we agreed to have lunch with them (I also think they were a bit enamored with my little gal, who was CLEARLY very excited to be inside a REAL firestation with REAL firefighters and fire trucks). Not to mention our planned picnic was a bit soggy, being that it sat in the canal for about 20 minutes. I argued we couldn't stay, but they insisted...so we dined on hamburgers with the Station #13 firefighters. And I endured another half hour of teasing. What a morning!!

Here's Andra making friends with the fire station dog Dodge.

And here's Andra lunching with "Shift A" at Station #13...some homebaked cookies will he headed their way soon!

Our stroller is presently drying out in our front yard, and will hopefully be back in service soon...no worse for the wear! ;)

Andra's Big News

So here goes...despite the butterflies in my stomach…our family’s growing again! Andra will become a big sister in September. It’s a little bit funny, actually…the baby’s due date (Sept. 10) is within two days of Andra’s birthday (Sept. 12)! So hopefully this is a birthday present she’ll be happy we’re bringing home for her. :) And hopefully she won't mind sharing her birthday, um, for the rest of her life. Let's just hope they don't share the same DATE!

We’re over-the-moon excited (I’m one of those annoying women who absolutely LOVES being pregnant!!) and grateful to God for blessing us with a second baby…but I’d be lieing if I didn’t admit to being a tiny bit nervous about having two little people to take care of!

I'm 15 weeks today, and have had nothing but perfect check-ups so far. I've felt great (I'm lucky to have no morning sickness with my pregnancies), and I'm so anxious for my belly to get big, so I actually FEEL pregnant.

I think Andra has a little understanding that a baby is on its way. We don’t talk to her about it a whole lot…I figure a 9 month pregnancy is almost equal to HALF of a two-year-old’s life…so that’s like eternity to her. I think once my belly gets bigger and the nursery starts to take shape, we’ll talk about it more and she’ll have a better idea of what’s happening. As for right now though, she seems pretty darn excited. When we put her big sister shirt on, she runs around shouting “Big Sis-rrrrrr! Big Sis-rrrr!”

She actually stunned me when I first told her she was going to be a big sister. I said, “Do you know what that means?” And she said, “Mommy have baby." (Impressive!, I thought. How'd she know that??) Then she continued, "Mommy have TWO babies.” (aha! I instantly knew why she said two!...She’s seen a “Big Sister Dora” episode where Dora’s mom has twins.) So I had to explain to her that THIS mommy is only having one. And thank God for that. :)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Typically, St. Patrick's Day isn't this beautiful, so we headed downtown to watch the parade!

Andra gets pretty excited about the candy that gets tossed her way!

Curbside...and that's Dave hiding in the background...playing hooky from work! (or at least just taking an extended lunch break)

And I'm putting this up for no other reason than to embarrass my little brother, who happens to be home for Spring Break.

Monkey Feet

One thing about Andra that's been absolutely amazing lately is her incredible imagination...really, it floors me sometimes. The scenarios she's able to imagine and the detail at which she imagines stuns me. We've gone on trips "downtown" together with her bed being the bus (complete with stuffed animal passengers), she "bakes" things in the great room and the coffee table is our oven (and she even closes the imaginary oven door), we go on picnics on top of her toy chest (??), she hides in her "doghouse" (which is the pile of decorative pillows on our bed), she goes fishing off the couch using her broom as a fishing pole and a lunch box as her tackle box...the list goes on and on.

She also loves pretending she's various characters...her favorites lately are a kitty cat, Bob the Builder (thanks to a recent trip to the Children's Museum), Scoop (a truck on Bob the Builder), a mermaid, Dora...this list, too, is endless. Well, this morning at breakfast, she was pretending to be Curious George. On a recent episode, he ate a banana using his feet, and I told her how silly I thought that was. It must've made an impression, because "George" made an appearance at breakfast this morning. I couldn't bring myself to scold her (she WAS using her imagination, after all!), but I tried really really hard not to laugh too...it's not exactly a behavior I want to encourage. You'll see...

A Breath of Fresh Air

Did I dream it, or did it really happen?
Was it really almost 60 degrees...in March?!

Did God hear our prayers for warm weather and give us this perfect day?

It was greatly needed and much appreciated...a breath of fresh air for our entire family...including Pudge who nearly forgot what his leash looked like and a walk felt like.

It was the perfect afternoon for sidewalk chalk, which Andra hasn't seen in about six months. We've got about every color known to Crayola. Andra's favorite is still..."boo."
And she loves to organize them in neat little rows on our driveway.

Thank you, March, for bringing us a hint of things to come!

Andra's Big Girl Bed!

I now have even more evidence our baby girl is growing up. Over the weekend, we moved Andra from her crib to her "big girl bed." We decided to just skip the toddler bed...I figure the fewer the transitions, the easier it'll be on everyone. Plus, with her long frame and demands to sleep with about 16 stuffed animals, she was simply running out of room. So after a few sniffles from me (and Dave said he was really sad too), we started dismantling the crib Andra's slept in for the last 2 and a half years. This was taken after her last nap in her crib...

I was actually pretty nervous about switching her. I've heard lots of horror stories about toddlers taking advantage of their newfound freedom once they realize they can get in and out of bed on their own free will. Well, we got some serious safety bars that just about prevent that unless she's REALLY determined...and so far, so good! She hasn't attempted to get out once, and has adjusted beautifully. She loves playing on it all day too...so far, she's pretended it's a bus (and she's the bus driver and we "drive" it downtown) and a "pirate piggie ship" (that's a Dora reference). She's a happy camper, so even though my heart aches just a little to see that crib gone...I know I'm blessed to have a healthy, growing girl who's always ready to advance to that next milestone (and I'm also thanking my lucky stars that she hasn't yet realized she can get out of bed whenever she wants!) Sweet Dreams...