Of course I have to share a picture of my handsome little man!

She is also really into “big girl books” with real pages. She looks at board books sometimes but has to be in the right mood. Her current favorite books are anything princess (Especially Cinderella!), Wocket in my Pocket, Where the Wild Things Are (she calls it “Wild Fings ARE”), Sneetches, Dora Visits the Dentist, and Berenstein Bears Big Honey Hunt. She used to like the Little Mermaid but we were at a friends house one day and the movie was on. She saw the part where Ursula turns back into the Sea Witch at the end and now all she says is, “I don’t like the bad lady!” and she won’t have anything to do with it anymore. We have to be really careful what she watches and what parts of the books we “edit” when we read because she has such a big imagination!

Another thing she loves is her new colored pencils. She likes to draw with them. She doesn’t like coloring books much anymore- she would rather draw her own pictures and have us draw/color with her on blank paper. I guess that’s a good thing because it gets her to be more creative. She also likes to pretend to wrap presents for us. Anytime she can find a piece of tissue paper or scrap paper she starts folding it around a small object and then brings us the present to open.

She has just started learning the “grownup names” of people in our family. I think it’s good that she knows what our real names are, including last names, in case she ever needs to get help or talk to another adult for some reason. We are also going to start working on a phone number soon. She can say her full name and we are starting to learn how to spell it. She really likes knowing what adults’ names are, and she knows not to use their names but for some reason thinks it’s fun just to know.

She loves talking about her baby brother, and talking to him while he’s inside me. She always tells him, “Hi, Baby _____ ______. I’m your big sister! I love you and I will take care of you.” She puts stickers on my tummy for him, and talks about how she will hold toys for him to look at and read books to him when he is too little to hold the toys by himself. I love to see her excitement about him.

And the really ridiculous part is that his parents didn’t even notice any of this stuff when they mailed that package. They are still oblivious. Even when we tell them I am guessing it will be something like, “Oh, hmmm, yeah well we couldn’t remember what we decided on, oh well…” Duhhhhhhh

So now we (well really he) anyway SOMEONE needs to make the decision of whether he wants to legally get his name changed and spell it the way he thought it was, or just get his driver’s license changed and stick with the real spelling- we are thinking that might be easier because that’s how it is on all his other documents, plus that’s how most people spell it on his stuff anyway. It’s just weird because he didn’t know that was his name. I am married to Jonathan.

Jen, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this at dinner.

Most commonly used (and far more regularly than her actual name) is Muffin, or any variation of that including Muff, Muffie, Muffie Muff, Snuffy Muff, Snuffle, (those both started when she had a cold LOL) Snuffleupagus…

Also Bug, Bailey Bug, Buggie, Bailey Bear, Squiggle, Squiggle Pig, Dolly, Lovey

Sometimes this really freaks me out, but right now I am just excited. We have gotten enough work done on the nursery that I am no longer worried about that- but also not ready to post pictures! We finally got the painting finished. It was a horrible project, but it’s done. The “really pale lavender” of course turned out much darker once we had it all over the room, but the good news is that it matches the bedding really well. Instead of being a lot lighter than the bedding, it is almost the same color or maybe just a touch lighter. But I think it will be nice.

I have thought a lot about our ages for some reason. I am 26 and Jonathon just turned 31. I think those are okay ages to have a baby. I always imagined that I would get married at 24 and have my first baby at 26– don’t know why but just one of those funny things.

We have also chosen a name for the baby- both first and middle name are final now. We announced it to our families this past week. I wanted to hurry and decide on the middle name (we’ve had a first name for a while) so that we could tell my parents on Christmas. I am going to wait to post it on my blog until we make sure that we have told other people that “should hear it in person” first. It’s really nice to be able to use her name now instead of just calling her “the baby” all the time. And it makes it seem more real.

Boys-
Matthew (I wanted to call him Matty for short but Jonathon said no)
Nicholas (I wanted to call him Nicky but Jonathon said no)
Brennan (kind of iffy with our last name)
Schroeder (Jonathon likes it, I said NO WAY)
Xerxes (Jonathon’s choice)
Thomas (And of course I want to call him Tommy)
Landon (bad with our last name)

What is with me adding Y’s onto EVERY boy name?

Girls-
Juliana (We both like it but I’m a little afraid people would shorten it to Julie)
Alexia (close to Alexis which is way common now)
Sierra (Jonathon says no- baby’s not a car or a soft drink–Sierra Mist)
Kaylee (can’t agree on a spelling though)
Mariah (Carey?)