The Home Stretch

#3 is almost here - technically he/she is not due to arrive until 11/30 but intuition tells me it may be sooner. The kids are getting pretty anxious and in some ways it is showcased through their uncanny ability to "not hear" Shad and I as well as their knack of mastering the art of "crying/whining" when they are not getting their way.
Shad and I are truly challenged with keeping our patience these days. It's been a test to say the least. Fortunately, for the most part, when one of us is feeling impatient the other is patient. I would tip my hat to me being more of the former than that of the latter.

The kids have both attended "sibling" classes at the hospital so they can have some insight into what is to come. It's funny when I think about it Reilly is always going to be the "oldest" no matter how many members of the family come - but we are creating that not so envious position of "middle child" with Kate. She will now become the middle child and will either be the only girl or will have a sister. It's really an interesting thing to change the whole family dynamic - for better or for worse.

Shad and I are looking forward to the coming weeks to understand how we have done so...

Chick Mornings

Shad has been taking Reilly to school for the past few months which means Kate and I can have our "quality bonding" time in the mornings. The past couple mornings I have tried to get her to lay in bed just a "little longer". Verbally she'll commit, but as soon as she lies down she says "I need juice" and I say that I'll get it in a minute - to which she then replies "and dinner - I need dinner now too."

We don't last more than about 20 minutes b/c the demands just keep coming and it defeats the purpose of trying to get an extra few minutes.

Perspective

So... Kate is into dressing herself. I let her get whatever she wants out of her draw and typically only provide climate driven feedback. So, some days she has on 4 shirts and other days she wears her pants backwards. Typically the clothing does not match but occasionally she get something that at least looks like a coordinate set - either way, she's expressing herself, so I think it's cool. Well... I did... until this morning. The shirt she chose has a quasi neck tie - it's a piece of ribbon that appears to allow you to close the shirt at the neck but it's truly an accessory and has no function at all. Kate asked me to tie her shirt, I did. Apparently incorrectly... she untied it and asked me to do it again. I took the two ends and made a bow... I was wrong...again. Repeated step #1 again, this time I created tears. I asked what she wanted and she said a bow... after about the 7th time I picked her sobbing body off the floor and started showing her the zipper on the sweatshirt she had chosen.

Thankfully the distraction worked b/c the shirt was fine from that point on. Phew....