Rocking that baby!

The other morning I got Mack out of bed and went to brush my teeth. When I finished, I checked my room, her room and down stairs and couldn't find her. Finally, I called out for her and heard her little voice coming from the baby's closed bedroom door saying " I'm just rocking him!" . "Him who? " I wondered out loud. Here's what I found ( taken from my phone which doesn't have the best camera quality)

My handy man

Look what Mike made for our train themed nursery!
He did such a great job and I love it. Even better- when the baby is old enough, Mike can unscrew the trains from the track and it's becomes " Baby's first model railroad".

Go Blue!

Mack had been asking Mike to do the 350 piece Michigan Wolverine puzzle that Aunt Meg sent for Christmas so they set out to complete it. The puzzle is a tricky one with many pseudo- straight edged pieces ( and even a football shaped piece) built into the puzzle. About 15 minutes in ( and after actually having gotten a few pieces together) Mack lost interest but Mike plugged along:
He managed to finish it by the end of the day:
But wait. What's this? The puzzle-completers worst fear! Who could be to blame?
Here's my guess......

Outsmarting the dog

Poor Duncan , with only his back claws, often becomes Ellie's favorite play toy when he shows his fuzzy face down stairs. Most of the time he doesn't seem to mind but often Ellie doesn't get the hint that play time is over. Duncan solved that problem:

Not My Idea of a good time

They don't make hospital bracelets as fashionable as they used to, do they ? It seems like , if you have to go there, they should make this little souvenir a little more exciting.

Things were great, a normal evening in our house. I had gone up to bed and Mike was right behind me, buttoning up the house for the night when a suddenly horrible pain grabbed me and didn't let go. Not when I was standing. Not when I was laying down. Not in the shower. Not throwing up. My back felt like it was being sliced into and the last time I felt THIS kind of pain, I was in " back labor" with a stubborn Mackenzie. The pain was mostly to the right side and I could feel lots of baby karate chops so that was reassuring. And the pain didn't let up and then get worse again like contractions do( it was constant) . It was apparent that this was not a baby problem. So I tried to wait it out; Mike tried to massage it out. Nothing. So at 2:30 am we decided it was time to go to the hospital. And though I know I have countless people here who would have brewed a pot of coffee and stayed up with Mackenzie or even came to our house to stay with her( and have since chastised me for not doing just that!) I just knew she'd be upset and worried if she woke up only to find we were gone. Off we went to the ER. 8 hours later , we left the hospital, pregnancy approved pain pills in hand, the diagnosis: Kidney and gall stones. The kidney stones were to blame for the horrific pain , the doctor said. The gall stone seems to be harmless for the time being and they are hoping it stays so because, even a simple laproscopic gall bladder surgery is risky with a pea in the pod. I was , yet again, so incredibly thankful for Mike who took good care of me and held down the fort while I slept the day ( and my pain meds) away and I couldn't be prouder of Mackenzie who soaked up so many compliments from hospital staff about how well behaved she is. As they say, all is well that ends well and I hope to not have to check into another hospital until Delivery Day!

320 pages o' fun

Mack and I finished her preschool book this week. We started it in July and have had so much fun working through it that we're both kind of sad that it's done. So we're off to look for another today ( that we haven't already done!). In the mean time, we've been doing the BrainQuest Kindergarten cards Aunt Meg sent Mackenzie for Christmas which is just as fun with no pencils required.

Page 319! Mack did this page all on her own- backwards 3 and " z" and all! The bottom drawing is a self portrait complete with pig tails . She's been drawing her dimple in all of her pictures lately but opted out of it today.

My name is {Mackenzie}
I am {3} years old
I have {green} eyes
I have {blond} hair

Her own best teacher

Mackenzie was playing with a stack of unused envelops and thinking of who she wanted to send her " letters" to. She brought me a stack of letters that she'd addressed to people she loves. There was one for " Grammy" and one for " Cam". I was impressed because she managed to correctly write and spell both with out any help from me. She is just a little sponge, constantly reading new words and learning to write new things by sounding them out! Every day she asks me if that's the day she gets to go to school when really, she's her own best teacher! The look of pride on her face when she brings me a new creation is irreplaceable.