4 major things and however many minor things as I have time for

Jessa ~

I feel like the past week has been as eventful as the previous 3 weeks combined.  Oye.  So hopefully I get this to you on time this week.  Because you want to hear all our excitement.  (Which means you'd gosh darn better not rush out this week!  I had the whole blog written when you ran in and ran out!  We were just adding pictures!)

So, let me list the four major things first, then I'll go into more detail below.

1. Abby started sleeping in a toddler bed!
2. Kessa lost her first tooth!
3. We found out the gender of our baby!  (Haha.  I'm gonna make you wait till the detail paragraph below.  I'm so mean.  I know.)
4. We rather unexpectedly inherited a hamster.

Ok.  Onto details.

1. Abby started sleeping in a toddler bed!

We want to eventually move her into Kessa's room to free up the nursery for the new baby.  But we figured changing to a bed AND changing rooms at the same time might be a little overwhelming.  So we just took off the side of the crib and let her sleep on the toddler bed it made.  (Same as Kessa did.)  The first few naps/nights she would get up and wander and play for a long time, then come sit by the door and poke her fingers underneath, and then eventually start crying, usually saying something like, "All done, mommy!  All done."  But I found that if I sat outside her room and sang, she would calm down immediately and eventually fall asleep.  In front of the door sometimes.  Yeah... that's not a fire hazard, right?

One night BJ was putting Kessa to bed.  Which takes a bit of time these days.  I was downstairs sewing and was trying to finish so I could have the table cleaned off before some friends came over to play games.  And Abby started crying.  Of course.  Well, BJ's work gave us a toy called a DropCam for Christmas.  Did we tell you about that?  I don't think we did.  It's basically a small video camera that you can use as a baby monitor or a surveillance camera or whatever.  And you can see the video from your phone.  Awesome.  So I pulled out my phone, opened the DropCam app, saw her wandering around her room crying, so I turned on the microphone (yes, I can talk to her through the device) and started singing songs to her.  As soon as I started singing she immediately stopped crying and within a verse or two went and laid on her bed.  When I'd stop singing she'd start whimpering, so I would start singing again.  (Btw, it has infrared lights, so all she sees is three tiny red dots that aren't bright at all, and I can see her in the dark  Again, awesome.) The whole time I was singing, I was also measuring and cutting fabric. After about 5 or so minutes I stopped singing and she didn't whine.  So I turned off the microphone and watched her sleep while I sewed.

Jessa, we live in the future.

But since then she has done an awesome job of staying in her bed after we put her down and just going right to sleep.  I think it was just novelty the first few days and now she's like, "Yeah, it's cool that I can get down, but I really just want to sleep."  Which makes me happy because I feared it would be a rough transition, resulting in less sleep for us, and I'm already super exhausted and need extra sleep.  So yay for Abby!  I hope the transition to Kessa's room goes equally smoothly... [crosses fingers]

2. Kessa lost her first tooth!

Wednesday night BJ was helping Kessa brush her teeth and noticed that her bottom front tooth was loose.  And by loose I mean, about to fall out.  It almost laid flat down (when she'd let us wiggle it, which wasn't often).  Now, I did not expect her to start losing teeth for at least another year or two, so it hadn't even crossed my mind to prep her for such an eventuality.  (I googled it.  Average starts from 5-7 years old, but it's perfectly normal to start anywhere from 4-7.)  Kessa thrives on the known.  If we prep her for things, she does well.  If we don't prep her for things, there are tears.  Needless to say, there were tears.

Things she was afraid of/nervous about while it was loose:

• It would fall out while she slept.
• It hurt to eat.
• She didn't want to touch it, so she'd keep her tongue pulled back, resulting in drooling and a sore tongue.
• She was afraid of anyone else touching it.

Things she was afraid of happening after it fell out:

• She wouldn't be able to talk anymore.
• She wouldn't be able to eat anymore.

So basically she spent a lot of the next few days either being excited because her tongue touched her tooth and miraculously it didn't hurt! or crying because of any of the above.

Then Saturday she was eating a cake ball when it fell out in her mouth.  She freaked out and started whining.  We've been trying to work with her about talking when she wants something instead of just whining or grunting or pointing, so BJ tried to get her to use her words, but clearly she couldn't, so she just spit the whole thing out on the table, and there was her tooth.  So BJ hollered for me and I came in and immediately noticed there was blood pooling up where the tooth was (which is what I remember most about my teeth falling out... cold washcloths in my mouth to stop the blood), so I ran up, got a washcloth wet, and ran back down to give it to her.  She was still freaking out and wouldn't take the washcloth out for like 15 mins or more, even though I offered her a popsicle instead!  And once the bleeding stopped, she still turned down the popsicle because "it's not bleeding anymore!  I don't need it."  (On the one hand, what the heck child is this!?  On the other hand, way to go child of mine!)

Now that it's out she's super excited about it and likes showing off the lack of tooth to everyone.  Though, just tonight she came down from brushing her teeth to show me a new tooth is coming in!

Funny story, though.  Back story: I made her a tooth pillow.  It's not quite done yet, so no pictures.  Next week.  Hopefully.  But it makes it way easier for the tooth fairy to find the tooth and put money in it.  Digging under pillows?  Bad idea.  So I took Kessa to the store and she picked out fabric and lace and embroidery thread for her name and everything.  It's cute.  And loud.  Bright pink.  Anyway, so BJ put her to bed and helped her put her tooth in the pillow (it has a pocket on it).  Later we were going to bed and I got ready first, so I figured I'd do the deed.  I walked into her room, it was pitch black, and I didn't want to wake her up while searching for the pillow, so I came back.  The following conversation ensued between BJ and I:

• Me: I just went to play Tooth Fairy, but it occurred to me that I have no idea where the tooth pillow is. 
• BJ: It's tucked under a blanket on Abby's [future] bed. 
• Me: Ah. I never would have guessed that. Thanks. 
• BJ: Watch out for the jump rope. 

It was stretched across her room, tied to her bed and stuck in a dresser drawer on the other end. Never thought my first night as a tooth fairy I'd be booby trapped.

3. We found out the gender of our baby!

Any guesses before I just tell you?  If you did, let me know if you were right or not.  But... we're having a boy!  Insane, I know, right?  I don't know how to do boys.  He'd better have BJ's temperament if we're supposed to have more than 3 kids.  I don't know if I could do more than two with the energy of Abby in a row.  Yipes!

No names yet.  Remind me what my off-limits boy names are?  I can't promise not to take from the list, but I'll try "to not to."

I'm 19 weeks now, and the ultrasound confirmed that.  So we're still looking at late-May, but probably early-June.

4. We rather unexpectedly inherited a hamster.

So remember last year at the Homer Christmas party when your family brought a live mouse?  The tradition continues and this year Barbara brought a live hamster.  This time, though, it had been a pet that they were done with.  Megan and Tyler's boy got it and Tyler was very clear that if it stayed with them, it wouldn't be alive when they got home.  And no one would steal it from him!  I was near the last, and fearing for its life, I stole the poor guy.  I figured I could offer it up on our neighborhood Facebook page and give him to someone who wanted him.  But when Kessa realized it was ours, she was ecstatic.  So we told her that if she'll take care of it, we'll keep him. But if she stops being responsible, we'll give him to someone who will be.  Oh, his name is Carl.  Karl?  Maybe we should do Karl to fit in the family?

So far he mostly just sleeps in the corner of his cage and runs around whenever the girls talk us into letting him run around in the hamster ball.  I have yet to see it, though.  Today after church we had a babysitter because I had to go to a ward conference and BJ had tithing.  And I guess Kat (the babysitter) let the hamster run up and down Kessa's arms.  She must have experience with pets like this.  I do not.  But Kessa loved it.  I fear it escaping and going to live in my couch.  I guess I'll have to get used to the guy.  But so far he's fitting in well enough.


Ok... done with major things.  Quick list of minor things because you're online!

Your dad got ordained a patriarch today!  That's not minor in and of itself, of course.  But I assume your parents will go into more detail for you.  But it's exciting!  Did you know that even when he's no longer actively serving as patriarch, he can still give blessings to his direct descendants for the rest of his life?  That's cool.

Kessa's taking swimming lessons again. There's a girl in her class named Jessa and she has long dark hair.  Go figure!

Kessa has almost learned my phone number for a Joy School goal.  She's also done an excellent job of staying dry in order to earn Peach coins, that I don't have time to describe in detail, but they give her Wii time to play Mario Galaxy.


Kessaisms

• Kessa, “It's kind of sad that Jesus died, isn't it? But then it's happy because he came alive again after three days!"
• Kessa: Make sure it’s colorful.

  BJ: Colorful?
  Kessa: I mean brown.

And with that, I bid you adieu!  In the hopes that you'll actually get this while you're still there this time.  Toodles!

~ Tianna