The Tie-Breaker

Our family currently consists of a mom (me), a dad, a daughter and a son. The child of unknown gender in utero will break the tie.

Here's how the bidding stands:

Daughter
She originally stood firmly in favor of a girl. In fact, she explained to the nurse, "We already have a baby [her toddler brother] but we want another one, a girl one." She has pointed out on several occasions that she already has a baby brother and needs a baby sister. Once, my husband tried to reason with her by asking her to consider the needs of her younger brother. "He doesn't have a baby sister, either!" she replied. More recently, however, her heart has been softened by a religious awakening. I do not know where she got this from, but she has announced that a boy would be okay if that is what Jesus wants us to have.

Son
He is only one year-old and I don't think he understands about the baby.

Mom
I'm mostly neutral and happy that already having one of each allows me to avoid the stress of other families who seem to make all of the same gender. However, my competitive nature slightly leans me toward female. If the tie must be broken, I would prefer to be on the winning team.

Dad
Instead of casting a traditional ballot, my husband is crossing his fingers for a set of twins. My enormous belly is contributing to his hopes. Mommy's fingers are much looser on this point; twins are cute, but the car only seats five.

Career Ambitions Evolving

My 4 year-old has expanded her career options. While princess is still a top choice, she is also considering doctor and dish washer.

Cool Commuter

I am on the train riding home from work, and I just saw a guy holding a briefcase, wearing a tie and riding a unicycle. What a unique commuting option.  And so healthy and environmentally friendly.

Too late for a "Before" picture

My huge pregnant belly at 7 weeks

Spoke Too Soon

After his first day at the church nursery, I raved about how my toddler happily adjusted to his new environment. The next Sunday, he was good at nursery but pouted the whole time. The next week, his daddy had to come in for a while to help him recover from his separation anxiety. (Mommy is busy during church meetings. I am the primary chorister, which means I teach songs to 3-11 year-olds.) The next week, Daddy had to remove him from the nursery altogether because he would not tolerate it.

I'm not fat, I'm...

PREGNANT. I am still only six weeks along and ordinarily I would wait until after I had seen the doctor to make an announcement like this, but a couple of forces are encouraging me to go public:

1. My Husband.
He is a proud daddy and he can't seem to resist working, "We're expecting," into all sorts of conversations. He started doing this even before I'd taken a pee test. "Honey, don't you think we should wait to tell people until after I've taken a pregnancy test?" I asked him. "I know you're pregnant," he responded. "Because you're getting so moody."

2. My Belly.
As previously mentioned, I am only six weeks along. According to all the literature I have read on the topic, pregnant women do not "show" at this stage. My belly, which does not read, has already expanded so that my pants won't close.

Those of you who do not live locally enough to see my amazing growing belly may be thinking, "Surely, so early, any body changes could only be noticeable to yourself. I'll bet no one else has noticed." I was hoping this could be the case until I visited Home Depot last night. Every time I reached for a moderately heavy object, a kind sales rep or fellow customer stopped me and fetched it for me. Bless them; this kind of courtesy is one of the things I like about being pregnant, but I just hadn't planned on being so obviously pregnant so soon.

A Cute Sermon

Here is my 4 year-old's first talk at church. I didn't whisper prompts to her; she did it on her own.

Weekend in Manti

We took the kids camping last week. This was a first for my one year-old. He was thrilled that we were sleeping in a big bouncy toy. Each bedtime, he would run around in circles diving onto air mattresses and family members.

The first night, he woke up in the middle of the night screaming. The next two nights, he slept well when he finally finished playing bouncy toy, but his sister woke up screaming.

The one year-old occasionally wakes up screaming even at home, so this was no surprise. But the 4 year-old? Where did that come from? I thought she would love sleeping in the tent. She helped me test it in our yard before the trip and she was so cute. She stocked the tent with a game, a story book and two apples (I thanked her for the apple, but had to let her know that we don't keep food in tents for safety reasons) and was so excited for our mother-daughter sleep-over.

On Thursday, we attended the Mormon Miracle Pageant. I have attended it once before, 12 years ago. At the time, I liked it but thought the style seemed a bit dated. I think they are still using the same script and soundtrack now and it seems 12 years more dated than before, but I still liked it for the most part.

We arrived late but got great seats near the front. The actors exaggerated all of their motions, for the benefit of people sitting at the back of the vast audience, I am sure, but from where we were the exaggeration was kind of funny. The special effects, however, were very cool from our seats--the fires felt hot!

It rained on us while we watched. The rain was warm and light, so it wasn't too bad, but it did prevent my one year-old from sleeping through the show as I had hoped. I ran laps with the impatient child through the whole thing. Not many people get that of exercise while watching a play.
We spent Friday morning at our campsite playing croquet and swimming. In the afternoon, we visited Manti Heritage Days. Oops. Based on the Internet description, I thought this would be similar to Riverton Days, Draper Days, South Jordan Days and other town celebrations complete with musical entertainment and carnival games. Nope. It involved nice, elderly people giving speeches about growing up in Manti. Hardly fare to entertain a four-year-old. Or me. Luckily, the one-year-old napped in his stroller until we left.

Saturday, we moved over to Palisade State Park, where we participated in another Rockin' Utah activity. What a great way to camp! The Park personel provided a yummy dinner and breakfast, campsite, a golf lesson, a fish-cooking lesson, rental golf clubs, and a couple hours on the golf course with a cart for the crazy cheap price of $10 a family. Plus, they sent us home with some new canteens, fishing gear, and a ladderball game. The kids liked playing with golf clubs and loved riding the cart.

Mormon Temple Open House

My kids and I toured the Oquirrh (challenging spelling) Mountain Temple yesterday. This is a new temple located in South Jordan, Utah. In general, only adult members of the LDS church are permitted to enter Mormon temples, except during the open house held for a brief period after a new one is built or an older one is remodeled. So this open house is a great opportunity for people who are not of the LDS faith and for Mormon children to see the inside of a temple. It is open until August. You can get free tour tickets at the LDS church website.

Mommy's triumphant homecoming

My kids, ages 4 and 1 1/2, are at an adorable stage where they come running out of the house, often somewhat naked, yelling, "Mommy!" whenever they see me arriving from work. Actually, the one-year-old says, "Bobby." He pronounces it like he has a cold. Today I made a brief stop at my house in the middle of my workday and had to devastate my baby by immediately leaving again. I felt bad, but it reminded me to be grateful for this stage; my kids are so overjoyed to see me. While my kids are so small, it's hard in some ways (like when I want to go to a public place without dealing with a run-away, a temper tantrum, or general disturbance of the peace) but so rewarding in others. I love my greeting party after work.