Hannah's recipe for magic powder

"Put 1 or 2 cups of powdered sugar in a bowl, then 100 or 99 cups of brown sugar to sweeten it in case someone eats it, then take sourdough bread and break it up and melt it. Mix it all together and bake it for 25 minutes. Then take it and sprinkle it over my head and then I will get long hair like Rapunzel!"

(We saw Tangled while we were on vacation, can you tell? She was terrified during the whole movie but all of a sudden she decided she loved it and now she is obsessed with growing hair like Rapunzel's.)

A couple of other funny things from Hannah:

- While we were on our way out of the airport coming home Sunday night, Hannah was complaining about being hungry and wanting to eat when we got home. Really she was just tired and we had already fed them dinner on the airplane, so I told her no, she was just going to go to bed. Her grumpy answer: "I always never get my dreams come true!!!"

-This was months ago and most of you have probably already heard this one, but it is funny and I don't have it recorded yet. Seth was trying to feed her lunch and she was (once again) in a bad mood and complaining because she wanted quesadillas instead of cheese and crackers. When Seth asked her why she wouldn't eat, she said vehemently, "These crackers taste like dirt! Dirt mixed with bees and gorillas!"

Joshua...what else can I say???

Meet Mr. Mischief (aka Miss Amy, but Miss Amy moved away so I guess he felt that he needed to change his name). He is 3 1/2 years old today. To see how he chose to celebrate, watch this video. (BTW, Hannah's commentary throughout the video is pretty funny. And I'm sorry my voice is so awful, I have been congested for weeks and I had just woken up...it was not quite 7 in the morning when we took this!)

I'm telling you, this kid has been on one lately. He has become the WORST troublemaker!!! he is SO stinking cute, but man is he a pill! Earlier this week, he destroyed a little beaded-rope Christmas decoration Hannah made in preschool last year, dropping one bead in the toilet and swallowing another one, leaving Hannah crying because he'd eaten her favorite decoration. One of his favorite pasttimes lately is squeezing tubes of toothpaste as hard as he can with the cap still on, causing it to ooze out the sides and up into the cap and make a pretty nasty mess.

Joshua is hilarious. He is a walking contradiction. He can be soooo sweet...he is very gentle and kind with Eli, he loves hugs and kisses and is very generous with them, but then he goes and chooses his snowman pajamas because "they are bad guy clothes...and I am going to kill my sister!" ...making Hannah cry again. He loves money and is very generous with it...he loves to pay his tithing and give his money to Heavenly Father, and wants to donate to every single cause on the tithing slip; he tells me "I am so excited to go on a mission! I want to go on lots of missions!" and then tells us some variation of a scripture story to demonstrate how "wicked" he is, such as this story from the other day: "Well, Laman and Lemuel were wicked because they wouldn't help Nephi build his ship. So I'M mean because...I don't want to help him either!" His favorite thing to say to people is "You are very, very stupid!" Other name-calling favorites include silly billy, silly punk, little pal, silly butt, stupid butt, and silly-stuff-sir (you might recognize that last one as a phrase from Dr. Seuss's Fox in Socks).

Anyway....in terms of maturity this boy has regressed by about a million years lately. He has such a temper and will scream his brains out when something upsets him. And hit, and hit, and hit, and hit, and hit some more. He has even started sucking his thumb, mostly I think because he likes how Hannah sucks her thumb and holds her snuggy blanket in her face to go to sleep, but it seems like he actually might be starting it for real (or "for life", as Hannah would say). And the worst part is that he has started talking like a baby and crawls around saying "Goo!" when he wants to whine. It is REALLY annoying!

I'm hoping that all of this is just a phase that he might snap out of once he starts going to Sunbeams in a couple of weeks and can feel like a real "big boy." Until then...it's a good thing that he is SO cute and so smart and so fun (when he's well rested and not upset). He LOVES to play games, read stories, and be tickled. Nevertheless, if anyone has any advice on how to encourage a swift departure from this stage...bring it on!

Merry Christmas!

Hannah Rae had her first real school Christmas program on Thursday night. It was so cute!!! Usually those seem to drag on a little bit but I was really impressed with how great all the classes did. It was so cute to watch her sing the Hokey Pokey in Chinese...she didn't seem to sing much but she did all the dancing really well. So cute!!!! We brought our local "grandma", Cay, to enjoy the show with us.

That picture is of Hannah with Hung Laoshi, who must be the best kindergarten teacher ever. Hannah absolutely adores her. She is the cutest lady. And Joshua is officially in love with that Santa hat. He wears it everywhere and even sleeps with it -- not wearing it, just cuddling it!

Also, because we are visiting family on Christmas, we decided to let Santa come a week early to our house. We had a fun day -- the kids loved their new toys and Eli loved his moose antlers :) .

Happy Halloween!

We had to wait to get our photos printed from our wonderful ward party...because I forgot to take pictures on our camera! This was our very first themed Halloween. Obviously we did Peter Pan...John, Wendy, Tink, Peter, and a Lost Boy. :) Aren't they cute? I was pretty proud of the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell costumes I made -- from imagination because i don't trust myself with a pattern. Our friends the Kvavles just happened to dress as Tiger Lily, Captain Hook and a baby Tinkerbell -- it was perfect!

Happy 3 Months!

In honor of Eli's 3-month birthday today, I decided to backtrack a little and briefly record the story of his birth (scary music here) and his 2-months stats (I'm a little slow). Above are some recent pictures of Eli...unfortunately, and I am really sad about this, he is not very photogenic AND our camera totally sucks, so I just can't get a really good picture of him. He just doesn't ever look the same in a pic as he does in real life. Hannah was (and still is to some extent) the same way...cute, cute babies and kids but they look weird in pictures. (No offense, kiddos. You get it from me!)

Anyway, at his two month checkup Eli came in at 12 lbs 7 oz, 24 inches long, with the strength and abilities of a 4-month-old, according to the doc. Smart boy! Maybe this one will actually crawl before he's a year old. That would be a fun new experience for us. His nicknames: Eli Peli, Baby Donut, Little Tiny.

So for my own record, here is how the birth went down -- briefly:

Tue June 29: AM: 8 days overdue, passed the non-stress test but it took an hour to do what should have taken 20 minutes (my babies are never big movers in utero). I had about 500,000 contractions that showed up on the test strip but no baby movements...hmmm..you would think I would manage to go into labor myself wouldn't you?

PM: Had appt with the midwife, dilated to maybe a 2, sort of soft, not really doing much though -- they decided to go ahead and strip the membranes to help avoid a full-on induction that weekend. Midwife proceeds to sweep, I think I'm going to die and yell at her to stop. (Now, maybe that doesn't hurt when your body is ready, but I tell you it does when your body is stubborn and refuses to budge on its own. Holy COW! And I've been told by many many doctors in the past that I have a high pain threshold...) So I left the midwife's office in terrible crampy pain expecting to go into labor...

7 or 8 PM: Yeah, the contractions started really strong and close together from the outset (3-5 minutes). They hurt like crazy, even though I knew I was barely beginning real labor, because I was still in pain from the darn stripping. Thankfully, my mom was in town, having arrived the night before, and the three of us (mom, me, Seth) sat around on the couch eating my favorite subs from Jersey Mike's and watching Brian Regan on Netflix (good idea? I'm sure the laughing helped keep the contractions going, but it hurt like a mother (side note: now I know where that expression comes from!) to laugh during really hard contractions!).

Wed June 30: 1 AM: We arrived at the hospital. I was a 4 and 90%. (Only???After all that time 3 minutes apart???) I was Group B positive so they had to start the IV and antibiotics. Apparently they did that wrong because my fingers started swelling and hurt a lot. Also, they kept trying to turn up the dosage, because (silly them) they were afraid I would have my baby too fast to get the antibiotics in, and that stuff feels like FIRE!!!! So my whole arm would be burning like crazy until they turned it back down. And we went through this over and over for the next four hours. So my arm hurt like crazy and I couldn't concentrate on relaxing, so that all went out the window...and then I had conveniently forgotten that my body just does not handle the intensity of labor very well and i go into this kind of shock reaction with my teeth chattering, and shaking all over... Seth tried to talk to me and help me relax but I was already in sensory overload and it took all my strength to ask him to STOP TALKING!!! But hey, I was proud of myself -- I never once swore or told him to shut up :) And he tried so hard, poor guy.

So at our hospital there is a birthing center (where we were) on a floor separate from L&D. They have birthing tubs and stuff and do not do epidurals or anything. But they do offer pain meds through IV to take the edge off. So naturally I started thinking that sounded good. But the midwife -- unfortunately she was not my favorite one of the group -- would not give them to me! Like everyone else, she seemed to think that I would go too fast, yadda yadda. She kept harrassing me to get up and walk around, or take a shower, or sit in the tub. I am the kind who does NOT WANT TO MOVE during contractions. I have to just hold perfectly still in bed and even then I think I'm going to die. Anyway, I finally gave in to trying the birthing tub, and it was kind of funny, I admit. Those things are HUMONGOUSLY TALL 9for a shorty like me) so it was incredibly hard even to get in the darn thing. Sure the warm water felt good once i was in there, but only until I had a contraction -- as soon as one started, I would try to brace myself in a "comfy" position to get through it, but there was SO MUCH water, as soon as my stomach started tightening, I would start floating! It was HORRIBLE to not be able to control what my body was doing. But funny, like I said.

Anyway, so finally, finally, in the tub, I felt like it was time, so the midwife and nurses helped me get out and back in bed to start pushing. but they didn't do an internal check (which was fine with me anyway) and I think I wasn't fully complete before i started pushing, because we did not make any progress for so long. My other two came out super fast -- Joshua's labor was difficult, but he still came out after only a few pushes -- and Eli finally, finally came to barely crowning -- and got stuck there for half an hour. I truly truly thought I was going to die. In fact I wanted to die! I laid there watching the sun come up slowly outside the huge windows, crying and screaming and marveling that my pelvis was still intact. If you've been there, you know there is absolutely no way to describe what that feels like!!! The closest I can get is to say that the pain was so amazing and intense that I fully expected my pelvis to blow up into a million billion pieces, so forcefully that the individual shards would be fatally piercing people walking through the streets of Beijing.

Oh, and the best part of this was that the whole time Eli is stuck, the midwife kept telling me, "He's in your arms, your baby is in your arms! He's coming!" And I wanted to scream at her, Are you out of your mind? He's not in my arms, he's stuck in my crotch!!!! (Sorry if that's TMI.) And I knew he was not moving, because I could feel that he was not going anywhere. So then she kept trying to get me to reach down and feel the head -- I guess to encourage me that he was right there? And again, I wanted to yell at her, Do you seriously think I don't know that he's right there? HELLOOOOO! Anyway I resisted that for a long time because at that point I was just trying to live through it (for the sake of my children), but i finally reached down to touch it just so she would leave me alone.

5:46 AM: So, Eli F-I-N-A-L-L-Y came out, right with the sunrise, but he was all blue and floppy so they rushed him right away to the table to liven him up a bit. He was fine after a few minutes. I had torn a little bit so they stitched me up (that felt good too) and left me for dead. Just kidding. He was simply adorable from the first minute. Somehow, even after being stuck in there all that time, his head was perfectly round and beautiful -- during our hospital stay the nurses all exclaimed over his beautiful head, his dimpled chin, and his amazingly pensive expression -- he never even cried when they did tests on him or poked him with needles -- he just took everything in, every new sensation was a wonder to him.

We didn't get much sleep in the hospital -- Eli was born hungry and pretty much starved until my milk came in the next day, even though he nursed all night the first night. And his skin was SO dry and wrinkly. It was definitely time for him to come out, even though he was obviously reluctant to do so! He dropped from 7lbs 5oz to 6lbs 13oz before we left the hospital, but at 6 days old he was already above birthweight at 7lbs 6oz. The doc was pretty impressed with that from a breastfeeding baby!

I recovered okay, but while in the hospital I could barely get up and move because my chest and lungs were so bruised from the labor. I had forgotten about that happening after Joshua was born too. But they gave me an inhaler to use, which seemed to help a little bit.

The kids were absolutely in love with him just like we were. Eli was such a cute little pixie baby, with his adorable dimply chin and blue eyes. He is so amazing still. He loves for us to sing and dance, he loves his family, especially his brother and sister, and he loves to talk. It's really funny because it actually sounds like he is saying words when he talks -- always "hi" and "hey", but yesterday I could have sworn he said "I hate you!" It was so funny.

I think if I learned anything from this experience, it was: 1)we have super cute, good, easy babies, and 2)I do not have fast, easy labors. I was really hoping things would be fast and easy like everyone told me it would be with the third one -- they were wrong. If you are fortunate enough to have fast and easy labors -- like my sister-in-law, whose third baby came on the way to the hospital, or my friend whose baby (born one month before Eli) slid out so fast and easily that he fell on the tile floor of the hospital because her husband was chasing after the midwife -- you are lucky! I think if we are going to have another one (which by the way, I wouldn't count on), I will do the birthing center again but I will make it absolutely clear that i want the pain meds. Epidurals I don't like. I think iv painkillers and i would get along very nicely.

...and more stories...

Sorry, I just have to keep going! There are some funny things the kids say that I just have to remember.

Today Hannah said (sitting behind me as I was bending over, not a good place for anyone to be), "Mom, your bum is REALLY big! Bigger than Daddy's, bigger than mine, bigger than Joshua's, bigger than Eli's...your bum is really big!" Yes, Hannah, I still have 20 pounds to lose, thank you for reminding me!

Joshie really likes to repeat things we say to him so lately he's been telling me, with very large blue eyes looking out from a very, very serious face, and speaking very slowly and deliberately, things like, "Mom, you're not supposed to boss me around," and "Mom, don't hit Daddy's bum. That's rude." He also says upslide down instead of upside down, and loves to say "Oh, bodder" like Winnie-the-Pooh when things are not going right.

Hannah cannot say the word breakfast -- it comes out brefixt. It used to be breftix, though, so at least she's gotten the "t" sound in the right place now!

At least they already have their futures figured out -- Hannah wants to be a pilot and Joshua wants to be a bus. (No, not a bus driver; the actual vehicle.)

Stories

I've noticed that whenever I've taken a long break from blogging I come back with a vengeance. This is kind of our family journal so I have to write things I want to remember even at the risk of talking too much.

Hannah has lately been obsessed with those scripture-story books. She spent a couple of days poring over the Old Testament stories and came up with the best version of "where babies come from" I have ever heard:

"When I was a child I was in the flood (Noah's) and my mom -- my old mom -- started being wicked and she threw me up to the Bible and Abraham caught me and sent me back down through the clouds to a new, righteous mom and that's how I got in your tummy!" Whoa!

Another time H and J were taking a bath together when all of a sudden Joshua started crying and crying. When I came in to check on them Hannah was standing up in the tub and told me she had accidentally kicked him in the face (?). I never was quite sure how it happened, but anyway, she knows she's not supposed to stand up in the tub. For her defense, she says "But I'm afraid to sit down. I don't like green water!" "What is green water?" I ask. To which she replies: "Joshie makes it! He goes psssshhhhhh..." and uses her hand to indicate a fountain springing forth from..well, you know. So I said, "Did Joshie pee in the water?" Hannah: "No, but he might!!!"

Here was a real kick in the head: Last night after dinner H sat down on my chair and, giggling, said, "I'm mommy!" So, curious to see what part of my personality she would portray, I said, "Well, what does Mommy say?" ...

"MOOOOOO!"

Photo Shoot

The latest photos of our brood. Cuties!!!!

Have you met Miss Amy?

Allow me to introduce you to our son...Miss Amy. You may be wondering, why the feminine nickname? We are too. But I think if we have learned anything over the past five years, it is that there is no explaining how these children's minds work. Anyway, Joshua picked this nickname (I don't know how he even knows the name Amy) and likes to refer to himself this way when the mood strikes him. I'm thinking he doesn't understand that "miss" is a girl because they also have this game they play where Joshua is "Miss Bakery" (because he puts his little snuggy blanket on his head and then splats the "dough" onto the floor. They think it is quite hilarious.).

While we're on the subject of Joshua, he is one pistol of a brother lately. !!!!!! He is the biggest tease! My mom says I was the same way when I was little so I'm sure she's laughing the loudest about this. He is just constantly tormenting Hannah. She came to me the other day upset because Joshua was teasing: Hannah is a recipe! Hannah is a recipe! Is that even an insult? Apparently it is in our house. The other day he took one of Hannah's toys and threw it out the front door -- you can probably tell where this is going -- and when she ran out to get it he shut the door and locked her out! She was traumatized of course (she came in crying, I was worried about you, Mommy!) He has been so naughty at bedtime lately we finally ordered a crib tent to keep him locked up...he stays in bed now, and sometimes goes to sleep...if Hannah happens to be asleep and he's not, he'll scream at her to wake up. It's nigh unto impossible to put the baby down for a nap because as soon as I leave the two of them alone together he starts pestering and she starts screaming and baby wakes up. Over and over and over again. It's a good thing that Miss Amy is so cute because his behavior is driving me up the wall.
We have had a very busy summer since Eli's birth...starting the week after he was born we had a wonderful Crandall family reunion, and blessed Eli at the end of that week (see adorable picture above), went to Disneyland with my family, had a fabulous Nielsen/Wright family reunion (luckily both reunions were here in SD), and I can't even remember what else. Except our series of disasters in between the reunions...we locked the baby in the car at the library, got staples in Hannah's head when she whacked it on the headboard of her bed (see nasty picture below), had a weevil infestation in our food storage, I got an infection, and we started potty-training Joshua for real this time. We have been busy!
And Eli is just the cutest little man. He is a super good, happy, sweet and lovey baby. I am beyond thankful for his wonderful personality. He has been such a smiley little baby ever since he was born and he is just SO CUTE! He sleeps pretty well and is just happy to lie around and watch us when he's awake, and it makes his day when one of the kids stops to talk to him and play with him. Joshua in particular loves to "babysit" him when I am busy, and Hannah has lately taken to helping to change diapers. It's pretty cute.

See what I mean? Mister Cute Dimple-chin. Love this face!!!!!

Introducing "The Latest Model"

We are proud to present this perfect new edition of Nielsen babies! Eli James was born (finally) on June 30 at 5:46 a.m. He arrived just as the sun came up after a very long night! We are absolutely enchanted by this delightful little baby doll. Eli weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches.

He is so cute and good. He has a beautiful round head covered with just enough hair to be super silky, and a cute little man face with a tiny cleft chin. He has been a deep thinker, a good eater and a tremendous smiler! All of our babies have smiled within the first 24 hours of life but he smiles more than anyone. The kids adore their brother and we are all so happy to finally have him OUT! Welcome home, Little Tiny!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Hannah has said some of the funniest things in her prayers lately that I just have to record (while I am still waiting for other things to post about...). She is so cute and thoughtful and serious about these, I love it.

So here's a list of things she has asked Heavenly Father to bless lately (in her own words):

-people who put gum in their hair

-the Chinese people

-people who are wicked to become righteous

-children to get their body parts unstuck (She got her arm stuck in a toy a few weeks ago and was pretty traumatized when we had to oil it to get it out and then toss the toy)

-our baby to be cool when he grows up

-Joshua to not say "stupid"

-others who are sick or ill or don't have any money that they will get some

-our food (she names what specifically we are eating at the time) and drinks and other stuff that we eat

Oh, the sweet spirits of children!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Summer!

I would like to say thank you to you all for your advice on membrane stripping! Turns out it's not even an option for me because at 40+ weeks I am still not dilated (well, at a 1), not effaced, and I'm GBS positive so they hesitate to do it anyway. I'm hoping things will kick into gear on their own sometime very soon (tonight would be nice, if someone's taking requests...).

In the meantime, the baby has missed out on sharing Joshua's birthday (19), Seth's birthday (20), and the first day of summer (his actual EDD). So we went ahead and celebrated without him. Joshua decided that he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday this year. He had never been before, but Hannah went for a birthday party last month and came home with star glasses, and he has been dying for some ever since. So we packed up his cute piggy cake and headed down for a very small family party. The kids had a great time and are dying to go back. Seth and I played several rounds of the basketball arcade game, which gave me some really good contractions but also (sadly enough) made my arms so sore I couldn't take my own shirt off for two days afterwards! Pathetic.

What is there to say about Joshua at 3? He is so cute and so extremely smart. He counts like crazy, knows all of his letters and what words start with each letter. He can tell time on a clock with hands (at least the hours and most of the half hours, and can tell when it is approaching the next hour). He absolutely adores his sister and will do anything to get a laugh out of her. I've never heard a barely-3-year-old that could make up jokes and puns as well as he can. He also adores babies and it is so funny to see the almost spiritual experience it is for him to be near a baby or see a picture of a baby -- it definitely brings out the best in him and I'm hoping it holds when ours comes. I love him to pieces and it has been very special to watch him lately and look forward to having another little boy.

So here are some pictures from our lovely weekend. We were fortunate enough to have Seth's mom here for a visit. We were able to go out on some dates while she was here, so we celebrated Seth's birthday that way. I didn't even make him the dessert I've been promising him for a year! Am I a terrible wife or what? It was even his 30th bday, so an important one! I just get too overwhelmed at this time of year -- two birthdays and Father's Day and soon another birthday and then our anniversary coming up on the 28th! I think I will move his birthday to July 20 and make his dessert then. Even though I don't have the strength to celebrate all of his special events separately, I love him and appreciate him so much in all of his roles -- as a wonderful person, father, and husband -- and I'm so glad we have all of these occasions to celebrate together...even if we have to spread them out a little!

A Million Years Later

(This post is a super-mess, sorry about all the random pictures in random places -- I just can't figure this out!) Anyway, here's what we've been up to lately:

Happy Birthday Hannah! We celebrated Hannah's fifth birthday in April. We had a great celebration. I am not big into birthday parties so we went bowling as a family (Tiffany and Robbie came out to join us, which was great fun!) and then we let Hannah invite some friends over to have cake and presents and birthday games. Her favorite movie is Robin Hood so she drew her own version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" and had a "Pin the Arrow on the Target" game. Her drawings are so cute. We are so thankful to have Hannah in our family. She is absolutely the sweetest, most sensitive girl ever -- really the greatest kid in the world. So good and helpful and self-entertaining and imaginative and intelligent. She's a cutie. We're all excited to have another baby brother for her to mother in the next few weeks.

Above you can see pictures of Hannah at her birthday. There's also a random picture of me at about 35 weeks pregnant for those of you who asked :) . And the cake is a demonstration of how incompetent I have been in the kitchen lately. It took me two tries to make a simple round cake for hannah's birthday -- from a mix! The first one just totally fell apart, as you can see. I have also blown up potatoes in the oven (it really can happen! and yes, I even remembered to poke them), left the gas burner on on the stove for four hours (we are all still alive, thank goodness) and overcooked almost everything I have tried to make. I am usually a pretty good cook so it has been really frustrating to be such an idiot. One of the many joys of pregnancy :)

We also had great Mother's Day. Seth helped the kids make a little book for me called "We Know Mommy Loves Us Because..." They presented it to me in the morning -- they would each bring over a page along with a pink rose and tell me what the page said until I had a whole book and a whole bouquet. It was the cutest thing ever.

Some friends in our ward threw us a great baby shower -- thanks so much Monica and Marissa! We had a great time and received some very thoughtful and helpful gifts. I always thought by the time you had a third kid you pretty much had everything you would ever need, but I was amazed at how much we had to replace, so the shower was really helpful :)

IMPORTANT: I have one question to ask you experienced mothers out there. Have any of you ever had your membranes stripped to "encourage" the onset of labor? I have been induced twice (breaking water, Pitocin) and I never ever want to do it again. But I hate being pregnant and I really want him to come out...soon...and the midwives have offered to strip my membranes at 38-39 weeks. I would love it but I want to make sure that 1) It's not going to give me pain and cramping before labor even begins, making it hard to use my hypnobirthing and 2)could it accidentally break my water and cause me to have to be induced? I don't know. What do you guys think? Please give me the benefit of your experiences!!!!

On Questions

So, I knew the day would come when Hannah would reach the phase of Questions. I always dreaded it because I am the kind of person who doesn't like to learn things, I just like to know things. When Seth tries to explain things to me (such as how a microwave or computer works), I can't even listen because I just don't care -- as long as it does work I'm happy. Hannah, on the other hand, is always curious about technological things like that, so I think Seth is really happy that he has someone who is sincerely interested in what he does all day at work (even though a lot of it he can't explain because it is classified information).

Anyway, I expected those kids of questions to come along -- aren't they supposed to ask questions like "Why is the sky blue?" or "Where does rain come from?" and "How does this work and how does that work?" But I have to say I am constantly blown away at the things that come out of Hannah's mouth. Here are some of my "favorite" questions lately:

-"What if a butterfly poops on my hand and I eat it?"
-"What does it look like inside my uterus?"
-"What does it look like inside a chicken's mouth?"
-"What if I catch a squirrel and throw it?"

and here's the best one:
-"What if you have your hand on my bum and I toot in your hand?"

I, on the other hand, only have one question to ask: Am I actually expected to answer questions like this???

"Wow, you're a chunky one!"

Believe it or not, this is what was said to me today by the cashier at Target after she found out I was only five months pregnant. I didn't even know what to say, I totally just stared at her. I mean, honestly, even if it's true, does anybody ever actually come out and SAY that to a pregnant lady?
She did add that at least I am only big in the stomach, which must be a plus (yes it is, thank you). But seriously!

I hate, hate, hate people asking me how far along I am, and then expressing surprise that I am not about to deliver; I hate people telling me that this is going to be a huge baby (I have never had even a big baby, and I was humongous with Joshua); and I hate people telling me "Oh, you're getting big!" in a tone that implies that if I'm getting big, it must be getting close. I KNOW I'm huge, and no, I have not gained too much weight, and this is not a huge baby, and I am not due for over FOUR MORE MONTHS, no matter how big I am!

Sorry to go on the rampage. I just needed somewhere to vent because I get so tired of hearing this...and it's going to last for oh so much longer...

But then when I came home I found a sample of a teeny tiny newborn diaper in the mail and it made me so excited for this little one. Those diapers are the cutest things ever (next to the baby of course). So I guess I can live with "the comments" if I have to...but be forewarned that if you are standing next to me when you make one of these comments you will be kicked.

By the way, we need help. Does anybody have any boy names they really like that sound good with Nielsen?

It's a Boy!

Me at only 20 weeks!

Okay, so I lied! I knew as I was writing that last post that I would never be able to not find out. And I was right, it is another little boy, and we are all very excited for him to get here ... in 20 more weeks! I am over the morning sickness now too, which helps tremendously. If I could just get over the moodiness, the rest of my family would probably feel better too ;)

Now, contrary to what everyone has been saying to me lately, this is not a huge baby. It's just me. When we had the ultrasound done, he was only in the 15th percentile (I didn't even know they used percentiles for fetuses).

While I am posting, I will add a couple of funny kid stories for your enjoyment.



Story #1: Joshua LOVES taking vitamins. This is the conersation I heard as I was getting them out the other day:


Joshua: Do we get vitamins?!
Seth: Yes, you have vitamin berry chews.
Joshua: Well, I "chews" to eat it!

I had no idea he was smart enough to make a comment like that. It was really funny.



Story #2:
Hannah: Will you please play games after I go to bed?
Me (confused): You want Mommy and Daddy to play games while you're in bed?
Hannah: Yes.
Me: Why?
Hannah: Because that's just what grown-ups do!



(I'm not sure where she got that idea, but if she really thinks that, why does she hate the idea of growing up so much? She never hesitates to remind us that she just wants "to stay little forever".)



Also, Hannah's very very very favorite movie in the whole world is Robin Hood. Not sure why, but she thinks it's hilarious and spends a lot of time pretending to shoot arrows, tying up (what she calls "trapturing") bad guys, and drawing cute pictures of Robin Hood. Anyway, apparently Joshua has found something he likes about that movie too. Here is a transcript of a recent conversation:



J: Hannah, do you want to marry in the temple?
H: No, I just want to stay little forever.
J (to me): Hannah doesn't want to marry in the temple.
Me: Not right now. Do you want to get married in the temple?
J: Yes, I'm going to get married in the San Diego temple!
Me: Who are you going to get married to?
J(embarrassed): I'm going to marry Maid Marian!

Happy New Year!

At Hannah's preschool Christmas party

Christmas with Mrs Claus and the Burger King Christmas King

I hope everyone had a wonderful and peaceful holiday season. Now that it is over and the new year has begun, we decided it's time to share what the new year will bring us -- another baby Nielsen! We are all excited to have this little one come out...hopefully on time...and may the time go quickly.

(I have postponed telling people because I like to be able to sound more enthusiastic, and it's hard for me to do when I am still feeling badly. But I am still sick, and I am doubtful if I will ever feel normal again until the end of June, so we thought we'd better go ahead! But we really are happy and excited, we love new little babies.)

I should be having my mid-point unltrasound in another few weeks, but at this point we are planning NOT to find out the gender. I would kind of like a girl (it's been so long since I had a baby girl! And we have girl names), but my feeling is that it's a boy, and at this point the only name Hannah likes for a boy is Bjarni. I'm a little worried about this. We like to use family names for at least one of the two (first or middle) names of our kids, so I think I'll have to start doing some major searching through family history records to find something else Hannah will agree to. :)