Happy 3rd birthday, kitties!

We celebrated the cats that Evalee loves so much's birthdays by getting them some yummy treats to enjoy.

and the clouds parted, so we all said, "Ahhhhhh."

In an almost metaphorical way, things have been getting much better around here lately as the sun begins to shine and brighten up the house. After about 3 tough weeks of Eva not sleeping well and me not being able to sleep the 14 or 18 hours I felt like sleeping, I've noticed each day getting easier and easier. Evalee has started sleeping like usual again, and my nausea is only present a few days a week instead of every day incessantly. So, whenever we're feeling up to it, we're enjoying our yard again. We've been running around in bare feet, kicking soccer balls, hitting the baseball off the tee, and mostly blowing bubbles. Oh how she loves to watch me blow bubbles. She's not particularly interested in learning how to do it herself, or even in enjoying the bubbles being made effortlessly from her bubble machine. No, she needs me to do it. :)

I've also been noticing some more signs of pregnancy that aren't sick-related. For instance, I had to choke back tears this afternoon at the opening of Oliver and Company. But so far, this pregnancy has been so different than the last time that I am officially putting my gender prediction in as boy!

Fan Fun

 A series of unfortunate events that lead to lots of grease spilling off a homemade pizza inside our oven resulted in a lot of smoke in the air the next time I went to bake something. So, of course the smoke detector went off. Repeatedly. To an absurd degree. So, eventually I had to bring out a fan to blow things in the right direction for the sake of our sanity. This was fabulous news to our little runway model, who then played in the hallway for a very long time, letting the wind blow her hair and shirt and giggling and giggling and giggling.

a cloudy start to March

The last few weeks have been a bit of a challenge. Unlike my pregnancy with Eva, where I was just tired but relatively normal aside from that, this time I find myself nauseated almost every day on top of the fatigue. Mid afternoon is the worst time, mainly because I'm in the car for so long. The car seems to be the worst provoker of nausea. I feel awful because by the time I'm done driving the loop to pick up Evalee, I feel so awful all I can do is sit and concentrate on breathing slowly so I don't vomit. Thus, Evalee has been watching a lot of Cat in the Hat and Curious George. I know it's not the end of the world that she's watching more T.V. lately, but it still just makes me feel like a lazy parent. Poor Travis gets home and I'm usually feeling pretty cranky after a few hours of blech.

On top of this, Evalee has reverted back to not sleeping well. It's very frustrating because we have no idea what has sparked this. But often, 7 of the last 10 nights, she has woken up, come to the gate, and yelled and screamed for one of us to come into her room. One of us does and checks to make sure she's not sick or hurt, tucks her back in, soothes her a bit, and heads out again. Immediately, before I can even make it back into bed, she's back up out of bed and yelling again. It's not a yell indicating pain or fear, but just one wanting our attention. As soon as we turn the corner, she runs to her rocking chair and pats it, begging for us to hold her and sit a while.Or worse, she'll try to get you to lay with her in her tiny little bed. We've resisted. We've ignored her. We've made her cry it out. It doesn't seem to help night after night. She's such a stubborn child, it often takes nearly 2 hours of yelling before she finally gives up.

All of this in combination has caused lots of sleep deprivation, frustration, and crankiness in the Kershaw household over the course of the last few weeks. I really hope things settle down soon because right now we feel like we're just fighting to get from day to day. I know things will be rough once this baby is born and nighttime feedings will be a constant presence in my life, but I'm (perhaps naively) hoping the fact that I won't be going to work will help with that.All I know is spring break (and the end of May, for that matter) can't get here soon enough!

Close enough

I couldn't help but have a good laugh when Evalee was putting together her farm puzzle. She couldn't find the cow piece, and wandered around the house saying, "Coooooow.... are you????" After disappearing into her room for a while, she came back with this solution:

Our little love monkey

One night, Evalee started to really love on her babies she got for Christmas. A new baby started coming to Judy's house, and ever since she's enjoyed playing mommy at home. She loves to pat baby on the back and give her kisses. Judy says she always has to be sure to give baby Grant kisses on his head when he's taking his bottles. Hopefully that means she'll love being a big sister!