big week

We had an eventful week. My schedule for school is thrown off because of the ice storm, but things are starting to settle into a routine with the class I'm teaching. I'm teaching Advanced Composition this semester, and it is a combination of on-campus meetings and online activities. When the baby comes in April, it will be totally online, and I'll finish teaching from home. The online part was convenient this week, too, because I had to be out of town on Wednesday and Thursday for Dad's surgery. It was a long and stressful day, but he did fine and is back home now. Rebekah and Shannon had a couple of days with just the two of them, which doesn't happen very often. I think they had fun, but we were all ready to be back together. Yesterday we went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and Rebekah played there for three hours. I thought she would never get tired, but after we finally left she fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up until almost 6:00 p.m. (which made bedtime much later, but she was still up at 6:30 this morning--sheesh!). We got a cute picture at the photo booth that I thought Shannon would like to have at work, but Rebekah wants to hang it in her room. I wonder if she'll be that possessive when Annabelle comes. They will share a room, so there may be some drama in that area.

Rebekah spells her name

Rebekah has started spelling her name aloud. Her version of it is R-B-T-E-A-A-H. She is very proud.

Waiting out the ice...and Rebekah gets mean

Rebekah and I have been stuck inside for the past two days waiting out (actually, waiting for) an ice storm. They kept saying it was coming, and sleet finally arrived this afternoon. I have trouble taking this seriously as an ice storm after the massive--I don't think catastrophic is an overstatement--storm of 2001 (back up in North TX and South AR--not down here). I will never forget lying in bed at my parents' house, no electricity, so no heat and no sound but the cracking and falling of trees all around us. Scary. This is nothing, so I'm just annoyed that it has interrupted my plans. I hope it will all clear by tomorrow and we can go to school.

Rebekah is bored and tired of having just Mommy to play with (Daddy's at work, but we're counting the minutes until he comes home). She has been pretty good, considering. But earlier today she was mean to me, I think just to see what I would do. Cause she's bored. She wouldn't get dressed, so I just let it go and turned on the TV.
She turned it off and said, "You can never never never watch T.V."
I said, "I can watch T.V. in my room."
She ran to the hall door, put her hands across it, and said, "No you can't. I closed the gate." She followed this with her weird noise she makes when she wants to yell at me but doesn't know what words to use.
I could tell that if I continued to respond, she would just get worse, so I just looked away and stopped talking to her. Then she came back to me and started to sing. You see, lately she makes up songs about the things around her. Usually they are to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but sometimes they are just a random tune. Today was random. Here's how it went:

I love my Mommy
My Mommy is not very nice
My Mommy is nice but I am not very nice to my Mommy
I turn off the TV so she can't watch it
And I close the gate.

Charming, right? Well, that supported my idea that she was just bored and trying to stir things up. After she was done staging her little musical drama, she put on her clothes and was back to normal. That's Rebekah.

Curious--delurk

I'm just wondering who checks both of my blogs. If you got here from the other place (which will remain linkless) please comment to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks!

Baby Face

On Monday I had another good doctor's appointment. Last month I had gained NINE POUNDS in four weeks, which had me expecting a 60-pound pregnancy, but this month just three pounds. I'm bigger now than I was at this point in my first pregnancy, which is normal, and I'm also more uncomfortable. I bought this to hold the belly up for me and hopefully help the hip pain I've already got. Annabelle has really put me through the ringer these six months, and I'm sure she has more in store all the way to April.

At the appointment, I asked for another ultrasound, just to see her again and because at our last ultrasound she was wiggling and kicking so much, it was hard to tell the gender. Again, she was very wiggly, but she still appears to be a girl. I got a good look at her face and could see a lot of details like lips and eyelids. The still picture isn't as good as when she was moving, but you can still make out her little face.

New Year's resolution

Shannon's giving me a hard time for blogging, so now I'm going to give him a hard time on the blog.
I asked him yesterday if he made a New Year's resolution, and he said it is to get in shape. For BOTH of us to get in shape. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but apparently he makes them for both of us. And who tells their six-month-pregnant wife to get in shape? Really now.

So not three seconds ago he walks in the door from a late night run to the store. What's in his bag at 10:22 p.m.? Two large bags of chips, a pint of chocolate ice cream, and two Twix bars. No, two candy cars does not mean he intends to share. Those are all HIS snacks. Yeah. That's right.

Rebekah's greatest hits

Rebekah doesn't go back to preschool until tomorrow, so we're still just hanging out and playing with our new toys. Today, Rebekah had a recording session--she LOVES hearing her own voice! She made tons of recordings, starting with songs, then just random words so she could hear herself talk. Let's see if she'll sit still long enough to let me post them.

ABC song
The Barney Song
Mary Had a Little Lamb
The Monkey Song
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

And for more fun:

Big laugh
Another big laugh

Go ahead--try to listen without giggling. Bet you can't do it!

Sarah's big belly

Annabelle is certainly making herself known these days and Rebekah has started talking to her every day. Today Rebekah was leaning against my belly, and Annabelle gave her a big kick. Rebekah responded by talking to her through my belly button, which apparently serves as a microphone, and giving her a kiss.

Calling the Hogs

Well, you've heard about it, but now you can see it. Even though Arkansas lost the bowl game, Rebekah had high spirits and kept trying to cheer up her Daddy, who was not too happy. She even stood in front of the TV and called the Hogs to "make the team feel better." Too cute. Hopefully this video will work--it's the first time I've tried it.

Christmas

We're back home now recovering from all the Christmas excitement. Whew! We traveled first to Hooks for Christmas morning, then to Kingsland, then back to Texas to Paris, then finally home. We really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we were pleasantly surprised to see Aunt Jane after quite a long time. We missed Juran and Randi, but they had a good reason for staying up in Van Buren--bringing baby Grace into the world! Congratulations!

Rebekah made a big haul (of course) and our next purchase will be a large toy box! The Christmas toys are still in the living room, but that's okay--even if we had a place to put them, she would get them all out pretty soon. The big hits since we got home have been the Weeble castle from Nana and Pop-Pop and the Play-doh table from Granmommy and Pop-Pop. She has played with both of them for hours, and that's a lot for a two-year-old's attention span! She already misses her cousins and wishes they were here to play with her.

Shannon has a ton of Superman to watch. He got DVDs of Superman Returns and all the seasons of Smallville. Apparently the love of Superman is genetic--Rebekah has asked to watch Superman every day. I got a beautiful necklace from Shannon and a digital camera from Mom and Dad, so I will be able to share photos more quickly now. All in all, we made out well and had a great time visiting all the family. We're working on plans for summer when we meet our two new nieces if we haven't met them already and will also have our new addition to introduce to everyone.

Happy New Year, everyone, and we love you!