One more...

I took Luke to the grocery store this afternoon since Emma was still taking a nap. He was great throughout the entire trip and entertained everyone who walked past by shyly smiling at them or singing. When we got to the ice cream section, he starts yelling "Ice cream, mommy! Yummy in my tummy! Ice cream, mommy! Yummy in my tummy" (yes, he's still repeating everything twice)! It was so incredibly cute! I couldn't help to buy a pail to take home... you know - for Casey and the kids. :)

New Stories!

A few nights ago, Luke and I were in bed watching t.v. when he saw a baby in a diaper commerical. He excitedly points to the t.v. and shouts "A baby! A baby!" I commented that the baby was cute and then said, "Luke, you realize that mommy has a baby in her tummy, right?" He said, "I have a baby in my tummy." "Really?" I say. "Does Emma have a baby in her tummy?" He responds giggling, 'NO!" "Does Daddy have a baby in his tummy?" Again, he responds, "NO!" So, I ask, "how are you feeling with that baby in your tummy?" He looks over, shrugs his shoulders and says, "I don't know!"

Last week, Casey told me that Emma has had a few conversations with her after-school teachers regarding "inappropriate behavior." Immediately, I am concerned about her behavior and whether she's treating her friends nicely, etc. Casey starts laughing and tells me that Emma is "breastfeeding" her dolls at after-school so the teachers had to ask her to stop! I haven't had a lot of conversations with her lately about that, but I do remember her asking how the baby eats after it's born. That must question must have a caused a chain-reaction!

And finally, Emma has been bummed out that she can't marry Lukey... Casey tells me that on the way to school, Emma has been talking about marrying Luke so he had to break the news to her that she wasn't allowed. Of course, she wants to know why. He tells her that its just not the thing to do, that she'll find someone else to marry, and also that its illegal (which, as you can imagine, sparked a whole other conversation on who is allowed to marry who)! Then she wants to know if she can marry her friends because she just doesn't like boys. Casey closed the conversation by telling Emma that maybe she should be talking about marriage after she graduates from college... well after she graduates from college!

And Baby Makes 5!

The Schniebers are excited to announce that we're expecting Baby #3 in early September! Emma and Lukey are so excited about their new sibling. We told them a few weeks ago and it has been non-stop baby talk ever since - from Emma, not Luke. When we told them, Emma immediately started squealing. Luke looked over and started squealing, too, unless he realized that a blueberry had fallen off his plate and quickly focused his attention on the stray piece of fruit! Its all on video - very cute!

The next day, a Monday, I picked her up from school and her afterschool teacher slyly says, "So, Emma told me some news..." I start laughing and confirm that it was true. As Emma and I are walking out to the car, I ask her how many people she told that I was pregnant. She looks up at me with her cute little curly hair and glasses and said, "A LOT of people, Mom." It was so funny! On that same ride home, I fielded about 20 questions on the baby ranging from "why can't daddys carry babies?" to "if you get sick, does the baby get sick, too?" Emma recommended that we name the baby "Rosie" and Luke likes "Calilou." Both options were nixed immediately!

A few Luke stories:

He's had a runny nose and cough all week. We were all sitting in the living room and I say, "come here, Luke. We need to blow your nose" and he replies, "no, I'm fine."

Luke spends most of his day running around the house, looking for me, yelling "i hold you! I hold you!" I probably hear it about 10 times a day - and that's during the week when he's at school and I'm at work. You can imagine how intense the weekends are. We're working on keeping his pacifier in bed when he's not sleeping. Its been a real effort, especially since he's been sick over the last week. Nevertheless, he's always asking if he can have his "passy." Here's his earlier attempt at negotiation:

Luke: Where's my passy?
Me: In your bed.
Luke: I have it?
Me: Nope, not unless you're ready to go to bed?
Luke: Noooo.
Me: Okay, you'll have to wait for bedtime.
Luke: But I hold it... in my mouth.

Every morning when I wake up Luke, he says the exact same thing: "no wipes." He hates getting his diaper changed in the morning - probably because the wipes are so cold (I don't blame him). But regardless, every morning he tries to negotate a diaper change with any wipes. So, a few nights ago, we were playing Barbie dolls with Emma and all three of us were changing the dolls clothes to go to a "party." As Luke was taking off the dolls' clothes, he would look over at me and say, "No wipes. No wipes." Apparently, he didn't want his Barbie dolls to go through the same painful process!

Then today, I was folding clothes in the laundry room. I had just put a load of clothes in and the washer was sensing the load and slowly filling it up with water. It creates somewhat of a loud noise, but Luke thought it was "too loud" and kept yelling at the washer, "that's too loud in my house. That's too loud in my house!" As you can see, he always repeats his sentences twice. Probably because he has realized that we're usually not listening the first time around!!

Lately, all four of us have been cuddling in bed at night, watching T.V. On Sunday, we were watching one of the awards show and I commented that I really liked one of the stars' hair. It was cut super short - almost like a boy cut - and I said that I wished that I had the courage to cut my hair like that because I really liked her hair. Emma looked over and said, "I like you just the way you are, Mommy!"

Yesterday, Casey most of the day chasing the kids around while pretending to be a monster. It was hilarious for the first few hours and then it got annoying. Luke and Emma would SCREAM whenever he would come near. And not just cute little high-pitched squeals - I'm talking blood-curling screams. I asked Luke and Emma several times that they needed to stop screaming. Finally, Casey joined in and told the kids that they needed to stop screaming or they couldn't play anymore. Emma looks at Casey and says, "Daddy, I was screaming at the top of my lungs when you were chasing me." And Luke adds, "Yeah, Daddy, I screaming at the top of my knees!"

On Tuesday, Emma came home from school and said that an orchestra came to visit school today. She was very excited about the various instruments that she saw - a flute, a clarinet, a cello, percussion, etc. We spent a great deal of time talking about the sounds of the instruments and which ones she liked the best. I wasn't sure if it was the Cincinnati Orchestra who visited, so I asked Emma, "where did the orchestra come from?" and she replied, "I don't know. Probably Ohio. They were already there when got to the auditorium."