We've Had Better Weeks Than This One

Well, we had exactly one day's reprieve between Josiah finishing his antibiotics for his ear infection and  Lorien coming down with a fever and head cold ... again. We are on day 42 of family illness, I think. This time we all four got it, and during a week when Josh worked two consecutive 16-hour days in Denver. Not cool for him, or for me, solo-parenting.

Also, that learning curve I mentioned with the new job? Trying to get my first big project to print with a nasty head cold is kicking my butt. 

And to top it off: 

I got my first ever black eye, courtesy of Josiah, who got a little too enthusiastic about "handing" me a hardback book to read to him yesterday. 

My New Assignment

I had to publish the last post, in part, to explain why it has taken me so dang long to publish this post.

It's not that I didn't have any news about a new job. It's just that life kind of got overwhelming. Plus, to be honest, I was dealing with some emotional stuff about the end of my old job that was different from what I expected, so I just didn't know what to write for a while.

But please, let me tell you the story, because it's a good one. 

Eventful

Aside from a few newsy or funny kid things, I've been pretty quiet for the last month. That's because 1) I'm pregnant and currently prefer napping to blogging; and 2) we have been busy!

Here's what's happened/what's been accomplished since our little surprise announcement last month...

• Defrosted the deep freeze and cleaned both freezers and the fridge. 

• Lorien got pneumonia which, we discovered, takes 2 weeks to fully recover from. 

Bizan-yuck

A few Josiah-isms from recent weeks:

Bizan-yuck = lasagna. I tried not to be offended by the final syllable.

Ho-kay and Hairplane. Love the extra "h" on words that start with vowels

Eff-i-lint = elephant

Blib = Bib. Not that he prefers to wear one very much.

Also, at the risk of being inappropriate, I sat Josiah on his changing table after his bath and walked out of the room for a minute. (Don't worry—he can safely climb down by himself.) When I returned, I found him examining his undiapered self in awe.

"It has a sprinkler!" he announced.

Yep. The whole wall and changing table had been hosed.

This baby...

• Makes my left eyelid twitch. Pregnancy is so weird. 
• Wants fizzy drinks and SALT
• Gives me acne. 
• Is not making my legs and feet cramp as much as my other 2 pregnancies did. (Yay!)
• Moved so that I could feel it at 17 weeks. As compared to Lorien's 19 weeks and Josiah's 15 weeks. Those markers have turned out to be very representative of their personalities: Josiah is on the move all the time and Lorien doesn't do anything fast. I wonder if this one will fall somewhere in the middle. 

Lorien: Four Years Old!

I'm trying to make it a tradition to take Lorien's birthday photos in the wild Colorado sunflowers every year, since they're usually at their peak in the month following her birthday. (Except for last year, when there weren't many sunflowers, so we went for our favorite park instead.) 

Here's our big four-year-old girl!

Surprise!

If you had told me six months ago—heck, even three months ago—that I'd be making this announcement, I'd have called you crazy. But it's true, we're adding a fifth member to our family! 

Since I know you're thinking it: yes, this was as much a surprise to us as it is to you. Yes, we do know how this happens. 

Now that we're done being shocked, we're excited. (But can I please just have you re-read this post and insert "positive pregnancy test" on June 12, right in the middle of the Black Forest Fire? Ummmm, yeah....)

Baby Keffer #3 is due February 12-ish. Here are Lorien and Josiah showing off our new little one: