Little House Love

It started in second grade.  Mrs. Hirsch, my teacher, recommended that I read "Little House in the Big Woods" for my free-read book.  I did...and was instantly hooked.  For Christmas that year, I got the boxed set of all nine Laura Ingalls Wilder books; and for the rest of second grade, and all of third grade, and most of fourth grade, as well, I was a little girl obsessed.

In my imagination, my bed at home became a trundle bed; I lived alternately in a log cabin, a dugout house on the prairie, and a clapboard house in a small prairie town.  At night, I would pretend that the light by my bed was a candle and I blow it out as I turned off the light.  My favorite outfit was the calico dress and bonnet that my mom made for me. Whenever I was by myself - and oftentimes, secretly, in the company of others - I was "in-character."  I lived and breathed "Little House."  (Sidebar: despite this obsession with the books, I never got into the TV show, which was airing at about this time.  We were allowed limited TV time, and whatever we watched had to be agreed upon by both my brothers and me (Katie was too young to really have a vote), since there was only the one TV.  If "Little House" was presented as an option, it was surely voted down 2 to 1 in favor of "Duck Tales" or the like.)

I know what you're thinking...I'm a bit a dorkier than you ever knew, right?  Well...it gets worse - although I eventually stopped playing "Little House" constantly, I never quite grew out of it.  Perhaps it's what drove me to be a history teacher?

(Sidebar #2:  Meanwhile, 1,000 miles away in Marion, Iowa...Ian spent the majority of his third grade year in his basement organizing those little green plastic army guys into the exact formations to replicate and reenact various Civil War battles.  I believe it must have been Destiny that brought us together.)

Several years ago, my mother-in-law (knowing of my Little House Love), was cleaning out some of her old books from when she was an elementary school teacher and passed along these Little House First Chapter Books.  I'm not sure what age they are supposed to be for, but I'm sure for kids who are ready for more than a picture book, but not the real books quite yet. (What else, right?)

Last summer, when Ian and I were on our way to Montana, we stopped in Wall, South Dakota - the town at the entrance to the Badlands.  The only thing to do in Wall is go to Wall Drug, and while there, I came across a wonderful collection of Little House picture books - stories adapted from the actual books only geared toward kids aged 3 - 8.  We bought a couple, so that I could share them with the girls.

The girls didn't take to them right away.  They liked them, but they weren't anything too special.  Arthur, Franklin, Clifford and the Berenstain Bears always seemed to be the real winners.

Late this summer, however, something changed.  Cora and Evaline started choosing the Little House books more and more often.  Then, on a lark, I decided to try out the First Chapter Books at bedtime. Something I've been really looking forward to as a parent has been reading chapter books together at bedtime...so I decided to give it a go with these. I didn't really think that they'd be able to follow them - there was only one picture per chapter, and they'd have to remember the story from day to day.  Much to my surprise...and joy...they LOVED them!  They follow the stories just fine, and are extremely excited for each chapter.  We whizzed through all three books (and found a fourth at the library). We've moved on to the original Little House in the Big Woods, but although they insist we continue and that they love them, I'm thinking we'll have to come back to them in a few years for the girls to really "get" them.  The girls have both of the picture books memorized and can now "read" them themselves.

And as I'm typing this, I can hear them in the other room...Cora is "Mary", Evaline is "Laura", and I hear them talking about Pa, Ma, and baby Carrie.  From what I can gather....Cora is churning butter while Evaline is gathering wood chips to smoke some meat to keep it for the winter.

I am so excited, thrilled, and overjoyed that I get to relive this Little House Love all over again through them.  I hope Ian is ready...I'm already starting to plan a vacation to travel all over the Midwest touring all the Little House land marks.  I'm sure if we throw in a little hiking on the side, he'll be happy, too.

The First (almost) Two Weeks

A quick look at what we've been up to during our first two weeks as a family of five:

The Newest Petersen

Hello world!  It is our pleasure to introduce you the final addition to our Petersen clan.  Please meet:

Willa Rose Petersen

Monday, August 27, 2012

7:56 am

8 lbs 0 oz

19 3/4 inches

Wordless Wednesday

Three weeks to go!

The summer is drawing to a close.  Probably a bit quicker than I would like, but as far as time-off from work goes, I have a very bright light (perhaps blindingly so) at the end of a very short tunnel: I have about a week and a half before I go back to school, then we'll have four in-service days, (a weekend) and then four days with kids...and then...I'll be off again.  For about 11 weeks.  I had to have a c-section with the girls (they were both breech), and after discussing it with our doctor, we decided it makes sense for us to have another c-section with this one. We have it scheduled for August 27th - exactly three weeks from today.  Of course, I'm well aware that things might not go exactly as planned...I've heard that babies sometimes come early :)  But I'm really hoping that it does - I can't help but think how nice it will be to just get up the morning of the 27th and go and...have a baby.  Laid back, no panic, no rush...just routine.

I've realized that I've said very little about my pregnancy on here, and to tell the truth, this pregnancy has been very under-the-radar for me for most of the last eight months.  A huge difference from last time around.  I think in part because it is the second pregnancy, everything was so new and novel the first time around...and I've got two little three and half year olds to chase around, which keeps me busy - a lot busier than I was with the twins, anyway.  I also think that its because, comparatively, this one has been so uneventful.  At this point last time I had carpal tunnel in both wrists, had been on bed rest for 10 weeks, had been in the hospital with preeclampsia for almost two weeks, and was mere days away from going into labor (one day, by the way, earlier than my scheduled c-section).

This time, I've gotten by pretty easy.  No major concerns that would be out of the ordinary of any typical pregnancy.  Sure, I can't sleep at night (I either can't get to sleep or wake up at 4:30 and can't fall back asleep); my feet swell up like Fred Flintstone's by the end of the day; I'm beginning to waddle like a penguin when I walk; I seem to have lost my mind - well, at least my short-term memory; I can barely move from a sitting or laying position to standing without excessive effort (Ian has described me as looking like a beached whale flailing around trying to get back in the water); and every time I shift positions I have to pee.  But, I'm pretty sure that all that is regular-old-ninth-month stuff.

Even though its been a relatively easy pregnancy...I'm ready for it to be over.  Pregnancy really has no glamour for me.  I had thought that maybe this time around I would be able to sit back and enjoy being pregnant, since there was just one and all.  But...to be completely honest, I haven't found all that much to enjoy about it.  Really and truly...I just want it done.

I had several goals that I wanted to accomplish this summer, things to get done before the baby came; and not all of them are complete...but I still want it done.  I wanted to have all of my plans for the trimester finished - a challenge since I'll be teaching a new class and don't have anything to "fall-back" on.  I don't have that completed.  I have all my plans for my World History class, but only plans through September for my AP US class.  But, I do still have about two weeks before the kids come.

I also wanted to get Cora and Evaline's room finished.  And I have it almost done.  I took their old receiving blankets from when they were babies and made them into quilts, and decorated the room around that.  I have the tops of the quilts done, but still have a little bit of work left to do on those.  They will be done before I return to work after maternity leave.  I'll post pictures then.

One thing that I have finished, that was a goal - and a priority - was to get the nursery finished.  I finished that about a week and half ago, and am very happy with the results.  I found some fabric, and my mom and I made curtains, my mom is making a matching bed quilt, and I found coordinating fabrics to get all crafty and create some artwork for the walls. (I used Mod Podge to adhere fabric silhouettes of birds and trees to spray-painted canvas).  They came out far better than I expected.  This was due in large part to the help of my friend Gretchen over at Sweet Pea Cards, who designed the templates for the birds and trees.  Want to see how it all turned out?

View from the window/closet

View from the doorway:

View from door, looking other way:

Picture set #1:

 Close up:

Picture Set #2:

Sunday Funnies

One of the ideas when originally starting this blog was to chronicle the growing up of the girls.  You know, have something to look back on and remember some of the stuff that I'm likely to forget.  Therefore, I suppose I should have started doing something like this about a year and a half ago - when they started saying funny things.  Well, when I can remember it, or when something worth remembering (that also happened to make me laugh) happens, I'm going to try and record it here - in the "Sunday Funnies"

The girls have been playing "family" a lot lately.  One girl is the mommy, the other is the baby.  This means that "Mommy!  I need help!" is a very commonly uttered phrase throughout the house.  The problem, is that it is only used in reference to me about 1/4 of the time, but I can never tell who exactly they are talking to.  So, while "Mommy! I need help!" is probably the most common phrase we hear around here, a close second is "Who are you talking to?  Do you need ME?" (coming from me of course).

As the baby gets closer and closer to getting here (check out the blog tomorrow for an update on that), they've started to change the "family" game a bit.  Now, one is the mommy, one is the kid, and a doll is the baby.  Here's the problem: They make the most annoying, loud crying noise that is their baby crying.  Yesterday, we had this conversation:

Cora: (ultra-loud, ultra-obnoxious crying noise)
Me: Hey, can you please stop making that awful sound.
Evaline: Its the baby mommy, she's crying.
Me: Well, can you please make her stop crying.
Evaline: I can't...she's just crying.
Me: Well, give her a bottle, or change her, or give her a pacifier, just get her to stop.
Evaline: I tried that mommy, but she's just crying...that's what babies do...sometimes they just cry.

I guess she's been listening to me as I've been trying to get them ready for their sister...

Swimming Lessons

We decided this summer that since we're both home with the girls, pretty much every day, we needed lots of things to keep us busy.

So, in addition to dance, the girls also took swimming lessons for a couple weeks. We did a week in June and another week just this past week. We are extremely fortunate that, as high school teachers, we have access to special connections. C & E were able to take private, one-on-one lessons from the swim coach at our school. She is awesome, and the girls absolutely loved her. And this summer they went from being afraid to get in the water (for us, anyway...they'll do anything their coach asks) to being able to hold a back float on their own (for about 10 seconds, but still...).

The highlight, at least if you ask them, came on their last day when they hot real, J-Hawk swim caps and got to swim with goggles.

Here they are in action (The first two are Cora pictures, and the others are Evaline. They decided to "play a trick" on their coach & switch swim suits one day) :