Collection of Random Thoughts...

I don't really have the brain power today (any day?) to form a coherent, well-organized post.  So you get some random thoughts, brain-vomit-style. 

*I can't ever seem to find either of my two hair-ties.  I don't ever think to purchase more, so I reuse the same two and if I lose them, I'm toast.  In desperation this morning, I resorted to using the twist-tie from my bread bag to tame my hair.  That's sad.  (But I like how loosely it holds my hair - the result is a very wispy-looking style... hm....)

*I moved the girls into booster seats at the table instead of their high chairs.  It's really nice to have all of us sitting at the table for meals.

*Jordan and Addie started talking much earlier than Jack, saying their first words at 9 months, and now at 16 months, they've got quite an adorable vocabulary.  Addie's is mostly food-related and Jordan is much more social.  She calls everyone in the family by name, including the Baby in my "pat pat" (her word for stomach, thanks to Disney's Little Einsteins TV show).  I love listening to them chatter and learn from one another.  They also seem to learn from Jack to an absolutely absurd extent.  I wonder if having him around doesn't have more to do with their advanced speech (relative to his at the same age) than anything else.

*I haven't been feeling too terrible lately, thanks to that awesome 2nd trimester.  The only thing I'm dealing with is a weird symptom - heart palpitations that make my heart race and beat irregularly to where I get short of breath and slightly dizzy.  It's pretty disquieting, but I'm dealing with it.  This pregnancy is so funny to me; with Jack, I couldn't WAIT to start showing and move into maternity clothes and I was so bummed that even at 6 months, I wasn't really looking pregnant (just "fat" as my MIL delicately put it).  With the twins, I resisted maternity clothes as long as possible, wearing Bella Bands and yoga pants and maxi-dresses as long as humanly possible, even to the point of discomfort.  With this one, I threw my hands up in the air around 11 weeks when my pants started - started! - to feel tight and moved into mostly maternity stuff, even though it's much too big.  At this point in my life, comfort is so much more important than being able to tell myself I'm still wearing my size 4 Lucky's (albeit unbuttoned and glued to my body by an elastic sleeve) or feeling like it's any kind of victory to do so.  Shoot. 

*Yesterday, when I picked Jack up from school, his classmate's mom was there with her 10 day old infant.  I was chatting with her when big brother came out and proudly showed off his new baby brother to Jack - it was so adorable!  Jack regarded the new baby and turned to me and smacked my stomach and said to his friend, "Here's MY baby brother!" (We have no idea if it's a boy/girl.) and stormed off.  Later in the car, he asked if we could take the baby out to show his friends.   When I told him that he could show off Addie and Jordan, he said, "They're not babies anymore.  They're big now."  My eyes overflowed because he's right. 

*Jordan is a total dare-devil.  She jumped off my bed the other night and smashed her face on the floor, giving herself rug burn on her nose.  She scales chairs and cabinets and has figured out to cart Jack's step-stool around to reach more stuff.  The other day, I visited the bathroom and came out to find that she had put the stool ON the sofa and was standing on it, getting ready to dive over the arm of the couch.  Luckily I caught her, but all she did was giggle.  She got a bloody nose by chasing after Jack and losing her footing.  It's not uncommon to find her swinging from door knobs or pouncing on her siblings (and Daddy!) like a rabid cat.

*Addison is sweet and calm unless there's any kind of music involved and then she starts to sing and dance.  Its too funny to see her wiggling her hips or shimmying her shoulders to a hymn during Mass.  She'll break it down in the grocery store or bop her head around in her car seat.  I love it - she is so adorable with it.  If she wants to dance and there's no music around, she'll make up a little song and sing to herself so she can dance.  I love her.

*Jack loves his "big white school" - and I couldn't be more thrilled that he's fitting in so well at his new place.  I'm a little bummed that we're going to be moving farther away from it, but we'll keep going, even if it's a longer drive.  He is super excited about the idea of building a house; he never really got attached to this one. In all the houses we've looked at, Jack has been sure to pick out his bedroom and where the train table will go, as well as where the babies and the new baby will sleep.  I try not to get too offended when he picks a closet for Mommy and Daddy's room... He loves to look at floor plans and he delights in exploring construction sites.  I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to making a place that is truly ours - and giving him a place of his very own where he can pick out a color for his room and where he can feel ownership over every bit of his home.  I think it's going to be a fabulous adventure for all of us, but for him, I can't even count all the benefits. 

*The littles are up and rambunctious so I'm going to go color and play hide and seek!