Please don't think I'm crazy...

OK--So I hope some of you have heard this before so I don't sound completely crazy....I tried this a few years ago with some friends from Rita's and it really seems to work, and my friend Jessica just tried it on me this evening...so I thought I'd pass it along to see if you've heard about this before.
There's this thing you can do to people that supposedly will tell you what the sex of your child will be (my sister-in-law Kendy will love this)--and it also should accurately tell you the sex of children you already have (not that you don't know the sex of your current children, but this is just a way to confirm that this thing works!). It requires a few common household items--dental floss, a paperclip, and a sharpened pencil. Have I peaked your curiousity yet? Hopefully I can accurately explain this without pictures--so wish me luck. Take a piece of dental floss and tie it onto a paper clip that is pried open. Stick one end of the paper clip into a pencil eraser so you have a hanging pencil. Have a friend who also has nothing better to do hang this pencil over your wrist with your palm facing up--it's important to hold it very still. This is no joke--the pencil will begin to swing (supposedly from the energy you give off)--if is swings side to side (in a straight line) that signifies boy. If it swings in a circular motion that means girl. If you have multiple children, it will swing for the first one, slow down or come to a stop, then swing for the next child, and so on. (Do you think I'm nuts yet?) I recall doing this years ago and it worked when I tried it on my mom--1 girl then 2 boys (it goes in order by age). My friend, who has 2 boys and had a miscarriage in between, said it worked for her too. It swung in a straight line, then stopped and quivered (a sign of a miscarriage), then it swung in a straight line again--freaky!! She tried it on me and it swung in a circle first (to represent Alex), then it swung in a very big straight line--signifying boy! She said she tried it on another pregnant friend and the swinging motion was very strong and pronounced--perhaps because of the increased energy and hormones that us pregnant women give out! Now I'm not one of those superstitious people who believe it these things, but I'm definitely curious to see if it turns out to be accurate when we have our ultrasound! When I did it years ago with my Rita's co-workers, it also said a girl then a boy--very strange, huh? Now when I did it with my Rita's friends, we just used a silver chain with any sort of a silver pendant hanging from it, but the rest of the concept was the same.
If anyone has nothing better to do, try it out if you have kids or are pregnant--and write me in the COMMENTS to tell me if it worked. I'd love to see my 3 pregnant sister-in-laws try it since they all know what they are having and should also give off that pregnant energy. If you think I'm completely whacky, you are entitled to that opinion too! We'll know soon enough if it was accurate for me!

September Happenings

September has been a busy month so far with soccer season underway and Alex starting at her new school, ELF (Early Learning Facility). The WVU soccer team is off to another great start with a 4-1-0 record--follow along with the team by going to their team website! http://www.msnsportsnet.com/page.cfm?sport=msoccer

Alex started at her new "school" right after Labor Day, and she is really enjoying it. She stopped crying after the first few days and now seems to be excited to go each morning. This school was highly recommended to us by people we know in Morgantown, so after a year of being on the waiting list a spot opened up for her this month! The price was essentially the same as the daycare she was going to before, but you get so much more for your money!! The school is for children ages 2 through pre-K, so she is one of the younger children there, but she seems to be catching on to the routine quickly. The school really works to teach children how to be independent and encourages them to go to the bathroom on their own, wash their hands, brush their teeth, drink from the water fountain, etc. They get to play outside every day, and they will even go out during the winter--we will need to send her with snow clothes, boots, hat, gloves, etc., which I'm sure she will LOVE! They have a rotating curriculum of classes that the children rotate through each week--they have mini-classes on Math, Language Arts, Music, Science, Art, Social Studies, and Computers. Today they went on a nature hunt and collected rocks, acorns, grass, flowers, leaves, and dirt :). All of her items were sent home, glued to a piece of paper for us to cherish! Yesterday she came home with her pockets full of rocks that she collected on the playground--that was a pleasant surprise to find :) Below is a picture of her before leaving for school the other morning--it's so hard to catch her with a smile since she is NOT a fan of posing for the camera (she typically runs the other direction!)--this time we caught her mid-smile and it was pretty funny, so I thought I would share!
Alex participated in her first Show and Tell at school today, and she brought her Snap n Style doll Erika, given to her by Aunt Renee for her 2nd birthday! Erika was all dressed in her soccer outfit, and Alex's teacher said she talked A LOT about Erika's clothes and her hat. The teacher helps her show the object around to her class, then it goes back in the bag to bring home. I wasn't sure how that would work out but her teacher said she did very well!

Last but not least I'll share the very first "Belly Photo" I've taken with this pregnancy--just taken yesterday. Where do the months go?? I'm just about 4 months and I'm feeling pretty good--some days I'm extremely tired but that's usually the exception. Most evenings I'm on my own with Alex since Marlon usually has practice, and I imagine I'd be pretty tired even if I wasn't pregnant since a 2-year-old sure keeps you on your toes! I'll try to share more pregnancy images as there is more belly to be seen! I'm definitely in maternity pants these days unless it's nice enough to wear comfy gaucho pants--luckily the shirt styles these days are much more forgiving, so I still have a number of normal shirts that still fit. My friend Jessica was nice enough to pass along a ton of winter maternity clothes, which will definitely help me get through the coming months without spending a ton of money!

Guess that's it for now! Until later....

Philly Road Trips and other news...

The past month has been extremely busy as Alex and I have made 2 trips to Philadelphia--one trip for my nephew Nolan's 2nd birthday party, and the other for my sister-in-law Lauren's baby shower! It was great to be able to celebrate each event with family even though Marlon was unable to make the trips due to soccer!

Below is an example of the kinds of fun Alex and Nolan have at Grammy and Granddad's! Nolan LOVES tractors so while Jon let him drive around, Alex joined in and drove the electric fire truck. She did well pressing the gas but not so well steering--she nearly hit the cars in the driveway a few times.

We also got to take the kids to Sesame Place--my former place of employment throughout high school and college! I took Alex, along with Jon, Renee, Nolan, and Renee's sister Nicole. We got to play in the water, see a show, watch the parade, and go on one ride, which we waited in line forever for! Even though the ride only lasted for a few minutes, it was fun to experience my first amusement park trip with Alex. Alex still has no concept of fear and is not afraid of anything--she had a great time on the ride! Below is a picture of us waiting for the ride to begin!

I wanted to add in this picture of Alex and Granddad because I thought it was cute. They were outside with the fire truck that came over to Grammy & Granddad's house at Nolan's party.

The next big event was this past weekend--Lauren's baby shower. Lauren (Marlon's sister) is due right in between Kendy and Renee, my other sister-in-laws, so we are going to have a very busy October/November! Lauren is expecting a boy and both Kendy and Renee are having girls. At Lauren's shower we were finally able to meet baby Maya, the daughter of Mark and Rebecca (Mark is one of Marlon's closest friends)--Maya is already 7 months old and we had not yet been able to meet her, so it was nice to see them at the shower. Alex was chatting with Maya and trying to console her as she was beginning to get fussy!

I wanted to also include a picture of the guest of honor at the shower--Lauren and her fiance Jon. I've always thought Jon looked like my brother Jon. See any resemblance? This picture also includes Alex helping to open gifts! It was the only way I could keep her occupied, even though that only lasted for about 10 minutes!

Last but certainly not least, I have to add in the little detail that we are expecting baby #2 in early March! I wanted to take a picture of Alex in her "BIG SISTER" shirt to post, but it seems like I haven't been able to find the time to do that, so although this is a bit more low-key, the news is exciting nonetheless! Alex seems to have a good interest in babies these days, and she's always been a great helper, so it will be exciting to see how she behaves as a big sister. Pregnancy is definitely more tiring when you have a 2 year old to chase after--Alex is one of those kids who is ALWAYS full of energy, never tired, never wants to sit down, can't stop moving. She rarely needs to eat or sleep and is very much like the energizer bunny! All of these characteristics are wonderful but definitely a bit more challenging these days! With Marlon being in season right now he is not home too much, but when he is Alex is all over him wanting to climb on him, chase him, and tackle him. I think she realizes that I don't have quite as much energy so daddy has become a bit more fun, which is perfectly fine with me!

I think that's enough news for one evening. More to follow soon!

Fun-Filled Weekend

We're winding down from a nice weekend visit with Jon, Renee, and Nolan! They took the trip out to WV and Alex had SO much fun playing with her cousin since they haven't gotten to see each other much recently. We got to go hang out at the pool and go to one of Marlon's soccer games--Renee took most of the pictures so hopefully she'll post some on to her blog sometime! Below are some pictures that I took. This one is a picture of Alex wearing Uncle Jonny's US Soccer hat. I caught her in an almost-smile, which is pretty rare, so I had to post it!
I've learned it's hard to capture both Alex and Nolan in a picture together since they are always on the go, sometimes in opposite directions. Below is a picture of them in their soccer outfits before we left for Marlon's game (yes, it's the soccer outfit yet again! maybe I'll try to include a picture of her in this outfit in every post, since I've basically done that already. I promise it is getting washed in betweeen!) They had fun chasing each other around the track next to the soccer fields, then walking back and forth across the bleachers.

Here is Alex and her mischievious look once again. As I was taking the picture I thought she was just giving me a rare smile. After I put the camera down I realized that she was giving me this look because she had picked a golden graham off the ground outside and was putting it into her mouth :)

This last picture is priceless! No, the kids weren't looking at a bird or a plane. Jon was shooting a foam missle into the air and the kids were waiting for it to come back down. A rare moment catching them standing still and close enough to capture together!

It was a great weekend and we're looking forward to spending next weekend with Nolan and the family for his birthday party!

The Binky and other random obsessions...

Gotta love the binky. I'm desperately trying to get rid of Alex's--she only uses it for sleeping but she definitely doesn't need it anymore. Marlon could care less if she has it, which makes it tough for me to try and break her of it! But I figured that with her starting at a new school in a few weeks, there is no time better than the present!! Yesterday I cut the nipple off so there's basically nothing left to suck on. (we'd tried the "throw it in the trash" routine but that didn't work so well once she realized that it could come back out of the trash if she asked for it long enough). She spent all evening walking around showing it to me and telling me "binky is broken" (see picture below). It took her 2 hours to fall asleep last night but she tried to suck on that little nub of a binky for everything it had to give! Today she has been in her room for over an hour for her nap and is still not sleeping--I know it's all because of that binky! I guess it's to be expected that she needs to learn a new way to soothe herself since she's relied on the binky for most of her life!
Another new obsession of hers is putting on random articles of clothing...yesterday it was this hat. She has worn it to bed the past few nights. Some days it's a pair of socks, a bathing suit cover-up (that she has to have zipped up with the hood on), and for the past 24 hours it's been the soccer outfit from the previous post (see below picture from this morning!). She wore the soccer outfit to bed last night, had a bath this morning and insisted putting it back on, so we wore it to the mall then to go watch some of the women's soccer game this afternoon. I guess there could be worse obsessions, right?! Her sneaky look below was because she was digging her hands into a cup of ice (another new hobby) and making a complete mess.
This last one is a sweet picture from this morning. She likes to put her babies (or in this case baby and Elmo) to bed, sit in between them, and today she chose to sing them the wheels on the bus song, complete with the hand motions (she is using the book as her guide!). In case you are wondering, yes that's a drier sheet covering Elmo. She often takes them when I'm removing clothes from the drier and uses them as blankets.

A belated happy anniversary to Jon and Renee--sorry I didn't call!!

Where do I begin???

At long last I'm finally getting started with a blog. I've given a lot of thought to it but have never felt like taking the time to get it going. With so much going on in our lives and with us living so far from everyone I know this is a great way to keep everyone in touch with what we are up to! Taking the time to upload pictures is going to be the biggest issue for me since I rarely have everything I need handy when I decide to go onto the internet, but I'll have to make an effort since I know pictures are what really makes it interesting! Here's the first "test" picture on the blog---taken this morning.

Alex finally fits into the soccer outfit that Granddad bought her from Europe last summer. I got her dressed up for Marlon and he immediately whipped out the camera to take some pictures. I think he started to visualize a soccer player a few years down the line...he even got her to pose with the soccer ball. If she turns out to be a dancer like Aunt Renee and Aunt Lauren I'm not sure what he's going to do!