This Just In

My conversation with Madelyn who has been in bed for over an hour now and is still not asleep:

Me: Madelyn, why aren't you asleep?

Madelyn: I done sleeping.

Me: You're done sleeping?

Madelyn: Yes. I done sleeping and I wake up. See? (as she holds both hands out as if to say, "Don't you see, mom? It's perfectly clear to me.")

In her defense, she did need her diaper changed. And I'm also wondering if I confused her tonight by putting her to bed in a onesie and sweats instead of her normal pajamas (which are currently in the washer, waiting to go in the dryer). Maybe she really thought it was naptime instead of nighttime. Who knows?

Dressing Up

I am amazed at how difficult it is to get a simple photo of Madelyn looking at the camera, let alone smiling! Shannon got a great photo at church one night and did not take near as many as I did today. So, I'm blaming it on a combination of our camera and my lack of photography skills. And I'm calling Shannon now when I need a photo of out children.

Some trivia about Madelyn's outfit:

Her dress was given to her when she was born (you know how it's nice for people to give something the baby can wear a little later down the road when you have so many newborn outfits?) It's 18 months and was too big last year when she was in 12 months, so it became her Easter dress this year (she's 26 months old). It fits great, but I can't decide if it looks too short. What do you think?

Madelyn picked out her shoes today. We had 2 pair of white patent leather shoes (hand-me-downs) and she brought me these and said, "I wanna wear dis one." (Or something like that.) She is true girl with specific likes already...I'm a bit worried what this may mean for our future and her shopping/clothing preferences.

Still Growing (in case you thought something had changed)

This is today (Easter), and I am a little over 34 weeks.
I had Madelyn at this point...incredible!

Baking

Elisha helped me make some monster cookies a couple of weeks ago. I use a recipe I received from a teacher I met while I was student teaching (don't even ask how many years ago that was!) It makes what I would consider to be a fairly large batch: over 80 large cookies with only 8 cookies fitting on a cookie sheet.

I ended up "Googling" the recipe because I had a couple of questions and discovered that the recipe I have is a half batch! That's right, the full recipe calls for - get this - 12 eggs, 18 cups of flour and oatmeal, 3 pounds of peanut butter and four sticks of butter. I don't think I even own a bowl large enough to mix that in. Wow!

The ingredients

Mixing the dough - it wouldn't fit in the mixer

Our finished product
Actually Elisha was long gone by this point;
I think he stayed around until the mixing was partly done
and then made it back in time for the eating.

One of my favorite baking tools: a silicone mat.
This makes cookies come off the sheet perfectly
(even if you let them cool too long) and also means
I never have to wash the baking sheets.

Kofi in Africa

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I talked and decided to go ahead and pursue sponsoring a child from Compassion. I had already been on their website a few times and discovered that you could search for a child that met certain criteria (age, birth date, gender, etc...) I had done an advanced search and found a young boy who had the same birth date as Elisha, so that was who I intended for us to sponsor.

When I went back on the night we finally made our decision, I entered his birth day and age and could not find "Kofi," the boy I had originally selected. I was so disappointed and told Jim, "Someone took our child!" At that point, I knew that I was already "hooked" and that we were sponsoring a a child even if we could not find "ours."

We finally found "Kofi" in the listings; it looked like the computer had his birth date correct but had his age listed as 4 instead of 5. We entered our information and received our sponsorship packet last weekend. Elisha already knows his child's name and is excited about the prospect of having a pen pal that he can write to.

I'm thrilled about the opportunities this will provide our family on several levels: becoming more aware of global needs, following and celebrating the development of this sweet boy as we watch Elisha grow each day, teaching our kids about God's children around the world and helping them understand His love for all. It's going to be a great thing!

A Peek Inside

Before you check out the photos below, I need to share a bit of my limited understanding of 3D/4D ultrasound. First, I'm told the the best photos are acquired when the baby's face (or hand or foot) are completely surrounded by amniotic fluid. The amount of fluid is out of anyone's control, and how a baby chooses to move and place itself is as well.

Second, while ultrasound technology is amazing, the machine (or sounds waves or whatever - see, my knowledge is limited) is not able to differentiate between various body parts when they are touching each other. So, a hand on the baby's face is kind of merged together and can look like a deformation or a hand growing out of the face. Make sense?

The perfect promotional photos we see in a baby magazines are one in I-don't-know-how-many, and are fairly hard to come by. So, with all that said, I present 3D/4D Baby Womack photos (with descriptions) for your viewing enjoyment.

Here are the baby's hands; you can see the thumb and fingers pretty well.

This is a bit harder to see, but it's a foot.
You can make out the tiny toes on the upper right.

This shows a side of the baby's face:
forehead, one eye, cheek, part of mouth.
A hand was up by the head, so that blocks the rest of the face.

Here is a profile; the hands/arms are still up by the face.
I think it looks like the baby is praying - how spiritual!

Another profile shot - not quite as clear as the last - with mouth closed.

And Bigger...

This is 31 weeks.
Have I mentioned that I am measuring bigger
with this baby than either Elisha or Madelyn?
While I'm all about having a healthy baby, I have to admit
that I'm a bit nervous about delivering a 9 pound baby
considering my others were 6.4 and 4.3, respectively.