Little Stories

Last night, Caleb handed me a small Christmas gift box. He casually said, "Mom, this is for you because I couldn't go to your birthday party." Interested, I opened the box to find one of my nightgowns stuffed inside.
"Wow! How did you know what I would like? This is perfect!" I said, humoring him.
Caleb got a proud look on his face and pulled the nightgown out of the box, holding it up. "It's your size," he said. "It's eternity clothes and everything." ("Eternity Clothes" = Maternity Clothes.) Clever and cute! :)

I've decided that we need to bring the video camera to the hospital when we deliver the baby. No, no, no---NOT to tape the birth, but to tape the first time Caleb and Hannah meet their new little brother or sister. This is for many reasons, of course, but the main reason in my mind is because we'll need to capture what Hannah says when she sees the baby. She's in such a funny phase right now and I don't want it to end. She'll come over to us holding a little doll and she'll say, "The baby is so cute because it's so TINY!" That's just an example, however, she comes up with cute little comments like this all day long. I can't wait to see what she'll say when she gets to hold her little brother or sister for the first time! :)

We stayed at a hotel this past weekend as we visited family in a different state. As usual, we had to test out the pool at the hotel, too. Of course, I forgot to bring some of the millions of floaties that the kids already own, so we had to make a stop at the local Walmart in this town to get a couple pairs of $1 arm-floaties (the only kind that they had in the store). Caleb's ended up breaking as we were blowing them up, but he still insisted on wearing them and luckily they worked just fine. He was like a little fish in the water, swimming around on his own and giggling with excitement as he would toss himself from the side of the pool into Chris' arms. Hannah gave us the biggest surprise at the pool, however. You wouldn't think those floaties really hold a child up very much in the pool. In fact, I always think of Caleb's arm floaties as giving him a little extra confidence but not doing much to keep him above water. Hannah wore the $1 floaties (the first time she would wear arm floaties at all) and guess what? She was swimming around the pool without Chris or I holding onto her! Both of us were very surprised and she was giving a kind of nervous laugh as she would doggie-paddle from parent to parent. Apparently, I underestimated the floatation ability of those arm things. We'll definitely be keeping a pair handy in the car for the next time we hit a pool. This weekend was the first time in two-and-a-half years that both Chris and I had free hands while swimming in the pool with the kids. I'd like to say that this is the beginning of a new and glorious phase for our family, but, alas, we are starting all over again in just a few months. :)