What's Shakin'?!

Well, another week without blogging, but here I am on a Friday night with AMPLE time to blog. Here's what's been going on with us these days:

* Caleb has his last soccer game of the season tomorrow, which means we successfully made it through our first round of soccer!!! Yay!! I don't yet feel like a seasoned soccer mom, but at least we know what to expect with these kinds of sports in the future. Not sure if we'll try soccer for Caleb again (only if he asks to do it, I guess) but we're thinking of enrolling him in T-ball in the spring and possibly some piano lessons soon. (Which brings me to point out that I once said "I will never make my kids take piano lessons like my mom made me!" but have now decided to "make" my children take piano lessons. The benefits out-weigh the hatred of it, I guess!!)

* On the topic of lessons, Caleb is on his last leg of his current level of swimming lessons. He was given the "green light" by his swimming instructor to move on to the next level, and by watching him at every lesson, I can say that I'm proud of his skills!

* Okay, so I guess I have a lot to say about Caleb tonight. For his birthday, Caleb got a Nintendo DSi from Chris and I. The game that Chris picked out for Caleb is a game that turned out to be kind of hard for him. Since he wants to play it all the time, he always ends up asking Chris to help him, which turns into Chris doing most of the button-pushing and Caleb cheering him on. This morning, I came downstairs to find my boys sitting on the couch with the game, trying to defeat something or other (you can tell I'm really into all the details of the game). Caleb saw me and said, "Hey, Mom!! We're convincible!!!" ("convincible" instead of "invincible")

* Hannah has been all about playing make-believe lately. She is hardly ever herself when she plays. In fact, she often switches between being a puppy, a mouse, a parrot and Robin (as in, Batman's side-kick) on a regular basis. I almost bought a princess dress for her to wear as a Halloween costume but now I'm thinking I should find a super hero costume for her instead. I'd like to think that she'd be happy with a Batgirl outfit but I think she might just like to be the regular Robin. I guess we'll see what the stores have since it's too late to order anything now. (That's what I get for thinking about costumes in August but not being on the ball with ordering them then....)

* I had a routine pre-natal appointment yesterday. My darling husband was kind enough to let the kids play at his office while I went, and they all had a great time. My appointment was all fine and dandy, which has been the case throughout this whole pregnancy so far. However, I've been feeling weird pressure sensations lately so I asked the doctor about it. He asked if I had been having contractions and I just kind of laughed and said, "No way! It's too early!" Wouldn't you know, not more than 30 minutes later, I was walking through the skyway in Minneapolis to pick up the kids and I had to stop walking for a minute because I WAS HAVING A CONTRACTION! Sheesh! It's a feeling I've felt recently, but I just didn't put two and two together that it was Braxton-Hicks (false labor) contractions since I didn't feel that with my first two. Now that I know what I'm feeling, I can tell you that I've had two more contractions today. Don't worry---actual labor is a few weeks off, however, it's making me excited for the "birth day" of this little one to arrive sooner rather than later!!

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I have some fun pumpkin painting pictures to post so I'll get to that tomorrow. I felt brave last week and let the kids paint some pumpkins with acrylic paint. It turned out to be an awesome craft that I think we'll do every year. I'll be the "painting" parent and Chris can be the "carving" parent---when it comes to pumpkins, that is. I don't mind carving pumpkins (I love the smell and how the guts of the pumpkin squish in your fingers), however, I more love taking pictures of my family carving pumpkins now that I have kids. So, expect LOTS of pumpkins pictures in the next couple of weeks!!