Star Wars- The Revenge of the 4 year old

Elias has been obsessed with Star Wars for about a month now. We're not exactly sure how the interest developed because he has never seen a Star Wars movie. However, he is drawn to light sabers and loves to play with them. All things once swords and guns are now all things light saber. Elias asks us when he will be able to watch Star Wars and we say when he is ten. In the meantime, he corners 10 year old boys at church and has them tell him the whole plot line and narrative of Star Wars. He now knows the names of most of the characters and whether they are "good" or "evil." Of course, he doesn't know what this really means because in a conversation the other day about my own father's death, he asked, "Did he just turn evil and that's why he died?"

Well, when your parents don't let you watch movies or videos, you do the next logical thing and you make them. Elias made 8 movies at preschool the other day. Each movie had a storyline and some characters. Then all the movies were glued onto one big piece of paper and then cardboard scrolls were added to the end. This way you could watch the movie by scrolling through. I must say this was very creative and his teachers were so patient in helping him assemble his works. Watch out, George Lucas, you now have true competition.

American Gothic

I'm trying to keep track of some good kid comments lately:

Adelaide, after seeing my big belly with lots of bright blue veins says, "Mommy did you draw with chalk on your tummy?"

Elias, after overhearing me talk with Adam about trying not to have my water break, says. "Mommy, my water won't break because I don't have a uterus. My water will just stay inside me."

Addie's conversations and questions

We had a great visit with Adam's parents for a few days. They came to try and help with the kids so we could get the house ready for the baby and they also gave us the gift of a 24 hour furlough from wiping noses and answering questions about lava and volcanoes. Adelaide enjoyed watching Pop-pop put together a changing table that her aunt and uncle had given her for her birthday. (Yes, we are a bit slow.) This is a doll changing table and we thought it would help with prepping her for upcoming changes--no pun intended. When Pop-pop proudly finished his work, she took a long look at him and said, "Do you have a baby in your tummy?"

Adelaide was also quite taken with her grandmother's new dog, Noel. She spent hours playing in the laundry room with her. Elias, on the other hand, informed them he was not born liking dogs. He enjoyed the Mickey Mouse they brought back from Florida and the sword that appeared from Disney. Soon he had Gaga dressing Mickey as a pirate, too. Adelaide kept calling her grandmother Diane and said things like, "When's Diane going to wake-up? or "I want Diane to change my diaper."

Adelaide told me that she does not want to go the hospital. She said to me, "Are you going to be the driver?" I told her , "No, daddy will drive to the hospital." She then said, "Are you going to walk?" Now that's really funny considering I can barely make it up a flight of stairs without stopping on the landing for a breather.

Mrs. Polyhydramnios

I have been exceptionally slow to blog these past few weeks. Part of that negligence is due to the fact that we have been concerned about the baby. The good news is that the baby is absolutely fine and a week ago weighed about 5lbs at 32 weeks. I am being monitored for excessive amniotic fluid. The risk of carrying too much amniotic fluid, besides the fact that one looks like a whale with Jonah inside, is going into preterm labor and rupturing the uterus. If the uterus has too much fluid, it may just burst and then the placenta can come away from the uterine wall. So, they are watching me carefully and trying to encourage me to rest.
I was actually a little bit relieved to find out two weeks ago that this was going on because I kept saying I feel so full. I was measuring about 4cm ahead of the weeks I was in and gaining weight rather rapidly, but not really eating because of heartburn. Also, the baby was lying transverse instead of head down. That was the reason I ended up going to the doctor because I was getting head-butted. It was at that point they decided to measure the fluid levels and start keeping track of me. I think these are the first pictures we have taken of the pregnancy. Here I am at 33 weeks...

Kradel Family becomes card carrying members of NRA

Elias' recent fascination with guns has made us think and rethink our political positions. (Just kidding). Actually, we are trying to just roll with the punches with this stage. Mind you, we have no toy guns in the house, but just as anything could once be a sword, now anything can be a gun. A few nights ago, Elias came down the stairs and proudly presented us each with a weapon that he had lovingly made. One for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Adelaide. You can't forget your two year-old sister when you need to be packin'. Each gun was made out of Legos and was just the perfect size to be used as a concealed weapon. In fact, Elias quickly tucked my gun into the sash that wraps around my very large belly. He has a sense that I'm not particularly fond of guns and he informed me that these guns shoot light. In fact, they shoot the light of God. So, we need not be afraid. After all guns don't shoot the light of God, four year old boys do. Right, Charlton Heston?

Our camera died

I really loved my small point and shoot camera from Kodak. It made it all the way through England being held together by duct tape. Then about four nights ago, I tried to snap a picture of Addie and it literally fell apart. I think it's time to get a new camera, but we spent all of our discretionary money on our trip! We'll see if my birthday brings a camera. In any case, no pictures, but here are two stories.

Adelaide has become quite the conversationalist lately. Last week, I had a meeting at night. Adam put her to bed. When I got her out of bed in the morning, I asked her how she slept. She said, "Daddy, put me to sleep. How was your class, Mommy?"

This morning I was making her breakfast and she looked up at me and asked, "How did you sleep, Mommy? Pretty poignant because I had had a rough night.

Mr. Kleen

On Saturday mornings, Adelaide and Daddy have been going to her swim class at the YMCA. I could go and work out and put Elias in the childwatch, but I also figure I can get as much exercise cleaning my three story house and lugging the vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs. This morning, Elias really helped me. I try to mop or vacuum all the floors and clean the bathrooms. Of course, this also involves general tidying and putting away errant toys and mismatched socks. When we got to the bathroom on the second floor, which is white tiles, he was ready to help. So, he started by cleaning and scrubbing the sink and getting all the toothpaste off that he and his sister leave as a daily reminder that they kindly attempted to brush their teeth. Then I showed him how to scrub the toilet bowl figuring that he really should know how to get that clean. Then we moved on to cleaning the mirror and I mopped the floor. When I was done, he took all the dirty papertowels and Clorox wipes that we had used and put them inn the trash down in the kitchen. He also took the bathmats down to the washing machine for their weekly wash. At this point, he lost some of his gusto for continuing to help me; it's strange but he is afraid of the noise of the vacuum cleaner. So, I resumed my work while he played in the playroom. After two hours, our house looked pretty decent, which lasted until, Adelaide and Daddy returned and the kids went outside and came back in with their muddy boots on. Oh, well. But, now we can add cleaning the bathrooms to his weekly chores and that's a boon for all of us.

Adelaide's First School Picture

Addie goes to a Mother's Morning Out once a week. It is the one morning I have free from around 9:45 to 11:30. I usually do things like pay bills or work on sermons or other kinds of things I can't do while the kids are around. I was surprised to learn that "school" pictures would be taken of Adelaide, but I forked over the $20 so that she could be a part. I think her picture came back looking quite cute. I did go back to the Ames books and saw that she is quite a typical two year old. They say two year olds are "terrible and tender." The tender side has shown itself a couple of times the past few days. Yesterday, I bought her some spring tops and brought them home and told her . She just said, "Oh, thank you, Mommy." Also, the other day, she was sitting at our kitchen counter and she placed her chin in her hands and said, "You tired, Mommy?" I had just let out a sigh. And, in keeping with her attention to detail, she said to Adam, "You pick that up the floor, Daddy. It's not a ladybug. It's an orange sticker." Directive and fastidious.

Nihilism

This morning Elias announced to us that he does not need God. In fact, he gets his superpowers from the Evil Ones. So, how is that for a new take on Lent?

Yes, I look tired, I know. Somehow 30 extra pounds and lots of kicking make me a wee bit weary...

Daddy's Evil Twin

Watch what you say! Elias asked me two nights ago, "Why do you call Adelaide Daddy's Evil Twin? Before I was finished gulping, he said" Is it because she bosses me around so much?" Note to self: the kid picks up on things when we think he is not listening. Here is a picture of Daddy with his lovely twin and one of the dynamic duo together.