Rituals, Volcanoes and Erf ~ Three playdates this week

We celebrated Día de los Muertos on Tuesday with Lucy, her Bruce and some friends. Lucy had a beautiful alter set up for flowers, the pictures of our deceased loved ones, and special foods they enjoyed when they were living. We, of course, brought some biscuits for my Dad, or Mia's Ito. She's never met him, but has heard plenty of stories all about him. It was a lovely way to remember him and bring him into the forefront of our day.

Then it was playtime! The kids were everywhere and really enjoyed themselves.

On to the VOLCANOES!!!! Courtney and her Izzy and Emmy hosted a super awesome science playdate at a park. The kids molded homemade play dough into the shape of volcanoes, we helped them dump in loads of baking soda, helped them mix vinegar and the food color of their choice...then the kids poured the vinegar in and WOW! Out it came the lava!!!!....bubbling, fizzing and smoking! It was soooo freakin cool! The kids...and adults did it over and over and over again!

Babies Emmy and Kristopher were there, much to Mia's delight. She's VERY into babies lately...well, one's growing in her mama right now. The Dr. Sears books are very helpful explaining what babies are all about on a toddler level. Mia really digs them.

To planet Erf...as Mia calls our lovely Earth. Erica and her Joey and Anna had us over to learn about our solar system. Erica explained some stuff to the kids, but more importantly explained to me just why Pluto isn't a planet any more...actually, it's a dwarf planet :) Thank, Erica! The kids had fun gluing their planet Earths and cotton to the blue atmosphere, then they added stickers of the other planets...and silver stars! Super COOL!

Mia actually asked Courtney 'may my mama please hold baby Emmy?' Mia got much Emmy time today, and they both just LOVED it!

this final sweet shot was taken by Courtney...miss Emmy's mama

Our Lil Trimp

Daryl and I spent a lovely half hour with our unborn child this morning. He (we already have a girl, and until we know...he'll be a 'he') was quite still at first...heart beat going, but still. Then after the ultrasound tech started pushing on my belly, he woke up and was pretty active. He rolled around, gave us a wave (counted 1, 2, 3, 4, fingers and 1 thumb!) and pretty clearly gave a good punch. Feisty. So, at 14 weeks (based on the date of my LMP, he should be 14 weeks tomorrow...at the last two visits/ultrasounds, he's been measure small, so the Doc wanted to have another look to see if the due date needed to be changed...it does matter after all), the lil babe is 3 inches long. I read somewhere they compared this size to a 'medium shrimp'. Along with some amazing quality time, we got a pretty nice shot of his profile.

During the car ride home, after I picked up Mia from Casa T, I told Mia that Daddy and I saw the baby today...we even got a picture. She asked if the baby was 'still in mama's uterus'. I reassured her, that Yes, he's safe in my uterus. I told her he was still very small and had to grow for a long time before he'd be big enough to be born. 'how big is the baby?' I let her know, that the baby was about 3 inches long. Well, that meant nothing to her, so I quoted what I'd read and showed her what 3 inches looked like and said the size of a medium shrimp. 'Oh, a trimp'

Mia was The Bean until we knew she was a girl, then she was Mia. Well, until we shortened whipper snapper to The Snapper.

So, without further ado, here's our Trimp:

Friendship

I've known Courtney for over a year. That means that Mia's known her daughter, Izzy for over a year, too. While we've been over to their home many times for playdates, birthday parties...and Courtney has been over her for a MNI and my birthday celebration...Izzy has NEVER played at Mia's pad! Well, that finally changed this week when Courtney, Izzy and baby Emmy came over for a wonderfully long visit. The girls played dress up and were rock stars. Mia's dollhouse and babies got some play. Mia held Emmy for a little bit...testing out the waters :) Then out came the curlers!! At their request, I curled Mia's, Izzy's and even baby Emmy's hair. Izzy was completely still and LOVED all the primping. Mia tolerated it, and Emmy had no clue what was going on. It was fun!

There's a lot more Friendship stuff going on at Stacey's

We are....

Hope the world is ready for another Gleinser!

Our little one is due early May '09

for some more shots...possibly life changing...visit Tracey at Mother May I.