August 25th, 2011

That will be the birthday of the newest Rife, if all goes according to plan. But I'm smart enough to know that things don't always go according to plan! Nolan is breech, so we have a c-section scheduled for 7:30 next Thursday morning. Next Thursday! In a little over a week we will be a family of five. But this kid likes to do things a little differently than his sisters - guess he's figuring out now how to hold his own - and I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his appearance earlier.

Will keep you posted...!

Not Poopy, not Animal, but...

I'm stealing my friends', the Colleys, cute idea to announce the name of the smallest Rife. So here you go...



Years of me looking at baby names produced nothing. Three minutes of Matt looking over a baby name list on a website, and there you have it. Totally not what we expected to like, but we do! Anna's still disappointed that he won't be Poopy, and Holly had her heart set on Superhero Baby (there's an insight into their personalities, btw). But it seems right to us. And I'm just glad we didn't have to choose another girl name.

Mother's Day

It is still strange to me that I get to celebrate Mother's Day. Mother's Day is for MY mom, and Matt's mom. I want to make sure they feel loved and celebrated, and I kind of forget that I fall into the "Mother" category now. But sweet Matt wouldn't let me forget for long. He asked several times how I wanted to spend Mother's Day, how I wanted it to go. And yesterday he showered me with wonderful gifts and did all the dirty work with the girls (that was my answer to "how do you want it to go?").

Holly and Anna also worked hard to make me feel special on Mother's Day. At school, Holly made this flower pot for me...

Look closely at the sign. When asked what she loves about me, this was her answer...

Sigh. Tear. Love that girl.

She also, under the supervision of her patient Daddy, made me Auburn colored sand art.



Here is Anna's gift to me - a popsicle-stick-framed picture of her cuteness. On the fridge, smiling at me every time I open it to pour her [more] milk.


And today, a fun package arrived on my doorstep from a dear friend, filled with goodies for all of us. I think my favorite thing inside was this little plaque...


Two little girls and a little boy. Or, as I will look at it, two sisters and their baby brother. Here is an actual picture of little baby boy Rife...


I'm thankful for so much this Mother's Day - a wonderful mom, the best mom-in-law I could ask for, a loving husband, two beautiful girls, one baby boy on the way, and amazing friends.

It was a happy day, indeed.

Signs of Spring

Oh, we are so ready for spring. After a few teasers, I'm hopeful that it's actually here to stay. Until summer at least. Give me the yellow layer of dust on everything, the itchy eyes, and swarms of mating carpenter bees all over my porch and patio. I'll gladly exchange it for cold, gloomy days inside and restless girls who long to run outside and play with their friends and neighbors. I'll see you in the backyard for cornhole and cookouts.

Milestones

After dinner with neighbors, one being a boy Anna's age who just moved from his crib to a big boy bed, we decided to make the move with Anna. Like, at 7:30 at night. No preparation, no talking it up. Just, "Anna, do you want to sleep in Holly's room tonight?" Here was the reaction:



They both did great! They talked and played for a while, then Holly's giggles turned to, "Shh! We're supposed to be sleeping!" Anna continued to talk and sing, and I realized Holly had fallen asleep when I heard Anna say, "Holly! Holly? Come here?"

I'm not declaring victory yet, but here's to one successful night in a big girl bed. And two big girls in one room.

It's a Beautiful Life

Add this to the list of things she'll kill me for later...

Little peanut

Yep, we're expecting Rife baby #3 on September 1st! This is a picture of the peanut at 8 weeks. I'm 13 weeks now. So if I were to have an ultrasound today, you'd actually see a baby rather than a kidney bean. But isn't it the cutest little kidney bean ever?

We weren't intentionally keeping it on the down low this long - if I've seen you in person, I've told you already I'm sure! But I honestly keep forgetting that I'm pregnant. No real problems (other than the usual I'm-going-to-hiberbate-for-the-winter fatigue and a few weeks of blah) and 2 active little girls have made it easy to be distracted. But realized I'd better get the word out now before people run into me at the store and think I've totally let myself go.

A few pregnancy facts:

- our peanut is now the size of a medium shrimp (??)

- I should only be consuming 300 more calories per day. Umm....

- If this baby is a 3rd girl, we are going to need serious help, and possibly marriage counseling, to name her.

And, yes, we will be finding out the sex. Of course we will! Since Matt will not discuss baby names until we know if it's a boy or girl (as he says, otherwise we're wasting half our time - way too inefficient for this engineer), we would be in real trouble after the baby is born. Weeks without a name. Which would drive you monogrammers nuts. So we're doing it for you.

And for those that argue that it ruins the surprise...come on. I completely respect that you like the suspense, but we will be just as surprised when we find out. At 20 weeks. And we won't have a collection of 30 onesies covered in yellow ducks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I love you all!

(PS - I had this in nice, neat paragraphs, but when posted it comes out like one big run-on essay. I apologize to my literary friends.)