Last week we got a call from my brother, Matthew, with a suprise. We got on the webcam and he introduced us to his son, Jayden Joseph Kane – a most handsome lad. He is almost ten months old and looks a little like his dad and a lot like his mom. He walks really good for his age (we’ve been working a little more with Molly after watching Jayden show off!). We are so excited to have another blessing in the Kane family (that’s 6 grandkids in 3 years for anyone who’s counting!) and how much more interesting it is to have a boy to add to the mix! We look forward to meeting little Jayden in person at Christmas. Congratulations, Matt & Lindsay; welcome baby Jayden!! Grandma Kane has already created a web album to show off our newest addition (but not for long . . . ) – so go on over and see my adorable new nephew.

I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write all that I’d like to about our blossoming 2-year old, but how about some recent quotes to tide you over?

Scenario 1:

We are listening to our “ABC music” and Molly is crying. Mama says, “What’s the matter, Molly?”

“Well, Molly doesn’t like you dancing, Mama” says Livy.

“Oh, really?” says Mama.

“Yeah, really,” says Livy.

Scenario 2:

“Livy, will you pick up those shorts for me, please.”

Livy is pounding away on her keyboard and looks up to say “well, I’m kinda workin’ here. I’m making a video.”

Scenario 3:

After observing Daddy clean the floors for Mama yesterday, Livy kindly offered,
“I’ll clean the house for you, Mama.” (picking up her toy broom & dustpan and setting to work)

Scenario 4:

Whenever it seems a potential treat is on the horizon:

“I’m gonna be a good girl for you, Daddy.”

Yesterday our sweet Ms. Molly turned 1-year old!! We celebrated by going out to lunch at one of Mommy’s favorite grad school hangouts (Longhorn Po’boys) after our OB appointment. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed gyros & hand cut fries. We also had a family trip to the pet store and picked out two bubblers for the aquarium for Molly’s birthday gift. The crocodile is really cool and we are looking forward to getting it into the tank half burried to see if anyone thinks it is real. Molly is really enjoying some gifts we bought early on for her, too, like her Bounce & Spin Zebra; she can climb up and spin all by herself now. She isn’t walking independently, but will push a little cart or baby doll stroller to do her evening laps around the living room. Livy & I took her to see the pediatrician this morning for her 1-year well check and she is doing great – she’s 25 inches tall (50th percentile) and weighs 22.5 lbs (75th percentile). Her hair is starting to curl on the ends and she is more beautiful than ever! She says “mama” and “dada” and always knows where her big sister is. Both girls play with their baby dolls everyday and will be quite excited to have a new baby sister coming home soon. We’ve had a wonderful year together and look forward to all the excitement of watching Molly grow in the next year and enjoying her budding personality.

Okay, today I’m feeling much more prepared than I was a week ago when we had a false alarm with Baby III. There was some indication of a slow amniotic fluid leak (or so I thought according to what I remembered with Olivia), but it turned out to be nothing. Anyway, after rushing to throw together a bag and waiting in the hospital a few hours feeling completely unprepared, I decided to go ahead and make a few more preparations at home. So we now have a hospital bag packed according to my list, and the infant carseat in the van, and my music downloaded to the laptop (I like the Prince of Egypt soundtrack for labor), and a box of newborn diapers in the house. JR will grab the last of the newborn necessities out of the attic this weekend and I will wash & assemble the bedding, clothing, & bouncy seat. There isn’t actually a whole lot of transition this time as many baby things are still out thanks to our having a ‘big baby’ in the house. I do want to get Livy a book about being a big sister and talk more about what’s to come – looking at photos of the “big girls” at the hospital and so forth. Livy understands so much more this time, but Molly is of course, clueless! Our friends the Hamands were kind enough to come over for the false alarm at a moment’s notice and thankfully, it did not scare them off from keeping the girls during “new baby’s” delivery. They have a little girl, Reese, who is in between ours and another girl on the way. We will also squeeze in a little birthday party for Molly this weekend (her birthday is actually Monday the 18th) and it will be good to focus on Molly for a bit and reflect on her busy first year. We technically have two and a half weeks left but the last month always feels so unpredictable and I go back and forth between thinking we have plenty of time to panicking that we are out of time. I’m definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore as sleep is quite elusive and I’m uncomfortable most of the time (I thought once the baby “dropped” you weren’t supposed to get heartburn anymore??!!), but we don’t have much time left now. The last big hurdle to overcome is the name – we are still discerning . . . hopefully, we settle on the right one soon!! We’d appreciate your prayers for a safe & healthy delivery and a happy adjustment to our newest addition. Stay tuned for the big announcement!!

We wanted to give you a quick update and share a picture of our new addition! Even though she has only been with us a short time we are already in love. We can’t wait to take her up to Nebraska for Christmas. I might be a little biased, but I think her best feature is her eyes which I’m definitely going to take credit for.

Click on the link below to see our latest family picture.

Show me a picture!

Oh, is that not what you expected? Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. As you can see the new addition featured in this post is a brand new 2008 Toyota Sienna and we love it. We had been looking at the Dodge Grand Caravan as well, but the Sienna won out for us. I’ll have to write another post on how NOT to sell mini-vans, which several Dodge dealers in the area excelled at. Jenny liked the Sienna from the first time we looked at it and Classic Toyota of Round Rock had several vehicles equipped like what we wanted in stock so we could see and crawl around in them. They also beat Dodge on price, at least in our case which included our Grand Prix (her picture here) as a trade-in. We also really liked the dealership. Usually the engineer in me focuses purely on features and price, but in this case they did get some bonus points. The final handshake to close the deal was made in a glass enclosed kids play room with our salesman on a tiny kids chair because Livy and Molly were getting tired of looking at vans. My favorite feature is the power side and rear doors which make it easy to load and unload everything. Livy’s favorite feature is the built in DVD player, although she’s only used it once. I’ll give a shout to the easy to clean leather seats for Molly, who’s already been testing them. And in addition to the color (silver pine mica), Jenny’s favorite feature seems to be the heated front seats which she is taking advantage of while she has a sore back from new baby.

Keep checking back for upcoming family additions.

It’s 7:45 and I’m trying to decide where to start. Livy fell asleep on my lap after supper so she is already out. Jenny is rocking Molly with a bottle now so she’ll soon follow. (I meant Molly would be soon to follow but I wouldn’t be surprised if they both ended up asleep.) So now the question is where to start. It’s early enough to actually get something done, but I think making a list here would be overwhelming enough to make me not do anything. Hopefully I’ll make it back to the computer later to do some blogging finally. I might even reward myself with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch (with Crunch Berries of course) which just happen to be sitting here on the desk. I assume they ended up there the same way they ended up in the shopping cart last night; Livy.