I Finished My Baby Blanket Just in Time....

...to find out that we are having another BOY!

haha.  Joke's on all of us, I guess.  So this beautiful but very pink blanket will be going into storage for the time being.  And I'll be beginning as soon as possible on knitting a light green blanket for this new little man.

The pattern is called Sleeping Baby's Castle Blanket, and is for sale on Ravelry

Perhaps the next one (God willing) will be a girl.  It would maintain the pattern we've got going on, at any rate: boy - girl - boy - girl - boy.

Now begins the challenging process of deciding on a boy name.  Tom and I are totally deadlocked on this question.  We each have a name we love but the other spouse hates.  And so far, neither of us have wanted to budge :-P

"Gender Reveal" Tomorrow!

Who will come out in the lead - the boys or the girls?

I have my 20-week ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow, and I'm so excited to find out whether the baby is a boy or girl.  We always find out.  At this point, Tom would prefer to "be surprised" - now that we have one (well, two actually) of each, and have all the gender-appropriate clothes we'll need anyways.  But I just really like to know.  And I guess since I'm the one doing all the work to grow this little person, and carrying him/her around all these months, my opinion wins out.  And I figure, we're still getting surprised, it just happens to be 20 weeks earlier than some people do.

Obviously, we are happy and in love with this baby no matter what.  But right now, most of us are rooting for it being another girl.  All for very different reasons.

Linus: Baby girls are all he really knows, since his only younger sibling is a girl.

Stella: She says she wants the "girls to win" by outnumbering the boys.

Sly: He claims - not without reason - that "baby girls are the cutest".  He's been the sweetest, most doting big brother to Flora, and I think he's hoping for another baby like her.

Mommy: Has been working since before she was pregnant on knitting a baby blanket "for our next baby that's a girl."  I'm 99.9% finished (I just have four rows left to do!), and it's very pink and very girly, so I won't be using it if this baby is a boy.  I have a tradition of knitting each baby a blanket before they are born, and I would very much like *not* to have to start all over tomorrow in a boy color :-P

April in Photos

Flora is one year old, and finally starting to pull up to standing.  The other kids are engrossed in the Elmo's Potty Time video their Grammy sent, the latest in a string of unsuccessful ploys to convince Linus to potty train...

Flora in my favorite old-fashioned type of little girl dress

my sweet girls :-)

Just an unecessary photo of my kitchen, because I'm so happy with how bright and cheery it is

Stella's art is just too cute for words

The kids have been bringing me and our Mary statues bunches of spring flowers every day

We identified these ones growing in our yard as periwinkles, and grape hyacinths

Sly had to spend an afternoon in the hospital, after whacking his face on a chair and cutting open his eyelid.  His vision is fine, but he needed four stitches - which required him to be fully sedated.

After years of working on Tom to allow us to get a pet for the kids, he agreed to let the kids pool their money for a pair of hmasters + cage that someone was selling for a really good price on Craigslist.  They are over the moon, and just loving their new pets.  Here, Sly is holding "Mr. Woodchip" (the kids picked the names)

Linus holding "Mr. Fluff"

Flora pulling up once again.  At the midwife's office....where we have been going for prenatal appointments.  We are expecting another baby in September! :-D