the barbie talk

ever since my women's studies class on pop culture, a Barbie fan i am not.  Caitlin has a few barbie items she's received as gifts and I've always referred to Barbie as "the girl," in an effort to not acknowledge Barbie formally in my house.  Tonight Caitlin was getting ready for bed and said "I'm going to wear this (generic-looking) barrette in my hair tomorrow so I can be pretty."  As I was thinking of something to say to that, she took out her "girl" toothbrush (Barbie) and said "her name is Barbie, mom." so, I figured I'd explain why I don't care for Barbie--three-year-old style.  conversation as follows as we were walking downstairs:

Me: I don't like that Barbie tells us that it's important to look a certain way.  what's important is what's on the inside--that we are nice and we treat other people well. does that make sense?

C:yes

we then approached daddy and I asked C to tell daddy what we'd talked about...my sneaky method of reinforcing the  lesson

C: the important thing is that I'm cute

sigh.  so I asked daddy to explain why I don't like Barbie again.  Daddy went into a very long sermon on women's self-image and self-respect and had to be stopped a few times by me giving him signals from across the room as he was dangerously close to highlighting obesity in a way that would only make this curious and talkative 3 year old sensitive to other people's sizes--anyway, his point was the same as mine:Barbie thinks what you look like is important-he mentioned being a good person and being smart as more desirable characteristics.    

Me: Caitlin, what did daddy say?

C:  Barbie is not smart...but I like her because she is cute.

oh well.

Sprinkler fun...

Spontaneous sprinkler play with daddy

Once she realized she got her dress wet, she thought it important to immediately take it off...fortunately I convinced her to replace it with a bathing suit.

Deserving of a post all its own....

The most beautiful salad ever.  Thanks, Cassie.  It was too pretty not to snap a picture.

Random pics of the fam....

Ryan sleeping
Nora looking downright FAT!
Caitlin washing her baby, Eggwater, which is one of her favorite activities.  Eggwater is so named for her (the doll's) love of eggs and love of water.  totally logical.
Nora
Ryan swinging away.

Detour...

so, the babies were born early and we are trying to figure out a way to move the info from www.noraandryan.blogspot.com over to here (any ideas?)

I was just reading my last entry.  the day before the babies were born.  I wrote that the placenta abruption was a non-issue.  nice.  they were born less than 36 hours after that.  placenta abruption.

anyway, we are moving on as best we can and will now continue this in the context of our whole family.....

28 weeks (almost)

Here's a picture of the babes from the outside.  They are still very busy.  I'm on bedrest for pre-term labor for the duration though things have really settled down and my doctor told me today that church and a quick trip to the store once or twice a week is OK as long as I'm not having contractions.   so maybe I'll stay sane afterall.  The placental abruption thing I mentioned a few posts back is a non-issue at this point, so we feel very blessed.

Visit from Auntie Joanie and Cousin Soren

i think the picture above is so sweet of the two of them smiling at each other.



isn't he cute?  i didn't get pictures of anyone else! Thanks Auntie Joanie for coming and helping us out this weekend and bringing us lots of goodies for the new babies and for mommy!  Also, Caitlin's the baby formerly-known-as "lex" is now renamed "soren" yet remains a girl.   :)