Triple the fun!

Baby Girl #3!!!

What's more fun than two little girls in the house? Three!! That's right--the big sisters are extremely happy and relieved to announce that a baby sister is on the way, and not a baby brother, for which it seems that Elise would've never forgiven me, and Kalina would've held a grudge for a while, too.

Do you see her face and nose?

We toyed with the idea of not finding out, but none of us could stand the suspense. Not the kids, and not us. This is what makes us a family! On the way over: "Mommy, what if it's a boy?" -Kalina. You know I was thinking the same thing, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure we would've muddled through just fine.

The baby is as healthy as can be, and supposedly average for size, in the 47th percentile. So were my other tiny 6-lb. newborns at this point. She moved quite a bit for us (surprising to me, as I'd only felt the occasional kick), and even seemed to strategically point her thumb toward her mouth. What a sweetie!

The girls seemed to enjoy the ultrasound, only getting feisty toward the end. Kalina "helped" the tech count all the picture, and Elise jumped over the lengthy printout of them. As I was out of the room for a minute afterward, the tech even gave them each their own picture! When I came back in, I happened to ask Elise what she had in her hand. "It's a picture of Baby Ellie in my tummy!" she exclaimed. (Baby Ellie is her baby doll.) She insists on this story to this day. 

And so we're to have three girls! Kalina and Elise didn't seem surprised--I think we couldn't picture much of anything different. I, for one, am looking forward to extra years of sweet dresses, animal tea parties and pink, not to mention seeing the amazing person our littlest girl will grow to be. 

Elise insists she has Ellie,
her baby doll, in her tummy.

And even though we can't do an outer space theme in a little boy's bedroom (not that we couldn't do it in the girls', just that it isn't likely to happen), Kalina has decided that she's fascinated by the solar system. I'm getting more than enough of rockets and planets, a welcome change from princesses, honestly, and Kalina's learning so much that she's sleeping an extra 1 1/2 hours every night and asking for lima beans before supper. (Elise, for her part, can define gravity and name at least a couple planets!)

My little astronauts!

Every day, the question is the same: can we do a space craft? Even if we've already completed three. Or a million. We've also made stuffed felt planets, visited the library's space section twice, emailed a friend at NASA for more information, dressed up as astronauts in homemade costumes, built a rocket and turned our family room into the surface of the room, complete with craters (Kalina's idea--necklaces spread out in circles!), painted a solar system model using styrofoam balls, made shadow puppets to help learn about the sun, and much more. We're kind of exhausted, but still going strong. Next week: a planet suncatcher, constellations with star stickers, rockets with Uncle Tom, a possible trip to the planetarium and astronaut ice cream. And then, it's onto dinosaurs, also by Kalina's request. I'm already getting ready, seeing as her enthusiasm often exceeds my energy (but I'm also very excited!)

It seems that life will be an adventure no matter what, and even more so with three little girls! We can't wait.

P.S. Excuse the formatting of this post--I don't know what the deal is.

Krista visited and took the girls' pics!

There are more--but I love
these expressions!

Awww!!!