Am I crazy?!

I get asked a lot if the girls are ready for the new addition. To be honest, it seems like right now that answer is an easy "yes". Maybe I am super naive but the girls couldn't be more excited about Baby Sister's arrival (tomorrow)! I am pretty sure they do actually grasp the concept. They know she's in my tummy, that she will come out when I'm at the hospital, and that she will come home with us soon. The only thing I'm not sure about is our hospital stay after the c-section when they'll come visit but won't be able to stay with Mommy & Daddy and Baby Sister... we'll see though. I know they have a lot of fun things ahead of them this week to keep their mind off of all of these changes which makes me feel much better about the whole situation.

In preparation for the new addition we started talking a while ago about the changes that would happen when Baby Sister gets here. Here is what we have all mutually agreed on:

1. They will split diaper changing duty - alternating who gets the stinky diapers every other day.
2. While they won't have to do the laundry they will be expected to fold it.
3. They will be expected to entertain and and stop any crying outbursts Baby Sister might have (although not
during the night - that would be cruel!)
4. And my favorite - other duties as assigned.

So obviously I'm kidding here, Peyton will only have to take care of #1 and #2 while Grace will be expected to complete #3 and #4.

About 20 or so days ago we made a "Countdown Chain". You know, like the kind you did in school for Christmas where you would tear off a ring every day as you anticipated your presents on Christmas morning? Same concept. I gave the girls each a sheet of paper and had them use crayons and stickers to decorate their pages. Once the stickers came into play the crayons might as well have been broccoli. They wouldn't touch them. I took their sticker books, aka pages, and cut out long strips that eventually made up our chain and put it on the mantle. I hoped this would give them an idea of the time frame we were talking about since weeks are a tad hard to grasp still. Days of the week we are good on, but once you get past Sunday into NEXT Monday I'm pretty sure we lose them. While I'm not sure it helped a whole lot regarding the time concept, I think they started to appreciate we were finally able to do some things for our baby sister, besides shop.

Which leads me to my super awesome and HIGHLY insane idea for our last weekend as a family of four (hence this post's title). Stephen had to work on Saturday morning for a couple hours so I thought, this would be the perfect time, at 9 months pregnant and by myself, to break out the easel that Grandma & Grandpa bought the girls for Christmas and PAINT a picture for Baby Sister! (By the way, Grandma & Grandpa, the drum set should be arriving today if not tomorrow at the latest!)

Here they are all smocked up and ready to go!

Peyton doesn't like the flash (who does?) and she's learned to anticipate it with great accuracy.


My Picasso's... (Peyton on the left, Grace on the right)



Here is Peyton showing me just how difficult it is to get the proper amount of paint on the brush so as to make sure it takes longer than 24 hours to dry.



Here is Grace double brushing it.



Here is Peyton showing Grace the intricacies and power of the color blue when applied correctly.



Grace proudly proclaiming, "Somebody get me a GALLERY!"



Here is Grace's painting for Baby Sister...

We are still working on smiling AT the camera.


Here is Peyton's finished painting for Baby Sister...

I like to call it "no stone/paper left unturned" for her use of the ENTIRE page. I promise she was very excited and happy about her painting for Baby Sister and I promise the kitchen is now clean.

This whole experience ended up being almost better than an hour of Play-doh (crazy I know!). The BEST was when either of them would go check out the others painting. It was hilarious! They would shout "It's beautiful, Grace!" or "I love it, Peyton!" Here is some video of one of those exchanges as Peyton goes over to view Grace's work. Look closely at Peyton really studying Grace's picture. Too cute!

I love Peyton's encouraging words for Grace, "It's beautiful".
She's not too excited when she says it but it's enough encouragement to propel Grace to do her very best for Baby Sister on this project.

Each of their paintings, 4 total (which have finally dried), are taped to Baby Sister's closet doors to welcome her home.

And show her what she's up against.