The other two kids

I'm sure you've had this in the back of your mind, but I just realized (again) that I often post about Lukas or about Natalie individually, but Konrad often only gets mentioned when he's doing something with the other two.  So before I completely leave out the wonderful development of our other two children, let's have a post just for them!

The baby is moving around a lot these days.  Yesterday morning I was sure he had a case of the hiccups for about five minutes.  At 25 weeks, he's just a pound and a half, so the kicks aren't painful at all, but they're a fun reminder that he's there.  My regular back-issues-during-pregnancy are starting to kick in, but they don't seem to be as bad as the last two pregnancies, when I was also carrying a child in my arms a lot, in addition to the one in my womb.  Today I might have overdone it with homeschooling with all three children and then cleaning the house, but a 30-minute rest left me feeling much better.  I loved it (not!) when Lukas announced to Natalie's bus driver that "Mom is VERY tired today!"  I guess I said that a lot after vacuuming the house with three other children also interested in vacuuming (Lukas and Konrad each get one of the Shark vacuums and Natalie is happy just pushing the tube pieces from the big vacuum that I use...but still there's a lot to coordinate to make sure no fights break out over any vacuums or favorite places to vacuum).

And have I mentioned that it is so much fun to have a two-year old in the house?  Konrad's personality is very cute and now that his language skills are growing, it's fun to learn what's going on in his mind.  He's started asking "Where going?" every time we're in the car...even when we're at the breakfast table, he asks that...maybe because we usually go somewhere every day, so he's asking about the rest of the day.

Konrad also likes saying "Taekwondo", although it comes out more like "die-don-DO", and it's usually in the form of a question, like "Kukas die-don-DO?" which means, "Are we taking Lukas to Taekwondo?"

Konrad's favorite thing to do outside is ride the trike.  He hasn't gotten the hang of using the pedals, so he pushes himself with his feet, which is actually great pre-trike-riding, so I'm not worried about it.  He also likes to take the swing from Natalie, I think just because he likes getting a reaction from her.  We're working on him learning that he doesn't take toys from someone...because if you have a toy, it is guaranteed that that's the one he wants, not any of the other 50,000 toys surrounding him!  He loves little cars, and actually plays with Natalie's doll house more than she does...but he usually puts cars in the doll house, so I guess that it does double duty as a garage!

But his favorite things to play with are his brother and sister.  When we pray at night, he often thanks God for Lukas, Natalie, Mom and Dad, then Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, Natalie, Natalie, Natalie, just to make sure that he is properly thankful, I guess!

He's also very much into scribbling with pencils and crayons...and if a stray pen is left out, look out!  He asks, "I color?" a lot.

Here are some fun videos of Konrad:  in the first one, he's playing with the latch on the baby swing (he loves putting latches together, but this one is too complicated for him to do yet).  Then he decides he's done with it and goes to get the trike.  Natalie is only too happy to get the swing back (Lukas had been on the other swing, or she would have been on that one).



In the second video, he's decided that one of the games Lukas made from a milk jug is now a hat (or a helmet).  He actually had a hard time keeping it on his head while also riding the trike, but in this clip, he finally kept his head up so it didn't fall forward off his head.



You can see why we have so much fun with Konrad!