Ch-ch-ch-changes

A lot of changes haven taken place in our house over the last couple of weeks.

Layla
We have now entered the "why" stage. It started right around Christmas. She will continue to ask "why?" until we're nearly out of reasons and suddenly she will finally hear something that will allow her to say, "oooooh." As if she truly understands the full chain of reasons behind the source. :-) I don't remember the specific initial question, but one time Jeremy finally got to a point where he spewed out an extremely scientific response and Layla responded with her usual "ooooh" as if her little mind was just waiting to hear the specific explanation instead of our tamed-down responses. Or she finally heard something that sounded like mumbo-jumbo and didn't know how to ask "why" from that point. :-) It's still a little cute, but I can see it getting rather annoying pretty quickly.

Piper
Piper officially became a walker over Christmas break. She took her first steps on December 2. On Friday, December 17 she was still only taking a few steps at a time and only if someone was in front of her (or the couch). However, Saturday morning, the first day of break, she decided she was no longer going to crawl. She walked everywhere! No matter how long it took her or how many times she fell, she always stood back up and began walking again. She literally went to bed a crawler and woke up a walker.

Piper has also started giving real kisses (not just blowing them). It's so stinkin' cute! She will stick out her bottom lip and lean in until she touches your mouth. Many times they're very wet, but I can't seem to get enough of them!

Baby
Baby #3 has caused quite a few changes in our house. First of all...it's a boy!!! We found out the Friday break started and it's been quite exciting. Jeremy stood up, clapped and cheered as soon as the u/s tech said it was a boy. Quite funny. :-) I was happy myself. Secretly I was hoping for a boy but I wasn't verbalizing it and not really letting myself dwell on it mentally too much. I truly thought it was going to be a girl, though. That's what we've done in the past so why not this time?

The pronoun change is quite strange. I'm still not used to saying or hearing "he" or "him." I find myself still simply saying "baby" as it's easier. It will be strange to no longer reference "the girls."

Baby J has also become much stronger. I was reclining on the couch reading a book when suddenly it jumped. Yay! Now the movements I've been feeling for several weeks can be shared with Jeremy and others.

House
We are officially off the market. We have been since sometime in November, but the sign didn't leave our yard until Christmas break. We spent the entire day after Christmas clearing out our storage unit and, consequently, filling up our house. We've been pretty good about really filtering through everything and deciding what we can do without by either trashing it or putting it in a box for a yard sale in the spring. We've hit a rut and the boxes/totes that remain in our dining room and on our porch have sat untouched for over a week now. :-/ We'll get to them. Eventually...