life. changing.

For the past few months we Borkerts have been working through a rather daunting to-do list. Since finding out we are expecting Baby #3, we've been plodding through all the necessary changes that need to take place before this new little boy's arrival.

Adding a second child is like adopting a second cat---no major adjustments are needed because you already have a litter box and cat food---but a third child is like bringing home a tiger. He doesn't just fit into the existing schema. Instead we've had to make all kinds of modifications in order to accommodate our little tiger.

We've conquered (or at least muddled through) confusing and often frustrating new maternity insurance, auto loan applications, selling the car, and purchasing our first minivan. Still to do---find a new home for Toby and get a new air conditioner installed (which we can pay for with CASH since we sold our car for a great price! --that's exciting!).

With only these two major items left on the "big-changes-that-must-happen to-do list," I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe at some point I can start thinking about baby names and cute little boy outfits instead of interest rates and efficiency ratings....and maybe I'll go back to blogging about cute little kid stories instead of boring grown-up stuff. :-)

goodbye Mildred. HELLO Veronica!!

Goodbye, Ford Focus. You've been a stellar vehicle for us, but we're going to outgrow you soon. I'll miss your reliability and your fun standard transmission, but I won't miss your ugly gray paint. I really liked the gray for a long time, but now it just bores me. It's been real, Mildred---you'll probably always be my favorite wagon.

Hello, Chrysler Town & Country. I hope you are a stellar vehicle because we plan to drive you long after your shiny red paint becomes dull. I'll miss that super shiny red paint though, so I'm going to really enjoy it while it's fresh and new (to me). It's sassy. If a minivan can be sassy, YOU are sassy. I feel like I need to paint my nails bright red just to be worthy of driving your sassiness. Ah, it feels good to own a red car again. You could be a very good influence on me.....maybe turn some of my frump into sass! And what shall we call you? You are definitely not a Mildred II --- I'm going to have to think on this for a while. Maybe Veronica? Or Lola? Well, whoever you are, here's to many good, sassy years together!! Cheers!

sweet dreams

Flora woke up smiling and happy this morning as usual. Chris gave her a hug and asked what she had dreamed about. She immediately replied, "Pink cupcakes!"

cars and crises

I have enjoyed observing the differences between Flora and Scout, especially those differences that seem to relate to gender. While Scout will hug a baby doll or try to feed it a bottle, his very favorite thing to do these days is stand at the window and point out all the cars. Cars and trucks are so fascinating to him right now. He enjoys watching the parked cars, so imagine his excitement when a car actually DRIVES down our street! The highlight of his day is seeing the school bus or the trash truck drive by. Yesterday we went to the park to play and he was just as thrilled with a parking lot full of cars as he was with the slide and swings. Such a boy thing.

Flora called our car "home" for the longest time. Apparently, in Flora's opinion, the only fascinating thing about cars was that they took her home. I couldn't even get her to give more than a passing glance at the trash truck and those things are actually pretty cool. She's too busy doing her girly things like sneaking back to her room to put on her princess dress or "cooking" something in her little kitchen. Unfortunately, when she's feeling ornery she will inexplicably develop a fixation on Scout's favorite truck. He carries around a truck and an airplane pretty much all the time and Flora knows she can get a reaction out of everyone if she takes his truck away. Such a big sister . . .

In other news, I just realized that Scout is in the middle of an identity crisis. If you ask him where Flora is, he will point to Flora, but if you ask him where Scout is, he will also point to Flora. He also identifies pictures of himself as Flora. Perhaps that is the real danger of having so little space between them . . . he thinks he IS Flora. Oh well, he's bound to outgrow THAT eventually, right!??