In Jesus' Name, Elmo. Week 91.31

Dear Nathan,
This week you have really gotten into the alphabet. Particularly the letters "A" "B" "I" and the numbers 1 and 2. You are saying more words, including those that start with the letter "P". And while the color yellow was so last week, this week you get excited when you spot purple and blue objects. You will say "boo" for blue and your purple is pretty good. You can point to red, green, gray and pink objects when prompted, but you're not very good at saying those colors yet.

You are very excited when you see Elmo. Your pronunciation of Elmo sounds like Eh-mo. So does your "Amen." So it's kind of cute when you end prayers with Elmo. Some days I let you watch old school episodes of Sesame Street. I really think you are picking up a lot of things from the show, particularly alphabet letters. Every time a little segment with Elmo ends, you always call out and sign "more." I don't get why Elmo is so popular with little kids.

It's slowly getting hotter (but thankfully no temps above 100 yet [knock on wood]). So we've been spending a bit more time inside. Here are some new games that we are playing.

Paper Towel Roll Bowling

You like to set up the "pins"

Taking Aim

Throw the Ball. I've been trying to get you to roll it. You like to throw it. 

You like doing this better than a few months ago.

Also, a few other favorites are ice scooping (scooping ice out of a bucket with different spoons and toys) as well as more traditional favorites like wooden puzzles. You really like it when I call out a piece for you to find and put back into its rightful home. 

You also found a bucket of spare Ikea parts with brackets, bolts, wooden dowels and wrenches. You will sit quietly and play with the pieces for a long time. You like to put the bolts into the holes and use a screw driver to turn the bolts.

This week, we went to goodwill just to see what they had. I found a toy cash register (whose electronics parts were broken, but you still like to play with it) and a couple of wooden horses. Here you are racing Daddy. 

Playing supermarket is called "beep beep." Usually one of us shops for groceries with a baby in the cart. We then pretty much act out what happens once we get to the check out. The baby helps the mommy put the food on the conveyor belt and the cashier beeps each item and places it in the bag. Then the mommy pays for the groceries with the credit card and the cashier hands the baby some buddy bucks. The mommy and baby then go to the machine and if you are the cashier, you like to join us too to spin the prize wheel. After we collect our points, we push the cart to the couch car, load everything and everyone up, and drive away.

Potty training is still going. You are getting really good at letting us know when you need to go poop. You can even say "poo poo" but you are still just using the "potty" sign. We've had lots of pee pee accidents this week, but at least you are realizing this and signing "potty" after the fact. You love to spin the toilet paper roll, but we try to keep you busy with a few of your favorite potty books.

 We had our monthly baby party this month at the same splash pad that we visited a few weeks ago when your grandparents were visiting. When we got there, there was just a few kids running around, so you were much more spirited and enthusiastic about splashing and running through the fountains. After an hour or so, more kids showed up and you (along with your friends) started to become more clingy. Which worked out, since it was about lunch time. We went and got some yummy tacos at Austin's famous Taco Deli.

Swim lessons started this week. I'm a bit disappointed with the instructor this year. She pretty much just says, blow bubbles and has us working on that for awhile. Through the whole half hour session, we sang 1 or 2 songs. Last year, we sang songs through the whole class. Hopefully it gets better. I offered to suggest a few songs for class and she seemed enthusiastic/receptive.

Your friends Abigail and Evey are in the class too.

After lunch today, I gave you some frozen blueberry yogurt mousse. I left to eat while I cleaned up from lunch and when I returned, I found this little monster. When you saw yourself in the mirror, you simply exclaimed "woah!"

A few days ago, I got a chance to finally speak with the doctor. She answered all of my questions and assured me that the hospital is very pro mom and will try to accommodate the wishes of the mother. So I guess this time around, I will be laboring at a hospital. 

I have an appointment next week to see a perinatal specialist to get my gestational diabetes under control (mainly through diet). I still have a bad feeling about this diagnosis and kind of feel that my baby will come out just fine even if I stick to everything that I am currently doing. I'm curious to see what they will suggest. 

At night, I've been busy with a project for your little sister's room. We found a dresser on craigslist and decided to repaint it. Here's the before picture: 

 I am so glad that the guy who sold it to us had sanded it down already. While we had borrowed a power sander from a neighbor, the rest of the work was difficult enough with a big belly in the way.

I painted it with an aqua color that is a little bit lighter than a shade of aqua that is in the inspiration fabric for little sister's room. I spray painted the handles with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint since there were a few pieces that didn't quite match.

 I really love how it turned out and I'm glad that the work is completed. Now we just have to get it upstairs. I'll probably post another picture once we have the whole nursery decorated. I really just need to put in a few floating shelves and we are set.

Oh, I also painted a frame from Ikea the same color. When we bought the dresser, the guy convinced Daddy to take a dresser mirror since he had so many. What are we going to do with a dresser mirror? Silly Daddy. But I may try to cut out a mirror to put into the frame so that the dresser has a mirror above it instead of a cork board or a white erase board (as I had originally planned on doing).

Well, that's about it for now.

Mommy

Week 90.30

Dear Nathan,
Can you believe it, you will be meeting your little sister in about 8-10 weeks! It wasn't until I was sorting through the girl clothes that I received from your cousins when it finally hit me. There's going to be another girl in the family! 

I've been doing a lot of preliminary research on what a hospital birth would be like and what to expect. I finally get to talk with the doctor on Monday, so hopefully by then, my mind will be put more at ease. I better start jotting down my questions so that I can remember to ask them all at the appointment. This baby brain has my mind scattered all over the place.

We've made lots of progress on the nursery this week. On Friday, I went to a friend's house and we both painted pieces of art for our up and coming little ones. We both ended up using a gray and aqua color scheme and all the paintings turned out beautifully.

I am also in the process of buying a set of drawers off of craigslist. I plan to sand it down and repaint it in a lighter shade of aqua than in the pictures. I was debating etween white or aqua (or even gray) and decided to have a pop of color. I'll post before and after pictures when I am finished.

Since the last time I posted a bump picture was around 20 weeks, I decided to post another one at around 30. You are starting to become more aware that there's a baby in my belly area. I think it became more real to you when you started to feel your little sister kick and punch inside. You will sweetly rub my belly and when we ask you where is the baby? You point to my stomach.

Week 29.5 (Almost 30 weeks)

 We had a pretty severe storm this week. Lots of neighbors' fences got knocked down. The top of one of our trees broke off and tumbled onto our driveway. You slept soundly through all of the thunder, lightning, and wind.

A new favorite toy for you is the headlamp. You like bringing it into the bathroom and making shadows on the walls with it. And yes, you are sitting on our bed without a diaper. This past week I've been having you go sans diaper whenever we are at home (without guests). You are starting to understand that a soiled diaper does not feel good and you prefer the feel of going comando. Most of the time I have you wear underwear, and you are slowly getting the hang of pulling it off.

You must have also gone through a growth spurt this past week. You have been ravenous. The other day we were at Costco and got a foot-long hot dog. You ate 11 inches of the hot dog. Sometimes you are so hungry that you just want me to feed you because it goes faster that way.

However, this has changed the past 2 days. You are back to eating very little. (Although you did eat a lot of the quinoa salad that I made last night). Nonetheless, you are still eating a lot of variety, and I'm ok with that.

New words this week include "bao" (to pick up and hold) "bei" to carry on back, "dao" (shortened sound for knife, dao zi). You also do a cute motor imitation to let us know that you would like a smoothie. Just this week you have also started to initiate "hi" with random people that you see. This has occurred both at church and during walks.

Another cool thing that I realized that you could do is that you recognize the letter A. A few days ago, you pointed at an "A" on my shirt and said "Ay" I passed it off as a coincidence and praised you for it anyways. Then, a few days later, we were making a father's day card for daddy and as I was drawing the bubble letter "A" you also said "A" and then each time I drew the "A" again, you would repeat it. That's kind of cool.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure I'll have lots to post about after the doctor's visit next week. Until then, I love you lots!

Mommy.

Week 89.29

Dear Nathan,
I think back to a couple of weeks ago and back then, I was thinking, I need to brace myself for the terrible twos. You were very fussy and whiny, you would throw temper tantrums over the smallest issues, and you were biting. This week you are back to being your sweet self again. You still get a bit whiny when you want to tell someone that you don't like them touching you, but you are no longer biting, and are using your words more.

In fact, you are counting 1-2, 1-2. In Mandarin. And you can pick out red, yellow, green, and sometimes blue objects. You are also a master block stacker. You are able to stacks blocks as high as you can reach. While it is very tempting to knock your tower down after 4 blocks, you are able to muster up enough self control until the tower is too high for you to build.

Your appetite has also increased. Just in the past week you have gained 9 oz. in weight. Crazy.

You are really into cutting your food. 

Potty training has also progressed a bit. You are able to go from post-nap time (3:00ish) to bath time (7:15ish) in just underwear. You have an occasional accident now and then, but you are able to sign to us when you have to go (or are in the process of going). We are working on taking underwear and shorts off. It's still a bit tough for you, but I'm sure you will get it soon. I am really liking this progressive potty training. No bribing, no pressure, no stress. We started it all when you turned one and slowly, we have come this far.

Here are some cute pictures of you being silly.

 One day, you and dad were just hanging out. I thought it was super cute.

Daddy thinks it's a bit weird when you kiss him on the lips. Haha! You sneaked one in. Good boy!

This weekend your grandparents came to town to visit. We didn't get to see them much, since mommy was a bum and didn't want to sit in a car for 4 hours to go visit the bluebell factory. But you got a chance to hang out with your cousins for a while. One day we went to a splash pad. You were a bit more timid this time around and you were very cautious around the fountains.

Another day we went out to have some barbeque. The restaurant had the X-games on and you were pretty much mesmerized with the bike riders doing 360s and flying off of ramps. In between your bites of ribs you would go, "woah" and "wow" as you pointed at the screen. After your nap, we let you watch a bit more of the X-games.

 After a few minutes of watching, you decided that you would mimic the skateboarders and jump around on the couch. It was cute to watch you jump, spin, and yelp.

Then, I had an idea.

This morning, we went to Austin's music and art children's day. We usually don't venture into the city for events during the week because I don't want to deal with traffic and parking, but it sounded like a cool thing to do, so we did it.

We arrived early, so we were able to find a parking spot relatively close. A guy gave us his parking ticket with 2 hours left, so essentially, we only had to pay a whopping $.50 to get you in. (Parents are free). You were handed a balloon, which you were so excited about, and we found a seat along the shores of Waller Creek. There were clowns walking around, blowing bubbles, and interacting with kids. I think they avoided the younger kids like you because you guys tend to get scared easily.

 After hearing a quartet play, we were very fortunate to be able to watch a show performed by the Biscuit Brothers (and Gravy). They were a silly bunch and you really enjoyed listening to them sing and dance. I did too.

We then joined up with our friends and walked to the art festival portion of the day. We were given free strawberry fruit bars courtesy of Blue Bell. It was the perfect treat for a hot day. The activities that they had there were geared towards older kiddos, so we just walked around briefly and headed home.

As far as things with little sister goes, all is good. She is now in the vertical position, and the midwife is pretty sure that her head is down. Yesterday, I went in for a 2-hour glucose test and while I passed the 1st hour test, I failed the 2nd hour test by just a little bit. Now, I have to go see a specialists and get monitored/counseled on this. (I guess I shouldn't have eaten that strawberry bar)

On a happier note, I've started to make a few pom poms to decorate the new nursery. They are quite easy to make, but they require way more tissue paper than I had anticipated.

Well, that's about it for now. Until next week.

Love,
Mommy

Bubbles, babies, and bye-byes of Week 88.28

Dear Nathan,
This has been a pretty exciting week for you. You seem to have made some linguistic leaps. You are starting to say more words like "ball" (finally) and "bye-bye." You have definitely relearned how to use 'b' sounds this week. We are also working on refining your signing skills. And on top of that, you are getting good at matching things that are alike. Oh, and your fine motor skills are becoming quite impressive. Today, you were able to insert the buddy bucks (grocery store play money) into the prize wheel all by yourself. You were very excited.

Yesterday, we went to a splash pad. Immediately, you were drawn to the fountains of water and started running through them. Once you ran right over a spout and got super soaked. You did not like that, but after awhile, you recovered, and was back to splashing again.

 We met up with your best friend. You guys had fun filling up buckets with water.

 After about an hour, you guys were ready to be done. We had some barbecue in the shopping center and then went home.

Your naps seem to be around an hour these days. You go down at around 1:20 and wake up at around 2:30. This leaves a lot of time for us to play in the afternoon. Since the weather isn't squelching hot yet, we've gone outside to play in the shade each afternoon. 

Your favorite thing to play is bubbles. I was actually able to mow the front law as you sat in your chair blowing bubbles. You get a better bubbles when you wave the want around, 

 but sometimes you like to blow into the want to make bubbles.

 You are also quite social. When you see the neighborhood kids out, you will go and say "hi" to them.

 And another favorite is water painting. This kept you occupied for about 20 minutes while I was pulling weeds. Afterwards, you decided to come and help me. I would pull the weeds and you would put the weeds into your dump truck. It was a pretty sweet system.

 One day we just decided to stay inside. While you played with your train set, I cut and painted pieces of felt to accessorize your train table. You really like playing trains on the table now. It's much easier than playing on the floor.

We had a super busy weekend. On Friday, Mommy and Daddy went on a date night at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater. The babysitter came over just before 6. You played, ate, had a bath, and even let her put you to bed without any tears. I'm so proud of you (and the babysitter). One thing that I think helped was that starting that morning, I told you about how tonight was going to be a bit different and that your babysitter was going to do all the things that mommy and daddy usually do with you at night. Each time, you nodded, as if you understood what we were saying. I was so nervous about this, but in the end, it turned out just fine.

On Saturday, your best friend and her parents came over to play. The daddies took you guys to the pool while the mommies stayed at home and made ravioli. After your nap, we hosted a baby party at our house and a few of your birthing center friends came over to play for a bit.

On Sunday morning, we met up with another friend at the children's museum. They had a special day for members only. It was nice because it wasn't crowded at all and you didn't have big kids running you over.

I remembered to have Daddy take a picture of you and me. We just don't have enough of those.

 After the museum, we met up with another friend at a restaurant across town. I'm sad that we didn't take any pictures, but it was cute how you two were sitting next to each other eating.

Today we went grocery shopping right before lunch and I saw that corn dogs were on sale. That sounded really good for lunch (even though not the healthiest option), so I decided to get a few and heat them up for lunch. Well, you LOVED them. You ate the whole thing and when you were finished, you even asked for more. (And this is after having a handful each of grapes, strawberries, and corn)

 I now know why corn dogs are practically on every kids menu.
***
Little sister is getting pretty big. I feel like I am now about the size I was about a month before I gave birth to Nathan. Sleep is starting to get interrupted by bathroom breaks and I wake up to aching joints along my hips (from kicking away the body pillow).

Each night around 9:30, I get a bit hungry. This was not the case with Nathan. Maybe this time around I will be able to gain closer to 25 pounds. I'm still trying to eat healthy, but I'm allowing myself to indulge in an occasional scoop of ice cream (or corn dog) once in awhile.

The nursery is coming along slowly. With most of the furniture still being used by Nathan, it's hard to figure out how to put the room together just right. But the walls are painted, we bought a reclining chair, and I have a fabric picked out for the accessories. My plan is to put some floating shelves in, sand and paint a chest of drawers (not sure what color yet), and create some canvas art. Here's a picture of what I have so far.

The cube shelves are from college. I'm not quite sure what is going to go in there just yet, but I'm sure we'll find plenty to put in.

The nesting instinct has also started to kick in. Slowly things that I've never noticed before (like dusty baseboards) are now standing out as if bright neon lights are pointing directly at them. So, slowly I'm doing a bit of cleaning each day.

In medical news, I've been accepted by the Ob-Gyn that I think I want to see. She's so booked that the first appointment that they have available is 3 weeks away. I'm going to go to the birthing center to get another check up and to get my glucose test done before then, so I'm not too worried.  This time they are having me do the 2 hour test as opposed to the 1 hour one that I had to do with Nathan. Once I meet and speak with the doctor, we'll make a final decision on whether or not we will transfer to birthing at a hospital.
***
Well, that's about it for this week. The temperature is starting to creep up. I'm not looking forward to this heat. Hopefully we will get more rain this year to keep things nice and green.

Love,
Mommy