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