Irony

I ordered a maternity top in 'chastity pink'.

3rd Trimester

It's hard to believe I'm in my third trimester. I guess in some ways it goes faster when you have a toddler to take care of 24/7. My tummy is really getting big. People keep commenting about how fast it is happening. Just today I got, "You are getting bigger every day, girl!" Last gymnastics class one of the ladies said to me, "Wow, you really...uh...popped. Seriously, you look a lot bigger than last week." I'll have to remember to take some tummy shots this week. I've been meaning to do it for a while now. I had an OB appointment yesterday; everything looks and sounds good.

How I Know Daddy Changed Ryan's Diaper this Morning...

Ryan is playing with his legos in the kitchen. I hear him talking about a stinky. I look over and realize that he is talking to his Bob the Builder Lego guy. This is how his conversation with Bob went.

"EW!ew!ew! You hab(translated-have) a stinky! I hab(translated-have) to change your diber(diaper)"

Now Ryan does actually have a stink himself. So he tells me and heads up the stairs. By the time I catch up to him he is placing his little lego Bob on the changing table(heehee). He tells Bob, "Inona(I'm going to) change your diber(diaper). Wait for Mommy."

I put Ryan up on the changing table and he tries to sit up to get Bob, so I hand him Bob and the closest thing I have to a diaper within reach, a baby wash cloth. He lays Bob down next to him and then proceeds to "ew.ew.ew." some more and wipes Bob and wraps him in the wash cloth. The wash cloth covers Bob's whole little body, "There you go."

PS-In case you were wondering the 'Ew!ew!ew!' was the tell tale sign of daddy:-)

Home

We're home...11 hours on the road...going to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all those we couldn't be with today.

It's a sunny 68* here at my parent's house. So much for the nice sweaters I packed to wear for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids are having a great time playing with their grandparents. I'm going to go help with dinner now. Hope everyone is having a nice day.

This Stinks!

The diaper genie is FULL and it's POURING outside. I hope Ryan doesn't have a stinky this afternoon.

Observant Little Guy

Little kids notice the most remarkable things. Things that we don't notice for whatever reason, maybe we are too busy with life or the things seem unremarkable to us. It's cool to stop and marvel at the world with a child. Ryan notices noises outside and he gets so excited to tell me "fire engine" or "Zach playing outside." He will wake up from a nap and tell me exactly what kids are playing in our front yard. The other day in the store he said, "helcoper" and this lady said, "Isn't he smart to hear that." I hadn't noticed the sound myself and when he first said it I just kind of acknowledged that it was a helicopter. After the lady said something I guess I realized how amazing he was. Today he heard a lawn mower and he told me, "Hear grass." It actually took me a second to realize that he was talking about someone cutting the grass because I hadn't noticed the sound myself. Is it odd to be amazed by your own child?

26 Weeks

I'm 26 weeks in to my pregnancy today. That means only double digits of days left! Still 98 days seems like a long time.
Maybe if I think of it like this: Christmas is fast approaching. After Christmas I only have to wait 2 more months. Nah, still seems like a long time.
Perhaps I'll try this: Things I need to get/do before baby is born- get new crib mattress, set up toddler bed for Ryan, transition Ryan to toddler bed, get loft bed for Zach, move Ryan and Zach into the same room, establish girl wardrobe(started, but not nearly complete), clean up newborn toys, get bassinet, get glider chair, arrange babysitting for boys and dog during delivery/hospital stay, settle on a name... Okay, that did it! There is no time to lose. I need to get started. This baby is coming soon!

Ryan's First Crush

I think Ryan has a crush on one of the girls in his gymnastics class. He loves watching her do things and we always seem to end up doing the same things she is doing during free time. What really clinched it for me was when he tried running across the room at circle time. When I caught him and pulled him back he said, "Want girl!"

You Decide

Before you think I am mean, Jay wanted me to post this.

Last night Jay was going to run to the store for milk and bread. This is what he had on. He couldn't understand why I was laughing so hard. He kept trying to explain that he used to always wear wool hiking socks and Tivas and how cool that was. Somehow I just don't think his black dress socks with shorts and Burks(or any shorts, socks and sandals combination for that matter) looks cool. You decide.

Sandal Boy

"What? Black and brown go together."

Video

Feeling inspired today I picked up the video camera (that I charged last week since it was dead last time I tried to use it). I wanted to try to capture some precious moments of Ryan's toddlerhood. Now I remember why the camera has been in the closet for months. He kept coming up to the camera to look at himself and friend Ben(?) in the picture. So I turned the viewer around in a feeble attempt to get him to stay in front of the camera. I haven't checked out the footage yet, but I'm pretty sure I have a bunch of close ups of Ryan's nose and finger. I did manage to pry him away from the camera for a few minutes. He even did a forward roll and some log rolls for me. I have to upload the footage and see if there is anything worth sharing.

Imagination at Work

I am constantly amazed at the sophistication of Ryan's play. He is into imaginary play. He will get his cars or trains and have them talk to each other. It's not uncommon to hear him tell his trains to "Be fareful"(translated- be careful) or have one tell the other, "I coming." He also give his smaller toys rides on his bigger toys(especially his ride on train). It's so cute to watch him interact with his toys. I hope some day he is able to interact with his peers as well as he interacts with his toys! Sometimes he is great with friends, but we still need to work on sharing toys. I guess it's easier to play with the toys because they do what he wants them to do.

Cool

Jay had the day off yesterday for Veterans Day, so yesterday kind of felt like Saturday. We had a nice relaxing day. We did some shopping in the morning. We actually went shopping to get Ryan a winter coat. Sears was having a great sale and we got him a whole snow suit 1/2 off. We happened to pass the baby section and I was commenting on all the cute girl clothes, so Jay said, "Why not get started buying the baby clothes now?" So I did:-) It was so fun!!! All the sweet little rosebuds and frillies were so cute. I could see this becoming a problem. We are going to need lots of tights because I just love the little dresses. I got to take a nap and a nice unhurried shower. Jay and the kids played outside in the leaves. It was so nice to not have the day packed with plans. All that relaxing was great. The best part is this morning I didn't have to get up and rush off to church. We get to have one more relaxing day this weekend. Well, mostly. The boys and I have to vacate for about 3 hours this afternoon so Jay and his small group can watch the new Star Wars movie together. Tomorrow we really have to kick it into gear. We have church at 9 then a birthday party at 11:30(that is about 40 minutes away) and Jay has a leaders meeting in the evening. Somewhere in there we have to make sure Ryan gets a nap and the kids get fed 3 good meals.

Thanks!!!

Happy Veterans Day! Thanks to all the guys and girls who have ever served in our military and their families. Especially my dad(Air Force), my mom(military wife) and TJ(Air Force).

Holy Cow

I passed this house in our neighborhood this morning that had the funniest thing on the lawn. There are a bunch of wooden cows(57 I'm guessing, but I didn't count) covering the whole lawn. In the middle is a big cow holding a sign that says, "Holy cow, big [name] is 57!" It's hilarious. I should drive by and get a picture so you guys can have a full appreciation. Someone went to a lot of trouble. It was nice to get a little giggle on my way out of the neighborhood this morning:-)

$2.14

I got gas for $2.14! Yay, I'm so glad the prices are going back down, especially since we are going on a long trip soon.
The unfortunate part of getting said gas is that I got it at Wawa. I have nothing against Wawa, quite the contrary...I love Wawa. I just can't stand inconsiderate Wawa customers. I sat waiting for a pump for about 5 minutes...there was no line. Just people who left their cars at the pump while they went shopping. It's also annoying to sit behind some guy talking on his cell phone at the pump, not pumping his gas mind you, just sitting in the driver's seat talking. There are parking spots that do not block gas pumps for these things people! Be considerate of others.

Expanding?

We are thinking of finishing our garage. If we do we will probably make the half bath into a full bath and add a bedroom. The rest of the space will expand our family room. We are wondering if it will decrease the value of our house to get rid of the garage. We never use our garage for our car. We basically only use it for storage, but I remember thinking it was good to have a garage. What do you think? Is a garage a big selling point over another bedroom(on the entry floor) and 2 full baths (instead of 1 1/2)? It would definitely work better for us at this point, but we are not sure if we want to stay in this house much longer. It is a big expense to undertake without being sure it's definitely what we want and it wouldn't depreciate the value of our house.

Cars and Trucks and Things that Go

Is it any surprise to anyone that this is Ryan's favorite book? He loves to point out the different trucks. He has learned quite a bit about some things and always wants to know more. He likes to find the silly cars like the pickle car or the carrot car. It's just all around fun.

He had also begun to ask for A Special Something more lately. It is a book about a mommy and what is in her big tummy. It's fun and sweet. Ryan really likes to do the page where it asks...Is it an alligator? Noooo! or a hippopotamus(which sounds a bit like Christmas)? Nooooo! Is it a monkey? Noooo! etc.

I love story time!

A Good Sign

Ryan just came over, rested his head on my tummy, put his arm around it and patted it with his hand. Then he did the cutest thing. He said, "I lub you, baby." Now if we can just hold on to that sentiment when the baby actually comes we will be in good shape.

Monday Mornings...

Stink. The weekends never seem quite long enough. At least Jay has Friday off, so next weekend will be a long weekend. I'm sure not long enough, but it's better than nothing.

Wow, Tuesday?!

Has it really been that long since I posted?! I guess I've been busy, so busy that I didn't even notice how long it had been. The good news is I got a lot of laundry done and the house is recently vacuumed. Unfortunately Ryan has just informed me that he has a stinky and needs a diaper change. This is a problem that has been plaguing me since Tuesday coincidentally. Lot's of diaper changes and extra laundry from those pesky leaks that come from toddler tummy troubles. I guess it's hard to blog when you are changing 50 diapers and 3-4 outfits a day on top of everything you normally do. Well, I'm off to relieve the poor stinky child.

Ryan Do It!

I think I have birthed the most independent child ever. Ryan wants to do everything himself. From opening the juice bottle to putting on his clothes- he wants to do it himself. When I start to do something he starts to fuss and says, "Ryan do it!" If I don't let him he breaks down into this horrible crying like I smacked him upside the head or something. Then he sticks his lip out and looks all pitiful. Sometimes he even plops into a lump on the floor. To those who are not involved in the interaction directly I must look like the most uncaring, awful mother ever! It's so hard to do the right thing sometimes.
Oh wait, did I say he likes to do everything...there is one exception. He likes me to carry him. I'll ask, "Do you want to walk or do you want mommy to carry you?" He says, "Mommy carry you." about 9 times out of 10. Sometimes when I put him down to walk he will put up his arms up and say, "Mommy carry you." It's kind of cute, but it's going to break my back one of these days.

Maybe it's because he is 2 years-2 months-2 days old today.

Well I had to get in on the Halloween fun too. Here are some pictures from yesterday. We had a great time at Trunk or Treat.
I kind of ruined this picture by looking funny, but it's the only picture of Sweet Pea's costume:-) It was dark, what can I say?
A pumpkin, a Pooh pumpkin and a Scooby Doo

Zach

Pooh (Ryan)