Watch Natalie Grow-Week 27

Here we are again with another growing belly picture. I think now that Paul is back in town they might come every two weeks since typically more growth happens towards the end. And believe it or not I'm almost to the third trimester. Only a week away. Below is my picture from this week. Below that is my previous picture from week 23 to see how much I've grown in four weeks. The next picture is my last picture from my pregnancy with Jack. It was taken at 38 weeks (3 days before I delivered). As you can see, I'm pretty much the same size there as I am now at 27 weeks, if not smaller. So the next couple of months should be interesting.

Week 27

                                Week 23                Week 38 w/Jack

Back In The Water

Jack started swimming lessons again. We had taken a few sessions off and I decided to get him back in the pool before summer rolls around. It's good fun and good time for Jack and I together. It's entirely possible that I shouldn't be doing this right now, but it does feel good to get in the water and it's so fun to see Jack learning, playing and pushing himself to try new things. I wasn't sure how he would do after not having been swimming in a while, but he picked right up where he left off, if not improved. He saw another little girl jump in and so he did the same and went under. When he came up he looked a a little surprised but I praised him and encouraged him and he just smiled and said "again". During the song time he asked to sing every song again. He had so much fun, and did such a great job. I hope we can continue this whole session!

Why? Addendum

Why is my son carrying around the pink bottle of Johnson's baby soap all day? He not only carries it around, he talks about it and opens the top, touches the top like he's getting soap, and then closes it...over and over and over again.

Why?

I think perhaps we have hit another rite of passage in childhood, or toddlerhood. Somewhere along the line Jack picked up on that oh so popular, oh so annoying question...why? He started on Saturday at lunch. Just started asking me why for everything. "Why can't I play right now? We're eating lunch. Why are we eating lunch? Because it's lunch time and we were hungry." On and on. And this has continued since then. Paul is in shock that he's asking this already as his understanding level is not at the place where he could really understand most explanations. I think it's kinda funny, a smidge cute and a little annoying. Not sure how long this lasts or how you keep from answering why all day long. Most of the time I want to just say because I said so.
Along the same lines as "why". I have a question of my own. Why is it that Jack has been up since 6 coughing nonstop? Why is it that church nursery seems so lethal to my son's health? Seriously people, don't take sick kids to the nursery.

Daddy's Home!

What an exciting afternoon we've had. Paul came home from his three week trip today! We couldn't be happier to have him back and he couldn't be happier to be back. He got home while Jack was still napping and got to surprise Jack when he woke up. It was so cute to watch Jack as his long lost daddy walked into the room. The look on Jack's face was one of utter shock and surprise, mixed with a little bit of confusion. I think mainly due to just having woke up. He just stared at Paul for what seemed like the longest time, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was his daddy really home? He went straight into Paul's arms and laughed and smiled and hugged and kissed. It was so fun to watch their reunion. The rest of the day was centered around Daddy. We went out for Dairy Queen and Daddy and Jack played and played and played. They ran laps and played hide and seek and wrestled and played ball. Jack's best friend was home and he couldn't get enough of him. I love how much they love each other. Now Jack's in bed and Paul and I are settling in for a nice relaxing evening. Hoping our blind pick of a movie turns out good. I figured if we watched a movie we could relax and I wouldn't be so tempted to run off with my mouth about all the things I've been thinking about for three weeks. Mostly all the things that need to get done or be decided. I tend to overwhelm Paul with my built up thoughts after he's been gone, so I'm trying to let them out slowly instead of all at once. We've both been working hard these three weeks and we are both exhausted, just for different reasons.

Nothing Much

Today we are a little bit sad. Jack and I were supposed to go down to Morris to see Matt, Amanda and the kids. I was looking forward to being busy all day and Jack was excited to see his cousins. Though he is a little confused and thinks that seeing Hailey and Micah means we are going to Grandma and Grandpa's. This is understandable since that is where we see them the most. Still kinda funny that the first thing he says when I say we're going to see Hailey is "Papa Tractor". Quite possibly his favorite phrase. So anyway, we were supposed to go but Jack is a bit under the weather today. He'd been fighting a very mild cold all week, but it got much worse last night with a fever and worsening cough and runny nose. So we're trying not to contaminate more people than we possibly already have. So much for a busy day. And of course Paul is still gone. We both miss him a lot. Jack learned the word miss since Paul left and almost daily says "miss daddy". I'm not sure if he knows exactly what it means, but he says it. We are very excited for his return next Saturday.

The Blessing of Friends

Whew. I'm finally sitting down after a very productive day. Jack spent the entire day at his friend Caleb's house. I'm pretty sure this is the most time he has spent away from me, not with family. Caleb's mom, Meghan, generously offered to take Jack for the day to give me a chance to rest and catch up around the house. I was a little nervous to send him off for the day, but with Paul gone it was a much appreciated break. Thankfully he did really well and had a great day playing with Caleb. I had a great day as well. I got so much done, lots of laundry, scrubbing, vacuuming, and organizing. I still have lots to do to have an officially clean house, but I'm much closer than I've been in a while. I also was able to take a rather enjoyable shower without Jack opening and closing the shower door or throwing toys in the tub for me. So thank you Meghan for giving me a much needed day. And thank you to all my friends who have been helping me by watching Jack, feeding me and keeping me company. You are such a blessing to me!

Update on the Babies

Another appointment today and it was a long one. I spent probably 45 min in ultrasound, but it's so fun to see how they are growing and pretend like I know what I'm looking at on the screen when really I have no idea. Both babies are looking good. In fact I was so excited to find out that they are both head down! Got themselves straightened out after the last time. Both Dr. Ankrah and I were very glad about that. There is still time and room for them to switch back, that's not out of the question, but we are hoping that as they gain weight their heavy little heads will keep them in the right position. They measured slightly differently but not enough to be concerned about. I don't remember the weights they told me but somewhere around 1 pound 5 ounces give or take an ounce or two. Baby B, as usual, was difficult to get good pictures of. He is facing my spine which makes it hard to see his little profile or face. We tried to do 3D for fun to get a cute picture, but they didn't cooperate. I did however get to see one image of both their little butts which was funny. and another image of Baby A's feet in Baby B's tummy. I also got to see the tops of both their heads right next to each other. or at least what seemed to be right next to each other. it's very confusing with all those babies in there. No real cute pictures to share though, perhaps next time.

As for the actual doctor appointment. My blood pressure was up again, but it was down later when they took it. Dr. Ankrah asked if i was taking it easy...I told her sure but probably not according to her book. I'm trying though, it's just not in my nature. She measured my belly and said I measured 38 or 39 weeks. Which is pretty funny. Not sure what they say in a few weeks when I measure more than 40 weeks. Maybe they just go with "big". I think that's really all. I go back in two weeks. I'll do my glucose test then, hopefully I don't fail like I did with Jack. Perhaps I'll avoid the sweets and pastas, which I didn't do last time.

Mystery in the Night

About an hour after I had fallen asleep last night I woke up to a very unhappy Jack. Every once in a while he wakes up during the night sounding almost afraid. Last night was one of those nights. So I went in to check on him and of course forgot to put my glasses on, so I could hardly see. But I could tell that there was something moving on his floor. Sure enough it was him, in the middle of his floor, very upset. I picked him up and laid him in bed where he curled right up, ready to go back to sleep. As I laid back down in my own bed I started to think about why he might have been on the floor. I have two guesses. One, he crawled out of bed, fell asleep and then woke up and didn't know where he was. Or two he fell out of bed. We have noticed that often when check on him before we go to bed he is sleeping with his head at the wrong end. So I'm sorta thinking that happened and he scooted himself to the one opening there is and rolled out. Problem is, I never heard a thud or anything to indicate to me that he had fallen. I didn't check on him before I went to bed....I think I'll be doing that from now own. I feel really bad and really wish I knew what happened. Thankfully he seems fine this morning. No obvious bumps, bruises or strange behavior.

He Lives!

He is risen! We celebrated this phenomenal occasion with  quick trip to Morton. No surprise there. Despite it being a short trip, we had so much fun. Kyle and Jack played their little hearts out both last night and today. Trucks were the name of the game....the pushed their dump trucks around and around and around. They raced and chased and had fun "falling" as they tipped their dump trucks over. This morning Nicole and I set up an egg "hunt" for the boys before church. It was pretty stinkin' hilarious. They both started out strong, then Kyle got a little bored. Some of our "eggs" looked like sports balls and he had fun throwing them around. He also enjoyed putting eggs in Jack's basket. Jack filled his entire basket to overflowing and started a second basket. And he was very possessive with his eggs. Kyle didn't get a single one back that he put in Jack's baskets. But what a good sharer Kyle was.
I got to hang out with some of my old girlfriends on Saturday night which was really nice. We went out sans kids and had a great time catching up with one another and eating way too much food.

Dadda's Day Off

What a beautiful day! Paul only had to work half a day today which is so nice, especially since he leaves on a three week work week soon. So to take full advantage of the weather and Paul's free time we headed to the park. The plan was to have a picnic, try flying a kite and play on the playground. The picnic didn't go too well because Jack had no interest in eating since the playground was right there. But he did awesome with the kite. He even was able to fly it by himself for a little bit. I thought the kite would be a bust, but he had a great time seeing it fly through the air and fall. Might have something to do with the fact that he loves falling. He also loved going down the slide with Paul. He would climb up there and sit down then look at Paul and pat the seat next to him and say "come". They took countless trips down the slide together. Our park adventures didn't end there. After a quick drink break, Jack took off running to go play more and fell on the sidewalk. He got up real quickly and beelined for me saying "hurt, hurt". He has officially had his first skinned knees. Both of them scraped up, not too bad, but definitely skinned. He was a trooper and calmed down pretty quickly and headed back to play. I think it was much more of a deal to me than to him. I was sorta proud because skinned knees are like a childhood rite of passage. I even took a picture of them, which is totally corny, but it seems like such a momentous occasion in a 2 year olds life. 

Watch Natalie Grow-Week 23

It's picture time again. I had been posting every four weeks, but this one is coming a week early. Paul will be out of town for the next several weeks and I think I'm expanding at a quick enough rate that three weeks offers plenty of growth. We might continue with every three weeks, but that depends on when Paul get's home from his trip.

Week 23

                             Week 20              Week 34 w/Jack

2 Year Well Visit

Jack had is two year well visit today at the doctor. He always does so well when we go to visit Dr. Anderson. I think part of it is how wonderful she is with him. I'm starting to think that perhaps her being female doesn't hurt either. He is such a big flirt and he puts on all the charm for her. He flashes these incredibly cute grins at her and giggles and talks her ear off. And when she is listening to his heart or looking in his mouth he just stares at her with the deepest interest in what she is doing. Today he checked out to be a healthy, completely normal rambunctious two year old. As usual, a little on the small side. At the age of 2 he has yet to break 20 pounds, but he is as close as he could possibly get at 19 pounds 15 ounces.

Just a cute picture from the past month.