We Need A Little Christmas

The third trimester is turning out to be a real treat. I'll save you all the details, but it hasn't been great. We just had our final ultrasound and everything is looking good for our little man. Fingers crossed, we'll make it to January.

I've had the holidays all planned out for months. I knew that I had to get the nursery done before Thanksgiving. So, every bottle has been sanitized and every onesie washed. I wanted to be sure that I had the entire holiday season to focus on time with my family. This is our last Christmas just the three of us.

Thanksgiving was fun as always. We went to Peggy and Tom's house, which we haven't done before. It's so great to have all the little cousins together. Peggy and Heidi worked hard to put together a gingerbread house making station for the kids. Blake loved it. More went into her mouth than onto her house.

I am very thankful for some guests that we had earlier in November. Monica, Michelle and Grandma came to Indy. It was a short, but wonderful visit. Blake really enjoyed her great grandmother, which is really something special. Blake has Memere and Great Grandma. I never knew my great grandparents. I think it's such a blessing that Blake has these relationships.

So now we're onto Christmas. The house is decorated and the shopping is done. I've done a lot of the wrapping and some of the shipping. I have to give my husband a huge thank you. I usually do all the decorating while the team is on the west coast trip. This year he helped get everything out on Thanksgiving because he was afraid I was going to get on a ladder with my gigantic body and horrible balance.

Blake has her own tree in the play room. She put all the decorations up herself.

 Lauren and I took Blake to the Polar Express in French Lick. She's really starting to get into the magic of Christmas, which is so much fun for all the grown ups. While we were on the train Santa gave Blake a bell from his sleigh. Blake silently stared at it for a good part of the train ride. It was so amazing. I don't ever want to forget it.

Sunday is breakfast with Santa and Wednesday is her school Christmas program. Josh can't make it to the program, so I'll get some video. I'll be sure to post it for everybody.

Boboo made his first visit on the December 1st. Blake wakes up every morning and can't wait to find him. He's sent her a few notes. She asks me to read them to her over and over again.

I really feel like crap, but all of this Christmas fun cheers me up a little.

Until next time

Fall Break?

Over the years I've always wondered what was wrong with parents who where dying for their kids to go back to school after break. I get it, and I take back all my judgment. In fact, I vow to do less judging in general. I can't stop, but I'll do less.

Anyway, Center Grove schools have implemented a new schedule this year where kids get 2 weeks for Fall Break, 2 weeks for Christmas Break and 2 weeks for Spring Break.  So the past two weeks have been Fall Break. Not only is school off for two weeks, but dance class also had a two week hiatus.  Literally nothing to do.

I did my very best to keep my kid busy. It started off with a bang. The Crabapple Creek Walkathon was Friday before break. It was a huge hit. Blake's class represented Argentina. Thank you everyone for your donations.

Once Fall Break actually started, we did play dates, festivals, a trip to French Lick, one pumpkin drop and wrapped it all up with pumpkin carving.

The strangest thing happened during this break, Blake developed a personality disorder. I never knew who I was going to get. Several mornings she was a mermaid and all of her imaginary mermaid cousins were visiting. I had to fix them all breakfast, seriously. The next day she was eating poison apples and needing true loves kiss. Sometimes she was Dorothy and calling me Aunt Em. My favorite was when she was a model in a fashion show. Don't worry, there is video:

In pregnancy news, I'm now 30 weeks, only 10 more to go. Things are coming together in the nursery and I'm already trying to get things all set for Christmas. I've been reading a lot, trying to remind myself how to handle a new baby! Even though I was ready for Blake to go back to school I've been trying to carve out some special Blake/Mommy time before the baby gets here.

Blake went back to school Monday. Today was her class Halloween party. I was a class helper. I had a blast. I don't think that my 25 year old self could even imagine this lady.

Until next time. 

Progress

So, I'm 25 weeks pregnant, 102 days left to go in this pregnancy. I am on a mission to get anything and everything around the house done before I start feeling really gross.

I've started working on the nursery, which is fun. It's a big change decorating for a boy. Have I mentioned it's a boy? Yeah!!!

Josh told me and others that he didn't care about the sex of the baby. Liar. I told everyone the same thing and I really meant it. During the ultrasound the technician was about to point out the baby's LEG and Josh screamed out, "there's a penis, there's a penis!!!." It was a leg, not a penis. She quickly moved on to show us the penis, since it was clearly on Josh's mind. He spent the rest of the appointment sqeezing my hand. I guess he got what he wanted. The first thing he said, "I can't wait to call my Dad," which I thought was sweet. By the way, I don't think I've ever typed, "penis," that many times.

already a finger sucker

So, working on the nursery, but Blake's big girl room is complete. She is moved in and sleeping in her big girl bed. I love her new room. If you haven't been to our house, the previous owners had this room painted the most awful shade of pink. Thanks to Chris, Jack, Dad and Mom the room in now yellow and beautiful. Blake wasn't even a little sad about leaving her old room.

Old Room

I just finished Blake's baby book. Before you get all judgey, I purchased a book that goes through the first 3 years of a kid's life!!! I won't make that mistake again.

With fall coming my summer flowers are slowly dying, but I am happy to report that I kept several things alive the entire summer! I have to mention this and post pictures so that I don't forget to plant these exact same plants next year.

Xenia (Blake's choice)

Impatiens

Blake had her first dance class, first class field trip and first dentist appointment since I last posted. I went with her class to the apple orchard. Mrs. Melissa taught the kids how to pick apples and they even got to take a bag home. We hosted a special dinner for Mimi and Pappy where we used the picked apples in our recipes. Delicious!

Dance class has been a hoot. I took a little video so everyone could get a little idea of what Blake's weekly dance experience is like. I adore her teacher.  This week I was approached about buying a dance decal to put on my car, but I just don't think I'm there yet.

The dentist office couldn't have gone better. We'd been talking about it and reading books on the subject weeks before the appointment. She was excited. She got a little nervous when we walked in, but the hygienist quickly put her at ease. She has 20 teeth.  Everything looked good, except that her bite is terrible from all that finger sucking. Her biggest problem with the appointment was that she had to stop talking to get her teeth cleaned.

Did I get you enough info?

Until next time.

School Days

I know what you're thinking, and I don't want to hear it. I've thought about posting a million times, but by the end of the day I am pooped, so writing about my day is the last thing on my mind.

I would never forgive myself if I didn't document Blake's first days of preschool. She just finished her first full week and I think it's going well. She goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday half day. Her school is Crab Apple Creek and I love it. We get a monthly calendar that explains what they'll be working on each day as well as the songs that they are singing! This week they learned about upper and lower case letters as well as the continents.  Blake hasn't been too into sharing, so all the other info really helps.
I thought the inability to share about your day came later. Bummer.

I think she might be being shy, which I find shocking. She doesn't talk about the other kids at school and when I ask her who she played with she always tells me no one. This morning I told her that she had to talk to a new friend and then tell me their name when I picked her up. She told me about someone named "Willie." She said he got in trouble for talking. I asked her if he played with her and she said she didn't want to play with someone who got in trouble. This isn't surprising because we know she's always such an angel, right.

As far as pregnancy update, Oh, did I mention I'm pregnant. I'm 19 weeks, already enormous. We have our next ultrasound on August 19th. I'll be able to fill everyone in on the sex after that. I'm anxious to see that everything is as it should be.

Blake is still excited about the baby, but she's convinced it's a boy. She's also informed us that his name is Amber. I've tried really hard to explain that it could be a girl. She's a little less excited about a girl. She tells everyone that she's going to be, "the biggest sister." She loves to sing and talk to the baby. I'm relieved that it's going so well.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about our trip to Portland. We went for Ric and Chris's wedding as well as to see my amazing nephew, sister and brother-in-law. Everything was wonderful.

The wedding was beautiful. Josh and I feel so blessed to have so much love in our family. Blake still talks about it. I'm thankful that Blake isn't going to have a bunch of rules about love, but she's going to know it when she see it. Thank you Pepere and Pop Pop, that's an immeasurable gift. We are luck to have you.

Until next time

I Have a Diagnosis

It's been a whirlwind!!! Playoffs, birthday and more playoffs. Things are starting to calm down and I just realized I didn't do a post on Blake's birthday. I want to be sure to get something down before I forget about the truly momentous occasion.

Blake talked about her Doc McStuffins party the entire month of May.  She's been invited to several birthday parties recently, so it really got her psyched. She couldn't wait to have all of her friends come to her house.

Her actual birthday was on a Thursday, which is a school day. She got to wear her birthday shirt and bring snacks for the whole class. It's possible that I was more excited than she was. I have a June birthday and was always bummed I never got to celebrate with my school buddies. I learned later that summer birthdays are a much better deal.

Let me go back, the celebrating really started the weekend before her birthday. Pa and Gigi came up to celebrate with Blake. They spoiled her all weekend, she loved it. We celebrated her actual birthday on Thursday with Pappy and Mimi and then the big party was on Saturday. Somewhere in there was a playoff game or two. We like to keep ourselves busy.

The biggest surprise of the day was that Grandma and Gramps came all the way from Florida to celebrate Blake's big day. The bounce house came early in the morning, so Blake had a little time to bounce all by herself before her guests arrived.

When she woke up from her nap I surprised her with a Doc outfit that was just her size. She wasn't sure about it at first, but once she got it on, EVERYBODY got a checkup. Harvey and Jan were also visiting from Florida and I think Harvey got the best diagnosis. Based on information that Harvey provided, he was diagnosed with, "poopyitis."

Once her buddies got there they did a few of my activities, but most of their time was spent in the bounce house. It was worth every penny.  I bet there were a lot of sleepy little ones that night.

We ended the party with dinner from Roscoe's, Blake's favorite, and cake. The icing on the cake was there wasn't a game or a road trip during her party, which meant Daddy was home. Yeah! A pretty spectacular day.

The fact that she's another year older, didn't really hit me until last week. Last Monday she started swimming lessons, big girl swimming lessons. I sit on the bleachers while her teacher takes her all the way to the other end of the pool. What is happening? Sometimes I'm excited that she's going to the bathroom all by herself, or putting on her own pants.  There are other times I wonder, where is that little girl who used to let me rock her to sleep? I miss her a little.

Until next time.

Say Whaaa....?

The seasons are changing. When I say seasons, you know I'm talking regular and post season. As I'm writing this blog I'm watching a tough game. That should explain any glaring grammatical errors.

Along with the changes in basketball come some Blake changes. First, she wearing big girl panties to bed. No more pull ups!! I am thrilled and so is she. Side note, do you think that she'll ever be embarrassed about me discussing her bathroom habits all over the Internet?

Blake's going to turn 3 in a few weeks. No one told me that when they turn three they start asking the tough questions. Over the weekend she hit me with this one:

"Mommy, what is death?"

Say whaaa...? Does anyone really know the answer to that question? I scrambled for a basic answer, but I don't think she really got it.

You wanna know who I blame, Babar. Sure, you're thinking it's an adorable children's book, but you're wrong. Two elephants die in that story and Babar marries his cousin!

I don't have answers for the big questions. I thought I had had at least a year. I guess I need to start getting a plan together for the other big questions.

If you have the answers, I need them.

Until next time. 

Bunnies and Birthdays

With Easter comes birthdays at our house. Josh and Uncle Mitchell have the same birthday, April 6. This information blows Blake's mind. Wait until she finds out Heidi, Hannah, Mommy and Ethan share a birthday!

We talked to Mitchell on the phone, which was a little sad. I wish we could celebrate with him in person. Blake is in awe of Uncle Mitchell. According to her, he's a rock star.

Josh had a game in DC, so we had to postpone our party until Sunday. Mom named the celebration, "Velveeta Fest." Josh has been asking for Velveeta dinners for months, so I decided to finally use his magical ingredient.  I warned Mom and Jack, and they still wanted to come celebrate.  Mom made Velveeta dip and I made a Velveeta casserole. Josh stuffed himself, it was a good day. 

We kicked off our Easter celebration with a visit to the Easter bunny. It wasn't great. Blake was scared, so I told her she didn't have to sit with him. We were walking away and she noticed that the Easter Bunny had suckers. We were headed out when she said she had to go back. Josh put her on his lap and this is what we got:

Notice how she wouldn't touch him. Priceless.

I decided to take Blake to the Craig Park Easter Egg Hunt. I've never been, so I didn't know what to expect. When they blew the whistle all the kids went running, except Blake. She just walked along, taking her sweet time. Check out her winnings:

She got 1 egg and she didn't seem to mind. Almost everything this child does reminds me of Josh, this was one of the few times that I saw a bit of me in her. I'm not sure that being slow and non competitive are good Ellen traits.

Blake found her Easter basket, then it was off to Mimi and Pappy's for Easter dinner. We had a great day. Ethan and Blake played and played. If we would have had Josh with us, it would have been the perfect day. 

Until next time