Play Time!!

On Saturday, Brandon took apart the fan and light fixture in our bedroom to see if he couldn't fix the fan.  As it turns out, he couldn't, because the motor in the fan was completely blown, so I got this box out to contain all the parts and pieces until we figured out what to do about it.  Obviously, though, Elora believed that I got the box out for her.

 

 

What is it about boxes and baskets that make them so irresistible to kids and cats?  Han and Elora both will get into any container left on the floor, if there is even the remotest possibility that they'll fit in it.  (The laundry basket is a favorite.)  I remember being equally fascinated by them when I was a kid.  So much fun to be had. 

Anyway, this is what happened once we got the fan in the box, and shut away in the guest room:

 

 

I love to watch them playing together like this.  He tickles her, and throws her, and swings her, and flips her, and she just laughs and laughs and laughs.  You know, a child's great big belly laugh, the kind that is so absolutely contagious that you'd have to be dead not to laugh too.  And then to see the delight on his face in being able to make her laugh like that, I just love it.

Monday we took her to the park.  It isn't all that far from the house; it's too far to walk, but it's only about a 10 minute drive.  She was rather timid at first, and just walked around the perimeter of the playground with her fingers wrapped around Brandon's.

But then she saw other little people like her.  She's so social!  She said "Hello!" and "Bye!" to everyone she saw, and chatted with anyone who stayed still.

Brandon started out by putting her at the top of the small slide, and she did that a few times.  Then she did some exploring and discovered the big twisty slide.

Then she did a bit more exploring and realized that she could climb up to the top all by herself.  After that she wasn't interested in doing anything else, and she definitely wasn't interested in any help in doing it.  Brandon shadowed her as she climbed, and I sat on the side near the bottom to keep an eye on her as she ran back around.  The best part??  I got to see this every time she came down:

The more she did it, the more static-y her hair got, and I just kept cracking up.  It was great until time to go home.  We were only able to stay about 45 minutes, and she was no where near ready to leave.  Next time, we will make sure to go at a time when we have more time to play.  I'm hoping for more warm weather soon.  It was 73° on Monday; yesterday and today, it only got up to about 40°.  It isn't nearly as fun to go out when you have to bundle up to do it.  More Spring please!!!

A Taste of Spring

 Brandon took Elora for a walk while I was at my OB check on Monday.  This is what I found when I got home:

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the past few days, and we've done our best to get out and enjoy it.  

 

 

 

The high for today was 76°F.  We went for our walk in short sleeves, capris and sandals, and we opened all the windows in the house.

 

Brandon found this little playground the other day when he went for a run, so we went to check it out.  It's way at the back of our housing development (and I mean waaaaaaaaaaaay at the back) so I strapped her in to the umbrella stroller instead of letting her walk.  It was fine on the way there, but she was not happy about getting back in it for the walk back.  Oh well.
I'm really excited about this little play ground.  I just ordered my double stroller today, and I can see myself bringing the girls out here together often this summer.  Perhaps I'm being too optimistic in thinking that I can handle seeing to the little one and playing with Elora, but darn it, I am going to try!  

We're coming down to the wire, when it comes to this baby.  As of Sunday I have only 3 weeks until my due date.  Things are coming together, though.  The car seat got here yesterday, and along with the stroller, I ordered a dresser and crib mattress pad today.  I still want to get a bouncer and a new changing table, but those things can wait.  A little at a time, right?  It will be a huge relief just to get the dresser in there, and all filled up.  They should be here in a week, I can't wait!

Visit from Aunt Peguy

Until yesterday, I hadn't seen Peguy since she left Germany and moved to DC back in April.  We'd planned to try to get together in the fall, back when we thought we would be returning to the States right at the beginning of September.  Since that didn't happen, we had to scrub that plan and push it back until...now.  The drove down yesterday morning, spent the night with us last night, and headed back home this afternoon. 

We had such a good time, it was wonderful to be able to catch up with her!  So much has happened for up both since we last saw one another.  She moved, started a new job, and had her baby, and I missed out on all of it.  Tyler is almost 7 months old now, and I just got to meet him.  Thank goodness for e-mail, Facebook, and digital photos!  Anyway, we went for a walk yesterday because it was gorgeous:

 

and then we spent the evening gabbing, while we played with the kids and made (and enjoyed) guacamole and Mexican pizza:

Today, we went to Abuelo's for lunch, because I didn't want to cook again and Abuelo's is delicious. (If you come to visit, we will probably take you to Abuelo's.)

I don't know about the guys, but I know that Peguy and I had a blast--and so did Elora and Tyler.  Those two were completely intrigued by one another.  It was super cute.  I'll leave you with this video that Peguy got on her camera last night, of the two of them playing.  :)
 

Have a happy Valentine's Day!

Less Than 5 Weeks to Go

I went yesterday for an OB check and an ultrasound, and I thought that since I have pictures to share, that I would do a baby post.   I'm down to just 4 weeks and 4 days until my due date, and I'm feeling it.  My belly is so big that I only have a few maternity shirts that still cover it completely, and I can't wear any of the full-panel maternity pants because none of them come up high enough; the top of the bands cut across my belly, which is not only uncomfortable, it makes me look like I have a giant fat roll under my breasts.  Not cool.  But I've only gained 28 pounds, so that's good.  It's all right out front, in my belly.   I've also gotten to the point that back pain is becoming an issue.  I've actually had very little back pain this time around, I think because I haven't been working and I've been able to rest more than I did last time.  My belly is big enough now, though, that even resting during the day isn't enough to keep it at bay.  I'm spending most evenings with a heat pack strapped to my back, and I usually end up curled on the couch with a pillow under my belly.

Little Miss is doing just great.  Her heart beat is always strong and regular at our check ups, and I feel her moving around in there all the time.  She's not keeping to small squirming movements anymore, either.  She does a lot of stretching and rolling and kicking.  Or maybe that's what she's always done, I just couldn't feel it because she just hadn't gotten big enough yet.  According to the ultrasound measurements, she's up to 5 lbs, 13 oz, which puts her in the 50th percentile for size--smack dab in the middle of average.  (Apparently, I'm the only one who is ridiculously big.)  This is very good news, because there was some concern that she wouldn't grow as quickly as she ought, due to the trouble that we had early in the pregnancy.  They also checked to see that the placenta is still fully attached, which was another potential concern.  Everything was just as it should be there, too. Oh, and her head is down.  I'd been wondering about that.  So long as she keeps her head down, and doesn't try anything crazy in the next 4 weeks or so, then I should be able to have a normal delivery this time.

It was really neat to see the ultrasound.  We haven't had as many this time as we did with Elora, and I hadn't realized how much I'd missed seeing my baby.  Along with everything else, we confirmed that she is definitely a "she", so we shouldn't have any surprises there.  Even better was that the tech doing the ultrasound decided to play around with the 3-D imaging, to try to get me a good image of her face.  There was some stuff floating in front of her face so we weren't able to get any really clear shots, but come on, this picture is awesome!  It is sooooooooo cool what they can do with technology these days.  :)

We're down to the home stretch now.  We'll be going back for check ups once a week from here on out.  It seems like a lot, but it's really only 4 more visits, 5 if she's late.  On the one hand, I feel like it's going to be an eternity.  But on the other...  We still need to get all our ducks in a row, and I'm suddenly feeling like we're running out of time.  Hm, I think it's time to make myself a major to-do list, and get busy...

 

Pictures from our walk today.  The geese came over to say hi.  :)

The Perfect Recipe

 Apparently, the perfect recipe for a good lunch and an easy nap time is to go for a walk right before lunch.  Not the kind of walk where I strap her in to the stroller and wheel her around the neighborhood, but the kind where she does her own walking.  

We don't go too far, just around the block, but it takes us almost an hour to make the circuit.  I guess it works up an appetite, and wears her out enough that she falls asleep quickly when she gets done eating.  Brandon made this particular discovery 2 weekends ago, and further testing of the theory has shown the same results.

 

She pushes her baby in her little pink stroller, and she stops every few feet to pick things up and examine them.  I love it.  She picked up these two seed pods, held up the little one and said "Mama", and then held up the big one and said "Daddy", and then she put them together and handed them to me.   :)

She also likes to point out all the animals we see, and tell me what they say.  Can you find the bird in this picture?

I have no idea what these flowers are thinking, blooming like this in the middle of winter, but I like it.  I'm ready for spring too.  We're supposed to get snow later this week.  I wonder how they'll do.

In Concert for the First Time Ever....

...the Fantastic Miss Elora!!!

She loves music.  Maybe she will be a musician?   Brandon got this on his phone last week, but I only just now saw it, and I knew immediately that I had to share it.  Immediately. 

Look!!! I Did Something Crafty!!

Ok, it was a tiny something, but it was still something!!  I found this tulle in my craft stuff weeks months ago, and decided to use it to make a dress-up wedding veil for Elora.  Then I set it aside and forgot about it until I found it again yesterday.  It really only took me about 15 minutes to feed a needle and thread through one side, and then to sew it on to a little clear comb.  Voila!  A veil!

Unfortunately, Elora refused to model it for me, so I had to improvise.  This is a giraffe that her Aunt Carrie bought for her while we were home, and she has a little tuft of hair that was just perfect for holding the comb on the veil.  The headband completed the look.  Hmm, I'm thinking that maybe Elora should be a little bride for Halloween this year.  :)

That ugly box is full of my "skinny" clothes.  There's isn't room for them anywhere else.

We've gotten more done in the house, too.  At long last, we now have blinds in the bedrooms, and we have a crib in the nursery.  Hooray!  We'd ordered the blinds for the bedrooms at the same time that we ordered blinds for the rest of the house back in November, but we ordered from two different companies.  The first company, Bali, had our blinds to us in less than 2 weeks.  The other company, Levolor, claimed that some of the necessary materials were on back order, and as of mid-January, they wouldn't be ready until sometime in March.  As this was the third time that they'd pushed back the date on us, we decided to just say "forget it".  We canceled that order completely and ordered more of the Bali blinds that we had put up in the rest of the house.  They arrived exactly one week after we ordered them, and the installer got them up for us only a few days after that.   (It's hard to see in this picture because it's so bright, but there is a blind in that window!)

Since our old crib was recalled, we were working with the manufacturer to get it replaced.  They'd initially told us that if we jumped through their hoops that we would receive a $300 voucher to replace the crib with a new one of our choice.  We jumped through the hoops, but instead of sending us a voucher, they sent us a crib.  Apparently, while we were jumping, the "voucher program" expired and the "replacement program" was instituted.  It would have been nice to know that in advance, because we might have tried to jump faster.  Or, at the very least, it would have been nice to have been told that they were changing things up on us.  I was not happy about the change, in part because I had really been looking forward to choosing my own crib, but also because the replacement that they picked out is not white, so it doesn't match.  My OCD is tripping on that one, let me just tell you.  But it is salvageable.  We still need to get a dresser, so I will simply choose a dresser that matches the crib, which, in turn, actually matches the toddler table and swing that my grandfather made, and the rocking chair that my Aunt Christine gave us.   Those things are all being stored at my mom's house for right now, but Brandon's parents will be bringing it up with them when they come this spring.  Take that, OCD!!!

The walls in the nursery are still sadly bare.  Maybe we will get some of that stuff hung this weekend.  And, we have curtains for the bedrooms that can be hung just as soon as we get curtain rods for them.  The casing for the blinds stands nearly 3" from the wall, so we will have to get special brackets for the rods.  I'm hoping that will happen this weekend, too.  I'll post more pictures as we get things done!