First Kasilof Beach Outing

The weather continues to be very nice, at least in comparison with the rest of the winter. ;)

So, on Sunday, March 27th, we decided to go for a little drive to the Kasilof beach to see what it looks like this time of year. It's only about 15 minutes from our house, so it's nice when we want to get out...and take the dogs with us. We frequent it quite often in the summer.

The Bug took his bucket, b/c it is the beach after all...and he found some sand to play with. Yeah!!

The rest of the beach sorta looked like a graveyard for all the little icebergs that were beached when the tide went out. It's kinda cool looking.

I'm just glad we were able to get out, and can't wait to go back there this summer and fly a kite on the beach. The Bug will LOVE it!!

Playin' Outside

Just to remind myself that there is life outside of basketball...I took pics while The Bug was playing outside. He's started to love watching the dogs, and tries to get them to chase the occasional stick (when he can find one). :) The last pic is of him eating snow. He loves to eat the snow...I just have to make sure it's not yellow before he eats it. Good thing our dogs are pretty good about not using our yard as their "pit stops".

The nice thing is he isn't demanding to put on his snowpants anymore, which makes things a little easier. These pics were taken on March 25th...notice the HUGE amount of snow we still have!

Ugh.

But, it is warming up a bit...so it's a sign it will be leaving shortly...I hope!

32 Weeks!!

Me being "chipper" about being 32 weeks along. I think I look, and I know I feel, A LOT bigger in person than I look in this pic. Aren't pics supposed to ADD 10lbs?

A little more accurate representation of how I feel at times. :)

Her sweet little face. Her eyes are closed, so I have no idea who she looks like yet. Just have to wait and see her in person.

Cute little foot.

Well, we are 32 weeks today! We had our Dr.'s appt. yesterday, and it went well. Needless to say, Doc was more than a little relieved we had made it to 32 weeks. He gave my shoulder a squeeze and said, "Well, if you decide to go into labor now, at least we know your baby would be ok." He seems a little more concerned with this pregnancy about pre-term labor than with The Bug, but it's ok. We are just glad we are where we are at.

As far as the appt...everything is checking out ok. My blood pressure was really good, though I was a little concerned a couple of weeks ago, and my weight gain was much better this month...Woo Hoo!! The little monster is now head down, though I didn't think she had rotated yet. It's amazing how similar a little head and a little butt feel when pressed up against your right rib or sticking straight out your side. :) She's still at a bit of an angle, but at least she's head down. We got the best u/s pic of her sweet little face. It's the best pic we've gotten of her face the entire pregnancy...we didn't get this good of one with The Bug even. I would have asked Doc to try the 4D, but I didn't want to mess up the good shot we had while he continued to try and figure out his new machine...so I didn't even ask. You could see her making sucking motions with her mouth, and The Bug loved watching it. He kept saying "Baby sista moobing!" It was so dang cute. :) I'm measuring 35" but only 32 weeks along...so I think she's gonna be a bit bigger than The Bug at birth. We also scheduled the date for the C-section about 4 days before our due date. She'll be born about a week later than The Bug, so that will make her bigger too. Scheduling that close to the due date I could go into labor on my own, but we'll deal with that if it happens.

This little monster is still very active and gets the hiccups at least once a day. The poor thing never gets good naps. If I don't feel her move after about 30 minutes I'm poking and prodding her to wake up and move. Then she wakes up and starts pushing back...maybe a little annoyed I woke her up. :) We don't have a name for her yet. We aren't too concerned. We've found a couple of names we like, but not just one that we've settled on yet. Maybe we'll have to wait and see her before we decide what to name her. Guess we'll just wait and see.

I'm feeling pretty dang good, minus the typical third trimester symptoms. Yes, I'm swollen up like a balloon. Yes, my back hurts. Yes, my bladder is the size of a pea. Yes, I have monstrous headaches (but I've determined they are related to my chocolate intake). But...all these things are just reminders I'm pregnant so I have ZERO room to complain...unless it's to Shayne and he just rubs my back and listens like a good husband. It has been a tougher pregnancy, but I'm not in my 20's having a baby, so I am just grateful for all the little "reminders".

Only 7 1/2 more weeks to go!! We are excited to meet our sweet little girl.

Big Boy Bed

The Bug loves his crib. Seriously. He loves it. He's never even attempted to climb out of it. Some mornings, or especially after a nap, I'll go in and ask if he wants to get up, and he tells me, "No." Then just chills in his crib for a couple of more minutes before he's ready to get out.

But, we know he needs to transition to a big boy bed, b/c we are going to need the crib again at some point. So, we decided to move him to the boy boy bed before the baby came, so there's one less thing that has to change in his life come May.

One of Shayne's co-workers, Jeannette Pugh, is an avid quilt maker, even has her own long-arm quilting machine. They also live up the road from us and request "Puddles Time" (that's their nickname for him...Puddles) at least once a month. They love having him come visit. Well, she decided to make him a quilt for his new big boy bed. It turned out AWESOME! It has 3 different fishing prints: one is fly rods, one is dry flies, and one is fish. Then the solid colors are quilted in big fish patterns. It's seriously so cool. They gave it to him one night when they requested to baby sit, and Shayne & I went out to eat.

So, on March 19th we bought some fun "Cars" and "Toy Story" sheets to make the bed cool for him, and then we made the big boy bed. It's actually the futon in his room, just folded out. The Bug was all over the bed as we were trying to make it, and thought it was so cool. But, when he realized he wasn't going to be sleeping in his crib, he wasn't so fond of it. It's taken about a week for him to adjust to his new bed, but he's getting better. He rolled off the bed as he was waking up the first morning, so we've put pillows on the side to keep him contained and he's been fine since. He still doesn't get off his bed until we go in and get him, it's pretty funny. In fact, when he's ready to get up he'll say, "Get down. Get down." But he just lays there and says it...doesn't actually climb off his bed.

Funny boy.

It was sad for Shayne and I to see our baby boy sleeping in a big boy bed, but we know it's part of him growing up and we are having so much fun watching him grow so it makes it a little easier.

Knowing we are going to be adding another baby to the crib helps too. :)

Melting Snow Puddles

True to toddler boy form, this kid can notices every puddle and rocks he sees. It doesn't hurt that there are so completely obvious with all the snow around.

Anyway...this kid has found the small area where the truck is parked as a mecca of rock throwing puddle happiness. The snow has started to melt, which is WONDERFUL, and it makes for lots of entertainment.

After getting out of the car one day, he demanded to stay outside and throw rocks into the puddle that had accumulated from snow melt. I took groceries inside and came back out with the camera. He had already decided to experiment with walking in the water. (Can I just tell you I LOVE his little Keen shoes?! Even after he had walked through this skinny puddle multiple times, his feet were still dry...LOVE THEM!) Anyway...there was still a thin sheet of ice under the melted water in places, and I kept telling him to be careful, that it was slick, but what do mom's know?

Needless to say, he slipped and fell belly first into the water/snow. He was not happy about it, but it obviously wasn't enough to deter him from continuing to throw rocks in the water. I finally had to tear him away from the puddle, b/c his fingers, cheeks, and nose where a nice bright red color, and I knew he had to be cold b/c his clothes were all wet.

But...we have played in the puddle and thrown many rocks since.

Gotta love little boys.

Backyard Bird Watchers

Nut Hatch

Gray Jay's

So, we've had some bird feeders for a couple of years now, but we aren't the best at keeping the bird feeder filled. It doesn't help that we usually have a bird-feeder-robber in the form of a squirrel who lives in our trees.

But, there was some bird suet on sale one day, so I bought some and put them up. It only took a couple of days before we had some avian visitors. Shortly after, Shayne refilled our bird feeders and got a new one as well. They are all in our backyard, and you can see them perfectly from the window by the kitchen sink. It didn't take long before we had all sorts of birds visiting our bird feeders, which has been fun for us. We enjoy checking out the different species of birds visiting our feeders.

We have a little set of binoculars by the window to check them out, and The Bug loves to get up on the a chair and ask for the "en-ot-u-wars" and look through them out the window. It's pretty funny. And he's loved the other visitors we've gotten as well...a squirrel (not stealing from the feeders, just eating off the ground), and a rabbit also eating the bird seed off the ground.

These pics are only of two species...Nut Hatches, and Gray Jay's (aka: Camp Robbers). We've also had Black Capped Chickadees, Common Redpoll, Pine Siskins, either Boreal Chickadees or Chestnut Backed Chickadees (not sure yet which they are), and a Downy Woodpecker. I'm sure we'll see more, like Junco's, Robin's, and hopefully later in the year some Hummingbird's (we're going to put up a Hummingbird feeder this year too.)

Anyway...while we are are not avid bird watchers, we do have fun watching the little birds outside of our kitchen window...and The Bug likes it too.

Can you hear the Baby Sista?

So, I had been concerned about my blood pressure and wanted to check it to make sure it wasn't climbing higher than normal. Luckily for me, I'm married to a nurse who happens to have a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. Well, my blood pressure turned out to be fine, but while the stethoscope was out The Bug became intrigued with it. I showed him how to listen to our hearts, and he thought that was cool. Then he saw me trying to see if I could hear any movement in my belly, so he had to try that out too.

He climbed up into my lap and sat there trying to listen to his "Baby Sista". It was pretty cute.

His latest thing he does to my belly is walk up to it, pet it soft, and then say, "Baby Sista payin toys! Baby sista payin wif Wachwan's toys!" I keep asking him if he's going to let her play with is toys, and he says he is, but we'll see how well he shares when she starts taking his toys. I'm more worried he thinks he's got an instant playmate coming out of my belly. He's going to be sorely disappointed when she comes out and can't play with him and his toys.

Potty Trained!!!

Are these pictures a little too risqué for a non-private blog? I'm a little concerned about posting them, but there are no private parts showing, just a little crack...but it is a naked toddler, and it's my naked toddler...but he's so dang cute. Hmmm...

Have I mentioned I have the bestest little toddler boy EVER?!?! I'm not sure why I haven't blogged this before, but my little boy has been potty trained since before Christmas.

I knew he was ready for the whole potty training thing when at about 18 months he stood up in the tub while taking a bath and said, "Mommy, I pee!" Then promptly peed in the bathtub. I knew then that if he knew what that feeling was and knew how to control it and release it, he was ready to do that in a toilet. But, I didn't want to push him too hard for fear he would hate it and it would take longer than if I just let him do it when he was really ready. So, we introduced him to the potty and he slowly took to it. It also helped we had a wonderful fall, and so it was warm enough for him to run outside naked and pee on the rocks...he thought it "Rocked!!"

I wanted to get more serious about potty training, but b/c of all the substituting I was doing from Sept-November, I wasn't able to be consistent so I just decided to wait until we would be home every day for like 2 weeks. That happened toward the end of November, and he just picked it up w/o a problem. Yes, we had the occasional accident, but seriously he did awesome. He only had like 2 or 3 poopy accidents before he recognized how to tell me he had to do that in the toilet too, and now he's only had one poopy accident (sorry Annie) since after Christmas. He still has a bad day here and there where he's not very good at getting to the toilet soon enough, but over all it's been awesome! Now it's getting warmer his favorite thing is to go outside and pee on the snow with dad. It's not fair being a boy.

So, he's a little short in order to stand and pee into the toilet so we started by having him stand on our feet...and he would always say as we were walking into the bathroom, "Mom, standa feet? Standa feet?" Then, I got a stool for him, so he loves to pull the stool up and stand on it on his own(after I've helped him with his pants). His absolute favorite is when I've stripped him of his pj's in the morning and he can go ENTIRELY on his own...he usually yells at me to leave the bathroom so he can do it on his own. That's what these pics are...he had just gone on his own and I told him to give me a thumbs up, and this is what I got.

So, while we still use a diaper at night, he's totally diaper free for naps and during the day. Yeah for me!! I will only have one baby in diapers...I'm so excited!

What a smart little boy we have!!

Blogging Updates

I'm paying for neglecting our blog for so long. However, b/c I print off our blog each year, I'm determined to update it so I have documentation of our life...this makes up for my lack of journaling. :)

So...for those who even care (which would not be many of you and I totally understand, I wouldn't care either), here's some links to some of the updating I've been up:

August: I actually posted these about 2 months ago, but neglected to say so, and there is such a cute pic of The Bug in his rain outfit when we went to Quartz Creek, I had to make mention of it here for the grandma's who will appreciate the pic. There's also great pics of blueberry picking and eating brownie batter.

November: Make sure you check out the post about Shayne's Nursing awards and of if you are a Pond...there's some fun pics of The Bug playing with Grammy Jo in the snow.

January: There are some posts if you check this blog at all you would have read, but there are a couple others when we went to visit the Tuia's in Anchorage.

K--now I only have October and September left to blog. October won't take me long...however, September is going to be a BEAST! B/c it rained all summer long, by the time it stopped raining it was almost September, and then September was BEAUTIFUL!! So, we spent A LOT of time outside. And...Shayne's dad came up to visit, and it was The Bug's birthday. I seriously have like over 150 pics to post for just September. Eeek! Needless to say, I'll do October first, and then slowly work on September.

In the meantime, catch up with our life, last year. :)

Chillin' w/ Dad

I love how The Bug has his feet up on Tipz. Who needs a recliner when you've got a dog who lays at your feet?

I think I told him to say, "Cheese!" here...and he obliged me. :)

So, when Shayne gets home from work or basketball practice his favorite thing do do is hang out with his kid. This particular night, they were watching some movie The Bug had requested. This is right before Shayne had to be gone for the Region Basketball Tournament, so he's pretty tired of basketball at this point...and so was I!

I just liked the pics of my boys hanging out.

28 Weeks!!

Aaahhh...here I am at 28 weeks. I've been getting more people telling me I'm glowing, but I'm not feelin' it. :) We went to Doc's yesterday and everything looks great. We did get an u/s pic, but I'm not sure what I did with it. And...it was just a pic of her skull, nothing too exciting. I'm measuring at 30", which is 2" larger than I wish I was, b/c you're supposed to measure about the same as weeks you are along...30 is larger than 28. But, I'm not complaining...at least not right at the moment.

However, I must admit, I'm more uncomfortable this time than I was with The Bug. Shayne informed me the other day it's b/c I'm older. Hmmm...gotta love a "wonderful" husband who sometimes speaks before he thinks. :) Anyway...

This little she-monster has been laying either diagonally or transverse through the whole pregnancy...and she's still not changing positions. So, it's so much fun to feel her head lying right under my right ribs and pushing against my right lung...so much fun. :) I'm also having way more contractions (not the "Oh, crap, am I in labor" kind) than I did with The Bug, and they tire me out. By the end of the day all my back muscles are tight and cramped up b/c my stomach muscles have been pulling on them all day. In fact, this pic was taken last night and I could hardly stand up straight to take the pic, b/c my back muscles were so tight.

I'm also starting to deal with surges in my blood pressure and a little bit of swelling, but it always goes back down, so I'm not too concerned...yet. The biggest thing stressing me out is my weight gain! I'm only like 5 pounds away from the max I gained with The Bug and I have 12 more weeks. Not a good sign. But, when I think about it I was SUPER active while pregnant with The Bug. It was summer, and I hiked, fished, canoed, camped, taught horse-back riding lessons, and hike and fished a lot more. However, this time it's winter and all I've really done is chase a 2 year old around and sit on gym bleachers watching basketball. So, that's my excuse, but I still don't like it.

I've had some questions about my cerclage and if I have to have it put in again. The nice thing about my Trans-Abdominal Cerclage (TAC), as opposed to a Vaginal Cerclage, is that it is permanent. So, when I had my abdomen cut open to insert it at 12 weeks with The Bug, I knew I wouldn't have to go through it again. It's made out of Teflon and Kevlar (eeekkk...I'll probably die of some sort of cancer now!) so I'm pretty much going to die with it in. But...it insures I don't have to worry about my cervix dilating and losing our baby. I just have to have another C-section...which I'm totally ok with as long as I get a healthy full-term baby.

We still don't have a name, but I haven't been as concerned about it the last month as I was before. I figure if we have to bring her home and call her "Peanut" or "Sweet Pea" for awhile until we come up with a name, it's not the worse thing in the world. I've heard lots of cute names, just not "The One".

So...here's my update on this fun miracle pregnancy. I've loved going back and reading my posts from my pregnancy with The Bug, so I'm making sure to document this one as well.