Alphabet Obsessed

I've talked on here before of how much I want a cool alphabet mural or something on the wall of Connor's room (too lazy to link back, sorry). I know I'm biased, but the kiddo is pretty smart. He's known his alphabet for about 6 months and loves to hold strangers hostage while he sings it to them. Poor people. They just stand there and I feel like I want to tell them, "don't worry, he sings it really fast". Anyway, he loves pointing out letters when he sees them and I know he'd love something like that. Here's another one I saw today and it's perfect. Maybe a project for while I'm home with Noah and Connor in June/July. Hmmm. Maybe I can include numbers on another wall...he counts to thirty now...though the number thirty is pronounced "twenty ten" in his world.

spearmint baby

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

We decided to surprise Connor with Disney on Ice tickets as an early birthday present. Fortunately, because the Dbacks have a suite at the arena, we were able to get them free...and be comfy in the suite. This is great for me since there is a bathroom in the suite. FYI--also great for potty training. Connor loves Disney, but we weren't positive how he'd react to it 'on ice'. Lucky for us, he loved it.

We took the lightrail to the arena which was another highlight for him...obsessed with trains so that was a huge bonus. I really think he was just as excited about his first train ride as he was about the real surprise.

We were really happy that some of our friends the Tallmans and the Bradleys had the same idea we did so they were in the suite with us. Connor loves the kids so it made it all the more fun for the kids.

me=pregnant. there's no hiding it in your 8th month clearly.

Waiting for the train.

We didn't tell him what the surprise was until we got inside the arena. We showed him the big signs and he was pointing out the characters he loves...Mickey and friends, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, etc. He was getting pretty stoked at this point. I'm really glad we kept it a surprise for him!

This was the best part of the night. This was the very moment that Mickey came out. I love this shot. :) So happy he loved it so much.

i think i took a few pics of every set of characters who came out but i'll avoid posting them

Connor and Olivia Bradley watching the show

Week 32 Update

32 weeks along. Wow. At first, this pregnancy just dragged on and on. I think that could partially be due to the fact that I found out at a normal time this time around. With Connor I didn't really find out I was pregnant until around 9 weeks along--long story, happy ending! With Noah I found out at 6 weeks when I guess most women find out that they are pregnant. Added to those additional 3 weeks, this time around I'm chasing a 3 year old around, potty training and busier than ever. Those things seem like it should make the time pass faster, but it really doesn't.

I've been letting it sink in lately that this will be our last baby. My last time being pregnant. A very small part of me is sad about that, but most of me knows it's the total, perfect, right decision for our family (and my sanity) so I'm pleased with our decision.

So, today I'm 32 weeks along. Exactly 51 days until Noah arrives. So much to do, and agreeably some are more important than others.

* Our front yard is full of weeds. Once they get pulled, we need to toss down that pre-emergent junk cause we're going to have zero time to be pulling weeds this summer. Any volunteers? Can't wait until our boys are old enough to handle this dreaded chore.

* Get Noah's room in order-we've done nothing. seriously, practically nothing.

* Pick up basics like onesies, receivers, towels, a new changing pad cover, a new mattress pad, and other things that he will need. It's mostly small stuff we need the 2nd time around but it's still feeling like a lot of stuff. My office is nice enough that they are putting together a little get together (not a shower...i'm anti-2nd baby shower) so hopefully we'll be able to cross a few of these items off!

* Make a flippin decision on whether or not we need a double stroller. ugh. I really don't want to spend the money on one if we're not going to use it. Connor hasn't done the whole stroller thing in nearly a year, but the way he's been acting lately causes me to reconsider my earlier opinions on those child harnesses/leashes. I'm just sayin'...

* Get through the next 7 weeks of work and come to a place where I can walk away from my job without springing into a panic everytime I think about what I'll be coming back to in July.

* All kinds of Chi O stuff...graduation, senior ceremony, Eleusinia this weekend, book clubs, formal this weekend, the list here is endless I swear.

* Connor's birthday party is next weekend. I haven't ordered a cake yet. Fail. Besides book the location and send the invites I haven't actually done anything yet. This is not like me so I'm kinda freaked. Groan. I still need to decide what I'm doing for favors and get going on those too.

Back to Noah :) He's scheduled to be measuring about 3.75lbs and 16.75inches long. He'll probably gain a third to half of his birth weight between now and his arrival. He's now got real fingernails and real hair so he's looking more and more like a real baby!

I just got home from my doctor's appointment and it was a quick one. I peed in a cup per usual and they listened to Noah's heartbeat. He was going strong at 130, which is great at this point. My BP was great and I'm up 2lbs from my last appointment two weeks ago. I never want to know my actual weight, but the doctor told me that I'm still down from the beginning of my pregnancy which is hilarious and ironic all at the same time. I think that this time around I lost about 20lbs during my first and second trimesters...same as with Connor.

This seems like enough rambling for one night, so I'll wrap it up here. Next appointment is in two weeks!

Easter 2010

This year we didn't really make any big Easter plans, which was nice. This spring is so incredibly overbooked so it was nice that we didn't have too much going on...especially on a holiday weekend!

Saturday afternoon my mom came over and we decorated a couple dozen eggs. This was our first year doing real eggs with Connor. His past two Easters, we've hidden plastic eggs that look like sports balls, but this year we decided that he was ready for the real thing. I decided to put his tie dye shirt on just in case the egg coloring got a bit crazy. He really did well though, and got the hang of the egg dipper thing after just a few times when he lightly tossed the egg into the full cup of permanent dye.

Sunday we got up, made a breakfast casserole in the crock pot and headed over to my dad's house. Corliss, Papa VH, and the three of us had breakfast and then started hunting for eggs. The bunny hides the eggs outside and the baskets inside. Connor loved it and found them all really fast. I think I took a picture of him finding each egg. Overkill? Perhaps.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Grammy Van Hook (my mom) came over last night for dinner and egg coloring. This morning I've got a breakfast casserole in the crock pot and we're taking it over to see Papa Van Hook (my dad) and Tashi (Corliss) soon for breakfast and easter egg hunting. Still deciding the rest of the day :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter, no matter what you do.

Flashback Friday

Here are some more pics of Connor from two years ago. These are so fun to look at while also making me uber-emotional at how quickly he's grown. I really hated when people told me that when he was a baby. Such an annoying thing to say to someone, but so true I suppose :)

Connor and his cousin Jacob

this was early March when he was just teetering on walking. He'd go back and forth between Jeff's leg here and the edge of the pack and play, without taking a step but managing to stay balanced while going from one to the other. It was just a matter of days from this pic!

so happy! man, he loved those gerber graduate puff things. i can honestly vouch that they're not horrible.

the face

falling asleep at the bar :)

not sure which i love more...the madras pants or that belly.

Week 31 Update

I officially have 58 days to go until Noah arrives. Wow. Just in case anyone was wondering why there's a discrepency between the ticker at the top of the blog and the creepy floating baby to the right, there is a reason. The one at the top is a countdown from my actual due date (june 1st) so that I could have something showing development of where he's actually at each week. Since I'm a scheduled delivery, if I went by that date all of his developmental milestones would be off a week or so. The creepy baby ticker on the right shows the number of days left until May 27th, d-day, delivery day. Now that I've written this all out, I'm guessing no one was wondering but that's ok.

I'm officially 31 weeks gestation today and that's pretty exciting. I haven't had any braxton hicks at all which is great, since I never had them with Connor and wouldn't know what they were if I felt them. My goal this time around is still to avoid feeling a single contraction so we'll see.

Noah is still consistently acitve and moves around all day long. At this point, he should be weighing in at 3.3 lbs and about 16 inches long. His weight would be like carrying 4 oranges in your arms. He's currently headed into a large growth spurt though and should be gaining lots of size over the next weeks. I can tell he's bigger. My belly is solid and Noah takes up a lot of room in there right now. It's funny, I feel like Connor would react to something I ate or drank after 20 minutes or so but I swear Noah starts moving around within moments of eating or drinking anything at all. Maybe this means that he'll eat more than Mickey chicken nuggets, hot dogs and mac and cheese when he is three. So, sleeping has become much more difficult in the past week. I'm up and down to the bathroom a few times a night as usual, but getting comfortable is next to impossible. Those pregnancy pillows are a waste as far as I'm concerned, so I didn't even bother this time around.

We made a wee bit of headway in Noah's room this weekend. We actually went in there which is a big step right now. We managed to get two bags of our junk out that were just being stored in there and take them into the garage...when they will actually make it over to Goodwill, well I just don't really know. His mattress is now in his crib and his sheet is on. Not huge steps, no. It's really odd seeing the mattress that high up in the crib, considering it's been dropped to the absolute lowest setting for over two and a half years now. Of course, this prompted Connor to want to get in the crib so I plopped him in there and he rolled around talking some gibberish about it being Noah's bed. Cute.

I love the first pic, true toddler in motion jumping in the crib. He even brought some of his fav animals into Noah's crib so that his brother could love them too. Ah, brothers.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

We were shooting for a low key weekend this past weekend. On Friday afternoon, we had nothing but Connor's school Spring Carnival that evening and swim Saturday morning. Awesome. But...a coworker offered us two free tickets to the Renaissance Fair and we grabbed at them. Those tickets are $20 each so come on!

So, we headed out there (to BFE) on Sunday morning. It was the last day of the fair, so this was our last chance for turkey legs. About halfway out there I got a FB message from a couple friends saying that they didn't think the fair was open due to a fire there earlier that day. Super. I managed to get in touch with someone at the fair who said that there was in fact a fire, but they'd be opening for sure...only half an hour later than normal. Score for us since we left the house about 30 minutes later than we'd hoped. We'd still be there right as they were opening. If we'd driven all the way out there and it was closed I'd be so pissed...I was imagining that hilaroious scene in one of my fav movies Drop Dead Gorgeous when they get to the big pageant and it's gone bankrupt or whatever. Devastation party of one.


We looked all over for the damage when we were there and finally saw it at the end. I guess a kitchen caught fire and spread to a food vendor or something. Pretty bad damage, but no one was hurt and I guess it's good that it happened at the very end of the festival.

yes, i took a pic of the fire damage. and i wasn't the only one.

Connor loved the rubber band propelled boats, and we ended up getting him a wood choo choo train set.

I am pretty sure he thought these piggy banks were actual pigs. We'd just been to a petting zoo the night before and he snuck up on these banks really quiet and tried to pet them. Hilar.

Besides the carousel, I think this was his first real ride. He did great and loved it. Everytime he passed us, he smiled and said "Hi Mama, Hi Papa".

Family Shot - even Noah made it into this one...just look at my big belly!

Dada and Connor watching the acrobatics show. It was pretty amazing and had a bit of adult humor that was lost on the kiddos.

There are basically two reasons I want to go to the Renaissance Fair...to mock everyone who dresses up and for this turkey leg. Check, check.

so the entire time we were there he wanted so badly to ride on this swan/duck ride. we told him we'd do it on our way out...and then he fell asleep on our way to the exit. he was exhausted so we made the call to not wake him for the ride. Right before we left the fair, we bought him a cookie to soften the blow of not getting to ride the swan/duck thing. He woke up when he got in the car and after about 4 miles freaked out that he didn't get to ride the duck. I shoved the cookie at him and haven't heard about the duck since.

Parenting skills, we gots them

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I swore that this year, I'd calm down on the birthday planning obsession. Connor's first and second birthdays were planned within an inch of their lives and I'm left feeling totally drained and annoyed that I spent the entire time being an uber-planner and not just enjoying the celebration. When I suggested to my friend Katy that I was going to set up a photo station where I could take a picture of each of the kids who came to the party and make them little pretend drivers licenses, she reeled me in...as usual.

We decided to go a bit smaller scale this year and avoid the 60+ person invite list and to downscale the huge ramada we reserve every year. We've had a tough time, but invites went out this week so it's officially a smaller party. We let Connor choose his theme, so I made him Lightning McQueen invitiations and he loves them.

I still can't honestly wrap my head around the idea that he'll be 3 in less than a month. Just doesn't seem possible to me. Connor skipped right over the terrible twos for the most part and has never been big on tantrums...until this past month. OMG. He flails around, spits, screams and runs. Completely horrible. Made even more difficult by being 7 months pregnant and totally unable to run after him or strong arm him into doing what I tell him. I'm torn between being pissed off by his pure defiance and holding back my laughter watching him throw such a hissy. Mostly I'm pissed and embarrassed that I've suddenly become the parent to "that kid".

it's still amazing to me how much he changed from his first birthday to his second. I'm anxious to see these against the 3rd birthday photos!

Week 30 Update

Ahhh, relief! Yesterday's appointment went great. Our doctor said he was "pleasantly surprised" at the positive results and so were we. We had the ultrasound first and the tech was great. Don't get me wrong, good doctors are amazing, but it's the techs and nurses who really make or break a doctors visit...and a delivery for that matter! She knew it was our 2nd baby, and that it was our 5th ultrasound with Noah but she still took the time to point out things like his stomach, veins, blood flow, parts of the face, boy junk, etc. So appreciated!

Now, to the important stuff...it's rare to measure exactly the same as your gestation, but oddly enough yesterday at my appointment Noah was measuring right at 29 weeks, 6 days...as was my amnio fluid. Since today I'm exactly 30 weeks, yesterdays measurements were right on the money. Such great news that my amniotic fluid was right on...we could see him swallowing it and his kidneys looked great as well since those were the concerns. So, all is well in my belly and my due date is staying the same. My uterus is still measuring a bit bigger than 30 weeks externally but no one is concerned with that so I'm not either. Maybe I can finally be past all the complications and concerns of this pregnancy...the hyperemesis gravidarum, the stomach flus, the previa, the accreta and now the concern with amniotic levels. Am I having my tubes tied when they deliver Noah? Why yes I am. Two amazing boys is just perfect and pregnancy just doesn't love me so I think I'll call it a day!

The rest of the appointment went great. Noah's heartbeat was at 148 and my BP was perfect. We learned that Noah is already 3 pounds, which is exactly half the size Connor was when he was born and I still have 8-ish weeks left...looks like he'll surely be a bigger baby than his brother. Hard to guess just how big, but my guess right now is that he'll be right around 7 pounds. We didn't really have any other questions since the concern of the measurement discrepancy was gone but we learned that i'm now to the point where my appointments will be every two weeks. This is the point where it feels like you live at your drs office. After a few of these every two week appts, I'll bump to once a week appointments where they'll start to check my cervix for progress. I think they still do that even though i'm a scheduled section--no idea.

Here are a few of the pics from yesterdays appointment - Noah at 30 weeks! He still didn't really cooperate with the tech by keeping his hands up by his face and kicking wildly so it was tough to get good measurements at times but she managed. He's still really cramped in there and the placement of my placenta sometimes made it difficult to get good face pics.

here's a profile shot. he's laying on his back and his face in the middle-right of the photo

Noah's foot - seriously guessing these monsters are going to come out size 5 or something.

this is why i feel like i'm being beat up all day. feet on the left, arms punching in the middle, face on the right :) Those feet are huge!

love this 3D shot of his face

Brothers :)

I love that they are already so similar. Funny thing though...that's Noah's hand up to his face, but it's Connor's foot up in his face!

Otherwise, not too much new stuff going on. I'm really starting to need some help getting out of comfy chairs and up off the floor when i'm playing with Connor. I overdid it this weekend and pulled weeds for about 45 minutes and am still really sore. There are apparently still ab muscles under this baby belly and they are not pleased with me right now. I know I shouldn't be doing that much right now, but I took advantage of Jeffrey not being home to tell me otherwise! I'm at that point where sleeping is becoming increasingly more and more difficult so I'm pretty exhausted.

That's it for now. Thank you everyone for the positive thoughts yesterday...and throughout. We really appreciate it!

29 weeks, 6 days and a bit of anxiety...

So, 3 weeks ago when I wrote this I wasn't dreading todays appointment. Even two weeks ago, I was looking forward to my last (hopefully) ultrasound. But, since then I've talked to a few people way more educated on medicine than I am and now I'm a bit concerned. By a bit I should clarify and say that I'm nearing scared right now. A sedative could be helpful actually.

I think that when you're told that there's even a possibility of something being wrong or up with something health related, especially the health of your child, your internet access should immediately be taken away. Immediately. You shouldn't be allowed to google "too much amniotic fluid" or "polyhydramnios". Mind you...neither of these terms were told to me by my actual doctor, but a pediatrician/close friend mentioned that my uterus may be measuring so far ahead because I have excess amnio fluid and that maybe Noah isn't able to swallow and process it like he should be doing. My BFF, a labor & delivery nurse confirmed that she'd be concerned with the same thing and so now i'm nearly convinced that's what is going on. Crazy town. I haven't even talked to anyone about how concerned I am. Jeff kinda, but my concern immediately conveys into downright panic in him so I'm trying to play it cool for the sake of all involved.

My appointment is today at 2:30 and time just isn't really passing quickly enough. I'm really hoping that if he was having swallowing issues or even kidney issues it would have been seen in the super in-depth level two ultrasounds that were done at 18 and 24 weeks. They looked at each and every organ for so long the ultrasound became painful. That's what I'm concentrating on...that if something were wrong with his kidney function that they would have seen something during one of those long ultrasounds.

I think in the back of my head I keep thinking, everything will be fine. It's probably based on human error or even the subjectivity of measuring my uterus from the outside and comparing it to Noah's ultrasound measurement a few weeks earlier. That's what I keep trying to focus on, but then there's this nagging, horrible, negative thought in my head saying that something could be wrong and that I should take a moment to prepare myself for that. I'm really hoping that my doctor will be able to put our minds at ease immediately following the ultrasound today and that we won't have to wait until another appointment.

So that's my ranting for the day. I'm scared and time isn't going fast enough today. That's pretty much it. And I lost a contact in the shower this morning so i'm wearing my glasses which has thrown me off my A-game.

6 1/2 hours and counting...Thanks for listening :)

Flashback Friday

I just found this video on an old memory card last night and had to post it for Flashback Friday. When Connor and Aidan turned one, their teachers threw them a little birthday party. Cupcakes, presents, balloons, decorations, etc. It was adorable. I left my camera with them to take lots of pics, but never realized they took this video.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

...except that it's Thursday. Long story short I bought a new camera in August. Last weekend it suddenly died. I hoped it was the battery, no such luck of course. It's now on its way back to Kodak to either fix or give us a brand new one...Let's all cross fingers on the brand new one shall we? So I haven't taken a single pic since this weekend which is odd for our family and I was worried that I lost the pics I had on there. When I realized I should just take the memory card out and my pics would be on there I was relieved. Dumb. Anyway, there are probably not going to be many pics until we get the camera back so these will have to hold us all over until then!

We went to Landon's 2nd birthday party this past weekend at Desert Breeze park which we love. Unfortunately, we only had the camera for the first part of the party so there's not a ton here :)

this pic cracks me up. doesn't it look like he's doing the hula?

Connor and Aidan

birthday boy Landon walking along the train tracks

Aidan, Kaci and Connor

The Bffs

Jeffrey and I having dinner to celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary. In a really good way it seems like much longer that we've been together. We'll have our 11 year "dating anniversary" this summer :) Wow, i'm really pregnant in this pic BTW. Super.