Summer Fun

Eleanor's little friend Elijah turned 2 on Friday!  He is exactly a week older than her; we met his parents in our childbirth class.  He had a fun little birthday party and Eleanor enjoyed every second of it.  I cannot believe our babies are turning 2!

The kids were all playing happily when somebody announced that it was time for cupcakes.  Eleanor immediately dropped her book and took off as fast as she could for the table with the "happy cakes".  ("Happy birthday" + cupcakes = "happy cakes".  Best term ever.)  She put her little face right by the table and stared at the cupcakes until it was time for us to sing and for Elijah to blow out his candles.  Finally, she got to enjoy her happy cake!

Eleanor has had oatmeal in the past and liked it well enough, but this morning she suddenly seemed to love it! She ate an entire adult serving (in addition to her scrambled egg and watermelon) and even licked the bowl clean.  What a mess!

3 years

Yesterday was Ada's third birthday - I can't believe it has been 3 years since I last held her.  Of course, we went to her beach at sunrise as usual to remember her on her birthday.

The day really wasn't hard at all.  In some ways that makes me sad, because it feels like I must love her less somehow.  I know that's not true though; it's just how grief is over time.  Eventually you get used to it and you can remember the person fondly without feeling much pain.  We enjoyed our time at the beach remembering her.

The third trimester is here

Well, I am definitely in the third trimester - my body literally seemed to change overnight!  One night last week I woke up at 12:30 with horrible heartburn.  I've only ever had it before during my third trimester with Eleanor, but it was never that bad!  Fortunately I had some TUMS, so no big deal.  Well, it woke me up again at 2:30! Then, when I woke up in the morning, my right foot was swollen - that's the first time I've had swollen feet during this pregnancy, though I did have them a lot during the last few months with Eleanor and it was almost always the right foot.  (No blood pressure issues at all though, thankfully!)  And, when I went to put my wedding rings on (I have never been able to sleep with them on), they wouldn't fit!  Of course, I couldn't wear my rings after 20 weeks with Ada or Eleanor so it was no surprise, but I thought it was pretty crazy that everything happened in the span of about 8 hours.  Thankfully all of those symptoms have mostly disappeared by now - I am wearing my rings at the moment - but I have a feeling they'll keep popping up over the next 3 months.

Yesterday after Hunter came home I went out to Target to return some stuff and look for a few things.  I love Target, and I can easily spend over an hour there when I'm by myself, but yesterday I didn't stay long because  it felt like I had a cantaloupe strapped to my belly.  My back started to hurt and my sides started to ache - I do not remember feeling like this at 6 months pregnant before!  I guess I'm just getting older.  ;)  It's all totally worth it of course, though I don't think Hunter's going to get his wish of us having 2 or 3 more children!

I had an ultrasound last week and Arthur is measuring BIG.  Well, mainly his HEAD is big!  It's off the charts (not a surprise or concern), he is "VERY tall" (don't know the percentile), and he's around the 77th percentile for weight.  I honestly don't know how much stock I put in their weight estimates, because they told me Eleanor was going to be really big and at least 8 lbs, but she was only 7lb3oz.  She was really tall at 21" though and also had a very large head, so maybe that's what threw off their estimate.  I'm kind of hoping the same thing is happening this time.  Still, I'm getting a little nervous about pushing that head out since we had to use the vacuum with Eleanor and she was only 38 weeks.  I'm afraid my OB will want to induce early again, which I really don't want to do this time, but I will do it if I'm afraid that the alternative is them having to do a c-section because his head is too big.  Hunter and I are both more relaxed with this pregnancy, but he's still more paranoid then I am and is leaning more towards the idea of induction.

The nesting instinct also kicked in big time last week!  I went in to dust and vacuum one room, and three hours later I had 4 bags of stuff for Good Will, one bag of trash, and I had completely rearranged a closet in a different room.  I keep noticing things everywhere that need to be cleaned or organized!

Yesterday we had a little scare, but everything is completely fine.  I was stopped at a stoplight and about to turn right onto a major road.  I started to go, then changed my mind when I saw how fast the oncoming traffic was coming, and I stopped.  Well, the person behind me was looking to her left, also seeing if she could turn, and didn't look ahead at ME as she rolled forward.  My Corolla got a little dent in it and her Suburban was undamaged.  We had to wait out in the heat with a million mosquitoes for about an hour, but everything is fine now.  Hunter asked me at least 20 times if I'm sure I'm fine, and I promise him I am.  I've felt Arthur move plenty since it happened.  I think Eleanor has caused more trauma to my belly just by squirming around on my lap.  Anyway, this was my first accident ever, but at least I wasn't at fault and the lady who hit me was super nice about it.

Another morning with Eleanor

These are just some pictures and a video that I took of Eleanor this morning.  She is starting to really look like a 2-year-old to me!

Watching "the fire truck song" on YouTube

Taking her dog on a walk

I got some really funny poses!

Changing the "finga-wingo's" diaper - she loves to use a real wipe and one of her diapers

Giving "finga-wingo" a bath

(The metal sink comes out...not sure where it is at the moment)

And here's a little video of her playing with the flamingo

Our visit to a farm!

Eleanor "reads" to herself

Eleanor reads to herself like this all the time, but I can never catch it on video because the camera distracts her. I finally got it though! Here she is, reading a Curious George story and an owl story to herself. If you know the stories really well, you can actually sort of follow along.

(In the George book he plays with the bunny, then the bunny "takes off like a shot", then George gets sad and figures out a way to catch it. In the owl story, the mother owl leaves the babies one night and they worry about where she is, but she comes back with food at the end.)

It's July?!

I can't believe it's July already! This month marks 3 years since we last held Ada, Eleanor's second birthday, and the beginning of Arthur's third trimester. All of these things are rather unbelievable to me! Here are a few of the latest developments around here:

Eleanor is suddenly very into climbing. I constantly find her standing up in the dining room chairs, her little chairs at her table, and even standing on top of the table in her room so she can see out of her window. This all sounds kind of scary, but she is actually VERY slow and cautious about it all so I'm kind of okay with it. (Of course I tell her to sit down most of the time, but only because I feel like that's what a parent should say, not because I think she'll actually fall.) Most kids reach this stage much earlier, so I'm actually just kind of relieved that she is doing it. That might sound weird, but she's always been a little slower with her physical milestones (crawling at 10 months, walking at almost 15) so I'm just glad to know that she can climb. After all, she still can't jump or truly run.

Another little accomplishment of hers that is great for me is that she has learned to climb into her car seat all by herself! I just have to give her a little boost to get up into the car (though she can almost do this alone), and then she climbs over to her seat and sits down. An advantage of having a small car, I guess! It takes her a minute or two, but I use that time to unload groceries, etc. Now if only I could teach her to buckle herself in... We will be turning her around to be forward facing about a month before the baby is due (so she can get used to it), because there is no way she can be rear facing on the side of my Corolla, but by then she will certainly meet the new recommendation of 2 years and 30 lbs. I just hope she can still climb into her seat then. We seriously considered buying a new car to avoid this, but it's just not a good option for us right now. Oh, and another little minor car safety trick she's learned is to keep her hand on the gas cap door (does it have an official name?) while I'm unlocking and opening her door. It keeps her from wondering around the parking lot or standing right in front of the door as I try to open it, and she loves to put her "hand on the square!"

We just finished up a month of parent/child swim lessons. Eleanor did a great job, and can almost float on her back unassisted. When she's wearing a little swim belt (just floats around her waist) she can paddle and kick herself around the pool wherever she wants to go. Her favorite thing to do is to jump into the pool, but she's still not a fan - AT ALL - of putting her face under the water. I can't blame her though, because she gets that from me.

I can tell that I'm reaching the third trimester because it's starting to get a little uncomfortable. My back is usually sore by the end of the day, and it's getting hard to sit on the floor and play with toys with Eleanor because my belly gets in my way! I definitely think Arthur is going to be bigger than Eleanor was, and not just because I don't plan to induce early again. I am definitely hungrier with this pregnancy! I do have another level 2 ultrasound this week and a monthly checkup, so we'll see how this baby is doing. He's definitely an active little thing!