Man. I am the worst. There’s no reason to deny it. I mean,
seriously, how difficult is it to find the time to post a simple, “We’re here
and life is good!” update? Apparently it is very hard. But I decided a few days
ago that I am deleting my Facebook account, and that means I have to be better
about updating my blog. I’m hoping that all my wasted Facebook time will be put
into blogging time. I value this far more than I value that.
Oh, heavens. I don’t even know where to begin. Am I really
going to go back and catch-up on everything? No. Let’s be honest here. Maybe
someday. But today I am giving you a snapshot – just a little photo into our
lives to let you know what is going on right now.
First of all, this:
We are expecting! And I am so late in announcing it. That
picture was taken at twenty-four weeks; I am now twenty-seven weeks along. Baby
#2 is due November 28, in less than three
months! The clock is ticking. Just to give you some idea of how far along I
am: the excruciating nerve pain started up again four months ago, the sleepless
nights started about six weeks ago, the brutal heartburn reappeared four weeks
ago, the stretch marks popped up three weeks ago (so early!?!), and I’ve been
diligently fighting feet/hand/face swelling for about two weeks. Baby is
already head-down and giving kicks strong enough that they are visible from the
outside – and he/she is every bit as active as Abigail was in the womb. Never a
dull moment in there.
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| Apparently I hold my tummy a lot these days. I usually don't know that I'm doing it. It would seem a certain miniature someone has noticed. |
Speaking of he/she, we are once again not finding out
whether we are having a boy or a girl until baby makes an appearance. We just
like it better that way. I think it’s a girl. Jacob did, too, until last week.
That’s okay. We’re prepared for either. Even the names are already picked out
(let’s be honest, we picked them years ago.)
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| Abigail thought Jacob needed balloons for his birthday. Who am I to argue with the wisdom of a toddler? |
And how is little Abigail handling the news? As far as she’s
concerned, there is no news. We’ve tried to talk about it with her, but you can
tell she has absolutely no idea what we’re talking about. We’ve taken her to
two ultrasound exams so far; both times Jacob held her on his lap and pointed
out the baby on the screen; both times she has pointed to the ceiling and said,
“Baby!”
What?!??! What on earth does she think is going on here? I’m sure she’s
just as baffled by what we’re trying to explain to her. Poor kid is going to
have the shock of her life in a few months.
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| My Little Red Hen; helping Mama grind wheat into flour |
Meanwhile we’ve been busy getting ready what we can. A few
weeks ago I potty-trained Abigail. I was dreading it. I heard so many horror
stories. But I dreaded having two children in diapers (especially cloth
diapers!) even more, so I tried it anyway. Would you believe it, she picked it
up right away. She was accident-free by the fourth day. I told myself that I
wouldn’t consider myself “done” with potty-training until she had gone three
consecutive days (and nights) without an accident. It took two weeks and two
days from start-to-finish. I was shocked. That was one of the easiest parenting
tasks that I’ve taken on.
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| Abigail playing hide-and-seek |
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| Someone needs to explain to her how this works. |
The potty-training accomplishment meant that she got to move
to a “big girl” bed! A few months ago someone gave us a day-bed that has a
trundle bed with it. We decided that would be Abby’s new bed, so we skipped the
toddler bed stage altogether. I am so grateful to have her out of the crib. She
sleeps so much better now (probably because she isn’t rolling into the bars all
night), and I am relieved that I don’t have to pick her up and put her down
into it anymore. My tummy is getting too big for that.
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| First time riding the Metro. It was a hit! |
The down side to these changes is that we had to re-arrange
the nursery to accommodate a day-bed-with-a-trundle-bed AND a crib. It’s a
tight fit. I was heartbroken that I had to change that room; it was by far my
favorite one in our home. You’d better believe I took a lot of pictures. And
because I expect you to care about all things that I care about, I’m going to
post them here.
It was so beautiful. I’m still a
little heart-broken over that. *sigh*
Other than those major changes, we’re just enjoying a bounty
of wonderful summer activities. I will always remember this summer as the time
that I fell in love with you-pick farms. In May we picked strawberries, in July
we picked blueberries, and just last weekend we picked peaches. We have LOVED
it every time. If we’re lucky we’ll get out again before the blackberries are gone,
and then we’ll try for pears and apples. And then it will be time for PUMPKINS!
So many things to look forward to.
In June we took a trip to Utah to visit Jacob’s family. That
was a good time. While there we had a joint birthday party for Abigail and her
cousin Aubrey, who is only eleven days younger than her. We had a tea party. I
was disappointed that at the last minute we had to move the festivities inside
because of rain, but it was still a lovely time. I’m sure you can tell.
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| How the men relax after an overly-girl party: play video games. |
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| How the girls relax after an overly-girly party: eat cookies on the stairs. |
Then we celebrated Abigail’s birthday with just the three of
us. It was pretty simple; balloons, presents, and some treats. One of our
friends sewed a little apron and chef hat for Abigail, and it is her most
favorite thing. She always rushes to put it on when she sees me put an apron
on.
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| Waking up to birthday balloons |
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| Two years old! |
And then, just because we felt like it, we celebrated her
birthday again a couple of weeks
later, this time with my family. She sure knows how to party.
Throughout the summer Jacob was in charge of a few summer
reading activities at the library: Superhero Boot Camp, a Fairy Ball, and Spy
Camp. Of course I got roped into helping with the Fairy Ball because I was so excited
by that idea. Put simply, there was a tea party filled with tiny treats, a
bubble-dancing room lit only by glow-in-the-dark liquid, a wishing well, a
fairy house craft, a fairy scavenger hunt, a human-sized toadstool fairy house,
hundreds of butterflies and flowers scattered around, and face painting. There
were over a hundred fairy-clad little girls in attendance, including Abigail.
Of course we were so busy running the darn event that we didn’t get any
pictures, but I assure you that it was a big hit. And Abigail’s fairy costume
is being recycled into her Halloween costume, so I’ll take pictures then.
In late July we went to Orrville (my family’s annual
reunion). It was pretty spectacular this year…or maybe I just needed a vacation
that badly. All I know is that the days were packed and we slept very well at
night! We tried paddle-boarding for the first time, which Jacob and I loved.
And Abby rode a jet-ski for the first time, which she loved! But, as usual, it
was the much-needed time with family that made it so good. I do love Orrville.
In-between the big events we’ve kept pretty busy. We always
make sure to attend Jacob’s toddler story time on Wednesday mornings. We’ve
made some great friends that we enjoy chatting with or playing games with while
our children run wild together. We go to the pool at least twice a week and
have visited the splash pad a couple of times. We do day-trips to lakes to play
in water and sand. We do a lot of baking, play dough, coloring, painting, color
rice play, sidewalk chalk, and visits to playgrounds. And she is always very
eager to help me with dinner. I finally just accepted it and now plan on dinner
prep taking two and a half hours (that’s how helpful she is). But I prefer that
to her watching TV, so I guess it’s my own fault.
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| Playing with colored rice is a favorite pastime in this home. It always starts out very tame... |
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| And slowly Abigail gets more adventurous... |
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| And eventually this happens. |
Also, we do a lot of reading – at least an hour every day. She
loves it. Lately she has started “reading” back to us the very simple books
that she has memorized. I love hearing her sweet little voice, “I like carrots.
Bobby milk. Drum. Draw airplanes. Clean up games!” She is so smart and eager to
learn. I probably need to nurture that a little better.
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| Storytime is always better with hats. |
Oh, and Abby got her first
haircut. It hurt me to chop off those darling pigtails.
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| Before... |
Thanks for stopping by.
