40 Weeks

 40 weeks....still here, still pregnant. This is the first time I have made it to my due date. I much prefer having the baby already when my due date rolls around!

I went to the doctor this morning. I'm "a loose one", close to 2 cm. I'm not surprised, since I'm never dilated early. It all just happens fast when the baby's ready to come. At the appointment, the doctor said that if the baby hasn't come by Thursday they will give me Cytotec. So, I'm just curious...does anyone have any experience with it? I'm a little hesitant to take it, but it would be nice to know this baby will be here by Thursday.

Jon stayed home today....he's been really anxious about this baby coming- mostly just the not knowing when, etc, and hasn't been sleeping the last few nights. So, he decided to just take the day off and get some R&R. So, after the doctor appointment we took the kids to the park....and took the opportunity to snap a 40 week picture. See the "I'm so done" look on my face? Yeah, I'm pretty much done.  :)

 

After the park I took Emma on a mommy daughter date to get pedicures....what better way to spend your due date than being pampered? This was Emma's first time going to a nail salon. They just painted her nails and then painted flowers on her thumbs and big toes. She was LOVING it. She was grinning ear to ear the whole time and kept staring down at her toes and batting her eyelashes as she giggled. Every once in awhile she would look over and say, "Oh Mom, I just LOVE this place. We should definitely come back here again!" It was fun to spend time with her, be pampered, and leave feeling fancy.

 Later Emma went grocery shopping with me and then Jon took Matthew on a little father son date. They went to a Burger King by our house that has this play helicopter.

 

He LOVED it!

 While we're all anxious to have baby Ellie come (Emma asked about 1000 times today why Ellie hadn't come yet), it was SO nice to have today, to spend one on one time with each of the kids, to hold onto this phase of our lives a little bit longer.

My Crazy Boy

Turning 3 has done something to Matthew. When Emma was younger, several people told me that it wasn't the twos that were terrible. It was the threes that were really terrible. And while I can't say they're really terrible, I have to say he is really giving us a run for our money these days. His personality has just exploded. He is discovering independence like never before and is starting to have an opinion about everything. He loves to be funny and get reactions from people. And at the same time, he is still our sweet little snuggler.

Matthew decided right before his birthday to potty train. I was so excited at first. But it has been dragging on and on and on. He'll have a really good day or two and I start to get up hope that he's really making progress. And then he'll have a really bad day...where he just decides that he's not going to go in the toilet and there's nothing we can say or do to make him change his mind. In the end though, I do think he has come far. He is more and more willing to wear his underwear and try to make it to the toilet. He has been out of diapers (except at night) for almost a month now, and I am LOVING it. Even if it means I clean up a few accidents...it's totally worth it. I'm just hoping things click completely and we can move on soon!

This little boy constantly has bruises, bumps, and cuts....usually on his head. This one was from trying to climb on a stool all by himself. He fell and bonked his head on the table on the way down. This was about a week after it happened and it looks a lot better than it did in the beginning.

I just don't know what to say about this one...blackmail? He really does like bows. And he wanted to wear all of these to church. I think he just sees Emma with them and feels left out. 

Thankfully, he also loves bugs.  :)  And rough housing, and cars and trains, and all of that little boy stuff. I think he'll turn out okay.  :)

Matthew is a collector...possibly on the verge of being a hoarder. All day he walks around with a bucket, basket, stroller, or other container filled with toys and other random objects. He knows EXACTLY what is in his container and notices right away if something is missing. Every night he gathers a collection of stuff to take to bed, so we always have to go in after he falls asleep to clear his bed of toys. 

I love this face! And Matthew loves having his picture taken. He will often come up and tell me to smile him or cheese him. And then he has to look at all of his pictures.

I had to throw the monkey picture in. This hideous monkey. It's his favorite stuffed animal right now. We went to Red Robin one night, and a little boy had just won it from the claw machine. He was super embarrassed about it (and disappointed!) so he gave it to Emma. The best part about this monkey- on his stomach it says "I love banana". Somebody didn't check their spelling...

The toys are all accounted for and tucked safely in their bucket. Good night!

We got to meet Po at Dreamworks when they were celebrating the opening of Kung Fu Panda 2. Emma was too shy to meet him, but Matthew couldn't wait to say hi. I think he got a little overwhelmed when he got close and realized just how big he was...haha!

And this....yes, this is Matthew asleep in an infant car seat. Matthew LOVES pretending to be a baby these days. He loves to lay on the floor with baby toys and talk in baby talk. He loves laying in the baby's crib, sitting in the baby's bouncy seat, and riding in the baby's car seat. It was kind of funny at first, but now I'm a little worried.  :)  We let him ride in it once....he begged and begged and was already sitting in it anyway. I figured after a few minutes he would hate being backwards and laying down and wouldn't want to sit in it again. I was wrong. The funny thing is that he is still within the height and weight limits. It holds up to 30 lbs and he is 24 lbs. Anyway, hoping he outgrows this phase really soon!

 

I thought this was so sweet. I love that these two are friends. I love that they enjoy being with and playing with each other. Yes, they do their fair share of fighting, but for the most part they have a really sweet relationship. Makes me happy.

 

39 Weeks

 39 weeks now...and feeling VERY ready for this baby to come. The waiting and not knowing are killing me! Otherwise I'm doing pretty good. Just a little tired....I really can't complain. I'm just so anxious to meet this little girl! And I'm curious to see what she looks like, and how much she weighs, and how labor goes this time, and all those other unknowns. Soon enough!

 Here is my attempt at a self portrait for this week. Hopefully I can get one more real picture before she comes. I don't think I'm really this small. The t-shirt hides the baby well.  :)  Though I really don't feel huge. It was this way with Emma too. Most strangers who ask how far along I am are surprised and tell me they thought I was maybe 6 or 7 months along. I guess it's not a bad problem to have.  :)

And for those who have asked, here are pictures of the mostly completed nursery. This is looking in from the hall. I made the curtains and the throw pillow on the glider. I also recovered the glider (a huge thank you to my friend Sarah for her inspiration and instructions!- I never would have attempted it otherwise). 

I'm hoping to hang her name on the wall above the crib. And really, all of the walls need pictures...it's a work in progress. I made a crib skirt, but you can't really see it. For those who are curious, I ended up doing brown with stripes on the bottom. It turned out pretty good, though I can't say I'm in love with it. Oh well...it does the job!

And the last wall...the door to the left goes to the hall. That corner on the right has become our junk pile....it's all going soon!

And that's that. Hopefully we'll have baby pictures soon!

Major Dad Points

I enjoy reading what Sarah writes on this blog so much that most of the time I have kept my own comments and posts out. Sarah does such a better job describing things with the sensibility that only a mother can truly exude. Recently however in my quest to be a better dad I have started up my own blog. The title "Major Dad Points" reflects the blog's goal, to record instances of good dadship. Let's face it, being a dad is not easy (though I'd wager it's easier than being a mom). Dad's try their best to balance the pressures of work, home, hobbies, and the like but we often come up short. The quest is therefore being a weekend warrior, seeking to earn dad points with our kids. I, not unlike most dad's out there, want to be the coolest dad ever. And so my blog is somewhat of a personal check for me to make sure I'm consistently trying to spend my time where it is needed the most. I have decided to leave my posting un-censored and raw so that my bare thoughts are there for all to see. This isn't so that you can laugh at my terribly corny writing or feeble attempts at blogging. It is however an honest journal of my attempts to earn major dad points with my kids and share those attempts with any who care to read. So without further hesitation I present to you: Major Dad Points

-Jon

Babytastic

Tonight we were talking with the kids about the baby coming, what to expect, etc. We told them that someone was going to come live at our house soon. That caught their attention. We told them that this person was living in heaven but that soon they were going to come be with our family. Emma was completely baffled. We finally told her that it was Baby Ellie. She got a huge smile on her face, patted Matthew's cheeks, and said, "Oh Buddy, did you hear that? It's babytastic!"

Look Who's 3!

My baby (for another few weeks at least), my little boy turned the big 3 yesterday. It's hard to believe! We celebrated and partied and had a lot of fun.

Our first celebration was a combined birthday party for him and his friend Sophee with their friends from church. We went to Hop N Play, a really fun indoor play place, and let all the kids run and jump and swing and spin.

After everyone was done playing we gathered for cupcakes and presents. We all had a great time...it was so fun that Emma has been worried ever since that her birthday party will not be as fun as his.  :)

We wanted to do a small family party on Matthew's birthday- just dinner, cake, and a pinata. We decided to make the pinata this time. Emma had a lot of fun helping Jon layer newspaper on the balloons.

Matthew was much more interested in trying to blow up more balloons to play with.

After working on it for 5 nights, the pinata was finished. Not bad, huh? This was mostly Jon's work of art....if it had been left to me, I would have given up and just bought one! But it turned out great!

Matthew wanted a bug theme, so we headed to the candy store and he got to pick out some bug candy to put on his bug cake.

Friday night Jon and I (okay, mostly Jon) blew up enough balloons to fill the living room. The kids were so surprised when they woke up Saturday. They have had so much fun playing in their little balloon pit.

Jon's family came Saturday afternoon. We had a little barbecue and then opened presents. Matthew was pretty unenthusiastic while he opened everything (every picture I took, he has this really serious look on his face), but after everyone left, he gathered all of his presents and spent the rest of the night playing with them.

After presents, it was time for the pinata!

The kids took several good whacks at it, but it was a pretty solid pinata. Jon's sisters finally cracked it open.

 We passed out bags for the kids to put their candy in, but Matthew insisted that he needed to put his candy in the spider's head.  :)

Jon had to take a few last hits at it to completely finish it off.

Time for cake....yummy!

Happy birthday Buddy!

37 Weeks!

37 weeks....I'm in the home stretch now! I'm feeling pretty good still....just not sleeping good, which leaves me tired most of the time. I'm hoping the nesting phase kicks in soon so I have energy to get some stuff done!

I had a doctor appointment yesterday. Things looked mostly okay. The amniotic fluid is a little low, so I'm supposed to take it easy, rest, and drink lots of water. The doctor measured the baby and said she's a little over 5 lbs right now (though I know that these measurements are usually off). The doctor said she thinks she'll be around 7 lbs, so I'm curious to see! If so, she will definitely be our heavyweight. Emma was 5 lb 6 oz and Matthew was 6 lb 6 oz. It would be kind of funny if she was 7 lb 6 oz. Guess we'll see soon enough....hopefully sooner than later! We are getting so anxious for her to come!

 (These pictures were taken at 36 weeks.)