Thoughts on Pregnancy Round 2

In our experience, second pregnancy is the way to go! With a toddler in the house, it is simply flying by. She doesn't care that Mommy is pregnant and has her own agenda for each night. I miss the feelings of being totally in tune with the baby like I had with Fiona, but I love the low stress and quick timeline. We're 34 weeks along on Monday, so it's starting to get close.

• Just like with Fiona, I look like I shoved a basketball under my shirt. While I appreciate that I hardly look pregnant from behind, it is hard to navigate the world with a hard ball in your front. Mike was making fun of the recline of the driver's seat in my car and I told him that I would be happy to strap a bowling ball to his gut and see how he liked it ;-)
• My stomach hurts. Not inside (although the organ assault continues) - but the outside. The fact that my shirt touches my skin is painful. So a loving 1-year-old is quite a test of my endurance. But her hugs are so sweet that I work with it.
• I can still wear my wedding ring. Hooray! And I'm still wearing heels. Not super high ... but I'm calling it a victory.
• I really wonder why all maternity clothes have a bow on them. I'm not a present! And bows in the back are just uncomfortable if you have to lean against them all day. Note to maternity designers - lose the bows please!
• Food: I want orange juice again. Not as bad as with Fiona (side note: i HATE orange juice but apparently crave it anyway during pregnancy), but there is still a jug of Tropicana in the fridge. I do not like meat. I eat it to model behavior for the 1-year-old, but I don't like it. I do like pancakes! And ice cream.
• We are even more laid back on actual baby preparations than we were with Fiona. Pray that this baby doesn't come early or we are in big trouble! Still on the list ... move Fiona to a toddler bed, get down and wash the neutral baby clothes, find the bottles ... you know, basically make it look like we are having a baby! 

We are super excited for this little one to join the family! So excited that we should probably start thinking about names too ...

Fun Friday: Water Slide

While I was putting the laundry away tonight, Mike and Fiona got creative in the backyard. Look at the fun they devised! It was quite a hit - although Buggy hated having grass clippings on her hands. Silly girl!

The water in her turtle was very cold, so we didn't play for long. But I think there will be several repeat performances on the hot days of summer ahead.

Wordless Wednesday: The College Friends Picnic

**Thanks to our friends Aaron and Adam who are great photographers and took lovely pictures of children that were not theirs. Some of us brought our cameras but relied on the talents of others ....

Father's Day

For Father's Day, Fiona, my sister, and I "let" my dad buy us all tickets to the Twins baseball game. So we "took" Grandpa and Daddy to seriously one of the LONGEST games ever. 15 innings. With a rain delay. I fully admit that we didn't make it anywhere near the whole game. In fact, Mike, Fiona, and I left before the Twins comeback in the 7th. Grandpa and Emmy hung in there a bit longer. But they left after the 11th when the rain delay started.

Even though it was a bit colder than expected and a few raindrops got us, we had a really fun time together. And the Twins managed to win it - which makes it all the better. We watched the end from the dry comfort of our living room.

Happy Father's Day (or as Fiona said this morning ... "Happy Mother's Day, Daddy!") to Mike and to both our dads! Also a Happy Father's Day to Grandpa Bill!

Hanging out with Daddy

She had fallen asleep on the drive to the game
and was still trying to wake up

Snuggling with Grandpa and Emmy ...
to stay warm AND we totally blew through naptime

Play Date

We had a picnic with our college gang on Sunday (almost as many kids as adults ... I think the ratio is going to move out of the adults' favor in a couple years). B&C brought brats and had a bunch leftover that needed to be used up. So ... what better reason to have a weeknight playdate with the S-town group?!?

And since we have gone from zero to LOTS in the outdoor toy department in the last few weeks (and have a fenced yard to trap rogue toddlers), we hosted. What fun! It was a treat to watch four busy toddlers hanging out with all the new toys. We've come a long way from this picture. A year [plus] later and quite the crew!

Picnic dinner with Cooper and Jack

Dual occupancy slide

Look at those beautiful big girls!

Fiona, Ellie, Cooper, Jackson

Big Steps

Fiona is growing up so fast. We've entered the clingy stage and my lack of personal space reminds me that she is still little. But she is doing lots of other stuff that makes us wonder where the time has gone!

• She took her inaugural trip to day care this morning in a FRONT-facing car seat. Mike said she grinned the whole time and narrated the happenings from the back seat.
• She and I went to the library on Saturday and the librarian thought she was 2 1/2 because of her talking. She didn't believe me when I said she was 1 1/2!
• She has big opinions in the morning about what she is going to wear to day care. 
• She goes down the slide without holding my hand!
• She told me tonight, "mommy, i go to sleep." So we went to get ready for bed.
• She squealed with delight as she played in the sprinklers at the park yesterday! Too fun!

And number 2 is due in exactly 10 weeks from today. We are doing well in that department and can't believe how fast the second pregnancy goes! 

Why take the stairs when you can climb the ropes?

Checking out the new slide