Grace was born yesterday at 12:59PM and she was bigger than me when I was born. I'm a very excited big brother!
You can see details here:
http://scrapbookofsorts.blogspot.com
Grace Evelyn
If You Haven't Stopped By...
In case you haven't stopped by here in awhile, I just wanted to leave a short reminder that we're posting in a new location, A Scrapbook of Sorts. I hope you'll join us there. Feel free to subscribe or become a follower. We hope to have an exciting announcement posted there soon, but we're trying to be patient!
Quote
"You know, at gymnastics, there's a big girl with a really pretty name: North Dakota. That's really pretty, isn't it!"
Just One More Thing
My mom's photo collage in the playroom was mentioned here on Ikeahacker today! Thanks, Jules!
Happy Four Years...Tomorrow
Tomorrow will be our fourth anniversary of blogging. Daddy introduced our family to the idea before we really knew anything about blogs, and we've really enjoyed blogging and sharing my life with family and friends. Since I was born far away from almost everyone I was related to, it was a great way to help them get to know me while I grew.
We've done so much sharing that we've almost filled this whole blog. That's probably because my mom takes so many pictures, don't you think? We thought that our fourth anniversary would be a good time to start a new blog, so that's what we're going to do. I'm going to hand over the blogging responsibilities to my mom, so this new blog will not only be about me. It will be about our whole family. I decided I needed a little more privacy since I'm getting so big, and I thought you'd also like to know all about my new brother or sister. We all hope you like our new blog!
My mom and dad lost a lot of sleep last night due to lots of contractions, but the baby is still not here. We're getting a little anxious. The baby has decided to take the day off from contractions, so it may be awhile.
Anyway, this is where you can find us first thing in the morning: A Scrapbook of Sorts, and the address is http://scrapbookofsorts.blogspot.com/. We hope you'll visit us there. Please feel free to become a "follower" and leave us a comment anytime. Thanks for being a part of our bloggy world!
My Mom and Dad
Here I am with my mom.
Her watermelon just keeps getting bigger.
Here I am with my dad.
He comes home for lunch sometimes, and that makes us so happy. When I was a newborn baby, I liked to be held with my knees up like this.
One More Thing
I took our poll out of the sidebar this morning. Our unscientific survey found that our dear readers are split almost 50/50 as to whether this baby will be a girl or a boy. Thank you for voting! We can't wait to find out!
Another One from Mommy: 38 Weeks
I made it to the midwife yet again! At my last appointment, she made a comment to the effect of, "if you even make it to next week..." The midwife I saw this week said, "I think you'll have the baby this week." So, I am officially one of those people who may be given false hope of the baby coming a bit early, and then feel late and impatient by the due date. But, with how nervous I was about preterm labor for awhile, I'm just thankful for how far we've made it and excited to meet this baby whenever he/she comes.
The midwife I saw last week always has some comment about the large/long size of the baby. The midwife I saw this week thinks we'll have an average-sized, average-length baby. (That sounds nice, yes?) She says I am now 3 cm dilated, still 80% effaced, and the baby is at a -1 station. Everything looks fine, though-good blood pressure, etc., for me, and good heart rate for the baby. We're excited about our little miracle.
Jonathan was with my mom this morning, and when I came to get him, she had this gift for me:
Two dozen infant-size chinese prefold diapers! Yay! We didn't start cloth with Jonathan until almost 6 mos., so I only had standard size diapers for him (which took him from 6 mos. to potty training. Amazing.) I had hoped to start cloth sooner with this baby (although not from day one!) and now I can.
Here's a dozen before they're washed. They get quilty (is that a word?) and soft after you wash them a few times. I'll post the "after" picture when I have it.
Thank you so much for following our story and praying for our baby's safe arrival. It means more than you know! Now I'm off to play Legos with Jonathan...
The Cradle (from Mommy)
Today, my uncle Dave came over with a special delivery: this beautiful cradle that he and my aunt Christine are lending to us and our baby. Uncle Dave made the cradle for their family more than 25 years ago, and Aunt Christine made the bedding. We're honored to use this special heirloom while our baby is small! Here's Uncle Dave with the cradle.
Here's where we have it in the living room. Dave thought that, since we have two stories now, it might be nice to have someplace for the baby to sleep downstairs. Great idea! And we never did have a bassinet or anything like that before, so the cradle will be perfect. Here's the sweet, snuggly spot for the baby.
Thanks for sharing, Uncle Dave and Aunt Christine!
Skills
My mom made just one New Year's resolution for 2009. She resolved to have a pen (or some writing instrument) or scissors in my hands every single day. For some kids, this happens without trying, but since I'd rather build with teensy-tinsy Legos or play with vehicles, it takes some effort with me. And even though I know my letters and the sounds they make, and I like to talk about them all the time, I don't care much about writing them.
Well, it's February, and my mom has not had scissors or a pen in my hand every day. Or even close. Thank goodness I won't be old enough for kindergarten until fall of 2010! So, there's still time for her to work on it. I had a resolution of my own this year, and I have kept it: to play with Legos every day.
Despite the Lego fun, my mom has decided to give her resolution another try. So, here I am with scissors. She got some special "lefty" scissors for me, and I think they're great fun. So far she has just let me have my own experiences with them instead of making me cut specific shapes or lines.
You'll notice that I cut the paper into little pieces, and also that I'm holding the scissors upside-down. My mom also liked to hold her scissors that way at first, and she remembers arguing with her kindergarten teacher and her own mom about how to hold scissors. So, she's being a softy and hasn't made me change my ways yet.
And here I am tracing over the letters on a placemat we got at Target in the dollar section. We love the dollar section! I'm doing pretty well for someone who doesn't care about writing.
And here are the upper-case letters.
Much to Mommy's surprise, all that work with teensy-tinsy Legos has helped me with all my fine-motor skills, not just building. I'm doing much better at getting the pen to go where I want it to. I still don't care about drawing and writing, but I'm getting better at it, despite myself. Yay for Legos! Now if I can learn to snap and zip my own jeans, I can really make Mommy happy...but I'd rather go build something.
More Observations
I should let you know what the other colors of M&Ms taste like:
Red-apple
Orange-orange (of course)
Yellow-lemon
Green-lime
Brown-chocolate
Duplo Airplane
Here is a Duplo airplane I built myself by copying the picture of the airplane on the Duplo tub. And here's what it sounds like.
Catching Up on Pictures
We had a lot of fun having my faraway grandparents nearby for the past couple of weeks. We took them to the airport on Monday, and now things are very quiet around here. We miss having them here. We got a little behind on our pictures, so now we'll work on catching up, and maybe that will help them not to miss me so much. Here we go...
I still like to "mail" things in my kitchen. Ms. Grace, my good friend from Quiznos, gives me her leftover gift cards so I can mail them in this slot.
I am still obsessed with Legos. Here are some things I've built recently.
And here is my favorite guy. He's good for a snuggle anytime.
Update from Mommy
I had my 37-week appointment today, since yesterday was a holiday. Jeff came with me and Jonathan didn't, because it's time to check my "progress." I saw the midwife who is the one who usually comments on the baby's size, so it was no surprise that she did again today. She thinks the baby will be long like Jonathan-either that he/she already is or that he/she will be if I make it to my due date. (This baby has settled into a very uncomfortable place against my ribs, just like he did-but on the left instead of the right.) He/she sounds healthy, and I'm progressing. I'm 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. (With Jonathan at 37 weeks, nothing was happening yet.) I could walk around like this for a few more weeks...or not! We'll see! We're thankful that all seems to be well and baby will be here soon. My bag is packed, and I've washed the new 0-3 mos. things that we received at our recent shower.
I should also mention that Jeff spoiled me today! His Valentine's Day gift to me was an appointment for a prenatal massage after my checkup this morning. Yes, I'm spoiled...and grateful. As I was waiting my turn, a woman in the waiting room gave me another gem of a quote to share. As you know, people seem to think that it's appropriate to say anything to pregnant women. She said, "Wow, you look ready to pop!" Um...okay? On to more pleasant things, the massage was wonderful! What a great gift!
Valentine's Day, Part 3
(Mommy and Daddy celebrated Valentine's Day last night, which I'll tell about later.)
This morning, Mommy surprised me with my own celebration! After I got out of bed to play with my treehouse and share some roars with the dinosaurs, I got to go on a treasure hunt! Ms. Alicia from Moms Time Out had set up clues and treats for all the mommies to use with their kids, and boy, was I glad. I kept telling Mommy, "This is a fun, fun, treasure hunt!" Here are some of the places I found treasures when I followed the clues:
The freezer. (Yes, it's still a little empty. Mommy's working on that.)
The bathtub.
The playroom.
The TV.
The phone.
After our fun treasure hunt, Mommy showed me this placemat she made for me that tells me how special I am. I sure loved having Mommy read it to me.
Mommy was most excited about the AIMS math activities that Ms. Alicia shared with us to use with my heart candies. (Mommy used to use AIMS activities when she taught school.) We also have a special heart-shaped pancake maker to use soon. As I mentioned, though, Mommy is pacing herself these days, so maybe we'll have heart pancakes and do candy math tomorrow. Thanks to Ms. Alicia for helping my mom!
Valentine's Day, Part 2
We celebrated part of Valentine's Day-the part for Daddy-early this year. Mommy says she needs to pace herself these days! So, Mommy and I got up early, and here's what we did.
We put on my special shirt that we picked out to show love to Daddy, and we made heart muffins.
Here I am showing you my shirt.
And here are the mufffins. Special thanks to Aunt Amanda, who found this muffin mold at Target for us. Aunt Amanda is really good at finding treasures at Target.
While the muffins were baking, I gave Daddy his book and his Valentine.
And here are the yummy muffins. I got to sprinkle red sugar on them. Happy Valentine's Day, Daddy!
Valentine's Day, Part 1
The last time Mommy and I went to Moms Time Out, Mommy learned all about things to do for Valentine's Day. So, we've been getting ready to show some love to Daddy. Here's the Valentine that I made for him. It's a whale splashing.
And here's a book we chose for him. Special thanks to Mommy's friend, Ms. Alicia, for telling us about it.
Notice that I wrote Daddy's name on there all by myself. And, notice that I didn't like the top of the "A" the first time, so I gave it a second top. A is a very hard letter to make.
A Shower
I went to my first baby shower today. (I am usually not invited, but today I was!) Mommy, Daddy, and I knew that we were invited to eat some cake to welcome our baby into the world, even though he/she is not here yet. But we didn't know it would be a for-real baby shower! Here's the yummy cake. I think I had the biggest piece of cake I have ever seen, and it had strawberries in the middle!
We were all surprised to see that Daddy's coworkers had gotten together and brought lots of gifts for our baby, in addition to having the cake. Mommy and Daddy are really thankful. I didn't spend a lot of time being thankful. I crawled under the table and made friends with Daddy's coworkers and played with my trains. Here's the best gift we got:
A shirt for me to wear after the baby comes, just in case anyone forgets who the big brother is around here. Thanks, everyone, for my shirt. Oh, and Mommy and Daddy say "thanks" for all the generous gifts for our baby, too!
Treehouse
I thought you might want to know how my treehouse has been doing. You can see that lots of other animals live there now, including all my dinosaurs. I had to play with my treehouse as soon as I got out of bed yesterday. All the animals love having their own little places to live!
In Oklahoma
"You know how in Oklahoma there's an animal called a jaggerfy. And if there is a lion, it has spines on its body and can roll itself up in a ball to protect itself from the dangers of somethin'."
How Crayons Are Made
Some mommies and daddies will remember this from the Sesame Street of a long time ago.
Dude
This morning, I asked Daddy how to spell "dude," and he told me, "d-u-d-e." I told him that, actually, it was spelled "dood," since "oo" makes the "ooooo" sound. Sometimes I know better than my silly parents.
More About This Morning
We've been a little short on pictures lately, so thank goodness for Ms. Jen who took a picture this morning! Here, Ella and I are playing our sleepover game, but Ella is telling her mom not to take any more pictures so that we can sleep.
I should also tell you that, after being a gecko since November, I've decided that I am Lily the dog. (Lily is Ella and Delia's dog.) I have been barking all day. Mommy informed me that I must not bark in the store and I needed to be named Jonathan in the store. But other than that short break, I've been Lily, the good dog who protects our house. It's really fun being a dog!
Mommy's 36-Week Appointment
Today was a great day for an appointment because I got to go play with Ella and Delia while Mommy saw the midwife. I had a great time with Ella. We played trains and pretend sleepover and play-dough. Ella likes to do different things than I do sometimes, and I am learning that it can be really fun! Mommy thinks it's great when Ella helps me do things I don't normally choose to do (like play-dough.) I could have spent my whole day playing at Ella's house and I would have been perfectly happy, but Mommy did come back before too long. Thanks so much, Ms. Jen, for hosting me!
Mommy's appointment went really well. According to the midwife, the baby is very happy, so that made Mommy even happier. The heartbeat sounds good, and Mommy is healthy. And all the kicks and flips Mommy is feeling are really good signs, too. We are thankful that God is answering our prayers and keeping our baby safe. Oh, and there don't seem to be any indications of the baby coming very soon, so we hope everyone can be patient while our baby takes its time to grow bigger and get ready to come see us. Thank you for being excited with us!
Saturday
We don't have any pictures, but I thought I could tell you about our day. I've been playing Legos as much as possible, of course. This morning, Mommy and Daddy and I met a new friend, Ms. Amber. Ms. Amber took some family pictures of us downtown in a town near us. She's going to give them all to us on a CD so that we can frame some and maybe blog some, too. Mommy and Daddy took family pictures about a month before I was born, so they thought they'd do the same thing with this baby. Of course, the pictures will be more fun this time since you can actually see me! I had fun making friends with Ms. Amber and being goofy when I forgot to be reserved.
This afternoon, Mommy and I are resting. Mommy is pretty tired lately. Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa are outside doing spring cleaning in the yard. They mowed the lawn and trimmed back the begonias so that you can see the new leaves growing, and they made room for new blossoms. (Yes, begonias live for years and years around here...) They're also planting some violas especially for Mommy as well as some other pretty flowers. It's still cool, but spring is in the air here. Our flowering pear tree in the front yard is full of buds, and some of the almond farmers already have bee hives in their orchards. The bees must be getting excited to do their big job as soon as the almonds start blooming!
We love almond blossom time. It's a beautiful time of year. It has some sadness in it, because that's when Great Grandpa went to be with Jesus. But we are hoping to have some new happiness in it, too, because it is the season for our new baby to be born.
Whatever We Get
I got my hair cut today. We're going to have family pictures on Saturday, and my hair was getting very shaggy, so it was time to see Ms. Olivia. Like everyone else, she asked whether our baby is a girl or boy, and which one I want. Of course we don't know, and I want a boy. Silly Ms. Olivia asked what would happen if our baby is a girl. She asked if I would send a girl baby back! I told her, "I'll love whatever baby we get." Silly Ms. Olivia. But I do like her...and she gives me good haircuts.
Time with Great Grandma
On Tuesday morning, we went to Great Grandma's house. It had been too long since our last visit, and we wanted to squeeze in at least one more visit before our baby comes. We had a great visit with Great Grandma. She had some toys for me to play with that I hadn't seen before, and she always has interesting things for me to look at. She and Mommy spent a lot of time looking at old pictures. Pictures are some of Mommy's favorite things.
Great Grandma always has treasures to share with me, especially books. Here we are reading one of them. I really love reading with her. Her orange tree is bursting with oranges right now, so we took some of them home, too.
After our fun time at her house, we went to lunch with Great Grandma. Uncle Todd met us there, too. (We didn't go to Denny's to order Grand Slams, though. I think we would have done that if Great Grandma had known about it before we left.) It was fun to spend that time all together.
Yesterday, we went to the airport and picked up my faraway grandma and grandpa. They are here visiting and looking at places to live. Right now we're playing Legos, of course. We hope you are enjoying your day, too!
Congratulations to Nathan and Micah!
Nathan and Micah welcomed their new baby brother, Matthew Taylor, into the world this morning. We are so excited for them! You can see Matthew here. Congratulations, little buddies!
More That You Should Know
This is all happening outside the mouse house. On the left, you can see the white thing. That's their food. They can crawl up and out of their house to take a bite of the white mouse food. Over on the right, the green thing is the roof to their house. The oxygen tank is hooked to the top of their roof. It's there in case a mouse has trouble breathing. The mouse can breathe some oxygen that will go through a clear tube into its nose, just like grandpa. If they run out of oxygen in the first tank, they can use the second tank. The mice are living in their house under the green roof.
Just So You Know...
I told Mommy, and I thought you'd want to know, too:
Fire fighters in Africa ride bikes, and they ride very fast to go fight the fires.
Uncle Jake & Aunt Laura's Movie
We are so excited about Uncle Jake and Aunt Laura's movie! If you're in Southern CA, you can buy tickets here, and if you're not, you can see the movie trailer here:
Daddy got to see their movie the last time he was with Uncle Jake and Aunt Laura, and he said it was excellent!
One More Grownup Thing
If you've been following the big story about new toy safety regulations and the effects on handmade toys and other baby items, click below to read good news!
35 Week Update (from Mommy)
Jonathan and I went to see the midwife today, and Jeff "just happened" to be able to come, too. We enjoyed having him along! All of the usual was fine-blood pressure, weight, etc. She also said I'm measuring a bit large and hopes that I go into labor a bit early and that the baby doesn't grow too big. (Which is funny because she also wondered whether I'm eating enough. No worries there, I'm eating a lot!) When she listened to the baby's heartbeat, she was not happy with how it sounded because it was a bit slow. So, I went to a different room to be put on the monitor-a new experience for me-while Jeff and Jonathan went to the waiting room. They couldn't go to the monitoring room because there was another pregnant mommy in there already.
Having to be monitored made Jeff and I a bit nervous. (A local friend tells me that this was the "non-stress test.") It took longer than we expected, and Jeff was in the waiting room with Jonathan and without any updates, so it may have been harder for him than it was for me. The monitoring room had two cushy recliners with a big monitoring machine in between. The other gal who was being monitored was friendly and nice to chat with while I waited. The medical assistant and midwife had quite a bit of trouble getting a good reading on the baby's heart rate. Once they finally did, I was supposed to sit and relax while the machine did its thing. I was also supposed to push a button each time I felt the baby move. When it was all said and done, the midwife thought the baby's heart rate looked OK after all, and she was happy with its movement and the amount of amniotic fluid. Now I'm supposed to spend time each day checking the baby's movement. Everything seems to be OK, though, and we are very thankful. I'm especially thankful that Jeff was there-both for the emotional support and because he kept Jonathan occupied while I was on the monitor.
After this, I go in every week! Can you believe it? We're so thankful we have another baby on the way!
So Tiny (from Mommy)
Before Jonathan was born, my friend Michele gave me some advice. She told me that normally, you'd want to stay off of companies' mailing lists, but that it was a good idea to get on the baby companies' mailing lists so they'd send you free goodies. I took her advice, and it paid off! I got all kinds of free stuff for Jonathan.
I've tried to do the same thing for this baby, but the companies are being much less generous with their freebies right now. Yesterday, though, I received my first free diaper for this baby. I received this newborn-sized diaper in the mail (along with some great coupons.) Can you believe how small it is?
So, here's a question in my mind. When this baby comes into the world, will it be small enough for newborn diapers? Will it go directly into size 1 at the hospital like Jonathan did? Will it lose weight and shrink into smaller diapers like he did? (Hopefully not.) We're praying that the baby will just make it into the world safely, no matter what size it is!
Great Day for a Ride, and Other Adventures
When I woke up this morning, I asked if we could stay home all day today. That's my favorite thing to do lately! We did stay home, mostly, and we got a lot done. Well, Daddy got a lot done-and I mostly played-and Mommy did what she could, but let's focus on Daddy. He worked on The List that Mommy gave him to work on before the baby comes, which included changing the smoke detector batteries, changing the filter for the heat/air conditioning, anchoring my shelf and the baby's shelf to our walls, pruning trees, etc. Mommy was very happy.
We also decided to ride down to the park before my nap. It was a beautiful day. We heard the bees buzzing in the trees! They must have found some blossoms that we didn't know about. Mommy also wanted me to mention that we killed our first mosquito of the year today...in our house. Not very exciting news if you ask me. We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we enjoyed ours!
Not a Snow Day
It wasn't a snow day yesterday, but we did manage to stay home in our pajamas. Along with sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dishes, and laundry, I managed to have a great time with my Legos. Probably because Mommy was cleaning and I was playing. I did take a couple of breaks to help her.
In the evening, we had a special dinner out with Daddy and then went to Barnes and Noble to play with their train table. Soon our family will change, and it won't be quite as easy to do things like that together. We're trying to enjoy our family the way it is now even though we're excited about the new way it will be soon!
Lego Time
Here are some of the fun Lego times I've had lately.
Here my Lego guys are having a parade in front of the house that I built.
After taking this serious picture, I asked Mommy to show me what face I made.
Here's my real face, but I forgot my glasses. In this picture, you can see the house with a back yard and a shed in the side yard. Daddy helped with the shed.
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