Ready?

As I write this, I am listening to high school hockey on Internet radio. Not something I would have predicted 10 years ago, but I've been sucked in. Aidan keeps pointing to his ear and saying "hockey". Yes, we're listening to hockey. Kyle's team is playing in the second round of Sections (they won 10-1 on Thurs) and are beating Bloomington Jefferson at the moment, 3-2. Not sure if my pregnant body can handle the excitement! The announcers are so animated any time the puck goes near the net that there is constant tension. Deep breath, I hope we win.

I am now 36 weeks pregnant and finally feeling some motivation to make sure everything is ready for the baby. Aidan and I hit up "baby store" (as he calls it, aka: Babies 'r Us) this morning. The baby's room is now ready to go minus a changing pad. I forgot that our changing table is two inches shorter than a normal one and I have to order the pad online. Not a big deal. I think the only thing we don't have for this baby is a name. That's right, not one single name that we agree on. We have 4 weeks, right? That's plenty of time. Feel free to add comments with some name suggestions...we are in need of some inspiration.

Elmo Hockey

As we were driving home from the mall today Aidan kept shouting "Elmo" from the backseat. I asked him if he saw Elmo outside, to which he replied "Yah, Elmo outside". Elmo was not outside. I looked. Then Aidan said "Elmo, hockey". I know Elmo does a lot of things, but I've never seen him play hockey. Aidan is pretty convinced that Elmo likes the cold outdoors in MN and also plays hockey. Apparently he is gaining a very active imagination.

Speaking of hockey, Kyle's team beat their arch rivals in the final game of regular season, earning them 2nd seed in the conference. Sections start on Thursday, or as Kyle put it "Only 6 wins away from state champions." We wish them luck and I'm even okay if they make it to state because hockey will be over before the baby comes.

Stick A Fork In Me...I'm Done

It's official. I have formally entered the "I'm done being pregnant" stage. It's not fun or cute anymore. I'm tired, my back hurts, and I can't sleep comfortably. The bright side is that I haven't had heartburn and I only have 5 1/2 weeks left. Deep breath, I will make it.

We've had an exciting Valentine's/Chinese New Year/President's Day weekend. (They sure packed a lot of holidays in a 2 day period this year.) Saturday brought an afternoon hockey game where Aidan was lucky enough to not only see Daddy coach, but Grandpa surprised us and was there too! The rest of the afternoon he could be heard saying, "Daddy at hockey, Boppa (grandpa) at hockey, Aidan at hockey, Mommy at hockey". At one point I asked him if Roxie was at hockey and he looked at me and said "Roxie home". Like, "Duh Mom, you were there, you know Roxie wasn't with us."

We have also been working hard on manners and saying "please" instead of whining. Today I asked him to throw something in the trash, handed it to him, and he looked at me and said "please". Yes, I meant "put this in the trash, please." It's funny to be corrected on your manners by your 22 month old. :)

The most exciting part of the weekend is yet to come. We picked up Aidan's new crib and dresser today, which we'll put together tomorrow. Monday night will be Aidan's first night in his "new room" aka: the current toy room. We dropped off another load of stuff at the Salvation Army today in an attempt to make more room in our ever-shrinking house. When is the Square Footage Fairy going to grace us with her presence and add more space to our house???

If there is any time left over between moving Aidan into his new room and my late afternoon doctor's appointment, I'm going to try to take Aidan to the zoo. Very ambitious of me, I know.

Party Animal

Aidan has been a party animal the past few weeks. Last weekend we helped his friend, Adelyn, celebrate turning 2, today we celebrated Jackson's 1st birthday, and tomorrow we're going up to Grandpa and Grandma Finn's house for a little Super Bowl action. All this birthday-partying begs the question, "What am I going to do for Aidan's birthday?" Um, not sure. We'll definitely go out for dinner on his actual birthday barring I'm not in the hospital having a baby. An actual party though...still up in the air about that one. The weekend before his birthday is right after my due date and the weekend after his birthday is Easter. I'm thinking if we have a party, we'll push it into April and do it at some other venue that I do not have to pre-clean or post-clean.

Aidan has had several mini-breakthroughs this week that have delighted me.

1) He has started calling himself "Aidan" and refers to himself often. "Aidan's chair", "Aidan's spoon", "Aidan happy" all while point to his belly or chest.

2) He wants to sit on the potty like a big boy, then flush it. (no, he doesn't actual go potty yet) A training toilet is on the Target list for tomorrow.

3) He is talking about events that happened weeks ago. i.e.-He points to the empty chair at the dinner table and says "Kali's chair". Yep, that's where Aunt Kali sat when they visited for Christmas. When I picked him up from daycare on Friday he asked me "Mommy's doctor?" Nope, we weren't going to Mommy's doctor (I had already been there before I picked him up) but since we had done that the week before, he thought we might go again.

Minus the screaming tantrums when he doesn't get to eat applesauce or waffles, he's a fun little guy to be around right now!

Pregnancy Update

I had my 32 week appointment on Tuesday and, for the most part, all continues look good. My belly was measuring about a week behind, which I am NOT going to complain about...maybe this baby will be smaller than Aidan's 8 lbs 13 oz. The nurse practitioner could not find the baby's head, so she wasn't sure if she's breech right now or not. Nothing to be concerned about until 36 weeks, but then the baby needs to be head down. I'm crossing my fingers that she's not breech because I've heard nothing but horror stories about how painful it is when they try to turn the baby.
In other pregnancy news, I've decided to switch back to the clinic where I went for Aidan's pregnancy. I initially thought they weren't technologically advanced enough (ie-no 3D ultrasound, didn't test my urine for protein, etc) but the clinic I switched to has made me wait up to an hour(!) each time I visit. Out of my 8 visits I have only seen a doctor twice because they always end up "behind schedule" or "unavailable" when I have an appointment scheduled. I got so frustrated after my hour and twenty minute visit on Tuesday (where they only measured my stomach and listened to the heartbeat) that I decided I was done. So, at this late stage in the game, I am switching clinics. At least I know all the doctors at the clinic I'm going back to, and maybe I'll even get the doctor who delivered Aidan. She was fantastic and stayed with me the entire two hours I spent pushing. I was so impressed that she didn't just pop in for the last five minutes of delivery, then disappear, never to be seen again. Any way it happens, I know I'm going to be more comfortable delivering with a doctor that I've had the chance to meet versus a strange person who couldn't find the time to see me while I was pregnant.

Bring on the Bottle

I've got three bottles of wine staring at me from the wine rack and I've decided to name them. The first is going to be "I made it through labor" and the second two are going to be named after children from school who have been making work very difficult. I will enjoy every last drop of them as soon as this baby is born. (don't worry, I won't drink all three bottles at once)

I think I came home every night this week and told Kyle that I didn't know if I could make it another 8 weeks at my job, let alone an indefinite number of years. After restraining a 90 lb. child for 35 minutes (with the help of four other adults) I could barely walk on Friday night, couldn't pick Aidan up, and was having irregular contractions for over three hours. Is this really what I want to do with my life? (my answer right now is "definitely not") What shall I do in my next life? I love working in the schools, I love teaching, most days I like kids. I've tossed around the idea of being a paraprofessional while the kids are young. The hours are shorter, but the pay is also much less. What to do? I'm going to mull this question over in my head while Kyle tells me I make too much money and the benefits are too good to quit my teaching job.

Not much is new in Aidan's life. He's feeling much better and just has a drippy nose every once in a while. He pooped in the bathtub for the first time last night. That was enough to make me want to vomit. I whisked Aidan out of the tub and grabbed "the floater". I thought about giving him another bath since his had been infected by feces, but I was really tired and didn't want to be there for another half an hour. Instead I just dried him off and put on his pj's. It's not like he touched the poop with his hands, right? I think that was the most dramatic thing that happened in Aidan's life this week.

We're looking forward to watching the Vikings and the Saints play tonight. Crossing our fingers for a Vikings win so we have someone to root for in the Superbowl!

A Day Off

Although I've only been back at work for 2 weeks, a day off was much needed. During those 2 weeks I worked four 12-hour days on top of coming home to deal with a sick child. It was exhausting. Aidan and I both took naps every day this weekend that were hours long. He slept for 4 hours on Sunday if that tells you anything about how he's feeling. After a low fever on Wednesday, it's just a runny nose, but it sure has knocked the wind (and happiness) right out of him.

In order to get ourselves out of the house we went to Target to do some grocery shopping and then hit up the MN Zoo on MLK Day. It was a zoo. Ha ha, get it? The place was packed with moms and strollers and oodles of kids. Aidan loved the people watching. He is still more fascinated with watching other kids run around than the actual animals. I haven't been to the zoo since November when Kali and Kyle were visiting. We spent this visit on the inside and did the Tropics Trail and Discovery Bay. I periodically let Aidan out of the stroller, but just about hyperventilated one time when he walked into a kid's play tunnel and then a million bigger kids ran in after him. I'm reading a book about a baby being kidnapped right now. All I could think about was that your child can be snatched in a second, and I couldn't see Aidan. After all the big kids came out he was standing there smiling. I smiled back and immediately put him back in the stroller until we could make it to a slightly less crowded area. As always, he loved watching the fish and monkeys. I'm looking forward to warmer weather when I can take Aidan and the new baby to the zoo.

Baby Bonanza

Baby # 2 has an ETA of 9 1/2 weeks and all of the sudden I've shifted into baby gear mode...new crib, double stroller, any and everything related to babies that is monstrously expensive. Baby Jogger has a new stroller that just came out called the City Select. It can convert from a single stroller, to a single + car seat, to a double stroller. All in a single stroller size. I checked it out in the store today while crib shopping and was absolutely smitten. The price tag makes you gasp, but I'm thinking I can give up future presents in order to talk myself into getting it. Since it literally just started shipping out this week, I'm going to wait a while to read some reviews. If it's as cool as I think it is though, I may be the proud owner of a City Select in a few months. Kyle's first comment was "It looks like a witch's stroller". Maybe because this one is in all black? They also come in white and red. (why anyone would buy white is beyond me) Not sure if I would get red or black, but our Graco car seat is black and red, so it would work either way.



In crib shopping news, I picked out the Baby's Dream Infinity Drop-Gate crib. It will convert to toddler bed, then a full-size bed when Aidan is ready. Baby #2 will get Aidan's current crib set, which is also convertible for the future. The craziest thing about shopping for a new bedroom set is that dressers are more expensive than cribs. What is up with that??? I really like Aidan's current dresser, which is a changing table and then will flip over to a flat-top dresser when he is potty-trained. I may just order that one again in a lighter color to match his new crib.
Whew! So much to think about, and so much money to spend!
This picture doesn't show the drop-gate feature, but it is the same style and color.

3 Little Words

Aidan is stringing together 3 word sentences, his first being "Nana, cheese, stuck" when he was telling me that Nana told him he had cheese stuck in his teeth. :) Since then we've heard Nana, Papa, Home?...meaning are Nana and Papa at home? and Daddy, brrr, hockey...meaning Daddy is at hockey and it's cold at the rink. These are all stated very clearly. There is still much coming out of Aidan's mouth that we have no clue what he is talking about. After two visits to the vet's office over Christmas break (one for a check-up, the other for grooming) Aidan now points out "Roxie's Doctor" every time we drive by the place, which is basically any time we go grocery shopping. Took me a few minutes to put that one together the first time he was saying it.

Here's a cute little naked picture that Aunt Kali took while they were visiting. Aidan loves his bubbles and playing on his tummy in the bathtub.

It was back to school yesterday. *sad face* Not a quiet day either. There were behavior problems, I had to teach CPI after school, then we had a union mtg to discuss contract negotiations. Whew! Busy first day back! Even though I was constantly busy during "vacation" it was so much less stressful than working. If only money would magically appear in our bank account and health insurance was free... It does make me feel better that I only have approximately 50 days of school left before my maternity leave. That's something to look forward to. I took my first "belly shot" last week. I'm well aware that 28 weeks is extremely late to get the first belly shot, but like I said, I've been busy!

I had my 28 week appointment last week and took my glucose test for gestational diabetes. They didn't call the next day saying it was high, so I'm assuming I do not have diabetes. (thank goodness! I don't know what I'd do if I had to stop eating sweets!) I've only gained 11 pounds and the doctor told me that's lower than she'd like, so if I want to eat a bowl of ice cream every night after dinner, I should feel free to. Who doesn't like to hear that kind of news?!?! I will abstain though, because I remember how tough it was to lose those last 10 lbs from Aidan.

7 months pregnant with Baby #2

7 months pregnant with Aidan...not much difference