Weekend Rewind

I realize I am posting this a bit late, but we had so much going on this weekend I wanted to make sure I blogged about it. Plus I got all of these great pictures I wanted to share.

Saturday morning I had a hair appointment early. I told the girls when I got back we would go to Old Navy. They were having their $1 flip flop sale. We got there around noon, and went inside. There was not a single.frikin.flip.flop.in.the.store!! I mean usually they have a HUGE wall full of flip flops!! Not only that, but the line went all of the way to the back of the store. This may seem like a great deal, but Old Navy flip flops are usually $2.50 so it's not exactly the sale of the century or anything. If we decide to go next year we will be standing outside before they open. I didn't realize cheap flip flops could create such insanity.

Saturday evening we went and saw Night At The Museum 2 in Imax. It was good, and Nathan was surprisingly well behaved. Then after dinner we played some Rock Band.

Sunday we met my mom, and Steve at the park for a picnic. We ate fried chicken, and coleslaw. The kids played in the water. The weather was so nice, and we had a great time. Monday I had to work since I started my new schedule this week. Brandon has made friends with the kids down the street. He has been going over there to play. We kept asking him what their names were, and he kept saying he didn't know. Well this weekend Lindsey made friends with their older sister, and she found out the names for him. She said he had just been calling them "dudes" all this time.

Here are some pictures from the park on Sunday.

My mom, and Nathan. Isn't this cute?

Kailyn practicing being a photographer.

My big kids. So rare to get a picture of all of them.

The girls.

Lindsey

Nathan enjoying some watermelon in his mesh feeder.

My Baby Is Better Than Your Baby

Brandon decided he likes his little brother so much that he needed his own baby. He went and got one of Gabby's reject dolls from her closet and dressed it in some of Nathan's clothes. He played with the doll for awhile, and then we had a conversation that went like this.

B- "Mommy, when I lay my baby down he goes right to sleep"

Me- "Wow B you're lucky. My baby doesn't do that."

B- "That's because your baby doesn't have fake eyes."

Me- "Good point B. Very good point."

B- "Mommy"

Me- "Yes B"

B- "My baby never cries."

Me- "Ok B that's enough. You need to stop bragging about your baby."

Tooth Fairies And Reindeer

Over Christmas break Brandon got his first loose tooth. Him and Lindsey were messing around trying to move something and she bumped his tooth. It started bleeding, and he was really freaking out. We all tried to make him feel better by telling him it was because he's a big boy, but it really wasn't working. Then I mentioned that the tooth fairy would come when he lost the tooth and he really perked up. The tears stopped, and he stopped complaining about the pain. A few days later when he was eating an apple the tooth fell out. He was excited because he realized this meant he got to be on the chart at school that keeps track of the first grade tooth loss. He was ecstatic when he woke up the next morning and found $2 under his pillow. Ahh he's still so easy to please.

Then one night we were sitting around watching the Planet Earth series I bought as a family Christmas gift. I think we were watching the Ice Worlds episode. It shows a reindeer being attacked by a hawk of some kind. It really just looks pretty ridiculous I mean the hawk is tiny compared to the reindeer. I say "wow, I can't believe he's attacking a reindeer." Brandon says, kind of confused "yeah, I thought reindeer could fly."

Choosing a Favorite

I had my midwife appointment yesterday. It was pretty much the usual. B gave Dare a review of the appointment since he couldn't make it. He said "she asked a lot of questions, and we heard the baby's heart beat". He summed it up pretty good. I must mention that with the midwives I saw when I was pregnant with Brandon I had a clear favorite from very early on. I liked both of them, but I couldn't help wishing that the one I liked better would be on call when I went into labor. I got lucky and she was. I keep thinking I should have a favorite by now, but I don't. I alternate with each appointment who I see, and after each time with them I just like them both more. I guess it's good this way because no matter who is on call on D-day I won't be disappointed.

Weekend Rewind

We had a pretty busy weekend. Friday we went with Pam who has been Brandon's daycare provider for the last 4 years to visit a farm. The farm belonged to one of her daycare families. The kids got to feed the goats and alpaca, chase the chickens around, and play with their puppies. We ate lunch there and then came home.

Saturday night we watched Batman Begins to get B excited to see the Dark Knight. Hopefully we will get to do that soon, every time we have tried to see it at the imax it's sold out.

We decided last minute to go to The Museum of Flight on Sunday. Originally we were going to go to the water park, but the weather has been iffy and Lindsey was at a friends party. First we stopped by the Japanese Garden, because it was on the way. Brandon thought it was the greatest place ever. He kept finding new trails to explore, and was running all over. Everyone else was pretty underwelmed by what seemed to be the lack of any substantial "garden".
When we got to the museum it seemed really busy. I didn't know it is where the Blue Angels take off and land during Seafair. That ended up being a bonus as we got to see quite a bit of them in the air, and got to watch the landing which was awesome. Everybody got pretty engrossed in the exhibits at the museum. Brandon learned that people had actually flown space shuttles to the moon. Gabby was confused by a photo of men in space suits with trees around them and asked if there were trees on the moon? It was actually a photo of a training mission. Kailyn even took interest and asked why World War I started. Then everyone sat through a 2o minute video that answered that exact question. On our way out we actually got to go inside a Concorde, and the Air Force One that JFK and Richard Nixon used. I think it was a successful weekend.

The Best Money I've Spent All Summer!?!

So a couple of weeks ago the girls and I had the pleasure of spending the better part of the morning browsing our neighborhood garage sale. By girls I mean Gabby and Lindsey as Kailyn won't get out of bed at 9am for anything especially garage sales. We probably browsed about 25 to 30 sales and picked up a few things here and there. The most exciting thing by far were 2 scooters we found for $3 each. The girls happily gave up their hard earned cash and we went on our way. This was so perfect, because since the girls had gotten here they had been fighting constantly with Brandon who was the owner of the lone scooter. The first few days were complete bliss for everyone involved. The kids happily rode the three scooters throught the neighborhood. No fighting, no crying, just two sisters and a brother enjoying the nice summer weather together. It was also great for me because I no longer had to listen to the crying and arguing as soon as the door shut behind them, and they were actually getting out of the house for several long rides a day. Like all good things this too must come to an end. This was the scene the other day.

"MOMMY!! Lindsey took my scooter"
"Why did you take his scooter"
"BECAUSE mine scrapes on the ground when I ride it his doesn't"

I had told Dare a couple of nights earlier while enjoying a few minutes of silence during one of the rides. "You know it is only a matter of time before they decide one scooter is better than another, and all of this comes to an end." I guess you would call that mothers intuition.

Tuesday Night Confessions

• A really good friend of mine is dating my boss. All thought I am very happy for her, I sometimes wish she wouldn't give me so much information about their relationship. Due to her TMI I often feel awkward and uncomfortable around him. I also wonder sometimes if he would be so nice to me if not for being worried I would tell on him =)
• I ate ice cream today. TWICE!!
• I am suffering from a really bad case of baby brain. We have a birthing class to go to on Saturday. So far this week I have made other plans on two separate occasions for that day. I later had to cancel the plans when I realized this. At least I have a valid excuse.
  
• My neighbors are having some major plumbing work done. I am annoyed by the noise, the mess, and the fact that they are blocking my driveway. I do think it's cute that my son has been outside for the past hour watching them.
  

Weekend Rewind

Every weekend I plan on posting a recap of what we did, but somehow I never seem to get around to it. So here it is for the first and hopefully not last time. On Friday we went and saw Wall-E. It was a really cute movie with a good message about taking care of the earth. Everybody really liked the movie. I was afraid B would get bored especially because the first half of the movie doesn't have any talking (except by robots), but he sat patiently through it. We bought a small amount of fireworks for the kids and did these in the evening before leaving for a school nearby that has a great view of the area. We were able to see several of the big fireworks displays from here and didn't have to deal with any crowds as there were only 3 or 4 other families there. Our neighborhood is pretty insane for fireworks being outside the city limits we are exempt from all of the fireworks bans. Fortunately my pregnancy induced exhaustion has given me the ability to sleep through anything and I fell right to sleep.

Saturday we watched Jurassic Park 2. I couldn't believe I have never seen it before considering how much I liked the first one. It wasn't a bad movie and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Today we did a whole lot of nothing. I was going to take the kids to the lake today, but the sunshine that was promised never showed up. So instead we sat around, did lots of laundry, and some cleaning.

Kids And Advertising, Money Well Spent?

So I have recently discovered that my son pays a lot of attention to commercials. Not the ones you may think though. He has never come to me about a commercial for some kind of toy or game, and asked for the product, or felt he had to have it. For that reason I have found some of our recent conversations interesting. A few days ago I am in the kitchen getting some onions for my hot dog that have been stored in a plastic container. Our conversation goes like this.
B- Who put those in there?
Me- Dare did. Why?
B- He shouldn't do that it makes gases and your food goes bad. Then you have to throw it away, and it wastes money.
Me- Really? Where did you here that?
B- On TV. You should get the green bags it keeps your food fresh and you won't waste it
Me- Hmm that's interesting B. I will think about it
B- When I grow up I'm getting the green bags because I don't want to waste my money.

There is a new commercial out for Sylvan Learning Center
a tutoring center for kids struggling in school. The ad shows a kid in a swimming pool and when they get out they tilt their head and a bunch of math equations fall out of the kids ear. Brandons interpretation of the ad he describes Sylvan as "a place to help you when you need to concentrate because there is water in your ear." So I guess all of the advertising dollars aimed at kids are wasted on my son. He pays more attention to the adult commercial even if he doesn't always "get" it. At least it has provided me with some entertainment lately.

Lifes A Beach

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my sons kindergarten class to the beach. B was really excited that I came with him it was a great day for the beach. I have been on many a field trip in my time. It always starts out the same way. You are herded into the classroom with the students, and are asked to sit in the very small chairs while they go over the plan for the day. On every trip I have ever been on at this point one student always decides to distinguish themselves from the rest. This trip is no exception the kid (we will call him Zack) is talking out of turn and then wanders off while the teacher is talking. I am thinking please don't let him be in my group. After about 20 minutes of going over the schedule and rules the teacher hands out the group assignments f*#k he's in my group. At least the other kid I got isn't at school so I just have two kids to watch. So the fun begins on the bus ride I must have asked Zack 20 times on the 20 minute ride to please sit down, to please turn around, to please turn around and sit down. We arrive at the beach and the nice volunteer lady starts telling us about all of the creatures we may see on the beach that day. As she is talking Zack starts grabbing himself and saying "I have to pee, I have to pee" the teacher says wait a few minutes he continues she finally takes him. After they get back and continue to listen I realize I don't see Zack with out group anymore at the same time the teacher notices also she walks away and starts calling for him a few minutes later she returns with Zack in tow. She tells me "I will watch him today" and gives me a look like she understands he is being extremely difficult and doesn't expect me to deal with him. I am off the hook. So at this point the whole group goes down to the beach to search for sea life Zack is momentarily distracted by all of the cool things we saw. Starfish, hermit crabs, crabs, limpets, and fish. It is then time to break into our small groups I guess the teacher forgot she was watching Zack because here he comes with us. First we go to eat lunch pretty uneventful. I then decide I should pee one last time before we head back to school. The beach only had honey buckets so I gave the boys strict instructions to wait for me right outside the door they were not to move!! I went in and peed as fast as humanly possible and came out to see Zack right where I left him. Wow I seriously praised him for listening so well and we went off to explore the rest of the beach. It seems my praise came too soon as Zack took off running down the beach I yell after him he ignores me I can't run I'm 6 months pregnant I can barely walk. I finally catch up and lecture him again about wandering off and getting lost etc. This kind of stuff goes on for the next 40 minutes as we wait for the designated time to return to school (it can't go fast enough) at one point I actually question Zacks ability to hear "can you hear me Zack? I said don't do that" he nods. Okay well they didn't forget to tell me he was hearing impaired. I've never been so happy to get on a school bus in all of my life. By the time I got home I was completely exhausted. Here are a couple of pictures of our trip.

Boring is Good

I had my monthly appointment with the midwife today. Nothing exciting to report which is a good thing. I mostly look forward to these appointments because it means I am 4 weeks closer to being done. Kailyn and Brandon both went with us again B seemed to get bored this time and started pulling out all of his school work in the middle of the appointment. Kailyn was oblivious she only went because she didn't want to miss dinner at the Old Country Buffet afterwards. She sat on her phone and texted the whole time she said she finds the appointments "boring" and listening to the heartbeat "creeps her out". These are not the same midwives I saw with my last pregnancy, and I thought at first they gave off less of a crunchy vibe. I think I may have been wrong because their answer to every little complaint I have has been vitamins. My last appointment I complained about some muscle cramps and she suggested 2 new vitamins so my regimen now includes 1 prenatal vitamin, 3 iron pills, 1 vitamin D, 1 folic acid, 3 fish oil, and a calcium powder. Our conversation on the way home.
Kailyn- "Mom is it possible to overdose on vitamins?"
Me- " I sure hope not"

21 Weeks

So as a form of torture for myself I have decided to post a weekly picture. Maybe someday I will look back with fond memories of my time being pregnant (sarcasm).
After looking at the pictures that Kailyn took for me I said "I look huge in those pictures". She said "because you are". Thanks Kailyn. I will also include in this post a picture of our baby from the 19 week ultrasound. I must warn you that we really didn't get any really good pictures for some reason. So this is the best that we got. It is a 3d picture of the babys face. I have always found 3d ultrasound pictures kind of creepy and this one is only slightly less creepy because it is my baby. One funny thing about the picture when I showed it to B he said "wow the baby has a lot of hair" later I realized it's the placenta which is to the left of the head that he thought was "hair".