29 Weeks

Obviously I haven't done so well with updating tummy pictures of myself and the new little guy monthly. I think my last update was around two months ago. *Sigh*

Here we go at around 29 weeks, though, with good intentions of posting something around week 32 or 33 again!

Cravings: I continue to have cravings for healthy food - salads, pesto, lime water, Asian coleslaw (my recipe is super-healthy and nearly as yummy as the standby Ramen noodle one!)

Interesting events: I failed my one-hour glucose test last week earning myself the opportunity to engage in a three-hour test the following morning. I had just told my neighbor how I don't really mind the thick, orange drink for the one-hour test, but I did not mean that I had any desire to go for a follow-up taste the next morning! Ick! After sitting for three hours, five blood draws in two days, and getting so sick-feeling from the second test that in three hours I read all of two chapters in my Lord of the Rings book (typically I should have finished it or at least gotten close in that time, but I could hardly focus at all!), I was called that afternoon to inform me that I had passed each and every blood draw from that day with flying colors. Yippee!!! What an experience that was! I definitely have new sympathy for those women who have gestational diabetes as a regular occurrence with their pregnancies!

Weight gain: Yikes! I've put on 17 pounds at this point which is actually one pound more than I put on the entire time with Miss Mouse! Honestly I think that my body has just done this so many times that it seems to know how to expand very "well". Hopefully it just knows how to shrink back down, too! Teehee!

Really, this is has been a very enjoyable pregnancy for me. The girls have been over-the-top-cute, rubbing my tummy constantly, kissing my tummy, talking to "Brother", talking about "Brother".  After having been through this full-term three times before, I am pretty relaxed about going back to as-normal-as-possible afterwards, and with the much more regular date nights that Mike and I have been having, the two of us are waaaaay better (more sane?!) parents/spouses than we were a few years ago. All of that just makes it so much more relaxed and enjoyable this time around. I am so excited to turn the calendar tomorrow because that should mean only two more calendar-changes before we meet this little guy!!



End of June Swimming

We went swimming today for probably the last time in June. Being that we have the freedom to go any day of the week, I generally try to avoid weekends with super-full pools (I also know the best times of the weekdays to go to avoid the biggest crowds!). So, for me, going on a Friday afternoon was pushing the crowded-scene a bit. The girls made a playdate yesterday, though, with their friends across the fence, so off we went to meet them at the nearest pool! It really was a beautiful day to be there, and the girls are always excited to go.

Anyway, my point of this short post is to chronicle Sunny's first experience under water. She does not like getting her face splashed or wet in any way. She loves the water, loves to splash in it, loves to do her "duck walk" which really is just exactly what it sounds like, but she hates to get water in her face. She asked for goggles for her birthday and got them, but they've been basically pointless to bring to the pool since she won't put her face in anyway. I'm pretty fine with this all because I figure there will be a time where she gets okay with it. We're around water a lot; we go to the pool often more than once a week; one set of grandparents lives in a lake - really, she's going to learn to swim at some point, so I'm not worried that she isn't quite as "fishy" as Miss Mouse yet!

Today, though, Sunny decided to let Miss Mouse talk her into going down the kiddie slide. Of course, the caveat was that Sunny would sit on Miss Mouse's lap for added security. I wasn't quite sure if that was allowed, but for all my rule-following as a child, teenager, and young adult, I've become sort of a rebel when it comes to my children! I decided they could go at least once before we got, ahem, "caught", and maybe it would be really fun for Sunny! I was so proud of her for being so brave!

They climbed up the slide together and got seated at the top. I ran my way through the shallow water to get to the bottom of the slide where they'd be coming out (well, as much as I could "run" my way through water at this whale-like point!) and waited for their arrival. They arrived at the bottom, both laying down, both flopping completely down under the twelve-or-so inches of water. I grabbed Sunny right away, but she definitely had time to inhale a whole bunch of chlorine! It's definitely possible that my friend's dogs that live south of us, oh, 8-9 miles heard Sunny's shrieks of displeasure. Yep, fairly sure that if those Basset buddies were yelping, it could have been Sunny's fault! So, as she was shrieking in fear and unhappiness, the alert lifeguard (who was apparently not so skilled in etiquette) barked at me, "Miss (Miss? Really?), they aren't allowed to go together!!!!".  With a still-shrieking Sunny on one hip, I looked at him and reassured him that it didn't appear that she'd be interested in doing it again, thanks.  Now, I totally get that we broke a rule and got chastised for it, but it sort of cracks me up that with a wedding ring on my finger, two little girls in my arms, and a little guy riding around in a circular shape on my tummy, that he automatically referred to me as "Miss" rather than "Ma'am". I'm just chalking it up to my ever-solidifying opinion that we really don't raise children in this area of the country to know how to interact with each other and especially not with adults. The poor guy seemed to be around high school age, and I'm sure he was really tired of being out in the sun. I appreciate that he didn't use something derogatory to address me (Miss Whale? Miss Cow? Miss Moose? Just some ideas perhaps!), but I thought it was sort of funny and could not remember the last time I've been referred to as a "Miss" (I'm positive it wasn't when 6.5 months pregnant with any of our other children.....although there was the time the Jehovah Witnesses showed up in Enderlin asking for my mom or dad when I was 8 months pregnant with Hope, but in their defense my cat was riding on my stomach at the time.....). I just wondered if he knew that I definitely fit into the "Ma'am" category.

It didn't take Sunny too long to settle down, and we enjoyed another 30 minutes in the kiddie splash area before leaving. When the girls were bathing off their chlorine and sunscreen tonight, I mentioned to Sunny how proud I was of her being able to go underwater and what a "big girl" thing that was to have tried. I told her she didn't have to do it again until she wanted to, but that it was really a "big girl" event for her. Sunny responded with, "I didn't really like it, but I liked it a little. I think." It was really cute that she tried to pretend that it was sort of fun once I told her it was a "big girl" activity! I think her "little bit" of liking helped Miss Mouse, too, because at some point, Miss Mouse figured out that the reason Sunny went under was that Miss Mouse had to hold her on her back lying down. Miss Mouse is too tall to fit down the slide sitting up! So, she slides again and again on her back and now has bruises from the joints in the slide! She says it feels "great! Like a massage!". I think she's afraid we'll stop her from sliding on that one if she admits that it hurts.  But she was feeling pretty bad about having been part of the reason for little sister's terror.

Aaaahhh. Summer and new experiences!!

Boy Meets Girl [Cousins]

The girls and I made a quick trip out West early this week. We stopped at the farm (beautiful canola field post forthcoming) to see Grandpa Bob on Sunday night and then took off Monday morning, after being good farm girls and helping move a pickup up for spraying, to visit Great Grandma, Great Auntie Linda, Great Auntie Karen, and Great Uncle Bill in Williston on our way to meet the newest addition to the family. Ta-da! Here he is!!!

Six pounds of adorable, sweet nephew/cousin!

Grammy and M-Mouse had bonded by the time I arrived with the two little, squealy, female Mice.

M-Mouse does this really well. His Mommy might not think so since she is up to feed and change him every two hours in the night, but, really, after our experience with Sunny and even with Miss Mouse, he does this sleeping thing beautifully! See how peaceful he looks? He really is that peaceful!!!!

I thought he looked like he had a smile in this picture.

This super-relaxed arm-drape was just too cute.

Sunny loves "lovin' on him". I'm not sure if he's getting his hands ready to go into a prayer position for safety in her arms, or if he's just yawning or what. It seems that he has awhile yet before getting quite comfortable in her loving little arms. She, on the other hand, can't hardly wait to carry him around!

My nephew the little doll! At least, I think he looks like a doll in this picture....not that I'm biased in any way....

He's just a little guy!

And he's soooooo soft!!

It wasn't until I put these on the computer that I noticed M-Mouse's expression. It cracks me up when contrasted with Sunny's!



Miss Mouse is a total little mommy. She even enjoyed getting in on any "shushing" that had to be done. She'd "sssshhhh" as loud as her little lungs could go!

So teeny, tiny.

Okay, I had to add some of the excitement - you know, other than the new baby. This is Sunny warming up after being drenched in a downpour and narrowly escaping a thorough pelting by hailstones. The Mice and Auntie Laura hung out on the deck and watched a storm roll in. It turned out to be nothing much of a storm, so they enjoyed getting sprayed by a little rain and then thought the heaviest part of the storm was over. Miss Mouse and Auntie Laura came back in, but Sunny needed some time to herself and stayed out on the deck with a slice of cheese. Thankfully I was watching her so that I did notice when the rain started again, in big drops, soaking her. I got the door open to the deck, but just barely because the wind was so strong! Once I got her in my arms (by that time she had been sitting in her lawn chair shouting "Help! Help! I'm soaking! Help!"), it was all I could do to get back in the door. We made it inside just in time to notice the skylight dripping. It turned out to just be a few drops, but in the short time it took for my sister to grab a cookie sheet to catch the drips, for me to wrap Sunny in this towel and grab all other available towels to mop up the water leaking in the main door from the deck, and for me to point out that the screen door had not latched (it has a latching issue - apparently this is why the main door was leaking so much - the screen really needed to be latched!).....the wind switched directions and slammed the door into the grill, shattering the bottom window of the screen door into a million shards of glass. This all took place in about 30 seconds. Thankfully it wasn't until later that the girls realized that Sunny had been seconds away from being covered in shards of glass. Phew. All's well that ends well, I guess, though I'm sure cleanup and repair haven't ended for poor Uncle Jon!!!

Speaking of Uncle Jon.....I love that in this picture, M-Mouse seems to be really smiling at his Daddy!!

Snuggled up next to his Mommy.

Yep, this little boy definitely met a couple of very loving, very hands-on girls this week!

Again, they have mirrored expressions! Impressive!!

Grandpa Bob took advantage of a 100-degree day (you can't spray a crop in that heat) to visit his grandMice. GrandMice? Anyway, he got in a few good snuggles from everybody on Tuesday which was a real treat for all of us!

Tiny little feet. Tiny little feet that really did not want to hold still!

This one's in the wrong order, but I'm too tired to change it tonight! This is the pre-storm as Auntie Laura and Miss Mouse watched it roll in. They are on top of a hill and have a gorgeous view from every single window!

They also have the most calm, sweet little baby boy! We can't wait to visit again in July!

26 Week Baby Pictures and Miscellaneous Info

We had an ultrasound today at 26 weeks. They're planning to do ultrasounds every six weeks from 20 and on just to check on growth, make sure things look the way they are supposed to....mostly make sure the parents are as non-anxious as possible. It's nice because with Sunny, since we had had a healthy Miss Mouse, we never even had a 3D ultrasound or anything more than just very basic, standard checks. Even though we're not particularly worried that anything is wrong with our little guy, it is really nice to have the extra reassurance!!!

The ultrasound tech today, I thought, did an awesome job. We've had 3D ultrasounds before, but we've never gotten pictures where we can actually see who the baby looks like!! She gave all the credit to the little guy, saying that he was "just laying perfectly" for her to get the pictures, but I can't help but think that she must be quite good at her job, too.

So.....here he is!

Initially, at our last ultrasound, we thought he looked somewhat more like Miss Mouse than Sunny. Here we definitely, definitely see a lot of Sunny! I see a lot of Daddy, too, though, and since Miss Mouse looks the most like her Daddy, maybe that means he'll look like her, too. In the picture below, he has his little hand in front of his face.

He's got Sunny's scowl!!! I love it!

Most parents probably say things like "oh, here are his little feet", but in our household, it's more like, "oh, look at his baby giant feet!".  Miss Mouse at 3 weeks wore the same shoes her Auntie Steph wore for baptism at 8 weeks (am I close with the timeline of ages?), and we nearly had to cram Miss Mouse's feet into the shoes.  The girls have two friends who are 5 and 7, and their mom called to see if we'd like their snowboots for next winter. It was such a sweet offer, but the only problem was that Miss Mouse and Sunny, at 3 and 5, should have been the ones offering their snowboots since they both wear a bigger size than their friends!

With Daddy being a size 13, I asked the ultrasound tech if the machine automatically generated a gestational age guess for the little guy's foot size. It didn't, but I told her that if it could, it probably would have said something like "35.6 weeks"! She measured his feet and said they are 5 cms right now, so, obviously, they are still really teeny, tiny. I know it's sort of weird that the picture cuts off the rest of his body above his legs, but how real and fun are those feet!!!

Everything seems to be going well. He is over 2 pounds already, which sort of blows my mind since one of the girls little guy friends was born at just over 3 pounds. He's measuring 'agewise' just right, maybe two days ahead, but nothing where they'll mess with a due date or anything. 

As we walked out of the ultrasound appointment, both girls were sort of giddy. Partly that was because they knew they got to go play at Ken and Carroll's before supper (we had Ken and Carroll over for a fish fry, and they offered to have the girls for awhile before supper), but a lot of it was their excitement over seeing their brother! Miss Mouse kept saying things like, "I saw his little nose and his little mouth!".

At one point, Sunny said, "It was so nice to see him today since we didn't get to see him last time!". I could hardly believe what I heard when she said that because I had brought them to my doctor's appointment (30 mins) and then had them wait with us in the waiting room for the ultrasound (60 mins) and then they stayed for part of the very long ultrasound before leaving with Mike....After putting them through all of that, they hadn't even SEEN anything?????  I felt so bad! Sunny continued on to explain that it had just been "black" and that it wasn't a "light picture", so she hadn't been able to see him at all. I guess she can visualize with the 3D and not with the black and white, standard ultrasound. So, yeah, I was really glad she was along today because now she's talking about her brother's "little hands" that he "had up by his face".

What a great day!

Ten Years!

 On Wednesday, for the first time in six years, Mike and I packed up our tiny, little Saturn SL1 and drove off....alone. Being more than a bit neurotic, I went through five pages of typewritten notes with my mother-in-law before we left. If there is some redeeming value in that, I'm hoping it is that I knew for the most part, the notes were to make me more comfortable and feel better about leaving two of the most precious parts of my life behind.

The crazy thing is that I didn't even cry! No one did! Sunny leapt for joy when I told her it was time for us to leave her with her grandparents, and Miss Mouse had all sorts of plans for projects they would do together. I will admit to having cried the next day when I talked to them on the phone, but I was a little shocked at how excited I was to have this mini-vacation with no kiddos in tow.

Seriously, this vacation came one day ahead of the most difficult day of our marriage. I had doubts whether I could actually pull it off in the end, leaving these children we waited so long to have and hold, especially at this time of year. The fact that it went so swimmingly, I'm afraid, perhaps points to how very badly Mike and I needed to be just with each other for a bit! Six years is awhile after all (even our date nights only became regularly-scheduled-events within this past year!).

Sooo....off we drove to Winnipeg! 

We arrived and checked into our hotel and then proceeded to walk around The Forks. We walked quite a ways next to the river and then headed back to the mall-type area to find some food. Mike found two restaurants that looked equally appealing to him, so he let me choose. I chose the "not barbecue/ribs" restaurant, mainly because it didn't look as crowded. At one point, it did cross my mind that perhaps there was a reason for that. When our jaws dropped at the menu prices, we realized the reason. Still, we were each able to find something semi-reasonably priced, and I was pretty excited about my salad with dried blueberries and mandarin oranges that would be heading my way. The dressing was a cucumber-something which sounded just fine to me and the little guy....until after my first bite of salad I remembered that "wasabi" means horseradish. It was a mild horseradish as horseradish goes, having been mixed with cucumber at some point, but it was still horseradish. Thank goodness for the blueberries and mandarin oranges. I mixed one on the fork with each bite and was able to eat the meal, but I have never worked so hard to eat a meal in my life. Every bite was a lot of work! Mike felt terrible and would have offered to switch with me, except that he was sure his "hot, angry pasta" would have been worse for me than my horseradish-doused salad.  His solution was happily accepted: we'd go out for dessert - somewhere else.

We walked toward a cafe court type area with some dessert restaurants, but when I saw a group of young people including a boy with a snake crawling on his neck, I decided we would stop at the bathroom there (only because it was not optional after 6 glasses of water with my horsie-salad) and then find somewhere else. Mike didn't believe for sure the snake was real until we passed the group again, and I had him go back and look specifically for the, ahem, "pet". Apparently a "pet friendly" area in Winnipeg really is friendly to all pets!

Heading back to our hotel, risking our life in traffic, we decided to check out the rotating restaurant where we had enjoyed cheesecake on our honeymoon. We found our way into the building, but we couldn't find an elevator up. Lucky us, we ran into a very lonely older gentleman who was only too happy to tell us that the restaurant had closed a long time ago and then continue to chat on about his vacations and visits to the States. Mike, being the kind person he is, just kept telling me later that the poor guy was lonely and needed to talk awhile. I, on the other hand, really sort of get uncomfortable when someone asks where I'm from, where we're staying, etc. and wanted to end the conversation with the poor, lonely guy as soon as possible. Poor guy! As we were walking out, he was still talking at me about the tall-grass prairie visible in Manitoba. It was an experience, and I'm glad we were there for him to visit with when he needed some people-time. I'm also glad, though, that Mike didn't take him up on his offer to guide us up to the roof.

From that disappointing dessert venture, we headed back to our hotel and came across a restaurant called "Earl's". It's a chain, but it's really nice. We were shown to our table inside....right next to that enchanting statue you see pictured in these first two (terrible) pictures. Now, I might use the word "enchanting" to describe my husband, but the piggy? I was giggling so hard that I had to go find the "washrooms" again!  So, we sat and ate our dessert at a table next to a life-size bronze-plated statue of a smiling pig. There were no other pigs in the entire retaurant. We were just lucky! It shouldn't have surprised me that when Mike accidentally ordered the chocolate pudding cake and then changed his mind to the hot fudge sundae that the waitress initially thought he wanted both. After all, we were sitting next to a pig!

 The next day we decicded to go back to Earl's for lunch after enjoying a swim in our hotel's saltwater pool and before heading for Victoria Beach on Lake Winnipeg. I threatened Mike that I was going to ask for the booth next to the pig again, mainly because the only shot of the pig I got on Wednesday night was on my cell phone (and we don't have a plan where I can use that for anything really - which is fine with me!). Lo and behold, I didn't even have to ask! Mike said they must have thought we looked like Americans and immediately decided we belonged by the pig statue! Again, I got the giggles for a good, long time. What fun!









 Next stop was Victoria Beach. Before we found our way to the beach, we stopped at the park's general store and bought my in-laws suckers with crickets in them. Really, what says "thank you for caring for the most important people in our lives" better than a sucker with a cricket?! Giggles again for me....

Ten years!!!!

 Victoria Beach was gorgeous in every way. The sunshine was blinding (can you tell?); the sand was so soft and white; the water was frigid cold but refreshing to dip feet in; it was perfect.

We found many pieces of broken glass that were polished smooth enough to have been mistaken for something like obsidian if we hadn't known better. What a fun place to explore!

I took this picture on a blown-out setting on purpose;  I haven't yet decided exactly why; it seems to have struck a chord with Mike, and I know it does with me, though I think they are perhaps different chords being struck.....

After leaving Victoria Beach, Mike wanted to head north farther to Manigotagan (I think I have that right! Try saying it three times fast!). The idea was that we would arrive there and then loop back down southward by another backroad. Well, by the time we got to the Manigotagan Campground even Mike decided he needed to see more people around. Miles and miles and miles (km and km and km!) of nothing but forested bog were really pretty, but we could only take so much of it, too! We had seen a wolf in a field near a four-lane highway that morning, so we had hopes of spotting a moose in the backcountry. No luck on that one, though.

The road up to our northern turnaround point was marked periodically with "broken road ahead" or "rough road ahead" signs that we finally started laughing really hard at because there did not seem to be any part of the road that was truly smooth. So marking certain sections seemed, well, hilariously funny, I guess, even though laughing just made things all the worse for my beat-up little bladder! It was honestly probably the most uncomfortable and fun drive I've experienced in a long time, if not ever! What fun to be out just exploring with my best friend!

Rather than making the loop around that we had planned, we returned the way we had come because the loop route looked much longer. Thankfully Mike changed his mind before my bladder had to speak up and say "no". The campground where we had stopped to use the outhouses was pretty, but I know the girls would have refused to use the outhouses based on the smell factor. They've gotten very finicky about that type of thing, even though they're happy to use trees whenever needed (i.e., they are not sissies of any sort!). Anyway, my bladder and I were thankful that we returned the way we came and had what seemed like a much quicker trip back southward.

We arrived in Winnipeg in time to get to our dinner restaurant. It was a fondue restaurant, and we had been there on our honeymoon, as well. It was still just as good!

When we got back to the hotel, we found the parking lot completely full except one teeny, tiny space between a pickup and a minivan. A man, who must have been a parking attendant in, hmmm, plainclothes, encouraged us to squeeze into it rather than using the overflow parking across the street. Apparently the closest parking lot to the hotel was safer than the overflow lot. Great. This was the first trip to Winnipeg where we both really realized and felt like we were in a city with some rougher edges.

The below picture shows Mike getting the car packed on Friday morning. It was so good that my fit husband was driving rather than his pregnant wife. There would have been no squeezing me into the drivers' side door! It's not like I can suck the little guy in for a tight squeeze!

That perhaps shows better the few inches Mike had to squeeze himself into the car. Triathalon training came in handy!!

What would a trip to Canada be without a stop at one of the 2,371 Tim Horton's in Winnipeg?

Okay, the picture below is for my brother-in-law, Mr. Castro. The billboard says, "Winnipegs Best Mexican Lifestyle". It's called the Times Changed High & Lonesome Club, and the picture behind the High & Lonesome on the left is a rubber chicken. Neither Mike nor I had any idea what this place was, but it was only a block from our hotel and cracked us up everytime we walked by it. So, Jon, does it look like a place we could have found an "authentic Mexican lifestyle"?!? 

This picture is for my Mom. It is a blackish barn with two bright red doors alongside a blackish house with a bright red front door. I have nothing against red doors, but the amount of black and red going on on this farm was a little insane. I thought you'd appreciate it, Mom!

 This dirt road is the Rendezvous Country scenic backway which took us over an hour to find through the Pembina Gorge on our way home. Since we were super-full of food by Friday, we decided to just head home and take the scenic route. Mike checked out the triathalon area he'll be adventuring in soon, and we crossed at a different border crossing where I was hoping to see a friend's dad working (he wasn't; I was bummed). We did, however, get an awesome driving tour of the Pembina Gorge and had a lot of fun sort of off-roading things in our trusty little Saturn! We were an hour and a half later arriving home than we had planned - Dick & Kathy, I am hoping this picture of the dirt road explains why we were so much later than we had thought we'd be! It didn't seem that anyone minded us being late, but I wanted to explain, too!

Phew! So, that was our ten year anniversary in a nutshell (in as much of a nutshell as I can ever write, anyway). I still maintain that the day Mike and I got married was the best, happiest, most wonderful day of my life! Many people say their wedding day was the best day of their lives until they had children and that then their births became the best days. While I can understand that, my thinking is that if Mike had not asked me out, if he had not proposed, if we had not gotten married on June 1, 2002, then none of this below would ever have come to be. That which is most wonderful and beautiful in our lives would never have come to be had we not had our wedding day....and that will forever make         June 1, 2002 the best, happiest, most wonderful day of my life.

From that, we have

this

 and this....

 ...and this....

 ...and this....

....and this....