24 Weeks

We reached the 24 week mark this week! Things are continuing to go smoothly - I feel great for the most part, although I've woken up with leg cramps a couple of times and get tired a little more easily than normal. I've been able to stay active and am trying to work out at least 3 times a week. Little Man is SO active! I don't remember feeling this much movement with Claire. I love to just sit and watch my tummy move as he does his gymnastics.

Here's my current belly situation:

I do have other clothes besides Gap tank tops and jersey skirts, but I like wearing similar outfits for my belly photos for the sake of comparison. Besides, it's a super comfortable outfit for this 100 degree weather! I think I'm still looking about two weeks ahead of my last pregnancy - this one looks really similar to my 26 week picture. Weight gain is still steady and not frightening...yet... :)

We're starting to try to figure out what we want to do for the nursery, and the first decision we need to make is what bed to get Claire so we can move the crib into Baby L2's room. We still have plenty of time, although I know it will fly by!

Spaghetti for breakfast?

I've loved watching Claire's imaginary play develop over the last several months, and it's really taken off lately with her wanting to have tea parties and the like. A couple of days ago, Claire was playing with her little kitchen set while I was in the shower. When I got out, I saw that she had set two little plates, two forks, and two little cups on the side of our bathtub. One of the plates had a piece of (plastic) pizza while the other held her (plastic) spaghetti. She immediately told me to "sit," and she brought over the plate of spaghetti and a fork for me. Such good service! I asked her if this was my breakfast, and she said it was. So I pretended to eat my spaghetti while she had the pizza. A few minutes later we went into the kitchen for (real) waffles and peanut butter.

Christmas in July

I was going through some photos and realized I never posted about Claire's new slide. For Christmas, Nana and Granddaddy gave us money to buy Claire a slide for Christmas. She always loves playing on ones at friends' houses. Since we were going on our trip to Hawaii in January, we didn't want to order something and risk it arriving while we were gone, so we planned to get it when we returned. Life got in the way, and money sat there on our refrigerator.

As we were getting things in order for our trip to New York, Robert suggested that we go get a slide so that Claire would have a new toy to help keep her occupied while my mom and dad were staying with her. We found one we liked at Toys R Us, and kept it in the garage until they arrived. The first day they were here, my dad put it together, and Claire was so excited to have her very own slide in her playroom! It's the first thing she runs to every time we go upstairs. Thanks Nana & Granddaddy.

Mini Hill Country Tour

This past weekend, one of Robert's Army buddies came to visit us for the weekend. We gave him a fairly thorough tour of San Antonio and the surrounding Hill Country. On Friday, Robert and Bo went to a couple of missions on the Mission Trail, and I met them for lunch at Rosario's, our favorite local Tex Mex restaurant. After lunch they went to Natural Bridge Caverns, and we grilled fajitas at home for dinner.

Saturday, we left early for Johnson City to tour the LBJ Ranch. We started with his boyhood home in town where we got to see what a Presidential outhouse looks like before driving out to the actual ranch. The country was lovely, and we could see why he spent so much time there.

We were all starving by this point, so we drove into Fredericksburg for lunch and more sightseeing. Our usual place was closed for renovations, and we had a pretty terrible lunch at the Rathskeller - Yelp let me down! We had plenty of room for dessert at Rather Sweet Bakery, and the chocolate tart, key lime pie and peanut butter brownie filled us up (and gave Claire a serious sugar rush - she would not sit still for a photo).

Robert, Bo and Claire visited the National Museum of the Pacific War, which is really impressive, while I got a chance to do some shopping. We've been to Fredericksburg a few times, so I thought I knew what was in each shop, but I was happy to find a new one, Red, that carries a lot of different, interesting things, as well as an incredible fabric selection in a store I'd breezed by several times (they carried modern fabrics by Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, etc. that I love and are hard to find in San Antonio/Austin). After my shopping, I met them back at the museum, and we all walked over to the outdoor portion of the museum where they have some large equipment and where they sometimes stage WWII reenactments.

On our way home to San Antonio, we stopped in Boerne for dinner at another of our favorite area restaurants, The Dodging Duck. I was wiped out from the day and called it a night after we got Claire to bed, but Robert and Bo ended the evening at the Tejas Rodeo.

Sunday we kept things low key and were able to fit in a trip to Gruene and lunch at The Grist Mill before Bo headed back to Cincinnati. We all had a great time and are glad he was able to come spend the weekend with us!

Pregnancy Update: It's a...

On Thursday I had another appointment and the *BIG* ultrasound. Weight gain at this point is about 15 pounds, so about the same to slightly less as the first go around. All the vitals are great with no issues!

The ultrasound at this point is primarily to check development - measurements of the leg, belly, head, etc. and to check vital organs - brain, heart, kidneys, etc. Everything looked good, and the baby was measuring between 21 & 22 weeks on everything, which was perfect. The baby is so active, and I feel it more regularly than I did Claire, so I wasn't surprised to see all of the kicking and jumping around on the screen. The tech told us that if the baby cooperated, we might be able to find out the sex.

Since we didn't find out with Claire, this part was completely new for us. We both had mixed feelings about finding out - it just seems a little more exciting to not know until the baby arrives. Plus, I had a paranoia about the tech being wrong and getting an unexpected surprise at delivery. But, I wanted time to prepare this go around, and I think I just wanted to be able to start forming a better picture of this baby during the last half of the pregnancy. Robert graciously conceded to finding out. :)

For some reason, I really was feeling "girl" - who knows why! Turns out, my "motherly intuition" was not that good, as I discovered when the tech pointed out the male parts. The skepticism must have been all over my face as the tech took the time to point out the difference between it and the umbilical cord, even flipping to a view that shows blood flow so we could see the blood flowing through the cord. I asked "So we'd be safe if we wanted to paint a room blue?" and she replied "Yes. Girls don't have those." Obviously, she was totally confident, and she doesn't seem like the type to insist if she isn't sure about something. So...

I'm so excited to be able to experience parenting one of each, and glad for Claire that she gets to remain the little girl in the house. Bring on the blue!

Here are a few photos from the ultrasound:

Profile and hand

Leg over the head - explains all those kicks!

An arm & hand

Tiny foot

4th of July, New York Style

Robert and I wanted to get in a short kid-free trip before Baby 2 arrives and decided to spend a long weekend in New York. Some friends of ours recently had a baby, and we wanted to visit them as well as have some time to sleep in, talk, and eat at a non-toddler friendly restaurant. My parents graciously came to SA to spend the weekend with Claire, and we were able to enjoy our time together without stress. Here's the rundown of our weekend:

FRIDAY
Our flight left early (around 7) and we were at our hotel by early afternoon. We stayed less than a block from Chris and Ashley's apartment, so after settling in and grabbing snack at Red Mango, we went over to the apartment to visit with Ashley and Baby Ruby. I loved getting to hold a newborn again - she is a doll! That evening we visited the Modern Museum of Art before having dinner at Fishtail by David Burke. We had lobster dumplings and mussels as appetizers, and for the entree, Robert had a whole lobster while I had the diver scallops with foie gras raviolini. We shared a side of lobster macaroni and a dessert of chocolate mousse and praline ice cream. The waitstaff was attentive, and we definitely enjoyed our food and our time together.

SATURDAY
We slept in (yay!) and spent most of the day walking around NYC with Chris, Ashley and Ruby. There were several stops - lunch at Wildwood BBQ, farmers' market in Union Square (where we bought some fresh pitted cherries to snack on), Starbucks, Purl in Soho, and dinner at Otto for pizza and gelato (we had to try the famous olive oil gelato, and it lived up to the hype!). It was a fun and leisurely afternoon. After dinner the Gimbels headed home, and Robert and I walked over to the Meatpacking District to see Highline Park, which has been developed on an elevated train track. It was close to sunset when we got there, and it was full of people, but not crowded. There is a good view of the sunset over the water and several art installations along the way.

We walked the entire length of the park before heading back to our hotel. Later I calculated that we walked about 8 miles that day - no wonder I was a little sore!

SUNDAY
We took it easy Sunday morning getting ready to leave. Lunch was at the Shake Shack, a place we were hoping we'd get a chance to revisit. The lines can get out of control during the summer, so we arrived shortly after opening and only waited in line for about 15 minutes. Our burgers, hot dog, fries and strawberry shake were just as good as we remembered! After a quick stop to say goodbye to the Gimbels, we headed to the airport for our flight home. Other than a delay at DFW for about an hour and a half, the trip home was completely smooth. Claire was already asleep when we arrived home, and we turned in ourselves after a quick peek at her and a short visit with my mom.

The trip was exactly what we were hoping for, and Claire did great with my parents. This was the first time we'd both been away from her for more than a day/night, and Mom and Dad kept her busy and happy. So happy that she wasn't as anxious to see us on Monday morning as I thought she would be, but I was glad that she wasn't pining away for us the whole time. :) We were able to spend Monday as a family, including lunch with two of Robert's cousins, Ashley & Mike, and Mike's girlfriend who were passing through town. We all enjoyed our last 4th as a family of 3!