A good big sister already!

This weekend as we were walking around Ikea (a necessary stop on our way home from Dallas!), Claire was sitting in the cart and kept reaching out to pat "Little Brother", a.k.a. my belly. I thought it was really sweet, but I was a little surprised when she held her straw cup up to my stomach with the straw jabbing me in the belly button. I asked her if she thought Little Brother needed a drink, and she said "Yes" and smiled. It was really funny, and she kept holding the cup up as we walked through the store. I guess I should shift my concerns from wondering if she'll hate him to whether or not she'll be too helpful. :)

32 and 35

32 and 35 were important numbers for me this week - I reached 32 weeks of pregnancy on my 35th birthday. 35...most of the time, I feel like I'm still in my late 20's, but I'm feeling my age lately with this pregnancy (although it's going super smoothly and I really don't have any major complaints!). :)

Claire came into our room on my big day fairly early, as usual, and she and Robert sang "Happy Birthday" to me - or as Claire says it, "Happa ba day, Mama!" They had flowers and cards, and it was a great start to the day, especially since Claire rarely sings and she was doing her best to keep up with Robert.

That evening, Robert brought home a red velvet cake from my favorite bakery in town. Claire was so excited about having a piece and kept shoving her plate and spoon over towards the cake. She had a really hard time waiting for another round of singing and for me to blow out the candle!

She perked up after the singing was over, though, when she realized cake time was really close. It was yummy!

I got lots of messages and cards from friends and family, and I had so many reminders of how blessed I am - my amazing husband, sweet daughter, healthy baby, wonderful family and friends, and the list goes on and on. Although I'm starting to see a few lines around the eyes, I can definitely say that the 30's are my best decade yet!

I had an appointment with the doctor today, and everything continues to look great. She measured my belly for the first time, and it measured exactly 32 weeks. I'm glad that the appointments have been so uneventful, and hope this trend continues for the next several weeks.

I think the baby has had a couple of growth spurts lately, because there have been days where my belly just feels incredibly tight and sore, and then it's totally fine the next day. I'm also seeing the growth on the scale, but at least it mostly seems to migrate to my belly area. :) 7-ish more weeks to go!

Sleepy Head

Claire has been fighting her nap a lot at school lately, but she didn't give her teachers any problems today. I got an e-mail this afternoon that said "Late night? Or did we just wear her out really well?" with this picture attached:

She got a two hour nap today - at least she finished her fruit, yogurt, and one chicken bite before she fell asleep, and she was in a great mood when I picked her up today!

Claire's New 'Do

As I've mentioned many times before, Claire's hair can get pretty crazy. It's so thick and wavy, and just containing it in a ponytail is a small daily battle.

Lately, Claire's hair has been in a different style when I pick her up from school in the afternoons. Her teachers say it's usually a little wild after her nap, which I can totally picture. One of the teachers in another class, Miss Tomeka, likes to fix Claire's hair while they're out on the playground. A few days ago, her asymetrical pigtail style was different from anything I'd seen on her before...

I'm just amazed that she'll sit still long enough to someone else to fix it - maybe I need to learn their tricks, or maybe Claire is just bored with her ponytail? :)

Ma, Bob, Carol & Play Doh!

Last weekend, Ma & Bob (Robert's grandparents) came down for the weekend from Arlington, and Aunt Carol was able to come from Corpus for a visit.

Ma and Bob arrived Friday evening, and Ma surprised Claire with some homemade play doh. She couldn't wait to get started!

We managed to hold her off until the next morning, and she loved rolling it out with Ma and making shapes with the cookie cutters.

We met Carol for lunch and some frozen yogurt, and spent the rest of the day at the house. Claire struggled to go down for a nap (too much excitement!), but finally rested for awhile and then got in some good cuddle time with Aunt Carol after she got up. Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeremy are expecting a baby girl, due mid-January. Carol and I had a good time talking about baby stuff and sharing our pregnancy experiences - I love that Baby L2 and Grace will be so close in age!

After church on Sunday, we took a few family photos and relaxed before Carol had to head back to Corpus.

Bob got a couple of photos of Claire and I with some of our regular rituals:

Reading the weekend paper while Mommy enjoys a little coffee (Claire likes to show me the toys and cars that she wants - lots of pointing and "Mine? For me? Mine!")

The daily hair battle

We all had a great time, and Claire especially loved being the center of attention all weekend. We let her enjoy it - she won't be the baby of the family for much longer!

Another train ride

Weekend before last, we took Claire to Brackenridge Park to ride the mini train. She enjoyed it, but was a little more subdued than normal. We both thought she felt hot and took her temperature when we got home - definite fever. It stayed up all weekend, but she seemed to feel fine as long as she was on Motrin or Tylenol. We made a trip to the pediatrician that Monday morning (where we ran into Jill, Kate & Paige - such a pleasant surprise!), and left with an antibiotic. Mondays are my busiest day at work, so Penelope came over to spend the afternoon with Claire so I could get some work done. We were so grateful that she could come over. Claire had a great time, and we're looking forward to lots more time with Penelope and David. The fever broke that afternoon, and she has been back to herself ever since!

This was the best picture we got at the train:

We're planning to go back sometime when Claire isn't sick!

Early Bird

Since we transitioned Claire out of the crib, she usually comes down to our room whenever she wakes up. If we're not up yet, sometimes she'll get in bed with us, and sometimes she just lays on the floor.

This morning around 6 I heard her cough, and it wasn't over the monitor, so I first thought she was on the floor in our room. I heard her again a few minutes later and thought that maybe she was on the floor in the living room, but I was pretty groggy and thought that didn't make any sense. We heard her again, so Robert went to check on her. He came back a couple of minutes later laughing, and said she was sitting at the kitchen table coloring (she and I were coloring yesterday afternoon and I had left the crayons out). I got up a few minutes later, and she was still sitting there, totally happy. I then noticed an open catalog out on the coffee table next to her blanket, and asked her if she'd been looking at it. She said she had, so who knows what all she was up to! There's nothing she can get into to hurt herself, so we were glad that she'd found a way to be entertained for a little while and let us get a few more minutes of sleep. Such a funny kid!

Labor Day Weekend

We didn't have any big plans on Labor Day weekend this year, but we still managed to pack in a lot of activities!

Robert had a little work to do, so while he went into the office on Saturday morning, Claire and I went downtown to the Pearl Brewery Farmers Market. We hadn't been in several months, and wow - it has gotten popular! Claire loved watching all of the people (and their dogs), but I think her favorite part was eating a kolache and an almond croissant from the bakery stand. That might have been my favorite part, too. :) We also enjoyed walking down by the river and sampling some items from other stands. We left with some Fredericksburg peach preserves, seasoned feta cheese, and cupcakes.

Later that day we realized that our year long passes to Sea World were expiring on Sunday, and since we had a full schedule the next day we managed to squeeze in one last trip Saturday evening. We all like going to Sea World, but 2-3 hours is always plenty for us for each visit, so the timing worked out really well. We hit our usual spots, but this time Claire decided she wanted to feed the sea lions. We got a few trays of fish, and Claire laughed and got so excited about their reactions. She would point out the ones she wanted to feed while Robert threw the fish. It was precious!

On Sunday, we went to church and then over to the McCormick's to celebrate Paige's first birthday. We always have so much fun with their family! After a nap, we drove to Austin to run a couple of errands and to have dinner with Lindsay, her mom & the boys. It was so good to see her, even if it was a short visit, and Lindsay and I both loved seeing how much fun Claire and AJC had together. Her hair was a disaster after running around with him! First Pierce and now AJC - Claire loves chasing the boys and holding their hands. Should I be concerned? :)

Things slowed down on Monday, and we enjoyed family time and lunch with my cousin David. David started a new job in San Antonio the next day, and we are SO excited to have him and Penelope here in town with us!

Bubbles

One of Claire's favorite things to do is to play with bubbles. The other night as she was finishing up her dinner, I went to pull a cookbook out of the cabinet, and Claire started excitedly babbling about something. I couldn't figure out was she was saying, so I got her down out of her chair and said "Show me." She ran over to the cabinet next to the cookbooks and started pointing, and then I realized she was asking for bubbles - "Bubble! Bubble! I wan bubble!" She remembered where I stashed the bubble maker last time.

A storm was blowing in, so it had actually cooled off enough to sit outside at 5:30 without sweating, and we enjoyed our time together with the bubbles.

The last one is my favorite - I love how she gets such joy from a simple thing!

Random August Photos

Some pictures I never got around to sharing during the month:

One morning Mom & Dad got up with Claire to let us sleep in a little, and we found them out on the patio enjoying the morning. I tried to sneak around to get a photo of all 3 of them before Claire spotted me, but I wasn't sneaky enough! My lens fogged up due to the sudden temperature and humidity change when I went outside, but I still love this picture of Mom and Claire.

Later that morning I made a package of cinnamon rolls, and Claire really dug in!

Snuggling with Mommy on the couch after naps one Sunday:

"Organizing" the oatmeal packets - she loves to line things up (and check out that bed head!):

Waiting for some zucchini muffins she helped make:

Growing Up

Saturday was another busy day for our family! My parents were in town this weekend, and we spent the morning looking at mattresses and bedding for Claire's big girl bed. Claire picked out a quilt with flowers on one side and stripes on the other, and had some opinions about the sheets to match. She settled on a set of pink sheets, and we wanted to get her another set for the trundle, but it took her awhile to realize that it would be in addition to the pink sheets as she clung to them for dear life. At first, everything else got the "NO" head shake and a cry of "Not that!" Eventually she realized she could have the pink sheets PLUS another set and picked out some with colorful butterflies. Not my first choice, but she loved them. :)

After lunch, Robert, Claire and I went to Artworks Studio for another birthday party, this time for AvaLayne who was turning 3. There were several stations where the kids could do art projects, but Claire was content to stay in the play doh room with her friends Zoe and Landon until time for cake and ice cream.

As we were leaving, we walked by a hair salon for kids that was surprisingly calm for a Saturday afternoon and decided that we shouldn't pass up an opportunity for Claire to get a trim. Since growing out her bangs, Claire hadn't had a haircut and was way past due. I'd been putting it off since the last haircuts were full of crying, screaming, etc. We were thrilled that this one went so smoothly! Claire was really excited about sitting in the pink car, and managed to sit still for a few minutes while watching Elmo. The stylist was very nice and we were happy with the results - even though this place is out of the way, we will be absolutely be making a return trip!

We stopped at Costco to pick up a mattress, and Claire was so excited to try it out - and ride on it through the store. She brought smiles to a lot of faces that day!

While we were gone, Mom and Dad got her bed put together, and we kept her busy while getting the mattresses, sheets, and quilt on. Once everything was ready we let her in her room to see her new bed. She loved it, and wallowed around before posing for some pictures.

That evening she was so anxious to go to sleep in her new bed. She kept grabbing my hand and pulling me to her room, then pointing at her bed while saying "Want night night!" When it was finally time for bed, she settled in quickly.

I hope she maintains the excitement! It took us awhile to find the right bed, but it was worth all the smiles.

Hello Third Trimester!

As of Wednesday, I'm 28 weeks pregnant - officially in the last trimester!

For reference, here is my 28 week picture from last time: http://robertandamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/28-weeks.html

The belly has definitely grown - I've already had a couple of people say "Not much longer, huh?" and I'm a little hesitant to tell them I still have almost 3 months to go - although I'm not sure what they expect someone who is full term to look like! I'm carrying this boy lower than Claire, and it makes me look bigger, I think. At least I'm still feeling good and able to exercise comfortably - and I haven't outgrown any of my maternity clothes yet!

Little Man continues to be extremely active, and I love feeling all of his kicks and wiggles. I've already hit the point where I'll be seeing the doctor every two weeks until the end - I can't believe I'm already that far along! I'm still undecided about a repeat C-section vs. attempting a VBAC, and we've gone ahead and tenatively scheduled a C-section for about a week before my due date to go ahead and get on the calendar. Still taking a "wait and see" approach, but it's nice to have my preferred date already booked in case we decide to take that route.

We got Claire a new bed a couple of days ago and are getting ready to move the crib into the nursery. After a trip to Ikea last week, we also have a new dresser, so we are making some progress. I'm excited to start getting things pulled together and see the nursery take shape!

Friday Family Fun

Last Friday Robert's company took it's employees and their families to Fiesta Texas for the day. It was extremely hot, but we were able to enjoy a few rides before we felt like it was time to get Claire (and the pregnant lady!) out of the sun.

Claire was super excited to be wearing the same shirt as Mommy & Daddy and was prepared for the sun in her sweet pink princess shades.

Teacups with Mommy


Cars with Daddy - still to short to drive!


Swings


School bus

We had a little time to rest and clean up at home before her friend Savannah's 3rd birthday party at Gymboree. It was our first time to go there, and Claire had so much fun. It was organized so well with free playtime interspersed with structure activities for the kids - great place for a toddler party!

Tumbling in the barrel


Teeter-totter with Savannah




Bubbles!