33 & Pregnant

My parents were very sweet to have a small birthday celebration for me on Saturday. Their joke is to call me 33 & pregnant. Not sure this is funny, since I'm ecstatic to be pregnant, but it makes us all laugh when someone says it. Weird humor or something...

In honor of being 33 & pregnant, here are some things I'm noticing this time around...

1. Maternity clothes come with lots of strings. My word. Does that style look good on anyone, or is it just me?? I've constantly searching for a good deal on a shirt that does not contain strings.

2. The longer this goes on, the more pillows I need. Note the pink and blue squishy pillows. Before Nate was born, I purchased the blue pillow from Brookstone. Mostly to put over my ear to block out Scott's snorning, but I used it when I was pregnant with Nate. I found myself needing another one a few weeks ago but Brookstone didn't sell them any more. Had to resort to Amazon where they only had pink. Scott thinks it is a sign. I don't. I'm thinking boy all the way.

3. The need for multiple indigestion products. Hales Bales. I don't remember the indigestion to this extent with Nate, but I'm finding that I don't remember alot of of the symptoms I had with Nate. My state of oblivion the first time around or maybe I just am more in touch with my complaining side this time. Nah...I've been in touch with that since June 29, 1977 at approximately 9:00 PM CT.

4. The number of vessels I need to put water in...if you have seen me lately, chances are I've had one of these vessels with me. I try to drink lots of water normally, but a long time ago, I read that especially when you are pregnant you are supposed to divide your weight in half and that's how many ounces of water you are to drink everyday. That stuck with me and I'm known to drink an obscene amount of water daily. Fun cups make it tolerable.

5. I searched my house for something else I could take a picture of , but couldn't find anything interesting. So I'll just tell a funny story about the smoke alarm sitting in the background of picture #3. When Nate and I arrived home on Sunday afternoon, the smoke alarm was beeping. Scott had just changed the batteries last week, so I didn't know what could be wrong. I hopped on a dining room chair to take the smoke alarm down and realized I couldn't reach it. So Nate handed me his stick pony and I pushed a large button in the middle of the alarm and the beeping stopped.

Until 10:00 PM when it started going off again. Keep in mind Scott is not home. I got up the first time and pushed the reset button again and thought well it lasted 6 hours before, that won't be so bad. Wrong, every hour on the hour for the next 4 hours. I didn't know what to do. I thought briefly about stacking things up so I could reach it, but thought better of it.

So at 2:00 AM, I got back up on the chair armed with the stick pony and knocked the sucker down. Splat went the whole thing, batteries and all. Score one for me. Why didn't I think of that 4 hours ago? Duh.

Weekend Editon

Scott attended the wedding of some of our dear friends, Josh & Alison in Atlanta this weekend, so Nate and I had to entertain ourselves. On Saturday, we traveled to Charleston to visit my parents for the night.

Nate playing with Hamil's old Legos...he had so much fun and sat at the counter for what seemed like an eternity playing and making up stories.

Helping my Mom put candles on my birthday cake.

On Sunday, we picked up Aunt Mil for a picnic at Cape County Park. It was hot and windy but we managed to have a great time. Nate sitting on Aunt Mil's walker - he loves it.

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day - I think I can speak for Scott. We relaxed around the house, played in our pool, grilled out for dinner, and watched Kung Fu Panda while enjoying my ice cream cake creation. We've been having movie night for the last few weeks and it is always a challenge to find a movie that doesn't scare Nate. Some of the Disney movies over emphasize the "bad" guy if you ask me. But Nate loved Kung Fu Panda - go figure.

I wish Scott was looking at the camera in this picture, but I had to share because it shows just an ounce of the dedication he has to Nate. Letting him ride on your back while crawling on wood floors is no small task (not that I've ever tried it, but it looks hard) - but Nate enjoys it, so Scott obliges.

Happy Father's Day Scott! And to my own Dad and father-in-law! Love you all!

Pool

Nate loves the pool this year...well until Friday morning when we pulled into the parking lot. He firmly stated that he didn't want to go to the pool anymore. I didn't have alot of patience and said that we were there, we had our swimsuits on, we were going in. He didn't protest too much. After a few minutes inside, he said he had to go to the bathroom, followed by "I just gotta put my crocs on first - I am NOT going barefoot in the bathroom."

The lightbulb went off - so I said, "Nate, is this why you didn't want to come in at first? His reply, "Yes, mom - those floors are NAAAAASTY." It never occurred to me. And the floors are not nasty - the cleanest I've seen and I've been around a few pools. But I don't have to think too hard to know who he got this from...:)

A few pictures of the growing fish...

Nate-isms

Scene: Nate in the bath tub, me using the toilet as a chair, playing 20 questions


Me: Okay, I'll give you a hint (we had already established it was a yellow fruit) - I put them in my water sometimes at restaurants and Mimi puts them in her tea.

Nate: Um...give me another clue

Me: I squeeze them into my water

Nate: DELMONADES! (Looks confused) I mean LEMONS!

Me: Laughing hysterically...guess he got lemons, lemonades and some word that starts with DEL jumbled up :)



Scene: At Pei Wei, finishing up dinner. Nate sitting in my lap...


Nate: Mom, can I just tell you something?

Me: Sure.

Nate: Um, your... (waves his finger back and forth in front of my chest) is getting bigger.

Me: Laughing hysterically...Nate, you are priceless (I mean, what am I supposed to say? Thanks for noticing??)



Scene: Me getting dressed while Nate watches cartoons on my bed...justifying that it is okay to wear things over and over when you are pregnant - I mean, who notices?

Nate: Mom, um....didn't you wear that yesterday???

Me: Well. Maybe so. But #1 It fits, #2 It is comfortable and #3 It just happens to be the only thing I actually LIKE in my closet right now.

Nate: Okay, Mom. I could sense a silent "whatever you say" but he's learning!


Scene: After coming home from dinner with Scott, Nate was in bed, but still awake...


Nate: Mom, you still smell good! Why do you always smell so good?

Me: Heart melting...

Almost Pictureless

I definitely slacked on the picture taking this weekend. Mostly because my camera doesn't hold charge for long these days and it is always dead when I want to use it. Maybe I'll rectify that soon.

Nate and I had a great morning on Friday at the Webster Groves pool with the Griggs family. It was a little chilly because of the cloud cover, but it didn't stop Nate from having a great time. He did lots of things by himself that he would not have done last year and even got his head all wet. Maybe he will be a swimmer, I can only hope.

My mom came to visit on Friday afternoon and was nice enough to keep Nate while Scott & I had dinner at Mosaic. It was very yummy and we were glad to have a night out. She took Nate to the Zoo on Saturday morning and then we attended a very nice shower for Sarah on Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure that I did not anything that taxing on Saturday, but when I got home from the shower I promptly fell asleep (Nate did too after an afternoon watching the World Cup with the big boys - although I'm not sure Jason Peach always qualifies in the upper category). I didn't get up much before I went to bed for the night, as evidenced in this picture. Scott went to get Dierbergs for dinner (yes, we probably are the only family that considers Dierbergs a restaurant - it is grocery store for those of you that don't know).

Nate thought it was great. And well, I thought it was great too.

I had a good doctor's appointment on Thursday. Baby B's heart sounded good and we are looking forward to finding out what "IT" is in July! A few flutters here and there, but no defined movement yet...should be in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to these movements as well, until the kicking of the ribs begins. Maybe this one will be nicer to me than Nate was!

Zoo Clues

Nate & I participated in a class at the Zoo last Friday called Zoo Clues - based on the TV show Blues Clues. He got to touch a lizard, chinchila, tiger salamander, owl, and a ball python. Sometimes Nate is wary about these kind of situations but he stepped right up and touched all of them. And after some prodding from me, he answered a few questions in front of the group (he actually answered most of them, but so softly that no one could hear!)

I was too slow getting his touch on the python...no trepidation at all on his part.

He wanted me to take a picture of him by this dinosaur bone. I could not convince him that it wasn't actually a dinosaur bone, so I just gave up and let him think it.

Funny story while at the class...The kids had to reach into several brown paper bags to introduce the next group of animals that we would talk about - mammals, birds, amphibians, or reptiles. When one of the bags came around, I could tell it had fur in it, so I asked Nate if he knew what would be coming next. I expected him to say mammals. Instead, he said, "Mom, that's a river otter." I told him I didn't think so (I thought I had seen lots more fur), but sure enough the teacher pulled the item out of the bag and it was the skin of a river otter. Who knows how he knew that but what can I say, he loves him some otters!

Faces of Nate

He is really not sad in this last photo! He loves to make a facial expression for the camera, then check out the resulting photo.

Go Cardinals!

We took Nate to his first Cardinals game on Monday. Shocking, I know, that we have waited this long. But I really wanted him to enjoy it, know he was there, and most of all remember it. I think we succeeded.

On the train on the way to the game - his camera face of choice these days.

The Build-A-Bear company is based in St. Louis and they have a Build-A-Fredbird at the ballpark. I have wanted to take Nate there for quite some time and I think we chose just the right day. Here he is building Fredbird, aka Freddy. And the best part is that when you squeeze his arm, he plays Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Loves him some Fredbird.

It was hot, but we were in the shade - which proved dual purpose to cover us from the rain.

Nate wasn't real sure about meeting Fredbird up close and personal, but thankfully Scott insisted on a picture.

Watching intently as the ground crew pulled off the tarp after the rain delay. I would not have wished for a rain delay, but it was interesting to see it thru Nate's eyes!

Overall, great day at the ballpark!