Third Tri

Baby girl had her first hiccups last week!  Joey had these all of the time while he was in the womb, and I didn't think baby girl was going to have them since I hadn't felt them yet.  However, I felt the little "tap, tap, tap, tap, taps" a few days ago!  

Not sure if I had shown this yet, but Bristol received her first tutu a  few months ago from our dear friend, Jackie!  I squealed with delight when I opened this package!  So pink.  So frilly.  So girly.  So not boy! 

I took my one-hour glucose test for gestational diabetes Friday.  I forgot how nasty that drink is!  Yuck!  I'm really hoping that I pass so A) I don't have gestational diabetes and B) I don't have to drink that drink again!  Hopefully, I get the results sometime this week.  I have my last appointment with my Cali doctor next week, so if I do have to take the three-hour test, I would like to take it before my check-up appointment so I can have the results.  Our trip to North Carolina is in just a couple of weeks, so I'm trying to get everything in order!

We are 28 and a half weeks today!  Welcome to the third trimester, baby!  And let me tell you, this trimester has come in with a bang!  I am so exhausted!  The 4-6 hours I might have been getting during the first two trimesters are doing nothing for me now!  I'm trying to take naps when Joey naps because I know when baby girl gets here, those mama naps will be non-existent.  I'm also getting a little hungrier, but then I take a couple of bites of food, and I'm stuffed!  (Now, if I can just keep that eating pattern after I have baby, I may just lose some of this weight I put on after I had Joey.)

I also already feel like I'm nesting.  Since we will be in North Carolina for the last few weeks of this pregnancy and birth, I'm in overdrive trying to get everything in order and cleaned and ready for our return.  When I return to my house here, I will have a toddler and a newborn, so I want to have things as easy as can be when I get back.  Hopefully, Michael will be returning to us not long after our return to Cali, so I want the house to look good for him, as well.  Luckily, I have a couple of more weeks, so I've been doing a little each day so it's not too overwhelming or I don't overdo it.  Just enough pressure to get my procrastinating self moving, but not enough pressure to stress me out!  :)

Weekend Fun

This past weekend, Joey and I were pretty busy...which is a good thing because it makes time go by faster (aka. closer to daddy coming home!).  

We made corn on the cob...again!   

We indulged in some bagels at our favorite bagel shop in town!  Don't you love that this bagel is as large as Joey's head?!?! 

Joey played with our fish tank...again.  He likes to stick his hand in the back of the tank.  I actually think his motivation for this is he thinks he's being sneaky, when in reality, I know exactly what he is doing. 

The military base hosted a Kids First Fair.  There were lots of booths with tons of little toys and crafts for the kiddos, free veggies, sno cones, and cotton candy, and lots of entertainment.  Joey really enjoyed it because he got tons of free stuff AND he got his first cotton candy!  He.  Was.  In.  Love.  When I tried to take the candy away to get him in his car seat, you would have thought I was trying to rip his arm off!  What can I say...he gets his sweet tooth honestly!  

Then, we went to a friend's birthday party on the beach!  We finally had a sunny day, so it was really awesome!  Down here in Southern California, they have this weather pattern called "May Grey" and "June Gloom".  This is where it is literally gloomy and dreary all day long!  It is so frustrating and depressing!  I thought one of the perks in living in So Cal was the all-year long sunny weather?!?!

My cousin and his family actually were on the beach right by where we were for the birthday party, so after the party, we got to hang out with our fam for a little while.  This was really nice, especially since they are getting ready to move to Hawaii in two weeks!   

We finally got to see a California sunset!  Since Joey goes to bed so late, and we don't like dealing with his "past his bedtime" attitude, we haven't had the chance to see a sunset since we've been here.  However, since we were already out on the beach, and it was pretty close to sunset, I said "Screw it!" and we stayed to finally see this beautiful sight!  

It was a really great weekend and Joey and I were both exhausted when it was over!  

Ham Bone

Just a few pics of my little ham bone...

Cheesin' after bath time!

Mmmm, I love doughnuts!

What a great kid area...a giant vat of corn kernels!

A fun rainy day activity...a bucket with dried rice and beans!  

Mom, I don't think you cleaned the bottom of my feet.  Let me lick it to make sure!

 

A real artist doesn't need to use his hands to color!

I love corn on the cob, especially when it hasn't been cooked yet!

I know these are my baby sister's balloons, but she's not here yet!

Same with her booster seat tray.  It makes a completely acceptable bed!

I told you I was a good artist!  

Juice and milk are for babies.  I only drink Joey coffee, aka. juice in a coffee cup!

My artwork to send to Daddy!  

My mommy lies.  I do nap.  Maybe not in my bed.  Maybe it's on my mom's lap, in the living room.  It's still a nap!  Ta-ma-to, too-mat-ooo!

Snack break with some of my Cali besties!

26 Weeks

Things are going well with baby girl!  I assume she's growing on schedule...the doc is not measuring my belly, so I guess baby's growing like she should be.  

She's moving around a lot!  I even saw my belly move the other day when she kicked/punched! 

She has moved from my sciatic nerve, thank God! 

 My heartburn has kicked it up a notch or ten!  I have heartburn almost every single night.  I have started to drink pickle juice to cure this.  I know, I know, to some of you, that sounds absolutely disgusting! I love pickles and the juice, so it doesn't bother me one bit.  My parents saw this thing on some doctor show about drinking a little bit of pickle juice to alleviate heartburn.  I forgot why this is supposed to work, but it has! 

I'm getting up 2-3 times a night to pee.  I've gotten a few leg cramps.  I'm having lots of vivid dreams and nightmares.  

I still have not gained any weight, but I'm expecting that to change here in the near future since my appetite is starting to increase!  However, I am still having to tell people that I am pregnant because they can't tell by looking at me.  

I have been having a few days of pelvic pressure, which I don't remember having with Joey.   I also think that baby girl is moving up towards my ribs because it is getting a little harder to breath.  I hope baby girl is not born with a third eye because I've had a few deli meat sandwiches. 

Belly Photo, Week 26!  Please do not tell me that the pointy part of my belly is Bristol.  It is not.  It is my muffin top that I have always had.  When I was not pregnant.  When I was at my heaviest.  When I was at my skinniest.  I've just always had that belly awning.  Bristol is just pushing that awning out further than it normally is, which is pretty annoying since no one knows I'm prego, meaning that they think that fat muffin is normally that large and in charge. This physical characteristic is what makes me not want to wear maternity shirts because maternity shirts are somewhat designed to show off the cute baby belly.  However, if you have a fat muffin hiding your baby belly, then those maternity shirts are just a big obnoxious sign to others that you have a fat muffin.

Oh, and you may have noticed I chopped all of my hair off.  I've been wanting to do this for years, but never had the guts.  However, Joey likes to pull my hair when he is mad and it would drive me bonkers!  Plus, I am hot here in So Cal, what the heck am I going to do in hot, humid NC while 9/10 months pregnant?!?!  I figured this was the time to chop it all off, especially since I'm taking prenatal vitamins.  My hair will grow like a weed! 

Casper Wilderness Area

This past weekend, Joey and I joined our So Cal parent/kid hiking group and checked out Casper Wilderness Area.  We've driven by this park a few times and thought nothing of it.  I wish we would have checked this place out earlier!  It was a really nice area!  There are several different hiking trails and campgrounds within the park.  I think the reason I liked this park so much was because it has a lot of trees!  I really miss trees and forested areas.  I am not a big desert person, so all of the rocks, and dirt, and clear views for miles just aren't my thing.  

This was the view from the nature center.  Not too bad.  A much better view than all of the houses and roads and buildings we've been seeing on our other hikes.  

We've had a pretty dry year down here, so water in the riverbeds was non-existent!  Joey was completely cool with that...lots more rocks to play with! 

 Along our hike, Joey got really scared of something ahead of us on the trail!

Turns out, it was just all of the parents in our group blowing on grass!!  Ha ha!  Who can make the best whistling noise with grass?!?!   

There are some pretty impressive oak trees down in So Cal.  I haven't tired of admiring these old guys when we come across them.   

Joey actually did not hike that much on this hike.  Fortunately for me, I was able to bring my super sweet Chariot stroller (the one that I used in Alaska to ski with).  Now that I'm almost 7 months prego, it's getting to be too much to carry Joey in my backpack/carrier.  I knew that Joey probably wouldn't walk the whole two miles, so I needed to have something to haul his growing butt in.  The Chariot worked out perfectly!  

At the end of our hike, Joey and his little buddy decided to make rock stew.  

Joey really wanted to get a good smell of their soup!  (We checked this hollowed out log before Joey stuck his face down there...there are lots of rattlesnakes out here.  There were just rocks and a used beer can in that hole!  Perfect ingredients for rock stew!).  

Animal Whisperer

Joey loves animals.  Thankfully, he usually won't touch animals unless an adult is with him.   I am very grateful for his caution!  

I took Joey to the local petting zoo that we had visited a few months ago.  After about 20 minutes, Joey loved this place!  He kept running back and forth between all of the animal enclosures so he could touch each animal one more time. He really liked the rabbit/guinea pig area.  The public actually gets into a fenced in area where there are probably 30-40 rabbits and guinea pigs running around at your feet.  Visitors can pick up the animals, feed them, sit with them, or just look at them.  I picked up this little brown and white guinea pig and Joey would quickly pet him.  After the guinea pig got comfortable with us, I set him on Joey's lap.  Joey wasn't too sure what to do about this!

After Joey gave these little guys a few pieces of lettuce and saw that they were nice and just wanted to eat, he liked having them in his lap.  The grey guy on the right kept jumping in Joey's lap, which made Joey smile really big. 

Joey and I then went on a hike with our SoCal parent hiking group at a local wilderness area.  Before we started out on our hike, we checked out the nature center.  The volunteer had just taken out one of the snakes.  Joey really liked to touch the snake.  He seemed to have no fear...until I picked him up to get this picture.  Then, he was a little shy of this reptile.   

That shyness quickly faded away and Joey got back down to business!  The funniest part of this whole trip was that Joey had no problems petting this live snake, but he was super scared of the noises in the center.  There were lots of displays with stuffed mounts and there were buttons that visitors could push to hear certain animal's noises.  Those noises freaked Joey the heck out, because we had to leave the center as soon as the room filled with a coyote cry, or a mountain lion sound!  

Today, in our toddler class, the teachers released hundreds of ladybugs.  I was a little nervous about Joey being near all of these bugs because he usually kills bugs when he sees them.  Luckily, he didn't kill one bug today!  I think he was just so amazed at all of the ladybugs crawling around and flying away.  He even had ladybugs crawling all over him and he just laughed.  I am so happy to see his great reaction to animals and nature.  Michael and I both really love and appreciate these things, so it's really nice to see that fondness carry on with our son.  

Easter Extravaganza!

Wow, I am glad Easter week is over!  Now I know why my parents would be exhausted after some holidays!  Joey had a solid week of Easter festivities!  He even participated in four different egg hunts!  He had collected so many eggs at the first three hunts, that I was able to "re-egg" all of his found eggs and goodies for our fourth hunt!  Ha ha!

Okay, onto the Easter 2012 Photo Montage!

Easter Event 1 (EE1):  Joey's Mommy and Me Preschool class had a little party on Monday.  All of the crafts that the kids had done over the month were used for this party.  Joey only wore his rabbit ears for 4.5 seconds...long enough for me to get a photo!  

EE1:  Joey's placement for the meal.

EV1:  Joey's first egg hunt.   

EE2:  We met up with our Moms meetup group out in town and had a little potluck and egg hunt.  Here's the kiddos digging into their baskets afterwards!   

EE3:  Our town hosted huge egg hunt, as well as little Easter fair.  There were games, a train ride, pancake breakfast, and egg hunt.  They had tons of eggs that were just thrown in a baseball field and the kids got to go pick them up.  Luckily, the fields were divided into age groups.  

Joey loved the train ride!  

EE3:  Joey really likes egg hunts.  After all, he is an expert egg hunter after four hunts!

 EE3:  I think Joey's favorite part is to get into the eggs and see what goodies he has collected!  He is now a candy hound!  

We had some friends come over this weekend and we dyed eggs.  I wasn't going to color eggs with Joey this year because all I could think about was the great big mess he would make and us not doing anything with those eggs.  However, when my friend suggested dying the eggs and she had all of the supplies, including the eggs, I couldn't turn the opportunity down!  It seems that there are a lot of things in parent world that I wouldn't do on my own with my child, but if another parent is down for doing it with us, then I'm all for it.  I guess misery loves company, huh?  :)  

 Joey really liked dying all of the eggs.  However, he also wanted to break all of the eggs!  

I think all of the kids had a great time dying eggs and playing together!  :) 

Easter Morning:  I hid a few eggs and an Easter basket for Joey Easter morning.  I thought it would take Joey a little while to find the stuff, but it took him seconds to spot the first egg, and then the next, and the next, and so on!  It's like he knew! 

Joey loved his Easter basket.  I think his favorite part was the candy!  I told you, he's a candy hound!  After this, Joey and I checked out a new church in the area.  I usually like to go to Sunrise Service, but I didn't even want to attempt that with Joey. 

EE4:  Our final event of the 2012 Easter season.  We joined a friend and some of her neighbors for a little egg hunt in their neighborhood Easter evening.  This hunt was kind of cool because the eggs were actually hidden.  All of the other hunts Joey had participated in, the eggs were just thrown on the ground.  I wasn't sure how Joey would do actually having to search for eggs.  He did awesome!  He really got into it and wanted to keep searching even after we were done!  

Joey and his buddy, Blake, enjoying their sugary treasures!