Pregnancy Update

How far along: 38 weeks

Total weight gain: 21 lbs.

Maternity clothes: Definitely and even some of those are getting a bit tight

Stretch Marks: Yep, I have definitely earned my "stripes" between my two pregnancies

Sleep: Yes, but definitely not uninterrupted.  I feel like I’m getting up every 2 hours to go to the bathroom and am crazy thirsty at night no matter how much water I drink during the day which doesn’t help my issue of having to get up several times at night.  I even end up drinking water each time I get up in the middle of the night which just compounds the problem J

Best Moment of the Week: Finding out I am 1 cm dilated!

Miss anything: Being able to move around with ease.  It feels like I’ve carried him pretty low the whole time which has definitely taken a toll on my lower back and hip flexors. I think of my grandma every time I get up out of a chair or bed and how she would have to stand up and then pause for a minute before she took off walking. I find myself having to do this exact same thing, it’s like it just takes a minute to get the body going.

Movement: Uh yes!  He is really active at night which I’m hoping is not a sign of things to come with regard to his sleeping habits.  I love getting to feel him move around even when some of his movements can be a bit uncomfortable.  It’s funny watching how he will distort my belly.

Food cravings: Early in the pregnancy it was hot wings and pizza, later I had a spell of craving watermelon and it seems like I’ve craved more sweets this time around.

Anything make you sick: No

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: Nothing I can think of this week.

Symptoms: I feel like I want to be in the nesting phase but my body just doesn't want to cooperate.  I can do a few things and then have to stop and take a break.  I also find myself getting very winded and out of breath especially when I'm standing up which is weird since he is so low.

Belly Button in or out: Started out pretty flat but then decided to start poking out just a little bit.

Happy or Moody: It all depends on the day J

Wedding ring on or off: Off, my fingers definitely swell up something crazy at night and there is no way I could wear my wedding ring.  It’s actually been off for a few months.

Looking forward to: Meeting this little guy and finding out if he looks anything like Caleb.  Also ready to be able to get up and walk with ease without my body aching.

Swim Lessons

After saying for a couple of summers now that I was going to get Caleb enrolled in swim lesson I finally took action and actually got him signed up this year!  There is a lady that lives very close to us that has come highly recommended by friends that offers swim lessons at her house, the only problem is that it is Monday-Thursday for two weeks and the hours she offeres classes are always the same hours that I work.  This year I decided to contact her to see if by chance she had any later classes and to my surprise she had just opened up a 6:00pm class in the first session that began the first part of June.  Yea, sign us up!

I'm so glad that we were able to get Caleb enrolled.  He had a great time and I'll admit David and I were a little sad when the lessons were over as we really enjoyed getting to watch him experience something new.

The first week he was in a class with 2 other boys his age.  I think this is the only time that you actually saw them sitting patiently waiting for instructions.  From here on out Caleb was busy trying to "swim" on his own, see if he could dive down and touch the bottom of the pool, or see how long he could hold his breath under water.  I was a little afraid how he would react since we really haven't been around the pool much the past two summers but he made us really proud on how he didn't panic and tried everything the teacher asked him to.

Here they are heading across the pool for the first time just getting acclimated to their surroundings.

 Caleb really liked his teachers and I think that played a HUGE role on him feeling comfortable to try everything.  He practiced floating on his back, floating on his stomach, finning, treading water, gliding and doing a basic swim stroke.

 The second week the other two boys in his class were unable to attend so Caleb got to do part of his class with the kids in the session in front of him and part of it on his own.  I'm glad he got some 1:1 time because during this part of the session he was able to go to the deep end which is where he seemed to do a lot better.  I was very impressed on how he wasn't afraid to go to the deep end of the pool with his teacher and couldn't believe how one night she threw a diving stick in, grabbed Caleb and down the two of them went to retrieve it.  I just knew he would come up coughing water and in a panic but instead he came up laughing and wanted to do it again.

At the end of class each night, as a treat, they were able to jump off the diving board. The first couple of nights he just jumped off the side of the pool but after that he was all about the diving board and once again had no fear jumping right in.

 So proud of this little guy and how well he did for his first swim lessons.  He is no little fish yet but I know with some practice he will be before we know it.  We will definitely be signing up for classes again next summer and can't wait to see how much progress he makes from this summer.

Father's Day

To say that this little boy adores his Daddy seems almost a bit of an understatement. I love the excitement that Caleb shows everytime he hears the garage door open and he knows that it is his Daddy coming home from work.  He literally attacks David as soon as he comes in the door and the poor guy doesn't get a moment of down time before he is expected to give his full attention to either listen to the days events or begin to play.  

On Father's Day I originally laid out shorts for Caleb to wear to church and he gladly obliged but when we asked him to go put his shoes on he came down with his black dress shoes and exclaimed that he wanted to wear them and went over to David and showed us that they matched his shoes and he wanted to wear the same shoes that morning.  No harm we just quickly made an adjustment and we were off to church with them both sporting their jeans and matching black shoes.

We decided this year to change things up a little bit and enjoyed the lunch buffet at Fred's Hickory Inn and it did not disappoint.  For the last few years we have had a tradition of our Dad's coming over after church to our house for lunch.  This year my Dad was out of town as he was on his way home from Denver, Colorado where he had spent the week with the Faith Riders (motocycle group from church) on a mission trip.  I hate that he couldn't join us but I appreciate his willingness to hear God's voice and go where He sends him.  This was his second mission trip this year, earlier in the year he went to the Dominican Republic.
 
Caleb is definitely very blessed to have some wonderful Godly men in his life and I am so glad he has them as examples.

 Caleb loves his Papa and is often his little shadow during the day while we are at work.

I am so glad that God prepared and provided me with a mate that is not only a great husband but is a wonderful Father.  We love you lots David and hope that you know what a blessing you are to our family.

Weekend of Firsts

Friday, May 18
Last Friday night David and Caleb got to experience their first camping trip together.  There are 5 little boys in our neighborhood that are around the same age and one of the boys invited all the boys and their daddy's over for a camp out in their backyard.  Caleb was super excited even though he had never been camping and didn't know what to expect.  After David got off work on Friday he and Caleb loaded up their things and took their long hike to the end of the cul-de-sac where Austin lives.  Caleb wanted to take his nap mat with him and also loaded up some guns and a sheet that he thought he needed on his adventure.

 Each father/son combo brought their own tent and set up for the night.

 Here is a look at the adventurous bunch....Drew, Caleb, Austin, John and Carson

 That evening they enjoyed hot dogs, roasting marshmallows, making smores, chasing each other around the backyard with their flashlights and even sported some fun glow in the dark necklaces.  David said the boys had a blast and was surprised I didn't hear them down at our house screaming and laughing like a bunch of girls.

 David sent me a text around 10:15 that night when they were rounding them all up for bed that included a little sound bite of all the boys yelling from their tents telling one another goodnight.  It sounded like something you would have heard from the "Waltons" TV show :-)

 Apparently the boys started waking up around 5:45am the next day as the sun was coming up.  Before coming home they fixed eggs and sausage and had breakfast together.

 Caleb had a blast and was pretty tired and very dirty when he came home.  I think he is definitely ready for his next camping trip.

Saturday, May 19
Last Saturday we decided to go out to eat, David suggested Shoguns which is somewhere I haven't been in forever and Caleb has never been.   Caleb loved getting to sit at the grill and enjoyed watching the chef prepare our meal.  He insisted on using the kids chopsticks and ended up eating most of his meal with them.  He loved the whole show and ate a ton of food.  On Sunday he got out his kitchen supplies and pretended like he was the chef and re-enacted the experience complete with pretending like he was catching eggs in a bowl behind his back and flipping up a pretend scrambled piece of egg for me to try to catch in my mouth.

I love getting to watch him experience new things and am so glad he had a great weekend and that he got to spend some time making memories with his Daddy going camping.

Bringing Back the 80's

I thought we would do a little flash back in time to March in effort to get caught up on some of my blogging. 

This year for David's 40th birthday I decided to throw him a surprise party.  I'll admit putting together adult birthday parties is not necessarily my strong suit and then to throw in that it's a surprise made me a bit nervouse.  I decided not to worry about trying to keep David away from the house until everyone got there but just wanted the idea of the party to be a surprise.  Good thing this was my approach because of all days David made it home from work early (we had it on a Friday night) and ended up beating everyone to the party. 

It was quite funny when David arrived home.  I had the party decor up, was dressed in my 80's attire and had the 80's music playing in the background.  He just came in like any other day and acted like he didn't notice anything.  I finally had to ask him if he was the least bit curious why I was dressed the way I was and that's when the deer in the headlight look kicked in and he said well he noticed the music and thought my outfit was a little different but though maybe that's how pregnant women were dressing these days (yep that exactly it, that's how us prego people role LOL).  It was a bit comical as he didn't really know how to react when I told him he beat everyone there and he started wondering if he should leave and come back or what.  He then got all nervous that he didn't have an 80's outfit planned and started rummaging madly through his closet.  I started giving him suggestions I had come up with but he was set on doing a Miami Vice theme outfit.

Instead of going with the 'Over the Hills Theme' I thought it would be fun to do an 80's party and have people dress up.  I found this cute Pac-Man cake idea on Pinterest and let the rest role from there.

I tried to remember some of the different foods from the 80's so we had Pizza and Buffalo Wings for dinner and snacked on things like Cool Ranch Doritos, Fruit Roll-UPs, Skittles, Combos, Kool-Aid, Pepsi and Coke.  The guys also busted out some old hand held electronic games that David had from around that time frame and at some point David took over the music and started looking up songs on the computer that he remembered from the 80's and some short, mini sing alongs occurred.

 

The Birthday Boy

Here is a look at our friends in their gnarly 80's outfits :-)   

John and David in their flash back to Miami Vice

Caleb sporting his Donkey Kong shirt

We had a contest where everyone voted on the best 80's outfit and Beth won!  She got to take home some nostalgic items such as Cool Ranch Doritos, Big League Chew bubble gum and the Breakfast Club movie.

It was so fun to see everyone's different outfits from the 80's.  I think it ended up being a good time had by all and was a fun way to celebrate David's 40th birthday.

Happy 40th Birthday David!