prenatal visit #4

Date: May 17, 2010 = 24.5 weeks pregnant

baby boo's heart rate = 147 bpm

weight = 159.0 lbs - I realize that this looks like just over an 8 lbs weight gain this month, and I almost died when I first saw the number. My doctor just moved to a new office, however, and she told me that her scale is off by about 3 lbs and needs to be calibrated, so I'm going with the number 156 as my actual weight. That means 5 lbs this month, which the doctor said is perfect. So far I'm up 20 lbs and, in the doctor's exact words, "you were small to begin with so the weight you are gaining is perfect". I had forgotten that weight gain in your pregnancy depends somewhat on what your BMI was before you got pregnant. Bigger people tend to gain less weight, with average size gals (that's me) and petite gals gaining more. Fewf - what a relief! I'm on track.

blood pressure = a little low but this is the norm for me

urine = no issues

- my Hepatitis B retest came back and everything is fine, which I knew it would be.

- I have to do my diabetes testing before my next prenatal visit in 4 weeks. I HATE drinking that orange stuff.

- baby boo was moving around like crazy during the appointment when the doctor was trying to listen to his heart. He is so active - more so than I remember Asher being. I'm not sure if this is a good sign or not.

Lately I have been...

... trying to slim down my grocery budget


... perfecting the art of second hand shopping


... loving my new favorite store - Value Village (50% off sale on Monday, folks!)


... longing to try the new Cold Stone Creamery that's opening here


... cutting a lot of strawberries


... not blow drying my hair


... looking for a cheap twin mattress for Asher's new bed


... reading my book club book, Purple Hibiscus, whenever I get a spare moment


... playing in the sand with the boy


... hearing that new train table run a lot


... cleaning up poop (don't ask!)


... enjoying my morning coffee


... visiting parks with friends


... laughing at our recent couples games night


... arguing with my husband more than I'd like


... looking for solutions


... processing


... thinking about a big church meeting coming up


... praying for a friend


... feeling baby boo move like crazy - he's doing gymnastics in there, I'm sure of it


... anticipating my Mother's Day gift of a big day off on Wednesday


... missing running a lot, especially after my friend just completed her first event

Wordless Wednesday - "Lil' Drummer Boy" edition

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there (and mother's-to-be!). I hope your day was great.

This was my 3rd Mother's Day and for a gift I received french toast and strawberries made by my boys. I also got to sleep in BOTH mornings this weekend. Heaven.

My big gift, though, is still to come. Next Wednesday Greg is taking the WHOLE DAY off work for me to have the day to myself to do what I want. Sweet! Here's what I have dreamed up so far:

- sleep in (which, by my standards, is 8AM)
- go read at Chapter's with a yummy Starbucks in hand
- have lunch with a friend (any friends out there looking for a lunch date next Wednesday? Huh, huh, huh?)
- have Greg do some cleaning while I'm out
- have Greg prepare supper

I think that sounds pretty sweet so far, don't you? I'm curious though, is there anything you think I should add to my day off? Although flying to Paris, or a shopping trip to Ikea, or a whole spa day would be great, it has to be budget conscious. I'd love your thoughts; I still have a whole week to keep dreaming up ideas!

What would you do if you had a whole day off to spend however you'd like?

2nd birthday recap

In order to celebrate Asher's 2nd birthday, as many of you know, we and most of his grandparents, bought him a train table. The boy LOVES trains (and trucks, tractors, cars, airplanes, motorbikes, etc.) We purchased the table when it was on sale about a month ago, but saved putting it together until the night before Asher's family birthday pizza party.

There were quite a lot of pieces...


So my help was enlisted. I put together 2 drawers, and other small parts, all by myself. I was quite proud.

In the end, we had our table!

And neither of us could wait for Asher to see it! But first, we had our family celebration and pizza party. This required the traditional birthday cake and singing of "Happy Birthday";

Which I wanted to do over and over again because Asher always got this cute little look on his face whenever we did. It's like he knew it was a special day for him and was tickled pink about it!

Of course you saw the train table reveal video already, but needless to say, the boy loved it! He wants to go downstairs all the time to play with it, and we basically had to tear him away kicking and screaming the night of his party.

He did stop long enough for 1 family photo atleast;

And he does share the trains as well (most of the time)!

Saturday morning brought us the friend birthday party! 10 kids, plus their parents, led to a pretty jam packed house.

We did a little train activity that I had planned in advance - painting wooden trains! I thought I might be crazy for getting 10 kids to do this, but it went surprisingly well. And that's a good thing because yours truly here glued all those little wooden trains together herself.

We opened presents (read: I opened presents) and Asher has been having a blast playing with his new "stuff" ever since.

And we did the requisite cake and singing of "Happy Birthday", which I was happy to do knowing that that little smile was on it's way!

The boy loves his cake, I can tell you that much!

It was a great way to celebrate Asher's 2nd birthday; good food, family and friends. Happy birthday my precious boy!

Wordless Wednesday - Asher builds his own train tracks edition

the train table reveal!

Asher's big birthday present from us, and most of his grandparents, was a train table. He has had a love of trains for quite some time now and it's always hard to pry him away from any of his friends train tables. We decided this was just the gift for him, and thankfully, with some help, we were able to make it happen.

Greg and I spent about 2.5 hours Thursday night putting this together and unveiled it to Asher Friday night during his family pizza birthday party. Here is a short video of him seeing it for the first time.

If you listen and hear him talking about a train on the way down the stairs, it's the train he had just opened and is in his hand as he comes down. He really had NO idea about the table; we did a good job at keeping that part a secret!

His reaction is funny to me, and maybe just what to expect from a toddler. You can definitely tell he's excited about it, but that became even more obvious over the weekend. We could NOT get Asher away from this thing. He ALWAYS wants to be "downsins" (downstairs) and usually has to bring a train with him when we leave the table. Too cute!

More pictures and details about his parties to come, but for now, enjoy the video!