Juliet is Coming this Week!

Well, here I am updating again before birth. Not too surprising really considering that my first child was so late...

Bryan and I went to what has shaped into my last weekly checkup yesterday. The news was good all around, and though I do not appear to be about to go into labor (again, shocker), I am progressing enough that he thinks I will be quite favorable for an induction on Friday morning. So, Bryan and I will be heading to Baylor All Saints Downtown first thing Friday morning. Funnily, our doctor actually predicted that he thinks I will be ready to give birth sometime between 4:00pm and 8:00pm that night.

Anyway, I wanted to update all of you on the developments. As people keep reminding me, should could come before then, but given the stubborn streak in our family I somehow doubt it...

Twilight of Pregnancy

I have entered that phase of pregnancy (10 days til due date!!!) where every time I call someone, they think--is this it? Where when I see people they think, "this is probably the last time I will see her before she delivers." Where everything we do, we think, "this might be the last opportunity to do X before delivery."

We aren't making plans, and we have done just about everything we needed to do before we give birth. So, we have been spending lots of time hanging out with Robby and just enjoying the last days of having him as an only child.

Here is a re-cap of some of what we have done:

Tah brought Robby cupcakes. He didn't think he could wait until Mommy was ready to give him one:



We went to the Dallas Aquarium. Robby loved seeing "Nemo" and "Dorie." He did not love moving on to the next exhibit (even though it was the super cool shark tank).


We took Robby to his first dentist's appointment. I can tell we are really going to like the practice we chose, and Robby loved the toys in the waiting room.


We have gone to the park almost every day. Robby is becoming more and more willing to play with other kids, and he loves meeting the neighborhood dogs:



We went to the zoo and saw all of the animals that we talk about in books. It was very fun.

(you are welcome for the late preggo pic)

We have cuddled on the couch and watched football:

Who knows, maybe this is my last time to post before I can put up the first pics of my daughter...

Updates....

Wow, how did I go so long without any update on this page? I guess I will just have to do bullet points:


Robby:

• We had his birthday party two weeks ago, and it was really fun! We had choo-choo train cake, homemade decorations, and lots of family. He got trains, cars, and trucks. It was heaven for him! Afterwards, the grownups had fun with barbeque and fantasy football draft night.


• Robby had his two year doctor's appointment last week. Bryan and I got a 30 minute lecture on the importance of disciplining him (it is her standard 2 year appt talk) as he proceeding to throw a minor temper tantrum the whole time she was in there....good times. He is just under 50% in weight and 80% in height. He was not impressed with getting in a shot but very impressed with his Curious George band-aid.


• Robby promoted to the 2-year old classroom at school. It is a room of 10 boys and no girls. I cannot imagine. His teachers must have unheard of stores of patience. While he misses Miss Anna and Cocoa the Frog, he also loves his new room. They get to play on the big playground outside and they have their own chairs with their pictures on them. When I went to pick him up the other day, he didn't want to come home!


• Here's a pic of Robby and Daddy at Chick-Fil-A on Monday to get our free chicken sandwiches for wearing our sports gear. We took it to the duck pond and had a picnic lunch. It was so fun, but Robby got filthy! He had to have a shower before nap and then a bath again before bedtime.
  
  
  
  Juliet:

• She is due in less than a month! I start my weekly check ups on Monday. Those are always fun. Go in, hope lots of progress has been made, get told that there has been none. Go home, wait for next week, repeat. I got 5 weekly check ups with Robby. Here's to hoping that Juliet will not be so stubborn!


• We put together the nursery last weekend. My parents were super sweet and came to help us get it all together. It took a full three days, but we are almost completely done. We still have to hang the curtains and hang one more picture. My favorite part of the nursery is a collage of Juliet's initials that Bryan and I made. We got three really pretty pieces of pink patterned cardstock paper that Bryan drew her initials on using charcoal. We then framed them and added pink ribbon to hang the frame. The whole nursery is black, white, and bright pink. It is hard to find pink and black together these days, but I love the effect it created. Here are some pics of the room:

And It's All Worth It

So, my friend Chrissy recently got to experience this with her daughter who is the exact same age as Robby, and I was so jealous when I read her post. But, today, it was my turn, and I am telling you--this moment makes any less than glamorous moments completely worth it.

When Bryan and Robby were leaving to take Robby to daycare today, Robby came over and gave me a hug and kiss and said "love you Mama." I am still melting, and every time I think about it I start to smile.

I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing him say that (even when I know he is just saying it to try to get what he wants!)

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Also, an update on Juliet:

I went to the doctor last week, and we had another sonogram. She continues to measure exactly at a due date of October 7th. Maybe she will be less stubborn than her brother and will actually come on time or something close to it. The sonogram measured her at 4lb 9oz. Of course, I am not sure how accurate that really is, but it sounds good! She is also finally in the head down position, which is a huge relief to me. We are 44 days from due date, and I am getting so excited to meet her!

It Was a Great Day

We started out the day singing happy birthday to the birthday boy. He wasn't too sure about that, but he recovered quickly when he discovered donuts were in his future:

Then, he got to go to school where everyone knew it was his birthday, and they had a birthday hat for him. Of course, he also got to share his birthday cookies with everyone.

After school, we came home and opened presents. Robby got a new set of Legos, wooden blocks, three little construction trucks, some new puzzles, and a Nemo baseball and a Cars baseball. All in all, it was a good haul for a 2 year old!

Then we went to feed the ducks at the Botanic Gardens. Robby is a huge fan of ducks these days. In fact, when we sing Old McDonald, ducks are pretty much the only animal that we do (well occasionally we do frog in honor of Cocoa the frog). The problem with this outing is that the ducks were MIA at the gardens. We decided to try to feed the turtles instead, and apparently, these are some hungry, hungry turtles. We started out with one turtle to feed, and we threw him some bread crumbs and Kix cereal, and then suddenly there were three turtles vying for the food. The next thing we knew, we looked up and there were turtles headed our way from all over the pond. By the time we threw out all of the food, I had counted almost 30 turtles that had swum up to us. It was crazy! Robby loved it though.

Then, we went home and Daddy fixed Robby one of his favorite dinners, chicken fettuccine alfredo, and for dessert we had cupcakes from the Cupcake Cottage. They were delicious!

After an immediate bath to clean up the cupcake from all corners of Robby's body and some more time playing with toys, Robby got one last special treat--he got to stay up until 9:15 to watch Finding Nemo. Then, it was bed time and lights out for this special birthday boy!

2 Years

I truly cannot believe that my amazing little boy is turning two years old tomorrow! It has been such a joy to watch him grow from a helpless infant into a true toddler.

Here he is right after birth:

Now flashforward to the present:

Though we are not doing the party thing until next weekend, Bryan and I wanted to make his actual birthday special, so we decided to combine two of his favorite foods--chocolate chip cookies and M&Ms to make these enticing confections to send to school tomorrow:

(yes, yes, we know--the decorations are amazing :) Well, the 2 year olds will like them anyway.

The Things that We Find Normal as Parents

In real life (non-parenting world), it is completely absurd to think that discussing pottys and underwear are normal (unless you are a junior high boy of course). But, today, I found myself at Target cajoling Robby to come over to me by announcing in a non-whisper--"Come pick out some big boy underwear!" That's right--we are starting on that wonderful road called potty training. We bought a big boy potty a couple of weeks ago, and he has been practicing sitting on it (fully clothed) and telling us it is his potty for a couple of weeks now. Then, last night, he decided he wanted to try it out. So, we took off his diaper, had a quick discussion about aim, and surprise, surprise, he actually used it. We have had four successful ventures now, so maybe we are well on our way. We will see. I am pretty sure there is a direct correlation between the fact that we just bought two new boxes of diapers and his sudden desire to be potty trained :)

Tonight before bed he got to try on the big boy underwear, which he really liked, so tomorrow we are really going to get down to business. How amazing would it be if he was actually potty trained before Juliet gets here?? And on that note, how crazy is it that my due date is in less than two months?!?!


On a completely unrelated note, right now at our house it is prepare for fantasy football time. Bryan is much more intense about this than I am even though I am playing as well. But, I do have my scout preparing some cheatsheets for me:

Of course, like many men, he is easily distracted by this sport. He even likes watching it on TV: