So Proud of Himself!

Today when I picked Dane up from daycare he showed me a paper he painted of the letter B. He was very proud of it. He held onto it the whole way home. When we got home a friend of mine came over to plan the Halloween Party that we are in charge of (which happens to be October, 22, two days before my due date...what am I thinking???) and he was very excited to show her his painting as well.
He kept saying, "Show Daddy, show Daddy." I told him we would show Daddy tomorrow morning. After bath we sat down to watch the movie, "Up". He jumped down from the couch and grabbed his picture. He laid back down and asked me to cover him up. He continued to hold his picture and every once in a while would say, "Show Daddy."
After about 15 minutes of watching the movie (it's a good thing he has no concept of when the movie begins or ends) I told him it was time for bed. He chased Max, trying to give him a bedtime hug, which Max never wants and then went into his room, still holding the picture. He held it as I read him a story. As I put him in bed I asked if I could put his picture on his dresser so we could show Daddy in the morning. He wouldn't let it go. He laid down and I could hear him on the monitor saying, "Show Daddy, Show Daddy." He fell asleep and I just now quietly went in and got the paper.

Very Slowly.....

Sometimes I wonder why I put the count down for this pregnancy on the top of the blog page. 31 weeks pregnant doesn't really bother me, but seriously, seeing 63 days left kind of stresses me out.

Even though things are going much slower than I am comfortable with as we prepare for the baby I am thankful this week that we were able to check off 2 of the 23 things I have on the list to get ready for Baby Evelsizer.

Dave got the baby's room painted and the crib put together. I know there are only two things done in the room, but I really, really like it!
Our biggest dilemma is the dresser. I have looked and looked and looked for a white dresser and can not find one (well can't find one that I like, that is not a fortune, or one that is not Antique White, instead of just white). I just want something simple. I would love to find an unfinished one or one to refinish, but right now I can't even find that. Just spend an hour online looking and once again, nothing. Once I get a dresser I can get those adorable baby clothes washed up and put in drawers ready to go!

I did get my approval and final paperwork submitted today for my leave from work. I will return to work on January 4th. Our little guy should be just about 11 weeks when I go back....as long as he comes around the time he is due.

We have a Dr appointment on Wednesday and then we start going every two weeks! I am anxious to hear what the Dr. has to say. I have done everything he has ordered for the past month! Boy will I be sending Dave out for some Dunkin Donuts as soon as I have the baby! My major craving this pregnancy and I had to give it up!

This sweet boy plays so, so hard at daycare every day and loves every minute he is with Tracey and his friends. He walks right in, holding my hand everyday and gives me kisses and hugs...but then he says, "Bye, Bye Mommy, work" and he even opens the door sometimes for me so I can leave.

He will point to my stomach and say, "Baby, in there". So, so sweet!

Maybe, just maybe, I will have more nursery pictures to show soon!

Sunday

Today was a beautiful day, so we decided to head to Susson Park in the morning. Dane loves the animals there and Dave has never been there. I told Dane that we were going to see animals. He was excited! About halfway there he starting asking, "Animals, mommy, animals?" We were both happy when we got there.

We saw a huge pig right away! Dane looked at me and yelled, "Pig" and then wanted to get in the pen with the pig.

He would get so close to the fence that it would scare me a little.
This pig was quite a bit smaller and he loved it when it came over to the fence to see him.

Nose to nose

He watched Dave pet the pig.

When it laid down next to the fence he reached right in to pet it as well.

He liked to look at the horse and kept yelling, "Horse, horse", but he didn't really want to pet it.

This long horn was poking his head out and Dane kept yelling, "Pet Daddy, pet." You can see his little hand reaching for it.

We had a fun trip!

I hate that I am up at 4:00 in the morning. Sleeping is not easy these days. Tomorrow is my last day off before I go back to work on Tuesday. I planned to keep Dane home with me for the day, but I have to go to work for an hour or so to get some last minute stuff done. I also kept him home with me all last week, so I thought I should go ahead and take him to Tracey's. After all, starting Tuesday it is back to reality for us.

I am 30 weeks along now. I am hoping the next 10 (or less) weeks go smoothly and I start feeling a little better and definitely sleeping better. Going back to school means that when I pick Dane up from daycare, after working all day, it is just me and him, all night long, no matter no little sleep I have gotten the night before. I try not to think about the fact that as I am walking my class to the buses at 3:00 in the afternoon, that Dave is just starting an 8 hour shift. To make my evenings go a bit smoother, when we got back from Susson Park I spent my afternoon making 5 freezer meals. I have a couple more to make tomorrow afternoon. That gives me one night a week that I can just come home and throw the meal in the oven. I made the meals in 9X13 pans, which also means there is plenty for leftovers a night or two later!

Hopefully in the next week or so I will have some pictures from the nursery to share. I have a huge pile started for Baby Evelsizer. Some days I think..."I have 10 weeks to finish getting things ready" and other days I walk by the crib (still in the box) and the paint (still in the garage) and think, "Oh my goodness I have less than 10 weeks to get this all done." I just keep making my lists and checking off what I can get done.

Our Day

I have been going round and round all week about what we were going to do today. I wanted to have a fun day with Dave and Dane, but then I would also get stressed thinking that today and next Thursday are the only full days that Dave and I have off together to get things done before the baby comes. Once I go back to work next Tuesday I will be working on Dave's days off and he will be working on my days off.

We finally decided to just have a fun day together. Even though things did not seem to go our way all day we did have a good time.

We had seen on Facebook that Eckerts was having 99 cents a pound Pick Your Own Peaches. We thought Dane would love it. We planned to get up early and head out. I did not sleep well last night, only about 3 hours, so when the alarm went off for me to get up, showered, and dressed before Dane woke up, I just could not do it. I fell back asleep and not only did I sleep until Dane woke up, but Dane woke up later than usual so we were much later than we had planned.

We headed up to Belleville Eckerts. Dane was immediately excited to see the big tractors out front. He climbed right onto one. This in itself was worth the trip. He loved the tractors.
We headed inside and looked around the Country Store. If I wasn't on my "No Refined Sugars" diet I would have bought so many little sweets from the bakery. I got the call from my Dr. last Friday, so just one week ago, I would have been in heaven. The sweet lady at the bakery gave Dane a free cookie, just because she thought he was so cute. She was so happy when he quickly said, "Thank you" before biting into it.

We headed back to the garden area where the tractor usually takes off for the Pick Your Own. It was so quiet. Dave went to ask about the Pick Your Own and we got the bad news. We were probably the 100th person that day to come for Pick Your Own Peaches, and they were not picking today. The lady said that they have had such a big response to their 99 cent sale that the trees are totally empty. I was glad Dane had no clue what we were doing there. There were several little kids with their moms in the store crying because they wanted to pick peaches. One lady said exactly what I said, "I read this on Facebook this morning." The poor lady who broke the news to us had no idea why they hadn't updated their information online or on Facebook.

We decided to take advantage of the 99 cent peaches sale anyway. Dane loves fruit. We bought a couple of bags and then headed out to find something else to do.

We wanted to be outside because it was so nice. Since we were in Belleville we weren't quite sure where to head. Dave took us to a park in Fairview Heights and we played a bit. The playground was really small and not really what Dane was used to, so he didn't play too much. We then picked up lunch and headed to another park to play for a while more. He played quite a bit there.

I was disappointed, but Dane seemed to have a great time. He must have had fun because he fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept all the way home.

We just finished having Peach Cobbler (sugar free) for dessert and it was delicious, so it wasn't a totally wasted day!

Tom

Dane loves the phone. When any phone rings he will yell, "Phone ringing." The problem is we rarely answer our home phone. We get so many calls for some "Christina". We check the caller id and if we don't know the person we don't answer it. (I would love to disconnect it to save a little money, but 1) I think back to September 11th when I tried to call Dave from school on my cell many, many times to tell him to watch the news and my call wouldn't go through, 2) I worry about emergencies and if I would leave my cell somewhere and not have it at home, and 3) my husband won't let me). Dane will yell until the phone stops ringing.

Dane makes daily requests, sometimes hourly, for me to let him talk to people. He will tell me, "Call mommy" and bring me my phone. Many times I hear him saying, "Hello, Hello" and I will find that he has picked up the phone on Dave's nighstand. Luckily he hasn't "called" anyone on it yet.

Yesterday Dave was looking at pictures with Dane and I heard him say, "Katie, mommy." I said, "Yes, that's Katie." He then looked confused and said, "Tom?" It is funny because Dane has given Tom high fives and knucks for quite some time, but since Tom and Katie got engaged Dane has been infatuated by Tom! The first time he saw Tom after they got engaged he leaned right over and gave Tom a big kiss. It was like he knew that Tom was "officially" in the family.

Well as soon as Dane woke up from his nap yesterday he started asking, "Call Katie?" Finally right before bed we called Katie. Katie answered and Dane said, "Hello Katie, Tom, Tom?" Katie would ask him a question and he would answer her, then say, "Tom?" Katie was a little sad, but Dane did end his phone call with "I love you."

Last Few Days

The last few days have been crazy busy for us. 6 days left of summer vacation! I have been working on my summer to do list, which sadly has very few things checked off so far. I have been working in my classroom. And Dave has been working his normal yucky hours.

Dane has been one wild man lately. So wild in fact that he needed to spend some time in time out for me one evening. We were, well I was, eating dinner and he finally just needed to go. I got him out of his booster seat and put him in time out. I went to clean up the table from dinner and when I turned around he was gone from the spot. I went to his room and there he was in his rocking chair with a book. When I walked in he actually had the blanket over his head. When I asked what he was doing he said, "Hiding." You can tell from his face that he was not happy. Guess he needed a break from me as well. He sat for a good 20 minutes reading books....just enough time for me to get dinner cleaned up!

For some insane reason I decided to take Dane with me to work in my classroom. I had time to go without him on Monday and Friday this week........but just my luck....Monday-they shut off the power, which meant no AC. I tried to work for about an hour and a half, but seriously felt like I would die. Then Friday they are spraying the entire building for bugs so they suggested we stay away unless we wanted to wear a gas mask while we work. Don't get me wrong, the little guy LOVED it. The whole way there he sat in his carseat saying, "Mommy, School, Mommy, Work." I asked him if he would be good while I worked and he said, "Yep".........but he wasn't. He pulled stuff off shelves and would check it out for a minute, then go find something else. He was either slamming the door or running out of it. Finally, I was exhausted, and it wasn't from working so hard in my room. I gathered him up and we headed out. When we got home I told him to play trains while I made lunch. I look up and he is gone from the living room. I found him in our bed watching TV. He turned on the TV himself, which was already on the Baby Talk channel, and grabbed Dave's hat that Dave puts on and pulls down over his eyes when he works a double so he can sleep during the day, and there he sat, just watching TV. If it wasn't lunchtime I would have left him. I bet he would have fallen asleep.....afterall he should have been worn out after our trip to school.

I just keep reminding myself that it is my last week home with him. Maybe he senses our summer is almost over and isn't happy about it either!

This Time of Year Again

This little guy just loves to sit on the potty. He has been doing a really good job. We aren't going hard core yet, but he still has had several successful trips!

It is the time of year that I really dislike. It's the first few weeks in August. It's the time of year when I am getting ready to go back to school. I love my job, but I don't like this time in limbo...needing to go to school to get things set up and ready, but trying to enjoy every second of what is left of summer vacation.

I planned to go up to school last Monday and Friday and get everything finished in those two days so I would have the whole week before I go back to school off to enjoy. I ended up failing my Prenatal Glucose Tolerance test, so I had to go take a 3 hour test on Monday. I was determined to go on Friday. I went and got pretty much done, but still had quite a bit to do. I had the great idea to take Dane with me up to school this weekend and try to finish a bit more. Seriously, what was I thinking. The little guy had a ball in my room, but I got absolutely nothing done. So, despite my plans, I will head back up to school this week, Dane free, to try to finish up.

My goal was to have the baby's room done before I go back to school. Well, that may not happen. The crib got delievered. We bought the paint. We have cleared a few things out of the room. Then it all stopped. My classroom has called so my days to spend working on the room have been taken for right now. Dave planned to paint one day last week, but another, unexpected issue came up and he dealt with that instead. We are working on it, just very, very slowly! Dane does walk by the room and say, "Baby's room", so that is a plus!

So our goals for this week include finishing my classroom, figuring out the remaining furniture in the baby's room, and doing some painting! We'll see what we get done!

We are hoping that the weather cools a bit this week so we can enjoy some summer fun, without melting, before Dane goes back to daycare and I go back to work. We have until August 16th.....time is ticking away!