An Evening on the Riverwalk, Part Two

I love taking walks, especially on warm spring nights. We've had way too few of those this year, but last Friday was a gorgeous night. Greg, Nick, and I spent maybe an hour walking around the Riverwalk. I love this picture because it looks like Nick is trying to grab the light.

Do you see how nicely Nick is holding his daddy's hand in the picture below? I was impressed as I huffed and puffed twenty feet back. As soon as I have this kid, I need to get in shape. I miss having the energy to walk miles at a time without getting tired.

The fountains at the Riverwalk are a favorite with Nick.

We walked for awhile, looking at the ducks and playing in the fountains. Nick loved running around and around this fountain. He would have gone swimming if we'd have let him.

When it was time to go, Greg went to get the car and I let Nick run around the pavillion. It's a pretty enclosed area, so he couldn't escape. He ran the entire time, and loved looking at the ducks and geese.

Nick looked up, at one point, and saw birds nesting at the top of the pavillion. "Are we in the birdy's house?" he asked? This boy likes birds.

Nick also kept referring to this large red abstract sculpture. When we walked past it, Nick tried to climb on it, and Greg read the sign to him. "This sign says, "Get off the sculpture." Signs must be important to Nick, because he left it alone. Then, when we were on the pavillion, he kept pointing to it and calling it by what he thought was its name. "That is the "Get Off Sculpture!"" he announced. Yup. It is. That sculpture has a new name.  :)  It will henceforth be known as the "Get Off Sculpture."

An Evening on the Riverwalk, Part One

On Friday, just for a change, Greg and I took Nick out to dinner and to the Riverwalk. We had dinner at Ted's Montana Grill, and enjoyed buffalo burgers and fries. Nick's favorite part was the shake. He shared a chocolate shake with Greg, and it was all he could talk about. "I eat my shake now?"

I love the buffalo burgers there--I've been craving meat lately, and a medium-rare buffalo burger is about the best kind of protein I can imagine.

After dinner, we walked around a bit and saw the sights. It was a lovely, warm night. We haven't had many of those this spring, so it was pretty crowded. There was a guitar player on the sidewalk, and Nick loved dancing to the music. We practically had to drag the boy away. I think we're going to be shelling out for music lessons in a few years. Nick was asking for a guitar repeatedly.

I love the way that toddlers dance. They're completely un-selfconscious, in a way that most people can only be after they've had a few drinks. Nick dances with such joy.  :)

More tomorrow. . .

Pregnancy Update: 36 Weeks

Yup, I'm full-term now. This baby is coming out in 17 more days. I think I can make it. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . . . .

I had my mother-in-law take this photo for me after I got back from a job interview last Thursday. Do you know how difficult it is to find appropriate interviewing clothes when heavily pregnant? I had originally figured to put a blazer on over my blouse, but none of my blazers fit me, even when unbuttoned. I'm not sure how my shoulders got bigger, but there you have it. I went with a cardigan sweater, instead. Incidentally, I got the job. It's just a part-time teaching gig, one night a week starting in late summer and continuing next school year. I'll be an adjunct instructor, teaching graduate school ESL endorsement classes for a local university.

Look at the above picture again. Do you see anything cute? How about the little man in the window? He couldn't figure out why Grandma Toni was taking my picture instead of his. Nick is very used to being the center of attention. He's in for some changes very soon.  :)  I think it will be good for him, though.

This is probably the last ultrasound picture I'll have for this little boy. The next picture you'll see will be from the outside.  You can see his face in profile, with his forehead in the upper left hand corner and his eye and nose below it. I think that's an arm or a foot squished up against his face. The doctor estimated that on this day (May 10th) he weighed 5 lbs., 3 ounces. His guess is that his final weight will be in the 7 pound range. Not too shabby.

Alright, so here's what is probably my last pregnancy update. I'm scheduled for a c-section on June 9th, which should be a nice birthday for this little guy. My birthday is June 5th, and our wedding anniversary is June 8th, so June will always be a busy month for us.

Weight: (From starting weight) +26 pounds. I feel pretty huge, and I'm a few pounds bigger than I was with Nick. The difference, though, is that I gained over 40 pounds with Nick and never lost it all, so I started out heavier. So I feel pretty sucessful that I didn't put on another 40 pounds with this pregnancy. Gotta celebrate the small things, right.  ;)

Movement: He has been more active lately, though still less bouncy than Nick was at this age. My students were watching my belly bounce up and down last week. "Freaky!," one of my 5th graders commented. Yup. But also interesting and awesome, in its own way.

Exercise: Actually, more this month than last. I love to get outside when it's nice, and so I've taken every opportunity to go out lately. On Friday we took Nick to Riverwalk and took a little walk. Chasing him is excellent exercise. Yesterday I spent hours and hours in the garden, doing very hard physical labor. I also took Nick to a festival and walked around the grounds for a few hours. I feel pretty proud of what I'm able to do at this stage in my pregnancy.

Cravings: Iced tea, all the time. I could drink a gallon of it a day. Actually, I've been craving dinner food, even at breakfast. Forget cereal, I want leftovers of dinner the night before, even if it is 7 a.m. I dream of meat and cheese and all things protein. Oh, and I've been having a bbq chicken salad from Panera (substitute spinach for lettuce, add tomatoes) at least a few times a week. Chocolate, of course, is still an ongoing craving, though I'm not sure if that counts as a pregnancy craving. I always crave chocolate.

Sleep: My hands hurt from the way I've been sleeping. I'm still using 5 pillows to prop myself up at night, and waking up a bunch to use the bathroom.

Oh, and I have had some extremely weird dreams. In one of them, I dreamed I was having an ultrasound, and the doctor told me that the baby was healthy except for one thing--instead of a baby human, he was a baby giraffe. It's weird how anything seems feasible in a dream. I remember being totally freaked out and explaining to the doctor, "But, I don't think I can take care of a baby giraffe. What do they even eat?" When I woke up, I actually had to go peek at my ultrasound picture to reassure myself. It was 3 a.m. and I couldn't get back to sleep for quite awhile.

Then, today, I was at a shower for my cousin, who is also having a baby boy in just a few weeks. She got one of these adorable giraffe baby teethers. It brought back that dream, vividly. I think I'll have to get one of these for the baby, just because. Then, whenever I am frustrated because the baby can't sleep or is crying, I can look at this toy and breathe a sigh of relief because I have a baby human and not a baby giraffe.

Medical: I am very anemic, and I have funky looking bruises in places where I don't remember bumping into anything. I've been going to the infusion center for IV iron weekly. I think it's finally starting to kick in, three weeks later, because some of my energy has come back. I'm still tired, but I don't feel like I want to lay down and sleep every second of every day.

On the other hand, my blood pressure has been excellent, even low sometimes. My asthma isn't bothering me too badly (except for when I run to chase Nick), and I'm able to get around okay. I know it could be much worse.

Mood: Upbeat, if a little cranky. I've been telling everyone who asks, "How are you feeling?" the same thing. "I would be perfectly happy if my water broke right this second. I am done being pregnant." Several people have commented that I'm waddling. Sigh. I suppose that is normal.
 
However, my mood has been better as my delivery date approaches. Something about knowing that the end is near makes pregnancy a little more bearable.
 
Symptoms: Other than waddling? His little feet are in my ribs, and he keeps pushing them out. I'm slightly worried that he's going to crack one. My uterus is up so high now that I can't eat much in one sitting. I have been eating my dinner in stages lately. I'll have maybe 1/3 of it, and then come back for more later.
 
I'm having some swelling, too. My ankles and feet are slightly swollen, but my fingers are really bad. My ring finger is usually a size 7, and my wedding rings are a 7 1/4. During one of those really hot days a few weeks back, I almost couldn't get them off. I took both rings off for good and found a cheap ring in my jewelry box to wear on my left hand. It's a size 9!
 
The pregnancy horomones are giving me acne, and I am hot and sweaty even when everyone around me is chilled. Greg didn't like that I'd turned the A/C to 72 degrees. He said he was cold. I said, "I have twice my normal blood volume circulating through my body. Plus, there's a five pound human inside of me. Get a damned sweater." Perhaps my sympathy for the comfort of others is not so strong right now.  ;)

Keeping Himself Busy

I'm up to a minimum of three doctor's office visits per week now. I have two non-stress tests, one actual obstetrician visit, and one iron infusion every week. Sometimes I have to bring Nick with, and he finds quite interesting ways to keep himself busy.

Nick went with me on Tuesday, and he was quite entertaining in the waiting room. Our doctor's office has these neat kid-sized chairs, and Nick wanted me to to come and sit by him, on the teeny tiny chairs. I told him that I wouldn't fit, but that he could come sit by me. Nick decided that he wanted to bring a chair over. Then he brought two, and three, and so on. . .

Pretty soon, Nick had lined up every children's chair in the waiting room. He made a line going all the way to the door.

There were three or four ladies waiting with us, and they laughed at his antics. Nick talked the entire time: "I'm going to get another chair. We need another one. I am strong. Urgh!" (grunting).

Since we had to wait awhile, this kept him busy and gave him a little workout. I did make him put all of the chairs back when we were done, though.

Daddy's Little Helper (Kind of)

This weekend, Greg did a lot of furniture moving and assembly, all in preparation for Baby 2.0. I found this cool shelf at Target--it has nine square holes that can fit fabric boxes. My goal is to use it for Nick's clothes and some of his toys and books. Nick helped put it together. . . in a way. He used his toy hammer to bang on it while Greg hammered in the nails.

We've been working on getting the boy's room ready to fit two boys. Actually, the closet in the boys room is for three boys: Greg and both kids. I am lucky enough to have the master walk-in closet all to myself. Greg and I decided when we bought this house that sharing a closet might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back, so we've never gone there. Instead, there's one closet for the males and one for the females. I think it's a pretty fair deal.

By the end of this weekend, our goal is to finish the boys' room and get as much as we can ready for the baby. We have a to-do list that is really, really long. Good thing we have a little helper.  :)

Mother's Day Plant Stakes

The drive to come up with something creative to give the grandmas for Mother's Day--that's what led me to wander the aisles at the Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, waiting for creativity to strike.

We found these wooden flower pokes back by the paint. I figured they would at least be recognizable, no matter how Nick painted them.

 I've also learned my lesson--we only paint outside nowadays. But Nick has really learned how to paint. His strokes aren't terribly even, but he totally got how to use the brush to get paint on the flowers.

My boy also knows his colors--and he had very definite opinions about what colors each flower should be. Nick has learned the names of every color, and he can even differentiate shades. He said he wanted to paint one flower purple, and when I went to open the little paint cup, he shouted, "No, Mommy! Dark purple. Want dark purple!" I limited him to two colors for each flower, or else all of the colors would've melded together into an unattractive shade of brown.

In the end, I think he did a pretty good job. I had to even out some of the gloppy spots, but the painting work was all Nick. Not bad for a 29-month-old.    :)

Inside each flower, I put a picture of Nick that my sister took a few weeks back. The plant stakes turned out very cute--I stuck each plant stake into pots of gorgeous peace lillies that Melissa from Costa Farms sent me, and gave them along with the plant stake and a card that I made using the pictures of Nick painting.

Here's what the final product looked like:

I wasn't sure about the construction paper leaves. I did them for two of the flowers and then skipped it on the rest. I wasn't sure if they were too cheesy, plus I knew they'd fall off. The plant stakes, however, are forever, because I sprayed them with this spray coating that makes them waterproof and fadeproof.

Before I was a mom, choosing Mother's Day gifts was easy--nice card, perhaps a dinner out, flowers and maybe something sweet to eat. I'm not sure why, but since having Nick, I feel the urge to be creative and have him make presents for holidays like Mother's Day. It's tricky to have a kid who is only two make something useful or attractive for an adult, but it can be done, usually with a lot of intervention from me.

Either way, Nick enjoys the process. Soon there will be two boys for me to make creative gifts with--two boys at very different ages. I'll have to be even more creative to make that work.

I think I'm up for the challenge. I've never been afraid of a mess.   ; )

Wordless Wednesday