Spoiling Rachel

This cheers me up nicely.  Over dinner we brainstormed baby names.  No progress.

It's another boy!

Here are my pictures from today's ultrasound.


Cute little nose, legs and bum tucked up tight.



 Scratching his head with his finger.  



Adorable baby toes

 
 Don't know why the tech felt it necessary to label this one so. 
 

Good strong legs.

I got a voicemail while asleep that my US tech called in sick, so I would have to reschedule.  Luckily they could squeeze me into their north office a little later today.  Jack woke up with a cold but by gum, we are doing this today!  The tech said my little guy is sitting super low in my belly.  Like, "Ouch, that must be painful" low.  Why yes, it is quite painful. I have nearly constant pain on the my right side.  Since about two months in I can't turn in bed normally due to sharp pains.  That explains it I guess.  

When I told Jack he would have a little brother he asked "What's his name?"  I have no idea, child.  No idea.

I have to admit that I'm disappointed we aren't having a girl.  I really wanted one and I was hopeful that this one felt different enough.  I guess it's just the fact that's it's a second pregnancy, and every gestation is a beautiful unique snowflake, blah blah.  Girls names came easily to me and I had visions of ruffles and purple and princesses and ballet shoes.  I know, I know.  Brothers!  How fun!  We already have all the clothes we need!  Boys are easier than girls!  All of that is true, but I'm still sad I won't have a little girl.

But I have a loving husband who merrily agreed to take me to Fancy Tiger tonight so I start a baby sweater for our new little boy.  I think that will help cheer me up.  Fine yarn has that effect on me.  I'm perusing Miranda's adorable projects for Cedar to get ideas.  I also have to dive into Nameberry.  Seriously.  No idea.

Chicago!

Whew!  I just got home from a three day trip to the Windy City with my family.  Me, Jack, Amanda, her friend Jason, my parents, and Grandma Lois and Grandma Rosina were all there.  It was so much fun!  If you follow my flickr photostream (link on the right) you've seen my pictures.  I hope to pull some over here for a summary post.  But right now I'm in sweatpants, catching up on internet, with a strawberry lemonade while Ben and Jack play video games in the basement together.  I don't want to do much else right now.  Tomorrow morning is my new house inspection, followed by laundry and library time and grocery shopping.  Tuesday morning is my Big Ultrasound.  Wednesday I'm going to start potty training.  So it's a full week!  But do at least look at my photos, or the other family blogs linked on the right hand side who also wrote about our trip.

Sick of Snow

I've always been a cold weather loving' girl.  But having a little boy has changed my mind on how much snow I can handle.  Enough is enough!  We need to play outside!



This was yesterday.  We only briefly left the house to walk the dog.  We spent out indoor time reading, playing tablet games, batting around a balloon, and doing new house paperwork.  Poor guy.  I think I was partially demotivated by bitterness.  You see, yesterday I turned 20 weeks pregnant.  Halfway done!  Traditionally, that's when you get to find out the baby's sex in a big ultrasound.  But my clinic has changed their policies, making me wait a whole extra week. Not fair!  It shouldn't be a big deal, but I'm quite annoyed by the delay.  The baby is kicking all the time now.  I want to attach a pronoun to it that isn't it!

The happy keeps coming

We bought a new house!  We are elated and in love with our new home.  The sellers accepted our full price offer this morning with no quibbles.  It was a little higher than we wanted to pay, but the market is so competitive, and we fell in the love with the house, so it was a necessary indulgence.  As our realtor, Kathy, pointed out, the interest rates are so low right now that since we want to spend at least the next ten years in this purchase, it's better to stretch if we can so we have room to grow later.

Boy, do we have room!  This place is 2310 square feet, more than double our current home.  It has 3 upstairs bedrooms with a master bath and a shared hall bath.  There's a third bathroom on the main floor, between the kitchen/dining room and living room.  The basement is fully finished with a large home theater room (projector/speakers/screen and stadium seating included), a second room with a cabinetry and sink, and a third room that could be an office, craft room, toy room, 4th bedroom, or whatever.  So much space!  There's a two car garage and a large fenced yard.  The house is shaded by three large trees.  You can see the tops of the mountains from the backyard, even better views from upstairs.  The main floor and upper floor are all hardwood.  The house was built in 1963 but has been thoroughly updated.

The location is ideal.  It's everything we wanted in our new neighborhood.  Well, I wish the nearest park was a few blocks closer, but it's still walking distance.  We are close to our old neighborhood, but farther north where the better schools are.  Ben's commute will be about the same, since the highway is close by.



Kathy scheduled everything so we close on May 23rd and take possession on Sunday morning, May 26th.  With any luck we can have things moved in time to throw a backyard birthday party for Jack! 

Busy and Happy

I feel like I'm reaching that place where I wanted to be, back in February.  Overworked, stagnant, constantly tired.  I dreamed of a week like this:

Time for play dates for Jack.







Time to shoot movies with Brian and company.






And time to look for a new house. 






(I've seen nine houses this week.  The market is crazy right now, everything selling super fast and there aren't many for sale.  Many are under contract before I can get out to see them.  We love this one and we're going to put an offer on it today)

Spring Blizzard II

Once again, I'm happy I had no where to be today.



It's still coming down just as heavy.  Double happy that I got out of Jury Duty tomorrow--my juror number was just 8 higher than the range they summoned!  Ben gets to work from home again tomorrow.  What will I do to keep Jack busy inside all day?

Dance Central with Jack

Friday morning I wanted to hit the gym, but Jack firmly said no.  Ben suggested I use our dance game on the Kinect and let him play along.  Here are the results of my efforts, for your enjoyment.  (I have good faith that none of you will judge harshly my expanding body dorky dancing). 


I feel like there should be bonus points for playing with a moving obstacle under your feet, stuffed animal missile attacks, and body recognition interference. Do you hear me, Xbox developers?

Saturday morning at the Zoo

Another wonderful weekend of leisure!  We took Jack to the zoo today and renewed our membership, so I can come back whenever I want.

We happened upon his friend by the Lorakeet Adventure.

And here's proof that I was there too :-)



We had lunch at Uber Sausage.  Yum!

Sunriiiiise, sunset

Jack's speech is improving so quickly.  I'm going to miss many of his simple phrases, so I thought I'd jot them down for memory.

ups ups down = upside down

I do it boy self = I do it by myself

horsey boy = cowboy

Sounds like good idea? = please, can I?

Both! = his answer to any choice I offer

tee tops / Sarah dino / tie tops = triceratops

stegosoarsoar = stegosaurus (you should hear him pluralize it)

semen = musem

quailllll ree lee umm = aquarium (mostly he stumbles in different, funny way each time he tries.  L's and R's are still mixed for him)

Pa-Chow = Lightening McQueen's "Kachow" catchphrase

begwee = spaghetti

cop cop / cop copter / hie copter = helicopter (UPDATE Ben says the correct current version is "hopper copper")

Grumpies = grandparents

Grumpies, did I forget any?

Long ago I meant to post his Easter bunny quote.  Ben sent me this after dying eggs with Jack, reporting Jack's response to the Easter bunny hiding the dyed eggs in the morning:
 "I be mad afterwards.  I be saying no no rabbit. Rabbit not be hiding those eggs!"

We also started to teach him jokes this week.  I'm trying to get video of a good exchange to share.  But next time you talk to him you could share a joke or ask him to tell one.  Knock Knock jokes are a favorite, though clearly he has a loose grasp on the structure and source of humor in them. 

Sensory play, AKA, things I picked up on Pinterest

I'm digging all the "sensory play" ideas on Pinterest, and Jack loves them too.

This is a pan of old lentils, rice, and beans.  He drives his trucks in them, practicing digging and loading his dump trucks.  I hid some pretend coins in there, so he can dig for buried treasure over and over.  We also shake the pan flat and practice writing letters and shapes with our fingers.  Easy clean up with a vacuum or broom. 



This pan of baking soda idea came from Trish.  She said sometimes she even packs a dinosaur in a water and baking soda lump, and lets Wolfie hatch the egg by dripping the vinegar on it.  I didn't go that far, but still Jack LOVED this. First making the colored foam.  Then digging around with trucks and dinosaurs. Then adding more and more vinegar until it was more swamp than sand. 



Today I had Wolfie over for babysitting.  These two were being pretty turdy, so I had to whip out home-made slime.  Also called, home-made Gak, it's a simple recipe.  Just water, elmer's glue, and borax.  Luckily I had just enough glue to make a batch.  There are many recipes online.  At first they were timid to get messy.  But after a few minutes they embraced the slime and were coming up with several ways to play it.  It was even Wolfie's idea to add dinosaurs.  This kept them busy for 45 minutes after lunch, which is, like, eternity in toddlerhood. 




If anyone has more, cheap, indoor play ideas, I'm all ears. 

Snow Day!

How nice to have a blizzard and experience no stress.  No where to go, no traffic to fight, no problems.

My trusty porch shovel man.




Pretty snowflakes.
 

Forming a snowball attack.


Tuckered out and cold after his adventure, he drifted to the floor while playing trucks, then retreated to my lap. 


After lunch we stayed indoors. That's a pan of baking soda with colored vinegar. 


Over an hour of play time with this one. 

Finding a Routine

I love being home every day and every night.  I just love it.

Jack and I are finding lots of fun ways to spend our time.  I try to get my house cleaning done while he watches TV and takes his lingering meals.  (Probably not the best parenting choice, but it self-limits his TV time and he does a really good job cleaning his tray when given plenty of time and good entertainment.  We don't allow TV with dinner, of course.)  I use his quiet time to do my remote billing work.  In between we play games and run errands.  Today was Monday, so we had story time at the library and a trip to the grocery store (completed with horsey ride).

Here are some pictures from the last week.



(Two toddler boys with hammers. I'm amazed that no fingers were smashed)






I'm working on more regular play-dates with Wolfie.  Not only do we parents get a little break, but the boys get some great play time together.  

On the weekend (oh, glorious word!) Ben and I had a bona fide date.  We went to the new Alamo Drafthouse to see Oz.  Now, the movie was as expected- pretty to look at and mildly entertaining, but no greatness.  However, the theater is why I wanted to go. What an awesome place!  It's gorgeous, reserved seating, comfortable, with delicious food you can order during the film.  They don't have ads; in their place you will find vintage reels of material tailored to the film for the 20 minutes prior to showtime.  It was such a fun experience, I can't wait to see another movie there. 

San Diego

My first week at home was capped off with a quick trip to San Diego.  Ben and Jack went to Maine to celebrate Easter with the Masons, so I joined my family in SoCal.

There are many more photos on my flickr photostream, at the link on the right side of this blog.