Memorial Day BBQ

This past weekend I had my family over on Monday for Memorial Day. Cort was gone at the Cubs game for Dave's bachelor party and I thought it would be fun to have a BBQ. My mom, aunt, sister and kids and grandparents all came over for burgers and steak kabobs. The weather actually turned out to be nice, just a bit humid.

Mom doing bubbles with Mia

Papa holding Claire for the first time
More Claire loving!
Great-grandma with Claire
Papa and Mia watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Noah entertaining everyone singing the ABCs
Drink break! It was hot!!

Memorial Day Weekend Zoo Trip

I will begin this post by saying that Memorial Day Weekend is probably not the best weekend for going to the Brookfield Zoo unless you are hoping to be there with the rest of Illinois. I have never seen the zoo so crowded!! We actually couldn't even park there, we had to park at a forest preserve nearby.

After that initial craziness though, we enjoyed the nice weather, walking around and the animals. Mia is on a bird-kick and her favorite things to see this time included the chickens, seagulls, and ducks. Very exciting for the zoo, huh??? Either way, she had a good time and we will be back frequently this summer thanks to the membership Cort got for his birthday from my mom and Jen-thanks guys!

Mia communicating with the chickens

Checking out the ducks
And trying to get up close and personal with a seagull
Here's one of Cort and Mia checking out the elephants-we did see animals other than birds!

Random Updates

I realized I hadn't updated about Mia or my Dr. appts recently. Things have been crazy busy as the school year is ending and summer fun is picking up.

First Mia-Overall I would say we have had success with Operation Binky. It took a little over a week for her to stop asking for it, but I have not heard her mention it in a couple of days. Leo continues to maintain his position of importance and now accompanies Mia to bed every night and every nap. The downside to all of this is that Mia has been quite the early-bird lately. I am talking 5:30-6, which used to be more like 6:30-7. Yikes!! She is also waking up crying more. I think she used to wake up, pop the paci back in and just sit and play or chill out for awhile before needing us, whereas now she isn't as sure what to do without it being there. Hopefully this too will pass!

The napping in the afternoon has been a little inconsistent. Sometimes she wants one, other times she doesn't. Sometimes when she has one she wakes up cranky even though she went down happy. I think it is really just time for one nap and thankfully we will be starting that in about 10 days!!

Onto me-I had a Dr. appointment last week (at 31 weeks) and all looked good. I gained 3 pounds more (I have lost track of the grand total, I am going to have to ask next time I am there because I am curious), the heartbeat was 150 and I am measuring ever so slightly behind at 30 1/2 cm. Things look good with the blood issues. It seems like I will not be tested again until right before the birth so they have an accurate picture of my blood if I need another transfusion. It will just be a little trickier to match up the blood this time (if I even need it), since they would not be just looking at the blood type, but also the antibodies (or is it antigens) that is in it. I am now starting on the every 2 week rotation and then come mid-June every week. I have a growth ultrasound scheduled tomorrow, but I am guessing I won't have many details on that until I go to the dr. the following week.

That's all for now!

Late Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day with the Graskes late this year since Sarah and Ian were out of town on actual Mother's Day. So last weekend we went to the arboretum (I know, I know, we are there all the time) where we strolled around the Children's Garden and then had a picnic in the picnic area. The kids had a ball playing together and checking everything out.

Mia, Ava and Aidan throwing rocks I promise you that Sarah and I did not talk ahead of time before dressing and doing the girls' hair
The girls loved playing in the big sand bucket
Crazy-hair Mia
Papa with the girls
Cort walking with Mia on the rock path

Congrats to Marina and Corey

Congrats to Marina and Corey who welcomed a healthy baby boy yesterday morning. Hendrix David Gustafson weighed 7lbs 4 oz, and is 19.5 inches tall. Check out the Gustafson blog for more details and a picture. :) Congrats you guys!! We can't wait for our little man to meet yours. We wish you the best!

Making Progress!!

I am excited to say that things are moving along a little more quickly now and we have made some good progress lately. Here's what's new in the world of baby prep for #2:

--Cort got the closet organizer in

--The furniture is coming tomorrow-woo hoo!!!!!

--Comcast is coming next week to activate the cable jack in our room so we can use the computer in there without the cable cord stretching from the baby's room (formally the office).

--I ordered my pump-I got a great deal from Lactation Care, Inc. The pump was about $50 cheaper than Babies R Us or anything else I could find online.

In ongoing news, my blood test came back positive once again, but the Dr. signed off on it, which the nurse informed me means that there is no major problem at this time. I have another appointment this Thursday so we will see what they say. I also have my growth ultrasound next week, so that will be good to see the baby again and check things out. I am also on the hunt for new bottles. I wasn't sure what to do due to the whole BPA scare, but I think I am going to toss or sell my old Dr. Browns and get the new Dr. Brown BPA-free bottles they are selling. The tricky part with that is they are HARD TO FIND! They are out online and out in-store too. I am currently stalking Babies R Us by calling them daily to find out if their truck brought them.

I also still need to get the double stroller. The list never ends!! I will update in the next couple of days with nursery progress. We have all the bedding an accessories, so once the furniture comes, it will just be a matter of putting it all up and out and figuring out what last-minute things we need.

Buh Bye Binky!!

So we finally did it. We pulled the trigger and prepared ourselves for a loooong painful weekend weaning Mia from her pacifier. We had made it so Mia only had her pacifier for sleeping and the car, we were wanting to get rid of it before Baby Knuckles made his appearance. While I would describe the experience as far from perfect, I have to admit it was much less painful than I anticipated. This was a goal I had wanted to reach around the time Mia was 18-months or so, but that was in the middle of my pregnancy yuckies and one experience of Mia screaming the whole way home from the mall convinced me that it wasn't the right time.

But this weekend finally was. We didn't have much going on, nobody watching Mia, we weren't out of town, etc. Friday when I picked up Mia I gave Mia a binky with the end cut off. I had heard if you did that the suction was taken away and they wouldn't be interested. That seemed the case as Mia gave it back to me. By naptime, that attitude had turned to pure annoyance. There was a lot of screaming and drama , but finally with some help from Cort, Mia napped without it. That night Cort had softball and I braced myself for a long, painful evening of shrill crying. Imagine my surprise when Mia went to sleep without a peep!!!! This time I had just completely gotten rid of them (out of sight, out of mind). I also learned that if Mia had Leo her lion, she had a much easier time going to sleep. Leo has been a little ignored lately due to her other stuffed animals, but he is once again a BIG comfort item for her.

This seemed to be the pattern the rest of the weekend. Naps for some reason are a little harder to get her down for, although the crying is very brief. She goes to bed at night without a peep though. Mia is still asking for the binky at times, but we just tend to ignore it and she moves on. There was some general crankiness this weekend, but like I said, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated it would be.

Tomorrow will be interesting, as there are kids at daycare with pacifiers, so I am hoping that she is able to handle seeing that and not having her own. I am keeping my fingers crossed that by the end of this week we are pretty much back to normal with the sleeping and that the binky is a long-ago memory!

Cubs Game

On Tuesday, I was super-excited because Cort and I were getting a night out to go to a Cubs game. Even better was the fact that many of my ISU girls were going to be there as well. We went to a bar to meet up ahead of time and I got a nice yummy burger and fries (I have to add that of course since my life is all about food these days!). We then headed over to Wrigley where we made the LONG hike up to the upper deck. I was seriously huffing and puffing and taking mini-breaks. :) However, it was all worth it once the rain came down and we were completely covered!! Despite the rain, the game went on. I have to admit I was too busy catching up with my friends to watch much of it though. :)

Thanks Kel for organizing such a fun night out, thanks Kristy for letting me eat all your peanuts :), and thanks Pam and Ryan for the ride back to our car! Cort and I had a great time!

Pam let me snag these pictures off her blog since I didn't bring my own camera-I know-shocker!!!

Kristy, Pam and Me He, he, just kidding, that isn't my drink!
Cort and Ryan Pam and me

Mother's Day 2008

First off, I want to wish a late Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends out there! We had a nice day yesterday celebrating. To start with, I got to sleep in until 10:00!!! Woo Hoo!!! Then, as I was getting up, Mia was going down for her nap, so I got to eat a nice big breakfast at a leisurely pace as well as shower and get ready while taking my time. :) Mia and Cort got me a pregnancy massage, which I cannot wait to go get!

In the afternoon we went over to my Aunt Cathy's house to celebrate with my mom and grandma and the rest of the family. My Aunt Jan had flown in from California, so it was great to see her too. I will say that Mia knew how to work the room to get the most sweets as possible out of the family. She had a cupcake, icecream, some cookies, and a hershey kiss or two. Needless to say, she was bouncing off the walls. :) We rarely let her have sweets, so I figured, what the heck? This morning while getting her breakfast she requested a cupcake and cookies-yeah, I don't think so!

Playing with her new doll from Aunt Jan (Mia is very into dolls these days) Aunt Jan and Mia
Scoring some ice cream-look at that face!

Feeding Noah a goldfish
Aunt Cathy and Claire (this was their first meeting)
I finally got to see Claire's eyes!
Aunt Jan and Claire
Cort and Noah
Mia helping Grandma with her Mother's Day Card
Grandma and Claire
So peaceful!!!

Cort's Birthday

Cort's 32nd birthday was this past Friday. We were both lucky that we had institute days at school, so we were able to do lunch together, which we normally can't do. Later that night we dropped Mia off at my Mom's, Cort played softball, and then we had a nice dinner together. Saturday after Cort worked detention, we went to the Arboretum (we are making sure to use that membership!!) to see the big bug exhibit they have. Mia had been super-crabby that day and I was in desperate need of getting out of the house or going crazy. :) The bugs were very cool and I highly recommend seeing them if you have a chance!

Mia helping Cort read his card and open gifts

Cort and Mia with the Daddy Longlegs
Mia
Checking out some interesting facts :)
With the grasshopper
Mia's favorite bug-the ladybug

Mia was pointing to the giant dragonfly in the water
And pretending to flap her "wings" like a dragonfly
Mia was so funny, she had to seriously smell every single tulip there was

We were obviously by the flowers for a long time

Here is my little girl who gets upset when there is a drop of applesauce on her hand playing in the dirt

And some flower shots