A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

For the first time in a long time we have finally been having some decent weather here. When I picked up Mia from the babysitter today I had to bring her to the car kicking and screaming as she was yelling "play, play!" She had been having a great time outside with all her friends and didn't want to leave. But Cort surprised us today by coming home early, so we took a walk to the park and let Mia play outside for awhile. She was sooo happy!! She also was very tired from all the playing and fresh air and took a nice nap this afternoon (so did mommy and daddy!) which was an extra bonus!

Look at that concentration!
Checking out a doggie


Playing in a little cove
Checking out the slide

Mia chose to go head-first down the slide!
Swinging with Dad
Trying out the big kid swing
This one is a little easier!
So happy!

Ear Infection

Today we went to the pediatrician to have Mia's eyes checked out. While Mia's eyes look good, her right ear didn't. :( We are now on a 10-day course of for amoxicillin to knock it out. Is it Spring yet?

Marina's Baby Shower

This past Saturday was Marina’s baby shower. She will also be having a boy, about 2 months before our little guy arrives. It was so great to have a chance to see and catch up with everyone, especially since there were out-of-town friends there that I don’t always get to see (Lisa and Kris!). It is so crazy to know I have been friends with most of these girls since junior high-we are so lucky to still be so close! Pam, Lisa, Kristin, and Carol did an awesome job putting together the shower with a cute bug theme. It was fun seeing all the boy stuff that Marina got as gifts and motivates me to start looking at more bedding, clothing, etc.! Here are some pictures from the shower.

Marina and Lisa

Lisa and Venessa
Some of the cute decorations

The cutest cake ever!

Playing a game-abc game of what a baby uses-what do you get for the letter u??

Kristin and Tyler

Lisa and Me

Corey practicing his "daddy" skills

Handy Pammy's cute homemade card

Opening gifts

Marina modeling baby-wear

Kristin and Tyler

Since there were no other children present, Tyler was my only victim. :)

Lady, would you back off???

Blood Test Results

The result of my blood test was negative, which the nurse assured me was good. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the same results down the road....

Conjunctivitis aka Pink Eye

Today when I picked up Mia from the sitter's, her eye was all crusty and oozing green mucus. I have seen many cases of pink-eye (and had several myself) and this didn't look like it since her eye wasn't pink at all. Turns out the eye doesn't have to be pink-who knew? I called Mia's pediatrician and it sounds like a case of viral conjunctivitis, which she probably got from rubbing her runny nose and then touching her eye. Basically it will just run its course . Until that happens, Cort is home in the mornings as Mr. Mom since I have to save up my sick days for my maternity leave.

20-Week Checkup

Today I had a regular checkup with my OB. The baby's heartrate was 158, they measured my belly for the first time and that was 19 cm, and I am up 5 more pounds (which I was expecting, because boy I can't stop eating!). The only thing of concern were the results of a blood test from a couple weeks ago. Apparently I have some minor issues at this point with my blood's antibodies and antigens that most likely stems from the blood transfusion I had with Mia. The concern is that the antibodies or antigens could attack the baby's red blood cells if they crossed over, causing the baby to become anemic. It's a bit confusing and I am sure I am not explaining it well. From this point on I will have blood tests (indirect Coombs test) the remainder of my pregnancy to monitor this. The good thing is that I am already seeing a high-risk OB for my ultrasounds and having a higher level ultrasound as well. My Dr. said that the Level 2 ultrasound will detect anemia in the baby and since I just had the ultrasound and nothing was noted that is good news. I was not thrilled to hear this news, but the good news is that I am already being monitored closer than most, so I know they will be keeping a close eye on it. I will hopefully find out more when I get today's blood test results back. Next up-the baby's fetal echo in about 2 weeks.

Night out with the Morales and Brown Families

This past Saturday we went out to Algonquin and hung out at Melissa and Chris's with their boys and also Kristy, Graham and Payton. Melissa was the hostest with the mostest and made all the kids dinner as well as all the grown-ups dinner. :) It was so fun seeing the kids all play together. Mia was a lucky lady and was surrounded by all older boys. :) The kids had so much fun playing in the basement with all the cool toys that Joey and Michael have. As Kristy said, they are the cool house with all the cool toys! The kids were in heaven! Mia got to ride on both a Thomas Train and a little electric powered four wheeler.

We had decided that we would put the kids down to sleep there and then have some grown-up time. So after the kids went down for the night, we ate and played a couple of games. The guys beat the girls badly in Mad Gab (such a funny game!), but the girls redeemed themselves and kicked butt with Cranium. Thank you Melissa for having us over, we had such a great time!

Michael, Payton, Joey and Mia

And for comparison-the kids about 8 months ago

Look out! Here comes Mia! Joey helping Payton on the cool Thomas Train
Mia getting helped on the train by Joey and Payton
Mia had so much fun on this trampoline-I think I need to get her one
Jumping with Payton
Dinner time for the kids
Michael and Payton
This cracks me up-It looks like Mia is thinking "I can't believe he's kissing me!"

Cort and Graham showing their competitive spirit with Cranium

Wind and Water

Since Mia had a such a good time DuPage Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago, I brought her back but this time brought along my mom and aunt. I was so glad they joined us, I think they got a kick out of watching Mia run excitedly from exhibit to exhibit. :)

The title of this post pretty much sums up Mia's two favorite things at the museum. She LOVED the wind tunnel-in fact, it was kind of hard to keep her out of there. She also loves splashing around on the giant water table. Thanks Grandma for helping out with that! This time we also got to do a couple of things we didn't get to last time, like going into the art studio where she got some art help from Aunt Cathy and playing on the boat they have there. Here are some pictures from our visit.

My crazy little girl in the wind tunnel (they have to wear goggles)

Playing at the water table
Mia loved playing on this boat that had a little escape hatch


Creating some artwork with Aunt Cathy

Hiding out
"Mia" left her mark
This was the best picture I could get of Mia with my aunt and mom-she did not want to stop for a minute!