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

Visiting Claire Again

Wednesday we had a chance to go over to Jen and Mike's to see Baby Claire again. Cort had not yet had a chance to meet her, so we were excited to go over and get some good baby-lovin. Baby Claire was as cute as can be of course, and it was fun watching Noah and Mia play.

Grandma x 3

A content smile
Kissing Cousins
Uncle Cort
Sleepy Baby
Noah

29-Week Check-up

Yesterday I had my 29-week check-up. Things are on track and look good. I measured 28 cm (slightly on the small side, I was always like this with Mia), and by some miracle didn't gain any weight this month. I have been consuming mass quantities of ice cream and have gotten what feels like much bigger, so this was a bit surprising. I asked the dr. if I should be concerned that I hadn't gained any weight this month and after looking at my chart she said something like "Well, you gained 10 pounds over the last 2 months, so I think you're fine." :) The baby has been moving a TON lately and my stomach has started doing the crazy alien movement thing. The heartburn has kicked in big time and that is really my only complaint.

Most importantly, the dr. took some time to explain the whole blood issue thing with me. Basically when I had my blood transfusion, even though they can match type, sometimes you also get antigens that don't "get along" with your blood. So in response, my body produced antibodies to fight them off. What can happen though is that sometimes there are too many antibodies, or they can start to attack the baby. Basically, even though I am coming up positive for these antibodies, the blood tests have determined they are not the type that attack fetal tissue. That is a big relief! They are going to continue to monitor the situation though and I had another blood test today that I will get the results of in the next couple of days. They are measuring the titer level (the amount of antibodies I believe) to make sure they don't get too high. At this point, they don't seem overly concerned, so I will try to relax about it too. :)

Here is a picture of me in my full pregnant glory at 29 weeks. The second picture of me is when I was 31 weeks pregnant with Mia (and obviously a whole lot more tan!). I feel like I am a ton bigger this time, but I guess looking at the pictures they are pretty similar??? I'm thinking maybe I look like I'm carrying higher???

29 weeks with Baby Knuckles

31 Weeks pregnant with Mia

Enjoying the Afternoons

The last couple of afternoons have been so nice and Mia has been fighting her afternoon nap (more on that later), so I have decided to get out and enjoy the weather. We recently renewed our Arboretum membership (which is such a great membership to have with the Children's Garden there!) and so on Monday afternoon Mia and I took a trip there. I should know better, but we headed first to the marble water ball, where Mia immediately became soaked. Now I have to say Mia is a bit prissy sometimes when she gets things on her, but she was just so happy to be splashing in the water she didn't even care. She even fell and scraped her knee and didn't even cry she was so distracted. Since she was already soaked (I did remember to bring a spare outfit for the car ride home!), we headed next to where the frogs are that squirt water out of their mouths. Mia spent the next 30 minutes there tossing rocks into the little pond and splashing herself. She had a great time, and even better fell asleep on the car ride home!

Now speaking of that afternoon nap, Mia is still on 2 naps. She has been a great sleeper at both of them until just recently. I think she is finally ready to transition to just 1 nap. I have about 1 month of school left and then the transition will be begin! Currently Mia's afternoon naptime requires a bit more coaxing than I would like. She likes to play and babble in her crib and the second she hears me come in the room, she literally hits the deck and pretends to be sleeping-she has quite the personality!!!

Excited about the water ball

Splashing with the rocks
My curious girl checking out a flower box (can you see her curls?)

The List is Getting Smaller!!

So when I say that we have a long list of things we need to get done before Baby Knuckles gets here, I am not kidding. We have been so bad about devoting time to it, because frankly, we have just been busy having fun doing other stuff. :) We finally had a weekend with no major plans, so we got to work. Here is what we accomplished...

1. Found a new computer desk and transferred the computer to our room

2. Bought a closet organizer for the nursery-hopefully it will get put up this week

3. Bought bins to better organize Baby Knuckle's clothes

4. Finally bought the nursery furniture!!!

I know this may not seem like a ton, but we were finally able to clear out the room by getting the computer out. I also was being so indecisive about the nursery furniture, so I am happy to have just made a decision. Thanks to such positive feedback from both Marina and my friend Dayna who have this same set, we decided to go with the following:

I have to also thank my sister Jen for giving me the heads-up that you can use coupons on furniture-who knew?? I was able to save 20% off the most expensive piece which was super-nice!!

Claire Aria

So I am thrilled to say my new niece is just as cute as can be!! She is a petite little thing and has small delicate features that remind me a lot of Noah. I got to spend a bit of time at Hinsdale Hospital yesterday with Jen, Mike, and Claire and they are doing great. I will say holding a little newborn makes me even more excited for our little guy's arrival! Here are some pictures...

Doesn't it look like she's smiling? So peaceful

Me with Claire
Mia meeting Claire-she seemed interested and didn't freak out when I was holding another baby, which was good!
The proud parents

Mommy and Baby
The girls
Proud Daddy
Love those feet!
After the hospital, I went over to my mom's since she has been watching Noah to let the kids hang out and play. They were very entranced by the TV, can you tell?

Baby Pulins is Here!

Just wanted to update that yesterday at 8:25 a.m., my new niece Claire Aria Pulins made her appearance into the world weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 20 inches long . Baby, Mom, Mike and Noah are all doing great. I am going to see the baby later today after work, so I will be sure to get some pictures then.