Road Trip

This past weekend we packed it up again and headed down to St. Louis to celebrate Lucas's 1st birthday. What made it special (besides it being Lucas's first birthday of course!) was that a bunch of us all headed down there-Venessa's family, Kristin's family, Julie's family, Marina and Corey, and Pam and Ryan. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with everyone together. It was even crazier seeing all the kids, dogs, and adults playing. :) I am lucky to have such a great group of friends, many from waaaaaaayyyyy back in the junior high and high school days. Lisa and her parents were also wonderful hostesses, giving up their homes to all the craziness we brought.

Mia was a superstar traveler, especially on the way home when she was very worn out and tired and slept 2 1/2 of the 4 1/2 hours. She had so much between playing with friends, playing with the dogs, and playing with the balloons at the party-really, who could ask for anything more as a child??? :)

Here are some pictures (actually a lot) from the weekend. As you can see, good times were had by all. Be sure to also check out Lisa, Pam, Venessa, Julie, Marina, and Kristin's blogs, as I am sure they will have more pictures from the weekend up soon (Lisa already does, everyone else, get moving!!! -he, he!)

The birthday boy

Mia playing Tyler
Ryan and Pam
EricaLogan
Lucas chilling out while mom opens gifts for him
I think he likes his new truck!Bob and Lucas
Mia with her new favorite thing-a phone
Carter rocking out
Venessa and Erica
Corey and Marina with their doggies Cake time

Can you tell what a daddy's girl she is??
Tyler
Julie and Carter Logan and Mia SHARING (Mia is slowly learning to do this!)
Addison giving her brother birthday kisses
Silly Carter
Cort and Logan

Mall and Bubbles

Yesterday afternoon Mia and I had a fun afternoon out with my mom. We met up at Yorktown for lunch and then took some time to shop, and then mainly to just walk around and let Mia explore. Mia had a ball going on the train (all by herself-she's a brave girl!), playing in the play area and going down the slide repeatedly, and checking out all the fun stuff in the Disney Store. Thanks Grandma for a good time!

Waiting with Grandma for her turn

So excited!

Holding on tight!

After we got home and had dinner, the weather had become pretty nice outside so we decided to do some bubbles-one of Mia's favorite things. She had a good time chasing them down and popping some of them. Thanks to Lisa for Mia's cute pullover-I love seeing her in something other than pink!

The serious look
Not-so-serious

Pointing at the bubbles
Ooops! She fell-doesn't Mia look so big here??
Bubble fun!

25-Week Checkup

Today I had my 25-Week checkup and I am happy to report all looks good so far! Baby's heartrate was 157, my belly measured 27 centimeters (up from 19 last time-woah!!), and I am up 5 more pounds, which isn't shocking considering the large quantities of junk food I can't seem to stop eating. :) I have to laugh because the first time I was pregnant everyone constantly told me how small I was and this time around, I haven't heard that comment once! :)

Even better was the news that the original blood test that tipped us off to the blood antibody/antigen issue, could have potentially been a lab error since the blood test I had last month came out negative. I have another one scheduled, along with my 28 week labs (gestational diabetes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and ab screen--for my medical friends) whenever I choose to go between 4/12 and 4/26. Even if the test signals something again, I am glad that the titer level didn't go up this time.

I promise to have Cort take a picture of me this week-I have been very bad about doing that! I will add it later this week so check back.

Bargain of the Week

Okay, I will admit that I am not sure what is more pathetic, the fact that I purchased all the shoes below today, or the fact that I took a picture and am posting on our blog. :)

Ever since I have gone part-time, I have done my best to do better at finding deals and not being as much of a free spender. With stuff for Mia I have really found that if you take the time to look, especially at the end of a season, you can really find some great deals.

Anyhow, my friend Celeste had given me a heads up that Toys R Us was having a good sale on shoes. Not one to pass up a bargain, I went over today and look what I found....

I have to check out sizes on Mia tomorrow, but here's hoping they are big and will fit her in the fall! Also, you may have noticed, but Baby Knuckles (as named by Pam) also scored a couple pairs of shoes. The Koala Baby imitation Robeez were only $2.50 each-can't beat that!! I am a dork and I totalled up my savings-$121 worth of shoes (9 pairs) for $28-woo hoo!!!!

Just for those of you who may check out Toys R Us, I was mainly looking at the infant and toddler shoes (up to size 6), so I am not sure what they have for bigger sizes. Mia has tiny, tiny feet (just graduated out of her 6-12 month pedipeds to her 12-18 month ones that are big!) so she is still in about a size 3/4. Also, they were not all marked accurately and were actually cheaper when I checked them on the price scanner, so be sure to check, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Shedd Aquarium

This Sunday we had our last hurrah of Spring Break. Cort and I have had so much fun with Mia both getting out and doing stuff and relaxing. Sarah had found online that the best time to visit the Shedd Aquarium is on Sunday mornings. Since we are up that early anyhow, that is no big deal for us. :) We got there right at 9 and got in for free, which is a great bonus of being educators and having a young child. Mia loved the fish, and took more of an interest at the interactive screens and anything that had buttons this time. She also was very into the beluga whales and the beluga whale babies. She sat there forever just watching them. We really wore her out since we skipped her morning nap and didn't leave until about 1. She fell asleep in her stroller on the walk to the car! I didn't take a ton of pictures since the lighting is not so great and you shouldn't use a flash, but here are just a couple.

Looking cool in her Spring gear :) Thanks Auntie Pam for the jean jacket! Getting up close and personal-she kept saying "hi" and "bye" to the fish
Something about this pictures makes me laugh

One day I will have a picture with Mia where she is not making this face!
Pressing buttons

Arboretum

On Saturday morning we went to the Morton Arboretum and met up with Sarah and Ian and the kids. We had checked and the weather was promising to be beautiful and it didn't dissapoint. The kids had a fun time in the Children's Garden exploring everything, and Mia was so pooped out afterwards she fell asleep on the ride home.

Mia checking out the children's maze Aidan's in the doghouse! :)
Playing in a little wooden tree house
Ava
Mia with her frog friend

Almost a year before (last May)...

How cute is that????
Getting ready to slide
Checking out the view
On the rope bridge
And two of the girls at the park later that day...