Blah

Blah is kind of how I felt this week.  As such, there aren't many pictures-mostly because there wasn't a whole lot to take pictures of!  I did not experience this with Avery, but this pregnancy, I have had issues with swelling.  I hear most people talk about their ankles swelling, but for me, it's my hands and face.  Sometimes I can look like I just had my wisdom teeth out again.  I had to take all my rings off about a month ago because they were cutting off my circulation!  I have felt so bare without my wedding rings that I finally took a ring in to be sized up so I could wear it on my ring finger as a substitute-it has to be sized up 3 sizes!!  This week, I have had some swelling of my lower legs and feet, it's so not fun and uncomfortable!!  I don't know how I'm going to make another 2 months.  As I write this though, I am soaking my feet in a foot spa and it helps a bit:)  I was able to get my mind off my swelling body for a little while today while we caught up with Beth and Dave Krieg for lunch while they were in town.  Oh man, it was so nice:) The food and company was excellent.  They are so fantastic with Avery, I cannot wait until they are parents themselves-they will be excellent:)  Sadly, I have no pictures because I didn't have my camera-grrrr-because there were some cute moments!  Avery took everything out of aunt Beth's purse and handed most items to her...and while on uncle Dave's lap, she stirred his iced tea for him and then made him take drinks!  Not 5 minutes after we left the restaurant, Avery fell asleep in the car-very precious.  I'm happy to report that during our 2 hr. lunch, she was pretty darn good-yay!! The rest of the weekend will be spent-again-cleaning...we really need to work on setting up the nursery now that Avery's new room is almost complete!

On a side note: If you could say a prayer for Beth, her grandma and family as her grandma has bypass surgery on Tuesday.

Avery has her sport seasons mixed up!  There's clearly basketball on in the background, but Avery is in love right now with her football!!

This is Avery and her "touchdown" pose.  Aunt Beth taught her this back in October and she still remembers!  Now she likes to spike her football and make the touchdown gesture while staring at you until you yell touchdown!!

One day this week, Avery climbed in Domer's crate with him.  She loved it, giving him pets and kisses...Domer wondered what the heck she was doing in his bed with him!!

She really enjoyed her time in the cage...maybe she's on to something-just kidding!  But there must be something appealing to those crates because we don't even crate the dogs anymore, but they love them so much that we keep them up and use them as their beds!

Park time and ice cream

Like many people this weekend, we got out to enjoy the spring weather.  We loaded Avery and the dogs up and headed to the park.  It was a beautiful day and so nice to be outside.  Avery loved it and the dogs loved it too!  Not much else going on this weekend.  Avery's back in swim class on Saturdays and after three rounds of swim class, she finally started 'scooping' this weekend in the water.  Scooping is what they teach the kids (this is a 6 mo. to 2 yr. class) to do to get them stroking.  She kept scooping to her toy duck like a champ!  Other than that, we spent the weekend cleaning...we are not even close to being done, but we got somewhere at least.  I don't know if it's spring or the impending birth of our second child but I'm going nuts wanting everything in the house to be cleaned out and purged of junk so that we may try to find just a little more space for our quickly shrinking house!!  It sure was nice to have the windows opened all weekend to smell the fresh air!!  We also enjoyed a long visit from Aunt Cim and Uncle Jake.  Avery spent most of the time feeding Aunt Cim pretzels and playing the drums with daddy and Uncle Jake on Rock Band-we may have a budding musician on our hands! 

The boys, sharing a window as we headed to the park...they knew what was coming for them-a super long walk-and were so excited.

Climbing through the tunnel for the first time...

This is my fearless daughter.  She hopped right up there, on her own, and slid down the slide before I could even help her.  She did it like she had done it numerous times before, but it was her first unassisted trip.  She didn't even let gravity take her backwards, she sat up the whole way down-Artie and I were like freak parents congratulating her and acting so excited-the rest of the people there were probably wanting us to get a grip-it's just a slide!

The first thing she ran to was the swing...she swung twice because she has so much fun!

While she swings, she loves to watch her shadow...she's really into the mystery of shadows these days.

Avery the daredevil!  She loves to climb back up the slide.  On one trip down the slide she even got creative and turned around and went down backwards on her belly!!

What Sunday wouldn't be complete without some ice cream??!!  We hit up a DQ after dinner and Avery, of course, had herself a cone!!

Enjoying a taste of the actual cone:) 

This is from earlier in the weekend as Avery had her sad, sick face!  

Happy Spring!!

Just a silly little happy girl this week...other than getting sick towards the end of the week!

This is Avery's new thing-lying on her stomach to watch TV.  

I just had to take a picture of this bedhead!!  The whole day, until her bath that night, I could not get this thing to go down!!

Well, it has finally arrived-the first day of spring!!  I hope the weather starts to reflect this-soon!! It is nice and sunny in Fort Wayne today, but a bit chilly.  Avery is sick-again-so I'm hoping that the spring weather really comes fast because Avery just cannot escape these bugs.  It's not as bad as it was the last time when she was sick with me for 3 weeks.  But, it's only been 1 week of no illness and she was up all night Wednesday...made me think about what it's going to be like having a newborn in the house again in just 2 months!  Had a bit of a scare with Spencer this week.  I was having some unusual pains and such and there was a possibility of preterm labor.  At the doctor yesterday she was concerned because I'm not measuring-growing-as much as I should be.  Thankfully we had some ultrasounds and he seems to be right on track with me at almost 30 weeks...so it's a bit of a mystery why I'm all of a sudden not measuring big enough, but at least he's ok.  Hope everyone has a chance to get out and enjoy some official spring air this weekend!!

A Potty!

Last night, for the first time, Avery had a potty in her potty chair!!  Every night when we take her diaper off to take a bath, she goes and sits on her potty.  We don't know why she started doing this, but we let her do it with no pressure.  Then, last night when she sat on it, she peed!! It was an exciting moment, but one that I know isn't going to be regular.  It's nice to have the time to let her explore this on her own and hopefully one day it will just click!!

Hope you are all touched with a bit of the Luck of the Irish today as you celebrate St. Patty's Day!!  

Home and a new baby!

We're home from our trip to Indy this weekend to celebrate Artie's birthday.  We had a great time and great company-thanks again Chad, Jamie and Garrett for being wonderful hosts and great family:)  We filled the weekend with eating at places that we don't have in Fort Wayne.  Including a trip to Uno that we suspect may be the culprit of both Jamie and I being sick in the early hours on Saturday morning.  Also, a pretty disastrous meal at Johnny Carino's that was made more exciting when we had a 'who can grab the biggest handful of mints' on the way out to stick it to their crappy service!!  Can i just say how fun it is that brothers can turn anything into competition-Artie won the mints challenge by 1 mint, but it was a sore subject for the rest of the night:)  We also did a little shopping at an outlet mall and played video games (though I didn't partake in that fun because I feel asleep).  The kids had a blast together.  Avery couldn't wait to get up in the morning to play with cousin Garrett.  They played so well together, it was wonderful to see!  We were definitely sad to leave.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take many photos of the weekend-plus being 7 months now, I have nearly forgotten my mind-today I had to ask Artie what our address was!!

In other very exciting news, Cindy M. had her baby yesterday!!!!  It's a baby boy:)  Artie was a little disappointed he was born the day after his birthday, but considering he was due on my birthday (in a few weeks) and weighed in around 8 1/2 lbs., I bet Cindy's happy he came early!!  Congrats to the new parents-we love you guys and can't wait to meet the little man!!

This was Avery on the way down to Indy-magna doodle pen still tightly in her hand!!

This is the only picture I captured of the weekend and the kids together.  Avery had a blast on the stairs this weekend (probably because we don't have them at home) and her and Garrett enjoy some stairway racing:)

Happy 30th!!

Today, the main man in Avery and I's life hits the big 3-0!!  Yes, he's turning 30 on Friday the 13th, which is appropriate since he had his golden birthday (turned 13) on Friday the 13th!  He was pretty sad all week about leaving his twenties behind, but luckily I still have two years in the twenties that he can live vicariously through:)  We celebrated early last night with dinner at our current favorite mexican spot in Fort Wayne, Cebolla's.  We're leaving today for Indianapolis to spend the weekend with Artie's brother and his family...so we had to have a Fort Wayne birthday dinner before we left!  Happy Birthday, Baby!  The 30s are the new 20s:)!!

A little family photo post dinner-Artie drowned his sorrows in a giant margarita and a tequila shot!

The fancy hat he got to wear while they sang happy birthday, right before he took his mexican flag tequila shot!!

My mom and stepdad, grammy and grandpa Tom, joined to help us celebrate:)

Hurray!

I am happy to report that we had a quick outing today to the grocery store and Target and Miss Avery had no temper tantrums!!  Baby steps:)  When we got home we tried day two of nap time in her new big girl bed (yesterday didn't go so well).  Below you will find the evidence of my little sweetie staying in her bed and actually taking her nap in it!!  Now I'm not going to get too excited because this may not be permanent and we aren't even going to start her sleeping in it at night until she is regularly napping in there, but we were so proud!!

Yes, those are her feet hanging off the edge-it's quite a position, but like I've said, she's a crazy sleeper:)!!

What the H@#$???

Does anyone watch Lost?  I don't know why I do, I'm torturing myself.  This season promised that things would be clear and questions would be answered.  So far, really no questions have been answered, just more questions are being asked-like what the H-E-double hockey sticks!!  I'm so frustrated.  The material of the show is confusing enough, can't they just fill us in on what is going on instead of constantly back tracking and raising new questions.  Thank god there is only one more season after this so I won't have to be driven crazy for too much longer since it's a sickness that I'm even still watching this show!!  Thank you for letting me get that off my chest:)

Wendy's anyone?

McDonald's who?  Wendy's is all the rage, baby!  So, okay, we're not huge fast food people-mostly subway-but sometimes, Wendy's (I'm not counting the wonderous 'quick' mexican places like Chipole and Moe's-yuuuum).  We've been told by people, and I have read, that when you're pregnant, what you eat can influence what your baby will like for the rest of their life (or most of their childhood years at least)!  As I've confessed before, with Avery, I really craved Wendy's a lot-mostly fries and frosties (btw-they have phenomenal frostie shakes!!).  Artie would pick it up for me on his way home from work multiple times a week towards the end-no joke!  Well, forget the golden arches, Avery knows a Wendy's when she sees one!  I know she's young, but it is her absolute favorite.  She gets so darn excited when we go there and even more excited to see her beloved chicken nuggets.  We ran there for a quick lunch this weekend before hitting the store (it's always best to grocery shop with a full stomach!).  She is always the best girl when we're at a Wendy's.  You all know we are in a phase with her right now where she doesn't do well in public-Wendy's is the exception!!  Now, as a vegetarian, I don't eat meat-including chicken nuggets-so I didn't eat those during my pregnancy either, but they are here favorite.  However, I know where she gets her love of french fries:)  With this pregnancy, I'm not really craving anything-thankfully no need for all of those fries (I happily eat baked potatoes at Wendy's instead of fries these days)-but the one thing that sounds good all of the time is mexican!  Anything I can pair with lettuce, sour cream and tomatoes-but mostly enchiladas and taco pizza.  I wonder if my son will love eating mexican food because of all of the mexican I have consumed this pregnancy!  I even have Artie craving it and we eat it a few times a week!!  Thankfully, we make a lot of mexican at home-so I'm having 'healthy' mexican:)  I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but it just seems amazing to me!

In other mundane news-but rather exciting to me-Artie and I had teeth cleanings today and I'm happy to report no cavities!!  I'm very cavity prone and always excited when I have a clean bill from my dentist!!  A few years ago (after having a very traumatic 3 cavity diagnosis in one visit), I switched my toothpaste to sensitive without whitening and ACT mouthwash-what a difference, just in case anyone has sensitive teeth that affects their enamel like me!!  I haven't had a cavity in 5 years:)!  Though having a teeth cleaning while nearly 7 months pregnant is not only uncomfortable, my gums hurt like crazy-darn those tender gums when you're pregnant.  I'm a very huge advocate of regularly seeing your dentist-so if you haven't in a while, what are you waiting for??!!!

How did I just write so much about nothing??  Oh well, have a great rest of the week!

P.S. Christine-thank you for the heads up about pink eye...I'm on the lookout and I hope Elizabeth does not get it!!  Hope Jen's doing okay:)! 

Avery with a mouth full of chicken nuggets and more in her hand at Wendy's!!

SB Chocolate Co.

This weekend we had a chance to head up to South Bend for a mini SMC reunion at the South Bend Chocolate Company.  It was my first time at this wonderful establishment, even though I spent an entire semester senior year as an intern at the College Football Hall of Fame right next door!!  It was so fantastic to be back in South Bend and in the very good company of some wonderful fellow Saint Mary's alumnae-and friends:)!  Things have changed since those college years, some of us have kids and most of us are married (all 5 of us at our get together are).  The conversations are different-talking about jobs, kids, etc. (but also similar as we discussed TV shows-One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Greek-the kind we still watch that were typical of what we watched in college!) But the company is the same and it is such a privilege to be able to share time with these lovely ladies (also all of those that couldn't make it and those that live too far away-you were missed).  My college years were filled with many ups and downs as I went through some personal challenges outside of school.  I changed and grew so much as a person in those 4 years.  The one thing that didn't change was the amazing women that I met along the way.  We're spread out across the country now and on our own paths, but it's so reassuring that we all have SMC in common.  Thank you Christine for setting up this mini reunion-it was fabulous!  Go Belles:)    

The reunited crew- (back row, left to right) Christine and me, (front row, left to right) Cindy H., Janelle, and Carol

Avery enjoying the treehouse near our table.

Daddy and Avery (enjoying a chocolate lips sucker)

Avery and Elizabeth (Christine's daughter who is only 6 mo. older than Avery)

Janelle and Avery-Janelle enjoyed the treehouse as much as the girls:)

Here's your nose, Elizabeth, just in case you didn't know!!

Hey, we're having fun in here:)

I'm gonna catch you...

Avery reaching for a stuffed animal.  Elizabeth is in her Aunt Jen's lap to the left and both girls handed Christine's sister, Kim the big pink bunnies she's holding!  Christine's sisters, Jen and Kim, are fellow SMC girls and it was nice to have them join our lunch-they are great with kids too!