Baby girl at 37.5 weeks!

I am officially at about 37 and a half weeks right now and we were excited to get to have another ultrasound at yesterday's appointment to see how big this baby girl is! Does she have the sweetest, chubbiest cheeks or what?

As of right now they are estimating her to be around 8 lbs 8 oz - so most definitely big! We are not that surprised considering how big Ethan was when he was born (9 lbs 10 oz at 39 weeks) and considering that we are just a big, tall family.

So, the plan is to see where I am at in terms of progression at next week's appointment and then possibly talk about inducing labor at 39 weeks (which would be over Memorial Day weekend), but nothing is set in stone right now!

We are getting excited to meet this sweet girl soon!

Yes!

One of my absolute most favorite words Ethan is saying right now. More like "yesh" and so so sweet!!!

mother's day!

My boys treated me to a wonderful mother's day this year. My day started with two beautiful cards, flowers and gifts in bed. Pete surprised me with a gift of the double Bob stroller. This may not mean much to anyone else but it was the stroller I really really liked but after a lot of consideration had decided it was too expensive and so had gotten a different stroller. Pete blessed me by saying that he knew we didn't need to have the Bob but he wanted me to have it as a gift. So sweet!

Then Pete made a gourmet breakfast of German pancakes and bacon. I even indulged in a cup of decaf coffee to celebrate!

Later in the day we headed to Pete's parents' house to spend some time with them. We enjoyed some beautiful blue sky weather outside on the deck!

 Ethan practicing his jumping!

Auntie Beth started Ethan's most favorite thing he did that day - running back and forth on the deck. Over and over and over again. Again and again and again!

 Ethan and Brookelyn kept running and running!

And here I am, the pregnant mama at 37 weeks!

  

We enjoyed dinner with our community group family that night and came home to rest. All in all, a very special mother's day indeed!

almost two

This June will mark 5 years since my grandma died. When she died I was blessed to be able to gather a few of her things to have as keepsakes. One of these things was a small Christmas cactus plant that she had sitting on her windowsill. I'm not exactly sure why I chose to take a plant, since I am pretty awful about watering and caring for anything green. Most of the plants I've had have withered and died. I think I thought taking a cactus was a good bet since I wouldn't have to water it as often and so it had a shot of making it.

In the five years that I've had the plant I think it's maybe bloomed a flower just once or twice. A couple of weeks ago I was shocked to see not one but TWO flowers getting ready to bloom!

So it may seem silly that I'm excited to see my plant blooming beautiful flowers but every time I walk by it and see the two bright pink flowers I keep thinking about how much life is about to change in just a few weeks.

First of all, my sweet Ethan will be turning 2 years old on June 6th. I can't even believe how fast these two precious years have gone and how much he has grown! I look at him these days and find myself just staring - remembering him as a little baby, learning to walk, starting to talk...And now here he is talking up a storm, running all over the place and bringing such delight to our family. His middle name Matthew means "gift of God" and he is so very much a precious gift that God has blessed us with.

And then, there is the fact that we are soon to have not one, but TWO kids! Our sweet baby girl's due date is less than 3 weeks away and we are eagerly anticipating her arrival. Life is about to change big time for all of us and I find myself both excited and anxious about what our new life will be with a toddler and a newborn.

So, we're almost there. Two.

toddler bed transition

We have been pretty busy around here lately - hence the lack of blog posts! Ethan has made a big boy transition to a toddler bed and we are at the start of week 5 of the big change. We took off the rail of his crib and put up a guard rail - the first time he saw this he jumped in his bed and was so excited! This made us hopeful the transition would go okay...

And so far, it has, for the most part. After doing a lot of reading on how to make the transition I decided the best thing to try would be to stay in the room and put him back in his bed every time he gets out. Week 1 resulted in doing this 70 plus times for nap and bedtime. Let's just say, pretty exhausting. By Week 2 we were down to the 30s and since then Ethan has gotten a lot more comfortable staying in his crib. The only thing is that we stay in his room until he goes to sleep. For nap time it usually takes about 15-20 minutes and bed time, a bit longer - usually around an hour.

We've had a few rough nights where he has had a hard time settling down. We've had a couple morning where we've found him asleep on the floor.

When he wakes up in the morning he runs to his sound machine and turns it on - usually to Twinkle Twinkle, his favorite lullaby. He's been waking up a lot earlier in the morning too - usually before 6am (yowza) but for the most part will play in his room for a while before he starts banging on the door for us to come and get him.

So, the next transition is figuring out how to not have to sit in his room until he falls asleep!Wish us luck!