Yellow Rings

Since the Air Show was going on this weekend and all the jets flying over makes it really loud at our house, we try to stay out of town on this weekend.

Yesterday we decided to take a stroll through a hippie town not too far away called "Yellow Springs". When we told Julia where we were going, she kept saying Yellow Rings. THEN, once we got there, she kept asking where the "yellow rings" were at!!LOL I guess she thought it was a thing, not a place.

Just outside of Yellow Springs is an AWESOME ice cream place. They produce their own milk from their jersey cows right there to make their ice cream. You cannot go past without stopping for some ice cream.

I think this was the first time we have gone since Julia has been old enough to eat ice cream. We let her pick out her own flavor. She said she wanted the "blue one". Which turned out to be Cotton Candy. We let her have it anyway!

I think she enjoyed it!!


And this is what I saw at one point during the drive... She said she had a "snag" that she was getting.

More big girl bed success!

The second night of the big girl bed went even better!!! Actually, I could not have asked for it to go any better!!

She skipped her nap yesterday, so we went to bed a little earlier since she was so tired. She cried a little when we put her in bed because she wanted to sleep on the couch. But I tucked her in and sat right next to her and sang to her. I think she was asleep by the third verse of Amazing Grace!

Then, we did not hear a peep out of her all night!!! She came up to our room about 7:30am (her normal wake-up time). She was saying the sun wake up (her cue that she is allowed out of bed).

I think I will now wash up the crib bedding and move the mattress up to the infant setting!

Big girl bed

Last night was the night we made the move to the "big girl" bed for Julia. Her room is almost complete, just adding some finishing touches now. It is done enough for her to sleep in. We bought sheets for her new bed yesterday. I still need to get a blanket for the bed and Debbie is still working on the quilt top, but we can just use her quilts from her crib until then.

Here she is as we tucked her in.



She is AWESOME!!! I was expecting a fight to keep her in the bed. She tried to get out when I was tucking her in, but I explained to her that just like when she sleeps in the crib, she is not allowed out until the sun comes back up. (That is the only way we can keep her from climbing out of the crib) Well, it WORKED!! She was asleep in about 30 minutes and did not try to get out ONCE!!!

She did fall out of the bed around 4am this morning and came up to bed with us. But she did fall back to sleep in our bed until 7am. (She almost NEVER sleeps with us.)

I consider this a HUGE success!! Hopefully tonight goes just as well, if not better!!

Julia did look so tiny in the big twin bed. So grown up...... Very bittersweet.

39 weeks

I am 39 weeks pregnant today. That means one week until my official due date.

I had my midwife appointment this morning. Not much happening in the way of progress. In fact, the midwife told me to go ahead and schedule my ultrasound and appointment at 41 weeks. In this practice, if you go overdue, you have to have an ultrasound at 41 weeks to make sure the baby is still fine. After that, they will let you go to 42 weeks before they induce you. So the midwife does not think labor will happen anytime soon.

I am sad at the lack of progress, but not surprised. I figured that I would go late again.

I really want to avoid induction again, but that may not happen. Maybe if I wait until 42 weeks it will be a little easier. (I was induced at 41 weeks with Julia.)

So it could be 3 weeks yet before I have this baby!

Other than that things are doing fine. Having some swelling in my ankles this week, but nothing too bad, I can still wear my rings too. I have been having heartburn, it is almost impossible to bend over, and I think Jude just might break a rib with his kicks, but nothing to complain about.

I did get Jude's hospital bag packed this week, but not mine. I figured it will take all of 5 minutes to throw stuff in a bag, so I am not worried. I can do that while in labor if need be. Same with Julia's overnight bag.

The toys are MOVED!!!!

Well, we did not get Julia's room done today. We just have to paint the closet doors, varnish the entry door, put on door handles and touch up the trim. One more day should do it. I am holding off taking pictures until it is completely done. BUT, it is done enough that Julia can move in. I had Jerry build LOTS of shelves in Julia's new room, this way all of her toys can be stored in her room and NOT in my living room!

I will post pictures of the shelves when I post pictures of the new room.

BUT since the shelves are up, I finally got to move all of Julia's toys out of the living room!!! I cannot believe how much bigger the living room seems now!! That girl has got a LOT of toys!! There are a very select few things that will stay in the living room, just because of space. (the barn and cozy car)

This is what the living room looked like before, with all of Julia's toys cluttering it up....


This is what it looked like tonight after I got all of Julia's toys moved and things re-straightened. The blue and white bins under the coffee table are the baby toys. I thought that this would keep them separate from Julia's toys and also teach Julia that Jude can only play with the toys from these blue bins and not her's.


Gavin was also checking out the change....

Really thirsty?

This was taken 2 weekends ago.

I made coffee, and of course, Julia needed some. A little bit later I thought I would see if she liked cranberry juice.

This is what I saw when I walked into the living room! She was drinking out of both cups!



In other GREAT news, construction should be finished tomorrow on Julia's new room!!! Hopefully Friday night will be Julia's first night in her new room sleeping in her "big girl" bed!! I will get pictures after it is done.

Diaper bag

It is so funny that we were finally getting to the point where we did not have to drag a diaper bag with us everywhere, only to have another baby. So we will be dragging a diaper bag with us for at least another 2 years!

I did buy a new diaper bag for this baby. So at least it will look nice for awhile...

Clothes hamper fun!

I thought Julia needed a new clothes hamper for her new room. This way the smaller one can stay in the nursery. I could not decide if I should get a fun one, or a more traditional looking basket-type one. I think I made the right choice!!

Julia LOVES, LOVES her new clothes hamper. She thinks it is really neat to play in!



This is what it looks like when the "lid" is closed. It is supposed to be a lady bug.


This is what happened when I said to wave at me so I knew she was in it.....


This hamper has been HOURS of entertainment to Julia so far. If I would have known that, I might have bought it much earlier just as a play toy!

Blankets....

Remember when I posted about how Julia finally sucked off the tag of her Blankie?? It looked like this.....





Well, this weekend I finally sewed a piece of ribbon on it to replace the tag. I asked Julia if she wanted a new tag, or if she wanted left like it was. She said she wanted a new tag. I then took her to the store with me and she helped pick out the ribbon to replace the tag with. I think the fact she had an input on it made the new tag all that more special.

Here is the new tag. I was able to snap a quick picture before it got sucked/chewed on!!LOL



Julia loves the new tag and I made sure to buy a whole roll of ribbon, so I will have plenty when I have to replace the tag on the other Blankie (which is just about to go), or if she manages to suck/chew this one off too! I hand sewn over it about 3-4 times in hopes it will not come off easily.

In other blanket news, I finally finished the baby afghan I was crocheting for Baby Jude. I love the bright colors, but I am not sure if they worked together quite right. Oh well, at least it will be unique!!



Here is a picture of it with the flash off. This shows the true colors of it a little better.

Yes, I know I am huge....

For the last couple of days, everyone who has seen me as commented on how big I am and how I look like I am about ready to pop! I guess I forget just how big I really am! LOL

Here I am this evening at 38 weeks, 2 days pregnant......

What a big girl!!

Luckily the potty regression from being in pull-up for a weekend only lasted about 2 days. Julia is back to being great again.

Actually she is doing better than great. This morning I heard her on the monitor that she was climbing out of the crib. So I got up and was trying to hurry in getting myself ready. While I was getting ready I hear through the monitor her leave her room, only to go back in a minute or so later. I thought this was weird, because normally she comes upstairs to our bedroom when she climbs out of her crib. I finally finish getting ready and go done to see what Julia is up to. What I find shocks me some, in a good way!!

Julia had climbed out of her crib, taken off her sleeper pajamas, taken off her diaper, peed in her potty, went back to her room, put on underwear, and just about had her pajamas all the way back on by the time I got down there!!! I was AMAZED!!!! She usually LOVES her diapers and makes it quite clear that she prefers to wear diapers. So that is why I was so surprised that she decided to put on underwear! Some mornings it is a real fight to get her in underwear (once she is in underwear she is fine and likes them, it is just getting her into that first pair that is the problem.).

Then today, we left the house at 9:30am and did not get back until after 5pm, except for the 20 minutes we stopped at home to bring in and put away groceries. I had two dr. appointments, we went to Babies R Us and grocery shopping! She did not have one accident while out! She told me every time that she needed to us the restroom!! I was very proud of my big girl!

I just hope she keeps this up once Jude arrives.

38 weeks!

Well, I am 38 weeks pregnant today!!

Overall, I am still feeling really good. I occasionally have times when I am ready for this pregnancy to be over, but mostly I am trying to enjoy these last couple of weeks.

I am having a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions this time around than I did with Julia. Some of them can actually be quite uncomfortable! Starting to have a bit of swelling too. I will be fine all day, but once I sit down for the night and try to relax, my ankles will swell some. Nothing too bad yet, but something I have noticed.

He is still head-down and is probably to big to be flipping now. But I am still not taking my chances and I am staying out of the pool!!

Went to Babies R Us today and picked up the few things I still needed/wanted for this baby. Trying to get some stuff washed up now....

It is so funny because at this point in my pregnancy with Julia, I had everything done; room done, clothes washed up, hospital bag packed, etc.... This time around, I just got the car seat washed up, but that is about it! Actually, Julia will most probably still be in the crib when Jude is born!! Good thing we have the co-sleeper that we will be using! I am not NEAR as stressed about things this time around.

Dragging out the baby stuff

My house has become invaded by boxes.

I am finally pulling out all of Julia's old baby stuff and washing it up. Today the infant seat and swing came out.

All of this "stuff" is making my house look REALLY messy. Add on top of that all the construction material everywhere from working on Julia's new room and all of Julia's toys; my house is a disaster!!

Since Julia's new room is not done yet, we have no place to put all of this baby stuff I am getting out. Julia's current room is where Jude is going and all of Julia's stuff is currently in there with very little room for anything else!!

Oh well.....

Aquarium visit

Since we were down in Cincinnati this weekend and the wedding was not until 5:30pm Saturday, we thought we would head across the river and go see the aquarium again. The hidden motive was that maybe it would tire Julia out enough that she would nap that afternoon.

Julia likes the aquarium, but I really do to....

Luckily, there was not too many people there so Julia was free to run from tank to tank as she liked.

The aquarium is really dark, so I really only got pictures in the areas where it had better lighting, so unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the fish.


Playing with the giant rainforest frog....


Digging for dinos! Actually, I think Julia just thought it was a neat sandbox to play in.

Feeding the lorikeets. Julia was just captivated by them.

She REALLY wanted to pet the lorikeets.

I think the lorikeets really liked Jerrod!!

Julia trying to touch the SHARKS!! (they let you touch the sharks in this tank)

Sure she goes after the sharks, but she freak out when I tried to get her to touch the harmless horseshoe crab.....

This aquarium has several 360 degree tunnel tanks you walk though. Julia thought those were really neat, but was pretty unsure of the see-through floors. She did not like to walk on them.

We also got to see a diver in the shark exhibit feeding the sharks!! Julia thought that was pretty cool.

Oh, and the aquarium worked. We got about a 30-45 minute nap out of Julia afterwards. I would have liked it to have been longer, but it was enough to keep her happy and going for the rest of the night!

More wedding pictures

Well, I finally have a chance to post more wedding pictures. This time of the reception. Julia had a BLAST at the reception. Well, she cried for about 5 minutes of it because she tripped over the hem of her dress and face-planted into marble tile, causing her to get a bloody nose. A little loving from mommy made it all better. But you can still see the remnits of it in a few pictures. It was also an adult only reception, so Julia was the only kid there......

Jerrod and I attempted to dance, but my preggo belly was so big that I had to sort of dance sideways! LOL



Our attempts at a family picture. Julia just wanted down to dance and run....

Blowing bubbles with Aunt Ninne.

Blowing bubbles with Mike (Jerrod's uncle, so Julia's great-uncle, but we just call him Uncle Mike)

This is where Julia spent a good portion of the night. In front of the CANDY table!!!! Every kid's dream!

Using her pink lollipop like a wand..

Dancing and a swinging.....

Dancing with Aunt Ninnie

Dancing with Mike

Dancing with both Mike and Bev. They are like another set of grandparent's to Julia and spoil her like crazy!

More dancing with Aunt Ninnie.... I think Julia really wore her aunt out that night. Although, I am sure the 4" heels she wore did not help either!LOL

Julia is finally starting to tire out!

Now dancing with Aunt Ninnie and Bappa

Just with Bappa....

I think she wore several people out dancing with them. I am not sure where she got all that engery! But I am sure all the sugar from the candy helped!!!

Oh, Julia really like her "new shoes" she got to wear with her dress. She thought they were super fancy and neat. She even kept them on all night and did not want to take them off!! It looks like to me that they cut into her feet some, but she never complained about them. In fact, she wore them again today for several hours!

I am really glad Julia had so much fun at the wedding. Jerrod and I just loved watching her having a blast and her being in what seemed to be her element. You would never know that this was the same shy girl who used to cling to me at any social gathering! I think she hardly gave us a passing glance most of the night!