Early Arrival?

Our Little Tadpole!

It appears as though Connor may want to make an early appearance. Last night he was going wild moving around. He was kicking his legs up under my ribs and punching my bladder...it was all very enjoyable:) Then around 9pm I started having some contractions, not to long in length but definitely contractions. The contractions continued until about 2am although they were sporadic. I've only had a couple contractions today and we have our OB appointment on Thursday so I'm sure we'll find out if I've even started dilating yet or if Connor was just giving me a hard time:)

I finally finished getting all our flowers planted this weekend and the house looks really nice. Allen's been working hard on getting all the inside touch-up and the zillion and one small fixes done so we can finally put our house back on the market.

Austin has been tearing around the yard chasing birds the past few days! It seems to be his new favorite outside game, "Chase birds Mommy, Chase birds!" Although playing with the hose still ranks pretty high on his list of outdoor favorites:)

We hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Unexpected visit to Labor and Delivery

We've had an interesting week so far. On Monday night I started itching all over, from head to toe. I thought it was a little odd but I waited to see if it continued on Tuesday before calling my OB. I talked to the OB nurse on Tuesday and after consulting the doctor they told me to go straight to Labor and Delivery because they were concerned that I might have a problem with my liver especially since I had no evidence of a rash or any other type of raised bumps on my skin, and if that was the case I would have to have an immediate c-section. The condition is called Cholestasis. So the boys and I went and I had a fetal NST (non-stress test) done and blood drawn while the boys ran around the hospital looking at the fish tanks, ponds and eating dinner in the restaurant. Thankfully everything came back normal, and as usual I appear to be a medical anomaly.

I forgot to give an update on Connor after we had our ultrasound last week. He is measuring fine for weight, about 5.1 lbs at the time and should be about 7.5 lbs when he is born. He is right in the 50th percentile. And he has a lot of hair! I have a feeling he is going to have dark hair and dark skin like his Daddy! It was funny to see his hair waving back and forth on the screen and the ultrasound tech gave us a good picture of his waving hair to keep.

Trucks, Trains and a Birthday

What a jam packed weekend! Saturday morning we went to a kids truck fair at the Shiawassee fair grounds. They had all kinds of trucks, tractors, emergency vehicles, buses....you name it and it was there! Austin had a blast going in all the different vehicles. They also had an indoor fair with booths set up that had activities for kids. Instead of doing the activities though, Austin ran from booth to booth grabbing candy and snacks out of the bowls at each table! That's my boy:) After the truck fair we came back to town for the Railroad Days parade. Austin loved the marching band and is still talking about them. He even puts on big hats and marches around the house.

Saturday after his nap we headed to the Railroad Days fair to check out the kids rides and I couldn't believe it but Austin said he wanted to get on the rides by himself! I was so proud of him and he had a blast on the little train and truck rides. He even wanted to ride on the pony's! He is getting so independent lately, it makes me miss my little baby sometimes.

Sunday we headed to the train depot in town to check out all the model railroads they had set up and to go inside the caboose. Austin did not want to leave the depot but we were headed to a train sale and flea market at the middle school which turned out to be a bad idea. We thought they would have booths with kids trains and toys but almost every booth was model trains for adults, and very expensive ones. Needless to say Austin wanted the big boy trains and was not happy with Mommy and Daddy when he couldn't have them or even touch them. So we hurried out of that place. After naptime on Sunday we celebrated Daddy's Birthday. We sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes that Austin picked out and helped Mommy make and then we gave Daddy our presents. It was a great weekend.

On a side note, Austin has been doing the cutest thing the past couple days. I'll catch him tapping his index finger on his bottom lip and I'll ask him what he is doing and he says "I'm thinking Mommy." Oh, I just want to eat him up! And I can't forget to mention that he also has lots of "Girlfriends" now. When he sees or meets a girl he likes he calls her his girlfriend! He has a girlfriend at the bank and Mommy's friend Rosie is his girlfriend too. And a little girl who visits our next door neighbor has become his girlfriend too. It's started already!

Busy Bee's

Connor was really moving and Austin didn't want to
take his hand off my belly but he also didn't want to
stop eating his muffin!

My beautiful Mother's Day gift from Austin

We had a busy but great weekend. Saturday morning we were trying to get stuff done around the house and pulling out all of Austin's baby bins so we can rewash infant clothes and toys and all the other "stuff" we'll be needing in the next few weeks. Saturday evening we went to a friends surprise birthday party and Austin had a blast playing with all the kids. We had a few sharing problems but being a toddler, he's working on it:)

Sunday the boys made me breakfast, hash browns and sausage, and then we all went into Flint to do some shopping and have lunch. After Austin and I took our afternoon nap we had dinner and then Allen took Austin out to do some man things so I could have some time to myself. It was a wonderful Mother's Day. Austin made me a plate with his art work all over the surface. It is beautiful:)

The big news at our house is that Austin is sleeping in his own bed ALL NIGHT long! Yea! He has been in his own bed now for a little over a week. He usually wakes up once a night but it only takes us a couple minutes to get him back to sleep. I still have to help him get to sleep when he first goes down for the night but I usually just have to sit in the rocking chair while he puts himself to sleep. He is on his way to being a totally independent sleeper!

We've been pretty busy during the week lately. The Farmer's Market has opened in town so Austin and Mommy are always headed that way on our walks to investigate the goods, Austin has also started his once a week play group at the YMCA and he loves it, and we usually make a weekly stop at the library especially since they have been having special story hours lately. Thursday this week the annual Durand Railroad Days Festival starts in town and continues through Sunday. There will be tons to do in town, especially all things trains which Austin loves. Friday afternoon Austin and I will be headed to the parade by the highschool. Not to mention we'll be celebrating Allen's birthday on Sunday, he turns 32 on Monday next week.

I have my 34 week ob appointment this Wednesday and we have an ultrasound too because I am measuring 2 weeks bigger than I should be so they want to get a projected size and weight on Connor.

Austin has really been trying to sing songs and it sounds so cute! This morning I was trying to get some laundry done after breakfast and Austin was playing with his trucks when all of the sudden I hear him singing "Life is a Highway!" It is his favorite part in the Cars movie and there he was playing with his trucks and singing the entire first line of the song, "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long." I wish I had gotten it on video, it was priceless:)

Language Explosion!

Mason and Austin playing with trains

Checking out baby Isabel

Austin pretending he has a baby in his belly

We went to visit our friends Rosie and Travis on Saturday. Austin had a blast playing with their son Mason and we got to see their new baby girl, Isabel. She is to cute and oh, that baby smell, I love it! Today we went out to the garden center to get a new bush and some Ivy for the outside of our house to enhance the "curb appeal" since we'll be listing it again soon. I think we're going to go get all the flowers to plant next weekend. If anyone knows someone who wants to live out in the middle of nowhere let us know! We'll make them a good deal:) Austin spent a good half hour pretending he was "pumper pat" (fire engine) today and spraying the garden hose all over everything, including himself! He was soaked head to toe but he thought it was great.

The past 4 weeks Austin has really been having his language explosion! I've worked with kids for over a decade and I've seen the early toddler language explosion that 2 year old's have, but when it's your own kid, it is so amazing! Some days he is adding 10 or more new words to his vocabulary and when he hears Mommy and Daddy saying a word that's new to him, he'll repeat it right away. And he has started making lots of scribble marks on paper and telling us that it is a story or book he has written! I love watching him, you can just tell his mind is going a mile a minute:)

Allen's Birthday is coming up in a couple weeks so I took Austin to JoAnn fabrics because he loves going down the aisle with all the unfinished wood items that you can paint. He picked out a cool birdhouse to paint for Daddy's Birthday and he started working on it this week and when he was done painting we hid it so Daddy couldn't find his present. I kept telling Austin, "Shhh, it's a secret present for Daddy, so don't tell him yet." Of course the day he finished painting it he ran to the door to greet Daddy when he got home and said "Daddy surprise, Daddy Surprise!" And of course Allen asks him what surprise and Austin tells him "Birdhouse Daddy!" It was so cute, you couldn't help but laugh, he was so excited about it that he was dancing around the house.

Austin has started getting interested in the potty again. He actually asked to try right before bathtime one day and sat on his potty for a good 10 minutes, though nothing came out:) And last week he told Daddy he had to go pee, before bathtime again, and Daddy held him over the big toilet and Austin went pee pee in the big potty! He thought that was so funny.