Fun Weekend

We had a great weekend-it started Saturday morning, with the simple act of Nate sleeping in until 7:30am. Yay! I had a charity run/walk in the morning so I wasn't able to take advantage of it, but it was a good thing I went to the race. I was motivated by the rest of the runners to try and run some of the race-I ended up running two of the 3.5 miles. That was plenty. In fact, I'm still sore today. My last run was beginning of February so that probably has something to do with it (and the aches and pains of being thirty four weeks pregnant!) After the race the charity held a raffle drawing for different baskets of prizes and an iPad 2. Lucky me, I ended up winning the iPad! I was speechless. I had my sister and BIL walk me to my car to be sure I was protected ;) What a nifty toy. I haven't had a lot of time to download applications and play with the different programs but I'm super excited.

Later that day, my parents took Nate that afternoon so hubby and I could see a movie and have dinner together-and enjoy a quiet night at home! We picked Nate up the next morning. It was nice to get a good night's rest. The following morning I got some time to myself, got my haircut and then headed off to our Baby Sprinkle (shower) for Aaron! It was so much fun to celebrate Aaron with family and friends. Here are a few pictures--



My sister made a diaper cake--it had bottles,pacifiers,shampoo/lotion,washcloth and a gift card at the top. And of course diapers! :)


My sister also made these awesome cupcakes-recipe is from Magnolia's (a famous shop in NYC)



Super yum bruschetta


Awesome wine bar where the sprinkle took place


Socializing with friends



Chilling with my sisters



34 weeks pregnant!

Aaron is so loved, already! I can't wait to finish shopping for him. Also on the positive side: we're getting new carpet in our bedrooms this upcoming weekend,hooray! The house really needs it. I'm tired of steam cleaning our ivory carpet it feels like every other month-it shows EVERYTHING. I'm so happy we got carpet that matches our dark tile, I can't wait to walk on something softer as well. Then we can get Aaron's room ready. We also started to buy new shades/blinds for our windows-something else our house really needs to help keep heat and light out. So far we have Nate's playroom and the kitchen done but we'd like to do all the bedrooms and our great room too. I'll have to post pictures when things get more completed :)

I have been blessed the last two weeks to have Josh's mom watch Nate one day a week for four hours. I'm missing her now though-she is on vacation for three to four weeks. It has been a win-win situation for everyone! Josh's mom recently retired so I imagine she will be a huge help to me in the future. In some ways I think we planned having another child right as far as the age difference-but I'm bummed that Nate doesn't nap anymore or doesn't go to school, so that doesn't allow me to have much of a break. He also wakes up between 6-7am usually in the morning and Josh doesn't get home until 6pm, so that leaves me with a twelve hour day five days a week to keep him busy and occupied. I cherish the time I have with Nate,don't get me wrong, but especially now that I'm eight months pregnant, I wish I had some sit down/me time during the day. I'm too busy keeping him busy-partly because I'm feeling some early guilt about being more home bound this summer when Aaron is around and the weather is warm.

I could have Nate in school if he was potty trained...things were looking up in that area for a while but now he doesn't have interest again. He has a ton of interest in watching me go potty (mostly in public places,for whatever reason) but when we're home, notta. I don't pressure him much,but I wonder when that day will come when he snaps and is fully ready to embrace it. I'd love to have him in summer camps or other classes that allow me to drop him off. We're anxious on one hand and yet on the other we're thinking he could regress when Aaron is born anyway. We'll just have to wait and see, as frustrating as that can be. It would be nice not to have two in diapers!

We're also trying to work on keeping Nate in his room at night. We've gotten into a bad habit of letting him lay with us (poor us, just wanting some sleep). Some nights are fine and he doesn't even try- others take some coaxing and usually one of us laying with him until he falls asleep. Ugh. Another up and down coaster.

That's about the latest and greatest going on with our household!

A Day With Thomas!

This past weekend my parents and I took Nate to see one of his favorite characters-Thomas the train! The main point of excitement for the kids was being able to see Thomas the train in real life form and get to take a ride. We drove about an hour and a half to get to the railroad where the event was taking place. I ended up being so glad that we got there fairly early in the morning to do all of the other fun Thomas related activities before we did the actual Thomas ride around noon. It was such a busy and popular event, parking would have been hard to come by later in the afternoon (plus it was warm and you were almost shoulder to shoulder with people!) Nate is also a little shy around large crowds of kids-he'll usually stand back and watch them all rather than participate, so it was nice in the morning that we fairly had toys and activity areas to ourselves.

We started out playing with stamps, coloring, playing with train sets...and Nate's second favorite part of all, getting Thomas tattoos! Ultimately he loved seeing the actual Thomas train riding into the station and just wanted to sit and stare at it as it sat waiting for people to board/get off. There was an inside area where Thomas movies played and storytime took place every few minutes (I'm so proud of my little boy-he was the only one who sat still in his seat throughout the whole story!) He was so proud to show off his tattoos to any kids who would look his way.

The actual train ride itself wasn't too exciting-not great scenery or anything and the train just moved backwards a few minutes and then forward to where we started. We did however get the closest seats to the Thomas train and our seats happened to be in a comfy lounge area, so we didn't do bad! After the ride we visited the gift shop-oh so dangerous. Nate was a great boy inside there. It was so hard to decide what to get for him, there were so many fun things. Anything from Thomas umbrellas, lunchboxes, cards, bath toys, sunglasses, plates....you could get whatever you wanted in Thomas! I bought a couple things and my parents bought him a handful too. Nate didn't see the majority of what we got so he may find them later in his Easter baskets ;)

I was surprised he didn't pass out coming home from all the excitement. I was happy he seemed to have a good time and was still excited about Thomas this morning-playing with the balloon he got, wanting to watch Thomas videos...really glad we got him tickets to go for his birthday.

This photo album personalized with Smilebox

We were busy with this event while Josh was hiking in the Grand Canyon with friends from work. He had a good time overall, but not surprisingly came home tired and with sore legs and feet. He took a lot of great canyon pictures and even got to see some deer,a fox, squirrels and heard bats. I think it was an experience he might be interested in repeating-sometime :)

Goodbye, Charlie

No, our beta fish didn't take a dive off the deep end...today we gave him away to a good home (just as good as ours,anyway!) After some thought we decided to give him away to a friend we knew who wanted one and would continue to take good care of him. With only eight weeks left or so left until Aaron makes his debut, we're starting to re-evaluate some responsibilities. Unfortunately, we decided until the kids were old enough to take care of their own fish that Charlie needed to go.

I continuously get more shocked that time is passing us by so quickly. Eight more weeks! I'm now almost thirty one weeks along. I've been seeing a PA at my OBGYN office lately, and basically after my next appt in two weeks she would like for me to schedule the rest of my appointments with the doctors. Not for any medical conditions or anything, just to get to know them each a little-because within a month it's possible one of them will be there with me at 2am! What seemed like a slow start to the pregnancy hasn't turned out that way. If anything, I'm starting to get anxious to get Aaron's room finished up and everything cleaned,bought,etc. Here's a recent bump picture from last week :



Josh is leaving later this week for his hiking excursion to the Grand Canyon with some friends from work. As long as I'm not feeling crummy, Nate and I already have lots of plans while he's gone. In particular-on Saturday I'm taking him up north to Globe to see Thomas the Train! It's called "A Day with Thomas"-he'll get to take a 25 minute ride on a Thomas engine and then there's lots of Thomas related activities to do there. I can't wait to see his reaction.

Here are some other pictures from the last two weeks--


Jousting at the Rennaissance Festival-Nate enjoyed seeing the horses



Checking out the wooden toys with daddy


Intently watching the drum show



Meet The Creature--Nate is too scared to really pet or hold any exotic animals (that aren't dogs anyway!) so he preferred just watching the hen,bunny and guinea pigs from a distance



The view at the Arizona Diamondbacks spring training game-they have a gorgeous new training facility!


Barely got a few autographs (sorry, don't know the player!)



This is the life

Party Time!

The day after his birthday Nate had his family birthday party at a park. It was the perfect day-we were all feeling good, the weather was in the 70's...I'm so glad we got lucky,having his party in between sick weekends especially. More pictures to share!



Our cute little boy playing


Thomas cupcakes and train cake-the boy loves trains!


Blowing out the candles


Loving his guitar

We also stayed healthy through Valentines Day. Hubby and I were able to get out for a movie and dinner the day before, and on the actual day Nate and I surprised Josh with a picnic dinner inside.




It wasn't long afterwards before I started this coughing attack/itchy throat condition. In fact, it's currently 2AM Saturday morning as I'm writing this :) Eh, needed to get up super early anyway for my 5k race (more on that in a minute) so I decided I might as well stay up. I seem to do better when I'm not laying down and I didn't want to disturb the boys sleeping with the non-stop coughing. *yawn* Yeah, it's going to be a long day!

Today, I decided, is going to not only be my last race until after Aaron is born but most likely also the last day I run. I had a day this week that I ran but had trouble afterwards-bad lower back pain and some cramping during the run. I think I'm just starting to get too big now that it's going to affect my back no matter what. I'm bummed (and a little worried how I'll be coming back into it later) but I'd rather try to not have back pain if I can avoid it. Well, I made it almost 29 weeks-right to the start of my third trimester. I'm proud of that.

Speaking of being 29 weeks-I saw the doctor again this week and everything is looking perfect. I had an US done and got to see Aaron's eyes move, see him yawn and move his mouth...it was amazing. It was pretty cute-the tech got a laugh out of his posing position: hands behind his head, and he actually had his legs crossed at the ankles! Totally chilling. He's still active and moving like crazy (I seem to notice the most when I'm not moving, especially at night). I'm now starting to go every two weeks until April when I'll go weekly. Crazy.

Nate also saw his pediatrician for his third year check-up : just about 39 inches tall and 28 pds. Not a big guy as far as weight but he's pretty active. He seems to be right on target with everything. He doesn't need to go back now for another year.

Though at least luckily Nate's birthday and Valentine's Day ended up being good, fun days, I'm ready for March to start. We have otherwise spent the month of February being sick and having to miss a bunch of Feb fun activities :( Josh normally doesn't get President's Day off but took it off this year so we could take advantage of a cheaper day to take Nate to the Rennaissance Festival in town. I hope our health and weather (we're expecting possible rain) cooperates so we can go. I think Nate would be more into watching jousting and all the other entertainment this year. And I'm looking forward to the turkey legs! ;)

Here's to a happy, healthier March!

Nate's 3rd Birthday!

Wanted to share some pictures from Nate's big third birthday! The past two weeks he's been sick with a fever off/on and some congestion, but I think he's starting to go on the mend (for good this time, I hope!) We've missed seeing our friends over this time and the 'potty time' has regressed. Hopefully a phase and we'll be on our way up soon!

Wearing all his Thomas stickers from friend Eli

Pointing out the Starfish at the Sea Life Aquarium

Jellyfish

I was relieved that we got a discount ticket and free admission (at least I fooled someone one last time!) for Nate to get into the aquarium. Nate was so NOT interested and scared I think of the environment (dark lighting). We were in/out within thirty minutes, it felt like we didn't see much of anything longer than a few seconds. Literally a walk through!


Lunching with Nana @ Rainforest Cafe. Good thing mommy didn't order food for him-the entertainment was way more fun!


LOVES browsing the books @ Barnes and Noble


Picked out a toy from Great-Grandparents Kucenski

What an overwhelming birthday!


Birthday Sundae with his favorite topping-M & M's-after his favorite meal, pizza, at California Pizza Kitchen.

Nate had a great (and busy!) third birthday!

A Good Note-Mostly...

We've had a fun and busy January, and I was happy that we had made it through the month without any sickness...until today. Poor Nate has fallen victim to the flu and cold season. I very much hope he has a good night and feels a lot better tomorrow. Since Nate has actually been "napping" the last three-ish hours now, that for sure clues me in that something isn't right! (he hasn't napped since right before Christmas) Fingers crossed he's a happy boy tomorrow and mommy and daddy avoid getting the bugs!

Other than that, it really has been a busy and fun month for us. Here are some more activities we've been up to!


Park time

Disney on Ice

"Mickey Mouse!"

Feeding Charlie the giraffe @ The Phoenix Zoo

Liking his train conductor hat from his train craft class

Flying leap from the haystack at Superstition Farm

Milk from the farm!

Potty Time!

This exciting news deserves its own post! Starting on Friday, Nate all of a sudden became interested in going potty in his potty chair. At first he wanted his privacy (lucky for me he used his potty with music that played when he went so I knew something happened!) He didn't freak out when he did it and I immediately made a big deal of it-out came the Mini Oreos and Skittles and a potty dance.

Since that time, he has wanted me in there with him participating (him on his little potty, me on mine). What a good little boy-we'll sit there patiently waiting, even up to fifteen minutes. I've been doing this a few times a day with him (he doesn't tell us when he needs to go though, so he still uses his diaper, but when I invite him in to go potty he runs in with me). He's gone a few times though, which is a great start!

Luckily we don't have many diapers left so we'll move on to pull-ups and eventually underwear. We've had a busy weekend so I'm looking forward to concentrating on the potty a lot more this week when we get a chance to be home. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and make him a basket of sorts to keep by his potty to help entertain him while we wait. I'm just so thrilled that he's interested and willing to at least try, with a huge smile on his face! I find it amazing that it was literally very sudden-just like an off/on switch.

I owe credit to the following items that I think helped Nate decide to be a big boy :)



Nate watched the potty video in particular two dozen times I think before he was interested in trying himself. He still watches it! The potty behind the video is a Fisher Price one that makes all the noise. We still have his old one which basically just doesn't make music that he uses too. Lucky boy, he gets to choose which he prefers that day! :) So proud of him.

Fun Times

Thought I'd post some pictures from December and a few from January so far of our fun days!


Up close and personal at the World Wildlife Zoo




Meet the Creature event-just a porcupine strolling behind...



Toy Town


First time bowler-was more content watching mommy and daddy play

Now for 2011 so far!



Train craft class-first project was painting a wooden train


Playing at Artville-in the Arizona Museum for Youth




Wee Play class


Reflecting on a South Mountain hike with daddy

Whew. I'm getting tired just looking back at all those pictures! We've certainly been busy, and the month isn't even over yet. More classes, Disney on Ice this coming weekend and other fun dates with friends. Guess that'll mean more pictures in a few weeks ;)

Also in a few weeks-my little boy's third birthday! Wow, it's here already. We're planning to have another park playdate with friends in our Moms Club and another family birthday party at the same park as last year. This year Nate's birthday theme is Thomas the train. Nate is in love with his train sets and The Polar Express movie so I think it's a good fit! I bought a train cake pan that I'm going to attempt for dessert. I will have to declare myself Martha Stewart if I can pull it off :)

Again, in a few weeks-the start of my last trimester with Aaron! That is also unbelieveable. At first time felt like it was moving slowly, now it's really been moving quite fast. I'm currently twenty three weeks along-here's a recent shot of me :



I'm growing more week to week :) I think I only have two more months of monthly appointments before they start becoming every two weeks/one week. Wow. I can't believe that in no time we'll become a family of four.

Time for some quiet reading-until next time!