One Month!

Can't believe my c-section date is ONE MONTH from today!  So crazy...

In honor of this countdown, I was called into the doctor's office to ease my mind of some pre-labor symptoms.  I seem to think I've done this with all 3 pregnancies now... around this time, I'll start to freak out when I get those regular Braxton Hicks contractions and other lovely symptoms.  But, thankfully, I'm not dilated one bit... I was hoping Parker would not make an entrance this early! (and was also hoping I wouldn't have to be on bedrest... this girl's got some things to take care of at work this next month!)

I don't really have anything exciting to talk about.  We've been "nesting" with friends- seeing friends who don't live near us, since we probably won't be able to easily meet for dinner in the next, oh, 10 years.  Our last few weekends have been packed with that, so it's been great!  Next is my "to do" list of things to get done before the baby gets here.  This includes a good house-scrubbing, getting ready for Sydney's b-day party, and getting all the baby gear out and washed.  Stephen has installed the car seats, and I packed most of my bag.  Guess you can never be too prepared.  Thank goodness for a 3 day weekend this weekend, what better time to accomplish things?

This is really random, but I thought I'd share the latest with Sydney.  Bless her heart, one day last week, she tapped me while I was sound asleep in my bed, around 4 AM.  She was breathing really heavily and said she'd had a bad dream about a black cat.  We put her in our bed and all went back to sleep.  Ever since then, she cries when we leave her in her bedroom at night to go to sleep, thinking the black cat is going to get her.  I have no clue where this is coming from.

So, we are playing outside this past Saturday, when Stephen saw something moving way back in the woods in our backyard.  Guess what?  It was a black cat.  What are the odds????  (and geez, I hope that's not bad luck!)  So, you can only imagine how seeing that cat totally did NOT help the situation.  Poor Sweet Sydney... guess we'll start getting into the nightmare-stage for her soon.

That's it from here!  Here are some random phone pics of late.

Sydney, Landon, and Taylor. enjoying some red lollipops.

BFFs.  Ashley (left) came all the way from Cali just to see us.  She is 6 weeks behind me in pregnancy (no comment, I know you can hardly tell!)

Look what a great first week of school Sydney had!

Semi-annual dentist trip.  No cavities!

Creating a disaster at Tin Lizzies.  We were sure to leave a good tip.

Sydney was moved to the 3rd row... she seems so far away!

A couple of bags I got embroidered for Parker.

Comparison

It's funny how much can change in just a few months...

Week 13

Week 34

 

Gotta love maternity shirts.  Look how much that bad-boy stretched!

Crazy Dance

Check out Taylor's version of her and Sydney's "Crazy Dance".  Aptly named.

Where did the weekend go?

Time has been flying by for us in the K-Bash household.  Especially the weekends.  Seriously, can we consider doing 4 day work weeks?  I think three day weekends are in order.

We had a really fun and busy weekend.  My two BFFs from childhood and I got to spend a girl's day out in Atlanta.  Erica lives in Atlanta, and Ashley was in town from San Jose, CA.  We ate lunch, got pedicures, hung out at Erica's house, went to Ashley's mom's house to meet up with the hubbies and kids, and then went to dinner.  The girls crashed late and thankfully let us sleep in a little bit until 7 this morning.

Today, we went to church and then Stephen and I tackled getting our garden together.  We replanted some things, pulled weeds, trimmed hedges... you know, things that go by the wayside.  I'm trying to tie up some loose ends here at the casa before the baby gets here.  We went to Target for some things, and then went to dinner with some good friends. 

Speaking of the baby, I am 33-1/2 weeks now!  Only 5-1/2 weeks to go, or 39 days, or 26 more days of work.  That's a little crazy.  I took a belly pic this morning- the baby is definitely growing leaps and bounds.  He is a mover and a shaker, too.  Did I mention in this blog that the doctor is predicting him to be bigger than 10 pounds??

So, I'm going to go enjoy the couch for a little bit before hitting the hay, but I wanted to talk about our fun and busy weekend.  Monday, you're here again so soon!

33.5 weeks

Ashley and the girls.  Looks like they all got the same memo for clothes.

Me and Meg.

Moving on up

Sydney started Pre-K this week, and she has been so excited!  She's going to Pre-K at her current daycare (since technically she's young, I've talked about this, yada yada) and it's a little amazing how differently structured this class is from her previous ones.  Another weird dynamic is that several of her classmates, who have gone to daycare with her since the ones class (or even younger) are now going to public Pre-K... so they are no longer at Sydney's school!  A little strange.

But, going back to Sydney's class.  It's run very much like a classroom.  Why that surprises me, I'm not sure.  They have folders, assigned seats, school supplies, backpack hooks with their names on them.  They do calendar time, they've been learning how to read a clock, and probably a heck of a lot more that Sydney doesn't tell me about.  She gets stickers in her folder at the end of each day (well, if she does a good job!) and so far, so good.  They have classroom incentive programs that Sydney explains to me in great detail.  It's like a whole new world in the wild world of education!  I'm excited about what she's done in just 4 days... I can't imagine how much she's going to learn in 9 months!

I tried to snap some shots of Sydney on her first day of Pre-K.  Her faithful sidekick wanted to join in, too.  Taylor didn't move up classes, but she's now the "big girl" of her one's class.  All her little friends from Infant B just moved up this week.

Busy Day!

Today was one of those busy days, where Stephen and I literally just want to sit on the couch tonight and not move/lift/clean/do anything.  I'm exhausted for obvious reasons; Stephen's exhausted because he is sick!!  We took his temp tonight and it was 101+.  :(

But, before we knew any of this, we had a fun-filled day.  It started off by going to Matteson's 1st birthday party.  Matteson is the baby girl of one of Stephen's good fraternity brother friends, Chris (I actually knew Chris before I met Stephen!).  He and his sweet wife, Jessica, live in Vinings, and we went there to celebrate and see lots of friends.  It was fun.  They just moved into their house, and I had some major envy... their house is beautiful, and their backyard is... amazing.  See below for the coolest part of their backyard.

Anyways, here are some pics from the party.

Taylor swinging with Liam.

Sydney loved this swing!

Yes, please!

Happy birthday, Matteson!

Yum.

Attempting to get a kid shot.

My silly girls.

We came back home, and Taylor and I napped from 3-4.  We  headed out to a Block Party, held at our church.  Our church knows how to throw a party!  There were bouncy houses, games, firetrucks, hotdogs, sno-cones, Bruster's ice cream, popcorn machines, chili cook-off, bike parade, watermelon eating contest, and more! 

We left sweaty, sticky (thanks, ice cream cones!), happy, and tired.  We came home, bathed the girls, and they were out!

Busted!

Taylor wanted the same as her sis.

Sydney providing moral support.

And, I want to give a shout-out to my sweet friend, Jackie... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



Big Girl Kind of Night

Last night, we attempted Taylor in her big-girl bed (AKA our former queen-sized guest bedroom bed).  She looked like such a little thing on it!  She was initially scared when we all left after reading a book in her bed, so I ended up laying with her for about 30 minutes until she fell asleep.  Of course, I'm checking on her every hour or so, paranoid she's going to fall of the end or something.  But, thankfully, she did just fine!  She did wake up crying at 4:30, and I went in there and slept with her until about 6, when she was up for good.

I spent this morning transferring all her clothes in her closet/drawers to her new room, and moving Parker's clothes to his nursery.  I guess that makes it official!

Taylor and I both took a nap in her bed today.  Tonight, after a long day, she crashed hard without anyone laying next to her (thank goodness, I was hoping she wouldn't expect that every time she laid down).

Such a big girl... (and a squirmy sleeper, apparently!)

50 Days!

Yep, folks, the countdown has begun... Baby Parker's official debut date has been set!  Drum roll please... September 27th!  That is 50 whopping days to go.  That seems kind of far away in one sense, but I just counted backwards 50 days from today, and that date was June 19th.  That doesn't seem so far ago.  Yowzas.

I don't have a picture of my belly to celebrate this news, but I can guarantee you I have grown a bunch this week.  People are starting to give me the "whoooa!" look when I approach them.  I have been absolutely famished this week.  I even got my first burger-joint cheeseburger that I've had in years last night.  I was so starving at 4 PM that I swung by on my way home.  It was pretty worth it... but I think I'll be happy to stick to my fast-food chicken sandwiches again.  The crazy news is that I actually lost 1.5 pounds from my last visit, 2 weeks ago.  How bizarre is that?  So not like me.  Must be all the running around at work.

This past Sunday, I woke up with a horrible, constant pain in my abdomen.  That was coupled with somewhat frequent Braxton Hicks contractions... which normally aren't painful, but since they tightened my already-sore abdomen, they were killing me.  I couldn't walk, go up stairs, lift anything.  I was getting a little concerned.  I've never actually been in labor, so I kept thinking- could this be it???  Luckily, I woke up Monday morning feeling somewhat better, and it has just improved since then.  My sweet mom and nieces came to stay with us Monday night, while Stephen was in St. Louis, and we had a grand ol' time.

On a big note, too- we went to Sydney's pre-K open house Monday evening!!  She will be attending pre-K at her daycare, and I can't believe what all they are supposed to learn this year.  She will be learning how to read little books in December.  Makes me have to rethink the whole repeating pre-K in public school (where they just learn basic skills and social skills)... but that's for a different day.  I can't believe how big my little girl is getting to be!!!

So, that is all from our world!  Just wanted to share the exciting news. 

Here are some pics from our last week:

Watching The Lion King... or as Taylor calls it, "Roooar!"

Up at the crack of dawn, Tuesday morning.

31 Weeks!

Happy 31 weeks to me!  I'm getting bigger by the minute, it's getting a little harder to sleep (comfortably, at least), and I'm completely exhausted at the end of the day.  Baby Parker is rolling and spinning, making my belly move and shift all over the place.  I'm having Braxton Hicks contractions pretty regularly.  Heartburn is kicking in, my legs are starting to swell some.  On a positive note, I have survived my first week-and-a-half back at school!!  Woohoo!  It's actually kind of nice being back on a routine, I must admit.

Anyways, here's a belly shot and a few silly pics.

31 weeks

Muscle girl.

No words to describe.

20 Months!

Taylor is 20 months old!

8-1-2012 (You like Sydney's Wacky Day outfit in the background?)

Her accomplishments this month include:

• New words!  "Sure", "Yes, sir", "Big Bird", "backpack", "Dora" (more like "Do-da), "potty", "sit", "Big Bird", "Cookie" (as in, Monster, mostly), "boo!" (she loves to scare us), "Parker".
• She's really repeating most of the words we say, so it's getting hard to document all her "firsts"!  But, the words above are the ones she says regularly.
• She has totally gotten into Sesame Street, which, secretly, I am loving!!!  Most of the time, when we watched TV, it was for Sydney's shows (Dora, Diego, Super Why, Little Einstein's, etc).  I was sad that Taylor never got to watch Sesame Street.  I started putting it on this summer, and Taylor loves it!  Sydney is actually getting back into it, too. 
• Climbing down the stairs... mostly backwards.
• Using her spoon and fork really well!
• Starting to sing her "ABCs"!  She'll sing, "A...B...C..." in the right tune, and then will repeat "ABC" over and over. :)
• Starting to sing "E-I-E-I-O".
• She's learned to slide under the gate at the top of the stairs (thanks to our 2 year-old neighbor who showed her that trick!) and walk down the stairs.  SCARY!
• We pulled out the little potty, just for her to see it and get used to seeing it.  We haven't been very consistent with having her sit on it.  She prefers to sit on it and read, fully clothed.
• She loves to watch the Lion King in the car, and everytime she gets in her car seat, she points to the tv and says, "Roar!"
• She loves giving kisses.
• She is really loving to "read" books. 

Here are some pictures from this month!