Vacation

Last week was vacation! I was spoiled by having Mark and my parents around most of the time and now am feeling a little tired being a full-time mommy again.

We got there Saturday afternoon and jumped right into having fun. Carter got a tractor ride and Ava put Nana to work reading books... in fact, Ava had Nana reading books all week long. The morning we left, she was begging for "one more book!"
In addition to wagon rides, swinging, and checking out Pap's truck, Carter could often be found playing with cars or this train set (one of my childhood toys) on the floor. Almost always in this position.

Monday evening, we met my best friend and her family at a park for a picnic, but I, of course, failed to take any pictures, instead leaving my camera in the car. Her girls are 10 & 8 (I keep doing the math in my head and that doesn't seem possible, but I'm pretty sure I got that right!) and they immediately befriended Ava and took her off to play. It was very sweet and Ava continues to talk about her friends Molly and Lindsay.

Tuesday morning, we headed to Lancaster, PA. We visited the Strasburg Railroad Tuesday and headed to Dutch Wonderland on Wednesday. Before we left Thursday morning, we enjoyed a buggy ride through the countryside. Everything was a big hit! Back at my parents' house, we spent the rest of our time relaxing and enjoying being together.

I'll post pics from our mini-trip to Lancaster later, but here are some more from Nana & Pap's house.

Ava's first jump off the diving board - I was sure she'd chicken out, but she did it!

If Carter was out of the pool and someone was in the pool, you couldn't keep him from trying to jump in.

Can't you feel the love?

Carter with his buddy for the week. He'd often go to the front door and ask, "Swing?" After two seconds of swinging, he'd ask, "Truck?" wanting to go inspect Pap's truck. Once he spotted the cows and horses at the farm across the street, he'd also ask for, "horse?" if said animals weren't able to be seen.

Carter always is ready to eat - he'd notice us getting the table ready (or sometimes meals being prepared) and would rush to get in his chair. He had a little bit of time to wait that morning.

This one is a little random, but cracks me up, so I have to share it. At home, Ava doesn't always take a nap, but instead will spend close to 2 hours looking at books and arranging stuffed animals and books in her bed. Usually, the animals are arranged in a line and the books stacked in a very specific order. When I went to get her after "naptime" one day on vacation, she'd lined the books up around the perimeter of the bed. Also included are a few stuffed animals and the case of DVDs we brought along for the trip.

This and that

I told a friend that since this is our last baby, I wanted to be better at getting belly pictures. (I think I have one each from the other 2 times I was pregnant.) I'm still not doing very well this time around - here I am at 21 weeks (this was taken a week and a half ago... not only am I bad at having Mark take pictures, I'm even worse at posting them!):

I've been feeling great lately and even have energy to do things like weed the flowerbeds and plant some new things (to take the place of those ill-fated plants that decided not to put up with my neglect any longer). We've all enjoyed lots of fresh air and time outside lately. In fact, anytime I get Carter's shoes on, he immediately goes to the back door and wants to go outside to swing - he'd be happy to swing for hours on end. He's immensely disappointed when I tell him we have to go somewhere in the car. So, one day when we came home from the store, I let both kids stay outside while I unloaded the groceries. Everything was inside except a gallon of milk and a watermelon. I came outside to see said watermelon rolling down our driveway and a very guilty-looking Carter standing by the back of the station wagon. I chased it down the driveway, across the road and into the neighbor's yard, trying not to think of how ridiculous I must have looked. Thankfully, it remained intact, and I've learned my lesson to unload anything resembling a ball first.

Ava and I were playing her My Little Pony game the other day and we apparently needed an entire pony audience.
And, since the ponies had vacated their castle home, Carter took the opportunity to use it as a playground for his cars.

One last set of pictures. Ava loves going to the library - almost nothing is as exciting as new books. When we get home, I always get her out of the car first since she sits behind me. By the time I get Carter out and get inside, this is usually how I find her:

While he took a little longer to show an interest in books, Carter has become quite the little bookworm himself, and he'll often pull book after book off the shelf to look through them.

When it comes to naps and bedtimes, we used to read stories in Ava's room, then I'd go rock with Carter for a few minutes before putting him down and coming back to give Ava a hug and kiss, but one day Ava said she wanted to rock with us. It's a little tight getting all 3.5 of us in the rocking chair, but it's been such fun - albeit not always the quiet wind-down I'm hoping for. Ava likes to sing along with whatever song I'm singing (even if she doesn't know it), and Carter has started to join in as well. When Ava and I sing Jesus Loves Me, I'll hear random words I actually understand from Carter, like "Bible" and "Jesus" and "so." Touches my heart and makes me laugh all at the same time!

We're having another...

GIRL!

I had the ultrasound on Wednesday, and the technician was 95-99% sure we are having a girl! I was totally shocked as I was certain we were having another boy. My pregnancies with Ava and Carter were vastly different and this one was much more like Carter's, so I was pretty sure it must be a boy. Mark finally admitted to me after the ultrasound that he, too, thought it would be a boy. I kept asking him for a prediction (mainly because he's been wrong the other 2 times and I figured that would tell me if I should be thinking pink or blue), but he would never give me an answer. We also found out she is developing just as she should, which is always good to hear.

Here are some pics:

This first one is a profile - technician labeled parts on each picture to help determine what you're seeing.
The next two have two images on each picture - hopefully that doesn't confuse you! You can see her fist on the left and on the right, she's looking directly at us (she only looks slightly like an alien).

This last one has another shot of the alien child looking right at us and on the right is a side shot of her little foot!
Ava seems not to have a strong opinion about having a sister. I think she knows another child means less attention for her and anyway you look at it, she's not too excited about losing attention. Carter loves to pull up my shirt and look at my expanding belly. At first, he would blow a raspberry on my stomach (and giggle) each time he did this, but the past couple days, he pulls up my shirt and says, "Whoa." I thought he was amazed at how it kept getting bigger, but I finally realized tonight that he was actually saying, "Hello." He's imitating Mark talking to my stomach! He really is too cute for words.

Now, on to the task to picking a name for this baby girl!

Down on the Farm

One of Mark's crew members lives on a farm with her parents (and something like 7 siblings... I lost count) and invited us to bring the kids over to check things out.

We saw baby bunnies...

...baby chicks...

... and mama chickens.
The animals were were fun, but not the highlight. They took us down to the creek on the property and the kids had a blast throwing rocks into the water (yeah, Ava throws like a girl).
They each made new friends, too. Ava followed around "that girl" for a while before grabbing her hand and deeming her a new friend. (Her name is Grace, which was confusing to Ava since that's her middle name. Her little mind simply couldn't make sense of it, so Grace was "that girl.")

Even Carter made a friend. Poor guy got stuck carrying Carter all over since Carter kept finding him and wanting him to hold him... even with Daddy there!

They say...

... the second trimester of pregnancy brings about the end of the nausea as well as a burst of energy. While I'm glad to say the nausea is mostly gone, I'm still waiting on that energy! Not only do I feel sapped about 30 minutes after I wake up, if I am still for more than 5 minutes, I get up hardly able to move because I'm so stiff. I'm trying to eat more healthy foods (rather than the junk I've been craving), drink more water (oddly enough, water made me nauseous for the first few months), and hoping for some nicer weather so we can go for walks more often. Perhaps these things will renew my energy a bit.

Ava says some of the funniest things - I suppose all kids her age tend to repeat phrases they've heard, but use them out of context or just say strange things, but when it's YOUR little person saying them, they are especially endearing. And, perhaps they're only funny to me and Mark, but I'll share some anyway. Often, when I ask her if she knows where something is, she'll reply with a "yes." My follow-up of, "Where?" is met with a, "It must be around here somewhere." She sometimes will know where the object in question is, so I continue to ask, but I now come to expect the, "it must be around here somewhere" response. She's also started saying, "I love everyone." I don't know if this is to cover the bases without actually having to list everyone, but it comes at the most random times and we wonder what in her little head prompts her to remind us of her all-encompassing love. Mark compared it to one of those dolls with a string you pull that says random phrases. If they ever make an Ava doll with a pull string, "I love everyone" will be her phrase.

Carter also never stops making us laugh. A few weeks ago, I watched a little girl his age for a few hours. Her parents had only been gone maybe 30 seconds before Carter was throwing his arms around her. She looked startled. Next thing I know he's trying to kiss the poor terrified girl. I quickly rescued her. He's starting to say more words. Mark worked with him quite some time on "please." Now that he can say it, I can't get enough. I have to make sure to get in on tape as I love hearing him ask, "Peeeeese?" Another thing I've been trying to get on tape is his sad face. While he's happy and content most all the time, when he gets upset, it's instant and, for lack of a better word, BIG (and yet still somehow adorable... not good!). I honestly cannot figure out how he is able to contort his face into such a huge frown. This is as close as I've been able to come (usually because his pouting rarely lasts long and I can't get the camera on and picture taken before he's done).

Birds, Burritos, Braids, and Ben

I've finally been feeling better the past few weeks, and we've been greatly enjoying spending time outside. Of course, every spring Ava has to adjust to the sounds of outside once again. She has always been afraid of loud noises and since we've had the windows closed all winter, she has forgotten the loud trucks and motorcycles we hear with frequency from our house. She'll be playing outside when suddenly there's a loud noise of some sort and she screams and comes running. I also hear several times a day, "Mommy, I'm scared of noises." At least I know once she's used to the sounds again, she'll be fine. Today, we were outside and the birds were chirping away. I asked Carter if he heard them and he did this:
He is so expressive and is always making us laugh. While not exactly funny, lately when he is upset (often after being told, "no"), he throws himself face down on the floor and just lies there. Good thing he can't seem me as I giggle at his antics. He also still loves to eat. Since I've been snacking all day long these days (it often helped the all-day nausea I was experiencing), he's also turned into a mooch. As soon as he notices I'm eating something, he's in front of me with a big smile, signing, "Please," and saying, "Bite?" Sometimes Mark brings dinner home from Chipotle and before he was always happy with beans and rice or a cheese quesadilla, but the one night, he pushed them away and instead asked for a bite of Mark's burrito. I wouldn't be surprised if he could eat an entire one by himself very soon.

Last week, Ava let me braid her hair for the first time ever. Every other time I've tried, she stops me and pulls it out. I finally used bribery. She asked if she could watch Cinderella and I said she could if I could braid her hair. It worked! She really hates to have her hair messed with, so I was thankful she finally gave in. I could use some more practice, but it turned out pretty good and was a great way to keep her hair out of her face.
Our friend Ben was over for a couple hours that same afternoon. Ava LOVES Ben and he seems to be okay with her, too. The entire time Ava would randomly yell, "Come on, Ben!" and he would dutifully follow wherever she led. Carter never responds so readily to her demands, so she was in heaven.
I know Ben doesn't look too thrilled with this hug, but to be fair, Ava did take him away from the truck he was playing with. You shouldn't mess with boys and their trucks.

I love this picture I got of Ava today:

Hopefully, in about a month, I'll be posting with the news of whether we'll be welcoming a boy or a girl this fall (although, I will try and update before then)! Tomorrow marks week 15 and my doctor usually schedules the ultrasound for around week 20. We have several good friends also expecting this fall and keep hearing of more. Should be an exciting time.

Where have we been?

It's been far too long, but I promise, I have a good excuse! Baby Button #3 is expected to arrive on or around September 27!

In addition to several bouts of sickness going through our house, I have been dealing with the all-day nausea that I'm lucky enough to get with each pregnancy. I've had very little motivation to do anything other than what's absolutely necessary, which includes updating this. Mark has been taking excellent care of me and the kids are getting to watch lots of videos these days while I rest on the couch. I am grateful for the timing - since it's too cold to play outside most days, I don't feel too guilty for keeping everyone cooped up inside, since we'd be here anyway. I'm hoping to feel better in a couple weeks, and hopefully the weather will be nicer and we can get outside. I can tell Ava especially is starting to get bored being home all the time.

We did get one good snow and the kids loved playing in it. Every time we get the smallest flurries, Ava has asked if she could go play in the snow, so I was glad we got at least one snow good enough to play in! If only we had some good hills around here. Ohio is far too flat!