January 6, 2015

32 Weeks- Pregnancy Update

What?  32 Weeks?  Only 8 more weeks (-ish) until we get to meet our second cute little baby!  Less than 2 months left!  In some ways, I feel like this pregnancy has sped by, yet I often feel like I've been pregnant forever!  Crazy how that works sometimes.

Baby bump pictures!  (Compare to my last pregnancy here, here, and here.)
14 Weeks 4 Days
15 Weeks 5 Days
17 Weeks
18 Weeks 6 Days
21 Weeks
23 Weeks 6 Days
24 Weeks
25 Weeks
26 Weeks 3 Days
28 Weeks 3 Days
29 Weeks 4 Days
31 Weeks 6 Days

Updates:
I've had some hip and pelvic pain for the last two months.  Fortunately it has eased up a bit lately and it really only hurts after I've been lying down for a while, like first thing in the morning.  And sometimes if I've been doing a lot of walking.

Mostly this pregnancy has been going very smoothly.  I'm feeling rather large these days (even though I know I've still got some growing to do!).  And my lap is shrinking, though Andrew always manages to find a way to fit there.

It's still too soon to tell what position this guy is in, but I can tell that he definitely likes hanging out on my right side.  I'm always feeling bulges over there too, but I really can't tell whether I'm feeling a butt, a head, a knee, or an elbow trying to push its way out.

Andrew "knows" that there's a baby in there, but I don't think he has any clue what's really going on.  I think we're going to have some jealousy issues when the baby actually gets here, since Andrew is so used to being able to cuddle up to mama anytime he wants.

I sorted through a bunch of baby clothes this weekend.  That's the nice thing about having a second boy- I already have the clothes!  However, since we basically haven't started getting his room ready, I don't have anywhere to put them.  Oops.  I'd better get on that.

We're looking forward to meeting our little guy- but we still have lots to do to get ready for his arrival.  Less than 2 months to go!

January 5, 2015

Andrew- 2 Years Old!

It's hard to believe my sweet little baby is two years old now!

Andrew is a chatterbox these days.  Not speaking in full sentences or anything, but his vocabulary is growing every day.  He especially likes to tell us to "walk" when he wants us to go with him somewhere around the house, and sometimes tells us to "sit down" and play something with him.

He loves to do what mommy and daddy are doing, and fortunately he is often satisfied to do the kid version, especially now that he has his own little kitchen.  He loves to sweep, vacuum, stir, and play the piano.

He loves counting and reading, and has nearly memorized "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."  If he gets you to read with him, he won't let you stop until you've read at least 6 books to him.  He loves it.

He loves anything with wheels, and is having a blast with his newly expanded duplo collection.  He is very coordinated and can build a pretty tall tower all by himself.

We love our little cuddlebug so much!  This last year was such a fun one, and this coming year is going to be a big one for him, full of changes in his life.  Happy birthday, Andrew!
1 Month
2 Years

January 4, 2015

Finishing Up 2014

I was reprimanded by my good friend Johanna for not updating my blog recently.  Oops.

Since my last post we've had a period of "nothing is happening, therefore there is nothing to blog about" and a period of "I'm too busy to even think about writing on the blog."  Both were good, but I'm glad life has calmed down since the holidays and we can breathe again.

We did our own Thanksgiving this year!  Normally we get together with my parents and whichever of my siblings are in the area that year, but my parents decided to go up to Boston and spend the holiday with my brother there this year.  So we decided to be brave and make our very own feast for our little family.  We considered doing a turkey breast, since it was just the three of us, but I was feeling adventurous, plus a whole turkey was such a good deal that we decided to just go for it.  We had so much left over, it was great!

We made turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, stuffing, homemade gravy, and a caramel apple pie.  It all turned out great.  Andrew actually napped through our big Thanksgiving meal, so Aaron and I even got to eat it without having to worry about cutting his food (and all the rest of the fun that comes with feeding a toddler).


Right after Thanksgiving we switched into birthday and Christmas mode.  We got Andrew a play kitchen for his birthday (which is awesome!) but we didn't really have a place to put it yet.  We knew where we wanted it to go, but for that to work we had to relocate the big metal shelving unit we had in our kitchen, which meant finding a place for all the stuff that was there too.  So getting ready for Andrew's birthday meant some massive reorganizing in the kitchen, which meant a few late nights since we didn't want to be doing all of that while Andrew was up.  This was something we wanted to do anyway, so it was kind of nice to have a deadline.  And now we have some nice new shelves up on the kitchen wall too.  I'm really happy with how everything turned out!
Before- Kitchen Storage

After- Andrew's Kitchen!


Christmas is only 10 days after Andrew's birthday, so we had to switch gears again to make sure to get all of our Christmas gifts purchased, wrapped, and mailed on time.  It was a little bit crazy sometimes, but we got it all done.  We headed to my parents' house on the evening of December 23 and spent the next 4 days hanging out with them and my sister's family.  Andrew and his cousin, Graham, were so cute together!  They followed each other around, giggled together, snuck upstairs when the adults weren't looking, and generally just had fun (as long as they didn't both want the same toy!  Silly toddlers...).

A couple of days after we got home from Christmas, Aaron woke me up before he left for work and told me that our heat pump was making a weird sound and asked me to look into what was covered by our home warranty and what it would cost etc.  By the end of the day, the heater had stopped working completely and we had submitted a work order to the home warranty company.  The heating people came out to look at it the next day (Tuesday) and told us that they don't even make the part that's broken, plus we had a freon leak, so the whole unit would have to be replaced.  Oh and the outside unit is leaking freon and has issues too, so that would need to go too.  We sure are glad we renewed our home warranty!  We still had some out-of-pocket expenses that weren't covered by the warranty, but the unit and installation were all covered 100%, saving us thousands of dollars!  Whoo hoo!  We had to bundle up and borrow space heaters for a few days while all the parts were ordered but we got our new units installed on Friday before Andrew's bedtime.  So now we're all toasty warm with a brand new heating system.

So that's how we finished up our 2014!  It was a great year, and we're looking forward to 2015!