Here We Go Again

At last, Lewis is going to be a big brother! We're due in late October, which could be well into November if it's anything like the first time around. Please, let it not be. :)

We are not going to find out the gender again--that wonder and anticipation was just too great last time. It's a lot harder to look at names this time (AS IF we could complicate things even more than the first time around). Instead of just plucking one out of the millions, we now have to choose something that sounds right with Lewis' name. I've started my own lists, but Kevin and I haven't really discussed them together yet. We need to take a road trip--that was our prime name-discussion time when we were expecting Lewis.

I think I felt more nauseous this time than with Lewis. Either that, or I've become more of a wimp. I never did actually toss my cookies, but I felt like it many, many days, from about week 6 until week 10 or 11. The heartburn was terrible in the 1st trimester, too, but hasn't been bad for a few weeks now. I'm sure it will be back in the 3rd.

I've had very specific aversions again, I think moreso than last time. I'm eating a lot of toast. :) The main one was/has been pure maple syrup (makes me nauseous just typing this!!)--my first day of feeling nauseous was at the maple syrup festival, and I had to throw out the cotton candy, maple nut goodies, and jug of syrup because I just.couldn't.take looking at it. 

I've been REALLY tired from very early on, but that has gotten better. I have taken quite a few naps while Lewis naps. When I was nauseous and tired, it was kind of awful.

I started feeling movements WAY earlier this time--around 11 weeks, I think? It might have just been muscles and organs being shifted around, but it sure seemed like little flutters. Since the 13 weeks mark, I've for sure been feeling regular little kicks and punches. At our ultrasound last week, it was neat to see the kicks on the screen and correlate them with what I'm feeling. 

I think that's all to say. Feeling good now, energy is back, getting things done.

Easter Weekend

We started off our Easter weekend with a card in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa T. He had to match the egg stickers to the eggs on the card. There were 25+ stickers with sort of challenging colors/patterns, so he needed a little bit of help in searching. He stuck with it, though, and matched all of them up:

 Hmm, where does this one go?

Saturday, we headed up to my parents' house for the weekend. We got in around lunchtime and attempted a nap, but that wasn't happening. :) My mom suggested we go to the playground, so we went and happened upon a kids' fair, complete with petting zoo:

Bunnies

Pig

Baby and mama Shetland pony

The pony was born earlier that week, and there was a cow, too, who was less than a week old.

Onto the playground:

Lewis wanted Gramma to go with him on the merry-go-round

He found a tractor!

Sunday morning, he got up reeeeally early (like 5am) because he was wet, and we couldn't get him to go back to sleep. Kevin got up with him, and we waited a few hours to get into his Easter basket:

Checking out his new airplane

Getting to the good stuff at the bottom (candy)

 :)

Ready to head to church with Papaw

He kept calling these his 'church shoes' and 'church shirt'...I must have called them that when we were packing his suitcase or something. He loved wearing them. He had that little gift bag full of toys, too, to take with him.

After church, Mom's side of the family came over for lunch. Here, Lewis and Mathilda were sharing a quiet moment behind the recliners that totally made me crack up. We might have to watch these two. :) 

:)

Later, they were walking around the house, holding hands. They seem to get along really well, which is great!

Uncle Dave hid the Easter eggs, and Lewis, Mathilda, and Emery went in search of them. It was a gorgeous day for it:

We drove back that evening and got in just around bedtime. I think I was in bed by 9pm that night from the early morning awakening of Mr. Lew. Thanks, buddy! :)

Spring has Totally Sprung

What a wondrous time is spring

When all the trees are budding

The birds begin to sing

The flowers start their blooming

(Pass It On from the Waycross songbook)

That song just came to mind as I was looking at my hooray-it's-spring pictures. We've been outside mowing and moving some plants around and planting flowers and vegetables, and I am loving it. Our dogwood is in full bloom, and there are redbuds in bloom everywhere we look. Our grass is almost all green now, except for a few small areas, so hooray! 

We've been trying to spend as much time as we can outside. As I was working and Lewis was playing the other day, he found his Batman chair in the garage and wanted to set it up and wanted me to take his picture:

Complete with cape, haha :)

We went to Home Depot this week, and I let him pick out some flowers. He was pretty broad in his choices: yellow flowers and red flowers. I found some Gerbera daisies that he gave the a-ok, and we finished with some pink penta, purple/blue something-or-other-that-didn't-have-a-tag, and a multi-colored moss rose. At home, he helped me fill up our pots with soil:

He eventually got bored, so I took over. As I planted the flowers, he went inside and filled his watering can. He then watered each plant, along with the kitchen floor. :) 

At Lewis' parent-teacher conference last month, they asked if we do any coloring, painting, gluing, etc. at home. Apparently, when they hand a marker or crayon or glue stick to Lewis, he isn't quite sure what to do with it. They said he colors/glues his face or clothes and doesn't immediately put it to paper. I've tried to get him 'into' coloring, but he doesn't stay interested for very long at all. So, my new goal is to try to do more art with him. The Easter Bunny brought some water colors and new paintbrushes, so we gave it a go this week:

 The little artist

He actually sat and painted for about 10 minutes before announcing that he was done. I was surprised that he kept at it for that long, and it was a pretty peaceful and quiet activity for both of us.

Our finished masterpieces

Clearly my art skills have not progressed from 5th or 6th grade. Lewis said his is a bug (upper left), alligator (lower) and giraffe (the sort of main yellow on yellow section). His paper is accidentally upside down, but just take my word on it. :)

Easter Egg Dyeing and Hunting

We've been busy getting into the Easter spirit the past few days. Yesterday, Lewis and I tried our hand at dyeing eggs. I figured he would lose interest and I'd end up doing it myself, but he was surprisingly patient and into it. His only impatience came during the drying time, but we moved onto do something else and he soon forgot about them.

He stuck to his favorite color, yellow, while I manned the other colors:

 Our first batch

 Smelling the yummy vinegar-y dye bath

He later had some yellow snot dripping from his nose from getting too close a few times (he took in a little into his nose). :) Oops.

 Our finished eggs

We had two leftover eggs after finishing the two batches of five, so I let him choose the colors. He chose yellow for him (of course) and pink for me.

This morning, we headed out to Tonya's house for an Easter egg hunt with some of her other mom friends. There were 6-7 other moms, plus 10ish other kids, and we had a really nice time. We hunted for eggs first, then played outside for a bit before heading in for lunch:

 Not quite the whole group, but almost

Some were already heading down to the hunting grounds, and the little guy on the right wishes he was already down in the hunting grounds instead of posing for some lame picture. :) And big sister standing to the right of Lewis is about to step on little sister. Heehee. Fun times.

 Lewis was SO excited! :)

 And they're off!

Tonya has a great big yard, so the kids were able to spread out and find eggs all over.

 The jackpot tree

This one had an egg at every turn--I think there were like 5 of them around the base, and Lewis scooped them all up.

 Winding down the hunt, making sure they didn't miss any

Petting Kitty (Carlton is mid-sneeze! Achoo!) :)

We had a really nice time, and Lewis loved opening his eggs to find candy, coins, and little toys. And we still have the weekend to go!

Silly Dog Things

Just a quick post of a few things, dog, that happened last weekend:

Downward Dogs for everyone!

I was prepping some stuff for dinner and looked outside to see these two Downward Dogging in the driveway. Lew's yoga ended last week, but I'm so glad we signed him up for it. I feel like he really benefited from it. 

 And then the real dogs, doing what they do best (sleeping)

It doesn't look like it so much in photo form, I guess, but it really looked, to me, like they were snuggling pretty sweetly.

Farmer Jason

Last Thursday, Tonya, Carlton, Lewis, and I headed over to IU Southeast for a concert in their Children's Series. I remember reading about them when I was studying/working there, but, of course, I had no children at that time. The performances are free, although they aren't widely advertised (that I've seen, yet) and they seem to cater more to preschools/elementary schools. Anyway, we emailed, got on the list, and went to see Farmer Jason because it said he sang songs about farming and nature. I think he was a hit with the boys!

Carlton started clapping along right away

While Lewis was a little more skeptical :)

The farmer came on stage, singing and playing his guitar, so I think Lewis wasn't sure what was going on for the first few songs. Like, who is this guy and what is he doing?

Lewis and Carlton sat for a while and then stood to dance, and then at some point, they (or Tonya, I forget?) decided to share a seat, which was the funniest/cutest thing:

Personal space? What's that?

Lewis started to lean in and 'snuggle' which is when things went south. It was very cute while it lasted, though. :)

The show itself was just about an hour long--he sang songs about all sorts of different animals, a tractor, an oak tree, etc. I think the boys enjoyed themselves, so I'll have to remember to look into what shows are coming next year.

A Very Muddy Henry's Ark and Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Last Wednesday, we headed out to Henry's Ark for the first time this spring. I didn't anticipate how wet and muddy everything would (still) be, but we managed to stay pretty clean, except for our shoes:

 Trying to avoid the puddles

He kind of froze as we were walking, unsure where to step. I tried to get him to follow me, but that only worked for so long. :)

 Lewis found the resident cat who withstood petting for a few seconds, before running off.

 :)

Lewis, stealing carrots from the goat. He'd give one to the goat and then eat one himself.

 :)

  Reaching up high to feed the big elk

That day after nap (hence the PJs), we headed outside to look for bugs. The Bergstroms had gotten him some bug-themed gifts for his 2nd birthday, but he wasn't really into looking at smaller/finer things last summer. They'd gotten him a Roly-Poly Playground, which is a little plastic dome with a bug-sized playground inside, and Lewis wanted to use it now that Juni (and Auntie Schwee) taught us proper bug-seeking techniques. I've found a couple of more bug playgrounds on clearance, so he has three domes now. It is a good thing, too, because he found uses for all three of them. One was the Worm Dome, another the Dead Bug Dome, and the other was for everything else. :)

Found a roly-poly!

Under a brick, just as you said, Auntie Schwee!

 My sweet boy :) 

Placing one of the two dead bugs we found--the exoskeletons from a locust and a beetle

It was a pretty successful first outing...the locust was especially exciting for me because it reminded me of looking for bugs as a kid at Grandma Lou's house and finding one on her tree out front. We also found a couple of tiny worms (centipedes?) and one lone earthworm. He seemed to really enjoy searching for them and then watching them 'play' in their domes--at one point he screamed out, 'THE WORM IS CLIMBING UP THE SLIDE!!!' and proceeded to crack up. I'm sure we will do this many more times this spring and summer.