Grandma Joan's funeral trip

These are my two favorite people (plus the one in my belly). They sure love each other.

Ruby's been really fun this week. She likes doing lots of activities all day and helping me do things I need to do. She even wore her undies for about two hours last night with only one little accident! We took her potty about every 10 minutes. It's a start. She gets this cute look on her face and says, "I hasta go potty." She's been getting better at using "me" and "I" instead of "you" and "Ruby" all the time. Except she still says, "Mommy carry you."

 Cuties.

 Having a tea party with the dollies.

 Apparently it was Pauline's birthday, so she sang happy birthday to her.

 Cute pigtails. We've had some really nice days this week, so we've been taking walks. It's lovely.

 Riding her bike! She's doing pretty good on it.

 She loves wearing her helmet. She also loves feeding the chickens a snack.

 She can climb into her crib, but not out of it at this point. This is her pretending to take a nap.

 Sitting in the baby chair at Babies R Us. She pointed out a Babies R Us on our trip, too, just by recognizing the logo.

 She was facing the other way, so I said, "Ruby, look at me and smile." So she kept turning like this and posing.

  We headed down to Grandma Joan's funeral early on Sunday morning and came back late Monday night. It was a pretty crazy trip, but nice to spend some time with Andy's family. This is Patty and Ruby on Sunday morning looking at airplanes on our way to the airport. We had to get up at 4:45, and with the time change it was like 3:45 old time! Needless to say, we were pretty tired that day. Ruby did so well on the trip altogether though, even with a weird schedule. Thankfully she got a nap both days, and she didn't get to bed too late on Sunday night. Monday night was a different story though. We didn't get home until 12:30am, and she was kind of a mess at that point. She's fully recovered now though.

The airplane was fascinating.

 Coloring and playing with stickers. After take-off she said, "I yike this." But when we were landing, she said, "I no yike this."

She got to watch a little show on the iPad. 

 Looking out the window with Daddy. It was lots of fun.

 Playing with her cousin baby Coraline.

 We landed in San Francisco, got rental cars, and drove around looking for pork buns in Chinatown for a while. We finally got some, and then drove to Aunt Terri's house. She loved playing in the back yard with the toys! Here's a picture of Ruby in this same swing last April when we were down there visiting Grandma.

11 months makes quite a difference!!

 She had her first nap on a real bed on Sunday afternoon. It took me just about forever to get her to go to sleep though. But we finally had success. So I laid down and napped next to her too.

 Washing Snowy Bear's hands in the play sink.

 Playing with her second cousin Josiah who is almost exactly a year older than her.

 They had lots of fun.

 Ruby said, "Josiah kiss Ruby." And Josiah said, "I don't want to." Then Ruby proceeded to chase after him with this pucker on her lips. It was so funny.

 Riding in the wagon.

 Monday morning we got all dressed and ready for the funeral.

 Playing around with Uncle Tony.

 Andy did an excellent job giving the sermon at the service. I was very proud of him. Afterward there was a reception, then we went back to Aunt Terri's for a nap, then left for the airport.

Our family photo at Aunt Terri's. Silly boys.

 Ruby really liked the big planes.

 This is on the tram thing on the way to our terminal, and it turns out that blue Tinkerbell plane was the one we were on!

 Walking through the airport with Daddy.

Getting a piggy back ride from Grandma.

 It was way past her bedtime but she wasn't sleepy. So we let her watch Toy Story 3 pretty much most of the way home. She kept saying, "Watch a different movie," and then the scene would change and she would be interested in it again.

 Tuesday we had a super slow morning. We all slept in until 8:15 and stayed in our jammies for a long time. It was lovely. Ruby built her stacking cups into a tower all by herself. And when I asked her to go stand next to it so I could get a picture, she just went over to it and stared at it. So funny.

 I finally convinced her to turn around next to it. 

 She put this purse on Lupe, then took her for a walk.

 "I'm just putting my feet up on my coffee table."

 Wearing her underwear last night. She was so excited about it.

 She spilled her milk/yogurt this morning and said, "Yook. A whale!"

We did some adding to our Target baby registry today. Ruby had lots of fun scanning things.

31 weeks

This week's post comes to you from the Bay Area. We're down here for Andy's Grandma's funeral tomorrow. Baby Heartbeat is doing great. I went to the midwife on Wednesday, and the heartbeat was 145 and I was measuring 33cm. That's a little ahead, but nothing to worry about. I'm supposed to be doing kick counts every night, and this baby has been really active. I get to ten in like 5 or 6 minutes. It's usually a tiny bit faster than Ruby was. 

The baby was posterior but head down at the appointment. Not engaged at all yet. I feel like it flipped over to breach the next day, but might be back to head down now. It's hard to tell, but I think I feel the hiccups down low again. I'd like it to get head down and stay that way, and then we can work on getting it to the anterior position. I don't want to go through a posterior labor for sure. I'm working on sitting better (no lounging) and doing yoga positions and inversions. Hopefully that will work. 

I've been pretty uncomfortable lately. I got a maternity belt for some support for my back and to get my stomach in the right position for the baby. So we'll see if that helps. My hips have been hurting at night, but that's probably because I've been forgetting to take my manganese. I'll have to get better at that. 

Changes this week: I'm getting really big. My maternity shirts are really too small now. I bought a few more though. I think I'll be able to make it two more months fine. When the baby pushes really hard it hurts. :) It's a strong one. 

Cravings this week: Mexican food!

Link to Ruby's 31 week post

A weekend with Mommy

Andy had Winter Freeze this past weekend, so Ruby and I got some one-on-one time from Friday to Sunday. We missed Daddy a lot, but we had fun. Ruby's really been lots of fun lately. She loves playing and is constantly saying, "We should do play toys," or "We should do play in Ruby's kitchen." There are some times when she tries our patience and pushes boundaries like climbing on the coffee table or throwing her food, but overall she's such a precious toddler. I'm just treasuring these last few months I get with just her before her sibling makes its appearance. I think she's going to be a great big sister.

 Penny came over on Friday, so we tried out our new stroller seat. It worked great and Ruby liked riding in the back.

 Playing in the kitchen.

 Eating a snack at Ruby's little table. They get along great.

 Putting her feet up.

 She said she was making yogurt.

 We went to the church on Friday evening to say goodbye to the camp crew. Ruby really liked getting on the bus and sang, "I'm gonna drive my bus." Then she talked about Daddy leaving on the bus for the rest of the weekend.

 Putting together her caterpillar.

 We did a little shopping on Saturday. She was cute trying on some hats.

 She climbed up and buckled in all by herself!

 We planted some lettuce and onion seeds. It was less messy than I thought it would be.

 Silly girl.

 Putting her triangle crayons in Woody's hat.

 She got everything out of her back pack for me to change her diaper.

 We had a little after dinner treat of mint fudge ice cream.

 And then we made finger paint! She made lots of pictures.

 Guess which one is hers and which is mine?

 It was nice and messy, but tons of fun. She had a bath directly afterward.

 I helped out in the second service nursery on Sunday since we didn't have middle school group. She played dress-up with her friend Hannah.

 And this is her and David. He likes to hug her, and then they were wrestling.

 She likes wearing her bath robe and reading books.

 She has been loving playing "Choo choo train tracks."

 Reading with her foot up. She's so cute.

 Daddy's home! She's helping him with his Greek, or as she says it, "Geek."

 She loves cleaning any time she can get her hands on a paper towel, baby wipe, kleenex, etc.

 Building some Legos.

 She also loves sweeping and dusting. She's a great little helper.

 Splits!

She was trying to get Lupe to put her train tracks away.

30 weeks

Baby Heartbeat is getting so big now! He/she is almost 3 pounds. I've seen pictures of babies born at 30 weeks, and they look totally normal, just really small. Crazy. Hopefully we'll be able to hold on another 10 weeks. I've been having lots of Braxton Hicks, but nothing painful, and really random. I'm hoping this baby will just fall out when it's time. :)

I just got overwhelmed today about all of the things we still have to do before baby comes. Andy's so busy with work and Greek that he doesn't have much time to think about baby stuff yet. And I'm so tired and have a very busy toddler that it's hard to get stuff done. This baby is coming whether we're ready or not, so I guess we'd better do what we can. I at least need to get newborn clothes out and wash the newborn/small size diapers.

Andy has been gone at Winter Freeze this weekend, but he's home now and we're all happy. The big news this week was that Andy lost his Grandma Joan. The funeral is happening right when we were supposed to be taking our Babymoon to the coast. But we have rearranged things, and it's all going to work out. We'll go to the bay area next Sunday-Monday and take our Babymoon on the 26th-28th. I'm going to make sure to get a note from my midwife that says how far along I am so they let me fly.

Speaking of... I've been hearing a lot of comments about my belly size lately. People are shocked that I have over 2 months left. I even had someone today say there's no way I'm going to make it to May. It's kind of frustrating, because I'm measuring right on track, and I already know I look big. No need to comment on it. I just smile and say, "Yep. I guess I just grow big babies." I'm still all belly though.

Changes this week: I've been having major rib pain again in my right rib. Just like last time. I've also been having insomnia again the last few nights. Last night I was awake in the middle of the night for almost 4 hours. Needless to say, today has been hard. I've also been really hot for the last week or so. I was overheated most of my last pregnancy, but this time it has really kicked in this third trimester.

Cravings this week: Veggies. I got this really yummy salad for our staff dinner, and it's delicious. It has all kinds of healthy green things in it.

Link to Ruby's 30 week post.