Reid turns 2 1/2!

We've had a fun week! The kids are healthy, Reid is a big boy now at 2 1/2, and Andy and I are exhausted... haha. No really. ;)

Reid has been waking up once a night, no more. And I feel like that's doable! It's usually at 12 or 1, and last night he woke up after a bad dream. He said his red bike rolled into the street and it scared him. Apparently he wasn't on it though, so that was good. Andy has been taking the kids out to ride bikes in the evenings, which has been really fun. Ruby's getting really good on her balance bike!

Ruby has been so sweet lately. At Costco tonight she saw a plate on the floor from someone else's table, and she went and got it and threw it away. She also kisses my tummy all the time and says "I love baby." And she loves to hug Reid and take care of him.

 Here's my baby bump! It's getting big. :)

 In preschool, they've been talking about how Native Americans used to tell stories with pictures. So they drew a picture and then dictated it to the teachers. Ruby's was so funny!

 The girls all had long, detailed stories, and the boys all had short little stories. It's interesting to see the different speeds of development.

 Reid and I went to Costco. He made this face when he saw this heater:

 He thought it was a fan, and was really confused.

 Silly Reid!

 Andy went on a crazy purge over last weekend. He completely went through everything in both bedrooms and got rid of a ton of stuff. It has made a huge difference! And the kids found all kinds of fun toys they haven't played with in a long time. Ruby had fun with the blocks.

 And Reid vacuumed with Daddy.

 Silly Ruby! She wanted to look pretty, so she chose this dress and the yellow hair bow.

Bath time is always crazy. There's currently red crayon all over the tub which looks like someone died in there. Hahaha 

And then we had the time change..... Reid already gets up early, so this really didn't help! The earliest morning this week was 4:45, which was a little better than I thought it would be. That's probably why we're so tired! 

 Ruby and I got all dressed up for church on Sunday.

 She has fun in Sunday School and built a fun wall! Often times the kids' classrooms get full, so we have to try to be on time to church. They could both go into the 3 year old class though, if theirs is too full. Reid had to today and loved it.

 We've been doing lots of crafts! Ruby came home with a bag of leaves and this paper from school and I guess she was supposed to make a leaf man, so we did! Apparently it's a duck though.

 Preschool!! She loves all of the fun activities she gets to do.

Reid came to the birth center with me and loved this fan. It kept him occupied pretty much the whole time.

It took me a while to get Reid to sleep on Monday at nap time, and when I came out Ruby had done this...

 They had made Oblek at school that day (like Gak), so she was trying to make something. It's water, milk, and muffin crumbs. So gross! We had to wash all of our bedding.

Reid turned 2 1/2 on Monday! I can't believe how big he is already. He's 31 pounds! He's also so tall...

 ...that we decided to switch his carseat to forward facing. The rear height limit was his head had to be 1" below the back shell, and it was getting very close. He didn't like when I looked at him in the mirror at first. After our midwife appointment, we met Andy, Del and Patty for lunch. When we headed back to pick Ruby up from preschool, Reid was really sleepy. So I decided to let him fall asleep and we'd just skip the nap later. But when we got home, he was still sleepy, so I rocked him for a little while and he fell back to sleep for another hour and a half! I was amazed. I guess the time change has made him pretty tired too. He has actually napped every day for the last week or two. Whew!

 They love putting on makeup with Mama.

 He loves the lip gloss. 

 And doing workouts with me too!

 They're so cute! They've been playing with each other so well.

 We went to Ruby's first parent/teacher conference on Wednesday! The kids got to play in a room down the hall, and we talked to Mrs. Nolan. She has been doing really well in school. She's very social and loves to be friends with everyone. We're so proud of her!

 They love Sequence! And you can see our Thanksgiving tree in the background.

 Ruby wanted to be twinsies, so we dressed identical! We even had matching gray sweaters and boots.

Andy played taste test with Ruby, it was fun!

16 weeks

Our little avocado is 16 weeks today! Apparently it's going to go through a growth spurt in the next few weeks. :)

We went to the midwife on Monday! We had Megan this time (last time it was Oni). We have three midwives, those two and Marilyn. We haven't met Marilyn yet, she'll be our next appointment. They want to make sure one of the midwives is always available for us, which I appreciate. I've really liked the two we've met so far! Megan is our primary, and she was there for my friend Audrey's births. It's always fun to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was beating at 135-140 bpm, and was down low on the right side again like last time. My iron level was a little low from my blood test last time, so she said I should up my intake of red meat, leafy greens, cooking in cast iron, and even eating molasses. If it is lower at my 28 week appointment, we'll talk about supplementing. Hopefully it will go up with just diet.

I have been super tired lately, which is really no fun. That might be tied to my low iron, now that I think about it... I'm really hoping that goes away. It's not fun to not be able to have energy for my family. 

Changes this week: Not too much, just exhausted still!

Cravings this week: Just food. Nothing specific.

Halloween!

We had a fun week with Halloween and everything. And the best news, Reid has gone potty lots of times this week! He doesn't really ask to go, just when I ask him. And I should definitely be asking him more often.

 Ruby was making a Lego pool! Notice all of the blue in the middle for the water. :)

 Potty time! He likes using the big potty.

 Then Reid copied Ruby with a blue pool while she was at school.

 Playing pretend potty. Haha

 On Saturday we headed to the zoo! They had a special Halloween event where they had candy and stuff. It was way fun.

 Ruby made a friend. Which brings up something interesting... she seems to like being friends with boys better than being friends with girls. Not that that's bad. She definitely has girl friends as well.

 They love "walking out" (not riding in the stroller).

 Reid found a little cave to sit in.

 They love to drive this jeep, but Reid always freaks out when it's time to leave. :(

 We got to watch them work with the elephants!

 Tiger girl.

 The petting zoo was pretty fun.

 They loved the soft goats!

Then we all had a nice nap time. 

 And we carved our pumpkin that night.

We had lots of fun! 

 And we also watched the Nightmare Before Christmas. They loved it.

 Our pumpkins!

 Andy was cutting some wood in the back yard, and the saw scared Reid. So he came inside and wanted Ruby to snuggle with him. <3 It was so sweet!

 Fort time! Notice all of the shoes holding everything up.

Ruby found this in my maternity clothes box. She loves it and puts it on every day. 

It's so fun to watch Ruby do things at preschool!

 Reid loves playing when we take Ruby to preschool.

 He's all about steering wheels!

He and I went to a morning play thing at Cedar Mill church with our friends Lauren and Elouise. He loved riding this bike and a red rocket.  

 On Monday night we went down to the Pullen's for dinner, then we went across the street to go trick-or-treating.

 The kids had so much fun and got lots of candy!

 I took about 15 pictures before I got this gem!

 Sorting candy. Every time someone just held out a bowl, Reid would pick the blue things. That's how he ended up with so many Almond Joy's! And then he separated them all out when we got home. He loves everything blue.

 We had a sunny afternoon! So I sent the kids outside to play. They love harvesting the mushrooms that grow in our yard. They won't try to eat them though, they don't like mushrooms. Haha!

 Reid and I have been running errands all week! He's so good about it.

 We took him to the doctor on Thursday to talk about his digestive issues. We decided to run a bunch of tests to try to figure out what's going on! So he had to get his blood drawn, and he seriously didn't even flinch! The nurse had me hold him down with my body, but that wasn't needed at all. It was pretty amazing. He was also very happy about his blue bandage. We also had to collect a stool sample (well, a lot of them) and take that back in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll hear back soon on the results of it all. And hopefully we'll get it figured out!

 I let the kids pull off Reid's mattress and jump on it to get some energy out. They loved it!!!

 And then they had a dance party in the living room too.

These are some pictures Ruby's teachers posted on Facebook from preschool. Here she is cleaning the windows of the play structure.

 And with Mr. Nolan, a firefighter.

 They had a field trip down the street to the fire station!

And washing dishes with her friends Lily and Abby. She got home that day and told me that she did a bunch of chores, and I wasn't sure if I believed her. Then I saw the pictures! Hahaha

15 weeks

Little Baby is the size of an apple this week! (That's what Ruby decided we should call it for now.) And it's developing like crazy (and sucking all of my energy out of me...). It's so fun feeling it move around a few times a day. It never moves when I'm thinking about it though, so it's always a surprise to feel a little kick. I can't wait until Andy and the kids can feel it too.

Like I said before, I've been exhausted!! I can't seem to catch up on anything for lack of energy. It's been rough. The house is constantly a disaster. :( Last night I cleaned the kitchen, put the groceries away - that had been sitting there for a day - and folded a week's worth of laundry, and then was absolutely exhausted. I can't wait to hopefully have more energy.

My midwife suggested Natural Calm and Homeopathic Moon Drops for my insomnia, and I think that has been helping. They at least worked when I woke up at 4:30 yesterday, I was able to go back to sleep until Andy's alarm at 5:45. Also, I'm excited to go see the midwife on Monday! It's been almost 5 weeks, so I'm ready for our second appointment and to hear the little heartbeat again. :)

My stomach has really popped out this week too. People are asking me if I'm pregnant now left and right. Yesterday I even had a guy ask if I was going to have the baby before Christmas! Hahaha. Try adding 4 months... Oh well, I wasn't expecting to be small.

Andy found my maternity clothes way up high in the garage, thank the Lord. He looked a few times before and I was worried that we lost them or loaned them out. It's not comfortable to button my pants now, so the Bella Band is a life saver until I can fit in my maternity pants. And all of my non-maternity shirts were getting too short. It's like having a whole new wardrobe, so I like that!

Changes this week: Bigger belly, and exhaustion is back.

Cravings this week: Not much, just savory stuff I guess. Sweet stuff is sounding better now that my nausea is gone.