The big tummy

My wonderful friends in Birmingham had a shower for me last weekend where I got lots of little blue things for this baby boy! It's amazing how many things are gender specific. I just can't wrap Ford in a pink blanket or give him a pink bottle! Lucky for him my sweet friends helped us out and we are now ready to have a baby! My mom, mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law, and both sister-in-laws were in town to celebrate with us. We also got to celebrate Aunt Chrissie's birthday while she was here so that was fun.
The tummy just keeps getting bigger and bigger! I'm 36 1/2 weeks and when I went to the doctor yesterday I was 1.5 centimeters dilated (sorry if that is TMI but I'm excited!). Only 8.5 more to go! I'll take as many of these "easy" centimeters as I can get because once you go into active labor you have to work pretty hard for them. I'm in my final stages of nesting. I've got the rooms finished, car seat installed, baby clothes washed, flowers planted and baby announcements addressed. I just need to pack my bag and I'll be ready to go! I'm anxious to get this baby here safely and know that he is healthy. Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement in the last few weeks.

Big Girl Bed

Well, we took the plunge last week and moved Claire into her big girl bed! We wanted to get her moved well in advance of the "new" baby taking her room. So far she's done great - except for the two times she's fallen out! As you can see from the pictures she is in a virtual fortress of pillows and bed rails but nonetheless managed to fall off of the foot of the bed. I guess she is just used to rolling around until she hits something in her crib and once she was turned sideways in the bed she just kept rolling until she hit the (hardwood) floor with a thump. Rhett and I were both out of bed and in her room in out 2 seconds (I was quick to point out that I actually got there first - he says it's because he had to go around the bed - I think that the fact that I am 9 months pregnant makes it a pretty even playing field). Anyway, after that first fall we revisited our strategy and added a nightlight, a packnplay mattress on the floor - just in case - and some pillows at the end of the bed. She did great for a couple more days then - plop! - out she went again. This time she landed on the backup mattress and yelled out but never really woke up so back to bed she went and things have gone well ever since.
I'm glad I'm having another baby because Claire is acting way too grown up for me! She has made the move to the big girl room and has poo pooed and pee peed in the potty this week. She learned her colors recently so now we have a constant commentary on what color everything is. She loves tractors, school buses, mail trucks, ambulances and firetrucks. It keeps us busy in the car since we are on constant look out for any and all of those. One day a few weeks ago we actually saw all 5 on the way to work (and the ambulance and firetruck both had their lights and sirens on) - I know what you are thinking . . . pretty unbelievable!!! Hey, it's the little things that keep us going somedays. It's fun that Claire can talk and pretty much tell us what she wants - although most of the time that means ice cream, cookies or ice pops. She has a really good understanding about the baby and keeps saying "come out baby!" and wants to give him a "sassy" (what we call pacifiers around here). I know, I know she's too old for a sassy but I had to pick my battles. I chose to put her in a big girl bed, have a new baby and focus on potty training rather than take away the sassy. We will get there - she only uses it in bed :)

First Day of School

It's school time again! Claire started back to Mother's Day out on Friday. She is a big girl in the Toddler class this year! We actually switched schools this year but Claire hardly noticed. She loves going to play and acts like such a big girl. Our new school has a carpool line (huge bonus points since I'm about to have another baby and I won't have to get him out of the car to drop her off/pick up). Claire is usually a champ when we leave her - she has never (knock on wood) really gotten upset when we have left her anywhere - now a days I get a big "Bye Mommy!" and off she goes. I was a little worried that a stranger ripping her out of her car seat and whisking her away to a new school might be a little frightening though. I prepared her as we sat in line and waited our turn in the carpool line. I told her that her teacher would open the door and I would say "bye Claire" and she would say "bye Mommy" and she would go to school. And, well, that's exactly what happened. I was very proud of her for being so brave and was relieved that it was an easy experience for everyone. Carpool line rocks!
I'm 35 weeks pregnant now which some might call the home stretch. I am very big and very uncomfortable and ready to meet my baby. So if that qualifies as the home stretch then I'm in it. I love feeling him move around so much and it is so much fun to think about what he might look like. It crazy to think that I probably have a 6 lb baby in there. At least someone else besides me is packing on the pounds these days! Claire came about 9 days early so I am not mentally prepared to get anywhere near my due date. I'm hoping he follows suit and shows up a little bit early. I'll start drinking my raspberry tea next week :) I'm having lots of lovely Braxton-Hicks contractions like I did the first time. I'm relieved that my body seems to at least remember what to do and is preparing to do it again. In the mean time we are getting two rooms ready and trying to get everything else in order before Ford arrives. We are just about done with Claire's big girl room and hope to have her in it by next week. I'll post pictures of both rooms when we are finished. Everything was kind of on hold until Rhett took his Internal Medicine Boards on 8/30 but now that is behind us and we are able to resume a somewhat normal life and actually act like we are having another child in a few weeks!

Quare - you are so silly!

It's been quite a while since I've updated the Blog - so I have been told by several people! Sorry - we haven't really been all that busy - I guess we just haven't been doing too many interesting things lately! We traveled quite a bit in August. I was trying to get some visits in before my baby deadline. We went to visit Rhett's family in Dalton one weekend, we went to the first game in Athens and got to see my family another weekend (I watched the game comfortably from my parents couch) and we spent another weekend traveling to Augusta to see our good friends, the Mareks, who just moved there this summer.
A couple of things happened while we were in Augusta. Claire has realized that 1. snacks taste better when you are sitting on the counter to eat them, 2. jumping off the furniture onto pillows is just about the most fun a one year old can have and 3. she loves Jake Marek (the golden retriever pictured above). She talks about Jake every day. We have a book with a golden retriever as one of the main characters that I read approximately 3 times a day now. She also calls all soccer balls "Jake's ball" (you can see it in the picture above - it's kind of Jake's pacifier - he has it in his mouth all the time). We are not in the market for a dog but it is so sweet to see Claire have such affection for an animal!
The Mareks were actually in town this weekend and Claire got to spend a few hours with their boys, Cole -2 1/2 and Mason 7 months. They all had a great time together. When Claire and Cole play together it goes something like this: Claire plays with dolls and Cole plays with balls (or trucks). That is the recipe for some happy play times for both mommys and kids! Claire loved taking care of Mason and making sure he had his paci at all times. Cole calls Claire "Quare" which is adorable. They were being silly with cups on their heads while eating a snack in the other picture - also adorable. HA!