Parenting Is Hard Work

Well, it certainly isn't a cake walk! And we're definitely not given an instruction manual at the hospital after delivery. Once you can prove you're able to change a diaper and you can get your baby to latch on for nursing, you're pretty much so kicked out of the hospital. Then you get your baby home and all you want to do is change it's clothes about 10 times a day (because everything is so darn cute!) and stare at your new bundle of joy.

And then reality sets in. You lay down in bed for a comfortable nights sleep and BAM! The baby is up...wanting to be fed, needing it's diaper changed or just looking for snuggles and love. And whether you nurse or bottle feed, there will still be those midnight feedings. And if you nurse...well, let's just admit it...bad things happen to the girls! As you're sitting there at 1am listening to info-mercials while nursing your newborn, you realize that you're breasts are never going to look the same again. But it's all worth it because you only want the best for your baby, right? Right!

Okay, so now you've got nursing/bottle feeding right and you can change a diaper in under 30 seconds. You haven't drowned your baby in the bathtub yet he/she hasn't rolled off the bed with a crash landing on the floor. Now it's time to move onto solid foods. When's the right time to start? Regular or organic? Rice cereal or a combo of rice with stage 1? These are all valid concerns because at 6months, we're already worried about screwing up our kid's life!

Next is rolling over, crawling, walking and talking. And once your child is mobile and talking...it gets even more scary. You're more concerned about what you say and how you act so that you're setting the right example. Things that once seemed so innocent (like TV) now become your worst nightmare. Whoever said children are like sponges, was right on! My darling Ayden hears everything, repeats everything and remembers everything.

My point to this is that parenting isn't exactly easy (like I thought it was going to be while still pregnant with Ayden). It's definitely the most rewarding thing I've ever done though. My hope for our children is not that they become the next rocket scientists. I would like them to do well in school so that they can succeed in life, but I feel like there are other things that I need to teach them as well. Manners, respect, morals and compassion...just to name a few. I feel like those "life lessons" are harder to instill in our children than the ABC's. When you're dealing with a 4 year old and a 2 year old, it's dang frustrating!!

If you've met Jameson, our 2 year old (wasn't that a treat?), you'll see where my frustrations lie. He's got the face of an angle and the personality of a demon. He can be sweet and cuddly and precious. But he can also be a terror. We've tried just about everything we can think of with him. Anyone else out there going through the terrible two's? Ayden, our 4 year old sort of skimmed over this stage so I was ill-prepared for Jameson. Well, everything we try with Jameson sort of fails. I'm going out this weekend to buy some books that will hopefully give me some much needed inspiration and advice.

If you too are struggling with the terrible two's, I thought you may find some of these books interesting:

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers
Positive Discipline - The First Three Years
The Mighty Toddler
How to Say No to Your Toddler
The Happiest Toddler on the Block

I'll let you know how I like them. I'll probably get one of the first two on my list first and go from there. Just keep in mind that what works for one child, may not work for another. My boys are prime examples of that!

2008 Wisconsin Vacation (Days 1-4)

I love vacations. I love getting away from work and home responsibilities so we can spend some quality time together as a family. But let's face it...vacationing with two small children while pregnant isn't exactly relaxing. We had a fantastic time in Wisconsin seeing so many friends and family but now that we're home, the exhaustion is settling in.

We started our vacation on Saturday, July 19th. After crossing just about every item off of my 10 page list, I announced that we were ready to head to the airport. So my mom picked up my family of 4, 3 suite cases and 2 car seats and we were off. The kids were relatively behaved in the airport but once we got on the airplane I started to have thoughts of locking myself in the bathroom for the duration of the flight. Once we were in the air, Ayden sat nicely and watched a movie (thank goodness for portable DVD players!) but Jameson was out of control. He wanted to touch every button over our seats. I think the flight attendants were ready to throw us off the plane. It was difficult to keep him from kicking and pushing on the other passenger seats and let's not forget to mention he had horrible gas. There is nowhere to change a diaper on an airplane so I had my fingers crossed that the gas would not turn into poop. I was so excited when our plane landed almost 30 minutes early in Milwaukee.

Daddy and Ayden went to collect our bags and Jameson and I headed to the rental car area. First I got in the wrong line and when I found the right one, it was practically a mile long. Apparently Budget is quite popular. Once we had our car, we had to put in the car seats and stuff our luggage in the trunk. We were ready to make the 1 1/2 hour drive north to Neenah. The first thing both of the boys wanted was a movie. Sorry guys...no DVD player in this car. Luckily we weren't too far into our drive before they both fell asleep. We met up with some family and friends at Ground Round for lunch (I ate waaaaay too much) and then headed to the Payne's for some rest before Jameson's baptism.

So we're all pretty tired from traveling all day but we made it to the church by 5:00 for the baptism. There's a reason I chose the Saturday night service instead of Sunday morning's....no one was there! Have you ever seen a 2 year old get baptized? It's not pretty. Jameson was rolling and crawling all over the alter. He kept lifting my dress up and when it came time to do the "water" part, he looked at the pastor and said "NO, NO, NO" and shook his finger at him. Humiliating, yet so very entertaining. We went to Cranky Pat's for some of the best pizza in the world (the south just doesn't know how to make a good thin crust) and then went to my parent's house for a bath and bed.

We spent Sunday through Tuesday hanging out with Jason's family and some friends. We had dinner at Cory and Wendy's, played at Riverside park, let the boys jump around naked in a fountain, took a few walks and made Mima some pretty stepping stones for her garden. We saw all sorts of aunts, uncles, cousins and great grandparents.

I'll try and get some pictures posted of our first 4 days before we move on to the second half of our vacation...the lake!

Week 19

Okay, so one more quick post before I dive into payroll. Baby Ava has started to make her presence known to me. I can feel light little kicks every once in a while, but nothing strong enough for anyone else to feel. In a couple of weeks, she should be kicking hard enough for Jason and the boys to feel. We don't see the OB again until the 5th and our next ultrasound with the Perinatologist is on the 11th. Here's what's happening this week though...we're almost half way to our due date!

Your amazing little baby is now around 10 inches in length! If this seems a bit shocking, you’ll be relieved to know they’ve not actually grown over 3 inches, but that their little legs are now straight enough to be measured. This is when doctors begin measuring fetal growth from head to toe, (no longer “crown to rump” or CR). Lanugo (little hairs) covers their whole body now, trapping that charming cheese-like vernix caseosa (see week 18) to the surface to the skin. This week your lil’ fetus will start on an appetizing diet of amniotic fluid which they are now capable of swallowing, digesting, and passing the fluid as far as their tiny “large” intestines. Fortunately for you, this nice little lump of baby-poop won’t be coming out while they’re still in your womb. Some time shortly after they’re born, this fun lump will become the first in a long line of baby poops. (What finally comes out— commonly known as “meconium” to the science world, will be black and sticky, and you’ll be very glad it happens only once!)

Safe and Sound

Well, we're back. I'm not functioning very well, but I'm here. The first thing I tackled this morning was email. I always turn on my "out of office" message when I'll be out but I still managed to have 275 emails in my inbox. Once I went through and deleted/responded to the majority I still had 108...8 of which were work related that I need to do some investigating on. The remaining 100??? All from the Divas! I have no idea what they were up to last week, but I'll catch up later this afternoon.

Next on the list was to quickly scan through my top 7 blogs.

Deb - Have a great time on your vacation this week. Looks like you got in a lot of grandson time before you left. I swear Baby Jack is getting cuter and cuter every time you post pictures of him!

Mom - It sounds like you had some relaxing time at the pool while we were gone! We're back now so the peace and serenity are officially gone. Also, thanks for the award:)

Pam - Hmmmm. Not too much blogging going on Pam's Little Blog.

Chere - You crack me up...as usual. I too dislike manufacturers who neglect to put an expiration date on their food products. Expired food is on the top of my pet peeve list. Just ask mom. I'm constantly cleaning out her pantry.

Judy - I love the volcano pictures that you posted from your Hawaii trip! I'm so glad that you're home and can't wait to catch up this Sunday.

Kelly - Congrats on the purchase of your new home. I can't wait to see pictures once you're all settled in. BTW - I too dislike people who can't put their shopping carts away properly when done with them. That's up there on my top 10 pet peeve list along with missing expiration dates!

Roxanne - Looks like you had a great time at your convention. Seeing your pictures sure does bring back memories. Chicago is such a beautiful city but after living/working there for so long, you tend to take advantage of it's charm. It was so nice to see you while we were in Wisconsin...if only for a couple of hours.

Tonight the boys and I will be having dinner with Mimi while daddy starts back up his 12-15 hour days. I did most of our laundry while in Wisconsin so only need to put things away tonight. I think it will be an early night to bed for me and the boys. Sometime during the next couple of weeks I'll get around to editing the 300+ photos I took during our trip. I'll also post more tomorrow on what we all did during our 9 days away from home.

Now it's time to process payroll. Nothing like coming back after a week of vacation, only to process payroll (start to finish) in one day. I didn't get the prep work done before I left like I wanted to so today will be a little stressful.

In 24 Hours

We will be boarding a plane heading to Wisconsin.


I'm trying to get past the millions of things that I still need to accomplish today, both at work and at home, before we leave. If I think about it too long, my head starts to throb. I work better when I'm in denial...I'm going to get it all done and it's going to be easy. See? Better already.

I miss Jason. He's been working 16 hour days this week. This couldn't be a worse time for him to take vacation, but he's trying not to dwell on all of the things that will fall through the cracks next week. Instead he's doing his best to prepare.

OMG! I just got a phone call from my friend Nikki (Ayden's Godmother) who I wasn't supposed to see until Friday night up at my dad's cottage. Her work schedule changed so that now she's going to be there Wednesday night! Two more days with her makes me sooooo happy!!! Unfortunately, her husband J (Ayden's Godfather) still can't make it until Friday night. But being the selfish person I am, I'm still excited to have more time with Nikki:)

Okay, I seriously have to run. I'm hoping to get out of here early so I can get a head start on things at home.

Tootles!

Bad Night/Good Night

Tuesday night was horrible! Ayden feel asleep at 6:30pm after running around Marguerite's with his partner in crime, Wyatt. This is never a good situation because he'll wake up around 2am wondering if it's time to get up.

So....first Jameson woke up at 11:30 wanting to crawl into bed with us. Absolutely not! I finally decided to put my foot down and get that child out of our bed. I took him back to his own bed and laid down with him until he fell back asleep. Ayden crept in at 1:30am wanting to know if it was time to get up. Absolutely not! I marched him back to his bed and promised to wake him up after my shower. Both of the boys made an appearance at 3am and they were both taken back to their own beds. Then at 5am as I'm about to hop in the shower, Jameson poked his head into the bathroom. Desperately needing to get ready for the day, I took him out to the living room and turned on Scooby Doo. I was pathetically tired all day yesterday.

Wednesday night was great! We had a nice dinner with Mimi and went home for bath time. I put both boys to bed promptly at 8:30. It wasn't until 2:30am that Jameson made his first...and only appearance. I decided to stay firm and walked him back to his own bed. I didn't see him again until I woke up both boys at 6am! I'm not sure if this was just pure luck or if this will be the new trend. Hopefully we're on our way to Jameson sleeping the night in his own bed.

Bunny's Birthday Bash

Last week Tuesday was my bunny's birthday. He's getting so old! 34...one more year until 35! I swear he's getting more handsome as time goes by. I'm a little partial though. And then there's all the sweet moments between my bunny and his boys. It makes me fall in love with him again every time! I'm so proud of the man Jason has become, especially since moving to Georgia. As great as my bunny is, he is still the only person who can make me madder than mad in mere seconds. I think he enjoys getting under my skin every once in a while.

So to celebrate my wonderful husband's big day, the boys and I made a nice spaghetti dinner and I bought a yummy chocolate cake/cheesecake. Mimi even stopped by after work to join in the festivities. Unfortunately, when I opened the truck door to get the groceries out, the cake fell upside down on the garage floor. Go figure. I picked it up immediately and decided it still looked edible. Jason already received his birthday gift in June when mom, Peter, dad, Mary Joy and I flew him to Wisconsin for his best friends birthday bash.

Note: I thought I should mention that when the cake fell to the ground, it was still in it's container. Mom was concerned about that detail:)

One slightly squashed cake

Jameson didn't like that the attention was focused away from him, so he became a little difficult

If there's cake, Ayden is a happy camper

Getting Ready for Vacation

I spent all day in a Strategic Payroll Practices class and I'll be there again tomorrow. Fun times I tell you. Wednesday through Thursday will be spent prepping my payroll so that when I get back on the 28th, I can transmit on schedule.

My nights are equally busy. Right now I'm getting the house clean so that our puppy sitter isn't frightened of the toilet bowl monsters. I should seriously go on vacation more often...our house hasn't been this clean since April! Wednesday night I'll do all the final laundry and Thursday I'll start packing. Traveling with children is such a production. You have to be prepared for everything...at least I try to be. I probably prepare for the 2 hour flight more than anything. The DVD player needs to be charged, movies/books/toys packed and plenty of snacks on hand. 2 hours may not seem long to the average person, but when you're confined on an airplane with 2 little boys anything can happen. And let's not even go into the unpredictable upwoods weather in Wisconsin. Along with short and T-shirts, we have to pack jeans, longs leaves and a sweatshirt. My to-be-packed list is about a mile long!

Poor Jason has 4 Chick-fil-A panels that have to be shipped out on Friday so he's working some serious overtime this week. He'll definitely be ready for vacation come Saturday! I know he feels terrible that I'm stuck with all the preparations, but it's actually easier to do it on my own.

And because no blog post is complete if we don't make mention of the sweet little bundle of joy growing in my tummy, let's talk about what's going on this week.

Week #17: Don't be too shocked but... your baby is EVEN bigger than it was last week, not to mention getting cuter, and smarter every day! As you’ve come to expect, there’s no shortage of growth and development this week: your fantastic little bean stalk has added yet another half inch to their overall height-- making them nearly half a foot long! Their little limbs have reached (or are within one week of) their relative proportions, and will continue to grow evenly with the rest of the body after this week. Reactive listening has begun for your baby, even though their ears are not yet structurally complete or fully functional. Meanwhile, different parts of their astonishingly complex brain are developing to process your little one’s hearing and other senses, (you know, sight, smell, taste and touch). Mind boggling factoid of the week: if you’re having going to have a little girl, her ovaries have already produced millions of primordial egg cells, which, within a few weeks, will develop into actual eggs! Phew… just wait till she’s a teenager eh?

And it's not engraved in stone just yet, but don't be surprised if this little girl's name happens to be Ava Marie Payne. I was hoping to come up with a list of 5 names that we could agree on for a blog poll, but Jason doesn't like any other name. Besides we both love Ava and unless something else spectacular comes around, I'm pretty sure we'll stick with it.

4th of July

I know I already recapped the 4th, but I just got around to downloading the pictures I took last night.

I really wanted to take lots of pictures on the 4th but fate was working against me. We packed up every thing we'd need for the day including my potato salad and flag cake and headed over to the parental's. When I got my camera out, I realized that I had left the memory card in the computer. Duh! Being the fabulous husband Jason is, he went home to get it for me. After about 20 pictures, I realized my battery light was blinking. Being a relatively new camera that has an awesome battery that can last for months, I hadn't bought a second battery yet and also didn't think of bringing the camera bag with the charger. So once again, my bunny set off for home to get my charger. By the time he got back I was annoyed with picture taking so left the rest of the day up to my mom.

Here's a lesson in how to properly dunk your child under a waterfall.

1. Submerge child in water

2. Remove child from water only to refill lungs.

3. Wait for the giggle letting you know that child is not scared out of it's mind.

4. Submerge in water again. Torturing your child can be very rewarding.

5. Submerge yourself to show child that you're only playing and not seriously trying to drown him/her.

Click here for more pictures of the 4th. Ayden, Mimi and Bumpa had a water gun fight and then while the boys were napping, mom and I snapped some nature pictures. Ayden was difficult to photograph because his yellow floaty kept getting in the way.

Ultrasound 16 Weeks

Introducing....Baby Bean #3! She a little shy. During ultrasounds she likes to curl her legs up to her chest with her feet floating above. Here you can see a foot above her face.It's almost like she knows we're looking at her and she's trying to cover up. Now the boys both had their legs spread wide open like they were saying "Woo Hoo! Look what I've got!!!". Typical boys. Here's our sweet baby giving us a nice profile shot.
I saw my OBGYN this morning and she said everything is still looking good. I only gained one pound from last month so I'm feeling pretty good about my weight. Now that I'm starting to feel better, I'll be heading to the gym more often. Well, that's about it for now. Jason and I will work on those names this week and hopefully get the poll up by the weekend.

Ayden's take on the situation

I couldn't wait to pick up the boys and tell Ayden that he was going to have a sister! Because he had just woken up from a nap (he doesn't wake up well), I wasn't exactly greeted with the enthusiasm that I had been expecting. So on our way to get an emission test (one of the downfalls of living in Georgia...emission tests and ad valorum tax), I asked him again....

Me: Ayden! So aren't you super excited that you're going to have a sister?

Ayden: Yes, but of course now I ONLY have a sister.

Me: (not entirely sure what he meant) But Ayden you have a brother too. We're going to keep Jameson.

Ayden: Awwwwwww!

Me: Now you'll have a brother and a sister (said with probably too much enthusiasm).

Ayden: But I thought brother just go away now.

Hmmm. Apparently Jameson grates on his nerves more than I thought. And here I thought they did so well together!

My mom is going to try and scan our latest ultrasound pictures in with her home scanner. Hopefully they turn out better than the attempts at work!

We're having a.....

GIRL! Even though both the ultrasound tech and Dr. Korotkin confirmed that we're having a girl, I'm still skeptical. Not that I doubt either one of them, but I seriously didn't think Jason had anything in him but boys! Can you really believe that we're going to have a little girl??? Right now she's 5 inches long and weighs 5.6 oz. Part of me hopes she's a chunky monkey like her big brother Ayden:)

As of right now Jason is having a nervous breakdown, my mom and MIL are both bawling their eyes out and I'm walking around in a daze. Ayden is going to be sooooo excited that he's having a little sister. He's been very adamant about not wanting another brother. I think Jameson terrorizes him enough and he's thinking a sister will leave him alone. I also think he's in for a rude awakening...

So to have a bit of fun, I've decided to put a name poll on our blog. Jason and I will choose 4-5 names that we like and see which one you all like best. I can't promise which name we'll choose for sure, but I think it will be very helpful to see what the majority (all 6 of you) picks.

Let's not forget our weekly progress report either. Here's what's going on during week 16!

Over the past three weeks your astounding growing baby has managed to stretch yet another 2 full inches (totaling about 4.5 inches) and weighs around 3.5 ounces. Yessireee, that’s some pretty serious growth... and with it comes several physical developments! For starters, their head to body ratio is finally starting to even out a bit as the rest of the body is actually growing faster than the head at this point. Yes, your little light bulb is not so top-heavy. Their adorable little limbs have lengthened, almost reaching their normal proportions which they will have at birth. Their eyes are still closed but moving and if you had an ultrasound, which many doctors recommend you have at about this time, you may even see your little one sucking on a thumb, not to mention the necessary signifiers to let you know whether you’ve got a wee lad or lassie.

NOTE: I added a link to the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser in my last post. They seriously make me sooooo happy!

Sooooo Nervous!

I wasn't this nervous the day of my wedding. I wasn't even this nervous when I gave birth for the first time! I can't remember ever being this nervous!!! But here I am, practically shaking in my chair, staring at the clock on my computer. At 10:30am I'm leaving work for my next ultrasound. Today's the day that we'll probably find out the sex of our baby. Now I say probably because there's certainly no guarantee that Bean will be in the perfect position today. I'm sure it seems crazy that I would be so nervous since this is our third baby, but this one is different. It's our last. And we already have two boys. Not that the sex of this baby truly matters...just as long as he/she comes out nice and healthy. Okay, so a large part of me is praying for a little girl but after having two boys...who wouldn't?

So to keep my mind off of all the excitement, I thought I'd recap some of the highlights from this past weekend.

• I fell in love with the magic eraser early Friday morning while washing our kitchen floor. I doubted it's power for so long! Then mom gave me one to try out and I don't know how I ever lived without it. The magic eraser has seriously changed my entire life.
• A full day a the pool on Friday was just what the doctor ordered. There was lots of swimming, eating, relaxing and laughing...a truly perfect day.
• Ayden spent Friday night and all day Saturday with Mimi and Bump. Jason was gone all day riding his 4wheeler. So it was just me and Jameson fending for ourselves. At first I was lonely. But then I adapted and had a great time just hanging with my little goober. I forgot what it's like to only focus on one child!
• Yesterday we woke up early and took the boys to IHOP for breakfast. I was still riding the high from my magic eraser experience and nothing was going to ruin my sunny outlook on life. The boys played outside, we all took a nap, and I finished every last speck of laundry. I even hauled out the ironing board and ironed enough to last me the entire week. Jason rewarded my Suzy Homemaker attitude with an Oreo Blizzard.

Now I'm just nervous. Sitting at my desk in freshly laundered and perfectly ironed black capris and a peasant styled top, I am so freakin nervous. I'm not sure if it's because I'm scared this baby is going to show up on the ultrasound screen with a penis or if it's because this is my final time experiencing all of this.

Anyhoo. I sure hope ya'll had a great holiday weekend!!! I'm sure I'll post again later to let everyone know the outcome of this ultrasound:)

Wasting Time

orange soda

left over potato skins loaded with cheese and bacon

carrots/celery with blue cheese dressing

Does this make for a healthy lunch? Hey, I skipped the sour cream on the potato skins! I just killed myself at body blast class so I figure I can indulge. Not like I haven't been indulging the entire past 3 months...whether I worked out or not.

I'm bored. I keep waiting for someone to tell us we can go home for the day. We normally get let out early the day before a holiday. I think that all of the people who are allowed to make that decision have already left...little buggers. I was hoping to get to the grocery store before I had to pick up the boys. So I can make this...

and this...

for tomorrow's festivities. Looks pretty good, huh? I've made the flag cake numerous times since finding the recipe in a "Kraft" cookbook. It seems to always be a huge hit. As for the potato salad, I haven't really tweaked that one yet. It's not nearly as good as my mother-in-law's, but I do what I can. Other things on the menu? Green olive burgers and grilled corn on the cob. The olive burgers are doughboy's specialty but ever since he killed them with too much worcheshire sauce, I've taken over. I'll pay more attention to how we make these deliciously yummy burgers this weekend so I can post the recipe. Normally we just dump stuff in.

I guess I can't keep blogging my day away so I'd better find something to keep me occupied until I can finally go home.

Happy 4th!

Oh my goodness! I'm really looking forward to a nice 3 day weekend with my family. Tomorrow is our annual pool day at the parental's. Lots of swimming, sun, good food and laughs. I promise to take tons of pictures!

Ayden is finally ready to spend the night with Mimi & Bumpa as well. He wanted to spend the night last weekend, but the timing wasn't great. So he's been counting down the "sleeps" all week until he can finally spend the night with them. This morning Ayden came into the living room with one finger raised and said "Mommy! Only one more sleep until I go to Mimi's!!". He's so excited and his little face this morning was simply precious. The other day he was a little upset that Jameson would be left out of the sleepover, but once I explained that Jameson wasn't ready for such "big boy" activities you could practically see his chest puff out with pride.

Other than that, we don't have any other plans for the weekend. We may attempt to see the fireworks, but that will all depend on how long the boys nap tomorrow. I'll pick up some sparklers tonight so that we'll have something on hand if the big fireworks are out of the question.

I sure hope ya'll have a happy and safe 4th of July!!!

Next Ultrasound

Well....my next appointment with Dr. Korotkin was supposed to be on the 14th. Obviously my head is not functioning properly because I have an APA class on the 14th and 15th that I can not miss. I need all of the help I can get before I take the CPP exam in September! So, I called my doctor's office to see if they possibly had any open appointments for the 7th. Dr. Korotkin is next to impossible to get in with because he's only at the Piedmont location on Monday's. As luck would have it, the phone call just before me was a lady having to cancel her appointment at 11am on the 7th!

So with any luck, the umbilical cord is no longer sitting between Baby Bean's legs and we'll know the sex of this baby on Monday!!!!!

Week #15

I know...2 posts in 1 day is quite an accomplishment for me:) Thought I'd quickly share what's going on with Baby Bean this week!

Your nearly four-inch long gymnast is happily mobile inside your womb and if you're really lucky, you’ll notice a point when your sneezing, coughing or laughing results in a little kick here or a poke there. Still, many women don't feel anything until the 17th week or later. Although the poking and kicking isn't very charming during sleeping hours, it’s a good sign as it means your baby is actually reacting to outside events. Yay! You’ve got yourself one active healthy baby! Their little elbows and knees are bending more freely this week and their little legs are finally growing longer than their arms and getting pumped up for prenatal Richard Simmons. Many of their major organ systems are increasing in capacity—particularly that amazing tiny heart and complex circulation system, which is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood per day, and will increase to a very impressive 200 quarts per day by the end of the pregnancy. As far as hair goes, we’ve got some new scalp patterns beginning to develop on the head, although actual head hair is not yet present.

Family Time

So even though yesterday was Monday, I just didn't want the good times from the weekend to end. I got this great idea while at work that I would stop off at the grocery store to pick up fruit, chips/dip and sandwich stuff. I was thinking a picnic outside, some sprinkler time and then a popsicle to finish off the day. Well, I forgot that we had gotten hurricane force storms the night before so a picnic outside was sort of out of the question and then by the time I got home I wasn't feeling well (as usual) and didn't really want to eat anything. So we had a picnic on our living room floor and then headed outside. The boys love their Sponge Bob sprinkler! Jameson had a fit when daddy turned off the water, but was more than happy to join us on the deck when I threatened to eat his popsicle...sucker!


So did you notice that my pictures are all in focus? Maybe that's because I was using my BRAND NEW LENS...oh, happy times!