The Twins' Supertrack

This morning Joseph told me he needed help building a track. I got in there to see the layout he's picked out is the most complex one in his book of tracks. But, we got it done (with a little creativity), and we even added a few things, just for kicks. Emma also helped and was instrumental in the "ambiance," including the farm and the port.

Longer Than Last Time

We're at 36 weeks + 4 days, which is 2 more days than we made it with the twins. Uncharted territory! Also, Zoe's arrival does not seem imminent, according to the doc today, so we might actually make the scheduled appearance of Sept. 26. Zoe is already considered to be "full term" and all her organs, etc, are ready to go. She gets some crucial development of her immune system during the next few weeks, so hopefully she will be less likely than the twins to catch all the bugs going around in the fall and winter.

Her room is mostly complete. Some pictures need to be put up on the wall, and a few other minor things, but the big stuff is all done. We don't yet have curtains for the French doors into her room, but that's not absolutely required (until it IS).

We just got her beautiful new stroller and car seat in yesterday. It's very pretty, and it's a jogger, so we can resume those walks in the neighborhood once she's up for it.

Just 18 days to go!

No News is Good News

This time around the blog is so much more boring than last time. No emergency room visits, very minor complications, VERY few ultrasound pictures. None of this, of course, is any reason to complain. We always wanted to have free babies with relatively uncomplicated pregnancies, so we're finally getting it. We were just talking recently how, at this point in the last pregnancy, Sarah was coming home from a hospital stay of almost a month, during which they had to actively keep her from going into full-blown labor. This time around she's uncomfortable and tired, but we'll take that over all the drugs and boredom of the hospital every time.

On the home front, my office has been 75% converted to Zoe's room. The French doors were installed by my great friend, Jonathan (with my unskilled labor assisting), and look fantastic, but I still need to paint them. All of my stuff is out of there (thanks, Jared!) and all of her stuff is in, but it's just not quite a finished work. Clothes need to be organized and put into drawers, boxes of diapers discretely stacked in a corner, and the all important swing set up and ready for sleepytime. We'll have to put some more baby stuff on the walls, too. I'm not sure if she'll be in to impressionist oil-on-canvas still-life (I know her mommy isn't, that's why it was in my office in the first place).

Sarah will have her cousin Laura here for the shower this weekend, given by my sister-in-law, so that will be fun. Jared and I will need to take the kids to GranJan's for some pool time, methinks. After the shower we'll have a better idea of what's missing from the list so we can fill in the necessities. Thankfully, we found a bin of baby clothes we've been saving so we really haven't had to buy much in that department.

One thing that's funny is that we don't really have a good single stroller. We have a really great double stroller, but I don't think Zoe will need that much space. The one we registered for is also a jogging stroller, so hopefully we can use it for that once the weather gets a bit more temperate. We were just starting to enjoy our walks around the neighborhood with the kids in our double jogging-stroller (thanks Jess!) before it got too hot to continue. Hopefully Zoe will enjoy (or sleep during!) our 2-mile constitutionals in the evening.

Registries, Since People Are Asking

Amazon

Target

Zoe's Amazon Wish List

Now We Know Which Bins of Clothes to Keep

We had the 20-week appointment today. The bleed which was present early on in the pregnancy (2 months ago) is completely gone, so it appears the month of modified bed rest did some good. We have quite an active little baby who did not want to sit still for ultrasound pictures. Sarah pushed on her belly a bit to get a better look (much easier to do with one kid than two). After a couple minutes of looking, we discovered that we're going to have another girl. JoeJoe and I will be outnumbered! I hadn't spent any time thinking of names for either gender this time around (although Sarah has) because I just couldn't see the point of working to come up with names if half of them weren't necessary. So now I'll have to engage that part of my brain again. We are, of course, very excited, and I think a roommate for Emma might be a good thing. She needs someone to benefit from all her knowledge, after all.

(Sarah has the ultrasound pics so I'll upload them once she gets them scanned.)

But Daddy's Big?

The other night, Sarah and I were finishing up dinner and the kids around the house playing. From the living room, where JoeJoe is playing with his trains, we hear, in soto voce,

"What
...
The
...
...
HECK
...
...
Is
...
That?!"

I immediately start to snigger. Sarah looks up, perplexed, as Emma runs by the dining room, whispering huskily, "What the heck is that?! What the heck is that?!"

I am approaching tears at this point, with my face in my hands, as Sarah calls the kids to "Come talk to Mommy, RIGHT NOW."

"'What the heck' is bad," she tells them.

JoeJoe responds, "'What the heck' is not bad," somehow stretching the last word into two syllables.

I'm still about to explode with laughter as Sarah tries to maintain her composure and tells them that "When you're little, 'What the heck' is bad."

JoeJoe's response, "But Daddy is not little. Daddy is big."

The economic and emotional reasons to have more kids | Marketplace From American Public Media

The economic and emotional reasons to have more kids | Marketplace From American Public Media

Reverse Spring Break

We took a road trip up to Ohio and Chicago in early March. We'd not been been to Ohio since 2003 (I think) and not to Chicago since May of 2009. It's a LONG way to go with two 3-year-olds, and it's unlikely we'll drive again. It might be a bit more expensive to fly, but the time, oy vey, the time.

We got to see some snow up in Ohio.


The kids especially loved throwing snow balls at Sarah through the glass.


While in Chicago we visited almost all our family up that way. We also took the kids to Shedd Aquarium, where they really liked the penguins.


Some quick thoughts about driving to places 16 hours away:

- JoeJoe doesn't stop talking, except when he's asleep. At one point Sarah told me she was going to sleep for a while. I lamented, "Oh, no! Now he's going to talk to ME the whole time!" It should be noted that this was about 6+ hours into the drive. For the next 20 minutes he must have asked me at least 20 questions. Sarah woke up and told him he didn't have to talk the whole time. He replied, "But I LIKE a-talk."

- "How To Train Your Dragon" sounds like a good movie. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard it four or five times. The in-car DVD player was a MUST on this trip.

- The kids LOVE "Despicable Me." JoeJoe even picked up some dance moves. Well, ONE dance move, anyway...

- It's probably not the best idea to promise two kids with tubes in their ears that they can swim at the hotel. Both ended up with raging ear infections; Emma's was the worst she's ever had.

- Whoever made those LeapFrog DVDs understands what kids like. They watched two in particular five times. IN A ROW. EACH.

- You can't always trust the signs on the interstate. We got mislead twice before we made it out of Chicago on the way home. Frustration.

- Culver's has expanded! You can now get a Butter Burger in Bowling Green, KY. I think JoeJoe really likes them, because he took down an entire burger with no fuss, no leftovers. I can't say he's wrong.

Week 12 Update

We're past 12 weeks, now, into week 13, the last of the first trimester. Hopefully, the morning sickness will pull back a bit soon.

The baby is very active and looking good. We are, however, experiencing a subchorionic hemorrhage. This isn't anything we haven't been through before, but we were kinda hoping for a "boring" pregnancy this time around. But, there has been no bleeding, and we're praying we avoid all the ER visits this time around. Sarah's been on "whenever possible" bed-rest status for a month, already, and it looks like she's in for another one. It'd be nice for things to clear up soon so we can get back to being a little more social and active. Until then, we rest up for baby.

(Oh, lest I forget, Sarah's got an ultrasound photo which I'll try to post in the next couple of days.)

Knock-Knock!