19 weeks

19 weeks & next week is our sonogram....yay!! All continues to go well although sleeping on my side causes it to fall asleep & hurt so I do a lot of flipping. I slept elevated, almost sitting, for a few hours last night so that may mean out comes the snoogle (like I had to for Eli)!

I feel our little one move more & more these days....little butterfly movements. Eli talks to baby daily & according to babycenter, baby may be able to hear our voices. I read somewhere that a sibling talked so much to baby in utero that once baby arrived, the sibling's voice was very soothing & would help quiet baby when upset....how cute!

Fun 19 week fact: baby's sensory development is exploding with the brain designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

Here's what I wrote at 19 weeks in utero for Eli.

I am buying some of the little things for Eli's room & will soon being rearranging his & baby's room. Once we find out baby's gender, we will paint a stripe on the already brown walls to "match" Eli's stipe on his wall. If a girl, a green stripe, & a boy, a blue stripe. That way we won't have to repaint the whole room & their rooms can have something similar. I love Eli's new room colors/theme (orange, navy, light blue, chocolate brown; transportation) & I know he'll love it too! While baby will be with us in our room for quite awhile, I like giving each their "own" space. We'll put baby's name on the wall like in Eli's room & start displaying the little memories we collect such as pictures & precious gifts. Plus baby will nap in crib eventually....& if like Eli, will enjoy playing in crib & watching the mobile! I also like the idea of using the same nursery decor/bedding & giving Eli's room a "big boy" look with more of a kid friendly play room, too. Don't you worry, I will be sure to post pictures of our newly organized house when completed!

Have a great week!

Fun in the snow!

While I still wouldn't qualify our snow storm as a "blizzard", in the end, we got about 6-9 inches of snow over a 3 day period, the most we've had in several winters! Eli's been in the snow, but just not this much or for too long. So, I asked Eric to go with us outside and here is the result:

I made fun of Eric because he got all excited & got all his old ski gear out...goggles & all :)
Eli at first wasn't too excited. He stuck by the car for awhile seemingly overwhelmed by the deep snow:

Then daddy picked him up & tried to help him do a snow angel....not a favorite for Eli yet:

Eli's saying: "Hold you!" when in the deep snow:

Then I said, "Let's build Frosty, Eli!" & Eric started to put together our snowman. Eli decided about 5 minutes later to help:

Oh, & eat some snow in the process:

Eli then decided to "mow" the snow:

Fun in the snow!

Christmas 2009

Christmas was spent at home this year...not because of the weather...but because it's what we had planned on doing! With my sisters spending Christmas with their in-laws & Eric's parents out of town, we decided to stay home this year & make the trip to Iowa over New Years. We did have a so-called blizzard Christmas Eve night (5-6 inches of snow & wind) so it was nice to not have to get out.

Christmas Eve started with a few activities I had planned for us. Because I had a hard time finding an ornament to represent this pregnancy, we made a few salt dough ornaments that included a "Baby 2009" one & Eli's first handprint. Here is Eli helping me with rolling the dough which he wanted to eat SO badly:

And the results....simple but hey, it was our first attempt!:

Eli isn't too cooperative with crafts that are more than 1-2 simple steps. Not because he can't do them, it's more of a patience & "I want to do it MY way" thing. So, I came up with a few crafts that he could do whatever he wanted! Decorating his Christmas tree:

Putting "snow" on his snowman....he is slightly obsessed with glue these days:

Making a mitten ornament:

And a good ol' favorite....stickers:

And the results!:

I made lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner which turned out yummy! I also made a Peppermint Chocolate Pie for Christmas day. SOO yummy! After dinner, Eli enjoyed the fire with his buddies:

A tradition we started last year was buying Eli Christmas p.j.'s. I was too late this year to find a good selection in his size but found these cute ones. Sadly, they were a little big in the feet so he only wore them for about 5 minutes as they drove him crazy...maybe next year??:

Watching some Christmas cartoon on Christmas Eve while eating a candy cane! Eli has a thing for peppermint these days as he loves candy canes, tic tacs, & toothpaste:

Another tradition is to open one present before bed on Christmas Eve. Eli opened a fun shake car that he really enjoys shaking & zooming on the kitchen floor:

Yet another tradition is to read "The Night Before Christmas". We started doing this for Eli's 1st Christmas when he was only 4 months old! Last year he was able to sit and listen to part of the story at least but this year, here is how he listened:

We talked a lot about Santa bringing presents while he slept & how he needed cookies & milk. This kinda backfired on us because he really was excited to see Santa & did NOT want to go to sleep. He finally fell asleep around 10pm after multiple attempts:

While asleep, we wrapped his gifts & stuffed his stocking. In the morning he was excited to open presents so it was hard to wait for Uncle Blake, Cousin Sammie & Grandma Bidney to arrive. Due to the snow, they didn't arrive until 10:30am so Eli couldn't wait & started to open a gift under the tree while we were in the kitchen. So, he got to open these fun blocks which helped entertain him until everyone arrived:

And the gift opening begins! Eli showing Uncle Blake a TAG Leapfrog book he got:

Clothes....

Giving Sammie her gift cards:

Oooo....fun automoblocks!:

Eli also got his new comforter/sheets set for his soon-to-be "big boy" room. Grandma Bidney & Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson (thanks grandparents!) are helping purchase a few more items for his room such as a bean bag, more toy bins, lamp, etc. I look forward to reorganizing pretty much our whole house to make rooms more organized & "user friendly" for Eli's toys. Plus making room for baby stuff again!

Playing with the automoblocks with Uncle Blake after a yummy BBQ lunch:

Playing with his new lacing blocks with cousin Sammie:

Awww....cuddle time:

Close up of the automoblocks & wooden trains:

Pretending to nap with mommy:

And before bed tonight, Eli watched "Frosty the Snowman". He's watched it several times in the last few days:

We look forward to visiting with the Iowa gang next weekend! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

18 weeks for baby!

18 weeks....closer & closer to 20....the halfway mark!
Feeling really good but get tired more quickly (like after walking around Union Station & Crown Center!). I am also trying to teach Eli to be more independent about crawling in & out of his car seat for my sake! He also likes to be carried & held certain times & soon that, too, will be hard. Have to teach the older one to be more independent so they aren't shocked when baby comes but still giving plenty of love....hard to balance! I've heard it's also hard not to feel guilty when baby comes about not being able to give all your attention to the older one. Times are a-changin'!! Here's what I posted at 18 weeks for Eli.

Fun 18 week fact:
Baby's ears are in position & now stand out from his/her head!

Belly pic! 18 week belly pic from Eli here.

18 weeks

More Christmas activities

This weekend we attended a few more Christmas activities. It's wonderful how many fun FREE activities there are to do around here....as you'll see!

Saturday, while daddy was at a movie (Avatar, supposedly the most AWESOME movie ever according to Eric), Eli & I attended "Somersault with Santa" at the Gage Center. They provided a craft (which Eli quickly bypassed), obstacle course, MASSIVE blow up slide & of course, Santa! The Gage Center is a gymnastics studio so the obstacle course was made up of mats, swings, balance beams, & slides:

See the big, tall slide? See ALL the kids climbing up the left side in a huge mob?? Well, Eli had no fear climbing up with all the kids, big & small, & slid down so fast I couldn't even get a picture taken. He liked it so much he immediately ran over to do it again. This time, though, there were more big kids who were making the whole slide (it was a blow up slide) bounce & shake. I literally lost track of him amongst all the kids & finally saw him at the top crying & calling my name. I tried to encourage him to slide down (the quickest way off the darn thing) but I don't think he could see or hear me so he climbed the wrong way down the ladder side crying the whole way. Poor guy:

I then thought maybe seeing a nice friendly Santa would help him feel better. But, as with Santa #1, he wanted nothing to do with the guy. He did enjoy the candy cane he was given, though:

Spur of the moment, we decided to take Eli to Union Station to see the model trains. He really enjoyed this:

We then checked out the line to the "Holiday Train", a train with 6-7 cars decorated inside for kids to venture through, & of course, see Santa. The lead train was a "Thomas-like" train with a face. Unfortunately, the wait was an HOUR so we decided to try again next year. We didn't tell Eli about this so thankfully he wasn't disappointed. Next we ventured to Crown Center to see all the decorations:

...and brave the cold weather to play in the wooden cars/trains:

This morning we went 45 minutes early to Bass Pro to wait in line for Santa. We went last year & were impressed by their Santa (VERY real looking) AND the free 5x7 photograph! What is nice, too, is everything in Bass Pro is exciting for a 2 year old so they are easily entertained during the wait. Here is Eli watching a boy play with a remote controlled truck:

Another train set!:

Well, we can pretty much sum up this year as "I want nothing to do with Santa" for Mr. Eli. Try #3 resulted in the same:

This Santa has obviously been doing this awhile as he was very gentle with Eli & even said I should sit in his chair & he would stand next to us for our picture. See how Santa is holding his finger to his mouth? Too cute:

And of course, Eli finally cracked a smile when Santa offered him a candy cane:

Also last year we took pictures of Eli exploring the Christmas tree:

Here's how Eli felt after getting in the car to leave....I think he is DONE with Santa this year, don't you?:

We'll be spending Christmas home this year. Christmas Eve will be just the 3 (or 4, with baby :) of us & Christmas Day some family will join us. I'm sure I'll post several times about the festivities. Oh, & tomorrow because it will be 18 weeks for this little one twitching around inside me as I type :)