70%

As of last Thursday i am 70% effaced! Dr seems to think this baby is coming much sooner then October 7th! I hope he is right! Ironically i feel very comfortable these past few days. My cesarean scar doesn't pull anymore and i just feel...sort of...content? I have another appointment tomorrow, so i will keep you posted after that.

Como Zoo = practically free Labor day of FUN!

Yesterday we went to the Como Zoo to celebrate Labor day. I have not been there in years, and boy have things changed since the last time i was there. The weather was so nice and cool, and even braved walking around while it was sprinkling a few times.
We started off at the Conservatory looking at all of the plants and flowers. Asa even threw a few coins into the fountain.

We went out to the main zoo area and took a picture of Asa with the famous Como Zoo turtle. Right as dad was snapping the picture a duck crapped on his head! It was hilarious! We were both upset after the fact that we didn't get a picture of the crap on his head.

Adam got one of these guys below to become pretty fascinated with his watch. He would hold it to the glass and the little monkey would try to reach out and grab it.

The baby orangutan was definitely a highlight! It was so cute and was constantly playing/messing with dad.

At the end of the trip we took Asa on his first carousel ride. He was SUPER freaked out at first, and then he fell asleep by the rides end.

All in all it was a GREAT trip to the Como Zoo!!

Wedding weekend

This weekend we had our dear friends Brandon and Kim's wedding. Adam was one of the groomsmen, so we spent Friday night at the rehearsal and then grooms dinner, and then Saturday night was the wedding. We had SUCH a good time. The wedding was outdoors and the weather was a perfect cool on Saturday, and then the reception was just a walk away in the Carlson Towers. Dinner was amazing, and we got to spend time with some of our great friends there as well. My brother Joey was also an usher in the wedding. I was definitely exhausted by the end of the night, and my heels made my feet hurt. (just can't bring myself to wear flats...)

Smarty Pants

Asa has become such a smarty pants...

Example #1: when it is time for me to put his pajamas on for bedtime, i look at Asa and say "Should we go put your jammies on...?" He immediately walks into his room and stands right in front of the changing table pointing up, ready for me to put his jammies on.

Example #2: when Asa becomes a little fussy, and i know it is because he is hungry, i look at him and ask "Do you want a snack?" He walks right over to his high chair and reaches up ready to be picked up and put in the chair.

Example #3: Asa knows how to push buttons, but in a way that instead of being mad i have to flat out LAUGH. Last night when i was giving him a bath we were working on our battle of sitting in the tub. Asa likes to stand in the tub, and then when i say butt down he drops down to his butt as forcefully as he can. Sometimes he slips a bit, and has bonked his head on the side of the tub. I usually hold his upper arm when he stands to help ease the forcefulness of his drop to his butt. He has come to think that this is fun, and when he stands, he looks at me, laughs and then waits for me to say 'butt down'. (Any tips on how to break this habit would be greatly appreciated). Sometimes i get upset, knowing that he could crack his chin/head on the tub, but looking at how entertained he is makes me chuckle inside. Anyways, yesterday, he decided it would be fun to fill the cup that we give him in the tub with water and throw it out of the tub. He has never actually thrown it OUT of the tub before. After he threw it out and the floor was soaked, i picked the cup up and told him 'no, the cup stays in the tub'. I cleaned up the mess, and he picked the cup up again, FULL, and threw it right at me. I was SOAKED! I looked at him ready to give him another angry lecture on why cups stay in the tub, and he had this ridiculous grin on his face like he had just done the most hilarious thing ever. I stared to crack up, and we both laughed for quite a while.

That stinker...i just can't stay mad at him...

35 WEEKS and LOTS TO UPDATE!!!!!

I finally spent some time tonight and downloaded a bunch of pictures from our Canon camera, along with our small Olympus camera that i carry in my purse when i don't want to carry the large Canon camera. Therefore i feel like I have LOTS to update on.

Here's where we are at as far as updates...
1) Asa's haircut
2) 33 35 week progress
3) Carolyn's Wedding
4) State Fair
5) New Car
6) Anniversary Weekend

A few weeks ago we took Asa to get his 1st haircut. We felt that his hair was looking a little hockey hair/mullet like.

Before Picture: (Taken while we were waiting for his haircut appointment)

After:

He did a really good job getting the cut! He was a little questionable about the process at first, however after eating some graham crackers and mom and dad blowing some bubbles his curiosity left him and he stopped paying attention to the lady cutting his hair, and more attention to us trying to entertain him.

This picture was taken on Monday, August 30th when i thought i was only 33 (almost 34 weeks along). I look a little crazy eyed...i was really tired, and trying to look really awake which explains the crazy eyes :) We had our Dr appointment today August 31st, and the checkup was routine. We have a wedding we are supposed to attend in Granite Falls, MN, which is about 3 hours away where my grandma lives on the 25th of September. We asked doc if we would be able to travel that weekend to which he responded 'no problem!' When he measured me and i was measuring 36 cm, which i know i explained in a previous post, is normal because it is only 3 cm off. I brought up to him that i was measuring 33 cm two weeks ago when i was only 31 weeks. (2 cm off). I told Dr that i had mentioned two weeks ago to my nurse practitioner that i was concerned about measuring off, and also having my original due date set at Oct 4th (based on my last period) and Oct 8th based on the 1st ultrasound. He took a few minutes and looked at all of his notes and calculations, and told me he was setting a new official due date of October 7th! This is 1 week earlier then my old date. He also told us we couldn't go to the wedding :( Bittersweet, as we have the ALS walk for Adam's dad that same weekend, but had committed to going to the wedding first. This way we will not only be able to raise money for the walk, but also WALK. Well, not sure how much walking i will do at 39 weeks. I might just be sitting at the start and then finish line (which are the same place basically) cheering the group on! So, although the picture above says 33 weeks, i am actually 35.

August 21st we had my dear friend Carolyn's wedding. What a FUN day we had. Adams mom agreed to watch Asa for the wedding. Here we are when we dropped him off at her house.

We had such a fun time! Here is a picture of me with a bunch of girls that i went to Bethel with :)

4 of the girls in this picture are pregnant! One with TWINS!!! Of the 5 babies in tummies, 3 of them are baby girls!

This picture for some reason wouldn't rotate for me, but this is my girl Carolyn! MARRIED!!!! Ahhh!

Last Friday, August 27th, Adam and i went to the State Fair. For those of you who don't know, Adam and I had our first date at the state fair 6 years ago! We had so much fun and ate SO much. I blame the 4 lbs i gained the last two weeks on the food i ate at the fair. We were there for 6 hours, and i think i was sitting every 15 minutes, we even found a nice grassy patch by the grandstand where i was able to stretch out in the grass and lay. We let Asa run a bit and Adam chased him so i could rest. That's a lot of sitting. Almost every time that we sat, we had some kind of food in our hands. This means a lot of eating took place. Here is a list of what i remember eating: corn dog, turkey leg, quesadilla, cinnamon rolls x2 on separate occasions, cheese curds, m&m shake, snow cone, and i think that is all. Also, an amazing part of the trip is that even though we were there for 6 hours, i didn't pee the entire time! I know! I don't get it either because i must have drank 4 bottles minimum of water. By the end of the day Asa was beat, but was such a trooper the whole time we were there!

Asa saw 5 day old piglets!

YUMMY turkey leg!

During our anniversary weekend August 27th, we purchased a NEW CAR!!! We decided to go with an SUV, although it was a tough choice between the SUV and Minivan. By tough i mean, it was tough to convince Adam to choose the SUV. After test driving, research, phone calls, and lots of negotiating, we bought a Chevy Traverse. WE LOVE IT! We dropped it off yesterday for them to put in a sunroof, DVD player and tow package. Adam is going to pick it up tomorrow morning. The below picture is NOT a good picture because it was taken in the garage, but i will try to post better pictures soon.

Then Saturday, August 28th we celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. (3 days after our anniversary). We went and stayed at the same hotel we stayed at when we were married and went to dinner at the Dancing Ganesha.

We had such a good time. We even ordered breakfast in bed and had a late checkout on Sunday! I was able to keep Adam in bed until about 12:30 pm! That NEVER happens when we have Asa. We got up at about 10 and walked across the street to Caribou, and then came back to the room and crawled back into bed. Dinner was awesome, and just having time alone with Adam was awesome. My parents took Asa for the night, and we LOVED how they sent us pictures of him throughout the night with updates. We missed the little monkey, but i guarantee he probably had more fun with them then he has most nights with us!  The next morning they dropped him off at our house and they had a present for us from Asa :) I know cute huh?

When he stayed with them they made a foot print and framed it for us!

And...they took his hand prints and made the card for the gift with them. We hung the card on his bedroom door.

I would have NEVER thought of this! How creative!! We LOVE IT!!!

So, that is a LOT of updating, but it needed to be done! We are SO blessed, and so thankful for all that has happened this summer! I think both Adam and i cannot wait for the weather to cool down a bit, and for the mosquitoes to GO AWAY! I feel like they have been just HORRIBLE this last week!

xxoo

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Today Adam and I celebrate our 3 year anniversary. And if you think we are going to celebrate together today, you are mistaken! I work from 9 - 3 and then Adam leaves for work from 3 - 9...haha. Yesterday he had 2 dozen roses delivered to the house when he was working. What a NICE suprise!

We are going to go to the hotel that we stayed at after our wedding this weekend (Millenium) and out to dinner as well. My parents have offered to keep Asa overnight Saturday night so we can celebrate. This will be my first full night away from Asa since he was born :( It will be nice to get away and spend some quality time with Adam, but we will both really miss him!

I have not posted prego pics in a while, and this one is a little dated, but thought i would post anyways. This is 3 weeks ago...

I will have to post an updated prego pic, as well as Asa's haircut picture! Yes, we got his 1st haircut on Friday. It looks SO cute! Here is a preview, but better pictures to come: (does he look tired or what!)

Day of Appointments!

Yesterday we had our day FILLED, and by filled i mean OVERLOADED with family appointments. The days schedule went as follows:

8:30 am Chloe Vet Appointment - Plymouth
9:40 am Adam Orthodontist Appointment - Maple Grove
Drop dogs back off at home
Adam change pants that Ana spilled coffee all over (oops)
11:00 am Adam Dentist Appointment - Maple Grove
Lunch at Dino's Gyro's
1:00 pm Ana Dr Appointment - Plymouth
2:00 pm Asa Dr Appointment - Maple Grove

WOW, could we pack any more appointments into one day?

So a recap of all of the appointments:

• Chloe has been getting some sores on her tummy which we found out were attributed to allergies (Dr thinks) so we got her some Prednisone which will hopefully do the trick.
• Adam's ortho and dentist appointment both were routine. No problems, no complications.
• My Dr appointment went well. Only gained 2 lbs this month which means total weight gain to date this pregnancy...17 lbs. Last time by this point it was 35 lbs...woah! My tummy is measuring at 33 centimeters. A little lesson i learned yesterday is that for every centimeter you measure from your pubic bone, to the top of your uterus is 1 week of pregnancy. I am supposed to be 32 weeks this Thursday. They allow 2 centimeters on either side of the actual amount of weeks based on your due date. So, as i said, i am supposed to be 32 weeks this Thursday, so i could measure anywhere from 30 cm to 34 cm and still be fairly accurate. They only use this as a guideline to make sure baby is growing at a steady pace. My Dr told me to be prepared to have the baby anywhere from October 4th to October 14th. They calculated my due date as October 4th based on the 1st day of my last period, and changed it to October 6th at my 8 week ultrasound. They changed it again to October 14th based on my 20 week ultrasound. Again, my Dr doesn't have a real exact date, so just told me to expect baby sometime the beginning of October. Nice...Adam and i talked last night and decided we are going to have everything ready and prepared by the 1st of October just in case. I have felt for about two months that this baby will be coming early...just like the feeling i got that Asa wasn't going to be delivered naturally, rather cesarean. Might be maternal instinct, but we will have to wait and see.
• Asa's Dr appointment. Went really well. All of his learning and development stats have him rated at a 15 month level. He weighs 22lbs 3 oz, (50%), length 33 1/2 inches (90%). I looked back at my baby book and when i was Asa's age i weighed 16 lbs. I was a little pip squeak! He had to get shots, which he was SUCH a trooper for! He cried for all of 10 seconds, i picked him up and he got hugs and kisses from mom and dad, and he completely stopped crying. WOW. Then we thought he would fall asleep in his car seat on the way home and we would put him down for a nap. As soon as we got home he was up and running all over the house. No nap for him last night. He just wanted to go nutz. This means he fell asleep at 6:45 for bedtime. We also started NO formula and just whole milk. We did it for his bedtime bottle last night and he took it like a champ. We are going to start weaning him off of the bottle slowly starting now as well. His morning bottle will be in a sippy cup, and will try to to the same for his bedtime bottle as well. The bedtime bottle will be a bit more tricky, but we don't have any worries that it will be done. We have been down to about 2 bottles a day for the past month, sometimes 3 if needed. We also gave Asa peanut butter last night, which we can now give, and no reaction! So far so good with no food allergies!!

I still have to post pictures from Asa's birthday party! We had such a good time. I will have to update on that soon. We have such a busy next month and a half, which is nice because time will go by so fast before baby. My new project has been transferring all of our video camera footage onto our hard drive and burning the footage onto DVDs i am about 1/2 way done burning. Adam and i watched part of one of the videos last night of when Asa was about 3 months old, and he looked at me and said, "aren't you so excited for the baby?" We ARE! I can't wait to find out if it is a little boy or girl. I have 12 friends who are pregnant, and of the 12, 6 have found out the gender, and all 6 are having girls. I figure the odds might be against us, and we might end up having another boy. Either way we are so blessed and can't wait to meet the little bean!

By the way grandma...Asa LOVES his poo :)