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 :)

8/4/2010

8/4/2009 - One year ago....how time has gone by SO quickly!

8/4/2010 - Little monkey today.

Asa John - Happy 1st birthday! We love you so much and are so proud of you. You make us laugh every day, and you always entertain us. We are SO thankful that God chose us to be your parents. We can't wait to watch you grow and see what you become. We know that there is such an amazing plan for you, and we will do the best we can to help you along the way. We can't imagine our lives without you!
Love always,
Mama and Dada

Worship in the ball field

Yesterday we had our annual worship in the ball field at church. This once a year event is usually held in at Elm Creek Park, but since our church has this huge lot in the back of the church with a ball field, they decided to hold it there instead. Great idea i think! We brought the dogs and met my parents there for the service and then lunch. They also had some games for the kids, which Asa is too little for yet, and Adam was able to throw some Frisbee with our friend Andy Gilbert. It was VERY hot out, and thankfully the golf umbrellas that we brought came in quite handy to block the sun. Our dogs were trying to find every bit of shade by sitting under our chairs. Thanks for taking the pictures mom...!

See how Caeda is perched on my tummy in the picture below. This has been her favorite spot to lay during both my pregnancies.

After the games, we made it home at about 2:30 and Asa went down for a nap around 3:30 and slept until 6:30! What a nap huh? I was even able to take a nap from 3:30 - 5. I needed it after all of that heat and a long weekend.

Friday, Adam and I golfed 18 holes with Adam's mom. I was SURE i wasn't going to make it all 18 holes from the get go, but the only thing i skipped was putting on hole 17. I told Adam i thought my hips were going to split apart :) Saturday we pulled everything out of the garage and at temped to organize it. We got about 1/2 way, which considering everything that was in our garage was PROGRESS!! We got done with the garage around 6, and made a stop at a friend from high school's house for a pool party. We didn't partake in the festivities, but were able to see some good friends from high school. We stayed until about 8, and then picked up Chipolte and headed home. (Thanks John for the phone call about the Par-Tay!) I hope you had a fun rest of the night...and i am sure you needed Sunday to recover :)

All in all it was a fun weekend...

Tomorrow night i am going to meet some old co workers (The Right Staff/Cargill) for happy hour. OJ for me please :)

Birthday Fun

Yesterday i celebrated my 29th birthday...yes, i cannot believe i am already almost 30! I had such an amazing day celebrating with family and surprises! First, Adam wasn't sure if he was going to have to work or not in the evening, so he had TWO birthday dinners planned for me. The first was on Sunday night. He went out grocery shopping and made a whole fondue dinner for me. Cheese course with bread and veggies, and then a meat/scallop course with more veggies and a beef/wine broth. It was so nice. He moved the kitchen table into the living room so that we could watch Bounty Hunter (movie with Jennifer Aniston) while we ate. Monday, he didn't have to work either, so he went grocery shopping again while i was at work and bought chicken and corn on the cob and grilled for me. I felt very pampered. Earlier in the week last week he also said that i could go and get a mani/pedi for part of my birthday gift as well. I can't even tell you how NICE it is to get a mani/pedi pregnant. Anyone who is willing to rub a pregnant ladies feet should get a nice hug!

When i left work on Monday, my boss called me about 10 minutes into my drive home, and asked if i wanted to come back to the office and pick up his car to borrow for my birthday. I quickly turned around!

It was SO fun to drive a convertible around for a few days! In case there are any car buffs reading, it is a 2004 Thunderbird.

Yesterday i slept in until about 9:00, and then got up and lounged with Asa and watched some "toons" with him. We left our house in separate cars because the Thunderbird is only a 2 seater, at about 11:00 where i picked up my mom so she could drive in the car. We drove to Joe Sensors and had lunch with my mom, Adams mom, and our family. I had a yummy buffalo chicken salad.

We left lunch and headed over to the Clinic for my 28 week appointment with Dr Locher. It was a full house with the mommies along, and the dr asked if we were having a party or something. He went out and got the ultrasound machine and continued to do about a 20 minute ultrasound pointing everything out to the mommies. Neither my mom or Adam's mom have been able to see an ultrasound so it was SO neat. We even video taped it! The baby was DEFINITELY active and we watched it's little legs kicking about in my tummy. He pointed out the stomach and bladder and showed how because of the dark color that the baby was digesting fluid and such wonderfully which is a great sign of a healthy baby. He also stopped on the stomach for quite a while and we were able to see the baby taking practice breaths. It was such a miracle and so beautiful to see! A few times he would get close to the butt area and would quickly pull away so we couldn't find out the sex. The babies head was also very low in my pelvis which is good news for not having another breech baby. This means there is about a 75% chance that the baby will stay this way and i will be able to have a vaginal birth. We will continue to evaluate as we get closer to the baby's birthday to see where the head is. If it isn't so low and progressing in dilation we may want to have a cesarean, or if the baby is like a 9 pounder also. Haha!
After the appointment we went home to rest for a few hours and Adam had to do a little bit of work. We thought that he was going to have to go to work but later found out that he didn't have any appointments. Adam gave me by birthday cards, one from him and one from Asa (so sweet) and then my gifts. He gave me a pregnancy yoga DVD, which i think i am going to try out tonight. He also gave my Asa ring.

It is my right hand white gold ring with Asa's birthstone. He is planning on getting me each babies birthstone ring and stacking them as they come. If baby #2 comes in October as expected, the birthstone is opal, which they don't have in the stackables, however the alternate for October is Pink Tourmaline which would look really pretty with the Peridot.

After gifts we quick made plans for dinner and it ended up working out so great. My parents, Chuck, Adam, Asa and I all went out to Benihana's for dinner. I had a free birthday coupon for a free meal also. We weren't able to make reservations until about 8:00 so it was a really late night for Asa. I picked up Chuck from his house in "the car" and met everyone else there.

They even sang me happy birthday. Asa was very into the whole experience!!

After dinner i drove my dad quick around the parking lot in the car so he could experience it too.

It was such a GREAT day, and to top it all off, all week they were saying it was going to be rainy, and it was SUCH a sunny day!

Besides the ultrasound, the Dr's appointment went great! He had me do a urine test which came back normal because i have had a LOT of pulling in my pelvic area. We assume it is just pulling from the cesarean scar, being it hasn't been a year yet since it was formed. So far to this point i have gained 15 lbs. which by this point last pregnancy i had gained 30! I gained 8 this last month, which has been my highest gain month, but still have not broke double digits yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.