Crazy Week!!

Wow. So an earthquake on Tuesday. Never thought I would experience that! It was just my Dad and me here in the office and at first I thought it was an explosion, which we hear and feel here fairly often from Blossom Point or Indian Head or Stump Neck or wherever else they blow things up around here. Then, the rumbling just kept going... and going... and then the whole house was swaying. After it finally hit me, I was up and out of here SO FAST. I haven't moved that quickly in nine months! My Mom was at my house swimming in the pool with Luke! Thankfully they were just sitting on the pool steps playing, but she said it's a very eerie feeling to feel an inground pool moving underneath your butt!

Saturday was the much anticipated Hurricane Irene. Luke spent the night with my Mom Friday, so Saturday morning I had a luscious pedicure, ran a few errands, then packed a bag and headed to my parents. I had surprised Tommy with tickets the the Steelers/Falcons game in Pittsburgh. Tommy is a huge Steelers fan, and has always wanted to go to Heinz Field. When I bought the tickets back in April, the plan was for ME to go with him. I was thinking one last getaway before Dylan's arrival. Well, as the day approached I realized that I just wasn't up to going. I didn't want to make the long drive, and I didn't want to be a stick in the mud and not be very much fun to be around. So, I asked my trusty second in command, Jason, to go in my place. Jason and Tommy had a blast and missed all of the funky weather. I am really disappointed I didn't get to go, but it was just a bad idea on my part to think at 37 weeks pregnant I would want to take a 5 hour car ride.

We made it through the hurricane and yesterday I had to get out of here! I went home to see if we had any damage and to clean out the fridge and freezer. I had to throw a ton of stuff away, and we did end up having a big limb down on our fence that's laying in the neighbor's yard. Then, I slipped on mud in the yard and did the splits! Then, I went in the house and slipped on some water in the kitchen and AGAIN did the freakin' splits. I am seriously sore today. I am so done with being pregnant right now!!!!

I just want to give a HUGE thank you to my parents for housing us this weekend, and helping to take care of Luke when I was tired and disabled, and for just being there for my family always!

I can't wait to get home this afternoon. My parents have a generator, which is why we've stayed here, but the generator isn't powerful enough to run the a.c., and the past couple nights have just been too hot for me to handle!! I had a 1 a.m. mini nervous breakdown last night when I couldn't sleep. Our power came back yesterday evening, but Tommy was working overtime and with the two spills I took and how sore I was, I figured I'd better just stay here for another night. I just want to be in my bed, with my fan blowing full blast on me!

Okay, I think that's enough whining and moaning for one post! I just have to keep repeating my little mantra. Two and a half weeks or less... two and a half weeks OR LESS!! Can't wait 'til Thursday when I can dump that "and a half" and it's just two weeks or less!

Also, remember my friend Lindi from Luke's birthday party? Or, even if you didn't get to meet her, follow her blog!

Two Year Well Visit

Luke had his doctor’s appointment today, and he’s 25 lbs (25th percentile) and 31.5” long (10th percentile).  Dr. Brown said he looks great.  I meant to take some pictures yesterday and didn’t get to it, so here’s a video of him taking his first spin on his trike in the Mimi’s parking lot.

 

Now, just a couple things I want to remember…

Luke has been saying “no, I didn’t” alot lately.  Usually in response to the question “Luke, did you poop?”

There have been balloons around since his birthday weekend and one morning he came in the living room with a balloon while the ceiling fan was on.  Before I could turn the fan off, the balloon was all tangled up and I screamed.  Luke thought it was hilarious and kept imitating me.  He would point at the fan and say “balloon (which kind of sounds like boom), stuck, mama, AAhhhh!!”  Now if you ask him “what did Mommy do when the balloon when in the fan?” he’ll scream and laugh. 

Saturday morning I woke up and went to put my diamond earrings in.  I hadn’t worn them for a few days and only one was on my nightstand.  I tore the whole area apart.  Dumped out the basket of books next to my bed, dumped out my nightstand drawer, pulled it out and crawled around on my hands and knees.  Tommy and Luke came in the room as I’m about to start crying and I said “I think he had something to do with it” and pointed to Luke… But it never occurred to me to just ask my 2 year old directly.  Tommy picked up my other earring and said “Luke, did you pick up Mommy’s earring like this?”  He immediately says “yes.”  Tommy asked him “where did you put it?”  He went straight for a little teacup votive holder I have and shook it and I could hear it jingling!  Tommy dumped it right out!  I was SHOCKED.  I can’t believe that he not only remembered where he put it, but actually told us immediately!  I just keep thinking about it and laughing.

The Rest of Luke’s Birthday…

Okay, so this was definitely one of those weekends where you need a weekend to recover from your weekend :)  It was busy, busy, but we were surrounded by lots of amazing friends and family and it was allll worth it.  Friday evening we had people over for pizza and of course, Luke was showered with gifts.

bag of Mickey goodies from Katie and Chris

 

cupcake face

this is the product of trying to get a picture of all of the kids.  HA!  from L to R: Andrea (my cousin Amanda’s daughter), Katie (BFF Sarah’s daughter), Luke, Claire (Sarah’s), and Calla (my cousin Willie and Chrissie’s daughter)

 

probably one of our last family shots as a family of three!!

showing Andrea some love

Saturday Becca came over and kicked my bum into gear with the bedrooms.  She kept me motivated and moving and we got alot done on moving Luke into his new room and getting the baby room ready for Dylan.  They’re both kind of disastrous still, but definitely making progress.  The biggest problem at the moment is that Luke is not at all interested in moving into his new room and his big boy bed.  Any suggestions??  I definitely don’t want to push too hard.  I know he’s still young, and Dylan will be in our room for at least a month, I’m sure, so I know there’s still time.  So after working around the house, we met Aunt Carrie and Uncle Ryan at Mimi’s for dinner.  They gave Luke a tricycle that he LOVES.  He can’t reach the pedals, but it has a cool parent push bar thing, and Tommy has already taken him for several long walks and he steers his little steering wheel and makes car noises :)

Sunday we had our “blogger party.”  I seriously slacked on the picture taking at this one.  The day started out pretty stressful when I decided about an hour before the party that I just had to run to the grocery store.  We were leaving and Luke was kind of slumped in his carseat, so I grabbed his crotch with one hand and his forearm with my other hand to give him a boost to get him to sit up more and pulled his elbow out of socket… again!!  He cried pretty much the whole way home, wouldn’t use it, and when he got on the phone with Tommy he just kept saying “hurts.  hurts.”  So while we were sitting at home waiting for our guests, Tommy decided he wanted to take him to the ER.  He called me a couple minutes later and said he was turning around because Luke was drinking out of his cup with both arms and wasn’t fussing or crying.  Tommy and I had both tried to rotate it, so I’m not sure if it was something we did or something Luke did, but thank goodness there was a birthday boy at his birthday party!!  The kids got in the pool, Luke was once again showered with gifts, and we sat around and had some good girl talk. 

opening up an awesome new gift

Jaxon and Maisy

Thank you so much to everyone who celebrated with us!  This is one loved little boy! 

Two. Years. Old.

I can't believe I'm typing that! I can't believe my baby boy is 2!! (almost). I want to do this post now before the craziness of the weekend. Luke's doctor's appointment isn't until next week, so none of those boring stats at the moment.

Although I have definitely seen streaks of "terrible twos," for the most part I am very happy with Luke's behavior and personality and think he is so much fun to be around. He is usually very polite and says "yes, please" and "thank you" without being prompted most of the time. His vocabulary grows every single day and he is very chatty.

Luke can count to 10 all by himself, but only does it when he feels like it.  When we spell his name out loud sometimes he’ll tell us what letter comes next. 

One of his favorite words at the moment is MINE and it drives me CRAZY!!  When he wants something he’ll usually say “mine, please” and when someone is playing with something he wants he’ll tell them “my turn!” 

I really need to start writing things down as he does them because there are so many funny things that he says and does that I’m forgetting now!  One funny thing that happened this week was Tommy taught him how to chest bump and was trying to get him to say “take that, boy!” but Luke kept saying “take that, please!”  He loves to dance and will really get down if he’s in the mood. 

Tonight was the first of his three birthday celebrations.  Our immediate families came over for a cookout and Luke was so cute while we sang Happy Birthday I thought my heart was going to explode.  See for yourself…

He was also SO sweet while he was opening his presents.  Most of the time he would gasp or say WOW! before he even knew what it was!  He was spoiled rotten and has so many new toys to play with. 

playing with his new art easel

this kid LOVES a balloon

 

saying thank you for his new cars

he danced to his new Mickey that sings the Hot Dog Song

getting ready to dig in

Luke,

You will probably never understand how much love and joy you have brought into our lives over the past two years.  We are so proud of the little boy you are becoming and you amaze us and make us smile every single day.  Love you to the moon and back!!!!!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

35 Weeks!

Your Baby:

• Is over five pounds now, although these weight guesstimates will start getting very useless very quickly over the next few weeks.
• Since most of your baby’s organs are fully functional and major developmental milestones behind him or her, the next month is all about weight gain. And since “normal” weights for newborns these days can be anything between six and 10 pounds, it’s hard to predict how big YOUR baby will be from here on in.

You:

• Are the very picture of motherly grace and beauty. Also: waddling.
• Fatigue may be a big problem right now. You may need a daily nap, or find yourself crawling into bed by 9 pm. (I can barely make it to my toddler’s 8:30 bedtime most nights.) And while I’ve always seethed at people who love to cheerfully remind pregnant women to “Get some sleep! Once the baby’s here you won’t get any sleep!” I have to say…dude, get some sleep.

Alphamom is right on this week!  Definitely waddling, definitely napping.  I don’t sleep very well at night, but I certainly feel like I could fall asleep at any point during the day!

My blood pressure issues are back.  I’ve had high blood pressure for a couple of weeks now and went to the hospital for monitoring a couple of times last week.  My doctors aren’t concerned enough to put me on bedrest, so please pray for me that everything stays in control! 

And, just because posts with no pictures are super boring…

Luke had to be like his Daddy on his laptop :)

Chit Chat with Luke

The main purpose of this video was to show my new favorite word of Luke’s- “apple gayer.”  And, yes, he definitely thinks Dylan is in his belly.  I’m pretty sure he thinks everyone has a baby in their belly.  Also, Elmo is so last week.  Mickey is the new man in Luke’s life.