The youngest first. Here’s a photo of the little Mr. from week 32. You can see his hand is next to his cheek. His eyes are closed...
It was great to get another look at him. At that point he was weighing in at approximately 5.5 lbs. give or take 12 oz. This puts him in the 90th percentile on weight. I would worry but I recall they projected G would be more than 9 lbs according to ultrasound and he was born weighting 8 lbs 3 oz. So who knows…
33 going on 34 weeks now and counting. It ain’t pretty. I wish I had posted a photo of my tummy somewhere about 25 weeks. Now it’s just huge. I will eventually take a photo and post it anyway as proof that it, indeed, isn’t pretty and so someday the little kiddo can look at the photo and pretend to understand what it must have been like for me to carry him around at this point…
In a nutshell, I feel pretty darn good. In the evenings I love watching my belly move around as he kicks and repositions. I really feel better than I did with Grant. Namely because I am still just grateful as all get out I am not pricking my figure and reporting glucose levels four times a day. But also because my ankles are only swollen beyond recognition some days and the heartburn is only unbearable part of the time.
Sleeping is really the biggest issue (especially when the heart burn/reflux kicks in). Most nights are pretty predictable though. I am up for potty breaks every 2-3 hours (great training for what’s ahead). The real joy is getting up from a horizontal position. It’s kind of like being a turtle on its back. It’s some combination of rolling and rocking that lands me on my feet. Then I hobble a few steps on my weak feeling hips to the bano. During the days my hips are fine but they ache like mad at night… especially if I sit on the soft sofa… Yet, I long to mush on the sofa…
The child remains nameless but so everyone can stop worrying, we have narrowed it down to two (sometimes three) combinations that we like so much we just can’t decide. I am to the point that I want to give ourselves a deadline so we can just be done with it. But we just can’t seem to let ourselves decide. It’s really hard. And you just don’t want to screw such a big brainstorming project up…
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In life outside the womb...to say the last month has been super busy would be an understatement. To recap briefly, Communications Plus is celebrating 30 years in business. We made a weekend retreat to Austin complete with spa day weekend before last… last weekend we hosted a party for clients and friends to celebrate AND relocated back to the Main Street office all on the same Saturday. Seems our cute little spot on the Village was never permitted correctly by our landlord. Inspector violations have been snowballing since May but the icing on the cake was an order to vacate from the City. Enough already.
We topped off that Saturday of fun with a trip to see Depeche Mode at the Woodlands on Sunday. Of course, the show didn’t disappoint. It was fantastic! And I can tell both boys when they are crazy for some band in their teen years that I saw my favorite band when I was pregnant with each of them… Truly devoted. I am.
In between all that Deeda has made two trips to Austin for work and he’s putting the finishing touches on a touch up project turned to a full-fledged painting project in the baby’s room. Grams made a crib skirt (a.k.a. tree skirt) to match the bedding. And with a few minor accessorizing details left, we’re about ready to roll in the nursery. Next up, I am going to wash the infant wardrobe so it’s fresh. Bought Dreft yesterday at the store. (Just one side note on that, I can’t believe the price of that stuff! It’s like $10.)
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G-man is doing great. What a sweet, good and smart boy he is.
This week was his first week in the fours class. He was a bit confused on Monday… He wondered if it was his birthday since he was going to the fours. I think he’s got it straight now but he does continue to say, “ I am four now.” I think he just wants to pretend he’s four… sounds good to him.
Speaking of pretending, the kid has come into a new phase of pretend play. The cars or whatever he’s playing with have conversations and stories… Today he got a couple plastic dinosaurs from the “dollar spot” at Target and he had them talking to one another all afternoon. Oh the joy $1 can bring!
He’s still super excited about baby brudher and he still wants to call him Buzz. Yesterday he kissed my stomach totally unsolicited. He also told me twice yesterday that I was “cute today.” Love it! Especially because Deeda has been totally in vogue lately. G and I finally enjoyed some much needed time together yesterday. I think we read 12 books in a row and then I started teaching him to play go fish and crazy 8’s. He thinks it’s great. Our games end up being matching games but he’s getting it and he can show off how well he knows his numbers while we’re at it. He’s also very into letters these days. Asking all the time,” what does that name start with?”
It’s exciting to see his interest in learning. This afternoon he and Deeda were going over train vocabulary. Tender box, funnel, couplings and cattle pusher. I guess they learned these things in a library book a few weeks ago and then Special Agent Oso was talking about some of the same words on Disney Channel this morning… seriously. Some of these are new to me!
He also started computer classes at school this week. Once a week he gets to go to a special class. Then we can log on from home and play games as well. He loves it because for once he’s allowed to touch the computer. They talked about “home row” this week. Yesterday we were reporting on computer class to aunt Laura on the phone. G was holding my blackberry and he said, “I see home row right there on your phone mom.” Geesh…
Swimming lessons are coming along and along. We’re hoping he can take his float test by the end of the month and then we’re taking a break from the Wednesday night rat race for a while. After a week of private lessons at the neighborhood pool we saw major progress and this past week at Houston Swim Club, I saw big arms like I’d never seen him make before.
Going off the diving board is his favorite thing. He pops up and gets to the side “all by himself.” Which is one of his most used phrases at the moment … He likes to cut his waffle all by himself with a butter knife and he does a pretty good job of it. He can also get totally dressed and pretty much brush his teeth , all by himself. All skills that I know will come in very handy in just a short while.
Which reminds me… Couple weeks ago he wanted to call Grandaddy and Nennie to talk about barns. Not sure how it all relates, but he also reported to them that the toast popped up “all by itself.” And “could they believe that?” He was sincerely reporting the most amazing thing he’d seen all week… I mean, the pop up toaster blew his mind. So, he doesn’t know it all just yet… and there are still those moments of total wonder that remind me, despite how it may seem a lot of the time, he’s still just a little boy.
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September first came with a cool front. Not cool enough to amount to true heat relief but cool enough to feel as though fall will actually come. Bring it on. We're ready... College football was on every other channel this weekend so even if the weather hasn't changed, I can hear fall in the air. Deeda even got to take in the first game at College Station on Saturday. I am dying to make a pot of soup and wear something with sleeves. About time to hunker down... So excited!
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On a final note, G says he’s going to change his brother’s diapers… and I thought we really had something great going with him being able to let Dee dog in and out of the back door. This is something to consider...
