Nathan Turned 3!

Monday, April 2 was Nathan’s third birthday. I , of course, wanted to blog all about him that day, and blog all about his birthday as soon as possible, but so far, nothing.

A little bit about Nathan:

Nathan loves cars. Anything with wheels becomes a vehicle for him. All his cars have names and if he could, he would sleep with all of them in his bed every night.

In the last year, Nathan has moved to a new state, given up his binky, completely stopped using diapers (even at night!), and is about to become a big brother.

Nathan is a big boy. I took him for his 3 year check up today and he is in the 70% percentile for weight and the 75% for height. He communicates so well that people often mistake him for an older kid. This can be hard on his barely 3 year old feelings.

Nathan loves to sing. He knows a lot of songs from Primary and songs that I’ve sung since he was a baby, but he also loves to make up his own interesting songs to sing.

Favorite foods include: milk, cereal, fruit, pizza, peanut butter and jelly, and fruit snacks (my best go-to bribe!)

Nathan is all boy but he’s also so sweet and funny and loving.

 

Nathan’s Birthday

Unfortunately, Nathan’s birthday started off rough this year since he woke up with a bad dream and we sat on his bed together wile he cried and cried. I kept trying to ask him why he was sad, but he wouldn’t tell me. The rest of the day he continued to ask me, “What’s in my sad?” I think he was trying to figure it out too. Sorry, buddy, I have no idea! Once he was feeling better I pointed out that he only had one ring left on his birthday chain and he needed to take it off because it was his birthday TODAY! I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and he only came up with cereal (his original answer was Fruit snacks) and I was happy with that! He got to open a few small presents in the morning.

I had a ton to do to get ready for his party that night, but tried to spend as much time with him as I could. The weather was beautiful so we went outside for a walk before lunch.

 I let him lick the frosting beater when I made his cake. I think he enjoyed it!

We had a small party that evening to celebrate. Nana and Papa and Auntie Leslie came, and Alex and her 3 kids. My mom and Leslie came over early to help me get the house ready. It was a good thing, too, because I  fell asleep on the couch, and then accidently woke Nathan up from his nap while I was trying to pick up. My mom even scrubbed my bathtub! You would think I was gross if I told the last time that happened . . .

We had a wild and crazy dinosaur party, complete with a volcano cake.

I guess the cake is a little morbid because all the dinosaurs are going to die. Oh well, Nathan didn’t notice.

Nathan was a present opening pro and was thrilled with all his new gifts. He is the proud owner of 8 new cars and couldn’t be happier. They all sleep in his bed.

Nathan got a basketball hoop from Nana and Papa. I’ve taught him to wiggle his knees and yell, “BOOM SHAKA LAKA!!” every time he makes a basket. That’s a basketball thing, right?!

Thanks for the Pirate Boat, Grandma and Grandpa!

He also got a pair of silly glasses and Daddy had to show him how they work.

Hannah tried them on too.

It was a fun evening and I’m glad Nathan had a great day. I’m trying to remind myself that maybe making 5 million sandwiches all in the shape of dinosaurs wasn’t worth it. Nathan didn’t seem to notice that either. And my feet are still swollen!

Birth

I just finished re-reading my Bradley book, and Nathan’s birth story (almost 3 years ago, exactly!), and now CJane’s feelings on childbirth. I’ve had multiple friends give birth to beautiful babies this week and I’ve got childbirth on my mind. I’m ready, and I can’t wait! Sometimes I worry myself about going through labor and whether I’ll be able to handle it, but then I remember how empowering it feels to bring new life into the world and I know I want to do it again and again.

Let It Be

The other night, at our presidency meeting, our wonderful Primary President mentioned the scripture about not running faster than you are able. I laughed at myself on the inside because I thought, “If I don’t run faster than I’m able, all I’ll do is lay around in my jammies all day.” I thought about that and realized that even though laying around in my jammies isn’t realistic, I could afford to let a few things go.

I, like so many others, often try to do too much. And I don’t stop until my body forces me to. So I decided that for the next little while, I’m taking it easy. No more worrying about all the little things. I pulled up my to-do list (can you believe it was a 2 page document on my computer?!) and hit “delete”. I didn’t delete the whole thing, but I decreased it’s length significantly. I’ve got seven weeks until this baby is supposed to come and I want to enjoy that time, rather than wish it would last longer so I have time to finish everything on that darn two-page list. Instead, I’m going to make a list of things like,

- snuggle with my (not so) little boy

- use that massage gift certificate I’ve been holding onto forever

- and bake cookies (because I just can’t stop)

 

I just thought all of you could use a reminder as well that:

It’s okay to say, “I’ve done good enough”

and

“To hell with the rest of it!” (try it! It’s invigorating!)

then

let it be.

My Daughter is a Model

The first time I saw my midwife, she told us about an opportunity to have a 3D/4D ultrasound free of cost. In fact, they would pay US! There’s a company here in Washington that makes imaging machines and needs models to test their equipment on. I finally got a phone call from them a few weeks ago and we went up to Redmond yesterday to see our baby.

It was an interesting experience, since the ultrasound technician was being trained and didn’t really know what she was doing. A second technician was there to help her and make sure they got some good shots. They definitely weren’t as interested in us, or the baby as a normal technician would be, but I felt like they did a really good job of making sure Ryan and I enjoyed the experience. They even put all the pictures and a few video clips on a disc for us. I have to admit, I always thought 3D ultrasounds were a little creepy, but this was probably a once in a lifetime experience, and heck, they PAID us! It was so fun to see our little baby in so much detail.

So tell me- who do you think she looks like?

I think she definitely has Ryan’s nose and the same full lips that Nathan does. She stayed asleep for the whole ultrasound (we should have done it in the middle of the night) and quite enjoyed burrowing her face in her placenta pillow. She also covered her face with her hands and arms a lot while she slept. Considering the last ultrasound, I think we may have a shy one on our hands.

By the way, I made them check, and she’s definitely, definitely a girl!

Doughnuts!

Since Ryan had Monday off, we decided we wanted to do something fun together as a family. It took a while to come up with something inexpensive, not too crowded,  indoors, and local, but we finally found the perfect thing! Doughnuts! We went to Legendary Doughnuts and it was well worth it.

The doughnuts were HUGE, the prices were great, and the atmosphere was really fun.

Ryan’s Bavarian Cream and my Blueberry Fritter. They were monstrous!

Nathan chose the “Leonardo Da Vinci” and see what I mean?! That thing is almost as big as his head. It took all day, but he managed to eat the whole thing.

Just look at the determination on his face!

I think we were all in a bit of a sugar coma the rest of the day, but this was a treat I’d love to enjoy again!

Two Trimesters Down

This week marks the start of my third trimester so I thought I’d give a little pregnancy update.

(28 weeks)

 

When I was pregnant with Nathan, I planned and prepared in a way that I am realizing I won’t be doing with this one. I just don’t have the time or energy. I have pulled out my Bradley book and Ryan and I are going to start working on the birthing techniques, but I’m trying not to stress myself out about it. For one thing, I’m going to have this baby at a birth center, not a hospital, and that makes me feel better.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a baby here?!

http://www.lakesidebirthcenter.com/about.php

It’s warm and inviting and there is literally a lake in the backyard. Also, the whole place smells like lavender. My midwife, Nancy, makes me feel calm and reassured and I know she loves what she does. Even though she isn’t a member of the church, I feel the spirit with her more than I did with my LDS OBGYN in Utah when Nathan was born.

I’m a little nervous about the fact that I haven’t hit the “uncomfortable” part of pregnancy yet because I’m already having a lot of pain in my hips and not getting much sleep. Now that the weather is getting warmer, Nathan and I have been taking walks, which helps a ton.

This baby kicks and wiggles a lot, but not as much as Nathan did. She’s also way higher than Nathan was so I’m interested to see if I can tell when she “drops”. Nathan was so low I really couldn’t tell.

I’m getting really excited to have a girl! I’ve been washing all her clothes and getting ready for her arrival. As for names, we have a few ideas, but we probably won’t tell you what they are. I honestly haven’t thought about it much. I remember making list after list to come up with Nathan’s name. I was constantly thinking about it. But, again, I just don’t have time to prepare that way. We want to meet her first anyway.

I think Nathan is going to be a great big brother. Don’t get me wrong, I expect this girl to get beat up on a bit, but I also know Nathan is sweet and tender and excited to meet her. We have all been given names from the Cars movies and he officially named the baby “Snot Rod”. He loves to tickle her and “roar” at her and talk to her.

She can’t get here soon enough, but I know I have a TON to do before I’m ready for a new baby again!

*I was going to blog about the ice storm we had here, and I still might, but I’m just not interested right now.

Dance Machine

I have so many more important things I could be blogging about, but I just don’t have the energy. Instead, here’s a new video of Nathan dancing.

It’s a little long, but well worth it.

Also, ignore my messy bedroom. I was in the middle of some major deep cleaning.

(Who am I kidding? It always looks this way!)

Untitled from Ryan Bartron on Vimeo.