New Carter-isms

The kid never ceases to amaze me (and keep us laughing). I seriously LOVE that he talks so much. I'm baffled at how he speaks in full sentences and says the most hilarious (and appropriately timed!) things, too.

Here are a few of his new ones:

- "Cool!" - he says this in response to many things we show him, cool or not.

- "No way!!" - appropriately used...as in "Carter, are you ready for your bath?"

- "Mama, sit down." - always said when we get to his class at school. He wants me to sit and stay awhile before I go.

- "That's mine!" - Oy, I dreaded the day he learned this.

- "Shapes, shapes!" - said when he wants to watch his favorite DVD, a Baby Einstein movie all about shapes.

- "I want my melk." - We go through milk like it's going out of style. He's always asking for it!

- "Oh no!!!" - always with his hands, palm up in front of him. This happens when he drops something, there's a loud noise, etc.

- "I fell down." - He's a sucker for mommy kisses, so anytime he falls down, he's sure to tell me so I kiss whatever body part got bumped. Sometimes, he hurt absolutely nothing, but he still needs those kisses. :)

- "It's yucccky." - He draws it out and scrunches up his face. Super adorable. He started saying his pacis are yucky. Yes, buddy, they are. I told him he would have to give them to Addison and he said very quickly "no way!" and took off.

- "Where's Bubby?" or "Come Bubby" or "Sit! Down!" - he is SO bossy to poor Bentley, but B is a great sport. They love each other so much.

- "Sing Je-ju" - when he wants us to sing Jesus Loves Me at bedtime. Over and over. And then again. It's his new stall tactic. :)

- "More books, pease." - Another stall tactic for bedtime. Always more books.

This isn't something he's saying, but he's also scared to death of loud noises right now (lawn mower, leaf blower, weed wacker, blender, vacuum, Bentley barking, etc. and will freak out to be picked up til it stops).

He is in a not-interested-in-eating stage right now - yogurt and "appleloss" are pretty much all he wants - other stuff he chews and spits out. Awesome.

Oh, and he's scared of band-aids. Like really, really scared. I have no idea...

Such a cute, smart little boy. Can't wait to see him with his little sister, though I think we'll have some jealousy to work on. :)

Pregnancy Highlights: 30 Weeks

How far along: 30 weeks. She is almost 16 inches long, and is over 3 pounds already!!

Total weight gain/loss: 18 pounds.

Maternity clothes: Obviously...

Best moment this week: Picking out paint for A's nursery and starting to feel like I'm making some progress. I also went through some of McKenna's baby clothes with Michelle and my mom...she's got lots of cute summer clothes now! :)

Gender: Hopefully girl, or he'll be wearing a lot of pink. ;)

Movement: I can see boney little elbows and tiny feet poking out of my stomach, usually on my left side, and sometimes very crazily!!

Food cravings: Not really "craving" anything, though the only snack I'm really into right now is cereal.

What I miss: A feeling of energy. :)

Sleep: Really bad. Carter has been doing okay, though has had 2 rough nights in a row - seems like he has a sore throat and/or cold of some sort. Had a fever on Sunday, which thankfully seems to have broken. But besides the getting up for him 3 times a night, I also go to the bathroom 3 other times, so you do the math. The "in between" sleep is few and far between.

What I am looking forward to: Getting to work on my nesting list! I already started touching up paint, vacuuming curtains and stuff like that, but I have plenty more to do!

Symptoms: Puffiness, a general feeling of soreness all over my whole body, lack of sleep...but I keep in mind this is all temporary, and we only have 10 weeks to go!!! :)

My "Before Baby" Checklist

I really didn't think I had that much to do before Addison arrives. HAHAHA. I began brainstorming, and ten minutes later, this is what I've come up with. Oh boy. I better hop to it. :)

- Remove guest bed from guest room/nursery.
- Paint nursery.
- Get custom artwork made (a copycat of something I found online). :)
- Arrange/set up nursery.
- Buy curtains for nursery.
- Buy a baby book for her and other little things like mattress cover, girl blankets, etc.
- Buy pump, accessories, and necessary supplies.
- Begin buying diapers, wipes, and things of the sort so as not to be overwhelmed 2 weeks out!
- Borrow McKenna's baby clothes and go through them. :)
- Get all baby things out of storage and clean them.
- Touch up paint throughout entire house (note: this time, use CORRECT paint).
- Deep clean house including baseboards, vents, etc.
- Shampoo carpets (or get them done professionally) in living room/hallway.
- Clean out any messy closets or storage areas that stress me out before I even have 2 kids.
- Clean out tupperware cabinet. MY. WORD. Where will bottles go?!?!
- Make freezer meals for when she arrives.
- Make plans for Carter and Bentley for when I go into labor.
- Buy a big brother gift for Carter.
- Take photography class (already scheduled!).
- Mulch the flowerbeds.
- Install carseat (not quite yet).
- Finalize work maternity plan.
- Potty train Carter?!?! (This is low on the list for a reason. Would be nice, but not sure it's realistic)

 ...PHEW! And now I'm tired just from writing that. Here's to beginning the nesting now so we can get it all done by then! :)

Another Bentley Update

The surgeon just called and said they got Bentley's second set of biopsy results back and the margins are clear. Thank God!!!

You know what else she said? That there were no tumor cells at all in this biopsy (which means we wouldn't have had to do the surgery the second time...). Ugh. There's no way we would've known without doing the surgery as a "just to be safe" but MAN, I wish she wouldn't have told me that!

Here's to hoping the cone officially comes off on Thursday. I need to touch up the paint throughout my WHOLE HOUSE because of that thing. :)

Pregnancy Highlights: 29 Weeks

How far along: 29 weeks, and according to my handy-dandy book on pregnancy, now into month SEVEN already. Crazy!! Addison is now 15 inches long and about 2.5 pounds (or slightly more probably). Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in her skeleton each day (which explains my need for cereal with TONS OF MILK!).

Total weight gain/loss: (came back and updated 4/18) 18 pounds, which she said is fabulous, so I'll take it!

Maternity clothes: Yes, and quickly running out of season-appropriate ones. I think I'll be hitting up some maternity consignment shops for some short sleeves or else it's going to be a verrrrry long next few weeks.

Best moment this week: Carter has slept through the night (though he's been doing SO well, he's still had the occasional fuss to be covered or something) in his big boy bed AND has needed to be woken up a few times to go to school. Thank God!!!

Gender: girl, though I had a dream it was a boy. I think we should just pay to get a fun ultrasound to be sure....riiiiiight honey?

Movement: All the time. It's cool because we can now tell where her head is and where the rest of her body is as well.

Food cravings: Cereal

What I miss: Sleeping well, not going to the bathroom every 20 minutes.

Sleep: Rough.

What I am looking forward to: Her bedding is being delivered tomorrow, then it's time to pick out the paint and get to work on her nursery. I've also made a short list of things we need to get before she arrives, so I'll start tackling that. And, unrelated to pregnancy, but I'm looking forward to C's 2nd birthday party. I've been doing lots of fun things for it, and am running out of time since I'll be gone the weekend before his party, so I need to pick up the pace!

Symptoms: Major puffiness (I'm sensing no dresses and/or shorts in my near pregnant future...I'm preparing to die of heat now)...the rings are already off. :( I don't think they'd need to be permanently off yet but they got tight on Sunday so I removed them as a precaution. I'm nervous to put them back on - would HATE to get them cut off. Also, starting to get super tired again...

Sweetness I don't want to forget...

Carter has been doing fabulous in his new bed! To be sure the transition was smooth, we kept the bedtime routine fairly similar (bath, snack, calm down time, Veggie Tales or educational show/movie, books, prayers, bed), but I began spending just a bit more time with him back in his room at put-down time since switching to the bed (p.s. I mostly put him down, though he will go down for Seth if I'm not here).

For probably the past year, I've discovered that singing the Lord's Prayer is like hypnosis for him, so we've done that quite a bit. Since the switch to the bed, I started doing that every night when he is tucked in. The first night he was in his bed, as soon as I sang "Amen" he started saying "Jes-a" (Jesus). I didn't really know what he meant, but I assumed he meant "Jesus loves me." I started singing it, and he smiled a huge smile, and when I was done, rolled over and got comfy. I was SHOCKED that he didn't put up a fight when I left.

So, needless to say, the Lord's Prayer and Jesus Loves Me have become our nightly routine. He expects them and says it when we begin put-down. Well, lately, he's added another layer of cuteness into the mix. The whole time I'm singing, he alternates putting his left hand and right hand directly to my lips so that I will kiss them in between words. Tonight, he did it for both songs, and a few times, even sat up so I could kiss his cheeks in between the hands. And, just like every night, as soon as Jesus Loves Me is over, he rolls over and gets comfortable.

I love our new bedtime routine, and pray it continues to be smooth, even when Addison arrives. It gives us a few minutes of just us each night.

Such a sweet boy...love him.

Pregnancy Highlights: 28 Weeks

How far along: 28 weeks (though I originally wrote this whole post as though it was 29 - whoops!). She's nearly 15 inches long, and can now see light through the womb! HELLO, third trimester! :)

Total weight gain/loss: At last check, 15 pounds, but who knows what it is now. I don't have another appointment until 4/18.

Maternity clothes: Of course.

Best moment this week: Getting Carter transitioned to his big boy bed, switching all the furniture between his and Addison's room, and ordering A's bedding FINALLY!
Gender: girl

Movement: Constantly, and always when I'm ready to sleep. Yep, she's a Ran child. :)

Food cravings: I'm sort of into cereal right now, though wouldn't call it a craving.

What I miss: I still miss the sleeping. I just cannot get comfortable, the right temperature, or to a point where my bladder doesn't feel the constant need to explode.

Sleep: See above.

What I am looking forward to: Getting A's bedding in the mail so we can pick out paint colors and get things underway!!!

Symptoms: Hands falling asleep, puffiness at the end of the day (ALREADY!! UGH!), some indigestion.

The Big Boy Bed.

Well, Carter is officially a big boy now. The past few weeks he has slept little bits here and there in his bed but not without some added drama. On Thursday, Seth completely removed the crib so that we could make the official switch to the big boy bed. D-day was Thursday night. And can I just say, it has been WORLD'S better than we ever would have thought. He thinks he is so cool, and is doing really well. Over the past four nights of sleeping in the bed, we have had to tend to him a few times, but he has not gotten out of the bed yet, which is HUGE! He also fell out twice, but I have pillows along the floor until he stops falling out to soften the fall. :) OH, and he slept in til 6:21 one day and 6:30 this morning. Glorious day!

It looks so tiny where the crib used to be!

My big project for Saturday was to switch Carter and Addison's furniture. Since she is going to have the crib, we switched all of that furniture over and brought the white stuff into Carter's room. It actually looks really cute and makes his room look bigger because there aren't two huge dressers anymore. He seems to really like his new room set-up. The rocker/ottoman will be moved to Addison's room once we organize in there a bit and actually remove the guest bed. Right now, there is a full size guest bed, two dressers, a crib, and a whole lotta baby stuff. You could go crazy just looking in her room! (Hint: mom, I need help). :)

Anyway, we're very pleased with the progress so far and hope it continues for a very, very long time!

Also, sidenote to the bed, but today is my mom's birthday, so happy birthday mom!! We hope you have a great day! :)

Bentley Update - Surgery, Part 2

Bentley is doing pretty well. In fact, yesterday, he seemed significantly more lively than he did after his first surgery and this one was more serious/invasive. He did his business and ate within an hour or two of being home which were the things they told us to watch for.

Overnight and this morning, he's been a bit whiny and unsettled. He's on a Fentanyl patch for pain, but I had no idea of the side effects. When I called the surgeon to schedule his 2-week follow up this morning, I asked those questions. They said that this patch makes dogs very anxious so it's completely normal. She said today and tomorrow morning will probably be the worst.

Of course, he's sort of refusing food now, but she said to get anything in him we can so that we don't have to remove the patch (if he won't eat by this afternoon, we have to remove it which just equals more pain). I told her human food should NOT be an issue, and I was right. I gave him a scrambled egg with cheese and he destroyed it. She said to try a hot dog at lunch. I think we may have a happy dog at that point. :)

Anyway, he lost another baby tooth in the front and the canine tooth on the bottom right, looking at him. He is back in the cone for two more weeks and she told us to keep him leashed when outside for two weeks. I have one thing to say to that: hahahahahahaha. Again I say....three-year-old, male boxer. Hard to "keep him down."

Thanks for prayers for the little guy. Keep 'em coming, especially that this biopsy comes back completely clear. The one surgeon told us yesterday that Bentley is the first dog she's ever seen that has needed to have this surgery repeated. OF COURSE, though I'm not surprised. He's our medical marvel. :)

Bye, Bye Baby

I hated when Carter no longer used the baby swing, bouncer, exersaucer, the bottle. So I'm about to turn to a sobbing mess on the floor when I think about how my little baby boy will be spending his last night in his crib tonight. I hated even writing that sentence. :(

How is he no longer this little? Boo hoo. Our doctor suggested we make the transition a few weeks ago to begin and get through the "nighttime hell" before Addison arrives. But we just had too many plans away from home to make that work well. Seth begins his Easter break tomorrow, so it's the perfect time (well, not PERFECT because Bentley is also getting surgery tomorrow, but is there really ever going to be a perfect time?!?! Probably not).

We thought of starting tonight but she said to make it really work, the crib needs to be removed from the room {insert sob} and Seth can't do that tonight. So tomorrow while Bentley is in surgery and I'm at work, Seth will remove the crib and we'll rearrange his big boy room before bed. The doctor has forewarned me that we will likely be sleeping on the floor beside him, at least until he falls asleep, for a few days or even up to two weeks. I'm praying it doesn't take that long because that does not sound like fun while pregnant, nor do I want him getting used to us being right there. We also need to get used to a cute little towhead staring us right in the eyes from beside our bed at all hours of the night. :)

So tomorrow, as his mama tries not to have a nervous breakdown, we'll get all excited about his new bed, load him up on the stuffed animals and hit the cute little toddler bed sack.

I may even bring the mini marshmallows for bribery. ;)