21 days to go!

21 days to go before Luke arrives and we're still trucking along! We had a relaxing, yet productive, Memorial Day weekend and we're excited that it's now June! Last Thursday we went to a Memorial Day picnic at the base and had burgers and chips. Will got to play in a bouncy castle but there were some older kids in there as well so he didn't last too long before he wanted out. Mostly he just liked taking in the sights and sounds. It was very hot but luckily the picnic area was shaded, so we hung out in the shade most of the time.

David had Friday and Monday off so we had a four-day weekend with Daddy! Our goal was to use the weekend to get all of the remaining baby gear out of storage and cleaned up. I think we made it- the infant car seat is ready to go and we have all of the other baby gear mostly ready. Clothes and bottles are washed and there is not much else to do. Will has attempted to use some of the baby gear (like one of the baby seats we have) but mostly he understands that it's all for "Baby Luke."

On Saturday David took Will to the playground on base (also shaded under a canopy!) while I went to Labor and Delivery for some fetal monitoring, which I'm doing twice a week now. Everything went great at my appointment and Will had a lot of fun at the park. That afternoon we managed to get a lot done around the house, with Will's great help. Sunday we went to church and out to lunch. After lunch we did some furniture shopping. We were initially in the market for a new kitchen table. One of the legs on ours is loose and wobbly and can't be tightened. It's not an emergency yet but we're not sure how it will do the first time a kid (or two) decides to climb up there. We didn't find a new table we liked but we did find a great deal on a new dresser. So Will got a new dresser, which frees up his old dresser for Luke. The new dresser is wider than it is tall so I worry less that Will is going to tip it over trying to climb up the drawers (he's a big climber!). We're starting to transition Will to a more "toddler" room and Luke will get all of the nursery gear at the new house.

Will's room is morphing into a cars-themed big-boy room...as if there were any other theme we could go with. This boy doesn't go anywhere without his cars! He began having problems carrying all of the cars he wanted to have with him at any given time. Which quickly led to meltdowns. We've since showed him how to use a little bag he has- that is in the shape of a school bus- to put all of his cars in. He carries it nearly everywhere when we leave the house. Now, when it's time to leave, he goes to get his "school bus bag" and puts his cars in there. Then he's ready to go!

On Monday we did some car shopping. We test drove the Toyota Sienna and the Volkswagen Routan. That's right...we've said goodbye to our youth and we're in the market for a minivan. We really like the Sienna and are thinking about buying one but haven't made the decision as to when. One feature that sold me is that it has a back up camera. Every time you put it in reverse, there is a screen on the front console that shows you what is behind you. It's like music to our practical, safety-nut ears. Especially since the visibility in our Pilot is not so great. Anyway, we haven't made the leap yet but we may sometime soon. Will was pretty cooperative at the dealerships. He loved looking at the cars in the showroom and seemed to want to take all of them- consistent with his car-hoarding ways.

We have been without a baby-sitter for a few months now but we just hired a new one who started this week. I had been just trying to work while Will naps and in the evenings/weekends as needed. But his napping is inconsistent and I decided I could use some extra help/work time. So, our new sitter started yesterday and Will seems to like her. She will be here twice a week until I have Luke. Then, I think she is going to be available to help during the last three weeks of July- after the grandparents have gone back home and before we make our big move. Right now we're planning on having her come five days a week, four hours a day over those three weeks. I'll probably try to work some but mostly she'll be here to provide an extra set of hands while Luke is still really young, I'm still recovering and we're trying to get ready for our move. The next few months are going to be very challenging and we're really trying to think about how to make things easier on us.

Speaking of challenges, if Luke isn't at least as big as Will was, I'll be very surprised. It's getting really hard to carry this kid around. I think the official medical term is "GINORMOUS BABY!" Each day brings all sorts of fun things like heartburn, itchiness, hip pain, pressure on my bladder, painful kicks to the ribs and other goodies. I'm having more of the Braxton-Hicks (pre-labor) contractions, which they say are supposed to be painless, but they can border on uncomfortable/painful. Surprisingly, I've had very little back pain, so I'm thankful for that. I've also been sleeping better over the last couple weeks- aside from a night or two of insomnia. David got me a special pregnancy pillow around Christmas and it was always uncomfortable to use. But now that I'm bigger, it fits just right and really helps me sleep. I don't have much swelling at all (compared to Will) and my blood pressure is still normal. One week from today Luke can be considered "full term." I sure am ready to go when he is.

Poor Will is cooped up in the house most days. Though he is usually cooperative, there are some days he gets bad cabin fever. The combination of me having no energy, not being able to move around well and it being so darn hot out just does not bode well for his outdoor time. I'm afraid we'll have some bad habits to break once we get back to normal. For example, Will watches Cars about every day now. He never gets tired of it and it's a guaranteed break for me. Each morning I tell myself that we're not watching Cars today...then each afternoon there comes a time when he's begging for Cars and I'm exhausted. And guess what happens?! But at some point soon we'll need to stop the madness of the same movie every day! I'm hoping the new babysitter will get him some more outdoor time and then in just a couple of weeks the first wave of grandparent help will be here.

Earlier this week, Will confiscated one of the boxes a delivery came in and played in it for the next several days. He is fascinated by the concept of dark and light. He would sit in the box, close the flaps and say "Uh oh- dark." Then he'd open the flaps and yell "light!". He does the same thing when we step into the garage to get into the car. He says "Uh oh! Dark!" and then when I turn on the light he yells, "Light." Then the other day in his room, he was pretending like he was going to sleep in his big-boy bed. I tucked him in and he pointed to his lamp and said "light off." Very clearly a command. I turned the light off and he said, "Dark!" He has mastered several other opposites, like up and down, but he seems really interested in dark and light.

Despite his TV-watching, Will is still reading a lot each day. He really loves his books. He has gotten to the point where, for his favorite books, he remembers what part of the story goes with each page. Often he will start saying the words that go with a particular page before we even get there. He seems to have a very good memory for his stories. He's not to the point where he recites it verbatim, but he'll throw out several words that appear on the page. His favorites at the moment seem to be "Go, Dog! Go.", "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham."

Will has fallen off the nap wagon lately but he's still doing a much better job eating. In fact, the other night we ordered pizza and made a startling discovery. Will has always liked pizza but a large has always been enough for the three of us and we never felt like he was dipping into our share too much. On Sunday, however, he ate two full slices of the large pizza! And he still asked for more after that! David calls him "Pizza the Hut." It was amazing how much he put away. It was like a peak into our future when we'll probably have to order a pizza for me and David and then a pizza for Will and a pizza for Luke. He's doing a better job telling me when he's hungry and what he wants to eat. His favorite things to eat nowadays are Nutrigrain bars, blueberry muffins and cheese. He can open the fridge and reach the cheese drawer so sometimes he just helps himself. He seems like maybe he's not as skinny as he was last month, but every time he starts the fill out a little he shoots up in height and is back to being really skinny again. I'm just happy that he's eating better. Now if we could only get the napping to be consistent...