Baby ultrasound tomorrow

Last post of the night I swear! It's rare that I find the free time to sit down and blog so I just do several all at once. I figure it saves our memories just the same. :)

Well, tomorrow is the big gender reveal (if the baby cooperates). We have our 20 week ultrasound tomorrow morning and if the baby will spread it's legs, we can finally find out if it's a boy or girl. I am so nervous/anxious/excited. 

I know the baby is at least alive and well for now- he or she has really started moving around this week! So, now the question is "does everything look normal? like the heart, spine, etc. Since I work in a program that serves little bitties with medical conditions that lead to developmental delays, I am all too aware of what can go wrong during fetal development. We feel comfortable handling something like Down Syndrome, but things like heart defects and neural tube defects scare the bejesus out of me. Just trying to keep the faith that this baby will be healthy and look great tomorrow. 

As far as the sex of the baby... AJ thinks it's a girl, my mom keeps changing her mind, and I have NO idea. This pregnancy is different from Tate in that I want to eat ALL the time, have tons of back pain, and have gained weight more quickly. But, who knows is that's just the difference in pregnancy or a difference in the sex of the baby. I don't believe any of those old wives' tales- none were true with Tate. I think AJ would be totally happy either way. I would really like a girl so I can experience both. But, I wanted a girl with Tate but then couldn't imagine having a girl once we found out he was a boy. Boys are SO much fun so I know we will be excited either way. 

Tate is going to Gramma's for the weekend so I'm sure I will spend the weekend either shopping for girl's clothes or sorting through all of Tate's baby clothes. :) We took a whole bunch of photos this weekend of pink balloons and then blue balloons so that we will be ready to announce either way as soon as we know. There's one pic of each on my phone to send as a text to my parents, brother, and best friend. Then, we'll come home and put the rest of our pics (including one with the baby's name) on Facebook for the world to know. 

I know I won't be able to fall asleep for hours tonight- it's like Christmas Eve!!! 

Hurry up tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Swimming lessons were a bust

Well, I had a previous post about how swimming lessons were going pretty well and that we were all having fun. Yeah, not so much. We went Mon, Tues, Wed and then had to skip Thursday because Tate got a REALLY bad diaper rash. As in the kid didn't bathe for 4 days because his butt was so raw. Came out of nowhere. Ugh! So, we went back Mon for our second week and it was the same (or worse) than the previous Tues and Wed. Tate is used to free play all evening and he's pretty tired in the evenings. Apparently, this is not the best time to have a structured activity. We made the executive decision to not go back after Monday. It's just not worth the fight. We were so rushed in the evening with trying to eat dinner, get changed into swim suits, get sunscreen on everyone, and then keep Tate happy while we drove all the way across town. Then we fought with him (aka bribed, spoke sternly, tried to make it look like fun, every trick in the book) for the first 25 minutes of every lesson. He would fuss and whine and cry and we couldn't even hear the instructor most of the time. He finally liked the last 5 minutes of each class, but was ready to go home and sleep by the end of each session. Why go if it makes everything harder and no one is having fun?!

The pace of the class was soo slow and my Tatey is a go-go-go kinda kiddo. All but one of the other kids were there to just get comfortable being in the water. My goal was to learn how to keep Tate from drowning- he's like a frickin eel! The only part of the class that Tate actually liked was standing on the side of the pool and jumping in. He could do without kicking, scooping his arms, and blowing bubbles. He did kinda like going under the water. I feel like I learned enough to work with him on my own. Next year, we'll go for a morning session! And in the meantime, we'll go swimming on our own in the kiddie pool and do just fine. :)

Visiting West Plains

We took Tate down to visit Grandma and Grandpa Wahlquist in West Plains, MO June 15-17. We drove down to Mammoth Springs, Arkansas to see their new aquarium and to feed the ducks at the spring. Well, the new aquarium wasn't open yet, so we visited the old one which is basically 6-7 small tanks of fish. Not impressive, but Tate liked it. Then we went to feed the ducks, but they were full from the people right before us. We did get to feed a muskrat that was swimming around and a couple of the ducks nibbled our bread. Tate wasn't too interested in throwing in the bread anyways. He really just wanted to run around and be crazy. So we let him. I love that it's so easy to entertain a toddler! Here's some pics from our trip.

 Tate and Daddy getting ready to go feed the ducks

The muskrat that was swimming around and snacking on our bread 

Daddy was trying to lure the ducks to come closer so Tate could feed them 

 Tate getting ready to throw his bread

 Good throw!

Trying to him interested in the ducks 

 The spring is so pretty! 

AJ's dad used to go swimming in it as a child. Apparently it's REALLY cold!

Taking a water break after running around with daddy

Swimming Lessons

Tate has had 2 days of swimming lessons so far- one good and one bad. He LOVED the first day, followed some directions, and generally had a blast. Last night, he was super excited when we got to the pool, but started fussing almost immediately when we got in the water. He wanted to play with duckies and then a ball or two balls and he just generally didn't want to follow a structured class- he just wants to go, go, go at his own (fast) pace. He cried and screamed for 97% of the lesson. Fun! Luckily, it's a class of 1 and 2 year olds so most of them were crying at some point. We didn't get any pics last night since we were too busy trying to bribe Tate into cooperating, but here's a look at our first day's lessons. It's fun because AJ and I both get to participate!

Life update

Here's a taste of what we are doing or want to be doing these days:

Tate starts swimming lessons on Monday- the kind where we go in the water with him. I'm so excited! It's his first "activity" and I'm so looking forward to it. He's a little fish so I'm sure he will absolutely love it. Just hope he doesn't throw huge fits about having to follow directions.

We've definitely hit the "terrible 2's"- he's argumentative and just plain crabby sometimes. His favorite new phrase is "I don't want it" said while throwing an item. We get random screaming fits about nothing in particular (having to take a bath, if mommy has to go potty, having to get dressed).

 It's fun.

We priced getting new flooring since ours is nasty, but all we can afford is more cheap-o carpet like we have right now. And we've found new dog pee spots lately so what's the point of getting new carpet if they're just gonna pee on it. We'll just spend our money on getting the carpets professionally cleaned 2-3 times a year. 

We also need a new deck, but again that's just not an option right now.

 Hoping this one will last til next summer.

 

Tate's language has exploded! He is consistently using 3-4 word phrases. It's kinda ridiculous. And he comes up with something new almost everyday. A couple days ago, he wanted a "ba-baid" for his owwie on his "yeg". I asked him who was on his bandaid and  he replied "Fee-a-fuhb" which is toddler for "Phineas and Ferb" which was indeed correct. This morning he got very upset when "Meeah Mouse" was over. And he just asked me "See that Mama?" when he hit something with his golf club. Smart kid I tell ya!

Our biggest challenge continues to be Tate's sleeping- as in he doesn't. Ok, he does, but it's not soundly. It's still usually alternating every other night. One night he sleeps great and wakes up maybe once or twice looking for his binky. Other nights (like last night), he wakes up screaming every 5-30 minutes all night long. AJ and I take turns being on the night shift. Last night was my turn and I was so tired that I just climbed into bed with him at some point and stayed there. He would wake up screaming even though I was right there to comfort him. Sometimes, it's a "montoo" (monster) and other times he'll say that something hurts. I just don't know. Should be fun if he's still doing this once the baby comes- then no one will sleep. :)

And finally, speaking of the baby, our ultrasound is scheduled for June 29th. We are so excited! This baby better spread it's legs! Can't wait to see if it's a boy or girl- makes it so much more real. If it's a boy, I won't be doing much shopping. If it's a girl, I'll be busy selling most of Tate's clothes and buying super cute pink clothes! We are working hard on picking out names, but we agree on almost nothing. I already did the blood work for determining my risk of having certain disabilities in the baby- waiting on those results and we'll know a lot more after the ultrasound. Anxious to make sure everything is normal or start making preparations if there is something going on. So thankful I'm in the special ed field, because I'm not nearly as scared of Down Syndrome or other things as some other parents-to-be. But, always hoping that everything is normal!

That's all for now. I have to go watch Blue's Clues with my cranker bean and get packing for our trip to West Plains later today. We're headed to visit AJ's parents for Father's Day. I'm most excited to go swimming at their community pool which is usually deserted. :)

Future Pilot?

How has it already been so long since I last posted?! Well, let's start with a post of mostly pics of Tate's latest trip to the airport- there are definite perks to having a charter pilot for a daddy. We took our dinner out to the airport one day and ate dinner there and then played in the airplanes.

It's a shame he didn't enjoy this. :)