Hello, faithful readers!

Sorry there haven't been many blogs lately.  We've just been spending our days at home, me growing a human and chasing after a toddler, Pete selling shoes and working hard to provide for us.  I work about one-half day a week, if none of my clients cancel, and they cancel all.the.time. 

One thing that has become part of our weekly routine is going to the pool.  We usually get there two-to-three times a week and it has really become something we all look forward to.  (to which we all look forward didn't sound right, either, so, sorry about the dangling preposition - I hate them, too.)

Anyhoo, a couple of times per month the pool hosts a Twilight Swim where the pool is open extended hours and they have special events such as sno cones, or a movie.  We took Ellie to her First Twilight swim a few weeks ago and she loved it!  Try as we might we still only stayed out until 7:30pm, well within the pool's regular operating hours, but Ellie had a blast with the glo necklaces and music. 

Here she shows off her mad dancing skills. 



Why yes, yes that IS a group of 7-year-old girls singing karaoke in the background.  Also, I was supposed to eat half of her ice cream sandwich.  Pretty sure I didn't get any of it.  Good thing she's so cute. 

Hello Third Trimester.

Bye bye bee-bo.

I just looked back at my blogs from two years ago and I have used both of these phrases before when I was pregnant with Ellie, but this time my belly button popped!!  Not just stretched out flat, but, looks-like-a-little-bird-beak popped.  Several weeks ago.  I also seem to have a MUCH larger belly than I did with Ellie, but I'm still measuring small/on track so maybe I'm imagining things.

I also guess it's not really hello third trimester since I'm more than a month into it, we're on the final countdown now - less than two months!  Or exactly two months if you go by my updated due date of 9/09/13.  As long as my blood pressure continues to be nice and low (yesterday it 100/57), baby sister can cook until she's ready to be born and no one will push medical interventions on me, so I don't really care when she's officially 'due'.

We have gotten two books for Ellie on becoming a sister, and she knows that baby sister is in my tummy, and she knows which clothes are baby sister's and which crib is hers, etc.  We think we've done all that we can to prepare her for having another baby in the house, and will continue to try to ease the transition for her.  I've also jotted down a few little gifts I will get for her to open each day that I'm not home when she wakes up in the morning (stickers, stamps, etc.)  Although, I have checked and she is allowed to stay at the hospital with us as long as Pete is in the room.  So, hopefully, we'll all be able to stay together as a family once L&D is finished.

Pregnant lady loves this time around:  ice water, Sonic ice water, iced coffee/caramel macchiatos, watermelon (Notice a thirst theme?  It's never ending.)

Pregnant lady wishes she wasn't pregnant because:  I have all sorts of aches and pains I didn't have last time.  Nothing huge, but I can no longer go on long walks around the neighborhood pushing the stroller and have had to stop attending barre classes.  I never felt a round ligament with Ellie, but baby sister sure is stretching them out.  Everyone assures me this is typical of repeat pregnancies because of looser ligaments the second time around, blah, blah, blah....

Here's the fun part:  belly photos!!

16 weeks

26 weeks - ready for our 8th anniversary dinner

29ish weeks

31 weeks - this was yesterday morning

The 'nursery nook' is coming together - will post a full blog when it's finished.

Fourth of July Weekend.

SO RAINY!!  We felt so lucky that the fourth was on a Thursday this year because Pete could take Friday off with no one really expecting otherwise, and we would have a four-day-weekend as a family.  We did have a weekend as a family, and it was nice, but man-oh-man was it wet!!  It started raining Thursday morning and didn't stop until about noon on Sunday.

Pete has a sinus infection, so we weren't sure if Ale 8 Man would make the Bluegrass 10,000 on the morning of the fourth, but a visit to the Urgent Treatment Center Wednesday night got him hopped up on an antibiotic and some allergy medicine so he was ready to run in the a.m.  (I have since gotten the same cold/infection and am not on any medicines because of le bebe in le tummy and it is NO FUN.)

Ellie asked for her Daddy as soon as she woke up, and was so excited when I told her he was running a race and that we were going to go watch him.  And once we had walked out to the course:  "My daddy run race," "My daddy race peoples," "peoples running," "that mommy running," "That daddy in blue shirt running."  Her phrases crack me up!  It rained the whole time, but not too hard, so we had a good time.

Pete ran 39:00 and came in 53rd - not too shabby for a field of over 5,000!

 

After nap, we were lucky enough to have been invited to a cookout at the Mack's house up in northern Kentucky.  Matt and Jen were spending the holiday weekend at Jen's parents' house and knew we would also want to see Baby Kate and the Wheelers - so so glad they included us!!  Alas, it was still raining, so we had to cancel plans for a kiddie pool and backyard cookout.  But, the Mack's have a lovely home, so we had an equally good time indoors.  Ellie practiced her big sister skills on Kate and I got to (briefly) catch up with Jen.  Jen's mom is a children's librarian, so there were many many good books for Ellie to read, and have read to her.  Another special treat - some of the books were in German!

Friday we left rainy Lexington again and drove to drizzle-y, cloudy Louisville and met Audrey and Andrew at the zoo.  Ellie was excited to go to the zoo and was talking about seeing animals and Aunt Audrey the whole ride to Louisville, but when we arrived, she was terrified!  We thought she'd be really excited to see the giraffes, but she wanted to be put in her stroller and pulled the sunshade down to protect herself.  She warmed up to some of the animals, and liked the flamingos, bears, tiger, zebras, lions, monkeys, gorillas, and hippopotamus.  She did NOT like (was afraid of) the elephants, camels, goats, giraffes, and probably several other animals.

Saturday morning was our friend Audrey's 2nd Birthday Party.  She had a tea party at her Vivi's house.  It had to be moved indoors at the last minute because of - you guessed it - rain, but again, Amy's mom has a lovely home, so once everything was inside, the girls had a really good time.  It was fun to see all of the girls in their cutest tea party dresses.  Ellie really liked sipping out of a real tea cup and playing dress up with pearls and little high heels.

Sunday morning was our first rainy day without anything do to or somewhere to go in the morning.  We spent most of the morning in our basement, before 9:30am we had played with Play Doh, stickers, stamps, markers, western town, blocks, balls, dress up, chalk, paint, etc.  We were so ready for the rain to end!  Ellie kept asking to play outside and go to the pool - I felt so bad explaining to her that we couldn't.  Then, finally, just before eleven, the sun peeked out!!  We went to Local Taco for brunch and came home and had a brief wagon ride around the neighborhood before nap.  After nap we went to Sonic for slushies (and a bag of ice for the pregnant lady) and came home to play in the backyard.  For dinner we were finally able to use our grill to have an American Cookout for Independence Day.  The menu was from the July issue of Cooking Light, and was so good!!

 

 

 

So that was our weekend.  Not quite what he had planned, but a fun four days together nonetheless.

Cape Cod 2013.

We had a great time again this year staying with family on Cape Cod.  I don't feel like I have many pictures, but that's mostly because we were busy swimming and playing and running around so I didn't take pictures.  

Ellie has flown several times prior to this trip, but this was her first time with her own seat.  I wasn't sure how well she would do staying in her seat and keeping her seat belt on.  She was a champ!  She loved that all three of us had the same seat belt and waited for us all to "click" in.  Each flight, before we landed I told her there would be a big bump and a woosh and she would say "bump bump!" and "woosh!" and was not scared at all.  She is still waking up in the morning and asking to go on an airplane.

Grandma and the Pranns stayed at a house down the street from us, so we would often drop by after breakfast to say hello.  (Mostly because we knew Grandma and Uncle Corky were early risers like Ellie.)  I don't have a single picture of Ellie and Corky which is so sad because she love love loved her UNCLE CORKY!!!  Something about the three Wrenns being together (Corky's middle name is Wrenn, too) - they were instant buddies.

Ellie was also obsessed with Maren, who was the next closest in age to Ellie (by 9 years).  In the beginning Maren wasn't sure what to do with all the attention, but I think she ended up liking Ellie.

More Grandma time with Dressy Bessy at the other house.

Ellie loved the "blue boat" and was so happy when her daddy took her for a ride in it.

After a couple of days, Ellie finally warmed up to Uncle Richard and decided he was good enough to share her letters.

 Johnny was there!!

 And for one day only, Auggie came for a visit!  (again, no pics of Emma or Joey, boo.)

Ellie loved chasing the puppies.

I was so pleased that Ellie was not fearful of the water.  She woke up each morning wanting to see the boats and go to the ocean. 

 I was there, too.  Here's photographic proof. 

So, not a lot of sequential storytelling to go along with the pictures, but it was a relaxing five days with extended family.  We had eighteen people around the dinner table each night, and it was wonderful to catch up on everyone's lives and to hear stories from before I was born.  My cousin Pamela's kids are the nicest, warmest, group and they were so nice to Ellie.  Everyone welcomes us with open arms and we just love it.