Getting Ready for P2

As summer is coming to an end and I'm getting ready to go back to work we are also busy preparing for P2. She is due any time in the next 3 weeks! Here are some of the additions have completed.

Most important we have diapers, lots of diapers. We will continue to use gDiapers so mostly it was just stripping the diapers that have been sitting in a box for a year so setting them up nice and pretty so they will be ready for P2. On the right you can see the Little G's for newborn P2, they snap down a little in the front so they will not bother her umbilical cord as normally G's are worn pretty high. Next you will see our size Small G's which we hope will last until S3 is potty trained, should give us another 6 months. and on the left are S3's diapers. With the increase in diapers we decided to get a 2nd diaper pail which should be here some time this weekend.

Next we needed a solution for some clothes, since the girls will be sharing our second bedroom and we didn't have room for another dresser we are going to try a hanging bag for P2's clothes until she outgrows it.

Finally, a closet door still in need of a door handle. Since remodeling our house during our pregnancy with S3 we have not had a door in her closet. Since our big girl is sleeping in a full size bed and can get out of bed on her own we decided installing the door had made it to the top of our priority list. Thank you Dan for supplying the tools we were missing to get this job completed!

My friend Heather Lucas was so gracious in her offer to throw me a baby shower for P2. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with some great ladies. We are so blessed to have received so many great things.

Before S3 was born we decided she needed some wall art and we had some large canvas' that had been used to decorate my house in Texas, that just didn't fit in our house here in WA. After a quick paint job we added her name and words that we hoped would describe our daughter.

With P2 on her way we decided she needed some wall art to add to her sister's. We found large cardboard letter's at Joann's and some pretty pink spray paint at Home Depot then sat down to figure out what words we hoped would describe P2. We decided to try and base the words off the letters in her name which proved to be slightly challenging especially the Y, although we were able to several good ones and discarded many quite awful words. Scrapbook letters, some hot glue and clear coat finished off this project beautifully.

Lastly a beautiful smile to brighten our day! At 1 day shy of 18 months old, S3 has grown up so much and is such a wonderful joy to get to see grow every day.

Pretend Play

I have to say it is amazing to see your child grow, learn, imitate and explore.

Today as we were getting ready to go, S3 and I were hanging out in the living room and she brings me 2 Weebles and a Weeble car, I think the first time she's ever paid attention to the car. I have her set the car on the ground, hand her a weeble and instruct her to put it in the car, same with the 2nd weeble. After the Weebles are situated I tell her to push the car and she does! Pretend play with a little instruction.

Just a couple of minutes later she is given her stuffed puppy dog and walks over to the couch where I am sitting and without any prompting runs the puppy along the edge of the couch saying "woof, woof." She has been working on animal names and noises and I'm sure it has been assigned to this stuffed dog, but she got the dog and started to pretend play with it all by herself!

An update on the big bed
S3 is still sleeping in her big bed and has only fallen out once, but went right back to sleep after P1 rescued her from the floor. Last night she decided to climb out of bed instead of going to sleep, but was able to get herself back into bed, curled up on her pillows and went to sleep when no one came to rescue her from her room. Nap time today was a slight struggle after about 10 minutes of being in her room she came to her bedroom door and started banging on the door. Since we already had food in the oven we brought her out to eat. After eating she went back to her bed which she then climbed out of, but again was able to climb back into bed and take a good 2 hour nap. Tonight after a very tired fuss she went right to sleep!

Sleep

 So we've talked about it and discussed it and we finally did it. After a late night at the Everett Aquasox game, we left S3 to sleep on the big bed in her room. We laid her down, gave her a pacifier, covered her in a blanket, gave her kisses and shut the door. We heard a few small noises then quiet. We awoke at 1:30 to cries, P1 went to check on her and said she was not awake, just sitting up. After being laid back down, she is still asleep at 7:34am. I did risk waking her up a few minutes ago so we could share some pictures of our little girl sleeping in her BIG bed.

And we woke up well after 9 in a very good mood,

 Ready to read a good book.

Saturday

This weekend we have a visitor. Paige the dog is here while her family is out of town for the weekend. Her and S2 are getting themselves into plenty of trouble trying to wrestle in the living room, but she is much more patient with S3 than S2 even pretends to be.

Paige & S3

 Today we got to spend some time with Cousin Robbie and Tasha at Goldbar Nature Trails. It was the first time S1 had ever been there and P1 had not visited in 15 years. It was a nice relaxing mid day adventure. The real reason for discussing Goldbar Nature Trails was not our company, but one of P1's favorite things about S1's cousin Brian and his family, specifically his oldest daughter Emily. On his first trip to their house he learned about Daddy Cups and after crinkling his own can of beer was delivered a fresh cold beer by Emily, just like she delivered a Daddy Cup to her dad and Uncle Jake. He tells everyone this story. So his own story started today. S3 discovered the 12 pack of cans and was very persistent in trying to get one out. After many minutes she finally succeeded, but instead of taking it to daddy, preceded to return to her own camp chair and try to drink. This worked great for her until she finally dropped the can one to many times and it sprung a leak and was quickly removed from her procession. Don't worry she didn't get to try any beer.

Daddy Cup?

 After spending part of our day in Goldbar we headed back home to check on the dogs and our house before heading to the park for our neighbor Yolanda's 21+39th Birthday. S3 enjoyed eating watermelon and chicken meatballs. Thanks to D.J., Yolanda's great nephew, she also enjoyed 'riding' a bicycle.

I'm riding a bike!

Ting of Green

You remember your mom telling you to wash your hair after you go swimming. Yep, I took a lot of showers as a kid because a lot would not describe the amount of time I spent in the pool. Well, apparently, baby hair turns green after just a few hours even after rinsing. Good News, a bath and some baby shampoo and she's back to a beautiful golden blonde.

Choirs

I guess it's never to early to start teaching your children how to do choirs...

S3 puts dirty laundry in the laundry basket, trash in the trashcan, wipes the table after she eats, wipes the floor with a rag, puts the penny in the money jug, puts clothes in her drawers, put her books away, put her toys away, flushes the toilet, put S2 food back in the it's bowl, closes doors, closes the washer, loads and unloads the washer, waters the grass, flowers and herself.

Oh and manners...

She has learned to sign please and thank you and has started to try to say both.

Other fun things she's doing....

Clinking glasses before taking a drink, holds hands while we pray, gets upset when we don't hold her hand to pray, holds hands while walking in public, try's to say I Love You, gets upset when she gets a timeout in her crib, gives hugs and kisses.

To Much Fun

After we recovered from Tobin's 1st Birthday and our trip to the Big Zoo, we got a chance to go to our local petting zoo. Several of our friends met us there! S3's favorite animal was the duck, of course, but we also saw rabbits, sheep, goats, chickens, cows, big horses, and little horses.

Getting Brave enough to pet the Sheep.

We liked Tiny.

After the petting zoo we went to check out the rest of Forest Park and really enjoyed the water park. We don't have many outdoor pools here in Washington, but you can find these water parks everywhere.

 Saturday was full of Mr. Green Softball. Our friend Heidi came out and took some pictures of the team during their 2nd and 3rd games and hung out for the team BBQ. Three of the players participated in the Homerun contest. Cousin Robbie made it to the 3rd round without hitting any homerun's, Matt 'Tater' had a good showing, but Anthony Bader came in first and one a bat along with a chance to compete against 2 guys who hit the ball really far with a chance to win 2 more bats. Congrats to Anthony, he sure seemed proud to go home and show his wife and kids what he had won. The team came in 4th in the tournament which was great considering they were missing 7 of their regular players, and I think they had a lot of fun in the sun. That's right it was Sunny here on Saturday, actually it's been sunny a lot in the last week or two.

Sunday we got the pleasure of hanging out with our friends Gareth and Heather while P1 helped them move the big stuff into their new house. In the evening Jeff & Ayla invited us and some friends over to welcome there new puppy Mac into the mix.

Monday, S3 got a special package in the mail from Mimi & Buddy.

She really likes her booster seat and sitting at the table like mommy & daddy.

Today, wow that's a lot since Friday morning, S1 and S3 attempted to give P1 as much study time as they could since it is only a week until finals! After a morning of driving around looking for P1's favorite books on CD, we had a short nap in the car before all 3 of us headed to the doctor to hear P2's heartbeat. Only 6.5 weeks until our due date. The doctor says everything looks good from his perspective. After our appointment S3 watered the flowers, and herself, in the front yard.

After a wardrobe change we headed to the park to meet some friends. Thanks to Dana for inviting us and Melinda for joining us. S3 is so brave, she went to the top of the big twisty slide and went down on her own as S1 ran across the playground to catch her as she ended up head first at the bottom of the slide. Once she was in mommy's arms she said "Weeeee." I guess the turbulence did not bother her to much as she ventured down the slide a few more times, before exploring other areas of the park. After a quick trip to the outlet mall, S3 fell asleep in the car before we could meet up with Ms. Michelle, so she got to go home and sleep in her crib and S1 got some mommy time, P1 cooked dinner and then it was almost bedtime.

Summer is still going strong and we are excited to be joining several of our friends for a Mariner's game tomorrow afternoon.....