Family Time

Today Rachel, Stephen and I went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens to enjoy the new water features they have for kids (and adults!). It's such a great garden and what they have done for the kids is just fantastic. So many things for them to get into like digging in dirt for worms, playing in the sand to make sandcastles and little "ponds" and water features to cool off in or just rinse off the dirt! This is the second time Rachel and I have been there and once again the other adults didn't seem to want to enjoy the water too. Oh well, their loss! I can't imagine watching my kids cool off in the water while I sit by and bake in the 93 degree heat. No. Thank. You! So, we were there for about 2 hours and had a lot of fun. Rachel played with the rocks and splashed in the water and overall entertained herself. It was nice to just hang out, just the three of us, but I can imagine how much fun it will be when the little guy gets here and he and Rachel are old enough to run around together and make messes in the sand and dirt. I can't wait to join them!

37 Weeks

I'm feeling brave.... here I am. 37 weeks. I cannot believe it!

Nesting

That's about all that's been going on around here in the F household! Stephen had been working on painting a rocker/glider black that I bought on E-bay for $30 bucks(!). It was finally finished last week. I have a fellow Ds group member here in Alabama making some new cushion covers for it. I can't wait to see the finished product. Stephen also repainted some brown wood shelves black to match the rest of baby boy's furniture. They are now up on the wall. I got some cool lantern lights from Target as well and they hang over the rocker. I order the last big piece of the room today. A decal from Dali Decals! I love their stuff. I got a decal for Rachel's room back in NC so I know I can count on the quality and the speed of delivery.

The branches will remain dark brown but the leaves will be lime green.

The decal will go in the left hand corner of the wall over the crib!

Now, I felt bad for my sweet Rachel, doing all of this stuff for the new baby so her room is getting a little update as well. She getting to be so big and fun and her room needs to represent that. I took the green rug out of her room and gave it to baby boy. She got a new pink, blue, green, and yellow striped rug. I also took the last of the pink bees out of her room - a pillow and the dust ruffle. I got a new cool hot pink rose looking pillow from Target to put on her chair instead. I also ordered some new cool decals from Dali Decals. Check them out!

They will be in hot pink, white and pistachio. I can't wait for them to get here!

Other than that, I go to my 37 (!!!!) week check up at the OB-GYN tomorrow. Holy crap. I can't believe we only have 2.5 weeks left before baby boy is here. We decided to get a repeat c-section for a number of reasons but the main one is so that we can have someone here to watch Rachel. Since we don't have any family members or close friends here, we can't really call someone up at midnight if I go into labor and have them come over to watch her. It one of those things where I want my girl to keep some normalcy while all this new craziness starts coming into her life and having to drag her to the hospital when I go into labor at whatever hour isn't good for her. So, we have a babysitter lined up but, I do have a nice neighbor who I asked to be our back up just in case this little boy gets somegoofy idea about coming earlier than 39 weeks and one day. :)

Donate, Spread the Word, Adopt.

Images like this kill my heart. Can you see our beautiful Rachel living like this? Can you imagine your child living like this? There is so much we can do. Please watch and donate, or spread the word by spreading this video, or choose to adopt. Every little thing helps.

She's a Wheel Watcher

Seriously. If you would have told me that Wheel of Fortune was a great show for kids I never would have believed it. But, Rachel loves it for some reason! She stands right at the TV and watches the whole show. At the very beginning she gets totally upset when they break for commercial. She starts to whine and cry. It's hilarious! She does that off and on through the show too. I don't know if it's the wheel, or the clapping, or even the letters popping up on the screen but we've created an addict. On Monday, I'll be sure to get some video of her and her new obsession. (p.s. does admitting we watch Wheel of Fortune make us old?)

I'll take an "R", Pat!

In totally not related news, Rachel really surprised me tonight. Playing with toys is something we've been working on. Sure, she knows how to turn most of them on, or put shapes into holes, or stack rings but practical play has never really been there. Practical play is actually using a toy like it's supposed to be used, for example, pushing a car instead of banging it on a bench and then throwing it. Rachel has a small play refrigerator/kitchen. It came with a plastic spoon and cooking pot. I've model stirring "food" in the pot and then feeding myself the "food" with the spoon. She's imitated it but never initiated it herself until tonight. Tonight, she was sitting on the floor in front of the toy and found the spoon. Instead of just bashing it against the nearest toy, I noticed she started scanning the floor for something...the pot!! She found it and started to "stir" the spoon in the pot and proceeded to feed me. You have no idea how exciting this is! Not only did she remember how the toys were to be played with, she actually looked for one to complete that play. This is such a huge step and I am so proud of her!

working on her calf muscles - also known as pulling all the crap off the top shelf

Today I had my 35 week check up for this pregnancy. All is well and while my body is showing signs of getting ready to give birth, I am nowhere near close to it, thankfully! I need all the time I can get before this little guy shows up. 

But It's Mostly These Days

A little bit ago I wrote this post about the future. About how daunting and scarey it can be. But mostly, I have these days. Days when I am so completely in love with our little girl that my heart explodes. Days when seeing her accomplish a task, like learning a new sign, makes me the proudest mother in the world. Her squinty smile full of naughtiness or the way she looks over her shoulder at me as she is about to make a break for the dogs water bowl fills me with joy beyond explanation. Tonight it's the giggles we get before bed when she is having fun with Dada. They wrestle on the ground and he picks her up and flies her around. He lets her climb all over him and she loves it. Happy days like these are what make up most of our life together.

A Morning at the Playground

Last week, I took Rachel to the brand new all-abilities playground, EveryBody Can Play. I was excited because I knew it had fake grass and Rachel could walk around and explore without having to worry about falling and scraping her knees or hands. She had a blast! There were two large gym balls that she pushed around the whole place. She had fun looking at herself in the mirrors and trying to climb up the slides. The only thing that we didn't like was the swings they had installed were too large for her to use. They had big kid swings and other swings with safety bars but when I brought it down it covered Rachel's face. Not exactly good for swinging. Other than that, it's great and I know we'll be back more often. We've even planned a play date there in the next couple weeks! I've also heard rumors that they will be installing some water features!

Friday Funny

Our way of sending you off to your holiday weekend with a laugh. Enjoy our goofball!