Third Trimester

It's getting closer! I'm entering the third trimester now. Baby is getting bigger and so am I. I can really feel him moving around now, especially at night. I had the glucose test this week and I don't have gestational diabetes. I am still anemic though, so I'm going to have to start taking two iron pills a day. That explains why I'm so exhausted - that, a 3 year old, and my job.



We had a 3D sonogram at Stork Vision in Frisco last week. We found out that the baby is currently in a breech position. That is apparently common at this point, so my doctor says we wouldn't be concerned about that for another six weeks or so. The way the baby is positioned in this photo is exactly how he is positioned if you were looking straight at me - head at the top and feet off to my right. In this shot he has his hands behind his head and his knees against his chest.



His lips are pursed in this picture.



Here's a shot at more of a side angle.



His eyes are open and he has his hand in a fist in front of his face here. You can also see the umbilical cord laying on his chest. We made sure that it was not wrapped around his neck and that it was just lying there.



Arms, elbows, hands up around his head



And there's his tiny little foot



This is a video of a bit of the sonogram. You can see him opening and closing his eyes and mouth and moving his arms. I ate some cookies and drank a little Coke before the sonogram, but he still wasn't in the mood to be very active.



To say that Sam was not interested in the sonogram is an understatement. We tried to get him to sit on the couch next to Chris and watch the sonogram, but he kept running around the room. He also kept climbing up on the table and hugging me, saying "I love you Mommy!" Chris even missed half of the sonogram because Sam had to go potty. We tried to get Sam to wait, but he tooted and stunk up the whole room, so it was not a false alarm. I'm hoping he'll be more interested in his little brother when he can see him, touch him, and hold him, but I think we're starting to get an idea of exactly what he thinks of sharing his Mommy and DeeDah.

Surgery #2

Bilateral Myringotomy with Tube Placement and Adenoidectomy - that's a fancy way of saying that Sam got his second set of tubes today and also had his adenoids removed. We didn't tell him anything other than that the doctor was going to fix his ears. He was really excited. I was concerned about him missing his breakfast and morning coffee, but we told him the night before that we would be going straight to the doctor in the morning. We also told him that they would take his clothes off an put on a gown. He was more interested in that part. He kept asking us when they were going to take off his clothes. Here we are waiting in the lobby for the pre-op. Lulu was reading him a Skippyjon Jones book.

Here we are in the pre-op room with Sam in his gown. They had lots of toys for him to play with that kept him entertained.

A view of his little blue gown from the front. You can see his hospital bracelet around his ankle.

The surgery only took about 30 minutes. The doctor said that his ears were full of a thick liquid and his adenoids were enlarged, so that's all taken care of now. We'll go back for a follow up in three weeks to check his hearing. Sam woke up coughing and thrashing, but he calmed down very quickly. He was back to his normal self within two hours. We're back at home now. He's been putting puzzles together and watching videos. Of course he's already requested his cereal and coffee, so we know he's feeling better.

Candy Fit

Sam found some hard candy that he wasn't supposed to have so I took it away from him. He laid on the floor and threw a big fit that lasted quite a while.

A little while later we were getting in the truck to go to soccer class, and I said, "Sam please don't throw any more fits today. Let's have fun. Okay?"

Sam said, "Okay. You don't take my candy away any more. Okay?"

New Book and a Boo-Boo

Lulu sent Sam a new book about Curious George making pancakes and it's his new favorite book. I think we've read it two or three times a day since we got it. In the book, the chef needs an assistant. Sam says he's DeeDah's assistant making pancakes.

Sam is at that fun phase where you really can't read a book any more. You read a sentence or two and then he asks a question, so you talk about that for a minute, and then you read another sentence or two, etc. It's fun to see what he's putting together and how he's thinking about things.



Sam fell at day care yesterday and landed on his teeth. He's probably destined to knock them out seeing as how Mimi, Pops, and I all knocked out our front teeth.



His gums are purple above his top two teeth. I took him to the dentist within an hour of it happening. The X-rays didn't show any damage to the teeth, so we are hoping it's just soft tissue damage that will heal quickly. You'll have to ignore all of the peanut butter, drool, and snot if you enlarge this picture. A three-year-old's mouth is a scary place.

4th of July and Dealey Plaza

Pops and Mimi were here for the 4th of July and we had quite the BBQ feast: pork roast / pulled pork, jalapeno sausages, potato salad, BBQ beans, and sweet ice tea.



Earlier that week Pops and I went to the Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. They added a new exhibit on the 7th floor since the last time I went which focuses on photography.



Here's a picture of the old School Book Depository / Sixth Floor Museum and "the grassy knoll" at Dealey Plaza.

We've been blogging for about three and a half years now and this is the 200th post. I can't believe that it's been that long already, and I'm not sure we thought we'd keep it up this long when we started. I love going back and looking at old posts. I can't believe how fast Sam is growing and how much fun we've had the past few years!

Pops and the Texas Rangers

Pops came to visit the last week of June, and I actually got to take the whole week off of work! One night we went to go see the Texas Rangers play the LA Angels at the Ballpark in Arlington. We stopped to pick up Mimi on the way so it took us about an hour to get there, and Sam actually slept almost the whole way! He very rarely sleeps in the car now, but I was glad he got the rest because I knew we'd be up late that night. Of course he wanted to wear his baseball cap since Pops and DeeDah were wearing theirs.

We got a good view of the new Cowboys stadium from the second level of the ballpark.

Sam was hungry when we got there so we ordered a kid's hot dog meal for him: hot dog on a bun, bag of chips, two Oreo cookies, pickle spear, and a cup of lemonade. He ate everything except the pickle! He's still not a big eater so that's a huge amount of food for him.

The Rangers hit five homeruns that night, so we got to see lots of fireworks! The Rangers had been in a slump before this game, so it was great to see them win. It also started a winning streak for them. They won the rest of the games that they played the rest of the week that Pops was in town.

Yummy funnel cake!

I think Sam ate half of Mimi's funnel cake.

This was the view of the field from our seats.

Here's Pops and Mimi. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was over 100, or at least in the high 90s, every day that week, but this one day it was only in the mid 80s.

I think the game moved a little slowly for Sam. He was ok when we were eating a snack, but he really didn't want to sit still. He wanted to climb all over the seats. We took a break and walked up to the third level and looked around at the view. Then we walked all the way down to the first level and back up to the second. Was Sam tired? Heck no!

Next Sam asked for some ice cream. I still couldn't understand where he was putting all of this food!

Sisters

One last shot of Pops and Sam before we left. The game started at 7pm at they were only starting the 7th inning at 10pm, so we decided to head home. The Rangers hit another homerun as we were leaving the ballpark.

Sam asked for some chocolate milk on the way home. Really? Ok. Halfway through drinking it he said his tummy hurt. Really? You think? He was fine, and he went right to sleep when we got home. We all had a lot of fun. Sam was so excited about telling everyone at day care about the game. We printed out lots of pictures and he took them to day care with him the next day.

Emily's 34th Birthday

My 34th birthday was the week after we got back from Disney.



Sam helped me make strawberry cupcakes with vanilla frosting.



Lulu sent us some cool candles that burn with different colored flames.



Sam sang Happy Birthday and helped me blow out the candle.



I got an electric piano for my birthday. I've wanted one for a long time, but we never had room in the old house. Believe it or not, Sam is old enough for piano lessons, so we may try that this fall. He loves banging on the keys and he's not shy about pushing the buttons or moving the slides. He's quite proud of himself when he selects some combination that sounds good (or weird).

Disney World - Part 5 - Hollywood Studios

We spent the last day at Disney at Hollywood Studios. We were told it was a long walk, so we decided to try the boat.



Water taxi.



Here's a shot looking down the boardwalk.



Sam and DeeDah on the boat.



A picture looking back at the hotel.



We started off the day on the wrong foot. Sam didn't want to eat breakfast and then he didn't want to get dressed, so we were late leaving that morning. Then we got to the park and Chris ran Sam's ticket through the machine (something he'd done probably twice a day the whole time we'd been there), but Sam decided he wanted to do it after the fact. Too late. Big fit.



We posed for this picture in front of the sorcerer's hat after Sam calmed down.



Here are some pictures from the Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage puppet show. They had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.










We got to pose with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible after seeing the Magic of Disney Animation. At first Sam didn't want to pose with them. Then he wanted to go back and do it again.



Of course we had to get another picture with Lilo and Stitch.



Sam had another fit which lasted at least 30 minutes, and we were sure he would pass out, but he finally calmed down and we had a character lunch with the Little Einsteins and JoJo. This is June from Little Einsteins.



JoJo Tickle



Leo from Little Einsteins. Sam said, "Hey! He has red hair like me!"



JoJo's lion, Goliath



McQueen and Mater




After posing for pictures with McQueen and Mater we decided to head back to the hotel. Hollywood studios is not a good park for preschoolers. Almost every ride has at least a 40 in height restriction. The rest of the stuff is either adult oriented or a show. The waits for the shows were an hour or more in the sun. Sam was not happy, so neither were we. On our way out we saw that a storm was rolling in, so we ran in an tried to get on one of the rides. Unfortunately the people who were already on the ride would not leave when the ride was over, so they eventually shut the ride down and we got stuck in there for over an hour. When we finally got out, we walked back to the hotel. You can see from the map above that we weren't able to do much at the park.



Epcot had Magic Hours that night, which means they were open late for people who were staying at a Disney resort. We headed over there for a dinner of fish and chips in the U.K. pavilion. We wore ponchos and it rained all around us, but we had a blast. We got to ride a bunch of rides after dinner, and Sam had fun running around and playing.



We went back to the Living Seas pavilion and saw Turtle Talk with Crush. An animated Crush interacts with the kids in the audience and it was very funny. Dory even joined him later in the show.



Our last stop was back at the Imagination pavilion. We made this funny picture of Sam in the Kodak Labs.


Here's all of the rides that we did at Epcot that night.



Our last morning at Disney, we had a yummy breakfast buffet at The Swan. There was a really neat tree in the middle of the restaurant.



I took a quick picture of the kiddie pool and play area on our way out.



This is a picture of me and Sam on the bus on the way to the airport. Sam was exhausted. We all were. We had a great time, but we were ready to go. Sam fell asleep as soon as the plane took off and slept until the plane landed. It was a nice smooth flight.