Happy Labor Day to Me! - Our Spring Update

Today is my due date, and I am still...here - as in, not at the hospital.  But regardless of how excited and anxious we are to meet this little man, he'll come when he comes and he'll be worth the wait, I am sure. 

However, it may be a good thing he's taking his time, so I can 'catch up' (what a loose term) on my blog.

This has been a weird spring for Iowa.  It has been cold until May, which made our visits to sunny LV and Kansas even better, but strange nonetheless.  It was sad to come home and realize it was still winter here.  And then it rained, a lot.  I didn't really realize how long it is to be indoors for an extended winter until you have an active toddler who thrives on sunshine.

It was great to see both of our parents!  Las Vegas was, as always, full of some of our favorite people, great weather, and lots of love.  We are always surprised at how quickly the time goes, but nice to know we'll be seeing them again soon when #2 decides to make an appearance. 

We spent Easter in Kansas and it was so much fun to see Little Man hunt eggs.  Once he got the hang of it he was all over it!  It's always hard to leave but so nice to be so close!

Happily, J finished with one of his worst rotations of the program and we are SO glad.  The getting up at 3:30am and getting home at 6-7 with going to bed at 8:00 six days a weeks was tough.  It made the 'we never see him' phrase take on a whole new meaning.  The people that actually work that department and those hours have my full appreciation and respect!  So now that he is back on a normal schedule of 7ish-6ish sprinkled with a  few days of call, we are feeling good about Daddy time.  Especially since Little Man has been doing things like getting up before 6, meaning he gets to see Daddy sometimes in the morning and at night -

My wonderful parents got to come up for Mother's Day and listen to my community orchestra concert.  I felt like a kid again - in a good way - having my parents come to my recital and it was so much fun to have them here. 

So there you have it - our spring in a nutshell!  Hopefully the next post will be announcing a perfect baby who has decided to sleep all night long within a week of being home from the hospital =)  But if that is not the case, I am sure he will be wonderful.

Some pictures of our adventures:

 Happy to be with Grandma in the sun!

 Like any good grandson, we did vehicle inspection to make sure Grandpa's truck was working well

 Found a friend at the zoo- he was just a few months older than Little Man and they started at each other for quite a while - it was super cute.

 Heading to the buffalos with Grandma - we loved the zoo!

 

 When he's not riding Little Man prefers to help me push the stroller which is so fun for both of us!  Yes, I am seven months pregnant here.  It kind of shocked me to see this picture - you forget sometimes how you look from that angle...

 Just taking it all in...

 Flamingos of course!

 I love his face in this picture - it pretty much defines his entire zoo experience - he loved the animals but it was a little bit of a shock to see them up close and personal.

 The construction behind our house was heaven for this true boy!  We went over and sat on the tractor pretty often until it left =(  It was and sometimes still is the first thing he asks for in the morning since we could see it from his window.  He LOVES tractors, diggers, cars - things that move...

 When they first started he would stand out on our deck for 20 minutes by himself just watching the diggers.  It was so fun to see how excited he was.

 Easter with his best cousin, Jack, only a six months younger.  As you can see, James's feelings of waiting for his food are clear...

 Did we mention it has rained a LOT?  This is the field behind our house.  There is a creek that runs to the left of our building and it overflowed, obviously.  I think we got 8 inches in 24 hours or something to that effect. Oh my.  Yes, we were flooded in half the day since it is not a through street, but amazingly, everything was clear by the time J came home. 

 This poor person tried to keep going and got stuck.

And yes, we finally got our garden in!  This is Little Man checking on our seedlings we started.  They were so beautiful!  Until they got blown off the porch by our monster strong winds here and fell two stories.  There were no tomato survivors =(  Maybe next year.  In the meantime, we bought some at the store - twice - since the late frost got some and animals got others.  It's been a rough go.  I think we're finally on our way, if only the sun will start to shine more.

Big Brother

 

 So our friend Allison took some pictures for us and we had to share!  Little is getting so big that it makes me kind of sad.  But that's life - we try to just soak up the moment and not worry about the has beens.

Daddy secretly taught me this face...Blue Steel anyone?

This chair all for me?

Hark!  Do I hear a cry for help?  (Think Peter Parker)

 I'm on my way!

 Coming....I'm coming!

 Okay, now where are we going?

 #1, I like that!

#2, we'll have to see what he's like.

From what I can tell so far, he's pretty squishy and makes reading books with Mommy kind of tough....                                                                

 

 Definitely not matching bellies....

But we love what it means is coming...

 

More love for all of us...                                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little and ....Little Little

I wouldn't be surprised if no one except my in-laws, parents, siblings and a few friends read this blog anymore - I am probably one of the worst bloggers ever!  But, on a bright note, that means only the really important people read this...aww...thanks guys.

So if you  haven't heard yet (although we are in regular contact with all the above mentioned people reading this blog...)  James is going to be a big brother!  We are expecting another delicious boy in May and are sooo excited!  We waited until Christmas to break the news but it was kind of hard to keep a true secret since I was sporting a noticeable baby bump after announcing in my Christmas letter I was back to pre-pregnancy weight.

                                                                           27 weeks

Since we call James 'Little' we've started calling the baby 'Little Little' since he, as of yet, has no name.  If things go the way they went last time, it may be a while (as in, in the delivery room) before he officially has one. 

Jared decided to practice holding two babies at the same time when we babysat for our friends - as you can tell, he wears all his true emotions on his face...

 

So there you have it - our wonderful news, Jared's true look of joy, and my belly.

An update on us the last couple months:

Christmas was wonderful -
Little discovered the magic of Christmas lights. (We left the tree pretty undecorated, expecting the tipping over to be a regular thing, but it never happened!  Ah well, less to pack away.)

 We saw the famous Nativity in Cedar Rapids.  After it was damaged in the 2009 flood, the church was approached and offered it on condition it was restored and displayed - the members restored it through hours and hours of work and now display it every year opened to the public with over 400 other nativities (smaller ones) and live music - it was a beautiful and cool Christmas experience and set the tone for the season.  (We like to say that Little Little was with us here since I'm four months pregnant, can't you tell?  I definitely could since I was VERY emotional - I stopped crying ten minutes before we left - we were there for 40...)

 

We went to my home for Christmas where James was the littlest shepherd in the Nativity we act out every year--

 The littlest shepherd had a watchful dad...

 ...and of course was best friends with the shepherd dog...

 ...on so many levels...

... he visited Grandpa in an unscheduled off hours visit in his office for a foot exam  - passed with flying colors even with his shoes on....

...and had his heart checked out by his cute cousin Brooklyn, the aspiring doctor herself.

 My amazing mom and dad -

 Not everyone rolled in until later, so this is just a few of us after church in the foyer -

 

Church was a rough one for Little Man - another little boy accidentally tripped him and he fell into the corner of the pew - he took it like a champ though, crying less than a minute--Little Rocky...

 

It's really fun to be with my siblings and their kids of similar ages...I can't believe we're so grown up!

 

 

After the holidays we got down to business and bought him a bigger car seat.  It came in a nice big box and Jared cut a hole in it so it could be his car.  (He LOVES cars, like any true boy - 'car!'  'car!' as we drive anywhere).  As you can see, someone else seems to be waaay more excited about it than James who seems slightly perplexed as to why he's stuck in a box...

 

And while I'm on the topic, James updates:  He became our little coal miner - seriously, he loves wearing it on his head and is unafraid to venture under the stairs with me...

 ...and since both J and I wear glasses, he naturally wants to be part of the team but this is as far as he gets with them...

 

 ...and I obviously talk on my phone way too much around him - he has full on conversations with pauses and nods, "Yup!" on anything - my hairdryer, the remote...

 

...and sometimes he doesn't stop even while getting ready for bed ...

Right after Christmas he started doing a scruchy smile which surprised me - I don't know why, it just did...

 and he has six adorable teeth...

 which we brush daily (he asks every time we go into the bathroom, 'teeth!' 'teeth!') but we've found the only real way to let us do the brushing instead of him, is to let him brush our teeth as well...he's pretty good...

 ...he loves spending time with his daddy, which is less on this current rotation, but he still managed to help him make my birthday cake...

...and we've been lucky enough to have a lot of snow and below 20 F days here this winter - so far our Little Man has been tolerant of it (although today it was warmer and he really loved it!)

...and he is the best peek-a-booer you've ever seen.

 

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

So in a nutshell, we're doing great!  I mean, look at that face, how could we not?