Preggo Update- Bigger by the Day

As I sit here typing away at 25 weeks pregnant (15 weeks to go), Keaton is busy trying to kick his way out.

Monday of this past week was a bit of a milestone. I suddenly am feeling much more pregnant. Sleeping is getting more and more uncomfortable. I stiffen up like a 90-year-old if I stay too long in one position. Eating meals, I'm stuffed after just a half portion. No heartburn yet so that makes me very happy!

But the hardest part for me is the difference in my daily work-out. Fiercy competitive, I am finding myself in the back of the pack at Boot Camp, which just frustrates the heck out of me. Yes, I know I am pregnant and this is just part of the adventure but I am also entitled to bitching about it.

I partly attribute it to the heat as well. It's been ridiculously hot here in Portland and even a non-preggo me does not like working out in hot weather. I'm still running but now if feels like my legs are filled with heavy, wet sand.

I'm trying out several "belly cradles" as my bump is now putting too much pressure on my bladder and other innards during running. These contraptions are reminicsent of torturous girdles but I will say the second one I tried really did help. Just picture me with a giant white ace bandage holding up my rapidly expanding girth.

For those who followed my pregnancy blog with Carson, you know I agonized for months over the PERFECT crib bedding. In the end, my mom and I made it. Baby #2: all of two days of casual shopping and DONE.

Did I luck out and find the perfect bedding right away or is baby #2 just a simpler, less stressful event? Maybe a bit of both. Amazon will be dropping it on my doorstep in a few days.

I decided to wait until a month before Keaton is due to prepare the nursery. Dismantling our office is a low priority and hopefully by then we'll have an ETA on a start date for our addition. But then at Boot Camp this week, several moms warned me not to wait and regaled me with their bed rest and early delivery stories. It didn't take long to convince me. Two months it is. Funny considering at this point with Carson, I already had the nursery ready, with four months left to go.

24 Weeks with Carson

24 Weeks with Keaton
25 weeks with Carson- Arizona "Babymoon"
24 weeks with Keaton- Bend vacation

Memorial Day Weekend Follies

We trek to Bend every President's Day weekend for our annual "Broken Top" vacation. Aptly named for the beautiful gated golf community in which we stay with two other couples.

This vacation started out as a drink lots, ski lots, eat lots, and hot tub late weekend back 7-8 years ago. As the years have flown by, we've added a child almost every year and it is now a drink less, no skiing, still eat lots, try to stay up for hot tubbing vacation. 5.5 kids later!

But it's still a lot of fun and the kids make the trip very exciting to say the least. This year we had to postpone it for various health reasons but discovered that entertaining 5 kids is a LOT easier and more fun with gorgeous sunny weather! We biked, played in the park, and swam in the pool non-stop. Carson absolutely LOVED all the older boys and picked up more than enough new tricks and words. Poop is now a favorite word :-)

A Superhero on the way to Bend!

Mealtime mahem! More teeter-totter please!

Self-portrait!

Trying to hide that tummy!

Pool time!

Noodle me!

Kiddie pool . . . freezing cold . . . whose poor planning was that?!

Goggles, borrowed and necessary!

Two good boys stopping at the white line for cars!Trying to get all 5 to hold still and smile was no small feat!All of us minus Dan (he was golfing). I'll have to scan in the original photo from the first year for fun!

Independent Dressing = HILARITY!

Carson routinely wakes up at 6 am (or earlier) these days. He isn't allowed out of his room until 6:30 except to pee. That 30 minutes of unsupervised play has turned into "Me get dressed Mommy".

Independent dressing is facinating and extremely entertaining.

Most times he comes out in shorts and a shirt that actually match pretty darn well. That must be credit to his father's slightly Metro genes.

And then thanks to me, the rest of it comes out looking like he dressed on a drunken binge in the dark.

This morning, I nearly peed myself laughing. All of his outgrown clothes are temporarily stored in the closet until they make it to the barn (for baby Keaton as we tell Carson). This moring he came out, after clearly ransacking the storage closet, and proclaimed, "This is NOT for baby boy any more."

Note the twisted shorts, superhero mask, and tacky brown socks . . . oh and as I typing, he just added cowboy boots!

Yesterday, he choose his new soccer oufit and black socks (yes, Nana, much to my chagrin, he broke the black sock rule). Later in the day he added a superhero mask and cowboy boots.




And the "piece de resistance" . . . this is how I found Carson in the living room after he spent too long in my closet.

Thanks to Tiffany for providing much needed censorship.

Last and completely unrelated but too cute not to post, Carson and Kinley enjoying the first ride of the season on Carson's gator. Their giggles were infectious!

Dozer Day = Disneyland on Steroids

I've been DYING to go to Disneyland for years now. But after this weekend's "Dozer Day" in Washington, I'm not so sure anymore.

Carson loves diggers, dozers, and dirt so what better way to spend a Saturday in the sun that playing with the real thing! I pre-purchased tickets and we drove 45 minutes across the river. We got lucky and Carson fell asleep on the way there so we figured he'd wake up rested and ready to go. Hindsight is 20-20.

First problem, the ridiculously long line of cars strung out along the exit. 15 minutes later at a snail's pace, we finally got off the freeway.

Only to enter mass chaos of cars parked every which way in cavernous holes in a rock quarry. No flaggers telling us where to go. Streams of strollers flooding the streets. Like lemmings we followed the quickest moving line of cars to the right. Not knowing that we would end up a half mile from the event.

Then our hell child woke up. His eyes were slits of blood red as he screamed bloody murder at me for taking off his snow boots (one downside of an independent nearly 3 year old dressing himself). But it was easily over 80 degrees. Mommy-1 Carson-0

We dragged him, kicking and screaming a HALF A MILE to the event. The sympathetic glances from the other parents did not comfort us. Embarrassed, annoyed, frustrated, and all the while thinking, damn the pre-purchased tickets or we would have just turned around and headed home.

Then, thank God for Will Call tickets because we were able to avoid the mile long line to purchase "day of" tickets.

I think I forgot to mention that during this painful walk our blood sugar levels were at dangerously low levels due to a past due lunch time. My bladder was threatening to surrender at any minute with the weight of a baby making nothing easier. Combine starving parents and child with a preggo who had to pee with long lines and it is a recipe for a trial separation or adoption, whichever the court agreed to first.

We gawked at the line of people waiting to ride in the bed of the monster sized dumptrucks. Skip that! Then I beelined it for the nearest blue HoneyPots or poop saunas on our unusually hot day. More lines. I considered throwing the "preggo can't wait" golden ticket out there but figured I shouldn't abuse the karma.

Everywhere we looked were lines! It was insane! I've never seen so many parents and kids in one place. Then we saw it. A line up of at least 12 actual diggers and dozers in action! It was an impressive sight, like prehistoric dinosaurs all in a slow motion feeding frenzy. Then we saw more lines. About 10-15 deep, all waiting in line in front of each giant yellow machine.

Our brains couldn't push thru the chaos and dirt. But then Jeremy saved the day. LOOK, he said, BURGERVILLE!!!!!! You've never seen three people scurry through rocks and toddlers faster than us racing to the Tillamook cheeseburger paradise! As we skidded around the corner of the beautiful blue tent, we saw the line. Yes, another freaking line.

It was time to divide and conquer or all would be lost due to a starvation induced meltdown (for all three of us). Jer and Carson to pizza line. Me standing guard at Burgerville.

We waited. And waited. And waited.

Just when I thought I couldn't handle any more, I heard, "157"- The most beautiful sound I've ever heard. I charged like a blind rhino to my juicy, cheezy goodness.

Somehow found the boys and we began eating like rabid dogs. No talking, just chewing and swallowing. Not three bites into my yummy burger, Carson looks up and says, "Mommy, me have to poop."

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???

Oh yes, I had to put down my burger, find a Honeypot, and try to balance my young son over the gaping hole of a filth and disgust.

But it wasn't enough to ruin my appetite.

Once we were all satisfied, we were able to being enjoying Dozer Day, along with 8 million other families.

We waited in line for Carson to dig in dirt and find buried treasure.

Another line to sit in a skid steer.

Another line to ride in an ambulance.

A dumptruck.

And a digger.

But here's the kicker. All the lines for to actually sit on the lap of a driver for the 20+ diggers & dozers around the perimeter, were only for kids aged 4-12. Apparently this is the first year for the age minimum.

On one hand, we were very disappointed for Carson. On the other hand, he's young enough that he didn't realize it. AND we didn't have to wait in yet another line. Maybe next year.

So for all who are considering the wild craziness of Digger Day next year. Either get VIP passes to get in before the gates open. Or wait until the last two hours of the event when the crowds have died down.

And a wondefully messy ice cream cone to finish off the day!

Mother's Day- 3x the Fun

As always every holiday with our family is x3. Mother's Day is no exception.

Saturday night, Jer and I snuck away to PF Chang's for a dinner date. Super yummy! Got a great "show" peeking at all the Prom-goers! Hard to believe that our proms were 16 years ago!! Thanks to Nana and Poppa for the Carson-free date!

Sunday I made brunch for Grandma Levy and we enjoyed an afternoon outdoors! Pics below.

I made dinner for Nana & Poppa, Liza & Ga that evening. Full day and thankful for our families as always!

The Mom's

Grandpa Levy rescuing the ballKicking is always better with cowboy boots!

I'm in Trouble .... Catching up the Blog

The complaints started rolling in this week. My Blog is suffering from a lack of updating and only one person is to blame, my client Jean. She gave me a series of books that are like being addicted to drugs. The first one was free and now I can't stop!!

The Twighlight series has taken over my life. I read in every spare moment and a few not-so-spare moments. Meaning, everything else is taking a backseat until I get to the end of the 4th book. I promised Jeremy to take at least two days off in between books. The blog is suffering, my work is suffering, my household chores are not getting done. Our housekeeper picked a terrible week to call in sick.

I dream of vampires and werewolves. I see them walking in the street. I am obessesed!

Back to reality, here are some catch up pics from the last few weeks!

A few more from Easter first:

Family pic of Easter at Judy & Joe's

Grandpa Rader too! Sadly Grandma Rader had to work and we all missed her food sorely!Easter with the Bride Tribe a week later. It was also Cousin Thomas' 1st birthday so we were finally able to take a pic of the whole Rader family together!Carson really wanting to help "baby Thomas" as he calls him.Great Grandpa Cliff with his 4 great grandkids! Tatum 11, Ashlynn 7 months, Thomas 1, Carson almost 3.

Skip forward two weeks to April 30: We flew to California for a family friend's wedding. Nice short flight but that DVD player sure makes the trip easier! I purchased "kid friendly" headphones 6 months ago . . . we didn't discover until our trip to Hawaii that kid friendly simply means the volume is so safely low that you can't hear it.

So I upgraded him to real headphones for this trip. Only to discover that kid friendly also means smaller. These gigantic headphones didn't quite fit so I had to make a slight modification . . . stuffed his spare Lightening McQueen unpants in there. Perfect!

Rehearsal dinner: the ringbearer and the flowergirl . . . love at first sight!Burning off energy in-between rehearsals . . . no nap for a toddler means a LONG day for everyone else. Two VERY overtired wedding party members. Once again, the DVD player came in very handy. This kept them from crawling under tables, pulling tableclothes off, and chaos in general. No spare underpants so this time a napkin had to suffice.

The day of the wedding. Carson's tux debut!May I have your hand?Oh man! She just won't let me go!I'm not sure about this but she is really cute.
Bump pic!The lovely Kuntz ladies

The Rader Fam in their finest!Killing time before the wedding

Candy, candy, candy!

What else do you have in your baggie?

Thank you Gillian! You're the best!

Look how clean we stayed! We tortured our parents for the hours for the ceremony but they managed to keep us out of the dirt.

Should I pose like this?

Doing our best to get dirty.

Dum, dum, dum du-dum!Keep your eyes on the ground.

Phew! All done!

Jacket off, comfy shoes and an unattended golf cart! What more could a boy ask for!Post wedding: I've never stayed up this late . . . mom and dad gave in with one last video to keep me from melting down.

CARSON UPDATE:

The terrible 2's came early and left early. We've enjoyed most of the last 9 months with a fun, funny, mostly cooperative, considerate Carson. Unfortunately the awful 3's also arrived early. We're doing our best to deal with Carson's new attitude. He "shoots" us when he gets mad and spends time-outs in his room daily.

We even had to take away Superman for 24 hours. That worked GREAT! We are going to use the favorite item time-out more often as it seemed much more effective than Carson time-outs.

BABY KEATON UPDATE:

Not much to report other than the time is FLYING by! 22.5 weeks pregnant and up 10 pounds. Still working out 3-5 days a week. Running is getting harder on my belly so I'm borrowing a support belt to keep going. Other than that, I feel fantastic! No complaints!

At my 22 week midwife appointment, Keaton measured 22 weeks so I'm a little less stressed about him being big. Heart rate of 140, very close to his brother's at that time. He is a KICKER, MOVER, & SHAKER. All the time. You can watch my tummy at night and it looks like I'm popping popcorn inside with all the blips and twitches. Quite entertaining.

Our remodel is dragging out and we haven't even begun construction. At this rate, it's another 3-5 months before we even start work and that is definitely adding to the stress level of the chaos that will ensue this September! Wish us luck and invite us over for dinner!