38 Weeks!

A little update from us, on this very cold day...

Kids these days...
Kate tells a joke: Basically it starts with "Knock, Knock" and makes no sense. Then she starts laughing and Collin cracks up like she is brilliant. Dave and I got them set up in the bath the other night and went out to sit in the loft for a few minutes. We just laughed listening to them - complete nonsense followed by great giggles:) Soak up this time when Collin adores you and thinks you are hilarious, Kate! 

Buddies. 

Kate was playing a game where she had to run on the big living room rug and only touch the flowers, the other space was "water with sharks and the sharks would eat you if you touched it." Reminds me of ENDLESS hours playing on the play set at Harold and Marlys' with Todd and Derek playing can't touch the ground:) Good memories. She stepped in the water at one point and the sharks were getting her, She yelled, "Oh my gosh!" Collin then started going around saying, "oh shosh! oh shosh!"

Collin is crazy about trains. It is pretty cute and we have one small toy we brought up from the basement (woo hoo - "new" toys for free!) that he loves and then up in the loft we have pieces to a Thomas set that he is really starting to get into. It is so fun to watch his little mind grow and change. His problem solving and concentration continue to expand each day.

Choo choo!!

Kate is still 110% into her babies/dolls. All she does all day long is mother them and narrate to us constantly about what they are all doing. Anything that Dave or I have said to Kate at any moment can come out of her mouth in reference to her "children." It is a dangerous time here:) Should be interesting in the next couple weeks! (she hasn't stopped talking for the last 45 minutes about her daughter going in for her chicken pox shots, a sleepover she had and the fact that her work was canceled because it was so cold the taxis weren't running anymore) ???? Okay, not everything she plays out is directly from us!

Kate (and Collin is in there too) watching a movie on a snowy night while Daddy was on call and away. If you see glitter all over our house, this dress would be the reason.

In just the last few days, I have had a tough time calling anyone by their correct name. I feel like 60% of the time, I'm saying Collin for Kate and vice versa. I have often called out "Kate" for Dave and recently Dave has called Kate "Laurie."  :)   Great, let's add another one to the mix (side note - nothing is certain on baby names. Still. Some good ones on the list, girl names more set than boy. Laid in bed awake trying to think of more boy names last night...)

38 weeks: If something drops to the floor, I gotta really want it to actually attempt to go down and get it. I assume this is what my other children are for. Sleeping is pretty much a joke, I know how much sleep I'll get with a newborn (and two others that make our nights interesting) but at least I will be able to sleep on my back or stomach again (yay!) and I won't be physically as uncomfortable. God designs this process well. 

Seriously, I do get dressed nicely and even have days I think I look alright.
But no one is around to take a nice pic!
Thus, all these - 'right before bed' pics I take.

We had an appointment yesterday - HR about the same, active. BP awesome, 1.5 cm dilated, thick and baby high. I had to have Collin with me and was a little worried about it as he gets so antsy and I wondered if she'd check me. Luckily, Dave was able to come along. (he and my doc had been in the hospital until 2-3 a.m. with another mom giving birth a few hours before:) She ran pretty late, but I understood! And praise God I had Dave with to manage Collin for that long. 

We brought up the baby stuff from the basement! Collin assumes it is all for him and has tried to get into the swing and sat in the bouncy seat, buckled himself in and got stuck. It is hard to keep him from messing with these things and to stop pushing the buttons all the time. Not sure if it is good we brought it up this early... to endure this for the next couple weeks or if it was smart and he will be desensitized by the time we have an actual infant in there for him to mess with. Stay tuned...

Dave and I have started reorganizing the basement and other areas of the house. I know. Super smart to do this at this point, but we are just thrilled we are getting it done. There are a lot of changes to the house and we are really enjoying it (new furniture, rearranged rooms, etc) Some of the work was in the crawlspace and few will ever see it but Dave and I will know it isn't mass chaos down there anymore:) 

The nursery/guest room in process...

Need to tackle the walls next

Still a queen bed in there:)

If people based the number of children on the emotions you feel when finding little newborn clothes your children wore...we would all have 19 kids like the Duggars. I'm just saying.

Teeny, tiny baby clothes.
But will #3 bypass all these - washed a million times newborn clothes?
Probably 

I'm remember/trying to prepare for/getting freaked out again by labor and delivery. I've done this twice. All went well, You would think I would be less anxious about it the third time. And honestly, I'm very excited about it too. It is truly a miracle and I am going to love going to the hospital and knowing that the baby will be in our arms soon (I have always walked in the hospital NOT in active labor, so there has been no drama in that so far:) but I know that it can all come about in a million different ways and I am starting to wonder what this story will be:) Collin's L&D was also a little more difficult than I was expecting for my second go round, so it may be affecting my thoughts this time:)

I'm so happy to finally feel like the house is in good shape, I think I've washed all the newborn clothes that we need until we know boy/girl:) I just did a giant grocery run to stock up the house a bit and make some meals (and hopefully freeze some meals)...final items on my list are to get a pedicure, hang up some decor/pictures on the wall, clean out the freezer, get the house really scrubbed/cleaned and work on the baby book. Oh, and pack my hospital bag. How is that the one that I haven't really finished yet?! 

A box of size N, 1, 3 & 4 (Collin is in between sizes and who knows how big Babes is)
Uff da

Hope everyone stays warm today! It's only -5 right now, but the wind is pretty fierce, even at our place. So grateful I get to stay inside with cuddlebugs on days like this!