We've made it to my due date!

...and yet I am still with child! I went to the Dr today (I had to see her associate since my Dr is out of town on vacation) and I am still carrying him VERY high although I am 1-2 cm dilated. Supposedly he could be too big to drop further down into my pelvis, or he just isn't ready to yet. I have been told that a c-section may be my best option, but we will have to wait and see. Poor Ashlyn must think we are nuts since all we ever talk about is this baby Benjamin whom she is not even sure exsists. She has started saying "Benjamin's my friend!" I am hoping that she is not referring to an imaginary friend that she has developed since everyone else seems to talk about this Benjamin fellow all the time. One more funny thing: yesterday she said "my tummy is so big, just like your's Mommy!" ...that can be funny for just a little while longer, hopefully not too much longer!!!

No news

Went to the Dr on Wednesday... nothing has changed. I am a little bummed, but I am trying to keep in mind that Benjamin will be ready to join us when the time is right. Until then, I am praying that he will drop, that labor and the delivery will go smoothly, and that he will be calm and laid back like his Daddy.
Did I already mention before that my induction date is set for June 4th if I haven't already had him by then? I am starting to suspect that we may make it to June 4th!

A not too eventful week, kind of

Well we have had the kind of week that is probably boring to read about in a blog... my apologies.

• Saturday, we visited the zoo

• I had a great Mother's Day- Paul and Ashlyn got me a beautiful charm bracelet that I have had my eye on ever since we got the last James Avery catalog (I am a great target audience for advertising apparently) and Sunday afternoon I got to take a great nap while Paul played with Ashlyn and put her down for her nap. This was an even bigger treat than it used to be b/c recently Ashlyn is having a hard time be put in bed without making the biggest fuss!


• Monday night I went out for the evening and spent some time with the ladies from my Tuesday morning bible study group, which was a lot of fun. I did however stay out much later than I meant to.


• Tuesday evening I went to a Home Interiors party at a friend's home, so Paul and Ashlyn had yet another night together... lots of bonding time! I did thankfully make it home in time for the bedtime rituals, including the meltdown.


• Wednesday, I had the weekly Dr appt. It appears the baby is still really high and at the moment I would be a prime candidate for a c-section. Now with my first pregnancy, I was prepared for ANYTHING, this time around I have much less time for reading and mental preparation, I have not even thought about the possibility of a c-section. I would like to hope that I won't need one when we get down to crunch time... She also set an induction date for June 4th- yikes that is whole 6 days after my due date! I surely do pray that I deliver before then! Wed night, Paul took Ashlyn with him to church and I had the house to myself. So what did I do with this precious time- I cleaned! (without having a toddler hanging on my leg or wanting to "help")


• Thursday, we went to gymnastics in the morning- always fun. After naptime Ashlyn and I met up with my friends Angie and her son Cager and went to the park where we went on a nature walk and played on the playground. It was so cute to see these cute little 2 yr-olds racing each other and singing bible class songs together. I wish I had my video camera with me.


• That brings us to today, which I am excited about b/c we don't have a single thing written on the calendar for today! Don't worry about us, I am sure we can find plenty of things to fill the day. I'll leave you with one last picture-

Here is a Daddy-daughter picture in honor of all the quality time they had together this past week.

Here are some things that Ashlyn says that I need to write down before I forget them:

- calls Rollie Pollies "Holy Molies"

- "I'm just kiddin'!"

- calls balloons "Balloomas"

- says "sumpin" instead of something

- "I skrong (strong), right? See my muscles?"

- "I not little, I biiiig!"

- after her nap or first thing in the a.m. ... "I woked up!"

-"so Daddy how was ye day? Duud (translation- good)"

- the most frequent phrases she uses besides "NO!!" are "I do it myself!" and "I help!"

- I may have shared this one before, but she has done it more than once, or should I say that I have fallen for it more than once (it is an actual conversation)...
Ashlyn: "Mommy, my tummy hurts!"
Mommy: "Oh no, what kind of hurt?"
Ashlyn: "It hurts, feel it"
Mommy: "I can't right now honey, I am driving"
Ashlyn: "oh, the baby is kickin' in my tummy!"

Here she is telling me that she just saw 2 cats. But I thought this pose was funny for another reason- for those of you who have seen Superstar starring Molly Shannon, this reminded me of when she stands on the side of the pool and yells "LIFEGUARD!" I know at least one or two people who can appreciate this as much as I did.

Well, we sold our trusty Escape yesterday. We took it to Carmax last week and were not tremendously pleased with the offer they made us. However, after an extremely poor attempt at trying to sell it ourselves, we just cut our loses and took it back to Carmax. I am now driving the minivan that was Paul's company car. It is official- I am now a true mom who doesn't care what kind of car is cool to drive. I am all about comfort and convenience- I love the minivan because of the automatic doors and all the room inside!

Goodbye Escape, it's been fun! Well, not too much else to report. I am going to go lay down until Ashlyn wakes up from her nap.

Last week was exciting...but I am glad that it is over and that things have started to slow down. My college roommates came to visit and I just had so much fun spending time with them- reminiscing, laughing and talking. Ashlyn was thrilled to have them all come to see her (and only her in her mind), she REALLY loved having Mommy's friends here. If ever we had to leave her behind, like when we went to get pedicures, she was nearly devastated to be left out! When it was time for everyone to go home, she also had a hard time dealing with this. She'd tell them "no, you stay here!" Ashlyn went down for a nap before Jamie left- the first thing Ashlyn said to me when she woke up was "Mommy, where's yo friends?" Even though it was such a joy to have Allison, Jamie, and Katie here... Ashlyn really made it hard to deal with her by pulling out all her worst behavior- tantrums, crying, disobeying, the word "NO!!!" She did however counter all of that by being fun and cute at times too. Hopefully we didn't scare anybody into never wanting to have children.

Benjamin's baby shower was this past Saturday, and it was great! I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people who care about our family. I was truly overwhelmed by all the people who took time out of their busy lives to help us celebrate the upcoming arrival of our son. The fact that my college roommates could make it to the shower was very special to me too. Ashlyn is crying in the picture here, most likely b/c the shower was from 2-4 aka her naptime! I plan to add another photo or two once I get them from people who took pictures for me during the shower.

I am officially in my 9th month of pregnancy as of Wednesday- I am a little surprised by this, it kind of snuck up on me. However, I do feel huge enough to believe that I am 9 mos pregnant! I had great difficulty today at the grocery store getting my groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt and again while trying to load them into the car- I don't easily fit between the cart and the check-out or between the cart and the car anymore.

We went to the specialist again, for the last time, and they did all their detailed measurements and even took a couple of 3-D pics for me! Sorry about the quality of the ultrasound- it didn't scan that well. Check out those lips! He really looked like he was smooshed in there, it took a little while for him to give us a good face shot. I was just so thrilled to watch him in "real time" and to see his face; it was AWESOME! Sometimes I love technology. Supposedly the baby is measuring about 6lbs 4oz... how much weight can a baby gain in the last month? I am trying to get everything in order, get the newborn clothes, blankets, burpcloths, etc... washed and in the drawers. It is time-consuming but it sure is fun too! Every once in awhile I feel like a little girl who is playing house. Once the baby comes and the reality of having 2 children hits me, I doubt I will feel much like I am "playing." I am getting more and more excited the closer I get to my due date. My bet is that I make it pretty close to May 30th, but we'll just have to see.

Yea! Swimming Pool! ...and Bubbles!

Oh, how Ashlyn loves the outdoors, and now that it is warm enough for the pool I can't seem to be able to keep her indoors.
Well, I didn't intend to go so long without blogging, but these past 2 weeks have been BUSY. Let's see, what have we been doing? First off, I am so tired by the time that Ashlyn's nap comes around that I have regularly been taking a nap myself. Her naptime is traditionally the time I can make phone calls, checks e-mails, read blogs, so I have recently been way out of touch with everyone. Back to what we have been up to... we have had a lot of birthday parties to attend and this has been an opportunity for real personal growth for Ashlyn. She thinks all parties are her parties and that the presents/toys are her's; the sugar-high does nothing to help manage this embarrassing behavior. We have had many "talks" during and since these events.

We have been going on walks as a family in the evenings and Ashlyn has begun venturing from the stroller. If she becomes a marathon runner one day, I'll be able to say that I saw her potential forming back when she was 2. We might as well not bring the stroller, she wants to run the whole time and keeps up an impressive pace. She can jog as fast as I can walk and I am pretty sure that I tire out before she does. This energy expenditure makes for a great night's sleep on Ashlyn's end. Oh, and you should see her at gymnastics- she is turning into a little monkey! She has mastered the "bear crawl" where she walks on the parallel bars with her hands and feet. Her arm strength has improved so much that she can now push herself up onto the lower of the uneven bars and do "cast-offs" where she flings ber body away from the bar for a moment while her hands are still holding on. She is wanting to walk the beam "by myself, Mommy!" but it still makes Mommy nervous. On the floor station, she rolls backward over a cylinder-shaped mat and says "ta da!" after she plants her hands and kicks her feet over- it is fun to watch her do her back-walk-overs. She can't leave the gym w/o doing at least a dozen of those! Okay, enough about gymnastics.

As for my pregnancy, I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong, I am still not packed for the hospital and I have hardly even given a thought to labor (how can there be such a big difference between baby #1 & baby #2?) Now I am having to visit the Dr so frequently now that I feel like I might as well set up camp in the parking garage. It is hard to believe that we will be a family of 4 before the next 6 weeks are up. It is funny to me all the things I have forgotten about being pregnant. For example- getting up at night either b/c I have to use the bathroom, or the baby is kicking so hard that sleep is impossible. I think this interruption of sleep is good preparation for when the baby is here and I will have to be up with him. I am just praying that Ashlyn keep her current routine and sleep through the night. My goal is to get to where everyone can be asleep at the same time sometime during the night and hopefully sometime during the day too so that I can continue with my afternoon snoozes. I'm sure I'll let you know how that works out!

I should have some good stuff to write about after next week- it's another busy one. I am SO EXCITED because my roommates from college just happen to be coming to stay with us next weekend. Stay posted!

Springtime!

This really is her "say cheese" smile. I am not sure where she learned to scrunch up her nose and squint her eyes for a picture, but you have no idea how many pictures I have with her making this exact face.

Something new that Ashlyn has been doing that I think she may have learned from me, is that she sings- constantly. I am amazed at how she knows most all the words to the songs we hear. Her recent favorite is Lifesong by Casting Crowns, she'll sing it ALL DAY long with or without the accompanying musical track. When we are in the car, she asks "Mommy can we hear my favorite?" over and over.

We are continuing to do the potty-thing at Ashlyn's pace. She takes such initiative with this... she will be doing something, and then all of the sudden she gets up and runs to the bathroom. She figured out all by herself how to climb up onto the toilet seat. I am just so surprised at her determination and independence. Most days she still wants to wear panties, but every now and then she requests a pull-up. We definitely still use a pull-up at naptime and bedtime though, regardless of her input.

Staying with the theme of independence, Ashlyn has also taken over the bedtime prayer-saying. It truly makes my heart swell to hear her, "Dear God, thank you for our family, thank you for Barkley, thank you for our family..."(she repeats that one a few dozen times- I love it!) Also recently at bedtime, Ashlyn has been insisting upon keeping a book with her in bed after we leave even though we turn out the lights and she only has a dim nightlight on. Last night when we came back to check on her, she had fallen asleep almost completely under the covers with this huge book opened and laying on top of her face. She was drenched in sweat. For some reason it was so funny to me.

An update on my pregnancy: I am now in my 8th month and my belly is ever expanding. I am feeling a little guilty about not posting more recent pictures from Ben's sonograms. We have been going to a maternal/fetal specialist due to a narrow second umbilical artery (although it appears that everything is going well), but we go every month and get a detailed ultrasound done to monitor everything. We get to record it onto a cd, but we don't get the pictures printed out any more. If he continued growing as he has been doing, the Dr estimates that he will weigh approx 7 1/2 lbs at birth. I'd be okay with that.

I hope that everyone is having a good Good Friday and a Happy Easter!

100th birthday celebration

My great-grandmother turned 100 on Monday! What a milestone, huh? We went to Austin over the weekend for the party. So many people came, it was a great! Happy birthday Mama! Here are some of the pictures from the festivities.

Paul, Mama, Ashlyn, and me

My brothers Eric & Ryan sitting at the kids table with Ashlyn- who knew they could be sweet?

My sister Carly, Ashlyn, my cousin Jacy, Ryan, and Eric playing on the swingset. Jacy is especially sweet to Ashlyn, so Ashlyn is thrilled whenever we get to see her.

To go out of chronological order... but to recap our weekend...
Friday we drove into Austin during prime traffic time, but somehow we hardly even slowed down- even DOWNTOWN! We met up with my dad and brothers to watch a UT baseball game. It was a blowout and UT hit lots of homeruns- Ashlyn had a blast. She was cheering and would sing the"Texas Fight" song while doing the "hook 'em horns" with her little fingers. I am so sick about not having my camera then too!
Saturday revolved around the celebration of Mama's 100 years of life
Sunday we went to church with my parents, then out to lunch with my family, and then we came back to San Antonio. It was a good weekend.

Another huge thing going on with us this week is that Ashlyn is wanting to potty-train. I apologize if this is TMI (too much info) for anyone, but it is SO exciting to me that I still want to share. For some time now, she has been using the potty, but only on occasion- usually instigated by Mommy or Daddy. Once she goes, she wants to put a diaper back on. However, yesterday when we got home from Austin, she asked if she could wear her "pink Cinderella panties." I let her, and didn't think too much about it... until she kept asking about once an hour if Mommy would help her use the potty. (we put a cushy little Dora seat on the regular big potty- I think the little ones made for toddlers can get so stinky, even if you obsessively clean them) Once I sit up her up there she says"now go away" which I find hysterical- even if I have to remind her to add "please"! So yesterday evening she was a big girl w/o any accidents, but just in case, I put her in a diaper overnight. The first thing she said to me this morning was "I want to go potty" & "where are my panties?" This has never happened before! We even went on our first outing without a diaper and had no accidents! Now the last time we used the potty, we did have a little incident. Ashlyn said "go away...please" so I left her alone, a couple of minutes later, I hear the toilet making a strange gurgling noise. She had used 1/2 of the roll of toilet paper and then flushed- so we had a huge overflow!

I am certain that there will be setbacks, but right now I am so encouraged by her progress! I am not sure what made her decide to potty train now, but I have been hoping that we'd get here for months, again, I am thrilled. I wish there was more maybe non-toddler things going on for me to write about, but thus is my life right now!

Ashlyn's birthday portraits

Well, I am finally getting around to posting Ashlyn's birthday portraits from nearly two months ago. I thought they turned out great, but then this last Friday my friend Sarah took pictures of Ashlyn out at the McNay Museum and I am not sure if I will ever need to go back to a portrait studio again- she took the most incredible photos! Thank you again Sarah, I have never been so excited about pictures before!

The rest of last week was fairly hectic because we had some company staying at our house. Several members of Paul's family went out of town for Spring Break and while they were gone a pipe burst in the upstairs of their house. When Kari (one of Paul's older sisters) came home from work the water was all over the downstairs and was as high as her ankles! So Paul's parents came rushing home to a disaster area of a home and since it was both Spring Break week and the Women of Faith conference was being held over the weekend, there were no available hotel rooms in the entire city. So from Tuesday until yesterday we had 4 additional members of our household.

It really was fun, except that Ashlyn had to sleep with us which has really messed up her sleeping habits! For example- she wouldn't fall asleep until close to midnight instead of her usual 8:30. Also she would awake at least an hour earlier than normal. So after several nights of this, she has been an emotional wreck! We had to come get her from Bible class yesterday for the first time in her entire life. Last night, the first night back in her own bed, she refused to stay in bed. She came running out of her room about a dozen times, the last few times she was crying and pathetic-looking, but finally she was too tired to keep it up. I pray that this does not happen again tonight, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.

Ashlyn & Barkley

Ashlyn LOVES Barkley and actually calls him her brother (or sister sometimes). I think their relationship is so sweet and only recently has Barkley been somewhat able to tolerate her bossing him around all the time. He is starting to obey her commands like "sit!" "come here!" "get in your bed" or maybe it is just that he is finally understanding what she is saying to him...

Last weekend my sister Carly came to stay with us and we went to Dave & Buster's (not my favorite place) but we did have some fun. Here are some pictures -
Ashlyn got very good at sliding the token card, and pushing the buttons to play the games. I thought I was just letting her play to keep her happy, but turns out she knew what she was doing. She hit the jackpot on one machine and got somewhere around 350 tickets! I was so impressed, I guess if we ever go to Vegas she is definitely coming with us!

Really she just wanted to do everything that aunt Carly was doing.

This weekend Ashlyn's aunt Noel came home from college and Ashlyn asked if she could spend the night with her. Ashlyn had such a blast having her fingernails and toenails painted, staying up late, and being able to sleep in the same bed as Noel. Apparently Ashlyn talks in her sleep- Noel said that around 3:00 Ashlyn sat straight up in bed and yelled "BARKLEY's HUNGRY!" and then laid back down and was sound asleep. Even though she was super cranky on Saturday morning from not getting a "normal" night's sleep, Paul and I really enjoyed having Friday night to ourselves. It also made it easier to put her to bed a lot earlier on Saturday night so that we could still go to early service on Daylight Savings Sunday.

Nothing else to report here! Hope that everyone is enjoying Spring Break. (what Spring Break?)