Busch Gardens 8.28.10

The kids, Tim, and I met up with Camm bright and early yesterday to explore the splendor that is Busch Gardens. Camm paid for Tim's ticket as his bday present, and for the month of August, you get a kid in free with each paying adult. (Garrett had to pretend to be 9, but I digress...). Busch Gardens is heads above Kings Dominion in so many areas....clientele, landscaping, cleanliness, food options, etc. The kids loved the new roller coasters. Garrett and Tim did the Griffon and Alpengeist by themselves due to height issues, then Caroline was able to join them on the Apollo's Chariot 4 times and the Loch Ness Monster. Due to my current condition, I was able to join everyone on exactly 3 attractions: Rhine River Cruise, Skyrider (gondolas in the air that take you all over the park), and the train that loops the park. Thrilling, really. Luckily Camm is allergic to all rides so we hung out on shady benches to wait for the group. Stephanie, Kevin, and kids ended up going to BG too, so we met up after their lunch with Elmo (this activity was great for her kids, but mine were not impressed). The whole group (minus the older folks and the pregnant one) did Escape from Pompeii and Roman Rapids. I am a big believer in leaving the rides that get you soaking wet until the end. The kids (and Timmy) had a blast!

27 Weeks

Sideview
Didn't I just explode?! Jeesh! I am growing like crazy!

How far along: 27 weeks, 0 days. 91 days left (if you are going by the basic 40-week pregnancy, which is not my case. Looking forward to shaving a couple weeks off that timetable!)

Next Dr. appt: one week (Sept. 1st). Two big things happen: (1) 1 hour glucose test and (2) my visits start coming every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

New aches/pains: feet swelling took on a life on its own when the mercury was hitting 100, but now it's finally 80 degrees so I have gotten a little relief

Movement: Baby has gotten more active in the AM, and has always been having a dance party from 9-11 PM. But now she has added little kicks and rolls on a regular 1-2 hour basis. And you can see the feet sticking out under my skin now...she must be very strong!

Food cravings: It's not particular foods, really, it's the general overwhelming desire to have someone else cook my dinner! I have been craving restaurant dinners like crazy. I especially want Buster's Place for sea food lately.

Belly button: still in! But I can pop it out at will and this completely grosses out Tim and Garrett.

Sleep: Patchy. Takes a lot to get asleep which was never the case before. Also, the "sleep on your left side" requirement has left me with permanently tingly fingers and what feels like a nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Best moment of week: Going back to work tomorrow! (This is so sad...I can't believe I just wrote that...).

What I miss: sleeping on my stomach; tuna fish; daily Diet Cokes

What I am looking forward to: Getting the school year started and laying out all my lesson plans for my maternity leave. The more stuff I leave, the better I will feel about not checking in during my time off!

Who's your nanny?

I am in charge of 4 kids this week (my 2, Summer, and Jackson) so everyday must include an outing or I will go crazy. So for Monday's trip, we decided to go see "Nanny McPhee Returns". It was a very cute movie! The message was good (share, work together, etc) and the animals on the farm were adorable (hence the picture of synchonized swimming piglets above). The kids were thoroughly tickled by the movie. Today, we hit the Rat Palace (Chuck E Cheese to the general public) with a coupon for...wait for it....200 tokens. Believe me, it sounds like a lot, but those kids went through them in 45 minutes flat. Then it was on to the germ-ridden tubes and slides and we hit the Mickey D's for some 99 cent sundaes. I've got one motto: Keep them busy. Very busy. So busy that no one even thinks of tattling or whining.
I go back to work on Thursday, and while some may sigh and think of all the summertime they will miss, I merely reflect back on a summer filled with my time as a one-woman daycare center. So going back to work is not going to be the hard part. In fact, I fully expect Thursday and Friday to feel like days off, complete with lunches that don't include any "nugget" foods and conversations with real adults!

Alicia and Nick's Wedding

Alicia and Nick were married yesterday (8.21.10) at the Marine Corps Museum in northern VA. I have known Alicia for three years as a fellow 7th grade life science teacher. She met Nick through a tried and true method about a year and a half ago: Match.com :) He is a "union" guy too (he's a steam fitter). Tiffany and I were bridesmaids and Natalie was the maid of honor. Food was fantastic and we all had a great time! You could say...it was a "match" made in heaven ;) Me and Timmy (and Emily if you want to get technical!)

Natalie and her new man, Mark

Tiffany and her husband, Chris

Me & Timmy; Alicia & Nick

cake topper: pic of the happy couple from their trip to St. Lucia last October

Beach cake! Delicious!

Alicia and Nick right before cake cutting

Forbidden Love

Update on my two kitties: They are now 1 1/2 years old and even though they chase each other all over the house, knocking over candleholders and fire screens, they occasionally enjoy a little lovefest on my bed (and yes, they are brother and sister! Did I adopt these guys from WV?!) Snowball initiated a little lick time the other day, and while Buttercup was not the most willing participant, she did allow some cheek action (notice the bored look in her eyes?!) Snowball: "Ssshhh...let me whisper sweet nothings in your ear"
Snowball: enamored. Butters: "How do I get out of this? I mean, he's nice, but..."

Snowball: "No cameras! The last thing I need is a sleazy video online!"

Finally, the embrace. They share a kiss, claw each other, then run for their respective food bowls.

26 Weeks

Presents to "Dye" For :)

I was dog sitting for my friends Melissa and Andrew this past weekend. On my first trip over to see Cody and Ashley (the fur babies), I saw that Mel and Andrew had left a little present for Emily...tie dyed onesies! And no, they did not buy them at some overpriced specialty shop, Andrew actually makes them (and a whole lot more)! So Emily has a one of a kind present, yea! And these are not the tie dyed clothes your mama made in summer camp, no siree! Andrew is practically a professional (really, he should follow Phish and set up a table in the parking lot). So check them out! You can't get those bright colors with no tie dye set from Walmart!

See how well it pairs up with some stretchy pants that Aunt Carrie passed along?!

Three different color schemes and patterns...she will be the most rockin' baby this winter!

Does this come in "seedless"?

While searching the internet for cute baby things, I came across this watermelon swaddler set! Is it not the most adorable thing EVER?! My first two kids were summer babies...no swaddlers for us, thanks. But this baby is a fall/winter baby so I can get away with it, and why not when the swaddler is this friggin' cute? Babies R Us is currently out of stock, but I found it on a bunch of other websites for about $20. The sensible side of my brain (not the side that forgets how to start a car) took over and reminded myself that I have a baby shower the last weekend of September (thanks Peggy!). So I decided to wait til then. If I receive no other blankets, maybe I will splurge. At the very least, I found it in several other styles too (bumblebee, monkey, ladybug) and it may become my "go to" for cute shower gifts!

Onward, Outback!

Cammy has been trying to convince me to bring the kids down to Va Beach one more time before we all head back to school. So I packed up the Outback and we headed out Tuesday AM for a quick, two day excursion. We know how to pack alot of fun into less than 36 hours, so we did the beach and pool on Tuesday with a family cookout on Tuesday night, and then we went to the Va Beach Science Museum, lunch, and the pool on Wednesday. I hardly hit traffic on the way back Wed PM and met up with Jennette & Mikey so that the girls could go to Kings Dominion for a little while with cousins Jackson and Colton. To say it was a busy two days is the understatement of the century! Me and my car are both still recovering! :) Summer and Alexandria at the bayGarrett decided to get a drip castle started

This is why we love the bay--water is 3 feet deep for 80 feet offshore. The littlest ones have a great time and we don't worry about waves, currents, or being knocked over.

Caroline and her buddies, the long nosed garr and terrapin.

Garrett should work at the museum, really. He was a wealth of information about the komodo dragon. I think Cammy learned a thing or two.

This alligator had the best snaggle tooth ever! Looks just like the one in Peter Pan!

Kids in underwater tunnel. We were surrounded by a coral reef and sting rays. It was like Sea World without the $80 ticket or 14 hour drive.

Garrett wants one of these models for his bedroom.

It was monkey see, monkey do. Everything that Garrett did, the girls were three steps behind!

Baby Drinks' Room! The drama continues...

So the drama is relatively minor. I went to Hampton Va yesterday (Sat) morning to pick up a crib from my cousin Stephanie. Her little boy Gavin is now in his "big boy bed" so she had asked a couple of months ago if I wanted to use his crib (free crib?! Ummm...yes please). So yesterday was pick up day. I made the trip down in about two hours, loaded up the crib, drove back two hours to KG, unloaded the crib, started putting it together (I like immediate gratification) and discovered....the crib has drop sides. Meaning you can push on the bar and the side facing you goes down. Now, I am a faithful reader on my Baby Center message board (because these ladies are CRAZY, not because I necessarily want advice) and several have left postings about the dangers of drop side cribs. Not taking their word for it, I google the topic and find out that 153 babies have died in the last four years because of these cribs (even if you don't drop the side down and up, the hardware can break and cause strangulation or allow the baby to fall out of the crib). Well, about this time Tim gets home from work. He asks me what's wrong, and I explain the issue (in fact, at this point I am still on Google, and I see several articles about how the Feds are going to make all cribs stationary (no drop sides) by December 2011. Really, how do you still use the crib? If something goes wrong, the guilt would kill me. So Tim looks at the crib, looks at me, and says "Get your flippity flops, we are going to town for a new crib". I grab my $115 gift cards for Target that I saved from Christmas (bonus!) and we purchase the Graco Charleston crib which got stellar reviews. Remember that immediate gratification part? Tim and I put the crib together last night and I spruced up the room. Check it out below! I was about to pay mucho bucks for some wall art online, when I remembered I have in-residence artists! So I gave Garrett and Caroline free reign and some watercolors and got some amazing wall art for above the crib!
I crocheted a quilt for baby with nice, bright colors. Took me about 6 days and I really have the crocheting bug back! My friend Mel needs to find out the sex of her baby-to-be pronto so I can start on another one! (See Butters the Cat in the bottom right? Curiosity almost killed the cat, in that I will be killing her if she paws at my new quilt again! Warning to you Butters!)

Close up of bedding. Loved the beachy ocean theme, and the best part? $15 for everything at a yard sale! (It's called "A Whale's Tale" from Ivy and Lamb)

New crib, artwork, and pink curtains...a girl has to have something pink in her room!

Found this adorable wall hanging at Hobby Lobby while visiting Carrie in OKC!

Shelf above changing table: two pic frames, crab Beanie Baby, and shells from Caroline

Changing table with summer-colored baskets from Michaels, sea horse pillow, manatee stuffed animal courtsey of Caroline, and diaper holder stocked with 200 poop catchers.

Cool sign I got on clearance at Michaels ($1.99 ya'll!). Has all the colors of the room and shows off my "beachy" theme!

Thanks to Caroline for sharing her room with her new sister! This is her bed with new bedding, new paint color on walls (Caroline picked it out--"Free Fall"), and her name to stake out this as her territory! Notice Butters escaping to the right...she was a little miffed that I interrupted her third nap of the morning to take pics.

25 Weeks

So I had my doctor's visit on Wed, Aug 4th and for the first time, I had to wait more than 15 minutes. This office has no magazines to entertain me, and did I bring a book or something to do? No, because up til now, my wait has been from the time I sign in to the time I sit down. So you can imagine my surprise when my doctor is running...wait for it....an hour and fifteen minutes late. It's just one of those days really-she had an emergency C section, followed by twenty minute visits filled with patients and their many, many questions.

I kept my visit short since my doctor is 28 weeks pregnant and probably just as tired of being there as I was! First question: Is it a problem that I regularly drink two gallons of milk a week? Her answer: No. If it was soda, she would advise against it, but nothing wrong with dairy.

Second question: When do I come in to take/fail my glucose test? Her answer: Might as well wait til next visit so I can eat like a human for the next month.

Weight was good, blood pressure was excellent (especially considering it was 5 pm, and very late), no protein in pee sample, etc. And she did tell me that my next visit is the last monthly one--on to every other week at that point. My goodness, it flies by, doesn't it?!

I'm going back September 1 for visit and glucose test, which is right in the middle of my school work week. Should be a nice, easy week since the kids don't show up for another week after that!

Road Trip!....to Richmond

I am great with 30 kids for a one hour period, but 12 hours straight with the same three kids every day of the week is starting to get a little repetitive (I assume that the only two people who read my blog know that I am taking care of Summer, Jenna's kid, this summer). So we ditched the bright lights of King George and headed to the Children's Museum of Richmond. They have changed all the exhibits since we were last there a couple of years ago, so the kids had a ball!
Garrett, emerging as a young hatchling in the dinosaur section.

They had a cow statue that you could actually milk! The kids were fascinated. I had to leave King George, rural county USA and go to downtown Richmond to find a milking cow?!

My two kids in the bank section of the "town".

Garrett, creating his shrine in the magnet section.

You know that guy that gets his fingers over the lenses of every photo? That was me with the belly. It snuck into three pics before I realized what was going on.

Summer and Caroline, ace reporters with the CMoR station.

Caroline working the register at Ukrop's pretend grocery store. She was a real stickler for exact change and coupon expiration dates.

Garrett showing Caroline how to make the scanner go "beep, beep....beep!" Not annoying at all after ten straight minutes...