Preggo Pics

I just thought I'd post some pictures of how my belly has been growing. Maybe this will make Little Sister realize that she really is big enough to come out now.

October 24, 2008 (20 weeks)

January 17, 2009 (32 weeks)

January 24, 2009 (33 weeks)

March 5, 2008 (39 weeks)

March 7, 2008 (39 weeks)

March 10, 2009 (40 weeks)

The Beach with Friends

Man, really, Little Sister is missing out on some good times! She's going to look back and be like "Mom, why I am still in your belly while you're doing all these cool things?" And I'm going to be like, "Hey, remember, it was your choice to stay in there that long."

Anyway, back to the cool things we've been doing while Little Sister has been chilling in my belly.

Thursday afternoon, since the guys didn't have PT, we went out to the beach for some kite-flying fun and pizza dinner. It was an adventure! I have a gazillion really cool pictures, and I can't post all of them on my blog - it was hard to choose my favorites... so I probably posted more than I should have :)

We went out to Seaside Beach (actually it was the beach on the other side of the hotel... some guys' name beach - it's all the same to me) with the Power family - Wes and Trisha and their kids, Bradley, Conner, and Halley. They are some friends of ours who live down the street. They have been really cool - they watch Vince a lot for us and feed us yummy food and let us hang out at their house for a change of scenery. It's really fun, because they are a super nice family - and their kids are adorable and fun to be with, and Vincente looooooves their boys! We hope they enjoy us as much as we enjoy them.

Anyway, we headed down to the beach and put up our kites. Wes brought this neato US Navy airplane kite. We had our trademark orange diamond, and the Powers had another little rainbow kite that was fun to fly. Bradley said it was like a squid. It did have four tails, I think... so that's kind of like a squid? 

One thing you quickly learn from flying kites with children is that they WILL let go of the kite. At least once. In our case, I think each of the three boys let go of a kite at some point in the evening. The first time was Vince - it was like let's go fly a kite Part 2. He was screaming he was so upset about loosing the kite. It was so depressing. 

I didn't get a picture of Vincente's face this time because the wind was so strong and the beach we were on was mostly uphill in the direction the wind blew the kite. My mom took off after the kite, but it was going too fast, so I took off after her to help. Imagine the site - a grandma and a VERY pregnant lady chasing after a kite. Thankfully it got stuck on the gate of the parking lot and twisted around some fence poles, so we were able to retrieve it. Russ brought Vince up to meet us so he would see that we didn't really lose the kite. Poor kid.

The next kite dropping episode I believe was Conner, but I was kind of away from the group when it happened. The rainbow kite went flying, and Russ took off after it. He made a really impressive dive for the kite - I tried to get a video or at least a picture of it, but the battery was low on my camera and it was giving me grief, so I totally missed it - but it was GREAT! A classic kite-flying moment. So Russ rescued that kite, no harm done.

The next runaway kite incident happened while Russ and Wes were off picking up our pizza dinner. We had put up all the kites, but Bradley decided he wanted to fly the orange kite again. We were like, okay, here you go, don't let go of the kite, okay? Okay. Two minutes later, I look up and Trisha (with her one year old in her arms) is running after the kite. I chuck my camera at my mom and take off after Trisha. Luckily it flew through the parking lot of the hotel where they were doing some construction, and one of the workers up there caught it for us. I think if he hadn't been there to catch it, it probably would have been lost forever. 

Apparently Bradley had just set the handle down - we assume to do a science experiment on whether or not a kite will fly away if you're not holding on to it. Heh. Kids. They are soooo curious. Anyway, the kite was recovered, so no harm done. But again - imagine the picture of a woman with a babe-in-arms, and a VERY pregnant woman running up this sand dune again. Wow, it must have been hilarious.

Shortly after the third flyaway kite incident, the dads got back with our pizza dinner. We shook out the blankets (to avoid getting too much sand in our food) and took the kids shoes off (to avoid getting more sand on the blankets). Then we sat down to enjoy our pizza dinner. The kids of course devoured the pizza. Playing on the beach is great for working up an appetite. Apparently it works the same way in seagulls, because as soon as we sat down with the pizza, the gulls converged. 

It was like Finding Nemo in real life. Those gulls wanted our pizza, and they wanted it BAD. They kept circling our heads, which wouldn't have been so unnerving if birds had bladder control. We just didn't want any gulls pooping on our heads, you know? Eventually, Russ and Wes (much to the little boys' merriment) started throwing crusts out to the gulls. I should have nabbed a video of the boys' laughter. They thought it was great fun to watch the seagulls snatch the bread out of the air - and snatch they did. And fight. And squawk at whoever got the piece. 

It was freezing once the sun went down, but we stuck it out and finished our pizza dinner on the beach. And then Vince and I came home and took a hot bath. It was very very nice. Again, the best part? Vince going to sleep without any trouble (not that he's much trouble anyway, but he passed out the past few nights!)

See, Little Sister, see what you're missing?

On the Town

My mom has been in town since Tuesday, waiting for this baby to get here. Unfortunately she has to leave on Wednesday to get back to work :(  So we hope this baby comes this weekend. It would be perfect, because then Russ wouldn't have to miss class. I thought I should fill you in on all the fun we've been having - Little Sister is totally missing out!

On Wednesday night my mom took us out to dinner on the town. She wanted to experience some of the local eats (and we did too! We haven't been to many local places since we got here!) so we headed down to Cannery Row. Luckily we had a dining guide from the hotel we stayed at back in November over Thanksgiving, so we had a starting point. We looked over a bunch of nice restaurants and finally decided on one - The Fish Hopper - that advertised having a kids menu. That means they don't mind if we bring our unruly toddler into their nice restaurant.

I decided that I wanted to try a crab. For some reason I was craving crab - an interesting craving for someone who has never really had crab before. I've had crab dips, but that's not exactly the same. 

So they brought me my bib and my half a dungerness crab. I pulled off one of the legs and started enjoying the buttery, savory meat. Then I tried to figure out how to open up the rest of the leg to get to the tender, juicy meat inside. I've never eaten crab or lobster or anything before, so I was sure there just had to be some trick to it, but try as I might, I could not get inside that stupid crab leg. Finally we asked a waiter if he could help me, and he took a look at my plate and was like "Oh, they didn't bring you a cracker." I was like, duh - that would help. So anyway, when I finally got my little crab leg eating tool and a cocktail fork, I went to town on that crab. It was de-lish. They even brought me a little bowl of hot water and a lemon after I was all done so I could get the crabby smell off my fingers. It was super cool. And yummy. I am definitely a fan of crab.

Another amusing part of our evening - My mom decided she wanted to try swordfish. None of us have ever eaten swordfish, so we were excited to try it. Well, the waiter brings our food, and we're checking out mom's "swordfish." It looks very pink, like salmon. We all try a bite. Wow, that's really good - tastes just like salmon! So my mom is 1/4 way through her "swordfish" when the waiter comes by with a panicky look on his face "I'm so sorry, ma'am, I just realized we gave you salmon instead of swordfish!" No wonder it tasted just like salmon! So they switched out her "swordfish" for REAL swordfish, which was pretty tasty. I have to say I prefer salmon, but at least I can say I've tasted swordfish, and it most definitely does NOT taste like salmon! (and it's not pink, either)

Vincente ate some chicken strips and french fries. The fact that he ate at all was very very exciting for us. Then he played with the seagulls that perched on this little walk way outside our window. Every time they would walk away from his window, he would say "Come back, passaro." (passaro = bird) Then he played with the little citronella candles on the empty tables. I figured as long as he wasn't touching the dishes laid out, he was fine playing with the candles :) Ha ha. My kid has an obsession with flames, but he knows they are hot, so he won't touch the actual flame. He just likes looking at them.

After dinner we tried to get a shot of us by the bay with the moon all shining and stuff. Our cameras weren't quite good enough (we needed a tripod or something to keep them still enough), but we did get some cool shots of the moon - even if Russ looks all weird and fuzzy.

Around the corner from our restaraunt was a family bar and grill place with live music and dancing. Vincente heard the music and just had to dance! It was adorable. He loves dancing. 

Our night on the town was great - and the best part? Vince went right to bed without any trouble.

Now Showing - Vincente and His Many Talents

Vincente dancing to some Portuguese jazz music

Breakfast conversation with Mamãe

I tried to translate this video for the sake of all you who don't speak "Vincente" ... but to be honest, I hardly knew what he was saying. I know that at the beginning the first word he says is "peixe" - or, fish. Then he mentioned a flower. He was talking about stuff that he saw out the window... or perhaps things that you may see out a window. Like a truck. And a bus. At the very end he says "Riding fast. Fast!" (the word that sounds like "pass" actually means "fast"). To be honest, I couldn't even understand him very well. Usually he's really clear when he's communicating - the hilarious thing about that morning was that he spend 15 minutes speaking random stuff, 3/4 of which I couldn't understand. I don't think he's ever done that before.

The next American Idol

oh what a beautiful day

Saturday turned out to be quite sunny, although still a little chilly. It wasn't too bad in the sun, so we decided to make the most of the beautiful early spring day and go to the park for a picnic. We packed PB&J's, veggies, fruit, and yogurt, footballs and frisbees, and headed out for some family fun in the sun. 

Vincente ran around with some other kids for a while, climbing up the jungle gym, going down the TALLEST slide, BY HIMSELF. He loves climbing and jumping and sliding and running. It usually makes me nervous for him to play on the big jungle gym by himself, but there weren't very many big kids there at the park, which means less chance of him getting knocked over. Also, he's getting pretty good at climbing up and down things - although he still looses his balance sometimes and that makes me worried for him.

After a while, all he wanted to do was swing. So swing we did. I had pushing duty first, but then I decided to sit and swing with Vince. Once Russ started pushing Vince, there was no going back. Russ' pushes were of course cooler than mine. Vincente liked being pushed high - he calls it "super fast." I think he gets that from Little Einsteins when they make Rocket fly super fast.  Anyway, I posted a little video of his reactions to Russ' pushing. 

And this picture that looks like Russ falling off the swing is actually him doing a backflip off the swing, I just caught him at a weird moment. Anyway, it was super cool. Vincente just didn't know what to think!

After our swinging, we played catch for a while, which means that Russ and I played catch with our football, and Vincente threw his little football around and ducked whenever we tried to throw the ball back. So catching is definitely something that needs work.

And of course, with my horrible catching skills, I ended up with a jammed finger by the end of the day. The swelling is going down, but it's still bruised and hurts a little. Not as bad as it did that first day - I could barely make a fist, it hurt so bad. It's my left hand ring finger, so my wedding band won't come off, but that's okay, it's not like I ever take it off anyway. Poor little finger.

It felt good to make the most of a sunny day. This week is supposed to be clear and sunny, so hopefully we'll get to spend more time outside, unless Little Sister comes. But it will be nice to be able to take her outside for some fresh air when she's tiny. Living in Utah, it was so cold still when Vince was  born. I hope it gets to be in the 70s this week. I love the warm sunny days here. 

Grandma Arrival in 12 hours

My mom is going to be here tonight! I am stoked. 

And I want to get the house clean.

And I have to wash Russ' PT uniform before he gets home for lunch in an hour... so I should probably get started on that.

Ladies Night Out, and Boys Night In

So I was running late Friday night and forgot a million and one things going to the Ladies' Night Out party (butter for my rolls, the actual address of the place, and my camera!) so no pictures. 

But I did get some fun pictures of the party that was still happening when we got back home. Russ did a great job getting Vince fed and put down to bed, and then the boys were having a blast jamming on rock band when we got home. 

Here's the proof:

Look at those faces - nothing but happiness right there! These guys are such goofballs.

The star singer of the evening

Amazing Omar and his rad guitar - look at that face - don't mess with this guitarist. He means business

Dan the man and his mad drummer skillz - is he smiling because he enjoys the drums so much, or because he thinks it hilarious that he's missing every other note?

When the drummer and the singer finally realized that they weren't cut out for their repective jobs - and switched - oh yes, and finally completed a song without failing at all. Heh.

In reality, it was the singer that was causing the most problems before the switch, as can be witnessed in this next video:

Of course, we wives couldn't be left out for too long. Eventually, the addiction that is rock band sucked us in as well, and we rocked it hard -

I really wish I would have taken pictures at Ladies' Night Out. We played musical chairs - it was hilarious. Mostly we just sat around and had fun, like girls do. Without our kids. It was awesome - no one was being interupted by "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" or kids wailing because your kid hit them with a toy or took a toy from them or whatever. There was no need to referee, no booboos to kiss. Much as we all LOVE and cherish doing those things for our kids, it's REALLY nice to have a break and just enjoy the company of your fellow sisters - especially here at the DLI where everything is so high transition and high stress and sometimes you just want to chill. We had a great time. I even learned how to play a new game about killer bunnies. That game was great. Unfortunately, I didn't win, but it was sure fun to play. 

And after all that musical chairs, I still didn't go into labor. Oh well. 

Hopefully I'll be posting news of a new baby soon!

let's go fly a kite

Let's go fly a kite

Up to the highest height

Let's go fly a kite

And send it soaring

Up through the atmosphere

Up where the air is clear

Oh, let's go fly a kite!

On Thursday evening, Russ called on his way home from the post and asked if we wanted to go to the beach! Now, it doesn't sound as sunny and warm as it should ... since it's been raining for the past week or so, and the weather has been pretty chilly (okay, in the 50s-60s - a little cool). The last time we went to the beach we took our kite, but we weren't able to get it up - not enough wind. Yesterday was pretty breezey, so we took the kite, the camera, and the family and drove out to the beach!

Oh yeah, and don't forget the coats! It was freeeeezing. But beautiful. Unfortunately there was a big cloud front coming in from the ocean that crowded out the sunset. It would have been a gorgeous sunset if the clouds had just gone away. Oh well. It was still gorgeous. And the sound of the waves crashing on the shore is just sooo peaceful and relaxing.

Russ got the kite up almost as soon as he had it put together - you couldn't have kept that kite on the ground yesterday! Vincente thought it was the best thing he'd ever seen, as you can see from his face in some of these pictures. Russ made me take the "reigns" for a while, of course - so he could shoot some darling pictures of me and Vince flying the kite :)

Vince was estatic when it was his turn to fly the kite. He ended up deciding that it was "mine" - meaning, it was Vincente's kite. He loved holding on to it and got a kick out of watching the birds fly really close to the kite. The moon was also out, just by the kite, and he thought it was funny that the kite was up by the moon. 

I tried to show Vincente how to pull on the kite string to make it move around, but after I had so willingly given up my rights to the kite, he would have nothing to do with my hands on the string. "Mine." "My kite." At least he was enjoying himself. He probably held on to the kite for a good 15 or 20 minutes. 

It was nice to have the distraction of the kite to keep Vince from wanting to run into the ocean. On a warm day, sure I'll sacrifice dryness and warmth for running into the ocean to save my kid. But on an evening like yesterday? He might be left to his own devices because there is no way you could make me run into the cold surf with my feet fully shod. That water is freezing, even on a "hot" day. I can't imagine what it would have felt like last night. 

The most adorable pictures we got last night were when Vince accidently let go of the kite. Russ rescued the kite, but poor Vince was incredibly distraught. Poor guy. He was sooo sad. His face was the best. Fat bottom lip all puckered out, tears welling up. Oh man, it almost broke my heart!

Russ also got some pretty good shots of my ever-rounding belly. It looks like I'm going to make it to my Relief Society party tonight after all!! Super excited. I joked with my friend Trisha that maybe I would go into labor at the end of the party. How perfect - to go into labor surrounded by all your RS sisters to help you get to the hospital! It would be awesome!! Well, no more contractions yet. I've been trying to take it easy all week (contrast that to last week when I was trying to be as active as possible) so I wouldn't go into labor before the party. I just realized that I only posted one good belly shot. Well, we'll make sure to take a lot more good belly shots before this baby comes out. I'll have my camera at the RS party tonight, so hopefully I'll get a few good photo ops there for my huge, round belly. 

I'll post belly shots later! Hope you enjoy Vincente's first kite flying adventure! We sure did.

labor hormone addiction

So - in the course of the past few weeks as I've been having contractions, I've learned how to tell the difference between Braxton-Hicks contractions and the real ones that are actually doing something (no matter how small). Well, at least this is the difference for me -

Braxton-Hicks - my belly gets hard

Real, cervix-dilating, baby moving contractions - my belly gets hard and sends all sorts of crazy hormones through my entire body making me feel like I'm having Morphine shots again. Ooh, Morphine.

The nice thing about the real contractions - the fact that they feel like pain killers. Hopefully that means my body knows what it's doing this time, and when it gets time for more painful contractions, the natural pain killers my body is producing right now will do their job. Other than the fact that I get really distracted when I have a nice, good contraction (mostly due to the hormones clouding my thought processes), I actually really enjoy the feeling. Heh, I like the feel-good hormones. And at least it's natural. It's not like I'm addicted to Morphine or anything... just addicted to labor hormones. Is that a good thing? Hmm...

tick, tick, tick

3 Centimeters and counting! I think my OB has been stripping my membranes when he does the exam. Odd of him not to say anything about it, but since it's one of those things that may or may not do anything for you, I guess it's probably just something he does without even thinking.

I still want to go to the Relief Society thing on Friday... we'll see if I make it until then. I really REALLY want to go. Enough that I don't mind being pregnant for another week! It's not all that bad. Just uncomfortable and I can't eat as much as I want to, and I can't sleep as well as I'd like to (not that THAT will change after the baby is born... that part will probably be worse), and moving around is a pain - not painful, just ... awkward. 

My Adorable Kid

I just got an email from our friend Emily who used to watch Vince while I was at school. She spoke Portuguese with him, and he loved her SOO much! She sent a couple pictures of Vince, and the most ADORABLE video of him!! So, here they are:

Wishy Washy

First I want the baby to come ASAP, then I want the baby to hold off for a while. Okay, to be honest, this is the first I've wanted the baby to hold off. Our ward is having a fun little ladies' night out this weekend, and I've been meaning to go to RS stuff to meet some of the sisters and get to know people better (I feel like I've been hiding from my ward... mostly because I've felt like I have too much on my plate - first it was moving in, then it was being sick, now it's the fact that I could pop any day now). So anyway, I want Little Sister to wait until next week. My mom is flying in on Monday anyway, so it would be perfect timing! 

Too bad there's no way to really know. 

Well, so don't get all excited, because I'm trying to keep baby INSIDE now... I know, I know, just a few days ago I was doing jumping jacks and riding Russ' motorcycle over large bumps (just kidding... I actually wasn't doing either of those... jumping jacks are too incredibly uncomfortable, and I haven't been on Russ' bike for a few weeks... though that one isn't a bad idea!) 

Waiting for Baby

We're just waiting for baby. Still waiting.  I have a Dr's appointment tomorrow, so we'll see if I've progressed AT ALL. Hoping something's different (besides my weight... I feel much much bigger than last week... mostly just in my belly. I'm afraid if she doesn't come out soon she's going to get too big. I want a small baby... a little tiny one).

Anyway, in the mean time, Vince and I are hanging out, and I'm getting over this sinus infection. Last night I took Tylenol BEFORE I went to bed, and I only woke up once. Not sure what time it was, but somehow in the middle of trying to get out of the bed (it's a little more difficult when you're belly is so large and protruding and your ab muscles are virtually useless), Russ beat me to the bathroom, so I had to stand there and wait for him to pee. And I just realized why he turns the light on in the middle of the night just to go pee. Ha - to aim. I never turn the light on when I get up in the middle of the night to go pee - light when I'm sleepy makes me cranky. 

Back to the point - here is Vincente rearranging my tupperware cupboard. It will probably stay the way it is until I have baby - mostly because I don't like getting down low... it's kind of hard to get back up.

And this is what happened when he realized I had the camera. He really really likes the camera, and was coming after me. He threw a huge two year old tantrum when I told him he couldn't play with the camera. 

This is actually an older picture from when I was really really sick - Vincente stole my apple, and here he is eating it. He's actually really really good with an apple. And he loves them. I won't complain.

Me and Vince - me sick as a dog, drinking some Red Zinger tea, and Vince chillin next to me, chowing on his apple.