30 Weeks...Things I am Looking Forward To

With my other two pregnancies, making it to 30 Weeks was such a relief.  Out of the 20's and into the 30's brought me piece of mind.  But, I am greedy!  Now I want to be 34 weeks, because I know all too well what goes on if a baby comes too early.  While this was my easiest pregnancy in the beginning, I must say it is becoming my hardest the bigger I get.  We are now into our second week of summer and I feel like I did well last week planning things to do with the kids but boy, my back is screaming at me every night.  I think I planned out the summer well, having Brice in a camp one in June and one in July.  I still do feel huge although Justin has assured me that I don't look it.  People have continued to make comments on my stomach and I just try to let it roll off my back and not worry about it.  Here is what I look like...

And here are some Things I am Looking Forward To:

-the beach
-getting Kyle's room ready
-laying on my stomach again
-laying flat on my back again
-adult beverages
-seeing sweet Kyle's face
-showing Brice and Anna Kyle for the first time
-having my body back (although this will be a while depending on how long nursing lasts)
-getting the basement finished
-running around with the kids again because I can I won't fear going into labor
-adult beverages, did I already say that?!
-my birthday

You get it, while I am not miserable (yet, usually around 37 weeks) I am feeling the weight more and more each day.

Zoo Atlanta

My friend Whitney and I planned a zoo trip for today with the four kiddos.  This makes one six year old, two two year olds and an infant.  We had a great time!  The kids loved it and were so excited to see the animals.  The zoo is not close in distance for us so once we finally arrived I said, "We're here!" and Anna squealed and then yelled "Elephants!".  She and Brice enjoyed all of the animals and all of the kiddos were well behaved with no meltdowns.  Even sweet baby Brady did awesome (when I say infant, I mean he was born April 2!).  So, here are some pictures of our day.  The other hit of the day was getting a panda stamp on their hands which they all wore proudly throughout the zoo.  You will see the picture below of Brice and Tate showing off their stamps.

 The mama lion is hiding in the trees below.  She actually got up and repositioned herself.   Of course all Anna could say was, "I can't see her face."  I was just impressed that the lion actually moved in this heat!

 The gorillas gave us a good show with this mama and her baby, then two "teenage-looking" ones were playing with a toy passing it back and forth.  The mama and baby were then playing with another gorilla who seemed to be tickling the baby while the mama held on to baby's leg.  After that, we saw two of the silverbacks and one beat his chest.  Brice was so excited to have seen this and was then trying to get the gorillas attention by beating his own chest.  Boys...

 My two gorillas...

 what you have to look forward to on next year's Christmas card!

 Brice thinks he is an animal, climbing the trees.  He then got in trouble for doing this by one of the zookeepers.

 Brice's favorite!!!  Panda bears.  Below is another mom and baby duo, although you can't see the baby in this picture.  The baby just put it's head down and fell asleep I guess because you could barely see it in the hammock.

 Then the daddy came out and decided to have some bamboo.  Brice was in h-e-a-v-e-n!  He told me he wanted to stay all day in the Panda Exhibit.

 Panda Stamps!!

 Riding the train with our new "camera smile".

 Two kids asleep on the way home, need I say more?  My new goal for summer, wear these kiddos slap wore out!

 Brice swore he didn't fall asleep...I'll let you be the judge...

Kindergarten Graduation

Last Friday was the last day of school and with it came Brice's Kindergarten Graduation.  He then talked us into checking him out of school and hanging out the rest of the day.  Since then, he has been to a Gwinnett Braves game, and gone to the pool twice.  Today we went like gangbusters all day long.  Both kids were up at 6:15am and didn't stop much (well, Anna did nap).  Let's see, we got up, did some laundry, worked on Brice's chore list (oh, yes, he has one), took Anna to swim lessons then went immediately to our pool for a couple of hours, came home and "rested" (I use this term loosely when it comes to Brice), read a chapter of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, went to Fed Ex to ship someone's forgotten sport coat, and then went to swim team practice for Brice.  For those of you counting, that is three pools in one day.  Now do you get my blog background?!  Tomorrow we are headed to the zoo to sweat it out with the animals.

But, here are the decent pictures from graduation.  All the other ones are pretty hazy with red eyes.  We weren't terribly close despite Robin and Larry getting there thirty minutes early to save seats.  I heard from another mom that someone came in two hours before and saved the first two rows...umm, rude!

 Walked across the stage to get his "diploma" and then dropped it right back in the basket!  He then asked where his actual diploma was before we were about to leave and his parapro said, "Oh, they were just rolled up sheets of paper."!  He did get a certificate which is hanging in his room right now!

 Brice with his teacher, Mrs. Blaylock.  She was wonderful and we will miss her!!

All About Brice

First let me say thank you to all of those with encouraging words about the pregnancy from the last post.  I truly appreciate it.  I was not fishing for compliments, I was just venting a little bit.  As all of us ladies know sometimes it doesn't matter how you look but how you feel.  I know that there is nothing I can do about what number is on the scale and that I am going to have to continue to eat during this pregnancy.  In fact, I am eating right now because, well, I'm starving.  I remember being 28 weeks with Brice and Anna and being very hungry as well.  Babies must pack on something extra during this time and I am truly blessed to have such healthy pregnancies.  Anyway, thank you, thank you.

That being said, I wanted this post to be All About Brice.  He has two days left of kindergarten and then I will have a first grader in the house.  This feels very old to me.  He has done so well this year and I'm so proud of him, taking on new challenges, managing the growing pains (which are about twice a week at night :(), and losing teeth.  As the school year comes to a close this Friday, I thought I would post some pictures of his baseball trophy and completed art work.  These are two things that Brice loves.  He walks around the house swinging an imaginary baseball bat and when he isn't doing that, he is drawing something.  He told me this past weekend he couldn't decide if he wanted to be a zookeeper or an artist when he grows up.  This is so Brice.  He loves animals as well and they are usually the subjects of his drawings. Justin and I have talked about that fact that we can see him doing something he absolutely loves when he grows up but that being something that doesn't necessarily make a lot of money.  Artist?  Teacher?  Or maybe a Zookeeper?!  He has a strong, gentle soul and is so very mature about so many things.

His baseball coach described him as "intense" and this is such a good word for Brice.  He has been this way since Day 1 of his life.  We have pictures of him with a furrowed brow as an infant even, as though he was already concentrating on what needed to be done.  Brice had an awesome season and did improve on all areas with help mainly from Justin.  I can't say we had the best coaching staff this year as far as working on the fundamentals but they are only 5 and 6.  We went to a pool party for the boys on Sunday, it was so windy and chilly.  Luckily, the pool was heated but when it came time for trophies and cake, none of them wanted to get out and I don't blame them!

 Shivering and waiting...

 The head coach reading his stats.

 The trophy is now in his room and he put one of his game balls in the glove.  He is trying to receive as many trophies as Aunt Blaire.  I think the number to beat is 33.

And, the artwork.  He has loved art this year at school.  They didn't bring any of their projects home until yesterday.  He was so excited to pull it all out and show us.  There was more but I only took pictures of a couple.

 This one below he was especially proud of and I will be getting a frame for it.

Kindergarten Graduation is Friday so I will have pictures soon of that.  Hopefully, he will smile for me!

28 weeks...No Picture but a Name!

On Sunday I hit the 28 week mark!  My last trimester of my last pregnancy, bittersweet, I must say.  I am feeling good for the most part with still the occasional lower back/sciatic nerve pain.  Emotionally, today has been a tough day as the scales were tipping and not in the direction I wanted them to go.  Add on top of that my neighbor that hasn't seen me in awhile and his face said it all.  So, there have been some tears today and therefore, I will not be including a picture.  Sorry to all you curious fans.  Today at my appointment, we got another peek at our sweet boy (who looks like Brice) because my placenta was low at our 20 week appointment.  Today, all is measuring well so for that I am thankful.  In a nutshell, if the placenta is too low, it can cause risks with a regular delivery which would guarantee a C-section.  Since I have been planning on that anyway, it would not have been a big deal for me if it was still low but now if I do go into the labor in the same fashion as I did with Anna I won't have that to worry about as well.  Pretty sure that was a run-on sentence.  Sorry.

Anyway, he was measuring 2 pounds 11 ounces which puts him in the 50%tile.  A quick reference to babycenter.com when I got home said that most babies are 2 and a 1/4 pound at this point.  Hmmm, not sure what to think except that this boy is going to take after his father.  After speaking with the doctor (same one who delivered Brice, that I love, respect and really want to deliver this one), we will do yet another ultrasound at 38 weeks and if he is measuring bigger than 7lbs, 8oz, we will make sure the C-section happens.  So, after that conversation I felt better and worse.  Better knowing that we may have a definite plan, worse that I may definitely be having major surgery.  This may or may not have added to the tears today in addition to the fact that Anna is done with school and Brice has three more days. Yikes.

On to the fun part... the name!  As soon as we found out he was a boy, Justin and I mentioned the same name to each other.  I thought this was going to be so easy.  Then Justin became wishy-washy about it and mentioned other names.  Names I liked but I still liked the first name best.  I thought of him as that name and the other names we talked about weren't measuring up in my mind.  Justin would act set on a name so I would try to get used to it over the next couple of days and just when I thought maybe I could call him that, Justin would say, "No, how about this?"!  Finally, I told him I was sticking to my guns.  Justin ran the scoreboard or kept the books at Brice's games depending on whether we were home or away and Mother's Day weekend noticed the name on the roster for the other team.  I guess seeing it in print was enough for him and knowing how much I liked it.  He sent me a text after the game (we rode in separate cars) on the way to dinner....

"Kyle Patrick Reynolds it is.  Final answer."
So that was it.  Our little man will be called Kyle.  And we can't wait to meet him come early August!  If I get over myself soon, I will take another belly picture.  Until then, I'm big, I feel big, I look big so you don't have to say anything if I run into you on the street.  My mind set will be "It's all for Kyle." until he shows up!

Field Day

Tell me you remember your Field Day.  How much fun it was to have a day playing at school for half the day.  Brice had his last Wednesday on the hottest day here so far in the hottest part of the day.  But, I was so excited for him, despite the awful color his class had to wear!  He raced in four events individually and then they had a couple class events.

My friend said he was trying to not let the orange touch his body too much in the picture above!

He took 1st place in the sack race!  So proud.

A hug from his buddy Jarrett.

Anna loves going to see Brice at school whether it's for lunch or any event.  She did well withstanding the heat.  We did however leave a little early before he did the 50-yard dash (2nd place) and the 50-yard relay to get out of the heat.

Getting ready for the hula hoop race.

Passing the hula hoop to his friend Ella.  Apparently, these two get along fabulously.  His teacher told me they are always talking and giggling together.  I asked him later about it and he told me "Mom, Ella is really funny."

Blaylock's class takes 2nd place, Hooray! (And that is a big hunk of sunscreen hanging from his eyebrow!)

This was the last event I stayed for, the Ostrich Egg Race.  I think he now knows how fun Field Day is and will look forward to it next year.  Hopefully, then we will have real May weather and not July weather for it since I'll have two other kids to sweat it out with!

Another quick story, mainly for my own memory.  The four of us were hanging out doing puzzles and Justin and I were telling Brice how smart he was.  Justin said, "Does your brain ever hurt because you think so much, Brice?", just trying to be funny.  Brice responded, "No, but it does get really hot sometimes."!!

Mother's Day Weekend

I know it's already Wednesday and I haven't even blogged about the weekend.  We have been going full steam ahead with after school activities overlapping.  We are riding out the end of baseball season and Brice has decided to do swim team this year so we've started indoor practice.  Combine that with holidays, graduation, teacher appreciation week and what not and this month is crazy.  I have until May 22nd off of work so that is nice to not have to worry about.  I am calling it my May-cation.  I was a bad mom and didn't take my camera to either of my kids' Muffins with Moms.  Needless to say, we are all very tired around here when 7pm rolls around.  I didn't ask for anything for Mother's Day.  I just enjoy seeing the kids faces when they bring me the card they made or the flowers they picked out at the store.  Justin got up with the kids Sunday and cleaned the downstairs.  I laid in bed awake just listening to Anna's little voice and Brice telling her a million times to "be quiet, Mom's sleeping" and her responding "No, I want to be loudy.".  Justin then intervened and she decided to yell at him which caused a time-out for Ms. Thang!  I decided to go ahead and get up at that point and then Justin took the kids to Starbucks for my favorite white chocolate mocha.  Yum.

We ended the day by going to my mom and dad's for a short visit and then to the Reynolds's to celebrate with Justin's mom, Larry's mom and Robin's mom.  Poor Kelly was and still is under the weather and didn't want to spread her germs.  I did bring my camera but didn't take one picture.  Sorry!

I have been trying to think of something really meaningful and tear-jerking to blog about but I'm just not coming up with anything profound.  I am proud to be a mommy.  It is exhausting from Day 1, physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I look at other moms and wonder how they do it and do it well.  Everybody's "mom situation" is different and we all do what we can and take what God gives us. 

I was reminded again just how very blessed I am on Saturday.  As most of you know I volunteer for the foundation that was started in honor of a little girl I took care of in the NICU.  Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation.  On Saturday, they held their third annual golf tournament in order to raise money for the foundation.  This year, Keira, Zoe's mom, wanted to have an isolette there with a doll inside in order to show the golfers just what it is like to live the life of a NICU parent.  She asked me to see what I could do in order to have the real life experience in the golf club.  With lots of emails and phone calls, this is what the result was:

  How did I do?  Minus a few other huge machines that seem to dwarf a premature baby even more, this is what those families look at for sometimes months at a time.  A few of the other volunteers there are moms to preemie graduates and they all said they had chills looking at this again and re-living the NICU experience.  The golf tournament was a success this year and we hope to have even more come out and play next year.  You can visit the link on the left to read more about Zoe Rose.

When I arrived home from the tournament I went upstairs to rest for a few minutes before Brice's baseball game.  Anna woke up shortly after I laid down and was talking to Brice and Justin.  That little girl ran into my room with her arms above her ahead and a big smile on her face, "Mommy's home now!".  She quickly climbed up onto the bed and into my arms.  She took my face in her hands and said, "We got you fwowers.  I got you pink ones and Bwice got you wed ones!".  That was the best memory right there!!!  Justin and Brice were both a little bummed that she had spilled the beans but Brice quickly ran to where he had hid them and brought them in.  They both picked out the flowers by themselves and both so perfectly reflect each child.  Three red roses from Brice-neat, fresh, simple.  And a bouqet of pink wild flowers from Anna-colorful, bright, and slightly wild!

Hope your Mother's Day Weekend was as blessed as mine!!

Buying Time

Here is a video of Anna "reading".  I am just buying some time until I can blog about this past weekend which was so wonderful!  Enjoy.

Baseball 2011

We have plenty of baseball seasons ahead of us with another little guy coming along.  I realized last week that I didn't have many pictures of Brice playing this season so I tried to catch up a little during the past two games.  It hit me that one day I will be going through these pictures for his senior page in the yearbook, trying to pick which one I like the best.  I also like to capture Anna during these games because she will be spending a good portion of her life at the ball fields as well.  I am pretty sure she equates baseball with "sliding and swinging", both things done IN a baseball game (sliding into home and swinging the bat) but she would prefer doing those things on the playground with all the additional fans that make it to Brice's games.  Here are some pictures from the past couple of games...

 our fashion girl ready for the game with boots on the wrong feet and a runny nose.  We've had some rough weather during a lot of Brice's games so I've had to pack the whole coat closet!

The following pictures are from Saturday.  It was so beautiful out and we were so thankful for "baseball weather".  Here is Anna in the scorer's box with the men, something I have a feeling is not going to change!

 In the last inning, Brice lead the team off with a great hit and then batted in the winning run!!!  So proud. :)

 checking out his snack.  This boy devoured his dinner after the game and then ate this snack!  Below, Anna runs off more energy with Grandad.

 Brice with his game ball.  He is so proud of these as he should be.  All the game balls he has received are sitting on his dresser and he counts them as "trophies".

We only have a few games left for this season including the tournament.  Looking forward to many more fun memories on the ball field!