Vincey growing up

Today Vince all on his own pointed to my belly and said, "Mommy, that's your baby in dair?"

"Yes! It's the baby. Do you know his name? What's the baby's name?"

"Baby Zete."

It was so cute! And yes, we're 99.9% decided that the baby is Zeke (Ezekiel). Still not sure about a middle name.

They always ask me to take a picture of them sitting on the couch

Reading "Winnie the Pooh"

He has finally taken a liking to Letter Factory! Azure started watching it around 14 months so she could recite the whole alphabet right after turning 2. We tried getting Vince excited about watching it but, he's resisted until about 6 wks ago. He can now sing the whole alphabet- though there is an occasional mix up. He can also say what sound each letter makes with about 95% accuracy.

For those of you who know me intimately well, you might have noticed that I do a strange thing with my hands when I talk to myself and/or get excited. I have done it since childhood and still do it today. Vince has picked this up from me and I LOVE it! You can see him kind of doing it as I pour honey on his pancake in the above pic- sweet treats always excite him.

And he can count to 11 now too! Sometimes he remembers that 12 comes next and sometimes not. He also knows most of his colors. That was slow going for awhile but, it's all suddenly clicked for him. It is so fun to see his neurons connecting. I love this stage of rapid mental growth!

During Conference weekend he fell out of his crib for the first time trying to climb out so we took his mattress out and he's now sleeping on it on the floor. It works for now until we decide how we're going to situate sleeping arrangements once Zeke needs the crib.

As you can see, he doesn't always stay on his bed

He calls cereal "sirs". I bought some different flavors of Chex "sirs" when they were on sale. After waking up one morning, he told me he wanted "the pie one sirs". Of course, I didn't know what he was referring to, so I had to pull them all out and ask which one he wanted. It happened to be the apple cinnamon Chex. "Pie one sirs" is now a common phrase in our household spoken by me and Charles because it is just too funny to not say.

We start swimming lessons next week! It's his first lesson/class of any kind. He's well overdue for one. Azure is upset that she has to sit and watch me and Vince swim in the pool. I think it'll be good for her. I've explained that Vince has had to just sit and watch her play soccer for 2 yrs now along with art lessons, and theater camp, gymnastics, etc.

My sweet boy brushing my hair :) He has a fetish with hair. He always asks to touch mine ("Mommy, you have some brown hairs") and twirls his own to fall asleep at night.

Dress up! I think she looks like her Gma here.

30 wks

I am definitely feeling like a walking watermelon at this point. I'm constantly spilling things on my protruding belly and forced to pelvic rock to take away my back pain.

I've realized chairs and couches are overrated. I am more comfortable tailor sitting on the floor. I'm hoping that doing these exercises more will produce an anterior baby. 3rd times a charm right?! I'm willing to do anything to avoid back labor a 3rd time. Well, almost anything. I read something about walking around on all fours, even in public, to make sure your uterus is always hanging down. Haven't done that yet.

Besides the tossing and turning all night and frequent urination (I pee way more with this pregnancy than I did the others), I am super excited about the upcoming birth. We found a new doula, as the one we had with Vince is no longer practicing. We feel good about her and think her gifts and talents will definitely bless us during our birthing time.

I have been reading about the Bradley Method and hope to use a combination of their techniques along with some Hypnobabies and music of our own. I would take a Bradley class except for the fact that the closest one is in Charleston, SC (1.5 hrs away).

Now, that's it's cooled down, I've resumed walking again. Right now only 1/wk but, I hope to increase that to 2 soon. I signed Vince up for a swimming class next month and plan to do some prenatal aqua moves while I'm in the pool with him.

I aspire to be one of those women who are super active during pregnancy but, because of my intense sickness in the 1st trimester, I never fully recover. In my 2nd trimester I eat everything in sight because I'm finally not throwing up anymore and can eat anything and EVERYTHING tastes so good. My weight gain skyrockets 2nd trimester compared to 1st trimester. Maybe with the next pregnancy I will run a 5K or something.

I mostly want to be active during pregnancy so that I can have shorter labors. I thought it would help that I was active before pregnancy but, so far no.