Not Even Possible

So I've gained about 20 pounds so far and I'm 36 weeks along tomorrow, which is not too bad for my third. I've decided, though, that it is not even possible for my frame to carry much more weight than what I gain when I'm pregnant ( I gained 25 with Victoria and 23 with Karissa).

With all of my pregnancies I have gotten a pinched nerve in my lower back that has been the worst this time around since I'm busier and still carry Karissa around, but not as much as I carried Victoria around at this age. It only flares up when I'm not careful and do too much, which happened yesterday.

After a nice morning spent a Relief Society Stake Conference at the church I went home and proceeded to help Jason with our garden by shoveling dirt, turning the old plot a different angle, and pulling up weeds and old plants. When a thunderstorm came through in the afternoon, I went in and painted more of the baby's room. Of course the weather was nice again when I was done painting, so I went out and shoveled some more.

Last night, I could hardly walk, my back hurt so much! I hobbled around feeling like someone who is hugely obese, rather than a pregnant woman who's only gained 20 pounds. And this morning, I woke up with a Charlie horse in my left calf, which has given me another reason to hobble around today.

It's interesting to hear what people have to say, too. There's the ladies at the garage sale the other day who were dying of how cute I looked and couldn't believe how far long I was (that made me feel good!) The very same day, my neighbor's friend said, "Wow, you look like you're about to pop!"

Obviously I did way too much work yesterday, but I definitely toned it down a few notches than if I hadn't been pregnant. I just don't think it's possible for me to gain much more than I have, otherwise, I might collapse!

This is me today!

Random

There's something about being two-- children just love to wear all the accessories at once, no matter what the season or temperature. My kids both especially loved to wear the red rain boots, which were mine when I was younger. Check out these pictures. The first one is Victoria when she was two. (She actually didn't have as much on at one time as I thought she did, but this is the picture of I was thinking of when I took the next picture of Karissa.)
Now, Karissa has it all on, mittens included. Though we do live in Michigan and even though it was sunny that day, it was still chilly, so the mittens weren't such a bad idea.













Here is a picture that Victoria drew recently. Notice that she perceives me as being bigger than the tree. She also said that my tummy is as big as Santa's. Don't you just love kids?

Easter

We went to the zoo on Saturday for a special Bunnyville activity. Of course it was so crowded that we didn't do much of the Bunnyville activities, except for make a craft, but we did enjoy seeing the animals. This time we got to see the animals outside, since it was a whopping 45 degrees, as opposed to when we went in January when everything was frozen over. Victoria and Daddy liked the meerkats and Mommy and Karissa liked the peacocks who strutted around in front us many times.

On Easter the kids looked at their baskets before church, which starts at 8:30, and then did the Easter egg hunt after church. Luckily, Victoria did not wake up super early to do the Easter egg hunt before church-- it's hard enough getting to church on time as it is. Since Karissa has an older sister, she knows about candy by now and probably ate more candy than anyone else!

Mouths full of candy!

We hope you had a happy Easter!

Theater and Gymnastics

Victoria and I went to the Marquis Theater on Friday for her field trip. The production was The Little Mermaid. Of course it was different than the movie, but she still enjoyed it. Karissa couldn't go since they don't allow children under 3 at the theater, but it was a nice date with Victoria. I had decided a while ago that I need to put her in some drama classes, not like she needs the help, but I think it would be right up her ally.

Victoria has been taking a gymnastics class the past 5 weeks and yesterday was the last day. Here are a couple of short videos of her. In the second one she does a pull-over, with help of course, but she did it much better than she did a couple of weeks ago. Then, she couldn't hold herself up at the end at all. I think she gets the award for most improved!

32 Weeks

On Monday I'll be 33 weeks along. Right now the baby has use of all five of his senses and his fingernails, toenails, eyebrows, and eyelashes have grown in. Basically, all the little details are being completed.

He's already a character. He'll being kicking away and I'll say something to Jason, but as soon as Jason puts his hand on my belly, the kicking stops. Though he kicks like crazy every time Karissa sits on my lap. I have a feeling that instead of two kids fighting over my lap at church, there will be three!

Victoria asked me today how babies get into tummies. I told her when people get married they can have a baby in the mommy's tummy. She again asked how, so I told her that there are eggs in the mommy's body and when the seed comes to the egg, it makes a baby. I'm glad that satisfied her. She's been in the "why" stage for a while and now even Karissa is asking "why" about everything, which is even harder since she doesn't understand as much yet.

Karissa said something pretty cute yesterday. She said, "I'm sad." I asked her why and she said, "Because I'm happy!" Our kids are obsessed with being sad!

Our New Car

On Friday we sold our Honda Accord. Luckily, I had been driving Jason's Ford Fusion for a while in order to prep the car for this last week of it being up for sale, so I was weened from driving my Honda. We sold it to a nice lady for $7600 and then turned around on Saturday and bought ourselves a Ford Freestar! It is used, but it's a 2006, certified and fully loaded vehicle in excellent condition. We paid $13,996 for it and are very happy with it. The kids love it, especially because it has a DVD player in it. They got to try it out, while we signed all the papers, and watched Dora during that time. Of course now Karissa thinks we'll be watching a movie every time we go anywhere, but we're working on that. So now, I am driving my own Ford (a first) and a "mom" car (also a first), but it feels great! Now we're ready for baby number 3!

Has the following features (added by Jason):

• Electronic Stability Control
• Traction Control
• Parking Sensors
• Driver/Frt Passenger Side Airbags
• Auto Day/Night Mirror
• Memory Driver settings (once you get the seat, pedals and mirrors where you like them, you save the setting. If someone else drives the car and messes up your settings you only need press a button to return it to yours.)*
• Heated leather seats
• power sliding doors and power tailgate
• Keyless entry keypad
• Homelink (built in garage door opener)
  

*This is especially helpful when the parents come, since they use the side mirrors for looking at the side of the car instead of the blindspot. Maybe it helps to remind them that they left the gas cap door open.

Fire Station

On Friday we went to the fire station for Victoria's field trip. The Paramedic giving the tour thought she recognized Victoria. She said it was probably from the last time we went, which I was somewhat confused by since we hadn't been in over a year and I'm sure she sees lots of kids there on field trips. Well, it finally dawned on me that she was one of the Paramedics who came to our house last month when we called 911. I asked her if she went on ambulance runs and when she said she did I told her that was probably where she recognized Victoria from. I told her she came when Karissa had her seizure and she said, "Oh yeah! Your house was the one with the cool fire place I talked about that night." She was glad to see Karissa was doing better and realized Victoria was the one who was at the door and then ran around the corner when everyone came in. It was just a cool coincidence.

Here is Victoria looking up at the huge fire truck.

This is the ambulance Karissa and I got to ride in.
In the fire truck.