Opi's Lawnmower...

is almost as good as Opi's tractor! Opi is Bobby's Dad and has waaaay too much fun stuff that my boys are obsessed with. Number one obsession would be his tractor but a close runner up is his lawnmower!

Bobby really needed to mow the lawn the other day so he ran and picked up his Dad's lawnmower. He got most of it done before 2 little boys even noticed. This was a good thing as it would have taken him 19 times longer with 2 "helpers".

Graham noticed this little buck across the street at our neighbors house when we went outside and he just HAD to take it's picture :).

Once we scared the buck off with all our noise this little one wandered out from it's hiding place. Soo cute!

I managed to get the guys to stop the lawn mower for a second so I could grab a quick picture. Grady was in hog heaven riding around in Bobby's lap. He's beyond content when he gets to ride around. One time when Bobby's Dad was mowing for us Grady caught a ride with him and fell asleep on his lap!

Graham is just now getting old enough to kinda help. By "help" I mean he know how to drive the mower all by himself (with supervision) and do donuts in the grass as fast as he can. He got in trouble for this very thing this day...

I have to provide a brief disclaimer here... don't let this green grass fool you. It's only green because it has an awesome tree to shade it from the HOT Texas sun. If you could see the rest of our poor yard behind me in this picture it would make you cry! It's totally brown and yuck! (like our neighbors in the deer pictures above :( .

32 Weeks (and 3 days) !

Once again can I just say that I can't believe that we've made it this far! The weeks seem to be just flying by now. At the beginning of the summer I was hovering around the 21st week of pregnancy and everything seemed just so far away. I kept telling myself "just get through the summer", "just get through the summer".

Thank goodness the end of summer is just around the corner. Graham starts 3rd grade next week so that marks the end of summer for us even though it really isn't technically Fall until September 23rd. I wondered all Summer long if Graham would be starting the new school year with a new little brother. I'm guessing not. :) I can't wait to see what changes our little family of four will look like this school year as it turns into a family of five!



My sweet Graham took this picture of me this morning before church. He kept scooting back and I asked him what he was doing and he said that he wanted to make sure to get his brother in the picture too! :) (notice the little blue frame on the mantle? That's one of our sonogram pictures of him). Graham melts my heart!!


Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 32 weeks and 3 days!

Size of Baby: I hate to even guess right now. A week ago on Monday he was already 4 pounds 5 ounces. I have nooo idea how much more he will have grown in a week. I go back to the specialist for another growth scan on Monday August 22nd so I'll find out then! (I hate to go by what the Internet says because it never seems right for him...)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I decided to be a crazy person and weigh myself this morning in the Church bathroom (weird that they have a scale in the ladies room, I know). It said the same thing that the specialist office said a week ago so I'm guessing that's good!

Maternity Clothes: Remember last week when I was all excited about the new maternity tops that I had found at Kohls? I had tried on 1 of the 3 tops I bought as they were all the same size, same style, brand etc. just different colors. The one I tried on in the dressing room was great so I bought all 3 and when I tried to wear the other two this past week they were both way too small!! What the heck!! Now I have to go and exchange them. So frustrating!!

Gender: Still our little boy in there!

Movement: He's moving around pretty good this week. One night as I was falling asleep he decided to have some sort of crazy dance party in there and was moving soo much that I actually started to get worried. I had read before in my "What To Expect When You're Expecting" book that frantic movement can be a sign of fetal distress. Of course my crazy brain jumped immediately to that conclusion. I turned myself over to my left side, chugged a giant glass of water and he seemed to settle down a lot. How is it possible for children to already scare the heck out of their parents when they are not even born yet??

Sleep: Still sleeping pretty good with the exception of the nightly potty trips! :)

What I Miss: Absolutely nothing!

Cravings: Nothing really this week. (maybe that's why the scale managed to stay the same number. haha.)

Symptoms: Just some irritating Braxton-Hicks contractions and heartburn.

Best Moment This Week: Just making it one more week!

Potty Training Gone Bad

So for a while now we have been passively potty training Grady. To be honest, I'm feeling very guilty that things have not gone better considering how many months we have been trying to work with him.

While I have been on partial bed rest I have held off super duper potty training. I know that in my condition there is no way that I can pull on and off 50 wet/poopy underpants a day, clean out the little potty that he likes to sit on, wash all said dirty underpants etc. I had hoped that with extra time he would naturally just "get it". Let me tell you, there has been NO "just getting it".

I would love it if I could share how we have been doing it so far with you ladies and get some feedback from you as to what you would do differently or what you would try next!

Grady has proved to be very bull headed about potty training. He seems to have this attitude of "I don't care if I ever use the potty". I have been curious since his birth how potty training would go because he was one of those babies who never cared or even cried when he had a dirty diaper. He still acts this way.

I've tried to see if he wanted to be "just like Graham" or "just like Daddy" and use the potty but he seems fairly unimpressed that they use the potty and not a pull-up like him. He just doesn't seem to care at all! Most of the time I am ignored completely when I ask him if he needs to go potty. No "yes" or "no" answers from him ever.

The only success that I have had at all is if we are able to spend all day long at home and I let him run around in just a t-shirt only. When we do that then he uses his little potty all day with no accidents! On these days though, he will still never tell me that he has to go potty or that he has just gone potty. So weird. It's as if he has very little awareness of the act itself I guess??

As far as rewards go we started out letting him have lollipops whenever he would sit on his potty. Now he is getting immune to the candy treat to sit there : \ . He for the most part will turn it down. I am in some serious trouble now! When he does accidentally make it into the potty we give him M&M's or some other special treat along with lots of praise, some clapping and he gets to flush the pee pee down the toilet himself.

What the heck do I do with a kid that just doesn't care one way or the other?? I never had these problems with Graham. He went to daycare everyday and got the chance to mimic the other 20 kids in his class when they all went potty together. Grady doesn't have this opportunity with me here at home.

 I checked out a potty training video from our library that I'm going to watch tonight and maybe make a run to the bookstore tomorrow for some books. Other than that do ya'll have any ideas that I could try? I'm really starting to feel like a Mommy failure! I'm starting to hear more and more comments from random people (and family) about how old Grady is (a little over 3) to not be potty trained yet and how they know of kids just over the age of two who already have it down pat.

Help!!

Update on 31 Week Doctors Appointment

This morning I went to see the specialist to check my cervix (for like the gazillionth time) and the baby's growth. I'm super excited to say that everything went just awesome today!

Here is a brief rundown on all the newest developments :

• Baby Boy now weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces!! (can I hear everyone say Praise God!)
• My cervical length was measuring in at 3.17 which is also awesome
• He is still measuring big and averaging 32 weeks and 6 days gestation (when I am only 31 weeks and 4 days)
• My AFI (amniotic fluid index) was only a 8.73 (which seemed low to me but the doctor assured me that it was more than fine)

And now for the best part... PICTURES! I'm pretty sure that even my hubby who reads my blog (bless his heart) during his lunch hour skips past all of the previous ramblings and skips right to the pictures! :)

I love seeing his face getting a little bit more chubby! And oh how I am going to kiss those sweet little lips of his every hour on the hour when he makes his big arrival! 

31 Weeks (and 3 days)!

Today I am 31 Weeks and 3 days! I suppose that I could have waited until tomorrow to do this post. I have an appointment with the specialist tomorrow morning and I'll have new pictures to share of our little guy! I'm so excited to see how much he weighs now. 3 weeks ago he was 2 pounds 15 ounces. Surely he's at least 3 and a half pounds by now right?



This is me from this morning. I convinced Bobby that we had 2 extra minutes before leaving for church to take my belly picture. Any later in the day and I would have been MUCH more worse for wear! :)



Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 31 glorious weeks!

Size of Baby: I will find out tomorrow and post the exact measurements as soon as I get home. (I promise to become a much better blogger and update much more frequently than I have been doing.)

Total Weight Gain: I'm sure that it's a lot. I'll also find this out tomorrow. This bit of info I will be sure to NOT post. (unless I haven't gained a pound...yeah right...then you all will be the first to know about it!)

Maternity Clothes: You will all be  happy to know that I finally went and found myself some new tank-tops and 1 new pair of shorts. I was out doing a little school clothes shopping for Graham and found that Kohls had GREAT deals on summer maternity clothes!

Gender: Still a little boy!

Movement: This little guy is still making me CRAZY with his inconsistent movement. I'm trying to find the common element on his "bad days". Like, "Did I forget to take my pre-natal vitamins today?" or "How much water have I had to drink?" When I feel like he's not moving enough to satisfy me I drink as much water as I can stand and it usually helps a little.

Sleep: I sleep really good most nights! Every once in a while I still get a random night where I'm awake half the night. This pregnancy has been pretty good on sleep. I attribute that to the awesome new mattress Bobby and I purchased a year and a half ago. (random note: I will forever cheap out on everything else but NEVER on my mattress ever again. Sleep is just way too important!)

What I Miss: Nothing at the moment!

Cravings: Coke Icees! I love them in this heat!

Symptoms: My feet and calves are starting to swell almost everyday now in this heat. Ick. Also just a little bit of heartburn.

Best Moment This Week: The best thing this week was just making it through this week (that and getting to spend time with my awesome little guys - SEE BELOW :)

These are my sweet sweet boys after church today. They are the joys of my life and I can't wait until this time next year to have a 3rd little boy in these pictures!



Swim Lesson Drama

Grady had his first day of swim lessons (this summer) today. We tried when he was a little over a year old just to get him introduced to it and he HATED IT. Guess what... he still HATES IT. Sometimes I can't help but laugh at him when he's in the middle of swim lesson hysterics. I can obviously tell that he is a little scared but the rest of his fit is just pure outrage on his part. You can totally tell that he is soo MAD that he is being made to do something that he just doesn't want to do.

** Let me stop here for a moment and head off any hater comments that I'm bound to receive about poor parenting for stressing out my child. Do not leave me any. The hubby and I firmly believe that no matter how scared Grady (or any of our other kids are) is to swim he must know what to do in case he ever fell in on accident. And as my oldest son Graham put today "He just has to work past his fear Momma". **

Graham, Grady and Mrs. Nancy

So pretty much Grady shrieked and cried and had a 30 minute hissy fit until he was able to get out of the pool and get his cookie for getting through his lesson.

I just love it that Mrs. Nancy does private 30 minute lessons for the little kids. Graham gets the bigger class and 1 hour lessons. Mrs. Nancy was also a sweet heart and let Graham get in to swim as well. She told him that he was going to be her special helper with Grady today so that he wouldn't get soo scared. Ha!

Grady usually loves to "swim" in other peoples pools. He was just soo mad this time that he couldn't just play in the smaller pool that she has (which can kinda be viewed in the background of the above photo). Towards the end of the lesson she let Grady get back into the small pool to work on blowing bubbles and kicking. He was still one ticked off little boy.

Grady got to practice his kicking while getting a piggy back ride on Mrs. Nancy.

Some fun things Grady managed to say in between fits were :

"You get out of the pool NOW! " - said none too politely to Mrs. Nancy...

"I want to get out and get my towel and dry my hair." - he has never once given a darn about dry hair...

I can not wait to take him back next Tuesday for his next lesson. Should be fun!!



I've Been Outed By My Own Kid...

Last night I was sweetly reading this book to Grady before he went to sleep...

We were rocking in his rocking chair in such contentment, learning our numbers up to 20...

We got to the number 10 and opened the flap on this page to reveal....

Grady promptly and proudly told my husband who was loitering in his bedroom "10! 10 snacks! Momma eat LOTS of snacks!!"

Lots of giggling (and some snickering) was done but not by me.