Lynsey's first time at the zoo, preggo pic, etc.

I decided it was okay to put up a preggo pic, since I officially feel and look really pregnant. When I had a hard time putting on my socks this morning, it all came back to me. The baby is extremely active, and we're not talking just flutters anymore, either - he's getting strong in there! I don't remember Lynsey kicking this much, but I might just be remembering wrong. In any case, I'm happy he's healthy and moving around.

So I'm eating a few words from my last blog post. Lynsey continued to show interest in peeing on the potty, so people were telling us we should try putting her in panties just to see if she was ready - apparently interest can be a good indicator that they are ready. So I got her some thick training panties from Walmart and we tried for a few days. She wasn't quite ready. I don't think it was a total waste of time, because it seems to have given her a bigger awareness of when she's going, but she just isn't at the point yet where she is able to tell us with enough notice before she pees. The bright side is that even though she's back in diapers, she has still been interested in sitting on the potty, and pees on it usually once a day - the last few days, she's been telling us she wants to pee, and then proceeded to pee a good amount within a minute or two of sitting on the potty. Most times previous to these, she would sit on there for several minutes while we read books to her, and eventually she peed. It almost seems like she is starting to understand the sensation, but I'm still cautiously optimistic at this point. I'll keep putting her on the potty when she asks, but we're not pulling out the underwear again for a little while. I want to be sure that she's made some more progress first. In any case, I'm proud of her for the little progress that she has made!

What else - she learned how to pedal her tricycle this week as well! She doesn't get enough strength to really propel herself yet, but she seems to be catching on to the circular motion of pedaling, which she hadn't really done before. We also took her to the zoo for the first time today. She liked the animals, although she's not really old enough to get really excited about them yet. She lasted pretty long - longer than me! Wow do I ever notice a decrease in stamina these days! Anyway, it was a fun morning - she seemed the most interested in the zebras, giraffes, pigs and these crazy monkeys that were being really loud:). Next summer I think she'll be able to more fully appreciate the zoo.

To LA and back

Mary and I decided to make a trip up to La Crete to see Joyce's baby right before the Labour Day weekend. I was a bit worried about the drive, but I knew that once we were there, Lynsey would love it. We met in Red Deer on the Thursday and Mary and the kids jumped in with me. We stayed at Brian's parents' house for night to break up the trip - I think Lynsey loved showing her favorite cousins her Grandma's house:). We left Friday morning and the adventure began! The first hour and a half to Whitecourt was a bit rough - we weren't letting them watch a movie just yet (had to keep it somewhat of a novelty in order for it to be effective!) and there were some moments of wanting to "get out", but all in all, very surviveable. Once we hit Whitecourt, we let them watch a movie until Valleyview, so that was a smooth stretch. We got out at Valleyview and had a picnic lunch - too bad it was a bit cold outside. It took them a while, but when we were almost in Peace River, they all fell asleep - ahhh peace! We just powered through, not stopping again until the lineup at the ferry - we had to wait there for 45 minutes!! And it was raining so the kids couldn't even go outside! We did let them out of their carseats to walk around the van which seemed to help. We got to Mom and Dad's around 6 that night.

The weather was awful almost the whole time we were there, which was really unfortunate. We did a lot of visiting, eating, playing (that was mostly the kids:)) and relaxing. What a great visit! You know, I dread making the drive up there, and not without good reason; however, it is always worth it. Lynsey was so happy there! And I know she would have had even more fun if we had been able to go outside more. There's nothing like kicking back and spending close to a week visiting family and friends. We left for home Thursday morning and did the whole trip back in one day - it was a loooong day. We got home at 10pm. On the trip back we made a few more stops to break up the trip - stopped in Edmonton for supper again, which really helped.

So I'm a bit excited with Lynsey's interest in the potty since we go back! We let her sit on it in the evenings before bath time and read some books - we've only done it twice now, and she's peed both times! Not right away - I don't know how deliberate it is - but I'm still happy that she's doing it! I'm going to try and do it every night and make it routine, and see if she becomes really regular with doing it. And then maybe start sitting her on it in the mornings, too, and go from there. I don't know how I feel about putting her in underwear until I have at least SOME confidence that she can tell me BEFORE she goes. On the talking front, spending a week with Ian up in La Crete seems to have made her more conversational - Brian was blown away when we got back:). She regularly tries to put 3 or 4 words together now, and is answering questions more. Fun fun!

Pregnancy is still going good - chiro really seems to be helping with my lower back! The problem is actually the joint where my leg bone meets my pelvis, and I've already seen some improvement with walking and getting up from lying down etc. All that driving would have really killed me before, but I hardly had any problems this trip. Big relief!