30.5 weeks in and just a few sleeps until Christmas!

It seems like just yesterday I was peeing on a stick, and now we are just two months away from a huge life change. Crazy! I feel pretty pregnant these days - hello back pain, heart burn, constant peeing and more braxton hicks contractions. Why is the third trimester such a drastic change from the second one?? Anyone, it's still not terrible, but I am feeling a bit more fatigued these days. There's a lot going on with Christmas coming, and our contractor just got started on framing the basement today - happy that part will be done before Christmas! Now Brian has some "free" time to get going on the electrical:). I feel pretty overwhelmed a lot of days, feeling like I can never keep my house clean and I never have the right groceries in the house and I just have no motivation to do anything. I see all these facebook statuses about people getting right on top of the cleaning and the Christmas baking and I just can't even remotely get myself there! Oh, well - I know that I always get to doing what I have to do, it's just those things that I usually LIKE to keep on top of that are suffering somewhat.

Lynsey had her preschool concert yesterday - very cute:). She was singing away and completely into the actions to the songs. I love that she just throws herself into these things! She was supposed to be in a Sunday School "concert" as well last Sunday, but we were three minutes late for church and the little kids' part was half over. I'm over it now, but I was pretty disappointed. The preschool one was a lot better anyway (in my opinion) - they actually sang songs that they had learned the words to and got bells to ring for one song, whereas the Sunday School one was just a cd playing a song where some of the kids tried to do some hand gestures to the music. Anyway, it's so great to see her entering this phase of life where she's in organized activities:).

We are heading up to Edmonton Saturday morning to have Christmas with Brian's family. I'm excited to have Friday night and Saturday morning to have our own little Christmas, and I'm hoping to try and start some traditions this year - thinking of going to the Airdrie festival of lights on Friday night (Lynsey loved it last year and has been asking to go back!) and I'm trying to think of some other traditions to start. I think we'll let them open a present or two in the evening.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Busy busy busy!

The last week and a half have been pretty hectic, but a lot of fun! I've managed to finish almost all of my Christmas shopping, which is a huge relief since I don't particularly enjoy it. We had some family over on Saturday night for a turkey dinner which was really fun as well.

Adam continues to talk more and more. One thing I forgot to mention in the last blog post is how he keeps referring himself in the third person: "Ad-o want more milk", or he walks into a room and looks at us and says, "Hi Ad-o" - that one we're working on:). He has become quite the little night owl, getting a second wind around 7:30 or 8 and talking to himself often until 9:30 (Lynsey usually falls asleep long before him). I do like sleeping in until 8, but that also has it's drawbacks when I'm trying to get ready to go somewhere in the morning. He used to be so docile in the evenings, he could barely stay awake until bedtime. That is definitely no longer the case. We have started telling him, "No screaming" when he screams, and while it doesn't stop him completely, he has on some occasions started screaming and then stopped himself saying, "no skeeming". He says that a lot, but unfortunately still screams quite often. He is generally a pretty easy toddler so far so I'm not stressing about this little issue too much.

Growing up . . .

I haven't taken a lot of pictures over the last few weeks since my last post (I go through these dry spells!) but I do feel like there's lots to tell about my little family:).

Adam has been growing up in so many ways! We still don't know a lot about his personality, things he likes etc., but he is adding daily to his vocabulary, and continues to expand his play all the time. There was a time when all he really cared about was his musical toys, but he now gets right involved when Lynsey is playing with blocks, or a game with cards, or her kitchen food (this intrusion, as you can imagine, isn't ALWAYS welcome, but she does try to play with him when possible:)). His pretend play has expanded a lot. He now sometimes pretends to eat the play food, gives dolls a bottle, exclaiming that they're thirsty, and cuddles and talks to his teddy bears. It's so cute to see him break out a bit and express himself a bit more - I know there's lots more where that came from, too! He counts to 10 with no mistakes and is getting much better at listening and following instructions. I can now sort of guide him when we're walking somewhere (although he is still a bit unpredictable) and he understands a lot better when we tell him it's time to eat, or time to go the van, etc. The other day we told him it was time to eat and he says, "Go downstairs, eat some supper" and started on his way down. He definitely has the word "more" down pat as well! He's becoming a bit pickier at meal times, requesting fries and other goodies when he has something completely different in front of him, but I'm hoping this will just be a phase (please be a phase!).

It seems our boy is also becoming more and more aware of his, shall we say, calls of nature! The other day, Brian took him out of the tub and he was running around naked as he often does. He started whining and talking about "pee on potty" and grabbing himself like he was uncomfortable, with a few drips coming out. Brian tried putting him on the potty but he immediately climbed off and continued to whine about "go pee". So Brian asked him if he wanted a diaper, and he takes off for the room with the diapers affirming, "yeah diaper" - so Brian puts one on. Not a minute later, Brian checked and his diaper was wet. Interesting I figure. No, I'm not taking this as a sign that I need to start potty training (I don't even need to refer back to past blog posts - I remember it all too well!) but I just find it interesting that he is becoming more aware of when he needs to go. Who knows - maybe God will have mercy on me and he WILL be easier to train than Lynsey! Oh please let that be the case!:)

Lynsey is still doing fantastic in preschool - such a social butterfly:). She has become very interested in doing activities and sticker books with special instructions, and has practiced her colouring a lot. She loves to take the train tracks apart on her train table and enjoys the challenge of making her own track with no dead ends (this is very difficult to do, but she tries really hard!). She still struggles with knowing her limits with Adam and when to just stop what she's doing, but we're hoping this will start tapering off. Adam has actually started telling her himself a few times to stop, so hopefully as he gets bigger and more communicative (and maybe even stands up for himself once in a while!) this problem will just go away on it's own. She loves to try and negotiate with us, especially at mealtimes (bite sizes, how many bites, how much healthy food she has to eat before she can have a treat, etc.).

I have to start Christmas shopping this week - what to do, what to do. Normally I don't have any trouble buying stuff for the kids, but I don't just want to buy random toys . . . trying to figure out what fits with each of their personalities! Lynsey will be easier than Adam - we have yet to learn much about his personality:). I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Wedding fun!

I had meant to do a post concluding our trip on Monday or Tuesday after we got back, but that obviously didn't happen so I will update you now! We had a good last day on the beach on Sunday. We discovered a really nice beach about two minutes from our condo (we thought there were only the three Kamaole beaches, but there was a very nice cove just south of them!) and had another nice beach morning! The kids were not quite as content as they had been earlier in the week - we figured they were probably getting a bit tired of the beach and/or were getting a bit homesick. They still had fun, were just a bit higher maintenance! Our poor girl Lynsey - she wanted to try boogie boarding, but just didn't have enough courage. She would be all gung-ho to try, and then as soon as she got to the water, she got upset and stalked away pouting saying she didn't want to do it anymore. I felt bad for her - she so badly wanted to try it! Maybe next time we do a beach vacation she'll have more courage:). We spent some time at the pool after Adam's nap as well - saw the most beautiful sunset on our last day, too! Got everything cleaned up and headed to the airport!

Lynsey fell asleep in the rental car and basically slept until we got to Vancouver - very nice for all of us! Adam did not fall asleep in the rental car. He melted down in the airport - the kind of meltdown that I had nightmares about. We were in the security line and he was just screaming - and they still didn't rush us to the front of the line! We got through security okay (Lynsey stayed asleep through the whole ruckus somehow!) and I gave him a bit of Gravol - I was pretty desperate. He fell asleep after some walking with the stroller, and then he slept until Vancouver as well (Praise the Lord!). Brian and I did not sleep so well - Brian thinks he might have slept an hour or two, but I dozed for 20 minutes at most. Got to Vancouver at 7am their time, and the flight from Vancouver to Calgary was okay. Adam was a bit restless, but it was only an hour long, so we survived! It was nice to be home again:). All in all, a wonderful vacation, and I don't regret bringing the kids at all, despite a few hitches along the way!

We were home for a few days, and then on Thursday headed off to Edmonton for Mike's wedding! It was a beautiful wedding, although Adam did not do well during the ceremony:(. Brian's Mom had arranged for some babysitting during the ceremony in one of the hotel rooms, but I knew he would just hate it there and honestly thought he would do alright with me in the ceremony. Well, we walked in to the ceremony room (which was small and very loud as people were visiting before the wedding) and it didn't take long for him to be completely done there. Snacks didn't do it, holding him wouldn't help, singing to him wasn't working, he wanted out and that was that. I was outside the room with him for the entire ceremony. He was perfectly happy to stomp away on the dance floor in the reception room and climb up and down the stairs in the lobby. It was pretty disappointing for me:(. I almost wished I had put him in the babysitting, although I know he would have been a lot more miserable (and so would the poor babysitters!) - it would have been a purely selfish maneuver, but part of me still wished I had done it! The family pictures did not go too well either - he screamed the entire time. It was a frustrating experience. I felt so disappointed because he's rarely like that, and of course he's like that when we really need him NOT to be! Oh, well - such is life with an almost two year old!

The wedding babysitters came to Brian's parents' place to babysit our kids and Bobbi and Jer's kids for the reception - how wonderful that was! I was able to enjoy some time between the ceremony and reception visiting with family and friends, and was able to enjoy the reception SOO much more than the ceremony! The food was great, the dance was fun - they had salsa dancing lessons, which was really fun! A good night all in all:).

Now we are back home and I'm kind of happy to get back into a routine again! Brian and I are going to Banff this weekend for one night for his Christmas party which should be really nice - I know we just got back from vacation, but Brian and I could use a night alone together! Sooo thankful for my friends Coraleah and Larissa that are coming to babysit for the night - you guys rock!:)