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!

Summer coming to a close . . .

It has been a busy few weeks! We haven't gone away as much as we did in July, but it seems like we've been doing a lot of stuff that has made life busy - in a good way. Lynsey and I have been busy going to waterparks, parks, malls, etc. for the last few weeks, usually with other people so she has other kids to play with. Last weekend, Brian's brother and a few other friends came down from Edmonton to play in the Hoop it Up tournament that they play in every year - they won this year, so he was happy about that:). I had Mary and Dave's boys for the morning on Monday so I took them all to the park - Lynsey hasn't stopped talking about Ian and Ezra since. I don't think they feel the same way about her, but she sure does love hanging out with them! I started going to the Chiropractor last week as well because my lower back is getting worse - I am only 21 weeks and the pain is unbearable at times already. I am giving the Chiropractor one month and if I don't see an improvement in that time, I will stop going. I just had to try something - I can't be incapacitated when I have an active 22 month old! On Saturday, I made a trip to Banff with my friends Larissa and Coraleah. We walked around, had pedicures, went for dinner and then the hot springs before heading back to camp for the night at Tunnel Mountain. The weather could not have been more perfect, and we had a really good time! I have actually missed tenting, funny enough - it helps that we just got a new sleeping bag that is so nice and warm. It seems like I'm never completely warm when I camp in the mountains, and wow does being warm at night ever help my experience!

This week we are finally getting our basement shower tiled! The guy is coming on Wednesday and miracle of all miracles it will be done. We just have to find shower doors now and it will be a completely functioning shower. I'm thinking that by the end of September, we will have turned the spare room into Lynsey's new room - I'm kind of looking forward to painting it and setting up her bed etc. I'm still nervous about putting her in a bed, but I'm actually pretty sure she'll do fine. As for her development, the talking continues to accelerate, and we are trying to teach her some manners right now. As it is now, when she needs help with something, she usually just shrieks in frustration. We are teaching her that she has to come up to us and say "help please" nice and calmly and then we will help her - she is actually catching on really fast! She still shrieks sometimes, but sometimes she actually goes straight to asking nicely for help, so I feel like progress is being made. I can actually hear her over the monitor right now asking me very nicely for help with something:). She is supposed to be sleeping so I don't think I will go to her right now, but I'm encouraged that she is learning.

Beaner's first post!

This is the first post that is exclusively about baby #2! We're calling him Beaner (Lynsey was Beanie, but since this one is a BOY, he is being called Beaner:)). Yes, we had our ultrasound last week and we found out that this baby is indeed a boy! I was a little nervous for the ultrasound, but was very relieved to hear that everything was normal with the baby, and that the sex was unmistakeable - even Brian and I couldn't deny the evidence when she showed us:). Our ultrasound tech was very kind and showed us lots of different angles of his face and body - we were able to see much more than we did on our 18 week ultrasound with Lynsey. I'm feeling stronger movements all the time, and more frequently, too. I remember how with Lynsey I just got used to having this little person moving inside of me, but now that it's happening again, I'm marveling at it all over again. What a miracle!

This picture of Beaner is a bit creepy - his eye looks really droopy because of the angle, but I like that he has his arm up beside his head:). I wonder if that means he'll like that arm up after he's born - Lynsey came out with her other arm up beside her head, just like she was in her ultrasound, so who knows!

Time for a real haircut!

So we've had a good last few weeks! I had my 18 week ultrasound on Tuesday, but I don't have any pictures ready yet, so I'll do a separate post about it sometime this weekend - stay tuned!

Lynsey is just growing up and making me laugh all the time! Out of the blue, we noticed that she was trying to count to ten - quite well I might add! She skips 5 and 7 usually, but she is very close and getting better all the time! She now tries to put two words together (ex. baby bear, dad toot, etc.:)) and she is getting better at playing by herself, which is very nice. She still wants us to help her with stuff all the time, but I have definitely noticed over the last several weeks that she is much more capable of playing by herself and with other kids than she used to be. Brian and I have started attending Harvest Hills Alliance Church and I joined a Mom's group there, and that has been really good for both Lynsey and I. There are 6 or 7 other kids that are almost exactly the same age as her, and I know this will be so good for her! She plays really well with the other kids most of the time, with the exception of her moments where she suddenly feels like everything in the world belongs to her and she has to quickly make sure that nobody else has anything. They are usually fleeting moments that go away almost as quickly as they came, so it's really not bad - very typical toddler stuff. It's only been a few weeks, but I am already really happy that we made the switch, as I have been feeling a bit lonely and isolated. God is good! He knows when it's time to push you out the door, and that's what happened with me!

As you will see from the pictures below, I took Lynsey for her first "real" haircut at Beaners today. She wasn't happy about it. I think the cut turned out really cute - she looks like such a little girl now!