A few random shots

Parker & Keith were playing out in the front yard.  I tried to get some shots of the two of them, but none came out that great.  However, as soon as Parker realized what I was doing, he turned & yelled "Cheese!"

Parker waiting for Daddy to come home: 

Parker LOVES our tablet.  He especially loves making videos of himself and then watching them.  But here, he's watching the video our church made encouraging people to ride the shuttle.  Back when we attended the Greenlake campus, we LOVED the shuttle, but apparently we are in the minority, everyone else seems to prefer to fight over the five legal parking spaces around the church.

Both of my boys got their hair cut this weekend.  Keith probably got the better cut, but Parker's was free (since I did it).

A trip to the 'ham

Keith currently has a project on the Western Campus, so we took the opportunity to do a "site visit" as a family.

This is the back-side of Miller Hall, (also known as the "ed. building" for those of us who can't remember any of the building names).  Keith has been working on this building for the past few years, they finished up this past fall.

The drowning woolly mammoth was not in Keith's original design (neither was all that mud, btw).

Keith's new project is Frasier hall, the one large lecture hall on campus.  This building is ancient and could seriously use a make-over.

So, while Keith circled the building taking tons of pictures, Parker & I played on the ramp, also taking tons of pictures.

Friday was the last day of Spring Break, so the campus was fairly deserted.  Parker had a great time running around without having to hold any one's hand.

But he especially loved going up & down the ramp.

"I'll help drawing Daddy!"

Keith must have been moving a little too slow for Parker at this point, he started running circles around Daddy.

We had lunch at the Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro and then headed home.  We wore the little guy out, he was asleep as soon as we hit the freeway (I might possibly have been too...).

Parker's latest

I've moved Parker's step-stool into the bathroom so if he stands on the very tip-toes he can almost reach the sink.  This guy loves washing his hands and will often try to "rub rub" whenever the bathroom door is open (fortunately, he has a long ways to go before he can reach the faucet).

He also loves his reflection.  The other evening he spent about 20 minutes standing in the bathroom talking to himself in the mirror.

He's also learning to help clean up.

Yes, it's possible that his "helping" is actually making a larger mess than we started with, but I appreciate his willingness.

20 weeks

I (and the baby) are officially 20 weeks!  That means that we are half-way there!  Or, more accurately, in my case, we are half-way to the due date, it may be a few days before we are truly half-way to the birth date.

Contrary to every one's predictions, and my past experience, the 2nd Trimester hasn't been a whole lot better than the first.  By the time I was 16 weeks, the nausea seemed to contain itself to just the evening hours, but over the past few weeks, it seems to be expanding it's scope to include most of the afternoon, and occasionally the morning.  I'm seeing a very clear relationship between my fatigue level and my level of nausea.  Of course, if I were smart, that would mean that I nap when Parker naps every day.  But, that's the only 1-2 hours in the day that I can get anything done (once Parker goes to bed, I'm pretty much down for the count as well), so the type-A part of my brain seems to out-rank the smart part of my brain, nearly every time.

So, I'm trying everything else I can think of.  I'm trying out acupuncture, I'm upping my protein intake, and I've pretty much completely given up dairy.  The dairy is turning out to be the saddest part of the story.  When I was pregnant with Parker, ice cream sounded really gross to me, so I didn't eat it for nearly the entire pregnancy.  This time, ice cream sounds REALLY, REALLY good, but I can't have it or I'll get really, really sick.  Just another one of the sad ironies that is pregnancy.

But, that aside, our little girl is doing really well.  I'm starting to feel her move more, although I don't think she's quite as active as her big brother was at this age.  I'm also starting to get excited about preparing the nursery and all my sewing projects.  I just need to start feeling better so I can get going!

Keith & I also have planned our baby-moon for this May.  I'm not entirely sure how the two of us will survive a whole week without our little guy (who will be happy as a clam at Grandma's), but we will enjoy a little sunshine & relaxation.

Time to pull out the sewing machine...

We're having a girl!

It's kind of funny, when I was pregnant with Parker I wanted so desperately for "it" to be a girl.  It took FOREVER to get to the ultrasound date.  This time, I've been fairly ambivalent about it, and it feels like the time has flown (except for the 1st trimester, of course).

Keith & I were both hoping for a girl, but this little guy is so awesome, it's hard to believe that a girl could be as great.  So, I went into the ultrasound with conflicting thoughts, and a little ambivalent about the whole thing.  That was, until it looked like the baby might not cooperate, at which point I suddenly NEEDED to know, and I needed to know NOW.  Fortunately, she eventually cooperated.

This baby is already exerting her independence, she made the poor sonographer work for every single picture he took.

Now, it's time to start planning the nursery, and the new wardrobe.  Good thing I'm starting to feel better, I have a lot of ideas in my head already.  This girl may end up to be a total tomboy (although I think it's unlikely), but for as long as I control her wardrobe, she's going to be one cute baby!

Yogurt - Attempt #7 (I think)

After my (multiple) unsuccessful attempts at yogurt making, I finally gave up.  At $5 a gallon for organic milk, we decided it was cheaper to buy the yogurt, rather than throw away the attempts at homemade yogurt.

As a last-ditch effort, after hearing Dianne & Cathee rave about theirs, I asked for a yogurt-maker for Christmas.  Attempt #1 with the yogurt maker was also a disaster.  The recipe that came with the machine seemed strange, first you burn (um, I mean boil) the milk, then leave it at room-temperature until it gets to 120-degrees (which took over an hour, in an ice bath), then add the starter and cook for 8 hours.  I'll admit, that after years of working in the Camp Kitchen, I am a touch neurotic about food safety, but there's just something a little sketchy about taking milk, warming it up to the "danger zone" and then leaving it on your counter for 8 hours.  All that to say, the yogurt didn't look safe when it was done and I wasn't about to feed it to my baby, in utero or otherwise.

And since it took Keith three days of scrubbing to return the pan to it's original state, I had to promise not to use that recipe again.

But, attempt #7 seems to be the ticket!  I went back to my old recipe, went with Dannon for the starter (just a tip - Nancy's & those other Organic yogurts may claim to have "live & active cultures", but I'm not so sure anymore), mixed it in the blender, and crossed my fingers.   What do you know?  It smells like yogurt, it looks like yogurt, and it even tastes like yogurt.  Finally!

Parker's New Toy

Parker loves drinking from a cup.  But, he nearly drowns himself every time, so I've been thinking it would be fun to get him a tea set, so he can use smaller cups (and less water).  It took a while to find a set that wasn't pink and covered in Disney Princesses, but I found one at Ross.

We now have a tea set for four.

He LOVES it!

We started with a little water in the tea pot, so within 5 minutes, he and the kitchen floor were soaking.  We quickly moved on to pretending.

Now, I just want to get him his own little table to sit at, but I don't know where we'd put it, so that idea's on hold for the moment.

Finger painting

I read a fair amount of other Mom's blogs, and it seems like everyone else is doing all sorts of activities and projects to keep their kids involved and learning.  Most of the time I read those and think, "Man, I'm happy if he just gets three meals and a nap every day."  (In my defense, all their kids are much older than Parker, if that makes me feel better).  Anyway, this week, I thought we'd try out hand at finger painting.  Parker enjoys making patterns in his food, so I thought, why not try paint?

It went...okay.  Parker might like playing with his food, but he usually only does that after he's eaten some of it.  He didn't really understand that finger painting doesn't first start with tasting each color (thankfully it's non-toxic).

It took a lot of encouragement, but he did spend a little time painting.  I would say, however, that I spent more than twice the time on set-up & clean-up than we did on playing.

I think this will be a great summertime activity where I can put him down in the grass with a giant piece of paper & let him go crazy.  I think he found the high chair a little confining (which was the point, Mama's not stupid).

I think there might be more paint on his hands & belly than the paper, but I think he had fun.

And, of course, his favorite part was the bath afterwards.