Swollen Ankles and a Stretched Out Tummy

Oh man am I ever feeling pregnant today.  After working for eight hours today, my ankles are super swollen (if you can even call them ankles anymore) and the skin on my stomach feels like it is going to rip at my sides.  Thank goodness I only have one more day of work left!  Sitting at a desk for eight hours is definitely starting to show.  After a little bit of a chaotic dinner due to an over-tired Nathan (all three kids were up until 10pm last night at a family get-together), Jon graciously offered to take the kids for a bike ride so I could get my feet up.  There's a basket of folded laundry to be put away (well, twice-folded because Matthew dumped it before I got home this afternoon), a countertop to clear off, and a scattered pile of clothes all over the family room floor that Kayla has been busy looking at (yay for hand-me-downs!), but I'm (actually) listening to Jon and am resisting the urge to be productive.  I'll just have to do it all later...

20 Months Old!

Sorry, Nathan, but I missed blogging about you at 19 months.  Better now than never, though!

Nathan has picked up a few new words these past two months:
Bubble
Balloon (Ba-boon)
Me
Baby
Banana (Moves his tongue from side to side while making a monotone sound...hard to explain!)

He has mastered driving my parents' kids ride-on-tractor (except for the steering part!) and has mastered jumping on the trampoline.

Nathan has recently picked up a bad habit from his cousin, Liam.  When he is angry or when he wants to be a pest, he goes up to someone and says "Da Da" while hitting them.  (Liam would always say "Doe Doe").  So frustrating, but so cute!  He knows exactly what he is doing too, so if/when I bring him to time-out he is laughing the whole way there.

He feeds himself all of his meals, unless he starts throwing food/utensils because he has decided he doesn't want to eat anymore - then I take over for him.

He is quickly learning how to drink out of a regular cup.  He is good if the cup only has a swallow or two in it, but if there is more than that then he often tips the cup too quickly and ends up with a wet shirt.

Nathan dislikes having dirty hands or a dirty shirt, so if I want him to stop doing something that is causing him either to get dirty then I just explain that he's making it dirty and he quickly stops.

He loves wrestling and pushing people over.  His favourite people to wrestle are Jon and Matthew.  Matthew, unfortunately, typically does not like to be wrestled.  It doesn't help that if Nathan is laying on top of Matthew, Matthew cannot move.  Matthew also likes to lay on the floor which allows Nathan to quickly lay on top of him, even if Matthew wants to wrestle or not.

(Nathan wrestling an all-wrapped-up Matthew, against Matthew's will)

Nathan has gotten two of his eye teeth this past month, and I can see the other two so it's only a matter of days.  He has a more difficult time teething than Matthew or Kayla did.  My sleep is usually interrupted a few times at night by him crying.  Poor kid.

Nathan loves routine.  The mornings that Jon drops him off at my Mom's he knows to take off his sandals, go to the front window to wave goodbye to Jon, and then he runs to grab Lacey's (my parents' dog's) food bowl and he helps my Mom fill it and then puts it outside for her.  He knows our bathtime routine and will grab the bubble bath before I can even ask him too.  He typically goes to bed without any complaints, too, because the routine is always the same.

He goes to bed at the same time as Matthew and Kayla, around 8pm, and will sleep until 7am.  When he wakes up, he calls my name until I come.

(Nathan playing with rice (as sensory play) for the very first time.  He did really well!  I was nervous that he was just going to dump it all on the carpet, but he didn't - he managed to keep most of it on the blanket!)

Camping Trip #1 - Cultus Lake

Two weeks ago we went camping at Cultus Lake for five days.  It was great.  It was EXHAUSTING, but it was great.  Non-stop swimming in the pool (one day we went three times!), walking to the creek, and biking around the campground, really tired me out.  The kids slept great each night, but by the fifth day I could tell that they were exhausted, too.  Matthew and Kayla slept beside each other on the double bed in our tent trailer, Nathan slept in his playpen on the (collapsed) table, and I had the queen bed all to myself.  That was great :)  

Our tent trailer.  I love it.  

It's not fancy by any means, but it keeps us dry 

and gives me a spot to put all of our gear.

Our trip home was quite eventful...one of the springs on the axle of our tent trailer completely snapped as we were driving out of Yarrow, so we pulled over in a large parking lot (which conveniently was a parking lot for an ice cream stand..."Lucky us!" as Matthew would say).  My parents were about an hour behind us so we waited for them to come to get my Dad's opinion, which ended up being that it was definitely not tow-able by us.  We left the tent trailer in the parking lot and drove home.  An hour after getting home my Dad and Jon left to return to Yarrow with the greenhouse's flatbed trailer to load the tent trailer onto and tow home.  That day was a long day for me!  I was originally looking forward to attending a baby shower kid-less, but ended up not being able to go and had to stay home with the kids while Jon was gone.  I was tired, they were tired, and it was hot out so we were all on edge with each other.  Anyways, our tent trailer is fixed now, and hopefully that's the only issue we have with it!

(I LOVE my vest.  I bought it 7 years ago and wear it all the time...pregnant or not ha!)

Best friends.  They would be lost without each other.

The 'big kids' and 'little boys'.  

Nathan is quite the cyclist!  He definitely has learned how to ride a balance bike quicker than Matthew and Kayla, largely due to his size.  He sits on the seat and takes nice strides.  It will be interesting to see when he learns how to lift his feet up and balance when he has speed.

No, he's not naked...just wearing swim trunks, though!

Enjoying a campfire before there is a campfire ban!

T-ball practice with Auntie Candice.

What's a camping trip without some sort of teaching moment from Auntie Melissa?  This time it was about 'Wishing Rocks' (rocks with a line that goes around the entire exterior).

I didn't schedule a nap time in for Nathan on the Saturday, so while we were at the beach I thought he was acting tired and he nicely fell asleep in the stroller when I laid him in there.  That's the nice thing about always making your kids go-with-the-flow...they get good at adapting.

Nathan LOVED the pool.  He was completely content to float on his own in his puddle jumpers, but he loved jumping in (even though we let him go completely under the water!) or being thrown in the air.

Matthew finely got over his newly acquired fear of jumping in on his own (he used to do it just fine, but then lost his confidence somehow.  We had a 30 minute battle one afternoon where I wouldn't let him come into the pool until he jumped in on his own.  He didn't come in that afternoon.  We tried again later in the afternoon and he finally jumped in...after which he wouldn't stop!  Silly child!)

Kayla is a fish.  During her last private swimming lesson just before camping she realized that she can actually swim in the water if she kicks while on her tummy.  She loved to jump in and then right away swim to her destination.

P.S.  The downside to a great vacation is the hundreds of photos to weed through!

33 Weeks

I had to check a pregnancy app on my phone to tell me how far along in my pregnancy I am.  Sad, isn't it?  With Matthew and Kayla I was reading all about pregnancy all the time.  This time, it's about every week or two that I check to see what Miss Baby Struik is up to.

My weight gain has slowed down the past couple of weeks - I've gained 29.5 pounds so far.  I think it definitely helps that I was camping for five days last week so I was quite active, going swimming a few times a day and biking around.  I forgot how easy it is to get a sunburn on a pregnant belly - I think I was in the pool for only about 45 minutes and I came out with a slightly red tummy.  Ooops.  It was also interesting trying to mount Jon's bicycle with Nathan in the baby carrier in the back.  I couldn't swing my leg over the seat so I had to lift it high enough to get over the centre bar, meanwhile keeping the bike balanced so Nathan wouldn't fall.  

Miss Baby Struik likes to kick at my right side; seldom do I feel kicks directly onto my left.  She's getting quite strong and so I often find myself poking my stomach at whatever body part she is trying to poke out at me.  

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow (I've been going every two weeks) and so I'm hoping that she'll fill out the requisition for me to have another ultrasound done.  I'm dying to know how big (or little?) Miss Baby Struik is.  Based on my belly size with my pregnancy with Nathan, all of the medical staff thought I was having the typical 8lb baby.  Nope, he turned out to be 10lb 8oz!  My fundal measurement has been pretty on-par with where I am in my pregnancy (according to their dates), but at my last appointment I was 30weeks + 4days and measured 32 weeks so I'm gaining now.  It will be interesting to see what I am measuring tomorrow.  I keep saying that I want to give birth to a baby this time, and not a toddler :)

Matthew mentions on a weekly basis that, "Your tummy is getting big, Mom" and Nathan likes to point to my tummy and say, "Baby".  Kayla doesn't really mention anything about it at all, unless we're talking about baby items, such as clothing or soothers, etc.

I think I only have two weeks of work left, which will be nice.  It will be nice to have a little extra time to get the house cleaner and tidier before Miss Baby Struik arrives.  Between my working and various appointments and camping trips, we haven't had much time around the house.  I did manage to clean my ensuite shower and wash a bunch of walls yesterday, both of which hadn't been done for a while, so I was proud of myself.

Anyways, I should head to bed.  Nathan has been teething the past couple of weeks (two eye-teeth down, two to go) and is not sleeping as well as he normally does so I have to make sure I get to bed at a reasonable time so that I stay rested.  We're hoping to head to the waterpark tomorrow to spend some time enjoying this hot weather we've been having.