Growing Up

I feel like Dallin has grown up so much in recent months. Maybe it's because I'm getting ready to have a newborn baby in the house again, and I'm realizing just how much Dallin has grown up since the days when he was a tiny newborn. Or maybe he subconsciously knows that he has to be grown up and help take care of his new brother. Either way, I'm loving this new stage.

We changed his crib to a toddler bed when we moved over a month ago. For the most part, he does really well and stays in bed. But sometimes (usually for naps) he decides he's not tired enough and would rather get up and play. The thing is that there is not much to play with. The toddler bed/crib that Dallin sleeps in is in the "baby room," the room the baby (and thus, the crib) will be in when he's born. "Dallin's room" has all his toys in it and the twin size bed that Dallin will eventually sleep in. (Confusing enough for you?) The point is that there are no toys in the room Dallin sleeps in, just a dresser full of clothes. So when he gets up to "play," there's not really anything to play with. I can usually hear him up and about, pulling clothes out of the dresser for about an hour until he falls asleep on the floor.

I love the way he's sleeping, with both his arms behind him.

Oddly enough, he seems to sleep just as well on the floor.

Dallin has finally reached 22 lbs and is big enough for a forward facing car seat. I thought this day would never come!

He loves it! And I love that it's easier to get him in to.

He likes to "help" me do things, even if it's not always actually helpful to me. Like when I sweep and he follows me around with the dust pan, trying to scoop up the crumbs himself, but really just messing up my pile. Although, it is pretty cute to watch him pick up crumbs, one by one, and place them in the dust pan.

Yesterday he helped me bring the groceries in from the car. I gave him the lightest bag, but it was still a little heavy for him. He had to drag it.

I guess it's a long walk from the car to the front door because he got distracted for a bit. He thought poking a stick in the mulch would be much more fun than boring groceries.

I just love how much he's growing up.

Scary

Dallin spends a good part of his day hanging out by his high chair, pointing and whining for me to put him in it and feed him. (Lest you think a miracle has happened and he's become some crazy eating machine, I must say he's still very picky about what he eats once he gets in the high chair.)

Apparently, I wasn't fast enough in responding to his plea this morning, so he climbed into the high chair by himself!

Why do they even put a foot rest on a high chair?! Don't they know that every child is going to use that as a step to climb to dangerous heights?!

(Also, please ignore the pasta thrown on the floor from last night's dinner.)

As soon as he got himself settled in his seat, he folded his arms.

He knows that we have to pray before we can eat.

Part of me is so proud of him that he figured out how to climb in by himself; that he was able to maneuver his arms and legs and use his muscles to get himself in the seat. That he's trying to be independent and do things on his own rather that always relying on my help. That he is communicating his needs with me by motioning towards the seat. That he's learning and making connections and knows that being in his chair (and saying a prayer) will get him food.

But the other part of me is scared, because my life just got more difficult.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality. These were taken on my phone. We left our camera charger in Colorado and our camera battery has now died. So you get to see mediocre pictures for the next little while.)

How to lose weight...

If you are trying to lose weight or eat less, I have a solution for you: trade places with me.

I feel like every time I make myself something and sit down to eat it, either Mckay or Dallin will come up and want to have a bite (or 5) of my delicious food. It's mostly Dallin that does this, but I can't tell you how many times I've warned Mckay not to take food from a hungry pregnant lady.

It's not like I don't make food for them too. There is plenty of food around and tons of snacks ready to grab and eat, but it seems like Dallin always prefers what I have to eat. Today, I made him lunch. And not just a peanut butter sandwich or something, he got the leftovers from last night's dinner.

A delicious Vegetable Bolognese, except I added some hot Italian sausage.

I could have claimed this gem of a meal for myself, but Dallin is picky and I knew he would eat this. While he stuffed his face with pasta, I scrounged enough scraps of food to put together a pretty decent breakfast/lunch burrito of sorts. Finally, Dallin was full of pasta and would not eat another bite. I freed him from the high chair, and sat myself down on the couch to enjoy my meal and moment of peace while I caught up on blog reading.

And then, somehow, Dallin is beside me, begging for food. (Who taught him how to get up on the couch by himself?!?) I offered him a bite of burrito, thinking he wouldn't actually eat any, but he did! I had to hurry to eat the burrito myself between bites for Dallin so that I could actually consume more of it than he did.

I feel like I always have to fight Dallin off to get the food down my throat. And let's not forget that what finally makes it into my body has to be shared with my other son-in-utero. I tell you what, between these 3 boys, it's a miracle I get enough to eat at all!

(Note to reader: Don't be worried, I am not actually losing any weight, as would not be healthy for a pregnant woman of my size. I am gaining weight very steadily and normally. But if a person were trying to lose weight, I know a little boy who could help out by eating all the food before said person has a chance to.)

30 weeks

I am 30 weeks into my pregnancy today! That means only 10 weeks (give or take) left to go!

I am so ready for labor. I've been doing a lot of reading about child birth and I feel very prepared for another natural birth. But I had a realization the other day. All this reading has been getting me pumped up and prepared for labor, but what about after the baby is born? I will have 2 children to take care of! I have no idea how to do that! How do you go grocery shopping with 2 kids? And how will we get out the door in the mornings? It takes so long just to get me and Dallin ready to go places, if I'm getting a baby ready too, we'll never make it anywhere. I guess it's just something that will fall into place and I'll figure it out when he comes. I didn't know how things would go when Dallin was born either, but we seemed to figure things out ok.

Here are some thing you may or may not be wondering about:

Do we have a name picked out for the baby? Nope.

Dallin's name came very easily to us, so we're surprised it's taken us this long, but we still have no idea for a name. We've thrown around a few names, but I guess we'll really have to pick something in the next 10 weeks.

What are the chances that this baby will have Williams Syndrome as well? About 1 in 10,000, so very unlikely. The nature of the syndrome is such that either Mckay or I would have to have WS for our children to "get it" from us. It's not something you can be a carrier for, you either have the gene deletion or you don't. Since, obviously, neither Mckay or I have WS, Dallin's case was a random occurrence (as most cases of WS are). Therefore, our chances are the same as anybody's for having a child with WS: about 1 in 10,000. (And if somehow this child did have WS, we would be so happy to have another beautiful boy to raise.)

Will the baby be early or late? I know it's pretty hard to tell when a baby will be born, but it seems like many women tend to have delivery times similar to their other deliveries, i.e. one woman will have multiple early deliveries and another woman will have mostly late (past due date) deliveries. Since Dallin came at 41 weeks (and only because we made him come), it would make sense that this baby would also come past the due date. EXCEPT..... I have read that babies with WS tend to be born post term. This is not always the case, but I've heard from many parents that their children with WS were born much later than their other children. So Dallin's late delivery might have been the exception, and all my other babies will come early! I know it's ridiculous to speculate and plan on, so I'm preparing myself for another post due date baby, but you never know!

The downside: WS babies tend to have smaller birth weights than their siblings. Dallin was born at a decent 7lbs 2oz. This means that this baby will likely be bigger. If it's only 1 pound bigger, I can handle that. But I'm not super excited if he's a 9 or 10 pounder.

Just like everyone else

Now that Dallin is learning to do more and more things, he's taken to imitating things we do. He wants to do the same things everyone else does. He tries to do more things on his own.

We have a decorative picture that will be hung in the great room. I was holding paint sample cards up to the picture to match the colors.

Now anytime Dallin gets a hold of a paint sample card, he'll hold it up to that picture.

That's what you're supposed to do with these cards, right?

He likes getting his shoes put on, because he thinks it means he'll get to go outside after they're on.

After getting him dressed this morning, Dallin sat down and tried to put his shoes on by himself.

I let him try for a while before I helped him.

He's been trying more new foods and he ate half of a peanut butter sandwich with lunch today!

Well, almost a entire half sandwich. He was a little too tired to finish the rest.

I love Indiana

We've officially lived in Indiana for a year now. We like it here.

But yesterday I saw something I didn't expect, even for living in a small mid-west town...

We went to a furniture store. On the sidewalk leading to the store, we saw this:

A possum, playing dead, 10 feet from the door.

Likes and Dislikes

I dislike having Dallin's therapists come over Monday morning, requiring me to get up early and clean.

But I like that he will be starting speech therapy soon.

And I like having a clean kitchen after therapy.

I like that people will put all kinds of cartoons and Disney movies on YouTube, and that Dallin enjoys watching them so much.

I dislike that Dallin enjoys watching them so much, and I dislike feeling guilty about it, even if it's just for a few minutes of my sanity.

I dislike the grumpy, moody funk Dallin has been in since we got back from Colorado. I don't know why he thinks that throwing tantrums and crying all day will get him his way.

But I like that I get occasional glimpses of the cute sweetheart he is.

(...as he's trying rip the camera from my hands...)

I like the plate of fresh peppers, peaches and potatoes in my kitchen that we got at the Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Two big beautiful peppers already sacrificed themselves for our dinner last night: Chile Rellenos.

I like having a bouquet of Queen Anne's Lace flowers on my table, fresh from the field by our house.

Vacation in Denver

We just got back from a trip to Denver to visit Mckay's family. We had such a good time! Dallin loved playing with all his cousins. I love that he's old enough now to run around and really interact with them. I'm always so bad about taking pictures of what we do, but I did catch a few cute ones of Dallin.

We saw Harry Potter 7.2 and then hung around the mall for an outdoor concert. There was a water fountain outside and Dallin got so excited when he saw it.

(Click on this picture to make it bigger so you can really see the excitement in his face.)

He tried commanding the water with his hands.

But then he got a little nervous when the water shot up and got him.

He could have watched that water fountain for hours.

We went to the Denver Children's Museum. Dallin explored a lot.

His favorite part was the little play kitchen; he kept on coming back to it.

And he even put the dishes in the sink! I really want him to have a play kitchen of his own at home. If anyone is looking for a Christmas present idea for him...

Dallin and his cousin Graham liked playing with the trains, but I think Mckay actually had the most fun building the track for them.

(Mckay's sister Annie and her sweet, adorable baby are sitting on the bench behind them.)

Graham was a little sad when he was told he had to share a train with Dallin. (I hope you can see his pouty face through the blurry picture.)

Dallin crawled around and really had a fun time.

You can tell by how messy his shorts got.

We had such a fun relaxing time and it was nice to catch up on rest and sleep in.

(I didn't want to post this picture because it's not the most flattering of me, but Mckay worked so hard to capture it. And it is a little cute.... I guess...)

I think we wore Dallin out from the trip because he was pretty tired when we got home.