Kelly's Belly Week 31

Woo, it looks BIG today!

A Quick Trip to Labor and Delivery

Everything is fine- no new babies in this family yet! However, Jon and I did make a quick trip up to labor and delivery because I had some bleeding, which is a scary thing anytime during a pregnancy especially in the third trimester. I put on a lovely hospital gown, and laid there with a heart rate monitor on for the baby and a contraction monitor on for myself. Everything checked out as normal. The heart rate sounds good, and I was not having any contractions. After a quick check from the doctor, the report is that the baby is not on the way! What a relief and a good feeling to be in and out of the hospital within two hours. Also, I now have an excuse to "take it easy". Jon is convinced that I spent too much time yesterday cleaning house, so I will comply with his wishes and let him do it! Luckily, I will have Jon home this week followed by week long visits from my mom and Jon's dad and Rhonda. I am going to be a wreck when all of my help leaves me, and I have to take care of Caleb all alone again- 34 weeks pregnant at that point! For now I willjust enjoy the next three weeks! We are so thankful that we are not about to have a baby in the NICU today. Stay put little girl!

Our Christmas Eve Activities

Caleb's new favorite activity to practice walking up and down the steps in front of our house. He can climb them without using his hands and is quite proud of himself. Of course he wants me to tell him how proud I am of him as he moves from step to step.

Heidi and Caleb ready for the family hike

Do you think he has outgrown the backpack? Daddy thought so by the end of the walk after carrying Caleb for 3-4 miles!

Jon made a few leave piles for Caleb to play in.

Luminarias

As per Jon's mom's tradition, we have put out our luminarias tonight. Caleb and Jon had a delightful time filling and preparing the bags. Moving sand from one bag to another is totally something toddlers are in to, so this was a perfect Christmas activity for Caleb.

What a gift!

Caleb proudly walked into the kitchen with a gift tag stuck on his shirt last night. To Kelly From the Sieverts... thanks Katie and Jason what a good gift! Caleb gets a sticker on his back everytime he goes to church to help the workers identify him. Now he wants all types of stickers to go on his shirt. The other day, he put a size label sticker on his back, and right now he has a clementines sticker on his shirt that says "Cutie".

Kelly's Belly Week 30 and Caleb's New Room

This little girl has caused me extreme sweet cravings! Usually I am more one for salty snacks- not that I haven't been craving those too. But, throughout this pregnancy sugary sweet things have sounded so good. Cupcakes are at the top of the list for some reason. So with my cravings and in the Christmas spirit, Jon and I made cut out sugar cookies last night. It was quite a project, but we now have a large rubbermaid container full of yummy (not so perfect) looking iced cookies!

This is what I get when I try to take pictures of Caleb playing in his new room. It is a difficult task! I figured I would post them anyways as I am sure that the grandparents love seeing pics of this boy!

Caleb 21 months old

Caleb is 21 months old. He is showing more and more of his personality. He absolutely loves balls. This month he has said lots of new words and phrases, and many of them relate to basketball: "basket", "he shoots", "good job", "kaboom", and "good shot". He loves to throw his balls into his laundry basket over and over again. He wants me to be the announcer for him and to clap when he "scores". Caleb also plays with his footballs. He holds two at one time and runs around the living room with them. He then falls down on the balls and laughs. I am amazed at how he is able to distinguish these differences in football and basketball. A lot of Caleb's playtime is spent pretending. He makes his plastic animals kiss each other and eat and drink. The other night he was pretending to pick berries (out of mid air) and eat them. He loves to wear his Bob the Builder hat and to attempt to get Heidi to wear it also. I can see how a routine is a very good thing for Caleb just like all of the toddler advice books say. Today at lunch, I sat down and began eating. Caleb kept reaching for my hand. When I grabbed his hand, he looked down ready to pray- so precious that he remembered even though I didn't! I ask Caleb about his sister frequently. Lately when asked where she is at he has been pointing to his own belly button or pointing outside. He seems to grasp that there is another little person who exists who we are calling sister, but he has yet to figure out the impact this girl will have on his life! While we anxiously await little girl's arrival, I am cherishing these last couple of months as a mom of one who can give Caleb lots of my attention. I know it is going to be difficult when that is not the case, and I suddenly have a newborn and a toddler to care for! For now I am enjoying my only child, Caleb, full of energy and excitement.

Check back for some pics of Caleb playing in his new room. I plan to take some after naptime!

Caleb is VERY interested in all of the pretty boxes under the Christmas tree.

Kelly's Belly Week 29

Everything is looking good pregnancywise, but I can tell I am getting into the third (less comfortable) trimester. I have had some of the same vision issues that I had last time with Caleb in which I am feeling fine and then things start to get hazier and hazier. I know it is food related, so I have been trying to eat often, which I guess is a good problem to have. I did run by the doctor's office last week after having my vision fogginess twice in one day to have my blood pressure checked. It was normal. I am pretty sure that at this point in my pregnancy with Caleb, my feet were getting to be the "kankle" state. If you don't remember, they were comically swollen and just looked ridiculous, not to mention that it was quite uncomfortable. All that to say, my feet are looking fairly normal for now! I'm very thankful for that! I will go to the doctor for a normal checkup in a week, and then I will start my two week checkups. We are feeling excited and a bit overwhelmed at the speed at which this pregnancy is moving. With the holidays, I am sure time will go even faster. I would love any advice from parents of more than one kid on how to get Caleb ready- seems like we have a ways to go in that regard. I guess he will figure it all out in time!

Kelly's Belly Week 28

Here I am at 28 weeks. I just realized that it is the same shirt as last week. This sweater is one of my favorites from last time around, but it was missing for a good part of this pregnancy. All that to say, I was very happy when my mom found it in a bag that I had sent back to Albuquerque with her, and I have been wearing it a bunch! Sorry for the boringness of this post. I have a toddler in my lap, who is trying to type and fussing. I have been yelling "Jon" to try to get him to come take this boy away, and Caleb has been repeating "Jon" right after I say it... so cute- despite the difficulty he is causing me in typing! In other news, Caleb had the stomach bug on Friday and managed to pass it on to 3 other families as well. I think that we are in the clear now, but we are washing our hands like crazy. I guess that's it for now- 12 weeks to go! (6 by Caleb's early standard, but we are hoping that won't be the case with little girl)

We went to Baylor's Christmas on 5th St. last night. Caleb really likes mingling with the college kids, he likes Christmas lights a lot too. There were so many things going on it was almost hard to take it all in. With performances by Selah and Steven Curtis Chapman, to free cider and hot cocoa, carriage rides, pony rides, petting zoo, live nativity (with real camels 3x). The upstairs of the Student Union building was decorated beautifully with a different tree in every room, including the one where they were wrapping all of the toys donated for charity. Way to Go Bears!

Last Call on Christmas Card Orders

In order for me to have time to design cards, have them printed, and sent off to you with plenty of time for you to mail them out, please have orders to me by December 6th.

New or expectant moms out there? I would love to make custom baby announcements for you!

www.caproncollection.blogspot.com

Kelly's Belly Week 27

Life has been busy around here! I have immensely enjoyed setting up Caleb's new room and changing the nursery from blues and greens to pink and black and white toile. Caleb spent about 10 minutes tonight moving some blankets and books back and forth from one side of the dining room table to the other side. He just kept going from side to side. I am guessing that this is the impression he has from all of the moving around we have been doing to the bedrooms. When we first started moving the furniture in his old room, he was not happy! He started crying and freaking out, but since then he seems to understand that his bedroom is now farther down the hall. We borrowed a crib from our friends, the Durands, which Caleb will use as long as possible. I love the idea of knowing he is contained. Well, last night was his first night to sleep in the crib. Before bedtime, he was having a major meltdown because we had taken a toy away from him in an effort to read books and then put him to bed. He was screaming and hitting and melting down, so we put him in his new crib to just calm down a bit. We have done this before, and it seems to help. Jon and I were listening in the hallway to a great deal of screaming and crying when we heard a thump. Caleb had somehow thrown himself out of the crib! He had no injuries, but I am not sure how long the keeping him contained in a crib thing will last! However, he did sleep fine in the crib that night without trying to get out. He woke up this morning and played in bed as usual, so I am hoping that he sort of scared himself a bit and won't try to get out again for awhile! Above are pictures of the new nursery in all of its pink glory! I still need to find pictures and such to hang on the walls, but it is looking great! I love to turn on the lamp in the room and look in when I walk by. I remember doing this with Caleb's nursery before he was born too. Okay, signing off for now- starting the third trimester and excited to have another newborn (in due time!).

Thanksgiving and Such

We had a great time this Thanksgiving break and were blessed to have visitors to our home holiday; mostly because everyone that came over either brought food or helped us wrangle Caleb for a little while. Early in the week members of the Pace Clan (Kelly's parents/Grampa and Grammy Pace) came to visit the "Calebs." It was great to have them around to visit/help while Kelly rearranged things in prep for little girl (pictures to follow, I am sure). I was actually home for this weekend in its entirety so I did my share around the house for once as well. Never has bumming around the house been so much fun. Caleb really keeps things pretty lively. He's always looking for the next big thing, I am still much that way so it was a pretty good fit. We had many a practice this weekend including tent building, field goal kicking, soccer ball juggling, wrestling, skateboarding, frisbee throwing etc.

On Thanksgiving Day the Ecklunds came over with their friend Aaron who happened to be in town. They brought with them staple Thanksgiving foodstuffs that were amazing. I was admittedly worried at first when two of my favorite foods (cranberries sauce/salad & pumpkin pie) were going to originate in a household outside of my sphere of influence. Emily came through. The cranberries contained all necessary ingredients and the pumpkin creation will now be mandatory fare at any holiday gathering henceforth. Kelly held up her end of the bargain with a little help from Momma Pace and made homemade rolls and a turkey that we had very few leftovers of. Job well done ladies, beauty, brains, cooking ability, amazing.


The next day we went to the Homestead Heritage Fair that is just outside of Waco. They are strong Christian people with good hearts. They dress plainly but do not shy away from technology (see website) when it can help them but I would bet there are few TVs on the Homestead. We enjoyed it so much that we plan to make it a tradition should we find ourselves here in Waco on Thanksgiving. It was really fun for everyone with free samples to eat and puppy's, chicks, cows, sheep, goats, etc to pet. Caleb who is just as happy with a pile of rocks had a great time.










That afternoon I was in such festive mood that I relented and Kelly was able to put out the Christmas stuff while it was still November. It was probably a good idea since we still had back up for Caleb watching while we dove into the Christmas boxes, put of lights, and put up a "tree".

Here's a question are you more or less of naturalist (tree hugger) if you bring a real tree into your home because you don't like fake ones, even if you have to cut it down to do so, or is it better to be a fake? I am currently wrestling with this decision even though it has already been made. It is lovely, pre-lit and Heidi doesn't drink the water out of the stand.

After we finished the Christmas lights, we had made so much headway that we went ahead and set up the room for little girl, and Caleb got booted to the other bedroom. His room got a few upgrades as well, a little less baby blue and a little more manly dark blue to combat the explosion of pink that you can see even at night. We still have a full and twin if you should want to visit, we just will have to do a little shuffling.