28 weeks

There is no better way to start the 3rd trimester than by lounging around a pool! That's where I'll be for the next 3 days! I can't wait!

Pregnancy Highlights:

• +21 pounds
• Took the glucose test on Wednesday, wtg to hear back. So glad that is over, its really tough getting up with a toddler at 6AM, running around the house for 2 hours trying to get him fed, ready for school, and get myself ready without eating a single bite or drinking a drop of anything until 9AM!
• Had my Rhogam shot on Wednesday as well since I have a negative blood type
• Colin's heart rate was in the 150's this time
• Nurse said I was measuring a little ahead this week
• Will be going to prenatal apts every 2 weeks now, I enjoy getting to hear the heart beat and all, but when you have a job, it gets old explaining Dr. apts all the time and lets face it, Dr. offices don't have very convenient hours for people who work full time. 
• The movement is insane...this kid is very active, I can't really remember if Carson was this active. I also started to feel him having some hiccups. 
• My lower back and hips have been a little sore, probably from sitting at my desk a lot. 
• I am tossing and turning much more at night and finally started using the full body pillow. 
• I am so happy this go round that I have not experienced the annoying carpel tunnel symptoms, I also have not had as many leg cramps yet as I did with Carson. 
• Still take my zantac everyday so I can eat whatever I want! I have really been wanting some of my homemade lasagna, but it will take an act of God to get me to cook a meal that requires that much time these days! We go through chocolate milk like crazy around here, all 3 of us drink it everyday! I always want sweets after a meal. And as usual, I could eat Japanese every day.
• My energy level is completely shot by the evening time, it is very hard on me with Cory working late these days (his busy season). If we have a 3rd baby, I will try to plan where the end of my pregnancy will be in the winter where Cory is home earlier!
• My rings still fit, I haven't really noticed any swelling yet (I don't miss that part at all, cankles are the most unatractive thing in my book)
• As far as the nursery and Colin's arrival preparation goes, I can't really do too much right now. Whenever Cory gets Carson's new dresser built, I can starting washing baby clothes and putting them away. Lately I have just been buying a few items here and there for Colin. I did get the letters for his name, just need to paint them white and hang them. Mom bought me the breast pump, so that is a huge relief!
• I can't believe that in just a few weeks we will be in full prep mode...b/c by 36 weeks I will be useless!

27 Weeks, Carson Lately, 2nd Birthday Plans

It has been one heck of a month for our little family, home improvement projects, pregnancy exhaustion, sick toddler, insane work stress.....all of these things do not go well together. We could really use a week at the beach right about now, but Cory needs to save his vacation days for Colin's arrival, and I need to save up my days for when my kids are sick in the future. Its tough being an adult sometimes. We are however going to visit grandparents over Memorial Day weekend, and thank goodness they both have pools!

COLIN:

• I will be 27 weeks tomorrow.
• +19 pounds
• Colin moves a lot during the day, especially after I eat and drink. Its a mixture of kicks, jabs and the rolling feeling. He will usually wake up after my night time bathroom runs too.
• I am definitely feeling the exhaustion from getting bigger and with the 3rd trimester approaching, its no surprise.
• I still get heartburn, I usually know when its Carson's bath time, b/c that is when the heartburn starts to occur every night.
• I love checking things off my list in preparation for him, baby shopping is the best! I just have a few things left: sling/wrap, breast pump, bath seat (won't be using a bulky tub this go round), the letters for his room, hamper, his baby book, curtains/curtain rod, and a few small items/toiletries closer to the end of pregnancy. 
• I have been thinking this whole time that I wouldn't purchase a single clothing item for him, but I just realized, I want to put the boys in matching outfits of course! So I will get a couple of those, probably at my favorite store...KOHL'S!
• My cravings lately have included: chick file' chicken minis, always japanese, and pretty much anything sweet.

CARSON:
It is so exciting to see what each new day brings with Carson. This is an amazingly precious age where his language is just exploding! I love hearing him repeat everything we say even when we think he isn't paying attention, oh he is. The funniest thing is when Cory and I are having a conversation and I might say "um", Carson will say "um" too. He also does this when we say "sooo". Its almost like he is making fun of us.

• He has found a love for baseball lately. He calls it "beeseball". Cory taught him to say "go braves!"
• He asks to watch baseball almost everynight when we rock him to sleep.
• He loves to get on his little step stool and wash his hands and make faces in the mirror.
• He refers to his shoes sometimes as "cute shoes" he heard me say that a few times. When he wants to play outside, he say "sooz on" and "outshide"
• The child could literally eat yogurt for every meal, he loves it!
• He loves to put bandaids on his boo-boos, and he says "bye-bye boo-boo"; he used to call my freckles boo-boos :)
• He loves to get the tupperware out of the cabinet, and he says "I cook"
• He finally will try to say his name, he calls himself "Carkin"
• He finally tries to say "I love you" and it sounds like "I wub woo"
• He gets so excited to see birds hopping in the yard, and when we are outside he tries to chase them.
• He loves to pick out his shirts in the morning, he always choses something that has a ball or a truck on it.
• Every morning after he gets dressed, I have to wet and comb his hair, and I tell him how nice he looks and he says "me nice"
• He loves the Wheels on the Bus song, especially the Barney version, he calls him "Bonkey"
• I think its about time for some 24 month pj's, he is getting taller, and for night time I am moving to size 5 diapers.
• We have been letting him sit at the big table with us when we eat as a family and he loves it. I still need the highchair in the mornings for his breakfast so I can get ready for work.
• We have been starting to wean him a little from the passy. I no longer let him have it in the car, and at home he only gets it when its time to sleep. We have done good with this for about a week now. I think it helps that he understands what we say now, we tell him that passy is at home (if we are in the car) and if we are at home and he asks for passy, we tell him that passy is "night night". And he just goes about his business.
• He loves flowers, he always says "pitty wower" for pretty flower.
• He loves to sit on, and bounce on Chase....poor Chase, he just sits there and takes the abuse. 
• Its about time for a hair cut when he wakes up with this hair:

And..........Carson has his 2nd Birthday coming up! I have debated a few different places, but I think we will just do something small at our house. Probably cook out and have a fun baby pool and sprinkler for the kids since it will be so hot outside. I have chosen a Yellow/School Bus theme. He just loves the color yellow and he still is obsessed with yellow buses. He remembers where the buses are parked on our route home every day. Before they are in sight he talks about them! This has turned out to be a super easy theme, thank goodness!

Here is the cake pic I sent to my MIL and SIL so they can make it for us, I can't wait for Carson to see all these plans on his party day!

The Holidays Hate Us.

I don't know why, but it seems every time a holiday rolls around, Carson gets sick. We actually had a nice Mother's Day but yesterday I got the dreaded daycare call that Carson was running a fever. He has a Dr. apt today, so hopefully its nothing serious. I hate seeing my baby in pain, I hope whatever this is clears up soon.

Anyway, here are some pictures from Sunday. That was the only thing I told Cory I wanted: a decent picture of me and Carson. We also ate breakfast at IHOP, and Cory had some chocolate covered strawberries delivered to the house for me (yummy!), and Carson made me a picture frame at daycare.

New Kitchen and Living room floors! And some other updates...

I couldn't wait until we were completely finished to post pictures (still need to put down the new molding strips and finish the laundry room), so here is a peek of what Cory has been up to the past week (he has done such an amazing job and it was hard work!):

Old LR floor:

Old Kitchen Floor:

NEW:

 Kitchen entrance from the garage:

View from Dining room to kitchen:

View from Dining room to LR:

Hallway to boys' rooms and extra bathroom:

View of LR from Dining room:

View of LR from front door entrance:

To-do:

We are so glad to be on the home stretch of this floor project! Cory will finish the molding and laundry room (I have a feeling we will be painting the laundry room walls) floor this weekend, and we will place another carpet order (we decided to do our bedroom now) this weekend to be installed on May 14th.

Colin:
We now have a full name for our new baby boy:

COLIN ALEXANDER PHILLIPS

-He will have the same initials as Cory and Carson.
-I am 25 weeks pregnant today! WHOA!
-I lost 2 pounds this week, that started my day off amazing! I am now +17 and not complaining at all!
-Had a check up yesterday, everything looks good. They gave me the glucose drink for when I go back in 3 weeks. Yuck.
-Heartrate was 141.
-Colin and Carson's rooms look so nice with the new carpet, I will post those pics later on, probably after we get our bedroom carpet done.

Carson:
Apparently all I need to do to correct a problem is blog about it! Carson finally got his appetite back, and has been in a much better mood this week! I guess he is finally feeling better and being back to his regular schedule probably helps.

21 Months!

I wanted to do a Carson post, because this month has been huge in terms of new things! I really don't think he could get ANY cuter!

• He repeats everything we say and it sounds so sweet and innocent when it comes out of his mouth; he does really well with sentences and phrases and remembers things very easily. If he doesn't know the word for something he calls it "dat" (that). 
• He is the biggest copycat, he wants to do everything we do, especially Da-Da.
• Still loves the color yellow, but now knows blue, green and purple. Can't get him to say red.
• Every time we ask him to say "I love you" he just laughs, he knows that it means something special and he gets so embarrassed when we tell him to say it.
• He will not say his name at all!
• He gives the best hugs. :)
• He loves to chase Haley around the house, he just laughs and laughs when she runs.
• The past few weeks he has been wanting to cuddle with a stuffed animal and blanket before he goes to sleep, so sweet. Sometimes he wants ALL of the animals and its hard to rock him to sleep with all the clutter!
• He LOVES to go bye-bye.
• I have been trying to let him walk and hold my hand in public more often, he is getting heavy to carry. 
• He is starting to pay a little more attention to TV shows, he loves Cat in the Hat and Curious George.
• He likes to look at the flowers and the bumble bees outside.
• Still obsessed with balls.
• Still loves to swing and slide. He has to hold a ball while swinging.
• He has started to not like his hands, feet, and passy being dirty, he wants them all keen (all clean).
• He got new carpet in his room and loves to roll around on it.
• He has become a little more picky about his food. It started a little before he got sick last week, but being sick made it worse, so now we have a very picky toddler! 
• The terrible two's are among us. One minute Cory and I look at each other in disbelief of how precious he is, then the next we are looking at each other thinking "whose kid is that!"
• He loves to play in water outside and he loves to wet the dogs. This summer should be fun!
• He still loves to dance.
• He still does pretty well in the car seat, he points out every yellow bus, big truck, and big tree that we pass.
• He is quite the climber, he has started to climb onto the rails of his crib from the outside and now tries to climb the fence outside. Lovely.
• I never thought I would say this but I may buy a Barney DVD and CD. I think they listen to Barney music at daycare. He gets so excited when I play a Barney song on the computer for him. But whatever makes him that happy, I will do!