Baby Update - 35 weeks

I am HUGE!  Look at how puffy my face is, not the most flattering photo!

Even with the discomforts of the third trimester, I am still enjoying this pregnancy.  The baby is pretty active, and I love feeling her move throughout the day.  All of my prenatal appointments have gone well, and there have not been any concerns.

I have quite a bit of heartburn, some leg pain that is probably due to sciatica, and I seem to be awake more than I am asleep at night lately, but none of these things bother me much.  It's all worth it in the end!

My only real craving has been ice cubes!  I think this is the weirdest craving ever.  I chew ice all day long.  The funny thing is that I typically don't put ice in my water; I prefer room temperature water, but lately I can't get enough ice.  My husband jokes that he always knows where I am in the house because he can hear the ice jingling in my glass!

Everything is ready!  The baby will sleep in our room (much easier for breastfeeding) for a few months, so everything is set up in there.  All of the necessities have been purchased, washed, and organized.  Most importantly, the car seat was installed by our local police department.  There are several officers who undergo special training (I believe it is forty hours of training!) to learn how to properly install car seats.  We have always had them install our car seats, and I will not let anyone remove the seat until it's time for a new one!  Oh, I haven't packed my hospital bag yet - so, I guess I have to do that over the next few days.

My hope is that I do not have to be induced for this baby.  I was induced for T (because of preeclampsia) and for R (because the doctor was concerned about her size), and my labor and delivery for them was not as enjoyable as my labor and delivery for C who arrived without induction.  I already expressed this desire to my OB/GYN.  She actually laughed because I referred to my labor and delivery with C as being more "enjoyable" than the other two - I guess she isn't used to people describing the experience as "enjoyable".  I'm not saying that labor and delivery is easy or fun (not saying that at all), but I really do enjoy the experience - I think it is truly amazing that our bodies are capable of doing what they do!

I do not expect this baby to arrive before the due date (September 9th), but I will continue to post any updates here.

North Dakota

Getting through our state study of North Dakota has not been easy.  I haven't been very motivated.  So, we kept it light and easy.  C and R can find the state on a map - I'm content! 

They also colored the North Dakota coloring page from the Crayola website.

So, that's it for North Dakota.  Nothing exciting from us for this state!  I'll have to wow you with the next one!

Daffodil Pinwheels for Wales

T spent two days in Wales this week.  The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, so I made a few daffodil pinwheels for C and R using a template from DLTK.

The pinwheels didn't really spin that well, but they looked pretty sitting on the table as we read The Island of Fairies, a story from Wales.  This story can be found in the book, Around the World in 80 Tales.  This treasury features traditional tales from six continents, and I am happy that we own a copy.  The tales are typically two pages long and so far, we have enjoyed those that we have read.  It's a fun way to explore the world.

I want to thank everyone who left comments wishing T a safe journey.  He is having a wonderful time, and learning a lot about the United Kingdom.  He has done so many amazing things, for example while he was in Wales, he abseiled 70 feet off a tower wall at Penrhyn Castle!!!!  He also reported that he ate haggis, and loved it!

Bubble Wrap Painting and Shaving Cream Marbling - Reading Mural

Last summer, we made a floral reading mural to keep track of the books we read over the summer.  Every time we read a book, we would add a petal or leaf to the mural with the title of the book written on each petal or leaf.  We also added butterflies and a sun.  It was a very popular activity with C and R, plus it kept them writing (they wrote the titles) and reading all summer.

Creating a reading mural is on our Summer Bucket List again this year, but we didn't get to it until this week, so unfortunately, it won't have all of our summer reading titles on it.  Oh well, better late than never!

To create the background for our reading mural, I cut some waves out of poster board.  I put some blobs of blue, green, and purple poster paint on the surface and R painted the waves.

C wasn't in the mood to paint, so R did the whole thing.

Once she was done painting, we placed bubble wrap on top of the wet paint and she pushed on and stepped on the bubble wrap to create a bubble effect in the ocean waves.

I cut some fish shapes out of white card stock.  Then we decorated the fish using the shaving cream marbling technique.

I began by giving C and R a tray with shaving cream and a few squirts of acrylic paint.

They used popsicle sticks to swirl the paint (don't over-mix - you want the colors to maintain their individual identities!).

Once they were done swirling, they took the card stock fish shapes and pressed them in the mixture, then pulled them out and put them aside for a few minutes.

We typically wait at least ten minutes to let the color set, and then use a popsicle stick to scrape off the extra shaving cream.  I have posted this technique many times; it's always a favorite around here and the results are so pretty!  Sometimes we use food coloring instead of paint; both work wonderfully.

Each fish will represent one book read.  We will continue adding fish until our ocean is full.  Here is a sneak peek with just a few of the fish on the ocean waves background (before any book titles are written on the fish):

I love the contrasting colors!

You may have noticed that this reading mural is tiny compared to the one we made last year.  Well, my due date is five weeks away and I thought it was best to not be too ambitious with getting every book read on the mural.  If need be, we can always expand with more poster board waves and fish that may or may not be marbled!

If you want to see more marbling, check out the gorgeous fall leaves made by Little Wonders' Days by clicking here!

Summer Bucket List - Sun Tea

I love sun tea.  It takes a few hours, but the flavor is wonderful.  We made some decaf sun tea this week using the same recipe we used last summer.

We placed six decaf black tea bags in a pitcher and added two quarts of cold, filtered water.  Then, we put the covered pitcher out in the sun for about four hours, moving it when necessary to keep it in the direct sunlight.

Once the time had lapsed, we poured the tea over ice and added a few lemon wedges for a delicious, refreshing summertime beverage!

Missing T

We are all missing T.  He has been gone over a week now, and it's just not the same without him here.  I have to tell you that my heart breaks for Kelly though.  She just doesn't understand where he is, and the last few days she has been moping, crying, and searching for her boy.  Yesterday afternoon, I found her on his bed.

You might not think that is a big deal, but it was over ninety degrees and T's room (even with central air) is the hottest room in the house.  Kelly is a Bernese Mountain dog with lots of black fur - she certainly wasn't in that room for comfort.  I wish I could help her understand his absence!  He'll be back soon!

Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster Snack

T is currently in Scotland!  One of the adventures his group is going on while they are there is to search the Loch on a sonar equipped boat to look for Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.  He will also learn about the research undertaken in the past by explorers seeking the monster.

I am trying to give C and R a little taste of what their big brother is doing while he is away, so we read Nessie The Loch Ness Monster by Richard Brassey while eating a Nessie snack.  This is a great book for young children who are interested in the Scottish legend.

For the snack, I cut two chocolate doughnuts in half (one of the halves was cut in half again to make the head and tail) and placed them on a blue cutting board as seen in the above photo.  I figured the blue surface could be the ocean, but I added some blue candies too.  I also stuck green candies on our Nessie (I didn't use anything to stick them on, the chocolate on the doughnuts held them in place).  So, this wasn't a healthy snack, but it was a fun, memorable weekend treat!

C is very upset that some people think Nessie really does exist!