Playtime!

I know, I know... LOTS of photos! We just got the correct lens for my birthday camera, and I've been having a great time playing with it! Here is just a sampling of the photos taken this week, and the adventures we've been having!

In spite of Maia's continuing sleep issues, we've been having a wonderful week! It got off to a great start on Monday, with a visit to Abby and her Mommy. The girls were hilarious together, playing, singing, and entertaining us with a great round of "Ring Around the Rosie." Maia was thrilled when Abby's Mommy broke out the Dora potty seat and asked Maia if she would demonstrate its usage for Abby. That led to many trips to the potty. Hey, it's all progress right? It was great catching up with them, and Maia asked multiple times on the way home when we would get to see them again. Hopefully soon!

Tuesday found us on an exciting adventure... a trip to Mommy's doctor for an Evie ultrasound! The whole experience of Gestaional Diabetes has been... interesting. At the time of diagnosis, doctors and anything you read terrifies you into thinking you'll have a 16 lb baby, require a C-Section at 37 weeks to remove said 16 lb baby, and suffer greatly forever. After the terror, they hit you with an insanely restrictive diet, which you follow pretty much to the letter for fear of above. A few weeks later, the doc shows mild concern when your weight hasn't changed and your belly hasn't changed. "Let's give it another two weeks and see how you look then." Two weeks later, your weight still hasn't changed, though your belly has changed slightly. At this point, they do appear worried that rather than said 16 lb baby, you'll have a 3 pounder. And so, they order an ultrasound. Ultrasound isn't a perfect way to assess an infant's weight, but it's pretty much the best option. And it's really cool to see the baby at 35 weeks!

Evie looked great!!! She waved to us, stuck her tongue out at Maia several times, and generally showed us to be a very healthy, very strong, and very active little girl. Based on a number of measurements, her weight is guestimated to be approximately 6 lbs, 3 ozs. Regardless of how exact this is, this is wonderful news. She's neither too big, nor too small... she's right in the range where she should be for this stage of the pregnancy. Hooray! Only 4 1/2 weeks to go... or less!

Daddy was able to come with us to the appointment, a wonderful treat for all. He seemed pretty amazed to watch as the tech scanned my entire abdomen for different parts of the kiddo. I don't really look as pregnant as I am, being nearly 6 feet tall does have its pluses, and Evie has managed to spread into every corner it seems she can. Anyhow, after the scan, we made a quick stop at Starbucks where Maia was again persuaded to have a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese rather than Pumpkin Loaf. Hooray! From there it was off to the airport, as Daddy had to head to Minnesota on business. His trip has been delayed multiple times, confusing his toddler as to what day it really was. She was sure it was Tuesday, and yet Daddy was supposed to go to "MinneSOTA" on Sunday! Regardless of the day, we were sad to see him go, and are thrilled he'll be back home at any minute.

From the airport we headed into the big city. Usually a trip into the city involves one of its many wonderful museums, aquariums, etc. It was such a beautiful day, (finally), that we figured we'd just wander around and see what kind of fun was to be had. We found a great playground in the middle of the Common and set to work on that fun. Maia even agreed to pose with one of the froggy statues...

We spent a considerable amount of time running, jumping, and climbing. We decided we'd had enough when two(!) preschools invaded, and there was little room left for running, jumping, and climbing. We headed to H&M to check out their toddler-wear for summer, and to try to find Mommy one last cute maternity top on the cheap. There wasn't much we liked in the way of either, so sad, but we did find....

Butterfly wings and a ballerina skirt! Maia has loved butterflies for a long time now. And somehow she's recently discovered a love for ballet. (Terrible Mommy that I am, I haven't yet signed her up for ballet class!) She was delighted when she found these items lurking in a dark corner of the store, and being the indulgent Mommy that I am... they came home with us.

After a two-hour nap in the car (HOORAY!) during which Mommy discovered all the cool things her iPhone can do, Maia was ready to play dress up. We put on some dancing music and she entertained me with twirls and dips until it was time to take Gritty for a walk. I was able to convince her to leave the butterfly wings at home, but the wand that came with them made it into the stroller. This elicited many different reactions around town, and of course a swipe or two from Gritty as he decided he should have a wand too.

I had high hopes that Maia would sleep wonderfully after such an exciting day, but alas... this morning found her wide awake and ready to go at 5:20. Ugh! As Daddy was in "MinneSOTA," it fell to us to get Gritty out for his morning walk. This time the wand stayed home, though halfway through the walk Maia declared, "Mommy! Oh no! We forgot my wand. Please turn around and go get it." Hmmm... the rest of the morning found us running errands before an all too brief nap in the car.

After a lovely lunch, it was playtime! We headed outside for some romping in the yard. It's been so cold and rainy, we haven't been able to spend any time out there so far. The mud holes have finally dried up, and Maia was thrilled to be back with her climbing tree and sticks to share with Gritty. She even helped Mommy rake leaves, though we need to do a wee bit of work on her technique...