april showers bring may flowers. what do mayflowers bring?

pilgrims! - quentin's mimi is visiting so we took her to plymouth yesterday to see the rock and the mayflower. Q liked exploring the boat, especially hanging off the side of it and looking at all the little fish in the harbor. one of the costumed interpreters scared him to death - Q ran full speed into the sleeping quarters and didn't expect to see a lady just sitting there :) -

roo-2: 34 weeks

i don't like the topic of this week's babycenter.com update - stay put roo-2! - not much new to report, just transitioning into discomfort. my belly is huge, i have cankles, and i don't sleep well anymore. last friday i treated myself to a pedicure and 3 of the little old ladies in the salon getting their nails done told me i looked like i could pop at any moment. then a woman in baby bottle aisle in target asked me when i was due and then followed up with the usual, "is there more than one in there?" when i paused before answering because i was laughing on the inside from being asked that so much, she started apologizing profusely for telling a complete stranger that she is freaking huge. - from babycenter.com:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

outside

the completion of our backyard fence has added a new word to Q's vocabulary - outside. he is obsessed. he wants to go straight out back any time we come home from day care, gym class, etc. if we're inside, he'll put his hand on the doorknob and say, "outside." and despite the fact that he has a ton of outdoor toys to play with, sticks and pine cones are his favorites. he also eats dandelions - both the yellow and puffball variety. delish. -

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as you can see, we had a monsoon here yesterday and our "lake" came back. these pics were taken more than 24 hours after the rain and there's still this much standing water! so glad they got the fence done last week!!

an apple a day

the ball pit at quentin's gym is now sponsored by mott's for tots apple juice. as a result, they have added new apple-shaped red and green balls to the mix of regular round colorful plastic. i didn't even notice, but Q did. when he discovered this at class this morning, he immediately started throwing all the apple-shaped balls out of the pit, looking really concerned, like he was saying, "hey, this ain't right! this pit is for balls, not apples!"

roo-2: 33 weeks

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7 weeks until due date, 3 weeks until Q-date (eek!) we know from the ultrasound on monday that roo-2 weighs much more than 4 pounds. i'm still feeling really good, better than i did at this stage with Q (though to be fair, i am not in virginia in july, packing and moving an entire household by myself in the 90 degree humid weather!) my nesting instinct is in overdrive, probably because i didn't have a house to nest in with Q. the newborn clothes are out of storage, washed, folded, and put away. the bassinet is set up in our room, just awaiting the sheets i ordered for it. i bought a 2nd boppy on craigslist so i can have an upstairs one and a downstairs one. there's still a few things left on the baby preparedness checklist, but we're getting there!!

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from babycenter.com:

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This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

old sturbridge village

on saturday, we drove out to sturbridge, mass to visit old sturbridge village with my family to celebrate mom and aunt lois's birthdays. we had hoped that Q would sleep for the 1+ hour car ride there (after his gym class even) but he did not. quentin seemed to enjoy the militia dudes practicing their musket fire, but the dirt was equally fascinating. i don't think he learned anything historical, but he did enjoy playing on the colonial themed playground. he resisted a nap all day until we got to the very end and he just crashed.

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and he didn't sleep in the car on the way home either!

roo-2 at 32 (weeks)

roo-2 and i went in today for our 32-week appointment and another ultrasound to see how big roo is. according to the ultrasound, roo is already a 5-pounder and will theoretically gain 1/2 - 3/4 of a pound each week until the end. there's 8 weeks til my due date - you do the math. yikes.

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roo is already head down, ready to go. it did not want us to see its face - it kept one or both hands up in front of it the whole time. it also had one leg up in a weird position and the ultrasound lady said she's never seen a kiddo do that this late in a pregnancy. weirdo (the kid, not the ultrasound lady. she was very nice.)

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everything else is still fine. no blood pressure issues (yet!) we go back in 2 weeks for another regular visit and then two weeks from then we start weekly visits and ultrasounds. good times.

roo-2: 32 weeks

oh baby! 8 weeks until due date, 4 weeks until Q-date (i.e. when this kid will be born if it follows quentin's early lead.) still feeling pretty good. it's nice that it hasn't gotten hot here yet. however, i must be huge because the sympathy looks have started and no one believes that i have two months to go. - we go for our next appointment and another ultrasound on monday so we'll get a sense for how large this roo is. also, according to a random spanish-speaking lady at the clearance rack at baby gap (via translation by her daughter) roo-2 is a girl because my belly is high and round. of course some random person yesterday told me i was carrying very low. so who knows! - from babycenter.com: -

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

let's get messy!

i saw this free event called "let's get messy" advertised in the newspaper. since Q is home with me on wednesdays and thursdays, we're always looking for fun stuff to do. this was run by the same people who put on the touch-a-truck a few weeks ago. i'm not sure i totally "get" their purpose. they are a government-sponsored program for people with young kids, but hey, my tax dollars are paying for it, so why not! there was only one other kiddo there, but Q still had a good time. they basically got to play in a classroom with typical toddler toys. they did circle time with some songs. and then the messy activity was banana pudding. the other kid sat there and ate his pudding quietly and cleanly. quentin, not so much. we had to keep chasing him to keep his slimy pudding hands off all the toys. too bad this was their last event until school starts back up in the fall!

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i also saw another touch-a-truck advertised in another neighboring town on 5/31 - woo hoo! jeremy has to work that day, but Q and i can go and have fun!