Birthday Celebrations & Let's Make This Interesting!

Grace's 2nd birthday celebrations were a fabulous mix of excitement and exhaustion.  We had a pretty busy week last week between Mike being in Chicago, gymnastics, and doctor appointments.  Grace's official birthday was Thursday (9/19), and Mom came into town that morning to help wake her up.  She had a good morning full of presents to make her a princess for the day!  Mom insisted on keeping her for the day, but had to take her to Emma's (babysitter) for her planned birthday party.  We are so blessed to have such a fun and caring babysitter to keep our Lou!

The kiddos and Emma---soon to be one more! :)

 Thursday night, after school, I met Mom and Grace at gymnastics and then we  met Mike for dinner after he got home from Chicago!  Tom and Patsy came over with a new gift and fajitas...win win!

Our new 'rock rock'!

After work on Friday, we headed to Grace's 2 year appointment.  I don't know if it's because she has been so healthy and never goes to the doctor-or what, but it was a DRAMA filled doctor experience---to say the least!  Grace was very overwhelmed and scared of everything that was going on.  When they were measuring her head, you would've thought they were chopping her ears off.  Getting her height/weight was just the same.  When the doctor came in, he informed us that on the growth chart Grace was border line obesity.  Hmmmm.  Not really an easy way to react to a statement like that, but I guess we'll be skipping to low fat everything?  Nah.  I'm not worried about it.  Everything else looked really good, but I told him that Grace has been complaining about her ear being sore (on and off).  It's been about a week or two that she has been complaining about it, and we just figured she might have had a mild case of swimmer's ear or something from her swim lessons.  WELL...come to find out, she had an ear infection so bad that it had burst and was draining fluid with blood and puss.  Nasty, but so sad! :'(   I felt like the worst mom ever, but the doctor made me feel better and said that as kids get older it's just harder to tell.  In the past, when Grace has had an ear infection, she has a fever and congestion.  Plus, she has acted much more in pain.  She has been running around crazy with plenty of energy and appetite, so I haven't thought too much about it.  In conclusion, a huge fit at the doctor and $70 later, Grace is recovering from her worst ear infection yet. 

That night, she didn't sleep too well and was up around 4:30 complaining about her ear.  After giving her some pain meds and laying with her until she fell back asleep, I was awake for the day!  There was definitely no going back to sleep for me. So, in preparation for the party later, I decided it was as good a time as any to make a trip to Wal Mart.  There is something to be said about grocery shopping at 5 am.  I was literally the only shopper in there, and it was actually an enjoyable experience.  After getting all the food I needed for the party, I headed to the only self checkout available.  Well, I don't think I started the Wal-Mart lady's day off to a very good start.  I scanned and bagged my entire cart---saving the beer for last.  As soon as I scanned the beer, my entire checkout station froze.  Considering I have never try to buy beer at 5:30 in the morning, I didn't even think about the times that alcohol is aloud to be sold.  FYI...it's 7 am.  Anyway, they had to restart my checkout station, while moving me to another one and rescanning/bagging all my groceries.  Luckily, they were really nice and were more amused by my giant belly than the fact that I was causing so much inconvenience. ---not to mention I was an 8 month pregnant lady trying to buy beer at 6 in the morning.  I bet they don't see that everyday!

 

After getting home, unloading the groceries, and sneaking in a little power nap, we were up with the sun---running!  We had some breakfast and waited for Pops, Landon, and Whitney to show up to join us at KidMania.   Even though I had never been there and it was a bit of a gamble, Grace really loved the place!  The 3 year and under section was a little lame, but she played pretty well in the big kid section.  The other big kids that were there were soo sweet and played really well with her.  She also had a great time going through it with Clay and Nate!  Give it another 6 months or so, and she'll be unstoppable!  It also doesn't hurt that 3 years and under are only $3 and adults are only $1.  Pretty cheap fun!  See if you can guess what her party theme was...

Any time I tried to take a picture, she would smash her face like this.  Funny girl!

So high!

We stayed at KidMania for a good two hours or so.  Gigi and Gikum showed up for a little bit and then we all headed to the house.  The party was a success. Grace had a blast seeing everybody and hanging with her cousins.  They played for hours.  I think the adults had a pretty nice time too--especially since it was such a BEAUTIFUL day and night.  Mike grilled hamburgers, I tried out a pinterest recipe, and Grace tore into her cupcake!  She also got some pretty awesome presents from everyone too!

PRESENT TIME

Thanks Uncle Robert and Aunt Jess for the Minnie ball pit!

Thanks Keprta family for the Minnie dress up!  Wish I had video of this one...she was pumped!

I'm a lucky girl!

Needless to say, we are very thankful to have such great family/friends to be there to celebrate with Grace.  She had an amazing and exhausting day, and I can prove it!  After everybody left for the evening, we put Grace to bed.  As we were cleaning up, I remembered that we needed to change her diaper before she went to sleep- and I forgot!  So, Mike said he would go in there and wake her up and do it.  Well, he walked in, took her out of bed, took off her pajamas, changed her diaper, and put back on her pajamas...and she NEVER even woke up.  Now, that is exhaustion.  Special thank you to everyone who helped my baby girl have another memorable birthday.

In other news...

Well, on top of all the birthday celebration for one child, I am officially 36 weeks and one day pregnant.  I am feeling larger and heavier than ever, but I'll save you the updates for another day!  On Wednesday, I have my big doctor appointment with my last sonogram and all my blood work--to double check that my blood platelets are still stable enough for upcoming delivery!  Wish me luck!  Mike and I were talking the other day, and if this pregnancy is anything like Grace's, I only have another week or so until I go into labor.  This weekend, two years ago, we actually attended Oktoberfest--and little did I know that I was already in labor!  

I figure we could go 'Friends' style and make this pregnancy interesting.  Make your guess about when you think this baby is going to show up!  Post the day you think it's going to happen.  I'm going to go somewhere in between Grace's timing and full term.  I don't want him to come too early since his little lungs need to fully develop and I want to be able to take off until the end of the semester.  I'm going to go with Grace's due date, October 8th---keep it significant.  That gives me a few more weeks!  Now, what do you think?

The Sunday before I went into labor, we took some 37 week photos in our front yard---so we re-enacted them to try and compare!

When I go back and look at Grace's pregnancy, I definitely think I am way larger this go around! Sad day.  Ginormo!

Grace's pregnancy...much smaller, I think!

Boldings!....for now ;)

This upcoming week looks like it should be a good one!  Tomorrow, we are getting our crown moulding in the bedrooms completely finished- so that's exciting.  Also, I have a student observer coming to watch my classes this entire week for her certification hours.  Guess that means I will have to teach somewhere other than my desk chair...don't want to be a bad example.  Because of her ear infection, we won't be attending swimming, so that clears up our evening for tomorrow.  I should be excited about that, except that I have 140 History essays to grade---Lord, help me!  Tuesday, I get to go to the Rangers game and get me a Yu bobble head.  Please help the Rangers win! Please! Please!  Other than that, a pretty standard week ahead with a pre-natal massage on Saturday! Yay! My swelling feet and aching back are ready!

Hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to make your labor guess!!  :)