Recent happenings

I had a great surprise this week, Meredith from Leaning on Grace was in town and stopped by to see us! It was so great to meet her - we've been reading each other's blogs since I was pregnant with Madeleine - over 3 1/2 years. They only got to stay for an hour or so, but it was great. Thanks so much for coming Meredith!


The Bud's vocabulary has exploded in the past few days. Ken was in DC for a business trip and got back late last night, and even he noticed that he's talking much better.

The other day we were at Grandma's house, and all of a sudden he said, "Grandma, blow bubbles!" He is trying to say just about any word we ask him to. Yesterday we were at dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I told Madeleine she had to take 3 more bites. Grandma gave her a bite and said, "One...." and John Paul said "Two....." then grinned really big. Surprised us all!

Madeleine and I are doing great with her reading lessons. She asks to do it every morning, and LOVES the stories. We're on lesson 47 and I can't believe how well she's reading. She sits up in her bed and sounds out words from her library books for hours until it gets too dark. We are enjoying John Paul's morning nap times together - we do lessons, then sometimes art projects and almost always go outside and play before it gets too hot. Today I introduced a Nature Notebook. It's a sketchbook I had - we found some interesting flowers and leaves in the yard and tried to draw them as accurately as possible. We looked at the veins in the leaves and the details in the petals of the flowers. She LOVED this and told Ken about it at supper.

This is the first week in this pregnancy (week 21) that I've felt pretty normal. It's fabulous ;) I'm even ALMOST up to my pre-pregnancy weight. I had my monthly appointment on Wednesday, and I took both kids. They did great, except Bud freaked out when I was up on the table. The doc had to get him and hand him to me, he laid on my chest while she measured me and listened to baby boy's heartbeat. I asked her if she thought I could go to Alabama for Thanksgiving - at 37 weeks. She said she'd check me and see how dilated I was at that point. Since I was 3 cm dilated at 37 weeks with both kids, I'm thinking it's not going to happen. She said if we DO go, she'd send my labs with me and we should bring the infant carseat! She also offered to induce me a week early if I wanted - which is tempting at that time of the year, but I doubt if I'll do that. She said the third can come quick. ;)