Mish Mash

I didn't realize how horrible I have been at taking pictures lately! Because of that, there are only a few pictures in this post :( I have to make myself get better or poor Brendan isn't going to have any pictures of his second year of life!

We've been busy getting ready for baby to arrive and enjoying the last part of summer before Brendan starts Mother's Day Out next Monday. He will be going two days a week - Monday and Wednesday - from 9 AM to 2 PM. I'm really excited for him to get to experience it and I think he will also learn a ton.

He has started saying things are "cool" now :) I thought he was saying "two" at first, but then I realized that wasn't it and listened a little harder and said are you saying "cool?" and he repeated it to me the same way. It's very cute. He will bring me his race cars and say "cooool!" or point at things when we are out and say it.

He also loves to say "pool" everytime we pass the pool area in our neighborhood and has become quite the water baby! He finished his first session of swim lessons last week. He can go underwater for 5 to 6 seconds and independently swim that amount of time through the water (independent swimming is more like gliding with no one holding onto him right now). Just in the past week or so, he's finally started kicking his legs. When Tim is giving him a bath at night, he will lie on his stomach in the tub and move his arms and kick his legs while he is swimming :) He starts the second session (Waterbabies 2) tomorrow night with Tim. Tim is doing it with him since I will be having the baby in the middle of the session (did I already mention that in my last post?). His friend/girlfriend, Kinley, is also doing the lessons again with him.

CiCi (my mom) gave him a rocking horse back at Christmas. He was scared of it at first, then he liked being on it for a second, then he liked it but couldn't get on/off by himself. Now, he can get on and off by himself and pull the horse's ears on his own to make it sing or say things. He lovesss riding it and it's very cute when he does.

By the way, he can also say all his grandparent's names now whenever we ask him to :) Some of them are clearer than others, but he attempts to say all of them. He also tries to repeat to us any words we say to him.

He was VERY grumpy when he woke up from his nap last week, even though he slept for 2 hours and 25 minutes. This was the result whenever he was eating his snack:

I've figured out he has to be left alone in his room for a little while whenever he wakes up for the morning or from a nap. He usually immediately gets out of bed when he wakes up and goes to his door, so I always thought he wanted to get out right away but, when I would open the door, he would run away from it and scream/squeal and lie on the ground like he wanted me to leave him alone. Now, I don't even go open the door unless he cries. I just leave him in there and then he is able to open the door when he wants to come out. This usually results in him being much happier. I can move our video monitor camera to the door so I can see what he's doing whenever he's over by the door. The other day after he woke up from a long nap, he spent 20 minutes laying there just sticking his hands under the door or rolling around. This is a picture I took of the monitor:
Silly boy :)

This Thursday, I will be 35 weeks pregnant! That means I will have 35 days until my due date! I have an appointment on Monday, August 29, and he is going to start checking me for progress and I will be going every week from then on for appointments. I have gained 31 pounds as of my appointment last Tuesday. I will surely gain over 35, but I'm hoping not to gain more than about 40 because I immediately lost 30 with Brendan and, if it goes the same with Griffin, that will only give me 10 pounds to lose - which would be much nicer than the 30 I still had to lose with Brendan! I am starting to swell now and am having trouble getting my wedding rings on/off, but my feet haven't really swelled, yet. The doctor said most of what I gain from here on will be water-weight. I am still hoping I won't quite make it to the September 29 due date since I had Brendan 11 days early. Most people I ask in the family seem to think it will be around 2 weeks early. It is SOOO hot that it has just made me very "done" with the pregnancy sooner than I was with Brendan :)

Here's a 34 week belly picture:

Next post, I'll try to remember to do a comparison of being pregnant now vs. being pregnant with Brendan and I'll try to have more pictures! Hope everyone had a great weekend!