Durham Bulls!

We went to our first Durham Bulls Baseball game of the season. Ryan loved it, he cheered for the team and wanted to meet everyone around us. He even liked the mascots!

He lasted for about 2 hours, then looked up at us and said he was all done then turned around and waved at everyone in our section and said "bye." This is the first game we have tickets to for this season, hopefully next time Don and I can get our act together to bring the camera.

Relax.. or at least try

Free time. I can't even tell you how much I have thought about free time since having a child. Before Ryan was in school I would make up to-do lists in my head of all the things I would do IF I ever went anywhere without him and then fantasize that I would actually get to do them.
When Ryan first started school I was hardcore, I didn't sit down the whole time he was gone. I raced through my list. After 3 days of him being out of the house I was done. I had completed what I could complete... let's face it I am not going to be carrying the dresser upstairs by myself, but everything else was done.
Now I sit panicking that there are things I should be doing, or that I am not being efficient enough with my time. When you have a kid you start doing things as efficiently as possible, after 2 years I have it down to a science which is great except I cannot do things inefficiently even if I want to. My heart starts racing if I need to drive 20 minutes to do only one little thing, especially if I will be in the area again within the week. It's a problem, I mean honestly I have almost 4 hours off I can afford to be a little bit inefficient if I want to right? And don't even get me started on justifying going to a coffee shop to just sit and read.
I have trouble just sitting and relaxing when Ryan's gone. I feel like I need to be ON all the time. I am working on it. When I talked to Don about it he said that I have trouble adjusting to change and I would eventually chill out, and if I didn't... well Audrey is coming soon and then I won't have any free time again. I guess only time will tell if I can take a chill pill before the window of opportunity closes.

Quick Pregnancy Update

I went to the doctor's office today and everything is continuing to go well! Being on the cusp of the third trimester I have graduated to appointments every 3 weeks (as opposed to 4). My belly is getting bigger while the rest of me seems to be getting smaller, hopefully this continues :) Nothing much else to report which is the way it should be... uneventful is the goal at this point.

94 days until my due date which means only 73 days until I am considered full term! That might sound like a long time until you realize that a pregnancy is about 280 days!

Spring Day at the Park

Ryan learned how to blow dandelion spores which is probably a skill we will regret teaching him.

Ryan loves his daddy, look at that face!

26 weeks

Road Race Season

Dad ran in a 10K road race today, it was an exciting (and early) morning for Ryan, this is the first race of the season and luckily Ryan really enjoyed it!

Ryan had a whole snack set up for himself which was good because it was a lot of work to cheer everyone by from where we were watching. Ryan clapped and even yelled "go, go, go" he was a very good spectator.
The most exciting part of course was when we were able to find dad after the race was all finished.

The Third Trimester Creep-up

I feel the 3rd trimester creeping closer and closer... less then 2 weeks now. My energy level is already decreasing while my uncomfortableness is increasing.
Luckily I have a toddler to make sure I rarely get to sit and just veg out.... Hopefully I can finish up the nursery in fairly short order so that I will lose that excuse to fill every free minute I have with baby preparation.
You know what I want? I really big frozen sugary coffee... I am having focus issues can you tell? Well anyway..
I am going to go drink my water and eat my green veggies and dream of that frozen goodness that will be coming my way in less then 4 months.

Baby's Name

To celebrate 100 days until my due date I am posting baby's name. Yes we have decided She-ra probably wouldn't work out in the long run haha, so after much discussion we have decided our little girls name will be:

Audrey Elizabeth

Husbands...

Recent Conversation with Hubby:

Don (3 months ago): I ran out of shaving cream can you get me some today?

Kathleen: I was just at the grocery store, you know if you tell me earlier I can pick some up on sale and then we will always have it and I won't have to make a special trip. Make sure you tell me early when you are running low.

Kathleen (2 months ago): How are you doing with shaving cream, do you want me to get some?

Don: Nope, I'm all set.

Kathleen: (1 month ago): Need shaving cream while I'm out?

Don: Nope, I'm all set.

Kathleen: (1 weeks ago): I'm making a shopping list, are you all set with shaving cream?

Don: I'm all set.

Don (yesterday): You are going to be mad at me.

Kathleen: What did you do?

Don: I ran out of shaving cream, can you get me some?

Easter Pictures

25 week belly
Me and Jess

Grandma reading

Ryan and Dad

Me and the Hubby

Easter Basket

The group

Ryan keeping in touch

Me and my best boy

Jay and Don picking out a grill

The Boys

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!
We are celebrating at Grandma's house this afternoon, hopefully I will remember to take some pictures.

First Day of School!

Ryan had his first day of school today! It was a little stressful for everyone involved but the overall experience was positive.

So far so good. We all really liked Ryan's teacher, she was very nice and really tried to make everyone as comfortable as possible. He was sad to see us go but he calmed down when they went outside to play. Hopefully our experience continues to be positive and Ryan can make some friends.

I tried to stay busy for my "time off" and ended up cleaning our whole upstairs all the way to the point of dusting the fan. I also ran a bunch of errands.. it made me feel justified in dropping Ryan off and kept my mind off of worrying about him. I have to say I was very excited to pick him up when the time rolled around! I just have to tell myself it is only 1/2 days two days a week. I'm sure as I get more and more pregnant I will learn to love this time, I just have to work my way up to that.

Pregnancy Milestones

I live pregnancy through a series of milestone markers, the dates that doctors determine show a significant change in the status for both mom and baby. These smaller goals (at least smaller then the 40 weeks of a pregnancy going to it's due date) help get through the weeks.

• The first milestone is at 12 weeks, the ending of the first trimester. the rate of miscarriage after this time decreases significantly and so when I hit 12 weeks I breathed out a huge sigh of relief. This is also around when some of the pregnancy symptoms dissipate such as nausea, tiredness etc. (mine happened at 14 weeks, but it started at 12).
• The second milestone is 24 weeks, this is when viability begins. You know the lady with the 19 children who regularly appears on the TLC channel? She had her last child at 24 weeks. It is certainly not optimal but babies can survive this. I am currently at 25 weeks (or will be tomorrow). This is another time to have a huge sigh of relief. If something were to happen.. such as a huge spike in my blood pressure or distress in the baby at least delivery is an option.
• I think the third milestone is around 30 weeks, at this point it seems like most babies will make it if they have to be delivered and the rate of long term complications go down.
• Finally 37 weeks, most babies will have enough lung development that they won't have to stay very long in the hospital if delivered after this point.

I am happy to have made it this far but I hope to make it through all four milestones before having little She-ra.

Easter Now and Then

Ryan does NOT love having his picture taken with the Easter Bunny. The picture was taken before Ryan had his "get me out of here" total melt down. Of course when we got away from the bunny, Ryan loved him, he was blowing kisses to the bunny and waving... just as long as the bunny stayed about 20 feet away.
I've also posted last years Easter Bunny picture for some comparison. Yes this years bunny was way creepier, Ryan was also much more aware of the creep factor this year. (You can click on both pictures for a bigger version).

2009

Visit To Massachusetts

This weekend we took a trip to Massachusetts for Ryan's grandfathers 50th birthday. Ryan was such a good traveler, the flights were easy and he was flexible about sleeping and eating and everything. Ryan loved being surrounded by so much family to give him attention and lots of kids right around his age. On top of the pictures listed here we also got family pictures professionally taken so when we get those I will post them.

Playing Soccer

Second Cousins

Second Cousins Hugging

Cousins

Ryan, Kaylie and their grandparents