Aquarium Visit

So between moving and scout stuff and church stuff and being out of town stuff and who-knows-what-else, it has been at least a month and a half since we’ve been able to spend the day as a family. We finally got that chance today and took the opportunity to take Nathan to the National Aquarium!

We had been before Nathan was born, so it had been a while since we’ve gone and we’d never taken Nathan – so if you’ve never been and you’re going with kids, FYI: you have to check your stroller in. You can’t take it with you throughout the exhibits because you have to take escalators between every floor to see everything. We did not know/remember this. But we managed. I didn’t think it would be too much of a problem because I totally though Nathan would want to walk the whole (or at least most of the) time. Nope. Figures. ;) I think the experience was just so new to him (and I think it was a bit of a sensory overload with all the people, the noises, lights, and being in the dark with fish…), he didn’t know what to make of it all most of the time. But while he didn’t love it like I thought he would, he never cried or freaked out, so in my mind, it was a success!

He seemed to like the brighter lit fish tanks with the more colorful fish.
We saw some fun animals in the rainforest exhibit!
We stopped for a break from walking in the dolphin observation area and Nathan seemed to like watching the dolphins too. They weren’t putting on any presentations while we were in there, but there were several dolphins out playing and practicing their tricks so that was fun to watch.
Then we found the kids’ exploration area! I think this was Nathan’s favorite. We found some fun books and activities for him to do.
He really liked the velcro wall activities.
And this funny…thing on which to walk… ;)

All in all, we had a pretty good time and it was so nice to have a family day!

24 Weeks!

If you’re thinking it seems like I just barely posted my 22 week picture, you’re probably right. I was several days late on that one… ;) Now I’m just one day late this time. Yay!

Baby Spencer has been so wiggly the last week or so! Or maybe he’s always been wiggly and now he’s just big enough for me to feel it. I’m starting to worry that I’m having another crazy one. Nathan was really wiggly when I was pregnant with him and he’s wild!

I’ve been feeling pretty good. Just tired. (That seems to be my standard response when people ask me how I’m feeling) I’m getting up almost every 2 hours at night to use the bathroom and that has seriously got to be one of the most annoying things about being pregnant for me. I just want to sleep! As a result, I’m pretty sleepy during the day, but I suppose that’s going to be pretty normal for a while…

The time is going by really fast though, I can barely keep up with how far along I am these days. The move went really well and I’ve been spending a lot of time getting things unpacked and organized. We are almost completely unpacked and put together. I’ll be posting something on it soon, but I put up a pegboard to organize my craft stuff and I’m completely in love with it – it freed up a ton of space by putting everything up on the wall! My goal is to have everything completely organized by the time Spencer comes – I guess I’m having an early nesting phase ;) It’s coming along quite nicely though!

22 Months!

It’s the week of 22’s. I’m 22 weeks pregnant, and Nathan is 22 months! I really need to get going on birthday ideas!! I only have 2 months left!

*We have added several words to his vocabulary! Apart from family members, he now says, Hi and Bye, Please and Thank You (though for some strange reason, Thank You in Nathan-ese is “Bop”. Not really sure how that translated, but that’s what he says every time we remind him to say Thank You), On and Off (still trying to work out which is which though), Help, Baby, Cool, Eyes, Car, Hat, Up, Yes, No, and Ohhhh, Yeah! He also kind of says Amen at the end of prayers (“Ammmm”) and can sort of say Temple – one of his favorite books right now is his board book about temples, and can recognize the DC temple. He points at it and says “Peh-Pull!” We’ve even got him starting to say I Love You, too! It still mostly sounds like ‘I-lah-oo’ but it’s stinkin’ adorable. His favorite is still Puppies though, and can also say the name of one of my parent’s dogs - Ginger.

*Loves cars and trains! Loves to watch other cars while we are out driving. It actually makes him really well behaved in the car. It’s soooo nice.

*I don’t know where he gets it but he seems to have an endless amount of energy. I can’t even tell you how many evenings John and I just collapse on the couch after he’s in bed at the end of the day. We can’t even get him into bed without having to chase him around the apartment a few times because he keeps escaping and running away!

*Has cut a few more teeth (finally! – They been looking ready to come through for months!!). So far I’ve only seen canines come through, and that might explain why his naps keep ending with him screaming after about 45 minutes of sleep. I hate teething. I’m dreading those last molars…

*He did really well with our move. I was worried he might be kind of weirded out suddenly having all of our stuff in a new place, but he spent the weekend of the move at my parent’s house (Thanks Nana!) and by the time we picked him up I had his room completely put back together so that it would seem more normal and he actually seemed to enjoy the new place right away. That first night he ran around the new place several times, looking at everything and saying “cool!” ;)

*I finally gave him a pillow in his bed. He thinks it’s the coolest ever. I started wondering a few weeks ago when I should give him one – since he seemed to be doing fine without, but since he’s had one he seems to do a little tiny bit better with his naps. Maybe he was uncomfortable AND teething. Sorry about that, Little Man.

*Has quite the temper these days! Could have something to do with the short naps, but he’s a pro at throwing whatever he’s holding at the moment, screaming, and flopping to the floor whenever he’s angry – and it seems to be happening with greater frequency. I better brace myself for the twos…

*I know I say this almost every month, but he’s seriously hilarious. He does the funniest things and keeps us laughing. I’m so glad he’s ours. Love you Little Man!

22 Weeks!

Alright so I missed my 20 week mark for pictures, but I was in the middle of a move and Nathan decided to spend 3 weeks taking 45min naps and I couldn’t get ANYTHING done – so that little that I did do was for the move. So we’re just going to count the gender reveal as my 20 week post, mmmkay? 

These last several weeks have been fine. Though I am sleeping terribly, so I’m pretty tired most of the time. I’m feeling a lot more movement than before, I’m hoping I’m not having another wild child! I’m also starting to feel really big – so I’m warning you all now to keep the size comments to a minimum (unless you’re going to tell me I look fabulous, because really, that’s all I want to hear anyway ;) ). Not really craving anything, unless you count sugar, but then I’ve always had a bit of a sweet tooth anyway… I have been wanting a milkshake for a couple of weeks now…I should probably take care of that…

I guess the biggest news is that we’ve finally decided on a name! It only took a couple of baby name books from the library and some time to read through the entire boy name sections. (Okay, so I skimmed through them, I’m not going to spend a lot of time reading through names like Armani, Champion, or Cork – yes those names are really in there) I wrote down a list of about 11 names that I liked, John looked through them and picked his top 3 and after that it was pretty easy (whew!). So the winner is:

Spencer Christian  :)

The middle name was easy, I already knew that’s what I wanted for it (Christian is John’s middle name), but I was having such a hard time with the first name! I finally feel like I found one that I like AND seems to flow with the rest of our names (call me crazy, but I felt like it needed to ‘fit’!). So there you go! We are so excited to meet baby Spencer!