.i promised myself.

I promised myself I would take time this Thanksgiving and take some actual photos.  Not just the, I have my ipod I'll take an instagram shot, that I seem to be taking more and more of.  I planned to try and capture some of the magic of the holiday, but alas, when it comes to reality, life sometimes has other plans for you.  I dealt a sick toddler most of the day Thursday, so the few photos I did get were...yes from my ipod...and not really good I might add.  Oh well, I'm glad at this point that I got those.
The day before Finn got sick he enjoyed a little exploration time in the cupboards.  Every time I think this kid has figured it all out, he surprises me with something new.

 Thursday morning Finn was still relatively happy so we made some hand and feet turkeys.  I wanted a craft to remember his cute little hands and feet, and found this simple one (if you can call tracing a squirming 22 month old's hand simple).

 ...still happy

But as the day wore on, Finn wore out.  We all gathered at my sisters house to enjoy the festivities, but as you can see, Roy and I spent most of the time holding Finn and watching Curious George...good times!

I captured a few of the highlights, like dropping our "discontented" pumpkin off the balcony.

 And my masterpiece of a key lime pie.

Of course we stuffed ourselves beyond guilt, and had to record that my brother (even after eating more then three people combined), had abs as flat as a pancake.  It was only too funny to compare with the 33 week pregnant lady!

Even though we were preoccupied by dealing with sick-o Finn, we had a really lovely time with my family, and had some time to reflect on all that we are grateful for.

In other more recent news-
It took a few days, but Finn has gotten through the worst of his cold, only to come out the other side a miserable ornery cuss!  I might be feeling more this way because I just don't have the energy to deal with his tirades, but he is definitely going through an awful stage right now.  Very whiney, clingy, busy, naughty, destructive, and EXHAUSTING!  I tell him all the time, "I love ya kid, but you're driving my nuts right now."  Keeping my fingers crossed that he gets some of this out of his system before baby girl gets here.
Speaking of baby, a friend of ours gave us a few newborn diapers she had found.  As I was putting them away, I couldn't help but marvel at how tiny they were.  I just held one and stared at it for awhile trying to fathom how little those babies actually are (which is weird that you can even forget)...I can't lie, it made me a little bit excited to hold baby M.  As of right now she is posterior so the mid-wife gave me some exercises to do to help her turn over.  She is so active though, that I doubt she'll stay in one position until the very end...so that gives us some time to get her turned the right way.

.like coffee, but without the coffee.

Ughhh, I take it all back, everything I said in that last post about the third trimester agreeing with me.  All of a sudden, I feel like my body is full of caffeine because I'm jittery and restless, particularly at night when I want to sleep.  My brain is literally shutting down for the night, and my body can't be still.  You can imagine this makes for very long and sleepless nights.  Add onto that the sciatic nerve pain that is continually making me limp around like a gimp, and I can say that if there are many more days ahead like this, then I'm ready for little girl to come in any degree of pain just to be done.  I think I remember this being easier the first time around.

.getting there.

We're into the single digit with weeks left remaining, and I'm excited and nervous all mixed up in one.  I can't wait to be able to move without hurting, I can't wait to have the anxiety of labor over with, and I can't wait to meet baby girl.  But I'm nervous for all the changes that having another baby in the house is going to bring, and I'm nervous about how the labor will be, and when it will be here (anytime after Christmas and before the 15th works for me).  Overall I don't usually have time to think about it too much, except when I should be sleeping.  I'm able to stay active and busy with Finn and try enjoy these last few weeks of just him and me.
This last trimester has been good to me overall.  I've even been able to sleep better these past few weeks, and I cannot tell you what a relief that has been!  Last night I began feeling more cramping contractions along with my braxton hicks until about 2:30 in the morning.  I almost called the mid-wife for fear of what my body might be trying to do, but they eased off and I haven't felt them at all today.  Hopefully it was just my body prepping and doing it's thing.  You would think having gone through this before there would be less uncertainty, but in some ways I feel more.  I guess all the unknowns will be answered in the very near future, but I'm hoping we can make it through the Holidays without any surprises.

.a little bit of everything.

I've been less then diligent about keeping up with this blog the past few weeks.  It seems that every time I have an idea or something new to share, I put it off until the moment has passed and I no longer feel inclined to blog.  Life is feeling a bit in limbo right now (as I remember it did right before Finn was born), mostly because you are aware the rhythm of life that you have been used to is about to change forever, and you're not sure if your ready for that change.  I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else but me, but that's how I've been feeling and I guess I'm just trying to take it all in before it changes. In the mean time here are just some of the randomness floating around la vista dr recently.

Brushing a toddlers teeth can be quite literally, "like pulling teeth"!  Today, while getting him in the car, I noticed how awfully disgusting Finn's teeth were.  We brush everyday, but it's quite difficult to wrestle with an almost 2 year old who for some reason decided that recently he hates getting his teeth brushed.  When we got home this afternoon I plopped Finn into the medicine hold and scrubbed those white nubs down good and thorough.  Finn, of course screamed through the whole ordeal, but at least I can rest assured that they are clean.  If there are any secrets to successful teeth brushing that I don't know about please feel free to share them with me.

Making weekly menus can be some of the most tedious work.  Does anyone else feel like they cycle through the same 10 go to meals?  Especially at this point in my pregnancy, I just don't feel like branching out and trying something new that will require me to do more work (i.e. look up a recipe).  Roy is no help in this matter when asked what he wants for dinner he reply's, "food"...absolutely useless!

I'm sad that all that good snow we got last week is melting away.  Finn, like his daddy, is not a fan of the cold.  He is curious about all the white stuff on the trees and ground and wants to step in it and touch it, but as soon as it touches his bare skin, he starts shaking his hand and saying cold in his whiny voice.  I guess I'm all alone in this family as a fan of winter for right now.

I keep getting asked when baby M is going to arrive,  all I can say is her due date is anywhere between the 8th and the 18th (10 day grace period).  I keep hoping for a 38 week arrival like Finn, but I can't help but think she might come on Finn's birthday...and I really don't want that.  It's out of my control, but I'm really hoping she doesn't come on the 15th.

The last couple of weeks I've been feeling "stuck" again...trying to change and wanting to change, but not seeing any momentum change in my life.  However, I'm realizing that I'm needing a lot of patience in this matter.  I'm needing greater faith in the Lord's timing and path for us.  Even this week we have been greatly blessed with daily miracles that let me know that the Lord is intimately aware of us and our needs.  All I can do is keep trying and know that his blessings our ever present in our life, instead of wishing for instant change and gratification.

I had more thoughts, but as I've been writing they seemed to have slipped into the dark corners of my memory, where a lot of things go lately.  I'll be catching up to speed with baby at the end of this week so I won't be gone too long.

.october wrap-up.

My goodness, can it really be the second of November already?  I think we lived up our October sufficiently with the sorts of activities fall is perfect for.  This wrap up is brought to you by instagram > @suboka12 (it seems to be the easiest way for me to take pictures and keep track of all the good times we have).

We rode trax down to Gardner Village and saw the Witches.  Even though we could have driven easier and cheaper then riding, it was out of the question because Finn is in L.O.V.E with the train.  Finn especially loved all the pumpkins and insisted on touching all of them.

 The Olympic Oval had a Halloween carnival so we decided to give Finn a dry run on the whole trick-or-treating concept and then took a few laps around the ice.  I took it very slow and pushed Finn in the stroller to give me some more support, but I can definitely feel how my hips and joints are super loose now being 6 months along. 

We enjoyed a few days of cooler weather, and had our first snow of the season.  We spent the day cozied up inside playing and reading.

A few days before Halloween we carved (and drilled) our pumpkins.  Finn seemed to really dig the idea of pumpkins, and would wake up every morning and find the pumpkins out on the porch.

The weather warmed up the week of Halloween so we took advantage and took some walks to play in the leaves.

 Finn especially loved throwing them up in the air.  I discovered on this walk how incredibly "BUSY" he has become.  I turned around to put the phone back in the stroller, and turned back to find Finn attempting to get himself down into the canal (thankfully no longer full of water).  I screamed and ran getting his attention, which successfully stopped him in his tracks but had him in tears because I was yelling.  I grabbed him and hugged him saying I was sorry, but explained how dangerous it was he was trying to do.  Needless to say, I'm keeping an even closer eye on this kid of late.

 We had our annual Sullivan Halloween party filled with good food, games, hay ride, treasure hunt, bon fire, and spooky movie.  Finn and Kay are stoked for the hay ride!

Like I said before...this kid has become very busy lately so it's hard to get a picture of him being still.  I got a picture of his dragon tail...it was my favorite part of his costume that and it only cost $5 to make.

Trick-or-treating was a test of endurance for Roy and I.  Finn understood what was going on, but like I said "BUSY". He wanted to get into everything, go into every one's house, eat all the candy with the wrapper on, and grab all the pumpkins of course.  We had a good time, but we called it a night by 6:30.  We came home and had homemade soup and bread, and afterwards Roy went to work fixing a toy for Finn.  Finn cannot resist a chance to work with dads tools!  We both loved how he climbed up onto the table and got on his belly to have a better angle in which to help dad...to cute!

Finally we welcomed in November with a sick day (a mom sick day=a day in pajamas for Finn as well).  We spent the whole day watching Curious George and recouping.  Not the ideal day, but as my sister said, every kid needs a good TV day every once in awhile, but we aren't going to make a habit of it.