A glimpse into our lives...

It's a…

Drum roll please… It's a healthy baby due February 18th, 2009! Did I trick some of you? We didn't find out the gender of the baby, again. It really is amazing to see your baby in real life moving around. It is always a relief to know everything looks healthy in there. What a miracle.

Lorelei was so excited to see the baby. I think she understood what she was looking at. We discussed ahead of time how it would be pictures of the baby but they would look more like shadows. Allan and Lorelei were concerned with the "jelly" they put on my belly. Allan kept climbing up next to me and asking, "Why put jelly on your belly momma?"

At home Lorelei said, "But I still don't know if it is a girl or a boy. How about when the baby is born we will see what it is, then we can name the baby." I agreed that was a good plan :)

The fist picture is a 3D ultrasound picture. Must be it is all one machine at UofM. The technician said it is hard to get a clear picture using 3D at 20 weeks because it uses fat to create the image and they don't have much fat at this developmental stage. But you can see the hand is up by the baby's face with the arm crossing the body. Notice how she zoomed in so we couldn't see the gender! The other pics are profile shots of the baby, in one you can see the hand up by its face again.

The heart rate was at 155 beats, which is in the normal range. The baby is nestled all nice and low in my pelvis which is already creating bladder discomfort. I have also been feeling baby movements since 16 weeks. Previously I haven't felt the babies move until 18 weeks. But this one is a mover for sure! Hopefully baby will be a good sleeper when he/she arrives.

Late Summer Summary Part 2

  In early September I finally made it out to the farm to get the picture of the kids with the future forest. Easter weekend of 2007 my Dad, Steve, Dennis and Nick worked to plant all these trees you see in the background. They had terribly cold weather, the ground was partially frozen and they had a hard time getting the tree planter to break the ground. My Dad has been taking excellent care of the trees ever since. It takes up a lot of time replacing the protective fence around them so the deer don't eat them and mowing between them so the weeds don't choke them out. I told Lorelei that someday this would be a big woods where the deer would live and people could hunt.

 One night we let the kids stay up a little late and we did sparklers. Both kids were loving it. Lorelei figured out how to wave it around so it made patterns in the dark. Allan was a little nervous about the sparks and flames. Aren't these pictures fun!

The morning of Allan's birthday I took this picture of the two of them sitting on the porch eating yogurt popsicles. Don't they look so innocent and little. So sweet and happy, just enjoying the moment. That is what I was doing too.

Last, here is Allan playing at the little table with some Play-doh. He played here for almost two days straight. He doesn't get into coloring and painting as much as Lorelei does, maybe play-doh is his passion. I was happy because that meant he wasn't hanging on my leg all day wanting me to entertain him.

Late Summer Summary

Since I am so far behind in posting I thought I would do a summary with a bunch of photos of our August and September thus far. I will do some more specific posts about some other things we have been doing, but here are some general pics of or late summer.

Lorelei and Allan came up with a hugging game. They hug each other then fall down together with Allan falling on top of Lorelei. Most times she arranges cushions and pillows so they are sure to fall on something soft. Then after almost every fall she says, "You okay little buddy?"

During one Saturday morning of garage saleing we bought a homemade ice cream maker, Steve was very excited. So he and the kids have made homemade ice cream multiple times since that August day. Lorelei loves every flavor, "You make the best ice cream ever dad, I love you."

Over Labor Day weekend we went up to Pentwater. We had lots of fun. One day Grandpa rented a charter and the guys went fishing for the day. We took the kids swimming, did a special early campfire so they could have s'mores and went go-karting. Lorelei wanted to ride with Grandma and Allan rode with Steve. Allan was already looking a little nervous before they took off, and once they started driving he started screaming because he did not like it at all. So Steve pulled in and gave Allan to me and continued to drive. In the mean time I took Allan up on the viewing deck with and somehow he dropped or threw his pacifier between the railing down onto the track just as they were about to come in with the cars and park on top of it. Allan was screaming and crying and throwing a fit. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I started trying to yell over all the noise to the worker on the track below me, but he couldn't hear. The pacifier is mostly clear, so it wasn't likely anyone was going to see it unless they knew it was there. My Dad saved us by going down to the track, he got reprimanded for walking on the track, but he was on a mission called 'Save the Pacifier'. I was so relieved, that was the only pacifier we brought with us that weekend and it would have been a long couple days without it! At the end of the weekend we got this great picture of Grandma E and Papa with all their grandkids.

Happy Birthday Allan!

Okay, so I am running really late on this blogging thing. Allan celebrated his 2nd birthday on Sept. 3rd. We had so many parties that I think he was confused if it was really his birthday or not.

We went out to eat at Outback the night of his birthday and the waiter hooked us up with a really big bowl of birthday ice cream. Allan and Lorelei both got a bowl, what was supposed to be one order split in half was really two larger than normal orders. Mmmmm, yummy, Mom and Dad got to join in the eating frenzy!

So the night after his birthday we celebrated again at our house with cheesecake. A few weeks earlier while driving in the car with both kids I asked Allan, "Do you want pie, cupcakes or cheesecake for your birthday?" The instant answer was, "Cheesecake!" Me, "Are you sure you don't want cupcakes?" Allan, "No, Cheesecake." Lorelei and Dad were happy with that decision because all of them LOVE my homemade cheesecake. So I made this beauty of a cheesecake so he could celebrate with a real homemade cake and 2 candles, which he would have loved to blow out multiple times. Every time I talked about his birthday he puckered up those little lips and pretended to blow out candles.

He opened his presents, which he is still not real aggressive at doing. Lorelei being the older sister was willing to give him a hand. She could barely stand the anticipation of what he was going to get for his birthday. You can see from the pictures he got a giraffe pop-up tunnel and a little boat for in the bathtub. Isn't his smile precious? It is definitely better than the scrunch face smile in his picture with the cheesecake. That was the please don't take my picture mom, look.

Since this blog is all about Allan, I wanted to write a little about what he is doing at 2 years old. We are working on potty training. He goes as soon as he sits on the potty, but doesn't yet tell me when he has to go. Then after going he yells, "YAY!" Then he gets a couple M&M's. He talks full sentences, the other day he said to me, "Why Dad leave his hat in the garage?" Wow, that was a whopper of a sentence and a question none the less! He also says things like, "What you doing Mom?", "What you got there?" and when he has been naughty he likes to beat me to the punch by telling me, "You naughty Momma!" Allan can't say the "s" sound and it is really cute, especially when he asks me to put his shoes and socks on. He is sweet and loving and likes to give me kisses and hugs and sit on my lap. Him and Lorelei still sleep in the same room at night time. He sleeps until at least 7:30am and take a 2.5 to 3 hour nap every afternoon. He continues to be a really good eater and grew from 31.5 inches at his 18 months appt. to 35 inches at his 2 year appt. (no wonder he needs a nap). He loves boy oriented toys like cars and dinosaurs and he loves to play games with his older sister.

So without further ado buddy, here are the 10 things you love most at 2 years old:
1. Your Mommy, Momma (what he loves to call me).
2. Your "bub, ba" (pacifier).
3. Rubbing your belly button (he has it down to a routine).
4. Your little Tigger and Micky Mouse figurines.
5. Playing with rocks, dirt and picking up sticks (we have a collection in a box in the garage).
6. Playing with your car ramp with Lorelei.
7. Your new bedroom with the firetruck bed and jungle animal pictures.
8. Eating cheese or any kind of berries.
9. Riding on any motorized vehicle with Dad or Papa.
10. Swinging on our swing set and getting underdogs.

Buddy, I look forward to watching grow even more this next year. Who knows what fun adventures are in store for us!