Team i6 Takes on Weeks 141 & 142

The past few weeks have been filled with lots going on.
We've had the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and we made it to family services and went to Tashlik with our temple congragation at Lake Fairfax.  Linc had a good time playing and tossing bread into the stream.

We did RH dinner with The Alderson's which was blogged about in my week 22 bumpdate.

That week seemed to fly by and on Friday we took Linc to his very first Circus.  We went with his best girl, Miss J, and they had a super great time.  Carsten got us all tickets and we were - kid you not - front row, ring side seats.  We could reach out and touch the ring.  It was a nice small circus, very kiddo friendly.  No elephants or tigers, just people performers & a few horses & a couple of rescue doggies they had do some agility type tricks.  It was fun and entertaining and the kids thought it was great!  Here were some of the good shots I got.

The kids pretending to be acrobats, lol

Saturday we decided to check out the Dulles Days Plane Pull, which is a charity event benefiting The Special Olympics.  A bunch of companies and groups get together and raise money and compete to see who can pull a 747 FedEx plane a certain amount of feet in the fastest time, tug of war style.  There were also TONS of planes and helicopters,and trucks there to see, so of course Lincoln was in heaven.  It was a fun way to spend our day.

Sunday we finally resumed our Gymboree classes, but not for too much longer, sadly we have decided that we think Linc has gotten all he can get out of it.  We are going to take a break and maybe find something new for him to do this winter. 
 But after that we went and ran some errands and looked at some new furnature for Lincoln for his new big boy room.  We found some we loved and made the purchase so we are super excited and now we have to actually start cleaning out that room and painting and getting it ready for him to move into!  So exciting!  He keeps saying that he wants a fire truck room so I think that is what we are going with.

Nothing too exciting happened during this most recient work week, same old same old.  Linc is settling into preschool pretty well and is getting to know his new classmates.  He has even been paired up with a "Big Buddy" there who will help him get to know the routines more and "mentor" him.  

Well, that's all I've got for now...I am way too exhausted to ellaborate more on the week.  But I am sure there will be a jam packed update next week.  And I am just happy to say I am caught up on blogging for now.  Whew.

Mama i6 Takes on Week 23

Total weight gain/loss: I had a good Dr. appt this week and my doc said I've only gained 5lbs total, not bad not bad.  So I guess our vacay eating was not as bad as I thought, or I gained all 5 there...but either way I am on track and doing good.
Maternity clothes? Yes.
Sleep: I am back to not being able to get too much of it that's for sure.  I am so tired.  I blame the heciticness of work, per usual.  Also I am staring to have some WILD dreams again, seriously.  This week it was that we were stuck inside the safari ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom with Matt & Cyndi.  Cyn and I were both 9 months pregnant and about to give birth and we had to go to the animal stables....or something it is kinda fuzzy at this point on.  But yeah it was weird.  
Best moment this week: Had a good Dr. appt as I said before, it is always nice to hear little girl's heartbeat.  I am scheduled for another growth ultrasound in about a week and a half so it will be good to see her then as well.
We got a package in the mail this week with baby girl's first little outfit.  The cutest & tiniest little jeggings you've ever seen and an adorable little sis onesie.  And a lovely card from my Carmean girls.  It was such a nice surprise to brighten up my long week.
I bit the bullet and made my first girl clothing purchase this week.  It was way too much fun.  I already know I am in trouble, there is a lot of cute stuff out there and I am sure I have barely scratched the surface, lol.

Also we broke out our home doppler heart monitor so that Linc could listen to his little sister's heartbeat.  We took turns listening to Mama's tummy/baby sister and listening to Linc heartbeat.  

Linc still insists his baby sister is a baby giraffe...someone might be disappointed come Jan/Feb.  When we were moving the doppler around when she would move there would be a little bit of a static sound and he kept saying the baby giraffe was eating leaves...haha, quite the imagination this one has.
Worst moment this week: Just some wicked heartburn Thursday night...oh my how I didn't miss that at all.  
Movement: OH yes, little girl likes to let me know she is doing just fine in there.
Food cravings: None that I can think of this week.
Gender: Team Pink.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Nada.
What I am looking forward to: Getting to pick out new nursery stuff and redecorating baby girl's room/Linc's old room.
Size of Baby:  (11.5 in long) Large Mango

Mama i6 Takes on Week 22

Total weight gain/loss: Not as bad as I had thought...I guess all that walking around the parks helped, up 2.5 lbs. 
Maternity clothes? Yes.
Sleep: I think at this point I am so exhausted I can't help but get good sleep.
Best moment this week: Hands down having Rosh Hashana dinner with The Alderson's and having them surprise us with doing our gender reveal early (tricky tricky Miss Cyndi, well played though)! Drumroll please....it's a GIRL! 

So after dinner and dessert #1 we were sitting around the table talking and then all the sudden Cyndi decided to break out dessert #2...yeah they are not so much 2 types of dessert kind of people so I wondered what was up.  They were slyly letting Zach take the foil off the top...I saw pink and just knew.  Todd, yeah, Todd took a bit longer, possibly closer to 3-4mins before he said something like "oh is Pink a Rosh Hashana color or something" before Cyn just rolled her eyes and he finally got it!  HAHA, I am sure we will be laughing about that one for a while to come.  I still can believe I was right, it almost doesn't feel real because I am right, not sure if that makes sense probably doesn't but yeah I am still a little in shock. 
Worst moment this week: Just another crazy week and work...  Oh and having a minor freakout about baby furniture and some other nursery planning related stuff.  I have settled down a bit for now. 
Movement: OH yes, little girl likes to let me know she is doing just fine in there.
Food cravings: My gal Cyndi had me covered with some hot pink rice krispy treats.  Yum!
Gender: We are officially Team Pink.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Nada.
What I am looking forward to: Not sure this will happen again for like the next few years or possibly ever but for things to slow down a little bit.
Size of Baby:  (11 in long) Spaghetti Squash

Team i6 Takes on Being Behind the Times...Week 140

Another week of catching up here in Disney i6 World.  We spent a fabulous week in Florida with Grammy Sparks. Disney World was amazing and we're all acting like little kiddos and explored every inch of that place.  It was the perfect time to go the crowds and the lines were non existent, the only down side was the heat/humidity...I think I wore my hair in a perma ponytail/bun every.single.day.  But I wouldn't have changed a thing it was worth it to have Linc (and Daddy) ride his fave rides over and over again with practically no wait!

We stayed at one of the newest hotels on property, Art of Animation, in the Cars section.  It was so perfect for Linc, he got to sleep in a murphy bed that had a mural of Tow Mater painted on it.  He was in heaven walking around the buildings with life sized sculptures of Lightening McQueen and Mater and lots of other Cars characters all around us.

Our first park day we went to the newest park, Animal Kingdom.  Unfortunately it rained most of that morning so we didn't really end up doing a lot at that park, but at the sametime a lot there was a little too old for Linc so we hit the major things that were in his age range.  Half a day there was probably about perfect for him, I could see us spending more time when he is older.  We all thought the Sarfari ride was so cool, we saw lots of animals despite the rain, actually most of the animals liked it and gave a good show, except the monkeys and lions they were lame and didn't want to get wet. 

We spent a majority of our park time in the Magic Kingdom and for as much as we did I think we could have spent even a little bit more time there doing just a few more things.  But all in all I think Linc got his fill of rides there.  He absolutely loved Goofy's Barnstormer ride, He and Daddy rode it three times in a row in the first car (yeah the park was that empty they just let them stay on the ride). 

We celebrated Todd's birthday in Epcot and had dinner in the world showcase in Morocco.  It was tasty and different and we were entertained by music and a belly dancer.  We also got to have our first meeting with Mickey Mouse that night and we got to hang out with some of his friends too.

We spent one morning at one of the Disney waterparks, Typhoon Lagoon, and had lots of fun with the lazy river.  They also had a pretty great kids sprayground that also had a baby water slide that Linc LOVED!  And the kid got to have ice cream for lunch that day...are we not the best parents ever...don't answer that, lol. 

And later that night there was a special event at the Magic Kingdom one night that we got tickets for, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween.  We got to go into the park after hours all dressed up and trick or treat with characters and ride rides and see a cool Disney Villains parade & show and have a Halloween Dance Party.  So much fun!  I highly recommend it if you are ever down at the park during this time, it was definitely worth the extra $.  It runs only on certain nights but it goes from early September through end of October.

We spent our last full day having breakfast with Mickey and friends at Chef Mickeys and then visiting Hollywood Studios.  We had to check out the new Toy Story ride and meet Woody & Buzz, and Lightening & Mater.  Two of the longest lines we waited in the whole week were the Toy Story ride (20min) and meeting Woody & Buzz (30min).  After naptime we went to a dinner luau at the Polynesian and then finished our night out at the Magic Kingdom catching one last firework show and riding the Tomorrowland Speedway three more times.

Linc left with many memories and quite a few souvenirs between Grammy Sparks and us, he is a pretty spoiled little dude.  Though I think Grammy did best when she purchased him a Disney bus replica and a Monorail replica, he wanted to sleep with them and never let them go!  I tell you he was almost as excited to ride the Disney bus every time we headed to a park as he was to ride most of the rides there. 

It was so sad to leave, we had the best trip and did everything we wanted to do and didn't compromise naptime (too much) to do it (go us)!  We are super grateful for Grammy for making all our Disney dreams come true!

I am going to try to put a post together with more pictures, thoughts, and details of our days and what rides were toddler friendly and of good restaurants and shows and whatnot.  It may take me a little bit but I'll get something posted just in case anyone out there reading is interested.

Mama i6 Takes on Week 21

Bump Pic (sort of) Week 21
Getting ready to board the bus to go trick or treating
at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in the Magic Kingdom!

Total weight gain/loss: Well, after a week of vacation it is bound to go up...I have not stepped on the scale yet. 
Maternity clothes? Yep, a few more are making their way into the rotation.
Sleep: Not too bad, I am starting to notice I am a little achy when I get up in the mornings.
Best moment this week: Vacation!  We've had so much fun this week!  Too many best moments to count.  I will be recapping those later.
Worst moment this week: Nothing of note to mention.
Movement: Definitely!  Lots of flipping and flopping.  Todd even got to feel a little tiny bit of the squirminess of Player 2 for the first time today.
Food cravings: I think any cravings I would have had were covered by our Disney dinning plan, specifically the snack portions.  Let's see, we had rice krispy treats, ice cream, mini red velvet cupcakes, smoothies...so yeah lets see the "Weight" category next week. 
Gender: Me: girl ; Todd: girl.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: An adult beverage would have been nice on vacay, but I survived.
What I am looking forward to: Finding out the gender of this little bun that I am baking up.
Size of Baby:  (10.5in long) Banana

Team i6 Takes on Playing Catch Up...with Week 139

Whew, what a wild past couple of weeks!  Let's catch up a little shall we?  OK!

We headed to Cleveland for a long weekend visit with the i6 family.  There was a lot tosee and do this visit.  We got in Friday and got settled had dinner and once Linc was in bed we headed out to see our Sister-in-law Taryn sing with a band at a local bar.  She was awesome!  Not only was it fun to get out and have a little Lincoln-free time but it was great seeing her perform.

The next day we headed to Jellystone (or Round up Lake as it is now known).  Linc had fun playing in sand with this cousins and we had the treat of seeing an old statue of Yogi Bear being rescued from "sea"...someone had taken one of the stored Yogis that were still back behind one of the sheds on the grounds and put him in the lake and swam him out to a little island on the small lake.  The workers had to go out on a boat and retrieve him.  It was pretty funny to watch.  Daddy also took Linc fishing, and even though it didn't last very long I think they both had a good time.

The next day we headed back to the suburbs to meet up with our friends The Acks' who happened to be in town for a wedding.  It was so great to see them and hang out for a few hours.  It had been since March or April maybe since we had seen them! 

After that we headed to Beachwood to check out Beachwood Days and play at a park and take part in all sorts of fun festivities.  Linc got to ride a pony and play in all sorts of fun bouncy houses and see firetrucks and eat Popsicles, what a fun day!

Then it was Labor Day and almost time for us to hop in the car and head home, but first we stopped by Grandma's school for a Kosher Rib Burn-off.  We didn't have any ribs but we had some really tasty falaffel and Linc had some more fun with bouncy houses, and we all got our share of sun (Mommy may have gotten the most, opps).

It was a really fun visit, as always, and Linc was tuckered out and asleep before we even hit the interstate!

And yes, he fell asleep with that book in his arms, we took Daddy's car for this trip and he had that book on the floor of the back seat and Linc would not stop crying until we gave it to him and then he promptly fell asleep.  Future computer engineer?  I think it is in his dna. ;-)

And another funny story of note...we took the dogs with us and they sat in the backseat next to Linc's carseat.  Well every once in a while they would get up and move around or peek over at Lincoln.  If Linc was in a good mood then he thought it was funny, if he was not then he would complain that the puppies were smelling him...  I guess that is what life with a sibling is going to be like for him.

The beginning of the week brought Linc's first day of Preschool!  He was so excited to become a Blueberry and start in his new class.  He was a natural, he got a great first day report...came home in completely different clothes (typical Lincoln though).  Glad I grabbed a quick snapshot of him before his first day outside our front door.  He is such a big boy now!

The rest of the week flew by.  Between getting ready for a Disney trip, Daddy's birthday, and me getting things settled at work for me to be away for a week, before we knew it it was vacation time.  More on that very soon!

Mama i6 Takes on Week 20

Total weight gain/loss: Same.
Maternity clothes? Some.  Definitely seeing more yoga pant wearing on the weekends though...
Sleep: Pretty decent still.
Best moment this week: Ultrasound!  Nothing like seeing that sweet little baby in there.  Everything was great, and they were able to see the gender and the tech filled out the little slips I made and we put them in envelopes.  One was immediately mailed out for planning purposes and the other one is in a safe place.

Worst moment this week: Well to some extent I am continuing to be mopey from events of last week, but I am sure that will get better as time goes on.  And then there is the overwhelmingness of work right now...there is just a lot going on and I am getting ready to go on vacation and I am basically doing 2.5 jobs right now and I see no real end in sight.  I feel so much guilt for leaving work for a week.  I am hoping that passes as I step on a plane.
Movement: Oh yes, there is definitely a squirmy little one in there!  I feel player 2 all the time now, and we witnessed the wiggly little one at the ultrasound this morning.  All.over.the.place, this one.  Very similar to Linc when he was in there, haha.
Food cravings: Not that I can think of this week. 
Gender: Me: girl ; Todd: girl.  Ummmm,yeaaaahhh, the emotional comment from last week still stands.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Well coming off a visit to Cleveland (the land of lox...maybe that's just my inlaws house not actually CLE the city, haha.  Yes, lox, I miss it quite a bit.  I will say that Todd and Linc (yep he loves lox) ate enough for me and player 2.
What I am looking forward to: M-I-C...K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!  Now if only I can let go of work and enjoy myself and my family.
Size of Baby:  (6.5in long) Small cantaloupe

There have been requests for a bump pic.  Well, I will work on it, but by the time we get home from work, pick up Linc, make dinner, and get him to bed I feel like I look not so hot and I am just not in the mood for a photo shoot.  I will see what I can do about that and will try to add one for Week 20 later.