The Good Knight and The Bad Knight

I don't really have anything in particular to post, but I figured I'd put up a few more pictures of our summer outings.  Baby #2 will arrive sometime in the next few weeks so there may (or may not) be much on here for a while.  I have an OB appointment with an ultrasound on Thursday morning and while it's not making me anxious in terms of results I am a little apprehensive to get it done and see how things look.  Apparently the rate at which the baby is growing has tapered off over the last month, and while this may be absolutely nothing, given the fact that the placenta stopped working properly for Gabriel somewhere around this time an ultrasound will determine if the same thing is happening again.  If for whatever reason that is the case we will go ahead and get the baby out instead of leaving him in there not getting what he needs.  While I don't want to miss any of the time that we have remaining as a family of 3, this pregnancy thing is getting old too :)  His little head is pushing up against my back and I'm not the most comfortable.  Ahh, the third trimester of pregnancy.  Enough complaining (because I could do more).  Here are a few pictures:

Playing at the duck pond with Gammer and Pop Pop

Playing at the Children's Museum.  He has yet to get into much "dress up" play, but he has wanted this knight mask the last few times we have been there.  He loves Little Einsteins, and his favorite episode is called "The Good Knight and The Bad Knight."  He acts it out frequently.

Also with dress up play he put on his Darth Vader shirt today, wanted to put on Star Wars music, and grabbed his usual light saber (a vacuum cleaner wand) and was running around the house using The Force on things (please pardon Darth's lack of pants).  I like that he's starting to pretend more.  He also has wanted to make me a picnic with plastic plates and food multiple times lately.  So cute.

Three of his favorite things: the pool, granola bars, and Daddy

We celebrated Taylor's birthday with a trip to the zoo. Gabriel's favorite things were watching the Marmosets eat apples and watching a Snow Leopard jump on some rocks. 

Looking at snakes and lizards

Hay ride at the church picnic

Potty Training, Movies, Cows, and Baby on the Way

I feel like every day when I do something with Gabriel lately I find myself thinking "what if this is the last time we do this together before the baby arrives?"  It makes me a little sad because he loves going out and having fun and I don't want that to change.  I'm nervous for how he'll adjust when he can't have so much attention.  I know that there are going to be lots of new things that he learns as he adjusts to our family of 4 that are good lessons, but I can't help but feel sad for his changing world.

On the other hand being pregnant with a toddler is no joke and I'm ready to meet this very active little boy that's busy growing and soon to arrive (man does he kick a LOT).  I am tired at the end of the day (or many days way before that) and Gabriel for sure doesn't stop or slow down.  I feel that I have no reason to complain because everything is going really well with the pregnancy (none of the little things that I had with Gabriel -- no significant swelling, no carpal tunnel, no blood pressure issues), but at the same time I am just plain tired and trying not to be cranky and take it out on Taylor and Gabriel.  My fuse is a little short these days I'm afraid.

Anyway, it is summer and that means there are lots of fun things to do around here (many of them free).  Gabriel has enjoyed the park, special events at the library, the pool, free movies, and the children's museum.

First movie in a theater!  Despicable Me 2.  I figured we would give a theater a try since the movie was free and if we had to leave early it wasn't a big waste of money.  He had so much fun!  Every time we drive by the theater he talks about seeing the movie and eating popcorn.  He's ready to go back.

Potty training is going ok I suppose.  I'm not sure what my expectation was for how long it's supposed to take or how many accidents are involved but overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  We're still working on "going #2" in the toilet but as far as the other is concerned he has very few accidents and often says "Big boys use the potty!"  I think he's proud of himself.

Loves his Daddy.  When I get him up in the morning and Taylor has already left for work the first words out of his mouth are "Daddy's at work?"  He wants to see Daddy first thing when he wakes up (which he often does and that is why he therefore misses it when it doesn't happen).  Also, he has aptly named Starburst candy "Daddy snacks."  When he sees them in the cabinet he always asks to have a "Daddy snack."

He still makes me laugh with how much he talks and the random things he says, but lately it's been a little frustrating because the answer to most questions is "I don't really know."  When I ask what he enjoyed about his day or what he played in the nursery at church the answer is often the same.  "I don't really know."  If it's a "yes or no" question he usually says "Umm. . .I think so."  It's funny but frustrating at the same time when I want to have a conversation in the car and he won't answer anything.  I think that I need to lower my expectations for leading a conversation with a two year old :)

Gabriel enjoyed dressing like a cow and getting some free Chick-fil-a.  When we walked in the manager said "are you a cow?" and he said "I want free breakfast!"  He then proceeded to "Moo" at most of the employees.  He was pretty entertaining.

So, while most of our questions are met with "I don't know", apparently we have taught Gabriel that asking lots of questions is great fun.  He is constantly asking us things that he certainly knows the answer to.  As we all sit down to eat the same food he will ask "Mommy, what are you eating?" or "Daddy, what are you drinking?"  He sees colors that he knows and asks "Is this marker blue?"  He was eating some soup the other night and said "Is this a noodle in here?"  I guess we ask him so many things that he wants to interrogate us the same way.  Example below.  He individually pulled the sprinkles off of his donut and asked "Is this sprinkle blue?" followed by "Is this sprinkle pink?" and so on through every color, all of which he already knew.

We've been reading "If You Give a Dog a Donut" a lot this week, so when he asked for one this
morning I thought it a reasonable request.  He also wanted to eat it
 "in the gazebo in the big park."  Sounds good to me.

So that is all for now.  Just trying to stay caught up with things since who knows when little boy #2 will come to say "hello". . .

Random

I am one tired Mommy this evening but I wanted to post some pictures because I'm trying not to get too far behind. . .

Loving the big tree in the backyard

I don't have a long list in my head of new or funny things that Gabriel says (even though he still says plenty), but one that has come to mind is how he talks about food and gets the words mixed up.  For example, he will say "I'm thirsty about milk" or "Daddy is thirsty about tea".  I think it's funny.

Sharing a bag of cereal and watching something exciting

Gabriel transitioned a couple weeks ago to a bunk bed.  He loves that thing.  I took him to the park while Taylor was putting it together and he was telling random people "My Daddy is putting together my bunk bed.  He can do it!" I think what he likes most about it is that we can get in it with him.  It's hard to resist him when he says "Mommy wants to sleep with me?" or "Mommy wants to come get in my bed and cuddle with me?".  I may have fallen asleep a couple times curled up next to him singing him songs before nap time. . .

Besides the bunk bed transition we started potty training TODAY (thus why I'm probably so tired).  I figure that we should give it a serious try now or wait until after the baby comes.  This may be TMI for some people, but for the longest time he's known when he's going "#2".  It used to be that when I asked him if he was pooping he'd lie and say "no."  I explained many times that he was not being honest if his diaper is dirty and he says that it's clean.  Now when he poops he often come to me and says, "I'm being honest.  I pooped."  It cracks me up.  At any rate though today was a challenging day and I'm not exactly looking forward to giving it another go tomorrow but we will keep trying.

We've had various people come to visit in the last month and Gabriel has had fun showing them his favorite hang out spots (Children's Museum, Duck Pond, "The Big Park", Romp and Roll).  He also got to take some swim lessons. . .

Children's Museum

Cousin Love

Swim Lessons

He loves his Aunt Stephanie

Duck Pond with Grandpa

There was an event lately with lots of trucks to explore.  He especially loved getting to ride in a fire truck. . .

Lastly, he just got to go bowling for the first time.  He seemed to enjoy it, but waiting your turn gets a little boring.  Seeing his first arcade was also a highlight (lots of flashing lights and buttons to push), but after a while he got over stimulated and needed to get out of there. . .

Beach Trip

So, we went to the beach.  Taylor and I were talking one night about how it would be fun to take Gabriel to the beach before we become a family of four and we were pondering what would be the best way to do that.  That same week the opportunity arose for us to attend RUF Summer Conference with me serving as the nurse for the week and Taylor teaching a seminar.  It also worked out for my mom to come along too.  It was a great opportunity for all of us to get away and for Gabriel to have lots of new experiences.  In true Gabriel fashion it only took him a day or so to develop a routine for the day: wake up and get into Mommy and Daddy's bed (sharing a room was actually kinda fun), eat breakfast, run laps in the conference room next to our room, watch Disney Jr with Grandma Cheryl while Mommy and Daddy did some work, go to the beach, eat lunch, run again in the conference room, take a nap, play at the pool, eat dinner, go to the nightly RUF meeting and sing songs while on Daddy's shoulders, and finally go to bed.  He also thought that going to the laundry room was really neat.

Riding down in Uncle Matt's car was great (because of the extra space).
Gabriel talked about it a lot.  He also spent many hours sucking his thumb
 and playing with his own hair, leading to this little curl that I found so cute.

Much of the week was spent on Daddy's shoulders

The only way he'd go out in the ocean.  He played in the waves a little bit
one day but got clobbered once and decided that the ocean isn't very fun

He fell in love with Grandma Cheryl's granola bars

The pool was his favorite even though he spent most of
the time outside of it throwing his toys in and laughing

Nightly meeting singing songs.  He would clap after each one and want to sing some more.
I think the big group of excited college students was really fun to him.

Watching Disney Jr with Grandma Cheryl.  Since we don't have cable at home he decided that Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sofia the First, and Doc McStuffins are all pretty exciting things to watch on vacation

Mommy's glasses!

Eating some BBQ before he decided to run in the gravel

Two skinned knees after he ran in the gravel.  He also got a blister over the course of the week and got very excited about showing it to his pediatrician when he had his wellness exam after we got home

Excited to have fruit loops for breakfast every day.  This dining hall is the best.

He really wasn't wild about the beach but he liked burying his hands and feet in the sand
 and playing with his toys in a big bucket of water.
You'll notice Mike W and Flick the ant are floating in the bucket off to the side.

Silly

He actually was saying "cheese!" and looking at the camera for once!

Here are a few extra pictures that I found after writing this post: