Swimming Lessons

A few days ago Cason played a joke on me and left this note on my back.  

He asked Jess how to spell it and laughed hysterically when I found it on my back.  :)

This week the kids had swimming lessons.  Paige is the only one who's taken them, and she was a baby.  I just never really wanted to do the ones on the weekend because it was only one day a week, and I liked the ones at the outdoor pools better, but they were all week and once we had more than one kid I had no idea how I would manage it alone. 

Since going swimming during Grampa and Grama Trudi's visit, I felt bad because the kids all love the water but the older two were kind of nervous to get their heads in the water at all, or float on their backs or anything.  So I had Jess ask about lessons at the counter up front, and it worked out nicely because the older two could take a beginner's class together at the same time that I could take a parent and tot class with Neely.  If they hadn't been at the same time we couldn't have done it because I'm not the type to drop them off and leave, but there would be no way I could keep little fish Neely from trying to get in the pool during their lesson.  So it worked out perfectly.  It's also a two week session, so it was last week, Monday-Thursday, and will be this next week too, and then we move! 

During Neely's class I kept peeking over at the other two, (their class was like 20 feet away from us) and they were doing good, but looked nervous.  By the second or third day I would look over and there was already a HUGE difference.  The last day this week Neely and I finished early, so we were playing in the fountain area, and I watched the big kids.  Cason was floating on his back, kicking his feet, looking all comfortable.  When their class finished up, they swam over and Paige kept putting her head under and swimming toward me under water all on her own.  So it's made a huge difference really quickly. 

 Neely is BIG on the water, so she loves it every day.  She's the only girl in her class, and easily the most into it.  The others will be crying at first because the water's still chilly(it's a morning class) and Neely's grabbing my hand and trying to pull me into the deeper water with her.  She jumps off the side with no hesitation and cracks up when she hits the water.  The one thing she doesn't like is when I have to put her on her back in the water, she doesn't like not being in control of what position she's in.  

They're all worn out after class, as you can see from this pic on the way to Tae Kwon Do. 

 

The last class they came out looking especially happy, so I knew something was up.  They were excited to show me the medals they'd received.  Paige got Most Improved and Cason got Best Attendance.

 

 

Tiger Cho seems to have a soft spot for Cason, which is cute. 

Since this is our last free weekend here (We'll be loading the truck next Saturday and leaving Sunday) we decided to try a restaurant we haven't been to and make one more visit to the zoo.  We tried Hideaway Pizza, which was really good. 

 

 My favorite part was the fried mushrooms we got first though.

 Then we went to the zoo.  We didn't get there until about 6:45, and they close at 8.  It was so nice, there were like 15 other people there total.  Jess and the kids ran ahead to try and make it to Stingray Bay so they could touch the stingrays before 7(when they close it).  Neely and I walked slowly along, and when we got there I didn't see Jess or the kids anywhere.  Somehow they got lost and we found it, which is a miracle, since I am NOT the navigator in the family.  Still, the pregnant lady and the 2 year old beat them there at a walk(waddle).   It's really not shocking.  The OKC Zoo is really nice, but their maps are awful.  We usually spend so much time searching for certain exhibits I get mad and want to give up. 

So I texted them and we waited on a bench for them to find us. 

 

 We wanted to see the bears, since we'd never made it there before.  We had a nice closeup view of a rhino on our way there.

 We also went through a cave of nocturnal creatures.  It was too dark for pictures, but it was a really cool room, TONS of bats flying around and some sleeping upside down.  Owls and a possum and creepy spiders.  

The bears seemed like they were overheating, they were all hyperventilating and just lying there.  Meanwhile, there was a beautiful river through their exhibit, with waterfalls and calm areas for them to swim.  I guess they'd rather lie there and try to breathe the hot, humid air though. 

 I liked this one, with his tongue hanging out "like he was dead" Cason said. 

Paige said "the bears are cute, but their giant teeth make me feel kinda queasy."  

Anyway, I'll finish this post with a picture of my belly today at 29 weeks...

 

....and Neely this morning when she insisted on wearing a pair of Jess's socks with her Dora shoes.

 

28 Weeks and a Countdown

On Sunday I was 28 weeks.  The baby is now the size of a head of cabbage, according to the app I have on my phone.  

 

We spent some of the day packing.  I was feeling really lazy, but in the afternoon and evening I suddenly had a rush of energy and motivation, so I packed up some of our clothes, and everything in the closet by the front door.  It was mostly full of winter stuff, still, coats, hats, scarves, and gloves.  The kids stole them from the piles I was making and made up a weird, random game/skit Paige called "Cats Lost In The Atlantic".  Haha!  Such weird ones.  

 

Then one cat passed out.

 

 There's been more Lego creating around here too.  Cason suddenly got inspired and started making his favorite heroes.  They're really cute, he puts a lot of thought into the colors and includes details, like Captain America's shield.

From left to right, he made Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man.

Neely made her first "racecar", which I find really impressive.  Jess loves the wheel placement.  It is pretty cute.

Paige has been asking for a baby doll carrier for a couple of weeks.  I looked up tutorials, but got overwhelmed, and kept putting it off.  Then we went to this baby store in town and they sold them for 30 dollars a piece.  She wanted to use her own money to buy one, but she's also been saving for an American Girl doll, so I felt bad and decided to just try making one.  I just took it one step at a time so the full set of instructions wouldn't overwhelm me.  It ended up going fine. Over the next couple of hours she kept running up to hug me randomly, and thank me for making it. 

 I figured Neely would want one, so I made one for her too.  She was really happy, and said "For ME?!"  But lost interest in hers pretty quickly. 

I asked if Cason wanted one, and he said "No thanks."  Ha.  Speaking of Cason, I had my last appointment here today, and he looked handsome for it.   

 We did the glucose test, and the usual stuff, like listening to the heart and all.  The kids play with toys on the ground and don't even look up for it anymore.  The first few times they were so excited to hear it, now it's old news.  Paige only got excited because she got to help take my blood pressure and turn on the doppler.  Ha.

I, for one, still love to hear the heart.  It's not AS exciting as it used to be, since now he regularly makes it known that he's in there and real.  Haha.  We think this boy kicks and moves the craziest of all our babies.  It took longer to feel him, because I have an anterior placenta, but once we started feeling him we REALLY started feeling him.  He squirms and rolls and kicks and punches.  I feel like he's going to kick his way out sometimes. 

Now then, we move in 11 days!  The countdown begins!

Thirty

I'm 30 years old now, as of the 12th.  I had one weird moment where I felt a little sad about getting older, and then I didn't care anymore.  Ha.  

The kids had all made me cards, which they hid under my pillow and said I could open in the morning. 

All day, any time they remembered, they'd bow to me and call me "Your Thirties", which was sort of a spin off of "Your Highness" I gathered.

 Then I spotted a cake box in the fridge with this sweet message from my husband:

Our day was pretty normal, Jess had to work and the kids and I just hung out at home.  They were especially into stickers that day, so we were all covered in them.

Late in the afternoon some kids knocked on the door, selling candybars.  I talked to them, bought one, and then when I shut the door Cason goes "Shouldn't you take the stickers off your face?"  Haha.  I had them ALL over my face while I talked to the kids. 

Jess made me delicious lasagna for dinner, and the kids threw me a party.  While they set up, they wanted privacy, so I went to my room and got to cuddle a napping girl while watching Netflix on the Kindle.

The party meant I got to relax on the couch mostly, watching them dance to some of my favorite music.  Paige did this birthday dance for me:

Then we had that cake that got me called a Bozo.

 

 It was pretty much my ideal evening.

Grampa and Grama Trudi Visit

Grampa and Grama Trudi came to stay with us a week ago, from Sunday to Wednesday.  We started things off right with a trip to Braum's, or Bray-Ums as Paige insists it's called, for some ice cream.

Paige gets to pick a whole carton of ice cream, since she can't get the scoops because of her peanut allergy.

Monday Jess had to work, but the rest of us went to see Despicable Me 2, which was really cute.

The kids had to pose on Turbo again.

We went to the pool across from Jess's work that afternoon, and Jess met us when he got off.  We swam a couple of hours.  Paige and Cason LOVED the slide, and had to go with an adult, so Jess and Grama Trudi took them lots.  (Pregnant people aren't allowed)  Neely LOVED the water, like usual.  It's a shallow pool, I think about 4 feet at the deepest, and most of it is 1-3 feet deep.  She wanted us to sit and watch her while she walked all over the place.  Miss Independent.  

Then Grampa and Grama Trudi took them to get pizza and Jess and I had a rare date.  We got Thai food, and I took another bad, fuzzy picture of us.

 

Each night the big kids said they were going to sleep out in the living room, since Grampa was sleeping out there.  Somehow, all the next mornings but one, I woke up to this:

 

Tuesday we went swimming again, this time in the early afternoon.  The timing must have not worked as well for Neely.  She was tired, and probably hot, and spent most of her time ordering me to do something different.  I tried helping her float, she wanted me to "just walk" with her in the water.  I tried to just walk, she wanted to be held.  She eventually just cuddled me while I stood against the side of the pool.  Grampa and Grama Trudi played with Paige and Cason and took them on the slides, and I finally just took Neely to the chairs and she napped on me.

 

The kids had Tae Kwon Do later, and after that Dad and Trudi treated us to a dinner for my 30th birthday(a few days early).

 

 After THAT we went for a water taxi ride in Bricktown. 

I was a few days late on my 27 week belly picture, so we got a (not very good) one that night.

They spent quite a bit of time during the visit arguing about who got to play on Grampa's iPad.  Here was a happy moment when Neely put her arm on Cason's shoulder and declared "We're friends!"

Apparently I didn't get my phone out as much as usual because I didn't get pictures of lots of the things we did.

I Heart Tulsa

Jess came home last Friday evening and told me to pack for a trip to Tulsa!  We have heard it's nice and wanted to take a trip there sometime, since it's only an hour and a half or so away.  Since we only had 3 more weeks before the move, he decided we better make it happen. 

So we left in the morning.  We went straight to the aquarium, which is one thing we knew we wanted to do there.  

It was a lot of fun, and the kids were really interested in EVERYTHING there.  I prefer aquariums to zoos, actually.  

 

 

There were the sting rays, one of my favorite creatures ever.  They had a separate tank where the kids could pet them, which they loved.  

Our zoo in OKC is supposed to have a manta ray exhibit now, actually, so we'll have to make another trip there before we move.

 The kids posed in a shark cage.

They had one of those tunnels where you walk beneath the sharks.  Those always make me feel pretty nervous.

 

Then we had lunch at a pizza place called Marley's, that someone at work told Jess we had to try.  It was SO SO good.  THEN we went to our hotel, where we rested for a bit and then went swimming.  There was a young couple hanging out, and they were asking me questions about the kids, and the one on the way.  Apparently the guy was a bit older than his wife and was wanting to start having kids, but she wanted to wait a while.  He asked me about their ages, and decided he would guess.  He guessed 3 years old for PAIGE!  Haha.  Then he looked shocked when I said 6.  Not only is she 6 and a half, she was like the second tallest kid in Kindergarten.  I have a hard time guessing ages with other people's kids sometimes, but that one was hilarious.  He must have thought we were spacing them about 10 months apart. 

We got cleaned up and went out to explore.  Jess had been asking what I want for my birthday, and I didn't really have anything in mind, so we went to a Carter's, where I got to pick out a few baby things, and even a few things for the older kids.

Then we went downtown, 

ate at a pretty good Mexican restaurant(except the salsa was terrible, but I don't expect good salsa here)  Didn't stop us from eating it though.

Neely slept through the entire dinner.

After that we walked around downtown a little.  It was really cute, but strangely quiet.  I don't know if it's always dead, but I kind of liked it.  I hate being in crowded areas anyway. 

 

Then we drove around nearby, and I have decided Tulsa is my favorite town in the midwest.  Not that I've seen that many.  They had really cute old neighborhoods.

 We went back to the room to relax, then.  Neely had some leftover pizza, since she slept through dinner, while Jess ran back out to find us some dessert. 

She looked so cute,  eating quietly by lamplight, kicking her little feet.

In the morning, Jess set an alarm to take the older two for one more swim.  I got us packed and ready to go while Neely slept a little longer.  We grabbed breakfast and headed home to get ready for Grampa and Grama Trudi's visit.

I still think I'd like to end up in Flag or Prescott, or North Carolina or Virginia some day.  If we were going to stay in the midwest though, Tulsa is where I'd want to be.  I loved it.  It had a completely different feel from OKC.  Hilly and green and full of trees.