Grace's "Happy Day" Party

Back in March, we tried to get Grace to say "Happy Birthday" to my father-in-law at his 60th birthday party and instead she said, "Happy Day!" It has pretty much stuck and now she refers to any birthday or birthday party as a "Happy Day".

Even though Grace's real "Happy Day" isn't until 7/22 we had her party a month early since this baby is due to arrive the week of her birthday. All week long, we have been talking about her party and who is coming and I mentioned that Elmo would be coming to her party! Well, apparently she thinks that this party is for Elmo (and gang) so she has been walking around the house all week going, "Happy Day, Elmo!" "Happy Day, Zoe!" Happy Day, Cookie!", etc. I don't know if she quite got it until we sang to her and she got to open presents. She was, however, extremely excited when she woke up from her nap yesterday and saw all the balloons I had run out and bought while she was sleeping. I had also started decorating the house to save time this morning so she kept yelling, "ABBY!!" every time she turned a corner:





Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very cooperative for a Summer birthday so there was no running through the sprinklers or playing in the water table/kiddie pool, but we were able to have some sunshine after lunch so the kids could play outside and we could do the pinata.

She received so many cool gifts including a few books, a Dora phone which she has been holding up to her ear and saying, "Hello, Dora?", a Leapfrog LeapPad, a Leapfrog Picnic Basket, the FP My First Dollhouse, some furniture for her baby dolls, a couple of Disney Princess baby dolls and a Tinkerbell dress up outfit.

Just woke up the morning of her party:



All dressed up for her "Happy Day" as a fairy-in-training! Just like Abby Cadabby:



Jacob wore his Elmo shirt from Sesame Place last year (which yes....does still fit):



When Elmo "arrived", from our upstairs bedroom where Uncle Josh had changed into costume, Jacob immediately FLIPPED OUT when he saw him. I knew he would and we were all laughing so hard we were in tears. I don't think there was 5 seconds Jacob wasn't hugging his legs, giving him high five or screaming, "ELMO!!!!!" and looking at us all like, "Isn't this CRAZY?! He's IN MY HOUSE!" Grace was timid and looked nervous, but Elmo hung out as we opened gifts and she started shrieking his name and pointing while opening presents. She finally warmed up enough to give him hugs, kisses and high fives before Elmo had to go change before he died of heat stroke. Elmo was definitely the best money I spent on this shindig:





Singing Happy Birthday:



Opening gifts:





Once everyone left, we ushered our kids back inside and tried to feed them an early dinner since they were so excited when everyone arrived that it was impossible for them to focus on eating lunch. The kids hadn't napped and even though we tried to put Grace down after gifts, she saw Elmo go upstairs and was convinced he was up there hiding somewhere so she wouldn't go down. We made the kids a sandwich and set them up in their booster seats and Jacob fell asleep on his tray within a few minutes:



Ian woke him up to see if he wanted to go take a one hour nap (it was already almost 5 PM) or if he wanted to finish eating and this is what happened:



Overall, it was a great day and I am so happy that I did this now and not in a couple of weeks. My ankles are throbbing and I have been ready for bed since everyone left 4 hours ago. GOODNIGHT!

The countdown is ON!

Yesterday, I had my second to LAST appointment with my doctor before delivery!

I will be 33 weeks on Tuesday and my next appointment is July 7th which will put me at almost 35 weeks. That week is also, coincidentally, the last time I have to go into the office to get my progesterone injection. We are so close!

At my next appointment, we will schedule an amnio for 36w to determine if baby's lungs are mature and he is ready to be delivered. In the meantime, I have been ordered to go straight to the hospital (do not pass go, do not collect $200) if I feel any burning sensation or pain in my abdomen. That was comforting!

Needless to say, I have been nesting like crazy trying to get this house in order and make sure I have everything I need before this baby gets here. With Grace, I was prepared well ahead of time and even hired a cleaning lady to come in and scrub my house top to bottom 2 days before my scheduled c-section, but I seem to be slacking this pregnancy and just waiting until the last minute to do anything. It could have something to do with having two off-the-wall toddlers and trying to keep my sanity.

Up until now both my kids have both been excellent nappers. I am usually able to squeeze at least 2-3 hours out of them and on a good day they can sleep between 3-4 hours! Yesterday was one of those days for Grace, but Jacob has been boycotting naps especially if he falls asleep in the car for 10 minutes on the way home from running errands. I have heard that once they start doing this it is a sign of things to come and I am just crossing my fingers that I can get another 3-4 months of naps out of him once baby arrives. On the days he boycotts naps he usually ends up passing out in random places throughout the house during dinnertime. Case in point:




I went on a shopping spree this week and I have tied up most of my loose ends as far as supplies go. I really will have no need to leave the house other than for sanity purposes. I picked up an extra pack of Aden and Anais swaddlers (a friend recently gifted me her leftovers so now I have 8 which should be plenty!), a miracle blanket, some bottles (I had to pump off and on for the first few weeks with both kids due to latch issues), some pacifiers, 2 boxes of newborn diapers to add to the current stash I have built up of sizes 1 and 2, burp cloths and some necessary nursing accessories. I am pretty confident that other than the occasional take-out run, Ian won't have to leave the house for 2 weeks unless he wants to! :)

Overall, I am just anxious to meet this little guy and see who he looks like! The closer I get the more impatient I get, however, I am thankful that this pregnancy went by MUCH faster than Grace's. I remember thinking that August would NEVER arrive when I found out I was pregnant with her in December and that pregnancy dragged on forever. Not to mention the fact that I was high risk and it was my first pregnancy after a 24 week delivery so I had no idea what to expect. Every twinge, pain, cramp sent me into a panic. I am much calmer this time and add to that the two rambunctious toddlers and the fact that Jacob started Preschool this year and I had enough to keep me occupied so I didn't think too much about it.

Tomorrow is Grace's early birthday party and Elmo is definitely making an appearance! I am so excited to see her reaction (and Jacob's for that matter). They LOVE Elmo and the entire party is Abby Cadabby and Elmo themed. I will be sure to post an update over the weekend. Once this party is over the next thing on my list is to drag everything out of the basement and start washing covers and assembling. Wish me luck!

Jacob's Preschool "Graduation"

Friday, June 10th was Jacob's last day of preschool for the year. On Tuesday, the 7th, his class held an "End of the Year Celebration" at school!

They had a mini graduation ceremony where all the kids got diplomas and shook the teacher's hand. It was really cute and the kids did so good! They sang some of their favorite songs for us and did their own little rendition of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Jacob was the black sheep and I was amazed at how far he has come in such a short time. He has only been in the program for 11 weeks and half the class has been enrolled since September so he has caught on pretty quickly.




When Jacob's teacher, Ms. Christine, asked Jacob to "shake, shake, shake" (meaning hands) Jacob took his diploma and started shaking it. :)



They had just filed in and sat down and Jacob noticed us in the audience. He is visibly confused. Also? Note the bruise on his forehead. This kid is all boy. You should see his shins!

As soon as I arrived, I took out my camera and turned it on only to have it turn back off. My batteries were dead. Since I am a genius, and always carry a spare pair of fully charged batteries on me, I was prepared. Well, apparently they had been left in my camera bag so long THEY were drained too. After scrambling for a few minutes, I managed to find a combination of batteries (two from each set) that had enough juice left in them for me to squeeze some more out of them....only to have my camera tell me after 2 pictures that my memory card was full! I can't win! Luckily, I had downloaded 99% of my pictures onto the computer at home and just hadn't deleted them from my memory card so I deleted about 50 pictures and was able to take 4-5 pictures and a couple of videos before my camera died again right as Jacob was receiving his diploma. I was praying the whole time that his name would be called at the beginning and my camera would make it, but guess who was called dead last?! Figures!


Note to self: Make sure camera batteries are fully charged and the memory card is empty when you go to the hospital to have Eli.

Jacob seemed both confused and excited to see us in school and ran over a few times during the presentation, but he always ran back over to his friends and picked up where he left off. I am excited for him to have a full year next year and can only imagine the leaps and bounds he'll gain by being in the program from September through June. I am seeing so much improvement in his listening, focusing on tasks and following directions. We are off for the next 13 weeks and I am hoping he doesn't lose too much in that time frame.

He is doing so well that he doesn't qualify for the Summer program which isn't a big deal since with the new baby on the way I doubt I'd be able to get him there anyway! We'll be scheduling lots of play dates and trips to the library to make sure we keep up with the skill set he has developed in the last 11 weeks.

Hooray for Summer vacation!