Nay Nay!

This week Kyle has expressed a bigger interest in knowing what objects are and how they work. He will point to something for us to tell him what it is and brings us toys to push a button or make them make sounds. He attempts to repeat several items: fan "faaa", tractor "taaa", car "rooom, rooom", daddy "daa" and his absolute favorite, blankie "nay nay". He will search the house endlessly if you tell him to find his blanket and is one happy baby once he finds it!

Baby Update

Today I am 39.5 weeks prego (3 more days until my due date) and I had my weekly check-up... I am 3 cm dilated and the midwife said the baby is very low (if you know anything about the station scale, I was a -1, 1 point away from a 0, which means the baby is engaged into the pelvis and usually in labor...), so while no one really knows how quickly things will progress, it will probably be sooner than later! She said if I come in next Tues (meaning that I have not had the baby yet) she will induce me if I would like. So with that said we should have a baby within the week! I have been nesting like mad- scrubbing tile grout, sweeping the garage, organizing the same closet 3 or 4 times, cleaning the celling fans & blinds, cleaning and organizing the kitchen cabinets, baking lots of cookies and then giving them away because I eat too many, vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms almost daily... shopping for everything that I think I will need in the next 6 months, finishing Kyle's first year scrapbook, getting rid of junk, and the list goes on! But, yesterday I noticed that my list was complete, I had actually gotten everything done that I wanted before baby was born and now it is just the day to day maintainence! I think I am finally ready to have this baby... I took a self portrait of my belly this morning after a few of you had asked, so hopefully this will be the last belly shot!

Interactive Play

This week we went to a couple of play dates and I sat back to watch all the boys play. Boy, do they know how to play hard! I don't know when the transition exactly happened, but it seems like just yesterday Joshua and all of his peers were just playing side by side with no real interaction between them unless they had a toy that they wanted for themselves. I watched how elaborate their imaginations can get when they have free reigns over their environment.

The first play date consisted of four 3-year old boys mixed in with a few toddlers and 2 girls that mostly played on their own upstairs. The 4 boys had a plastic Buzzlightyear costume, 2 long sleeved polyester policeman costumes & a plastic firefighter costume to rotate among them. There were plenty of toy guns, a few toy rescue vehicles and a whole backyard equipped with a wooden playground structure, grass field & sandbox. The weather was very warm and muggy (for ABQ) that morning but that didn't stop them from layering on the costumes and running around- us mommies were sweating just watching them play! I wish I had my camera or better yet, a camcorder with me to capture the intensity and energy of their play. They were all on a mission to capture the bad guys and even figured out how to assign each other duties to work together to achieve their mission... well, in the end I think they captured the imaginary 'bad guys' & the were ready for lunch and lots of cold water! They were even pretty good at trading (thus sharing) their costumes with each other (a big milestone to watch a group of 3 year olds share without a fight!).

The 2nd play date consisted of Josh & Kyle, plus 2 other 3-year old friends and their baby siblings (6 boys total!). The three 3-year olds were mostly playing outside while the mommies were inside with the babies. We checked up on the older boys every few minutes to make sure they were alright... We heard a few squeals of glee, so we all peaked out to see what they were doing. They had collaborated together to move a kiddie pool to the grass, turn the garden hose on and start to fill it up. All of a sudden the clothes were flying and by the time we were able to get outside, there were 3 boys running around the yard buck naked spraying each other with the hose! Their laughter was contagious, so us moms just looked at each other and laughed too!

First Fruits & First Flowers

We have had lots of cloudy afternoons, some rain and a couple of treatments of miracle grow in the past few weeks and all of a sudden, our 4 tomato plants have formed a tomato jungle taking over our garden! I think they are literally growing by the minute, I wish I had taken a picture of it about 2 weeks ago to show you the difference! The fruits from their laboring growth are abundant and green in color, so if you live close by you will probably get a bag of tomatoes in a couple of weeks! We also have squash, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, basil, either broccoli or cabbage & sugar snap peas hidden in this jungle of a garden bed! You will also have to notice our newly planted grape vines against the back wall, we won't get any fruit from them this year, but they are growing fast! We picked our first huge zucchini & yellow squash today, we didn't even realize they were there hiding under the leaves! Joshua was excited about them saying over and over that he could have the green one and Mommy, Daddy & Kyle could have the yellow one... when it came down to cooking a pasta with them mixed in, he picked out the veggies and just ate the pasta! I bet he will like zucchini bread better. We also had our first cosmo bloom in my small flower bed, I also planted poppies early spring and am really enjoying this 'happy' flower!

Zoo morning with dad

This morning I had my weekly weights, measures & baby heartbeat check- nothing new, measuring right on & baby's heart beat is great! He will probably be late just like his brothers!

Since Mike took the morning off to watch the boys, we decided to go to the zoo afterwards. It was the first time I was able to attempt to get some animal pictures with my camera because I had help with the kiddos. Luckly, there were some playful animals out despite the heat! The highlights of this trip were the tigers playing in the water, the mama giraffe taking care of her newly born calf (born mid June, so it is less than a month old!), & and the close roaming elephants! This trip was the first time that Kyle really tuned into the animals, he loves looking at toy animals and his favorite books usually have animals in them... I think seeing them in real life finally clicked for him!

Tantrum?!

At first glance at this picture and given Kyle's age of 15m, you would think he is throwing a tantrum... But look closer (click on the image to enlarge) and you will see that he is actually having a belly laugh session! He is our tactile baby and loves to be tickled and touched by soft objects, especially on his head! We will find him rolling in the grass, just to feel the tickles of the grass below him! We noticed this for the first time when he just a few months old as we laid him on the grass to see what he thought of it. He LOVES walking around with his soft blanket held to his ear and he has the cutest chuckle if you run your fingers through his hair or drive a toy train up his neck!

Summer Fun in the backyard

Our evenings are usually spent in the backyard as the kids entertain us with their play. It is funny how once you have kids, the best entertainment out there is watching kids understand the world around them and just exploring though 'play'! Lately we have been setting the blow up pools out for them to cool off and burn energy... They sleep so much better after a good splashing session in the water! Joshua likes to jump off the side of the bigger pool and make the 'biggest splash ever' while Kyle stands in the baby pool watching Josh and just moves his body up and down as though he is doing the same thing.

Tee Ball for 3 year olds

We recently enrolled Joshua in a Tee Ball program for 3 year olds put on by the local YMCA. Last month he completed the soccer program and had fun with that, so we continued with tee ball, being that dad is such a baseball fan. He was very excited to get a ball cap just for enrolling. This morning was his second 'practice' and it is a riot to see all the 3 year olds attempt the skills to 'play baseball'. We were proud of of our little Joshie as he threw the ball, caught grounders & hit the ball off a tee (click on the pictures to enlarge)... But, I think his favorite part of the practice was chasing the coach and playing the 'run to daddy to scare and tackle him' game! Kyle had a good time running around the grass field with his new squeaky shoes (it was before we learned how to unplug the squeakers!) & got a lot of curious looks as he squeaked along.

Squeaky Shoes!

So today I was thrilled that I finally found some cute leather shoes for Kyle whose feet are hard to find shoes for because he has such skinny ankles! All of Joshua's old sandals catered to his chubby piggies and don't stay on Kyle's at all. These were a bargain find at a garage sale for only $1.00 and they looked nearly new... I tried them on him and they fit perfectly! We set him on the ground to see how he walked in them and out squealed what sounded like a squeaky dog toy! He took another step and the same thing happened! All of a sudden out came Kyle's pout face followed by a pathetic run(squeak, squeak, squeak) to mommy. At a closer look at his new shoes, I found built-in air plugs that deliberately created a squeak with every step! As much as he already does not like shoes, he fell to the floor to get them off ASAP.

I later found out that the air plugs came out and the squeak was gone I think he likes his new shoes now!

Lets hear it for the BOYS!

With baby #3 almost here, I figure I better use some of my nesting energy on trying to keep a blog! This is my first attempt at posting a picture to the weekly contest for I Heart Faces (http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/). I chose this picture because this is my rough and tumble, dirt eating 14mon old and it shows his 'all boy' side to playing and exploring! He may of thought his first taste of dirt was awful (as the picture shows), but do you think that has stopped him from eating dirt regularly? Of course not! Be sure to check out the link above to look at all the fabulous entries for this week.