z's THIRD birthday!!!

happy birthday z!!! we have now been parents for three years! we love you so much!


these cupcakes were a week long process. baked the cupcakes during z's naps 2 days in a row - luckily they froze & defrosted really well! it took forever to sort out the correct color m&m's & to drill the chocolate chip eyes into the white chocolate, but i managed to get it finished. all i had to do this morning was ice & assemble. still exhausting, though, along with all the other food & house cleaning. and now i have a rip roaring cold, my second for this month. not fun while pregnant. i still haven't eaten one of the finished products. i made additional cupcakes for the 16 kids and 3 teachers at zane's preschool to bring later today for snack time.


can you tell there was a "cars" theme?


card from mommy & daddy. it makes noise - vrrooooom!


there were three neighbor kids who all happily helped z open his gifts.


i'm three!!!


i had never seen one of these pull string pinatas. it was the only kind of lightning mcqueen pinata i could find online, and it worked quite well for inside. z was the lucky one and pulled the correct string to get the candy to fall out (thankfully after everyone had had a few turns), but as you can see, he didn't quite understand what it meant. the older girls went right for the candy, but it took him awhile to figure it out. lucky for him, 4 kids & 1 pinata leaves plenty of candy for everyone!


pinata, or hat???

the party was a lot of fun. the two neighbor families on either side of us attended, along with g'ma & g'pa, abuelo & abuela (thank you SO MUCH for taking pictures!!!), aunt m & uncle j, & cousin s & d. thank you everyone for coming to z's party!

baby sitters

j & i needed to go view photos from our photo session two weekends ago, and we weren't supposed to bring z, so aunt m & uncle j were so kind enough to agree to watch z while we went to sellwood. he got to play a bit before going down for his afternoon nap.


is anybody in there???


peekaboo!


fun with aunt m & uncle j

more pumpkin patch pics

z loved the water fountain! the grandmas contributed a few coins for him to throw in the water.


z + animals + our trusty driver in the background.


hello there!!!


should i go in???
he didn't stay in for very long. still scary.


yay - i'm at the top!!!

sigh.

toddlers....

pumpkin patch 2011

yesterday we visited a pumpkin patch in canby.

kiss for mommy on the train. z wanted to sit next to me, not daddy!

feeding the donkey...

feeding the goats...

pumpkin for baby jane

z & daddy climbed to the top of the hay pyramid!

z & pumpkins

grandparents.

z running to daddy...

the latest...

last weekend was busy with a neighbor's birthday party at playdate pdx, a family maternity photo shoot at campbell salgado studios, and uncle b visiting. mommy also had to teach on the weekend. daddy has been out of town this whole week, visiting lexington, ky, for work. z is spending tonight with grandma and grandpa, so i went out to eat with a friend for dinner at the hall street grill. i'm such a bad mommy - i forgot to call z to say goodnight! :( dinner ran late, and by the time i got home, z was already asleep. sigh. i'll see him tomorrow morning...
baby jane is busy in my belly. she's pummeling me in all directions. my ribcage has been aching a lot, adding to the difficulty of sleeping at night. i also get out of breath really easily - just standing makes me breathless. even lying down at night, it takes about a half hour for my pulse and breathing to normalize. it will be a long time until i have another good night of sleep (8 months???).
random thoughts... i'm finding the developments of "occupy wall street" very interesting. wish i could participate in the upcoming march (oct 6) of occupy portland, but it's not the wisest thing for a very very pregnant woman to do.
i'm reading a couple of very interesting books right now - "the immortal life of henrietta lacks" - brings up some important questions about tissue ownership & rights; and "the social animal" - a book exploring success, and what makes one successful. fun to have something decent to read...

omsi

one thursday morning, abuelo & abuela picked up z to take him to visit omsi with aunt m.


z, mommy, and baby jane, pre-visit


z on one of his favorite things in the world - escalators - with aunt m.


not sure exactly what this did... but he looks happy!


hey... that looks like my mommy! so that's what a baby sister looks like???!


fun with bubbles & abuelo & aunt m.


working some exploding bubble/water thing...


z & abuela & a space shuttle...
z had LOTS of fun and came home all worn out and ready for a nap! thank you so much, aunt m & abuelo & abuela!!!!!

sprinkle

two weekends ago, some friends threw me a mini shower for baby jane - a "sprinkle."


these lemon blueberry cupcakes were heavenly!!!!


aunt j, the organizer, and her clothes for baby jane


c & her daughter f both decorated onesies for baby jane!


even the waiter joined in on the decorating! i love meriwether's. it's my favorite breakfast place. i look forward to being able to drink the grand mimosas some day after baby jane is born.

grandpa's birthday

after drying off after the sprinkler session with the neighbors, we headed over to tigard to grandma & grandpa's house for grandpa's birthday dinner! z is enjoying playing the piano.


grandpa and his marvelous ice cream birthday cake


z is getting a little love...


mommy and baby jane


z and grandpa
thanks so much for a delicious meal! happy birthday grandpa!!!

fun!

one afternoon, z was invited to play with the neighbors' sprinklers outside. it was a quick play session, but z had so much fun spraying the girls & getting wet himself!

painting

z hadn't painted in awhile, and for whatever reason we broke out the paint.


painting in one's underwear is most comfortable. note the three-brushes technique.

already????

halloween already? well, not quite yet. just trying to take care of things before this baby arrives. grandma & i took z to fred meyer to pick out a halloween costume (i'm too lazy & lack creative skills to create a costume myself). this is what he picked. yay. one thing down.

i was in so much pain last night. when putting z to bed, i stumbled on one of his throw pillows & pulled a muscle or ligament or something (which happens really easily these days), and it hurt the whole night, and made me limp when walking. turning over in bed was more difficult than usual, and my hips hurt more than they usually do. combined with a sore right arm from a flu shot (and body aching), it was a miserable night. i hope i can get through the day, and hope the pain subsides. z & i are supposed to have a play date at pump it up, jr, for a special playtime for those 3 & under this morning. i hope it doesn't require me to run after him much or else i'm in trouble.

this morning was very difficult getting z to eat breakfast. he wanted me to feed him, but all i was going to do was put food on his spoon, leaving him to put the spoon up to his mouth.

i told him that after his birthday, when he turns three years old, he has to do all the feeding himself. mommy & daddy won't help him anymore, which he agreed.

we were just trying to teach him when his birthday was, saying october 10th, and he said "knocked over tenth." we said "no, OC TO BER 10th," and he kept insisting it's "knocked over 10th." super cute.

grandma, good luck with that goal of teaching him his phone number and address, that's all i can say.

baby sister ultrasound

had an ultrasound today to help guesstimate how big baby sister is. the tech estimates she weighs 5 lbs, 2 oz, at 33 weeks & 3 days. at week 35 babies generally begin gaining a half a pound a week. i'll have another ultrasound in a few weeks to compare to today's, to try to see how fast she's growing, to make a decision about birthing options (vbac vs c-section).

potty untraining/grumpy.

yesterday was NOT a good day. i woke up tired, in a bad mood, and then 10 minutes before z's last speech session ever was supposed to begin, z said "i have to poop!!!" so we rushed over to the potty, only to find poop already in his underwear, which fell on the floor, which he then stepped in. i was really upset & just started crying. it's so uncomfortable to bend over, and cleaning him up & the floor created lots of discomfort. not my idea of fun. he did say later he won't do that again. the thing is, he KNOWS when he needs to go. i think he just chose not to. i don't think he enjoyed seeing mommy upset, so i think he'll be better in the future. that was the first time he had ever pooped in underwear. he successfully pooped on the potty today when he got home from pasitos.

despite that success, i'm still grumpy. i'm feeling very tired and uncomfortable these days, worse than normal.

first day of school 2011, & general news

first day of school pic. someone wasn't entirely cooperating, and it was partly our fault, since it was done in a rush. this is the uniform z will be wearing the whole year at pasitos. he'll be there on mondays, tuesdays, and fridays, from 8:30-12:30pm. every month they offer a parents' night out (for $20) from 6:30-10:30. we plan to take advantage of at least the first one, although we won't stay out that late.

baby update - so far my doctor wants me to think about a normal delivery. i'm measuring large (judging by the fundal height), but the doctor thinks that's just because i'm a small person. i have an ultrasound scheduled for monday morning, with the aim of guesstimating the baby's size. it's not an exact science. the baby is pummeling me a lot more than z did. during pregnancy, z kicked me in the ribs frequently, and usually had the hiccups. baby sister has only had the hiccups once (from what i can tell), and she loves to try to push her whole body out into my bellybutton area. very painful. it's still hurting a lot to sleep/walk/stand, so i haven't been very active. i've been going to physical therapy every other week, as directed by my doctor, but it hasn't helped too much. i just have to wait the two months that are left. my doctor is very against drinking alcohol, so i've stopped having the occasional tiny glass of wine. i've been craving it, so i try to have a little ice cream during z's nap time as my little daily treat (not that i was ever drinking daily) for feeling uncomfortable. z seems excited about having a baby sister. he always mentions her in his list of people, along with mommy, daddy, & other random aunts & uncles. always interesting to hear who comes up. whenever he sees someone else with a baby sister, he acts very interested & tries to give the baby a gentle hug.

potty training is going fairly well, although he has accidents every now and then. if we do long outings, he wears pull ups, otherwise he's in underwear at home (although diapers for nap/bedtime). he hasn't pooped in a diaper for a long time. he was preferring the "baby" potty, but we've been fairly successful in getting him to sit on the actual "big boy" potty (which eliminates clean ups for mommy & daddy - much preferred) most of the time. i imagine when baby sister comes, he'll regress & start having lots of accidents, but for now, it's nice.

sunriver

it's been awhile since i posted because z broke our camera. it took us awhile to get a new camera. since the last post, (aunt) n visited, and z finished up his summer preschool at pasitos. i spent a large amount of time reorganizing my studio & scheduling lessons for the fall & winter.

i'll be teaching regularly through the second week of october, with the third week being just makeup lessons. then i'll be off until school starts up again in january. i have a wide open schedule, and less students, which is nice.

we spent labor day weekend in sunriver with both sets of parents, and j's brother & sister + spouses in a big, spacious house. while there, the ladies threw me a little shower.

the shower.

two cousins. one is not cooperating.

somebody needs a haircut!

daddy, z, & the two cousins.

z & aunt m, having fun with bubbles out on the back deck.

:(

today was one of those days. z was really difficult. really difficult for no real reason. and he's starting to get sick. i hope i can sleep somewhat well tonight. i am exhausted.

camping

after a long week of more potty training, daddy took big boy z camping last night. j did some volunteer work on a bike trail with 3 of his friends at the stub stewart campgrounds, so they got a free campsite for the night. i drove out there with z and met them at 6, and then drove back into town to meet a friend for dinner at via delizia. we put z in diapers for the camping excursion. it went much better than the last one at smith rock. he was really cute & did a good job walking the quarter mile to the campsite, and ate a whole cheeseburger by himself!

z slept until 6:15 & woke up daddy. daddy said it wasn't 7am yet & to go back to sleep, and so he did! he didn't wake up again until 7:45. yay! despite the good night of sleep, both boys took a good long nap today.

z is doing fairly well with the potty training, with minimal misses. we put him in diapers for naps (although he wakes up dry) and at night. other than that, except for an excursion to the children's museum, he's been in big boy underwear the whole week, even at preschool. it's been challenging to remind him (and convince him) to sit on the potty regularly, but we're all getting more used to it.

potty training

he just woke up from his nap with a dry diaper and then peed in the potty!!!! yay! i can't tell you how many times i have put him on the potty after a dry diaper only to have him either not pee or just refuse to sit on the potty in the first place! i think it helps that i got two potty seats with a soft seat. one is for upstairs and one is for downstairs. we had a hard baby bjorn one that we used when he was 5 months old, but now he finds it too hard. we have potty seat inserts for each bathroom in the house, but he has NO interest in sitting on those right now. i'm willing to do whatever it takes to get him out of diapers, so if it means having the multiple cushy seats, so be it! we'll be all set when baby sister is ready for this stage.

baby sister was craving some mint chocolate chip ice cream, so i picked some up at the grocery store. i offered some to z, and he's actually eating it! he usually doesn't like ice cream because it's too cold, but he is eating it now.

oh bummer... he didn't want to finish it all. i guess i'll have to help!

potty training

we've been working on potty training this week. the past two days have involved lots of bac-out, pairs of big boy underwear, and laundry. there were no "saves" yesterday until the evening, when after two days of no poop, z got that look in his eye & i made him sit on the potty. he must've lost two pounds after going! he earns 2 m&m's for peeing in the potty, and 3 for pooping. today we took him to pasitos in a diaper, but supplied lots of shorts & underwear in case they wanted to mess with training. they put him in underwear, and he didn't pee once! they put him on the potty every 30 min, but he never went. j changed him into a diaper for the ride home, and that's where he finally peed. :( but it was impressive that he was able to hold it the whole time. i think he's aware of what he's doing and capable of controlling everything - he just doesn't want to go without diapers yet. if we are at home, aside from napping or sleeping at night, he's going to have to wear big boy underpants.

i envision another massive carpet cleaning session somewhere in the near future...

guests.

last weekend we had two families over for dinner - one on friday, and one on sunday. this is from sunday's dinner. the kids began the evening not really playing together, but they sure were by the end! zane cried when it was time for them to go home. he had so much fun! he must've been really tired out from the weekend because he slept a long time that night, and napping throughout the week.

baby sister room

this package came last saturday morning, and j & z had fun putting it together. z is still enjoying the box!

baby sister room

hola mommy!

baby sister room

yay! it's all put together. what fun!

berries!

mr. berry face, after picking blackberries (and clearly eating them) with abuelo & abuela.