This last month has been insane. Before I realized how the time had flown I had a month of pictures on the camera! There are so many things I want to write, too, but some of it will have to wait. For now, here is a photo dump! Happy summer!
In July Sophia and I went to our community's monthly summer "Art in the Park" event. Sophia of course had to do a pony ride (on the pony closest to a palomino... for some reason she's obsessed with Palominos!). At least the pony rides were free at this event!
Lots of play time in the park...
Dancing to the local band...
Hitting up the wagon ride...
Thanking the draft horses for the ride!
I am endlessly amused by Sophia's games, especially during bath time... Here the octopus is a Chef (see the chef hat?! It's a bottle cap) and the other bath toys are lined up to try out Chef Octopus' restaurant.
Yikes this is SO old... sorry! My 30 weeks preggo pic! I'll be 33 weeks along this Thursday... time for another pic! We are setting up a photography session for this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some fancy belly pics soon. Oh, and here's a little update, since I had a prenatal appt on Friday the 17th:
1. I gained 3 (!) pounds in 2 weeks, and have now gained a grand total of 17lbs. I blame the cheesy garlic bread at Cubbers. Yes, I was in VT last week. More on that later! My CNM was ok with the gain, but asked a lot of questions about swelling (so far not much) etc., so I think he was mildly concerned!
2. Baby's heart rate was 148 :)
3. Baby is still head down, but facing the wrong direction (towards the front), which can cause painful "back labor" if baby doesn't turn. I had very painful back labor with Sophia... he said I can probably thank my mother for an atatomy that causes my babies to face the wrong way. Um, no thanks, mom! ;) He did give me some positions and exercises to try for the next several weeks to encourage turning.
4. My CNM says the baby is "settling into my pelvis," which explains why my stomach looks different and has felt so low and heavy lately. I'm now wearing a maternity support belt, and it helps tremendously!
Except for during my trip back east, we have still been managing to visit Margie three times a week! Sophia's getting LOTS of experience since I stopped feeling like hauling myself into the saddle (it's been over a month already since my last ride and I'm fine with it!).
On August 5th we met up with some friends in a park for tennis and playtime. We got there a bit early and so Travis and Sophia had a blast playing "4 year old tennis." (It's a cross between golf, baseball, and tennis, if that makes any sense!).
Sophia and I hit the park while Travis and his friend played some rounds, and Sophia came across one of her school friends, Nick! They were SO excited to see each other!
Okay, so on August 5th I lost my Grandma Gale (dad's mom). I am going to write a proper post about this soon... for now let's just say that it was insane. I was shocked by how incredibly sad I felt about this loss. I vacillated on whether or not I should go to NY for the funeral, but once I heard that my grandpa had landed in the hospital and that every single grandchild was flying into NY from around the country, my mind was made up. I had to go. Sophia stayed with Travis' parents for 4 days and I flew to VT on Wednesday morning, and drove to NY with my mom and brothers the next day. I don't have any pictures from the trip (hopefully I will eventually get some from family members), but I have these two of dad and his big brother, my uncle Dennis. One striking thing about the funeral? All of the joy. The whole family was together for the first time in over a decade (or maybe almost 2 decades?!), and it was just so incredibly wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. Not sure how dad will feel about the public display of these two pics, but I had to post them... it just tells it all!
Last week we enjoyed our last "Art in the Park" event of the summer. They had a tiny "petting zoo" for the kids this time... Sophia was obsessed with the miniature horse! We need to get her a pony!
We really enjoyed this last event. It was well-attended and had a distinctly mid-western feel, from the bovine barrel train (above) to the (awesome) country band. It was super fun!
Sophia was awesome at the bean bag toss... they had a real one (with the board with the hole that you toss the bags into) and she made 2 out of 3 twice! She must get her toss skills from her Grammy!
I caved an bought her an adorable flower wreath :)
Our last wagon ride!
Good bye Art in the Park! We enjoyed it so much this year!
This weekend we had the chance to watch our Goddaughter and niece, Ava, again! She spent the night on Saturday. We had a great time at the mall with the two girls (back to school shopping!) and Ava was so good... she was a doll for bath time... and she went to bed like an angel. I had it coming when she was up 2:30 to 4:00am! Haha. Still, trading a little sleep was worth it in exchange for some extra cuddle time with one of my favorite little monkeys :)
Yesterday we took Sophia to her first baseball games! We cheered for our local minor league team, the Fargo Red Hawks. Her grammy sent her a cat this weekend (the calico one in the back left) and now Sophia is going through a cat phase. She insisted on bringing all of her kitties to the game! Meet Chip (calico), Cookie (cream), Midnight (gray), and Zip (black).
The game was ok... I seem to remember baseball being more exciting??!! It was HOT out and we made it through 7 innings and then called it quits! We did watch our team score a run before leaving... the score was 1-0 at the 7th inning.
We finished up our weekend with Travis and Sophia's specialty; pizza!!! We enjoyed watching Disney's the Little Mermaid with Sophia for the first time. I almost cried. That's how much I love that movie. Oh yeah, and how hormonal I am! Haha. Disney magic! :)
