Leslie about 29 weeks

I started this post last week, but never quite got around to finishing it. We took this picture last weekend and from the looks of it, I am actually having a basketball instead of a baby.

There is a lot to catch up on. I am officially back in the real world and no longer confined to the house. I went back to work three weeks ago. Aside from being pretty tired by the time Friday rolls around, I'm feeling really good. I think that taking a two month time out from life has hurt my stamina a bit. I am definately feeling more tired with this pregnancy than I did with Andrew.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything is looking good. I passed the 1 hour gestational diabetes glucose challenge which is very good news. I also did the most important part of planning for birth - offically requested the Epidural!! I made sure my doctor wrote that down in my chart, and I will repeat this request everytime I see him (which is now every two weeks). My doctor is now treating this pregnancy as a normal one, he feels (and I feel it too) that we've made it through the most vulnerable part of the pregnancy safely, and now we are just waiting for the little guy to make his LONG awaited arrival. Just 76 more days to go. In fact, once I make it past 36 weeks, if labor starts, my doctor won't do anything to stop it.

I've got an ultrasound on Tuesday to check in on the kiddo. I am very excited, I haven't had one since November.

Aside from work, the next two projects I'll be focusing on are planning Andrew's second birthday party and choosing just the right minivan for the family.

Andrew - 22 Months

Here's Andrew chillin' in his car seat. He's taken to wearing his sunglasses lately. He loves to put them on and take them off by himself. I think it's pretty cute! Andrew's speech has transformed in the last month. He is speaking in phrases and sentences now. Here are a few of his favorite:

"Where did it go?"
"I found it."
"My goodness"
"I did it!"
"Bless you" (said so politely after someone sneezes)
"Be right back"
"I'm stuck"

It's been a pretty amazing development to watch. Its just incredible see that he is learning and growing right before our eyes without much input from us. We weren't encouraging these phrases, its like he woke up one day and decided to start speaking in sentences.

Andrew is an Elmo addict. We are trying to limit his t.v. watching so we don't indulge him every time he asks to watch the Elmo video or a Tivo-ed Sesame Street. He's pretty smart. He knows when we are likely to say no to a video - sometimes he will come up close to me and say in a quiet whisper "elmo" as if he thinks that if he says it really softly, almost subliminally, I will unconsciously put the video on. I must say if find this so endearing that it does work sometimes.

Andrew had a great time hanging out with his Grandma and Aunt Mara over the holidays. Mara stayed for a few days before her Greek adventure began. Grandma stayed for a whole week and got a few bonus days in because the Albuquerque airport was snowed in!


Here's Andrew at the Irvine Regional Park last weekend. Its a nice big park with a little zoo, lake and train. (This might be where his birthday party is.) He had a great time. Here the ducks are making a b-line for us because they thought we had food.



Andrew is still jumping and climbing all over everything (see "I'm stuck" phrase above). He really likes to run around in circles too.

He has been getting good reports from school and plays well with others on play dates.

Andrew knows there is a baby in mommy's tummy, but I don't think he quite understands that soon this baby will be out of mommy's tummy and permanently living with us! I am very excited to see how he handles the big brother role. I think he'll do great - he's already a great helper.

Andrew has been a little sick this past weekend; he's had a fever and a bad cough and today he's hanging out with Dad and taking it easy.

Holiday round-up

Christmas was pretty darn good this year. Nobody went to the emergency room, so right off the bat we were already way ahead of last year's holiday! Christmas day started with presents.


Andrew had a great time opening his presents and this year was more interested in the toys than the wrapping. Andrew got a baskball hoop, books and a brand new car! Here's Andrew cruising in his new wheels:



Eric and Leslie got TIVO!!! We love TIVO! TIVO RULES!

After presents and breakfast, we drove to Cathedral City to spend the afternoon and evening with the SoCal Kendigs. Andrew had a great time with his cousins (don't believe the somber face in the picture below, he was just put out because we made him stay still for two seconds.)
Sammie and Cassie got bikes and roller skates this year, so they were having a great time switching back and forth between the two.

Chef Scott prepared quite a feast for dinner. We had venison, potatoes confit, sauted leeks and spinach, all with a yummy dressing (stuffing). We all cleaned our plates!

Thanks for nuthin' HP tech support

Ok, so it is not entirely my fault that's its been over three weeks since my last blog entry. Our beautiful three month old HP computer died a few days before Christmas. Yes, died. As in it got so messed up that the "on" button would no longer work. We were completely dumbfounded as to why it died, all we do on it is surf the internet and play Elmo games. Nothing fancy. We don't even open any programs other than Mozilla. I will say that a day before it got sick, I did try to upgrade Norton anti-virus and pay for renewal subscription. But I do not see how upgrading anti-virus software would send a computer into such a tizzy that it refuses to turn on. Well, apparently that was enough to blow it up.

When the problem first started we knew pretty quickly that this was not something that could be fixed with the help of a tech over the phone. So I called HP tech support to get a location of an HP authorized repair place in the area - a simple task it would seem. So I called, waited less than a minute to talk to someone, and explained what I wanted: A LOCATION OF A PLACE TO TAKE THE CPU TO. Just reliving the ensuing exchange in order to blog about it has sent my blood pressure soaring. I'll summarize. After 35 minutes on the phone and giving the rep the product number and serial number of our computer over 8 times, the tech explained to me that he could not help me because he did not believe we owned an HP product. WE BOUGHT THE COMPUTER OFF OF THE HP WEBSITE!!!! I hung up on him.

Cooler heads prevailed the next day, and Eric was able to get the info we needed to send the computer back to HP for fixing. So that's where it remains today. Hopefully we'll have it back or a new one in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm blogging on our work computers.

Travel

Food

Blog Roll

Family:

• Waco Caprons - Jon, Kelly, Caleb, Abby and Heidi
• NorCal Caprons - G-Pa and GeGe
• Grecomara - Mara, Arthur and Nik in Greece
• Bridgmans of Bow - Washington Family
• Tall Curly Biscuit - Andy, Angela, Austin and Addison
• Valerie and Bryan - Texas Cousins
  
• NorTex Blog - Wichita Falls Updates
  

About Us

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Hey, look at that picture from 2009! We look really similar now, except baby Sarah has more hair and I have less. I'm Leslie, the mom, I live in Orange County, California with my super cute kids and awesome husband (also cute). This blog is all about the little moments in our lives. I'm not a writer so you'll rarely read a long post where I pontificate on style, current events or politics. I'm a budding photographer so you'll see tons of pictures - worth 1000 words, right?


Here's a more recent family picture (taken by a professional).


So glad you stopped by!