May, Moms, Mayhem, Mysteries

With great weather comes the hot air balloons in town... this one landed 200ft from our yard!

Two weeks ago we considered not going to work because of snow.  Last week it poured with rain.  The last three days have been in the 80s.  Gotta love the weather here!

Trying to stand still for a picture

Measuring Nunu to see how tall he is

We haven't posted as many pictures or videos of Rachel recently, partly because I don't know how to get pictures off my iphone on to this blog, and partly because we have had trouble posting videos that you can actually see.

Also Rachel isn't making it easy.  It's harder than ever to get her to be still, and she is trying to smile which makes her face do funny faces and awkward looks more often than not.  Or in this first video, where she is trying to 'see' the bunny outside by squinting up her face strangely...

Awkward smile from toddler

Rachel is in a Daddy phase, and is pretty into hanging out with her Daddy.  Yay!  This makes all of us very happy.

Rachel has moved into an older classroom at school, named the Cedars room, and has new older friends and a new older playground.

Potty training seems to be pretty solid and we are happy that most days now we are accident-free!

My own Mother's Day has included a morning snuggle with my family, a cute card from Rachel, yummy treat from Jason, well wishes from friends and family, a walk in the sunshine with our family, going for frozen custard, and prenatal yoga.  We then spoke with the grandmothers in our lives to wish them well and thank them for all their love and support.

Rachel, her Mamma and a 33 week bump

Rachel is a big girl and doesn't like riding in the stroller as much

Daddy and Rachel walking

Rachel's first ever ice cream cone

Video of Rachel eating a cone

Jason's life has been complete mayhem recently.  The end of the school year brings shifts in many job scenarios and teachers moving around as jobs for the fall are sorted out.  We are waiting to see what might happen for Jason in the fall, and hoping that things will work out to keep him in his job at his current school.  It's a very emotional time with a lot of uncertainty.  How it will all work out is a bit of a mystery.

Also, on Monday, Jason's school had a bomb scare.  By that I mean that a real explosive was found in the school.  The school was safely evacuated and all kids were sent home.  The FBI and bomb-squad safely detonated the bomb, and the 16 year old male student responsible for this was arrested.  Thank the lord that nobody was hurt.  Scary stuff.

A lot of our time right now is dedicated to preparing for the birth.  Theoretically, we have 7 weeks to go.  We started our hypno-babies birthing class, which is every Sat afternoon for 3.5 hours.  This past weekend, our neighbors graciously watched Rachel for a couple hours on Saturday until my lovely friend Kaitlyn was able to come over and watch her for another couple of hours so we could go.  The class is informative but also does a lot to promote relaxation, a positive attitude, and confidence for a terrific birth.  Every night I have about an hour of homework to do, and it really has made me more confident.  I feel relaxed and excited about the upcoming birth.  It's very empowering, and I feel a true sense of peace and calm.

Upcoming stuff:
Jason has 1.5 weeks of school left.  Rachel will be in daycare until May 31 and then will be out of care with Daddy for the month of June, and then all of us until September.  I plan to work as long as I can and as much as I can until the baby comes.  We hope to fit in one more outdoor adventure on Memorial Day long weekend as a family before we 'settle in' to real baby preparation mode.  Jason will run a 30 mile race on June 1st.