3 weeks!

can't believe it's only been 3 weeks since we had madden! it feels like it's been forever, and then i laugh and my incision is still tender and i remember that it hasn't been very long at all.

we're all adjusting to life with a newborn again. the girls are doing phenomenal--giving kisses and singing songs and helping with his pacifier or blanket without any prompting. i just keep thinking about how amazing it will be when he actually interacts with them :)

a bunch of random pictures from the last week. we're in the midst of the 3 week growth spurt and it's no joke!

Madden Korbin Patrick Walsh

catching up

some random pictures from the last couple of months. 

 avery in the middle of telling a very animated story at the park after school. 

 the girls have their weeks where they are really into the laptops and playing either abcmouse, on abcya, pbskids or nickjr. they are so independent with these activities, it's hard to limit them as much as we probably should.

 the weeks they aren't as plugged in, they've been really into using our whiteboards and drawing picture after picture after picture.

this was the scene from our 10 year anniversary :) we were watching one of the star trek movies after we finished the 1st (original) season on netflix. maybe for our 15 year we'll do something a bit more special. 

 we finally painted the dining room! the girls were begging to help, and unlike other paint jobs where they're interest wanes after they roll a couple strips of paint, they were a huge help and did a lot of the work! i LOVE our new dining room. 

 we took an impromptu morning trip to salem the last weekend day before halloween. we roamed for a while and once we finally found the family friendly park with rides and games, we realized we didn't have any cash. the girls were just as happy to play at the playground on the other side of the park.

 the girls picked out some pictures from google images that they wanted on their pumpkins, zane did a free hand drawing and we all worked on cutting out the images. i'd say they turned out pretty awesome.

 the girls with their haunted house, complete with lights inside.

 along with playing on the computers and drawing on white boards, the other activity high on their list these days is taking 1000 pictures with my camera. 

this is picture 1001, taken when grammy and gramps came over for a couple of hours while zane and i went on a tour of the hospital where cupcake will be born. 

(speaking of the tour. at one point, zane leaned over and said he was pretty sure he was the oldest dad there. i said i was pretty sure i was the biggest one there. we got a little kick out of it. sure enough, at the end we were sharing how far along we were and most women were in the late 20 weeks. i was 37 weeks, haha. didn't find out how old they all were, but we probably did have them beat. the highlight of the tour was when we were on the labor and delivery portion and heard a woman screaming. a few minutes later we heard the brand new baby cry, but the tour guide was getting all flustered trying to drown out the sounds.)

i had my 37+ week appointment this morning and all is still going well. heartbeat in the high 130's, blood pressure good, have only gained 33 pounds (as opposed to probably almost 50 by this point with the girls!). still working, though i think my latest idea is to take next thursday and friday off so i have a couple days of "downtime" before cupcake arrives. one of the janitors at our school saw me today and said 'you're still here? how much longer??' i told him 10 days and he said "more like 10 minutes!' it's kind of fun to think of how nervous i must be making some people :) some of the latest name suggestions (from both the kids at work and the girls at home) are: jazzy, panther, turkey, rocket and lovey. not sure they'll make the cut, but it's more than zane and i have come up with.

the girls have been doing awesome with so many things. today, as i was picking avery up, the substitute teacher told me what a joy she was to have today and how helpful she was. i was talking with avery afterwards about how nice that was to here, because sometimes kids think it's okay to do things that they wouldn't do if the "real" teacher was around and avery said "but, i think you should try to be even better". 

nola has made a really good friend in her class and was invited to her house the last two wednesdays (early release days). she's done awesome both playdates and i've gotten emails from her friends' mom about what a nice girl nola is. 

so, things are moving along. we're slowly getting ready for the upcoming arrival (we had chinese food last night and my fortune said "welcome change") and doing what we can to just keep up with our normal daily routines these days. can't believe it's practically halfway through november already and soon we'll have thanksgiving, avery's birthday, christmas, new years, etc. tis the season :)

Yikes. 4 weeks to go if my back doesnt give out before then!

We are slowly settling into a routine with work and home life.working in the same school as zane hasn't been as weird as I thought it would be... some days we never see each other some days we run into each other a few times. It's still amazing to have him 5 minutes down the road.
the girls are doing yoga after school and love it. It's nice for them to each have their own set of friends and be invited to their own birthday parties. We have nolas teacher conference this afternoon, and it will be nice to see how she's doing in class.
Last weekend we had birthday parties, errands, painted the dining room, drove to salem to see the witches and zane took the girls to a Halloween party at our school. What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend was anything but, but it was good family time.
Coming up we have: Halloween, zanes birthday, averys spelling bee, 3 early release days for the girls, more dr appointments, 3 birthday parties for the girls, a professional development day and averys teacher conference. THEN! if all is going well, mema comes out and I have this baby before thanksgiving and averys birthday.  Phew. I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to FLY!

restless...

...me, the baby, either way you slice it. 5 weeks to go and feeling so ready in so many ways.

49!

just stopping in quickly to say that (if all goes according to plan), cupcake will arrive 7 weeks from today! 49 days! gah!

in the swing of things.

so we're now into our second week of everyone back to school. it took a while to get here--nola had a slow start to kindergarten, the school waited almost a full week before the kindergarteners joined the rest of the school in their full time schedule. it made for some interesting days at work where i'd be teaching a class and nola would sneak up and hug me and start rubbing my belly. guess it didn't bother my students because this week i've gotten a number of questions from them like "where's that girl that was here last week?" and "what'd you do with your daughter?" :)

avery likes first grade so far. she's made some new friends, still loves all the specials, and finally got some homework to complete before the end of september. one thing that isn't going so well is the 6/7 year old attitude that i had heard about from neighbors and now have the privilege of experiencing. there's a lot of eye rolling and sighing and stomping-and for once, it's not from me :)

 aves, first day of 1st grade :)

 nola is so excited to be in kindergarten and is even more excited that she got to do "regular" math today and it was easy. she's also making some good friends and does her own thing with her own people on the playground after school when i let the girls stay and play.

 nola, first day of K :)

 walking to school with our neighbors

work is work. zane still likes elementary school better than high school and though there is a lot to learn (from little scheduling details to bigger curriculum details), it's overall a much better placement :) my schedule is a bit crappy, where i'm only a .5 teacher, so i should only be working 2 and a half days a week, but instead my 15 classes are spread over 4 days. it's less than ideal, but hopefully sticking it out this year means that i can put in an early request in the spring that my schedule be more reasonable next year.

i have 10ish weeks left!!! overall, i feel pretty good, though at the end of my days at school my ankles are puffy and i'm feeling big and tired. it feels good to be getting to the point where i'm counting down the weeks and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. as much as i know i'm starting to feel 'done', i also know how fast things go and how fleeting this phase is. i'm trying to enjoy the kicks (ehm, karate punches) and being able to fall back to sleep pretty quickly after getting up a few times a night. i know in a few months i'll miss the feeling of rolls and squirms and i'll be reliant on someone else falling asleep before i can overnight.

i've had exactly 1 person tell me they think i'm having a girl. every single person i meet that wants to say something about my belly doesn't even ask if it's a boy, they just outright say 'you're having a boy, right?' i feel like people were convinced that nola was a boy, too, so i'm not holding much stock in it. i will say though, i've bonded with this baby in my belly as though it's a boy, and even though i remember thinking nola was a boy, i never connected with either of the girls as a specific gender before they were born. hard to explain, but i will be the first one to be shocked if i hear 'it's a girl!'

we went apple picking last weekend. it was gorgeously cool out and we had a blast eating cider donuts, watching the girls play and finally picking a huge bag of assorted apples.

here's to fall and all the things that it will bring, big and small :)

where'd it go?

 it seems impossible that it's the end of august and the end of summer vacation already. we packed a bunch in this year, and it flew by! since i last blogged:
*zane took a reading course that was offered (free of charge) by my school district. this pushed our kansas city trip back about a week, but it was good that he got his foot in the door a bit with the special education director.
*we went to kansas city for 2 weeks! well, truthfully, we were in kansas city for most of it, but did take a long weekend trip up to iowa for some fun (trip will be it's own post)
*came home from kansas city and received our new living room couch(es)! we're in love.

 *we celebrated the end of the res beach season :( it was quiet the last few days we went, which made for a nice change of pace, but it really showed how late into the season it had gotten. looking forward to next year already.

 *zane got a NEW JOB! during our trip to the midwest, he was in touch with various administrators in my school district about a couple of opportunities. he even interviewed by phone at the omaha zoo, in a hallway. as we landed in boston, i checked my email on my phone and learned that one of the job opportunities was moving forward and they wanted zane for the position! it was a welcome treat to come home to! he will be teaching a small, 4th grade class, in the same school where i work. we are so thankful that this came along this year and he no longer has his long commute!

 *nola got her kindergarten classroom assignment, and we were thrilled to learn that she has the same teacher that avery had last year! i'm sure there are no "bad" kindergarten teachers at their school, but we were so happy with avery's experience and her teacher. nola did have a momentary sadness over being a "red bird" and not a "purple cat", like she was hoping to be, but i think we're over that.

*avery got her class list with her class teacher and i think was a bit disappointed at first that none of her good friends from last year were in her class. however, we all went to an open house that her teacher hosted and avery saw a couple kids that she knew and liked from the playground. she also got to meet a couple of the class pets and hear about the funny turtle named max who is still on vacation, but who seems to have quite the personality.

 *we celebrated my dad's birthday, complete with a homemade cake (linda's work, not mine) and ice cream. it was a nice night to hang out with family a bit and let the girls go wild on sugar.

 

*we also celebrated my parents 50th anniversary!! it was an awesome time seeing some extended family and friends that we haven't seen in forever and celebrating quite the milestone :)

*i've had a couple dr's appointments and everything is on track with cupcake. i think i grew exponentially while we were away, and i'm sure the excess of mexican food didn't help :) i just got word today that i passed my gestational diabetes test and that i need to start upping my iron, because like last time, i'm anemic again (and i've been feeling it). the girls are getting an absolute kick out of watching my belly roll around and feeling the heels and elbows poking out whenever i sit down for more than a couple minutes. yesterday during my appointment, the dr got a kick out of the lumps in my belly when she was doing the doppler (heartbeat in the 140's again).

(25+ weeks)

one new symptom: restless legs. as soon as i sit on the couch at night after the girls are in bed, my legs go wild and it's annoying as hell. luckily, once i go to bed and lay down, it seems to calm down and doesn't keep me up. i've heard it can be a side effect/symptom of anemia, so maybe if i get that under control, it will go away?
according to my due date and their tendency to do c-sections about a week before the due date, we're looking at the baby coming sometime the week of thanksgiving. i'll have a more definitive answer probably at my next appointment. and funny thing, my ob (once again! though this is a different dr/different practice) is pregnant and due a few weeks before me! what are the chances?

*we've had the last of our sunday night movie nights. i was slow to convince in the beginning that these would be a good idea, but i have to say they were a blast and i hope we can keep up with them next summer. it was fun to get to know some of the parents and kids that the girls hang out with. 

trip to maine :)

 thanks to zane's incredibly generous co-worker, we were able to take a mini-vacation up to maine for 5 days and stay just about beach-front. one of the assistant's in his class has a house in saco, one house back from the beach. we drove up, enjoyed the beach, ice cream, mini-golfing, eating seafood and sugary cereals, and relaxing with just about zero distractions. the girls did amazing with sleeping and playing and being flexible. it was the perfect little getaway!

 first afternoon on the beach at low tide. 

 

like father, like daughter :)

 

 

 after seeing a disappointing "earth to echo" the previous week, we found and watched "E.T". the girls loved it!

 my little bear. can't believe how much she's grown up recently.

 bathing beauty. 

 20 week belly and probably the last view of my feet for a while. 

 the girls made a (very "spirited") friend while we were there, named olivia. she made herself right at home.

goofs ;)

mini-golf! the girls were pros by the 18th hole.

fun in the sand.

this trip took me back to summers as a kid going to the cape or scituate. it was amazing to be able to hear the waves at night when i woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. mornings with salt air are just better, no matter what time you wake up. finding shells and seaglass (and a sand dollar!) is better when you get to share it with your little ones. all in all, great trip.

SUMMER!!!!

so it is officially summer. we are ALL out of school (FINALLY!)

we started movie nights on sunday nights here. the first week it was mostly neighbors that showed up, and all girls (kids). they had a blast playing outside and half watching frozen on the laptop on the deck. this week we had a bunch of other people show up, and a lot more boys. it was equally as fun, and this time we got a projector that works. it's a fun way to wind down the weekend and give a little bit of routine to our weeks that otherwise tend to blend into each other during the summer.

it's been hot and humid here this week. the girls started their 2 week long swim lessons yesterday at the res and we're going non-stop it seems. yesterday, after an early ob appointment that we all went to so the girls could hear the baby's heartbeat (in the 160's this time) we were at the res from 10-2, and the girls were pretty much in the water the entire time. we came home, crashed in the living room-me to almost nap, zane to read and the girls to play on the computers. it was the perfect summer afternoon laziness that we were all craving.

today, i had my 18 week ultrasound. it was a bit anti-climatic. zane wasn't able to make it, as he got a last minute call from my principal to interview with the special education director in my district. the girls were all excited to see cupcake (i guess this is the "official" nickname) and get pictures, but once we got there and there wasn't a whole lot that they could understand on the screen, they got restless. cupcake was stubborn (ie asleep) the entire ultrasound, despite the technician manhandling my belly to get him/her to move. it's head was buried deep into my pelvis and the tech couldn't really get any facial measurements, so we get to go back in a couple weeks for another. at least zane will be able to come :) got to see the heart, the legs and arms, hands and feet, and the tail end of a big yawn. most of the measurements she was taking averaged in the 19+ week range, but she didn't say anything about it. actually, she didn't say much of anything. it was a bit of a let down, but maybe we'll get a more peppy tech next time :)

she was able to get this picture of the profile (head to the right, looking up, with it's nose touching the side of my belly)

we're still working our way through the original star trek series, and it's so nice to be able to relax on the couch with no other obligations like lesson plans! we are fully embracing this period of down time. we have some fun summer plans coming up and before we know it it's going to be september and the return to school.

winding down.

avery and nola (and zane too) have just 2 more days of school for the year. it's a big year end too. nola's leaving adventures and is off to kindergarten in the fall. avery's first year of elementary school is coming to a close. and we're all a little emotional about it.

on tuesday, parents were invited to avery's class for an author's celebration. we got to see all the hard work they've done and the morning ended with a video compilation her teacher made of the kids throughout the year. i kept myself busy during the video because i knew i'd start crying if i really watched and listened to the sappy music that went along with it. i made it through fine, but then nola came up to me (she came along before i dropped her at preschool) sobbing. i think part of it was her sensitivity and feeling the close of things, and part was that she wants to be in avery's school SO BAD and didn't want to go back to preschool. either way, she and i were a tear-stained mess within minutes and avery was totally fine. (to be fair, her teacher also had red eyes and it just goes to show what an amazing year it's been for this class and what a truly wonderful teacher she is).

nola has her graduation on friday night and luckily, if it's anything like avery's was last year, it's not very sentimental and they don't put too much effort into things :)

we have a couple of boxes from zane's classroom sitting on our dining room table right now, which is another sign that things are slowing down. we're hopeful beyond words that these boxes will not return to marlborough and that they can find a new home in a closer district!

one thing that isn't slowing down is this baby (still nickname-less, unless you count 'cupcake' or 'camel'-the first is nola's idea, the second, mine). on monday night i was lying in bed and felt the baby start kicking around a bit, though it felt a little stronger than usual. i lifted up my shirt, and soon i heard zane say "i saw that!" a few twitches were definitely seen. this morning, the baby was doing acrobatics again and i caught it on video, which the girls were thrilled to watch when they woke up. this little one definitely went from 0-60. (i was just saying at work on monday that i felt like i had started feeling the girls by this time and maybe this was just a lazy one ;))

5 years?!

 it really is too bad she wasn't excited at all about turning 5 :) we had a blast celebrating her last weekend. we had her school party on saturday where she and her friends got to paint pottery and eat cake. afterwards we opened all her presents and then went out to dinner, just the 4 of us. she got the royal treatment with ice cream at the end of dinner, complete with the waiters and waitresses singing to her.
on sunday we celebrated father's day by running some errands (to buy her birthday presents :)), taking the girls to a friend's birthday party, making cupcakes for her friends at school and then going out to eat for father's day. by the time her actual birthday came around on monday, we were exhuasted and just kept going. i picked the girls up from school and we waited for zane to come home before heading to the res beach for opening day! it's been hot and humid the last few days, so the sunshine and cool water was heavenly! we picked up some take out for dinner and came home to more birthday presents from us and mema and grandpa dan! we now have more hello kitty and little girl make-up paraphernalia around here than we know what to do with.
happy birthday, bear! these last 5 years have flown by, but in a haze of happiness and smiles that you uniquely bring to our family :)

and in other news...

the girls and zane have 2 more weeks of school. i have 3. it seems so close, yet so far. i think we are ALL looking forward to no real structure to our days for a while!

nola graduates preschool on her last day of school and as much as she says she can't wait to go to kindergarten (she asks almost daily when it's her turn), i think when she actually leaves adventures it's going to hit her. avery has already been talking about how she doesn't want to go to first grade because she just wants to stay with her teacher. big transitions around here but i think we're ready for them.

we're almost through with a whirlwind of a weekend. the girls had two birthday parties yesterday back to back, and after running our errands in the morning we were all wiped out when we got home last night. after a quick shower for the girls, avery came to me and asked me to take her temp. so i did. 101. girl knows her body. since then she's had an on and off headache and sore throat. pretty sure a dr's visit is in store with us tomorrow morning unless she somehow bounces back miraculously. there is another birthday party scheduled for today but i don't think parents would appreciate me taking her :) ice cream will hopefully make up for her disappointment.


and in baby news.
so the stomach bug i thought i had back in april turned out to be morning sickness. i thought it was weird when all the other staff that had it the same time as i did were feeling better and i wasn't. i thought maybe i had an ear infection that was making me queasy. i took a test figuring the dr would ask me anyway and i was just ruling it out. surprise! i had to find a new dr and when i finally got in for an appointment i was just under 7 weeks.

current status: 15 weeks.
due date: november 30th-december 3rd (dates never match up well for me. baby was measuring 4 days ahead at my early dating scan which gives the earlier date)
feelings: at first, a bit of a shock. then, a bit of worry about how everything is going. then, relief that things seem like they're on track. then, getting used to the idea. now, enjoying not feeling so sick and the first tiny pops and kicks.
the girls? they are over the moon. ask all the time if i can feel the baby, how big is the baby, does the baby like what i eat, is my belly getting bigger. it's been a blast to share this with them.
will we find out? nope. a surprise just like the others.
nickname: doesn't have one yet. so far we've tossed around 'tickles' (avery's suggestion) and 'cupcake' (nola's), but none have really stuck. 

well, helloooooo second trimester!

:)

mema and makeup!

mema came to visit for 2 weeks!!! it was WONDERFUL to have her here and have all the good feelings that come along with her being here.

in other news, the girls got makeup from the easter bunny. huge hit.