Dance Clothes

We went to buy dance clothes & shoes yesterday. We tried on a really cute little leotard with sparkles that matched a cute little pink skirt with sparkles but the leotard was a little too long for her. So, we kept looking. Well, we tried on this one with the crown and she was sold. She wouldn't even try any others on after that. Then we looked at the other skirts since they didn't have to be pink. She really liked the blue one. Yes, I'm having a hard time saying "no". Apparently late in pregnancy, I've lost my lack of mercy or maybe I'm just too tired to fight about this kind of stuff. After nap, I let her try everything on again and it was really cute. She is absolutely in love with her tap shoes although she doesn't necessarily understand the whole noise stuff that goes along with them. As you can see, she fell down on her bottom as soon as she walked on the tile and was far from happy about that. She refused to try on her ballet shoes for pictures. Obviously I got her to wear them for a little bit. We only have a week and half to go until the first class. Coralee can hardly wait!

Sibling Prep Class

Coralee had a wonderful time at the class. She was quite talkative at first because she was SO excited talking about baby Lincoln. She got to diaper Stella and wrap her in a blanket. We got to go for a tour of the maternity floor which brought back good memories for us as well. Ms. Shelly, the teacher & nurse, told the kids it was their job to tell everyone to wash their hands before holding the baby. Coralee didn't catch on to that at all. If you ask her about the class, she'll tell you that she had a snack.

Almost 35 week pictures & Lost and Found

I'm getting to the point that I'm more ready to meet our little man than I am happy to be pregnant. It's been an easy pregnancy especially with the help of bi-weekly chiropracter appointments in the last month or so. I love feeling him move around still but I'm just ready to see his little face. At the same time, I told Ken that once he gets out, he'll cry and I know this is the easy part. While I may be up in the middle of the night unable to sleep, it will get harder. How's that for positive thinking? ;-)

So the lost and found part..... Before we left for vacation over a month ago, I had loaded up some things for Goodwill including a baby book we were given but didn't use. Well, around that same time, we had put the ultrasound pictures away because we were having company. Mom and Bubba came to get Oscar/get a Coralee fix before we left on vacation and I decided that I needed to show Mom the latest pictures and couldn't find them. Ken just knew he had left them in that baby album to get them out of the way and he had brought the stuff to Goodwill already. Needless to say I freaked out and told him I'd never forgive him. It was just bad. We were on our way to dinner at the time and the plan was for Mom and I to go to Babies R Us after dinner, so we took two vehicles and made a stop at Goodwill to alert them to the possible issue of the missing pictures. I don't even know if we've told Ken's parents about this yet but as I was backing their van out of the garage (we borrowed it for vacation while they were gone to Hungary) the side view mirror hit the garage wall and got a little busted up. Why oh why couldn't I hit it better so it would have bent back? Ended up that it was just a simple piece of plastic that broke and it was fixable with a little super glue. Still, that wasn't what I needed in my current very emotional state. I cried more and really, really lost it when my Mom told me to "Calm down." Again, very, very bad stuff.

So, fast forward to last night. We had gone to dinner for some friends' birthdays and there was a wonderful pregnancy announcement to celebrate as well. As we were talking after dinner, I offered my "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" book. While it was my favorite book during my pregnancy with Coralee, I haven't really kept up with where we were this time around. Babycenter really has been enough for me. So, I offered to bring the book on Sunday morning. We got home from dinner and Ken was putting Coralee to bed. I got the book out so I wouldn't forget and noticed there was some paper in the front of the book. Well, it was the ultrasound pictures! I'm mortified that they were sitting there the whole time. Like I said, I hadn't looked at the book all that much lately. Can you tell? I immediately went upstairs and apologized to Ken. We had scanned in all but 3 of the pictures when we were back home the last time so I hadn't even mentioned it to him again. He had asked the people at Goodwill to call if they found them and we hadn't heard anything. I figured that there was still a glimmer of hope that they were here in the house. I was sad to lose those most recent pictures but since we had the majority and all of my "scrapping" is digital now, I was okay. What a relief to find them, though! I didn't quite know where to put them but I need to put them in his "real" baby book ASAP!

Moon Sand

Ken has decided that Aunt C gives bad gifts. She bought Coralee a piano for Christmas which as I corrected him, was what I told her to buy. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if she didn't just turn on the demo mode and leave it going. Playing it would be another story altogether. Anyway, at my shower, she gave Coralee moon sand. It's kind of like sticky sand/playdough. Really, it did make a mess but I didn't follow the instructions. Who knew you needed to moosh it together at first to make it really soft? I don't know if that would have helped it stick together more or not. Still, I'd rather clean that off of the floor than playdough any day. Ken got home when we were playing with it/I was cooking dinner. They played while I finished dinner and then started to clean up. Coralee always pulls a chair over to help in the kitchen and she's gotten even more independent about washing her hands, etc. Well, before I knew it, she had her feet swung over the sink and was cleaning them because of the moon sand. She's never been a climber so even at almost 3, that was a surprise to me. Not exactly the best thing for her to do but it was funny so I had to have pictures.

Washing Lincoln's Clothes

Wow! I didn't think it was possible to have more clothes for him than we had for Coralee. My friend Luanne let me borrow her son Luke's clothes and let's just say he was one well-dressed baby. I am a sucker for clothes so this all makes me very happy! Last week while Coralee was with Mimi, I decided it was a good time to wash his stuff. For some reason, I felt like I needed to wait until a month in advance and washing them a week earlier than that just seemed too soon to me. But, I couldn't contain my excitement any longer, so I washed and washed and washed. I'll say, these are all 0-6 month clothes/blanket and there were still more in the washer and dryer at the moment. Now for him to get here and wear the clothes! Oh, and I even "splurged" and bought the Target brand Dreft just so they'd smell pretty. Poor Coralee just got our normal Arm & Hammer. Guess that the second child should get SOME preferential treatment. ;-)

New Art Work

I had bought the things I needed for these projects but didn't get them done until Aunt Laura was here to help. When cleaning out the garage, we found my Granny's old Bible. It was really, really worn and falling apart but I had the idea to use pages from that in Coralee & Lincoln's shadow boxes. For Coralee, it is 1 Peter 3 and has my favorite verses (3-5) about feminine beauty, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." That is truly my desire for her and how I believe she can be as "Pretty as a Princess". The big letter "C" has been a nightmare. First of all, I decided that we should make stripes on the canvas. Took a little geometry but I have Ken so we were good. Then I decided I'd free hand the "C" and it was a total, unfixable mess unless I just over again. So, I made the scalloped edge with a toy of Coralee's and then painted the outside pink again since so much of the white stripes were showing. More than anything, I'm glad that one is done. We still need to hang everything up but that won't be too hard.

For Lincoln's, I was having a hard time choosing the verse

Lincoln's Shower

I had an absolutely wonderful time at the shower. We didn't do games so it was nice to sit, eat, and talk with friends. Mom, Mary, Chrissy, NaNa, and Aunt Laura all came so that made the day even more special. I thought that Coralee should be there for the big day and she did great. We did have to stop her from opening all the gifts at first. Mom, Chrissy & Aunt Laura had brought her a few gifts of her own to open. Other than that, she had a great time playing with Joshua's toys.

Coralee's favorite gifts were the lovey from Mrs. Jaime and the stroller from Grandma, Grandpa, Dee & NaNa. She decided her horse needed a saddle blanket at one point in time. She and Daddy had a good time putting the stroller together and she enjoyed taking a few strolls around the house as well. Originally I wasn't going to register for a double stroller but she's had so much fun riding in this one when we've been to Babies R Us that it seemed to make sense to go ahead and get something that would keep her happily strapped in on occasion. There was a little concern it wouldn't fit in my trunk but it's doing fine. Of course, we have no use for it for a few more weeks.

Visit with Cousins

Coralee really does understand the concept of cousins but she kept asking about her "friends" while Jyl, Curtis and the kiddos were here. They stayed the night with us on their way back to Oklahoma which was nice since we had more time to visit. Reminded me of all the fun times we had when Ken and I would drive up there during Christmas breaks in our college days. There just happened to be 5 "little" ones around this time. Ken and Curtis even managed to make a trip to Fry's.