Fun Weekend with My Little Guy

This past weekend Jonathan was at his National Guard training, so Jack and I got even more quality time together.  We had such a good weekend that I felt like I needed to document it :).  Saturday morning was a lazy pajama morning for us.  While I made muffins, I put Jack to work on his Helper Tower.  He had a great time washing his little dishes and playing with the soapy water.  There was water EVERYWHERE, but the clean-up was worth the good time.  A beach towel was pretty much saturated from the clean-up, and wet, tiny footprints lined our house from his soaked socks.

I moved on to cutting a watermelon, and Jack ate as I chopped.  He said the word "watermelon" for the first time when I cut it open :).  Jack's been having a bit of a new word surge lately.  Last Thursday he said avacado while we were doing pretend play at Gymboree, and watermelon was pretty surprising to me.  Food inspires him to speak I guess :).

Sunday morning we went to church.  Jack loves playing with all of the trucks and the kitchen set, doing crafts, watching Veggie Tales, etc. in the nursery.  I took a picture before church of me at 36 weeks, 2 days.

 That night Jack and I engaged in one of our favorite past times...frozen yogurt:

We shared mint chocolate frozen yogurt with mini m&m's on the side.  Nights like this make me realize how much I enjoy spending time with Jack.  I'm so excited for this new baby, but I'm nervous I won't get as much time with Jack as he's used to.  

Today we received some fun gifts from Jack's Grammy...my MIL, Ann.  Jack got a quilt for his bed that is reversible as well as two pillows and three pillow cases.  The newest addition got 3 baby blankets, one that matches this quilt.  We set it up on the floor like a pretend bed, and he was so excited.

He's getting so big...less than 30 days until he is 2!

Celebrating the Start of Fall

This weekend was so much fun, and it was the first weekend that even started to feel like fall.  It was still a little hot out, but we had a great time getting out of the house.  

Jonathan was also able to finish up a project he has been working on for Jack for the past couple of weeks.  A few months ago we found a product call the "Learning Tower" where kids can come up to the level of the counters to help with cooking and be more involved in the kitchen.    We thought it would be fun, especially since Jack is always bring chairs over to the counters which can easily tip.  Jonathan found plans on the Ana White DIY site for the similar "Helper Tower" so you can build it at home.  Jonathan basically went and bought pieces of wood from Home Depot and was able to build it from scratch and paint it to the color we wanted.  Once you finish a project you can post it on her site in the Brag Book section.  If you're interested, Jonathan wrote how he completed the project and included some pictures: http://ana-white.com/2012/10/helper-tower

This weekend he finished it up with a few coats of paint, and of course Jack had to be there to help.  As you can see it the picture below, I tried to give Jack his own painting project so Jonathan could finish, but he got tired of painting on paper and wanted to move on to bigger projects.

                                                
Such a good little helper :)

After painting, we went to a dog park in Laguna Beach to give Izzy some quality time.  Jack loves using the ball thrower, and he's surprisingly good at using it.  You have to help him press hard enough to get the ball in the holder and to throw it far enough so Izzy feels challenged, but he loves it.

 We took a quick picture it front of these pretty flowers outside the park:

On Saturday, we went to Tanaka Farms pumpkin patch where we did a corn maze, picked out some pumpkins, saw goats at the petting zoo, and did a wagon ride.  It was actually a pretty fun day, and Jack had a blast.  On the wagon ride, they stopped at a canon where they shot a pumpkin across the field.  Jack also hugged almost every goat at the petting zoo...too cute!

Jonathan's friend, Chris, had joined us at the pumpkin patch and helped pick out 2 yellowish/white pumpkins and 1 orange pumpkin.  Here they are with the stash using the Helper Tower.

The Helping Tower is all dry and in use in our house.  I can't say that I'm a fan of it, but Jack loves it haha.  He pretty much pushes it all over the kitchen to gain access to whatever he wants.  It keeps me accountable to keeping dishes, particularly knives, off of the counters consistently.  In this picture, Jack is on the prowl for a banana (he's obsessed with them):

Last night, Jonathan carved the first pumpkin.  We are leaving the others until closer to Halloween since they go bad so fast, but we wanted to do at least one.  Jack didn't really get involved in the carving, but he enjoyed the finished product.

 We also went to the park, and I just had to include this picture.  Jack loves swinging on these saying "Wheeeee!"

We're loving the start of fall, and we're just waiting for the weather to catch up with what month it is!

Quick Catch Up

I'm hoping I can get back on track with blogging, particularly in these last few weeks of pregnancy.  I really want to print this out at some point as a memory book, so I need to get on it :).  My last blog was almost 6 weeks ago, so I'm going to try to remember some of the major bullet points of these past few weeks.  

My mom came to visit for a week in the beginning of September, but I don't have any pictures of her and Jack.  She spent most of her time taking just pictures of him.  We loved having her here...Jack got some major play time, and I got to take walks by myself every day for a little "me" time!  This was probably one of the cutest pictures that she took of Jack while she was here.  He loved her headphones and suitcase.

Prior to her visit, we had an ultrasound at the 29 weeks, 5 days mark on August 29, 2012 to see if the placenta previa had fixed itself.  Luckily, everything looked good so no more restrictions!  We never had an ultrasound so late in the pregnancy with Jack, so it was a fun experience.  They even turned on the 3D for us for a quick look.  The baby did not want to move his arm away from his face no matter how hard they tried to shake him and poke him.

 And here's a cute picture of him sticking his tongue out:

At this point he measured approximately 3 lbs., 2 oz., which is in the 43rd percentile, so no gigantic baby here.

In the past few weeks, Jack and I have been filling our time with play dates, Gymboree, Bible Study, and just trying to stay cool.  The weather has been unseasonably hot here, and it's still hitting the 90s in the first week of October.

One play group that we go to on Mondays set up a firehouse tour.  Sadly, it was cut short when they had to go out for a call, but we got a little bit of time to look around the fire truck.
                                                

                                                
This past weekend we went to Laguna Beach in the morning before it got too hot.  I finally took an updated belly picture.  In this picture I am 34 weeks, 2 days along.

Here's Jonathan and Jack enjoying the sand:

After the beach we went over to one of the outdoor malls, and we rode the ferris wheel.  Jack pointed it out from the car, so we couldn't disappoint him.  He's been sick with a pretty bad cold the past several days, so it was a fun activity to get some fresh air.
                                                
 
                                               
Last night I went to a hospital tour so I make sure I know the route to the hospital and my way around the Labor and Delivery area.  Jonathan was supposed to go, but he ended up babysitting since Jack is sick.  I won a free infant photo session and 8"x10" photo in a raffle, so that was neat.  That decreases the cost of newborn photos by about half :).

So, not my most thorough blog, but I think that gets all of the major stuff.  If I come upon any great pictures or think of something I'm forgetting I'll do another update.