BUSTED!

Last night after Ethan went to bed, I ran to the Dairy Queen. Well Jake and I failed to get rid of the evidence and left our empty containers on the kitchen counter. We were busted this morning when Ethan got up and saw the containers. He got sooo excited and said "shake, please...shake, please"! Guess next time we need to do a better job of hiding the evidence! :-)

5 weeks and counting....

Well I am now 35 weeks, so 5 weeks to go! I have now stopped personal training and have been spending some time on the elliptical and my new favorite swimming! I really missed my time with Carlos (my trainer) this week though, as personal training has been good for many things keeping me in shape, keeping me motivated, a stress relief, and a mental therapy session! Overall I am feeling pretty good, for being at the end of my pregnancy. I get tired very easy, but overall I can't complain too much.

I had a dr. appt on Tuesday (that they were over an hour late for). All looks good with me and baby. I'm weighing 10 pounds less than I did at this point when I was pregnant with Ethan. My blood pressure and the baby's heart rate were both good. She wasn't entirely sure the baby was in a head down position, but I have an ultrasound on April 2nd so it will be confirmed at that point. My ultrasound on the 2nd will also determine whether or not the dilated kidney found at 20 weeks has resolved itself. If it hasn't we should know a little more about the next step. Say some extra prayers!

Speech Therapy

As you all probably know by now, Ethan had a speech evaluation back in February and qualified for thearpy. We have been on a waiting list for a permanent therapy appointment every since, but were finally able to get in! Ethan started yesterday, his thearpist is Kelli and she is really nice and Ethan seems to like her. I went back with him for the first appointment and she worked with him some and spent some time with me finding out what my concerns are, Ethan's likes/dislikes, and where he is as far as his current language skills. With Ethan she played with some different types of cars (since Ethan loves playing cars) and tried to get him to say things like "bus and car". She also used some signs in addition to words, since Ethan has always responded well to sign language. He has a ways to go, but I'm grateful that we were able to finally get in and get the ball rolling. He will be going twice a week for a half hour each session.

Being there has also helped me realize how very blessed I am to have a healthy, "normal" child as I watch other parents struggle with children that have severe developmental delays and health problems. Sometimes we all forget to stop and be thankful for the blessings in our life.

Today we have our home visit for the Early Steps program and are in hopes that Ethan will qualify for free speech therapy until he is 3 years old.

Please keep Ethan in your prayers as he has many, many changes about to take place in his little life!

Space Shuttle Discovery

One of the most spectacular things I've gotten to see in my life is the space shuttle heading into orbit. Shortly after Jake and I moved to Florida (and just before the Columbia disaster) we saw a night launch and even from 165 miles away there was no mistaking what it was in the sky.

Last night space shuttle Discovery took off into a beautiful sunset...you can see the trail in the sky left behind from the rocket boosters. We were actually able to see the shuttle itself, which looks almost like a star in the sky. Unfortunately I missed watching the rocket boosters detach as I was dealing with poop in the bathtub...sigh, the joys of motherhood! :-)

Someday I hope to be closer to Kennedy Space Center for a launch (maybe we will get there before the shuttle is retired). But for now I will be in awe from 165 miles away! How cool is that, I can see the space shuttle take off from my front yard?!

Safe travels to our seven astronaunts!

Baby Update

I am now 33 weeks pregnant! Wow, where did that time go? I had my latest appointment on Monday. My blood pressure was a little high, but I had carried Ethan in all the way from the parking lot so they weren't too concerned. She said I need to monitor it and if I start having headaches or any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia that I need to call right away. I hadn't gained as much weight as I thought, but I had walked quite a bit on our trip so I think that had something to do with it. All in all a good appointment, both baby and I are healthy which is a true blessing. I'm looking forward to meeting this little one (as I am starting to get tired of being pregnant)!!

Girls Weekend

I was blessed to spend last weekend in Charleston, SC with two of my best girlfriends (Megan and Erin) for my b-day! Several people have asked for the details of the trip so here you go...

I drove up on Thursday, which was about a 5 hour drive and didn't go too bad except for all the road construction...yuck! I arrived at the airport with just minutes to spare and picked up the girls. We found our hotel without too much problem, a small detour over a large bridge! :-) We ate lunch downtown and spent the rest of the day relaxing at our hotel and had some awesome pizza for dinner!

Friday morning we headed out to Magnolia Plantation. They told us at the gate it would be around 3 hours to do all the tours we signed up for, well it ended up being more like 5 hours (and we couldn't even do the boat tour). But we would not complain it was a beautiful place and I'm sure when the magnolias are in bloom in June it is truly spectacular. I would've loved to have been a kid growing up on that plantation (but I'm glad not a parent, I would never find Ethan there)! We spent Friday night downtown and ate seafood at the Charleston Crab House...yum! We ended the night with a tour of Charleston's "dark side". It started a little rough as our tour guide wasn't the greatest public speaker, but once we started to understand him we had fun. We even got to walk through a creepy cemetery (for those not aware I love cemetery geocaches)!!

Saturday we went to the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in America. We went on a great tour of the plantation grounds, it was neat to hear and see how tea gets made. I had to bring some delicious tea home with me! We then went to the historic Fort Sumter (site of the beginning of the Civil War) visitor center, we were unable to go to the actual site because of time restraints. However, the visitor center had some cool artifacts from the Civil War and it was fun to stop by and look. We had lunch at a local pasta place and then cupcakes at the cupcake bakery!! (It was the place Jake wanted to have me go to as a surprise, little did he know I saw an ad and requested to go there for my b-day.) We then went on an awesome carriage ride through the historic district of Charleston and saw some gorgeous homes and buildings (thankfully the rain held out). We went back to the hotel to rest and change clothes before heading out for my b-day dinner. We ate at Hyman's Seafood, which had an hour and a 45 minute wait....but was soooo worth it! The best seafood I have ever eaten and service that matched! Do you think Jake will let me go there every year for my b-day dinner?

Sunday morning we awoke to really yucky weather, good thing we were all heading home. Off to the airport we went (again with a little detour that required help from Jake)....then southward for me. I thought I was going to be driving in rain the entire way, but I really lucked out. It was really windy (which wasn't fun going through the narrow construction zones), but no heavy rain!

Thanks girls for a wonderful trip! I love and miss you both!!

School

Well we haven't shared this news with too many people yet, but I have completed the necessary paperwork for enrollment so thought we would share. Ethan is going to start going to "school" in August two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays! We have a beautiful, brand new facility that is literally 2 miles down the road from our house. Ethan loved the place, especially the cool playground outside! He will be in a class of all 2 year olds. Speech therapy suggested when we were there for an evaluation for him that he start in some "structured" program. Some of the best places in town however for half-day or part-time "school" are all the way across town (which I didn't think would be fun with an infant). This will be a great opportunity for Ethan and for me to spend some quality time with the baby.

He also got into speech therapy at Shands at Magnolia Park. He will start on the 16th and be going 2 days a week for a half hour session. I am so glad that we finally got in and anxious for all this to get started. He really has gotten a lot better with his speech in just the last month with us doing some of the exercises they suggested, so I can't imagine what will happen when he is with someone who is actually trained in speech.

Our little man is growing up and soon will be a "big brother" too!