28

 Anika and I went to my 28 week Midwife apt. this morning.  She came with me because it was early.  I had my glucose test. I ate a blueberry pancake (made with our home grown blueberries) with NH Maple syrup (made from my dad's maple trees) and some orange juice.  Then, my blood was drawn couple hours later. MUCH easier and better than the orange drink I had to do with Anika. Also, my MW is so local, so I don't have to travel far for everything anymore.   I always take a photo with the baby with where I am. The photos are actual size of the baby this far along. They Velcro in a much bigger book and are VERY neat and educational :)
Everything is looking good- BP, no swelling, no issues, etc. I have just gained a lot. I had to grin and bear it when I stepped on the scale since Anika was watching EVERYTHING I did very closely. She asked questions as I peed in the cup, tested my own pee, had my BP taken, listened to the baby, etc. She is VERY curious and asked my midwife everything she was doing.

Some morning snuggles before we got out of bed this morning with Leni (the baby).

 

Have I told you my inlaws are here from New Zealand? They are. They arrived two weeks ago. They are here until mid October!  When they leave, I will be full term, so the rest of this pregnancy will fly by, I bet.  This weekend after spending the day out our beach, we all went to a nice dinner. I had lobster ravioli for my main and we shared the BEST calamari as an appetizer. Anika loved the calamari too!

 

Finally got Leni a baby book to start filling out! 

 

Anika in her "pool"  haha. Look mommy, I made a pool!

 

I came home to this last night. I told Andrew not to fill the water so high. The fish jumped out and landed on my floor! It was stiff as could be when I found it.  Luckily, Anika isn't phased at all. She even told me that was funny. She said the same thing when Koda #1 died and I flushed it.  Nice kid.

Wedding tables

I am putting these photos up to share with a friend. We were talking about wedding tables and I told her how my mom made my table cloths for my wedding. I found some photos and this is the easiest place to post them all.  For the rest of you, Enjoy. lol.

 

 My mom did the table settings- all the details for the most part.  The ferns are because the fern is NZ's country symbol. OUr wedding had a lot of NZ things to make Andrew feel welcomed :) Plus, that's where we started our courtship! ha

Granny Smith Apples are a big NZ product, hence the vases filled with them.

Head table embroidered with our name and date and ALL table cloths has ferns embroidered on them, but hard to see them on the round table pics.

Head table

The favors were a little bit of me and a little bit of him.
New Hampshire Made maple syrup candies MADE BY my 1st Grade teacher and her husband!
The other favor was NZ made Goats milk soaps! Andrew and I picked up the goat milk soaps when I visited him in November before our wedding in May!  Made in Christchurch, Andrew's city! We went to the lady's house to get them!

The wood thing you see is from NZ- and wine bottles went in them and they stood up but this was before wine was out.

 I love the seat covers and sashes with ferns- my mom picked all those and put them in.

Our bouquets were used as decorations ON the head table after we arrived!  Just put them in white painted clay pots with bottles of water in the center!

You can kind of see here in this pic.

 

I still love the details 6+ years later :) and all my mom's work.

Weekend

Yes, this photo was mostly staged. I told Anika to kiss my belly. ha.

 

We went to a fair on Saturday.  She made sand art with my niece. She put Dora on top of it. WE went with my friend and her family, but my mom, Gram and niece were there too, so that was nice.  My gram actually  gave Anika the hand painted outfit she has on. Gram brought it back  from Maui for Anika, so I am glad she saw her wearing it.  We rode a horse too! I told Anika all about my old horse, Rex.  It was fun being on a horse again- even for a few minutes going 1 mph! haha

We spent most of the weekend doing a lot of work in and out of the house. My inlaws arrive this week so we have been making the yard pretty and cleaning the house.  I got into some deep cleaning projects. 

 

I went out to get in my car to get shelf liners for a project I decided to start in my kitchen and Andrew and Anika were washing my car. She LOVES to help us.  I was VERY VERY happy she chose to help Andrew outside a lot this weekend! Gave me a ton of time to get my indoor stuff done.

 

He went out to get laundry off the line and came back with this! haha

 

We cleaned windows in and out. I got a ladder out and cleaned the outside when Andrew and Anika were out doing errands.  HE came home to find me on the ladder with paper towels and he said newspaper was the way to clean.  So, I tried that. Worked well.

I also took off all the things...what are they called? The things that click into windows to make the boxes (see below)

 

 Ya, I took those off the windows to clean and left them off the kitchen window.  There was also a LONG cheapo curtain bar thing above the kitchen window- I took that down, patched in the holes and painted over the holes since Andrew  is never going to let me put a curtain in the kitchen anyway! He said it blocks his view! ha.  So, I took down that nasty thing- I didn't get a before pic, but there is another empty one in the bathroom for you to get an idea- see below. That one needs to come down too unless I put a valance on it. I might do a valance.

I did a lot of organizing and cleaning. Andrew and Anika planted a lot of stuff outside. I still feel like my house needs so much work though! Never ending.

 

I took Piri's bedding to the laundry mat to wash it.  Too nasty to do in my machine! ha.

We put it where her ottoman was and Andrew tipped up the ottoman for now.

Well, last night when we got home from work, Anika started climbing it!
She said, "Look I'm climbing my climbing wall"
uhh. I moved it to the garage for now.

When Andrew called home to talk to her she told him "Mummy naughty. she took away my climbing wall"

 

I will be happy if we don't need this for her anymore. I was going to make a cover for it, but now I might not have to if she is happy with her real dog bed!

 

24

I was 24 weeks last Wednesday.
The picture on the left is me after spin class.  The picture on the right is me at my midwife appointment. The baby is true to size for this far along.
I look hot because it was SOO hot here last week. 100's all week. A lot of people don't have AC around here. We don't have it.  We have one unit in our bedroom we turn on a few hours before bed. Anika just has a fan so she goes to bed in her room, but wakes up hot and shows up in our room a lot. We sleep naked. ha.  

 I was up 13 pounds at my apt. More than I want to be at this point but my mouth just wants cookies and ice cream a lot!! The sweet tooth is really bad right now.

My workout routine is basically dictated by what classes are offered before and after work AND when they/I have childcare.  SO, this summer, I have been doing this schedule:
Monday: Spin class before work
Tuesday: Tabata class after work (strength and cardio in one class)
Wednesday: Spin before work
Thursday: boot camp before work
Friday: Spin before work.

I prefer to get my workouts done in the morning. I hate doing them at night.

 

We also had roofers at our house early last week! They were trying to beat the heat as well, so came early.  So, we now have a new roof and a lot less money in our bank account! IT had to be done.

 

Anika was invited to do a book exchange several months ago. She has received more books than I thought she would. Last week she received another one- I think this is her 7th book she has received in the mail. She loves to get them. This was a really sweet book. A little silly, but the message is great.

 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. We did an overnight at my parent's rustic secluded camp. Pictures to come.

Replacing the TP!!! And camping

This morning Anika did something for the first time that surprised me and made me smile.
Last night, I went pee before bed. There was no toilet paper left on the roll, but I was so tired, I just used a tissue from the box behind me. 

 

When Anika wakes up in the morning, she takes her nappie/diaper off herself, and uses the potty by herself and then comes and gets in bed with me, naked.  That's her routine. Sometimes she comes to my bed first (VERY EARLY in the morning if its still dark out)  and lays with me for a bit and then goes to use the toilet later. She uses a stool and gets on the big potty with those little seats that attach to the regular one.  She also has a small potty in her room. She uses both. 

 

 Well, when I got up this morning, there was a NEW TOILET paper roll on the holder!!!  She took the lock off the bathroom cabinet (There is nothing toxic in there, but lotions and toilet paper and stuff) and got out a new roll, put it on the holder and it was even going the right way! ha. She had a LONG piece hanging down and that's what caught my eye. I looked and I asked her if she did it (Andrew is away, so It could only be her).
I laughed because Andrew doesn't even replace the roll when he sees its empty!  She is such a helper and so independent when it comes to all her "jobs". She has a few things in the morning she does upstairs, like turn off her night light, "make her bed", make sure her toys and books are cleaned up from my room and in hers. She puts her night nappies in the diaper pail and her dirty clothes in her hamper.  Last night she told me it was her job to pick the blueberries.  She sets the table and clears her plate for dinner. I love how excited she gets to do her "jobs"  :) For now!!
She likes to pick out her clothes and shoes as well.

- 

Anyway, we spent a few days in Maine. Sunday-Tuesday. I got up at 5 AM Tuesday and drove home, unpacked car, dropped Piri off, showered,  packed Anika's lunch and bag, brought her to sitter and then went to work. LONG day, but worth it!!

 

We met my parents at their house around 11 on Sunday. Andrew couldn't go because he had to work super early Monday in MA.  I left my car at my parent's house and rode up with my mom in her truck and she pulled her camper.  We stopped for lunch and I got a lobster roll.

 

Anika didn't eat much when we stopped for lunch and wanted a wrap later at the campground.

 

We went swimming in the pool when we got to the campground and then I DROPPED MY PHONE in the pool while trying to video tape her swimming. It went in and has no real cover. I picked it up and then it went in again because it slipped out of my hand. I turned it off right away and a lady saw and said she had rice at her camper. She brought it to me later and it was a small microwave bag, so I sent my mom out to get me a big bag of rice. I put it in the rice from 4 pm until 7 AM the next day and it WORKED!! I was SOOO grateful. It was a long time without a phone I'm usually attached to. I used my mom's phone to call Andrew and he was like "good" because he thought it would be great for me not to have it. blah.

 

   My aunt gave her the chair above for her 1st birthday. It comes in a bag and easy to transport.

 

That night, we had lobster. 3 lobsters for $21!

 

 

 As with EVERTHING, "I want to do it myself"  so she tried to get into her lobster herself : )

Monday, it was SOOO HOT. We took the free shuttle about 7 minutes to Old Orchard Beach.
The beach was so crowded for a MONDAY!

I had my phone in a zip lock bag and there are no photos of us swimming, but we were in the ocean for over an hour!! Riding the waves. She loved it.

 

 

 

 

Cooling off Nona's feet!

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to our campground (Bailey's Campground) and she fell asleep on the 4 minute walk back to our camper from the shuttle drop off! ha.

 

A big seat!

 

We went for delicious ice cream!!!

 

 

Then, my dad showed up with Piri! He drove my car up and brought Piri since Andrew was gone at work. Anika was quite excited to see her.

 

My mom stayed at the camp site with Piri and her dog and we went to the pool. We weren't sure if Piri would bark at people who walk by,  and you aren't supposed to let your dogs bark a lot in the campground.  Anika and I swam and swam and then she swam with Gampa.

 

She would swim in circles and say "IM a swimming ballerina" or she told my dad she was a paddle boat when she was kicking and moving her arms. haha

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we had a camp fire and she roasted her first marshmallow.

 

 

Then, on Tuesday we got up at 5 AM and got in the car to drive home. Just Anika, myself and Piri.

 

 We stopped and got a bagel and I would guess this is Anika feeding Piri some of hers! ha.

Short, but sweet!!
My mom goes to this campground in August for a week, so I am sure we will go back again. Anika went to this campground her 1st and 2nd summers as well. There is so much for older kids to do. My niece LOVES it, but she is at camp this week and didn't go this time. This was a last minute trip.