Activities!

Every Tuesday morning Ayden has Kindermusik, and this week Grandma Wendling came to watch. Ayden has been going to Kindermusik since he was 6 months old and loves it. It's been fun watching him progress the past 2 years. Ms. Judy is an excellent teacher and Ayden really likes her. During class we sing lots of songs, do circle dances, play with bells or other instruments, and do a lot of action things to go along with songs. One thing I have really noticed is that when Ayden plays the drum in class he has an almost steady beat, which for his age is amazing! One of Ayden's favorite things to do is play the echo game. Ms. Judy uses a wooden rhythm stick for a microphone and gives each child a turn to sing her echo. She usually will sing "Baaaa-baa," and then the child echos back. At the beginning of the semester I would have to go up front with him and he would listen to me do it. Now he will go all by himself, sing the echo back loud enough that even I can hear it across the room, and he even wants to do it more than once.After Kindermusik on Tuesday, we went grocery shopping with my mom and then she took us out to lunch at Hickory Park. I ordered Ayden his first kids meal ever (he usually just has a little of whatever I order, but has been on a huge hot dog kick lately so we got him that). He ate the whole hot dog minus the bun, and some fries.

On Thursday mornings I take Ayden to Tumblebugs at Success Gymnastics. Our friends Amanda and her daughter Eloise talked about joining a month ago and asked if we would be interested. I took Ayden to try out a class and he really liked it. The kids are constantly moving for 45 minutes and it's a great way for him to burn off some energy, especially when we are stuck inside most days now since it's getting cold out. Every week we start with stretching warm-ups, which is the hardest for Ayden because he has to sit there and wants to get up and run around. Then every week there are different obstacles set up for the kids. There are mats set out to do front and back hopping on, then they do donkey kicks, and cartwheels (with help) over some stacked up mats. There are ladders to climb up, balance beams to walk across, bars to swing on, different mat tunnels to climb through and do somersaults down, and Ayden's favorite is the trampoline. He could jump on that all day long. At the end of class today we played with a huge parachute, which Ayden loves from Kindermusik too. He has a lot of fun and we will probably continue to go until the baby arrives.

Ayden has been helping me bake in the kitchen since he was about 18 months old. He used to just watch, but now he helps by pouring ingredients into the bowls and helps putting batter into the muffin cups. It's so funny, but whenever he sees me get the mixer out or hears me turn it on he comes running. I think he really just likes when he gets to lick the spoon or beater at the end:)
I'm now 23 weeks pregnant (as of tomorrow). I go for another ultrasound next Friday, and hopefully the little guy will cooperate more than he did last time. I can't believe I only have 17 weeks to go (15 if he arrives 2 weeks early like Ayden did). He's moving around a lot more now, which is fun to feel, and also is starting to wake me up at night and keep me from falling asleep some nights. We've decided on the name Caelan, and are still working on a middle-name, perhaps Michael. We'll nickname him Cael for short:) We had the name Cael picked as a possibility before we found out we were having a boy and Joel really like it. I liked it too, but I wanted something a little longer and found the name Caelan in some baby name books, and thought it was a cute name. It's Irish/Scottish and means "powerful warrior" in Irish and is the Scottish form of "Nicklaus" and means, "Victory of the people."

My Little Farmer

Ayden was a farmer for Halloween. Joel found him a great farmerish flannel shirt and overalls at Goodwill and I found him some boots he can wear this winter when it's colder. He wouldn't leave on his Pioneer hat so we had him hold onto an ear of corn instead. We took him trick or treating at the Ames mall, over to Joel's parent's house, and then we took him to Uncle Brett's house in Ames. I don't think he really understood what was going on, but I think he had fun. He's never really had any candy except for M & M's and suckers, but he liked the suckers.
A few houses down from Brett there was a haunted house (garage). We went in and took Ayden with us not thinking it would be too scary since there were other young kids in line. A woman was taking us on a tour of a cemetery and then Thriller started to play and Michael Jackson came out of his coffin. There were strobe lights which Ayden didn't like and then some other zombies started coming out of their tombs too. It was pretty neat, but we got out since Ayden was freaking out about the strobe lights.

The other day I was in Ayden's room for a few minutes straightening up after his nap and I walked into the kitchen and Ayden had gotten into the fridge, cleaned out a drawer looking for some yogurt, and was sitting in front of the open door eating a container of yogurt with his hands. It was so funny I couldn't help but laugh.

We found a lump on Bailey's ear and took her to the vet where they told us it was a mast tumor. She went in for a biopsy and they took it off and tested it to see if if was cancerous or not. Her head was wrapped up for almost a week, but it's off now. It turned out to be a slow-growing type 2 which means it could be cancer, but it's slow growing and not aggressive like type 3. If it was type 3 they would recommend taking off most of her ear. For now she gets to keep her ear unless it grows back. Hopefully we don't find any others, but cancer is very common in Bernese Mountain dogs. She's already almost 6 years old, and the average age of a berner is 8 years.

We've been focusing on deciding on a name for our new little boy and I think we have decided on one. Joel had one that he loved, and I really like it, but I think it's too simple. I don't mind it for a nickname though. I started looking at something a little longer that we can use for a full name and use Joel's choice for a nickname. This way we both win. No ideas for a middle name though, yet. We'll call him Baby C for now :) I know so many people that are pregnant right now that we've decided not to change our name even if someone else uses it. They (and we) will just have to deal with it. I don't know anyone with this name though so I think we are safe, but it is pretty close to a few other boy and girl names. I've also had fun shopping for more boy clothes. Ayden was born in a different season so not a whole lot of Ayden's clothes will fit Baby C right away. I feel him moving around more and it's usually when I am trying to go to sleep (of course). I love my little Mr. Happy Feet though. Can't wait to meet him in about 18 weeks! 20 1/2 weeks prego

It's a Boy!!

I had my ultrasound on Friday morning and we found out that we are having a boy! We were surprised because we were thinking it was going to be a girl since this pregnancy was so different from the last one. I'm excited to have 2 little boys though. Ayden is such a sweetie and loves to cuddle and give hugs. I hope his little brother is the same way.The little guy wasn't very cooperative though so we have to go back in 4 weeks for another ultrasound. He was laying with his back and butt facing out so we got a good view of his spine and of his butt, and the back of his head. The ultrasound tech couldn't get a good look at his heart so lucky for me I get to do it again:)
What she did see looked great though and I'm right at the 20 week mark where I should be. The ultrasound pictures weren't as good as the ones we had in Maryland with Ayden. We had lots of 3D and 4D images. I was kind of disappointed and am thinking about heading to an ultrasound place in Des Moines so we can get a better look.

Afterwards, Joel took me out for lunch and I went shopping for baby clothes! Since Ayden was born in the summer most of his clothes won't work for this little guy so I still got to shop:) I also plan on making a nursing cover, some blankets, and a few fleece blankets sometime soon after I get to the fabric store. I went through Ayden's newborn clothes and picked out what would fit right away and mostly got the nursery put together except for hanging up some pictures. Now the hard part is deciding on a name. Joel doesn't really like any of the ones that I like, and the one that he likes (that I actually mentioned a few months ago) I like, but I'm not in love with it. Maybe it will grow on me. Deciding on Ayden's name was easy because we both loved it a few years before he was born when we were watching season 4 of Sex and the City. Back then we had never heard it before, and now it's pretty common. So the name search continues....