anniversary, texture play, doctor visit

 Anniversary :) I made Brandon bottles full of yummy candy and a card and he got me flowers and a carrot cake :) It was super good!

 Wouldn't even touch the stuff!

 This is the look I get every time I try to get him to touch something different. He just looks at me like "You want me to touch that?" haha, he is pretty funny.

Yesterday was Brandon and my 3rd anniversary. It's crazy how fast time fly's by! I feel like we just got married. We were both feeling pretty sick so we didn't get to do anything too crazy but we had cake and watched a movie, so that was nice :) This week I have been trying to focus on texture things for Andrew. He just really hates getting his hands dirty though, haha. I really thought all little boys loved being messy, but he does not at all. He likes to make a mess but not have anything stuck to his hands. I tried making him this flubbery stuff to play with in the bath but he would not even try to touch it. It was too weird for him. Then I sprayed some shaving cream in there for him to smear around. He tried that for a little bit but then decided that was too messy too so I just gave him a bath. Then I tried some cornmeal with a little water mixed in. He just stared at it for a while until I got a spoon out and showed him he could scoop it and fling it everywhere. He liked that. And he liked searching for little bugs I hid in the cornmeal. But he never just stuck his hands in to play with the stuff. I also made him a texture board with all sorts of different feeling things on it, but he wasn't that interested in it. Probably would have worked a few months ago but he is too busy to sit and feel and the things now. He just tries to pull it all off of there.

I went to the doctor today again. And I'm not doing so great. I haven't gained any weight still and I lost a pound since the last visit a few weeks ago so the doctor is really worried. I need to try to gain 5-6 pounds in the next couple of weeks. I have such a hard time eating well with the nausea though so I'm not sure what I am going to do. It is also hard to cook well for myself when Andrew is holding on my leg the whole time begging to be picked up. He hates it when I have to cook dinner. So my goal is to try and eat as much as I can while I have visitors coming. Ellie will be here this week and then my mom comes a few weeks so hopefully I can figure out a better eating pattern. I may go try some ginger tea or something too to help. I just started feeling the baby moving around all the time though. He moves so much. I feel lots of little flutterings going on in there so he is pretty active.

Fun with Rice

Today Brandon had to go to school all day. He has been gone since 10 and it is 7 now and he still isn't home :( . So Andrew and I decided to be creative this evening. I saw all these sensory play things people have done and thought I would try rice in a bucket. I didn't anticipate that Andrew would throw it all over however, haha. I definitely should have thought of that! He played with it in the bucket for about 5 minutes and then discovered he could throw it all over the carpet and that was much more fun. He especially liked when it landed in the box and made a loud noise. I also made a funnel out of paper and poured the rice in and made it land on his feet. He thought that was hilarious! He threw rice for about an hour. It was great! Our floor was pretty messy but I was able to salvage most of the rice for another play day.

 His arms are moving so fast they look almost invisible! haha

 He could rock climb up one side and crawl over to the slide. He loved the slide

He found this weird puppet and would not let it go. He thought it was pretty hilarious.

This week Andrew and I went to a new indoor play place. It was only 5 minutes away. It wasn't half as good as the other one, but he still had fun :) The only way I can make it through the day is to take Andrew out somewhere he can crawl around and tire himself out. He has so much energy! I got to play some tennis last night. For some reason I feel really good when I play and then when I'm done I'm back to being really nauseous again. Maybe I need to try to exercise more and see if that helps the nausea go away a little. Andrew is getting so smart. Today he was able to stack a ring onto the holder. We have been working on stacking for so long, so I'm happy he is starting to get it! We also have been working on coloring except every time we get the crayons out he just eats them. But today he knew the crayons go on the paper. It was so cute to watch him try to color :) We are really excited that Brandon's sister Ellie is going to come visit next week! She is so sweet to come out for a week and help. I definitely need some help so that will be really nice :)

Released from Primary President

      Well I couldn't wait to let Andrew open his trike for his birthday present from Grandma. He loves it! The only problem is he won't get off and every time he sees it now he climbs on and wants to ride it, haha. He is such a cute little bike rider. He keeps his feet on the pedestals and holds on the handle bars really well. We walk around our apartment building over and over. Andrew is one spoiled little guy!
     The big news today is that I got released as the primary president. It is a big stress off of my shoulders. I really loved working in the primary with the kids but being in charge of everything is tough. I learned a lot though and am really grateful I got the opportunity. I have been so sick with this pregnancy, it is tough to keep up with Andrew all day. I keep thinking the nausea is going to get better but right now it has been worse. I haven't been able to gain any weight yet which is probably not helping with the nauseous feeling. I had a hard time gaining weight with Andrew too so I'm not too worried about that yet but it's a lot harder to focus on eating well when I'm taking care of a crazy little guy all day. Andrew has finally started eating pretty good though! I am really happy about that! All of a sudden he started sitting at the table with us when we eat our meals and eating quite a bit. He loved lasagna tonight and yesterday he devoured some peas. He eats about a 1/4 of a mango every morning and eats 1/4 cup of my oatmeal too. I was worried he was never going to eat so this is a big improvement. He also started sleeping better at night which probably relates to the eating more food during the day. Last night he went from 7 to 1 and then from 1 to 5 then back to sleep till 8:30; so that was a lot better than usual. Brandon is really sick again. He has a big test tomorrow too! He has a bunch of white blisters all over his throat and has a fever. The poor guy seems to always get sick before his tests :(

Ultrasound

 

 Today I got another ultrasound for screening. But they were able to guess what they think the baby is. They think it is a boy. I think so too, so we will see for sure in a few more weeks. I go in on September 24th for the ultrasound when they can tell the gender for certain. But baby looks good. Has both arms and legs, though you can't see it too well in the picture, heartbeat is strong, and is already moving like crazy in there, haha. We had to try for 15 minutes to get the baby to hold still for two seconds for the ultrasound lady to get a measurement. Looks like we will have another busy busy mover just like Andrew.
    Andrew's birthday is coming up soon this month. He will be a year old on the 25th. I can't believe we have had him that long already. I got him a few fun birthday presents. I filled his pack n play with play balls so he can have his own ball pit. He loves sitting in there and throwing the balls everywhere. I also got him a toy puppy that barks and walks. He loves animals! He takes that little dog everywhere.  Andrew also loves playing in the laundry basket. It's like the wagon to him except it breaks my back trying to push it all over the house. Too bad laundry basket don't come with wheels!

Children's museum

Andrew loved pulling the Velcro shapes off the wall and making a big mess.  

Andrew crawled over every inch of the place! I could barley catch him before he was off to the next thing.

Today Andrew and I went to the Children's museum again. It was super fun :) They had lots of activities he could do this time. They had a fun Olympics room where they had all these padded weights and play areas for him to crawl all over. He even started dancing to the music, haha, it was cute. There was also a fun construction room with all sorts of shapes that he could play with. Andrew made a friend who was also 11 months old and they played together for a while. Andrew's favorite thing was the fish tank. He gets so excited to see the big fish tank. He sat for a long time and talked to the fish and gave them "kisses". It was a great way to tire him out. I was sad I couldn't take many pictures because he was too busy. I put him down and the next second he would be half way across the room! Andrew also just learned how to put the basketball in the hoop. He is getting to be such a big boy!

Yesterday I took Andrew to play in the nursery at church, haha. I don't know if that is really allowed but he had a blast. He just wanted to ride in the little wagon they have. It is supposed to be for blocks but he fit perfectly. He would not get out. He just sat and played in the wagon. I'm going to get him something to ride on for his birthday. Andrew is so funny with the phone now. He knows it goes up to your hear so he puts it up to his ear and then puts it up to mine, it's pretty cute. Brandon has his first big test coming up so the next few weeks will be tough. I feel bad I have Andrew watch a lot of Barney and Dora right now, I just get too tired to keep up with him all day. Brandon's brother gets married tomorrow so we are really excited for them! We weren't able to go but we wish them all the best!

Andrew and I have had a pretty good week :) We went to the indoor play place again. We got to go with Brandon too so that was fun :) We played with whip cream. Andrew doesn't like to get messy, haha. He was pretty disgusted with the stuff on his hands. We have been working on his walking a lot lately but he still gets too scared to do it himself. He did take one step by himself but it was more of a falling thing. Sometimes it looks like he is just going to take of and run so I'm sure he will be running around soon.