24 Weeks

We are going to pretend for a moment that I am not halfway through my 25th week because this is the last picture I took. It's hard to keep up with these updates with three kids already apparently. I also miss our wood fence in our old backyard that made the perfect and easy backdrop for any photo. Anyway, here's me at 24 weeks. 

24 weeks. 6(ish) months. Viability. 

I always feel like I can breathe a little easier when I make it to 24 weeks. That's when most medical facilities are willing to perform life saving procedures should a baby be born. Sure, I've never gone into labor early or had any issues that would make me have to deliver early, but this is still always a milestone that I am happy to hit. 

I have been feeling good and feel like I am even getting some energy back. I'm not going to sleep as early every night and haven't been feeling the urge to take naps every day anymore either. Bending over is starting to be uncomfortable sometimes. I think it has to do with the position of the baby because most of the times it is fine, but other times it is downright painful. My gag reflux is still alive and well. I will be happy when this is gone. I still struggle brushing my teeth and anything touching my neck sets me off. 

I am starting to feel the urge to nest and get things ready for the baby. I started thinking about where I should organize the uber adorable and small newborn clothes. For now I am thinking I will set up a little changing area on a dresser we have in our closet. It's the same dresser we used for Callum when he was a baby and the perfect size to hold just the essentials. I've bought a couple things for the baby that I wanted as I have managed to find them secondhand for a price I was willing to pay. I got a mini crib for our room (as no one is wanting to move to the bedroom downstairs and I am not wanting to go up and down the stairs in the middle of the night to tend to a newborn and I figure it can just sleep in our room for the first while anyway), a swing and a diaper bag. 

We still have yet to discuss names and I haven't really done much research or even made up a list of names I like to discuss. I guess we should get on that one soon..ish! 

I had my anatomy scan at 22.5 weeks. I'm guessing all is well since I never heard back and was told to expect that "no news is good news". But I have a check up this week and I am sure they will tell me all is well or whatever. At the scan, the baby was pretty dang uncooperative. It took a really long time, them having me get up and move around and them trying me in different positions on the table to get all the pictures they needed. But we got to see the profile of the baby, see all its fingers and toes and even see its mouth moving. The mouth moving was pretty dang fun to watch. 

It's hard to believe that I am getting pretty close to my third trimester. Things really are moving along pretty quick! 

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Halloween

Halloween was an insanely busy day for us. Like nonstop. It was all fun, but it was still crazy. It started with the kids halloween parade at school in the morning. Above is them all dressed up and ready for school. Isla decided the day before halloween that she didn't want to be a mermaid, the costume she had picked out at the store, but would instead use her witch costume from last year. I tried for a second to change her mind, but really didn't care. But now I have a costume with the tags still on it that I don't know what to do with. Oh well. Moving on. 

The halloween parade at school is slightly chaotic because the whole school participates in it at the same time. Isla gets really excited to see us when she is walking in it though, and I totally love that. Connor is more reserved, but still smiles and waves at us. After the parade, I went straight to Isla's class for her class party. I led the bingo station and must say I did quite the good job ;) Then I had a little break between parties to run to Target and pick up candy for the trick or treaters...nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?! Then back to the school for Connor's party. His was less party and more art project with a bunch of food involved. The kid who sits next to him was absent, so I got to sit next to him, which was nice for this pregnant lady because I felt like I did far too much standing up that day. Then it was off to get Callum with 20 minutes to spare before turning back around to get the kids from school. 

Straight after school on Wednesdays Isla has ballet. Since she had been looking forward to costume day at ballet since they announced it a couple weeks ago, I knew we couldn't miss, even though I would have loved a little reprieve in our schedule. She had lots of fun. Then it was home for dinner and wrangling everyone in their costumes to go trick or treating. I literally had to shove Callum in his costume while he screamed hysterically. Then we showed him people give him candy and he gets to put it in his bag and he was totally cool with the situation. 

Trick or treating was a lot of fun. Callum could easily do it this year and would come running back to the street after yelling, "I got candy!!!" He also did a status check of his candy after every house. He was REALLY, REALLY into the candy. He is also the only child that has asked for his candy constantly all day every day since. 

Once we were done trick or treating, we came back home to pass out candy. Well, Connor and Isla excitedly did from our front porch. The 400 pieces of candy I got only lasted about an hour...we get a lot of people coming into our neighborhood. Which really, that was good because we could then turn off the lights and put the kids to bed at a normal time. So, talk about a win! 

^^ I told you she gets excited! 

^^ This was the picture from right before we headed out to go trick or treating. Everyone full of hope and not all crazy yet, haha! 

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Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins on Monday evening in what I will say was the most calm and successful pumpkin carving attempt we've ever had. Of course, I do realize that as the kids get older, things like this will just get easier and easier. But, for instance, Connor did pretty much all of his on his own. He cleaned it out, came up with the design and cut out most of the design all on his own. It's Darth Vader, in case you are wondering. Now, Isla's creation, though successful, wasn't without a few bumps in the road. She wanted to do a cat and drew on what she wanted. The problem was, there would be no space for light to come through anywhere except the nose. I convinced her to make the whiskers larger, so light would come through, and after she did the first one, she declared her pumpkin ruined and ran off. I continued to finish the whiskers and she came back just as I was starting on making the nose larger. And that's when she said it actually looked good...haha! She then got back in the spirit and helped with the eyes. So, all was well in the end. Now Callum, he had a zest for anything sharp and I had a great fear that the sharp object in his hand would somehow end up cutting me. We settled on him enjoying himself with a poker and his pumpkin has about 500 micro holes all over it that you cannot see. But when my brother came over on Tuesday, Callum proudly declared to him "I make holes!" so I will call that a win. 

Now for a bunch of photos of the actual pumpkin carving. 

^^ I tried getting Callum to hold the pumpkin piece up to his mouth, but all he was actually doing was biting the back!

^^ He kept going back for more, so it must not have tasted bad. 

^^ If you look close, you can see her original drawing that she wanted to do. 

^^ Happier now that the cat pumpkin is back on track.

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A Day Out with Thomas

Over the weekend we went and did a day out with Thomas. It's basically a train ride with Thomas and Percy pulling the train and a bunch of activities to go along with it. Think meeting the characters, toy trains to play with, bounce houses, coloring, face painting, etc. I booked the tickets like two months ago and Callum has been consistently talking about it for several days now. He was very excited. The other two acted like they thought it was lame, but enjoyed it once we were there. Maybe that's their grown up, cool kid attitudes coming through. 

On the train ride itself, we booked the car that was closest to Thomas. Because it took so long to get our picture taken with Thomas, we were one of the last people on the train and our car was super full. We managed to awkwardly squeeze in places...I say awkwardly because we asked one lady if she could scoot down to make more space for us and she flat out said no and most people just stared at us, rather thank helping make room by moving their bags or scooting closer to other people. But the train started and all was good. A few minutes into the train ride, I realized two cars up was virtually empty. Like there were literally maybe 10 people on it, so we moved to that car and the rest of the train ride was MUCH more enjoyable. Some other people followed suit too because a practically empty car is just way better than a jam packed one, no matter how close to Thomas the full one is! The kids spent most of the train ride dancing along to the music and just having fun. 

After the train ride, we went and met Percy. Then we went and met Sir Topham Hatt, who Callum refused to get anywhere near, even when he tried interacting with Callum. Then we did a bunch of the activities before calling it a day and heading home. The biggest hit was the temporary tattoo station. The older two at first acted too cool to get some train tattoos, but once Callum went for it, all three of them went back for more, before I finally cut them off. Callum was definitely very excited for his train tattoos. It was really cute. 

Now be prepared for a bit of a photo overload. But at least I warmed you, right?

^^ Callum was super into collecting rocks the whole time. He stored them in his pocket and would repeatedly pull them out and line them up before putting them back in his pocket again. 

^^ Proudly showing off one of his tattoos

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Crazy Hair Day

^^ A true representation of how my children feel about pictures, Connor being goofy and Isla doing her signature pose. 

Usually I don't really do anything for dress up days at the kids school. Sure I will try to find the necessary items around the house, but I don't get into it like some other parents and go out and buy things for the occasion. I would like to say that it's because I don't have the time or energy, but really it's because I don't have the will. #truth Anyway, the kids had crazy hair day on Tuesday. I thought they would think it was cool to spray a color in their hair and I was totally right. I took Isla to the store on Monday night and she picked out light blue and glitter hair spray, which worked out, as Connor said he wanted light blue. Isla wanted pigtails and a braid, so that is what she has, though you really can't tell from the pictures. Connor went with a mohawk to go with his blue hair. The funny part was he had me spray Isla's hair first before committing to if he really wanted me to spray his hair. Haha! Smart kid. But he went for it. It was also crazy socks day, hence Connor's socks. 

I have to say, the money I spent on the hair color really was worth it because the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Connor even asked if he could leave it in for the next day, but 1. his hair was destroyed at the end of the day and 2. I told him I am pretty sure it is against the school rules to come with crazy colored hair every day...or at least it was when I was a kid. But things have changed since then, so who really knows. 

I'm glad they had fun and I'm even more glad the hair color ended up being really easy to wash out. 

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A Lost Tooth at School

^^ Isla is full of her own pose ideas these days and holding up seven fingers was totally her idea. It was cute.

Isla lost her SEVENTH tooth at school yesterday. I remember from my childhood how cool it was to loose a tooth at school, so I was excited for her. She lost it at lunchtime and got to go to the office to get a tooth necklace to store it in and everything. She was VERY EXCITED when I picked her up at school.

Isla spent some time writing the tooth fairy a letter to leave with her tooth. She even included for the tooth fairy to take good care of her tooth. It really was cute and the type of thing I just eat up as a mom. Then, she put it under a pillow at the foot of her bed and was sure to remind me numerous times to tell the tooth fairy...which in her defense, the tooth fairy has forgotten numerous times at our house in the past! Then Connor wanted to play tooth fairy, which was adorable and comical all at the same time. I told him he couldn't wait until she was asleep, but he could write a note for me to place. All on his own, he came up with a rather witty note. He said the tooth fairy was going to leave a million dollars, but was low on cash, so could only leave seven. We leave a dollar for the number of tooth lost (it's her seventh lost tooth, so seven dollars). Then he included that the tooth fairy would take good care of her tooth and a picture of the tooth fairy destroying the tooth...because, after all, he is the older brother!

Isla woke this morning and the first thing she did was look under the pillow at the foot of her bed. She found the money and the note and was super excited. It was all very cute.

Rain!?

About a week or so ago we had this weird substance fall from the sky. It would have really puzzled us had we not encountered the same stuff on our vacation this past summer. Because, you see, it really just doesn't rain enough here in Modesto...which is obviously the reason California is perpetually in a drought! 

Well, my kids were pretty dang excited for the couple hours of rain we got. They instantly ran into the backyard to play. In fact, Callum played for so long, we finally had to drag him in for dinner. But they, Callum especially, had oh so much fun running and biking around in the rain. 

I personally enjoy rain myself and wish we got more of it. When we do get it, it usually just lasts for a couple hours. And I feel totally jipped when it only rains at night and I miss the whole thing. I enjoy being able to cuddle up at home during a dreary day, then bundling up in our gear when we have to go out somewhere in it. My poor wellies sit sadly in my closet much of the year, completely unused. 

But for a couple hours on a day in October, we had rain. Hopefully it won't let months and months pass again before it makes an appearance. 

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