Pregnant me

This pregnancy continues to speed by.  It's making me a little nervous.  Where is Baby going to sleep?  In our room for awhile, I suppose, unless (s)he is as loud as Judson was, but then who knows.  We've still got some things to do...

Everything is right on track health-wise.  I've only had mild heartburn once (instead of nearly every day from 18 weeks on last time).  However, I have this annoying, constant groin pain.  Well, in my inner upper thighs.  Is that my groin?  I think so.  Anyway, it's really not any fun, and I'm pretty sure it's exacerbated by the fact that I am frequently lifting and carrying a thirty-three pound toddler.  I haven't mentioned it to my midwife yet, because I don't think it's anything serious, just something I have to deal with.  I did look it up online and found LOTS of women who have had similar pain.  However, theirs started much later in their pregnancies and mine started at least six weeks ago.  Oh, swell.

I'm really not trying to be a whiner, and I know a lot of women go through a lot worse things than this.  However, even "easy" pregnancies aren't really easy at all.

I'm including two pictures for comparison.  Unfortunately, I don't have a great spot to take pictures this time around.  The wall I stood in front of for Judson's pictures now has pictures of him on it.  :)  They're not flattering pictures; they're for documentation purposes only.  :)

June 2009 - 24 weeks

May 2011 - 24 weeks

Fun with Family

Judson spent the night away from both Nate and me for the first time two weekends ago.  There was no special reason.  We'd been ready for some time and Becky offered and that was that.  He did great and was spoiled, as usual.  The big surprise was that Becky had found a motorized Jeep on craigslist for something like $20.  Have I mentioned lately how much Judson loves Jeeps?  He really, really does.

So, now Judson has a Jeep at Grandma and Papa's.  It took awhile for him to get the hang of pushing the "gas," but steering is another story.  Thankfully, Paul and Becky live on a VERY quiet street.  :)  The funniest part is that Judson gets so excited that every so often he just stops, puts his head on the steering wheel, and laughs.  So funny.

We were at their house yesterday so Nate and Paul could go on a road (bike) ride.  Judson spent lots of time driving his Jeep and playing with his grandparents and aunt and uncle.  We're so thankful they're part of our life!

Here are some pictures from both weekends.

Learning how to pedal

Preppy driver, in half of his church outfit

Overcome with joy at being able to drive his very own Jeep (insert laugh here)

Don't worry...it was totally staged.  :)

Uncle Justin can ALWAYS get this response!

 

Handsome boy modeling his new haircut (Becky cut it when he stayed with them)

Cousin Corbin

We went to Burns for a long weekend over Mother's Day to see Nate's mom and sister and her family.  I took very few pictures, as my camera battery was nearly dead when we got there.  However, I did capture a few cute ones of Judson and his cousin, Corbin.  Corbin is four months older and a lot more aggressive than Judson.  There was plenty of fighting over toys (so annoying...if only sharing wasn't so hard!), but also some really sweet times as well.  Judson has only recently become affectionate...puckers up for kisses instead of running away, leans in for hugs, and says, "Awww" when we ask him to say he loves us.  (He says "Awww" because that's what we used to do when he'd sign "love" for us.  It's awfully cute.)

The best day of Judson's life

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to the barn during Easter weekend.  It was a beautiful day and my mom, Judson, and I took full advantage of it.  Judson especially, as you will see.  The barn (and animals) are on the other side of my parents' ranch, so we drove over there.  Judson thought the chickens and kitties were fun, but was most enamored with the "tractors" (he calls all types of equipment "tractor").

He was interested to see one of the cows who'd just had twins...until a cow behind him "mooed" and scared him.  After the cows, we had to walk to the lower fields to see the sheep and their lambs.  I carried all 33 pounds of him the whole way, as he was still carrying on about the cow.  :)

All of a sudden, as we were walking along in the field, we stepped into this invisible-to-the-naked-eye huge marshy area and there was water covering our shoes.  Judson fell and I took a picture because he was wet.  Ha!  Little did I know...

We continued walking, and just as my mom said something about the fact that he'd probably fall again, Judson fell into an even bigger "puddle."  He was SO happy!   And I was so thankful to have my camera to capture this special time for him...and thankful that he just got wet, not muddy.

Yes, there are a ton of pictures here.  I took A LOT more than this, however.  I think you'll agree it was a picture-worthy event.  :) 

Sitting in the "puddle"

 

One of the many times he fell as he ran around.  You can see how much he hated it.  :)

Look at that water pouring off of him!

He probably played for fifteen to twenty minutes before we hauled him away, kicking and screaming.  Literally.  It was not a fun walk through two fields and up the hill.  I had to carry him the whole way because we'd stripped him naked and wrapped in my jacket.  The flailing to get out of my arms was what just about did me in... It was totally worth the trouble, though! (And, thankfully the drive back to my parents' is short, because he was N.A.K.E.D. in his car seat.  Never thought I'd let that happen...)

Easter Weekend

We had a fabulous LONG weekend in Bandon to celebrate Easter.  Nate has Good Friday off every year (Garmin's headquarters are in the Bible Belt).  It didn't used to affect me, because I didn't have Good Friday off when I was teaching.  Well, now I love it!  He was also given half of Thursday off because Garmin's humongous three year project was completed and oh-so-successful.  And, because of ALL of his HARD work on the project, he was given some extra days off this year.  Thus, he decided to use a day and came home at lunchtime on Wednesday afternoon.  So we basically had four whole days in Bandon.  Sadly, we hadn't been down there since Christmas.  Of course the days flew by, but we really managed to pack a lot into them.

On Thursday, my mom and I took Judson to the barn (on the other side of the ranch) to see the animals, tractors, and so on.  I'm saving that for another post, because Judson had quite an adventure.  :)

Friday was gorgeous and we spent lots of time playing outside - at Jim and Kathy Cowan's house (who have lots of fun toys!) and at the park.  Anna and Macy walked over and met us at the park Judson had a blast.  We went to the park after visiting a couple of Mom's friends at the elementary school.  (It was Earth Day and there were lots of activities going on.  My mom {and I} thought he'd love to see the baby chicks, butterflies, etc., but he did NOT.  I think it was being in a new environment with so many people around, but Judson acted terrified of the animals.  {And he's currently obsessed with butterflies...notices them everywhere, though it's mostly in books at this point.})

He LOVED this truck!  Kathy actually sent it to my parents' so he could play with it while we were there.

Poor Macy wasn't feeling good, but she was still such a trooper.  (Yes, I just got my hair chopped off.  I went back the following Monday for a little "touch up," but you get the idea...)

Judson used to love swinging, but lately hasn't wanted to swing at all.  I told my mom that, and then of course he proved me wrong by swinging for about forty-five minutes and squealing happily most of that time.

We were at the park a lot longer than we planned to be because he was so happy and it was actually (FINALLY) kind of warm.  We headed home at 1:30 and still had to feed Judson before his nap (which usually starts by one).  It was totally worth it though.

After Judson's nap, we dyed Easter eggs.  He was fascinated.  He loves the color purple and points it out constantly.  The cool thing about that is that Nate is color blind and can't differentiate between blue and purple.  I've wondered if Judson would be color blind, but so far, I'm not thinking he is.  In fact, he learned a couple more colors this weekend because we did so many Easter egg hunts for him.  He's really consistent with orange (which he also called "beaber" {beaver} for awhile) and generally pretty good with blue, green, and white.  His little mind amazes me!

Of course our kit didn't come with purple, but we did some mixing and got a pretty good purple when all was said and done.

We had a great time at Morgan and Anna's on Friday evening (my parents went to church).  We had pizza and played a game.  Poor Macy was not herself at all (complete with an after-fever rash), but eventually went to sleep and stayed asleep.

On Saturday, we had multiple egg hunts outside before the rain came.  Judson caught on right away and loved it!  He'd walk around the yard saying, "Eng" (egg) over and over.  Precious!

After his nap, we headed to the Phillips' for our annual Easter get together with the Cowans, Goddards, and Phillips families.  Sadly, very few of the grown children were home this year.  It was still lots of fun, though.  The Phillips' granddaughters loved Judson and he eventually loved the attention.  :)

I'm not sure which of the twins Judson is sitting on.  I do know that he was nearly as big as her...and she's almost seven!  (Macy on the other end of the couch...)

Not a great picture, but it shows the twenty week baby bump

We went to the Easter Vigil at my parents' church that night because Macy was being baptized.  It started at 7:30 - past Judson's bedtime and near Macy's.  Both kids held up well, and poor Macy still didn't feel great.

 

 

On Sunday, my mom, Nate, and I went to the sunrise service in Bandon.  It's done by the ministerial association and we hadn't been to it in years.  It was a great service and a special way to start the day.  We loved having the rest of the day to spend time as a family and not have to go anywhere (except back to Salem, but we didn't leave until 7:40 pm).

Before we got dressed up for dinner, Nate and I took Judson back over to the barn for a ride on Bob's Kubota ("tractor," according to Judson).  We took a long ride, clear out back and around Bob's cranberry bogs. 

Sharing Grammie's dessert

 

 

And then it was time to pack up and head back home.  Judson had only napped briefly and was SO tired...  We had a quiet ride home.  :)