The 4th

We had a really nice, relaxing fourth of July. I forgot the camera but saw this print online and Ainsleigh had to stop and stare at it for several minutes. She loved the fireworks and provided commentary for us as we watched. She said things like, "I bet the next one is going to be really big!" and "That one hit the spot!"

It was a long day for her though, and she was asleep as soon as we put her in her carseat. I have to admit, even Tim and I were impressed by the fireworks. It was nice to have a long weekend together, although Ainsleigh got some new shoes that gave her a terrible blister on her foot. Her face is healing well though, so I guess it was on to the next "boo-boo."

Hope you guys had a really nice fourth!

a lesson in gravity

Ahh, poor Ainsleigh! Every time I look at this face, my heart breaks a little. Yesterday we had plans to play with a friend. We went to swimming lessons and Ainsleigh was ready to head right over to her buddy's house. She patiently waited through grocery shopping, lunch, a trip home to put the groceries away, a trip to the bank, and finally on to our friends'. She walked in his front door and they took off running to the backyard to play on the swingset. She almost made it! We watched as she ran towards the swing and tried to lay across it on her stomach, then missed and hit the ground face first. We heard some crying and she stood up, turned around with heavy sobs and headed towards me. Then she opened her mouth. That is when the blood started spilling out. So much blood. We had barely been there for more than 1 minute. I held her close while she poured blood out of both her mouth and her nose and checked to make sure she still had all of her teeth! She looked down and commented about how she had gotten blood all over her pretty outfit. She's such a girl, even in the midst of her pain! My friend Lindsay, Ainsleigh's buddy's mom, was so wonderful! She kept handing me paper towels and ice cubes, and was ready to clean Ainsleigh off with a washcloth. Then she spoiled her with popsicles. It's hard to tell what all happened to cause so much bleeding, the nosebleed and the bruise across her nose. She obviously bit her lip, and skinned them both, and skinned her chin. I knew that face wounds bleed the worse, but I can really go the rest of my life without this happening again! Poor Lindsay, she felt so bad, even though it was so not her fault, she kept saying, "You're going to blog this aren't you?" Sorry Lindsay!

This is a much more accurate photo now. She cried for about 45 minutes while we cleaned her up and comforted her, then she was ready to play again! The bleeding stopped pretty quickly, but it totally freaked me out. I'm so not good with these things. Her whole mouth was full of blood, her teeth were covered, and her nose bled into her mouth and down her chin. So there I was trying to squeeze her nose to get it to stop bleeding while holding a paper towel over her mouth to stop the bleeding on her lips. Finally she said, "Mommy, I can't breathe!"

Her lips are pretty swollen still and her poor nose is pretty swollen too, but I think she'll make a full recovery! Tim and I are still feeling so badly about it, especially when she looks at us with that poor nose and lips! She was pretty brave though. She keeps reassuring US that she's fine. Last night she told me, "Mommy, its okay. I can handle it. I can handle my boo-boos."

She went to swimming lessons today and told her teacher about it. She's totally over it, but I still had to spoil her today with a trip to the bookstore, chocolate milk, and a Wall E sticker book.

I don't like this whole getting hurt thing! I guess this is our initiation into the world of accidents. Unfortunately, I'm sure it won't be the last time! It was another reminder of how big she's getting and how independent she is becoming. She needed Mommy at first, but then she was tired of my comforting. Poor Daddy didn't get to comfort her at all, no matter how much he begged her to let him hold her! He's SUCH a pushover for this little girl. And now he's got another one on the way. I was so proud of her for thanking everyone for helping her. She's been really sweet through it all, which somehow makes me want to spoil her even more! Hopefully this face will return to its previous condition quickly!

It's a Girl! And Wall E.

Ainsleigh's been obsessed with this little robot. Tim took her to see the movie last Saturday and she loved it! So last night she is sleeping (in our bed of course) and turns over and says, "Oh. Well, I'm not really a robot." She was talking in her sleep, which she has done before, but this time I laughed so hard! I asked her if she was dreaming about robots this morning and she said a little bit! She has been asking to watch a clip of Wall E with bouncing balls over and over again. It's so funny!

In other news, we had our ultrasound yesterday and got nothing but good news! It's another girl though and we're short on girl names. My midwife even met us at the ultrasound and watched with us which was SO NICE because that way the sonographer could tell us what she was seeing without having to wait for the doctor to explain it. That waiting is so hard! The baby had a full bladder, both kidneys, and (most importantly) a healthy heart with all four chambers looking normal! It is such a relief for us to know that. I am so glad I decided not to go the high-risk route. It has made this pregnancy so much less stressful.

Ainsleigh started swimming lessons yesterday and I am so impressed at the difference in her between last year and this year. She just walked in, sat down by the lifeguard, and told me, "See you later Mommy." I watched some of the other kids cry and want their Mommies and I was so glad I wasn't that Mommy, at least not THIS year. She's really growing up. She's wanting to go to Sunday school all the time too, and just walks in and tells us goodbye. I guess our days of separation anxiety are on their way out. She's growing up, but it's a good thing I think.

BUMP!

This morning something very exciting happened! Ainsleigh and I were laying in bed and the baby started moving around more than usual. When I mentioned it to Ainsleigh, she put her hand on my stomach and as soon as she did....BUMP! I think Ainsleigh was actually surprised to feel it because she jumped and yelled, "Mommy! It went, POKE! It poked me!" It was really neat for her to be old enough to know understand what it was and for her to even feel anything since it is still a little early for that. She's been pretending to feel it up until now. So we've been talking all morning about how the baby "poked" her.

Yesterday we went to a little zoo here that is infamous for animals getting out, which made me a little hesitant to go, but the neatest attraction for Ainsleigh was the tadpoles she saw in the little man-made pond the had. Afterwards we went to a friend's house and she got to go swimming. She's been a busy girl.

I know this isn't the most interesting pose, but you can totally imagine the bossiness, can't you?!

Funny how what starts out innocently...

...seems to always lead to splashing and getting splashed!

It's been a nice summer so far. She is so excited about going out with Daddy on Saturday to see Wall-E and then starting swimming lessons on Monday. It's so nice to see her so much more at ease in the water. I think swimming lessons will be really good this year.

Ainsleigh just turned to me out of the blue and said, "Mommy, like when I held baby Addie, I was very careful and did not squeeze her a bit." I guess we're going to have lots of baby talk going on around here. Our ultrasound on Monday might reveal the gender and end the debate going on here! We'll keep you posted. *Hopefully healthy baby news!*

a break in the clouds!

So you probably have heard a little about the crazy flooding we've been getting here in Iowa. I can't believe how bad it has gotten. They say it hasn't flooded this bad since '93. It hasn't affected us too much here, other than some roads being closed, but the bad part is that it just won't stop raining and storming!

Yesterday it was pretty nice for a few hours before it started up again. Ainsleigh and I ran out to get groceries and when we came out of the store, the sun was out, but it was raining really steadily, but not too heavily. I was explaining to her that sometimes rainbows show up when it rains and the sun is shining. As I was telling her about it, she points and says, "There's a rainbow Mommy!" We turned and saw one of the most beautiful rainbows I think I've ever seen. It was a complete rainbow, we could see all the way across it, and the colors were so bright. We just stood there, in the parking lot, being rained on, pointing and staring. Ainsleigh was in such disbelief. She kept telling me about all the colors she saw. We called Tim on the way home and he ran out to meet us with the camera. By the time we got home, it was getting dark again, so it didn't look quite as beautiful or bright, but it was still nice. Ainsleigh told me it was a sign from God. It kind of felt that way too! We spent last night trying to make our own eggplant parmigiana and it turned out pretty good, it just didn't get done until about 9 p.m. and we really weren't that hungry by then.

Today we made Tim cinnamon rolls for Father's day and have spent the day just hanging out. Last Fall Tim convinced me that it was okay for me to get a new sewing machine. It's not just any sewing machine...its a really, really nice one and it wasn't cheap. I used it quite a bit until I got pregnant again. So Tim has been bugging me all weekend to get sewing but I've got a lot of excuses not to.

We have a room dedicated to my sewing and Tim's computer habit. He left the computer room to come tell me that something amazing happened and I had to come see it. Apparently the sewing machine had lifted itself onto my table and took its own cover off. I asked him if it made a quilt by itself too.

So we didn't think much of it after that, but Ainsleigh ran back in the room, took a look at the sewing machine and, with complete awe, surprise, and belief in her voice, said to Tim, "SO IT'S TRUE!"

I think Tim laughed for at least 5 minutes! I love that she is so sweet and so naive right now! I have to admit, it was pretty funny!

Happy Birthday Tim!

So it is beginning to seem that a house is possibly not in the cards for us, at least not right now. I'm not ready to give up since the idea of apartment living with a new baby seems memorable but not much fun. I'm imagining the endless loads of laundry that will not get done in a timely manner, the stir-crazy jumping of a bored 3 year old who needs to play outdoors, and the joy of having too-close neighbors.

Tuesday we celebrated Tim's 32nd birthday. Ainsleigh and I made a cake and she helped frost it and decorated it by herself. She was really excited and that carried us through a bit.


But the best part was her card. Even I was amazed at how good her letters were. Check this out.


Here's a closeup:


She wanted Tim to have a good day and she greeted him at the door with the sweetest "Happy Birthday!"


Ainsleigh was so happy when Daddy volunteered her to help him blow out his candles. We pretended that there were 32 of them!


At least it is good to know that it doesn't take much to make her happy! Hopefully the right house will come along and we'll be celebrating Ainsleigh's birthday in our own backyard! We'll see...

to rent or not to rent

This week has held a lot of new things for us. Ainsleigh met new friends, held a guinea pig for the first time, and learned to hit a ball off a tee with help from a very good teacher. He's the little guy in most of these pictures. Tim and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary Tuesday and, on the same day, got pre-approved for a home loan. Pretty exciting and overwhelming at the same time. We're starting the search for a nice, clean place in a decent location. It's crazy to think Ainsleigh will start kindergarten next fall but that's a big consideration. I think I've had real estate dreams all week. We want a lot for little money so we're setting ourselves up for a challenge. Hopefully, it will all be worth it in a few months, when we're relaxing in our own back yard, without hearing our neighbors or worrying about them banging on the ceiling if Ainsleigh decides to dance or skip across the floor.

I had a doctor's appointment Tuesday and we heard the baby's heartbeat again. It's heart rate has been considerably lower than Ainsleigh and Addie's so Tim's again convinced it is because it's a boy. We'll hopefully find out the gender on June 30th, when we have another ultrasound. I'm so nervous about it but hoping we'll come away with reassurance. It would be really nice to hear the words, "the baby looks healthy." Hopefully! It will be so nice to bring this baby home to a house, instead of an apartment.

So we'll probably be busy looking for houses. We only want, um, 3 bedrooms, central air, fenced in yard, garage, basement, nice kitchen with all appliances staying, washer/dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, lots of windows, energy efficient windows, new roof, and all in a good school district.

That isn't too much to ask for a very, very minimum price, is it?