Fall Fest at Linn Valley

This Saturday, Sarah and I went down to Linn Valley Lake with Grammie and Pa-Pa for the fall festival.  There were free hot dogs and cupcakes, pumpkin decorating, hay rides, and carnival games.  But Sarah still loved driving Pa-Pa's golf cart the best!

 

 

 

Lucky for Sarah, she got to ride in the golf cart to the playground/festival area.

 

 

After some time on the playground, Sarah hung out with Grammie and Pa-Pa for a while.

 

 

 

Then she played her first-ever carnival game!  Sarah got three chances to win a can of soda. 

 

 

Here is her 3rd attempt!  The first hoop landed in the grass at the foot of the table.  The second one landed around a can of Best Choice Diet Orange soda.  Yum.  That hoop in the air?  It landed around a can of Dr. Choice.  I think this girl's a natural!

 

 

 

 It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

 

3 Months Pregnant

THREE MONTHS PREGNANT

The Survey

How far along? 12 Weeks

Total weight gain? Up 5 lbs.  Hmmm.  That has to be all baby, right?

Maternity clothes? Yoga pants and Jeggings still fit (ask me about Jeggings sometime, Baby #2 - you'll be SO impressed I walked around wearing such fashion while I was pregnant with you!), but nothing with buttons still buttons.  I made the move to maternity jeans about 3 weeks ago and haven't looked back!  Most of my larger shirts and sweaters still fit, but I'm not sure how much longer those will work, either!

Stretch marks?  No new ones yet. 

Sleep? Poor Tom.  Most nights I fall asleep while I'm sitting in bed waiting for Sarah to fall asleep.  This means I'm passing out between 8:30-9:00.  PA. THET. IC. 

Best moment this month? During my 1st trimester screening, I got an extended sonogram.  It was so fantastic to see that little face!  Baby's hands were up by his/her head, and her/his little feet were crossed at the ankle.  Baby also jumped around like a little Mexican jumping bean the whole time!  I don't know if Baby had the hiccups or was just jumpy (my doctor said "They just do that!"), but I really loved spending so much time watching my little one.

Miss anything? I miss getting dressed without having to try on 4 outfits before I find something that doesn't look completely unflattering!

Movement? I haven't felt anything, but if that sonogram is any indication of things to come, I know I'll be feeling A LOT of movement soon! 

Food cravings? I'm still not really in the mood to eat much of anything.  Apple Jacks have been my favortie treat recently.  I also had a huge cup of hot chocolate the other day, and it was delicious!  I see more of that in my future, especially since it's getting cold now... 

Anything making you queasy or sick? I started taking Zofran to help with the nasuea, and it's really made a difference for me.  I'm feeling better now that I'm moving into my second trimester, though, and haven't had to take it for a while. 

Gender predictions?  I'm going to document my guess as "GIRL," but we should know for sure in a couple of weeks!  Who knew that the genetic screening of the 1st trimester tests could tell us the gender of our little bean?!?

Labor signs? Not a one. :)

Symptoms?  Increasing belly, the beginnings of heartburn, and drier skin...

Wedding ring on or off? On!

Happy or moody? I would say I'm happy most of the time.  I cry more easily, but usually at stupid stuff like commericals or kids' books.  I know there's no reason to be crying, but I'm also powerless to stop it!  I bawled like a baby when Tom and I went to see "Gravity" and Sandra Bulock started talking about losing her daughter (who happened to have messy brown hair because she hated to have it brushed, was missing a red shoe, AND was named Sarah - it was really unfairly stacked against me!).

Looking forward to: The second trimester!  This was a great time for me when I was pregnant with Sarah.  I wasn't tired any more and was starting to "grow into" my pregnancy.  I felt good and was excited about being pregnant.  I'm hopeful that I have that same experience this time around! 

Thoughts:  I love the feeling that we are "completing" our family with this baby.  My friend Katie once told me "You'll know if you need another kid when you sit at the dinner table and feel like someone is missing."  I totally understand that now, and I feel like our family will be whole now.  I can't wait to watch Sarah transition into the role of big sister, and I'm not at all nervous about loving Baby 2 as much as I love Sarah.  I know it will be different for all of us, but I also know it will make us the family we were meant to be.

10/12/13 - Me at 11 weeks pregnant (See that bump already?!  That happened FAST...)

Wit and Wisdom

Recently, Sarah has started telling tales and speaking with great authority on a wide variety of topics.  It's pretty funny, really, how serious she is!  Her daddy has been out of town for business for the past few days and, when she asked where he was, I told her he had to take an airplane to visit Albuquerque for a few days.  She looked right at me and said, "Oh.  I went to Al-ker-key, too.  Pa-Pa took me."  Hmmm.  I'm pretty sure I would remember if Pa-Pa had taken her to Albuquerque!

 

Since I'm a single mom right now, I'm in charge of dropping her off at daycare (Sarah would say that I'm not dropping her off, I'm "dropping her down").  This isn't something I usually do because it means I get to work with mere seconds to spare, so it's been an interesting few days.  This morning, though, Sarah got up at 5:45, and we were ready to go by 6:50.  I decided to take advantage of the extra time and threw her in the car for a special treat - doughnuts before school!  Sarah loved driving to get doughnuts in the dark, and who wouldn't love sprinkles and chocolate frosting at 7 am?!

 

 While we were eating, Sarah and I chatted.  We were talking about the penguins that will be coming to the zoo soon, and Sarah gave me some very good advice.   Here is what she told me:

 

"Penguins are soft.  You can pet them.  But unicorns are bumpy.  They can hurt your hand, so you should be careful when you touch them."

 

Well!  I guess I learned something today!  Maybe I'll take her for early morning sweets more often, especially if she keeps sharing pearls of wisdom like this with me!!!

 

Pumpkin Patch

We love the Big Red Barn.  It is one of the highlights of our fall.  This year was even more fun because Sarah was old enough that we took her out into the pumpkin fields instead of just picking from one of the many pre-picked pumpkins!

 

Look how beautiful this place is.  How could we NOT enjoy our day?!

 

***This is the end of my free advertising for Big Red Barn!***

Sarah started her morning by pitching a huge fit and demanding a sucker.  Being the good parents we are, we said, "No" and then went back and bought it for her so she would shut up and enjoy some quality family time already.  *Sigh*  Parent of the Year Award recipients, right?

At any rate, it only took a few licks for her to pull it together and start to have some fun!

 

Nothing like a very vocal turkey (or three) to distract a girl and get her excited about being at the farm!  Sarah just giggled and giggled at this silly turkey, who was doing his very best to impress everyone in a 5-mile-radius with his gobbling skills....

 

We eventually moved from turkeys to goats.  When we got to the goat house, they were all inside and Sarah was a little bummed.  Luckily, Daddy had some quarters in his pocket, so he got some goat food for Sarah to use to entice the goats out of their house.  It worked!

 

 

 

Next on the list of things I wanted to accomplish was a photo of Sarah and her daddy.  Every year we've taken the same photo, and it's fun to see how she's grown!

 

 She was a little grouchy about sitting still for a picture this year, so this is the best we got:

  

 

Here is last year's photo:

 

And here's the photo from our first trip to Big Red Barn!

 

Next we participated in another annual tradition - climbing and jumping from the hay bale!  This year's hay bale was a little pathetic, but Sarah didn't seem to mind at all...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots and lots of jumping later, Sarah decided that she wanted to ride the horses.  Luckily, she settled for riding the pretend horses and not the real ones.

 

 

Her daddy still took her to visit the real horses, though, and Sarah was all over it!

 

 

 

While we were there, a nice lady offered to take our family photo.  Sarah, sensing Mommy's joy at this rare opportunity, immediately threw herself against me and refused to pick up her head.  Oh the well.  At least this photo is not indicative of the fun that we actually had!

 

 

Since we had visited all the animals, Sarah decided that it was finally time to check out the pumpkin selection!  She started with the gourds, which was a little problematic because Sarah is really into matching right now.  She kept trying to take the gourds out of their containers and match the "baby pumpkins" to the "mommy and daddy pumpkins" nearby...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we convinced her that all the gourds and pumpkins were exactly where they needed to be, she ran wild through the rows and rows of pre-picked pumpkins on display!

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes you have to stop to catch your breath!

 

 

And she's off again...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She finally stood still long enough for me to get a really good pumpkin photo...

 

 

...and then she noticed that there were rocks on the ground.  I guess those are far more interesting than boring old pumpkins!

 

 

Thankfully, she has a very short attention span and was completely distracted by the hayrides nearby! 

 

 

 

Daddy went to get tickets, and we headed down the hill to hop on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

 

 

We had to wait a while for the tractor to arrive, but Sarah quickly spotted a way to stay busy - running through the event space the Big Red Barn uses for weddings.  Look, Daddy!  There it is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually, the tractor showed up and Sarah got to go on her first hayride!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, we were at the pumpkin fields!

  

 

Sarah was off on a quest to find the perfect pumpkin.  She would run over to one and say, "This one is my favorite."  And then she would run to a different one and say, "This one is my really favorite!"

 

 

 

 

 

Walking through all those vines requires some fancy footwork...

 

And then she found it - her FAVORITE pumpkin!

Whew!  Picking a...um...pumpkin is really hard work! 



 

With the perfect pumpkin in hand, we grabbed some apple doughnuts and an apple cider slushy and headed home for the day.  Thanks for another year of memories, Big Red Barn!  We'll see you next year...