Safety City Graduation

Ann graduated Safety City this last Friday. She has had so much fun there these last two weeks, I wish it could last all summer for her. I took pictures of this with our actual camera instead of my phone like all of the other pictures on my blog. We'll see how long it actually takes me to get those pictures uploaded and added to this post.

And only 3 weeks later her are pictures! These are all of the Safety City Camp pictures not just graduation.

Inside Safety City

Telling a police officer her phone number and address

Stopping at a stop sign 

Stopping at a traffic light

Graduation certificate

Squirt the robot (he could speak, follow the kids around and squirt water at them!) and a fireman.

Police car robot

Sparky the fire safety dog

On a fire truck

The ceremony 

After the graduation I let Ann pick out where to eat. Her favorite restaurant right now is Noodles and Company, or as she calls it Company Noodles. So, after about 2 seconds of thinking about it she screamed out, "Company Noodles, Company Noodles, Company Noodles!" It's one of the few places we can go and just order with out making a huge fuss about being gluten free. We can order regular food off of the regular menue and have to make any adjustments to it.  It was a really nice day, slight over cast and around 70 degrees. So, we ate outside. 

Ann with her mac 'n' cheese rice noodles

Nia and her pod Thai. 

Me using my pregnant tummy as a table. Isn't Cameron talented being able to balance a cup of lemon aid on his feet like that? 

Next we quickly dropped Nia off at the house and Ann took me to the doctor. This started 'taking me to the doctor' as a way to give Nia some alone time, but really has become a very important role for Anara. I think it helps her connect with becoming a big sister. She is very interested in all the gagets the staff at the office use to check on baby Cam. She asks them questions and tells them them things that she thinks are important for them to know. She holds my hand and rubs my arm when she feels like something unusual is going on. She is really very supportive. She has asked to come to the hospital when he is delivered, and even though I think she would do fine, it's just not the place for a 4 year old. Maybe if she were about 10 years older. 

After my appointment, I took her to get ice cream and cold stone. 

Nia's Mommy Daughter Date

As the birth of baby Cameron draws closer I decided to get in some quality one on one time with each of the girls. Thursday was Nia's turn. After dropping her sister off at Safety Camp we headed to downtown Westerville for coffee at Heavenly Cup and a relaxing stroll through the cute shops. Nia picked out a wedding dress she liked at Bella Laccio Bridal (we won't be needing that for a decade or 2). We saw cute little kid clothes at Hey Diddle Diddle then went upstairs to Gallery 202 to take in some art. We window shopped at many of the other stores before ending our trip at Westerville Antiques. 

This is a cabinet I really liked at the antique store.

We also picked up a really cool turquoise ring for Nia at the same shop. 

False Alarm

John and I were sitting in class this morning and it was very hard to concentrate because I started having contractions. They were 2 minutes apart. After the first hour we left class and went by the house to pick up a few things and tell the girls we were going to the hospital. We got to the hospital at the top of the second hour. Contractions still going strong. After nearly another hour, the contractions began to get weaker and farther apart. At hour 3 they had just about stopped and I was not dilated at all so, back home we went.

Found a new Park

I feel fortunate to live in an area blessed with so many public parks. I have been passing this one on the way back and forth to Safety Camp and the girls and I decided to check it out.

We were hoping for another great playground, but decided this was a cool trade off. We almost didn't go down the little road that leads to this area. we had driven around the entire rest of the park were we found a large, free frisbee golf course and a few picnic areas. The road to this area was smaller and didn't look like it would do anything but dead end. The park itself is away from everything on the very edge of town, in fact you pass through some farm land to get to this side of the park. On the other side of the damn and other side of the bank is a different story. There are large neighborhoods and booming businesses. I have actually passed by the top of this several time with out realizing what was on the other side.

Ultrasound Picture

The first ultrasound picture of Cameron's face!!

Previously he has been facing backward or had his feet and hands crossed overs his face. The later has happened 3 times. So even though this is only a partial view, I am so excited to see what my baby boy looks like. I think he has John's cheeks and nose.

Dinner Conversation with Ann

This is Ann's favorite dress, it has a Paris scene around the bottom. I think this is what inspired our dinner conversation tonight. It was just the two of us eating together tonight. 

Ann: Mom, you know what drives me crazy?
me: What?
Ann: Myself.
me: Yourself?
Ann: Myself.
me: What about yourself drives you crazy.
Ann: Moving.
me: Then moving drives you crazy, not yourself. We are not moving so you don't have feel crazy about it.
Ann: I never want to move again.
me: Well, I'm sure we will move eventually, just not anytime soon.
Ann: But what about our stuff, I'll miss our stuff.
me: Don't worry we will take it with us.
Ann: What about our kitchen, I like our kitchen, I'll miss our kitchen.
me: Remember our old kitchen?
Ann: Yes.
me: This kitchen is way better than our last kitchen, maybe our next one will be even better.
Ann: Ok, but we have to move to France.
me: France? Why France?
Ann: We have to move to France so we don't have to learn how to speak English.
me: We are speaking English and if we move to France we will have to learn how to speak French.
Ann: Ok, we can learn French.

Safety City Camp

Yesterday, Ann headed off to camp for the first time! 

She was so excited and had so much fun both yesterday and today. Safety City last for 2 weeks. She learns about things like dialing 911, goes of field trips to fire and police stations, and they have a mock city the kids get to practice safety rules while pedaling around on trics.

Ann's Big Sister Class

Ann took a visit to the hospital that baby Cam will be born in this weekend for tour and a big sister class. First she went to a class room and got to practice her big sis skills. She took her favorite doll Grassy to use as her baby.

How to hold a baby with their head in your elbow.

Changing a diaper (which she has assured me that she NEVER wants to do).

Burping a baby after feeding them. 

She also learned a few more skills and took a tour of the maternity ward. Although, the thing she found most interesting on the maternity ward was the window that over looked the parking lot. All the kids on the tour took turns pointing out their car. At the end of the tour we went back to the class room and she got a coloring book, crayons, and a big sister pen to wear to the hospital when Cameron arrives.  

Baby Shower!!

Two of my friends threw me a baby shower this last Friday. I don't know why, but I didn't take any photos while I was there. It was a lot of fun and we were given some much needed items for baby Cam. The best part was being able to hang out and catch up with old friends. I have been truly blessed the last few years to have these women in my life.

John and Ann

I love, love, love this picture of John and Ann

Annie Being a Bird

What I've been making while we were sick

This little scarf was for Ann. She loves to feel on things, so I thought I would whip this up to give her something to rub on while she was down and out. She was so sick in this photo, but she gave me a true smile. 

This is the baby blanket that I made for our friends, Derek and Jeri, that had their baby, Elijah, this weekend. I really love how it turned out. So much I went and picked up 3 different colors to do the same pattern for baby Cam. The yarn I picked out for Cam will not make good tassels though.

Another scarf. My friend Elizabeth has a pasion for purple. I had 1 ball of purple yarn so I turned it into this scarf for her. I thought it would be enough, however I ran out so I added some 2 tone gray and purple to it. I like how it turned out also. My model was less than thrilled to have it around her neck. Can't blame her, she had just come in from outside where it's 90 degrees today. 

Cloth Diapers

My story with cloth diapers began when Nia (now 11) was a newborn. I decided to give them a try. I assumed that you could just go to your local Wal-mart, grab a pack of the cute, printed cloths, and proceed to diaper your baby with them. Since those 'diapers' are really designed to be used as burp clothes, my one day trial was filled with nothing but wet everywhere. Months later I actually met a mom who cloth diapered the real way. I was intrigued, but not enough to relive that first test trial.

Six and a half years later I was blessed with my second child, Ann. By this time the internet was in full swing and my little Ann's sensitive skin was constantly broken out in a diaper rash. We would miss outings just so I could let her go diaper free. After researching what to do about constant diaper rash, I came across the new cloth diaper. The one size pocket diaper. I researched what many felt was the best (of only a few brands) on the market, BumGenius. Then on product 2.0. I proceeded to make about a dozen of my own pocket diapers designed after the pictures on the Cotton Babies web site of the BumGenius. My homemade diapers were not the best, not even close, but it did get rid of Ann's rash and made my husband and I decide to make the switch. At first we used my homemade cloth during the day and a disposable at night. A month later we ordered a couple dozen prefolds, 2 diaper covers, and 2 of the coveted BumGenius one-size 2.0s from cottonbabies.com. We used the BumGenius at night and my homemade and prefolds during the day. I loved my BumGenius and eventually built up enough of a stash of them to last Ann 2 days. Below is an example of a 2.0, not the one-size or a pocket diaper like we used, but you get the idea.

So, what are we doing diaper wise for the new baby? If you guessed BumGenius 4.0, you are right! We will be starting with 6 BumGenius, 18 prefolds, and 3 ecobum covers. Eventually we will get more pocket diapers. I would totally go with only BumGenius, but I have read on several blogs that you should tryout a diaper on a baby's behind for a while before you dish out the dough on a full stash of them. Every bottom is different and different diapers work better on different kids. Below is an pic of a 4.0, now I can get them in prints!

Also in prep for the new baby and his cloth diapers I cut 12 inch by 5 inch rectangles from fleece to use as diaper liners. This is so simple. I bought 2 feet of polar fleece fabric which was on sale, 1 foot of each fabric. Then cut 5 inch sections. No need to sew, fleece doesn't fray. I didn't use liners with Ann, but I like the idea. The cost for the liners was under $3 and it made a total of 22.  They are cheeper and totally cuter than the liners you find for sale also. 

For wipes we use cut up old t-shirts. I asked friends on facebook to give me old t-shirts they no longer wanted. My only tip here is to make them all the same size and make that size one that will fit into the container of you choice. We are using a container that would normally hold disposable wipes.

Insulin

I started insulin today. I was really upset about the whole thing, I mean really upset. I have done absolutely everything I have been told to do, but it just isn't working. Now that I've taken the first couple of doses, it's not so bad. It actually doesn't hurt at all. The needles are so very tiny that if I wasn't giving it to myself I wouldn't feel them.

Our house is still kinda sick. John seems to be all better. A few coughs here and there. I think I am getting better, still a little way to go. Ann, well today she is better than she has been in a week and a half, but still laid on the couch all day. Nia has been fighting it. She is definitely congested, but says she feels fine. However, she has taken a long nap most days for the last week.

sick house

My sick babies sleeping on the living room floor and my littlest one on me.

The house has been sick for over a week now. John seems to be getting better. Ann and I have brochettes, but also seem to be on the up swing of it. Nia hasn't been too sick, but does have a cold. She has been sleeping about twice as much as usual so I think her body is just fighting it off. On the flip side, I am super excited about my baby shower which is 3 days away!!!
Also, our friends Jeri and Derek had their baby on Sunday! We are very excited for them.

Rough Week

The first part of the week the AC was out and the girls found a black widow in their room. Now 3 of us are sick. Head ache, congestion, cough, body aches all over, slight fever, and my heart is going crazy. It's a little after 3 AM and I am up tonight with Ann. She woke up throwing up flem.