Day 182 - June 30

Corn, anyone?

Day 181 - June 29

A group of CG wives headed to a local paint-your-own picture studio tonight for a girl's night out. I've been wanting to try it out and figured I should probably get there before the baby comes. Painting through Braxton-Hicks contractions turned out to be difficult enough... I'm imagining it would be a lot harder with a baby in a carrier!!

So I painted something to hang in our bathroom... where we have nothing on the walls and we've been here for 2 years. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

And in the interest of full disclosure, I'll say that I did all the color, but one of the girls who works at the studio did the cool black and gold detail work. I'd like to say I could've done that (you just copy a picture), but I couldn't have.

Even though my artistic talents run in the music and photography arenas, I actually had fun and have something hang-able to show for it! YAY!

Day 180 - June 28

Today was an easy day to get a picture. 

All I had to do was sit down to check messages on my phone after M and I got out of the pool this afternoon, and she stood right in front of me and said, "Take my picture!"

So I did.

And the smile is courtesy of her being close enough to tickle her a little... much better than the "cheese!!!" smile she gave me three pictures earlier.

Day 179 - June 27

First of all, I can tell already that if/when I look back at this post, it's going to drive me insane that I didn't edit these pictures at all. They're a little too "warm" looking, courtesy of taking them by the light of a bazillion lightbulbs in a dark house. Ugh.

Now that I got that out of the way...

I was CRAFTY tonight! And I have to say I'm a little proud of myself. I saw this idea on Pinterest and actually pinned it and then DID it. CRAZY. (Usually I just pin things and forget about them. Which is totally not the point of Pinterest.)

I thought the idea of a "Big Sister" bag would be cute to have at the hospital to give Michaela when she comes to visit us for the first time after Yellow is born. So after a trip to Hobby Lobby the other night, I had all the supplies I needed to put this one together. The bag is stuffed with some things to keep her busy (pipe cleaners, some coloring pages and washable markers, color your own stickers, and foam boards and stickers), and we'll also put the "Big Sister" outfit I bought her months ago in there. We'll have her change into it when she gets there.

Watch out world... I know how to use a glue gun now!! I'm pretty impressed with myself for this being the first time I've tried anything like this. Granted, it was easy stuff, but still....

Day 178 - June 26

Oh, some days I just don't know what I'm going to do with the toddler. Then I get scared about the fact that another child will be here in about a month. What am I going to do with the toddler when I also have to deal with a newborn? *sigh*

For some reason this morning, Michaela was sad about everything. Maybe she didn't get enough sleep last night, maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I don't know what it was, but everything was pouty faces and, "I'm just sad that....." from her.

At some point, mid-morning-ish, she asked for a snack of peanuts. Generally, she has to eat peanuts in the kitchen because they're greasy, but I was feeling bad about the pouty-ness, so I told her she could sit in her rocker instead. She chose to use the ottoman as her table, and I thought all was well.

But minutes after getting situated, I got a pouty face and a declaration of being sad about something (I don't remember what it was), and I was just happy that I had my phone ready to take a picture already. That look on her face is just priceless. I call this one "Snack with a side of pout."

The drama. Oh, the drama.

Day 177 - June 25

I apologize for being a day late on this.... I fell asleep on the couch sometime between 8 and 8:30 last night. I'm proud I managed to stay up that late because I really thought I'd be asleep hours before that. I think it's safe to say that 6-ish hours of sleep are not enough for someone who's just about 36 weeks pregnant.

Anywho.... before falling asleep, I did manage to make my way outside while Michaela and Jason enjoyed a watermelon snack. You'll remember the ginormous watermelon from a few days ago - yeah, we (and by that, I mean Jason) finally hacked into it and we now have ginormous quantities of watermelon in our fridge.

Before chunking it up, though, Jason cut a few slices for Michaela and himself, and she enjoyed sitting at her picnic table, dribbling juice everywhere, and then finding seeds just so she could try to spit them out.

So the picture for the day is a valiant effort at spitting a seed. Nice, right?

Day 176 - June 24

This is what a well-conditioned dog looks like.

I'd say well-trained, but he's not the trained one... we're the trained ones.

Since he was a puppy, we've been giving Fred a big treat at dinner time so that he won't beg at the table. He hasn't tried to beg in years, and yet he still gets a treat. On the nights we eat out, he flips out when we get home, following us around until we get him his treat - even though we didn't eat at home.

So this is what he looks like, not-so-patiently waiting for me to get around to giving him his treat, after Michaela and I got home from our dinner out.

Deprived and desperate dog.

Day 175 - June 23

In an effort to find something different and fun to do - INSIDE - today, we headed to Dauphin Island to visit the Estuarium. It definitely fit the bill on something different (Jason had brought Michaela down there last year when I was in AK but hadn't been back since), and, most importantly, it was an indoor activity. I seriously feel like such a wimp, but my big ol' pregnant self just can't take the 90+ degree temperatures for longer than a few minutes if I'm not in the pool.

Anyway, photo ops abounded, so tonight is a three-picture night.

One of the first things you see when you walk in is a low tank with turtles and a few fish swimming around. Michaela definitely loved that. She thought it was great that the turtles were coming to say hi to her.

But you're not allowed to put your hands in that tank, so we had to make our way to their small touch tank. Then we had to drag Michaela away from it.

Finally, I can pretty much make Jason do anything silly to take a picture. The last one proves that. Just sayin'.

Day 174 - June 22

On any given day recently, Michaela calls herself either Buzz (as in Lightyear of Toy Story fame) or Dash (of The Incredibles fame). Sometimes, she's both of them within minutes of each other. I hear a lot of "I'm not Dash. I'm Buzz now!" Or vice versa. Oh, and I get to be Jessie. Or Elastigirl. And Jason gets to be Woody or Mr. Incredible.

But even though she chooses to be male characters from movies, she's still got a little bit of Princess in there as well. The last two mornings, she's pulled out her Rapunzel dress (which is purple) and her Olivia ballet shoes (which are red... there is no matching going on here) so she could "ballet with the Beast." Not wanting to choose a favorite Princess, she just says she's a princess. This morning, Beast went back into the castle, but all the Princesses were there with her, because, "I'm a princess too!!" (said, while pointing to herself).

So here she is, dancing with the rest of the Princesses. There was a lot of twirling. A lot.

Day 173 - June 21

Happy First Day of Summer.

To celebrate, our CSA farmer included watermelon in our boxes this week. He warned us in advance they were coming, but I didn't expect this.

How the heck are 3 people going to eat this much watermelon????

Day 172 - June 20

Anyone who's a friend on FB will recognize these pictures from throughout my morning today. But I had to use them here, too, because they're cute pictures and because my day centered around having a sick toddler at home with me.

I had big plans to get my once-every-three-weeks pedicure today. And maybe get some Panera for lunch while the kid was at MDO.

All that changed when I opened her bedroom door this morning to get her up and ready for school and was greeted with, "I don't feel good, Mommy. I need saltines." I didn't think much of it because she often wakes up so hungry that her tummy bothers her and it's fine as soon as we get some food in her.

But I got her crackers, and she was all cuddly and snuggly on the couch - not something that's usual for her - and then I broke out the towels to protect me and the couch. And I'm glad I did since one of the towels came in very handy in keeping me from getting, uh, messy.

Poor girl slept on and off for most of the morning - which is also completely unusual for her - and then, like a switch went off, she was fine!

So the first picture is her snoozing away flat on her back.

The second picture is how I found her after leaving the living room for about 5 minutes. Yes, she was still asleep, like this. I'm not sure how this happened.

And the last picture is when she was suddenly feeling fine.

Day 171 - June 19

For almost a year, if not more, Jason has been looking at bike trailers every once in a while, always pushing the thought aside due to the cost and the fact that we didn't really *need* the bike trailer.

Then he opened the target ad on Sunday and saw one on sale for only $82. It's a two-seater (though one kid can sit in the middle), can hold up to 80 lbs, and can fold flat (key in our house with no storage).

So I bought it while I was grocery shopping. That is the downside of doing most of your grocery shopping at Super Target.

It had its maiden voyage tonight and, according to the Daddy trip report, the kid LOVED it. She just didn't like that Daddy didn't want to go as fast as she did.

Day 170 - June 18

I've been meaning to take a new picture of myself for a couple weeks now. It's funny how I have one of my belly when I was pregnant with Michaela from about every single week through my pregnancy. This time around, I have about 5 pictures so far. I'm due in less than 6 weeks. Second kid....

Anyway, here I am today at 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I think I'm about the same size I was with M, only the baby is still up pretty high. I think M had dropped by this time, and I'm sort of looking forward to that happening. Though, the downside of that is that you go from having a hard time eating and breathing to having to pee every 5 minutes. I'm not sure which is worse.

It's funny... when I chose to continue this blog this year, I figured I could always supplement with belly pictures, but I think this is the first one that's made it here. I've been putting the others on the FlyingFish blog instead. But this is all I've got for a picture today, so here it is!

Day 169 - June 17

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that this picture was actually taken yesterday. But I thought it was appropriate for today, and I already posted the one picture I took today on FB.

Yesterday morning, Jason took M to Lowe's for their kid's fun building workshop (or whatever it's called). What he didn't realize, though, was that they only do the workshops every other weekend, and this was NOT the right weekend. Thankfully, the man he talked to took pity on him and gave him the kit from last week's workshop so they could bring it home to build together.

Minutes after walking through the door, Michaela was parked on the floor, ready to build her Madagascar 3 airplane with Daddy. She even left her shoes on - something unheard of these days since they're usually most of the way off before I can even get in the door. She did actually get the chance to use her new little hammer a bit, and she thought it was just great to be building something with her daddy.

He can paint fingernails AND he can put together wooden toys. Now THAT'S what you want in a little girl's daddy!

Day 168 - June 16

I have pictures of Jason and Michaela building a little toy together today, but I have to go with this one instead. 

It's the only picture I took from this afternoon, but it tells the story. A friend of mine threw me a small baby shower and she did a wonderful job. She was nervous about how well it went because she'd never done one before, and I think it was just perfect. Except we never played the games... sorry, Mandy!

The food was delicious, the company was great, the tower of diapers in all sizes that I now need to find a place for are VERY appreciated, and I just really appreciate that she wanted to do this for me and went to so much trouble.

So, thanks, girls, for spending some time this afternoon and showing me and Yellow a little love!  And thanks, Mandy, for doing it all. It was perfect!

Day 167 - June 15

You know you're desperate for a picture when you just take a picture of your computer screen.

It's not that we didn't do anything else exciting today, but I didn't take any other pictures, so I figured I'd share my evening fun.... shopping online at Gymboree.

I took advantage of their Everything $13.99 and Under sale, their liberal return policy (60 days for cash, 180 days for store credit), and a 20% off coupon to stock up on some new baby clothes for Yellow. Since Yellow's gender is a mystery, I bought a bunch of boy stuff and a bunch of girl stuff - thus the importance of that liberal return policy!

As long as Yellow comes close to on-time, I should have about a 2-3 week buffer to send back the unnecessary stuff and still get cash back. If not, well, I always like to shop a sale at Gymboree, so store credit won't hurt either.

I started with the girl stuff... anyone want to guess what kind of baby I'm hoping Yellow is???

Day 166 - June 14

It's more vegetables for today. This is what was in our CSA box this week. Actually this isn't even everything. We also got a few sprigs of basil and a quart of blueberries (super excited to get fruit). I seriously feel like we're cheating the farm by getting all of this for somewhere between $30-$40/week. It might even end up being less than that if the season goes long.

The problem is that I have no room in my refrigerator anymore. Both my produce drawers are full, as is most of the rest of the fridge. I'm trying to give some stuff away because we just can't eat it all. Maybe next summer we'll go in on a box with another smallish family and we might have a chance of using it all.

I'm not complaining too much, though. I seriously love that all of this is coming from a farm right up the road. I could even go visit it if I wanted to. That's keeping it local!

Day 165 - June 13

We haven't had a Michaela picture in at least three days, so we'll go with one of those today.

She wrapped two strands of Mardi Gras beads around herself this morning and told me it was her decorations. Or something like that.

Then she struck a pose. I wish it wasn't so blurry, but she couldn't stand still. Sometimes a picture doesn't have to be perfect to make you smile, though.

Day 164 - June 12

All the rain we got in the last few days seems to have brought one of our lizard friends out of hiding. Of course, I have no idea whether this is the same one that was hanging out on our Adirondack chairs earlier in the spring, but he was there today.

Before Michaela had the chance to scare it away (by yelling, "BOO!"), I ran inside and grabbed the camera so I could try to get a shot of this little guy.

I'm convinced, again, that I need a new macro telephoto zoom lens. I'm not loving this Tamron one because I just can't seem to get a crisp shot, but this one wasn't too bad.

Michaela did eventually scare the little guy into the tomato plant. Hopefully he's not snacking in there.

Day 163 - June 11

Another food post today because I did absolutely nothing else exciting today!

So Pinterest came to the rescue with my overflowing produce drawer again. Did I mention that we bought into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm this summer, so we get a big box of fresh, local produce every week? It's great, except every single squash on the farm ripened at the same time, so my produce drawer is literally overflowing with zucchini, yellow squash, and pattypan squash.

As you can imagine, I HAD to find some new ways to prepare all this squash - and not just do the same ol' sauté or steam.

Tonight's experiment was stuffed yellow squash and it was DELISH!!! I don't know how I ever survived without Pinterest!

(Oh, and so much for meatless Monday... that's a hunk of steak on the plate!)

Day 162 - June 10

So if it's not a picture of Michaela, you can pretty much assume it'll be a picture of food instead.

I'm just impressed with myself in that I made two different recipes that I found on Pinterest at dinner tonight. Usually I just pin stuff and then forget about it completely.

The one I took a picture of was a delicious eggplant side dish. It was super simple and really yummy. I didn't follow the recipe completely (it called for sliced cheese and I used shredded because it was what I had), but it was delicious anyway. And I got a whole small eggplant to myself because Jason won't eat it.

Thanks, Pinterest!

Day 161 - June 9

To say we got some rain today would be the understatement of the century. I'm not sure what the official rain total was, but I know Jason pumped about a foot off the pool before 1pm this afternoon. He also got to take the cover off the new pergola because it really likes to hold water. A lot.

It just dumped rain on us, starting with overnight storms. Seeing rain like that doesn't make you wonder why Mobile typically falls toward the top of the "rainiest US cities" list.

At some point after lunch, though, it slowed enough to make a quick run to the mailbox without getting soaked to the bone. Michaela was very happy to help in this endeavor, complete with rain boots and umbrella.

And I loved both of these pictures, so instead of just choosing one, I'm using both.

Day 160 - June 8

I wish this was the first time I had a picture like this...

When you drop your child off at 5:30 for a Parent's Night Out thing, and you go right to dinner from there (to a small restaurant), you run the risk of being the only people in the dining room.

Yep, we had this whole dining room to ourselves for the majority of our meal. And there was another dining room on the other side of the restaurant, which was also empty for quite a bit of our meal. It's like going out for the senior citizen special!

Day 159 - June 7

It was a big day here in the Dorval household.

Michaela made the move from her crib to her big girl bed.

Yikes.

I hadn't intended to do this until well after the baby comes. Yes, we'll need the crib for the baby, but not for quite a while (s/he will be either in our room or at least not in M's room until some kind of sleeping pattern is established so as not to disturb toddler sleep), so I figured we'd leave M in her crib for as long as we possibly could. Yes, my almost-3-yr-old was still in her full-on crib because she never figured out to try to climb out of it.

Anyway, while on vacation, she slept on a toddler-sized air mattress and really thought that was the coolest thing in the world. She loved being able to get into bed on her own, and, miraculously, stayed in the bed in the morning, calling for us to get her.

In need of storage for baby things, we figured we'd get the bed (it's a captain's bed, so M's clothes are now in it, leaving the dresser empty for baby stuff), knowing full-well that once it was here, she'd want to sleep in it. It showed up yesterday and Jason got it put together this afternoon, so tonight was the night.

The picture was taken as she was testing it out, before we put the safety rail on it and before it was cluttered up with all her "guys," but she was pretty excited to get the chance to finally sleep in her big girl bed!

I, on the other hand, am sad. My little girl is growing up entirely too quickly for my taste. And even though I get to do all the baby stuff all over again, there's just something so bittersweet about these milestones. And she, of course, made it harder on me by telling me she didn't need us to do rock-a-bye (one of us would hold her like a baby in our arms and sing rock-a-bye and then lay her in her crib), and instead just crawled into bed like the almost-3-yr-old she is.

Sniff.

Day 158 - June 6

We may have a stage-hog on our hands around here.

Our living room floor in front of the fireplace is a stage. The electrical box in front of the house is a stage (everyone knows about our dance parties, right?). The actual stage in the parish hall at our church is a stage (that can be slightly embarrassing as she screams out, "Shout it out, just like a rock star!!" at the top of her lungs during coffee hour). The stool from the bathroom is her "stool stage."

And, apparently, wherever her drum set is currently located is a stage.

I know this because today she told us that we needed to sit down and watch her put on her show. And she told us to hurry up because the next song was starting and we needed to be ready. Mommy got a pass because I was busy writing out bills and stuff. But Daddy was told in no uncertain terms to, "Sit down right here and listen."

So he did.

Day 157 - June 5

HALLELUJAH!!!!

Thanks to peer pressure (two older friends who came to swim this weekend with M), a little Jedi mind-trickery (thanks to those boys' mommy), and old-fashioned bribery (Reese's peanut butter cups), the child finally decided that she could, in fact, swim with her face in the water again.

A little back story - allllll last summer, she was jumping off the diving board, swimming with her face in the water more than out, letting us throw her in the pool, doing bobs, and generally had no fear about being in the pool.

Then she jumped into a freezing cold pool early this season, had a bit of a shock, maybe maybe had some water go up her nose, and all of a sudden we'd regressed to head-out-of-the-water swimming.

To make matters worse, we tried swimming lessons a couple weeks ago, and being "forced" to do things in the pool that she didn't want to made her regress even further. We pulled her from lessons after the second day because she was suddenly afraid to be in the water without both her floaty AND a pool noodle for flotation.

Fast forward to this weekend. We had friends over to swim and have dinner. They have two boys, both older than Michaela, but not so old as to be really big kids. Their boys are on the CG swim team here, and are like little fish. On top of that, Jess (their mom) helps to teach the youngest group of swimmers, so she had a cool little trick of using a dive ring to "talk to the fish" that Michaela thought was pretty fantastic. Between those two things, and leaving my truly stubborn child to her own devices, all of a sudden she was proudly sticking her whole face in the water through the dive ring so she could "talk to the fish."

Two days later, and two more afternoons in the pool, and she ONLY swam with her face in the water this afternoon!!! We're not back to jumping into the pool, but at least now we can pick back up with swimming lessons since she's gone to the next step!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 156 - June 4

Do you know what's fun?

Opening your mailbox and getting a postcard - an honest-to-goodness postcard - from a dear (and dearly missed) friend who gets to travel all over Alaska for work, and sent it from Nome.

Seriously. So much fun.

Day 155 - June 3

I have three pictures today. One of them is by special request... I'll get to that.

The other two are lovely pictures of our new pergola! Although it went up yesterday, it's more appropriate to use it for today's picture(s) because we got to test it out with company and everything!

We had some friends over to swim this afternoon and have dinner with us, and we thoroughly enjoyed the increased shade we have on our patio now. The umbrella that came with our patio set was definitely a big one, but it did NOT provide the shade that this thing provides.

Plus I got to hang pretty lights from it. Next up is colorful lanterns to hang from it to bring a little pop of color to the otherwise very beige patio!

And the requested picture might be a re-run from about this time last year... a little Lupine for my friend, Christina, who spotted some up here way (in Alaska) today and sent me a text to tell me because she knows how much I love it!

Day 154 - June 2

It was relatively cooler out today than it has been lately, so we took the opportunity to get outside for a bit this morning and took Michaela to the park.

Swinging and sliding were on the agenda, and I got a couple cute pictures. Neither of them is the most crystal-clear picture I've ever taken, but the content was too good not to share.

And that's all I have to say tonight!

Day 153 - June 1

Two pictures again tonight. And, again, they aren't related to each other at all. Well, they show the two polar opposites of Michaela, so there's how they're related.

First up is crazy, wild Michaela. When we got back from dinner (which was followed by ice cream, and I'm pretty sure she mostly ate ice cream for dinner), she remembered that she'd left her karaoke machine out and immediately found her favorite Fresh Beats songs and started dancing.

Apparently normal dancing wasn't good enough and head-banging was on the set list tonight.

The second was taken just a few minutes later, after getting pjs on and getting ready for bed, M cuddled up next to me for pre-bedtime storytime. She was kind enough to share fuzzy blanket with me when I told her my toes were cold. She even made sure that I covered up "your knee that's poking out a little." Very considerate girl! (Pay no attention to the quality of the second picture - it had gotten a little darker by the time it was taken, and I handed the camera over to the hubs in the Aperture priority setting, hoping the camera would do the work.... even after edits, I'm not loving how it looks, but I can't be choosey since there are so few pictures of me and the kid out there!)

So we start with crazy dancing and then 15 minutes later we have cuddly, ready-for-bed girl. Two sides of Michaela.