watch out…here I come

these will soon be my new wheels….a valco tri-mode twin ex stroller with the toddler seat and ride along attachments. charlie will have 2 options – to sit in the toddler seat or stand on the ride along. bill and I were able to test drive one yesterday in minneapolis, which confirmed that this stroller will be the best fit for us (there are not that many options for people who need 3 kids strapped down). I love that it is only double wide, but can strap in 3 kids. they even said you could do “light” jogging with all 3 kids in it (just the stroller is about 40 lbs)! doubt that will be happening, but the girls will definitely be spending a lot of running time in this stroller. it collapses down really easy and will definitely fit in the back of the highlander.  after a bit of coaxing, charlie got in the toddler seat and loved it (not sure how long that will last, but it was better than crying the whole time).

I can’t wait to have all 3 kiddos in it and be on our way to a park! you definitely won’t miss me!

the ride along attachment.

28.5 weeks

this pregnancy just keeps clipping by. I am so excited to reach the 30 week mark. we were able to see the girls today and they are doing great! this is the first ultrasound where they measured a bit different, but my doctor reassured us that the variance is so small that there is no concern and is well within the margin of error of ultrasound machines. both girls are still head down and baby a is really low so it is hard to even get a good head circumference measurement on her. baby a is measuring about 27 weeks 6 days and weighs about 2 lbs 5 ounces. baby b is measuring about 28 weeks 2 days and weighs about 2 lbs 10 ounces (so they are about 2-3 days off). their weights are calculated on their head, abdomen and femur measurements. what they mostly look at is that both babies continue to grow from their last measurements and stay within a reasonable size of each other.  we continue to be grateful that our girls are thriving and growing so well. praise be to our God.

baby a’s profile.

baby b’s profile.

in case you were curious what a placenta looks like on ultrasound – here you go. the u/s tech has to check the placenta, cervix, etc and just happened to print a picture of the placenta. lovely. it is the big grey blob near the bottom of the screen.

here’s the belly at 28 weeks.

in other baby news, we are now starting to put the nursery together for the girls. bill and I were talking about how this is really the first time we are setting up a nursery before the baby arrives. when we were having charlie we moved 3 weeks after he was born so we just had random stuff everywhere and then put together the nursery over his first year of life! we ordered beautiful girl bedding for the girls and I can’t wait to get it into the girls room.

my parents came this past weekend to help me out while bill was on call and my dad was put to work on many house projects. I love getting things checked off my list! thanks dad and mom! we also cheered the packers on together and had some friends over to help celebrate. I still can’t believe they are going to the super bowl!!! go pack go!

charlie and his buddy “rah rah”. too bad c little never smiles for the camera. addison, on the other hand, is a little model!

my dear friend becca loving on charlie and addison.

intensely watching the game. I was a stress ball until the interception with 37 seconds left…then I realized we are going to the super bowl!!!

milk…please

since coming home from beaver creek, charlie has been sleeping in his new room. due to a friend’s generosity he is still sleeping in a crib, but it is now downstairs. on his first night in his new room I started the new space heater I had purchased for his room and kissed him goodnight. I turned on the monitor when I went to sleep because I wanted to make sure I knew what was going on since he is now downstairs from us and I am a little scared about him sleeping on the lower level. around 3:30 am I heard charlie saying “milk…please” over and over and over. I was delirious and kept thinking he would go back to sleep so I just let him continue on. I also checked him out on video and he didn’t look upset so I figured he was just adjusting to his new room or schedule since we were back on central time. by 4:15 or 4:30 am I figured I should probably go check on him. I brought some milk with me as I went downstairs. as I entered his room I was greeted with a blast of hot, humid (I had a humidifier running too) air. I saw on the space heater that his room was 90 degrees!!! then I hear charlie…”hi mama…milk…please”. I felt horrible! no wonder the kid wanted some milk he was sleeping in a sauna. surprisingly he wasn’t drenched in sweat (I think because he had been standing up asking for milk – not sleeping in the blankets). he downed 2 glasses of milk and I let his room cool down. I then rubbed his back until he went back to sleep. in the morning, I read the space heater directions and realized with this heater every time you turn it on you have to “reset” the max heat setting you want. arg! I felt like such a neglectful mom!

in other funny charlie news he always says “shyep” when he says yes. and “nope…mmhmm” for no. it cracks bill and me up.

he is constantly saying "hold hold hold" or "me me me" because he wants to do everything by himself and usually wants to hold whatever we have. when i want to put his shoes on he says "me me me tie shoes". so now i have to try to put on his shoes and tie them all while convincing him that he is doing it. i wish he could tie his shoes now, but that just isn't going to happen for awhile.

when he wants me to come play with him he calls me like he calls lily..."mama! come!" or he says "mama...play...cars...now!" occasionally he will throw a please in, which usually gets more of a response from me. i do love how much he is trying to communicate now.

ski videos

i realized i never posted ski videos from beaver creek. i also never posted these hysterical pictures from our flight home. we were delayed for almost the whole day at the denver airport. so in an attempt to get charlie a nap bill rigged up this system. if you can't tell it is our umbrella stroller balancing between our 2 suitcases with bill's jacket over the top to darken it and my leg holding it from flipping over.
as you can see charlie found a spot to look out...then charlie saw...unit! jonathan was flying out the same day (just 5 hours later) except he ended up flying out before us! charlie was ecstatic to see him again and was let out of his nap contraption without ever taking a nap.
onto the ski videos. here is one where we were headed back to the condo. as you can hear we were bribing charlie with marshmallows and dvds. he was pretty tired.



another video of charlie skiing some "pow". on our second day we woke up to a light dusting of snow and it was still snowing when we started. it was so pretty.

beaver creek

what a trip! I am so glad we decided to make it a priority to visit friends and take a family vacation before the girls arrive. 

we set off to denver early on wednesday.

after an uneventful flight, I was glad to be at the denver airport waiting for pick up.

after arriving, we went to hang out at jonathan’s house to get charlie a nap and wait for him to finish up work. charlie was ecstatic to discover this huge water buffalo in the house (it apparently stays with the house).  whenever he wasn’t napping he was requesting to touch the big dog.

 

our wonderful hosts – jonathan and sam. the whole trip was over the top – thank you!!!

we decided to get a late lunch at cherry cricket – a famous burger joint in denver. jonathan was able to ditch out of work a bit early and meet us there. while there jonathan said he could work from beaver creek thursday so if we wanted we could leave that night. we were all aboard, but we also wanted to eat at a favorite mexican restaurant of theirs.  I love eating and eating for 3 is both a blessing and a curse. I have to very carefully pace myself because my stomach is about the size of a orange. it is quite frustrating for me because pacing myself while eating is not something I am used to. either way both of the restaurants were delicious and worth the stomach pain from stuffing myself.

charlie and “unit” at cherry cricket.

 

packing to drive up to beaver creek.

me and jim at el camino.

jonathan, charlie and bill. charlie was doing well considering it was 9 o’clock our time.

we arrived in beaver creek at our amazing ski in/ski out condo late that night, but delighted to have a perfect place to stay for the next few nights!

we woke up and got right down to business…skiing. the day was perfect – 35 and sunny!

gear on.

charlie ready to go.

then he realized how tired he was (and we later realized…really hot!). marshmallows were a great bribing tool.

ready for our first family ski trip.

our happy fam.

I skied both thursday and friday. it was great. I would have gone nuts sitting in the condo. the funny thing is when I get on skis I don’t even feel pregnant. I was a bit more cautious and when bill, jonathan and I went out skiing while charlie was napping on friday I stayed away from mogels and trees. I am so glad I have been able to ski pregnant with all of our kids.

bill doing what he does best…teaching charlie to ski.

his legs were dying the first day because charlie needed a bit more help.

we had to take a few of these during the 3 days. a cliff bar or marshmallow break on the side of the hill. after about 2 runs charlie’s legs would get tired and he would say “break”. we also realized on this stop how hot charlie was!

chairlift pic! the chairlift is definitely one of charlie’s favorite parts of skiing.

sam and jonathan came out and joined us and jonathan took a turn with charlie.

charlie was overjoyed that sam and unit came out. he is such a showoff. when I would ski next to him he wouldn’t acknowledge me that often. but when sam or unit came by he would say “hi sam!” or “hi unit!” and wave. what am i….chopped liver?

charlie was such a champ. he would ski 2-3 runs and then it would be lunch and nap time. we would have him take a shorter nap so he could get up and ski another 2-3 runs and then be done for the day. so after a day of skiing we would let him watch a DVD (we don’t really watch them at home. I try to keep them a car trip thing) and he loved it. here he is zoned out.

the best thing about charlie being so exhausted at the end of each day is that he went to bed at 7. so we all got to enjoy a quiet dinner together.

getting ready for another day. check out charlie’s adorable ski pass. they would scan it for each run and most of the employees would say he is “one”? we would correct them and say he is one and a half, but everyone loved that we had this little dewd out on the hill.

bill was such a huge help. getting my ski boots on was really difficult because I needed to be able to bend in half and really crank on them so he volunteered to help me and charlie get our boots on. such a dad!

friday started out as a snowy overcast day. charlie would say he was skiing “pow”!

it was on this morning that charlie decided he really wanted to ski in the trees. he would say “down…trees” because he wanted to bail off the trail and go out of bounds and into the trees. we tried to explain that you can only ski in bounds and only ski in the trees when you are older, but it was pointless. bill decided to pick charlie up and ski a bit in the trees. he loved it and would say “hide…trees”.

after nap, we were all out again and the sun came out.

bill and charlie taking a break. we were almost done with the day. we were going down to meet sam for hot chocolate (beers for everyone else), but charlie kept saying “more…break”. he was pooped. we used hot chocolate, french fries and marshmallows as bribery to get him going.

after we reached the bottom we saw the gondola and knew charlie would love riding in it. so bill and I skated (bill with charlie and me with a chocolate chip cookie someone was handing out that I knew charlie would love and charlie’s skis) a super far way. we were exhausted, but we made it! charlie loved the gondola and the cookie. it was worth it. we rode it up, downloaded and then rode it up again and skied down.

charlie was happy to get to sam and get some “hot daduck” (hot chocolate) and french fries.

enjoying their drinks.

charlie and unit checking their work.

then comes the egg drama….so saturday morning I made bill and charlie some eggs. charlie usually eats eggs without a fight. we are now at a point with charlie and eating where he has to take a bite of everything on his plate. he doesn’t have to finish it, but he at least has to taste it. so we told charlie he had to take one bite of his eggs. he refused. maybe we should have dropped it, but we wanted to follow through. then it became the battle of the wills….between bill and charlie. thank goodness bill was willing to battle him because I don’t think my pregnant mind would have handled it. 1 hour later bill was still holding the piece of egg. bill would ask charlie what he needed to do and charlie would say “bite…egg”. if bill asked charlie what would happen after he ate the egg he would answer “up high, ski, etc”. he knew exactly what he should do and that he needed to follow through on bill’s instruction. finally, after about an hour standoff (10 minutes before 9 when we could get them on the hill) charlie obeyed. he opened his mouth, ate the egg and swallowed and we had a major party. he got to have marshmallows and hot chocolate before skiing and we praised him like crazy. he would then repeat “me…bite…egg” and he was so proud that he obeyed us. thanks to bill for holding out and following through.

here is a picture of the standoff…

leaving to go skiing for the last day. it was awesome the elevator opened right into our condo.

in front of the ritz at beaver creek.

by the end of the trip charlie was skiing great. each day he improved. he could make it top to bottom in 13 minutes (we have one whole run on video) and was making small attempts to turn. bill was able to let charlie way out in front of him and side slip down the steeper runs, which bill said saved his legs. I am going to post a few videos on another post.

bill, charlie and jonathan on the last run.

saturday night, we got a babysitter and went out to eat at Spago – a wolfgang puck restaurant. it was a wonderful evening and ended the trip on a high note. sadly, I forgot my camera so I don’t have any pictures. the packers also beat the falcons that night so it was even better. the trip was a blast and it was so refreshing to take a break and hang out with great friends. thanks jonathan and sam for an unforgettable vacation!