New Bookshelves

Daniel finished the bookshelves in Sullivan's new room this weekend!  I'm so happy with how they turned out.  Even with all these new shelves, we filled them up to the brim! I'm going to have to start weeding out some of the books that aren't our favorites and donating them.  I love that this one dead space behind the door is now so functional, and Sullivan has loved being able to easily see his books and pick each night.  My hubby is the bomb.

In other news, I figured it was time for another belly shot.  I feel bad I haven't documented this pregnancy like I did the first go round.  This photo also confirms that at the end of the day, I look as tired as I feel. Also, I need a haircut.

We (mainly Daniel) knocked a few other projects out this weekend:

• painted chest of drawers and moved it in new room
• hung curtains (with blackout, thermal liners) in new room- I'm not crazy about these, but they are doing the job for now and were cheap!
• got pillows for new bed- makes me much happier with bedding now

Still to do:

• finish the cradle (either milk paint it, or stain it, or paint it)
• hang pictures in new room
• move all Sullivan's stuff to new room
• set up changing table
• set up crib
• move rocker back to baby room
• Have and NAME baby girl

Baby girl updates

I had a sonogram and doctor's appointment on Monday, so Daniel and I got what will probably be our last peek at baby girl before she arrives in December.  She is measuring in the 51% percentile, so perfectly average.  They estimate she weighs 2lb 15 oz, has a good bit of hair on her head, and is in the head down position. She has never cooperated and given us a good profile or facial shot, so it will be a real surprise when she is born!  The office was running WAY behind, so we were there for about 4 hours.  Seeing our baby girl and getting a good update is worth it, of course.

I'm knocking on 30 weeks, so if she comes when Sullivan did, only 7 weeks to go! 7 weeks is NOTHING! My list of things to accomplish before she arrives is long, but I know a lot of this is just nesting, so I'm trying to just do one thing at a time and not freak out.  Daniel has stripped the 40?+ years of paint from the family cradle, painted Sullivan's new room (he's moving into the guest room), built book shelves for new room, and pulled out tons of baby stuff from the attic for me to go through.  Once I can get him settled in his new room, I'll be able to get the nursery set back up and organized.  Hopefully that will calm my anxiety a bit.

Sullivan showing off his new room that Daddy painted!

Sullivan had his first violin lesson yesterday afternoon.  It did not go as smoothly as I had hoped, but I probably need to lower my expectations considering he's 3.  He learned proper standing position and the parts of the bow and violin.  He and I will continue to work on this stuff this week, and maybe next week the class will go a little smoother.  (fingers crossed) He wasn't bad, but had trouble focusing and would come hide on me or pout sometimes, so I spent a lot of the class just trying to encourage him to come listen or pay attention to the teacher.  Oh well.

Anna and I took the kiddos to visit my grandparents last weekend.  We had a great time going out for lunch, playing in the yard, and visiting.

End of Summer

The first weekend of Fall, we took a quick trip down to Florida for one last beach trip.  We drove to Spanish Fort after work on a Thursday, so that Friday we would have almost a full day at the beach.  I'm thankful we did, since this ended up being the only sunny day besides the day we left. :) We tried to make the best out of the weather and ran down to the beach between rain showers.  This trip was a package that Daniel had won in an auction at a beer tasting and came with gift certificates to several restaurants, golf, The Track, etc.  Because of this we tried out some new places and pretty much didn't pay for food our entire trip!  Unfortunately, on our last day Sullivan started complaining of a sore throat and went quickly down hill from there.  It was a LONG drive home with a sick child, and he ended up with a viral infection in his lungs and throat that kept him home from school the whole next week.  All in all, not our best beach trip, but at least it was some time away from the usual stresses.

Lunch out upon arriving. Sullivan got to touch an alligator, but it was so fast I didn't get a picture.

Dinner out our first night. The last of our blue skies. 

One advantage of late season and poor weather; we had the beach almost to ourselves!

The waves and tide were too rough to really play in, so we did LOTS of sand castle building.

We had promised donuts all week, so we made a stop on our way out of town even though he was feeling so bad he didn't even eat his chocolate sprinkle doughnut. You know a kid is sick when that happens. :(

Our life the following week. Thankfully, he's feeling much better and back at school now.