The month that never ended

May...every time I think about it I have to take a nap. Which is my excuse for blogging about it in July :). If you make it through this entire post you will see swimming lessons, another major sick kid, several weeks of near-single parenting, entering the third trimester, a zoo trip, finding out we were moving, climbing, packing, more climbing, and a move without Alex. Whew! I'm so glad it's over, and I'll try to keep the stories brief (we all know the pictures are more fun anyway.

The first thing about May was a crazy baseball schedule. Alex only had one weekend that he didn't have games every day in addition to working his normal 45-hour work week. This is a normal part of his job in the ticket office, but we hadn't experienced it before, and it was major shell-shock for me as a mom of a busy toddler.

To help explain the craziness of this month, I will split the blog into weeks. Here is week 1:

We got back from our Boise trip on Monday the 30th, mid-afternoon. It took me about a day to get caught up on laundry, but I came home to an amazingly clean house, thanks to my wonderful husband who was bored without us at home :). It's constantly amazing to me how thoughtful Alex is when he thinks no one is looking...I'm a lucky girl!

Wednesday Alex had a baseball game in the afternoon, which meant that Olivia didn't see him except for a quick lunch in the afternoon. She definitely knows when he's not coming home, because I can see her being whinier and clingier than she normally is. I combat this by trying to get out of the house in the morning. Most mornings we go to the gym. I get my mom time while I work on the machines, and she gets to play with all new toys and new kids. She loves it, and I'm always refreshed and ready for the day after we get through. This day, however, my workout was cut short by our first of three blowout diapers that day. Uh-oh, I thought, not this again! It seems we just recovered from illness, so I just assumed it was something she ate and we went about our business.

Here's Olivia, sporting some half-pigtails :) I tried a whole bunch of new hairstyles this month, and loved them all...hence the pictures!

Thursday I had an ultrasound to check out some unclear photos from the 20 week ultrasound from a month before. Baby Casqueiro was very active, and it took about 3 times as long as normal because all he would do is kick the ultrasound machine. The ultrasound tech was very patient, and I kind of enjoyed watching him move so much. Here's a few pics from that:

Alex also had baseball games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday that week. YUCK! By this point in the season, I was WAY beyond disliking baseball. It seemed like it would never end! Usually we would go for a few innings during the weekend games, but it turns out Olivia's diapers were indicative of another pretty long-lasting illness, complete with puking-in-the-crib messes and more blowout diapers than I can count. Alex and I both realized that we have been very lucky with a healthy happy child for the first 18 months because this two-week sickness had us all on edge. I felt trapped in the house during the day, because I didn't want to infect other kids, and it seemed like every day that she got a little better, the next would be worse again. I know I can't complain, a lot of parents have children that are attached to them all the time and cry much more than Olivia does. We just watched too many Disney movies and got sick of all our toys. I learned that it's okay to go to the doctor even for fairly minor symptoms when they are totally unusual for your child.

Week 2: This entire week Olivia was sick, but luckily Alex didn't have any baseball games. This being the case, he spent a lot of time cleaning up toys and playing with Olivia. One afternoon during her nap I asked him to clean up her toys (she plays with them a lot longer if they are clean when she gets to them), and came back to see this elaborate set up of her Little People :) He was very proud of his design, and Olivia did enjoy playing with them for quite a while.

Here is Olivia getting her first piano lesson :) Not very many will come from her dad, but this one did, and it was very sweet.

On the 8th we figured out that our moving plan (move the middle/end of June after Alex had completed his Fresno State internship) had to change. My sister Emily was moving down to Sacramento, but had to be settled before the 1st of June, and it was way easier for my parents to do both moves the same weekend. This was totally fine by me, as I was ready to be back in Oregon. Logistically, however, this made for a hectic three weeks before our Memorial Day move :). It's amazing the stuff you accumulate with a toddler, and none of it is really stuff you can pack ahead of time. We started with lots of organization of cupboards and such, but a vast majority of the packing had to wait until about 10 days before the move. Couple this with the fact that Olivia was still sick and on the BRAT diet, we had been stuck inside for a week so far, and it had been over 90 degrees every day...I was going crazy. I went through easily four otter pops a day just trying to stay cool (our apartment is air-conditioned, but I'm pretty cheap, and was running warm because of the pregnancy).

The one major outing we did during this week of sickness was to swim lessons. She started the week before, and I had a deal for four weeks, so I didn't want to miss any. Alex was able to come to this lesson, so I sat back and took dozens of pictures :). I should note that these are the first pictures with my new fancy schmancy camera, which was a Mother's Day gift. The difference in quality is amazing, even though I have yet to learn about all the little tricks and features.

Here's a few pictures from that lesson, where Olivia practiced kicking, floating on her back, and going under water. Can you tell she's a total water baby?

This was Alex's only weekend off in May, so we played a lot that weekend. Saturday morning we headed to the park - in Fresno you have to go as early as possible, because by 10:30 the slides and other things are hot to the touch and the sunburn starts setting in.

We were still battling Olivia's illness, which seemed to get worse and better each day, and I always thought she was on the up-swing, even though that never really happened until we got on antibiotics. We were able to play a little each day, and just spent the rest a little quieter at home.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and it was a great one. Alex took Olivia out on a walk in the morning, which allowed me to organize a little (moving prep) and take a nap in the time that I would normally be chasing her around. He made me my favorite weekend breakfast (choc chip pancakes) and had a great dinner planned as well.

After nap time we headed to the park for some Mother's Day pictures. They aren't the most flattering of me...baby #2 wanted to join the pictures as well :)...but I really wanted to remember that special day, and have a reminder of how much I love being a mom to this sweet little girl. She's getting big way too fast for my liking!

Here is Olivia licking the beater from dessert...I think she added more drool than she took off treat, but she enjoyed it!

I have some hilarious play-by-play of the eating of the creme puffs...will post in a separate post. Apparently I have too many pictures in this one :).