End of July (19-31)

After we got back from a few days in Philomath, we tried to get back into normal life and get our schedule straight. I was definitely feeling the closeness of Carter arriving, and didn't feel like straying too far from home. I also was a lot less mobile and willing to get on the ground a play, so I did a lot of picture taking!

 

This was just taken in the backyard, where Olivia found a bug. Dad helped her get it onto a stick and she walked it around for a good ten minutes before waving it around violently to get the bug off...oh well!

 

We also spent a lot of time at the park. One particular day we saw our neighbors who have a daughter just slightly younger than Olivia. O loves this little girl, and is always talking about her, even when we haven't seen the family in weeks. This was only the second time we had ever seen them, but the girls were quick friends, and co-conspirators.

Just a quick note: I also found a see-n-say (original) at a garage sale this day. I am always ecstatic to find toys that I remember from my youth, and this one was even better because O fell in love with it immediately.

I just love me some shish-ka-bobs! And I appreciate a husband who is always willing to grill, even when he's on baby duty and has his hands full :)

This evening after some yummy grilled food, Alex and I had an at-home date with a movie and s'mores outside. It was really fun, and I'm craving marshmallows just thinking about it :) I love my husband, and am always grateful when he works to make a fun evening surprise for me, even when we are stuck at home :).

On the 23rd, I packed my hospital bag. Yes it was too early. Yes I ended up wearing most of the clothes and repacking it a few times. Yes this is a first-time mom thing that I did with my 2nd child. My only excuse is that I like being prepared, and checking things off my to-do list.

As I had been preparing for the new baby, Olivia decided to brush up on her skills as well. She spent of time the last few weeks of my pregnancy wrapping the baby, puting her into the carseat, and then whipping her back out.

On July 25th I got serious about making this baby come out. I wasn't due for about three more weeks, but I was pretty miserable, and to the point of every movement hurting. I knew that I wasn't being a great mom to Olivia, and even though I had lots of help and she was a happy girl, I definitely wanted to  have the baby and move on to the next stage of parenthood. I borrowed an exercise ball from Danielle, who came over to play with O that evening. Needless to say, they had a blast :). This was also the beginning of the Olympics, so I spent a lot of my evenings sitting and rocking on the ball (if Andy didn't get to it first :))... just hoping for an early arrival of Mr. Carter.

The last weekend in July was super warm, but there was a steam engine festival in Brooks that I really wanted to go see. It was only for two weekends, and the first weekend in August was going to be even hotter (plus hopefully we would be in the hospital with baby...) so we packed up our sunscreen and water bottles and headed to the Great Oregon Steam-Up.

It was super fun to see all the old engines, and to see how SLOW they all went. My everything-on-a-schedule and efficient as possible brain would have had a hard time living 100 years ago. But we got to ride on this mini train thing that went on a long track that looped all around, had bridges and water features, and lots of mini landscaping :). It was really fun, but cameras weren't allowed on the ride, so I just have the one of us all getting on.

Olivia wanted to have an exercise ball to sit on too, so she went through a few days of sitting on every ball she could find. This one is pretty good sized, but that included golf balls, ping pong balls, and just about everything. She would just sit and bounce like Mommy...what a little parrot!

I wish I had a picture for this story, but Olivia has just started doing hilarious kid things and really trying to listen and obey as best she can. One example of this was after a big snack, I gave her her sippy cup and told her to take a big drink because her tummy was full and needed some water. I looked over a second later to see her lifting her shirt and shaking her sippy cup into her belly button...guess that is the fastest way to the tummy!

We celebrated the last day of July with a trip to Osborn Aquatic Center in Corvallis. We met my dad and Andy there, and had a great time. Unfortunately, Grandpa had to leave before the slide opened, and before I pulled out my camera, but evreyone had fun. I love these two pictures above each other, because it shows the top and bottom part of the slide...almost like one picture!

Alex was really careful to not pull Olivia under for a long time, but the slide is really fast, so it pushed him even further into the water...:)

Love Andy's peace signs here!

And some great Uncle pictures! It was great to have Andy there so I didn't have to stay in for very long. Needless to say I was pretty huge at this point, and not wanting to be photographed.

And that's July! I would have a much easier time catching up with the blog if we didn't have so many adventures this summer,but it's been a blast. And now I get to relive it all three months later!