36 weeks

Yesterday marked the 36-week point in our journey to Baby #2. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and everything looks great. I'm feeling pretty good most days, though the little guy is really active which can be uncomfortable--I'll often be walking along and then double over in pain from a kick, which can be alarming for passers-by! We've also made a lot of progress getting ready at home, including the completion of the nursery, so stay tuned for pics of that in the near future.

Here's a photo of me from last week, with Myla helping to carry the load!

Let the Funny Quotes Begin . . .

Myla's vocabulary is just exploding these days, and when you combine that with her sense of humor and observational skills, you get some really funny stuff. Here's a sample--I expect to be making a lot more posts like this in the future!

* Tonight we were talking about the baby's name at dinner, and asked Myla what she thought his name should be. She responded with the obvious--"Blazejewski!"

* She loves to watch baseball on TV, but I think tonight she got a little frustrated. The batter was taking his sweet time getting ready, and she said "Hurry up, baseball! Swing!" Somebody get Bud Selig on the phone--if there was ever evidence that the game needs to be sped up, this is it!

* We spent a couple of days at Lake Wawasee a few weekends ago, which is about an hour away. As usual, Myla made it clear that she had no intention of taking a nap in the car, telling us "no nap!" But the weekend must have worn her out, because she slept for about 45 minutes. When we pulled into the driveway she woke up, and the first thing she did was look at us accusingly and say "I said no nap!"

Fourth of July With the Family

We wanted to limit travel for the rest of the summer as we get closer to the due date of Baby Blaze #2. It's also likely that we won't be doing any travel until the holidays, so we decided to take a few extra days off work and see both families over the Fourth of July weekend.

We spent the first couple days with my family. It was great to see everyone and watch Andrew's famous fireworks display. Myla had a great time playing with her cousins, aunt, and all those uncles. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the fireworks as she seemed to like some and not others. Her cousin Anna stayed inside the house because she didn't like all the noise while her younger cousin Megan sat outside and couldn't get enough of it. Kasey and I even found some time over the weekend to have a nice dinner in celebration of our five year anniversary.

My mom had a cake made for my birthday complete with Elmo and Big Bird figures on it. She says they were for me, but I think I have an idea that they might have been for my daughter. Myla loved it and even did a great job singing "Happy Birthday" and helping blow out the candles. She now loves to sing "Happy Birthday" to anyone or anything.

The last part of the trip was spent in Etown where we had more good family time including celebrating Kasey's grandparents anniversary. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in the pool and Myla even got to help Pop make ice cream.

Our parents (especially our moms) did so much to make our time relaxing and enjoyable. It was a fantastic trip and as always it was great to see everyone. There were so many great pictures that I couldn't decide which ones to post so we just did a slide show. Enjoy!

Milwaukee Trip

This is way overdue, but I thought I would have my own little posting marathon to recap some of the things we have been busy with over the past few weeks.

Before Myla was born, Kasey and I took a wonderful "Babymoon" trip to Florida to watch some spring training baseball, relax on the beach, and get some much needed rest. With no other vacations planned this year, we decided to take a weekend trip to the exotic destination of Milwaukee!

We drove up on Friday after work and enjoyed stop-and-go traffic from Chicago all the way to Milwaukee. Maybe we shouldn't have picked the same weekend as Summerfest. Kasey was excited to eat dinner on Friday at a diner that she had read about. Unfortunately, the owners decided it would be a good idea to close the place at 6:30. It worked out okay as we had a pretty good meal at another local place that loosely resembled a biker bar. After getting lost in Milwaukee with all of the construction and detours we finally settled into the hotel for the night.

Saturday morning we went to the children's museum where all three of us had a blast. Myla was most interested in the giant wooden Brio train and the dancing game.

Kasey and Myla play in the drive-thru.


Myla shows her dance moves.

Saturday afternoon we went to watch the Brewers play the Mariners. We lucked out by buying three bleacher seats from a bachlorette party for $20 total when the face value of the tickets was $20 each. It was an extremely hot day and our seats were directly in the sun so we spent most of the game just walking around the stadium and finding open seats in the handicap sections. Myla had a blast eating, watching people, watching the game, and singing the songs.

Of course Kasey had Myla decked out in her Red Sox gear.

This was part of the five minutes we spent in the sun before moving to the shade.

We wrapped up the weekend by spending a few hours at the zoo on Sunday morning. If anyone with kids ever goes to Milwaukee, I highly recommend their zoo. Maybe it is just that we are used to our small zoo in South Bend, but Kasey and I were really impressed with the exhibits. Myla loved seeing some new animals like gorillas, bears, giraffes, and elephants.

You could get alarmingly close to this giraffe.



Myla ran away from Kasey to get to the next exhibit.

Kasey took Myla on her first carousel ride. She was hesitant but tolerated it.

It turned out to be a great weekend getaway and the three of us had a great time checking out a new city. If they ever finish their construction, we'll definitely go back!

In Da Club!

Matthew and I were helping Myla put her bathing suit on this past weekend, and she wanted to do most of it herself. When we were done, she was really pleased with herself. She looked at us and said "Go Myla, go Myla, it's your birthday!"* Matthew and I were floored--needless to say, neither of us taught her that! Must be day care! I laughed until I cried. Of course, Myla loves to make us laugh and has learned that this gets a big response, so she has repeated this little rap several times since. So, so funny.

The video below completely misses the spontanaeity of her saying this, which was what made it so great. But you can at least see how cute her delivery is.

* Note to anyone not of our generation--this is a line from a 50 Cent song entitled "In Da Club."

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Happy birthday to the best husband and daddy two girls (and one tiny little boy) could ask for! Take it away, Myla . . .

Fresh Look at Baby Brother

Thanks to the fact that I'm measuring a little small for 32-weeks, we got to have another ultrasound on Thursday. As I remembered from having a later-term ultrasound with Myla, you don't get to see nearly as much at this stage because the little guys are already so smushed! For example, check out this picture they gave us, labeled "face":

I've become a fairly seasoned ultrasound viewer, but I really don't see a face in there. At least, not one that doesn't scare me a little bit! This one was really the best shot we got:

But even though we didn't get a great look at him, we did get the wonderful news that Baby Brother is doing very well. There were no size issues after all; he's actually about a week ahead on growth and already weighs 4 lb. 13 oz.! (Estimated, of course.) He was also head-down, which the doctor didn't think he was just two days before. So good news all around.

Thanks to a little fever that kept her out of day care, Myla even got to attend the ultrasound. She still talks about seeing Baby Brother and seeing his heart. Now that we've made some progress on his room and seen him with her, I think she's actually starting to "get it" a little bit.

Oh, and they did see some hair on the little guy's head. After Myla's beautiful head of hair at birth, was there any doubt?

Happy 5th Anniversary . . .

. . . to us! Matthew and I have been married for 5 years today. It has been a wonderful five years, and every day of it has been better because I'm married to Matthew. He's the best friend a girl could want and a true partner in every way--and not bad to look at every day, either! :) Happy anniversary Matthew . . . as always, the best is yet to come!

Happy 60th Anniversary!

Today is Granny and Pa Buckles' 60th wedding anniversary! Now both sets of my grandparents have crossed this incredible milestone. Congratulations, Granny and Pa--we love you!