Begee

My mom, Deenie, has a precious little dog named Nora. She is a small black rescue schnoodle and her nickname is Boogie, don't ask me why sometimes nicknames just happen. Nick is currently fascinated with playing with our dogs! (Let me tell you how much they are enjoying that or how many times I have to say, "Nick, BE GENTLE") Most of the time, our dogs prefer to go to another room to avoid playing with him all together. Nora is staying with us for a couple of days, as she often does, and she is generally really good with Nick. However, unfortunately for Nora, Nick has learned how to say Boogie (although it comes out more like Begee) and chases her furiously around the room. Last night, Nora got stuck in the living room with Nick while all the other dogs were napping in our bedroom. Nick began the Begee! scream accompanied with a dead run straight at Nora over and over again. Finally Nora decided she would just run laps around our living room as fast as she could to avoid the screaming Nick. Nick was so perplexed, he just stood in the room and watched her zip around in figure 8s around and on the furniture. Needless to say they both went to bed early and slept hard.

BeBe

Lately Nick has a lot of new tricks, I am trying desperately to catch them on video so I can upload them. He had learned several animal sounds and will usually perform them upon request. The two he gets every time right now is "what does the cow say?" to which Nick replies "moooo" with so much excitement he grins from ear to ear and Jeremy's favorite "what doe the pig say?" which I have taught Nick to respond to by snorting! I don't know which is cuter, his gasping for air to prepare for the snort, or the snort itself.

The other series of tricks Nick is learning is the typical toddler, where is your _____? and having them identify the body part. Some of our favorites are where is Nick's nose, and where are Nick's ears. He almost always responds to your question with the correct answer unless he is tired of your game in which you get the typical toddler "no" accompanied with a shaking of his head.

Yesterday I decided to teach him something new. Where is the baby? It took a little while, but now Nick responds my lifting up my shirt and patting (sometimes hitting, we are still perfecting it). The whole time he pats my belly he goes BeBe BeBe BeBe! It is pretty stinking cute, now I just have to be sure he knows there is only one in mommy's belly so someone else doesn't ask him only to have him lift up their shirt, that would be pretty embarrassing! ;)

Baby Girl's World

We are just one wall, and some bedding away from Baby Girl Upton's nursery being complete! I am so excited about this serene tranquil place we have created for her. Sometimes when things get crazy with Nick (who is entering the phase of no and pushing every boundary he has ever known...more on that later) I go in there and rock in her glider and pretend like it is my room.

One thing I learned from my first go round with Nick's nursery was to get everything you can and want to do done as early as you can. One is exhausted at the end of pregnancy and once the baby is here, you really don't have a lot of time to "finish" the nursery. Nick had a really cute Dr. Seuss nursery, with bold primary colors that I really liked, but I just had this feeling like I never got it "finished" exactly the way I wanted. So I was determined with BGU to get everything in her nursery just right before she gets here. When I originally began looking for little girl bedding I hated everything! It was really discouraging when I would like part of one thing and not all of the collection, etc. I knew I wanted to paint her room a lavender color and use pink, green, and yellow as the other colors. Enter Deenie with an amazing solution, she would make the most beautiful bedding in the world inspired by a butterfly collection I really liked but felt like was not what I wanted.

Here is a picture of the quilt that Deenie made for her, I decided to hang it on the wall so it could be a focal point and also it would soften the room.
                                                     

Here are the curtains, I was so happy we found the matching butterflies to go on the end of the curtain rod

 This is her bookcase, with toy storage and room for lots of books, dolls, and other things!

 This is the crystal butterfly night light for her room. I learned night lights are a must when you have to get up with babies in the middle of the night, so much better for everyone than turning on a lamp or overhead

This is a shot of her rocker with the sham that Deenie made and her new lamp.

This is a wide shot of the quilt over the crib with the butterfly mobile, all that is left for her crib is the bumper and crib skirt which Deenie is finishing. The bumper will be similar to the quilt with handmade butterflies for her precious eyes to focus on as they develop.

This paper butterfly chandelier was a bit of an afterthought because I felt like one corner seemed empty, but it is actually one of my favorite things in the whole room.

This is her changing table with the butterfly mirrors overhead!

And here is a close up of the mirrors

This is a wide shot of the whole room.

All that is left is the wall over the rocker and table, I am going to but four picture frames in a square to fill with shots from her newborn photo shoot and these three dimensional white tin butterflies! I cannot wait for her to move in!

31 weeks

I am officially 31 weeks pregnant and in what I like to call the 4th quarter. We are also only 26 days away from football season. Jeremy and I will be making the trip to Dallas for the Alabama vs. Michigan game in Jerryworld. It will undoubtedly be our last child-free getaway for a long time. I will be 35 weeks at that point so we are going to drive. I realize I will probably not be super comfortable during the drive, but I have really wanted to check out the new Cowboy Stadium and Jeremy and I hate to miss the kick off of Alabama's season.

Baby girl Upton is doing really well. She is much more "aggressive" than Nick was. Baby girl Upton moves constantly for I would say 10 hours of the day while I am awake. Nick moved a lot too, but it was more like soothing somersaults and delicate movements. BGU's are more like roundhouse kick and right jabs, with an occasional left cross thrown in there. We can actually see the outlines of her hands and feet in my tummy when she really gets moving!

Overall though, this pregnancy seems to be easier for me than being pregnant with Nick. We are so busy with our active toddler that the time waiting for baby's arrival seems to be going a lot faster, there isn't this big unknown about what labor & delivery is all about at the end, and just about anything is easier with experience. Here is a picture of me @ 30 weeks.