Peanut Butter: 37 Week Appointment

Heartbeat: 142 bpm
Bump Size: Right on Track
Strep B Test Results: Negative

That's about all there is to report. My next appointment is tomorrow at 7 am.
I'll be 38 weeks on Wednesday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ryan!

This morning we celebrated Ryan's 3rd birthday with a trip to the Exploritorium in Skokie. As usual, Kyle had a great time, and as usual, he climbed to the top of the jungle gym, hid himself where no one could find him, gave us a scare, and forced Chris to climb up there after him. That kid. Sheesh. We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Ryan :)

Christkindlmarket and Macy's on State

Saturday's temperatures were beautiful for this time of year. At nearly 50 degrees it felt like the perfect fall day. We decided to take advantage of the weather by heading downtown to the German Christkindlmarket, where we got our 5th Christmas mug (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014) and warm, cinnamon roasted pecans. We also braved the crowds - and the 20 minute wait for the elevator - to take Kyle to see the giant Christmas tree on the 8th floor of Macy's. We had wanted to eat at either the market or at Macy's Walnut Room, but seeing as the lines were out of control at both places, we decided to treat Kyle to his first trip to The Rainforest Cafe instead. Our promised 9 minute wait turned into a 39 minute wait, but the food was delicious and Kyle got a kick out of the giant coral fish and waterfalls. Later on, we enjoyed raking up some of the excess leaves in our backyard under a beautiful winter/fall sunset.

Where's Johnny?!?

One of Santa's elves has been stopping by our house lately. His mission: to check up on what a good boy Kyle has been. Since the elf is under Santa's orders not to speak, Kyle decided to name him Johnny after his favorite soccer playmate. Johnny is always showing up in different places .. where will we find him next?!?

Santa in Park Ridge!

Friday night, Mimi and Grandpa met us in South Park. Santa made a special guest appearance at the pet store right down the block from our house. We had to wait in line for 20 minutes or so. Kyle wasn't too happy about that, even though we got to see some neat Nemo-like clown fish. Kyle seemed to know who Santa was, and liked giving him high fives, but unfortunately we were not able to get much of a smile out of him for the cameras. We walked down the block to the bank where Santa's reindeer were docked. I really enjoyed that. I think Kyle did too, because the reindeer looked just like Sven from Disney's Frozen. On our walk we enjoyed some yummy cookies. We also stopped off at the fire station and Kyle got to drive the fire truck .. Cool dude :)

Christmas Decorations

Friday morning and afternoon went like this: Mommy and Daddy put up ornaments, Kyle took down ornaments. We eventually decided to put a few of our favorite ornaments on the top of the tree, and a few soft ones and non-breakables like Cubs candy canes on the bottom of the tree. Kyle continues to take off the bottom ornaments, put them in our magazine rack, and replace them with his stuffed animals: "Goofy is climbing the tree!" We also had to hang our stockings above the mantel (including one labeled "Baby"), instead of from our beautiful stocking holders on the mantel, because Kyle would definitely pull them down and we don't want to risk any unplanned trips to the emergency room. Thankfully, my Grandma's Mr. and Mrs. Claus dolls add to our festive decorations.

Since putting up the tree, Kyle is really into pulling his pants down, removing them from his body, running around the coffee table, laughing, and shouting "Where are your pants at??" in the hopes that someone will chase him. He is super fast. It's really hard to catch him even when changing directions up on him. However, whenever one of us gets close to catching him, he puts his arm out, stops running, and says "Kyle needs to walk" and acts like it's break time and the game is on pause. He goes over by the tree, says, "pretty lights" and then continues to run, laugh, and shout, "Where are your pants at??" as he removes them again. Guess we better teach him it's NOT okay to do this when people are over :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

To celebrate Thanksgiving, the three of us enjoyed lunch at Auntie Donna's and dinner at Mimi and Grandpa's (both sides had the usual crowd and good food). Lots of eating :) Lots of fun :)

Snow Ball Wednesday

Kyle had a fun opportunity to try out his new snow pants Wednesday afternoon. Chris worked from home, so about a half hour before the sun set, we went in the backyard and put together a nice snow ball stash and ran around the perimeter of the yard looking for sticks, stone, and berries.

Saturday Night Pizza Playdate

Last Saturday (the Saturday before Thanksgiving), Chris's childhood friends Mary Rose and Rob came over for dinner, as well as Mary's husband Quinn and their 7 month old daughter, Elise. We ordered from Perrys - tasty as always - and the kids attempted to "play" around each other in the basement. Good thing we recently put together a bin of Kyle's baby toys in preparation for Peanut Butter. Elise loved exploring with them, and Kyle acted like he was going down memory lane - a little possessive of his things, but he tried to share here and there.

Peanut Butter: 36 Week Appointment

At yesterday's 36 week doctor appointment ...

- Peanut Butter was measuring head down, but hadn't dropped yet ... still giving us some much needed time to get ready :)
- my bump size was right on track.
- Peanut Butter's heart rate was strong - 140s.
- I got the whooping cough shot which should transfer to Peanut Butter.
- They did a test to make sure there are no bacterias in me that would make it unsafe to delivery Peanut Butter. I should hear the results this week.
- A rash that showed up all over my thighs on Friday is just the result of dry stretchy skin. Since then I've been applying some dry skin lotion and the redness is going down.

I'll be 37 weeks on Wednesday. Technically full term.

Preparation for Baby

In an effort to prepare Kyle for baby, we took advantage of our low-key weekend and gave him a few opportunities to practice sleeping outside of his crib. Friday night went really well. He thought the mattress on the floor was "kinda like a fort" .. super cool in his eyes! He slept until 7 am without a problem. Nap time Saturday afternoon didn't work as well (although his naps in the crib over the past few weeks haven't exactly been stellar). He laid quietly for a while, but definitely did not fall asleep. Saturday night he had no problem falling asleep and staying on his mattress until about midnight. When I checked on his monitor around then, he was asleep, but definitely off the mattress. Chris had to go in and move him! After that we didn't hear a peep out of Kyle until 8:30 in the morning. We found Ky scrunched between the head of the bed and his bookshelf, perfectly cozy and content. Looks like this is going to take a lot more practice than we thought! But at least he's still sleeping through the night.

French fry run w/mommy

Last Wednesday, I took Kyle shopping for winter snow boots. First we went to Kohls. Sadly they only had two pairs of toddler boots - one for $60 and one for $40. If I had a coupon with me, I probably would have bought the $40 ones and called it a day. But I didn't, and I just couldn't justify spending $40+ on a pair of boots that he could potentially outgrow before winter's end, so we moved on. Next stop: Target. They too, only offered two styles of toddler winter boots. Luckily, Kyle seemed to like both of them. And even luckier, they were both only $20. I asked a Target worker if there was anyone working in the shoe department/section who could help us. There was not. I asked if there was a shoe sizer. There was not. Just a mat that Kyle could stand on and try to find the right sized outline for his foot. Going off the mat and his current shoe size, we went with a size 9/10. I let him pick between the spiderman pair and the black pair. I was sure he was going to pick the spiderman pair as he has spiderman shoes and loves them, but he wanted the black ones because they were "kinda like Daddy's". Fine with me. They match his snowsuit and winter coats better. It was a lot of work to get Kyle to sit still, cooperate, and walk around with the boots on, so I promised him (and myself) a quick trip to the food court for some warm McDonald's fries after we finished. Kyle and Mommy are both big fans of french fries ... They cheered us right up :)

Baking Christmas Cookies!

10th Annual Gingerbread Decorating Party!

This morning, the three of us joined Nana, Buppa, and Auntie Donna at Eggsperience uptown to celebrate Nana and Buppa's 35th Wedding Anniversary (11/17/79) and enjoy a delicious breakfast. Then, later on in the afternoon, Amy and Erin came over to kick off our 10th Annual Gingerbread Decorating Party. This year, I constructed the houses out of tissue boxes, milk cartons, egg white cartons, and graham crackers. I also came up with a little twist: each of us had to pull a famous Christmas movie title out of a jar, and use that as inspiration for decorating. Amy had White Christmas. Erin had Christmas Vacation. And I ended up with The Holiday. Everyone had a great time, and all the houses look really neat. Bring on the holidays!

Amy's "White Christmas"

Erin's "Christmas Vacation"

My "The Holiday"

England

LA

Kids in the Kitchen

Saturday afternoon, Kyle helped me cook up some pumpkin chocolate chip bars to serve at my annual gingerbread decorating party. He did a nice job helping me measure out all of the spices, dump them into the bowl, and whisk them all together. He also enjoyed sampling a chocolate chip or two :)

Happy 60th Birthday, Auntie Robo!

Saturday was Auntie Robo's special 60th birthday! We went out to dinner with her Thursday night to celebrate ... pizza, pasta, and salad at Riggio's ... yum, yum, yum :) Happy Birthday, Auntie .. We hope you had a wonderful week :)

Outdoor Adventures

Colder weather doesn't bother Kyle. He loves bundling up and exploring in the great outdoors. Tree climbing and berry/stick/rock picking are some of his personal favs.