My Vacuum Buddy

Today I vacuumed the entire house! I did the entire main floor while wearing Maya on my hip. She loves to "help", and after vacuuming several times before, carrying her in one arm while I pushed the vacuum with the other, I got smart and put her in my Kozy-carrier. Maya likes to be so close and ride along, and it doesn't kill my arm to hold her for over an hour. It's quite the win-win situation because she'll ride around forever while I'm vacuuming! I ended up vacuuming the basement while Maya napped. Then I finished with the upstairs while Maya played in her toy room. Four and a half hours of vacuuming! I'm actually sore!! How sad is THAT?!
After all the cleaning, Maya and I headed out to the Grand Haven channel to meet our friends, Brian and Jen and their son, Max. Maya and Max had a blast running around the grassy area and sidewalks. Maya spent a lot of time climbing onto benches, socializing with whomever walked by, and petting and following puppy dogs around. I had a very proud moment with her when Jen was trying to take a picture of Maya and Max together on a bench. She wanted a picture of them both turned around, looking behind the bench, so Brian picked Maya up and told her to stand up (on the bench). Maya went right back down on her knees, and I immediately praised her, "Good girl, Maya! You're right, we don't stand on benches. We have to sit down. Thank you for sitting down!" She's really starting to understand the rules. We work with her all the time at home, teaching her to SIT on the couch and chairs. She's really listening well, and I couldn't have been more proud of her when she refused to stand on that bench, even with an adult telling her to! What a good girl!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

Maya was having a horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day... until the rain started coming down. I opened the back door and gave her freedom to run around on the deck in the pouring down rain! It was instant happiness! She stomped around, found a stream of water running off the table, and sipped rain water from a small puddle that had formed. She had the best time. I finally had to drag her inside (not without some protest), and she went straight to a warm bath. Even though her poor little bottom lip was shivering from being soaking wet and freezing cold, I think she would have stayed out there all day!

Our Royal Princess

Maya found this necklace while I was cleaning out our closet, and when I placed it over her head, BAM! Instant transformation! She was suddenly very serious, with eyebrows raised, walking very carefully and slowly, careful not to disrupt the fabulous jewels gracing her neck. The expression on her face says it all... "someone fetch me my throne, magic wand, and glass slippers... I have a kingdom to rule!" Priceless.

Millennium Park with Melissa and Ashley

Today, I took Maya to Millennium Park for the first time. That place is set up perfectly for kids of all ages, including little-bitties like Maya and Ashley. There's a shallow lake with a very gradual decline beach entry, a humongous beach with very soft clean sand, and this awesome water park-like area called the "sprayground". There aren't any slides or anything, it's just a bunch of different tubes and contraptions set up that spray, dump, and drip water everywhere. Some of the things are controlled by the kids, some things are set on timers. It's fun for all ages! We set up camp at the back of the beach, right in front of the sprayground. As we arrived in the late afternoon, several people were leaving, so there wasn't a soul camped anywhere near us on the beach! We had so much fun playing in the sand and in the water at the sprayground, we never even made it down to the lake! It was the most relaxing time I have had at the beach with Maya. The girls were free to roam all over the place, chase seagulls, run around in the sand, and explore the plants between us and the spraygound. While Maya and Ash were busy doing toddler things, Melissa and I were able to just sit and relax on the beach blanket and gab about everything women typically gab about. It was awesome! There will definitely be many repeated visits to that park!

I'm Feeling "Wicked"!

Mom came up to stay with us for a few days! She arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday, we hit the road. I hired a babysitter to care for Maya for part of the day, then she spent the remainder of the day with her Grandpa Baker and Daddy. Mom and I left the house at 8:30am and headed to my OB appointment in Muskegon. We were held up a little bit there because the doctor was running behind. When he finally got into my room, he measured my belly, and we listened to the sweet sound of our baby boy's heart beat! It was awesome... it always is! After we busted out of the office, we hit the highway and headed to Birch Run. We had mapped out exactly which stores we wanted to hit within the 5 short hours we had to shop. I think we actually visited about 70% of the stores that were on our agenda. That 5 hours just flew by! I bought some new clothes for our baby boy, mainly from Carter's Outlet. I love that store! I also had the most awesome personal shopping experience of my life at the Motherhood Maternity store. I gave the girls an idea of what I was looking for, grabbed a couple of things, and headed to the fitting room. Before I knew it, they were throwing tons of clothes over the door for me to try on. I couldn't try on the clothes as quickly as they were giving them to me! I bet I was in the dressing room for about 45 minutes, only opening the door to model the outfits for mom. I felt like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"! It was great!! I ended up finding a few shirts, a pair of capris, and a pair of jeans. They were some much needed purchases. My wardrobe suffers more and more as this pregnancy goes on. The clothes I bought today should work for the rest of this pregnancy and beyond. Yay!

Since we had treated ourselves to sinfully good Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory treats late in the afternoon, we skipped dinner and headed to the Wharton Center in East Lansing. We were practically bursting with excitement and anticipation as we pulled into the parking garage on the MSU campus. The opening act of "Wicked" would start in less than an hour! We had awesome seats... center stage, 12 rows back! The seats were fabulous!! The production was great. I had seen "Wicked" in Chicago last fall, and I wondered how or if this production would differ. I was pleasantly surprised that it was almost exactly the same. I loved it! Actually, the girl that played Glinda was much funnier in this production than the actress was in Chicago. I was able to process the storyline much better this time around. Mom was cracking up when she found out that I didn't remember any of the main plot or how the musical ended. Keep in mind that when I saw it in Chicago, it had been almost 10 hours since I had nursed Maya, so my focus was more on how severely my boobs were hurting then on what was going on on stage. I remember that the entire time the musical was going on, all I could do was wonder if anyone would notice if I used my manual breast pump under my coat. I didn't realize how much I didn't absorb from the storyline until I saw it this time with mom. "Wicked" was WAY more awesome than I remembered it! I was so happy to see it with mom, too. She hadn't seen anything more professional than a high school play in her life, so I knew the production of "Wicked" would blow her away. Mission accomplished! She thought it was fantastic, and I was thrilled to share the experience with her. The tickets were a gift from Will for Mother's Day. The best present ever! Thanks, Babe! We didn't get home until after 1:30am, and we were exhausted. Had we found our way out of East Lansing without problems, we probably would have been home around 12am, however, our directions were about as clear as mud. We ended up stopping at QDoba to eat and get directions back to the interstate. That delayed us quite a bit, but we had fun! We blasted the "Wicked" soundtrack and sang along pretty much the whole way home. It was all we could do to keep ourselves awake! It was a big day!

We spent the following day just lounging around, relaxing, and playing with Maya. We all took a much needed nap. Mom got up with Maya from her nap, so I could sleep a little longer. Thanks, mom!! Her visit was very fun but way too short. We'd like her to stay for a week or longer. Maybe someday!

A Lesson In Gravity

Lately, Maya has been experimenting with the properties of gravity. Every time she falls down, accidentally or on purpose, she says, "BOOM!" We've always made it a point to make falling a fun thing for her by clapping, cheering, saying "BOOM!", smiling, and helping her to "brush it off". Because of the positive reinforcement we've given her, she doesn't cry every time she hits the ground or bumps her head. We love it. Anyway, Melissa and Ashley came over for a visit, and Maya thought she would teach Ashley how we go "BOOM!". She gave Ash a friendly little push, down Ash went, and Maya threw her hands up, and shouted, "BOOM!" It was as thought she was telling her, "This is how we go BOOM!" Just so happens, I thought they were getting ready to hug, so I snapped the pic and caught the shove on film...Now, the problem was that it was so innocent that I didn't have the heart to discipline Maya for it. Besides it's not like she's old enough to actually do something with malicious intent. The consequence for her action was to give Ashley a hug, so they made up...
How precious! They are such best little girlfriends!

It's a BOY!

I know you can't tell from this angle (baby facing down, head to the left, spine along the top), but we're having a BOY!! We do have another picture from the ultrasound that clearly shows the baby's sex, but I decided it would be in bad taste to post it... sorry to all who are curious. Trust me, it's obvious! We couldn't get a good profile of his face because he was in such an awkward position, the ultrasound tech couldn't get the probe at a good angle to show us a facial profile. Maybe next time! Before she started the u/s, I asked her not to tell us what it was until we had a chance to figure it out on our own. Admittedly, I haven't been studying up on my baby u/s anatomy like I had with Maya for months and months, so I was a little disoriented when she said, "So, do you have it figured out yet?" I asked her if we should be able to tell from this angle. She said we should, so Will and I both gave up and asked her what we're having. She said, "Looks like you're having a BOY!" Will got a HUGE smile on his face and squeezed my hand really tight. I pumped my fist in the air and shouted, "YES! I KNEW IT!" Well, I didn't really KNOW it, but this pregnancy had been so different than the one with Maya that I just thought it HAD to be a boy. Turns out, he's a boy! The u/s tech showed us different pictures of our baby boy. She said that one of the dead give-aways that a baby is a boy is that he usually has at least one hand down by his pelvis! Sure enough, this baby sure did! I guess boys have a little more entertainment while their in the oven than baby girls do! Hahaha... Here's one of my favorite pics... He had his legs crossed right at his ankles, so his feet were side by side. I just love little baby feet! We also got to see his heart beat. That's so awesome to see another heart beating right inside of my body, that's not my own! I could look at him on u/s all day. Unfortunately, our doctor's office doesn't have 3D capabilities, so we didn't get to see any of those pictures. If we need another u/s, though, I'm going to schedule it at the hospital, where they have 3D u/s. Even though 3D pics aren't great this early on, it's still fun to watch the baby move around. It's like taking a sneak peek into his little world. Hopefully we'll get a glimpse sooner or later!

Overall, he looked good, as far as Will and I could tell. He has all his fingers and toes, and all of his major organs appear to be present and in the right places. I have no doubts that he's going to be perfectly healthy! We couldn't be more excited to be having a boy. We always said we want one of each, and that's exactly what we'll have. I would have been very happy with either sex, but for Will's sake, I was pulling for a boy. He's been surrounded by girls his entire life, so he needs some male companionship! It's going to be wonderful for him to have a son! What a blessing!! A BABY BOY!