Dominoes, potty seat, naptime and Kendall's room

Sorry for the crazy title, but this post is just filled with a lot of random stuff that I couldn't seem to pull together. Read on and you'll see what I mean.Question: Is there a developmental "phase" that I am unaware of in which kids keep oddly busy by lining things up, or is my child just showing early signs of OCD? Don't get me wrong, I am thoroughly enjoying Avery's new way of playing because it keeps her occupied so I can get more things done, but it just seems a little strange. I was getting ready for game night at church tonight and so I opened up the dominoes for her to play with while I made her dinner, packed the bag, etc. Probably 10 or 15 minutes later she says, "Look, I make my dominoes," and this is what I found. Maybe she's just destined to be the kid at school with the most organized desk, locker, etc.

She has done 2 other new things lately as well. One is that she tinkled and pooped in the potty today, and the other is falling asleep by herself (no patting!) at naptime. She has been showing a lot of interest and curiosity about going to the potty, so several weeks ago we bought her a potty seat, just to try it out. Honestly, I really don't want to deal with the whole potty training thing until Kendall is a couple months old, but it just didn't seem right to tell Avery "No" when she asks to go in the potty. When we first bought the seat, we tried it out for the weekend, but she just didn't quite grasp the whole concept even though she did go tinkle twice in the potty. But today she asked to go poo-poo in the potty, so I got the seat back out. I sat there with her for a little while and what do you know? She may be forcing me to potty train her despite my previous plan! I guess I'll just "go with the flow" and see what happens. And her falling asleep by herself at naptime could not come at a better time! I have been worrying about how in the world I'm going to pat her to sleep at naptime with Kendall around. She has been falling asleep on her own at night since she was little, but naptime has always been a different story. In the beginning it was bouncing in my arms or the bouncy seat, then we changed to rocking, then patting, and now she is FINALLY to a point where she won't cry when I leave the room and will just lay there playing and talking for 20-30 minutes until she falls asleep. I am just crossing my fingers that Kendall's birth won't disrupt the whole thing and cause her to quit taking a nap altogether or something.

Speaking of Kendall, I included a few pics of her room. The only thing we have left to do is hang her curtain. We used the same nursery bedding, but I did get several new things to hang on the walls. Obviously the "K", which I painted myself, is new, and then one of the signs above the rocker that says "Luv ya to the moon and back" I got at Canton, and then the 2 mirrors on either side of her dresser are new too. All we need now is a baby! Any birth date guesses?

Don't look now. . .

. . . because the belly is in full bloom and getting bigger by the minute it seems! I am 36 weeks now and feeling pretty ready for Miss Kendall to make her debut. My doctor did the measurements on the sono last week and estimated that she was a little over 5 lbs at that point. He said we will keep measuring every week and try to keep her in the high 6's or low 7's (lbs. that is) as to avoid a c-section or another forceps delivery. When we got ready to take the belly pics tonight, Avery lifted her shirt up and started running toward Kendall's room requesting that we take a picture of her belly as well. Pretty funny. I just wonder what she'll say, or if she'll even notice, when we bring Kendall home and my belly isn't as big anymore. Who knows with that girl! We never know what she'll say next.

36 weeks

36 weeks bare belly--Getting scary big!

Avery's 21 month belly shot

Ta Da!

Making dinner when I am home alone with Avery is often a challenge (although she is getting better at playing by herself), but last night she stayed very busy. She kept taking her fridge farm and magnets off and lining them up in different places around the kitchen. At one point she said, " Ta Da! I build a sandcastle!" When I complimented her on it and asked if I could take a picture of it she got so excited and was beaming with pride! Not too sure that it resembles a sandcastle at all, but I was thankful for her imagination and"hard work" that allowed me to cook in peace.
As far as our trip to Oklahoma, we did get to see some friends briefly on Sunday, but our trip was cut short because Avery got sick:( She had just come down with a cold and we had heard her cough a few times Sunday morning, but we weren't concerned enough to bring the nebulizer, albuterol and pulmicort along. BIG MISTAKE! By Sunday night, she was wheezing pretty badly and was having a hard time breathing once we put her to bed. She kept waking up about every hour and even threw up once because of all the phlegm--yuck! Needless to say, none of us were getting any sleep, and around 4:30 Scott made the decision to reschedule his patients and to drive us home so we could get Avery started on her breathing treatments. So we packed up and left around 5:30 AM, got back home by 8:30 and spent the rest of the day taking care of Aves and trying to get caught up on sleep. I think after that experience, we'll just bring the nebulizer and medicine along every time-- whether she is sick or not! Sorry Laura and Jeny that we had to skip out on our plans!

Nothing to do?

Could it really be that I have nothing to do at this particular moment in time? I guess the answer is both yes and no, depending on how you define nothing. Avery is napping, I already did my daily bible study, email and blogs are checked, and my house is completely clean thanks to the cleaning lady that came this morning courtesy of my wonderful parents. Of course there are things I could do, like scrapbook, but even that is somewhat checked off for the day since I am going to a scrapbooking "crop" tonight. I have been busy nesting the past week or two and I've almost got everything ready for Kendall. When we put the Christmas decorations back up in the attic, we got down all the baby stuff--swing, bouncer, toys, blankets-- and i have been busy getting it all organized. We even managed to finally hang things in Avery's room and now we just need to do Kendall's. Despite being nervous about learning to juggle caring for 2 small children, I am rapidly approaching that point where you say, "Get this kid outta me!" Although I am not anywhere near the point I reached when Avery was a week late. Speaking of Avery, I thought I would include a few of her latest sayings, some of which come out at the most random times:
"I love God"
"Love you so much Mommy/Daddy/Kendall/baby/Josie/etc."
"This is Boogie" (our nickname for Josie) followed by "boogie, woogie, boogie, woogie"with a dance
"I can do it all by myself!"
"I"m gonna run like a Cheetah!"
"Don't pat me!" (she told her teachers at school this, probably b/c she knew it would make her fall asleep)
"Daddy wrestle? Daddy tackle you?" Do shoulders?" (sit on Scott's shoulders)
And there are an endless array of others since she is constantly talking, but that's all I can think of for now. We are headed to Oklahoma on Sunday with Scott since he has some patients there on Monday. Maybe I'll remember to take a few pictures and I'll actually have something worthwhile to post.