The last pregnancy update...hopefully

Well, I'm in the home stretch. All we can do now is wait. I'm over 39 weeks and I feel like this baby will be born in the next few days. I am having constant Braxton Hicks these days, I will be surprised if I make it to my due date of the 25th, but we will see!! I really wanted to get some nice maternity pictures taken since this will be my last pregnancy (unless God has other plans :). We met my sister, Claire, downtown yesterday (I know...nothing like the last minute) and she was able to borrow a really nice camera from one of her friends and got some great shots. She's always had a good eye for photography and I'm so happy with what she was able to capture. Here are my favorites (we tried to get some good family photos but Dawson was not having it):

Stay tuned....a bundle of love coming soon.

On Wednesday afgternoon, we went to the Radisson waterpark hotel in Johnston to break up the winter blues. We totally surprised Bennett and I loved seeing his face as we pulled into the parking lot and he figured out where we were going. It was priceless :)

We only had one near drowning incident when Dawson jumped right into the deep end after Jon who was still a few steps away. And my 9 month pregnant self just couldn't grab him quick enough!

They swam for about 2 hours straight and then we took a dinner break. The livingsocial.com deal we got included a pizza and drinks and even breakfast. Here they are completely wiped out pre-pizza.

A little pick-me-up:

They got back in the pool after dinner for another hour and a half or so and by then we were all so wiped out we were more than ready to head home to our own beds. (Just sitting up and walking around all evening gave me some pretty intense contractions for a couple hours when we got home).

So as we were getting ready to leave, the boys were playing in the hotel room shower which was open at one end and just had a shallow lip. Suddenly Bennett yelled something and we went into the bathroom to find the shower wasn't draining at all and there was standing water in the entire bathroom! So as Jon was trying to mop some of it up while we waited for the maintenance guy, Dawson managed to poop on the floor. I know...totally disgusting. I seriously felt like we were some group of college kids trashing a hotel room in a matter of 20 minutes! It was crazy stressful and there was poop everywhere. A lovely way to end a lovely afternoon!! It was worth it though :)

I Surrender

I give up on trying to keep up on mothering and housekeeping and everything in between. Today I declared, "I give up". So Dawson is currently watching Tangled for the third time, Bennett has been playing his Leapster and computer games since he got home from preschool and I'm ignoring my "pacifier stays in the bed" rule. And I refuse to feel guilty. I have two weeks to go and I have completely exhausted my energy and patience reserves. I can seriously barely make it up the stairs anymore, let alone try to handle a screaming and thrashing tantrum-throwing-two-year-old.

Two weeks is very short in the span of their childhood and a whole bunch of movies and pacifiers and snacks on demand probably won't affect them too much in the long run :)

And now for Dawson's ABC's: The Extended Cut.

(Remember Bennett's version??)

Baby Shower for the OTHER Colyer baby

Judie and I threw a small baby shower for Bria a couple weeks ago and I forgot to post some pictures. As you know, Judie is a wonder with decorating, especially for parties. We used a Beatrix Potter theme for the baby-boy-to-be and of course it was adorable.

The Momma-to-be:

Bria is 5 weeks behind me. I just love that all of my boys have cousins so close in age. They're all just best friends. And we can't wait to see what this brand new Colyer cousin is going to be like!

A little update on the boys...

Boy #1: Still my sweet, sensitive, affectionate boy with a side of wild. I can't wait to see him with his new brother. He tries to hug and kiss Dawson constantly but usually gets a smack in exchange so I keep telling him he'll get to snuggle his new brother as much as he wants.
We've also been in the sneaking and lying phase for a little while now. He's constantly sneaking food and "hiding" the evidence (on at least 3 occasions I've found 4 or 5 granola bar wrappers stashed under the couch). Here he is on "job day" at school. His first choice was an astronaut so I had to suggest a couple other alternatives that were a little easier to pull off. Judie whipped up this chef's hat the night before (I know...no big deal, right?? She's wonderful):

Last week Bennett added a new antic to his arsenal- shoving something up his nose. This was a new experience for us, one I thought we'd avoided with this child. He and Dawson were playing in Dawson's crib together in the morning (one of their favorite spots to play) and suddenly I heard Dawson screaming and Bennett saying, "I'm sorry Daws! I'm sorry Daws!" I ran in to find blood running out of Dawson's nose and all over his sheet. I grabbed him out and asked Bennett what happened and he showed me a plastic medicine dropper with a tip about an inch and a quarter long that they had in the bed and he said "Dawson put it in his nose". After getting the blood to stop (and calling the Dr. to make sure I didn't need to bring him in) I asked Bennett why he was saying "Sorry, Dawson" if Dawson put it in his own nose. He admitted the truth so we of course had a long conversation about not EVER putting ANYthing in our noses or any other holes in our bodies because it could really hurt us.
Well, apparently he wanted to test this theory on himself. That SAME evening, he was playing with his cousins at John & Judie's house and came up from the basement to eat dessert. He started sniffing and making a face like he had to sneeze. I asked him if he needed to blow his nose and he said, "no, there's paper in there and its making me sneeze!" After about 20 minutes with tweezers and a flashlight, Jon removed a pea sized piece of blue foam. Wow. Needless to say there was a punishment this time around instead of a lecture!!

Boy #2 helping himself to a chocolate bar for "breakfast" (he's currently standing on the 2nd shelf):

There are still a lot of days that feel like he spends about 50% of it whining or crying but thankfully he's so hilarious and cute the rest of the time, it balances out. Judie watched him the other night during the Super Bowl, and right before bed he said to her, "Order a pizza, Nana".

And boy #3:

Not much to say about this little one other than, I am more than ready for him to make his appearance. Nobody wants to hear me grumbling and complaining about how uncomfortable I am so we'll just leave it at that!! I got out the hospital stuff we'll need and stocked up on Pampers Swaddlers and nursing essentials after panicking one night because I was having pretty painful contractions. So we are READY!

Life with Dawson: A Constant Costume Party

Dawson has always loved wearing goofy stuff. He's constantly coming to me with things he wants me to put on him. This started very young, as evidenced by these photos:


For a long time, the first thing he would want to do when he got out of bed in the morning or after a nap was put shoes on; any shoes he found. He still loves shoes but has expanded into many different areas.

He loves wearing this batman mask when he goes to Nana's. This particular evening he wore it around her house for a good hour or so.


Then we went to IHOP for dinner and he left it on the entire time, including while he ate!

This was the getup he came upstairs in this morning. He needed help getting the trunks on over his jammies but the rest was all him:

The other night he wanted to put on Bennett's Tow Mater jammies (size 5...might help you envision it a little better) over his own. He wore the shirt all night (I had taken the pants off to change him) but as soon as he got up the next day he wanted the pants back on over his jammies again.
And every now and then Bennett will come up with a few inspired looks of his own (notice the one flip-flop Dawson wanted to wear):



And just for the pure sake of cuteness:

Tour of the Mid-South

Last week we took a trip down to Memphis and then over to Bentonville, AR where Jon's Aunt & Uncle just moved to. We actually had planned to go with John & Judie down to Georgia to bring Jon's Grandma to stay with her sister, Lucy, for a few weeks (still following??) but Aunt Lucy recently got sick and the trip sort of fell apart at the last minute. But rather than cancelling altogether, we decided to still take the trip to TN & AR just for the fun of it. Might as well break up the winter blues, eh? I wasn't at all worried about the stress of traveling with the kids Dawson (you barely even know Bennett's there!), since Nana and Pop would be in the car! I've never been so thankful for Dawson's carseat being able to turn 360 degrees! I love this pic:

Bennett was in absolute Heaven. He got the iPad all to himself for the 22 combined hours of the trip. He'd ask how many hours we'd be in the car that day and then cheer when I told him!

First we went down to Memphis and stayed for 3 nights with my parents. I kept thinking how lucky my boys were; all 4 of their grandparents under one roof for 3 days! We went back to Shelby Farms park so John & Judie could see the cool playground, we went to church with them on Sunday, the 3 women got to do a little shopping together (so many great shops around Memphis, including a Pottery Barn/West Elm outlet! My hubby's so glad about that, let me tell you. [major sarcasm intended]), and no visit with my parents would be complete without lots of yummy food involved.
We went to a fun restaurant called Humdinger's. My parents have a card from the manager that lets pastors in the area get 50% off their bill every time they go. Such an awesome idea.


Bennett loving his grilled shrimp kids meal:

Dawson watching Tangled at Nonny & Grandad's. The only 3 things he'll currently sit and watch: King Kong, Elmo and Tangled. (Notice his plastic King Kong watching with him):

A very rare sight--Dawson won't even nap on the 10 hour trip to TN. This was on the second leg-the 6 hours from Memphis to Bentonville after he was totally sleep deprived from the previous 3 nights of staying up late and getting up early.

Jon's Aunt & Uncle listed a couple things we could all do together while in Bentonville. One of them was a drive-through wildlife safari. We all thought that sounded like fun so we decided to give it a try. Boy were we all blown away. It was literally one of the coolest experiences of our entire lives. Big John said it was even better than a safari he'd been on in Africa!! It was $10 per adult and worth far more than that. There were so many different animals there and a lot of them came right up to the van (click on the pics to see them larger). There were bigger ones like lions and tigers and bears (ha!) in cages but you could still see them fine from the car and they were all way more active than the animals I've ever seen at a zoo.

Dawson was saying something hilarious in a high voice here. I think he wanted to feed them:

A cute little hippo just a few feet from our van:

The emus were by far the most curious and there were several of them there:

So amazing to be this close to a zebra!! There were also huge camels that came right up to the car but my camera was full and I didn't get a pic. We figured out that if you started to crack your window, they'd hear the noise and come right up to the car but it made Jon's Aunt Judy so nervous :)

A petting zoo area:

This was probably my favorite. I was just giddy being this close to the kangaroos. They were pretty skiddish and would hop away but if you moved really slowly, you could get close enough to pet them. They're as soft as a bunny.

This peacock was so beautiful-half regular, half albino:

Checking out the sloth:

This little monkey was the best part. He would stick his hands out of the cage and clap really fast to get your attention. And eventually we figured out that he'd grab onto your finger if you held it out to him!! I'm sad I didn't have room on the camera for video. I just kept saying the rest of the day, "I petted a kangaroo and held a monkey's hand today!!"

There was also a huge chimp outside and typing this out won't do it justice but it was so funny I have to try to describe it. We were watching him for a while. He had a water bowl outside the bars and would reach his hands through, lift his bowl up and take a drink through the bars. Then he'd climb up to the top and starting swinging, pushing off the bars with his feet for momentum. He was really going fast and all of a sudden on the forward swing (towards us), he spit a mouthful of water at us! We were behind a fence about 10 feet from his cage and he managed to hit Jon and Dawson! It was hilarious. We all screamed (or probably just me) and jumped back. He'd had the water in his mouth for at least a minute. Then we watched him repeat the whole thing again, drink water, climb up, start swinging and spit water at us. We were ready for it the second time but it was so funny. Ever since then Dawson keeps saying, "King Kong spit on us!" If you're ever traveling anywhere near there (or even within a few hours), it would be so worth going out of your way to stop. Seriously, way better than any zoo you'll ever go to. It was a great end to our trip! http://www.wildwildernessdrivethroughsafari.com/