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!