Almost there!

This might be my last post before little Messy Mess arrives. Here are a few final pictures of her days inside my tummy.

Pouty lips!

Hand in front of her face.

Cute, cute, cute!

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July at the ballpark! It was a beautiful day to be there. And lucky us, our last row seats in the upper deck just happened to be in the shaded part of the stadium with a nice breeze blowing in from the back. And even better, the Twins won. And I got to see Joe Mauer play! Meredith was most excited about getting cotton candy. She had been looking forward to that for at least a week! And then of course, she got her face painted with Hello Kitty. AND, she got to wear her red, white, and blue tie-dye shirt she made in preschool. We had a fabulous afternoon!

37 weeks pregnant here and you can't even tell from this picture...hehehehehe!

Cabin

Meredith made her first trip this year out to the cabin last weekend. Her Juana came up on Saturday to pick her up and keep her overnight and Greg and I joined them out there the next day. It's so fun to see how excited they get at this age about stuff like that. Her excitement over the days preceding the cabin were filled with as much anticipation as a 3-year-old can muster up.

Here she is getting ready to head out with Juana.

She gave Daddy a big goodbye hug.

Mommy got a big goodbye hug as well.

Mer had a blast out at the lake. I don't think I've ever seen her as tired as she was. When we got her home the next day, she slept until 10:30 a.m.

She played with sticks and leaves.

She played with my weird uncle Robin.

And she played with my weird uncle David.

It was the perfect weekend at the cabin. Doesn't this look beautiful?

It was perfect weather for swimming. Thanks for keeping your eye on her Mary Jo!

We made some s'mores after dinner over the fire.

And she hung out with Juana some more in the hammock.

FAthers Day

Mer made her daddy the cutest Fathers Day shirt. It has a goldfish that is made from a handprint and it says "my daddy is a great catch". We went up to the St. Paul Farmers Market with Auntie Jennifer to see her Grandpa Schwake and Uncle Chris. Then we went to a true man's restaurant, Famous Dave's for lunch.

I thought I'd add a few updates on where we are with baby girl #2. We are going to be cloth diapering this time around. I'm really excited about it. Below are the shells we are going to use. They are SO cute. I'm excited to have a baby with a fluffy butt.

As for me, I'm 35 weeks and change as I type this, but below is a picture from 34 weeks. I can't believe I only have a month or less to go!

The art of twirling

Twirling is a form of art to a 3-year-old girl. She LOVES wearing twirly dresses. And she has it perfected.

And some other random cute pictures of Meredith:

It's a banana bread kind of day

Since the weather this weekend has been not too stellar, Mer and I made banana bread today. And since we can't utilize our neighborhood pool because it's too cool, Greg and Mer are at the YMCA exercising and going to the pool there.

Here is my little helper. I love how excited she gets over things these days. Sometimes too excited...when things don't go her way. Yesterday she had a tantrum and she was sooooooo angry, she made herself throw up (in the car, on the car seat nonetheless).

The results. Yum...this was a new recipe I tried and I think it's my favorite recipe so far. I only used 6 tablespoons of butter instead of 8 and I substituted 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup of white sugar instead of 1 cup of white sugar. And I added a few chocolate chips.

Before going to the YMCA, Mer accessorized to her finest.
And an update on me. I'm 33.5 weeks right now. I go in for my 34 week appointment next week and I'm having a growth ultrasound since I measure small. I did with Meredith too. I'm looking forward to it since I know how my body carries babies at this point. The first time around with Meredith, part of me was worried something was wrong but not this time. But I am going to have them double check to make sure this is still a girl (even though I did see the money shot and it looked pretty conclusive that it was a girl from my last ultrasound). And I'm hoping to get a nice 3D picture again too.

It's funny because I hear a lot of pregnant women complain about the looks and comments strangers give them about their bellies being big. Well, I get the same comments and buggy eyes too, except for being too small. Whatevs...it doesn't bother me.

This is from last week at 32 weeks. I can't believe I only have about 6 more weeks to go before I meet this little girl :-)

Drawings

Recently, Meredith has started making drawings that actually look like something. This particular one really touched me because she was taking a bath and I was in the next room over and she called me in to come and look at her drawing. She said she drew a picture of me :-) I just adore it!

And she is good at her letters. She actually does a better job than this but I thought I'd share the Mother's Day card she gave me.

This is the card she made me at preschool.
And this is the gift she made me at preschool.

Just an update on me - I hit 30 weeks a few days ago.
We've got a lot of stuff to do still. The baby room was converted to a junk room when Meredith moved into her big girl room about a year ago. I have no idea what we're going to do with all this stuff.

Easter 2011

This is the first year we attempted to dye eggs. Both Greg and I despise hard boiled eggs but I made them anyway for the sake of being a good mom. And Meredith was really excited about it.

Decked out in her oh-so-holiday-appropriate santa jammies.
She finished them off with some stickers.
Because Greg and I don't like hard boiled eggs, Meredith has never tried one. She was so excited about having one for breakfast the next day. I really think she thought they were candy because as soon as Greg cracked open the shell and gave it to her, she was scared of it and didn't touch it. So, we gave the rest of the eggs to Juana.

Easter morning, she woke up to a basket full of candy and goodies. And of course Peeps. She loves her Peeps.
And how did the Easter Bunny know that Meredith wanted seven Disney princess dolls with removable crowns and shoes?????

We headed down to Peter and Phyllis' house for Easter lunch.
My cousin Nate, his wife Jen, and their two boys Sam and Matthew were visiting from Chicago. Mer and Sam seemed to get along great.
Then we headed outside for an Easter Egg hunt since the weather was nice. Both Meredith and Sam got to look for eggs. This weirdo was told to look for bumpy brown eggs over by where the dog was chained up. Hmmmm...wonder why.
Mer was looking for purple eggs.
She had a blast.
Sam had a great time too.
She played some ball with daddy and her uncle Chris.
The ladies gossiped.
And we ended the day by blowing some bubbles!