Thanksgiving in MN

We spent Thanksgiving in MN with Nanna and Pappa Walsh's house. Josh was so excited to see them and to play hockey with Uncle Jack. We got there Wednesday before Thanksgiving just in time for dinner. It was nice to miss the snowstorm that was heading across the midwest. Thanksgiving day we relaxed with the family. Jim went with my dad and Josh to Play It Again to buy hockey gear for Josh. He got a helmet, skates, and shin guards. He was just beaming when he got home. Thanks Uncle Jack, Uncle Joe, and Nanna Pappa for my X-mas gift!

We had Thanksgiving dinner later that evening and were tormented by the delicious smells all day long! My parents friend Dee and her son Jake joined us for dinner and also my brothers new girlfriend Megan. So it was a full house. Josh fell asleep for the first time in Jim's arms just as we sat down for dinner. He has never fallen asleep in a room full of people... well since he was about 6 months old anyway. So I think it is safe to say we wore him out! As always dinner was full of laughs... and surprises. Some heckling toward my brother Joe for bringing a girl to dinner, harrassing our guests, and my sisters numerous attempts to start the "I'm thankful for..." tradition. We kept responding to this with sarcastic remarks. Finally toward the end of dinner she goes, "well we have some news..." WAHOO!!! They are expecting their first baby July 2nd! I am SO EXCITED to have a neice or nephew on that side. It was such a wonderful exciting surprise. And I am selfish since I immediately was excited that our boy/girl will be only 6 months older than their little one. YAY!

After dinner we had our infamous ping pong tournament in which I get my butt kicked each and every time by a sibling. I think Josh did better than I did. Pathetic! :)

That night my mom, sister, and I debated over and over as to whether or not we were going shopping the next day. My mom hurt her back really bad a month or so ago and can't walk/stand for that long. My back/legs start aching after an hour or two of standing at this point. And Shannon didn' t have any "must" go get items. So we said if we wake up and go fine... but if we don't oh well. The next morning I woke up with Josh at 6:45am... and I couldn't relax... I wanted to shop. I hopped online and voila... Herbergers was offering the exact same deals online and free shipping on orders over $100. I bought the three items I really wanted to get from the couch at my parents house. It was FANTASTIC! Later that morning once my mom and sister were up and moving, we decided to go to Babies R Us for their super saver gift items and well, because my sister is now expecting and we were excited.

That afternoon we had a visit from my high school friend Marcel and his wife Michaela and their two kids, Jadon and Sienna. It was great to catch up with him, but so weird to see us all grown up with kids!

Friday night we did a Christmas dinner since we will not be there this year. We opened gifts which basically was Josh... which was the fun part. My family did an outstanding job on the gifts seeing as how I gave them No suggestions. He got the "go fishin" game, the Vtech dancin camera, trucks, pj's, clothes, remote control car, and a memory game. He loved them all and still is playing with them... which is awesome.

Saturday night kicked off my brother Jack's senior year in Hockey. He plays for Hill Murray. I think we had about 60 friends/family show up for the game. It was a fantastic game and we were all on the edge of our seat. They had a great win and my brother played very well. Josh was so excited and was glued to the rink the entire game. After we went to my cousin Pats to visit with the Thuente clan. As always it was fun!

29 week appointment

Today's appointment was a quick one, just heartbeat and measuring my belly. Measuring 29 cm, right on track. Heartbeat 149bpm. Everything is good!

Josh has developed quite the vocabulary in recent months and has some really interesting stories. Today on the way home I asked if he wanted pizza with mommy and daddy and he didn't respond. So I asked if he wanted to cook dinner for himself and he goes, "No daddy cooks!" I said, "Yep, so does mommy right?" He said, "NOOOO, mom doesn't cook, that's silly!" OUCH! So true, but that kinda hurts!

He is always full of stories on the way home from school now, telling us about who was sad that day, what him and his friend Ella did at school, and usually who hit or bit him, which hasn't really happened. When I dropped him off at school the other morning I had asked his teacher if his friend Brooks was a big brother yet, and the kids overheard me. I then listened to their conversation of where Brooks was and was quite impressed with Josh' explanation. "No, Brooks at home, he is still tired. His mom is having a baby". Ha ha! Apparently preparing to be a big brother is a tiring job!

A visit from Nanna and Pappa

This weekend Nanna and Pappa came to visit. Josh was so excited to see them and couldn't wait to find out what toy Nanna brought for him. They arrived before dinner Friday night and Josh didn't hesitate to ask about the toy. Of course Nanna didn't disappoint him and had a little transformer toy for him. After opening the toy and putting it together, he was less than impressed and proceeded to ask for another toy. He rummaged through Nanna and Pappa's luggage and then asked to see if there was anything good in her purse, when the answer was no he tried again with the original toy. He kept trying to make the car drive with the light up sword like it was a remote control car. Ha ha! My mom felt so bad about it and Jim and I were shocked at how he was determined Nanna would have another option for him! So Nanna promised to take him shopping with which he responded, "To get a new toy!". Nice!

On our shopping trip Josh was happier with the $4 CAT trucks rather than the larger fire truck or anything else more expensive... oh and he wanted a nerf basketball hoop. And let me tell you, those two things have kept him entertained all weekend!

We went trick-or-treating on Halloween. Josh was dressed up as a bubble bee and Jim and I dressed up as bee keepers. My camera is still at my friends house (who are all sick with the flu) so I have to get all the pictures from my mom. He was so tired because he refused to take a nap that afternoon but he was determined to go to as many houses as we could. This year he was able to say Trick'Or'Treat to each neighbor and would politely say "Thank you". He is getting so old!

So for the last 2 weeks I have been very uncomfortable and feel like my whole stomach is cramped. I blamed it on the food I was eating. I decided to read up on "my pregnancy week by week" and realized - the crampiness - Braxton Hicks. DUH! For this being the second time around, I really have forgotten a lot of the stuff that happens! I definitely feel like this baby will arrive early like Josh. I am having braxton hicks all of the time now and my mom said it looks like the baby has already dropped. Which is what I thought but was glad someone else noticed. I have a doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I am looking forward to hearing what she has to say. I am only 29 weeks along, so we really have a long ways to go, but I guess it just seems like things are moving a lot quicker this time around. And I know a lot of things happen sooner with the second, so maybe that is all it is.

Happy Halloween everyone!

The Legend of the Nuk Fairy

Josh has been down to only having a nuk at naps or bedtime. But the doc says it is time and that his teeth are starting to show signs of problems. So we finally did it. And it is going okay. All day long we talked to Josh about the "Nuk Fairy". For those of you in the dark on this one... the Nuk Fairy comes to kids houses to collect Nuk's and redistribute them to babies who want them. The Nuk Fairy also leaves small gifts for any little boy or girl who gives up their Nuk's to be a big boy/girl. Very efficient and environmentally friendly this Nuk Ferry is. Josh just went along with it... not really understanding what it all actually meant.

Last night after his usual bedtime routine (bath, pj's, brush teeth, stories) we went back downstairs to put all of Josh's nuks into a gift bag. He had 5, 3 of which he needs to have at night in order to sleep. One in his mouth and one in each hand. Josh gladly put all of the Nuks in there and said "bye bye Nuks". We returned to his bedroom and I put him in his crib to go to sleep, all the while saying how proud I was that he gave his nuk to the babies. Not even a second after being in the crib he did the sweep for the nuks... and of course didn't find them. So this began the 20 minutes of off and on screaming. And then silent. He was fast asleep. No nuks. He woke up at 2:30 like clockwork as he has done since the first week of October when he was sick. Jim doesn't do so well with the crying/screaming and ended up passing out with him in the recliner for about 20 minutes. But he went back to sleep after that... no nuk.

7:00am we wake up and begin singing our praises of how big he is and how great it is he made it through the night without a nuk! We went down to see the gift bag where he put his nuks and asked him what was in there. He said, "NUKS!" all excited... and then when he looked and saw wrapped gifts, "What is that Daddy?". So he unwrapped each one and played with it before moving onto the next. We had to ask him to look in the bag several times to get through them all. The Nuk Fairy really did her homework because the gifts were PERFECT! Josh got a $4 dump truck, 3 - $1 books, a $5 Thomas the train video, and the Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do you See game for $8. (Prices listed for those who may be interested in the smokin deals at Target!)

So at 7:30am we are playing a family game of Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see. And it was pretty fun! Then we read the books. Next watched one of the shows on the Thomas video. And finally, played with the dump truck. Quite a productive morning... all before church!

Naptime was another struggle. 20 minutes of unhappiness. So we aren't out of the woods yet. But we are much closer than ever to being done with them... Can't wait!