Preparing for Baby #2 Fun

Our church (and my mom) hosted a baby shower for me and another gal, Kelly (also known as Kendall's mom), that is due in October. It was really fun!

the photographers wanted us to touch bellies. we were a little skeptical.

They prayed for us, we played 1 game, and we also got a series of 15 envelopes. Each envelope has a note from one of the women at church for us to open the first 15 days. I must admit, I have been tempted to open a few of them these past few days.....I am pretty exhausted and worn out.

In any case, it was fun to celebrate babies! A fun time was had by all....

this is "team Peter." My mom and Nova are going to take turns watching him while we are at the hospital.

My parents graciously bought us a double jogger this month. We decided to test it out when they brought it over. Peter enjoyed it. That's his "baby" next to him. We got him a baby (well, my parents picked it out) for him to play with before baby #2 comes along.

This has nothing to do with prepping for the baby, really. It is just a funny shot. Being the huge Beatles fan that I am, I had to buy the Rockband Beatles game. Unfortunately, I have been too tired to play as much as I would like. Maybe I can take it up in the evenings before those later feedings. :)

I have been trying to introduce Peter to more toys and activities lately. He likes play-doh. So far we are not mixing colors. He needs help forming it into balls and snakes (that's pretty much all I can think of to make), but he does enjoy it.

....Just a few short days and we will have plenty of pictures to post of baby #2!! Crazy.

Summer 2009

This summer has been pretty busy. And I have been exhausted because of the below picture, which is why I haven't been posting much. With Labor Day weekend coming to a close, I thought it only appropriate to post a quick recap of Summer 2009.....

This ultrasound is from 6/25/2009. Baby Gregg#8 seems to be in deep contemplation (he gets that from both of us) on the bottom left and on the bottom right it appears he already has great dexterity and is picking his nose with his toes.

As far as the pregnancy goes, I couldn't have asked for a more mild summer in terms of weather. The last 7 days have been pretty unbearable, but they have not been anywhere nearly as hot as I was expecting. The Lord truly did sustain me and only made it as hot as I could POSSIBLY handle. :)

I have a c-section scheduled for September 24th, but last week the doctor said she wondered if I would make it! We will see what happens. I have an ultrasound this week so hopefully we will learn more at that appointment. Either way, I am wrapping up work stuff by the end of this week!

We started and ended the summer with the John and Dara. In late June, we went to this new fountain in San Pedro. It is kind of like the Bellagio fountain in Vegas, except it is in Pedro. :) It is a huge fountain that plays music and shoots the water into the air.

Nearby is an old fashioned trolley. Mike and John took the boys for a ride while Dara, Harper, and I hung out near the water.

A word on pictures of Peter....Soo....ever since we showed Peter how a digital camera works, he has been obsessed. We can't really take pictures of him anymore that don't involve him reaching towards the camera. I am hoping he grows out of this soon. As you will see, unless he didn't know we were clicking away, most of our shots are quite similar this summer. :)

In July, my office manager got married and our relatives came to visit to celebrate the occasion.

It was fun to get together with the family and to hang out with our staff.

And it is always nice to have an excuse to dress up.

It was also another chance for Peter to hang out with his cousins. I am not sure what was going on here in these 2 shots. Perhaps Peter thought Hannah was the one giving him bunny ears...

As the family was departing for home, Sophia graciously gave Peter one of her stuffed animals. I don't think she realized how much Peter would fall in love with "Lambie" or "Lambkin" as he(?) is affectionately known. Peter seems to be in love with Lambie as much as he is with Bob. He gets very excited when Lambie makes an appearance.



We spent a fair amount of time at the beach. That was a nice perk of the summer. I didn't really know what to expect with a toddler at the beach. As usual, Peter was great. At first he hated the sand which turned out to be a plus. He just sat on my lap for the first couple of visits. Now he really likes to run around on it.


We have gone to the beach a couple of times with Kendall....they are so cute together! We are looking forward to the next "set." Kendall's sister is due in October....:)


As anyone knows, the beach really tires you out.

This reminded me of last Spring, when we took Peter to the beach for the first time.

We also got a surprise visit from Ayako. Peter fell in love with her (notice the reaching for the camera).



We celebrated my mom's birthday in August. Peter really liked the waitress at this restaurant. He kept trying to hug her. Here is a picture of him entertaining us with his chopsticks.

We spent some time at Gramps and Omi's house when it got really hot.


at the Trump Golf Course




a budding Soccer player.....

Here is one of our last visits to the beach, and an extreme display of Peter wanting the camera.


We were fortunate enough to be able to get away for 2 nights to celebrate our anniversary. My parents took care of Peter while we were gone. We all had a great time, respectively.

We stayed at the new resort in Palos Verdes called Terranea. It was really relaxing.


Dinner at the Admiral Risty

view from our room

this place just has extraordinary views, this was along our walk to the pool

Peter definitely kept my parents busy. I think my mom probably walked him around their house about 75 times during our absence. She also spent a lot of time teaching him to walk up and down stairs.

It has been hot around here the last week. Here is Mr. Peter relaxing, checking out last year's confections for Val and Easter 2009.

And here is our visit with the Youngs, effectively bringing Summer to an end. :(

Now we are waiting patiently for the arrival of Baby #2. He will be spending a lot of time in this bassinet that we were so fortunate to be able to borrow from John and Dara.

4th of July

What a difference a year makes.....

July 4, 2008

July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July!!!

What I've Been Working On

I alluded in a previous post that there was a reason for not writing on this blog very frequently. That reason would be pictured above. :)

Baby #2 is due at the end of September. If you know where to look you can see that the bottom left picture shows it is a boy! We are really excited!

The second pregnancy has been as smooth as the last. And hopefully it stays that way. I was extremely tired during the first trimester and definitely not as nauseous this time around--which was very much appreciated. I have felt a lot more emotional this time--so emotional that I thought I might be having a girl (sorry, baby). I am very very very very happy to be having another boy. Boys are fun! And we already have all the clothes and stuff. And now we don't have to worry about them sharing a room, etc.

I was very thankful to be through the first trimester--I just had no energy and couldn't even fathom sitting down at the computer to write about it.

I just finished my glucose test last week and I passed! Very thankful to have sailed through that one this time. Last time I had to go back and take the 3 hour test.

(Yes, that is my handwriting scrawled at the top of the glucose bottle: "Do not drink unless you are Michelle." So many people using our fridge, you can't take any chances.)

Even though it is an excuse to sit and watch TV for 3 hours....I just don't have that time....The doctor did say that I have slightly low iron--perhaps that is why I have still been feeling so tired! I am hoping once I start taking iron supplements my energy will improve.

We just took Peter to his 15 month appointment and the doctor recommended we buy him a baby doll (I didn't really think we would be buying dolls with 2 boys running around, but whatever :)) and a book about being a big brother. I am not sure how helpful that will really be, but it will make us feel better. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to all of the change! I think he will be a great big brother.

Peter, sporting his "big brother" shirt, on the night that we told Gramps and Omi about baby #2! I think he is not quite sure what it all means...and that is still the case months later.

Favorites and Cha Cha Changes......

I really haven't devoted enough time to Peter's LOVE of books. It is pretty crazy.
In preparation for his arrival, I read a lot of books. Many of them say to start reading to them at an early age....so I did. Not much to do during wake time in the beginning, except re-acquaint yourself with the old classics, "The Hungry Catepillar" and "The Snowy Day," etc. Peter started to "read" those books when he was just a few days old.

When he learned to crawl and lie on his tummy, he spent a lot of time looking at books.

And he still does.

It doesn't really matter what the context is. He can spend about 10 minutes (yeah. I know!) looking at 1 book. This obviously comes in really really handy at church. By the time he has gone through 3 or 4 books, the service is almost done.

He doesn't just look at them, he LOOKS at them. He examines every page, and then when he has completed the book, he turns it upside down and starts all over.

He seems to really enjoy these great "peek-a-boo" books that we got from Aunt Chanoli. He has "loved" them a lot. We have had to tape the flaps back onto the pages. I am kind of rationing them out so that they don't get loved all at once.

This was his first German meal. He is starting to eat more and more table food. The transition was challenging for me. But I think I am figuring it out a little more these days. Anyway, here he is enjoying some Nuremburger Sausage and some fried potatoes. YUM.

We are working on teaching him the Children's Catechism. The first question is, "Who Made You?" And the answer is, "God!" Sometimes Peter will randomly raise his hand as he is right now. Is that taking the Lord's name in vain? :)

He has recently been "trained" to use the phones in the office. I am not sure exactly what the training has involved, but I hear he likes the hold button.

Last week, Omi showed him the wonders of a digital camera. He was VERY interested in looking at himself on the screen (99% of Omi's pictures are of Peter, so it worked out. the other 1% are of the cats...ha ha)

Here is Peter kissing himself on the screen of the camera. We are going to have to work on his narcissism.