NC Museum of Life & Science...

We made a trip to the NC Museum of Life & Science in Durham this week. Wow has that place changed since I went in elementary school!! What a wonderful place!!

Ivy checking out some bones - this table was for comparing human bones with cow bones...

Checking out the ants...

More bones - these were real skulls from things like a pig, a baboon, etc.

They had a play area for kids under 6 - here is Ivy climbing on the rock wall...

Same play area - dropping a ball into these racks. The ball would keep rolling and end up in a box at the end.

They had some outdoor animal exhibits. This is a turkey and it was part of the farm section...

And they have a butterfly house. It was very fun and Ivy loved it. She kept talking about the butterflies landing on her (she would hold her arms out and be real still) but when we actually got there if a butterfly came near her she backed up and wiggled her arms a little bit. This is as close as she would get (because I made her for the picture!!).

Several things...

Just some random stuff going on around here... Nothing exciting...

34 weeks...

So Ivy has FINALLY learned to jump. She still doesn't jump a lot and maybe only gets a few inches off the floor. But she started by jumping on our bed. I know that isn't a great idea, but I felt like it was safer than her jumping off the couch or something else. Well, I was putting on clean sheets - it was a wide open space for her to jump. She was having a great time!!

There is something wrong with this situation... How come the 9 pound cat is sleeping on the dog bed and the 80+ pound dog is on the floor next to the dog bed? Poor Tucker, he's such a wuss... He won't even argue with the cat about his own bed...

I found this eye patch in our medicine cabinet. It has been floating around here for years and I have no idea where it came from or why we have it. But Ivy has been pretending to be a pirate and so the eye patch seemed like a fun addition to her pretending! Here she is saying, "Arrrrrrgh!"

Richard and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. We thought it would be a good time to get away for the weekend - by ourselves (before Baby Sister arrives)!! We left Ivy with my Mom and Dave and headed to Manteo. We stayed in a bed & breakfast that we've stayed in several other times. I know it'll be a while until we get to do that again...maybe another 2.5 years!! And I really only took like 5 pictures the whole weekend - this was one from out on the beach. Richard was using his cast net to catch minnows. We really didn't do a whole lot on the trip. We took naps, hung out on the beach, fished (Richard fished, I watched), read books, etc...

32 weeks...

I was 32 weeks pregnant last Friday... Please excuse the bad picture. We were outside late in the day (trying to play outside a little bit after it cooled off (yeah right!) but before it got dark). And please excuse the tired Mommy in the picture. I haven't been sleeping well and it's only been like a million degrees. :)

A Little Fishing with Daddy...

Richard spent all day Sunday out in the hot sun doing car stuff and when he got home, Ivy wanted to go fishing. She has her pink and purple princess fishing pole and her fake worms...

Ivy caught this fish all by herself - Richard does cast the line for her but Ivy reels it in, she says, "Let it sit a minute...." then starts reeling again.

Same fish but look how proud Ivy is of her fish!!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

We went to a Durham Bull's baseball game Friday night. Ivy had a great time - she got some cotton candy and even got to stay up late so we could stay for the fireworks.

What an imagination...

Ivy's imagination and pretend play has EXPLODED over the past few weeks. She has always been good at pretending but it was usually very real things like cooking in her play kitchen or putting her doll to bed. Things like that but now she is always pretending to do something fake or be someone that she comes up with. Her favorite thing seems to be pretending to be a "Little Baby". She'll tell us what to ask: "Say, Do you want a snack Little Baby?" or something like that. She pretends her drinks are bottles, she crawls around. And when we ask her what she's doing, she says, "I'm a little baby..." and continues on with her fun. I know this has a lot to do with the preparations going on around the house for the REAL little baby coming in two months. She wants to use all the baby stuff (car seat, bouncy seat, play mat, etc.) in her pretend play - that makes it so real for her...

Today, she wanted to "freeze" a lot. You know, where you are walking around and someone says, "FREEZE!!" and you can't move. There were even a couple of times where she said, "Guys, I'm frozen here..." and we'd have to say "Un-freeze" to get her to move again.

She's been having birthday parties, going to the grocery store, taking stuffed toys to the vet, etc. She's been telling stories to us. They usually go something like, "One time, we went to the park. It was hot outside. I went down the slide. Another boy was there." Very simple stories, but very correct in her recollection of the events and most of all they are fun to listen to. She's growing up so fast!!

3D Ultrasound Pics

I had a doctors appointment today. I go every 2 weeks now. I first met with the OB and she measured my belly first - I'm measuring "a bit ahead" as she put it and then she said that should be expected with my past history of having a big baby. She said they'd keep track of things over then next few appointments and then probably do an ultrasound about 36 weeks to check the baby's size. She also listened to the baby's heartbeat, it was in the 140s.

After meeting with the OB, I had my 3D ultrasound. This was an ultrasound that I set up and paid for myself. It's just something fun the OB's office offers. Below are all the pictures that were taken during the ultrasound. Some of them turned out really good. Most of them are of her face, sort of a profile view, but she didn't move around very much during the ultrasound...

Front view of her face.

Hand up to her face

She made this "sour" face several times...very cute!

Great view of her hand!

Another sour face!

At the top of the picture is the bottom of her foot...

Hand over her face...

Not sure if she's got her thumb in her mouth, but if so, she didn't leave it in there long.

Her mouth is open...