33 weeks



Can't wait till the baby comes. This will be me especially the wine!



I'm wobbling more and nights are just a pain. 6 more weeks to go!

I've had no weird cravings just get hungry more. I do love me some nightly string cheese. Ryan asks me right before he comes upstairs, if I say no he makes sure to asks twice. I'm known to change my mind just as he lays down in bed and gets comfortable. I always say "it's not my fault your son changed his mind". It always works. :)

What's in a name?

So, the biggest question that I have gotten lately besides, how are you feeling is... any names picked out yet?
It's harder the second time around to pick out a name especially when it's the same gender. We were relaxed about Daniel's name and it just kinda came to us so we wanted to take our time and not stress over it this time as well. We knew Daniel's middle name would be Jeremy to honor Ryan's twin brother that passed away at birth. Daniel came to us when I started thinking of names that would easily translate into Polish and were fairly traditional. Ryan's response to it along with the entire family was positive and so it stuck. It fits him perfectly.
Daniel's name means God is my judge.
I have read the story of Daniel in the bible and just loved his strong character and unwillingness to succumb to the King's pressure, his devotion to God and trust in Him.  (Reminds me of our little stubborn Daniel).
So, naturally this time around I reached for the bible and re-read the story of Daniel.
This verse and story sparked an interest:
Daniel 1

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4 “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.[c]” 5 The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.

The name Mishael in today's translation is Michael. The meaning of Michael is-Who is like God.
Michael was Daniel's friend, follower and supporter in the bible and when I mentioned the name to Ryan he said "that's a pretty common name". My response "not more common than Daniel".
We talked about it and I said "how does Michael Ryan Marron sound?" Silence. Then, "I really like that".
It was a winner for weeks. No other names sounded or had a history like Michael does, especially when paired with Daniel. Daniel and Michael. It sounded good.
The confirmation really came after our 29 week ultrasound. We went out for lunch right around the corner from the Dr. office and started talking about names, while dining a cute little boy was giving his mom a hard time, he was about 15 months, cute as a button. When we heard the mom say "Michael come here" we knew it was a sign.
It's not unique, not a name picked by celebrities but a solid name that has significant meaning and most of all WE LIKE IT.
So, there you have it...

Michael Ryan

we can't wait to meet you!

I don't think I need to explain the middle name. ;)

Weekend

Well with a Dr. appt on Friday for Daniel we had a 5 day ZPak prescription for him and his upper respiratory infection. Just like daddy last weekend. With his asthma it's hard to get rid of a cough after a cold. He's doing better.
We skipped the PM preschool and relaxed with a nebulizer. With daddy out of town it was just us two. Saturday, while D was in Polish school I ran around, bought mums for the front of the house and went food shopping. Before I knew it, it was time to pick him up. We had lunch and then it was time for D's haircut. I figure he'll be good until the holidays and his hair will grow out before the pictures with the baby. We watched The Muppets movie. Daniel's favorite part..."when Ms. Piggy falls on the little guy". I enjoyed This Means War when D went to sleep, I also enjoyed the entire bed to myself.
I tried to get the baby's room ready a bit but I had a little intruder everywhere I moved.

Daniel practicing winking

Sunday, we enjoyed a trip to Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us. The first 20 minutes were great with Daniel in the cart. The last hour and a half was filled with tears about wanting a pirate ship (which was almost identical to the one he has) but you know the packaging fools kids into thinking it's totally different. As a girl I remember wanting a Barbie doll because the background of the box pictured a castle and some other barbies on it having a grand ol' time, only when I ripped the Barbie out of the box I had... well...only a Barbie and the background was garbage. A little snooze in the car did him some good as we pulled up to the library. He had a great time with a friend from school there and just kept saying "I just need $40 for Bucky (name of ship)" he is collecting money for good behavior, although he would be in the negative with that escapade. I'm trying to make him understand that you can't have everything that you want but according to him "Yes, I can mommy, I need it ALL" not sure the lesson hit home this weekend. I'm sure we'll get plenty of practice. We enjoyed a quick trip to the park and some cuddles in bed watching rented movies.
I'm trying to take it easy with a bad ankle, according to the orthopedic Dr. this morning it's my ligaments acting up during my pregnancy. I got a nice sexy brace for it and was sent home to "relax". Yeah OK buddy. I'll get the maid and pool boy right on that to-do list.

School is cool

Daniel has been doing great with going to 2 schools. I have been adjusting. One annoying thing is the amount of paper work I have to go through from 2 schools and a Polish school. Oh yeah, we get other children's clothing in his backpack too and our sweaters are given to others. The permanent markers came out this morning to initial his tags. Hopefully, this helps everyone.

I ordered Daniel's fall shoes on line. We'll see if Zappos delivers. Ryan picked the colors. How adorable are these. They got great reviews.

8 Years and 32 weeks

Happy 8 Year Anniversary to my hubby. 

It's been a great ride!!!!

Weekend

Whenever I sit down to write a post about the weekend I have to take myself back to Friday and then slowly try to remember what in the world we did.
Well, Friday D started his level Red swimming class. He missed last week since he was sick. He did very well. They are focusing on breathing and holding their breath under water.
The three of us treated ourselves to Culvers ice cream afterwards. They are awesome, you can add 2 ingredients to the ice cream. There are about 15 choices. We sat in the car and inhaled them. Then we headed to Walgreens to load up on drugs for Ry who had a fever and was feeling crummy.
Saturday, D had Polish school and I raced around like a nut; deli, haircut and then to pick up D. By the time we got home from school Ry was looking pretty bad.
He was a trooper and took a shower so we could go see Disney on Ice but 30 minutes before leaving I knew I couldn't make him go  and he didn't mind not going either. I recruited Daniel's best friend. 15 minutes later, I, 8 months preggo and 2, 4 year old boys who squeal like girls, were on our way to see the show.
One problem....what major arena doesn't except debit cards for parking? I had to turn around, find an ATM and then head back. It was the longest 10 minutes EVER, all I heard from the back seat is, "where are we going, is the show over, why are all these cars here, are we going to see Captain Hook?" Did I mention I heard this both in Polish and English? Thank God Daniel was not a twin!
Anyway, we made it in but not before the boys noticed every single Disney paraphernalia known to man being sold. My only response to get us through the grueling 5 minute walk was "Yes boys we'll look at it all during intermission". Both English and Polish answers seemed to have worked on them.
We sat down and I could finally relax. Of course every few minutes there was the "where is my backpack? can I have a snack? can I have popcorn? who is that? how did they do that? when in Captain Hook coming back? is it over? I don't know those guys". One intermission and a 10 minute wait in line to go to the bathroom later we were back in our seats to enjoy the rest of the show. The boys did good but I'm glad there will be a 4 year difference in age between my sons because I saw tantrums with siblings that day that made my eyes roll in the back of my head.



 Sunday, with daddy feeling crummy we decided 5 days of a fever was enough and a trip to the care clinic followed.
45 minutes, a diagnosis of a respiratory infection and a prescription for a 5 day Z pack later we were on our way home. D was picked up by his grandparents to head out to Santa's Village for the last time of the season.
He received a camera from them and here are some things I found on it. Thanks grandma and grandpa, going through my own gazillion pictures doesn't keep me busy enough. :)

 

Chillin' in the semi truck at Santa's Village

He came home exhausted just like his grandparents. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for allowing my daddy to sleep and rest and my mommy to continue to scratch things off of her to do list since she is nesting.
When Ryan woke up Saturday night with a fever of 102.9, I panicked and was up from 4-5am going through baby stuff. Why? I imagined myself with the flu in the hospital while my baby had nothing to come home in and felt like the second child the moment he was born. Yes, hormones can do crazy things.
Ok...my to-do list awaits.

Week 31

I'm in week 31 of my pregnancy and this week I am walking slower, sleeping less and more anxious to get things done. It's not helping that my allergies have been kicking my behind.
I won't share my weight gain, because why would anyone care. :) I know I'm smaller than I was with Daniel and I take that as an improvement.
We moved Daniel's train table into his bedroom yesterday, his reaction..."You guys this is going to be ridiculous". Yes, little man, our house is about to get very ridiculous!

Pimp my ride and nesting

This weekend was a full schedule.
Friday, while daddy enjoyed a Bruce Springsteen concert, D and I ventured out to IKEA. I quickly realized after a full day of 2 schools it was not the best idea to take Daniel out of the house past 6pm.
A full blown crying session ensued by the cash register with fat tears and a little guy that was yelling "I'm just too tired". Bless his heart...after a warm bath, a movie, warm popcorn and milk, he was out by 8pm and I quickly followed.
Saturday, started with a crazy morning. D started Polish school, except I went to the wrong school. 30 minutes late we got to the right one. I'll spare you the details of what went wrong. I got the sympathetic look of you're preggo I'll forgive you and left. In the next hour and a half I found a crib for baby #2 and ordered it. We were going to give Daniel's bedroom back to the baby but realized a cheaper crib just made more sense. My head started spinning at the stores, I just want the nursery done already but we need to figure out what to do with all the toys in there. To be continued...
Later, we drove to a birthday party. I overindulged on pizza and cake.

I came home and was thrilled to see the shirts I ordered for Big Brother/Little Brother arrived. Super cute!! I won't share yet. The onesie is 3 months but it looks so darn tiny, it's just crazy.
As I straightened up the house the men ventured out to the park.
D ended up being quite the popular guy at the park, picking up local girls for a ride. We were proud he shared. He wanted to go to other parks later on, we decided to charge his battery before another trip and hoped he forgot about it. He did.

Oh yeah they were fighting over it



Sunday was time for church and more errands for baby's room.

A hot mess of thoughts and happenings

Thank you for all the compliments on the kitchen. We still love it.
I made our first dinner Monday, spaghetti. I felt like I was on a cooking show, using ingredients that before were hidden in the back of our disgusting pantry. Now all my spices are in a cool spice drawer and I got all crazy and used spices that probably shouldn't have been used in spaghetti. Daniel has been running around the island like a nut. We are back to having dinner at a table and not on TV trays. Getting information out of Daniel about his days at school during dinner..., well that hasn't changed. He is tight lipped, a new kitchen didn't change that.
I think all that cooking has been making my heartburn worse though so I need to chill with the spices. Just sayin'.

The last 3 mornings I have set my alarm clock so I can get a walk in before everyone wakes up. I have listenend to that alarm clock twice and once I pounded it and covered my head with a blanket. I love morning walks. The air is crisp, it's just me and the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement, my belly leads the way. That last five minutes is tough, I may look like a lady going into labor because I start to make faces and rub my round belly and slow my pace but I feel great afterwards. I'm less tired all day, I love walking into the house when D is ready for breakfast and Ry is getting ready and my day officially begins. It's too bad I didn't make this routine when the freaking sun wasn't rising at 6:45am.

In other earth shattering news, D started his AM preschool today. This is our church preschool. He is super excited to go back. I think the hot, blond teacher may have something to do with it.
He will go there 3 times a week for 3 hours. 3 times a week for 3 hours with a 2 hour break before he goes to his PM preschool. He gets speech at his PM school. The speech therapist emailed me and said he has made such a huge improvement over the summer so he's off to a good start. I'm sure if she heard his smart mouth talking back to me she would have him in honors speech.

My calendar is filling up. Yesterday I spent most of my evening filling out paperwork for 2 schools and adding 'important dates' to the calendar. I have 3 calendars. Our calendar on the fridge (I gave up and attached that sucker to our stainless steal fridge and ruined the seamless look I posted the other day. I'm a mom and it just works), then my Outlook calendar and then my hardcover purse calendar. You should see my confusion when one calendar doesn't match the other two, it's a disaster. I need to find a way to consolidate better but I refuse to be squinting at my phone calendar. I haven't made that leap yet.
Where was I? My brain is just a mess today.
Ok, I think this post is long enough.

Kitchen Reveal

It was 3.5 weeks of pounding, dust and living in the family room BUT it's done, the full kitchen is finished. Technically, Ryan reminded me the entire remodel took 18 days since we can't count the weekends, that's pretty good. We would highly recommend our contractor. His workers were wonderful to work with. I will admit working from home twice a week and being available to answer/guide 100 questions is key. We inspected every night and if there was anything we didn't like we let them know and they fixed it.
So, here it is...(decor will be added with time).

Walking through the front door BEFORE

Walking through front door AFTER. There is one lonely trial bar stool. We went shopping and are trying it out.

View in the kitchen blocked off by this BEFORE

View in the kitchen AFTER wall removed. Forgot to remove the tomatoes and pastries.

Island with ample storage on both sides. Viola, clean island.

Granite. Juparana Delicatus.

View from dining room BEFORE

View from dining room AFTER.

Window BEFORE that did not allow access to the back yard.

French door AFTER with access to  a small deck. We don't have to walk through the family room to get to the grill.

Deck AFTER

Stove BEFORE circa 1970s. Still can't figure out how to turn these pictures.

Stove from 2012 AFTER

Backsplash

Backsplash close-up

Travertine floors AFTER. We had wall white tile before.

Some links to the material:
Cabinets: Lowe's- KraftMaid, Cherry wood, Cognac finish
Granite: Juparana Delicatus, http://www.msistone.com/Granite/Juparana-Delicatus . All slabs are so different, you cannot go by the picture on-line, because that certainly did not represent our slab.
Backsplash: The Tile Shop, Miramar Mix with Glass http://www.tileshop.com/product/productdetail.aspx?familyID=2494&recordID=5076645
Grout used with backsplash and floor-Mobe Pearl
Floors: The Tile Shop, Amazonas Brown B/F 15X90cm http://www.tileshop.com/product/productdetail.aspx?familyID=1868&recordID=5055289 The size we have is not online yet so the link is to the closest thing.

Lighting: Lighting Universe, Fredrick Ramond FR33557CLD Vivo Mini Pendant, http://www.lightinguniverse.com/mini-pendants/fredrick-ramond-fr33557bni-vivo-mini-pendant_g905410.html?isku=7331430&linkloc=cataLogProductItemsImage

Appliances: KitchenAid

Not sure if I'm missing anything else, so if you have questions let me know.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Our weekend getaway

We went away and spend a wonderful family weekend, just the three of us (well 4 :)). It was low key, just the way we like it.
I came back a year older and with some allergies and Daniel came back with a little cold. We celebrated my birthday with a day at the water park, a nap for me, dinner and an evening stroll. It was perfect.