30 weeks and counting!

So...I tried to take a picture of myself to post on my blog for hitting 30 weeks, but look way too awkward taking pictures. I immediately deleted them, and will maybe be taking some in a while. I really haven't had anything eventful happen pregnancy-wise since our flight home in March, which is really good news. It just makes for boring updates. I love this stage of pregnancy, though, because when the baby moves, it makes my whole stomach move. It's hard to miss any movements. With this little guy, he can definitely do some cool moves, too. Sometimes I wonder if he's having a seizure in there because it's so fast. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a tough one.

We are almost done with another test week, and then Lance only has one more block of classes to take tests for. Those tests are at the end of May, then we are headed home for the summer. This first year has gone by so fast. It will be so great to be able to say we are M2's next year instead of M1's. It takes me back to high school days and being a Freshman. It's always better to be a Sophomore. Every test week I'm amazed at how much they have to stuff into their brains to cover all the material they have learned about.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we went to this cute park and the girls had so much fun playing. Jaycee went over to the sand and played there the majority of the time. She found some new friends with sand toys and went over to play with/steal those toys. One of the little boys threw a little truck at her (from where I was sitting it looked like a ball) and she came to me sobbing. It was a really sad cry, but I couldn't see where it hit her. I just figured it scared her since she didn't know them. Later on I discovered it had hit her eye, and she has a bruise right on her eyelid. No wonder she cried. She wasn't too traumatized, though, because she went right back and played with them until they left.

Chicago

Over Easter weekend we decided to finally drive down to Chicago. We'd been planning on going there since Christmas, but kept postponing it. It's only a two-hour drive from Milwaukee. For all of you Bear Lakers, we met Hannah Belnap (now Porter is her last name) to hang out with her and her husband. He's going to medical school there, and she's working as a Physician's Assistant. It was good to catch up with them, and they were great hosts. Jaycee started out seeing Chicago by climbing up one of the trees outside Hannah and Brian's apartment. Then Hannah sent us on the blue-line train to downtown Chicago. We've never really gone on a train before, and it was definitely Jaycee's first experience.

We just went and hung out at Millennium Park for a couple hours. This is the famous "Bean" in Chicago. It's so cool how it reflects all the buildings.

This is my attempt to take a picture of our reflection in the "Bean".

This is what you seen when you stand in the middle of it. It's so weird.

These are the face fountains (we never found out if there was an actual name). The people smile at you and just look all innocent, then close their eyes and start spitting water out.

When that sun disappeared behind those buildings it turned very cold, and near the end Jaycee was crying because she was so cold.

Hannah and Brian took us to their favorite pizza place, which was Girodano's. Jaycee tried Hannah's glasses on, and thought she was pretty cool. I should have got Brian in the picture, but didn't for some reason.
This is Jaycee eating the inch-thick layer of cheese. It was such good pizza.

All in all, it was a good trip, but very short. We were glad we had someone to show us around.

P.S. I did a few posts today, so keep going down the page.

Easter at the Zoo!

On Friday, April 10th, we went to the zoo to celebrate Easter with the animals. They had cute little coloring activities, token hunts, and programs--all sorts of fun. Jaycee has a fetish about pushing other kids' strollers, especially Eliza's.

This was so cute when Katelyn and Jaycee were holding hands.

Jaycee had to give the Easter Bunny a hug.

Aren't those the cutest bunny ears? She wore them long enough for me to take a picture.

Thanks everyone who went to the zoo with us. We had a great time!

Cute pictures!

These are just pictures that I thought were cute of Jaycee. She finally doesn't squint or cheese-it when I tell her to smile. The first two are of the presents Grandma Jacobson sent her. She went to Disneyland and bought Jaycee the Minnie Ears headband. She also sent the pom-poms and completed the outfit with the beautiful high heels (Jaycee has fallen numerous times while walking around in them).

For the grandparents!

Beware--These videos are meant for the grandparents since they didn't get to see Jaycee open their presents they sent in the mail. They really aren't that exciting unless you're the ones that sent the wonderful Easter packages to Jaycee. She really did get spoiled this Easter--thanks to grandparents. You also don't want to have to listen to my voice, either, because it never sounds good when recorded. No wonder every salesman asks for my mom or dad when they call.

Baseball memories

When I was growing up my parents got me onto a softball team, and my older brother played baseball. I did not enjoy it at all--one of the main reasons being that it was so boring that I had to do cartwheels out in the field to make the time go by faster. I lasted one season, and can't remember much more than the cartwheels. My brother, on the other hand, loved playing baseball and was naturally good at it. That passed on down to my two younger brothers, and my sister as well. I was doomed to a life of watching baseball game after baseball game (and softball, too). I really didn't enjoy watching baseball games, and was even more disgusted watching professional baseball on TV. When we moved to Bear Lake, Idaho, my brother played on the high school baseball team, and my attitude immediately changed. I was a freshman, and all his studly friends that played baseball were very entertaining to watch. Not to mention that I had a crush on Lance at that time, and he played on the team as well. Needless to say, I have boys to thank for finally opening my eyes to the amazing sport of baseball. It really is an awesome sport, and I have sat through the games of all three brothers playing baseball from Little League to high school (two brothers went to Junior College to play, but I didn't get to any games). Lance's family is no different. All three brothers played baseball, and were very talented. His dad has coached countless teams in Little League and Pony, and has put a lot of sweat into making the baseball fields at the high school look as great as they look today. I don't know if I should mention this since we do live in Milwaukee, Home of the Brewers, but the Cubs are both our families' team of choice.

To show you how devoted our families are to baseball: we had to plan our wedding around the baseball schedule. I will admit that with Corby, Chase (my brothers), and Chase (Lance's brother) playing and my dad coaching JV, it was quite important to work around it. We did end up getting married on the weekend of Districts, which wasn't very popular, but it was our only option. We also went on a trip to Boise (5-hour drive) two weeks after Jaycee was born to watch those same brothers play in the State tournament. It was quite painful for me (if you want to know the truth), but worth it since they took the championship. We even had the principal of the school ask if we had brought Jaycee right from the hospital after she was born to the games. I felt like a terrible mother, too, because Jaycee ended up getting heat rash because it was so hot.

If you know Lance, you know he's got baseball down to a science, and knows every trick, every rule, and every play, etc.. Hence, the video. He's already taught Jaycee to tap the plate with the bat (the coke bottle is all we have for a bat), to bat left-handed (which is apparently better in baseball) and run the bases. At the end she says, "Safe!" if you can't tell. She enjoys playing this game, and Lance is, of course, a very proud father. He claims he doesn't want a softball player because he hates softball, but he might change his mind eventually. Sorry for the novel, but I liked reminiscing about the good old days.

Bath time

I don't know if it's just genetics, but when Jaycee gets out of the tub she has the most wrinkly hands. The pictures don't do it justice, but they get so pruny. It could be attributed to the fact that she won't get out of the tub. I have to keep turning the hot water on for her so she doesn't freeze. Her bathtime easily lasts an hour. Anyway, I just think it's funny, and I have the same problem. I can't stand washing dishes without gloves for that same reason. I hate pruny hands. You might find yourself asking (if you've known me for a while) how I used to stand teaching swimming lessons, or swimming for that matter. I guess you do crazy things for love. Just kidding--it drives me crazy swimming, too, but the fun of swimming outweighs the pruniness. There's no fun in washing dishes.

Pregnancy update: At thirteen weeks I started having random contractions (Braxton Hicks). They have not left me since, and when we flew back to Milwaukee from Utah (on March 23) I had 12 contractions within an hour and my stomach was cramping. My doctor had told me that having 4 in an hour would be something to let her know about. Anyway, we were worried that I was maybe going into labor, but I wasn't. After the twelve contractions they stopped and we made it home without any further incident. When I went to my doctor's appointment a week later, she checked me and found I am dilated to a 1, and also thinning (effacing). Not an extreme cause for concern, but she did want to make sure that I wasn't dilating for a reason. I had also been sick for the past couple of days, so I was dehydrated and malnourished. On top of that I was measuring a centimeter small. Because of all this, she decided to do a fetal fibronectin test, which would tell them if I was going to deliver in the next two weeks. That came back negative, thankfully, and that is where we are today. I still have random contractions, but nothing painful or worrisome. Apparently, it is not uncommon for women who have had a baby before to start dilating this early. The only thing all this did is make us nervous for the flight home on May 30th. Luckily, we did decide to fly instead of drive home. When we can fly all three of us home for $500, it's hard to say we should drive. Especially when it's around 7 hours of travel compared to 20 in a car (if you don't have to stop every hour for an 8-months pregnant woman who has to go potty or walk around to prevent blood clots). Now we just have to hide how large my belly will be when we go to board the plane so they don't ask any questions.