Naming...

David and I have had a name picked out since before Preston was born for a girl...Emilia Jane. I just absolutely L.O.V.E. it. I love the spelling; I love the way it looks; I love the story behind it;  I love the meaning; And, I love how feminine and not common it is...It's perfect! It actually has great meaning to me, so it is more than just an "open a page in the baby book and choose one" name. My great grandmother was from Italy and her name was Amalia. My grandfather was named Emil and my sister is Emily..I CANNOT think of a better name to honor these people with. I, of course, never met my great grandmother, but I loved my grandpa dearly and obviously, I love my sister, ha ha. I am so happy that I found this name prior to having a girl because if I would have missed out on this opportunity, I would have been so bummed. Emily has even decided if I only have boys, she is going to use it for her girl, in the far, far future :). For the middle name, Jane, that was my grandmother's middle name and the name that she went by. Her first name was Helen, my middle name, so it is incredibly special to me that way. Not to mention how much I loved her.  On David's side, Norma's middle name is Jane, so it is perfect...A.B.S.O.L.U.T.E.L.Y.  P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!! As for boys...hmmmmmmm, and another hmmmmmm, and another hmmmmm...We have not even talked about it..I guess we still have our top 5 list from when P was born, ha ha ha. We might need to whip it out, wherever it is. I think the middle name will be Champion again, which is totally weird of me to want that. I just feel like with boys you can't have one with a middle name like Champion and the other with a middle name like John...It's just not fair, especially coming from an "our lives revolve around sports" type of family. Champion is a BOMB middle name. I don't think David is totally on board with this request though. I tried to explain that there would never be a cooler middle name...For example, you can't name your kid "First Place", "Number One", or "Gold Medal." Champion just works much too well and is irreplaceable.

34 weeks...

Top 10 at 34 weeks...

1. 6 weeks left...OMG...OMG...OMG...Pretty much sums up how I feel about that :)

2. Appointments every 2 weeks= super, duper annoying, but it's standard care, so I don't argue and the last 3 have been completely FREE with an ultrasound...INSANE! That alone is $500 bones in the U.S.

3. No going to Tokyo for me...Offically declined by my doctor....BOOO...I was only toying with the idea but when I started to think about the hassle it would be to be 37 weeks pregnant in Tokyo with a 2 year old, luggage, stroller, carrying everything on and off the subway, and up and down stairs, I always thought "oh, hell no!" I would probably just drop the baby out, right there on the sidewalk. Dr. Vaughn did tell me that it may be more exciting to watch the championship match on television...As soon as he said that, he must have seen my face because he quickly recovered with "Well, I guess not, when it's your husband on tv." Um, yeah, no, especially when all the comentary is in a language you don't understand. Oh well....

4. Babe is looking good. She is continuing to measure ahead with her femur length being quite long for her gestational age. Her weight is about 5 pounds (and as I have said before, it is a very inaccurate measurement).

5. I got to see her face and it was chubby...I almost fell off the table. Every other time that I have seen her face it looks like skeletore...Not too cute but today it was totally chubby and I saw her nose and her lips....Her lips were so pouty! The face was so feminine, but everyone says that P has a soft, round, girly face too, so I guess there is no clue there either.

6. Still thinking girl though.

7. Very interactive. On many occassions, David or I have poked my belly and she kicks right back. The other night this went on for some time. It was like a game. Preston only did that every once in a while.

8. Hiccups have finally started. She is getting them more frequently now. 

9. Went to the chiropractor for the first time and it was amazing...He realigned everything which gave me instant releif, until I had to do the decorations for P's birthday party the next day...Should have gone after the party was done. Hoping to go again next week.

10. Weight gain is at 20 pounds which is at the high end of my doctor's reccomendation and at the low end of the standard reccomendation in the U.S. I am happy with it. I will probalby end up a few pounds less than when I delivered P.

Holy Preston Overload....

Dear family,

This Preston overload is for you...

The Palmers :)

Digging in the dirt with Willow

Straight to the bath after Mr. Farmer was dirty from head to toe

 Playing with his new birthday toy from David's coach...He loves it...It is about the same size as our family room and his bedroom

Birthday boy playing with all his cars and trucks that he got...One happy little man!

Morning stretches with daddy

 Painting for the first time..What a deprived child...Never painted until he was two!

This is the ogre with Preston's not-dry painting stuck to his back...All of a sudden the picture was missing off the fridge and I was looking for it. No wonder I never get anything done! I asked David if he moved it and he hadn't. Some how the painting went missing. About 10 minutes later, I spotted a paper stuck to David's back and asked him what it was. Apparently, he was sitting on the exercise ball, leaned against the fridge, and pulled the not-dry painting off the fridge..Only this stuff happen to us.

A few members of my running group at David's game

Ronald in Japan...He is Asian!

Big fan I saw on my way to the game

Preston and his friend, Colton...By the way, that is Colton's popcorn that Mr. Piggy is hogging and was about to fight over

Us

At the beach at 8am..What a rough life.

Weirdo...

And I am literally pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen, cooking dinner.

Helping mommy pick basil from our "garden"

Helping mommy sweep..He loves to sweep...I would love it too but he sweeps right in my dust pile that I already collect and disburses everything again.

Play time with daddy

Preston's 2nd Birthday Party

Preston finally had his actual birthday party on the 17th. It started off as a BBQ but the weather was supposed to be rearing its ugly head that day. Of course, the weather forecast showed sunshine the day after we changed it and it ended up being a nice day.  Two days before we decided to make it at an indoor kids park that he loves so we wouldn't have to worry about the weather. Since it was at the kids park I could have had it any day but the 17th was the only day we could do the BBQ, which is why we planned it so far after his birthday...I swear after doing this party I needed 2 days of recuperation. I was talking to one of my mom friends and she said that she didn't know if her daughter would be having a 3rd birthday party...ha ha ha. I was like, "I totally get it." Planning a kid's birthday should not be this involved but I wanted it cute and I felt bad because he didn't have a 1st birthday, so we put forth a lot of energy to make it fun and happy for him. Please remember he had already had one celebration on his birthday that included the beach, a bounce house, and pinata...This kid made up for lost time this year. Hopefully, next year he wont remember any of it because if he does, David and I are screwed. I will say it was totally worth it when he ran in to the party area...He had the biggest smile on his face and yelled, "OOOOHHHHH   WWWWWOOOOWWW!" And, we had a nice turned out...About 25 people (kids and adults) were there just to see him.

Funny tidbits:

1. Preston had one more present to open and he was being so patient opening all of them. He wanted to go play so bad. He literally yelled "NO!" and ran away when we pulled out the last gift. I felt so bad because it was from our babysitter. She understood though.
2. David and I were so caught up in the whole party fun that we never gave him his "big" gift, which was his bike. We got home started unloading stuff and had an "oh shit" moment...I turned on the Flip video and we gave it to him right then and there. It was so funny...what stupid parents!
3. At the end of the party, we were all loaded up and ready to head out (mind you I had been there for 4.5 hours and Preston and David had been there for 3.5 hours), we were looking for Preston and found him in the ball pit..He was just laying there by himself relaxing. David told him it was time to go and he just reached his arms up. He was exhausted.

Party Time

We still did the beach theme even though it wasn't at the beach



His birthday cupcakes



Decorations

I snuck food in and put little goldfishes in the orange cups

Happy Birthday banner

Party favors/pinata bags

His birthday outfit...The Whale Shirt

 

Daddy doing the pinata..

I was actually proud of myself for this one. It was a bash-it-in kind of pinata which a bunch of two year olds can't do, so I totally made it into a pull-the-string pinata, which was so much better, except that Preston went first and he pulled all of the strings making the trap door fall down.

 Birthday song time

Blowing out the candles

Clapping for himself after the song and blowing out the candles

 Cake face

 Family pic with Mr. Piggy

On the trampoline with the boys

Nora

Sophie

Dee and Mac

Newly engaged :)

Tired little man

With Chiyo, his babysitter

Please notice how large he is and how small she is ... ha ha ha

 Happy almost family of 4 picture

On his new little boy bike

Checking it out

5K...

I ran my first 5K ever at 32 weeks pregnant. I was so damn proud of myself for finishing. It was awesome and I am excited for what my jogging future holds. I am hoping this is the motivating factor to living a healthier life overall. The women that I jog with are such inspirations!

Crossing the finish line. David told me that Preston kept running out and crossing the finish line because everytime someone crossed it the crowd cheered and he loved people clapping for him...Hilarious!

Fambam after the run..Sweat stains and all :)

Alligator Steps..

Preston goes to gym/music class once a week which he loves, even though sometimes it is hard for him to behave. He recently moved up to the older class because he was going to be turning 2 and he is so large. The teacher thought it might be better for him to be with kids more his size and closer to his age. She explained this as "maybe his behavior will improve because he will be following older children, not younger children." Of course, I was so nervous but he did beautifully with the older children. The teacher was spot-on with her prediction, until this week. Since turning two, he has reverted back to his shenanigans in class with me having to chase him all around. I had to do this before, but I was not even showing and was still feeling good. Now it takes me time to get up and it is hard for me to phyically control him when he goes limp and starts kicking all around. I am hoping that this next week will go better. Timeouts have been reinstituted and he needed one within 5 minutes of the class starting last week. It was a record. The sad thing is that I know how well he can behave because for 1 month he was perfect, so I know it is in him to meet the class' expectations. He set the bar too high for himself.

Willow

We finally got a foster dog sometime ago. This was the third one that had been promised so I was in disbeleif until the puppy was dropped off with us at 730pm one night. She was a dream. All of us adored her and were sad to see her go, but as David said, "We did our job." We kept her from getting gassed and now she will live a long and happy life with lots of love with her forever parents :). She really was the sweetest, most calm puppy I have ever seen! Preston finally participated in independent playtime..I guess it wasn't completely independent since the puppy was his playmate :).