Fun in the sun

It is 109 degrees here in Vegas, so here is what we do to pass the time!

Play in the baby pool in the yard with neighbor buddy Chase....

Dance with Nana Caryn....

Lay on my red chair and goof around all day!

Elmo

Carson's new word today is "Elmo". My mom bought him an Elmo yesterday during a shopping trip and he has been in love with his Elmo ever since. Also new yesterday - we ate at Lucille's BBQ last night and Carson added another food to his repetoire.....fried green tomatoes! In the last week, he has also discovered a love for shrimp. I have never seen a baby with a palate like his....he just gobbles up everything in sight. My mom bought him some snazzy sandals yesterday and he wears a size 7 shoe. With the amount that he's been eating lately, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a jolly green giant on our hands before long.

Carson's baby sister is kicking away every day....We are probably going to check out paint colors for her room this weekend.

We did it!

We are back from our trip to Chicago and both plane rides were a huge success. Carson received a "B" for the flight to Chicago because he cried for 20 minutes at the beginning of the flight (only because I turned off his "portable electronic device" and he got seriously irritated) and because he pooped his pants....The ride home yesterday was a true "A++". Carson was calm, cool, and collected while watching 4 Baby Einstein movies, munching on sunflower seeds, and accepting M&M cookies from fellow passengers. What a guy! Our trip to Chicago was busy seeing Grandpa Dennis as much as we could. My dad is going through cancer treatments right now and we spent the week with him as much as possible. He is plugging away! Please keep him in your thoughts.

Carson has a few new tricks. Grandma Caryn taught him to play soccer and kick the ball. He is now full-fledged running. He does "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" when that song comes on. He also attempted to eat a nail and some dog food on seperate occasions. He is truly into everything and his curiosity grows every single day!

We missed spending Father's Day with Jason this year, but we plan to make it up to him. He is the best Daddy ever to our Stinky Fish!

Below - Watching my show from my easy chair....So relaxed!

Driving his "car"....

Being read to by Auntie Annon in Chicago at Grandma's house...

Bump

A series of bumps at my friend Kim's baby shower yesterday. Kim (28 weeks), Tina (26 weeks), me (19 weeks), and Michelle (16 weeks).

Good friends celebrate together!

More bowls

The latest obsession.....

The latest face....

Ultrasound update

We had our 18 week ultrasound for this past Tuesday.

Everything went really well and the doctor said that Carson's little sis looked very normal. We were excited to see that our little girl was very healthy. Her heartbeat was 149 bpm and she weighs about 8 oz. right now. One thing is for sure....this little girl cannot be told what to do.

She has a mind of her own....already!

During the ultrasound, she was absolutely 100% uncooperative for the technician trying to take all of her measurements. She was curled up in a ball and wouldn't move, despite my drinking juice and jumping all around. Then she sat in my pelvis so that no one could verify her gender for 30 minutes. Finally, she budged and gave a wave, just enough for the doctor to verify that she is definitely a girl. As if we didn't know by her behavior! She is already a diva.

The other fun part of my appointment was that my perinatologist's office, in its new location, now has a SPA FOR PREGNANT PEOPLE attached to it. My awesome doctor granted me a free foot massage after my appointment. Holy smokes! What could possibly be better?! Jason is now wondering how much money per month we will be donating to this place. My next appointment is Monday with my OB and then not for another 4 weeks.

Next Tuesday, Carson and I are off to Chicago for a week.

We are flying from Vegas to Chicago with my good friend Sandy and her two year old twins, Michael and Nicholas.Since all Carson seems to want to do these days is walk, it should make for a fun 3.5 hours.Luckily I will have the baby tylenol and the free drink coupons from Southwest Airlines on hand to give to the poor people sitting around us.

Captain Awesome

Carson has been a busy guy lately.

He has been having so much fun playing with all of his friends. My good friend Sandy is now staying at home with her two year old twins, Michael and Nicholas. Carson now gets to see them almost every day! We've also seen the return of Carson's "godbrother" Isaiah Oliver. The Olivers are back from Holland for the summer. Carson idolizes Isaiah and follows him everywhere saying "Zay Zay Zay!"

The weather has been so nice here lately....not too hot....so we've been hitting up the park and going for walks almost every day.

Below....Carson and me...clearly he's thrilled to be getting his picture taken!

Carson still loves to read. He has an amazing attention span for books.

He now has his own little chair that he got for his birthday...he loves it for books and movies.

He is still obsessed with the stairs. I give up! He loves to climb.

One of this new favorite things to do is play with all of our kitchen bowls.

He pretends to stir and and carries them all over the house.

A rare picture of Carson and his three BFFs, Michael, Nicholas, and Isaiah, watching The Backyardigans at our house.

I don't know what our baby girl is going to do with all of these boyfriends! Almost all of our friends in Las Vegas have had boys in the last couple of years. It's going to be fun to watch her try to hang with all of these boys. If she's anything like her mama, grandmas, and aunties....she will be a spitfire and she will have no trouble keeping up!

Baby Girl is kicking quite a bit more these days. It is pretty cute. We have an appointment tomorrow for our 18 week ultrasound. Most likely, I will have another c-section at 38 weeks, meaning we are basically half-way to having another little sweet peanut in our house!

I Love SF

Jason and I went to San Fran this past weekend to celebrate our 5th anniversary and our tenth year of being together. Time flies when you are having the time of your life!

Carson stayed with Nana Baba and Papa Dave while we were gone.

He was a good boy....no spankings were handed out! (As if they ever would...)

Carson is growing by leaps and bounds. He eats like a savage beast...A sample breakfast would be two scrambled eggs, yogurt, and several pieces of fruit.

His walking is extremely good now and he is able to walk all over our house without falling down. It's really amazing how quickly he's become an expert walker. His new word of the week is "Hot" and he says it whenever he sees a cup of coffee or a spoon (can't figure that one out). He has been saying "Bweeeeeee" all day and I can't figure out what it means for the life of me. He keeps us guessing, this Stinky Fish!

Some baby golf clubs found their way home with us from San Francisco. Carson enjoyed his first golf lesson with Dad. He prefers to eat the clubs and carry them while he walks, but it's a start.

Carson gives everything a careful inspection.

He's pretty studious when he is interested in something.

Here are some pics from our trip....We had such an amazing time.

Below...Stanford University Chapel.

The Stanford Quad....Looks just like Iowa City, right?

Palo Alto is Iowa City with palm trees and LOTS AND LOTS of money. I felt smarter by osmosis just walking around there. I'm so glad we checked out the campus...We will know where we are going when Carson or baby girl decide to go there one day. :)

The view from our hotel room...SF's Union Square

Ghiradelli Square where we had a fabulous sea salt carmel hot cocoa.

Napa Wine Country

Robert Mondavi Winery

Jason tasting wine at Cakebread Cellars....I had exquisite vintage apple juice with notes of vanilla, butterscotch, and plum. Actually it was just regular apple juice, but it tasted better just because we were there.

On our tour...you can see the ice on the huge vats of wine behind us.

Everything seems to be fine with little miss baby girl so far....I have a doctor's appointment next Tuesday and it's an ultrasound so that will be fun. We can check to make sure she is still a girl! I am 17 weeks now and I feel awesome. I am craving sour cream and cheddar baked potato chips and have eaten mass quantities of cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese. Otherwise, I am hoping that everything continues to go as well as it has thus far.

We haven't made any progress on names....We have a list of about ten that we like but no clear front runners.