Day Trip: Blank Park Zoo

Our second day trip was to Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.  This time we went with Nana and Papa, and there was some concern that it was going to be another roasting hot day like Adventureland but it turned out to be beautiful and perfect for visiting a zoo.  Must have been because I told the weather to stay cool and the clouds to stay near ;)

The first thing we got to do was feed parakeets.  I didn't expect this to be so much fun.  An entire room was dedicated to free flying parakeets and sticks with bird seed could be purchased for $1 each to feed the birds.  The birds certainly knew what to do, they instantly hopped right onto our sticks and started pecking away.

Next was a bird show (Adi was in bird heaven) called Birds Down Under.  Here is the bird trainer and one of the many stars of the show.

Feeding the giraffes was a fun thing to do, too.  I had no idea how long their tongues were, this one was pretty shy and stood back but it had rained the night before so the ground was muddy and they apparently don't like standing in mud.  Can't blame them.

We saw several kids with very cool face paintings so it was easy to say yes to Adilyn having hers done.  She, of course, became a beautiful butterfly.  Amazing how much it changed her facial features.

We were so proud that Adi chose to ride the camel by herself.  There was, of course, a zoo employee leading the camel but she went without an adult.  She's growing up!

Feeding the koi lasted far longer than we expected.  Adi was giving them one piece of fish food at a time.  She really enjoyed it, crazy and weird as it is to see so many fish flopping all over each other!

One of Adi's favorite creatures was this guy.  I can't remember what it's called but it was very cool looking.

We also love frogs and this blue guy was very cool.  We really enjoyed our time at the zoo and I'm so grateful that we went when we did.  It was a fun and blessed day indeed.

Day Trip: Adventureland

We've been planning our short day trips for July so that we don't have to be too far from home in August in case baby decides to come early.  Instead of a vacation we're doing day trips, really only a couple but getaways just the same.

We started with a sleepover on Friday evening at Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Mike's in Newton.  A familiar love of Adilyn's is Bunny the bird.  How can she resist, it's so beautiful any kind of animal should be held as far as Adi is concerned.

On Saturday we rode off to Adventureland with our threesome, Grandma and Grandpa, Keelan, Larry's family, Carisa and her sister in-law with her 3 year old twins.  Bless that woman for having the strength and endurance to raise twin boys on her own!  We had quite a crew and needless to say, keeping track of everyone was quite a challenge.

Adi enjoyed some rides while we were there.  Daddy is particularly proud of Adi the pilot.

Adilyn's favorite was the Frog Hopper.  It's the kids version of the space shot which was Cam's favorite. I think Adi went on this thing 4 or 5 times, and watching her face and the huge smile each time was so much fun for me, I didn't even mind not being able to go on any of the rides.

It felt like it could have been one of the hottest days of the year so we spent a good amount of time at the new water park which was jam packed full of people.  Afterward, Adi and Keely rode the Chuck Wagon.  I think the guy running the ride was named Chuck which made it all the more interesting.

The Puff Dragons were a cute ride that Adi and Elleh went on together.  It was fun for Adi to have her cousins there to go on the kiddy rides with her.

After Adventureland we got to hang out at Carisa and Jeff's place for a while and Adi especially loved the above ground pool.  She's done so great in her swim lessons over the past several weeks and I know swimming in the pool with the brave and rambunctious twins definitely gave her more confidence to try new things and have fun at her lessons.  It's been fun to see the progress.

Birthmarks and Tattoos

Adilyn got a new Barbie movie called Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper.  In the movie, the princess has a royal birthmark which looks like a crown on her shoulder.  Adi decided that she should have a birthmark too.  Convinced that she must also be royalty, she found a marker (luckily washable) and drew  a crown on her shoulder.  But it didn't stop there.

Somewhere along the line she shifted from birthmarks to tattoos.  She put fruit on her other shoulder and on her chest was something that looked like a little lamb to me.  I asked what it was and she said it was Jesus' hand.

I was surprised that she did this all on her own, proud and so impressed that she would even think of having Jesus' hand on her heart.  She then drew a little dude next to the hand and said that was Jesus.

Her final tattoo was one that I see often.  The cross.  The symbol of what Jesus did for us.  I used to wear a cross necklace when I was a teen and knew it was special, that it meant something but I honestly didn't know the depth of it all.  I'm not sure how much Adi knows or understands but I do know that she thinks about God and Jesus on her own, without as much of a mention of their names from me and I know she's on a path to knowing them well.

That makes my heart happy.

28 weeks 4 days

That's just how pregnant I am.  28 weeks and 4 days.  I'm feeling pretty good for the most part though 3rd trimester tiredness is already creeping in.  Doc says I'm slightly anemic so that is probably a contributing factor, guess I'll have to be more diligent about taking my prenatal vitamins and making sure I don't have calcium at the same time (calcium inhibits iron absorption).

So here it is: the baby belly.  I can already tell that this kiddo is noticeably growing at a crazy rate, which is normal in the last few months.  I'm finally getting to the point where people are saying, "you're really starting to show, aren't you?"

I'm enjoying this phase of pregnancy.  My emotional stability has leveled out for the most part, I get to feel the baby kicking and moving but it doesn't hurt yet (no jabs to the ribs) and I mostly have enough energy to get what I need done in the day.  We've been really productive as a family and summer is almost here.  It's growing season - both in my womb and in our garden :)

Preschool Graduation and Kindergarten Roundup

Oh my, where did the time go?  It wasn't long ago that Adilyn was heading off to her first day of preschool and now she's already had her last.  Our girl has grown so much and in so many ways.  We're very proud of her.

Here is the class performing a song at the graduation ceremony.

Miss Adilyn looking so grown up.

A little family picture - looks like all of us are growing.  At least I have an excuse... for now ;)

Preschool graduation was on Monday this week and Kindergarten Roundup was on Tuesday.  Adi and I went together and it only took a few moments before she was comfortable enough for me to leave her in the classroom to have some fun with some of the other students.  She's grown so much emotionally, I appreciate that she still needs me but also that she's OK without me for reasonable periods of time.  I think things will go just fine this fall when Adilyn attends school full-time.

The only photos I got at K roundup were in the courtyard where a family of ducks live.  They have a swimming pool set up for them to swim in and we got to see the ducklings as well.  What a cool thing to have at elementary school.

Now in just a few short months our little girl will be attending elementary school and we'll have a new addition to the family.  We're so blessed to be where we are, right now.  So blessed.

Boy or Girl?

My first response when the ultrasound tech told us that she thought we were having a girl was a thought that I didn't openly share, "Ha, I should have seen that coming.  God certainly has a sense of humor and it's not the same as mine."  I've been so sure from the beginning that this baby was a boy that I never really gave much thought to it being a girl.  All of the dreams I'd had pre-conception and all those that I'd had since learning I was pregnant were of me giving birth to a boy.  Everything about this pregnancy has been different than with Adilyn, so how could this be anything but a boy?

I'd seen an ad somewhere for a gender prediction test called Intelligender and had been tempted to get one long ago.  The test is about $35 which felt like a lot considering I would be having an ultrasound that would likely be much more reliable and I didn't have to pay for that (well, I did but my it's included in the $100 co-pay for the entire pregnancy including delivery).  So I decided to wait for the ultrasound.

In the wake of disappointment at what I was told at the ultrasound about having another girl (not that I don't want another girl, I just always felt like I was having a boy) I decided to go to Walgreens and get myself an Intelligender test.  With luck, it was on sale for $27 and I didn't hesitate to give it a try - even though it's accuracy is only about 90%.

The results made me laugh:

Sage green is supposed to be boy.  Orange is supposed to be girl.  I kind of got both.  The urine was mostly orangish while the sediments that fell to the bottom turned dark sage green.  I really couldn't help but laugh.  I had to make a choice.  I could be frustrated and freak out or I could laugh and enjoy the mystery of not knowing if we are having a boy or a girl.  I decided I was going to have fun with not knowing, trusting in the Lord that this baby was exactly as He designed it to be and take joy in the blessing of being pregnant with a healthy baby.  What a blessing indeed.

So now we are thinking of girl names which we hadn't done until now because we were so sure it was a boy.  Seeking baby names is such a fun thing for me and I love it!  I love how unique everyone's taste is when I ask for suggestions.  Even if I never use any of the names I'm searching through "just in case it really is a girl" I'm having fun with it and truly cherishing this pregnancy and the little one growing inside me.

Ultrasound!

Introducing, baby Driscoll - 19 weeks.

The ultrasound went pretty well.  I was a bit disappointed in the photos we got, they seem blurry and it's hard to really see the baby but I'm grateful that we have some photos to look at.  The baby kept moving and it was hard to get a good shot.  During the 3D part we could see that the baby was covering it's eyes with the little hands as if to say, "quit looking at me!"

Baby wasn't cooperating for position to tell if it was a boy or a girl so the tech had me empty my bladder and we tried again.  The position was better the second time and the tech believes that due to a lack of visible boy parts the baby is a girl.  

I've had a sense that this baby was a boy from the beginning so hearing that it's a girl isn't sinking in for me.  I don't really believe it to be true.  I've had multiple boy dreams and I trust my dreams - unfortunately more than I trust an ultrasound.  I'm stubborn, I know ;)  So for the next 21 weeks we are saying that it's going to be a surprise.  I've heard of ultrasound predictions being wrong on many occasions so it would be no big surprise if this one was wrong.  And if our baby is a girl it won't be a big surprise either.  We have a boy name picked out already so now we just need to find the perfect girl name and when baby Driscoll comes he or she will be welcomed and loved and adored regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl.  Praise God for a healthy baby!!