Hip hip hooray!

We're getting a Chipotle! We drive by every weekend to see what progress has been made. This is just down the street from our house, so I see many a meal happening here for the Correa family. Woohoo!

Ready for Rain

I've shared before how much Little Man loves his frog boots. Seriously loves these boots. When I saw this rain coat, I just couldn't resist the urge to bring it home to him. The lady at the store gave me the advice of buying a tad bit too big so that he could wear it for more than one season - great idea. Hope he loves it as much as those boots. If so, it will definitely be a worthwhile investment.

Baby Bump - 26 and 28 weeks

I know. I know. I'm way behind on these pictures. But I've reached the point of not being all that excited about having the bump photos made. Which also means little motivation to post them.

26 weeks

28 weeks - please note Little Man peeking out the window!

All in all, things are still going well with the pregnancy. I'm feeling great - just getting a little more tired at the end of the day and a few back aches at night.

Last week I failed the first round of the gestational diabetes test so I had the three-hour test at the hospital lab today. Other than the needle pricks in my arms each hour to draw blood, it wasn't bad. Results are coming Monday. Seems like a good excuse to get my sugar fix in this weekend...just in case Monday's call brings less-than-desirable news.

The swelling started around week 27. Mostly hands and feet at this point. I remember this happening when I was preggers with Alex, too. It gets ugly toward the end, people. Let this serve as my warning that you may not get that many bump pictures as I really start to expand.

Little Man's Big Adventures - Swim Lessons

Last year, Little Man really took to the water. He loved his inflatable pools, the local city pool, playing in the lake, splashing in the Chattanooga Aquarium river, and even "boat rides" in Noni and Pop Pop's fish pond. Give him a water hole, and he was one happy boy.

I'm not sure how much swimming we'll be doing this summer since Baby Boy (no, we're no closer to having a name picked out) is due June 11, but I still thought that Alex might enjoy some swim lessons at our local rec center. So I signed him and Jerry up for the Tiny Bubbles/Little Splashes swim class. I figured this would give Alex a new activity to try and some one-on-one time with his Daddy which they both love.

Little Man was all geared up and ready to go until...Daddy took him in the water for the first time. That water was pretty chilly, and he wasn't interested. He cried and cried and cried.

When the class began, the teacher told the parents to ease into the water until it was belly button height for the children. With Alex crying out, "Momma, Momma!", Jerry could see that it might be in their best interest to stay at the back of the class, so he held back and let Alex get used to the water at his own pace.

It was about this time I realized I had probably better make myself disappear because Alex wasn't going to focus on the swim activity if he was constantly looking to me to rescue him. So I went into the lobby of the facility and watched through some windows where he couldn't see me. 

The swim teacher gave everyone pool rings to play with, and Jerry and Alex just sat at the entrance to the pool and played with the rings until Alex stopped crying. It wasn't long before he was laughing and splashing and having a good time (although Jerry said it felt like a long time and that he wondered what all of the other parents there thought of him keeping his crying kid in the pool!). I reassured him that the aquatics director had pulled me aside before I made myself scarce and said he was doing all the right things - distracting Alex while he got used to the water and not giving up. "Keep coming," she said. "Kids who are intimidated begin to have fun once they get used to knowing that everything's going to be ok."

At first, Alex pushed the pool ring away and wanted nothing to do with it.

It took a while to work their way out into the deeper part of the pool, but they eventually made it to where the rest of the class was participating. Alex kept throwing his little pool ring and Daddy would retrieve it. Alex also stood on a small pool platform they had in the water for the toddlers, and he really seemed to enjoy that, too. They made their way around the "lazy river" while Alex practiced a little bit of kicking. And at the end, the teacher and the kids sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while Alex showed off the hand motions he's been learning at library storytime.

Clinging on for dear life!

By the end of the lesson, Alex had warmed up to things, and I'm hoping that it only gets better from here. He didn't necessarily stay on track with the lesson, but we didn't care. We just wanted him to try some new things and have fun. Here's one last photo after the lesson was finished where Daddy was telling his Little Man how proud he was of him. I was so proud, too. He came a long way in those 30 minutes!

Way to go, Little Man! We're so proud of you!

A day just for Alex

Today (Saturday) is the day I've been dreading since Jerry left for India. I'm used to him being gone during the weekdays for work, and occasionally he has to travel to Chicago for a few days at a time, so I'm also used to having a few evenings a month without him home, too. But not the weekends. Fortunately, our Sundays are usually pretty full between church in the morning and our church group in the late afternoon so I knew I'd have that to occupy our time tomorrow, but Saturdays are wide open.  While I'm perfectly content to stay at home most of the time, I just couldn't do it today. It felt too lonely.

So I made a plan to create a day that was just about spoiling Alex. Somehow, spoiling him brought me great joy.

I got up early this morning to get myself ready before Alex woke up. After breakfast and a morning video call with daddy, Alex and I took off for Target. I had a few household things to pick up, but our main reason for going was to try to find him some Cars toys. He loves his Cars sticker books so much, I thought he might enjoy a Lightning McQueen car and Tow Mater truck. Our Target didn't have a great selection, so I told Alex we'd hit Toys R Us after our lunch at Chick-fil-A to see what we could find there.

At Chick-fil-A, he ate all of his nuggets, most of his fruit and drank all of his milk. I always smile when he eats well. Afterward we hit Toys R Us and found the Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater cars. (Oh, and did I mention that I got Alex some Reese's Pieces Easter Eggs as a snack treat, too? =) )

I also found another little goody that I thought he "needed" to have - a Thomas the Train bath toy. He loves trains, and I recently had to purge all of the bath toys that squirted water (which was mostly what he had) because of all the gunk that builds up inside that really grosses me out. So, see? He really did need it. ;-)

After Toys R Us, it was time for a nap, and then we hit the park. Alex has been dying to break in his new wagon outdoors, and since the weather was fabulous today, we took full advantage. We also saw the coal train pass by when we were at the park, and it was going slow enough that the engineer opened his window and waved at us as he passed by. Wish I had gotten a photo of that, but I wasn't that quick on the draw. Anyway, here are some pics from our park adventures.

Overall, today was much better than I thought it would be. I'm glad we kept busy and filled our day full of fun things. I feel like the toughest day is behind us, and I'm looking forward to Jerry's return home next week!