Top Secret Fun

Alex works on a top secret craft project to take to his Grandad next week when we visit for Bloomsday.

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We took Alex with us for my 15 week doctor's appointment today. We were able to listen to baby's heartbeat, which Alex has been waiting for for weeks, since we didn't take him to our first appointment. We have an ultrasound scheduled for the very end of May, so hopefully we'll soon be able to start talking about a little brother or sister, not just a new baby.

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The doctor was surprised that Alex is just 2 based on his size and speech. He told her all about how there's a baby in mommy's tummy. The doctor said it would be more normal for him to be using two word phrases now, not complete sentences. What a little smarty he is! This morning I was drinking a glass of water and he said that the baby in mommy's tummy needs lots of water to grow up... he really seems to have things figured out!

Nap Time Trauma

For the past 20 minutes, Alex and I have been battling, with me trying to find a way to encourage (read: force) him to stay in bed, and he's been trying to get away with being out of it. I went in there a few minutes ago when I heard him playing with his plastic zoo. . This is one of his very favorite toys. I told him I had to take it away since he was playing with it while he should be napping. So, I took it out of his room, complete with a tour bus and all kinds of little animals, and he went back to his bed. Since then, though, he has been "helping" by periodically opening the door and tossing out additional pieces of his zoo set that I forgot in his room. Nice to have his help...

Fattening up at the Gym

My new plan to get into shape is shaping up to be Alex's plan to be a couch potato and get fat fast. I went to a pilates class there today and brought Alex with me. The class was okay, but not one I'll go to again while I'm pregnant. It took place with us flat on our backs on the floor for almost the entire class. Not a great position right now. So, I'm crossing that off the list of classes I'll attend.

Alex, however, had a great time the gym's version of Pleasure Island. Bins of snacks were available, as well as various movies and TV shows. When I went to pick him up, the floor was covered in crackers and pretzels in various states of consumption and he was sitting in a chair with other zombie children watching Scooby Doo. As we walked out to the car he complained to me "Mommy, I'm all covered in animal crackers." He ate about 5 bites of yogurt for lunch.

I guess now that I've joined the gym I can save money on hot water for my showers and food for Alex at the same time. Now I understand why they offer exercise classes for 3 year olds there. They'll need it after their first few years hanging out in the Kid's Club room.

Putting Down Roots

Despite continued forecasts of snow, and at least another month before I expect we'll be frost free, it's feeling like spring here. Alex and I have cleaned out the perennial beds and green is shooting up everywhere.

The combination of all this springtime and pregnancy is encouraging me to put down more roots of my own. I feel my toes digging in a little. From thoughts of "I wonder where we'll be living by summer" I'm now thinking more along the lines of "should I repaint that old dresser to match my bedspread?" and "I wonder where the best garage sales will be."

I joined Gold's Gym today. It's only a three month membership, but it still feels more permanent that most things I've done here. I went to a prenatal pilates class this morning, and feel better about the world in general. I'm extremely sore, since the name of the class should have been Variations on the Squat. The deal I found includes childcare in a nice clean room that has all sorts of Alex's favorite sorts of toys, so hopefully I'll be able to go during the week while Jeremy is at work.

Spring Has Sprung

Crocus and Early Snow Glories are blooming. Yipee!!!

Mouse Proficiency

Yikes!! Alex has learned to use the mouse on our computer. He recently learned how to log on to our computer by pressing random keys, so I added a password. I guess that gave him encouragement to see if he could log on using the mouse, and apparently he can now point and click quite well. Last night Jeremy sat down at the computer with him to help him play his favorite Go Diego Go Games online, and Alex told him "No, I'm going to do it!" and took the mouse away from Jeremy. He then amazed us by immediately maneuvering the mouse to do exactly what he needed to to win the game. Wow! I wonder how long it will be before he learns my password and starts navigating to Diego himself?

Museum Adventures

After visiting the Museum of the Rockies a few weeks ago on a free visit day, I went ahead and purchased an individual membership this morning.

Alex loves dinosaurs, but the dinosaur exhibit with the huge creatures and low grumbling dino sounds was really scary this morning. We were the first ones there when the museum opened, so we were all alone in the hall with the giant beasts. I can't blame Alex for running back out of the room, I felt like doing the same thing. Instead, I picked him up and we quickly walked on to the less scary hall of horns and teeth (yes, actually less scary!). There is a baby protoceratops that looks and sounds like it's asleep, breathing softly. It's little and cute, and one of Alex's favorite parts.

From there we went on to a hall filled with beautiful fancy rocks. Alex wasn't particularly interested in them today, but we stopped long enough to take a picture in front of some giant quarts crystals for geologist grandad.

Alex insisted then on returning to the original scary dinosaur hall, but upstairs where you can look down on them instead of having them towing above. There were some other little kids in the room by then, too, so it was much less terrifying than earlier.

With membership comes admission to the planetarium, so we went to a special Saturday morning children's program I thought Alex would enjoy. It was a cute narrative about all the neat things like ladybugs you can find in your backyard and the story of two bear constellations and Leo trying to eat their tails. Alex sat very still on my lap through the entire thing. When it ended he burst out crying. I think he had been scared stiff through the show, and let all that tension out when the show ended. I'm not sure I'll take him to one of those again soon.