October Fall Fun!

October was a pretty busy month as we got ready for Baby Girl to come, Jeff and Jake took their first guys' trip, and we took part in a lot of the fun things that seem to pop up around town before Halloween.

Here's a video of Jake with the ladies at dance class. He usually takes gymnastics, but he had some makeups to do so we gave dance a try.

That's a lot of bubbles!


Jeff and Jake took off for Colorado in early October to go to cousin Cassie's wedding. I got some nice quiet alone time at home! Jeff went minimalist on the trip, so I don't have many pictures to share! I hear the wedding was beautiful, and Jake still talks about Cassie's pretty dress and all the fun he had that weekend with Pop-pop, Gammy Jan, Aunt Shanda, MacKenzie, Aunt Georgia, and Uncle Denny. And of course, cousin Todd. We miss them all!!


The Durant Halloween Nature Trail was very cool and I predict it becomes an annual tradition.

Hay ride (and the terrible fake smile)

Artsy...

Making pipe cleaner spiders...

Always fun with Aunt Kat and Cousin Lily!

Jake finally decided on the clown costume for Halloween; he thought about being a pumpkin, a dog, a bear (again), and a deer. This is the same costume I wore 31 years ago that my mom made. Sweet Chloe is so good with Jake, even as she shows her age...


We also went back to Hill Ridge Farms ("the pumpkin patch" as Jake calls it). He LOVED the new inflatable pillow. A bounce house without walls or a ceiling. Very cool.



He's growing!


Giant slide was a hit (at least with Jake - apparently it's corrugated on the inside too - fun for Dad!)




Jake was a model at the March of Dimes' Precious Preemies Fashion Show at Saks. He was not so into it at the time, but then told Dad "That was fun! That was fun" when he got back to the dressing room. However, he just now told Gramma B "it wasn't very fun and that's why I didn't like that." Maybe he won't be following in Aunt Jen's footsteps.

In his green room. :)

Likes the outfit (no, we didn't pick out Polo! Saks did)

Looking good!

Ready to go!

Not so ready to go...

Finally we had a cold, rainy Halloween, but that didn't stop our little clown and Green Lantern from getting some candy! (nor Aunt Kat, Aunt Jen, and Dad). I sat on the porch and waited on trick-or-treaters (and baby girl) to come!

27 weeks, 6 days...30 weeks

So here's what I wrote 2 weeks, 1 day ago:

"We've made it. Pookie and I are at 27 weeks, 6 days which means I'm now more pregnant than I've ever been. The last four weeks have been nervewracking - especially when I gained 3 pounds in 2 days a few weeks ago and thought for sure I was taking on excess fluid again. Alas, I was back down 2 pounds 2 days after that and my ultrasound revealed totally normal fluid levels. We will gladly take all the normal we can get.

So, so grateful today and starting to breath a little easier..."

And then I failed to post it. So, now you'll get a bonus belly shot of me - 29 weeks, 5 days pregnant and a few random pictures from this summer.

Here Jake is finishing up the Spring semester at the Little Gym. He'll be back in the fall, as his pediatrician has told us to keep him in gymnastics until he screams and yells and tells us he hates it (gymnastics is one of the best things we can do to continue to develop his core strength and gross motor skills). Luckily for us, he still loves going!





Festival for the Eno is a(n almost) yearly Fourth of July weekend tradition for us:



Fourth of July fireworks with Lily and Aunt Kat. So nice to have family here!! But I guess Jake was a little more freaked out than we realized. ;)




On the plane to Papaw George and Gamma B's making his best Papaw George face (Papaw did this one day on skype and it has since become "the Papaw George face"):




At the awesome playground by my parent's house in Indy. He's the little guy at least two stories up:


Licking the beater after helping me make zucchini bread using Colorado Grandma's recipe and GG (Grandma Helmling)'s mixer:


First nap in his "Big Boy" bed. The first night in his big boy bed he woke up crying at 2 and I instantly caved and put him back in his crib. Second night he woke up and I went and laid with him (fell asleep on his bed because I'd already been up over an hour - thanks pregnancy insomnia!). Third night and every night since he has slept all night and done great!!


Up next, some photos from our week on Bald Head Island and maybe a video of a baby turtle making his way to sea...

Graduated!

Happy Birthday to our little boy who is not so little anymore. He is now 37 inches and just over 30 lbs, which puts him in the 25th percentile for three-year-old boys. Not too bad for a two pounder!

Despite the rain, we had a great birthday party!
Yes, he had a pink cake. What can we say - he loves strawberries!

Thanks to Aunt Jen, Pop-pop, and Gamma Jan for the bounce house!!

Three generations of Raymonds in the bounce house!

Chloe still gets a little "love"! :)

Birthday cousins!

Turning three seems like a big step - clearly out of babydom and moving out of toddlerhood. I guess we have a "preschooler" now. It also means that Jake has aged out of Early Intervention services. For the past year, the only service he was receiving was speech therapy. And now he's out of speech therapy too. Our SLP told us she couldn't continue to charge us in good conscience. She did give us some warning signs to look for as he gets a little older. Apparently many kids do not have "L"s until they are 4-5, and Jake might not have "blended Rs" (and other consonants) until he's 5-6. Which means you can look forward to a lot of "geen" (green), "keen" (clean), and other fun words when you talk with Jake! :)

The other HUGE graduation we celebrated this Spring was graduating from the Duke NICU follow-up clinic. Jake went through a full Bayley's assessment, where he did at or above age level for everything except gross motor. Even that was within the normal range, so they told us not to come back! We are not taking it personally!! We are so proud of Jake for overcoming so much. He is definitely changing the bell curve for 27-week wimpy white boys (the affectionate term they are given in NICUs the world over).

This Spring we also enjoyed a great (if quick) visit from my old (long-time??) friend Jenny. She brought Jake one of his favorite gifts - his own angry bird! She needs to move closer!



Last, but certainly not least, a huge THANK YOU to everyone for your support for March for Babies. We exceeded our $5,000 goal and had a great walk!!

Have you ever looked fear in the face and said I just don't care?

Because that's what Jeff and I are doing. The two high-risk OBs I've met with have given us very good odds on having a full term 40-week baby, so we are cautiously excited. I'm at 14 weeks this week, and everything looks great so far! Ultrasounds every 4 weeks, alternating with doctor visits every 4 weeks - so I'm in the office every 2 weeks. My new OBs are not going to let anything slip by!

We're due November 2. Jeff's hoping for 11/11/11 or 11/1/11. I'll take anything after October 12 (37 weeks).

The Practice Easter Run

I didn't spend a whole lot of time researching this but it looks like as of June or so of 2009 Kristin pretty much took over running the blog so it's been quite a leave of absence for the dad. I suppose this is a post in the right direction.

Last Saturday our neighborhood put together a kids Easter Egg hunt in nearby Fred Fletcher Park. Kristin & Jake put together some eggs with & she went to help hide them while Jake & I cruised over & joined the parade of wagons (man, apparently everyone has them) walking the 3 block distance to the park.



With bunny ears in tow (we actually had 2 varieties), the little guy was ready to find some eggs. I don't think he really knew why but he was excited about it. In the end though, we negotiated to a single basket.



Ready to get going (& wearing ear set #2). We had to wait a bit for all the kids to make it.



Jake did very well & quickly filled up the basket with ~ 20 eggs.



And once the eggs were collected, it was time to shove the free candy directly into the cheeks. We tried to contain the intake, though with cookies & cupcakes on hand as well it was quite a sugar high.



All in all though a great time. The best part about it is we get to do it again this Saturday in our buddy Lanier's Easter Egg hunt. The average age of the participant will likely be going up this weekend but we think Jake will be more than up to the challenge.

March for Babies 2011!!

We, once again, have been delinquent bloggers. I'm posting a quick one tonight to help get the word out for our March for Babies walk - which is just over 2 weeks away. I set a super ambitious goal this year of $5,000 - nearly $2,000 over what we raised last year, and it's looking like we aren't going to come anywhere close. So, please, just $10, or even $5 will bring us closer to that goal. Trust me, $5 is better than $0!! :) Just click on the badge to the right.

For the Raleigh-based folks, stay tuned for information on a special Pronto Pasta fundraising night! 15% of profits will go to Team Cubby - as long as you tell them that's who you're there for at the cash register!

Thanks everyone!!

Jake flips for babies (note the self clapping at the end)