Week 35: Maternity Photo Shoot and a Day in the Park

Kids,

The summer just ended here in Dallas, and we can finally go outside again (with lots of bug spray, especially at dusk...thanks West Nile Mosquitoes...). But it's cool...it's crisp...it's Texas-style fall here with temps peaking in the high 80s and low 90s, and much nicer than that in the morning. So we took advantage of the beautiful day and went to the arboretum.

I had a seret agenda: take pretty pregnancy pictures of your Mom. We're in the 35th week, which means, little Julia is not so little anymore. You're the size of a coconut...and that's nuts!

But...looking at your beautiful mother and her bodacious bump, I'd say coconut seems about right!

Your Mom is just ravishing, though if you talked to her she'd protest and say self depricating things. But I just pretend not to hear those at all. She's cute, she's cool, she's preggo, she's sassy and she's beautiful. Just look!

But, even if your Mom is not pleased with the photos, (despite all logical people telling her that she's gorgeous), at least -in her words- she's happy with the photos because they'll get me "off her back." See what I mean about sassy?

I just wanted to take some fancy shots to officially commemorate what may be our last big bump! (We'll see what the future holds, though...)

Amongst all the professional modeling and posing, we also had time to run around, chase butterflies, try to get into waterfalls, fly around and run up and down a hill in the wind.

Fun in the sun, now that it's not trying so hard to scorch all living things.

So, a successful day for Aidan in the fun department, and a very successful day for Mommy and Julia in the coconut department.

Songs for the Belly: Week 34

Wow! Is it already week 34? Let's check the bump size:

Yup. That looks like a 34 week belly to me! And I think your mother would agree with me. Her aching feet ache, her pregnancy-arthritic hands hurt, she's suffering from dunlap disease so much that when she sits down in a chair her belly (aka, you, young lady) are resting on the chair itself! She's having difficulty breathing at night, feeling rather large and inactive and sluggish and generally very, very pregnant.

If any of that sounds negative, it's not. It's very, very positive! You're growing, baby, and with growing comes some growing pains from time to time. But right now, with 6 weeks to go, we are just happy you're thriving so well in there!

We're getting ready for you to come too. In fact, the nesting has kicked into high gear. We've reorganized yours and Aidan's closet (and re-installed all the shelves that fell out after that happened), we've organized your wardrobe, added extra storage cubes for your personal effects, gone shopping a few more times to add to your wardrobe even more (pinks and yellows and reds, oh my!). We've sold some old stuff and bought you some new stuff (double stroller, new bouncy chair, new swing!) and even assembled most of the new arsenal of baby stuff.

The boxes are making a certain someone quite happy:

Namely me! I'm building a large cardboard train! Choo choo!

But, really, we're all getting happy in expecation of your arrival. I mean today you're the size of an acorn squash, but soon you'll be the size of a newborn baby...because that's what you'll be. And we can't wait.

Developmentally, it now says that you can recognize and react to simple songs. These very songs may actually even soothe you when you come out! That's great, because we do a LOT of singing, and lately everyone's been getting in on the act.

In the quest to get Aidan back sleeping through the night, we've started over with sleep training. Which means back to the days of Lullabye medleys at night. So you'll love "Return to Pooh Corner" (which Aidan requests nightly "Pooh song please," "Somewhere over the Rainbow," "The End," "Golden Slumbers," and so much more.

In fact, your Mom says you really seem to like it when she sings "Return to Pooh Corner" to Aidan at night time.

Plus, you may also start to recognize your brother's lovely singing voice too, as he's recently learned a few new songs and gotten more comfortable belting out a tune or four:

And, whether or not you'll be a singer, we'll just have to wait and see...but, we already know that you're going to be a dancer. Check out these moves!



Soon you'll be a little baby out here in the world; until then you're a wonderful bouncy, big, rambunctious bump. If you keep dancing, we'll keep singing. Both You and Aidan are my sunshine, and you'll never know how much I love you.