You know you're pregnant when...

* Your nightstand has a pile of two pregnancy books, Babywise, a breastfeeding book, a child-rearing book, and a bowl from last night's late-night craving.

*You think very often about five foods:
#5 - Mambas


#4 - Wheat toast with peanut butter


#3 - Green leaf lettuce


#2 - Chinese food (particularly Panda Express' Beijing Beef)


#1 - Cherry Acai yogurt (from Smith's) with granola...I eat this almost every night.
(Also when you have at least six cartons of said yogurt downstairs, but don't want to take the time to get your camera, take a picture and upload it to the blog. So you settle for a picture of a different flavor.)


* You can only wear flip flops because no other shoe can fit on your feet.
(I will not be providing a picture.)

* You clean everything more than once and can't stand to have dishes in the sink overnight.

* You are consistently bumping your belly into people or walls because you're not used to having something protrude so far out of your body.

* When a water bottle falls on the floor in the car and you watch it roll back and forth because you cant reach it to pick it.

* You have to ask your husband to paint your toenails. Ugggh.

* You have to sticky-note everything because you can't remember what you did five minutes ago, let alone what you need to do in a week. Then you can't find said sticky note.

* You are exhausted every night from lack of sleep.

And the easiest way to know you're pregnant...
* The biggest reason you can't sleep is because you are more excited than ever to look at your sweet baby and hold him in your arms.

Sigh...11 days to go.

Claire is 3.

Does every parent secretly dread their child's birthday? When anyone asks Claire how old she's going to be on her birthday, she'll reply, "I'm going to be three. It makes Mommy sad." Apparently I've told her too many times that I don't want her to grow up. But it keeps happening anyway.

Here are some of her 3(I just hate even saying it)-year photos. I sure love this girl.








To see more, check out my photography blog or my Facebook page.

Photos of her birthday party to come soon!

Swim class

Over the last two years, Claire and I did five different Mom/Tot swim classes. I loved how excited she got and it was a fun thing to do with friends. Well she's officially (sniff, sniff) graduated to a swim class of her own. No more Mom/Tot. She's in the big leagues now with two kids who are a good 8-9 inches taller than her. She loves it just as much as the Mom/Tot classes, so I'm happy. Although she still hates getting her face too wet. Here she is on the first day, ecstatic about swim lessons!



"Mom, another one? Really?"


Surprisingly, we're usually the first ones at her class so she usually gets some alone time with the teacher, Steffie.


She loves a good splash.


So does Drew.


They are supposed to dive for rings at the end of class, but as I mentioned, she doesn't like getting her face wet. So she looks at the ceiling, goes as low as she can, and feels around until she grabs one.


Got it!


Still a couple of weeks left! We love swim class!

Jungle Jim's

Ever been there? I hadn't until a few weeks ago. And I can't tell you why we haven't been before. Jungle Jim's = a child's heaven. Its basically a mini-amusement park for kids. Bumper cars, swings, carousel, rockets, jeeps, spinning cars, etc. And we were pretty much the only ones there the whole time. A ride operator just followed us around, taking the kids on whatever ride they wanted. Claire still talks about it all the time. You can even print 2-for-1 coupons on their website and go all day for $4.

Claire, ready to get started.


On what she refers to as the "Spinners".


Paige, Drew and Claire


Riding the swings


Bumper cars. Claire couldn't reach the pedal and wasn't too great at steering, so she got in with Drew.


This is how you'll find my niece, Annie, often. She doesn't take a binkie, just loves those two middle fingers.


Cute Jason asleep on his mom's shoulder. Just look at those lashes.


Loving the jeeps.


Not my best photography, but I laugh every time I see this picture. We were just going around from ride to ride and wanted to try this one. We'd never seen it go before. Its a lot like Musicland Express at Lagoon. I put Claire on it, not having any idea how fast it goes. Ummm...fast is an understatement. It seriously hauls. She was pretty terrified.


But she got a hug from Drew after and felt much better.


And liked it much better when she could go with Aunt Angie.


If anyone wants to go, give us a call. We're always up for a Jungle Jim's day.

Easter

This Easter, Claire went on seven (count 'em - seven) Easter Egg Hunts. It just kind of worked out that way. Its so fun to watch her as she progressed from last year. Last year, we walked around with her and would have to point out eggs to pick up. This year she just ran off and grabbed.

Up first was our city's egg hunt. This was the weekend before Easter. Here are Claire, Annie and Drew ready to go.




The second hunt was an egg hunt with some friends in the neighborhood. They made cupcakes before the hunt. Here are Ashton and Claire enjoying theirs.


She loved this cow egg someone brought.


Later that day, we went to a hunt at the retirement home (where the light was gorgeous and I wished I could do an entire photo shoot with her). At this hunt there are always tons of eggs. Check out her basket and she still grabbed a few more.


The Easter Bunny was there and she remembered him from the year before. She ran right up to him and gave him a hug. Here is Corgan, Claire and Drew.


The fourth hunt was the morning before Easter at my bro and sis-in-law's city hunt. Here are Claire and Corgan all bundled up.


And they're off!


The fifth hunt was the most important, I think. The one at our house! Here she is, Easter morning.


Checking out the eggs.


Some of the loot the Easter Bunny brought her.


The sixth hunt was at my parent's later that day, where I forgot the camera. (E'Shell - if you have any pics, I'd love them.) Thanks again to my mom for putting on a fun Easter hunt and yummy dinner for everyone!

And the seventh hunt was the weekend after Easter at our church. Once again, pregnancy brain struck and although I remembered the camera this time, I forgot the memory card. So no pics from that day either.

All in all, way too much candy, but a lot of fun. We still have a large container filled with Easter candy. She doesn't love candy so I'm thinking we'll have it for a while. Here's one shot I got of her that morning. She always wants to use a prop, of which there are a plethora. L-o-v-e this girl.

Best buddies

Claire and my nephew, Drew, get to spend a lot of time together. My sister and I trade babysitting once a week so I can get editing done and she can go to work. It works out really great for all of us. We get a break and the kids get to see each other a lot. A few weeks ago when I was watching the kids, we were outside playing and I snapped a few photos. These two probably fight as much as a brother and sister, but they love each other as much too. I had to document.







Ha ha ha...I just thought this one was funny.


See what I mean about arguing? I think Claire had the ball Drew wanted. :)


And again...they were mad that the other one was touching their feet. ("Don't touch my feet!" "Don't touch my feet!")




Claire giving Drew a kiss


Drew giving one back




Best buddies.

Oh, the poor neglected blog.

I used to make posts twice a week and now I'm lucky if one gets done every other month. Well, today I'm going to work on a little catch up. You'll be seeing quite a few posts in the next few hours/days. I'm putting this on here to make sure I actually do it. First up...recap of February...ha ha ha. So behind. But I really want to be caught up so that when the baby comes I can start posting about him guilt-free. :) We'll see.

Happy Easter!