Ella's bath time

Lucky for Mama, Papa has taken over the chore of giving baths to Ella. They have been spending more one on one time together lately in preparation for the baby's arrival and it is no longer an easy task for Mama with her belly.

Here are a few pictures from tonight...not the best shots but she has such a great time playing in the bath tub.

36 weeks, 9 months

We have now hit the home stretch of this pregnancy. My doctor appointments are weekly now and Greta is definitely getting quite crowded in my ever-expanding belly. I have gained about 1/2 as mush weight as I gained with my last pregnancy, so that is good news and will hopefully aid in an easier delivery. We toured the hospital and pre-registered this past weekend, so anytime she is ready to arrive we are quite ready.

Here are the latest belly pics.

Everything's a song

Lately Ella will just start singing songs to herself while she is playing. It's cute because she doesn't say all the words and it turns into a guessing game for us to try and figure out what she is singing. Just today we captured her singing the "clean up song". I know that they sing it at school because I think all kids are forced to sing it. It goes "Clean up , clean up. Everybody, everywhere." Ella's version is slightly shorter....

Surprise Baby Flurry

Rebecca was nice enough to throw me a surprise baby "flurry" for Greta. She told me that we were getting pictures taken together, but instead Ella and I showed up in a room full of my family and friends all dressed in pink. I was both surprised and a bit overwhelmed at the same time. Thank you so much for everyone who was there to help celebrate another baby on it's way. Baby Greta received some really great gifts; clothes, diapers, wipes, toys. Even Ella got a few big sister gifts.

Here we are first walking in to Rebecca's house:

There were 12 of us there in total (and Ella and Ellie too). Here we are trying to get Ella used to walking into a room full of people (always takes a little bit to adjust):

First up, everyone had to guess how big a string was needed to fit around my belly. Laura F (my cousin) was closet and won the first prize.

After eating, another game and opening gifts, we were able to get a group shot together:

One more picture of Ella and Ellie playing puzzles with Lori:

Thank you so much for a great time. I'm so lucky that we were able to celebrate another happy, healthy pregnancy.

Ella's 2nd dentist visit

Definitely night and day from her last visit 6 months ago. I spent most of the morning getting Ella excited to see her dentist and letting her know that she was going to count and brush her teeth. Though most kids start going back to see the dentist without their parent's at 2 1/2 years old, Ella was not quite ready yet. I went back with her and she was a GREAT patient. I could not have been more proud of her. She sat in the big girl and let them clean her teeth, floss them, count them and put a flouride seal on them. She started getting antsy towards the end, but did cry. If you recall, her last visit to the dentist required me pinning her down and her crying the entire time. She is cavity free and the dentist said that she is doing a great job brushing (with our help of course).

Jenna's 4th birthday

Saturday night we celebrated Jenna Coalson's 3rd birthday party at "Pump It Up". Seeing as though walking is a struggle for me lately, we let Ella know right away that if she was going to play, she had to take Papa with her. She had such a blast. She loved going down the slides the most. She found a play area that was just her size and had a blast playing on it all by herself, repeatedly for about 40 minutes. When the jumping time was all done, we went to enjoy some pizza and cake. Ella kept asking Papa for "one more" and then "two more" because she wanted to go down the slide just a few more times before we had to leave.

Happy 4th birthday Jenna, thanks for letting us celebrate your special day with you.

Carrie and Mar video

We haven't really had the chance to visit with Carrie and Mar much lately, everyone has such busy schedules. However, we did spend some time with them last weekend when we went to Willow Creek and Carrie helped me check Ella into the Promiseland (kids area). A few nights ago Ella looked at a picture we had on the computer and just started naming everyone in the picture without being asked or prompted. I had her do it again for the camera. I love how she says "Carrie, Mar". At the end Ella says "Click" b/c that is what she does when she pretends to take pictures.

32/33 weeks, month 8

Time for another belly pic so that Greta can see how large Mama was while carrying her. In all fairness, these pictures were taken at 11 pm on Saturday night when I was very tired. As I've mentioned in every Greta post, this pregnancy sure is flying by. I am visiting the doctor's office every two weeks for regular check ups. My last ultrasound came back with great results. The baby is only meaasuring about one week ahead and my fluid levels are great. The only that came back needing attention was my iron levels. They have been low the entire pregnancy and I have been taking prenatal vitamins with extra iron in them, but apparently that hasn't been enough. So I am now taking an additional iron supplement twice a day until delivery and probably for a few months afterwards as well.