- Agree on a paint color with Brent and paint Nora's room
- Purchase a car seat and stroller
- Get a video of my belly rockin and rollin from Nora's movements:)
- Make a dent in organizing pictures, blog posts, and memorabilia from Luke's life so far. I've got it mostly in chronological order now, but would like to get it all documented in one place. This is a HUGE task for me. My type A personality wants it to be perfect, though I don't actually believe there is a "right" way to do it either. Thankfully I have some wonderful friends who are coaching me through the process of simply getting started!
- Strip then re-stain the dresser in our bedroom. We got the dresser unfinished as a wedding gift and only put a clear varnish on it then. I'd really like to freshen it up with a colored stain and new hardware. What's stopping me? Ability. I don't know what I'm doing and would either need someone to walk me through the process, or find someone to do it for me. If you know anyone, I'm open to suggestions!
- STAY ACTIVE! The pregnancy program I was in at the gym is finished so I'm feeling less motivated to get to the gym as much. Plus, it depends on the day if I have the energy to exercise too (recently, I seem to have a few highly productive days a week and intermittent lazy days). Thankfully, I can still work out with a group of prego ladies at the gym one evening a week, which is at least something. I've also been getting a couple walks in a day at work.
- Reread On Becoming Baby Wise. We read this book while we were pregnant with Luke, and it was a big help in keeping Brent and I on the same page with baby's schedule, etc.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Pre-Nora Goals
I'm highly driven by productivity, logic, and time. I've been thinking lately about some of the things I'd like to get accomplished before Nora is born, and figured a blog post would be a good place to document. A few of these are obvious getting-ready-for-baby tasks, but others are things that I know would get pushed to the bottom of the priority list once Nora is born...I have a feeling we'll be kind of busy come late July;)
Making the Move
Luke made the move to his new bedroom downstairs today. We've been talking about doing it for few years, but never had a real reason to "have to." How that Nora is on her way, we thought it would be nice to get Luke settled in for a while before she's born, which in turn allows us space in her room (Luke's former room) to store and prepare baby gear for her.
It was Luke's idea to be in all the pics of his new room. He's pretty excited about it:)
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| Looking into his room from the doorway (his window looks out under our deck) |
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| Looking to the left from the doorway |
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| Looking at his bed/doorway wall from the window wall |
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| Luke requested a pic next to his "sports guys" on the bookshelf:) |
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| Finishing off the day of moving with story time in his new room |
As I write, he is sleeping like a rock in his new room. He seems to like being on the same floor as our TV, because he knows there is a pretty good chance that Daddy will be watching TV in the living room after Luke's in bed. I can relate, I remember liking hearing my parents in the other room when I was going to bed as a kid too:)
Now, on to getting Nora's room set up. Thankfully we still have a few months!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Six Month Appointment
We had our six month appt today to check on Nora. She is doing great, all measurements are showing that we're right on track for her growth, and she is a very busy little girl. Her heart rate was 146 (consistent with other appts), my blood pressure was good (also consistent for this pregnancy), and my weight...well, we'll that to your imagination;)
We'll head back in a month for the blood sugar screening for gestational diabetes (standard test) and another visit with the doctor.
So far we (the doctor, Brent, and I) are hoping there will be no need for induction and that nothing will impact our plans for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) come July!
We'll head back in a month for the blood sugar screening for gestational diabetes (standard test) and another visit with the doctor.
So far we (the doctor, Brent, and I) are hoping there will be no need for induction and that nothing will impact our plans for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) come July!
An Update to the Update
After posting my update about Luke a couple days ago, I have thought of a couple more updates:
Luke & His Glasses
Luke has been a trooper the past 9 months when it comes to his eyes/glasses. He's had appts with our lovely pediatric eye doctor every 2-3 months and Luke has been wearing an eye patch on his stronger eye for 6 hours a day since July (in attempts to get his weak eye stronger). He's such a good sport about it and rarely ever complains. Last week we met with the doctor again and learned that the 6 hours of patching each day is not making any positive difference so he wants Luke to wear the patch full time for one month to see if that might help. The thought of wearing it full time was far harder on Brent and I (anticipating that Luke would dread it) than it actually was on Luke. His response was "Well, at least I don't have to wear it all the time until December or something." That's right Luke, that's for the positive spin:) We decided to give Luke a week off from wearing his patch, but starting in April, you'll be seeing the pirate version of Luke until May.
Luke & His Imagination
I so admire the preschool/early elementary years when kids can be so in tune with their imaginations that they become completely unaware of their surroundings. And, I am thankful to say that Luke is still in this phase of life. He cracks us up regularly with the imaginary world (Luke's World as we call it) he can slip in and out of so easily. The other day, we bought a swing to hang under our deck. It was in a package that included the swing seat and two chains to hang it with. Luke asked if he could open the package and immediately began playing a made up game with the contents. He proceeded to play with it on and off for a couple hours until bed that night:) A few other examples of his imagination include:
Luke & His Glasses
Luke has been a trooper the past 9 months when it comes to his eyes/glasses. He's had appts with our lovely pediatric eye doctor every 2-3 months and Luke has been wearing an eye patch on his stronger eye for 6 hours a day since July (in attempts to get his weak eye stronger). He's such a good sport about it and rarely ever complains. Last week we met with the doctor again and learned that the 6 hours of patching each day is not making any positive difference so he wants Luke to wear the patch full time for one month to see if that might help. The thought of wearing it full time was far harder on Brent and I (anticipating that Luke would dread it) than it actually was on Luke. His response was "Well, at least I don't have to wear it all the time until December or something." That's right Luke, that's for the positive spin:) We decided to give Luke a week off from wearing his patch, but starting in April, you'll be seeing the pirate version of Luke until May.
Luke & His Imagination
I so admire the preschool/early elementary years when kids can be so in tune with their imaginations that they become completely unaware of their surroundings. And, I am thankful to say that Luke is still in this phase of life. He cracks us up regularly with the imaginary world (Luke's World as we call it) he can slip in and out of so easily. The other day, we bought a swing to hang under our deck. It was in a package that included the swing seat and two chains to hang it with. Luke asked if he could open the package and immediately began playing a made up game with the contents. He proceeded to play with it on and off for a couple hours until bed that night:) A few other examples of his imagination include:
- Claims that he has an iPod Touch in his head and he can play games and music on it whenever he wants:)
- Claims that he has had a bad dream with in minutes of being put to bed for the night. (And, no, he does not fall asleep that fast:))
- The opportunity for Brent and I to listen to his singing (made up songs and/or compilations of songs he's actually heard) while we're driving or on a bike ride (both times that he easily slips into "Luke's World").
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A Good Old Fashion Update on Luke
I realized that I rarely write updates on Luke any more, which was how our family blog first started when he was two months old...an entire six years ago!
He is over half way through Kindergarten already, which is very hard to believe! He loves everything about it: riding the bus 3 days a week to school from daycare, his teacher (the wonderful Mrs. Brown), his classmates, learning all sorts of new things (i.e. presidents on Mount Rushmore, body systems, holidays like Martin Luther King Day, etc), and of course free play time when he loves to play card or board games with his buddies. We just had Luke's second conference of the year last week and he's doing very well with his letter recognition, sounds, and sight words (the required list of words kindergartners need to be able to read by the end of the year). He's also doing great with anything math related, which we were not a bit surprised by...he loves math! Anything he can do with numbers gets his interest right away (board games, calculators, money, measuring tapes, etc). He gets a little pamphlet of "homework" each week that reviews the sounds and words they are working on for the week, which he likes to do. But, about once a month, he gets a packet of math "homework". He is always SO excited to get these! We do all sorts of fun stuff like measurings things around the house with his feet, "surveying" the colors of cars that drive by our house, and learning about fractions with food (cutting things in half, separating equal portions). All in all, he is really enjoying school and is learning so much. We are so grateful for his desire to learn and how comfortable he is in his school environment.
Luke's also been involved in a few sports this school year. He played flag football at the Rochester Family Y this fall. He liked it alright, but realized how much more he loved basketball once he started playing at the Y after football was done. I asked him one day which he liked better and he said "Basketball because I got kind of bored with football." My take on this was that it he lost his focus playing football since it was a larger group of kids, it was outside, and each kid is not involved in each play. You know young boys...if they don't have the ball in their own hands, it's not interesting:) So, basketball had two sessions: November and December was focused on basketball skills with occasional "scrimmages", then in January and February they were placed on a team for games. He LOVED it all! Basketball is certainly his sport, even if his non-aggressive personality does not work well when it comes to rebounding the ball:)
Basketball certainly did not stop at the Y. He played all winter long on a hoop we have in the basement. He plays make believe games against himself often, plays against Daddy a lot, and plays with anyone (like his cousins) who comes over who are willing to play. He's also been enjoying watching basketball, whether it be Brent's city league games or college basketball on TV.
Other than sports, Luke keeps himself very busy with games. He loves board games, again, especially those involving numbers; and he loves playing video games. He and Brent find free games to play online for either just Luke or ones they play together or they play XBox Kinect. Over the past six months, Luke's favorite board games have changed frequently. For quite a while it was Yahtzee, as in we rarely went a day without playing:) Then he's moved on more recently to checkers. He's also been learning how to play chess with Gpa Kerry and backgammon with Daddy. He catches on fast and loves learning new games.
Luke turned six in February and celebrated with friends at Chucke Cheese, with Picker cousins/family at our house, and with Beckmanns bowling. I think I blogged about his birthday experiences already, so I won't get into any more details. February is always a month of birthday fun!
This spring, with the amazing weather we've been having, we've had a chance to be outside for walks/bike rides (we walk, Luke rides his bike). I can already tell he's much stronger than last year making his way up hills faster and with no help from us. It's always amazing to see how skills change from one spring/summer to the next!
Luke has a big change coming up this week: he'll be moving to his new bedroom downstairs! He's looking forward to it as far as I can tell, though I'm sure the first few times of actually going to bed in a new room will be different for him. We've been gradually moving his books, games, and toys into the room and he's getting excited to use some of Brent's Michigan decorations on the walls.
Luke has also been so sweet when we talk about and anticipate life with Nora. He likes to give my tummy hugs and kisses and says goodbye and good night to Nora regularly. We talk about how things will be different once we are a family of four and as far as we can tell he seems to look forward to it. He especially thinks of her when it comes to introducing her to new things. Like today he said "After Nora's born, we can have a camp fire (in our fire pit) and Nora can come out if she's awake or not." I know that having a baby around full time is going to be a major adjustment for all of us, but I truly think he will be an amazing big brother with his gentle, caring, and loving ways. Plus, he'll probably have close to a year before she's mobile enough to get into "his stuff";)
Life will Luke is always fun, and we can expect that he'll leave us smiling or laughing everyday. I have loved the opportunity to watch him grow through the years and how it has prepared him for the place he is now beginning life as a grade schooler and, soon, life as a big brother. Thanks to my work schedule I'm able to help in Luke's class about once a week and it's so great to see him in his environment, to get to know his teacher and classmates, and to get a glimpse into this new area of life that is all his (as in we don't go with him).
Luke is a mature, compassionate, sweet, and gentle boy and we are so blessed to call him ours:)
He is over half way through Kindergarten already, which is very hard to believe! He loves everything about it: riding the bus 3 days a week to school from daycare, his teacher (the wonderful Mrs. Brown), his classmates, learning all sorts of new things (i.e. presidents on Mount Rushmore, body systems, holidays like Martin Luther King Day, etc), and of course free play time when he loves to play card or board games with his buddies. We just had Luke's second conference of the year last week and he's doing very well with his letter recognition, sounds, and sight words (the required list of words kindergartners need to be able to read by the end of the year). He's also doing great with anything math related, which we were not a bit surprised by...he loves math! Anything he can do with numbers gets his interest right away (board games, calculators, money, measuring tapes, etc). He gets a little pamphlet of "homework" each week that reviews the sounds and words they are working on for the week, which he likes to do. But, about once a month, he gets a packet of math "homework". He is always SO excited to get these! We do all sorts of fun stuff like measurings things around the house with his feet, "surveying" the colors of cars that drive by our house, and learning about fractions with food (cutting things in half, separating equal portions). All in all, he is really enjoying school and is learning so much. We are so grateful for his desire to learn and how comfortable he is in his school environment.
Luke's also been involved in a few sports this school year. He played flag football at the Rochester Family Y this fall. He liked it alright, but realized how much more he loved basketball once he started playing at the Y after football was done. I asked him one day which he liked better and he said "Basketball because I got kind of bored with football." My take on this was that it he lost his focus playing football since it was a larger group of kids, it was outside, and each kid is not involved in each play. You know young boys...if they don't have the ball in their own hands, it's not interesting:) So, basketball had two sessions: November and December was focused on basketball skills with occasional "scrimmages", then in January and February they were placed on a team for games. He LOVED it all! Basketball is certainly his sport, even if his non-aggressive personality does not work well when it comes to rebounding the ball:)
Basketball certainly did not stop at the Y. He played all winter long on a hoop we have in the basement. He plays make believe games against himself often, plays against Daddy a lot, and plays with anyone (like his cousins) who comes over who are willing to play. He's also been enjoying watching basketball, whether it be Brent's city league games or college basketball on TV.
Other than sports, Luke keeps himself very busy with games. He loves board games, again, especially those involving numbers; and he loves playing video games. He and Brent find free games to play online for either just Luke or ones they play together or they play XBox Kinect. Over the past six months, Luke's favorite board games have changed frequently. For quite a while it was Yahtzee, as in we rarely went a day without playing:) Then he's moved on more recently to checkers. He's also been learning how to play chess with Gpa Kerry and backgammon with Daddy. He catches on fast and loves learning new games.
Luke turned six in February and celebrated with friends at Chucke Cheese, with Picker cousins/family at our house, and with Beckmanns bowling. I think I blogged about his birthday experiences already, so I won't get into any more details. February is always a month of birthday fun!
This spring, with the amazing weather we've been having, we've had a chance to be outside for walks/bike rides (we walk, Luke rides his bike). I can already tell he's much stronger than last year making his way up hills faster and with no help from us. It's always amazing to see how skills change from one spring/summer to the next!
Luke has a big change coming up this week: he'll be moving to his new bedroom downstairs! He's looking forward to it as far as I can tell, though I'm sure the first few times of actually going to bed in a new room will be different for him. We've been gradually moving his books, games, and toys into the room and he's getting excited to use some of Brent's Michigan decorations on the walls.
Luke has also been so sweet when we talk about and anticipate life with Nora. He likes to give my tummy hugs and kisses and says goodbye and good night to Nora regularly. We talk about how things will be different once we are a family of four and as far as we can tell he seems to look forward to it. He especially thinks of her when it comes to introducing her to new things. Like today he said "After Nora's born, we can have a camp fire (in our fire pit) and Nora can come out if she's awake or not." I know that having a baby around full time is going to be a major adjustment for all of us, but I truly think he will be an amazing big brother with his gentle, caring, and loving ways. Plus, he'll probably have close to a year before she's mobile enough to get into "his stuff";)
Life will Luke is always fun, and we can expect that he'll leave us smiling or laughing everyday. I have loved the opportunity to watch him grow through the years and how it has prepared him for the place he is now beginning life as a grade schooler and, soon, life as a big brother. Thanks to my work schedule I'm able to help in Luke's class about once a week and it's so great to see him in his environment, to get to know his teacher and classmates, and to get a glimpse into this new area of life that is all his (as in we don't go with him).
Luke is a mature, compassionate, sweet, and gentle boy and we are so blessed to call him ours:)
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Pregnancy So Far
Pregnancy has been wonderful so far. I've been feeling great, baby girl has been doing well at every appointment, and she is a busy one! I've only taken a few pictures along the way, but thought I'd try comparing them today (and I wanted to be sure I remembered how far along I was in each picture:))
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| November 2011 ~ Our trip to Florida (we were expecting already but didn't know till we got home) |
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| New Years Eve 2011 ~ About 11 Weeks |
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| 15 Weeks |
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| 18 Weeks |
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| 22 Weeks |
Sunday, March 11, 2012
A Trip Down Memory Lane
This weekend we celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday with a family outing to Red Wing, MN, a cute little town on the Mississippi River about 50 minutes from Rochester. We had a nice visit with family including good food, some shopping, and casino fun at Treasure Island Casino, just outside of Red Wing, celebrating Grandma's birthday.
Being in Red Wing always takes me back... It has probably been about 4 years since I've been there last, but my memories of Red Wing began long before then.
When I was a kid, my Aunt Nancy lived in Red Wing pretty much from when I could remember. I recall a few places she lived and worked before she ended up moving across the Mississippi River to Wisconsin once she met her boyfriend, Scott. Both when she lived in Red Wing and Wisconsin (Hager City and Ellsworth), we always at least drove through Red Wing, but often took time for a meal and/or shopping. One place that sticks out in my memory is Liberty's Restaurant in downtown Red Wing, and we ate there often as kids and again on Saturday for lunch!
Being in Red Wing always takes me back... It has probably been about 4 years since I've been there last, but my memories of Red Wing began long before then.
When I was a kid, my Aunt Nancy lived in Red Wing pretty much from when I could remember. I recall a few places she lived and worked before she ended up moving across the Mississippi River to Wisconsin once she met her boyfriend, Scott. Both when she lived in Red Wing and Wisconsin (Hager City and Ellsworth), we always at least drove through Red Wing, but often took time for a meal and/or shopping. One place that sticks out in my memory is Liberty's Restaurant in downtown Red Wing, and we ate there often as kids and again on Saturday for lunch!
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| Birthday girl in black on the left |
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| The rest of our group that was hard to see in the first picture. |
After my childhood memories of Red Wing, I also recall Red Wing fondly as I drove through it about twice a week during my year in school at University of Wisconsin - River Falls (from 2002-2003). Red Wing was where I crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin for the last stretch of my drive to school. I came home pretty much every weekend since Brent and I were engaged and were wedding planning on the weekends for our July 2003 summer wedding (and we were definitely in the "we have to see each other any chance we get" stage in our relationship:)). So, most Friday and Sunday evenings (or the occasional Monday morning if I was lazy), I came to this intersection in Red Wing: Heading North to Wisconsin on the way to school, or heading South on Hwy 58 to Rochester.
We've had other fond memories of Red Wing through the years like celebrating our third anniversary at the Golden Lantern Inn Bed & Breakfast, which was the first time we left Luke overnight when he was five months old. And, four years ago for my birthday gift from Brent, seeing Martina McBride in concert at Treasure Island.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Busy Day!
Today goes down in the books as the busiest day so far for baby girl! I've been feeling her move since the beginning of January, but since February I've been feeling her move more often, more consistently, and pushing more firmly on my abdomen. But she was especially busy today:) I felt her moving consistently throughout the day at work. My theory is that she was so busy because she was celebrating! After all, we did decide on her name before we went to bed last night:)
We're anxiously waiting to meet Miss Nora Abigail Picker in July!
We're anxiously waiting to meet Miss Nora Abigail Picker in July!
What a Guy
Since the new year, I've been going straight from work to the gym on Mondays for the Healthy Pregnancy Program I'm enrolled in at the gym. It's been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot of good info on pregnancy and experienced many new exercise options for pregnancy and post pregnancy. So glad I enrolled!
But, today I write about the wonderful man to whom I am married. Since I started this class, he has taken on the responsibility of picking Luke up from daycare on Mondays (which I used to do) so I can go directly to the gym for my 5:30pm class. On top of that, up until last week, Brent also had basketball games most Monday evenings. So, he would pick Luke up, get him dinner, then head out for basketball. Depending on the time of the game, I tried to meet them at RCTC once my class was done.
This Monday, the first week after the basketball season (they won the championship last week!), I came home to a cleaned up kitchen with dinner waiting on the stove for me. What a sweet man I call mine:) It was extra sweet too because he made Luke the meal (Stacky Uppy) he had been wanting since last week but we hadn't had a chance to make yet. Not only did he make dinner and clean up, but he also went the extra mile to meet the request of our little man:)
What a guy:)
But, today I write about the wonderful man to whom I am married. Since I started this class, he has taken on the responsibility of picking Luke up from daycare on Mondays (which I used to do) so I can go directly to the gym for my 5:30pm class. On top of that, up until last week, Brent also had basketball games most Monday evenings. So, he would pick Luke up, get him dinner, then head out for basketball. Depending on the time of the game, I tried to meet them at RCTC once my class was done.
This Monday, the first week after the basketball season (they won the championship last week!), I came home to a cleaned up kitchen with dinner waiting on the stove for me. What a sweet man I call mine:) It was extra sweet too because he made Luke the meal (Stacky Uppy) he had been wanting since last week but we hadn't had a chance to make yet. Not only did he make dinner and clean up, but he also went the extra mile to meet the request of our little man:)
What a guy:)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Buddies
It's been about a year and a half since Audrey started spending some afternoons with us when her mom and dad were working. She's a sweet little thing (nearly 3 now) and she and Luke just love each other. As I was taking their picture today, I remember that I had a picture similar to it from a couple years ago.
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| December 2010 |
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| December 2010 |
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| Today, watching a bit of Audrey's pick: Tangled:) |
Such sweet buddies:)
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