Friday Five x2

Here's another Friday Five, but with two weeks worth of fives.

Last weeks 5's.
November 24-28

1. We keep making some great finds at the local record store. We added some Christmas music the previous Saturday.

2. James has come up with some new things to say. One is to tell me I'm a bad mom and he's putting me in time out when he doesn't get his way. The other one was to tell us that he can make a picture on the carpet, if he has a potty accident. Neither one is very enjoyable, but I would prefer being put in time out over urine on my carpet.

3. James has rediscovered his crayons. Lately he's only wanted to paint. This is the picture he made me. He says it is a picture of his brother in my tummy.

4. Thanksgiving day was pretty low key. All I had to do was make stuffing for a potluck dinner we were attending with other graduate students Tracy goes to school with. Dinner was good, but it was hard to keep James entertained as the only kid there and he kept following a dog that was there.

5. We spent no time jumping right into putting up our Christmas decorations. We put the tree up Thursday evening. James put on most of the ornaments so naturally they ended up on the lower branches. I did fix it, so it looked much better. However the ones he still could reach have now moved several times. :) Oh, well, I wasn't going for a perfect tree.

This weeks Friday 5.

1. Monday I woke up in lots of pain caused by a condition called Symphysis Pubis Dysfuctions and or Pelvic Girdle Pain. They are often used interchageably. It mostly only affects pregnant women. Thanks to the hormone Relaxin. (Feel free to look them up, if your curious to learn more.) I just happen to be one of those unlucky ones that develop the condition. I had it with my first pregnancy, but it wasn't ever bad enough that I couldn't do daily tasks or work. This time around it is looking like it is bad enough that I have to be careful of what I do. 

Thankfully, Monday's pain was just a flare up and by Wednesday, after two days of doing nothing, I was feeling much better. Not completely pain free and the pelvic bones popping have continued so the pain will still linger on. Lets hope I don't have any more flare ups, but at least now I know to try not to do too much. Wednesday I have my next visit with my mid wife, so we'll see what treatments she'll give me.

2. Since we spent most of the week hanging out at home, we did some arts and crafts.

James decorated a Christmas Tree.

He painted ornaments. He also painted a picture in his paint book.
I just don't have a picture of it.

3.  It was also raining almost all week too, so it worked out to be a nice week at home. And we did lots of puddle splashing.

4. Yesterday I tried to do a lunch date with James, but he did just wanted to eat at home so we got food to go. I very much enjoyed the big juicy burger from Carl's Jr. and I managed to get James to eat some of his chicken tenders. After lunch I attempted nap time. James played in his room for a short while, then came and woke me up by throwing a bean bad at my head. (This is only a small sample of how our week together has gone. Just was a major struggle for him that I wasn't able to play like I usually do.) With the less than ideal wake up call, I thought I'd give him a fun car track for him to play on while I tried to get a little more rest.

When I finished making it and went to return back to the couch, James very sadly said, "But mom, I like playing with you." Broke my heart and decided sleep wasn't all that important.

5. Today, I did the fun glucose test. Over 8 hours of no food, 2 hours at the lab, 3 blood draws and a bruised spot on my arm later I was done. Tracy and James had fun at the park though. Then we went and got lunch at a yummy fish place called Dot Island Grill.

A Return of Friday Five

It is time for another Friday post! 

1. It rained for almost 3 days this week. Made it hard to get outside. We did enjoy a little puddle splashing yesterday. James loved it. 

Enjoyed lunch and hot chocolate afterwards.
He kept putting his hand up to hide from the camera.

2. We've had lots of flying onto the couches as an energy out let since playing in pouring raining wasn't really an option.

 

3. We're getting pretty excited about our Christmas trip. Well, James and I am for sure. Not so sure if Tracy is or not. James talks about how were going to take the train to Christmas just about every day. Only 24 more days till the train ride. Probably what James and I are most excited about.

4. Tracy has been working hard. He just received the peer reviews for a paper he submitted, so now he gets to do some edits and then send it back in. Hopefully, he'll have another publication soon which will make it his 6th paper as first author. 

5. Today we ventured out to a park. James told me this morning "we can go to the one downtown if you want. There's lots of parking there." LOL! Such a funny kid. I took the hint and that is where we went. He had a blast at a new park and threw a tantrum when it was time to go. Sigh. Told me the whole ride home that I was a bad mom.

Veteran's Day

On Monday, Tracy discovered that he had yesterday day off. So... naturally we headed to the beach. He decided to take us to Baker Beach in San Francisco. The beach had a great view of the Golden Gate bridge.

We had a fun time watching the fisherman and playing in the sand. The water was too cold to play in and it wasn't that warm of a day either.

James loved all the cargo ships that came by.

While James and I played on the beach, Tracy walked up the path near by to check out the Battery Chamberlin. If you're curious what one is, check out the Wikipedia page on them.

One of the 4 batteries.

This one has an original gun displayed.
They do live demonstrations of the guns once a month.

 And a pretty flower:

After our fun on the beach, we drove to the other side of the bridge to check out Fort Point. Tuesday was a no tour day. :( But we enjoyed the site and the sounds of cars going across the bridge.

Fort Point is under the bridge.

One can never have too many pictures of this great bridge, right?

We then did a drive by Boudin run. Meaning I jumped out of the car and went into Boudin to get some sour dough bread and Tracy drove circles around the block to avoid paying for parking.

I love all their animal bread. I got one of the little turtles as well as a regular round loaf.

Not my picture. Just one I found on google.

Then we went to across the bridge to the other side of the bay and drove to a view point area along Conzelman Road. There we watched the sunset but it was a bit foggy so we didn't really see much of a sunset. However, we still got some great pictures.

And another of James and I.
I should really get some of Tracy next time.

Examples from a 4 year old

Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm failing at this parenting thing. Then there are moments when James does something that makes think maybe I am doing something right. There are also times when he's being an example to me.

The other night I had tucked James into bed. He immediately jump up and said he needed to turn his bike light on. The light is an old one from Tracy's bike. His light was on his dresser and he had it shinning towards his Jesus picture. He said, "I need my light to see Jesus." At first I thought wow, maybe he is listening to things I say. Then I thought wait a min. I should follow James' example and do more to look towards Christ, think about His example and have Him in my life more.

This is James' picture he had his light shinning on.

James always shows an immense love and concern for others. During my sick moments early in this pregnancy I was always amazed that he was right there rubbing my back and bringing me water or making sure Tracy did those things. Also, the past couple of days, when choosing a piece of candy from his Halloween bag he also gives me one. It surprised me at how easily it was for him to share his candy when that is something most kids have a hard time sharing. Good reminders to me to be more willing to help others in need even in small ways as just being there by there side and to share what I have, like a few dollars to the homeless guy on the corner or anything else I may be prompted to share.

Of course life with a 4 year old isn't always so pleasant. These are just a few example of those occasional times when he's doing things right and times when I'm reminded that we really should be like little children. I'm very grateful to have James in my life and that he helps me become a better person.

Well...

Yesterday we got to see our little one via an ultrasound. There is no question about its gender:

This week in the Thomson House

We've had a long week of all being sick with colds. James started showing signs of being sick last week before Tracy returned home from Vancouver and then shortly after his return both he and I ended up sick. It made our weekend was pretty uneventful. Hopefully we can all recover soon and have some Halloween fun this week. The only good thing about being sick is James has been sleeping in till after 9 which means we have as well.

Before we all got sick, we did enjoy a Halloween BBQ at our complex. I won a bike lock from the raffle.

Saturday we ventured out for a little while and I made a final decision on what bike I want.

Isn't it a beauty?

 And Tracy's bike has spent a few days at the doctor getting tuned up and a couple of things fixed on it.
Then mostly we've just been trying to have fun at home.

Watching a movie and not feeling good.

I was taking a nap and then someone decided to come lay on my head.

I've been enjoying some real maple syrup Tracy brought me from Canada.
I'm the only one who likes pancakes.

This started out as a nice rail system, but then destruction hit.

James painting. He said he was painting a bad, bad bush and
the turkeys were hiding behind it. Maybe he'll be the next Bob Ross.
Only he need to start calling his bush a happy little bush.

I'm hoping we'll all be well enough for the rest of the week's activities. Tomorrow we have our ward's Trunk or Treat. Thursday, we have my ultrasound and then we'll find out which outfit we should get:

And then for the rest of the Halloween fun on Friday. It will be fun to take James around, even though he doesn't want to wear a costume.

It's Friday, well, Sunday

I started this post Friday, but never got it finished. It has been a tiring week.

We did have a great Saturday last week. We decided to head to San Francisco, which traffic wise turned into a bit of a mistake. Apparently, there was an air show that day in the city. After fighting to get around and find parking. We kind of gave up trying to get to the piers and went to the beach on the other side of the city instead. We enjoyed our sandwiches and the sights of the ocean.

Love these two!

We did eventually make it to Fisherman's Warf and enjoyed dinner at Boudin's. Then made the drive home. The day wasn't too bad. We got to see a lot of the cool San Francisco houses. We also happened upon the bad part of the city. Wow, what a sudden change. Now we know where not to go.

Sunday, I made a mistake and inflicted much pain to James. Lesson learned: Don't try to move the cat from one side of James to the other near his back.

It's does look worse than it really is, but the scratch that broke the skin is almost 1/2 a foot long.
 We learned that James has the same reaction as I do to cat scratches.
The wound swells, turns read and itches horribly.  

Monday, after a few week of getting insurance worked out, I had a doctor's appointment. It wasn't what I expected. Turns out every new prenatal patient at the clinic has to go through a counseling appointment. It's 2 hours of questions about your home, relationships and nutrition and go over all the dos and don'ts of pregnancy. Pretty much they are checking to see if you are being abused, have enough food to eat and a safe place to live. Ugh, I felt it was a waste of time and glad James wasn't with me. He would have hated it, but then again maybe he would have made the appointment shorter. I have to do another one in the third trimester. Probably will be about different things. Just glad I started near my half way point, so I only have to do it twice instead of three times.

Wednesday, I had my real doctor's appointment. The clinic uses mid-wives, unless you're high risk or have complications during birth. It is a different experience. My mid-wife was really great. She let James help her hold the doppler to listen to the baby's heart beat. He loved it. I also got my ultrasound scheduled for October 30th. Can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.

I'm still around the weight I was before getting pregnant. I had gained some weight before my morning sickness really kicked in and then lost it all between my first and second doctor's appointments in Riverside. Since moving I haven't gained anything, so I have to now gain at least a pound a week the rest of my pregnancy. It seemed like a daunting task because up till now I just haven't enjoyed eating. I can't eat more than toast and some fruit for breakfast, But the past couple of days I have been hungry almost all the time. Maybe it won't be so hard after all. And, maybe food is starting to be good again. Yay!

Even though my appointment went great I started missing my doctor in Riverside. I don't know maybe I'm weird, but I prefer male doctors. I'll just keep seeing how the mid-wife goes. I can always ask to see another one. It is just weird not completely loving a doctor right off. I've never had that happen before.

I also started getting home side for Riverside as the week has progressed. I didn't miss Salt Lake nearly as much as I am missing Riverside. Maybe it is because of hormones. Moving, getting settled and making new friends is rough.

Wednesday evening, we went to dinner with Tracy and his new school mates. Dinner was great and nice to meet some of the people Tracy will be going to school with.

It's a blurry picture, but James is cute as always.

Thursday, we met Tracy for lunch at a place called Roo's Cafe. This cafe has an indoor playground. Awesome! James played and played and we got a nice lunch in peace. Don't worry he did eat too. We also enjoyed some Frozen Yogurt. Discovered Yogurtland had closed. :( I also didn't take any pictures of our outing. :(

Friday, Tracy had an early flight. He was off to a conference.  So, 5 am we all piled into the car and dropped him off at the airport. An hour later James and I arrived back home. I gave him the options of getting in bed with me or going back to his bed. He chose his bed and slept till 9:30 and so did I.
I don't know if we ever got our full energy for the day. Later that afternoon we were still pretty tired and James just laid on the couch for a bit.

Saturday, we hung out, grocery shopped, cleaned and played. I love spending time with my cute little guy.

A clean table must mean it is ok to be climbed on and played on....
for spinning.
(I got video of the spinning, but it is on my phone.)

James also painted. I bought him a pumpkin and told him he could paint it if he wanted.
His exact words, "My pumpkin is orange, so I have to paint it orange."
(Haha, got to love his OCD.)

We talked to Tracy on the phone today. James loves talking to daddy on the phone. He always pretends to talk to him on his play phone. As we were saying our goodbyes James kissed my phone to give daddy a kiss. It was incredibly cute. He said I had to give daddy a kiss too, so I did.

Well, it is past bed time. Morning will come fast and I get to go to the dentist tomorrow. yay.....:(

School has Started

School officially for Tracy on Monday. Saturday, we headed for the beach to enjoy one last day before school began.

We forgot the camera, so we had to make due with our phone cameras.

James loves playing in the sand.

And he eventually headed to play in the water.

 After playing at the beach, Tracy decided we needed some chocolate, so we made our way to SF.

We got stuck in SF traffic, saw lots of hippies at the Golden Gate Park and got a bunch of yummy chocolate from Ghirardelli.

Tracy has been debating all week on whether to head back to SF or to Lake Tahoe this weekend. It will be fun to see where we end up tomorrow.

I've been trying to get more into a routine. Decided Mondays were a good day to go to the park. James really loves the park, so I'm thinking of going at least 2 or 3 times a week. We went Monday and we went today. He had a blast as always.

Monday, I also took him on a lunch date. It had been a while since we've done one of our lunch dates. It was fun. We went to the exotic Target for lunch and did some shopping. I got some good deals on a few maternity clothes and James got a new pair of pants and a couple new toys. I had left my list at home, so we ended up back at Target yesterday doing more shopping. James had actually begged me both Tuesday and Wednesday to go back, so he was pretty happy that I actually took him back. He loves to play in the toy section. LOL! I have spent way too much money this week at Target, so we probably won't be going back anytime soon.

He told me that he really wanted this toy. 

Tracy has been contemplating what to do for his Ph.D project. He now has a pretty good idea what he'll be working on. Just now have to work on some of the logistics of it. It sounds like a pretty good project and I'm kind of excited to see it all come together in the next few years and what he'll discover.
He's been pretty busy on other stuff too. Last week he submitted another paper to a publisher, so we'll see if they accept it and publish it in their journal. He has another one in the beginning process, so soon he could have 2 papers waiting to be published. Next weekend he'll be heading to the Geological Society of American Annual Meeting where he'll do a presentation on his Master's Thesis. And Wednesday, he scheduled to do a presentation March 18th for the Southern Chapter of the Utah Friends of Paleontology. I had a good laugh when he told me about that one. Apparently it didn't cross his mind that my due date is March 12th. We'll be playing that by ear. He may not be able to do it.

That's what we've been up to this past week. Hope you all have had a great week.

My Little Artist

James has started showing a huge interest in painting recently. Just about every day he is begging me to let him paint.

He used up all his water colors in about 3 days.

I found this sun catcher at the dollar store Tuesday and I managed to get him to wait till Wednesday to paint it.

Today we were downtown looking at bikes and came across an art supply store. Tracy immediately said we had to go in it and get James some painting supplies.

He had a great time painting this evening with his new supplies.

And we can't forget the masterpiece he did while being babysat in August.

Hopefully we can keep feeding this interest. Maybe James will be the next Picasso or Monet.