Beginning of Fall/Waiting for Baby

It's hard to believe we are in mid-October already!!  And that means baby time!!  Hopefully soon!!!!! (Hear that, little girl?  Now's the time!!!).

However, we have not been just sitting around this fall, waiting for baby girl to show up.  Because that would be so boring.  And we dislike boring, apparently.

At the end of September we finally found and moved into a townhouse with lots more space and in a great location for us.  We LOVE our new place!!  Things we love= new appliances that work and don't leak, 2-car attached garage, a yard, a lovely neighborhood for walks, closer for Adam to get to work, closer to get J to preschool..... and the list goes on.  One minor downfall of this place is it IS a tri-level townhouse, which means the garage, storage, and 1 BR (or playroom as we have it set up) is the ground level, next level is living area, dining area, 1/2 bath, laundry, and kitchen.  And level 3 has 2 bedrooms.  SOOOOO.  That's a lot of stairs for this 9 month pregnant lady.  I get winded a LOT, but I know that's only temporary so it's ok!  It is just so nice to be settled here with all of our stuff (well, 96% of our stuff) with us.  We look forward to being here for the next year or 2 or more.... who knows.  We have taken a ton of trips up to Grand Haven to our storage unit and have FINALLY gotten it pretty much emptied out (we have too much crap.... have I said that before?!?!?).  I think all we have left up there is the mower, snowblower (yes, Adam will be heading back for that before the snow flies), deck table/chairs, and a few other odds and ends.  We can't thank my Uncle John and Aunt Judy enough for letting us use that space for so long!!!!!!

Moving day-- YAY!!!!!!!!

Something that J loves about our new house:

Lots of space to run around AND they're building a house across the street!!

I can't tell you how great it felt to unpack and get everything set up for baby girl!  I think I was suffering from nesting-withdrawal since I couldn't do any of it in our apartment (and didn't really want to since I knew we would be moving).  So once we moved, I jumped into nesting overdrive! :)

Baby will be in our room for the first 4-5 months or so, but after that, the plan is for J and Baby to share a room.  We'll see how that goes!

Last week we went to a Big Brother/Sister class for Jeremiah at Holland Hospital.  I am SO glad I signed him up for that-- he thought it was so cool and really felt special.  He is very excited about a chart they gave him with a list of ways to help with the baby and be a GREAT big brother-- hopefully he feels the same way once baby is here.

First stop-- J's choice for dinner, Pizza Ranch!

He learned about how to hold baby, feed her a bottle, and even swaddling!

Holding his baby like a champ.

He was so proud!!

Jeremiah has also been REALLY enjoying pre-school.  He loves going and always has such fun things to tell me when I pick him up (and I love that!!!!).  **Bragging Mommy Alert**  We even got an e-mail from his teacher this week about how she loves having him in class, he is making friends, likes to ask good questions (no surprise there!), is always respectful, is doing great with his letters and name-writing...... that just made us so proud (I'd like to take all the credit, but J is definitely the preschooler he is thanks to the past 4 years that he spent at "Shell's House"!!  Thanks, Michelle!)!  And I know, his teacher probably e-mails all the parents the same thing, but still. (Hey, I'm a teacher, I know how it goes.)  But I'm choosing to believe that he's just doing THAT well. :) **End of Bragging** 

This week is a big week for J in preschool!  Yesterday he FINALLY got to go on his first fieldtrip, which was to Post Family Farm.  He seriously has been looking forward to this since day 1 of preschool.  And to make it even more great, Daddy took the morning off to go on the trip with him!  J thought that was SO awesome!  He told me, "Mommy, you are not going on my trip.  You can stay home and watch the Disney Channel."  Well okay then.  Thankfully he agreed that it would be okay for me to go grocery shopping instead. 

He had such great time, and I think Adam even enjoyed the trip, too (at least for the apple cider donuts, which were de-LISH!!!!).  Adam was a good hubby and took some good pics for me (AND got me 2 apple cider donuts):

J got to pick 2 pumpkins!

Being a good listener to something.

Making friends with a calf!

Modeling his new ZCS preschool shirt!

They did some kind of performance... J was the bee!

Check out the caboose on the pumpkin train!

Also this week, J FINALLY gets to be the Star Helper on Thursday!!  Already at his young age he is learning that sometimes it kinda sucks to be a W and at the end of the alphabet (both Adam and I feel his pain).  He's the LAST one alphabetically in his class, so it has been a loooong wait for a 4-year-old!  So, what does the Star Helper get to do?  Well, according to J, they get to say "5 more minutes!" when play time is almost over.  And he gets to bring "Hoot" the owl home for a night.  It also means we provide the snack, and also a mommy or daddy (or other adult helper) to help in the class for the morning.  So, since daddy did the fieldtrip on Monday, mommy is going to squeeze her 40 week pregnant self into a preschool chair for the morning.  I'm kind of excited!  It will be fun to see how J is with his friends and see their different routines and activities.  And, it will be fun to be back in a classroom, especially one where I don't run the show and I just have to do what they tell me. :)  And seriously, when I was pregnant with J, I taught all the way up until my due date, so there's really no reason why I shouldn't be able to help in J's preschool class for 1 morning!

Possibly the last baby bump pic:

39 weeks!

Tomorrow I have my 39 week  doctor appointment, and my official due date is Saturday the 18th.  Really, none of this means anything, though, since it's going to happen when it happens.  And if baby girl follows in J's footsteps, it won't happen until like the 24th..... but who knows!  Prayers for a safe (and quick) delivery would be much appreciated!!!  Hopefully the next post will include pics of baby girl-- we are so excited to meet her!