Halloween time, let's dig up dead people!

Let's start out with some Ronin-isms:

"Do you have anything to talk about Ronin?" on the way home from babysitters house.  His response:  "My body isn't full of questions yet, wait until it is."

Me: "Ew... creepy cemetery!" driving by one one evening. 
Ronin: "What's a cemetery?" 
Me: "It's where they bury dead people" 
Ronin: "Let's stop and dig them up, I want to see what dead people look like!"

Tuesday was my baby shower at work...  Got lots of cute clothes and a gift card for Target!  Which I promptly went out and spent on lots of organizing things, Desitin, and a booster seat for Ronin.  The cake was super cute- another owl theme!  The ladies all went in on a Mexican style buffet.  I'm so lucky to have such a great "family" at work :) 

The cake

Special candy bars w/owls that say "Look whoooo's having a baby"

The food!

Gifts!

Thursday was our doctor appointment, everything is looking good, he's measuring a little big- go figure!  We are 2cm dialated and 50% effaced, which sounds exciting but I could stay that way for days or weeks without ever moving forward.  BUT she did strip my membranes while she was in there (pulls everything from the walls to get labor moving)- which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.  I guess we'll find out!

Ronin's babysitter took some "school" pictures last week, they turned out soooo cute!

Book smarts

Apples and smiles!

This could be his sophisticated look... haha

Rory won tickets to a fundraising dinner in Portland last Saturday.  Ronin spent the night at Grandma/pa's house while we went to it.  It was a masquerade so we got to make our own masks, Rory of course altered his to look like Elvis.  When I was saying goodbye to Ronin he asked what was on my lips, I said "lipstick" and he said "I'll kiss you goodbye, but don't kiss me, I don't want that on my body." haha!  We had a good time playing black jack and eating free food, but the head-person of the cause, which was for a refuge for tigers/lions/big cats, was a complete weirdo so we left early. We called Ronin before bedtime to say goodnight and the first thing he asked me was if I still had lipstick on.  hehe, I must have freaked him out with dark red lips!

 

Ronin had a birthday party on Sunday at the Children's Art Museum... which is now on my list of places to never visit again... at least on a weekend day.  It was so crazy-busy with booger-pickers and screaming children I wanted to crawl into a corner and cover my ears while rocking back and forth in the fetal position... Of course we made it out alive and he had a blast... but still...  argh!!

Ronin with the birthday boy- Caden, and his other friend Peyton

Ronin had a blast trick-or-treating!  he was so good about saying it and then thanking people after he got candy.  We just hit up one block and his bucket is FULL!  He kept saying how happy he was that it was Halloween and that he got to trick or treat :)  He did get tired of wearing his mask and cape towards the end though...

I told him tonight that our next holiday is Thanksgiving, when we get to eat turkey and be thankful.  I said I am thankful for having such a good boy as my son.  He said "I'm thankful for you and daddy because I love you guys so much".   He makes my heart melt :)

Now we are on to November!  Guess Quinn will be a November babe after all!

Lots of love,
C

Bowling for Babies

Last week we didn't really do a lot...  besides trying to take it easy and relax for once.   Ronin went to his friend Sean's bowling birthday party on Saturday.  He was having so much fun he didn't want to leave.  He's growing up so well- he waited his turn to bowl and knew when it was his turn, which kind of amazed me since I can't even pay that kind of attention to when it's my turn! 

I love this picture- he was so proud of himself!

 

After we got home we carved our pumpkins.  He thought they smelled disgusting, which I have to agree, they do.  We let him try to cut with the pumpkin knives, which he quickly gave up at since the pumpkins were so thick and hard to cut, so daddy helped him.  He wanted it to look like Frankenstein and told Rory it wasn't scary enough. haha  So far we've had to light them up each night so he can look at them, and then he blows out the candles before he heads to bed.

Carving...

Smiling with Mommy's, his, and Daddy's jack-o-lanterns

Sunday night he was cracking me up by sticking things under his shirt and telling me it's his baby brother.  What a goof ball! 

There's a monkey in there!

This week I have a babyshower given to me by my coworkers on Tuesday, another doctor appointment on Thursday and Sunday is another birthday party for one of Ronin's buddies.  Always busy!  Maybe Quinn will come soon so I can skip out on some of those things ;)   Ronin is worried his baby brother will come during Halloween and he won't get to trick or treat... I keep reassuring him that no matter what someone will take him trick or treating.  At least he has his priorities in order ;)

Lots of love,

C

Grimm "Raper" and Bee's

What a busy week!  On Wednesday Ronins babysitter called to tell me Ronin has been having accidents all day so she was afraid he was sick… but it turned out that she had a “Grimm Reaper” decoration on the window that literally scared the pee out of him, so he refused to use the bathroom and couldn’t hold it any longer.  When she figured it out she felt pretty bad and took the reaper down… and now Ronin and Sean have been referring to it as the “Grimm Raper”. Haha  

Ronin got his first bee sting last week too.  He fell and bumped his head on a bush that was hiding a yellow-jacket nest.  He got stung once on his head and once on his leg.  Poor guy!  Shelley had her husband spray the nest, but he got stung 9 times that day before he gave up only to finish the job the next day.  Yuck!

Saturday was our baby shower for Quinn.  Ronin was so excited to open his baby brothers gifts he kept asking all week if we could get ready for the baby shower and when does he get to open gifts.  He was a big help for about half of the gifts, ripping through them as quickly as possible and stating that “yay I don’t have to share my toys/blankets now”.  haha!  We got so many great baby gifts and had a good time with friends and family.  We are so appreciative to have such great people in our lives!  Quinn will be well clothed and very warm when he decides to make his entrance!  Thank you everyone for putting it together and for all your gifts!

The cake - my friend Byrekka decorated it.

Ronin helped unwrap

The Grandma's

The Gregg side of the family (Me, mom, Heidi, Jackie, Tammie, Amber)

The big brother & mommy :)

On Sunday we went to Bi-Zi pumpkin patch to celebrate Madeline’s 3^rd birthday and to get our pumpkins.  It was really crowded and the lines were horrendous!  But we managed to feed some goats, pet some pigs, climb the hay pyramid, get some apple cider and get 3 big pumpkins! 

We are down to every-week doctor appointments starting next Thursday!  The little guy will be here before we know it!   I have one more baby shower to get through at work and then we just get to wait.  I'm totally nervous about going to the hospital... with Ronin I really thought he'd be late so I didn't ever get to the point of anticipation...  But now I know I could pretty much go any time and there's only one way out... and it requires a lot of needles and work!  Too late to change my mind now I guess ;)

Possibly our last 3-some family picture before Quinn arrives!

Lots of love,

C

October is here!

So now October is here, and baby Quinn is getting ready to come into the world, so hopefully things will look up again.  I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore.  I can't sleep even though I'm exhausted by the end of the day.  If it's not leg cramps, it's restless legs or my ribs or hips hurt, my belly button hurts, or I wake up with acid reflux coming up my throat...  I can't wait to sleep on my stomach and back again! 

Rory's been busy putting new laminate flooring in Quinn's room last week, it looks so great!  Now we just need the new occupants approval ;)

Quinns room w/new flooring!

Ronin got to go a pumpkin patch with his buddies and Shelley last week, she took some great pictures while they were there.  How cute and innocent does he look here?! haha 

A couple weeks ago on the way to the babysitter I pointed out the hospital again and told Ronin that his baby brother might come in the middle of the night and we'll have to wake him up to get in the car and go to the hospital.  I told him he can nap there until one of the grandparents gets there and then I asked him what kind of snack he'd like me to pack so we don't forget to feed him.  He said "carrots, oatmeal, and graham crackers".   I was so proud that he said carrots! and oatmeal is a great choice too!  I was really expecting to hear gummy worms or suckers...

We made a Frankenstien halloween bucket for all of his yummy candy he'll be getting.  It's a milk jug with paper mache over it - it turned out pretty cute!

Last Saturday we made a trip to Long Beach to use Rory's metal detector.  Ronin had a blast even though all they found was a quarter and a metal firework stick. haha  We also hit up the candy store to get lots of salt water taffy. yummm...

Ronin got to drive on the beach

The closest we got to a family picture that day ;)

Ronin the photographer at work...

Last night was a tough one with Ronin.  He has a big stuffed black dog that we always thought looked like Lucy.  The night before he told Rory that the reason he holds onto it so tight is because he misses Lucy.  And Last night he told me the same thing, but then said that Daddy should have never taken Lucy to that place (the Vet).  I explained that sometimes when people and pets are really, really sick they can't get better...  he said that Lucy just needed a nap.  We cried together a little bit and I said I would bring her back to him if I could... but I can't, and that it's nobody's fault.  He said it's daddy's fault, and his fault, and my fault.  I told him that she's always with him in his heart and he said OK.  Poor guy... he just wants his doggy back.  So sad.  I wish there was something more we could have done... 

On another note... We have a prenatal doctor apt on Thursday for our 36 week checkup.  She'll let me know if we are dialated or effaced at that time... which means nothing to me because when I was pregnant with Ronin we had a checkup 24 hours before he was born and I wasn't dialated or effaced at all and told he'll be late...   Ha!   Quinn will be here soon though... we are all anxious to meet him!

Lots of love,

C

We miss you Lucy!

September went out in a horrible way...  When we were settling down on the couch last Friday night, Lucy, our 2 year old black lab came in the living room to be with us and we noticed her left eye was bulging and she was in a lot of pain.  Rory took her to the ER Vet where they discovered all of her lymph-nodes were incredibly swollen.  Which meant the antibiotics she's been on since about March had stopped working and whatever infection she's been fighting off for so long had finally won it's battle.  All fingers point towards cancer, in which case there was nothing to do.  We've been on every other antibiotic so we know it was more than an infection.  Rory made the right decision in letting her go peacefully since she was in so much pain and the prognoses didn't look good even if we could pinpoint the exact cause.  So at about 11pm that night Lucy went peacefully into the night. 

Ronin kept asking when she's coming home...  we'd tell him she's in heaven and won't be coming home and his reply was always "But I miss her really, really bad".  Poor guy.  I know he won't remember much of this when he gets older, but right now it's heartbreaking to see him miss his dog so much.  

Just today Ronin said "aw, I bet Kiera and Ringo miss Lucy, she was their best friend".  I said Yes, I bet they do, but she was your best friend too.  He said "yeah...  maybe we can get a new Lucy!".  I laughed and said we can't replace Lucy.  So he decided his stuffed animal that looks just like her will work just fine.  He also asked us this morning where Lucy's going to poop in heaven.  Rory said she won't need to poop, and Ronin said "what IF she does?" so they decided she'd poop in a golden bowl.

More memories from Lucy & Ronin this year...

Silly pals :) January 2011

Staring at each other on the floor - January 2011

Taking Lucy for a walk at the park -January 2011

Reading "Ducky Dives In" to Lucy -February 2011

Rest in Peace Lucy Lou - we love you so much and miss you more than anything!

Luckiest Boy in the World

This last week we have been busy moving things out of Ronins room to put laminate flooring down... so his bed was in our bedroom for a few days and of course he loved that.  When daddy was ordering padding off of amazon.com he accidentally ordered 3 moons... woops, I shouldn't leave things in "shopping carts" when I'm browing ;)  Although we didn't need 3 moons, we laughed since it was a very random mistake... and we kept one for Ronin's room since we are doing a "space" theme.  It's a light up, realistic moon with a remote control...  Ronin told me he's the "luckiest boy in the world" because he has a light up moon.  So sweet! 

Wednesday at Ronins swim class he dove for toys in the pool!  He was the only one in his class that got the ribbon that says "I got the rings from the bottom of the pool!"  his friends got the "I had a good torpedo" ribbon.  Ronin was so excited and proud of himself, he had to call daddy right away to tell him about his ribbon.  He even slept with it.

Our ultrasound on Friday went really well, the tech says the kidneys look fine now, although I have to wait for the official "okay" from the doctor.  And he's measuring exactly on date for his due date.  He's got a cute little profile and she said lots of hair too!

Quinn's profile -- the "smoke ring" looking thing is the umbillical cord.

Quinn's face, tilt your head to the right and you'll see...

Ronin asked me the other morning why his baby brother won't be able to walk when he's born.  Seems like a simple enough question... but I didn't have a great answer!  I just said because he's got to get bigger and build muscles first.  And he asked if I'll be able to pick up his baby brother and carry him.  I think he asked this because I tell him he's too heavy for me to pick up right now, so he's concerned about his baby brother.  I said after his brother comes I should be able to pick them both up with no problem.   He is still a bit confused as to why his baby brother can't have grapejuice or "food"... so I tried to explain that he'll get all his vitamins from milk for a while and doesn't need grapejuice or other foods...   Lots of questions from the big brother! :)

We finally got the laminate flooring done last night (Tuesday) in Ronins room -- it looks amazing!  I told Ronin that his friends will love to come play on his new floor with his toys and he said "Yeah, and I'll tell them my daddy worked really hard on it!"   What a sweetheart :)   Last night he also asked why I had two shirts on, so I explained that I "layered" my shirts, and he wanted to know what "layering" meant, so I told him - and he said "The next time I go to McDonalds, I'm going to layer lots of clothes on me and the kids there will say 'that boy is chubby!'"  haha  He cracks me up!

His new flooring :) 

He wanted the big box in the picture for some reason... (the lens is really dirty- so ignore the spots) We still need to paint a space mural on the blue wall, stay tuned for that project ;)

He put the face pieces on his monster and taped him to the front door. 

He's very excited to start decorating for Halloween... I told him we had to wait until this weekend though!

This morning we saw a fire truck and several police cars at a gas station we always pass, and we were discussing what was going on there.  He said it was probably a bully.  I said maybe, but fire trucks usually don't show up for bully's since they don't have guns.  His response was "yeah, but a bully probably doesn't want to get sprayed with water either!"   He had a point!  :)  Smarty!

My BIG 34 week belly--- ouch!

Lots of love,
C

Ronins stay-cation

This last week Ronin got to stay up late and sleep in late since Nana was here to watch him while Shelley took her vacation.  Poor nana had to endure hours of "Phineas & Ferb" cartoons and many refills on "warm grapejuice in a grapejuice cup who has a lid".  He also convinced her to let him have piece after piece of yummy zucchini bread she baked...

Wednesday was his usual swim class night.  He has a new teacher this season and it was his best class so far!  Luckily I brought the video camera, so I have to share some clips!  He's so proud of himself for doing the "torpedo" and putting his head under the water.  For the first time I heard him say he LIKES going under water.  This is a huge step! 

Doing the "torpedo"

Barbell on his back

Face in the water

Frog arms in the water

Barbell

Torpedo again

I had my prenatal checkup on Wednesday as well.  All is good and he was already head down, but I'm sure that changes a lot before the last month.  I'm supposed to drink more water and eat more often because I get a little dizzy by the end of the day.  We have another appointment in 4 weeks and then they go down to every other week... eek!  We are getting close!

Saturday Ronin and I went to his friend Trenton's dinosaur theme birthday party.  He got to jump on Trentons new trampoline, which he now wants for his birthday too.  Trentons mom, Shauna, made a volcano errupt in their backyard too, which was amazing to Ronin.  Okay, it was a little amazing to me too!



Trenton and Ronin



The trampoline

The errupting volcano

Sunday we went to Ikea with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Rod to get Quinn a little blue rug for his room.  Ronin found a stuffed rat that he said reminded him of the dead mouse daddy found in the yard and threw away. ew.  Needless to say, it's his favorite stuffed animal right now and carries it everywhere. 

The rat from Ikea

Ronin has decided that I'm not allowed to use "his" bathroom any more.  When I asked why he said because I "stink" it up!  I told him that daddy stinks it up too, and he said "no, daddy's pooh doesn't smell"   haha!  Disgusting and you can believe Rory agreed with Ronin on this one.  Rude boys!

He still seems to be afraid of Bigfoot and "Dust Bunnies" which is an effective method to keep him from crawling under tables and restaurants "the dust bunnies will get you!" and to get him to come in the house at night "I think I heard Bigfoot coming!".    I'm sure he'll be speaking to his counselor someday about these things...  ;)

That's about it for this week...  Thank you Nana for entertaining him all week!  and Thanks Rod & Jan for coming with us to Ikea - the 2 hour minimum shopping maze...  We all rolled on the new rug last night to test it's plushness.  ;)

-C

Some Ronin Videos...

When posting the swim class videos I had some other older videos I ran across... so here is a bunch of them!

Ronin dancing to Michael Jackson (July 2010 - 2 1/2 yrs old)

Rory and Ronin playing the piano (July 2010 - 2 1/2 yrs old)



Ronin singing his ABC's (July 2010 - 2 1/2 yrs old)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (July 2010 - 2 1/2 yrs old)

Ronin singing ABC's and playing piano (Sept 2010 - 2 1/2 yrs old)

Ronin talking about green girlfriends (Sept 2010)

Ronin saying he has no time for me... (Sept 2010)

Ronin soccer class (Sept 2010)



Ronin singing about monsters (Jan 2011 - almost 3!)

Ronin playing in the snow (Jan 2011)

Singing to Syd the Science Kid (Sept. 2010?)

Ronin telling us about dreams (Sept 2011 - 3 1/2 yrs old)

Rabbits don't bark

The last 2 weeks have flown by...  Let's see...  Ronin got a huge bag of lincoln logs from a garage sale we went to a couple weekends ago.  This is very exciting since we could only build one house at a time with his first set.  Here he is smiling over his stash of logs...

He and daddy also tried camping in the yard that weekend since mommy didn't want to go camping while pregnant and needing several potty breaks during the night...  camping in the city isn't quite as peaceful though.  I guess they heard sirens and dogs howling all night and it got really cold so they were back in the house by 6am that morning.

Labor Day we got up early to go to Chuck E. Cheese while nobody else was there.  Ronin won 60+ tickets just doing a submarine game all by himself and got to pick out some prizes when it was time to leave.  We also went swimming in the river together that day... 

During the week he got to go to Oaks Park for the 2nd time with his babysitter Shelley, her son Sean, and my best friend Tracy.  He had a blast and I can't wait to go with him next year!

This week I was telling Ronin that summer is almost over and that fall is coming, the leaves would be changing, the weather would get colder and Halloween would be here soon.  He replied with "YAY, and THEN my baby brother will be here!"   He's so smart- he used to ask when his baby brother would be here and I would tell him not until after Halloween... and apparently he's made the connection and remembers that.  I didn't even think he was paying attention ;)

We did some crafts over the weekend, a stepping stone and some Halloween tombstones... he loves painting and creating things, such a little artist!

Nanna (my mom) is in town this week to watch Ronin while we are at work since Shelley is on vacation this week.  She made little Quinn his first quilt, it's soooo cute and the inside is really fuzzy and soft...  I love the silly owls, they are so cute!  Ronin loves it too but says it's for baby brother and he won't take it.  Which is a change since he keeps taking all the toys out of Quinns room.

A funny thing Ronin said this week... He has an "Alphie the Talking Robot" toy, and Alphie keeps asking you to learn or play with him a few times before shutting off.  We heard Ronin say "Be Quiet Alphie, I don't want to learn with you right now!"  ha ha!

He also told us he wished he had a rabbit instead of dogs because they don't bark.  He told Nanna that he has "marshmallow buns" the other day... that's my little pet name for his butt cheeks, apparently he thinks it fits him since he shared the information with Nanna.

Some weird Ronin-isms that haven't seemed to go away:  His fear of buttons.  He hates buttons on anything!  He refuses to wear pants or shirts that have buttons or anything resembling a button.  He won't even hug people if they have buttons!  He also hates wearing anything but "fuzzy pants".  Not sweat pants, but fleecey pants that are fuzzy both inside and on the outside.  I can manage to get shorts on him occasionally and sweatpants are still a fight but at least I can get them on him.  Jeans or overalls are absolutely out of the question.  He also has to have everything he drinks be warm... not cold and not hot, but warm.  "Can I have some warm grapejuice in a grapjuice cup who has a lid?" is a common saying we hear out of him. 

It's all kind of cute and for the most part doesn't seem to be harmful... of course 20 years from now we'll probably be on the news saying "we should have known..." while being interviewed about his extra-cirricular criminal activities... haha

Doctors appointment on Wednesday and ultrasound on the 23rd... pretty soon little Quinn will be making his way into these blogs :)