tick tock

The final countdown has begun. We are looking at about 4 weeks until Baby #2 arrives, unless she decides to make an early arrival. Let's hope not. I know at this point many women are begging to go into labor just so they can stop having to deal with the uncomfortable nature of being this pregnant. I, on the other hand, would rather wait until my due date. The main reason being that Olivia's dance recital is the weekend before I am due. I would hate to miss her two dances and not see her all dressed up in her costumes. Since I have no control over how things will unfold during the next month, I will just keep my fingers crossed that I can be there to see her. This is the first year she will be performing two numbers, one in tap and one in ballet. This is her third year of tap but first year of ballet. She seems to love them both.

As part of the final preparations the baby gear has come out of the attic and started to be assembled once again. The car seats are getting installed and the finishing touches are being put on the nursery. Olivia definitely is at an advantage, being the first born. Her room is probably 3 times the size of her sister's. I realize this will not be an issue for many years, but the day will come when her sister questions why Olivia's room is so much bigger. I wish there was a solution to this problem, but there are only so many rooms in our house. We did the best we could to make Baby #2's room special. Here a few pictures of how things have come together...

I still have a bit more work to do, but I think the final, final touches may come once Baby arrives and a name is officially decided. The name question is always the first thing people ask about and it is usually the question I try to avoid the most. We do have a few in mind and we have talked about them with our family, but I usually avoid the discussion in order to avoid the various reactions from others. So the name will be announced at the same time as the baby...stay tuned!

We have been trying to squeeze in as much quality time with Olivia before things get turned upside down for her. We asked her if there was anything she wanted to do with just the two of us before her sister arrived and she said, "go to the Children's museum and see the Dora and Diego exhibit". I think we can arrange a quick day trip to Indy in the next month. Anything for this girl, who has been such a trooper through everything so far. She has had a grumpy, hormonal Mommy at times for the past 8 months, so I want to make these last few weeks of being an only child memorable for her. She is stoked to be a big sister and I have no doubt she is going to be the best! She has many plans in store for what she intends to teach the baby and how she plans to help. I will miss having her kiss my belly each morning as she says, "Good Morning" to her little sister. And in some ways I will miss our current family of 3, but I am beyond excited to see how things will change for us as a family of 4!

hippity hop

The clock is a tickin'. Our new little one should be arriving in just about 6 weeks. Hard to believe that after all these weeks of preparation our lives are about to take on a whole new direction. We are all very excited, but nervous at the same time. We have been a family of 3 for over four years. It will be interesting to see how we all adjust to having someone else join our family. My hope is that Olivia continues to possess the same level excitement she has now, after the baby is born. For now we are enjoying the final weeks of alone time with Miss O.

Recently we celebrated Easter. Olivia continues to be very involved in all holidays and this one was no exception. We kicked off the weekend with an inaugural visit to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Each year my Aunt buys us a zoo pass and it is by far the most used gift we receive each year. We went towards the end of the day so it was a short visit but we were excited to check out the new entrance and see some of our favorite animals.

The other thing Olivia could not wait to do was visit her favorite horse, Gail. She LOVES Gail and could not wait to go for a ride. I am afraid that she may be getting a little big to ride on her back, but for now she can't wait to see her each time we go. We are really looking forward to many fun trips to the zoo this summer!

The next morning we woke up early to give Olivia her Easter basket before getting ready for church. For the longest time she has wanted a Buzz Lightyear toy. Not sure why exactly but she is pretty into all of the Toy Story movies. Some of her boy friends have Buzz toys and she has always wished for one of her own. She received some other fun things and of course a little bit of Easter candy.
After we were all dressed in our Sunday best we headed off to church. Olivia got a cute little dress from Todd's Mom the night before and that was what she chose to wear. It was perfect for Easter. After service we went to my Mom's for some breakfast and the first egg hunt of the day.

She enjoyed searching for the eggs and breaking into the treasures inside. Between the money and candy she made out like a bandit! It was shaping up to be a pretty successful Easter for Olivia thus far!That afternoon we attended our annual dinner at the Forte's. Our close family friends invite us to have Easter dinner with them each year and it is always so nice. They treat Olivia just like one of their own grand kids, which makes her feel pretty special. She gets her own Easter basket and gets to participate in the family Easter egg hunt. By the end of day she had accumulated a ton of loot!

It was a lovely Easter! It is hard to believe that next year at this time we will be celebrating the holiday as a family of four with an "almost" one year old!

Now to completely switch gears...I realized that I never blogged about Olivia attending her sibling class a few months ago. I signed her up to take a class at the hospital, designed to prepare her to become a "Big Sister". She learned about different products that are safe for the baby, as well as how to properly hold her little sister. She even got to practice putting a diaper on her bear.

They watched a video that was meant to prepare them for what is about to come. I am not sure anything can fully prepare Olivia for how much her life is about to change, but I think the video was a good start. Next we took a tour of the hospital and the kids got to see where we will be staying when the baby is born. We walked by the nursery and they got to see a brand new baby close up. I think that was the highlight. Olivia really seemed to enjoy it all. The kids got a bunch of goodies to take with them that day. The sibling class was a good idea which I think helped to get Olivia even more excited about her little sister arriving!

So I am still planning on sharing some photos of the nursery, but they will have to wait until next time. I have a few finishing touches I need to make to the room first. I am currently dealing with a very nasty head cold which has totally kicked my butt the past few days. It just so happens that this head cold decided to make an appearance the same weekend as my birthday and Mother's Day. Needless to say I have not been 100% and it has been a rough couple of days. I hope to have a clear head and a better attitude by my next post.