nest. nap. repeat.

y'all. the nesting. it's in full effect 'round these parts. chances are, if it's in my home - it's been re-arranged, cleaned, organized, cleaned out, or at the very minimum: dusted. i even scoured my bathroom which is a good indication that i was desperate for something to clean. i HATE cleaning bathrooms. can i get an amen?

this weekend we worked in the yard saturday morning as a family. owen followed mike down nearly EVERY row that he mowed while i pulled weeds, watered the front beds and hacked down some strange sprouting trees that appeared from no where. i felt pretty unstoppable with my saw. until a thorn pricked my finger and hurt my feelings, then i was ready to lay down my weapon. 

after yard work, owen went down for his morning nap and i started cleaning windows galore. his afternoon nap gave me a chance for round 2. i did all the outsides and about half of the insides. at the end of the day? i was worthless. i was SO tired, but it felt SO good to have gotten so much done!

i am definitely back to the stage of appreciating a good nap each day, so i usually work on a project, clean or do laundry during owen's morning nap, then nap myself during his afternoon nap. it's good times, people.

speaking of cleaning, owen has taken to a new hobby.

sweeping. 

the boy almost ALWAYS has a broom in his hand these days. if we're inside, it's this little green & black broom that i keep in my laundry room. if we're outside, he's got a huge broom that we keep handy on the porch. he's actually pretty good at handling his broom, but you'd best watch your head...sometimes the handles get away from him and they wave around with reckless abandon :)

this morning he rose early...as in, it was still kind of dark outside early. i had been up for a while already {pregnancy insomnia has begun to rear it's ugly head}. but it was kind of a fun, unexpected morning together as a family...and my boys got to have breakfast together, which is always a delight. 

mike, lo siento for capturing you're sweet self mid-mouthful of cheerios. and then posting it to our blog. you're welcome.

we're experimenting with letting owen sit at the table with us. emphasis on the experimenting. he's not quite ready, but he's working on it. in the mean time, he thinks he's pretty awesome when he's doing it.

here's owen with his sleepy eyes. i love sleepy eyes...even more so when they're sleeping sleepy eyes.

he loves to sit at his little table and play - especially with his pretend fruit. and i love that his feet don't touch the floor. i feel like those days will end way before i'm ready for them to :)

i'm still loving the fact that he's walking. it's really great to come home from the grocery store and not have to carry a baby AND groceries to the door. he can walk all by himself from the car to the door. granted, it takes about 20 minutes because he has to stop and inspect every roly poly and leaf along the way. 

life with tubes is still WONDERFUL. he is SUCH a happier kid and i just love knowing that he's not being bothered by those darn ears. but holy moly, the kid talks non-stop.  it is constant. no end. his new nickname {thanks, auntie leah!} is jabber-wokky and he lives up to it...whatever a wokky is...

i captured this lovely fo-to as he was mid jabber...and mid fruit snack. he was also in the middle of signing "more." because if it's one thing owen loves - it's a fruit snack.

we had a check up for mini-petti last friday and all is still well. i STILL can't believe what an easier pregnancy this has been compared to owen's. night and day!

i've been working really hard to not gain AS much as i did with owen...as of a few weeks ago, things were not looking promising. but, LO! i feel like i've found the key that unlocks the door...drinking water. i know, i know. i was just complaining last week about how much water stinks. i'm still not drinking all 72 recommended ounces everyday, but i at least drink 48 every day. which is about a 48 ounce increase than what i was drinking before. :) i'm not as "snacky" during the day - and i read on my little water app that drinking water actually increases your metabolism. why didn't anyone tell me that? i'm sold. 

my dr. said that if she had to guess, she would predict that this baby is "looking" to be smaller than owen did. that, my friends, is good tidings of GREAT JOY!  she's still sticking with her story that if this one estimates to be the same size as owen {or larger}, she's really leaning towards wanting to do a c-section. she'll do one more ultrasound at about 37 weeks to try to get a better feel for where we are then with the size. it's such a blessing having a doctor that i trust, but also having a God who's plan i trust! we're just along for the ride.

this baby is still WAY more active than owen was {scary} and i think s/he has already started to mosey on into the head down position. this weekend in church i was certain i was going to involuntarily wet my pants thanks to some pretty intense head-buts to my bladder. let me tell you what doesn't help with that: drinking 72 ounces of water. i'm definitely carrying this baby differently than last time and that's made for a much more comfortable 3rd trimester so far.

here "we" are...with 9 weeks to go.

please take note of the fact that i am, indeed, barefoot and pregnant. you're just lucky i have pants on...it's that hot outside. please also take special note of the fact that i still have ankle bones...and veins in the top of my feet. it's a miracle. i don't know how much longer they'll last, so i'm enjoying EVERY minute of them!

here's a slightly more patriotic version of the same picture. for some reason mike really wanted to take a picture outside. i think he was trying to see if i would, indeed, spontaneously burst into flames if i went outside...like i'd been telling him i would.

here's one of about 2 pictures i took when i was pregnant with owen. i'm not a big "document the baby bump" kind of girl. i know, shame on me, but it's just not my thing. in this picture, i had 13 weeks to go with o-dawg...{but i only went 11 more weeks}. 

it's not really comparing apples to apples, but it's as close as i could get :)
and now that i see the pictures, i don't think i am actually any smaller this go around. i think we can chock it up to wishful thinking...

that picture was back when owen's room was still in progress! he got his new "big boy" dresser this week. it's actually just an upgrade since we're going to need more dresser space once they're sharing a room, but right now he gets full reign. his little dresser got moved into the "new" nursery. in fact, he "helped" me push it in there this morning. he is quite the helper.

here are his new & improved digs.

**i scooted the dresser about 3 more inches to the left after seeing this picture, because isn't that just what it needs?**

here are a few poorly taken pictures of the little one's digs/guest room...

the bird mobile is BACK and i'm so glad about it. that little mobile makes me SO happy. the little clippy doo-dah doesn't work on this crib, so we had to rig it from the ceiling. the verdict is still out on whether this will be the final solution. do you have an amazing idea that would work better? if so, please share!!

and here are the bookshelf and dresser. 

this is our last project left for the nursery - to sand and paint the dresser back to a bright white. it was a hand me down dresser from rachel and was the dresser they bought when they were pregnant with benjamin...who is now almost 15. we love that it's "vintage" and that it's held so many tiny little clothes in it's lifetime :) owen went in there several times today and opened the drawers looking for his clothes. no esta aqui, owen. he also kept peeking in the crib looking to see what it was all about. oh owen, if you only knew.

well that's all i've got, folks.

i have to rest...so that i can nest :)