DO NOT COME THIS EARLY...

I'm sorry, Dash, but you're just going to have to wait six more days until your Nana Carol gets here. She didn't get to be here for Delaney's birth, so she needs to be here for yours. Anytime after July 21st around early evening, come on...but wait until then!!

I had a LOT of contractions last night. I even timed them on my nifty iphone app that does contraction timing. It's so handy because it records duration and frequency. They were running five to seven minutes apart but only lasting under a minute. They're uncomfortable and crampy and they make me very tired. I did the water and resting and around 10pm they faded away.

Here's hoping to a day with many many less contractions.

Delaney and I will be going to babygym this morning and then heading out to a playgroup this afternoon. Zap has some stuff going on at work the next few days that mean a wonky schedule, so we'll be playing with that as well the next few days.

the down and dirty details..

..of what we've been up to lately..
Father's Day with Delaney and Zap was excellent. We started our day early and played at the mall playground. We think it's a great place to go before other places open and when it's a little too cool to go to the parks.
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We went to the Farmer's Market that day and also got veggies to plant in our new garden. At this point, almost a month later, most of the plants are doing well. We might actually get to eat some bell peppers and Roma Tomatoes. The cilantro on the other hand..Not so alive.

All around it was a great day. Zap is an amazing father and Delaney is so lucky to have such a wonderful Papa. Dash is going to be just as lucky.

The next big deal in our lives was the Tacoma Zoo. Delaney had never been, but she loves animals so I knew she'd really enjoy going.
Here's some visuals from that day.

I think Delaney is saying..Here I come animals. Get ready!!



Here's a video of Delaney signing "elephant". My favorite part of this is that we've showed her how to make an elephant noise a few times, but this sign she just picked up on her own. She's a little living sponge.

She had such a great day at the Zoo. When Nana Carol gets here, we're going to be sure to take her back. Mama was pooped at the end of the day, though. That's a lot of walking.

We've also been taking swim classes two days a week at the nearest YMCA. I was worried at first that she might be afraid of the water. Please.. This girl knows NO fear of the water. Which is good - and bad. She wants to jump out of your arms and swim on her own from the minute you walk in the pool. The class is for babies her age, so it's mostly geared towards learning to not be afraid of the water, floating on your back, getting your face wet, those kinds of skills.
We're going to keep it going through July and August so that Delaney has something to do with one of us one on one after Dash gets here.

Here's another cute one from a playgroup at Abby's house. Delaney's boyfriend Roan was there as well and they all got to play in the water table. Which Delaney loved so much that she was able to con Papa into getting her one of her very own.


I took this picture at a park play date. Delaney has mastered stairs with rails and has no fear of going down slides or through tunnels.


What's next for us is enjoying our mommy and me time together before Dash gets here. Some days I'm so excited and some days I'm sad about what I might be taking away from Delaney by having another baby so soon. But in the end, I know that I'm giving her a sibling who hopefully will be a buddy for her for life and she won't really ever remember not having a sibling. The independence she's learning means that she'll be a wonderful helper and big sister.

I know..I know..it's been too long.

But, we've been just a little busy with a toddler on our hands. :)

Since Delaney's birthday, she's learned to walk, talk, and do all sorts of really fun tricks. Some days she seems like a little wind up toy. You just start her up and she's off. It's amazing how much energy toddlers have.
She's also gotten very sweet. She gives hugs and kisses; not always on command, which we appreciate. She's learned to say her version of "thank you" for most things she's given. She's playing independently at so many things as well. The independence streak is fun to see but challenging at times. She wants to do EVERYTHING on her own. No thank you, I don't need you to feed me that yogurt.
Delaney's going to be 16 months next week and it's just so hard to believe. Now that I'm not working, I have all of this time with her and I'm just enjoying every second. I know that Zap is jealous that he's not a stay at home dad and I appreciate all that he does for us and how hard he works so that I'm going to be able to stay at home with the babies.

In pregnancy news, I failed my gestational diabetes one hour and went straight to the diet and counseling. It's been harder this time. If I go off my diet at all, my sugars were high. They're starting to settle now. But I had a hard time wanting to even eat anything that was on the diet.
And finding time to check my sugar has been harder. I set my little iphone alarm and that doesn't always mean that I'm going to be able to check. Thankfully the doctors understand that I'm not not being compliant, I'm just chasing a toddler all day :)

I'm 36 weeks now and from my doc's visit yesterday all seems well. My doctor is anticipating Dash's arrival around 39 weeks. Apparently, they don't want gestational diabetes pregnancies to go to or over 40 weeks. I'm not sure why that wasn't a factor when Delaney was born five days late and I'd had gestational diabetes with her, but oh well.
Zap surprised me a month or so ago with a fully painted little boy nursery. It's blue, green, and brown, and the theme is monkeys. He stayed home from work one day and painted it. It was such a sweet gesture.
My mom is going to be here in a week, and she's going to be staying for a month, so it will be an experience. We're very excited and I'm looking forward to an extra set of hands around here and in her being able to see how much Delaney has grown. She has not even seen Delaney since she was seven months old, so she's going to be a completely different baby.

I need to go and get Delaney, but I promise I'll post more later.