Batter Up, Chasing Bubbles, Bath Time, and 'I think we're ready...'

Does he not remind you of Bam-Bam with that little bat???

Here's an old clip of our friends' visit with their son and dog...

And Ben's first bubble bath. I'm not sure why it took us this long to do this... He certainly enjoys it.

Tomorrow marks the 39th week of my pregnancy. Man, time has flown the past few weeks, but I feel as if we are about as ready as we can be for the arrival of our second son. We can't wait to meet this little guy!

Preparations are pretty much as complete as we get them: guest room is ready for grandparents to stay, tub is scrubbed, all of the newborn clothes are washed, neatly folded and put away, house is moderately clean, list is ready for the trip to the hospital, insurance paperwork is in order, bills are paid, groceries are semi-stocked, Ben is in his new big boy room and bed - with NO pacifier, infant car seat is installed, the name list is whittled down to about 3 choices, gift for baby from Ben is ready, gift for Ben from baby is ready, a tour of my classroom has been given to my long term sub and the first 2 weeks of lessons are ready to go, camera and video camera are downloaded and charged, and eye doctor, dentist and hair cut appointments are complete... What am I forgetting? Oh yeah - deep breath.

I haven't had any regular contractions (I didn't with Ben at all, until after my water broke!), but I did have one doosey of a contraction the other night while sitting in a funny position on the couch. The baby is still up pretty high, but you never know when things might happen!!!!

The Calm before the Storm

Since this was probably one of the last weekends with our family of "3", we decided to make the trip to The Enchanted Forest (a nearby theme park), to maximize our "Ben time". Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug came with us and we all had a nice time.

Ben entering the rabbit hole... ...and coming out over here.
Peering in the windows of the Snow White and the 7 Dwarves house.

Waiting his turn on the Little Old Lady and the Shoe slide.
Going down the slide with daddy.
Peering into the "Witch's mouth"

and coming out the slide on the other side.
Riding the Choo-choo

with daddy, and then again...

with Papa Doug.

Grandma and Andy on the Ice Mountain ride.

Ben and Papa Doug watching.

Papa Doug's hand, Ben and Daddy from the Indian Caves.

One last trip down the big slide.

Fun times!

Oh, and Andy and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner for Moroccan food and catching a movie - Thanks Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug for watching Ben. I can't believe it's been 5 years... Yea, us!!

Big Changes...

Goodness - It's seems like a lot has happened since the last post!

Our close friends, Jim and Deb, and their son, Levi and dog, Otis stopped by for an evening visit - Fun times!
Ben took his first swimming lessons - Parent and Tot Swim - 2 weeks - M-F every night at 6:30. He was probably the most stubborn in his class, but did make a ton of progress - from clinging to mommy's hip on the first day to doing some good kicking and even jumping off the side of the pool and going down the slide! Here he is with daddy...

Today, we had a nice time at a sweet park in a nearby town - lots of equipment and even a splash pad... I took a ton of pictures, and I couldn't decide which ones to post, so here are a bunch.

Oh, and we made a very tough decision to switch Ben's daycare to a pre-school-type center. It was very tough to say goodbye to his daycare provider for the past 2 years... But, so far, he has been liking this new daycare. We chose to make this transition *before* the baby came, to make it a bit easier on Ben... Hopefully, it works out for the best!

I'm at 36 weeks at this point - Overall, things have been going fine. I've had a few days of pelvis pain that were pretty rough, and I tend to have a post-lunch crash that knocks me on the couch for a hour... But, we are getting close to being "ready" for this baby to make it's entrance. The nursery is ready and the baby's car seat is installed in my car.

(Cute story - Ben woke up from a nap and I told him that daddy was putting the baby's new car seat in my car, so let's go see it. He was pretty excited to "see it", and I didn't quite get why... We get to the car - he says - "Where's baby brother?" I guess that he thought the baby came with the car seat... I said, "Oh - the baby is still in mommy's tummy: See?" (pointing to my *huge* belly). He replies: "Open it" and lifts up my shirt, wanting the baby to just *come on out*... If only it were that easy, Ben...)