They allow us to have children

“Ali Look Like Grandma”

The second Alison put on this shirt, she looked down at herself and said, “Ali look like Grandma”. I think it was her way of telling us that this is a “grandma shirt” – which it kind of is.

I’m really not sure who this comment would offend more. My mom – she was here most recently and I don’t think she wore many floral type shirts. My sister and niece – the shirt was a hand-me-down from them. Or Daddy and I  – we kept the shirt and put it on the poor kid. Or just Grandmas in general – as they may be the only people who would wear such things.

Anyway, we thought it was a funny thing to say.

5-Month Comparison

The picture on the left was taken when I was 5 months pregnant with Alison. Those are still my regular cloths! The one on the right was me, a little over 4 weeks ago – 5 months pregnant with baby number two. This baby seems to be everywhere and it shows.

.

At my 22-week appointment my doctor tried to look on ultrasound to see if she could tell the sex of the baby. Again baby was not cooperating but from the few looks she got she too said she thought it was a girl. She said she was 85% sure. So I guess we wait and see. We are picking out a boy name just in case.

Yesterday I had my 26-week appointment and had to drink the disgusting Glucola for the glucose test. I should have the results today or tomorrow. Otherwise everything still looks great. I have gained 11 pounds so far and baby still moves around a ton. The doctor said all the crazy movement is good and that they like to see that – it means the baby is healthy and working all its little muscles. At this point with Alison, she had pretty much settled into a head on my bladder position and just tried to break my ribs with her feet for the remainder of the pregnancy. With this baby though, I can’t even tell where she is at any given moment. She rolls and kicks and punches and just plain fidgets ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I just sit and watch my stomach and laugh because it is just so crazy.

Alison talks about the baby a little more now and she still knows that we have to wait until Christmas time for the baby to come out – she is down to only asking about it once a day now. She likes to lift up my shirt and make a funny squealing noise and say “what was that?” – speaking for the baby of course. To which I reply, “oh, that’s just your silly big sister” and she giggles. She has also started touching my belly and thinks it is funny when the baby kicks her – “baby kicked Ali’s hand”. She’s going to be such a great big sister. Only 3 more months to go!

Highlights of the State Fair

Alison didn’t really seem like she was having a good time while we were there – I think because there were so many people and when you are viewing things from a stroller all you see is a sea of legs, so she kind of had a glazed look about her. But we figure she must have had fun because she is still talking about it. Here are some of the phrases that seem to sum up her experience: “lots of people”, “baby chickies”, “baby piggy, wet mama piggy”, “fun on merry-go-round, go up down, round and round fast”, “one more time on the merry-go-round, cry”, and her favorite, “baby cow try and lick you. Funny, don’t lick me baby cow”. 

Translation: There were indeed a lot of people, we went on the last Saturday and I think it was one of the highest attendance days. Again, she loved the baby animals, especially the chicks and she did see baby pigs and their mama was being cooled by dripping water. We even bought her a blue t-shirt with a baby chick on it (she picked it out). She did have fun on the merry-go-round and she got to go two times, once with Mommy and once with Daddy, however she did want to go “one more time” and a little tantrum was involved (it was past nap time at that point). And before we left we hit the baby animal barn for a second time and while there, a baby cow did try to lick her arm. At the time she didn't seem too thrilled about it but now it is all she talks about and she thinks that it was a pretty silly thing.

We also got some good food - pretty much the whole point of the fair.  Ali and I had crepes filled with fresh strawberries and whip cream (probably the only thing you could get that wasn’t deep fired), cheese curds and warm chocolate chip cookies and milk. By the time we left it was after Alison's nap time and although she was tired she did not sleep in the car.  Instead she just whined most of the way home.  Good thing it only happens once a year.

The Children’s Museum

I must say this is one of the best areas to raise kids. There is just so much to do and now that Alison is a little older, we are finally able to take advantage of many of those things. I guess it has been a couple of weeks ago now, but Gail and I took the kids for a fun day at the Children’s Museum. Alison had a blast. She is really starting to come out of her shell. I’m sure she had to think about it though, because on the one hand there were a lot of people and children there and she could have easily shied away from everything and just clung to me. But on the other hand there were so many cool things to do, she must have thought that a little interaction was worth it.

First we hit the World Works Gallery, where she was able to experiment with various light and shadow activities, then it was quickly onto the water area (much more fun). Here she and Jack are playing with some water tubes – you sent balls down tubes to see where they would come out. She also liked racing boats down a little water ramp, where you had to control the speed of the boat by sending water down – she figured it out fairly quickly. 

Her favorite area by far was the Our World Gallery. It was like a little city that was just her size. There was a city bus, a daycare center, a post office, a dress up area, a medical center, a house with a dog house and clothes line in the front yard, there were cross walks and roads, a restaurant, a grocery store and a recoding studio. She especially enjoyed the restaurant and the recording studio. At first she wanted nothing to do with the music area because there were a ton of kids and it was kind of noisy. But later when it was just her and Jack, she checked it out. As more kids joined she didn’t seem to care because she was having too much fun. Basically kids could choose a song and go onto the stage and pretend to sing into microphones, play instruments and dance, while watching themselves on a TV screen that supplied a background to go along with the music. It was pretty cool. The picture below shows Ali on stage dancing with other kids. I couldn’t believe she actually did this. When it was time to leave, I had to double check to make sure I had the right kid.

After the little city area, we decided to go into the Curious George Gallery, before leaving for lunch. While there she got to play mini golf, play with some color shapes on an overhead projector and play in a little space ship slide. There was also this statue of George himself and I know this picture looks totally staged, but Alison did it herself. She climbed right up beside him and gave him a big hug. She loved him. 

It was a great day and Alison didn’t want to leave. As we walked to the car, she kept saying “museum, museum”. It is definitely a place we will have to visit again soon – next time with Daddy.