Baby 2 (we really need a name)

In review of my previous posts I have found myself missing.  That and I've been very vague about this pregnancy.  That's mostly because I hate complaining in a place that people could hold it against me and I've made the focus of the blog on our family rather than me.  BUT, this little one growing inside of me is part of that family and merits mentioning every now and again.

I'll start by saying pregnancy has been very smooth this time around.  I did have occasional days of yuckiness, but thank heaven no throwing up.  I did feel that I got bigger faster and more uncomfortable.  My main complaints have been shortness of breath and sensitivity (don't touch! Sorry honey).  I've also had random (short) bouts of dizziness and itchiness.  The doctors say my numbers (blood pressure, weight, fundal height) are perfect and they have no concerns.  I only hope delivery will be so smooth.  I do think I'm going to try for a VBAC.  I just need to get all pumped up about surviving labor.  I'm nervous about something I've not done before (of course).  I'm thinking I'll need all the support I can get.

So here's me at 33 1/2 weeks.

Adventures with Katie

We already documented the rose garden.  While Katie was here we also visited the 

Columbus Zoo, the Temple and the Cincinnati Zoo.

Columbus Zoo

Turtle.

Learning the sign for turtle.  She got pretty good at saying 'turtle,' there are many species housed at the Columbus Zoo.

Making friends with the orangoutang.  This one came to the window as soon as we walked up.  We got Kalia to say hi.

Temple

We waited outside the temple while Katie did baptisms with family names.

Local wildlife making a home on the Temple grounds.  Kalia was quite entertained by this little guy.

Cincinnati Zoo

We love visiting this zoo!  All the pathways are lined with vegetation.  You really feel like you're tromping through the jungle.

Watching the Asian Elephants reach for food from a bucket.  

The elephant has a long... nose.  Ask Kalia to say elephant for you.  

I love Kalia's smile in this picture.  This was her response to being asked to smile.

The indoor learning center is geared for kids.  This is the home to the three toed sloth and a blue and gold macaw.

Gorgeously huge flowers.  This one spanned about 7 inches in diameter.

It rained the night before leaving water pooled all over the bleachers at the cat show.  during the 15 minutes of waiting before the show, Kalia entertained herself by putting water on her hair from the benches, per example of her daddy.  She also entertained us all with her dancing and antics to music from the loud speakers.

A truly beautiful cat and a great show.  We learned about the way cheetahs are trained to catch prey by the ancient Egyptians.  They take a wild born cheetah that had been taught by it's mother to hunt and train them to catch prey.  When the cat makes a catch they trade the kill for a treat.  Now days cheetahs (like the ones at the zoo) are captive born and don't learn to hunt but they do know how to run on instinct.  They demonstrated that ability for visitors to the zoo in a similar way to the Egyptians.  They have a dog toy on a retractable cord and trade the toy for the treats when the cat catches it.  This picture is or a 9 yr. old female.  She is the record holder for fastest cat in captivity.  

The elusive yellow-bellied freshman spider.  We spied this specimen during our lunch break.  We also sat by some turtles.  Did you know turtles can hiss?  Apparently there was some disputation over lunch for them.

Looking for birds.

Found some finches.  (At least I think that's what they were) Cincinnati has an amazing collection of birds.  I really enjoyed the exhibit.  We also enjoyed the nocturnal animals when we took refuge from a sudden rainstorm in the afternoon.  Kalia was particularly impressed with the vampire bats and their vat of blood.

The cheetah was always my favorite.  This was too good a photo opportunity to pass up.  Isn't he just a beautiful cat?  If you ever visit Cincinnati the cat show is a do not miss, I really can't say it enough.

We really enjoyed our visit and went home pretty exhausted.

Rose Garden

Columbus holds many natural treasures in the form of parks.  They are scattered around the area providing a great atmosphere to spend the morning.  We decided to head to the Rose Gardens of Columbus after dropping Tristan off at school.  Prepared with snacks, water, and stroller we began our adventure only to be sidetracked before it could really begin by missing the turn into the park.  Silly mistake on my part thinking the road the sign was on wasn't the correct one to turn down.  But after a couple wrong turns we arrived safely.  We disembarked from the car and loaded up the stroller for a nice walk.  The weather was fairly cool and lower humidity.  The longer we walked through the gardens the more time we found ourselves hiding in the shade from the heat.  The shade felt fantastic.  

This little grouping of plants had a very good growing season this year.  They must be close to 8 feet tall.  We took this comparison picture to show the size of the leaves.  I think they are called elephant ears.  

Kalia had a great time walking around the park.  She loved pushing the stroller and we all tried to keep hydrated in the sunshine.  

Though the fountain made her kinda nervous, she was fine if Katie kept a hold of her.

I thought I'd better put a picture of the roses, since it is a rose garden.  The whole garden was in full bloom.  It was beautiful.  They have plaques letting you know what the names of the roses are, but I didn't include them in the picture and don't remember them.  So I'll just say it was a beautiful rose.

We sat down on a bench to have a quick snack, shortly after Kalia noticed some dogs and their owners on a pathway close by.  She was so excited about the dogs that I thought we might go say hello (with permission, of course) however, when we got close we checked with the owner.  The dogs, however didn't check first before greeting Kalia with a nice kiss and wagging tail.  Bear in mind, these dogs were the same height as Kalia.  She (understandably) was scared, clinging to my leg "all done, all done, all done!" She calmed down after a minute when I picked her up, though she decided she didn't want anything to do with the doggies.  They'd calmed down too and sat quietly while I chatted with the owner.  I thought it might be safe enough to put Kalia down to pet the doggies.  I wanted her to have a good experience to balance out the scary one.  I think we'll have to wait another day for that.  She immediately tried to climb into my arms.  We parted ways and headed to this:

I don't know what to call it... gazebo?  Anyway.  After Kalia had recovered from the scary dog experience she loved climbing up and down these stairs and stopped every so often to applaud her success.

I think we'll have to come a little earlier to see the first blooms next year.  It's a beautiful park!

Like Dad

"Happy Face"

"Sad Face"

"Surprise!"

Our little Kalia is and always has been very expressive.  A trait inherited from her daddy.  Now she's learning about different emotions and is mindful that people feel sad.  It's the cutest thing when she hears someone crying she points, makes her sad face, and says "sa."  Now we just need to differentiate between sad and sleeping.  There is some confusion, mostly with babies.  To her, all the babies are sad.

Fair!

One of our highlights of summer activity is visiting the State Fair.  And this year was Fairtastic!  It really was (the theme even)!  We love getting all geared up to visit the vendors, see the weird food creations, oogle at all the lights and atmosphere, maybe buy something fantastic that we never use after.  Last year we walked out with appointments at a chiropractor and a reversible skirt for me.  The chiropractor didn't work out for us, but the skirt was a fantastic find.  I purchased two more this year.  I love 'em!

I have two favorite moments to share.  First, we were walking through the Midway.  It was past Kalia's bedtime.  All the lights were on, the music blaring.  We look down at the stroller and Kalia is on the edge of the seat bouncing to the music and grinning from ear to ear.  "Mama!" she repeats over and over as she points to the right then the left.  I wish I could have caught that grin on camera!  It was priceless.  When I did get the camera out she was still in awe, but it wasn't quite the same.

We enjoyed an elephant ear with strawberries together.  As they handed it to me from the booth I hear Kalia's call "Ah Ah!"  I don't know how she knew what I was getting was food, but she certainly wasn't going to be left out of consuming it.  If we laxed on giving her her share she certainly let us know.  "Ah Ah AH AAH!"

I never had the experience of seeing a freak show before coming out East.  The only ones I remember seeing in Salt Lake were for the "Largest Horse in the World" or such.  But here we saw many.  Some were single attractions but one boasted to be the largest.  I think they said they had some 30 acts.  To try and generate some interest they have one of the participants standing on a platform with the MC before a show.  The guy talks up all the unique and amazing things in the show then has a small demonstration.  This particular one was a double jointed clown that jumped through a tennis racquet (strings removed).  The funniest thing was when he noticed us standing there with our stroller he comments "babies love freaks!" and "our show is family friendly."  Uh huh.  Interesting.  Nothing quite like the fair!

Beautiful!