Family Fun Time

Well folks, I made it! Tomorrow is my first official day of maternity leave - it really hasn't sunk in yet that I'll be off of work until around Charlotte's birthday in June.

I still have about two and a half weeks until my official due date, but it's really strange how two pregnancies can be so vastly different.  Last time, with Charlotte, I was done. I was huge, I had major swelling everywhere, and I had major aches and pains.  And don't get me started on the number of people who commented on how huge I am.  This time around? It's totally different. I've still gained a lot of weight (40 lbs so far), but I have little to no swelling, I feel totally fine most of the time, and I've had no one tell me "you must be due any minute," or "are you sure your due date is X days away?"  In fact, I have random people telling me how small I am when I tell them how close I am to my due date. I'm not sure about "small," but I'm definitely not as big as I was last time.

Last Friday at 37 weeks

Apart from not sleeping very well, and the brief, stabbing pain every time I roll over or get up to use the bathroom, I'm doing pretty well. And I'm actually not at all ready for this baby to get here.  I mean, I'm ready in that we have everything we need, although I haven't packed a bag for anyone, but I'm in no hurry for her to get here. I'm really trying to enjoy these last few days of being a family of three, and I'm cherishing my time with Charlotte.  I love cuddling up with her and watching a movie together, and I love playing games with her. That's not to say I won't be able to do those things once the baby gets here, I just won't be able to do them every time Charlotte wants me to.

The past few weekends have been spent doing a lot of family time, and for that I'm really thankful. We have had three birthday parties during the first two weekends in February (we were invited to a fourth but couldn't make it), and two at the same exact kids' gymnastics place. Charlotte has had a blast with her friends.

The first picture is at Charlotte's friend Elissa's 2nd birthday party; the second is at Charlotte's friend Ava's 3rd birthday party, both at the same place.  Charlotte was one of the few kids who was fearless enough to do the zip line (at Elissa's party it was an actual zip line, not the dolphin).

On Saturday, we went up to Echo Summit and went sledding. We were supposed to go for our friend's son's 2nd birthday party last weekend, but poor weather made it impossible.  I was itching to go this weekend because a) it was probably our last shot at it before the baby arrives, and b) Charlotte had such cute snow clothes that I didn't want to go to waste.  I, of course, being 9 months pregnant did not go sledding, nor did I have any snow clothes to wear anyway.  Instead, I wore jeans, a fleece pullover, and a down jacket that had two zippers, so that I could zip it at the top and leave it open at the bottom.  It was a bit chilly, but I was warm.

Charlotte was so excited to go up to the snow.  As soon as we passed the first bit of snow on the road, she started shouting "Snow! Snow!" and kept on shouting it for the next 30 miles.  It was so cute.  She also wondered why we weren't stopping.

Once we got up to the sledding hill (our friends arrived at the same time, which was perfect), Charlotte was ready to go.  She loved the saucer, and it went so fast, that Chris had to literally sprint in front of her in order to stop the sled.  Unfortunately, when Chris and Charlotte went down together on the longer sled, Charlotte fell out and scraped up her face on the icy snow.  That sort of ruined the rest of the day, but by then, it was so crowded on the slopes, we likely wouldn't have stayed much longer anyway.

After making a snow angel

Last night, we did one of those family activities I never thought I'd be doing.  We went and saw Toy Story 3 On Ice.  Charlotte loves TS3 - she's seen it multiple times streaming on Netflix and Chris' parents got her the DVD for Christmas.  When I learned that the On Ice version would be coming to Sacramento, I thought it would be a really fun thing for her, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to shell out the money for it.  Luckily, Chris ended up winning tickets in Intel's corporate box at the arena.  It was the perfect place for us to sit. The seats were much more comfortable than the normal arena seats, and we had a great view of the action.  Charlotte was mesmerized the entire time. She sat on Chris' lap and never took her eyes from the show (meanwhile, I was pretty uncomfortable and tired, so I kept standing up and walking around). Personally, the show was pretty cheesy, but it was worth it to see Charlotte so excited.  Chris' mom had knitted (crocheted?) Charlotte an amigurumi version of Woody, so we took it with us to the show. It's really an amazing likeness to the actual Woody, only crocheted. Charlotte held onto Woody the entire time and even made him clap at times.

Charlotte and Woody

Charlotte and Daddy

The Toys! On Ice!

Woody is watching the show

A happy girl at the end of the night.

On the drive home, Charlotte would not stop talking about the show, despite it being nearly 10 o'clock and way past her bedtime. She talked about the scene in which the toys are about to fall in the fire and how they're saved by the "crane."  (She corrects us if we saw claw) This scene apparently scared her a lot, but she told me: "It's okay, Mommy. Woody saved me."  Like I said, if you had told me 8 years ago that I would one day be taking my daughter to a Disney On Ice show, I would have laughed at you. But it was so, so worth it (and free!).  It might be time to get those two other Toy Story movies on DVD...