Update

It has been great to have Mimi, Papa and Ash here visiting.  Unfortunately still no baby.  Today was the first day I cried because the baby hasn't come yet.  The earliest they can induce me is Wednesday the 31st.  When I got the news at first I was mad.  I was working out at the gym so I worked out a little harder including a mile run.  Then on the way home I cried and again once I hit home.  I'm just bummed.  Mostly because my parents are here now and they leave first thing Thursday morning so they will barely even get to see the baby.  And they won't be here when we get home from the hospital. 

I just have no control in the situation and I hate that. We listened to talks yesterday by our friends Scott and Katie Curtis.  Scott talking about making plans. He quoted someone saying, "Plans are great until you get punched in the face."  That's kind of how I feel.  I had it all planned out that the baby would be here before my parents came in town.  

Shopping at City Creek and checking out the fish.

Porter has loved looking at Christmas lights and displays.  His favorites:

Dinosaurs

Abominable snowman

Big Santa

Olaf

Statue (picture if Jesus that looks like the Christus)

Tonight we tried to see Big Santa again, but he was already taken down.  I told Porter Santa was probably pooped from working so hard on Christmas and he must have gone inside to rest and drink hot chocolate.  Then he said, "Santa pooped.  Diaper.  Hiding".  I had to explain that "pooped" also means tired.

Then when he was going to bed he said, "Santa pooped.  Hot chocolate."

He just cracks me up.

Merry Christmas!

We thought by now we'd have another little boy, but I'm 2 days late:(.  The upside, we got to enjoy Christmas with Porter. He was so fun this year.  He didn't really care about opening presents, but he did love all the presents he opened and he got a haul!  It had nothing to do with us, he was spoiled by many people.

We love this time of year and when it makes us feel more generous and more aware of those we can serve.

A birthday hat to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

This year we made a nativity out of play dough.  Porter did not want to stop playing play dough to read Luke 2, so this was how we engaged him.

 Using his new tools to fix everything!

We woke up to a beautiful white Christmas.  We enjoyed a little bit of outdoor snow play.

Sledding.

 Warming up after sledding.

Enjoying a little snow swinging.

Reading with Mimi.

We are so glad to have Mimi and Papa here to visit.

Hopefully my next post will be to announce our new addition.  At my appt on the 23rd I was dilated to 3 cm and 80% effaced.  The NP stripped my membranes, but it's 3 days later, 2 days overdue and nothing:(.

Natural induction

I am now attempting to naturally induce labor.  Porter and I went for a long walk yesterday am. Then yesterday early evening we went for a hike in the mountains.  Unfortunately my bladder only allows us to go so far.  But, it was beautiful and the we were able to stop by and see our friends, The Pratt's, that are staying at his families lodge in Alta.

This morning I am going to go for a short run.  Hopefully something will push me into labor.

These guys are two peas in a pod:

Porter bringing all his stuffed animals up off his bed after his nap.

Playing with play dough.

Busy boy

I am really excited to meet our new little boy, but I am also terrified to be a mother of two.  I love Porter to pieces, but he tries my patience daily and has more energy than I could have imagined in such a small little guy. 

How will he be with the baby?  How will I control my impatience and still give Porter love?  How can I temper his personality, but still allow him to explore, play and develop?  He is such a special boy and I know there is so much going on in his little head.

Showing off his new shirt from DaDa.

Second early Christmas present

We have been searching the past several months for a minivan and we finally bought one!  Yeah!  I love it.  It's a 2007 Honda Odyssey and it's in great shape. Perfect timing for baby boy #2 to join our family and still have room for 3 more people.

Pictures to come.

Early Christmas Present

I got a phone call this afternoon from David telling me had great news.  I was racking my brain to figure out what it could be.  

HE PASSED HIS PEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE BOARDS!!!!  I wasn't expecting to hear the results until at least January, so this was not even on my radar.  Honestly I'm not surprised he did, but what a fabulous Christmas present.  This is a big deal.  He has now passed all of his board exams. Way to go David!  We are so proud.  He works so hard and he deserves the success.

Pediatric Boards- Passed
Pediatric Cardiology Boards- Passed
Pediatric Critical Card Boards- Passed

Olaf and the Zoo

Porter loves Olaf.  Every time we get out the playdough, we have to make Olaf the Snowman.  The other day he wanted to have his own carrot nose and then we wanted me to have one too.  I have actually started to get him to at least eat some carrots by telling him he is eating Olaf's nose.  It usually only works to get one baby carrot down, but it's better than nothing.  

We headed to the zoo for probably the last time before baby boy arrives.  It was wonderful to have the zoo almost to ourselves.  We even got to see the elephant show.  We have never seen this before and it was awesome to get to see all their tricks.  Porter loved it.  He ran around the zoo and watched all the animals, played on the statues and got his energy out. 

Smartie Pants

Porter cracks us up daily with his memory and how much he talks.  He literally remembers everything even if it happened months ago.  Usually this will all come out as he is getting ready for bed.  I think it's a stall tactic.

A couple of funnies:

Lately David and Porter having been talking about how much they love each other.  The answer is always, "So much".  This morning Porter got on the scale and I asked him how much he weighed.  He said, "So much".  At least he used it appropriately.

Porter now tells us to "move it" or "close it", etc.  These phrases usually are accompanied by a deep, growling voice.

When we talk about the baby, he will ask me to open my stomach.  If only that were how we got the baby out and it was that easy.

If I have a OB appt, Porter will usually run down the things that have happened at previous appts.  He will talk about them taking my temperature, getting a sucker, him crying and listening to the babies heart, etc.  Yesterday when we went, as we were walking in he started talking about the tape measure. He is too smart.  They do use a tape measure to measure the height of my uterus at each visit.

There are so many more.  I need to start recording them before I forget.  I still have major pregnancy brain :).

He is the Gift

The Church has put out a beautiful video titled, "He is the Gift".  Every time I watch it I cry.  It is such an incredible reminder of what we are really celebrating this time of year and helps to put things into perspective.  I have been trying to teach Porter this important part of Christmas.  If you ask him what gift we all get for Christmas, he will say, "Jesus".  I hope he always remembers this.

Ward Christmas Party

This morning we had our ward party.  It was a lot of fun and Porter wore his Christmas jammies.  Then he wore them the rest of the day.

And tonight we watched a Christmas cartoon.

38 weeks pregnant

And baby is still head down and engaging!  

Randall's Fun Visit

Monday we toured Temple Square since we had promised Porter he could see the Christus and he had been asking about it since Saturday.  During our trip, he ended up being more fascinated by the Angel Moroni.

Then we got home and started work on the train gingerbread house.  Porter was all about the treats and the cookies.

And Porter helped rake more leaves.

David and Randall took the morning to tour Church Headquarters and the Beehive House.

Porter turned 22 months today!  I can't believe it.  We love this little guy.

And to top off the whole trip, Randall and David went car shopping and came back with a 2007 Honda Odyssey.  We are so excited to have a car big enough for us and our visitors.

"Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight"

When Porter goes down for a nap or bed David or I always sing him songs.  For his nap today I sang a new one, "Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight".

Well, Porter must have really been listening to the lyrics because after I sang the chorus a few times, he looked at me with the saddest eyes, his lip quivered and next thing I knew he had huge crocodile tears running down his face.  It was the saddest thing ever.  He has never, ever done this before when I sang him a song.  Then again tonight for bed he kept saying "heart", so I asked if he wanted me to sing the Goodnight Sweetheart song and he said yes.  I didn't even get through the first line and once again, huge crocodile tears.  I will not be singing this song again.  His little brain works too much and clearly it is distressing to him.

Chorus Lyrics:
Goodnight, sweetheart, well it's time to go,
Goodnight, sweetheart, well it's time to go,
I hate to leave you, but I really must say,
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight.

Weekend Fun

Uncle Randall is in town visiting and it's fun to have him here.  Even though it's pretty warm for December in Utah, being from AZ he gets cold.  Yesterday we took him for a hike and we attempted Temple Square, but it was a zoo. We'll try again this week. Porter really wants to see the statue of Jesus.

Tonight we had a little get together at the Griffiths and then had friends over to watch the Christmas Devotional.  Porter was a riot.  He knows President Eyring, Uchtdorf and Monson.

We love Santa

Porter constantly talks about Santa.  He has run down the checklist of what he'll do when he sees Santa.  It consists of:

1)"nice"- being nice

2) "kiss"- giving Santa a kiss

3) "bike"- asking Santa for a bike

When he knows we are at a place where he can see Santa, he frantically (obsessively), chants  "Santa" over and over again until he is in his sights.  Then when we get in line, he starts to freak out a bit saying "go, go, go" while pointing out away from Santa.  His little legs squeeze my sides and he clings to me.  

(He's staring Santa down here.)

We have seen Santa twice.  Then because I am the nicest Mom ever, I make him go all the way up to Santa.  This is when the tears start and more frantic pointing outside.  But, since there was no photo during his first visit, I make him meet Santa again yesterday, just for the photo op.

You have to love a crying kid meeting Santa.

The funniest part is that as soon as we leave all he can do is talk about Santa again.  I guess he just wants Santa to come to our house, come down the chimney, drop off presents and skedaddle before Porter has to catch a glimpse of him in person.

Success!

Yesterday I went into the hospital for my external cephalic version (ECV).  They hooked me up to an IV and baby monitor to watch the baby for at least 20 min.  They ran down all the list of possible complications.  I met the anesthesiologist on just in case I needed an emergency c-section.  I told him I didn't plan on seeing him again:).  And when he said they'd "try" to flip the bother, I told him there was no "try", they would "do".  

So there was a lot of build up to the actual procedure which literally lasted about 5-10 min.

The outcome:  a successful turn from frank breech to head down.  Whoo hoo!  Now he just needs to stay down until delivery.

I was expecting the procedure to be so much more painful and quite frankly it wasn't bad.  There was pressure when they lifted his butt up out of my pelvis, but it was not nearly as bad as I anticipated, had read about it they tried to warn me about.  David joked that I keep it together well during this and childbirth, but if my hands are rewarming after a day of skiing with poor gloves, I'm a disaster.