Getting Ready for Ella

Ella will arrive any day now, and her nursery is ready and waiting for her. It is, of course, all pink. But it also coordinates with our much-loved yellow glider in which I nursed each of my boys for over a year. It holds lots of memories, and I'm glad I'll get to use it with her too.

















And a few months ago Susan's (Mima's) friends threw me a baby shower. The reason the closet and drawers of Ella's room are so full is in part because of the shower, and in part because of a good friend who has handed down all of her daughter's baby clothes. I have bought some things, of course, but really not much thanks to the generosity of these lovely ladies and other friends and family members who have given us gifts.










While in Gainesville for the shower, the boys got to take a bubble bath, Grayson went to a Gator basketball game, and we had nice family dinners.

My Belly

I am 33 weeks along now and decided to have some pictures taken of my belly. With my last two pregnancies I remember sitting in the hospital in labor thinking I should have had pictures taken. So this time I did . . . and I'm glad I did.

6 1/2 Months Pregnant

I've been terrible at documenting this pregnancy . . . below is the first picture taken of my belly (Grayson took it!) at 6 1/2 months. Perhaps the reason is that this has been the hardest pregnancy of all 3. My first trimester I was very morning sick (which is really all day and night sick) and exhausted. I've felt better ever since that ended, but I still have two active little boys to run around after and I just don't run as fast as I used to! And I've also battled a stomach bug and a bad cold/sinus infection in the last month (and both kids had one or both of these as well, and Max had croup). Nevertheless every day (even on the sick days) I am thankful for this little blessing. Her name will be Ella and we can't wait to meet her. Even Max, when asked where the baby is, says "in Mommy's tummy." And Grayson says that as the biggest brother he will take good care of her. I know he will, because he takes such good care of Max and is his best friend already. 2 1/2 months and counting . . .

Look Who's Trying to Crawl

He's trying so hard. He can get up on all fours, then can rock forward and backward, but then he usually gets frustrated and rolls over onto his back.

Just a few days ago I put him on his back on the rug in his room with a few toys around him and ran out of the room for about 2 minutes. When I came back he was gone and for a moment I panicked . . . until I noticed his little feet sticking out from under his crib. He had rolled himself several times until he was completely under his crib. I guess I won't be doing that anymore!

Oh Baby!

We think those blue eyes are here to stay.

And that makes us really, really happy.

Brotherly Love

Max Eats

Max is four months old and just started eating rice cereal and sweet potatoes. We plan to move on to bananas later this week, which I'm sure he'll love. For now, he's pretty happy with the cereal and especially the sweet potatoes which he clearly likes.