wrestling

Each wrestling practice starts off with coach Wayne telling a military war story and reminding everyone why we should respect the American flag and the men/woman who have died to give us our freedoms.  This is followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and 20+ minutes of warm up exercises (Connor hates the warm up exercises).  Then coach Wayne shows the kids some new wrestling moves.  We're not real fond of his method of coaching though.  He would probably make a great high school wrestling coach, but he's very strict with the kids and he breaks each wrestling move into 4 steps.  He demonstrates his 4 step wrestling move for the kids and then they break into group with their partner to practice the new move.  The problem is 5 year old kids have a hard time remembering the 4 step moves.  Heck I have a hard time remembering the moves!  I'm thankful that Jason wrestled all through school and knows these moves by heart.  The kids barely get enough time for each of them to practice the move once before coach Wayne is ready to demonstrate another move for them to practice.  He moves way too fast for most of the kids to keep up.  Jason and I both think the atmosphere should be more fun and less serious with 5 year olds.  They should have games and make the moves fun.  Each practice lasts for 2 hours, which we think is too long for a 5 year old.  The room is heated to 80+, which really serves no purpose for small children who are already sweating.  He ends each practice with a speech on respect, being honest, doing homework, working hard, listening to your parents... I think this is very age appropriate, unlike his opening speech on war and people dying.  We joined the Mat Maulers Wrestling team because Connor wanted to wrestle.  He loves to wrestle.  We never want to push him into sports or ruin something he loves.  At this point Jason and I are not happy with the way coach Wayne is running the wrestling practices and we don't view it as being a fun experience anymore.  For that reason we are only going once a week for practices instead of twice and Connor is always given the option if he wants to go or not.  I don't think we will be finishing the season since Connor is voicing that it's not fun for him either.  Although he does enjoy the practice once they break off with a partner and Jason helps him with the moves.  I think a few of Connor's little wrestling buddies enjoy Jason's coaching too, because as soon as they are given the instructions to pair up with a partner... Noah, AJ and a few others come running to try to pair up with Connor.  Jason and I both give the kids positive reinforcement to help boost their self esteem, which all the kids need and appreciate.

 Sometimes at the end of practice the kids form lines and do mock wrestling tournaments. 

 Here Connor was taken down, but he's doing his bridge move so the other kid can't pin him and Connor can flip him over.

AJ asked me to take a "tough" wrestling picture of him and Connor together

 Connor and his buddy, Noah practicing some moves

Snow day

We finally got some snow that packs!  We received several inches Sunday night and Connor's school was closed on Monday.  We've been waiting for some snowman snow!

 we decided to build a super hero snowman.  First Connor decorated a mask and cape.  The CK stands for Connor and Kaiden (his idea).  We haven't decided on a baby name yet, but so far we like Kaiden the best.

 our finished Super Hero Snowman!

The cape didn't quiet fit around the snowman head, so he had to wear it as a headband/cape.

painting

We finally decided on a paint color for the baby room.  I originally had planned on doing a light blue with gray and white stripes on the wall, but Jason said no more light blue walls.  I painted our laundry room light blue, Connor's bathroom blue and Connor's room blue and brown.  We decided on a darker blue with white stripes.

 Connor and I started off with masks, but Jason bought some great new paint with low odor, which hardly had any smell to it at all.  I still kept my mask on while we painted the walls blue, but I didn't use the mask at all while we did the white stripes (also low odor paint).

 After we put down a plastic barrier on the floor, all 3 of us painted the blue walls.

 After the main walls were painting I spent another few hours painting next to the ceiling, around the trim and all the detail work.  Jason is an excellent handyman, but he hates to paint.  Which works out great because I love to paint, but I'm really picky with my lines.  I can't stand messy paint lines.  I want clean, crisp paint lines, which is difficult if you have textured walls and ceilings.

 We let the blue paint dry for a few days and then masked off for the white lines.  It took about an hour to get the tape lines perfectly straight on the walls.  Jason used a laser level for part of it and verified with a tape measure.  It took 6 lines of Frog tape all around the room.  Then I caulked all 6 tape lines, which if your wondering.. yes, it was a huge pain!  But well worth the effort.  Jason and I applied 2 coats of the white paint.  I was a little concerned that we might have trouble getting the tape off the wall since we had to let the first white coat completely dry before we added the second coat, but to my surprise it pealed right off and revealed beautiful clean, crisp lines! 

The lines looks incredible, but being the picky painter that I am... I still went around with a fine tip paint brush and touched up any imperfections I could find. We love the finished paint job.  Our theme for the baby room is boats.  We found a great boat knick-knack shelf that Grandpa is going to build for us to hang on the wall.  Once we decide on a name I'll paint some letters to hang on the wall too.  The room colors work great for his boat theme, but could easily be converted into a car theme later or even transition into a cool teen room.  We hope our new little guy likes his room as much as we do!

wrestling

Connor's wrestling practice with his partner AJ

 Jason is to the right giving tips as Connor pins AJ

 I love this shot with the dads giving their kids tips and helping them learn the wrestling moves.  Jason is in the middle with the blue sweats helping Connor.  My cousin Daniel is to his right with the gray helping his nephew.

32 weeks

So, I've been getting a lot of ultra sounds to monitor the growth of this little guy since he's in the 5 percentile for weight.  Three weeks ago my doctor had me start drinking Costco's Premier Protein shakes, which contain 30 grams of protein (along with tons of vitamins).  I eat my normal diet and then drink 1 shake every day.  The ultra sound today shows he is in the 33 percentile!  In 3 weeks time he went from the 5% to 33%!  I didn't know it was possible to increase that much, but my doctor apparently did because he said this is exactly where he expected him to be if the protein worked.  Wow!  Good thing Costco sells these shakes in bulk!  The little guy now weights 3 pounds, 13 ounces.  I have gained 26 pounds total (doctor wants me at 30+ pounds by delivery) and my belly measures 37 1/2 inches around.  I failed my first glucose test.  My blood glucose was 194 (should be under 140),  I passed the 3 hour glucose test though.  My fasting blood glucose was 73 (should be under 90), 1 hour was 144 (should be under 180), 2 hour was 154 (should be under 155) and 3 hour was 153 (should be under 140).  So, I was over on one of the blood draws, but in order to have gestational diabetes you have to be over on 2 of the draws.  My 2 hour was really close to the limit, but I still passed.

 I love his little fist resting against his face.  It's hard to tell but his other arm is blocking the left side of his face.

 And here is my massive belly... taken today right after my ultra sound.

Super Bowl

Greg and Joann came over to watch the Super Bowl with us.  Seattle Sea Hawks vs. Denver Bronco's.  Connor wore his new Sea Hawk champion shirt, which brought us good luck because the Sea Hawks creamed Denver!  We all rocked out to the Sea Hawk remake of the "What does a Fox say" song.  They played the video during one of the commercials too.  It's so goofy, I love that song.

 My master chef Mr. Connor made us all breakfast.  He's quiet the little chef too!  He's even mastered cracking the eggs.

For Valentines day Connor gave everyone in his class an Avenger card, Avenger tattoo and package of skittles candy.

29 weeks

Some 4D pictures of the little guy from today's ultrasound.  He's still measuring in the 5% on the growth chart.  That means he's continuing on his growth curve, which is awesome.  But since he's just barely on the growth chart it also means more monitoring.  The doctor isn't too concerned since he's following the same trend his big brother Connor did.  I just grow small babies.  I've gained 20 pounds for my pregnancy, which is better than I did with Connor.  The doctor wants me to increase my protein intake and try to gain more than 30 pounds with this pregnancy.  We'll see if the extra protein and calories will help this guy grow.  My belly measurements are good though, he has plenty of amniotic fluid and the blood flow through the placental arteries and vein look great.  Plus he's extremely active... so much in fact that the ultra sound tech, nurse and doctor all independent of one another said "wow, he's one extremely active kid" while they were trying to get measurements and check him out.  I also had to take the glucose test today after my exam.  His heart beat today was 140bmp.

 here he is opening and closing his mouth and opening and closing his fist

 I love this grumpy face with his eye brows all scrunched up.  The ultra sound tech was cracking up because he kept punching towards the ultrasound doppler.  He also kept winking at us.  He would open just one eye like he was peaking at what we were doing.  LOL

It's hard to tell, but he has one eye open in this picture.  He tends to lay with his head in my lower right abdomen and his little tush on my left side.  Several times a day you can see him stretching and pushing his tush out as far as he can, which from the outside looks like a grape fruit size ball sticking about 1+ inches out of my belly.  It's a strange site to see this huge lump protruding from the left side of my belly button.