Welcome to the Third Trimester

I cannot believe we are 2/3 of the way finished with our second pregnancy; it seems like I was just writing our blog post "Thus the Third Trimester" about Addison!

28 weeks with "Blessing"

Check out how HIGH I am carrying her!

28 weeks with Manna

Check out how low this one is....looks like my hips are pregnant and not my tummy!

Wowzers, as I look at the photos above it is unreal how much bigger I am the second go round. Maybe we will have a 10 pounder on our hands this time; I would be just fine with that!

A little info about Manna: By this week, Manna weighs about 2.25 pounds, like a Chinese cabbage, and measures about 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. She can open and close her eyes which now sport eye lashes!

Manna sure is a mover and seems to still have room to flip around. I rarely have a moment where Manna is not moving around some, it is my favorite part of being pregnant! I hope it keeps up!

How am I feeling: I did something to my knee this week and am trying to take several days off before I get back to exercising. Otherwise, I am just the usual tired and that is about it. Feeling good honestly. I hate gaining weight. It's THE only thing I do not like about being pregnant and if you have been around me for more than 15 minutes, you probably already know that. I have been exercising a lot to make me feel better about that whole aspect, but it does not seem to help much (course I also exercise a lot to prepare for labor and just to stay in shape generally). I just feel like a beached whale or something!!! It IS all worth it though and I must focus on having a healthy baby (which does not necessarily mean big, just healthy having been fed the good stuff not junk while pregnant). I dread the doctor sometimes because even though I do not let them tell me my weight---I know they see it!!!! Big picture. Big picture.

Coming up next: Glucose tolerance test and doc appointment is Monday. I do not mind the test, most people dread it. I will be excited to hear the results towards the end of the week.

My Two Little Owls' Room

Here are the pictures of the new room mostly set up for Addison AND Manna; I love how it turned out!! Special thanks to Mia for the decals on the wall and for your help!

My two little owls have such a special room now...all without painting!! The best thing is the decals can be easily removed and reused! The theme is a cute little outdoor nature land; Addison's side is a bit more finished since we know she is obviously a girl and once Manna is born we will add some touches. Addison's decor is a little bigger than Manna's since she is the big sister...bigger owl, bigger tree, etc.

Still deciding where to move Addison's bow holder; after we see if this is a boy or girl in October, we will decide.

Both beds. Addison got all new TODDLER bedding and Manna has her gender neutral baby bedding. Addison will remain in the crib as long as possible :)

Manna's bed with a little porcupine crawling across the rail and a tiny lil owl that matches Addison's hanging out in the tree. If it is a girl, I have lots more flowers to decorate with and if it is a boy---more animals!! Manna's name will be hanging on the wall above the long side of the crib.

Addison's almost toddler bed with new bedding!

More Addison's bed.

Better view of the bedding; she LOVES that stuffed owl. She hugs on it, gives it sugar and says "who who who" every time she sees it.

Close up of bedding.

Addison's decals.

Manna's decals.

More Manna Decals AND a lil monkey to keep him company.

All ready for Manna, swaddle sleep sack, wedge and all!

Baby Einstein Water Wonder World "mobile".

New glider location; I actually like it here better. It will be helpful to have it away from the beds in case one is sleeping and one is being cuddled.

Door out to the hallway.

LOVE the new storage cubes we got!

Brown: Manna Toys

Green: Addison's Toys

Pink: Addison's Toys

Open Areas: BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

All but one of Addison's 12 monthly "birthday" pictures; we will add Manna's below these!

The ridiculously huge closet (one of two).

All Day Date

On Sunday, Matthew and I were able to have a very rare all day date while Addison played with Mia and Papa.

Total Time: 10:30 am - 10:30 pm

Total Distance: 5 miles minimum walking (without all the back tracking we did to check out restaurants)

Notable Locations: Fords Theater, National Museum of American History, Mr. Smith's Restaurant, Georgetown Cupcakes, King Street (Various Shops)

Temperature: Approximately 95-97 degrees

Morning: Starbucks and Ford's Theater

No perfect morning is complete without Starbucks, however I could have done without one of my pregnancy nose bleeds while we walked there :)

Waiting for our tour to begin...with coffee and a bloody nose!!!

Ford's Theater was awesome! We had about 30-40 minutes to view the museum which was followed by a Park Ranger presentation outlining the entire timeline of the evening President Lincoln was assassinated. I felt like we were able to read about 75% of the material in the museum before we had to watch the presentation. This is one of my top favorite "touristy" things we have done since moving here.

View of the theater.

Lincoln's box seat.

The door leading to Lincoln's box seat that Booth accessed (and blocked) to assassinate Lincoln.

Early Afternoon: National Museum of American History

After taking a brief detour to walk past the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, we headed to the museum. We enjoyed all the displays, but were less interested in reading every single sign like we were at Ford's Theater. We even saw the hope diamond!

Entrance to the museum

Hope Diamond

Gift Shop Fun :)

Do I look like the statue?

Mid Afternoon: Georgetown

Next we walked several blocks towards Georgetown before deciding to experience a cab ride together. The cab dropped us off just inside Georgetown and we walked up and down M Street deciding on a place to eat a late lunch. We settled on Mr. Smith's; Matthew had been there with work once but when I saw the menu included BRUNCH, I was IN!!!!

None of our dates are complete without a randomly strange incident....

As we read over the menu, the waitress clearning the table behind us dropped a glass on the brick floor which shaddered everywhere, including the back of my legs! It did not hurt, but I had several knicks on my legs and was dripping blood. We felt horrible for the waitress...I mean...pregnant lady gets hit with glass???? I created a small flood in the bathroom trying to hoist my legs to the sink to rinse my legs of glass; I am surprised I did not slip with my now massive baby belly!!! All was well and we had a good laugh--the poor waitress apoligzed several times.

Matthew had a chipotle burger with guacamole on it and I had a spinach and mushroom quiche with side salad. It was YUMMY...they even comp'ed us for my meal.

We meandered our way to Georgetown Cupcake to see if there was a line to partake in the ridiculously famous yet expensive and tiny cupcakes. I was not willing to wait more than 5 minutes and the line looked longer than that, so we moved on.

Random courtyard as we walked through Georgetown

Proof we made it there, even if we did not want to wait in the crazy line for a cupcake!

A chocolate shop we stopped in...what pregnant lady can resist??

Afternoon to Evening: Georgetown Walk and HARRY POTTER

We walked from Georgetown to jump on a metro to head to see the final Harry Potter movie. It was GREAT and so was the movie theater popcorn!!!! Matthew and I LOVE LOVE movies, so this was a particularly special part of the date!

Evening to Night: King Street Walk

We took the trolley from the King Street metro all the way to the water then walked back (little over 1.6 miles one way) toward the metro looking for a place to have a little appetizer as our dinner. A tiny hole in the wall Italian place caught our attention and we were pleasantly surprised with the menu selection. We ordered a salad, anti pasto and Matthew got cheesecake. It was light yet delicious.

The evening ended with a slow walk back to the metro which took us home. It was truly a wonderful day in every way. I loved every moment, mishap, movie, drop of sweat, site, morsel of food....everything was perfect. Days like this are not only necessary but also so sweet. Since we are not able to do it too often, I think it makes us appreciate days like this anymore. I love spending time with Matthew!!!!

Playseum

Mia (my mom) is in town visiting and yesterday we took Addison to the Playseum in D.C. The Playseum is a used bookstore set up in the design of a hands on cityscape. The city included a spa, Safeway Grocery Store, Hardware Store, Outdoor Adventure Place (it was really inside but had an outdoor theme), Grandma's Attic, Dominos, Art Shop, Baker's Shop, Pet Shop and Music Stage.

Metro Rail trouble delayed our arrival at the Playseum until right about when Addison usually takes a morning nap thus I knew her attention span would be short. Since it is a used bookstore, there are books available in every CityShop. Addison had all the fun toys, dress up clothes and stuffed animals in the world to play with and yet opted to sit and read a book in nearly every CityShop we visited! My little girl LOVES books.

We did not visit every CityShop since Addison was clearly exhausted, but the ones we did visit were fun and funny. She enjoyed lotion at the spa, animal puzzles in the Outdoor Area, a storytime with other kids, painting a tile, coloring and playing in the kitchen!

After the Playseum, we tried to go to Subway---Addison only wanted Apples and Cucumbers. What kid doesnt jump at the chance to eat bread?!?! She ate a tiny bit of turkey and cheese, but it was all fruit and veggies, ha. Although lunch was a bit of a flop, the Playseum was not! I wish we could have stayed long but by this point it was after 1 pm, we were hot and she was so tired she could not even think straight. She did not fall asleep on the metro like she normally does but after about 3 minutes in the car, she was OUT. She slept almost 4 hours in the car and at home that afternoon!!

As she gets older, this will be a SUPER fun place to take her and her friends!!!

Getting ready for fun...and climbing the stairs like a big girl! Stairs are second nature to kids up here!

Playing the Spa, she did not want to play dress up though!

She loves lotion!

Necklaces!!!

The Safeway Grocery Store.

And she takes a book from the Spa of all things!!

Here she is signing MUSIC because this is one of those books when you push a button is plays songs along with the story.

On to the outdoor area next...and she wants the books again!

A quick break from looking at books to do a puzzle.

She just wanted books....see her face??

If you cannot tell...this book is in Japanese! As long as its a book, she doesnt care!

Listening intently during storytime!

My musical little girl (which she of course inherited from Matthew; I swear she is related to me even though she looks and acts very little like me!!)

Coloring time, also one of her favorites.

Cooking with another kid.

And to finish off the day, only her second ALL juice (non diluted) box ever---she got spoiled :)

Fun Day Out with Daddy

Matthew works 9-10 hour days and then is off every other Monday, so we very much enjoy it when we have an extended weekend with him. Everything is just much more fun!!!

Last Monday we made a trip to Chick-Fil-A; Matthew has never had a chance to watch Addison play in the indoor play place. PLUS, thanks to my friend Katie's coupons, we all three had our own meals for about 9 bucks---that's a fantastic deal for as much food as we had AND for Chick-Fil-A.

After eating Matthew was able to watch Addison brave the indoor play place with a bunch of big kids! This was the first time he has seen her in a place like this, so it was neat to watch her play with other kids and Matthew.

To top off the outing, we headed over to Target to scope out any good deals on items for the new KIDS room (yes, Addison and Manna are sharing a room---its a ridiculously huge room).

The random outing was a blast...we hope to take Addison to several other fun places before we have Manna (Chuck e Cheese, a Spray Park, etc.). I love my little family!