Baby Update

We went to the doctor yesterday. I am measuring big-43cm. Normal is 40cm. The baby hasn't really dropped and no dilation. So, Dr. Osborn decided we should have an ultrasound this morning to see how big the baby is. The ultrasound went really well. The baby is head down and below my bladder, so it has dropped a bit. I have plenty of amniotic fluid this time round. That was the main problem with Chase last time. I was low on fluid and he wasn't moving enough. This baby continues to be very active, even in its confined space! According to the ultrasound this baby could weigh over 11 lbs! However, he thinks it is wrong and most likely the baby is 10 lbs. Either way, I wasn't expecting to hear that. Since everything is good, he will let me still try for natural delivery. However, if nothing happens by July 6th, the baby will be delivered by c-section on the 7th. The countdown is on, we are a week away or less from meeting our newest member of the family!

X Marks the Spot

Since I was a young girl, my grandma and mom have always told me to put a X into a mosquito bite. This will stop it from itching they told me. Well, sometimes it does work, sometimes it doesn't, but I decided to pass this onto Chase. Since the mosquito's have been so bad, and he keeps getting more bites I had to do something. He was scratching them to the point of bleeding. So I showed him how to make a X into them. This can hurt sometimes, so I made a squishy sound while doing it, and it made him laugh. So now when he is putting X's into his bites he makes the noise too. This morning he had one on his back. He said, "Can you X me please?" Now the whole X thing may be only mind over itching, but it is working for us! I go to the doctor this afternoon. I will give an update tomorrow morning.

Questions about God

We gave Chase a kids picture Bible last Fall. Recently we have been reading a few stories from it every night before bed. With the stories comes lots of questions from Chase. In the Bible stories God is always mentioned, yet there aren't any pictures of Him. Chase wants to know where God's house is and how does he look. I told him God is up in heaven. We can pray to Him, and He hears us, and he watches over us. I told him Jesus lives there too, and someday He will come back, and we will get to fly up to Heaven and meet Him face to face. Well, now Chase thinks this is happening tomorrow. He says to me very sincerely this morning, "Tomorrow we get to fly to heaven to meet God." A lot of things are tomorrow for him. I realize that Chase does not understand the concept of time yet, so I just told him, yup someday we will get too. He is okay with this answer for now. I am just happy that he keeps asking questions.

The Heat is My Friend

I keep trying to convince myself that this heat isn't really that bad! Is that why, my feet, ankles and fingers are swollen? Is that why when I walk outside I feel like there is no oxygen in the air? I know it is the humidity that makes it seem that much worse, which I guess means we must live in Iowa! The amazing thing is, even though it is so hot, Chase still wants to play outside! So, I have insisted it be centered around water. I have to stay cool, if we are going to play outside.

Saturday we went over to Gray's Lake and played in the water for a couple of hours. The one thing that bothers me most about swimming in a lake are the fish. I swear there was this one fish that kept trying to eat my ankles. I kept jumping around trying to scare away, but it kept finding me. When I was in the swallower water I actually saw it. It was a little bluegill, about three inches long. Now I know they can't do anything too me, but fish trying to eat me, makes me jumpy. Maybe I was giving off some scent, since I am pregnant. Needless to say I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the chair and the water.

On Sunday, Chase wanted to play outside again in the 93 degree heat. So I filled up his pool so we could play. I told Chase it was okay if he splashed me, I was really hot. However, he then took the liberty to dump a full cup of water over my head. He thought it was hilarious. Normally I don't mind getting my hair wet, but we were going out for dinner and I didn't want to redo my hair. But I couldn't get mad, it was hot and we were having fun. I went to dinner with flat hair.

The Nursery

The Nursery is Done

A work in progress is finally complete. I whole-heartedly started transforming the 3rd bedroom over at the beginning of April. I ordered the Noah's Ark border at the end of March and then picked out the Mountain Air green paint from there. I painted the room at the beginning of April, and changed out the furniture. Chase's toddler bed went back to a crib, and he got the full size bed put in his room. I put some pictures on the wall, and then waited for my border to show up. However, a few weeks later I received a letter telling me the border was on backorder until May. Then a few weeks later it was on backorder until June, and then again until July. I finally had to search for a new pattern all together. There was no guarantee I would get it in July! At first I wasn't crazy about it, but once in was on the walls I have grown to like it. So now we are ready for our little one to check out the new digs.

Slip sliding along!

Slip n' Slide Fun

Off to the Mosquito Ridden Woods

We decided we wanted to get one camping trip in before the baby arrived. It turned out to be quite a challenge just to find a campsite. All the campgrounds around Red Rock and Saylorville were full by Thursday night. So I spend part of my Friday morning looking for some private campgrounds or off the beaten path ones. We finally decided we were going to go to Pammel State Park, which is about 40 miles Southwest of Des Moines. However, received a call that his motorcycle was fixed. Well he has been without it for over a week. (Boys and their toys!)

Therefore, we opted to try a small campground along the Des Moines River, about 10 miles from our house, called Yellow Banks. We have never been there, but thought we would give it a try. I had been trying to call there all day to find out if they had sites, but no one ever answered. Since it wasn't that far of a drive we took a chance. When we got there, they had 4 sites left. They were in the primitive camping area, which means no electric, no bathroom and you have to walk your stuff in to the site. It wasn't the ideal campsite, but Chase was so excited about camping. So we took the closest site to where you could park. We soon could see why it was still open. We had a lot of traffic walking by, as people were going to the other sites. Needless to say, we did make the best of it.

Once the tent was up, Chase spent the next 2 hours playing in it. He jumped on the air mattress and pulled out his toys and had a really good time. Eric and I got everything else unloaded and I got dinner made. We had brought the radio and a fan, a lot of good that did us, without electricity! It also turned out that this area we were in attracts the younger crowd. We had some high school kids in the site next to us, and some young 20 somethings behind us about 100 yards. Right after dinner this kid came over to us, he was maybe 16 and asks, "Could you help us get our fire started?" I looked at him and then at Eric, I thought he was joking. Eric says, "We brought a fire starter log, that is why we have fire." I told the kid, we had a gas grill, so I didn't have an lighter fluid. I had been watching them trying to start their fire. He had thrown his t-shirt on it, in hopes of it starting. I guess he never learned that clothing helps suffocate a fire.

It is 10pm we are in the tent attempting to sleep and we hear all the partying going on around us. Two dogs start barking at each other, people keep getting in their cars to go to the bathroom. Have they not heard of using a tree? It took us a long time to finally fall asleep, but I guess that is tent camping!

Saturday started off cool, but by 11am it was steamy hot. We went into town so Eric could pick up his motorcycle. Chase and I headed off to the beach. We had a great time playing in the water, and Chase practiced floating on his back. We then headed back to camp to make a late lunch. It was still beastly hot, even in the shade, but Chase managed to take a nap under a tree on his air mattress. Come 6pm, the mosquito's came out full force. They were horrendous. We were putting OFF on every hour or two! We all came home with souvenirs from our outdoor adventure. I am happy to report that all the party animals only stayed one night. So our Saturday night of sleep was much better. We woke refreshed and ready to head home to our air conditioned home!

Weekend Wrap-up

It was another busy weekend. My mom came to town for one last visit before the baby is here. It was so nice having her here. She cleaned the house for me, finished up my flower garden, helped me prepare food for Chase's party and clean out the downstairs closet. It was wonderful to not feel stressed out as I was prepping for the party on Sunday. Eric even helped out with some of the food preparation! It helps when it is food he likes to eat.

Saturday evening we went over to Joe's Crab Shack. We really enjoy eating there. It is a real kid friendly environment. Chase loves looking at all the toys hanging on the ceiling, and then he enjoys going outside to run around on the playset. My mom had never eaten there, so she was went with the crab boiled in garlic. She tried the Dungeness crab, and thought it tasted fishy. So I traded her my snow crab legs. I thought her crab tasted really good, it must have been that one bite. It would have been fun to stop at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert, but we were stuffed.

On Sunday we had family and friends over to help celebrate Chase's birthday (again). I kept the menu simple, hotdogs, chips, beans, strawberries and veggie tray. I wanted to have something Chase would enjoy eating. Chase received some really neat toys, ones that I even enjoy playing with. Aunt Miranda gave him a bowling set. The pins are wider at the bottom so they stand up on the carpet, major bonus. Julie gave him Elefun. I had never seen it before. The elephant has a 4 Ft. trunk that inflates with air, and butterflies fly out and you have to catch them in your net. This game really gets Chase excited. It is a lot of fun to play with him. Aunt Lisa gave him his first doctor kit. Last month he told me he wanted to be Dr. Chase when he grows up. The stethoscope is by far his favorite instrument to use. He likes listening for your heart beat, but says he doesn't have one. I wasn't going to argue with him, he's the doctor! :)

After the presents and cake, we headed outside to play on the Slip n' Slide. All the kids had so much fun. Even Chris who will be 16 in August couldn't resist joining in the fun. I really need another slide. The older kids would easily slide for another 15-20 Ft. on the grass. I now have a mud slide on the hill, but it was worth it. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

Round 1 Goes to the Bike

It appears that Chase's bike got the best of him the other night. Eric recently modified his bike, and he now has brakes. This has caused him some angst, since he liked peddling backwards to maneuver his bike.

I believe he was attempting to make a sharp turn and then thought he would go backwards instead. (I was on my way outside to play with him, I just had to throw a load of wash in.) Well it was too much for the bike, and it threw him off. He went off and fell into a plant stand I had been meaning to throw away.

He came running inside crying, saying his eye hurt. When I finally got him to take down his hand, a real shiner was in the making. Thankfully the stand got him just under his right eye, but it was already really swollen. So we sat with ice on it for about 10 minutes, and then he was ready to play again. It wasn't until the next morning that the swelling went down, and black and blueness set in. Luckily it didn't go all the way up and around his eye! Needless to say I have not taken him out in public since Wednesday, I don't want people talking. :)

Our Boy is 3!

It is hard to believe that Chase turned 3 today. Where does the time go? Chase woke up this morning very excited. He understands what a birthday is now, and he knew he was turning 3. He woke up and said, "I'm a big boy now!" I guess going from 2 years old to 3 years old is status change in his world. He was very excited to go to Julie's, because he was bringing treats, balloons and party blowers.

I got off work early and picked him up, so we could spend some QT together. We went over to Gray's Lake and went to the beach. He loves playing in the sand, and we haven't had a chance to do that yet this summer. It was another 90 degree day, so it wasn't long before we were in the water, and pretty much stayed there for the next hour and a half. I made Chase wear his lifejacket. He gets too bold sometimes and thinks he can go out farther than he should. We had a great time playing in the water. Chase practiced floating on his back and flipping over to his front. He put his under a couple of times, and we bounced around. I knew it would be hard to get him to leave, but I had a little ammo I was saving.

When he started to protest about going, I told him he had to go because we were going to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday. Well, that did the trick! He was out and drying off within seconds. We ran home to pick up daddy and we were off. It is so much nicer going to Chuck E. Cheese's on a weeknight, rather than a weekend. Chase was able to go on whatever ride he wanted too, and the staff even gave him a couple of free tokens. We ate and used up all the tokens within an hour, and were on our way back home. On the way home, Chase announced, "I had a fun birthday." Mission accomplished.

Slip N' Slide

Uncle Justin bought Chase a Slip N' Slide for his birthday. Since it was a balmy 90 degrees on Monday, it seemed time to set it up. Chase has never seen one, and didn't really know what it was all about. One of the neighbor kids was outside, so I enlisted his help.

I would have loved to show Chase how to run and slide down, but the most I can do these days is waddle. So I asked Jaden to give Chase a demo on how it is done. Chase liked what he saw, but couldn't quite coordinate the running and sliding together. So he started out with just sitting and I pushed him down the hill. Then he discovered he went faster if he was on his back, rather than his butt. After 30 minutes of trial and error, he would run, stop at the top and then hop onto the slide. This at least gave him a little more momentum, and he was making it down to the splash pool at the bottom. Even though he wasn't going very fast, he kept saying, "This is a lot of fun, this is fun!"

However, his screeches and laughs soon turned to tears. After he went down, he wasn't paying attention, and walked across the slide just when McKenna was going down. She took him out at the knees. Her head hit him pretty hard on the shins. It took a good 5 minutes before he was ready to play again. We had a quick talk about being observant and walking off to the side once he was done. After that it was back to sliding. Pretty soon I had to put a halt to the fun. The mosquito's were coming out and my grass was turning into a mud slide. I reassured Chase there would be many more days of fun to come!

What makes a cousin?

I forgot to write about this last week. Memorial Day morning we were still at the lake, and Chase had a chance to feed Hanna. Afterwards, my mom was burping her. Chase then got up and went over to Hanna and declared, "Hanna doesn't have any hair. Once she gets hair, then she can be my cousin." I reminded him that when he was born, he was bald too, but that didn't change his position. I can't wait to see what he says about his brother or sister!

A New Church Family

Today it became official, the congregation at Grace Baptist Church approved our membership. Eric and I now have a new church family. Who would of ever thought Eric would start attending church regularly?!? There has been much prayer on my end and others, and I am very thankful. I have to give some credit to his motorcycle. Last summer when I agreed to let him buy his Eliminator, he said he would look for a church with me, and start attending two Sunday's a month. I think that was a several thousand well spent!

We've been attending Grace since October, and we really like the pastor. He is very dynamic and enthusiastic. Eric and I have never had the occasion to doze off during the sermon, which means we are engaged and actually listening to what he is preaching about! Another bonus is, Eric likes the fact he can wear jeans to church! Chase has won over all the ladies in the nursery. They all knew his name, long before they knew us. After the service everyone came up to welcome us and shake hands. Eric was excited to be refered to as "Brother Agans" once again. When he was in his youth, he attended a Baptist church in Missouri, and he enjoyed being addressed as such. It brought a smile to his face. So next time you see him, feel free to call him "Brother Agans!"

A Barney cake for me? Oh boy!

Chase loves his Thomas from Oma and Opa

Sara & Rachel- Friends for 28 yrs.

Chase holding Hanna

Hanna Marie @ 12 days old