Nothing Exciting

For those of you who use reader- there's a link at the top of the actual blog for a little game play on baby's stats and and birthday if you want to play!

So nothing really has been going on here. We are slowly getting ready to have another child. Here is the room we are working on. It's definitely a work in progress and hard to imagine at this point. So we are doing stripes- which neither of us have done before. The top is a light brown and bottom is a dark brown. The orange stripes will be outlined by a green stripe on one side and a blue stripe on the other. So the orange will actually be 3 inches less on each side- we went ahead and painted the entire stripe area orange so that the blue and green won't need as many coats. We still have to add the chair rail after all the stripes are painted and a baseboard on the left wall. We spaced the stripes pretty far apart, but after it's up now, I almost wish we'd gone farther! It's hard to imagine how it will look with the other two colors on though. Hopefully this weekend!!! Then we need to get some furniture in there so I can actually wash the clothes up and see what we have. I went through stuff the other day and realized I don't have the summer 0-3 stuff I thought I did....so I guess I'll have to buy more than I thought! Oh well, if all else fails- he just needs a tee shirt onezie for summer!

Here's a pic of my fighting children this morning. Grouchy bugs, I tell you.

A New Addition!!!

This is our new addition! Isn't he cute?? I came home yesterday and looked at my tank- it was nearly covered in brown algae! ICK! Brown Algae also called diatoms, is really common in tanks that have recently finished cycling. They say if you wait it out and keep doing frequent water changes that it will eventually go away after a few weeks to two months....well....I have started using part tap water with my changes, but after yesterday's change I checked my water parameters and there was ammonia again from the stupid tap water- I need to recheck this morning to make sure the tank is handling it ok. So I'm nervous about doing it too often and hurting my fishes. I also don't want to have to keep buying bottled water. SO- I had been researching algae eating fish and which kind I wanted to get. I had ruled out the plecostomus family basically because they're ugly and they get SO BIG- like 18 inches. I had originally wanted oto catfish, but then read a LOT of them die pretty quickly after getting them- uh, NOT for me. I asked some questions on my aquarium board and the bristlenose plecostomus was recommended. The original version of this fish is blackish with white spots and still fairly ugly. Well, there is an albino version! The cutest of the ugly.

We have basically 2 fish stores around here that can sortof be trusted to have healthy fish. I called my favorite and though they carry bristlenoses, she didn't have any and couldn't guarantee me that she would have some later this week. I called the other (which I'm actually not a huge fan of) and she says, "The ones I have are really super tiny, and oh, they're albino." YAY!!! I could NOT believe it. The stores around here are so dumb I can almost never find what I truly want. Oto catfish would have been impossible I'm sure. So here's our little guy. He has been SUPER active and eating constantly. He's a little over an inch long right now and will be 4-5 inches total when he's full grown. The girls are treating him OK but they get curious at times and I've seen them nip. Stupid girls. He's very small but he's already cleaned up the alligator head which was covered with brown algae yesterday. He's going to be perfect. I hope I can keep him happy. After the brown algae is gone I'll need to give him some algae wafers occasionally.

On another happy fish note here are my two babies! Big baby got his Mickey on his tail while I was gone this weekend. You could only barely see 2 black spots on it when I left but you can very much see his mickey mouse pattern now and he's very bright orange all of a sudden! The little guy is about 1/2 his size and still really see-through, but eating well and will be just fine I'm sure.
Here's another pic of them. The big one is still about 1/4 of the size of the big girls. It appears mommy fish might be getting ready to bear again. GAH! For those of you wondering- I do believe all the platies are girls- they can hold sperm for quite a long time and continue to bear litters- which explains why we keep having more and more. Hopefully this is going to slow down and stop soon- unless some of my babies are boys!

30/60 Trip - New Orleans

So this last weekend was the 30/60 trip. Molly and I decided to take mom somewhere for her 60th birthday and I also turn 30 this year. Mom's birthday isn't until May, and since baby is due about a week after that, well, it wasn't going to work then! No biggie because our weather was PERFECT!

The first day Molly and I were on our own because mom's flight was due to arrive early the next morning. We wandered around and planned the rest of our trip. This is the steamboat we actually took a cruise on a couple days later, but took a pic then.

Mom and Molly enjoying Hurricaines at Pat O'Brien's.
We went on a swamp tour. We didn't see a ton of animals but it was really relaxing and nice to go out on the boat for a few hours and to also see the bayou. Some interesting trees.

Looking at some stuff. We saw a few snakes, one gator, a playful otter and some birds.
Beignets at Cafe Du Monde. We waited about 45 mins this day. Molly and I had gotten them a couple of days before also. Glorified funnel cakes.
Oak Alley Plantation- quite impressive.
Gorgeous.
This was our last meal. We spent a LOT of money and time eating! We had some really expensive and awesome meals. I was sort of disappointed on the last day because though we had some FANTASTIC food and had visited some really famous restaurants, we hadn't really had any of the true local food like you think of when you think south LA. We went to The Gumbo Shop and ate red beans and rice, jambalaya, and shrimp creole. Completed the trip quite nicely.
Not the prettiest food, but quite tasty and pretty inexpensive. The trip was a success. We did a ton of walking and really saw everything we wanted to see. The hotel was in a great location! We were in bed by about 10 every night. Obviously I wasn't drinking, but I don't feel like I missed out at all. We also did a cemetery tour that was pretty interesting and I got SUPER burnt. The weather was awesome 80 or above every day. Ahhhh I could live there easily. It was hard not to complain about being hot! We did walk down Bourbon street several times and got some pretty interesting comments about me being pregnant.

PARTY!

So my internet is working sporadically.....this is the second time I've tried to add pics. In reverse order:

Eating cake!

Wow! Look at that Thomas cake!
Playing with his new "sheds."
He got tons of bulldozers, loaders, and other big trucks. He loves them all.
Grandpa is the one who takes presents out of the boxes. He had a lineup.
Mira basically opened everything for him. She cannot stay away. So irritating.
All the kids eating their dinner. Hot dogs and chips. What's better?!
Riding his new scooter. He did awesome!
For whatever reason he went right to his bike when we got outside and started riding it. That was the first time EVER he's shown ANY interest in it. Weird! He totally got it though! Made Brooks excited.
Checking out his new scooter from mom and dad.

The party was a success. We had some friends over and hung out at home- just like G wanted. He literally loves every single thing he got. He plays with everything equally. He had a blast and it was nice the weather was warm enough to get outside for just a bit.

It's my birthday!

So G's birthday was yesterday- it passed relatively uneventfully really....I sent Mira to school and he and I hung out together. He's so easy- he really prefers to stay at home most of the time and play. He got his "Cranky the Crane" from Aunt Molly and a new Thomas set to play with. I got him a little tunnel to go with it at Wal-Mart. He had a great time!!

After B got home from work we picked up Reese and took the three of them out to Legends to T-Rex Cafe. It was really not a very good experience- the tables there are awful and everything kept falling on the floor. G was initially terrified because the dinosaurs growl and roar and move all around. Not to mention the food was awful...but they said they had a good time, so I guess that's what counts. After that we went to Nebraska furniture Mart (which was a disaster) to look at mattresses. I can't WAIT to have a new one!

I have a horrible sinus infection/cold that has knocked me WAY down. Last night I was coughing so hard I was throwing up. :( I ended up calling in to work and have laid around in bed and on the couch all day long. I finally gave in just a bit ago and took some sudafed because I can't take it anymore. (I usually refuse to take anything but Benadryl because I freak out every time I take something and worry it's hurting the kid- talk about OCD...). I went to the doctor earlier in the week and she gave me an antibiotic, but my illness has actually gotten worse since I started it. I am SO DONE with this winter. this is the second time I've had this, although this time it's worse. I really don't have much time off saved up and I need to save it for maternity leave. Me and the neti pot have become much too close this last week.....

Fish update- my sick girl seems to be fine suddenly. She acted really super weird for about 4 days and then suddenly popped out of it. Not sure what was going on, but the white spot on her back has also gone away. Baby fish is growing and getting braver all the time. He will actually swim around with them occasionally but runs away if they look at him or swim at him too much. He still won't swim to the top to eat, just waits for some to float down. The tank now tests perfectly. I am toying with the idea of getting a few more fish, but I'm too chicken just yet. Everyone seems so happy! I may just wait until after the baby comes and things settle down. We'll see. I'm a little worried about disrupting the good thing we have going!

Birthday party tomorrow!!!

A Day Out

The other day Grandma Betty turned 87. Geez, that's almost 90! The kids, mom, and I went up to Joe to eat lunch with her on Saturday. I thought she looked really good that night and was getting around really well. The cake was for her and for Griffin.

This picture is hilarious. Mira is such a pouter. Mad because she didn't get to sit by Grandma.
Today I took the kids down to Crown Center to the "Under the Sea" free exhibit. It was really cute. Every few months they get a new play area like this one that's free. We've only gone to a couple but this was the best one we've been to.
Riding the dolphin.
In the mermaid's house.
This was G's fav part- in the seaweed.

Mira diving.

More divers!

Inside the whale's belly. They've been watching a lot of Pinnochio lately, so that was cute.
Push a button and a fan blows. For some reason they were obsessed with this.

Isn't this picture hilarious?!

We ate lunch at Fritz's- where the train drops your food at your table. G was in heaven...Mira's expressions for pictures are killing me lately...


He did actually eat a couple of chicken nuggets today- after told we were NOT going to see the other train until he ate. He's finally at the age where SOMETIMES (really not very often) we can use coercion to get him to eat...
They were really good today! We came home and G took a nap and Mira and I rested and then I did a workout for awhile.

I've now got my second sinus infection of the year. Terrible. I was doing fine but then my ears got involved and I could barely stand it yesterday, so I had to go see Dr. M. I'm so ready for summer it's ridiculous. Both of the kids have deep coughs and an occasional runny nose, but nothing serious so far (knock on wood).

Only 10 more weeks until baby boy gets here. Most of the time I feel really anxious about this. There's so much still to do to get ready for him and life is going to change so drastically! I haven't diapered anyone for quite awhile now! Back to the days of strollers and diaper bags. I'm really excited to snuggle with him and share him with the kids.

G's bday party this weekend! Stay tuned!