26 Weeks Down....14 to Go

My 26 week appointments went well.  The ultrasound looked good.  We got some cute pictures of her (and 1 creepy one that we requested not be printed).  The ultrasound tech thought 1 wall of her heart was thickened but the doctor confirmed that everything looks good.  We will continue to monitor her size.  I also had to do my glucose tolerance test today.  YUCK!  I had to drink the orange drink then wait in the waiting room for Dr. Scott.  With the flu being so prevalent and some kids coughing in the waiting room, I did not touch anything.  Then I met with Dr. Scott for a few minutes.  She measured me and listened to the heartbeat.  Back out to the waiting room I went before having my blood drawn and leaving.  I start going to Dr. Scott every 2 weeks now.  I will see her on Jan. 15th and then have another ultrasound on the 19th.  The 19th will be a day full of doctors since Joshua has his 3-year appointment with Dr. Geddes.  If I remember correctly, he won't have to get any shots though.  I cannot believe my baby is going to be 3!  We have his birthday party planned for the 18th.  It is going to be a Rescue Bots theme.  Jeff created the awesome invitations for us, I just need to get them sent and figure out the rest of the details.  Watching my baby get older makes me sad, but I love seeing the little boy that he has become.

Our little boy is growing up

Another exciting event we've had over break is that we moved Joshua to his big boy room.  I was worried about how the transition would go and wanted to do it over break in case he had trouble sleeping.  Plus I knew the move would entail quite a bit of rearranging of furniture.  He has done great!  When he is told that it is almost nap/bed time he will prompt going upstairs.  He loves his new room!

Funny Joshua phrases and incidents:

After saying something silly he will laugh and say, “I’m just being kidding!”

While sitting on the potty he likes to look at Andy’s farm magazines and newspapers.  Twice now he has been “reading” AgriNews and he informs me that the article says, “Good job planting corns and beans.  One day that guy went to googoo gaga.”  

Happy Holidays

So I haven't been very good about updating again, seeing as how I haven't posted about anything since before Thanksgiving!

We had an enjoyable time off for Thanksgiving, spending time with both sides of the family.  We are now enjoying Christmas break which has been full of exciting activities.  Although if you ask Andy it hasn't been very fun.  (No snow and slightly warmer weather = no sledding and skating.  Hanukkah started before break, so we enjoyed small celebrations each night.  Joshua got to light the menorah with little help.  This was the highlight of each night for him.  If I mentioned gifts he would get excited, but didn't think to ask about them each night.  The 1st Saturday of break we went to Wheaton for our family Hanukkah celebration.  This began by meeting at Jeff's house for a surprise for Joshua.  Jeff set up Dad's old train set in his basement.  The train set was from Dad's childhood, complete with buildings, vehicles, trees, and even some buildings that Grandpa built.  Josh adored the set-up and thrived on telling Jeff what to do next. "Go super fast!"  "Put this train car on."  "Make light come on!"  "I want it dark in here!"  After playing with the train for a while we drove over to Fermi Lab to see the bison.  They weren't all that exciting just eating hay up at the barn.  Next it was off to one of Joshua's favorite activities as of late...eating at a restaurant.  Upon arriving back to Mom and Dad's, Joshua went down for his nap, Jeff and Andy went to a movie, and Dad and I did some last minute shopping for Mom.  As always we had a delicious Hanukkah dinner thanks to Mom.  Then it was time for gifts.  Joshua did well at first, happily handing out gifts to everyone and being gracious when it was his turn to open a gift.  This changed fairly quickly as he began asking for another present.  After having him open the rest of his gifts and going to bed, the adults opened gifts, had dessert, relaxed and went to bed.

The first Monday of break the 3 of us went to the Discovery Center Museum in Rockford.  Andy and I had been wanting to take Joshua, and we decided this was a good opportunity.  I think he was a little overwhelmed at first, wanting to go from activity to activity.  They have a room devoted to agriculture.  Josh enjoyed driving the combine, well at least until Daddy came in and told him that it wasn’t very accurate and wanted to explain the purpose of all of the buttons.  We enjoyed the “Tot Spot” where Josh could play house, fix a car, drive a train, help sick animals, and operate a crane.  One of Joshua’s two favorite activities was “being on TV.”  He got to interview Mommy and Daddy and tell the weather.  It was so neat to see him come out of his shell and act like a little adult.  His interview questions were very inquisitive, wanting to know who our favorite Rescue Bots were, and then requesting that we ask him the same question.  (This is a frequent conversation while driving places too.)  Joshua’s other favorite activity was the water table.  At first he did not want to wear a smock, but we finally convinced him that he wouldn’t want to get wet and have to go straight home.  After a good amount of time there it was time to head home for lunch and nap time.  Joshua threw a full on tantrum at this point and had to be carried over Andy’s shoulder out of the building.  We finally got him calmed down with a snack and games on my phone.

 One night we went over to our good friends’ Ashley, Chris, and Lucas’s house for dinner and to have the boys exchange gifts.  They got Joshua a ride on loader truck that Joshua was so envious of at Lucas’s birthday party.  He loves it!  Ashley and I exchanged gifts as well and then decided to give the boys a bath there so that they could spend more time together.  The boys have so much fun together and get along so well.  Joshua is lucky to have such a good buddy. 

On the 23^rd I was able to enjoy lunch and an afternoon alone to have lunch with co-workers then finish up some shopping.  The weather was gorgeous so I felt bad that Andy couldn’t be working and had to stay home with Josh.  But I really enjoyed getting out alone.

On Christmas Eve the Layne’s came out.  We spent the morning at Nicholas Conservatory, and then had lunch at Red Robin before getting Joshua home for nap.  While he napped we watched “Elf”, played a game, and I baked and made dinner.  After dinner some gifts were exchanged before putting Joshua to bed, having dessert, and relaxing. 

Christmas Day was fairly low key and relaxing.  Since Lisa wouldn’t be in until that evening, we decided to open gifts with Andy’s family the 26^th.  Christmas morning we got to sleep in and open gifts just the 3 of us.  That evening we went to Dan and Kay’s for a small gathering.  Lisa’s flight was delayed so we didn’t get to see her until the next morning.  After breakfast we went to Jim and Terri’s to open gifts.  Before we knew it, it was time to head to Nan and Geno’s for Blackmer Christmas.  We had snacks, pizza and dessert before opening a few gifts.  Josh had a bit of an upset stomach so we stayed home that night, just the 3 of us.  On the 27^th, Josh was doing better, but Andy wasn’t feeling great.  We then found out that the Hartman (Schiebel) boys had the stomach flu at Grandma Hart’s.  We didn’t want to expose ourselves to that and stayed home.  Surprise, Surprise…on the 28^th I had the bug!  Luckily it only lasted 1 day for each of us and we all seem to be feeling better.  

Fun-Filled Weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving was busy, but fun for us all.  Grandma Layne picked up Joshua Friday morning and drove him back to Wheaton for the weekend.  They enjoyed going to the library, baking cookies, playing with trains at the DuPage History museum, and spending time with Uncle Jeff.  

  

Friday afternoon Andy and I headed down to Peoria.  We met Ashley and Chris Boyer at the hotel and got ready for our evening.  We drove downtown and parked at the concert venue then went on the hunt for a place to eat.  We ended up at a nice steakhouse that was filled with other concert-goers.  After we finished eating we decided to head to the Peoria Civic Center for the Eric Church concert.  We weren't a huge fan of the opening bands, Halestorm, and Dwight Yoakam.  However, we really enjoyed when Erich Church performed.  Saturday Andy and I got ready leisurely then headed to breakfast and went shopping in Washington.  After lunch at Busy Corner we headed to Bloomington.  We settled into the hotel, and then got ready and left for Brian's birthday party.  We hung out at his girlfriend, Heather's place, and then headed downtown to Fat Jacks.  We enjoyed snacks and everyone enjoyed the drinks.  Andy hadn't slept well the previous night, so he was tired and ready to go at 10.  I was fine with that so we headed back to the hotel.  Back at the hotel Andy had what we think was an asthma attack, but got through it.  In the morning we took quite a while to get moving, just because we could.  We were excited to see Josh and got on the road.  He was beyond thrilled when we arrived in Wheaton to pick him up.  He couldn't stop hugging us and saying, "I love you!"

Thumbs-up for Daddy

We had another doctor's appointment this week at 19 weeks.  We spent about 30 minutes having an ultrasound.  Andy said that if she gave us a thumbs up then her name is decided.  Well...

However, like with Joshua we are not going to share her name until she's born.  Her heartbeat sounded good, bodily functions were working correctly and she has grown to about 8 inches.  

Throughout this pregnancy we have dealt with a few complications, but we're hopeful that everything will straighten out.  Either way, we love our little girl and pray for a healthy, April delivery.

I don't want to leave Joshua out of these posts.  He has been doing very well with potty training.  Over the summer he had been doing well, but then regressed and I decided to take a break.  Our awesome babysitter, Kathy, was more than willing to work on it again.  She has done a phenomenal job with Josh and it's been quite a while since he had a pee accident.  He's not a fan of pooping on the potty so we've had many of those accidents.  However, this weekend he surprised Andy and me while out running errands.  At Kohls he said he had to go potty, I took him in to the bathroom and did #1 and #2!  That was the first time he has even used a bathroom besides at someone's house.  Then we went out to lunch and he did it again; and again at a furniture store after lunch!  We are so proud and hope that this continues.

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately I did not get a very good picture of Joshua dressed up for Halloween this year.  He loves emergency vehicles of all kinds, so he was a firefighter.  On Halloween Andy was busy in the fields so we got a late start to our festivities.  After dinner we bundled up (it was very cold and windy) and headed to downtown Cherry Valley for the last hour of trick-or-treating.  As soon as we got out of the car Joshua was squealing and jumping around in excitement.  He did a great job going from house to house.  As we approached each house he willingly went up to the door by himself, knocked and said, "trick-or-treat!"  He was beyond ecstatic about his small bounty of candy.  Since it was pretty cold, Andy and I decided about 10 houses was enough and headed to Bob's for candy.  After a quick stop there we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Blackmer's to end our night.  Josh picked out several pieces of candy and played for a bit before we headed home.  I was so impressed on how well he did and thoroughly enjoyed seeing his excitement.

A new pair of boots joining the family

I decided that trying to do too much catching up on what I missed over my blog hiatus was a lost cause.  I've decided to pick up with the present.

Our most exciting recent news is that we will be expanding our family in April.  Baby GIRL Blackmer is due April 8th.  We've experienced some difficulties with this pregnancy but we're hopeful that she will be healthy and that I will carry her full term.  Joshua seems to have mixed feelings about the idea of a sister, well and really a baby in general.  I'm not sure that he quite understands what will happen, but at times he appears excited.  He will kiss my belly and occasionally talk about the baby.  Andy also seems to have mixed feelings.  He's excited we're having a baby but is hesitant that its a girl.  Initially he was hoping for a boy, but has since gotten used to the idea of a girl.  He recently admitted part of his fear is that she will have him wrapped around his finger.  

As I mentioned Joshua's feelings about the baby waiver.  Here are some funny stories from Joshua about the baby.

• When asked what we should name the baby, he replied, "My toys!"  At a later date I asked him the same question and he responded, "Toy."  He's worried about sharing toys, yet wants to name her Toy.
• One night Josh had just kissed my belly, and then grabbed a quarter off the table and put it on my belly button.  We asked why he did that, to which he answered, "So the baby doesn't come out."

Catching Up

After being on blog hiatus for over a year and a half I decided to bring the blog back.  Many things have happened to the Blackmers in this time and I know I won't be able to cover it all.  Since my last post, Joshua turned 1...and then 2.  I started, and just this past month completed, graduate school.  I have earned a masters in Curriculum and Instruction.  Supposedly I will eventually see the pay increase.  Andy has grown and sold a tremendous amount of sweet corn.  Holidays have come and gone.

At 2 years and 8 months Joshua is an energetic, intelligent little boy.  I'm not allowed to call him my baby, though.  If I do he swiftly responds, "I not baby, I a boy!"  Joshua can independently count to 13 and is pretty good at saying his ABC's; although things get a little tricky around, "LMNOP".  While he can identify several shapes, the only one he has successfully drawn is a circle.  He can be entertained for extended periods of time with his tractors and firetrucks.  During this play time he is always sure to include the appropriate "weeeeooooo" noises.  He still enjoys playing trains but his obsession has somewhat subsided.  Like most  2 year olds, he is generally very independent.  This can be frustrating at times when the task is something he struggles to complete.

We were hoping to have Joshua potty trained by now, but that has been a fight.  We had a few weeks where he was doing quite well.  He was more than happy to wear big boy underwear, willingly sat on the potty and occasionally actually went on the potty.  He was earning stickers and candy when he went and we were pleased with his progress.  I don't quite remember how it happened but he has since regressed.  He insists on diapers and will only sit on the potty if he can watch videos while doing so.

Some favorite Joshua quotes:

• That funny!
• Sure, go for it.
• OK, I try.
• I not a dude, I Josh!
• P U gunk (skunk)

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this past summer.