June, July, August Catch Up!

It's been so long since I've done a blog I had to go back read where I left off! We have had a fun (and HOT) summer, but we're all definitely looking forward to fall (and cooler weather).

July was another busy month, starting off with a visit from my mom. We all walked down to our local park and watched fireworks...and decided next year we'll watch from the driveway! Tiernan loves doing anything where he can be outside, so it was nice for him...but too hot for the rest of us!

July was also our month of museums! I watched my best friend's little girl, whom I lovingly refer to as my niece, this summer. Emma is in second grade so hanging out with Tiernan isn't exactly the most fun for her. To try and liven things up a bit, once a week I took Emma and Tiernan out to do something (I only watched Emma 2 days a week). We went to the Children's Museum of Phoenix which was a blast! Both Emma and Tiernan loved running around and exploring. We also went to the Arizona Museum for Youth out in Mesa. One of the exhibits was some weird Jap-Anime cartoon...I had no idea what it was, but Emma sure was excited about it! They also had a baseball exhibit that Tiernan loved. Along with the two museums, we went to SeaLife Aquarium again. When my mom came to visit in July she brought Tiernan a set of toy sharks, so the aquarium was even more fascinating for him this time around. We also made another trip to Toy Town so the kids good enjoy some pretend play. It was so wonderful to see both kids learning and having fun doing it!

Tiernan is still in preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It has been really great for him. There's usually a struggle at drop-off, but as soon as I'm out the door he's fine. He sings all kinds of songs now: Old McDonald, Allouette, Farmer in the Dell, ABC's, and many more! He also surprised Steve and I the other night by counting to six all by himself! It's amazing how much he can do now. At the Dr's office the other day, he was playing with an airplane and helicopter. I asked if they were going to zoom to the moon and he replied with, "no mom, it's not a rocket!" Then this morning, our cat was crying for food and Tiernan was petting her head. He gave her a hug and said, "Don't worry, I got you. I keep you safe." That's exactly what I say to him when he's scared of something, so it was sweet to see him use it on the cat. I wish potty-training was going as well as his vocabulary! He was doing really great for several months and now has no interest at all. After buying a box of diapers for Tiernan and a box for the new baby, I've decided we need to get Tiernan out of diapers, so we're keeping our fingers crossed the potty-training picks back up.

Tiernan is officially moved into his big boy bedroom. He does really well. Typically sleeps through the night and even if he wakes, he doesn't climb out of bed. He rarely even climbs out of bed to play when he wakes in the morning. It took him a while to understand that he doesn't get both his big boy room and the nursery, but I think he realizes now that the nursery is for the baby. I really thought this was going to be a much harder transition, but it was very easy! He loves his Disney themed room and his Thomas Train sheets and he just picked out a second set of sheets with airplanes on them. I think keeping him involved in the decorating and building really helped a lot.

August was a very exciting month for us. We went to CA and spent Steve's 33rd birthday at Disneyland! Chasing Steve and Tiernan around Disneyland for several days while pregnant was harder than I thought it would be, but somehow I survived. It was incredible how much Tiernan remembered from our last visit. For weeks before our trip he talked about going on the train, the Nemo Submarines, and the Teacups. There were tons of people there thanks to a conference that was taking place. Lots of people meant lots of waiting, but Tiernan did very well with waiting in line. He went on his first roller coaster and loved it! His favorites were still Dumbo, Teacups, and Small World (he can now sing the Small World theme song). He also developed a love for scary things this trip! He couldn't wait to watch Fantasmic! so he could see the dragon. And he wanted to go on Snow White over and over to see "Scary One" (the witch). He'll even tell you that Scary One has crows and what her laugh sounds like! It was truly amazing to see how much fun he had and to see how excited he would get for various things.

After Disneyland we drove down to visit some friends in San Marcos for a few days. They have a beautiful home and a nice backyard that Tiernan loves to play in. They also have a son that is two days younger than Tiernan and a sweet little girl who was only 6 weeks old at the time. Tiernan still talks about playing with their son Greyson and when he sees baby girls he'll say, "That's Baby Greta!" We sure wish we lived closer to them! We went to the beach one morning and it was unusually cold! Not only was the water freezing, but everything about the day was cold and gray. That didn't keep Tiernan from wanting to play in the ocean! When we visited last year, he ran straight to the ocean and didn't want to get out...this time, he wanted to play in the ocean, but by way of mom or dad holding him. So we took turns running into the water with him and then running away from the waves. Unfortunately, the one time Tiernan finally got down and ran along the beach, a bigger kid ran over him and knocked him right into a big wave. Poor Tiernan was shivering from the cold, so we decided it was about time to pack up and leave. This turned out to be a better idea than we knew. On the way home, Tiernan got sick to his stomach. By the time we got back to our friends' house, his temp was 102. We retreated to our hotel and Tiernan's temp continued to rise. At one point, it was over 105 degrees, but thankfully came down with some Motrin. His temp was stuck at about 104 for probably 8 hours and then finally came down just in time for us to drive home. We thought he was all better and then 20 minutes from home, he got sick again and his temp spiked back up to 103. I didn't sleep at all the night before, so I was about to fall over from exhaustion, but home was just around the corner and we would all be able to go straight to bed...so we thought. When we got home, we discovered that at some point, our AC had gone out. Our neighbor, who had been feeding our cats, said she thought it probably went out that morning. So now we have a toddler who just threw up, has a temp of 103, and the house is 93 degrees. Awesome. We try to do a cool bath to bring Tiernan's temp down, but this is AZ, and we don't have cold or cool water in the summer...everything comes out scalding hot. Steve finally reached an emergency AC repairman, so we went to Walmart to use their AC until he could arrive. Once the AC was fixed, we all crashed. Tiernan had a fever for a few more days, but nothing serious. After about a week of feeling somewhat icky, Tiernan seems to be totally better now.

Baby Durkee is doing well. We had an ultrasound on August 19th and managed to have the strength not to find out the gender. It was hard, very hard, but we refrained. Baby is measuring in the 40th percentile for size which is pretty close to average, but a little small. I was sure in the beginning that we were having another boy, but now I'm guessing we're having a girl. The baby's face has also started to resemble my face shape...so maybe we're not having another little Steve clone :) Baby Durkee weighs about a pound and a half and is about 13 inches long. Baby D moves a lot! Way more than Tiernan did my whole pregnancy. S/he also doesn't seem to have hiccups as often as Tiernan did, so we're hoping maybe that's a sign that this baby won't have reflux, or at least, not as bad as Tiernan's. Tiernan loves to "play" with the baby. He puts toys on my stomach or he'll talk to the baby and hug and kiss my stomach. His newest thing is to try and wake the baby up. He will say, "Wake up baby, wake up!" and then wiggle my stomach. So far it hasn't worked, but maybe he'll do it one day feel the baby move! We are very excited to meet our newest member of the family...only 15 more weeks!!

We're hoping that September turns out to be a quiet and relaxing month....but we'll see! Below are links to pics on my facebook page. Peace and love to everyone!

August Pics
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=468627&id=832970390&l=82ffcd9d59

Belly Pics
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=419191&id=832970390&l=55da6507e6