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apartments Brooklyn pregnancy #3 Savannah

Settling In

Thankfully, the month of July wasn’t quite as hectic as the past few months were. The move was behind us, swim lessons were over, and we could finally relax a little bit. We still had plenty to do, but overall I feel like it was a much less stressful month with more time to do things just for fun. Here’s the recap:

The first weekend of the month was a nice, long one! Since the 4th of July holiday fell on a Tuesday, Travis decided to take that Monday off from work as well. It was nice to have him home several days in a row! It was also a good opportunity to get my glucose tolerance test done on a morning when I didn’t have to take the girls with me. The lab in Madison opens at 6 AM, and I planned to be there right when it opened so that I would hopefully get started right away. WRONG. I showed up at 6:03 AM and was the 8th or 9th person in line. How crazy is that!? Apparently, retired folks have nothing better to do than show up prior to the lab opening for their blood work ;) Since doing this test while pregnant with Brooklyn, I’ve figured out the secret of getting through it without ending up with a massive headache: eating two or three hard-boiled eggs at 10 PM the night before. I’ve done that both times while pregnant with Savannah and this time around, and I’ve felt much better at the end of the test. I used the downtime in between blood draws to work on a couple of blog posts, and I found out a few days later that I passed the test! Yay!

Later that Monday (July 3rd), Paw and Rae Rae came to town to spend the day with us. The girls were so excited, of course!

Brooklyn helped Rae Rae decorate the “flag pie” that she made—although I think she probably spent more time eating Cool Whip and strawberries/blueberries than doing actual decorating :)

We tried to go swimming at the pool after lunch, but the swimming quickly ended when it started thundering. Brooklyn was excited to show Paw and Rae Rae what she’d learned during swim lessons!

Since our swim time got cut so short in the afternoon, we decided to go back to the pool after supper that evening. We had a fun day with Paw and Rae Rae and were glad they were able to come!

We didn’t do anything too special on July 4th itself–it was a lazy day at home trying to get pictures hung and things unpacked around the apartment. The balcony makes a great spot for painting, and the girls love being out there.

In times past, I have only Savannah “paint” with a bowl of water and a brush, but since they were on the balcony, I decided to let her use real paint this time. Sweet girl had it on her face and tummy by the end of it! Thankfully, it was washable paint and easy to wipe off :)

Savannah’s obsession for the first few weeks of the month was Sleeping Beauty (a.ka. Boo-ey). She got attached to a Sleeping Beauty figurine at the Hesters’ house when the girls were over there during the move, and it apparently sparked an obsession. For a while, she wanted to take “Boo-ey” everywhere! She still loves Boo-ey, although she’s currently not quite as attached as she was a month ago.

We are LOVING the pool at the apartment complex! I think we went swimming 4 times during the first week of July alone :) I can’t really take pictures of the girls while swimming because I’m in the pool too, but they are having a blast….and I’m loving the fact that they can practice the things they learned during swim lessons. We’ve even packed a lunch and eaten there a couple of times. Most of the time, we have the whole pool to ourselves or else there are only a few other people there. It’s been great! I figure we might as well take advantage of it because it’s a really short walk from our building…we’ll probably never live so close to a pool again after we move.

I was 27 weeks along on July 5th. It’s crazy how fast this pregnancy is flying by!

On July 6th, we made the trek back over to Monrovia to go to storytime at our “old” library. We had somehow lost a library book before/during the move, so I needed to go back and pay for it. We are really going to miss Ms. Mandee—she did such a great job with the stories and crafts each week—but I’m looking forward to trying out storytime at the Madison library too, which is much closer to our new place!

On July 8th, we went to the Hesters’ and Renfrows’ for a belated 4th of July party. They had postponed the party by a week because it was supposed to rain a lot on the Saturday before. We got to the party a little late after doing some house hunting nearby. (For a couple of weeks, we were seriously considering building a house in Kelly Cove off Jeff Road, but after a lot of debate we finally decided against it.) We had a blast at the party! They had a huge inflatable water slide that Brooklyn absolutely loved. After eating, she pretty much spent the rest of her time on that slide. There weren’t any other kids her age at the party, but that didn’t stop her. She was hanging out with all the kids twice her age…haha. The picture above is a little blurry, but if you look at her face, you can tell how much she was loving it!

Watch out, Maci! :)

This picture gives you a better idea of how long the slide was. Brooklyn had no fear from the beginning! At the bottom of the slide was a “pool” of water, so she loved splashing around in that too. It was definitely a hit!

Savannah enjoyed playing on the swingset, blowing bubbles, and sticking close to Mommy. She didn’t want to try the water slide, which wasn’t too surprising ;) Having “older” kids (a.ka. no babies) definitely made this our easiest 4th of July party yet.

Brooklyn has always adored Mikayla, and I’m hoping she’ll be our go-to babysitter in the next couple of years if she’s up for it :)  Can’t believe she’s starting 9th grade this year!

More fun on the balcony coloring/drawing – notice “Boo-ey” sitting there on the table next to Savannah :)

Monday, July 10th – the girls hung out at Cici’s for a couple of hours that evening while Travis and I went back to Kelly Cove for a second look. Then, we all ate supper at her house before heading home. Savannah says Cici’s mashed potatoes are good to the last lick! :)

July 11th – we went walking/exploring at Bradford Creek Greenway. It’s just a few minutes away from our apartment (by car), and it’s a great place to get some exercise. Of course, we didn’t go too fast or too far—but it was more exercise than I normally get each day at least :)

Two cuties after we got home from walking!

That day was also Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. I didn’t get pictures of us with our cow masks on (they were just free printables I found online, so they didn’t hold up all that well), but at least they got us the free food! We got there a little earlier than we did last year, so the line wasn’t as long, and we were able to find a table to sit at without having to wait.

Savannah is a huge fan of Chick-fil-a fries!

It’s usually hit or miss with what Brooklyn will eat. Most of the time she’s not a huge fan of french fries. She’s usually so excited to play in the play area that it’s hard to convince her to eat much of anything though :)

Brooklyn wanted to get her picture made with the Chick-fil-a cow before we left, and Savannah started crying hysterically when we asked her if she wanted to be in the picture too. Guess that was a no ;)

Gabby has adjusted well to living in a new place. She always comes to the door meowing when we get home and hasn’t seemed too freaked out by the move. Felix would NOT have done well with the house-selling and moving process, so I think it was actually a blessing in disguise that we had to find him a new home last fall.

On Friday (July 14th), we went to the Athens Kiddie Carnival. This was our 3rd summer going, and it was our best experience there yet! The girls did really great the whole night. The Hoods met us there (we normally try to coordinate going with them at least once each summer), and the kids all had fun just being together. We love Nathan and Gabriel!

I know we will love looking back at all the pictures of Brooklyn and Nathan together one day. They have always gotten along so well, and it’s neat that we’ve gotten to experience the Kiddie Carnival with Nathan and his fam each year. Can’t believe how much these two have grown since 2015!

We got there a few minutes before the Hoods did and had time to do a ride by ourselves. First up were the rocket ships! Savannah opted not to ride this one, so Brooklyn rode alone :)

Savannah was brave enough to ride the swings though!

Love that we caught a Pookie smile on camera!

The Hood boys were looking stylish in their hats and sunglasses :)

Next, we got in line for the cars. I thought maybe Brooklyn would be “too big” for this one this year, but she wanted to ride it! Savannah, on the other hand, rode it last year, but refused to ride this year. We didn’t force it, so she stuck with us instead…

After the cars, Brooklyn and Nathan rode the big kid swings by themselves. This was Brooklyn’s first time on this ride, and she seemed to like it!

What makes this ride even more exciting is the volunteers who spray the kids with water guns while they are riding…haha! Brooklyn squealed with excitement and covered her face every time she came around.

Haha!

The next ride that they did was the train. This was another ‘first’ for Brooklyn–it seems like every year, the train isn’t working on the night we go to the carnival. Thankfully, it was working that night while we were there!

Savannah opted to sit this ride out too :) Are you noticing a theme here? Thankfully, she was pleasant the whole night and didn’t mind one bit just watching the other kids. She ended up riding the little swings twice and the carousel once, and that was it.

Next, it was back to the little swings for the second time. This time, Savannah and Gabriel rode next to each other. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but Savannah was smiling here too. Her favorite ride all night? Definitely the “fwings” :)

Excuse the Brooklyn blur in the foreground, but I think somebody may have a little crush on Nathan ;) She’ll have to fight her big sister for him though!

Another “first” this year for Brooklyn was riding the ferris wheel! She didn’t want to ride it last summer, but really enjoyed it this year. The volunteers make it so fun by interacting with the kids…giving high fives when they come around, telling them to make silly faces, and encouraging them to scream as loud as they can (which Brooklyn is always up for doing!).

Savannah was happy to sit next to Daddy while Brooklyn rode the ferris wheel and wave at the camera :)

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but our last ride of the evening was the carousel. Savannah actually rode this one (probably only because I stood right beside her the whole time), but she and Brooklyn both had fun on it. We were so proud of how well the girls did the whole night! They waited patiently in the lines for the rides, didn’t complain that they didn’t get to eat a special treat while we were there (we had told them beforehand if they didn’t eat a good supper, they wouldn’t get a snack at the carnival…so they knew that ahead of time when they didn’t eat well), and were in good moods the whole night. When it was time to leave, Brooklyn asked very nicely if we could just go look at the rollercoaster (one ride we didn’t have time to do) but not get in line for it. It is always so encouraging when she doesn’t throw a fit when it’s time to leave, so we were very proud of her good behavior! Brooklyn’s favorite ride: the carousel; Savannah’s favorite ride: the “fwings”. Can’t wait to go back next summer!

I rarely pull out our “good camera” these days, but I did get it out on Sunday the 16th to snap a picture of the girls in their coordinating dresses. Savannah always makes squinty eyes when the flash goes off…haha :)

On Monday, July 17th, we had our 4D ultrasound of Baby Sister! She was frank breech and had her legs and arms in front of her face for most of the time. Her heart rate was around 140. She gave us a couple of big yawns at the beginning of the ultrasound—so cute! It will be interesting to see which sister she looks like (or if she just looks completely different from either one). I felt like of the 3 girls, we got the best 4D pictures of Savannah, but we did get a few good ones this time around. Brooklyn thought it was pretty cool to see pictures of Baby Sister’s face! Savannah, on the other hand, just wanted to be near Mommy the whole time and didn’t care what was on the screen ;)

I’ve done a terrible job of updating how I’ve been feeling during this pregnancy, but overall things have gone really well. Honestly, I feel like I haven’t had too much time to think about how I’ve felt. Probably the worst symptom I’ve had is fairly frequent headaches/migraines that sometimes persist for several days before going away completely. Usually, they aren’t bad enough to knock me off my feet completely, but enough to make me grumpy ;) No medicines I’ve tried have really helped, so generally I just wear an ice pack around on my head all day long, which at least helps it feel better. Other than that, and some ugly spider veins on my right calf/ankle (Travis thought I’d injured myself when he first noticed them because my lower leg looks all bruised), I can’t really complain. This is my first pregnancy to have a “posterior” placenta (as opposed to an anterior one), which is kind of interesting. I feel like this baby has been squishing my bladder a lot more than the other girls did, but I’m not sure if that’s related to her position or the position of the placenta. I’m thankful things have gone well so far and hopefully they will continue that way!

Savannah loves to eat lunch “ow-SIDE”, but this particular day Brooklyn wanted to eat inside at the table. It didn’t phase Savannah one bit to sit out on the balcony all by herself to eat. She definitely seems to enjoy her alone time much more than Brooklyn does.

More often than not these days, Brooklyn does quiet time in her room instead of actually taking a nap in the afternoons. I’d say she takes a nap maybe once or twice a week. So sad!! Her idea of quiet time is playing in her room and coming out to ask me every 10-15 minutes if she can come out yet…haha. My social butterfly :) It’s always funny to come in her room after she’s been in there for a while to find out that she’s accidentally fallen asleep (much to her own dismay, I’m sure, since she never thinks she’s tired!).

Wednesday, July 19th – 29 weeks along!

Another morning at the pool! Rae Rae bought these hooded beach towels for the girls, which have been great since they are smaller and don’t drag the ground on our walk back to the apartment :)

On Monday, July 24th, we went back to the Bradford Creek Greenway for more exploring and walking. The greenway runs right beside the creek for part of the way, and we found a spot that’s perfect for throwing rocks into the creek. We spent more time throwing rocks than we did walking :) We also brought along plastic bags, and the girls collected “treasures” that they found (a.k.a. rocks, leaves, tree nuts, etc.). It was a fun morning!

The next morning, we headed to Bridge Street to play in the pop-up fountains! We usually go several times each summer, but this was our first and only time this summer so far. I think having a pool to swim in plus all the craziness of the prior months is a pretty good excuse for not going. Savannah didn’t want to even touch the water at first, so she sat beside me and ate her lunch. Brooklyn, of course, was soaking wet in the first 5 minutes. Alisha and her crew joined us a little later, and once Carter got there, Savannah suddenly got brave and decided to go play in the water too. We ended the morning with some frozen yogurt from Orange Tree. Hopefully we can go back at least one more time before the end of the summer!

On Wednesday, July 26th we checked out the library in Madison for the first time. They were taking a break from story time that week, but we discovered a neat children’s area with lots of books, blocks, and puppets in one corner of the library. It was pretty crowded with other kids that day, so apparently it must be the thing to do on a hot summer day (plus it’s free!). The girls had fun, and they’re excited to go to story time at the “new” library too.

We also made some real lemonade that day!

It was a hit, and Brooklyn has already been asking when we can make more :)

Savannah has gotten interested in the potty (“pah-bee”) lately, but we haven’t really tried hard to start potty training. She likes to sit on it and pretend like she’s gone, but in reality she’s never actually done anything in it :) I’m just not that motivated to go through that process again, especially with another baby on the way so soon. I’m hoping she will be easier to potty train than Brooklyn was since she’ll have an older sister to encourage her, but we’ll see. I’m in no big rush to start, so maybe we’ll just put that off until next year ;)

I love to see the girls looking through their Bibles!

We dedicated the last Saturday of the month (July 29th) to starting the search for a minivan! We had pretty much decided on the Toyota Sienna, but hadn’t actually test driven one yet, so we headed to Car Max to do that. We ended up having to take the girls with us, but they did great the whole time we were there. They had a nice little playroom for kids inside where we let them play while we took turns test driving. We decided that the Sienna was the one after driving one that they had on the lot, but we didn’t buy one there that day because we felt like we could get a better deal elsewhere. It was still helpful to go and drive one in person, and then we spent the rest of the day calling other places with Siennas we’d seen online. It felt good to be making progress toward actually buying one, and of course, a spreadsheet was involved in the search and process of finding THE one ;)

Quotes and Notes from July: 

  • 7/16/17 – Brooklyn constantly asks about when she’ll be grown up and can do this or that. She also wants to go exploring in the forest (not on a trail). She also asks frequently “When will my baby teeth fall out?” and “How will I eat without any teeth?”
  • 7/17/17 – Brooklyn asked, “When can I grow a baby in my tummy?” Travis: When you get a bit older and get married. Brooklyn: “I’m going to marry Nathan!” Travis: You don’t have to marry the first fish in the sea. Brooklyn: “Yes, I do! I chose Nathan. It’s my decision!” Travis: I feel like we’re going to be having this same conversation in about 15 or 20 years ;)
  • Savannah is now calling Brooklyn “Buckin/Bookin”.
  • Savannah calls Sleeping Beauty “Boo-ey”, and she calls Belle from Beauty and the Beast “Beast”…haha. There obviously can’t be TWO Beauties!
  • 7/23/17 – After watching a few episodes from Shark Week with Daddy, Brooklyn prayed: “Dear God, Please help me to act like a shark, but please help me to not really be a shark.” Haha!
  • I get more offers of “Do you want a kiss/hug?” when it’s time to clean up at the end of the day than at any other time. Procrastination at its finest, but how can you get say no? :)
  • I thought I would document our thoughts about apartment living after being here for several weeks now. Overall, we are actually enjoying living here pretty well! The major downsides are not having a garage to park in (and it’s HOT!), not having a first floor apartment (although at least we don’t have neighbors above us), no programmable thermostat, and less counter space in the kitchen for meal prep. The good parts are having access to a pool, no maintenance or grass to cut, and Brooklyn’s bedroom (which the girls will share) is definitely bigger than her room at our house was. The complex is quiet, and we rarely hear our neighbors or anyone out in the parking lot. We do live right by the train tracks, but we’ve gotten used to that, and most of the time the trains don’t wake me up in the middle of the night. As far as the location, we are enjoying living in Madison city pretty much all the time except when it’s time to drive to and from church. Especially on Wednesday nights driving home…the girls are so tired by that point, and Savannah has cried all the way home more than once. Sundays and Wednesdays are the main times that I miss our old house and how convenient it was to church. Other than that, things are great! We obviously don’t want to live here forever, but it’s working out well as a temporary home while we look for a house to buy or build.

That’s all for now!

By Erin

Author of Trav and Erin + 3
Travis's wife
Mom of 3 wonderful girls
Very blessed!

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