It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This weekend we decked the halls to get ready for Christmas.  I love pulling out our decorations but try really hard to resist till after Thanksgiving.  Here are some of our Christmas touches around our apartment!

34 Weeks with Baby #2

This week has brought some relief from my rib pain.  About Tuesday this little one dropped down.  On one hand it's a little hard having her so low so soon but on the other I am so thankful that I don't have to endure another week of the rib pain.

I've been having some heart burn again.  For now it's not a particular food but more so just the acid that keeps coming up.  It's tolerable and I know it's not going to be forever.  This week I've developed stretch marks on my belly.  I didn't have any stretch marks with Mara until afterwards and they quickly went away.  These keep getting worse with time so I hope that they too disappear after birth.  I'm going to keep putting on the bio oil and hoping for the best.

We got a lot of the pictures hung in her nursery this week.  I also had all of the hooks put in the ceiling too.  Now it's just a matter of putting up the decorations.  I'm so glad we made some progress on it.

We still don't have a name nor do I feel like we are close.  We don't even have a top 5 like we did with Mara at this point.  Maybe next week?

I've also started drinking my raspberry leaf tea and will start the oil at 36 weeks  I can't believe we're at this point already.  We have blood tests and an ultrasound next Friday then we transfer to the local hospital at 36 weeks.

For comparison 34 Weeks with Mara!

Tot School-Thanksgiving

This week our theme was....THANKSGIVING!  hahaha surprise surprise.  I knew this week would be extra busy with food prep, shopping and just enjoying time together so I didn't go crazy planning a lot of activities for Mara.

On Sunday, in church, Mara did a cornucopia of things she was thankful for.  Of course this is all relative as she is two but it was cute none the less.  AND fit seamlessly into our week's theme.

Monday we started off with our usual coloring page.  She was really into the turkey I printed out and helped me color all the feathers and body.

The real star of the week was our next activity.  I created a paper punch turkey where I punched out stars out of the different color feathers.  I then adhered contact paper behind the punch outs so she could re-attach them.  She quickly matched all the stars to the right color feathers and wanted to do it again!  Unfortunately this was a one and done craft but she seem satisfied to put it on the fridge for display.

On Tuesday we did a twist on a do-a-dot worksheet.  I printed off a pumpkin pie and gave her a bowl of cotton balls and scooper.  I asked her to put the "whip cream" on the pie.  I think she did one cotton ball.  Total dud.

The afternoon's project was much better as we did lego-stamping Indian corn.  I gave her a blank piece of paper, stamp pads, and legos.  I asked her to stamp the legos all over the paper.  After she was done we cut out corn shapes and glued husks on them.  She really loved this and took special interest in running the glue stick.

Wednesday was a busy but I did lay out a pilgrim do a dot for her.  She ignored it most of the day but I came home to see it finished from our anniversary dinner.  We also traced our hands onto the etch a sketch and made turkeys out of them!

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving and Friday we rounded the week off with a turkey themed door hanger.  My mom sent these foam craft kits earlier in the year and I finally got to put this one to use.  Mara loved it.  There were two in the package so we both did one.  She loved peeling the backings off the sticker and making her turkey.  She was so proud to hang it on the door when she was done.

This week was short but I'm glad we were able to get in as many activities as we did.  Mara seemed to really grasp that turkey was a big thing making the "gobble gobble" sound all week.  Next week we are moving on to opposites!  We'll explore a lot of different concepts such as wet/dry, soft/hard, fast/slow etc.

Thanksgiving

This year we decided to have a lazy Thanksgiving here at our home.  We were given a turkey when we arrived in Tbilisi back in August and it's been sitting in our freezer ever since.  I've never cooked a turkey but thought I should give it a try!

Thursday started off slow with sleeping in.  I didn't feel stressed about the food and was only a little nervous about the lack of oven space I have.  We only have a small oven and toaster oven.  The day before I did the pumpkin pie so that helped a little.  I also whipped out the slow cookers and did both the green bean casserole and stuffing in those.

Carving the bird

At about 10 I started cooking, roasting the sweet potatoes and prepping the bird.  I moved onto the rest of the sides.  In the end we had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie and flan.

Of course I made way too much food and we were super stuffed afterwards but that's what Thanksgiving is about.  :)  To top off the day we enjoyed a family nap followed by some Christmas tree decorating!

33 Weeks with Baby #2

I feel like I have nothing new to add here this week.  I've been dealing with a lot of rib pain.  The only relief I get is to stand (which causes other things to hurt) or lay.  I have a heating pad that helps a tiny bit.  It's funny because I'm getting to the point where I am questioning my movements.  Do I really need to go upstairs?  How can I make this trip the most fruitful?

We go to our last embassy appointment next week.  I'm not expecting anything crazy.  They'll likely just do the normal urine test and Doppler.  From there I will switch over to Chavchava clinic where we'll deliver.

I've been starting to really think about delivery.  I'm not nervous but just mentally preparing.  I want to make sure I have everything I need for recovery set to go.  I also want to prep some freezer meals for afterwards.  Josh's parents will be here so that will help but I want to make it super easy on us if we need it to be!

This little one has been moving a ton this week.  She still doesn't really do sharp movements but more so stretching ones.  It's really weird to me the differences in how it feels versus Mara.  With Mara I had an anterior placenta so all of her movements were muffled.  For this one I sometimes feel like my uterus is being stretched to it's limit.  I can also feel body parts as she pushes against my skin.  It's seriously the strangest thing.

I still think she is head up so praying that she flips with plenty of time to spare.  We'll probably confirm her position with one of our first appointments with the delivery doc.    Also hoping we can do some maternity photos before it gets too cold and dreary.

For comparison 33 weeks with Mara!

The Marine Ball

Josh and I attended the Marine Corps Birthday Ball a few years ago (you can read about it here) in Kenya and were excited to go to another here in Georgia.  The Marine Corps always throw a huge birthday celebration and I love that we've had the opportunity to go to two of them.  I love the traditions of the military and really enjoy seeing the Marine Corps traditions in action.

This ball seemed grander than that of Kenya.  Everyone was dressed to the nines.  We enjoyed a quick cocktail hour followed by the official ceremony.  The unit flew in an Iwo Jima vet for the event as it was also the anniversary of the battle.  The ambassador spoke as well as the unit commander.  

We enjoyed a great sit down dinner followed by dancing.  Despite my massive pregnant self we even hit the dance floor for a bit.

Overall it was a great night out!  Josh and I don't get a lot of time just the two of us and to get to have that plus dress up for a ball...well it was really fun.  I can't wait till next year so we can go again!

Tot School-Clothing

This week we are focusing on clothing.  Mara knows her clothing so I just wanted to focus on some fun activities that would introduce more clothing pieces and make the topic fun.

On Monday we started by decorating some mittens.  The weather is getting colder here and Mara hates to wear her mittens.  I hope that by decorating these paper mittens I may have an easier time getting her to wear them.  The night before I cut out mitten shapes from scrap construction paper.  I connected them with a piece of string and then grabbed some pom poms.  She took her time putting the glue on and attaching the decorations.

Later in the afternoon we did a winter clothing coloring page.  Usually she doesn't remain focused with coloring pages but she did with this one.  Maybe it was the time of day?  Anyways we talked about each article of clothing and colored them.  Later in the evening she even told her Daddy where you wear each piece of clothing!

The last thing we did on Monday was build a washing machine out of a cardboard box.  I had expected to use this toy for her to pretend to wash clothes.  She climbed in and decided to "repair" it using her tools.  We're going to keep it out for the rest of the week!

Tuesday started with some button lacing.  She's done this activity before and just keeps getting better at it.  She can pull the string through but has a little difficulty pinching the string right to get the button through.  She's close though!  Perfect activity for working on fine motor skills.

Then we moved on to shoe matching.  I grabbed some butcher paper and traced a few pairs of our shoes.  Mara matched each shoe to it's outline and then asked to do it again!  This activity was pretty simple but reinforced sorting and matching.

Wednesday we made a shopping bag.  I had a brown paper bag that I cut out a side of.  I added some contact paper and cut out some clothing shapes.  As Mara stuck them on her bag we talked about what they were and she pointed to the same thing on her if she was wearing it.

Later that day we got out all of our clothing puzzles and dressed the people up.  She has two where you can choose the outfit the person has.  It was fun to see her put different combinations together.

Thursday we didn't do any clothing related topics.  We were out of the house in the morning and then I was sorting our Usborne books in the afternoon.  We spent the rest of the day looking at all of our new books and learning that way!

On Friday we did a play dough mat in the morning.  I have never done a play dough mat with Mara before and honestly thought she wouldn't get the concept.  I printed out an outline of a person and told her we would use her play dough to dress the person.  We made a shirt and pants.  Then Mara wanted to give him a hat and shoes.  She did pretty good following along and even did the shoes herself!

Clothing was a fun topic for the week.  We didn't get through all the activities I planned but that's ok.  She knows her clothes and it was fun to work on other skills like the lacing and getting herself dressed.  Next week we're going to do Thanksgiving themed activity because of course it's the holiday week!  We'll be doing a lot of turkey themed arts and crafts as well as some activities!

32 Weeks with Baby #2

8 months with little girl!  Wow has time flew!  This week we went to the doctor.  I've decided to ride out my time at the embassy before switching fully to the doctor at Chavchava clinic.  I'll go back one more time before I'm cut off.  Everything went fine.  At this point they are really just looking for early labor signs (which I have none) and measuring my belly.

I was reflecting the other day how nice it is to have a more hands off pregnancy.  Sure we've checked for any underlying issues but otherwise I've just been allowed to be pregnant.  My body knows what it's doing and little girl is growing just fine.  Over here I have never had an internal check or any questions about evasive tests.  They will even let me be pregnant till the 26th of January before they get too excited about inducing.  My due date is the 4th so to have that much time is unheard of.

I've had some serious aches this week.  I have severe rib pain which was also my major complaint with Mara.  In my upper right back I get this aching pain toward the end of the day.  It's worse if I'm sitting and goes away completely if I'm laying or standing.  I read up on it and it's just because my uterus is up there in my rib cage at this point.

I haven't had much nausea this week which is refreshing.  I hope it stays away for the rest of this pregnancy.

Otherwise everything is flying by as usual.  We only have about 7 weeks left.  Josh's parents will be here in less than a month and then we're waiting on this little girl.  We still have to come up with a name and are also waiting on our marriage certificate.  We had to get it authenticated so that we can put both our names on her Georgian birth certificate.

For comparison 32 weeks with Mara!

Sorry for the poor quality.  I was too lazy to go upstairs to take a better picture.

Tot School-Construction

This week we are centering all of our activities around construction.  During the planning of this week I was a little disappointed as to how little I had to do with Mara.  I wasn't able to find a lot of activities and we don't have that many construction themed toys.  We're going to just roll with it and see where the week takes us!

On Monday we got off to a fast start.  I tried to interest her in a coloring page but she had other ideas.  Instead she grabbed one of her coloring books off the shelf and did that.  Mama got to color the dump truck!

She was semi interested in our next activity where I grabbed some of the prickly balls and pom poms I typically use as sensory bin fillers.  I asked her to fill her dump truck with them.  I wish I would have thought to give her a spoon or something so she could work on her fine motor skills but oh well.  We filled the truck twice and dumped it back out.  Currently our floor is covered in balls!

Even though the last few themes have been challenging for us they do seem to engage Mara in learning types of activities.  Usually shortly after finishing our projects she will move on to a puzzle or a book.  I love that these are the types of toys that interest her!

Tuesday we started with a do a dot dump truck.  She did a few dots and then asked me to do some.  I loved how she worked hard to match the colors of the markers to the colors of the dump truck.


After nap we did some lego stamping.  I had intended to have this activity involve paint but decided I didn't feel like cleaning up the mess.  Mara loves her stamp pads so it was a win win.  I grabbed a piece of paper and two of her duplo legos.  She pressed both sides of the legos into the ink to make lego stamps on the paper.  As with any stamp and Mara we quickly started to have to stamp her belly.
 

Wednesday was Veteran's Day so we didn't do any activities.  Daddy was off of work so we spent the day with him and exploring the city.  The beauty of this theme is you can almost talk about it no matter where you go in Tbilisi.  Our road is under construction currently so we talk about how bumpy it is and the big equipment present.

On Thursday we did some tool matching in the morning.  The night before I traced some of her tools on a piece of construction paper.  The next morning I simply set the paper out with her tool box.  She knew what to do immediately! She quickly matched all of the tools and then asked to do it again.  After a few times of matching them we played construction for a bit!

I had some work to do with Usborne so I set out a play dough invitation to play with her tools.  I know I keep saying this but she loves play dough.  It's an instant entertainer and I know she'll be good to go for hours.  She hammered and pounded her nails into the dough.

Friday morning Mara started by resorting her tools on the tool matching sheet and then getting out some play dough (girl loves her play dough).  Repetition with activities is good so I let her run with it.

We then moved on to a sensory bin.  I filled our tote with pom pom balls and threw in her tools.  I also gave her her dump truck and some legos to play with.  I love watching these activities evolve.  She started by filling the truck using her pliers which is great for her fine motor skills.  Then she used the legos to sort the pom poms by colors.  We ended the activity by pulling out all the legos and building the tallest tower we could.

Our Friday afternoon got away from us but we ended up building more lego towers and playing with her tools!  Sometimes the best learning activities are just through play alone!

This week was fun but busy.  I had two parties with Usborne which kept me occupied.  Despite that we still managed to get a lot of learning in.  Next week we're moving on to clothing.  I'm pumped for a few more hands on activities! (I'm going to attempt to make a washing machine out of a box and I hope she loves it)

31 Weeks with Baby #2

This week started off pretty much normal.  I was feeling pretty good just the usual third trimester woes.  I feel like this little girl is sitting pretty low.  We were out and about yesterday and I was feeling it by the end of the day.  I've found that I need to take it easy and wear my belly support as much as possible.

For the most part my heartburn was pretty absent this week.  I was so surprised as it has been a constant thing this last trimester.  I did have it pretty nasty last night but was able to fend it off by laying down and sucking on some mints.  It makes sense as we had spaghetti and the acid from the sauce always gets me.

My sleep has been pretty bad this week.  I've been waking up every couple of hours to use the restroom or because of Josh's snoring.  It really isn't his fault either I just feel like I am getting to be a lighter and lighter sleeper as time goes on.  My hips aren't helping either as I have to roll over a lot to relieve pressure on them.

I worked on the rest of the nursery projects this week and have everything pretty much ready to hang. I'm so glad I got my act together on this and got things done.  I know everyone says it's different with number two but I had Mara's nursery ready when she arrived so I'd like to have this little one's ready too.

We've talked more names lately but still are no where close.  I made a short list and Josh has vetoed some.  Some we both like it's just a matter of narrowing it down more.  I don't know if Josh will do some searching of his own or if we'll choose from my list this time (with Mara none of my names made our short list).

For comparison 31 weeks with Mara!

Tot School-Food

This week we're doing food.  Despite this theme being pretty obvious, I've found that coming up with specific activities to be a little difficult.  We don't have a ton of food toys.  Mara has some wooden fruit but that's it.  We also don't have any books that specifically deal with food.  I've just been trying to be creative and hit on a lot of food groups for Mara.

On Monday we played with play dough.  Mara always wants to pull it out.  I didn't have a project in mind this time but we decided to have a "picnic".  We grabbed her plates and made pretend food out of the play dough.  She loved the blue berries and the strawberries I made.

Tuesday we caught up a little and started the day with a coloring page.  The page was filled with vegetables and we got to talk about what colors they were.

In the afternoon I put together a fruit sensory bin.  This was the first time I used oats as my sensory bin filler.  I was nervous that it would be a mess and it was.  It wasn't as bad as I thought but it still took a bit more clean up than I'm used to.  In the end it wasn't anything a quick vacuum couldn't fix.  Mara loved this though.  She scooped the oats into the pots and cut the fruit.

Wednesday started with a do a dot worksheet.  I originally laid this out the day before but she was completely uninterested.  This morning though she was into it.  It was an ice cream cone and we talked about how yummy ice cream was and what our favorite flavors were.

We don't own the book, "If you give a pig a pancake" so I pulled up a you tube video on it and then we pretended her piggy bank coins were pancakes.  We fed her pig a lot of pancakes!  She seemed to like this story although she was kind of dissatisfied with the you tube video.  I think this is mainly because we have been using you tube a lot lately for children's songs and she just wanted to listen to music!

After nap we did one last project.  In the morning I cut out a pineapple shape and tore up some yellow paper.  I knew pineapple was one fruit she hasn't seen a lot so I wanted to introduce it to her.  We used a glue stick to adhere the paper to the pineapple.  She really liked this activity and stayed pretty much engaged throughout the whole thing despite eating her snack at the same time!

Thursday she again was more interested in playing than doing any activities.  We did fit in a "paint the toast" worksheet in the afternoon.  I had printed out a page that was a picture of a piece of toast and gave her some purple crayons.  I let her put the jelly on it!

Friday we decided to forgo the usual activities and just baked some cookies!  This was a project we both could get behind.  Mara happily ate the cookie dough while I scooped the remaining dough on to cookie sheets.  We've been enjoying fresh chocolate chip cookies ever since!

Next week we're doing a construction theme.  Again I don't feel like I have enough interesting activities planned but we'll just do the things we do have and go from there!

Happy Halloween

This year Mara really started to understand Halloween.  She was super excited to wear her Minnie costume (which I was surprised about) and seemed to understand that we were going to get candy.  

We started off at the embassy for their Halloween event on Friday.  Each child was given a trick or treat time and went with their group to trick or treat through the participating offices.  

There were a ton of candy stops and Mara hung right in there.  She had her pumpkin and did great following the older kids.  She did get a little scared at some of the more decorated offices, especially one with a guy who was terrorizing the kids.  (I mean you see a baby don't do that!)

After we were done trick or treating we got a Halloween photo in the CLO office and then it was time to go home.  By this time Mara had already eaten three pieces of chocolate and was on a total sugar high.

Saturday there was trick or treating at one of the embassy neighborhoods.  It is pretty far from our house so I didn't originally plan on going but Josh needed to work so Mara and I got out.  

We hit every house on that street!  She loved going up to the doors and knocking.  Mara really loves M & Ms and actually calls them "num nums".  By the end of the night she had started to ask for, "num nums please" at each door.  

Overall it was a great Halloween.  I love experiencing the holidays with Mara and love watching her start to really enjoy it!

As a Strawberry, Halloween 2014

As Minnie, Halloween 2013