Poor Pillow Pet

Caden has wanted a pillow pet for so long. It seems all of his friends and cousins have one. It finally came true when Jason and Deanna gave him an early birthday present.

He snuggled it the entire drive home and took it right to bed that night. The next night, I realized there was a small opening along one of the seams but decided it wasn't worth the fight of taking it away and to fix it the next day.

Poor Puppy never made it to the morning.




Maybe he was performing surgery and we have another Schow vet in the making.

30 weeks!

I'm happy to say this baby is still cooking. I'm at that point in pregnancy that I'm showing enough to be big and pregnant...but it's still cute and not too awkward or uncomfortable. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts because I know what is coming-and it is definitely not pretty.

I've been telling Caden that the baby will grow bigger and bigger until it's ready to come out of my tummy. "It will grow up to your neck?" he asked. "It will grow down to your knees?"
So I explained that no, it won't go to my neck or knees, my tummy will just get bigger. "Your tummy will get bigger and bigger, and then it will pop," he confirmed. That's one way to think of it.

Usually the first question people ask me is, "Is it a boy or a girl" and when I tell them we're not finding out til July when the baby gets here, the response is the same a majority of the time. "I always wanted to do that--but I'm too anal." I'm really surprised at the number of self-proclaimed anal people there are in the world! (Not that I don't have my issues--just ask my mom about underwear shopping with me when I was 7 years old.)

The next question is, "Well what do you think it is?" or "What do you want?"

From the day I found out I was pregnant, I thought it was a boy.
Beginning when Chad announced, "It's a boy" and Caden was put in my arms, my life has been devoted to raising a little boy. It's all I know. I love it. I am so happy with geotracks and Spider-man books. I want to do it forever. Besides, I once loved a boy enough that I didn't want to live without him, and so we got married. I'm just a fan of the boys in my life.

Plus, Chad came home one day and said, "I think we need to be discussing boy names. I'm pretty sure it's a boy." I bought a new boy outfit at Target so he'd have something to wear home from the hospital.

But then we started announcing it to people. The first thing my mom said was, "I can't wait to have a new grand daughter!" She's been right 9/10 times with the grandkids, and has earned her credibility. My mom and sister began sending me tiny, pink, ruffly outfits in the mail. And we got so many, "It's a girl--I just know it!" comments that I began to get excited. I made a bag of darling hair bows. I looked through boxes of my SIL's girl clothes--and died at the cuteness. There was an entire box dedicated to shoes. Shoes!! Ballet slippers, jellies, sandals. I spent the week in UT loving all my nieces, and the idea of a little girl grew on me.

Until one day my mom called me to say, "I'm not feeling so positive about saying it's a girl. Maybe it's a boy." And within the week Chad mentioned, "All week long I've been saying "she" about the baby--so maybe it's a girl."
And I took the boy outfit back to Target, and gave the bag of hair bows to my sister for my darling niece. But instead of feeling disappointed, I just feel more excited. It's a boy! It's a girl! I can't go wrong.

So I'll spend the next 10 weeks dreaming of dollies and jelly sandals or tractors and trains- knowing that whatever comes out- I will love it all the same.




Thanks to my friend, Jenn, for sending a new fun dress!

Love Bug

Caden has turned into such a little love bug! When we were in Utah, he had hugs for everyone. His favorite thing is to give "muv attacks". He came up with it one Sunday afternoon and it continues. It just consists of lots of hugs and kisses.



During the beginning of my pregnancy if I was ever not feeling well, he'd snuggle or rub my back. I love being taken care of by my little boy!


Caden's favorite thing is when we are all together. He calls Chad and I "You guys" or "Momadad" like we're one person. If Caden and I are laying in bed while Chad is home, he begs and begs Chad to come lay by us.

Utah

We drove to UT to surprise Chad's dad, Norm, for his 60th birthday party. Chad's brother Chris also flew in from Portland so all of the family was there.

Cindy took Norm to a cabin up the canyon and we all showed up a few hours later. I think Norm was initially confused about the whole thing, but of course excited to see us



The main thing I miss about not living in Utah is that Caden doesn't get to see his cousins and grandparents very often. He was deliriously happy to have so many people around.



.

Norm's birthday is on April Fool's Day. Jokes are a big deal in their family, and this year Christine had a good one. She was in charge of bringing pizza and showed up with a few boxes of Little Ceaser's 5.00 carry out. Chris even asked her, "What's with this pizza? I thought you would get us something better!" And she explained about long lines, a crazy day, etc. Inside was actually the Pie Pizza and she had several more waiting in the car. It was pretty funny because Christine knew Chad had been hoping for weeks to have his favorite Utah dinner that night!



Minute to win-it:


Caden was seriously into it!

Camping

Over Chad's Spring Break, we took an overnight camping trip to a spot not far from our house. I was really surprised at how beautiful it was up there. The campground was empty, which we thought was great. However, the sun went down shortly after we arrived and I realized why no one was there...it was freezing! On top of that, I'd forgotten my coat. Chad didn't have a coat either, but that was on purpose--he didn't need one. He kindly donated his wool socks and extra sweatshirt to me (though what was he supposed to do when I came out of the tent wearing them?)
It was a long, cold night--I spent most of it awake worrying about Caden being too cold and debating if I had to go to the bathroom bad enough to leave my sleeping bag. Poor Chad was in a light summer sleeping bag, and ended up climbing in with Caden at six a.m.
The next morning Chad and Cade got up to make us breakfast and I got in Caden's bag. Suddenly I couldn't believe I'd spent any time/energy/sleep worrying if he was warm enough--he was definitely sleeping in luxury using Chad's brand new bag! No wonder he was so bright eyed and cheery.
We debated staying another night but ended up leaving after lunch. As soon as we got home a downpour began, and we found out there was snow where we'd been.