Sink or Swim I'm Diving In

To finish off a long day of work and play Ella and her daddy decided to hop in the pool last night. After lots of searching we recently found Ella a pair of water wings that fit children under the age of 3. Of course they limit the range of motion she has with her arms, but they do allow her to keep her head above water on her own. She spent an hour in the pool last night swimming from the pool steps to her daddy, which was an impressive distance of about 5 feet. As the protective mommy I sat on the side watching to make sure she didn't accidentally drop her head under or swallow a big gulp of water as her breathing became a little more frantic as she was swam. There were only a few times that she needed a reassuring hug from mommy, who was cheering from the sidelines, and before we knew it she was trying to count and sing her abc's as she swam back and forth. After mastering this new skill it was nerely impossible to get her out of the water.

As for the other little Reuter, who is also submerged in fluids, we will find out if he is preparing to get out of the pool tomorrow at our next doctor appointment. This will be the first of our weekly appointments. I am 37 weeks and have 3 weeks to go. I feeling pretty well for being this far along, but let's be honest......comfortable has a whole new meaning when you are talking about the last month of your pregnancy. Comfortable means....I only get up 3-5 times a night, my back doesn't start to hurt until half way through the day compared to the full day and my belly is only in the way about half of the time. We will keep you posted on the status of little Reuter's arrival and Ella's latest activities. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our little fish!!!!

In Full Bloom

Well, it's April 14th and we are 5 and a half weeks away from the arrival of our first son. Some days I think things will be just fine when the baby arrives and other days I think that any mother of more than one child must be hiding super powers somewhere in her diaper bag. Anyway, I decided that I better start this project now to keep everyone informed on our family and what we are up to.

This year for my Anniversary/Mother's Day/Birthday/Labor present, Scott bought me a DSLR camera that I have been wanting. I have been playing with it all weekend and can't get enough. I want to be decent at taking pictures by the time the baby arrives. Anyway, today Ella was my subject and about 30 minutes after we started taking pictures she face planted in some rocks in front of our house. Needless to say, her face got banged up some, so I also got a lot of practice with my editing software.

Ella is full of life and energy and keeps me on my toes all of the time! We love her passion for life, smile, laughter and a silly spirit. Despite the excess energy she has to burn off every day, she has the sweetest personality. She has turned into little miss manners and is always using her please and thank you's. It melts our hearts everytime we hear her say the words, "Tank You" and "Pease" (Ella pronunciation). It's hard to believe she is almost two.

The baby is moving around like crazy. I sometimes wonder if he ever sleeps? I sure hope he does beacause I am not one to do very good without much sleep. Ella seems to be grasping the concept that there is a baby in my belly and loves to kiss it all of the time! However, I'm not sure that she is really prepared for what is in store for her in Mid May! She loves taking care of babies, but I'm not sure how much she'll like mommy taking care of a baby full time! I know she'll be very loving and will be a great helper, so I know we'll make it work somehow or another.

Until then, I try not to worry about it too much. God has a way of taking care of things. Plus, I already get up 3 times every night to go to the bathroom, have crazy dreams and feel like it takes me 5 hours to roll over in the middle of the night. Therefore, I don't think I want to add to the loss of my precious sleep for things that I have no control over at this point in time!

Well, I have to rap this up because it has taken me a long time to figure this out. I have been at the computer so long, that I now have kankles for the first time ever during one of my pregnancies! I just got up to get a drink of water and can barely walk. When I looked down at my feet, ankles and calves they looked like they belonged to a 3 foot 5, 400 pound woman. Now that's a picture I should post... pregnancy kankles!!!!!