Life as a single mother....kinda

Well, Chris has been on business all week in Orlando. I'm not gonna lie, I don't know how single mamas do it. I don't even have to go to work! Yikes. I did a good job of planning activities to get us out of the house this week, but I am still craving adult conversation by the time he gets home (which this time, is tonight!). Monday Anna-Kate and I went to the zoo with her friend Campbell and my friend Wendi. The Atlanta zoo is smaller than I imagined it would be, but honestly, had all of the "important" animals that Anna-Kate knows and wanted to see. She loves the elephants, giraffes and zebras (though kept getting more excited about the birds in the trees...) and the lions! The "daddy" lion kept roaring really loud and she had the biggest grin on her face!. We saw pandas and kangaroos and went in the petting zoo to pet goats, pigs and sheep. Every time she petted the sheep she screamed "BAAAA!!!!!" It was hilarious!

Tuesday we went to Mana and Papa's house to play and for dinner. I know they enjoyed seeing her, and she was sweet and played so well there (and outside on Papa's grass). Wednesday she played with her friends in the nursery at church while I was at Bible study and then that afternoon we went to Kangazoom with our playgroup. She had such a good time!

The weather has finally turned gorgous!! We have been playing outside and going on long walks every day. Great excercise for mama and Anna-Kate loves being outside!

Her language is just exploding, I am so impressed. This morning she heard Copper barking so she trotted off to find him. She came back a minute later and said, "mama, ca-ca's a tair". Sure enough, Copper was sitting on the other side of the gate on the stairs. :) With a growing vocabulary comes a strong will and the ability to know exactly what she does and doesn't want. Hmmm. It used to be so easy, now she knows when she isn't ready for a bath, because after bath time is bed time. :) It really makes me appreciate her though, because she is generally a really obediant kid. I watch other kids her age and compare (Iknow I shouldn't, but I do..) and I am so proud of her! When I say come here, 9 out of 10 times she comes, and that 10th time she comes after I tell her again (as she knows consequences will follow, but whatever).
After naps we are going to Adam's house to play. They've been out of town the last week, so Anna-Kate is dying to play with her friend! Then we'll go out to dinner. Before Chris left I had him grill me enough chicken to eat for dinner every night. If I look at another piece of chicken I think I'll lose my lunch--I'm over it, so we are going out to Carabas with the Crabbs tonight! Tomorrow we are headed to Macon for the weekend to celebrate Daddy's 60th birthday!

17 weeks pregnant and counting!

I got on a pregnancy tracker today and realized I am 43.8% of the way through this pregnancy. It is kind of shocking to me. I feel bad that I don't think about this baby 58 out of every 60 minutes in an hour like I did for Anna-Kate, but I am just too busy keeping up with a little one and her activities to do so! We are in a playgroup, and I am part of a Bible study, on top of seeing friends for playdates-we have a packed schedule! :) Last Thursday I went in for my 16 week appt. I told Dr. Tate that I wanted to know the gender of the baby and he needed to find it for me. :) We looked a long time and he did a lot of poking and shaking of my belly to get baby to move. He said if he was going to guess, he would guess girl, but that he was not certain enough of that to write it in my chart. So, we'll have to wait until October 2 to find out for sure. One thing I have realized is that this baby seems to be a lot more mellow than Anna-Kate was in the womb--maybe I'll have a laid-back child! Ha, who would have thought?! There isn't a lot new going on-we are gearing up for Chris to be traveling the last couple weeks of September for work. Anna-Kate and I will head to Macon for a few days. Then, the first weekend in October our family will be going to Destin, FL for a long weekend. I am really excited about that! Anna-Kate had such a good time last May, and I can only imagine how much more she'll enjoy it this time! I'm going to try to attach a video of Anna-Kate playing in Copper's kennel. We'll see.... :) Here goes:

Chris was getting Anna-Kate ready for church this morning and sneezed. Instantly, Anna-Kate replied, "bess eww dada". Chris said he looked at her and said, "say bless you again" and she just looked at him. To me, that means she is just learning manners as a way of life, not as a thing to be prompted to say. I'm proud of that girl!
This weekend has been so nice and relaxing! Chris had Friday off, in addition to Monday, so we have been really enjoying the family time! Friday morning we went to kangazoom, a huge indoor play area for kids with those big blow up jumping things. Anna-Kate had a ball! Here are a couple of pics. The first is she and me going down about a 20 foot slide. She loved it:

Next is her and Chris in a maze thing:

Finally, her in a tunnel:

Saturday I ran some errands and met Allison and a couple of girls for lunch at the Swann House in Buckhead. It was alright-as I don't do mayonaisse I spent most of lunch queasy as that's all I could smell in the whole place!