18 Weeks

My first "belly pic" of this pregnancy...

I need to try to scan our first sonogram pics and upload them, as well as transfer pictures from our old computer to get some comparison belly pics.

A student asked me a couple days ago if I was pregnant so I guess it's officially obvious. I had been pretty peticular about what I was wearing to school so that it wasn't obvious, but that day I just grabbed what would keep me warm (our building is freezing) and knew right away that I wasn't hiding anything.

Our next sonogram is May 20th. As of now, we have decided not to find out the gender. We'll see if we (mainly, I) can stand not knowing.

Rainy Weekend

It rained all weekend - which was obviously tough for us since all Finn wants to do is play outside. Here he is coloring very intently.

That's chocolate donut face. He loves them just like his mom and it's one of our special weekend breakfast treats. We either share those or cinammon rolls. He helps me make them and lets me know when they're ready because he yells when the timer goes off and sprints to the oven.

Later in the day we went to Champaign Public Library for Baby Boogie Woogie. When Finn was born, we got a little bag of freebies from the hospital. Inside it was a CD from Champaign Public Library with kids music on it that they had produced - some original songs along with some age old favorites. Well, the local singer/songwriter who sang on the CD was doing a little concert at the library of all the songs on the CD. Since it was raining we decided to head over there. We were glad we did. There were lots of kids and Finn got right in the middle of all of them dancing and running around. I didn't have the camera or my phone to take pictures. If I can figure out how to gets pics off Wes's phone, I'll post them. We're hoping for better weather this weekend, but it's not looking good. Come on sun!

OUTSIDE!

These days Finn couldn't be happier to be outside. Today he woke up asking to go outside - before he ate, got dressed, or had a diaper change. He just loves it which is why we are now pricing fences. We are constantly trying to keep him in the yard. We have found a few ways to keep him occupied inside the confines of our yard. We are planning to buy a sandbox because we know he will love that (based on our time at The Magic House and Emma Sue's). Sidewalk chalk can also keep him busy for a little while.

We found a slide just Finn's size at the elementary school which is a nice walk from our house. He made some friends last time we were there.

Of course we think Finn is brilliant, but we kjnow we're biased. We are sure that he is a pretty bright little guy. He catches on to things so quickly. After drawing a few stars and hearts on his coloring paper, he can now identify them and points them out in books without prompting. The other day I watched him sit down with "Where's Spot" and open each flap and say "no" (definitely an early stage of reading). He can also (a bit inconsistently) count to 10. He always skips 1 because we usually say it when we're prompting him to count, but he can
count the rest without error most of the time. It's a little frightening. It won't be long before he's smarter than the both of us.

Easter

We had a great Easter this year. The weather was fantastic and we got to spend some time with both sides of the family. We had breakfast at "the restrent" (the El Toro across the street that Wes just refers to as the restrent) with Grandma Kandy and Aunt Amanda. We then headed to Springfield for lunch and an egg hunt with all of the Paytons (minus Josh). Finn had a great time hunting for eggs. We hid some eggs just for him in the front yard because Austin and Donoven get pretty cut-throat.

Off they go!
Finn did get a couple of Austin and Donoven's eggs. It won't be long before he can hold his own with them.

Here's one...

And some more...

And another...

And another...

Bucket's getting pretty full.

All tuckered out. Time for snuggling with dad.

One more makes 4

Both grandmas got a special birthday present this year. Can you read Finn's shirt? That was the best picture I could get. That's right - Finn is going to be a big brother. His little brother or sister will arrive at the end of September. We have been to the doctor a few times and gotten an ultra sound. The baby looks great and is growing right on schedule. We heard the heartbeat last Thursday (163 beats per minute). We are very excited and are now deciding whether or not we will find out if Finn will have a brother or sister. Wes doesn't want to find out and I'm on the fence. We'll see if I can fight my inner planner for him.

Spring Break

We had absolutely no plans for spring break other than hang with the dude and get some stuff done around the house. We accomplished both goals. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as nice as we would have liked, but we did have one beautiful afternoon so we headed to campus for lunch and some time on the quad followed by some frozen yogurt.

Can you see Finn right in front of the sidewalk? He had no fear about running as far away from mom and dad as possible.

Into his work.

Every good U of I student spends some time doing homework on the quad.

Sketching Foellinger.

Hopping from bench to bench in front of the Union.

He can look cute even in that hat. :)