The Ninth Inning

That's what my doctor called it when I had a routine appointment this morning. I will start to go to appointments every two weeks now. It is amazing when you start the two week appointments how much faster things seem to move along Before we know it Caleb will be here. Wow! The appointment went very well. All is as it should be. My glucose levels are great. So no gestational diabetes. My blood pressure is exactly where it should be. I gaining weight perfectly. Not too much. Not too little. This surprises me because I feel like I eat constantly, but I have been pretty active thanks to Karissa. God has blessed us greatly. I keep thinking about the time when I thought I couldn't have anymore children. Then thinking also of all the possible complications that come not only with just being pregnant but even more so (namely miscarriage) when you are pregnant with a thyroid condition and poly-cystic ovary syndrome. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers. Please continue to pray. One more trimester to go!

Quote from Karissa

"Mommy I love you, but you're too big for this bathroom."

Aunt Melanie

Late Friday, Aunt Melanie came to town for a short visit. She and Karissa had a lot of fun spending time together. Saturday, John, Melanie and Karissa spent most of the day playing music. I am sure with all this musical talent floating around Caleb will find a way to join in too. Sunday, Melanie helped John lead worship. They did a great job! Sunday also began a long running game of Rock, Paper, Scissors played by Melanie and Karissa. Monday, we took Melanie to St. Charles and even found a sign with Rock, Paper, Scissors on it. Of course, Aunt Melanie and Karissa had to have their picture taken in front of it. Monday ended with Aunt Melanie and Karissa going a date to Smoothie King. Melanie has been a wonderful Aunt and I am sure she will make a wonderful Aunt for Caleb too!

Karissa, the Builder

Yesterday was a work day in the Haley house. John built the Ikea furniture for Caleb's room to provide extra storage. Dorinda finished sewing the bumper pad. I started making some pillows. One is a giraffe and the other is an alligator. Karissa was a great helper as usual. She mostly hung out with Daddy building the furniture. She also created some artwork to hang in Caleb's room above the crib. The room is beginning to look more and more like a baby's room especially after hanging the curtians.

belly, belly

I was looking through past posts and realized I haven't posted preggo pictures in awhile. I completely neglected my plan to posted monthly pictures. Opps! Anyway the other day Dorinda took a picture of Karissa and Caleb. He is growing fast! This past month I have been feeling the best I have yet to feel. I am thinking he may have shifted to more of a transverse position which may explain why I feel more at ease. Also my energy has been pretty good or maybe I am just caught in the excitement of getting things ready for Caleb. Overall, I am feeling much less sore than I have been feeling. I am very thankful because with Karissa I remember things getting more uncomfortable as time went on. I had been worried because I started off so uncomfortable and could envision getting worse and worse. Caleb seems to be doing really well. Those movement are continuing to impress me with their strength and the predictability (kick, kick, punch, punch, turn, stop) of them has continued. Although last night, he changed up his routine for Daddy. John got close to my belly and started calling out his name. Caleb got all excited and started either punching or kicking in the exact spot John was talking. So precious!

the Zoo!

Yesterday, John took a day off of work using our anniversary as the excuse so we headed out to the Zoo knowing the weather would make it extra pleasant. Dorinda was a little hesitant about going because apparently her last zoo experience wasn't so pleasant. There are two things besides all the beautiful animals that make this zoo so nice to go to, all the trees (therefore a ton of shade) and the fact that it is free.


We began our adventure by visiting the monkey house. Karissa took it upon herself to talk to the monkeys. We then continued on to eat lunch. Karissa said she really wanted to see the lions so we headed over in that direction.





On the way we got distracted by the giraffes. As it would happen we ended up spending most of our time here. They had a baby and it was very cute. Karissa was very impressed by how tall they were. Then we headed toward the big cats. They were all napping so not too exciting, but Karissa thought it was funny that they took naps like her.



We then decided to ride the train to the other side of the zoo to see the elephants. John was very excited about this because we went through several tunnels. They also had a baby elephant. Somehow Karissa was most impressed by the size of their poo. We ended our time by going and seeing the butterflies. We all had a lot of fun taking pictures. I wanted to get some pictures of animals to put in Caleb's room. Dorinda didn't have much luck with her picture taking though, she ended up getting a lot of backsides of the animals. It turned out to be a fun albeit tiring day!

Getting ready for Caleb

We have been spending the last week and a half getting things ready for Caleb's room. Dorinda has been a tremendous help and Karissa has been very patient. I have dragged them all over St. Louis gathering up various items such as drapes to complete the room. The room for Caleb is quite small so I wanted to make it as bright as possible to keep it from looking crowded. Fortunately, I already had a lot of modern bright colored fabric. Also I found some very cute framed bright colored animal prints from Ikea. So the nursery will consist of bright color with a few cute little animals scattered around. No particular theme just trying to make it cheery. Dorinda has been working hard to paint as well as to sew a bumper pad and a couple of blankets. Of course, she has had the cutest little helper ever - Karissa. Looking forward to seeing it all completed! But most of all looking forward to meeting the future occupant!

St. Charles, MO!

Yesterday we went to St Charles, MO. St Charles is near the Missouri River and has a beautiful historic downtown area filled with unique shops and delicious restaurants. The first store we went to was a neat little bookstore which is where we ended up spending most of our time. Karissa loved dragging Grandma around and making her read different books. She even met a fairy there because an author who wrote a Young Adult Fantasy Novel, Eleganta, about fairies was there signing copies of his book. (I purchased one and look forward to reading it!)




We then wandered in and out of stores until we grew hungry and then ate outside at a nice little cafe. Caleb received some of his first gifts from Grandma (his very first were pacifiers from Karissa!). We ended our time there by going to a local coffee shop where Karissa met some superheroes, they were on a scavenger hunt to prove who was the most powerful. They were very kind to Karissa and gave her some little wooden trinkets.



Caleb seemed to enjoy the day too. He seems to like it a lot when I am up walking. I think he is going to be one of those babies when upset like to be walked around. We highly enjoyed our day in St. Charles and the gorgeous weather made it even more pleasant!

Magic House!

Last Wednesday, Karissa and Grandma enjoyed a trip to the Magic House. The Magic House is the St. Louis children museum. While they had their adventures I went to Lowe's and picked out paint colors for Caleb's room. Apparently it was quite an adventure because Grandma lost her camera, but thankfully it was found the next day! When I picked them up I not only heard about this but about slides, sand, the water room and Cinderella's coach and slipper and more. Wow! Thanks Grandma for the wonderful time!

Slide!Sand!Water Room!
Cinderella's Slipper!

Grandma's in town

This week and next week we will have the pleasure of John's mom's company. She has graciously agreed to help get Caleb's room ready. She arrived with Ikea furniture to add much needed storage. She will also sew some beautiful bedding for the crib as well as paint. I am so thankful for all her wonderful help. Her time here will not be all work and no play. We have already had a lot of fun and have many more fun activities planned. Last Saturday, we went to the City Museum and not only was Grandma with us but so was Aunt Melanie. The City Museum is full of things to see, climb, and make. It is by no means a typical museum. We all had so much fun exploring!

Aunt Melanie and Karissa striking a pose

Climbing with Aunt Melanie

Being an artist

This week Karissa and Dorinda will be making a trip to the Magic House. We will also go to the Botanical Gradens. We are also hoping to make it to historical St. Charles. Next week, Karissa and Dorinda will go to the Buttrefly House. Also Aunt Melanie will return. Yeah! Looking forward to a couple of weeks of great memories.

so strong

I just am amazed at how strong Caleb is. Even though I have felt Caleb moving for quite awhile now, but each time the movements are stronger and stronger. So strong they sometimes startle me. Which amazes me considering he is only a pound and 12 inches long. As before nothing gets him moving more than hearing his sister's voice. I have also noticed that his movements are a lot more predictable and often follow a pattern where as Karissa's were pure random.

Chi-town

We just returned from spending a couple of days in Chicago. We left early yesterday morning and arrived in downtown Chicago at about 2:30 pm. We stayed in a Fairfield right off the Magnificent Mile. Right after we arrived and checked in we made a beeline for the American Girl Store because part of our hotel stay package included a $50 gift certificate. Karissa carefully picked out a highchair for her baby.

We then walked around the Water Tower area checking out several stores and taking pictures and videos of Karissa. Afterwords we headed back to the hotel to catch a taxi to the Publican. The Publican is a restaurant we heard about from Food Network. We meet some great friends there and enjoyed a fabulous meal. Some of the best food we have ever had. We returned to the Magnificent Mile for dessert at Ghirardelli's. After this Karissa was pretty tired and asking to go to our room. Once in our room we all enjoyed a great night's sleep. We woke the next morning to have breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, somehow we can never go to Chicago without eating there. Then we headed to Macy's because I found I brought the totally wrong kind of shoes for all this walking and we weren't done walking yet.

After taking advantage of the great Independence Day sale we checked out of the hotel in order to find our way to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste of Chicago is where some 60 or so locally owned food vendors gather at Grant Park to serve amazing food. We highly enjoyed everything we ate as well as the setting. Grant park is beautiful being surrounded by the lake as well as those impressive high-rise buildings. After all this we were more than ready to make our drive home which turned out to have a nice added bonus. We managed to time our approach to St. Louis just as all the fireworks were going off. Our drive to the house was accompanied to the sounds of Karissa exclaiming "Oh, there is one!"; "That was a big one!"; "That's my favorite color!" Our trip was wonderful and full of great experiences!