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Joovy Caboose Stand-On Tandem Stroller

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the people that told me we would really want some type of stroller for Anna at Disney. She doesn't really ride in strollers much these days so we were thinking that we could get by with just an umbrella stroller for Owen. We would have seriously regretted that decision. 

We weren't super stoked about buying yet another stroller, but the double that we have is way too bulky to travel with and is pretty difficult to steer. I don't even use it now because it's so heavy and barely fits in my trunk. I borrowed a double umbrella from a friend, but at the last minute (thanks Amazon Prime!) we decided to go ahead and buy a sit and stand of our own, knowing I'd get use out of it at the zoo now and in the future with #3. Kevin did a quick search for best reviewed double strollers and came up with the Joovy Caboose Tandem Stand-On. It's great. 

We got it on sale too which was a real bonus. As a sidenote, there was a $60 price difference from one day to the next on specific colors. Today it's listed for WAY more than we bought it for. So, if you're thinking about making the purchase watch the prices for a few days. They'll probably change.  

Kevin had to do a lot of folding it up, lifting it, and holding it on the bus rides to and from the park which wasn't super convenient, but I can't tell you how many times we said to each other, "I'm so glad we got this stroller." There were times that we wanted to get somewhere fast and we'd have Anna jump on so we could get moving. There were other times that she was just plain tired and would ask to ride for a while. And sometimes we'd have her ride just so we wouldn't lose her. It was much easier to maneuver through crowds of people with her on the stroller instead of dragging her along beside one of us by the hand. 

Another plus about this particular stroller is that it's low enough that Owen can even sit on the bench seat safely. You can see how Anna's feet can touch the ground in the pic above. It was a nice change of pace sometimes for him to sit on the back and her to sit up front. It's still a bit too bulky to keep in my trunk all the time, but it should be great for extended trips out. I can also put the car seat in the front when baby #3 arrives if needed and one of the kids can sit on the bench. Not sure how often we'll use that feature, but it's nice to have the option. Overall, a great buy...even if it is our 6th kid hauling apparatus ;)

16 weeks

About baby: according to Babycenter baby is currently the size of an avocado - about 4 1/2 inches long, weighing around 3 1/2 ounces. Apparently, baby is about to have a growth spurt, doubling in weight and adding several inches in length over the next few weeks. I'm guessing my 20 week photo will be much larger than this week :)
About mama: I've been feeling great for the most part. My energy is back and I'm rarely nauseous, except for a short bit in the morning sometimes that passes quickly. I was worried about how I'd fare walking around all day at Disney, but it wasn't an issue at all. I've definitely been feeling a few baby flutters which is really cool. I was having a bit of shortness of breath a week before our trip so my doc ordered a cardiac ultrasound to check things out. Everything looked ok. I think that the shortness of breath was probably related to a cold I picked up from the kids, which progressed into an ear infection while we were at Disney. That was a real bummer, but I'm on antibiotics now and feeling pretty good. Hopefully, we'll know the sex of baby by my next update! The survey seems to be leaning heavily towards a boy. We'll see soon enough!!

boy or girl?

We won't find out for a few more weeks if baby #3 is a boy or a girl and I honestly have no idea or leaning one way or another. Maybe it's because we already have one of each? And we have zero preference. A healthy baby is all we're praying for.

Something that's different this time around is that we haven't quite settled on a name yet. With Anna and Owen we had a boy and girl name picked out pretty far in advance of the gender ultrasound. Anna would have been Owen if she was a boy and we stuck with that choice for our second pregnancy. If he'd been a girl he would have been Audrey, which is still in the running for #3. We're pretty set on a boy's name, but decided we'd just wait a few more weeks to start duking it out over our top picks for a girl.

So what do you think? Is it a boy or a girl this time?? You can cast your vote in the sidebar until mid-May.

Disney World

We just got back from a great trip to Disney World! We spent three days at the Magic Kingdom, one at Epcot, and one at the Animal Kingdom. It was definitely exhausting, but it was such a great experience for our family. We're SO incredibly grateful that we had the opportunity to take this trip. I don't have the energy to split these over posts so it's a lot of scrolling. I have more pictures posted over on facebook if you just can't get enough :) 

Finally at the Magic Kingdom castle

 Anna probably rode the carousel about 7 times.

Riding the Dumbo ride with daddy

 on the train

 character dining at 1900 Park Fare

 back on the carousel :)

 brunch at Akershus (Norway) at Epcot. Lots of princesses here, but Anna got super shy

 Owen on the other hand, really enjoyed the characters

 playing at the kids pool at our resort. This was the day they went with Kevin while I was at Urgent Care getting my ear infection taken care of. That was a real bummer, but after I started on some antibiotics I was feeling a million times better!

riding the People Mover at the Magic Kingdom

 Alice was one of the only characters we waited in line for. Anna got too shy when it was her turn though so Owen and I stepped in. Anna was pretty sad she missed out on Alice afterwards.

 Lunch at The Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom

 Anna's new best friend, Pascal (the lizard from Tangled)

 token pic from our hotel - The Caribbean Beach Resort

 sleepy man on the bus

 Our only shot with Mickey, taken at the Animal Kingdom

 Lion King show at the Animal Kingdom

 Kevin took Anna on the safari bus at the Animal Kingdom. I wasn't allowed to ride because I'm pregnant so I walked around the park with Owen.

 Dinner at The Flying Fish on the Boardwalk.

 1900 Park Fare again on our last day for brunch. Different characters this time

 Anna mustered up all of her courage so she could see Alice this time.

 Owen couldn't stop looking at the Mad Hatter's nose. he was so intrigued.

 bye bye, Disney!

ugly cry for service, please?

Today I called the insurance company to get some clarity on our plan. Ha. That must be some kind of oxymoron: clear insurance. These kinds of things are SO confusing to me. I was feeling pretty fragile at the point I made the call. The representative that answered may as well have picked up a loaded gun. Poor lady.  She wasn't unfriendly, just a little short and to the point. She answered my questions when I pressed her, but didn't elaborate and only opened up my actual records (rather than answer generically) when I kept pressing her about specifics.

Then, it happened. I reached my limit and totally started doing the ugly cry. I finally choked out, "I'm sorry. I'm pregnant and I'm really emotional today and all of this is so confusing. I feel like a total crazy person." And you know what? She was like a whole new person after that. It was like she turned into a real woman. Somebody's mom who truly wanted to help me. I got all of my answers and more, as well as a little pep talk from a stranger. Reminded me of the Monday Morning Meltdown I had when I was pregnant with Owen. Anyone else remember that one?

It's a real bummer that it takes tears to get someone to help you, but man it seems to be effective. I've actually found it to be much more effective than yelling or (gasp) being kind and patient. Now that's a bit ridiculous, don't you think? You shouldn't have to be a crying, pregnant, woman to get good service. But based on this (and a few other experiences) I'm thinking that even after I'm no longer pregnant, maybe I'll just ride this train and pull out the ugly cry whenever I'm trying to get customer service. Seems to work. Is that totally messed up??

cousins

After my last post I went looking for a few older pictures of my nephew Blake to compare to Owen with his new short haircut. Blake was either 2 or 3 when this first picture was taken on our family fishing trip to Lake Kabetogama. I can't remember. Aunt Heather?? 

How's that for similarity??

And I just had to throw this one in because I think it's hilarious. I still can't believe that happened..

time for a (real) haircut

I've been trimming Owen's hair for a while now, but as the temps have gone up (with the exception of this week!) it's become obvious that the kid needs more than a trim. He has a full head of thick Harris hair thanks to Nana's side of the family and he's always run pretty warm, so he turns into a hot mess every time the temp goes above 50. We've seen a lot of this lately..

I knew that mane would be miserable at Disney, so as much as it killed me to do it - I took him to get his hair cut. By someone who actually knows what they're doing. And I didn't cry. Yay, me :) We went to Shortcuts upon recommendation of several friends. They were great. They're obviously used to squirmy, crying, flailing kids, but still did a great job and never seemed impatient or annoyed.

 He did pretty well until she got the clippers out, but whenever he started getting too upset she paused to blow bubbles for him ...

 which he LOVED. Then she went back to trimming while he was distracted and happy :)

 All done.

 He looks so grown up now. No tears from Mommy, though. I think I deserve a treat. Look at this handsome man!

 We didn't hear it much at The Oaks, but people down here tell me ALL the time how much Owen looks just like his Daddy. I definitely saw it, but now that they have matching haircuts, I think he looks SO much like Kevin. Also reminds me a lot of cousin Blake when he was little. Such a Jamison.

Sojourn Women's Retreat - GO!

The Sojourn Women's Retreat is just around the corner, April 27-28. It's something that I've been looking forward to since we moved here in October. We never had a time of teaching and fellowship as extensive as this for women at The Oaks and I thought it sounded really cool. I was a little disappointed recently to find that a ton of women I know aren't going :( Of course there are circumstances for some that make it impossible (husband out of town, family in town, prior commitments, etc.) but I get the impression that some women just don't feel like going. Bummer. I know that it's hard to be away, especially for those with little ones. I totally get that. I also get that many women don't want to leave all the responsibilities of the home and childcare to their husbands on what's probably one of their only days off. Kevin generally works on Saturdays and I felt a little guilty about asking him to spend the day with the kids, but he encouraged me to go, knowing that it would be an important time of cultivating community and growth in the Lord. I'm hopeful that there are lots of other men at Sojourn like Kevin who will encourage their wife to go if they're on the fence. I decided to go with his support and then it ended up working out that my mom is going to make the drive down to hang with our kiddos during the day on Saturday. Pretty great.

I'm hopeful that more women (especially from East, ahem) will sign up for the retreat. I'd love to get more face time with you all. I've loved getting to the know the women that I have, but it's been fairly limited to playdates which isn't necessarily the most "focused" time and also leaves out all of the wonderful single ladies or those without kids that I'm dying to know but have schedules pretty opposite mine. And if hanging out with me isn't reason enough to go, how about the great in-house speakers slated to share with us - Mandy Montgomery, Nora Allison, and Amanda Edmondson. These are fabulous, wise women that I'm eager to hear from. 

And if you still need reasons to go, check out this post from Katie Skeen, over at the Sojourn Women's blog. She actually used scripture to back up her argument - how can you say no to that?? Hope you to see you there!!

Anna-isms

Kids really do say the funniest things. I've been trying to keep a list of Anna's because even though I think I'll remember, I know I'll soon forget. Here are a few of her recent "isms" along with some pretty cute pics she posed for the other day. Silly little monkey.

 "I think I need a little Bambi" - aka Bandaid when she gets a bump or scrape
"Aw, nuts!" - picked up from the Curious George movie. took me a while to figure that one out.
"You'll never find/get/catch me now!!" - picked up from Swiper ala Dora
"Owen, that's naughty!!" - I don't know where she got this because we definitely don't say it, but it's hilarious every time

"Hey! What's going on here?!" - said every time she "catches" mommy and daddy hugging. Usually exclaimed while wedging herself in between us.
"Hey there little fella." - No idea, where this came from, but again - hilarious.
"Mommy, can you feel me better?" - when not feeling well or has a boo boo
"Do you going to work? Do you going to bed? Do you going to cook someping?" - she always says DO instead of ARE

"I'm going to stay here for the rest of my life." - when she doesn't want to do something
"I'm telling Daddy!!" - after being disciplined by mommy. She hasn't figured out yet that this only results in her having to tell daddy why she was being disciplined in the first place...

"I be shy now." - she's gotten very shy when we go places these days. She won't even go into children's church and she insists on keeping her coat and shoes on when we go to playdates until she feels completely comfortable.

And here's a funny little story. Last week we were at Kroger checking out. In the next line over there was an older woman (like 75 probably) who had a really pale complexion, short dyed black hair, and red lipstick. Anna pointed at her and screamed, "Look Mommy, it's Snow White!!" I certainly couldn't blame her. She DID look an awful lot like Snow White! Luckily, the lady took it as a compliment:)