June 23, 2010: Well, I'm 38 1/2 weeks pregnant and we are having a scheduled induction on Tuesday the 29th. Just 6 more days until we are a family of 5. As real as the pregnancy feels physically (I feel big and tired and have an aching back), it feels very unreal too. I cannot even grasp the fact that another baby will be in our house in a few more days. The first time around you are so organized and everything is prepared for the arrival of the baby. This time I have to remind myself to get baby diapers and find the bed, clothes, etc, that the newborn will need. None of this is to say that I am not very excited, because I am. I cannot wait to meet this little girl. Casey seems very excited about the arrival of the new baby and Julia has no idea about it. Here is a picture of Casey getting her Dad a "brewski". She loves doing this for him and gets the beer out, gets the opener and pops the top off on her own.
Anyways, besides me, the girls are doing very well. They both seem to get bigger and more mature all the time, especially Casey. It sometimes shocks me how tall she is getting and how old she seems. She is very excited about going to school in the fall and asks about when it will be starting all of the time. We've done a lot of swimming at my parents house this summer so far and they both love the water so much. Casey continues to improve without any real help or guidance from us. We just encourage her as best as we can to have fun in the water and she does. She tries out new things in the water, tests her buoyancy, tests how far she can swim, etc. She is so comfortable in there, she'll jump off in the deep end, and can swim as far as she has to to reach the edge, one of us, or a pool float. It is really great. Casey has made the move to her big girl bed. We just have a twin mattress on a box spring on the floor for right now. We're looking for the right frame but it is better for her to get adjusted on the floor anyways for now as she falls out onto the floor every few nights. For the most part she stays put in her bed. The first night was perfect then after that the girls started laughing together and Casey would get out of her bed to go visit Julia or mess around in the room. Eventually they fall asleep and since then the novelty has worn off and for the most part they just go right to bed.
Julia also loves the pool. She loves spending time in there and loves jumping around on the steps and gets more and more comfortable going under the water. She can go under and get diving sticks and rings off the bottom when they are on the steps. She will also jump off the side or the float and loves going down the water slide head first. She is on her way to being a little fish like Casey is which makes me happy.
Julia is also trying to talk so much more all the time. She is an absolute parrot and says and repeats everything we say. She is picking up on lots of books and songs in addition to her words. She'll sing (in her own way) lots of the children's songs we listen to in the car and at home. She is a very feisty child still and has tantrums that we never experienced with Casey at such a young age. She is a tough cookie and has taken some very hard falls in her short life. Just yesterday she backwards somersaulted down an entire flight of stairs. She has a streak of the devil in her for sure. She gives you these looks sometimes and just does devilish little things. Another thing Julia loves right now is trying to get herself dressed. She'll spend quite a bit of time every day putting pairs of Casey's shorts or underpants on. Often she'll already be wearing a diaper with her own pants or shorts on and then she will come down the hallway with one of her legs in one leg of Casey's underpants and the other leg in one leg of a pair or shorts. It is hilarious.