It's a girl!

We are so excited!  We're nearly 20 weeks along and this pregnancy is flying by.  The baby looked great at last week's ultrasound. And I made sure the ultrasound tech and the doctor had no doubt about the gender...not looking for any surprises in February! Coop came to the appointment. It was our attempt to help him understand what's happening.  Not sure it did the trick but it was fun to have him there anyway.

I'm finally feeling better, with a lot less nausea and more energy.  The baby has been kicking and moving around a lot in the past few weeks, which is one of my favorite aspects of pregnancy. So far, not as active as Cooper was, but maybe too early to make that call.

We're in the process of getting Cooper's big boy room ready.  Hoping to move him in next month. He has declared that he's going to paint his walls red, and he tells EVERYONE he sees. We don't know where this red obsession came from, but have decided to overrule and paint his room blue. We'll let him pick out some red accents and hope that satisfies him.  The nursery will undergo a minor makeover to become more "girly".  I've never been super girly but it's really fun to switch gears to the cutesy girl stuff!

Just starting to go through the baby name book and get a list going.  No ideas yet.  If you ask Cooper, he'll tell you her name is Clarabelle!

Sandbridge Beach

We had our 2nd beach week of the summer with my family in Sandbridge.  We had never vacationed there, so we learned along the way.  There were 11 of us on the trip and we shared 2 condos side-by-side.  Condo #1 was the "no kids/sleep till 10am" condo, and Condo #2 was the "have a kid/wake up before 7am" condo.  Guess which one we were in? :)  Seriously, we are grateful to my parents who shared the condo with us and let us sleep in several mornings.  Vacations aren't super restful/relaxing these days, but going with grandparents who are more than willing to help out certainly makes it more relaxing! Now for the highlights:

-We stayed at a condo resort called Sanctuary.  It had some nice amenities - a few pools, balconies overlooking the ocean, and a nice big beach.  The building could use some sprucing up and I was completely lost our first 3 days there, but overall it was a decent place to stay.

-Luckily after a couple of days of rain/wind, the weather improved and it was a beautiful week. We spent lots of time on the beach and at the pool.  Cooper seemed to enjoy the beach more than he did in June. I think this was a result of (slightly) warmer ocean water and cooler air temps.  He also loved the water fountains at the pool and riding in the waves in the innertube with Daddy. He even did some decent boogie boarding in the shallow water.

  

-Since our first day was rainy, we headed to the aquarium in Virginia Beach.  Highlights of that were watching the seals and walking through the hallway surrounded by an aquarium.  Jason loved the irony of Cooper eating his goldfish snack in this spot.
 

-On the last day before heading back to Richmond, we checked out the Back Bay reserve that is at the end of Sandbridge, not far from the resort.  There isn't much to "do" outside of enjoying nature, but it is a neat spot that has protected beaches, walking paths, and wildlife.

-Other than that, it was just the usual stuff - playing with cars and trucks, having temper tantrums (wish they would take a vacation!), watching the "Cars" movie for the 50th time, iPad/computer time, getting ice cream, and family time.  I will never forget the memory of my entire family reenacting the tractor tipping scene from "Cars" at Cooper's demand request.  If only we had taken video!!

So long, summer!  Till next year...