The Swarrell Life

As you may have known, Autumn (plus little baby boy) was in chilly Rochester, Minnesota . Heckuva time to be in the great white north, eh? Well, it was a conference for work that she had been trying to find for a few years now. I suppose weather was the price she had to pay to get it. The conference was put on by the Mayo Clinic , so you know it's top notch. But 25-30 mph winds will kill just about any outside activity when it's in the 20's. I tried to update the blog every day that Autumn was gone, and I think I got close. But I missed a couple of days and then I didn't post a homecoming...shame on me! Trinity and I went over to Boise to pick Autumn up from the airport. It was my fourth time to Boise in a week and a half, so I'm getting to know the roads rather well. This was the best time though, because Autumn was greeted by Trinity at the airport. We waited at the big doorway for Autumn, while Trinity made friends with all the other people who were waiting. Then...

According to babycenter.com , Autumn is halfway through this pregnancy! She let me know a couple of days ago how she is starting to feel the little guy move! Here is approximately what he looks like according to the website: They always compare the baby (or fetus or embryo) to some sort of food for size comparison. I find it somewhat exciting to see what sort of food our little boy is going to be compared to! This week we find him the size of a banana! In case you didn't know what a banana looks like, here you go: I think that Autumn is still amazed every time we see how big the baby is inside of her. Even when Trinity came out, I had a hard time believing that she had, just moments before birth, fit inside of Autumn's belly! I went and visited my dad on Thursday in Boise, and then went to Costco on the way home. I bought Trinity a swimsuit while I was there because she has never really had one that fit properly. We usually just put some little bottoms from a dress or someth...

Trinity and I went over to some friends' house for dinner tonight. The advantage of being a guy, it seems, is that you get taken care of when your wife is out of town...not bad! Trinity's friends Alex and Ava were there, so it was general mayhem, of course! Here is the best shot we could get of the three of them... YOU try and keep these three still, smiling AND looking at the camera...good luck! You might be wondering what this is. I would too, if I was you. As a matter of fact, this is Trinity's belly, when it is in front of the camera flash. I was trying to take a picture of Alex wearing a bucket as a hat, when Trinity jumped in front of the camera. Here are the shots I was trying to get: Alex with the bucket up... Alex with the bucket down...good stuff!

By the time this is all over, I am not going to want to travel for a while. Wait, I think that I am already there. BUT, this is all for a good cause, because my dad just had his kidney removed. His surgery was Tuesday and there was a possibility that he would get to go home today. It wasn't meant to be, but I went over just to visit for a couple of hours. I am not used to seeing my dad in that state of affairs. I'll grant that he's looking great for just having a kidney removed, but he's not exactly back to fighting form yet. It sounds like the surgery went very well, so it should just be a matter of time until he's up and around again. Meanwhile, I went to Costco to pick up a few things...Autumn should really never let me go there by myself. Sorry honey. But, for all the money I spent, Autumn did get a little treat out of the whole deal: her very own Costco-sized jar of giant pretzels. And they're organic! She also gets these great pictures of Trinity... Here...

Well, at least it wasn't for Trinity this time. We are WAY too familiar with that part of Boise for my comfort. This time was for my dad, who came out of surgery doing pretty darn well. Here are a few shots of our trip... We went to lunch at Sizzler, lovin' the salad bar 'cuz it's all you can eat! Trinity was loving to too, especially the ice cream! Here she is give us the sign for more! Here we are going in to the hospital to see my dad. She wanted to go up the stairs herself. She did really good, although it was good to have some balancing help from mom! Mediterranean for dinner, here is Trinity eating her first dolma, which is grape leaves stuffed with rice...yum! She ate a little of everything, including the shish kabob, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, hummus and tzatziki sauce! Say that 10 times fast! I don't think we need to ask if she liked it...

When Autumn and I found out that she was pregnant again, we both had this feeling that we were having a boy. No reason per se, just a gut feeling. We had a similar experience with Trinity; we both thought she would be a girl. So imagine our surprise a couple of weeks ago when we found out that we were probably going to be having a girl ! Well, we had our official ultrasound today and discovered that we are indeed having a boy! Yup, the umbilical cord was hiding something. He is about 23cm long and about 11oz. Boy he was moving around a lot. The technician was having a hard time getting a picture that looked like a baby. We had a shot that looked like a skeleton, a frog, and an alien, but no baby! But he did manage to get a couple of shots that looked human, as well as the "gender shot". Enjoy! Yeah, this will embarrass him when he gets older! Ain't he cuuute?

So we ended up in Joseph on Saturday for a late lunch with some friends of ours. It turned out to be absolutely beautiful, which is perfect when you have two little walking toddlers that both need to go, go, go! Thanks Kal for the invite! Here's Trinity practicing her walking, on cobblestones no less! Little Ava has a bit of an independent streak. Now that she can walk anywhere she wants, that exactly what she does. Here she is wandering down the block. She barely even turned around when mom and dad called her. ...so Jen had to go and retrieve the little wanderer. Yes those are my ugly toes. Yes, those are Trinity's cute ones. She likes to walk on our feet. It reminds me of her book, "Big and Little". I am really enjoying how much Trinity likes to be around us these days. This is just a random yummy bread shot.

So it's wayyyyy too late to be blogging. Don't ask why I'm still up, I can't really answer that. But there is blogging to be done, so here I am. Lots of stuff this week, but we'll have to stick to a couple of topics... One topic is Trinity's hair. Why does it always turn into a rat's nest? We comb it out (nearly) every night during her bath, but it inevitably turns into some sort of wild animals nest. What do you think? Also, Trinity is walking very well these days. But her newest trick is walking on our feet as well as hers. This is something I did with my dad when I was was young. It was great fun for me, so I can imagine that it is just as fun for Trinity. Here she is on mom's feet: Another surprise? She likes to help clean. Must be a trait from her mother. But here she is helping me scrub cabinets. I'll bet she's having more fun than me! But it's a lot of fun having her try and experience the things that we are doing. I know that she does...

Last weekend was the time change thing. Spring ahead? Something like that. I think it was more like, lose even more sleep than usual. Seems like the world slows down for a day or two after the time change. Is it worth it? Who knows. What I do know is that the time change allowed us to stay at church after the service to enjoy the brunch. Usually we have to get home to get the little girl down for her morning nap. There was ham and eggs and pancakes and juice and all kinds of fun! Trinity had second breakfast and then was off to socialize with everyone she could find! Here's a great shot of her with Emma, one of her "older" friends: What a great shot of the girls! Notice the sweet smock she received for Christmas from Sue, it's perfect for protecting her Sunday best! It's really hard to see the drum sticks, since they're moving so FAST, but Trinity was having a blast banging on the drums at church, she was moving from drum to drum, just hitting away. Sure is fu...

Yeah, I've been slacking a little bit. But I'm making up for it this evening. If you aren't ready for an extended stay, then I apologize. Because you're going to get it whether you want it or not! There are new things happening around here everyday, thanks to a baby who just won't stop growing up! So, the other day I let Trinity have the spoon. She was eating oatmeal (sort of). I guess you have to start somewhere. I just keep thinking that I STILL look like this occasionally. Don't think I need a caption on this one. I took Trinity swimming on Saturday. Turns out she likes to wear goggles. Okay, she thinks it's funny to wear goggles for about 30 seconds. but then again, that's about how long anything lasts for her these days, unless it's pizza. New things? Well, we have started working on chores with Trinity. After all, it's about time she started pulling her own weight around here. For starters, we have her doing a little dust-mopping. The crazy...

Well, I'm learning things all the time. I'm also thinking about things all the time. One of the things that I am thinking about is a nickname for the baby in Autumn's belly. Trinity was Happy Feet (feet for fetus). I'll take any suggestions under consideration. But back to the topic at hand... The first thing that I am learning is that our second little girl is about the size of a turnip: The second thing I learned was about dreams. I read it on www.babycenter.com : Many women report that their dream life shifts into high gear during pregnancy. Interestingly, during the second and third trimesters, you spend less sleep time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the cycle in which most dreams occur. Why, then, all those frequent and vivid dream memories? It's probably at least in part because you may be interrupting a dream-filled cycle when you wake up to pee, cope with heartburn, leg cramps, restless legs, or a backache, or to shift to a more comfortable position. Wak...

According to Baby Center , our little kumquat has graduated to avocado. This little bugger is growing like crazy, no wonder momma is a little tired. Here is the latest ultrasound. We also found out that Trinity will be big sister to a little sister, probably. The ultrasound tech was pretty sure, but the umbilical cord might just be hiding a surprise…meanwhile, enjoy the pictures: