Pregnant with a Toddler

The closer I get to having my daughter the more difficult it is to physically keep up with my toddler. He's a little over 15 months old and he loves to be outside and run around and go to the park like most toddlers do. He's a good kid and listens for the most part but I feel bad sitting on the couch while I watch him try to self entertain ALL DAY. Every morning I wake up and tell myself I am going to take it easy on the physical activity so that my body doesn't hurt. Then, I wake up to my sons little voice and I go into his room and open his curtains and see the biggest blue eyes with a big smile on his face. He is ready to start the day and desires adventure and to discover new things. I don't want to take that from him because of my discomfort. I don't do any activities with him that would bring any harm to my body or the baby. However, just sitting on the floor and getting up and down with him multiple times a day is physically exhausting. I am almost 37 weeks pregnant and I am sure all mamas can relate how tired your body is in the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Everyday I battle, what I should do with my day and with my son? I am enjoying the times of it just being the 2 of us and getting as many hugs and kisses as I can get from him. I am trying to find more creative ways to be active with him but not overdue it. A few things I have been doing with him are letting him play in his little blow up pool in the backyard (the kid LOVES water), walking him around the block in his wagon, taking him across the street to the big open field by our house and letting him just run around with a ball, and taking him to the park to go on the swings and encourage him to figure things out himself so I don't have to lift him too much. Sometimes, the park is too much for me so I see how I'm feeling that day. Usually if I do the park, I do it after lunch time. He always naps in the morning, so I usually nap at the same time so I have more energy after lunch to do something with him. Some indoor things I have been doing are letting him play with the vacuum, he is OBSESSED, stacking the little cups, building legos, let him discover whats in his toy box, trying to teach him how to do things (like push the lever on the vacuum to make it recline, turning things on and off, and trying to say more words), read his books, and color and paint (but that can be a little messy, so I don't do it as often because he's still a little too young to really grasp not putting the marker or paint brush in his mouth). I know kids like repetition but sometimes I feel like he gets bored of it or doesn't want to do the same thing everyday... I don't know I think it's just me. I love variety and always changing things up. I know its best for kids to learn things by doing the same things over and over so I am trying to be more okay with not having as much variety as I would like. But, I know he won't be at this stage forever and neither will Annabelle. They will be old enough to do a lot of different things everyday and I am so excited for that stage of life!

Today I woke up so sore and physically exhausted from yesterdays activities. Yesterday, I got 3 loads of laundry done, picked up around the house and had a huge Costco and Sprouts trip. He loves going grocery shopping and we really needed some groceries. We were out for about 2-2.5 hours. He had a good time and helped me pick the fruits and veggies and put them into the little plastic bags. I'll try to get a video of it next time I'm there and post it on my Instagram so you all can see how adorable it is! At Costco, he loves getting all the samples and putting things into the cart as I hand them to him. When we got home, he immediately went down for his afternoon nap. I also cleaned the house and reorganized the fridge and freezer and made dinner. I was pooped at the end of the day! Can you see what I said I want to take it easy today? Well, I didn't take it that easy. But, I am slowing myself down today and resting more. I started my morning with eating breakfast then playing with Joshua for about an hour. He wanted to go down a lot earlier then he usually does so I put him down and then went to sleep myself. After our naps, I made a delicious lunch for us and he ate almost all of it! We had an apple, strawberries, cheese and a turkey sandwich on the pretzel buns I got from costco. I had left over broccoli from dinner so I added that to his plate and that was gone within seconds. He loves broccoli! It is such a beautiful day here in CO so I didn't want to keep him inside. So we went in the backyard and went swimming for a little then played around in the backyard while I facetimed one of my best friends from CA. We caught up and talked about motherhood and life and I showed her our backyard and took her on a walk with us while I pulled Joshua in the wagon. We came back inside because I could feel my body getting tired and needing to rest so we ate a snack and I let him play upstairs in his room for an hour or so before he was ready for his afternoon nap. Now, he is sleeping and I am taking advantage of this time to blog and rest. I will end the night with making dinner then getting ready to go to small group once Patrick gets home.

I am so blessed to have this life and to be where I am today. I thank God everyday for the gift of being a mom, a wife, a sister and a daughter.

I hope you all had an amazing day!