Joy in the Journey: End of April 2015

Today is May 1st which means Joah is definitely going to be a May baby. We were convinced he'd be here in April, but he's held strong...and it shows that my body is pretty predictable when it comes to having babies.

I keep dumping my phone every few days on the computer to make sure that I definitely won't run out of space for new baby pictures when he comes. We went to the doctor on Wednesday, and we set an induction date for Monday, May 4th. I'll be 39 weeks and one day then. I've already made quite a bit of progress (just like I did with the other two), so my doctor said I'm in a "great starting place" and hopefully it will be another smooth, quick labor. I'm praying for that! I still wouldn't mind for labor to start on it's own before Monday, but it's also nice to have a little bit of control in knowing the date/time we go to the hospital and it not being so crazy for the boys the other way too.

Here are some random pictures from the end of April that include James' soccer, a final fun outing to the zoo as a family before Joah arrives, and a little preschool graduation (and super informal) that we had for James finishing All About Reading and Five in A Row with me. We'll finish up his Awana Cubbies this summer. I am SO excited about starting kindergarten with him in the fall. I honestly can't imagine with our unconventional schedule (our weekends are Friday and Saturday, Stephen home some mornings but gone three evenings, and youth events always shaking stuff up, etc.) doing anything else, and I am just so excited for the privilege to the be the one that gets to teach him!

So, this was the sort of impromptu/informal "preschool graduation" ceremony that we had after dinner. Jude is very dressed up for the occasion! I had James pick out a few of the magnetic letters at random and tell me the sound that they made, a word that started with that letter, and I also had him spell a few 3 letter CVC words (he'd just started doing that at the end of All About Reading!).

Then he picked out a book from Five in A Row that was one of his favorites and gave us a brief review of what it was about and some of his favorite lessons that he learned while doing the thematic study of that book. He remembered playing a game about islands since the book was about Japan and our Japanese dinner around the train table.

Then I presented him with his certificate from All About Reading. He actually cried last week when it was over, so it made me feel very good about this year together and also starting kindergarten next year.

James and Jude are singing the ABC song and Jude always sings the "y" and "z" by himself. He actually learned some letter sounds this year from joining in with us!

He got a small Star Wars Lego set for completing preschool.

We also got both boys a knock-off lightsaber from Cracker Barrel. This was partly as a reward for completing preschool (and Jude being a good sport too!) but also as a "big brother" gift since Star Wars is one of James' (especially) new interests and Joah is actually going to be born on National Star Wars Day (unless he comes earlier). We thought about waiting until the hospital but decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to bring those into the hospital so they will get to celebrate with them early for the next few days.

I love my sweet baby boy! I can't believe he'll be two in June.

A comparison of Jude and Joah at 38 weeks. James wanted to kiss my belly!

A sweet moment one night while I was getting dinner ready.

This is actually not our soccer complex (this one has turf fields and is about 1,000 times nicer than our little park) but we joined with the Vestavia Hills group for what was supposed to be our last week last Saturday to play soccer together and enjoy inflatables, face painting, etc. (We now have two make-up Saturdays because of all the rain).

James loved soccer! It was just a perfect fit for his energy level and natural ability. I loved that it was Chelsea's start-up season and it was just a lot of learning skills, drills, and low-stress scrimmages at the end. I know that might not last forever but it was perfect for his first season. I hope he'll continue to play in future seasons, but he gets to pick!

Jude usually ran all over the fields during soccer practices, but this particular week he loved rolling all over the turf fields at the complex we were visiting.

I snapped a few pictures of them in these Veggie Tales hats while we were at Lifeway with Stephen looking for graduation gifts for the youth.

A picture of my 38 week, 4 day belly. A baby is supposed to be about the size of a small watermelon at 39 weeks and we got our first one of the season but needed to go ahead and eat it. I took a similar picture with Jude too at 39 weeks.

Yay for Spagetti! And he is so independent. He loves using silverware and wants no one to help him regardless of how messy it gets. He has started asking me to wipe off his hands mid-meal like his brother lately though.

A final family outing to the zoo today before Joah. We are going to stick close to home and accomplish some things around here the next two days and, of course, church on Sunday!