"No, not fancy clothes!"

Well... we survived Raivis' first week of preschool!  He was so brave and excited on the first day (even though he was worried about me leaving).  He marched himself into the school with his "pack-pack" on.  On our way into the building he stopped, looked at me and said, "I'm going to study lots and lots, just like Daddy!"   We got to the classroom and he just jumped in, he gave me a couple of big eye looks but he didn't cry.  The same can't be said for his mommy on the way out the door but I am blaming that on the baby.  :)    When Grandma Carol came to pick him up, he had his melt down.  It took him all week to be okay with Grandma picking him up instead of Mommy.  The little stinker.  On Tuesday I tried taking him to the before school care in the gym, that didn't go as well. So we are going to ease into adding that into our new routine.  Wednesday is chapel day at Raivis' school, so he had to wear his "fancy clothes". 

He was not to impressed with this new development, but super handsome.  I think that he really enjoyed his time at school, he won't talk about it much yet though.   I do know that he loved recess and comes home with half of the playground in his shoes, he got to check out his first school library book, and snack time is a big hit.  I love this new adventure of school.  i especially love the phrases/words he brings home for example, "I recognize that I want that cookie",  just cracks me up. 









Nik is in the middle of his general surgery rotation and is really enjoying himself.  He comes home excited because he got to feel somebody's aorta or took tacks out of somebody's abdominal wall.  It really makes my days sound very boring indeed.  He has had his first 60-70 hour work weeks and is holding up really well.  The weeks do feel really really long to me though.

We didn't make it out to the beach like we though we were going to for Labor Day, I think we all needed a low impact weekend.  We made sure that we watched the BSU game on Friday (so great to see our blue and orange back on the field!) and stuck around Richmond on Saturday (stupid East Coast Time Zone makes football games start and end late).   Yesterday we drove up to the mountains and went to the Luray Caverns.  The caverns are really neat, it is a bit of a giant tourist trap around there but all of that pales in comparison to the beauty of the caves.  Raivis really liked the underground lake, he was pretty sure that "there are mud puddle fish in there, blue gills and catfish."  He had had enough by the time we climbed out though.  We drove around parts of the Virginia mountains/Shenandoah Vally that we have never been to.  It is very pretty up there, so green.  We hit up Mellow Mushroom in Charlottesville on our way back home, which we have declared as our favorite pizza chain outside of Idaho. The crust is good, the sauce has flavor, the toppings are good and it isn't loaded down flat with grease.   I don't know what it is about pizza in Idaho, I don't know if it is just because that is the stuff that I grew up with but I do know that in the 7 years that I have lived away from Idaho, Idaho Pizza, Flying Pie, and Chicago Connection pizzas make all of the other pizzas we have tried pale in comparison. 

Our Labor Day is quiet this year, we had to take the cars in for their yearly inspection (which was supposed to be done in August, whoops).  Nik had to get a fair amount of reading in, so Raivis and I have speant the rainy morning hanging around the house.  It has been nice relaxing weekend in answer to the craziness of a new schedule last week.   One of Raivis' and my favorite things to do on lazy weekend mornings is to make waffles... then instead of eating them at the table like civilized people, we eat them in the kitchen as fast as we can while they are still hot.  Mmmmm waffles....

Baby is doing good, growing and kicking a lot.  My belly is taking over.  Yesterday at the caves, i had random people running into my belly, people at work officially have the impulse to touch my belly multiple times a day, my belly takes up a lot of space in the bed.  Along with this size of my belly, I have developed quite the waddle.  My sacroiliac joint has hurt from pretty much the day I got pregnant but it has really kicked it up a notch this last week.  I keep telling myself that it hurts now so it won't have to hurt after the baby is born like it did with Raivis.  If I tell myself that enough, it will make it true right?  Other then the heartburn (which by the way, gets really bad after you gorge yourself on pizza that is almost as good as pizza from Idaho), i really have no complaints.  I move a little slower these days but this pregnancy has been almost as easy as Raivis'. 

My phone says that my due date is only 71 days away!  I have so much to do to feel ready for a family of four but I am so excited.  I can't wait to see which parts of this little one favors Daddy or Mommy, and to see if baby is going to look a lot like Raivis or not.  I can't wait to see how Raivis takes on the role of the big brother.  So much fun to look forward to!