Mom Jeans

I just have to laugh at this video. I REALLY feel like I'm wearing "Mom Jeans" with some of these belly panel maternity pants. I can't wait until I get to wear regular jeans again!

Funny Girl

Hmmmm... I don't really feel like I have a lot of exciting news to share today. This last week has been a bit monotonous due to the fact that I've pretty much been trapped in the house the whole time! While my back is improving, it seems that any outing really takes it out of me for the next day or so.

To pass the time, Ruby has been up to all sorts of funny things. One afternoon she decided that this dish towel would be a lovely shawl/hood and kept arranging it on herself and then running around the house like a crazy person. She also discovered the fun of bouncing on my exercise ball--a game only Daddy can play with her!

My favorite Ruby moment this last week was catching her "blowing her nose". I have witnessed this before, but she has gotten much more dramatic in her technique! The general idea is that she sneaks into the bathroom, rips off a square or two or ten of toilet paper, wads it up a bit and then proceeds to LOUDLY 'blow' her nose. I say that in quotes since almost all of the noise (and moisture) is originating from her mouth, not her nose. After a few good honks, she wads up the tissue and puts it in the trash. THEN, it's back to the toilet paper roll. She can go on with this routine until one of two situations arises--one, I find her and put an end to it, or two, she runs out of TP. I haven't been able to effectively discipline her for this little routine because I generally end up with a case of the giggles, but it is something that probably will have to come to an end before too long! The good news is that Jared caught her on video this weekend, so hopefully sometime in the not too distant future I'll be able to put a little video up of her!

We were totally surprised on Saturday morning to wake up to several inches of snow on the ground. The trees were heavy with it and it was clear and beautiful. Don't you just love that!? Jared took Ruby out into the backyard for a while to enjoy making tracks in the snow and generally just messing around. He kept trying to get her to eat snow, but she wasn't impressed! We'll have to get a sled soon so that we can take her out to Dyrehaven next time it snows. I suppose, though, it will have to be Daddy that takes her this year. I'll just man the camera!

On a totally different subject, I've been so thankful for the "Don't Panic: Dinner's in the Freezer" cookbook my sister-in-law got for me this last week. I had tried out about seven of the recipes before I hurt my back, so now we've had those to fall back on on the days my back isn't up to making dinner for an hour! If anyone has a great "freezer-friendly" recipe to share, I'd love to hear about it. I'm going to try to have a good 20-25 meals in the freezer for after the baby is born. I will have help for a while, but it will be so nice to have those to fall back on when I'm feeling worn out or overwhelmed!

For those that are wondering, Mr. Bean is doing great. He's still a real mover and shaker and is definitely going through a bit of a growth spurt the last few weeks. My weight gain is suddenly taking off, but I think that it's mostly baby! Of course all those Rocky Road Brownies, Pecan Pie Bars, and Snikerdoodles aren't helping much either! Anyhow, we have our next appointment with my midwife on Friday, so I'll be sure to update you all after that.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Getting a bit better!

I am happy to say that I am writing this post without the aid of tylenol or grinding teeth--thankfully, my back has improved quite a lot in the last two days! I'm also still being spoiled with meals from friends, so tonight we'll dine on some delicious pasta that I didn't have to make--hurray! All I have to do is chop up some veggies for a salad and heat up the meal (...then again I may just con Jared into making the salad!). Once again, I feel SO blessed!

Ruby and I were able to host Moms'n'Tots this morning where we had FIVE moms! A few weeks ago two families living in Helsingborg, Sweden (right across from Copenhagen) came to church. So, one of those moms (Nikki) brought her youngest (Ellie) today AND a friend and her daughter (Sharon and Johanna). They are both really neat ladies and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better over the coming weeks. The major drawback for them, of course, is the more than one hour trip each way. Thankfully, Nikki does have a car, but still it's a big sacrifice to make. I hope that they'll be able to keep it up though!

So, these pictures were taken last Friday at the Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen. They have a small Children's Museum with lots of dress up clothes and areas to "pretend". We went once last winter, but Ruby really enjoyed it a lot more this time. Her favorite parts were: seeing all the kids on field trips running all over the place, wearing a zillion bracelets, and playing with lots of dollies from all over the world. There was one in particular that she REALLY didn't want to say goodbye to, but since Carter was taking off to another exhibit I finally convinced her to leave dolly behind so that she didn't lose her friend!

I think that Carter's favorite parts of the museum were: the Arabian Nights scene with a spiral ramp to run up and down, dancing to old-timey music (which is what this photo is of), and seeing all the old trains in the exhibit on toys. After our morning at the museum we splurged and went to lunch at McDonalds--Happy Meals all around! Somehow it makes you just a little LESS happy when you realize that they cost $5.50 each! We all enjoyed ourselves though and got our fill of American junk food for a while!


Well, it's time to bring this post to an end. My back can't take any more sitting up for a while! Hope you enjoyed seeing our latest "adventures"! Take care!

Oh my achin' back!

Well, I finally did it... I threw out my back. It's been a very grim last few days here in the Nelson house while Jared has taken over the roles of Mr. Mom, Nurse, and Physical Therapist. He's been wonderful, but I must admit I haven't been the easiest "patient" at times. It's funny how the pain and near paralysis aren't nearly as bad as the feeling inside of having totally let down my family! I have had a hard time just letting go and letting others do for me, but in the end I know that it's the best to get me back to normal as soon as possible. We have been SO thankful for all of our friends here that have rushed to our sides with meals, groceries, company, and babysitting. It really dazzles me how everyone has been so willing to drop everything in my time of need. What a blessing!

Since I am still not able lift much, or walk for that matter, we decided that it would be best if Ruby spent the day with Claire and Carter. Although it was a bit rough on all of us to get out the door bright and early this morning, I'm sure that she'll have much more fun there than she would with a "Bum Mommy". To make things a bit more interesting it's finally decided to snow after weeks of rain, so it will be interesting to see how Jared fairs pushing/pulling/carrying the stroller through the drifts tonight! I'm sure glad it's not me!

On to other topics, last weekend we went ice skating at Kongens Nytorv in the city. They have several of these public skating rinks where you can skate for free. The only drawback is that since the weather had been so warm the ice was quite wet. This is, of course, primarily a problem if you fall! Jared stayed on his feet the whole time (thankfully!), though I did have one lady wipe out right in front of me. As much as I tried to halp her up, I think I just made things worse--spinning her around in the muddy puddles at the edge of the ice. She did seem appreciative of my efforts though! I didn't risk it skating this year with how sore my hips and back were already feeling and stayed on the side-lines cheering on Jared and Ruby. Ruby thought that "shoe-skating" was pretty fun, but I think that she liked being whisked around the rink in Jared's arms even more.

This week, however, the temperatures are finally dipping to around zero (Celcius), so maybe the rinks will finally get hard. We were happy to find that the skate rental place did have skates to fit Jared's size 15s, so we'll have to go again on a sunny day. Maybe this time we can convince some of our friends to go with us...


I suppose I'll leave you with this self-portrait of my growing belly. This was taken last week (29 weeks along) and isn't exactly the most flattering shot, but I feel like I have to post a few of these just to remind myself how big I get while I'm pregnant! (Not to mention all those lovely stretch marks!)

Christmas with the Nelsons

We spent the bulk of our trip at Jared's parent's home in Elk Rapids. It was so good to see everyone and it was also nice to get some rest after all the travelling. These first three pictures are from the Essary Christmas party, for all the Michiganders anyway! It was a great party with tons of yummy food (thanks Aunt Kim!) and tons of gifts for everyone. We also got to see Michelle for the first time, about 36 weeks pregnant with TWINS! Wow! She looked great though and now is happy to have her babies at home with her... welcome to the world Noah & Jenna!

Ruby's favorite present was this metal tea set from Nana and Bobo. As soon as we unwrapped it she took off with a cup and the tea pot and started having her own little tea party. We started to wonder where she had run off to and Jared found her having a tea party for one on the stairs...

GULP!

Ruby and Bobo did some serious bonding this visit. She still walks around the house wondering where her "Bobo" is! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Ruby and Nana, but it was just kind of one of those trips! Things just didn't go as expected most of the time...which I suppose SHOULD be expected with a toddler in the family!

Ruby's cousin, Tyler, was quite the entertainer and was always willing to do whatever Ruby asked... in this case, apparently she and a few of her closest friends needed a ride! Watch out Rudulph!

The pacie wars! This popular game has gone to the wayside now that we are battling our own war against the pacie. Ruby still asks for her pacie some, but can usually be distracted. I'm not looking forward to the day when we decide it's gone for good though. She REALLY relies on it for getting to sleep.

Believe it or not, that's ALL the pictures (well, okay ones) that I have from our two weeks in the states. Not pictured is our trip to Avalanche Falls Indoor Water Park...that was a real hoot and Ruby just loved it. We also got to see Anne and Ken for several days (no pictures, sorry) and we were able to see some of my good friends from the Geneva days, Erin Couch and Mary Williams. Somehow seeing them made me realize all over again how much I miss them! That's the hard part about globe-trotting I suppose, but there are up-sides too! Hope you have a great day, whatever continent you're on!

More fun with the Armstrongs...

I feel really bad that I didn't take more pictures when we were in the US. I don't have ONE picture of the whole family and didn't get any of my sisters really either. But, I did get a few more cute shots of Ruby!

Jared and Ruby were hard at work picking, planting and hoeing up a pretty flower garden. Ruby liked the indoor "pretend" version almost as much as she loves the real garden.

Here's my Dad, Ruby, Christina (my baby sister), and Jonny (Dad & Anzhela's little boy). He's a real cutie and was in a good mood almost the whole time we were together. As you can see in this picture he had a BIG grin on his face most of the time.

One of the biggest exhibits at the Children's Museum was about blown glass art. They had a neat area for kids to make their own "art" with plastic replicas of the glass shapes they used in some of the huge sculptures. Ruby loved plugging each piece into its hole!

Anzhela wanted to get a picture of Ruby and Jonny together... Unfortunately, I think that Ruby was a bit scared she was going to be squished. Jonny doesn't look too happy about the idea either though! Jonny is a really big guy for his age and actually weighs about the same as Ruby, so that figures into her fright a bit I think!

Heidi (I mean Santa) left stockings stuffed with all kind of goodies for us. Ruby's "stocking" was this "Angel" hat. She wasn't exactly an angel during our visit, but she could almost fool you in this shot!

Right after that, we piled into the car for the LONG drive from Indianapolis to Elk Rapids, MI. Unfortunately, Ruby was VERY UPSET for a lot of the trip and screamed/cried for at least 4 hours wanting out of her carseat. We definitely learned that she can outlast us, big time! Next car trip, I'm investing in some good earplugs. Thankfully, since we're home again she's back to riding the bus and train and has realized that she has it awfully good, so she's been a pretty good girl.

We've also said "buh-bye" to the beloved pacie except for nap and bed-time. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but she does seem to beg for it a bit less each day. And when she DOES beg for it, it's a good sign that she's feeling tired.

That's all for today! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Where does the time go?

Well, here I am posting again after over a month of silence. I've found that blogging is a lot like exercising, I have to really make it part of my routine or else it is easily jettisoned as extra baggage in my busy schedule. I will ATTEMPT to make it more of a priority! Another problem has been that I just haven't been taking pictures and most of the ones that I try to catch of Ruby turn out blurry. You really have to be on the ball to catch this girl because she's "on the move"! I do have about twenty okay pictures from the last two months, so I'll work on getting those posted up this week. Here's the first batch!

Here's what Ruby looked like when we left for our vacation in the States: SICK! She really had a rough time between being sick and jet-lag. But after about 10 days (we were only there 14!) she was a bit better. Don't you just hate that!?

Jared got a picture of Ruby's amazing table setting abilities. She's getting pretty good at ferrying the plates, glasses, utensils, and napkins to the table, but we generally have some reshuffling to do before we can actually get down to the business of eating!

We were able to see some of my family at my sister, Heidi's home, in Carmel, IN. The only one who didn't make it was Alyssa (who is now living in Maputo, Mozambique!). While we were there, Heidi had planned a day at the Children's Museum. It was a really neat place and Ruby did have fun (in between tantrums!).

Jared and Ruby raced my step-sister, Yulia, down the slide. It looks like Ruby was a bit concerned!

They had this neat "water clock" in the entrance of the museum that can tell time, as well as being an amazing piece of art. Maybe we scientists aren't so left-brain after all!

On the baby front, we are getting anxious for our little guy to make his debut. In my 30th week now, I am starting to feel pretty big and my hips and back are aching much of the time. Jared has been so sweet to give me lots of massages and Ruby always likes to rub tummy butter on my growing belly for me. What a sweet family I have!