38 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

Dear Baby,

THANK YOU for being so cooperative!  I just know that we understand each other.  :)  That means a lot to Mommy!

So here is the news.  Today I went to see how you were doing at my regularly scheduled 38 week check.  For the record, I was down a pound since last week and I have only gained 19 lbs since my first recorded check during this pregnancy!  Anyway, the doctor checked me to see how you were doing and it turns out that you were SO HIGH that he couldn't even tell if you were head-down or not.  Now this was a little scary for a minute, but I said a quick prayer and knew God was going to handle this for me.  He did take a minute to inform me that the heartbeat was higher than last week and that he predicts you are a boy.  So last week your heart rate was lower and he said girl, this week it's the opposite.  I really don't take his predictions seriously.

Next, I was shuffled down to the ultrasound room where the amazing technician was able to inform me in less than a minute that you were in great position!  Head-down!  Instant relief!!! I just love the tech at my OB office.  She always has KLove playing in the background, and it's so comforting to hear Christian music while I'm seeing your picture on the machine.

After the concern about your position was over and we were simply looking at your pictures, I told the tech (who is always very supportive of the fact that we have not found out your gender) that it was tempting for me to just ask her to tell me TODAY, since I am GOING NUTS wondering if you are a boy or a girl.  Bless her heart, because her response was that we are so close to finding out in real life that she would probably just lie and tell me that she couldn't tell even if I DID ask her... just so we could wait to find out at your birth.  I laughed and thanked her for supporting me, because had she been interested in finding out there is a possibility that she might have convinced me to take a quick peek!  Yet she kept your gender a mystery, and honestly I am grateful for that despite my CONSTANT questioning!  I'm still saying girl like I have been since day #1, but lately I have been planning on you being a boy so I am not super surprised.

You measured somewhere around 7 1/2 pounds (sorry, but I forget the exact amount) and showing that you are about 38 weeks.  I am supposed to be 38 weeks 5 days, so this puts the newest due date prediction at July 12th.  Lucky me!  I might get to have you later than planned after all.  I'm still keeping my fingers (and legs) crossed that you don't come until at least July.  We have a house to sell and one to buy tomorrow, and it would be GREAT if we could have most of our stuff moved and your nursery set up for you before you come.  Yes these may seem like high expectations, but welcome to the Krupp family.  If your Daddy gets it into his head that we are moving next weekend, then we will be moving next weekend.  I guarantee it!

Of course, as you know, I am still hoping you come Sunday July 15th.  However, I have made MANY requests to God and I can't be too greedy.  I will settle for your arrival anytime after this weekend, but preferably after we move.  I know you are frustrated because of the cramped conditions you are living in (I can tell by the ultrasound pic that the tech gave me today) so I apologize to you for this news.  However, I must say that I am happy to see that you will probably be staying put for a little while longer.  We will have plenty of fun when you come out; just let us get through a few more to-dos before you join us.  You don't want to be involved with this crazy move anyway!  Avoid it if at all possible!

Regardless of when you arrive, you are loved very much and we are so happy that you are making our family a family of four.

Love always,
Your very excited Momma

This is either a smoosh face or a ticked-off grumpy one. Either way, it is adorable and I can't wait to kiss your cheeks! 

 

 

 

Techie Tuesdays: My Top 10 Most Used iPad/iPhone Apps

This week, I decided to knock out a quick "Top 10" list of apps that I use the most on my iPhone and iPad.  I am throwing them all into one blog post, because many of these are used universally and therefore I am probably not going to introduce you to much (or anything) that is new, exciting, and unique.  However, I wanted to pay homage to these apps because I truly use almost all of them every single day.  Please note that all of these (and so far all of the apps I've covered) are FREE!  Free is always good! :-)
OK, here we go.  I will alphabetize them so they are all considered equal!

1. Blogger (Social Networking)

Of course I had to give a shout-out to Blogger on my Blog! I still prefer to type on my laptop (I haven't used my laptop all year as much as I've used it since I started blogging. I just can't type fast on my iPad or iPhone and I have yet to invest in a keyboard for my iPad!)  Although you can't do nearly as much on the Blogger app as you can do on the actual website, it's still good for starting a draft, uploading pics, and editing posts.




2. Email (Business/Social Networking)

One of the best aspects of the Email system on iPads and iPhones is that you can get all of your messages sent to the same location, so you don't have to worry about checking your work/personal/family accounts.  I've been able to stay on top of my emails a lot more since getting an iPhone, because now I check them and delete them as they come in.  Before I was checking my email rarely and would just be bogged down and overwhelmed with all of the messages waiting for me to look through them.





3. Facebook (Social Networking)
Since SmartPhones came out, I have felt as though using Facebook is as easy as text-messaging.  I get updates on notifications, and I check them as often as I check my texts.  I know a lot of people think I am on Facebook all of the time, but I am not sure how many of them understand how little time I actually spend on it.  I can accomplish so much in such a short amount of time with the Facebook app.





4. Groupon  (Shopping/Dining/Entertainment)

If you aren't getting your "Group" on, then you need to start.  Groupon is a website and app that allows you to either use your Facebook account or create a new account and receive great-deal discounts on gift cards from local, national, and international businesses.  These deals vary daily, but they are usually about 50% off of the regular price.  I will use a popular local Groupon as an example.  Nagoya Japanese Steakhouse is one of the most popular Groupons around our area.  When it is available, they offer a 50 dollar gift card for $25.  What a great deal!  The only catch is that so many people need to buy the Groupon for the deal to be on.  I have only seen a deal get canceled a couple of times, and that was toward the earlier days of Groupon.  There are many pluses for using Groupon.  For starters, it's a great way to try new places for the first time.

BTW - If you do NOT currently have a Groupon account, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me and I will "refer" you! If I refer you and you create an account, I will get ten dollars to use on their site!

Now I should clarify that I don't use the app to PURCHASE my actual Groupons.  One of the best things about Groupon for me, as a Discover Card user, is that if I log into "ShopDiscover" and buy a Groupon I get 15% cash back on that purchase.  I will go back to my Nagoya example for this.  Since I spent $25 in order to get a $50 gift card to Nagoya, but I bought it through ShopDiscover I actually got $3.75 off of that purchase, making it really $21.75 for a $50 gift card.  However, then I take my Discover Rewards dollars (that $3.75) and increase them through their cashback bonus program, so that $3.75 becomes even more... up to twice as much (or $7.50!) This may seem complex, but really it isn't.  I love saving money!

NOTE:  I do not want to encourage anyone to open a credit card for these types of perks.  I only have one credit card (this Discover one) and I even consider letting that one go after going through Financial Peace with Dave Ramsay a couple of years ago.

Please purchase items responsibly!

4. Mint (Financial Planning and Organization)

I love Mint! I highly recommend it! This is an app (and website) that allows users to combine all of their banks, credit cards, and investment accounts into one place.  Once all of your accounts are linked, every check you write, debit card purchase you make, direct deposit or withdrawal, credit card swipe, etc. all gets filed chronologically through this site and placed into your personalized budgets.  I love how intuitive the program is.  It knows how to categorize almost everything except checks (those come up as they do on a bank statement as "Check 1234".)  This is definitely a great app for people who truly need to visualize their budgets.


6. Pandora (Music)

Pandora has taken over my musical life.  I used to buy hundreds of CDs and albums.  I have them all organized in files.  Now I rarely ever buy music.  Instead, I listen to it on Pandora or other similar music apps.  I use Pandora at home, school, and on the road.  I really like how if you pick an artist it plays music from other similar artists.  It also lets you give individual songs either thumbs UP or DOWN, and then it remembers what you like and don't like for future plays.



7. Pinterest (Crafting/Cooking/Hobbies)

Besides keeping family recipe cookbooks, I think cookbooks are quickly becoming a thing of the past.  Pinterest is my new cookbook.  I know from my job as a teacher that most learners are "visual learners", hence the success of Pinterest.  Pinterest takes pics of anything from baked goods to bedroom designs and allows users to "Pin" them onto various boards.  Each picture is linked to a URL which will take the user to the website that will instruct him or her how to make the pictured item.  What a concept!  It's a great way to keep all of your future craft/party/cooking/decorating ideas in one location.  You need an invitation to join, but anyone can invite you or you can request an invite through the website.  Let me know if you need an invitation and I will send you one!


8. Viggle (Televison)

This may be a new app for some of you.  I hadn't heard about it until last spring, when my former choir director told me about it on Facebook.  Viggle is an app that actually REWARDS people for watching television.  Basically, whenever you watch tv you can turn on Viggle and it will listen to your tv and give you points for checking in on that station.  Either it will be able to identify the show you are watching or it will try a couple of times and then let you search for it on your own.  Every morning I watch 13ABC news while I dry my hair.  I turn Viggle on and get rewarded points for simply watching the show I watch every single day!  Since 13ABC news is a local program it is not one that Viggle recognizes, so it doesn't matter that the hairdryer is going b/c it won't pick up the show anyway. I always have to type it in.  So far, I have earned a few thousand points but I have never redeemed them.  My former choir director has redeemed hers for gift cards, so it is legit.  A bonus to Viggle is that there are trivia games you can play during highly watched shows.  I like to play the Modern Family trivia game because it gets me more points!  A downfall to Viggle is that it really sucks the juice out of your battery, so don't use it if you won't be able to charge your phone during the day.  Honestly, I am not a big TV viewer but it's nice to earn something for watching the shows that I do watch!  If you are a person who watches HOURS of TV I would definitely recommend that you get this app!




9. Words with Friends

Words with Friends is a fun Scrabble-like game app where you and a friend can play either online, on Facebook, or on your phones.  Since I am an English teacher, I like fun word games.  This one in particular has me hooked because there isn't a time limit and you don't have to play every day.  Plus users can play up to ten games at once.  One thing I don't love about WWF is that there are words that are in our dictionary that are NOT accepted on WWF and then there are accepted words that don't even make sense!  Yet for the most part, this is a good mind-numbing app to play with a friend, family member, or complete stranger if that is your style.  Oddly enough, as I was typing this I just got a notification that it's my turn to make a move on one of my games.

Side Note: Although so far every app I have mentioned has been a free one, I actually just paid for the ad-free version of Words with Friends after using the ad-version for years.  I received an email two days ago letting me know that they were only charging 99cents for the ad-free version of WWF, so I bought it because the ads are slightly annoying.  Granted, I wouldn't have paid more than 99cents for the ad-free version, but I am happy with it because I use this app so much.

10. YouVersion Bible (Christian/Religious)

I like the YouVersion Bible app because once you create an account, you can flag your favorite verses and highlight passages plus make notes.  I also like the fact that you can choose which version of the Bible you want to read.  At both home group and church I have noticed an increase in people on their phones using this app.  I think it's fascinating because some people assume that anyone on their phone is texting.  HAH!  There is so much more to phones than texting.  If I am on my phone at home group or church it's either because I am using YouVersion or because I am taking notes on the NotePad app.  God is everywhere, right?  Even in our technology!


Well this concludes Lavender's list of app-obsessions.  I would love to know which apps you use on a daily basis.  If you were to select your 10 most-used apps, what would they be?  Once baby comes and BABY ESP for the iPhone comes out, I am sure that will replace one of these as one of my top ten apps.  More about that app though in a week or two.

Have a tech-fabulous week, friends!!! Learn something new and then come back and teach me about it!

Mama Monday #2 - Finally Getting Ready for Baby!

I realized that most of my first Mama Monday post today was about my son.  See, even the posts about ME are about my kids.  That's what the life of a Mom is all about. Therefore I decided to do a second one... Which ends up being about my other child anyway!

Actually, lately I have been thinking that the life of a Mom is like one HUGE load of laundry with ups and downs in between.  That may sound depressing, but I don't mean it to be.  I have done laundry every night for a week.  I don't mind it... it's just crazy how much laundry there is to be done!

Speaking of laundry, I took the first steps toward preparing myself for the fact that this baby will be here soon... And only part of it involved laundry!

1. I washed the neutral baby clothes (although I have yet to put them away!) Man are they small!

2. I pulled out some baby rattles. Of course William was instantly drawn to these "new" toys, so I had to explain what they were for.  It was so cute hearing him say he wanted to teach the baby how to use a rattle or talk on the phone or help me change the baby's diaper.  I think the more we talk about baby and show him evidence of baby's imminent arrival, the better it is on William's transition.

3. Dom and I picked up the bassinet from Andy and Sarah's house yesterday and we set it up in our room.

4. I washed all of the bassinet bedding.

5. I pulled out some newborn diapers. I'm not sure where I should put them though, so odds are they'll end up in the drawer with the clothes. Eventually this baby will have the nursery which comes with the diaper stacker, but for now he or she is getting the "bare bone" treatment!

6. I washed my nursing clothes and started creating a pile of items I want to put in my hospital bag.

All of this was a pretty big deal for me after doing absolutely nothing to prepare for baby throughout the first 38 weeks of pregnancy. With William, all of this was done much earlier ... But then again we weren't in the process of moving. And we were like all other first time parents who worried about having everything perfectly in place in the nursery so it would look adorable and give the proper welcome to baby. Then we learned that babies don't even sleep in their cribs for a while (Will slept in the bassinet in our room) and rarely use the nursery at all for the first couple of months!

So what else needs done for baby? Not too much. I need to get a double stroller soon. I'm still holding out until Babies R Us sends me a 20% off coupon. I'm also going to borrow my friend's Moby wrap to practice wearing around a bit before I commit to buying one.

I had to get groceries today, and I noticed that the milk expires on my due date.  That was enough to get me thinking that I better start preparing.  Nothing screams, "Your baby is going to be here soon" like seeing the date slapped on a milk jug.

Good thing I was super productive at work today. :)

Mama Monday #1 - "Mommy? Can I talk to you a minute?"

My heart hurts for William. He was just at the top of the stairs calling down to me, "Mommy?  Can I talk to you a minute?"  This is how it all started last night.  How it ENDED was a couple of hours later after William had walked down to the living room, pulled out a few books and read them to himself, then had a few more books read to him back in his room, and then set up a campsite to sleep on (which was on the floor RIGHT next to his twin mattress.)

I'm baffled by what is causing this.  William has always been GREAT at going to bed (since we sleep-trained him at a year old.) I mentioned in an earlier post that he follows a specific routine before bed.  After I kiss him good night, he is almost always out like a light.  If he's not out, he has always been good at entertaining himself for a short bit in his bed (he never got up) and then falling asleep shortly thereafter.

However, this routine is changing as of ... this weekend.  I am not sure if this change in sleep pattern is because he isn't adjusting well to his new bed or something else.  It could be many other things since the sun is up so late, the weather is warm, he hasn't had an EXACT schedule in the mornings since it's summer (even though he's still getting up relatively early), he may not need as much sleep as he did a couple of months ago, he knows things are going to change for him soon... who knows.  Kids are hard to figure out because they simply can't tell us.

I'm trying to snuff out this staying-up-late thing so as not to start a bad habit, but then there is the ever-present Mom guilt that kicks in when your child is pleading with you.  I mean, seriously, how cute is it that he is saying, "Mommy? Can I talk to you a minute?"  My heart is melting.

OK, he just walked down the stairs and said, "I want to hang out with you.  Can we read a book?"  Then he walked across the room to the bookshelf and grabbed his Thomas book (of course the one that makes the most noise) He said, "Can I read this book?  This Thomas book?"

I guess this is my cue to go now. Wish me luck.

??? Questions ???

I want to document some of the questions that are running through our minds about the logistics of the next 2-3 weeks. And please don't panic, because we aren't!

Here are the questions Dominic and I are currently pondering:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE!  Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg.  Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season.  Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6.  But will we be having a baby then?

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!


And this was just the short list.  Hence the reason why I am focused on Philippians 4:6 right now.  Worry about nothing and PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!  Or the verse below from Isaiah - one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know that God is in control, and He is the only one with these answers.  Therefore I am calm and leaving it up to Him!!!

Thank you, Lord, for handling all of these many stress-ers.  I appreciate not having them all on my shoulders.  I am already carrying enough baby weight!

Top 5: Must-Haves for Our New Home

People often ask about the features of our new home, and I tell them that there were certain non-negotiable criteria for our second house. We knew we wanted the following amenities in our new home, so we didn't even receive information about homes that didn't have all of these. Therefore, all of the houses we went to see had at least these characteristics:

• FYI - Although I usually make my "Top 5" list in order of least to greatest importance, these five things are listed in no particular order. They are all relatively equal.

1. 4 Bedrooms - Wait! Let it be known that we are not opposed to having our kids share a room at all! In fact, we WANT them to share a room (after all we both had to and it made us... well, who we are today).

• Since we are still planning on having three kids, at least two of them will share a room because we are keeping a guest bedroom. We knew when searching for a new place that we wanted a bedroom for our many guests. We love having visitors and we love the fact that we are able to offer them some place to stay when they need it, instead of having to pay for a hotel room.  And our friends and family mean too much to us to make them sleep on a couch or an air mattress (unless of course TONS of people are crashing at our house, which is fun... but rare.) 
• Having said this, if baby #2 is a girl there may be a time when each kid has their own room because the youngest will be in the nursery. If baby #2 is a boy, we will most likely buy bunk beds for our two boys and then use the nursery for baby #3, keeping the guest bedroom in tact. Regardless, in the long run two of our kids will share a room and we will keep the fourth bedroom for our family and friends!

2. Attached Garage - Oh man, this will be nice when it's snowing and/or raining. I've NEVER had the privilege of parking in a real garage before! I feel like such a grownup. How exciting!!!

• I picture a much easier winter with a carseat now that we will have an attached garage.  When William was only 3 1/2 months old, I slipped on the ice after stepping down from our side porch steps and sprained my ankle.  Having an attached garage isn't going to keep me from spraining an ankle, since that can happen anywhere, but I am thankful I won't have to worry AS much.  The best benefit is not having to scrape my windshield in the morning, not that I did that much anyway... thank you honey!!! ;-)

3. Fireplace - It will feel more like Christmas now that we have a fireplace! Although Dom would have preferred a wood-burning one, I'm happy that the home we're buying has a gas one... Easy on, easy off!  It's like magic!

4. Master Bathroom - Honestly this will come in handy during all of the middle-of-the-night pee sessions for my third pregnancy... and possibly early morning or late night barf sessions as well. What? Was that too much info? Hey, you're the one who chose to read my blog!  And let me tell ya, morning sickness doesn't just occur in the morning.  That's a fallacy!

5. Basement - Chalk this one up to the eternal fear of tornadoes that has been instilled in me and add it on to the fact that I loooooove all the extra living space a basement provides. I could never buy a home without a basement. It's just not in my blood.  This is the only feature of the five that we currently have in our home, but the basement where we are headed is MUCH larger.  It'll be a nice additional living space.

* A bonus of the house we are buying that I wasn't banking on ANYWHERE in Perrysburg, but that we lucked out with here is something I knew I definitely wanted one day - * MORE LAND AND A SWEET BACKYARD!!! *

• In Perrysburg, many houses are backed up by other houses, a major high-way, or a railroad track.  There aren't many ideal pieces of backyard property (at least within our price range), so we worked with what we could get.  We ended up finding a home with a beautiful private corner lot with mature trees (mature trees were pretty much must-haves for Dom.) The downfall of this house is that the turnpike runs behind it.  A plus is that you can't SEE the turnpike from our backyard, but you can definitely hear it.  OK, so we can't have our cake and eat it too... we'll get used to the sound and hopefully it'll serve as sort of a sound machine for our kids!

37 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

I had my 37 week check up today and it took forevvvvvvvvvvver... not the check up (that took a total of about 8 mins) just the waiting "without bottoms" for 30 mins for the doc to enter, uncomfortable as all get-out (and no, sorry, I can't define all-get out but it sounded better than "hell") bc I'm sitting on a medical examining station with nothing to support my back and all of the weight of my belly getting scrunched between my boobs and my hips. Ugggg. Not fun.


What do you say when the doctor finally arrives and asks you how you are doing? When asked today, I just said I was feeling uncomfortable. The doc then gave me the knowing smile that says, "Yes all 9-month pregnant women are uncomfortable". No dude, what I meant was I was uncomfortable at your office for the past 30 minutes! Oh well, rather than respond in that fashion, I asked him how HE was doing and he said that after seeing 20 patients this morning, I was only the second to ask him how he was doing. Oh my, I love the guy but I'm always skeptical that he he's telling the truth. Part of me thinks he just knows how to make a patient feel special.


So the news you all want to know is about baby. Basically I'm 1 centimeter dilated with about 10% effacing. The baby is in good position, so that's encouraging. It was worth the wait to hear this news. :)

Later when I informed Dom of my progress, he sounded a bit panicked and asked, "So what does that mean? You could have the baby this week?" I reminded him that this is the natural progression and it isn't abnormal for this to take weeks and that the doctor didn't show any signs of being concerned I was going to deliver soon. Dom sounded relieved. Personally I felt some relief too, because as much as we love our little guy or gal and as much as we can't want to meet him or her... we really need more time... Oops, what I should say to sound like a better mother is that our baby needs to bake as long as possible so he or she will be as healthy as can be! I probably shouldn't even mention that I'd like to get out of June to avoid all of the family birthdays and anniversaries we already have this month...

The heartbeat led the doc who has guessed boy every time I've gone for the past 3 or 4 checks to guess girl. I reminded him that we don't know and that he's guessed boy every time so far. His response was, "Well now I've covered all of my bases." Whether or not he just guessed girl today out of guilt for guessing boy so many times OR if he sees so many patients that he doesn't even remember guessing boy in the past, I don't care. His guess today reassured me that there is still a possibility the Li'l Krupp is a girl. (See what I mean by I'm always skeptical of whether or not he's telling the truth?)

My next appointment was scheduled for next Thursday as well, only 15 mins later than this one was. I'm hoping that it won't take nearly as much time! By the time I got out of the office, it was already noon and there went 1/2 of my day!

What I Wonder: Our Upcoming Transitions

On Monday I had lunch with a couple of girlfriends who quickly commented on how extremely relaxed I seemed, despite all that I have going on right now.  I was flattered, as I know that oftentimes I am annoyingly stressed out, and I was very happy that the girls were able to note my calm demeanor without me having to say that I really DO feel calm.  In fact, it's bizarre how calm I feel about everything.  I know that I will be closing the sale of our current home and the purchase of our next home only nine days before my due date.   I know that I have absolutely nothing packed (well nothing more than what we binned in order to put our home up for sale.)  I know that I can't do a ton of work moving houses.  I know that my body is about to go through a lot during the birth of my second baby.  I know that soon enough I will be spending hours each day nursing, changing diapers, and NOT SLEEPING.  I know that I have virtually nothing prepared for my maternity leave and I haven't even talked to the person who is going to sub for me (in my defense, I was just given a sub a few days ago)... yet I feel completely calm.  At least for now.

I thought a lot about the positive comments from the girls after I left that lunch. Why am I so calm?  I should be flipping out in typical Lavender-style.  Perhaps it's because I already went through a month-long period of mourning leaving our home and debating whether or not we were making the right decision by moving.  Perhaps it's because I feel like I still have enough time to get all of my work done for school before baby comes.  Perhaps it's because a lot of this is out of my control.  MOST LIKELY it's because I am constantly reassured by my favorite Bible Verse:

Here it is again in a paraphrased version:

So yeah, I am personally at peace right now.  Mental peace.  It feels great.  So what do I wonder this Wednesday, you ask?  Well this is going to sound SO Mom-ish, so be prepared...

                                            I wonder how William will handle it all.

Toddlers are interesting.  I believe that they are truly creatures of habit.  For example, every night when we give William a bath we have to do the EXACT SAME THING.  Whenever someone watches William when we are gone, we assure them that he will tell them what is next if they don't know so they don't need to worry about it.

Here is the bath/Band-Aid/book/bedtime routine we have fallen into for the past... hmmmmmm... I'd say five months at least.

We let him choose what color tablet he will use to dye the water and then he throws it in.  We bathe him, then we rinse his back, then we rinse his head.  We lift him out of the tub and then we dry him off.  He says, "Brush your teeth is next" ... which it is ... and then when that's done he will say, "Band-Aid is next!" ... which it is ... We have to give him a Charlie Brown Band-Aid every single night that he plasters on his bare chest and marches around saying, "I got a Band-Aid!"  Then we put his diaper on him, dress him in his PJs, and then he picks out a "chair book" (which is a book we read in the glider).  He hands me the book and then walks to the ottoman where my feet are propped, grabs both of my ankles and hoists himself up to the ottoman, says "I climb Mommy Mountain!" and then, kneeling on the ottoman, he holds his arms out to me and says, "You got me?"  And I always say, "I will always catch you" and he does a little bit of a lunge/leap forward to the chair (over the small separation between the ottoman and the glider) and then we cuddle up with his blankie and mimi and read the "chair book" of the night.  After the book is over, he slides off of the glider and goes under my right leg, back to the bookshelf saying, "I go in the hole!"  He picks up one more book, walks it to his bed, and lies down.  I read him this "bedtime book" and then we say our prayers.  I always take prayer requests first and they have been the same from William for at least three months now.  He always asks that we pray for, "Chuck E. Cheese, The Giraffe Store, The Letter Store, and the Big Box Store" (translated that means Chuck E. Cheese, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, and Costco - and the ironic thing is that we've only take him to the first three of these places about two times each since he could actually remember... we are evil parents who always tell him that these places are sleeping when he wants to go there... I promise I will take him back to Chuck E. Cheese before baby comes though.  I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do that for him after months of praying for CEC).  So we pray and then do "tucky tucky" which sometimes is "mumify" which once turned into "Dadify" and then later "Lavender-fy"... so funny.  Then I kiss him on his cheek, tell him that I love him so much and then Dom does the same and we turn off his light and leave the room.  EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

So there, that's why I think toddlers are creatures of habit.  Not to mention how William has to give a hug, a kiss, and a high-five to everyone he says goodbye to... in that order.  He will literally grab your hand to slap it if you forget the high-five at the end.

Therefore, despite my personal calmness... I have come to realize that I am extremely nervous about how William will handle his upcoming changes.  I usually feel as though we are doing the right thing by changing a lot at once, so that we can just get it all over with, but perhaps that will make William go nuts.

What exactly are the changes that William will soon endure?

Well, for starters he will become a big brother.  When we ask if he is having a brother or a sister, he usually answers.  If he says brother, the name he says is Keegan.  If he says sister, the name he says is Hannah.  Neither of these are names we are using; they are the names of the youngest boy and girl at the babysitter's house.  Sometimes though, William will say NO when you ask him if he's having a brother or a sister.  I am sure this is perfectly normal, but it worries me a bit.  Life is going to be a LOT different for the little guy.  He won't be the only kid anymore.  I know that eventually he won't remember life as an only child, but I am sure the transitional phase is a challenge.

Another change is our big move to the 'burg.  William has only ever known this house to be his home, so I am worried about how he will handle the move.  He once looked at a picture of the house and said that it was Margaret's house (his babysitter's).  I realized that they do kind of resemble one another.  We ask him if he's ready to move to the big house, and again he usually answers "NO".

We are also moving William from the nursery (he has been in the crib converted into a toddler bed for a while now) to his "big boy room" when we move.  We figured it would just be easier for him to do the switch all at once.  However, we are keeping the same nursery furniture and bedding... which is b/c we have all gender-neutral stuff and because we are cheap.  I always said I was glad we didn't find out with the first baby so we could just cheap-out and use the same stuff over for the next kid, but now I worry about the fact that the nursery will be almost the SAME and William might think it's his room.  I am working hard to make his toddler room look more enticing than the nursery, but this is another unpredictable situation we'll soon be facing.

A couple of other changes that William must go through in the near future are getting rid of the mimi (binky) and potty training.  For now, I am not going to fret about either situation.  OK, so my 2 1/2 year old still uses a pacifier and wears diapers.  Well, I have bigger battles to fight right now.  I can't make him go through ALL of these changes at once, so I am not going to even bother.  In fact, my pediatrician told me to wait on the potty training until the end of the summer... so I might go with that advice.  I know my babysitter prefers it done over summer, but he won't even be three until November so I don't want to rush anything. At this rate maybe it will be NEXT summer. Not that I want to buy diapers for two...  He's not super interested in it right now, although he is starting to get the idea that he should be peeing and pooping in the Elmo potty and not in a diaper.  Even the change in the fact that now he tells us when he poops in his diaper is a positive one.  We are working with that and trying to remind him to tell us BEFORE he goes "next time".  Finally, I am going to switch his car seat position from behind me to behind the passenger seat.  This will allow me to hand him items easily.

I just don't want him to think he's "being replaced" by baby.  Or hate our new house b/c it comes with a baby.  Or get angry with Dom and me because we took him from the home where he took his first steps.

I will keep you posted on how William handles everything.  Of course many people smile and say that this is NOTHING and that their kids were perfectly adjusted within NO TIME and many others say it is a challenge, but like everything else we will get through it. I know all the lines.  I have heard them a million times and I am prepared to hear them a million more.  I am just not prepared to live it all out... quite yet.

Wish us luck! Chuck E. Cheese did!

 

Techie Tuesday: Featured App - Aurasma

Since it seemed like last week's Techie Tuesday post received some good feedback, I decided to stick with featuring an app for the iPad/iPhone/iPod again this week.  In fact, I might just do this every Tuesday until I can't think of anything else to feature!  Today I will feature the app for Augmented Reality called "Aurasma".  If you haven't heard of it, you better hold on... b/c it's pretty CRAZY!!!

The Aurasma App for Augmented Reality

I wanted to start with Aurasma, because Augmented Reality is all the rave right now in technology.  I first heard about AR at eTech last February, and the idea just blew my mind.  If you don't know what it is, I will do my best to paint a picture, but I would encourage you to watch this video to see Aurasma in action. 

Aurasma is an app that allows you to focus in on a picture of something and see far behind that image.  What do I mean by that?  Once you get the app downloaded, take out a twenty dollar bill, and focus your iPad/iPhone over it with the app open.  You will see that the bill turns from a piece of green paper to a multidimensional video/music/moving image.  It's unreal and terribly hard to explain on a blog.  Trust me - it's something you have to see to believe. There are TONS of images you can focus in on in order to "see beyond" its flatness.  In fact, the coolest thing about Aurasma is that you can actually make your OWN versions of augmented reality.  I have done this twice... the first with a guitar and the second with a Wizard of Oz book.  On the guitar I was able to link a video and a picture of a guy playing the guitar and the Wizard of Oz book turned into Dorothy stepping into Munchkinland after landing on the Wicked Witch of the East.  Don't get too excited; neither of these were that cool and neither provided anything worth using in the future other than simply figuring out a LITTLE about how to make my own augmented reality.  Why would this be good to know?  Well, I wouldn't mind setting up a system in my English/Theatre/Speech classroom where the students could take pics of posters in my room that would lead them to instructional videos/music/etc about that topic.  Currently that isn't really possible because my kids don't have iPads and are not allowed to use iPods in the room.  Yet maybe in a few years this will all change.  Regardless, I want to stay on top of technology so it doesn't run me over!  Seriously, before February if I would have been told about this app I would have thought the person speaking about it was from the future.  Actually, it's kind of like that.  There is so much "from the future" that is available today, it's virtually unreal! PUN INTENDED!

When I was first introduced to Augmented Reality, I was informed that people are using it everywhere for tons of different purposes.  The most interesting thing I heard about was that there were specific t-shirts being made for augmented reality.  I heard that some people are wearing them at college sporting events and you can walk up to the t-shirt wearer and zoom in on their shirt and their school mascot will come alive and their fight song will play.  To me that seems a bit intrusive.  I mean, think of it... complete strangers are walking up to you and zooming in on an image that is plastered across your chest.  Yet I guess if you bought the shirt, you want people to do that... so it's your choice!  Anyway, I haven't been able to find anything like that to show you but I did find this video on marketing with Aurasma. Pretty crazy stuff, eh?

This Techie Teacher Recommends Aurasma for:

• Teachers! Play around with creating your own augmented reality for a more inner-active classroom.
• People who are interested in new marketing techniques.  This is like the next "QR Code" phase.
• People who are creative and want to tell stories within stories within stories.
• People who want to stay on top of what's next in technology.

This Techie Teacher does NOT Recommend Aurasma for:

• No one really!

Main Downfall of the App (if any):

• Augmented Reality is new and expanding every day.  I wouldn't say that there is a DOWNFALL to this app, it's just that you might not use it all of the time unless you create your own.
  

If you think that Augmented Reality is just a fad that will be leaving soon, think again.  In my opinion, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the future.  Here is one final video on the possibilities for Augmented Reality within the new few years.  In fact, I bet that this video becomes truth in less than a year's time.

What are your thoughts?

Sunday Summary - June 11th-17th

What a Week!!!

For the first time since school got out, I finally felt like it I was "sort of" on VACATION!!

Monday, June 11th

• It rained today.  That was the first in a while.  We've had a pretty dry past few weeks.
• William went to his babysitter's house today, while I ran a couple of errands before going to work.  I needed to go to Hobby Lobby and Michaels in order to prepare for a craft project for William's big boy room.  I am going to do some wall art that I was inspired by from a Pinterest picture (below).  I am basically going to use this artwork as inspiration, but my final project will not be like this.  Since I am using a Cricut machine to cut the vehicles out, it will be like the opposite of this.  I probably won't use a map either, but this does look really cool!
• At work I got a good amount accomplished.  I did every single one of my POs for my seven classes (six of which are ones I have never taught before.)  That took a while, since I didn't really have any clear direction.  I hit a wall of exhaustion in the afternoon and actually contemplated lying down and taking a nap in the back corner of my room.  However, one thought of how gross my classroom pillows are really shook that thought out of my head and kept me plugging away.

 

Tuesday, June 12th

• Today I was NOT alone at work - hip, hip, HOORAY!  Two of my friends came to school to craft, so I took a break from my classwork to craft with them.  I worked on William's big boy bedroom project.  (By the way, I am not sure if I have ever told the Blog this but William's room will be done in trucks, trains, planes, and boats.)
• So, what did I accomplish during our craft time?  Well, not TOO much because I am not 100% sure what wall space I will be working with at our new house.  It all depends on where the furniture is going to fit and what furniture he will have in his room... In fact, we aren't even entirely sure which room William will have - although I am fairly certain it will be the pink and orange polka dot one (sans the pink and orange polka dots of course!)  I did, however, decide what size the vehicles I wanted to use in my frames and cut samples out to maneuver.  I went from originally thinking I would do four frames like the one above to just three.  I chose a truck, a plane, and a tractor since there wasn't a sailboat design. Plus I am going to spell his name out with the Choo-Choo train letters.  It was nice to chat with my friends and watch them be super productive making t-shirt quilts, and I feel excited about the project I have for William.  I just wish we could be in our house to get it STARTED!

Wednesday, June 13th

• Today I took William to the lake for the day.  It was VERY nice to have a day away from Toledo and WORK! Cathy had called me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that two of Dominic's cousins were going to be bringing their kids up for the day today.  That's a pretty big deal because we don't get to see them much and therefore William doesn't get to see/know their kids much either.  Unfortunately my sister-in-law could not come and then at the last minute Cathy couldn't come (Dom's Grandpa is having surgery tomorrow so she was busy preparing for helping him with that) but it was fun to see the girls and their kids and to hang out with Dom's Aunt Sharon for the afternoon.  
• When we first got to the lake, William was sad because of course he expected to see Grandma and Grandpa Krupp, but they were not there!  He got over it quickly once he dug out the toys from their shed.  He doesn't forget a thing, so he marched right over there and started pulling them out.  There are new lake toys that I didn't even know about since this was my first trip up there this year, but he remembered them from his trip with Dominic over Memorial Day.
• Later, when the kids starting arriving, William and his cousin Mitchell became instant friends.  It was adorable how quickly they connected.  I have a picture of the two boys holding hands that just makes my heart melt.  I will post it below.
• I will admit that today was a bit challenging being 9 months pregnant, running around chasing a toddler who is all-too-bold about going right into the lake.  I think I over-estimated my strength.  It was much harder to handle him today than it would have been if Dom or Cathy would have been there.  We still had a good time, but I was worried a lot about watching him. 
• William and I decided to come back to Toledo for dinner in hopes that we would see Daddy, but Daddy was out golfing so we had dinner alone.  We decided to get Chipotle (William's favorite) but he had a bit of a meltdown when we got home.  He was PERFECT at the lake, but the lack of nap did him in by dinnertime. All-in-all it was a wonderful day! 

Protecting his head while playing trucks at the lake

"Mommy, I got binoculars!"

Mitch and Will - My Favorite Picture of the Day!

 Big Day in the Sun + No Nap = Meltdown!!!

Thursday, June 14th

Playing in the river at the Zoo.

•  Today William went to the ZOO with his babysitter, her husband, her kids, and one of her son's girlfriends! He had two exciting days in a ROW!  Plus he was just at the Zoo last Saturday. He loved the Polar Bear again. The first picture below is a picture of him eating a "graham snack" on the way to the sitter's.  He said he was a camper and campers eat graham snacks.  I told him this yesterday and he remembered. LOL!

William is saying, "No pictures!"

• I had a good day as well.  First thing this morning I attended the first of our weekly staff brunches that we are holding over summer vacation for anyone interested in creating a more positive learning environment for our school.  I felt as though the meeting was incredibly upbeat and people brought a lot of great ideas to the breakfast table.  (There was also really good food.)  I am hoping that all of this work we will be doing over the summer will truly pay off.  I'm keeping an open mind and a positive attitude.  Perhaps we will even DOUBLE the size of this committee by the end of the summer!!!
• After brunch I had to run home because the couple buying our house was getting it inspected.  After that, I went to the Waterville garage sales.  I didn't buy nearly as much as I did last year, but then again I bought most of my stuff in Perrysburg last year.  This year I was mainly looking for stuff for William's big boy room since I don't know if this baby is a boy or a girl.  I did find him a Radio Flyer tricycle, which was another one of my main goals, and I was able to talk them down from $10 to $8.  I am going to save this for when we move so William will have something exciting at our new house.  Plus the driveway there is paved smoothly, which will provide a much better surface to practice riding around on.  I also found him a bookshelf for his room.  I got that for $8 as well, even though it was marked $10.  
• I headed over to my cousin Dawn's house toward the end of my time in Waterville and got to catch up with her for a while, so that was very nice!  She is always so generous in what she gives us for William.  Whenever he is wearing something nice, odds are it came from her.  Will gets all of his finest hand-me-downs from his cousin Zachary (Dawn's son).
• I ended the day at my 36 Week check.  You probably read all about that in Thursday's blog though!
• In the evening, Dom was able to get home early enough for us to check out some furniture for William's new room.  We grabbed Wendy's for dinner (and made the mistake of feeding a toddler some Frosty) before went to Value City Furniture to search for twin mattresses.  My favorite part of the trip was when I had William lie down on the mattress and he sprawled out his arms and legs, reaching way up high over his head, and exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't fit in here!"  Precious!  After that William's sugar-buzz kicked in and he was sprinting all over the furniture store.  It was time for us to leave.  We weren't planning on buying anything that night, just getting ideas.  So we left.

Friday, June 15th

• Well, since I hadn't been as productive at work this week as I had planned on being I went to work this day.  I did get a good amount done, but it seems as though these projects I am working on are never-ending!  I am just glad that this baby is providing me with a relatively clear finish-date.  Usually I spend the entire summer working at couple days a week.  This year I am going to be going in until the end of this month and then possibly a couple of days during the first week of July if baby is not here yet.  Then I am going to be FINISHED until October 1st when I come back from my maternity leave!
• This evening we went to a pool-party at our friend's house in Perrysburg.  I brought a tomato/avocado/corn dip that my friend made for our Home Group session a week ago.  I think it was a hit!  A picture is attached.
• William always LOVES going to this house and he had SO MUCH FUN tonight!  It was great to see him be so bold in the water.  I think part of this goes back to our trip to the lake this week and part is just him still being fearless.  He was leaning into the water on his tip-toes and then sort of falling into our arms.  He kept calling it "jumping" into the pool.  The only time he jumped was toward the very end.  His feet actually left the ground!  I am so proud of how good of a swimmer he is.  I really need to enroll him in some swim classes.  Once we move to Perrysburg and things calm down a bit, Dom and I want to get a Y membership.  Then we can do some classes with William.
• The evening ended with William's first S'more ever.  It was a hit!  The other day I told him that campers eat graham snacks, so he was alllllll over graham snacks again. 

Top 5: The Five Most Uncomfortable Aspects of Being 36 Weeks Pregnant in June

Here are my "Top 5 Pregnancy Discomforts" for the moment:

5. Over the past two days my right side/pelvic bone area has been throbbing after I sleep.  Maybe I am putting too much weight on that side.  Regardless of where the pain originates, I wish my girl Jackie would come up and massage it again like she did in Dayton a couple of weeks ago.  I know, right?  She's such a good friend to me!

4. Being SUPER hungry, but then not being able to eat much at all because the baby is taking up so much room that food doesn't fit... so then I'm super hungry again in 20 mins. 

3. Having to pee 100 times a day... especially in the middle of the night when getting up from a horizontal position has become a chore of its own.  Sometimes it hurts my entire body just to sit up.  Typing that makes me sound COMPLETELY out of shape, but I swear that's not the only reason.  This baby belly is out of control.

2. Shooting pains in the lower pelvic bone.  I actually asked the doctor about this at Thursday's check and he said that these pains were new for me during this pregnancy because my bones are already loosened from the first baby.  (I guess this is better than my thought that being pregnant in my 30s is 10x more challenging than being pregnant in my 20s.  I feel a little reassured that age isn't a factor here, since I am still planning on having another kid and I'm not getting any younger!)

1. The swelling in my feet.  I know that this is the stupidest thing to whine about, but I feel as though when my feet are in pain my whole body is in pain.  I can't even remember what it feels like to wear regular shoes, because my feet haven't fit into anything other than Crocs sandals for about 8 weeks.  I think that my feet are so swollen that anyone with a needle could pop them in an instant.  In addition to the swelling on the tops of my feet, I think the enlarging of the feet PLUS the sandals have callused my feet so bad that now I have tiny razor-blade like cuts all over the sides of my  heels.  These small cuts are like paper-cuts, tiny in nature but extremely powerful and annoying in pain.  I think that wearing socks could be beneficial, but it's too hot for that.  Therefore, my only real option is to shut up and bear it for the next 3-4 weeks.  I have to keep reminding myself that the light is peaking through at the end of this tunnel.  It won't be long now!

I know you were all waiting for me to complain about the heat, but that really hasn't been TOO big of an issue except on SUPER hot days, and the worst part of the super hot days is that my feet are EXTRA swollen.

* Despite all of this, I know that I am super honored and blessed to be able to have this miracle growing in me and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. <3

36 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

Good evening! Here's the latest on Li'l Krupp.  Honestly, don't get excited because it's not much!

Today was my 36 week check (although I am technically almost 37 weeks along), so the first of my weekly visits from here on out. Wow... it's getting real now!  My OB/GYN office has been extra busy lately because one of the female docs just moved to Arkansas to be with her kids.  That was pretty sad for me, because I loved that doctor.  However, I don't blame her for wanting to be nearer family and I am super happy for her! Anyway, I was supposed to see the doctor who delivered William, but she was called to labor so I was with the only doctor left in the office (the male doctor) instead.  That's really not a big deal because I have been seeing him almost every time I have been there, since the doctor who delivered William has been on her OWN maternity leave for a while.  Needless to say, it's pretty crazy at the office and they should probably hire someone else since they are so busy.  I had to wait for a half an hour in the waiting room, which is uncomfortable when you are mega-pregnant and you have been waiting to pee for a few hours b/c you know you will need a urine sample when you get to your appointment (but that's beside the point).

Anyway, since this story is really anti-climatic I will keep it short.  Basically, I gained two pounds since my last check-up two weeks ago, which I thought was reassuring because before that I hadn't gained any weight in four weeks!  (I have only gained 7 lbs in the past 10 weeks... that's when I started keeping track on my phone, so before then I am not exactly sure how much I weighed.)  The baby's heart-rate is still at boy level, according to this doctor who has predicted boy for the past four visits, and he or she is so high that the doctor couldn't even tell what position he or she is in... so that's it!  No more news!  I actually felt reassured by this because I have been in so much pain lately that I thought baby had dropped and was going to come pretty soon.  It's not that I don't want to see baby, because I definitely do, it's just that despite my pains and the extreme level of discomfort I have been in... I still want to go late.  My goal is to make it to Sunday, July 15th... as unlikely as that is!

I will return for my 37 week check next Thursday morning.  Stay tuned for the next update!

What's Up With Will? - Camping!

So I'm not entirely sure when or where it started, but William is currently OBSESSED with the idea of camping. His babysitter thought it could be from an episode of Little Bill where Bill went camping. That could be it. Maybe it's a combination of that plus our talks about camping, his one experience camping last summer at East Harbor that we talk about a lot, and the idea of taking him camping this summer that we throw around a lot. Who knows where kids pick these things up! Regardless of where this new obsession originated, it's currently the biggest interest in Will's life. Let's just say that If I were to throw him a birthday party right now, I'd throw him a camping party.

It seems as though he thinks about camping from the minute he wakes up to the minute he falls asleep, and quite often in between. He has a special place in his room where he likes to "camp" which Dominic created a few nights ago when he "camped" with Will. Unfortunately, it's right in front of his bedroom door in a nook between the door and the wall. This is unfortunate bc the other night when he was awake after we said our prayers, he "camped out" and fell asleep in front of the door. He wedges himself, his blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals in this small space and then the door won't open. Although it is a bit scary (aka not fire code friendly), it was cute to see his hand peeking out underneath the door. I should have taken a picture of that little image.

William also thinks about camping first thing in the am. He has always been good about staying in his room whenever he gets up before I wake him up, which is RARE and only in the summer or on the occasional weekend when Dom and I allow ourselves to sleep in until 6-6:30am. Well this morning, he woke up while I was drying my hair and he stayed in the room as usual. Today though, he had created his "campsite" (once again right on front of the door) and even made a space for me. He wanted to camp before I could even get him dressed and ready for the sitter's. Even informing him that he was going to the Zoo with his sitter today did not distract him from his camping experience.

Lately, the kids at the babysitter's have been building a campsite as well. They take blankets and string them between a chair and the couch and then play under there. It's all quite adorable.

All of this fake camping will pay off soon enough when William camps this summer, even if it's only in our backyard and even if William doesn't last and ends up sleeping inside. Dominic is incredibly excited to take William camping, and I can only hope that I get to be a part of it as well... But that might depend on this baby's plans and ability to travel. Regardless, this will be a fun father/son activity that they can make a tradition for years to come!

William in the "Camping Corner" of his bedroom.  This was taken this morning when he had set up camp for the two of us.

"Camping" at his babysitter's house with his two friends, Aiden and Liam.

What I Wonder: Life with 2 Kids

I'm taking William to the lake today by myself... For only the day... And this is how much we're bringing. How much more will we need to bring when we go somewhere with 2 kids? I know that realistically it won't be twice as much, but it will definitely be interesting to see!

Diaper bag, purse, lunch pail, cooler, beach bag, and small suitcase - all for 5 hours of beach time!

Techie Tuesdays: iPad Training Session and Featured App Review: TourWrist

As many of you know, Dom and I invested in an iPad last Black Friday.  (We didn't open it until Christmas though... isn't THAT impressive?)  Since getting an iPad, I have been working on improving my understanding of its countless functions and capabilities.  I was fortunate enough to represent my school district for a second time at the eTech conference in Columbus back in February.  It was there that I learned a little more than I knew before.  Yet understandably, technology is an ongoing and ever-chaning process.  I have made it my goal to try to keep up with its changes, because if I don't I (like many other frustrated people) will get run over.  Therefore, I knew I wanted to schedule and attend regular trainings for my new gadget.

In the spring, I arranged for our staff to go through two voluntary after-school iPad trainings given by our NWOET representative. Both of these were big successes.  The teachers who attended one (or both) sessions walked away with a handful of new apps they could use in their lives and classrooms right away. In addition to learning a ton about the iPad, I loved the fact that the training was done by a person who is open to learning from his students as much as teaching them.  Technology allows students to become the teachers at times, and I believe that is a big step to engaging learners in today's classrooms, so I felt that our instructor modeling this was an excellent move on his part.

Below is the link to the presentation for the iPad training I hosted at school.  I promised a lot of people on Facebook that I would post it, so here it is. WARNING:  This is an "INTERMEDIATE" training.  If you are looking for the basics of iPads, then this is not where to look.  It is also not advanced, so don't expect that either!  Before you click on the link, here are some directions you will need once you get to that site:

- Click on the link to the training

- Look for the QR code on the right side of the screen

- Below that code there is a link that says, "iPad Intermediate Presentation" 

- Click on that to open the training session
- There you have it!  Read through at your own pace, some of this will be new and some will probably be review for you! 

- NOTE: You might even want to save it to your iBooks account so you will have it indefinitely!

- ok, NOW you can may begin here: Intermediate iPad Training 

I will be identifying some of my favorite apps in later "Tech Tuesday" blog posts, but I will leave you with one today.  I am really digging TourWrist right now because it takes your iPad or iPhone and turns it into a viewfinder.  You can search anything from the London Bridge to a cafe in San Fransisco where you would like to eat brunch.  Once you find what you are looking for (say a hotel in New York) you simply check the "tour" out by moving your iPad or iPhone up, down, and around like a pair of glasses and you can see a 360 degree image of the place!  Try looking off a cliff!!! It's so trippy!

This Techie Teacher Recommends TourWrist for:

• Teachers!  You can take kids ANYWHERE with technology. Our district cut field trips out of its budget YEARS ago, but even then we could never take a kid to the Great Wall of China!
• People who are about to go on a vacation and want to check out hot spots, resorts, clubs, diners, hotels, etc.
• People who are interested in geography and landmarks.
• People who want to look silly moving their iPads or iPhones up, down, and around while waiting in the doctor's office.

This Techie Teacher does NOT Recommend TourWrist for:

• People who get motion sickness.

Main Downfall of the App (if any):

• Like most apps, it is still fairly new, so there aren't as many "tours" as I would like to see.  Yet keep TourWrist on your radar;  I am fairly certain it is going to do some amazing things very soon.
  

Please feel free to share your favorite apps with me as well.  Like I said before, technology is amazing in that the students can actually become the teachers and then learning can become the circular activity that I believe it was always designed to be.  I love learning, so PLEASE ... teach me! :)