The Zorio Family

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Nora Kate: 27 Week Update

We have less than three months to go until Nora Kate's August 12th due date! It really is unbelievable that in 13 weeks we will be a family of FIVE! As of Monday, we hit the 27 week mark. I am still feeling GREAT! This has, by far, been the easiest pregnancy-not that the others were horrible, but with Dawson and Carter I just had less energy, more aches and pains, and all the other complaints that generally come with pregnancy. This time around, I have still been feeling really well. I have actually been still able to run some too which is nice. I have cut down from the two miles I was running though to actually running only about 1 mile and then walking a couple more, just because as Nora Kate has gotten bigger it's getting a little more challenging to run.
We had another ultrasound on May 3rd and we got to see her sweet face in 4D. At the same moment John and I both said, "Wow, her nose and lips look like Carter!" We will see who she really looks like come August, but it was surprising that we could tell who she resembled at this stage! I will try to get that image posted, but it's on a disk right now that's not compatible with our computer. She looked very healthy in the ultrasound and there were no concerns! (This was our 5th ultrasound with Nora Kate, but it was still just as exciting!)
At my May 3rd doctor's appointment, I also had the yucky glucose test done. I wasn't at all concerned with it, until I failed?! I couldn't believe it because I have felt so well, and honestly I've been eating healthier than I did when I was pregnant with Dawson or Carter. So now I am on a restricted diet which is no fun! I just got off the dairy restricted diet when Carter outgrew the allergy, and could eat as I pleased for a few weeks...but now I have to watch carbs and sugars to keep the blood sugar levels in check. I also have to do finger sticks five times a day and keep track of my sugar levels-which have never been out of suggested range so I think I'm doing okay! This isn't the most fun thing to have to do, but I am thankful that I'm feeling good...I think it'd be worse to be feeling awful and trying to keep up with Dawson and Carter, so I can manage the restricted eating and finger sticks. Plus, the gestational diabetes will go away as soon as Nora Kate arrives!
In about a week we will be moving Dawson and Carter into the same bedroom, and THEN we can start working on Nora Kate's nursery!!! I'm so excited to start getting it set up for her. We will be painting the room a soft pink, and we already have the bedding and have purchased a couple of things to decorate the walls with. We have also started purchasing little girl clothes which are all so cute and so fun! A little girl can't have too many pink dresses, right!? We are having a lot of fun starting to prepare for Nora Kate, and within the next month we hope to make a lot of progress in our preparations!
Dawson talks about Nora Kate a lot!! He is so sweet-every night at bedtime he remembers to thank God for her when he's listing all of our family members. When he's wanting everyone to do something he will say, "Daddy, Mommy, Carter, Nora Kate-everybody come in here!" He never leaves her out! He asks frequently if she can hear him and if she can talk, cry, or make noise in my tummy. Any time we see anything pink he tells us we should get it for Nora Kate. The other day at Target he saw a pink step stool, and said we should probably get it for Nora Kate to use when she washes her hands at the sink. Nora Kate is going to be one lucky little girl to have two great big brothers!
We are so excited to be preparing for Nora Kate's arrival!

27 Weeks...Nora Kate is obviously growing!

My companion for the next 13 weeks

Carter at 13 Months

Monday, May 13 Carter turned 13 months! He is so fun and has so much personality at this age! We love it! He thinks he is so big now that he's walking all the time is really fast too! He tries to do EVERYTHING Dawson does! He especially loves when Dawson takes him for rides in the Gator...the bumpier the ride, the happier Carter is! He is also really affectionate. He loves to give open mouth kisses on your cheek randomly. He also will just suddenly walk over and give me, John, or Dawson a hug! Any toy that's soft, he hugs! He LOVES swinging outside and being outside in general! He has fun playing at the sand table and in the sandbox too! Every evening after dinner we go for a walk, and he enjoys riding in his stroller relaxing or better yet riding the push handle tricycle through the neighborhood!
One of his funniest new tricks is sneezing! We have all been sneezing lately with allergies, and any time anyone sneezes Carter yells "AHH DA!" as if he's trying to imitate our sneeze noise. It's hilarious, and we often pretend to sneeze just to hear it!
He is still saying all the words I have listed in previous months but has started saying, "Thank dee" for thank you, "Birrr" for bird, and he now says "All done" with perfect clarity! His VERY VERY favorite word to say again this month is "uh oh!" He says this A LOT! Often the first word I hear in the morning is Carter saying "uh oh" as he wakes up. He also says "Goggie" for Doggie, but he isn't too fond of Bentley when we visit my parents house. I think it's just because she tries to lick him constantly!
Carter had become a little bit of a picky eater at the end of the 12th month, but his eating has picked back up! His favorite foods are peas, green beans, chicken nuggets, Cheerios in milk, bagels, string cheeses, yogurt, applesauce, and literally ANY fruit! His least favorite foods are anything I have to feed to him on a spoon because he prefers to feed himself...which is nice, but he is also SO messy! Carter is very independent!
Carter loves to play with his brother more than anyone else, and often times he cries when his brother leaves. John and I joke that Carter is more attached to Dawson than to us, but I think it's really just that Dawson is so much more fun and entertaining for him! One of his favorite things to play with brother inside is when they set up the tent in the playroom. Dawson always drags a bunch of toys inside the tent, and Carter loves to go sit inside there with Dawson. They both just laugh the whole time. It's really sweet.
We absolutely love Carter's personality at this age. He is such a funny, sweet, and silly boy!

Carter being silly while I'm trying to take his 13 month pictures.

I love that sweet little face!

Carter and Dawson.

These boys got so silly while I was trying to take their pictures. At the end Carter stood up on the chair (don't worry I was right there!), walked over and sat on Dawson like this. Then he just squealed and laughed. They can be so wild together sometimes! :)

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Dawson's 4th Birthday Party

On Saturday, May 11th we had Dawson's 4th birthday party! When he turned one he had a barnyard bash with a farm animal theme; for number two he had a dino-mite time at his dinosaur themed party; and last year his obsession with construction equipment led to a construction themed party. Really since Dawson was two and was given his first John Deere (the ride on tractor that he still loves!), he has LOVED tractors. We always try to theme his party after something he's been really interested in during the previous year. This year, there was no conversation or debate-we knew exactly the theme: tractors! Dawson specifically likes John Deeres (really just because he has more John Deeres than other kinds of tractors), so we chose green and yellow as the color theme even though we incorporated other colored tractors as well.

We sent out green tractor invitations that read:

Start your tractor and put it in gear,

Dawson's 4th birthday is almost here!

Four to six on May 11 is the date.

We hope you'll plow on over to celebrate!

Dawson's Tractor Supply

Our Home Address

Be a "Deere" and RSVP

I was really pleased with how the invitations looked, and Dawson loved them too so I knew we had picked the right theme for his party!

We were nervous the week leading up to his party because we were planning to do it in our backyard, and there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms forecasted for that day. When we went to bed on Friday night we were discussing the possibility of rescheduling it. Saturday morning, however, it had dropped to a 10% chance of scattered thunderstorms, and it didn't rain at all during his party!! In fact, the weather was perfect. It was a little overcast with a light breeze and in the 70's which was perfect for the kids and adults to enjoy being outside!!

Dawson's one request for the party was to have a real tractor parked in the backyard. (He doesn't come up with easy requests, haha!) After much searching, we found someone willing to park their 1930's Massey Ferguson in our backyard for the weekend...AND leave us the key! Dawson was thrilled. I think if we had done nothing else for his party, he would have been just as happy with this! We had the tractor parked in the backyard, the kids took turns climbing on and off and checking it out. At the VERY end of the party, Dawson's Pop decided he would try to start it up! (John and I took one look at the numerous levers and pedals and knew it would be dangerous for us to give it a try since we had no idea what we were looking at...and, and of course nothing was labeled.) Pop knew what he was doing though and he took the tractor on a spin across the backyard a few times. Dawson absolutely loved this, and so did the other kids! This was the highlight of the party for Dawson.

For other entertainment, we had a bounce house obstacle course that the kids really enjoyed going through-even Carter! We also decided that now that Dawson's four he is old enough to have games at his birthday party. So, we first played Pin the Wheel on the Tractor, a game that I made up. I drew a tractor and gave the kids all wheels. We covered their eyes with a John Deere Tractor baseball cap and spun them in circles before letting them try to pin the wheel where it belonged. They had fun doing this, and the winners (Corbin and Ashton) took home a small farm themed prize. Next up, we had a John Deere pinata. Dawson had been really looking forward to the pinata especially since he came with me to pick out the candy we stuffed inside so he knew there was good stuff in there! :) All of the kids took turns hitting the pinata, and finally one of the wheels broke off and the candy slowly fell out as the next several kids hit it. This was perfect because all of Dawson's friends had a chance to get candy!

We also had dinner for everyone at the party since we had it from 4-6. To stay in line with the tractor theme we served Bailer Burgers (hamburgers), Harvester Hot Dogs, Combine Chips, Farm Truck Fruit, and Hay Stacks. The drink container was labeled "Keep Your Engines Cool!" John did a great job grilling dinner for everyone! We had a John Deere tractor cake that I made and ice cream for dessert.

We had a sign on the favor table that read, "Thanks for being a Deere and helping Dawson celebrate! Please take a favor!" We had favor bags labeled with each childs name that said, "Deere Henry, Thanks for plowing over to celebrate my 4th birthday!" Inside the favor bags were sheets of John Deere stickers, a John Deere notepad, and some homemade lime scented John Deere green playdough!

We were thrilled to have the following family members come: Lolly, Pop, Uncle Logan, Nana, Grandad, Aunt Em, Cousin Drew, Eric, Hailey, Rachel, Corbin, and Ashton, and of course Carter, Mommy, and Daddy helped Dawson celebrate too. Dawson also had a lot of friends come to his party: Jay, Wesley, (and their parents), Henry, Thomas (and their mom-thanks for driving all the way from Asheville!! You guys are awesome!), Charlie (and his Dad), Sylvia (and her mom). I'm thankful that Dawson has so many great friends, and we missed a few friends that couldn't come on Saturday-but luckily Dawson gets to play with them a lot!

Dawson had such a blast at his party! He is still talking about the tractor, pinata, bounce, and all the friends who came to his party. He has seriously told EVERYONE about it since Saturday! It was so much fun planning his birthday, because I knew he would love this theme so much! We're glad he had such a great party and so much fun!

Now on to the good part...pictures! (The pictures are out of order again, sorry!)

Combine Chips, Farm Truck Fruit, and Hay Stacks

The food table. Bailer Burger and Harvester Hot Dogs on the left.

Ashton hitting the pinata!

Dawson got to take the first turn hitting the pinata!

Charlie hitting the pinata!

Jay hitting the pinata!

Dawson taking another turn!

Dawson and some of his friends at his birthday party! Carter is on the tractor int he back, then left to right: Charlie, Corbin, Hailey, Dawson, Ashton, Wesley, Jay, and Henry. A few friends (Thomas and Sylvia didn't make it in this picture).

Here's another shot that has Sylvia in it!

The kids had a blast on the inflatable bounce house!

Dawson and Charlie going through the bounce house obstacle course!

Charlie especially loved the inflatable!

Pop starting up the tractor!!

Pop was working to start the tractor, and I love this picture because you can see how excited Dawson is in the background! He was jumping up and down! Love it!!

All of the kids loved seeing Pop driving the tractor around! You can see Carter (orange shirt), pointing as Pop is driving!

After the party, Dawson got to go for a ride on the tractor...he was in heaven!!

He says he is going to be a farmer when he grows up, and he has told us this for quiet some time. He loves tractors so much!

Dawson even got to go for a ride in his pajamas before he went to bed after his party!

After the tractor ride, we let Dawson open his birthday presents! We had put "no gifts" on his invitation, but some friends brought gifts-which he loved! And he got gifts from his grandparents, John, Carter, and I too! He loves this new Wack-a-Mole game!

There's the party invitation in the bottom right, and the table I set up inside for gifts.

Dawson was thrilled with this playdough set too! It's a construction set...perfect!

One of the gifts from us was a new bug net, a bug box, and a magnifying glass to look at the bugs. Here's Dawson learning how to use a magnifying glass!

The most exciting gift from John and I is this remote control monster truck. He loves it, and already went through the first set of batteries in just three days! Here he is driving it before bed.

I'm not sure why this picture is sideways, but this picture was hanging in the backyard during the party!

Here is the result of the pin the wheel on the tractor game. A lot of kids got close!!

Dawson's birthday cake!

One of the favor bags with its contents!

The day before the party the tractor was delivered, so the boys and I had fun sitting on it. Dawson AND Carter both loved being up there!

The man who let us use his tractor, was SO nice to take Dawson on a ride on it through our neighborhood before parking it in our yard! Dawson LOVED this! (I'm sure our neighbors wonder about us!)

Since we had a full day of festivities planned with Dawson's party on Saturday and his actual birthday wasn't until Tuesday, we decided to only celebrate on Saturday and not do much on Tuesday. This was easier for Dawson to understand, and it was more fun!

Here he is with his breakfast bagel which was his birthday breakfast request-a chocolate chip bagel from Panera!!

Birthday boy!

The morning of the party, we had everything ready so we decided to take the boys to a nearby tractor show! (How perfect that this was happening on Dawson's day?!) Dawson loved looking at the tractors and going for a ride in this barrel train!