It's a BOY!

We had the "big" ultrasound today and it was very obvious that we are having a baby boy. Everything looked good and the baby appears to be active and healthy.

Benjamin was asking for a baby sister, so hopefully over the next three months he'll change his mind and decide that having a brother is okay too. We're excited and now don't have to figure out a girl name because we had already decided on a boy name.

I can't believe I'll be in my 3rd trimester next week, but I am quite uncomfortable... 3 more months of this! I thought it was funny the ultrasound tech made me empty my bladder because it was squishing the baby into one spot.

Spontaneous Road Trip

Last night we drove to St. Joseph, Missouri and stayed the night in my parents' new RV. My mom had forgotten her garment bag when they were here last week and when we figured out they'd be stopping for the night about 2 hours away we decided to make the trip. We were supposed to have the missionaries over for dinner, but one of them was sick so they canceled. It took us 1.5 hours to pack up and we didn't leave here until after 7 p.m. and took a detour through Plattsmouth because we didn't know the bridge was out still (even though Benjamin said it was!) We arrived at the RV after 9 p.m. and Benjamin woke up when Ryan tried to get him out of the car. He didn't go back to sleep until after 11 p.m. (M&Ms and cookies probably didn't help the situation). We started a game of "Ticket to Ride" while Grandpa tried to get him to bed... but Benjamin's a Mama's boy when it comes to lights-out, so I had to give my hand over to my dad. I put him in a position to win, but I'm not sure what happened. It was after midnight that we went to bed with the sound of drums in the background (it was quite an interesting RV park my parents had stopped at). We woke up at 6 a.m. to Benjamin's bright-eyed and busy self; he was so excited to be in the RV. We headed for home around 9 because Ryan had an 11:30 meeting for church. It was a short, unexpected trip, but it was nice to see my parents again and Benjamin enjoyed another RV adventure. We took pictures with my mom's camera and I'll upload them as soon as she e-mails them.

Here's the photos:

A Toad in the Road

Benjamin and I went to the Fontenelle Forest Nature Center this morning with the Bradley Girls. I had to take a photo of Benjamin with the frog statue in the entry area because it looks just like an illustration in one of his Thomas books (A Crack in the Track). The proportions are even correct.

The book is rather silly (and not one of my favorites) because the passengers on "Bertie Bus" have to unload because there's a toad in the road. Why don't they just boot the toad off the road? Anyway, as you can see from the photo, Benjamin is quite the climber.
This is what happens when Benjamin refuses to take a nap. He falls asleep like clock-work around 6 p.m. at the dinner table with fork in hand. He's trying to give up naps completely and I haven't found a good solution yet. Yesterday he fell asleep "reading" to himself. It didn't work today.