The Lake and OIB July 4th Weekend - Weeks 23, 24, and 25

Nothing new in Pregnancyland, so I'll focus on a couple of family vacays.  First, the lake a couple of weekends ago.  We went on kayaks and a pontoon boat; Ford wasn't too impressed by either.  His favorite part was the dollar-store noodles he got to fight Jamie and Aunt Steph with.

On July 3rd, Ford's school had a 4th of July parade:

After the parade, we went down to Ocean Isle with the Honeycutts for our annual 4th of July long weekend:

     

A little more on Ford at 2 years & 3 months: 

• He's into everything being his way.  He won't sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star because he wants to sing Twinkle Twinkle, BIG Star.  He refuses to eat off of a plate with compartments unless every compartment has food, or else it's "missing some" (this is cute at first, but becomes problematic when he finishes off a compartment and the plate is, again, missing some).  He has a meltdown because you brought him grey socks instead of white socks, or the Diego cup instead of the dinosaur cup, or the blue straw instead of the yellow straw...   
• He's a huge little ball of energy.  He'll get so excited that he doesn't know what to do, so he screams and balls his fists and physically shakes.  It's weird, but I guess there are less healthy alternatives.
• He's manipulative.  Every night after we put him to bed, just as we think he's fallen asleep, he'll yell down to us "Mommy, I poop!  Daddy, I poop!"  We fell for this for about a week (he's potty training right now so we're trying to be super responsive) until we realized it was a tactic to stay up another five minutes.
• He's sweet.  He loves giving you a "big kiss" (where he grabs your face with his hands and pulls you in).  He also is into "big hugs," but these are just regular hugs (his "little hugs" don't involve his arms, but just the laying of his head into you).
• He's a chatterbox.  Even if you're not entirely sure what he's saying, he's saying something.  When I get annoyed by it, I remind myself that just a few months ago I would've done anything for him to talk more because we were worried he was behind in his speech development.
• He's obsessed with closing doors.  If he can't close a door, you better give him a really good reason why it needs to stay open.

Recap of Weeks 23 - 25:

• Lil Fil 2.0 is the size of: about 1.5 - 2 pounds and 13.5 - 14 inches
• I have gained: only 11 pounds, even though it looks like a lot more
• I feel: overall, good.  I don't have any swelling yet, even though I was anticipating it.  I do still have headaches, and have started getting acid reflux.

24 weeks

25 weeks