22 months and...now 40 weeks pregnant :)

Laney turned 22 months old Sunday, and I turned 40 weeks pregnant today ;) My doctor predicting the baby would come early jinxed me ;) Oh well, she'll get done cooking when she's ready...I'll keep you posted. Laney rode her horse a lot this week, although it was very cold these last few days. We only stayed out a few minutes the last set of pics because it was only 23 degrees...today I think it made it to 8! Laney helped her dad get some calves out of some pens to doctor. She cracks me up, she tells Newt "by Newt" so that he will 'go by' a calf...he doesn't listen to her little voice yet, but I'm sure he'll start when he can hear her better. She is talking in 2 and 3 word combinations...sort of sentences. Her attention span is growing rapidly too, she sat for 20 min yesterday and played with just her blocks, saying what was on each side, what color each thing was, and making matches...she made 1 match of 4 blocks, 2 of 3 blocks, and 6 matches of 2 blocks. She also opened the cupboard up tonight, grabbed the oats and said "oats". She is recognizing letters of the alphabet on different things now. A box came in the mail and she recognized a 'w' and an 'o', then got distracted. She now reads with me, saying the words before I can get them out...at this point I think it's just that she knows what is coming because we read so much, but still, her memory is really good. I just find myself more and more impressed with her every day. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. Scott and Laney and I are staying here, traveling at this point of waiting might not be the best idea, so I'm cooking the feast as usual and Uncle Volk came up to share the grub. Laney was squealing with excitement when he showed up :)

39 weeks and counting...

I think I only took pictures on two days this week...it's been so crazy trying to get things totally ready in my office and with life in general to get ready for this new baby. But I did get some really cute pics. It was cold again all week, but that didn't stop Laney from riding her horse almost everyday. Even when the snow was falling, she was out there...as you can see, she helped our help check calves. She finally cracked a couple smiles up on her horse Blue Duck who she calls "Duck". She really loves riding, so much it's hard to get her off even when it's freezing out. I'm 39 weeks now and feeling ready to have this baby. I feel really good, just tired and dense, not mentally :) well kind of that way too, mostly just heavy :) Laney is talking so much and combining words into mini-sentences. She often says "mommy's stuff", "no dats mommy's stuff", "old book", "mommy tape", "apple sauce", "mommy sit, daddy sit", "seepy mommy", "baby's stuff", "daddy hep" for daddy helped, "book pease", "too too" for thank you, "sticker book", "Emmitt pig", "Mowgi" for Mowgli in the Jungle Book, and "Sadie out poop pee". When we drive by a feedlot or into our feedlot she now says "stinky poop moos". She loves to say "daddy stinks" and "mommy stinks" which of course makes a pregnant lady feel great! She recognizes and can say nearly every letter of the alphabet, and she counts out loud "un, two" or she'll say "two boots, un, two". She also tells stories and says series of words that tell a story of things that happen in the day that actually make some sense. There was a cattle truck that tipped over into the ditch on the road literally right by our driveway the other night.  It was fully loaded with cows. The driver wasn't going fast at all when he passed the house, he just got off onto the grass shoulder a little and over her tipped. He was fine and the cows were mostly ok...a little sore. It happened in the early evening, and he knocked over a power pole making our house dark. Anyway, long story short, we went and helped them cut the top off the trailer with our cutting torch and loader, to get the cows out and captured down into our feedlot. Laney was asking questions about it all...so I told her that the truck tipped over, hit a pole which made the lights go out and made our house dark. Dad helped get the cows out, and Joe and Dad helped put them in pens so they'd be safe. She repeats the story as "tuck tip, hit pole, dark, yeah, daddy hep moos, yeah, Joe hep moos...Newt?" The accident was last week and she still talks about it. It's really cute. It makes me laugh that she wonders why Newt didn't do anything. Scott had taken just Joe and Lee because they listen the best in a crisis. Lee came running home when they were cutting and ripping the roof off the trailer though...it was dark, there were lots of flashing lights and she got scared, too much going on.