Sophia's New Desk

So one day I happened upon this old fashioned school desk that someone was prepared to just throw away. It was in pretty bad condition, had lots of scrapes, old stickers, and just looked plain awful. I really wish I had thought to take some before pictures because Charlie did a fantastic job of refinishing it. After some sanding and a few coats of varnish...voila...good as new! Sophia loves it and it gives us a place to stash her growing supply of art supplies. We put it right next to our desk and it's been a big hit all morning!

Yesterday we went to the Midwest Kids Fest with Julie, Massimo and Luca. Sophia was ready to take us there herself. This was really the best picture of the day. It was a bit of a nightmare really. There are mostly vendors that moms are really interested in, but kids? Not so much. They did have some bounce houses and a very small petting zoo, but in the end, I'm not sure it was worth it, but at least it passed the morning away while Charlie had to go into work and of course, we got to hang with our friends!

Time For a Spud Update

Well, it seems I haven't posted much about the soon-to-be-newest Hirner...but there really isn't much to post. I guess that's good, right!? Tomorrow marks the official 30 weeks mark! I just returned home from the doctor, I am now going every two weeks, and all is well. The baby's heart rate sounds great, my blood sugar was 84, which is apparently good, and I'm growing at the right rate...all good news! I am so lucky that Sue's schedule is such that it allows me to drop Sophia off during my appointments (and she's close to the Dr.'s office, another bonus). They have some quality time together and I don't have to worry about her little curious hands finding all the no-no's behind every nook and cranny in the office. Sue was even kind enough to keep Sophia for a little extra time tonight so that Charlie and I can have a dinner out with just each other...I can't wait!



Spud is still constantly on the move. His/her most active time is from about 8pm to ???. When I get in bed and lay on my side it actually feels as if this child is standing on the bed and trying to punch through the other side of my belly. Every time I have Charlie feel it he gets this incredulous look on his face and says something like 'Wow that's crazy'! Yes it is and I'm getting more and more anxious to get it out of there! I think we're both so amazed because Sophia absolutely did not move like this. This was about the time she got herself stuck in the breech position as well, and although I'm glad that hasn't happened, I'm seeing the down side of this option as well! ;)



On a more sour note, however, it seems that the terrible rash known as PUPP (some fancy name for pregnancy induced rash) has returned. Although my doctor isn't 100% sure that's what it is, he said it's most likely. This was about the time when I pregnant with Sophia that the ugly thing reared it's head the first time. I had two separate forms of it then, which had to be diagnosed by a dermatologist because my OB hadn't quite seen in such an aggressive form before. Awesome. My doctor did say however, that if I can't keep it under control this time with OTC cortisone, he'll be happy to prescribe me some steroids, that's good news except for the fact that I'll only have to run to the bathroom more times during the day! Ha!



This week has been dedicated to finishing up some odds and ends and getting to a place where I can focus on the baby's nursery. Sophia's room is almost done, I think all that's left is a bookshelf and wall decor. The baby's room however needs a little more attention. The crib is put together and the rocker is in there, but that's as far as it goes. I need to get all the furniture in and in place, figure out how to set up the awful black hole of a closet, get the pictures hung, clothes unpacked and put away, and the crib dressed. As the time draws nearer I am both more excited and more anxious. It was nice to be with Kathleen last week because we shared some of the same ridiculous psychoses and were able to both worry together and comfort each other. I know it will all be okay when the baby does arrive, but it still feels like so much has to get done before then and time is running out!

National Ice Cream Day

Sophia went with the uncharacteristic choice of vanilla

Delicious anyway!

Ahhh, but here she is poaching from Grandma's chocolate cone

happy camper

full of ice cream and smiles!

We couldn't let National Ice Cream Day pass without a trip to Ben and Jerry's! In fact, July is National Ice Cream Month...I think I must have subconsciously known that!

Zoo Day, Hooray!

Aunt Chris and Julie support Sophia the jumping bean!

Sophia and Daddy gazing at the Kudu
(Sophia kept calling them goats, but who's keeping track!)

taking a closer look at the zebras

three cousins enjoying some shade

The Hirners aboard the hippo

Sophia chose to ride the seal

while Julie picked the zebra

Now that I've got this zoo thing down, we hit the KC Zoo this week too. Sophia was thrilled, although she did keep asking why Lily and Kathleen weren't there! Now, I'll try not to be too negative here, but I just don't know if it's because we just experienced the St. Louis Zoo and all it's glory (including the fact that it's FREE!) or if the Kansas City Zoo really does just suck. I honestly can't remember the last time I was there and Charlie hasn't been since he was a kid, so it was a whole new experience for all of us. It just seemed that the ratio of animals to sidewalk was a little disproportionate...in other words, there was far too much walking and not enough viewing. When there were animals, they were very hard to see and nothing was labeled well at all. We didn't make it past Africa due to it's proximity to everything else and the fact that we ran into nap time. We did manage to hit the carousel on the way out, which was a big hit. But, I haven't given up on it yet! I'd like to return to the zoo and visit some other "continents" which will hopefully be more visitor friendly!

Overland Park Botanical Gardens

investigating turtles and fish with Daddy

taking a breather

Conductor Sophia

heading into the maze

navigating through the tall grasses

she and Daddy met in the middle!

testing out each stump chair

checkers for one?

Charlie surveys the scene

This is our summer vacation week, split up into both vacations and staycations! Since Charlie isn't taking much time off work, due to both being swamped and saving time for the baby, we decided it best to not try and stress ourselves out any more by going someplace out of town. Sophia and I spent the beginning of the week in St. Louis (see slide show!;) and Charlie took off Thursday and Friday. Yesterday was mostly spent moving furniture (more on that to come, as redecoration is still underway) and today was dedicated to family outings.

I'd been wanting to go to the Botanical Gardens and it was a beautiful morning to do it. We all had a lovely time enjoying the beautiful scenery and getting some fresh air and exercise. We only saw about half the garden but Sophia really enjoyed both the pond and the children's garden. I'm sure we'll make another visit soon! We rounded out the afternoon with a trip to the dog park where both Walter and Sophia played their tails off!

Charlie and I even got to have some alone time while Sophia chilled at Bama's and we hit a new restaurant I've been dying to try, Blanc Burgers + Bottles, which by the way if you live in KC and haven't tried it...get there soon! Tomorrow's agenda includes hitting the zoo with Chris, Oli and the girls and who knows what else, I'm just loving all this time we get to spend as our little family of 3!

A Duet

Mom stopped by to say hello after our trip out of town and she and Sophia had a moment that could just melt your heart. One of Sophia's favorite books is the sing-a-long piano book and she took it to Mom so they could read it and sang along with every song my mom sang to her...absolutely precious. I must admit, however, that this was my second choice video. The other one was seriously adorable, but it was just too dark and I didn't think it would translate very well, but enjoy the one song they sing here...just too cute! (at the end Sophia says, I want it again, in case you have trouble understanding her.)

Road Trip!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sophia and I braved our first road trip together! Since we had yet to make it to St. Louis in the year that Kathleen and family have been back there we set a goal to get there this summer. Kathleen is also pregnant, due with a baby boy at the end of October, so the window for both of us was rapidly closing! We left at 5am Monday morning and arrived in time to have some fun before nap time! We left St. Louis at 6pm Wednesday evening and let me tell you what, we had an action packed, jam packed 3 days of fun, fun, fun!

The slide show is a brief glimpse of our time together, and did you really expect me to pare it down more than that! I thought that 32 pictures over 3 days really was pretty good! ;) On Monday we hit The Magic House, a local children's museum, where I think we only managed to see about a third of it before it was time to go! Tuesday we went to the zoo and had perfect weather while we visited many animals. It was actually Sophia's first zoo experience and it was a lot of fun. She really loved the bears and sea lions the best. Wednesday, due to rain, we hit the science center where they had an absolutely FABulous children's play room. Sophia was fascinated by the magnets and experimented with them for quite a while. Kathleen and I only managed to get frozen custard once, but it was worth it!

Lily and Kathleen were great hostesses and we had so much fun. Although I didn't see too much of Carl due to his work schedule, it was nice to catch up with him and because our time was limited so was his mocking! ;) We miss them so much already and Sophia has already talked to them many times on her play phone. I hope to be able to spend more time together soon, and with our second babies being born at the same time, I look forward to more fun times in our future!