Baby Shower

La Oracion de una Madre por su Bebe

Senor, bendice la pequena vida que pronto nacera.
Concede sabiduria para criarlo a fin de que te ame.
Ayudanos Senor, que como padres, seamos un ejemplo de lo que significa amarte y servirte.
Que el corazon y la vida de nuestro hijo, siempre te pertenezca a ti.

The ladies in my church threw a baby shower for me this week. It was lovely and silly just like showers are suppose to be. We played a few silly games, ate potluck style lunch, opened baby presents and ended it with a big piece of cake. There are 6 or 7 seven American, military families that are part of the church but the majority of the members are Spaniards. There are several other families that are from other parts of the world too. I was touched that women who I can barely communicate with were at my shower and supporting me during this precious time in my life. Several of my friends from the base also came to celebrate with us.

It's interesting to be in a bilingual church family because everything said is usually interpreted into the other language or we do lots of gestering with minimal nouns and lots of smiles. So, half of the greeting cards were in Spanish and I needed my friend Gaby to translate them for me! Can't say I've ever been to a shower quite like this. It will definitely be one to remember. (I've got to work on my Spanish more over the next year!) Here's a look at all the gifts I received to get ready for my little guy. Gracias, Amigas!

focusing on the Master Teacher

Our homeschool started up with new resolve and dedication, last week. We are working through new routines, new curriculum, and new schedules. Ethan started full time school at DGF this week. We all participated in our first ever, "first day of public school." I'm feeling a bit conflicted about stretching our family into different worlds. I'll actually be balancing three worlds at once within the next month: homeschool, public school, new baby. My blood sugar levels were not good today. Maybe it's stress related. It's certainly a busy week for me so far and it's only Tuesday night. After getting up in the middle of restless sleep, I've plopped down to peruse the Internet a little. Here's a link to something that I am grateful to have woken up to read. I'll ponder these ideas as I start my day out (in a few hours).

http://aholyexperience.com/2008/08/how-would-jesus-teach.html

"Lord, make me a teacher like You---natural, captivating, enlightening, loving--godly. I want to teach like You would. Let "WWJD" guide me into being a teacher after Your own heart."

Princess revealed

I am:

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Camryn is:
You Are Snow White!

Pure and trusting. You are a gentle soul who can get along with just about anyone. Everyone you meet instantly falls in love with you. How can they resist? You have a pure, lovable nature that's irresistable. Just don't trust everyone who comes across your path.

click here to take your princess test: http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354

Gestational Diabetes

This is what gestational diabetes looks like. Every morning at 8:00 I have to wake up to check my blood sugar level with a little drop of blood from my finger and then shoot 20cc of insulin into my thigh. Then at 8:30 I have to eat breakfast. From that point, I have to prick my finger for more blood sugar tests, two hours after each meal and my meals have to be at specific, consistant times each day. I keep a daily log of all the foods I eat, any exercise, and all the sugar levels. Needless to say, my perspective and awareness of what and when I'm eating has completely changed since my diagnosis. I've only had one day so far that was in my perfect blood sugar level range all day. That's the frustrating part. It's the carbohydrates and the serving sizes of each food and drink that I'm figuring out how to control. My doctor says that I probably won't gain anymore weight with my restricted diet and may even loose a few pounds in my last weeks of pregnancy. I guess that's better than gaining a pound a week, like my pregnancy books says, and having my sugar levels out of control. I've only gained 20lbs. Thank goodness this is only going to last until I deliver my baby. I'm highly motivated to continue reading food labels, weighing portions, and exercising after this pregnancy so I can loose wieght and stay away from developing lifelong diabetes. In addition to this daily routine, I'm also going to the hospital (the labor and delivery unit) twice a week for non-stress tests and special ultrasounds to monitor the baby, the placenta, and the amniotic fluid levels. Less than six weeks to my due date! I have always delivered my babies after the due date but since I'm being so closely monitered, Dr. Loup says she'll start talking about an induction date a week before the due date depending on how the baby is doing at that point. I'll have a detailed ultrasound around the 10th to check his size and weight. He'll be in my arms soon and I can't hardly wait!

Ronda

Our overnight trip to Ronda was fabulous! We all had fun walking through the cobblestone streets and enjoying the breathtaking views from the famous Puente Nuevo (new bridge) that is actually over 200 years old today. Travis, Grover and Ethan hiked down one side of the bridge to get a great view facing the bridge and to tour some Morrish ruins. The next day they added Camryn to hike down the other side to the water mine, river and a Moorish King's house, Casa del Rey Moro.

Joni, and I took Camryn, Ethan and Sylvia into the Ronda bull ring. This bullring is claimed to be the oldest in Spain. It was immaculately clean and beautiful. We also toured the museum to learn about the history of modern bullfighting.
We had plenty of time to relax at our hotel and spend the hot afternoon at the pool. The kids loved it and my pregnant belly felt weightless in the cool water. We ate a poolside picnic lunch and played cards too. We could have made this a day trip but by extending our time into two days, we all felt pampered and relaxed within this Spanish village.

Gibralter

We've taken two "big" trips with Travis' parents. The first was to Gibralter. Soon after we moved to Spain, Travis and I came here as one of our first day trips and we just loved it. It was just as great the second time. The views of the the Rock, Spain, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and the Medeteranian Sea are amazing and beautiful! Being in British territory and being surrounded by the English languge is a nice break from our Spainish world also. The Barbary Apes that roam freely amoung the tourists are very entertaining too.

Seventeen years...

...of love and marriage. Happy Anniversary to us.

Grandma, Grandpa, Sylvia

We have family visiting us and are having a great time showing them around town and sharing the Spanish culture with them. Most the time I feel like we moved sooo far away, but with Grandma and Grandpa Peterson and cousin Sylvia here, it doesn't seem as far right now. Just a 20-24 hour plane ride away. Right? :-) (plus thousands of $$)

Grapevine update

Several months ago, I posted some pictures of the grapevine in our courtyard entrance. It's been growing like crazy all summer so we've had to cut it back several times. We're experimenting with how to train the vines and we're not entirely happy with it but from the front, it looks pretty good now. This is one of my favorite parts of our yard because of the year round plants that are randomly in bloom.

Belly float

He's back from Atlanta

He's back, again! Travis left for 5 days for a short trip to Atlanta for some certification testing that he needed. The world seems much smaller when your husband runs back and forth from one country to another within a few days. He passed his test and is back home with us now. It's always fun to have him return home because he takes good care of us with presents and hugs. Here's a look at our new loot! (Our "in the oven" baby was the most spoiled :-)Thanks Daddy!

30 weeks

I've reached the point of no return. :-) I'm hugely pregnant and mentally gearing up for my upcoming labor and delivery. Ten weeks to go... Even though this will be my fourth time doing this, I'm starting to feel the anxiety and excitement of actually giving birth to this basketball size growth that is inside of me. Scary!! I've started doing pregnancy yoga sessions to help me focus and relax and approach this event as a very natural process. I wish that I was seeing a nurse midwife again instead of a hospital doctor. This pregnancy feels so much more like a 9 month medical procedure rather than a holistic, natural experience that I prefer. Earlier this week I had to go in for a 3 hour glucose test because my first blood sugar test was high. That was fun. I was starving by the time it was over (16 hours w/o food) and trust me, spending almost four hours in a hospital waiting room with three kids is not an ideal situation either. After four blood draws (one each hour) we were finally released. Travis checked my medical record and saw that my sugar levels were high on all of them so I guess I'll have to hear back from my doctor to determine how this will affect the remainder of my pregnancy.

A couple months ago, I decided to follow my doctors advice and have an amniocentesis test. This was another new aspect of pregnancy that I hadn't previously dealt with. My blood tests came back with elevated risk for birth defects and with my age and family history, we decided we wanted to know what we were facing. This is when we found out we were have a healthy baby boy! We were anxious about the procedure but relieved to have a healthy report and excited to plan for a baby boy. We still haven't decide on his name yet but we still have time to mull a few names over.

I'm growing out of some of my maternity clothes all ready. Those huge ones hanging in my closet are starting to feel pretty comfortable at this point! We'll soon be pulling out our box of baby gear to determine what will be used for this baby and what we need to add to our nursery. This is the fun part! I got rid of most of our stuff about a year and half ago after we decided we were most probably not going down this road again. But I just couldn't give it all away (just in case) and for that I'm now grateful. We'll be building our nursery from some of the basics and not from square one. Some of the big ticket items we need right away are a crib, a stroller and a baby swing. We also need to get Sloan a new dresser so we can use hers for the baby. Travis made it for Camryn ten years ago and it duals as a dresser and a changing table. I think we need to fix a couple handles but other than that it's in great shape still. Travis' other project will be to fix the hooks on our baby bassinet. It's a family heirloom that we've used for all our babies and most of the Peterson cousins. At this point, it's been passed around and moved quite a bit and we noticed the two swinging hooks got broken during our last move.

Oh and we need to buy a bigger vehicle before baby arrives too! We are still a one car family because we are having a difficult time finding a minivan or equivalent that will seat more than 5 people (that is anywhere affordable). Europe is not the ideal place to have more than 3 kids. First we need a 6 seater and second, it has to have European specs, not American, due to a customs clause that only allows one foreign car per family. Not to mention that everything costs way more than in the U.S. For example, we sold our perfectly good minivan in California for $2500. The same year, make and model has up been for sale here for $8000 or more. It's frustrating.

Hopefully all of these details will work themselves out over the coming weeks. There is a lot to do to prepare for this arrival but I think if I start planning now it won't be too much trouble for any of us. I just hope my body survives all this stretching and aching!

Happy Birthday

Ethan was so excited to have an all boy party to celebrate his birthday this year. I almost had to convince him it was okay to include his sisters and Mom but he didn't push the issue too hard. I was happy that he chose an air conditioned location! This was one of the easiest parties to host because the bowling alley set up, decorated, catered, and cleaned up. We just had to show up and serve cake. Gotta love it! He had a great day and ended up with several different transformers to add to his collection. He loves them and stayed busy all evening working on the projects. I was especially proud that he was able to read all of the birthday cards by himself. Now he's working on writing the thank you notes by himself. (For him, we really have to embrace these natural educational opportunities.)

Touring the Eiffel

from the Louvre and the D'Orsay exhibits