36 Week Sprinkle!

My best gal pals threw Baby J-2 a sprinkle this past weekend. Instead of a full-blown shower, we had a mini-shower, hence, sprinkle :-) It was just me, Jen, my college roomies, and two of their sisters and it was perfection! Very laid back, very relaxing, and very, very good food ;-)

Adorable (and yummy!) cake

The girls were quite generous in helping us to replenish some of the necessities. Between diapers, wipes, bath stuff, batteries--we are set for the first few months!

Lani was very interested in the bath basket!

I know it was probably boring shopping for a "genderless" kiddo, but the girls definitely managed to spice it up with surprise/personalized gifts for the baby and the big brother!

Thank you, Aunt Sandy!

Penn State pacifiers for Zach--I mean Baby!

Very excited about Brady's "Big Brother" pin!

Because a few of the gals are second children themselves, they offered some advice about keeping the playing field level for Baby J-2. One piece of wisdom was to celebrate the same milestones and take just as many pictures this time around. To help us, Tracy got Baby J-2 the exact same frame as Brady--I loved it!!

Keeping it fair :-)

It was really a great day with some fabulous gal pals! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Love them <3

A few days after the sprinkle, I had my 36-week appointment. Miraculously, I've only gained a half a pound which the doctor claims goes right to the baby at this stage. That was a pretty awesome surprise considering the massive quantities of cereal I've been inhaling! My blood pressure was a bit high for me (130/75 I think), but the recent humidity is to blame. The stint of hot weather is also to blame for my sausage fingers; I fear I won't be sporting my engagement ring until after birthing this child. The baby, as always, was super crazy active during the exam, and yet again the doctor commented on what a "busy" kid this is. Busy is not the word I would use to describe what's going on in my belly; I think a professional karate tournament is more like it. Anyway, no more progress in terms of dilation, etc. since two weeks ago, and the doc said that's good news. However, she also said she's comfortable with the baby coming at any time now, so Baby J-2, if you're listening: ANY TIME NOW!!!!!

36 Weeks!

Brady is still teeing it up (both golf and baseball) during all of his waking hours, and  expending such energy during the day has really worked to our benefit. His afternoon naps are, like, 3 hours long! And he's still logging in at least 12-13 hours at night. I pray and pray that this sleep pattern continues once his little brother or sister joins us. It might help if you pray, too, so get on that, would ya?

The little man has been cracking us up with some of the things that come out of his mouth. Just this past week, he's entertained us with the following:

1. We got into church, he spotted a boy with soccer balls on his jacket and yelled, "SOCCER! BASEBALL! CRACK! HOME RUN!" Need I remind you how very quiet a Catholic church is??

2. I left for a few hours to get my hair done and when I came back, Brady ran to me like he hadn't seen me in years! I scooped him up and he looked right at Zach and said, "Bye, Dad. Mom's here." While it melted my heart, I think it kinda broke Zach's!

What he does when we tell him to keep his eye on the ball!!

3. While watching golf on television (the Masters was like Christmas morning for the kid...), he gets frustrated if the players take too long to swing. Once, he put his club up to the TV where the ball was and looked like he was going to swing, so I had to tell him to, "Put the club on the floor!" He listened, but then scolded the player: "HIT IT! HIT IT NOW!"

4. We've really tried to instill manners and I have to say, it's worked. Maybe a little too well. The kid says thank you for EVERYTHING! We tuck him in and it's "Tank you, Mum Dad;" I hand him his milk in the morning and it's, "Tank you, Mum;" a grandparent builds a block tower with him and it's, "Tank you, Pap." At least he's grateful, right??!

5. In order to get him excited about brushing his teeth, we've started telling him about how all of his "idols" brush theirs. This has become a routine from which we are not allowed to deviate. It goes like this: "Uncle Mike brushes, Pap Rick brushes, Pap Tom brushes, Caillou brushes," etc. Brady also now requires that I brush when he does, so I scrub my teeth about four times a day.

6. On Monday, Grandma Terri came to stay with him while I went to my appointment, and my mom was also here because she went to said appointment with me. When I brought Brady downstairs, his eyes got huge because BOTH grandmas were here at the same time! He pointed to them and said, "One, two. Two Grandmas!" His father was very proud of that ;-)

Kisses for Mom

In other Jankowski Family news, we are expecting another new addition...a swimming pool! One day, Zach was walking around the back yard with stakes and spray paint. When Brady and I joined him, he informed us that he would like to get a swimming pool. I was more than surprised seeing as how he's not really a fan of the water, but trust me when I say I am totally okay with it! Below is the proposed site of the pool; we're hoping it will be installed next week so we have time to build the deck around it before the summer months.

While we are certainly very excited for the pool, we're keeping our eyes on the real prize: having this baby!!

"A Great Brother!"