First, this note from our friends at WebMD:

Congratulations, Holly! You're 31 weeks pregnant. Your baby measures about 18 inches long from head to toe and weighs about 3.5 pounds. Rather than hearing vibrations, his ears have matured enough that he can hear distinct sounds, like familiar voices and music. Your uterus now fills a large part of your abdomen, and you've probably gained between 21 and 27 pounds. You're probably feeling increasing excitement and anxiousness about the birth - - it won't be long now!

I'm fairly confident that Holly would agree with that last sentiment. Excitement and anxiousness are everywhere at our house right now! Mostly, I think Holly's ready to stop feeling like a beached whale (or the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, depending on what day it is!). She's down to 4-day work weeks, and her day off is supposed to be a day of rest. So far, though, we've bought a car (last week...a 2004 Tahoe...sweet!) and gone to the science museum on her days off. I'm guessing that probably contributes to the high level of exhaustion that comes along with the excitement and anxiousness!

We're scheduled this weekend to take a tour of the beautiful new hospital where Tyler will be born, and we can't wait. Everyone we know who's had a baby there says it's absolutely gorgeous, and that it's basically a 5-star resort that just happens to have a women's health center attached. Awesome! More on that once we have pictures...

Until next time!

The Big Cheese!

School bus alert! Chris and the rest of his kindergarten compatriots got their first official ride on the big yellow cheese yesterday. What a great time! Holly and I even got to tag along for the ride, and we had a blast.

Mom, Hope, and Hope's friend Courtney came over at about 8:15 (they had to keep an eye on The Moo while we were gone), and we took our little posse down to the bus stop a little before 8:30. The bus showed up a few minutes later, and shuttled us off to the school. Once we got to school, we were treated to a great little safety video featuring (I'm not kidding here) ELVIS the Safey Owl! Elvis is apparently the king of good behavior on the school bus, and the kids will see a lot more of him in the first few weeks of school as they get used to being on the bus. We were also treated to donuts, which really made the whole morning from the kids' perspective.

We head back to school next Thursday for open house, then it's the first day of kindergarten on August 10th. I can't even begin to believe that our Little Buddy is already in kindergarted (wistful tear...). Where in the world did the past five years go?!?

Walk the Dinosaur!

We've been promising Chris a trip to "the dinosaur museum" (actually Fernbank Museum) all summer, and yesterday we finally came through for him. Fernbank has played host this summer to a travelling dinosaur exhibit (hence "the dinosaur museum"), and the boys couldn't have had more fun!

Before I get to the requisite video of their shenanigans, though, I have to share a quick story about Chris. We were standing in line in the little food court at Fernbank when, all of the sudden, Chris starts shaking his head back and forth really hard. I laughed at first because he looked a little stupid, but then it got a little strange. I finally grabbed him and asked what the heck he was doing...

"DAD! I have too many smarts in my head, and I have to shake them all out to make room for new smarts!" Can't argue with that... :-)

Enjoy the video...