The Banks Family: Watch me

Claudia is being a little more adventurous these days and trying new things. She is constantly saying "watch me!" Now that it's consistently sunny and warm, we've been at the pool a lot and she can swim with a swim ring, kick her feet, and even dunk her head under the water sometimes. Last year she would hardly get off the steps of the pool, so this is a big change. She also continues to be quite silly and creative. She makes up her own words, names, and songs. She likes to be contrary and will answer a question wrong on purpose and then laugh. She is also starting to grasp the concept of rhyming words.

The summer has been good to us and we've been out and about doing so many fun things. Most importantly, Neely & Emilio got married on July 20th! It was great to see all of their hard work come together. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was full of fun, especially the dancing and pinatas. A few days after the wedding, we headed out east for "Alta Lake week". It was hot and in the mid-90s, so we did everything we could with water, like swimming in the pool, running through the sprinkler, playing at the beach, and going to Slide Waters in Chelan. Claudia surprised us by going down the kiddie slides by herself. We had to work up to it, but by the end of the day she was going by herself with just a "catcher" at the bottom so she wouldn't go underwater. I'm very proud of her. Glen managed to get in some hot rounds of golf and we got to visit a bit with friends (and of course my parents).

I'm 30 weeks into the pregnancy, so I have 10 more weeks to go. I got diagnosed with glucose intolerance, but not gestational diabetes (whew). I already knew my blood sugar was high because it's a side effect of prednisone. This means I just need to watch my carbohydrate and sugar intake, but I don't need to be on a monitor or take insulin. I also still have the placenta previa (as seen by ultrasound), but the placenta can still move away from the cervix up to 34 weeks, so I still have a little more time for it to resolve itself. If not, then I have to have a C-section, so let's hope for good results. I'm not a good candidate for C-section because of my immune modulating medications. Overall this pregnancy is probably easier than the first because the baby is carrying more normally (usually head down instead of sideways breech like Claudia) and I'm staying more active, so I don't have so many aches and pains. But, I am more exhausted from anemia (a little worse this time) and just because it's harder to find time to rest. Of course I didn't have problems with my UC with Claudia like I do now, so maybe it is harder this time. Just different I guess. :-)

The girls watching their girls at the rehearsal dinner.