One smart cookie

Rudy is one smart cookie.  Of course I've always thought of him as advanced :) but he keeps surprising me!  Last night, Dad says, "You know, Jen, Rudy can understand what we are saying."  I looked at him puzzled, where is this coming from?  And what are you talking about?  He says, "Seriously, watch this."  He was sitting on the couch and Mom was in the recliner.  He hands Rudy his sippy cup and said, "Go take this to your Grandma."  And sure enough, he did it!  John and I were dumbfounded.  I said, "No way, that was a fluke."  But apparently he did it the night before when Mom asked Dad for a pair of glasses.  He handed them to Rudy and he took them to her.  Unbelievable.  I guess I should start watching what I say around the little monster. 

The Keough boys have all been taking turns spending a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's and Rudy has been having a blast.  He loves being around other kids.  They have been playing lots of catch, swimming, watching movies...it makes me even more excited to be giving him a sibling soon.  I can't wait for them to be able to play together.  Although, Rudy needs to understand how to be "gentle" and not hit so much.  I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt because "its not like he can understand our reprimands" -- guess that's probably not the case!  

John took off early one day to swim (he was feeling left out of all the fun stuff) and Rudy was thrilled.

 Having fun with Daniel

 Trying to get Zoe

 Melts my heart

Zoe AND Riley...bonus!

We spent an afternoon going back and forth between Lowe's and Lumber Liquidators trying to decide on a floor.  The one we really liked was at Lowe's but had a higher price tag than we would prefer.  So we went to Lumber Liquidators and found a similar product (same material and size, but different color and varying sized boards) but it was much cheaper.  Lowe's price-matched Lumber Liquidators on the flooring we wanted AND gave us 10% off.  We were doing internal somersaults.  Flooring: Check!

Rudy didn't mind tagging along, either.  He even "helped" push the cart --- which meant I couldn't stop and had to walk in circles the entire time we were there.

We also spent a morning in Arthur, Illinois again picking out our bathroom vanities.  We struggled for awhile, but we left with all 4 bathrooms complete!  What a relief.

John has been working on the house nonstop.  He's a trooper.  Things are moving right along, except for a minor setback with vent ducts, but we should be back on track soon.

Here is how John spent one morning...getting ready for the plumbers to come add pipes for the new bathrooms and laundry room.

I have been busy planning Rudy's birthday party and getting my creative juices flowing on all the projects I want to do for the new house and how we are going to decorate.  I have so much in mind.  I'll post pictures as I get working on things :)  But the closer we get, the more excited I am to be there!

And how could I almost forget?!  I had a baby appointment July 10.  Everything was good for the both of us.  The baby's heartbeat was 148 and my stats were all normal.  I've been feeling pretty good -- still get waves of nausea and some days my tiredness hits me like a ton of bricks.  But the nausea has absolutely gotten better and I have had lots of hours of energy!  Moving in the right direction, at least.  On the downside, I feel huge.  I keep trying to reassure myself that "they" say it all comes on faster with the second, this is normal, etc.  But yikes, I'm a little apprehensive about how big I'll be at the end if I am this size already!  Here I am at 16 weeks...

Only 2 weeks, 2 days until we have a sonogram to see if Rudy will be getting a little brother or a little sister!  I've been anxiously waiting, but then again, how am I 18 weeks already?!?!