Before and After!

There has been a lot of change happening in the Christianson home lately.  Everything is changing...including the walls, Julia's hair, Kai's mobility, and mommy's belly!  Here are some pictures to prove my point:

Nursery 

....before we bought the house

During the project...Jared worked very hard!

And after!

 (of course we will remove the mirror that belongs in the bathroom once it gets painted!)

 (all we have left is some wall art to put up and a baby to fill that crib!)

Julia and Kai

...one year ago 

...six months ago

(Kai got his first hair cut on this day... notice the mullet!)

 ...and present!  

My daughter finally has hair!

Here is mommy

....before

...19 weeks

...23 weeks

...31 weeks

...and at 36 weeks!

And since I started writing this blog a week ago, Kai has made some huge changes!  Watch below to see our new walking man!!! He has been taking a step or two on his own since Septmeber, but he has now just started taking off on his own without our prodding or therapy skills that never seemed to work!  :) We are so proud of him!

As for updates on the rest of the family, you can tell what Jared has been up to!  After hiring someone to come and remove all of the wall paper in the house (which took two men w/ special equipment a full week to do!) he has been busy painting, hanging pictures, and getting our house in order before "Bubba" comes.  

We have also joined a small group in our church and Michala and the kids have joined a playdate group through our church.  We are slowly meeting more people and making friends.

Julia is becoming more of a grown-up child than our baby all the time.  Her vocabulary is huge, although she gets confused at times.  She hears us scolding the cat so much that she thinks that Smudge's name is, "NO!"  She also can sing almost all of the "itsy bitsy spider" (to her own words, but right on tune!) and do the hand motions.  She also has taken after her mother and her Uncle Andrew and is a "condiment girl."  She loves dipping anything-chicken, bread, apples- into ketchup or yogurt and eating or licking it off!

Since I took the video above last week, Kai has increased his confidence with walking even more.  He is probably doing more walking now that crawling!  When I see him standing in the middle of the room or see him following/chasing Julia around the house it makes me so thankful that I want to cry! We took him to the Spina Bifida Clinic in downtown Dallas again last week to meet with the team of doctors and will be going back on Tuesday to meet with the urologist. The head doctor at the clinic changed Kai's routine up a bit at night, so that now I can catheterize Kai during the day like usual, but I won't have to cath him in the middle of the night!  I'll gladly give up my head flashlight and get more sleep (since I will be getting less with #3 here soon).  Jared and I are willing to do anything to keep Kai healthy, but this will really take a burden off of me.  Thank you Lord!

We have set the c-section date for March 18th, which is less than 3 weeks away!  We found out that Jared will not qualify for FMLA since he hasn't been at his new job for long, so we hope to use his four vacation days very wisely!  My parents are planning on driving down from Nebraska the day before to help take care of Kai and Julia.  My mom will stay a week until Jared's parents fly down from Washington state and spend their spring break with us.  The 18th is a good date...Kai and Julia's birthday is May 18th, they were due on July 18th, and it's exactly one week after mommy turns 30...sounds like a good date!  We look forward to updating you soon as we welcome this new little miracle into our family!