Lunch with the ladies.

Jami's friends hosted a lovely lunch at Grayhawk Golf Course in Scottsdale to celebrate the baby's upcoming arrival. We lunched outside overlooking the water and enjoyed the nice cooler weather. Jami and her playgroup pal Jen show off their 'bumps'. Jen is due any time now and Jami in 3 weeks ... both with boys!

Charity's birthday.

We celebrated with Charity, the birthday girl, today! Her birthday is actually next weekend, but we enjoyed celebrating a bit early. Jami and Charity enjoyed a girls shopping trip at the mall in the morning and then met up with the boys for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. What fun!

Ready for move in.

Here are some recent pics of the nursery. The paint is "retro colonial blue," and the theme is zebras. The accents are white and black. You'll notice a few Luke toys in the room for the time being. We only have one finishing touch we need to add ... the name in white letters above the crib. But of course we have to decide on a name first!

Time for tea to celebrate baby!

Today Jami was treated to a baby shower tea with the Poker Group wives. We enjoyed high tea at Abbey Gardens Tea Parlour complete with fancy teacups, tiny tea sandwiches, apricot scones, and a stunning Tammie Coe cake with green and purple zebra stripes. What a fun girly afternoon to celebrate Baby Leahy's upcoming arrival! Here are a few pics.

Eva, Lori, Jami, Ginger, and Liz at Abbey Gardens.

Jami with her favorite of all cakes ... a delicious designer Tammie Coe cake.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

We took in our first big-scale live kids' performance today with Mickey's Magic Show at Dodge Theater. We joined some friends for the Disney fest. Luke loved all the entertainment, and we snapped this photo with Luke's pal Robby afterward.

Enjoying each day...

We are really enjoying our final days with "just Luke" and as a family of three before we welcome the baby and look ahead to days with the four of us. It's cooling off slightly. This week it's been right around 100, which is kind of the breaking point with the heat. So more time outdoors is just around the corner. As we wrap up the swim season, we've been squeezing in a few more days at the pool. Luke is now a pretty self-sufficient swimmer. He's able to jump off the side, swim back to the side, and pull himself out with no assistance. Mom is not needed as much now in her role as swim coach since he can do it all on his own!

Short cuts.

Luke and Dad had both been growing their hair out lately but recently got their locks shaped up a bit. Here are the finely groomed Leahy men ... looking good with their new cuts.

Baby update.

Big news on the baby front. In the last few days, we think the baby may have "dropped" and is now head down. Jami is only at 35 weeks, but the baby appears to have settled a little lower and her belly is sticking outward more than ever. While she has a bit more breathing room, the down side is the hip and back pain ... and the waddling that's beginning. Good progress though. We'll see what they say at the doctor's appointment next week!

Labor Day.

Our Labor Day weekend plans were pretty low key. Luke had a bad cold so we lounged around home a lot and followed him around with a box of Kleenex. It's amazing how children can show some pretty bad illness symptoms but still run around full steam ahead like nothing is wrong. Jami also spent much time this weekend at ASU with her Theta advisor duties. The chapter had recruitment so it was a busy weekend with a few late nights. Scott's highlight was completing a few projects around the house.

Luke is ready for Lil' Bro to arrive.

The other evening we were sitting around reading books before bedtime with Luke. Jami asked if he wanted to talk to the baby. He had his normal dialogue with Mom's belly, "Hi, baby ... What you doing? ... Baby sleeping." But then he surprised us with the next comment showing his obvious anticipation for Baby Brother's arrival, "Baby, get outta there." Guess he's as ready for the little guy to arrive as we are! It's probably a perplexing thought for him as to why Mom is harboring another child in her tummy, when he's ready for his playmate to get here NOW. All in due time.

Chill out.

The Leahy family enjoyed an evening just chillin' out with a popsicle treat. Luke loves to eat popsicles but dislikes when they start to melt and get "kinda drippy."

Locked out.

Luke has discovered how to lock doors. At first, this new skill was only used on his bedroom door. Luckily, he has a jack-and-jill bathroom that adjoins to the other bedroom upstairs, so Mom and Dad always have an alternate route for entering. However, he's decided to apply his technical expertise to the master bedroom door downstairs. Small problem ... there's only one way in and out there ... no back-up plan. The first day he mastered the "lock-out" Jami was able to find the humor in it. She tried to unlock the door using various means, but to no avail. So she had to complete dismantle the door knob and remove it to get the door open. Luke received a short lecture about not locking the doors. We thought that was the end of the silly game.Nope. The next day Luke exercised his right to lock the door again. This time Mom didn't find it nearly as humorous, while Luke didn't find the fun in the extended time-out period in his room following the lock-out. Let's hope the lesson is learned on both accounts -- no more random lock-outs for Luke and that Mom and Dad fix the doorknob so he is unable to lock it going forward.

Nice ride, baby.

What better way to spend a rainy day than with the playgroup pals at Chuck E. Cheese! We originally planned to go there because it's still so hot, but it ended up being a good plan because of the rainy morning. The kids enjoyed all the games. (How can they understand the concepts of tickets and tokens at such a young age!!) Luke and Lucy took a spin in this hip roadster.

Better get out the boat.

Because it rains so rarely in Arizona, it's a BIG deal when it does rain. This morning we had quite a thunderstorm and downpour. On the way to our playgroup outing in Scottsdale, we drove through this completely flooded area. Luckily, people were driving cautiously ... except for Jami who was taking pictures of the deep water while driving! Drainage systems weren't a big concern obviously when the city was expanding, so there are a lot of areas that don't drain well when it does rain a lot. Better get out the boat!

33 and 7.

This marks Jami's 33rd week of pregnancy with 7 weeks to go. It's getting a little harder to stay active and chase after Luke, but Jami is still feeling great ... although she's ready for the hot, humid weather to be over. Unfortunately, it doesn't cool down in Phoenix until right when the baby is due. Luke has been talking more about "baby brother" lately, and Dad has been hard at work painting the nursery a great shade of slate blue. We've chosen a zebra nursery theme! The whole family is getting ready for the big arrival!

Kick it!

Luke has mastered the skill of the drop kick. Check out this video! He's also sporting his new fall shoes. What an all-star!

Splish splash.

Luke enjoyed a day out at the Tempe Town Lake Splash Park.

Family pic.

Jami talked the boys into taking this photo one night this week. Cheese!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Lately, Luke's favorite movie is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Whenever given the choice for what movie he wants to watch, the answer is always the same: "Charlie Bucket." (If you recall that's Charlie's last name in the movie.) We have the original version with Gene Wilder on DVD, and he never seems to tire of it (and we never tire of laughing about Gene Wilder's unruly hair.) We lucked out and the new version with Johnny Depp was on HBO tonight, so we recorded it. The collection is complete now with the old and new versions! Long live the Oompa Loompas!

Terrible twos.

This past week has been an ultimate test of patience and discipline as Luke took every advantage of exercising his right to behave as many young children have before him in the rite of passage known as "terrible twos." Since we were halfway through 2 and on our way to 3, we were thinking maybe he'd just skip the terrible twos. Nope. Not the case. Instead, he decided to save up all his really mischievous antics for one solid week.

There was the one-hour whining and screaming fit one morning. Or the lunch out with friends where Luke proceeded to spend more time under the table than in his seat. Or how about the boycotting of an afternoon nap for several days in a row that led to him falling asleep on the kitchen floor during dinner (while he was lying on the floor pouting in one of his many fits).

What happened to that well-behaved boy we once knew? He obviously checked out for a week and left quite a devilish character in his place. We are finding the humor in it now, which is much better than the 2 days in a row that Jami cried over Luke's defiant ways (not to mention that her pregnancy hormones plus the summer heat amplified it all).

So send positive thoughts our way as we start a new week. This weekend was better, but we're not out of the woods quite yet.