Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Santa!

Well I'm officially (pretty sure) in my second trimester!! It only gets more fun from here, from what I remember. My morning sickness is somewhat better. I still vomit every.single.morning, but that's usually the only time. We can hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler that we rented and it's the best sound in the world, aside from Emma's of course. I have an early 4D ultrasound scheduled in 3 weeks to find out the sex - I just can't wait!!

Emma's been quite a pill lately. She had been really fighting her afternoon nap (she usually takes a morning nap and an afternoon one). She would lay in her crib and play for upwards of an hour before falling asleep. She was very happy to do that, but by the time she would fall asleep, it would be nearly time to wake her up or let her sleep and risk her not sleeping at night. A few days ago I decided to try and see if she was ready for 1 nap a day. Day 1 of the experiment she slept for about 1.5 hours. Not good. She usually gets a combined 3.5-4 hours during the day. Day 2 she slept for 2.5 hours, which was better. Day 3 she was back to barely 1.5 hours. On top of that, she's been a fuss bucket by dinner time. As if that weren't enough, as they say "good sleep begets good sleep." She went from sleeping a solid 11-12 hours a night, to waking up around 5:30 and rolling around and playing most of the morning. It just wasn't working. So today, we're back to 2 naps. I'm hoping she quits fighting that afternoon nap that she so desperately needs. Mommy needs the break!!

We had a really fun weekend. On Friday we had a playdate with my friend Mary and her little boy, Jack. Jack is almost 2.5 and is precious. Mary is about to pop Jack's baby brother out any minute now (fingers crossed!) and it was likely our last time to see them before they have a new addition. Emma loved playing with Jack. She gave him a run for his money! My girl has some attitude these days, and is quite a handful!


On Saturday we went to the Christmas party that my mom's job has every year. Emma got to play music (which she LOVED) run around, and visit.........the old man. We haven't talked much about him in our house because I wasn't sure what she'd think. Last year she was enamored. Every single picture I've seen of kids Emma's age lately have been "Santa Fail" pictures of screaming, terrified children. Well, Emma has her own to add to the pile! She was great while we were in line waiting. She walked around with her Mimi and watched other kids sit on Santa's lap. She seemed like she was going to be fine. Until I sat her on his lap. Every single bone in her poor little body stiffened up! She freaked out. After we got several pictures of said freak out, I took her and sat next to Santa. She was just as terrified. It made for some good pictures though! Enjoy!

Last Year:

This Year:



That last picture is sort of freaking me out - is it just me, or do I look exactly like my mother???

On Sunday it snowed!! It looked like a blizzard outside, but NONE of the snow stuck to the ground. We took Em outside very briefly so that she could see it and feel it on her face. She wasn't that thrilled. Brad and I got some more last minute Christmas shopping done at IKEA while the snow stopped.

It was a really nice and productive weekend. This is Brad's last week before Christmas break and we're READY! I can't wait for Christmas morning this year. It's going to be so much more fun now that Emma sort of understands and will be able to get excited about new toys and stuff. She loves looking at the tree, and has been an angel about not destroying it. We only decorated the top 2/3 just in case!

Now I'm off to address and stamp some Christmas cards! Happy holidays!


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Our newest Peanut

Once again I have to start out by saying that I've been a very bad blogger lately. But....this time I have a very good excuse!! Morning sickness! As of today, I'm 11 weeks and 3 days pregnant with Emma's little brother/sister (I'd be willing to bet big money that it's a sister, but I haven't the money!). We're very excited. We had been really trying for about 3 months - much shorter than when we got pregnant with Emma! My goal was to plan things so that this baby would be due around the time Emma was so that Brad would be home for the summer to help me out. We did good - the due date is June 18th and Emma's 2nd birthday is June 22!
Ultrasound 7 weeks, 3 days


Like I said, I've had terrible morning sickness. I have been thinking that it's worse than with Emma, but after looking back at my pregnancy journal, it's really not. With Emma, I once got so sick and threw up so violently that I caused my cervix to bleed, and another time I actually broke blood vessels IN my eyeball. Gross. This time I've had a few broken blood vessels on my face, and lost 9 lbs, but that's it.

So far, things have gone pretty smoothly. My blood pressure has been a little higher than usual, but not "high" so the doctors are keeping an eye on it. Other than that, and the all-day nausea/vomiting, things are great!

We had a bit of a scare this week though. We rented a doppler to hear the heartbeat, as we did with Emma. We've been trying and trying for a week or so, but haven't heard anything. I told myself that I wouldn't panic until I saw my doctor (who I love tremendously and would likely want to marry were I not already married, and were he not playing for the other team). Well, Dr. D listened for a good 10 minutes. He pushed, poked, and prodded. He made my uterus contort into positions I didn't think possible, and nothing. He told me not to worry, and I tried not to. He wanted to squeeze me in for a quick ultrasound before worrying. He stuck his head in to tell me this, and asked how I was doing. I told him I was going to hold it together as long as he told me to. He came in and sat back down with me - that's what kind of doctor he is. Once he was satisfied that I hadn't lost all hope, he left and I waited.

By this point, my knees were shaking. I had already sent out a quick "please pray" on facebook because I know how much some prayer warriors can do in times of need. I prayed to every saint I could think of, and called my mom and Brad to ask them to pray too. The ultrasound tech came out and took me back to the ultrasound room.

I've had so many experiences in that very room. It was the place where I was first told that my baby wasn't developing properly. The place where I was told I was in the process of miscarrying. It was also the place where I heard Emma's heartbeat for the very first time. Many tears had been shed there - and I was a big mess. As soon as the tech put the ultrasound probe on my belly she said "it's jumping!" I burst into tears. She handed me tissues as she kept scanning. The baby had a perfect heart rate of 162. We watched it jump, flip over, kick, and move it's arms. I was in love. Only once have I ever been so relieved in my entire life - the day that I heard Emma's heartbeat after spotting and thinking I was miscarrying again. Praise GOD!! The pictures are a little blurry, probably because I was hysterical, but also because she was in a hurry! I think he/she looks a little like Emma did in her 12 week ultrasound. What do you think?

Profile Picture - his/her head is on the left

Sweet little foot :)


I got to see my doctor again and hear a "SEE! I told you not to worry!" The ultrasound tech thinks that I may have an anterior placenta, where the placenta is attached to the front of my uterus, making it a little harder to listen to a heartbeat or feel kicks. Then again, it's also a little on the early side to trust a doppler anyway. I felt SO much better! I go back right before Christmas for a regular appointment. We SHOULD be able to hear the heartbeat then, unless this little monkey has other plans!

Emma is doing SO well! She's just Mama's little angel. She's talking up a storm. She'll repeat just about any single word that you ask her to, or try to. She says "hot" and blows on food - even if it's not hot! My mom asked her if her doll needed a clean diaper. Emma sniffed the butt!!! We all cracked up. When we say her prayers every night, she ends it with "may-men." It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard. She's a climber, and has gotten into some trouble for climbing on furniture and looking at me with a guilty face while she does it. We've recently had to start implementing "time out" which is working beautifully. That Supernanny sure knows her stuff.

We had a great Halloween - Emma dressed up as a butterfly and trick or treated in Brad's parents neighborhood. We had a great time - and Brad even got to terrorize some little children while handing out candy. Would you believe that she left the hat on the entire time???


We're looking forward to Emma's second Christmas. It feels so strange to think that this is her second. She still is so much of a baby to me! She's going to get lots of great presents from Santa and her grandparents. We put up the tree (fake this year - think we'll start the tradition of a real tree next year once she's not trying to pull it over!). She loves it. We are going to decorate it this weekend. I can't wait to see what she thinks of it and of all of the Christmas houses and decorations. She's so much fun right now. She loves baby dolls, is very affectionate, and is just an angel. She'll often come up to me and get some "sugar" AKA wet mouth kisses! It's the sweetest thing. She thinks my Dad hung the moon. She runs up to him with her arms up every time she sees him. She can even say Grandaddy!

I feel like there's so much more to say, but I can't even think because I've missed blogging about so much. I'll update regularly now - I promise!!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

October

I've been a very, very bad blogger lately. I have my reasons. A lot's been going on! We've been busy getting ready for Halloween over here. Emma's going to be a pink and purple butterfly. It's the cutest costume I've ever seen - I'll be sure to get lots of pictures.

With all of the Halloween festivities, Emma's been having nightmares. She get scared of strange things very easily. We went to a pumpkin patch to get our "big" pumpkin and she saw a blow-up display of 3 witches stirring a pot. She was terrified. That led to her, screaming hysterically from the time we put her down to sleep until around 11:00PM. It's really sad. There's almost nothing worse in the world than the sound of your baby being scared.

Pardon the blur - the lighting was horrible!


Lots of things have induced nightmares lately. There's a rocking horse at my mom's office that scares her, our Jack-o-Lantern, a Snoopy singing toy that Brad's mom got her last Halloween (that was the WORST!). It's terrible. I'm really ready for Halloween to be over with so that she won't have such a hard time.

She's usually an excellent sleeper. She goes down to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until around 9:30 the next morning without waking up. She takes 2, 1-2.5 hour naps a day. She has a tendency to play in her crib for quite awhile before falling asleep though.

She's running everywhere! She's a busy little bee. She's talking up a storm as well. I sat down and made a quick list of her words:

Waffle

Hot

More (word and sign)

Mama

Dada

Grandpa

Lucy

Bailey

Love

Banana

Milk (sign)

Finished (sign)

Swing “weeeeee!”

Hello

Olivia

Quack

Baby

Grapes

Shit (my fault – I dropped something and said it and she repeated – but she’s only said it twice!!)

Raisins

Cracker

Meow

Bark, bark, bark (her version of a dog sound)


She recently got a new toy that she LOVES! A family that my mom sees at work was getting rid of a HUGE school bus toy that their son had outgrown. Brad went to pick it up for us and Emma LOVES it! You can tell by the pictures. Her favorite thing to do with it is climb it :( In fact, she'll climb just about anything these days.

She also got some new shoes! She has tiny feet - she wears a size 4 wide. Short, fat, little feet!

Another thing that's been going on is my Dad's chemotherapy treatments. He's been having a really tough time with them. He's had 2 treatments so far and is suffering a LOT from the stomach issues that go along with them. We're hoping and praying that it's doing some good and that he'll feel better soon.

I promise to be a better blogger soon!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Pumpkin Patch

We had SUCH a busy and fun weekend! Friday was our 5 year wedding anniversary, so Brad's mom came over and watched Emma while we went to dinner and to run a few errands. Saturday we got up early to get on the road to Berry Patch Farms for the Pumpkin Patch! Every year my mom's company (Lekotek) has an event there, and we never miss it. Here's a post about last year's pumpkin patch adventures. This year it was SO much more fun! Our friends Mary and Jack met us there, and Emma was enthralled. There were animals to look at (turkey, baby cow, pigs, etc.) and tons of pumpkins. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and Emma went to work picking out the best baby pumpkins she could find. She thought they tasted pretty good too!

When we got to the part of the patch with the BIG pumpkins, Emma was so excited that she never even turned around so that I could get a good picture. Oh well. I had to settle for several cute ones of the back of her head.
After we finished at the pumpkin patch, we hitched a ride on the hay wagon again and went back to the farm stand so that Daddy could pay for the little pumpkins. We discovered last year, it's not worth it to buy our BIG pumpkin there - they are EXPENSIVE!! We'll get that one this week.

As soon as we got back, Grammy found us and took Emma off to play. They had lots of fun. Can you tell??


And, my favorite picture from the entire day...

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Friday, September 17, 2010

Emma-isms

Emma is changing SO much and doing so many new things everyday, I thought I'd write about some of them so that I can remember them down the line. She's so precious!

Talking - She says.....

Mama
Dada
Lucy*
Love, Love (when she's being gentle)*
cracker
baby
cheese
animal sounds - dog, cat, duck, cow, sheep, rooster
She signs "more" and just started signing "finished."
She can touch her head if you ask her where it is. We're working on other body parts!

*(her version of it)

What she's up to...

She is running everywhere! She rarely crawls anymore.
She climbs all over the house - the couch, her chairs, etc.
She's a good sleeper - 12-13 hours a night without waking!
Her naps are crappy - 45 mins. - 1 hour, twice a day. She needs more!
She is headstrong and impatient, just like her mommy!
She's got quite the temper, but isn't hitting as much anymore. She understands that it's a "no no."
She HATES having her diaper changed!
She has 4 teeth - top 2 and bottom 2.
She LOVES Lucy.
She loves to brush her teeth.
She knows "If You're Happy and You Know It."
She LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba - it's maybe her favorite thing in the world.
She is a great dancer - she "drops it like it's hot!"
She loves the computer. Brad loves finding fun youtube videos of kid's songs for her.
She is STILL hunting the carpet for cat fur, lint, etc. to put in her mouth. Yuck!
One of her goals in life is to eat dog food. No clue why.
When she disappears in the house, she's likely trying to "stir the toilet" with something, or tossing things into the bathtub.
She adores her Daddy and will bring me the phone and say "dada" so that we can call him and talk to him on speakerphone.
She STILL doesn't have enough hair for a hairbow. Maybe one day....
She is almost 15 months old.
She is mostly weaned - just nursing right before bed.
She is finally drinking whole milk in a sippy cup - she used to hate it.
She LOVES sweet tea - it's her favorite drink.
She loves taking a bath and loves her liquid vitamins, but hates getting her diaper and clothes on afterwards.
She is still cloth diapered full-time. We love it!
Mommy is very proud to have nursed her for over a year now! My finest accomplishment, aside from giving birth!
She loves the antique rocking chair her Aunt Claire gave her - she's recently learned how to sit in it and rock herself!
She loves to pull books off of her bookshelf, but will rarely sit still long enough for a book to be read to her.

Favorite Foods

bananas
yogurt
meatloaf
spaghetti (anything with red sauce!)
lasagna
peas
corn
green beans!
grilled cheese sandwich
peanut butter and jelly sandwich (though it gets EVERYWHERE!)
goldfish crackers
apple cinnamon Cheerios
CHOCOLATE! Thank you, Grandpa!
Yogurt Melts - AKA, baby crack
She HATES most meat, with the exception of the occasional Chick-Fil-A nugget, or meatloaf.




Monday, September 13, 2010

The Candy Bucket

If I know one thing about my Dad, it's that he has a sweet-tooth. He always has. He LOVES candy! A few years ago I started a tradition. I bought him a Rubbermaid container and filled it with chocolate candy for his birthday. 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joy, you name it - it's in there. Whenever his birthday, Christmas, Halloween, or any holiday that has great candy comes along, I re-stock the "candy bucket."

As soon as my Dad found out that I was pregnant, he started talking about "that baby." He couldn't WAIT until "that baby" was big enough for him to feed her candy. He said she'd go home from their house with her little fingers stuck together because of all of the goo-goo's and gaga's that he was going to give her. Well, the time has come.

Someone ELSE has discovered the candy bucket as well. Apparently, one night when Mom and Dad were watching Emma while Brad and I went to a movie, they shared a little secret that they didn't tell Mama. Emma had her first taste of candy! Yesterday, she hunted and hunted until she found it - the holy grail. She tried to pick it up and carry it herself, but it was too heavy, so she had a little help. Her Granddaddy was all too happy to help her bust into it. What ensued, was nothing, if not a photographic gem.


A fun-sized 3 Musketeers bar and a half of a Reese's peanut butter cup later, she still didn't think she was done. Needless to say, the candy bucket made a disappearing act. I really think that the fact that she's in nothing but a diaper and Dad's in his pajamas really adds to the "classiness" of the pictures. Don't you? ;)

Nana

Last weekend we had a nice visit from Brad's Nana from Illinois, his sister, and his Dad and step-mom. It was the first time that Emma got to meet her Nana, and she hadn't seen Brad's Dad since her Baptism, so it was a nice visit! Emma LOVED playing with them and we had a nice time too! Here are some of the best pictures that I took - there were tons, but these were the cream of the crop!


It was actually a very LONG Labor Day weekend. My Grandpa's funeral was on Saturday. It was a very emotional day, to say the least. It was a very beautiful funeral for a very well-loved Grandpa. Following the funeral, we had a reception at my house for a LOT of people! Brad's family came the following day, and then we spent Monday trying to recover!

Tuesday, Brad went back to work. When he got home, Emma was waiting for him and got to take a ride down to the mailbox. How sweet are these pictures????


Dad had his biopsy on Thursday and it went well. We won't know anything until tomorrow. He has an appointment with the thoracic surgeon to get the biopsy and CAT scan results, and then an appointment with his oncologist on Thursday to get a "plan of attack." This has been a really tough week for us all. I have a really hard time talking about it at length, but I'm able to give the "just the facts, ma'am" of what's going on so far. Any more than that, and I'm usually in tears, so I try to shy away from that! I'll keep everyone posted when we find out more information. Hoping and praying for some good news!!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010