Elmo Games

Lately, Bella’s favorite activity is playing “Elmo Games” on my laptop. I log into Seasamestreet.com and let her at it. It amazes me because she knows how to use my laptop (with the touch pad, not even a real mouse!), navigate the site and play most of the games. She knows how to use the arrow buttons to make the screen go up and down, start games over, pick a new game…everything!

It’s nice because it occupies her for as long as I let her play but can also cause drama if she asks to play and I have to say no. She likes to ask to play first thing in the morning or right before we have to go somewhere, it seems! We’ve started using it as a reward system – if she’s good and doesn’t fuss when we get home from work and through dinner she can play Elmo Games after dinner, for example.

What also amazes me is the fact that she can actually play most of the games and does really well. It doesn’t matter what it’s about – counting, alphabet, sorting, patterns, mazes, sounds, etc. She can do it all! The only games she needs help with are ones that require you to move the mouse quickly to click on something that moves. It’s hard to use your finger on the touchpad that fast.

I contemplated getting her a Leapster/vTech handheld game for Christmas but decided to wait until her 3rd birthday. It just seemed like a little too much for a 2 year old. Plus Auntie Lissa is getting her the Tag Jr. Reading System which I think she’ll like a lot.

Of course I shouldn’t be surprised since Bella does know how to use my sister’s iPhone …it won’t be long until she knows more about computers than I do…

Feeling Crafty

I spent all my "free" time today (aka Adalyn's nap times) making this Advent Calendar for Bella. I stole this idea from my friend Jessie who posted the idea on her blog a few days ago.

Mine isn't as fancy as the sample picture, but it will get the job done. I also colored the backs red and green so Bella can easily tell which days have been used. I forgot to pick up trinkets for it, so part of the fun was scrounging around the house to find a few things to get it started (tootsie rolls, stickers and a "B" star charm). I'd better remember to fill the rest before day 6 comes along!

Bella Update

I haven’t blogged about Bella lately. I meant to write a Halloween recap blog but now that just seems silly. So all I’ll say is that Bella loved Halloween. She wanted to be three things – a robot, Minnie Mouse and a Scary Bear. We stuck with Minnie Mouse only. On Saturday, we went to Maple Grove to trick or treat at the shops. It was fun but BUSY! It did allow us to stop at the Grandparents houses afterwards though to show off her costume. Since Nana was working we stopped at SuperValu in Crystal to surprise her. Sunday we went trick or treating in the neighborhood – I stuck with it for about 30 minutes and then let Bella and JT finish up. We ended up handing out candy to a whopping 15 kids at our house. But we did pass a lot of neighbors with their younger kids out and about so I bet we just missed them.

Bella loves talking about the holidays and always asks which one is next. Unfortunately, she’ll bring up Halloween here and there and get sad when we say it’s so far away. The good news is that we did let her have some candy (two pieces each on Sat and Sun) but after the weekend she never asked about candy again! We still have a huge bag in our kitchen but it’s like she forgot we even had it. Just yesterday was the first time we busted a sucker out of the Halloween bag for her…otherwise JT and I have been making a pretty good dent in the stash.

Since Addy was born it feels like Bella grew exceptionally fast. I pick her up and I swear she weighs 100 lbs. She talks about things and has these expressions that I never have heard/wonder where it came from. She’s really into pretending and dressing up. One of her favorite games right now is ‘Dr Daisy’ where all her Mickey Mouse characters need to go to the Dr (Daisy). Minnie’s issue is that she has old tap shoes…honestly no idea where Bella came up with that ailment.

She loves to dance. We’ll put on the Wiggles “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” DVD and she doesn’t’ just sit in a trance anymore - she’ll actually get up and do the same dances. It’s nice to see her imitating and learning. She makes up and names her own dances. One she demonstrated on Thanksgiving for everyone that involved stomping feet, shaking your butt and blinking your eyes.

The adjustment to being a big sister is going fine. She gets jealous sometimes and tells people to put the baby down, but mostly Bella goes about her business as normal with an occasional break to look at the baby and exclaim “Oh, look at the baby! She is sooo cuuute!” If Addy is making noise Bella will ask what is wrong or tell us to feed or change her. Also, everyone has been doing a great job at making sure big sister gets as much attention as little sister which helps someone who is so used to being the center of attention!

Sweet Adalyn

One week down and just like my labor story, the first week with Adalyn has been so different than the first week with Bella. The biggest difference is that JT has been home with us all week. It’s been so nice and I don’t know how I would have done it without him. Because we were in the hospital so long with Bella (Mon night through Friday) and she didn’t even come home until Saturday of the week she was born, it took up the entire week JT had off. So JT was home with us one day before he had to go back to work. Adalyn’s timing worked out much better though.

We brought Adalyn home on Sunday afternoon. JT’s parents and sister came to visit Sunday night as well as friends Sarah and Jason. The first few nights were rough in terms of sleep. She slept on us in the living room and it was the expected unexpected. We didn’t know when she’d want to wake up, sleep, eat, cry, etc. By Wed we decided it was time to get her used to her bassinet and thankfully she’s taken to it well. For the past 2 days she’s gone down for naps in the bassinet and sleeps in it at night! I’m hoping this keeps up as she gets older because it’s nice to lay down in bed at night rather than try to get comfy on the arm chair.

Feeding has been a struggle. I’m nursing and having more pain this time than I did with Bella. It started in the hospital and has resulted in..well, a lot of pain. I won’t go into details but anyone who has nursed may be able to imagine what things started to look like. I’ll admit, it also resulted in a lot of tears and frustration but I am forcing myself to be patient since the reality is that breastfeeding isn’t easy and it does typically hurt. I know that what I’m experiencing isn’t normal, though so I’ve reached out for help. We’ve talked to a home nurse, Adalyn’s pediatrician and I’ve contacted my local La Leche League leader. As of today, things are getting better. Not as much pain and things are healing. I still have thoughts that I’d like to just quit and bottle feed, but know I won’t for a lot of reasons. So now it’s figuring out how to make it easier on me.

Otherwise the adjustment has been going well. I’m much more relaxed with Adalyn than I was with Bella. She sleeps all the time (as did Bella, but I was still stressed out all the time with her). I’m more confident. My hormones seem to be back in check (I haven’t cried for no reason yet today! Yay!) I’ll be keeping a close eye on my hormones/emotions because I let it go on a little too long with Bella before I got help and don’t want that to happen again this time around.

Bella has been adjusting well too. It’s helped that she’s gone to my mom’s or my sister-in-law’s 3 times this week (she was home with us Mon and Thurs) to give us quiet time at home with Adalyn. Plus she loves it. I don’t think Bella would be as happy if she was home with me all day everyday. When she gets home the first thing she’ll say is “Oooh, look at the baby! She is so cute!” and will give kisses and pokes. But then for the most part it’s as if baby isn’t around. She goes about her business and we play. Sometimes she’ll tell me to set the baby down and yesterday we had a mini-meltdown when I had to feed Addy and Bella didn’t want me to. Again, it’s nice that JT is here to help defuse those type of situations.

As I mentioned earlier, Addy sleeps most of the time but the past 2 days she’s had some good awake periods. I love looking at her face and watching her expressions. I still can’t get over that she was in my stomach just a week ago and now she is here. I feel like a new mom again in so many ways.

Big thanks to all our family that has helped us out this week (and the past 2.5 years with Bella!!). I couldn’t have done it without all the help and look forward to the weeks to come!

Adalyn's Labor/Birth Story

Wed, 11/17 I went to work and started feeling cramps/aches. I knew I wasn’t having contractions because the pain never went away. It wasn’t severe so I continued work as normal, but it was bad enough that when I heard that JT had to work late I invited myself to stay at my parent’s house for dinner. I knew I wouldn’t feel up to taking care of Bella by myself that night.

Wed night after we all got home, I thought I was starting to have contractions but they were mild and irregular. I didn’t want to get my hopes up …but couldn’t help but be excited that something may actually happen soon. The contractions continued through the night (still mild and inconsistent) and woke me up a few times, so I called into work in the morning deciding that I should wait to see how Thursday played out. I went back to bed and by the time I woke up at 10am on Thursday, the contractions had went away completely.

I knew the best thing for me would be to get up and walk around and be active, but I was so tired, felt so big and just didn’t have any energy. So I relaxed most of the day hoping that the contractions would magically start again. Around 2:00 I forced myself to get up and start cleaning the house. About 4:30 I started feeling something, but wasn’t sure if it was just from vacuuming and running up and down the steps… so I went to get Bella letting my in-laws know that I was hoping to be in the hospital soon but not really believing that I would be.

By the time JT got home at 6:00, I now knew I was officially having contractions but they still weren’t regular. I kept track during dinner (hamburgers and tater tots) and they were coming anywhere from 5-8 min apart. I decided to call my parents since they’d be watching Bella the next day anyway and it’d make more sense for them to just take her overnight “just in case” anything happened. Again, I was really hoping baby was coming but wasn’t convinced anything really would happen. But my parents came to get Bella and JT and I continued to track the contractions.

At 9:30pm they were regular at 8 min apart and the pain was still manageable, but was getting worse. I decided to call Labor and Delivery to see what they would say. I was told that I could come in if the pain wasn’t manageable, but if I could wait another 30-60 min the contractions might get closer together. I decided to wait. Around 11:00 they were still 8 min apart but the pain was getting worse. I was going back and forth regarding if I should go in and JT obviously didn’t know what to do either. We finally decided to just lay down in bed and try to get some rest. I figured if something was really going to happen we might as well get some sleep.
The first contraction I had laying down changed my mind. I decided I had to go in. So we got up and started getting ready…then I changed my mind again and thought maybe I was being too anxious. Finally, I decided to call L&D and even though they sounded hesitant they said they’d plan on me coming in. The drive to the hospital (10 min) I second guessed myself but knew I made the right decision when contractions started coming just a couple of minutes apart and I had 3 by the time we walked from the car to the 4th floor of Mercy Hospital.

They checked me in and got me a bed in the triage dept. We could tell it was really busy and nurses were scrambling to find rooms/beds. A nurse came in to check me and made a comment about how she thought I was measuring 6, but she couldn’t really tell… so she called another nurse in who checked and said “Oh, you are an 8 or even a 9! Good thing we didn’t tell you stay home!”.

My first reaction (other than being relived that we decided to come in and that it was really happening)? “Can I still get an epidural??”. I was worried I lost my chance! Thankfully they said I could, but they’d have to get it going NOW. Also, I tested as GBH positive during my pregnancy which meant that I should have been on antibiotics during labor in order to protect baby from infection. Well no one told us that the antibiotics take 4 hours. So they told us that we pretty much missed our chance because there was no way I was lasting 4 hours (THANK GOD!) and while they’d still get it going for me it meant that they’d have to keep baby for a full 48 hours just to monitor her. My next question was if that meant she could still be in our room (because Bella had to spend her time in the Level 2 nursery/couldn’t be in our room with us) and they said she could still be with us (again, thank god!)

Everyone had sprung into action. They attempted an IV four times before getting it in my arm. In that process, they gave me some pain medication to hold me off until the Epi. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was great. I immediately felt light headed and relaxed. So relaxed that I didn’t care what was happening anymore. Unfortunately, it only lasted a short time but worth it. One other comment I remember a nurse making was regarding how I was starting to shake – she said “oh, you’re transitioning! You’re starting to shake”. Which I assume means that I was transitioning to being fully dilated.

They transported me into an actual delivery room and that’s when my body really started reacting. Thankfully they did get the epidural in me in time. Not long after that, I couldn’t stop shaking. It got to the point where I freaked the nurse out, but I couldn’t stop. It didn’t take long until I felt like I had to push, but was confused because it felt more like I had to go to the bathroom than push a baby out.
While my nurse ended up being great, she admitted to me later that she normally doesn’t do deliveries and that she was newer to Mercy. She worked as a postpartum nurse at a different hospital for many years and recently transferred to Mercy. She does labor when they need help. ..and I’ll be honest that it showed. She wasn’t the most confident, but she got the job done I guess. She kept having trouble with the blood pressure monitor and was verbally frustrated. At one point I almost told her to give up on the freaking blood pressure because I had to PUSH, but I contained myself.

My nurse confirmed with another nurse that if I had to push, I should push. She said “the Dr is in another delivery now, and then has a c-section, and then he’ll be in..”. Well crap! That sounds like a long time. But I was given the green light so I pushed while laying on my side, holding JT’s hand and shaking like a leaf. Before long, the Dr actually came in and I realized that this was it. Here was here to deliver the baby! He got things ready and reminded me and JT how to push (wait for a contraction, push while counting until 10, repeat 3x for each contraction). And guess what? 15 minutes later Adayln was born!

With Bella, I pushed for 2 hours and 45 minutes so I could hardly believe it when they said they saw the head. JT saw way more this time than last time and I could tell he was a little squeamish, but he did really well. At one point everyone got a little quiet and JT was still encouraging me to push, but he Dr said “no no, maybe only 50%” so I gave a little push and asked what was going on. The Dr said “take a look!” and there she was! My baby! Less than 3 hours after we got to the hospital, she was delivered, checked out and I was able to hold her. Totally different experience than with Bella.

The rest of the hospital stay went well. We delivered Fri morning and stayed until Sun afternoon. We got a lot of help with nursing from the lactation consultant and nurses and spent a lot of time cuddling with Addy. We did put her in the nursery at night and they brought her back for feedings.

Visitors included Grandma, Grandpa, Bella (they came twice – once each day), Aunt Lissa, Nana, Papa, Clayton (with Melissa again), Great Grandma (with Nana and Papa again), Aunt Michelle, Uncle Pete, Uncle Andy, friends Melissa, Curt (with Reese!) and Jessica.

Overall the staff at Mercy took great care of us and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

One more thing...

Just reading through my comments from previous blogs, and my friend Sarah commented about Bella being perfect in every way. I realize my last post about her (lack of) tantrums also probably made it sound that I feel that way. Well, of course I think she’s perfect … but she does have her moments! She’s becoming more and more independent which is a struggle. In the morning, for example, things have to be just right or else we will be dealing with a crabby toddler way to early in the morning. If she wants a pink bowl and it’s dirty, we wash it for her. If I wanted shredded wheat for breakfast but she tells me to eat Kix instead, I eat Kix. So basically she calls the shots :-P

I’ve been blaming it on my lack of energy due to pregnancy, but she does try my patience quite a bit lately. Again she likes to call the shots and trying to tell her no doesn’t work out too well. So I choose my battles. She watches more TV (Wiggles DVD to be specific) now because after I get home from work I need a little chair/relaxing time. If she was cereal for dinner, I won’t object as long as she had something different for breakfast.

While it’s manageable right now, I’ll admit that my biggest concern is when baby comes. She won’t be center of attention anymore. She won’t be the only grandchild. She won’t be the only one I plan my days around. I think it’s going to be a big reality check for her and the ‘3s’ may end up more terrible than the ‘2s’!

Still here..

It’s inevitable. I think I’m going to be an active blogger and then I go for a long stretch without updates. Maybe it’s because there hasn’t been anything really that interesting going on. I’m still pregnant. Bella is still cute. Our lives are plugging along.

Bella had her first real meltdown tantrum the other night where we had to resort to a punishment other than time out. I guess that was kind of a big deal. We’ve only done a handful of time outs because she usually gets it – one mention of a time out and she gets the hint. However, this time it didn’t do the trick. It was my birthday night (yay) and we had gotten home after her bed time from dinner with my family. I can’t even remember what started it (don’t the best tantrums start that way) … I think she just didn’t want to put her PJs on. All I know is that it ended up with Jeremy having to put her in time out. She wouldn’t sit. She kept saying “ok, I’ll listen!” but we told her that she still had to sit for the 2 min in time out. She kept getting up and JT kept adding 1 minute each time. By the time she got up to 8 minutes we decided we’d just put her to bed without stories/book time. That was hard. She did listen and get her PJs on (while still freaking out) but kept leaping out of bed to grab books. She kept asking for me because JT was doing most of this since she started the tantrum with him. It was hard to stand back and NOT give in when you hear your 2 yr old say “I just want Mama!”. Eventually, she calmed down enough for us to still give hugs and kisses and sing her a song and she went to bed.
It was stressful and not how I planned to end my b-day, but it worked. The next night she got her PJs on just fine and when I walked into the room she said “Mama! I’m listening!”. In fact, this entire week she’s been proud of herself for listening and doing really good.

Makes me wonder how life with #2 will go. We are lucky right now that we can bring Bella places and, for the most part, she’s well behaved. For example, we went to dinner at Famous Dave’s tonight and she couldn’t have been happier. Maybe it was because we let her eat 2 cornbread muffins and 2 pieces of corn on the cob for dinner….but the point is that she sits nicely to wait for the food and is calm. I know that with a second one at the table we may not be so lucky.

Speaking of baby – the pregnancy is going good. I actually feel better now than I did a month ago. I was having such a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable for a while. Not sure what changed, but I wake up less at night and my back doesn’t seem to hurt as much. I get really tired out walking still. All it takes is a trip from my desk to the bathroom at work and I’m out of breath. Don’t get me started on the steps in the house. Combine this with minor contractions and I’m sure Jeremy is really sick of me being out of breath and whining.

I took a reality trip to Target today. I know that I could have gone to labor already, and at 2 weeks before the due date it really could happen any time. So I stocked up some new born diapers, nursing essentials, pacifiers, and some long sleeved onesies for baby. We are lucky we can reuse Bella’s clothes for baby #2, but many are ‘off season’. I think I have about 50 short sleeved onsies, but only a few pairs of 3M pants. So I bought a few plus found a couple hoodies that we can use over the onesies. It’s just hard to buy clothes not knowing how big/little she’ll be! I know last time there were plenty of clothes that Bella never even wore because she was never the right size.

The next feat is to figure out how to fit 2 girls collection of clothes into one dresser and one closet… wish me luck!

Typical Day

My friend Jessie inspired me to do this. She typed out a day in her life recently. When I thought about it, I realized that each of my days during the week are scarily similar. The deviation occurs if JT has something going on after work - volleyball (which is done for now, thank god, a work happy hour, or just needing to work late. Usually once a week there will be something and I’ll handle dinner/bedtime – but for the majority of the time here is the day in the life of the Traftons...

5:25 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off and climb back into bed.

5:40 – Second alarm goes off (same clock – 2 alarms). I hit snooze.

5:46 – snooze alarm goes off. I get up and tell JT it’s time to get up. Push him out of bed a bit.

Head downstairs to feed Leinie and shower. JT gets his clothes together and shaves. When I get out of the shower, he gets in (I actually love sharing a bathroom/getting ready together – it’s our alone time in the morning before the chaos of the day). I brush my teeth, start to do my makeup, etc. Put my PJs back on.

6:10 – head upstairs to wake up Bella. Pre-3rd trimester I’d do this myself. Now I wait for JT to join me as I need a little extra manpower with Bella. She greets us with “Good morning Mama and Dad” in her sleepy voice. We take few minutes to get her up and get morning snuggles.

JT carries her down into the kitchen and lets her pick out cereal, her bowl and what cup she wants. I get my own cereal ready. Bella and I sit and eat while JT finishes getting ready. I ask if she had a good sleep (she always says yes) and listen to any dreams she had. I tell her what day it is and where she is going. I start to think about dinner for the night and snoop in the fridge and cupboards to see what we have.

At some point, JT comes back into the kitchen and we swap. He doesn’t eat, but will sit with her until she’s done and I’ll continue to get ready for the day.

Around 6:30-6:40 – Bella is done eating. She gets dressed and brushes teeth.

7:05-7:10 – out the door, even though we always try to leave by 7:00 it never seems to happen. JT takes Bella. I head to work.

7:45 – arrive at work, head straight to the café for a cappuccino (decaf) and a muffin or bagel for my second breakfast (yup)

8:00 – at my desk, connect my laptop, wait what seems like forever for it to power up and connect to email/internet. It’s quiet as many people aren’t at work yet or just quietly working at their desk.

Once email/internet finally loads I check email and my calendar for the day. Decide if there are any meetings that I can cancel or move. Read through new emails and take action on ones I can.

If I have time, I’ll take some time to check Facebook while I eat my breakfast and sip my coffee. Say hello to people as they walk by. Respond to a question from a team member who stops by.

9:00-12:00 – Meetings. If I’m lucky, a 30 min slot of open time for email. Hope that meetings will end early letting me check/respond to email in between meetings.

12:00-1:00 – lunch and desk time. I buy lunch from the cafe and eat at my desk. Get through new emails, check facebook again, read blogs, talk to a team member or my manager if they stop by.

1:00-3:30 – more meetings and desk time when I can manage it.

3:30-4:30 – finish the day at my desk, respond to more emails, answer voice mails, organize my notes/to-do list from meetings throughout the day, make sure there isn’t anything urgent I missed. Leave to pick up Bella.

5:00 – 5:30 – Pick up Bella, chat with the in-laws or my mom (depending on where she is)

5:50 – home. Get dinner going. Let Bella help me do things like dump water in pots and stirring to keep her entertained and distract her from wanting to eat yet another snack (she typically has just finished one when I go to pick her up, or eats one in the car on the way home). Let her watch The Wiggles DVD or get her settled downstairs to play while I clean up the kitchen and put things away (diaper bag, my purse, mail, etc) and check my email (can’t access my personal email at work) and facebook (yes again).

6:30 – JT gets home. Force, I mean ask, Bella to turn off the DVD or, even better, watch Bella greet JT at the door and ask him to come play with her. Let Bella and JT play for a bit while I wrap up dinner.

Once dinner is ready we eat, talk about the day, answer a million questions from Bella (where does milk come from? What are you eating? What day is it tomorrow? What are you doing now? What are you eating now? What are you doing now?..... Now? Where do beans come from? )

7:00 – clean up dinner. Bella goes downstairs to play with JT. I join them when I’m done cleaning up. JT takes this on if I'm too tired or Bella wants me instead.

We play with her Dora house, we practice trick or treating, we dance to Raffi, Wiggles, Alvin and the Chipmunks and other random nursery rhymes we have on our computer…. Participation from me depends on how I feel – I need a lot of breaks/couch time.

7:30 – Convince Bella to brush her teeth. JT helps her while I putz around on the computer some more. I have nothing to do on the computer, but the important thing here is that I’m sitting yet I can see/hear them in the bathroom so I feel like I’m at least present.

Once done with teeth, Bella gets a horsy ride upstairs from JT. I hobble my way up the steps to her room, by this time of night my body is exhausted so it takes me a while. By the time I get there, they are already in PJs and done with the diaper change.

She decides who picks out books – me, JT or herself. She climbs into bed and we read 4 books alternating between JT and I. Lights out and sing one song (rock a bye baby, twinkle twinkle little star, you are my sunshine or love grows best in little houses)

8:00 – Collapse into my new La-Z-Boy. Kick up the feet. Pull out my laptop to check email (work and personal) and general internet activity.

8:15 – JT hooks up his laptop to the TV and we stream an episode of something good from HGTV.com. If I decide I can handle it, we’ll watch a second episode. Or if something is actually worth watching on our basic cable we’ll watch normal TV.

9:00 – get ready and climb into bed with my book. JT comes in to tuck me in :)

9:15 – can’t keep my eyes open. Set my book down and fall asleep.

10:00-10:30 - JT comes to bed, double checks the alarm and turns off my lamp.

Goodnight!

She knows her ABCs, colors, shapes, can count to 20, spell her name and could sing you any nursery rhyme you want… the one thing she can’t do?

Take off her own diaper.
And thank god. No messes on the carpet here!

Bella's First Twins Game

(I can't figure out how to properly format these picture sfor the life of me...so this is just going to be one ugly blog.)


This past Saturday Bella got to go to her first Twins game, courtesy of my brother Andy. I’ll admit that I didn’t really ever think I’d bring a 2 yr old to a game, but she did really well and had a blast. When we got there, we took some time for photo ops.




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Then we met up with my brother and Dad and took more pictures and got Bella’s face painted. She loved this Mickey Mouse statue. She had to see it 3 times when we were there.

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After I signed up for the ‘Good Sport’ program (sign up as a designated driver and wear a wrist band so no one serves you beer to get a free soda and entered into a drawing) we found our seats. We were in section 327 row 13. We were 2nd to the last row in the stadium but the view was still pretty good. The seats were perfect for Bella since we were on the end and no one was behind us. The group in front of us enjoyed Bella and didn’t care that there was an overly enthusiastic 2 yr old behind them.
















Bella had to sit in Seat #2 because 2 is her favorite number at the time She cheered “hit the ball!” and “Go Twins!” as loud as she could. She got to eat a pretzel with cheese, chicken fingers and share ice cream (From a mini Twins hat) with Mama.
Uncle Andy had a nice surprise for Bella as well – her name on the big screen!




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About the 6th inning my dad took Bella for a walk/to see Mickey again but they were back in time for the 7th inning stretch. Even though she’ll sing “take me out to the ball game” all the time at home, she seemed confused and wouldn’t sing along.


The Twins won. We had to make a stop at Mickey one more time on our way out. We all had a good time and are looking forward to next time!

Goofy Girl

This has been in my inbox for a while (I’ll sometimes type things up at work and then e-mail myself to post later) and for some reason never made it into my blog. I figured I’d post as is even though I’ve probably mentioned a few of these already in recent posts.

Bella cracks me up. I know part of it is being 2 years old and having no reservations, but I hope her goofy-ness continues on and she’ll always be this silly and fun.

Below are some random things that Bella is doing these days -

She states that she LOVES everything. “I LOVE the color pink” “ I LOVE to put my own shirt on” ….but it is funniest when it’s the most random thing that she loves. For example, this morning her spoon fell on the floor so I picked it up and rinsed it. She demanded that I dry it off because “ I LOVE it when things are dry”. I’m blanking on other examples, but at she is very passionate about things I guess.

Her and Dada somehow started a random game that makes no sense called “Bubbly Bubbly”. They take turns naming objects and starting by saying bubbly bubbly…for example “Bubbly bubbly shoe” “Bubbly bubbly door” etc. Bella could sit and play this game forever and it cracks her up.

Bella decided that all her spoons and forks are named “Dr Amy” (after her pediatrician) and after meal times she insists that Jeremy sit with her so “Dr Amy Fork” can come out and talk to him. She even does a different voice for Dr Amy Fork and will talk about how she loves to feed Bella food.

Another game of pretend involves playing kitties. Bella turns into a baby cat and speaks in yet another voice (higher pitched) and talks like this “Meow Meow I’m baby kitty meow meow”. I’ll be Mama Kitty and Jeremy is Dada Kitty. Many nights, our entire bedtime routine is spent with Bella as a baby kitty – from brushing teeth, to putting on Pajamas to reading book she’ll stay in character the entire time. It’s hilarious. Or if we are just playing then she’ll want to play like a cat. Or she’ll get Leinie’s toys and want US to play like cats. While I know that playing pretend is common for toddlers, it’s the voice she uses as a baby cat that cracks me up. I’ll have to try to get it on video soon.

Similar to above, she also loves to pretend she’s a baby bird. This started because if JT or I sit cross-legged on the floor it becomes her ‘nest’. So if she’s not pretending to be a kitty, she’s pretending to be a baby bird.

My mom has started doing a lot of crafts and activities with her which has been fun to see. She has a bunch of the Kumon-like books that she’s been working with Bella on so now Bella is a pro at matching, finding what’s different, tracing, finding words that start with the same letter, etc. She’s started cutting and pasting as well. The crafts that my mom does with Bella are cute to see as well and Bella loves to pick out colors or different items to paste on things. I’ve decided to just save everything in a box because I don’t have the heart to throw anything away!

Bella is doing really well at spelling simple words – her name, Mama, Dada, and Cat are the ones that she is best at. But she’s started to get the hang of figuring out what letters start with by sounding it out. So sometimes we’ll just be talking normally and all the sudden she’ll repeat a word by saying “f-f-flower! Starts with f!”. She’s not perfect at this…she insisted that Gorilla starts with ‘B’ the other day but it’s cute to listen to her try.

“Where does that come from?” is the big question in our house these days. No, not in regards to babies (yet) but almost everything else she’ll ask where it came from. This leads to some interesting discussions – for example, the milk discussion I posted on Facebook not long ago. She asked were Milk comes from and I told her cows and she wouldn’t believe me. She insisted that milk was made from string cheese. You put the string cheese in the milk jug and stir it around and it becomes milk. Which, in a way, makes sense since milk and string cheese are at least the same colors. JT and I still aren’t sure how to answer when she asks where the chicken she is eating for dinner comes from… so far we’ve been honest with her and it hasn’t freaked her out yet. Also, how do you explain to a 2 yr old were numbers and letters come from?

Baby T part deux

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in my blog much about pregnancy #2. It’s still been mostly all about Bella…which is fine for now but all that will be changing (it won't be all about Bella soon!) so I figure a Baby T #2 update is due.

Overall I have felt OK during this pregnancy, not great, but OK. All the things I “missed out” on the first time around have made an appearance. I’m definitely feeling VERY PREGNANT, tired, sore and miserable all the time. Ok, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit. With Bella I felt great. I could have been pregnant for 3 more months and been perfectly happy. Not so lucky this time.

Right around the 6.5/7 month mark I feel like both myself and baby grew to the point where it’s uncomfortable to sleep, take stairs, walk, breathe, you name it. I don’t THINK I have sciatica, but something like it where the lower left of my back HURTS more than just back pain. It’s nerve pain and causes me to be unable to move at times. I always find a creative way to get out of whatever position I’m in, but sometimes it takes awhile and, well, hurts. Wah wah.

I know the fact that I have a 2 year old contributes to me feeling more run down and sore. She wants me to carry her everywhere – up and down the stairs are the worst. I do it because how can you resist a cute little toddler looking up at you saying “mama, pick me up!” or “Mama, I’m too liiiiiiiittle to do it by myself” (meaning go up/down the stairs…which is totally untrue as she’ll take them easily if I’m not around or she doesn’t want to wait for me). Also, pregnancy isn’t new anymore. I’ve done this once before and am not as intrigued by it. I just want this baby now! Nothing against Bella, but I’m more anxious to meet this one than I was Bella. I think there were too many unknowns the first time and I was more nervous than anything. Now I’m more confident and just want to see what this little person will look like and act like.

Here’s how pregnancy #2 has been different than pregnancy #1 so far…

• Morning sickness – I had it. All day long. It wasn’t so bad that I was puking my guts out, but I was nauseas almost all the time for my first trimester. It never really stopped me from eating – I thin it would take a lot do that – but was annoying and made me feel crappy.
• General pain and cramping – got to the point where I called a nurse because I did not remember having pain like I was experiencing the first time around. Since it accompanied some bleeding, I ended up having an unscheduled ultrasound at 17 weeks. They found a blood clot which contributed to the bleeding and said the cramping/pain was normal pregnancy pains. Well, news to me. But I was happy all was fine
  
• Going to pre-natal appts alone – JT attended ALL of my pre-natal appts the first time. This time he went to the first couple and since then I’ve been going solo. I’m fine with this and prefer it since they really are non-eventful. I get weighed and my blood pressure measured, Dr Kern comes in and we chat for about 1 minute about how I don’t have questions and feel fine, she checks the baby’s heartbeat and measurements and I’m done.
  
• No real cravings – my “craving” for sweets is back but I’m convinced it’s not really a craving and just me allowing myself treats that I wouldn’t have normally. Pregnant or not, once you are used to having something sweet after every meal you come to expect it (for example, I may or may not have just had 2 monster cookies after my lunch…). I didn’t really have strong cravings my first time either, but I remember a fondness for OJ and apple cider. I just haven’t had those same kind of feelings this time around.
  
• No food aversions - last time, I wasn’t able to eat eggs or chew gum. It grossed me out thanks to a few dreams I had. Nothing like that this time!
  
• Less naps – I don’t get to come home from work and nap for an hour while JT makes dinner. Boo.
  
• Braxon Hicks contractions – If I had them with Bella, I didn’t notice them. I notice them now. Sometimes they hurt, but most of the time it’s just the noticeable contraction/tightening of my belly and uncomfortable. I find myself having to breath really heavily to get through them and wonder if other people notice.

I’m hoping that a different pregnancy means a different delivery as well….an easier and faster one. I’d prefer not to be induced again…or if I am for it not to take 32 hours w/ 3 hours of pushing for the baby to come.

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

Yesterday, we took Bella to the allergist referred to us by her pediatrician. There were no additional tests, but he gave us some good information and helped us understand what happens next.

When her pediatrician ran blood tests, she tested positive for peanut allergies but not tree nuts. However, the allergist recommended avoiding tree nuts anyway. Not only will we never really know if the tree nut (almonds, pecans, cashews, etc) was in a factory with peanuts but it’ll just make it easier. No nuts, period.
She’ll get re-tested again at 4 yrs old. There is a 1 in 5 chance the allergy will go away. But, that’s a 4 in 5 chance it won’t so we aren’t getting our hopes up.

We have Epi pens to use in case of a reaction, however Benadryl can be used for minor reactions.

Baby #2 has a 7% chance of having peanut allergies vs 2% chance the rest of the population would have… meaning a slight increase due to the fact that as sibling has an allergy.

JT seems to think that we gave her peanut products too early at 2 yrs. However, based on the fact that there are no other food allergies in our family it’s totally normal for pediatricians to give the go ahead for peanuts at 2 yrs. In fact, by the time we hit Bella’s 2 yr appt her Doctor basically said they aren’t sure about any of the research anymore and it’s probably fine to give them peanut products earlier. However, now with the increased risk for #2 we’ll for sure wait until 3 yrs old.
We are clearing all peanut products out of our house. No more peanut butter for me …but the allergist recommend Sun Butter which is made out of sunflower seeds as an alternative. My parents and in-laws are also recommended to do the same since she is over there so much. I’m now going to be a strict label reading parent.

No Asian restaurants, ice cream parlors or bakeries for Bella. These are the top 3 high risk areas. The good news is that we’ve been able to go out to eat and stick with Mac & Cheese or hamburgers and she’s been fine. Tonight we enjoyed tacos at El Loro – so she isn’t totally missing out!

Other than all that, life continues on as normal. At first I was really bummed out about the peanut allergy – I don’t want Bella to miss out on anything – but really it’s not that big of a deal. At least it’s only peanuts and not wheat, gluten and dairy as well. As long as we can be stringent about reminding people not to just feed her whatever, I’m hoping we can avoid any episodes!

Fair Fun

This past Saturday, we took Bella to the MN State Fair. We took her in 2008 when she was only 4 months old, but didn’t take her last year. So it was kind of her first experience there. She got to experience the record breaking attendance day. Between all the people, Bella in a stroller and myself waddling around we took 6 hours to get around the fair once. I was exhausted and Bella fell asleep with about an hour to go.

She LOVED the animal barns. Our first stop was the Miracle of Birth Center. We got there earlier, before it was too crowded to move. So Bella got to pet a baby lamb and see piglets. A calf named Pronto gave her a “kiss” (a lick on the hands). She also got to pet baby chicks.

On our way out, we noticed a lady giving out free tattoos to kids. Turns out it was a tattoo of a pig and said “if lost, please call…” and you wrote your phone number. The funny thing was on the way to the fair, JT made the comment that we should have put our cell number on her somewhere…and here was a way to do it! He was mostly kidding, but we got the tattoo and wrote our number anyway because Bella wanted it. That thing is still on her arm as clear as day 4 days and 2 baths later.

The pig barn proved to be most exciting. We saw the 1450 lb pig which was pretty impressive. Then, as we were walking through the isles of pigs, one got loose! I don’t know if they meant to take it out or what, but all the sudden a grown pig ran by us and a guy was chasing him. Bella was cracking up and it’s one of the first stories she’ll tell you about the fair. We also stood in front of an angry pig who was snorting and squealing pretty loudly because Bella found that amusing as well.

Of course the cows, sheep, horses and chickens were fun as well. But just not as action packed as the pig barn.

After the animals we started walking around. JT and I got a Ruben pretzel from the new French Meadow stand. Bella didn’t like it and ate goldfish instead. We walked through the horticulture building and showed Bella the bees – but it was too busy to really look at anything else. For the 5^th year in a row we forgot to bring an apple from the tree in our backyard to figure out what they were.

Then we were on a mission for more food. It was JT’s turn to pick (and nothing else really stuck out to me – weird, I know) so of course it was quite the process. Along our way we passed the kiddie midway and found a ride Bella could ride. Most of the rides she either wasn’t tall enough for or didn’t want to ride. She ended up on a whale that went around in circles and had the time of her life. She was in the front and another girl was in the back who she promptly decided was a “new friend”. I saw her talking to the girl and telling her that they had “5 more minutes” to wait until the ride started…not true, but for some reason she kept saying that. Then the ride did start and she was as happy as could be.

After the ride, JT finally decided on a footlong pronto pup that we shared. Bella was not a fan of the mustard he put on and mostly ate the hot dog part. This was at the same time that we took advantage of the FM107 booth’s kid area. They had slides, puzzles, and other toys to keep kids occupied. While we were playing, Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay showed up! Turns out they had just gotten to the fair and happened to run into us. Bella didn’t seem surprised at all to see them…like she just assumed everyone was at the fair and it was normal to run into them.

After chatting w/ Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay for a bit we kept moving. I got my new favorite – a ginormous beef stick from Smokin’ Joes Smokehouse. We made our way to the dog building…not sure what it’s called…but it was way too packed to see anything.

All throughout the fair Bella had been asking for Ice Cream. I kept telling her “maybe later” since we hadn’t really eaten much for lunch yet. So after the failed attempt at seeing dogs, I told her that if she shut her eyes and took a nap in her stroller for a bit when she woke up we’d get ice cream. It was near her nap time and I could tell she was tired and I was thinking we had a while to go yet, so I wanted to make sure she got some shut eye. She promptly squeezed her eyes shut and I let her cuddle with my sweatshirt…within 2 minutes she was out for real and didn’t wake up at all. I felt kind of bad leaving the fair without giving her ice cream, but I didn’t want to wake her up just for that either. It was nice to have her keep napping in the car on the way home.

But before we left, I got a cream puff which JT didn’t want anything to do with. It went perfectly w/ cold milk. Then we decided we had enough and left.

It was a great family day, but next year we’ll probably leave Bella at home and let her get her fix at the Anoka County Fair. It was just too busy to navigate the stroller, plus next year I’m thinking she won’t want to stay in the stroller and I don’t want to worry about her running off. Nor will I be using a kid leash (although I totally see the benefits of them).

Sound it out!

Lately, Bella has bee figuring out what words start with by sounding them out. Randomly, she'll bust out with "b-b-Bella! Bella starts with b!" or "n-n-nose! Nose starts with n!". At first, I figured this came from books or songs that try to teach toddlers how to spell out the sounds of words but tonight she amazed me by doing this not only continuously for about 10 minutes but by figuring out words that are less common. "Garbage" or "Fridge" for example. We were in the kitchen finishing dinner, so most of the words were kitchen or food related - fork, light, plate, milk, etc. She got them all right, too! The only one she didn't get right was phone... "ph-ph-phone! Phone starts with F!" Almost! I really need to have the video camera handy at all times because this would have been ideal to record - she was so happy and proud each time she figured one out!

I know what has helped a lot with this is the "schoolwork" my mom has started doing with her. All this means is doing activities from Kumon-like workbooks - matching, figuring out what doesn't belong, putting items by the letter they start with, etc. but she loves it all and loves to show off what she's done. She does a lot of cutting and pasting as well, which just makes her seem too big. The other day she told me "one and one makes two!!!" - my god, math! Slow down, girl!

Another Phone Conversation

Normally, I pick Bella up after work but yesterday Jeremy had pick up duty. I was at home getting dinner ready when I got a call from Jeremy’s phone. Here’s roughly how the conversation went.

Me: Hello?

Bella: HI Mama! It’s Bella!

Me: Hi Bella!

Bella: Don’t worry Mama, we are coming home now.

Me: Oh good, I missed you.

Bella: I missed you too Mama

Bella: I’M STARVING!

Me: good! I’m getting dinner ready

Me: Is Dada with you?

Bella: Yes. Dada’s driving. Don’t worry I’m safe.

And it continued on from there for another minute or so. I was sure that Jeremy was prompting her with this conversation but he swears he wasn’t. he was driving and handed her his cell phone after he dialed our number! He thought *I* was prompting her somehow but I wasn’t. She’s talked about being starving before, but how she came up with “don’t worry” and “I’m safe” I have no idea. Even though it’s totally common I am still blown away by having a full on conversation with her, let alone over the phone. I love hearing her updates on her day from Bella…even though sometimes she stretches the truth (like telling me she ate shoes for lunch or that her and Mara went to visit a sheep next door…) she can normally recap her day pretty well for me.

I just had to capture what I can remember of that conversation because it both made me laugh and amazed me.

Ring Ring!

Me: Hello?
Bella: It's me!
Me: Hi Bella!!
B: I'm going tumbling today with Grandma and Grandpa!
Me: I know! Lucky girl! Did you have fun with Grandma and Grandpa last night?
B: Yup
Me: what did you do?
B: Play with kitties!
Me: Play with kitties??
B: Yup
Me: did you sleep good?
B: Yup
Me: did you have breakfast?
B: Yup! Bye Mama! *kisses the phone*

Oh yeah, it’s a girl!

By now the three people who read this already know that we are having another girl, but in the spirit of documenting things I figured I’d better write about it. So yeah, it’s a girl! I’ll admit, we knew it was a girl since the first ultrasound we had at 17 weeks (due to some of our issues), but the tech was wishy-washy and wasn’t sure so we decided to wait until the official ultrasound to get confirmation. I’m personally thrilled.

Bella on the other hand isn’t as thrilled. I don’t know if it’s because there was a lot of boy talk before we knew or what, but when I told her we were having a baby girl she freaked out - “No! Not a baby girl, either! Baby boy! Baby boy named Olaf!”. Two things to clarify – she’s started to add “either” onto the end of her sentences when she doesn’t want something. Even if we don’t give her a choice. “I don’t want cereal, either” “I don’t want to go home, either”. Little does she know that sometimes it’s her only choice. But it’s pretty cute so we don’t correct her. Second, I mentioned the name Olaf once. In some random story I made up where I needed a character with an ‘O’ name. She clung to it and started naming everything Olaf. Apparently the baby is now named Olaf as well.

Within the past week Bella has seemed to get used to the idea of a baby sister as she doesn’t tantrum when we talk about it anymore, but I wonder if she’s just smart enough to know that another girl in the family means that she really will have to share everything. I would have them in the same room for a while no matter what, but now that there will be two girls they won’t move into separate rooms for as long as they can stand it (not for 18 years though). Her old clothes, baby toys, etc will go to baby. I’m thinking of a strategy to let her pick out 2-3 things that she wants to claim as hers only and then ask that she give the baby the rest to try to avoid her being too possesive, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Other things going on in our world include the wrap up of another 4th of July party. We had a great time and love that everyone comes to party with us. Bella left before the big fireworks which was good this year, but I think next year we’ll let her stay. She enjoyed the small, legal ones that we shot off for the young kids before it got dark.

And the latest thing that Bella is doing that I love is reading to us from books. Any book. It could be one of mine from the library or a manual to an appliance, but she’ll make up a story as she turns the pages. It’s also fun to listen to her read her books and hear how she interprets or remembers the stories being told. She catches on to more details than I would have given her credit for!

Father's Day 2010

One of my Facebook “friends” suggested that there shouldn’t be Fathers Day and Mothers Day, but just one Parents day. Um, no. I want MY day to be indulged/spoiled and I don’t want to share it with Jeremy! On the flip side, it was fun to force Jeremy to make all the decision yesterday regarding what to do. You’d think he was being asked to decide which child to save from the hungry Ligar. Jeremy is so easy going and is usually up for anything that I end up making a lot of decisions (where to go to dinner, social plans, etc) and trust he’ll tell me if he doesn’t want to do something.

So with a little persuasion he decided he wanted to go the beach yesterday. It was a perfect day for it. Bella was excited to reenact one of her favorite books and we all got some much needed sun and relaxation. Then it was onto the always challenging “what do you want for lunch” decision. After 30 minutes of debate, we ended up at Culvers. No other real significance here other than the fact that it took him way too long to accept the fact that I wasn’t giving him my opinion or helping sway his decision on that one at all.

I swear Bella got the ‘Fathers Day’ concept yesterday as her and Jeremy were inseparable. Lately pendulum of needing Mama all.the.time is swinging back towards the middle and she’s been much more attached to Dada lately. But yesterday was Dada to the extreme. She wouldn’t leave his side and cuddled with him every chance she got. I loved it. And got a little jealous. But hey, it was his day.

Things that Bella does that I love right now -

She calls her toes ‘piggies’ no matter what. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard her say the word ‘toes’. And she’ll usually follow up a reference to her piggies with some adorable squealing to prove they really ARE pigs

She picked up “hey, hey!” from somewhere. Not the Monkee’s either. She’ll use it like this “Hey, Hey Mama – that’s my toy!” “Hey, Hey Lyly come here for a kiss”.

In the ECFE playtime classes we attended this winter the night always ended with the ‘good bye song’ (“Goooooodbye friends, goooodbye friends, goodbye friends – we’ll see you all sometime!”). She’ll now use it when saying goodbye to anyone – which is cute but also draws out the goodbye as it’s kind of a slow song. For example, if we are leaving Nana and Papa’s house it’s “Goooooodbye Nana, Papa, MoMo, Auntie Lissa, Mil-mil… (anyone and everyone who is there), goooodbye Nana, Papa, MoMo, Auntie Lissa, Mil-mil…”and so on until the song ends. Or until she screws up and has to start over. Y esterday Dada got this goodbye “Goooooodbye Dada, goooodbye Dada, godbye Dada – we’ll see sometime”. She does it all with a slow hand wave that makes it oh-so-adorable.

Everything is her “FAVORITE”. “Apples are my FAVORITE” “Peaches are my FAVORITE. I eat in a bowl and drink the juice ALLLLL UP”. Mostly it refers to food but at her last Dr’s appt she swore the Spiderman sticker she got was her favorite even though we’ve never talked about Spiderman ever. She thought he was a robot.

For a while she’s aked to do things “in a couple minutes” but now she starting to ask to do things for “just 1 minute”. The other day she wanted to watch The Wiggles after dinner. I told her no (because we never watch TV after dinner) and she came to me with a pleading look in her eyes “Watch Wiggles just 1 minute!” complete with holding 1 finger up (FYI, I didn’t cave in). It could also turn into “Just 1 more time” as in “Play with Leggos just 1 more time!” or “Go to Grandma’s just 1 more time!"

For her birthday, she got a bunch of rubber duckies to play with in the tub. Somehow (I blame Jeremy) she decided they need to be fed bread from Cub every time we are in the bath. So now the game we play is pretending to drive to cub, get a cart, find the bread, pay for the bread, go home and give it to Bella. Who then eats it for herself and then tells us we have to go back to get more for the ducks. This is just one example of her imagination. She’s been showing it off a lot lately and I love it.

Everything has to match. I didn’t do any research to figure out if this is a typical 2 year old thing, or if I’ll have an OCD kid on my hands, but god forbid the purple cup be dirty when we use the purple plate because she wants them to match! The real tragedy is that we lost our pink spoon, so she can have a pink plate and a pink cup but has to use a different color spoon. She also does this with her clothes sometimes. If she has pink on she needs a pink blanket and pink stuffed animals with her.

"Where are you…??” I actually like it when things get lost sometimes because she’ll call out in the cutest voice “Where are you red ball?” or if we get home and she wants to see Dada “Where are you Dada?”. Again something that I didn’t even realize we said but she picked up from somewhere!

She picked up on “See you later, Alligator!” and “In a while, Crocodile!” so not only do we get to hear this when we leave sometimes but every night as we put her to bed she’ll call out as we’re leaving the room “See you later, Alligator!”

Reading books by herself…kind of. Meaning she’ll sit and page through a book and tell the story as she sees it or remembers it. Usually she’s pretty accurate but sometimes she gets off track. She might be doing that on purpose though because her and I will often sit with one of my books and I’ll “Read” it to her (make up stories pretending like I’m reading the book)

She prefers Alvin and the Chipmonks in the car over the Wiggles now. Thank god.

That's enough for now.

Bloody nose #1

Today marked the day of Bella's first bloody nose. I'm sure there will be many to follow if she's anything like her dad. Bella was running around being goofy with Dada (which may or may not have included JT hopping around with bunny ears on), jumped up on the couch and promptly proceeded to smash her face into the arm of the couch. Poor thing!

After several minutes of holding a Kleenex to it and a few stories later (to keep her distracted while we held the Kleenex), it was all better and she was pretty excited that there was blood on her face and hand.

This, of course, was only about an hour after she knocked her forehead on a chair while playing 'all around the mulberry bush' around our dining room table. When did my calm little girl turn into this rambunctious toddler?!

How is it possible to have writers block when you are writing about your life?

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, yet I don’t even know what to blog about. Obviously stuff happens everyday, but maybe it’s lack of energy that is preventing me from actually documenting anything.

I’ll start with the pregnancy. I’ve been feeling better now that I’m in my second trimester (17 weeks as of today!), but still tired as all hell. Not sleepy tired, but just no-energy tired. I feel bad because mowing the lawn used to be my thing (and I really do enjoy it), but I just couldn’t bring myself to have the energy to do it this weekend. That means JT had to spend an hour mowing when he could have been inside working on our bathroom/the million other house things he has to do because I’m not capable of doing them. That sounds really negative, but there are so many home improvement or maintenance projects that have to get done and I feel like I can’t do any of them. So I clean, mow the lawn, etc since that’s what I can do. ANYWAY, the point is that my lack of energy means that there is even more on JT’s plate which makes me feel guilty. But, such is life and it’ll all get done….eventually….RIGHT?

The exciting news is that we have our ultrasound scheduled for June 16! I “get” to have it 2 weeks earlier than last time due to minor complications (really minor). Dr isn’t concerned about anything but said I should try to schedule the ultrasound closer to 18 weeks than 20 weeks. She didn’t have to tell me twice! I can’t wait to see baby and find out the sex. And yes, of course we’ll be sharing (just not the name again).

Bella has been as entertaining and challenging as usual. I say challenging only because she’s become much more vocal and independent. My newest favorite is when she tells us she’s “FINE”. As in “Bella, are you doing OK back there?” “Yes, I’m FINE!” or “Bella, do you need a new diaper on?” “No, my diaper is FINE!”. And she says it with that conviction, too. It’s a preview of the sassy teenage (or pre-teen) years.

It seems giving her choices still works well, though, thank goodness. Usually it’s asking her if she wants Mama or Dada to do something since it’s not her choice IF we do something (put on PJs, brush teeth, change diapers, etc). Or just flat out deception works too. For example, telling her that I’m putting a bow in her hair but really putting in a clip (which works much better).

We found a nest with eggs in a tree out front a few weeks ago, and when we checked this weekend the eggs had hatched! I think I might be more excited than Bella,but it’s cute to hear her tell people about how it happened that there were “eggs in nest, cracked, now baby birds!”.

Bella is still really snuggly which I love. She likes to hold hands (even when sitting and eating or reading books) and will just come up and hug my legs and coo. Cooing is the only way I can think to describe it, but when she’s being cuddly with either a person or a stuffed animal she’ll make a sound like “oooo” in a sweet little voice. The cutest is when she sees a stuffed animal and says “oh, come here baby bunny…little baby bunny…oooo”. I don’t know where she picked this up from, but we must have made sounds like that when talking about baby animals (and they are so cute, how can you not coo about them?! ).

As you may have noticed, she has started referring to herself as “I” or her things as “my” more. She still uses “You” but will mix it up. So she’ll say things like “I’m ready!” “I need my mama” “ I want that”. But if we ask who did something or who said something (and it was her), she’ll answer “you”. So she just can’t get the “I did” or “me!” concept yet, but we’re getting there!

Weekend Fun

Friday –
After work, I decided I NEEDED to hit up the local chinese buffet (appropratly named Yummy Buffet) to get my fill of pineapple shrimp. Bella enjoyed this as well as she got to eat “strawberry chicken” (some dish that had red looking chicken so she assumed it was strawberry), lo mein and 2 plates of fruit. She didn’t even care that I was getting ice cream when she realized she could pick out any kind of fruit she wanted and have as much as she wanted. Works for me! Then we took a drive around the Elm Creek park/Dayton area. It only takes a few minutes to feel like you are on semi-country roads so it’s a nice relaxing drive.

Saturday –

After Jeremy made us a breakfast of ‘fancy toast’ (French toast) and fruit smoothies, Bella and I heading off garage-saleing. I’ve never done this as an adult/on my own free will but realized there is something very satisfactory around the hunt of a sale. First you have to spot a sign and then you have to attempt to follow it. I was amazed at how many dead ends I ran into because people would place a sign on the main road having you turn into a neighborhood but to follow up with any additional signs. Even though I stuck to our general Champlin/Brooklyn Park area I still don’t know all the street names. SO just telling me an address doesn’t help!

Bella got into it after our second sale which had a ton of kids toys and clothes. There was another little one toddling around, so she had a good time running from toy to toy to try things out. After that her motto was “one more garage sale!”. The best buy of the morning was ‘If You Take a Mouse to School’ for 25 cents. My splurge was $6 on Little People Animals and playmat which was sold by a couple of adorable kids in their front yard. Their neighbors were having a sale so they set up shop in the front with a handful of toys and some free kool-aid. I couldn’t resist them and I know Bella will like the animals.

We ended our excursion when it started to rain and got home just in time for me to be holding Bella outside when the thunder started. Last year she was too young to care about it, but this time I got the “WHAT THE EFF WAS THAT??” look and the death grip. I tried to explain how it was just a loud noise – like the blender or the vacuum cleaner but she wasn’t comforted. Thankfully the thunder calmed down enough for her to take a nap.

After nap time, Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay came over to watch Bella for a few hours while we met or friends Mel and Curt for dinner. It worked out well because Mel and Curt have a 6 month old and her parents live right by us. So they were able to drop off baby Reese with them and we enjoyed dinner on the patio at Mavericks. We were home by 7:15 just as Bella, Lissa and Clay Clay were coming home from the park. Bella had such a good time that when I mentioned going to the park the next day she insisted that Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay come over to take her.

Oh, and the big news from Saturday was that Bella used her “big girl potty” for the first time! We were all in the bathroom area getting ready or doing whatever and she looked at Jeremy and said “You have to go potty” (remember you = me). Jeremy told her to hold it, helped her get ready and seated and after a few seconds she did was she was supposed to do! The kids potty we have has a sensor on the bottom that plays a tune when something hits it. It’s funny how thrilling that sound can be. Unfortunately, she didn’t repeat this at all this weekend but it was an encouraging sign!

Sunday –
We met friends (Crystal, Joel and 1 ½ yr old Jonah plus Rachel and 5 yr old Olivia and 1 ½ yr old Rylan) at a park in Coon Rapids. The playground was great as it had 3 different areas and even the biggest one was Bella-friendly. Actually, it was mom friendly as it didn’t have any tunnels or tubes that would require parents to squeeze through to follow their kids. We played, had lunch and enjoyed the overcast sky (kept it cool) for 2.5 hours before going home to nap. Of course, that’s the time the sun and heat started which meant that my nap-time activity of mowing the lawn was hot and tiring but it still felt good.
After nap time we busted out the kiddie pool at Bella’s new sprinkler she got for her birthday. She let me and Jeremy put our feet in the pool and made us run though the sprinkler with her a million times. It was fun, but holding a 27lb kid and running didn’t last too long for this out-of-shape 3.5 month pregnant chick. So I made Dada take over.

After a lot of sun and a lot of fun we were all worn out, but it felt good to be able to get out and enjoy the weather!