29 weeks preggers

29 weeks

(I realize that my hair is plastered on my head in all of my recent pictures. I guess that's my "beautiful pregnancy hairstyle"!)

I'm actually 29 weeks and 1 day pregnant, which means that I'm carrying a butternut squash around with me. Just thinking that I only have about 11 weeks until Little Peanut arrives (yes, we STILL cannot agree on his name) is crazy! I guess I've got to get a move on moving ME to her big-girl room! For those of you that are still asking how I am feeling...I'm feeling pretty good. Physical therapy really does wonders! And as for my hunger factor, I'm actually starting to get full...at times. :) Anyway, I went for my monthly checkup last Thursday and everything was still a-okay. His heartbeat was in the 150s, which I think was a little faster than it should be because my Dr. commented on feeding Little Peanut a bowl full of sugar before my appointment. Other than that, my due date is still October 13th. We'll just have to wait and see!

Is she really 19-months-old?

Where is the pause button or slow button on life? ME's 2-year-mark is approaching way too fast (not to include the end of summer break, too). I have had so much fun spending time with my little girl this summer. I don't think I've had a day go by that I haven't laughed with, or at, her. Mary Elizabeth, thank you so much for being the sunshine in my life on this dreary, rainy day!

At the beginning of summer, ME fell off my parent's front door step (not even 6" high) when she saw my dad drive up. So she's had a pretty bad "boo-boo" on the right side of her forehead. You probably can see it a little better in previous posts. This past weekend, I went on my 1st girl's trip since being a mommy and left ME with her daddy. I wasn't even gone 24 hours and notice the condition I found her forehead when I got back. Drew claims that she fell out of the hammock that he was holding onto. I guess that's between them, and she survived. But now I'm wondering if I need to make her wear a helmet whenever she's left alone with other people. Or maybe she, unfortunately, inherited my clumsy gene. :)

ME sporting her new bow and bruise.

Also, in a previous post, I briefly mentioned how independent ME is becoming. Well, here is a picture to show the result of some of her independence.

"Ickkk!"

Things she's now doing:

• ME has kind of established her own morning routine. At the beginning of the summer, she would first cry when she woke up, then had to point to everything in her crib for me to name. Now it has changed to her yelling "Mama, mama" (kind of like in the tone of "Duh, I'm up, come and get me"). Then she has to turn off her sound machine. After that she insists on putting her shoes on and sticking a bow in her hair before breakfast. Let me tell you, her bedhead may be a little crazy, but at least she's trying to be a lady while eating breakfast.
• ME has also established her own "getting-out-of-the-house" routine. I've mentioned before that she loves purses, which she calls "Bye-Bye", and has to put at least one, if not more, on her arm to take to the car. She also points to the TV, marches in place, and says "off, off" until I turn it off. This has been a great help for my preggo brain!
• She has started adding conjunctions (I think that's what it is called) in front of her nouns. She points to different objects and adds "a" (sounds like "uh") before saying them. Her main ones are: "a door", "a ball", and "a bow". She kind of panics if she sees a door is open, then she'll point and say it over and over until you close it. If she sees a bow, she pulls her hair and says "a bow" until you put one on her.
• She relates "mmm" to food. If she gives the dogs a treat, she tries to shove it in their mouth and will say "mmm". If she sees you with a food container, a plate, etc., she points and says "mmm", even if there isn't any food on the plate.
• She's starting to clean up messes or realize when things are"ickkk" (aka dirty). I have this one dress with brown spots on it (in the picture below), and everytime I wear it, she points and says "ickkk", which sounds like she's hocking a loogie. I know, very attractive description! Today she took a dishtowel to try to wipe off the spots. Too funny! She even comprehended that the 101 dalmations were dirty when they were covered in soot and when Dora and Boots were covered in mud. That blew me away considering that cartoon dirt just looks like brown dots!


• Most importantly, she's really starting to take an interest in babies! She found a baby doll in her toy box and has started carrying it around underneath her right arm, kind of like a football in a headlock. She carries most things that are important to her (like her cup or crayons) in this way. I know it's not the most nurturing, but we'll keep working on that.

Thanks for your comments!

Thank you so much to everyone that has either commented on my blog or emailed me regarding my last post!!! I am truly greatful for each of your comments, including both of the grandfathers. :) I'm sorry if it seemed that I was stressing because I didn't mean to sound that way. I have to admit that I am a little bit, but just not so much about the momhood aspect of my life as it may have sounded.

Again, thank you all for your help and support!

PS - Those of you that told me that we should invest in a double stroller, would you mind giving me specifics (brand and style)?

Mommies don't have all of the answers

At least this one doesn't. As my belly is growing each day and only about 13 weeks left, my head is starting to fill with questions. Don't get me wrong, I am completely thrilled about having the best of both worlds with two kiddos, but I'm starting to worry about some things. So please give me opinions or suggestions if you have any to give!
Questions:

• Do I carry 2 diaper bags for both kids? Or just one really large one that contains 2 sizes of diapers, change of clothes and food for each child?
• Where are we going to put all of our "stuff" in the house? Do I move Drew to the garage (just kidding), so we can use his closet in ME's big girl room?
• How will I safely get my kids in and out of the parking lot? For some reason, this has been my biggest fear so far. I guess it's because ME likes to try to dart off from me sometimes while trying to get into the car.
• Do I get a double stroller? If so, what kind?
• ME is showing A LOT of interest in the potty. So I bought a little potty for her to sit on and try out. I'm not pushing it, because quite frankly I'm nervous about it, but she's asking me to go "tee-tee" after she sees me go, or sometimes if she just walks by the potty. So my question is, how do I actually potty-train her? I know a few of you have emailed me warning me not to start too soon, which I truly appreciate, but how can you deny her when she's having so much fun sitting on the potty (clothed or not)? So I thought I'd just try it out. So far, she just sits on the potty and says with a big fat smile "tee-tee-tee-tee", then claps (again clothed or not). Any tips on this whole process are greatly welcomed!
• Will I be able to get both kids on the same nap/sleep schedule?
• ???????????? This bullet is for everything else running in my head.

Do-do-do-do-dora

Ashley and I took ME and Davis to watch Dora Live (or "Dor" as ME calls her) earlier this week. Wow! I can't believe that I had so much fun watching the kids have so much fun. They were too cute dancing and jumping in their seats. I managed to get a few pix of them while we were there, even though we weren't supposed to. Just don't tell Swiper!

On the way back to the car, I tried to take the kiddos' pictures by a water fountain. Here's my "successful attempt".

Happy Birthday, America!

My Aunt Vicki, Uncle Ricky ("Bobo"), and cousin Allie came in town for the 4th. We had so much fun doing nothing! In fact, ME loved seeing them so much and is still yelling out "Bobo, Bobo, Bobo, Bobo" randomly, especially everytime she sees any black vehicle.

ME's new best friend, Allie.

Below are a few pix from 4th of July. My mom loves taking ME to see the Peabody ducks, so we started the afternoon there.

Am I really here to watch some ducks waddle again?

Oh yeah, I do like watching the duck ducks!

Then we headed to the Travs baseball game and watched the fireworks afterward.

The Travs have a new dance squad (The Halos) and my old neighbor is one of the dancers. ME really liked looking at their pom-poms, but she didn't like the fact that I took her away from her Grandy to take this picture.

ME's first thought of running the bases..."I'd rather play with the gravel right here than run around in that dirt and get icky!"

"But I didn't realize I could fly like an airplane around the field."

"Man that was tough! I think I'll just sit here in the 3rd base coach's box."

I took this picture as we were walking back from the field. I thought it was priceless!

Check out that awesome hair! Thank goodness for free Arkansas humidity! (Sidenote for any parent: a bagful of peanuts for a little stomach=BAD idea! While waiting an hour after the game for the fireworks, we were doing anything to keep Munchkin happy, including my dad sharing his peanuts with her. For some reason, everyone but me, knew that they can cause a "bad aftermath" and never bothered to tell me or stop her. )

Finally the fireworks!

ME was so hot and tired by this point that she really didn't show much expression when she saw the fireworks. I promise she wasn't as upset as she looks in this picture!

Summer time and the livin' is easy

Is it really the 2nd week of July already?!?! I've had good intentions of blogging about our summer happenings since it's started, but time has slipt by me. Obviously, we're having a good summer. No vacays to be had, but plenty of a-comin' and a-goin'.

• ME saw a real horse. My mom's co-worker has a horse and a grandson, Camp, close to ME's age, so we took her to play with Camp and the horse. You can decide if she was interested in the horse or if she'd rather just watch them run on TV. I guess she needs to hang out at Drew's Aunt Tommie's house more often. :)
  
  

"I'm not ready to race in the KY Derby! The horsies look much better just watching them on TV. "

"Ahhh...the view is much better here."

Can you guess what she's pointing at? Look at the next picture.

We drove all the way out here to see another dog?

"Hmmm...maybe I'll like my eggs fresh."

Kevin even had some baby chicks that we got to hold.

• We've been going to storytime at the library and free movies at the theater. The first time we went for storytime, it was a Gymboree session. Since then, we've listened to stories, played with legos, and have tried to eat the play-do. Oh, don't forget staring at other kids like what are they doing with my toys! As for the movies, she did great the 1st time when we watched Kung Fu Panda, but we ran out of popcorn and the movie could have been just a few minutes shorter. The last time we went wasn't as great. We saw Tale of Despereaux, and I dropped most of the popcorn.

Our neighbor, Will, and ME singing with the puppet and probably thinking where does this lady get her energy so early in the morning.

"Icky...there's a bubble on me! "

• We went to Megan's 2 1/2-year-old birthday party. Our sweet friend, Megan, was born 1 year and 1 day earlier than ME so she's always going to have to deal with Christmas at the same time. So her mom decided to have a summer pool party instead. We had so much fun. ME really enjoyed watching the other kids go down the slide and commentated for them by saying "Weee" everytime they went down, but I managed to get her on it a few times.

"Weeeee!" This slide (or as she calls it a Weee) was the hit of the party.

My attempt of capturing all the kids in one photo. Ha!

Davis is proof that the kids enjoyed every bit of the party, including the icing.

Why is no one paying attention to me?

This is the first of many more pictures to come of my niece. Actually, I realize that you can't even see her (click on Owens Family to see pictures of her). But I wanted to show y'all what ME thinks of the attention being taken away from her. I tried to blow up the picture to show just ME's expression when Kari's dad passed McKenzie to my mom, but it turned out pixely. Basically, she's looking at LaLa like what the?!?! And then my dad and I had to take her out of the room when she started her meltdown. Too bad she's off the paci because it sure would have come in handy at that time. Hopefully, after spending this weekend with family, she'll get used to sharing her time.