Bryan's Song...

Isn't that a movie?

Anyway, one of Bryan's favorite 80s songs is "Warrior" by Scandal. It's on right now and every time I hear it I can see him playing it on Guitar Hero (I think it's on the 80s version?). It makes me smile :)

Tonight at midnight we'll celebrate our 2 year anniversary! We may actually stay up until midnight tonight, we're going over to my parents tonight for cards and games so we'll see how long we both last. Penelope did not have a great night last night so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay awake.

Bryan just told me the Mariners play the Giants at AT&T park on April 4th... I say we should go :) I'll be as big as a house and less than 2 weeks from my due date.

Oh, so we have molar #4 - Penny has 12 teeth! It's just started to poke through, but I'm sure that's why last night was so very horrible. Between "&" kicking me from the inside and Pen kicking me on the outside I got very little sleep. Plus some idiot decided to call me twice from a private number in the middle of the night. I always freak out when my phone rings late at night, it's never good news. But apparently it was just some idiot with a wrong number (I didn't actually get to the phone in time, but he left a message for a Suzie).

Oh, and I have an interview today. It's for a part-time job and wouldn't make up my salary from my last job, but it's a job. They don't know I'm pregnant yet, I didn't think it was appropriate to mention that in my cover letter. Should be interesting.

So far that's the only interview I've been able to schedule since I got laid off. I've applied for more than a dozen jobs, but the market it pretty competitive. I have some more avenues that I need to check out, so hopefully something will happen soon.

Ok, in happier news, I'm 25 weeks pregnant today! I was a little surprised when I saw that on the calendar, for some reason I thought I was closer to 30 weeks. Wishful thinking :) According to the e-mail I got from babycenter, the baby is approx 13 inches long and weighs a little over 1.5 lbs. "&" has been moving around a lot lately, especially when Penelope crawls all over me - it seems he/she doesn't appreciate being squooshed by his/her older sister. Something poor "&" will have to get used to, older siblings are supposed to squoosh their younger siblings :)

I've been really bad about taking belly pictures lately... I'll try to get one taken today.

Ok, time to do some chores and then get ready for my interview. Hope everyone has a safe, fun, and happy New Years Eve and a wonderful New Year!!

Excuse my poor cinematography...

I was laughing during most of this video, hence the shaky cinematography. But I think it's hilarious and I hope you do too :) The first part is Penelope and Bryan playing "I'm gonna getcha", the second part is Penelope dancing to a car commercial, the third is her pointing to my belly when I ask "where's the baby?", and the last part is titled "The Long Walk" and is Penelope's longest walk yet! She does tumble a bit at the end but does not harm herself in the fall (it was a close call).

Anyway, it's been an eventful night. Here's the video:


(and for those on Facebook, I'll post it there as well)

Where's the Baby?

A quick post:

When I ask Penelope "Where's the baby?" she'll point to my belly, it's cute :)

She also signs the word "please" although still has to be reminded when to use it, but I'm super happy that she knows the sign (well, her own version of it) and uses it to ask for things.

She's walking more and more, but still not all the time. It'll happen, and I'm glad she's at least walking part of the time. It makes things a little easier on Mommy.

Yesterday she fed herself her entire lunch! Half a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and string cheese. I still haven't given her an opportunity to practice using a spoon since I dread the mess it would create - but that will come eventually.

When she holds crayons, drumsticks, or the mallet thing for her xylophone, she has to hold them delicately at the VERY end of the stick. Which makes it difficult to properly color, drum, or play a song but no matter how much I model or mold her hand she moves it back down to the very end.

Favorite foods as of 12 months: broccoli, bananas, strawberries, anything pasta (especially mac & cheese, but what kid doesn't like that?).

Ok, have to go - I have a TON of stuff to do today and less time to do it in.

Introducing & and many other things

So a few days ago we decided that no matter what the gender, we'd name New Baby "&" so we could still be PB&J.

The symbol.

It was, of course, a joke. But the nickname has stuck and New Baby has been re-christened "&". So he/she shall henceforth be referred to as such... and the poor thing will likely be stuck with the nickname well after birth.

Little & is doing quite well, he/she is moving around a lot especially when I'm holing Penelope. The extra pressure on his/her ever shrinking home (well, it's not shrinking, he/she is just getting larger) can't be very comfortable. I try not to hold Pen too much, especially since holding onto her for more than 5 minutes becomes an exercise in arm muscle endurance.

So I'm currently uploading a ton of video... some is of Penelope watching various Muppet Show clips on my laptop - there's some she find absolutely hilarious, there's also some of Christmas, and of Penny WALKING!

The last few days Bryan has been working with her on walking and she's getting really really good. That's probably the only video that I'll edit and upload. The rest will be dumped onto the external hard drive and Penelope can look at it when she's older. The Muppet stuff may end up here, but the Christmas stuff isn't too terribly interesting. She enjoyed herself at Christmas, but wasn't super excited - 12 months is a little early to understand the whole present concept. It's mostly just Penny & I opening her presents, not exactly thrilling :)

Christmas Eve & Christmas went well - Penelope certainly had a good time. X-Mas eve was at my grandmother's house, x-mas morning was at my parents, and then we drove up to Reno to spend x-mas day with Bryan's family. The drive was quite pleasant in the new Rav4 and Penelope slept the whole way there (and the whole way back - yea Pen!). She got a lot of clothes and toys that she loves, although I think her favorite is a book called The 12 Dogs of Christmas - it's pictures of a bunch of dogs. Surprise, surprise, she LOVES it. She'll turn the pages, say "dawg" and then laugh - it's pretty cute (well, nearly everything she does is pretty cute).

Oh, and her top right molar is peeking through, just a few of the points right now but I'm going to count it. If I can feel actual tooth then it's an official tooth :) She now has 11 teeth and there are two more making their way in. At this rate she'll have a full set in a few months! All this teething means she ends up in bed with us nearly every night - usually right around 1am. But it's ok, teething won't last forever and one day Bryan and I will get our uninterrupted sleep back (the day after which I will probably go into labor and then we'll be screwed on the sleep-front for another year plus).

Alright, so here's video of Penny walking... I'll also upload to Facebook since for whatever reason when this blog is automatically uploaded to my Facebook page the video doesn't transfer. Enjoy!

And then....

And then last night I was up all night with a toothache. I even used some of Penelope's teething gel to take enough of the edge off so I could sleep.

Trying to make an emergency dentist appointment this morning.

2 Days before Christmas

Or is it 2 days before Christmas Eve? I guess it really doesn't matter since the festivities begin on Thursday and last through the weekend. It's almost Nimrod's birthday, can't you feel the excitement in the air?

I'd post the link about the pagan origins of x-mas but I'm too lazy to look for it again and I already posted it on Facebook. Although for those who don't know, Nimrod is an ancient god whose birthday is Dec 25th and it is from him that we get things like the Christmas tree, so my above statement wasn't meant as some sort of dig on Jesus. Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25th. Heck, even the Pope has acknowledged that the date is inaccurate. Most believers I know also acknowledge this, although I do know some who still cling to the mistaken belief that December 25th is the actual birth date of their god (none of whom read this blog). But whatever, people can believe whatever they want or chose to celebrate their deity's birthday on any day they choose. I choose not to believe at all.

That doesn't mean I can't enjoy the cookies though. Christmas cookies are the best.

And that's what we did today (among other things) - Mom & I made two giant batches of cookies and decorated them all. I should have taken pictures of some of my more creative creations... the Santas turned out pretty well, the Liberty Bell was pretty funny, the toy horse was awesome, and the red eyed Teddy Bear was a little creepy. I'm usually the one who makes the "fancier" cookies while my mom & brother slap on some frosting and sprinkles. If it weren't for their production line, however, decorating would take DAYS. So it works out pretty perfectly, I made about a dozen "masterpieces" (I use the term very, very loosely) and mom & Nic turn out 3 dozen or so standard cookies. They all taste the same! (Which, by the way, is delicious).

Penny wasn't quite old enough to help, although she did eat some sprinkles after she saw my brother pick them up and eat them - so thanks Nic. She got bored with the cookie making and spent most of the evening forcing either Bryan or my Dad to either read to her or walk her around the house. She's gotten quite demanding lately, I wonder where she gets that from?

We were going to take her to see Santa, but my sinus infection has only gotten worse and I felt pretty horrible until the new medicine I'm taking started to kick in around 2pm. I'm taking natural remedies and I hope they work b/c my options are pretty limited when it comes to antibiotics. I'm hesitant to take much of anything when I'm pregnant other than an occasional Tylenol, I'm probably being overly cautious... although if I don't feel better by tomorrow afternoon I may go into the clinic and see what they say. Might as well use our health insurance while we still have it!

Which brings me to some good news, Penelope qualifies for Healthy Families! I have to send them some paperwork, but she should be on a new health insurance program in a few weeks so at least this lay-off won't affect her health care coverage. That's a huge relief for both Bryan and I... now we just need to find something we can afford for me. Not as easy, especially since I'm pregnant. But I can't really go without at this point. So we'll see.

I also got an e-mail today that my application for a 30 Day Emergency Teaching Credential has been approved. Hooray! I need to start applying at local districts, but hopefully I'll be able to start substitute teaching once schools are back in session. That's still a week or two away so we'll still have a gap to worry about - but at least sub teaching will be in my field. Jobs are pretty competitive right now so we'll see what I can find, but I'm trying to stay optimistic. I also applied to Kaplan, which is one of those tutoring places, so if I can sub a couple days a week at tutor the other days then that would be wonderful. We'll see what happens, but I'm hopeful.

Oh! Penelope's sleep! It's still suck-tastic but I'm 99% sure it's because I can feel 3 teeth coming in - her two top molars and a top canine tooth. Poor baby :( The top teeth always seem to be worse than the bottom ones. I hope they come in quickly. While her gums aren't swollen (like they were for the bottom teeth) I can feel the bumps and see little white areas on her gums where the teeth are starting to make an appearance. I find the difference between the entrance of her top & bottom molars to be interesting (and frustrating when she's kicking me in the face at 2am). Teething just sucks and I'm not looking forward to doing this all over again this time next year with New Baby.

Speaking of New Baby, I'll be 24 weeks pregnant on Christmas, which is (if I remember correctly) one of the earliest possible ages for viability. This means that if something were to go wrong and I had to deliver, New Baby would have a pretty good chance of survival. Not exactly something I want to dwell on since it would be pretty awful if I did have to deliver this early, but at least I know that should the worst happen then our possible outcomes improve daily. I have no desire to deliver early, however. I'm content to wait for the magic time of "full term" which is between 37 & 40 weeks. And if New Baby is anything like his/her sister, then he/she will come *exactly* on their due date.

Ok, time for bed.

Chatty Cathy

Penny has a baby friend named Maddox whose almost a month older than she is, and boy can he talk! After seeing him on Wednesday for Mom's Group, Pen decided that it would be super neat to imitate Maddox. So she's been talking up a storm lately! "Whadawhatcha badabada blah blah blah" All. Day. Long.

This is, of course, when she's not fussing. I'm hoping that whatever it is that's bothering her will be done with soon - teething, a cold, desire to drive us crazy... whatever it is I hope it's over soon. She's been sleeping with us for the past two nights and I'm tired of being kicked in the ribs or head butted from 1am until morning. The restless sleeping can't be good for her either, so I'm really hoping she has a good night tonight.

We cleaned out her toy box today as well and packed up a good number of toys that she's either outgrown or that I can no longer stand. Her activity table was one of them - she doesn't really play with it anymore and it was starting to get on my nerves.

**45 minutes after she went down, she woke up... went back down in her own crib so lets hope it was a fluke.

Anyway, we'll break the toys out again once New Baby is old enough for them and by that time I will hopefully have forgotten all of the songs the darn activity table plays. Toys that stayed out were all her musical instruments (like the xylophone and drum), the balls, a few stuffed animals, her stacking cups and blocks, and a bunch of books. Her favorite thing to do now is read, so we didn't really need all the other toys - they'd just lie there on the carpet collecting dog hair (ew!).

I do have some new video, but haven't gotten a chance to upload and edit yet - I don't know when I'll get around to it since there are so many things I need to do this weekend and next week.

I'll touch briefly on my employment issues, but I don't want to dwell on them too much. I'm still trying to stay positive about the situation and I don't want to turn this blog into my own pity-party - it is, after all, primarily a blog about the babies since I haven't done much in the way of a traditional baby book. But I will keep everyone updated on the job situation so we can all celebrate when I'm gainfully employed again :)

I filed for unemployment, toggled with my resume, and applied for about half a dozen jobs (mostly administration since teaching jobs are impossible without my credential). I'll hopefully know in the next few weeks if I've qualified for an emergency teaching credential, which would allow me to take substitute teaching jobs. Those are super hard to come by with all the teacher layoffs, but it won't hurt to at least try. I've also printed out the paperwork for Medical, Healthy Families, and WIC. I doubt we qualify for Medical, but we should qualify for Healthy Families and WIC which would mean Penelope and I would have health insurance - hooray! Bryan may have to wait until I find a new job until we can afford to get him health insurance, so hopefully he stays healthy until then!

Luckily we don't need any formula or diapers (hooray for cloth!). We do use disposables when we travel, but a package of those lasts us awhile and we can't really afford to travel now anyway :)

So while things aren't great, I'm still super stressed, and the next few months will be very difficult, I'm trying to stay optimistic about the whole situation. We've canceled some non-necessities (poor Bryan has given up his iPhone) and we're going to making more cuts next week. It's a good thing we like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

Can't sleep

I didn't sleep well last night. And I'm up early - Penelope and Bryan are still sleeping, which is good since Penny didn't sleep well last night either. She's been tossing and turning, waking herself up, and fussing in the middle of the night. Tylenol doesn't seem to help (assuming it's teething)... she is a little congested, but not horribly so - maybe it's that? Other than the congestion she doesn't seem sick, and even if she is sick we've seen worse. Hopefully it doesn't get any worse because I don't think I can handle anything else. Unemployed, pregnant, AND a sick toddler? That a recipe for a very, very, stressed out mommy.

I think the reason I'm having problems sleeping is due to money worries. I didn't get any sort of severance or notice so we're more that a little screwed. Hopefully unemployment kicks in in time for us to pay our bills, but that won't pay me my full salary so we'll still have a gap (and that is, of course, assuming that I get unemployment benefits). So the next few weeks will be a balancing act.

This weekend I'm going to look into getting Penelope on SCHIP or some other government sponsored healthcare program. Hopefully Bryan and I will qualify as well so we stay covered since we can't afford to make our next month's insurance premiums. Luckily Pen was able to see her Pediatrician for her 1 year appointment before I lost my job so that's good.

I should probably go in an get this sinus infection taken care of while we still have coverage...

So much to think about, so much to do!

There's a lot more I need to get out, but baby's awake and it's time to start the day...

Today is not my friend

I got laid off today. Lets just say I'm not in a very happy place right now. Merry Christmas, right?

Something funny

Penelope has this book called Language Nursery that has phrases in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, & Hebrew. I usually only read the first three since they're easy for me to pronounce and she's pretty impatient with the turning of the pages... anyway at the end of the book is a mirror and the phrase "my name is..." in all the languages. It's not generally her favorite page (her favorite page is the one with the lamb & it says "I love you lamb" in all the languages). Anyway, today she was fascinated by the mirror page and I asked her to give herself a kiss - she does, multiple times, slobbering all over the mirror.

I was amused.

She's also trying to open the front door - especially when Bryan goes outside. She doesn't want Daddy out of her sight and will crawl over to the door, stand up, and attempt to open the door all while yelling at the top of her lungs.

Alright, need to go finish holiday shopping today, should probably pack up the diaper bag and go!

Bedtime

So bedtime is getting a tad tricky lately... Usually Penelope gets her bath, lotion, jammies, teeth brushed, a bottle, and then I rock her to sleep and voila!

But within the last week or so we've been having a problem after her night bottle and no more voila! :(

Bryan has had to go in there for the last two nights to get her to sleep after I've spent over a half an hour attempting to get her to crash out. This could be a teething issue (although there aren't any new teeth buds) or it could be a sleep regression... but my bet is a combination of a growing belly and outgrowing her crib.

The larger my belly gets the harder it is for her & I to find a comfortable spot to snuggle and rock. It doesn't help that New Baby enjoys kicking like crazy whenever I put Pen to bed. Unlike Penelope in utero, New Baby isn't soothed by rocking and it actually makes him/her wake up and dance around. Not exactly soothing for either Pen or I (actually, I'm not sure if P can feel it quite yet but I can!).

The other issue is that I'm pretty sure she's starting to outgrow her crib. She's become quite the mover in her sleep, and when she rolls over once in her crib she hits the railing. We moved the crib bumper out two weeks ago and she hasn't slept through the night since... we put them back in tonight so hopefully she'll sleep better. But regardless, it may be time to upgrade her sleep space. We're going to put her into the spare room when New Baby is born (and keep the nursery as a nursery) but we may need to do that sooner rather than later - at least at night. That room isn't very well insulated though, and it gets pretty darn cold in there. The vent is closed now, so opening that will help but it will still get chilly at night... although Pen may actually respond really well to that. Of course, she also kicks off blankets so I don't want it to be too cold in there. Hmmmm.

I didn't think we'd have to worry about this until New Baby was 3-ish months old and we put him/her in the nursery, but Penelope continues to surpass our expectations in a wide range of areas :)

Growth update

Here's P's growth charts:





So at 12 months she's 27.1 lbs & 32 inches!

A post with pictures

Yesterday was Penelope's first Christmas party :) We met up with some of our baby/mama friends at Kim & Orson's house (notice how the Dads always get left out here? I didn't say Kim, Matt, & Orson's house - just Kim & Orson). Anyway - the babies played, the mommies ate, and then we had a baby white elephant gift exchange. Basically we set the presents in the middle of the room and had a baby free for all.

It was pretty funny to watch. Some of the older babies (ones who've had their first birthdays) knew what to do with the gifts, but the ones who had yet turned one weren't quite sure what to do first. Penny picked up a wrapped present, pulled it onto her lap, and proceeded to gently unwrap it; at least until she had a good chunk of wrapping paper in her hand and then she attempted to eat the paper.

Here's some pictures:




After the mess, the babies fought over toys (I don't have any pictures of that, so here are some of them playing earlier in the day):

I love this one, Penny and Orson decided to mob me at the same time

And then we took pictures with Santa:

I had better get used to this look of Penelope's... I'm sure I'm going to see a lot of it in her teenage years.


Today is Penny's 1 year check up! I love her visits to the Pediatrician, mostly because I love getting her measured (I know, it's weird). She's not as much of a fan, but that's because it means shots. I don't know how many she's going to get today - but I'll post later on & update her growth charts.

I'm sure there's a ton more I could blog about, but it's hard to keep track of all the new stuff she does...so I'll leave you with a picture from last night. She made a royal mess during dinner so we stripped her down to play until bathtime - I call this series "Hillbilly Baby" Enjoy!

Upswing

So today we traded in my broken Prius and leased a 2010 RAV4. It's much roomier, has that new car smell, is under warranty, and RUNS. So yea!

It was our best option. At least, we're pretty sure it was our best option. Buying a used vehicle wouldn't have cost us any less in the long run and provided we both remain employed (which we're both planning on) then it should all work out.

Hopefully this means things are on an upswing for us and we won't have anymore ridiculously expensive issues related to our cars, home, health, or anything else. I don't know if I can take anymore stress (well, I'm sure I *could* but I can guarantee that no one would want to spend any time around me).

So, to kick off this upswing I thought I'd list a few things that have gone well, as planned, or even better than expected in the past month or so.

1. The pregnancy is progressing well and both baby & I are healthy
2. Penelope is healthy, eats well, sleeps well, and is generally a super happy toddler
3. Other than a few days of a stomach bug, Bryan is healthy - three cheers for a healthy family!
4. I have a 4.0 in Grad School
5. The side door no longer leaks when it rains

The list is small, but it will grow! It could also be that I'm drawing a total blank right now... the most important items are 1-3.

We also have wonderful family and friends who have really helped lift our spirits the last couple of days. We'd like to mention my parents here and give them a public "THANK YOU!" for letting us borrow their truck to get to work, tow the Prius, and for watching Penelope when we needed it so we could get things taken care of. It would have been an even more miserable 4 days without them and their help! So thank you thank you thank you mom & dad! (And Nic who picked us up at 1am and helped Bryan tow the Prius). THANKS so much!!!

Alright, we need to get some sleep - tomorrow is going to be another busy day!

You have to laugh or else you'll cry

So a lot of people know the story, but for the record here is the brief version of the weekend's (continuing) ordeal.

Saturday afternoon we dropped Penny off at my parents and drove out to Concord for Liz's 30th birthday. It was fun while we were there, but I started feeling sick and so we left early and headed back home. Between Vacaville and Dixon on HWY80 the car broke down. It was 12:30am, cold, a little rainy, and we were over a mile from the next exit. We call my brother who looks up a local tow company and we're towed to the next exit where we park our car in front of a repair shop. Nic comes out from Sac to pick us up and drive us home (the cost to tow the car home would have been over $200, as it was it cost us $85 to tow it 2 miles).

Sunday nothing happens because nothing is open.

Monday my Dad takes me out to Dixon to drop off the key so the repair shop can attempt to read the code and tell us what's wrong with the car.

At this point we're hoping that it has something to do with the fuel filter or injector or something related to when we ran out of gas 2 weeks ago since that would be a pretty easy fix.

Nope. The hybrid battery needs to be replaced. The repair owner read the code, called his buddy who works at a Toyota dealership in LA and his buddy said it sounds like the hybrid battery is out which could run us anywhere between $2,500 - $4,500 to fix.

Ouch.

I don't know why the range is so high, but that's what we were told.

So today Bryan & my brother are using my parent's truck to tow the car back to Sacramento where we'll take it to a dealership and see what we can do. Best case scenario, they take the car give us enough credit to cover what we still owe (which is about $2,500) and then we can get a new car (well, new to us). Maybe even something a little bigger since New Baby will be here in a few months...

Worst case scenario: we have to fix the car and magic the money from somewhere... somehow.

To top it all off, I borrowed my parents truck to go to work and briefly got stuck in the mud coming home from work. I had to laugh, otherwise I probably would have sat there and sobbed.

It's been a stressful and pretty crappy couple of days. So if you have some good thoughts to spare please send them our way and hope with us that we end up with the best case scenario today at the dealership.

The Great Breakfast Experiment and other things

So I don't forget, I plan on talking about:
*The Great Breakfast Experiment and food
*Our new laundry game
*Sleep

So on to The Great Breakfast Experiment!

Lately Penelope has been refusing to eat lunch and dinner unless she gets to feed herself. This generally isn't too much of an issue since those foods are usually easy to eat with your fingers (although watching P eat rice and small shell macaroni has been entertaining to say the least... and messy. Very very messy). Anyway, I figured breakfast would be the next on our boycott list since her normal breakfast is not something she can feed herself. She gets 1/4 cup of Quaker oats mixed in with some hot water and a half a jar of Stage 3 baby fruit. It's not soupy, but you definitely need a spoon to eat it and we're not quite there yet.

So yesterday I bought frozen whole grain waffles and a variety of fruit and this morning I cut them up into convenient little bites and set some in front of her. She ate a few blueberries and some of the strawberries, decided raspberries were better in babyfood form, and refused to have anything to do with the waffles. Then she decided that it was much more fun to mash the fruit together than actually eat anything. I tried to feed her myself but that failed as well, so I mixed up her oatmeal breakfast and viola! she ate the whole bowl without fuss.

So I don't think she's ready to feed herself breakfast quite yet. I don't know what it is about breakfast that's different than the other meals... at least the waffles will keep for awhile until she is ready to eat them and she'll eat the fruit for snacks so nothing will really go to waste.

This brings us to laundry! Penny's usual way of "helping" mommy fold laundry consists of either pulling things out of the laundry basket and throwing them onto the floor or grabbing the freshly folded laundry off the couch and throwing it onto the floor. Can we say NOT helpful?

Yesterday however we happened upon a laundry game that she enjoys and is somewhat helpful. She grabs the laundry out of the basket and hands it to mommy to fold :) She generally hands me clothes faster than I can fold them and things would be easier if I did it on my own, but she has fun and I like to encourage her helping out. So this game can stay. She also loves it because I tell her "thank you" verbally and in sign language every time she hands me something. It makes her laugh, and anything that makes folding laundry fun is worth it (because lets be honest, it's a crappy chore).

And now sleep... I'm 90% sure she's getting another molar in because her sleep has been crappy. Well, crappy for her which would be pretty darn awesome for some babies I know. She wakes up around midnight and comes into bed with us where she proceeds to toss and turn (asleep, mind you) pushing either Bryan or I off the bed. It's awesome. (yes, that was sarcasm). Last night she stole Bryan's pillow and the night before she headbutted me multiple times in her sleep.

Although this is better than waking up every half an hour to go into her room and comfort her, even though one of these days I'm going to end up with a black eye.

Once the molar(s) come in we can hopefully go back to our super awesome sleep pattern of 8-7 or 7:30 in her own crib, but we'll see. She's got her two lower molars now so we need the two upper and then all four of her eye teeth.

I hate teething.

Ok, I think that's all for now.

22 weeks

Today I'm 22 weeks pregnant and we had our monthly appointment. It was a pretty boring appointment, which is good :) My blood pressure is super low (like always), baby's heartbeat is around 144, and I'm measuring at 21 weeks (which isn't abnormal, I think this baby will be a tad smaller than Penelope).

Everything looks good! Next appointment is January 7th.

Brusha brusha

I should really be getting ready for our 22 week prenatal appointment, but we took these pictures last night and I had to share...

Dental Hygiene Rocks!




And here are some more that I just think are cute of Penny playing with scarves at Kim & Orson's house:

Blogging instead of Sudoku

I was so very close to clicking on the "web sudoku" bookmark instead of the blogging bookmark... so very close.

It snowed in Sacramento yesterday - barely enough to really be called snow (at least at our house) but it was still rather eventful. Some school districts up the hill had snow days (for less than 6 inches of snow, wusses) and people forgot how to drive - fun times. Penelope celebrated the momentous occasion by sleeping in. She also slept in today, so I don't know if I can call it "sleeping in" anymore. She may just be changing her nighttime sleep pattern from 8-6:30 to 8-7:30. I am totally and completely ok with this. Of course, this means that we only get one nap during the day, but it's generally a 2 hour afternoon nap and that works out pretty well. If this is still the pattern next week then I'll consider it an official schedule change.

We've also been pretty successful about cutting out one of her three bottles, so she's basically down to two. One before nap and one at bedtime... I honestly don't think the nap bottle will be all that hard to eliminate but she may prove me wrong. The bedtime one will probably be the most difficult and I'm still trying to decide how I'm going to go about doing it. Cold turkey or a gradual weaning? I still have a few months before I want to attempt messing with that bottle so we'll see how things go - she may wean herself if I'm super-duper lucky.

Still no walking on her own. I know she can do it, and I am really really really ready for her to start. As soon as I say this out loud there are a dozen people who tell me I'm crazy and will regret saying such a thing as soon as she starts. I say bull. Anyone who tells me I'm not ready for her to walk have never had a 28 lb 1 year old and been 6 months pregnant at the same time. Damn skippy I want her to walk, my back is killing me.

Speaking of pregnancy, New Baby has decided that nighttime raves are uber awesome. I swear that as soon as the sun goes down he/she parties it up like it's 1999. Bryan was able to feel the baby kick the other day, which (if I remember correctly) was much sooner than he was able to feel Penelope. So someone is already raring to go and will probably walk 5 minutes after birth, which may be sooner than their big sister. (Ok, so that was a tad melodramatic, Penelope WILL walk before she's 16 months).

We've also added a new name to our girls list: Amelia. So for those who are keeping track, the girls list (in no particular order) is: Amelia, Calliope, Isadora, Milla, Athena, & Ophelia. Boys list is the same as it was: Theodore, Milo, Parker, & Xavier.

I've yet to fall in love with any of our boys names, there are some that I *like* but none that I love the way I love nearly all of our girls names. This means the baby will probably be a boy (not really, both Bryan and I are still convinced it's a girl). But I'd still like to add a few more names to the boys list in hopes that we find a few we really and truly love. This means I'm going to have to change my standards (although I already have with 2 of our girls names and 1 of the boys names). So they no longer HAVE to be Greek in origin. Greek boys names are really difficult to find; I mean there are a ton of them but they're either super common (like George or Jason) or REALLY Greek (like Posiden or Agamemnon). I love my Greek heritage, but I can't saddle my poor son with a name like Posiden, or Perikles, or Ajax. (And for the record, I love the names Perikles & Ajax - but one would be very difficult for people to pronounce or spell and the other has a line of cleaning products with the same name).

I could go with something like Apollo, which both Bryan and I like - but that's an awfully big legacy to live up to. That's really my greatest hesitation in using the names of gods and goddesses - that my child will somehow, in someway, feel compelled to live up to the myth surrounding their namesake. I am, perhaps, putting way too much thought into it. It's likely that since so few people know anything about Ancient Greek mythology (which is a shame) that no one but me will even think about things like this... but *I* think about things like this. Blame my Undergraduate Degree.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering - the boy middle name is Walter no matter what first name we choose. The girl middle name depends on the first name, so it's either Ruth or Katherine.

Of course all the name talk makes me both curious and excited to find out what the baby's sex is... and we have a 19 week wait! It's almost too much to handle, but I'm really happy we've decided to hold off on finding out. It makes me look forward to labor/delivery that much more - and makes me more excited about the pregnancy in general.

Alright, this post has been long enough. Web sudoku calls.

The Birthday Party Post

So Penny's party was yesterday and I've finally gotten around to uploading all the pictures and video. It was, overall, a good day... filled with firsts - some fun and some not so fun.

Penelope had a really good time at her party, and we really loved having so many family and friends come out to celebrate with us. It meant a lot that so many people came (and some from far away) to share in Penelope's special day. It was a packed house and I know Penny loved the attention (like her Daddy... ha!).

The night ended on a bit of a sour note as after her nap Penny threw up not once, but four times. Once on Bryan, once on me, once in the grocery store, and once on the rug. Poor baby! She slept with us that night and slept through without waking and was then fine the next morning... it could have been the excitement of the day, the sugar from the cupcake, a bug/virus, or any number of things. We're just glad she's feeling better and the puke is behind us. On a somewhat funny note (well I think it's funny, Bryan is not so amused) it marked the second year in a row B's been thrown-up on on Dec 5th... I threw up on him in labor and Penny threw up on him on her birthday. So maybe she was just trying to keep the tradition going (one we hope is not repeated next year).

So anyway, it was a mixed bag of a day but overall a positive one. Here are my favorite pictures from the party:



Ok, I LOVE this one... she was NOT happy being cleaned up


(For those wondering, she's wearing my old Wonder Woman t-shirt so as not to get a ton of cake on her party dress)

And here's video of her "eating" her cupcake:


So while the party was fun, I'm glad it's over... I stressed out WAY too much over her party, more than any reasonable person should. Although I'll probably do the same thing for New Baby's party, that's just how I roll - I stress about the simple things and not so much about the big ones (ok, that's a lie, I stress about the big ones too). Oh well, the party was a success.

The next few weeks will be super busy since Christmas is coming up and we have a slew of doctor and midwife appointments (well, Penny has her 1 year check up and I have my 22 week check up) plus music class, holiday parties, holiday shopping, and a dozen other things.

Oh! And it's supposed to snow in Sacramento tonight! I'll take pictures if it actually sticks... I remember the year it snowed in Oakley - the snow didn't last long and my next door neighbor Kim got beaned with a snowball in the head. I think my parents have video of that. We'll have to take video of Penny playing in the snow should the weather report turn out to be accurate.

Birthday post

This morning at 3:27 am, Penelope turned one! I half expected her to wake up around that time, but she slept until 6:30 which makes that three nights in a row of her sleeping completely through the night (8-6:30 or later) in her own crib. This is made of awesome.

There's a lot I wanted to say today since it's her first birthday, and I've probably been planning this blog post since her birth. This means that I won't get around to talking about any of it and will have to cut the post short since I'll be blubbering like some hormonal weepy lady (wait, I *am* a hormonal weepy lady thanks to New Baby).

Some things to note as Penny turns one:
*Talking - up a storm, she has a few words but her favorite by far is Dog, which she pronounces with a hard G... it sounds like dawG.
*Speaking of the dog, she loves that damn animal. This is good news for Harley-Quinn since she's an annoying pain in the butt; but at least the baby loves her.
*Pen has 10 teeth - the top & bottom four plus two lower molars. The top molars are starting to get closer to the top of the gums and I won't be surprised if she ends up with nearly all her teeth by the time New Baby arrives.
*Penny CAN walk, she just prefers to hold your hand. She's taken over a dozen steps on her own, but only when you trick her into doing it. Once she realizes that she's doing it by herself she sits down and crawls. I know it'll come, and sooner rather than later, but I was really hoping she'd be walking confidently on her own by her birthday. Oh well, she'll do it when she's ready.
*Sleep is getting better and better... she's never been an awful sleeper so I'm thankful for that.
*She is seriously the happiest baby I have ever met. And that's not an exaggeration - she's always smiling. She laughs at the drop of a hat. She only cries when she's really hungry or really overtired (although most of the time when she's tired she laughs uncontrollably, which is hilarious). She loves other kids, to flirt with old people, and really anyone who pays attention to her. She's just happy, and I'm so incredibly grateful for that.
*She loves to read. LOVES. She'll read by herself, but she'll also read on her own; turning the pages of the book either silently (i.e. reading to herself), or babbling (reading to us).
*If you ask her to get her book, a ball, the green frog, pink kitty, monkey, xylophone, binky, and a dozen other things she will go get it and bring it to you. She learns more and more words each day!
*She dances, to ANYTHING. Commercial music, the theme song to ESPN's Sports Center, the annoying music from her various annoying toys, New Baby's heartbeat - anything. She also loves to make music, banging on drums, her xylophone, pianos, shaker eggs, guitars, you name it and she'll attempt to make music on it (she uses my breasts as drums, which is both amusing and a little painful at times).
*She's in a size 24months to 2T (depending on the clothes manufacturer) and wears size 5 in shoes. She's a giant :)
*She weighs 28 lbs and is impossible for me to accurately measure.
*Her eyes change from brown to gray... I do hope they end up gray, but brown would be pretty too
*Both Bryan and I are so completely in love with her.

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a dozen things... but I'm starting to get weepy (which I will blame on pregnancy hormones) and leave you with two pictures. One of her right after birth and one of her a few minutes ago (attempting to escape through the dog door). Happy Birthday Penelope Lane!!!

One year ago today...

I was in labor :)

I was actually hoping Penny would come on the 4th, mainly because I was really tired of being pregnant - I had been hoping all that week she'd make her appearance. But she held out for 3 1/2 more hours and was born on the 5th. So happy labor-averssary to me.

Last night Aunty Bonnie & Uncle Omar came over and celebrated Penny's birthday a little early (they're currently on their way to Vegas and left at 4am this morning, ick). So Penny got in some birthday practice, she opened a present AND I was even Super Nice Mommy and let her have a little *real* cake! She ate almost none of it and made a giant mess, so on her actual birthday we've decided to just give her a regular ole cupcake and let her smash that since it seems to be more fun than actually eating it (this has been Bryan's position all along, but it took me awhile to come over to his side).

So here's a few pictures from last night. I have video as well and will upload it as soon as I get a chance...

The promised ultrasound pictures

It took me forever to get to this, but here they are!

Head, body, & spine:


Alien-looking head & arm:


Scapula (shoulder blade), humerus (arm):

The tech said a shot like this was pretty rare, which is neat.

Someone takes after their mommy...

She fell asleep reading her book:

Morning!

Last night Penelope woke up at 0-dark-30 (aka I have no idea) but went back to sleep as soon as I gave her a binky - score. She slept until a quarter after 6 and then Bryan brought her into bed with us; I had convinced myself that she wasn't going to go back to bed since it was pretty close to her normal wake up time, but she surprised me and fell right back asleep - double score.

I, of course, was wide awake - but I laid in bed until almost 7 just resting and watching my two favorite people sleep.

Around 7 my bladder couldn't take it anymore, so I got out of bed, made coffee, breakfast, and had some much needed morning me-time (aka I read news online and spent a ridiculous amount of time on Facebook). It was so nice... until the damn cat started yowling her damn head off. I seriously cannot stand that cat. She's lucky I used to be a member of PETA.

But B and the baby slept in a little, and I got to enjoy at least half a cup of coffee before they woke up. So it was a really nice morning. Penny woke up in a super good mood too - she was laughing and yelling at the dog. So I'm hoping this will mean we'll have a really good day.

The Great Cake Debate

You would think that a child's first birthday party would be a pretty easy thing to organize. After all, it's not like baby will remember it, right?

Ha. Hahahahahaha.

While we now have a location, theme, guests, and decorations, we have yet to settle the Great Cake Debate.

This isn't a debate on flavor, it's a debate on sugar. While I'm not super strict when it comes to sugar (although some would argue that I am), I'm not really lax either. Penelope will get some sort of sweets/cake thing to smash, she will not be getting box cake (which has a TON of sugar) or something from a bakery that also has a ton of sugar. Although I will be making box cupcakes & gluten free cupcakes for the party guests - because while I restrict P's sugar intake, I'm not going to force everyone else to give it up.

So I've been debating what to do about Penny's "smash cake". Do I make one from scratch? Get one of those "reduced sugar" box cakes?

And then I found this site: http://www.cupcakecraving.com/

Which has a Sacramento location - and makes sugar free cupcakes! The reviews are excellent, and a cupcake is PERFECT. Just enough to make a mess for pictures.

So I'm going to head over there at some point tomorrow and pick up a couple and try 'em out (you know, to make sure they taste good enough for my baby).

Then all I have to do Friday is make box cupcakes for the party guests (sorry everyone, no homemade cupcakes... 1 year old + pregnancy = no one is getting homemade cupcakes, maybe ever).

3 days and counting...

Penelope turns one in 3 days. This means my house is a mess (piles of colorful snowflakes everywhere - that's in addition to the regular mess since Penelope has decided messing with the DVDs is much more entertaining than her toys), I have 1,000 things to do (which is a gross exaggeration, but you get the point), and no motivation to do anything except stare at my baby and attempt to discern when she ceased being a "baby" and moved into "toddler". I will, of course, never pinpoint the moment - but I'm going to try. It's really just an excuse to get nothing done and play with Penelope all day.

I have, however, completed addressing all of the Holiday Cards I ordered (need to order a few more) and they're in the mail. So that was a significant accomplishment. I also finished the party favor's for P's party... I still need to get white tablecloths, decide on a cake and make it, and order the pizza for the party. In addition to housecleaning and laundry.

But I don't want to think about it anymore.

So this holiday season isn't P's first, but it's the first one she'll be active in. Last year she didn't do much and this year she's all over the place. We went with my parents last night to pick out their tree (Bryan and I have a fake tree with lights already on it, we're not putting it up this year). Then we hung out and decorated the tree - Penny wasn't sure what to think of the tree itself, but she was enamored with my Mom's Star Trek communicator ornament. It lights up and makes noise - Kirk, Uhura, Spock, & Scotty (all from the original series) all talk. Pen thought it was the bee's knees.

Here's a picture from last night, I like this one because my Dad looks so surprised:


And here's one of her attempting to escape from Evil Uncle Nic - she's going through a phase where she wants nothing to do with him (when just a few weeks ago she was ALL about Uncle Nic):

(I'd fix the red-eye, but the picture is funnier with it left in)

I don't have any really good ones of Pen - we bought a new camera and I'm not exactly in love with it. It's probably just operator error... and Pen knows I'm not a professional photographer and so won't smile half the time. She'll light up for a professional photographer, but not plain ole mommy with a point & click camera.

Weaning and sleeping

So as Penelope's first birthday approaches, so does the end of bottles... we're not going to quit cold turkey (which just makes Pen sound like a formula junkie) but we are going to start the weaning process. In a way we already have - P is down to 3 bottles a day and those generally coincide with her nap schedule. She has one around 9:30 and naps around 10, has one at 2 and generally naps around 2:30, and then has her bedtime bottle right before she goes to sleep.

At the height of bottle consumption she was at 6 a day (I think) so we've cut her formula intake in half. This means, of course, that she eats more solids throughout the day. She has three meals and two snacks a day - and sometimes those snacks are bottles at this point. So eventually those snacks will be just solids and she'll drink water or milk with meals. She already gets whole milk with breakfast and she really seems to like it, so that's good.

By the end of the month I'd like to cut down to 2 bottles - maybe just morning and night. By February I'd like her to be down to just the nighttime bottle and before the next baby comes I'd like for her to be off bottles completely.

We'll see how this goes. If she's really resistant then I'll reevaluate... I don't want the transition to be traumatic. But I also don't want to have two babies on bottles (hopefully breastfeeding will work this time, but I know that at some point pumping/bottle feeding will be necessary since I'll have to go back to work and will have to student teach in the Fall). The thought of two babies on bottles (even part-time) fills me with dread and makes the hand on my skin weep. Bottle washing is hell on your skin.

So if Penny can be off bottle before April I will be a very, very happy mama. The nighttime bottle will be the hardest - for us both - so we'll see if milk in a sippy plus a bedtime story will do the trick. It's the last one I want to get rid of so I have some time before I have to worry about it. She may surprise me and wean on her own, she is getting more independent when it comes to eating (which is a whole 'nother post).

This of course brings me to sleeping. She's been doing well, sleeping from 8-6:30 or 7, except the last week or so she's woken up at night and needed to come into bed with us. I say needed, but it's really just easiest for us - I'm sure I could make her stay in her crib and she'd sleep eventually but I'm not comfortable with letting her cry (it works well for some moms & families, but it's not for us). I know that it's her 2nd molar that's bothering her; and maybe the third molar as well. I admit that I enjoy waking up next to her in the morning, although I do NOT enjoy being smacked in the face in the middle of the night.

Once New Baby gets here nighttime bed transfers will have to stop - and ideally they'll stop well before then. Since we co-sleep with our new babies until they're about 3 months old, we just can't have New Baby, Penelope, and us in the same bed - there just isn't room. It's hard enough now with the three of us (plus the damn cat)... there's no way we can fit a baby into the mix. So Penny is going to have to stay in her own bed.

We contemplated getting bunk beds for Pen (so eventually the two kids could share a room) but after talking with our midwives we've decided that's not really the way we want to go... their stories of bunk bed hassles have given us a lot to think about - a lot we never really considered (like sheet changing and sick kids). So bunk beds are out. I think Bryan is just going to build a frame for a queen sized mattress that's low to the ground. P will move to the queen in her new room (which is now the "guest" room), the baby will eventually move into the nursery, and when the baby is old enough both kids will share a room. They'll either share the queen sized bed, we'll get two twins, or do some sort of trundle thing. It all depends on the gender and temperament of New Baby.

Ok, time to finish addressing the Holiday cards. I ordered 50, but I think I'll need to get more...

Pictures and video

Pictures and video from the last few days:

Penelope dancing to various songs:


Thanksgiving:
Riding her horsey (a birthday present from Great Aunt Diana & Great Uncle Bill)

Playing with blocks



Pier 39:
On the carousel

On the Pier - Alcatraz in the background


Looking at the water/sea lions




Dickens Christmas Fair:
Hanging out at Mad Sal's stage

Someone is EXHAUSTED

Firsts, Lasts, Repeat Repeat Repeat

The first year of a baby's life arguably contains the greatest amount of firsts they will experience - I mean, the whole year is full of them. We've had some fun ones this past year, and Saturday will mark the Last First (well, holiday/celebration wise). It will be Penelope's First Birthday. I am looking forward to (and slightly dreading) the event, which will take place at a local pizza parlor and is themed "Winter Onederland" (cute huh? I didn't come up with it).

Anyway it should be a lot of fun, but it will be bittersweet. My baby isn't so baby anymore...

But until then, we have a whole week of firsts left. Last week was P's first Thanksgiving, today was her first trip to Pier 39 & the Dicken's Christmas Fair. Tomorrow will be her first November 29th (I know, lame, but there's really not much else going on that day).

I have some pictures of Thanksgiving & of today, but I am WAY too tired to grab the connector cord thing for the camera and upload the pictures to post. Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow. Maybe.

So that pretty much takes care of Firsts and Lasts... on to Repeat Repeat Repeat.

We've gotten to that LOVELY phase of childhood where Penelope LOVES to force her poor, exhausted, and only sometime patient mother to repeat EVERYTHING. She wants me to read to her now (instead of just flipping through the books) and then will have me read the same d@mn book over and over and over again. I have memorized most of the books we have in the livingroom. Thankfully my Aunt Diana gifted us with a bunch of new books so I have a lot more left to memorize (I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm very very glad for the new material - I think if I had to read "Mr. Brown Can Moo" one more time I'd need to be committed).

She also loves to have me repeat words. So tonight she would show me the blue crayon over and over again so I would tell her "blue" and then she'd laugh like it was the funniest joke in the world.

This stage is getting old - fast. It's lasted about 2 days and I am ready for it to be over already... only I have a feeling its only just begun. Oy vey.

Oh! Last week I ordered our holiday cards - hopefully they come in the mail Monday and I can get them out soon. I love the preview of them online so I hope they turn out well.

And now for a New Baby update:
New Baby has decided that he/she would like to take a more active role - by kicking the bejesus out of me morning and night (not noon, he/she sleeps then). This equals so AWESOME sleep for mama... and by awesome I mean restless. I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not really), since Penelope did the exact same thing when she was "on the inside" <- that makes it sound like prison.

Anyway, the movement is reassuring and a little annoying. Especially since Penelope has gotten so much better at sleeping through the night (from 8pm-6:30am). I'd also like to sleep then, but find myself awake and tossing and turning most of the night. The sleep deprivation will only get worse once New Baby makes his/her appearance.

One day, when the kids are 12 & 13, I will get a full 8 hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. I hope. So kids, if you're reading this now, all mommy wants for Mother's Day is to be allowed to sleep in until noon. Of course, once my kids are old enough to let me sleep in I'll have morphed into my own mother and wake up without an alarm every morning at 5:30. Makes me wish I would have appreciated all the sleeping in I did as a teenager.

So kids, if you're reading this and you're currently able to sleep in on the weekends until noon then count your blessings. Appreciate every Saturday that is spent in pajamas until 3. Enjoy 12 hours of sleep while you can get it - one day you'll be older, have kids, and/or have been cursed with your Grandmother's freaky natural early morning wake-up.

Alright, off to attempt to sleep - but since New Baby is having his/her own little rave inside my uterus right now I don't really see sleep as a possibility anytime soon.

What do you think?

So when I was pregnant with Penelope I went to this website that claims to be able to show you what your kids will look like (you upload pictures of mommy & daddy and they merge them somehow, probably with magic).

Anyway, the picture they gave was for a 3-ish year old - but I figured it would be fun to compare the picture to one of Penny now.

Here's the website's prediction picture:


And here's Penelope now:


So what do you think? Relatively accurate or way off base?

Belly Belly Belly

So I haven't been as diligent this pregnancy with taking belly pictures. With Penelope I took one every four weeks until I was 30-ish weeks or so and then it was every other week or weekly (I think, it's been awhile and I'm too lazy to check my photobucket account).

Anyway, I have yet to post a belly picture this go 'round (or have I? Can't remember). Regardless, here's New Baby Belly at 20 weeks (Halfway!!!!!):



And for comparison, here's my belly with Penelope at 19 weeks:


And for fun, here's a sequence of belly pictures for New Baby:


So looking at the pics, I have to say my belly is much rounder from the get-go this time. I looked pregnant quite a bit earlier - which isn't surprising, especially considering I hadn't lost all my Penelope baby weight when I got pregnant this time around.

Happy Thanksgiving

So I have issues with Thanksgiving (like I do with many major holidays) including (but not limited to) the following:

1. There is no way that the "first" Thanksgiving happened in November. No. Freaking. Way. There is no evidence to support a November Thanksgiving, so having Thanksgiving in November seems weird and utterly arbitrary.
2. The weird cartoon-y glorification of the Puritans bugs me.
3. Culturally sanctioned gluttony is so awesome.

There's more, I assure you.

But I still participate - why? Cultural peer pressure? Family obligation? Probably a little of both... I find cultural peer pressure to be even harder to resist now that I have a baby. That's probably how a lot of cultural traditions suck you in - doing it all for the kids. You can't short your poor kids out of a day of non-stop eating now can you? Because childhood obesity is becoming a rite of passage :/

Meh.

It's really not all that bad, I do enjoy spending time with family - playing cards and watching football. So I don't hate Thanksgiving. I just have some issues with it... nothing that can't be overlooked where pie is concerned.

So Happy Thanksgiving. Look for my Christmas rant in a few weeks. That one is MUCH longer.

I shall leave you with a picture of Penelope (which I've also posted on Facebook, so many will have seen this one before but I wanted it for the blog as well).

Something from this morning...

This morning we all wake up and I ask Penny "where's my morning kiss?"

So she leans over and kisses... Daddy.

Yeah.

I eventually got my morning kiss, but he got two.

An update-y type thing

So I haven't really updated in awhile, it's been a busy week.

Today Penelope had her first eye exam today. There's a free program called InfantSee (www.infantsee.org) that gives free eye exams to children between the ages of 6months - 12 months. Since neither Bryan or I have great eyesight (well, his is great now post laser eye surgery) we figured it couldn't hurt to get Penny on the right track eye-exam wise.

Lets just say she isn't a fan of eye exams. She did pretty well but had to be distracted by food while the doctor was looking into her eyes. During the first part of the exam, the doctor mentioned the she might actually be shortsighted already - which would mean glasses. But after the eye dilation and a more thorough exam it turns out that she's just a little farsighted (which is typical at this age) and she has wonderfully healthy eyes. Yea! She needs to be seen again between 3 & 4 and then every year after that. Odds are she'll need glasses at some point, if only because of family history... but hopefully that won't be until much later.

We'll definitely take New Baby in when he/she is old enough.

In less than two weeks Penny turns one! Some days it seems like the time passes by so slowly ;) but overall this year has flown by. I vividly remember this time last year - I was SO READY TO DELIVER. Soooooo ready. Her birthday will be bitter sweet, my little baby is now my little toddler - and not really so little anymore! In fact today two different people asked me if she was a year and a half - they were both shocked to find out that she wasn't quite one yet.

She's almost walking on her own, she's taken a dozen steps or so on her own but she's not quite comfortable enough to do any serious walking without holding on to one of our hands. She just uses our hand for comfort - she rarely uses it for support. Soon enough she'll be walking so I guess I shouldn't push it, but I'm ready. Hopefully by her 1st birthday because the party dress I bought her isn't one she can really crawl in :)

Thursday I'll be 20 week pregnant - halfway! 5 months down, 5 to go. I've actually enjoyed pregnancy much more this time around - although I wouldn't go as far to say that I like being pregnant. It is a condition I endure to get my lovely babies... I think the reason this time around isn't so difficult is because I know what to expect and I know this is my last go-around.

I know I promised ultrasound pictures, but we haven't gotten around to scanning them in yet. It'll happen, I promise.

I don't have any new pictures of Penelope either - I hate our camera and my new phone doesn't really take very good pictures. I may actually go out and get a new camera before her birthday so I can take plenty of pictures.

There's probably a TON more I could say about both Penny and New Baby, but I'm drawing a blank.

I'm going to regret this...

Here is our TENTATIVE list of boys & girls names. There's poll on the actual blog (for those of you who read this on facebook), so feel free to visit & vote.

A few things before I share the list.
1. Popular names are not guaranteed a spot on the final list.
2. If I am told "oh, I hate this name" I can GUARANTEE you that I will immediately LOVE the name. I am nothing if not ornery.

With that said, here are the *tentative* list(s)

Girls:
Calliope
Isadora
Milla
Athena
Ophelia

Boys:
Theodore
Milo
Parker
Xavier

Names will undoubtedly change before April...

All about New Baby

We had our ultrasound appointment today, and once we get around to scanning the photos I'll post them here.

Few things to note:
1. Anterior placenta - which is why the kicks I feel are faint. The placenta may or may not move to a posterior position, but shouldn't affect delivery.

2. Breech baby - so the baby's head is up closer to my bellybutton and it's feet are down near the cervix. Penelope was always head down, so I was a little worried but my midwives assured me that half of the time they see babies in this position and most babies flip on their own. If the baby hasn't flipped then they can help make that happen - I have no desire for a breech delivery.

3. Baby is curled up against my spine and even if we had wanted to know the sex, the baby wouldn't have let us :)

4. Placenta is low, but not obstructing the uterus. This actually makes me nervous and I may elect for another ultrasound when we get into the 30-ish week mark just to make sure everything is still as it should be. Placenta previa is serious and would mean a necessary hospital delivery. Hopefully the placenta doesn't move further down so we can have our planned homebirth.

5. Everything else looks good, we'll talk more about the measurements, placenta, and whatnot at our next midwife appointment which is in early December.

Thursday I'll be 19 weeks, which means the halfway mark is a little over a week away!

Ball!

This video is also posted on Facebook:



Penelope says "ball" and gives mommy some serious attitude - it's cute though :)

Things to post before I forget

1. Penelope loves soccer. We went and saw my cousin Riley & Macy's soccer games and Penelope wanted to get in on the action. That afternoon she also passed a ball back & forth with Riley and correctly identified the soccer ball as a "baa". My mom took video with her phone, so I'll try and clean in up on my computer today and get it posted.

2. A couple of days ago during dinner P turned to Bryan, gave him a raspberry, and then turned back to me for a bite of food. It was pretty funny.

3. My parent's dog K'Ehlyr (pronounced KayLar; aka, The Red Beast: TRB) loves to lick Penn... and Penn has taken to pushing TRB's head away and shaking her head no. I have a feeling one of her first phrases will be "NO Lar!"

4. Today Penny started saying "bar" when playing with her stuffed bears. I think we may count that one :)

5. We have a molar! Thank goodness! One down, 3 to go (well, until next year when she's supposed to get in her 2 year molars).

Gender prediction

So anyone whose talked to me about gender prediction methods knows I think they're all bullshit. All of the charts, old wives tales, and other such nonsense methods are typically only correct 50% of the time.

The Chinese Conception chart said Penelope was going to be a boy. Wrong! It was the only one I did for her since we found out her sex at 17 weeks.

This time we're holding out until the end, so I though it would be fun to do a couple of the gender prediction methods and come back after the baby is born to see how many guessed wrong.

Chinese Conception chart: Boy
Ring test: Boy
Heart rate: Girl (FYI, for this over 140 = girl, under 140 = boy)
Old Wives tales (it was a quiz): 67% chance of a girl, 33% chance of a boy

So 50/50 according to the unscientific gender prediction methods. Which is what I figured it would be.

Balloon!

Add these to the list of words:

Balloon, Doggy, Baby

Penelope is OBSESSED with balloons. Well, maybe that's too strong a word... nah, it fits. When we went to Red Robin the other day they gave her a balloon and she's been all about them ever since (she also loved the ones at Maddox's birthday party). Today at the store she kept saying "balla" and looking at the balloons - so we're counting it.

She also says "baby" when she looks at the pictures of herself on the livingroom wall. It's pretty hilarious. I'm going to try and teach her to say baby & point at my belly - of course this might backfire and she'll say it even after I give birth. I may want to rethink that one.

As for doggy, she's been saying "da" for Dad & dog until today when she clearly said "doggy" as she was attacking poor Harley-Quinn (well, Harley decidedly deserved it). Although she did go back to "da" later so "doggy" may or may not count at this point.

But balloon and baby are definitely words.

We bought some decorations and favors for her 1st birthday party today! Not a ton of decoration, but we'll also get a bunch of balloons to make the room more festive. I want it to be relatively easy to clean up, so we're keeping it pretty simple.

Exactly 3 weeks (tomorrow) until Penelope turns 1!

Pregnancy update

Today was our 18 week appointment.

Baby's heartbeat was 144, which is good. Marlene was able to find it right away (last time baby was moving around too much and it took a few minutes to find the heartbeat).

My BP was 100/60 which is better than last time (90/60) so that was good. I've lost more weight, but they don't seem concerned. They said I'll probably make it up next month or the month after, the average weight gain for the duration of the pregnancy is more important than the weight from month to month. I guess the biggest difference between this pregnancy and the last is the weight - with Penelope I consistently gained almost a pound a week and this time (so far) I've lost weight. Just goes to show that no two babies are the same :)

Everything else looks good, I'll make our ultrasound appointment today so we should have baby pictures (no "crotch shots"!) in the next few weeks.

Halloween, 11 months, and birthday parties

So I never got around to posting about Penelope's first Halloween, I put some stuff on Facebook, but nothing on the blog. So here's her Halloween costume & a video of her "trick or treating" at the Zoo (we went to Boo at the Zoo thanks to her Aunty Meagan).







It was fun and I'm looking forward to next year. We may actually take her trick or treating around the neighborhood, or we may throw a Halloween party for all our baby friends - we'll see. Halloween used to be my very favorite holiday and it's creeping it's way back up the list. It took a dive in my early-20s when a lot of women my age made it an excuse to dress up like themed prostitutes. There's sexy and then there's trashy - and most 20 somethings err on the side of trashy.

The best costume I ever wore as an adult was the "Duct Tape" Fairy - my friend Audrey made me a dress, scepter, and wings out of duct tape. It was AWESOME.

Anyway, Halloween was fun.

A few days after Halloween Penelope turned 11 months and I realized I needed to get my act together and plan her 1st birthday. What a headache that turned out to be! I did it to myself though, it didn't have to be so stressful if I would have just put my foot down. But it's all going to work out in the end... the theme is Winter ONEderland (I didn't come up with that, it's an admittedly stolen idea) and we're going to have it at one of the local family owned (and very delicious) pizza parlors. It should be fun :)

I bought Penelope a party dress in honor of her birthday, I'll have to put her in it and take some pictures before the big day. It's really cute - and I wish they made one in mommy-sizes because I would totally wear it. I don't know where I'd where it TO, maybe a fancy trip to the grocery store.

A lot of Penny's baby friends have recently turned one or will turn one shortly after P does, so we've been going to a few birthday parties - which has been a lot of fun. Here's a picture of Penelope at her friend Maddox's first birthday (he had a monkey theme):


And here's the "gang" at the party (Lucy, Maddox, Orson, and Penelope):


It's been an eventful few weeks!

Pregnancy update: Everything's going well, I'll be 18 weeks on Thursday which is almost mid-point (20 weeks is halfway through!). We'll get our one and only ultrasound shortly thereafter but are still not finding out the sex. We do have a list of girls and boys names and I may post those as some point (or did I already? I forget).

Ok, time to bathe the Penelopotomous.