First days as a SAHM

Julia and I have been having great fun these last two days! I am really liking the SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) thing so far. I fear going back to work is going to be really hard!!

On Monday we just hung around the house. We colored, did Playduh and just played. AND I let Julia blow bubbles in the house!! We have hardwood floors, so I just mopped up the soapy bubble water afterwards.



Then today we went to our first Mommy's play group. Julia had a good time and I liked the other ladies. We went to the play area of the Dayton Mall. We then saw the Easter Bunny. Julia was all excited about the Easter Bunny until it was her turn to sit on his lap. Then it turned into "I don't like it". Oh well, that is still major progress for her. She did tell him "hi" and took the coloring book his helper handed her. We then had lunch with daddy. So we had a full morning!!




Well, Julia is yelling for me to get her out of her crib. She did not take a NEAR long enough nap. I am thinking an early bedtime tonight.... Since it is fairly nice out, I think we will walk to the Post Office since I need some stamps. Maybe we will stop for ice cream on our way home! YUM!

You can tell she has never been spanked

Jerrod and I were both spanked as kids as a form of discipline. We don't really have anything against spanking, but we decided to use it as a last resort. Right now a stern talking to and time outs are working for us. But yesterday I realized that Julia has never been spanked.

Julia was getting into something I did not want her in and she was not listening to me when I told her to stop. So finally as a threat I said "Mommy's going to spank your butt if you don't stop". Julia looked at me and giggled. She then turned around, stuck her butt out at me and said "Spank my butt mommy!". Obviously, we have spanked her in play and she does not realize what real spanking means....

Play shelves

Jerrod put together a shelving rack this weekend to help store some of the stuff that will be coming out of the cat/junk/storage room that will soon be turning into Julia's new room.

Julia found the shelves and thought they were fun to play in..



Notice that the baby was laying on the upper shelf! Shortly after this, Julia decided to throw a blanket over the upper shelf and have a little tent for herself! She had great fun playing with it. And since we have not put it where it is going to go yet, it is still in my living room and Julia is still playing on it.

Belly Pictures

Finally took new belly pictures. (Oh, you can also see my new haircut.)

Please be kind because these were both taken after working all day, so I don't look the best and my hair is all a mess.

Saturday at 23 weeks pregnant


Then I popped overnight! I always seem to have a major growth spurt the day after I take pictures. So we took another one tonight.

Tonight at 23 weeks, 1 day pregnant.


I just went back and looked at my belly pictures I took with Julia. I am still much bigger now than I was with her at this time. BUT.. my face, arms, etc.. are all much skinnier. You can definitely tell I weigh less this time than I did with Julia. Luckily, right now I am all belly (and boob. LOL)

Last day at daycare

Yesterday was Julia's last day of daycare. We are sad to have to pull her and they were sad to see her go. This daycare has done WONDERS for her. She started there at a year old this shy, reclusive baby who freaked out if she was in a room with more than 4 people. Now she is just a little social butterfly! Even her caregivers mentioned it the other day. They said of all the kids that have gone through there, Julia has to have been the one that has changed the most. They said it was a complete night and day transformation.

The cupcakes were a hit and Julia made sure to tell everyone that she helped mommy make them.

Then the toddler teachers made a sign for Julia. Each of them wrote a personal message on it. Reading it, it made me cry. You can tell that they really loved Julia. The one teacher was Julia's primary caregiver in the nursery when Julia started there and moved to the toddler room about the same time Julia did, so she has been with Julia her entire time there. They totally get all of Julia's quirks. One teacher even mentioned in the note how Julia is fascinated by bugs. They all said she need to hurry bad. I told them I hope she will be back this fall/winter.

It is amazing; I DREADED putting Julia into a daycare. She even was watched by a Stay At Home Mom her first year, thinking it would be much better for her than a daycare. Now I realize we were greatly mistaken. The first babysitter probably did more harm than good. (Julia was never in physical danger, but we see how taking her there really held her back.) Sure this daycare was a little on the pricey side, but it was worth EVERY penny!

I think I need to write them a note.......

Cupcakes

I made cupcakes last night to take to Julia's daycare since it is her last day. Julia saw them and got all excited!

So after supper I frosted them and let Julia put the sprinkles on them. What fun!! I had sprinkles everywhere!! But Julia really enjoyed doing it..... AND she was so excited about bringing them to daycare today. She made sure everyone knew that she put the sprinkles on them.

They will have them as their snack today. I am sure Julia will tell everyone then again, that she helped make them.

I have a feeling we will be making a lot of cupcakes and cookies this summer! Julia LOVES helping with them. I think I will have to send most of them to work with Jerrod, so we will end up too fat here!!!

Its either to laugh or cry...

..I chose laugh, because really, what good is crying going to do me....

In my line of work (which I am now unemployed from) there is a certification you can get to prove you have the knowledge and expertise to be advising farmers about their crops. It was mentioned to me by my work mentor that I should get this certification because it show the farmers and my fellow co-workers that I had the competence and credibility that my job required; especially since this position is looked at as the authority when it comes to farming. The certification obtained by passing 2 tests; an international test and a state test. These tests are hard, with only about a 50% passing rate. I took the tests last summer and passed the international but failed the state test by one point. So I took the state test again this winter (you can only take it twice a year).

Well, I get an email from my (ex)office today, telling me my certification test results finally came in. I PASSED! Yeah! Except, it is like a slap in the face. I took the test to help boost my competence and expertise at my job. To help prove to everyone that I knew what I was doing. (only about 3/4 of the people in my position had this certification) I thought having it would only make my job that much more secure! HA!!!

So now I have this certification proving I know what I am doing at my job, only to be laid off from that job 3 weeks ago.

It is so sad and ironic, that I just have to laugh...... Hopefully it might help me in my search for a new job!

So what have I been doing!

For the past week I have been working my butt off, but why does it look like I have not done anything!?!? The house still needs some major cleaning and the yard still needs cleaned up. Yet, I am busy all day, have blisters on my hands and exhausted at night. So what have I been doing?!

Yesterday alone I did 4 loads of dishes, 7 loads of laundry, took out 3 bags of trash, and worked on the master bathroom. Yet the master bedroom/bath still looks a mess as does the rest of the house! I feel like I am never going to get the messy house under control. Granted, it is not that bad, but it is in serious need of a good scrub-down (dusting, mopping floors, washing windows, de-furring the furniture, etc.).

Well, I better get to it....

Pistachios

Julia found my can of pistachio nuts. She has been calling them "Green Beans". I guess they are green.

BUT... Unlike the real green beans, which Julia hates and refuses to eat, Julia has discovered she likes these green beans.

Then last night she dropped the can and pistachios fell on the floor. Gavin rushed up to see if it was anything good for him to eat. This caused Julia to scream...."My green beans!" and just cry. I shooed Gavin away, but Julia was convinced that Gavin took some of her green beans. She was in complete melt-down mode, even after we tried to reassure her that Gavin did not take any of her green beans!

I think I need to buy more pistachios!

Carmel Eggs

At Easter time Cadbury makes a chocolate egg with caramel in it. Jerrod loves these and he got me hooked on them too. Apparently Julia loves them too!! Jerrod gave her one to try (she loves chocolate) and she loved it! Later that night, she wanted another one, so she pushed the chair up to the cabinet, climbed on the cabinet to get to the top of the microwave where the box of these eggs were. We did not realize she had done it until she walked back into the living room with an egg in her hand.

All the Caramel egg are now gone and I am trying to decide if I should buy more......

Miss cool

Little Miss Thing thinks she is hot stuff lately.

In her new ballerina outfit.


Being Miss Cool with her shades on in the car. If the sun gets in her eyes she always says "hot, hot!"




And a kitty picture. This is what I came downstairs to find one morning! These two love to cuddle together! I think Sebastian was upset I interpreted them.

So observant

Julia is so observant and notices everything.

Last weekend we got our hair cut. We trimmed Julia's bangs then sent her home with Jerrod's parents for a nap while Jerrod and I got ours cut. First thing Julia said when she saw me was "haircut mommy". She noticed my hair cut right away.

Then yesterday I picked up my new glasses. I did not see Julia last night afterwards because I was teaching a class. So this morning when I went to get her up, I laid her on her changing table and she looked at me and said "glasses, mommy". She noticed I had different glasses on. I was quite impressed.

I cannot believe just how observant she is. I would not have thought she would have noticed these small changes, but she picked up on them right away!

Swimming

Julia's last swimming class was on Saturday. She just LOVES swimming!! I think it is the highlight of her week! The instructor is just so impressed with her, she cannot believe just how confident Julia is in the water. While most of the other kids are latched on to their parents or at least want their parents right there next to them, Julia is just the opposite. She usually runs as far away from me as possible in the water, she REFUSES to have me hold her or touch her while she is in the water.

At the start of class, the instructor asked how old Julia was and when I told her she was 2 she wanted to know how soon she would be 3. Apparently, they just opened up a new preschool class and since Julia was one of the most advanced kids in this class, she wanted to recommend we join it. BUT once she found out Julia only recently turned two, she said that the kids really have to be pretty close to three before joining the class because parent's are no longer in the pool with the kid. Which is too bad, because Julia is really ready to move on to something more challenging, but it is her age, not ability, that is holding her back. THEN, by the end of the class the instructor came up again after watching Julia the entire class. She asked what I thought. I told her that I think she is ready to move on to the next class, but I understand the age requirement. She then said, you are right, she is more than ready to move on, just tell them I said it was okay to register her in the preschool class. So we are now registered for the preschool class that starts in 2 weeks. It is on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (5pm), but since I have no new job prospects, I don't think that the time will be an issue.

Now for some pictures of my little fish! (Ignore the pregnant mommy!)

Waiting for the class to start!


Getting her teapot. See how she has no fear about being in water up to her chin?!?


Practicing jumping in! (we were counting to three...)


JUMP!!! Since she has no issue going underwater, I a lot of times let her go all the way underwater when she jumps in. She LOVES this!!


Hi Mimi!! I love swimming! (I love this picture because you can see just how pretty blue her eyes are...)


Walking to the Froggy slide. (They end each class by going down the Froggy slide)


WHEEEEEEE! She loves the slide. She starts asking to go down it as soon as the class begins.

From the mouth of Julia

Julia is just so funny and smart! Her language skills just impress me everyday! She can now carry on complete conversations with us and we know exactly what she is saying. She is very good at answering questions too with complete sentences! She can tell you what she all did that day at daycare and who she played with. She can also carry on LONG conversations on the phone with her Mimi! Last night we finally took the phone away from her after about 20-30 minutes because we figured she had talked to her long enough! Boy was she MAD!!

We take swimming lessons in the next town over. This is the same town that her daycare is in. We drive past the road with take to swimming to get to the daycare. EVERY TIME we have driven past that road for the last week or so, Julia has to say "That way is swimming" or "Over there is swimming".

Julia also has free range to go upstairs now, which she does frequently. However, if she happens to poop her diaper while up there, she calls out for one of us to carry her back down the stairs by saying "Come carry me, no sit on my poop!"! LOL She refuses to sit on her poopy butt to come down the stairs.

Julia is getting a real sense of humor. She will do something silly then say "Julia funny". She completely cracks herself up!

We bought a new kid's CD for the van several weeks ago. Well Julia discovered that the song "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" is on it. That is ALL she wanted to listen to, that same song over and over and over again. Anytime another song would come on she would say "no king(sing), five little monkeys!!". So I would have to put "5 little monkeys" back on again. We listened to those same 3 minutes for hours on end!!

We are REALLY enjoying Julia. She is so much fun and an endless source of entertainment for us!

So much to do

There is so much to get done around the house. I am trying to get a bunch of the projects done in the next week when Julia is at daycare. Some of these projects are hard to do with her around and no one to keep an eye on her. Jerrod is worried that I am over-doing it. I am just just trying to get things done. But I have been known to over-do things. I just want to get things looking somewhat nice. Besides, I am better able to do it now than I will be in a couple of months, my belly does not get in the way too bad yet and I still have some energy!

Yesterday I did the following:
Took back the extra tiles
Bought paint for the bathroom that is getting painted tomorrow
Bought grass seed, so we can sow it in the front yard tomorrow
Bought a BUNCH of groceries! Seriously, I was in the grocery store for an hour and a half!
Carried in all the groceries and put them away!
Mowed a couple patches of ground cover that I want to seed in grass instead.
Made supper
Did a couple loads of laundry
Cleaned up a mess in the basement
Stopped at the pet store with Julia to get new gravel for the fish tank

Today my goal is to:
Scrub down the bathroom walls and ceiling
Scrub the toilet and tub in the bathroom
Completely clean out the fish tank; as in empty out all the water and scrub everything down
Do the dishes so the sinks are empty so I can clean out the fish tank
Do several loads of laundry.

I better get cracking, since it is almost 11am already!

At home, Day 1

Yesterday was my first day home. It was NOT my first day as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom), however, because of the notice I needed to give daycare. So Julia is at daycare for another week.

On my first day home, I worked my tail off. I actually think I over-did it, but I really wanted to get it done. I raked all the leave in the front of the house. It took all day, I am sore, I have blisters, but it is done! It is now ready to be seeded in grass. I hope to do that this weekend. Unfortunately, they back yard is 3x bigger and needs done too.

I am trying to do the projects that are hard to do with Julia around this week while she is still at daycare.

The house is in SERIOUS need of a good cleaning and scrub-down, but that can wait for a raining day. If it is nice out, I am going to be working in the yard!!

I am about ready to leave to buy groceries and run some errands. Hopefully by this afternoon it would have warmed up and dried up enough that I can work outside some more!

Last day of working

Today was my last day of work. It seems quite surreal. Actually it feels almost exactly like I felt when I went on maternity leave with Julia. I don't think it has quite sunk in yet that I will not be going back. I do have to teach 3 programs yet, though...

I have worked since I was 16, so not having a job and not being stressed out over finding a new job, is all new to me. I think I am really going to enjoy my time as a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), while I can. I really think Julia is going to enjoy it too!

I have already scoped out the parks and looked into a few mom's groups around here. I think it is going to be a fun summer!

Day at the park

On Sunday, Julia refused to take a nap. Since it was such a nice day out, I thought her and I could walk to one of the nearby parks I have recently found and let her burn off some of her energy. She LOVED it! It had a separate section for kids her age with playground equipment made just for toddlers. She had so much fun climbing up on everything and going down the slides. However, she kept wanting to go down the HUGE slide that was in the other part of the park. This slide was probably 12-16 feet tall! She just could not understand why I would not let her go don that slide. I kept telling her she was too little for it, but she was not believing me.

While playing, a little boy about 5 yrs old and his grandma came to the park. Julia played with the little boy awhile. The grandma had a little fluff-ball of a dog with her. Julia kept saying "boof, mommy, boof". The lady asked if Julia wanted to pet it and Julia actually DID!!!! Then a little later, Julia went running towards the dog saying "pet boof again". So the lady let her pet it again! I just could not believe that Julia actually WANTED to pet this dog. Dogs up close have always scared her. I think it really helped that this dog did not bark and was quite small.

After we played in the park awhile, we stopped at the Dairy Queen to get ice cream for the walk home. Julia was in heaven!

Then last night after we ate supper, ran over to her stroller (which was still sitting out), climbed in and said "ice cream, daddy". She wanted to go for a walk to get more ice cream!!

Dirty socks

I was getting Julia dressed this morning and was trying to find socks to match the outfit. I realized that green socks would work the best. BUT, Julia wore her green socks yesterday. She did not wear them long (she went most of the day barefoot), so I figured she could wear them today. As I pulled them out of the laundry basket to put on her, Julia stopped me and would not let me put them on her. She said "no, they are dirty!" and went reaching for the drawer where her socks are kept in. So she wore socks that did not quite match, but worked.

Well, at least I hope this is a sign that I will not constantly have to tell her to put clean clothes on...

Nail biter

Looks like Julia has taken after her daddy and is a nail biter. She has been doing it for months now and shows no sign of stopping. Even though Jerrod has stopped biting his nails months ago, I am afraid it is just genetic.

Well at least I don't have to fight her on trimming her nails anymore....

Opening doors

Julia figured out a couple weeks ago how to open doors. Now she is an old pro and there is not a door that can keep her out.

Luckily, we dead bolt our outside doors and she is not tall enough to reach the dead bolt yet!

Julia's babies

In the last couple of months Julia has really taken to baby dolls. Before this, she wanted nothing to do with them.

Now, she carries them around all the time and is a little mother to them. She has two baby dolls and one Elmo baby doll. She has to sleep with all of them each night and they each have to have their won blanket. Also, so we rock her at bedtime, it is not usual for us to also have to rock all her babies with her. It can make things a little difficult at times.

Julia has one baby doll in particular that she loves. Last weekend we were having leftovers for lunch and Julia REFUSED to sit in her seat at the table. She kept telling us "no, baby sit there" and she would put the baby in her seat. So finally Jerrod and I had the bright idea to pull up the highchair (that has been sitting unused in the corner for months) to the table beside Julia and put the baby doll in that. Julia liked that ideal and willingly sat in her chair after that.

But once I got the food in front of her, Julia decided that the baby had to have something for lunch too. So I got out a handful of fruity cheerios for the baby. LOL

Here is the picture of this (oh, Julia loves that green headband and wears if frequently, despite what she is wearing. AND she puts it in herself, so she ends up with mushroom hair!LOL)

The swelling has started....

I can only imagine what my ankles are going to look like come this summer.

I have been noticing for about the last week or so, that by the time I go to bed, my ankles have swollen slightly. I know this is normal for pregnancy, especially for someone who is on their feet a lot and chasing a toddler around.

I think I am going to have to try to prop my feet of more during the day..

In other baby news, I forgot to mention that when I had my ultrasound last week, that they said the placenta is anterior. Which basically means that instead of attaching at the back of the uterus by my spine, it attached in the front by my belly. This is not a issue, but it does explain why I feel this baby so much differently than I did Julia. With this baby I feel him more on my sides, really low, or kicking my organs. I never feel him kicking my belly like Julia was doing at this time. My midwife said to give it a couple weeks and he will be strong enough and I will start to feel the kicks through the placenta. But this also means that Jerrod really cannot feel the baby move yet. Soon...

Insurance

Checked into Jerrod's insurance. I will not know the exact details until I can actually sign up, but it looks comparable in both price and coverage to what I have now. That is a huge relief! I was envisioning having to pay thousands of dollars for the remainder of this pregnancy. That does not look to be the case.

Yhew.... One less thing to worry about.

Little fish

Julia just loves the water! She loves baths, she loves the swimming pool, anything to do with water.

Julia swam a lot last summer in the in-laws pool. She was pretty brave and daring towards the end.

We are about done with swimming lessons at the Rec Center. Julia has no fear of the water. While the other kids are clutching their parent's, Julia wants nothing to do with me and is freely running around in chin-deep water. She will also put her head underwater without a problem. The swim instructor just cannot believe how comfortable Julia is in the water at only 2 years old. During the call the instructor has the child do several activities that help with them getting comfortable with the water (like float, go underwater, etc). She will go around to each parent/child and have them show her that the child can do it. Well, she knows Julia loves water so much by now, she no longer asks us to prove Julia can do it, she just asks if she can!LOL

At one point last week the instructor was talking to me about how she just cannot believe how comfortable Julia was in the water. She actually asked me if I had a water birth with her!!!LOL

With me being off, and the in-laws retiring, I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot of time over at the in-laws pool swimming this summer!

Fun with her cousins

We went over to my parent's house Sunday night for a family supper. Julia has 4 cousins on that side (and none on the other). She is really starting to enjoy playing with them. They hung out and played all evening. She SCREAMED when it was time to go, she did not want to leave.....

Here they are waiting on supper. We pulled the little table out of the toyroom and let them eat on it. (The big boy is 4.5, the one in orange will be 2 this week, and the other little girl is 18 months, FYI)


The oldest cousin taught them all how to bang on the table and cause lots of noise! Julia thought this was great fun!

"Oh Toodles"

Julia has only recently gotten into watching TV. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we will turn on the Disney channel and she will watch Playhouse Disney. Which consist of The Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and some Winnie the Pooh show. Julia mostly likes Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny.

Well, Playhouse Disney Live on Tour came to a town near us. So I got us all tickets to see it, thinking Julia would really like it.

She liked it, but you could tell she was still a little too young to get the full enjoyment out of it. She could not understand why all the kids around her were screaming. She sat still for all but the last 5 minutes of the 1.5 hour show (we did take a walk at intermission).

It was so dark and we were so far away from the stage, I could not get pictures. But I did snap one during intermission. Julia said she wanted juice, so I bought her some and a popcorn to go with it (they only had one size).

Daycare

Jerrod and I have been doing a lot of talking and thinking over the weekend about my whole job thing. I think the thing that depresses us the most about it is that we have to pull Julia from her daycare. Which is funny considering I hated having to put her in it to begin with!

But Julia LOVES her daycare now. She as made friends there. She talks about and ask for these friends all the time. She as also REALLY grown socially. She was this super shy mommy's baby when she started there at one year old. Now she is much more comfortable around people. She has also really benefited mentally too. At the age of two, she can recite the entire alphabet, count to 10, can sing numerous songs, knows her colors, etc.... I highly doubt she would have done that well even if I stayed home with her.

Her teachers there also really like Julia, and she likes them. They have really seen her grow as a person. When I told her primary teacher today that we will probably have to pull her out, she got really sad and said how much she really enjoys Julia and how upset she will be to see her go.

We are trying to figure out a way to be able to afford taking her there at least part-time (this daycare has a 2 day minimum for part-time). But I just don't see it being financially possible. That is still a pretty good amount of money each week.

Sure there is storytime at the library, mommy and me classes I can look into, etc, but they are just not the same. I also know this is only temporary and Julia will eventually go back to daycare (after paying the enrollment fee again and going back on the waiting list), but this will be a major change in her life and she does not do well with change. We hate to have to make her leave all the friends she has finally made.

This is actually depressing Jerrod quite a bit, it just makes me sad....

Spitting

We think we might know where she picked this habit up, but still....

Julia has learned to spit. BUT she has not learned where it is appropriate to spit. So one day, she stopped, leaned over and spit right on our living room floor, TWICE!!

She thinks spitting is funny.... Sigh.....

Now the good news....

Before all the crap with my job happened Thursday afternoon, I had my 20 week ultrasound appointment Thursday morning.

Things are GREAT!!!

I really liked this ultrasound tech, she took the time to explain and show us everything she was looking at and measuring.

The baby had everything he needs, kidneys, 4-chamber heart, nasal bone, etc... She was able to count all 10 fingers too!! She also confirmed, that indeed, the baby was a boy!

And he is a BIG boy!! I figured he would be big, my family just produces big babies. Julia was always measuring ahead (and she was 9lbs, 6oz. at birth), but this baby is measuring even father ahead than she did. Right now, he is measuring over 1.5 weeks ahead. He is going to be tall because his leg bones were measuring 3 weeks ahead! My baby books say he should be weighing about 10oz now, but according to the ultrasound, he was already weighing 1 pound!!

A little TMI, but they measured my cervix length during the ultrasound. This length helps indicate if pre-term labor will occur. They like to see the length be above 2-2.5cm, with normal being between 3 and 4 cm. Well mine was 5.3cm!!!! My midwife said she has NEVER seen a cervix length that long!! At least I know all these cramps are not doing anything.... Unfortunately, this probably also indicates that this baby is not going to want to leave either and I will have to be induced again. Sigh....I was really hoping to avoid another pitocin labor.

First the bad news....

Thursday was a day of great news and a day of bad news. This post will be about the bad news.

The company I work for is in the middle of "restructuring". They were in the process of doing this anyway, but the poor economy sped up the process. In the process of restructuring, they identified several positions to be eliminated...... Mine was one of them......

I still have to work a few more weeks, but I have officially been let go. That hurts.....

I loved my job, I loved the people I worked with, I loved my clients; I also really loved the benefits!

I shocked myself in that even with all the pregnancy hormones running through me, I did not cry once over this. I was close a few times, but never did completely breakdown. The timing REALLY sucks and with this economy, it sucks even more, but I will get through it. When one door shuts, a window opens, right?

I think the thing that upsets me the most about this whole situation is that I am 5 months pregnant and that really complicates things. First off being insurance... Luckily, we can get insurance through Jerrod's employer, but it is not going to be near as good as mine was. Secondly, by the time my official end date comes around, I will be 7-8 months pregnant. Who is going to hire a hugely pregnant woman knowing they are going to have to take maternity leave soon.

Speaking of maternity leave, this really upsets me. I have been saving up all my vacation and sick leave so I could take off the entire 12 weeks allowed by FMLA and actually have it paid. Now I lose all that. I will get paid for my vacation leave, but it is just not the same. Even if I manage to find a job before this baby is born, I will not get paid maternity leave and will have to go back to work as soon as the 6 weeks is up.

Financially, I think we will survive, for now. I will get unemployment. Then take into account we will not be paying for daycare, savings on gas, along with a few other things I am looking into, I think we will manage fine; it will be tight, but it will be fine. At this point I am pretty convinced I will not be able to get a job until after the baby is born. I guess I just need to look at the positive; all the time I will get to spend with Julia. I had said many times after Julia was born that I would like to be a stay at home mom for awhile, well, now I have my chance. This is just not how I had planned on it.

Crazy week

I know I have not updated in awhile. It has been a crazy week. I will be posting a bunch of updates soon.

Right now, I have to start a load in the washer.....

More shopping!

At the young age of 2, Julia is already a shopaholic!!

Anytime we run to the store, when we are done she is always asking for "more shopping". When I tell her we are going to go home and see daddy, she replies "No... More Shopping!".

On Friday, she went shopping ALL DAY with Jerrod's parent's. If anyone could tire her out shopping, I thought it would be Debbie. But went I was putting her in the van to go home, she said "more shopping!!!"

I normally don't like shopping, but I have a feeling I am going to have to learn to like it really fast.

"Not nice"

Julia has really picked up on when someone is not being nice. She really likes to tell them when they are not being nice to her. "Not nice mommy" and "Not nice daddy" are heard frequently at our house.

Yesterday morning Julia was sitting on our bed while I finished getting ready. She tried playing with our cat Pepe, who is really prissy. Pepe was not in the mood for playing and swatted Julia's hand. Julia pulled her hand back and said "Not nice kitty". LOL

It also crushes Julia to know she is not being nice. We can tell her "no" or "that hurts" and she will just laugh. But if we say "That is not nice Julia", she breaks down into tears. Such a sensitive soul...

Trash Day

"Dear WasteManagement:

I realize this morning was cold and windy, but could you please try to be more careful when you empty the trash bins into your truck to make sure all of it actually gets in the truck and not on the ground. Also please try to realize when you need to compact the trash down so it does not blow out of the truck all over my yard and down the road as you drive away.

Thanks."


This is not the first time this has happened. It actually happens about once every month or so. Went out to the car this morning to discover take-out boxes and general trash debris all over our yard and road. Sometimes the neighbor's dog gets into the trash, but I don't think that was the case this morning. I think it was just a trash man trying to work fast because it was cold and spilling trash as he dumped the bin, combined with not compacting the trash which caused all the loose paper to blow out and all over.

I really don't want to call the City to complain because, well, I don't want the City down our road (We live on a back road often forgotten about by the city). We occasionally leave the bin at the curb all week (as do most of our neighbors), which the city does not allow. They also have very strict guidelines on the upkeep of your house and lawn, and sometimes life gets in the way and our grass did not always get mowed in a timely manner. So I prefer not to attract the attention of the City....

So I will just continue to pick up all the trash debris that is left each Monday morning.

No diaper!

Grrrr...

Julia has taken off her pj's at night for many months now. I just come to expect to find her in her diaper in the mornings. But now she has taken it to a new level! She is now taking her diaper off too!!

About 3:30am Saturday morning Julia wakes up crying for mommy. I go down and discover that at some point during the night she had taken off her diaper (along with her pj's) and now she had wet the bed and was sleeping in a big, cold wet spot. She, of course did not like this. So in the middle of the night, I strip the bedding and put new on. Unfortunately for Julia, her Blankie got soaked, and the other one was still in the wash, so she had to go without for the rest of the night. That morning when I get her, she was naked again, but at least this time she had not peed yet!

So now it is becoming a common site to go in to get her after a nap or in the mornings to find her completely naked! I would not have a problem with this as much if she was actually potty trained, but she is not. I keep telling her she in not allowed to go bare bottom like that until she learns to pee in the potty!

Speaking of potty training, we are slowly making progress. Well, at least daycare is. They say she goes in the potty about half of the time. It is still pretty rare at our house. I think it is because daycare has a schedule as to when they use the bathroom. We will ask Julia throughout the day if she has to go, but she always says "no". I think we just need to make a schedule to put her on the potty. But then she surprises me sometimes by going without anyone asking her or even anyone around. So she is getting it and we are trying not to push it yet. We might start working on it a little harder though soon.

March is HERE!

Is it just me, or did this winter seem exceptionally cold?

I am so glad March is here! This is a sign that the worse of the winter is over (I say this as parts of the country are getting a blizzard). Sure we get snow and cold in March and April (and even in May), but the warmers days are coming!!

I really need to sew some grass seed. (The freeze/thaw cycle helps work the seed into the soil.) But I need to rake up all the leaves first! With my preggo belly, it will take me quite awhile to get the entire yard raked before I can even consider sewing grass seed.

The baby gate is down

This makes me really nervous.

I had been lucky. Julia was never a climber. She did not walk until she was 15 months old. It was not until then that Julia even attempted to climb our steps. We gated the steps off. They are hardwood and very steep. This setup worked great until now.

Julia has figured out that if she climbs on the toybox, she can climb over the gate. Several times this week she has gone up and down the stairs without us realizing it!!! Since the gate was no longer stopping her, we decided to just take it down.

She does great on the stairs, but it still makes me really nervous.

Fabulous Day (as always)

I could not believe my eyes when I read that comment on Julia's daily sheet from daycare this week. "Fabulous Day (as always)!!!"?? From MY kid??? I am just over the moon that Julia finally loves her daycare and is learning so much from it.

Jerrod and I were just talking last night, as Julia was correctly counting her blocks, that we took her to a Stay At Home Mom instead of a daycare when she was a baby thinking that it was best thing for her, but now we think it did more harm than good. Julia is just so much more social and learns so much at daycare! I have NO hesitation at ALL about putting this new baby in this daycare as soon as I go back to work. In fact, I already had them reserve a spot.

Oh, I have been noticing lately that occasionally when I pick Julia up, that she is in the Older Toddler class, not the younger toddlers. I guess she will be making the move permanently soon. This is when I realized how many toddlers there were younger than her in the toddler class. She is growing up so fast!!

Baby boof store

We drive past a pet store everyday on our way home from daycare. Julia and I have stopped at this store before to buy fish food. Julia enjoyed looking at all the fish and puppies they had. So now when we drive by it, she frequently talks about the "baby boof store".

So one day this week, we stopped at the pet store on our way home. I did not need to buy anything, I just wanted to let Julia see all the animals again.

She loved it. She ran from one end of the store to the other and back again (the store is pretty tiny). She looked at all the fish, stared at the puppies and was intrigued by the birds. She actually asked to "pet it" when looking at the birds. Of course, that is an animal she was not allowed to touch.

We probably walked around for 15-20 minutes just looking at all the animals over and over again before I convinced her it was time to go home.

She has been asking to stop at the baby boof store every night since!

More singing

I am just amazed at how will Julia knows songs.

She can recite her entire ABC's, including the little "now I said my ABC's..." at the end. Sure, she occasionally skips over a few letters, but I think that is darn good for a 2 year old.

She also can sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, complete with hand motions. Before she could only sing the first line and only do a few hand motions. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is another one she has down. She has a good part of Old MacDonald down too.

It is so neat to lay in bed at night and hear Julia over the monitor singing all these songs to herself (when she should be sleeping!).

We played the Beatles song "Julia" for Jerry the other day since he did not realize Julia was also a Beatles song (he knew Jude was). We have played this song many, many times before for Julia, but I guess she never really listened to it until now. Now she knows that it is a song about Julia. So now we get asked to "sing Julia song" on a regular basis. She always cheers when it is over too!

"Watch Cookie Monster on the 'puter"

I think I created a monster!

Monday night I got home from my meeting about 20 minutes before Julia's bedtime. She was just finishing up watching an Elmo DVD when I walked in. She wanted to watch it again, but with it being so close to bedtime, I did not want to start it again.

So I sat her down on the couch and pulled out my laptop. I logged on to Sesamestreet.org, because at the end of one of her videos it talked about how you could play games and such at that site. While playing around, I found you could play clips of old skits by that features certain monsters. So we watched several of them. Julia thought it was really neat.

Then last night I was getting ready to leave for another meeting when Julia asked to "watch Cookie Monster on the 'puter". Jerrod asked if I was taking my laptop to my meeting. Nope, did not need it. You and Julia can play on sesamestreet.org while I am gone. Julia did not even notice I was leaving because she was so engrossed in the website.

I know Debbie says they occasionally watch YouTube videos of different kid shows.

What a difference in generations!! Although I found it really funny that some of the skits we watched on sesamestreet.org were from the 70's and 80's that I remember watching as a kid!!!LOL

Hide my credit cards now!!

I think I need to start hiding my credit cards now! I can only imagine what Julia will be like as a teenager! I think I need to make more money!

I have discussed before that Julia likes to go shopping, but I never realized just how much she likes it!

On Sunday, we stopped at Kroger's to pick up some Starbuck's on our way to see Jerry's new truck. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Julia asked "Shopping?, Shopping?". She was getting all excited and was somewhat disappointed that she had to stay in the van with daddy while I ran in for the coffee.

Then in the afternoon, I stopped at a craft store so I could pick up some yarn to start Baby Jude's baby blanket. The craft store is in a strip mall. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, again, Julia was asking "shopping?". She just wanted to go shopping so bad. Unfortunately, for her, she again stayed in the van with daddy so mommy could get in and out fast.

But since she was so good about staying in the van when she CLEARLY wanted to go shopping, I bought her a tube of plastic bugs at the craft store. She loved her "icky bugs".

Julia is only 2 and she already loves shopping this much!! I am terrified at what the years ahead will bring.

Help mommy...

This is a new development I am really pleased about.

Before when she going not get something open or get something she wanted, she would just cry and whine about it and we were left trying to figure out what was wrong. But now, if she cannot get something she wants, she either brings it to us or drags us to it, and says "Help, mommy, help" or just "Help, help".

This is so much better than her just getting frustrated that she cannot get something herself and throwing a fit.

What a silly goof!

Julia is becoming such a silly goof! Now when I try you take her picture, she makes such a silly face.


She thought it would be silly to cover her face with her hat when I was trying to take this picture. BTW, this is one of the goodwill dresses I got for Julia to play dress-up with.


Being silly emptying out MiMi's bookcase!


Enjoying her very own coffee. (Her second one of the morning!!!)

Latest baby bump

Took a new belly picture this weekend. After a really early belly explosion, it had finally calmed down in the last couple of weeks so I look like a normal pregnant person again. But the bump grew again this week. Little Jude seems to be happy and growing big! I am 18 weeks, 1 day pregnant in this picture.


I stopped at the craft store today and picked up yarn to start the baby blanket for this little one. I don't like the baby boy colors, so I decided to go with bright colors for this blanket. I think it will look really neat once done.

King a kong

I thought I posted this weeks ago, but I don't see it.

When Jerrod was little had a hard time with the letter "s". So when he would say he wanted to sing a song, it came out "hing a hong". He put a "h" when the "s" should be. He eventually grew out of it, but it is a fond memory of his mom's and she tells us the story on occasion.

Seems like his daughter has the same issue! Julia can say the letter "s" in certain words, but not others. A couple weeks ago she was talking about how she was going to sing a song and it came out "king a kong"!! LOL She puts a "k" where the "s" should be.

Like father, like daughter!

Night terrors

Julia occasionally gets nightmares (night terrors is technically what they are called in kids this young). She will go weeks and weeks without having any, then she will have them for several nights in a row. Apparently that is normal for night terrors.

She has been having them again this week. She cries for me, but you can tell she is not fully awake either. I will rock her for awhile and she will usually be fine for the rest of the night (although some nights she is up 2 or 3 times with them). It is like she just needs me there to assure her everything is alright.

From what I have read and people I have talked to, night terrors are very common at this age. I guess their brains are working so hard processing new things and learning new things, that sometimes it has a hard time "shutting off" at night. And that is what causes the night terrors (or so they think).

I can totally relate with the brain not shutting off at night. I have that problem a lot. I also have a problem with nightmares (although it is much better than it used to be).

So while it is normal, it still upsets me that she is having them. Julia does not seemed phased by them at all, however. Hopefully this passed soon.

Green bus, white bus..

Driving home from daycare last night we passed a school bus. Julia immediately said "yellow school bus!". Shortly there after, a green public transportation bus drive by. To which Julia said "green bus". But then she asked "Where is the white bus?". You see, most mornings there is a white public transportation bus parked at the bus stop next to the daycare. I think it is on break at that time.

So Julia had seen the green bus and the yellow school bus, so she wanted to know where the white bus was at!

She really likes telling me the colors of all the vehicles that go by.

Out of the mouth of Julia

Here are a few recent things I have heard Julia say....

She loves singing along to songs, even if it is one of my CD's that she does not know the words to. If she does not know the words, she just sings "Blah, blah, blah" at the top of her lungs! It is so funny to hear.

This morning I was finishing up getting ready in my bedroom when I hear her over the monitor say "I stand on the kitty". This confused me and I began to wonder if on of our cats had gotten into her room. When I got into her room, she was standing in the middle of her Hello Kitty quilt on the big kitty in the middle. She looked at me, smiled and said "I stand on the kitty". She thought it was really neat. Silly girl!

Yesterday there were a couple "big trucks" outside our house. They were trimming the trees around the power lines. Julia is fascinated by "big trucks" so she was intently watching them. When she asked "What they doin'?", I told her they were cutting the trees. Then this morning we see the same trucks on our way to daycare. Julia says "big trucks". I tell her yes, they are big trucks. She then surprised me by saying "cutting trees". She remembered that those same trucks were cutting trees yesterday!

Nights with daddy!

I am attending a series of meetings for work that are every Tuesday night for 8 weeks. Jerrod has to watch Julia and put her to bed on those nights. Apparently a lot of Elmo gets watched on those nights!!LOL

I send Jerrod a text at the break in our meeting wondering how Julia was doing. I got a reply that they had watched Potty Time Elmo twice (which Julia calls "Elmo's Daddy" because it has Elmo's dad in it), had a bath and were watching The Best of Elmo (which Julia calls "Elmo Julia", because it has Julia Roberts in it and Julia think it is really neat Elmo says her name) right before bedtime. That is a LOT of Elmo. But it keeps Julia happy and that keeps daddy happy.

I think Julia enjoys her nights with daddy. She is becoming more and more of a daddy's girl. She is actually preferring Jerrod over me on certain things and at certain times. That is just fine with me. BUT.... I do know when she is hurt, upset, or just plain tired, only mommy will do. But it is a start.

Computer time and cooking..

Yesterday while supper was baking away in the oven and Julia was watching Elmo, I pulled out my laptop to check email. I just could not stand Elmo again.

I was on the computer about 5 or10 minutes when Julia walked over to me, pushed the laptop closed and said "I don't like you on the 'puter"!!! WHAT!?! Even though, she was watching Elmo, I was still not allowed on the computer and had to pay attention to HER!! It was too cute to hear her say "'puter" though..

We had home-made 6 cheese stuffed manacotti for supper last night. Jerrod and Julia helped make it. Jerrod shredded the cheeses and Julia helped him mix them all together. She also made sure the cheese smelled and tasted fine!!LOL She would stick her nose in the bowl and smell it. She had a spoon to help stir it, I think a bit of the cheese was tried to make sure it was just perfect!

I have been trying really hard to let her help cook. Sunday she helped make Chocolate Chip Cookies. I did not even like them since baby boy apparently does not like me having sweets. But I knew Julia would enjoy helping make them and she would love eating them. She helped add the sugar and such. But then she decided her hands needed washed and that was the end of the helping, the water was much more fun!

Bucket

Julia seems stuck on the word "bucket".

The grocery basket was a "bucket".

The box our new grill came in was a "bucket". She really like that bucket and played in it for quite awhile.

I try telling her the correct names, but they are still "buckets" to her.

Day off with Mommy

I had the day off from work because of the holiday. Since it is so rare to have a day off without any plans, I thought it would be a night day to spend with Julia, doing things she would like. I thought about taking her to the Boonshoft Museum, but I figured it would be crowded with most of the schools being off. Julia recently discovered she likes shopping, but I also figured the mall would be crowded, so I thought about a few things around here.

We started off watching a few cartoons in the morning after breakfast. Then we went grocery shopping, where Julia proceeded to give me a heart attack. She likes sitting in the main part of the cart, not the kid seat. Well today she refused to stay sitting and I was afraid she was going to tumble out onto the concrete floor. And she almost did!! At one point she stood up AGAIN. So I stopped the cart to get her to sit down. Well stopping the cart threw her off balance enough that she fell backwards out of the cart!!!! ACK!! A managed to grab a foot, she managed to grab the cart with one hand and a nice old man who was walking by also helped catch her. So she never hit the floor and was not hurt in anyway other than being pretty scared. After comforting her, I put her in the kid seat and strapped her in, she did not object like normal. Julia was wiping away her tears after she stopped crying and said "tears, tears".

We stopped at home just long enough to put the groceries away and change her diaper.

We then headed off to Goodwill. I was in search of some fancy dresses Julia can use to play dress-up with. I found some cute ones and bought them about 2 sizes to big, that way they will work for awhile. The checkout lady at Goodwill was quite appalled however, that I was just going to use these fancy dresses for play! Oh well. I got about 6 dresses, a skirt and a hat for Julia all for about $15. I would pay more that that for just ONE play dress at a store!

After Goodwill we stopped at a used book store I recently discovered. Julia ran around all the books while I looked. Luckily there were few customers and the owner did not seem to mind. I picked out a few books for me and a few for Julia. I even found some Sesame Street ones for her!

As we were checking out at the book store, I thought it smelled like Julia had just pooped her diaper. I did not bring the diaper bag with me and we were only a few minutes from home, so she just had to wait to be changed. When I put her in her car seat, she said "I sit on my poop!!"!! I about bust a gut laughing. Yes sweetie, you are sitting on your poop until we can get home to change you. When we got home and I was unstrapping her, she said again "I sitting on my poop!"

It was lunch time when we got home. Naptime comes right after lunch! I bought stuff that she can help make stuffed cheese manacotti tonight for supper!

All in all, I think Julia is having a fun day. I am trying to enjoy these days while I can because soon the baby will be here.

Coming out of her shell!

Julia is definitely starting to come out of her shell!

Debbie is a school teacher and since Jerry watches Julia on Friday's she thought it would be nice for Julia to come in today and have lunch with her. This way Debbie can show her friends and co-workers the little granddaughter she is always talking about.

This is the email I just received from Debbie

You would not have believed Julia today at lunch. The longer she was here
the bolder she got. When the end of lunch bell rang she was running down
the hall toward all the kids. Everyone knew her name. She spoke to all of
my friends and gave several of them a high five. Where did she get that? I
was astonished at our shy little girl.

Okay, that is not the same Julia she used to be. Julia used to hide from strangers and she especially did not do crowds.

I have a feeling she might become quite the socialite!

First baby pictures!

I thought I would post baby boy's first pictures (and yes we have a name picked out).



Once we finally got him to move he left little doubt on his gender!

Yhew.....and we know the gender!!!!

Had my ultrasound this morning for my painful cramping. Everything looked GREAT!!! Cervix was closed and long, the placenta was fully attached and great, and the baby was just fine. The baby was actually measuring ahead!! But that does not come as a surprise to anyone. My family just makes big babies, Julia was always measuring ahead too! The baby was moving and a grooving. Waving and kicking. It was so neat to see. At first the ultrasound tech thought that the placenta might be covering my cervix some, but she switched to a different type of ultrasound and said it looked fine. Not on the cervix at all and higher than she thought.

This was such a feeling of relief!! I was so nervous because these cramps felt exactly like my second miscarriage! Good to know that the cramps are not doing anything other than scaring me. I can live with cramps as long as the baby is not effected by them.

The tech spend a long time measuring everything. She then tried to find out the gender, since we should be able to tell by now. Well I did not think we were going to be able to tell because the baby was sitting Indian style with its legs crossed and feet tucked under its butt! But she finally got the baby to move and we got the money shot!! My gut feeling had been right! We are having a BOY!!!! As soon as he finally moved to were we could see, there was very little doubt he was a boy! With Julia I just knew as soon as I was pregnant that she was a girl. This time I did not have that right away, but I had been getting a pretty strong feeling in the past couple weeks that the baby was a boy. Good to know that my instincts were right.

I was sad that Jerrod was not there to see it, but he will be at my 20 week ultrasound in a couple weeks, so he will get to see it all then!

I am so glad that I have midwives who understand my history and had no problem ordering an ultrasound just to double check that everything was okay and give me the reassurance I needed. I was really scared over this and now can calm down and relax.

We are excited to be having a boy, although we would have been just as happy with another girl. A healthy baby is our main goal! Having one of each will be neat though!

Unexpected ultrasound tomorrow

Long story short, I have been having some bad cramps since yesterday. They got worse today and were actually starting to get painful. With my past history of multiple miscarriages, I was getting scared. I called the midwife on call and she had me come in to get checked out. The baby's heartbeat was nice and strong. She checked me and said she did not see any blood and my cervix was tight and closed. Not really sure the cause of the cramps, although she did not seem overly concerned about them. But since that really did not reassure me and she knows my past history, I am going to have a quick ultrasound tomorrow just to be sure everything looks fine (the ultrasound tech was already gone for the day or I would have had one right then).

So right now I am supposed to be drinking LOTS of water and staying off my feet as much as possible (which is pretty impossible with a 2 yr old!).

I'm sure everything is just fine, but it still scares me.

In for trouble!

I always knew Julia was a girly-girl, with always wanting to dress up and have jewelry on. But these last couple of days have confirmed it is even worse than I thought!

I don't like to shop. I go probably twice a year. I just get frustrated with the crowds and not finding anything that works for me. But, I needed some new maternity tops and since Julia is wanting to wear dresses with pockets, so off to the mall we go. I decided to take Julia with me and give Jerrod some alone time at home. If figured I would have to shop fast with Julia along.

Nope. She LOVED shopping. We went all over the mall in many different stores and even went to Target afterward. She was great the whole time! She did not really fuss to get out of the stroller. I found several outfits for her and several maternity tops for me. When I was trying on some clothes, Julia wanted out of the stroller, so I let her out. She then saw I was changing and decided that she needed to change too. So I put one of the new dresses I just bought on her. She was so excited!

After I was done in the maternity store I put her back in the stroller and since she had been so good and she was hungry, I bought her a m&m cookie and an Icee! A lot of sugar, I know, but it was a special treat.

Here she is in her new pink dress (that she picked out) eating her treats!


It just scares me how much she enjoys shopping! She loved picking out outfits for herself.

Then this morning I was getting ready for work and Julia was in the bathroom with me. Now, I rarely wear makeup, only a few times a year. Well, Julia found the drawer the makeup was in and was using the brush to put some on. She then opened the press powder and put some on her cheeks. It was like she knew EXACTLY how to put makeup on!!

I think I am in real trouble in a few years!

Some of Julia's recent sayings

Of course Julia is still talking like crazy. It still amazes me that we can carry on full conversations now. She also repeats EVERYTHING we say. And I do mean everything! Julia has also picked up on several sayings that she now uses all the time.

Everyday when we get home, I bring Julia in the house, tell her "I'll be right back" and then get the rest of the stuff out of the van. Well, now Julia is constantly telling us "I'll be right back" and then takes off to another part of the house. Or gets in her toy car and pretends to drive away.

Since we only live a couple miles from the airport and our daycare is just a couple of blocks from the airport, we see airplanes daily. Julia likes to spot the airplanes. It used to be that she would just say "Airplane" (which actually sounds like airpane) when she saw one. Now she says "Airplane in the sky" or "Airplane go bye-bye".

Then being the little smartie she is, she will say things the way she wants us to say them. Like every night I usually rock Julia at bedtime. I will ask her if she wants "mommy to rocky you or you want to go to bed". She usually wants rocked first. Occasionally she will say "mommy rocky you", because that is what she wants ME to say!! Another example is that a couple months ago when she started eating at the table, she put her foot on the table. After nurmerous times of telling her to put it down, I finally told her "Daddy is going to kiss you if you put your foot on the table" (daddy kisses are icky, you know). Well now she thinks it is a game and when she WANTS daddy kisses, she will put her foot on the table and say "daddy kiss you".

Love of music

Julia really likes music. She will actually sing along to songs now. The funny part is the music she likes. Sure she likes Elmo songs and the other little kid songs, but she also sings along to; The Beatles, Pink, Green Day, the soundtrack from Juno (She LOVES this CD), and MANY more.

It is really funny to see a 2 yr old singing to Alternative Rock!!!LOL

Elmo overload!!

Julia used on of those kiddie foam chairs at a cousin's house. Then at daycare I noticed that she like to lounge in their big foam chair and read. So we went off to the store this week in search of a foam chair of her very own. Of course Julia picked the Elmo chair!! She is loving it!!

Here she is, sitting in her Elmo chair, holding her Elmo doll, and watching her Elmo DVD!!!!

ABC's

Julia has been singing her ABC's for quite awhile now, but not completely. She would leave gaps in letters and such.

Then last night we were singing in the car and she sang the ENTIRE ABC's all by HERSELF!!! I did not help at all! And she got it entirely RIGHT!!! She even said the ending "Now I said my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me".

She is such a big girl!!

Pockets

Julia has recently discovered that some of her pants have pockets. She is now loving pockets. Every morning this week she had told me "Pockets, mommy". She wants to make sure I pick out an outfit with pockets in it.

This is rather hard. I prefer leggings for Julia, so that is what a lot of her pants are. They are just a better fit on her than jeans, or jeans-like pants.

She has also been asking to wear a "dress" a lot lately. I was not sure if she was asking to get dressed or if she actually wanted to wear a dress. Unfortunately for Julia, she really does not have any dresses right now. We had a fancy one for Christmas, but that is pretty much it! It is just too cold to wear dresses right now! This summer she can wear a bunch of sun dresses. They will be cute on her.

Nest

It is funny to go in to get Julia every morning and see she has made a little nest for herself in her crib. With all the stuff she has in her crib, I am not surprised.

First she has to have Elmo and BOTH babies in the crib with her, and they EACH need their own blanket. Then Julia has her Blankie. Add to that her pillow and the quilt I use to cover her up with each night. Then take into account the couple other dolls, books, and pillows that live in the crib. That makes for a lot of stuff!!

Normally there is more than enough space for Julia to sleep in because I make sure the other stuff is in the corners. But during the night and early morning, Julia re-arranges her crib so all this "stuff" is surrounding her like a little nest. You can barely see the crib mattress when she is done!

16 week appointment

I had my 16 week appointment with my midwife this morning. Everything looked great!! Found the heartbeat right away and it was beating nice and strong! I explained that my symptoms seem to be happening much sooner this time compared to being pregnant with Julia. I was in maternity clothes MUCH sooner, round ligament pain was sooner, pelvic bone pain was sooner, etc... I figured it was normal to feel all this sooner this time, my midwife confirmed it. Julia had stretched everything out already so I am going to experience the symptoms sooner. She also said that I will probably experience new symptoms I never had with Julia too. She is right on that. The morning sickness is SO MUCH WORSE this time. What I did have with Julia mainly stopped by the 2nd trimester, but this time I am still struggling with morning sickness someday. Not NEARLY as bad as it was in the 1st tri, but it still pops up often. I also have a new symptom I never had with Julia; bladder control issues. Just what you wanted to read about, huh? But I wanted to record this pregnancy and it is an issue, so there it is. I think Julia smashed my bladder too much. Now, occasionally when I sneeze, I will leak a little... Lovely, I know. That is why they make pantie liners I guess. I really hope this does not get worse as the pregnancy progresses and the baby gets bigger and smashes my bladder!

My next appointment is the BIG ultrasound where they take all the measurments to make sure the baby is growing like it should and that it has a brain, 4 chambers to it's heart, organs, etc... It is also the time were we will get to find out the gender of this baby, if it cooperates! I am getting excited. I am also looking forward to finding out the gender. With Julia I just KNEW right away that she was a girl, this time I really don't have a feeling one way or the other. That is driving me NUTS. I feel like I should have a Mother's Intuition or something on the gender. I think maybe girl, but I think that might because I am used to being pregnant with a girl. Then I think maybe a boy, but it that because Jerrod calls this baby "his son" (he would be just as thrilled with a girl)? I also am thinking maybe boy since this pregnancy is SO different then with Julia, but then "they" say, every pregnancy is different. Hopefully we will find out in a month!

"Jump! JUMP!!"

I walk in to get Julia this morning and she is standing up in her crib smiling at me. She then yells "Jump! JUMP! Jump!!" as she is holding on the the side of her crib and jumping. I guess a crib mattress makes a great trampoline. LOL

I actually am happy to see this! I have been trying to get Julia to jump for quite some time now. She understand she needs to bend her knees and and then quickly straighten them, but she never gets her feet off the ground. She might get up to her tip toes, but never off the ground. This is really something she should be doing already by this age. I am not worried and try not to focus on the milestones she should be hitting. She as always lagged behind in gross motor skills (crawled late, walked late, etc..). I never worried because she has always been ahead in fine motor skills and WAY ahead in her verbal skills (she was saying sentences before her first birthday). I just figured, ahead in one area meant a lag in another area.

So I stopped even thinking about it. But I was still excited this morning to see her jumping in her bed. Partly because it is a gross motor skill she had yet to learn, but mostly because she was so happy and excited to be doing it. She thought it was so neat to be jumping on her bed! I am sure one day soon I will be yelling at her to stop jumping on her bed!!LOL

Still up late playing!

I am not sure if I should try to stop this out not.

Julia is still staying up for hours after bedtime playing in her crib. Her bedtime is 8pm. All week it has been 9:30-10pm before she finally goes to sleep. She just sits and plays in her crib that long. She still wakes up at the same time in the morning.

I was telling daycare about this yesterday morning and she said the same thing is happening at nap times there. The Caregiver said that Julia is now the FIRST child she goes to and rubs her back until she falls asleep (Julia prefers to sleep on her tummy). Otherwise Julia doesn't go to sleep and just chatters away on her cot the entire naptime!

What a weird child. I guess I will let it go on awhile longer since she is not fussing and does not act any more tired during the day. If it starts to because a problem, then we will have to figure out what we are going to do.

My empathic child...

Poor Julia. She has such empathy, even if it is slightly misplaced!!

Julia has this Best of Elmo DVD that she loves!! We watched it 3 times this weekend alone! Well, there is one part in the DVD where Elmo is explaining the difference between heavy and light. Elmo is holding a feather and another monster (I think it might be Cookie Monster) is carrying a load of bricks. At the end of the skit, Cookie Monster cannot hold the bricks anymore because they are just too heavy and he falls with all the bricks falling on top of him. The skit ends there. This ending upsets Julia greatly! She cries and gets upset EVERY TIME!! So is so worried that Cookie Monster got hurt. EVERY TIME it takes several minutes (and several hugs) of us telling her it is okay, Cookie Monster and Elmo are not hurt before she calms down and can watch the rest of the DVD.

I would stop playing this DVD for her because of this, but she LOVES it otherwise and is constantly asking to watch it. I think she really likes it because Julia Roberts is in one of the skits and Julia thinks it is really neat that Elmo says her name repeatedly (as he is talking to Julia Roberts). I think I need to order a few more Elmo DVD's so we can rotate them.

What a empathic soul.....

At least she was not fussing!

Julia did not fall asleep for her nap yesterday until late. She played in her crib for over an hour. So at 4:30pm I finally woke her up because I knew she would not go to bed at regular time if she slept too late.

So bedtime comes around and she willingly goes in her room for it. So I am rocking her in the dark, per normal, except she just does not want to lay down in her crib. Every time I tell her that it is time to lay down in bed and go to sleep, she tells me "No, mommy rocky". So I rock her some more. After 20 minutes I see she is no closer to sleep than when we started and Julia is still playing around; giving kisses, re-arranging her Elmo and Blankie in my lap, playing with my hair, etc.. So I finally tell her play time it over and it is time for bed. She lets me tuck her in and I figure she will go to sleep shortly. Minutes tick by and I realize Julia is talking to herself in her crib. She is playing with her crib toys and doing pretend play with Elmo and her babies. I am just listening to it all on the baby monitor.

But she keeps going..... An hour goes by and she is still playing in her crib! Since she is not fussing or crying, I really don't want to go in her room. So I just let her play knowing it is dark in there and she will eventually fall asleep.

Finally around 10pm the talking stops and she is finally asleep!! That girl played in her crib in a dark room for 2 HOURS!!! I am amazed that she did not fuss to get up in all that time!

I thought it would be a struggle to get her up this morning, but she was up at normal time. I heard her first stir at 6:30am! I just hope she was not in a bad mood for daycare!

Felt the baby MOVE!!!

I thought I might have been feeling the baby move for the last week or so, but was not certain it was the baby and not gas/twinges/etc..

So Saturday morning Jerrod and I are laying in bed listen to Julia in her crib playing with Elmo and her baby over the baby monitor. I thought I might be feeling the baby again, so I took Jerrod's hand and placed it on my belly and asked "do you feel anything".(Actually I said "can you feel your son" since Jerrod has been calling the baby a boy from the beginning.) After a few seconds, he says "Yep, I felt that". So I was not crazy after all and I have been feeling the baby!!

THEN, later that afternoon I was sitting in the chair relaxing and I felt a hard "thump"! That was definitely a kick!! Either this kid is really strong or really big, because I was not expecting such a hard kick this early!!

This is quite exciting. It helps make this pregnancy seem much more real. I been so busy taking care of Julia, that I really have not focused much on this pregnancy. So feeling movement is a little reminder that, oh yeah, there is a baby in there!!! LOL

Mommy's helper?

I have a feeling Julia is going to be a BIG Mommy's helper when this new baby comes.

She has recently gotten into doll babies. She is a complete mother to them. Complete with diapering them, kissing them, wrapping them up in a blanket, putting them down for naps, etc.. We had wondered what this would mean when the baby got here. We got a taste of what is to come this weekend.

My next younger sister had a baby last week. Because of the snow, we finally got up to she her and the baby on Saturday. Julia was FASCINATED by this baby. She just wanted to hold him, hug him, kiss him, touch him, etc... Unfortunately, she is two and can be a little rough. It was so hard to she her wanting to love on the baby so much, but trying to teach her "gentle" so she would not hurt the baby.

I think I am going to have more of a helper than I ever wanted with Julia once the new baby comes. Two steps forward, one step back... Oh well, I just hope she loves her siblings as much as she liked her new cousin, Gavin.