Easter

Easter was a BLAST this year. I still remember Julia's first Easter with her crying the ENTIRE day from her colic. I remember spending most of the holiday in a back room away from everyone trying to get her to stop crying. What a difference 2 years make!!! Julia had soooooo much fun, and we just LOVED watching her.

The festivities started on Saturday with an Easter Egg hunt at the County park, Julia's first ever egg hunt. They had live bunnies there for the kids to pet and hold. When we first went up to the bunnies, she liked them, but did not want to touch them, she just wanted to watch them. Then about 15-20 minutes later when everyone else went off to watch the puppet show, we walked over to the bunnies again. She really liked them, but was still not too sure about them. Then a little boy about her age held one and he really liked it, so Julia decided it must not be too bad and actually wanted to hold one!!!

Here she is with "Romeo", a dwarf bunny.


She actually held Romeo for a bit. She really liked him and kept petting him.


Then came the egg hunt! Her Aunt Ninnie helped her since mommy's pregnant belly is starting to get in the way of bending! She actually did really well!!


Showing off the eggs she found with Aunt Ninnie. You can see just how excited she was!


After that egg hunt, it was off to change clothes and drive to my Grandpa's house for supper. Julia fell asleep in the van and was not happy about being woken up only 30 minutes into her nap!

Here she is on Daddy's lap trying to wake up (she takes after her mommy and takes awhile to wake up.)


They had an egg hunt at Grandpa's house for the 4 great-grandkids. So Julia got to do TWO egg hunts in one day! She was excited and really knew what to do the second time around!

Here she found one on the bush, but did not want to step in the mud to get it! Silly girl!


She decided to find the ones in the grass instead...


Checking out what is inside each egg, MONEY in this one!


Having Aunt Stacey help her inspect all of her eggs.


Eating her candy on Daddy's lap.


An attempt at getting all 5 great-grankids with their great-grandpa. Julia did not want to sit for the picture, she wanted to go find more candy.


Easter morning checking out our Easter basket. When we showed it to her and said that the Easter Bunny came, she was pretty confused, but thought it was neat anyway....


"Is this chocolate in here?"


"It IS chocolate!!" FYI, she got craft supplies in her basket; foam shapes, pom poms, safety scissors, glue, etc.. and of course, candy!


After a morning of too much chocolate, we went to Jerrod's family lunch and then to my Grandma's for an open house-type thing. Julia got NO nap, but still did GREAT! She just ran around and laughed and played. She also had a steady stream of candy all day! She thinks Easter is GREAT fun!

Coloring Easter Eggs

Julia and I dyed Easter Eggs this morning. It actually went a lot better than I expected!! I laid plastic down on the table and floor and put one of my old t-shirts on Julia. We only has one major spill and 2 cracked eggs. The cracked eggs are from Julia trying to take the eggs out of the cups and set them on the rack (and dropping them) while I was trying to clean up the spill.

I think Julia had fun! She did try to drink some, but quickly realized that vinegar taste bad!!LOL

Helping stir and check on all the eggs....



Checking to see how the egg is looking....


Waiting is hard to do....


She was quite excited about the eggs.

MRI tomorrow

Jerrod has to have a MRI tomorrow. A couple months ago he was helping his parents move some furniture and hurt his shoulder. Now, months later, it is still really bothering him. He finally saw the dr. about it this week. The dr. thinks it is probably nothing serious, but wanted to do a MRI just to rule out any tears or damage. It could possibly be a rotator cuff issue.

Hopefully we hear the results soon and it is nothing major...

Her name and big trucks.

I wanted Julia to know her name in case we were every to get separated and she needed to tell someone. So last week we worked on it, it was just not something I thought about doing until then. Of course she picked it up right away. It is soooo cute to hear her say "Julia Lynn *last name*". (I am not posting our last name for internet security reasons). If you ask her what my name is, she says "Mommy Lynn *last name*" and Jerrod's is "Daddy Lynn *last name*". Well, I think she at least got mine right because my middle name is also Lynn...

Julia has recently become fascinated by big trucks (semis and such). She is always talking about the big trucks when driving. She has realized that she will she the most big trucks when I am driving on the interstate. So now when I am getting ready to get on the interstate she says "Going to the big trucks", and when we exit she says "Bye bye big tucks" or "Big trucks all gone".

Preschool swimming lessons

You might remember me posting several posts back about how Julia's swimming teacher said to enroll her into the Preschool class even though she is almost a year too young. Well, the Preschool swimming class started last night. Julia it GREAT!! There were only 5 kids in her class and 2 teachers, which was great! The pictures are poor quality because I was trying to stay far away so she would focus on the teacher and not pay attention to me. This is her first swimming class where I was not in the water with her. The teacher recognized Julia, came up, took Julia's hand and said "lets put our feet in the water". That was all the invite Julia needed and she was off. Did not even glance back at mommy, sniff...

She did great the entire class! She went underwater, she floated, she jumped in, she laid the sides of her head in the water, etc.. Only once did I see her cry, but I think it was because they made her hold hands with a boy! Boys are icky, don't you know?LOL The teacher was impressed and said she did really well.

Oh, several times the teacher had to carry the 3 girls in the class through water too deep for them to walk in. So she had them all wrap their arms around each other so they were all connected and carried them that way. It was so cute....

Waiting with one of her teachers for the class to start.


Waiting her turn to float


Playing and singing


The teacher giving Julia a High-five because she went underwater all by herself.


Doing another activity


Julia's favorite part of swimming classes, the Froggy Slide!! I think she went down it 3 or 4 times. The teacher finally had to tell her that she was done and needed to go to her mommy!

Singing

Julia LOVES to sing songs. I am really impressed at just how well she does singing. She really does have the rhythm and tunes down!

Her favorites right now are:
Twinkle, Twinkle
B-I-N-G-O (although she just likes to sing BINGO over and over)
Rock-A-Bye Baby
Five Little Monkeys
Wheels on the Bus
Old MacDonald
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Shake the Sillys Out
and a few I am now forgetting.

Also the other day Jerrod lit a candle that we got as a Christmas gift (we normally don't use candles in our house. Too many cats to get into it.). As soon as Jerrod lit it, Julia started singing "Happy Birthday to you....". It was so cute! I did not know she even knew that song!

She will also sing along to songs from my CD collection. She knows many words to many songs by: The Beatles, Pink, the Juno soundtrack and many more. If she does not know the words, she sings along anyway. She just makes up her own words!!LOL

I think we are going to have to get her into some sort of music lessons as some point soon.....

Apples and Play-Doh

Julia discovered that she likes eating whole apples....




Monday we played with some new Play-Doh toys. They were a BIG hit and I got them super cheap!


Julia liked the scissors that came with it.


She also really liked this noodle making machine!


And one final picture. What Julia calls "Julia's 'puter". It is supposed to go over a regular keyboard and that way she can play games with it on the computer, but she likes it just as it is.

Fun Sunday

Julia had a fun Sunday!

She spent Saturday night over at Mimi and Bappa's. We met for Sunday lunch to get her back. After lunch, Julia and I drove down to Cincinnati. (Well, I drove, she slept). Julia woke up right as we arrived. There was a store down there I wanted to go to. They were doing an informal seminar on cloth diapering and I wanted to check it out. (BTW, I am getting really frustrated about all the flack I am getting about wanting to try cloth diapering. Don't they realize that it just makes be want to do it more. Besides, I am going to be the one doing the laundry, not them.) Anyway, we check out the store and seminar. Julia got to play with the toys they had in the store.

We almost got locked into the parking garage! I could not find any street parking, so I parked in a parking garage that was doing parking for $2. Well, I went to leave and the only way to open the gates was to have a key card!! ACK!!! I drove around the parking garage and finally found the maintance shack. I showed them the ticket I was given when I came in and they let me out. Phew!

Then we drive closer downtown and parked. We went to Fountian Square. We saw horse-drawn carriages that Julia thought were neat. They Julia just wanted to play in the fountian, so I let her. After we played in the fountian for awhile and ate some ice-cream, we went and visited Jerrod's sister. Julia loves her Aunt Ninnie!

It was almost 6pm by the time we headed home! It was after 7pm before we got home. Julia slept well last night. I think she was wore out, I know I was!

Second week as a SAHM

This is the start of my second week as a SAHM. Everyone keeps asking me how I like it and how I am dealing with it. Well..... I LOVE IT!!!

Before I had Julia I NEVER thought I would EVER want to be a SAHM. Once Julia was born, I thought it might be nice, but knew there was nothing I could do about it, so just let it go. Now that I am a SAHM (for awhile at least), I am loving it! I never thought I would like it as much as I do. I am having a blast with Julia. When I was working, I worked 50+ hours a week, including a lot of night meetings. So I would rush to pick up Julia from daycare, rush home and throw something together for supper, try to do a little cleaning, shortly after supper it was bathtime for Julia, then after bathtime, it was time for Julia to go to bed. I felt like I barely got any time with her, and the time I did get, I was always rushed or trying to do 5 other times at the same time. Now everything is just so much more relaxed. I can sit and just play with Julia for hours! We walk to the library, we walk to the park, we play with Play-Doh, and we make cupcakes!

The only problem I see is that I don't know where all my time is going! I thought now that I am home all day, I would have all this time to do projects that I never get a chance to do. Boy, was I wrong! I know I am busy all day, but at the end of the day, it seems nothing got accomplished! I guess I just need to realize all the quality time I spend with Julia accounts for a lot!

I do know it is going to be REALLY rough for me to go back to work once I do finally find a job...

Viability

Today is the day "they" say this pregnancy hits viability. Basically, that means, if this baby was to be born today, they would try to save him. The odds of survival still would not be good and he would probably have a whole host of issues if he did, but it is possible at this point.

I also had my 24 week appointment today. Jerrod was able to come since it was at the end of the day. I was so busy focusing on Julia and what she was doing, that I missed all the measurements. Julia got to hear the baby's heartbeat. My midwife was so glad to see Julia too. She was the one that was there through both miscarriages and my pregnancy with Julia. I think the last time she saw Julia was at my postpartum when she was 6 weeks old!

Major potty training step!!

Julia pooped in the potty all by herself this morning!!! This is the first time she has pooped in the potty, so a major success. What was even better, was that she did it all on her own! I was in the shower when I hear her in the bathroom playing. I look out to see Julia naked! I asked what she was doing and she said she was using the potty. I told her that was great and use the potty then!! Less than a minute later I hear her saying "poop, poop!". I look out to she her standing over her potty chair looking at the poop! She actually did it!!

I think she was a little freaked by it though... Like it scared her that her poop was in the potty. But I have read that this is normal, so I was not too worried about it. I just gave her LOTS of praise, telling her what a good job she did. I even let her call daddy at work so she could tell him what she did!

What I don't get, is that she will occasionally go and use the potty all on her own, but when I ask if she needs to go or tell her to sit on the potty, she refuses!! I don't want to force the issue, I just wish I understand what was going on in the little head of hers....

Using her words

It is just so funny to hear what comes out of Julia's mouth. Here are some of the recent ones...

We walked to the library yesterday. The library is located right next to a Burger King. As we were walking past the Burger King, Julia points to it and says "Walk in there, mommy!". Since we were trying to make storytime, we did not stop. But since it was 12:30pm by the time we left the library and we had not had lunch yet, we stopped at the Burger King on the walk home.

At the library, I picked up a couple books for Julia. As we were walking towards the counter, she said "Pay for them, mommy!".LOL She knows that you have to pay for things (or in this case, check them out) before you leave the store with them.

Last night Julia was upstairs with Jerrod. I was in the living room doing something else. Jerrod started calling for me "Sue, Sue". Not 2 seconds later, Julia hollers down the stairs "Sue, Sue". I told her "you supposed to call me mommy!", to which Jerrod replies "don't be like that". Of course Julia then immediately tells me "don't be like that mommy"! Oh boy!

Then this morning she called me "Sue" again. But then eating breakfast she said "Jerrod at work, Jerrod at work.". I had to chuckle and tell her that yes, Jerrod was at work!

Storytime and car cart

We have gone to storytime at the library two days in a row now. Yesterday was the preschool storytime for kids 3+ and today was baby storytime for babies up to 36 months. I did not know which one Julia would like the best, so I thought I would try both. Still not sure which one is best, but I am leaning towards the preschool one.

We walked to the library both days. Phew, that walk is a lot harder when you are 6 months pregnant!! (it is about 1-1.5 mile walk, one-way) Julia is loving the stroller rides. I think the fresh air and all the excitement wore her out yesterday. She took a 3.5 hour nap!! I actually had to wake her up or I feared I was never going to get her to go to bed that night.

She is supposed to be napping now so I can go out and mow a few long spots in the yard before it rains tonight, but she is just talking away in her crib. I did not want to go out to mow until she is actually asleep. She has to be tired (I know I am), so hopefully she falls asleep soon.

Then late yesterday afternoon, we went to the grocery store. As soon as she saw where we were going she started yelling "car, mommy, car"! Last weekend when Jerrod's parent's had her, they took her grocery shopping and got one of those carts with the car attached to the front for her. That is what she was wanting this time! She kept yelling "car" until we parked, got out and found a cart with a car attached to it. She did really well staying in the car for most of the store. She occasionally climbed out. She had a few requests at the grocery store (bagels and apples).

Overall, Julia is really loving having mommy home all day, although she is still asking about her friends from daycare daily. I am also really enjoying the SAHM thing, although I am a lot busier than I thought. I don't know where the day goes....

Cheese, cheese and more cheese

Julia really loves cheese...

She can get it out of the refrigerator herself and does so several times a day. Take today for example. Shortly after breakfast, she went and got herself some cheese (a cheese slice and a cheese stick). Then another cheese slice and cheese stick while I was making lunch. Her third round came when she woke up from her nap (again a cheese slice and cheese stick). She actually wanted MORE cheese right before supper while I was putting awhile groceries, but I was able to get her to eat an apple instead.

That is a lot of cheese in one day! It does not seem to be giving her constipation, so I am not too worried about it. At least it is not junk food!

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.