Some things that have made me laugh lately

1. Yesterday I was sitting on the couch while P was in the bathroom and Peanut was running back and forth between us.  She was passing through from our room and got distracted by the TV and parked it right in front of me.  I noticed she had something in her hand.  "Peanut, what is that?"  No response (the TV makes her a zombie baby).  "Give that to Mommy"  And she turns right around and hands the object over.  It was dog vomit.

2.  We were all hanging out in the living room after dinner and P was scrolling through the music channels on our TV (we're trying to cut out TV completely while Peanut is awake...remember, zombie baby).  He passed a channel called "Be-Tween".  He says "I wonder what that channel is?"  "Bieber"  I reply.  He selected it and guess who's voice comes out of the speakers?

3.  Part of our bedtime routine for Peanut is playing in her room while she winds down for story time.  Tonight she got out her doctor kit and was running around "fixing" her baby dolls.  She decided she needed her Daddy to help her out and somehow got P play along.  I look over and see a pink and purple stethoscope in his ears listening to a baby doll's heartbeat.  Betcha he never thought he would be doing that two years ago!

Dear Little Peanut,

You are 17 MONTHS OLD!  It's summer and we are having a blast with you doing all the things summer demands.  It is so much fun seeing you discover things like watermelon, popsicles, running through the sprinklers and Saturday mornings at the pool.  You are the sweetest little girl and give us plenty of hugs and kisses.  You are also so smart and understand much more than we realize.  I can't wait until you really start talking so we can have conversations and I can really see what goes on in that head of yours!

Fact about YOU:

- You are still in size 4 diapers and only use your potty as a place to store your toys.  I'm still just waiting for you to show an interest in potty training.  As soon as you do, we are doing potty boot camp.

- Your hair is getting super blond from the sun.  It's starting to grow into a mullet, but I can't bear to cut it so I just put you in pig tails whenever we go out in public.

- You have dropped your second nap, which means you can have a 2 to 3 hour nap during the day.  I'm sure that makes your Nana happy.

- You are still working on your last teeth.  It makes you cranky and gives you a fever.  We are all sooo ready for teething to be over.  Poor baby.

- Your new favorite food is watermelon.  If you see it in the refrigerator you point and demand to have it immediately.

- Our new summer tradition is to pack up the jogging stroller on Saturday morning and run to the pool.  You love the water and think you can swim already.  You love to be dunked, go under the waterfalls, and slide down the water slide (while Daddy is waiting at the bottom). 

- When we ask you "where is the baby?" you point to my stomach.  So cute.

- You have a bit of an attitude when you hear the word "no".  The level of tantrum is directly correlated to how tired you are and how you feel.  Usually the fit is a few seconds long and then you move on to the next thing.  There are some things that are definitely off limits and when you push those boundaries you go to time out.  This means that you sit in a designated corner for about a minute while we sit with you and remind you to sit on your bottom.  Usually all we have to do is ask you if you want to go to time out and you straighten up.  The other day you were pushing Nana's buttons and she asked you if you wanted to go to time out, and you marched yourself straight to your corner and sat yourself down.  I hope discipline is always this easy!!

We love you so much and every day is amazing with you.  And now, some pictures from the past month:

I know it's mean that I took a picture of your cry face...but it's so cute

 Playing in the sprinklers in the front yard

 Showing off your carrot harvest

 Not bad for our first garden!

 Check out the size of that pepper

 Daddy sent me this pic when you guys took a trip to Whole Foods

 We went to Tampa to visit the fam for Memorial Day.  You loved our trip to the beach and had a blast in the sand.

 Sweetie pie

 Another day in the sprinklers in the backyard.

I'm Coming Out

So...I have a secret.  Anyone want to guess?  Yes!  You got it on the first try.  I'm PREGNANT!!  Anyone want to ask all of those personal questions that you should NEVER ask a pregnant lady but yet seem to fly past everyone's lips without a second thought?  Go ahead.  I'll answer them.

Yes it was planned.
Yes we are excited.
No, we do not think Peanut will be neglected.  But thanks for the confidence in our ability to love our children.
No it's not twins.  Yes I'm sure.  YES I'M SURE.

Can you tell the hormones have kicked in?  The blessed event is scheduled for December 6th.  But we all know that's not set in stone.  I'm currently 13 weeks (14 on Tuesday) and the baby seems to be healthy and thriving.  We had our first trimester screening and while I haven't gotten the results yet, we know it has a head, a body, two legs, two arms, and we even counted five fingers on one hand.  Let's just hope the  other one has five too.  The tech even gave us a guess at the sex, but I'm not going to blab about it publicly yet.  You know, just in case it ends up being the opposite.  I wouldn't want he/she later reading this blog and being mortified that we thought he/she was a she/he.  I'll confirm which it is at my 20 week ultrasound.

I do have to admit that this pregnancy is kicking my butt much harder than the last one.  I've yet to determine if it's just a different pregnancy, or if it's because I'm older/in terrible shape.  I had morning sickness for the whole first trimester.  I still dry heave in the mornings.  Unfortunately this has not stopped the cravings.  I just feel sick after indulging.  I'm also EXHAUSTED all. the. time.  It is sucking the life out of me.  I thought some exercise would help, so I've gotten back to running/walking.  It does put me in a better mood, but makes me even more tired than I was.

I'm also showing a lot earlier this time.  But I'm still in the fat sausage stage, not the cute belly stage.  I'm sure people at work just think I've let myself go entirely.

But, enough with the negative.  Peanut doesn't understand what's going on yet, but she will point to my belly when I ask "where's the baby?".  I'm thrilled that we are able to give her a sibling close to her age.  I know it will be hard with the jealousy at first, but the companionship they'll have later is worth it.

So that's the secret!  I'll take votes for the new baby's nickname.  Almond?  Pistachio?

Dear Little Peanut,

You are 16 MONTHS OLD!  I think you have changed a lot this month, because you get the comment "she's growing up so fast!" all the time lately.  You are a constant source of entertainment in our house and we love hanging out with you.  I'm loving that you like to hang out with us too, since I know that won't last forever.  A lazy afternoon watching you climb all over the furniture is the best way to spend a weekend.

Some facts about YOU:
 - Size 4 diapers, 18-24 month clothes, and close to a size 5 shoe.  I think you had a growth spurt.
 - Your hair is getting longer and I can finally put pigtails in!!  You are not a huge fan, but I'm very persistent.
 - You are starting to try to repeat words.  You said "birds" the other day to Nana, but now you won't say it to us.  I think you think it's funny to watch us say "birds" over and over in your face.
 - You are really into snuggling lately.  If I get you out of your crib and take you into bed with us, you are content to lay there for quite a long time.
 - You can make the pig noise that only I can make.  It's fun to do it back and forth, then watch Nana try to do it.
 - You are in love with Sesame Street.  You also love Elmo.  I'm not going to fight it any more because he makes you so happy.  But I draw the line at a Tickle Me Elmo.
 - You are starting to like your longer books and let me finish each page before trying to turn it.
 - You can point to almost anything we say in almost any book you own.  So smart!
 - You can point to almost every body part.  Your favorite is nose.  You touch yours, then grab mine.
 - Your canine teeth are still trying to come in.  I have a feeling it's going to take a long time.
 - You got a princess potty to start introducing you to potty training.  I sit you on it every night before bath.  You like to sit on it because we make such a big deal about it, but you get bored before anything can happen.  I can't wait until you actually pee on it because it will sing a song and that will make you sooooo happy.
 - You love to go for walks with us and can make it all the way around the block before you get tired.  It takes a looong time because you get distracted very easily, but I love watching you run and "talk" about everything you see.
 - You are having a hard time with Sunday school.  It's right at your nap time and you've had several melt downs when you can't keep it together any more.  I guess we'll just wait until you push your nap up to try again because I hate when you're crying!!!
 - Your favorite food is still banana.

We love you punkin!

The Kidney Stone that Stole Easter

So, we've had one of those weeks.  You know the ones...where you have a consecutive number of weeks where everything is status quo and the only thing you have to complain about is mediocrity (or in my case, whyyyy don't we have tons of moneyyyyy so I can stay home with my babyyyyyyyyyy...I'm not proud of it but that's usually the negative I dwell on), and then BAM.  Everything happens at once.  In this instance it was our health (note that on the big scale of things we are SO BLESSED and what I'm about to complain about is NO BIG DEAL and I realize that).

I started feeling terrible after half of a yummy greasy burger from our local bar and grill.  Which is terrible because I only got to finish half of it and it was amazing.  That night proceeded with much woe and tummy aches and I ended up not eating normal food for a week and missed two days of work.  This only perpetuates the mommy guilt and the employee guilt...you know...I can't feed my child because it makes me want to puke and she's going to forget who I am...I missed a huge day with lots o deadlines and now I'm on the bottom of the Employee of the Year list.  The guilt is almost worse than missing dinner for a week.  Almost.

But wait, there's more!  P had been feeling some groin discomfort (hehe...groin is such a weird word) for a few days, but chalked it up to starting a new workout routine.  However, by Saturday night (the Saturday night before Easter), the pain had grown and was radiating.  After many moans and groans and laps around the house, I suggested that we might want to go to the ER to get things checked out.  P declined.  Of course he did, because he's a MAN and yadda yadda.  So we wait another hour, the Peanut is fast asleep in her crib, and P starts to concede.  "I'll go to the ER if someone can watch Peanut so we don't have to wake her up".  At this point he can barely get the words out because he's in so much pain.  I remind him that my parents are 45 min away, his brother is an hour and a half away, and anyone from church is probably already in bed.  So after giving up his man card, I bundle up the sleeping baby and we hop in the car.

We arrived at the ER without any drama and I actually got Peanut in AND out of the car without waking her.  I was sure she would just sleep on me while we waited, but of course that's completely delusional considering our socialite of a daughter.  As soon as we got in the waiting room her people detector went off and she snapped her head up and started waving "Hi!" at anyone that would look at her.  P did some paperwork and we waited.  At one point he went to go throw up in the bathroom.  He was pacing and sweating and basically looked like he was in labor.  Like, the serious kind of labor where you need someone else to talk you down.  Except instead of holding his hand and breathing with him, I was holding the Peanut while she laughed at him EVERY TIME he moaned in pain.  So then I would laugh.  I would be a terrible birth coach.

They finally called him back, made him pee in a cup, took some blood, then wheeled him into a room.  We followed and made friends with the nurses.  They took him for a CAT scan, and as soon as he got back my parents arrived to grab the Peanut.  At this point she was wide awake and would not go back to sleep for my Mom for a couple hours.  While they went on their merry way, we stayed and waited for results.  It was actually efficient and the on-call Dr. was pretty speedy.  He looked about 12.  Isn't that weird that I'm old enough now to think doctors look young?  I resisted the urge to say "Look here you whippersnapper, go get us a REAL doctor", and listened to what he was saying to P.  Kidney Stones.  Ahhhhhh, that makes sense.  There was a 3mm nugget halfway through his ureter and that's what was causing all the ruckus.  There were also a few hanging out in his kidney, but we would deal with those later.  Right now P was going to get morphine!!  Yay drugs!!  He practically kissed the nurse that gave him his IV and settled in to let the drugs work.  But they didn't.  After about a half hour he sent me to request another dose, which they delivered in a not-so-efficient manner.  It was around 2am at this point and I just wanted P to feel better so we could go home.  The second dose did the trick and he fell asleep, which was so great for him.  But I was stuck in a teeny ER room in the most uncomfortable chair in the world with no one to talk to.  Thank goodness for my iphone.  

About an hour later the Dr. came back in, gave us prescriptions and sent us on our way to get them filled.  He made some off hand remark about the Walgreens down the road being 24 hours.  So we drove to the closest Walgreens and it was closed.  Then we googled 24 hour Walgreens and drove to the nearest one of those (which was NOT close).  It's pharmacy was not 24 hours.  Awesome.  Oh?  And during this 3am drive?  I'm also pulling over every so often so P can puke on the side of the road (I think it was the morphine).  I'm really surprised we didn't get pulled over for suspicion of DUI.  So after Walgreens #2, we found another one that DID have a 24 hour pharmacy.  After handing in our papers and waiting in their little lounge the pharmacist said the insurance site was down and did we want the drugs anyway at full price???  P was like, YES WHATEVER IT COSTS I DON'T CARE, so we bought them (it ended up being affordable anyway).  Then we drove home (after one stop in our neighborhood for an especially vocal puke session).  It was 4 am.

Needless to say, we did not make church for Easter Sunday.  Which I'm really sad about, but there was no way any of us could have made it.  We (meaning me, Peanut, my mom and my dad) woke up around 8:30, did Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt and ordered take-out for lunch.  P took percocet and passed out for a solid 24 hours.  Please note that at this point I was still having stomach issues, so I was a ghastly sight after no sleep, no shower, and a green pukey glow to my skin.  So obviously I am not in ANY Easter pictures.  You're welcome.

And now without further ado (I love that phrase), the Easter pics:

Wearing her bunny PJ's for Easter...these were the ones she was in when we got to the ER.  At least the people in the waiting room think I've got my stuff together enough to coordinate my daughters PJ's with the appropriate holiday.

Easter basket from Nana

The bracelets were a hit

Basket from mommy and daddy.  New sippys and sqeezy packs!

The Hungry Caterpillar - her new favorite book

Nana put some wind up toys in her basket - this egg hops and is hilarious

Stella wanted to hunt and eat it

This is my pride and joy (well, I'm proud because I haven't killed everything in it...but I am in the process of killing the tomato plant...)

We finally had some ripe strawberries

Yum!

Our Easter egg hunt (there wasn't much need for hunting...I pretty much just threw them in the yard

 Yes, they were empty.  I figure I can still get away with the novelty of the eggs and don't need the candy.

 And here is our first magnolia of the season.  Smells wonderful :-)

Dear Little Peanut,

You are 15 MONTHS OLD!!!  You are such a busy little bee and completely run the house.  I'm so proud of how much you're learning and love watching you enjoy figuring out everything about your surroundings.

Facts about YOU:
- You are 21 pounds, size 3 diapers, 12-18 clothes, size 4 shoes
- Your hair gets blonder every day and you have the best blue eyes I've ever seen
- You run instead of walk, which ends up in more falls but you don't seem to mind
- Your favorite food is banana especially when we let you bite it yourself
- You have all of your molars in and now are working on the canines...it seems like it really hurts and it makes you really sleepy
- You dance and twirl when you hear a song you like
- You are obsessed with ladybugs
- You like to give your dolls kisses and then you hold them up to me and Daddy so we can give them kisses too
- You love being outside and can play forever in the backyard.  We have to keep an eye on you because you like to pick things out of the garden.
- You wave and say "hi" to everyone you see.  Especially doggies.

And now some (ok, a ton of) pictures:

This little bathing suit was from last year but you never got to wear it.  I was so excited it still fits!

 Our first day at the beach since it got warm.

 Her coverup is from last year.  It's a 9 month.  It's not really supposed to be 1/2 sleeve.

 One afternoon she decided to try our sandals on.  She actually got both of mine on the right feet and took a few steps, but I didn't have the camera ready fast enough.

 We met the fam in Gainesville for the Orange and Blue game.  She loves her Aunt, Uncle and cousins!

We went to the church Easter egg hunt, and there was a huge playground the kids got to play on before the hunt.

 She was a fast learner when it came to finding eggs.

 She would put them in the basket, but then want to take them out to relocate them.

 Daddy was one of the egg hiders.  They went easy on the little ones.

 We love you punkin pie!

Dear Little Peanut,

You are FOURTEEN MONTHS OLD! (And a couple weeks...I'm quite behind on the updates).  I'm going to go straight into the list of amazing things you can do.  You are my favorite and I love you.

Fact about YOU:

- Size 3 diapers, size 12-18 month clothing (still big), size 4 shoes (but I bought some SUPER cute size 5 shoes that I'm just dying for you to grow into).

- As of today you weigh 20.2 pounds.  Still my teeny peanut.  

- We transitioned you to whole milk b/c you started refusing all alternative milks we offered and I was sure you were not getting enough fat in your diet which would lead to slow brain development (don't tell me I overreact...I'm a mom).  HOWEVER.  You are sick now, and have been sick for a week, and today we took you to the doctor.  After a prescription for breathing treatments and antibiotics if you don't get better, the nurse told me it was probably because I started you on dairy.  Milk is evil.  I'm a terrible mom.  We're dumping the whole milk tonight and I guess we'll just hope your brain does ok.

- You got your first skinned knee yesterday and you took it like a champ.

- You can go down the big kid slide at the playground.

- You love Stella and play so well with her.  You lean over so she'll lick you in the ear and just DIE laughing when she does.

- You can throw a ball pretty far.  Your daddy has high hopes for your athleticism.

- Your hair is finally getting longer, but I think we'll have a typical baby mullet before it looks normal.

- Favorite foods are avocado, hummus, puffs, and eggs.

- You have 11 teeth!  3 molars are in.  You were absolutely miserable while they were coming in and ran a low-grade fever the whole time.  At least we had some good snuggles in the middle of the night.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.  I'm really going to try to be better at documenting your fabulousness.  We love you punkin!  

And now, some iPhone pics since I wasn't able to take an "official" one:

Lovin the Valentines bear Nana gave you

 Playing outside with your puppy

 Hangin with me while I was terribly sick

 Rocking the summer sandals

 This is how I dress you for outside play.  But don't worry, it's just when we're in our backyard and no one else can see you.

 Searching for pebbles

 I seriously turned my back for one second after I undressed you for a bath, and this is what I found

 Helping build our raised vegetable bed

 Daddy worked hard

 Out at our favorite Italian restaurant

 You sleep with these three friends every night