So now you can expect more (and better quality) of these:
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!!!
I sure hope Santa treated you all as well as he treated me. He brought me this:
So now you can expect more (and better quality) of these:
So now you can expect more (and better quality) of these:
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The final rush.
I SO suck at Christmas this year. No tree still. Lights barely hung a week ago. Just started really shopping today. Lame, lame, lame.
On a brighter note, I did get about 2/3 of my shopping done this morning at the mall. The mall with a 19 month old is not what I consider fun, but we HAD to go there to drop off our Christmas Angel gift. We've created a tradition of choosing a Christmas Angel about the age of Luca every year. For now, we chooses girls, since she's a girl, but with baby #2 we'll choose another one of his/her age and sex as well. So Luca and I picked an Angel from the tree 3 weeks ago and THAT VERY DAY we went and bought her gifts. She wanted a doll. That's it. A DOLL. She is 18 months old. I cried when I read her card. Luca looked at me funny. I ended up getting her two pairs of pants, a shirt, and a doll set (doll, blankie, diapers, baby food, etc. all packaged together). Anyone who knows me, knows what a shock it is that I went that SAME DAY I picked the Angel and bought her gifts. These same people won't be one whit surprised that it took me until today (AKA the deadline) to get the gift BACK to the mall. I live 3.5 minutes from said mall, and I avoid it like the plague.
Anyhow, we took our gifts and dropped them off, and then we did some shopping. I bought gifts for Luca, my mother and father in law, and my brother and his wife. I also bought something for my brother in law, but when Darrick saw it he was all, "Meh." so it looks like I need to go back to the drawing board and get him something else. Or send my husband to get something, since he seems to be the one with some sort of idea what is a good gift and what is not.
So here it is...5 days shy of Christmas, and lots left to buy. Oh, and cards still to address and send. I am the queen of procrastination.
On a brighter note, I did get about 2/3 of my shopping done this morning at the mall. The mall with a 19 month old is not what I consider fun, but we HAD to go there to drop off our Christmas Angel gift. We've created a tradition of choosing a Christmas Angel about the age of Luca every year. For now, we chooses girls, since she's a girl, but with baby #2 we'll choose another one of his/her age and sex as well. So Luca and I picked an Angel from the tree 3 weeks ago and THAT VERY DAY we went and bought her gifts. She wanted a doll. That's it. A DOLL. She is 18 months old. I cried when I read her card. Luca looked at me funny. I ended up getting her two pairs of pants, a shirt, and a doll set (doll, blankie, diapers, baby food, etc. all packaged together). Anyone who knows me, knows what a shock it is that I went that SAME DAY I picked the Angel and bought her gifts. These same people won't be one whit surprised that it took me until today (AKA the deadline) to get the gift BACK to the mall. I live 3.5 minutes from said mall, and I avoid it like the plague.
Anyhow, we took our gifts and dropped them off, and then we did some shopping. I bought gifts for Luca, my mother and father in law, and my brother and his wife. I also bought something for my brother in law, but when Darrick saw it he was all, "Meh." so it looks like I need to go back to the drawing board and get him something else. Or send my husband to get something, since he seems to be the one with some sort of idea what is a good gift and what is not.
So here it is...5 days shy of Christmas, and lots left to buy. Oh, and cards still to address and send. I am the queen of procrastination.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Blogged Down and 19 Months.
I am so behind, and with no good excuse. Life has been full of Luca and baby prep and work lately, and Darrick and I haven't had a lot of time for much else. The GREAT news is, his break starts next week, so he'll get lots of Daddy-Daughter time in, though this will probably be his last break alone with her. I can't believe I am due in 3 months, which means about the time Darrick's on spring break we could possibly have a new baby at home. It's almost surreal to think about it that way. Three months seems like a LONG time to me, especially given how big I feel already, but it's going to be here before I know it. Once the holidays are over, I imagine it's going to FLY by!
Speaking of the holidays, it's taken some work for me to get into it this year. I am usually the annoyingly hopped-up-on-holidays person, but this year has been so busy I haven't had much time to even think about it. I finally put up some lights inside the house (on the banister, and a wreath over Luca's little table) this past weekend, and we hung our stockings. We need a new one for Luca, since the only one she has is a "Baby's First Christmas" stocking from last year. She's obsessed with the lights. She'll point to them and say "Pretty", and then ask us to "Turn on". She does this the most with the wreath above her table, which I think she views as 'her' lights. It's pretty stinking adorable. We still need to get a tree (our plans of doing it last weekend were nixed by holiday parties, rain, and football), so that needs to happen this weekend. Darrick tried to talk me into a 3 foot artificial fiberoptic one on sale at Walgreens. Lucky him, my sense of humor was intact that day and he didn't lose a limb for suggesting it. And, yes...he WAS serious. Back off ladies - he is MINE.
Baby is moving a lot more these days, and the other night Darrick felt him/her kicking for several minutes straight. He was in awe over how strong the kicks are. I am in awe of the fact that this baby seemingly enjoys bouncing off one hipbone, up into my ribs, and back off the other hipbone. Over. And. Over. I've also started to experience what I believe are Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions, though I'm not sure how anyone's ever 100% sure that's what they are. The aren't painful, but they do take my breath away for a few seconds. Several friends suggested I feel my belly to see if it's hard when I get the possible BH contractions, but I think that's a conspiracy by the skinny pregnant people of the world. I have a bit too much extra padding to feel if my uterus is tightening, TYVM. I've also started listening to my Hypnobirthing CD every few days. I should listen to it every day, but I find it makes me fall asleep, and it's not every day I can get a chunk of quiet time to lie on the couch and listen to the CD and possibly fall asleep.
In other news, our friend Meredyth was in town last weekend, and she and Luca finally met. I was starting to worry the first time Mere would meet Luca would be at Luca's high school graduation, but turns out I worried over nothing. Luca and Meredyth took to each other immediately, as two beautiful blondes are apt to do. And once Mere shared cookies with Luca, the deal was sealed. They are friends forever now.
We also had some professional pictures taken by a friend who's starting up her own photography business just this past weekend. The focus was on Luca (because why WOULDN'T it be with how stinkin' cute she is?!?!) but we ended up in a few. The pictures turned out great!!! If you're looking for a photographer for baby, family, maternity, etc pictures in AZ, I encourage you to visit her blog (http://noyanphotography.blogspot.com) for some samples of her pictures and her contact information. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites:
Finally, in Luca news, our 'baby' is 19 months old and more a kid every day. She is so lucky to be able to spend 3 afternoons a week with her Grandpa Rick and Grandma Cyndy, which has been awesome. They pick her up from daycare and play with her for a few hours. She's learned to sweep and rake up leaves (thanks, Grandma!), as well as helped back cookies, sorted shapes, and discovered that she loves cats. Her Grandpa in particular adores her, and she adores him in return. It's been really amazing watching them bond, especially since Luca doesn't really have much of an opportunity to bond to my Dad, who has dementia and doesn't really know how to interact with her. We are SO fortunate that Grandma and Grandpa S. (who both, by the way, are known by Luca as 'Grandma') are able to spend lots of time with her.
Luca has also finally decided that mommy doing her hair is fine because she's 'pretty' when we give her a ponytail. It's really rather adorable, and you can see evidence of this in some of the pro pictures above. One random thing that the ponytail causes, however, is strangers commenting on how she looks like, "Those Olsen twins when they were on Full House!". I guess I can see it, can you?
Luca's language has also taken off in leaps and bounds. She's always had a pretty good vocabulary for he age, but it's getting better by the day. She comes home from daycare knowing new words and phrases ("Beep beep" for the sound a car makes, "Turn on" for toys and lights) which I always thought would sadden me, since *I* didn't get to teach her those new things. Instead it makes me really happy and proud that my kid is thriving and learning so much. She's also getting more and more independent, wanting to dress herself and feed herself. She's started eating Cheerios out of her own bowl, with her own spoon, which goes well most of the time. ;)
We're feeling very blessed this holiday season, and hope you all are too!!
Speaking of the holidays, it's taken some work for me to get into it this year. I am usually the annoyingly hopped-up-on-holidays person, but this year has been so busy I haven't had much time to even think about it. I finally put up some lights inside the house (on the banister, and a wreath over Luca's little table) this past weekend, and we hung our stockings. We need a new one for Luca, since the only one she has is a "Baby's First Christmas" stocking from last year. She's obsessed with the lights. She'll point to them and say "Pretty", and then ask us to "Turn on". She does this the most with the wreath above her table, which I think she views as 'her' lights. It's pretty stinking adorable. We still need to get a tree (our plans of doing it last weekend were nixed by holiday parties, rain, and football), so that needs to happen this weekend. Darrick tried to talk me into a 3 foot artificial fiberoptic one on sale at Walgreens. Lucky him, my sense of humor was intact that day and he didn't lose a limb for suggesting it. And, yes...he WAS serious. Back off ladies - he is MINE.
Baby is moving a lot more these days, and the other night Darrick felt him/her kicking for several minutes straight. He was in awe over how strong the kicks are. I am in awe of the fact that this baby seemingly enjoys bouncing off one hipbone, up into my ribs, and back off the other hipbone. Over. And. Over. I've also started to experience what I believe are Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions, though I'm not sure how anyone's ever 100% sure that's what they are. The aren't painful, but they do take my breath away for a few seconds. Several friends suggested I feel my belly to see if it's hard when I get the possible BH contractions, but I think that's a conspiracy by the skinny pregnant people of the world. I have a bit too much extra padding to feel if my uterus is tightening, TYVM. I've also started listening to my Hypnobirthing CD every few days. I should listen to it every day, but I find it makes me fall asleep, and it's not every day I can get a chunk of quiet time to lie on the couch and listen to the CD and possibly fall asleep.
In other news, our friend Meredyth was in town last weekend, and she and Luca finally met. I was starting to worry the first time Mere would meet Luca would be at Luca's high school graduation, but turns out I worried over nothing. Luca and Meredyth took to each other immediately, as two beautiful blondes are apt to do. And once Mere shared cookies with Luca, the deal was sealed. They are friends forever now.
We also had some professional pictures taken by a friend who's starting up her own photography business just this past weekend. The focus was on Luca (because why WOULDN'T it be with how stinkin' cute she is?!?!) but we ended up in a few. The pictures turned out great!!! If you're looking for a photographer for baby, family, maternity, etc pictures in AZ, I encourage you to visit her blog (http://noyanphotography.blogspot.com) for some samples of her pictures and her contact information. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites:
Finally, in Luca news, our 'baby' is 19 months old and more a kid every day. She is so lucky to be able to spend 3 afternoons a week with her Grandpa Rick and Grandma Cyndy, which has been awesome. They pick her up from daycare and play with her for a few hours. She's learned to sweep and rake up leaves (thanks, Grandma!), as well as helped back cookies, sorted shapes, and discovered that she loves cats. Her Grandpa in particular adores her, and she adores him in return. It's been really amazing watching them bond, especially since Luca doesn't really have much of an opportunity to bond to my Dad, who has dementia and doesn't really know how to interact with her. We are SO fortunate that Grandma and Grandpa S. (who both, by the way, are known by Luca as 'Grandma') are able to spend lots of time with her.
Luca has also finally decided that mommy doing her hair is fine because she's 'pretty' when we give her a ponytail. It's really rather adorable, and you can see evidence of this in some of the pro pictures above. One random thing that the ponytail causes, however, is strangers commenting on how she looks like, "Those Olsen twins when they were on Full House!". I guess I can see it, can you?
Luca's language has also taken off in leaps and bounds. She's always had a pretty good vocabulary for he age, but it's getting better by the day. She comes home from daycare knowing new words and phrases ("Beep beep" for the sound a car makes, "Turn on" for toys and lights) which I always thought would sadden me, since *I* didn't get to teach her those new things. Instead it makes me really happy and proud that my kid is thriving and learning so much. She's also getting more and more independent, wanting to dress herself and feed herself. She's started eating Cheerios out of her own bowl, with her own spoon, which goes well most of the time. ;)
We're feeling very blessed this holiday season, and hope you all are too!!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
25 Weeks, 6 Days.
Damn...I cannot believe I am so far along already. This pregnancy is flying by, but then at the same time when I realize I've spent half this year pregnant, it blows my mind.
Today was my regular monthly check-up with my MW, and things are going well. Baby is lying transverse (in other words, taking full advantage of my hammock hips and stretching out side to side), which she could tell immediately by placing her hands on the sides of my waist. In her words, "Baby must be transverse, because your belly is wide across here." Yeah, we'll go with that...I'm absolutely ok with blaming my wideness on the baby. ::wink wink::
Baby's heartrate was in the 150s, my uterus was measuring 27 cm (typically your uterus height is about 1 cm per week of gestation, but it's ok for it to vary up to a few cms either way as long as it continues to grow), and my blood pressure was a little low, but perrfectly ok. I have an anterior placenta (which means it's across the front of my body, between baby and my belly) which probably explains why I feel a lot less movement with this pregnancy that with the last. We talked a bit about nutrition and weight gain (both of which I am fine on, according to her, but I wouldn't be sad if the weight gain slowed a bit), and she predicted another long, lean baby for me. That makes sense, given Luca was long-ish at 22 inches and lean at 6 lbs, 7 oz. It also makes sense given my pregnancies seem to mirror my mom's to a large extent and my brother (her second) was 23 inches long at birth.
In other news, my next appointment is in January, and it'll be the test for Gestational Diabetes. Unlike an OB, she won't be sending me to a lab for the orange drink. Instead, she gave me the option of coming in for a blood draw two hours after eating any of the following:
- 18 large jelly beans
- a large candy bar
- a carb-loaded meal
I chose the carb-loaded meal, so I'll be having a guilt free heaping serving of pancakes or french toast early that morning and then getting my pancreas levels tested for signs of GD. Have I mentioned I love my midwife?
In other news, my options for natural childbirth classes were limited. I was debating between Bradley classes and Hypnobirthing, but in the end I won't be able to do either. Both classes are a series that takes place over 8 - 12 weeks, and because the holidays fall 3 months before I am due, there are none I can get into that would finish on time for me. I'd hate to invest 11 weeks and $300 just to miss the last class that may hold the most important information. So I opted instead to buy the book "Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method" which comes with a CDRom to listen to leading up to and during labor. I've started reading the book, and will begin listening to the CD this week. I'm also going to read the Bradley book because, well, why not? It can't hurt....right?
Today was my regular monthly check-up with my MW, and things are going well. Baby is lying transverse (in other words, taking full advantage of my hammock hips and stretching out side to side), which she could tell immediately by placing her hands on the sides of my waist. In her words, "Baby must be transverse, because your belly is wide across here." Yeah, we'll go with that...I'm absolutely ok with blaming my wideness on the baby. ::wink wink::
Baby's heartrate was in the 150s, my uterus was measuring 27 cm (typically your uterus height is about 1 cm per week of gestation, but it's ok for it to vary up to a few cms either way as long as it continues to grow), and my blood pressure was a little low, but perrfectly ok. I have an anterior placenta (which means it's across the front of my body, between baby and my belly) which probably explains why I feel a lot less movement with this pregnancy that with the last. We talked a bit about nutrition and weight gain (both of which I am fine on, according to her, but I wouldn't be sad if the weight gain slowed a bit), and she predicted another long, lean baby for me. That makes sense, given Luca was long-ish at 22 inches and lean at 6 lbs, 7 oz. It also makes sense given my pregnancies seem to mirror my mom's to a large extent and my brother (her second) was 23 inches long at birth.
In other news, my next appointment is in January, and it'll be the test for Gestational Diabetes. Unlike an OB, she won't be sending me to a lab for the orange drink. Instead, she gave me the option of coming in for a blood draw two hours after eating any of the following:
- 18 large jelly beans
- a large candy bar
- a carb-loaded meal
I chose the carb-loaded meal, so I'll be having a guilt free heaping serving of pancakes or french toast early that morning and then getting my pancreas levels tested for signs of GD. Have I mentioned I love my midwife?
In other news, my options for natural childbirth classes were limited. I was debating between Bradley classes and Hypnobirthing, but in the end I won't be able to do either. Both classes are a series that takes place over 8 - 12 weeks, and because the holidays fall 3 months before I am due, there are none I can get into that would finish on time for me. I'd hate to invest 11 weeks and $300 just to miss the last class that may hold the most important information. So I opted instead to buy the book "Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method" which comes with a CDRom to listen to leading up to and during labor. I've started reading the book, and will begin listening to the CD this week. I'm also going to read the Bradley book because, well, why not? It can't hurt....right?
Friday, December 5, 2008
She found the escape hatch.
Earlier this week, I was dropping Luca off at daycare and her nanny (for lack of a better word I call her the nanny, since it's an in-home place with only 4 kids total) mentioned that Luca had picked up a nasty new habit. In nanny's words, "My sweet Luca, who never causes a problem and always goes straight to bed when I put her down, has figured out how to escape." Apparently she is no longer constrained by the pack and play, and has started climbing out of it and silently destroying the room: emptying drawers, pulling out extra blankets and pillows, and undressing to her diaper to come out and say hi to nanny.
I laughed when she told me the story, because what else can you do? Luca LOVES her crib and sleeps so well in it, so I wasn't worried about her at home, I told nanny.
Famous last words from a first time mom. Fast forward to today, when I was sitting on my laptop working and my world suddenly changed. Luca's always had a way of letting us know when her naptime is over. She sleeps with a few stuffed animals of her choosing, and typically when she wakes she alerts us by throwing the stuffies on the floor. Her room's on the second floor of the house, so the thump is loud enough to alert us that she's ready to get up.
It went a little differently today. It was something like:
"thump" (blue stuffed bunny)
"thump thump" (brown bear and gray bear)
"THUD" (uh...what was that?!?!)
So I run up, open her door, and there is Trouble, standing in the middle of her room, shirt off and hair disheveled, grinning at me like a wild woman. I couldn't help it...I just started cracking up laughing. What else can you do? I asked if she climbed out, and she smiled and said "Yeah!". I asked if she had any ouchies, and she said "Yeah." and pointed to a little red spot on her arm and another on her cheek. I asked if she was ok, and she dissolved into a fit of laughter and fell over onto the floor.
She is the CUTEST pile of trouble I've ever met. And it looks like Daddy's going to be setting up that big girl bed much sooner than we expected!! I tried to get her post-escape conversation with me on video, but couldn't capture it all, which was fine because the resulting video I did get was pretty cute and entertaining anyhow.
Eeeek.....who let the toddler in the house???
I laughed when she told me the story, because what else can you do? Luca LOVES her crib and sleeps so well in it, so I wasn't worried about her at home, I told nanny.
Famous last words from a first time mom. Fast forward to today, when I was sitting on my laptop working and my world suddenly changed. Luca's always had a way of letting us know when her naptime is over. She sleeps with a few stuffed animals of her choosing, and typically when she wakes she alerts us by throwing the stuffies on the floor. Her room's on the second floor of the house, so the thump is loud enough to alert us that she's ready to get up.
It went a little differently today. It was something like:
"thump" (blue stuffed bunny)
"thump thump" (brown bear and gray bear)
"THUD" (uh...what was that?!?!)
So I run up, open her door, and there is Trouble, standing in the middle of her room, shirt off and hair disheveled, grinning at me like a wild woman. I couldn't help it...I just started cracking up laughing. What else can you do? I asked if she climbed out, and she smiled and said "Yeah!". I asked if she had any ouchies, and she said "Yeah." and pointed to a little red spot on her arm and another on her cheek. I asked if she was ok, and she dissolved into a fit of laughter and fell over onto the floor.
She is the CUTEST pile of trouble I've ever met. And it looks like Daddy's going to be setting up that big girl bed much sooner than we expected!! I tried to get her post-escape conversation with me on video, but couldn't capture it all, which was fine because the resulting video I did get was pretty cute and entertaining anyhow.
Eeeek.....who let the toddler in the house???
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Viva La Mexico!
We just returned last night from 4 days in Rocky Point. This was a long overdue weekend away that was transformed last minute from a weekend away with the inlaws to a weekend wedding for my brother in law. The weekend was a lot of fun, and it was capped off with the beautiful wedding at sunset on a patio overlooking the ocean. What could be better than that? Well, other than gaining a new sister in law who I adore...not much!!
Sadly, I was a bit frenzied all weekend trying to protect my kid from possible kidnappers and dangerous shellfish, so I didn't get many pictures at all. I know there will be some very soon, since there were 4 or 5 cameras there, flashing the whole weekend. But for now, here are a few of the pictures I DO have:
Luca and her Daddy in the ocean.
The bride and groom!
Cheese!!
Surprised by the mariachi.
Daddy and Luca build sandcastles.
Sweetest footprint ever.
Eating her doll's dinner at the wedding.
Rehearsal dinner.
Luca and Grandma playing in the sand.
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