Crazy Pregnancy Dreams!

Pregnancy dreams are so vivid and real!!  Early this morning, I had a crazy dream. 

In my dream, I had twins.  A girl and a boy.  My dream starts at the point where I get home from the hospital, but I only have the baby girl with me.  A few days later, the baby boy shows up and when he does, he's HUGE (he looks 6 months old).  He's about 2x the size of the baby girl.  Seeing this ginormous boy makes me realize that I have not fed the baby girl even ONCE since she was born!  Not even in the hospital!  I start to panic because

a)  I can't believe that the hospital didn't remind me to feed my baby!
b)  I can't believe this baby girl did not cry or tell me she was hungry and I can't believe I did not remember to feed her!
and
c)  I'm freaking out because I'm worried I missed my window to breastfeed and that my milk will be all dried up!

So I immediately commence trying to breastfeed both babies at the same time and it's all ok because the milk starts flowing and dripping everywhere like a leaky faucet.  Neither baby knows what to do and they are getting milk all over their faces.  Then my 6 month old newborn baby boy looks at me and smiles and has TEETH.  So now I'm really freaking out cause I'm afraid he will bite me and it will hurt.  It doesn't occur to me that my newborn should not have a mouth full of teeth. 

I get both babies to nurse for like a minute and then they are done but I've still got milk spewing out everywhere. 

Then I wake up. 

Let's anlayze:

• Apparently, I'm having a little bit of subconscious anxiety over breastfeeding?  I think the teeth thing comes from my good friend who's baby boy got his first teeth and is using them on his poor mama.
• What's the deal with twins?  I can't explain that one.  This isn't the first time I dreamed I was having twins. 
• The boy twin being 2x the size of the girl twin is probably my brain telling me that this boy that I'm pretty sure I'm having is, in fact, huge and will likely be bigger than Lily was. 
• Why didn't my dream tell me the NAMES of these two babies?!?!!?  Now THAT would have been helpful.  Haha!

Now, while that dream was strange, I have to say it doesn't beat the dream I had very early in my pregnancy (about 8-10 weeks along).  After that dream, I typed it up and emailed it to Mom, Jenny and Katie.  I've decided to republish here for documentation purposes.  And to give everyone a good laugh.

***************************

So in my dream, the three of you [Mom, Jenny, Katie] and Lily, lead by Jenny went to the "Blue Dress Lady Luncheon." I guess this is the equivalent of the Red Hat Ladies only for this group everyone wears fancy blue prom-like dresses. Apparently Jenny joined this group and invited Mom and Katie to go along. And so you all invited me to come to Evansville because you wanted to take Lily with you but you didn't tell me about the Blue Dress Ladies. So somehow you tricked me into giving you Lily so you could take her (in a very fancy blue dress) to this luncheon.
Only once you all come home, dressed up in your fancy blue dresses and done up hair, do I realize that you've all gone somewhere together - without me. I was not welcome. Jenny, specifically, did not want me to wear a blue dress and come along. She told me that I did not belong in the fancy blue dress group and I would ruin everything and so she didn't tell me about. She was so flippant about it. Like I should just KNOW that I am not Blue Dress Lady material. Duh. So I got really mad and I bit her. HAHA!

So then I go after Katie to find out why she didn't tell me about the Blue Dress Lady Luncheon. And she told me to buzz off and get a life, it's just a Blue Dress Lady Luncheon, what's the big deal? I tried to punch her because it really made me mad that she was so nonchalant about the whole thing but she ran away too fast. LOL!

So then I go to Mom, absolutely hysterical, screaming at her, crying wanting to know how she could BETRAY me like this and not tell me about the Blue Dress Ladies. She said that she had too much respect for Jenny's wishes that I not be there and she promised not to tell me. Her hands were tied. Sorry. I didn't try any physical violence with Mom but I did scream and scream and cry hysterically. Mom felt a little bad for me but she still thought she did the right thing.

In addition to me not being invited, I wanted to know how you all thought you could just take MY DAUGHTER to the Blue Dress Ladies Luncheon without my permission. She's MY KID. What nerve you have to think you can take her! You all thought I was being unreasonable and way overreacting.

And then I woke up. Thank god! It was exhausting with all that screaming and crying and punching and biting!

But...then I drifted back off to sleep and entered another dream that had some leftovers of this dream involved. Namely, Jenny was still mad at me. So the timing is "present day" but "present day" is somehow like Christmas time (like it was literally Christmas in February or some nonsense). We were all somewhere strange....the room sort of had aspects like Grandma Fonner's front room (that flower couch) but also had aspects like Grandma Wittgen's kitchen (a fridge with the freezer on the bottom). I can't figure that part out. Anyhow, we've all opened presents and then Jenny tells everyone she's 7 weeks pregnant. I tried to give her a hug but she hugs me like I'm covered in pig sh*t or something and doesn't want to touch me! And then I wake up.

Weird, right???

"Trigger Happy" Tears

I got a call from the doctor's office yesterday morning to inform me of my appointment time for the c-section. Unfortunately the hospital was all booked up on 9/6 and the operating room schedule is a little crazy next week due to the holiday on Monday....soooo....they moved the surgery up to Wednesday 9/5! Ahhhh! I am happy to say that the appointment time is for 12pm and I have to be there at 10am!  I'll take it!  That's so much better than a 5pm surgery time like they gave me with Lily.

Unfortunately, this news sent me in to a full on panic attack and I spent the better part of yesterday trying not to cry while sitting in meetings.  :(  I think having a firm date and surgery time just made it very real and I began to panic about EVERYTHING.  And I really mean everything.  I'm going to blame pregnancy hormones because most of what I was worrying about, I shouldn't have been worrying about.  Jenny helped "talk me down" and I'm bit calmer today (but still a little twitchy and trigger happy with the tears - ha!).

In Lily news (I'll spare you the latest tantrum story....), she has finally started getting out of bed on her own without me telling her she can get up.  She gets out of bed and usually brings Ellie and Dora with her so her hands are full.  Then she stands in front of her bedroom door and yells "Get out?!  Mommy?  Get out?!  Daddy?  Get out?!"  She can open doors, but apparently she's not willing to put Ellie and Dora down so that she has free hands to open the door.  So funny.  We'll have to see how long it takes her to figure out all she has to do is put them down for just a second and then she can free herself. 

In Peanut #2 news....we still don't have names picked out.  Well if it's a girl, we might be ok.  But I'm still pretty sure this is a boy, so I take no comfort in having a girl name somewhat sorted out.  Why is this so hard?!?!?!  No one be surprised if this kid is called "baby" for 24-72 hours after birth.....

On the plus side, I did order diapers today for the new baby!  Yes!  Now I just need to think through all the other things that I need to make sure we take care of this weekend (washing baby clothes, sterilizing pacifiers, what else??).

For the love of pete...these tantrums are going to break me!

We had a pretty laid back weekend at the Basham household (unless you're Joel - he spent about 8 hours mowing grass on Saturday, poor fella).  Lily was really well behaved most of the weekend which was a nice change from the tantrums!

But alas, today is Monday, so we were back to tantrum city.  Tantrum at dinner:  Lily couldn't decide which chair she wanted to sit in and screamed no matter which chair we tried to put her in and would want to sit in a different chair only to start screaming for the chair she just got out of.  I attempted time out....fail.  She kept running away.  Although later in the evening, she walked over to where I had put her and said "Sit there.  Cry."  Ha!  I didn't tell her to sit in time-out and cry so that's not what she meant.  I think she was just remembering that she was sitting there, crying.  In order to remedy the dinner tantrum, Joel was the patient parent and took Lily outside for a walk in the backyard.  When they came back about 5 minutes later, she was calm. 

Then we had a meltdown at bedtime. When Joel took her to bed, she screamed the whole way to her room "Mommy do it!  MOMMY DO IT!"  Then she screamed, I mean blood curdling screams, the whole time Joel was changing her diaper and clothes.  He tried to read her a story but she just kept right on screaming.  So I went back to give it a go and after a few minutes of singing every song I could think of, she finally calmed down and we read a story.  Then sang a few more songs.  Then she went to sleep.  THANK GOD.  Joel and I are taking turns being the patient parent.  We're a good team.  And we're exhausted. 

On Sunday, the neighbors had a jumpy thing blown up and all the neighbor girls came over and rang the doorbell and asked if Lily could come out and play.  How cute is that?!  They range in age from probably about 5 to 12. 

Very timid at first, but then Daddy went in with her and she took off!



Jumping!



As of Saturday, I'm 37 weeks pregnant.  Below are my comparison shots between the two pregnancies.  I think I look a little bit smaller in the belly this time around (however, my feet look HORRIBLE in that second pic!).  As a side note, my weight gain did slow down in the last 2 weeks so I'm probably back on track to gain about this same this time as last time. 


Peanut #1
37 weeks 2 days



Peanut #2

37 weeks 0 days



T-minus 10 days!

Drumroll Please!

We saw little Peanut #2 today!  Apparently, I have been busy cooking up another big 'ol baby.  All the measurements that the doctor took were in the 90th + percentile.  The measurement of the femur was in the 97th percentile!  After we were all done and Joel stood up, the doctor was reminded of how tall Joel is and he said that 97th percentile makes good sense!

The weight estimate came in at 8lbs 2oz.  If you recall from my post a couple weeks ago, that's the same size that Lily was estimated at.  However, I was 38 weeks along when that estimate was taken (and one week later she was born at 9lbs 10oz).  This time, I'm only 36w6d and the baby is already measuring 8lbs 2oz.  So if we talk in relative terms, it would seem this baby is on track to be even bigger than Lily was.  However, we still have the inaccuracy factor of ultrasounds, so who really knows?

The good news is that the baby is head down so at least that keeps VBAC on the table (for a little while longer)!

The doctor's advice was that if I went in to labor naturally within the next week, it would be reasonable to consider going ahead and attempting VBAC.  If I don't go in to labor within the next week, the baby is going to be huge, and he would suggest we go ahead with a C-section.  So at this point, we have gone ahead and schedule the C-section at ~39 weeks and it will be on:

September 6, 2012

If I go in to labor between now and then, we'll likely still do a C-section, but we can make that decision 'on the fly.' 

We don't know the time of the surgery yet.  We won't find that out until probably next Wednesday or Thursday.  PLEASE, OH PLEASE everyone pull for me to get a morning surgery time!!!

One more fun tidbit from the ultrasound today.  At one point, the doctor kind of stops moving the ultrasound thingie around and glances down at the DVD player (they typically record the ultrasounds) and says:

"Oh good, I wasn't recording. I just saw the sex of the baby but since I wasn't recording this, you won't be tempted to go home and try to figure it out later."

Joel and I were glued to the screen the whole time and neither one of us saw a thing.  The late term ultrasounds are so impossible to see much of anything so it amazes that the doctor could tell.  But I guess it's kind of his job so....anyhow, all you nosy nellies, there is now someone out there that knows!  He might take bribes.  : )

Time to get SERIOUS about picking out names. 

This post is NOT for the weak

Today started with Lily SCREAMING her head off to get out of bed at 6:00.  I had just gotten out of the shower and got halfway dressed and went in to fetch her.  She pretty much screamed for the next hour until I dropped her off at daycare.  It's always about something she wants but when you try to give it to her, she doesn't want it - or at least doesn't want it the way you're giving it to her. 

I'm sure you all probably are having a hard time believing me when I say that we've been having trouble with Lily tantrums lately since she's always so good mannered.

Well this little gem is from this morning.  Make sure your volume is adjusted appropriately!  (Sorry I couldn't figure out how to turn the video the right direction).

This is what we mean when we say tantrums.  In this particular phase of this tantrum, Lily wants to sit on the vanity in the bathroom while I get ready (something we regularly do when she wakes up early and I'm still getting ready for work).  So I put her up there.  Then she screams to get down and just about propels herself off - I catch her in the nick of time, barely avoiding a face plant to the floor.  That's when the video starts.  She wants to get back "up there" ....  but not really.

I am at a complete loss!  I have no idea what to do in these situations.  This morning was the absolute worst tantrum ever.  Usually she calms down after about 10-15 minutes and at least gives us small breaks in between tantrums.  Not this morning.  SIXTY MINUTES STRAIGHT of screaming.  We have tried walking away, ignoring it, giving in, distractions.  Nothing works.  We haven't spanked or put her in time out.  I don't think she knows what time out is so I have no idea how to even go there and have it be effective.  I guess I could Google "Time Out Strategy" and see what I can learn.  Learn parenting via the Internet!  That's funny.

I am ALL EARS if anyone has any suggestions.  This behaviour started after we put her in daycare.  At first it was pretty mild but it's just escalated out of control over the past 3 weeks.  The staff at the daycare say she's wonderful and very well behaved.  She's not doing this there.  Even this morning, as soon as we walked in to daycare, she stopped crying.

A Couple Small Victories and a LOT of Tantrums

We've had a somewhat busy week this past week and it's been exhausting for many reasons!  Last Saturday, we had a photo shoot with Marie.  I desperately wanted some updated family pictures (we have ZERO family pictures since January when Lily turned 1 - UNACCEPTABLE) and some nice pregnancy shots (if you call pictures of me in my giant swollen state "nice").  The night before, Joel and I were both dreading it.  DREADING. IT.  Neither one of us particularly likes to have our picture taken and we knew that Lily would likely challenge us and it was all so tiring to even think about much less DO.

But we did it!  And Marie did a great job!  During the photo shoot, Lily behaved as expected.  ATROCIOUSLY.  She is 19 months old, so I'm going to cut her a little slack.  I was pretty sure there was no way Marie could have gotten any good pictures seeing as how we were not cooperating very well for her as a family.  But somehow, she did it.  She got a lot of good ones and I can't wait to get my hands on them and print them out and hang them up everywhere! 

Sunday was pretty laid back.  Typical Walmart day and such.  Lily was very good on Sunday.  My lovely, well mannered child was back and that was nice!  I made the following craft for Lily's room - another Pinterest find.  It looks blue in the picture but it's purple to match her room.  It's a wooden letter wrapped in yarn with a couple crocheted flowers I made.


L is for Lily!

 Then we started our normal Monday routine, and Lily the devil child re-emerged!  She's been having these trantrums like crazy.  Screaming and hollering.  Wants picked up.  Wants put down. Wants a yogurt.  No, not that yogurt, but the other yogurt that's exactly like the first yogurt she discarded.  Wants outside, wants back inside.  Wants a bath.  Wants to get out.  Read a story.  No not that one, this one.  No not this one, that one.  Fix my hair.  No don't fix my hair.  FIX IT.  ELLIE!  ELLIE!  Then throws Ellie across the room.  On and on and on.  This has been our nightly routine (and sometimes, when I'm really lucky, we do this in the mornings too) all week long.  Sigh.  Too early for terrible twos and the new baby isn't even here yet so this shouldn't be jealousy/attention rebellion.  What happened to my sweet baby?!

But not to fear.  She's still pretty stinkin cute.  On the way home from daycare today she was singing:

"A  B  C  D  H  I  J   LMNO  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  andZ" 

She sang it probably 10 times and said the same letters each time.  I wish I could have gotten it on video but I was driving and I couldn't get her to do it again when we got home.  Bummer. 

Also, they have officially started potty training at daycare this week.  Yesterday, Lily had a victory!  Yay!

Meme and Papaw sent Lily some mail.  She was excited to OP-EN-IT!

Stickers!!!

Dora Stickers!!!!



Now, we're all decored with Dora stickers.  I'm currently sporting about 12 on my legs, belly and laptap.  Joel's not as lucky, he's only got 2.  : )  The couch has also been recovered.  This baby loves stickers!

Tuesday we had our PrePARE visit at the hospital.  This is where we get registered and they document our "birth plan" and other wishes.  And also tell us all the hospital rules.  And tell us how to take care of newborn.  This is when it really starts to get real that the baby is coming soon!  This was another time where Lily was throwing tantrums like crazy.  The nurse who was talking to us was pretty patient.  We kept bribing Lily with grapes and fruit snacks and ice and milk and post-its (yes I said post-its) to keep her busy, but she was insistent on being loud.  Sigh.  The nurse just kept talking right over the top of her, completely unphased.  She said she has 5 grandchildren and she's used to it.  : )  Whew.

And tomorrow is the ultrasound!  It seems like I've been waiting for this day FOR-EH-VER.  I've been having so much back and abdominal pain that I'm finding myself hoping they will determine this baby is huge and just schedule me for a C-section at the safest, earliest possible time!  So more to report tomorrow!

She's got two left feet

I've been working on a knitted baby blanket for the past couple months for the new baby.  I know, I know.  I've already mentioned one blanket for the new baby...so what gives?  Well I really wanted to make a quilt for the baby because quilts were kind of my thing and I wanted to keep that up.  BUT knitting is my new crafting love.  I learned how when I was on maternity leave with Lily because I thought it would be a good hobby that could be picked up and put down with ease.  If I had 5 minutes to work on it, great!  There wasn't much to have to get out and set up so it was easy!

Anyway, here is the knitted blanket that I've finished up!

And a close up:

I'm pretty happy with it - just don't look too close or you'll see all the mistakes.  :-P

After I finished the blanket, I had just a little bit of yarn left so I found a pattern for baby booties and thought I'd whip those up real quick.  And they did go together pretty fast....except for two little problems.

1)  They might fit a premie.  MIGHT.  I really need to not be so lazy and double check my gage before I get into a project.

2)  I accidently made two left feet.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Seriously, only I would do that.  I would be REALLY ticked off at my mistake if they weren't already screwed up and most definitely too small for any child born from me and Joel.  I'm sure they will fit one of Lily's dolls and we'll be sure not to use them to teach Lily right from left.  Ha!!



Supervised Visits with Lily's Boyfriend

Today I took Lily to visit with Maria and the kids since we hadn't seen them since we started daycare.  Lily was still asking for Ria and everybody else every morning until about 2 days ago so I imagine I'll start hearing that request again now that she's been reminded!

Everybody was so excited to see Lily.  Alex was waiting with the door opened when we walked up.  She was a bit unsure at first but that only lasted about 90 seconds and then she was running to hug Maria and everybody else.  We spent about an hour there and for probably 40 minutes of that time, Lily was glued to Alex.  She LOVES that boy.  It's pretty clear that Alex would do just about anything for Lily. I think Alex is a tad bit old for her though so we'll have to keep our eyes on them.  :)

Even though Alex looks a little bit annoyed in this picture, he's not AT ALL.  He's eating up every minute that Lily is sitting with him.  So CUTE.  But as Ruben told Maria, I might not think it's so cute in about 15 years!  Ha!

In The Home Stretch

Today, I'm 35 weeks 3 days pregnant.  I had a doctor's appointment this morning and am now officially in to weekly checkups - a sign that the end is near!  Yikes!  Everything is looking good and no concerns from the doctor at this point.  Baby's heart rate sounded good.  My blood pressure was a tiny bit higher than normal but no one seemed too concerned about that.  My weight...well....I'm on track to have gained a couple more pounds with this baby than with Lily.  Too many chocolate chip cookies and Fazoli's breadsticks (the last time I was there, the cashier said "Your baby really likes Fazoli's!" - uh oh, they recognize me....)!

I talked a little bit more about VBAC today with the doc.  He asked me, "How big was your first baby?" 

"9 lbs 10 oz"

"AND YOU WANT TO HAVE A VBAC?!?!  What if you're having another 9 lb baby?!  Are you SURE you want to try that with a baby that big?????"  The look on his face was a bit shocking. 

"Well no, not really. But how do we know if I'm having a 9 lb baby?"

So I'm scheduled for an ultrasound on Friday 8/24.  I'll be 36 weeks 6 days and the doctor thinks we'll have a good enough indication at that time on what the predicted baby size would be by my due date (9/15).  So I guess we'll know a little bit more about when Peanut #2 will get here but it could go a couple different ways:

1. The baby isn't measuring "too big" - if that's the case, they will give me up to my due date to go into labor on my own and attempt VBAC.  If I don't go into labor on my own they will schedule me for a C-section on either 9/13 or 9/17.  They will not induce me and they will not let me go much past my due date (2 days at most and only cause my due date is a Saturday).
2. The baby is measuring "big" - they will go ahead and schedule me for a C-section at ~39 weeks.  Since they schedule surgeries on Mondays and Thursdays, I'm guessing that could mean a birthday of 9/6 or 9/10 or maybe even 9/13 but probably not that late.

No one should go making any travel plans yet cause I'm mostly speculating with just a little input from the doctor.  But it's kind of fun to speculate.  : )

It's very difficult to put much faith in the accuracy of the ultrasound.  With Lily, at 38 weeks, we had an ultrasound and it estimated her current weight at 8lbs 2oz - one week later she was born at 9lbs 10oz.  There's no way she gained 1.5 lbs in a week so obviously the ultrasound was not that accurate.  Now, balance that with the motivations of the doctor (who would probably gently nudge me in the direction of C-section just cause it makes his life easier), and I may end up C-section no matter what just to be on the safe side.

I've said all along that I'm ok either way and I've been mentally/emotionally preparing myself for a C-section since the day I found out I was pregnant.  In fact, I've been so mentally preparing myself for C-section, that if I can do VBAC, I'm probably ill-prepared!!

Also, we still have not picked out any names.  This is not good.  

Peanut #1
35 weeks 3 days



Peanut #2
35 weeks 3 days



After dinner tonight, Lily was so stinkin cute.  She noticed her shadow on the wall and started pointing to it and saying "Lily!  Right there!!"  And then she'd laugh and laugh.

 

We really ought to set her up on some play dates so she doesn't have to play with her shadow!

 

Oh and she's getting another tooth!  Maybe even both of the upper two canines! 

What a sap!

It's an eye opening experience when you get a chance to observe your child when they don't know you're watching. 

This morning, I dropped Lily off at daycare and she started in the with the "No.  No.  No." as soon as I pulled up to the building.  So I told her that she was going to see all her friends today and Ms Christina and it would be fun.  She said, "Friends?  Fun?"  So cute.

But when we got in the door she didn't want to stay.  She still had some cereal and milk left which she was munching on for the ride to daycare and the teacher asked her if she wanted to go sit at the table with some of the other kids to eat her breakfast.  So the teacher took her by the hand and started to lead her over.  And I made a run for the door!  Once safely out the door, I turned around to watch Lily and somewhere along the way, the teacher got sidelined by another kid and Lily was walking on her own over to the table with the other kids (who were all older than her).  She found a chair and started to sit down and another little boy started making faces at her.  She didn't even flinch.  She sat right on down and munched on her cereal.  She was so independent!! 

Do you even know how HARD it was for me not to go running in there and give her a hug and a high five and tell her I was proud of her for joining those kids all by herself and not getting upset when someone made faces?!  I'm such a sap.

In other news, Lily's obsession with Dora is getting out of control.  Every time we turn on the TV she's starts asking for D-D-D-Dora (she sort of starts singing the theme song).  She gets SUPER excited when we turn it on.  Dancing around, hollering, getting 2 inches from the TV and yelling "Swiper no swiping!"  "Pack pack!" "MAP!"  "Boots!"  (For those of you not versed in Dora-speak, these are all elements of the show - or at least Lily's version of them.)  We have to constantly remind her to back up from the TV.  She just gets so excited, she can't help herself.

Watching Dora on her favorite couch:

When I tried to get Lily's attention away from Dora, this is the face I got:

We're going to need a bigger fridge!

Lily's first week at daycare is officially done.  For the most part, I think that this will be a good experience for Lily and will be a good thing for her "social game."  (We watch too much reality TV...) 

This morning was a bit hard to drop her off.  When we pulled up to the daycare she started saying softly, "No.  No.  No.  No."  Over and over.  Just "no."  She was kind of whispering/whining it.  She kept right on saying it as I signed her in and we found the staff members.  Then she hung on to my neck for dear life and wouldn't let go.  It nearly broke my heart and I was ready to run out of there with her and go do something fun!  I know she's fine as soon as I leave but it sure doesn't make it easy to drop her off.

Also, we are already noticing differences in Lily.  For example:

1. She's very clingy and crabby in the late afternoon / early evening hours.  You can't get 2 feet away from her before she bursts into tears as though someone has just pinched her. 
2. She seems to be STARVING when she gets home.  More than before.  She goes to the fridge every 15 minutes wanting something else to eat.  If we don't give it to her, we have another meltdown on our hands.  Therefore, we are going through drinkable yogurt like candy just to maintain our sanity. 
3. That of course leads to even crappier dinner eating habits.  As in, she doesn't want to eat any.  Or at least is not happy with anything we put on her plate unless it's applesauce or some other fruit that she is craving.  Sigh.
4. She's H-Y-P-E-R!  She runs around hollering and laughing (somewhat wickedly!).  She's climbing even more than before on chairs and working her way up to the kitchen table.  Sometimes that crazy behaviour is cute and sometimes it's downright SCARY!!

It's hard telling what's really the cause of some of these things.  Lack of adequate nap?  Not enough 1:1 attention?  Or maybe hanging out with FOUR boys all day?  : )  Or, as Joel says, maybe she's just getting older and changing.  Who knows?

The bright side is that Ms Christina (Stee-na) says that Lily is such a happy girl and gets along well with all the other kids and all the teachers.  So we're doing something right!

We have a budding artist on our hands.  We're going to need a bigger fridge!

Eating ice cream with Daddy after school today:

I've just put Lily to bed in the big girl bed.  This is our first time at a second attempt!  She went down with no problems - no tears, no screaming, no scrambling out of bed.  I loaded up the bed with ALL her stuffed animals so that maybe the bed would feel smaller to her.  Could be that she's in there right now playing with all those animals instead of going to sleep and that's why there's no crying!  Wish us luck for a drama free night!

We've Got a Floater!

"We've got a floater!"

That's what Joel hollers to me as I'm taking a few minutes to relax on the couch after dinner tonight while he's giving Liliana a bath.

AWESOME.

So I holler back, "You need help?"

"Uh yeah, I reckon!"

AWESOME!

He's pulled Lily out of the tub and rewashed her.  I swoop in to take her to get dressed and leave Joel to deal with mess in the bathtub!  Hey, seeing as how bath duty is usually mine, I've cleaned up my fair share of floaters.  This one's ALL HIS! 

So as I'm getting Lily's pajamas on, Joel comes up with a "brilliant idea."  Starting tomorrow, we're having someone come in to help us with the house cleaning.  I'm sure you can guess what this brilliant idea of Joel's was....

Welcome to our home!  Thank you so much for agreeing to help us and make our lives easier!  Oh, that?  In the bath tub?  Hmm, how did THAT get there?  Gosh, I have no idea!  Toddlers!  You just never know what you're going to find!

1st of Hundreds?

As far as I can tell, Lily's second day of school was as good as the first.  Drop off was a little trickier because Lily didn't want me to leave and cried, but I'm sure she was fine before I even made it to the car.  However, Lily's been a bit challenging since we got home.  The shorter nap schedule is really impacting her afternoon attitude.  I hope this part gets better quick - otherwise we're in for a rough road for a while.

Here's a picture of Lily with her first of probably hundreds of school craft projects.  She was too busy watching Dora to be bothered with posing for this photo.

 

There's not much to update on the pregancy front but I did want to show off this present that Peanut #2 received from Maria.  Isn't this gorgeous!?


First Day of "School"

This morning was Lily's first day at daycare - otherwise known as "school."  We've been so fortunate to have found such wonderful people to look after her and give her personal attention since she was 12 weeks old that it's a bit tough for me to send her to daycare now where she's one of many.  But I have a feeling it's all going to be just fine.

Of course this morning, like every morning, Lily started off right away talking about going to see Ria (Maria) and Alex (her favorite).  I tried explaining that we were not going to see them today because they have to go to school and now Lily is going to go to school too.  Instead, Lily will go see Ms Christina.  Tee-na? she says.  I hope Ms Christina doesn't mind being called Tina because that's probably her name from now on according to Lily.

All the way to the daycare, Lily kept saying:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  Over and over.  I kept saying we wouldn't see them today cause everybody's going to school and they go to a different school than Lily.  And then we'd start over:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  So I'd remind her that we're going to see Ms Christina today.  "Tee-na?" 

We took Lily to the daycare several months ago when we were checking it out and she played with the toys while Joel and I talked to the director.  Today, as soon as we got in the foyer (before toys were in sight), Lily must have remembered the place, because she yelled "TOYS!" and took off running through the doors in search of the toys. 

After I got Lily's things all settled in, I had to search for her to get a kiss and then she promptly went back to exploring all these fun toys (you'd think we didn't have any toys at home) and she didn't even notice when I left.  If all future mornings are like this one, switching to daycare will be no problem!

When Joel picked up Lily, she was happily playing with another little girl, getting along just fine.  Ms Christina sent home a note saying that Lily did great today.  She said that Lily took an hour long nap and that part is pretty evident tonight.  Lily's been a little bit crabby and clingy which is how she gets when she's not had enough sleep.  We may need to ratchet back her bedtime a little bit to compensate. 

All in all, good first day!



Thank you Saldivar Family!

Friday was the last day with Lily's current babysitter Maria (and Ruben and Leo and Alex and Isa). Lily really loved it over there and became a part of their family this summer. Lily's lucky enough to have two more families out there who care about her and make her happy!

I tried taking some snapshots on my phone of Lily saying goodbye to everybody but a) I'm a crappy photographer and b) you have to be some kind of miracle worker to get a good shot of a toddler with a phone camera!


Hugging Isa.....



And Alex....

And Leo!

I think Lily is really going to miss seeing them every day but she's going to make new friends at "school" and hopefully she'll adjust again quickly.

Thank you Saldivars!

Oy holy swollen feet!

So I know I mentioned that swollen feet is becoming more of an issue...welp. Here's what my feet look like after a day at the office! Time to quit?? :)