A Better Deal on Shoes

Just as the sales lady at Stride Rite told us, in three months Anna outgrew her shoes. Previously in my blog I mentioned the Stride Rite shoes and the sticker shock my husband and I had over them. To us, we feel it is important for Anna to have at at least one good pair of shoes to run around in (plus her foot is too thick to fit well into the shoes at Target), so we decided to check out the Stride Rite Outlet while we were at Myrtle Beach. It was a hit - we walked out of there with 3 pairs of shoes for a decent price including a pair of $15 tennis shoes. I'm guessing they are all last years shoes, but Anna is 14 months old and I'm not too worried about her being out of style :).

Here is Anna in her "funky" shoes...

Pow-Pow-Powerwheels

One of Anna's Christmas gifts from her Mimi was a hot pink electric Power Wheels car. Anna looks absolutely adorable riding along in her car.


The car has a stick out of the back that allows the parent to control the steering and movement of the car and then the stick can be removed so that Anna can do it herself by pushing the button on the steering wheel. Right now she is content to just sit and hold on.

This gift though has made me wonder... is there such thing as "too good" of a gift? After several trips out in the garage to get in our real car with Anna crying because she cannot ride in her little car, we finally covered the car up with a blanket.

Merry Christmas!

Spreading Christmas Cheer

With only a few shopping days left until Christmas, many people were out and about today at the stores. We went to a local department store to pick up a few items but when we went to check out, the line was extremely long. Erik took Anna out of the shopping cart and walked her around the store. It was fun to watch the frustrated shoppers' faces turn to smiles as Anna walked around in what I'm calling her "ice skating princess" outfit and waved hi to everyone.

A Poop Story

Every parent and child has a poop story that they retell at times, this is ours... My husband is off of work for the rest of the year and so we were having a nice relaxing morning eating waffles and getting a little exercise thanks to the newly found Wii. All of the sudden my husband hollered help, there's poopy on the foot. I walk over to the family room with many questions - Hmmmm, did the dog poop in the house and Anna stepped in it? I don't see any poop??? My husband then informs me that the poop is on the inside of her footed (thankfully!) pajamas. ?????????? I was even more confused - apparently my husband had noticed Anna was playing with her footed pj's and when he went to see what was going on he realized the foot was really squishy - ewwww!! So we race Anna upstairs to get her cleaned up and put her in the bathtub. The whole way up the stairs I was thinking about the current pack of diapers that we were using which have not been overly sticky and have been coming off of her - - I was ready to complain to customer service. My husband lays Anna down in the bathroom floor, unzips her pajamas and what do you know - - there was no diaper!! In the excitement of daddy being home and getting Anna out of bed, he forgot to put a new diaper on. Poor daddy!

A Visit to Santa

On Monday I took Anna to the local mall to see the Santa. I dressed her in one of her many Christmas outfits and off we went to finish up our shopping and get Anna's picture taken. Many of Anna's friends were terrified of Santa and cried, which incidentally made for cute pictures, so I was not sure how our time would go. We got in line and Anna enjoyed looking at the lights and mechanical reindeer (Santa had instructed me not to let her see him until it was time for her picture). When it was Anna's turn I took up to Santa and dropped her in his lap while she was still facing me. Anna turned around and saw the man in the white beard for the first time and was stunned. We never got a good smile for the camera but she didn't seem to be scared either. It was so cute!

Our Trip to the Beach

This past weekend we met my father-in-law and his wife at Myrtle Beach to spend a long weekend together and have our Christmas. Anything I have ever written about Anna not traveling well, I have to take back after this weekend - Anna was absolutely wonderful!! She slept through the night, napped and agreeably went along with everything we did. The only thing she did not do with her punctual regularity was potty (which made for an interesting diaper change in the back of my car one night!). I am still so proud of her and ready for the next family adventure.

While we were there, Anna opened presents. She got a Leapfrog Baby which should be fun to play. It will require lots of parent/Anna time since she's not quite old enough to understand what it wants her to do at this point.


We tried walking on the beach but it was rather windy - brrrrrrr!


Anna enjoyed giving a few high fives...


And just had a wonderful time altogether.


Thanks Opa for taking us to the beach!

A Holiday Tradition

One of my husband's family traditions over the Christmas holiday is to make chocolates. This year we've dipped pretzels, graham crackers, cherries and even pineapple, yum! Here's a picture of Anna enjoying a chocolate covered pretzel.

What's in a Name?

In keeping with the Christmas season, our pastor is going through the different names we call Jesus during the Christmas season. This past week, the pastor talked about the importance of the name we give our children - that the name we give them impacts who they are, their impact on others and their character. He even said that studies find that children with an unusual name are 4 times more likely to be juvenile delinquents. I'm sure there are more factors in the name study (including parenting!) but it does bring up a good point about praying through and giving thought to the name we give our child. The sermon comes with perfect timing as we are in the process of coming up with a name for our baby girl.

The sermon is currently at http://www.crossroads.org/sermon_series.htm but will probably change on Monday.

Pregnancy Round 2

It's amazing how a little knowledge and previous experience can relax a person, or at least me, during a second pregnancy. I am now 20 weeks, halfway through my pregnancy and things are going so well.

First Time: I read my weekly "What to Expect" update and could you tell you at any minute how big the baby was and what developmental phase she was going through.
This Time: What did I do with that book?

First Time: I ate everything listed in the books as good pregnancy foods and made sure to eat from all of the food groups; hence weight gain early.
This Time: I'm eating healthy in moderation so just starting to gain weight.

First Time: I was careful not to lift anything and the people at work made sure of it!
This Time: I have a 25 pound daughter to lift up and down.

First Time: I took a break early from exercising and was out of breath the rest of my pregnancy (not to mention several months afterward).
This Time: I have my daily walk and gab session with my mom friends and my weekly Aqua class which are helping me to feel great and have plenty of energy.

First Time: I was never really sure when the baby was moving all around and keeping me moving; is it the baby or is it gas?
This Time: I feel my little girl moving all around and keeping me up at night.

First Time: I would worry over things like: how hard is it to change a diaper? Should I get an epidural?
This Time: One epidural please!

First Time: I went to the bathroom every 15 minutes.
This Time: Ok, some things don't change.

Getting Ready to be a Mom of Two...

It's fun to watch people's reactions when we tell them we are expecting another baby that will only be 18 months younger than Anna. Mom friends in our play circles get wide eyes - I think realizing that they too could be pregnant with another (and they just aren't there yet). Moms of two welcome me into their midst and are ready to share anything they learned along the way. And lately, I've been around several moms that are pregnant with their third and they just encourage me to keep going :).

This past weekend we invited several of my coworkers and their families over to the house for an annual Christmas party. Two separate families each had two girls that were about 18 months apart (give or take a few months). How fun it was to see them interacting and entertaining one another - and for me, to see them all dressed up! I got a short glimpse of how things will be one day with two girls and it made me very excited.

Nursery Play

On Sunday, my husband and I took our monthly rotation in the nursery. Since I'm pregnant, we decided to sign up for the infants rather than be with the toddlers since our thought was there would be fewer germs. We didn't have any babies show up, so we ended up watching the Crawler room which is the room Anna is currently in. This was the first time I was able to watch Anna play in the nursery. Many times when we pick her up the nursery workers tell us she was very good (which usually means she didn't cry and they had to hold her the whole time). We got there early to sign the children into the room so Anna had the run of the room. She knew exactly where the toys were and how they all worked. It was amazing to watch her pull toy by toy off the shelf and make it do whatever magical thing it did. Anna is one of the older kids in the room and one of the best walkers (in my mommy opinion :)) so she will soon need to move to the next class, but I think being older helped her have a better time. Often times in our playgroups Anna is the youngest and cries when someone takes a toy she is playing with - here in the nursery there is no one to bother her and so she can play and do her own thing which I think she greatly enjoys. Perhaps it will work out very well that she will be one of the oldest kids in the class once she starts school.

Anna's New Room

This weekend my husband and mom spent most of the time painting two of our upstairs rooms. WIth the arrival of the new little girl, Anna will be moving into a room further down the hallway from our master bedroom. The room she is moving into was my husband's office, so the office is moving into the guest bedroom. The walls are painted, the furniture is moved and all looks great. There are just a few little details and the closets to take care of. Each night we have been taking Anna into the room to play for a few minutes before bed so that she can get accustomed to being in there before we actually move her (probably in January). Anna is a trooper when it comes to change, so I'm hoping the room change and the change to the new crib (yes, we are now a 2 crib family!) will go smoothly. I guess even if it takes a month or so, we have a few months before the baby will be here.