Recovered

In the past 5 days everyone in the house has had the stomach bug and recovered. Thankfully it moved fast and we are now able to get off of our diet of saltines and gatorade (pedialyte in Anna's case). Since I didn't have morning sickness with either pregnancy I had no clue what it was like to get sick while being pregnant. I am glad that I read information on having the stomach flu before I actually got sick because it would have seemed much scarier to me - the most important key for a pregnant woman is to stay well hydrated.

On a side note, my daughter did something last night that made me realize how much her little eyes are on my every move and just because I haven't "taught" her to do something doesn't mean she hasn't figured it out on her own. Anna saw a piece of trash on the kitchen floor, walked over to the pantry, opened the door, threw the trash away and closed the pantry door. What a big helper!

Ahhhhhh, clean

So I have to admit I feel quite spoiled at the moment - I am sitting here while my house smells cleaner by the minute. My wonderful husband got me a cleaning service for a little while since it has been more difficult for me to clean since being pregnant (plus I'm not very good at it). Others may be thinking like I have in the past - you're home all day, why do you need someone to clean for you? I can probably come up with a few answers such as my back hurts or I don't want to smell the cleaning supplies, but for now I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts! Thanks hubby!

Spaghetti Sunday

For the past year or so Sunday nights at our house are spaghetti Sundays. I'm not really sure how this started but it sure makes meal planning easy. Last night was Anna's first spaghetti Sunday at the family table. Over the weekend we put her booster seat on one of the kitchen chairs and Anna now has a new spot for meal time. Of course the celebration called for a trip to Target where we purchased cute girly plates and Anna's own fork and spoon set.

As you can tell from this picture, Anna is feeling much better and had no problems diving into her spaghetti!

A Long Night

Anna woke up at midnight last night crying. I went in to see what was wrong and she was pointing at the pile of vomit in her crib :(. Unfortunately for us, Anna had tried her first hotdog that day (and one of those pink ones nonetheless), yuck! I woke up my husband and for the next two hours we took turns holding Anna and having her throw up on us while the other cleaned up. It was so pitiful to watch her whole body convulse while she tried to get all of the yuckies out. I got out the ear thermometer but was unable to record a temperature above 95 degrees. Each time I tried the ear thermometer the temperature could vary a couple of degrees so I did not feel comfortable with the accuracy of it. We tried to keep Anna warm and finally got a rectal temperature of 97.7 degrees. At that point, I felt more comfortable putting her back in her crib since she had not gotten sick again for about 30 minutes. For the next 2 hours Anna cried about every 15 minutes as she tossed and turned to get comfortable. Finally around 5:00am she fell asleep for a good 3 hours. So sad. A few months ago I mentioned that Anna threw up for the first time but it was nothing like this. I guess it was the mommy part of me, but surprisingly I didn't feel sick to my stomach too!

This morning Anna woke up at full steam drinking her Pedialyte, though eating very little. She played and played and finally got sick again :(. She is back in the bed now and hopefully getting some good rest.

Big Noggin'

I went for a routine OB checkup today and for the first time all of my measurements weren't right on track. My uterus had not gotten bigger since my last checkup so the doctor scheduled an ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing as she should be. So an hour later, our whole family headed back to the doctor to make sure the little one is well. I laid on the ultrasound table and as the lady put the warm jelly on my belly, Anna started crying. Her daddy comforted her but it was so sweet to see that she was concerned about me. The technician checked out all the body parts and confirmed that all was perfect (and 100% confirmation that our baby is in fact a girl). She is 3 pounds 9 ounces, already head down (though that may change a few times between now and delivery) and has plenty of room to grow even if my uterus does not. The only surprising part is that the measurements put my due date a week ahead of schedule and the head at almost TWO weeks early. My husband says big heads run in the family and I guess it is no surprise since Anna is only starting to grow into her 90 percentile head :). What a blessing to be able to have another peak at my little girl

Fearless

Fearless is not a word I would normally use to describe Anna. In large groups she often comes to sit in my lap and when another toddler tries to touch her she runs away. For Anna, I think all of the rules and shyness go out the window when a slide is involved.

Last night I took Anna to the mall and as we strolled past the indoor play area that we have stopped at before, she pointed and wanted to go play. I thought why not we have no timetable for the evening. Anna surprised me! Last time she never went 2 feet from me and just watched the other kids play, this time she decided to join in the fun. She crawled up the stairs amongst all the big kids and took her turn going down the slide. As soon as she hit the ground she would turn around and do it again (and again and again). If another kid slid into her, she would give them a funny look but would still get up and go back up. She looked so small compared to the other kids and I realized how much she is growing up.

Playing House

Growing up I had a big yellow bucket that was filled with Fisher Price Little People. I could spend hours playing with them and spreading them throughout our entire playroom. They have changed a lot since the wooden cylinder body and plastic circle for a head and now can be found in the form of everything from a locksmith to baby Jesus laying in the manger. Anna received several of the playsets for her birthday and Christmas but has just started to actually "play" with them. It is so cute to watch her put them through the door and on the toilet. I have a feeling that these toys are going to be some of Anna's favorites for a long time.



My one complaint is that all of the animals in sets such as the Ark, Farm and Zoo come with "touch and feel" animals. While a little extra sensory action is nice, they seem so unsanitary - imagine a toddler sucking on the brillo pad patch of hair on top of a sheeps head for days, yuck!

10 Weeks!!

My husband and I were talking the other night and I made the obvious yet frightening statement ten weeks to go. Are we ready? During my first pregnancy with Anna I had checklists and checklists for the checklists and way more stuff than I could ever need ready in case the baby came early. Now I'm asking myself - what do I need to do? Granted, 10 weeks is a lot of time to accomplish just about anything and since we are having another girl, there is no need to run to Babies R Us every day to stock up on odds and ends but there is still that take your breath away feeling that time is drawing near. I think my biggest panic is that there are only 10 weeks left with just Anna and I and I feel like I need to do all that I can with her. I know it will be important to make time for just us once the baby comes, but life will be completely different from what we know today. Attending playgroups and walking with friends will heavily rely on my ability to get everyone dressed, fed and happy on only 4-5 hours of interrupted sleep a night. Hmmmm, perhaps it was better when I wasn't counting the weeks :).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Teachable Moments...Missed?

I was reading in a book the other day that kids left to their own devices will almost always be potty trained around age 4. I'm not sure that this is scientific or even how accurate a statement it is, but the point was that toddlers have an amazing ability to learn things even when we don't teach them (I call that God's awesome design!) and when they are ready to do something - they do it. I haven't given more than 2 minutes thought to potty training except to say that I'm holding out a while longer from going down that path but I have seen this theory demonstrated in a smaller skill - using a straw. About 3 months ago we were having dinner at a fast food chain and I had forgotten to bring Anna's sippy cup. Anna was thirsty so we tried letting her sip water out of our straw - it was a failed attempt. Lately I had been seeing Anna's friends drinking out of sippy cups with straws and even juice boxes and I decided it was time to "teach" her to use a straw. We gave her some juice in a cup with a straw and she drank out of the straw as if she had been doing it her whole life. Hmmmmm - I guess she doesn't need me to teach her everything :).

Doing a little Cha-cha-cha

Today Anna and I headed across town to a Salsa Tots class. It had everything the name implies: latin music, maracas, and of course a conga line. The class was targeted at toddlers from 1 to 5 years of age though most of them were around the 18 month mark. One thing I'm finding and have heard other mommies comment as well is that these toddler classes are a lot of work for the parent. If you have a curious child, you'll be chasing your child around the room as he/she tries to rummage through everyone else's bags; if you have a fussy child, you'll be trying to appease them with cell phones and the like; if you have a child who is a little apprehensive in new environments (like mine!) you'll be holding them the entire time. So I salsa-ed, cha cha-ed and moved my hips to the beat (ok, maybe not to the beat) with Anna holding a maraca in one hand and a fist full of my shirt with the other hand. There was a brief period of time during the limbo where Anna settled for holding my hand while she limbo-ed underneath a scarf and then it was right back into my arms. I'm guessing if you do enough of these classes the child gets more comfortable and starts to participate but I think for us we need to wait until Anna is older (and I'm not pregnant) before doing structured classes - - the 2 1/2 year old in the class looked like she was having the most fun!

The Value of a Neighborhood

Growing up I didn't live in a home owner association subdivision like is so common here in Raleigh, but nevertheless I met my BFFL (best friend for life) in the house behind me before I was old enough to hold up my own head. A few events this past week have had me reflecting on just how much I enjoy the neighborhood we live in and the wonderful friends that Anna and I are making here. I wonder if Anna will too keep in touch with these girls when she gets older no matter how much distance may eventually be between them.

Yesterday Anna and I strolled up the street to meet a neighborhood friend to take a walk; we ended our walk at another neighborhood friend's house to let the girls run around for a little while; then we walked to the little playground across the street to enjoy some fresh air. These are the moments I dreamed of when we were looking for a house and neighborhood to start our family in. To me, this is what a neighborhood should be.

The Spoon Continued

Now here's something Anna can eat with a spoon!! She ate almost the entire container of yogurt by herself.

The Spoon

One of Anna's new favorite "toys" is the spoon. She loves to carry it around, chew on it, and eat her snacks with it. Our current favorite spoon is the Gerber Scoopin' Spoon because it is deep and flexible. While it is cute to see her try to feed herself with a spoon, the spoon also leads to many frustrating moments for Anna which can result in snacks all over the floor.



We have lots of practicing to do before Anna is a pro but in the meantime she has found a less frustrating solution - putting the cheerio in the spoon with her fingers :).

The Bump

When my husband came home from work yesterday Anna and I were sitting in the backyard enjoying the day and as soon as my husband saw me in my horizontal striped shirt he remarked something to the tune of woah, you look pregnant. I laughed. If this comment had come three months into the pregnancy I may have cringed, but at 28 weeks I am happy that my bump has started to emerge (and it is emerging quite rapidly I must add). When I was pregnant with Anna I avoided being in pictures and would run whenever my husband got the camera out. The outcome... I have very few pictures of the pregnant me and only one with the full side view (which I found the other day and gasped at how large I actually was!!). So I decided I need to lighten up and have a little fun. Here's my bump...

Doodling

I came home on Saturday to some beautiful scribblings by Anna. Anna and her daddy had gone to Target and picked up some Crayola Beginnings Tadoodles Crayon Buddies. This was Anna's first time ever using crayons and she did fabulous! What a fun surprise.

Ice Cream Dance

Anna continued to get sick at each meal yesterday and we determined that she was having problems digesting certain foods because of all the yucky drainage in her throat. She would cough so much that the food would come back up :(. What food slides down easily and is yuuummyy, ice cream! Here's Anna doing what we call the ice cream dance.

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Still Sick

Anna continues to have a runny nose and has even started asking for a tissue to wipe her nose whenever she sees a tissue box. 'Blow' is our word of the week. This morning we had a sad first - Anna threw up for the first time in her life :( - poor girl. Hopefully the weekend will bring rest and recovery.