Seattle

Remember when I talked about my head being somewhere else lately?  I'm so excited to be able to write about it now.

We're relocating temporarily to Seattle.  For five months.  Leaving in a matter of weeks.  As in, Daniel's leaving in two weeks, and Hollie and I will follow a week or so after that.

Yeah, we first heard of this great opportunity for Daniel's career only a few weeks ago.  We're feeling spontaneous, adventurous...  definitely more excited than stressed at this point (i.e.- it hasn't hit yet).  I'm expecting panic to arrive any minute now.  :)  If at all, really.  You might remember that we relocated about two months before Hollie was born, too...and that was a permanent move!  It's just how we do it.  When I get pregnant again, you can all start putting in your votes for where we go next!

We're so lucky that Daniel's company provides a nice relocation package for this kind of temporary move...flights (for all of us), furnished housing, a rental car, etc.  It would certainly not be possible without that kind of help.  The only part I'm kind of stressing about is finding a new OB.  They all want to see your medical records before they decide how soon they'll be able to get you in, and if they'll see you at all.  Already got the ball rolling on that though, so there's no reason that won't be squared away well before we arrive.

So...now there's forwarding addresses to provide, medical releases to sign, baby clothes and gear to pack up (nesting on a grand scale here!), utility turn-offs to schedule, yard work to hire out, and so on...

Speaking of yard work...

We have a new tree, and I'm proud to say it's doing beautifully!  A Shumard Oak, if you were wondering.

Also, we finally started our garden a few days ago.  Soon we will have onions, carrots and lettuce...we hope our neighbors thoroughly enjoy them while we're 1,800 miles away.  Yeeeeah, we didn't really think that one through, did we?

Today, I saw my OB here in Wichita for my 30 week check-up, and broke the sad news that I won't be delivering here.  He said I'm the second one this week to tell him that!  Everything looks normal and right on schedule.  I will see him again in two weeks...probably the last time.  :(  It figures...just when I find an OB I really like...!

I'm pretty sure baby's lying diagonally.  I'm feeling the kicks on the right side under my ribs, and around my left hip.  So silly.  Big kicks, too...holy moly, this baby's trying to break free!

Two new belly pictures up!  29 weeks and 30 weeks.

Updates might be few and far between for awhile...but you're used to that by now, huh?  I'll do my best.

Crazy dream...

Two, actually.  Pregnancy hormones are great.

I had another dream that the baby's a boy, but I think the idea was already in my head from that other dream.  It was pretty funny...long story short: I found myself going into labor all alone, in an empty room.  I sat down and after about three [painless] pushes, delivered a baby.  My first thought was that Daniel would be so disappointed that he had missed it, so without giving a second thought to my baby I jumped up and ran out.  When I found him, I told him "Guess what, I had the baby!  We have to get to the hospital."  Someone had taken the baby to the hospital, and by the time we got there my whole family was there, too.  My little brother actually brought the baby out to meet us, all swaddled up, and I asked,

"Is it a boy or a girl?!"

"Boy!"

What's his name?"

I can't tell you his answer, because it's actually a name we've talked about using!

Last night was the other really weird one.  Evidently, we were living somewhere that had bears, because I looked out our front window early one morning and saw an enormous bear walking down the street.  It was huge.  I turned to Daniel and said, "Wow, look at that bear!  Hey, we better call animal control or something."  Then I looked out again, and it had started attacking a woman!  Just tossing her around like a toy.  I yelled to Daniel to call 911 and saw that he was already on the phone.  I started putting on a jacket, knowing that it was stupid to try to do anything and I'd probably get killed myself, but I couldn't just stay inside and do nothing.  I ran to the door and stuck my head out, and was surprised to find that the bear had disappeared.  The woman was knocking on her neighbor's door, apparently unhurt, looking around nervously.  Her husband was with her.  These were NOT people I actually know, by the way.  It wasn't even our real street.  Anyways, I'm still almost in tears because I thought I just saw this woman being killed, so I ran over and said, "Get in my house!  Get inside!  Where did it go?  Are you okay?!"  Before she could say anything, this other woman pops up, and she's apparently some kind of bear expert.  She starts going on about how exciting this is, because, she says, that wasn't a normal grizzly.  It was a lehara, a really rare subspecies, or something like that.  Don't bother googling that; it's an entirely hormonal fabrication.  She's going on and on about the differences between it and a grizzly, and I had to interrupt her: "Where. Did. It. GO?!"

At that point I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding, and absolutely terrified!  Took forever to get back to sleep.  I've had very few dreams that were as realistic as that one.

Other than that...well, we've been busy!  We bought a new tree for the front yard (the last ones didn't make it) and some damaged (but repairable) sections of fence that we found at a huge discount.  Also working on a veggie garden for the front yard, now that the weather's nice and we're not going below freezing at night anymore.

I turned 24 (yikes!) last week and my dad flew in for my birthday - a complete surprise!...for me (he and Daniel were in cahoots).  It was great.  He arrived not twenty-four hours after Uncle Chris left, so Hollie's adoration went seamlessly from one visitor to the next, and they hit it off immediately.  A trip to the zoo (for a friend's son's birthday, ironically!) and some gyros made it a perfect birthday weekend.  :)

Yesterday was the first day of my third trimester!  I'm feeling some biiiig kicks in there.  This baby's anxious to get out, I think!  New photo is up...  

Completely forgot...

Alternately titled: "She's going to hate me later for writing this"

We're using the potty!  By "we" I mean Hollie, obviously.  Daniel and I have been throwing the idea around for awhile, debating whether or not she was ready, and last Monday (like almost two weeks ago), I decided to just go for it.  I knew it was a bad idea, because Uncchris was arriving in a few days, and they say you're not supposed to start when you've any kind of additional circumstance (illness, remodeling the house, new baby, etc.)...but really, as in all things: if you wait for the "right time" it's never going to happen.  So I went for it.

Day one was a success!  When she woke up I gave her an hour or so to eat breakfast and wake up all the way, then took off her diaper, and didn't put another on another (which she didn't mind at all).  She enjoyed it for a while, but after about two hours she started doing "the dance" and going somewhat frantically from one activity to another.  I brought the potty out into the living room, and gently asked her occasionally if she wanted to sit down and use it.  For a few months now, we've been reading a book about using the potty, so she was already familiar with the "terminology" (haha).  She actually did sit down a few times, bringing a book or toy with her, but always got distracted and got up.  She asked for a diaper a few times, and so I would start to slowly get it ready, but each time she changed her mind and said "No! No diaper!"

Finally, around 12:30 in the afternoon, after roughly four hours sans diaper, she sat on the potty and used it.  Amazing.

I wanted to give you the story of the first day, but I'll spare you (and future Hollie) the rest of it - suffice it to say that our record after week #1 is 5 in the potty, 3 on the carpet.  Not too shabby.  Warning, I'm gonna brag a little -- At least two of those in the potty were unprompted, in other words: I heard tinkling, came running, and found her already on the potty!  Beyond impressed.

It kind of got put on hold for the most part while Chris was here, so I'm thinking we'll be starting from square one on Monday.  Our weekends are always pretty busy, so I think we're just going to be Monday-thru-Friday potty trainers around here.  If that makes the whole process end up taking longer as a result, I'm okay with it.  She seems to have gotten the idea, at least.

Another new belly picture is up!  Next week we start the third trimester.  Crap, we really need to deciding on some names...      

Uncchris!

This has been the broken record playing in our house the past week.  Daniel's brother Chris (Uncle Chris or Uncchris!) has come to see us for a little while before he starts a new job!  Hollie adores him.  She took a little while to warm up to him, especially since he arrived late (after bedtime) and when Hollie woke up in the morning she found him in the kitchen instead of her daddy, but ever since then she has been like a second shadow.

A few updates:

I'm feeling good.  Big, but good.  When I sit too long my legs start feeling super heavy (which I don't remember from last time), but getting out for walks and exercising as often as possible have been helping with that.  And my back huuuurts...but what else is new, right?  It's a brief, shooting pain...sometimes even when I put a foot wrong.  Youch!  I recently started feeling hungry all the time, which didn't happen until much later with Hollie (and when it did I put on weight fast), so I'm like, oh crap!  I'm trying to have healthy snacks, or see if I'm actually just thirsty, or even just wait to see if the hunger goes away in a minute or two (which it does sometimes!)(not starving myself, don't worry).  As far as I can tell, my weight gain has been right on track, so I'm thankful for that.

I guess the reason I haven't written at all lately is because my head has been somewhere else, and I can't write about our mundane family life when this kind of stuff is on my mind.  Wish I could tell you more, but we're waiting to find out something definitive.  All I want to do is sit by the phone and sweat bullets, but I have a toddler who pulls my attention away occasionally.  Daniel has a great opportunity at work.  If he doesn't get it (or decides not to take it) it's no big deal, so don't worry - we're not stressing over anything potentially bad.  If it does happen and I get to tell you about it, then it will make sense why I'm going crazy over it.

Speaking of toddler, we've got a full-fledged one around here lately.  Some days (becoming most days), man, Hollie will fight tooth and nail about something...anything...and then later, fight about the opposite.  Like she really really really wants juice.  And then she really really really wants water.  Or NOOOO I don't want a shirt on!!!   And then later NOOOO don't you DARE take my shirt off!!!  Unfortunately, Daniel and I appear to be slow learners in this game.  We've found that by being patient, catching her in the right mood at the right moment (some pre-planning on our part helps), not fighting fire with fire, and the big one - choosing our battles, we've been able to avoid the meltdown...sometimes.  Still learning, yes, we are.  The not-fighting-fire-with-fire and the not-staying-mad-after-tantrum's-over parts have been the toughest for me, but I feel like I'm learning a little everyday and making improvements (to my own mindset) one step at a time.  I do have all the motivation in the world, after all.  She is sooo loving, when she wants to be!  She even pats your back when she gives a big hug...I love it!

Another big one - we've been making an effort to give her what she wants when she asks nicely (even if it's something that not ordinarily allowed)(but within reason).  I guess that falls under choosing your battles.  It's funny how we complain that her answer to everything is no-no-no! but sometimes we're just as bad.  Hoping this strategy has some long-term effect.  Also, we try to turn our no's into yes's: No, we're not going to have a bath now, but we're going to have one right after dinner.  And 9 times out of 10, she does remember...and reminds you!

Toddlerhood really is amazing, though.  She's become so demanding, but in a cute way!  She completely takes the lead: tells you where to sit, what toy to hold, what to do with it, etc.  She has a pretend blood pressure cuff and stethoscope, and one of her favorite things to do is have you lay down so she can put the cuff on you and "listen" to you everywhere!  It blows my mind sometimes.

Another funny thing:  when we're getting dinner ready, she sees all the food out and tells us she's hungry (hungee!), and we tell her don't worry, dinner will be ready soon!  Then she immediately climbs up in her chair, buckles herself in, and tells us about every 30 seconds that she ready to eat (ready eat!).

Her speech is growing in leaps and bounds.  Starting to string words together and everything!  However, she does tend to repeat things without really knowing what they mean, so it's tough to really gauge what she knows.  She also tends to use the same pronunciation for similar words, like monkey and blanket (mankie) and kitchen and chicken (just chicken, but ending with -on instead of -en: chick-ON!).  Her counting has taken two steps forward and one step back...she started repeating "one" and then weeks later added "two" (and she would sing "one-two-one-two-one-two!") and just recently added "three"...except that now sometimes it's "two-three-one"!  Uh-oh.  She knows and recognizes the music of Glee, one of our favorite TV shows (she calls is gee!).  The soundtrack for season one is the most requested CD in our collection!  Yeah, we might be kind of proud of that.  :)

If we're talking about more traditional kids' music, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider song (neebee spider) is her favorite, with the hand motions, of course.  Second favorite would be the Elmo song (youtube video here), rewritten to include Hollie's song, Mommy's song, Daddy's song, and lately Uncchris's song.  She will start singing that one all on her own!

Long update!  I will try to write more often.  I did add a new belly photo last week, and I'll have another one tomorrow (27 weeks!).

I've got it stuck in my head now: la-la la-la, la-la, la-la, Hollie's song...  

We've got parties set for life

This weekend during Hollie's birthday party, Daniel and I realized something awesome.  Hollie's birthday will always be fairly close to Mardi Gras, mine will be fairly close to Easter, Daniel's is four days after Christmas, and the new baby's will (probably) fall near the 4th of July.

Party themes...check!

So, we didn't really plan much for Hollie's big day...what do you plan for a two-year old anyway?  But with Daniel's parents in town from Lake Charles, and the family friends we invited having roots in Lafayette...it turned out to be a Cajun party all by itself.  

We played French music, had pasta-laya for dinner (that's jambalaya with pasta, instead of rice.  Not exactly Cajun, if we're being nit-picky.  More of a New Orleans thing, I think), and later enjoyed a king cake (carried carefully on the plane by the grandparents)(here's a link).  

The family we invited over had two kids- a three-year-old boy, and a one-year-old girl.  Despite the gaps in their ages, they had a blast together.  Hollie loves to be chased, and this boy, apparently, loves to chase, so there were many many laps around the living room and kitchen, with little sister trying her best to keep up.  It got pretty wild, but as long as they weren't hitting or pushing, we let them have fun.  They all had a hand in opening the gifts, and then the house really turned upside down!     

Trike from Abuelita and Pepere

Bowling set from Mommy and Daddy.  They could not even wait for all the pins to be stood up- they just dove into them!

So, it was a blast.  Everyone slept pretty well that night, I think.  Hollie's check-up with the doctor was yesterday, and she's doing great.  She's 26 pounds, and 33 and 1/4 inches tall.  

New picture up over there!  (Darn soap dispenser snuck in again.)  I know I skipped a week.  It might happen again- you've been warned.

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There are a few bits and pieces from the OB appointment two weeks that I forgot to share.

I've been starting to really feel the growing pains lately, sometimes an ache at the top of my belly but most often on the sides.  I remember that from before, but not this bad, so I asked and Dr. J confirmed that it is round ligament pain, and that it will probably get worse with each pregnancy.  Soooo, I think after this one we're gonna be a family of four permanently!  Just kidding, but maybe not.  We'll see.  :)

When he felt my belly to find the top of my uterus, he said, "Wow, you're already above the belly button!  Normally at 22 weeks we expect you to be just about even."  So, I think- cool, I'm measuring big!  Then he takes out the measuring tape to get an actual number, and says "Hmmm.  You're actually measuring small for 22 weeks.  Looks like your belly button is just really low."  We had a good laugh about that later...I guess you really do learn something new everyday!

How cruel of me

...to tell you we've been having fun, and there are even pictures...and then disappear for a week and a half.

There have been epic technical difficulties, which you have to ask Daniel about because I don't have a clue.  It only impacted me because we lost the use of our hard drive (got everything off first, don't worry) while we used an old laptop for internet usage in the meantime.  But we are, along with our new hard drive and half a dozen other computer bits which we apparently needed (yep, talk to Dan), back in business and I have my photos again (yay!).  

There's a new photo over there,

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and I don't even have a good excuse for why I took it four days late, either.

And now, Miss Chocolate-face...   

[still good]

Are you wondering if we have the world's tallest almost-two-year-old?  Nope.  Just an almost-two-year-old with a brand new stool...

New favorite hobby: rearranging (and closely examining) the silverware.

Other newfound skills include:

• Washing her hands.  At first she always wanted like a gallon of soap in each hand, but after I tried to show her that we only use this much, she decided she doesn't want to use any at all.  She loves looking in the mirror.  She plays a solo version of peekaboo by crouching down on the stool and jumping up, saying "kah-boo!"

• Turning on all the lights and fans in the house. 

• Using a fork to stab all the fruit in the bowl on the counter, repeatedly.  This has only happened twice, thankfully.  Both times she gave up and brought me the fruit, and told me she was "hungee".

I have more to write about: new words, bizarre habits of a certain toddler, baby kicks (big ones!), 22 week OB visit (which went great, so I guess I don't need to write about it), but I hear the silverware clattering, and I just bought bananas and a bunch of oranges, so I better go...

Schedule = sanity + getting up early

So, the new routine is going okay.  It has been a crazy ride, going from 100% flexible to 100% scheduled in such a short time, but I don't think there's any other way to do it successfully.  For six mornings in a row I have gotten out of bed at 7am to wake Hollie up.  She has been napping at reasonable times, which is wonderful, but the new problem is that she naps for like three hours (that's a looooong nap!)...and then stays up until 10 or 11 just like before.  Which makes me feel horrible for waking her up so early the next morning (on top of feeling horrible for being up that early myself).  So...do I wake her up from her nap after an hour or so??  Geez, that makes me feel manipulative/micro-manage-y, not letting her sleep as long as she wants ever.  But on the other hand, it will do wonders for our sanity (all three four of us) to guarantee that she A) gets a nap and B) goes to bed at a reasonable time.  And there's no question that she does get plenty of sleep (and she'll get a little more if we can pull that bedtime back to about 9 or so). 

I hate having to wake her up.*  But if it works, it works, and doing nothing was definitely not working.

Sigh.  I'm just glad we're figuring this out now and not, oh, 19 weeks from now.

That's right...21 weeks today!
<----  See new photo
(Maybe one of these weeks I'll remember to move that soap dispenser.  No guarantees.)
 
*To clarify, I'm the only one that hates it.  She hasn't minded it one bit so far!  She's pretty happy in the morning no matter what time it is.  Plus, she gets to see Daddy in the morning before he leaves.  :)

We have been having lots of funny fun around here, too.  Great stories with photos coming soon...