23 weeks tomorrow!

I have slacked again...but none the less here is a quick update.

Tomorrow I will be 23 weeks, can't believe how fast it is going! My friend Tabatha (mother of Procia down the street) had her second baby today, it was a boy!! We are all so excited! Seeing his sweet little face made me even more excited about this little one growing in my tummy, we will be happy regardless of gender, but it would be fun to have another little boy in the neighborhood :o)The baby has been moving a lot, but I still feel the majority of the movement on my right side, I think the placenta is on the left in the front. Kylie keeps asking when we get to go see Karen again, so I was happy to be able to tell her "one week from today." We have also been reading our "big sister" books and Hello Baby. Her favorite part is when the midwife catches the baby's head and looking at the placenta, maybe she will decide to be a midwife someday :o)

My cousin Emily announced that their second baby (due about 10 days after ours) will be another boy, so Liam will have a little brother, so exciting!

I have started teaching the childbirth classes, my first class was this past Sunday and I think it went really well. The class ended at 4:30 and no one moved. They all got comfortable in their seats and starting asking questions, I finally had to kick them out at 5pm! It was so fun, I love teaching, can't wait to teach my next class.

More Kylie update... she attended her first bridal shower last week. Her and I took a trip to visit Ammy and Papa (she slept almost the entire drive both ways!!) and enjoyed celebrating Lane's upcoming wedding. She got to wear her pretty pink dress and tights, which she decided felt to funny and ended up taking off half way through. Although she is a little slow to warm, she enjoyed the party and was running around talking to almost everyone by the end of it.
Her language is getting more detailed everyday. She is saying sentences that are 6 words long and putting together concepts really well. I find myself having real conversations with her, it is so fun. Also challenging because we can no longer act like we don't understand her when she wants something we don't want her to have, and she doesn't let things go. For example the other night I said to Craig that we needed to make sure Kylie got a bath before bed, we were sitting at the dinner table with Kylie and she said "wash hair?" The answer was "ya, we need to wash your hair tonight," for the rest of dinner and another hour after she complained and protested "no, wash hair, no wash hair, no bath, not need it." If we would insist that we needed to wash hair she would cry and beg us not to wash it, if we gave her any other answer like "let's talk about it later" or "we will see, but probably need to wash hair" or "let's find something fun to take with us to the bath," she would say "ok, wash hair?" she was back to asking the questions somewhat calmly. Just one of the many fun and challenging parts of parenting at this age.

Today we had the opportunity to have her language assessed by a speech therapy student. Darin (Tabatha's husband) is an instructor at Loma Linda and asked if he could give our info to some of his students that needed children to assess for a class project. His student came by today with a list of yes/no questions for me about Kylie's language and ability to understand language. The test is called the REEL-3 and it is intended to test infants up to 3 years of age. The questions were things like "if you give your child 3 part instructions can they follow them?" or "when your child feels she is not being understood does she get frustrated?" and "does your child use words ending in "ing."" You are suposed to continue to answer questions until you have said "no" to 5 consecutive questions at which point you have an idea of what level the child is at. So we started answering, Kylie was talking a lot so many of the questions she would simply demonstrate for us. We made it to the end of the test with only two "no" answers total, meaning that Kylie is speaking like a three year-old and possibly more since this is where the test ends. I knew she was advanced but I didn't think she was that far ahead. Now Craig and I are just trying to figure out how we can teach her a second language now, since she seems to understand language so well. We are very proud of our little one, she amazes us everyday.

She has started to ask to go poop in the potty! She seems to get motivated when she is visiting her aunties and went in the potty everyday we were in Portorville. She kept it up once we got home for another 5-6 days before telling me she wanted to go in her diaper again. It was a great little break from washing poop out of cloth diapers, thanks Kylie! The most impressive display of this new-gained control, was Saturday morning. We took a walk to Olive Market with friends for breakfast, about halfway through our trip she stared wondering around looking like she was working on some business. A little while later she came to me and said, "go poopy, inside potty." Ok, so off we went. I was pretty sure she had already gone and just wanted me to change her diaper but she likes to be changed in bathrooms anyway so it was not going to make a difference. When we got there the bathroom was occupied and we had to wait for about a minute (which in kids potty time is an eternity). Once we got in the bathroom I pulled down her diaper to find it clean, put her on the potty and there she went! I was so proud and impressed that she was able to hold it and knew when she was ready to go, wow. It really is the simple things in life that are the best :o)

She still love to put on chap-stick which she calls "chap-it" and recently started enjoying cold cereal "cer-ree-ree-al." She is getting more opinionated about what she eats and when and often finds things we don't want her to have (like candy or cookie) and says "try it? little bit? like it? spicy?" If we tell her something is spicy she will usually opt out, but lately she has still asked to "try it?"

I'm sure there is more, but this is enough for now.

Auntie Lala and Doe taught Kylie lots of things this past trip, one of them was "we are just a couple girls hanging out." 

Just enjoying a relaxing ride to visit the neighbors farm animals, pj's on, "cow boots" on, tiny baby snuggled in, what could be better.

20 Weeks 4 days and Kylie is 22 months!

We had an apt with our midwife Karen last week, it was wonderful! Kylie loves being there, it was only her second time but she warmed up really fast and in no time at all she was gathering all the baby dolls and making Craig and I hold and rock them all. She is such a sweet little girl, she always wants her babies to be held and she will often just walk around the house bouncing and shushing them and of course nursing them. So everything with Karen went well, the baby's heartbeat sounded nice and strong, Kylie even got to hold the Doppler on my tummy, she was so proud. I am still a little (or a lot) dehydrated which is frustrating. I was dehydrated last time I was there so I made a good conscious effort this past month to drink a lot more water, Craig even got me a new fancy water bottle to help. So I was eager to see how things had improved and they hadn't, at all. :o( So I will try again next month and hope for the best. Karen is not at all worried about it, she says that dehydration is a concern in sick people that are having a hard time getting well, but in well people we sometimes don't know why there seems to be a problem, and the reality is, it might not be a problem at all. She always makes me feel so much better about everything.The baby is moving well, I can feel it many times during the day and Craig has been able to feel the little one move too! Can't wait for Kylie to get to feel it, I think she will find it fun!

We have had a few nights of decent sleep with Kylie recently, where she wakes only once or twice and we get a little stretch of about 5-6 hours, but last night she fell asleep around 10pm and didn't wake or nurse until 8am!!!!! Wow! I woke up probably 4 times to check on her because I couldn't believe she was sleeping and not attached to me :o) But there she was snuggled on her side of the bed fast asleep. She insisted on wearing footie pj's last night (that she never wears) and she took a lot of friends to bed with her, Flower, Little Purple Baby, Nala, Carly, Mommy and Baby Owl and Little Cat, so maybe that had something to do with it :o) Who knows, but we will try it all again tonight.

Kylie is still nursing a lot, she developed a habit of putting her other hand down my shirt and playing with my other nipple, not fun. So since November 1st I have been trying to break her of this habit and I can't seems to get her to stop, its like she does it without thinking and as soon as I look at her she pulls it out. Silly little girl.

She plays with her kitchen everyday, this photo is from a few days ago when she was taking restaurant in her diaper and boots. Seems like there is a photo of Craig like this, just gotta love it.

 Another big thing happened this morning...she told me she needed to go potty and she wanted to sit in the little potty, she went pee and poo, it was awesome! She was so proud of herself and of course we were very, very proud of her too!

Here is a belly photo from today, it is so fun to have another little bunny growing, I can't believe this pregnancy is already half way through!

Other highlights from the past few days... Kylie said her entire alphabet without any help, she just started going through it and she made it all the way, a couple times! We couldn't believe it! She is also counting very well, she can almost make it to 20 on her own, she usually misses 14, 15, 16 and 17 but other then that she's got it. She has starting saying the months of the year too, she starts with May, June, July, August, September, October, November. Then just today she started saying January and February, so I think she will have it down pretty soon. Kylie is still obsessed with the sound of music, she can sing "the sun has gone to bed and so must I" and about half of the rest of the song, we figure she will be ready to be in the play by the time she's 5 :o) Pointing out things that are 

She has started painting this week also. She is very controlled and detailed, she doesn't make any mess, it's amazing. The other night she was painting with Melissa, she has 3 pain options but only wanted to use the green. She was doing little strokes on a paper and Melissa asked her what she was paining, Kylie said "a hairy armpit." We couldn't believe it. We asked her a few times but she insisted it was called "Hairy Armpit, " so we titled it and hung it on the wall, what can we say, we are still proud.
More to come soon

Happy Birthday Amma! 19 week and 2 days

Yesterday we woke up and headed to the hospital for our anatomy scan of the baby. With Kylie this scan was the last ultrasound we ever had with her and our last appointment at the hospital. The plan is the same with this little one. Craig had to work (poor second baby, we didn't even realized we scheduled the scan on a work day) so Auntie Melissa joined Kylie and I. Thank goodness she was there with us because about 10 minutes in to the 30 min scan, Kylie was done and trying to leave. Melissa did a great job entertaining her while we finished things up. Everything looks great, the baby was measuring 19 weeks and 4 days (3 days bigger then it actually is, but we are talking about our baby, I'm sure it's just a little taller then all the other 19 week babies :o) Once again we covered our eyes when the scan headed south, this would have been our chance to find out the gender, but we are happy to say we still don't know. After the scan we headed upstairs to show Craig the photos and tell him everything went well. Then we headed back down to say hi to "Auntie Jo" before heading home again.
Last night Kylie had one of her best nights ever, she fell asleep around 10pm and didn't wake (not once) until about 6:16 this morning. I was hoping this great night of sleep would set us up for a good day today, but Kylie had another somewhat rough day which included throwing a fit every time we did anything (change diaper, get dressed, eat food, go outside, stay inside... I felt like I just couldn't win). Once again Auntie Melissa to the rescue, don't know what I would have done without her today. I am wondering if my breast milk is starting to change back to colostrum, maybe she senses something is changing and doesn't know how to handle it, or we are just starting to experience some of the "terrific two's."
We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday today. We enjoyed a great dinner downtown at the Farm and she started a three day Downton Abbey marathon that will end with the start of the new season on Sunday, so fun.
I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards, wondering when its too late, but life has simply been busy so I am hoping to get some in the mail tomorrow, we will see :o)

Happy New Years!!!!

Life has been crazy, but with the new year I am feeling determined to get back to writing the blog at least a couple times a week. So much has happened over the past few months with all the holidays that I will not be able to catch it all up in one post. So instead tonight I am just going to give a little update :o)

Kylie is amazing! But we already knew that! She is talking SO much, Craig and I can hardly believe our ears. Yesterday morning she sat up in bed and she had a little fuzzy thing in her eye. I told her to look at me and that I was going to get something out of her eye. After getting it out she shouts "Dada, something in eye, right there (pointing to her eye)." Sentences like this just make Craig and I look at each other and smile, she is so fun.

I worked last night, when I left at 7am we still had not had our fist baby of the new year but there were a few women in the race. When I got home I got a text that Kylie had just recently fallen asleep and that I should just get some sleep and plan on seeing her later. Turns out she decided that sleeping was not part of the plan last night. She went to bed around 11pm and was up crying at 2:45, looking for mommy and having a hard time falling back to sleep. After an hour of trying, Craig decided that they might as well just get up, turn on some lights and play. By 6am Ama and Papa were ready to take over and Craig got some sleep. Kylie went right to sleep with Ama and slept for a few hours. She came to wake me up around 1:30 and instead, decided to climb in bed, nurse and the next thing you know it is almost 5pm and we are both just waking up, ahhh. So needless to say we were a little worried she would not want to sleep tonight, but after a HUGE dinner (I think she ate more then I did) and a fun big girl bath with mammy, she was ready for a story and bed time around 9:30, yeah.

Melissa is still living with us, which we love!! She got engaged this fall and yesterday we had an amazing adventure to find a wedding dress. All I will say is she is going to look amazing!

This evening, while we were making dinner in the real kitchen, Kylie and Melissa were busy making food in Kylie's kitchen to serve to some hungry guests, including Carly, DisBaby (Tido), Macy, Big Pink Bear and me. Kylie is loving her new play kitchen (thank you Ammy and Papa Johnson) and her new table and chairs. She totally gets it, she cooks things, puts them on plates, pretend to eat then sometimes puts the dishes in the sink. That is as far as it gets, I guess she sees the mess our kitchen is in and figures thats just how it goes :o) She is still very interested in books, her current favorites include, Go Dog Go, One Fish Two Fish, It's no Fun to be Sick, Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow and her new Big Sisters and the Best book from Christmas. She has most of One Fish Two Fish memorized which is amazing to Craig and I, it is a really long book but she can fill in almost any word on any page while we are reading, it's so fun.

One more quick update, then it is time for bed. Today I am 19 weeks along with baby #2! We have decided to be surprised about the gender of this baby, just like we were with Kylie. We are seeing our midwife Karen and everything seems to be going perfect. We have our next appointment with Karen next week and an ultrasound this week. Kylie talks about the baby all the time and often touches my tummy and kisses the baby, it is so sweet. Kylie is still nursing and I am planning to just see how it all plays out, I am not interested in weaning her and I know many moms that were able to make the transition work, so we will see. I have had a couple times when I thought I felt the baby move, but I was not 100% until about 3 nights ago. We were just getting ready to fall asleep and the baby gave us two good kicks, even Craig could feel them! It's so exciting! I have been feeling so busy with Kylie that there are times when I forget I am even pregnant, I am looking forward to the constant reminder as I am able to feel this baby move even more. Kylie has not felt the baby move yet, but she will put her had on my tummy and say "baby moving, ya." I think she will really enjoy the movement when the baby gets bigger. Ok, enough for tonight, this is the first blog on my new computer!! So I will have to work on getting some photos uploaded. So glad to be back writing, and so eager to document this new pregnancy and baby!!!!