Birthday Girl :)

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Anna!

Anna is 5 months old!

Big Sister

When I was pregnant with Anna, I was quite nervous about how Elizabeth would take having a new baby in the house.  I was expecting jealousy, anxiety, regression, some sort of adjustment period...  I kept expecting the jealousy to just show up one day, for Lizzie to be mad that Anna is getting more attention or pissed that she is playing with one of HER toys, or for Lizzie to ask the question that I feared the most... "Can't we put her back in??"  So far....

Elizabeth meeting Anna for the first time. 

I am totally blown away with how awesome Elizabeth is with Anna.  She exceeded all my expectations of how life with an infant and older sibling would go. Seeing them together makes my heart go all melty.

At first, Elizabeth kept track of how many times she held Anna.  Like, "This is my very first time holding Anna!" and "This is my 8th time holding Anna!"  Then she would tell everyone who would listen that she had held Anna however many times. I think she lost track around 12 or 13. 

The first time Elizabeth held Anna. 

I believe this is Lizzie's second time holding Anna.

And now a bunch of random thoughts thrown together with bullet points:

• She does her "job" of bringing dirty diapers from the living room to the diaper champ in the nursery (she will say, "Oh, I have a job to do!" whenever she sees a diaper sitting there. Hilarious.) 
• She insisted on buying Anna the really expensive teether giraffe named Sophie, and basically makes sure she has it at all times because she knows Anna loves it so much (she actually does seem to really enjoy the dang giraffe). 
• When Anna fusses, Elizabeth has said many times, "Anna, why are you crying?  You have a big sister!" 
• She loves holding Anna's hand, or rather, she loves when Anna holds her finger.  Every time she says something like, "Mom, look!  Anna's holding my finger! Take a picture!" 
• After Anna was born, even when we were still in the hospital, Elizabeth would climb on the couch, put a pillow in her lap, and hold her arms out.  That was her way of saying she wanted to hold her sister.
• I told Elizabeth that it is so cool that she has a sister because some day they'll be best friends and can be each other's maids of honor, etc. and she said to me, "Mom, we are already best friends."

Anna is 4 months old!

Anna is 3 months old!

Anna is 2 months old!

This little girl is such a joy.  I am so lucky to be her mama.

Anna is 1 month old!

My little peanut is a month old already! 

Anna Kathryn has arrived!

Our sweet baby girl is here!  She was born on September 9, 2012 at 5:54 PM.  She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 21.5" long.   Mom did an excellent job writing down details from the day in a special green notebook (even what time Nate had lunch!), but unfortunately that notebook has gone missing.  So I'm going to do my best to remember details.

I ended up being induced.  At my appointment on September 4th, the doctor decided that I didn't need to induce on the 5th like we were tentatively planning.  That was kind of a shock.  But he did want the baby to be born by the end of the weekend.  We went with Sunday just to give me another day to hopefully go naturally.  No such luck.

So on Saturday evening, we took Elizabeth over to Nana and Papa's house to spend the night.  I cried and cried.  I had been super emotional about Elizabeth no longer being an only child and not getting to spend as much time with her.  I'm thrilled for her that she is getting a new baby sister, and she's excited too, but her life is about to change so much.  Then I had to drop her off and couldn't even spend her last night as an only child with her, also knowing that I'd be in the hospital for a few days and wouldn't see her much.  Anyway, I was an emotional wreck. Fun!

Sunday morning we made it over to the hospital almost on time (7:13 AM).  We got the same room at the end of the hallway that we were in when Elizabeth was born! (yay!) 

After getting changed into the hospital gown, the nurse came in to put my IV in.  Wow.  That sucked.  After two unsuccessful attempts in my left hand, I started feeling light headed and nauseous. I didn't actually throw up, but it was close.  I've never had a reaction like that to needles, as much as I hate them.  An older nurse came in to try it on my other hand.  That sucked too, but at least it worked that time.  She said whenever I need an IV, look for the oldest nurse because she has the most experience.

They started the pitocin around 9:30 and contractions started coming regularly an hour or two later.  They were uncomfortable but tolerable. I was able to talk through them and everything. I mostly felt them towards the bottom of my belly.  At one point, after coming back from the bathroom and climbing into bed, I mentioned how I felt like I was leaking.  Could this possibly be amniotic fluid??  I was really stoked that SOMETHING with this labor could be happening naturally!  Someone got the nurse and she tested with some tape thing and said it was negative.  I was bummed.  But then she checked me and said that my water had definitely broken.  She said when she moved her hand, there would be a gush.  And?  There was a gush! Yay!

The contractions started getting more intense and the anesthesiologist came in around 12:30 for my epidural and got done around 1:00.  This actually sucked.  A lot. With Elizabeth, I remember this process being fairly quick and easy.  This time, I had 3 numbing shots (or "bee stings") and he had to try a couple times to find a good spot to put in the epidural because the first spot caused pain on my left side.  At some point, I remember hearing Nate breathing funny, like real quick breaths.  I thought maybe he was trying to get me to mimic his breathing or something, but I had to keep looking down so I couldn't see what he was doing.  After the poking of all the needles was done and he was pretty much just putting in the medicine (or whatever it is they do after poking with all the needles), Nate said something about feeling faint.  I looked up at him and he was white as a ghost.  He almost fainted because he was so worried about me.  (Aww... :)  Not that I wanted him to faint!  The nurse told him to go sit down in the rocking chair.  He kept saying how he felt like a wimp, and I'm the one that needed supported, he held out as long as he could, etc.  What a sweetie. 

So when the epidural didn't really seem to be working, I was pretty upset.  The anesthesiologist came back in after 15-20 minutes with a glove filled with ice and asked how cold it felt on different parts of my legs.  When I didn't feel the cold on the calf of one of my legs he said, "It must be working," and left soon after with instructions to call if we needed anything.  I remember with the epidural I had with Elizabeth, I was feeling much, much better by the time the anesthesiologist left the room.  This time, I was in quite a bit of pain still.  The nurse asked if we should call him back in to try again.  Nope.

However, when the nurse checked me, I felt nothing down there!!  Which is actually a pretty big deal.  Every time my doctor checked me at appointments and when the nurse checked me up til that point, it HURT.  It hurt SO BAD.  Apparently my cervix was waaaay back there.  They had to reach AROUND the baby's head to find the cervix.  I swore my doctor was up to his elbow in there.  It SUCKED.  So when I wasn't able to feel anything after the epidural, I was thrilled.  I still felt every contraction in my abdomen though.

So for the next few hours, I progressed and rested as much as I could with a rude interuption every two minutes.  Shortly before my doctor came in to check me again, all of a sudden I felt nauseous.  I told someone to grab me a puke bag and I got it just in time.  I sat up straight and threw up.  The nurse then said, "We are going to have a baby soon, guys!"  I guess from the way I was acting and the throwing up and stuff, she could tell we were getting close.

I remember telling Nate around 5:20 that this baby had an hour and 40 minutes to get out.  I didn't want to switch nurses half way into pushing like I did with Elizabeth!  (Actually, with Liz, I had the same nurse all day and started pushing at 6:45.  Fifteen minutes later, there was a shift change and I had a new nurse.)

The doctor came in and checked me (if I were to guess, I'd say around 5:30), then said they were going to get some things to set up and then I can push.  I was shocked.  I asked if I was at 10 cm.  He said yep!

Things got even more intense from there.  Everybody was moving quickly.  My abdomen and back HURT really bad and my right hip/leg started hurting so bad with each contraction.  I remember saying to Nate after a particularly bad contraction that, "This is going to suck." All of a sudden, the doctor was instructing my mom how to hold up my leg and telling me to hold my thighs when I'm pushing, etc.  And then I was pushing. I had four people yelling at me to push.  I pushed with everything I had.  But... I couldn't feel it!  I couldn't tell if I was just making intense pushy faces or if I was pushing my guts out.  These four voices were telling me that I was doing great and they could see so much of her head, etc, so apparently I was doing something right.  I just focused on my doctor and what he was saying to me. 

Nate said, "Did you just hear what the nurse said?"  Then he told me that she had been on the phone with someone (no idea who) and said something about how I have one push left.  I said, "What?!"  She nodded.  Okay, maybe I can do this! 

So I pushed one more time and everyone said, "Her head is out!"  And I'm thinking, "Are you freaking kidding me?!?"  Then, just like that, she was out.  After about 3 contractions and maybe 4-5 pushes, my daughter was out!

I remember asking why she wasn't crying. They said she was fine.  After Nate cut the cord, they put her on my chest.  The nurse was picking on her, trying to get her to cry.  Then she took her from me, saying something about how she looked too comfortable.  Meaning she wasn't breathing very well and was turning blue.  They took her over to the infant warmer and picked on her there.  Typically they leave babies on their mama's chest for an hour or so right after they are born, before weighing them or anything.  So it was pretty scary that they had to take her from me.

Mom went over there and I guess pretty much collapsed on the couch.  I told Nate to go over there to be with the baby.  He clearly felt bad about leaving me alone, he kept coming halfway back across the room and turning around, not knowing what to do.  I said that as long as she was fine, I was fine.  I was busy getting stitched up anyway.  (Which hurt not at ALL, by the way.  WAY different than after Elizabeth was born.)  I thought it was sweet that he didn't want to leave me alone though!  They kept assuring me that she was fine and oh so beautiful!

After she was pink enough, they brought her back to me and laid her on my chest. They were right.  This girl was gorgeous.  She has my ear lobes and Nate's toes.  She has Elizabeth's cute little nose.  Lots of dark hair and a perfectly sized abdomen, if I do say so myself.   Then she started rooting around.  It was adorable and shocking!  I moved her over to my breast and she latched on perfectly.  What a good girl.

I love her so much already.

She's almost here!

Well it has been another few months since the last pregnancy update, so figured it was time for another!  I am 38 weeks along today.  I feel like a worthless lump.  Making a baby is hard.  I don't remember it being so hard the first time.  Although with the first time, I wasn't trying to keep up with a three year old either. 

I'll start with an update on the baby.  I first felt her move during the first week of April (17 weeks) and felt her move from the outside on May 12th (at 22 weeks).  But the movements were few and far between.  As the weeks went on, I was concerned and told my doctor about it.  I know babies are all different, and some move more than others, but still. During the ultrasound (on June 25th, 29 weeks), he agreed that she didn't move a whole lot.  So he gave me two HUGE glasses of water to drink and a handful of Hershey's kisses.  Then they set me up on the fetal monitors to track her movements.  It took a while, but I guess eventually the chocolate made it to her system, because she started moving around quite a bit.  Doctor looked at the results that printed out and said she was fine. Phew!

July 21st - at 32 weeks pregnant and also our 5 and 10 year anniversary.

So fast forward a few weeks... At 32 weeks, I went in for another appointment and the doctor said her tummy was measuring small.  (On the plus side though, her head was measuring HUGE.)  So this was concerning for us.  He said he wanted me to come in weekly to keep an eye on tummy (or "abdomen," if you're a grown up. Happy, Nate?) growth. He said this could indicate that growth is not being distributed properly. The next week, he said that the tummy still looked small, but was in the normal range. (Also, head is still huge - like, 97th percentile huge.)   And now, after keeping an eye on it, he seems less concerned and said that the baby is little, but has a big head.  Nate said she is going to look like a lollipop when she comes out.  I was not amused.  At my appointment yesterday, he guessed her to be around 5.5 - 6 lbs. What a difference from Elizabeth!  I was worried about how big she was going to be!  Now with this one, we are concerned with her being too little.  Whatever though.  My babies are perfect no matter their size. :)

Last week, my amniotic fluid was a little low, at 7.25.  I guess normal is 8.0 and REALLY low, like, you need to be induced right now, is 5.0.  Also, just like her sister, this baby thinks she needs to accessorize with the umbilical cord around her neck.  Although it is just draped over her shoulders (like a stethoscope), where Elizabeth had her's all wrapped around her neck.  So the doctor started talking about the possibility of inducing at 39 weeks.  He wanted me to come in twice this week to check on the fluid levels.  So yesterday was my first of these appointments.  And the amniotic fluid was up to 9 something!  Such a relief.  And the cord is still just draped around her shoulders.  So based on yesterday's appointment, we are now leaning towards not inducing next week and just letting her come naturally.  We'll see what happens at my appointment on Thursday...

I'm in a fairly constant level of discomfort, to say the least.  When this baby isn't rolling around on my bladder, she is punching me in the cervix. My heart burn still sucks.  My lower back /  tail bone on the right side has hurt for a few months, but in the last 4-5 days, it has hurt really bad.  It feels like something is out of place.  Sometimes it has been hard (or harder) to walk (waddle?).  My pubic bone hurts and pops unpleasantly when I move around, especially at night.  Breathing is difficult.  I can't find a comfortable position to sit or lay in that helps me breath easier.  OH, and something that is extra helpful with the breathing?  I have broncitis.  I have been coughing constantly for almost 3 weeks now.  These last few days it does finally seem to be getting better.  I'm still coughing, but not as much and not with as much force.  Fun!

And the lack of movement issue that we were having earlier in the pregnancy?  Gone.  She moves all the time.  And kicks, punches, squirms, wiggles her toes up under my ribs.  It is usually awesome and sometimes painful.  But mostly awesome.

We are pretty excited to meet our baby girl!  Elizabeth is pretty excited too.  She keeps asking when baby sister is going to knock on my tummy and tell us she wants out.  Soon!  So very soon!

30 weeks!

This is another picture where I stole the idea from Pinterest. :)  We were in the Ozarks and it was about 400 degrees and we were putt putt golfing and thought we should get this picture.  I love it so much. And I love that little girl in the picture so much.  It is such a blast sharing this whole experience with Lizzie.

Pregnancy update and a picture!



Belly picture at 23w3d
(May 18th, 2012)



Well this pregnancy is over the half way point!  I am feeling okay, just tired.  And I get heartburn way more this time around.  I'm also way more emotional and hormonal this time!  I don't care for that and I think it is pretty safe to say that Nate doesn't care for that either.

We are no where near finding a name for this little girl.  I thought we had one picked out.  Nate was even calling her this name and everything.  Then all of a sudden, he doesn't like it any more.  Unfortunately it is the only name I like.  Hopefully he'll come around because he's not coming up with any ideas!

We are starting to get the nursery ready.  And by starting, I mean just barely started.  Mom and I took a bunch of the stuff from the office downstairs to get it out of the new nursery and... that's about it.  Oh, and I think I have the colors picked out.  I think we'll be going with pink, brown, and sage!  It looks so pretty in my head, hopefully I can make the room look just as pretty.  We'll see.



My little princess

I saw a picture on Pinterest a while ago that showed a little girl wearing her mama's wedding dress (http://pinterest.com/pin/207517495299483366/) and I HAD to try this with Elizabeth. And since I have yet to get my dress preserved since the wedding almost 5 years ago (what?), it was perfect!


Elizabeth in my wedding dress. My heart is exploding from her cute.

*EDITED April 30, 2012: My dress is now cleaned and preserved and in a box. Boo.

Get out of here bug! ... no wait, come back...

E: "Mommy, please get rid of this bug!"

I wave my arms around at the fly

Me: "Okay, he should be gone."

The stupid bug flies back around and I wave my arms around again.

E: giggles

Me: "There, he should be gone now."

E: starts crying "I miss him! I miss that bug!"

Me: .....seriously??? "I'm sure he'll be back, honey."

E: whimpers "I miss him."

The stupid bug flies around us again.

Me: "See, he's back. Happy?"

E: "Yeah!" smiles all huge "I like bugs. Mommy, do you like bugs?"

Me: "I like cheerios! Here, eat your cheerios."

E: "Mommy, do you like bugs?"

Me: sigh "Yep.... so much."

Ugh

See the little black speck on the table in front of her? That's her stupid bug.

Potty training updates

Toddlers have this weird way with habits. Do something one way, just one time, and you should pretty much count on doing it the same way for the foreseeable future.

Elizabeth's toilet is behind our loveseat in the living room.

How, might you ask, did the toilet make its way to behind the loveseat?

Every time she needed to go, she would run behind the loveseat, grunt a little, and come out a little stinkier. Any time we caught her running back there, we would try to get her to go to the toilet. Sometimes she would, sometimes she wouldn't.

SO. Her dad came up with the bright idea of putting her little toilet behind the love seat one evening when she was caught running back there. That way she can get used to going in the toilet while still going behind the loveseat where apparently she feels comfortable. Great idea, right?! Except now there is a toilet behind my loveseat. Every time I move it back to the restroom, she will drag it right back out and carry it behind the loveseat.

I'm sure this will be a hilarious story to one day tell her future boyfriend. But for now, I can't wait until she can go in the restroom like normal people.

Yay baby!!!

For the last week or two, Elizabeth has been sitting on the toilet and reading books and magazines... and doing nothing else. It was super cute and I took pictures and all, but it was more like play time than potty time. I found that she stays put better when she sits on the regular toilet with the toddler seat than for her to sit on her little toilet because she just gets up and wonders around.

Well... today, Elizabeth pooped in the big girl toilet twice. TWICE! Yeah, no big deal. Whatever. (AHHHH!!!!! TWICE!!)

We were playing in the living room and then she said "Baby toot!" So I took her in to the bathroom and set her on the toilet and asked if she could toot again. She did. (hehe) "Baby toot again!" giggled Lizzie. I asked her again if she could toot again. So she tried and all of a sudden... plop! She looked startled and reached out and said, "Carry you??" (Which is what she says when she wants us to pick her up. I believe it came from when we say, "Do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?") I showed her the poop in the toilet and I started freaking out and clapping and praising and we jumped up and down. Yay baby!!! Then later in the day, she did all of this again! Yay baby!!!

I wanted to post a picture of this momentous occassion. However, I decided that when she is older, I still want her to like me. So instead I'll post this picture. Here she is sitting on the toilet shortly after her first job and saying "Ta Da!" What a big girl!!

Things I want to remember

This is just a list of things I want to remember... hence the title of the post. :)

• Elizabeth loves eating what she calls "foffles" and "namas" (waffles and bananas, duh) for breakfast.
• Instead of saying something like, "Gimme!" like I hear from most toddlers, Lizzie says, "Reeeach!" if she wants something.
• She is pretty much copying everything we say. It doesn't always sound the same, but she tries!
• After a visit to Colorado, Elizabeth has learned to say everyone's names out there. Kourtny is "Kokey," Faith is "Fate," Olivia is "Livie," David is "Dabie," and Kristal sounds different every time she says it.
• She calls Pooh and Piglet "Pooh and Piggy."
• ***She can kinda sorta count to ten!!! It goes like this... "One, two, three, two, FIVE!!! Six, eight, nine, TEN!!!!" It counts!
• She knows what a bunch of animals say when we ask her. So far she knows cat, dog, horse, cow, sheep, monkey, owl, and pig (kinda).
• She calls Molly "Money" and will say "no, no doggy!" if Molly is doing something naughty.
• When I was teaching Lizzie how to count to 3, I would say, "1...2...3... Mommy!!" and she would say, "...2....3" real quietly, and then say, "MOMMY!!!!" I can't type it as cute as she says it. :) Then she started saying, "...2....3.... GABBA GABBA!!" Hmpf.
• When trying to convince Elizabeth to come back to her room for a diaper change, I held out my hand to her and started marching down the hall while saying, "March, march, march..." It has actually worked a few times! And now she can be found kinda stomping around and saying "Mon, mon, mon..."
• Elizabeth says "wower" for "flower." I tried to get her to say the "f" sound. I said, "Lizzie, say ffffffflower!" So she says, "Ffffffff... wower!"

Second trip to the ER... :(

We have been pretty blessed with Elizabeth's health. She has gotten a runny nose a few times (which most of the time I believe was from teething) and that is pretty much it. She gave us a pretty big scare when she was 10 weeks old, but other than that, she's been pretty healthy. Well now the punk has me scared.

A couple of days ago (Sept 11th), Elizabeth slept in pretty late, which is unlike her. When she finally woke up, I got her out of bed and she ended up falling back to sleep in my arms in her rocking chair. We sat there and cuddled and rocked for a very long time. She is so precious. She started to wake up so I took her to the living room so I could get her sippy cup, and she fell back to sleep in my arms again. So we sat on the couch and cuddled. Finally around 11:15 she woke up.

I asked her if she wanted her sippy or a cracker and she said, "Eat." So I got her a cracker and sat back down on the couch with her. She was sitting on my lap facing me and was holding her cracker. All of a sudden, she got super pale and super sweaty, and her eyes went blank. They never rolled back into her head or anything, they just stared right through me. I freaked. I started yelling her name and trying to get her to focus on me. I set her on the couch and kneeled right in front of her trying to get her to focus. Finally, finally she did. It seemed like forever but in reality was probably 10 seconds.

So of course this happens on a Saturday morning and of course her daddy left to go to Iowa City for a football game a few hours earlier. Lizzie's heart was racing and she seemed pretty out of it. Really lethargic. I called my mom and asked her to come over and then called Lizzie's doctor's office, which went to an answering service. They took down all of the information about what had happened and said a nurse would call me back.

While we waited for the nurse to call back, I held Elizabeth and she drank some water and ate a couple graham crackers. She still seemed sooo out of it.

FORTY minutes later, the nurse called and said she called back really quick since the notes said that Elizabeth was unresponsive. (I would hate to know how long it would have been had she not called back so quickly!) I again explained what had happened and she put me on hold to call the doctor on call. When she came back, she said that the doctor thought it sounded like she might have had a seizure.

A what now?

I decided to take Lizzie to the ER. The nurse had told us to go to Children's Hospital so I sat in the back with Liz and mom chauffeured us to Omaha. They did blood tests and an EKG, which came back normal, and they said they wanted her to get an EEG, which had to be scheduled later.

So this morning we went to Dr. B and got Lizzie checked out by her own doc. "Dr. B nice," says Lizzie. His nurse got her EEG scheduled for the first available appointment... September 21st! Now we wait.

Back from Vegas!

We had such a great time in Las Vegas for our anniversary get away! I am surprised I survived a whole week being away from my baby! But if there is one place that has the power to distract, it is Vegas. Our days were packed with all kinds of fun stuff (which Nate didn't care for. His idea of a vacation is to nap all day. Yawn.)

We went to 5 different shows while we were there! My favorite was Blue Man Group! That show was incredible. I don't even know how to describe it. And they are so funny without even saying a word. Once when they went running into the crowd, one of the blue men came right up to me, about 2 feet away, and just stared at me. (We were in the front row of the second section, or the non-poncho section, way on the side) I was afraid to look at him! Nate nudged me and made me look at him. It was really weird!

My second favorite show, and Nate's favorite, was Defending the Caveman. Hilarious. I would definitely recommend this show to anyone in a relationship. You will relate! We even bought t-shirts. :)

We also went to Legends in Concert (with Donna Summers, Jay Leno, Elton John, Elvis, and Michael Jackson impersonators). That show was pretty good too. The Michael impersonator was spot on! And then there was the Tournament of Kings show and the Free Beer Improv Show, which was funny sometimes. The people IN the show were good, but they encourage audience participation, and that got pretty dumb.

Other than the shows, we spent our time walking, eating, walking, playing roulette, walking, swimming, walking, eating... did I mention walking? It was so fun just going into all these places and exploring. Roulette was fun until the night before we left when we lost $160 right off the bat. That part sucked. At one point we made a $40 bet on red at Bally's and lost. Then we walked across the street to Bellagio and made an $80 on black and WON!! (I hadn't even realized the dealer had spun the dang ball yet when it landed on black.
Nate had to say to me, "It landed on 33.... 33 is black.... we bet on black... Jenni, we won!"
Me: *blank stare* "...wait, we won?" Oh dear. :) That was exciting.

And here are a fraction of all the pictures I took in Vegas...

The cutest little luggage ever!

Reading a book to daddy before we left.

Cuddling with Mommy. I was able to put her to bed before we left for the air port. So sweet and so sad! I bet you can't even tell that I was crying. :(

We stayed at Bally's. I really, really liked it there. This is the people mover to get to the strip faster. I LOVED this thing except when it wasn't working! And I didn't care for the people who just stood on the people mover. Duh.

Nate and I waiting for a shuttle at Bellagio (I think). The views from the shuttle between Bellagio and Monte Carlo is AMAZING. Especially at night.

The view of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel room.

Part of our gigantic room. I really did love staying at Bally's and I would definitely stay there again.

The fancy bathroom part of the hotel room.

The only picture I was allowed to take of Blue Man Group was this poster. :( But the show was awesome!

My favorite part of Vegas. :)

I could see the Bellagio fountains from our hotel room!!!!!!

Nate and I in our room getting ready to go swimming.

An artist on Fremont Street in the middle of creating our painting! I want to say his name is Michael Fletcher? Not sure about that...

Sold... to us! I love our Vegas souvenir.

Nate and I in some random hallway we found in one of the hotels... I don't even remember where. All I remember is we laughed a lot.

A Day in the Life of Lizzie

Being a toddler these days is hard work. (Oh my gosh, that is the first time I've called her a toddler. She's so stinkin big!) There is lots of play time and sleeping, more play time, eating, more sleeping, more eating, even more play time... It's exhausting! This is a glimpse into the life of my little toddler (tear!) around 15.5 months old.

Lately my little monster sweetie wakes up around 7:30. Her dad and I take turns with the morning shift, which in Nate's case is from whenever she wakes up to whenever he has to go to work (or around 9:00 usually). After Lizzie finishes her bottle, she plays in her "baby jail" for a while and watches Nick Jr. She giggles along with Jack's Big Music Show the most and dances along usually whenever there is music on (which is often).

After playing for about an hour, I make her breakfast, which is usually something like rice cereal mixed with apple sauce or a banana and a waffle, etc. If I'm feeding her the cereal, I usually won't put her in the high chair. She'll run around and play and come back for bites, or I guess depending on how hungry she is, she'll stand right in front of me as I'm shoveling bites in.

Then we have more play time! Play time consists of hiding binkys in whatever toy has a little hole in it, standing on whatever toy that she can stand on, climbing on anything and everything, dancing in front of the fridge along with her barnyard animals, reading, reading, reading, books, reading, etc, etc, etc. Right now she is loving pillows. She'll roll all around the pillows we put on the floor for her. She'll run and jump into them and today she was banging her head into the pillow and laughing so hard. Hi-lar-ious. And right now she is LOVING running around the moving boxes we have stacked up in the kitchen (oh yeah, we're moving! That is a whole different post..) We'll chase each other around the boxes as I peek around and say "peek a boo!" and she laughs and laughs and laughs. Her laugh is my super favoritest sound in the world, by the way.

This is a video of Lizzie running around the boxes AND dancing in front of the fridge.

These pictures are examples of Lizzie climbing on stuff.

As I said in the previous post, her naps have been a little weird lately. She is still taking two naps per day, but now the first one is at 11:00 ish instead of 9:30 and the second one is around 4:00 instead of 2:30. She usually does really good going down for naps, but sometimes she'll stand up and cry and I have to go in and break her heart (breaking her heart consists of going in, hugging her, telling her I love her and that it is time for nap, and then leaving) before she'll lay down and go to sleep. And one time, yesterday actually, breaking her heart didn't work. There's only so much I can stand. She got out of her second nap yesterday.

After nap #1, we eat lunch. I really need to find some new things to feed my girl for lunch. Right now she definitely gets her fill of Gerber toddler meals. She also gets turkey hot dogs every once in a while and loves spaghetti. She has whatever fruits and veggies we have at the moment. Today she had peas and blueberries with her lunch. Peaches are always a favorite with her. She loves most of her fruits and vegetables. She scarfs them. It is so funny watching her and also worries me a little because she clearly isn't chewing (or gumming) her food at all.

Elizabeth after lunch.

After lunch, we have more play time. During play time, I also put her to work. Yes, I know she is only one year old, but she has chores. She "helps" me with the laundry by taking all the clothes (dirty or clean) out of a hamper or basket and then putting them back in the hamper or basket. She likes to "help" with the dishes by climbing onto the dish washer. And actually, she's pretty good at putting stuff away. For example, right now her clean clothes are folded and perched on the arm of the love seat outside of her room, waiting to be put away. A little bit ago, she grabbed a couple balls of rolled up socks and ran around with them for a bit. Then she went back over to the love seat and put them back! Then one ornery ball of socks fell off a couple times, but my little persistant baby girl kept picking them up and putting them back until they stayed there. She'll also put her blocks back in the canvas bag if we do the first couple, and she has been very good about putting my keys away in her toy box.

After Lizzie saw me sorting some of her old clothes in different boxes, she found this box and pulled some clothes out of her hamper. Then she was pulling the box around the house.

Then we pretty much repeat the nap-meal-play part of the schedule with her second nap, supper, and play time. If it is a bath day, I will give her a bath usually in the afternoon. She loves her baths. Loves them. At long as I don't try to clean her. She gets irritated at that part. Actually, she doesn't mind the hair scrubbing and body washing, she just really doesn't like the hair rinsing. She won't tilt her head back yet so water gets in her eyes no matter how hard I try to prevent it. She would probably stay in the tub for hours if I let her. I usually have to heat the water up a couple times and end up taking her out before she's ready. She isn't happy about that part either.

Getting her clean on.

After supper, we have more play time until its time to get ready for bed. First thing on her bedtime routine check list is a bottle. Not sure when we'll break her of the bottle, but probably won't be in the immediate future. Then she gets her diaper changed and gets changed into her PJs. Then one of us will go brush her four teeth. This is so fun! She takes her binky out and opens her mouth real wide. Then we try to brush while she just tries to suck the tooth paste off of the little finger brush. So cute!

Then we make sure we have at least 2 binkies. One for her mouth and the other(s) for her to hold on to. Just recently I have been able to say, "Go find your binkies!" and she will! Then either Nate or I will go read to her, always ending with the "I Love You, Sleepyhead" book. "I Love You, Sleepyhead" is supposed to be the winding down, calming book, where all the animal mommies are telling their animal babies goodnight. It is really a cute book. Well Lizzie thinks it is hilarious to "boop" the animals. She leans forward and bonks her head on the pictures and of course we have to say "boop!" every single time, even if we are in the middle of a sentence. And if she leans town and holds her head on the picture, we say "booooooooop" until she lifts her head up. It is awesome and fun is definitely had by all. She laughs soooo hard (and as I mentioned earlier, her laugh is the best sound EVER). Unfortunately, this usually results in Lizzie getting the hiccups so the poor kid has to go to bed with hiccups!

After storytime, she turns around and lays her head on my shoulder while we have cuddle and prayer time. In addition to our prayer every night, I always say the "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, may angels watch me through the night, and wake me in the morning light" prayer. The last week or so, when I say the "pray the Lord my soul to keep" part, she giggles. I don't know why, but it is so freakin cute and she has me giggling for the rest of the prayer.

Then I lay her down as I tell her to sleep good and have sweet dreams and that I love her so, so much. I leave the room and she usually just rolls over and goes to sleep.

She is so amazing.