Fun at Aunt Misty's House!

 We had a busy Saturday last weekend. In the afternoon we converted Nathan's crib into a toddler bed, but that morning Nathan and I went to visit Aunt Misty (and Matt too) and play at the playground by her house.

It was a nice day but very windy, so we didn't stay at the playground for very long. Nathan was a little dubious of the playground equipment at first, until he figured out he could climb up the step stools to slide down the big slide! Misty climbed up to help and he went up and down several times before getting bored with the process.

After sliding we tried to blow bubbles, or more precisely the wind blew bubbles while we held the wands! Then Nathan discovered the swings. I'm not sure if he had ever been on a swing set before, but he really loved it and kept asking us to push when he would slow down.

After playing for a while we retired to Aunt Misty's house for a snack. Nathan didn't eat much because he was too distracted by Lexi, Misty's little Maltese. While she is a cutie pie she was not too sure about Nathan and how much attention her mommy was paying to him! She kept barking and growling at him but fortunately it didn't upset Nathan. He's used to the barking of our neighbor's dog I guess.

When Matt took Lexi outside for bad behavior around a guest Nathan of course wanted to go too. So we grabbed our ball and went to play with the dog for a few minutes before it was time to leave. Nathan had a great time playing and keeps asking to go back! And I had a wonderful time catching up with one of my very best friends.

Nathan's Big Boy Bed

Last Saturday (March 16th) we converted Nathan's crib into a toddler bed.  I was ready for the transition for many reasons, but first among them was that I wanted to be able to put Nathan to bed again!  My growing belly was preventing me from getting him into his crib after I rocked him to sleep.  And no, he's not sleep trained...don't get me started.  We also wanted him to transition to a "big boy bed" well before baby sister got here so he could see that she was a baby in a crib and he was a big boy in a bed.

We decided to go ahead and get him new bedding as an early birthday present so that there would be a bigger difference between his crib and bed (since effectively only the front of the crib was coming off). That turned out to be a great idea and he loves his new "lion" bedding.  Jimmy picked out a great jungle theme with bold bright colors that isn't too "busy."  Despite the fact that it has a monkey on it, I really love it and it is of good, soft quality.

After we got the bed made up he hopped right on and was excited to have pillows (even though he doesn't sleep with them at night yet). Joule also jumped the gate to his room and joined in the assembly fun.  She eventually ended up under the bed and Nathan decided he needed to investigate.

Now with a big boy bed we have a slightly new bedtime routine (or at least, we are working on one). Instead of reading and rocking to fall asleep, after we put on Nathan's pajamas he picks out a book and climbs in bed.  Then we (attempt to) read the book while he lays down.  At this point he wants to hold the book and turn the pages, which is difficult to do while laying down, so he ends up squirming and rolling around instead of laying still.  He also thinks it is a game to stand up and get us to lay him back down and sings songs at the top of his lungs while laying down to keep himself awake.  Typical toddler and I'm still trying to figure out how to get around some of these behaviors.

The first night we didn't put a guard rail up on his bed because one of the pieces to the one we bought was defective (of course). He only rolled out 3 times but stayed asleep on the floor without waking up.  We had put pillows down to soften his fall in case he did fall out, so of course he didn't get hurt.  The falling out seemed to bother Jimmy way more than Nathan and he went into Nathan's room to put him back in bed twice.  The third time he rolled out I woke up and noticed but Jimmy didn't, so I left him asleep on the floor until he eventually rolled out of view of the video monitor (several hours). Since that first night we've had a mix of nights where he sleeps all night long and nights where he wakes up once or twice.  The nice change is that instead of sitting in bed crying he gets out, opens his door and quietly stands at the gate until we come.  He might call for us, but most often he just shakes the gate and that is what actually wakes us up.

I'm considering the first week in a big boy bed a success.  Eventually he'll learn to calm down quicker when he gets in bed and we won't have a 30 minute bounce and wiggle-fest. Until that day.....

Nathan's Favorite Things

I was thinking the other day about all the things Nathan loves right now and how much he is developing lately. I don't have time to do a big update on him, but I thought I could do a quick recap of his favorite things. Here we go in no particular order:

Bubbles - this kid loves to blow bubbles. He also likes to have other animate and inanimate objects blow bubbles too. We have an empty bubble bottle with wand that serve as his "inside" bubbles. No mess and he is just as happy to pretend as he is to have the real ones outside.

Sidewalk Chalk and Colors - Sidewalk chalk is another outdoor activity he loves and inside we have a table where his colors sit all the time. We draw shapes and letters and animals and anything else we see. We have a drawer in the kitchen that has his chalk and bubbles and he is frequently getting one or both out to play with.

Books - my baby still loves his books and I hope that never changes. Current favorites are  "Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type", "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "Are You My Mother?" He tries to read along in places he knows which is particularly hilarious when we get to "skit skat skoodle doot flip flop flee" in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! We are also in the phase where every book must be repeated a minimum of 8 times before moving on to the next. Okay, maybe not quite so bad but it feels like it sometimes.

I drafted this so long ago that favorite books have changed. Now we are hooked on, " How Do Dinosaur Eat Cookies?" and the Bigsby and Nugget books that go with the Hallmark reading friends he got for Christmas from Aunt Ashley and Grammy (those stuffed animals that interact as you are reading the story aloud). Although the books mentioned above still make it into the rotation pretty frequently. The picture I have above includes Nugget and Bigsby...among others. 

Snuggle Puppy and Bear - Bear was a present from Daddy this past May (2012) and is a button-in-ear Steiff from Germany. Bear goes lots of places with us; he's the perfect size for a travel companion. Snuggle Puppy is a more recent acquisition this past Christmas from Aunt Finity. He is named after the little brown puppy in the Sandra Boynton book by the same name. Snuggle Puppy can be seen here blowing bubbles.

Daddy - Mommy becomes chopped liver when Daddy is home. I used to be good for bedtime rocking and singing, but busy season and my growing belly have changed all that. After 6 weeks of essentially not being home at bedtime, Nathan got used to his routine with Daddy. And now it is hard for me to get him in his crib without some painful squishing of the belly. Now he wants to rock with daddy, read with daddy and any other activity under the sun that daddy is doing...including vacuuming. Even if we are in the middle of a book when daddy gets home, I hear, "Daddy's home!" (Insert joyful reunion) then, "move mommy!" Evidently not only do I become illiterate but I also cannot occupy the book reading space. And no, I'm not bitter.

Train and truck - Nathan has a Thomas the Train push toy (from Lolo) and a Little People jungle safari truck from Aunt Misty that are frequent flyers at our house. Not that they get thrown around, but I can't count the number of laps these things have made around the downstairs. Of course if Daddy is around Nathan wants company pushing and decrees whether Daddy gets the train or truck. Quite hilarious.

"Smoothies" - what we call smoothies are really just overpriced baby food in an easy to hold and squeeze pouch.  The flavor combinations are horrible sounding, but Nathan hasn't met a pouch he didn't like yet. We really should kick the habit, but the kid won't eat veggies so we use this as a way to get some extra vitamins in him.

Letters - One of Nathan's latest loves is the alphabet. He likes to name the letters and is starting to learn what some letters "say" thanks to elementary schoolteacher turned principle Lolo. He loves his foam bath letters, his bigger foam mat letters, any books with letters (like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) and his leapfrog letter game from Aunt Berley this past Christmas. Favorite letter is "T" with "R" running a close second.

Popo - EVERYONE is chopped liver when Popo comes to visit, even Daddy! My goodness this kid loves his great-grandpa! I don't know what it is about Grandpa but he did something right along the way. A caring faithful daughter, 2 grandkids (and granddaughter-in-law) who adore him and 1 great grandson who can't get enough! And pretty soon there will be another one that will wrap him around her finger. Good thing he doesn't resist the wrapping too much, or at least he hasn't that I've seen. Anyway, Nathan loves loves playing with Popo and we actually have to sometimes send Popo to the other room while Nathan is eating or trying to wind down for a nap because he gets so distracted. At least it's a good problem to have!

Joule - Nathan loves all the cats but especially likes Joule. Most likely because she's the only one that will "play" with him. If she doesn't follow us downstairs in the morning he starts calling for her or if we are upstairs and she's downstairs he'll start yelling, "Come on, Joule" from the gate at the top of the stairs. He's also learning "here kitty kitty kitty" but hasn't quite got the hang of it yet. Joule and Nathan like to chase each other in and around his tunnel and Joule sometimes 'helps' him read books (by rolling over onto them). His response, "Joouule" (hard to put the inflection in type but imagine a teenager saying 'but Mooooooom" and you'll be close enough).

So that's my sweet angel these days. We'll have his (gasp) 2 year well check in about a month. I'll do a statistic update then with height,  weight and all that good stuff.

Venus (Pluto's Sister)

Well, finally!  I noticed that my last post was in early January right before work kicked off at my main client.  I emerged from busy season on the day of lovers (February 14th) not feeling particularly lovely, but definitely loved.  Since then I've been trying to catch up on sleep, housework and time with my sweet boy (not in that order).  One of the last things that I wrote about was Christmas where we surprised our family with the news that Nathan was going to be a big brother (hooray)! So, my first post capturing events of 2013 is actually going to step back into 2012 briefly while I get everyone caught up on this second pregnancy.  It is a little long (and no pictures of Nathan), so read/skim at your leisure.

Now, for those of you worried that my grasp of Roman mythology is hopelessly inept, never fear.  You may or may not remember that when Nathan was still an unknown little bean we referred to him as "Pluto."  While Pluto is by far my favorite Disney character and my beloved stuffed animal from the tender age of 3 (a gift from my daddy while I was in the hospital getting my tonsils out) the reference is to the planet rather than the character or mythological god.  The story goes that after we had our first ultrasound confirming the pregnancy and saw that little reassuring flicker that was missing from our first pregnancy we sent a picture of the sonogram to Lori (now, Lolo). We called her (or she called us...the memory is a little fuzzy now) and we asked her what she thought it was (thinking it was pretty obvious).  Her response, "I don't know...some kind of space planet?" Hence, Pluto.

So, once we found out we were pregnant again we jokingly started referring to baby #2 as Venus, perhaps in some small hope that we could subtly influence the (already determined) gender of Nathan's future sibling. I admit it did make it harder to speak of baby using gender neutral terminology when the nickname was obviously female but it stuck anyway.  Now, let me take a step back and talk about some of the things you don't care about but I want to remember.  Feel free to skip down a few paragraphs if talk of morning sickness and placenta location aren't your cup of tea.

I found out I was pregnant on the morning of Wednesday, November 14th. This puts our due date at July 22nd. I was pretty surprised since we had just stopped preventing in October. I say "stopped preventing" since we weren't really "trying" too hard. I wanted the kids to be at least 2.5 years apart, but I also expected it to take 3 or 4 months to get pregnant so we "took the goalie out" as my brother-in-law so eloquently put it.  Anyway, I told Jimmy the exciting news and we broke the news to Nathan over breakfast. Even though he had no clue what it all meant, I felt like it was important he was one of the first to know.  The plan at this point was to keep it a secret until I had a chance to go to the doctor and have an ultrasound where we could see and hear the heart beating. Well, that plan didn't last too long.  On Friday I was texting with Finity about something completely unrelated and I made some random comment (I can't even remember what now) and she lawyered it out of me!  One of those, "you didn't say no" moments.  Drat! The only other person on my side to find out early was Kimberley.  They stayed with us for Thanksgiving and I had to tell her then.  It was agony keeping it from her until they were up here in person!

Even though I was surprised I got pregnant so quickly I wasn't actually surprised when the test came out positive.  I was already experiencing some tell-tale pregnancy symptoms and had recently joked with Jimmy after one day of being particularly grumpy that I hoped I was pregnant so I could blame the mood swings on something legitimate.  I was also already feeling exhausted and starved all the time!  I don't remember eating nearly this much with Nathan, but from the first weeks of my pregnancy I've felt like a bottomless pit.  The unfortunate thing about eating like a bottomless pit is the effect it has on your actual bottom.  At least it's for a good cause.

The nausea started late week 5/early week 6 and was random throughout the day, not just in the morning.  It was also much worse than it ever was with Nathan.  My weight at my first appointment (6 weeks) was 132.6 (hooray).  This was the day we got to see the "flicker" of the heartbeat and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Although I was pretty sure my symptoms wouldn't have been so strong with a pregnancy that was already over, the shadow of our first experience still cast a little doubt in my mind.

The early part of this pregnancy was zero fun.  At week 8 Nathan shared his stomach virus with me. At week 9 Nathan caught Hand-Foot-Mouth at school (see the Christmas in Mathis post for more on this) and Week 10 I got a head cold (see Christmas at Home post).  Then busy season started....the joy.

At 10+ weeks we had our second appointment and Venus' heartbeat was a strong 155 bpm.  At week 13 we did a genetic screening ultrasound and got to see our little miracle in action.  Heartbeat was 142 and baby clearly had the hiccups. The doctor also told us at that appointment that my placenta was a little low and could be contributing to the mild spotting I started having around week 12.  Of course with the first speck of blood I was panicked because that's how our first miscarriage manifested itself. Just a few tiny specks was the only warning we had.  Fortunately the ultrasound reassured me that everything was okay, which was really good because the spotting soon increased in frequency from every 4 or 5 days to every single day for a while.  The doctor put me on "pelvic rest" for about 5 weeks to see if the placenta would move out of the way.  Fortunately by our week 16 appointment (where we found out Venus was going to be true to her namesake...at least as far as gender) everything had moved and the spotting went away. Heartbeat at Week 16 was still 142.  For the record, the Chinese gender prediction calendar was wrong as were friends who thought we were having a boy because of the "low" heartbeat.  I am still SO excited!  I am also glad we paid extra to have the ultrasound at 16 weeks because it gave me something to look forward to in the last days of busy season besides filing day!

We agreed on a name shortly after finding out we were having a girl.  We had actually talked about this name beforehand and surprisingly agreed that we both liked it but weren't committed to it yet.  It didn't take long after learning the gender to set that in stone (even if it was more like gypsum for a while). Hence we have miss Olivia Marie.  Olivia is just a name we liked (not knowing about the growing popularity) and Marie is a family middle name on my side (specifically, the middle name of the first born girl since my great-grandmother Artie Marie Mason). Olivia technically won't be a "first born" but she's my first girl so I'm counting it and carrying it on anyway.

So that gets us to March.  A few days ago I started feeling Miss Olivia quite a bit.  I had only been feeling her sporadically every couple of days and very lightly.  The kind of movement that makes you wonder if you are still digesting lunch, have gas or are feeling baby.  I'm not sure if she was especially enjoying the Frosted Mini Wheats I had for dinner, reviewing audit workpapers or laughing at the Big Bang Theory (yes, I was multi-tasking as only a mommy can). I felt Nathan move around 21 weeks so I wasn't surprised to feel Olivia only slightly before that timeline. Today we had our 20+ week anatomy screening and I got to see my Livy-bug again.  Jimmy was home with Nathan, who has a virus of some sort and an accompanying fever, but the tech sweetly took some extra pictures for me to bring home for him. Her heartbeat was 147 and her weight estimated at 12 ounces.  "Measuring right on track" according to the tech and everything looked "beautiful and boring" according to Dr. Schmidt. Hooray!

I think that catches us up.  I have only 1 belly picture so far from 12 weeks.  I'll get another one taken in the next couple of days and we'll call it 21 weeks.  My weight at this last appointment was 149ish.  Not thrilled.  I feel like I already look like I'm 6 months or more instead of around 5 months. I'll blame busy season for now.

12 weeks (January 7, 2013)

Whew! That was a big catch up.  I have notes about a post for Nathan's favorite things and I expect that will be my next one. In the mean time, here's a picture of my sweet boy for those of you who stuck it out to the end of this post. It was taken yesterday while we were home sick.  The day was just too beautiful to stay inside, even with a fever.

[Editors note: for those who didn't do well in college geology, gypsum is a particularly soft type of rock. You see what I did there???]

Christmas at Home Sweet Home

Similar to last year we stayed home for Christmas and asked Jimmy's family to come to us. I maintain (for now) that it is easier for 4 adults to make the trip north than 2 adults and 1 toddler (and all his paraphernalia) to go south.  They may feel differently but if they do they are kindly keeping it to themselves. As it gets harder for grandma (Momo) to travel away from home we'll have to change this strategy, but for now it's working.

Lolo, Momo, Popo, Aunt Ashley and Lucky (the dog) arrived Sunday afternoon. Nathan was down for his after church nap so of course everyone was bored until he woke up. After Nathan woke up Lori, Ashley and I were going to go get pedicures but before we left Jimmy and I let Lori open one of her Christmas presents early. I will say that she was much quicker than my mom on grasping the significance of the "big brother" shirt, but there was less going on so maybe she had an advantage. We'll go with that. Everyone was excited of course and congratulated us except Momo who proclaimed she was in shock. We had actually originally intended to wait and have her open it along with everything on Christmas Eve, but honestly I wasn't sure if I could fake it that long. I definitely look like I've put on weight and I was afraid the nausea would give me away. It was a relief to get it all out in the open. Of course it took less than 10 minutes for the announcement to make it onto Lori's Facebook page, so all of Sinton was soon in on our secret.  We took a picture of Nathan in his shirt late that day so we could share with the rest of our world.

The weather was still warm and sunny (near 80 degrees), so Nathan spent a decent  amount of the afternoon outside playing with Aunt Ashley, sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

We planned a semi ambitious menu for Christmas Eve dinner and actually ended up making everything but the apple pie. We started on Sunday making two of Ashley's special requests: ratatouille and ultimate pizza. Both of them take a while to make and we set about making both at once. I probably won't ever do that again. But 2.5 hours later we had dinner ready (the pizza) and snack for Monday and onward. Probably the best ratatouille we've made yet. Monday we made HEB spiral sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans with Rotel, macaroni and cheese, fresh fruit salad and scratch made rolls. We also had the ratatouille with toasted baguette rounds and goat cheese, Tabasco chex mix and the brownies to snack on.  Lucky was unimpressed....so were the cats.

So Monday was a busy day overall. I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast (from William Sonoma) and they were wonderful. Even Nathan liked them! That morning we also had an appointment to have family pictures taken at JC Penny's and they all turned out great except for the ones of the whole family where Nathan wasn't really smiling. He wasn't too sure about the lady who kept putting stuff in his face and big black box she kept holding up. But once we got someone he knew to help him smile we got some great pictures. Considering how tired he was he did amazing at the portrait studio. He fell asleep on our way to Chuy's for lunch and stayed asleep in my lap at the table for close to 30 minutes. He woke up completely disoriented just as the food was coming to the table but after a while let me put him in his chair to eat a little (thankfully since I was starving).

Nathan dressed up to go take pictures.

We got home and sat still for about 30 minutes then got to work making dinner. I actually got a small blister from peeling so many potatoes and sweet potatoes.  After we put the ham in the oven to warm we decided to open presents. Lori decided that she did better this year (after I implemented a 3 present per person max) although I'm not so sure I completely agree. The tree looked crazy like last year, but maybe it was marginally better. And I suppose you can actually see Nathan amidst his presents this year, which included ones from Aunt Finity and Aunt Lindy and Uncle Pete.  But now I'm afraid for next year when there are two little ones. They had to bring two cars this year because they couldn't fit everything in just one with luggage and people. They may have to rent a U-Haul.

The tree before the family arrived.  

After - angle 1

After - angle 2

Nathan loved Snuggle Puppy from Aunt Finity!

Nathan got a bunch of clothes, books and other goodies.

Why yes...that is a drum.  It also came with two shaker eggs, jingle bells, and a tambourine .  And all along I thought Lolo loved us.

Around this time I started to feel like I was being hit by the cold that Jimmy and Nathan already had. Plus I was exhausted from cooking and all the activity going on, even though I had a lot of help from Jimmy and Lori. In fact, I asked Lori to give Nathan a bath AND put him to bed, the latter being a task I don't give up lightly, especially with busy season right around the corner. 

By Monday morning I felt miserable. Nathan woke up at 6:00am but Jimmy  managed to rock with him until 7:00am. We woke up the house then went downstairs to see what Santa brought for Nathan. He loved his tricycle and was excited about his table and chairs too! In fact he had to sit in each chair before settling into just one. Santa didn't take into account the slippery tile floor, so we moved the table onto the carpet by the couch until we can get some grippies (the technical name). Jimmy also put together (with help) the Radio Flyer wagon that Lolo got for Nathan. Lori made bacon and egg breakfast tacos and I stayed downstairs long enough to eat then shortly thereafter went upstairs to lay down. Not my ideal way to spend Christmas morning.

Nathan supervising the final touches to his wagon.

The last time he sat on the actual seat.  He prefers the well in the middle.

Popo and Nathan playing in the front room.  That video camera was glued to Popo's hand for two days.

Nathan coloring at his new table with colors and a drawing pad from Lolo.

Bundled up and ready for a ride in the wagon.

Lori and her posse loaded up to head home mid-afternoon of Christmas day. Even though I felt yucky we had a wonderful weekend and Christmas and I'm looking forward already to next year when #2 will be around 5 months old!!

Merry Christmas to all!