Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Out of the Mouths of Babes

It's amazing to watch how much your kid starts to better comprehend things, and even more fun when they can use their vocabulary. Our kiddo is quite the talker and I thought I'd share some of the things he has said over the past year. Sometimes he impresses me, sometimes he shocks me, and sometimes he just plain makes me laugh.  It's really just neat to see his progression.

20 months
- As his punishment ended, he said, "bye, bye timeout."

21 months
- Said, "all done, vacuum" when he saw it, because he hates when I vacuum.
- When the dogs finished their business outside, he said, "Come on, guys!" and beckoned towards them with his hand.

22 months
- When I held a drink up for him so he could drink through a straw, he got mad and wanted to do it himself. He motioned with his hands and said, "set right here" so I would put it down and he could pick it up himself.
- Says, "excuse me" when you're in his way.

23 months
- He saw me in my fuzzy robe and didn't like it and said, "take that shirt off."
- Told Meezy to "hush" a few times.
- To a boy at daycare, he said, "stop pushing!"
- I pulled out one of his art projects and he said, "I did that."
- When he woke up with a full diaper, he said, "Too much water."
- Saw Meezy open the messages app on his phone and said, "no texting, Dada."

24 months
- Meezy had a Conan clip playing on Youtube and he exclaimed, "It's Conan!"
- Tells me sometimes, "don't sing, mommy."
- Wanted to watch Thomas and said, "Remote! Where are you?"
- Will see Meezy and say, "How are you, dada?"
- When I was leaning off the bed to reach for something, he said, "Be careful."

25 months
- Got in the car and said, "Go see Opa.  Go see Oma too."
- When he's grumpy in the morning he says, "Don't touch Dutchie."
- Saw me change a lightbulb and said, "Mommy, that's awesome!  You did that!"
- Saw me yawn and said, "You're tired."

26 months
- I had the jelly and bread out and he asked, "Where's the peanut butter?"
- He woke up crying one morning, "I need ice cream! I need donuts!"
- Got water on his pants and said, "I hurt my pants."
- When he's hungry he says, "I want to pick a snack."

27 months
- Our dog peed on the floor and he said, "That's not nice, Pitties (her nickname). I go get a towel. I gotta clean it up."
- Likes to ask us, "Who's making that noise?"
- I spilled water on him and he said, "It's okay. It was an accident."

28 months
- Says, "I'm just being shy."
- When I reprimanded him, he went to Meezy and said, "Mom talked to me LIKE THAT."
- I told him Meezy was working and he said, "Daddy's not working; he's playing poker with friends."
- I was wearing a sparkly shirt and he pointed to it and said, "I want to wear that."

29 months
- When we discuss whose turn it is to put him to bed, he says, "I'ts mommy's turn. It's daddy's turn tomorrow."
- When we walked outside, he said, "Hey, it rained today. The table is wet. The chair is wet."
- When I let him sleep in my bed when Meezy was out of town, he said, "My daddy's not here.  I love my daddy."
- When reading a book to him, he said, "You missed a page."

30 months
- Says, "Don't see me, mommy" when he's pooping.
- When at the car wash and the machine went from back to front of our car, he said, "Whoa, we going backwards!"
- When he heard a classmate crying, he said, "I cheer her up in a minute."
- Saw a book he hadn't seen in a while and said, "Oh, I forgot this."
- After he cried and there was a tear on his cheek, he said, "I have a cry on my cheek. Cry went in my mouth."
- When Meezy and him were playing together and Meezy wanted to do the game a certain way, Dutch got exasperated and said, "I'm trying to do this, butthole."

31 months
- Was playing with his cars and said, "Get outta here! It's an emergency!"
- Told me, "Don't play with me. Go watch TV. I'm gonna close my eyes."
- When his nose is running he says, "My nose is running out."
- Told me, "I'm so excited to see you!"
- When Meezy sneaks into his room in the mornings so he can lay next to him and then Dutch wakes up, he asks, "You sleep in my bed, Daddy?"

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Yep, Still Pregnant

I feel a little bad that I'm 26 weeks into this pregnancy and I've barely written about it at all. Honestly, though, I've barely written about anything over the past few months.  My life has been one stressful day after the next.  We have had repair contractors at our house every single week for as long as I can remember.  We've been dealing with plumbing issues since April and HVAC issues since July.  When our plumbing repairs are finally resolved, there will most certainly be a post about it. They have disrupted our lives tremendously and are costing us a fortune.  But, enough about that for now.  Let's do a little catch-up.

This pregnancy has been quite different from my pregnancy with Dutch.  I started out with a ridiculous appetite, I think because I was having really bad "morning" sickness.  Putting food in my stomach helped relieve some of the discomfort, but that meant I ate way too much!  I gained weight quickly and felt like my belly popped out immediately.  Luckily my doctor prescribed something that really helped with the sickness, which in turn decreased my food intake.  I felt dizzier and clumsier more often in this pregnancy than before.  I had the same insomnia and horrible heartburn/reflux that I remembered from last time, but they seemed to arrive much earlier in this pregnancy.  My insomnia is getting better, but the reflux is a daily occurrence.  I often feel like I can't quench my thirst throughout the day.  I will go to the fridge multiple times and attempt to drink milk, tea, water - anything because I feel so thirsty.  That does mean I end up drinking tons of water every day, though, so it's not so bad.  I can't say I "crave" anything - didn't during the other pregnancy either - but I do find myself wishing for candy every now and then.  It's not like a "I have to have this right now" feeling, but more of a "it would be nice if there were skittles in front of me right now" feeling.

Other symptoms include feeling fatigued quickly and going to the bathroom constantly. I remember the excessive bathroom breaks last time around, but again, I feel like that started later in the pregnancy.  I was already suffering this time at 19 weeks.  It's ridiculous.  I'm up at least 2 times a night to pee, and a zillion times during the day. I will literally go to the bathroom, go sit back down at my computer, and five minutes later feel like I could pee again. The worst is when I get the feeling of needing to pee and then can't remember if I just went or not. Man, pregnancy brain is sweet. I'm experiencing some sciatica, but it hasn't been too horrible so far. For about a week at a time, I will get this really sharp pain where my pelvis and spine meet, after I've taken a few steps.  Then it'll be gone the next week.  A couple weeks later, it will resurface.  I'm not getting the shooting pain down my legs or the numbness or tingling I experienced previously from the herniated disk, so I'm hopeful this pain really is just related to the pregnancy.  I was running for the first few weeks of this pregnancy, so I'm optimistic I can get back to that (pain-free) after this pregnancy.

Lastly, my weight.  I know women don't like to talk about this, but let's get serious.  It's on most of our minds.  I'm not embarrassed to say I struggle with my weight and I wish I was 15 pounds lighter before getting pregnant again. Being a mom and having back problems that restricted my exercise meant I didn't get into the shape I wanted to, though. I just see that as motivation to try harder after the second baby. I'm 5'7 and my starting weight was 148.5lbs at 4 weeks pregnant.  That looked like this:


What's funny is that I felt at the time that I needed to lose weight, but I look at that picture now and go, "Damn, I was skinny!"  Lol.  Here's a picture from 12 weeks:


You can definitely see the changes that took place on my front side during those 8 weeks. I forgot to weigh myself and write it down, but I had probably gained 7-10 pounds at this point. Here's what I looked like at 20 weeks:


I can admit that I don't look too big, but unfortunately the numbers on the scale told a different story. By 20 weeks, I was up to 167lbs, which meant a total weight gain of 18.5lbs at that point. Considering some people have gained just a third of that at the same point in their pregnancy, you can see how disconcerting that can be.  I haven't taken my 26 week picture yet, so here's the one from last week:


It is what it is!  I'm definitely getting larger and feeling more uncomfortable. My weight is around 174.5lbs now, which means 26 pounds gained.  I'm not a petite person, and I make large babies, so this weight gain was to be expected.  But, I'm hopeful I can keep it under control and not gain more than 40lbs total.  I gained at least 45lbs with Dutch, probably closer to 50.  I was able to get it all off in about 5 months' time, but if I can keep my weight gain to 40lbs or less this time, maybe it'll be a little easier!  I'm not gonna lie, though, making big babies is not so bad. I can feel this baby move constantly, very clearly.  I like that he's large enough that I can really feel all of his movements.  It's a nice reminder throughout the day of what the bigger picture is in all of this.