That darn foot!

Even though my Doc said he thought everything was fine with regards to Baby's kidneys at my last appointment, he decided he wanted to play the cautious route and keep monitoring them. So I had another ultrasound yesterday and will have one more closer to my due date. It's great to get another sneak peek at my baby. The ultrasound tech I had this time was great. While it only took a couple minutes to get the kidney measurements she needed, she spent an extra 20 minutes peeking at everything else just for fun.

She's getting so big (yes, she's still a she!) I've been starting to feel body parts more easily, so it was fun to be able to ask the ultrasound technician what all the different parts are. Baby is currently (as of yesterday) head down, laying sideways facing my right side. Which explains why I feel a ton of small movements on my right side, that's where her limbs are.

She has been jabbing me really hard lately in one particular spot and I can see the small bump sticking way out of my belly and man does it hurt! I literally have to push the bump back in several times before she finally gives up. I figured it was a foot or knee. Sure enough it happened at the ultrasound and it is her foot. She apparently is already getting tired of the froggy fetal position and wants to stretch her legs out straight. I get all the bigger movements too where she must be rolling around and I can see the bigger bumps rippling over my stomach. But I should try to get a picture of that foot sticking out when she straightens her leg, it's actually a little disturbing how far it sticks out of my belly! I think she's going to have Nate's wide feet.

She's still a constant mover. Some days I wonder if she sleeps at all. Or maybe she's just a very restless sleeper. Maybe Katie is right when she said Claire is my smart one and this baby will be my athletic one. Can't wait to meet her and find out!

30 month update - Part 2

Her imagination has grown immensely over the last few months. I can't even explain the things she comes up with. The deck turns into a forest filled with wild animals, she builds sand castles in the bathtub, she catches fairies flying in the air. Sometimes she'll come up with something and you wonder what the heck she's talking about until you realize she's just pretending. She loves to have conversations between her dolls, her animals, her spoon and fork, her hands, even her shoelaces have been known to have conversations with each other. She is quite the storyteller.

Every morning I have to ask her who she is. Sometimes she's Ariel, sometimes Tinkerbell, sometimes a robot, sometimes a cat...you just never know. And she gets upset if you don't play along. This will last all day long and the next morning she'll wake up as someone/something else.

She's quite the manipulator. She totally knows how to work mom and dad. She knows that mom is more of the disciplinarian and dad will give in a lot easier. If I say no to something she wants, she just turns to dad. If she comes across something that she already knows I will say no to, she asks me to go into the other room or to go over there so she can ask dad. This happens at the mall all the time. There are candy machines and as soon as she spots one, she'll tell me to "go over there," pointing to the other side of the mall, and then she'll ask daddy for candy because she knows I'll say no. And when she needs to pull out the big guns to get what she wants, she has the cutest puppy dog look complete with "pretty please" and "I love you soooo much." Who can say no to that?!

I couldn't even begin to write about all the things she's learned in the last 6 months. I think she's ready to start kindergarten! Her more recent thing is practicing her phonics. She's known the sounds the letters make for probably a year now, but she's just starting to relate that to actual words. One of her favorite games is for you to say a word and she'll tell you what letter it starts with. She also likes to play the game backwards. Name a letter and she'll come up with a list of words that start with that letter. She can also completely sound out (spell) small 2-3 letter words. And she can sight-read probably a dozen words.

Her drawing/writing is getting better. She is starting to be able to write letters and she is getting excellent at making smiley faces and specific shapes. She doesn't love coloring so she doesn't get to practice often. Actually, much to my dismay she's not much into art projects of any kind these days. Her easel and finger paints have been gathering dust, and she never participates in the art projects her teachers organize for her at school. Maybe that will change, or maybe not. And that's ok too.

Had I written this even a month ago, I would have said we were just sailing through the "terrible two's" without incident. But just recently things seems to have shifted and she's been showing her two side more frequently. While actual temper tantrums are rare, she's developing quite an attitude. With that comes a lot more disobedience and defiance than we've experienced before. Previous to the last few weeks, a simple "No" would suffice if she was doing something wrong. We really had no discipline strategies as we just didn't need them. But...like I said things have changed slightly and she has recently experienced her first time-outs. I was actually quite surprised at how effective they were. She's only had to have a few of them, now usually just the threat of a time-out is enough to get her to behave.

I know I've said this at every age, but it's true every time...this is my favorite age! It's a blessing to be able to help teach her the ins and outs of life. She's growing into her own little person, one that I love more and more everyday. There is really no way to accurately describe my feelings for this little girl. This has been the best 2 1/2 years of my life.

30 month update - Part 1

It's been 6 months since my last update...so this is bound to be a long one, in fact I think I'll split it in 2 parts.

My little baby girl is 2 1/2 years old! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. I swear time keeps going faster and faster. I can't keep up.

While 6 months ago I would have sworn that my girl was going to be a tomboy and had no interest in anything girly, today I have a whole new kid. The girliest girl ever. Of course she still loves bugs, playing in the dirt, and helping Daddy fix stuff (she knows the names of more tools than I do!) But she's now totally into princesses and fairies. (There is a marketing genius out there who decided to put princess stuff on everything..from pasta to socks-and we have to get it all!) If I give her a choice on her clothes for the day, it is ALWAYS a dress and the frillier the better. She loves getting her nails polished, has her own set of lip glosses and loves decking herself out with as much jewelry as she can get on. While she still insists her favorite color is blue, given a choice on anything of different colors, she will always pick pink. She never got into baby dolls, but she loves her princess and fairy dolls and every time we go to Target, she tries to talk me into a new one.

She's very verbal. She talks constantly and has a huge vocabulary. Every once in a while she'll slip a new word in that I don't immediately understand, but otherwise I understand her completely. She speaks in perfect complex sentences. When I'm talking to her I sometimes forget she's only two, because she speaks and understands so well. Her love of books has definitely affected her vocabulary. She picks up so many new words and phrases from books.

When she's not talking, she's singing. And she is such a songwriter. Occasionally I'll catch her singing a simple "Twinkle, twinkle" or something like that, but most of the time it's her own creation. She'll combine things from stories and from real life and put it into a song. She can also come up with a song in an instant. Give her a topic and she'll sing about it.

As already mentioned she still loves books. She's not terribly into TV or movies. She'd much rather read the "Little Mermaid" book over and over a thousand times than to actually watch the movie. And we don't have cable, so her cartoon choices are limited to PBS kids. And I'm good with that because I'm not much of a TV watcher myself.

She loves her school (early childhood class) and seeing her friends. At this age she's just starting to get into playing WITH other kids, rather than just the parallel play that it used to be. She's so much better with sharing and taking turns. She knows who she likes and who she doesn't like. She's much more attracted to older kids or other kids her age that are as verbal as she is. She has no patience for the kids who aren't talking as much yet. Even though she'll be 3 in the fall, she missed the Sept. 1 date for starting preschool this fall. So we'll continue with her Early Childhood class and all her other classes and playgroups for her socialization.

She is very outgoing and will talk to anyone. Not a bit of shyness in her. She is also very secure and confident in everything she does and every situation. I love that she's not scared of new things. She takes on any new situation without hesitation. She's a happy little girl. She's silly, goofy, and playful. There's no way to be unhappy when you're hanging out with her.

When she isn't being silly and goofy, she's being cuddly and sweet. The hugs, kisses and "I love you's" flow freely and unprompted from this girl. She asks to cuddle all the time. She especially seems to have a need to reconnect after a busy day. No matter how many times a day she tells me she loves me, it still melts my heart. The "I love you forever" is my favorite.

Flashback Friday-- April 24, 2008

April 24, 2008

We went to a great Zoo in Tampa on Tuesday. It was relatively quiet, so Claire got to do a lot of running around. Of course she loved seeing all the animals but her favorite part of this zoo was a little Budgie aviary. For a buck you can buy a popsicle stick with birdseed on it to feed the birds. The best dollar we ever spent. She could have spent all day in there! She loved holding the birds on the stick. When one would fly away, she'd hold out her stick to get another one to come, she wasn't scared at all. She just thought it was the greatest thing! Even after we finally dragged her away from the aviary, she wouldn't throw away the stick and kept holding it out hoping a bird come land on it.

Children's Museum

We finally got around to renewing our membership at the Children's Museum. We so love it there! We heard Clifford was there so we had to check it out. Clifford is one of the few shows Claire watches, so she was very excited to see this special exhibit. Of course all the other exhibits are always wonderful too.

Doing her grocery shopping at the Market. She thought this was the best uniform at the Uniform Shop.

Face painting with Daddy.

Creative uses for old toys

Claire has one of those pop-up toys that was fun, oh about a year ago. Since then it's just been in a bin of outgrown toys. Well a couple weeks ago, she pulled it out and came up with a new way to play with it. She uses it as a launching pad for her Little People. What I think is kind of funny is that she always does them in certain groups, like all birds or all people. (Right before I hit record, I asked her to show me how to do it...that's why she keeps repeating "That's how we do it.")

(That is a sticker on her nose. She put it there. It's not unusual for her to go around with stickers on her face all day.)

Sunny and 70

As I was just typing away, I noticed my arms were a little pink. Could it possibly be from the sun?! Yay! The sun is here and the weather is warm! We even dug out the bin of summer clothes. We spent ALL morning at the park and now I'm just waiting for Claire to wake up from her nap so we can play outside some more.

She's old enough now that she can conquer a playground completely on her own. Last summer I stuck pretty close by in case she needed help climbing or getting down or something. It's sort of nice to be able to just plop my big pregnant self down on a nearby bench and soak up the sun and relax, while she's busy playing on her own. Next time I'll remember to bring a book...I didn't realize that she would want to spend multiple hours playing! (And she was way too busy to pose for pictures. At one point, she even told me to put away my camera because she wasn't going to smile!)

28 Weeks

I went in for my 28 week appointment this morning. All is well. I was a little worried that all my ice cream cravings might have had a detrimental effect on my weight, but as the Dr. put it, my weight gain is "spot on." If I continue at this rate, I should be just shy of 30 lbs total (I gained 27 with Claire, so pretty much exactly the same.) My fundal height is also measuring exactly 28 cm, so baby's growing right on track. I also had my glucose screening today and will get the results in the next day or two (3 hours later and the baby is still bouncing off the walls with the sugar buzz!) As for how I'm feeling, things are pretty good. I definitely get tired pretty easily, and certain things are getting harder to do. I do have a lot more aches and pains than I did the first time around. This little baby is active. I thought Claire was active, but I have to say that this baby is even more active. This was the third appointment where the Dr. had trouble getting an accurate heart rate because the baby wouldn't sit still long enough! I'm feeling the punches and kicks all over my belly and they are often quite strong (as in, ouch that kind of hurts!) I'm heading into the most active couple of weeks, before the movements start to slow down as she runs out of room. It's crazy to think that I'm now in the third trimester, heading into the final stretch. It's going so crazy fast!

Peppy

At Christmas time when we were here last, we went to a place called Peppy's Pizza. (It's very similar to Chucky Cheese.) Claire was in love with "Peppy", a little dinosaur guy that rides around on his scooter and talks to the kids. She talked about him for days afterward. One of the first days we got to town on this trip my parents and I were discussing where to go for dinner and Claire yells out, "Peppy's Pizza!" She remembered from December, so of course we had to go back. She liked talking to Peppy and of course playing all the games. Her favorite this time was one where alligator heads pop out and you try to hit them all. She also tried out the Dance Dance Revolution, a little ski ball, and of course several of the rides. I think I'll have to break down and take her to Chucky Cheese at home sometime (Nate's been begging to go there forever, and I keep saying no!)

Easter in S.D.

Claire and I flew out to blizzard country (Rapid City) on Thursday. It was an uneventful flight, which is always nice. It's amazing how much snow they've gotten out here just in the last few weeks. It was snowing when we got here, but the last couple days it's been relatively nice. Claire's had lots of play time with her cousins. I would think that she would rather play with Owen since they are only a year apart, but she loves Ella. She just follows her around and imitates everything Ella does. Those two little girls are going to cause some trouble together in a few years! Claire had a nice Easter morning surprise, as Daddy was here when she woke up(he flew in late Saturday night.) We are headed back home tomorrow evening.

The kids playing together.

The kids did some egg dyeing. Claire wasn't terribly interested in it the second time around. Ella did a great job with the eggs and Owen had a lot of fun, although all his eggs turned either brownish or gray (he thought each egg needed to go in every color!)

Claire showing off her pretty Easter dress.

Unfortunately because of the weather, all the outdoor egg hunts were canceled. But after church the kids got to do a egg hunt indoors.

Flashback Friday - Easter 2007

Egg-stra Cute! - April 2007

The Easter Bunny

We made special arrangements with the Easter Bunny to come to our house a few days early. (we are hoping to get out of town for Easter and I didn't want to have to haul all her Easter goodies with us.) We had a little egg hunt for her too. She was very excited when she came down the stairs and saw that the Easter Bunny had come. Claire's favorite gifts were a couple of princess dolls (she's way into Disney princesses lately!)

Coloring Eggs

All set to dye Easter eggs.

She liked dyeing eggs, but had a little trouble being gentle enough with them. We ended up with a few cracked ones and lots of dye splatters as she would just plop them into the cups.

I think they were arguing over what color to use.

The finished products!

Showing off all the pretty eggs.

Moving the eggs to the basket. (She actually did this process multiple times..moving the eggs from the egg carton to the basket, from the basket to the carton...)

Circus!

This afternoon the three of us, along with Grandma K, Aunt Kristin, and Aunt Kallie, went to the circus! Claire had been talking about it for days, she was so excited. She had a good time right away, clapping along and dancing. But it was a long show and eventually the lack of nap and the sugar crash after all the cotton candy hit her and she got a little restless. But I think overall she had a good time. We saw lots of different circus acts including the human cannonball, flying trapeze, acrobats, clowns, performing elephants, pigs, and tigers, motorcycle stunts, and more. It was a pretty entertaining show.

Enjoying her cotton candy!

No fear of clowns for this girl!
She ended the afternoon with an elephant ride!

Flashback Friday - 4/8/08

A Walk with Dad - April 8, 2008

She decided she was way too much of a big girl to ride in the stroller on the way home from the park.

(This is one of my favorite pictures...I'll have to get an updated one!)

Winter Wonderland

When I opened Claire's curtains this morning and told her to look outside, she said "Snow...YUCK!" I couldn't have said it better.

This is how we feel about the snow...


My poor tulips don't know what to think...

Although I must admit that the big fluffy snow is kind of pretty. But it would be even prettier if it were December instead of APRIL.

Spring, where are you?!