Wordless Wednesday

....with a few words because it's my blog and I do what I like. :)

Last nice day for awhile so we hit the park again. Everyone else cleared out within ten minutes of us getting there, which felt awkward but meant we had the place to ourselves. 

I'm hoping the crummy weather tomorrow will at least bring us some snow so we can try out the sled.

Julia's a little sick. Nothing too bad, just a head cold, but I'm also hoping she gets over it without much more incident. And there should be a rule that allows pregnant women to get out of cleaning up toddler snot because I could have sworn I was past the nausea stage but I found my trigger today.

Also had an OB appointment - all is good with #2. It was one of those pointless appointments. I can feel her kick so I know she's alive, and I feel fine, so it was a lot of waiting around for a five minute convo with the OB. But, I know I'm lucky to have such an uneventful pregnancy so I'm not complaining - much better this than the opposite. So funny how laid-back I am this second time around compared to the first.

Anyways. Enough words. There's a new Modern Family tonight that's calling my name.

I know it's noisy and underexposed but I love this picture anyways.

Several things Tuesday

Meant to do a "Six Things Saturday" post... then a "Six Things Sunday" post... obviously it never happened.

Here's the quick update/rundown:

1. Bad news - I think we might be replacing the countertops in our kitchen. We need to do it before we sell this house (maybe 4-5 years down the line), and I certainly do not want to be doing it with a newborn and a toddler, and we don't really want to do it right before we sell - would be nice to enjoy it for awhile - so it looks like now is the time. I'm getting bids and getting overwhelmed with the thought of not having a kitchen or dishwasher for three weeks. We're also considering biting the bullet and getting the rest of the house painted at the same time since we're planning to paint New Baby's nursery soon (indoor - we've painted about half of it ourselves but the other half is still the beige it was when we moved in). If the place is going to be unlivable for a few weeks, maybe we should just go all-out. Again - overwhelmed.

2. Good news - I think we've settled on a name for New Baby! Finally. We're not monograming anything yet but for the first time I'm actually happy with her name. It actually makes her feel more real, which is a pleasant bonus.

3. Bad news - Also overwhelming is the search for a preschool or Mother's Day Out program for this fall. We're doing perfectly fine now, but I know Julia is going to want more stimulation that I'm probably going to be able to provide for her with an infant in the house. So we're looking at options ranging from once-a-week for-a-few-hours care to all-out preschool. I have no idea what's going to be the best option for her so I'm looking at everything, basically. The worst part is how crazy expensive it all is! Holy cow people - you're just watching toddlers... I know that's insulting to all early childhood educators but what on earth are you doing with all that money that could possibly make a difference to a 2-year-old? She's just as happy playing with rocks as with your fancy wooden organic free-range Montessori-approved-and-accredited toys. Just keep her safe and happy for a few hours for me, and don't charge a fortune, k?

4. Good news - Julia's rash has been doing so well that we're back into cloth diapers about half the time. I'm gradually easing us through the transition, watching for signs of reoccurrence but none so far. It's awesome to have a rash-free baby. She's happy, I'm happy, woohoo! She's also twice used her little potty successfully in the last couple days. I'm not crazy and trying to potty train her now, but she always pees when she gets in the tub, and she loves sitting on her potty in the bathroom anyways, so we put her on it before her bath. So far we're at about 50% getting her to go in the potty vs the tub. She knows what's going on so I figure it can't hurt to get her used to the idea.

5. Bad news - I read book one of the Hunger Games this past weekend. I was pretty much obsessed with it for the waking hours between when I started it and finished it. I desperately want to get the next two books but I'm afraid of getting sucked in for another weekend. (S - have you started yours yet? You have to!)

6. Good news - The weather has been relatively nice here lately so we squeezed in another nice park session today before the sun went down. I can't convey how thankful I am that we've had such a mild winter so far. It gets me so depressed anyways, the cold and the indoors and the dark and the longing for lazy, hot, long summer days, that it's been just amazing to be able to get out as much as we have been lately.

So, without further news, here are the pics:

Surveying the new playground.

Quickly became obsessed with the gravel.

Concentrating on staring at other children.

Both my kiddos. <3
(You wanted a belly shot? There's a belly shot.)

More socially-inappropriate wistful staring at other children.

Finally - she figured out how to go down a slide without hurting herself!

Yeah we need a close-up on that grin.

And, my favorite photo of the bunch. My view for most of the day - Little J disappearing around a corner.

Five Things Friday!

1. Beautiful weather again today! We went to the park, and it was JAMMED. I tried to get some photos but I was too busy keeping Julia safe from the older kids or chasing her after she ran off after doggies. And interacting with her, of course. :)

2. I'm looking at preschools for Little J for this fall. It's a little daunting - the sheer number of schools to consider, and the prices of many of them. I'm also bumbling through this process because the fact is, I have no idea what I'm doing. Thank goodness for the internet. What did people do before Google?!

3. Julia recognizes butterflies, ladybugs, snails, frogs, and airplanes in her book. They all have associated hand gestures and she'll do them as soon as she sees the photo or I ask her something like, "What does a butterfly do?" It's cool because her receptive language skills are noticeably increasing and it's reassuring. Because today after her nap, when I went to go get her out of her crib, she looked up at me, gave me the biggest, sweetest smile, and went, "Dada!"

4. My back hurts. 

5. I signed up for an online photography class. It starts next week and I'm pretty excited about it. I tried several times to sign up for something in person but I could never coordinate a schedule with the baby, so when I came across this, I decided to give it a shot. I also desperately need help in post-processing. Photoshop scares and confuses me, so I never edit any of my photos, but I think I need to learn. So I'm starting with iPhoto (lol) and below is my first attempt. How does it look? Overdone? Too much effect-ness? Completely adorable and heart-warming? Yep.

State of the Family Update

Alright, well no bump pictures (I look pregnant.) but I feel like doing a little family update.

Julia:

The diaper rash is, knock on wood, resolved for the moment. It cleared up with Desitin after our last pediatrician visit and it hasn't come back. I expect it to recur at some point down the line but for now, her skin is clear and I'm very very very happy about it. I'm even feeling confident enough about it to cautiously put my toe back in the cloth diaper pool sometime in the next few days.

She's still on one nap a day, but hasn't settled into a good rhythm yet. She does best when she catnaps in the car in the morning - too long a morning snooze and she won't take an afternoon nap, but no morning snooze and she's a weepy mess by noon. Her nighttime sleep is starting to get a little better; I'm shooting for at least a 7:30-6:30 night stretch and starting to get it more often than not.

She's still taking two bottles a day, but all milk, no formula (hooray!). No effort has been made at all to get her off of them, and I'm getting to the point where I don't really care. She will happily drink milk out of a cup when it's mixed with chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast, and she loves her drinkable yogurt, but not in the quantities she needs to to replace the bottles. Plus she likes them as part of her naptime and bedtime routine and I'm loathe to mess with that. (She's still nursing in the mornings like we have been, nothing new on that front. She loves it still and I can't give up the extra 20 minutes in the dark warm bed.)

You're not going to believe what you're about to read...

Julia is also going through a tough period right now, mentally or emotionally or something. She's clingy and whiney and needy and incredibly difficult to keep happy. It's just a phase, I know, she seems to get this way every two months or so, but it's wearing on me. Ironically, she's just fine with other people, like the special behavior gets reserved for me. I'm doing my best to keep my patience but I'm ready to have my chill, flexible, good-natured little buddy back.

Still doing lots of walking, running, and climbing, and virtually no talking. She says "Dada" pretty reliably, and she barks and growls and makes "brmm brmm" noises, but that's about it. She did pick up the sign for "please" pretty quickly when she realized that gets her what she wants a lot more effectively than screaming at me, so she's capable of communicating when it suits her. It just doesn't seem to suit her yet.

Baby #2:

She's good! I feel her moving around in there multiple times a day, and we're almost at fetal viability (24 weeks). She still doesn't have a name or a place to sleep when she gets here, but we're working on it.

Robert and I:

We're good. Compared to Julia, we don't change too much. My main complaints are tiredness and backaches, neither of which are big deals in the grand scheme of things so I'm happy.

We're debating doing a small kitchen remodel, replacing our backsplash and countertops. Not because we really really want to right now, but because we know there's no way it'll happen once we have two babies. I'm also looking into preschools for Julia for this fall, so our schedule these next few months is starting to fill up pretty quickly.

Anyways....

The weather here was beautiful today so we headed out to my favorite local park. We started out at the playground, naturally, but Julia quickly chased some doggies and we promptly ended up on the walking path. This kiddo walked at least 1/4 of a mile, maybe 1/3, just strolling along like it was no big thing and we go walking all the time. A few doggies kept her interested here and there, but mostly she acted like she was just enjoying the chance to stretch her legs. Strange. But I'm really really looking forward to springtime and the chance to get outside more often.

Adorbs, am I right?

Christmas Break...

This will probably be my last post for awhile, since we'll be off doing the holiday thing with the family. I'm guardedly looking forward to it: I'm looking forward to having R around full-time for a few days, seeing family, going to a house that's actually decorated for Christmas, and enjoying the season with my daughter. I think all my presents are wrapped and my Christmas cards sent, but.... we have a plane to catch and a house to clean and a dog to deal with and 37183102 other little things that need to get done in the next few days. (Yeah, me and everyone else, I know I know...)

I'm definitely looking forward to having R around for this upcoming flight. I fly all the time with Julia by myself, and it's generally fairly smooth going but it's exponentially easier with another person to help out a little. I'm flying back by myself since R is coming back earlier to work, but at least we finally decided to spring for another seat for J so that shouldn't be too miserable either. I was really hesitant to buy another seat since it was way more expensive than they make it sound ("substantially reduced fares for infants!") but as my lap shrunk these past few weeks, I changed my mind. No way I can do an energy-filled 14-month-old on my lap with a 23-weeks-pregnant belly.

Anyways.

We had an extraordinarily slow morning today - crummy weather and obviously wanted to avoid all shopping areas, so we stayed in all morning. Booooorrrrrinnnnnng. So J and I went to the Magic House this afternoon. It's really a local gem - a children's museum that has a whole huge section for younger children, although J likes to go wandering around with the big kids too. We spent almost three hours there. J was whipped by the end, but she had an absolute blast. She started jumping and squirming in my arms as soon as she realized where we were.

It's cool to go someplace like the Magic House, which has safe indoor play areas, on a periodic basis because I can really see how much she changes by what she's able to do each time. This time she walked in, walked right up a flight of stairs and slid down a slide, totally by herself. Me being pregnant is going to be great for her gross motor skills, because I'm all about sitting down on something nearby and letting her do her thing. (I was actually right next to her the one time she bit it on some stairs - thankfully, age-appropriate shallow soft stairs.) I'm trying to be really conscious of letting her explore her physical limits - I keep asking myself if I'd jump up to help or intervene if she were a boy, and frequently the answer is no, so I let her be.

Anyways. She had a blast, and she burnt off a lot of energy. She also did some adorable things, like hug all the dolls in the play dollhouse before flinging them to the ground, that kept me amused too. Now that she's on her new one-nap schedule and the great outdoors is crummy, I foresee a lot more afternoons at that place.

In other news, today was the first day off all formula and totally on milk! We've been putting off the transition because we were worried it was contributing to her diaper rash, but finally concluded it wasn't and we've slowly made the switch. She was NOT happy about milk at first, so this is a victory for me. :) Still have the bottles but I'm not going to mess with that until after the holidays.

And speaking of diaper rash - we went to the pediatrician yesterday morning. Of course she made me eat my bragging words of earlier - she thought the rash Julia had was no longer a yeast rash and was just a regular ol' diaper rash. So, she instructed us to stop all the yeast medication, since we had run through a full course, and to switch back to Desitin. So far, fingers crossed, her tush still looks good. I'm not even going to speculate on whether or not we've beat this thing - I'm bringing all the extra yeast medication with us over the holidays and we'll see what happens over the next week or so.

Okay, all that on Julia and nothing on New Baby? She's good. :) She kicks, mostly at night, and the Braxton-Hicks have slowed down to about 3/day since I quit doing any dog-walking. And I have gotten huge. My back hurts and I'm definitely slowing down ("ugh do I really have to stand up AGAIN?! I just sat down!") but I still feel pretty good overall. New Baby doesn't have a name yet but we might be down to two top choices.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Here's the adorable photo I have of J today. What happens when you're bored with Mama in the house all morning? You put diapers on your head, of course.

This is the most fun I've had all day so far!

Not too much is new.

It's been busy here, but with nothing special, really. I've just got a few things to report:

1. Julia's rash continues to get better. It's looking very different down there, meaning the old rash is clearing up and it looks like a new one is coming in. I'm hoping it's just irritation from all the anti-fungals but I'm not ready to call "success!" on the rash just yet. However, she's a lot more comfortable, that's for sure, and we still have six more days of the oral medicine to go.

2. I'm twenty weeks today - halfway through this pregnancy - woohoo! It feels good to hit a nice solid milestone, which balances out the fact that I feel really pregnant now. Sometime last week, maybe the baby shifted positions or had a growth spurt or something, but just one day it felt like I gained twenty pounds and got huge overnight.

I'm also feeling Braxton-Hicks on a fairly regular basis, which is weird for me since I never noticed them with Julia. My OB's office says to not do anything that causes more than four in an hour, which means I may not be able to walk the dog the rest of this pregnancy. Not that I'm too torn up about missing those walks in the freezing winter, but I'm a little worried about not having the chance to get any exercise. I know rotting in my own baby fat for the next 20 weeks is just going to mean a rougher pregnancy and delivery and recovery.

But, I'm healthy and baby is healthy, so I have no real complaints.

3. Julia got her photo taken with Santa today. It did not go well, but we got a really hilarious picture. I feel like an awful mom when I do, but I just keep looking at her photo and laughing.

I think that's all I've got. Time for me to buckle down and try to get through some more Christmas cards. Despite my best efforts, they're making no moves to send themselves.

The announcement everyone already knows about

I assume that pretty much everyone who reads this blog is either a facebook friend or knows me in real life. So, everyone already knows this but I'm still feeling a need to make it "official" on my blog.

We are expecting our second little nugget in late April of next year. :)

I am 18 weeks pregnant and while this time around has been fairly similar to my first pregnancy, physically, it's been quite different for me mentally and emotionally.

I am much more acutely aware of all the positive and negative emotions (particularly negative) that someone else's pregnancy can evoke in people around me. I speak specifically to those with losses or trouble conceiving. Before Julia, I was happy with our lives, thought getting pregnant was just the next step for R and I, and never really comprehended the emotional enormity that a baby-sized hole can be in a life or a marriage. I still don't, having been fortunate enough to have never experienced this, but I certainly now understand the emotional heft of a child. It's not a next step or a new job or a new house or a pet. Obviously. Of course. But I know this now like I didn't before.

And consequently, I was very public with our news about Julia. I couldn't wait until week twelve to tell the world. I was browsing maternity clothing and baby clothing and strollers and bedding WAY before remotely necessary. I kept a daily calendar by my bed and marked off every.single.day of that pregnancy before I went to sleep at night. I thought every little thing was new and magical and of course no one had ever experienced it before like I was. I put belly photos up on facebook and probably annoyed everyone around me with constant baby talk.

This time around, I've enjoyed keeping it quiet. I even waited a few days to tell Robert. We're thinking this is the last time I'll be pregnant, so I've really treasured the private knowing and the quiet moments when I think, "We're all here!" with my little family. I'm a little disappointed that I've started to show (although it's nice to get out of the "Is she fat or is she pregnant?" phase) because I like not sharing the news with every stranger I meet on the street.

I also spent the first couple weeks freaking out about having two children eighteen months apart. I know people have siblings close in age, and our plan all along was to have our children close together, but... that was quick. Quicker than I expected. A blessing, of course, but... am I going to be able to handle that? I've hit my stride with Julia, but adding an infant to the mix feels overwhelming already.

So, anyways, all that adds up to this pregnancy being almost halfway through before I felt comfortable blogging about it. We do know it's a little girl, and we're excited about the prospect of sisters. I feel good and so far it's shaping up to be another easy pregnancy (knock on wood). I actually have a lot to say about it, now that the floodgates are open, but... a little at a time. I have time. Twenty-two more weeks. :)