Brocoli

Svea REALLY loves eating broccoli....well as long as it's with cheese and rice, but anyway, here's a video of Dan showing her a picture online of a stuffed broccoli from IKEA.  This went one for about five minutes and I just caught the tail end of it.  BROCCOLI

Memorial Day Weekend Fun Part 2

This past weekend was so wonderful!  Dan had tons of time off and we were able to do so much together.  Monday was a little cooler, but still very warm and a perfect day to try out the Amazin Farm, which is five miles from our house.  Svea was so good and enjoyed seeing all of the animals.  We talked about our morning there all afternoon.  We love experiencing new thins with our little girl and it was a perfect day.  Dan grilled steaks for us that night.  Yum!

 You can't see any puppy's, but she's in the middle of a smile watching the little guys!

 She was a little bit afraid of the goats.  Even the babies.  They were so cute!

 She liked the bunnies and petting them.  She learned a new word now and pointed out a bunny to me in one of her books and said the word.

 Svea and Mama at 30 weeks pregnant with her little brother:)

 You could feed birds from a stick and they'd flutter right to you. 

 They had many wooden signs all around and they were a hit with Svea.  She was excited about each and every one.

Hanging out with Dad before we went home.  We are so thankful for our wonderful family day!

Mommy's Little Helper

I had a little helper the other day when I was cleaning.  It was probably the first time Svea saw me washing the floor as I usually do this when she is sleeping, but the other day she wanted to jump right in and help.

 Always willing to help!

 Such a hard worker! 

 Time to sweep Mom!

In baby brother's room, or course!

Memorial Day Weekend Fun Part 1

 84 degrees and humid outside!

 Getting to wear her swimming suit-She gave the "O" face of excitement at the suggestion of it!

 We could have played for hours, but spent a nice relaxing 45 minutes getting WET! Mommy sat in the outdoor chair (ahhh!) and Daddy mowed the front lawn.

 Makes for a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon!

19 Months Old

Clothes: Mostly 18 month clothes although you are in need of some more summer clothes.  I get to go shopping for you in a few weeks so I'll have to eye up the clothes and guess.  I'm sure I'll need to make a few 24 month purchases though.
Shoes: Size 4
Diapers: Size 4 diapers
Sleep: 12 hours!  Woo hoo!  45 minutes to 2 hour nap each day right after lunch . If your nap is short it's usually because you've pooped.  Mommy came in the other day after only 45 minutes and you said, "Mommy poopy, icky".
Teeth: 12! No new teeth this month.

Traveling: We traveled to Jamestown for Gaga's birthday!  You loved playing with all of the new toys and snuggle time with Grandpa and Gaga.  You slept well and were such a good girl traveling! We had so much fun being at Grandma's house:)
Talking: A few words off the top of our heads that we can remember you picking up this past month.....purple, pink, blue, geen for green, pee poop, icky, sticky,  and eye.  You will try to repeat almost any word we ask you to although it doesn't always come out quite right.  You love to talk especially in the middle of books about what you see on the pictures.

Favorite Activity: playing outside, playing with your babies, sweeping the floor, playing in your big girl cars, and blocks.
Favorite Books: Any book will do.  You don't seem to have just one favorite, although Danny and the Dinosaur has been quite popular lately.  You especially love it when Daddy reads to you and you seek him out more than Mommy for a book to be read. 
Favorite Foods: It changes....one day you are in love with peas and the next day you will not touch them.  Meal times are hit and miss.  Sometimes it's really frustrating to get you to eat something and other meals you gobble up everything we put in front of you.  I crossed my fingers today at lunch and you ate peas, sweet potatoes, cheesy potatoes,, chicken, grapes, and strawberries. 

Foods Dislike: I made you blueberry muffins today.  You will NOT touch them.  Daddy made you pancakes the other day and you would NOT touch them.  You are so funny...who doesn't like these two foods;)
Favorite Songs:You are starting to sing along with songs.  We play our ipods a lot on our ihome and you love to dance and sing.

Dislikes:We've solved the brushing teeth problem.  You now love it!  A little tutti fruity swallowable toothpaste does the trick.  We let you brush all by yourself (suck the toothpaste off the brush) if you allow us to brush your teeth first. You dislike getting dressed at times.  There are many days that you would love to run around in your diaper all day.
Favorite Word: baby, baby, baby....you want to be in your little baby brother's room, you want to sleep with your babies (which you do now), and whenever we see babies out and about you LOVE to point out all the babies you see.

 Things we are learning: You are showing some strong signs of potty training readiness.  It's shocked us, but we may give it a try in a few weeks when Mommy is done working.  We will not push you, but if it works it works.  Each time you pee or poop you let us know, grab your diaper, and say icky.  Then you want to be changed right away.  We practice sitting on the potty and sometimes you'll grab my hand and lead me to the bathroom where you'll pat the toilet and say Mommy (you want me to sit down) and then you lift the lid of your potty and sit down.  We sit there for a few seconds, then wash our hands, and we leave.  We will be so excited if you are one of the very few children that pick up on this so soon, but if you don't it's ok.  We love how aware you are of it all though. 

Svea, in the last week you have been so loving towards Mom and Dad.  Today, when both of us were home at the same time, you wanted to lead us both everywhere around the house at the same time.  You run to us to give us hugs, you bring us books for you to read and sometimes you just stop what you are doing to come and snuggle with us.  We love how affectionate you are with us and we love you so very much!  Happy 19th months!

30 Weeks With Baby D #2

We have reached 30 weeks! I'm starting to feel really pregnant.  My belly is now getting in the way when bending over and when I sit I definitely feel the little guy pushing up against my ribs.  Svea is having a hard time finding a spot on my lap to sit.  It's quite comical to watch her try.  Other than that I still feel really well.  The three of us have been walking probably five nights a week and I think that is helping me feel even better. Baby boy is moving around a lot, but it's still weird how much more muffled it is.  He is making my whole belly move at times, which is fun.  I have five or maybe six more days of work!!!  I may need to go a few more to help my boss finish up end of the year data, but it's so close! Svea is going to go to daycare once a week this summer and the days purposefully fall on days I have dr. appts.  My next appt. is in a week and a half and then after that I go in every two weeks until 36 weeks and then every week!  Eeek.....I've also started to have some anxiety about how soon baby will be here.  Dan put together his glider today and we washed and put what furniture is in the room where it should be.  That helped me today...a little:)

"Sunday after Church"

Speaking of food!  Dan and I are using a free online program called myfitnesspal.com  I've used it off and on for the past three years to check my eating habits, but I've recently started again since my dr. is taking me off my medicine.  I don't agree, but I'm documenting EVERYTHING I eat to make sure I don't develop gestational diabetes. We do NOT need another pre-term baby and that GD can cause that. This way I can monitor my weight and catch the early symptoms right away. Anyway, it's nice because it's free and I've never had trouble finding the type of food I've eaten to add into the program.  If you work out one day it calculates how many extra calories you should eat.  It's especially fun because once I hit my maximum calories I know I always get another 300 or so more if I want.  That's one good thing about pregnancy:) 

Wordless Wednesday (Almost wordless:)

 Stroller 1

Check out these videos of Svea playing with her baby stroller this past weekend.  The picture is of her playing with all of her bunnies she got from my Great-Grandparents.  She kept lining them all up one by one in the different colored Easter baskets.

Stroller 2

Waking Up

 It's no secret that we have a little one that takes awhile to hatch.  If we got too soon to pick her up from her crib in the morning or after a nap she gets cranky and cries.  Here she is having a few more waking up snuggles with Daddy this past weekend after her nap.

 I wanted to share something new with her prayers.  We realized what she's been trying to say while she's praying.  She is articulating her word a bit better.  She says, "God, God, God, God, God, God, God, May Men". Awww.....so sweet.  Today at church she folded her hands during the children's sermon to pray as soon as Dan said let's pray.  She said May Men halfway through his prayer, but when I whispered to her that we were still praying she immediately folded her hands again.

I taught her how to say purple, green, and pink today.  If you ask her what color something is though it's always blue, however when Dan brought her to her room the other night to pick out pajamas she shook her head to most of them and then pointed to her favorite ones and said, "pink" clear as day.  Her favorite pair are solid pink.  Oh she's so brilliant...we think:) We also have had her bumbo chair sitting out in the living room for the past couple of weeks because we took it with us to ND both times.  When it's snack time she'll ask for a snack and then run to her bumbo and sit down and put the tray on herself.  "Bumbo, bumbo" she says.  I can't believe how quickly words are being cemented into her little head now!

Trip to the Farm

 There's a family from our congregation that live out in the country on their own little hobby farm and they invited Svea and I out to see their new baby chicks, lambs, and pigs.  First, Svea loved their puppy, Tulip, and wasn't afraid to walk amongst him even though his head was higher than hers.  She was intrigued by the chicks, mooed at the cows, but was very afraid of the lambs.  They "baa" a lot louder than you think! She giggled at the pigs and kept wanting to approach the big turkey who was an ornery thing so we had to keep our distance. She mostly loved running around the yard and sliding down the slide with help from Mom.

 After a tour we visited and played Lego's for awhile and then headed home.  She had a solid nap that day.  The farm wore her out!

We plan on taking Svea to another farm like establishment in a few weeks so hopefully this trip will help her warm up more to seeing the animals. 

29 Weeks With Baby D #2

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 29 Weeks!

Total Weight Gain: 20 lbs. I didn't gain any weight in the last two weeks.  The dr. said my six pound gain the last couple of weeks is pretty common for this time and was probably from a large increase in blood volume.  I'm sure I'll keep creeping up two weeks from now:)

 Maternity Clothes: Yep, except for my yoga pants.  I hope they will make it the whole way.  I don't know what I'm going to do when it gets really hot out.  I don't have any maternity shorts and let me tell you...the few pairs I've tried on are hideously ugly and I just don't know if I can go there.

Best Moment this week:Starting to see my belly roll and wiggle from baby's stronger movements.  I'm continuing to feel his hiccups more frequently now.  

Gender: Little Boy!

 

Movement: Quite a bit on and off all day and mostly in the evenings.  Dan was able to feel him again the other night and he could tell the difference in how much stronger it was.

Food Craving: I am seriously craving all different kinds of veggies.  I wish it weren't true, but this is so unlike me normally.  Sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, potatoes, red peppers.....I've had them all in the last week.  I just wish I craved them like this all of the time!

What I miss: I'm missing my last summer's tan, but that's not really amiss because of pregnancy, just the season.  I would like a couple of warm afternoons to hang out with Svea in our suits in the backyard. (Thank you privacy fence!) I have a mild farmer's tan going from last weekend.

Sleep: I'd like to thank Mr. Randy Jacklitch for my many nights of good sleep.  I have yet to not have good sleep between my bathroom trips.  Bathroom trips seem to be increasing some nights....getting ready for the real trial of late night feedings!

What we are looking forward to: Two weeks ago we looked forward to the end of a rummage sale.  Yeah, that didn't happen, but that's ok.  Dan is going to take a few days off here and there to get some projects done (aka:operation baby boy's room!) and we have some family day activities planned for the near future.  I also have 9 work days left before I am officially off for the summer!

Symptoms: Nothing crazy, just slowly growing bigger.  I can't believe I haven't had any heartburn this time around.  I am really lucky when it comes to pregnancy.  I feel good and am enjoying carrying our children around:)

I'm Running Out of Names for Shoe Posts

 Mommy's sandals....

 Daddy's slippers.....

....and cheesy smiles!

So on to my church story.  The other Sunday Svea and I snuck into the side of the church and tried sitting there since the front row hasn't been going so well.  She was quietly playing on the floor with some toys when she looked up because some guy was announcing the children's sermon.  When she realized that someone was her Dad she screamed DAddy......and took off running all of the way down the aisle for him.  Dan scooped her up and held her through half of his sermon with the kids until she spotted me.  It was her very first children's sermon that she took part in. She was very quiet and listened to her Dad and then she spotted me again. She quietly said, "Mom" and wiggled to get down and ran all of the way back.  It was the sweetest and gotta hold back your tears kind of moment.  I love that she loves her Daddy so much!

Wordless Wednesday (More Shoes)

Shoe obsession at its finest!

Mother's Day 2012

 It was SO beautiful outside on Mother's Day!  My Mom was here for the special occasion and we were both so excited to dress Svea up in her new dress from Paris.  Gaga bought her this while on vacation a couple of months ago. 

 Gaga taught her how to smile this weekend.  She remembered "cheese" from a couple of months ago so now when we ask her to smile she gives this crazy grin and says "cheese".  Woops....she spilled a little bit of water on herself.

At church Dan was doing morning announcements and Svea thought she needed Dad to know she had arrived.  "DAaaaaad", she said until he acknowledged her.  I have another cute Svea/church story too, but I'll share it later this week. We enjoyed much of the day outside and then Dan grilled out for us at night.  We had a little Bob Marley playing too and Svea was head bobbing in her highchair so we let her down to do her thing:)  Here's a video:) I cannot believe that next Mother's Day I'll be a mom to TWO!

28 Weeks With Baby D #2

I had an appointment yesterday and I'm measuring right on target.  Our little boy's heartbeat was in the 150's.  I also passed my gestational diabetes test!  Woo hoo!  With Svea I didn't and had to do the three hour test.  My dr. let me stay on my insulin resistant medication this time so I wasn't surprised.  I'm still feeling really well. IN looking at this picture and seeing how large my belly is starting to get I'm thinking it won't be long before it's much more difficult to get around. This weekend the weather is supposed to be amazing and so far so good!  We had a beautiful day today and we're supposed to have another one tomorrow.  Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's tomorrow!!!  I'm thinking most about my own wonderful Mom, My Grandma Barbara, and my Step-Mom Jane.  Love you guys!  Happy Mother's day to my Mother-in-law as well.  Thank you for your sacrifices in raising this crazy husband of mine:)

Sunday Candids

 Home from church and saying hi to the puppy!

 "Cracker too," she asks?

 Yum!

 Crackers=Crispix cereal on this day. On other days crackers can mean different things.

 "Maaaay Men"  Always pray and drive!

Winking at Mom.  I caught it just right!

I love, love, love this little dress.  I can tell we'll be able to wear it for a long time as as shirt maybe after it doesn't fit as a dress.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Flashback

I've been clearing out all of the videos, pictures, cartoons, imovies, stories, and notes that my students have created on the five iPads I use at school.  On one of them I have a few personal pictures and videos that I emailed to myself and uploaded to youtube so I wouldn't ever lose them.  It was so fun going through some of these and to see how chubby Svea was as a baby.  I came across some a video that I've posted before, but I'm guessing my Grandparents never saw.  In the last couple of months my Grandpa has been getting more internet savy and has been checking out our blog. I thought I'd post these again so Grandma and Grandpa could see them.  These pictures and video are from Early September 2011. Svea is 10 months old.   Enjoy!

Click Here Grandpa!

A Good Book....

..... is always better shared with your Dad

 Svea even read a little bit.

 We are so thankful that she loves reading!

 So interesting!

 Needing some snuggle time:)

Dan was extremely busy this weekend and we saw him for an hour or two here and there.  Svea didn't waste anytime stealing him for a few moments for a good book.  It poured this weekend so we were stuck inside.  I'm working on getting a video of Svea' praying.  She says, Gaga, dada, la, la, ga, do and then Maaaaaay Men.  She is a super busy girl and kept me on my toes all weekend.  I wouldn't trade my full three days in a row with her each week for anything.  She is quite busy and Sunday night I did need Dan to just take over when he got home for twenty minutes so I could breathe.  We love you little girl!