Conversations With Emily

Now that Emily talks so well, the things that she says just crack me up.  I really want to start writing more of our conversations down.  Here are just a few recent conversations.

She loves to wear footie pajamas.  Tonight after getting her pj's on, we were in her bathroom brushing her teeth.

Em: "There's something in my foot."
Me: "I don't feel anything down there."  "What's in your foot?"
Em: "It's a spider."

Each night after getting in her booster chair for dinner, she'll pull out my chair and usually say "Mama, come sit down."  Tonight she said "Jennifer, it's time for dinner."

Lately, she has loved to play with my hair.  I call pig tails, piggy tails or piggys.  When she wants to do my hair this is how our conversations go.

Em: "Mama, want me to give you piggys"
Me: "Ok"
Em: "Ok, now move back" as she stands up behind me.
Em: "Now, just 1 piggy"
Me: "Well, just 1 piggy is called a pony tail."
Em: "Ok, so just 1 piggy."

Weekend Wrap-up

Saturday morning Shawn and I met up with one of his co-workers, his wife and their almost 2 year old twins at Chuck E Cheese. We got there around 10:30 and there was hardly anyone there, which was really nice. I had a great coupon that included 50 tokens and with most games being only 1 token, we were able to play lots of games. I think Shawn and I may have played as many games as Em. While there were some smaller ride ons that Em enjoyed, a lot of the games were still too big/ old for her. After about an hour of playing and winning tickets, Em picked out some prizes with her tickets and then we ate pizza for lunch. I was surprised by their pizza! It was actually pretty good. It was definitely much better than the pizza we had at Gatti Town a while back.

Saturday night Shawn and I enjoyed a rare treat...a date night. Em's teacher from school came over and babysat while we went to dinner and a movie. We went to a sushi restaurant and then picked up some cupcakes afterwards. We haven't had sushi in a while and it was soo yummy. After picking up our cupcakes we went and saw The Descendents. It was really good. It was sad, but good.

Em was super nice and let us sleep in until 8:00 Sunday morning. That never happens!!! She did wake up at 5:40, but luckily went back to sleep after I rocked her. I guess she was worn out from playing and staying up late the night before. I got another rare treat on Sunday - a morning with the girls. I met up with Courtney and Kara in Southlake to celebrate Kara's birthday. We went to brunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then saw the movie, We Bought A Zoo. We might have been the only people without kids in the theater, but I really enjoyed it. It was a cute movie.

While I was gone, Shawn and Em went grocery shopping and over to the airport to watch the planes land. I think Em was still tired from the night before though and was ready for a nap in the afternoon. She woke up shortly after I got home and me and her played outside in the pretty weather while Shawn got some stuff done around the house.

It ended up being a fun weekend. I forget sometimes how nice it is to have date night with Shawn. I'm looking forward to our next night out in just a few weeks, when we got out for Valentine's Day.

Daddy / Daughter Fun

One afternoon last week, we had really nice weather.  Shawn asked Em if she wanted to play outside after he picked her up from school and she said she wanted to eat cheetos and bounce.  So Shawn blew up her bounce house and also obliged on the cheetos request.  Of course, being the good Daddy he is, he had the camera outside to take some fun pics.  This is the scene I walked into when I got home a little later.

19 Weeks

•How far along are you?  19 Weeks! - since Em came at 37 weeks, I'm saying I'm halfway. :)

•How big is baby?: Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato.

•Maternity clothes: Just a few maternity shirts and maternity jeans on the weekends, but all my regular work pants (with lots of help from rubberbands and belly bands). I tried to make the switch this week to maternity work pants, but they are still way too big!  So I think it may be at least another week or so before I switch over to them.

•Gender: Only 1 more week until our appt, but 1.5 weeks until we find out (since we're waiting until Sat, the 4th to "reveal" the gender.)  I'm starting to get really anxious!!  I'm ready to start shopping.  :)

•Sleep?: This has started getting better, thank goodness!

•Best moment this week?: Spending a fun weekend going to the stock show and taking Em to the movies.  Also, feeling the baby move so much each day!!

•Movement?: I've been feeling a ton of movement over the last week!  I love it!!  This is definitely the part I was looking forward to the most!  It's the neatest feeling to feel your baby move.  I can feel kicks and also when the baby flips around.  The baby has started kicking hard enough to feel on the outside, but doesn't cooperate when Shawn's around.  I think he'll be able to feel the baby soon though.

•Food cravings?: Bananas

•Food aversions?: Nothing really.

•What I miss: Now that the sleeping situation has gotten better, there's not much that I miss. I'm just trying to enjoy every minute of this pregnancy.  It's going by so fast!!

•Symptoms: No new ones, just bad allergies and thankfully my stomach isn't nearly as itchy anymore! 

•Milestone: Less than 5 months to go!

In Emily news. . .up until now whenever we tell her mommy has a baby in her tummy she'll either just repeat it, blows it off, or tells us Emily and Daddy also have a baby in her tummy.  But it's always been from us saying it first.  This morning while I was brushing her teeth, out of nowhere she turned to me and patted my tummy and said Mommy has a baby in her tummy.  :)  I still don't think she knows what this really means and how it affects her, but it was a sweet moment none the less.

And tonight instead of a belly pic, she wanted to take a chair pic.

Emily's Monday

Just a random post about Em's day today:

 This morning when I woke Em up, I asked her what she wanted to wear. She said her blue coat. I told her she didn't have a blue coat, but she insisted and walked into her closet and found her blue sweatsuit with the blue hooded jacket. She hasn't worn this outfit in months. I have no idea how she remembered it.  After I put her shirt on she insisted she put her jacket on. So I put it on her and she zipped it up all the way to the very top and then proceeded to put her hood on. She insisted on wearing her hood on her head to school. I felt like I was dropping off my little gangster at school today. :). Her teacher even said, "I like your outfit Em". I just said, "it wasn't a battle I was going to fight.".

At dinner tonight, Shawn told me about the conversation him and Em had this afternoon.

Shawn and Em were in the car on the way home from school and Shawn was telling Em that it's supposed to rain tomorrow. The conversation continued like this:

Em: "I like the rain."
Shawn: "I do too. It can be calming and peaceful."
Em: "I don't like calming.  I don't like peaceful. I like quiet."


Em also got a few happy grams sent home today. I still love getting these fun notes sent home, especially when they tell me what a sweet girl she's been.

Weekend Recap

Saturday morning we met the Arnolds over in Fort Worth to check out the stockyards and rodeo.  I've never been before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  We started at the petting zoo and Em loved it as usual.  She especially loved the goats and wanted to feed them.

We thought about buying tickets to the rodeo, but after finding out everyone over the age of 2 needed a $22 ticket, we decided to pass.  There's just something about paying for a $22 for a 2 year old that just doesn't seem right.  We figured we'd hold out a couple more years until we knew Em would enjoy it.  Instead we headed over to the barn area to check out the livestock.  We saw cows, horses, pigs and sheep.  I was amazed at how clean all the animals were.  I was expecting really stinky barns, but they weren't.  I guess when they are "showing" animals, they keep them really clean.  Who knew they actually vaccumed the animals fur?  I learned lots of new stuff walking through the barns. 

Before heading home, we stopped at some of the food stands and had some lunch.  After getting home, we all took long naps.  Being out in the cold wore us all out!

Sunday morning, Em and I had made plans to meet a co-worker and her daughter to see Beauty and the Beast in the theater.  Em loves this movie so I thought she might like to see it in the theater.  Just like last time, she did awesome.  We did leave about 10 minutes before it was over, but that was mainly because it was naptime/lunchtime and Em was starting to get antsy.

After taking another long nap, we made some fun treats when Em woke up.. . chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles.  Em doesn't care for pretzels, but I thought she might like them if they had chocolate and pretzels on them.  Well, she didn't.  She just wanted to dip the pretzels and then lick off the chocolate and sprinkles.  It ended up being a messier project than I anticipated, but it was still fun.

After our treat, we just enjoyed the rest of the day playing outside.  It was a nice 70 degree day today!

Interview With Emily - 2 Years Old

I found this cute idea on pinterest where you interview your kids every year on their birthday to see how their answers change.  I missed Em's birthday this year, but thought it wasn't too long ago, so what the heck, I'll just start now.  Going forward, I'll aim to interview her on her b-day each year (or close to).

So here goes.  I came up with 20 questions to ask her each year.  Being that she's only 2 this year, I figured I'd ask some questions that she wouldn't know how to answer.  But I wanted them to be the same 20 each year, so I went with it.

After asking her the questions, I realized she had more trouble with some of them than I thought.  So I wrote her answer first, followed by the answer Shawn and I think it really is - if we thought something different. 

1.  What is your favorite color? Purple

2.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? a sandwich (we'd say a hot dog and mac and cheese)

3.  Who is your best friend? Morgan - her friend at school

4.  What is your favorite toy? balls from her ball pit  (we'd say her dollhouse or her rollercoaser - although her easel is quickly becoming a favorite too)

5.  What is your favorite TV show? Caillou - this was the easiest question to get an answer for

6.  What is your favorite drink? Milk

7.  What is your favorite movie? Beauty and the Beast

8. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Sausage - when I ask her in the car each morning, what she hopes they have for breakfast at school, she always replies back sausage.

9. What is your favorite book? Texas Tech book (She really loves all books and just gets on a kick of which book she likes best that week.)

10. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? toys (This list grows every night.  Right now she takes her 2 blankys, baby, ellie, bear and a book to bed)

11. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Chicken Nuggets and Corn

12. What is your favorite snack? goldfish (we'd say any kind of cheese or cheese cracker - ie. cheeze its, etc).

13. What is your favorite holiday? Seeing Santa - so Christmas based on this answer

14. What is your favorite song? Old McDonald

15. What is your favorite outfit? The one she was wearing when we asked her (we'd say her red footed gingerbread jammies - she asks for them almost every night - they were a hand me down from Lauren)

16.  What is your favorite animal? Baby Lion - I'm pretty sure we got this answer because we've been watching a lot of The Lion King lately.

17.  What do you want to be when you grow up? I asked this question several times, but I think she's a little too young to understand this one just yet.  We'll skip this question until next year.

18.  What is your favorite game?  I think this was another one that she didn't quite understand.  So we'll skip this one as well until next year.

19.  What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swing

20.  What is your favorite thing about school? Playing with her friends

18 Weeks

Again, not a great picture.  I promise it's a white camisole underneath my sweater.  It only shows up in my pictures for some reason.

•How far along are you? 18 weeks - I'm feeling big this week!

•How big is baby?: Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces.

•Maternity clothes: I have worn a few maternity shirts in the last couple of days, but still all my regular pants (with lots of help from rubberbands and belly bands).

•Gender: Only 2 more weeks until we find out!

•Sleep?: Most days it's not so good. Oh how I miss sleeping on my back!!

•Best moment this week?: Finally coming to an agreement on our boy's name.  Our boys name and girls name have now been decided upon.  Yay!  We'll share once we find out the gender.

•Movement?: Still just random flutters. Waiting anxiously for kicks that can be felt on the outside.

•Food cravings?: No new ones this week.

•Food aversions?: Nothing really.

•What I miss: Sleeping on my back!

•Symptoms: No new ones, just bad allergies, itchy stomach, etc.

•Milestone: Only about 150 days to go!

I wasn't consistent on taking belly pics while I was pregnant with Em, but I do have a picture from 18 weeks.  I think I definitely look much larger this time around.  :(  And I should mention too. . when I was preggo with Em, I would stick my belly out for pics.  This time I try to suck it in.  :)

Preggo with Em - 18 weeks

Preggo with Baby #2 - 18 weeks

Baby Girl Or Baby Boy?

As you can tell from my weekly pregnancy updates that I have been pretty confident on whether or not I think we're having a boy or girl (with the exception of 1 week that I wavered).  Now that we're getting so close to finding out, I want to record why I have felt boy all along.

 - My symptoms during this pregnancy have been much worse.  I had much worse morning sickness and was so much more tired this time around!   = BOY!

 - I couldn't stand to eat steak when I was preggo with Em, this time I actually crave steak.  = BOY!

 - When I was preggo with Em, my face broke out really badly, this time not so much.  They say you get more acne with a girl because she steals your beauty while she's in your tummy. = BOY!

 - The heartbeat range has been pretty similar to what Emily was.  = GIRL!

 - The Chinese Gender Chart says Boy.  When I was preggo with Em, it said Girl.  This has been right for everyone that I know.  = BOY!

 - The last 5 babies born on my side of the family have all been girls (Katie, Olivia, Lauren, Nattie, and Emily).  And the last 3 babies born on Shawn's side of the family have all been girls (Sienna, Emily, and Ava).  We're due for a boy.  = BOY!

 - And the number 1 reason I think it's a boy. . .we had a much harder time deciding on a boy's name, than a girl's name.  When I was preggo with Em, we had the boys name all picked out.  We had to work on a girl's middle name though.  = BOY!

So as you can see, based on all these facts, it seems that we will be welcoming a boy! 

Things To Remember

Just a few cute stories I want to remember . . .

 - I'm not sure if I have mentioned this in the past or not, but Emily is very scared of the garbage truck.  I have no idea why or how this started.  It might be because it's loud?  Well, a couple of times over the last few months she has woken up in the middle of the night and when we ask her why, she says she heard a garbage truck.  :)  Last night the wind was really loud oustide and she claims it was a garbage truck.  I think she thinks the garbage truck is going to come inside and get her.

 - Emily has a ton of stuffed animals and goes through phases on her favorites.  Lately, she has started naming her stuffed animals.  The probably is she's not really naming them, she's just using the names other people have come up with.  For example, my parents have a cat named Bailey.  Now her stuffed cat (that looks very life like, I might add) is named Bailey.  Also, my niece, Nattie, has a stuffed elephant that she calls Ellie.  On Christmas Day, Ellie was lost, so I kept telling Em we needed to help look for Ellie.  What do you know, but Em's stuffed elephant is now called Ellie.  :)  Hmm, I guess everyone should take this as a compliment.  Em loves their names so much, she has decided to claim them as her own.   :)

17 Weeks + 1 Day

Not the best picture.  The top of my pants are sticking out a bit making my belly look funny.

•How far along are you? 17 weeks + 1 day - forgot to take a picture yesterday

•How big is baby?: Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom.

•Maternity clothes: I did wear some maternity jeans this weekend.  Mostly because I bought them last Friday and wanted to try them out.  They were still a bit big and I was having to constantly pull them up.  But other than that, it's been all regular clothes.  Just belly bands and rubberbands. 

•Gender: Only 3 more weeks until we find out!  I haven't been real anxious to know up until now, but I'm starting to get there now.  I think I'm just ready to start planning.  Shawn and I have decided to have the sono tech write down the gender during our appt. instead of telling us.  We're having both sets of parents over for dinner the following Saturday.  We're going to wait until then to reveal the gender.  We thought it would be special this time to include more people in on it.  And also make it fun for Em for her to find out with us.  Oh and I'm back to thinking boy.  I'm just convinced now it's a boy.  And just a cute story to share. . .a few weeks ago, Shawn told me he would be okay if we had a boy.  I asked him what he meant by that and he says he just "knows" girls now and that he was a little worried about how he would do as a "boy dad."   But after thinking about it, decided he could be a good "boy daddy" too.  :)  Oh and I spoke to soon a few weeks ago.  Our girl name has been decided upon, but our boy name has not. Coming up with a boy name is starting to stress me out!  I just can't find one that I love.

•Sleep?:  Most days it's not so good.  Oh how I miss sleeping on my back!!

•Best moment this week?: Hearing back from the dr. that all my bloodwork from my last appt. came back normal and also taking Em to see her first movie in the theater.

•Movement?: Still just random flutters.  Waiting anxiously for kicks that can be felt on the outside.

•Food cravings?: No new ones this week.  I forgot to mention when I first started these posts, that I have loved fruit rollups since I've gotten preggo.  I haven't eaten a fruit rollup in years, but now I eat one almost every day!  I forgot how good they are.

•Food aversions?:  Nothing really.

•What I miss: Sleeping on my back!

•Symptoms: No new ones, just bad allergies, itchy stomach, etc.

•Milestone: No big milestone this week.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Since I've been pregnant, I've discovered a couple of things I can't live without now!

• Snoogle Pregnancy Pillow - with Em, I just used a body pillow and slept terrible as soon as I started sleeping on my side.  This time I decided to invest in the Snoogle.  A little pricey, but definitely worth it!  I'm loving this pillow!!

• Gummy Pre-Natal Vitamins - with Em, my dr. wanted me on prescription Pre-Natals, but this time she said the over the counter ones were just as good now.  Usually Pre-Natals are horse pills that make me nauseous.  Not anymore!  Now they sell Gummy Pre-Natals.  I was so excited when I found these at Target!  I actually look forward to taking them because they taste good and don't make me sick!

Weekend Recap

I originally planned to do a day in the life post Saturday and Sunday, but due to my lack of picture taking, I decided to just do a recap post instead. After the busy holidays, we were looking forward to a quiet weekend with no big plans.

Saturday morning we woke up and Shawn made some fun pancakes for Em. My mom had gotten us cute pancake shapes and a special container to pour the batter from.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed out to run some errands. First stop up was Hemispheres. It's a furniture/decorating store. Shawn's mom had told us they had a big selection of wall art and it was all on sale through Saturday. We've been looking for something to go the wall in our dining room, so we thought we would check it out. We had a a lot of luck. We found 3 metal piece to hang behind the buffet in the dining room as well as a frame to go in our bedroom - a room that has been neglected since we've moved in. All the wall art was 50% off , so we got some great deals!

Here's the one in our bedroom.  Obviously, I need to order pics to change out the ones that came with it.

And here are the ones in our dining room.

After leaving Hemispheres we had one more stop to make before heading home. We stopped by Lonestar Baby to price out some baby furniture. I think if we have a girl, we'll just use Em's furniture and buy her a big girl set, but if it's a boy we'll buy a new crib set. I don't want white for a boy. I was disappoainted to hear they stopped carrying the Stanley furniture, but we were able to find a few other brands that we liked. Now we just need to know what we're having,

After a quick stop through the Drive thru at In-N-Out burger, we headed home to eat and take naps. Well, Em and I took a nap. Shawn did chores.

That night, we went out to dinner at Matito's and looked at the Christmas lights in the Frisco Square.  This was the last day they were up, so we wanted to make sure we didn't miss them.  Em loved walking around and seeing the "snow" that was falling from the top of the buildings.

Sunday morning we woke up early and Shawn headed out to grocery shop while Em and I got ready.  When Shawn got home we took Em to see her first movie in the theater.  We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks.  I've been wanting to take her to a movie for a couple of months now, but we just now found the time.  We weren't sure how she would do, but she surprised us and made it through the whole movie.  The popcorn we bought her played a role, I'm sure. 

After the movie, we headed home for a nap and to get some stuff done around the house. Shawn hung the pictures (well, 3 of the 4) and I did a TON of laundry.  At night, Shawn grilled out steaks - something that's been sounding so good to me lately.

So that was our weekend of no plans.  :)

Big Sister Announcement At School

I've been meaning to send Em to school in her big sister shirt for the last month and just keep forgetting, but finally remembered yesterday.  Up until now we haven't said anything to her teachers at school, as I figured we wouldn't hold a spot for the baby until we knew the gender and could put a name on all the paperwork.   And quite frankily, I figured my belly probably already gave us away.

But anyways, I put her in her big sister shirt, dropped her off in the morning and quickly left without saying anything.  Her usual teachers weren't in there yet.  She's one of the first dropped off in her class, so Em's old teacher from the young toddler room brings her class over into Em's classroom in the morning until more kids get there.  I had no idea if anyone would even notice the shirt.  Again, this is the same shirt we used to share the news with my family and tried unsuccessfully to share the news with Shawn's dad.

Well, around lunchtime, when I know it's naptime, one of Em's teachers (the one that we've used as a baby-sitter before) text me saying they noticed her shirt and they were all so excited for us!  I'm sure they all made a big deal about it with Em and made her feel special. 

Here's a few pics from the morning before I sent her off to school.

16 Weeks

The belly has popped this week!

•How far along are you? 16 weeks.  I took my picture yesterday when my week changed, but waited to do my post until after I went to the dr. this morning.  I had blood taken for the quad screening this week.  It can detect some genetic disorders including down syndrome.  Let's pray everything comes back normal.

•How big is baby?: Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces.

•Maternity clothes: Still not yet, just belly bands and rubberbands.  My shirts are just now starting to get a little short though, so I think I might go shopping soon for some new clothes.

•Gender: Still have 4 more weeks until we find out. I told Shawn, I'm starting to change my mind and think it might be a girl now.  I was the same way with Em.  I thought boy the whole time until right before we found out I switched and started thinking girl.  So now both Shawn and I are thinking girl, but a lot of our family think it will be a boy. We'll see in a month - we have our appt. scheduled!

•Sleep?: The sleeping is getting more difficult now that I'm supposed to be sleeping on my side.  I'm just not a side sleeper, so I don't sleep well.  I usually have 2 nights of tossing and turning and then 1 night of sleeping well.

•Best moment this week?: Going to my dr. appt. today and hearing the heartbeat again.  Also, scheduling our appt. for our anatomy ultrasound in a month.  I'm so ready to see our baby again!

•Movement?: Still just a few flutters here and there.  Nothing consistent and can't feel anything on the outside yet.

•Food cravings?: Steak still sounds really good to me!

•Food aversions?: Nothing really. Maybe plain grilled chicken.

•What I miss: Being able to sleep on my back!

 •Symptoms: No new symptoms this week. Just the same bad allergies, nosebleeds and itchy stomach.

•Milestone: No big milestones this week.

Happy New Year!

This year, Shawn and I celebrated New Year's Eve at home with Em.  Unfortunately, none of us even made it up close til midnight.  I think I made it until 10:30 before it was time for bed.  We had spent the day preparing to have my family over New Year's Day and by nighttime, we were all worn out!  Being pregnant this year, I really just had no desire to go out on New Year's Eve and thankfully, Shawn didn't either. 

New Year's Day, we hosted dinner for 20 of my family members.  It was my parents, brother's family, cousin's, Aunt, etc.  Pretty much everyone that we celebrated Christmas with.  Shawn smoked a brisket and pulled pork while I made broccoli salad, potato salad, coleslaw and beans for sides.  We always over-estimate on food and we had quite a bit left over.  We'll just be eating BBQ for the next few days.  It was lots of work preparing to host everyone, but it was fun wrapping up the holidays by having everyone over for dinner.

I hate to make New Year's resolutions because I never keep them.  However, my one from last year, I'd really like to carry over into this year.  As we start preparing for a new baby in the house, my goal is to organize everything.  The baby's room is full of junk that will need a new home and I'm hoping that will help motivate me to organize the rest of the house too.  We shall see.  Besides that, my goal is also to blog more.  As time consuming and tedious as it is sometimes, I know Em will love having these memories to look back on when she's older.  So each year, my goal is to post more than the previous year.  Other than that, I'm just looking forward to the rest of my pregnancy and then welcoming a new addition.  We took several trips in 2011 and had lots of household projects, but I think this year will be much quieter as we focus on the new baby.  But then again, you never know what the new year will bring!