22 Months

It is hard to believe that in just 2 months I will be the mother of a 2 yr old, not to mention a mother of two!  Let me just tell you how amazing this almost 2 year old really is...

Not only is she polite and I mean really polite, just this morning we were sitting in the den when evidently she burped (I didn't hear it or even realize until...) she started patting her chest saying "scuse me, burp, scuse me".  When Chris or I burp, yep she is right there saying "scuse me" until we say it too.  She says "thanks" constantly with out prompting, even when she is given a compliment (if she isn't being shy) she will jump right out with a smile and the sweetest "thanks" you have ever heard.  Of course if she needs by you and you have to move in the slightest there is a "scuse me" that precedes her moving you out of the way.  "Yes Sir" is pretty good, but still needs a bit of work.  "Please", well what can I say, please it just the cherry on the top when she looks at me and says "juice please" or just plain "pleeeease".  And to think I was worried that teaching her manors was going to be difficult, nope she is polite like it is second nature. 

In a matter of days her vocabulary and jumped to a whole nother level, she has had a pretty strong growing vocabulary since around 15 months, but in the last week alone I believe she has added at least 50 words(if not WAY more).  Not only can she communicate with us through her one word statements, but this week alone she has triumphed in putting her words together.  It started slow around the beginning of last week, now it's "ready, set, go" "hold hat, please"  "night, night Daddy" "Oh, no what happened" "Where's my kitty" "No Mommy"  "Love You"  "Bye, Bye Friends" and so much more at a rate so fast I can't even remember enough to document. 

She can count to 16 with the exception of 1 and 15, but those are just technicalities (right?).  She can recognize the number 8 when she sees it on something.  Her knowledge of the alphabet is slightly complete, well she can sing "ABC" but when she is looking at letters she knows A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,O,P,S,W,X,and Y.  I am not unhappy with this from my nearly 2 year old,  I had no clue that kids even learned this stuff this early. 

She knows the colors, red, blue, yellow, green, pink, purple, brown, black and white

She teaches me so much every day,  my cup runneth over with this little bit of heaven living with us right here on earth.  God must have BIG plans for her and I can just tell she knows it and she is ready for whatever He has in store! 

So is she ready to be a big sister in 5 weeks, well only time will tell, but she sure does love the baby.  She tries her hardest to feed her (through my belly button of course), she is always concerned if she is cold or not and doesn't go a day without giving her some sort of loving.  We went to visit one of my co-workers the other day who just had a baby at the end of December, I was able to hold him for maybe 4 min while Addie was distracted by the cat before she freaked out saying "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" while trying to push his feet away.  I have a feeling that Daddy is gonna get a lot of new baby time when it comes down to it.  I told him the other day he better start learning how to breast feed...

Addie is really good with her opposites, for a while now she has known when something is not hot it is cold, but now she opens and closes doors and turns lights off and on to make it dark and light.

I am so proud of how my little booger is turning out, she is so grown up and though I am proud that she is becoming so independent  I long for those moments when she opens up her arms and says "hold".

34 Weeks

Yesterday I had my 34 week check up, everything looks great!  I am still pregnant, with probably a rather large baby.  I am measuring at 35 weeks, everything is still tight and thick so no labor anytime soon he said, not that I thought it was but Chris kept saying that he thought I was going to go within the next two weeks so that eased his mind a bit.  My blood pressure was 90/64 which is great, last time I was kinda worried because it was like 100/70 which was pretty high for me.  I gained 2 lbs, in two weeks, not bad, not great but I'll take it!  The baby's heart rate was 129 bpm and he said that that it sounded really strong. 

We still don't have a name, there are a few that we have agreed to entertain the idea of, but we are still nowhere ready to make any announcements...

Big Sister Love

Periodically Addie will walk up to me then lift up my shirt to see the baby.  Last night as I was sitting with her while she was eating dinner, I scratched my belly (stretching itches) and she just happened to see me do so.  I guess this made her think of the baby so she walked over to me, asked to see the baby, lifted up my shirt and gave my belly a kiss.  Then she walked over to her table picked up a piece of her hotdog and tried to feed it to my belly.  As she was saying to the baby "eat".  She is going to be the best big sister!

Pondering

Last night was pretty rough for me, thought for a moment that we might be heading to the hospital at some point soon, maybe not last night, but sooner than later.  It started around 10:30 or 11, Chris had left me asleep on the couch because lately the bed just hasn't been that comfortable, I woke up having slight contractions.  As I tried to sleep through them, they progressively got worse.  I thought that if I went to bed they might be easier to sleep through, that definitely didn't work.  So as I walked the house timing (and thinking about everything that IS NOT prepared for this precious little one) they finally slowed down and I was able to lay down and get a bit of rest. 

This morning I am a little sore, between the heartburn, contractions and the charlie horse I got every time I had a contraction throughout the night, I guess anyone would be.  Chris said that he is fine with being a single parent as long as I could keep a set of eyes on Addie in here as she plays so that he can get some stuff done around the house. 

As I sit here immobile at the moment watching Addie play just as sweet as can be by herself I can't help but remembering being a child her age.  My Grandma, for those of you that never had the wonderful pleasure of meeting her, had Parkinson's Disease so for the entirety of the time her and I spent on this earth together she couldn't walk on her own.  Her and Grandaddy Hanes kept me a lot when I was little so most days it was just her sitting on her divan watching me as I played around.  I remember being so little but able to climb up on the sofa beside her as she ate(or should I say shared) her breakfast.  I think about although she couldn't get into the floor and play with me, how much joy it must have been to be able to just sit there and watch the innocence of a child transform before her eyes.  This is what I am feeling now watching my little angel bring so much joy to my life just by being able to sit here as she plays.  I then wonder if my Grandma knew how much joy that she brought to my life just by sitting there with me.  I didn't need her to be in the floor with me, I just needed her presence to let me know that I meant the world to her and her to me.  As a matter of fact in all of my 28 years I don't believe that the fact that she could never "really play" with me had ever crossed my mind. 

I can't wait till that day when I can see my Grandma again and on that same day will be the first time she will ever meet my children face to face!  Oh how amazed she would be if she were here today to sit with me and watch this bit of perfection as she fills our world with so much joy and amazement!

32 weeks

So I had my 32 week check up today and so far I have bypassed my weight gain with Addie.  I gained 8 lbs this month which puts me 1lb over what I was when Addie was born and I still have 8 weeks to go!!  I am kinda freaking out now about having a 9lb baby.  Addie at 7lbs 11oz and 12 days early probably would have been that big if she had gone to term.  So far there are no signs as of yet of me going early either, EEEGAD!!!!  

But enough about me...Gazoo's heart rate is strong at 130-134 bpm, measuring right on schedule, no protein, no diabetes.  Looks like another blessing of a very healthy pregnancy, Thank you Lord! 

Still no prospect of a name looks like this one may be going to the hospital with us!  Today Dr. Thompson was telling me of this couple one time that while the wife was in labor the husband was walking around the waiting room with their list of name asking everyone which one they liked with check marks beside each of the favorites.  I sure hope it doesn't get to that point for us, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was by far the best Christmas EVER!  We spent the first weekend of December celebrating with the Hughes', Christmas Eve with the Porter's and then our very own Christmas at home on Christmas Day!  Stayed in all day Christmas Day just the three of us opening presents, playing with what Santa brought us and watching it snow!  What a blessing our family is!

                                     

Weight

Four weeks ago we had our 28 week check up.  When they weighed me I asked her how much I had gained, since I was having so much trouble gaining, she says "looks like you had a good month...you gained 13lbs!"  OMG!! are you kidding me!?!?!  Luckily I had only gained 4 lbs up until that point, but according to the doctors that only leaves me with 7 more lbs to gain all the way until the end.  Well I guess I was having too much fun, time to scale back now though.  Then she tried to make it not sound so bad as she stated "well you did have Thanksgiving in there."  Really, ok so at that point yeah I had Thanksgiving  behind me but Christmas was still ahead!

Tuesday we have our 32 week check up, wonder how much I have gained...