All the Christmas decorating this 8 month preggo is gonna do!

Videos - Analese's "song and dance"

It has been a boring rainy day with Lee at work.  A and I decided to have some fun with the iMovie.  I only salvaged a small amount of usable video however!  In the first one she demonstrates some of her gym skills.  She has not quite grown into the hula hoop yet (smile!):

In the second video I really wanted her to sing, but she was not in much of a singing mood.  This was the best I got of her singing Jingle Bells:

Black Friday at home!

Oh yes, A and I slept in, then we got up, ate breakfast, and got to work on the Christmas tree.  It is very beautiful.  A loved hanging ornaments.  No pics yet, just too tired.  Poor hubby worked all day today after working til midnight last night and sleeping at the hospital.  He is home now, but is totally wiped out.  He will be working tomorrow as well.  He will be glad when this Thanksgiving weekend is over!

Belly Movement!

Here is a short video clip showing fetal movement from the outside.  Video was taken today at 31 weeks 2 days.  I hope to capture some more in the coming weeks.  Sometimes Mariele will be moving like crazy, but when I turn a camera on her she will just go to sleep!

Thankfulness

It has been a beautiful Thanksgiving day.  My tummy is full and satisfied and I feel pretty sleepy, so perhaps a nap after this post?  Lee and Analese are both taking naps right now.  We had a very good Thanksgiving lunch:  Fri-chick (vegetarian chicken) and gravy, stuffing, corn, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie (compliments of a thoughtful friend who baked extra) and ice-cream.  This morning as Lee was getting the Christmas tree out of the garage, he found A's pink bunny!  It has been missing for over a month I think.  I turned the house upside down looking for it.  It was in the garage underneath a table.  A was SO HAPPY to have her pink bunny back!  She keeps grabbing her bunny by both paws and saying, "Bunny, you're home!"  Just a couple of nights ago as I was tucking her into bed she said, "Mom, I miss pink bunny."  So I suspect A is very thankful for her pink bunny today.  Here are some post-reunion pics:

I am thankful for my God, my family, my freedoms living in the U.S, my health, my healthy pregnancy, my shelter, my food, my friends (real life and internet), my wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter who is developing a very beautiful character also, this baby inside of me, the list goes on and on................

We are going to our friends' house around 5 to spend the evening with them, snacking on Thanksgiving leftovers and pies.  Maybe we will sit around the fireplace (although it is 70 degrees here in Texas) and drink hot tea.  The kids will all enjoy playing together.  So far Lee has not been called to the hospital today.  I'm just hoping no pregnant woman decides to have her baby today (wouldn't that be a terrible thing to happen, how dare she!)  It really has been a restful day so far.

Here are some pics of me and Analese that Lee took right before their naps:

So a low key Thanksgiving it is......

Sounds like MIL and SIL are not making the trip.  Which is probably just as well because Lee will have to work about twice as much as he expected to.  Tomorrow he will have a light work day, but Friday he will probably get slammed.  So we will have a little Thanksgiving dinner together as a family tomorrow.  We may get out some Christmas decorations and play some Christmas music.  It will probably be pretty relaxing actually.  I kind of wore myself out today with the house cleaning (which I was going to do no matter what MIL and SIL were doing).  So relaxing tomorrow in my clean house sounds pretty nice actually.

Wiped out Wednesday

Started the day with disappointing news that MIL and SIL (mother in law and sis in law) are both sick (stomach virus and bronchitis respectively).  We were disappointed because they are the family that we were expecting to come visit for Thanksgiving.  Although we were not planning to have the official feast until Friday.  Lee is on call all Thanksgiving weekend so we are stuck here.  But whether or not MIL and SIL are able to come, we will have a little Thanksgiving meal.  I spent the day today cleaning, vacuuming, mopping, and catching up on laundry.  Now I'm pretty tired.  But I do feel a good sense of accomplishment!  

Here are some cute pics of A.  She was playing with her stickers and decided to experiment with body art.  She put a doggy sticker on each toe.  It was pretty cute!

A Call-off day

Lee had a call-off day today.  That is where there is a slow schedule at work and it was his turn for a random day off.  Call-off days are great, because when Lee has a call-off day I also allow myself to have a call-off day.  I suspended my to-do list of household chores and just enjoyed spending time with Lee & Analese.  Although we did get some stuff accomplished too.  We ran some important errands.  And Lee vacuumed out my Rav 4!!!!  That is the best thing that happened today!  It needed vacuuming and I just was not sure how I was gonna accomplish that in my current physical state.  So he not only vacuumed it out, he also installed A's new carseat (a Britax Frontier)!  The Britax Marathon is going to Baby Mariele.  A is pretty sweet about it also.  Ever since she got her new carseat (which has been sitting in our foyer), she has been talking about giving her old carseat to Baby Sister!  And the past 3 nights we have really enjoyed being out in our hot tub.  This is why I moved from Colorado to Texas!  Being able to use the hot tub and even the pool (if we heat it a little more) at Thanksgiving time!  Well, tomorrow is bound to be a busy day for me.  I need to vacuum, mop, and dust.  But I'm psyched up for it now.  Twill all be OK!

AMAZED at A's athleticism!

I only have a few moments before I need to rouse A from her nap.  We had Little Gym class this morning (instead of Thursday).  She did SO GOOD!  I just stare at her in wonder.  Where did she get her athleticism?  Certainly not from me or her father!  And I'm also amazed at how she pays attention and follows instructions.  She is not in pre-school or daycare, so classes like this provide my only assessment of her behavior and attention span in a class group setting.  I am just so proud of her!  We went to Wal-Mart after her class and I bought her a pink light-up hula hoop!

Movie, dinner, hot tub - It has been a good weekend!

We took Analese to see her first movie theater movie tonight.  It was Madagascar 2.  She enjoyed it quite a lot, although a lot of the humor was a little mature for her.  But it is animated, so it kept her attention.  Then we went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with our friends.  Analese was excited to just be with their kids!  And when we got back home we sat in the hot tub.  It was such a nice, mild-temp night tonight.  For kicks here is my 30 week 5 day belly tonight in a swimsuit:

Our family as elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Family Fun Day with Fotos!

We were all pretty tired today, so we skipped church which is our usual Saturday activity.  We decided to just have a family fun day.  We got to sleep in a little, then we woke up and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  Analese let me put her hair in a ponytail.  This was her first single ponytail (we've done the pigtails before):

It looked really cute, but she only kept it in for about 10 minutes.

So we decided to go to the Botanical gardens.  Wow, it was really beautiful there.  There are lots of nice walking trails.  Analese loved it and enjoyed collecting leaves.

Here she is with Daddy and with Mommy.  Notice the leaves clutched in her little fist!

There was this giant compost pile there.  Kids were climbing on it, so of course A wanted to also.  She called it the "tallest mountain" (from Dora the Explorer).

Here she is on top of the "tallest mountain."

And here she is sliding back down on her butt!  Her butt got SO dirty!

And here she is at the top of the mountain doing some cirque du soleil acrobatics with Daddy!  This pic just cracks me up!

And then after the botanical garden we had lunch at the Cracker Barrel!  It's been a good day!  I enjoyed that meal so much, and I just have not been enjoying food lately so that is a big deal for me.  I LOVE family fun days!

Hazard of bathing with a toddler (Hazard to the toddler that is)

I decided to take a bath today.  A was playing with her toys in our bedroom, but when she realized that I was taking a bath instead of a shower she came running into the bathroom stripping off her clothes wanting to get in with me.  This is something we do pretty often, no big deal.  But today I actually decided to shave my legs (a task normally reserved for the shower).  So guess what collided in mid-air halfway through my second leg being shaved?  You guessed it - my razor and her left pinky finger.  Her pinky fingernail is partially shaved off now and the tender skin underneath was bleeding profusely.  So bath time is over.  I gave her neosporin and a Dora band-aid and lots of TLC.  At least she got a Dora band-aid.  Lately she makes up imaginary boo-boos and requests Dora band-aids.  I always ask her if the boo-boo is actually bleeding.  Well, let me tell you, this boo-boo was bleeding!  I felt pretty crummy about it.  But after some extra cuddle time she was off to her old lively toddler self.

Feeling better Friday

So this a.m. my throat is not as sore and my aches are gone.  I took a Tylenol before bed last night.  A and I have eased into the day.  We both slept past 8:00.  We had a nice slow breakfast, and now she is watching Dora.  She will get to watch a little extra TV today.  I still plan on napping with her around 2:00.  I want to make sure this bug is good and gone!  I hate being sick, I just don't handle sick well.  Ask my hubby!  At least this seems to be only a 24 hour virus.

Analese the "Super-beast"

That is the name of her Little Gym class - the Super-beasts!  The class is for 2.5-3 year olds.  This was her second class.  I was beaming with pride at how well she listens to the teacher and follows directions.  And she was the first volunteer to try the new skill of the week, which was a mini-bar routine.  She was so eager to try that she went right up to the teacher and lifted up her little arms so that the teacher could show her the routine and spot her!  She did so great!  And another thing she is VERY good at is the beam.  I had her in a similar class a year ago in Colorado, and she really took to the beam in that class as well.  She puts out her "airplane arms" and walks the entire beam, low and high!  She has a very good sense of balance.  It warms my heart so much to watch her have such a good time in this class!

AH - The reason for yesterday's slump.......

In hindsight I should have just taken a nap with her.  I was getting sick.  I went to bed last night with a tickle in my throat that has turned into a sore throat.  I did take A to Little Gym this morning (she did so good, I am very proud of her - I'll save it for a separate post).  Toward the middle of the class I got queasy and took a zofran.  At the end of the class I asked a good friend who was there today to watch Analese and I ran into the restroom and threw up all over the floor before the door even closed behind me (orange juice and 9 grain cereal).  And those paper towels are really not that absorbent.  I did the best clean up job I could, but I also mentioned to Miss Allison, the teacher, what happened.  She said they would take the swiffer in there.  Oh, I am so embarassed!  So luckily Lee is post-call today.  He took Analese to Conroe to pick up that plumbing part for the pool.  I am in A's bed right now, because our bedroom is just too bright and sunny to convalesce in.  Oh, and it seems like Mariele is very low today.  Every time she moves her head on my bladder I want to scream!  I just cannot stand the sensation.  So Lee said to lay flat so she does not do that.  Plus a couple of times in Little Gym when she did that it seemed to be somehow connected to an inner thigh ligament that would kind of "give out" on me and I just about collapsed off my feet.  Yes, I am having issues today.  

Hump Day or Slump Day?

Slump day I think.  I am so tired, it was all I could do not to take a nap with A.  I really need to get the laundry folded and put away before she wakes up.  We need to go to the g-store but I'm just not sure I have it in me today.  We ran a couple of errands this morning.  The big errand got cancelled and I am glad.  Well, I'm off now to try to accomplish something to feel productive.

My 30 week OB appointment!

Went to the doc today.  Blood pressure was excellent.  So far I have gained 12.5 pounds.  My glucose test result was 98, which was excellent.  These appointments tend to be pretty run of the mill for me.  No issues.  She did try another 3D scan in an attempt to get a better face shot.  But unfortunately, Mariele has her face right up against my placenta.  Plus she still loves to keep those arms and hands right there in front of her face.  It will be interesting to see if she does this after she is born!  With the issue of her face buried in my placenta, she is just a hard baby to scan.  To generate the 3D image, my doc has to separate the face from the placenta, and doing this causes distortion in the image.  So her nose and mouth look a little distorted.  With Analese, the issue on the ultrasound was having the cord run in front of her face.  Same deal where the ultrasonographer had to separate face from cord to generate the image and it caused some distortion also.  However, we did get better photos with Analese.  She came out pretty much looking like the pictures we brought home from her 3D u/s.  There is really only one picture of Mariele where I can kind of imagine what her face looks like.  My assessment is she has some facial similarities to Analese, but she has her own unique features.  Here are the photos, so try to make heads or tails of them!

Look on the left side of this image and you can see her eyes (kind of) and nose and upper lip.  That is her arm and hand to the right.  Her wrist is right at the level of her eye there.

This is the best shot of the face we were able to get.  You can see eyes and her hand semi-covering one of her eyes.  You can also see the nose, although it is distorted.  And then you can see the mouth (also a little distorted).

Well, we get to see her live and in person on January 20th!  And my doc may even try again.

Seahorse bread!

A was eating a piece of cinnamon bread in her high chair earlier and she held it up and said, "Look mommy, a seahorse!"

I think she is very visually and artistically conceptual.  Not out of the question, as her aunt is an artist.

My love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with food

I think the more compressed my stomach gets from this pregnancy, the worse off my appetite becomes.  Lately the only things that really seem to taste good are ice-cream and cake - yep the stuff I really don't need to be eating. Last night I was feeling particularly pukey (and did in fact puke).  It makes it very hard for me to plan meals and Thanksgiving meals.  I could eat cream of wheat three times a day and be fine, but I know I have a family to feed.  My poor family.  They can't wait for my post-partum man-sized breast feeding appetite where I can eat anything and everything and still get super duper skinny!  I did buy some yummy 9 grain hot cereal from Great Harvest today.  In fact, I made some for lunch!  Now before you get all impressed by my healthiness, you did not see the butter and brown sugar I put on top!  It was very soothing to my messed up tummy though.  Well, the good news:  I am in the home stretch of this pregnancy.  The bad news is I have to get through some holiday meal planning and some meal planning for company.

My Manic Monday

Naptime again! Now I sit and catch my breath.  Mondays are fun because we get to go to the library for toddler storytime.  A loves to drop her books in the hole and then get new books.  She was in a bit of a strange and clingy mood this morning during the storytime, though.  She was clinging to me with her face buried into my chest and she did not want to participate in the songs.  I asked her what was wrong and she just poked her little lip out.  Hmmm......2.5 year olds can be such moody creatures.  After library time we went to Target.  I got a couple more Liz Lange maternity tops.  They are the only tops I have found that are truly long enough.  I'm just not comfortable if I have to tug on my top all day to be sure it is covering my belly band!  From Target we went to the Great Harvest Bread Company.  Now the best bread in the world is baked by my hubby, but bless his heart he has been so busy lately with other things around the house and yard that he just can't seem to schedule a baking day.  The second best bread option out there is the Old Mill in Little Rock.  Too far to drive today.  So Great Harvest it was.  Mondays is double stamp day on the frequent customer card.  And I had a full card so I got a free loaf!   They bake the cinnamon chip bread fresh on Mondays.  Very yummy!  So from Great Harvest we came back home.  Lunchtime already.  A had a slice of cinnamon bread, some cheese toast and a yogurt.  Then storytime and naptime!  We still have to go to the post office when she wakes.  I have so much to do around this house but it seems like we are never here long enough for me to accomplish what I need to do!

A shout-out to my fellow mommy bloggers:  Thanks for the warm welcome into the blogging world!  I look forward to reading all of your blogs as well.

Oh - here are some pics I took this morning:

She is waiting for me to get ready to go to the library.  BTW, she is an i-phone expert.  She just took my i-phone off the charger and went straight to the videos and she is watching Sesame Street here!

This is the face that she makes if I say, "Analese smile at the camera!"  She just cannot smile naturally on cue.  She has a beautiful smile, but I have to catch her in a candid moment!

Here she is with her singing goat (sings the Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music).  I did not bother asking her to smile here!

TGIN! (Thank God It's Naptime!)

I just put Analese down for her nap.  Luckily most days she is very willing to take her nap and does not struggle.  It is much harder to wake her up than it is to get her to go to sleep.  She had a fun morning because we went to two different pet stores to find a kitty igloo for Dudio and Tabatha.  She even got to pet a mouse today!  It was very chilly last night for Texas.  I think the temp dipped below 40 degrees, which does not happen very often here.  In Colorado the kitties were well sheltered in the garage with their heated pet bed and 0 degree mummy sleeping bag.  But here they are sleeping on the back screened in porch.  So if it is windy, the screen does not keep the wind out.  We usually do not get Colorado force winds here, fortunately.  But the screen porch temperature is pretty much the same inside and outside of the screened porch (whereas the Colorado garage rarely dipped below 55 degrees).  So we decided that they need a little more shelter than their kitty cages provide.  We found this kitty kat condo, which happens to be the same product as a "dogloo" except it is carpeted on the bottom.  Lee is so very sweet because he decided that they even need a kitty bed on top of the carpet, so we also bought a warm cozy kitty bed.  And it has a door flap!  It is made out of this insulative foam material.  It is hard and sturdy, however.  We are supposed to have another chilly night tonight, so the kitties get to try it out!  So far I think they like it.  I know my cats lead pretty cushy lives for cats!

On Sundays I compile my to-do list for the week.  This week looks to be pretty busy.  It is so hard to find time to do everything that I need to do.  My top priority lately is spending time with Analese before the baby arrives.  I am enrolling her in a class at the Little Gym.  There are eight sessions left.   The last session will be the week before my c-section.  We have library time on Mondays and Children's museum time on Fridays, so a great deal of my week is spent doing activities with her.  Then of course the laundry piles up and there is other housework needing to be done.  There is always grocery shopping and Wal-Mart runs.  And I must balance this with some quiet, meditative time for myself where I do my daily Bible reading.  Sometimes I try to cram so much into her naptime.

Trying my hand at blogging

I read several blogs and it just looks like so much fun that I decided to try it!  I need some time to fit into the blogger role before I feel comfortable even sharing this.  But it does seem like a nice creative outlet, and there are so often things that happen during the day that I just want to share with someone.  Blogging gives that immediate feeling of telling someone about it!  The website that I started when Analese was born grew into a giant beast.  It was fun to share all of her photos there, but I am looking for a way to simplify sharing photos and memories.  So we will see if this blog does it for me!  I am almost 30 weeks pregnant with Analese's little sister, Baby Mariele Kara.  We can't wait to meet her.  This will be my last pregnancy (hopefully) so I am trying to enjoy myself in spite of the not always pleasant symptoms.  God bless people who build others up with words.  I had this happen twice in the last week.  Two different ladies made very glowing comments about my pregnant belly and how cute it is.  Of course, I glowed all day after receiving these compliments.  It is nice to feel attractive when I don't always feel "good."  Sorry this first blog post seems to have no main point.   I'm learning here.