New pictures posted

October picture album has been added to the photo links on the left! Just in case you miss the description of the album, there is one X-rated picture (Rich's costum from their Halloween party) so be warned.

Happy Halloween (and quick rant)

We finally got the power cord for my laptop so I am back in business. I will work on downloading pictures this weekend and hope to get them posted soon. Until then, here is a cute picture of Katya.

So my rant is about shopping for shoes for Katya. Target had some 10-15$ toddler shoes but they did not have what I was looking for (a sturdy, everyday tennis shoe that is easy to put on and stays on). I then went to Payless Shoes and found a perfect pair but they were 17$!! I can't believe such tiny shoes can cost so much, and from Payless. I may go back and buy them anyways because they were much better than the 13$ pair from Target that were okay. Of course this is the first time I have gone to buy shoes for Katya so maybe I just need to realize how expensive things are.

Love, Brenda

Cleaning Closets

I have finally gotten around to cleaning out Katya's closet. I moved my dresser which was in her closet out into the room and emptied the rest of my stuff out of it so it can be all hers. I boxed up more clothes that she has grown out of and reorganized her stuff. In one of the dresser drawers I found all sorts of 18month size hand-me-downs that I did not realize I had! I thought she did not have enough 18 month clothes and have even bought some stuff but now we are set! I put her pants and socks and such in the dresser which is nice because they were in baskets on a self in changing table which she can grab and throw all over the room. I rearranged some of the things on her shelves so that the breakables are up high on the dresser and just books and toys are at her level (which has gotten considerably higher). Her room looks so cute!

I also went through my closet which was a disaster and boxed up all the clothes that will not fit until after the baby is born. I unpacked the maternity clothes that Rena and Candace sent me and hung them in my closet. Man, they had some great stuff! I can't believe the wardrobe I will have through this pregnancy. I wore the same pair of shorts and couple of tops over and over again in the end with Katya. I am so excited to have so many cute options. It feels so good to get organized!

A couple of things I forgot I wanted to mention in the last post. Another of Katya's latest favorites are the beaded necklaces that Moira gave her from her birthday party. She loves swinging them around and now has learned to put them around her neck and take them off again. She also tucks them under her chin and carries them with her head to her chest! It is really funny the things kids come up with! Last thing is our pediatrician pointed out that April is a great time for a new baby because there is less illnesses going around. I would have never thought of it but she is right, Spring and Summer are good times to bring an newborn home.

Love, Brenda

Long time no post!

I am still waiting on a power cord for my laptop and so have been pretty much without internet for the past few weeks. I can occationally get our desktop to work, as I have for this post. I fixed the girl name poll so people can continue voting until our 20wk ultrasound, less than four weeks away!

I am still feeling MUCH better but not without episodes of nausea (usually mild, occasioinally sever) and occasional vomiting. That tends to happen when I forget to take my Unisom and B6. I have been feeling the baby move but not very often. A few days ago I felt a definite tap (kick or punch) on my lower belly which was cool. My waistline continues to grow and I have put away my pre pregnancy pants for the next year or so.

Katya had her 15 month check on Monday. She weighed in a little over 23lbs, 50th percentile and 32inches long, 90th percentile. This is the time that their growth slows conciderably so she is just right. She had to get 4 evil shots; the last of the Prevnar series (pneumococcol vacine which protects against that particular bacteria which can cause meningitis and other serious infections); her first varicella (chicken pox); first MMR and the flu shot. SHe has to get a boster of the flu shot in one month (suck). She was very fussy yesterday and had a low grade fever. The MMR and varicella shots are known for this so we were pre-warned. Her legs were sore too and she screamed when Craig bumped them wrong. My poor baby! I have her some Motrin and she is doing good today so far.

We asked our pediatrition about weaning her from the bottle and her pacifer. She said it is totally up to us when we want to do it because she only gets her pacy at night (and nap) time and only has 2 bottles a day. She said if she was walking around all day with her pacy and or a bottle it would be a different story. Because of the new baby on the ways she suggested doing it either now or much after baby is born. We are not going to worry about the pacifer since it is her only comfort item. We are going to try to go down to one bottle a day for now because she has not been super interested in her evening bottle lately. At least that was the plan but when we offered her warm milk in a sippy cup last night she wanted NOTHING to do with it. We put it in her bottle and she sucked down 4oz. Not sure if we are going to continue trying to offer the sippy cup or bottle. She drinks about 8-9oz in the morning and 3-5oz at night which is a good amount of milk (not too much). Our doc said 14 to 15oz is plenty at this age.

Katya is loving walks to the park and does the sign for "play" whenever she sees a playground. She also likes knocking over the stacking boxes that Grandma T got her. She says "boom" as I set them up in anticipation. Her other favorite is the pushing/scooting toy that I bought her at the second hand store. She now loves to sit on it but requires that we push her around. This is tiring so we only last so long but she would be content to do it all day long if she could. She has not learned how to scoot herself with her feet yet. New words: she says "car" somethimes when a loud car drives by; Craig has been getting her to say "bottle" but that is not one I encourage; she says baby but would prefer to sign it. Total signs are between 25-30 and words are about 14. I have some darling new pictures to post but have to wait until I get my laptop up and running.

Bye for now!

Baby names

Only 5 weeks until we can cut this list in half! A boy, of course, will be named Atticus Ryan. Atticus is Latin in origin and means "man from Attica" (a region around Athens). More recent baby name lists have reported the meaning of Atticus as "ethical" or "fatherly" which steams, as you can imagine, from the book To Kill a Mockingbird. It ranks #683 on the social security list for 2007 and there were 341 boys (with social security cards) named Atticus in this year.

We are down to two girl names, Greta and Reagan. Some may remember that I loved the name Reagan when we were pregnant with Katya and Craig vetoed it. Craig has agreed to bring it into consideration since it is a name I really like and he feels bad that I was never sold on Katya (or any other girl name). Middle name for Greta would be Ames, we have not decided on a middle name for Reagan yet.

Greta is a German name and means "a pearl." It is also listed as a derivative of Margaret. It is ranked # 671 with 431 girls named Greta in 2007.

Reagan is Gaelic and means "little ruler." It is ranked #156 with 2,239 girls with that name, that spelling in '07 (which is the most common spelling and the spelling we would use).

We have pros and cons for both names. I think Greta is very pretty, girly and sounds harmonious with Katya. On the same note I like that Reagan is very different sounding than Katya, as I want each of our child's names to be unique from each other. Reagan is a great girl name but is definitely more masculine sounding. I do like that is a very strong name. I want to come up with a middle name that is girly to complement it (suggestions welcome!). Pro for Reagan is I am excited about the name more than any other girl name. Con: it is growing on Craig but it is not his favorite. My biggest con for Reagan is that it is much more popular than Greta or Atticus and I guess will continue to climb. I am trying not to let this bother me too much because I do love the name. Plus it is not even in the top 100 yet so its not like Grace or Emma or something.

Most have noticed the boy or girl poll that I added on the right hand side of the blog. I added my guess for a girl! I am adding a poll for Greta or Reagan too.

We are having a lovely weekend with Doug and Sharon. I will post pictures as soon as our power cord for the laptop arrives. I am taking advantage of Sharon's new laptop which is fabulous!

Update

I was finally able to post the Second Trimester blog which I started last Sat. We are having computer issues and so I will not be on-line as much. Sunday morning I threw up once but recovered well and had an okay day. Yesterday was bad. I threw up 4x in the am and only stopped by taking a nap (when Katya napped). The afternoon was a bit better but over all the day sucked. I was especially frustrated because the day before was really good. I had some morning nausea (because I forgot my Unisom and B6 the night before) but once it passed I had a really productive day. I cleaned house for a few hours, took Katya to the park, made dinner and more. I thought for sure that things were looking up but yesterday threw me on my butt again. Sigh.

I had a Midwifery appointment on Tuesday and we got to hear the baby's heart beating away. That made my day. His or her heart beat was 170 and the midwife was just able to feel my uterus above the pelvic rim. I was surprised that my uterus was not bigger but this is the way I progressed with Katya so I guess that is just how it goes for me.

Craig is taking a "mental health day" from the lab and so I am going to run. I want to spend every minute I can with my hubby; he does have to work at Widmer tonight but is getting the weekend off so we can visit Doug and Sharon. Love and prayers, Brenda

Second Trimester!!!!

Woohoo! Offically 14 weeks today, very exciting. Since getting home from Colorado I have been feeling progressivly better. I am warry to say that I am really getting better and over the worst of it. It is still too soon for me to make that anouncment since I can have several "good" days and then be throwing up all night. I was pretty nauseated on Wend, but it has been more off and on since then. Of course any day that I don't throw up is a good day. I am taking the Unisom again because I got extremely sick when I went off of it. I am going to give it a while longer before trying to go off of it again.

My belly is growing although it is hard to tell unless I am wearing a tight shirt. I am still in my pre-pregnancy pants but hoping to but those away soon. It does seem funny to want to grow out of my pants (!) but I love having a pregnant belly and can't wait to start showing. That and feeling/seeing Katya move was the best part about being pregnant for me.

Katya has been super fussy this week and is getting to be more and more of a toddler (code for saying she is throwing more and more tantrums, fun). She is oh so cute though and we are loving seeing this new phase in her life. She said "bye daddy" which was great but sad that she is so use to saying goodbye to her dad.

Boy or Girl? What do we think?

Several people have asked me what our gut feeling about the gender of new baby. Craig does not have a feeling either way, at least that he has said to me. My feeling is that we are having another girl. I am not sure if this is because I have a really hard time imagining having a boy, since my world is enveloped in girl. I think it would be awesome for Katya to have a sister so close in age to her but I know she would love a brother too. A boy would be cool because it is different than what we have now but another girl would be just as great. I know it is me being extra sensitive but it seems like everyone around me wants boys so bad that a girl seems less exciting or even a disappointment. Which is ridiculous of course. And yes, I am EXTRA sensitive this pregnancy. So much more than with Katya it is pretty comical (and kind of annoying).

It is hard to imagine having another child who as important to us as Katya, which of course new baby is and will be. It's just that when you love someone so much it can be hard to imagine having that kind of passion for someone else. I can't wait to find out the gender of new baby so we can pick out names and decorate the nursery. For me it is a really good way to bond with the little one before they are born!

I better get going. Little Miss Pants, as we like to call her, is very fussy today (and was yesterday too). Her cold is in her lungs now and she is pretty congested. She has been taking two naps a day this week and she needs it!

Katya in Colorado

Katya got a bad head cold while in Colorado. The second night we were there she was up what felt like all night long and was inconsolable. I guessed from that bad night that she was sick and sure enough later the next day the snot started running big time. Poor baby! I swear it seems like she only gets sick when we are away from home. It was hard on me because I am already super tired and got very little sleep. The nights slowly improved and the last night we were there was pretty good, thank goodness!

Despite her illness she had a GREAT time. She really loved playing with Carsten's toys and liked interacting with him too. They played pretty well together but of course Carsten is a 2yr old and had his moments. Katya has to be watched too since she has been known to take things out of others hands. Carsten was super interested in Katya and would ask about her first thing in the morning. He is such a cutie and getting big fast! He loves to look at bugs, stomp on things and watch the school buses behind his house; such a boy:0) Katya was really into Grant and Charlie. She learned to sign baby and would sign it over and over again. She would go up to the babies and pet their heads and give them kisses. She tried to do this to the older kids at Carsten's b-day party but they were not so sure about it, pretty funny.

She learned how to say 'balloon' which is the most difficult word that she says now. She also learned the words 'no' and 'mine' while we were in Lyons. I am not sure if she understands the concept of mine but I think she picked it up from hearing Car say it. She has used it quite appropriately a few times but I think it was a fluke. She started saying 'no' when my mom was playing with Carsten, Grant and Katya in Carsten's room one day. Mom told Katya 'no' about touching the Diaper Champ and pretty soon Katya was going over to it and saying 'no.' Now that we are home she has been saying 'no no' a LOT. I am not looking forward to the 'no' and 'mine' tantrums that the toddler years inevitably bring but for now it is cute. We knew it was coming!

Katya is feeling better and her appetite is back but she is still a bit congested and snotty. I have not gotten the cold yet and I am praying that I don't! Love, Brenda

Newly Baptized

Here is our new member of the Catholic church after his rebirth into a life of Christ last Sunday, October 6th. Big brother Carsten looked on as Grant was baptized by the new Deacon in my sisters church who, though well meaning, was nervous and managed to pour water into Grant's eyes. Unfortunately Katya and I missed the ceremony because she was either crying or "talking" loudly and trying to climb onto the alter. I had to take her out to the vestibule. Grant is wearing the adorable outfit my mom made him for the special occasion. If Craig and I have a boy we will definitely be borrowing it!

Katya and I are home again. Craig picked us up from Pdx yesterday afternoon and took the rest of the day off work to spend with us. What a treat! Katya was excited to be home and with her daddy (and her dogs). We had such a fun time in Colorado seeing my family and now it is back to daily lives here. I will post more about our trip, about Katya and about baby and I later!