First day of Advent

Our church was draped in purple today for the Advent season. We were able to light our Advent wreath that I made today for lunch and dinner. I was hoping to buy 3 purple and 1 rose colored candles to make the traditional wreath but they were too expensive. So I used mom's suggestion of tying the colored ribbons around white candels. I am so excited for this wonderful time of year! We got our tree yesterday which was very fun and we decorated it today. I will post a few pictures soon. The ornaments, unfortunately, are only on the top half of the tree but that is the way it goes with a 16 month old in the house. She is obsessed with the bulbs and already broke one that was not high enough up on the tree. It is not worth fighting her over for the next 4 weeks.

Cute Cousins

It is pretty much impossible to get a picture of two little ones looking at the camera! Still and cute picture. We had 2 great Thanksgivings and my apple pie turned out pretty good!

I got up at 5am to hit the stores yesterday, something I have never dreamed of doing in previous years. It was a little crazy but kind of fun; especially since it was just me, I was able to get in and get out. I was home at 8, before Craig or Katya woke up! I got 90% of my shopping done which is fabulous and I even got a bunch of wrapping done last night.

Katya had fun at Friends Thanksgiving, so much fun that she did not take a nap. This is very unusual for her and she started to get very cranky around 3:30pm. She started saying "bye" to everyone and grabbing for the front door! She likes outings but always loves going home (she also says "home" now). She was in bed and fast asleep by 5:15 and slept to her normal time this morning (7-7:30am), what a good girl!

Fun with Daddy

Craig's boss gave him the day off which means a 5 day weekend from the lab!!! He has Thurs and Sat off from Widmer but works the rest of the nights. He is training to serve this week which is great but a little boring for him since he is a rock star and doesn't really need much training. I am baking today, making cranberry scones for us and dinner rolls to take to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with Eryn's family. Tomorrow I am going to make apple pies to bring to friends Thanksgiving, Friday at Melanie and Rich's. I have never made an apple pie before and figure if I am going to fit the role of Suzie Homemaker I better learn!

Sewing project

I finished the valence for the baby's room today. It turned out very cute. Next I am going to tackle the crib skirt. I also hung up some of Katya's newborn size clothes in the closet. I am excited that we get to use the adorable clothes we have again!

I threw up my breakfast this morning and have been feeling pretty bad all day. I am thankful that not everyday is like this anymore:0)

IT"S A GIRL!!!!!

We are having another baby girl and could not be happier. Our ultrasound this morning went great and we loved seeing our sweet baby. Every thing looked great to the experts and there are no concerns. She was moving around and ton and we even saw her stick out her tongue. She is about 9oz and dated a few days from her current due date so that remains the same. I did not think the pictures were as good as Katya's but we got some cute ones to plaster on the fridge. 21 more weeks to go!

Craig was able to take a "mental health day" and stay home with us all day. The Godfrey's watched Katya during the ultrasound which was great and she had a blast with them. We have had a nice day enjoying the exciting news. Katya gave my belly a kiss today and I know she is going to love her little sister!

Bargain Prices

I had to share these bargain prices I found lately. First, gas at Costco was $2.11 on Tuesday. Unfortunately I did not fill up because the lines were SO long but hopefully it will be as cheap next time I am there. Then, today I went to the Linens 'n Things that is closing near our house were they were advertising 70-80% off (the closure is 3 days away and the priced cuts have gotten progressively more). I bought a $30 bed skirt for $5.80! It is for the guest bed and looking at the ugly box spring has been bothering me lately since I am decorating the room for the new baby. I ended up buying a twin size bed skirt too for $3.99. I am planing on using the material to sew a crib skirt with the extra material I have from the curtains I made for new baby's room. I figured 4 bucks is probably cheaper than buying material for the part of the skirt that is under the mattress. It is a nice skirt though, I kind of hate to cut it up.

Belly Pics

This was taken a few days ago so was 18.5 weeks. As you can see my belly is growing! Today is 19 weeks; a week away from the half way mark. For those who have trouble figuring out the week thing, I am sorry but I can't think pregnancy in months! Pregnancy isn't exactly 9 months (rather it is 40 weeks) plus months are not nice and even. And in the medical world we only talk pregnancy in weeks so it just makes sense to me.



Katya wanted to show her belly too. Whenever I talk to her about the baby in my belly she looks at me like I am crazy and then looks at her belly. I don't blame her, it is pretty crazy!

Grandma B's geneology

Grandma did a bunch of research on her genealogy some years ago and has the info in a big binder. I have read it once before and I had fun going back through it on my last visit. I think it is so interesting to learn about my relatives. Here are some of the fun facts I found:

Great Grandpa Ames:

* Oldest of 4 children
* Family came to Thurstan County from Illinois and before that Virginia. The oldest
traced family member came to America from Wales in the late 1700s.
* His mother was just 15 when she married his father and 16 when she had him!
* His grandma (his dad's mother) was named Adda and she was a midwife. She
delivered many babies in Thurston County, possibly himself and a few siblings.

Great Grandma Ames:

* Her parents immigrated to American from Poland. Spent years in Pennsylvania were
they experienced poor conditions, illness and disease. Lost twin babies (unsure
of cause of death)and a infant boy named Lewis (died from diarrhea).
* Came first to Chehalis WA and settled in Pe Ell were there was a Polish
population.
* Grandma was born in Pe Ell and the family moved to Olympia when she was about 3.
* Her parents had a total of 13 children (10 who lived to adulthood) including another set of twins! That is 11 pregnancies! By my math her mom was well past 35 before she was done having children.

It is crazy how different our lives are from our ancestors. We sure are spoiled with modern convinces!

Katya's latest behavior

By measure of how many time outs Katya is getting these days, we are officially into what I would call "the terrible two's." She is hitting, which results in multiple time outs a day; one day had 7 in one hour. She mainly hits me (I am always there to take out her frustration on) but has hit her dad a few times. It started when she would get frustrated she would hit me. Then she was doing it over and over again, seemingly to see what I was going to do about it. At Grandma's house she was hitting me when she wanted my attention. It is hard because when she gets a time out she does get my attention, albeit negative. She is definitely not happy when I put her in her crib or pack and play for a minute but she likes that I have to take the time to carry her to her bed. It is a game for her even though I am very stern with my "no hitting" and consistent with her time outs. Now she comes up to me randomly through out the day and says "no" and hits me. She smiles when I say "no hitting mommy" and usually does it again. Sigh. The best I can do is be patient and consistent and wait for her to get over this stage. She also gets time outs for playing in the dog's water or food bowls and occasionally for hitting the dogs. Of course it is fact that kids this age do not have impulse control so you could say that she really can't help herself but that does not mean she should not be taught what is right and wrong.

Her two favorite words lately are "no" and "down." Her "down" is so cute in this funny little voice. She constantly wants down. Down from being held, from her changing table, car seat, crib, high chair and more. Just the last few days she has been saying "down mom." I love it! She "talks" all day long, some words and lots of babble. I think her language skills are quite good and she learns new things all the time. Even though she wants down a ton she is asking to be held more than she use to. She climbs into my lap when I read to her but rarely stays longer than 60 seconds. She also runs up to me and grabs my legs.

A few days ago Katya started doing what we call "the Katya jig." She stays in basically one place and moves her feet quickly. We think it is so cute and laugh at her which of course encourages it. She thinks it is fun to put on her or my beanie and walk around. She also like our headlamps, turned on, in a dark room. She likes to pull her shirt over her face and walk around, often running into things and sometimes crying. She is ALWAYS wanting to be outside and goes up to the front door and whines.

She is consistently telling me when she needs her diaper changed. She signs change diaper and 9 out of 10 times she has pooped. We think she is really becoming aware of her elimination because sometimes she signs it when we assume she is peeing. She signed change diaper in the bath tub yesterday and grabbed at her girl parts so I am sure she was peeing. She will also sign it while she is pooping with a funny look on her face. This is really exciting because they say it is the first step toward potty training. She is still so little so we will wait a while to start trying to take her to a potty but we encourage her telling us about it. I learned the sign for "potty" so I can tell her that she is going potty.

Her sleep is still great. 12+ hours at night and one 1-2hr nap during the day. She is slowly getting use to sleeping with a blanket which is good because some nights are cold. She moves around SO much in her sleep that it is hard to keep the blanket on her but she does not immediately try to kick it off when I put it around her anymore.

I guess that is all the news with our sweet girl!

Home again

Katya and I had a great time at Grandma B's last week. It rained much of the time but we still got Katya outside a few times to play. Grandma's yard is so great for her! She had a blast playing in puddles and with leaves. Grandma showed her how to put apples in a bucket and while Grandma picked the apples, Katya filled up the bucket. It was so cute watching them.

We had another nice weekend with Craig home on Sat. We laughed about how having a day and a half off (he leaves at 4pm on Sun for work) feels like a whole weekend compared to him working every Sat and Sun night. It has been SO nice to spend that time together. Now that he has his schedule to how we want it he will be training to serve soon, which will probablly screw it up. We went to the Tillman's Sat night for a short visit with them and the Godfrey's (minus Ralph). On Sun morning we went to breakfast with our neighbors. It was fun talking pregnancy and babies with Jen who is due 3 days before me. She can't believe how small my belly looks compared to hers but that is just how I carry.

I had a prenatal check up today. My uterus is growing just right, coming to my umbilicus right now. Baby's heart beat was in the 140's and super easy to find. I finally gained some weight, woo hoo! 4 weeks ago I was still stalled below my pre-pregnancy weight at 119.5 and this time was up to 125! That is actually a little over the recommended 1lb a week but I am not going to worry about it since I did not gain any weight in the first trimester. It does make me think about how it is time to start making healthier food choices. I can no longer use the excuse that I need to eat anything I can keep down! I really hope to keep my weight gain to 30lbs or a little under like I did with Katya but I am not going to obsess over it.

My ultrasound is scheduled for next Tuesday, November 18th. I will be 19weeks and 3 days, so a little earlier than we had planed (structures tend to be easiest to see at 20wks) but when the lady offered that slot I took it. Of course we are getting so excited to see our baby again, make sure everything looks okay and learn baby's gender. I will call our parents and siblings that day to let you know the news, not till afternoon at the earliest.

Washington Park

I had to share this cute picture of Katya. Craig had Saturday off (woohoo!) and we met up with his friend Cory and Cory's lady friend for a hike in Forest Park. It was so beautiful with all the fall colors! We started near the Oregon Zoo and hiked to the Washington Park playground (the main rose garden in Portland)to let Katya play. We got rained on on the return hike but it was very fun. Sadly I am a little sore from the hike since I am so out of shape these days. The fresh air felt so good and helped ease my nausea for a little while.

Katya and I are heading up to Olympia on Wed to visit Grandma Bev. We will be back on Friday.

17 weeks

This week our little peanut is about 5inches long head to rump and weighs about 5oz. His/her head is beginning to be more proportional to the rest of the body but his/her face is thin due to lack of subcutaneous fat. Eyes are still closed but much larger; there is more hair on the head, eyebrows and eyelashes; skeleton is turning from cartilage to born. Babies little hands are busy, in mouth and grasping the umbilical cord; the fingers are well developed and the individual bones are easily seen.

My belly is feeling to me more and more pregnant although it is still not obviously a baby belly. I could hide it easily if I wanted to, which of course I don't! The belt of the Ergo carrier is getting uncomfortable and I can't bend over the same. Like with Katya I am very sensitive to pressure on my abdomen. I don't like pants that go over my belly and even my seat belt is kind of annoying. I stopped taking the Unisom last Thursday and so I have had much more nausea. I still am feeling so much better over all and I am able to eat easier (I still hate chicken) so that is good. The nausea can get pretty bad at times and I still throw up but at least it doesn't go on and on like it did. I have been so much more productive around the house and that feels really good.

I feel like all I do is complain about how sick I have been so I need to add how thrilled I am to be pregnant. I feel very blessed and we are so excited to welcome a new member of the family. I am trying to enjoy this time and not be overly anxious for the baby to get here. I would not want to fast forward the next 6 months of Katya's life, that is for sure! I am feeling the baby move more and more which I love. I was going to add a new belly shot but my belly is so small still you can't tell a whole lot from the picture. I will wait a few more weeks for that.

Outing to the mall

On Friday Katya and I went to the mall. I was in the mood for window shopping and I wanted to look for shoes for Katya. I had a blast looking at shoes in the department stores and Katya enjoyed seeing all the people. We shared a frozen yogurt treat and watched ice skaters; you can see from the picture that she was much more interested in "more" frozen yogurt than the ice skaters. After seeing lots of toddler shoes priced 35$, 45$ and more I decided on the 17$ Payless shoes. They will probably only fit her for 3 months or something! But I could not resist also buying a pair of ballet slipper looking shoes that were on sale for 5$. Macy's is already gearing up for Christmas and the store always looks so pretty. They had these phoofy Christmas dresses Katya's size that were SO cute! They were 45 & 50$ which seems so crazy for something they wear once but it was fun looking at them:0)

Craig update

Craig has been working very hard at the lab these days as they are Grant writing like crazy. Hopefully all this hard work will transfer into funding and the continuation of this lab. His boss is hopeful and so are we. Craig had his quarterly review last week and was encouraged with positive feedback from Julie (his boss). She is very happy with all his hard work and said that if they get more funding she will push the higher ups for a promotion for Craig. This of course would mean more money and it may be enough for him to quite his second job. No idea when we will know anything. We continue to pray that the right opportunity comes through for Craig so that he can go back to working one job and I can continue to stay home with the kids. Only time will tell.