Squeak is a . . .

Yes, that is right, we had our sonogram today and found out that we are definitely having another girl. As we expected, we both felt excited and disappointed. I think though that if Squeak was a boy we would be feeling the same way! We are mainly happy that everything looks good and we have a healthy baby.

All week I have been trying to get Katherine on video saying both that she will have a baby sister and a baby brother so that we would be prepared for this announcement. Never once could I get her to say anything other than sister. I guess she knew what she wanted. It will be fun to have two little girls. Sam will be overwhelmed with pink I am sure.

Sam is on record as saying that he is happy to have another girl as long as she is a tomboy. I am sure that he and Matt (expecting girl #2 next month) will schedule many daddy/daughter dates on the sailboat and working on the truck.

We will post sonogram pictures later but right now we just wanted to get this blog post up for all of you who are anxiously awaiting the news. And in case you are wondering, we do not have a name yet and if we did, we wouldn't tell you so she continues to be called Squeak until we meet her in person.

2 parties for a 2 year old

Saturday Katherine had her second birthday party, this one for family. Attending were Nana and Pops, Grammy and Grandad, George, Shannon, Emily, Nathan, Hannah and Carissa, Ryan and Ty. We started with lunch - chicken nuggets from chick fil a, chips, fruit, etc. Katherine had a ball following Emily everywhere and was insistent on sharing her Cheetos. Emily was not too thrilled.

We took the 5 cousins outside for another painting session. It was another beautiful day.

Nathan painted a blue picture.



Hannah with her daddy's help.
A 7 year old can paint an actual, recognizable picture of a flower.
Ty perfecting his masterpiece.

Since this was Katherine's third birthday party in a week (one for Sophia and two for her), she knew the drill and was ready for cake. She tried to touch the flame but Nathan stopped her.

Another blue face from the icing.

I think Katherine had too many presents. She could not make it through opening all of them. We opened a few more that night and some the next day. I wrapped up some things that I was giving her anyway like her bedding for her big girl bed and big girl panties because we had been talking about those two things all week.

She is wearing her new tutu and riding a rocking horse that was her Nana's when she was a little girl. Nana gave me a picture of her on the horse and of me on the horse.

Her big present from mommy and daddy was a play kitchen. All of the cousins played with it for awhile. It has been a huge hit.
We have a Bradford Pear tree in the back yard. I had no idea that it could be climbed like this but Nathan went pretty high.

Warning for all mommas

Do NOT use one of these seats when in a public restroom! Today when I was at the mall, Katherine and I went to the restroom. Lately she has been so curious and trying to touch everything in the stall while I am doing my business. It is so gross Well, today the restroom had one of these child seats. I put her on the seat and stretched the harness over her head to buckle between her legs. When I pressed the buckle into the seat, the seat collapsed and she fell to the ground with the strap over her head and thus around her neck.

Luckily in our case this occurred when I was strapping her in and not when I was taking care of business so she was not left to dangle for even a second. Also, since she is older, her feet actually touched the ground though she did lose her balance. If it was a smaller child who would not reach the ground or if the mother was in the middle of other restroom activities and not right there it could have been a lot worse.

Katherine just had a red mark on her neck for about 10 minutes. Another lady in the restroom said that the same thing happened to a friend of hers a few weeks ago. I saw mall security and told her about it and that it needed to be removed. Then we joined Janna, Robert and Laurie Jane for lunch and playing. Katherine retold them the story of "neck, hurt, fall, baby seat" over and over again.

When I got home, I did check the website to make sure that the problem was not that Katherine was too heavy. It says that a properly installed seat holds up to 150 pounds. Katherine weighs only 22 pounds so we should have been safe.

Be warned mammas!

An art birthday

Yes, it is true, Katherine has celebrated her 2nd birthday. It is hard for mommy to believe. This year we decided to again have two parties, one for friends and one for family. I am so glad we did because they were both pretty crazy and it would have been downright chaotic if everyone was there at the same time. I did stress quite a bit about the friend party. Between Katherine's friends and my friends who have kids her age there could potentially have been 30 toddlers at our house for a party. So, I had to really limit it which killed me and I actually had a nightmare about it. So, we had a more manageable crowd of 9 toddlers and 3 siblings under age 1. It was still pretty crazy.

The theme was "painting". The invitation read, "Let your inner Picasso or Monet come out as we celebrate Katherine's 2nd birthday". I bought canvases and set them out on a tarp with paint and brushes. The kids had a great time. The weather was perfect for an outdoor painting activity.

Katherine actually used the brushes and all four colors.

A "bird's eye" view of Katherine creating her masterpiece

Katherine surveys her work and gives a nod of approval.

I tried to get her to show it off but she never would hold the painting and look at the camera.

JG is an artist at work.

Bree was concentrating on making very straight lines.

Evie put her hand prints and footprints on her canvas.

Ben and his mommy study his creation.
Hannah and her mommy work on their art.

Evie is very proud of her painting.
Ellie and Jacob work very well together as siblings.

We let the kids burn off some energy in the backyard. The natives were restless and inside there were quite a few issues with sharing toys, especially by the birthday girl. It was not my proudest moment as a mom but she was a little overwhelmed with that many kids playing with her toys.

Katherine with her 2 best friends - Ben and Robert

Next it was time for cake. Katherine is now well practiced in Birthday parties and knows exactly what is up with the cake. She was so excited! If you can't tell, her cake is an artists palate, created by mom.
The first time I lit the candles, she blew them out before we could start singing "Happy Birthday" or before mommy could get the camera ready. So, we had to do it again with someone else lighting the candles and me standing ready.

It is amazing the difference between the cake eating of a 2 year old at their birthday compared to a 1 year old at their birthday. Katherine was quite the lady with only a little icing ending up n her face and non on her shirt.

Robert though had quite a icing moustache after devouring the top of his cupcake.

Holden enjoyed his snack.

At last it was time for presents. Again, Katherine is now well practiced and was so excited. Her phrase for the day was "oh boy". She received many wonderful gifts including several that continued the art theme - markers, chalk, aquadoodle, play-doh. She is enjoying them all.

After bed she saw the remains of the cake and decided that licking the icing off the cutter (not sharp) was a good idea. Funny how kids don't have to be taught such things.

The party was a blast. We could not have had better weather and the kids had a ball. She and I were both exhausted and took naps. Thanks for a great day.

Squeak update

I have not done a very good job of updating my blog regarding my pregnancy with Squeak. As of today I am 19 weeks pregnant - almost half way. I must say that though I am very excited, it is so different the second time around. I am so busy with Katherine and life that I don't really dwell on the pregnancy as much. I realized that I have not even taken any profile pregnancy pictures yet. I certainly have not read as many books as I did last time. Right now I am reading more toddler issues books, not pregnancy books. I have relatively easy pregnancies and feel fine but I still am ready to get it over with. I don't get people who say they "love" being pregnant and are sad when they are done with kdis because they will never be pregnant again. I think I felt more like that last time because everything was unknown. This time I know that my heartburn at 15 weeks will only get worse!

Anyway, the pregnancy is progressing well. I had an appointment today and everything looked good. I have only gained 2 pounds so far. That kind of surprised me because my clothes fit so differently and I feel like I have popped out. I am not quite in maternity clothes but I am in that awkward phase where maternity clothes are too big and regular clothes are a bit tight. It seems that as soon as I get home I put on my pajama bottoms because they are most comfortable thing I can wear. I actually talked to my doc about how little weight I have gained because this is exactly how things went last time and Katherine was born full term at barely 6 pounds. Though I have no desire to gain a lot of weight I obviously want to make sure I am doing the most healthy thing for Squeak. She said that I am doing just fine.

I have been feeling occasional kicks for about 3 weeks now and Sam felt a kick for the first time today. We tried to have Katherine feel the kicks but she just acted confused. She used to say that we were going to have a sister or a boy when asked. I guess she was covering all of her bases. Now she does actually say a brother. We will find out next week and let you know what the actual sex of the baby is.

Another day in California

Sunday we dressed the girls in matching shirts that I bought in Norway. They were so cute and had a lot of fun playing together. We went to a great breakfast, Sacramento has some great places for an early-ish meal. That afternoon we celebrated Katherine's birthday with a little present opening. Sophia gave her a parachute.
The girls had a lot of fun playing with this smaller version of what they have at different kids classes.

Uncle Will's shoes are big!

We headed to another playground that is close to their house to let out some steam.

The wood chips on the ground sure are fun to play with. Uncle Will loves soccer and took this opportunity to work on Katherine's skills. She can kick the ball a short distance.



There were a few cool sculptures covered in colorful tiles. The girls liked to look at them and touch them. Baby enjoyed a short nap in the hole of one of them.

Thanks for a great trip Will, Jaime and Sophia.