29 weeks

Today I had an appointment with the second midwife in my practice, Jane. She is new to the practice but very experienced as a L&D nurse and as a midwife. It was good to meet her since there is a 50% chance that she will be the one who is on call when I go into labor.

Things are looking good for Squeak and for Mama. I had to get blood drawn for an antibodies test due to my blood type. Apparently the lab forgot to do it last time. I will have to get a rhogam shot next appointment. My blood pressure was fine. Heart rate of the baby was great. My belly size measured right on target and I have gained 13 pounds so far. That is still following my gain from last time. During pregnancy is the only time in my life that people describe me as small. Normally I am one of the bigger ones among my peers. One friend told me tonight that this was the first time she had seen me that I was really looking pregnant and showing. My midwife told me that I was a small person. And she was not just talking about as a pregnant person. She said when she worked in Green Bay (cheese and beer capital) most women in her practice weighed 180-250 before they were pregnant and some topped out over 350 by the end of their pregnancy. It was such a problem in their hospital that they had to reinforce the toilets after one fell off a wall because the laboring mom was so heavy.

Overall I am feeling pretty good. The baby is now head down where she will hopefully stay. This means my back is feeling better. My heartburn is also a little better though it is still by far my worst complaint. Many nights I have to sleep sitting up. I am trying to avoid typical heartburn remedies such as TUMS because they can mess up the absorption of vitamins and nutrients from both food and vitamins. Since Katherine was so small and I did not gain much weight at the end with her I am wanting to make sure I get as many of those nutrients as possible. So, I am taking a digestive supplement and I am supposed to drink 2 Tb of apple cider vinegar each day. It is so strong that I have to mix it with apple juice and water. If anyone has other suggestions for heartburn, feel free to pass them along.

Squeak is quite active with kicking and rolling around. Katherine is not patient enough to wait for her to kick but the other day she was able to see her moving because my whole belly was moving. Sometimes I will ask her what baby sister is doing and she will say "sleeping" or "kicking a ball". It sure feels like she is kicking a ball sometimes! She rubs mommy's tummy, kisses mommy's tummy and will read to baby sister. She also will tell me that she wants baby sister to come out so she can hold her. It is pretty cute.

Family trip to Tennessee

My parents 40th wedding anniversary is coming up this summer. Over Thanksgiving Will and I decided to take them on a little trip but since I am due less than 2 weeks after their anniversary we needed to do it a little early. Sam and Jaime joined us in the planning. We threw out all kinds of destinations. It is hard for a well traveled family with two toddlers to think of the perfect place.

I don't remember who threw out Tennessee but when they did all four of us knew that this was where we would be going. Why is it that Tennessee was the perfect place? We will get to that later.

For Christmas we gave them a save the date card letting them know that we were all going on a trip for their anniversary and to mark their calendars. Then when we were in California for Sophia's birthday they went on a scavenger hunt of clues that took them to where we were all wearing cheesy t-shirts that they had to unscramble. (Sophia was napping)

Mom and dad were excited about our destination.

So, we all flew to Nashville. Since Will is a pilot, we had buddy passes which means they are free but standby so it took most of the day to get there. We all arrived, rented our cars and headed to the Opryland hotel. Because neither of the girls napped much or at all, we decided to order room service for dinner and get everyone in bed and ready for the next day.

Friday we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and we walked around. The Gaylord hotels are all amazing. The Opryland had several huge indoor atriums.

Katherine was not excited about her family photo.

Katherine's favorite past time was pushing Sophia's stroller.

After walking around, we went on the General Jackson Showboat for lunch and a show. I was anticipating a cheesy country show like I saw many times in Branson, but we were lucky and there was a Peking Acrobat Troupe that was performing.

Sophia and Daddy wearing their shades

Katherine and Mommy posing on the boat.

Katherine is very helpful.
Sophia was fascinated by the acrobats.
Katherine also thought they were great.
I must admit I was also impressed with what they could do.
These four women were each resting on their chest with their feet flipped over their head. Pretty amazing.

The Chinese dragon came right by us. Katherine was a little scared.

All 8 of us on the boat (not easy to get a photo of everyone looking with eyes open and smiles)

The reason Tennessee was chosen as the anniversary trip destination was not Nashville but Fayetville. This is not a big tourist attraction by any stretch but it was where my great grandmother and ancestors further back once lived. My great grandparents moved back to the family farm when my grandfather was a senior in high school and embarked on a major remodeling project, making the family farm into a showplace (for that time). When my great grandmother passed away in 1980 the farm was sold out of the family but it has been a bed and breakfast since 1985. For the last 23 years my mom has been talking about how she wanted us to all go to "The Old Home Place" but the trip has never happened. Finally it did.

We drove to Fayetville where there was really not much to do but hang out in the yard. The girls enjoyed running around and playing on the swings with their dads.

A little too late

Well, Janna and I took the kids to a park after nap to get some bluebonnet shots. Two people I know of took shots here last week. It appears though that bluebonnets are for the most part gone now. So, we have no photos with bluebonnets though we have some photos with wildflowers and we had a fun afternoon playing in the meadow and the creek. If anyone knows of a place where there are still bluebonnets, comment or email me ASAP.

I love how she runs with her entire body swaying side to side.
Playing in the creek. Katherine slipped a few times and got wet.
Buddies

Katherine also had a few "firsts" today that barely missed being recorded in her monthly post. This morning when she woke up she did not make a noise, until she opened her bedroom door and walked into our bedroom to announce "Mommy, I awake". We had a talk about staying in bed until mom comes to get her. She also managed to drag one of our kitchen chairs to the sink so that she would reach something on the counter. We often will move one for her so that she can watch what we are doing but she did it herself, and pretty quickly. This means that pretty much anything on the counter is now within reach. She also told a bold faced lie. She has lied before, but it has not seemed quite as intentional as this time. She got to spend some time in "time out" for that.

26 months

Once again I am late getting the monthly post done. There are so many things that Katherine does that I want to remember through out the month but when it comes time to write them down, I seem at a loss for words.
Katherine, this month it seems that you have grown up more than any other single month so far. The two biggest milestones - big girl bed and big girl panties. We did not intend to move you to your big girl bed quite yet. You never try to escape from your crib. But, you got so excited when we set it up in your new room that we let you sleep there and you have done great. I really love being able to snuggle up with you in bed to read books, pray and fall asleep.
You are overall doing really well with potty training. You have your stubborn moments and I often year the phrase "I don't want to go potty" but on most days you are accident free or only one accident. Especially considering how much we are on the go or you are being taken care of by someone else at school or church I think that you are quite successful.

Along with potty training has come a lot of potty talk. You don't do it in a crass way but you will just talk about going potty all the time. Sometimes you will be in the backseat asking your feet if they need to peepee. You ask your dolls if they are dry. You sometimes will joke around by saying things like, "Katherine peepee on couch? Peepee on chair? Peepee on mommy?" and on and on and on. Of course you know the answer but you think it is so funny.

I love your sense of humor. You will often announce "That's silly mommy" or "that's funny". You are starting to make jokes too. You will purposefully say something wrong to see if we are paying attention.
You talk ALL. THE. TIME. I love it! Some of the things you say crack me up. Your vocabulary continues to amaze people. Some MDO or nursery workers say it is confusing because you are small and appear younger than you are yet your vocabulary and comprehension make you seem older than you are. Most of the time most of what you say can be understood but you get so frustrated when we don't know what you are trying to say. Your sentences are getting longer and longer and you are stringing them together into long narratives.

You do have a few speech quirks right now. A lot of your "hard K" sounds come out as a "t" and a lot of your "hard G" sounds come out as a "d". As is typical of all toddlers there are a few words that you mispronounce that are cute at this point.

Reading is still a favorite pastime. Now you will read to us. I love it when you pick up a book and tell me what it is about. You usually do a pretty good job of retelling the story. This weekend you picked up a hotel Bible (and knew that it was a Bible) and opened it up to read to Nana. You turned to the front and said, "One time, Jesus was born. Mommy is Mary, Daddy is Joseph. Playdoh, snacks." So, you went beyond the Bible story and told Nana about going to Bible Study.
A new funny thing that you are doing is using your toes to scratch your face or pull your hair. Where did that come from? You do this in the car when bored. Also in the car you now like to tell mommy to open the windows or play music.
Of course you have a stubborn streak as you are learning independence and testing your boundaries. Our biggest battle grounds are getting into the car seat and going to the bathroom when you are not in the mood to do so. Both can be so frustrating and exhausting.

We continue to enjoy you more and more. You are so excited about your baby sister coming soon. It will make life more fun and interesting.

PS I did not take these wonderful photos. I wish that I did but I find it pretty close to impossible to take good photos of my own child. I may get a random few good ones. These photos were done by Brandi at B4photography. She worked with us to make sure we loved our photos and I love that her price includes the CD so that you can print off the pictures where you want and when you want without paying a fortune.

5 days, almost no nap

Makes for a tired, grumpy toddler and an exhausted mommy! We just got home this evening from a 5 day trip with my family to Tennessee. There will be more details and photos later. In the course of these 5 days, Katherine took only one 40 minute nap! I am not sure why she refused naps all weekend. She has been taking consistent 2 hour naps at home. We did not have a consistent schedule but I had hoped that she would at least take some short naps or naps in the car or plane. So, please pray that she does not decide to try to get rid of naps all together. I am not ready for that as I am now in my 3rd trimester and really getting tired.

And the winner is . . . . . . .

Pamela with just over 50% of the votes. Congratulations Pamela. I will be sending you a gift card shortly. So sorry I forgot to announce the results last week. We left town on Thursday morning and just returned. I was "off the grid" for 5 days with no Internet access.

Father Daughter Time

Tonight Sam came home early from work. Katherine was very excited because he was home very late last night. We spent a lot of time in the backyard. It is funny to see what kind of activities a father and a daughter will do together.

Anytime we go into the backyard one of the first activities is cleaning up Hooligan's poopoo. Katherine likes to go around the yard pointing it out to us so that we can clean it up. Lovely bonding experience.
Then she sat on her ball while watching daddy clean up some clippings from our tree and vines on the fence.
Now this is quality bonding. Daddy got excited when he heard the trash truck. He took Katherine out to see the robot at work. Daddy and Katherine love to watch robots on YouTube. Now this is more what you expect a father and daughter to do. They are looking for lady bugs. Katherine is very interested in nature. She loves to look at the "poly polies", grasshoppers, lady bugs and lizards. We are talking about how we need to get some kind of terrarium to put things in for an evening or a day when we catch them so that we can watch them and learn. Of course being a former science teacher I love this curiosity.

I do also want to point out Katherine's rather unique outfit. I don't think she could have found two items of clothing that matched less if she had tried. She was wearing the cute blue polka dot shirt with denim shorts. But, since she refused to potty before nap she woke up quite wet. She did not want to put on her khaki shorts but insisted on blue. There were no more blue shorts. So, she went to her drawer and pulled out those pants and put them on by herself. Oh, well. We had no where to go and it is pretty funny.

Bluebonnets

OK locals, where are the good bluebonnet spots this year? Last year I took this picture in a great field waaaaaay up in north west Frisco. I am not sure that I will want to trek that far again but I do want a cute bluebonnet picture. Let me know if you have spotted a good place.

Let the contest begin

Update: Erin submitted a photo on time but for some reason it was sent to the spam folder of my new blog email account and therefore not forwarded to my regular email account. I added it to the contest but the poll won't let me add it to the poll. So, if you want to vote for Erin, send me an email at pipandsqueak@gmail.com. And to keep it honest, if you already voted, tell me who your original vote was for. Sorry Erin!

Here are the photos for you to vote on for my "dumped" contest. Vote in the poll by following this link. For some reason I could not get it to load straight to this blog. A Starbucks giftcard will be sent to the winner. Voting will end on Wednesday at noon (CST). So, tell your friends to vote for you!

Dinner Time by Lauren

Bathtime by Beth
Baby it's cold outside by Hilde
Daddy is so silly! by Pamela
Daddy's shoulders by Shannon
Playtime by Tara

Big Girl

Today Katherine was such a big girl. She did not have a single accident all day. That included 3 hours at church and her nap. She also took her first nap in her big girl bed. She seems so grown up. She continues to say and do things that amaze me and make me laugh. Tonight she pulled out a book that was less than a week old and basically told the entire story. Sam could not believe it.

You may notice we have a new banner picture. We had portraits taken a few weeks ago. They turned out great. I will post more of them later this week when I get a chance.

$300 I did not plan to spend today

It's April. It's Texas. It's storm season. Last week there was a huge one that wreaked havoc all over the city. Trees and fences were down all over. Power was out, including signal lights the next day. We barely woke up and were clueless to the intensity of the storm. Last night there was another storm. It was earlier in the evening so we actually knew about it and I came home a little early from a girls night to make sure I avoided the hail. There was rain, there was wind, we saw no hail in our neighborhood. We thought it was no big deal again.

WRONG!

When we let Hooligan out we saw that our Bradford pear in the back yard had split in half with the fallen half leaning on our roof. The broken part is covering the window over the bed in our room where Sam and I sat from about 9pm on working on our computers and watching the news about the storm. How in the world did we not know that a tree had fallen on our roof and that there were branches literally inches away from crashing through the window, sending glass onto our sleepy heads?

I was really sad because this is basically the only tree in our backyard. We have two crepe myrtle trees up against the workshop but they have a fungus this spring that I fear will mean we have to cut them down this year too. This tree was great for shading about 80% of the yard for Katherine and the kids to play in. We have a chain link fence between our yard and our neighbor's yard and he had to cut down his one tree last year so now it looks pretty open and barren.

You can see what a great climbing tree it was. Nathan enjoyed it this February but now Katherine will never get to climb the tree. Katherine was quite distraught over the tree. She is very empathetic and could tell that mommy was sad. Therefore she was sad too. We spent about 45 minutes sitting in a lawn chair, watching the workers carefully cutting the tree to pieces. She kept saying things like, "Tree fall down. Tree on house. Men fix it. Mommy sad, very sad." Luckily it appears that there is no roof or gutter damage and if I had to choose a tree to lose I would prefer it be this one to one of the oak trees in front.
Now our yard looks so desolate. The stump will be ground later this week. On a positive note, we now have plenty of firewood for the next few years. Good bye tree!

My family has bad luck with trees. Some of you may remember that my parents lost a tree last year too. They live in an area with huge trees and theirs was one of the largest on the street. A week after my dad's heart surgery there was a wind storm that was the death sentence to a tree with a rotted trunk. It fell on the street, their house and several other trees. Here are a few photos from last years tree incident.