Daphne Update

I kept meaning to do an 18 month update for our crazy girl, but time just moves too fast and she turned 20 months yesterday. So here are 20 things about 20 month old Daphne. She:

1-Finally has hair covering all the surfaces of her head. It is uneven in texture and length, but it's a comin.
2-Loves to talk on the phone. In a pinch she can substitute a tv remote, crackers, apples slices or pieces of bread for a phone. Whether it's a real phone or not, she just gabs away into it and keeps one with her at all times.
3-All about shoes! She likes them colorful, and the bigger the better. It's quite a sight to see her waddling around in Bryce's giant shoes. She actually does pretty well. She has to inspect every pair in the house every day. When someone comes to visit, if they take off their shoes, she takes them for a spin.
4-Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize. She is always adorning herself with necklaces, purses and bracelets. She's very creative with what she uses.
5-A bag lady. Besides enjoying the act of wearing a purse, she also enjoys filling purses and bags with an odd assortment of items so that she can transfer them to another room to unpack and reload.
6-Loved milk and would drink about a gallon a day until we weened her from a bottle. Now she will have very little to do with it, unless it's chocolate milk. Then she'll drink a whole gallon of the stuff.
7-Never took a pacifier, but since we brought the baby home she enjoys them a lot, especially when she finds them in her brother's mouth.
8-Such a helpful big sister. She is so good at taking off Dewey's socks, blanket and pacifier. She knows how to sit on top of him just the right way to wake him up or how to kiss him until he stops sitting quietly and makes some good noise. When we're in the car she always shares her crackers and sippy cup with him. While I'm nursing the baby, she likes to keep him warm by sitting on top of him.
9-Makes some great animal sounds. She can do: dog, cat , goose, horse, elephant, horse, cow and we're working on frog & pig
10-loves to read stories. She will sit and read to herself, but prefers to have some else read to her. Her favorite books are Brown bear, brown bear, Andy Wharhol's colors, and Baby's First 100 words.
11-A few months ago I couldn't get her to even notice the tv. Now she's obsessed with staring at it. She'll wake up in the middle of the night and ask to watch a show. If I'm sitting on the couch, she'll come in and turn it on. If the tv isn't tuned to something she wants to watch, she'll bring me the remote.
12-Starting to be concerned about her clothes. Some days are dress days, and some definitely aren't. She likes colorful raiment and does not like her shirts to be too short.
13-Not a very good eater most of the time. Will occasionally shock me by eating enough for several grown men, then will nibble like a bird for days. She likes meat, fruit, fruit snacks, goldfish and anything with sugar in it the best. She also likes to drink lots of water.
14-saying more and more words everyday and sure uses the ones she knows: mommy, Hazel, stay, sit, doggie, baby, snack, backpack, shoe, cheese, daddy, byebye, tickletickle, hi, no, uh-oh, out, done, bath, blankie & clean up. (but they certainly don't all sound like the real word.)
15-loves to dance
16-enjoys the stroller; both pushing it and riding in it.
17-loves her dog.
18-busy! She gets into anything that isn't secured shut. Purses, cupboards, laundry baskets, moving boxes. Nothing is safe from being emptied by her busy and curious fingers.
19-Likes to play with other little kids, but struggles to share. Every toy is HER toy.
20-likes to be tickled. She'll lay down next to us and say "tickle tickle tickle tickle."

Such a fun, active girl. Every day is an adorable adventure.

Dewey

 

Our sweet little boy is here. He came on Tuesday the 28th, 4 days before his due date. I started having contractions Sunday night while watching the Oscars. By Monday night they were coming 3-4 minutes apart, but weren't very strong yet. We dropped Daphne off with our sweet friends the Nehrings and headed to the hospital. By 11:30pm I was all checked in, dilated to a 5 but pretty comfortable. Then my contractions pretty much stopped all together. By 6am I had only dilated to a 6. After 7 hours of nothing happening I was bored, tired and kind of wishing I had stayed home so I could have slept in my own bed. By 7am they had started me on Pitocin, broke my water and given me the epidural. Little Andrew Daniel arrived at 11:20am weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches. Daphne was only 7 lbs, 5 oz, so he was a big surprise. My delivery was awesome, I only had to push twice! But honestly, I was a little disappointed it didn't take longer because I think the process is so exhilarating. I got to snuggle my baby boy right away, when he was all blue and slimy. Is there anything better in the world?

Now we've been home for a week. Life with two babies is certainly different. But I am enjoying it so much. Daphne loves her little brother. She loves to kiss him, share toys, and bring diapers to him. She's a little bit upset with me and being kind of needy and sad, but at least she's not taking it out on Andrew!

Here is a smattering of pictures from Dewey's first week of life. Enjoy, I'm going to go enjoy snuggling my baby!

Almost there

I haven't posted much about this pregnancy, and now it's almost done. Here I was at 26 weeks:

 

And here's 36 weeks ( a week and a half ago.) What a difference 10 weeks makes, eh? And in another 10 weeks I'll have a sweet little 6 week old baby!

 

I'm getting more and more excited about this little boy. We still don't have a name picked out, but hopefully we'll know when we see him. I'm pretty much ready as far as preparing for the little guy goes, and I'm definitely ready to stop being pregnant! I dream about labor almost every night and wake up disappointed that it's still weeks away. But in the meantime, I'm trying to focus on my other baby

Daphne will be 17 months old this week. She is such a joy and a treasure (mostly.) In the last few weeks she got 5 new teeth all at once, and we finally weened her from the bottle. She has been such a fun little companion as she learns new words, forms opinions and asserts her personality.

 She started our her life as the most un-cuddly, un-affectionate child, but she's growing into those characteristics more and more every day. At night and naptimes she likes a good snuggle before I lay her down, she works so hard to arrange herself around my huge tummy and then hold on for dear life. It's pretty funny. She also likes to pat my tummy and poke my belly button, but I'm afraid the poor dear has no idea what she's in for.

 She loves to put on her coat and get in the car. She likes to take everything out of mommy's wallet and pretend to talk on the phone. Her favorite toy is whatever item I happen to be using. She likes to brush her hair and mine with whatever she can find that resembles a hairbrush, i.e. doll brush, bottle brush, toilet brush. And yes, she is getting some hair. But only in one strip right on top of her head. Mohawk? Yep.

Planning a career in bank robbery to help pay off dad's student loans.

 She loves babies and I'm so excited for her to be a big sister. I just hope and pray that I will be able to give her everything she needs while I'm juggling a newborn. Bryce has been so amazing getting up with her early in the morning and taking over when he gets home, not to mention listening to me complain about various aches, heartburn, hormones, etc. I constantly remind him that he has no idea what it's like to be pregnant and he should count himself lucky to be male. But the truth is, I definitely wouldn't put up with me, or someone acting like me for so long. My kids have the best dad!

Bath time is her favorite. It's only my favorite when she doesn't poop.

So here's some catch-up:

Daphne broke our camera the week after Halloween, so I pretty much haven't taken any pictures since then.

Yesterday Daphne turned 16 months. She has 8 teeth, is finally starting to get some hair. It appears as though it is going to be brown and curly. She had learned to give kisses, can say 5 or 6 words and is just more delightful everyday. She loves to dance and spin and tap her feet. She's pretty into talking on the phone, climbing everywhere and thank heaven, she finally learned to go down the stairs on her own.

We spent three weeks in Spokane for Christmas. We got completely spoiled by both sets of parents and got to go out for lots of baby-free time. Several of our siblings came home as well and we had a beautiful, relaxing time. Daphne was so loved and had so much attention paid to her by her grandparents, cousin and aunts and uncles that she was pretty bored once we got home. But we're all glad to be back in our own house now.

Bryce passed his national board exams. YAY! Now just a few more hurdles before graduation in May.

We put our house on the market March 1st. Hopefully it will sell quickly. And my due date is March 2nd, so yeah, it's gonna be a crazy month. I've been cleaning and decluttering like crazy. Thank goodness for all the crazy nesting energy.

Baby boy is due to arrive in 6 weeks. We still don't have a name picked out because so far we can't agree. Since we'll be moving soon I'm not going to the trouble of doing a nursery, and that is kind of a bummer, but I still have a couple of little sewing projects to do before he arrives. 

This pregnancy has gone by in a flash. I'm still feeling pretty great except for exhausted. I imagine that's partly due to having a toddler. It's very different from my last pregnancy, and aside from different discomforts I enjoy how much more relaxed about everything I am now that I've been through it before. I imagine this little baby looking just like his sister, I'm so excited to see him.

That's all the news with us. hopefully we'll get that camera fixed soon, at least before baby boy comes!

Goodbye October

 Halloween was pretty low-key for us this year. The big event was the Murder Mystery party we threw a few weeks ago. We were partied out after that. We didn't even get around to carving our pumpkins.

We did really enjoy Zoo Boo with some friends. All the decorations were so fun and amazing

 Daphne had her first trick-or-treat experience

making the discovery that good things appear in the bucket

Wrappers are no obstacle. She just ate right through those.

We also went to the ward trunk-or-treat, but the Little Destroyer has put our camera out of commission, so no pictures of that.

We only get about 15 trick-or-treaters each year, which is fine with me. All in all, another great Halloween. We're excited for next year when we will have a family of 4 to outfit!

Bucket List

Everyone has a bucket list. This is a condensed version of mine:

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details. 


1- ride in a hot air balloon
2- step foot on all 7 continents
3- complete a half marathon
4-be fluent in a second language
5- star in a play
6-have grandchildren
7-get another degree in something I am passionate about
8-write a book (even if it isn't published and is just for me)
9-have a beautiful flower garden
10-take a cooking class
11-visit all the major league baseball stadiums with my husband
12-swim with dolphins
13-have a home library with big comfy chairs and walls of books (and good lighting)
14-learn to play piano
15-travel, travel, travel. Just my travel bucket list is about 35 lines right now.


What's on your list?

Spooktastic

A couple of great October reads:

2 books I read this month. Both sufficiently chilling to get me in a Halloween mood. The Hangman's Daughter, a fictional account of a real person, an executioner in medieval Germany.Lots of mystery and witchcraft. Portrait of a Killer, supposedly is forensic evidence presentation of who the real Jack the Ripper was. It was a little far fetched, but still a great book for a dark October night.

Happy Halloween