Reading

Mallory loves to read.  No really, LOVES to read.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many books we read each day.  Or how many books I have memorized because we read them so many times.

My favorite is when Mallory reads them on her own.  When she reads them out loud.  I can’t get enough of it.  It turns me into mush.

Today I was vacuuming and when I headed with the vacuum to her room I found her on her floor with a book.  She was laying on her belly reading her book.  I stopped the vacuum and ran for the camera.  When I got back she was on her back with her feet on the wall.

At first she was particular to her books.  She would only sit still and listen to her favorites.  Now she will sit and listen to any book!

She ran off to get another one from the shelf.

Came back and laid back down with her new book and read some more.

You can about imagine what it is like to take her to the library.  She is hard on her library books though.  Our last trip to the library – we weren’t home for 5 minutes with her new books and she accidently tore one of the pages.  I’m an expert at taping pages back together to look like nothing happened.  : ) 

I love that she likes to read so much.  It makes me so excited for chapter books and reading them together.  Beverly Cleary here we come!  : )

When she is like this – playing independently – it makes me so proud.  Yet, I just want to go snuggle her and bother her.  : )

While I was taking a break snapping pictures of Mallory in her room – I decided to tackle some much needed closet organization.  Check out these boots!!  Are they not adorable?  Um… well… Mally won’t wear them!  Plus, I can’t get them on her.  She has thick chubby feet and feet that will not go into boots.  I’ve tried many boots – ones that zip, ones that slip on… nothing fits!  No matter what size!

While organizing and sorting out all the items I never used and will never use… I found our hospital bracelets and her nuk from the hospital!

I thought maybe if I took a picture of them then I could throw them away.  Didn’t work.  I put them back in the drawer.  : )

Belly Status–26 Weeks

This pregnancy is going so so so so fast!  Which is great, because this time around I am so excited for the end.  I’m not nervous about labor/delivery – I’m not nervous about the newborn stage – I just feel more ready this time around.  Not ready in the sense that he can show up and have a bed, clothes, blankets… because I only have one outfit and one blanket.  LOL!  So my goal for February is to start actually getting the house ready! 

I am nervous about how Mallory will react to having to share me and having to be away from me for a couple days while being at the hospital… because she has only ever spent one night away from me.  I already know that Aunts and Grandmas will be fighting over who gets Mallory while we are in the hospital – however they all work so hopefully it isn’t during the week or the person with the most vacation time wins.  Teehee!

Every once in a while I do this – I unconsciously dress Mallory and I the same.  I didn’t even notice it this day until I was carrying her out of her room after getting her dressed and looked down at her and went “we match!”  Good thing we don’t go anywhere or people might start to think that I have an illness.

Ups:

~ Faster labor and delivery.  When I went to my last appointment (almost a month ago already) they measure me and I am at the top of the scale and she says… looks like you will be having another big baby this time.  To which I hufffed and said.. noooo!  Mallory really hurt me – I don’t want another big baby!  She either said this to make me feel better or she knows what she is talking about… she said the second time around is so much easier.  Labor and delivery are cut in half from your first one.  I was in labor for 16 hours with Mallory and pushed for 2 hours.  I can handle that being cut in half because when I hear other moms say they only pushed for 5 minutes… I kind of want to punch them.  : )  Just kidding! 

~ I’m having a real hard time thinking of ups with this pregnancy.  For the most part I feel fine.  I’m not sure if I am experiencing  some braxton hicks lately – but my belly is very tight some nights and very uncomfortable.  Maybe it is the lugging around of my 30 pound child (I have no idea how much Mallory weighs – but I’m guess she is around there) and Baby2!  You don’t realize how easy you got it when you are pregnant for the first time.  Not that I am not enjoying this pregnancy – I totally am.  It is just different this time around.

~ Mallory pats my belly when we ask her where Baby Brother is.  Or sometimes she pats her own belly.  : )  She also says “kickin” when we talk about Baby Brother.

Mallory ditched me and wouldn’t come get her picture taken anymore.

Downs:

~ Heartburn.  I feel like I am not getting it as much as I did with Mallory.  However, when I do get it – it burns!  The funny part is Jesse has heartburn too!!  He never use to get heartburn and now he has it  - I tell him it is sympathy heartburn.  : )  Then I was talking to another Mom and she said her husband would get heartburn with her pregnancies!

~ They are fighting already!  : )  One afternoon Mallory and I are sitting on the floor reading books and she is sitting in my “yap” (lap) and little man kicked me one giant big kick that I even said, ouch.  I asked Mallory if she felt baby brother kick her and she leaned back and pushed on my belly as if to yell at him. 

She ditched me for all her puppies!  These are all the things that are in her crib and she carried them all out in one big armful and dropped them right here.

~ Nanny talk.  We have been talking/plotting/planning about getting someone to come to our house during the mornings/early afternoons to help me out so that I can continue to work.  Right now I am able to work during Mallory naps and if something comes up before nap time – I can usually run downstairs for a bit and she will play upstairs… or worse case she comes with me and destroys the basement and office and pulls all the fun things from the office drawers.  Anyway, our set up is working right now – however throwing a newborn into the mix… we can’t really picture it working so smoothly.  (How I worked 30 hours a week with Mallory I will never know.)  Our business is also growing each year which is making it busier and more time consuming for both of us. 

Right now we are thinking since it will be summer when I have the baby and the kids will be getting out of school by the time Jesse goes back to work (he will take about 3 or 4 weeks off) that we would ask our neighbor girl (who watches Mally here and there) if she would like to come over for a couple hours each day to help out with the kids so that I can work.  If she isn’t able to do it then I guess I hit the search for someone else in the area.  *Scary!*  I use to say that I would never be a stay-at-home-mom.  I wanted to work!  Ha!  Look at me now!  I’m fighting it – yet I don’t want to stop it – yet I think I can do it all.

~ Sugar please!  The first 3 to 4 months I wasn’t into sweets.  Now, I can not get enough!  I think this belly is a cookie and ice cream bump not a baby bump.

Alright, that is enough complaining for one pregnancy post!  ; )

25 Weeks with Mallory.

Don’t Laugh. Keep a Straight Face.

So before my days of being pregnant and actually having kids I watched the show Super Nanny.  I really liked it.  It all made sense to me – her discipline style.  I thought I knew it all and thought I would never need a Super Nanny to come to my house to teach me how to discipline… then today happened…

Mally has been fighting getting her diaper changed or getting her clothes changed.  She can’t stand it.  I put a book on her changing table and have her look for things in the book – worked for months.  Not so much anymore. 

We started doing timeouts for being naughty.  She doesn’t like timeouts and they (usually) work like a champ.  Today – she liked it!  OMG!  This girl!  Once I think I got something down she goes and changes it on me.

She was being naughty with trying to get her diaper changed so I took her for a timeout.  She sat there.  Not crying.  Just sat there.  Then she started pretending to yawn and letting out big gasps of air/breathe.  Then she starts getting this serious look on her face and will look out of the corner of eye.  Then she tries to get up.  I immediately get her, put her back in her spot… without communication (Super Nanny says don’t talk).  She laughs.  Sits there and yawns – looks serious – gets up again.  I put her back.  She laughs.  We did this so many times that her hair is now a static mess and is sticking up every where to the point that all I want to is bust into a fit of giggles as she sits there and pretends to yawn.  Then she started licking her lips and smacking her mouth.  Then she got up on her knees and started walking away on her knees because she seen me do it one night while we were picking up toys and now she tries to imitate the move.  I put her back and she says “Listen Momma!  Listen Momma!”

And it continued… I was having to bite my cheeks so that I wouldn’t smile or giggle.  I have always had a problem with discipline – I get the giggles.  My little sister and little brother would do this to me all the time – they would be driving me up a wall to the point of breakdown and I would turn to yell at them and yell… then laugh!

Anyway – I finally got my timeout across to her after a good 15 minute battle.  We hugged and said sorry and she went down for a nap.  Whew! 

Now why, on all those shows I watched, didn’t Super Nanny come across a Mom who got the giggles when trying to give time outs?  I could of used that lesson!

Safety First

I like to think that every kitchen has that drawer where random items find their place.  I’m not sure how these safety glasses made it to my kitchen drawer.  They even belong to a fella named Travis… whoever Travis may be. 

Mallory thought they were pretty fantastic and wore them for a good 3 hours one day.

She wore them while she ate her crackers.  Which is what is all over her face.

When they would slide down her nose she would just mash them back up onto her face and keep on doing what she was doing.

She finally took them off when we sat down to eat lunch but once lunch was over she asked for them back.  I was afraid she was going to take them with her to naptime – but she didn’t.

I’ve been wearing my glasses a lot because my contacts are foggy and bother my eyes with this pregnancy.  Seems very strange for that to happen, but I guess it can – so I just wear my glasses and she notices when I have them on and points to them and says “gasses”.  She has been in a huge imitate stage so I’m wondering if wearing the safety glasses was part of her doing what I do.

Randomness

This post is going to be all over the board – but I have these pictures and random stories to post about.

New Years Eve – Mallory dancing to the music.

Playing DJ with Daddy and being told she can’t touch.  : ) 

We had a party in the new garage for New Years Eve – however there was a huge ice storm and the roads were glare ice and people couldn’t come… but the neighbors came!  : )  The slipped their way down their driveways and up ours!  Jesse’s family also came – they call themselves “supreme ice drivers” and no ice was going to stop them.

I thought it was very big kid of Mally to sit on her chair like this.

I’ve been reading up on potty training – not full force just a few things here and there.  One of the things I read was to introduce the potty early so they are not afraid of it.  Also to let them sit on it (fully clothed) to help them get use to it as well.

I was at Target one night looking at the potties and decided that I wanted one that went on the real toilet and found one with Elmo on it!  Elmo is a big deal around here!  Perfect I thought.

A couple days went by and she was in the bathroom and I decided I would show her the Elmo potty.  She immediately wanted to sit on it.  She had already brought a book in the bathroom – so she sat on the potty reading her Clifford book.  Tifford (aka: Clifford) is also a really big deal around here. 

She has asked to sit on the potty a few times since we introduced.  Also if I ask her if she wants to sit on the potty she will nod her head and yell “Yesh!” and run for the bathroom.  Pretty soon I’ll take the next step with her and see if I can get her to actually go!

The kitchen is no longer my space.  When we got Maggie (the dog) I had made a rule that the dog was not allowed in the kitchen.  Then Mallory came along and I use to distract her with things from my cupboards… then she got bigger and I could put on Elmo or Clifford or Mickey Mouse and she would play in the living room.  Not anymore!!  As soon as I head to the kitchen she is heading for the chair saying “chair. chair.” and pushes it all the way across the kitchen and bumps it against the cupboard and climbs up wanting to help.

I’m learning on how to have her help me.  I started out just giving her kitchen tools to bang around – however that increased my dish washing!  Sometimes I have her stir – except one time she saw me bang the spoon on the bowl to clean it off and now she just wants to bang the spoon – she is a repeater!

Tonight I had her help me by adding the shredded cheese to our meatloaf.  It was parmesan cheese.  She then decided she needed to try the cheese.  In the mouth it went.  She didn’t like it.  She started picking out the cheese in her mouth and putting it in the meatloaf!  Ahhh!  Noooo!  So before you come over for supper at our house – let me know so that I can send Mallory on a mission with her daddy and keep her out of the kitchen.  : )  By the way – Pioneer Woman Meatloaf is good!

Here she pushed her chair up while I was packing away the Schwans stuff and she stole my glass of water.

Mallory also likes to yell “Esse” (Jesse) while we are making supper.  When I am done with supper I usually yell down to the basement for Jesse to come up and eat.  I told you she is a repeater so she stands at the top of the stairs and says “Esse.  Esse.”  Now it has become a game because I usually say “Who?  What is his name?” while tickling her.  She says “Esse” with a grin.  I say “No!  That is Daddy!  You call him Daddy!”  and she says “Daatee”.  She adds a t her daddy – and I secretly hope she always says Daatee because it is so cute!  She usually only says Esse at supper time otherwise she always calls him daatee.

That is the end of my randomness.  Time for ice cream!  : )

Belly Status–23 Weeks

I attempted to take pictures again this morning with the self timer so that I could document some belly photos.  It is not as easy as it sounds.  : )

Ups:

~ Energy levels are higher.  I can’t say they are completely back, but I’m not so lazy anymore. 

~ Hungry.  I’m hungry again and to the point where I can’t stop eating.  Guess I am making up for lost time.  My Dr. just might get what she asked for… gaining 12 pounds.  Especially when Neighbor Judy brings those cookies with the Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups in the middle!  At the neighborhood Christmas party I ate them all except one because one of the guys was sure to point out that I left one behind as he was eating it.  : )

~ Kicking.  Lots of kicking when I’m sitting still and it is quiet.  I usually don’t feel a whole lot until I put Mally down for naps or to bed and I sit down.  Then he starts going to town and doing his workout routine.  I have a love/dislike relationship with kicking.  I love the kicking because it reassures me that everything is perfectly fine.  But these kicks are so different from Mally’s.  I feel as if he is kicking me really low and towards the inside instead of towards the outside.  I am not sure how to explain it they are just weird feeling.

~ I started telling Mallory that Baby Brother is in my belly and putting her hand on my belly in hopes that he will wiggle or kick.  Of course she doesn’t get it at all.  : )  But she will say brother and point to my belly when I ask her where Baby Brother is.

Downs:

~ Heartburn.  Today I had heartburn and I hadn’t ate anything in a couple of hours.

~ Mally uses my belly has a bench.  She thinks it is a perfect spot to sit.

~ Water.  I am doing a horrible job of making sure I drink enough water.  I would bet I only drink a glass a day and that is horrible, I know!  I am trying to do better.  I didn’t realize how distracted I am during the day with having Mallory around and not focusing on what I need to do to make sure that I am taking care of myself and baby.

Speaking of hunger and water… time to go get a snack and a glass of water.  : )

Here is the post with Mallory at 22 weeks.