I'm ready for fall! We are all happy it's football season and looking forward to all the fun fall brings. I don't like winter at all, but I LOVE fall! Can't wait for pumpkin farms, apple cider, and decorating our new house all harvesty! Unfortunately our work schedules keep us from having too many weekends off together in September and October (2 in September - one with a prior commitment, and 2 in October - ditto) so hopefully we get to do all the fun fall things I am thinking of! I wish there was a way to work out our schedules so there weren't so many weekends lost to one of us having to work, but no one's weekend commitment is going away anytime soon. No Halloween costume plans for Sweet E yet...unfortunately that weekend is one that both Jay and I have to work.
The goat whisperer at the zoo
Ellison has been a talking machine lately. We started a list of words she could say before her 18 month doctor appointment (which was on 8/26) and had between 50-60. We only put on words she said clearly and regularly, not ones we had only heard one or two times. I kept the list going after, and on 9/6 she hit 100 words! Less than a week later we are close to 120. She amazes us every almost day by saying something we had no idea she could. She knows a lot of body parts (cheek, knee, eyes, nose, mouth, butt and more), animals (puppy, chickie, duck, horsie, hippo, monkey are some of her favorites) and foods. She also knows some of her favorite characters (Sully, Minnie, Mickey, Elmo, Abby, Cookie). She says adjectives (happy, pretty, hot) and verbs (go, ride, kick, eat) too. For football season she has learned touchdown and Packers!
Touchdown!
Baby's stroller is full of puzzle pieces...poor baby is on the ground!
Ells and an assortment of her "buddies"
Ells starts swimming lessons again this weekend. It will still be mostly singing songs and getting used to the water - they aren't the kind where you throw the kid in the pool to teach them to actually swim! Has anyone seen the video of the little baby swimming back and forth in her family's pool?! These are just the parent and child kind, not like that...
We bought a potty chair over the weekend because Ells is obsessed with the toilet and has been periodically telling us when she goes to the bathroom (especially #2). So far she has only practiced sitting on it (and gone potty RIGHT next to it on the bathroom floor, oops!). We aren't going to push potty training on a not even 19 month old, but we wanted to have it ready to go when she decides it's time! I figure since she's still sleeping in a crib, she can't just get up and go when she needs to anyway, so we will wait until she's in the toddler bed to really start "training". I'm not too worried about having 2 kids in diapers for a short time. Ellison will have JUST turned 2 when baby is born.
Speaking of toddler beds, my mom's neighbor gave us one, so we now have a full set of "big girl" furniture. It does need to be painted white to match her dressers and nightstand, but we have some time for that. We should be finding out in about a month if baby #2 is a boy or a girl, and then we will start planning the nursery and working on transitioning Ells out of the crib. Her room is finally all set up (last pictures hung over the weekend, blinds and valances just went up this week) so I'm not in a hurry to change it up!
Swimming at Grandpa Jay's...E has been saying, "suit, Sandy, swim, Makkie, Nahnee, puppy!" Which I assume means, I want to go swimming at Grandpa's (where Sandy, Nahnee, Makkie, and "puppy" aka Justice all live)
We bought a potty chair over the weekend because Ells is obsessed with the toilet and has been periodically telling us when she goes to the bathroom (especially #2). So far she has only practiced sitting on it (and gone potty RIGHT next to it on the bathroom floor, oops!). We aren't going to push potty training on a not even 19 month old, but we wanted to have it ready to go when she decides it's time! I figure since she's still sleeping in a crib, she can't just get up and go when she needs to anyway, so we will wait until she's in the toddler bed to really start "training". I'm not too worried about having 2 kids in diapers for a short time. Ellison will have JUST turned 2 when baby is born.
Speaking of toddler beds, my mom's neighbor gave us one, so we now have a full set of "big girl" furniture. It does need to be painted white to match her dressers and nightstand, but we have some time for that. We should be finding out in about a month if baby #2 is a boy or a girl, and then we will start planning the nursery and working on transitioning Ells out of the crib. Her room is finally all set up (last pictures hung over the weekend, blinds and valances just went up this week) so I'm not in a hurry to change it up!
Ellison's room - light looks funny in the pictures, there is only one purple wall!
Another "big girl" upgrade we made recently is switching from a high chair to a booster seat. Our high chair was pretty big for our new kitchen, so we figured it was time to get something that attached to a kitchen chair. Our new kitchen table has chairs we can attach a high chair or booster to, which is nice! Our old chairs were bar-height with cushy seats so that was not an option. E seems to like her new "seat" very much.
Ellison has now been pacifier-free for over 2 weeks. She hasn't asked for it or anything. She is still getting up a little earlier in the morning since we took it away (usually before 7). We have been having some struggles figuring out naps, though. Some days she still needs two, and other days she does fine with one. She went without any naps at all the other day and that was not a fun time...
Still working on unpacking and getting everything set up how we want it in the new house. We've now been here a month! The garage is looking much less full of stuff, but the basement still needs a lot of work. There's a few things that need to go up on the walls, and we don't have curtains on the bay window in the kitchen yet. But we do have blinds up in Ellison's room and the living room! Only a few boxes left upstairs, but none on the main level of the house. We are making progress!!!
I am feeling much better now that we are into week 15 of pregnancy. I continued to lose weight up until last week, but gained a little over a pound last week (nothing this week). I'm feeling a lot less sick but still very, very tired!
Ellison has now been pacifier-free for over 2 weeks. She hasn't asked for it or anything. She is still getting up a little earlier in the morning since we took it away (usually before 7). We have been having some struggles figuring out naps, though. Some days she still needs two, and other days she does fine with one. She went without any naps at all the other day and that was not a fun time...
This is kind of what a nap-free Ellison looks like (except in this case she climbed in this bin and couldn't get back out!)
Still working on unpacking and getting everything set up how we want it in the new house. We've now been here a month! The garage is looking much less full of stuff, but the basement still needs a lot of work. There's a few things that need to go up on the walls, and we don't have curtains on the bay window in the kitchen yet. But we do have blinds up in Ellison's room and the living room! Only a few boxes left upstairs, but none on the main level of the house. We are making progress!!!
I am feeling much better now that we are into week 15 of pregnancy. I continued to lose weight up until last week, but gained a little over a pound last week (nothing this week). I'm feeling a lot less sick but still very, very tired!
13 Weeks
14 Weeks
I've definitely been a little less strict following pregnancy "rules" this time around, but that seems pretty standard for "been there, done that" moms! Lunch meat was one of the only foods I was able to eat in the first trimester, so I ate sandwiches a couple times a week. The nurses at my OB office told me to drink caffeine to help with my headaches. And did you know they recommend pregnant women eat 6 small meals a day? I could barely eat 1 small meal a day until last week, no way 6 meals was happening!!! One of my biggest regrets last pregnancy was that I didn't exercise enough...can't say I'm doing any better so far this time. But, I am taking my vitamins and not drinking any wine! I did have a brat cooked in beer on Labor Day though! Anyway, I'm hoping to eat healthier and at least exercise a little bit now that I feel better most days. But I'm still going to eat sandwiches...I read the Babycenter birth boards so I know I'm not the only one!!! :)
Happy September to all! Can't believe how fast this year is FLYING!
Zoo on Family Farm weekend
Bubble nose...still LOVES baths!
Peek a boo!
Chickies are (still) her favorite thing at the zoo
I did see that video of the baby swimming! Amelia, my 3 year old, watched it a thousand times and I thought maybe she would get more brave in the water because of it, no such luck. Maybe next summer...
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