3rd Trimester

As of today, I'm 28 weeks pregnant with Monkey #2. That means we only have 84 days left to go. 12 weeks. Not sure if you can tell, but this suddenly seems like a very short amount of time. It's not that I'm feeling unprepared "stuff"-wise, but the whole idea of nursing (and another possible cluster-feeder) and pumping and up all night, and whatever else comes with a helpless little family member is sort of making me nervous. I just remember the very last time I nursed Morgan and being so over the top ok with it...but truly it was also a time that she and I got to spend together, just us, and I'd never give that up.

So hello, 3rd Trimester. I am going to miss you dearly, 2nd trimester, but if the 3rd continues to be as easy as the 1st and 2nd, then I'm in. And besides, it means I'm almost done with the belly (which hasn't been bad either since I'm almost positive I'm much smaller than I was last time). I don't know how much I've gained officially with this one...but it's somewhere between 16-20lbs. I had a 4lb gain at my last appointment but all told, had only 7lbs in 8 weeks which I think is on the side of normal so either way, things are looking up.

I mentioned in my ultrasound post last week that Baby Sister is sitting transverse across my stomach. Well, last night I was all snuggled up with Adam on the couch and when I got up an hour later, she felt different. Like maybe she turned south like she's supposed to be? But as I type this, I recall earlier today when she was fiercely "kicking south" today...but as I type she is trying to crawl out my right front belly area. :) Who knows. As long as she figures it out by her birthday...

PS. Morgan now routinely uses up to 5 word sentences and beyond. Yesterday once or twice, I casually mentioned that Adam was going on an airplane far away today for work without her really thinking twice about it. This morning I woke her up, was getting her clothes out of the dresser and asking if she slept well (she did, in case you were wondering), and then she said, "Daddy far far away!" How on earth does she remember this stuff?! Also, she's starting to recognize lower case letters which I blame on a new favorite book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (she knows all the upper case letters and has for a while), recognizes quite a few numbers 1-9 in print, and can now almost count to 20. Another kicker - she can tell me what maybe 8-10 letter sounds go with the corresponding letters (ie. "D says duh, S says Ssss"). Seriously. My kid is the bee's knees and that's final. :)

Sister Love

Another wonderful day under our belts...this has to be one of our better family weekends in a while (by family, I mean just the 3.5 of us). Today Adam went golfing (maybe the last time this season?! I know, I doubt it too) ;-) while Morgan and I went to church and to buy fruit at the grocery store.

I got lots done which included changing all of Morgan's clothes over to winter/fall and go from 2T to 3T for a majority of things (and then found out it might get sort of "warm" by Wed!). I kept her 2T jeans/pants b/c they fit her in the hiney and the length is ok (for most...) but her 3T pants FALL off of her and they are long. I wish there were 2.5T pants...seriously. Also, I found that she had a HUGE stash of 3T clothes I had totally forgotten about. I knew we had some from my nieces but that was way more than I remembered...so anyway, she's SET and needs nothing in terms of clothes until she grows into 4T.

I finally feel great about her birthday theme as we finalized it today and I ordered tons of stuff. :) Pinkalicious!! She is thoroughly in love with this book (we read it three times today after she woke up from her nap and I told her that she's having a P bday party when she turns 2 - which she already says she is, btw) and I was thrilled to give her this excitement to look forward to. I'm not sure if I'm ordering or making 30+ cupcakes but I don't really care b/c I'm excited either way. :-D

So finally, on to the reason I titled this post "Sister Love"...this evening after dinner, Morgan was very into Baby Sister and loved her up big time. She pulled up my shirt, read Baby Sister a story (Brown Bear Brown Bear), kissed her, squeezed her (until I told her it was a little too much love), and talked about how Baby Sister is coming for Christmas (insert toddler squeal here). Morgan is so very excited to meet her sister and it warms my heart to think of the two of them together. Adam is still worried about not being able to give Morgan the attention she needs/deserves, however, I'm less worried and thinking it will all work itself out as it does with every other family in the whole wide world. :)

Ok, signing off. Tired, towels to fold/put away, and I'd like to snuggle with Adam a bit before we go to bed and he leaves for the Caribbean in the morning. We'll miss him...and pray for his safe return Friday night.

Stone's Apple Barn

Oh what a great Saturday today was. We all got up at 6:30am (thank you Morgan, for announcing "Wate up time" so nice and early) and had breakfast, hung out, straightened up a bit, and then we were all out the door by 10am to various locations. I had a baby shower for Andrea Gauss (she's due ... I think about 6 weeks before I am) while Adam and Morgan checked out a few rummage sales (on Adam's whim; no influence from me), ran to Menards, and had McDonalds when they were supposed to have leftover pasta. ;-) Adam claimed Morgan told him, when asked what she wanted for lunch, that she wanted french fries. Hmm. Better work on getting that string off your finger she's got wrapped around...

No worries, however, that she wasn't going to get her fruits/veggies in today as she ate THREE apples at Stone's Apple Barn in East Moline, IL. We went after her nap and had a lovely time even if it was cooler than it was when we left and we had to endure some sprinkles. There were some hobby farm animals there as well and Morgan thoroughly enjoyed the llamas (think Llama Llama Red Pajama books) and had to see them twice. She was also pretty excited to feed the donkey some maple leaves even if he almost kissed (ate) her a little too close a time or two.

Then off to the QCs to check out a snowblower per Adam's request (no go for now, but at least he's priced them out enough to know when it will be time to buy) and to pick up the baby's dresser we bought yesterday. I had forgotten all my coupons yesterday and we both doubted they'd let us use them today ("take back clearance item and buy it back in a minute") but guess what? We now have a dresser for the baby $15 cheaper than we did yesterday. :) Score. Morgan was good throughout the store but believe it or not, she needed the cart b/c she was too tired to walk all over the place (jaw drops). Then it was off to home to relax. We'd had a big day.

Bath, bedtime for Morgan, and now some good, hard couch time with the hubs and I'd call this day an uber success. Off to snuggle up and rest. :)

Thanks, I enjoyed that rear-ending too.

Today was just going along, being a good Monday when I got out of work late after a long meeting and off to go see my Morgan when BAM. I got rear-ended. Not bam I think I just saw stars but bam, think a second, DAMMIT. So that's how my bumper came to have lots of white scratches all over the bumper. And that's how I came to drive Adam's giant truck to work tomorrow so he could go get an estimate over lunch.

Other than that, today was a good day. Got lots done, added more than I got done to my work to-do list, and Morgan was a sweet little person who made us smile repeatedly this evening.

I'm 27 weeks today which means the baby weighs just under 2lbs and is roughly 14-15" long. She could very well make it now if she were born tomorrow, but since my kids are in it for the long haul, that is highly unlikely to happen. I'm still feeling great but I'm feeling a little slower here and there. Nothing too major though.

Morgan is 23 months old today. I officially have a month to plan and have her birthday party, but actually it's a little less b/c we're having her family party back home the weekend of the 15th. I asked her what she wanted for a theme for her party, and she came to the conclusion (after several suggestions, none of which were Dora, thankyouverymuch) that she wanted a beach ball party. We're going to do a slight modification and likely have an October Beach Party even though I was sort of thinking a safari/zoo theme. What a little girl wants, a little girl gets. :) Especially when she's as cute as she is. We'll keep you posted.

Ok, off to go make two beds since the house is back in "showing mode" after a weekend off. But...maybe a little snack first.

Little Big Town!

Last night we went with friends to see Little Big Town at the Adler Theatre in Davenport (Gregorys and Benners) with dinner at Antonella's before. We had a GREAT time as we really don't get away from "parenthood" nearly as often as we should. How convenient that Grandma Sherri and Grandpa Al were in town for babysitting as it really helped me relax knowing she was not thinking about us (much?) or being upset (New Year's resolution, only partially met...ok, barely met). The harmonies of this group stun me on the radio and live in concert, there was zero disappointment. We had the best time (despite Adam refusing to dance with me to our wedding/first dance song when they sang it) ;-) and are really going to work on doing SOMEthing at least every other month with friends or alone or something without the whole parenthood thing happening.

Morgan's having a blast playing with G&G. She is almost always calling them "pud on, Wama Wampa, pud on! Tum pay!!" (come on, Grandma Grandpa, come on, come play). It's fun to listen to them but equally fun to sit on the couch with almost nothing to do.

After Morgan's nap today, we're heading to the Quad Cities for errands, some shopping, and dinner with G&G. They are staying through Monday morning so we have extra time with them. Fun. :)

I forgot to mention earlier this week, but Thursday, Morgan's last two teeth (bottom canine teeth) finally poked through. Just barely. But they're there and she's on her way to having no gaps in her teeth and waiting for a final set of molars in the next year.

The things that come flying out of that kid's mouth on an almost daily basis astound me. She's going through another language boom (mostly acquiring and using in up to 4 word sentences) and it's been fun.

Baby Sister's doing well. I think it's a week from Thursday that we have our 3d ultrasound and of course will be double checking that it's truly baby sister on the way although the last u/s we had was pretty clear. Then it will be time for bedding to be put together and perhaps more talk about a wall color. Depending on if we move or not....

Speaking of that, I think we've found another house that we'd buy if our house sells in the next 5-6 weeks. There are things we'd like to change (kitchen upgrades, definite bathroom upgrades, finishing the basement for real) but for the most part everything else is pretty well what we're looking for and it would grow nicely with our family. We went to look at it a second time yesterday during which time Adam came to like it much more than the first time.

(seriously - I'm blogging, sitting in my PJs, drinking decaf coffee, and blogging on a Sunday morning...can't. believe. it. Oh and PS - we got to sleep until just after 7am heaven!)

I think I'm going to get horizontal on the couch and enjoy this to the very fullest. Loving this weekend...

Morgan's Prayer

I have to document this b/c someday when Morgan's big and can produce all of her sounds in an age-appropriate manner, this will be one of my favorite memories of her being 1 year old. And maybe a little into 2. xo

The Lord's Prayer via Mommy & Morgan
Liss: "Now I lay me down to..."
Morgan: "seep."
L: "I pray the Lord my soul to..."
M: "teep."
L: "If I should die before I..."
M: "wate"
L: "I pray the Lord my soul to..."
M: "tate, Ayyyymen."
(personal family prayer here. then...)
L: "Our Father who art in..."
M: "Debin"
L: "Hallowed be thy..."
M: "name."
L: "thy kingdom..."
M: "tome"
L: "thy will be..."
M: "done"
L: "On earth as it is in..."
M: "Debin."
L: "Give us this day our daily..."
M: "bed"
L: "and forgive us our..."
M: "tespasses"
L: "as we forgive those who trespass against..."
M: "dus."
L: "and lead us not into..."
M: "tay-tion"
L: "but deliver us from..."
M: "mee-moh"
L: "For thine is the..."
M: "tingdom"
L: "and the..."
M: "powah"
L: "and the..."
M: "doh-wee"
L: "forever and ever..."
M: "AH-MEN!"

I can't even tell you how much I love this kid. xoxo

What a pleasant toddler...

I must just say (and likely jinx myself for the duration of this daddy-less week) that Morgan has just been a pleasant little monkey the past 3-4 days. By that, I mean less tantruming and overall 'seriously, must you?' moments than I can remember in a while. Lovely. It makes time with her that much more pleasant. Dear Law of the Universe, please don't jinx me. Love, Melissa

We had another showing tonight and I guess it went well but they didn't like the backyard. Shocker - we don't either. :)

Adam's in Montreal/Toronto for the week. We might have friends just for overnight Friday and then Adam's parents in town by lunch time Saturday. Morgan's going to LOVE this weekend. :)

Finally - a normal Monday at work. My poor kids at my Monday school...they only get 2 normal Mondays in Sept and while that seems like it would be a good thing, it's really not. :(

I can't wait for Adam to come home for multiple reasons but one of them is b/c the dogs are already driving me nuts. They are begging for attention and it's not like I ignore them but seriously. Dog in face = not my fav.

I want cereal so this is done. Except for the fact that I must have some cereal in the next 10 minutes. Just sayin'. I blame the baby.

Wrong SOLD sign...

So I knew this was a possibility...but didn't really believe it since there hadn't been much foot traffic...but THE forever house we wanted to buy and is the whole reason we put our family through the craziness that has been the past month sold this morning. Sold. For a price likely higher than we could have offered (our realtor couldn't tell us until it closes). I was...oh I don't know, just shy of devastated. I really saw myself in that house doing various things, most of which consisted of going through all the fun motions of raising the girls there.

God has a plan and we fully trust that he will put things into place for us where they are supposed to be. Dear God, that doesn't mean I might not be sad about this for a few days. Love, Melissa

That said, we are looking at two more houses tomorrow (we had actually set this up Thursday or Friday, can't remember, as 'just in case' houses) and see if either of those might work. I'm 95% sure one of them won't but I'm keeping an open mind for Adam as he asked me to (although I sort of think we're on the same page). There is a different house in a rather nice part of just outside of town that isn't even going on the market until Monday that we are looking at and I have higher hopes for that one. The grass needs SERIOUS watering but other than that, the outside looks like it has potential. The price is absolutely right (although of course my haggling husband won't accept that as final by any means) so we might be onto something.

If neither of these houses work tomorrow, I'm feeling ready to get our house off the market and call it. Adam is not, however, and wants to see if anything comes on the market before our final pull of it off the market Nov. 1st no matter what (winter = bad time to sell/move, baby on the way, etc.). I'm really not opposed to either.

I'm feeling better about the whole thing although it still just sucks. So I'm going to end this with some funny Morgan stories and hope that cheers us all up (although I'm guessing I mostly mean me):

• We made Pinkalicious cupcakes today in honor of one of her new favorite books. She ate a ton of batter (as did I) but had a harder time initially eating the cupcake. I made a pretend big deal that her finger was pink (the girl in the story turns pink from eating too many pink cupcakes, for you non-Pinkalicious-savvy peeps) from the sprinkles she was scarfing down during decorating, telling her she was turning into Pinkalicious, but her possible fear quickly passed and she helped me eat my cupcake later.
• I was awakened this morning by Morgan's voice over the monitor uttering her first words for the day..."Mama!! It's wake up time!!" 
• Morgan took a digger off the chair she was standing on to help make the cupcakes and ended up biting her tongue. Thank you for whomever invented freezer boo-boo packs. Instant cure for a bleeding, bit tongue and clunked head. (ps., she's fine)
• When we get a little ridiculous, she now tells us "Silly Daddy/Mama" which makes us laugh
• Last night we went to scope out a few houses our realtor had sent us and didn't tell Morgan where we were going. We had hardly made it out of the driveway when she asked, "Where doh-ing (going), Daddy?" She's becoming more and more inquisitive...

That's all. And Baby Sister says hi via 55,000 kicks in the past 30 minutes. :-)

Our house is SO. CLEAN.

And it always is now that we have a house on the market. Hopefully this has raised the bar for everyone in the house to want the same level of clean for the rest of our lives (ahem, husband, ahem) although I must say he is awesome at keeping this place clean with me right now.

Since I've been the best. blogger. ever. and am updating our lives every other day, I thought I'd take a minute and catch up for real now and see where it takes me. This is either going to be super long or short as all get out b/c I got tired. :) Items to note in the Schmidt Household nowadays...

• Our house has been on the market for 13 days. We've had several showings now and were on a someone's short list as of last week. However, we just learned today that the house we want to buy had an offer over the weekend and the sellers didn't budge much on price...which means we may not be able to get it after all since we were sort of banking on a price that was less than what it was listed for. We are hopefully going to check out a few on Saturday but it's not looking good, folks. It's not looking good. (again, at least the house is clean!)
• If we're not taking a night here and there to relax, we're still staging, cleaning, and doing smaller projects that are continuing to spruce the place up. If we stay, at least we get to enjoy all the fast improvements we've made. 
• Adam 
• Just finished up nationals for his softball in Omaha. They only got to play three games but no one on the team was hitting well so it ended earlier than all had planned. It ended in a great trip to the Omaha zoo, however, so it was totally worth the trip - softball AND a trip to the zoo...awesome!
• Work is going well. He's got some travel coming up next week and then a week or two after in the next month or two. One of them is a trip to Vegas...poor. baby. (bleck)
• He's been positively amazing when it comes to the house and selling and all that. I can't tell you how many hours past me being exhausted that he's continued working until as late as 10:30pm. I'm so proud of him and the drive he's shown to get all these things done. 
• He said that's all. I guess he must be tired. Or looking at potential houses. :)
• Liss
• I'm 25 weeks along as of yesterday with Baby Sister. I feel pretty great. Our last appointment last week went well with nothing major of note. Morgan got to hold the tape measure for my belly and squirt the goo on the heartbeat monitor, both jobs of which she took very seriously. Once in a while she makes me uncomfortable, but that's b/c I'm almost positive she's breach at the moment (normal) by the way she kicks. I think she's working on rotating here and there (then back to breach like she is right now) b/c sometimes she kicks my sides but usually it's "southerly" kick. 
• Work is getting started. I can't say it's great, can't say it's bad at all. Negatives - I don't like having two separate places to keep all my materials; I wish I had a half day more at my other two districts; It's not easy (but isn't going badly) getting a new caseload with someone else's goals and new kids...but it's working. Positives - I love being stationary and getting to know the same set of kids (was part of a traveling/revolving door caseload the past three years); I have others but was distracted and can't find that train of thought - it's lots of good though, I know that.
• I love spending time with Morgan. She's growing and learning and amazing almost every day (trust me - the "toddler" days can be trying) and we love watching her grow. I can't say enough about how I am enjoying her. PS. Her language, especially after another small explosion this past weekend, makes SLP-me swoon.
• That's pretty much life for me right now - mommy/wife-bee, worker-bee, house-seller-bee, be. 
• Morgan
• Warning - I could go on forever. I'll try to keep it short...ish. 
• Morgan is still in 24mon/2T clothing, however, she's starting to just barely break into a few 3T things. She wears a size 7 shoe/sandal and I'm terrified she's going to be in 9s by Christmas. Terrified = cost. :) 
• She frequently gets asked if she's 2. She's even had a few people ask if she's 3, but I think those are flukes. 
• Her language stuns me. This past weekend she started breaking out 5 word sentences and now frequently uses 3-4 word ones. Also, she'll string these sentences together to get a full thought out or continue with one she's started. Some of her vocabulary and knowledge leave me speechless. I need to have a notebook lying around and start writing some of these down...
• Morgan is a climber. She loves going to the park and climbing on anything I'll allow her on (read - no 8' ladders on her own). She's getting more adventurous each time we go to a park and goes down bigger slides and climbs bigger climbs. 
• She's so very excited to meet her Baby Sister. She's fully calling the crib Baby Sister's bed and has never had any trouble with her big girl bed. 
• Morgan woke up dry at least 3 weeks in a row in the morning. Then she had a gallon of milk two nights ago on our way home from Omaha and was wet yesterday morning. She didn't have tons and tons last night but was wet again this morning. I'm not worried but I'm also not ready to have her go to bed in undies yet. We haven't said anything about her wet pull ups the past two mornings, but I did say something about looking forward to maybe a dry diaper in the morning when she went to bed tonight. Again - not too worried about it. She's not even 2 for goodness sake. 
• Speaking of that, sometimes I have to remind myself that she's not even 2 yet. We have high expectations but it's easy to do that with her b/c she's doing so well cognitively, communicatively, and just with overall development. She reminds me of her age when she has her tantrums. :)
• Baby Sister
• At 25 weeks, she should be about 13.5" long and about 1.5lbs. That said, it wouldn't shock me if she's more like 14 and 1.75. :) 
• She loves to kick and has a rather set schedule. Times of note that she's super active - during prayers with Morgan at night, after lunch, when I'm trying to concentrate. :) Times she's quiet - when I'm sleeping, when Adam puts his heavy daddy hand on my belly to feel her (stinker), and other random sleep times. I've been able to SEE her kicking for at least two weeks now but especially so the past 4-5 days.
• I think I've picked out her bedding. Adam would be fine with us using Morgan's baby bedding, but I want her to feel like she has her own space and own identity. Since she's going to have plenty of hand-me-downs from Morgan her whole life (I'm not going crazy and not allowing that to happen, come on), this is one that I'm fighting for her and making her own space. It's stinkin' cute too - little girl safari bedding at Target. 
• There are only 15 weeks until we meet her. Yikes.
• We have our last (and 3D!) ultrasound in about 4 weeks. I swear if she turns out to be a boy, I'm going to cry b/c I've known her as her this whole time...well, since our last u/s, anyway. :) 

I think that's all for now. Adam just went to bed early and it's very enticing to think of an extra half hour of sleep. More soon. Fingers crossed on the house, but I'm fully trusting this one to God and know he will help us make the right decisions - or they will be made for us by others he guides to do so.