Photo Shoot = Success!

Click here for the link to almost all the pictures:

Oct. 2011 Family/Morgan/Maternity Pictures

Today we went to the Quad Cities to pay a visit to our favorite portrait people at Portrait Innovations. Again, we were not disappointed. I thought our photographer could have been a little more upbeat with Morgan but she got good pictures (see link above) so I could really have cared less. :)

Let's see, what else is going on in Schmidt Family news...last night the three of us trekked to the Quad Cities after Adam was done with work and after dropping Adam and Morgan off at the Ries residence for daddy/daughter evening (2 daddies on 4 girls 4 and under...what could go wrong? Well, nothing, actually.), I went with two other work friends (although really they're friends I just so happen to get the privilege of working with) for a quick dinner and a movie. We went to see Footloose which was really quite good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.*, **

Adam leaves Monday for a 3-day trip to Toronto - his second last before the baby comes. WOO!! Very much excited for this. By the time he gets back, the house should be off the market and I'm thinking I'll be putting all our family pictures back out tomorrow when he lifts them down from high places/storage for me today. :-D

Last night I had the weirdest dream that we were in the delivery room but it was VERY low-key - like I was having a nonstress test done or something. For some reason an ultrasound was involved and it was VERY obvious that Baby Girl #2 was not so much - she was a BOY. And then within minutes I had delivered her and we had a BOY. Not funny, brain, not funny. I'm all prepared for a girl and the brand new pink paint I have upstairs waiting to be placed on walls and bookshelf is NOT going to waste.

Time to go cut me some pictures. Let me know if you have favorites and I'll set them aside. :) Keep in mind that the ones I've attached are not finished up ones - the ones I have are lightened/cropped/edited and whatnot to look just right.

*PS. I was *almost* the pregnant lady in the aisle at the end of the movie dancing my belly off.
**PPS. Julianne Huff (sp?), who plays the main female character, looks EXACTLY like a very young Jennifer Aniston to me which made me enjoy the movie even more.

So...I'll admit it.

I overdid it. I can't tell you how hard it is for me to admit that. I am a go-getter and I don't stop. It's just me and how I roll. That said, helping Adam (by my choice and his caution) load, unload, and stack wood after our splitting weekend (which I didn't help out with) took its toll after the second load last night. That said, I know now that my limit is one load every few days and only one piece of wood per hand per trip. I think I also had a touch of a slight stomach bug so the one-two punch pretty much sucked. Feeling a bit better and resting. :)

Gah, I hate the thought of not being able to do "stuff." But now I'm starving. Hmm...what to have...

So we really enjoyed our night with Morgan. She was full of giggles and I'm pretty sure we're buying her balloons only for Christmas this year (hellooooo cheap and hours of fun). She was in hysterical giggles almost the whole night between me resting, her and I making chicken noodle soup together before Adam got home (she decided she now likes raw thin sliced carrots, celery, cold chicken, but NOT plain parsley even though she insisted on trying it), and whatnot. We just had FUN. Sakes alive how did we ever have fun before her?? (oh yes, that's right - wine and beer)

(ps. jumping topics like a crazy person tonight)

I think we're ready to commit to painting the baby's room! We are officially taking our house off the market Nov. 1st and I couldn't be happier. I was all for selling, really I was, but now that we're at the end of when we said we'd list and go for it, I'm ready to hunker down and prepare for this baby, Christmas, and winter in general.

Wait, I said I was starving....why am I still blogging?

AH ha ha ha ha...my stomach just hard core gurgled on the left side and Baby Sister just about flew out of my right side...poor kid!

Rambling = time to stop. I might just have to lie down and fall asleep by 8:45 like I did last night...that. was. awesome. :)

One more thing - uncomfortable but done whining. For the next 10 minutes. :)

2 Year Old Stats

Morgan had her 2 y/o well-check on Thursday and here's where she's at (ps...she slowed down a little since her 18 month check up):

• Height: 35.5" (82nd percentile)
• Weight: 29lbs (79th percentile)

The doctor seemed pleased that she was proportionate and we didn't really care either way so long as she's healthy. Some people haven't heard of this that I talked to, but I was always told that if you double a 2 y/o's height, that's how tall they're going to be when they reach adulthood. That said, Morgan should be between 5'10"-5'11". Adam. Is. Thrilled. :) For me, it's just weird to think of looking her in the eye without the help of mommy's bent knees or a bed for her to stand on.

As for the appointment itself, Morgan was fine. She didn't need any shots but a flu shot and while she had tears and some crying for that, I don't think any of those tears actually left her eyes (thank you promise of a sticker). On the way to the doctor's, I explained that we were going to the doctor's office to make sure she was healthy and listed the major body parts the doctor would be checking. The entire rest of the way there and home, Morgan said over and over that the doctor was going to "make sure teef (teeth) heffy (healthy), bedee (belly) heffy," etc etc. I got a call at work an hour later that they forgot to send us to the lab for a finger poke for Morgan to test for something else I couldn't remember (anemia was one). So after work we went back and waited a HALF hour with one person ahead of us. I grabbed fruit snacks (a HUGE favorite) before picking her up from daycare knowing she would likely cry from the poke so as we sat down for the poke, I gave them to her and said that she could open them after we were done. (PS. To prep her for this one, I told her the lab tech was going to make sure her finger was healthy. She was all for it.) While she was holding the highly coveted fruit snacks, the lady poked her finger...and not even. a. tear. She didn't even jump! If I knew fruit snacks had that much power...wow. Mental note for all unpleasant things in the future...

Another fun note - our friends, Kevin & Coralie, had their twins (I believe) around midnight Thurs/Friday!! A boy and a girl...but no official names yet. We're so excited they've been blessed with their babies and can't WAIT to meet them.

On another note...shopping and running all over the place with me this morning must have really tuckered Morgan out...she's been down for almost 2.5 hours now which is HIGHLY uncharacteristic of her especially since she slept until around 7am this morning (bliss especially since we were the coolest couple on the planet and crawled in bed at 9pm last night after forcing ourselves to wait that long b/c we were both exhausted). Score. Off to go do more things...I'm making lasagna for friends who are coming over to split wood A) b/c it's a big job and B) I can't help this year. :-( Fun times ahead!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Morgan Addison!

Our "baby" turns TWO today. How is that possible? She's still our BABY. As in we still cuddle her like she's small. We still love her like a tiny person (although she's very much the opposite now and lets it be known routinely).

And so after sounding all sad and forlorn that my baby is turning 2 (is she still a toddler?? I think so...), I'll turn on my happy words and say how very EXCITED I am that she's TWO. She can do SO many things and with the pending needytouchmeconstantlyinfant's arrival soon, I'm counting my blessings with all the things she can do, say, and know. I'll make a brief list (or try my best to do so) of where she's at developmentally but we couldn't be more proud of our little Morgan (who's not so little - we'll find out her size/percentiles tomorrow morning at her well check) and she's the world to us (like that's not the most obvious thing...Liss, you have a nose on your face. Liss, Morgan means the world to you and Adam. Catch my drift?).

Motor Skills:

• Morgan LOVES to climb at the park - ladders, climbing walls, anything. She will make sure you're there to watch her (usually) but really loves this. 
• She likes to "long jump" and hop all the time (esp in the store, awesome). 
• Morgan walks up and down steps holding the railing although sometimes she'll crawl (me too...ha) and sometimes she alternates her feet if she's holding someone's hand.
• She runs. And runs. And thinks that's what's supposed to happen when you put shoes on.
• She likes to write/color and has almost the right grasp probably half the time...sorry, I forgot my OT words here. Morgan also holds her silverware (when she chooses to use it) with an overhand posture but is starting to use an adult grip sometimes.

Language Skills (squee!):

• She can talk a blue streak. Morgan uses sentences that are up to 6 words in length sometimes and often Adam will find me with my mouth wide open, fingers counting and being amazed at the words she puts together. One of these days I'm going to have to take a language sample. :) Meh...maybe not.
• Morgan can follow at least 2 step directions (receptively) and sometimes 3. I often wonder how much of that is choice vs. comprehension. ;-)
• She adds plurals, -ing, etc etc and I realize I'm starting to get work report-y here so I'll stop. To sum up, she's a SLP's dream child in terms of her language skills. ::angels singing::

Cognitive Skills (and here's another squee!):

• Morgan knows and can name all her upper and lower case letters. She totally learned lower case letters from the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" in the past 3 weeks. 
• Morgan can tell you the corresponding sounds that go with said letters for about 1/3-1/2 of the alphabet. 
• She's into counting and can consistently count to 15, almost up to 20 with consistency. 
• She can figure things out. She thinks while she plays. She likes to read to her babies as well as her baby sister. She remembers TONS of words from her favorite books and will say them while "reading." 
• She uses lots of adjectives. This is fun...

So now that I've put some things out there about where she's at, we're eager to see where the next year goes. It will be a big year, with Morgan getting a baby sister for Christmas and all of the fun things that come with the age of two. I don't mean the "terrible two" stereotype - I mean to watch her grow and learn and be happy. We're so lucky to have her! I will post pictures soon along with this post of all her birthday happenings. If you have Facebook, you've likely seen most of them.

For now, Happy Birthday, my wonderful little girl. We are so proud of you and we love so very much!

too...tired...and huge.

I want to blog about the birthday party that was.
I want to give tons of details about how she glowed when we all sang to her so I don't forget.
I want to eat ice cream.
I want to stay home from work tomorrow and celebrate all day long with my babytoddler.
But alas, I'm so tired I can hardly move and I'll do it soon. Tomorrow, maybe even.
For now, I'm going to rest, watch Parenthood (if I don't fall asleep), and be thankful for my almost 2 y/o. xoxo

Contractions

Contractions contractions for everyone! Mine feel like they've really amped up lately and are getting really annoying. It also doesn't help that she moved somehow today and I can't figure out where she is...however, she's pushing down on ... well, "me" and it's not comfortable. It also makes me feel like I'm going to pee my pants. Joy, let me tell ya. Getting down on all 4s helps - wiggling hips and going back and forth a bit.

Other contractions in the family - Morgan has decided that this is the week she will start using contractions - can't, don't, etc. :) Mostly it's "I can't do it" or "I don't want it!" Fun stuff. :) Just another part of the language boom. Loving it. :)

It's been a crazy week. More next week foh shoh. I must say I'm REALLY looking forward to this weekend as she's been talking nonstop about her party for weeks. It's late now, I'm contracting (shocker) and there are a few tiny things to take care of before I finally get to lie down. SO excited!!

Family Week

It wasn't planned, per se, but this has been one of the best family weeks we've had in a long time. I think the last time I felt this connected to my family was vacation in June...but it's been really great. Monday night we had to clean and such b/c we had another showing (a family from Utah?!) but by Tuesday, we went to Weed Park after a ride to see a few houses (none of which we put on the list), Wednesday night we went to the park by the river, and tonight we stayed home, Adam mowed, Morgan and I played, and then we had a family campfire per Adam's suggestion. What a PERFECT idea! We had s'mores, Morgan helped pick up sticks to put in the fire, and she showed us she's a champion water bottle user. And marshmallow wearer.

A few funnies and info from Morgan as of late:

• "Holla dooda doo!" (cock-a-doodle-doo when we're pretend sleeping and playing)
• "Because..." after we ask her a Why question; but she's not yet sure where to go from there. I give her two more days (addendum - she did it this morning (next day from post) when she said "Because...it windy!").
• Attitude (arms crossed) and pout lip - seen frequently as of late when she's not happy about something.
• Relating things to what she's watched on TV - Tonight she raised her hand to hit me (rarely happens) b/c she was mad it was bath/bed time. I stopped her and later after we were all calm, I talked to her about it. I asked her what she was doing with her arm up. She said, "hit mommy." While we were thinking/talking, she talked about Rintoo (sp?) from one of her shows and how he had hit Hoho...and how he should have used his words instead. I no longer feel bad about letting her watch TV as much as we do (which really isn't that much). 
• Big/Baby Sister - Morgan has been talking to Baby Sister often. As in telling her about her birthday party...telling her who she played with at daycare. And snuggling up with her when she wants to rest with her. I love the relationship they have already. 
• Morgan is now a rockstar with an open-faced cup. I washed ONE sippy in the dishwasher today...wow. I don't hate them like I hated hand-washing bottles, but cups = easier = my favorite. :) 
• We are still regretting me telling her about her Pinkalicious birthday party..."Guess what, mama/daddy/Mary/anyone with ears?! Pinkalicious birthday party!!!" Except today she added "now" to the end of that one...8 more days, sweetheart...
• "Pivacy!" (privacy) - Morgan now asks for privacy when she needs to go #2. She wants us to close the door and let her to her business. Then she calls for us when she's done...only to tell us she has to go more. "Moh pivacy!" This makes me feel like she's 8 y/o. 

 Tomorrow Morgan tries out a new daycare as her back up daycare since Mary's gone for a three-day weekend. We went to visit today after work and she fell right into place playing with the sitter's daughter, Addison, who's a few months younger than she is. She was sad when we left 15 minutes later and it was perfect - want to come back tomorrow? Yes!! Score.

Ok, Adam got me excited to look up our Halloween costumes for the first annual Davis Halloween bash and I also have to figure out where we're getting Morgan's iXL game from so if she gets any games for her birthday, she doesn't have zero clue what they're for. :)

Wow wow OW

So this morning I sort of felt like junk from not sleeping well the last 2-3 hours of the night b/c of this lovely cold Morgan has entrusted to me (thankfully hers is finally on the tail end). It was manageable though and we all got ready for church.

It was about 20 minutes before we were to leave and I got this incredible pain on the lower left side of my belly. Not quite my hip but just above and then towards the underside of my belly. It wasn't contractions or anything but continuous and more like a pulled muscle. I was thinking it was the baby, but didn't feel any body parts or anything. So finally I conceded that it did, indeed, hurt like hell to go from sitting to standing and vice versa and told Adam he was fully in charge of any movements Morgan needed help with for the duration.

I tried pushing my belly around with the off chance it was the baby sitting funny (never had this with Morgan's pregnancy). I was slowly moving around getting ready when all of a sudden, the pain vanished. No idea. I'm almost positive it was just the baby sitting funny but ow. ow. ow. I hope she doesn't sit that way ever again. And yes, I'm almost positive she's still sitting transverse and still hasn't found her way south. She's got some time...but figure it out, chicita!

We've got one week of Adam home (this week) and then he's gone T-F the following week before Morgan's Pinkalicious birthday party (which she continues to remind us of hourly - "Guess WHAT, mama/daddy? Pinklicious birthday party!!"). Then I think (as of right now) there are only 1-2 more travels before the baby gets here. How. Lovely, Is. That!? I think I might have babies more often b/c it forces him to stay home for a few months. ;-) JK - not a good reason for more babies.

Speaking of babies since I'm on the subject, after our wonderful dinner out, just the two of us, we threw around the idea that this is likely our last baby. It made me sad but it was also sort of a relief to know who our family is going to be. This does not by any means mean that I'm at 100% on this issue...but last night got me a little closer. Don't ask me again in about 3 years when my babies aren't even close to babies anymore.

Ok, it's nap time. I might have an hour if I'm lucky and Morgan gets as much sleep as she was acting like she needed. :)

5th Anniversary

Yesterday marked the 5th Anniversary of the day Adam and I said "I do" and agreed to start our own family. The day entailed Morgan going to daycare, me going to work a little later (due to a long/late all-day work meeting), and Adam flying home successfully (no delays/broken planes) from Barbados (which he said we could go visit sometime, unlike the Dominican Republic where he started his week). Since everything went well and Adam was feeling ok from the 12 hrs of continuous travel, we took Morgan to the Homecoming football game in Muscatine where she was SO VERY EXCITED for the drums (marching band), busses, and crescent moon (she has known this shape for a while already). It was a relatively calm night and just what we needed after a week away from Adam.

Tonight (Sat), Morgan is going to a sitter's and Adam and I are headed to the Quad Cities for a delicious, kid-free dinner at Biaggi's (a lovely Italian place with the best wine I can't have...although I'm not going to lie - I'm going to have a half glass of the one Adam gets) :) to celebrate. We haven't done gifts or anything yet since buying a new house is still in the running for a 5th Anniversary gift to each other. :) Otherwise, I'm not going to lie, I'm hoping for something blingy in a classy sense. :) Adam just informed me that he would have liked tickets to a post-season Brewer game. Glad I know that now that it's in full swing...(no pun intended).

Morgan did well this week while Adam was gone. Thursday at 4:33am she woke up and announced over the monitor, "Mama! Wake up time!" to which I almost ran up the stairs for damage control to find she was ready to get up and get going. I changed her diaper (she's been wet about half the time lately over night) and finally showed her it was still very dark outside. Thankfully she went right back to sleep then. I, however, did not, between the baby kicking, me thinking about how the day was going to go, and having a sore throat (Morgan finally shared her cold with me. Awesome. But expected.).

Thursday evening Morgan and I braved the 35mph winds and met some friends at the Homecoming parade in Muscatine. I totally overdid it and pushed our new double stroller (complete with Morgan and friend, Cooper in it) for the walk there (some uphill) and that was a mistake. I was super sore when we got home and thought I was going to fall over if I didn't lie down soon (contracting, not just being out of shape). Note to self - be less excited about the double stroller use next time and let someone else push it when they ask. The parade itself was cute and short and Morgan nabbed TONS of candy. At first I think she thought it was just to pick up and "collect" until she saw me stealing a tootsie roll...then she was all about eating it immediately. :) No worries - she has a tootsie roll and half a sucker on the way home.

Last night we had a good time at the football game but Morgan didn't get to bed until 9pm, up at 7am this morning, so I'm hoping for a good LONG nap since I wasn't tired when she went down but now am. Here's to hoping for a quiet next hour while Morgan and I nap, Adam watches the Brewer game, and the dogs enjoy their new (gross) cow bone bones outside in the sunshine. :-D

PS. Morgan's party supplies came today. I haven't opened them yet but am DYING to. However, they are upstairs and I'm not getting up unless someone delivers and ice cream sundae to my front door.