I heart summer.

What a great week!! Well, minus the working, however, I really feel that working is why this Friday feels so awesome (at least to some extent). I worked Monday and Tuesday and it was some sort of almost brutal. It really didn't help that there was almost no one at the office and I knew most of my other coworkers were enjoying their summer days in some way or another. But they're done and on to the rest week. Morgan and I had a great Wednesday with a walk on the riverfront with friends, a picnic lunch with Adam, and a long nap that afternoon. Thursday was something similar except instead of the walk, we tried out a new mommy/me play group with a friend and met some fun new friends. Adam came home for lunch and then Morgan took an even longer nap which allowed me to make 13 new bows for several little ladies coming into the world in the coming months. (Wish I knew if I was making bows for OUR family...grr...sick of waiting). Morgan was a delight the rest of the day and we all had a really nice evening playing, getting some things done outside, and relaxing.

Today (Friday), Morgan and I decided to hit up an awesome rummage sale (again, would have been nice to know if we were having a boy so I could have stocked up!!) that involved some shoes, clothes, and a few toys for Morgan and quite a few maternity clothes scores! for me. After that haul, we ran a few more errands around the QCs and she was rather well behaved the entire time. Our last stop was to Toys R Us for a few things that lovely Muscatine just doesn't offer a family who likes to play and Morgan was a small mess when we left. Giving her credit, she skipped a morning nap (which is relatively ok to do now, just not all the time) and was rather tired by then. She got over it and we drew, sang, and talked to Grandma Sherri on the way home. Adam took the afternoon off and we're just hanging out, finishing up a few things, (I'm secretly waiting for her to wake up so we can swim in her kiddie pool), and then waiting for Uncle Ross and Aunt Kristen to get here for an impromptu overnight visit on their way to a spontaneous trip to St. Louis.

We have a pretty great weekend on tap which will include - R&K coming to visit (and lose badly in the world's longest game of nertz), Adam in a softball tourney Saturday (which Morgan and I are skipping b/c it's going to be SO miserably hot/humid outside, and it's far away), Morgan and I may be going to the Aquatic Center to beat the heat, napping, playing, church, more playing, water time, etc.

I heart summer. I'm wondering when it will be time for me to stop this full time working business and start staying home a few days a week. I can't seem to get enough of Morgan every day as she grows and learns and says more and more each day. She is now repeating 4 word utterances pretty easily and saying them on her own as well. Yesterday we were all outside playing and getting things done and Morgan yells, "Look at me, mama!!" and takes off running in a giant circle around the driveway. Earlier she yelled to Adam, "Daddy! Watch!" I think it's great listening to all her new things...however, some of them (mine! my ___! Look at me!) will likely be overused at some point...but all in all, she's amazing (of course - she's ours) and I am loving every minute with her. I won't doubt me becoming an emotional wreck as we near August 15th (first real day back to school year days)...I cherish this time with her and am so glad I was able to get into a school schedule(ish) before we had kids. Feeling oh so blessed!

Emotional roller coaster - holla!

(sorry, FB fans - this is a very similar repost from my post on there tonight)

Me - reading a hilarious blog - http://www.jennepper.com/ - and laughing out loud so hard I started crying.
Adam (cautiously, mind you) - "Are you happy crying or sad crying?"
Me - "Happy!! HA HA HA!" (crying still)
Adam - goes back to watching TV...
Me - continues laughing and crying and all of a sudden...full on crying. Sad crying. No reason. The blog continues to be hilarious as I'm reading through tears. Pause reading to figure out the stupid crying.
Adam - cautiously glancing..."Still happy laughing?"
Me - "No! Stupid crying! (laugh/cry/snurp)"

My oh my. That was a fun roller coaster ride (leans over side and barfs).

Gender Jealousy

I'm having "gender finding out jealousy" and yes, it is a diagnosed condition. (I'm awesome and can diagnose myself, much like a pediatrician thinks s/he can diagnose a speech delay.) We have exactly two weeks (minus almost 13 hours) until we find out the monkey that lives within me taking all sense out of me really is. That said, EVERYONE ELSE knows the gender of their babies!!! NOT fair. We have issues with naming this time around although if I remember correctly (and find motivation to look back and find out the issues we had with Morgan's naming fiasco) we did with Morgan, too. I do remember she was Mackenzie for a while (not for a girlie this time around, mind you, which would violate the "we are not sharing names until the baby is here" rule). So anyway, we're the last ones in the whole world to find out and I can't wait!! Ahhh! (straw that broke the camel's (mommy's) back - our friends, the Lopez family, found out their little girl will be coming a week or so before our kiddo in December - WOO HOO!) Gender jealousy over (well, until July 25th, that is, when we hopefully find out too!)

Addendum - I'm only allowed to be about 90% jealous b/c my cousin, Jenny, and her husband Kirk, won't find out their baby's gender until August 3rd. So maybe not EVERYBODY knows their baby's gender before I do. ;-)

WI? Again? Sure, why not?

Off we went again for another weekend in WI. My sister's graduation party was Saturday and we weren't missing it. :) I'm so glad we made it back and it was nice to see family we haven't seen in a while. One of my favorite things was watching Morgan play with her cousins. They spent so much time playing outside in the grass, in the driveway, and doing the Hot Dog Dance with their Mickey Mouse toys. It made my heart fuller to watch them.

Also, there was a tiny bike with training wheels at the party. Not just a plastic bike that other kids Morgan's age ride/have, but a real full on bike. Believe it or not, that kid's feet reached the pedals all the way around and had both of us had an extra half hour of patience, I'm willing to bet she would have been pedaling (maybe not stopping, though) up and down that driveway. Sigh. Big girl getting bigger. Not only do we need to hunt down a playground/swing set by next summer, but now a tiny bike with training wheels, too!

Off to eat fresh peas from the pod from WI. Seriously one of our favorite snacks...we bought at least a 5lb bag. Mmm...

Poll

In case you didn't notice, I put a poll up on the right side of the blog to see what everyone thinks I'm having. Cast your vote and (hopefully) we'll find out on the 25th. :)

PS. I also made an addendum to the previous post. 

16 week appointment

All is well!!! I took Morgan to my appointment this morning b/c I changed it last minute from tomorrow so she and I could go on our much looked forward to play date with the other SLP mommies in the morning. So anyway, the baby's heartbeat is in the 150s which is normal, everything was in its proper place, and we're good to go to...find out the baby's gender on July 25th pending s/he cooperates!! I can't tell you how excited I am and Morgan will be coming along to that one as well to see him/her. It should be a family event. The only thing we're doing is checking my thyroid b/c I'm still losing hair like a normal, non-pregnant person does instead of the "loses almost no hair while pregnant" person does. I don't think it's a big deal, my midwife didn't appear to think it was a huge deal, but we're just ruling it out to make sure. Either way, forward, ho!

Belly Comparison

Pregnant Belly with Morgan at 16 weeks

Pregnant Belly with B#2 at 16 weeks

Pretty similar?! Yippee! I was worried I was bigger already, as apparently did Adam when I mentioned this fact (similar bellies) to him this evening - stinker. ;-) With my first pregnancy though, I grew a LOT b/w weeks 16 and 17 so yikes...Oh, and still not directly feeling baby yet which is also normal. Can't wait until I do!

I also forgot to mention that Morgan got to "help" with the heartbeat monitor which thrilled me. My midwife is the best ever. I was going to have Morgan wait in her chair on walk around while Dr. Kim checked for the heartbeat, but she told Morgan to come on up, helped put her in a good spot, and then had Morgan squeeze goop on the doppler (I think that's what it's called) and basically told Morgan the heartbeat and what was going on. :) It made my heart smile and almost burst a little. I loved it and while Morgan didn't really know what was going on at the time, she seemed very quiet yet eager to help and participate. I'm so very excited to see what she does with the u/s on the 25th...

Now, as I type this and have been whining that I'm not feeling the baby yet, I'm 89% sure s/he just kicked me in the front/left side. I poked him/her a little more wait! there s/he goes again...but anyway, no response to the pokes. Oh fun!! Adam will be so thrilled when he gets home from his games to hear that I'm pretty sure I felt the baby. Sigh. What a great day. ::heart bursting font::

Happy 4th of July!

It's the 4th of July!! And what a great long weekend it has been. Thursday and Friday were spent unpacking and cleaning the house for Tommy, Carrie, Al, & Sherri's arrivals Friday and Saturday (so basically, Adam's entire immediate family). I was pretty pleased with how things turned out cleaning/organizing-wise, and it was great to see them all here.

Friday night we had dinner with C&T when they arrived, played, and relaxed. Saturday, Adam didn't have his first tournament game until 1pm, so I stayed back with Morgan while the rest of the fam (A&S had come by noon) went to Adam's game in the QCs. Morgan and I caught up with them after a hefty (and much needed) 2-hr nap (highly sparse occasion for Morgan as she usually naps about an hour and a half at best). Morgan and I headed home by 8pm since it was past her bedtime, she was a sweaty/sunscreen mess (my favorite kind of summer kiddo), and was in bed by 9pm...causing an 8am wake up (squeee!) the next morning. T&C left after lunch and Adam and Al went golfing. Sherri, Morgan and I stayed back and gave her new, bigger swimming pool a whirl (after I hauled out probably 30 of our biggest bowls of hot water to counter the freezing cold hose water) and our fish swam. She was in there for almost 2 hours and LOVED it. Her friend, Cooper, came down to visit and go for his first swim (he's 5 months old) and I was uber impressed that he tolerated the (not even close to bath temp) water. We plunked him in the bumbo seat and as long as he had as many toys as he could hold at once, he was a pretty happy camper. We had dinner at home that night after the guys got back from golfing, and had a relaxing night with ice cream. Monday we had a most lazy morning with Morgan asking to go swimming in water that had turned significantly colder over night but still loved. After a lunch at the Button Factory in town, A&S left for WI and Morgan, who didn't even make it home awake from lunch, took a nap.

What a great weekend so far! We have lots to do around here so honestly, I'm not sure if we're going to make it to the 5pm parade in Muscatine or not. :-( I'm hoping so. But the lawn is long again (ah! if we mow today, it will be the 4th time in a week! Ok ok, catching up from vacation still...) and the a/c is completely broken now instead of just leaking so hopefully Adam can figure it out after Morgan wakes up as the banging he was needing to do was making her wake up a bit.

Baby news - I am now, today, 16 weeks pregnant which means I suppose I could almost say I'm 4 months along. This scares me that I can now talk in months instead of weeks b/c it means we are that much closer (who am I kidding, we're still a ways off) to sleepless nights and TWO kids. Eager yet nervous...which I'm assuming is rather normal. I'm feeling fine save for the horrendous acne that has recently taken over and made me feel 14 again. Awesome.

Morgan news - She is now a regular 2-3 word utterance talker. Sometimes there are more and sometimes there are LOTS more but I have no idea what she said save for 2 or 3 of the words she spouts off. The other day I asked her to do something and, in her best teenager voice tone, she replied, "O-tay" and went and did it. Yikes. What else is she doing...she now can catch, and loves to, a soccer-sized ball. Smaller ones? Not so much yet. She asks for golf and tennis (thank you Wimbledon) on TV along with Dora, Diego, and Bubble Guppies. When asked if she wants something and she does, she usually replies, "Oh, yes." When asked what she wants to eat, she responds "tooties" (cookies). Instead of saying "Hm-hmm" for excuse me, she now says "tu me" or "tu me, Maddie" (when she's trying to get around the dog). She loves to tell, "here go, Daddy" and "see you soon, ___." She now knows "what do you say?" is followed by "please" (which is probably the only sign she still uses with the verbal word) and what do you tell should be followed by "thank you" which really sounds more like "saynu." Her vocabulary and understanding grows by leaps and bounds every day which never ceases to amaze us.

Off to hang out with the monkey (since she woke up nice and early from her nap, awesome) while Adam attempts to be the most handy husband ever and the house works towards 80 degrees (one degree to go). Wish us luck that we don't need a whole new system even though our current one might be as old as we are...or at least 15-20 years old....ugh.