September Post

Holy smokes! It's already October?!?

So, what did we do this month?

Well, the most exciting thing that happened to us this month was finding out we're having a GIRL!!!

I always feel conflicted making such a big deal about the boy/girl reveal because I think gender differences are largely a product of culture, and who knows how our kids will identify in the future? BUUUUT, there is and will be a difference. And even if it's mostly because of cultural norms, I get to dress this baby in ruffles and bows, and that's FUN!!

But we also saw that she's healthy, looks a lot like her big brother (Everett's going to be a big brother?!?), and I already knew her to be active, but the ultrasound doctor kept getting kicked!

This doctor was not a great photographer. The best image we saw was the skin around her mouth and nose, looked so much like Everett. Didn't get that one (even though I asked for it). All the pictures of her head/face look like complete skeleton baby. Oh well! We'll see her cute face soon enough.

Brian and I celebrated our 3 year marriage anniversary this last weekend (specifically September 30th). We didn't make a big deal out of it. I had pre-ordered Cabin in the Woods, so we watched that Friday night. Awesome. Sunday morning, Gion came over and picked Everett up, and Brian and I went to breakfast at Panolivo, then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing (of course, Brian did some yard work).

What else did we do this month?

Two birthday parties. Eli Kilimnik turned 2 and Andy Hunter turned 4!!

We started Playtime Discoveries (Mommy and Me) again. This session it's on Wednesdays, which I much prefer to last session being on Mondays. I like a mellow Monday, especially if Everett has a busy Sunday (which he often does).

We went camping for one night in San Simeon with the Thompsons. It was fun, but I can't wait till we can go for longer, and I can have a BEER or two around the campfire!

We went to see the dogs swimming in Templeton Pool. Everett thought it was pretty cool. They let the dogs swim in it for a couple days before they drain it for the season.

Besides that, lots of play dates.

E spends Tuesdays with Phil and Gion and has a blast (get it? blast? rocket shirt?). (;

Trying to get in exercise (yoga, walking, swimming) when I can. I usually exercise about twice a week.

It's a lot harder getting in exercise with a toddler, but heck, I bet I'm doing a lot better than a lot of women do!

I made this side by side of how big I was at the 20 week ultrasound with each kid.

It's hard because I wasn't holding my hand the same way on top, but I think I am A LOT bigger this time around. I know that's common with the second baby. But along with the faster growth has come earlier aches and pains, and I'm wondering how I will walk at 35 weeks!

Ok, time to brag about Everett.

He constantly amazes me. This morning, I had to restart the Roku, the streaming video player we have. When it restarts, the letters in Roku bounce. He said, "the numbers are bouncing! That's an R. That's an O. That's a K. And that's an N." The only one he got wrong was the U, but really, lower case Us and Ns are the same letter, just turned upside down. I was pretty impressed! We don't do any "letter learning" besides reading, doing puzzles, and watching Sesame Street. I don't quiz him or anything.

A couple weeks ago, he was getting really bossy. "Mommy, get out of the kitchen!" "Daddy, I need to watch Monsters Inc." So we started being better models of polite language. "Everett, can you please hand me the fork." And he picked it up SO FAST. Within a couple days, there was a dramatic change in his tone. So amazing.

Lately, he's been saying "hey!" a lot, and we really need to cut back on the "hey," probably all of us. It's weird the things you say that only a toddler repeating them makes sound wrong.

A couple days ago, he came up to me and said, "mommy, I have a booger in my nose." You can't know the joy of someone saying that to you until you have a 2-year-old you're trying to keep from sticking his finger up his nose all the time, or worse yet EAT his boogers. It was an exciting moment, although I know it still won't be the norm.

Everett had a cold this week, and he's gotten pretty good at coughing into his arm/elbow. It's not a reflex, and it often happens for the second cough or for a later fake cough. But I'm impressed he's caught on so quickly.

Every night, when Everett brushes his teeth, we've been watching the Bob Ross, Julia Child, and Mr. Rogers Remixes. They are wonderful songs made from their old footage and autotune. I never would have guessed my 2-year-old would say, "more Julia Child!" Haha. They're really fun. I need to burn them to DVD so we can remember them forever, even after the internet explodes.

And on that note, see you next month!

Our Schedule

I was just thinking, in a few years when the kids are in school and doing other activities, and I'm working (painting) at home, it would be fun to look back on what our schedule was in 2012, when things were slower and more toddler-oriented.

We are very lucky to live close to family, and our families are a big part of our lives (such a help!).

Our schedule lately:

Tuesday: Everett spends with Phil and Gion. One of them (Gion lately) picks him up around 8:00, and they take him back to their house (occasionally to a restaurant) for breakfast. He's there until after his nap. They often play at their house the whole time, but sometimes they take him to gymnastics, the park, a goat farm, etc.

Wednesday: We have Playtime Discoveries (Mommy & Me) in the morning from 9:00 to 11:30.

Wednesday evenings Phil and Gion have us over for dinner.

Thursday: My mom usually comes to our house in the morning and plays with Everett.

Right now I have prenatal yoga Thursday evenings from 5:45 to 7:15.

Friday: Friday morning seems to be turning into our play date day. Either at a park or someone's house.

Sunday: My parents usually come to our house and bring us dinner. Sometimes we go to their house.

The other days/times are a little less structured. We have at least one play date a week, but often it's two or three. Some Mondays, and Wednesdays before Mommy & Me started. And we often meet Rachel and the kids on the weekend to play.

Weekends we often have a child's birthday party to go to. We have two this month. Also, other random things come up. We're camping this weekend with friends. We might go to Santa Cruz next weekend. Brian tries to work on the house or in the yard when he's free. He's done so much, but there's still so much to do.

Since I'm pregnant, I'm trying to get a swim in at least once a week (on Tuesday mornings or Saturday afternoons), and walk with Rachel at least once a week on her lunch break. Gotta keep moving for the health of this baby/ease of labor and recovery.

Brian has to stay at work until 3:20, but he often doesn't get home until 4:30 or 5:00. Most nights we make dinner (since it's been so light, Brian and Everett will often go outside before or during dinner prep and water the plants), we eat, Everett gets a bath, and we watch a TV show while he cuddles to (near) sleep. He doesn't watch the show. We hold him. We're getting closer to getting him to fall asleep entirely in his bed. Right now we still cuddle him as he calms down. When he's almost asleep, Brian has Everett give me a kiss, I tell him, "see you tomorrow morning when it's light outside," Brian takes him in his room, and Everett falls asleep in his bed. Then we stay up and watch one more show before going to bed ourselves.

August Post

It's been a month of transition.

Mostly transitioning from Brian being home to Brian going back to work (so, fewer fun activities and more finishing up of projects).

Luckily, I've also transitioned into feeling a lot better. 17 weeks, woo hoo! I think that was kind of the magic number with Everett too.

Curious George books are his favorite books. The Curious George TV show is his favorite TV show. And Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey is his favorite movie. He's a big fan of that "good little 'monkey'."

Here's his awesome photography skills. Under armpit portrait.

We went to Templeton Concert in the Park with some friends. It was fun. Everett and Remi playing. Everett getting to know what a bite feels like. Karma's a b*tch. (;

We've been doing more play dates since I've been feeling better and Brian's been working. The pictures below are from a blissful play date with all two year olds! And a couple little ones.

Ever since we went camping, and Brian went backpacking, Everett's been talking about camping (mostly because he wanted to eat marshmallows). So he and Brian went "camping" in the backyard. He didn't even fall asleep out there because Cruise Night was happening downtown, and it was too loud. He had fun though!

Here's a picture from a recent trip to the park/farmers market. This little girl was wearing her glasses, and I had Everett's exact pair in my purse. Don't they look like tough little cow poke?

I'm constantly saying how Everett's a lucky boy. So lucky to have so many grandparents around to play with him. Everett and and Grama Kathie playing in the sand.

It's been an amazing month for Everett. His comprehension (but more dramatically) his direction following, has increased incredibly. The biggest deal for our family is we're able to say, "it's time to sleep now. We'll see you when it's light out." He doesn't always follow the direction, but he certainly does understand. If we're watching a move or show where a person wakes up (or the sun is rising, or there's a rooster), he'll say, "the sun is up. It's light outside!" And we'll talk a little about how it's okay to get out of bed since it's light out.

Forgive me if I've mentioned these things in previous posts, but I want to make sure they're in the blog (but I don't want to re-read any old posts right now). (;

He's such a little singer! Half the time he's awake he's singing. "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," the Sesame Street theme, different songs from Yo Gabba Gabba and the Curious George movie.

A couple weeks ago, Gion took us out to lunch after going to Templeton farmers market. Especially at the end of the meal, Everett was singing away. When we got up to leave, a woman at the table next to us said, "I like your singing!" This woman was there with what looked like her adult daughter and her 3-year-old (?) grandson--who was not the singer Everett is.

I thought I'd mentioned this before (here or on Facebook at least), but a couple weeks ago, Phil was acting like he'd never heard Everett say this thing he's been saying often for the last few months, so I must share. When he wants to get picked up, he says, "I wanna hold you." And we usually respond with, "I wanna hold YOU!" or "I want to hold you too!" Someday soon he'll start correcting himself, and that will be a sad day.

Everett watched quite a bit of Olympics with me. He knew the difference between indoor volleyball and beach volleyball (sometimes called "sandy ball"). He would ask for bicycles or horses. We watched a bit of it from the antenna, so it had commercials. Even muted, I hated how many commercials he was seeing. After the games were over, I was like, "no more commercials for baby for 6 months!" Our shows are all on Netflix streaming and commercial-free.

Here's a little baby genius moment I don't want to forget. We were at Phil and Gion's house, Everett was playing with Gion outside. He had a triangular rock. He said, "my triangle rock. I want to break it." Gion said it was too hard to break. He said, "a hammer will break it." Gion said they didn't have a hammer. Everett said, "in the basement!" and went running around the house to the basement, where he helps Grandpa Phil arrange his tools.

Bye Bye Summer

Brian went back to work today. ):

Well, he's been going in to work for about the last week, but an hour or more later than he has to be there now. And the kids don't come until Monday. But today is his first, official, mandatory work day.

This is going to be tough.

It's been an amazing summer. Not amazing as in adventurous or mind-blowing. Those kinds of summers will come as our kids get older. This summer was amazing to me because I had so much help while being first trimester/early second trimester pregnant, PLUS we did a few other fun things, and Brian actually got quite a bit done around the house.

Him being home made me wonder how other pregnant mommies do it without husbands on vacation. He shopped, cooked, cleaned, did laundry, played with Everett a lot, even when he was working on the house and I had to say, "Everett and my energy levels are not compatible right now." He'd stop what he was doing so I could take a nap or just sit on the couch and watch The Olympics (side note: it was rad that I got to watch The Olympics for 17 days of my pregnancy. I was obsessed!).

I understand how lucky I always am to have a partner who believes men and women should share equal responsibility at home, and actually acts on his beliefs--although this might be because he's more of a clean-freak than I am, but I'll take it!

He's an amazing husband. No doubt about it.

I was pretty hard on myself this summer. That may have been the worst thing about being first trimester this time around. I was so tired, but I was never content to just let myself be lazy and do nothing. I would be lazy and do nothing, but I would be upset with myself for not doing anything. Thankfully, Brian never gave me a hard time about it. So I was the only one being hard on me.

I hope Brian had a good summer. I think he feels like he had a good summer. Besides helping his wife grow a baby (and getting to go to all the OB and ultrasound appointments without it being a scheduling issue), we went camping, went to the beach, The Fair, berry picking, Brian got to play a lot of disc golf (sometimes with me but almost always with Everett). We went to a parade and a baseball game, BBQs in the middle of the week at Phil and Gion's. And Brian built almost an entire bathroom!!

He even got to go on a backpacking trip with two of his best friends, Henry and Peter. This was a big deal. First, Brian had never been away from Everett for so long, which felt weird. But I was freaking out a bit about being without Brian. It was hard, but it was good for me. I got to see that I could take care of Everett by myself (with a little help from the grans). It also made me realize how much better I was really feeling. But I was soooooo happy when he came home.

Although it's sad that Brian's back at work now, I look forward to this fall and winter. I look forward to my growing belly and to all the upcoming holidays that will be even more fun than last year. Everett trick-or-treating will be the cutest thing ever!!

Baby #2!

Oh yes! We're having another baby!

As I type, I am 13 weeks 6 days. I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow?!?

I think, with Everett, I blogged about the pregnancy for the first time at 9 and a half weeks. I couldn't wait (I was also tired of people asking how the wedding planning was going). (;

It's not that this pregnancy has flown by, in fact, my first couple months moved like molasses. But now that I'm feeling a little better (certainly not 100%), and as I've approached and passed the second trimester mark (and got to hear and see the baby again), I've started to relax, and time's moving faster.

One reason the first few months moved so slowly is I found out about this pregnancy so much sooner. With Everett, I found out when I missed my period and took a test (several tests, actually) at about 5 and a half weeks.

This time, I started getting that pregnancy exhaustion A WEEK after conception. It was ridiculous. But I couldn't take a home test for a couple weeks. So I waited and waited for the result I knew would eventually come.

(picture caption) a stick I peed on! May 29th 2012

This pregnancy is so different than my last. With Everett, I was going to school, working, painting, doing homework, and had a bit more of a social life. So I was busy and distracted. This time, I have a toddler. Being a stay at home mom with a toddler, I'm always occupied with him, but I wouldn't say I'm busy.

But we planned this pregnancy, and we were very lucky to get pregnant when we planned. So Brian's been home for most of the first, and the beginning of the second, trimester. And it's been so nice. Every day I think how lucky I am to have his help. It's not like I get to veg on the couch all day, since Brian's been renovating our second bathroom. But he's been doing much of the shopping and cooking, and if I'm feeling particularly bad, he can stop what he's doing and take Everett. It's been amazing. A true luxury.

We got an ultrasound at a bit over 8 weeks. It was fun. Got to see the heartbeat and that there really was a baby in there.

(picture caption) giant head baby

It was a little annoying that, with all the measurements they took, they put my due date at January 27th (they measured all sorts of things, not just the fetus). From the first day of the last period, I was dating at February 6th, so that was a big jump forward. This was not just annoying because I wasn't sure what to tell people about weeks/due date, but my biggest fear with this pregnancy is getting induced again, and the risk is much greater if I'm being told I'm a week past my due date (time for no stress test!) when I'm not even at my due date yet.

I showed Everett this picture, and I said: "what's that?" and he said, "It's a shark!" Baby just might get called "Sharkie" in the future. (;

Luckily, at our 13 (ish) week ultrasound, the doctor measured the fetus again and was able to give us a due date of February 1st. Much better. I was thinking February 3rd myself (based on conception), but that's close enough.

(picture caption) little leg and foot!

Oh, and he guessed it's a girl!! He said he couldn't be sure, and not to count on it, but he said he was 80% sure. That's pretty sure! A girl?! What would we do with a girl? Love her, I s'pose. And give her the tools to develop into a smart, strong woman! (:

The general wisdom that you get bigger faster with your second is certainly true for me. At 13 weeks I look as big as I did at 20 weeks with Everett (I doubt I was showing much at 13 weeks with him). But I'm all around squishier and in worse shape than I was with Everett. Back then I had a built in walk of at least 40 minutes on school/work days. Now I just chase around and lift a toddler all day. But as I feel better, I'll be walking and swimming more, and plan to take prenatal yoga, so I should be in decent shape for this pregnancy.

We'll be doing this Pinterest inspired photo series. It's challenging, but so fun and silly, to include Everett. When I was pregnant with Everett, I could choose one best picture to show belly progress. Now I'll end up sharing all the cute ones of him (and hope the belly progress is shown).

We're very excited. It seems like a great time to have another one. Everett will be 2 years 9 months in February (yup, babe was conceived just a few days before Everett's birthday--luckily I was still energetic enough to throw him a party). By then, I expect he'll be better able to grasp what the little wailing thing is, and maybe help me a little.

Helpful or not, we think he'll be a great big brother. He's so mellow (relatively), loving, generous, happy, and smart (he'll teach her/him so much!).

Should be a fun and busy 6 months left of pregnancy!