Tonight at dinner, drnking her milk, boy was she thirsty. Can anyone guess what she did after making this face???

Today I strapped on my belly band for the second time. The first time I did it too tight or something and I only lasted a few minutes before I took it off. But I wore it Its weird because with Grace I wore that thing all the time, and so far I haven't really felt the need for it. But of course I still have the third trimester left to tackle so we will see. Its been a good week and but I am glad tomorrow is Friday. At work we are waiting for a co-worker to have his first baby. He is so lucky he gets to have a pregnant wife at home and a pregnant co-worker...ha ha he is surrounded by pregnant forgetful women.

My darling husband and I have been working really hard to cut costs in our daily budget, we have switched auto insurance providers, lowered our cable bill, changed dog food (amazing how expensive that stuff is) and are currently in the middle of refinancing. We are very proud of ourselves.

Grace is such a doll, have I mentioned some of her new words recently? Let's see she can say, Mommy, Daddy, Briggsy, Binky and Blankey which sound the same mostly, she signs More and says it, Milk, Car, Ball, Doggies, Shoes (although I think she has forgotten how to say socks since its been summer),Blocks, Trees, House, Side (which can be Inside or Outside) Elmo and one of my favorite lately Amen. Every night Grace and I read a book or two and then we turn the lights our and say our prayers and just recently she started say "A-Men". So cute!!

She loves to play with her Sidewalk Chalk and Color with her Crayons. Also she loves playing with her Play-Doh.

Another recent behavior change is at dinner time, she will eat most of her dinner and then she pick up her plate and cup and give it to me. I will ask her if she is, "All Done" and she nods her head yes, so I get up and clean her face or take her over to the sink and wash her hands and then let her down. But then she will either want to come over to my lap and sit while I finish dinner or with daddy and eat more off of our plates. What do you all think about that? My thought is she is full and not really hungry if she wants down and so I tend to say at first, "No your not eating Mommy's food". But then other times I let her depending on how much she ate of her own food. I wonder if she is feeling like she no longer wants to be in her high chair, because she can climb up on our chairs now and we let her stand and color at the table or play with her Play-Doh (not at dinner time). After all she can't be in her high chair forever! I suppose we might have to start looking into boosters chairs or something.

According to Daddy this morning she was really missing us, I tried to get a kiss before I left for work, but she was not having that and actually gave me a couple of dirty looks before she decided to wave "Bu-Bye" and then blow me a kiss. I guess she was a bit clingy with Daddy when he dropped her off too. Her teachers always tell me how she never cries when we leave. Oh and apparently she is Miss Popular at school too. Whenever I pick her up in the evenings the older kids are always saying, "Bye Grace!" and waving to her. And she turns and says, "Bu-Bye!" about 52 times! What a crack up! I love it!

Tuesday's Tutz

I took this pic back in June and just reposted it for tonight because I didn't take any of Grace, she was CRANKY! Bedtime was 715pm tonight.Today is obviously Tuesday and has been a good day. I am 25 weeks today! Wahoo! That means 12 more weeks and I am considered full term. And when you say it like that, then you think wow that went by fast! Of course you could also look at like I have about 3 months left, Aug Sept and Oct! I can't believe July has gone by so fast. The little boy is still just moving and shaking all the time. Still no names yet, although I have one or two I am kicking around in my head, that I haven't mentioned to Daddy yet. My next prenatal is Aug 12th and I have to do my Glucose test for that. Yuck! I am going to fast and see if that helps so I don't have to do the 3 hour test which I had to do with Grace. Hopefully that helps. I am still feeling pretty good and I am loving sleeping on our mattress topper too. Its a 3 inch one and very comfortable...Thank You Overstock! There are some days that I don't feel pregnant when I am sleeping on it.

The baby is 13 1/2 inches and about 1 1/2 pounds, apparently about the size of a rutabaga. Which I kinda thought was like a potato, but it must be a big one! lol The baby should start gaining weight now and start filling out so he is not a lil wrinkly one.

So last night I forgot to mention that our Grace went poop in the potty!! Ha ha, Daddy went to change her diaper and I said, "Why don't you just let her run around naked for a bit?" She had been tooting a lot and we thought it was coming shortly. Also we have been saying a lot when we see her grunting, "Are you going potty?" Plus the last couple of days in the mornings she has grabbed at her diaper and I have said, "Do we need to change your diaper?" Then she nods yes. So we were getting ready for a bath anyway and then all of a sudden she was in the bathroom and started to tinkle and daddy grabbed her and put her on the potty. I think she was shocked but then she did the rest of her business. We were clapping and praising her and I think she didn't know what to think about it. Then we flushed her potty and gave her a sucker after all she was going to sit in the bathtub anyway! I think we will keep doing what we are doing kind of gradual. I would like to have Grace potty trained by the time lil brother comes around, but someone mentioned to me today that she might see diapers and me changing him and revert back. Do you experienced parents out there think that is a possibility? Of course closer to my due date I think she will understand more and more. And really she gives me more guff changing her than not! Although the idea of tiny little girl underpants seems so grown-up! I don't want to think about her growing up!
Time to wrap up and relax! I think Hells Kitchen is on!

Cutie

I came home tonight to find THE CUTEST BABY who yelled Mommy!!! with a big grin.
I found this green top when I exchanged some clothes at Kohls and it ended up going so well with her cute overalls. I kept trying to get pics of her little pig tail braids but I couldn't get any real good ones.

I mean cute farmers daughter look here huh?

Say Cheese!

Here are her braids.

Mmm guacamole! She was double fisting the stuff!

This weekend it was Pioneer Day on July 24th which is a HUGE holiday in Utah and they treat it very much like the 4th. On saturday we went up to East Canyon in the afternoon and had an afternoon by the lake. We brought our bathing suits and some chairs and some snacks and hung out. Grace did not like the lake and the small waves and she freaked out and wanted us to hold her in the water. But she loved eating snacks and hanging out on the blanket, in fact she does so well really she never wanders off the blanket. It made us want to go camping and I have been trying to decide if I want to brave a tent camping experience this pregnant. Especially because we love to go camping way out in the boonies where we can let the dogs run around and not have people close by. I am still pondering and it might be a couple of weeks out still so we will see.

Sunday we cleaned house and I did laundry and we watched the Denzel Washington movie called the Book of Eli. It was surprisingly really good, I think one of my favorite's of his. I can't really tell you whats it about with out giving away important bits, but it does have a surprising ending of a sort.

And now its Monday and the beginning of another week. Tomorrow I will be 25 weeks, and I think I probably need a new baby belly pic!

Time to get off this computer! TTFN!

Tuesday

I took this pic last night when Grace was playing on our mattress topper and even though she got too close for a good pic, I still thought it was a neat picture of her eyes. I got my Moby Wrap yesterday and tried it on for fun. Your supposed to be able to carry up to 35 pounds, so I stuck my Lil Miss in there. I am actually not holding her with my hands, they are just resting there. 2 Seconds later though she and I were both done. One because she is full of energy and didn't want to be held or constrained and 2 because it didn't seem like a good idea to be wearing it 24 weeks pregnant. It wasn't ideal. But I am so excited for it and the material is sooo long, there are lots of ways to "wrap" the baby. This was just the first time and wasn't perfect of course, but it was surprisingly easy to use.

Who would have thought I would be all earthy and hippy like??? LOL! I remember looking at slings before Grace was born and thinking those sling things do not look comfortable at all! Well I was wrong and if I can breastfeed the little guy easily with it, I will be very much pleased with my purchase!! Plus I love the green neutral color.

Tonight Daddy grilled steaks which Grace was shoveling in her mouth faster than I could cut it off my plate. The corn on the cob was bypassed for steak tonight...hmm I think she is a daddy's girl for sure. But before we ate I got a couple of videos of her outside with her chalk for you to enjoy.

And lastly because inquiring minds want to know, I did sleep better with the mattress topper. I still was up and tossed and turned a few times but not nearly enough, and I think my weird dreams were contributing to the not sleeping as well. We will see how tonight goes.

Sorry I dont have time to retell any stories from the weekend, its already late, but I don't worry your not missing out on any Grace pics because I didn't take any from the weekend.

24 weeks today and still filling good, trying to get some naps in on my lunches these days. The sweet little boy is still a moving and a shaking. I am going to try to find a local place I can actually touch and see some cloth diapers so I know what I want. There are so many to choose from and I am Kinetic learner, very hands on, so its hard for me to choose from just looking at stuff online. HUGS and LOVE!

I'm Melting...

One could assume I am talking about my heart melting over this adorable girl of mine, this pic taken in the airport on the way home from San Diego, or one could assume I am melting from the heat because it has been in the 100's and hot hot hot and I am pregnant so that makes it 105 degrees.

But the truth of the matter is I am melting into my bed right now and that is why you get a short and sweet post.

Yes our mattress topper came today (as well as my Moby Wrap I ordered for the new lil boy) and I am coooozzzyyy! So I am going to wrap this post up quickly (mainly because I slept poorly this weekend and last night) tell you I have a new pic of Grace with me in my Moby Wrap I was playing with tonight and then be off to bed.

We had a busy but good weekend and I will fill you in tomorrow...ideally. Love You!

Here'sss Hollywood!

Stopped at the light after I picked this sweet thing up from daycare, I handed her sunglasses to her and she put them on herself! What a hoot! Doesn't it look like she is saying, "No pictures please!" lol!

Still waiting for my matress topper to come, I received an email saying it shipped today so hopefully it will come soon. I as so tired when I woke up this morning and I think I slept ok. I only woke up once to go to the bathroom. But then I took a nap on my lunch and it took me forever to feel awake from that nap. So glad tomorrow is Friday!!!! So far we don't have anything really planned, mabe we will go to the pool on Saturday. Some laundry for sure! What have you got planned??

Cookies and Milk

Tonight Daddy made some quick chocolate chip cookies and unfortunately they got cooked a wee bit too long. So we gave our Lil Miss a cookie and a glass of milk to dip her crunchy cookie in. She thought that was GREAT! Daddy kept making her smile these huge toothy smiles, so I was trying to get a cip of her new botton tooth. I don't think I ever really got it, but they are cute pics!

This was right after the huge smile! So she looks kinda weird.

Mmmm, cookies and milk!

Say cheese!

Artistic Baby

This is Grace's favorite past time as of late. She loves to color. I recently let her stand on a chair with it pulled up to the counter. This usually works pretty good because she will stand there and color quite contently, while we cook and clean the kitchen. Look at that concentration! The only bad thing is if she drops or wings crayons off the edge, then I found out that the tips break. (And look how clean my counter is! Love it!)

She loves to color and we let her have a max of about 5 but usually about 3 at a time, that way we dont have crayons all over the place.

She has only fallen off the chair once, and who knows what happened because I didn't see it. Not that it really matters that much anyways because she can move those chairs around and climb up on them all by herself now anyways.

She is such a good girl. She has a bad diaper rash tonight and so when we said our prayers we prayed that her little bottom would get a lot better by morning. Also have I mentioned she is finally cutting herself another bottom tooth? So now she hasher top 2 teeth and the ones next to them. Bottom 2 teeth and one on the left is coming in. And she has molars popping out one on each side on the top and we think soon we will see molars on the bottom. Daddy thought he felt swollen gums back there on the bottom the other day.

Today I am 23 weeks and the little boy is still apparently a large mango, about 11 inches long and one pound. I had the thought today that I think this little guy is going to be one baby that will like being rocked to sleep. It seems to me that almost everytime I am still he starts kicking or poking or wriggling. And that when I am moving he is a chill little boy, probably asleep!

I got a mattress topper for our mattress today. I ordered it off of Overstock and hopefully it will help me sleep. We have had some issues with our mattress. When we first got it we loved it, then we started getting indentions in it, and then we made it firmer and now its almost too firm for my pregnant body. Since you can only really sleep on your side I find myself tossing from side to side all night long and shaking out numb shoulders and arms. So I am hoping that, that will help with the sleeping. Because with Grace I didn't toss and turn and not sleep as much as I am with this one.

I also got a Moby Wrap ordered to carry the little one in. I am excited to see how it works. And have I mentioned this one lately? Probably not because it was just Saturday I was thinking and researching it, but I am considering doing cloth diapers with this one. Cloth diapers have a lot of expense upfront but then the only added stress is supposedly about 1-2 extra load of laundry a week. We can afford the cost now, and I think that might help us financially when I am at home with the kiddos. Also if I buy them second hand (supposedly they resale well too) then I would save even more. Or even get the pattern and have them made. There are lots of different options with cloth diapers now and it can be a bit confusing but I have been thinking and looking into it, so we will see. If anybody has heard of people's experiances with cloth diapers, let me know!

Well I think that I need to get off this computer and see what my sweet hubby is doing. HUGS!!

4th of July

I realized last night that I never posted our pics from the 4th of July when we went to go see fireworks. We found a park that hosted a fireworks show. For those of you not from Utah, all the celebrating for the 4th of July and Pioneer Day (July 24th) are done on the Saturday before if the holiday falls on a Sunday. Well I thought that there would be a fireworks show on Sunday night and we did find one, luckily, because we stayed home on Saturday night! Also since it stays light till about 930pm here, the show actually didn't start till 10pm so the Lil Miss got to stay up really late. This was her reaction the whole time during the fireworks show. I think a lot of that was the noise and sleepyness factors.Poor thing she was not oving from Daddy's lap he was her protector from fireworks.

But before the actually show started, we got there around 920ish and Grandma bought Grace this princess light sword/wand thing that you push the button and it lights up in different patterns. She loved that!

She still loves it in fact and once she figured out the button, it was even better!

Of course here she is waving it around, I did manage to survive 2 separate eye pokings one in each eye, thank goodness!

Oooo and Aaahhh!

I took a couple of videos but I think this is the best one. I am not sure what you can here, but at one point she did smile. Although, when the Grand Finale started she went back into silent mode checking everything out.

Saturday Afternoon at the Pool

A shot of the pool. I tried to get pictures of Grace actually in the pool but by the time I got out to get the camera, she was really ready to get out!

Mommy stuck the leftover grapes in the diaper bag and she was just munching on them when we had to get out of the pool every hour for a 10 min sunscreen break.

Grace did pretty well in the pool, she a couple of face plants when she got into splashing and I think next weekend we will try some swim wings or something at another pool.

And no sunburn babies or mommies or daddies so that was good too! The only adventure was Grace making a beeline out of the locker room when I was throwing away her diaper. Lucky for us some lady chased her down, but daddy was waiting outside by that time too.

And yes I did brave a bikini with my pregnant belly sticking out! Ha ha! I love summer!!!!

Some more Hair Pics

I took these tonight again right before bed. Daddy was playing with her and making her laugh and smile which is a bonus for all of us, because she was cranky tonight and last night. Unfortunately last night we think Grace had some bad gas. She woke up screaming at 10:30pm and cried and cried until about 11pm. We gave her some Lil Tummy's and that helped I heard a burp and toot, as well. But we let her watch some Sesame Street to get her mind off and finally she made it back to bed around ten after.

But then tonight the girl was not interested in eating at all and we finally figured out that it might hurt to eat. Because Daddy made a pork roast and homemade mashed potatoes and gravy. Normally mashed potatoes are one of her favorites and she was only kind of eating them, and the meat loving baby wasn't really loving the meat either.

So we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed and hopefully that helps her little gums and teeth.

I kept trying to get shots of bangs and face but only the first shot was a good one.

My prenatal appointment went good and everything is clicking right along. Next appointment I have to do the dreaded glucose test....and I am planning on fasting for that one to increase the odds of not having to do the three hour test. I told the Dr. when he asked how much the lil boy was moving, a lot! The last few days he moves all the time. The doc says that is good, because we want active babe.

Everything is doing good here! Time to head off to bed!

Can you Tell What I did?

I did it,I couldn't help myself. I couldn't stand it anymore. I tried to get a better pic, but it was late and I was using my cell phone. So this is as good as it gets tonight. Can you tell the difference?? Well if you guessed that I trimmed Grace's hair and gave her bangs then your right! Her hair was getting kind of long in the front and not so much on the sides and since I dont have time in the mornings to put it in cute little pony tails. I sat her on my bathroom counter and combed her hair forward and with one swipe of the scissors they were no longer in her face. I confess I didn't want to and I had to save the little bits of baby hair.

What do you think?

Chips and Salsa Anyone?

Its amazing isn't it? What our children like and don't like? Grace has never been a condiment kind of gal. She doesn't like ranch or ketchup, she prefers her meat plain. Unless its meatloaf in which case I make mine with salsa in it. I also make her scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa on the weekend and I am pretty sure she prefers those over pancakes!

So it came really as no surprise when she figured out that when she dips her chip in salsa and tastes it, it actually is good and tastes like salsa! Of course the end of dinner time was not fun and I had to take her out because she was whining and screaming really loud and its quite echo-ie in Don Antonios. Plus there were that many people so it was totally noticeable!

She is so cute though, and when we got back home she got to color with her crayons for a little bit and we bounced a new bouncey ball we got at the grocery off her head a few times. (Thanks to Pepaw she thinks thats funny and now ducks her head into the toss lol!)

I don't know about you all but I am glad its Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday. Although I am sad that the last of my long weekends have come to an end and I have to work this Saturday.

I am 22 weeks today and our lil baby boy was moving a lot today! This morning, around lunch time and dinner time as well. Normally I just feel him around morning and about 8pmish. I felt pretty good today, not so tired so that was nice. I got a new pair of black maternity work pants and they have a big belly band waist. I had rolled it down this morning and it rolled up by itself. I had thought it was going to bug me but I never felt it at all, all day! The best 20 bucks I spent on work pants! I probably will wear those till I am done! Which is nice because nothing has been comfortable to wear to work lately. Home, yeah, I can wear whatever slouchy clothes I want. But looking semi decent and pregnant is a pain! So I am thrilled about my purchase, also I got a cute maternity dress as well. Its more summery and nice for weekend wear but I think it might be ok with a sweater tossed over for work. Our prenantal appointment is Thursday and I will update you, till then hugs!

Some of our weekend....

We found out how good of a climber Grace is now this weekend, this is one way. She walked over to the ladder at the party and started climbing. Yes daddy was right there the whole time, so ran and got the camera to document her fearlessness.

....and because I am trying to watch a movie at the same time I am going to make this a short post as far as me jabbering goes. Which may or may not suit you... :)

Saturday morning we were invited to our friends and former landlords place for a breakfast party and to watch a small parade that goes by their house. It was a lot of fun. They had their breakfast party with their neighbors (who have a such a neat yard with ducks, a goose, dogs, lots of shade trees and little ponds and streams) we lined the sidewalk and Grace loved the parade as soon as she realized she could go pick up candy they were throwing!!!

More to come later!