Pregnancy Week 20 6/7

It is very difficult to take a decent photo of myself! I couldn't keep the camera steady with just one hand so all the ones where I wasn't blocking my face were blurry. This is the best I could get. Anyway it's good enough to see that I look about 12 months pregnant already!!!I feel bigger than I did with Reese. My maternity pants feel tight. BUT according to the tape measure I have 9 inches to go before reaching the girth I was when I delivered Reese 8 weeks and 1 day from this point. So really I have leeway for a smidge more than an inch a week to grow! Since I'm hoping to last longer this time I'm hoping not to explode quite that quickly. So far my BP is still okay though I have protein in my urine. My hands and feet are swelling, but they go back down and with Reese my hands stayed swollen from about 15 weeks on. In fact when I was admitted at 27 weeks they could push a finger into my shin and leave a dent. 30 minutes later the dent was still there! So I'm okay with this little bit of swelling. Still no heartburn, so I guess we'll be having a bald baby if the wives' tale is true. I am frequently short of breath, especially when I've been talking awhile---that's a new issue I didn't experience with Reese. I have a bunch of aches I didn't have the first time but the docs agree this is normal second baby aches from already stretched ligaments and such. No stretchmarks--yipee! AND even though I have popped out tremendously I have only gained about 8 pounds so far.

2 year old Well Baby Stats

Reese weighed in at 22.5 pounds which is -3rd percentile and is 33 3/4 inches tall which is 25th percentile. We have graduated (finally) from the 12 month old pants. The adjustable waist still had to be tightened but they had to be retired due to length. He has one pair of perfectly fitted adjustable waist 18 month pants and a few 24 month pants that have to be cuffed. I think we may have also reached the point where we must turn the car seat around. His feet are resting on the seat back with his knees slightly bent now. I was hoping to wait for the chance of snow to be gone before facing him forward, but I think it's not okay to have their feet reach the seat back, so...in the next few days I think I'll be turning the boy around to face forward like a big boy.Reese is playing in the playhouse at Costco. He thinks he may want this for summertime to distract him from the fact that a new baby means the world no longer revolves 100% around him.

Hanging with the Boys

Grandpop went back to Virginia after Reese's birthday the same day Daddy went back to work in Everett. Hanging out before we head to the airporter.
Over the weekend we went up to Everett to visit. Hanging in Daddy's hotel:

Chillin' at the local Starbucks:

weird eating habits

Reese is currently opposed to anything yucky, i.e. sticky, gooey, wet or otherwise food-like, touching his hands. So this is how he ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Thursday.

He's pretty pleased with his ingenuity....and clean hands.

Birthday Boy hits the TERRIFIC Twos

We had Reese's birthday party on Monday---he turned 2!!Here we are keeping his hands out of the fire while we sing--ignore that mommy looks gross.

Birthday Boy and Candy Gram.

Grandad and Birthday Boy

Poppop and Birthday Boy.

cupcakes are yummy

waiting patiently while daddy helps unwrapReese really likes riding his new tricyclepracticing shooting hoops and making sure the audience saw it all.

okay I did upload more photos but as I type in the captions the cursor is jumping all around the page (and I look at the keyboard like a loser typist) so then I have to erase half words from the middle of previous things and I accidentally lost 6 photos. I am super frustrated, so I am stopping and will add more tomorrow.

pregnant brain

I am so upset! Earlier tonight I told Kyle we must take a photo of our boy tonight before bed, so I can post the very last night our boy is one year old. AND we totally forgot!!!!! GRRRR!!! So we do not have a photo of our one year old boy. Tomorrow at 10:26am he will officially become a terrific 2 year old.

Menu Plan Monday

So last week I just didn't bother with a menu plan since Kyle would not be having dinner with us all week and Reese eats a microscopic amount of food. One casserole would have lasted us all week and still had to have some thrown away. But I still checked out other people's menus and this week the mpm host, Laura at Organizing Junkie is giving away a super cool prize, so I am making a plan for the week. You should check out everyone else's menu ideas and link your own plan to be eligible to win.
Monday: chicken noodle soup I threw in a cup of frozen peas, some ground black pepper, healthy heart from the spice place at Pike Place Market and cayenne pepper this time--so really the recipe is just a loose guideline. I recommend you precook or defrost any frozen veggies--I think they made my cream of mushroom soup separate a little---no one complained about taste but I thought it looked unappetizing.
Tuesday: steaks on the grill, sweet potato fries, broccoli
Wednesday: Reese and I are on our own and we both have doctor appointments: meeting my pal Laura and her girls, Briar and Delaney for dinner and mall playland
Thursday: garlic chicken with veggies and pasta all in a frozen bag from costco
Friday: fish sticks---costco sucked me in---this is a new thing we are going to give a try, hopefully Reese will eat it.... and a frozen veggie medley
Saturday and Sunday: we'll eat with daddy in Everett, so we'll probably eat out.

Also we decided to try to get back in the habit of making smoothies since Reese is suddenly adverse to veggies and I am really not much of a fruit eater. This seems like an easy way to get a few servings of veggies with make it yourself smoothies. We froze some containers of low fat activa yogurt, so we'll use one container of yogurt with frozen blueberries and peaches and whatever kind of juice we have on hand. This makes it a little too creamy and thick for me, but Kyle and Reese love it. I am going to try adding some crushed ice to lighten it up and make it feel more "refreshing"--I'll let you know how it goes.

Mudroom Makeover

Our "mudroom" is really the space just inside the basement door that we use as the main entrance into/out of the house. It has not been particularly attractive, but it opens to the driveway where we park, so it's been convenient. It also eliminates a bunch of filth on the kitchen floor that would accumulate if we entered via the kitchen door. So we finally decided this Christmas break we'd transform it into a proper mudroom. Here's before (not at it's worst) with tools and supplies and random (lamp, litter, toys) things.Reese is through "helping" for the moment and headed upstairs.

This is the shoe rack immediately in the doorway. Kyle's most used shoes on top so he doesn't have to bend. Then Reese's collection, then mommy's most used for the moment (I still have my ladybug converse that have laces and my adidas with laces--I may soon switch strictly to slip on) and some empty space for guests.

To the left of the door is our key basket and alarm keypad and little pegs for Reese's coats and grocery/totes etc. That is white beadboard on the upper wall, the black Rhino coating (love this stuff) on the bottom.The little squares at the corners of the window have stars.

From the last picture we are moving left. That is my coat peg rack I got at the Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show in Sister's Oregon last summer. Under is our new shoe bench so you can actually sit to put on shoes--yippee, not too sure how much longer my expanding waistline will allow me to squish up to bend over tying my shoes! To the left you can kind of see the same type of racks that are beside the door---but these are filled with mommy shoes.

To the left of the mommy shoe rack is our remove your shoes sign we got in Hawaii on our belated honeymoon/trip to my friend's wedding the summer of '06.

Here I kind of just stepped back--the door is to the right and the Hawaii sign is on the post beam on the left side of the photo.

Crazy Burrito

Reese really enjoyed his burrito, but do you see all the crazy holes. He does not want to eat from the end as one would typically eat a burrito. He insists on eating from the side.I held it and showed him how to bite from the end, but he went right back to his side eating.

He likes to eat his sandwiches crust side first too. But I guess I shouldn't complain. Today is the first day he ate normal sized portions at every meal since his sickness started last Wednesday. I didn't really comment on that I don't think: Wednesday he had a fever of 103.7
I called the pediatrician's office to see if we should do tylenol and fluid or do we need to come in. Of course we had to go in so they could take my $30 and say tylenol and fluids!!! Wednesday and Thursday he was feverish all day and clung to me on the couch and dozed off and on. Friday he had a lower fever, but played and obviously felt better with the tylenol/ibuprofen cocktail. Saturday the snot started. Sat/Sun/Mon he sneezed 2 giant gushers of snot all day, you know through each nostril with each and every sneeze. Tues/Wed/Thurs he just had runny nose and coughing, no fever or gushers. Saturday I thought the snot may be over, but not yet and today still a little runny. UGH! But neither Kyle or I caught the bug. Yippee!

Charlie's Birthday

On Saturday we went to Reese's friend, Charlie's (aka Charlotte) 3rd birthday party at the Poulsbo Marine Science Center where we saw lots of cool things.

an octopus

a decorator crab, who collects bits of algae and such to attach to its shell for camoflauge

I forget what this is but here where Reese is touching it, it is smooth--when it's relaxed it has a bunch of tuber feet all over it

and a star fish

Afterwards we hit the McDonald's playland. Reese actually went inside--this is the farthest he's ever gone in.

So what'd we do this week?

Reese is CONSTANTLY in the bathroom doing annoying things of late. Throwing toys in the cat's bowl for example:

Unfortunately, he also enjoys climbing up on the toilet and messing with my stuff in the cabinet above. He was trying to get into my little drawers of makeup stuff and accidentally knocked it all on the floor. Following the crash I could hear frantic cries "UH-OH!!UH-OH!!!!" and then I discovered ALL my makeup brushes on the floor behind the toilet and between the toilet and sink and TOUCHING the plunger. I have since purchased brush cleaner and thoroughly disinfected them all so I won't have plunger juice on my makeup brushes----Barforama!

On Superbowl Sunday he enjoyed a beer (empty bottle) while investigating the squirrels outside. He played with toys more than watch the game. But he did join in with the Marine Corps band and The E Street Band on his toy drum (I couldn't capture a photo of that).
Tuesday we had his post-operative appointment with the surgeon in Bellevue. As we were in the car waiting for Dad to run back in the house for my cell phone I looked over and saw this: a real, live dead possum in our yard! UGH! By that I mean not playing dead but really truly dead---gross!!!

After he got a clean bill of groin health we hit the Guitar Center in Tacoma where Reese tried out the drums.

At home he's really been enjoying playing in the laundry baskets.
drumming, of course.

Menu Plan Monday

We filed our taxes wooo hoooo! So glad that is done. I was really remiss in photo taking this week. Reese had an eye doctor appointment Monday that Kyle didn't go to and it's difficult to hold him on my lap, keep his hands out of the way of the annoying things the doctor does to his face AND take photos. We also ordered new goggles for him that day. Tuesday Kyle had a dentist appointment while Reese and I went to Holly Ridge. Wednesday I had an appointment with my regular OB--may be some new news on that front, but I'm waiting for a call back tomorrow or Tuesday. Friday since my first trimester is over I finally got my hair done! No more roots!!! Reese had a great time at Mimi's playing with Mimi and the uncles and Madison the dog Reese calls "kitty." Oh and I forgot Reese was sick so we went to his pediatrician Wednesday and spent that evening and all of Thursday cuddled on the couch in misery. Now he feels a little better but the cough, sneeze and snot kicked in--ugh!!! And finally we had a Super Bowl party of just us at Kyle's parents---we were rooting for the underdogs--bummer, but glad they made a respectable showing their first time out. So onto the menu for this week:

Monday: Pizza Bagels
Tuesday: Leftovers from Superbowl
Wednesday: Beef Stew--I kind of just throw veggies in and use V-8 juice and chicken stock
Thursday: Black Bean, barley and corn burritos
Friday: Fried rice and egg rolls
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Hamburgers (hopefully on the grill), sweet potato fries, salad

If you are in need of new menu selections check out what everyone else is having at Organizing Junkie.