Boo at the Zoo

Fall is my favorite time of year - Oktoberfest beer, jack-o-lanterns, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin cranberry muffins, beautiful colors of the leaves, and trick or treat.  I've been really worried that I'll miss trick or treat so I convinced my sweet husband to go to Boo at the Zoo so I would have some memories of Halloween and this cute little zebra.

She loved it.  Up past her bedtime, the stars in the sky and "zoo animals" sleeping.  And I am resting better feeling like I'm not missing so much of her Halloween experience after all.

"Ome on Dad"

"I zebra. I zebra."

She loves this gorilla, has to sit by it every time now.

She saw some big kids sit here so she had to have a turn.

Playtime

If they gave licenses for homeowners I don't think Tim and I would pass the test.  After almost 5 years we have finally done some home projects.  In an effort to alleviate my guilt that Abby will feel neglected with the new baby, we changed a useless room into a small "playroom".  A place that Abby can hang out in but is not for babies.

Abby and baby "taking a nap", before we moved the toys in.

Hamming in up in her playroom.

Princess P

My favorite thing about this age is that she narrates everything she does.  She talks nonstop at home, even when she is playing by herself.  Some of our new favorite words and phrases:

-What's this?

-What doing, Cassie/mama/daddy?

-My try

-I wanna have it.

-I'm reading (whenever you ask her to do something she doesn't want to do).  She's really saying leave me alone

- You coming. or Om on.

-I wanna take a bass (bath).

She has been into pretend play for  along time now.  Right now she loves pretending to be a cat or a Cassie, a dog, a T-rex, a baby adigator or a T-Rex.  She'll sit with her little people zoo animals for up to 30 minutes acting out some scenario about a mommy, daddy and baby.  Just in time she has gotten into taking care of her baby including putting her to bed or down for a nap, giving her a drink, giving her a ride or in one interesting moment a timeout.  Hopefully she'll be into helping us out with baby stuff.

Her favorite places to go are the zoo, story time, either one of her grandma's houses and any local park.  I can't wait to be able to walk instead of waddle so we can go to the zoo and park more often like we used to.

I've really been soaking her in these last few weeks.  My big baby girl, love her so much.

39, feels like 79

This is how I feel today.

39 weeks pregnant with a toddler and a husband working mandatory overtime is exhausting.  My hips hurt, my bladder isn't what it used to be.  I feel like I should go check into a nursing home.  I'm just so tired that anything you would say to me today would probably make me cry.

This pregnancy has been much harder on me emotionally then the first one.  No matter what I do I can't get enough sleep because I'm so worried about something to come or feel guilty about something that happened that day.  We have decided to stop giving Abby naps because she can't settle down at night until 9:30-10:00 pm when she takes one.  It has been working great, she sleeps 11-12 hours a night and is usually asleep at 7:30-8:00 pm now.  She now has quiet time in her room for an hour while Mommy takes a nap.  This is the best sleep I get all day.

So how do we fix my night time sleeping?  I just can't turn my mind off.  

-When will this baby come?  Abby was 6 days early so that would be tomorrow.

-Will Abby feel like we don't love her anymore when the baby comes?

-How will the baby's sleep schedule affect my already bad temper when I can't sleep well?

-Will Abby wake up in the night because the baby is sleeping?

-Will this baby sleep through the night before I go back to work like Abby did?

-How will I manage two when sometimes just one is so overwhelming when I'm tired?

-What will Tim's role be in this new scenario? 

-Are all the people that say they will help really going to help?  Will I let them help or be too proud?

-Will this delivery go better?  Will I hemorrhage again?

-Do we make enough money to have two kids?

-Will I ever not be tired again?

-I am so much bigger this time, will I be able to accept my new body after this baby?

I could go on and on but that's just a few of my reoccurring worries.

What was your biggest worry the second or third or fourth time around?

You gotta fight, for your right, to party

So Abby is in a phase where she is a party animal.  "I no sleepy" and  "I no wanna bed" are common phrases in our house.  Sometimes it's funny to me that my friend with a 4 month old and I are waking up with our children almost the same amount of times nightly and other nights I wonder if she would trade kids.  I think I would be less mad at the 4 month old because I wouldn't feel like he's pulling one over on me.  Plus he's not my kid so probably would be less annoying.  Maybe I'll ask her tomorrow:)

Tonight we start strategy #???.  Every 5 minutes I'm going in there and just putting her back in her bed.  No kisses, no words, no pats on the head.  Just scoop and drop.  I'm getting pretty sick of it I wonder when she will.

So far I have found her in the closet playing with "bears", her build a bear.  Then she was playing with her book case.  The next time I'm not sure what she was doing because she ran into bed after she made a loud noise.  This incident helped me keep my resolve because now I KNOW she knows she should be in bed.  She will not break me tonight.  The next time I saw she put "bears" in her old crib and then went to read some books.  However, she did not turn her lamp on.  She KNOWS, doesn't she that she is being naughty?  This time she put her arm across her forehead.  I hope this is a sign of defeat and in 2 minutes when I check she will be in here bed.  

My first success!!  She is laying in bed but totally awake.  Never mind I already hear her walking around.

Look how cute she is when she sleeps, hope it happens soon.

Nesting

For 20 weeks I've been pretty much in denial that we are having a second child.  I'm terrified of how we will adjust and how Abby will adjust.  She is THE priority in our life and we don't want her to feel short changed.  I'm panicked about all the work that we need to do in and out of our house because in my mind two kids means we will be in poverty.  Sure we have lived her for four years but suddenly it feels like everything needs to be done right NOW.  I've been purging this house room by room and in an effort to make this pregnancy real to me a few weeks ago I painted the nursery and Tim helped move all the furniture in.  Do you think Abby's baby brother/sister will sleep well in this little room?

Makes me smile to open the door and see all these baby things that were Abby's.

Yet I feel guilty about how much cuter this room looks with this paint color then the green we chose for her.

Can't imagine how many hours I'll be spending in this little nook. Yep that's the Boppy all clean and ready to go.

When she wakes up from her nap I hope to get some pictures of her big girl room.  Side note -I knew she was tired why does she fight me:)??

Did you miss us??

We did it!!!  This is one Abby's current favorite phrases.  Tim is officially a college graduate and has stopped taking our computer hostage.  I don't even know where to start so today I just want to record some of favorite things Abby says right now before they become lost in our foggy memories.

All aboard
Dinosauraus
Um on (come on)
I did it (always accompanied by a huge grin and arms in the air
lub you (love you)
uckle (pickle)
ogurt (yogurt)
ella (elephant)
oppipus (octopus)
beba (zebra)
this way
other way
op it (stop it)
let's do it
let's go daddy (he's always the last one to be ready)
k-k-k-kiera (the baby at daycare she is in love with)
adigator (alligator)
anket (blanket)

She is trying really hard to sing twinkle twinkle and has the rhythm but maybe 15% of the words and she is getting there with the alphabet song and old mcdonald.  Every day there is something new she is saying that takes us by surprise.  Yesterday was all aboard, wonder what today will bring.  What's your favorite phrase your little is stuck on right now?

Enjoying her first time in ball pit on our Door County vacation.

Easter Art Project

Abby loves to finger paint, but there are only so many paintings a mama can hang, frame or store away as memories. With Easter approaching, I had a great idea how to reuse some of her paintings. We would cut them into Easter eggs and hide them in some grass. She loved using the glue stick and putting them all together.





I apologize for the bluriness of these photos and the fact that I can not figure out how to rotate the pictures in blogger. Oh Well. Happy Crafting.