ABC

This past Wednesday my mom and I flew to Atlanta for her "weekend" getaway of photo shoots and video shoots and all things American Breast Care for women with breast cancer.  She was treated like royalty - we were picked up from every destination with our own personal driver in a fancy car, all of our meals and accomodations were paid for, she was pampered with hair and makeup by a makeup artist and personal stylist each day, and every other little detail you can imagine.  She had to work for it too though - the first day they shot over 4 hours of video, and the second day 4+ hours of photos.  Smiling and being "on cue" like that all day is big work!  But she was fantastic, and it was special and fun to be able to share it with her.  My favorite part was learning more about her breast cancer journey that I didn't even really know or understand from living through it with her.  It was a special thing to "re-hash" if you will.  She is a strong and beautiful woman, and I am so priviledged to call her mom.  :)

 

 

 

The Numbers

Current House Closing - Today

Atlanta - 2 days

My birthday - 8 days

New House Closing - 9 days

Last day of school - 24 days

New Baby - 12 weeks (give or take)

Stats

Dear Life,

Last week when we went to the doctor for Em's 18-month checkup (at 19+ months... we are a little late) and she was TWENTY-NINE pounds.  No wonder my back has been hurting!  Gee whiz, she is a growing machine!  I forget how tall... 32.2 inches or something like that.  She is in the 95% for weight, and 55% for height.  Absolutely perfect.

She now has all four of her eye-teeth, which makes for a grand total of 16 teeth.

She will attempt ANY word we ask her to say, and generally speaking she is pretty close.  She has many two-word phrases like, "all done," "hi mama," "nigh-nigh daddy," and "love you."  Dr. Vetter asked us to ball-park how many words she was saying and we guessed somewhere around the 150 range... although if you count all the words she'll attempt, it is way more than that.  He said the average for this age is about 15.  We have a talker on our hands!

Em has strong opinions about just about everything, but still the sweetest little attitude.  She loves to cuddle and when she's insecure or has just plain run out of words to say she'll say, "mommyyyyy?!??  Rock rock??  Boooook??   Hug."

I think she's pretty great.

Can't wait to meet her sweet little new sister.  I bought hospital outfits for baby girl yesterday.  It's starting to feel more real.  Give or take 12 weeks to go!

Molly

Sensory Play

Em and I had just a fun day yesterday.  She did some awesome sensory play in a tub of water with some sponges and spoons and bowls, and she played with play-dough for the first time. 

I'm not entirely sure she was ready for the play-dough... she kept wanting to put it in her mouth even though I told her it was very icky and not for eating.  She kept saying "icky, icky" and then putting it by her mouth just to see if I was paying attention.  I was.  Thankfully.

 

The water tub occupied her for close to an hour though. I told her she had to sit on the towel in the kitchen and that was the only thing I interjected. She didn't even try to get up from the towel - she just used her spoons to stir the water, pour it into other little bowls, pour it on her feet, tell me "brrrr brrr" (it's cold, mama!), and she definitely was well hydrated after the water play as well, as she drank a LOT of it.  This occupied her for close to an hour.  No joke.  It was all kinds of awesome. 

 

 

 

Oh!  And we whipped out this little fun again too.  Last week she wouldn't do it on her own - she kept asking for help and wanted me to do it for her.  This time I needed to walk away and do something in the kitchen, and when I came back she had put in 4-5 on her own.  Yippee!  As soon as I sat down next to her again though, she wanted help again.  But I know she can do it!  This also occupied her for 20 or so minutes, which was just the right amount of time for me to get some banana bread made.  It cracked me up because each time she put one in she said "poke poke" (like I did when I first showed her how to do it a week ago) and then when she took them out she set them in a little pile and said "pat pat" while she patted her little hands on them to straighten the pile (exactly like I did when I showed her how).  My little monkey-see-monkey-do!  (Scary!)  

I think I had just as much fun watching her as she did playing with it all.  I need some more ideas for sensory play that allow children to also explore with eating though, because I don't think she's quite ready for non-edibles.  (As proven by the play-dough.)  Ideas?

Yup.  So that was our day.  Plus some tantrums and whining and meltdowns and the normal stuff.  Don't think our day was just all peachy-keen.  I know it is easy to do that when you read someone else's blog.  I'm not a super mom and would never pretend to be.  Just saying.

So... while I'm admitting my non-super-mom tendencies... any ideas how to get a child to happily switch from one activity to the next?  I don't want to end too early because it is obviously way fun... but I also don't want to let it go too long for fear of losing the fun either. 

Yup, that's all.     

YMCA

Thanks to an awesome military benefit, we got YMCA memberships this weekend. We went to the pool today and it was awesome. Exhausting, but awesome.

Em loved every minute, kicking her feet and "swimming" between Jordan and I and motor-boating around with her dad. She took a great nap when we got home and I could have used one too... and all I did was carry her around the pool and swim a lap or two!

Now? Bedtime.

Hard Work

Today was one of those days where being a mommy was hard.

Exhausting hard work.

I felt like I said "no no" and "talk nice" and "no hitting" and "use your words" a lot.

It was a day where bedtime could just not come soon enough.

And now, two hours after my sweet bambino has been tucked into bed, I miss her little personality and would secretly like to sneak into her room to cuddle her or watch her sleep.

But I won't. Even though I'm tempted. Because two hours is just not enough for a sweet baby to restock on pleasantries. Maybe by morning she'll be back to her chipper self.

Naming the Baby

Kinder Kiddo:  Hey Mrs. Wobbema, what is the baby in your tummy named?

Me: We haven't picked one out quite yet!

Kinder Kiddo:  Well I have been thinking of some ideas for you. 

Me:  Oh yeah?  Tell me...

Kinder Kiddo:  Well she could be named Sally.  Or maybe Lisa.  And I like Crystal and Diamond too. 

Kinder Kiddo 2:  Or Hot Chocolate?

Melty Happy Heart

I married a rockstar.  Seriously.

 

I wish I would have taken a picture of him dancing with Emberly the other day, but I was just oogling over the moment.  As he's dancing with her she rests her head on his shoulder and coos the happiest toddler noises.  He turns and looks at me and says, "This world would be a much better place if more dads just danced with their daughters." 

 

See what I mean?  Rockstar.

 

And then he sends me this picture of them playing while I'm at work today...

Go ahead.  Be jealous.



Emotions

Dear Pregnancy Emotions,

Where in the world did you come from? I have to admit you caught me slightly off guard tonight when I got home from Costco to find sweet Emberly already tucked in and nearly burst into tears right then and there. But I held it together. Obviously not very well, though, because even Jordan suggested I go get Em and rock her a little bit. So I did. How is that for full-on emotional follow through? Getting my peaceful, nearly sleeping 19-month old out of her crib to rock? She looked at me all confused and then asked if we could read a book, so I of course said yes. And then weepily made my way through all 7 verses of the Itsy Bitsy Spider book while Em rested her head on my shoulder. She is just growing up way too fast. I need a "freeze time" button. When I asked Em if she wanted to rock a little after reading her the book she said "mope" and pointed to her bed and said "nigh-nigh." So, I tucked her in and and she went to sleep.

Sigh.

Ok pregnancy emotions. You can depart now, because you are scaring me a little.

Sincerely Yours,
Molly

Awesome Things

Pinterest wastes lots of my time, yes, but I am not one of those people that pin things and never use them/complete them. Here is how Pinterest has already made my week more awesome...




And while I was picking up our fun crafting supplies, I found this handy dandy little dustpan, which for $1.98, was a total score. My child loves to "help" mama clean up. I guess we could call that an indirect Pinterest win.


AND... my all-time favorite Pinterest find...


I have been making a batch of "dots" as we call them in our house every few days. They are simply puréed fruits and vegetable squeezed out into little dots and frozen for Em's tiny hands to pop into her mouth. She isn't a vegetable lover, but she LOVES frozen dots. Fooled into delicious healthy food eating. They are a perfect snack or for pre-gaming before a meal while you are putting the finishing touches on dinner and your child decides the world will end if you do not feed them right.this.very.instant. Why not get the veggies in before the meal, right?? Only downside is that I can only give her a few at a time or they get all melty. Oh well, can't win them all.

Singing

My heart is full listening to Emberly singing "mommy, mama, mommy mommy mommy" and "dada, papa, mama, daddy" in the sweetest little sing-song voice in her crib. She's supposed to be sleeping... but that's beside the point. :)

Perfect

Perfect night = leftovers for dinner, long walk outside with J & Em, Tutti Frutti goodness with gobs of peanut butter cups, and a hot bath.

House Closing Countdown

Dear Life,

We close on our new house in just 30 days.  Guess how many boxes we've packed.

Did you guess??

Zero. 

Yup.  Zero.

We should probably get on that...


Sincerely Yours,
Molly