Friday, July 30, 2010

Lost in translation

Verbal Betsy's version of her favorite song.

"Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy, ashes, ashes, we all fall DOWN!"

Betsy's version

............................................. ASSES, ASSES.....DOWN!

OK, it's hard not to laugh at that. We're still working on the shh sound.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Baby Bedding

I am having the hardest time coming up with bedding and decorating for baby girl 2. I'm not sure WHY I have such a hard time with this! I kind of regret that I didn't buy a bedding set for Betsy. I just bought inexpensive sheets and a bumper that coordinated on clearance and I think it looked cute and I barely spent any money. Because she moved to a toddler bed so early it would have been nice to have the quilt and make it more of a 'bedding set'.

So, as I spent about $20 on all Betsy's bedding last time I can't fathom spending $150+ this time (though I kind of want to). I found this really cute set through Target, but I would probably order it through Amazon because it's cheaper.



But then I think... that's a LOT of money for a baby bedding set. And of course if I buy the baby bedding set I'll have to order the matching mobile. My Mom tells me to take my time and keep looking, and I'll try to do that this weekend. I feel like I used all my favorite ideas in Betsy's room and I'm kind of burned out on pink and brown, and brocade, and polka dots, but I don't love purple, and I don't want gender neutral.

I should just call 'Design on a Dime' or Vern Yipp in and get them to come in and do it for me! Why yes, I do watch too much HGTV.

Cute Betsy stuff

I'm pretty thrilled to have a mini-Shan organizer running around my house these days. Yesterday while I showered and Ben was still sleeping, Betsy slid out of our bed and picked up all the dirty clothes around our bedroom and bathroom. Then she put Ben's shoes in the closet. She also loves putting trash in the trash can and wiping the floor down. As Uncle JD told me yesterday, start training them early because once they hit five they are hopeless. Which explains why I'm not making much progress with Betsy's DADDY. Along these same lines, we've also trained Betsy to be a back scratcher. She and Ben lay in bed together snuggling at night and he rolls to his stomach and says "Scratch?" and she takes care of business.

Her new favorite game is 'Ring Around the Rosey'. OH MY GOSH, she loves this game. She wants to hold hands, jump in a circle, and fling herself back completely with her feet up around her ears when "we all fall down". We've taken to playing this with me standing up next to the bed and her standing ON the bed both to save my back and so she doesn't give herself a concussion. If Ben is SLEEPING in the bed Betsy insists on grabbing his arm and rolling him over so he can play with us too (hold one of her hands). Her other favorite game is riding pony (Daddy). Ben has to get on all fours, Betsy sits on his back and....they are OFF! Betsy yells "YAW! YAW!" and then Ben bucks her off so I can catch her. This game is hilarious for Betsy, and exhausting for Ben. If Ben tries to cheap out and just lay flat on his stomach and let Betsy sit on his back, she grabs his elbow and tells him to get up.

That's what we're up to these days (when Betsy isn't eating or chasing Madison to give her pats and kisses).

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

News from the doctor

The results of my 24 hour test were not good. The protein levels in my system are elevated. However, because my blood pressure hasn't gotten really high my doctor told me I don't have to be on bed rest (yet). It's more a matter of when, not if.

The only direction I was told was to take my blood pressure once a day (the doctor said the previous instruction I was given to take it three times a day was excessive and probably stressed me out more than it helped). I mentioned I'm trying to eat low levels of sodium and while my doctor said it was good to do whatever I can to avoid swelling, controlling my diet isn't going to help much. So we're in the 'wait and see' phase, and I'm hoping I can hang in there with healthy blood pressure until baby B 2.0 gets much bigger and cuter in my belly.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Pregnancy update

Friday I had an eventful appointment with my OBGYN. First, my blood pressure is a little elevated. Before pregnancy my BP is pretty consistently under 120/80. Friday it was 131/80. It's not terribly high, but with my history from the last pregnancy we're taking this seriously.

I had to do a 24 hour urine catch test (let's not go into details, you really don't want to know). I got a little panicky (i.e. cried three times Friday, and I'm REALLY not a crier) when the doctor mentioned this test because the results from this test are what caused my doctor to put me on bed rest in my last pregnancy. I've had in my mind that bed rest might happen with this pregnancy, but I'm only 20 weeks along and I REALLY REALLY hope it's not this early. Four and a half months of bed rest is incredibly boring, not to mention frustrating with a toddler to chase around :(

Anywho, my doctor talked to me about starting a low sodium diet, bed resting as much as possible, taking it easy, etc. I've gained 14 pounds this pregnancy which is actually less than my last pregnancy at this point but I was given 'permission' to just try to maintain my weight. And I'm not ON 'bed rest' yet so I can still plan to work.

All weekend I've rested as much as possible. Ben spent yesterday in Austin helping his brother and sister in law move, and Betsy and I took it pretty easy at home. We were all supposed to go to Dallas this weekend to see cousin Abby get baptised and I'm so bummed that I couldn't go. Ben's there now, and I'm bed resting. Betsy has been a little angel for me, entertaining herself in the playroom and taking a three hour nap today.

So, that's the update! I'm keeping my hopes up that I'll call for my test results tomorrow and it'll look fine. I'm sure I'll be this closely monitored the rest of the pregnancy. Baby is kicking up a storm, has a strong heart beat, and is happy as can be in there!

Saturday Surprise!

These came in the mail from my parents yesterday. They were a wonderful surprise!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Blabbermouth

I haven't taken any pictures this week, but I need to tell you about Betsy's expanding vocabulary. I'm amazed to hear her say new things every day!

In the last week I've heard...

"Daddy, come get me!" when she's in her playroom, and ready to get out
"Daddy, stop being mean!" (when he ignored her while she was eating in her highchair)
"That's for me?" when asking for food off my plate.
Thanks "Danks" (all the time).
"Bone for puppy?" (because she LOVES giving Maddie bones)
"Baby's in there." (and gives my stomach kisses constantly).
"Let's go!" while she stands at her door waiting to go to school.
Not to mention all the animals she talks about. We need to take that kiddo to the Zoo pronto, because she LOVES animals.
She says "Car!" and hands me the keys.
She says "More" when she wants something.

She's constantly blabbing, and we enjoy picking out the statements we can comprehend.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Pretty pretty princess

Last night we went to dinner with several friends, then came home and hung out for a while! We had such a good time, and stayed awake until 1 in the morning, I'm pretty sure the latest I've been awake since I had a newborn baby.

I've had this dress in Betsy's closet and she finally fit into it. She looked so sweet, and acted so lady like in her little dress. Here's a couple pictures of our little girl!


Friday, July 16, 2010

Why I'm the world's happiest wife

Last night I picked up Betsy after school, called Ben and asked what he wanted to do about dinner. He mumbled something and hung up on me. I'll admit, I was a little irritated that I couldn't get Ben on the phone all day (I would call him, and he would return the call later).

Turns out my honey was working hard ALL DAY! I came home to a super clean house. The sheets had been changed, the laundry done, the ceiling fans clean, the bathrooms scrubbed, the floors vacuumed, you name it he did it!

Not only that but he cleaned out the office!! He paid attention to my rantings last weekend about what was going where and moved all my sewing stuff to its new places. I WAS ECSTATIC! I thought I would be working on this project a little at a time for several weekends!!

There's a bit more to move from the office, stuff Ben didn't know where to put, but I'll probably get it done tonight or Sunday. I'll post a picture of the baby's new empty room soon!!

THANK YOU BENNY for the wonderful surprise!!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Mwahahaha!!

That scary little title is EXACTLY what Betsy sounds like these days. When she sees something she wants, or you ask her if she wants something she likes she starts trembling with excitement, bouncing up and down and making a "Mwa! Ha! Ha! Ha!" noise. Where did that come from?!

She is OBSESSED with fruit, most of all watermelon. She sees the open tupperware container and stands trying to reach it on her tippy toes "MWAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I need to get this on camera, don't I?

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Three happy years!


Three years ago today I married Mr. Right.

What a fun three years it's been!

I moved to Killeen. I started a new job. I set our house on fire. We lived with my in-laws for 6 weeks. I got pregnant. We bought a house. We welcomed a sweet baby girl. We made our house a home. We welcomed a nephew to the family. We welcomed a sister-in-law to the family. We watched our sweet baby grow into a little girl. We've made lots of new friends. I'm pregnant again. It keeps getting better.

Ben is easy to be married to. He's so mellow it's easy to get along with him. I thought our first year of marriage was happy, but I couldn't imagine what it would be like to add to our family, and to grow as a couple.

Happy third anniversary BB! I'm so glad God put you in my life.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Coach B is kind of a big deal.

I mean, we've all known he was awesome for quite some time but as of last week he's now the head Cross Country coach at his high school! I'm really happy for Ben; he's already been talking about what ways he wants to make the program different in the upcoming year. Anyone who knows Ben on a professional level would have to agree that he will be great to work for/with. From the spouse's perspective Ben understands that his coworkers not only teach classes all day and coach but have families at home. If they have to spend this extra time away from their families he wants to make it as fun an atmosphere as possible.

Ben will still be coaching the kickers with the football program (Fall), and coaching the JV boys soccer team (Spring sport). In other words he'll be mega busy this year, and we'll miss him a lot but we'll make the most of our time off as a family :)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Weekend progress

We had a pretty mellow weekend. Friday afternoon we went to the furniture store and ordered a couple of pieces of furniture for Betsy. We are using the furniture set in her room for the new baby. The furniture won't be ready until early August, but ordering it gave me the motivation I needed to start cleaning out the new baby's space.
Saturday morning we cleaned out the garage so I can move a bunch of stuff from the office into the newly emptied space. Step one of cleaning out the office was purging our large book shelf and moving it to the guest room. I have the feeling that turning the office into a nursery is going to turn into a multi-step process, but I'm glad I've at least started.

This trunk will eventually go in Betsy's room with her new furniture. You can also see a peek of the diaper stash I've started for baby 2!

Fishing stuff is all stacked together, and look, we can even fit my car back in the garage. An unheard of practice in my family...parking the car in the garage.

Cleaned out garage stuff. This will get more empty once I get the office emptied and bring the baby items into the baby's room!

Space cleared to hold sewing stuff, and other office items.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ultrasound results!

Today I had my 'big ultrasound' and Baby B 2.0 looks perfectly healthy! Everything was measuring on track and the heart, brain and spine looked perfect. This was out foremost concern... THEN we found out the fun news! We're having a GIRL! Betsy is getting a SISTER!

Of course we headed to daycare to pick Betsy up and tell her the news. Her response? Baby?! Baby?! Baby?! *kiss kiss kiss* She comprehends the baby but doesn't understand what a sister means.

Anyways to commemorate the occasion I thought we would buy some pink balloons and let Betsy go to town. She LOVED the balloons but the time of day was not ideal for pictures. She wanted dinner and she wanted to play.



The disagreement

On our way back from Austin a rare thing occurred... Ben and I disagreed about something. Call me crazy, it doesn't happen often only because Ben is so mellow and goes along with most anything I want to do.

Anywho I was talking about the new baby's room, and if it's a girl we could move the furniture from Betsy's room into the new baby's room, and buy Betsy a dresser from the unfinished furniture store and... he said NO.

I said, "What do you mean, no?!"

He said, "We should just get those Tupperware drawer things and put the new baby's stuff in there."

At which point I replied "you must be joking".

He kept a straight face but was soon laughing, and honestly I haven't figured out if he's kidding with me or not! I think he's just pushing my buttons on this because he knows it's something I won't let go of and he finds my exasperated reaction to his objection endearing. He took it so far as to push a cart in Wal-mart over to the plastic ware and pretend to be shopping for the new baby's furniture the next day. I took the mature rout and stood in the middle of the store with my arms crossed over my chest waiting for him to stop the fake furniture charade.

Anyways, I think I'll send him the link to this blog post as a reminder that we need to go SHOPPING FOR A NEW DRESSER FOR BABY B 2 THIS AFTERNOON. How's that for passive aggressive?

P.S. Love you honey-bear!

Weekend Update

Friday afternoon my in-laws kept Betsy so Ben and I could enjoy a day out with our friends the Osbornes! We headed to Austin to watch the new Eclipse movie at the Imax theatre. It's been many years since I've seen a movie at an Imax theatre and it was really fun. After the movie we headed to the Melting Pot to enjoy a fondue dinner. The food and company were great. We were at the restaurant for almost three hours enjoying all the courses of fondue! We headed home to retrieve little Betsy and we all slept very well that night!

Saturday morning we got ready and headed back to Austin for a Mexican food lunch at Pappasitos (yum! favorite Mexican food!) and to meet my friend Corie who was in town from El Paso at the Men's National Volleyball Championship. Corie and I got a chance to visit and Ben got a chance to walk around and watch volleyball. We love any sport, so this was a fun outing for us, and Corie is a total sweetheart so it was great meeting up with her. After seeing Corie we went to JD's apartment to watch a World Cup Soccer game while Betsy played fetch with JD's cat Lucy for about an hour. Lucy was so cute with Betsy, and Betsy was very sweet and gentle with the kitty.

Sunday we headed to church and enjoyed a patriotic service. One thing I do love about our church is that so many of our members have served in the military (being that we live in a military town). I feel that our church remembers the men and women in the military EVERY week, but Independence day is very special at FUMC in Killeen. I love the music, I loved the message, it was just a great service. Sunday afternoon Uncle JD and Aunt Tiff came in town so we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for swimming, burgers, and poker.

Somehow Saturday evening I pulled a muscle in my back and for the next 24 hours I basically laid on a heating pad and took it easy. Mid morning on Monday I started feeling better and I moved to the couch. Thank goodness it wasn't too serious, I feel 95% better now but I still ask Ben to pick Betsy up from the floor because I don't want to hurt myself further.

Sunday night we had lasagna for dinner and I am SO happy Betsy loved it. She ate all of it (with a fork). This is the first pasta dish she's really liked, and she's not a fan of spaghetti or spaghetti O's so I'm thrilled she likes lasagna. She also tried blackberries for the first time and loved those. I don't think we've found any fruit she doesn't like!

Here are a couple pictures of the sweet girl. I love this outfit, it's 18 month and she finally grew into it!


Sunday, July 4, 2010

Wild Hogs

It's my Uncle Glen's birthday today! In honor of Glen's birthday and my dad's recent aquisition of a new toy (a Harley) I'm posting this tribute.



Happy birthday Glen, and enjoy your Harley Hippie.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

It's July!

This is a big month for me. We get to learn if we're adding a baby brother or baby sister to Betsy's world. Our anniversary is this month (three years of happy marriage!). My birthday is this month (27 years old!).

You may not know this about me...but I'm REALLY not big on celebrating my birthday. I don't like a big deal made out of it. I don't know WHY this is, I'm not sad I'm getting older. Truth be told, I feel older than my current age of 26. But you know those people who say "Please don't make a big deal about my birthday?" I'm one of them. And I mean it. It's not that I don't like to celebrate... it's that I prefer to keep things low key. I also think I've had a hard time adjusting to not spending my birthday with my parents. Like since I'm not WITH them (and you know, they made me and all) it's not as big of a deal for me.

Rambling over, happy July everybody!