It's a GIRL!

Apparently I'm terrible at the guessing the gender of the baby game....I was convinced that Connor was going to be a girl and he clearly isn't.  Then I was pretty sure this little gummy bear was going to be a boy and it isn't.  Here's a look at our little girl gummy bear.

These pictures never look quite like it does on screen.  Or maybe it's easier on the screen as the technician is telling you exactly what you're looking at.  In any case, here is the profile (above) and the gender identification (below).

After leaving the appointment, I ran over to Babies R Us and bought this:

It will go perfectly with the "Big Brother" shirt I ordered online last night.

Is it a boy or is it a girl?

Monday morning we go and find out the gender of baby #2.  I think it is going to be a boy but I really have no clue. 

Connor:  I was nauseous pretty much round the clock.  Most often in the evening and early morning.  I threw up multiple times-basically stopped counting when I ran out of fingers and toes...though I threw up more during 12-24 weeks than I did during the first trimester.  Connor rode very low causing me to go to the bathroom quite frequently.  At 15 weeks I was wearing maternity pants.

Baby: Nope not nauseous...very very little amount of nauseous feeling in the mornings of 8-12 weeks, and have puked a grand total of 3 times.  I do get stomach aches in the evening, but I figure that's just because I've eaten too much food at one time.  It definitely feels like this one is riding low too.  I'm at 19 weeks and I'm not wearing maternity clothes yet...though some of my pants/skirts are getting too tight.  With Connor I had a boppy maternity pillow around 22 weeks.  This one I got my pillow out a few weeks ago to help ease the back pain, though I always end up waking up on my back. 

At my last appointment...about a month ago I only gained 1 pound.
Dr: Are you eating?
Me: Yes
Dr:  Are you sick?
Me: No
Dr:  You need to eat more!
Me: Okay, my husband has been having me eat as if I had diabetes, so I don't get it as fast.
Dr:  You don't have it yet, so don't worry about it yet.  Eat whatever you'd like, just be careful around straight sugars.  We'll test you again at 26 weeks.
Me:  Really 26 weeks!  Sweet!
Dr: If you pass it then, we'll test you again at 32 weeks which is when you failed it before.  Generally with each pregnancy you'll get it sooner, but sometimes it starts at the same point as the previous pregnancy.
Me: Okay, sounds good to me. (still walking on cloud 9 over the whole I get to wait 2 1/2 months before I test again)

I clearly don't have gestational diabetes yet.  I go in again for a regular check up on Friday, hopefully I've gained more weight.

Yard and Connor

Wow we got a lot accomplished this weekend:
Friday Peter had the day off and so did I so we ran some errands and did stuff around the house.  We borrowed Peter's dad's truck while he was out of town-While returning home with the truck Peter got pulled over and received a fix it ticket....apparently all three brake lights were out on the truck...oops.  We used the truck anyway and picked up a load of amended soil for our front yard.  We headed out to Evergreen Nursery, got a load of dirt and picked up a grape vine, a raspberry bush and some shrubs.  We went looking for a dwarf blood orange tree but only found standard ones so we bought everything else instead :)  Back at home we planted plants.  Peter unloaded the truck.  Then we ran to Home Depot and Costco and picked up a few more plants.  We also went to Armstrong Gardens to look for fuschias but we came home empty handed there...we might go back on Monday and get some though.  So basically Friday was a shopping day and we started planting some things.  Oh yes we bought an orange tree at Home Depot, not a blood orange, but a dwarf regular orange.  We plan on going back and special ordering a blood orange soon.  (Above the apricot tree surrounded by shrubs.)

 The front yard...look all the roses are in bloom!

 The raspberry bush I picked up at the nursery and then divided into this pot.

 So Saturday morning rolls around. Peter used a pick axe to dig up our front yard-the area that we will intall grass in soon (hopefully). We go to pick up a blood orange tree that my mom has...but Peter decides he doesn't want it, so we replant it in a deeper hole.  Okay now off to drop the truck off and to tell David of his fix it ticket.  While there we pick some oranges off of their tree and oh how yummy they are.  We left with a bag full.  Then it was naptime, or so I thought.  Connor got a two minute power nap on the way to grandma and grandpa's house and thought that was all he needed...arg!  He sat in bed for roughly 30 minutes and then his "nap" was over.  We went back to the front yard to survey our mess and to plant more...but we didn't have any cactus soil or soil amendments for fruit trees...so off to Home Depot we ventured once again.  With a quick trip to Costco to pick up some birthday presents for nephews and a niece.  At Home Depot I picked up some pretty white ground cover flowers and two bags of soil.  Peter gathered up parts to install sprinklers for our grass.  At some point while heading to the registers we had six long tubes of pvc piping barely balancing on the cart.  Peter turns a corner and one starts to fall.  A worker at Home Depot comes over to help and knocks two more off the cart.  Peter grabs for them and then another worker comes over to help and pretty soon all six pvc pipes are on the ground. I had to laugh.

Back at home we planted our plants, watered and cleaned up our mess.  Our neighbors said it looked like our yard was coming along.  Yeah I'll second that.  Our roses are in bloom and its obvious that we are doing something with the mounds of dirt we keep digging up.  I hope to have grass in by Easter, but that might be asking too much as Peter is helping Chris and Mary move next weekend...but it's still my goal.

 Above-Celery, below cilantro that Connor keeps digging up.

 More cilantro that we've used, planted more, but Connor thinks that's a good spot to play with a shovel so we'll see what survives.

 Last month the majority of our pea plants got some nasty bug or disease on them.  They turned white and all the peas were gray and gross looking.  I ripped out all the affected plants, which left our pea collection a bit bare, but every weekend we still get about a half bag of peas.  We used to get about 2 bags full.  Eh oh well, you win some you lose some.  When the peas die out, I'm going to plant a grape vine.

 The grape vine anxiously waiting

 Costco had succulents on sale for pretty cheap, so we bought three largeish containers to fill up one of our window boxes.

 The previous weekend we bought these fuscias at Armstrong for $14 each.  We went back this weekend and they were all hanging in baskets being sold for $25 each...ARG!  We should've bought more when we had the chance.

 This is a boysenberry root with a bud on it....we're so excited!  You can't buy boysenberries in the stores around here.

 This little pepper came out of nowhere.  I didn't plant it in my azalea pot and yet there it is.

 Strawberries!  Yes we get strawberries pretty regularly.  Connor goes out and finds all the good ones daily.

 He also likes to help water the garden.

 These are white radishes.  They're called Easter Egg radishes...so appropriate.  They're planted in the same area as the peas, but these two look the best as they are not covered by the peas, like most of the other radish seeds.

 Here's the area that is going to be grass.  And you can see all of our roses...well most of them at least.  They're all in bloom except one I think.

Connor's photo of his favorite book.  We ordered this online and it has 10 Biscuit books inside it.  We read it every night and many times throughout the day.

 

 One evening while getting ready for bed we noticed Connor had lined up all of his binkies.  We were down to two at one point so I have no idea where all of these came from.  We keep throwing out the green ones as he bites holes in them.  These are for bedtime and nap time only.  He enjoys having one in his mouth and one in each hand to play with before falling asleep.  He enjoys switching them around too.  Lately he has been climbing into bed to retrieve these during the day, or he'll sit in bed and play with them. 

Our Wild Weekend

A little while back Mary had asked us if we could watch the kids on Saturday.  We said sure.  Then she called and said we only needed to watch Calvin(19mos) since the girls were going to a birthday party and the mom would keep them all day so they could attend the party.  So then we were down to Calvin and Connor.  Saturday was great!  We ran to Home Depot and Walter Andersen's Nursery.  The boys enjoyed running up and down the walkways at the nursery.  As we drove home Calvin was quick to fall asleep and Connor was starting to fall asleep too, so we stopped at my parents' house to pick up the pack in play so we could put both boys down for a nap.  Well Calvin transferred to the pack n play quite well.  Connor did not!  He was awake and enjoyed his cat nap and was ready to play.  By the time Calvin woke up Connor was running out of steam so we put him to bed.  Calvin helped us "garden."  Then it was time for him to go home.

Today we had all four of Chris and Mary's children.  We were to take them to church, then bring them back to our house.  We would make dinner and feed everyone before Mary had to head to work and Chris would come home from training.  Well that was the plan...but then while Peter and Connor were in the shower Ellie says her tummy really hurt.  I told her to go to the bathroom...she didn't make it.  She got off the couch and barfed all over the floor.  I didn't know that much stuff could come out of a little kid.  She stopped momentarily and then began again...about three times.  When it sounded like she was roughly empty I had Camille take her to the toilet....I didn't want to clean up barf all down the hall.  And no sooner had she sat down by the toilet but then more vomit came out of her.  Camille being the little mommy that she is, undressed her from her Sunday clothes and put her back in her pajamas, while I cleaned up the mess.  (I generally ask for help from other teachers when this happens at school as I have quite a weak stomach, but I held my breath and it wasn't as bad as it could've been.)  By the time I had the mess mostly cleaned up and all clothes and blankets in the wash, Ellie returned from the bathroom and sat down on the couch.  She got up a few times later, but always managed to make it to the toilet...again I didn't know all that mess could be stored up in a little girl.

Once everything was clean it was on to plan B...I took four children to church while Peter stayed home with Ellie.  Camille was in charge of keeping Calvin close by, I had Connor and Claire promised to be on her best behavior.  They all lasted until about the last 3 minutes of sacrament meeting, when Calvin and Connor thought it would be great fun to run up the aisle to the sacrament table.  I'm sure it looked like I was herding monkeys.  2 minutes later Peter shows up to "help"...If only he showed up 5 minutes prior.  And then it was time for primary and nursery.  After church we moved the pack n play upstairs and Calvin went down immediately.  Connor had a little playtime and then went down and they both woke up within 30 minutes of each other.  Camille and I played Lego Harry Potter while Claire played outside in the sandbox.  Once everyone was awake they all played in the sandbox.  We had dinner then Chris arrived and shortly thereafter Mary and Ellie arrived.  We did a little switcheroo with the kids and then Mary was off to work and Chris headed home with his kids.

Frank didn't come again this weekend.  His home project turned out to be bigger than he thought, which given we had extra children it all worked out for the best.  We were wondering how we were going to get two kids to nap if there was a lot of noise going on upstairs-we always take Connor to my parents' house for nap time when Frank is making a lot of noise.

Poor Little Guy

Last Friday evening Connor started acting a bit tired/cranky early.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday he had a fever, runny nose and nasty sounding cough.  By Tuesday he seemed to have perked up a little bit making us think he was starting to get over this bug....well Wednesday hit and he cried basically the entire day.  When I went to pick him up after work he was snuggling with Grandpa and clearly looked a bit dazed.  He went from laughing to crying in about 30 seconds.  The little guy was miserable.  I held him as he passed gas and filled his diaper and then promptly fell asleep on me.  Realizing he really smelled bad I picked up the blanket that was on him only to find diarrhea all over his clothes and the blanket.   Problem...kid just fell asleep and feels miserable...what do I do?  Well I couldn't stand the smell so I woke him to clean him up, which involved putting him in a shower because no amount of wet wipes were getting that smell off of him.  So he basically screamed and didn't want to get in the shower, but I held him in there and washed him off.  Then shortly after I got him out and dried him off, but of course before I could get a diaper on him he peed all over the cabinets, the door and the floor.  I was startled by this and grabbed him to get him closer to the shower and of course he stopped peeing.  Then as if I was asking an older child I said, "are you done?"  He replied by peeing all over my shoe, pants and the floor.  So into the shower he went again.  Yes more screaming and crying was involved.  I'm sure it was a comical mess to anyone but me.  Okay out of the shower once more, dried off and diapered quickly I decide to take care of Connor and throw all the dirty clothes and blanket on the peed on floor and I would clean that up last.  I walk out to the family room to get Connor's extra set of clothes and fill them in as to the fun we were having in the bathroom.  Part of which was I knew I had pee on my shoes but I didn't know how much of the wetness on my pants was pee and how much was water from the shower.  With me dressing Connor, my dad got to work on throwing dirty clothes in the wash and mopping the bathroom floor.  We went home shortly thereafter.  I told Peter of our "fun" and requested he call the pediatrician today and make an appointment or go to urgent care as our kiddo was certainly under the weather and quite frankly if nothing else I just wanted peace of mind.

So Today he calls, gets and appointment and goes.  Connor HATES the doctor's office.  So in order to take his weight they had to weigh Peter and then weigh Peter holding Connor and subtract.  Peter said it went downhill from there.  He told the pediatrician, "my wife made me come in, she thinks there's something wrong since he wouldn't stop crying yesterday."  The pediatrician looked in one ear and said, "well this one has an infection so that might be your problem."  Then she looked in the other ear and said, "this one has an infection too and it is much worse."  She then said, "sometimes mommy's have this special mother's intuition...they just know when their kid is sick...daddy's don't have it quite the same way."  The pediatrician said they'll look into the diarrhea later if it doesn't clear up within the next few days.  They have another appointment in 10 days to make sure the ear infections are gone.

So now Connor takes this fruity medicine twice a day and well....he likes taking medicine about as much as he likes going to the doctor's office.  We even bribed him with ice cream...that didn't work.  Anybody have any great ideas for getting a toddler to not spit out medicine?

Painting adventures

So we haven't posted in awhile because not much has changed.  Last week was the indy 500 and Frank really wanted to watch that, so he was here briefly on Saturday and then a couple hours on Sunday and then he didn't come this weekend as his wife wanted him to finally finish installing the floor in their mudroom.  So the bathroom looks roughly like it did before.  Frank did put mud on the walls and texture and then my mom came and painted primer and a coat of color.  When I bought the paint color I thought for sure it was going to be too light.  My mom was convinced it would be too light too, but as she painted she quickly realized it was going to turn out to be too dark. 

 

It was much more blue than we wanted.  The accent tile is gray with hints of blue in it.  As the paint dried it turned out to be about two shades darker than we wanted.  So we went back to the paint deck and tried again.  This time we're going more gray. 

We picked these three samples to experiment with.  The top is a gray that turns blue, the middle is a gray that turns purpleish and the last is a gray that turns brown.

 

I like this one the best.

 

This one is my mom's favorite.

I think we're going with my favorite and hoping it turns out okay. 

Peter also spent Saturday on a really tall ladder painting our living room ceiling and then cutting in on the walls.  We also made our usual stop to Home Depot to buy more supplies for next weekend.  If all goes according to plan now...the bathroom will look a bit closer to done by the end of next weekend.