Quickening

Just a quick blog note to say that I now feel little New Baby, PoBi, and his/her little kicks (or "quickening" as we like to say in the medical world ;-)) It started last week at 16 weeks, when I bent over to pick something up and it felt like someone brushed their hand across my tummy - from the inside. It happened twice in 2 days. Then earlier this week I was feeling little tapping bubbles in the same place over and over. It's pretty neat since I didn't feel William's little kicks until about 18 weeks or so.
Well, as the title of this suggests, I will make this quick since time got away from me and I have to put dinner in the oven since it takes an hour.... woops!

Our Boy is a Genius! (And new baby dr. appt.)

Well, I had to write tonight to brag on my son. He's the smartest 15 month old ever! Just moments ago (before I put him to bed) he was reading/looking at a book that he received from Meghan and the boys for Christmas. It's a neat book with each page being a color and there's different things to smell and feel in that color on each page. Well, AJ pointed out a baby girl on one page and William said "girl" (sounding more like "goool")So then, AJ pointed at a boy and William said "Boy." Okay so that's impressive in itself, but when AJ said "Where's the girl?" on a separate page, William pointed to the girl and said "Girl!" Then, he did the same with the boy on the new page. We couldn't believe that he could tell the difference already. He's been saying new words daily. He said "purple" the other day, and yesterday he said "blankie." He still mostly says words when prompted, but he's doing so great. It came out of nowhere, since just last week at his doctor appointment we mentioned that he was only saying "b" words.

Yesterday I had my 16 week appointment. It went pretty well. We heard the heartbeat and had the triple screen testing done. I should have the results back from my bloodwork in a few days, so let's all say a prayer that this baby is perfect and healthy. For additional testing, and to find out the gender, we will have the ultrasound in 4 weeks... Feb 11, so mark your calendars! Just kidding. I'll be sure to keep you all posted for sure. Well, I have to go now. AJ needs the computer so he can go play Left 4 Dead with the Gore brothers. I guess I'll do yoga or something now... Ciao!

Titan's Playoff Game

Wow, twice in one week! I'm on a roll with this blog now. So today, AJ and I went to the Titans playoff game. It was a real fun time, despite the cold and the misty rain. We had great seats in the lower section and you could feel the energy of the crowd. However, the Titans lost to the Ravens so it was a bit of a heartbreaker to watch. William went to play with Addyson and Whitney says that they kept giving each other sugars (kisses.) Guess we're gonna have to watch out for those too, eh? She showed me a picture she took of them smoochin', so I'll add it if she emails it to me soon.

Since I just wrote 2 days ago, there's not much else to add. I've put some pictures up of the little ones playing and of us from the game. Have a good weekend!

The Ketchup Swan

I had to post this picture. After the Titan's playoff game, AJ and I went to McDonald's to grab some food. I was about to dip a fry in my ketchup only to notice the interesting shape my ketchup made. I was thinking about saving it and selling it on ebay, but decided it would be better off going on my fries. :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! My new year's resolution is to update this more frequently than I have been lately. Well, once PoBi is here that will probably stop, but anyway... So Christmas was great! Debbie and I made authentic Ukrainian Pyrohi (pierogies) for the first time without our mother's supervision. Don't get me wrong, it was great that she was only a phone call away, because we had to take advantage of that a couple times. But nonetheless, we did it and they tasted great! I also made Kutya, which was a first for me, and that came out great too. Christmas Eve dinner was in line with the traditions I was brought up with. Twelve dishes at the table, no meat, and as many people as we could fit around the table. Our friends, Whitney, Jay, and Addyson (William's buddy) joined us for dinner and that was nice! I loved hosting the holiday meal and I must say I felt proud that we made a meal that was so close to my mom's cooking. Christmas Day was great too. We incorporated both mine and AJ's family traditions for the day. We opened gifts one at a time so that everyone could watch and enjoy the gift. Also, some of the presents that Santa brought were unwrapped, which was hard for me to get used to but it worked out nice. Also, William did open one gift on Christmas Eve, and surprisingly they were pajamas! Debbie helped me with Christmas lunch and it was a bit more low key than the previous meal. I made a ham and we reheated some of the pyrohi for this meal too. We had more guests join us so we had to show off our hard work again and share the culture with these southerners (wink wink!) Samantha, Heath, Cailin, and Hudson all joined us for Christmas Day. It was awesome to have them here and share the holiday with them. Debbie stayed for a few more days and it was nice to visit with her. We went to Opryland Hotel to check out their holiday decorations, which were just beautiful. Also, Debbie babysat William one night so AJ and I could have a date. It was much needed and we had a great time with dinner at the Melting Pot and a movie (Marley & Me.) New Year's Eve was spent at Whitney and Jay's for a small gathering of friends and a competive game of Catch Phrase. It was our first New Year's out of the house in a couple years so it was fun.

Now, to the present day. It is officially 4 days into my new career as a stay at home mom. I would have gone back to work Monday the 5th, so that's why I'm counting this as my first week. So far, I love it! It is surely tiring since I'm watching Addyson too, but we're starting to get on a pretty good schedule. I haven't left the house much, but I don't really mind because it's so cold out! Although, yesterday was William's 15 month checkup. He had 3 shots and as always, they were awful. I hate watching him go through that. He cries so hard that it doesn't even make a sound at first. The poor baby is so unsuspecting and they just poke him with that needle. I'll get tougher one day, but I am happy to know that he's got 2 more rounds of shots then he's done until he's 5. Yay! Well, our big boy now weighs 23 lbs 9 oz and is 31 1/2 in. long. He gained 2 lbs and 2 in. since last appointment, which I was sure it was more since he feels so heavy to me. The doctor says he looks great so we're all happy. I go for my 16 week check up for new baby (PoBi) next Monday. I'm looking forward to that check up and then just a few more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or a girl!

Well, I have 2 slideshows I'm including. The first one is from the holidays and the second is of some more things I've sewn recently. I will be selling bibs and burp cloths that I make, to pull in a little extra income. I'm working my way up to baby pants and dresses! I'm very open to suggestions although I'd really like to stick to baby clothes for now. So tell your friends! These make great gifts for baby showers and new arrivals! I just bought a bunch of fabric that can work for boys, girls, or neutral colors for either one. Feel free to check out my other slide shows of things I made in November and October too. I hope everyone is doing great!

Busy, Busy, Busy

So I've been slacking a bit on updating this, but I have been extremely busy at work lately. And by the time I get home, little PoBi has me exhausted and I just want to sleep. But, I'm here now so it's time to catch up. First, William's right upper tooth (that I mentioned in the last blog) came through shortly after my last post and it's really gotten big in the last few days. It's so cute! AJ's birthday was good. He got a Chris Johnson jersey from William and I and then the evening plans were his pick. William went to Addyson's while we went to Dave and Buster's for some food and fun, then on to the movies to see Role Models. It was a funny movie. We liked it a lot, although it was stupid humor and not recommended for everyone. Also, as part of AJ's birthday present, Lynn took AJ to the Texans vs. Titans game in Houston. So he took off and left his family behind this past weekend. Hmmm... did that sound dramatic? I'm just teasing. William and I had so much fun. Little Liam was a happy little camper and even found out that he could entertain himself for a bit, while I cooked or cleaned up. He walked around the house humming and even learned to stack some blocks. We did a little shopping and attempted to see Santa at the mall. The line was way too long and I decided not to put myself through that stress alone, when William doesn't even understand who Santa is yet. And, I even made a pair of pants for William (straight from a real pattern) and a burp cloth. AJ seemed to have had a great time with his family - although the Titans did lose that game. Booo!

For the new baby update... If we call this one PoBi, and William was BiPo, what will we call the third (if there is #3?) Anyway, yesterday I had my 12 week check-up. I was able to hear the baby's heart beat through the Doppler monitor. It such a beautiful sound to hear your baby's heartbeat in the womb. The doctor said that everything with the baby sounded great. I feel so blessed to have another little miracle growing in my belly. I'm starting to gain back a little of my energy, but it seems that all that energy is being taken up by eating. I really don't enjoy being hungry all the time, especially since many foods gross me out right now. Oh well! It's really not so bad, considering what's to come at the end of all this.

That's it for now, I'll try to write some more this weekend and post some recent pictures of William. No promises though since I need to finish Christmas shopping and do some baking and grocery shopping in preparation for hosting my first Christmas in Nashville. If I don't get back to this in time, Merry Christmas to everyone! It is bittersweet since we will miss all our friends and family that won't be with us. On the flip side, we get to start our own family tradition in our own home. And Debbie will be here so we'll have some family to celebrate with us... Yay! Merry Christmas!!!

Our Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and ate lots of yummy food. We had a very nice day - we went to our friends Jon and Brandi's house for Thanksgiving. They just had a baby a couple of weeks ago and don't have any family around either, so we all got together. They made the turkey, stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin roll and we brought the mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. First, my apologies (to myself really) for not getting any pictures. I brought the camera, but taking pictures was not even a thought in my mind. Why you ask? Because our dear sweet mobile little boy was getting into EVERYTHING! Oh man! This was the first time we'd taken him to a non-baby proofed house since he's been able to walk. They had nice glass decorations on their tables and a very inviting staircase for William. They had some great toys for him to play with, but do you think he cared? Nope. He wanted to explore! Well, I can't blame Jon and Brandi because we did the same thing just over a year ago. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who had brought their toddler to our un-baby-proofed house. It was no bother to us to have your child there, but it must have been a pain for you to have to supervise and make sure they didn't break anything.

Enough about that. Their little baby Owen is so cute! He has lots of hair and is so tiny. I can't believe William was that tiny - it really went by so fast. Well, on the topic of William, he has officially broken another tooth. It's the upper right tooth with the upper left getting ready to break the surface soon. I don't recall the exact day that this tooth broke free, but I would have to say a little over a week ago. It's so cute - his big ol' smile with a top tooth! It will be strange when his mouth is full of them, since he's been toothless for so long.

Also, this weekend we drove to Birmingham, AL to meet up with AJ's parents. They were driving back from Florida and drove several hours out of their way to spend some time with us. We went out to dinner for AJ's birthday and played games in the hotel most of the evening. It was a fun time. Now it's back to work and business as usual. It's actually going to be a very busy next few weeks with AJ's birthday, Christmas parties, finishing up work, shopping, and preparing for our first Christmas in Nashville. I'm looking forward to it all!