Has it been that long?

I have been a bit lazy, I admit it, with my blogging lately. I have been thoroughly selfish and enjoying myself! We had a nice picnic on July 3rd and had our photographer come over to take some 2 year shots of Chloe. They came out so good, it is hard to pick our favorites to get prints. Here are just a few. What do you think? These were all taken in our back yard, either on this old treefort or on her little tykes playscape.









Otherwise, everything has been going well. We are still working on the bathroom update. It is going slowly because evidently doing any home improvements with a 2 year old and being 7 months preggo is not a fast process. We have yet to clear out the spare room or get Chloe a big girl bed so we can move the crib over to what will be the baby's room. I figure, we still have a couple months to worry about that. Right?

Chloe is making great progress with potty training. She is pooping and peeing regularly in the potty and will tell you when she needs to go. Most days, she really only need a diaper at nap time and bedtime, but she still has the occasional accident. We have just been taking it easy, making it available and encouraging her but not too stressed if she says one day that she wants to wear a diaper (which she does occasionally, even if she still wants to use the potty every time). Hopefully we will be pretty much completely out of diapers when BG#2 arrives.

The pregnancy is going well and I really like my midwives that I am seeing. They are very nice and take the time to talk with you and ask lots of good questions. I definitely feel like I am bigger this time around with #2 that I was with Chloe, but just like with her, I am carrying all of it out front in my belly which makes it look even bigger from the front. The baby is head down but still moving and grooving a lot, particularly at night. It has been fun sharing the experience with my 3 other preggo coworkers (this is the first baby for all 3 of them). With Chloe I was the only pregnant person I knew and it is great to have others to share this time with.

I promise to take another belly shot so you all can see just how big this belly is getting!

Movie Night

Last night I went to the movies with a couple friends from work to see the
movie The Proposal. It was such a cute funny movie.  We laughed throughout
the whole thing and had a really good time.  I don't go to the movies very
much and I still get excited sitting in front of the big screen.  I figured
I need to get in a few more of these night outs with the buddies before I
have a little baby demanding my attention.  I must admit that Chloe is very
scheduled and it makes life so much easier.  8:00 pm bedtimes are a godsend
and I love that Craig and I still have our evenings together to hang out
and if either of us wants to go out with friends, it isn't so bad because
then the other one can just hang out and watch TV (Craig watched the Red
Sox last night).  Plus, it is really easy for my parents to babysit because
most of the evening, she is asleep and they can just relax too.

I would have thought that by not taking any MBA classes right now I would
have oodles of free time, but instead I seem busier than even.  I really
want to get Chloe's room converted to a 'big girl' room and then work on
turning the spare room into a nursery.  I am also trying to finish up the
wainscoting and painting in the bathroom.  The weather has not been
cooperating as we have literally had rain every day in the month of June.
I am so sick of all this rain.  Everything is damp and musty and my garden
is so waterlogged I wonder if my veggies will ever grow.

Happy Fathers Day

I want to wish my hubby and my dad a happy Father's day and the same to all those great dads out there. Today we went out for breakfast to our local diner and though it was busy, we got right in. I got Craig a dump cart that attaches to the lawn tractor. I know, a rather utilitarian gift, but one that he wanted and that we could really use around the house and yard.

It has been raining here just about every day for the last 3 weeks. It is so depressing and it seems like it will keep raining off and on all this week. So much for summer starting off on the right foot.

Chloe is doing great with her potty training. She still needs a diaper at nap time and bedtime, but she can make it through almost the whole day with very few accidents. In fact, today, went on the potty all day (even poop!) except for a little pee accident right before bathtime. She still needs us to remind her to go sit on the potty every hour or so, but every time she sits, she goes. We have taken a rather low stress approach and we don't push it but she seems to be getting it pretty good on her own pace. I am hoping that she will be pretty well trained by the time BG2 (baby girl #2) arrives. As it is, since she is doing so well on the potty, I only have about 3 diapers a day for the laundry, which is god because I need to do a little repair work on my bumgenius cloth dipes to get them ready for BG2. I got some replacement velcro tabs so I just need to pull out the sewing machine and get to it. I have already repaired the elastics on some of them and it wasn't too hard at all. I am so happy that I chose to cloth diaper Chloe. I have definitely gotten my money's worth with her and now it is all ready to use for BG2.

We are starting to turn Chloe's room into a little girl room as well as turn the spare room into BG2's baby room. I got some really cute bedding and hopefully in another couple weeks we can get around to getting her a twin bed so we can transition her from the crib. Also, since both of the rooms are still painted white from when we moved in, we want to paint both rooms something sweet and child appropriate. I don't want to paint them pink, but I am thinking a nice light green or yellow, perhaps with an accent wall with some pink stripes on it or something.

I am also trying to finish up a little redo in our guest/kids bathroom. We ripped the ugly wallpaper off and now I am planning to put in a nice white beadboard wainscoting and paint the top half a cool blue or green. The bathtub and tile surround is a peach color, but it is in good condition, so I think we are just leaving it and will have a nice shower curtain that will draw attention away from it. I am trying not to spend too much, just enough to make it look fresh and updated.

The pregnancy has been going well and at my last visit I had only gained 2 lbs, so I am up about 16 lbs so far at 23 weeks. Right on track for about 30 total lbs, which is what I had with Chloe and was comfortable in losing quickly. Craig and I went on the tour of the birthcenter where we plan to deliver. It is a really cool set up as it is the only birthcenter that is located right inside a hospital. So you have the comfort of having an all natural delivery in a birth center with the tubs for water birth and your midwife and such, but if something serious happens, you are just on the other side of the floor from the maternity ward, OR and level 2 NICU. I am really excited to try for a natural delivery and the more I learn about water birthing and hypnobirthing, I am more confident that I can do it. Plus, since my first delivery was pretty fast for a first baby, I am hoping that I am not in labor too long!

Here are a couple pictures. I promise more shortly!



Chloe loves cupcakes (or "happy cakes" as she likes to call them) and is a little snack pirate, just like her daddy whenever mommy the baker is not looking!

Playing with her tea set and feeding her stuffed dog.

Chloe giving her baby sister to be a little kiss.

Forgive the ratty hair or terrible complexion. For some reason, this pregnancy has made my hair go curly and my skin looks terrible!

My little munchkin!

Pictures

I am usually the one behind the camera, so this past weekend, when we had such great weather and were outside enjoying the yard and planting our garden, Craig took a few shots of me.

Not sure why I am so squinty...

I think this is the first belly shot I have of this pregnancy. I feel huge, but I guess I am pretty much on track for 20 weeks.

OK, that's enough of the pictures of me!



My original muse, Sneakers, after running like a crazy pooch around the yard.

I love this one of Craig and Chloe. She is trying to smile but when she does that it is more like a scrunchy face.

We put her to work digging for the garden.

Riding on the motor bike that Uncle Dale got for Chloe's birthday. She is not too sure she likes the power wheels. I think she is still a foot power kind of kid.

Her stuffed Moose is her new BFF and she brings him everywhere.

A future soccer player, perhaps?

We are having...

Another little girl! I went for my ultrasound today and unfortunately Craig couldn't make it with me, but I called him as soon as it was over. We are both excited to have another little girl on the way and I think Chloe will love to have a little sister to play with. All the measurements looked good and she is measuring about a week ahead of time, which matches up with my last u/s that was also measuring a week early. So either my date is off a little or I just grow big babies!

Now the name search begins. We don't pick a name before she is born because we like to meet her first, but we have to get a list started with potentials. We made a deal to not share any names on the list and I like the idea of there being at least one surprise at birth.

However, I am always a fan of name suggestions just to hear what other people like. Since our family name is French Canadian, I would like a French name (hence our Chloe Simone). Thoughts for our list?

Tomatomania

Today was one of those days were we ended up getting a ton of stuff done even though we didn't have any set plans. On Friday, when I was picking Chloe up from daycare, her sitter mentioned that they were going to get tomato plants on Saturday at some farm in CT that was having tomatomania. She didn't know much more about it but I was interested since we are doing a vegetable garden too, so that night, I checked it out online. Tomatomania is actually a nationwide thing and there are only two farms on the east coast that participate. The farm is only about 30 minutes from our house and they had almost 100 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. So we headed up there around 9 am and not only had a nice drive in the countryside, but got some beautiful different tomato plants. They also sell organic grass feed beef there too, so we picked some up as well and then headed over to my parents.

Thursday was my dad's birthday, so we stopped by for a little visit and to give him a gift. We ended up staying for lunch and got several buckets of topsoil that my dad had but didn't need (we have so holes in the yard that need filling). On the way home, we swung by the pet shop where we get Sneakers her dog food. She likes this particular kind of all natural dog food called Nutrisource that is kind of hard to find, so it was lucky to find a convenient place that sells it.

On the way home Chloe fell asleep in the back seat (which she normally NEVER does) and so when we got home, I just put her straight down for a nap. So that meant Craig and I had about 2 hrs to relax, watch TV and just hang out. That is always very nice.

As an interesting pregnancy note, my hair is going curly. Any of you moms had this happen? I have always had straight hair, medium blonde. I swear about 3 weeks ago I took my morning shower and blew dry my hair and it was totally wavy. It has been that way ever since. It is also slightly darker too. Very strange. At work they were teasing me that this means this baby will be a wild one. Oh great. I have my next midwife appointment on Tuesday and then I will schedule my ultrasound where we should hopefully get to see what we are having. I am excited to find out, but less anxious that I was the first time around. Now, I am content to eventually find out but I don't really mind what we are having.

I have some pictures to share. Craig and Chloe got me a really cool new camera for Mother's day and I love it because the shutter speed is so nice and fast, unlike many digitals that have a terribly long delay. It makes it a lot easier to capture those precious kid-moments.


Chloe blowing out her candle on her birthday cupcake
Devouring her cake

Playing with cousin Keith at my parents on Mothers day

Me and my girlfriend Kim's little guy Caleb.

Chloe being silly and cute on Mothers day

At Chloe's birthday party, the kids loved playing in our backyard stream while the dads and grampas looked on.


Chloe enjoying breakfast on our back porch at her little table and chairs that my parents got for her. She loves chatting with her stuffed moose while she enjoys her eggs and toast.


Yeah, that is both nostrils stuffed with her fingers. Such a great talent to have.

Giggling with daddy and papa while we visited for my dad's (papa) birthday.

I am still here, I promise

OK, first of all, I am still alive, just been terribly busy and hope to now have a little breathing room. Here is the quickie update and I should have pictures and more info soon.

Chloe

• Her 2nd birthday party last weekend was a lot of fun. We had 3 3-yr olds, a 5 yr old, 2 14 year olds and 20 adults. It was a little bit of people overload for Chloe as she does not really do well with lots of people paying attention to her like that. Party started at noon and by 2:30 she was ready for a nap and slept until 4:30 while the rest of us partied. Luckily the weather was glorious, we were outside, playing in the stream and running around.
• Since turning two, Chloe is officially terrible. It seems like overnight she has gotten spunkier, brattier and definitely more ornery. She is still a good kid, but definitely a lot more work and I swear it happened over night.
• We had her dr. appointment and she is a big girl. 32.2 lbs and 37.5 inches tall. Yeah, she is tall! Doc said she was perfectly healthy and growing well, but she noticed an irregular heartbeat, so now I have to take her for an EKG next week and then a pediatric cardiologist for a check. She told me not to get too worried, but she wanted to have it checked out and be safe rather than sorry. I will let you know how it goes.

School

• I got a perfect score on my final paper and actually squeaked out an A for the course! Craig promised me a celebratory dinner so I will have to see where we can go.
• I turned it in on Sunday and just got my score yesterday and I already feel like a weight off my shoulders. It is nice to take a break from classes and just relax for a little while. Not sure when I will take my next class, but I am enjoying the break

Pregnancy

• At my 14 wk visit, the heartbeat was strong and my measurements were all good. I have my next visit next week and I should also be scheduling my 20 wk ultrasound where we can hopefully see if we are having a girl or a boy.
• The PG seems to be flying by this time, mostly because with Chloe I get no time to rest. She keeps me running
• the evening sickness is gone and I feel pretty good all the time. I am 17 weeks and just starting to feel some movement, definitely a lot sooner than I did with Chloe.
• It is fun to have 3 other preggo ladies at work. We are all within 5 weeks of each other and we talk about our progress and do monthly Marketing Dpt mommies luncheons. It is nice to have a group like this.

This weekend is Mother's day and I am hoping to get a new camera for a gift. If so, hopefully this will mean more and better pictures to follow. My current digital camera is really on its last leg.

Happy Mothers day to all my bloggy Mamas out there!

Elmo overload

Today was quite a fun day as we took Chloe to see Sesame Street Live-When Elmo Grows Up. We had great seats on a couple rows back from the stage and she was totally excited about the whole thing. For the first 5 minutes she just kept pointing and yelling Elmo like she wasn't sure that we noticed what was going on. Then she really got into it and was clapping and swaying with the music and squealing each time she saw another character. Cookie! Zoe! Abby! Oscar! Yup, she knows and loves them all. We also ran into three women that Craig and I worked with who were all there with their kids. It was clearly 'the' place to be on a Sunday afternoon, evidently, if you are the toddler set.

After the show, Chloe was exhausted and totally crashed for her nap. In fact we had to wake her up so she didn't sleep too late and she was ready for sleep when bedtime came around. It was totally worth the price of admission and Craig and I spent most of the show watching her have such an awesome time. There were a couple of times when I had to hold back tears because I was just so filled with love and happiness for my little girl. Ok, maybe that is preggo hormones, but I mean, it just makes me so happy to do something that I know my little girl will be talking about for quite a while and was clearly so thrilled about.

I have a couple pictures from Easter that I finally downloaded, so I thought I would share.

Chloe enjoying her morning smoothie. Yum-blueberry!

One of the few shots I have where she was still!