Matching Game

Grandma and Papa were here for a couple of days this week. They brought Allyssa a brand new deck of cards! She had a deck of big cards, but the pictures weren't good for playing with. The new deck has great pictures. Allyssa matched 6 different pictures today (all at once). They were: heart, bear, umbrella, moon, pie, and one more that I can't remember. Anyways, she did it like it was the easiest thing in the whole world. She could have easily done more if she didn't have the attention span of a 1 1/2 year old. Oh yeah. She is 1 1/2.

Very Pregnant Girl Update

This VPG is 32 weeks along according to the email that some company sent me. I'm due April 3, so if that isn't right, you can let me know. Anyways, if it is right, I'm one week shy of how far along I was when Allyssa was born. I've been trying to get things ready for when O.K. comes along. So far I have a few sandwich bags filled with cooked ground turkey sausage in a big freezer bag in the freezer. I'm hoping to get more and more of it cooked so that meals can be made quickly and easily by anyone with no defrost time. When Allyssa was born my diet went out the window. I ate a lot of prepackaged items that happened to be high in cholesterol at home and when I was in town at the hospital I usually ate chicken nuggets from McDonald's and french fries. Turns out eating a horrendous diet like that can make a girl's cholesterol go through the roof. Simply going back to my regular way of eating and making sure to eat healthy cereal did the trick. I dropped over 100 points off my cholesterol in just 3 months. This time, I don't plan on eating a lot of bad-for-me foods. I figure that I can tell my house guests where my favorite recipes are and where the meat is and they can fix it for me. We don't eat a lot of meat at my house. Mainly ground turkey sausage, and only 1/2 pound per meal; each meal is made to feed 2 adults supper one night and lunch the next day. Obviously, if there are a lot of guests, they'll have to use more meat, but if it is just 2 or 4 adults total, we'll do fine for supper. We might have to have something besides leftovers for lunch, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I also have cookie dough frozen in little balls in the freezer and a fresh batch of refried beans made. I think I'll need more of both of those, but it is a good start.
O.K.'s room is looking good. We've got it painted, most pictures on the wall, the guest room furniture out, and most needed things purchased. We are now working on getting the office set up as a guest room and contemplating moving the office to the den. We'll see.
As far as PIH symptoms go, I'm doing okay. Today I got a little worried because I felt nauseous and had a bit of a headache, but I took 2 Tylenol (only my second time to do this this pregnancy) and ate lunch. Now I'm feeling better. I have an appointment on Monday, so I'll ask to have more tests run if they don't run them without my asking. Maybe we'll get to talk about when they'll schedule my C-section. Last I checked, the doctor would only say that I would have a c-section at 39 weeks unless she changed her mind. If she doesn't set a date, maybe I can figure out what day of the week she typically does them. I know that Allyssa's was an emergency, so it wasn't necessarily on the day they normally do it, so that doesn't help me.

Inauguration

I realize that my daughter is too young to remember this inauguration, but she and I watched it anyways. Not because I wanted to see it very, very much, but because I thought that it was important that Allyssa "see" it so that when she is older I can tell her that she saw a very historical inauguration. When it actually took place, Allyssa was watching the T.V. (a lot of the time she was playing and reading even though I only had the T.V. on for about 40 minutes; she doesn't watch T.V. really, so she doesn't stare at it). Her reaction? She clapped. Most likely she had no concept of what just occurred, but everyone on the whole screen was clapping, so she must have figured she should, too. When she is 12 or so and learning about this in school, I'll be glad to tell her that she watched it, clapped at the inauguration, and that she was 1 1/2 years old. Now my reasons for not caring to watch it so much are simple: You'll have to check out my other blog for them though because I ramble too much.

Sonogram today

Today the baby was measured to weigh 3 pounds 1 oz which is perfect for his age (between 29 and 30 weeks). I seem to be very healthy as my last urine catch showed everything to be "almost negligable" (all the fun stuff that they look for to show signs of preeclampsia weren't there), so all looks good. I saw the other doctor (she was there when Dr. Hunter delivered Allyssa) today. She didn't think I needed more blood work today or another urine catch. So I am free for the next 2 weeks. I'll see Dr. Hunter then, and will certainly have to give more fluids.
Dr. Infante told me that I very well could have more children reguardless of my c-sections. Recently I was told that 3 is the magic number for c-sections. As it turns out, that is just what people say. Infante said that when they open me up for this C, they'll look at the scar and see if it looks like there is a lot of scar tissue or not. They'll use this to judge how this scar will most likely heal and let me know then if I can have Baby #3. Most of the time 3 Cs are fine (occasionally after 1 C it will look like the mother has had 6 Cs because of the amount of scar tissue, however, Infante did a C on a woman who was having her 6th C and it looked like it was her first). If I am able to have Baby #3 they will let me know after that C if it looks okay enough to try for Baby #4. (She said "Usually 3 or 4 is the most that we like to do, but really it depends on the mother.") The process just goes on from there. So you must be asking yourself how many kids I plan on having. Too bad. You'll just have to wait and see.

Very Pregnant Girl

I'm about 30 weeks pregnant. That means 9 weeks or less left until my c-section and O.K. (Other Kid) gets to meet everyone! Enjoy the photo!

Having read 2 posts today on morning routines (see here and here) I figured I'd see if I could come up with a routine that I already follow so that I can see if I like it. Here goes:

1. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast. OR Get Allyssa up, dress her, fix her breakfast and eat.
2. Play with Allyssa
3. Decide on the day's chores and do at least one with Allyssa
4. Play with Allyssa
5. Fix lunch and eat it

Yeah that's pretty much it. I think I like it. I "schedule" a lot of play time into most days. Although, some mornings do include a trip to the grocery store, MOPS, or Story Time. A lot of days are simply filled with play time. We try to go outside some of the time and be inside other parts of the day. This all depends on the heat.

Naps and Bedtime

Allyssa decided a few days ago that she would take a 3 hour nap. This may sound like a good thing, unless you knew that she was staying up until 9 because of it (although it was in her crib, she was still awake). Yesterday, I thought I'd attempt to fix the problem. After 2 hours, I put away her laundry in her room. She woke up very happy and fell asleep last night wonderfully. Today, I figured I'd try something similar. I had diapers to put away (we use cloth, so I always have diapers to put away). Unfortunatly for me, she proved once again that she can out-smart Mommy. After just one hour of napping, she woke up for the afternoon. Sadly for her she didn't know that Mommy has a 1 1/2 hour rule. Good thing she has a stuffed dog to keep her company. I've got to go put a few things away before I go get her.

It's back...

We went outside to play this morning. Allyssa was in a good mood. We had a good time. By the time we came inside, I noticed she wasn't as happy as she had been. It got worse as lunch approached. I noticed that it wasn't hunger or sleepiness or need for a diaper change. Then, after she went down for a nap, I went out to check the mail. It wasn't hard to see what it was. It's back. The sky was an odd color to the north of us. The wind is blowing from the north, so it is making its way in. A few minutes later, I looked out the kitchen window and saw the whole sky was now consumed. The light shining in the window wasn't a normal shade. The smell is on my clothes from just the few minutes outside getting the mail. My poor baby. She'll be sick for a few days at least. Hopefully it will be gone soon. I thought it was gone until next fall, but they must burn in January, too. I hate sugar cane season. Allyssa will have to have her bedding cleaned daily and baths each night until this is gone. Please, smoke, go away soon!

Sticks!

Allyssa decided that collecting sticks would be her new hobby. Yesterday, she just collected them in the backyard. Today she collected some in the backyard, but when we had to go out front because of some church stuff, she happily brought the sticks she had collected into the front yard, happily took them over to church and found more sticks. Then she walked around church collecting sticks and saying "More stick." At one point she had 12 sticks and one branch. We counted them and put them in a pile. She learned the word pile and enjoyed counted them all each time we added a new one. It was great fun! "More stick."

19 months

Allyssa is over 19 months now and cute as can be. She knows the following body parts:
head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, shoulder, tummy, knees, elbow, hand, fingers, toes, and get this...eyebrow!
She can also do all the motions for "Jesus Loves Me" although they are not all perfect they are close.
She began playing by herself. It makes me sad. I know I should clean something when she does this, but I want to play too!! Yesterday she played almost the whole day by herself. She played in the morning before I left for my doctor apt. Then when David came over to watch her while I was gone she played by herself. Then, when I got home, she played by herself. It was very bizarre.

picking up toys

We've been teaching Allyssa to pick up her toys at bedtime for the past couple of weeks (except a few days while we had visitors over Christmas). It has really worked well. The first time we tried it, Allyssa cried and refused to help. It was the first time, so it didn't bother us. After that the crying slowly became less and less, but she was mainly an observer. Then one day, she helped by putting her milk away. Perfect. The next day, she put a book and her milk away. She puts about 4 items away each night now before bed. For a 1 1/2 year old, I say that that is just fine. I'm pleased!

Christmas tree

Only one ornament was broken in the taking of these photos.

Pictures!

Allyssa giving Daddy toys. Yes, they are praying about it in one of these pictures. Allyssa prays about random things all day long.

But I don't want to forget the fun...

Today was so wonderful, and I have some pictures of some of the wonderful things. Sadly, I can't get the pictures off my camera. The screen that usually pops up to get the pictures off isn't popping up. Instead a little box pops up with two folders in it that don't hold my pictures. So bizzare. David can fix it! I believe he can fix anything.

Okay, back to my day. I have to tell all the stories because I don't want to forget the fun!

This afternoon Allyssa and I went to Wal-mart. She always totes around at least one toy when we take a car ride. Today, it was 3 toys, two babies and a big stuffed lamb. One baby was left in the car, but the lamb and the other baby made it into Wal-mart. It doesn't bother me for her to tote her toys into stores. Really, I could care less what she brings; as long as she isn't crying, I'm good. We did our shopping and she even let me go through my coupons to make sure that I wasn't missing anything that I really needed to get, like a bottle for O.K. (Other Kid) that was $3 off with my coupon because I really think that he needs fresh bottles. Allyssa didn't use bottles much, but you never know one kid to the next, so I figured that having some on hand was a good idea, and when is $3 off not a good idea? During the last couple of minutes of shopping, Allyssa realized that the panties that were on her baby are no longer there. They haven't been there for about 1 1/2 weeks. I told her that I knew the panties were gone, and that it is really okay. As we checked out she kept looking under the baby's dress for the panties and saying "pa-ties." Outside on the way to the car one of the legs on the doll popped off while she was looking for the "pa-ties." I died laughing. She was holding the leg of the doll and just looking at it like she was so confused. I'm sure she was. I stopped walking and tried to get the leg back on, but it wasn't easy. I passed an employee that I've talked to before and said hello between laughs. He put away the carts he was pushing and came to get my cart and see what was so funny. Allyssa was now looking very concerned, saying uh-oh and pa-ties. Fernando tried to put the baby's leg back on, but couldn't. I was still laughing. Then a man from church came up to us to see what all the fun was about. It was really hilarious. Once we got home, David put the baby back together because he got home at about the same time that we did. All is well with the baby now (except she still doesn't wear panties).

At supper today, Allyssa decided that Daddy needed kisses. Lots of kisses. She must have given him 20 kisses. We had to move her closer to him so that he could reach her. It was so precious.

After supper, David was playing with Allyssa, and I was putting dishes away. Allyssa gave David (who was sitting on the floor) a doll and a dog. At first she thought that this might be enough and she sat down on his lap, too. But no, it wasn't enough. By the end of it all he had 7 babies, 1 monkey, 3 bunnies, 2 dogs, 1 racoon, 2 bears, 1 duck, a book, and a plastic decorative gift card holder. And of course Allyssa found a place on his lap and couldn't understand why he couldn't read a book to her.

We also finally took pictures in front of the tree tonight. It is the 12th day of Christmas, you know.

January photos

I'm never going to catch up with my photos, so I'll just start with January.

Allyssa insisited that Daddy play tea party with her. He got up to get water (and to try to get out of wearing the hat) and came back and sat on the couch, but Allyssa turned to face him, pointed at him and the chair he was supposed to sit in and then reached towards him with the hat. Obviously, he was supposed to sit with her and wear the hat. They really did have a good time. David kept trying to take the hat off, but Allyssa wasn't upset, she just kept giving it back to him. She came up with this by herself. I hadn't played tea party with her yet.

We hadn't had a toilet paper issue with Allyssa until this occured a couple of days ago. Silly girl.


Allyssa was given this wagon by her Grandma and Grandpa. She filled it herself with her favorite stuffed animals and dolls and took them for a walk around the house.

Cookie Making

Allyssa loves to cook. She'll even try to drag the stool to the counter so that she can help. This picture was taken on Dec. 18th. Since then we've made and eaten more cookies than I care to count! But they sure are yummy!