Photos of Allyssa from Feb and March 2009

What we did today...

Today was busy. Well, I'm not sure about the whole day because it is just after noon right now, but the morning was busy. Allyssa and I had breakfast and got dressed and played and read books and went outside and played on the swings and played with the dog, and ate a snack, and ran outside to watch a train. That's quite a sentence, but that's the way it felt. After all of that I was finally able to convince her that we should go to the store. Cantelope was the key word for her. Sadly, she thought we were just going to HEB. She was totally unprepared for our excursion. We did go to HEB and picked up said cantelope, some lettuce, generic chocolate chips because stupid Wal-mart doesn't carry them anymore, broccoli, floss, and we did not get tortilla chips because they didn't have the size of bag that I wanted (that's the story of my life when it comes to HEB and Wal-mart). Then we went to Wal-mart. My goal was to buy TONS of stuff that we use often and everyday so that once the baby is born we will only need things like milk, bread, and fresh produce. I'm sure this idea is pie in the sky, but it is a noble goal. I was so proud of my coupons. I saved $10.75 because of them. Included in that amount was my free bottle of Suave conditioner that was valued at $3.00. Thank you Suave. And I can't forget to mention the bars of kid's soap from Johnson and Johnson that were priced at $.97 and I used a dollar off coupon, making these three bars of soap free! Oh and this morning when I gave Allyssa a snack, I quickly checked to see if there were any good coupons that were blogged about and found this which led me to the coupon for Arm and Hammer's Clean Shower. Not only did I have a $.75 off coupon, but the product was also on sale! Hooray! Combine all of that with my other coupons (toothpaste, toiletpaper, etc...), and I think that my coupons did me quite well today. Almost all of my other products were generic because Great Value makes their noodles, tomato sauce, southern style beans, pinto beans, cereal, etc...just fine for us. My cart was overflowing. Well, almost. It was quite the expensive trip for me, but I think that it will really help us out in the long run. When we got home, I unloaded the few items that needed to be refrigerated/frozen and got Allyssa busy playing before sticking lunch in the microwave (ah - the blessings of leftovers). Then I unloaded all of these groceries and household products and put them away. All this before lunch! What a morning! Sadly, Allyssa did not get worn out and she is awake in her crib. Dear God, please help this child sleep!

My least favorite parts of pregnancy

In no particular order:
1. Clothes that don't fit right. (I can't stand the waistband that touches my tummy, so most of my pants like to slip down and my shorts that fit of course fit lowly because I don't wear them up on my tummy, so my shirts have to be long enough to cover my belly. All in all it is a sad, sad situation of clothes that aren't comfy and don't fit right. The good news? Pregnancies are about 40 weeks long and I'm past week 36.)
2. People who treat me like an invalid (for example: I am not allowed to lift anything or move anything over 1 pound. People will try to force me to stop doing something that causes no discomfort at all simply because it involves lifting. However, when I'm doing a task that really does cause discomfort but does not involve lifting, the same person won't offer any help. Odd, I tell you. Odd.)
3. Being told to take it easy. (Every mother of more than one child can tell you that slowing down when you are pregnant with any child other than your first is virtually impossible. Combine that with the fact that I have no family near me, and this idea is down-right laughable.)

My Dr. Apt yesterday

It went well. I only have to see the doctor once next week. Hooray! I also don't have to do fetal monitoring next week! Hooray again! Dr. Hunter was going to set my date for March 25th. I was very happy with that date. It was 38 1/2 weeks. Sadly, when she checked her calendar, she saw that she was not going to be at the hospital that day. That meant that my date was moved to April 1st. I was really looking forward to having a March baby. I did make sure that Dr. Hunter understood that I do not want a different doctor cutting into me. That means that if I go into labor and she is not available to come do my c-section, I might have a VBAC. I haven't decided yet. I don't have to because April 1st is a LONG, LONG, LONG time away from now. Stinko. Anyways, the other thing is that Dr. Hunter schedules C-sections for Wednesdays. It is Lent. My husband's a pastor. We decided not to think about that either. David's guess for the baby's actual birthdate is March 19th. What's your guess?

MOPS

Today was MOPS. Allyssa has had a hard time in MOPS for several months. There used to be no toys or activities ready to be played with when she arrived. So, since she had nothing to occupy herself with, it was hard for Mommy to leave. Apparently now, she has associated the room that she is in with negative thoughts. Today, when we walked in the door, there was an activity for her to do right away! I was so excited about that! I thought that maybe she'd have an easy time getting settled in. Not so much. She took one look at the room and arched her back and screamed. Thankfully, we brought her baby in today, so one of the ladies started playing with her baby and invited her to join her. Smart lady. It worked.

Doctor apt later today. Maybe we'll get a date set!

Today so far

Today I woke up feeling quite pregnant and quite tired after a restless night of not sleeping. Sadly, at 4 am I was hungry, but too tired to get up, so by the time I got breakfast at 7:30 I was sick to my stomach because I was too hungry. O.K. doesn't wait for food. I spent much of the time between 7 and 7:30 when Allyssa and I ate begging Allyssa to understand that Mommy could not pick her up because Mommy didn't feel good while I cried as I made an omelet for her to eat. Thanks to Sarah, omelets only take 2 minutes to cook after they are mixed up, so breakfast wasn't difficult. By 10am, I felt much better, so the day went better after that. Allyssa got a late snack because of my bad morning, so she hardly ate any lunch and went straight down for a nap. What a good girl! She's such a sweetie. I've known for a couple of weeks that new teeth would be coming. For the past week, she's been chewing on her hand, so they're getting close. I thought that she was getting two teeth on the bottom. Turns out that not only is she getting those but she is also getting a tooth that I thought that she already had. See my little girl had a gap in the middle of her front two teeth. I thought that she would have a space like mine. Not the case. The front tooth was just slow to come in. There is a tooth now coming in between what I thought were her top two teeth. I'm hoping that there is room for it to squeeze in there. Allyssa's doctor says that the APA now recommends that kids see the dentist when they are one. I haven't taken her yet, but I'm thinking I might next week before O.K. is born.

Jesus Loves Allyssa

Allyssa woke up from her nap today signing and signing "Jesus Loves Me." Her version goes like this:
"Jesus loves me, loves me, Bible, Bible." It was mostly to the right tune, too.

And her motions were correct for "Jesus, Bible, little ones" and "He is strong."

How could I have forgotten my grocery store story?!

Today I went to HEB and Franko was my cashier. He says, "You're pregnant again?" I said, "Yes." Franko did not ever see me when I was pregnant with my daughter because I didn't live here.
Franko: "Oh. How many kids do you have?"
Me: "This one," (pointing to Allyssa) "and the one I'm carrying."
Franko: "Oh. I thought that you were pregnant a while back."
Me: "I was. 9 months is a long time."
Franko: "Oh. My girlfriend is 3 months prengnant. We can't wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Are you having a boy?"
Me: "Yes."

I couldn't help but laugh at this whole exchange. You see...9 months is a LONG time and people now think I've been pregnant twice with this one child!! Obviously, 9 months is a LONG time.

Lots of topics...read and enjoy!

So getting rid of satelite didn't help last night because Redbox has a code for a free movie rental on Monday nights. So last night, we used Redbox for the first time. I'd seen the Redbox in our Wal-mart several times and walking past it saw several movies that I wanted to watch, however, yesterday when I went the movies were all different than before and there were very few that I'd heard of. So I used my code to get Fireproof. David and I watched it last night and both of us would recommend it to married couple to watch (that's who its target audience is). So last night was not a good example of getting things done. However, tonight, David starts his new adult instruction class at church, so since I'll be home "alone" (girly will be asleep), I'll be getting some things done! That's good because I'm running out of time to get things done before O.K. is born.

Since this blog is supposed to be about Allyssa (I deleted me other blog, so you'll have deal with a few non-Allyssa things), here is what is going on with her:

1. She loved collecting, piling up, and counting sticks a month and a half or so ago.
2. She dropped that hobby for playing with her "pebble cup," which she filled with pebbles and dirt and would dump out all over herself.
3. She gave that up for Lent and now likes to go lizard hunting. (Okay, so she still likes sticks and pebbles, but the new cool thing to do is look for lizards and say "Lizard, where are ye?" Her "you" sounds more like a "ye" when she is singing this question to the lizards.
4. She liked having a stuffed bear "hold" crayons (really Mommy or Daddy held them against the bear's paw) and color with her.
5. She gave that up for having the stuffed bear "Run Run Run Run Run" around the house "holding" a balloon while she held the bear. (I just wrapped the string around the bear's paw to keep it from floating off.)
6. She likes to repeat EVERYTHING anyone says multiple times in a row. So make sure that you don't say anything you don't want repeated, and repeated, and repeated. Although that hasn't happend to me yet, and I'm hoping it doesn't, I can see how it could be a problem.

And since I don't have another blog to post this list on, here is a list of things that Allyssa and I accomplished so far this week (Monday and Tuesday):
1. Trips to Walmart and HEB
2. 3 loads of laundry (this is, of course, in addition to the one load of diapers done daily that doesn't get counted)
3. Tags snipped off of O.K.'s new clothes that we were gifted to us at the baby shower this weekend. (Allyssa liked jumping on and rolling around in the pile of clothes on the floor when I was all done.)
4. Furniture dusted (Allyssa really enjoys this)
5. Whole house vacuumed
6. Kitchen and Den swept
7. Snacks, meals, playtime, normal life stuff, etc...

I would say that that is a very productive list. And the week continues with plans of trying to organize O.K.'s dresser and figure out what I want to pack for him to wear home from the hospital. Oh and packing the new baby doll (that's right another one!! I think this will be like #20) that we'll give Allyssa, oh and getting my clothes repacked since I robbed my packed bag of them so that I could wear them. (I had it packed before I went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago for tests, just in case, so that David would know what to bring me.) Who knows what else we'll get done! We're on a roll!

Goodbye television shows...Hello getting stuff accomplished

With the new baby coming (and realizing that it is silly to pay so much for television) we've decided to get rid of Dish Network. Sad days really. Last night we watched out last HGTV. But see, that's just it. Even with all of the channels, we found ourselves with nothing to watch, so we'd watch HG. Well, except for Mondays. Mondays were my Jon and Kate days. How I'll miss my Jon and Kate! Anyways, so now it is regular t.v. only. But because of this, we are putting a much larger chunk of change into savings each month. And surely that will help out somewhere along the way. And we might just have the additional benefit of getting things done faster. Like my scrapbooking...maybe I won't be so far behind on it. Or David's projects like Allyssa's toy box that he was hoping would be done by Thanksgiving. Not that I'm trying to rush him or that t.v. kept him from doing it, but things like that might be much more interesting than the couple of channels that we get, so maybe they'll get done quicker. Maybe not (especially with baby #2 coming). We'll see.