Week 11

Random fact: This is what I said when I was pregnant with Kylie: “Week 10 started out with me feeling much better! And ended with me feeling much worse.” Which is exactly what happened this past week! Pretty crazy.

But mostly, week 11 = tired tired tirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When I was this far along with Kylie I was already done working and was sleeping in. I think I’m going to have to start taking naps, even thought I strongly dislike them. I’m not productive when I’m so tired anyway, so I might as well sleep.

With Kylie I noticed a difference in my waistline this week. I haven’t really noticed a change in the past two weeks, but I did go ahead and pull out my maternity clothes. Mostly because I would have needed some new summer clothes, anyway.

I made the mistake of posting this picture on Facebook and saying that this shirt makes me look pregnant. But you all remember what it feels like to just look kind of bloated in your normal clothes. It’s nice to go ahead and put on the maternity stuff. Especially the pants that just have that comfortable short elastic band.

Baby is the size of a fig and fully formed!

swimming

Kylie and I went swimming for the first time this summer. We have a FREE pool in housing! One of the benefits of housing being so far from the main base. She had no idea what the swimsuit meant, but whenever her shoes go on she says “go go go!” I thought it was a little unnecessary when my mom bought these water shoes at a consignment store, but I was very glad for them when she started stomping around in a few inches of water.

I had no idea how this would go, especially since she just started playing in the bathtub. Overall it was pretty good! There’s a shelf at the top of the stairs with just a little bit of water and she just stood there for a while watching the other kids. Then she discovered the joys of splashing and stomping.

I thought we were doing pretty well until a fish in a swim diaper jumped in next to us. She was 19 months old, bouncing on her tip toes in 2 ft of water, swallowing, spitting, blinking and laughing. She would dive under and wave her arms and legs until her dad lifted her back up. No swim lessons (I asked), just no fear. As I watched her in awe, I had to remind myself that there are benefits to having a child with some fears, like fewer trips to the ER.

Kylie eventually decided that she should be able to walk around in 2 ft of water like the other kids, so we started the very frustrating game of making her way down the stairs only to be upset that she couldn’t go the last one without going under. (Going under wasn’t happening. She doesn’t even put her mouth in the bathwater) Normally it probably wouldn’t be so dramatic, but teething has once again taken over her personality. I got tired of this game and tried putting her in her floaty, which did not go well at all. So I carried her crying out of the pool and got her to sit still for a minute with some fruit snacks (a special treat for desperate occasions).

Then she came up with a new game: walking around the pool and climbing on all the empty lounge chairs. She kept her sunglasses on the entire time, leading everyone to oo and ah about how cute she was.

I spent the rest of the day on the couch with a just-in-case bucket. I’m really hoping it was a coincidence and not the result of spending an hour in the sun. Because I’m hoping we can do this a lot this summer! And I’m excited to do an end of the summer swimming post and see how her courage/abilities change! (and I’m already thinking about how in the world I could do this with a 6 month old and a 2.5 year old so any advice about that would be appreciated!)

10 weeks

10 weeks with Kylie:

• nausea a little better, fatigue a lot better
• stomach hardening

My ickyness has been so much better. I still feel gross all day, but not the kind of nausea that makes you swear you’re never getting pregnant again. We talked about asking the doc for medicine since I was having such a hard time sleeping, but I’m glad I held off. I had a panic moment tonight while grocery shopping, but that was the only one all week. Two of my FB friends who are farther along posted about throwing up this week, so I’m very grateful! I even ate an egg white sandwich on Sunday.

The fatigue is strong and in charge, though. I get out of breath walking up the stairs and often feel like my head is too heavy for my neck. I did manage to take one walk this week and poor Beaker was very grateful.

We’ve made it to the playground most days, too. Kylie is currently afraid of the slides, so I can mostly sit and watch her go up and down the steps. She invented a wonderful game where I lay on the slide and she hides underneath it then pops out to scare me.

It’s so nice to be out of “survival mode”, but that means I have to tackle all the things I’ve neglected over the past month! So far I’ve gone through the piles of receipts and coupons and dealt with some clutter, but there is currently a mountain of laundry on the floor next to me. Josh manages to get it clean so we at least can dig for clean underwear!

I don’t feel like my belly is hardening, but it’s sticking out a bit. Our pool just opened and I want to take Kylie, but I’m really wishing I had a bathing suit that screamed “maternity!”

This baby is way more opinionated about food than Kylie was. I’ve indulged in some cravings since I haven’t gained weight yet. The other night I really wanted yellow cake which is the first time in my life that has ever happened. I don’t remember making it from scratch before and it’s really different – very dense and moist and a little eggy. But mostly I like crackers and bread or fresh fruit and veggies. My good friend peanut butter and I are not getting along. I’ve been eating a lot of salads – with crunchy romaine lettuce. And I just bought a watermelon. No one else likes it, but I don’t think I’ll have a hard time finishing it.

I’m sleeping VERY lightly, which I’m sure contributes to the fatigue. I don’t know how hormones cause SO many changes!

Oooo and my hair is already less oily. Best perk of pregnancy!

High School

I graduated from high school 10 years ago! I thought it would be fun to do a big huge HS memories post. I posted this picture on Facebook awhile ago, because I think it’s hilarious that I look exactly the same as my senior picture.

I do feel the need to explain my eyes, because they got some Facebook comments and they’re obvious in a lot of these pictures. No, I did not do drugs, I just cried a lot. Which is also embarrassing, but better than you all thinking I was a pot head. ANYWAY…

A lot of times when I think about high school I cringe. I was SO insecure and couldn’t see past myself to appreciate what I had. I went to a great school with great people, and I want to send my kids somewhere just like it. I was a little weird and awkward and got teased a lot in middle school. But by high school, we all matured and I don’t remember anyone being mean to my face. It was cooler to be godly than to be a mean girl. The Bible was integrated into everything, and we were taught how to think and believe for ourselves. It is so fun for me to watch the people from my class on Facebook… their jobs and ministries, what they’re reading, how they’re raising their kids.

And a smallish school (I graduated with 70 something) was the perfect place for this creative overachiever to be involved in a ton of stuff. I want to remember all those fun things when I think about high school, instead of all the awkward embarrassing stuff…so here it goes!

I had the same three best friends through high school, so they’ll show up in a lot of these pictures.

Freshman year was my first year as class president… I ran against Rachel and she decided at the last minute to give it to me! I still don’t know why, but I still love her for it! I worked for one of my neighbors this year – doing data entry for their home business. It was a great job for a 14 year old. This is a picture of my freshman year scrapbook; it makes me smile.

I was a walk-on in the school play (I’m really hoping Rachel doesn’t hate me for posting a picture of her with braces). I LOVED the plays. I wish I had tried out for some in college.

Classic choir dresses. We had a women’s choir because no boys tried out.

Homecoming was in the winter for us (no football), and was a dinner, not a dance. (Baptist school, though I hear things have changed…) It was most common for people to go with just-friends dates. I went by myself this year and the getting ready was definitely the fun part! A girl from the local beauty school did my hair – it took 3 hours and was awesome. Look at how tiny I am! I thought I was big.

I played soccer this year – my first school sport. It was the first year for girls’ soccer and there were no cuts. I was terrible, but it was fun to be part of a team.

Sophomore year I won class president legitimately. I didn’t do choir because I wanted to take graphic design. I can’t remember if I had any source of income this year… I must have just done some babysitting. I was really proud of this skirt because it was from Delia’s.

Me, my bros, and my baby-faced cousins :)

In the school play I had one line and a duet with Hilary. I also helped with music during rehearsals. For some reason I had to wear my glasses for the dress rehearsal and I was mortified.

I got a perm this year to dry my hair out before my back surgery.

And I don’t have any more pictures from Sophomore year! I had scoliosis surgery in December, which was pretty major. I went to Homecoming with a very cute and nice boy, felt so nervous and awkward, was super weak from my surgery and was on strong pain meds. yup.

I don’t have many summer pictures, either, but my summers were full of church youth group stuff. I loved my youth group.

Hilary and I started working at Baskin Robbins. We lived across the street from each other and biked there when we had the same shift. A few months later the store got robbed while I was working. The police freaked me out by saying he would probably come back to see if we recognized him, and my parents weren’t really comfortable with me working there anymore, anyway.

Junior year I ran for vice president and lost. But the officers still let me stay involved, so pretty much I got to do all the fun stuff without all the responsibility. I don’t have any pictures from the play, but I had two small parts and was the props manager. I started with one small part, but I came to every rehearsal and memorized the whole play because I was going to be ready if someone got sick. (did I say I was an overachiever?) I actually did that the year before too, but this time it paid off because someone dropped out and I got the other small part. It also helped that it was for a middle schooler and I could pass as an 8th grader.

Our family took our first plane ride and vacation that wasn’t to visit family. We went to Sedona, Arizona and I loved it. I will always be sad that Josh didn’t get assigned to Phoenix.

I went to Homecoming this year with my future boyfriend. It was crazy icy that night and our friends got in a scary wreck right in front of us. I still have this dress because I think it might be Air Force ball appropriate, but I’m not sure it would fit.

We had a “select choir” for Junior and Seniors, and I love singing in a small ensemble. This was on the choir/band trip… the red dresses were greeeeeeaaat. This is me making sure there’s no cleavage in the picture.

I couldn’t play soccer my Sophomore year after my surgery, so the coach let me take stats. I did the same Junior year since there was no way I would make the improved team.

I was kind of in charge of our Junior/Senior banquet (prom with no dancing) so I had to go even though I had no date. I decided to ask a Sophomore guy who was in choir with me and it was so so so so awkward and we never spoke to each other again. Not kidding. Lesson learned – swallow your pride and go by yourself!

This was a FUN summer. I had decided I wanted to be a music major, so this summer I went to a music program at Cornerstone College. It was a really great experience, and again, I wish I’d had the confidence to appreciate it more. Also in the next few pictures you’ll see my favorite haircut ever. I’ve been failing to duplicate it for 10 years.

It was Stanley Cup finals while I was there, and I learned that central MI does not care about hockey like Detroit does, so I went a little crazy.

Family picture…

Trip to New Hampshire with the cousins…

17th birthday with Hilary’s family at our pool…

My mom called my Senior year my golden year. Everything just went right for me. I got my first boyfriend and more of a social life, I got a shocking ACT score, we finally won spirit week, I had a lead part in the school play, I made the state honors choir, and I ran for president unopposed. Plus I had that haircut :) This was the best year as a class officer. I had relaxed a lot and was easier to work with (as our class sponsor publically pointed out, she meant it as a compliment) and Hilary and Rachel were officers, too. I taught piano lessons this year and worked at Famous Footwear at the end of the year. One of my favorite memories from Senior year was going once a week to Starbucks before school with Hilary. She gets a lot of the credit for my relaxing, because I would empty out all my spaz to her ;)

Spirit week was my obsession and I can never explain what it meant to me that we finally won, and won by a landslide.

The play senior year is one of my favorite high school memories. I think it takes up 12 pages in my scrapbook. I was Marilla in Anne of Green Gables. Rachel was my best friend, Rachel Lynde, and I don’t know when I’ve ever laughed so much. I MISS plays!

Our school started cheerleading for the first time. Most of us had no gymnastics experience, so we didn’t do cool stunts, but it was still so fun. Oh, and no football so we cheered for basketball. There was apparently a big controversy about wearing our out of dress code skirts to school, so we wore these terrible pants that I have no pictures of.

Coronation lunch… there’s a ceremony where they introduce the seniors and tell where they’re going to college and such. I still have this dress even though it hasn’t fit in years, because I’ve never felt prettier.

I got to go to Homecoming with a boyfriend this year, so it was officially the most fun and least awkward. I also found the EXACT dress I wanted, with straps (hate strapless), in budget. I did a theme thing and had a rectangle necklace, bracelet, earrings and hair clip.

We took our senior trip to Orlando and it was the BEST week. I’m still so nostalgic about Orlando because of that trip. Hilary, Bonnie and I slept together in a queen bed the whole week, and that’s what I call bonding. My favorite part was Universal Studios… love it!

On choir/band trip we went to Medieval Times. I love Medieval Times and I kept trying to get Josh to go to the one at Myrtle Beach. Someday I’ll just have to take the kids!

I was still with the boyfriend for Junior/Senior banquet, and I was really temped to post a picture because he had a top hat, gloves, and a cane to go with my outfit. But I decided to err on the side of the less awkward. This is one of my all time favorite pictures. We unintentionally did red white and blue!

And we’re to graduation! This is me and some of my fellow overachieving friends ready to walk.

As class president, I opened the ceremony and prayed, which was fine because I like public speaking. But I also had to hug or shake hands with everyone after they got their diploma which was my nightmare! But I’m assuming no one but me remembers the horrible do-we-hug-or-shake moments.

I have a lot of fun memories from that summer of piling into someone’s car to run around to open houses. We did my 18th birthday dinner with Bonnie at Applebee’s – my favorite. And the boyfriend and I went to Stratford and saw Taming of the Shrew set in the wild west, which was awesome.

And I have to post these pictures of Bonnie and my first dorm room because they make me happy. Our posters, all the stuff creatively crammed in a small space, and even our schedules hanging up. I STILL have the nightmare that I forgot I was registered for a class and never went to it, haha! College was completely different for me… it became about building my future instead of being involved in 100 things. And I do have to say college wins because of one big reason with brown hair and hazel eyes.

So that was high school! And now I can show this post to Kylie someday when she asks what I was like as a teenager. :)

17 months

Kylie was 17 months old yesterday. She wears 18 month clothes and just started wearing some size 4 shoes. She’s grown a lot this month. She has 16 teeth.

The thing that stands out this month is that she is SO affectionate! It’s a game to her to give hugs and kisses. She’ll come to me with her mouth clamped shut saying “mmmm”, then she’ll go to daddy, then back to me, then back to daddy. She also gives us hugs all day. She likes to sniff things, so she’ll often sniff our knees when she hugs us, which is funny. She gets so excited when I tell her to say night night to Daddy. She runs to wherever he is and gives him hugs and kisses. Today I left her with Josh and she ran to the door twice while I was leaving to give me a kiss. We watch Sesame Street every morning after breakfast while my stomach settles, and she’s started wanting to sit in my lap instead of her chair.

It is so hard to get pictures of her! I really wanted a kissy picture and it took me two days to get the one above. This was the funniest reaction:

She’s added a few words this month. She’s said bear (“bay”) a few times, which is her first animal name. I think she’s been trying to say shoes for awhile, and I missed it because it’s “tsee”. She says squawk for birds (we have a lot of jungle toys/books) and it comes out like “gaw” in the back of her throat. She makes the same noise for oink. In one of her books she’ll say “tee” for the birds, like tweet. We have one book with a different animal on each page and she will go through and make the sounds for all of them, except I don’t know what noise a deer makes. She looked at Beaker ones this week and said “bay bay.” I’ve been so surprised she hasn’t said his name because she like b words and c/k words. I have no idea what motivates her to say certain words, except she obviously loves sound effects. We were telling her to “kick it” when she was playing with her ball, and she started saying it in about 2 minutes! One of her favorite things to say right now is “go go go!”

She’s developed some random fears this month. When I start the dryer she says “ahhhh” and runs out of the room. And all of a sudden she won’t go down the slides!

She’s so much better about baths. She still hates laying in the water to get her hair washed, but she usually just scrunches her face, stiffens her legs and deals with it. And we’ve brushed teeth with no fight all week!

She loves and recognizes so many songs. She’s really good at the itsy bitsy spider and the hokey pokey. And don’t mention ring around the rosie unless you’re prepared to do it forever! She’ll grab everyone’s fingers and drag them to a certain spot in the living room. After every song she claps her hands and says “yaaaay.”

We still feed the Sesame Street love. I think she’s been trying to say “Zoe.” Grammy brought her a bunch of new “guys” and she likes to set them up on chairs and shelves.

We’re pretty sure she still has a lingering dairy allergy, though we haven’t tried milk in a while. She’s fine with cheese, but I gave her some queso that had half and half in it and she got a rash where it touched her face.

She’s gotten a lot better at coloring with chalk and crayons! Since she already likes books and has a long attention span, I’m guessing coloring is going to be a favorite activity. I need to start looking for a little table for her.

She loves to go outside. When I tell her we’re going she usually does a little dance and then sits down and waits for her shoes. I’ve felt a little better this week so we’ve been able to go out more! For short periods of time, though; my stamina is horrible.

Potty training has been on my mind, because I know some people do it at 18 months, and I can’t imagine! I definitely feel like I need to wait until her vocabulary is bigger.

We started doing morning naps again, but this week she’s been playing instead of sleeping. I just can’t figure it out! I think she at least needs them on Mondays because her Sunday nap is almost always short. She’s been taking some 3 hour naps, which is crazy! We were at an hour and a half, maaaaaybe two hour limit for most of her life.

Wow, apparently I had a lot to say this month! She’s just been so sweet lately, and she’s developed so many funny habits.

Happy Anniversary

Josh and I have been married 7 years (yesterday)!

We don’t always do things for anniversaries or Valentine’s Day. Usually if one of us thinks of something good we get it, or else we don’t do gifts. Josh went big this year and bought pearl earrings to match the necklace he got for our 3rd (married) Valentine’s Day before he went to Basic. My favorite part was I know he spend two days doing vague “shopping” and he told me he found them on sale!

(I took about 20 pictures to get this cut off one. Let’s call it artsy. I’ve been growing increasingly less photogenic)

I got him a shower mirror which sounds super lame, but he’s been wanting one and I read a lot of reviews to try to find the best one. He’s very happy with it!

We went out while my parents were here to watch Kylie. I originally wanted to go to Buffalo Wild Wings because I haven’t been there or had wings in years, but that was not happening with morning sickness. When I was pregnant with Kylie we drove and hour to go to Carrabba’s, and then I could only eat two bites. So instead of spending a lot on a meal I couldn’t enjoy, I requested Panera. Our Panera just opened, so the bread is always really fresh and they have a ton of soups out. I had my current two favorite food groups, bread and sour.

After that we ran about 5 errands in a hour. It’s amazing how much time you save when you don’t have to get a toddler in and out of a car seat! It reminded me of Happy Tuesdays.

I thought all day about what mushy things I should write, because that doesn’t just spill out of me. I think what strikes me the most right now is that he makes my life simple and easy. To have someone in your life that is constant, takes care of you, doesn’t judge you, and always wants to spend time with you is pretty incredible!