The Things We Are Doing

Unfortunately, this is what my daughter spends a lot of time doing. What is she looking at so intently?


She is watching Bolt on the computer. Unfortunately, she can watch shows on the tv, the computer, and Daddy's I-touch, and it is a real struggle for both of us to limit the amount of time watching. Her current favorites are Bolt and Tinkerbell. What a sad, sad mother I am. What am I going to do when the baby arrives??


Here she is holding her baby and a play remote, pretending to watch tv. :)


And here she is pretending this plastic toy is a camera. She loves to do this. "Cheese!" she says.


Where did Kaitlyn find these glasses and these two suckies (which are actually not "her" suckies, meaning the ones she still uses)?


Oh, in her drawer, way, way in the back. And the stool explains how she got up there. She drags this stool all over the house to climb up higher and reach things. It is never in the bathroom when she needs to go potty.


Just these past couple of days, Kaitlyn has become very interested in this tool set she got for Christmas last year. She loves to set it and some of her other toys up on her bed and play in there. I love how her baby is sitting and playing, too.


This age of pretend and imagination is so fun.


This video totally makes me laugh. Because of her Tinkerbell show, Kaitlyn talks a lot about pixie dust. She knows that Tinkerbell lost hers, and so she is always finding extra for all of us. Funny girl.

A Pregnancy Post

I finally got Will to take a picture of me and belly yesterday. Here we are at about 25 1/2 weeks.


Just for fun, here I am with Kaitlyn almost a month farther along, at about 29 1/2 weeks. Pretty close, huh? I knew I was showing more this time. I have also gained about the same amount of weight already that I did the whole time with Kaitlyn (including the weight I lost and gained back both times). I am not sure quite what to think about that, so I try not to.


This is a picture of me four days before Kaitlyn was actually born and a day before my due date.


Though the symptoms I have been experiencing are different from the ones I had with Kaitlyn, I have some major complaints. First of all, I finally know what that pelvic pressure is that I have been feeling, and I am surprised that no one I ever talked to about it recognized it. Vulvar varicosities. I'll leave most of the details to your imagination, but I will say that although they are supposed to be harmless, they are very ugly and very painful. Will bought me a special belt that I have been wearing, and it really helps with the pain, but they are still there. Ugh! I didn't have any varicose veins with Kaitlyn, but my body is already falling apart with baby #2. :( My second big complaint is the acne. It seems to just slowly be getting worse and worse. Though it was pretty bad our first year in California, I think this tops it. It just goes to show you that you can't count on anything, not even when your skin was great with a previous pregnancy. Along with my two complaints, I should mention that I am grateful that this time around I haven't really gotten calf cramps, just slight tightness that is alleviated by flexing my foot, and so far I haven't had the awful SI joint pain that I wore my trochanteric belt for last time. You win some, and you lose some, I guess. I'd really rather lose these varicose veins, though, so I hope they go away after the birth like they are supposed to. Until then . . . sigh.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was pretty fun this year. I even remembered to get a shot of our family, though Kaitlyn is the only one is costume. You can even see my belly in it. The black tarp in the background is part of the haunted house that Will, ReAnn, Steve, and Mike did in the garage. Reviews said this one was even better than last year. :)


Kaitlyn was terrified of it, even though she never even went inside when it was all finished, and she still talks about that scary garage that ReAnn did. :) She is clinging to Will in this picture because she can hear the scary noises coming from inside the garage--rather monkey-like, I might add.



Here is the whole gang. Can you believe the outfits ReAnn put together for her entire family??! They were the Credibles, and this picture doesn't even do justice to how awesome they all looked. Kaitlyn still talks about the "glasses" they wore, and she just loves that Josh was Spiderman and Max was a ghost. She still talks about their costumes, too.


Kaitlyn and Kaylee are always so cute with each other. They give one another hugs all the time.


Kaitlyn did such a cute job of saying trick-or-treat. She knew exactly what to say, but when it came time to saying it at people's houses, she got a little shy, so most of the time I had to prompt her. We went down the street that Steve and Denise live on with all of her cousins. She's just not as fast as the older ones, so I kept having to pick her up when we fell behind. Plus, she's not super aggressive, so she kind of got pushed around a bit at the houses. She loved going to all the houses and getting a treat, though. After every one, she'd say, "Where are we going now, Mom?" and I'd reply every time, "To another house." Even when her little bucket got heavy, she didn't want me to carry it.



She just loved wearing her monkey costume, and all evening long, she kept saying, "I'm a monkey!" I tried to get it on video, but you can see that we must have been practicing "trick-or-treat" way too much. :) Isn't she a cutie? We also went trick-or-treating over at my mom's house, and Kaitlyn got not only some treats and an outfit, but this cute little pink chair that she has to sit in all the time.



Of course, she was very excited to get home and take a look at all of her goodies. Kaitlyn's favorites were probably the M&M's. At least she ate those ones first. When we finished the last of her treats last week, she told me we needed to go buy some more. :) Um, I don't think so!

Staheli Farm Take 2

We thought it would be fun to go to Staheli Farm this past Halloween weekend with all of Kaitlyn's cousins who were in town. They had a blast! This time I remembered to take a picture that included me, and despite the pregnancy acne, it didn't turn out too badly.


Kaitlyn went on the cow train ride again with Daddy and was excited to pet the baby goats again.


But her very favorite thing to do this time was dance. Several times, I had to follow her over to the big cement area where the music played and watch her spin in circles. The girl loves to dance/spin. I just love how cute she looked in her coat! Denise gave it to her for her birthday, and this was the first time she has worn it. I kind of wish I'd had her last pictures taken in it because it is so cute. Oh, well; I am sure there will be a next time.


This is a video of Kaitlyn dancing with Kaylee and Mike's fiance Ashley. I love how she starts running circles around them.



Thanks for the fun, guys!

It's a great party!

Kaitlyn loves to dance, and lately she will turn on the "radio" on this pretend car dashboard and dance. Sometimes it's slow dancing, like she is doing with Elmo, and other times it is fast crazy "running" dancing. She always wants me to join in. "It's a great party, Mom!" she exclaims. And I have to agree; it is a great party. :)



On a totally unrelated note, we took Kaitlyn to get her picture taken today, and it was actually a pleasant experience! She could understand everything the lady asked her to do, was willing to comply, and followed directions perfectly. When I told her we were going to the store to get her picture taken, she knew exactly what that meant and even told me she was excited. :) I better enjoy this before baby #2 arrives and we start all over again--only this time with TWICE the number of children--trying to get decent shots.

Laughing Our Heads Off

Kaitlyn has started doing this crazily obvious fake laugh because she knows it makes us laugh. So then we are all just laughing. I love it!



Spending so much time watching Shrek2 has really paid off in the educational department. Kaitlyn can spot the letter "s" just about anywhere. Of course, she calls it a "shrek" and not an "s," but we'll get there. :) At first it was just when the font put tick marks on the edges (reminding her of the ogre horns on the "s" in Shrek), but now she can correctly identify pretty much any "s."

Speaking of movies, Will has successfully hooked Kaitlyn on another show--Toy Story 2. It's "Buzz" all the time around here. Since I am no longer sick, I have got to figure out a way to wean us both off of the DVD player!

Kaitlyn has started saying "I just teasing you, Mom" when she really is just teasing me. How did I get such a fun little girl?

Lastly, Kaitlyn has really been loving my belly lately. The other day she kept wanting to kiss it and hug it, and she'll say "hi, baby" in her lovey voice. I really think she knows more about this new family member than she can accurately portray. I can't wait for the in-person sisterly love!

Staheli Farm

Last weekend we decided to go to Staheli Farms as a family activity. We didn't do the corn maze, but they had lots of animals and fun things for Kaitlyn to explore. She loved it. Every time we pass it on the way to my mom's house, she always says, "Look! The farm!"

Here she is with some bunnies.


Looking at chickens with Daddy.


Pointing to something cool.


Petting a baby goat. You could go in the pen which had baby goats, a few adult goats, and a little pig.


Will especially loved this little Shetland Pony. I didn't get a picture, but there were also two miniature cows. I believe the type was Dexter??


There was a pen with bigger goats and next to it were some llamas. This goat had climbed up pretty high and was bleating. Kaitlyn wasn't quite sure what to think of him!


Daddy sat with her on this teeter-totter and then took her down the slide pictured in the back.


The slide emptied into a box filled with dry corn--nice and soft.


Kaitlyn really wanted to climb up to this playhouse, so Daddy helped her.


She actually loved playing with the random toys up there even though it didn't seem too exciting (or clean!).


There was a ride you could pay extra to go on, and Will--bless his heart--squished himself in the barrel and took Kaitlyn. There was a huge group of kids that were all together, and the girls were talking about the party they were here for. Kaitlyn heard them, and she thought that the ride was called a party, so she always refers to it as such when she talks about it. :)


The tractor pulled them in circles and swerved the whole time. Kaitlyn loved it! What a great party!!


Here is a video of the baby goats. They have such an unusual sound. It's the higher pitch "maaaa" sound.

Despite the greasy "food" that we ate for dinner, the night was a lot of fun. Kaitlyn keeps asking to go back.