More Randomness

No fun pictures to post today.  I haven't been as good about pulling out my camera as I should be, I guess. Just some random fun for your day.

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Aunt Chrissy (I still call her Aunt KK, but MC seems to have almost caught on to her real name) was in town this weekend, and we joined her and her hubby at her in-laws house to watch the LSU football game.  I took a few toys to keep MC entertained, one of them being a magnadoodle and Christy drew a shape and asked MC what shape it was.  MC's response?  OVAL!  It was definitely an oval, but not the answer Aunt KK was looking for; she thought she'd drawn a circle.  Poor Aunt KK, getting your drawing skills dissed by a 2-year-old.

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Yesterday Charlotte had just out the window to see if there was rain to go with the thunder she heard when a big black Dodge truck pulled into our driveway.  She shouted excitedly, "UNCLE BRUCE!" and ran into the other room toward the front door with much enthusiasm.  Unfortunately, I know Uncle Bruce drives a  BLUE Ford truck and could see it just using our driveway to turn around.  She was so excited and kept insisting that Uncle Bruce was outside, so I told her we could call him.  He didn't pick up and I left a message.   A few minutes later the phone rang and I said, "Maybe that's Uncle Bruce," which got me the response, " Uncle Bruce!"  Of course it wasn't Uncle Bruce, but the next time the phone rang she cried, "Uncle Bruce!"

Uncle Bruce had been nearby with a truckload of drywall when he missed my call, but couldn't swing by once the rain started.  So, as to not disapoint MC any further, we drove over to Miss Alafair's house around the corner to see him.  Charlotte loves her Uncle Bruce!

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Pregnancy - I'm finally at that point in the pregnancy where I love my pregnant body.  The baby's movements can be seen through my shirt as he squirms around in there.  (I say that as I just felt a foot-or something-slip up under my rib cage. Ouch!)  I know there will be a point where I look and feel HUGE, but right now I'm at that fun stage at the end of the second trimester when everything looks well balanced.  Read - my front has started growing faster than my rear! Thank Goodness!  Did you know that most pregnant models don't work past the second trimester?  I think that gives the rest of us a warped since of  what a pretty pregnant belly should look like.  Picture soon. 

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Charlotte loves to sing, dance, color, and play with play-doh.  She has been able to say her alphabet for ages.  Counting, however, seems to elude her, but she's getting better.  It must come as no surprise then, that she's a very creative, imaginative child.  Today we were outside chalking and I drew some stairs (she said a word that kinda sound like stairs) and then she pretended to walk up them.  Fun, I thought, so I said, let's draw a bridge for you to cross.  She LOVED that idea and walked right over the bridge.  And then wanted me to draw the stream under it, complete with fish, a duck, and a boat.  Then she sat "in the boat."  So I took it a little further and drew us a big rowboat that we could both "sit in" and sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."  We "grabbed" the chalk oars and paddled away.  Then Charlotte stood up and I told her not to stand up, it would rock the boat and she might fall out into the water.  So she then rocked  back and forth and I decided to go overboard myself - but of course MC quickly extended her hand without prompting and helped me back into the boat.

I love the part of being a parent where you get to be a kid again.  It's so much fun...of course that is until MC wants to sit in a boat and fall out 20 times in a half hour...

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Talking.  What the heck?  It's like one day I had a little girl who could throw together a few commonly used 3 word sentences and today I got, "I want go see Bottie again." Last weekend it was, "I don't like it!"  Those are just the most memorable, but they just keep on coming. I can hardly believe that she was rarely using a sentence 3 months ago and now she's spewing them out all the time.  Of course, the more she talks, the more I know she understands, and thus the less she's going to be able to get away with :-P.

A Post With Too Much Orange

But there are a lot of people I love in it, and much cuteness, so it will just have to be okay for this Aggie to endure for now.

Saturday we drove up to Austin for Bruce's classic tailgate parties.  I feel bad, but he and his girlfriend, Alafair were so busy, I didn't get shots of either of them!

We did have a lot of fun though!  My cousin Luke and his wife Megan brought their 8 week old little girl, Gracie over for a little while, and Charlotte loved the baby.  She's going to be a great big sister!

Fred looks so cute with two little girls that I can't help but hope our Little Bug is a little girl.  I still think boy, though, so we'll see in January!

Really, though, this newborn yumminess makes me so excited about the new arrival we expect for the New Year.

Charlotte had a great time and played with her Aunt KK who came down from Lubbock with Uncle Brian for the game. 

Congrats to Brian who conducted Tech's half time show!

Unfortunately, though, this picture is all I saw of Brian all weekend.  They'll be here next weekend, so mabye we'll see him then!

Charlotte tried really hard all weekend to learn how to "hook 'em" but didn't have much luck.  She can gig'em though!  That's my girl!

Otherwise, Charlotte spent much of her time playing washers.  Or counting them, as it may have been.

 

Fred went to the game, but Charlotte and I headed back to the Drury Inn for some sleep time.  We splurged on a two room suite for the night and it was a good spend!  It's a lot easier to put the tot down without falling asleep yourself when you have two rooms.   This also allowed Fred to come in late and wind down without waking either of us up, and gave him a chance to sleep in when Charlotte woke up early.  I'll vote for a suite from now on whenever possible.

Denial

I won't buy myself soft drinks to keep in the house.  They are packed with huge amounts of sugar and no nutritional value, not to mention the caffeine content that I'm supposed to be avoiding in pregnancy.  As I try to clip my way to a tiny grocery budget, the price tag on a case of soft drinks just seems like a ridiculous addition, since you usually need to spend $12 to get 3-5 cases.   I rather spend my $12 on a lb of Sockeye Salmon.

But then, what do I do?  EVERY time I leave the house I wonder where I can get my Coke or Dr. Pepper fix for the day.   Buy a can at the office?  Maybe on the way out of the grocery store?  At a restaurant?  Can I snag one at my Mom's house when I swing by to pick up Charlotte?  Somehow, I usually manage to drink 1 soft drink a day (unless I splurge on a decaf Mocha from Starbucks).

So when I passed up the deal for 5 cases for $12 last week, I passed up a deal for $.20 a can.  Seeing that I manage to get my soft drink/caffeine fix every day anyway at anywhere from  $.50 to $2.50 a pop, maybe I need to re-evaluate the situation honestly.

I am a soft drink addict.   If I want to save money, I should just give them up all together buy them at the grocery store and only drink them at home.

Whew.  I feel relief to get that off my chest.

Randomness

Who invented the awful grocery carts with the attached plastic cars?  WHY?  To supposedly entertain my child while we are in the grocery store?  Sure, maybe the FIRST time Charlotte rode around in "her" green car, she was thrilled the whole time, so I endured blocking aisles, getting in other shoppers' way, running into things the whole trip, and generally not moving in the intended straight line.   Miss something I needed on aisle 3 and I'm totally debating if it's a must have so I wont' have to turn around.

Now, she's entertained for a whole five seconds, but if there is an empty car-cart, you can bet she'll insist that we use it, only to grow bored with it by the time I've run into each and every produce stand in the store.  I realized as I finally maneuvered the monstrous cart into the narrow check out lane that the front two wheels did not touch the ground at all.  That might just explain some my navigation problems.  If I almost mowed you over today, or any shopping day, I'm sorry. 

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Want to know how I know it's fall?  The acorns (and pecans too!) have started falling from the trees in our backyard.  This also means Charlotte has also started putting them in her mouth again.  Oh joy of joys.

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I am still grunting every time I bed over or squat down to pick something up or put something away.  I still think, each and every time, that I should stop doing that!

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My sister-in-law and her family rock, because they took Charlotte for an overnight this weekend.  Charlotte had lots of fun, see?

I'm so thankful that Charlotte didn't mind spending the night out at all and that her cousins were so gracious to have her!

So what were we doing while MC was busy partying it up with her cousins?  My 10 year HS reunion at El Patio.  Good times!

Yes, I DO love that brown dress, just in case you haven't figured it out.  I could use a few more in various colors...

New Cotton Babies Diaper

I just received an email about these today.  Interesting.  Especially seeing that Miss Charlotte seems not so interested in potty training and I may need to purchase something cheap to get me through with the new baby in the meantime...

http://www.cottonbabies.com/ 

The Flip design that they are touting comes with a disposable insert option, which could be very handy for traveling! 

My favorite diapers are still my OS BumGenius pocket diapers though; I am not sure I'll be up for a change!

Craft Time

Fred and I used to be very involved in Awakening retreats for Catholic Young Adult here in Houston (and elsewhere).  Over the years we have amassed  a pretty large box of craft materials, and Wednesday I pulled it out to find some puff paint while Charlotte was busy with her play doh.  Of course Charlotte spied all kinds of things in this magical box that she just had to have.  I went through it and pulled out a few things I didn't mind her playing with, and she pulled out a few that I wasn't so crazy about but let go.

This was the result:

 

Good times!

The stamp markers were pretty shot after who knows how many years, so I pitched them quietly after we played, but the play doh and foam cut outs were a big hit.  I must confess that I am wired oddly and have issues with the play doh colors getting all mixed up and then turning into gray blobs (or whatever color that is exactly), so I only pull out one canister for Charlotte to play with at a time.  She knows to put one color away before I'll give her another one - I am probably creating a monster.  I am totally boring!

The foam cut outs allow her to use different colors together and I can easily separate them out when she's done.  Some of the fancier play doh toys still require supervision, or my impateint daughter ends up screaming because something isn't coming out the way she wants it.  With the foam and play doh, no glue and only light supervision is needed - so I can do things like clean, or cook dinner, or write a blog post.

Sweet, huh?

23 Week Belly Pic

Since Helen complained and I DID already have this image on my camera, I decided to go ahead and post it.  Apparently sometime in the last few weeks I picked up the sway back pregnant lady stance.  At least there is no question I am pregnant!

I must also confess that this picture was taken after a night of yummy lobster with lots of butter.  Pretty irrelivant, but just thought I'd rub that in a little :-P. (OK so HEB was running a special for $5.99/lb.)

I figure a belly pick once a month is good enough this time around.  Sorry, Helen.

Evidence

 Either Charlotte has been here, or we have a really big mouse...

 

At least she likes her fruit!

Conversations with Charlotte

Charlotte is really beginning to talk a lot these days, and we're having more and more conversations with her. I can only imagine that these conversations will only get more interesting the older she gets, but they are already giving us a smile or a chuckle or two. (I've posted some of these on facebook, so sorry if you are seeing them twice!)

Between Daddy and Charlotte while we were making cookies:

Charlotte: (to Fred, as he's walking into the kitchen) DADDY!
Fred: Hi, Charlotte, what are you doing?
Charlotte: Making cookies!
Fred: Oh, are you helping?
Charlotte: I'm tasting!

At least she understands the most important part of the process!

Discipline:

Me: Charlotte, no pinching Mommy! That hurts Mommy. Do you want a time out?
Charlotte: (sliding down off of the bed)I go sit on stairs (her time out spot). (a short while later, running back into the room). I sorry. I sorry, Mommy.
Me: I forgive you, Charlotte, but no pinching. Can you say that?
Charlotte: No pinching.

I hope she always makes parenting this easy.

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On another note, I took a 23 week belly picture last night and will post it as soon as I manage to pull the photos off my camera. I officially can no longer see my toes while I'm standing up. I'm feeling a little bad about the pregnant body post though, as I was so sick last week that I managed to lose 4 lbs. As I'd rather not be sick, no more complaining about feeling fat!

Toilet Training

Or lack there of, as it may be in this case...

I've read a few things here and there on this topic, but nothing very long or comprehensive. Some things I've tried have totally failed (a sticker on a chart holds no excitement for my 2 year old). Promises of a sticker for sitting on the potty just send Charlotte running to sit on the potty every 5 minutes for another sticker. I know lack of consistency on my part hasn't helped things, but sometimes I think she's afraid to go on the potty.

We've spent a fair amount of bare-bottom time around the house, and she always waits until I am just around the corner to make a mess on the floor. She will literally do the "tinkle dance" with her hand on her crotch but either refuse to sit on the potty or sit on the potty and not go - only to go on the floor a minute or two later. If she's sitting down (like in her booster seat) she'll make only a little mess, go with me to the potty, do nothing, and then finish her business on the floor 2 minutes later. This morning I even put her on the potty as soon as she woke up and she cried for her diaper as she was sitting there.

For now, I've decided to go bare bottom any time we are at home. If you google potty training or look for information on it, you get a zillion different places to spend your money and end up with a potty trained kiddo. Since I'm not willing to dole out all kinds of my hard earned cash just to come up with a program that works for us, does anyone have any suggestions on a good potty training book/technique?

Pregnant Body

Some women love being pregnant. Some women love the "womanly" form their bodies take in the 9 months of pregnancy. I always think that pregnant women are cute.

But not me.

Sure, if I never had to step on a scale or look in a full length mirror for the second half of my pregnancy, I might look down at my growing baby bump and be totally in love with it. I am absolutely crazy about the little baby kicking around under my bump, so some of that transfers over to the bump itself.

I dream of being that cute pregnant woman with the bulging belly who gains only the bare minimum and still looks like a model from the back. Reality? I've never been tall enough to be a model and lately it seems like for every inch I gain in the front, I also gain in the back. While not pregnant, I lament my formless backside, but really? this has gone a little too far. Maybe It's just an issue of balance, keeping my center of gravity just a little bit more, well center.

I don't remember my body shaping out quite this way when I was pregnant with Charlotte, but I'm sure it did; stretch marks only appeared on my rear end and never my watermelon-sized belly.

The other curious thing about this body is the new noises I make every time I lean over, sit down, or stand up. It sounds a little like an, "umph," and I think Fred is already tired of the excess groaning. For now I'm still sleeping with ease, but last week suddenly found laying on my stomach to be entirely uncomfortable. Thankfully, I don't think that I have a pregnant waddle, yet.

So, until next summer, when I will hopefully have most of this baby weight off, I am going to wear lots of dresses and tunic length shirts and keep away from full length mirrors. I also pledge to smile and believe people who tell me that I have a pregnant glow. If Fred complains enough, I'll also try to keep the "umph" noises silently in my head.

Wish me luck.

4 months from today!

H1N1 Vaccine

When MC and I were diagnosed with swine flu this summer, my initial shock was followed by a good feeling as we quickly recovered. I was pleased that we both had the chance to build natural immunity. "Great!" I thought, "No little-tested vaccine for us!"

But that is not what I'm hearing from my OB's office or MC's pediatrician. My OB's office is recommending the vaccine outright, even though I've already had H1N1. Charlotte's pediatrician sill recommended it, but also promised to speak with the immunoligist at TCH about how much protection Charlotte's bout with swine flu may have given her.

Everything I've read mentions how much more likely pregnant women are to suffer extreme side effects and death from the swine flu, yet no one knows what unknown side effects the vaccine might have on an unborn baby. After spending months and months avoiding any drug other than Tylenol, I cannot get comfortable with taking a vaccine that will require 2 doses. Really? The government at medical community is eagerly pushing this on pregnant women?

If I hadn't already contracted the disease, perhaps I would be considering swine flu with more concern, but for now, it's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to take the shot or let Charlotte have it. Am I the only one who thinks this a bit hasty? Anyone else have any thoughts or information that I may not have considered?

Our Daughter, the Ham

Today Charlotte and Daddy were building a tower with blocks. They exchanged a high five as she added a block to her teetering tower and the building still stood. Finally, however, as generally happens with block towers, Charlotte added the last block the structure could manage and the whole thing came tumbling down.

Charlotte, giving her best fake cry says, "I crying," only to bust out laughing about it with Fred in the next instant.

Definitely her father's daughter.