Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Any Ideas?

I'm wondering what we are going to do with the name of our blog when baby #2 arrives. Morgan is going to have to share her "territory." Does anyone have a suggestion for a blog name change? I haven't come up with something good yet. We weren't anywhere near thinking about a second child when we created the blog. We were still in the mode that Morgan would be an "only."

Also, I am acknowledging that the blog really needs a face-lift. Morgan is now twice as old as in those pictures...I think I created the header when she was about 9-10 months old. I'll be working on it, but no promises on timing. This mama needs her naps. :-)

Monday, June 29, 2009

Fun at the Park

We've really been making an effort to get Morgan out to our local parks so she can run and climb and get some energy out. She loves watching the other kids too. Saturday we went to Pavillion Park in Liberty Lake. They have a great water feature that kids can run through. She wasn't as interested in playing in the water on Saturday, but had a great time on the slides and playing "with" her friend Taylor.

Morgan is next to her Daddy and Taylor is at the bottom of the slide. She was obsessed with climbing up this slide...but we really had to push her up most of the way.

With Mommy. I looked really "round" in this picture. I really haven't gained THAT much weight...I think it's partially the poofy top I'm wearing.

Taylor and Morgan. Taylor is wearing an additional shirt, but if you look at their swimsuit skirts you can see that they have the same suit! Love Target...

What's next Daddy?!

With Daddy after changing back into her cute green dress (from Grandma B)

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Seattle Trip Concluded

Sorry it's taken me a while to finish these posts on our trip (since it's now two weeks ago). The final day of our trip we headed over to Bainbridge Island on the Ferry. We'd never experienced the Seattle Ferries before, so we were excited to see how it all worked.

Our condo was in such a location that we just walked along one of the close cross streets all the way down to the ferry terminal. We walked past Pike Place Market, the Aquarium and all the waterfront attractions and restaurants. We saw at the terminal how all the cars lined up to drive on to the Ferry when it arrived. We got our walk-on tickets and watched as the cars started to load up. Once on the Ferry we got a seat facing the skyline so we could have a nice view. The ride was about 30 minutes and very smooth. Bainbridge island was very nice with cute shops that reminded me a bit of Sausalito or Carmel. It made for a good day trip.

I showed this pic in my last post. Do you see Lovey checking out the view too?

Morgan made some new friends. These kids live in Seattle and were headed to Bainbridge to visit their cousins.

Sleepytime along the marina

After our walk and looking at shops Morgan needed to stretch her legs. We found a great playground and of couse she always loves her swings.

Getting better at sliding on her own

She now likes to climb up the slides backwards too
Back on the Seattle side with a walk on the boardwalk outside the Aquarium

More stairs to climb

She loves to see her reflection in anything. She would run up to this door smiling and laughing.


The famous Pike Place Public Market
That made for a full day. We had a nice dinner out that night at The Old Spaghetti Factory...appropriately family friendly too. The next morning we decided we'd seen all we had come to see and we headed home to Spokane. It's great to get away, but always better to be home again.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Seattle Day 3 - A Tale of Two Henrys

On our third day in Seattle we went to visit some friends!! We had really been looking forward to this. Our first stop was at my friend Jennie's home in the Magnolia area of town. She and her husband Matthew have an adorable almost-two-year old named Henry. We had a lovely brunch at the marina and then went to an awesome playground close to their home. Morgan had never seen a sandbox before and she jumped right in. As you can see from the picture I had her all dolled up in a cute outfit and white socks and sandals...we didn't anticipate the sandbox that day.

Digging right in with the shovels and buckets

Cool spinning thing that looked a bit like a large suction cup. She loved it!

Here's adorable Henry. FYI - he's standing on a box of some kind watching his Daddy out the window. He and Morgan are actually about the same height.

Here's me and Jennie and our munchkins. Who knew we'd still keep in touch since becoming friends in middle school?!
Oh, but there's another Henry we met that day! When I worked in Coeur d'Alene I met April, who is a rep for a publication we bought advertising for. We became fast friends and bonded over the road to becoming mommies. She and her hubby Greg live in West Seattle in a beautiful home overlooking the water. Their little Henry is about 5 months old. I forgot how little they are!! He was a bit of a preemie, so he is smaller than most 5 month olds too.

Henry and David

April reading to Morgan. She brought the book right to her. She must really have liked her!

Morgan nuzzling Henry
We wondered how Morgan would react to a tiny baby. She did what she does to my belly...she put her head right up to him. She also did this at our neighbor's house yesterday with their 6 month old. We'll see how she feels when her little sister comes along...then doesn't go away. After a wonderful homecooked dinner and some great company we headed back downtown. The next post will conclude our trip...then it will be back to the day-to-day events in Spokane. Its great to get away, but also really good to be home.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Seattle Day 2 - The Zoo

Friday morning we took off for the Woodland Park Zoo. It was such a great place...not too huge and well laid out. There were lots of animals to see as well as other attractions to enjoy. It was a great zoo for an 18 month old. We think she enjoyed it. She saw some animals, but was really interested in all the other kids. There were tons of kids there on field trips, so she was in heaven.

Morgan and Daddy ready to get started
Giraffes

If you look close, you can see a zebra's behind

Shoulder ride

The elephants with Mama

The jaguar is sleeping

Morgan is sleeping

Penguins!!! Morgan was just waking up. She got a closer look, but the pics weren't great.

First carousel ride!


This is in the "Zoomasium." A "gymnasium" of sorts for kids up to 8 yrs. She loved it!

Chasing the big kids

Picking up "logs" and "sticks"...

...and moving them over here. Someone suggested she might be making a campfire?

Flamingos

Watching the flamingos...fading...

After a pizza dinner downtown that night Morgan fell asleep in a matter of about 10 minutes. For one who usually takes up to an hour to settle down, this was amazing. She had a full day.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Seattle Day 1 - Road Trip

Morgan did great on the way over to Seattle! We left right around nap time. She played peek-a-boo with her lovey for a while, then fell fast asleep for almost two hours.

We missed the best shot of lovey sitting right on top of her head like a hat (bunny ears and all).

Snacks at the rest stop at Cle Elem

Already chasing the boys
We arrived in Seattle around 5:00. Unfortunately, we were met with accomodations that weren't quite what we expected. It would be rude for me to go into the details...but it wasn't quite as child-friendly as we hoped. We made it work and were quite glad to be staying for FREE. It was also a great location that made for some easy walking to many of the sights we wanted to see. Morgan was a trooper and adapted way better than we thought. Most days we were able to get in a nap as well as some good sleeping at night. More to come!

Home Sweet Home

We are back in town and getting back to our routine. We've got lots of pictures from our trip...well, we think we do. Halfway through our second day I discovered the display screen on our camera had cracked, so we resorted to the old "look through the viewfinder and shoot" method. We're hoping the pics still transferred to the memory card.

More later today!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Wednesday - Not Wordless

We're planning a short trip to Seattle for this weekend, so I thought I'd get in a blog entry before we left. I also don't have any good pictures for this week, but I'm sure we'll have lots next week. Here's a few tidbits of what Morgan's been up to lately:

* Getting to sleep at night has been a challenge. It usually takes her a while to actually fall asleep once she's in her crib for the night. Aside from the increased lovey/blankie throwing problems she just doesn't settle easily. We've tried an earlier bedtime as well as a later bedtime with no luck. She just needs time to wind down. I'm going to ask the pediatrician about this at her 18 month appointment tomorrow.

* We've had somewhat of a reprieve on the picky eating in the last week or so. Yay! I'm sure it's just a phase though. I've tried foods again that she rejected before and she's actually been eating them. Hmmm. I guess they say it takes over 10 tries with some foods. She still doesn't go for breaded items much...what kid doesn't like fish sticks and chicken fingers? She also doesn't toss her food on the floor so much anymore. We're not sure if we did anything different, but we like it!

* Morgan does a strange thing with books. She'll bring me one to read, then when we're done she'll go get another one. BUT, when David reads her a book, she'll won't go get another one if I'm in the room...she'll bring me the same book to read that her daddy just read to her. So odd.

* She's learned to go down the stairs on her own now. The only thing I have to do is make sure she sits at the top of the stairs with her feet out in front of her. Then she will turn around and go down backwards. Otherwise she keeps trying to go head first by putting her hands down on the first step. Yikes! She's almost there.

* She still doesn't have a lot of words, but has continued to figure out some sign language. She correctly uses the "more" sign (fingertips together) and sometimes uses "all done". This sign though is a lot of frantic hand and arm waving instead of more controlled twisting back and forth of her hands...but it gets the point across. Hee hee!

Overall Morgan is just such a fun little girl! She laughs and smiles a lot and loves to explore her surroundings. We will have more fun info and pictures when we get back from Seattle!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Morgan loves teddy too

Along with her lovey, baby doll and her blanket, Morgan loves her big teddy bear!! She's been tackling him and hugging him for a very long time and is just thrilled when you make him "play" with her.

Lately she's taken to sitting on teddy. She'll take him down the hallway, set him down and sit on him. Such a goof! Unfortunately she's also done this several times with her baby doll as well. I'm trying to get a picture, but she moves too quick. Poor baby.

This is the tackling technique in action.


Then, the big hug follows! I think the bear is still bigger than she is!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Communication

Morgan has her 18 month Pediatrician appointment next week. As this is approaching I've been thinking a lot about how she is learning to communicate with us. At these appointments the Dr. gives us a checklist to go through so they can determine if she is on track developmentally. I've been trying to think of how she has progressed since her last appointment at 15 months.

The biggest thing I've noticed is that though she has not added a lot of words to her vocabulary, she really understand a lot of what we say to her. Just yesterday I was giving her lunch and I simply asked her "eat some more corn" and to my surprise, she did. Now, she's still enormously picky right now, but I'm happy with a few more corn kernels. I think it's amazing how we can actually ask her to do things now, like she'll get her sippy cup from wherever she left it while playing and she'll find her lovey when it's nap time. We're working on putting books on the shelf, but I'm just satisfied that she'll bring it to a spot close to the shelf instead of just dumping it on the floor by the couch when we're done reading it.

One of the cutest things she does with the short list of words she has involved meal times. She knows what breakfast, lunch and dinner are. Any time we ask her, "are you ready for breakfast?" she'll shout out "eat!!" She does the same for lunch and dinner. One morning I asked her, "Morgan, where do we go for breakfast?" and she went right to the stairs, climbed down (with a little help) and went to the kitchen. Sometimes she will even say "eat!!" before we mention a meal and it is usually right around the correct time. Many of her words are still a reaction to something we say, but she is starting to realize she can possibly get what she wants if she uses them on her own too.

Now, I know of many other kids who are way more advanced developmentally or verbally than Morgan, but I believe she is still in the range of normal. At least I think so. We'll give you the update next week!

Friday, June 5, 2009

28 week OB appointment and thoughts

Yesterday I had my 28 week appointment with the OB. Yay for the 3rd Trimester! I'm still feeling better than I expected. I have occasional aches and pains and overall fatigue, but nothing too bad. I don't think I got really uncomfortable with Morgan until about 32 weeks...so we'll see what happens when we get there this time around.

The appointment went fine. As I mentioned in my last appointment post at 24 weeks, I did do my glucose test this time. As soon as I got there they gave me the "orange soda" to drink. I had 5 minutes to drink it (i.e. force it down)...it really wasn't that bad. It was cold and they gave me a straw, so I just sucked it down as quickly as I could. Then I met with the Dr. He said everything looked good. Heart rate was at 150, my blood pressure was 120 over something...good too. I'm measuring right where he said I should be.

This was interesting...we had a short discussion about what can be done to try to make sure this one is not "sunny side up" at delivery, like Morgan was. Of course, we only have so much control, but there are a few things we can do if she ends up in that position. One definite thing is that I'm definitely going to push for less meds and/or intervention early on in labor. With Morgan I really felt pressured by the nurses into getting an epidural very early ("no need to be a hero")...I think I was only 2 cm dilated. Overall the nurses are amazing there...they really support you and encourage you, but this is one area I will push back on. As much as I don't like the idea of the pain, there are things that need to be determined before I request any medication. The problem with getting an epidural early is that you are really fairly immobile in the bed. You can turn on either side, but that's about it. If the baby ends up being face up again, I would have limited ability to move my body around to help her to turn. If I can wait longer I can move into better positions (hands and knees, walking, etc.) to facilitate this.

This may be shocking to some readers, but ideally I'd love to be able to get through it without any pain meds, pitocin, etc. I know the epidural helped in some ways, but I had such awful back labor and pain in my hips because of Morgan's position. To my surprise this persisted even with the epidural. They kept "topping me off" with other meds, but I just ended up not being able to feel my legs at all. What a mess.

The worst part was that I was so drugged up that I could barely function after Morgan was here. It was bizarre. I was exhausted, but the adrenaline was also pumping, so I really was not able to rest. Then, of course I had the terrible 4th degree tear/episiotomy, so I was stuck in the bed longer than usual. I couldn't help care for Morgan like I wanted to and we got a terrible start on nursing. I just want it to be different this time. I don't expect a perfect experience this time, but odds are it will be better in many ways because my body has done it before.

As for actually having a natural childbirth, I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to handle. So you know, I haven't taken any prep classes for natural childbirth. I've done quite a bit of reading and I know several people who have done great with only that. I'm not going in completely decided on this, I have to have an open mind depending on circumstances. To be able to do it naturally the labor with have to progress well, meaning labor starts on it's own (no pitocin). Last time my water broke and nothing happened. So, you can see that there are a lot of things we can't control. I was glad that the Dr. was into discussing options. I could tell he didn't want to have to put me through that again and he will do all he can to avoid it. We like him!

There is still time to research and prepare for all this. I'm definitely better informed this time and have the experience of Morgan's birth...good and bad. We're getting more and more excited as the time gets closer and it is coming up fast. Now this baby just needs a name...hmmm. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The failed popsicle experiment

"Awesome dinner mommy!! What's for dessert??"

"A sponge on a stick?? Ouch...it's cold. My teeth are freezing and my hands are sticky!!"

"You call this a treat?? What kind of sick joke is this? Get it out of here"



"You shall not pass!!"


"This is your last chance to get it right."


"That's more like it...keep it coming."



"I wonder who invented vanilla? They rock. Why would mommy and daddy even consider anything else?"

"You only bought a half-gallon?"


"Daddy, you have another arm if this one's tired."


"Me tired?? Not anymore. I should be good till midnight!!!"