Pregnant!

So obviously I haven't been updating my blog very much lately. Or at all. I'm still working full time, going to grad. school part time, helping take care of a busy two year old, etc. On top of all of that, I'm 29 weeks pregnant! Chris, Ben, and I are expecting a little girl, Eliza Cate, October 6th.

Here's Eliza's 20 week ultrasound. We were so excited to find out she's a girl!

And here's the recap of belly pics....

15 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

22 weeks

24 weeks

26 weeks (it bugs me that I'm facing the opposite way this week)

27 weeks

28 weeks

This pregnancy has been wonderfully non-eventful. I had morning (all day) sickness for the first 16 weeks or so, which was a little shorter amount of time than I was sick with Ben. My hips have hurt from very early on and continue to have good days and bad days. All of the hormones causing muscles to loosen up are making me waddle even though I'm not big enough to justify a waddle. Oh well, I'll take aching hips over throwing up any day! Eliza is very healthy, and the doctor says I'm actually measuring a little big (remember Ben was 9lbs 1oz). Glad I'll be getting a C-Section this time around!

We have most of Eliza's stuff ready and waiting her arrival. We are so excited to be adding a little girl to our family. Ben has no concept of what's about to happen. We hope he accepts it well, but he's the only baby/grandbaby/great grandbaby in the family on both sides, so I'm not sure he'll be happy to share the spotlight. I think he'll eventually make a very good older brother. He can be very helpful and loves to be praised for everything he does. He's almost potty trained, too!! We're very happy to not have to have two kids in diapers at the same time. Ben will be 2 1/2 next month, so I feel like he's right where he needs to be in his potty training. He wears underwear all day and a diaper at night. Of course, he thinks he needs to pee every 5 minutes or so, and he needs help in the bathroom with pulling his underwear off and on. I also don't trust him by himself completely, not knowing how much toilet paper he will flush or how much soap he'll spread on his arms like lotion if I'm not monitoring him. So we're not there yet, but we've got a GREAT start.

Early Weekend

Friday morning it started to snow. Going into work, I KNEW we would close early (this is Arkansas and there is no difference between lava falling from the sky and snow). I just didn't expect us to close as early as we did. After all of our students arrived, we fed them breakfast and then got the official call saying that we were dismissing at 10am. There was no point in going to school that day since breakfast is the only thing we accomplished. It was chaotic and crazy trying to get ahold of all of the parents to make sure they were on their way to get their child or would be there when the buses dropped off the kids early, especially since most of our parent's don't have working phone numbers. Somehow, we managed to contact everyone and Ben and I left work/school around 10:30am.

Ben was SOOO excited about the snow. He loves it!! He wouldn't stop talking about it, and when I tried to get him in the front door, he lost it because he wanted to go play in the "slow". I stuck to his school schedule and made him eat lunch and take a nap before we would go outside. Right after he woke up he made a convincing speech of "slow? outside? slow? slow?" So we got ready and headed outside. Afterall, I had promised him we'd make a snowman.

I just didn't tell him how big of a snowman I was willing to make. He didn't care. He was just excited to be outside and throwing snowballs I compacted for him.

This was Ben playing with his dinosaurs and his parking garage. He's trying to modernize the herd. I've had a fun, relaxing weekend so far. I hate that tomorrow's Sunday. Laundry and homework day.

Picky Eater

Toddlers are impossible to feed. Ben will LOVE something one day, and the next day refuse to even look at it. The only food we can consistently count on him eating is corn dogs, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, cheese, and fruit snacks. Some days he will barely eat anything at all, which always resorts in me trying to stuff yogurt or fruit in him to at least get him some nutrition.

Most of the time we try to give him what we're eating for dinner, but that hardly ever works out. We've had recent success with pizza, but only because he likes to pick the cheese off and eat it. He's not a good vegetable eater. Green beans are the only thing we've had mild success with, and that was on one of his good eating days. He seems pretty healthy, and that big belly of his suggests he's getting all the food he really needs, so I suppose I shouldn't worry too much.

I wonder what pioneer parents used to feed their toddlers. There are so many more options now-a-days that Ben refuses to eat, I think he would have starved to death back in the 1800's. Then again, he probably never would have existed since I couldn't ever make it across a river without the wagon tipping over and me dying in the Oregon Trail game.

5 month catch up?

Blogging isn't all that fun, but looking back and reading blogs from a year ago or a few months ago makes me appreciate it. I really wouldn't have remembered all the little things I included in some of my previous posts if I hadn't read them a few minutes ago. It inspired me to do a very vague update of things that have happened since August.
I'm skipping September since I don't have photographic proof that it was even a month that existed this year. I can't remember anything significant from that month. So here's October. Ben was a Jr. Fisherman for Halloween. We took him trick-or-treating for the first time. We were in Troy and Jamey's neighborhood and only went to two houses since there were only two houses on that street that weren't pretending to not be home. Halloween was on a Sunday this year, and being the Bible Belt, Benton decided that it was going to move Halloween to Saturday, so that's when we went (thinking more people would be up to celebrating the devil if it wasn't on a Sunday...nope). We'll do better next year!


I threw this picture in because it's just Ben. He's so weird. I think this was an October or November picture.This is what Ben thought of Santa this year. Love at first sight. Actually, he was really excited when Santa came out of the courthouse with Mrs. Claus and everyone was clapping and waving, but when it came time to sit him in Santa's lap.....nope.

It made for a better picture. Anyway, Ben's favorite Christmas movie was Rudolph. He now thinks that any deer is called "dudah" (Rudolph). He also says "No, No Bumble!" while watching Rudolph and the abominable snow monster comes on the screen. He ran over to us and stood next to us pointing at the screen telling the bumble no until it was all over. We must have watched that movie at least 50 times in the weeks before Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve at Ron and Rhonda's out in Hot Springs and Christmas day at Troy and Jamey's. I really like that routine. This was our Christmas day picture at Troy and Jameys. I'm wearing a shirt Chris got me for Christmas, which he based on the clothing that I bought Melissa from Maurices at Christmas. He's a good boy.

We had a great 2010 and hope to have an even better 2011! Right now we're working on planning Ben's birthday party. I think it's going to be mostly family this year. It's less stressful, plus, Ben doesn't really care about playing with other kids yet, so it'll be easier. He's obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine right now, so it's going to be a train themed party. I bought plates and napkins and decorations that have a train on them and instead of saying "choo choo" is says 2, 2! Because he's turning two. It's so surreal to me that it's been almost 2 years since I had him. He's already practicing the terrible twos with an occassional attitude and a constant testing of his parent's patience. I still love that baby. Oh yeah, and today, while in class, another child threw up on the floor and Ben picked it up with his bare hands. Wonderful. I had to write that memory down since it's something I think I'm going to try to supress deep down in my brain.

Chuck E. Cheese

We took Ben to Chuck E. Cheese's today. Chris and I were more excited than Ben. I haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese in a LONG time. The pizza still tastes the same! I became a member of the Chuck E. Cheese club so that I could get good coupons before we went. We saved a lot of money, but we also spent more money on tokens than we should have. We had so many left that Chris and I were just kind of trying to spend them as quick as we could because it was 12:30pm and it was getting crowded. We ended up with 480 tickets and got Ben a cute Chuck E. Cheese stuffed animal. We had to pay the difference, but oh well.



When we first got there, Ben was very apprehensive about things. He's never been to a place like this before and I think it was just a lot to take in. It wasn't crowded at all when we first got there, which was great. We ordered cheese pizza and some fruit punch, both of which Ben loved. Ben did not like the kiddy rides at first. They scared him once they started moving. He kept saying "all done!" and trying to get us to pick him up.

He liked this motorcycle cop one more than the bug car thing. There was a little screen he could watch to chase down bad guys.

I thought this clock ride was going to go all the way around, but it didn't. Ben still didn't really care for it. He was more about watching other kids spaz around and play.

One of his favorite things to do was to bring all of the tickets Chris and I (sometimes Ben) won and bring them back to Mimi. She mostly stayed at the table, watching our cameras and purses. Thank you! One time Ben had two long strings of tickets, one in each hand, and was dragging them back to Mimi. A few women laughed at how cute and determined he looked on the way back to the table to give them to Mimi. He was on a mission!

This is one of those simulator rides that you can choose a roller coaster or a flying thing, and the screen makes it seem like you're in the rollercoaster/fly thing. The seat also moves. Ben was more interested in watching the kids play air hockey. Chris seemed pretty into it, though.

I can't figure out how to flip these pictures (the blogger flipped them this way for some reason). Anyway, if you put a token in the booth, you can get your picture sketched! It was worth it. Ben looked at the camera right as it took the picture. The entire time before that he was looking away.

Chris got a good nostril shot. Ben was getting fussy and Chris accidentally pressed the button before they were ready. I still think it's a funny picture.

Kim and Jeremy came with a child from Ben's school, but I don't think I'm allowed to post pictures of him due to confidentiality? I'm not sure. Better safe than sorry! Anyway, they had fun and it was good to see them there. Tiffany was also there and took some cute pictures. I'm excited for her to post them!

Slide

Ben got his first slide last week (bed-head pic above). Mimi bought it for him. It's kind of big, but we're keeping it in our living room until it's not over 100 degrees outside and until the mosquito population drops a little bit. So, it'll be in our living room for a while. Ben loves it! At first he was a wuss about it, then fell off the ladder a few times so he started to get a fear of it, but then I went down and "wheeee'd!!" enthusiastically a few times and Ben decided that he wanted to have fun, too.

We have to put socks on his feet because sometimes he loses his bravery and tries to stop halfway down, using his feet. If he does that he flies forward and lands on his face at the end of the slide, so we just decided he can't do that anymore. We keep a padded playmate at the end of the slide because sometimes he has rough landings, but he's getting very good at Kerri Strugg'in it and sticking his landings.

Sometimes he can't quite position his feet at the top of the slide, like one foot gets stuck under his butt. At first, he would scream/cry about it until we would help, but Chris and I decided to put an end to that and now when he gets stuck, he just looks at you and says "Please?" while signing please. I pretty much give him what he wants when he says please, it's so cute!

July Really Sucked.

These pictures are the only July pictures that are worth posting. They're from the Fourth of July in Hot Springs. :)

I haven't updated because July was much busier than I would have ever wanted it to be. I had two grad. classes going at once and the amount of homework I did was unbelievable. Chris is awesome and pretty much raised Ben by himself for a month. I had to lock myself in my bedroom (away from prying little boy hands that slam keyboards and rip papers) so I could get my work done. I turned in my last summer class assignment today, so I'm very excited to take a few weeks off from homework before my next class starts.

Lets see...Ben has been...destructive? Accident prone? Pretty much all boy. I've come to not stress out about the amount of injuries he gets while climbing the couch, sliding down his slide, and playing around the living room. This past month Ben has managed to injure himself (not severely) multiple times. It's a good thing he's got a thick head. I think he's built like a pachycephalosaurus, the dinosaur with a thick skull used to ram things. Ben bounced himself off the couch and landed on his head on the hardwood floor, then when I picked him up he was spitting out blood. I calmed down slightly once I realized it was just a tooth bleeding and not brain matter leaking out his mouth. That happened on our 3 year anniversary. Friday at school Ben fell off the teacher's computer chair he wasn't supposed to be climbing and reinacted the couch incident, crying hard and spitting out blood. Awesome. At one point he somewhat fell into our open vent on the bathroom floor (we leave it open because it's SO HOT and the vent actually prevents a lot of air from getting through) and cut his toe on metal. It was just his left leg that fell in, but still. He was trying to close the bathroom door on me because he knows he's not supposed to be in there, so he kind of deserved it.

Speaking of the bathroom door, Ben also locked himself in the bathroom by opening a drawer right next to the door and placing a plunger in it so the drawer couldn't be inched closed. By the time I got into the bathroom (using a puzzle board to push the plunger out of the drawer through the crack in the door), he'd spread out all of his tub toys on the ground, a toilet wand, and of course the plunger. All of these incidents happened on my watch. I'd just like to say that I'm allowing Ben to explore his environment and learn his boundaries. :)

Chris and I are going to Branson this weekend to celebrate my summer grad. classes being over. I'm very excited! Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post.