Brunch

On Sunday we visited Mum for a yummy brunch. Every quarter there is an amazing spread - and we feel lucky to be invited! Bruce & Galen and Cam, Anne, and Savi joined us and Mum. We wish Papa could have joined us. It was fun to see Savi and Andy interract.

Sunny February

The weather has been amazing this February. Co-op was cancelled this week, so we decided to go for a long walk in the sunshine. I have pretty bad allergies - especially in March when the Birch Trees bloom. Since everything is blooming early - my allergies exploded. All in all - worth-it, but I do NOT enjoy allergies. I hope Andy doesn't get those genes.

In the Bob - with monkey in hand

Let's go mom!

Look at those chompers : )

Sunshine makes everything better?!?

Hooray for this almost 60 degree weather in February. I am loving it! It's amazing how the sun coming up a little earlier and setting a little later...and blazing all day long can lift the spirits. As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting many pictures. I actually am quite behind on posting on my blog. Well - this week has been a technologically difficult week. I don't have much patience when it comes to technology - basically, because I don't really understand a lot of things and I despise having to sit through being on hold/uploading new programs/etc. Last Thursday, my blackberry died - just stopped working. I couldn't even turn it on. After a trip to the Verizon store - they gave the diagnosis that my keypad was spent - and I needed a new device, which they would mail to me. 7 days later, I received my new device. 7 hours later - it actually works. In the meantime - my home computer had been acting up. I decided to start backing up some of my documents, especially my pictures...when my computer crashed. It too wouldn't even start up. The current diagnosis is that it caught a major virus - and the hard drive isn't even recoverable. I am devastated (because not all of my pictures had backed up). Fingers crossed that this sunshine will help the technology Gods at least salvage my pictures. I was in quite a bad mood last night - thinking of a year's worth of pictures of Andy - GONE. This morning - we got up to a sunny day - went for a long walk and stopped at a crepe place on QA Ave that I have been wanting to try out (yummy!). So - fingers crossed I will get my pictures back - and thank goodness for this blog!

Bed-time routine

Most week nights we have a pretty set routine - nothing too exciting. We make dinner, head downstairs to watch TV, and spend time with Andy. A lot of Andy's toys are in the basement, and every night they end up spread throughout the whole basement. Before heading to bed or "nigh-nigh", we make sure to give kisses to everyone and say our prayers. Andy heads to bed pretty late - which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages - we get to spend time with him at night after not seeing him while we are working all day. The disadvantages - Kyle and I don't have much time for just the two of us. We are enjoying the time with Andy - it's such a fun age - so no complaints : )

Hanging out with dada on the couch

nigh nigh kisses

kisses for baby

Elmo

One of the words that I love hearing Andy saw is Elmo. He says it like "el-MO" and says it quite often. Since Elmo is on diapers, is downstairs, and is on a lot of his toys, we hear about him all day long. When we went to Andy's 18 month appointment, he saw a sticker of Elmo from across the room - pointed and repeatedly said Elmo. I guess Andy likes Elmo?!? Here are a few pictures of Andy with his new best friend.

Valentine's Day

We decided to head up to Whidbey for Valentine's Day weekend - a good excuse to get out of town. The Warmes also headed up for the weekend and we had a fun weekend together. It's hard to sit down and relax at home with so much to do - but for some reason, Whidbey on a rainy weekend is the perfect recipe for being a couch potato (while chasing 4 kids). The Warmes cooked a very yummy crab fettuccine Alfredo and we had a very competitive game of speed rummikub after the kids went to bed. I have to say, there is a distinct advantage to playing games while pregnant...and sober : ) It was very entertaining and a very fun night. On Valentine's day we made cookies, went out to lunch and headed home. All in all - it was a good family weekend!

The kiddos:

Maggie - 4 1/4

Masin - 2 1/2

Andy - 1 1/2

Miller - 10 months

This wasn't necessarily the "best" picture I got, but it's my favorite. Mags - giving the obligatory smile, Masin - overenthusiastic, and Miller - just smiling and happy

The chefs preparing for dinner

Annie and Kyle - and baby girl at 21 weeks

The Warmes

GAME TIME

The next day...eating our creations!

Andy - 1 1/2 Years Old!

Andy is 18 months and as our pediatrician said - he has picked his own "curve" for weight/height. He's growing, but staying right in line at the % he picked from birth!

Weight: 21.6 lbs (5 - 10%)

Height: 31 inches (25%)

Head: 45.7 cm (10%)

This age has been really fun - every day is a new day. Andy is absorbing words, songs, noises and then says them back either right away, or stores them and says them at random moments. Last week, Andy and I went for a walk with Ka. During the walk, Ka said "Oh man" at some point during the walk. Well, that is Andy's new favorite phrase. It's pretty funny for a 1 1/2 year old to be saying, Oh Man! At least that is PG. Kyle, on the other hand, tripped on something in the kitchen and said, "Oh sh!t"! Andy picked up on that one right away - I couldn't help but laugh!

Andy also is loving his songs from pre-school. He kind-of sings them, but a little jumbled, and I think only Kyle or I could understand what he is singing. His favorites are ring around the rosey (I hear "ashes, ashes" at least 5 times a day); twinkle-twinkle little star, the itsy-bitsy spider (with some sort of hand motions), Old McDonald had a farm (well, mostly E-I-E-I-O) - usually without the "O". He'll start singing one, and we'll join along. Mid-song, he'll throw out another song...so usually the songs run into one long song with lots of laughs from all parties.

Andy gets into anything and everything - especially when there has been a "no" associated with it. We have found a couple of items floating in the toilet - including cell phones, remote controls, and toys.

One of my favorite things about this age is Andy's kisses. He has learned to say "nigh-nigh" when he is tired - and then he gives mommy kisses, daddy kisses, and baby kisses. It melts my heart!

Overall, Andy is a happy boy - but has a mischievous side. He is running around like crazy and likes to turn in circles and get dizzy and fall down. He still is quite the sleeper - sleeping from around 8:30 PM (although he could stay up until 10:30 - he's a night owl!) and sleeping in until between 8:30 - 10:30. Since that doesn't leave much time for naps in the morning - he has been a one-nap guy and still sleeps about 2 hours in the afternoon. His favorite meal is breakfast - but other than that, he is mostly a grazer. Thankfully we are fully converted to the sippy cups and we have discovered Andy has both his dad's salt-tooth and his mom's sweet-tooth. Other than wolfing down his oatmeal in the morning, his favorite foods are applesauce (the new crushers have been the best!), gold-fish, french fries, pizza, pasta, dino-nuggets, cheese, ice-cream and chocolate cookies. Sounds like a healthy diet, huh? Not so great that those are in-line with my pregnancy favorites : )

Super Bowl

We had a relaxed Super Bowl get-together. Basically, since we were going to watch the game at home with Andy - anyone who wanted to join us could come over. Andy received a lot of love and attention - and continued to express his love for beer and brownies.

Andy sporting his football "MVP" outfit

Mmmm...brownies

Mmmm...beer

The crew: Steph, Randy, Car, Allen, Ali, Bekah, and Kyle

It's a GIRL!

Baby Girl - 3D

Profile

The anticipation of the 20 week ultrasound is tough. I couldn't sleep the night before and so many thoughts were going through my head. First...is everything healthy? I think I have felt the baby move, but I am not 100% sure. Please let this baby have all its parts and pieces and please let this baby be healthy. I said lots of prayers on Tuesday night - keeping in mind, what's meant to be, is meant to be. Second - will Andy have a little brother...or a little sister? My gut said girl from the very beginning - but as the ultrasound got closer, I started to doubt myself.

We had our OB appointment in the morning - so luckily we heard the heartbeat and measured 20cm...right on track. Phew. Then we headed to the ultrasound clinic. Our radiologist was running 40 minutes late...so again, saying lots of prayers while trying to entertain Andy and not snap at Kyle (he gets it by now).

We entered the room - got settled, and our wonderful Dr. Case came into the room. He asked, "so you don't want to find out the sex, right?" Haha - not funny. I wasn't in a joking mood. Please just show me a healthy baby...and the gender would be great too (I probably didn't say it that nicely in my head). We sat down, started the process and he looked up and said...definitely a girl!

In perfect timing, Andy said "uh-oh". Dr. Case started cracking up - saying he never witnessed that from a sibling. Maybe Andy knows something we don't : ) After discovering we were adding a little girl to our family, we had a thorough exam of the whole anatomy - quite a miracle at 20 weeks. I was glued to the screen. We are so thankful that everything looks healthy and are hopeful that our little girl will be entering this world as planned in June!

Dr. Case said to sit down and write a letter to our girl - expressing our emotions on this day. All I can say at this point is I am THRILLED. A healthy ultrasound is all that I can ask for - and to add a little girl to our family is such a blessing. I hadn't let my mind wander into the world of girls yet...but the first thing that popped into my head was - FUN - Kyle and baby girl get to do Indian Princesses together (one of my favorite memories as a little girl with my dad). Then my thoughts ventured to - my parents. I hope that I get to experience the mother/daughter relationship I have with my mom (only to be so lucky!) and that Kyle gets to experience what I have with my dad (such a special relationship!). I love my nieces to pieces and can't imagine loving a little girl any more or differently than I love them. It will be so fun to see how Andy is with a little sibling. My guess right now is that he will be oblivious to her at first and then struggle when all the attention isn't on him.

For now, I am enjoying actually feeling good during my pregnancy - I am enjoying my one-on-one time with Andy, and I am excited, hopeful, and thankful.

Favorite Things

Andy has a few favorites right now. One is music - listening, dancing, singing to music. Whenever we're in the car and he hears a good beat - he'll dance and wiggle in his car seat. Also, when we sing a song, he'll try his best to repeat it - in his own language (especially when we watch American Idol). Currently, his favorite is "ring around the rosy". He randomly will say "ashes, ashes" and look up and giggle. He thinks it's pretty funny when we "all fall down". His version of falling down is banging his head on the floor. Such a boy! Andy is in a copy-cat mode where he'll try and do whatever we are doing, or saying. I was dancing in the kitchen and starting turning in circles. Last night - Andy decided to follow suit and was spinning in the kitchen for about 40 minutes. It was pretty funny to see him get dizzy and then fall down...and then get up and do it again. The joys of being entertained by Andy. I took a few pictures of him "spinning" last night.

Around he goes...

And he's down!

Back up

And then he noticed the camera and wanted "up"