my christmas. new years. new baby. birthday. mother's day. anniversary present.
for the next five years.
that's right. we bought a new-to-us car. my expedition. i love it! it's perfect for our family right now and we feel so blessed to be able to call it ours.
**update. jan. 6th. i had my doctor's appointment at 2:45 today. i'm dialated to 2 now and thinned out even more. he's not going to try to stop labor now that i'm close to 37 weeks. which means, NO MORE BEDREST! although my body only allows me to do so much still. i go back to see him friday morning to do an ultrasound and to check me again. i have to monitor my contractions though and when i start having 12-15 an hour, i go to the hospital. he bet his paycheck that i'd have her before next tuesday, so we're holding him to that. the plan is to eat some mexican food and walk the mall for a little while tonight. tomorrow, i plan on cleaning. we'll see what happens. maybe tomorrow i'll actually update my blog with birthday, christmas, and new years stuff.
**update. jan. 2nd. i woke up this morning having contractions every 4 minutes. pretty painful ones at that. i waited 3 hours. still contracting. called labor and delivery b/c my doctor is out of town today. lucky me. they said to come in. checked me. put me on iv and pain meds and let me take a nap. checked me again. no change. go home and continue to rest. i'm not going back there until my water breaks! so i'm home again. still contracting. in pain. but we're alive and well.
i am only 36 weeks, so there is still time for the baby to cook, but the doc said i won't make it another 7 days, if that. they gave me steroid shots in my back-side to help the baby's lungs.
this last week and a half have been quite interesting around here and i have lots of blogs to post, but until then ... i went to the hospital monday with contractions and back pain. turns out, we almost had a baby! i had a bad bladder infection. so 3 days of hospital, i'm home this morning.
still having contractions, but not progressing much as of yet. i'm at 1+cm and 50%. so we're waiting. most likely, i'll have a baby in the next 7 days. we'll keep you posted.
christmas with a 2 year old. need i say more?
christmas eve found us at my parents' house in san antonio. tradition. i love tradition. full of family. full of joy. full of fun. and i look forward to it every single year. this year was different for us because, although karsyn is only 2, she understood more this time. she didn't quite get why people were taking gifts from each other though. my family does a gift exchange game. she wanted a huge yellow toolbox that was going around. what in the world would we do with that? she ended up with a chocolate milk mixer and a load of chocolate to go with it. maybe we should have stuck with the tool box. every 2 year old's dream, right?
my sweet grandfather made karsyn a cradle for her babies. i think it was one of her favorites and there is always a baby sleeping in it. she's even tried to lay in there herself.
christmas day. rudolph came to visit. what? you see, karsyn is afraid of santa. so when we told her santa was going to come see her, she flipped out. very traumatic. so, rudolph came. she was happy, until she saw that rudolph drank all the milk. he needed more the next morning.
christmas morning, we headed back to our house to have christmas with david's parents. our child is a little spoiled, needless to say. or very well blessed. whichever way you look at it.
today. my baby is TWO. so hard to believe. i'm going to surpass the mushy gooshy stuff though and fill you in on the events of the day.
the preparation started the night before. after she was snug in bed, we hung streamers on her door and blew up balloons until we were blue in the face. there were actually only 12 balloons i think, but when you are 9 months pregnant, there's only so much breath to use.
morning came. when she woke up, we bolted in, scaring her half to death probably. singing. "happy birthday to you. happy birthday to you. happy birthday to karsyn. happy birthday to you!" we threw the balloons in her bed and clapped. she was so excited.
and the first words out of her mouth, you ask? "birthday cake?" we feasted on waffles with whipped cream and sprinkles and TWO powdered donuts with TWO candles. we sang again and blew the candles out. i think we blew candles out 10 times before breakfast.
for lunch we ventured to the land of the unknown for us. chuck-e-cheese. never been. it was fun. karsyn had a blast. we had a few friends join us for the festivities. although the giant mouse scared her, as a mouse that size would scare any human, she blew the candle out again and went on her way. riding the carousel a million times.
i think it was a good birthday for her. if only our birthdays lasted.
dear sweet baby,
i just put you to bed for the last time as a one year old. yes, i cried. what did you expect? you are just growing up way too fast for my heart to bear. i knew your first year went by so quickly, but this year has literally flown by. i blinked. and now, tomorrow, you'll wake up a big two year old. your daddy and i absolutely love every little thing about you and are so thankful that God has allowed us these past two years to be your parents. i can only imagine what the rest of our lives together is going to be like.
i love the relationship we have. you are certainly a mommy's girl, but really enjoy your playtime with daddy. you love your daddy so much and i completely understand that love. i enjoy watching the two of you play together so much. you light up when he drives up every evening and squeal as loud as you can when he chases you down the hall. i think my favorite is watching you climb in your pink tub and ask daddy to play airplane. you fly through the house a top speed and laugh the entire time.
i love that i am able to spend every day with you. i'm so thankful to get to watch you grow and see what your mind has brewing throughout each day. i wouldn't trade our days for the world. and, should i mention your love for target. it's always been my favorite store, but recently, when you see a target store you say "i wuv taget". lights up my world every time, although i don't take you there by myself because you are quite a handful in stores.
i love how you are super independent right now and constantly say "i do it." at the same time, you love having "mommy help you." i love watching the things you can do and am amazed every day at something new that you've done. you especially want to put your own shoes on. everyday. and you put them on the right feet too, which amazes everyone. you have your mommy's perfectionist personality as well. everything has to be just so and you get terribly mad if it isn't exact.
i love to tell daddy each day what you learned just while he was at work. right now, you are really learning your abc's. one day, you belted them out "a b c b (mumbling...) l m n o p q r s (more mumbling...)". it's so cute. you also know how to sing "twinkle twinkle" but it has to be your idea to sing it. singing and dancing is one of your most favorite things to do and always has been. anytime you hear music, you dance.
i love your imagination. your favorite thing to do is play with your babies. i'm hoping this is leading up to you being a great big sister, which i know you will be. you play with your babies from morning til night every day. we take a baby with us everywhere we go too. you enjoy feeding your babies and putting them night night and you must make sure everyone is quiet so the baby can sleep. your imagination blows my mind every day.
i love how you use your manners. you are constantly saying "thank you" and "excuse me" and sometimes we get a "please". although you don't use your sign language much anymore, there's really no need for it because your words are spoken so clearly. it is such a blessing to know that you use your manners and you actually know when to use them. you have such a sweet and tender side and you give great hugs and kisses. boy do i love your hugs. that extra pat on the back always makes me smile.
i love your passion for things. you LOVE football, or "hutball" as you call it. i guess this love came from going to daddy's football games. you get excited when you see "hutball" on tv or anywhere we go. that makes daddy really happy too! and elmo is tops right now too. anything elmo rocks your world.
you are my favorite two year old ever. i love who you are and what you have brought to our family. i love how the Lord uses you to teach me daily and i absolutely love being your mommy.
happy 2nd birthday, karsyn layne!
xoxo
mommy
{here is a picture of our family the day you were born. what a blessing you are}
{my favorite picture (and outfit) of you }
{ here's you getting ready for your first birthday }
{ and here's you just a few weeks ago. almost TWO }
see the little floating baby on the side again? today it reads 34 weeks. today my belly measured 37 weeks and the doctor uttered those sweet words. "you will not make it to your due date!"
hallelujah! praise the Lord!
he did say that she's a big baby and we're on close monitoring at this point. my iron level was "borderline transfusion" low. 8.9 if that means anything to you. so more "diet" talk was in store. how much more can i "watch my diet" and how many more words can i put "quotations" around in this post?
anyways. we're watching these small contractions i'm having and doing lots of resting. good news is that i can travel for christmas. off to san antonio we will go.
i cannot count on one hand the number of women i saw today that just knew i was due any day. you should see the shock on their faces when i tell them that i'm not actually due until january 29th. oh the looks on their faces. even the ones that just knew i'm having twins. i don't think i'm THAT big, but i assure you i look that tired. miserable is a better word for it i think.
so stay on your toes folks. we could have a new year's baby, but i'm betting on the first week of january. i'd be fine with tomorrow though. my legs are shaved and my toes are painted fresh.
i finished the laundry. one goal completed.
today's frustration. retail stores. i made my trek earlier to my beloved store with the bullseye, where the workers mosey around in red shirts and khaki pants. you know the place. i'm sure it's your favorite too.
to my disbelief, what did i see? valentine's day apparel. oh yes. love was in the air alright.
to make matters worse. in the toddler section there was a rack of swimsuits. now i know not that many people go to cancun for christmas. why on earth would they be selling swimsuits ALREADY?
if they'd only let the seasons be the seasons.
now, on with my day.
at my house. it's laundry. period. end of story.
so, what do you get when you cross toddler clothing and a mom who STILL doesn't know what she's doing?
ME. you get me. you get my laundry room.
oh, and a pile of stained toddler clothing. most of which was only worn once.
bleh.
since i hate doing laundry, it's a simple task for me. throw it in. let it spin. get it out. and hope my favorite man puts it all up.
now i'm stuck with a handful of karsyn's clothes that have measly stains on them. i've sprayed some of them with oxy stain remover stuff. didn't work. i think they may have set too long.
what's the solution, oh ye moms-who've-done-this-a-million-times-before? do i need to just get off my duff and pretreat them before i wash them? is there still hope for these articles of clothing that i only bought because they were stinkin' cute and cheap.
also, the whites ... i think i'll just bleach them. is that right?
oh, how far i still need to go.
and today ... it snowed. WHAT?!?!
just a little bit of history here. it doesn't snow in our part of texas. if we do see a little white stuff, it usually melts before it hits the ground, but today was a different story. we woke up this morning to some flurries. enough to make the ground a little powdery looking.
fast forward to 3pm today. karsyn had just woke up from her nap and i noticed that it had started snowing again, which is REALLY hard to believe. i put her only jacket on and took her out to see. this was her first reaction ...
she quickly got into it and realized that the snow tasted pretty good. i can't imagine something that fell onto anything outside would taste good, but she probably ate enough to make a snowman. every other picture i got is of her licking the snow off of her fingers.
the stuff that fell on the front of my car must have tasted really good. she ate most of it.
by the time my favorite man got home from work, the snow was really falling. we went to the backyard to play on the trampoline, which was COVERED.
and here's my favorite man's poor attempt at a snowman and karsyn about to kick it over because of it's lack of shape. can you tell we don't do this very often?
seriously? what is that? well, here's what my favorite man thought of my comments.
he knew i couldn't run fast.
here's our house.
and by 5:30pm, this is what our trampoline looked like. and my poor baby with socks on her hands. we don't buy mittens here. ok, some people do, but i didn't really think it would actually snow. her little fingers were so cold. the socks worked wonders.
sunday, we celebrated karsyn's 2nd birthday. early. her birthday isn't until the 22nd. but our schedule only allowed that day for a party. we had it at my grandparent's house since all of my family is there. we had a blast. here are some pictures from the day.
since the party was "two, two sweet" we had a table full of candy. it was a big hit!
my sweet girl wouldn't eat her cake without a fork. she doesn't like messy fingers!
and her cake was a little puppy dog, if you can't tell.
off to play hoops while eating her lollipop.
it certainly was a "two, two sweet" party. she got so many wonderful gifts and loves them all. thank you so much to karsyn's wonderful family.
i made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. my goal is to complete all of them. some are big. some are small. but all are do-able.
starting tomorrow. december 9, 2008. 1001 days later. september 8, 2011.
1. have baby #2.
2. walk for a cause.
3. move closer to my parents.
4. use my treadmill 4 times a week for a month.
5. go on a trip with my best girl friend.
6. finish all the laundry in one day, twice a week for a month. (it usually takes me all week long).
7. watch a movie in a theatre.
8. make freezer meals to last a whole month.
9. finish karsyn and mykah's baby books.
10. go on a picnic.
11. buy a double jogging stroller.
12. go to a concert.
13. have a girls weekend with old friends.
14. potty train karsyn.
15. throw a dart at a map and go there.
16. build a sand castle.
17. have a bonfire.
18. get karsyn into her "big girl" bed.
19. go to a zoo we haven't been to.
20. eat breakfast every day for a week.
21. make one new "couple" friend.
22. become a coffee drinker.
23. take a yoga class.
24. get a safe-deposit box and use it.
25. get a manicure.
26. get a pedicure.
27. buy a new car.
28. update the family photo.
29. experience the day after thanksgiving shopping.
30. call a friend i do not normally see once a month for a year. (0/12)
31. organize all of my recipes.
32. learn how to sew.
33. buy a fire extinguisher.
34. make my bed in the morning. 50 times. (0/50)
35. donate blood.
36. learn something new in photoshop.
37. try three new foods in a month.
38. handwrite a letter to someone special.
39. buy a pair of shoes that i love.
40. lay in the sun on a white sandy beach.
41. enter a photography contest.
42. run a 5k.
43. bake an apple pie.
44. drink 3 glasses of water a day for a month. (0/31)
45. run a half marathon.
46. hand wash my car 3 times during the year. (0/3)
47. go see snow during Christmas break.
48. make a big deal out of valentine's day. not my favorite holiday.
49. visit a dermatologist.
50. mail birthday cards to family on time for a year.
51. organize the attic.
52. get my teeth whitened.
53. make dinner for friends.
54. get a massage.
55. run a marathon.
56. update my cpr certification.
57. get a facial.
58. get a library card.
59. pay off one credit card.
60. organize, print, and back up all photographs.
61. don't eat chocolate for two week.
62. actually send out family christmas cards.
63. shop online.
64. create and stick to a budget.
65. make 5 desserts from scratch. (0/5)
66. have a party.
67. keep a plant alive for one month.
68. bake cookies for someone.
69. give someone an annonymous gift.
70. start a summer family tradition.
71. buy a pair of sunglasses i actually love.
72. find the perfect tote/purse. does it exist?
73. donate to a good cause.
74. determine my career. for after the kids go to school.
75. sell something i created on etsy.
76. get weight down to 150 (or below) and keep it there.
77. purchase entire willow tree nativity set.
78. make a homemade pizza.
79. run through a sprinkler.
80. buy a new camera and lens.
81. have a family bbq.
82. start a collection.
83. buy new bedding.
84. stick to my weekly cleaning schedule for a month.
85. ride my bike once a week for a two months. (0/8)
86. take a real vacation with my favorite man.
87. make a time capsule to open in 10 years.
88. go for one month without drinking soda. (0/31)
89. stay home for one whole month without traveling.
90. beat hubby at guitar hero.
91. take a nap every sunday afternoon for a month. (0/5)
92. take every medicine and vitamin i'm supposed to daily for 6 weeks. (0/30)
93. take girls to swim lessons.
94. go 72 hours without using the computer @ home.
95. subscribe to a magazine only for me.
96. go do a disney on ice production.
97. surprise my favorite man.
98. host a game night.
99. attend my 10 year class reunion.
100. take a real family vacation as soon as both girls can enjoy it.
101. go on another cruise with my favorite man.
because i'm slow at downloading pictures, i'll post about karsyn's first 2nd birthday party from this past weekend ... tomorrow?
for now, i made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. i will post the list below, but also create a link on my sidebar to keep track of when i complete each task.
my goal is to complete all of them. some are big. some small. but all are do-able.
starting tomorrow. december 9, 2008. 1001 days later. september 8, 2011.
1. have baby #2.
2. walk for a cause.
3. move closer to my parents.
4. use my treadmill 4 times a week for a month.
5. go on a trip with my best girl friend.
6. finish all the laundry in one day, twice a week for a month. (it usually takes me all week long).
7. watch a movie in a theatre.
8. make freezer meals to last a whole month.
9. finish karsyn and mykah's baby books.
10. go on a picnic.
11. buy a double jogging stroller.
12. go to a concert.
13. have a girls weekend with old friends.
14. potty train karsyn.
15. throw a dart at a map and go there.
16. build a sand castle.
17. have a bonfire.
18. get karsyn into her "big girl" bed.
19. go to a zoo we haven't been to.
20. eat breakfast every day for a week.
21. make one new "couple" friend.
22. become a coffee drinker.
23. take a yoga class.
24. get a safe-deposit box and use it.
25. get a manicure.
26. get a pedicure.
27. buy a new car.
28. update the family photo.
29. experience the day after thanksgiving shopping.
30. call a friend i do not normally see once a month for a year. (0/12)
31. organize all of my recipes.
32. learn how to sew.
33. buy a fire extinguisher.
34. make my bed in the morning. 50 times. (0/50)
35. donate blood.
36. learn something new in photoshop.
37. try three new foods in a month.
38. handwrite a letter to someone special.
39. buy a pair of shoes that i love.
40. lay in the sun on a white sandy beach.
41. enter a photography contest.
42. run a 5k.
43. bake an apple pie.
44. drink 3 glasses of water a day for a month. (0/31)
45. run a half marathon.
46. hand wash my car 3 times during the year. (0/3)
47. go see snow during Christmas break.
48. make a big deal out of valentine's day. not my favorite holiday.
49. visit a dermatologist.
50. mail birthday cards to family on time for a year.
51. organize the attic.
52. get my teeth whitened.
53. make dinner for friends.
54. get a massage.
55. run a marathon.
56. update my cpr certification.
57. get a facial.
58. get a library card.
59. pay off one credit card.
60. organize, print, and back up all photographs.
61. don't eat chocolate for two week.
62. actually send out family christmas cards.
63. shop online.
64. create and stick to a budget.
65. make 5 desserts from scratch. (0/5)
66. have a party.
67. keep a plant alive for one month.
68. bake cookies for someone.
69. give someone an annonymous gift.
70. start a summer family tradition.
71. buy a pair of sunglasses i actually love.
72. find the perfect tote/purse. does it exist?
73. donate to a good cause.
74. determine my career. for after the kids go to school.
75. sell something i created on etsy.
76. get weight down to 150 (or below) and keep it there.
77. purchase entire willow tree nativity set.
78. make a homemade pizza.
79. run through a sprinkler.
80. buy a new camera and lens.
81. have a family bbq.
82. start a collection.
83. buy new bedding.
84. stick to my weekly cleaning schedule for a month.
85. ride my bike once a week for a two months. (0/8)
86. take a real vacation with my favorite man.
87. make a time capsule to open in 10 years.
88. go for one month without drinking soda. (0/31)
89. stay home for one whole month without traveling.
90. beat hubby at guitar hero.
91. take a nap every sunday afternoon for a month. (0/5)
92. take every medicine and vitamin i'm supposed to daily for 6 weeks. (0/30)
93. take girls to swim lessons.
94. go 72 hours without using the computer @ home.
95. subscribe to a magazine only for me.
96. go do a disney on ice production.
97. surprise my favorite man.
98. host a game night.
99. attend my 10 year class reunion.
100. take a real family vacation as soon as both girls can enjoy it.
101. go on another cruise with my favorite man.
tonight my eyes are filled with tears as i prepare for karsyn's 2nd birthday party. her actual birthday isn't until the 22nd, but we have to have her party a few weeks early.
my baby is turning two. i wish i could make time stand still just for a while longer. it's like within the blink of an eye she grew up. and oh how i love her so much.
i just don't want to see her grow up. that's all.
before i even had karsyn i had my mind set on my children not watching tv. i'm certainly not into characters and we don't sport character clothing. i wanted my child's knowledge to come from other sources besides tv. and i certainly didn't want their days to be filled with nothing but tv.
well. times change, so they say. karsyn never has been a tv watcher until recently. and i have to admit that it's all my fault. its so easy to put blue's clues on and have her occupied for 30 minutes at a time. and until today, we have only watched the Noggin channel, which is geared towards preschoolers. she enjoys it. but i still don't want it to be what she does all day long, even though, at this point in this pregnancy, i wouldn't mind a whole day of karsyn watching tv and me sleeping.
and we just started watching dvd's on long trips. elmo has become her favorite. she watches the same elmo movie every time and wants nothing else. so today was the day. i decided that we would try watching ...
as i turned it on, she shouted "ELMO!" much to my dismay, elmo has become her favorite character. guess it could be worse. she does know who dora is, but doesn't make special requests for her just yet. and to make it even better, today, elmo was playing football, or "hutball" as karsyn calls it.
her jaw dropped.
elmo and football. what more could a girl want?!?
as my little ticker says off to the right of the page, i'm 32 weeks today.
how do i feel though? like i've been pregnant for a lifetime and this growth inside of me is going to be a permanent fixture if it stays much longer. if you've been pregnant, you know how i feel. there comes a point when you just throw up your hands and shout "i'm done!" i proclaimed my feelings about my pregnancy to the doctor this morning and he laughed. typical man.
32 weeks. low iron. only gained ONE pound in the last 2 weeks. i've only gained 19 pounds total so far. and i return to see that lovely man again in 2 weeks. and I'M DONE. i'm tired. my body hurts. and chasing a 2 year old is NOT fun anymore.
"but it's all worth it in the end"
that's my pregnancy complaining for today. thank you.
hallelujah!
the unthinkable has actually happened in the hill house. karsyn no longer wants asks for needs her bottle. it all started a few weeks ago. she bit a big hole in it and would no longer drink anything out of it because it came out too fast. she was sure to drown herself if she tried. i simply explained to her that she broke it and we couldn't fix it. the hole got bigger and bigger. she spit out pieces of it daily. until finally, it was too small to even suck on.
she'll say "hut happened to it? oh, it boke." ok, so she still wants to hold it when she goes down for a nap or bed, BUT it's a big improvement, right?
AND ... BEFORE she turned 2!
hallelujah!
and here she is. my BIG girl. sampling all of the baby supplies we dug out. she's tried on each bib. tested each bottle, although we threw away all of the avent ones, which were her favorite. and even used the monitors as phones. everything seems to check out ok. and look at those size 7 feet there.
i'm here. alive and well. blogging just hasn't been on my to do list lately. even if it was, it probably wouldn't get done, like everything else around here. let's just say that i'm ready to NOT be pregnant and to get back to feeling normal again.
i'll be 32 weeks on thursday and have another check up that day as well. the diabetes thing is going ok. i tend to have low sugar now though because i'm being really careful with what i eat. so i'm trying to find a median in all of that. i do still have to the end of january to reach my due date, but i'm making bets that i have her several weeks before then. we'll see.
on another note ... i just added a few other posts at the same time, so keep scrolling down. and, here's a cute fall picture of karsyn.
karsyn has always been a chatterbox, but lately she is putting that jabbering into sentences. she's almost 2 years old and thinks she's 20 years old. she says ...
"where'd daddy go?"
"daddy, come find me"
"help, please?" (we've had to work on that one a lot)
"night, night baby" (she plays with her baby dolls constantly)
"we're home!"
"daddy at work"
"daddy home"
"eat breakfast"
"i wash it" (other than playing babies, her favorite thing to do is clean things with a rag)
"i cookin'"
"what happened to it?"
"it broke"
"excuse me"
"thank you"
"i don't know"
and so much more. oh it melts my heart to think of how fast she has already grown and where the next few years will take her. we're having her 2nd birthday party this weekend, but her actualy birthday isn't until the 22nd. so there will be lots of sappy, karsyn-is-growing-up-too-fast posts to come, i'm sure.
