Way too personal

I've let some time pass since my last post.  I need to do some catching up.  For example, our awesome creation, Claire, is such a blast at a year and a half.  More on that coming up.  I've also been busy creating for my calling and for our new home.  I may or may not get around to telling you about some of that.  But guess what?!  I've got another creation to tell you about!  BABY #2!!  I'm about 14 weeks along now.

I'm sure you want to know every little detail about our efforts to get pregnant, right?  No?!  Too Bad!  (Or you can just skip this post.  In fact, that would be my recommendation if you're the type of person who gets uncomfortable talking about things like... menstrual cycles.  You know who you are.  Just scroll on down to the next post.)

If it was up to Jason, I would have gotten pregnant again 6 weeks after delivering Claire.  Poor guy isn't going to get the 8 kids he was hoping for. Maybe next time he won't wait until he's 31 to start looking for his wife...Anyway, I told him that for every 9 months that I'm pregnant, I must have at least 9 months NOT pregnant.  So, true to my word, I put all of the birth control away when Claire turned 9 months old.  There was only one problem.  I was nursing Claire, and I still hadn't started my period.  Nothing to chart, no sign of any impending fertility.  I kept on hoping that somehow I would get pregnant during my very first postpartum cycle (you hear about the girls who do.)  I'd randomly stress out that I was pregnant and look for little symptoms.  I got my first bladder infection during this time, and I was sure I was expecting, because I'd read that they're more common during pregnancy.  The doctor was able to squash that hope pretty quickly, much to my disappointment.

 I decided to stop nursing when Claire turned one.  Honestly, Claire and I both loved nursing, and it was really hard on both of us.  I will probably end up nursing my last child until they're 5.  (Not really.)  Weaning was sad, but I don't have any regrets.  Claire got a good year of breast milk, which I feel was enough for her.  And by that time, I was as anxious as Jason to get Claire a little sibling.  I was completely dry for a month or two before my body finally decided it could care for another baby.  My first period was a HUGE relief and also a little disappointing.  I started charting immediately (I highly recommend the book, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility.")  The next month was less of a relief and more of a disappointment, but we continued on.  It takes most couples a few months to get the timing right.
 
According to my charts, I found out that I was due to start my next period right before Christmas.  I knew I shouldn't, but I started to plan that I would get pregnant that month.  I bought a pregnancy test and a little gift bag, and I created fantasies in my head of giving Jason the positive test on Christmas morning, and telling both of our mothers at a family dinner that we had planned for early January.   (Jason's Mom would be with us in Arizona for a wedding.  How often are both of our mothers in the same place at the same time!?  Never!  It was going to be perfect!)  When my period started on Christmas Eve, I cried for about an hour.  Even more disappointing was when I realized that Jason and I would be apart during my next fertile window, which would probably mean another month of menstruating and this time it would be ON MY BIRTHDAY (Jan. 25- one month after Christmas.)  It definitely put a damper on Christmas.

Of course, we decided to try the next month anyway.  We went to Arizona for the wedding, and he returned to Canada right away to get back to work, while I stayed behind to visit with the family for five extra days.  According to the charts, those 5 days were critical baby making days, but the tickets were already purchased, so we worked with what we had.  As my friend put it, we had a nice good bye when he left for Canada, and nice hello when I came home, and we hoped for the best.  I wasn't very hopeful.

But then... the day before my birthday, my period didn't start.  I started to hope just a little bit.  At 5 in the morning on my birthday, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  So I snuck into the bathroom and took that pregnancy test I had bought before Christmas.  Positive!!  How's that for a birthday present?  Sweet angel baby made 33 my very best birthday ever.

Claire holding a positive pee stick back on January 25th and Harvey#2 captured sneakily at our first ultrasound

More stuff about Claire so I don't forget.

• Here are Claire's stats from her 12 month doctor's appointment:
  
  Weight: 23 lb 5 oz (80th percentile)

  Length 78 cm or almost 31 in (90%)
  Head 45 cm (25%)
• Claire got her first tooth at around 9 months, and three more within the next month.  We got another clump of teeth the past few weeks.  She is now about to cut number 8.  All of that teething made for some difficult nights, but she is a trooper and hasn't complained too much. 
• Claire's nose sweats when she sleeps.  A lot. 

• Claire started walking early.  She was barely 10 months when she took her first steps.  (Although it took her almost another month before she could take more than a handful of steps at a time.)  Now she is RUNNING- and fast!  We got lots of comments about how surprised people are to see a baby her size walking.  I felt like some mothers with babies around her age were a little jealous.  Okay, to be honest, I'm secretly proud of my little stinker.  But I'm also a little jealous right back at those Moms.  A few more months of an immobile baby- what a blessing that would be right now!  
• It is now pretty much impossible to get anything done when she is awake.  If I pick up her toys, she dumps them out again almost immediately.  She unloads the dishwasher as fast as I can load it.  She grabs and shakes the piles of folded laundry much faster than I can fold them.  We are about to move and I'm pretty much terrified of how packing is going to go.  Luckily, Grandma Harvey has promised lots of help.  I'm going to need it!
• It's fun, though, to see how she is trying to figure things out.  I can see how she watches me and tries to copy adult behaviour.  She puts things in other things, she moves things from one drawer to another.  She is always so intent on whatever she is doing, and sometimes I can tell that she really is trying to be helpful.  I just didn't need all 100 sheets of tissue out of the box...
• She doesn't sit down often.  When she does, she will often acquire a "squat" position so that she can go back to standing and running quickly.  It's quite impressive.

Her bum is about 1 to 2 inches off of the floor

• Claire has started talking!  (Kind of.)  We are pretty sure that she knows that when she says "baba" she is referring to the ball that she is playing with.  She also says "baba" when she is babbling, but it seems consistent when we give her the ball.  She also says "uh oh" at the appropriate time.  I wasn't sure until the day after her birthday.  We were at church, and she kept on dropping things and saying "uh oh."  So cute.
• Speaking of church, we have quite a few little babies in our Sunday School class right now.  We all sit in the back row and lay out toys for the babies to share.  Claire is the most mobile (of course) so she walks from one baby to the next taking their toys and food.  When she gets bored of that, she runs up to the front of the room and bangs on things, or runs to the trash can to see what treasures she can find.  Momma gets to chase her.  The fun continues during the third hour, but this time she gets to go with Daddy to Priesthood so her Mom can go to the "Young Women's" class.  Daddy says she has fun playing with the babies in there.  If there's a chalkboard, she and her buddy Wesley push it around the room much to the chagrin of the teacher.
• Oh yeah, did I mention that she LOVES pushing things?  She did it a lot while she was learning to walk- it gave her something to balance on while she propelled herself forward.  She still loves it, though.  On walks, she wants to push the stroller.  At the store, she wants to push the shopping cart.  We went to a local event with a lot of old people, and she kept on going up to them and trying to steal their walkers! 
• Claire has what her Gram calls a "WHIM of Steel." (By the way, she is copying the expression from her mother who used it when describing ME at Claire's age.)  When Claire doesn't get whatever thing she happens to kind of want at that moment, she shrieks and screams and squirms like her life is coming to an end.  This is most likely to happen when she wants to be running around and we want her to be holding still.  Diaper changes, shopping trips, Sacrament meetings... these have all become especially difficult times.  I am trying to be a consistent Mom, but it's hard because sometimes it's just easier to give in to what she wants and avoid the scene. 
• She is getting to be so much fun, though!  She claps her hands and laughs and plays with us.  She loves songs, rhymes and being tickled.  When we are sitting on the floor, she will turn herself around and sit down on our laps.  She gives the hugest toothy grin when she's happy.  She's just delightful.

• 
  

Claire is 1!

I had a lot of fun planning and getting ready for Claire's first birthday.  I may have gone over the top.  I'm pretty sure my next baby is not going to get a party like this (because I will be busy taking care of two kids and a bigger house!) I'm hoping I will make it up to them, though, by being a more experienced Momma and giving them an older sibling to help them through life.  Pros and cons to each position in the family, right? 
Anyway, we did a butterfly theme.  I found matching decorations that I liked at the dollar store and went a little crazy buying streamers, balloons, tablecloths, centerpieces, napkins, party hats, etc.

 

I made little favors for the "baby guests." The tag said "Thanks for fluttering by" (get it?!) and I just put in a little match-y party horn (useless) and a little board book (useful)

 I had fun making Claire's cake and cupcakes for everyone else with some "pin"-spiration.

And I made a little shrine to Claire.  It included the 6 month baby book that I made for her on Shutterfly.  (I had a coupon that was going to expire!)  I made a video where I compiled some of our favorite short videos of her and put it to music.  I also made a banner with a picture of her at each month of her life so far.  

 

The party (or should I say parties) went very well. 
Round 1: We pretty much invited every baby we know for a one hour party in the morning.  Nine ended up coming.  We completely baby proofed the common room of our apartment building, and laid out blankets and toys and let the babies go crazy.  We served fruit and arrowroot cookies for the kids, and the parents could also have chips and cupcakes.  I was a little nervous about so many babies, but all of the parents were there and watching their little ones.  I don't think I heard any babies cry during the whole hour.  (Except for maybe Claire when we were making her open her presents- we're so mean!)  Highlight: going outside and blowing bubbles.

Round 2: After Claire finished her nap, we had a family party.  We served hot dogs, chips, fruit and cupcakes.  We watched Claire eat her butterfly cake, and had a better time opening presents with her. (We figured out that you had to put her in her high chair and give her presents one at a time, hiding each one before giving her the next one.)  We were grateful for Jason's family who came out to wish Claire a happy birthday. 

All in all, a very successful day.  Claire seemed to LOVE all of the attention and food (big surprise.)  We love this girl!

Rhymes and Songs to Share with My Kiddos

I spend a lot of time with babies these days.  I have the pleasure of being Claire's Mom, and I babysit  a little one year old named June three days a week. I love it.  Honestly, though, sometimes I get sick of the conversations I have with them/myself all day long.  It helps when I can break up the monologue with songs and rhymes.  They girls love it, too.  I have quite a few in my repertoire, but it seems like whenever I try to come up with one on the fly, nothing ever comes to mind.  So here's my big list of favorite rhymes and songs...

For Playtime

•  The Wheels on the Bus
•  Old MacDonald Had a Farm
•  Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
• The Alphabet Song
• Popcorn Popping*
• Hinges*
• She'll be coming around the Mountain when she comes
• The Farmer in the Dell
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed
• The More We Get Together
• We're All Together Again
• If You're Happy and You Know It (Clap Your Hands)
• Smiles*
• Do As I'm Doing*
• The Wise Man and the Foolish Man*
• Sitting in my High Chair+
• Pizza Pickle+
• Beehive+
• Smooth Road+
• Wibbleton to Wobbleton+
• Humpty Dumpty+
• Mr Sun**
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
•  Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Brush Your Teeth**
•  Baby Beluga**
• Apples and Bananas**
• Shake my Sillies out**
• A Happy Family*
• When we're Helping**

For Bedtime

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• You are My Sunshine
• I am a Child of God*
• Give Said the Little Stream*
• I Am Like a Star*
• I Feel My Savior's Love*
• Snuggle Puppy+
• I Love to See the Temple*
• Love is Spoken Here*
• Families Can Be Together Forever*
• Love One Another*

*Songs in the LDS Primary Songbook
**Songs by Raffi 
+These ones are lesser known.  They come from my local library or various books. I take no credit for any of them.  Here are the words:

Sitting in my High Chair (sung to Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread)
Sitting in my High Chair
Big Chair, My Chair
Sitting in my high chair
Banging my Spoon
Sitting in my High Chair
Big Chair, My Chair
Sitting in my high
chair
Feed me soon!
Bring on the plate!  Bring on the cup!
Mama's gonna feed this baby up!

Pizza Pickle (Tickling rhyme)
Pizza, Pickle, Pumpernickle
I know someone who's gonna get a tickle
Tickle on your nose, tickle on your toes
Tickle on your belly where the "hot dog" goes! (You can replace hot dog with any food they like to eat.  They LOVE this one.)

Beehive (Tickling Rhyme)
Here is the Beehive (close your fist like a beehive)
Where are all the bees? (shrug your shoulders)
Hiding inside where nobody sees (point to your closed fist)
Soon they'll come out, Out of the hive
1,2,3,4,5- Bzz! (count out with your fingers, then use them to tickle)

Smooth Road (Lap Rhyme)
Smooth Road, Smooth Road, Smooth Road, Smooth Road
(have them sitting on your knees facing you and sway gently back and forth)
Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road (lightly bounce them on your knees)
Rough Road, Rough Road, Rough Road, Rough Road (bounce them a little harder)
Hole! (spread apart your knees so they "fall" in between your legs)

Wibbleton to Wobbleton (Lap Rhyme) 
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles
From Wobbleton to Wibbleton is 15 miles
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton from Wobbleton to Wibbleton from Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles!

(You can change the words to local town names.  I use "Abbotsford and Aldergrove"
Sit them on your knees facing you and move them back and forth from one knee to the other as you say the rhyme)

Humpty Dumpty (Lap Rhyme)
Humpy Dumpty sat on a wall (bounce on knee)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (tip them over to one side)
Humpty Dumpty fell in a puddle (hold them upside down)
Humpty Dumpy needs a good cuddle (pick them up and give them a hug)

Snuggle Puppy (by Sandra Boynton)
Well I have a thing to tell you and it won't take long
The way I feel about you is a kind of song
It starts with an Ooooh... And ends with a kiss
 And all along the middle it goes something like this
It goes
(chorus) Ooooh snuggle puppy of mine
Everything about you is especially fine
I love what you are, I love what you do
Fuzzy little snuggle puppy I love you... (repeat chorus) Kiss!
Well I wanted just to tell you and it didn't take long
The way I feel about you is a kind of a song
I started with ooh, I gave you a kiss
I hope you liked the middle, now we'll end like this...
(chorus)

Pinteresting Creations

Pinterest can definitely be a source of good or evil in my life.  For example, when I accidentally let an hour go by totally immersed in finding pins about being a better parent, instead of actually paying attention to my daughter who is whining for attention at my feet- not so good.  Also, it's probably a bad thing when all the blogs of amazing stay at home Moms who are accomplishing amazing things- lead me to feel completely overwhelmed and insignificant.  Seriously, us women are so good at comparing ourselves to others.  Now thanks to Pinterest (and the internet in general), we can compare our weaknesses against the strengths of MILLIONS of other women.  Who's idea was this anyway?

But- man I love how Pinterest helps me copy other people's smart ideas.  All of my adventurous cooking has come from pinterest.  I've found some great food.  I've also found some crappy food.  I now have two recipes boards.  One is for "untested recipes."  After I've cooked it, if it's good, I move the pin to my "Recipes that I've actually tried and liked" board.  I like to think that this is helping my followers find the good stuff that's out there.  I've learned to ignore the pins that say "This is the BEST recipe I have EVER eaten!   This will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!  MY HUSBAND WANTS TO EAT THIS EVERYDAY!  IF YOU ONLY PIN ONE THING THIS YEAR...!!"  etc., etc.  You're overselling, people, and I find it suspicious.  But seriously, you should make this mulligatawny soup:


http://www.made-famous-by.com/2011/06/german-chocolate-cake-and-mulligatawny.html

and this sweet and sour chicken
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2008/07/sweet-and-sour-chicken-updated.html

They will change your life.  

In February, Hubby was in charge of "treat day" at his work on Valentine's Day, so Pinterest and I went a little overboard. 

Our dinner table that night

Strawberries with cream.  The cream was only okay, and I couldn't make it look cute like the pinterest picture. Meh.

Valentine's chex mix.  Good, but I've had better mixes.

The pizza with heart shaped pepperoni was the best part.  We decided to make it a Valentine's Day tradition.

I didn't get up close pictures of the Valentine's candy and the rice krispy treats in heart shapes.  They were about as exciting as one would expect. 

In March, I helped plan two showers.  Pinterest to the rescue again.  Here's the owl cupcakes I made for my sister-in-law's owl themed party:

Pretty cute, right?  Just add Oreos and Reese's Pieces!

I got some ideas for games and activities on Pinterest as well.  I kind of hate shower games, but I found some less awkward ones.  At the first shower (for a girl in the ward) we played Baby Mad Lib, Present Bingo, Photo Scavenger Hunt, and a trivia game about the Mom and baby.  We had the same games at my sister in law's shower, but no one played them, because we were busy with another Pinterest Idea- a headband making station!  It took some money and preparation, but it kept everyone interacting and entertained without a bit of awkwardness.  Plus Heather got some really cute headbands!  (I made some for Claire with the leftovers, too!)

In May, I was in charge of a Mother's Day activity for our Young Women.  (Remember how I planned a tea party last year?  Hey, that was the first post in this blog.  Ah- memories.)  This year, I planned an Amazing Race for the Mothers and Daughters to do together. 
I had fun making the invitations, signs and game tickets:

The Moms and daughters raced to three stations: The church, where they decorated cupcakes, Value Village, where they found clothes to fit a challenge and had their picture taken, and the common room of my apartment building where they completed a "Mom Relay."  As a part of the relay, the Moms got to sit and relax while their daughters put on dresses and aprons, did chores, and took care of their Moms for a change...

Changing Diapers

Packing Lunches

Pedicures

Manicures

Vacuuming

When everyone was done, they headed back to the church to step on the finish line.  Then they enjoyed cupcakes and candy.

 I took the picture of the refreshment table before I added my favorite part- water and lemonade with some Pinteresting ice... cut up strawberry and lemon frozen in.  Seriously- so easy, pretty, and tasty!

I hope the girls and their Moms had fun at this activity.  It sure was fun to plan. 

Also in May, I tried some activities to keep my kiddos busy.  Here's June-bug (the cutie I babysit) enjoying the "edible finger paint" we used to make a mother's day card for her Mom.

It took about 30 minutes to set up, 20 minutes to clean up, and 5 minutes for her to get bored of it.  This seems to be the case for every "How to entertain your 1 year old" pin I try.  Maybe things will get better when I'm entertaining a 2 year old.  

Anyway, I've enjoyed many other pins, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory at the moment.  Yeah Pinterest!  (When it is used for good.) 

Fun with Nursing

Jason wanted to make sure that I blog about one more detail of Claire at (now) 8 months old.

Now that she's mobile, she is not a big fan of holding still.  (She screams and wrestles away when we change her diaper or put her in her car seat unless we give her something REALLY engaging to distract her.)   

Nursing remains her favorite pastime, though.  She's just figured out ways to keep moving while she's nursing.  Her hands are usually busy ripping off any blanket or cover I'm using to stay modest.  In the absence of a cover, her hands absently play with my hair, face, clothes and nipples.  (She will drink from one while she squeezes the other.  Then she'll get distracted when it squirts and try to experiment with it for a while before she goes back to drinking)  She likes it the best when I'm lying on the bed and she can kind of crawl around me and drink at her leisure.  The funniest is when she pushes off my body to pull herself up to standing- while she's still nursing.  It's like she's leaning over to get a drink at a REALLY low drinking fountain.  I hope you're not offended by a picture.  I'm pretty modest.

 

Keeping up with Claire

Little Miss Claire is growing up so fast. Just in the past month she has completely changed. I need to write some things down before I forget.  A few notes and stories:

Helping Mom do dishes

She thinks she's a toddler already.  She crawled at 7 months.  It's a really funny crawl, though.  She goes a couple of normal gaits and then she picks up her right leg and tries to push off with her foot.  It's like she gets frustrated with crawling and wants to get up and walk.  (She also sleeps on her right side and only rolls to her right.  She's not an ambi-turner.)  Now at 7 and a half months she is pulling herself up on furniture.  She gets in to all kinds of trouble trying to figure everything out.

She still doesn't have a tooth but I'm in no hurry for that.

After some sleep training she now only wakes up twice in the middle of the night. I can't seem to wean her of night nursing.

The day she got the food bowl

She eats anywhere from one to five tablespoons of food during her three meals a day. She likes bananas, apples, pears, squash, and sweet potatoes. She tolerates peas, green beans, avocados, carrots, and parsnips. Mum mums make her day.

 Claire's favorite food, though, is paper. Its so weird, but we can't seem to keep it away from her. She pulls receipts out of my purse, finds sacrament programs on the benches at church, pulls herself up on various surfaces to find any spare page I may have left too low. She sticks the paper in her mouth, gets it nice and wet and then yanks on it with her gums until she gets a mouthful sized piece that she can swallow. Lots of my agendas from young women meetings have bite marks on them these days. A few days ago she got a hold of a pack of gum. The plastic,foil, and gum remained intact but the cardboardy paper wrapper around the pack of gum went missing except for a small scrap of paper I found in her mouth. Well I found the rest of the wrapper yesterday in her poopy diaper. Big colorful chunks. I could still make out some of the letters...

Yum... fiber

We tried to avoid "exposing" her to TV, but who were we kidding, right?  We love it too much ourselves to keep it from her for very long.  She likes Baby Einstein, Blue's Clues during the songs, and the closing credits to ANY television show, as long as there's music and words going down the screen.

Not the best view of the screen, but a great view of her cupcake bum

I babysit a little one year old named June three days a week. Claire LOVES her. I'm pretty sure June is the reason that Claire started crawling so soon. She was so anxious to follow June around and get into trouble with her. She laughs and laughs at the most normal things that June does. We can never get her to laugh like that for us.

She does make Jason and I feel special though. When she sees us, her face erupts into a ridiculously huge smile. Her eyes light up and her tongue curls up in her mouth to form the cutest expression ever. In addition, her arms and legs start bouncing up and down furiously as she tries to make her way towards us. She is just that excited to see us!

Helping Mom organize her accessories

I like to put headbands on her bald little head at church. The other day, she grabbed the bow and pulled it away from her head to get a better look at it.  Then she let go, accidentally whacking herself in the head.  She screamed in Sacrament meeting like she has never done before.  I took her out in the lobby, and luckily, June was there, so she immediately felt better. 

She doesn't babble too much, but she does make sharp quick bark yells, and she LOVES it if you make them back to her.  We have whole conversations just yelping at each other at various tones.  There are certain places where she's more vocal.  Usually these are places with good acoustics- like the parking garage or our apartment lobby.  She's figured out that she sounds louder in these places- and she likes it.

What a funny little girl- I can't wait to see what she does next.