25 weeks

Don't mind the blurry cell phone picture. I was trying to snap this as fast as I could while Parker was attempting to swing a Ziploc bag filled with a container of light corn syrup at Sydney. This is precisely why I need a lock on our pantry.











































How far along: 25 weeks

Total weight gain: Still at 126lbs for the second week in a row, up 14 pounds. There will most likely be a weight gain this week because I caved and bought these:






















I only knew these to be sold at Sam's Club in a ginormous bag so imagine my freak out in the Target candy aisle when I saw the small bag version. I'm planning a massive Sam's trip next weekend and these will surely make it on my list. I downed these things like it was my job when I was nursing and still stayed at my all time low weight. Nursing Parker was pretty cool because of the bonding, nutrients, yada yada yada, but I'd be lying if the calorie burn wasn't part of my motivation to keep it going too :) Eating whatever you want with no exercise and weight loss is fab.

Maternity Clothes: Still in my normal shorts and pants thanks to the Bella Band.

Best moment this week: seeing all the fun Parker is having going down her new slide. She is obsessed.

Movement: constantly :)

Food Cravings: I like putting cream cheese on everything. But I do that when I'm not pregnant. What can I say, I'm a dairy girl.

Sleep: The stars aligned last night. Parker woke up at midnight and I didn't get up to pee until 5am. I can count on one hand the number of times I've slept that long of a stretch since Parker's been born. So yeah, it was fantastic.

Random: I should have known that my pregnancy with Parker was too easy. It's payback time now. My back kills, the varicose veins have gotten worse (WTF?!?!), and I have a hard time getting up and down. I feel like I'm 70 instead of 28. It's all worth it though ;)

I'm alive...

...but without a home computer. My Internet is not connecting and I blame this on Parker. She has a tendency to mess around with the Internet box thing when I turn my head for a second and she must have disabled it. I've tried plugging and unplugging and restarting the computer. No dice. So I'm left with my work computer and my phone, neither of which have all of my photos on them. And Kris is in France so I have no handy dandy helper to fix this for me. But when my Internet is back up and running you will be sure to hear about:

-yummy recipes that will make you gain weight as fast as I am
-Pinterest projects--what is done and what is in the works
-Etsy finds
-updates on baby girl--nursery decor, name, etc
-and of course, Parker's latest shenanigans which include pooping on the carpet. Potty training is fun.

But for now I'll leave you with Parker's current favorite thing--her Eric Carle Animal flash cards.



A few months ago I stumbled on a blog where the mom raved about these flash cards. She went on and on about how smart her kid was thanks to these so of course I needed them. A few clicks on Amazon and two days later we had the highly reviewed cards on our doorstep. These cards got 5 stars on Amazon. Five! I get all excited when things have stellar reviews. Just like I am with this slide that will be arriving come Thursday. Parker is going to flip. Hopefully not literally though.





Back to the flash cards. It's been the best purchase. This kid now knows animals outside of the traditional cow, dog, and horse. It's things like hippo, jellyfish, cockledoodoo (rooster), rafe (giraffe, which she says while pointing up to indicate how tall it is), bu-fly (butterfly, while flapping her arms), roo (kangaroo), turtuh (turtle), yak, and snake. All thanks to Eric Carle.

Good stuff.

Oh, and if anyone can help me with this one I will be over the moon excited. Parker can now open our pantry door and it's gotta stop. It causes unncessary tantrums when she wants to eat the marshmallow fluff (yummy!) or wants the tub of sprinkles opened. No way, girlfriend. The problem is I don't know how you even go about baby proofing our door. It's like this one:















Any ideas?

24 weeks

How far along: 24 weeks

Total weight gain: Still at 126lbs, up 14 pounds. My midwive hinted that I gained a wee bit too much weight since my last appointment. Hrmp. It was like 4lbs in four weeks but whatever. I cut out sweets and made my portions a bit smaller and that seemed to do the trick. There's no time to exercise during the week but I get out for runs on the weekends. Hopefully all of this will keep excessive weight gain at bay.

Maternity Clothes: my summer dresses will be making an appearance any day now that summer weather is here!

Best moment this week: this has nothing to do with pregnancy, but since my potty post Parker has decided that it's time to put it to good use herself. Now when she goes in the bathroom with me she pulls at her shorts/skirt for me to take them off and proudly sits on her princess potty. She peed in it last night and this morning. I never knew that pee would get me as excited as it did. Proud mama right here.

Parker must have toilet paper though while on the potty. She blows her nose, wipes herself, then gives me the TP and asks for more. Hey, whatever works.

Movement: baby girl still dances around all the time. I love kicking back in my chair at work and feeling her do cartwheels and somersaults.

Food Cravings: I adapted this wonderfully wonderful Buffalo Chicken meal this week and I couldn't get enough of it. I use my crockpot all the time so when I see a good slow cooker meal I'm all over it. I'm not about to slave over the stove after a long day at work so if I can walk into my house to a fully prepared meal I'm a happy girl.

This blogger has a lot of great crockpot meals and I can't wait to try some of them. If you love your crockpot as much as I do check her out.

Sleep: I'm getting around 8 to 9 hours a night which is nice, but still waking up at least three times a night to pee.

Random: how did I go my entire pregnancy with Parker with zero Braxton Hicks and now I get them on a daily basis?

COSI

If you're ever in good ol C-bus (aka Columbus, Ohio) you must check out Cosi. No, not the place where Shrimp Caesar Salad sandwiches are devoured (though that should be visited too) but the science center.

Even though Parker's just a little thing there were plenty of activities for her to enjoy. An ocean exhibit, life sized Lite Brites, even an entire area that's only for kids under the age of five.



The water exhibit in the toddler area was ginormous. There were even little raincoats available for the kids but of course Parker wanted no part in that nonsense.



Parker demanded to climb the stairs up to this space shuttle that "took off" at the press of a button. I was sure this would scare the hell out of her and I'd have to do an emergency exit but the babe clapped and "yay"'d and said "gin" (again) over and over.







































Kris actually got a smile on camera. I swear, the second Parker sees the camera smiles go away. She obviously doesn't realize just yet that phones double as cameras.







































Canoeing down the Olentangy river. Safety first.







































OMG watch out for that bear!



Next time we're near Buckeye country we'll definitely be making a pit stop at Cosi. I don't think Parker will mind one bit.

Potty training progress

Someone in the S house is getting use out of the princess potty. It's not Parker.

Parker checks her baby's butt and declares "baby poopy."

P: Baby silly.

Yes, dear, the baby is very silly.

We'll get there eventually. Up until this point when I asked Parker if she wanted to sit on the potty she said no. Now she's warming up to the idea and will at least sit down on it. Add that to her not liking pee and poop in her diaper on occasion and we're on the right track. I'll wait for her cues and we'll go from there. Now if only I could try to figure out how to make her understand that I enjoy our mommy-baby bath time without poop in the tub...

23 Weeks

Please don't mind my lack of makeup and fresh from the shower hair. That's the best you'll get from me at 10pm.

How far along: 23 weeks

Total weight gain: 126lbs, up 14 pounds. Thank you El Vaquero.

Maternity Clothes: Still in all non-maternity clothes and using the Bella Band

Best moment this week: enjoying Memorial Day weekend in good ol C-bus.

Movement: little girl is still moving and shaking all the time, so much so that I think she's planning her escape early. Not too early though, please--I want to make sure my mat leave extends past the holidays!

Food Cravings: I fell victim to Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Granola. This stuff is like crack. I usually try to avoid it since I eat it all in a week, pregnant or not pregnant, but I just had to have it with my morning yogurt.

Sleep: I'm still battling exhaustion and my night owl bladder.

Milestones: baby girl is packing on the pounds and will double in weight the next four weeks. Let's hope the same isn't true for me.

Girl or boy: Girl!

Random: I'm pretty sure that we finally decided on a name :) I'm going to let it sit with me a while before we fully commit, but we're making progress people! Now onto tackling that nursery. Yeah, about that...

I have been cursed with varicose veins on my leg behind my knee. I am super grossed out by this and want them to disappear asap. I hope to God this fades away once I pop the baby out. My back is sore and I have a hard time sitting in a chair or in the car. Even with all the not so fun side effects I still love being pregnant :) Yes, I'm one of those crazy people!

19 Months

I've been a bad blogger. Memorial Day weekend was spent in Columbus swimming in pools, eating El Vaquero (four times), visiting the science center, and a million other fun things. Add in the awesome time at our three mile away from home beach and the damn yardwork and garden at home that could consume my life if I let it get the best of me, which I won't, and I've been MIA.

But now I'm back with Parker's 19 month report just mere weeks behind.

It's been another month of word explosions. Parker tries to pronounce everything we say and a lot of the time the words end up sticking in her vocabulary. This month she mastered:

-nose
-belly
-ah-pit (armpit...random, I know, but she's obsessed with mine)
-boke (broke)
-nuk (milk)
-cunchy (crunchies, my name for wheat germ. I get all excited about CRUNCHIES!!! Parker, do you want CRUNCHIES?!?! and sometimes it's all the push she needs to eat. I felt like a genius the day I figured out the power of wheat germ)
-care (chair. Parker is all about her booster seat and pushing in the "cares" after we're done eating)
-suck (stuck. Everytime we stop the car Parker lets us know that she's "suck" in her car seat)
-snap. Boy do we love to be snapped into things...the booster seat, the wagon, her trike...if it's got a snap, it's got Parker's name all over it
-Seba-a variation of our last name. Sometimes I add our last name when I'm yelling at Sydney to stop barking and it's caught on with Parker.
-duh (door)
-yuck
-asty (nasty, lol)
-ghos (gross)
-bee
-dirty
-kiwi
-oh no-
-sage (massage. Parker has this little thing that attaches to her vacuum that I massage her with. She will lay down on the couch and ask me to massage her)
-i sorry. If Parker bites us (yup, she's in that phase now) and I tell her that it hurts me she sometimes says "i sorry." Sometimes she laughs.
-uhstairs (upstairs/downstairs)
-eh-side (inside)
-down
-birdie
-papeh-toilet paper
-names of her friends at school

Just when I think the girl can't surprise me any more she starts with multiple word sentences. It started off with "up on mommy lap" and progressed to "it okay guh guh Sydney" when Syd was scared at the vet to everything else in between.

Parker walks down stairs by holding onto the stair railing. I didn't get the memo that you're supposed to teach kids how to safely go down stairs until a few weeks ago. Not that Parker would have been down with that. She hasn't been called a risk taker by daycare on occasion since 9 months for nothing.

We've graduated to the mattress on the floor and it's going okay. Parker still wakes up a couple times a night and usually ends up in bed with me. I was missing the late night cuddles though so I'm liking it. Plus I feel like we're making progress so it's time to go shopping for that toddler bed. I don't necessarily expect Parker to sleep through the night by the time baby girl #2 arrives but I would like it if she would let Kris lay her down. Baby steps.

We're working on colors and she knows yellow and purple. She's digging her blankie now and it's about on the same level as Baby Stella. She's into transferring things, like at El Vaq the other night. Parker needed to move the rice between two different plates, That was fun until the plate fell and broke. She loves when we sing Baa Baa Black Sheep and read the $17 paper copy of Brown Bear Brown Bear. If you take anything away from this blog let it be this--do not buy your toddler, or toddlers you know, expensive paper paged books. Unless you like crinkly and torn pages. In that case, knock yourself out.

I can't forget to mention the curls that have been around since 14 months. Oh how I love them.

The pigtails still get me every single time, though I don't like how they make her look like such a big kid.

We've experienced the picky eater side of Parker since around 14 months. I was 100% positive that since I fed Parker homemade, organic/natural food from the get go that she wouldn't stray from my culinary delights of steamed kale and sweet potato fries.

I was so wrong. Some days she suprises me though, like yesterday. I made Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Parker demanded the plain garbanzo beans. She ate a huge bowl. Parker also strayed from her vegatarian ways on Monday and dined on a few pieces of steak. And last night she ate the pasta I made with whole wheat spaghetti, crab, olive oil, green onions, garlic and red peppers. I just never know.

But one thing I do know is that she will always eat corn.

See that thing on the bottom of her plate? It's a Zucchini Tot--delish!

Slow down, pumpkin, you're growing too fast!