Our Sweet Bell Pepper

I'm am 18 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Our baby is the size of a bell pepper. Each week I get an email update from http://www.babycenter.com/ and they give a comparison to the size of the baby to a fruit or vegetable. So far our baby has been a fig, avacado, apple, turnip, and now a bell pepper.

I am feeling more movement which is very cool. I started feeling light flutters a few weeks ago but didn't notice much since then. The past few days he/she has started moving more. I can't wait until when I can feel it from the outside so Brian can enjoy this experience.

I have an appointment next week and also an ultrasound. As of now we (i.e. I) still don't plan on finding out the sex of the baby, which means I need to come up with a nickname for the baby so I don't have to say he/she all the time. I guess I can use the vegetable or fruit name.

And...yes, that is my belly button sticking out. Pretty bad huh? I was tempted not to post the picture, but I figured since the blog is meant as a journal for the kids as much as for my readers, you will just have to share in the horror of the belly button photos.

10 Months!

Allison celebrated her 10 month birthday on Memorial Day. She is getting so big. I think she weighs around 20 lbs. Yeah, I know I said that at nine months and I was wrong.

She is crawling like crazy and pulling herself up onto everything. Before it had to have a ledge like the couch or coffee table. Now she can pull herself up on table legs and walls. She is also cruising along on the furniture. She also gets from the couch to the coffee table, granted it is only a few inches away, but still not bad for 10 months.

She has six teeth total and two more should be coming in at anytime. It is funny because her first tooth popped without any noticable teething symptoms. Now for the past two weeks she has shown every teething symptom there is, but no new teeth. Hopefully these last two come through quickly and we get a little bit of a break before her 1 year molars come in.

She loves showing off her toothy grin and getting people's attention. When we are out and about and people don't pay attention to her, you can tell she is thinking "hey, why didn't you say hi to me", especially with waitresses. She got spoiled when we were on vacation.

Naps have been going much better. We haven't had too many meltdowns when I put her down.

We are looking forward to this summer. We have her baby pool ready to go as soon as it warms up. I'm sure we will be spending lots of time outdoors this summer.

A Visit from the Goupils

This weekend my sister Keri and her family came to GR for a visit. Allison was very excited to see her cousins and had a great time. We made popcorn and lemonade (Allison didn't get to share this experience), played outside, and took a walk to the ice cream shop. Before they came to our house, they stopped off at the mall so Abbey could get her ears pierced.

Thanks for the visit Goupils! We hope to see you again soon.

DAH!!!

Allison is starting to say Dog, although she doesn't quite say the "g". Needless to say Ozzie is her best buddy. Thank goodness he is so patient and kind with her.

Window Blinds Are Funny

Whenever I take Allison to her room for her nap, I draw the blinds shut. As I do that, she always gets a big cheesy grin on her face as she watches me. Evidently closing blinds is a funny thing. Go figure.

All the way from Texas

This Sunday we received a special visit from our friends Rick and Tina and their two boys, Zach and Colin. Rick was Brian's best man in our wedding and they used to work together at Rogers Department Store years ago.

This was Tina's first time seeing Allison. We were also able to share our good news with them (luckily they had left for Michigan before I posted that I was pregnant so they didn't see that entry).

Allison loved watching the boys play and was especially smitten with Zach. He was tossing around a plastic toy egg she has and evidently that was the funniest thing she has even seen. I have never heard her laugh so hard. It was that deep belly laugh you see on America's Funniest Videos. Of course by the time I got the video camera out, she stopped.

They must have worn her out because she took a two and a half hour nap that afternoon.

We are so happy that we were able to see them and hope to visit them in Austin next year.

Family Date Night

Brian and I have committed to a weekly Family Date Night. One night a week we are going to spend the evening together doing something fun and hopefully a few new things we haven't done before. No chores or errands can be involved on our date night. It got to the point that we were trying to do too much on the weekends and not enjoying them. Now we will have our "fun time" on a week night.

Last week we went to Lamar Park where Allison took her first swing ride. This week we will make our annual trek to Countryside Greenhouses in Allendale to pick out our flowers. This is a Memorial Day tradition we started a few years ago and I always look forward to.

Round and Round She Goes

Allison discovered that she can turn herself around in her little bathtub. The other night when I gave her a bath that is all she did - for ten minutes straight she maneuvered herself around in circles. I was dizzy just watching her. She was mad when I made her stop long enough so I could wash her up.

A Great Idea for Allison's Halloween Costume

We decided what Allison is going to be for Halloween - A Big Sister! That is right, I'm pregnant. Either right now, one of my faithful blog readers and good friend, Joie is completely shocked or someone spilled the beans. I would have loved to tell Joie this great news on the phone, but since she lives in California, the time difference has made it hard. I can't stay up until 11 pm to give her a call. Although I did try one weekend but realized I have her old home number programmed in my new cell phone, and not her cell number. (Please email me it)

I am due October 28, which puts me at a little over 16 weeks. I'm feeling good right now. A little bit of morning sickness in the beginning, but I started taking B6 and a Unisom at night, which helped a great deal. I don't know why I didn't do that when I was pregnant with Allison.

Brian and I are very excited. We wanted our children to be close in age (they will be 15 months apart). Hopefully they will get along. One plus of having them so close together is that we can get rid of the baby stuff sooner. I already feel like the house is bursting at the seams. I can't imagine holding on to all the gear and clothing for a few years.

We heard the heartbeat at my 10 week appointment. It was 165. At my 14 week appointment it was a 140. We are contemplating keeping the sex of the baby a surprise (no pressure from my family to find out, please). I figured with a scheduled c-section, I would like at least one thing to be a surprise.

Now that I am out, I will post updates on the baby, along with stories and photos starring Allison. At some point in time I will have to change the blog name, so if you are reading this and I am not aware of it, be sure to let me know so I can pass on the new name once I change it.

Thank You Nanny Jo Jo

To help with Allison's bedtime issues, I thought I would try a technique we saw on Super Nanny. When I put her to sleep, I tell her it is night time and give her a kiss. I walk out of the room and wait in the hall; peeking into her room. As soon as I see her sit up or try to pull herself up, I walk in, tell her good night, give her a kiss and lay her back down. I go out again and wait. When I see her pull herself up, I go in and lay her back down without saying a word. I did this several times the first few days. At first she would put her arms out when she saw me.

It didn't take long for her to catch on. One time, I went in as soon as I saw her head inch up past the bumper pads. She took one look at me and slowly started sliding down, like she never had any intention of sitting up. Today Allison saw me and plopped back down on the mattress and closed her eyes. Now rather than having her cry it out for 45 minutes, I just spend a few minutes until I know she is down for good. It has gone much smoother. In fact we had a few days where she took 2-3 hour naps.

Thanks Nanny Jo!

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mom's who read my blog, happy belated Mother's Day.

This year I was very excited to celebrate my first Mother's Day. I waited a long time for this and often wondered if I would have my day. Seeing Allison first thing in the morning reminded me how lucky I am to have her. She is such a blessing in my life.

Both sets of grandparents came to brunch at my work, along with Brian's brother and his family, and his sister Lynn. I had to work our annual Mother's Day brunch, so they joined me. I was able to take a short break and eat with them. I can't say it was the most relaxing meal. It is hard to tell yourself not to worry about what is going on with the event when you are in the middle of it. But I did get to enjoy the wonderful food that our Chef made. It was delicious and best of all I didn't have to cook that day. I was also treated to a beautiful display of pansies by my mom (thanks mom!)

After putting in a full day, I came home to feed Allison dinner and give her a bath. Allison gave me a gift of some DVDs and a book (and my favorite - Reese Peanut Butter Cups.)

After dinner, I sorted through six large bags of baby clothes that my sister Keri had given me (thanks Keri.) Allison is set for the next couple of years. That was a huge job and I finally crawled into bed around 11:30. I'm actually not finished putting everything away yet.

Since I had to work on Sunday, I suggested to Brian that we celebrate Mother's Day on Saturday. My one big request was to sleep in; I asked if he could get up with her take her for a walk or keep her busy for a bit. Allison must have heard my request because she slept in until 8:30, which is sleeping in compared to 7:30 or so when she normally wakes up. Thank you Allison. Household chores and lawn work kept us busy for most of the day, so we didn't get to do anything special. We did go over a friend's house to watch a little bit of the Red Wings game. She cooked us burgers on the grill, so at least I didn't have to make dinner. (Two days in a row!)

I'm hoping that since I worked so many hours on Sunday, I can get all my work hours in by Wednesday or Thursday and use one day to relax and do something fun with Allison. Maybe she will even take a good nap, so I can take a nap.

A Little Update

This week we had Allison's nine month doctor's appointment. She weighs 18 lbs and 15 oz and is 27 3/4 inches long. All is going well. She did great with the doctor, especially since she only had a short morning nap and no afternoon nap (her good behavior probably was at least partly due to the fact that there are no vaccinations at the nine month appointment).

Napping is a whole other story. For some reason she decided to go on nap meltdown this week. Almost every time I laid her down to sleep (both naps and at night) she would cry so hard. Normally Allison fusses for a little bit, however will eventually fall to sleep. This week she would cry for 45 minutes or longer. What makes it worse is that she sits up and puts her chin on the edge of the crib, so she looks so pathetic.

On Thursday, I needed her to take a nap as we were bringing her to a babysitter, so I finally rocked her to sleep and laid down with her. This was a one-time deal, as I don't want it to become a habit.

On a positive note, Allison is sleeping through the night from 7:30 pm - 7:30 am or longer. Today she slept in until 9 am. She actually did go down a little better tonight, so I am hoping that teething was playing a role in her lack of napping.

Allison's New Toy

For Allison's birthday we picked her up a Push Around Buggy. As you can see we didn't make it to her birthday before we gave it to her. Oh well, I'm sure she will have plenty else to open that day.

Wow, I look pretty cool in this.

Off We Go!

Ahhh..Dad...How do you make this thing go?

Faster Dad, Faster

Ozzie, that was so much fun, you should give it a try.

My Favs

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past month

Allison tries her first pickle

What happens when you let Allison feed herself mashed potatoes & veggies

This is the clown I had given to my niece over 16 years ago

Testing out her new shades

She is going to love me for this photo

More Vacation Pictures

If you would like to see more pictures from our vaction check out

http://moreofallison.shutterfly.com/action/

password is allison (all lowercase)